Chapter 13

THOMAS PAYCOCKE OF COGGESHALL

_A. Raw Material_

1. The raw material for this chapter consists of Paycocke's House, presented to the Nation in 1924 by the Right Hon. Noel Buxton, M.P., which stands in West Street, Coggeshall, Essex (station, Kelvedon); the Paycocke brasses, which lie in the North aisle of the parish church of St Peter ad Vincula at Coggeshall; and the wills of John Paycocke (_d_. 1505), Thomas Paycocke (_d_. 1518), and Thomas Paycocke (_d_. 1580), which are now preserved at Somerset House (P.C.C. Adeane 5, Ayloffe 14, and Arundell 50, respectively), and of which that of the first Thomas has been printed in Mr Beaumont's paper, cited below, while I have analysed fully the other two in my book, _The Paycockes of Coggeshall_ (1920), which deals at length with the history of the Paycockes and their house. See also G.F. Beaumont, _Paycocke's House, Coggeshall, with some Notes on the Families of Paycocke and Buxton_ (reprinted from Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc., IX, pt. V) and the same author's _History of Coggeshall_ (1890). There is a beautifully illustrated article on the house in _Country Life_ (June 30, 1923), vol. LIII, pp. 920-6.

2. For an apotheosis of the clothiers, see _The Pleasant History of John Winchcomb, in his younger days called Jack of Newbery, the famous and worthy Clothier of England_ and _Thomas of Reading, or the Six Worthy Yeomen of the West_, in _The Works of Thomas Deloney_, ed. F.O. Mann (1912), nos. II and V. The first of these was published in 1597 and the other soon afterwards and both went through several editions by 1600.

3. On the cloth industry in general see G. Morris and L. Wood, _The Golden Fleece_ (1922); E. Lipson, _The Woollen Industry_ (1921); and W.J. Ashley, _Introd. to English Economic History_ (1909 edit.). For the East Anglian woollen industry see especially the _Victoria County Histories_ of Essex and Suffolk. For a charming account of another famous family of clothiers see B. McClenaghan, _The Springs of Lavenham_ (Harrison, Ipswich, 1924).

_B. Notes to the Text_

1. _Deloney's Works_, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213.

2. Thomas Fuller, _The Worthies of England_ (1622), p. 318.

3. A convenient introduction to the study of monumental brasses, with illustrations and a list of all the surviving brasses in England, arranged according to counties, is W. Macklin, _Monumental Brasses_ (1913). See also H. Druitt, _Costume on Brasses_ (1906). These books also give details as to the famous early writers on the subject, such as Weaver, Holman, and A.J. Dunkin.

4. _Testamenta Eboracensia, a selection of wills from the Registry at York_, ed. James Raine, 6 vols. (Surtees Soc., 1836-1902). The Surtees Society has also published several other collections of wills from Durham and elsewhere, relating to the northern counties. A large number of wills have been printed or abstracted. See, for instance, _Wills and Inventories from the Registers of Bury St Edmunds_, ed. S. Tymms (Camden Soc., 1850); _Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Hastings_, _London_, ed. R.R. Sharpe, 2 vols. (1889); _The Fifty Earliest English Wills in the Court of Probate, London_, ed. F.J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S., 1882); _Lincoln Wills_, ed. C.W. Foster (Lincoln Record Soc., 1914); and _Somerset Medieval Wills_, 1383-1558, ed. F.W. Weaver, 3 vols. (Somerset Record Soc., 1901-5).

5. The will of the other Thomas Paycocke 'cloathemaker', who died in 1580, also refers to the family business. He leaves twenty shillings 'to William Gyon my weaver'; also 'Item, I doe give seaven poundes tenne shillinges of Lawful money of Englande to and amongest thirtie of the poorest Journeymen of the Fullers occupacion in Coggeshall aforesaide, that is to every one of them fyve shillinges.' William Gyon or Guyon was related to a very rich clothier, Thomas Guyon, baptized in 1592 and buried in 1664, who is said to have amassed £100,000 by the trade. Thomas Paycocke's son-in-law Thomas Tyll also came of a family of clothiers, for in a certificate under date 1577 of wool bought by clothiers of Coggeshall during the past year there occur the names of Thomas Tyll, William Gyon, John Gooddaye (to whose family the first Thomas Paycocke left legacies), Robert Lytherland (who receives a considerable legacy under the will of the second Thomas), and Robert Jegon (who is mentioned incidentally in the will as having a house near the church and was father of the Bishop of Norwich of that name). See Power, _The Paycockes of Coggeshall_, pp. 33-4.

6. Quoted in Lipson, _Introd. to the Econ. Hist, of England_ (1905), I, p. 421.

7. Quoted _ibid_., p. 417.

8. On John Winchcomb see Power, _op. cit_., pp. 17-18; and Lipson, _op. cit_., p. 419.

9. Deloney's Works, ed. F.C. Mann, pp. 20-1.

10. _Ibid_., p. 22.

11. Quoted in C.L. Powell, _Eng. Domestic Relations_, 1487-1563 (1917), p. 27.

12. The house subsequently passed, it is not quite clear at what date, into the hands of another family of clothiers, the Buxtons, who had intermarried with the Paycockes some time before 1537. William Buxton (_d_. 1625) describes himself as 'clothyer of Coggeshall' and leaves 'all my Baey Lombs [Looms]' to his son Thomas. Thomas was seventeen when his father died and lived until 1647, also carrying on business as a clothier, and the house was certainly in his possession. He or his father may have bought it from John Paycocke's executors. By him it was handed down to his son Thomas, also a clothier (_d_. 1713), who passed it on to his son Isaac, clothier (_d_. 1732). Isaac's two eldest sons were clothiers likewise, but soon after their father's death they retired from business. He apparently allowed his third son, John, to occupy the house as his tenant, and John was still living there in 1740. But Isaac had left the house by will in 1732 to his youngest son, Samuel, and Samuel, dying in 1737, left it to his brother Charles, the fourth son of Isaac. Charles never lived in it, because he spent most of his life in the pursuit of his business as an oil merchant in London, though he is buried among his ancestors in Coggeshall Church. In 1746 he sold the house to Robert Ludgater and it passed completely out of the Paycocke-Buxton connexion, and in the course of time fell upon evil days and was turned into two cottages, the beautiful ceilings being plastered over. It was on the verge of being destroyed some years ago when it was bought and restored to its present fine condition by Mr Noel Buxton, a direct lineal descendant of the Charles Buxton who sold it. See Power, _op. cit_., pp. 38-40.

13. _Deloney's Works_, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213.

14. Defoe, _Tour through Great Britain_, 1724 (1769 edit.), pp. 144-6.

15. 'This shire is the most fatt, frutefull and full of profitable thinges, exceeding (as far as I can finde) anie other shire for the general commodities and the plentie, thowgh Suffolk be more highlie comended by some (wherewith I am not yet acquainted). But this shire seemeth to me to deserve the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest of the lande, comparable to Palestina, that flowed with milk and hunnye.'--Norden, _Description of Essex_ (1594), (Camden Soc.), p. 7.

16. According to Leake, writing about 1577, 'About 1528 began the first spinning on the distaffe and making of Coxall clothes.... These Coxall clothes weare first taught by one Bonvise, an Italian.'--Quoted _V.C.H. Essex_, II, p. 382.

_Notes on Illustrations_

PLATE I. _Bodo at his work_

From an eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon calendar in the British Museum (MS. Tit., B.V., pt. I), showing the occupations of Bodo, or of his masters, for each month of the year. The months illustrated are January (ploughing with oxen), March (breaking clods in a storm), August (reaping), and December (threshing and winnowing). The other pictures represent February (pruning), April (Bodo's masters feasting), May (keeping sheep), June (mowing), July (woodcutting), September (Bodo's masters boar-hunting), October (Bodo's masters hawking), and November (making a bonfire).

PLATE II. _Embarkation of the Polos at Venice_

From the magnificent MS. of Marco Polo's book, written early in the fifteenth century and now preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS. no. 264, f. 218). The artist gives an admirable view of medieval Venice, with the Piazetta to the left, and the Polos embarking on a rowing boat to go on board their ship. In the foreground are depicted (after the medieval fashion of showing several scenes of a story in the same picture) some of the strange lands through which they passed. Note the Venetian trading ships.

PLATE III. _Part of a landscape roll by Chao Mêng-fu_

This very beautiful scene is taken from a roll painted by Chao Mêng-fu in 1309 in the style of Wang Wei, a poet and artist of the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 699-759). A fine description of it is given by Mr Laurence Binyon: 'In the British Museum collection is a long roll, over seventeen feet long, painted almost entirely in blues and greens on the usual warm brown silk.... It is one continuous landscape, in which the scenes melt into one another. Such rolls are not meant to be exhibited or looked at all at once, but enjoyed in small portions at a time, as the painting is slowly unrolled and the part already seen rolled up again. No small mastery is requisite, as may be imagined, to contrive that wherever the spectator pauses an harmonious composition is presented. One has the sensation, as the roll unfolds, of passing through a delectable country. In the foreground water winds, narrowing and expanding, among verdant knolls and lawns, joined here and there by little wooden bridges; and the water is fed by torrents that plunge down among pine-woods from crags of fantastic form, glowing with hues of lapis-lazuli and jade; under towering peaks are luxuriant valleys, groves with glimpses of scattered deer, walled parks, clumps of delicate bamboo, and the distant roofs of some nestling village. Here and there is a pavilion by the water in which poet or sage sits contemplating the beauty round him. These happy and romantic scenes yield at last to promontory and reed-bed on the borders of a bay where a fisherman's boat is rocking on the swell. It is possible that a philosophic idea is intended to be suggested--the passage of the soul through the pleasant delights of earth to the contemplation of the infinite.'--Laurence Binyon, _Painting in the Far East_ (1908), pp. 75-6. The section of the roll which has been chosen for reproduction here has already been reproduced in S.W. Bushell, _Chinese Art_ (1910), II, Fig. 127, where it is thus described: 'A lake with a terraced pavilion on an island towards which a visitor is being ferried in a boat, while fishermen are seen in another boat pulling in their draw-net; the distant mountains, the pine-clad hills in the foreground, the clump of willow opposite, and the line of reeds swaying in the wind along the bank of the water are delightfully rendered, and skilfully combined to make a characteristic picture.'--_Ibid_., II, p. 134. Other sections of the same roll are reproduced in H.A. Giles, _Introd. to the Hist, of Chinese Pictorial Art_ (2nd ed., 1918) facing p. 56; and in L. Binyon, _op. cit_., plate III (facing p. 66). It is exceedingly interesting to compare this landscape roll with the MS of Marco Polo, illuminated about a century later, from which the scene of the embarkation at Venice has been taken; the one is so obviously the work of a highly developed and the other of an almost naïve and childish civilization.

PLATE IV. _Madame Eglentyne at home_

This is a page from a fine manuscript of _La Sainte Abbaye_, now in the British Museum (MS. Add. 39843, f. 6 vo). At the top of the picture a priest with two acolytes prepares the sacrament; behind them stands the abbess, holding her staff and a book, and accompanied by her chaplain and the sacristan, who rings the bell; behind them is a group of four nuns, including the cellaress with her keys, and nuns are seen at the windows of the dorter above. At the bottom is a procession of priest, acolytes and nuns in the choir; notice the big candles carried by the young nuns (perhaps novices) in front, and the notation of the music books.

PLATE V. _The Ménagier's wife has a garden party_

This beautiful scene is taken from a fifteenth-century manuscript of the _Roman de la Rose_ (Harl. MS. 4425), which is one of the greatest treasures of the British Museum.

PLATE VI. _The Ménagier's wife cooks his supper with the aid of his book_

From MS. Royal, 15 D. I, f. 18, in the British Museum which is part of a _petite bible historiale_, or biblical history, by Guyart des Moulins, expanded by the addition of certain books of the Bible, in French. It was made at Bruges by the order of Edward IV, King of England by one J. du Ries and finished in 1470, so that it is about eighty years later than the Ménagier's book. The illustration represents a scene from the story of Tobias; Tobit, sick and blind, is lying in bed, and his wife Anna is cooking by the fire, with the help of a book and a serving maid. The right-hand half of the picture, which is not reproduced here, shows the outside of the house, with Tobias bringing in the angel Raphael. The illuminated border of the page from which this scene is taken contains the arms of Edward IV, with the garter and crown.

PLATE VII. _Calais about the time of Thomas Betson_

This plan of Calais in 1546 is reproduced from a 'Platt of the Lowe Countrye att Calleys, drawne in October, the 37th Hen. VIII, by Thomas Pettyt,' now in the British Museum. (Cott. MS. Aug. I, vol. II, no. 70). There is only room to show the top corner of the plan, with the drawing of Calais itself, but the whole plan is charming, with its little villages and great ships riding in the channel.

PLATE VIII. _Thomas Paycocke's house at Coggeshall_

From a photograph of the front of the house, standing on the street. Note the long carved breastsummer that supports the overhanging upper story. On the left can be seen, much foreshortened, the archway and double doors of linen fold panels. The windows are renovations on the original design, flat sash windows having been put in in the eighteenth century.

_Index_

ABU LUBABAH, 33 Acqui, Jacapo of, 66, 182 Acre, 51, 53 Adrianople, 7, 42 Adriatic, 39, 41, 42, 63, 179 Aegean, 42, 179 Aelfric, _Colloquium_, 174, 175 Agnes, Dame, _see_ Beguine Aldgate, 121 Alexander, 54 Alexandria, 40, 42 Alnwick, William, Bishop of Lincoln, 77, 184 Ambrose, 9 Andaman Islands, 69, 70 Anglia, East, 153, 156 Antilha, Antilles, 72, 183 Antwerp, 121, 145, 147 Arab, Arabia, 43, 47, 61, 171 Ararat, Mount, 54 Aretino, Pietro, 180 Arghun, Khan of Persia, 60, 61 Armenia, 42, 49, 53, 179 Arnold, Matthew, 51 Arras, 147 Asia: Central, 40, 49, 50, 51, 54, 67, 71, 72; Minor, 49 Attila, 8, 49 Audley, Lady, 91 Augustine, St, 9, 175 Augustus, 3 Ausonius, 5 ff; his country estate, 6 ff; his friends, 6 ff; and University of Bordeaux, 5 Austin Friars, 93 Auvergne, 5 ff

Bacon, Francis, 122 Badakhshan, 43, 54, 67 Bagdad, 43, 54 Baku, 54 Bale: Peter, 131; Wyllikyn, 131 Balk, 54 Ballard: James, 127; Jane, 127 Balms (_Bammers, Bamis, Bammys_) Mart, 147, 193 Barbarians, 1-17 Babarian invasions, 7 Bardi, 71 Barton, John, of Holme, 138 Base, Jacob van de, 149 Bath, Wife of, 84, 104, 118, 152 Bayard, 138 _Bays and Says_, 172 Beauchamp St Pauls, 169, 170 Becerillo, 33 _Beguine_, Dame Agnes the, 107, 116, 117 Bellela, _see_ Polo Benedict, St, 81, 82, 184 Betson: Agnes, Alice, Elizabeth, John, Thomas (the younger), 150; Katherine, _see_ Riche Betson, Thomas; Chap VI _passim_, 158; children of, 150; death of, 150; illness of, 133-5; letters of, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 189; member of Fishmongers Company, 150; partnership with Sir W. Stonor, 125, 137; will of, 134, 150, 194 Bevice, Mistress, 134 Bishops' registers, 74, 75, 76, 78, 183 _Bicorne_, 104 Black Death, 108, 109 Black Prince, 19 Black Sea, 40, 42, 50, 71 Blakey, Sir Roger, 127 Booking, 154 Bodo, Chap _II passim_, 18-38, 174-5, 198 Bokhara, 51, 52 Bolgana, wife of Khan of Persia, 60 Bordeaux, Burdews, 142; University of, 6 Bordelais, the, 6, 7 Brabant, 146, 148 Brad well, 140 Brasses, 123, 136, 151, 155, 156, 157, 159, 190, 195 Braunch, Robert, 156 Brenner Pass, 40 Brescia, Albertano de, 99 Breten, Will, 137 Brews, Margery, 125-6 Bridge, John, 119 Briggs, Henry, 169 Brightlingsea, 140 Brinkley, 135 Brittany, 147 Broadway, Whyte of, 137 _Brogger_, 137 Bruges, 121, 122, 145, 147, 178 Bruyant, Jean, 100 Bucephalus, 54 Buddha, 59 Bullinger, Henry, 165 Burgundy, Dukes of, 114, 148 Burma, 57, 67 Bury, 15 Busshe, John, 137 Buxton: Charles, Isaac, Samuel, Thomas, William, 197; Mr Noel, 195 Byzantium, _see_ Constantinople

Caffa, 42 Calais, 121, 125, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 150, 200 Cambaluc (see Peking), 57, 59, 60, 61, 67 Cambrensis, Giraldus, 176 Canale, Martino da, 43-5, 48, 50, 177, 179, 180 Candia, 42 Canterbury, 74 _Canterbury Tales_, 74, 75, 91, 183, 186 Canton, 70 Ca' Polo, 62, 63 Carrara, Francesco, 179 Carsy, Anthony, 149 Caspian Sea, 40, 54 Cassiodorus, 39, 180 Castro, Diego da, 149 Cathay (_see also_ China), 47, 50, 58, 70, 71, 72, 178 Caucasus, 49, 180 Cely: family of wood merchants, 137-47 _passim_; George, 125, 137, 138, 142, 147; Richard, 125, 137, 138, 142; William, 125, 138, 142, 149 _Cely papers_, 125, 137, 142, 145, 147, 148, 189 Ceylon, 43, 47, 61, 70 Chagatai, Khan of, 51 Chao Mêng-fu, 59, 182, 198 Chao Yung, 59 Charlemagne, 2, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 74, 176 Charms (_see also_ superstition), 27-9, 100, 116, 175 Châtelet, 100 Chaucer, 26, 43, 74, 75, 81, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 99, 104, 112, 119, 138, 142, 148, 152, 183 Chelmsford, 168 Chesne, Jean du, 114 _Chichevache_, 104 Chi'en Hsüan, 59 Child-marriages, 126-7, 190 Chilperic, King, 2, 13 Chilterns, 125 China (_see also_ Cathay), 43, 46-50, 52, 57-61, 66, 67-70, 178, 180, 181 Chioggia, War of, 179 Church, attitude to: child marriages, 126, 190; convent pets, 91; dancing, 30, 31, 88; decline of Roman Empire, 9; monastic intercourse with the world, 92, 93; nuns' dowries, 78; superstition, 28, 29, 30; attack on worldliness of, 74; bequests to (_see also_ Wills), 151, 168; brasses in, _see_ brasses; councils of, 174 Churches of: Barking, All Hallows, 123,151; Beauchamp St Pauls, 168; Bradwell, 168; Calais, Our Lady, 151; Chipping Campden, 123; Chipping Norton, 123; Cirencester, 123, 157; Clare, 164, 168; Coggeshall, St Peter ad Vincula, 157, 159, 168, 172, 195; Constantinople, St Sophia, 41; East Anglia, 159; Lechlade, 123; London, St Olave's, 124; Linwood, 123, 190; Markswell, 168; Newbury, 163; Newland, 157; Northleach, 136, 157; Ovington, 168; Pattiswick, 168; Peking, 71; Poslingford, 168; Stoke Nayland, 168; Venice, St Mark's, 41, 44, 46, 60, 66, 179 Cipangu (Japan), 72, 183 Cistercian, Citeaux, 83, 136 Clare, 154, 164, 168, 178 Clarke, Thomas, 144 Cloth, _see_ Chapter VII _passim_, 195; capitalism in industry, 164; Coxall's whites, 178, 197; growth of English manufacture of, 122-3; makers of, 120, 161; merchants of, _see_ Merchants, Paycocke, Staple; processes in manufacture, 153, 154, 161, 164; where made, 122-3, 154, 155 Cochin China, 57, 67 Coggeshall, _see_ Chapter VII _passim_, 154, 155, 159, 160, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172 Coinage, debasement and rates of exchange of, 148 Coins: crown, new and old, of France, 148; David, of Utrecht, 148; Falewe, of Utrecht, 148; florin, Rhenau, 148; groat, Carolus, Hettinus, Limburg, of Milan, of Nimueguen, 148, 149; Venetian, 48; guilder, Andrew (of Scotland), Arnoldus (of Gueldres) Rhenish, 148, 149; Lewe, Louis d'or, 148; noble, 148; Philippus (Philipe d'or) of Brabant, 148; Plaques, of Utrecht, 148; Postlate, 148; Rider, Scots, of Burgundy, 148; Ryall, English, 148; Setiller, 148 Colchester, 140, 154, 168 Cold Mart, 147, 193 Coleridge, 57 Colne, curate of, 127 Cologne, 148 _Coloni_, 21-2 Columbina, The (Seville), 183 Columbus, 71, 183 Company: East India ('John Company'), 156; Fishmongers, 150; Haberdashers, 151; Mercers, 149; Merchant Adventurers, 122; Staplers.