Here lyes interred ye body

of BAPTIST  MAY Esq. Privy

Purse to his Ma..tie KING CHARLES

the second, who departed

this life ye second of March

1696 Aged 69.

The large black marble ledger on the pavement of the Rutland Chantry in St George’s Chapel marks the last resting place of one of the most fascinating personalities of the Restoration era.

Baptist May, the son of a privy councillor, first entered royal service in 1648 as one of the Duke of York’s pages and from 1662 to 1665 was a groom in the Duke’s bedchamber. At the Restoration he was part of the libertine element at Charles II’s court. His appointment in 1665 to the office of Keeper of the Privy Purse, an office he was to hold for the rest of Charles II’s reign, was probably due to the influence of Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who had an interest in ensuring payments should reliably be paid to her.

May was a trusted servant who enjoyed Charles II’s friendship. The king found him amusing although May’s tactless comments, as for instance when he welcomed the Great Fire as making the City easier to control, shocked even the king. May also meddled in high politics. In 1670, having been elected MP for Midhurst, he tried to introduce a bill to enable the king to divorce his childless wife. Eleven years later he supported a bill to exclude from the succession James, Duke of York, who had become a Roman Catholic, and, shortly before Charles II’s  death in 1685, he plotted with Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, and with York’s other enemies at court to have the Duke sent back to Scotland.

Bishop Burnet, whose History of my own time is a major source for this period, wrote that May had

    “……the greatest and largest share in the King’s secret confidence of any man in that time, for it was never broken off though often shaken, he being against everything that the King was for, both France, popery, and arbitrary government, but a particular sympathy of temper, and his serving the King in his vices created a confidence much envied and often attempted to be broke, but never with any success beyond a short coldness.”

May ceased to be Keeper of the Privy Purse at the accession of James II but continued to be Ranger of Windsor Great Park, an office he had held since 1671, and he continued to use as his main country seat the Great Lodge now known as Cumberland Lodge. He was MP for Thetford  in the first parliament of William and Mary’s reign and died in 1697.

Jill Hume, Archives Volunteer

St George’s Chapel was founded by Edward III in 1348, and over the years it became commonplace for the nobility of the country to give presents and money to the Chapel as a means to ensure the security of their souls and safe passage to heaven on their death. The Chapel therefore built up a rich collection of plate, vestments and jewels which were used in daily service as a visual display of the glories of God. The inventory of 1534 shows that there were over 160 items of “jewells and very precyous relycks pertayning to the Collegge of Wyndesor belonging to the hyghe awter.” This number did not even include the opulently embroidered vestments, many adorned with pearls, rubies and other precious stones.

During the Protestant rule of Edward VI, many of these treasures were sold off or had to be given up to make way for the new, plainer style of celebrating services. Following his death and the accession of Mary, many items were repurchased and the collection began to build up again. Beautiful pieces of gold plate and wonderfully embroidered vestments re-entered the collection during the early 17^th century, and the trappings of the services seemed secure, until 1642 and the arrival of Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians.

According to the posthumously published memoirs of Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor, on 25 October 1642, Captain Fogg of the Parliamentary Forces, demanded the keys to the Treasury, claiming to have a warrant from the King. He threatened the Dean and Canons that if they did not allow him access, he would “pull down the Chapel about their Ears”. Not finding the 3 key-keepers, he forced open the door with iron bars and carried out several pieces of plate. This included:

1)      All the rich treble gilt plate made by Van Vianen, estimated at above three Thousand Pounds

2)      Two fair double gilt Chalices with covers

3)      Two fair double gilt Flagons

4)      A gilt basin for the bread at Communion

5)      The gilt coat of mail of King Edward IV, covered with crimson velvet richly embroidered with pearl, gold and rubies

6)      The hangings across the Quire, of crimson velvet and gold

7)      Thirteen rich copes, embroidered and wrought in gold

8)      Two rich copes of gold wire

9)      A large carpet of gold wire for the Communion table

10)   The blue velvet Garter robe of Gustavus Adophus, King of Sweden, embroidered with pearls and gold, with jewels

11)   The great basin or font for Christenings, given by Edward III

It was a devastating loss for the Chapel. On the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II encouraged his Garter Knights to donate money to enable more plate to be purchased, but never again would the plate of the Chapel be so splendid and vast.

Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)

One of the most difficult problems which confronted Charles II and his advisers at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 was how to deal with land which had been appropriated by the Commonwealth from the Crown and the Church—the two largest landowners in England—and from what were called ‘delinquent Royalists’. As far as the lands of the church were concerned, after the Commonwealth Parliament had abolished the offices of bishops, deans and other cathedral offices as well as collegiate churches in 1646, their lands had been appropriated and in 1650 an Ordinance had been passed for the sale of these lands. The king’s first inclination had been that all the appropriated land should be returned to its original owners. However this was before he had grasped the complexity of the problem. In south-east England alone, for example, land appropriated from fifty royalists had been split up and sold to more than five times that number of purchasers. So in the Declaration of Breda, which was Charles’ ‘manifesto’ prior to his being restored to the throne, the king agreed ‘all things relating to such grants, sales and purchases, shall be determined in Parliament, which can best provide for the just satisfaction of all men who are concerned.’ In the event, Parliament fudged the issue as far as former Crown and Church lands were concerned, but agreed that a commission should be set up by the king to treat with the purchasers of these lands. This commission was established by a proclamation on 7 October 1660. A few days later the king wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking that former tenants be given priority in the grant of new leases.

In the Chapel Archives is a petition (reference XI.J.21) addressed to the royal Commissioners by Sir Henry Pickering regarding the rectory of Whaddon in Cambridgeshire. This rectory, with its lands, tithe and other income, had been the subject of a succession of leases to the Tempest family of Whaddon, the latest before the Civil War having been granted to William Tempest. He is known to have been a Royalist—a search of his house for arms having been ordered in February 1642; he was also a Catholic, having been registered as a ‘recusant’ in 1641. Sir Henry Pickering, on the other hand, had been a colonel in Cromwell’s elite New Model Army and a Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire, so was a prominent member of the Commonwealth establishment. He claimed in his petition to have taken an assignment of the lease of the rectory in 1648/9 from Thomas Tempest, the son and executor of the will of William Tempest. One can only speculate at the pressure which this powerful Parliamentarian was able to bring to bear on Thomas as a Royalist and, possibly, also a Catholic. Having acquired the lease, Pickering as tenant would then have been able to take advantage of a provision in the Ordinance giving tenants of former Crown and Church lands rights of pre-emption. Parliamentary officers and Members of Parliament were reputed to have been among the main purchasers of former Crown and Church lands: a pamphleteer of 1648 had complained how ‘both Delinquents’ estates and Bishops’ Lands are by Members of Parliament shared among themselves. ’ This might also have been behind the wish expressed in the king’s letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury of October 1660 that no leases for the time being should be granted to former purchasers who had been members of the Parliamentary Army.

In his petition Pickering, with what might be considered some audacity, states that he had bought the lease from Thomas Tempest partly ‘for the preservation of the Church’s Interest.’ He then says that he approached the Dean and Canons for a new lease, to which they replied—presumably in line with the king’s letter to the archbishop—that at that time they had no power to grant one and he then goes on to complain that some time afterwards they granted a lease of the premises to William Tempest junior, brother of Thomas. The petition is undated but must have been presented some time after October 1660 but before 23 January 1661, when the Commissioners wrote to the Dean and Canons with a copy of the petition, desiring them ‘to take up the allegations thereof into their serious consideration,’ and to try ‘if they can to compose the differences’ between Pickering and Tempest. Nothing further is recorded of the matter but future leases were granted to the Tempest family so, not entirely surprisingly, the former New Model Army colonel and Member of Parliament got nowhere with his petition. Unfortunately, most of the records of the Commissioners have not survived so it is not known whether Sir Henry received any compensation. It is interesting though that the Dean and Canons may have expected some compensation to have been payable: the lease granted to William Tempest on 20 October 1660 contains a clause by which Tempest indemnified the Dean and Canons against any ‘charge or composition concerning [any conveyance] of the premises by the late usurped power or its trustees to any person,’ together with a covenant that he was ‘to pay any purchaser any sum of money which might be imposed upon the Dean and Canons.’

Jeremy Sims, Archives Volunteer

Signature and seal of Nell Gwyn

St George’s Chapel Archives holds three leases, all dated 11 December 1684, conveying land and property to Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn ([1651]-1687), the notorious mistress of King Charles II. Through the indenture pictured [SGC XI.N.7], the Dean and Canons of St George’s Chapel leased a garden in New Windsor to ‘Ellenor Gwinn’ at a cost of 12 shillings annual rent. Through the two additional indentures [SGC XI.N.5-6,9] Gwyn leased nearby properties on Priest Street and at a place called ‘the old Hawes’, lying to the south of the King’s garden. The leases are signed E.G. and hold the seal of arms used by Gwyn.

The tenements conveyed in these leases were but a few of the many properties leased and purchased for Nell Gwyn by the royal household. When these leases were signed in 1684, Gwyn already held the freehold for a house at the west end of Pall Mall and a lease for a summer residence at Bagnigge Wells House. The land and properties conveyed in the leases of 11 December 1684 were in fact intended as an enlargement of the property already leased by Gwyn in Windsor at Burford house. Gwyn’s properties at Windsor were situated at the back of the castle, meaning that they were conveniently located for rendezvous with the King.

John (Archives Assistant)