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| Notes for Richard Lybbe 'The Sewar' | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Martin P-L writes: RICHARD the Sewar, third child of RICHARD M.P. c. 1525 born [TFPL: His memorial says he was 74 years old at death.] 1553-58 Queen Mary reigned, to whom Richard, a young man at the time, was Sewar. A sewar was in charge of state meals, a glorified caterer-cum-head waiter. According to the Rev. Slatter, he also accompanied the Queen when hunting. She gave him a pair of gilded iron stirrups, made to accommodate feet in armour. A gentleman from the Gild of Lorimers informed me that the design is Middle Eastern, brought back by Crusaders. I have seen similar stirrups worn by mounted bull-fighters in Portugal. Both stirrups were stolen during the Civil War, but one was evidently recovered, since we have it still. You should have a photo of it with the first edition of this history. 1563 Churchwarden at Whitchurch. On the back of his accounts, as discovered by the Rector in about 1980, he filled a whole page copying out the phrase: Innumerable are the calamities, extremes, annoiances, ingrevances, incommodities and encumbrances wh(ich) evermore accompanneth this mommentarie vale of vannitie. Whether he did this because he was feeling glum, bored or in need of handwriting practice, is not recorded. So that you, however, can practice your reading of secretary hand, I give you this photocopy. 1569 A temporary conveyance of property includes lands in Devon (Tavistock, Tamerton, Lamerton) and Cornwall (St Domenic and Callington), as well as Redinge, New and Old Wyndesor, Whitchurch, Ippesden, North Stoke. But he had frequent lawsuits in connection with these latter properties. In most cases tenants seemed to be suing him, but I have not studied them closely. The refs. are: 1541 Court of Requests, vol.1, p.132; 1558 Chancery Proceedings, series II, vol.1, pp.56,205,245,246; 1589 Hawe v. Lybbe & Hawe, H.51/16, Chancery Depositions. c. 1572 married Johane Coker (or Corker, Cockre, Carker, Carter) of Checkenden Oxon. She bore him 10 children and died in 1613. Her will reference is PCC 44 Lawe 1614. There is a copy in the Oxon. Archives. 1574 The principal Visitation. (A herald visited the Lybbes on two other occasions.) From this we know the immediate forebears, their wives and origins. At what time and on what grounds the Lybbes became armigerous, I know not. There is only one child born at the time of this visitation, John. 1558-1603 Elizabeth reigned. There is no suggestion that Richard suffered from having been a courtier of Bloody Mary (as Sir Thomas Powys suffered from being James II's Attorney General). On the contrary, legend has it that Queen Elizabeth stayed at Hardwick, her bedroom being plastered for this purpose. The ceiling has at its centre a plaster boss showing the Queen, topless. Circling her are, at a respectful distance, other bosses of famous leaders, selected in merry disregard for their dates. They include Julius Caesar and Joshua. Since the Thames was the M4 of its day, it seems at least possible that she stayed there en route to Oxford, say. 1599 He died, and was buried in Whitchurch, with a splendid Elizabethan monument on the wall of the chancel. He and his wife kneel stiffly facing each other. The inscription reads: Richardus Lybbe Arm. Dnus de domo ac Manerio Hardwick, sepultus est xi Aug. 1599, fuit e domesticis Mariae Reginae Sewar. Ioanna uxor sepulta 22 Dec. 1613 ex qua sunt geniti duo filii Richardus et Iohannes cum octo filiabus. Richard has been erroneously termed Sir Richard by some people. I expect this derives from Dnus (Dominus) which can mean Sir. Here, however, it just means lord/master (of the house and manor of Hardwick). Note that John, the elder son, is named second in the above inscription. His will survives, PCC 75 Kidd 1599, and it is transliterated in Snell's Berkshire Wills. He is described as pr. of Whitchurch, Goring, Chekenden and St Mary's Reading, Maple Durham, Ruely and Ramphiene. [One of you will be inspired to interpret pr. and will let the rest of us know.] He leaves land in North & South Stoke, Chekenden, East Hampstead. [TFPL, Sep 2010: ‘pr’=parishioner.] Whitchurch Burial Register "1599 Aug 21 LIB Richard, gent: of Hardwick Manor" ______________________________________________________ In the Oxon visitation of 1566, '74 & 1634, p. 174, he is referred to as: "Richard Lybb, of Checkendon in Com. Oxon. gent. eldest sonne and heir to Richard maryed Johane, daughter to John Coker of Checkendon, and by her hath yssue John Lybbe, his eldest sonne and heire, and Mary his daughter, both younge." _______________________________________________________ TFPL, Sep 2004, Found on Ancestry.com: England: Canterbury - Wills Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1584-1604 1584 to 1604. County: General Country: England 1599 Lybbe, Richard, gent., Hardwick, Oxon 75 Kidd _____________________ In “The names of the nobility, etc who contributed to the defence of this country at the time of the Spanish invasion in 1588”, pub 1798, there is, p. 46: OXON ... March ... Richard Lybbe 9 die Marcii . . . 50l _____________________ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Will | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Will of Richard Lybbe, Gentleman of Hardwick, Oxfordshire 23 October 1599 PROB 11/94 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 30 Dec 2010 | Created 9 Dec 2011 By Tim Powys-Lybbe |