X
“HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS” IN
WARWICKSHIRE
PILLERTON REGISTERS
Through the kindness of the Rev. Neville Hill I have been allowed to see the Pillerton Hersey registers, which date from 1539. They have not been very badly preserved, that is, they are not mouldy nor worm-eaten, nor much frayed. But the earliest volume, at least, is the most carelessly kept that I have ever seen, in the sense of having entries (now undecipherable) scribbled all over the covers, outside and inside; in having long gaps without any records; and in having those of later date wedged into spaces among the earlier ones, so that, for instance, eighteenth-century entries in some places immediately follow those of 1579.
On the inner sides of the covers are various scribblings that can only be roughly dated by the study of the handwriting. A superficial set of marks shows the scribbles of a child. Yet the first scribe left his work exceptionally well done. He was evidently proud of his beautiful penmanship, and took great care in producing his records, especially in his earlier years. What relation he bore to the parish is uncertain. Dugdale says that the sixteenth-century incumbents were “Ric. Moore, Cler., Nov. 11th, 1562; and v.p.m. Ric. Moore,[16] Rob. Hall,[17] Feb. 23rd, 1590.” Of the first I can find no further record; of the second we may premise that he was the Robert Hale who matriculated 1580, 28th April, Glouc. pleb. f., 17 Broadgates H. (see Boase, Reg. Univ. Oxford, vol. II, ii).
But the person who wrote the earlier pages leaves us in no doubt as to his name being William Palmer. I can find no reference to him in Boase, unless he appears in the list of students: “Mr. William Palmer, 1565, Christ Church, Student.” There were many Palmers in the neighbourhood, some even in the parish. He may have been an incumbent between the two known vicars; he may have been a scribe employed to do the work; he may have been a gentleman doing it for pleasure. But the work he did was to transcribe the earlier paper registers into parchment, as required by Act of Parliament. He did it well and clearly, on several occasions stating that there had been no entries during a certain number of years, or that they had been put out of chronological order. It is not quite clear when he reached contemporary dates; but the last trace of his handwriting is in 1598, when a sprawling script commences, and “Ro: Hale” signs the pages for a long period, down, at least, till 1653. When William Palmer commenced the little volume (about folio size from top to bottom, little more than half in breadth) he wrote in the inside of the upper cover two lines:
A translation is given below by a later writer, but Palmer in a more careless hand (yet evidently his own) states further
Apparently to try his pen and his handwriting on parchment, he turned to the last page, laid the volume at right angles, and wrote, in his best and earliest style, near the margin, “Honorificabilitudinitatibus, Constantinopolis.”
This fact might hardly have been thought worth recording, but that some peculiar people, who base arguments upon half-truths, have founded an oft-repeated argument on the assertion that the only known use in literature of this long word is in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “The Northumberland Manuscript.” The fact has already been recorded in “Notes and Queries” (9 S. ix, 494) that the first known use in this country was in “The Complaint of Scotland,” published in St. Andrews, 1548-9, where the author (Sir John Inglis or Robert Wedderburn) classes it among the “long-tailed words” which had been used in other books. It is shown that Nash used it in his “Lenten Stuff” in 1599, but this might have been quoted from “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” and there are many later examples (“Notes and Queries,” 9 S. ix, 371).
Here, however, is a case of its use in Warwickshire, under exactly the same conditions as those of the Northumberland MS. at a date earlier than that on which it had been scribbled there, and in a locality where the book and the writer were quite accessible to Shakespeare.
At the top of the same page on which the long-tailed word was inscribed, there is recorded
Collected at Pillerton Hersey towards the reliefe of Marlborough the some of eight shillinges and two pence, Aug. the 24th, 1653. Ro: Hale, Minister. Allyn Smith, John Reeve, Churchwardens.
In another handwriting below this is written:
He may or may not have introduced some lines irregularly written below this:
In a somewhat similar hand, at the foot of this page, written in prose order, and with few capitals, run the lines
A few more scribbles are sufficient to cover the long narrow page.
As no one has transcribed, or even read, this register, I may select a few entries, though of little direct Shakspearean interest:
Baptisms
1561. Marie, daughter of John Palmer, was baptized 14th August.
1566. John, son of John Palmer, was baptized 7th Maye.
1567. Anker, the sonne of Anker Brent, was baptized 19th day of June.
John, the son of John Elton, baptized by the midwife; died the 29th day of April, 1568.
1568. Mercall, the daughter of John Franklin, was baptized 15th day of Maye.
1568. Anker, the son of John Reeve, was baptized the 20th daye of Maye.
1570. Alice, daughter of John Palmer, was baptized 1st September.
1575. Marke, the son of Richard Graunt, was baptized 24th April.
1584. John, son of Thomas Palmer, was baptized 13th October.
1585. Katharine, the daughter of Mrs. Hill, was baptized 12th November.
1599. Eme Hemmings, daughter of John Hemmings,[18] was baptized 17th December.
1600. Israell, the daughter of Rowland Robins, was baptized 4th Maye.
1603. Katharine, the daughter of John Heywood, was baptized 14th January.
—— Israell, the daughter of Gabriell Gillet, was baptized 20th January.
1607. Cornelius, daughter of John Smith, junior, and Anne his wife, was baptized the 14th daye of Maye.
1612. Penelope, the daughter of Allan Smith, gent., and Frances his wiefe, was borne the 13th Apperill, and baptized the 19th daye of the said Apperill, the witnesses Robert Hale mynister, Margaret Palmer, Marie Reeve.
Further on, stuck in at the side of the register, appears:
Hester, ye daugh: of Humanities Jackson, nat: fuere primo die Augusti, 1655.
Among the marriages are:
1553. Richard Manners was married to Margerie Rawlins the 23rd day of October.
1611. Thomas Davis and Israel Reeve were married 22nd Oct.
1622. John Parlbe, of St. Leonards in Shoreditch, and Christian Stickly were married together the 8 day of July.
1626. William Pargiter, of Sulgrave in the countie of Northampton, gent., and Frances Smith, gent., were married together the 30 day of Januarie.
1642. Humanitas Jacson, of Asherne, and Anne Smith, of Pillarton Hersey, were married together the 21 day of June.
Among the burials are:
1552. Margerie Quittles, buried the 28th day of May.
1596. Mary Horsekeeper was buried the 27 of November.
Many deaths took place among the Jacksons closely together:
1681. Anne, ye daughter of Humanitas Jackson, junior, was buried August 9th.
1682. Humanitas Jackson, junior, was buried Jan. 10th.
1682. William Jackson, buried Feb. 2.
1682. Mary, ye daughter of Humanitas Jackson, was buried Dec. 31.
1683. Humanitas Jackson, senior, buried Oct. 4th.
It is recorded shortly after this
“Anno Salvatoris 1703/4, Annæque Angliæ Reginæ Beatissimæ Regni Secundo. Collected to a Breef for the relief of our persecuted Protestant Brethren of the principality of Orange the sum of five and thirty shillings and eight pence.”
Among family names in this early book are Wing, Jude, Prophet, Makepeace, Nason, Sambache, Vinsen, Leah, Fredwell.
In the same box is now preserved the earliest register of what was formerly a separate parish, Pillerton Priors. It lacks its outer cover, and apparently the earlier slip has vanished. It begins abruptly with “Criseninges, 1604,” though on later pages there are marriages and burials from 1594. Both parishes seem to have been in the same cure at this date. “Ro: Hale” signs both registers at the foot of each page. A few entries are of some philological or genealogical interest:
1609. Athalia, the daughter of William Smith and Luci his wife, was baptized the 25th day of March.
1610. Edythe, the daughter of Richard Griffyn and Jane his wief, was baptized the 22nd June.
1621. Moses, the son of Abraham Neale, baptized 11th Nov.
1630. Athalia, ye daughter of William Symkins and Susanna his wife, was baptized the 12th day of Dec.
1631. Harma, the daughter of Abraham Neale, baptized 13th Nov.
1633. Alva, the daughter of William Reading, baptized 19th May.
1639. Lucie, the sonn of William Sambache, gentleman, and Dorethie his wiefe, was baptized the 30 day of July, Anno Dni. 1639, Witnesses Sir Thomas Lucie, Knight, Sir Edward Underhill, Knight, and Piers Hobdy.
Burials
1599. Edward Clifford buried 19th November.
1600, George Clifford buried 7th April.
1600. Franciscus Underhill, Gent., was buried the 19th of May.
1611. Edward Underhill, Esquier, departed his lieff the 13th daye of June, 1611, before sonne rising in the morning, and was caried to Nether Ettington and buried the 14th day of the said month, early in the morning.
Marriages
1594. Symon Smith and Angell Palmer were married the 11th November.
1608. Thomas Horniold, gent., and Elizabeth Underhill, gent., were married the three and twentieth day of August.
On the last page is the entry, “Collected at Pillerton Priors towards the relief of Marlborough the somme of eight shillings and seven pence. Ro: Hale Minister 1653,” a curious parallel to the entry in Pillerton Hersey, and further witness to the long incumbency of Robert Hale. At the end is the inventory of the church goods. I thought the free use of names generally denoting the other sex was worth recording, as well as the few entries of well-known families.
I went to Nether Ettington to seek the tomb of Edward Underhill. This property has belonged to the Shirleys for a thousand years; but it was let to the Underhills for a long lease of ninety-nine years, and many of their tombs remain there still, among which is the reproduction of the tablet to the memory of Anthony Underhill with the notable verses. I could not find the tomb of this special Edward carried from Pillerton. But there is one “to the memory of Thomas Underhill of this town, Esq., and Elizabeth his wife, who lived married together in perfect amity above 65 years, ... and died in 1603.” As they had thirteen sons and seven daughters, it is not remarkable that their family should have spread to many neighbouring parishes.
“Athenæum,” 19th September 1908.