Arms and Armour seized at Knole during the Civil War

SUIT OF TILTING ARMOUR FROM KNOLE. By kind permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collection. ( 125 ) ARMS AND ARMOUR SEIZED AT KNOLE DURING THE CIVIL WAR. BY CHARLES J. PHILLIPS. AMONG the papers preserved at Knole is a list of the arms and armour which were seized there in 1642 by the Parliamentary forces. As an introduction to the list itself, the circumstances leading up to the seizure must be recalled. Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, was a staunch Royalist, and suffered severely for his adherence to Charles I. and bis Queen. In the Thomason Tracts* will be found:— Some speciall and Remarkable passages from both Houses of Parliament since Munday the 15 of August till Friday the ninteenth 1642. Vpon Satterday night last, the Lord Generall having information of a great quantity of Amies of the Earle of Borsets at his house at Syiinocke in Kent, in the custody of Sir John Sackuile, which were to be disposed of by him to Arme a great number of the Malignant party of that County, to go to Yorke, to assist his Maiestie; Called a Councell of Warre, to consider of the same, and about twelve of the clock at night sent out three Troops of Horse into Kent to seize upon the said Armes; which they did accordingly on the Sunday following, and on the Munday brought the same to London, and Sir John Sarkvile prisoner, there being compleat Armes for 500 or 600 men. The officersf in charge of this raid on Kuole were Colonel * A valuable colleotiou of some 30,000 items relating to the Civil War, from 164.0—61, oolleofced by George Thomason, bought by George III. and presented by him to the British Museum in 1702. f MSS. of the House of Lords,—Hist. MSS. Coinm. 5th Report 1876 p 46. 126 ARMS AND AUMOUB, SEIZED AT KNOLE Sir John Seaton, Kt. , and Colonel Edwyn Sandis. On Sunday 14 August 1642 Sir John Sackville was apprehended on his way from Knole to Sevenoaks church for the morning service. After taking all the arms from Knole the Parliamentary forces visited Cobham Hall, Lady Wootton's at Allington Hall, and the Earl of Tbanet's, taking arms from each. As regards the arms at Knole the steward there wrote to his master, the Earl of Dorset:— The hurte done at Knoll house the 14th daie of August 1642 by the companie of Horsemen brought by Coronell Sandys:— There are above fortie stock locks & plate locks broken open wch to make good again will cost The1' is of gold branchd belonging to ye Cooche in the rich Galleon as much cutt awaie as will not be made good for And in my lords Chamber 2 ° long Cushion cases imbrodered \vth sattin & gold, & the plumes npou the bedd herten to ye value of They have broken open six trunckes in one of them was money ; what is lost of it wee know not in regard the Keeper of it is from home. They have spoyles in the painters Chamber his oyle and other wronges there to ye value of They broke into S1' Jon his Granerie and have taken of his oates & peas to y° quantity of 3e or 4er quarter The Armes they have wholie taken awaie there being five wagenloads of them. On the day after the raid the Lord General reported to the House of Lords*: " . . . . that the Arms of the Earl of Dorsett, which were at Kuolle house, are brought to Town, to be kept froin being made use of against the Parliament." A list of the said arms was delivered in, under the Earl of Dorsett's hand. Thereupon this House ordered: " That such as are rich Arms shall not be made use of, but kept safely for the Earl of Dorsett; but such as are fit to be made use * Lords' Journals, vol. v., p. 289". 40" 30" 40s 4« DURING- THE CIVIL WAR. 127 of for the Service of the Kingdom are to be employed; an inventory to be taken, and money to be given to the Earl of Dorsett in satisfaction thereof." This inventory does not appear in the Lords' Journals, but I have obtained from the House of Lords a copy of the original inventory made for Dorset in 1640. I t will be noticed that the extract quoted from the Thomason Tracts states that there were " compleat Armes for 500 or 600 men," but in the inventory printed below there are only complete arms for, perhaps, one-fifth of this number. If the Thomason extract is correct, it looks as if Dorset had accumulated at Knole a large quantity of extra arms for the Eoyalist cause :— An Invintory of such Armes as are now remaining in the armory Knowle belonging to the Right honobl Edward Earl of Dorset, taken the 13t h of Jan: 1640 & first the horsmens Armes and necsaryes belonging to them :— Cornets for horses 2 Curasiers Arms giuilt ii Curasiers plaine 31 Whit tilting Armor 3 A baryears Armore gorget & gantlet wanting 1 Shan front for tilting 1 Run plates for barryers (No number given.) — Plated sadels sutabel to the guilt armes and furnituer rotton ii Old ruset Sadels trimd wth red lether and furnituer defettiue 12 Old ruset and blacke Sadels 12 Blacke lether Sadels wt!l al furnituer bitts excepted ii Old french pistols 13 whereof 4 haue locks the other 9 haue none and Dubel mouldes to them. Swordes 14 Home flaskes 49 whereof on old darnuske on couered wUl veluet and many not servicabel. Slight Armes backe & brest 2 gorgets only to them 13 128 ARMS AND ARMOUR SEIZED AT KNOLE Armes and other necsaryes for foot men. On Ingrauen target Partisian roulld wth redd veluet and naled with gilt Damusked wth goulld Partisians Damusked wth Corsletes \vth backe brest i nails Silliuer & the Catte on them cases & headpeces Spanish pickes & English pickes wth lierof 4 are broken Comb head peces Ould Spanish murians Halberts Bitts Pull muskets Com pi eat Bastard muskets Muskets imperfect Moulds to the muskets New Rests Old Rests Bandeleiers Barriles of mach wanting 16 bundells Spanish heads 1 1 4 138 151 70 50 7 6 76 56 4 2 64 7 36 2 (Signed) DORSET. After the Restoration the Earl of Dorset tried to get back some of the goods removed from Knole in 1642. On 30 June 1660 the House of Lords ordered,* upon information given to the House, "That Arthur Brooker, Vintner, at the Crown in Rochester, and Richard Greene, Alderman of the same, do detain divers of the Household Stuff which were formerly belonging to Edward, Earl of Dorsett, and now do belong to the Earl of Dorsett." It is ordered, by the Lords in Parliament assembled, " That the Earl of Dorsett's Servants are hereby authorized to make search for the said Household Stuff in the Dwelling-houses or other Places belonging to the said Arthur Brooker and Richard Greene, and that, in search for the said stuff, any Door, Trunk, Chest or Box that shall not be opened in Lords' Journals, vol. xi., p, 80", DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 129 obedience to this order may be broken up, in the Day-time, by a lawful officer, and the same to be taken and carried away for his Lordship's use." Notwithstanding this order, it does not appear that any of the arms or armour was ever recovered ; certainly none of it is at Knole at the present day. In the Wallace collection at Hertford House, London, there is a complete suit of armour which, it is evident, was the property of Sir Thomas Sackville, afterwards 1 st Earl of Dorset, who died in 1608. There can be little doubt that this is one of the three suits of tilting armour mentioned in the inventory of 1640. This magnificent suit of armour* was made about 1575, and is supposed to be the work of the armourer Jacob Topf, being illustrated in the book of his original drawings now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It came from the Chateau de Coulonmiers in Brie, where it is said to have belonged to Helionorus, 8th Duke of Longueville. This suit, the whole of it richly decorated with bands and bordering, deeply etched and partly gilt with a scroll design, consists of the following pieces :— Closed Helmet, which is composed of a burgonet, with hinged ear-pieces and hinged umbril, to which is attached a triple bar face-guard. Gorget, of four plates. Breast-plate, of peascjod form, with roped turnover and roped laminated gussets. Back-plate, secured to the breastplate by steel straps passing over the shoulders and beneath the armpits. Taces, of one plate. Tassets, of four plates. Shoulder-plates, of five plates. * Catalogue of the Armour in the Wallace Collection, p. 117. TQL. XXXIII, & 130 ARMS AND ARMOUR SEIZED AT KNOLE. The arms are complete, comprising:— Turners, Rere and Yaw, Braces, and Coudes. Fingered Gauntlets, the wrist guarded by five laminated plates. Thigh Guards, of seven plates. Knee Pieces, of five plates, with small heart-shaped plates protecting the outside bend of the leg. Greaves. Boots, of ten plates.