A NOTE OF ALL HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVYE SEALES RECEYVED BY SIR CHARLES CORNWALLIS, KNIGHTE, APPOINTED Collector for the County of Norfolk, Anno Domini 1604. COMMUNICATED BY RICHARD WARD, OF SALHOUSE, ESQ. In the remarks prefixed to the Letter of Privy Seal, printed by this Society, Vol. I., p. 123, it was observed that much and valuable light would be thrown upon the history of Norfolk and its state at any given period, when it should be found possible to ascertain the quantity of money which it was proposed to raise throughout the county by similar Letters, and to find to whom they were addressed, and what was the sum required from each separate person. It was at the same time admitted, that this was a kind of information which there were small hopes of obtaining. And such continued to be the feeling, previously to the discovery of the document quoted above, which is preserved in the University Library at Cambridge, marked D. d. viii. 40; and which, being completely to the point, has now removed the obstacle that it was then feared would prove insuperable. Of this Manuscript the following is a copy. It is not, indeed, of precisely the same date as the Privy Seal addressed to Mr. Ward. But that very discrepancy gives it additional interest; for it naturally leads to the question, whether applications of this sort were made at stated periods, and, if so, whether the intervals between these periods were fixed by precedent, or rendered regular by custom; as also, whether, although the present list seems. to infer a general call throughout the county, particular calls may not, for certain reasons, have been made upon individuals at other times, as was apparently the case with Mr. Ward. The number of those here applied to is 730: the total sum proposed to be raised is £16,430,—a strong indication this of the wealth of Norfolk at that juncture; as the several demands may reasonably be considered to denote the standing and the supposed relative opulence of the party. But how far any inference may also fairly be drawn as to his loyalty, and how far a larger sum may have been asked by way of compliment from those who were regarded as most disposed to contribute, or may have been demanded by way of fine from the disaffected, it were now perhaps impossible to determine. By such documents, however, and especially if drawn up as the present is, with the residence of most of the persons, we do assuredly see who were the leading men of the time in our several parishes; and we may gratify not only our natural curiosity, but a better feeling, by tracing in what cases-few these indeed their posterity are still to be found in the same. locality and station, or who are now their successors, and how often the estate or manor which conferred importance or privilege, "Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc sorte supremâ, * It can scarcely fail to be considered remarkable, that, while the Bishop is here called upon to contribute so large a sum, not a single member of the nobility of the county above the rank of Knight appears upon the List, nor an individual among the beneficed clergy: indeed, that of the clergy altogether the names are very “few and far between." This may possibly have arisen from the fact, that the clergy were taxed in Convocation, not in Parliament, and that separate commissions were always issued for levying benevolences upon them and upon the laity. It is even possible that Letters of Privy Seal may have been sent to the Bishops, commanding them to apply to those of their respective dioceses; so that the small number in this List may have been called upon in their quality of prominent landholders or men of property. What it is to be feared is more probable is, that the solution of the question is rather to be sought in the degraded state of the profession at that period. This is most graphically described by Mr. Macaulay in his History of England, the following extract from which; as given in the Times of Dec. 26, headed by the short observations of that able journal, is so apposite on the present occasion, that it cannot but be acceptable to the reader. 'Perhaps none of Mr. Macaulay's sketches will create more surprise in the hitherto careless reader than the character drawn of the clergy of these times. The ecclesiastical revolution under King Henry VIII. had robbed the church of the endowments and influence which attracted the inclinations of the nobles. During the century which followed the accession of Elizabeth scarcely a single person of noble descent took orders.' The support derived from tithe was then barely one-seventh of what it now is; so that rectors and vicars stood in very different relations from the present towards their secular neighbours. For the especial benefit of young Oxford deacons just entering, with the prestige of Baliol or Brasenose, upon their social position, we transcribe, in its full dimensions, the following portrait of the fortunes and prospects of their predecessors : "'A young Levite-such was the phrase then in use- might be had for his board, a small garret, and £10. a-year, and might not only perform his own professional functions, might not only be the most patient of butts and of listeners, might not only always be ready in fine weather for bowls, and in rainy weather for shovelboard, but might also save the expense of a gardener or a groom. Sometimes the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and sometimes he curried the coach-horses. He cast up the farriers' bills. He walked ten miles with a message or a parcel. If he was permitted to |