Thomas Leicester

“ Leicester was a man of taste and a patron of literature, whose cultured mode of life at his country seat, Penshurst, was celebrated in verse by Ben Jonson. The earl died at Penshurst on the 13th of July 1626. He was twice married; first to Barbara, daughter of John Gamage, a Glamorganshire gentleman; and secondly to Sarah, daughter of William Blount, and widow of Sir Thomas Smythe. By his first wife he had a large family. ”

“ It is not clear whether a burgess could then make an oven of his own, though the reservation of the burgesses' rights in the Countess' grant suggests that this may have been so. No burgess would be allowed to do so, we may be sure, without paying a "furnage" toll to the lord. [3] Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was beheaded in 1322, was the owner of six common ovens at Leicester, which were rented at £10 a year ; and John of Gaunt, in his Charter of 1375, thought best to reserve to himself all his bakehouse rights. ”

“ The tomb of Thomas Bett lies in All Saints' Church. He left nearly all his property to Robert Newcombe, the eldest son of Thomas Newcombe, who had married his daughter Katharine. Robert Newcombe, in 1540, bought the house in the old High Street opposite to All Saints' Church, where the family resided and carried on the business. He was a Churchwarden of All Saints' Church, and was elected Mayor of Leicester in 1550. The accounts of the estate of this well-to-do mediaeval burgess admit us into his household on a footing of unusual intimacy. ”

“ His wife Margaret taught poor children to knit jerseys, and the Town Council lent her money free of interest, to enable her to carry on the work. The useful benevolence of the Clarkes attracted the attention of the Earl of Huntingdon, who wrote a letter to the Mayor of Leicester, expressing his wish that a sum of £40, which his late brother had given for the relief of the poor by setting them to work, should be handed over to Thomas and Margaret Clarke. Thomas Clarke and his wife promised to employ a hundred people, but it does not seem that they ever obtained the money. ”

“ In the year 1584 the Town Hall was mortgaged to secure a loan guaranteed on behalf of the Corporation by two of its members. Robert Herrick, who was then Mayor, and Thomas Clarke, the wealthy landlord of the Blue Boar Inn, had bound themselves in a bond of £200 to Agnes Stringer for the payment of £100, and it was resolved that "for their security there shall be the Town Hall vocat' Guildhall assured unto them." Agnes Stringer was a well-to-do widow, who appears in the Subsidy Roll of 1590 as an owner of land at Leicester. ”

“ Martin’s church, was purchased, on the dissolution of guilds p. 141and chantries by the corporation, and is the guild-hall of the borough. It is adorned with several portraits among which is that of Sir Thomas White, Kt. citizen and merchant Taylor of London, who among many magnificent charities, bequeathed 10,000l. in the trust of the corporation to be lent without interest in sums of 50l. and 40l. to every freeman of Leicester for the term of nine years; a charity of peculiar value as it affords a perpetual incitement to the exertions of rising industry. ”

“ John Stanford, Butcher and Grazier, who was Mayor of Leicester in 1576 and 1592, was a son of old Thomas Stanford. He was a godson of John Herrick the Elder of Leicester, Ironmonger, who died in 1589, and he married, as his second wife, Herrick's daughter, Elizabeth, the sister of Alderman Robert Herrick. In the year 1572 he was chosen to represent Leicester in Parliament, when his expenses, at 2s. ”

“ VI, by Robert Catlyn of London and William Thomas, to purchase the farm of parcel of the possessions of the late guild or chantry of Corpus Christi in the town of Leicester. It would seem therefore that, if this grant were carried out, Catlyn and Thomas, or their nominee, took a lease for years only of part of the Guild's possessions, leaving the freehold in the Crown. The buildings seem to have occupied the four sides of a square, with an open court in the centre. ”

“ On a Subsidy Roll of the year 1590 only four persons living in Leicester were assessed at a higher sum than the landlord of the Blue Boar. He was a Brewer as well as an Innkeeper, and when an enquiry was made in 1585 by the Purveyor of the Queen's Buttery, Thomas Clarke undertook to supply weekly 40 "tune" (i.e., 240 barrels) of ale or beer, "or above if nede bee," at the rate of 2s. the dozen. ”

“ The priest was to have board at the Hospital, or 40 shillings a year in lieu of board, and such salary as the Stewards agreed, and a chamber found him "within the said St. John." In the Subsidy list of the Diocese of Lincoln for 1526, "Dom: Willelmus Walton Curatus Leicester Johannis," was assessed on an income of £4.
The Hospital with its church and all its lands passed by Queen Elizabeth's charter of 1589 to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester. Part of the site was used for the purpose of a Wool Hall, being leased for life in 1592 to the philanthropic Thomas Clarke with that object ”

“ Martin's, who married Robert Herrick's daughter Mary.
IV. THE MURDER.
In the autumn of the year 1604, a certain Thomas Harrison, who had done bodily harm to a man called Phillips, fled out of Staffordshire. He came to Leicester, and lodged for three nights at the Blue Boar Inn. While he was there, he paid his addresses to Alice Grimbold, one of the maid-servants, and Alice told him that her mistress, Mrs. Clarke, then a widow, kept a great deal of money in the house. ”

“ The testator appointed as Executor his kinsman, James Ellis, the Younger, of the Borough of Leicester, Woollen Draper, and as Overseers Thomas Walker of Leicester, barber cherurgeon and Allen Backhouse of Leicester yeoman. ”

“ I thank you for your services as butler this day, Monsieur of Rozel. You do your office rarely."
As the Seigneur left Elizabeth's apartments, he met the Earl of Leicester hurrying thither, preceded by the Queen's messenger. Leicester stopped and said, with a slow malicious smile: "Farming is good, then—you have fine crops this year on your holding?" ”

“ LANCASTER, EARLS and DUKES of
Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester 153
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester 17, 42, 113, 130, 156
Henry, Earl of Lancaster 17, 21, 154, 157
Henry, Duke of Lancaster 79, 80, 81, 82, 113, 158
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster 41, 45, 80, 81, 82, 99, 113, 130, 200
LANCASTER, DUCHY of 26, 47, 74, 119, 130, 134-6, 146, 194, 195
LAND at LEICESTER
Antelope 22, 25
Butt Close 3, 206
Cowhay 104, 149, 151
Frith Closes 194
Frog Island 102
Newarke Grange 168, 172, 193, 194
"No Man's Land" 15
Peacock, The 10, 25
Pingle, The 18
St. ”

“ If, in the midst of the most serene day of summer, when all is light and laughing around, a thunderbolt were to fall from the clear blue vault of heaven and rend the earth at the very feet of some careless traveler, he could not gaze upon the smoldering chasm which so unexpectedly yawned before him, with half the astonishment and fear which Leicester felt at the sight that so suddenly presented itself. ”

“ Such are the main facts of Leicester’s life. Of his character it is more difficult to speak with confidence, but some features of it are indisputable. Being in person tall and remarkably handsome, he improved these advantages by a very ingratiating manner. A man of no small ability and still more ambition, he was nevertheless vain, and presumed at times upon his influence with the queen to a degree that brought upon him a sharp rebuff. Yet Elizabeth stood by him. ”

“ He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man.
Sir Leicester is twenty years, full measure, older than my Lady. He will never see sixty-five again, nor perhaps sixty-six, nor yet sixty-seven. He has a twist of the gout now and then and walks a little stiffly. He is of a worthy presence, with his light-grey hair and whiskers, his fine shirt-frill, his pure-white waistcoat, and his blue coat with bright buttons always buttoned. ”

“ It is among their dignities. Sir Leicester is, perhaps, not wholly without an impression, though he has never resolved it into words, that the angel of death in the discharge of his necessary duties may observe to the shades of the aristocracy, "My lords and gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you another Dedlock, certified to have arrived per the family gout." ”

“ Here, in the large front chamber, according to tradition, Richard spent that night; and a bedstead, on which he is supposed to have slept, became famous at the beginning of the 17th century as one of the curiosities of Leicester. The local tradition is unsupported by any authority, but it is not contrary to known facts. It has been asked why the King did not sleep at Leicester Castle, where he had stayed just two years before; but a campaigner, on the eve of a decisive battle, may have had several reasons for preferring to pass the one night in a less ostentatious place of sojourn. ”

“ The old lady can do nothing but go in search of him. Sir Leicester, with such power of movement as he has, arranges himself a little to receive him. When he has done so, he looks out again at the falling sleet and snow and listens again for the returning steps. A quantity of straw has been tumbled down in the street to deaden the noises there, and she might be driven to the door perhaps without his hearing wheels.
He is lying thus, apparently forgetful of his newer and minor surprise, when the housekeeper returns, accompanied by her trooper son. ”

“ Love of display and self-indulgence are Leicester's most striking personal characteristics. By his extravagant dress, his gluttony, and his cruel treatment of women he was best known to his contemporaries. That he was also an accomplished poisoner has been repeatedly urged against him, but the evidence is inconclusive in all the charges of murder brought against him. In politics his aim was to control and (at first) marry the queen, whose early infatuation for him decreased but never died. ”

“ This youth was Tom Leicester, born in wedlock, and therefore, in the law's eye, son of old Simon Leicester; but gossips said his true father was the late Captain Gaunt. Tom ran with the hounds for his own sport,—went out shooting with gentlemen, and belabored the briers for them at twopence per day and his dinner,—and abhorred all that sober men call work. ”

“ There is no possibility of misconstruing Sir Leicester’s burning wish to see him or the desire he signifies to have the room cleared of every one but the housekeeper. It is speedily done, and Mr. Bucket appears. Of all men upon earth, Sir Leicester seems fallen from his high estate to place his sole trust and reliance upon this man. ”

“ If you cross the Queen—and you will cross the Queen when you know the truth, as I know it—you will pay a heavy price for refusing Leicester as your friend.”
She made a protesting motion and seemed about to speak, but suddenly, with a passionate gesture, Leicester added: “Let them go their way. Monsieur de la Foret will be tossed aside before another winter comes. Do you think he can abide here in the midst of plot and intrigue, and hated by the people of the Court? He is doomed. But more, he is unworthy of you; while I can serve you well, and I can love you well.” ”

“ In humanity, as in nature herself, there is midnight darkness contrasting with the bright and pure sunshine.
There was nothing about the person of Leicester that should make the task of describing him an unpleasant one. He had reached the middle age, at least was fast approaching it: and on a close scrutiny, his features gave indication of more advanced years than the truth would justify; for his life had been one that seldom leaves the brow smooth, or the mouth perfectly flexible. ”

“ No sooner had Leicester succeeded in establishing himself in his new possessions and dignities, than he acquired, by insinuation and address, great popularity and influence with the nation, gaining the affections of all orders of men—a circumstance which lost him the friendship of the feeble monarch, who first banished him from court, then weakly recalled him, and finally, to rid himself of his presence, entrusted him with the government of Guienne, where, to do the earl justice, he did good service, and acquired great honour. ”

“ The conduct was admirable, but it was not good politics, and as soon as he offered himself as a candidate, the saloon element, under the leadership of one Lindsay, whose family were tavern-keepers in Winchester for at least one hundred years, united to oppose him. Against the would-be burgess they set up one Captain Thomas Swearingen, whom Washington later described as “a man of great weight among the meaner class of people, and supposed by them to possess extensive knowledge.” ”

“ Sir Leicester is generally in a complacent state, and rarely bored. When he has nothing else to [Pg 173] do, he can always contemplate his own greatness. It is a considerable advantage to a man to have so inexhaustible a subject. After reading his letters, he leans back in his corner of the carriage, and generally reviews his importance to society. ”

“ Leicester, with all his wealth, was the poorest man in all the country-side. The few hands he engaged hated him, and, when they could, neglected his interests. Neighbours' dogs were ever scattering his sheep, selectors persisted in travelling over his huge paddocks, though he had fenced the road across with six-rail wall of wood. Bulls would break his fences, his paddocks be burnt oftener than any one's else, and none have the grace to come to his assistance. ”