DICK WHITTINGTON

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 20

DICK WHITTINGTON

A NEW: DISCOVERY. " No Mayor of London has such fame in history and nursery legend as Eichv-ai-d Whitlington, but documents from his hand are exceedingly rare. A, deed of the year 1402, newly discovered, bears attached the only seal of Whittington that has been found. Pressed'into the red wax is the inscription "Ricardi Whityngton," coiled around thu portrait head.of a man that somo have thought may Represent Whittington himaelf—-though I mucb doubt it, writes Walter 6. Bell in the " Daily Telegraph." You may sec this unique seal and deed at. Guildhall among the civic treasures. ■ Now another document in which that famous Maj>or was concerned has come to light, and from the same Oxeye Richard muniment chest —Oxhey, noar Watford, Herts —that contained the first deed. It, too, is sealed, and again the seal is unique. But it is not' Whittington's. With arms of France and England quarterly, which proclaim this man Eoyal, ostrich feather, quill enchained, two lions couehant gardant, and other devices, the wax bears the legend, " [Sigi]llum. odwa[rdi ■ comitis R]utlandi ct do .Cor[k]." Who was Rutland'? He was Edward Pltuitngonet, grandson of King Edward 111., who later in the same year (1402) became DyJvp of York—the "brave York" of Shakespeare's play; "King Henry V." He mot a soldier's death on the hard-fought field of Agincourt. ! The deed, as read by Mr. S. G. Hatcliff, of the Public Records Office, and an officer of the Historical Mansucripts Commission, is an acquittance by the Earl of Rutland for the purchase money of the Manor of Oxeye Richard. It is the same bargain with which the sealed Guildhall deed is concerned, but in another aspect. The purchaser, Sir Hugh de Holes, a Judge of the King's Bench, pays 400 marks (£233 6s 8d) into the hands of the Earl's receivers-gen-eral in England, and they are Sir Thomas Gerberge, knight, "Richard Whyttyngton, citizen and mercer, of London," and William Gylot, clerk. The significance of both deeds to London is that they attest Whittiugton's status as a great City merchant and a man of eminence. Midway between two of his years as office as Mayorj here he is employed in a place of trust by one of the foremost members of the Eoynl Housp, ;md receiving in his name a.considerable sum of money.