The Middleton Accounts of 1526: #53
The next three entries in the Middleton household accounts for Sir Henry Willoughby in 1526 were dated 12th September. The first was described as a reward to the horsekeepers of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and the amount was 20 pence, which was the equivalent of about £36.77 today. The second was described as a reward to Master Grey’s servant for bringing a present to Wollaton Hall and the amount was 4 pence, which was the equivalent of about £7.35 today. The third was described as payment for Sir Henry’s offering at St Anne’s Well at Buxton in Derbyshire, which was sent with his servant Clifton. Its amount was also 4 pence.
These entries were the conclusion of Sir Henry’s journey with the Marquess of Dorset from Middleton Hall to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire and then on to Wollaton Hall, where Sir Henry would remain for the rest of September and possibly until November. Latter records confirm that it was almost all of Sir Henry’s household that left Middleton Hall with him. The first entry detailed above confirms that Sir Henry left Bradgate Park early in the morning of the 12th September, because payments for services were normally made at the point of leaving.
Sir Henry and his retinue would have left Bradgate Park very early in the morning of the 12th, paying the Marquess’ horsekeepers for the care they had provided to his horses at the point of leaving. The journey from Bradgate Park to Wollaton Hall, again staying to “safe” routes, would also have been about 30 miles and taken about 8-9 hours of riding. They would have left Bradgate Park and headed north-east through Charnwood Forest to skirt the eastern edge of Loughborough. The party would then have crossed into Nottinghamshire at Cotes Bridge and then headed north-east to Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, the ancient manor of the Willoughby family, which is probably where they stopped for lunch and to rest and water the horses. This would explain why there are no extra entries in the accounts.
From Willoughby-on-the-Wolds they would have joined the Fosse Way and continued until they neared the Trent where they would have turned west to cross the river at Trent Bridge. On the other side of the river, they would not have entered the fortified gates of the city but would have continued west along the northern bank of the river, through Sir Henry’s lands in Lenton and then to his manor of Wollaton.
The second entry of the reward to Master Grey’s servant, suggests that Sir Henry had left before receiving a gift from the Marquess. One of the servants of the Grey family was thus dispatched later on in the day of the 12th to take the present to Wollaton Hall. A solo rider would have made a similar journey in only about 3 hours. It is uncertain who the Master Grey being referred to in this entry was. However, John Lewissay was precise and thus this name specifically excludes that it was the Marquess’ servant as he would have been identified by his title. The remaining options were possibly a servant of the 9-year-old son of the Marquess, Henry Grey, or one of the younger brothers of the Marquess.
William Clifton was a known valued servant of Sir Henry who appeared in numerous entries in the Middleton Manuscripts, as mentioned in the previous post 1525 Accounts #9. St Ann’s Well at Buxton is an ancient natural warm spring. It is known that by the 1520s the spring had been dedicated to St Ann and its curative powers were widely reported. In fact, it is Sir Henry’s own Accounts entry from 1521 that is widely recognised by historians to be the first known specific reference to St Ann’s Well, with that patronage, and associated with the healing powers of the Well’s waters. In 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Thomas Cromwell ordered that the Well be “locked up and sealed”. It is known that: the well was locked away; the well chapel was closed; the statue of St Ann was defaced; and the valuable offerings present were sent to London. However, within only a few decades, it was reopened due to the secular medicinal benefits of the waters.
Further Reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p.384.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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