NOTE. FINES FOR Declining KnIGHTHOOD. UNDER the feudal system every holder of land was bound to a certain amount of military service, and if the holding was of considerable extent he was usually honoured with the title of knight. Men were found, however, even in early times, who looked on the honour as a burden, and they had to be presented by the sheriffs, some of whom, in 1256, were fined for neglecting this duty. At that time all holders of land of the yearly value of £15 were summoned to receive knighthood. In 1279 (March 12) commissioners were appointed by Edward I. to inquire who ought to be knighted. The qualification had been raised to £20 in 1277, and in 1292 it was raised to £40, at which sum it remained until the abolition of the obligation. Under each intervening reign summonses to attend and receive knighthood (mainly at coronations) are to be found, but the practice was evidently not very rigidly enforced. On the contrary, fines for its "respite," as it was called, were often resorted to, as when funds were required for some extraordinary occasion. Henry VIII. by a statute of 1512, imposing a kind of income-tax, rated knights at 30s. for every 20s. paid by the untitled gentry, and thus made it the interest of the latter to avoid the rank that would so materially increase their burdens; hence a moderate composition was readily paid by many, as on the occasion of the coronation of Anne Boleyn. But the legal obligation still subsisted, and when Charles' fourth parliament had been dismissed without voting the ne cessary supplies, the ministers determined to avail themselves of it. Accordingly, on May 29, 1629, commissioners were appointed to ascertain the persons bound to attend and receive knighthood, and to "tax and assess them for having respite.' From a certificate of the commissioners in Derbyshire the matter seems to have proceeded but slowly, as up to November, 1630, but £2,421 6s. 8d. had been paid into the Exchequer from that county, and £800 of compositions agreed to, remained unpaid.. Of the persons summoned before the commissioners some denied the fact of their being possessed of the requisite estate, some claimed exemption as Barons of the Cinque Ports, and others contested the king's right to make the demand. The judges, however, affirmed the legality of the same, and the threat of a summons before the Council seems usually to have been sufficient to produce compliance. Oliver Cromwell paid £10, and his perhaps was a case of yielding to pressure, as his name appears to have been inserted after the Huntingdonshire list was made up. The composition in general seems to have been Lio, which entailed a large sacrifice of future revenue for the sake of present money, and so was very advantageous to the payers; but to this was sometimes added a fine of equal or even larger amount, in case of non-attendance on the commissioners, &c. The total sum raised is stated at £173,537 9s. 6d. The Long Parliament, in 1641, passed an act [16 Car. I. c. 20], prohibiting the issue of such writs. A.D. 1631. St. Catherine Cree church, in the city of London, is consecrated, with much ceremony, by Bishop Laud, Jan. 16. Riots in the forest of Dean, when many new-made inclosures are thrown down, and other mischief done, June. The leaders were disguised as women, and their followers styled themselves A commission granted to the arch-"Lady Skimmington's men." bishops, the bishop of London (William Laud) and others, for the restoration of St. Paul's cathedral, April 10. This formed a very prominent charge against him on his trial twelve years after. This noble edifice had been greatly neglected and desecrated in the two preceding reigns; some of the chapels had been pulled down, others let out as workshops, and the body of the church was a common lounge for idlers and bad characters. Bishop Laud was particularly active in procuring George Huntley, rector of Stourmouth, in Kent, who had been imprisoned by the Court of High Commission, is set at liberty by the judges, funds for the good work; he contributed largely himself, gained help from the Universities, as well as from Sir Paul Pindar and other wealthy laymen, and, by the king's permission, appropriated to the restoration the fines imposed in the High Commission Court, but these amounted to no large sum, and the chief effect was, to add to the unpopularity of that tribunal. D d He had, two years before, refused to preach at a visitation, though ordered by the archdeacon. For this breach of canonical obedience he was (June 25, 1629) deprived of his benefice (which he had held for nearly 20 years), fined and imprisoned, but the judges declared that his offence subjected him only to ecclesiastical censures, and thus emboldened him to sue the commissioners. The king sent for the judges, and ordered them not to entertain the action against the commissioners, but they pleaded the obligation of their oath; and, after some further argument before the council, it was agreed that the commissioners should plead. Accordingly an order was made for the attendance of both parties in the Court of King's Bench, in Easter term, 1632, but the result apparently was not favourable to Huntley, as, on Oct. 10, 1634, he wrote to Noy, the attorney-general, urging him to take up his cause, and assuring him that he might get £100,000 for the king from the commissioners, so illegally had they acted. Noy, however, declined to interfere. Huntley, early in the next year procured a writ of capias against Sir Henry Marten, one of the commissioners, but the only result was, that his attorney, George Merefield, was committed to prison, as having obtained the writ "by undue means. On his petition, pleading his "youth and ignorance," he was released, Jan. 13, 1635. Huntley was alive, and probably unbeneficed, in 1641, as the parishioners of Stourmouth then petitioned the Long Parliament that he might be restored. If he was, he had but a brief tenure, as Edward Warde became rector, Feb. 9, 1645. " The neglect alleged was in regard to the death of Dr. Lamb, who in 1628 was so ill-used in the streets of the city, that he died in consequence, (see p. 398), but no magistrate appeared to quell the tumult, nor was any one then punished for it. The reviving of the matter, however, at such a distance of time was looked on as a mere expedient to raise money. These courts were held before Henry Rich, earl of Holland, as chief-justice in eyre south of Trent. They inquired into and punished alleged encroachments of three to four hundred years' standing; and, according to the preamble of the act passed in 1641, "for the certainty of Forests," f16 Car. I. c. 16,] "endeavoured to set on foot The city of London fined £50,000 in the Starchamber, and their plantation in Ulster seized into the king's hands, for some alleged neglects in its management, March 8. The collection of money for alleged charitable purposes without licence forbidden by proclamation, March 21. The king visits Scotland, and is to England early in August. crowned there, June 18. He returns One reason for this journey was to defeat a scheme of detaching Scotland from his obedience, which there was reason to think was entertained by the marquis of Hamilton (James Hamilton'); another, to complete the restoration of episcopacy commenced by James I., and to introduce the English Liturgy. The king founded the bishopric of Edinburgh, and bestowed high offices on several prelates, but left the introduction of the Liturgy unat forests where in truth none have been, or ought to be, or at least have not been used of long time.' This was a self-constituted corporation of twelve members, which raised subscriptions avowedly to purchase impropriate rectories, and thereby relieve the poverty of the Church. They, however, devoted their funds to the support of Lecturers in towns, styled by them a faithful preaching ministry," who were uniformly Puritans: hence Bishop Laud laboured to procure their suppression. The scheme had been devised by Dr. John Preston, a noted preacher (born at Northampton in 1587, he became Master of Emmanuel College in 1622, and died July 20, 1628,) at Cambridge, where he had gained the favour of James by his skill in disputation. He was a Somersetshire man, born in 1600, and educated at Oxford, where he studied the law. He was a friend of Preston, the Puritan, and being conspicuous for moving for prohibitions to stop proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, the heavy punishment inflicted on him was popularly, though probably unjustly, attributed to the influence of the archbishop. Prynne was expelled from the university and the bar, placed in the pillory, where his ears were cut off, and sentenced to imprisonment until he made a more complete submission than suited his temper. He, in February, 1634, presented a petition, in which he acknowledged that he had given "great and just offence to the King, Queen and whole State," but this was not deemed sufficient. His confinement, however, was by no means rigid. He was allowed the attendance of his servant (Nathaniel Wickens), and was permitted to go abroad, attended by a keeper. By the connivance of this man, he procured the printing of several offensive works, which were widely circulated; and this led to his second trial and punishment in 1637 i He was removed to the Tower, Feb. 24, 1634On the way he visited the remarkable establishment at Little Gidding. See Note, p. 403. He was of the blood royal, being descended from a daughter of James II. Charles refused to credit the accusations against him, and afterwards employed him to negotiate with the Covenanters, but his conduct therein was so ambiguous, that tempted", from scruples as to appearing to interfere with the independence of Scotland. Lord Wentworth is appointed deputy of Ireland, July 3". Bishop Laud is translated to the see of Canterbury, August. He is suc ceeded as bishop of London by Bishop Juxon. The Book of Sports of King James P is again published by royal authority, Oct. 18, which is displeasing to many beside the Puritans 9. NOTE. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FERRARS AT LITTLE GIDDING. LITTLE GIDDING is a rural parish in Huntingdonshire, near Stilton, which at the present day has but twelve houses and only 53 inhabitants. The church, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, which is very small, brick-built, and nowise remarkable externally, is fitted with oak stalls and panelling like a college chapel; it has painted windows, in which the royal arms, those of the see of Lincoln, those of the Ferrars, and others, appear; monumental brasses, and an altar-tomb; a font, a lectern, and a credence-table, all of brass; a communion-table of cedar, silken carpets and tapestry, and sacred vessels of silver. Of these, some were bestowed by the late lord of the manor, (Mr. Hopkinson, of Stamford,) but the majority are memorials of Nicholas Ferrar and his family. when he repaired to the king at Oxford, after the war had broken out, he was sent a prisoner into Cornwall, where he remained until released by the parliamentary forces. In 1648. however, he headed THROUGH! Crest of Hamilton. the Scottish army which invaded England in the cause of the king, but was defeated and captured, and was beheaded early in 1649. His brother William, the second duke, was killed in the royal cause at Worcester. After his return, orders were sent for the use of the English Liturgy in the king's chapel in Edinburgh, but the council did not think it prudent to comply with the direction. He held this office until 1639, when he was created lord lieutenant. His administration was altogether despotic, and marked by many acts of violence and cruelty. He endeavoured to expel This remarkable man, the second son of a wealthy merchant, was born in London Feb. 22, 1593, and was early so distinguished for piety and amiability of disposition, that he was familiarly known as Saint Nicholas. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and afterwards passed several years in foreign travel for the benefit of his health, which was weak from childhood. He took an active part in the affairs of a company for colonizing Virginia and converting the natives, and also sat for a short time in parliament; but the plague. in 1625 occasioned the withdrawal of his whole family from London to Little Gidding, which his mother (then a widow) had recently purchased. On Trinity Sunday, 1626, he received the order of deacon from the hands of Bishop Laud; and thenceforth all Scots who had taken the Covenant from Ireland, and thus earned the hatred of their nation, which pursued him to the scaffold. • William Juxon, a native of Chichester, born in 1582, was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, and became President there. He was a friend of Bishop Laud, and by his influence was removed in 1633 from the see of Hereford, before consecration, to that of London, was also made lord treasurer, and received many marks of the favour of Charles I., whom he attended on the scaffold. At the Restoration he was translated to Canterbury, but held the primacy a very short time, dying in his eighty-first year, June 4, 1663. Though his secular office in the time preceding the civil war was distasteful to many, a contemporary (Whitelock) bears this honourable testimony to Bishop Juxon's character: "He was a person of great parts and temper, and had as much command of himself as of his hounds;" [he much delighted in hunting :] "he was full of ingenuity and meekness, not apt to give offence to any, and willing to do good to all." P See A.D. 1618. Some ministers refused to read it. One of them (Laurence Snelling, rector of Paul's Cray, Kent) was deprived of his living and excommunicated for disobedience in this particular by the High Commission Court in 1637. The parish has an area of 713 acres, entirely in pasture; the population was sixty-four in 1821, forty-five in 1841, the same in 1861; and fifty-three in 1871. The value of the property has been very little affected by the lapse of more than two centuries. The Ferrars let out the whole, except their manor-house and grounds, on ten-year leases at £500 per annum; and in 1845 a parliamentary paper shews that it was valued to the property-tax at £556 for the lands, and £13 10s. for the houses. he devoted himself to maintaining in the many grandchildren, and some servants; three schoolmasters, and some alms-widows, making altogether about forty persons. They all (except Nicholas Ferrar) rose at four in the morning in summer, and at five in the winter, and, except the watchers, retired to rest at eight in the evening. Beside private prayer night and morning, they had family worship four times a-day in the house, and the Common Prayer twice a-day in the church. They assembled hourly, when a portion of the Psalter and another of a Harmony of the Gospels was repeated from memory, and a short hymn sung; beside which, one of the elders of each sex, usually attended of their own free will by some of the juniors, "kept watch" from nine till one, and in that time repeated, on their knees, the whole Psalter by alternate verses; and when they had concluded this, they summoned Nicholas Ferrar, who habitually rose at that hour, and passed the time in meditation and prayer, until the rest of the family joined him. He then heard the younger members repeat the portions of Scripture that they had learned, pre When the Ferrars took possession of their purchase, in 1625, they found the tithes alienated, and the church desecrated and used as a barn. Their first care, even before they made their manor-house habit-sided at the devotions of each hour, and perable, was to cleanse the church, and fit it again for divine service; and, in consequence of the pestilence, they obtained permission from their diocesan (John Williams, bishop of Lincoln,) to use the Litany daily, the service being at first conducted by the rector of the adjoining parish of Steeple Gidding, but after his ordination by Nicholas Ferrar. These week-day services were rarely attended by any other than their own household, but on Sundays and festivals, the rector (having concluded the prayers at his own church) repaired to | Little Gidding, and preached a sermon, being usually accompanied by many of his parishioners, particularly the children "; the Ferrars went to Steeple Gidding in the afternoon. The inmates of the house consisted of Mrs. Ferrar, and her son Nicholas; a son (John) and a daughter (Mary), both married, and a son-in-law (John Collett); "The habit of the young women, nine or ten, or more of them," says Dr. Jebb, "was black stuff, all of one grave fashion, always the same, with comely veils on their heads." The glebe, of nearly twenty-four acres, which had been illegally seized by a former lord of the manor, they restored, and secured it to the incumbent by a decree in Chancery. u The children received their dinner, and a penny for each Psalm that they could repeat from a Psalter which was given to all who desired it. Many parents who could not read themselves also got the Psalms by heart from hearing the children_repeat them, and the object which Nicholas Ferrar proposed, of banishing idle songs from their dwellings, had a great measure of success. formed the Church service twice a-day, "neither adding nor diminishing a word." He was ever accessible to visitors, (hoping, as he said, "either to receive or to do good,") sought out the sick and the poor, took the most suitable measures for their relief, and personally distributed liberal alms, accompanied by friendly counsel, to all who repaired to the house. He kept a watchful eye on the studies of the juniors, and allowed the children of the neighbouring parishes to share in their instruction; and he devised many valuable literary labours, as Harmonies, Concordances, and translalations of the Gospels into several languages, which he carried out with the active co-operation of a few of the members of his family best qualified for the task. He well understood physic, but he did not practise it, considering it more useful to instruct his nieces in the simpler arts of healing. His desire was to see them, not The Psalter was thus repeated daily and the Gospels monthly. y He, however, watched twice, or even thrice in the week, in summer passing the whole night in the church; and after his mother's death he never used a bed, but slept on a bear-skin spread on the floor; yet he found his health improved rather than weakened. Mr. Lenton, a lawyer, who visited Little Gidding in 1634, speaks of the income of the family as being £500 a-year, a sum apparently inadequate to so extensive a course of charity. But they neither paid nor received expensive visits; their tenants supplied their table at fixed rates; and though their house and grounds were handsomely kept, their apparel was of the plainest description, and mostly of home manufacture. nuns, but "parsons' wives," after the pattern sketched by his friend and "brother,' George Herbert. That they might gain the necessary knowledge of domestic duties, they took in turn, month by month, the office of housekeeper, and kept a minute account of the daily expenses of the family; but their great care was devoted to succouring the poor; for them they prepared salves, balsams, and cordials, and dressed their wounds; they made clothing for them, visited, read to, and nursed them; and, says their biographer (Dr. Jebb), “if ever women merited the title of the devout sex, these gentlewomen won it by their carriage, and deserved to wear it." The fame of this establishment, mixed with many misrepresentations, reached King Charles I., and he visited it in 1633, A.D. 1634. The coasts both of England and Ireland are infested by pirates; whilst the Dutch endeavour to exclude the English from the northern fisheries, and fish on the English coasts without licence". To raise a fleet, a writ of ship-money is issued, requiring the maritime counties and towns to pay certain fixed sums; but this on his way to Scotland, was well pleased with all he saw there, and expressed a wish "that many more such families could be found in the land;" and he repeated his visit in 1642. The recluses, at his wish, prepared for him and for his two sons Harmonies of the Gospels, which they bound with their own hands, and which are now preserved in the British Museum. Mrs. Ferrar died in 1634, aged 83, and was succeeded as "chief" by her granddaughter Mary Collett, who survived until 1680. Nicholas Ferrar died ↳ Dec. 4, 1637, and his brother John Sept. 28, 1657. The establishment, however, had been long before broken up; and as the so-called "Nuns of Gidding" had not (as was commonly asserted) made vows of celibacy, four only of them died unmarried. being found insufficient for the purpose, the writs are, in the following year, directed to all counties and towns alike. Cardinal Richelieu sends agents to Scotland, who intrigue with the discontented. The lord deputy (Wentworth) claims the whole province of Connaught as belonging to the crown*. NOTE. PIRACY AND THE SHIP-MONEY WRITS. THE State Papers of the time of Eliza- | beth, to go no further back, shew that the English seas were in her time infested by Their charity could not be denied, but they were censured by some as betaking themselves to a "new form of fasting and prayer, and a contemplative, idle life, a lip-labour devotion, and a will-worship,"-a charge manifestly untrue in every particular. Others charged them with being concealed Romanists, and asserted that they paid adoration to numerous crosses set up in their church windows; the fact was, that there were no crosses there except as part of the border of the crown in the royal arms (some indeed discovered them in the transverse bars of the window-frames), and that what was styled adoration was merely the reverent bowing at entering a church practised by all devout persons from the very earliest ages. Whilst he lay on his death-bed he directed a spot to be marked for his grave, and on it he caused many hundred volumes of works in which he had once delighted, but which he now considered unprofitable, to be destroyed. In consequence, a report was spread that he was a magician, and could not die until his conjuring-books had been committed to the flames. " • Two of them desired to take such vows, but were dissuaded by the bishop of Lincoln, "who,' says Hackett, "admonished them very fatherly, that they knew not what they went about; that pirates. To cite a few instances: in 1566, Thomas Meidlar, of Wexford, complains of his ship having been boarded and plun they had no promise to confirm that grace unto them, that this readiness, which they had in the present, should be in their will, without repentance, to their life's end. Let the younger women marry, was the best advice, that they might not be led into temptation. . . . . The direction of God was in this counsel; for one of the gentlewomen afterwards took a liking to a good husband, and was well bestowed." These particulars are in great measure derived from "Cambridge in the Seventeenth Century," Part I., by the Rev. J. E. B. Mayor, a most interesting volume. dTheir eminent statesman, Hugo Grotius, wrote his "Mare Liberum," in justification of these proceedings; while the equally eminent Selden, in his "Mare Clausum," shewed that the sovereignty of the narrow seas had belonged to England from the earliest times. This had in former times been acknowledged on all hands (see A.D. 1320); but the weakness of the government, which had suffered the English navy to fall to decay, encouraged the enterprising republicans now to deny it. The claim was compounded for, but it justly alarmed every landed proprietor in Ireland, and it was one great cause of the insurrection of 1641. |