{"id":3859,"date":"2025-07-01T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/materialcultureofwills\/?p=3859"},"modified":"2025-07-01T10:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:43:09","slug":"will-of-the-month-country-squire-castle-keeper-to-a-duke-and-a-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/materialcultureofwills\/2025\/07\/01\/will-of-the-month-country-squire-castle-keeper-to-a-duke-and-a-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Will of the Month: A country squire and Castle Keeper to a Duke and a King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Will Johnson, Barbara Tearle,<\/em> Emily Vine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This edition of our \u2018Will of the Month\u2019 series is a very special one. It\u2019s the fruit of a collaboration: the research and transcription were completed by Zooniverse<\/a> volunteers Will Johnson and Barbara Tearle, and this blog post is a collaboration between us all. It untangles not only the details of a complex and fascinating will, but also the process of undertaking this type of historical research. As a collectively written and researched endeavour, we\u2019re also \u2018showing our working\u2019 by providing links to research notes; Barbara\u2019s spreadsheet of bequests, and Will\u2019s biography, tally of objects, and glossary [link here].<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our testator Edward Fetiplace was the steward of Donnington Castle in the 1530s, this photo shows the surviving gatehouse, by Mik Peach <\/em>https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Berkshire-DonningtonCastle.jpg<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edward Fetiplace the Castle Keeper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in our previous blog post<\/a>, this month we\u2019re exploring the will of an individual who had connections to the Tudor court.[1]<\/sup><\/a> Edward Fetiplace (d. 1549)[2]<\/sup><\/a> had come from a family of Berkshire gentry who had long been in service to the Royal Family.[3]<\/sup><\/a> He served as treasurer to Henry VIII\u2019s brother-in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, in 1527, and began to benefit from many seized monastic properties.[4]<\/sup><\/a> By 1535, Fetiplace was keeper of the Duke\u2019s Donnington Castle, and was criticised by Thomas Cromwell for the way he had\u00a0the\u00a0run the estate\u00a0in a letter pressuring\u00a0the Duke to give the Castle to the King, which,\u00a0in 1536, he did.[5]<\/sup><\/a> Fetiplace was also identified as one of the gentlemen \u2018appointed to attend upon the King\u2019s own person\u2019.[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1539 he was a member of the party that greeted Anne of Cleves on her arrival in England.[7]<\/sup><\/a> On leaving Donnington in 1540, he was rewarded with lands and a pension.[8]<\/sup><\/a> He appears elsewhere in the historical record when writing letters; a complaint to\u00a0 Cromwell,[9]<\/sup><\/a> and another explaining to Sir John Williams that he could not meet because he had to muster soldiers and had \u2018been long sick of a sore leg\u2019.[10]<\/sup><\/a> In 1543 he leased the manor of Prior\u2019s Court in Chieveley, the home of another of this blog\u2019s featured testators, William Denton<\/a>, and in 1545 married Elizabeth, widow of John More.[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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The two schedules of \u2018householde stuff\u2019 and \u2018plate\u2019 at the end of Fetiplace\u2019s will<\/em>: PROB 11\/33\/177, Will of Edward Fetiplace of Priorscourt, Berkshire, esquire, 26 April 1550.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A Tudor Bread Bin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fetiplace\u2019s will is long and detailed \u2013 he takes 6800 words to set out his intentions with great care, and much of the document relates to the disposal of property in Berkshire, Hampshire, London and Somerset. The most interesting features come at the end of the will: the household furnishings left to his young stepsons, Thomas and Richard More, are listed in two schedules \u2018hereunto annexed\u2019, the latter of which inventories goods room by room. These lists are respectively titled \u2018Householde stuff geven by me Edwarde Fetiplace Esquyer to Thomas More\u2019 and \u2018The plate devysed by Edwarde Fethyplace Esquyer unto Richarde More\u2019 but in practice both lists contain plate and \u2018householde stuff\u2019, as well as textiles and kitchen utensils. A huge number of bequests were listed and divided between the two stepsons, including 400 sheep, 30 pieces of dornyx cloth, 15 featherbeds, 14 cushions, 13 pigs, 12 candlesticks, 11 chairs, 10 curtains, 6 brass pots, 3 tables, and 1 \u2018byn for to putt in breade\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these two schedules, Fetiplace lists a great variety of textiles, including 9 carpets, 11 hangings, and 10 curtains. In this era, carpets were usually used to cover furniture, although since the mid fifteenth century, they had been used by English royalty and aristocracy for the floor, especially around beds[12]<\/sup><\/a> and in ladies\u2019 chambers.[13]<\/sup><\/a> In the will, he specifies\u00a0six\u00a0carpets for a cupboard,\u00a0two\u00a0for a table, and\u00a0one\u00a0with the King’s Arms listed amongst bed items, which perhaps was used by the grandest bed, as well as four bed coverlettes of carpet work.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Pile carpet fragment, with rows of octagons, rings of knotwork and arabesques, a style depicted in European paintings from the mid 15th<\/sup> century, and later by Hans Holbein, Usak, Turkey, ca. 1500, V&A \u00a9 Victoria and Albert Museum, London <\/em>https:\/\/collections.vam.ac.uk\/item\/O66846\/carpet-fragment-unknown\/<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Ornate Tapestries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wall hangings acted as insulation against extremes of temperature, as well as decoration.[14]<\/sup><\/a> Subjects for hangings could be battles, hunts, medieval tales and romances, religious imagery of Jesus, Mary, the Saints, and biblical stories.[15]<\/sup><\/a> Verdure tapestries were popular, of a green dominant theme, depicting trees or foliage, with animals, including fantastical beasts such as griffins or unicorns which often symbolized Christ.[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Tapestry, tapestry-woven worsted on flax warp, Southern Netherlands, 1525-50, V&A \u00a9 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, <\/em>https:\/\/collections.vam.ac.uk\/item\/O364945\/tapestry-unknown\/?carousel-image=2017JU4307<\/em><\/a> <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Fetiplace\u2019s will mentions two \u2018verders work\u2019 or verdure items with religious or heraldic imagery: \u2018A Counterpoynt [a quilted cover] of Imagery verders woorke of Saynte George \/ A Carpett of verders woorke with the kinges Armes in the myddest\u2019. Tapestries of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century often included mille-fleurs; thousands of tiny flowers interspersed with animals and heraldic designs. This example of a coarse weave tapestry from the Victoria & Albert Museum shows naively depicted animals; horses or dogs, perhaps, and birds\u00a0amongst the flowers.[17]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1520s, large leaf and flower verdure tapestries began to emerge, with more naturalistic depiction of foliage inspired by new world plants, with giant leaves and half hidden birds and animals.[18]<\/sup><\/a> An example can be seen at Cotehele, depicting a griffin, hind and birds amongst large-leafed flowering plants, with a dragonfly and a snail beneath. In many bequests of textiles, there is a count of the pieces, parts or panes, which may have been deemed prudent to ensure that servants, relations or those dealing with the will did not cut off or remove anything.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tapestry, wool and silk, 5 warps per cm, Verdure with Roses, Southern Netherlands, ca. 1510-1540, Cotehele \u00a9National Trust Images\/John Hammond<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In the will, Fetiplace describes the patterns or imagery adorning his tapestries, carpets, and quilt covers. This may have been to ensure that items went to the intended beneficiary, but it provides the modern reader with an insight into a broad range of decorative textiles that have not survived to the twenty-first century. Other \u2018counterpoint\u2019 covers included one decorated with a lion, and one with imagery associated with St John the Baptist, while another carpet was \u2018of Tapstrey woorke with flowers and the lylly pott in it\u2019. Other intriguing textile items included \u2018vj quysshons of tapstre worke with flowers and ij dogges feightynge for a bone\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Two dogs barking at each other at the beginning of The Bayeux tapestry <\/em>(1070s), thought to be a device to set the scene for the coming conflict [19]<\/sup><\/a>. https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Bayeux_Tapestry_Scene_01_(cropped).jpg<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Dogs played an important part in Tudor society, as hunting dogs, dogs for retrieving, guarding and herding, the lap dogs of the ladies of court and even dogs which drove the turn spit in the kitchens. They were often depicted in breviaries, bestiaries and tapestries, and at the feet of royalty and the upper classes on their tomb brasses and effigies.[20]<\/sup><\/a> The imagery of two dogs fighting over a bone probably alluded to a proverb known in Tudor England, recorded in Chaucer\u2019s The Knight\u2019s Tale<\/em>, and in Thomas More\u2019s Dialogue of Comfort <\/em>(1534), concerning the idea that when two stronger parties were fighting over something, an opportunity was created for a weaker party to make off with the spoils.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cushion cover, silk embroidery on linen canvas, English, ca. 1540, Arms of Warneford-Yates, V&A \u00a9 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, <\/em>https:\/\/collections.vam.ac.uk\/item\/O78736\/cushion-cover-unknown\/<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Although it is unlikely the textiles which Fetiplace lists still exist, the Victoria and Albert Museum does possess an ornate embroidered cushion cover that belonged to a related family. It was made for the marriage of Susanna Yate, sister of Edward\u2019s brother-in-law James Yate, to John Warneford c.1540.[21]<\/sup><\/a> It depicts their coats of arms encircled by a wreath of honeysuckle and cornflowers with a heraldic rose above and a lovers\u2019 knot below, with flowering plants and frogs, snails, dragonflies and moths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Corne and grayne’ and things in \u2018The kechyn\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Striking textiles such as the ones described in Fetiplace\u2019s will appear to be ornate items befitting a gentleman of his standing. But Fetiplace\u2019s will doesn\u2019t just set out fashionable textiles or decorative furnishings, it also includes more mundane and practical household goods and produce. He leaves his stepson Richard \u2018one half of all the corne and grayne remaynynge and beynge in the barnes of Priorscourt\u2019, and also itemises cooking implements, including frying pans, kettles, brass ladles, flesh hooks, a colander, a mortar and pestle of wood, and another of iron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of 14 different rooms are mentioned including \u2018The Chamber over the parler next the bottrie\u2019, \u2018The Parler next the Courte\u2019, \u2018The kechyn\u2019 and \u2018The Hawll\u2019.\u00a0 Two rooms have andirons for fireplaces, and the kitchen has cobirons with many hooks for different levels for the spit or broche for roasting.[22]<\/sup><\/a> For every \u2018Carpett of verders woorke with the kinges Armes\u2019 mentioned, there is also a pewter pot made of tin.\u00a0 This methodical document acts as both will and partial inventory of the contents of many rooms in Prior\u2019s Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Cotehele Kitchen with garnish of pewter dishes on the shelves. Spoons, ladles, scummers & strainers hang to the left of the fireplace, with andirons & tall cobirons either side \u00a9National Trust Images\/John Bethell<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Edward Fetiplace strove to be thorough in itemising the worldly goods and household possessions that he intended for his stepsons and wife, so have the researchers who worked together to find out more about his life, to transcribe his long and exceptionally detailed will, and to itemise and also gloss some of the dozens of bequests made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spirit of collaboration and openness about the level of work that can go into unpicking just a single Tudor document, we are sharing our research notes in this Google Drive folder.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n