BERLIN: NEW YORK: ASHER & CO., 53 MOHRENSTRASSE, C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. AUTHOR OF EDITED BY SIDNEY J. HERRTAGE B.A., "6 TUSSER'S FIVE HUNDRED POINTES OF GOOD HUSBANDRIE." 46060. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, MDCCCLXXVIII. BEYOND what we can glean from a very few public documents and his own statements in his letter to Cromwell, we know little of the life of Thomas Starkey. Practically, the history of his career is little more than the history of the negociations between Henry VIII. ' and Reginald Pole with reference to the support which the king hoped to receive from the latter on the two important questions of the legality of his marriage with Queen Katharine, his brother's widow, and the supremacy of the Pope in England. For nearly two years did these negociations last, and during these two years Starkey was the sole medium of intercommunication. At the time of their commencement he had only lately been appointed chaplain to the king, and with their failure he disappeared from public life, retiring in all probability to the church living which had in December 1536 been bestowed on him, and, as he tells us, utilizing his leisure moments in the composition of his Dialogue and other works. § 1. Of Starkey's birth and family we know nothing for certain. He a 2 46060 Engl. iv THE FAMILY OF STARKEY. was in all probability descended from a family of high standing and considerable local influence in Cheshire.1 Of this family we find four distinct branches, but to which of these Thomas Starkey belonged I am unable satisfactorily to ascertain. The four branches were, (1) the Starkeys of Stretton; (2) of Barnton (Cheshire) and Huntroyde (Lancashire); (3) of Olton or Oulton; and (4) of Wrenbury. Thomas Starkey may have been brother to Laurence Starkey (mentioned below), who at that time was the representative of the second branch of the family; but he certainly could not have been son, since from an Inquis! post mort. we find that the latter's eldest son was only 14 years of age in 1547, when his father died.2 It is also certain that he was not the son nor the brother of the Hugh Starkey, the representative of the third branch, also mentioned below, for the latter at his death, in 1555, left but one son (illegitimate), Oliver, who afterwards became Grand Prior of the Knights of Malta; and his only brother James was buried beside him in Over Church.4 Neither did Starkey belong to the fourth branch, for that branch was at the time represented by another Thomas, who was 30 years of age in 1528.5 The family of Starkey dates back to an early period of English history, for we find that in the reign of King John, Roger FitzAlured granted the Manor of Stretton (Cheshire) to Richard Starkey and his heirs, "to hold as freely as any of the said Richard's ancestors ever held the same, for the service of the tenth part of a knight's fee. And Sir Geffrey de Warburton released unto Thomas Starkey of Stretton, and to his heirs, all his claim in Villa de Stretton, ceu in aliqua Parcella eiusdem, ut de Wardis, Maritagiis, Releviis, Exaetis, Homagiis, aut Servitiis, quæ prædictus Thomas aut Antecessores sui mihi, seu Antecessoribus meis, facere solebant: Datum 4 die Aprilis, 5 Rich. II. (1382). Yet, notwithstanding, the said 1 But there was another or a branch of the same family in Kent, and as Starkey held a living near Deal, as mentioned below, it is just possible he may have belonged to this branch. 2 See Ormerod, Hist, of the County Palatine and City of Chester, 1819, I. 474. 3 Ormerod, II. 103, 104. 4 Lysons, Magna Britannia, Vol. II. pt. ii. p. 719, 5 Ormerod, III. 205. |