CH/20/78

CH/20/78

Item

Letter from the Dean of Salisbury, John Gordon, about the interment of Sir Thomas Gorges, 1610

24 Apr 1610

1 sheet

Letter from John Gordon, "decanus sarum", addressed "From the court at white[hall]", "To the right worshipful our lovinge brethren the Chapter of the Cathedral church of Sarum". After a salutation in Latin, John Gordon offers his "very harty commendations" to the Chapter, and says he has been "mooved" by the Dean of Lichfield on behalf of "the right worshipful Sir Thomas Gorge knight our neighbour lately deceased for the enterringe of his boddy in some convenient place of the boddy of the chancel or boddy of the Cathedral Church of Sarum". The Dean says that Sir Edward Gorges, Sir Thomas's son and executor, "hath a purpose to burie him with us according to the honourable place of service which he held with his mejestie in his life time", and that it is "agreeable to his reputation that his boddy may be bestowed in such place as Sir Edward . . . shall Like and choose". Sir Thomas Gorges (1536-1610) of Longford Castle, a second cousin of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, was Groom of the Chamber to Elizabeth I. In 1576 he married Helena Schachenberg, Dowager Marchioness of Northampton and First Lady of the Privy Chamber. The Queen refused consent to the marriage, which was held secretly, and for a while Helena was exiled from Court and Thomas imprisoned in the Tower. Subsequently Elizabeth granted manors to Helena and employed Thiomas, who was knighted in 1586, as a foreign envoy, and granted them jointly an estate at Sheen, a former monastery, for their liifetimes. The Queen also gave Helena ownership of a Spanish treasure ship which ran aground at the time of the 1588 Armada. The Gorges were granted various offices by James I. Helena Gorges died in 1635, after which Sir Edward Gorges, by then Ist Baron Gorges of Dundalk, erected the tomb for both his parents in the Chapel of St Peter and the Apostles (see Sarah Brown, Sumptuous and Richly Adorne'd: The Decoration of Salisbury Cathedral, London: The Staionery Office, 1999, p.146). William Tooker (1557-1622) was installed as Dean of Lichfield in 1605. James I issued but then revoked the congé d'élire for his election as Bishop of Gloucester. He died in Salisbuy and is buried in the Cathedral. The letter is much damaged by decay, but is mostly legibile. It has been mounted on modern paper.

English
Latin

Material: paper, wax.