Uncategorised

Details: Hits: 13906

Dissolution of the Monasteries - Some possible questions & answers on this subject.

What is a monastery?

Although individual monks took a vow of poverty, monasteries were usually very wealthy because rich barons gave them land and endowments. Using these assets most monks were able to wisely venture to various investment opportunities which were instrumental in boosting the monasteries' savings . The Cistercians for example were very successful sheep farmers. they used their resources to help the sick and the poor. Some monasteries had hospitals and all had sick bays for monks who fell ill.

Monasteries were also usually built in remote country areas, not in the centres of towns. Monks had plenty of time on their hands, and often experimented with herbs and plants which they made into medicines. their treatments were based on these herbs and plants but also in their belief in the power of God. Patients were also kept clean and allowed plenty of rest.

What was the role of a Nun/Monk?

Monasticism

Monasticism , form of religious life, usually conducted in a community under a common rule. Monastic life is bound by ascetical practices expressed typically in the vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience, called the evangelical counsels. Monasticism is traditionally of two kinds: the more usual form is known as the cenobitic, and is characterised by a completely communal style of life; the second kind, the eremitic, entails a hermit's life of almost unbroken solitude, and is now rare (see hermit).

Monasticism in general has played an important role in Buddhism (including Tibetan Buddhism), Jainism, Islam, and Christianity. Practitioners of monasticism in ancient times included the vestal virgins of Rome, the Jewish Essenes, the Therapeutae of Egypt, and the Peruvian virgins of the sun. The life of the Shakers had many analogies with monasticism. The Reformation saw the sudden end of monasticism in the Protestant countries of Europe. The Oxford movement, however, reintroduced religious orders into the Church of England in the 19th cent., and after World War II renewed interest in monasticism led to the establishment of a Protestant monastery at Taizé, France.

Why did Henry Vlll want to close the monasteries?

Prior to 1536, Henry had ordered that Thomas Cromwell, his Vicar-General, carry out an audit of the monasteries, which he did with four men in just six months, resulting in some wrong decisions. Cromwell reported 'Manifest sin, vicious, carnal and abominable living is daily used and committed amongst the little and small abbeys'. The reports of Cromwell often differed with the reports of the relevant Bishops and he tended to brand all houses as corrupt.

The closure of the monasteries was initiated by the Suppression Act of 1536, which transferred to the Crown all the lands and property of any religious house with an income less than 200 pounds per year. Within four years, however, all monasteries in Britain had been dissolved - even those with an income greater than 200 pounds per year.

Why did Henry close the monasteries?

He could not obtain a divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon
He resolved to break with the Catholic religion, on hearing that his divorce had not been approved by the Pope
He refused to accept Papal authority
He needed money to fight his wars against France and Scotland
He wanted to establish a new Church of England, independent of the Church of Rome

Why did the King not like the monasteries?

They were independent, and could organise their own finances
Their ultimate head was not the King, but the abbot, prior or prioress (i.e. the head of the monastery)
The monks could make decisions independent of government
Many of the monasteries remained loyal to the Catholic religion

When and how were the monasteries closed?

The Dissolution of the Monasteries covers the four years between April 1536 and April 1540. In April 1536, the 27th year of King Henry VIII's reign, there were over 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries that were home to over 10,000 monks, nuns, friars and canons. By April 1940 there were none left.

To fully understand the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is necessary to go back to the time of Saint Benedict (c.480 - 547). Saint Benedict was a university drop out, who became a hermit and who then founded a monastery based upon his Rule. This monastery and the Rule of Saint Benedict became the foundation stone of monasteries around the world. It was Saint Augustine that introduced the Benedictine Rule to England when he arrived in Canterbury in 597. Each monastery, nunnery etc. was headed by an abbot, an abbess, a prior or prioress, all of whom took vows of celibacy and personal poverty. This did not mean that religious lived in poverty, their order could be very wealthy, but they would live in spartan conditions in individual cells.

The primary function and responsibility of religious orders was to maintain a daily cycle of prayer, praying together eight times a day between midnight and 7.00 p.m. People from the surrounding area, both rich and poor, would give what they could afford for prayers to be offered on their behalf and this was one way that orders acquired money and land.

The religious way of life had nearly died out by 920, following the invasions of the Vikings who destroyed many of the monasteries and nunneries. Decades later there was a revival and the monasteries of Romsey, Abingdon and Glastonbury were rebuilt. By the 12th Century, many people felt the Benedictines no longer followed the Rule of Saint Benedict, becoming lax in their prayers and work and so the Cistercian order was founded. The Cistercian's favoured solitude and so built their monasteries in the middle of moors and mountain valleys. The Augustinian order was also founded at around this time, and they were dedicated to evangelism, teaching and working with the poor and sick, and so lived near towns and castles. In the 13th Century, orders of Friars were founded and they depended upon the charity of the people they ministered to.

The 14th Century was another period of monastic decline, with little new building and few people willing to become a religious. The Black Death compounded the problem and by the end of the Century most of the great monastic houses were half empty, although the cycle of prayer was maintained. By now many of the large houses had become very wealthy, thanks to the wool trade of the Middle Ages and many senior monks found themselves having to devote their time to earthly business matters instead of to God. As they became more wealthy and owned more land, they found themselves obliged to serve the Crown and thus oversaw issues of drainage, food stocks etc. Thirty of the most senior abbots took up seats in the House of Lords and lived the life of a lord, hunting and hawking and wining and dining lavishly in their own houses away from their monks.

What happened with the closure of the monasteries?

All monasteries with an income of less than 200 pounds per annum had their income transferred to the government
Monks were either banished, killed or told to change their religion
Following a rebellion against the Act of Suppression (1536) by the clergy, the King and his army crushed them
Thomas Cromwell, the King's Archbishop of Canterbury 'persuaded' monasteries to close, or to hand over their property to the King, on pain of death
Monasteries were either destroyed, or had their religious icons destroyed

What happened to Romsey Abbey during the dissolution?

During the reign of Henry VIII, in 1539, the Abbey suffered the same fate as the many other monasteries in Britain, when it was dissolved as a result of the split between Henry and the Church in Rome. However the townspeople were allowed to carry on using the north aisle of the Abbey as their Parish Church and in 1554 they purchased the remaining part of the Church for one hundred pounds. If the people of Romsey had not done this then it is likely that the Abbey would have been destroyed in the same way as all the other buildings belonging to it.

What happened to the Nuns/monks of Romsey Abbey?

Were it not for this shared use of the building, indeed, Romsey Abbey might have suffered demolition under the general dissolution of the monasteries instigated by Henry VIII after his final break with Rome in the late 1530's. The Abbey was suppressed, its nun dispersed and the Lady Chapel was demolished in 1539 .

What happened to the building of Romsey Abbey?

Romsey now had to govern itself, which it most certainly achieved, as the town became wealthy. The main industries locally were weaving and finishing woollen cloth, powered by the water mills along the River Test; brewing and tanning were also important. Sir William Petty, the economist surgeon and founding member of the Royal Society, was born in Church Street. Romsey was granted a Charter by King James I in 1607. The present Town Hall was built in 1866 and stands in the Market Place.

top

What were the consequences (results) of the dissolution?

In 1536, two thirds of the abbeys were small affairs and many of their names and sites are now lost in the mists of time. Many of these had only a few religious living in them and had no large estates. Whether large or small though, the standard of spirituality in many was not high and the religious vow of chastity was often broken. One exception to all these excesses was the Carthusian order. A Carthusian spent most of his day alone in his cell praying to God, studying or working in his personal garden. Even when Carthusians came together, they maintained a vow of silence, and this was the only order to grow.

So by the time King Henry VIII ascended to the throne, people were willing to accept some weeding out of the religious way of life, but nobody was prepared for what followed. During the first 20 years of Henry's reign some small houses were closed, with the nuns and monks being relocated to houses that had space for them. This was a process led by the Bishops themselves, indeed Bishop Alcock of Ely and Bishop Fisher of Rochester used the proceeds to endow some of the colleges at Cambridge. Cardinal Wolsey closed 29 religious houses and endowed a grammar school in Ipswich and Christ Church College. Oxford.

It was in this spirit of reform that the Act for the Suppression of the Lesser Monasteries, 1536 was passed. The Act clearly pointed out the worthiness of 'great and honourable monasteries right well kept', contrasting these with the smaller houses that were 'sunk irredeemably in iniquity' and had 'resisted all attempts at reform for 200 years or more', and it was these that should be closed down. The Act also stated that 'The idle and dissolute monks and nuns who live in these little dens of vice should be dispersed amongst the greater abbeys where they will, by discipline and example, be brought to mend their ways. The properties and endowments thus vacated can then be transferred to the King, to put to such better uses as he may think fit'. Henry used the money to finance the building of forts around the English coast, hardly a better use.

So it was that all the land and property of a religious house that had an income of less than £200 a year was transferred to the Crown. The Act allowed for the abbots, priors, abbesses and prioresses to be compensated with generous pensions and other monks and nuns could be transferred to another house or return to the secular way of life. The new owners of the lands were encouraged to retain the servants and farmhands.

Neither did Dissolution come about because of Henry's break with the Church of Rome, as most of the clerics had sworn allegiance to the King after the Act of Supremacy. The few that refused to swear allegiance to the King and not the Pope included Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, both of whom were executed on grounds of treason. Therefore the main driving force behind Dissolution was raising money for Henry to spend. The Act of Suppression passed through the House of Commons and the House of Lords without any problems and it only applied to three out of every ten houses.

The Act met fierce opposition in the north of England, leading to a rebellion in October 1536 known as the 'Pilgrimage of Grace', with the rebels demanding the restoration of the dissolved houses. They were not successful because of internal squabbling, at which point Henry mercilessly crushed them and the big religious houses that had supported them, including the execution of abbots. The Cistercian abbey of Furness in Cumbria had been sympathetic to the rebel's cause, but Cromwell could find nothing with which to indict the Abbot. The Abbot voluntarily transferred the abbey and lands to the Crown, the first of many monastic surrenders.

Dissolution gained momentum in the latter stages of 1537 and nearly 20 houses a month were disappearing and Henry and his government now wished to get rid of all the religious houses, with the religious themselves having to declare that their monastic way of life had been a 'vain and superstitious round of dumb ceremonies' that they were willing to abandon so that they could live 'as true Christian men' outside the monasteries. No longer was Dissolution a reform. The last Dissolution was that of Waltham Abbey.

So what happened to the monasteries and their property? The altar plates, goblets and vestments became part of Henry's jewel house, the bells became canons and the lead roofing was used for shot. The lead was often melted in furnaces built on site and fired with the roof timbers of the monasteries. In Lincolnshire the monasteries were systematically razed to the ground, others were left to a more gentle ruin, with the stones being used for other buildings in the local area. Some such as Lacock and Beaulieu became homes, others such as Tewkesbury were bought by local townspeople and some survived to become Cathedrals such as Durham.

top

Details: Hits: 23526

HENRY VIII (1491-1547), a king of England, greatly influenced English history by separating the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.

Henry is often remembered for his pleasure-seeking life style, his cruelty, and his six wives. However, he was well-educated and a capable ruler.

During his reign, Henry built up a strong fleet of fighting ships. He also presided over a major government reorganization that helped set the stage for
England's development into a leading world power. This reorganization included the establishment of a bureaucracy that took over many government duties from the royal household.

Henry also involved England in several expensive wars with France and Scotland.

Henry was born in Greenwich, near London. His father, Henry VII, was the first of the Tudor family of English rulers. Henry VIII was 17 years old when he came to the throne in 1509. One of his first acts as king was to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine bore Henry six children, but only one lived--a daughter who later reigned as Mary I.
Henry wanted a male heir in order to help ensure that the Tudor family would continue to control the throne and to prevent any fighting over who would succeed him.
He turned his attentions to a maid of honor at court, Anne Boleyn. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's chief minister, asked Pope Clement VII to annul (cancel) the king's marriage.
But Wolsey could not get the pope to do so, and Henry dismissed Wolsey in 1529.

The king then denied that the pope had authority over England.

He secretly married Anne Boleyn in January 1533.In March of that year, Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals, which declared that England was independent of all foreign authorities, including the pope, and that the king was England's highest judicial authority. On the basis of that act, a church commission headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine to be without legal force. In June 1533, Anne was crowned queen. At Henry's insistence, Parliament passed additional acts that completed the English church's break with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy recognized the Church of England as a separate institution and the king as its supreme head. In the years that followed, Henry dissolved the monasteries in England, primarily to obtain their wealth. The annulment did not produce a stable married life for Henry. In 1533, Anne bore him a daughter who later reigned as Elizabeth I. Then in 1536, the king had Anne beheaded on a charge of adultery.

Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, died shortly after the birth of a son who later ruled as King Edward VI.

At the urging of his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, Henry married a German princess, Anne of Cleves. But Cromwell was disgraced and executed, and Henry had his marriage to Anne annulled.

The king then married Catherine Howard, who, in 1542, was convicted of adultery and executed.

Henry's sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, outlived him.

Update: from Queen's Official Web Site 8/10/97. Henry VIII (reigned 1509-47) was 17 when he became king. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, provided him with a daughter, Mary, but no male heir. In order to divorce her, he broke with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Five subsequent marriages produced two children, Elizabeth and Edward. The break with Rome led to the Dissolution of the Monasteries (in which monastic lands and buildings were sold or disposed of, and the monks disbanded or imprisoned) and the beginnings of the English Reformation. Henry's involvement in European politics brought him into conflict with the Scots who were defeated at Solway Moss in 1542 (the Scots had been defeated before at the battle of Flodden in 1516). Control of Wales was strengthened by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542 which united England and Wales administratively and legally, and gave Wales representation in Parliament. Henry died in 1547 leaving his sickly, 10-year-old son to inherit the throne as Edward VI (reigned 1547-53).

More information on Henry VIIIErasmus, Anne Boleyn and the Death of WolseyIn Cambridge a monk named Erasmus was at work on a new version of the New Testament, Novum Instrumentum. He published tracts against the superstitions of Catholicism and thus the Pope. He won respect and reform from the new scholars of England, among them Thomas More and John Colet. Henry VIII, meanwhile, was desperate for a male heir, Catherine of Aragon had given him a daughter, Mary. He set out to annul his marriage but insisted that the Pope should acknowledge his marriage as a Papal mistake. This led in the end to his falling out of favour with the Pope and to the dissolution of the monasteries. Wolsey's failure to negotiate the annulment with the Pope led to his downfall. He was stripped of many of his possessions and sent north to his archbishopric at York. He died on the way. In 1527 he fell madly in love with Anne Boleyn. He finally married her in 1533. She also gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, but the King was happy until she gave birth to a stillborn baby in 1536. Henry found a new love in Jane Seymour and was easily convinced by Thomas Cromwell that Anne was having an affair. She was beheaded in 1536.

HENRY VIII (1491-1547) King of England 1509-1547

Lord then King of Ireland 1541
Allied himself first to Francis I of France and then to the Pope who were at war with each other
Desperately wanted a male heir, Catherine of Aragon had given him a daughter Mary
His insistence that the Pope should annul his marriage on the grounds that it was a Papal mistake led to his declaration of Royal Supremacy and the dissolution of the monasteries by 1540
Married six times
In 1536 came the Union of Wales and England and centralised Government at Westminster ruled not only the south east and Midlands but also the north and west
Died in 1547.

Henry VIII was deeply religious and earned from the Pope the title Defender of the Faith in 1521.

Henry VIII, Flodden and Wolsey

In 1509 Henry VIII came to the throne and immediately, on the advice of his councillors, negotiated to marry Catherine of Aragon. He distrusted the hereditary nobility choosing men of low birth as his advisers. He made Thomas Wolsey his Lord Chancellor and Chief Councillor in 1515. Wolsey's rise through the Church was rapid - Bishop of Lincoln, Archbishop of York, Cardinal, Papal Legate - the latter made him above all ecclesiastical authority in the land. Wolsey ruled, in the King's name, for 14 years. He favoured the Star Chamber and used it for ministerial judgements. These were fair but often ruthless. Henry VIII was ambitious he looked towards Europe. In 1512 he hired Austrian mercenaries and defeated the French in the Battle of the Spurs in 1513. In the same year at home the Earl of Surrey won a bloody victory against the Scots at Flodden killing James IV. The one-year-old James V came to the throne of Scotland and his mother, Margaret - Henry's sister, became Regent.

THOMAS WOLSEY (c. 1472-1530)

The son of an Ipswich butcher Became an Oxford don then royal chaplain in 1507 In 1511 Wolsey became a royal councillor and four years later a cardinal and then Lord Chancellor Dominated Government, restructured the equity and prerogative courts, and was hated by the aristocracy Failed to secure annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the King was displeased In 1529 Wolsey was dismissed, stripped of many of his possessions and sent north to his archdiocese in York He died on the way. Thomas Wolsey was the son of a poor, rascally butcher of Ipswich whose name appears on the borough's records for selling meat unfit for human consumption.

DESCRIPTION OF HENRY VIII ON ST GEORGE'S DAY 1515 WHEN HE GAVE AUDIENCE TO A VENETIAN DIPLOMAT NAMED PASQUALIGO

Henry is at his palace at Richmond on the bank of the Thames, and a barge covered in silks and tapestry has been sent for Pasqualigo and his entourage. This vessel conveyed us to the said palace of Richmond, where they led us into a sort of hall, and though it was before mass, they made us breakfast, for fear we should faint; after which we were conducted to the presence, through sundry chambers all hung with most beautiful tapestry, figured in gold and silver, and in silk, passing down the ranks of the body-guard, which consists of three hundred halberdiers in silver breast-plates and pikes in their hands; and, by God, they were all as big as giants . . . We at length reached the King, who was under a canopy of cloth of gold, embroidered in Florence, the most costly thing I have ever witnessed. He was leaning against his gilt throne, on which there was a large gold brocade cushion, where the long gold sword of state lay. He wore a cap of crimson velvet, in the French fashion, and the brim was looped up all around with lacets, which had gold enamelled tags. His doublet was in the Swiss fashion, striped alternately with white and crimson satin, and his hose were scarlet and slashed from the knee upwards. Very close round his neck he had a gold collar, from which there hung a round cut diamond, the size of the largest walnut I ever saw, and to this was suspended a most beautiful and very large round pearl. His mantle was of purple velvet, lined with white satin, the sleeves being open, and with a train verily more than four Venetian yards in length. This mantle was girt in front like a gown, with a thick gold cord, from which there hung large glands entirely of gold, like those suspended from the cardinals' hats; over his mantle was a very handsome gold collar, with a pendant St George, entirely of diamonds. On his left shoulder was the garter, which is a cincture buckled circular-wise, and bearing in its centre a cross gules on a field argent; and on his right shoulder was a hood, with a border entirely of crimson velvet. Beneath the mantle he had a pouch of cloth of gold, which covered a dagger and his fingers were one mass of jeweled rings.

The Auld Alliance and the Death of Henry VIII

In 1542 the English invaded Scotland only to have to turn back. The Scots proceeded into England to be defeated at Solway Moss - the news killed James V leaving as his heir Mary Queen of Scots who was one week old. At once both the English and the French tried to negotiate marriage agreements with the Scots this led to yet another English/French conflict. This led to the Scots and the French re-establishing the Auld Alliance which had united them against England, on and off, since 1295. Henry VIII died in 1547, he had been ill for a long time. England needed a strong heir but Edward VI did not fulfil this hope. He came to the throne at the age of 10. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, became his Protector.

Thomas Cranmer

THOMAS CRANMER (1489-1556)

Archbishop of Canterbury 1533-1556
The member of a minor gentry family of Nottinghamshire
Entered the service of the King in 1529 during negotiations for the King's first divorce
Married the niece of the German Lutheran theologian Osiander in 1532 while marriage was still illegal in England
In 1536 he granted Henry a further annulment from Anne Boleyn and worked closely with Thomas Cromwell to advance the English Reformation
He survived Henry to become the chief architect of religious changes in Edward VI's reign, i.e. the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552, the ordinal of 1550 and the Thirty-Nine Articles
Part of the attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne
Convicted of treason in 1553
Burned at the stake at Oxford in 1556

Hans Holbein painted at the Court of Henry VIII and many of the images we have of this King were Holbein's work. The decline of the Welsh language started in 1543.

The End of the Monasteries and Little Jack Horner

In 1536 Catherine of Aragon died, Anne Boleyn was beheaded, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, Wales lost its independency, the Privy Council was established and Parliament agreed the Act against the Pope's authority which makes the monarch the head of the English church. Thomas More and John Fisher lost the King's favour by refusing to swear to the supremacy of the King. Thomas Cromwell who became chief councillor on the demise of Thomas Wolsey swore the King's supremacy and kept his position. He reformed Government policy creating Government departments including the Privy Council He did not fall from power until 1540. Henry's treasury needed replenishing - he looked to the church, namely the monasteries. The dissolution of the monasteries began.

Dissolution of the Monasteries - Some possible questions & answers on this subject.

SUPPRESSION OF THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES DURING THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH

THOMAS CROMWELL (c. 1485-1540)

Sixteenth Earl of Essex
The son of a Surrey tradesman
Gained an all-round education through continental trade and travel acquiring enough legal expertise to rise high in Wolsey's service
Stayed loyal to Wolsey but transferred to the royal service after the cardinal's death and rapidly gained Henry VIII's trust
Became royal councillor in 1531 and King's Secretary in 1534
Committed to drastic church reform working closely with Cranmer
Masterminded the dissolution of the monasteries

Fell from power over the blunder of the marriage fiasco with Anne of Cleves in 1540

Little Jack Horner was a real person and the plum was the manor of Mells in Somerset. Jack Horner was the steward to the abbot of Glastonbury. By a clever political trick, during the general land grabbing of the Dissolution, Jack Horner got the deeds to the manor of Mells in Somerset . He then gave them to Henry, who was so pleased, that he gave Horner the manor. Amateur genealogists will be amused to trace his family line to the Bonham-Carters, some of whom have became as famous as the good little boy himself.

PART OF THE WORDING OF THE FIRST ACT OF SUPREMACY, 1536

Forasmuch as manifest sin, vicious, carnal and abominable living, is daily used and committed amongst the little and small abbeys, priories, and other religious houses of monks, canons, and nuns, where the congregation of such religious persons is under the number of 12 persons, whereby the governors of such religious houses and their convent, spoil, destroy, consume, and utterly waste as well their churches, monasteries, priories, principal houses, farms, granges, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as the ornaments of their churches and their goods and chattels to the high displeasure of Almighty God, slander of good religion, and to the greater infamy of the King's Highness and realm if redress should not be had thereof, and albeit that many continual visitations hath been heretofore had by the space of two hundred years and more, for an honest and charitable reformation of such unthrifty, carnal, and abominable living, yet nevertheless little or none amendment, and by cursed custom so rooted, and infested that a great number of the religious persons in such small houses do choose to rove abroad in apostasy than to conform to the observation of good religion, so that without such small houses be utterly suppressed and the religious persons therein committed to great and honourable monasteries of religion in this realm, where they may be compelled to live religiously for reformation of their lives... there can else be no reformation in this behalf... In consideration whereof, the King's most royal majesty, being supreme head in earth under God of the Church of England, daily finding and devising the increase, advancement and exaltation of true doctrine...

Details: Hits: 21566

LORD WESTERN

Charles Callis Western and his brother Shirley

Painted by John Singleton Copley in 1783

Provenance of the painting
The sitter,	Charles Callis Western, 1st Baron Western, of Rivenhall, Essex (d. 1844);
to his cousin	Thomas Burch Western (d. 1873);
to his only surviving son	Sir Thomas Sutton Western (d. 1877);
to his only child	Sir Thomas Charles Callis Western, Bart.,
his sale Christie's, 13 June 1913	Scott & Fowles Co. (NY)
purchased by Mrs. Henry Edwards Huntington, 14 January 1914
Now hanging at The Huntington, San Marino, California

Brief History
The Westerns originally came from the Low Countries and their skills were Flemish weaving. Robert WE Sterne came to the UK around the 1300's. The family later (1550's) became members of the Grocers Company in the City of London. A family tree was developed dating back to the mid 1600's where there is a record of Thomas Western having purchased Rivenhall in 1667-8.
This property was in the hands of the Western family until the early 1920's (from memory). The hall in a state of neglect (from the outside) still stands, as does the old church, which has register dating from the year 1639. There is a pub, The Western Arms, in the village close to the church. My parents visited Rivenhall which is situated 2 miles from Witham Junction on the main line of the old London and North eastern railway, 39 miles for London and 8 miles south east of Braintree. Most of the early Westerns were entombed in and under the church, with more being buried in the outdoor cemetery when there was no more room within the church.
The most famous of the early Westerns was undoubtedly Charles Callis Western, the first and last Lord Western of Rivenhall. His father Charles was killed in an accident with a chaise and runaway horses in which he, his wife Francis Shirley Bollan and the young 4 year old Charles Callis were travelling from Rivenhall to Preston. Charles senior jumped out to try to stop the horse, and was killed immediately, his wife threw the baby Charles out and he landed on a bush and was unhurt after which his mother jumped out and was unhurt. His mother never remarried and lived alternately with her two sons Callis and Shirley, neither of whom married.The branch stopped at this point but before Lord Western died he entailed his estates to his nearest kinsman Thomas Burch Western.
Charles Callis on his coming of age in 1788 (21 years old) he inherited the Western estate at Rivenhall.
No reference as to who commissioned the Copley work, has yet been found.
From the date it was painted (1783) it would seem to be fairly certain the painting was done at Rivenhall. Charles Callis would at that time have known he was the heir to the land and this explains the agricultural emphasis. The parliamentary life of Charles Callis commenced before he was 23 years old and continued uninterruptedly for 42 years. There are known to be several other paintings of the Western's:
Essex Review 1901 as follows - " There was a full length portrait of Lord Western by Simpson which hangs (in 1901 now place unknown) , as well as the earlier one by Copley of Lord Western and his brother Shirley Western as boys; and ..... by Hogarth.

There seems to have been several Hogarths involving the Western family and it would seem as if Hogarth was friend of the Westerns

(Thomas and his wife Anne Callis - grandparents of Charles Callis) around 1730-1740.

I HAVE FOUND THIS PAINTING & A LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND!!! (AUG'99)

This painting is of Thomas Western & Mary Shirley (daughter of Sir Richard Shirley), Great Grand parents of Lord Western.

In a letter to my brother, Donald, dated 20 December 1983, he recieved a photo-copy and was advised that the painting was purchased from Sir Thomas Charles Callis Western's sale at Christie's on 13 June 1913, lot 106, by Agnew's. Apparently Sir Hugh Lane bought it from that firm. It was received at the Gallery in 1918 with the Lane Bequest.- (PLP Western Aug 1999)

{With thanks to Brian B Watts, & his wife Margaret Jane (Watts) nee Western, cousins who I have recently found in New Zealand,

without whose help this page would not have been possible- PLP Western Aug 1999}

Details: Hits: 19431

Genealogy Finder is an application that contains more than 750 quality Genealogy links, divided into 27 easy categories. It is the result of hundreds of research hours to locate the most valuable Genealogy sites on the Net. Regardless if you are a seasoned veteran or a Genealogy newbie, Genfinder will no doubt save you time.

Genfinder is freeware. Help yourself to a copy and pass it around. And if you think it's as useful as we think it is, and you have a Genealogy related web site, simply make it available for download.{974KB}"Installer/Uninstaller included"

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD - GenFinder.exe

Happy Hunting...................

Once again Maximilian Genealogy was highlighted on a UK Genealogy Magazine. In the August 2010 issue of Your Family Tree magazine our Freeware "Genealogy Finder" had been supplied on the Cover Disc under the "Featured Software". You can still obtain this as a free download from this site as well.