MARY I (1516-1558). Queen of England and Ireland.
Document Signed (a bold signature 'Marye the quene'), 1 page small folio on vellum with papered seal, Given at St James's, 9 October 5 & 6 Mary I [1558]. 155 x 230 mm. (c. 6 x 9 inches). A little cockled as usual and with some water-staining and old repairs, but an attractive document.

'Trusty and welbeloved we grete you well. And woll and commaunde you of suche o[ur] treas[ure] as remaynethe in your custody to delyver unto o[ur] welbeloved Nicholas Brigham one of the Tellers of o[ur] eschequire the So[m]me of fyve thousande poundes. And thes our l[ett]res together w[i]th a bill of his hande signefienge the receipt thereof to o[ur] use shalbe your sufficient warrante & discharge in that behalf. Geven under o[ur] Signet at o[ur] Mannor of St James the ?ixth of October the fiveth and sixte yeres of our reignes.'

Addressed at the foot: To o[ur] trustie and welbeloved servaunt George Bredyman one of the gromes of our privie chambe[r].'

A docket to the reverse in a neat secretary hand reads '1558 / A warraunt / for George /Bredyman'.

Mary's reign was to end only a few weeks after this date. She never been strong and suffered various illnesses and ailments during her life. In the summer of 1558 she had a bout of fever, probably connected with the influenza epidemic of that year. She rallied in September but by the end of October had succumbed to another fever which was to carry her off on 17 November. She had acknowledged Elizabeth as her heir a few days earlier.

Nicholas Brigham (d. 1558, administrator and antiquary), of rather obscure origins, was granted the reversion of the office of exchequer teller in 1544, and became first teller in 1555. He had control of much of the finance of Mary's household, and left no evident discrepancies after his death, despite what must have been the considerable temptations put in his way. He is credited with various prose writings and of poetry, but only a four-line epitaph to Chaucer, composed for the marble monument which Brigham caused to be erected in Westminster Abbey in 1555 or 1556 appears to have survived. He is remembered particularly as a collector of medieval manuscripts.

Bound in boards.
[No: 25550]