The Middleton Accounts of 1526: #35

The next two entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were also undated but should have been between the 16th and the 22nd June due to the dates provided in nearby entries. The first entry was described as payment to Nicholas Cothett for making a songbook for the Chapel and the amount was 4 shillings 8 pence, which was the equivalent of about £102.96 today. The second entry was described as payment for a primer for Mr Draycott and the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today.

The Chapel that the songbook was for is believed to have been the private Chapel within Middleton Hall. What is interesting about this entry is that it specifically called it a songbook.

It is known that Sir Henry Willoughby purchased an antiphonal for his Chapel of St Thomas the Martyr at Middleton Hall. This book is known as the Sarum Antiphonal and was printed in Paris in 1520 at the academy of Wolfgang Hopyl. The book survived the Reformation, which very few did, and is currently in the possession of Liverpool Cathedral Library as part of the Radcliffe Collection housed at Liverpool Hope University. It is certain that the book in their possession is Sir Henry’s because it bears an inscription stating that it was “Gyvyn by Ser Henry Wylloughby knyght … [to] his Chapell of Saynt Thomas”, which was followed by a curse upon anyone who removed it from Middleton. Antiphonals were different to songbooks. An antiphonal was an official liturgical choir book focusing on the antiphons, which were the chants sung before and after psalms, responsories and sometimes hymns. The Sarum Antiphonal contained the antiphons and responds for the daily liturgy in the Sarum Rite, specifically the Summer Part.

On the other hand, a songbook was more general and could include both religious and secular works. Given the era and because this was stated to have been for the Chapel, this book could have been a mixture of traditional sacred monophonic music the newer English choral polyphonic styles. Polyphonic music was essentially the cutting edge of Tudor music composition and contained multiple independent vocal parts weaving together. Cothett was probably copying out specific musical pieces for Sir Henry’s Children of the Chapel to learn to read and to perform complex modern harmonies as well as traditional chants. Nevertheless, a book like this would have been a lavish and expensive item reflecting both Sir Henry’s spiritual devotion and his social sophisticated status as a patron of the arts and in particular choral music.

Opening of the O Maria salvatoris mater, by John Browne, in the Eton Choir book (c. 1490), PD-Art photograph, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Mr Draycott referred to in the second entry was Richard Draycott of Painsley Hall, Draycott-in-the-Moors, Staffordshire. He was the husband of Sir Henry’s youngest daughter Alice. At this time, Alice was still only about 15-years-old and this record confirms that she and her husband were still residing in her father’s household at Middleton Hall, which would have been due to her age. Richard was the son of Sir Philip Draycott and Elizabeth FitzHerbert and was born about 1510. A primer was a book that taught students how to read, which suggests that Sir Henry was providing Richard with an education as well.

Further Reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p.383.

Ralph Hanna & Thorlac Turville-Petre, The Wollaton Medieval Manuscripts, 2010. p.10.