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XIII. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the amount of Booty taken at Cadiz in 1596; with The Charges preferred in consequence by Sir Gelly Meyricke against Sir Anthony Ashley, and The Answers of the former to the Recrimination of the latter; in a Letter from Samuel Rush Meyrick, Esq. LL.D. and F.S.A. to Henry Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. Secretary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

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Extract

The kindness of our worthy Member, my friend Mr. Lemon, having brought to my notice a curious document in the State Paper Office, I have, by Mr. Secretary Peel's permission, the honour of laying a copy of it before the Society of Antiquaries. In so doing, I cannot avoid premising the few remarks with which I mean to introduce it, by observing, generally, how valuable this manuscript appears in a statistical point of view.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1826

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References

page 173 note a Memoirs, vol. II. p. 95.

page 175 note a Cadiz was so called at this time.

page 175 note b This stands for 1250.

page 176 note c He was wounded and Sir John Wynfield killed at the attack and capture of Cadiz.

page 179 note d Mr. Cuffe was one of the Earl's secretaries.

page 180 note e Mr. Hopkins was a Herefordshire man, the Earl's county.

page 180 note f The word wanting is “admonition,” in all probability.

page 180 note g This charge is for conduct in direct opposition to Her Majesty's instructions given to the generals, which Camden, in his Annals of Elizabeth, tells us were the following: “To enquire what preparations of war there were in the enemies ships or storehouses intended to be sent against England, Ireland, or Calais; and to intercept and destroy them, together with the said ships, but not to expose rashly Her Majesty's soldiers or ships to danger: to spare the women and children when any town should be taken, and to offer no violence to any but those who should resist: to reserve the spoil and plunder in order to reimburse the charges of the expedition, and to reward those who had deserved well in the service,” &c.

page 181 note h He was a Captain in Sir Francis Vere's regiment and had been wounded in the attack on Cadiz.

page 181 note i The high ransome that continued at this period to be paid for prisoners, made the possession of them a very desirable object.

page 181 note k In Mr. Cuftè's relation of the siege of Cadiz he says, “There was in the low town a munition house worth 20,000 crowns, a custom house worth as much, besides a sugar house full of rich merchandize.”

page 181 note l In a letter of the Lord Admiral of 8th July 1596 is, “On tuesday the 22d June those in the castle sent the Corregidor and other principal men to declare that they would surrender, as did also the captains of the forts. Before 2 of the clock in the forenoon the Earl's ensign was on the top of the castle.”

page 182 note m This seems to refer to the oath of purgation which, with the Corregidor's evidence, would have been equal to two witnesses, a circumstance that shows those charges were to be substantiated probably in the star-chamber, where the civil law process, which requirei not less than two witnesses to each fact, was that of the court.

page 183 note r It was in Sir Conyers Clifford's regiment that Sir Gelly Meyricke was Lieutenant Colonel.

page 184 note o Secretary Cecil.

page 185 note p Sir Gelly's brother was Sir Francis Meyrick, second son of Dr. Rowland Meyrick, bishop of Bangor, who was the second son of Meyric ab Llewelyn of Bôdorgan in co. Anglesea, Esquire of the Body to King Henry the Seventh. Sir Francis was father to Sir John, who commanded the artillery under the Earl of Essex at the siege of Reading in 1643, and ancestor of the Meyricks of Bush in co. Pembroke, where his portrait is still preserved.

page 185 note q This was probably the bridge which united the Isla with the main land. Cuffe, in his relation of the siege, says, “The Spanish horsemen came to resist the landing, but were beaten back, and the most of them went to the bridge that led over to the main.” In the Lord Admiral's despatch is, “The Earl of Essex with one half marched towards the town; the other half marched with Sir Conyers Clifford, Sir Christopher Blount, and Sir Thos. Gerard, to Pont Suaco, at the farther end of the island to break it down.”

page 185 note r The price of stockings is a very curious particular from their recent introduction.

page 185 note s Milford was not far from the patrimonial estate of Sir Gelly, who, when not at his house in St. Clement's without Temple Bar, London, resided at Hascard in Pembrokeshire. Marrying the widow of John Gwyn of Llanelwedd in co. Brecon, who inherited her father's estates at Cladestry and Nantmellan, took him into Radnorshire, and the splendid grant of a moiety of that property, now the Earl of Oxford's in Herefordshire, occasioned his removal to Wigmore castle, in that county. The confiscation of this property, on his attainder for joining in the Earl of Essex's rebellion, threw his familyinto some obscurity, but they continued to reside in Herefordshire, where they had freehold property in Lucton and Eyton, till the death of my great-grandfather.

page 185 note t This is alluded to in the 10th article of the charges brought against Sir Anthony by Sir Gelly Meyricke.

page 185 note u This was the St. Andrew.

page 187 note x The custom-house at Cadiz, which Mr.Cuffe states was worth 20,000 crowns.

page 188 note y A Herefordshire gentleman.