Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/143

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Sir John Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith. 123 to spare ; for my living was yerely Cxx u , after this sort my lecture of Civille [Law] was to me yerely xl", th'office of Chauncelership to my Lorde of Elye l u , and my benefice of Leverington xxxvj"; and yet I so orderid the matier, that myne owne horde, my iij servauntes, iij somer nagges, and iij winter geldinges, all this did not stonde me myche above xxx 11 . yorely ; so that, except I wolde spende of unthriftynes, I might save well ynough, as I did, and I trust honestly, my conscience doth not accuse me. Well, howsoever it was, I tolde Mr. Thynne of this money, and required him to helpe me where I mighte best employ it. He wisshed me to this Yarlington, the whiche I bought in reversion after the late Quenes a death, and was put in my Lord Marques Northampton's booke, and so it stode me in CCC U . If the quene had lived, it had bene wourth nothing unto me ; her death made it wourth me xxx" a yere. The money I paide to my Lord Marques ; his booke was that was given him at the coronacion. b This as for Yarlington, and of all this, as I saide, no man can be better judge and witness then Mr. Thynne: the purchase after x yeres, the money myne owne before I came from Cambridge, and before I had Mr. Cicilles office, or any other in the courte. Th'other the Colleage of Darbie is xxxiij" a yere. This I bought this yere of the Commissioners of Chaunteries according as the price goith. That money then I must have of briborye. Yt is not unknowen, I suppose, neither unto your grace nor to many other, that I had with my wief c one thousand markes ; that thought I mete, and in maner my dutie, and half promise, to employ in lande, and so I did, and boughte that lande with it. And here is all the purchases that ever 1 made ; here is all the lande 1 have in the worlde ; one peny rent more I have not ; I wolde every man in England coulde give so good accomptes where he had the money wherwith he bought his lande ; the worlde hathe then less cawse to crie then it semeth to have. Office and preferment I have bought none. My Lordes grace can tell of whom I have had all that I have. Ferme I occupie none, neither bieng nor selling, nor usury for love of money, nor never did, and God willing never entende to doo. My livinges be not unknowen. The Secretaryes fee is yerely C". Th'advauntage of the scale, they say, was wont to be good; this three monethes, it hath not bene to me vij". The deanry of Carlile, paieing xl u pencion to him d that resigned it to me, is iiij xx H . What Eaton Colleage is I cannot tell : from Christmas that I furst had it, till Midsomer that I went into Flaundres, I had of it lx u ; from that tyme till Midsomer last I had never a peny, and yet I was fayne, before Bartlio- lomewe tyme, to borowe c u for them till the rentes come in, to bie liveries of the house. This is the great livinges I have, the which, saving the secretaries office, be but spirituall livinges as they call them, putting the Kinges Ma tie to no charge, nor my L. grace to no blame; and without som- what I can not be hable to serve in this rome. The whiche if they be thoughte to myche to be bestowid uppon me, I wolde some priest had them. a Queen Katharine (Parr.), the marquess of Northampton's sister. b Of course at the coronation of Edward the Sixth, not, as Strype imagined, " at the coronation of Queen Katharine." The "book" was a list or schedule of lands, made preparatory to a grant by letters patent. c His first wife, Elizabeth Carkek. d Lancelot Salkeld. E2