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Among
the chief county families of West Berkshire a century or two ago were the
Winchcombes of Bucklebury, baronets by creation of Charles II. soon after
his Restoration. They were described as 'of
Bucklebury House,' and for one or two generations were knights of the
shire for ' the royal county.'The property of Bucklebury, with some five
thousand acres, and nearly three thousand more in the county of
Gloucester, still belong to their descendants in the female line, whose
head is the present Mr. Winchcombe Howard Hartley.
The fortunes of the
family were made originally by ‘John Winchcombe,' a man known all through
the western hundreds of Berkshire as ‘ Jack of Newbury,' of whom tradition
says that he was the wealthiest clothier in that part of England when
Berkshire formed the headquarters of the cloth manufacture.
This John Winchcombe,
though born of humble and even of poor parents, rose by a freak of fortune
to become not only the wealthiest clothier in Berkshire, but the owner of
a mansion, where he lived with all the splendor and magnificence of a
prince. Having picked up such a hap-hazard education as a village school
could afford, he was bound by his parents as apprentice to a rich
manufacturer in his native town of Newbury. In this capacity he seems to
have been a model of good conduct, and to have shown so much diligence and
industry in his master's service as to have secured his good opinion, and
that of his mistress also. As good luck would have it, the master died in
middle life, leaving behind him a thriving business, and a widow somewhat
under thirty years of age. Young and rich, and agreeable to boot, the
widow had no lack of suitors, and among their number was ‘the curate of
Speenhamland, and a rich tanner, and an eminent tailor.' In what the
tailor's eminence consisted history is silent; but it appears that,
however often these good people may have flocked as suitors to her house,
the widow showed a decided preference for her apprentice, John Winchcombe.
The story goes that at
the annual fair, which is (or was) held at Newbury on St. Bartlemy's Day,
the three candidates for the widow's hand met at her table, and each in
turned pressed his suit. But the lady contented herself with telling them
that she would give them each an answer on the following Thursday.
The widow and her
apprentice made good use of the interval. During these few days a
marriage license and a wedding ring were bought, and, before the church
clock of Newbury had struck nine on that Thursday morning, the rector or
vicar of the parish had given the nuptial blessing to the widow and her
'prentice, and had declared them man and wife.
Years rolled on, and
the business prospered; valuable contracts were entered into, and such
large sums of money were laid-by that John Winchcombe not only became a
great man locally, but was able to prove of service to his sovereign.
When the Earl of Surrey marched to the north against the King of Scotland,
who was then ravaging the borders of England, this eminent trader followed
in his retinue, we are told by the manuscripts
of a family chronicler, with a train of a hundred of his own expense.
'Jack' is described as having marched north at the head of fifty tall men
well-mounted, and fifty footmen with bow and pike, "as well armed and
better clothed than any."' Whether he reached the field of Flodden is
doubtful, though the ballad of the `Newberrie Archers' gives the
particulars of the exploits of his men. The success which attended the
army of England in that expedition is known to every reader of history;
and we are told that Jack of Newbury displayed
in it no little personal bravery.
After the war was at an
end he returned to Newbury, and was able to decline with thanks the offer
of knighthood made to him by his sovereign. He was a plain man, and not of
patrician birth, and he knew that he would be out of place among the
Stanleys and Talbots, the Howards and De Veres. But he settled down
quietly at Newbury, where he kept open house, and showed such great
hospitality that his name came to be a by-word for it. On one occasion,
indeed, be was honored by a visit from royalty ; for, on Henry's return
from France, Jack had the honor of entertaining him at Newbury, which he
did in splendid fashion.
He showed his
munificence in another way, for he founded schools for the young, and a
hospital for the old, besides restoring at his own cost the chief part of
the parish church of Newbury. His crowning work, however, was his
carrying to a successful issue the clothiers' petition, when, ‘by reason
of the wars, many merchant strangers were prohibited from coming to
England, and also our merchants, in like sort, were forbidden to have
dealings with France and the Low Countries,' so that the cloth trade had
fallen very low. ‘The deputation,' we are told, ‘seemed at first likely
to miscarry, for Wolsey, to whom they were referred, put the matter off
from time to time, being of opinion' (as was not unlikely) ‘that Jack of
Newbury, if well examined, would be found to be infected with somewhat of
Luther's spirit.’ Jack, in his turn, exasperated the haughty Cardinal by
saying, ‘If my Lord Chancellor's father had been no hastier in killing
calves than he in dispatching of poor men's suits, I think he never would
have won a mitre.' But the King took the matter up seriously, and the
clothiers got their order ‘that merchants should freely traffic one with
another, and the proclamation thereof should be made as well on the other
side of the sea as the land.’
‘The Steel-yard
merchants, being joyful thereof,' as we are told, `made the clothiers a
great banquet after which each man departed home, carrying tidings of
their good success, so that in a short space clothing was again very good,
and poor men set to work as before.'
The house in which `
Jack' lived at Newbury , was built of stone, with large mullioned windows.
It remained in a tolerably complete state down to about a century and a
half ago, when it was cut up into several tenements. It stood on the east
side of the principal street of the town, and a portion of the site is now
occupied by a large hostelry, which is honored with the sign of Jack of
Newbury.' As may be expected of a man who had done so much good for his
native town, ‘ his death was greatly lamented,' and a handsome stained
glass window to perpetuate his fame, has lately been set up in the parish
church.
The son of Jack of Newbury, another John Winchcombe, obtained from
Henry VIII, at the Dissolution of Monasteries, a grant of the fair lands
of Bucklebury, near Newbury, which was a religious house dependent on the
great Abbey of Reading. His son, or grandson, Henry, who is described as
being ‘of Bucklebury,' was created a baronet in 1661, in reward of his
own and his fathers loyalty to the sovereign, and married a lady of the
noble house of Howard, a daughter of the Earl of Berkshire. His son and
successor, another Henry, the second baronet, dying without issue male,
early in the eighteenth century, the property passed to his daughter, the
wife of the great Lord Bolingbroke, and from her to one of the Hartleys,
whose descendants still hold it in possession.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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