Gazetteer of Plasterers - P

PAGE, John I and II (fl. 1611)

On 9 January 1610/11 John Page I presented John Page II for 8 years [his son?] but the entry states that he is not to be taught the ‘arte of a plaisterer’ but the trade of a broker, which Page now follows, and neither Page appears in the Quarterage Accounts.

PAGE, John III (fl. 1621-32)

A Plasterer who was the son of a husbandman from Ashington [Sussex or Northumberland], presented by William North for 8 years (8 July 1613). After North’s death, Page was turned over to Thomas Flower (2 September 1618) and paid his abling fine on his freedom (25 January 1620/21). His only apprentice was Henry Feilde, son of a deceased London dicemaker, who indentured himself for 8 years (23 April 1632). Page was last recorded paying arrearage of quarterage on 8 November 1632 and is noted as ‘died’ in the Quarterage Accounts for 1632.

PARKER, Augustine (fl. 1625-62)

Parker was the son of a Somerset husbandman who was apprenticed to Hugh Corbyn on 29 August 1617 for 8 years and turned over to John Allen I on 25 July 1620. He should therefore have been freed in 1625 but he disappears from the Company records, paying no quarterage, until a warrant for him was obtained on 8 September 1646. The Company must have succeeded in exerting its authority as his name reappeared in the Court minute book when he paid arrearage of quarterage (25 January 1652/3; 17 August 1654; 13 October 1656). Parker finally paid his beadleship fine (20 August 1655). He was last recorded on 23 September 1662 paying fines for arrearage and for freeing his apprentice, Joseph Noble, early (his presentation having gone unrecorded).

PARKER, Hugh (fl. 1567)

Parker made his will on 12 July 1567 as a Citizen and Plasterer, requesting to be buried ‘by my pewe dore where I did sitt in the parishe churche’ of St Sepulchre without Newgate.[1] To his wife Elizabeth he left the lease of the house where they were living, lying at Holborn Bridge, plus the tenements nearby in Castle Alley. In the case of her remarriage, she was to surrender the leases to Harry Parker, the eldest son; or in the case of his death, they were to pass to the next son, John Parker. All his goods, money, household stuff and ‘ymplementes’ were to be divided among his five children equally when they reached the age of twenty-one years, remaining in his wife’s possession until that time. The joint executors were his wife and son, John. 20s was left to each of the two overseers and one of the witnesses was John Bettes, plasterer, who signed his name. The will was proved on 21 July 1567.

On 18 January 1582 Thomas Freeman, Goldsmith, and his wife Margaret, attested and swore before the Court of Aldermen that John Parker, son of Hugh Parker, plasterer deceased, was over twenty-one years of age.[2] John never paid quarterage to the Company but seems to have had various financial dealings with them. On 29 February 1599/1600 9s was paid for ending Parker’s business, making a release between him, his man and the Company. Payments in connection with Parker and his man Crandall included the attorney’s fee and repayment of the money laid out by Mr Dungan about Parker’s suit (13 March 1599/1600). On 12 May 1600 the sum of £10 was lent to John Parker to be repaid according to his bond on 19 June 1605. On 7 March 1605/6 he made a part repayment of this loan but his name does not appear again in the Company records.

PARKER, William (fl. 1614-17)

A Plasterer who was presented by Robert Clayton (30 January 1606/7) and paid his abling and freedom fines (13 January 1614/15). While still an apprentice he was one of the many plasterers engaged by the Merchant Taylors’ Company ‘beautifying the hall for a royal visit on Election Day’ in 1607.[3] Parker was one of those who put his mark to a Company memorandum concerning apprentices (7 February 1616/17) but was noted as ‘dead’ in the Quarterage Accounts for that year.

PARNELL, Abraham (fl. 1601)

A Plasterer who was apprenticed to John Jackson on 1 February 1593/4 and paid his abling fine on 6 February 1600/01; but Parnell’s name does not appear in the Quarterage Accounts which survive from 1604.

PERRYMAN, William (fl. 1585-87)

A Plasterer whose presentation is not recorded but who paid his abling fine and made a donation for the poor on 3 December 1585. He paid for his dinner on 13 October 1586 and was last mentioned when he paid his beadleship fine on 18 August 1587.

PHELPS (FELPS, PACE, PHELCE), Raphe (fl. 1621-58)

A Plasterer who came from Oxfordshire and was presented by William Wastney for 8 years (4 November 1612). Phelps paid his abling fine (25 January 1620/1) and presented his first apprentice, Thomas Land, son of a Middlesex sawyer, for 9 years (25 April 1626). Phelps handed over the indenture of this apprentice after he absconded and presented in his place John Savage, son of a Warwickshire labourer, for 8 years (22 October 1630). At the same time he was also fined for absence on Quarter Day. Land’s apprenticeship was renewed, this time for 7 years, on 23 April 1631; while Savage was turned over to Kenelm Roades (26 May 1631; freed 4 April 1638). On 29 May 1633 a memorandum recorded that Phelps was forbidden to take another apprentice until the expiry of Land’s indenture in May 1638. However, Land paid his abling fine on 29 May 1633, when Phelps was made to free him before his time. Bartholomew Ingg, son of a deceased Oxfordshire labourer, presented himself for 8 years (9 August 1633; freed 11 November 1641). Phelps was employed in the Royal Works, plastering 141 square yards of ceiling in the Painting Room at Whitehall in 1634-5, for which he received 35s 3d.[4] John Butler, son of an Oxfordshire yeoman, was apprenticed for 8 years (11 November 1641; freed 15 June and 25 July 1649, when Phelps was fined for not enrolling his man). Henry Phelps, son of Ralph, was freed by patrimony on 15 May 1650 and Samuel Browne, son of an Oxfordshire cooper, was apprenticed for 7 years on 5 August 1652. Phelps was last recorded paying arrearage of quarterage on 10 February 1657/8.

PICK, John (fl. 1573-5)

A Plasterer who paid his beadleship fine on 8 August 1573 and was fined for lateness on 2 September 1575 but who is otherwise not mentioned in the Company records.

PIGGEN (PICKEN, PIGGIN), Ellis (fl. 1586-1642)

A Plasterer apprenticed to Richard Briggs, who paid for the ‘transporting of his apprentice - Piggen’ on Court Day (probably in July) 1576. Brigges was fined for releasing Ellis early without permission (11 February 1585/6) and the latter paid his fines for abling and admission and made a donation for the poor (25 July 1586). He paid for his dinner (13 October 1586) and his beadleship (18 August 1587). Piggen was involved in a typically Elizabethan piece of litigation when George Coales, Grocer, brought a complaint against Walter Agarde, Haberdasher, and Ellis Piggen, Plasterer, on 1 February 1591.[5] According to Coales, Agarde procured Piggen ‘to laye a Plancke vppon parte of a wall, of right belonging to the said messuage, or house, wherein youre said subiecte dothe nowe inhabyte and dwell which when he had done, he appointed the said Piggin, to stande vppon the said Plancke, and there to worke vppon certen buyldinge, … tending to the stopping of the light of youre said subiectes house …’ When Piggen refused to desist, Coales ‘dyd gentlye thruste hym of the said plancke’ but without hurting him, with which statement Piggen concurred. Nevertheless, Agarde brought a charge of assault and battery on Piggen’s behalf and claimed he had lost the services of the plasterer while he was recovering from the attack. Seemingly a piece of ‘vexatious litigation’ between neighbours. William Piggen the Elder, left Ellis his best Livery gown in his will, which was proved on 25 November 1592. Their relationship was not specified. It is evident from the will of William Piggen the Younger (proved 5 June 1621), that Ellis and he were brothers, whose family lived in Derbyshire. Ellis was his brother’s sole executor and residuary legatee.[6]

Piggen seems to have been successful in training many of the apprentices who were presented by him: Pierce Godbeheare (10 June 1591; turned over to John Tyrrell on 23 November 1597); Arthur/John Field was turned over to him from William Ashley (5 November 1596); Henry Dawson, son of a Leicestershire yeoman, for 7 years (19 June 1600); John Chaplin, son of a Worcestershire millward, deceased, for 8 years (6 July 1604); Thomas Bate (25 July 1607); Thomas Wilson (6 November 1607); Edward Roberts was turned over to him from Thomas Atkinson (30 March 1609); Philip Hughes was turned over to him from Thomas Hayes (8 December 1609); Edward Jenkes (30 April 1610. Piggen obtained the Court’s permission to release Jenkes six months early on 13 October 1617); George Echell was freed as his apprentice (14 June 1611); George George, son of a Herefordshire butcher, for 7 years (25 January 1612/13); Richard Symonds was turned over to him from John Morley (11 August 1620); Charles Davies was freed as Piggen’s apprentice, although he was originally presented by William Marshall (8 May 1623); Randolphe Bird, son of a Westmorland hubandman, deceased, apprenticed himself for 8 years (22 May 1626). Piggen was fined for: bad language (9 September 1591); setting a man to work before he was bound (15 June 1593); evil language (10 January 1594/5); missing Mr Browne’s burial (28 March 1598); ill work in Creed Lane and ‘for goinge from Paules on the Queenes daye’ (29 November 1598); ill work in Paul’s Churchyard (13 October 1600); ill work in Old Fish Street (14 August 1601); arresting Pierce Godbeheare without the Company’s permission (5 June 1605); evil work in Holborn (28 November 1605); absence from a Court meeting (24 August 1612).

Piggen paid for his pattern on entering the Livery (9 August 1594) and served as Junior Warden for 1603-4. He was one of the Assistants who contributed 5s towards the cost of a Chancery suit concerning the Company’s corner house in Wood Street (2 February 1608/9); and he put his mark to a Company memorandum concerning apprentices (23 February 1616/17). He was sworn in as Master on 29 September 1617. Piggen was among those to put his mark to an agreement about the repayment of a loan from the Chamber of London (23 May 1619). He made a gift to the Company of twelve ‘little joined stools’ on 13 September 1619. Piggen was elected Master again on 9 September 1622 but refused to serve and paid the fine accordingly. He paid a gratuity to help defray the costs of the Company’s suit against the Bricklayers (10 January 1623/4). On 26 July 1624 a memorandum recorded that Piggen had ‘showed the Court his many and urgent occasions which prevented him from performing his duties to the Company as he had previously done’. As a result ‘he was allowed exemption from the office of Master and from ordinary Court attendance, provided he paid his quarterage and all other dues laid upon Company members.’ His name was nevertheless put forward in the election for Master on 10 September 1627, when he was not chosen; and again on 15 September 1628, when he was. Once again he refused to serve, citing the previous order which acquitted him of the duty, and a further election was held (17 September 1628). Piggen made a gift of £2 toward the cost of rebuilding the Company’s houses that had been burnt down (9 September 1631). On 25 July 1642 he became a pensioner of the Benson charity, which was the last time his name appeared in the Company records.

PIGGEN, John (fl. 1574-7)

A Plasterer who paid his abling and admission fines on becoming free (30 April 1574). It is apparent from the will of Robert Sheppard (made 10 July 1576) that Piggen had been one of his apprentices, as 10s was bequeathed to him as ‘sometime my servant’.[7] Piggen was fined for lateness (14 March 1575/6) and paid his beadleship fine (15 August 1577) but his name was not recorded again in the Company records.

PIGGEN, Thomas (fl. 1604-33)

A Plasterer who was admitted to the freedom of the Company on 7 September 1604, no master being mentioned. Two days later he donated a gilt cup instead of the spoon he should have presented when he was freed (9 September 1604). He paid his beadleship fine on 28 August 1607 but his name does not appear again in the Court minutes, although he continued to pay quarterage as a member of the Yeomanry until at least 1633.

PIGGEN (PIDGEN), William the Elder (fl. 1579-92)

A Plasterer who was presented by Robert Sheppard (8 August 1572) and freed on 12 September 1579, when he paid ‘for the pore’ in addition to his freedom fine. As one of Sheppard’s apprentices, Piggen was left ‘his second gown’ in his master’s will. Piggen contributed to the cost of the Company’s Parliamentary bill concerning artificers (March 1580/1). At some time in 1580-81 he was employed for 7 days by the Clothworkers’ Company, working with three other plasterers at 16d per day on the ‘newe howse in Flete lane builded this yeare’.[8] In 1582-3 he was among those working for the Drapers’ Company ‘in and vppon the new howse in the Garden’. They were grinding colours, roughcasting and plastering, sealing with lime and hair, for which the Company paid £2 5s 11d in total.[9] Piggen’s beadleship fine was paid on 26 July 1582 and he paid for his livery pattern (12 September 1585) and two dinners (17 September 1585 and 13 October 1586). On 27 June 1591 Piggen was offered a favourable lease on The Three Tuns, the Company’s corner house in Wood Street. Piggen was frequently fined: for lateness (25 January 1580/1); ‘for entering into worke where Richard Johnson had money owing hym’ (26 May 1581); for bad work at the Temple (4 November and 1 December 1581); for late payment (25 April 1589); he paid 10s ‘in full payment of all fynes for contractinge to make his man free after he [Thomas More] was marryed’ (18 June 1590); for ill work in Bucklersbury with - Kelly (26 November 1590). Thomas Sanderson was his first apprentice (25 July 1583); Thomas More was turned over to him by James Billing (6 June 1585); an anonymous apprentice was bound (22 April 1589). This may have been John Atkinson who was turned over from William Piggen the Elder to Edmund Essex, having been in the wars for four years (11 December 1596. Atkinson could have become a soldier following Piggen’s death in 1592). Piggen made his will on 13 October 1592 and it was proved on 25 November that year.[10] The chief beneficiary was his wife, Bridget, who was joint executor with Thomas Johnson. Bridget was left the house in which they dwelt and half of the income accruing from rentals of the leases of other houses and tenements owned by Piggen. The other half of this income was to be divided into three equal parts, to be shared between: Frances Roper, daughter of Francis Roper, yeoman; his good friend Thomas Johnson, plasterer; and his cousin, Alice Ashemore. The Livery of the Plasterers’ Company were to receive 10s per annum for four years and his friend Francis Roper was left a mandolin, a rapier and a dagger. Items of clothing were bequeathed to Thomas Turner, Thomas Johnson, Ellis Piggen and Robert Johnson. Any residual goods, chattels, plate and money were to be shared between his wife and Thomas Johnson.

PIGGEN (PIGGIN), William the Younger (fl. 1582-1621)

A Plasterer (brother of Ellis Piggen) who was born in Breadsall, Derbyshire, according to his will. He paid his abling and admission fines and made a donation to the Alms Box on 2 July 1582. He paid for his Company dinner (13 October 1586) and was fined for ill work in Five Foote Lane (1 December 1587) and for working with one ‘whoe was indebted to another’ (29 August 1589). John Godbeheare I was apprenticed to him on 8 May 1590, when Piggen was fined for keeping him unbound for six months. Edward Brackley was turned over to him on 14 August 1598. Piggen was elected to the Livery (31 July 1612). On 12 August 1614 money was spent ‘in staying to speake with Mr William Piggin’ and on 26 August the Company borrowed money from him for three months. Piggen was listed among the Livery until 1620 and died a rich but childless widower in 1621. His lengthy will of six pages was made on 10 April 1621 and proved on 5 June the same year.[11] He asked to be buried in the parish church of St Lawrence Pountney, next to his late wife, with a stone laid over them ‘engraven of the tymes of our deathes’. Nearly £1400 was left in bequests, largely to the poor of his own parish and the Derbyshire parishes of his numerous relatives still living there. £40 was to be given to the children of Christ’s Hospital and £20 to the poor children of Bridewell Hospital, to accompany his corpse to the grave; each to receive a 1d white loaf, as were the poor of St Lawrence Pountney who attended his funeral. £15 was to be spent by the minister, churchwardens and ‘auncientes’ on a dinner or supper after his burial. £5 was left to the Company of Fruiterers for the same purpose, which suggests that Piggen did not make his fortune by plastering but as a fruiterer. The Company of Serjeants and Yeomen of the Wood Street Compter were given 50s to be spent at ‘a meetinge with their wives, yf they please, after the buriall’. £20 went to each of the Hospitals of St Thomas and Little St Bartholomew, Smithfield for the poor, lame, sick and diseased inmates. £80 was shared between the poor prisoners of the Wood Street Compter, the Poultry Compter, Ludgate, Bedlam, Fleet and Newgate Prisons and the three Common Gaols of Southwark - White Lion, Kings Bench and Marshalsea. The ‘poorest sort’ of Little Allhallows, Thames Street, ‘where I dwell’, were left £5, while the Churchwardens, Master and their wives of the parish were given £10 for a dinner or supper. Amounts varying between £150 and £2 were left to relatives and friends, mainly resident in Derbyshire, totalling just over £850. John Godbeheare II, son of the late John Godbeheare I, Citizen and Plasterer, was Piggen’s godson and received £10. Pierce Godbeheare, Citizen and Plasterer, and his wife Anne were to share £30 equally. These were the only members of the Plasterers’ Company named in the will, apart from his ‘loving brother, Ellis Piggen’ who was residuary legatee and sole executor.

PITCHER (PICHER, PYTCHER), John (fl. 1598-1612)

A Plasterer who was presented by John Laycock (7 December 1589) and again by Henry Willis (5 September 1590), who paid his abling fine when he was freed (3 February 1597/8). Pitcher paid his beadleship fine on 25 July 1599 and made an unspecified payment of 3s 4d, in part payment of 6s 8d, on 25 July 1606. On 11 September 1606 he paid his arrearages towards the renewing of the Company’s letters patent, which may account for the previous payment. Pitcher was fined for ‘misusing Thomas Noden and strickinge of him’ (20 November 1598). His first apprentice was Nicholas Kelly, son of a County Dublin carpenter, for 8 years (25 July 1603. Kelly was indicted on 22 June 1608 and his name does not appear again in the Company records.). Robert Johnson was presented (28 April 1607). A warrant was issued for John Pitcher’s servant, presumably Johnson on 2 May 1608, and Pitcher presented another apprentice, Harmon Lewis, on 24 May 1609. Lewis was followed by Henry Willis (30 July 1610); Thomas Grove (5 April 1611; turned over to James Money on 25 January 1613/14); Richard Smith II, son of a Suffolk husbandman, for 8 years (29 April 1613). Pitcher was listed as a member of the Yeomanry in the Quarterage Accounts until 1612; in 1613 he was noted as ‘dead’ and replaced by Widow Pitcher. She continued to pay quarterage until 1621, when her name was crossed through.

PITCHER, William (fl. 1601-2)

A Plasterer who was presented by Patrick Browne (23 November 1593). Payment was recorded on the occasion of his freedom celebrations on 27 March 1601 and he presented the Company with a silver spoon with his initials on 10 September 1602.

PLOWMAN, Robert (fl. 1579-1601)

A Plasterer who was the son of an Essex husbandman, recorded as ‘presented the XXXth of Marche 1579 and allowed as a freeman and brother of the company, Richarde Pipe Knight then Maior of the Citie of London, George Bonde and Thomas Starkey then Sheriffs of the same Citie’. This seems to suggest that Plowman was excused the normal term of apprenticeship. He may have been in a position to obtain his freedom by redemption as he was already listed as a householder in the Parish of St Bride’s in 1582, assessed at £3.[12] Plowman paid off an unspecified debt on 10 March 1586/7 and his beadleship fine on 3 November 1587. Having been chosen for the Livery he paid for his pattern (31 July 1590). He was fined for lateness (25 January 1590/1). On 3 September 1596 the Court of Assistants settled a long-running dispute between Plowman and his ex-apprentice [Fulke] Howell, with a suspended fine to be paid for any further recurrence by either party. Plowman paid 20s (part payment of 5 markes) not to serve as Younger Warden (10 September 1596); the remaining ‘resideue of the fine for escaping the younger wardenshipp’ was not paid off by ‘Mr Plowman’ until 25 August 1598. He served as Senior Warden for 1600-1. On 13 October 1602 he loaned the Company £10 for a year, receiving 20s interest. Not all his apprentices seem to have completed their term with him: Thomas Clayton (25 July 1584); Fulke Howell (23 April 1585); William Griffin (11 February 1585/6); William Morgan (5 April 1594); Theophilus Barnett (24 July 1594); Giles Addis (2 December 1597; turned over to Humfrey Dovey 13 October 1601); Richard Meade, son of a Buckinghamshire husbandman, for 8 years (13 April 1599); John Bell (6 February 1600/01); Ellis Guest, son of Raphe Guest, for 9 years (23 April 1601). By 17 August 1604 Plowman was described as ‘late’ when his son, Samuel, became an apprentice.

PLOWMAN, Samuel (fl. 1614-25)

A Plasterer presented by Humfrey Dovey as the son of Robert, late Citizen & Plasterer of London, for 10 years (17 August 1604). He was made free and paid his abling fine (13 April 1614) and continued to pay quarterage as a member of the Yeomanry until 1625.

PRICE (AP PRICE), David (fl. 1607-15)

A Plasterer, son of a Radnorshire yeoman, presented by Hugh Meyborne for 7 years (19 June 1600). On his admission to the freedom he paid 3s 4d and donated a white silver spoon to the Company (10 July 1607). He paid his beadleship fine on 11 August 1609. Price was fined: for evil work in St Nicholas Lane (10 May 1609); for binding an apprentice contrary to the Orders of the House (25 July 1612); for lateness (13 October 1612); for bad work (19 May 1615). He presented one apprentice: John Jones, son of a deceased Herefordshire husbandman, for 8 years (25 June 1613). In the Quarterage Accounts Price is listed among the Yeomanry until 1615. In 1616 he is replaced by Widow Price, whose name appears in the list until 1628. She received charity from the Company (25 July 1622; 4 September 1623). On 25 April 1626 Henry Price, son of David, late Citizen and Plasterer, apprenticed himself to Richard Browne II ‘to lerne his art’ for 7 years; he was freed by patrimony on 24 April 1630.

PRICE, John (fl. 1615-53)

A Plasterer apprenticed to Lewis Genoway (29 July 1609). On 23 April 1611 ‘Gynawayes man’ was fetched from the Compter but his offence was unspecified. Price was turned over to Richard Browne I (17 July 1614) and freed on 1 September 1615. Apart from paying arrearage of quarterage intermittently, Price’s name does not appear again until he was in receipt of charity (13 October 1640; 26 July 1641) and became a pensioner (23 April 1647). On 25 January 1652/3 he was recorded as ‘pensioner - dead’.

PRIESTMAN (PREESTMAN), Robert (fl. 1580-1614)

A Plasterer presented by John Monkes (8 August 1573) and turned over to Robert Bristow from Widow Monkes (30 March 1579). He paid his abling and admission fines (18 November 1580) and was among those contributing towards the cost of the Company’s parliamentary bill concerning artificers (- March 1580/1). Priestman paid his bachelorship fine (26 July 1582) and presented his first apprentice, Michael Whitton, on 13 November 1584. He paid for his pattern on being chosen for the Livery (31 July 1590) and contributed 10s towards the cost of the Company’s suit against the Bricklayers’ Company (14 August 1598). His next apprentices were: Stephen Bricknell (12 September 1594); Meredith Hall, son of a Herefordshire husbandman, for 8 years (6 July 1604); Christopher Lee (25 April and 4 August 1606); George Hamock (26 February 1606/7); Richard Dewberry (1 February 1610/11); Roger Ratcliffe, son of a Yorkshire gentleman, for 7 years (30 July 1613). Priestman was fined for a variety of offences: for evil work at St Nicholas Shambles (9 July 1586); for disobedience (16 November 1586); for ill work (2 August 1589); for keeping a servant for six months unbound (15 June 1593); for absence (19 November 1596; 29 November 1598; 2 September 1608; 24 August 1612; 16 June 1613); for failure to comply with the Order in connection with the wardenship (30 July 1613). Between 9 November 1594 and 26 July 1595 Priestman and his boy, Stephen Bricknell, were working for the Clothworkers’ Company, with other plasterers, on the newly-built parlour. Priestman was paid at the rate of 16d for 24½ days’ work and 2s on the final day.[13] In 1600-1 Priestman and his wife, Anne, became embroiled in litigation as plaintiffs with Thomas Hodilowe, a Salter, against Thomas Cockayne, a retired City merchant. Complicated financial transactions were involved but the outcome of the case was not recorded.[14] Priestman was elected Younger Warden for 1601-2 but agreed with the Court that he would be allowed to be an Assistant on the payment of 5 marks, but was to be content with one apprentice until ‘he hath made his warden’s dinner’, when he could have two. He then paid a fine of £3 6s 8d for not serving as Younger Warden (3 September 1601). He contributed to the cost of the ‘King’s coming’ (29 August 1604) and his assessment payment was later reduced in recognition of the 10s he had paid towards the king’s visit to the City (10 May 1609). Priestman served as Senior Warden for 1605-6 and continued as an Assistant until 1614. In that year he was one of the plasterers employed at the Charterhouse, where he worked for 32 days at 2s per day between 25 April and 17 July.[15] In the Quarterage Accounts for 1615 he was replaced by his Widow.

PRIOR (PRYOR), John (fl. 1620-54)

A Plasterer, son of Robert Prior of Barton, Bedfordshire,  who was apprenticed to Henry Greene for 8 years (25 June 1613). He was returned to his master by William Whiting when their arrangement was found to be contrary to the Company’s ordinances (30 April 1616). Prior paid his abling fine (11 August 1620), followed by the fine for beadleship (9 November 1621). His apprentice, Roger Prior, also son of Robert of Barton, Bedfordshire, a deceased ploughwright, must have been a younger brother and was apprenticed for 7 years (1 August 1627; freed 4 September 1634). Together with Roger Wastney and Robert Terry Prior was fined 13s 4d for taking work by great from a carpenter (9 September 1630). He was fined for bad work at Moorgate (6 November 1631). In Wastney’s company again, he was fined for bad work and taking work from a bricklayer (6 September 1632). His second apprentice was Francis Fisher from Cumberland, for 7 years (4 September 1634); followed by John Dagrell, son of a Shropshire tailor, for 7 years (6 December 1638; freed 12 February 1645/6); Roger Cosens, son of a labourer of the Parish of St Giles Cripplegate, for 8 years (3 August 1646; turned over to James Hughes on 22 November 1649 and freed 2 February 1653/4). Prior was last mentioned when paying arrearage of quarterage on 25 January 1653/4. 

PRITCHARD, (APPRITCHARDE, APRICHARDE, PITCHETT, RICHARDS), Henry (fl. 1601-28)

A Plasterer presented by Thomas Widmore, who paid 10s ‘for byndinge his man fourth of the house’ on St James’s Day [25 July] (25 January 1594/5). Widmore paid his apprentice’s abling fine of 3s 4d and Pritchard paid 20s towards the total of 40s in lieu of serving one year as a journeyman on 3 September 1601; the outstanding instalment followed on 18 September 1601. In October 1602 he was one of the small team working for the Merchant Taylors’ Company under John Pritchard, ‘new whiting the hall’.[16] Pritchard donated a spoon with his initials, H.P. (10 September 1602) and contributed his payment ‘for the King’s coming’ (29 August 1604). His first apprentice was John Morris (- August 1606). Prior’s apprentice John Evans [this may be the Clerk’s error for Morris as Welsh name proved confusing] was turned over to Hugh Randall (2 May 1608). Pritchard subsequently presented Robert Quick from Berkshire, for 9 years (31 January 1611/12); and took on John Morley II, formerly apprentice of Romayne Cocke and other masters, to serve the remainder of his term (5 February 1621/2). Pritchard was fined for freeing Edward Davies I, apprentice of Thomas Widmore, early (31 July 1622). Pritchard was once fined for lateness (13 October 1618) and was last recorded paying arrearage of quarterage on 23 April 1628.

PRITCHARD, (APRITCHARD, PRITCHETT), John (fl. 1599-1619)

A Plasterer whose name first appears in the entry recording Company expenses arising from ‘Apritchard’s cause’ (29 November 1598). It seems that Pritchard had been ‘diffranchised’ from the Merchant Taylors’ Company but had taken Anthony Sharpe as his apprentice (28 April 1599). This situation was remedied when he was admitted to the Plasterers’ Company on being turned over from the Merchant Taylors (25 June 1599) and he then received repayment of a loan (10 September 1599). Pritchard paid 10s for having his man [Anthony Sharpe] as a journeyman for a year and 2s when Edward Stanyan was turned over to him from Nicholas Henshawe (18 September 1601). Together with John Lea or Lee he worked at Whitehall in 1601-2, lathing and plastering the walls and ceiling beneath a pair of stairs in the room adjoining the masons’ lodge.[17] Between 1601 and 1607 he was employed on several occasions by his old company, the Merchant Taylors. In 1601 he received 10s 7d for ‘whiting the ceiling of the long gallery, etc’. A further three days’ work that year brought him 4s 6d.[18] Pritchard’s bill for six days’ labour by himself and four other plasterers came to 45s and was paid on 16 October 1602. A further payment for their labour and supplies of white lead, red lead, gallons of oil, size, Spanish white, russet and yellow ochre was made on 23 October. This was followed by payment of the bill for ‘work and stuff about the paynting of the gates & the corte’ on 30 October.[19] In 1603 Pritchard and Stanyan spent five days plastering in the Withdrawing or Inner Chamber, earning 7s 6d each.[20] In 1606 Pritchard was working on the Bachelors’ Gallery, the great hall and the Company’s almshouses near the Hall at 20d per day and in 1607 he was the lead plasterer of the large team employed ‘beautifying’ the Company’s hall prior to the royal visit that was to take place on Election Day.[21] Pritchard made his contribution towards the City’s forced loan to the King (- October 1604) and paid his beadleship fine (14 October 1605). Evan Morris was apprenticed to Pritchard (7 March 1605/6), who was fined for not enrolling his man and for giving him almost a year off his term when Morris was freed (26 March 1613). He was fined for absence (4 July 1606). His next apprentice was Richard Jarvis, a gentleman from Cornwall, for 8 years (26 March 1613) but he did not live to see him freed. In the Quarterage Accounts Pritchard appears as a member of the Yeomanry until 1619 but his name was crossed through and replaced by ‘Widow’ in 1620 and Widow Pritchard was herself crossed out in 1621.

PRITCHARD, (APRITCHARD, APPRICHARDE), William (fl. 1601-9)

A Plasterer whose apprenticeship is not recorded but who paid his abling fine (27 March 1601) and then paid 20s in lieu of serving a year as a journeyman (18 September 1601). He was fined for evil work (9 September 1604) and paid his beadleship fine (23 November 1604). William Browne was apprenticed to him (7 March 1605/6) but was soon succeeded by John Burrows (28 April 1607). As a member of the Yeomanry he contributed 2s 6d towards the Company’s costs arising from a Chancery lawsuit concerning the house on the corner of Wood Street (2 February 1608/9). When John Boothouse was freed, Pritchard was named as his master, although there is no record of his having been turned over from Anthony Sharpe, his initial master (13 April 1614). In any event, Pritchard was apparently dead by then as his name does not appear in the Quarterage Accounts after 1609.


 

[1] LMA DL/C/B/007/MS 09172/6C; will no. 108.

[2] LMA COL/CA/01/022, f. 279v.

[3] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048, M/F Vol. 9 (1604-9).

[4] TNA E 351/3268, Taskwork. 

[5] TNA REQ 2/188/36.

[6] TNA PROB 11/137.

[7] LMA DL/C/B/004/MS 09171/16, f. 268.

[8] The Clothworkers’ Company: Quarter and Renter Wardens’ Accounts: CL/D/5/3 (1578-98).

[9] Drapers’ Company Renter Wardens’ Accounts: RA 5/19 (1582-3), f. 17v.

[10] TNA PROB 11/80.

[11]TNA PROB 11/137.

[12] R G Lang (ed), Two Tudor Subsidy Rolls for the City of London: 1541 and 1582, London Record Society, 29 (1993), p. 243.

[13] The Clothworkers’ Company: Quarter and Renter Wardens’ Accounts: CL/D/5/3 (1578-98).

[14] TNA REQ 2/218/43 and REQ 2/188/40.

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

[16] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/300/008.

[17] TNA AO 1/2417/34, Prelims and Taskwork.

[18] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/300/008.

[19] LMA CLC/L/MD/G/243/MS 34348, ff. 93r, 94r, 96r.

[20] LMA CLC/L/MD/D/003/MS 34048/300/008.

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

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