[279] A. Hamilton, Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne, p. 17.
[280] Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, p. 16.
[281] Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 32092, f. 145. See Appendix.
[282] In May 1596 the price of wheat at Barnstaple was 11s., rye and barley 8s., oats 2s. 4d. "whereupon upon letters sent to the Earl of Bath" presumably from the Council, he set the prices mentioned in the text. Barnstaple Records North Devon Herald, June 3rd, 1880, quoting from Wyot's Diary. Wyot's Diary is described as a small quarto book of 52 leaves purporting to contain extracts from an older manuscript. It was copied by William Palmer in the seventeenth century, from the diary of Philip Wyot, who was Town Clerk between 1586 to 1608. Ib. April 22nd, 1880.
[283] 1596. "Not a dry day in November." 1597. "April 8th wheat sold for 18s. a bushel, barley 13s., rye 14s., oats 4s. Now in July by reason of continual rain wheat sold last Friday for 20s. a bushel." The beginning of harvest brought relief and wheat fell to 3s. 4d., rye 2s. 7d., and barley 2s. 4d. This fall to one-sixth of the former values makes us realise how violent were the fluctuations in price. A like sudden alteration took place at Bristol in 1587. On Aug. 12th, 1587, wheat was sold at 5s. a bushel, but on the 19th of the same month it fell to 22d. Seyer's Memoirs of Bristol, Vol. II. p. 253.
[284] The Life of John Whitgift, John Strype. Appendix, Bk. IV. No. xxx. 27th Dec. 1596. The Minister was to stir up the people "to abstinence, fasting and true humiliation; to forbear all excess; to relieve the poor and needy by good house-keeping, by setting them on work and by other deeds of alms and brotherly compassion. And considering the most princely and gracious care her Majesty hath for their relief, and that all good means should be used for the succour and help of them in these times of dearth, the people must be taught to endure this scarcity with patience; and especially to beware, how they give ear to any persuasions or practices of discontented and idle brains, to move them to repine or swerve from the humble duties of good subjects." The double purpose of helping the poor and maintaining order may be observed in this letter of the archbishop as well as in the direct orders of the Privy Council.
[285] Seyer's Memoirs of Bristol, Vol. II., pp. 254 and 255, quoting from Adams and Ricart's Chronicle.
[286] Remembrancia, II. 31. Apparently other ships were sent in 1595. Ib. II. 95; II. 59.
[287] Owen and Blakeway, History of Shrewsbury, Vol. I. p. 400. Wheat in Shrewsbury in May 1597 was 18s., rye 15s., beans 13s., while in Sept. 1598 rye was 3s. 4d. and wheat 4s. 4d.
[288] Cal. of State Papers, May 31st, 1597. The Ipswich officials were careful to provide for their needy neighbours. Every year from 1594 to 1597 loans were raised to buy corn, and it is always stated that this corn was bought for the poor. In 1594 a loan of £200 was so raised, and the town consented to bear any loss: the next year £600 was thought necessary and three hundred quarters of rye were purchased. On the 15th Oct. 1596, it was ordered that "100 quarters of rye and 150 quarters of barley shall be bought for provision for the poor and so much money as the same shall be valued at shall be lent by the inhabitants of the town." Again, in 1597 three hundred combs were provided at 4s. 6d. a bushel, and the charges for keeping it and lading it were borne by the town. Nathaniel Bacon's Annals of Ipswich, 25 Oct. 1594, 13 Oct. 1595, and 21 Feb. 1597.