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XIII. Further Particulars of Thomas Norton, and of State Proceedings in Matters of Religion, in the Years 1581 and 1582
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Extract
Your recent communication to the Society has drawn their attention to some facts relating to Thomas Norton, which were not known to me when I wrote the Memoir for the Shakespeare Society; and, as it is clearly proved, both by your communication and by documents in the State Paper Office, that the author of the first three acts of our earliest tragedy in blank verse was also the citizen grocer and the active and zealous Member for the City of London in 1571, and again from 1572 to 1582, who was declared to be “a man wise, bold, and eloquent,” and to have addressed the Members “in his accustomed manner of natural eloquence,” it may not be uninteresting to notice some of the State transactions in which Norton was engaged in the years 1581 and 1582, when the renewed movement was made against the Catholics by the Parliament and the Government.
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References
page 105 note a D'Ewes' Journal, pp. 157–162.
page 105 note b Mr. Joseph Gwilt, F.S.A., having searched the records of the Grocers' Company, has kindly furnished me with these extracts relating to the Nortons:—
1553. Thomas Nortone, apprentice with Robert Wilkyns, recd and sworne the xvj daie of Aprill.
1557. Thomas Norton, apprentice with Dame Johan Laxton, widow [of the benefactor to the Company, founder of the school at Oundle], received and sworne the same daie (9 Oct.).
1565. Thomas Norton, late apprentice with Dame Johan Laxton, receaved and sworne the sayde xjth daye of December.
And a will of Thomas Norton, citizen and grocer, dated 2nd July, 1577, was proved at Doctors Commons in that year.
page 106 note a Heath's History of the Grocers' Company (privately printed).
page 106 note b Letters relating to the Reformation, p. 339.
page 106 note c The Shakespeare Society Papers, vol. iv. p. 126.
page 106 note d On Norton's death it was resolved not to admit another Remembrancer, and Mr. Fletcher was admitted by the name of Secretary to the Lord Mayor, to write and engross all letters sent to any person: nevertheless he was afterwards called Remembrancer, and a deputy was also named.
page 107 note a State Paper Office, Domestic, Eliz., 1581, No. 3.
page 107 note b Probably Sir Geo. Peckham, of Denham, Bucks, whose estates were seized into the Queen's hands, for debts due to her. His grandfather, Sir Edmund Peckham, had been Treasurer of the Mint to Henry VIII.
page 107 note c Fleetwood was Norton's brother-in-law, and was elected Recorder in 13th Elizabeth, after Wilbraham.
page 108 note a “Dalton at Arundel's.”
page 109 note a Lords Journals, vol. ii. p. 54.
page 109 note b State Paper Office, Domestic, Eliz. 1581, No. 53 a.
page 109 note c Member for Yarmouth.
page 109 note d Charles Calthorpe, M.P. for Eye; he was an active member of the House.
page 109 note e M.P. for Brackley, co. Northampton.
page 109 note f See her speech on the prorogation of Parliament; “Not yet comprehending within those general thanks such some numbers of the Lower House as have this session dealt more rashly in some things than was fit for them to do.” Com. Journ., vol. i. p. 137.
page 109 note g 1st February.
page 109 note h 13th March.
page 110 note a On the 8th March, 1580–1, a bill for assurance of a rent charge of 82l. 10s. to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was read and committed to a committee, of which Norton was not a member. The Bill was read a third time; and passed the Commons on 13th March. By the Lords Journals it appears to have been only a Bill to confirm a private arrangement between the Bishop and Thomas Fisher, Esq.
page 110 note b Commons Journals, vol. i p. 131.
page 111 note a The Queen's answer to the address was presented by Sir Walter Mildmay, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who took the same tone as Norton. The answer was—
“That her Highness had, the last Session of Parliament, of her own good consideration, and before any petition or suit thereof made by this House, committed the charge and consideration thereof unto some of her Highness' clergy, who had not performed the same according to her Highness' commandment; so now her Majesty would eftsoons commit the same unto such others of them, as with all convenient speed, without remissness and slackness, should see the same accomplished accordingly, in such sort as the same shall neither be delayed or undone.”
And the Chancellor, in moving the House to rest satisfied, as they did, with the answer, further declared “that the only cause why no due reformation had been already had in the said petition, was only by the negligence and slackness of some others, and not of her Majesty, nor of this House; alleging withal that some of the said bishops had yet done something in those matters, delivered by her Majesty to their charge, as in a more advised care of allowing and making of ministers, but yet, in effect, little or nothing to the purpose.”
page 111 note b 18th March.
page 111 note c This conference took place 22nd February, on which day ten bishops were present in the Lords, but the names of the six on the conference are not distinguished in the Lords Journals.
page 112 note a Edmund Gheast or Guest, Fell, of King's Coll.Camb. promoted to the Archd. of Canterbury, Oct. 1559; consecrated Bishop of Rochester, 24 Mar. following: translated to Sarum, Dec. 1571; ob. 28 Feb. 1577.
page 112 note b Richard Cheiney, of Pembroke Hall, Camb., deprived by Mary of his Archdeaconry of Hereford for opposing, in convocation, transubstantiation; elected Bishop of Gloucester 9th March, 1561; ob. 25th April, 1579.
page 112 note c William Downham, of Magdalen Coll. Oxon., consecrated 4th May, 1561; ob. Nov. 1577.
page 113 note a A bill for the punishment of heretics, called “The Family of Love,” was introduced into the Commons, read a second time, and referred to a committee; after which a new bill was introduced, which was read a second time on 27th February, 1580–1, and committed to Mr. Norton and others (Commons' Journ. vol. i. p. 130); but no later entry appears on the Journals. For a notice of these “Sectaries out of Holland,” see Camden's Annals, book ii. p. 109.
page 115 note a Copies of the warrants for these examinations and for the application of torture are given by Mr. Jardine in the Appendix to his “Reading on the Use of Torture in the Criminal Law of England,” pp. 85–78.
page 115 note b See Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. i. p. 209: Norton's statement evidently forms the groundwork of Burghley's apology.
page 115 note c State Paper Office, Domestic, Eliz. 1581, No. 53. By the context and the place from which the letter is written, the date ought to have been 1582. Norton seems to have forgotten the new year.
page 115 note d In the margin is written: “The Print is done in England. It is no translation, but original English.”
page 116 note a Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
page 116 note b Sir Christopher Hatton.
page 116 note c Lord Burghley.
page 118 note a State Paper Office, Domestic, Eliz. 1582, No. 65.
page 118 note b This expression is very like that put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Wolsey, Hen. VIII. act iii. sc. 2.
page 118 note c Sir Thomas Egerton.
page 119 note a Domestic (1583) 393.
page 119 note b Ibid. 405.
page 119 note c Ibid. 406. For the answers of Lord H. Howard to Paget, given on 11th Dec. 1583, and January, 1583–4, see Cotton MSS. Caligula, C. vii. pp. 261, 269.
page 119 note d Ibid. 486.
page 119 note e Ibid. (1584), 1.
page 119 note f Ibid. (1583), 329. No warrants for these rackings of F. Throgmorton appear in Mr. Jardine's “Reading,” nor does he notice the case.