The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 1

by E. K. Chambers

[176] Newton, 351; Ramsay, Lancaster and York, i. 317; ii. 466. Henry VIII's Treasurers of the Chamber sometimes kept separate war accounts (Brewer, iv. 1. 82), and there is a similar example as late as 1599 (R. O. Audit Office, Various, 3, 108).

[177] P. R. O. Lists and Indexes, xxxv. 220, and Cal. Patent Rolls, both passim.

[178] C. P. R., 1 Hen. VI, p. 3, m. 5 (3 May 1423), 5 Edw. IV, p. 2, m. 28 (29 June 1465), 1 Rich. III, p. 5, m. 21 (26 Apr. 1484). I think Newton is wrong in regarding Vaughan's appointment by patent as exceptional. The Liber Niger, c. 1478 (H. O. 42), fully describes the Jewel House, with its 'architectour, called clerk of the King's, or keeper of the King's jewelles, or tresorer of the chambyr', and says 'all thinges of this office inward or outward, commyth and goyth by the knowledge of the Kyng, and his chamberlaynes recorde'.

[179] Sir Gilbert Talbot, Master of the Jewel House in 1680, represented (Archaeologia, xxii. 118) that anciently the Master was Treasurer of the Chamber, 'till that branch was taken out and made an office apart; and is now five times more beneficiall than the Jewell-House; all the regulation of expence being apply'd to the remaining parts of the perquisites of the Jewell-House, the fees of the Treasurer of the Chamber and Master of the Ceremonys being left entire'.

[180] Campbell, i. 228, 316; ii. 105, 296, 320, 445. Newton, 351, 353, thinks the exact dates of Edmund Chaderton's and Lovell's appointments uncertain, and supposes the keepership of the jewels to have been detached on the latter occasion. But it was clearly on the former, the date of which is given in C. P. R., 1 Rich. III, p. 5, m. 21, as 26 Apr. 1484. Lovell is described as Treasurer of the King's Chamber on 26 Feb. 1486 and of the Queen's Chamber about the following Easter (Campbell, i. 228, 316). There is no patent for him, and my impression is that both posts had been annexed to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, granted him on 12 Oct. 1485 (C. P. R., 1 Hen. VII, p. 1, m. 18).

[181] Newton, 354, with a full account of Heron's career.

[182] This arrangement had already been legalized by 1 Hen. VIII, c. 3 (Statutes, iii. 2), which authorizes the payment of certain revenues to Heron as General Receiver, 'and to other persons ... hereafter in like office to be deputed and assigned as in the time of the late ... King Henry the vijᵗʰ hath been used', but does not refer to him as Treasurer of the Chamber.

[183] 3 Hen. VIII, c. 23 (Statutes, iii. 45). It is provided by § 6 'that the Kinges forenamed trusty servant John Heron be from hensfurth Tresourer of the Kinges Chamber, and that he by the name of Tresourer of the Kinges Chambre be named accepted and called; and that he and every other persone whom the King hereaftur shall name and appoint to the said roome or office of Tresourer of his Chamber be not Charged ne chargeable for any suche his or their Receipt of any parte or parcell of the premisses as before ys expressed or therefor to accompte answere or make repayment to any persone or persones other then to the King or his heires in his or their Chamber, and not in the said Eschequier'. The Act only had force to 30 Nov. 1512, but it was continued by 4 Hen. VIII, c. 18, 6 Hen. VIII, c. 24, 7 Hen. VIII, c. 7, 14-15 Hen. VIII, c. 15, and made permanent by 27 Hen. VIII, c. 62 in 1535 (Statutes, iii. 68, 145, 182, 219, 631). The account of this legislation in Newton, 361, treats the Act of 6 Hen. VIII as its starting-point.

[184] His salary was at first £10, afterwards £25 a quarter (Brewer, iii. 407). He died on 10 June 1522 (Newton, 358).

[185] A letter in Brewer, iii. 781 (N.D. but dated by Brewer 2 Dec. 1521), speaks of 'Master Myclo the new treasurer in Master Heron is room'. Certain payments were made by John Myklowe, 'late treasurer of the King's chamber', from 1 June 1521 to 1 May 1522, and thereafter by Edmund Peckham (Brewer, iii. 1156), until 1 Jan. 1523. Conceivably Peckham, who had been a clerk in the counting-house, and was cofferer by 1524 (Brewer, iv. 422), may have been Treasurer for a short period between Miklowe and Wyatt, unless indeed these payments belong to a special war loan or subsidy account, such as Wyatt himself rendered in 1524 (Brewer, iv. 82), probably not strictly in his capacity as Treasurer of the Chamber. Miklowe is described as Treasurer on 10 Apr. 1522 and was dead by 28 June 1522 (Brewer, iii. 924, 998). For his earlier history, cf. Brewer, ii. 436; iii. 332; xxi. 2. 426; Ellis, iii. 3, 271.