Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough
A canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: 'In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed.'
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In 1691 Lancelot Blackburne became a Canon of Exeter, and in 1705 Dean of Exeter
On 10th December 1658 Lancelot Blackburne was born.
On 25th September 1681 Lancelot Blackburne (age 22) was ordained a deacon at Christ Church by John Fell (age 56), Bishop of Oxford, and travelled to the West Indies.
On 2nd September 1684 Lancelot Blackburne (age 25) and Catherine Talbot were married at the Savoy Chapel Royal [Map].
Before 1685 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 26) and Mary Stoughton were married.
In 1699 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 41) was appointed Bishop of Oxford.
In 1715 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 57) was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.
In 1715 Lancelot Blackburne (age 56) was appointed Archdeacon of Cornwall.
On 23rd April 1715 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 57) was appointed Bishop of Salisbury.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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In 1716 Lancelot Blackburne (age 57) travelled to Hanover as the personal chaplain to King George I.
In 1717 Archdeacon Lancelot Blackburne (age 58) was appointed Bishop of Exeter.
In 1718 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 60) was appointed Dean Chapel Royal.
In the year 1719 William Borlase (age 22) was admitted, by Lancelot, Bishop of Exeter (age 60), to déacon’s orders, and by the same ordained priest in 1720.
In 1722 [his brother-in-law] Bishop William Talbot (age 64) was appointed Bishop of Durham.
In 1723 Bishop Lancelot Blackburne (age 64) was appointed Lord High Almoner which office he held for life.
In 1724 Bishop Lancelot Blackburne (age 65) was appointed Archbishop of York.
On 9th June 1726 [his wife] Catherine Talbot died.
On 23rd March 1743 Archbishop Lancelot Blackburne (age 84) died at his home in Downing Street.
Letters of Horace Walpole. [11th December 1780] I believe, Sir, that I may have been over-candid to Hogarth, and fail his spirit and youth and talent may have hurried him into more real caricatures than I specified . yet he certainly restrained his bent that way pretty early. Charteris403 I have seen; but though Some years older than you, Sir, I cannot say I have at all a perfect idea of him: nor did I ever hear the curious anecdote you tell me of the banker and my father. I was much better acquainted with bishop Blackbourne. He lived within two doors of my father in Downing Street, and took much notice of me when I was near man. It is not to be ungrateful and asperse him, but to amuse you, if I give you some account of him from what I remember404. He was perfectly a fine gentleman to the last, to eighty-four; his favourite author was Waller, whom he frequently quoted. In point of decorum, he was not quite so exact as you have been told, Sir. I often dined with him, his mistress, Mrs. Conwys, sat at the head of the table, and Hayter405, his natural son by another woman, and very like him, at the bottom, as chaplain: he was afterwards Bishop of London. I have heard, but do not affirm it, that Mrs. Blackbourne, before she died, complained of Mrs. Conwys being brought under the same roof. To his clergy he was, I have heard, very imperious. One story I recollect, which showed how much he was a man of this world: and which the Queen herself repeated to my father. On the King's last journey to Hanover, before Lady Yarmouth came over, the Archbishop being With her Majesty, said to her, "Madam, I have been with your minister Walpole, and he tells me that you are a wise woman, and do not mind your husband's having a mistress." He was a little hurt at not being raised to Canterbury on Wake's death, and said to my father, "You did not think on me: but it is true, I am too old, I am too old." Perhaps, Sir, these are gossiping stories, but at least they hurt nobody now.
Note 403. The notorious Colonel Francis Charteris, to whom Hogarth has accorded a conspicuous place in the first plate of his Harlot's Progress. Pope describes him as "a man infamous for all manner of vices," and thus introduces him into his third Moral Essay:
"Riches in effect,
No grace of Heaven, or token of th' Elect;
Given to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil,
To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil!"
He died in Scotland, in 1731, at the age of sixty-two. The populace, at his funeral, raised a great riot, almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs, etc. into the grave along with it.-E.
Note 404. See the note to vol. i. p. 314, letter 101.-E.
Note 405. For a refutation of Walpole's assertion, that Bishop Hayter was a natural son of bishop Blackbourn's, see vol. ii. p. 100, letter 39.-E.