Chapter II: Part I: The Town and Church

The compilers of Domesday found Southwell with “clerks” holding prebends: before the close of the thirteenth century these canons or prebendaries had been gradually raised by successive endowments to their final complement of sixteen. The chapter thus constituted successfully survived the storm and stress of the Tudor Reformation, only to experience dissolution from the zeal for change following in the train of the first Reform Bill. Limitations of space permit only of a bird’s-eye sketch of the rise and progress of this remarkable college, the history of which is identical with the history of the town, and to a certain extent of the county; and which has left as its enduring monument that stately minster, since 1884 the cathedral church of the new diocese for Notts and Derbyshire.

Existing remains demonstrate that in the time of the Roman occupation, the four wells with their abundant supply of fresh spring water attracted a few Britons. Of these wells, one is at the south-east of the town, and, from its situation on the property of the Lord of the Manor, was subsequently called the Lord’s Well; two more are within the minster precincts--the Holy Well in the open court, and the Lady’s Well in the churchyard; and a fourth, St. Catherine’s, to the west, where the chapel of that name was built. Six or seven miles to the north-east, a neighbouring village received the name of Norwell; and for a parallel reason came the name of _the place by the south wells_, and thence =Southwell=, the first syllable pronounced as in Southwark. The researches of Gibbon led him to conclude that the Britons had some thirty to forty bishops and a widespread organisation; but of Southwell and the surrounding district there is really nothing known for certain during this time beyond that it was christianised.

After the withdrawal of the Romans there is a blank of more than two hundred years until, under date A.D. 627, Baeda records that Paulinus of York, one of the missionaries of Augustine, who had the active support of his convert, King Eadwine of Northumbria, baptised in the river Trent; and to these two--Paulinus and Eadwine--the invading Angles of the Trent Valley owed their conversion.[1]

During the troubled times that followed, the northern part of the Trent Valley--parts of Lindsey and Southumbria--was now in one kingdom, now in another; now in one diocese, now in another. It will come as a surprise to most people to learn that what was afterwards called Notts, or, at least, that part which included Southwell, was for a short time not only in the diocese of Leicester, but in the province of Lichfield.

The diocese of Leicester came to an end--the chroniclers tell us they know not how--and after the disappearance of the short-lived archbishopric of Lichfield, at the beginning of the eighth century, Southwell went back to the province and diocese of York.

It was after this that Southwell became an important religious centre. At Ripon and Beverley the early missionary priests had given way to a more settled ministry; and at Southwell secular canons, who were also parish priests, were by degrees appointed. Whether at Beverley or Ripon they were ever regulars had better be left an open question; at Southwell, when we first come across them, they had been already for some time in existence as seculars. They were in effect before they were supported by separate prebendal endowments _Colidei_ or _Culdees_, as at York--that is to say, bound by no especial vows, and belonging to no particular order.[2] A mapping-out of the country into parishes had begun in the days of Theodore of Tarsus: it took centuries to complete. Many villages around Southwell were quite out of the reach of any parish priest, and the resident clergy, besides serving their own church, supplied the deficiencies of the district. Why was it that so small and obscure a place was chosen in preference to Nottingham? The answer must be that its very quietness and remoteness was in its favour, since at the same time it was both central and accessible. Nottingham was the scene of constant strife, and became one of those “five burghs,” such a source of contention between English and Dane: Southwell was comparatively exempt. It was not liable to siege and capture first by one and then by another; if any place was peaceful, that place was Southwell. The archbishops wished for a capital for the southern part of their diocese with a cathedral church and staff of clergy, to be what Beverley was for the east and Ripon for the west, and Southwell, with its long traditions, was ready at hand. And afterwards, while the Danes were ravaging Northumbria, it was impossible for the archbishop to obtain anything from his property there: and in order that he might have a livelihood, the see of Worcester went with York. During this time (972-1016) Southwell became a convenient half-way house between the two dioceses.

The earliest recorded endowment, though not of necessity the first granted, is a royal donation to Oskytel the Danish Archbishop of York (_circa_ A.D. 956) of a demesne of twenty _mansas_ at Southwell; and power was especially retained to the archbishop to dispose of it at his death as he deemed best. Archbishop Alfred Putta (1023-51) was a great supporter of secular foundations. Beverley and Southwell both benefited from his liberality. Most likely during his reign that rude Anglo-Saxon church was built, which supplanted some other of which we have no information. Putta lived a great deal at Southwell, and died there, so that a manor house or palace was then in existence. He was buried at Peterborough Abbey. Kinsius, his successor, gave to the old minster two bells.

We have now come to a time when we may speak of the county of Notts, and of canons and their prebends, and we can well understand why any archbishop, monk though he might be, as Kinsius was, would encourage establishments like Southwell. Of what practical use to a diocese was a body of Benedictines? Their interests were confined to the boundaries of their own monasteries; but secular clergy appointed by the archbishop himself were of great assistance. As the parishes increased in number, and the outside duties were by degrees confined to their own particular churches, they could still help in many ways in general diocesan matters; and in this way York, Beverley, and Ripon grew up, not to mention smaller colleges like Howden. The system was abused afterwards; but originally it was of great practical utility. In the eleventh century, if not in the tenth, certain of the clergy had separate endowments or _prebends_, and their outside duties were confined to one particular church, situated in the township or parish of the endowment, while one residence in Southwell and a second in the prebendal village were allotted to them, and afterwards their stalls and benefices came to be called by the names of these particular prebends. In this way the Culdee system developed into the prebendal; and what with the archbishop’s occasional residence, and the staff of clergy, we can understand the statement of Leland: “Ther was a Se at Southwel of the Merches which now longeth to the Archbishop of York.” Before the Conquest Southwell was the southern capital of the diocese.

Aldred, to whom befell the strange fortune of consecrating both Harold and William, enlarged York and Beverley; and Hugh the Chanter of York tells us that he made prebends at Southwell.[3]

By the time of his death (1070 or 1075) the following at least were in existence, although it might be later on they were called by their local names:--Normanton, Norwell Overhall, Norwell Palace Hall (or Palishall), Oxton and Cropwell, Woodborough, North Muskham.

Aldred attempted, without success, to enforce celibacy amongst the clergy.

=The First Norman Archbishops=.--With Aldred, that judicious benefactor of Southwell, passed away for a long period the archbishops who spoke and taught in the common tongue of the people. His successors looked down on the English as the English had previously looked down on the Britons, and appointed other Normans to the stalls, with whom they could take counsel; and the strange sight began to be witnessed of prebendaries using a kind of “pigeon” English to make themselves understood. The first Norman, Thomas I. of Bayeux, “a prelate of great genius, and a friend of the Muses,” had to part with Lindsey (and for a time with Newark) when the capital of the huge neighbouring diocese was removed from the Oxfordshire Dorchester to Lincoln. Lincoln is now reckoned as of a venerable antiquity, yet her chapter is appreciably the junior of Southwell. Archbishop Gerard (21 May 1108) died at Southwell while asleep in his garden, and with a MS. on astrology under his pillow, and was buried at York. His successor Thomas II. (1108-1114), a son of the first Norman bishop of Worcester, addressed a pastoral letter to the people of Nottinghamshire, begging for their contributions for the building of the church of S. Mary of Southwell _(de Suwellae)_ “and that ye may the more willingly do this, we release you, so that you need not visit every year the church of York, as all our other people (or parishioners) do, but the church of S. Mary of Southwell instead, and there have the same pardon as at York.”

This letter helps to explain the _raison d’être_ of Southwell. York was too far away for the Notts people, 70 to 80 miles from Nottingham by road, and Southwell was central for the whole county. The favourite Norman system of choosing the leading town was not adopted because a chapter and a residence were both in existence at Southwell, and because of the situation of the town. Driven like a wedge into the southern province, if Nottinghamshire was to make procession anywhere, Southwell was easier of access than Nottingham. Already for administrative purposes the archbishop’s capital for the county, the minster now became the mother church in every respect.

But if this was to be the case, the small and roughly-built minster then standing was quite inadequate according to the more magnificent Norman ideas. _Every one_ of the old Saxon cathedrals either had or then was undergoing the process of pulling down, only to be rebuilt on a larger scale and in a better manner. Southwell’s turn came rather late in the day; and the proportions and the masonry both benefited in consequence. As at York, the work was done piecemeal, the old coming down as the new progressed. Thomas could hardly have lived long enough to see the whole completed, with its chancel square at the east and four eastern apses now no more; but he would at least have the gratification of knowing that everything was advancing towards completion.[4]

The late Mr J.R. Green has made clear one obscure point in this universal system of rebuilding on a more magnificent scale. Where, we ask, did the money come from? Neither the contributions of the liberal, nor forced labour, would suffice. The Jews found the money required. They had come over with or after the Conqueror, and settled in the towns in their different Jewries under the king’s immediate protection. “Castle and cathedral alike owed their existence to the loans of the Jews.” The Jewish money-lenders of York and Lincoln assisted in the building of Southwell.

By this time, if not earlier, the number of stalls was ten, Norwell Tertia Pars, Oxton Altera Pars, and St. Muskham having been created, and the office of sacrist or sexton raised to the dignity of a canonry. Henry I. and Stephen both granted rights and immunities, civil, criminal, and forest. Archbishop Thurstan (1119-1135) founded the stalls of Beckingham and Dunham, prebends in the north of the county, with the village tithes and some glebe, and Halloughton or Halton, near to Southwell. Pope Honorius (_circa_ 1125) wrote to the archbishop against the marriage of the cathedral clergy. “In your churches [York, Beverley, Ripon, Southwell] be earnest to reform discipline, and restore the refectory at Southwell to the good condition in which it existed in times past.” The pope objected to the canons being married and living with their families; he wanted them to be celibate, and take their meals together; but he was mistaken in supposing that they ever had done so at Southwell.

Alexander III. promulgated two bulls, one to the minster clergy (1171), and the other to his “well beloved the archdeacon, dean[5] and the other clergy of the county.” After confirming the Whitsuntide procession and directing that the chrism or consecrated oil should be distributed at that synod by the rural deans throughout the county, he exempted the chapter from the control of the archbishop, and almost annihilated the authority of the latter.[6]

Archbishop Roger had obtained the pope’s support to disallow the over-lordship of Canterbury, and this was the payment demanded. It was a cruel blow, for the church and its staff owed nearly everything to the archbishop, and the prebendaries were his advisers and assistant curates. Now they were quite independent. An _imperium in imperio_ was established, and what York lost Rome was expected to gain. The chapter naturally preferred being placed on an equality with York; for in spite of Whitsuntide processions and synods, York, as in the matter of the confirmation of the Halloughton prebend, had exercised some sort of authority. Now they could do so no longer, and the two chapters became in every sense equal. The canons were also permitted to appoint vicars both to their stalls and to their parishes.

After the death of Roger the see was vacant for a number of years, and, in the absence of King Richard, William, Bishop of Ely and papal legate, as chancellor, acted as regent. He controlled the northern province, and punished those who had violated the king’s peculiar by massacring Jews. Richard, however, despatched to England Hugh, Bishop of Durham, with full power as justiciary north of the Humber. At Ely the two prelates met; and on Hugh presenting his credentials superseding William in the north, William said that he would cheerfully resign his power there. William then inveigled his rival to the quiet and seclusion of Southwell, and here, having Bishop Hugh completely in his power, put him under arrest. He kept him in custody in the palace until Hugh had promised to resign Windsor and all the other places entrusted to him; and even then would not release him until he had his son (so Roger de Hoveden calls him) as his hostage. William was eventually deposed by John and the council.

When Richard returned he chose Southwell for the place at which to meet William the Lion of Scotland in order to settle differences. After reducing Nottingham by the help of some engines which threw large stones, Palm Sunday 1194 saw Cœur de Lion at his palace or hunting-box of Clipstone in Sherwood Forest, and William at Worksop. Each rested “on account of the solemnity of the day,” and on the morrow (4th April) met at Southwell. Roger de Hoveden says that they repaired the next day to Melton, but Florence of Worcester that they continued at Southwell over the Tuesday, and that during their stay, William demanded of Richard “all the dignities and honours which his predecessors held in England,” and that Richard answered, that “he would give him satisfaction after he had consulted his barons.” The council was held at Northampton on Easter Eve, and Richard declined to concede the demands of the Scotch King.

=Archbishop Walter de Gray= (1216-56).--Beyond that Pavia, daughter of Nigel de Rampton, and widow of Robert de Maluvel, founded the fourteenth prebend, that of Rampton, some twenty miles north of Southwell, there is nothing to record before Gray’s episcopate. The diocese was in a constant state of turmoil and disorder from political affairs, and this had its effect upon the architecture of the minster. From the late Norman of Thomas II. there is nothing until we arrive at the maturity of the Lancet Gothic or Early English of the thirteenth century. The transition between the two is entirely wanting. Gray was a great and many-sided prelate; in spite of his political duties, he both governed his diocese and built extensively. At Southwell he considered the Norman choir too small, and issued (1233) an indulgence for thirty days for the completion of that Early English building, which to this day, although externally shorn of its high roof, is internally almost exactly as he left it, and a fitting commemoration of his reign. He also endeavoured to mitigate some of the harmful results of the Bull of Independence. As the canons were allowed to appoint vicars, it was equivalent to granting them leave of non-residence. Gray tried to enforce that they really should appoint deputies, both vicars-choral for their stalls, and perpetual vicars for their prebendal parishes. Other ranks of the minster clergy date from his time. At first the vicars-choral said or chanted the masses for the dead; but in 1241 Robert de Lexington, canon of one of the Norwells, and Chief Justiciary, founded two chantries in the church, and made provision for a third to be removed there from a chapel in the town. He gave to the chapter the presentation of Barnburgh in South Yorkshire, and, by some power difficult now to understand, provided that the rector was to pay 23 merks yearly for the support of two priests, two deacons and two sub-deacons, “who for ever at the altar of the blessed Thomas the Martyr in the church of Southwell” were to celebrate the divine offices for the repose of his own soul and those of his relatives and others. As a distinct body ranking below the vicars-choral, the chantry priests now became a regular part of the minster staff, and eventually numbered thirteen.

As the prebendaries might now be non-resident without his licence, Gray tried to establish a dean as head of the chapter in permanent residence. He was only visitor and patron, and in having no regular president, other than the senior canon in residence, Southwell differed from all other churches. York had its dean, Beverley its provost, Ripon its permanent president in the prebendary of Stanwick; and during Gray’s time a dean named Hugh appears for a short time. But it was not to be; and we soon hear no more of him.[7]

Gray’s reforming zeal urged the chapter to consent to various statutes and regulations. Those who were ordained to serve in the church had to pass an examination before the canons in residence, and to be of a good character. A canon, accompanied by a vicar and the registrar, was to visit yearly the churches within the jurisdiction, and put an end to abuses. The canons-resident were likewise given complete authority over all the other clergy, and these were to be fined for absence from worship. The readers of the lessons _(lectiones)_, whether in the choir or pulpit, were to look the passages over beforehand, and to read audibly and distinctly. Those who failed in this, and more particularly those who upset the gravity of the others, were to be flogged in the chapter-house. The inferior clergy of the choir were to look over their music before service, were not to use their books during service, but to look at the music or order board (_tabulam_). Bad and violent language outside the church was punishable by one flogging or a shilling fine, or, as a second alternative, by the wearing of the _bulgewarium_ round the culprit’s neck “according to the ancient use of the church.” The same offence committed inside was to be punished by two floggings or a two shillings fine, and for the third expulsion ensued.

By the Portsmouth charter of Henry III., dated July 1253, in confirmation of previous ones, the chapter in civil and criminal matters over its officials and property became, if anything, more independent than ever of the ordinary law of the land. “The canons of S. Mary of Southwell shall enjoy the same privileges and immunities as those of S. Peter of York, particularly they shall receive the amercements of their tenants, and fines for all such offences as they have been guilty of ... exemptions from tolls and duties, from suits of counties, hundreds, and wapentakes, and from all gelds such as Danegeld, Horngeld, etc. etc., and that they shall have their courts of justice with soc and sac.” There is also mention made at this period of rights of some kind over parts of Sherwood Forest.

=Archbishop John Romanus= (1286-96).--Romanus had a somewhat troubled reign. He had quarrels with the Pope, who wanted to appoint foreigners, and with the York chapter about his right of visitation. This latter was settled by arbitration, and is of interest as the Southwell statutes were always based on York. The archbishop was to visit once in five years, and was to enter the chapter-house unattended by chaplains or clerks, two canons sworn to secrecy being the only persons allowed to act with him; and canonical obedience was to be rendered by the dean.[8] The visitation held at Southwell on the Tuesday after the Epiphany 1294 has been preserved, and from this we gather that the old provisions, which enacted that non-resident canons were to provide vicars, had not been carried out, for it was decreed that they were to provide perpetual vicars (_vicarii perpetui_) to their parish churches before the next visitation. Vicars-choral and clerks were forbidden to laugh and talk in the choir, particularly during service, under pain of expulsion, and no women, other than relatives of good repute, were to live in the houses of the vicars-choral and perpetual vicars. The number of stalls was brought up to sixteen by the addition of Eaton, and by carving N. Leverton out of Beckingham. In this way the archbishop endeavoured to provide for the residence of at least some canons; and the non-resident were to provide proctors or proxies (generally their vicars-choral) to answer for them in chapter.

But his abiding work is architectural. At York he laid with great ceremony the foundation-stone of a new nave, and at the same time a new chapter-house was commenced there, and both have survived the storm and stress of six centuries. At Southwell he determined that the canons should likewise have a fitting house. The masons had now become a highly-organised body with supervisors, surveyors, overseers and a host of other officials. The master masons were first-rate architects, and the men below them--the freemasons--were not merely workmen but sculptors and artists.[9] Alike in elegance of proportion and elaborate beauty of detail, architecture was rapidly approaching the full glory of the Decorated epoch, and during his time was commenced at least, if not finished, that miracle of mediæval inspiration, the chapter-house.

At York, to help in meeting the cost of the new buildings, offenders of various kinds were punished by the infliction of fines, the amount of which was determined by the penancers. At Southwell, the archbishop resorted to a method which no doubt increased his popularity. At this same visitation of 1294 it was decreed that the houses (_i.e._ both in Southwell and on the prebends) of the alien canons, which had fallen into a ruinous condition, were to be repaired within a year under penalty of a heavy fine to go to the fabric of the new chapter-house. As the revenues of these _alienigenae_ were collected by local officials, the penalties could be easily deducted, and by one and the same decree this prelate showed his objection to these foreigners, mulcted them in part of their benefices, prevented money from crossing the Alps, and aided the addition of the finest member to the minster. “The Sainte Chapelle at Paris, the Angel Choir at Lincoln, fall into a second rank compared with this Southwell chapter-house.” Nothing is known of the older one.

=Archbishop Thomas de Corbridge= (1300-4).--Corbridge endeavoured to check the abuse of illiterate clerks, by decreeing that no candidate was to be ordained by title of the chapter and no vicar was to be appointed until a satisfactory examination had been passed before the chapter. The canons were to pay the stipends of both their vicars punctually, so that the latter need not wander about the country to the scandal of all good people. The services were to be better rendered; and the precentor was to examine the music books and see that they agreed, to prevent discord in the singing, while the decani and cantoris sides were to be equal. As visitor he insisted that the statutes of Romanus were to be carried out, and that in the prebendal churches perpetual vicars were to be appointed within a year; his predecessor had granted five years in vain. Whilst he ruled that there must always be in residence three, or at least two, canons; he saw how, in spite of the recently added stalls, neither he nor his successors could enforce even so much as that, and it was settled that when none were resident “from any cause inevitable and legitimate, leave having been asked of us,” some discreet person under oath was to govern, while only canons who had duly qualified as residents were to share in the common fund. The reign of Corbridge was short; he left no mark in the diocese, but his efforts to purify the chapter were praiseworthy. He died at the palace, and was buried in the choir near the pulpit; but the exact spot is now lost.

The Bull of Independence did its work; and non-residence became the rule. The popes further made use of their claim to appoint foreigners to vacant stalls; and amongst others Stephen de Ferentino, cardinal priest, held Norwell Overhall, and Stephen of St. Mary beyond Tiber, also cardinal priest, held Normanton, both during the thirteenth century. The kings, like the popes, wanted the stalls as a cheap way of paying those priests who served them as lawyers and secretaries. In this way John Clavell, the king’s clerk, received Norwell Overhall; and in the fourteenth century, William de Melton (who succeeded Dominus Lambertus, a foreigner appointed by Letters Apostolic) obtained a stall, holding, at the same time, another in Lincoln, the provostship of Beverley, and the archdeaconry of Barnstaple. He gave these up on his accession to the throne of York in 1317. His active life was mainly spent as secretary to Edward II., and lord keeper and then treasurer to Edward III. It is unnecessary to multiply instances. Mr Gairdner has pointed out how monarchs found their shrewdest administrators in the ranks of the clergy; and this was a cheap and easy way of paying them. It was not expected that a candidate for the priesthood should have what an age with a higher standard would call vocation. A promising young man applied for orders as he would now try for the Civil Service or be called to the Bar. Nobody expected him to be a winning preacher, or to have an ardent zeal for souls. For years it was well that he employed himself usefully somehow, and did not, on the plea of dulness and boredom, live a life of complete idleness or worse away from Southwell.

In the first half of the fourteenth century the beautiful rood screen was carved: the last work worthy of praise, for it was followed by the insertion of the huge west window with the idea of lighting up the gloom of the nave, and the lowering of the roofs throughout. In numerous cases brought before the courts of law, the chapter proved their rights to their property and privileges; and benefactors multiplied. Amongst others, Canon Richard de Chesterfield (1379) built a new home for the sixteen vicars-choral on the site of the present one. Canon Thomas Haxey (1415) built another for the chantry priests on the site of the present Grammar School, and Archbishop Cardinal John Kempe (1439) purchased for three hundred merks, from the Crown, the confiscated alien priory of Ravensdale in Lindsey, and presented it to the vicars-choral.

Later on the triennial visitations (1469 to 1540) by the chapter show that the inferior clergy had deteriorated in religion and morals, more than one-half being frequently accused of offences more or less serious.

There is an inventory of the goods of Richard de Normanton, parish vicar in 1369.[10] This functionary performed the duties of parish priest for the residuary parish, and was appointed by the prebendary of Normanton; and for certain purposes the parishioners had part of the minster allotted to them as their “parish church within the collegiate church.” The parish altar was dedicated to St. Vincent, and had one frontal of silk, and a second of coarser material, decorated with the royal arms; and there were four towels (_tobalia_), two ferials and a corporal. For mass were five sets of vestments, each with chasuble, stole, fanon (or maniple), alb, amice, and girdle. Two were reckoned as “principals,” one with and the other without the tunic; the others were for ordinary Sundays and week days. Two cushions covered with red syndon and a lectern belonged to the altar, as did nine napkins, besides a carpet for “double” feasts. At Easter the parishioners made their communion at a long table (_mensa domini_) covered with two long cloths.

The choral robes (for the parish vicar assisted the choir) were cope, almuce (_almicium_, not the _amicium_ or amice for celebrations), rochet and surplice (_super-pellicium_). The parish plate included two silver-gilt chalices, of which the more valuable was for Easter, a portable silver-gilt cross, and a plated staff; and there were candlesticks of iron or wood and a gilt copper cup for the host. A breviary or portiforium with music was estimated at five pounds--a chantry priest’s stipend; and Richard was provided with surplice or lantern for visiting the sick, as well as with a set of sermons on the epistles and gospels throughout the year. Undoubtedly the parishioners were accustomed to hear somebody’s sermons read; and the parish priests performed the duty instead of a prebendary.

=The Brothers Booth.=--There is a ready explanation of Archbishop William Booth (1452-65) making Southwell his favourite residence. Like a wise man, he did not care to have anything to do with the Wars of the Roses; and during the whole of this time Southwell, true to its traditions, was remote from armies and battlefields. He improved the stipends of the chantry priests, and enlarged the chapel of Henry le Vavasour outside the south-west angle of the nave, the home of the Grammar School, and there he elected to be buried.[11] His successor, George Neville, brother to the king-maker, was unwise enough to interfere in matters of State, and was rewarded by the seizure of his vast private property and exile and imprisonment at Calais and at Guisnes. At Neville’s death William’s brother Laurence was translated from Durham, and during his reign (1476-80) showed his brother’s preference for Southwell. He added two chantries to the Vavasour or Grammar School chapel, and was buried by his brother’s side. This adjunct, needlessly pulled down in the last century, came to be called the Booth chapel. While Laurence was at Southwell, in July 1479, the two resident canons gave themselves leave of absence, pleading the ravages of the plague.

=Canon Christopher Urswick, LL.D.=--Amongst the non-resident dignitaries immersed in affairs of State was Christopher Urswick, instituted to Norwell Palishall by proxy (6th April 1509). He was taken into the service of the Lady Margaret, wife of Richmond and mother of Henry VII., whose third husband was Stanley the first Earl of Derby of the present creation. Engaged in plots and suffering exile for his mistress and her son, after Bosworth he became Henry’s chaplain and almoner, and obtained the deanery of York, which he exchanged for a canonry on receiving the more coveted deanery of Windsor. He was also at some time or other rector of Hackney and archdeacon of Richmond, of Wells, and of Surrey. Before he was a prebendary he would accompany Henry on the royal progress through the north, when the king, avoiding Newark on account of the plague, passed through Southwell on his way from Lincoln to Nottingham. He was employed as special plenipotentiary to settle with the Emperor Maximilian I. the terms on which Henry was to be admitted into the Holy League. He died in 1522, and Wolsey appointed to the vacant stall his own illegitimate son, Thomas Wynter.

Urswick is chiefly mentioned here, because to him belongs the distinguished honour of figuring in Shakespeare (_Richard III_. Act iv. scene 5). To him, on the eve of Bosworth, Stanley laments that his own hands are tied, as his son is a hostage in Richard’s power--

My son George Stanley is franked up in hold.
If I revolt, off goes young George’s head.

It is unnecessary to remind the reader that “Sir” does not there mean a knight, but is the equivalent for the modern “Reverend.”