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SHERIFFS.

Place.

49

Anno

Name.

2 Will. Boulstred, mil.
3 Basil. Feilding, arm.
4 Hen. Barkley, arm.
5 Guido Palmes, mil.
6 Edw. Nowell, mil.

7 Tho. Mackworth, arm..

8 Will. Halford, arm..

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LEICESTERSHIRE.

Arg. a greyhound passant; on a chief S. three flowers-deluce of the field.

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5 Joh. Huggeford, arm.

6 Joh. Wingfeild, mil.

Arg. a bend G. cotised S. three wings of the first.

7 Ric. Halford, arm. .

8 Anth. Colley, mil. 9 Ric. Hickson, arm.

10 Fran. Bodington, mil.

11 Hen. Mynne, mil.

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12 Ed. Harrington, mil. et b. ut prius.

13 Edw. Andrews, arm.

14 Joh. Barker, arm.

15 Tho. Levett, arm.
16 Rob. Horsman, arm.
17 Tho. Wayte, arm.
18

VOL. III.

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16. CHRISTOPHER BROWNE, Arm.-This sheriff came over with king Henry the Seventh, and assisted him against Richard the Third; for which good service king Henry the Eighth granted to Francis Browne (son of our sheriff), of council to the lady Margaret, the following patent:

"Henricus Octavus, Dei graciâ Angliæ et Franciæ rex, fidei defensor, et dominus Hiberniæ, omnibus ad quos præsentes litteræ pervenient, salutem. Sciatis quòd nos de gratiâ nostrâ speciali concessimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris, quantum in nobis est, dilecto nostro Francisco Browne, armigero, quòd ipse ad totam vitam suam non ponatur, impanelletur, nec juretur, in assisis juratis inquisitionibus attinctis, seu aliis recognitionibus aut juratis quibuscunque, licèt ille seu eorum aliquis tangant nos vel heredes nostros, ac licèt nos vel herdes nostri soli aut conjunctim cum aliis sit una pars. Concessimus etiam, ac per presentes concedimus eidem Francisco, quòd ipse de cetero non fiat Vicecomes nec Escaetor nostri vel heredum nostrorum in aliquo comitatu regni nostri Angliæ: et quòd ipse ad offic. vic. escaetoris superius recitat. habend. exercend. faciend. recipiend. aut occupand. ullo modo per nos vel heredes nostros assignet. ordinet. seu compellet. aut aliqualit. artet. ullo modo nec ad ascend. jurat. super aliqua triatione, arrainatione alicujus assisæ coram quibuscunq; justic. nostris vel heredum nostrorum ad assisas capiend. assign. aut aliis justic. quibuscunque; et quòd non ponatur nec impanelletur in aliquâ magnâ assisâ infra regni nostri Angliæ inter partes quascunque contra voluntatem suam, licèt nos vel heredes nostri sit una pars. Et ulterius de abundanciori gratiâ nostrâ concessimus præfato Francisco, quòd si ipse ad aliqua officia superdict. seu aliquod præmissorum eligat. ipseq; et officia superdict. recusavit, extunc idem Franciscus aliquem contemptum deperdit. pœnam forisfactur. aut aliquos exutos fines, redemptiones seu amerciament. quæcunq; occasione omissionis sive non omissionis aut alicujus eorundem, nullatenus incurrat forisfaciat aut perdet; sed quòd præsens carta nostra de exemptione coram quibuscunq; justic. nostrâ et hered. nostri. ac in quocunq; loco aut curiâ de record. per totum regnum nostrum prædict. super demonstratione ejusdem chartæ nostræ, absq; aliquo brevi præcept. seu mandat. aut aliquo alio superinde habend. seu persequend. vel aliqua proclamatione faciend. præfato Francisco allocetur. Concessimus etiam, et per præsentes concedimus eidem Francisco, quòd ipse de cetero durante vitâ suâ in præsentiâ nostrâ aut hered.

WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER.

51

nostrorum, aut in præsentiâ alicujus sive aliquorum magnatum, dominorum spiritualium vel temporalium, aut aliquorum aliorum regni nostri quorumcunq; quibuscunq; temporibus futuris pileo sit co-opertus capite, et non exuat aut deponat pileum suum à capite suo occasione vel causâ quacunq; contra voluntatem aut placitum suum. Et ideò vobis omnibus et singulis, aut quibuscunque justic. judicibus, vicecomitibus, escaetoribus, coronatoribus, majoribus, præpositis ballivis, et aliis officiariis, et ministris nostris et hered. nostrorum firmiter injungendo mandamus, quòd ipsum Franciscum contra hanc concessionem nostr. et contra tenorem exigent. aut effect. præsent. non vexetis, perturb. molest. in aliquo seu gravetis. In cujus rei testim. has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Teste meipso apud Westm. sexto die Julii, anno regni nostri decimo octavo. "Per ipsum Regem, et de dat. prædict. authoritate Parliamenti."

Tolethorpe (the chief place of residence at this day of Christopher Browne, esquire, who hath borne the office of sheriff in this county, 1647,) was by deed conveyed unto John Browne, from Thomas Burton, knight, in the fiftieth year of king Edward the Third.

I meet with a Browne, lord mayor of London 1479; the son of John Browne of Okeham.

THE FAREWELL.

Let not the inhabitants of Rutland complain, that they are pinned up within the confines of a narrow county; seeing the goodness thereof equals any shire in England for fertility of ground: but rather let them thank God, who hath cast their lot into so pleasant a place, giving them a goodly heritage.

WORTHIES OF RUTLAND WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE
THE TIME OF FULLER.

Thomas BARKER, philosophical and theological writer; born at
Lyndon, 1722; died 1809.

Gilbert CLERKE, learned mathematician, Grecian, and biblical scholar; born 1626; died 1697.

Vincent WING, mathematician, author of almanac called by his name; born at Luffenham 1619; died 1669.

The principal Works relative to this County, since the time of Fuller, are the History and Antiquities of Rutland, by Mr. James Wright (1684); and another Work recently published by Mr. Tho. Blore. The twelfth volume of the Beauties of England and Wales also contains some useful information.-ED.

SHROPSHIRE.

SHROPSHIRE hath Cheshire on the north; Staffordshire on the east; Worcester, Hereford, and Radnor-shires on the south; Montgomery and Denbigh-shires on the west. The length thereof from north to south is 34 miles, and the general breadth thereof about 26 miles. I behold it really (though not so reputed) the biggest land-lock-shire in England: for although, (according to Mr. Speed's measuring) it gathereth but one hundred thirty-four miles (short of Wiltshire by five) in circumference; yet, though less in compass, it may be more in content, as less angular in my eye, and more approaching to a circle, the form of greatest capacity: a large and lovely county, generally fair and fruitful, affording grass, grain, and all things necessary for man's sustenance, but chiefly abounding with

NATURAL COMMODITIES.

IRON.

It is the most impure of metals, hardly meltable but with additaments; yea malleable and ductible with difficulty. Not like that at Damascus, which they refine in such sort, that it will melt at a lamp, and yet so tough that it will hardly break.* Some impute the grossness of our English iron to our water, not so proper for that purpose as in Spain and other parts; and the poet telleth us of Turnus's sword.

Ensem quem Dauno igni potens Deus ipse parenti
Fecerat, et Stygia candentem extinxerat undâ.†
"Sword which god Vulcan did for Daunus fix,
And quenched it when fiery hot in Styx."

However, many utensils are made of the iron of this county, to the great profit of the owners, and no loss (I hope) of the commonwealth.

COAL.

One may observe a threefold difference in our English coal; 1. Sea-coal, brought from Newcastle; 2. Land-coal, at Mendip,

Bellovius. † Virgil, Æneid xii.

MANUFACTURES-BUILDINGS-MEDICINAL WATers. 53

Bedworth, &c. and carted into other counties; 3. What one may call River or Fresh-water coal, digged out in this county, at such a distance from Severn, that they are easily ported by boat into other shires.

Oh if this coal could be so charcked as to make iron melt out of the stone, as it maketh it in smiths' forges to be wrought in the bars.

But "Rome was not built all in one day;" and a new world of experiments is left to the discovery of posterity.

MANUFACTURES.

This county can boast of no one, her original, but may be glad of one to her derivative; viz. the Welsh Friezes brought to Oswestry, the staple of that commodity, as hereafter shall be observed.

THE BUILDINGS.

No county in England hath such a heap of castles together, insomuch that Shropshire may seem on the west, divided from Wales with a wall of continued castles. It is much that Mr. Speed, which alloweth but one hundred and eighty-six in all England,* accounteth two and thirty in this county.† But as great guns, so useful in the side of a ship, are useless in the middle thereof; so these castles, formerly serviceable whilst Shropshire was the verge of English dominions, are now neglected, this shire being almost in the middest of England, since Wales was peaceably annexed thereunto. As for the houses of the gentry of this county, as many of them are fair and handsome, so none amount to an extraordinary eminence.

MEDICINAL WATERS.

There is a spring at Pitchford, in this shire, which hath an oily unctuous matter swimming upon the water thereof. Indeed it is not in such plenty as in a river near to Solos in Cilicia,‡ so full of that liquid substance, that such as wash therein seem anointed with oil; nor so abundant as in the springs near the Cape of St. Helen, wherewith (as Josephus Acosta reports) men use to pitch their ropes and tackling. I know not whether the sanative virtue thereof hath been experimented; but am sure that, if it be bitumen, it is good to comfort the nerves, supple the joints, dry up rheums, cure palsies and contractions. I have nothing more to say of bitumen, but that great the affinity thereof is with sulphur, save that sulphur hath ingression into metal, and bitumen none at all. Here I purposely pass by

See his Map General of England. + See his Description of Shropshire. Agricola de Natura, &c. lib. 1. cap. 7.

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