- Oxford English Dictionary.
- British Library (hereafter BL), Cotton MS, Julius F.vi 431 (hereafter Cottonian manuscript). Of a later copy at BL, Lansdowne 909 no. 126, the BL catalogue says: ‘It has been evidently transcribed from the Cotton MS. with unwarrantable alterations in the orthography’.
- Nichols J.G., The Topographer and Genealogist, 2 vols (London, 1853), II, pp. 403–32.
- See p. 144 below.
- Gerard Malynes, Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria, or, the Ancient Law Merchant (London, 1622), p. 271.
- On the question of dating see R. B. Turton, The Alum Farm (Whitby, 1938), pp. 63–9; Roger Pickles, ‘Historical Overview’, in Steeped in History. The Alum Industry of North-East Yorkshire, ed. I. Miller (2002), pp. 8–10.
- He writes ‘steanes, as in their northern they call them’ (p. 13), and speaks of what happened ‘at my last being here’: p. 146 and 147, below.
- For instance, to Puteoli near Naples, and to Mansfeld in Saxony (pp. 144 and 152, below)
- See p. 155, below.
- Dent A.A., ‘The Lyke Wake Dirge and Guisborough’, Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society Bulletin, 40 (Spring 1981), 10.
- When not in London, Chaloner probably lived mostly at his estate at Steeple Claydon, inherited from his father. Francis Tresham was an Oxford contemporary of Chaloner from the neighbouring county of Northamptonshire, and there is other evidence linking the two: Turton, Alum Farm, pp. 60–2.
- Nichols, Topographer and Genealogist, p. 403.
- It has been suggested, for instance by Kenneth Campbell in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, that Sir TC the younger could not have been the son of Sir TC the elder, presumably on the grounds that the latter was serving as English ambassador in Spain in the years before his birth. However, there is evidence that in 1564 the father was paid a long visit in Madrid by Audrey Frodsham, the lady whom he was to marry on his return to England the following spring, and who gave birth to his son: Turton, Alum Farm, pp. 23–5.
- Chaloner’s father was entrusted with a series of important diplomatic missions not only during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth, but also that of the Catholic Mary.
- On this brief flourishing of courtly culture and Chaloner’s role as an instigator, see Timothy Wilks, ‘The Court Culture of Prince Henry and his circle, 1603–1613’ (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1987), as well as Roy Strong, Henry Prince of Wales and England’s Lost Renaissance (London, 1986).
- Chaloner did not, however, write a book about nitre and its uses, as has been claimed by a succession of historians. This work, A shorte discourse of the most rare and excellent vertue of nitre… (1584), was written by his cousin, Thomas Chaloner of Lambay. Sir Thomas may of course have helped his cousin to publish in some way.
- For example, he writes ‘findinge many of them besotted with ould superstycions I cannot chuse but pittye them while I skorne their opinyons’: p. 158, below.
- Turton, Alum Farm, pp. 9–17; Pickles, ‘Historical Overview’, pp. 8–9.
- Written in another hand, probably that of the clerk responsible for binding together various manuscripts from the library of Sir Robert Cotton. These documents were used by Camden and later donated to the BL.
- Situated on the north side of the Bay of Naples, Puteoli was famous for its strong mineral springs, and as a source of alum. See its description in Charles J. Singer, The Earliest Chemical Industry: an essay in the historical relations of economics & technology illustrated from the alum trade (Folio Soc., 1948), pp. 165–71.
- The elder Robert de Brus mentioned here (d. 1141), whose own father (also Robert) came over to England from Normandy in the reign of Henry I, owned vast estates in the north of England. He founded Guisborough Priory (1119), fought the Scots at the battle of the Standard (1138), and probably built Skelton Castle. His son, Robert, was lord of Annandale in Scotland, and hence owed allegiance to the Scottish king. The conclusion of the story given here is that Robert the father handed over his son, taken prisoner at the battle of the Standard, to the English king Stephen, who released him.
- The phrase our kinge shows the letter to have been composed after the death of Elizabeth.
- William Neville, Lord Fauconberg (d. 1463), was seised of Skelton castle and manor, which later descended to the Conyers family.
- The tone of these remarks might suggest that the writer was at least sympathetic to pre-Reformation religion.
- Perhaps a reference to Badon Hill, supposedly the site of a battle in which King Arthur defeated the Saxons.
- Dr Roger Lee (1532–1602), the owner of Pinchinthorpe Hall near Guisborough, practised medicine in York for many years.
- Galinists: followers of the traditional teachings of Galen (130–200 ad) who were opposed to those influenced by the writings of the Swiss physician and alchemist, Paracelsus (1493–1541).
- The meaning here is not entirely clear. Thomas Mouffet (1553–1604) was a distinguished naturalist and physician who was openly sympathetic to Paracelsus. Edward Atslowe (d. 1594) was a more traditional doctor, and a member of the College of Physicians. However, he was said to be a papist who was imprisoned for communicating with Mary, Queen of Scots: Nichols, Topographer and Genealogist, p. 408.
- Literally, the field of Mars, i.e. at the time of military training.
- An early instance of the name Roseberry instead of the earlier Oseberry or the even earlier Odinsburgh. For a discussion of the evolution of this place name see R. B. Turton, ‘Roseberry Topping’, YAJ, 22 (1913), 40–8.
- Shappe scite: this phrase may refer to the unusual shape of Roseberry Topping.
- Geate: jet (OED). The jet rock occurs on Roseberry at about 229 metres (750 feet) above sea level.
- A phrase which seems to indicate that the author was not from the area.
- The flynt may indeed be flint judging by the colours mentioned; the bastard marble is probably the whinstone of the Cleveland Dyke.
- Dabhome or Dobham was on the estuary of the Tees, near the present-day South Gare.
- The reference here is to Ariosto’s epic poem, Orlando Furioso (pub. 1510, but at the date of this letter only recently translated into English), in which a cavalry battle is described as taking place on the island of Lampedusa south of Sicily, which many readers considered impossible due to the ‘sharpnes of rocke’.
- The ‘shells sandes’ consist of calcium carbonate which helps to neutralize acid soils.
- The rocks at the mouth of the Tees are Triassic in age, hence underlying the Jurassic rocks of the North York Moors. Within these rocks are thin layers of calcium sulphate (gypsum).
- These are the Lower Lias shales of Redcar Scars.
- See Dent’s comments on this early description of Redcar cobles in CTLHS Bull., 40 and 41.
- Chaffer: to trade, to haggle over price (OED).
- Nichols, writing in 1853, commented on this fishermen’s festival: ‘This old-fashioned fair or feast is still held on the Monday and Tuesday after Trinity, but without being stained by its former exhibitions of dissoluteness and extravagance’: Nichols, Topographer and Genealogist, p. 414.
- i.e. a groat, equivalent to four pence.
- Probably Huntcliff.
- The shales of the Lower Jurassic rocks contain many concretions of varying diameters and shapes. Those referred to here are from the Lower Lias and are almost perfectly spherical and usually brown-coated although often grey inside. They occur in lines in the shales, and are some six inches across.
- Some of the Lower Jurassic concretions contain ammonites, often perfectly preserved.
- Presumably ‘when all wind has died down’.
- The English ell was 45 in. (114·3 cm).
- Busses: two- or three-masted vessels used especially in the herring-fishery (OED).
- Aqua fortis: nitric acid, a powerful solvent and corrosive.
- Copperas is a term used since early times for the various sulphates of copper, iron and zinc. Here, ‘coperas niter’, often also called green copperas or green vitriol, is iron sulphate, used in dyeing, tanning and making ink; ‘sulpher’ is possibly Jarosite.
- Again, concretions, this time of iron sulphide (pyrites).
- Bulfeetgate: Birdfleet Goit, an indentation in the coastline north-west of Huntcliff Point. Basking seals can still occasionally be seen on these rocks, though not in great herds.
- Pigge: the young of certain mammals thought to resemble the pig (OED).
- Bishopricke syde: the Durham coast north of the Tees estuary. The vaults no doubt refer to Blackhall caves just north of Hartlepool. These are eroded in Permian limestone.
- Proteus was a sea god in Roman and Greek mythology.
- Probably belemnites which are fossils of sea creatures broadly related to ammonites — hence the reference to St Hilda of Whitby.
- This entry shows the author to have travelled abroad, as does the reference to Puteoli on p. 144.
- The old Skelton castle, built by the Bruces, was described as ruinous as early as 1490. It was entirely demolished towards the end of the eighteenth century. However, a brief survey of the castle commissioned in 1584 seems to show that part, at least, was habitable: North Yorkshire County Record Office, ZLQ 73. At the time the Cottonian document was written, the Skelton estate and castle were owned by John Atherton, who opened the Slapewath alum works.
- Cawdkell Well was Kaldekelde in the Middle Ages and Cold Keld in the nineteenth century. It is close to Priestcrofts, about a mile south-east of Skelton.
- It is not clear what these minerals are. Alum shale does contain magnesium-iron sulphate crystals, but these do not have a particular taste.
- At Slape Wath, east of Guisborough, the first alum works in Yorkshire was set up in or about 1604, by John Atherton, owner of the Skelton estate: see introduction, above.
- This certainly refers to Thomas Chaloner of Lambay, Sir Thomas Chaloner’s cousin: introduction, above.
- Obviously a well-laminated shale is being parted. This is perhaps the jet shale rather than the alum shale.
- Possibly these names are used somewhat vaguely to indicate marine shells in general.
- In the medieval version of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy the primum mobile was an outermost sphere (at first reckoned the ninth, later the tenth) supposed to revolve round the earth from east to west in twenty-four hours, carrying with it the (eight or nine) inner spheres.
- The author goes on to express a cautious scepticism towards this theory.
- ‘An instructer of every artificer in brass and iron’: Gen. 4: 22.
- Presumably referring to Cornish tin mines. It was partly this reference that led to speculation that the author himself might have been a Cornishman.
- Blynde Bayarde: one blind to the light of knowledge, who has the self-confidence of ignorance (OED).
- Sleeveles: futile, feeble; giving no information or satisfaction (OED).
- Imbibition means soaking or saturation with liquid. The author seems to understand the basic process by which organisms are converted into fossils. Calcium carbonate is leached out of the ground and deposited on mossy banks, thereby leaving a deposit of tufa.
- This may be a reference to the Top, or Dogger, seam of ironstone which does occur (although poorly) in the vicinity of Guisborough above the alum shale. Under suitable conditions ‘yellow ochre’ may be deposited from water which has flowed over the ironstone.
- Puteoli, where there were alum mines: see note 20, above.
- Sal Gemma: native chloride of sodium; rock-salt.
- A reference to James Lord Mountjoy, the husband of Sir Thomas Chaloner’s step-daughter Katherine. Between 1566 and 1572 Mountjoy attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to produce alum at various sites along the Hampshire and Dorset coast.
- This is the original version of the claim that it was Sir Thomas Chaloner who first discovered and manufactured alum in the north of England: see introduction, above.
- Modern specialists are sceptical about these alleged signs of the presence of alum shale: Pickles, ‘Historical Overview’, p. 8.
- The fact that the mine at Bellman Bank beside Guisborough had apparently not yet opened dates this account to about 1604/5.
- This was to prove a very accurate prophecy.
- A reference to the use of alum as a mordant in the dyeing of cloth.
- Going by the context, this term seems to mean a fine-grained clay from which delicate pottery could be made, and which also might have medicinal uses.
- Bole: a name for several kinds of fine, compact, earthy, or unctuous clay, usually of a yellow, red, or brown colour due to the presence of iron oxide (OED).
- An early reference to the myth of the Lyke Wake Dirge.
- Perhaps damage to the skin.
- With its reference to the tears of our lady, this is clearly a medieval superstition.
- Several sites in England and Wales are associated with the seventh-century St Oswald of Northumbria who was thought to have healing powers. However, such shrines may have their origins in pre-Christian cults.
- Or possibly F Tr: see introduction, above.
Yorkshire Archaeological Journal
A Review of History and Archaeology in the County
Volume 84, 2012 - Issue 1
![Supercharge Your Next Research Paper: Research and write your next paper with Jenni AI.]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/112447/MPU-L1HU.png"})