wayt at court; hath spoken with her Majestie, and is sayd he shall haue the Disbursing of the Treasory of the Chamber, till her Majestie be pleased to bestow yt. Sir H. Umpton and Mr. John Stanhope, stands for yt.' On 5 November, 'Peter Proby paies the money till a Treasorer of the Chamber be chosen, which will not be in hast'. Peter Proby was a useful hanger-on of Burghley's, and had been his barber. On 20 November 'Sir Thomas Heneges Funerals were solemnised, his Offices all vnbestowed'. By 7 December Whyte ventures a prophecy:
'I heare that Mr. Killigrew shall receve and pay the Treasure of
the Chamber, till the Queen find one fitt for it; but if this continew
true, Mr. Killigrew will haue it in the End himself.'
Whyte was wrong, however. William Killigrew was a mere
stop-gap.[1] On 20 December, Whyte has an inkling of what
is going on, and commits his new information to cipher.
'The Queen hath promised him [Sir H. Unton] the Thresureship
of the Chamber, and stands constant in it, and at his return to haue
it. But if 900 [Burghley] and 200 [Cecil], that would 40 [Stanhope]
had it, can hinder it, the other shall goe without it.'
It was not until 5 July that, according to an amused letter
from Anthony Bacon, 'Elephas peperit' with the swearing
in of Sir Robert Cecil as Secretary and John Stanhope as
Treasurer of the Chamber, 'so that now the old man may
say with the rich man in the gospel requiescat anima mea'.
Burghley himself notes the appointment without comment in his diary.[2] John Stanhope, who was knighted on his appointment and created Lord Stanhope of Harrington on 4 May 1605, did not get the Vice-Chamberlainship until 1601. He remained Treasurer until his death in 1617. There was some characteristic Stuart traffic in the reversion. Sir Thomas Overbury held it at his death in 1613. Lord Rochester then bought it from Stanhope for £2,000, and offered it to Sir Henry Neville, who declined to take it from a subject. Finally it passed to Sir William Uvedale, who in fact became Treasurer in succession to Stanhope.[3]
During Stanhope's tenure of office, some changes in the 'order of payment' took place. The account for 1607-8 recites a privy seal of 27 January 1608 as authority for the transfer from the Privy Purse to the Treasurer of the Chamber
