§ i
Edward Sackville was succeeded by his son Richard, married to Lady Frances Cranfield, a considerable heiress, who, on the death of her brother, inherited the fortune and property of their father, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, sometime Treasurer to James I. I mention this marriage especially, because it brought to the Sackvilles the house called Copt Hall in Essex and its contents, which included much of the finest furniture now at Knole, some of the tapestry, the many portraits of the Cranfields by Mytens and Dobson, the series of historical portraits in the Brown Gallery, and the Mytens copies of Raphael’s cartoons. There are a number of receipts at Knole to no less than six different carriers, for wagon-loads of effects removed from Copt Hall to Knole at the cost of £2. 5s. per load. From Copt Hall also came the carved stone shield now in the Stone Court on the roof of the Great Hall. The Copt Hall estate was sold in 1701 for the approximate sum of twenty thousand pounds. The draft of the marriage settlement is at Knole:
January 25th, 1640
The Earl of Middlesex is to assure ten thousand pounds to the Earl of Dorset in marriage with the Lady Frances Cranfield to the Lord Buckhurst to be paid in times and manner following:
He is to retain the money in his hands, paying yearly to the young couple towards their maintenance by equal portions at Michaelmas and our Lady Day £800 per annum until a jointure be made of £1500 per annum, by the Lord Buckhurst joining with the Earl of Dorset when he shall come to full age.
And if the Lord Buckhurst [which God forbid] shall decease before the said lady, or a jointure so made, then the ten thousand pound shall be the sole use of the said lady. But if the said lady [which God forbid] should die before the Lord Buckhurst without children, the said portion or so much shall remain not laid out by consent of the Earl of Dorset in purchasing in lands or leases, shall be paid to the said Earl of Dorset.
And in the same connection there are some notes from Edward, Lord Dorset to Lord Middlesex, one written “this Thursday morning at 5 of the clock,” apologising for the “bad character” which Lord Middlesex must decipher—and indeed the writing is all but illegible—but he is obliged to write as he must go presently into Kent to dispose some bargains and sales.
No particular interest attaches to Richard Sackville, save that he translated Le Cid into English verse and wrote a poem on Ben Jonson, but there are at Knole some memorandum books in his handwriting (between 1660 and 1670) which are worth quoting, I think, for the following illuminating extracts:
From the DIARY of SERVANTS’ faults
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Henry Mattock, for scolding to extremity on Sunday without cause | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| William Loe, for running out of doors from Morning till Midnight without leave | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Richard Meadowes, for being absent when my Lord came home late, and making a headless excuse | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Henry Mattock, for not doing what he is bidden | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| And 3d. a day till he does from this day. | |||
| Henry Mattock, for disposing of my cast linen without my order | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Robert Verrell, for giving away my money | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Henry Mattock, for speaking against going to Knole | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Verrell to pay for not burning the brakes out of the Wilderness, 3d. per week out of his week’s wages of 5s. for forty-two weeks. |
There are various other notes in the same books: Thomas Porter, going to Knole, was to have five shillings a week board-wages; and, judging from the following, Lord Dorset evidently could not wholly trust his memory unaided: “My French shot-bag; an hammer, and some playthings for Tom, a bone knife, etc. A great Iron chafing-dish, or a fire-pan to set it upon.” And again, “A silver porringer for little Tom.”
Another day he notes:
Old lead cast at Knole for the two turrets weighing 1500 lbs. Old lead cast for the cistern weighing 1200 lbs. Sold 13th Aug. 1662 to Edmund Giles and Edward Bourne the Advowson of the Rectory and Parsonage of Tooting in Surrey for an £100 and paid my wife.
There is also a receipt:
Nov. 14, 1671. Recd of the Right Hon. RICHARD Earl of DORSET, in full of all wages bills and accounts whatsoever from ye beginning of ye World to this day ye full sum of five pounds seven shillings and sixpence I say rec’d by JOHN WALL GROVE.