AN IRREGULAR MARRIAGE 215 abuse in marriage licences. . . . The Convocation determined to republish the Canons of 1585 with additional provisions, and a form of licence to be used in the case of a marriage without banns hoping that by these precautions they might be able to prevent any future scandals."1 No effectual remedy, however, appears to have been applied to the abuses, for which the bishops were mainly to blame. Many of the Worcester bonds dated from 1599 to 1611 are unfinished, the first part having been generally completed, a blank space being left for the insertion of all or a part of the conditions. The small importance then attached to the bond, both by the officials and the sureties, is also indicated by the fact that in many cases the signatures appear on unfinished documents. In the year 1619, John Hoskin, one of the petty canons of Worcester cathedral, "was dismissed from the quier as having dishonoured the church by divers misdemeanours and clandestine marriages." 2 The following is a copy of the deposition made on July 12th, 1582, by Robert Robinson, aged 44 years, Vicar of Grimley, in the suit of Thomas Winsore against Anne White alias Winsore, for the restitution of conjugal rights.3 "That aboute Michelmas come shalbe vi yeres upon a Saturday this jurat was sent for by Mr. Edmund Hall, Thomas Winsore, one White, and one Flavell, parties assemblid aboute a marriadge to ensue betwene the said Thomas Winsore and Anne White. And upon his cominge thiter he was requestid to solemnize matrimony betwene the said Thomas Winsore and Anne White which by vertue of a lycence graunted to him he did accordingly in a chamber of the said Mr. Halle's howse within the parishe of Grimley usinge the due order and forme sett downe for marriadg in all points and bothe the said parties most willinge and consentinge thereunto in the presence of this jurat Mr. Edmund Hall and his wiffe, Richard Saunt, John Staunton, William Boundie, John White and one 1 Cardwell, Synodalia, i. 147. 2 John Noake, Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester, p. 549. * Worcester Consistory Court Act and Deposition Books for the years 1582 and 1583. Flavell with Robert Rose. And further this jurat sayeth he was requestid to solemnize matrimony betwene them pryvatly in the said Mr. Hall's howse because the parties allegid that if it were knowen that the said Anne Whit weare married, divers wold sue hir for dett which hir former husband stodd indettid for which detts she might not so easely compound if it were known as she might otherwise.” 1 Whether Robinson was suspended for performing the ceremony out of church does not appear in the records. That he did not escape punishment is, however, suggested by the fact that on June 5th, 1584, soon after the termination of the Winsor suit, one John Birch succeeded him as vicar of Grimley, the words in which the cause of a vacancy were almost invariably stated having been in this instance omitted from the record in the bishop's register. During the vacancy of the see, the institution was effected at Lambeth by Archbishop Whitgift, who had recently been translated to Canterbury from Worcester. 1 Deposition Book No. 3, Worcester Diocesan Registry. * Register, No. XXXII., fo. 14b. The vacancy does not appear to have been caused by Robinson's death. I am informed that there is no entry of his burial at Grimley. THE ANCIENT REGISTRY THE building used as the Episcopal Registry at Worcester in Shakespeare's day has not, to my knowledge, been located. In 1465 Bishop Carpenter provided chambers for his registrar, and it is probable that these were in his palace, an ancient building on the North side of the cathedral, overlooking the river Severn.1 At some unknown date after the Reformation it became customary for the registrar to provide offices at his private residence; and maps of various dates show that during the eighteenth century two houses in the College Green were successively used for this purpose. In 1817 the registrar's offices were in a one-story building which formerly stood at the south-east corner of Edgar Tower. The offices are now in the spacious rooms of this ancient gateway of the monastery, which forms an appropriate home for the episcopal as well as capitular records. For nearly a century after the appointment of William Warmstry as bishop's registrar in 1544, various members of the family held the office, and for a part of that time they resided in a house2 on the North side of the bishop's palace. I have not been able to ascertain whether it was in the possession of the Warmstrys in 1582, when Robert, the official named in Shakespeare's licence bond, was registrar. It may, however, be assumed that, if the application for the licence was made in person, the parties attended either at the This palace has been occupied by the deans of Worcester since 1845, when the deanery, formerly the prior's house, was partly demolished. For a description of this house, see Berrow's Worcester Journal, May 25th, 1837, and The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1836, p. 14. registrar's chambers in the episcopal palace or at the residence of Robert Warmstry. In 1751 the Worcester Porcelain manufactory was established in the Warmstry mansion, and as late as 1838 portions of the old house were standing. The site is now occupied by Dent's Glove manufactory. THE WHATELEY ERROR THE whole of the entries in the lists of licences appear to have been written by the same scribe, probably a junior whose principal qualifications were neat penmanship and some knowledge of Latin, the language in which the bishop's registers are written. The numerous errors show that his work was not corrected, and some unfinished paragraphs indicate that the original documents from which he was transcribing had not been completed. For instance, an entry dated June 14th, 1581: "Item 14 die eisdem mensis emanavit licencia solemnizandi matrimonium inter Johnem Wise de Halisowen," is followed by another also unfinished and evidently connected with it: "Item eodem die similis emanavit licencia solemnizandi matrimonium inter Twise et famulam." It would appear that in this case, the only one I have discovered in which an occupation is given in these entries, one of the parties was described as a servant, the English word probably having been used; and, as the name of the bride is not given in either of the entries in the list, it is probable also that the original document was incomplete, and that the scribe did not observe this until he had made the second attempt to enter the particulars. The nature of these and other errors is against the theory that the lists were compiled from a draft, and the curious entries just described further indicate that the 1 Register, No. XXXII., fo. 39b. Worcester Diocesan Registry. 2 In the Court books the depositions of witnesses are written in the more familiar language. For notes on other errors in the matrimonial entries, see this Appendix, No. XVI. |