Such incidents as these enliven the pages of the Duchy of Lancaster Records, and if there were more space available it would be interesting to give many more of these graphic incidents that took place four hundred years ago. In many places one finds references to the illegal taking of oaks from the forest for building houses. Big boughs or the stems of small trees were placed together in the form of an A with the ends resting on the ground. These beams, that formed the bays of a house, are locally called "forks," the name by which they are known in the records of the reign of Henry VII. In 1498 we find that "The abbot of Whitby had as many oakes taken in Godlande [Goathland] as made aftre the maner of the Coutrey iij pair of forkes, with other bemes and wall plaites as were mete for the repairalling of an hows of his in Godlande."
The great legal case between Sir Roger Hastings and the Cholmleys seems to have impoverished the turbulent owner of Roxby, for after the adverse decision Hastings seems to have had difficulty in raising the moneys to meet all the heavy expenses of the trial, and Mr Turton thinks that Roxby was at first mortgaged and afterwards sold to Roger Cholmley, brother of Sir Richard, who had received knighthood in 1509. Sir Richard Cholmley may be considered the founder of the Yorkshire families of Cholmley, and he was in his time a man of great power and influence, holding the four chief offices in the Honor of Pickering, and at the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII. he was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He had no legal offspring, and his illegitimate son, a Sir Roger, who must not be confused with his uncle, was successively Chief Baron and Lord Chief Justice, died without issue. Sir Hugh Cholmley[1] tells us many facts concerning his great-grandfather Sir Richard, who was a nephew of the former Sir Richard. "His chief place of residence," he says, "was at Roxby, lying between Pickering and Thornton (now almost demolished), where he lived in great port, having a very great family, at least fifty or sixty men-servants, about his house, and I have been told by some who knew the truth, that when there had been twenty-four pieces of beef put in a morning into the pot, sometimes not one of them would be left for his own dinner: for in those times, the idle-serving men were accustomed to have their breakfast, and with such liberty as they would go into the kitchen, and striking their daggers into the pot, take out the beef without the cook's leave or privacy; yet he would laugh at this rather than be displeased, saying, 'Would not the knaves leave me one piece for my own dinner?' He never took a journey to London that he was not attended with less than thirty, sometimes forty men-servants, though he went without his lady. There was a great difference between him and his brother-in-law, the Earl of Westmoreland; and, as I have heard upon this cause: That, after the death of his sister, the Lady Anne, the Earl married the second sister, Gascoigne's widow, which occasioned continual fighting and scuffles between the Earl's men and Sir Richard's, when they met, whether in London streets or elsewhere, which might be done with less danger of life and bloodshed than in these succeeding ages; because they then fought only with buckler and short sword, and it was counted unmannerly to make a thrust.... This Sir Richard was possessed of a very great estate worth at this day to the value of about £10,000 a year; ... He died in the sixty third year of his age, at Roxby, ... and lies buried in the chancel of Thornton church [the monument there to-day bears the effigy of a lady and is nameless], of which he was patron, May 17th, 1599. He was tall of stature and withal big and strong-made, having in his youth a very active, able body, bold and stout; his hair and eyes black, and his complexion brown, insomuch as he was called the great black Knight of the North; though the word great attributed to him not so much for his stature, as power, and estate, and fortune. He was a wise man, and a great improver of his estate, which might have prospered better with his posterity, had he not been extra-ordinarily given to the love of women." There is unfortunately nothing left above the ground of the manor house of Roxby, the grass-covered site merely showing ridges and mounds where the buildings stood. It is therefore impossible to obtain any idea of the appearance of what must have been a very fine Tudor house. That a gallery was built there by Sir Richard Cholmley, the Great Black Knight of the North, in the reign of Elizabeth, appears from the record which says "that the saide Sr Rychard Cholmley did send Gyles Raunde and George Raude two masons to the Quenes Castell of Pyckeringe whenn he builded his gallerye at Roxbye to polle [pulle] downe the chefe stones of Masonn work owt of one howse in the same castell called the King's Haull, and took owte of the pryncypall and cheffest Towre of the same castle the stones of the stayres which they did and the said Sr Rychard caused xiiii wayne lodes of the same stones to be caryed by his Tenantes to his owne house at Roxbye."
[1] "Memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmley," p. 7.
Leland,[1] who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., tells us that at Wilton there was "a Manor Place with a Tower longging to Chomeley." He also says "This Chomeley hath a Howse also at Rollesley (Rottesby): and Chomeley's Father that now is was as an Hedde officer at Pykeringe, and setter up of his name yn that Quarters." "Thens to Pykering: and moste of the Ground from Scardeburg to Pykering was by Hille and Dale meate (metely) plentifull of Corn and Grasse but litle Wood in sight.
[1] "The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary," Thomas Hearne, 1745. Vol. i. pp. 64 and 65.
"The Toune of Pykering is large but not welle compact togither. The greatest Part of it with the Paroch Chirch and the Castel is on the South Est Part of the Broke renning thorough the Toune, and standith on a great Slaty Hille. The other Part of the Toun is not so bigge as this: the Brook rennith bytwixt them that Sumtyme ragith, but it suagith shortely agayn: and a Mile beneth the Toun goith into Costey [the Costa].
"In Pykering Chirch I saw 2 or 3 Tumbes of the Bruses wherof one with his Wife lay yn a Chapel on the South syde of the Quirr, and he had a Garland about his Helmet. There was another of the Bruses biried in a Chapel under an Arch of the North side of the Body of the Quier: and there is a Cantuarie bering his Name.
