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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St John's Church, Wotton is in Wotton, Surrey [Map].
At midnight on the evening of the 29th May 1603 George Evelyn of Long Ditton [aged 73] died. He was buried at St John's Church, Wotton on the 31st May 1603.
On 9th March 1613 Joan Stint [aged 63] died. She was buried at St John's Church, Wotton.
John Evelyn's Diary. 15th December, 1634: My dear sister, Darcy [aged 20], departed this life, being arrived to her 20th year of age; in virtue advanced beyond her years, or the merit of her husband, the worst of men. She had been brought to bed the 2d of June before, but the infant died soon after her, the 24th of December. I was therefore sent for home the second time, to celebrate the obsequies of my sister; who was interred in a very honorable manner in our dormitory joining to the parish church, where now her monument stands.
On 15th December 1634 Elizabeth Evelyn [aged 20] died. She was buried in St John's Church, Wotton.
On 29th September 1635 Eleanor Stansfield [aged 36] died. On 3rd October 1635 she was buried at St John's Church, Wotton.
John Evelyn's Diary. 18th July 1637. I accompanied my eldest brother [aged 20], who then quitted Oxford, into the country; and, on the 9th of August, went to visit my friends at Lewes [Map], whence I returned the 12th to Wotton, Surrey [Map]. On the 17th of September, I received the blessed Sacrament at Wotton church, and 23d of October went back to Oxford.
John Evelyn's Diary. 2nd January 1641. It was a sad and lugubrious beginning of the year, when, on the 2nd of January 1641, we at night followed the mourning hearse to the church at Wotton; when, after a sermon and funeral oration by the minister, my father was interred near his formerly erected monument, and mingled with the ashes of our mother, his dear wife. Thus we were bereft of both our parents in a period when we most of all stood in need of their counsel and assistance, especially myself, of a raw, vain, uncertain, and very unwary inclination; but so it pleased God to make trial of my conduct in a conjuncture of the greatest and most prodigious hazard that ever the youth of England saw; and, if I did not amidst all this impeach my liberty nor my virtue with the rest who made shipwreck of both, it was more the infinite goodness and mercy of God than the least providence or discretion of mine own, who now thought of nothing but the pursuit of vanity, and the confused imaginations of young men.
John Evelyn's Diary. 7th November 1641. After receiving the Sacrament at Wotton church, I visited my Lord Marshal [aged 56] at Albury.
John Evelyn's Diary. 24th October 1654. The good old parson, Higham, preached at Wotton Church: a plain preacher, but innocent and honest man.
Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
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John Evelyn's Diary. 27th January 1658. In my opinion, he was suffocated by the women and maids that attended him, and covered him too hot with blankets as he lay in a cradle, near an excessive hot fire in a close room. I suffered him to be opened, when they found that he was what is vulgarly called liver-grown. I caused his body to be coffined in lead, and deposited on the 30th at eight o'clock that night in the church at Deptford, accompanied with divers of my relations and neighbours, among whom I distributed rings with this motto: "Dominus abstulit;" intending, God willing, to have him transported with my own body to be interred in our dormitory in Wotton Church, in my dear native county of Surrey, and to lay my bones and mingle my dust with my fathers, if God be gracious to me, and make me as fit for him as this blessed child was. The Lord Jesus sanctify this and all other my afflictions, Amen.
Before 1st June 1691 John Evelyn of Wotton [aged 39] died. He was buried on 2nd June 1691 at Wotton Church.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1st June 1691. I went with my son [aged 36], and brother-in-law, Glanville [aged 72], and his son, to Wotton, to solemnize the funeral of my nephew, which was performed the next day very decently and orderly by the herald in the afternoon, a very great appearance of the country being there. I was the chief mourner; the pall was held by Sir Francis Vincent [aged 45], Sir Richard Onslow [aged 36], Mr. Thomas Howard (son to Sir Robert, and Captain of the King's Guard), Mr. Hyldiard, Mr. James, Mr. Herbert, nephew to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and cousin-german to my deceased nephew. He was laid in the vault at Wotton Church, in the burying place of the family. A great concourse of coaches and people accompanied the solemnity.
John Evelyn's Diary. 2nd August 1691. No sermon in the church in the afternoon, and the curacy ill-served.
John Evelyn's Diary. 6th May 1694. This being the first Sunday in the month, the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to have been celebrated at Wotton church, but in this parish it is exceedingly neglected, so that, unless at the four great feasts, there is no communion hereabouts; which is a great fault both in ministers and people. I have spoken to my brother [aged 76], who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it. Scarcely one shower has fallen since the beginning of April.
John Evelyn's Diary. 31st March 1695. Mr. Lucas preached in the afternoon at Wotton.
John Evelyn's Diary. 30th March 1699. My deceased son was buried in the vault at Wotton, according to his desire.
On 15th September 1749 Mary Boscawen [aged 43] died. She was buried at St John's Church, Wotton.
On 20th January 1752 Anne Boscawen Lady Evelyn [aged 77] died. She was buried at St John's Church, Wotton on 24th January 1752.
On 15 or 18th July 1763 John Evelyn 1st Baronet [aged 81] died. He was buried at St John's Church, Wotton on 22nd July 1763. His son John [aged 56] succeeded 2nd Baronet Evelyn of Wotton in Surrey.
On 11th June 1767 John Evelyn 2nd Baronet [aged 60] died. He was buried at St John's Church, Wotton on 19th June 1767. His son Frederick [aged 33] succeeded 3rd Baronet Evelyn of Wotton in Surrey.
On 1st April 1812 Frederick Evelyn 3rd Baronet [aged 78] died. He was buried at St John's Church, Wotton. His first cousin once removed John [aged 54] succeeded 4th Baronet Evelyn of Wotton in Surrey. His widow Mary Turton Lady Evelyn [aged 67] inherited Wotton House.
On 12th November 1817 Mary Turton Lady Evelyn [aged 72] died. She was buried at St John's Church, Wotton.
This is a translation of the 'Memoires of Jacques du Clercq', published in 1823 in two volumes, edited by Frederic, Baron de Reissenberg. In his introduction Reissenberg writes: 'Jacques du Clercq tells us that he was born in 1424, and that he was a licentiate in law and a counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the castellany of Douai, Lille, and Orchies. It appears that he established his residence at Arras. In 1446, he married the daughter of Baldwin de la Lacherie, a gentleman who lived in Lille. We read in the fifth book of his Memoirs that his father, also named Jacques du Clercq, had married a lady of the Le Camelin family, from Compiègne. His ancestors, always attached to the counts of Flanders, had constantly served them, whether in their councils or in their armies.' The Memoires cover a period of nineteen years beginning in in 1448, ending in in 1467. It appears that the author had intended to extend the Memoirs beyond that date; no doubt illness or death prevented him from carrying out this plan. As Reissenberg writes the 'merit of this work lies in the simplicity of its narrative, in its tone of good faith, and in a certain air of frankness which naturally wins the reader’s confidence.' Du Clercq ranges from events of national and international importance, including events of the Wars of the Roses in England, to simple, everyday local events such as marriages, robberies, murders, trials and deaths, including that of his own father in Book 5; one of his last entries.
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On 28th August 1848 Hugh Evelyn 5th Baronet [aged 79] died without issue. He was buried on 9th September 1848 at St John's Church, Wotton. Baronet Evelyn of Wotton in Surrey extinct.