Copy 1

The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat / Written by a resident in the Tower of London. Ed., with illustrative documents and notes, by John Gough Nichols.

Date:
[1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat / Written by a resident in the Tower of London. Ed., with illustrative documents and notes, by John Gough Nichols. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/212 (page 6)
    his margin that it was derived “ from the report of an eye-witness ;” he really received it, through Stowe, from the present Diary. Stowe affords us no intimation of the name of the writer, except that at one place, the account of the decapitation of Wyat, he has printed in his margin the name of Row. Lea. Rowland Lea was the name of a Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who died lord president of Wales in the year 1543: and the same baptismal name was very probably continued in his family. That the diarist was a man of no mean condition may be inferred from the fact of his having been admitted to dine at the same table with the lady Jane Grey when in the Tower. The passage describing this incident, which is one of the most interesting in the book, has been unknown to all the lady Jane’s biographers, although it was once printed, in the seventeenth century, by sir Simonds D’Ewes, who was then the owner of the manuscript. It was in master Partridge’s house that the lady Jane was lodged, and at his table that this memorable interview took place. Who was master Partridge? was he “ Affabel Partriche,” goldsmith to queen Mary, to whom the lord treasurer was directed by royal warrant * dated 25th July, 1554, to deliver certain jewels then remaining in the Tower? or in what other capacity had he a residence within that fortress ? But the more important question is, Who was his guest, whom we would now desire to commemorate as the sole chronicler of the Reion of Queen Jane? It may be supposed a person of higher rank or better education than Partridge, as he was invited to enter into familiar conversation with the illustrious prisoner. One of the sheets * MS. Cotton. Titus B. rv. f. 130.