[5] See [chapter 114, stanza 5].
[6] Dr. Rimbault, in his Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal, quotes the following from Liber Niger Domini Regis (temp. Edward VI.): "The children of the Chappelle were 8 in number, with a Master of Songe to teach them. And when any of the children comene to be xviij yeares of age, and their voices change, ne cannot be preferred in this Chappelle, the nombere being full, then, yf they will assente, the kyng assynethe them to a College of Oxford or Cambridge of his fundatione, there to be at fynding and studye both suffycyently, tylle the king may otherwise advanse them."—Query, was Tusser assigned in this way to King's College, Cambridge?
[7] Nicholas Udall took his degree of M.A. at Oxford in 1534.
[8] Hatcher, MSS. Catalog. Præpos. Soc. Schol. Coll. Regal. Cant.
[9] Of this nobleman, the ancestor of the Earl of Uxbridge, a very full account is given in Dugdale, from which it appears that he was born at Wednesbury in Staffordshire, his father being one of the Serjeants-at-Mace of the city of London. Under Henry VIII. he was Ambassador to France, and Master of the Post. In 1549 he obtained a grant of the fee of the house without Temple Bar, first called Paget House, then Leicester House, and lastly Essex House. Two years afterwards he was Ambassador to the Emperor Charles V., and in the same year was called by writ to Parliament by the title of Lord Paget of Beaudesert, Com. Salop., and soon after sent to treat for peace with France. On the fall of the Duke of Somerset, he was charged with designing the murder of several noblemen at Paget House, and in consequence was sent to the Tower, deprived of his honours and offices, and fined £6000, one-third of which was remitted. On the death of Edward VI. he joined the Earl of Arundel, the chief champion of Queen Mary, and gained her favour by his activity. Soon after her marriage with Philip, he was sent Ambassador to the Emperor at Brussels, to consult Cardinal Pole respecting the restoration of Popery. In this reign he was made Lord Privy Seal. Lord Paget died very aged, in 1563, and was buried at Drayton in Middlesex. He left issue by Anne, daughter of —— Prestin, Esq., Com. Lanc., three sons and five daughters. His eldest son Henry succeeded him in the title; but dying in 1568, the peerage descended to his next brother, Thomas, whom Tusser claims also for a patron. Thomas being zealously affected to Popery, and implicated in the plots in favour of Mary Queen of Scots, fled and was attainted 1587, and died three years after at Brussels, leaving one son, Thomas, who succeeded him.
[10] Of the name and family of his first wife we are entirely ignorant.
[11] In later editions printed Ratwade, and transferred to Sussex, a mistake into which Warton has fallen.
[12] Tusser is generally supposed to have addressed Sir Richard Southwell as "Thou worthy wight, thou famous knight," but it is clear that Sir Robert Southwell is intended, for in 1573 Tusser alludes to Southwell's death as having occurred some years before, but Sir Richard Southwell did not die till 1579, while Sir Robert died twenty years previously.—Cooper, Ath. Cant.
[13] His second son, Edmond, was baptized at St. Giles's, Cripplegate, 13th March, 1572-3.
[14] The plague to which Tusser evidently alludes ([in stanza 31 of Autobiography]), according to Maitland, raged in London in 1573 and 1574.