Gazetteer of Plasterers - L

LACY (LACEY, LACIE), Raphe (fl. 1624-43)

A Plasterer who was the son of a Buckinghamshire yeoman, apprenticed to John Addison for 8 years (23 April 1616) and who paid his freedom and abling fines on 19 March 1623/4. He did not pay his beadleship fine until 25 July 1632 and presented his first apprentice, George Younge (son of a Bedfordshire wheelwright) for 8 years on 23 April 1634. He was fined for absence (7 November 1639) and was among those nominated for the Livery on 27 June 1640. When George Younge was freed, Lacy was fined for not enrolling him (3 February 1641/2). His next apprentice was Robert Ball, son of a London Citizen and Whitebaker, who was presented for 8 years (4 May 1642; turned over to John Hubbard, 30 October 1643). Lacy was last recorded paying arrearage of quarterage on 25 July 1643.

LADYN, Edward (fl. 1607)

A plasterer among the team that was paid at the rate of 2s per day for work at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in anticipation of a royal visit in 1607.[1]

LAKE (LACKE, LEAK), Edmund (fl. 1594; d. 1638)

A Citizen and Plasterer of St Gabriel Fenchurch Street and later of All Hallows Barking. He is recorded in the parish registers of St Gabriel Fenchurch Street at the baptisms of his son John (4 September 1597); daughters Christian (3 June 1604); Ursula (27 July 1606); Elizabeth (6 November 1608); Catherine (30 December 1611); Frances (13 December 1612); and the burials of Christian (4 March 1604/5) and a lodger, Nicholas Caranabie (13 December 1614). Lake must have been one of those many apprentices presented anonymously as his name first appeared in the Company’s records when he paid his abling fine on 8 November 1594. His beadleship fine followed (2 August 1595) and he entered the Livery on 24 August 1612. He added his signature to a Company memorandum concerning apprentices (23 February 1616/17) and paid £12 when he was sworn in as an Assistant, without previously serving as Junior Warden (20 September 1621). Lake was elected as Senior Warden for 1624-5 (11 September 1624) but stood unsuccessfully in the election for Master (12 September 1631). He was elected the following year and served as Master for 1632-3, was unsuccessful in 1635 but was elected again for 1636-7 (12 September 1636). On 2 July 1638 the Company spent money ‘at Mr Lake’s burying’, as he had requested in his will (see below). Lake was fined for ill work on several occasions: unspecified (30 November 1599); in Fenchurch Street with Robert Whiting (12 November 1602); without Moorgate (23 May 1606); unspecified (31 July 1612); in Tower Street at Barking Church (4 November 1618); unspecified (5 February 1621/2 and 9 August 1622); bad work at The Rose, Tower Street (30 April 1628); bad work at a tailor’s house in Rood Lane (5 May 1635). Michael Man paid a fine ‘for takinge work from his brother Lake in Lymestreete by synister meanes’ (13 March 1599/1600). Lake was fined for absence (2 April 1619, 23 April 1624, 21 June 1631) and lateness (12 March 1623/4 and 13 October 1630). A memorandum of 7 May 1624 recorded that Lake had apologised to Mrs Carter and paid John Carter 2s in compensation for slandering him by saying he kept a bawdy house. Lake was fined for ‘coming in a falling band’ on 9 May 1637. His first apprentice was William Baldwin, son of a Gloucestershire yeoman, for 7 years (19 June 1600). He was followed by: Robert Rigby (25 July 1607); Edward Rogers, son of a Denbighshire yeoman, for 8 years (2 August 1615); William Bond, son of a Herefordshire yeoman, for 7 years (31 October 1615); his son, Humfrey Lake, was freed by patrimony (5 June 1621); Laurence Shippey, son of a Leicestershire carpenter (24 April 1622); Francis Pickell was turned over to him from Richard Ratcliffe (11 July 1623; Pickell was turned over again to Edward Grigges on 23 April 1624 and freed on 2 July 1630); Henry Warden, son of a Northamptonshire yeoman, for 7 years (26 July 1624; freed 9 August 1631); John Groobye was turned over to him after the death of his master, Thomas Holliar (11 September 1626); Francis Cobb, son of a Gloucestershire husbandman, for 9 years (1 August 1628); Robert Midwinter was turned over from John Humfrey (22 March 1632/3); Thomas Kingson, son of a Buckinghamshire tailor, for 7 years (23 April 1633); Thomas Gilburd, son of a deceased Norfolk husbandman, for 7 years and Philip Vaughan from Shropshire for 7 years (22 August 1633; Vaughan was freed on 13 October 1640, not quite according to the terms of Lake’s will below); Thomas Basford, son of a Cheshire plasterer, for 7 years (3 July 1635; discharged as a runaway 8 March 1635/6); John Matthewes was turned over to Lake from Richard Fisher, deceased (4 February 1635/6, was turned over again to William Walter on Lake's decease on 2 July 1638 and freed on 27 August 1638); Edward Davis, turned over from Edward Robinson to Lake, was also discharged as a runaway (8 March 1635/6). Although he was by then free of the Plasterers’ Company, Lake was listed as a labourer to the plasterers employed by the Skinners’ Company in 1596, working for four days at 12d per day in June that year.[2] Lake was paid for lime, hair, colours and ‘other stuffe’, in addition to workmanship, by the Clothworkers' Company in 1606. In October-November he was ‘new whitinge & Colouringe the Walles’ of the hall, for which he was paid £6 3s 4d.[3] In 1607 he was among the team that was paid at the rate of 2s per day for work at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in preparation for a royal visit.[4]

Lake made his final will on 15 June 1638.[5] At the time of his death he was a resident of All Hallows Barking. He left 20s to his son Humfrey Lake, with all his working tools, implements and other necessaries ‘belonging to my trade’. He also bequeathed to his son a little table, an iron pot, a spit rack, a great press, a standing bedstead and a half-headed bedstead. He left his grandson Edmund Lake 40s, as well as a kettle, a pot and two candlesticks, all of brass. He left his son-in-law Henry Belcher his livery gown, and his daughter Anne (Belcher’s wife) 20s for a ring in his remembrance. His apprentice Philip Vaughan had still three years to serve, but was to serve two years with Humfrey Lake and to have his final year remitted (see below). He left £3 to the Plasterers’ Company for their members to accompany his body at his funeral. He left the residue of his estate to his daughter Ursula, wife of George Arden. He named his friends Richard Williams and Richard Jarvis as overseers and left them 40s each for their pains. Probate was granted on 18 June 1638.

LAKE, Humfrey (fl. 1621; d. between 1638 and 1652)

A Plasterer who was the son of Edmund Lake and who was freed by patrimony on 5 June 1621. Humphrey Lake of All Hallows Barking was granted a licence to marry Audrey Papes of St Alban Wood Street at St Mary Islington on 26 March 1624.[6] He presented his first apprentice, Robert Ridge, son of an Essex yeoman, for 8 years (22 June 1629) and paid his beadleship fine (13 August 1629). His next apprentice was Richard Lane, son of a Northamptonshire yeoman, presented for 7 years (29 May 1633); Henry Field, the apprentice of John Page, was turned over to ‘Humphrey Lake the Younger’ (18 June 1634); Philip Vaughan was turned over to him on the death of Edmund Lake, ‘by his own consent and according to the last will and testament of his master’ (2 July 1638; freed 13 October 1640). Humfrey’s son, Edmund, was freed by patrimony, after his father’s death (Election Day, September 1652).

LAMBE (LAMME), John (fl. 1605-25)

A Plasterer who was apprenticed to Robert Garsett (13 March 1599/1600) and admitted as a freeman on 26 May 1607. While still an apprentice Lambe was paid by the Churchwardens of St Margaret New Fish Street for plastering work in 1605. On two occasions during that year he worked for 6 days, receiving 9s each time.[7] On 24 August 1608 Lambe refused to pay the beadleship fine and does not appear to have made a success of his plastering career. On 2 December 1614 his name was added to the list of those receiving ‘benevolence’ from the Company. On 25 January 1615/16 he received a payment for helping the Beadle; and this was repeated on 25 July 1616 and 13 October 1617. A further payment of benevolence was made conditional upon Lambe’s good behaviour (30 January 1617/18). Lambe and his wife were rewarded for ‘their paines and his work in whitinge the wall in the yarde’ (4 November 1618). Lambe’s name was not listed among the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts after 1625 and Widow Lambe was added to the list of widows receiving charity from the Company on 15 February 1627/8.

LAMBE, William (fl. 1589-1601)

A Plasterer who was apprenticed to Adam Oldham (25 July 1581) and freed on 12 September 1589). He presented Thomas Swansen, son of an Essex butcher, for 7 years (11 May 1598; to be dated from 4 June). Lambe paid for his pattern for the Livery (14 August 1598) and it was noted on 8 February 1598/9 that he was to have no more apprentices, according to the terms laid down by the Company. This controversy was regarded as important because it created a precedent ‘unto other whoe shall marrye anye widoe of any Plasterer as the said William Lamb hath’. This was settled on 2 August 1599, when Lambe signed     an agreement that he would pay a fine of £4 plus a quarterly donation of 6s 8d for two years. This was adhered to (30 November 1599; 13 October 1600), with Lambe making his final payment to the Company on 3 September 1601, the last occasion on which his name appeared in the Company records.

LANGFORD (LANCKFORD, LANGFORTH, LANGTON, LONGFOORTH) John (fl. 1590; d. 1621)

A Plasterer recorded as a resident of Gunpowder Alley, Fetter Lane, in the parish register of St Andrew Holborn, at the baptism of a daughter Martha (7 February 1601/2) and at the burial of a son Miles (7 August 1617).[8] Langford was apprenticed to John Laycock (14 December 1582), who left him 3s 4d in his will which was proved on 11 May 1590. Langford’s freedom was not recorded, perhaps because of his master’s death; but he paid his beadleship fine on 31 July 1590 and paid for his pattern for the Livery on 14 August 1598. He served as Junior Warden for 1607-8; as Senior Warden for 1611-12; and as Master for 1618-19. On 23 February 1617 he paid a fine of 4d on account of his long absence. As a senior member of the Assistants he was one of those selected to try to seek an agreement with the Painter-Stainers’ Company (25 August 1619). Langford incurred further fines on several occasions: unspecified (23 May 1592); for his work in the Temple (3 December 1595); for ill work in Fleet Street (28 July 1602); for evil work at the Temple (6 November 1607). Despite his apparent shortcomings Langford acted as plasterer to both Inner and Middle Temple from 1607-21, described below. He was also fined for keeping four of his ‘boys’ for more than six months before presenting them as apprentices: William Widmore (20 February 1594/5); Thomas Roades (17 March 1594/5); Adam Clay (24 June 1602) and James Goodall (14 June 1615). Miles Langford was apprenticed to his father (26 February 1607); John Spooner for 8 years (14 January 1609/10); Robert Elledge from Staffordshire for 8 years (4 September 1611); Adam Gilbert was turned over from Mr Ratcliffe (5 December 1611); Robert Whitehead was turned over from Richard Stephenson, deceased (31 January 1611/12); William Newman was turned over from Robert Burton (12 February 1613/14); John Taylor, apprentice of Langford ‘who served his time with Andrew Weldon’ was freed (11 March 1613/14); Richard Langford was made free by patrimony (13 October 1615). On 13 June 1617 Langford and Mr Roades were fined for bad work in Aldersgate Street. His last apprentice was Richard Newman, son of a Northamptonshire dyer, for 8 years (26 July 1619).

Langford was kept busy at sites just beyond the City boundary, in Westminster. He was one of a number of plasterers who worked under Richard Dungan at Salisbury House on the Strand, in his case, for just three days.[9] More significant was his work for the Inns of Court. From 1607-8 until 1612-13 Langford was employed on a variety of plastering tasks at Inner Temple, mainly involving repairing and whitewashing existing parts of the buildings. Some of these were quite lucrative; for example, he received £7 6s for work in Mr Treasurer’s Chamber in 1608-9; £5 14s for miscellaneous work in 1611-12; and £6 12s 9d for work at Lord Coke’s chamber and in the pastry, hall and buttery in 1612-13.[10] Responsibility for the upkeep of the Temple Church was shared by Inner and Middle Temple and it was the former who paid Langford £25 4s for whiting and mending the ceiling, pillars, hall and cloister of the church in 1608-9.[11] In 1615 John Langford, ‘the playsterer to the howse’, was paid £5 16s 9d for his work during the year in Middle Temple, mainly in the Chambers of Mr Dainton [?] and the Treasurer.[12] A much more major project was undertaken in Inner Temple in 1620 when two existing chambers were to be ‘plucked down’ and replaced with a new building to house Sir Thomas Coventry, the Attorney General. On 10 July 1620 Langford put his mark to the specification for plastering the brick walls and internal partitions.[13] A detailed contract followed on 16 March 1621, to which Langford again put his mark, undertaking to plaster ‘particons, seelings, stayres and stayrecases and playstering the Inner side of the walls of the said buyldinge sufficiently meet and fit for the same.’[14] Langford may not have lived to complete the task. His will does not survive but his daughter Marthe @ Newman was granted administration of his estate, valued at over £10, in 1621 and this was confirmed on 25 October 1622.[15] Martha was presumably the wife of William Newman, ex-apprentice of Langford, who succeeded him as plasterer to the Inner and Middle Temple.

LANGFORD (LANGFORTHE), Miles (fl. 1611-17)

A Plasterer who was presented by his father John (26 February 1606/7) and freed by patrimony (31 July 1612). He paid the fine for not serving his beadleship (11 August 1613) and in 1614 he was working at the Charterhouse. He was paid at the rate of 2s per day for 5 days in July-August and 5½ days in August-September.[16] Unlike his father, he was able to put his signature (rather than his mark) to a Company memorandum concerning apprentices of 23 February 1616/17, the last date on which his name appeared in the records.

LANGFORD (LANGFORTH, LONGFORTH), Richard (fl. 1615-27)

Another son of John, who was freed by patrimony and paid his abling fine on 13 October 1615. His name is listed in the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts until 1627 but is crossed through in 1628. As his name does not appear elsewhere in the Company records he may not have pursued a career as a Plasterer.

LANGLEY, Robert (fl. 1618-58)

A Plasterer whose original apprenticeship went unrecorded but in Robert Burton's will (made on 7 October 1613; proved 13 October 1613) Langley was mentioned as his servant, who occupied a bedstead in his house. Langley and his fellow-apprentice were to be released one year early and to complete their terms with William North, 'with whom they should dwell'. Langley was turned over from Robert Burton to William North (15 November 1613) and was freed as Burton’s apprentice (29 April 1618). He was fined for lateness (13 October 1618) and paid his beadleship fine (19 October 1621). He presented his first apprentice, John Hey, son of a Northamptonshire weaver, for 7 years (8 May 1623; freed 2 July 1630), when he also paid the fine for not serving one year as a journeyman (recorded 4 September 1623). On 3 November 1625 Langley was admitted to the Livery. He is probably to be identified with ‘Langley the Plaisterer’ who received 45s 3d on 12 October 1629 for his work on Mr Stapleton’s chamber and kitchen in the Inner Temple, since Robert Langley was fined for bad work in the Temple on 6 November 1629.[17] When his apprentice Hey was freed Langley presented Anthony Baylie, son of a Wiltshire husbandman, for 7 years (2 July 1630; freed 4 August 1637). His next apprentice, Edward Langley, son of a husbandman, for 7 years, came from the same Northamptonshire village as John Hey (14 February 1633) and may have been related to Langley, although not as his son. John Harding, son of a Northamptonshire carrier, apprenticed himself to Langley for 8 years (25 January 1637/8; freed 4 December 1645). Langley was fined for absence and for not enrolling his apprentice in the Company Hall and Nicholas Feazey was then turned over to him from Robert Huntington (3 September 1639; freed 1 May 1645). His son Walter was apprenticed to his father for 7 years (11 June 1640; freed by patrimony 4 December 1645). On 30 November 1643 Langley was fined for keeping ‘his sonne [Walter] to worke at the trayde of a playsterer’ as his servant when he already has two apprentices, contrary to Company ordinances. His gift of 16s to the Company was then crossed through. On 20 February 1643/4 he was warned twice before the Lord Mayor and on 19 March 1644 the Court of Aldermen referred the differences between the Company and Robert Langley and others to a sub-committee for their report.[18] On 23 April payments were made in connection with Mr Langley’s business and the Company then attended a ‘Comitte at Guildhall about Mr Langleys Complainte’ (30 April 1644), the outcome of which is unknown. William Griffin, son of a Leicestershire weaver, was apprenticed for 7 years (4 December 1645; freed 9 December 1652); Paul Collins, son of a Gloucester card maker apprenticed himself to Langley for 7 years (1 May 1647); William Budd, son of a Worcestershire husbandman, was apprenticed for 7 years (13 May 1653; freed 16 August 1660); William Draper, previously unrecorded, was freed as Robert Langley’s apprentice on 20 December 1658.

Langley was one of two Plasterers who put their marks, rather than their signatures, to a memorandum about the purchase of two tenements by the Company following a fire (21 February 1630/31). He was fined for bad work without Aldgate (9 May 1632) and stood unsuccessfully in the election for Junior Warden for 1632-3 (30 September 1632). On 22 March 1632/3 he was fined for bad work in Philpott Lane and for keeping an apprentice ‘more than his allowance’. He was elected Junior Warden for 1633-4 (9 September 1633). By 5 February 1634/5 Langley had learnt to write well enough to add his signature to a memorandum regarding the appropriate clothing to be worn when attending on the Lord Mayor or appearing at Court or Quarter Days. The following year he was authorised to make payments on the Company’s behalf to the Attorney at the Lord Mayor’s Court (25 January 1635/6) and on 11 September 1637 he was elected Senior Warden for 1637-8. Repeated absences incurred further fines (27 January 1639/40; 20 May and 10 August 1640); and lateness likewise (28 August 1640; 4 June 1641). On 13 September 1641 Langley was elected Master for 1641-2 and offered to pay for a sermon to be delivered to the Company on Michaelmas Day in order to settle ‘a Religious and pious government amongst the brethren and Brotherhoode of this Company’. It was thereupon decided that all future Masters should do the same, the sermon ‘to be preatched by some learned and Orthodoxall devine at the parish Church of St Albones’ in Wood Street. This sermon would be preceded by a procession of the Assistants and Livery in gowns and hoods from the Company Hall to the Church. Langley was fined again for bad work (3 February 1641/2) and made a free gift of 5s towards the Company’s donation ‘for Ireland’ (13 October 1643). Langley was again in trouble for reviling and scandalizing with ill language Mr John Waight, ‘a loving member of this Company’ (25 July 1645). Langley was fined for unspecified bad work on several occasions (15 January 1645/6; 5 May 1648; 20 September 1650). In September 1648 he was working for the Merchant Taylors’ Company at their school and in October he was plastering in their Hall. In March 1648/9 he received payments of 41s and 33s for these tasks, respectively.[19] Mr Langley was absent again on 8 August 1650 and was fined for bad work at Barber Surgeons’ Hall on 23 April 1653. He stood unsuccessfully in the election for Master for 1655-6 (10 September 1655) and was fined for ‘taking work of a Carpenter’ (13 October 1655). Langley became a serial offender in this respect and a payment of £1 10s for several such misdemeanours was entered in the Search Book (25 January 1655/6). An unspecified fine was incurred on 23 April 1656 and his name does not appear again after his apprentice, William Draper, was freed on 20 December 1658.

LATTES, James (fl. 1561-2)

A plasterer who was working for the Clothworkers’ Company at their property in Fleet Lane as one of the team under Richard Denham in 1561-2. He worked for 24 days in August, receiving 14d per day.[20]

LAWLESSE, John (fl. 1590-92)

A Plasterer who paid his abling fine on 26 January 1589/90. He donated a gilt spoon valued at 8s to the Company on 11 September 1590 but was in receipt of charity on 20 October 1592, the last occasion on which his name was recorded.

LAYCOCK, John (fl. 1559; d. 1590)

A Plasterer who first appears as one of seven plasterers who worked under Patrick Kellie in the long gallery at Whitehall Palace in May 1559 in preparation for the visit of the French embassy.[21] John Laycock was paid at a rate of 11d per day for six days’ work. In March and May 1566 he was one of the team plastering the great chamber and the kitchen at Fotheringhay Castle; and in June he was working on ‘the bankett hows’ at Collyweston.[22] He was fined for bad work at Staple Inn (27 April 1582). In 1585-86 he was paid £4 10s 10d for plastering work in the new rooms over the hall and in the porch at Bakers’ Hall.[23] Ill work in Fleet Street, in partnership with Edmund Harrison, incurred a further fine (3 November 1587). As a senior member of the Company Laycock presented several apprentices: Thomas Thompson in 1571; Peter Thorpe (2 September 1575); followed by Robert Clayton (17 February 1575/6); Richard Tomlin (20 November 1579); John Langford (14 December 1582); Michael Whitton was turned over to him (- April 1587); John Pitcher (7 December 1589). Laycock served as Junior Warden in 1573-4 and paid for his renewed pattern for the livery (4 June 1574). On 9 September 1577 he was one of the Assistants in favour of a memorandum to change the rules for promotion within the Company; and he supported a memorandum the following year to regulate its finances (15 September 1578). He was elected Senior Warden for 1579-80 (14 September 1579) and again for 1582-3 (11 September 1582); and then served as Master for 1585-6 (13 September 1585). On 25 March 1586 he was one of those to put his mark (a six-pointed star) to the agreement made with Ralph Bettes to loan the Company £50. John Laycock made his final will on 23 April 1590 when he was living in the parish of St Bride Fleet Street and asked to be buried in his parish church.[24] He left 20s each to his brother William Laycock, Plumber; to his sister Isabell Martynne; and to Robert Gollopyn (his wife’s son). To his apprentice John Langford he left 3s 4d. The remainder of his goods and possessions went to his wife, Alice. 20s was set aside for the Plasterers’ Company to attend his funeral. He named Ralph Bettes and Richard Barfield as his overseers and left them 3s 4d each for their pains. Ralph Bettes and Edmund Harrison were among the witnesses to the will. Probate was granted on 11 May 1590. On 20 October 1592 Widow Laycock received a payment in charity.

LEA (LEARE, LEE), John (fl. 1591-1625)

A Plasterer presented by Cornelius Hand (8 May 1584), who paid his fines for abling (11 November 1591) and beadleship (25 July 1592). Lea’s apprentices were: Henry Lawe, the apprentice of Robert Garsett, turned over to him (13 August 1596); Thomas Crawley for 7 years (28 January 1596/7); Thomas Hand (28 April 1600); William Morrice (29 April 1608); John Dinge (29 July 1608); John Conway, son of a Shropshire tailor, for 8 years (16 November 1615); Charles Lea, son of a Warwickshire weaver, for 9 years (25 January 1619/20; freed 6 September 1632; see below). Lea was fined for disobedience (13 April 1599), was committed (30 January 1599/1600) and was sent to the Compter again on 3 January 1605/6. John Lea was working with John Pritchard at Whitehall in 1601-2, lathing and plastering the walls and ceiling beneath a pair of stairs in the room adjoining the masons’ lodge.[25] Lea was fined for ill work in Fish Street; and at Lambeth, where he was partnered by Hugh Flood (- August 1606). Richard Terry was fined 'for suffering his man for to pencill certaine brickwork in a peece of work wherein John Lea and he were partners' (15 March 1615/16). Bad work in two places incurred a further fine (16 November 1615). Lea put his mark to the Company memorandum concerning apprentices (23 February 1616/17). Lea’s name continued to appear among the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts until 1625. Widow Lea replaced him from 1626-8. She received charity from the Company (1 August & 1 October 1627). It was noted on 6 September 1627 that Charles Lea, late servant of Widow Ann Lea, was to pay her 20s in return for his freedom. This sum was paid on Lea’s behalf by Kelham Roades, and would be repaid to him in instalments. Widow Lee was one of those receiving a Company pension on 26 July 1641.

LEASE, William (fl. 1563)

A Plasterer who made his will on 29 July 1563 while living in the parish of St Margaret Pattens, where he wished to be buried in the churchyard. Lease left £3 6s 8d to his son, Charles, who was probably not destined to be a plasterer. The ladders, scaffolding, planks and everything else pertaining to his occupation he left to John Lease, his apprentice and kinsman, who was also given one year off his apprenticeship term of 8 years. The residue of the estate went to Margaret, hise wife and sole executrix, and the will was proved on 31 August 1563. (LMA DL/C/B/004/MS 09171/015, f. 128v.)

 

LEE (LEA), Christopher (fl. 1615-25)

A Plasterer who was apprenticed to Mr [Robert] Priestman (25 April 1606), who was later paid ‘for binding Lees sonne’ (4 August 1606). Lee was presented again (as the son of John [Lee], Citizen and Plasterer of London, deceased) by James Billing for 8 years (30 January 1606/7). It was as Billing’s apprentice that he was employed in 1607 at the rate of 2s per day, as part of the large team working at Merchant Taylors’ Hall prior to a royal visit.[26] Problems subsequently arose in connection with Lee’s apprenticeship. The Company paid for the Lord Mayor’s order which ‘was sent to Mr Chamberline about Lees sonne’ (15 March 1608/9); and the Chamberlain’s officer was paid for warning of [Thomas] Widmore about Lees sonne’ (30 March 1609). On 28 April 1609 further payments were made in connection with the committal of Lee’s son to Bridewell. The Company then paid for a copy of the order made by the Court of Aldermen about Lee’s son (24 May 1609); and recorded that the case of Widmore and Lee was heard before the Court on 27 June 1609. A further warning was issued to Widmore and Lee (28 July 1609) and a copy of the judgment re Lee’s son was purchased (11 August 1609). The Lord Mayor had ordered that Thomas Widmore should pay a fine for various offences ‘and especially for setting Christopher Lee his man to worke and afterwards, contrary to the Lord Mayor’s order, for enterteyning him’. Widmore refused to pay and was to answer before the Lord Mayor again (31 August 1609). Christopher was finally freed by patrimony on 13 January 1614/15, when it was noted that he ‘doth serve a Bricklaier his yeeres journeyman, viz John Andrewes’. Lee paid his beadleship fine on 29 August 1616. He put his mark to a Company memorandum about apprentices (23 February 1616/17) and continued to pay quarterage until 1625.

LEE (A LEE, ALYE), John (fl. 1587-1606)

A Plasterer apprenticed to Randall Shene on 29 April 1580, who paid his admission fine and made a goodwill payment on 10 November 1587. His beadleship fine was paid on 7 September 1589. An unspecified fine was paid on A Lee’s behalf by Thomas Widmore (31 July 1590) and Lee then paid off all his outstanding debts to the Company (30 April 1591). He presented John Kirbie as his apprentice (29 August 1592). Lee was sent to prison (23 November 1593). John Lee was working with John Pritchard at Whitehall in 1601-2, lathing and plastering the walls and ceiling beneath a pair of stairs in the room adjoining the masons’ lodge.[27] John was the father of Christopher Lee; he died in 1606, when his name was crossed through in the Quarterage Accounts.

 

The members of the LEIGH (LEA, LEE) family are difficult to disentangle because the first two generations were not members of the London Company; and their forenames seem only to alternate between James and Abraham. There is therefore a degree of speculation in the following accounts, as there is no documentary evidence that Abraham and James II were related to James I, the Royal Master Plasterer, although this seems highly probable.

LEIGH (LEE), Abraham (fl. 1613-44)

A plasterer whose name first appears in the building accounts for the Charterhouse in 1613-14, working as part of the team led by Kelham Roades. He was paid at the rate of 2s per day for a total of 55¾ days’ work between July-November 1613 and April-June 1614. James Leigh III worked alongside him for 23 days in September and October 1613, at the rate of 18d per day. In addition, in February 1614 Abraham received 40s for ‘the kings armes & Governers Armes in the Schoole ceeling’.[28] It is not clear how this related to the similar-sounding work for which James Leigh I was paid later in the year. Abraham’s career as a plasterer is subsequently only briefly recorded in the Royal Works accounts. In 1616-17 he was paid 40s for plastering between the joists over the Riding House at the Mews, the king providing all manner of stuff.[29] Decorative plasterwork was undertaken by him at St James’s Palace in 1618-19, where he received £7 2s ‘for lathing and laying with Lyme and Haire a frett Ceeling in the Princes Closett containing 35½ yards flatt measure at 4s the yard’. 27½ yards of brick wall under the ceiling were plastered at 7d per yard, Leigh providing ‘stuffe and woorkmanshipp’. At the same time, but in partnership with Richard Talbot, he carried out much additional plain plastering at St James’s in the service rooms of the palace, earning a total of £79 4s 2d, the king providing only the scaffolding.[30] In 1644 Abraham and his labourers, George Barnet and James Leigh II, were working together at St James’s Palace once more but no details of their work survive. Abraham was paid 2s 4d per day for 8 days in July; Barnet’s daily rate was 1s 4d and James’s only 10d.[31] On 19 May 1647 James II, son of Abraham Leigh of Richmond, Surrey, Plaisterer, apprenticed himself to Thomas Wright for 8 years. Abraham Leigh was father to two sons baptised in Richmond: Abraham on 14 July 1624 and James II on 30 November 1626.[32] It would appear that by 1647 James II wanted to obtain the freedom to work in the City that his father had not acquired.

LEIGH (LEE), James I (fl. 1610-25)

A plasterer who, in the documentary record, springs fully-formed as a decorative plasterer of considerable expertise in 1610. Within three weeks of Richard Dungan’s burial Leigh was appointed as his successor in the post of Master Plasterer to the Royal Works, by a grant dated 9 January 1609/10.[33] He drew his allowance of 2s per day as Master Plasterer until 18 January 1625, which can be presumed to be the date of his death. Upon his appointment Leigh was immediately involved in the programme of decoration of rooms at Somerset House and Greenwich Palace for Queen Anna, which was to continue intermittently until 1616. At the same time, he also succeeded Dungan in working for Robert Cecil at Hatfield House and Salisbury House in London; which all suggests that his decorative work had already caught the eye of someone at Court in a position to promote his interests. It is unfortunate that Leigh never became a member of the London Company as that might have provided more detail about his background. His name appeared once in their records, in a petition made by William Blackshaw on 26 June 1646, ‘shewing that hee was bound apprentice to one James Lee late plaisterer to King James of happy memory with whome he lived as an apprentice for the space of eight years and upwards, but by reason his said Mr was a Farrinor hee cannot enioy the benefitt of the freedome of this Citty ...’

Although the exact timing of Leigh’s appearance on the scene at Hatfield is difficult to establish, by November 1610 the plastering there was well under way and Robert Liming was able to report of the lodgings at the east end of the house that ‘the plasterer is in hand with the finishing of them, which may very well be done’.[34] By the following May the decorative plasterwork was nearing completion. In ‘A note of his Lordshipps buisines done at Hatfielde, & to be done, with the mannor of the proceedinge of yt. this 17th of Maye 1611’ several entries describe what Leigh had been doing.[35] The plasterer and the painter were about to finish work in the east great chamber, which would allow the scaffold to be removed. Similarly, the scaffold in the long gallery would be taken down shortly, as soon as the fret ceiling had been completed and distempered. It was hoped that the plasterers would be ‘clearelye rid out of all the house within this foure or five dayes; who have been the greatest cause of the house lyinge so foule’. The final payment made to Leigh in March 1611/12 records that the total bill of £135 11s 5d was ‘for all his worke done there from November [1610] untill December 1611’. According to the entry made on 31 January 1611/12, £100 had already been paid to him ‘by way of impresse before Michaelmas laste 1611’.[36] This would not, however, appear to be included in the three payments totalling £121 11s 11d (£40, £40 and £40 11s 11d) made to him in June and August 1611.[37] These presumably related to work done before November 1610 for which no bills have survived; perhaps the plastering of the brick walls referred to in April 1610, or routine or decorative work not included in the final bill, such as the ceilings of the hall or staircase. In the list of charges for plastering work for which Leigh received the final payment in March 1612, the entries for decorative work show that Leigh was allowed to give rein to his decorative skills in the long gallery, the east great chamber, the king’s bedchamber, under the stairs and under the screen and window soffits of the hall.[38] How much of the surviving decoration at Hatfield can be attributed to James Leigh has been a perennial subject for debate, thanks to repairs and alterations carried out in subsequent centuries.

Ceiling in the long gallery at Hatfield House before 19th-century overpainting.

 

Somerset House was the first of the queen’s palaces to be lavishly redecorated and in 1609-10 fret ceilings were provided by Leigh in the privy gallery (363 yards at 3s 8d), the bedchamber (86 yards at 3s 6d) and the attiring chamber (57 yards at 3s 4d), the reductions in price reflecting the relative hierarchy of the rooms involved.[39] The following year the decoration must have been more elaborate as the ceilings of the library at the end of the cross gallery, the return gallery and the withdrawing chamber all cost 4s per yard; the cabinet chamber, privy chamber, presence chamber and lobby merited ceilings costing 4s 4d. The next entry contains a tantalising reference to thirty-two pendants priced at 12d each, but without mentioning for which of the rooms they were destined.[40] The decorative plasterwork was completed the following year when Leigh charged 5s 6d per yard ‘for workinge a Frett with a freeze of one yarde depe in the Cabinett Chamber’, totalling 64 square yards. For piecing in seven yards of fret ceiling at the further end of the Cross Gallery he charged 5s per yard, while the ‘frett Ceelinge with the border and ij great window toppes in the great roome’ were cheaper at 4s 6d per yard, but extended over 117 square yards. For this room twenty-five pendants were supplied at 12d each.[41] Typically, none of these entries describes the actual appearance of the plasterwork but for the privy gallery further details emerged when John de Critz, the Sergeant Painter, decorated the ceiling in 1615-16.[42] Gilding was applied to many of the cast decorative items: 72 mask heads, 36 square pendants, 24 round pendants and 72 roses; 110 marigolds were painted; 749 bosses were gilded and ‘layd rounde about with a blewe Coulor’. Although James Leigh’s plasterwork for Anne of Denmark was lost at the demolition of Somerset House in the 1770s some fragments have recently been excavated that are likely to have come from this ceiling, providing clues as to the sumptuous appearance of the gallery when completed.[43] There is no reference to colouring or gilding applied to any of the other ceilings and it seems that even in royal palaces plain white was the most usual finish for plasterwork, whether plain or decorative. Leigh also carried out routine plastering of walls and ceilings, repairs to existing plasterwork and whitewashing (the materials coming from the stores of the Royal Works), so that when his work was finally completed in 1612-13 he received a total of £380 1s 8d for his workmanship alone, of which £319 19s 6d was for the decorative work.

At Greenwich, during the same period, new, brick-built lodgings were built for the queen, with a gallery and accommodation (including a study) on the first floor.[44] Leigh used plaster of Paris for all the ceilings, floors and walls in the queen’s lodgings, at a cost of 10d per yard, and lime and hair everywhere else, at the cheaper rate of 3d per yard. According to the accounts the gallery was the only room to receive a fretwork ceiling, for which 3s 8d per yard was charged by Leigh, but the entry unusually does not mention the type of plaster that was involved.[45] Excavated fragments of two coffered ceilings with classical architectural mouldings and floral centrepieces were found in 1970-71 that probably belonged to this phase of building work.[46] They came from two rectangular rooms at the south end of the west range, adjacent to the queen’s ‘new lodgings’ and represent a much more classically correct interpretation of coffering than was evident at Knole. Given that plaster of Paris was used so extensively in the interior decoration of the palace during this building campaign, these ceilings can probably be dated to c 1610, but it is frustrating that no specific mention is made of them in the accounts. It would certainly have been quicker to reproduce the repetitive coffering, with its relatively elaborate rib mouldings, in gypsum. No other decorative ceilings were recorded after the three ‘at the end of the Quenes lodgings in the garden’ that Leigh fretted with lime and hair in 1615-16.[47]

By the end of 1614 Leigh had also completed the decorative plasterwork which he had contracted to undertake for the Charterhouse. He received £10 ‘for the kings Armes and Governors Armes with Compartments aboute them in the Schoolehouse viz for the kings Armes – XXs and for the Governnors Armes at Xs the peece there being xviij of them – IXli’.[48] In 1614-15 Leigh also travelled to Newmarket to carry out routine plastering in the lodgings there, in partnership with Richard Talbott.[49] In the following year he was back at Greenwich, executing the last fretwork of his career in the Royal Works, namely the three ceilings in the Queen’s new lodgings in the garden, discussed above. Leigh is named on only one further occasion, at Oatlands, in 1617-18, where he was plastering the backhouse ceilings.[50]

These three entries represent only a small proportion of the task-work carried out by plasterers in the Royal Works during the remaining years that he was in post and other men were employed on a variety of plastering tasks at palaces in Westminster, at Newmarket, Royston, Theobalds and Eltham. Various hypotheses can be formulated to account for this but it may well be that no single explanation is sufficient in itself and a combination of factors was at work. One possibility is that Leigh himself was no longer capable of fulfilling his role as Master Plasterer, on account of illness or old age; but such a theory is belied by Leigh’s employment by Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, at Chelsea House in 1623.[51] The payments recorded cover only a brief spell in August and September, with Leigh receiving 2s per day for a total of 20 days. Such small payments indicate that routine plasterwork only can have been involved. Leigh was the senior plasterer on site but was only paid the same daily rate as the London plasterers working with him; his apprentice, William Blackshaw, received 6d per day. Richard Talbott held the reversion of the post of Master Plasterer and his skills were extensively employed during Leigh’s tenure. He worked alongside both James and Abraham Leigh; but it was Abraham rather than Talbott who was entrusted with the task of executing the only example of decorative plasterwork for a royal palace after 1614 (it was in 1615 that Inigo Jones became Surveyor to the Royal Works and introduced an entirely new style of decoration). That Abraham Leigh obtained this commission would seem to further confirm the suggestion that he was at least closely related to the Master Plasterer and was probably his son. A more likely hypothesis to account for the absence of James Leigh’s name from those engaged on task-work would envisage him as fit and well and content to delegate the routine plastering to substitutes, because he himself was fully occupied providing decorative plasterwork in non-royal houses. Leigh must be considered a strong candidate as the executant of some of the plasterwork found in houses from this period and as the predominant influence that dictated the style of plaster decoration that survives from the second decade of the seventeenth century.

LEIGH, (LEE), James II (1626-68)

A Plasterer who would appear to be the son of Abraham Leigh, who was father to two sons baptised in Richmond, Surrey: Abraham on 14 July 1624 and James II on 30 November 1626.[52] In 1644 Abraham Leigh and his labourers, George Barnet and James Leigh II, were working together at St James’s Palace but no details of their work survive. Abraham was paid 2s 4d per day for 8 days in July; Barnet’s rate was 1s 4d and James’s only 10d. On 19 May 1647 James, son of Abraham Leigh of Richmond, Surrey, Plaisterer, apprenticed himself to Thomas Wright for 8 years. It would appear that by 1647 James II wanted to obtain the freedom to work in the City that his father had not acquired. He was freed on 1 July 1656, when Wright was fined for not enrolling his man. Leigh was last recorded paying arrearage of quarterage on 25 January 1657/8; his name does not appear in the second volume of Quarterage Accounts which begin in 1661. In 1665 administration of the will of James Lee of St Botolph Bishopsgate was granted to his son, Abraham.[53] [This Abraham Leigh is probably to be identified with the Plasterer who paid quarterage from 1667; he appears to have been freed by patrimony as there is no record of his apprenticeship.]

LEIGH (LEE), James III (fl. 1613)

A plasterer who worked alongside Abraham Leigh at the Charterhouse for 23 days in September and October 1613, at the rate of 18d per day.[54] They may have been related but no evidence for this has so far come to light. He is a possible candidate for the plasterer of the same name who was working at Castle Ashby, Derbyshire, between 1629 and 1636.[55]

LENSSEY, Robert (fl. 1549)

One of six plasterers who worked under Patrick Kellie at Westminster Palace in late October and early November 1549.[56]

LEWIS, Samuel (fl. 1620-5)

A Plasterer who was apprenticed to Richard Ford for 9 years (30 November 1610) and paid his abling fine on 13 October 1620. His beadleship fine followed (6 July 1621) but Lewis’s name only appeared in the Quarterage Accounts until 1625.

LEWTE, Nicholas (fl. 1569)

A plasterer employed as part of the team engaged on unspecified work at Greenwich Palace for 24 days at 12d per day in June 1569.[57]

LIGHTFOOT (LITTEFOTE), William (fl. 1616-65)

A Plasterer who was presented by Hugh Flood (25 July 1606) but was presented again by Thomas Atkinson (13 January 1608/9) and paid his abling fine on 2 February 1615/16. Thomas Holloway, son of a Chester tailor, deceased, apprenticed himself for 8 years (30 April 1628); William Yates, son of a Yorkshire maltster, did the same for 8 years (11 March 1628/9; freed 24 April 1647); Samuel Dancaster, son of a Yorkshire husbandman, was apprenticed for 8 years (but it was annotated that his indenture was cancelled as he ran away after a year’s service). Lightfoot paid the fine for freeing Yates early and contributed towards the ‘freedom dinner’ (24 April 1647). Mathew Bell, son of a York maltster, deceased, was apprenticed for 8 years (23 April 1639). On 27 June 1640 Lightfoot was one of the fifteen members of the Yeomanry chosen for promotion to the Livery. William Bates, son of a Northumberland yeoman, apprenticed himself for 8 years (13 October 1642; freed 8 August 1650); James Feilde, son of a tailor of St Botolph without Aldersgate, was apprenticed for 8 years (14 October 1652; freed 20 November 1660). Despite being selected for the Livery in 1640, Lightfoot was listed as one of the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts from 1661-64 and was noted as ‘dead’ in 1665.

LIGHTMAN, John (fl. 1610-14)

A Plasterer, formerly a London mariner, presented by John Morley I for 8 years (5 May 1603). After being turned over to Edmund Essex, Lightman was set over to John Hornby for the remainder of his term (23 February 1608/9) and was freed as Morley’s apprentice (4 June 1610). He was committed on 12 August 1614 for an unspecified offence; this was the last year on which his name was listed among the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts. John Lightman, son of John, Citizen and Plaisterer of London, deceased, was apprenticed to William Walter on 3 July 1626, was turned over to William Fisher (7 May 1630) and freed 4 September 1634.

LLOYD, Thomas (fl. 1582-1609)

A Plasterer who was recorded as Lloyd when he made his nuncupative will in 1609 but who was more usually known as FLOOD, q.v.

LOWE, Abraham (fl. 1608)

A plasterer who is recorded as resident in Houndsditch in the parish records of St Botolph Aldgate when he was present at the baptism of a son, Anthony Lowe, on 17 May 1608.[58]

LUCAS, Edward (fl. 1618-1661/2)

A Plasterer presented by Richard Rawlidge (13 October 1610), who paid his abling fine and was made free on 4 November 1618. On 5 September 1621 he paid fines for his beadleship and for bad work in Duke Humfrey’s Court. An unspecified fine followed (8 May, entered 4 September 1623). Lucas was admitted to the Livery on 12 September 1625. The details of an apprentice presented on 22 May 1626 were all left blank by the clerk, but this must have been Richard Stringer (who was freed on 2 May 1634); on the same date Lucas also paid the fine to avoid one year’s journeymanship. Richard Hudson/Hodgson, son of a Lancashire husbandman, was presented for 7 years (2 May 1634; freed 7 May 1641); William Barrett, son of a Middlesex gardener, deceased, apprenticed himself for 8 years (13 October 1634); Isaack Chick/Choake/Chock, son of a Berkshire bricklayer, was apprenticed for 7 years (2 July 1641; freed 29 June 1648. He paid arrearage of quarterage until 1651 but in 1654 was entered as a freeman plasterer of Dublin[59]); John Lucas, his son, apprenticed himself to his father for 7 years (31 October 1644; freed 31 January 1649/50); Philip Butcher, son of a Wiltshire clothworker, was presented for 8 years (13 October 1648); John Dyer, son of a labourer of Thames Street, Great All Hallows, put himself apprentice for 7 years (15 May 1650); John Wetherell was turned over to him from Eusebius Gurrey (28 May 1651; freed 24 November 1657); Simon Allingham, son of a Northamptonshire cook, was apprenticed for 7 years (23 April 1657); John Steene was turned over to him from William Blackshaw (11 May 1658; freed 6 July 1659). Various fines were imposed: for bad work in several places (1 September 1626); unspecified (20 November 1628); for bad work (22 June 1629); for bad work in Coleman Street and Bunhill (26 May 1630); for absence (10 December 1635); for bad work in Gravel Lane (13 October 1642); for bad work (20 February 1643/4); bad work (15 January 1645/6); for absence on Search Day (20 August 1655); for bad work and for not enrolling his man (13 May 1657)

Lucas stood unsuccessfully in the election for Junior Warden for 1633-4 (9 September 1633) but was elected to the post on 15 September 1634. Following his election, a memorandum recorded that instead of paying a fine in lieu of providing a Company dinner, Lucas should pay a fine of £11 and provide a dinner costing £2 for the Assistants (29 September 1634). Lucas was one of those putting his signature to a memorandum concerning a fine of 10s to be levied on any Assistant or member of the Livery appearing at Court or Quarter Days or attending the Lord Mayor who did not appear ‘in a fitting and decent manner in apparell and wearing ruffs’ (5 February 1634/5). On 25 January 1636/7 Lucas and Mr Eastbourne were paid £8 7s, without a reason being given. He failed to be elected Senior Warden (11 September 1637) but was elected to the post for 1638-9 (10 September 1638). £2 4s 10s was paid to Mr Lucas ‘for moneys due to him’ (27 January 1639/40). On 11 June 1640 he was granted the lease as tenant of the Company’s tenement in Addle Street, for which he paid £40. As a respected member of the Company he was one of those chosen to provide advice and assistance to the Master and Wardens ‘for the forwarding and expediting of the Company’s busines in the high Court of Parliament’ (5 November 1640). Lucas failed in his first attempt to become Master (13 September 1641) but was successful for 1642-3 (12 September 1642). On 8 March 1646/7 he promised 20s toward the cost of repairs to the Company’s Hall and on 23 June 1644 he was one of the signatories to the order confirming an assessment to pay off the Company’s debts. On 10 December 1655 he took the place of the absent Master at the Court meeting. Lucas was not elected Master again when he stood for election on 9 September 1656; but he was one of the senior members appointed to a committee to ‘consider what is fitt to bee done with the forraigne plaisterers’ (9 December 1657). He again stood in for the absent Master (11 May 1658) but failed twice more to be elected to the post himself (10 September 1660 and 9 September 1661). Lucas was last mentioned as a member of the committee set up to organise the renewal of the Company’s charter (13 October 1661). This was shortly before he made his will on 7 December 1661.[60] He was then living in a property in Coleman Street, part of which was let out to tenants. The tenanted part was to be inherited by his daughter Elizabeth Hide, together with his properties in Long Alley, near Moorfields, or in Whites Alley. In addition to £10, she was also to be allowed to remain in her chamber in the Coleman Street house for two years after his death, with free access for herself and her friends. His son John would inherit the part of the house ‘wherein I now dwell’ and four houses in Greyhound Alley, Fenchurch Street. All goods and chattels were to be shared between them: 2/3 to John and 1/3 to Elizabeth. A legacy of 20s was left to his daughter-in-law Penolopy Cheese; and his two sisters were to receive 40s each. John Lucas was residuary legatee and sole executor. Probate was granted on 21 January 1661/2.

LUCAS, William (fl. 1559)

One of three plasterers who worked under Patrick Kellie at Whitehall Palace in early 1559 where they were plastering and blacking the Tennis Courts.[61] Lucas was paid at the rate of 10d per day for five days’ and five hours’ work. Later in May of that year he was one of the seven plasterers who were employed under Kellie in the long gallery at Whitehall in preparation for the visit of the French embassy. Lucas was paid 11d per day for six days’ work.[62]

LUTT, Geoffrey (fl. 1572-86)

On 27 June 1572 the Company renewed a bond for the discharge of Raphe Bettes against Geoffrey Lutt. Lutt paid arrearage of quarterage on 16 November 1586 but his name does not appear again in the Company records.


 

[1] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/300/009.

[2] LMA CLC/L/SE/D/007/MS 30727/004, f. 308.

[3] The Clothworkers’ Company: Quarter and Renter Wardens’ Accounts: CL/D/5/4.

[4] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/300/009.

[5] LMA DL/C/B/007/MS 09172/045, will no. 99.

[6] George J Armytage (ed), Allegations for Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, 1611 to 1828, Vol II, extracted by Col. Joseph Lemuel Chester, Harleian Society, 26 (1887), 808.            

[7] LMA P69/MGT3/B/014/MS 01176/001. St Margaret New Fish Street, Churchwardens’ Accounts, Vol. 1, 1576-1678.

[8] LMA P82/AND2/A/001/MS 06667/001.

[9] Hatfield House Archives: HHA Bills 28.

[10] Inner Temple General Account Book, I, 1606-48, FIN/1/1, ff. 18r, 38v, 40r, 49v, 57v, 66v, 74v.

[11] F A Inderwick, QC (ed), A Calendar of The Inner Temple Records, Vol II 1603-60, London (1898), p. 45.

[12] Middle Temple Archives: MT.2/TRB/19, p. 21r.

[13] Worcestershire Record Office: Croome Estate Archive, Inner Temple Building & Repair Work 1619-25 envelope.

[14] Worcestershire Record Office: Croome Estate Archive, Box: Yellow 34A (F56).

[15] LMA DL/AL/C/001/MS 09050/005, ff. 140 and 156v.

[16] LMA ACC/1876/F/09/48.

[17] Inner Temple General Account Book, I, 1606-48, FIN/1/1, f. 199v.

[18] LMA COL/CA/01/061, f. 80.

[19] LMA CLC/L/MD/G/243/MS 34348, ff. 124r & 125r.

[20] The Clothworkers’ Company: Quarter and Renter Wardens’ Accounts: CL/D/5/2 (1558-78).

[21] TNA E 101/474/26.

[22] TNA LR/2/64.

[23] LMA CLC/L/BA/D/001/MS 05174/002.  

[24] LMA DL/C/B/006/MS 09172/014E, numbered for digitization 49.                                                                          

[25] TNA E 351/3237, Taskwork and Prelims. This might equally refer to John Lee, qv.

[26] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/009.

[27] TNA E 351/3237, Taskwork and Prelims. This might equally refer to John Lea, qv.

[28] LMA ACC/1876/F/09/48.

[29] TNA E 351/3251.

[30] TNA AO 1/2422/49.

[31] BL Sloane MS 1706.

[32] Retrieved from IGI microfiche for Surrey that was held at Guildhall Library.

[33] H M Colvin (ed), History of the King’s Works, Vol III, 1485-1660 (Part I), London (1975), p. 410; Hatfield House.

[34] TNA MF SP 14/57-8, Reel 148.

[35] TNA MF SP 14/63, Reel 150.

[36] Hatfield House: BHH, Bills 37.

[37] Hatfield House: Accounts 160/1.

[38] Hatfield House: BHH, Bills 58/63.

[39] TNA E 351/3244. The measurements of the privy gallery are annotated on Robert Smythson’s plan of c 1609 as 120’ by 20’, or 266 sq yards, so James Leigh’s 363 yards of fretwork plastering suggest that the ceiling over this room was a barrel-vault.

[40] TNA E 351/3245.

[41] TNA E 351/3246.

[42] TNA E 351/3250.

[43] Claire Gapper, ‘Appendix. Fragments of Decorative Plasterwork Excavated at Somerset House’ in Simon Thurley, ‘Somerset House. The Palace of England’s Queens 1551-1692’, London Topographical Society, Publication No. 168, 2009, pp. 77-81.

[44] TNA E 351/3244. See also HKW  IV, 112.

[45] TNA E 351/3245.

[46] P W Dixon, ‘Excavations at Greenwich Palace 1970-71’, Greenwich & Lewisham Antiquarian Society, 1972.

[47] TNA E 351/3250.

[48] LMA ACC/1876/F/09/48.

[49] TNA AO 1/2421/45.

[50] TNA AO 1/2421/46.

[51] Centre for Kentish Studies: Sackville Papers, U 269/1 AP 45 and A 516/1.

[52] Retrieved from IGI microfiche for Surrey that was held at Guildhall Library.

[53] Marc Fitch (ed), Index to Testamentary Records in the Commissary Court of London, Vol IV, 1626-1649 & 1661-1700 (3 vols), British Record Society (1992-8), p. 419.

[54] LMA ACC/1876/F/09/48.

[55] Warwickshire County Record Office: CR 556/274.

[56] TNA E 101/474/19.

[57] Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson A.195.c, f. 130v.

[58] LMA P69/BOT2/A/001/MS 09220.

[59] C P Curran, Dublin Decorative Plasterwork of the 17th and 18th Centuries, London (1967), p. 100.

[60] LMA DL/C/B/MS 09172/054, will no. 169.

[61] TNA E 101/474/24.

[62] TNA E 101/474/26.

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