SUMMARY: TNA WARD 8/13 is one of the foundation documents in the assessment of Oxford’s finances. WARD 8/13 is a Court of Wards account for the revenues from Oxford’s lands for the year running from 29 September 1563 to 29 September 1564. It incorporates and recites in full two other documents, the Queen’s grant to Leicester of 22 October 1563, and a decree of 1 May 1564 providing that the Queen would pay certain annuities and fees which had been granted by the 16th Earl. The accounting in WARD 8/13 is so minimal that the conclusion cannot be avoided that the Court of Wards was negligent in fulfilling its duties. The first 24 sections of the document concern manors which the Queen had granted to Leicester during Oxford’s minority, and in each of the 24 sections it is stated that an accounting for these manors will be provided in section 25, which deals with the manor of East Bergholt. However there is no detailed accounting in Section 25 for any of the manors which the Queen had granted to Leicester. Only a very few figures are provided in Section 25, and these appear to erroneously benefit Leicester by £400, a very substantial sum. Similarly, no accounting is provided in WARD 8/13 for the manors which were under the supervision of the 16th earl’s executors, a circumstance which is particularly troubling when it is considered that administration of the 16th Earl’s will had been granted to Leicester’s servant, Robert Christmas. It would appear from WARD 8/13 that the supervision which the Court of Wards exercised over Oxford’s lands during his minority was cursory at best.

The total net value of the lands and offices set out in WARD 8/13 is £2233 13s 7d, which is allocated in WARD 8/13 as follows:
1. Lands included in Queen Elizabeth’s grant to Leicester of 22 October 1563. Value: £680 18s 2-3/4d.
2. Lands, as well as the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, from which income went to the Court of Wards during Oxford’s minority. Value: £643 5s 1-1/4d.
3. Lands included in the jointure of the Countess of Oxford. Value: £444 15s.
4. Lands assigned for life to three brothers of the 16th Earl of Oxford. Value: £130 16s 8d.
5. Lands assigned to the 16th Earl’s executors for payment of his debts and performance of his will. Value: £333 18s 7d.

It should be noted that an additional £24 for a 21-year lease of the manor of Mountnessing is mentioned in the 16th Earl’s inquisition post mortem (see TNA C 142/136/12). However it would be misleading to add this additional £24 to the total net value of £2233 13s 7d set out in WARD 8/13 since no revenue had been derived from this lease at the time of the compilation of WARD 8/13, and it is uncertain whether Oxford ever derived any revenue from it (for a discussion of Mountnessing, see TNA C 165/22-3). An additional 16 shillings for Wennington is also mentioned in the 16th Earl’s inquisition post mortem, but not in WARD 8/13, where Wennington is included with Langdon Hills. The total of £2233 13s 7d in WARD 8/13 also includes £5 5s for the office of feodary of the honours of Hedingham and Stansted, an office which is not mentioned in the 16th Earl’s inquisition post mortem, but which is mentioned in the feodary John Glascock’s 1562 survey of Oxford’s lands in Essex (ERO D/DU 65/72) where the 105s is offset by fees, and the net value is recorded as ‘nihil’. Aside from these discrepancies, the valuations in the 16th Earl’s inquisition post mortem and in WARD 8/13 are in most cases identical. There are thus two separate official documents which assess the value of Oxford’s entire inheritance at roughly £2250, and which entirely discredit the inflated figures for Oxford’s inherited income which have been put forward by commentators for more than four centuries. It should also be noted that in 1567 the Archbishop of Canterbury retroactively claimed a third of the revenues from the manor of Fleet, decreasing Oxford's net yearly revenue by £12 13s 4d during his minority.

In assessing the value of Oxford’s inheritance, it is important to realize that at no time in his life did Oxford ever receive his total inherited revenues of £2233 13s 7d per year. During the nine years of his minority he received only the £643 5s 1-1/4d per year which went to the Court of Wards. And in fact, he received only £643 5s 1-1/4d for a year beyond his minority because the Queen did not grant letters patent licensing him to enter on his lands until 30 May 1572, and although the licence included reimbursement, there was no compensation for the delay in receiving a year’s income. Oxford’s mother died on 2 December 1568, and from that time on Oxford should also have received, for the remaining three years of his minority, the £444 15s which had been allotted to his mother as her jointure. However the Queen claimed the remainder of Oxford's mother's jointure under wardship, and it was not until after a trial in 1571 that Oxford received it (see Sir James Dyer’s judgment in the case). Although Oxford would have been reimbursed as a result of the court’s judgment, there was again no compensation for the delay in receiving three years’ income. A further £333 18s 6-1/2d per year was set aside until 1583 for payment of the 16th Earl’s debts and fulfilment of the legacies in his will. In addition, two of Oxford’s uncles had life estates in the revenues of certain manors amounting to £130 16s 8d per year, while a third uncle, Robert, had a life estate in other lands. Finally, the Queen was entitled by law to one-third of Oxford’s revenues during his minority. In one of the most anomalous grants made during the history of the Court of Wards, she granted £680 18s 2-3/4d per year in net revenues from Oxford’s lands to her favourite, the Earl of Leicester. (It should be noted that the value of these lands in Leicester’s grant as recited in Part 25 of WARD 8/13 is £859 9s 8d, but this amount included approximately £178 in increased rents.) Since the Queen herself admitted in her decree of 1 May 1564 that she had taken more than the one-third to which she was entitled by law, the grant to Leicester was illegal as well as anomalous. It is also important to keep in mind the enormous amount of income which accrued to the Queen, or to Leicester, or both, from the grant during the nine years of Oxford's minority, a total benefit of £7735 7s over the 9-year period since the real value of the grant to the Queen, or to Leicester, or both was £859 9s 8d, as stated in the grant itself in part 25 of WARD 8/13, not the £680 18s 2-3/4d at which the lands had been valued elsewhere in parts 1-25 of WARD 8/13.

The facts recited above demonstrate the cash flow problems Oxford experienced during the nine years of his minority, when an enormous financial benefit accrued to the Queen, or Leicester, or both, while Oxford received only sufficient income for his maintenance. But even after he had sued his livery in 1572 Oxford never received his full inheritance of £2233 13s 7d in any year. He was not entitled to receive the £130 16s 8d per year set aside for life estates for his uncles until after they had died, and he was not entitled to receive the £333 18s 7d set aside for performance of his father's will until 1583. Those two figures amount to £464 15s 3d per year which Oxford did not receive for many years after he came of age, more than 20% of his inheritance.

Moreover after Oxford came of age there were several hundred pounds worth of annuities to be paid out each year. The total for the 16th Earl's annuities from TNA C142/136/12 and WARD 8/13 is £484 17s 6d. Considering that Oxford's total inherited income was £2233 13s 7d, this is a significant figure because these annuities had been awarded by the 16th Earl to the annuitants for life, and would thus have been a tremendous strain on Oxford's income throughout his own life. There are caveats attached to the figure of £484 17s 6d because the 16th Earl sometimes made grants of the reversions of annuities; for example, after Charles Tyrrell had been awarded a certain annuity as bailiff of Castle Hedingham, the 16th Earl granted a further annuity to William Brewster to take effect on Charles Tyrrell's death. Both annuities are included in the total of £484 17s 6d, even though both would obviously not have been paid out at the same time. There were also perquisites attached to many of the annuities which cannot be readily calculated in money values but which were nevertheless drains on the 16th Earl's own income, and later, on Oxford’s. The figure of £484 17s 6d is thus not exact, even though it represents the total of all the amounts given in the two documents. However the figure is sufficiently accurate to demonstrate that Oxford would have experienced serious financial difficulties in paying these annuities after his father's death. ERO D/DPr 144 indicates that circa 1572 Oxford was paying out £322 7s 1d in fees and annuities annually. Since his income in 1572 was, at best, £1768 18s 4d, this left him only £1446 11s 3d annually to meet all his other expenses, which included maintaining the costly life of a courtier as well as managing his estates.

All these factors explain why Oxford experienced cash flow problems and why he was soon forced to the expedient of selling off his estates.

The index to WARD 8/13 is printed below. The value of each manor has been placed in bold type beside the name of the manor for ease of reference.

I. [00] Opening formula

II. Lands included in Queen Elizabeth’s grant to Leicester of 22 October 1563. Value: £680 18s 2-3/4d.

A. County of Essex. Value: £543 2s 10-3/4d.

[01] Honour or manor of Castle Hedingham: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £8 15s 3-1/2d.

[02] Manor of Grays in Sible Hedingham with Peppers: account of Richard Wastlyn. Value: £12 11s 7d + 58s 8d = £15 10s 3d.

[03] Office of the feodary of the honours of Hedingham & Stansted: account of John Carew. Value:105s = £5 5s.

[04] Manor of Prayors alias Bower Hall in Sible Hedingham: account of John Bridge. Value: £32 17s 3d.

[05] Manor of Little Yeldham alias Over Yeldham: account of Robert Spring. Value: £34 5s.

[06] Manor of Earls Colne: account of Lewis Jegon. Value: £25 14s 5-1/2d.

[07] Pasture called Warehills: account of John Cole. Value: 41s 8d = £2 1s 8d.

[08] Manors of Maldon, Flanderswick, Bounches, & Flaxland: account of Anthony Sparrow. Value: £35 17s 2-1/2d.

[09] Manors of Stansted Mountfitchet, Burnells, Bentfeld Bury, & Bury Lodge: account of John Miller, deputy of Thomas Josselyn. Value: £92 4s 3-1/2d.

[10] Manor of Parks in Gestingthorpe: account of John Hale. Value: 100s =£5.

[11] Manor of Great Yeldham alias Nether Yeldham: account of William Grave. Value: £41 15s 5d.

[12] Manor of Sheriffs in Gaines Colne: account of John Ward. Value: £9 6s 3d.

[13] Manor of Vaux in Belchamp Otten: account of Thomas Golding. Value: £14 13s 4d.

[14] Messuage, lands, and tenements called Pevers in Sible Hedingham: account of Maurice Walford. Value: 53s 4d = £2 13s 4d.

[15] Manors of Bumpstead Countesmead & Great Bumpstead: account of Robert Read. Value: £28 2s 8d.

[16] Manors of Waltons in Purleigh & Waltons in Mucking & manor of Gobions in East Tilbury: account of John Lawrence. Value: £11 + £32 13d = £43 13d.

[17] Colne Priory & manor of Barwick Hall: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £130 10s 4-3/4d.

[18] Hedingam nunnery: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: incl. in Colne Priory.

[19] Lands in Langdon Hills and Wennington: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £15 10s.

B. County of Cambridge. Value: £23.

[20] Manor of Swaffham Bulbeck: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £23.

[21] Manor of Hinxton: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: incl. in Colne Priory.

[22] Rectory of Wickham: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: incl. in Colne Priory.

C. County of Suffolk. Value: £114 15s 4d.

[23] Manor of Lavenham: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £34 6s 2d.

[24] Manor of Earls Hall in Cockfield: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £25.

[25] Manor of East Bergholt: account of Robert, Lord Dudley. Value: £55 9s 2d.

III. Lands from which income went to the Court of Wards during Oxford’s minority. Value: £643 5s 1-1/4d.

A. County of Hertford. Value: £74 14s 8-1/2d.

[26] Manor of Hormead: account of Alexander Hayward. Value: £32.

[27] Manor of Newsells: account of Stephen Payne. Value: £16 16s.

[28] Manor of Barkway with Scales park: account of Thomas Witham. Value: £25 18s 8-1/2d.

B. County of Leicester. Value: £45 15s.

[29] Manor of Elmsthorpe with lands in Earl Shilton: account of John Harrington. Value: £45 15s.

C. County of Kent. Value: £38.

[30] Manor of Fleet: account of William Gibbs and others. Value: £38.

D. City of London. Value: incl. in Colne Priory.

[31] Three tenements at London Stone: account of Thomas Warren. Value: incl. in Colne Priory.

E. County of Middlesex. Value: £106 13s 4d.

[32] Office of Lord Great Chamberlain: account of William Cardinal. Value: £106 13s 4d.

F. County of Buckingham. Value: £106 19s 11-1/2d.

[33] Manors of Chesham Higham & Chesham Bury: account of Thomas Bacon. Value: £39 7s 3-1/4d + £30 8s 3d = £69 15s 6-1/4d.

[34] Honour or manor of Whitchurch and manor of Aston Sandford: account of Richard Wood. Value: £31 2s 11-1/4d + £6 18d = £37 4s 5-1/4d.

G. County of Wiltshire. Value: £37 9s 3-3/4d.

[35] Manor of Christian Malford: account of Jerome Balborough. Value: £37 9s 3-3/4d.

H. County of Devon. Value: £94 5s.

[36] Manor of Thorncombe: account of John Chidley. Value: £62 5s 8-1/2d.

[37] Manor of Colbroke: account of John Dawe. Value: £31 19s 3-1/2d.

I. County of Cornwall. Value: £45 9s 10d.

[38] Manors of Roseworthy, Tregenna, Bejowan, Domellick, Tregenna Wartha, Tresithney, & Tregorrick: account of Thomas Browne. Value: £17 15s 8-1/2d + £7 13s 6-1/2d + £11 2s 1-1/2d + 41s 10d + (blank) +£4 5s 10d + 50s 9-1/2d = £45 9s 10d.

J. County of Stafford. Value: £28 10s 4d.

[39] Manor of Acton Trussell: account of Thomas Moreton. Value: £28 10s 4d.

K. County of Cambridge. Value: £65 7s 7-1/2d.

[40] Manor of Abington alias Avingdon: account of John Ludham. Value: £22 10s 7-1/2d.

[41] Honour or manor of Castle Camps: account of Henry Golding. Value: £42 17s.

IV. Lands included in the jointure of the Countess of Oxford. Value: £444 15s.

A. County of Essex. Value: £92 16s 3d.

[42] Manor of Tilbury juxta Clare: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £32 9s 7d.

[43] Manor of Downham: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £30.

[44] Manor of Easton Hall: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £13 6s 8d.

[45] Manor of Netherhall in Gestingthorpe: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £12.

[46] Manors of Garnons in Tendring & Toppesfield: account of tenants & occupants. Value: 60s + 40s = £5.

B. County of Northampton. Value: £54 17s 3d.

[47] Manor of Easton Maudit: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £20 15s 7d.

[48] Manor of Thorpe Malford: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £14 10s 8d.

[49] Manor of Marston Trussell: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £19 11s.

C. County of Warwick. Value: £15 10s 1/2d.

[50] Manor of Bilton: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £15 10s 1/2d.

D. County of Essex. Value: £109 5s 7-1/2d.

[51] Lands and tenement called Paynes in Pentlow: account of tenants & occupants. Value: 60s = £3.

[52] Manor of Gibcrack: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £32 11s.

[53] Manors of Barwicks & Scotneys: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £32 5s 5-1/2d.

[54] Manor of Fingrith: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £41 9s 2d.

E. County of Cambridge. Value: £39 18s 5-1/2d.

[55] Manor of Fowlmere: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £39 18s 5-1/2d.

F. County of Chester. Value: £132 7s 4-1/2d.

[56] Manor of Blacon: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £15 10s.

[57] Manor of Ashton: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £15 10s.

[58] Manor of Willaston: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £20 1/2d.

[59] Eastern gate of the town of Chester: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £6 7s 8d.

[60] Manor of Warmingham: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £55 5s 10d.

[61] Manor of North Rode: account of tenants & occupants. Value: £19 13s 10d.

V. Lands assigned to the brothers of the 16th Earl of Oxford. Value: £130 16s 8d.

A. County of Essex. Value: £82 16s 8d.

[62] Manor of Gutteridge: account of Geoffrey de Vere. Value: £11.

[63] Manor of Crepping Hall: account of Geoffrey de Vere. Value: £24.

[64] Manor of Tendring Hall: account of Aubrey de Vere. Value: £9.

[65] Manor of Earls Fee: account of Aubrey de Vere. Value: £9.

[66] Manor of Battles Hall: account of Aubrey de Vere. Value: £13 6s 8d.

[67] Manor of Abbots Hayes in Stowe: account of Aubrey de Vere. Value: £13 6s 8d.

[68] Lands and tenements in Jackletts in Fambridge & Bacons: account of Aubrey de Vere. Value: 63s 4d = £3 3s 4d.

B. Counties of Essex and Berkshire. Value: £48.

[69] Manors of Wennington & Kennington & manor of Shottesbrook: account of Robert de Vere. Value: £48 + (blank) = £48.

VI. Lands assigned to the 16th Earl’s executors for performance of his will. Value: £333 18s 7d.

A. County of Essex. Value: £234 8s 6-1/2d.

[70] Manors of Wivenhoe, Newers, & Battleswick: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £45 11s 3-1/2d.

[71] Manor of Great Bentley: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £68 6s 5-1/2d.

[72] Manor of Great Canfield: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £35 4s 2d.

[73] Manor of Doddinghurst: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £24.

[74] Manor of Lamarsh: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £30 11s 3d.

[75] Manor of Colne Wake: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £30 15s 4-1/2d.

B. County of Suffolk. Value: £71 1s 3-1/2d.

[76] Manor of Tattingstone: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £39 1-1/2d.

[77] Manor of Aldham: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £32 14d.

C. County of Norfolk. Value: £28 8s 9d.

[78] Manor of Weybourn: account of Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, & John Turner, executors. Value: £28 8s 9d.