THE ROOT
The surname Austen is a variant of Austin or Austyn which is itself a contracted form of Augustine. When Pope Gregory the Great undertook to convert the Pagan Angles and Saxons of England to Christianity, he sent Augustine as a missionary to Canterbury. The latter made his first converts at the court of King Ethelbert who had a Christian wife. The faith spread rapidly through Kent and from there to Essex and Wessex, and eventually to the northern kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.
Kent may be regarded as the place of origin of the Austins or Austens and the name spelt in various ways is met with in most parts of that county. It spread, however, throughout England, and the branch of the Austens with which we are particularly concerned moved west in the 1lth or 12th century, and we hear of them first in the Marches of Wales. They were a land owning family of good standing as early as the reign of Richard I., with estates at Albrighton, Toddington and Whitchurch in Shropshire, and at Stapleford in Cheshire. The early descents of the Austens are shown in the pedigree of the ancient Cheshire family of Cotgreave, which also records the quarterings of their arms. These particulars were communicated to Mr. R. A. C. Austen then living at Yerrow, in a letter from Mr. W.S. Spence of Chester, dated October 24th, 1840. The same pedigree is recorded in the British Museum, a copy of which was made by Mrs. Malcolmson (Kate Austen) in 1900. The Austens seem to have been deprived of most of their possessions in one of the feudal struggles of the 13th or 14th century; but aKnight of their name greatly distinguished himself at Guisnes in the French Wars was appointed Constable of Brest. In recognition of his valour at Guisnes some of the forfeited estates of the family were restored. The luck of the Austens did not last however; for in the Wars of the Roses they backed the losing side and consequently suffered forfeiture of their Shropshire properties for the second time. The family, much impoverished then settled in Hertfordshire near St. Albans, on a small estate which was called Toddington probably to remind them of the lost Shropshire Toddington which was their original home.
The surname Austen is a variant of Austin or Austyn which is itself a contracted form of Augustine. When Pope Gregory the Great undertook to convert the Pagan Angles and Saxons of England to Christianity, he sent Augustine as a missionary to Canterbury. The latter made his first converts at the court of King Ethelbert who had a Christian wife. The faith spread rapidly through Kent and from there to Essex and Wessex, and eventually to the northern kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.
Kent may be regarded as the place of origin of the Austins or Austens and the name spelt in various ways is met with in most parts of that county. It spread, however, throughout England, and the branch of the Austens with which we are particularly concerned moved west in the 1lth or 12th century, and we hear of them first in the Marches of Wales. They were a land owning family of good standing as early as the reign of Richard I., with estates at Albrighton, Toddington and Whitchurch in Shropshire, and at Stapleford in Cheshire. The early descents of the Austens are shown in the pedigree of the ancient Cheshire family of Cotgreave, which also records the quarterings of their arms. These particulars were communicated to Mr. R. A. C. Austen then living at Yerrow, in a letter from Mr. W.S. Spence of Chester, dated October 24th, 1840. The same pedigree is recorded in the British Museum, a copy of which was made by Mrs. Malcolmson (Kate Austen) in 1900. The Austens seem to have been deprived of most of their possessions in one of the feudal struggles of the 13th or 14th century; but aKnight of their name greatly distinguished himself at Guisnes in the French Wars was appointed Constable of Brest. In recognition of his valour at Guisnes some of the forfeited estates of the family were restored. The luck of the Austens did not last however; for in the Wars of the Roses they backed the losing side and consequently suffered forfeiture of their Shropshire properties for the second time. The family, much impoverished then settled in Hertfordshire near St. Albans, on a small estate which was called Toddington probably to remind them of the lost Shropshire Toddington which was their original home.
The pedigree above shows that the Austens were connected by marriage with some of the best-known families of Cheshire and Shropshire. Their arms, azure a chevron argent between three choughs or, can be traced in the armorial bearings of many ancient Houses. The authority for this statement is a letter written in 1672 by Randle Holmes, the Historian and Genealogist of Cheshire. Their right to these Arms was confirmed at the Visitation of Surrey in 1623 by Samuel Thompson, Windsor Heraud, Deputy of William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms.
John Austen or Austyn of Toddington died in 1478 during the reign of Edward IV., leaving a son also named John. This John Austen was the first of his line to settle in Surrey. We know nothing about him except that he was a priest and presumably a man of forceful character for we learn from Manning and Bray's History of Surrey that 'John Austyn thrust himself into the living of Chiddingfold. In any case his action was duly regularised for the official record shows that he was inducted in 1507 on the presentation of Thomas Rowthall, Dean of Salisbury. He held the Rectory of Chiddingfold for 35 years and died there in 1542 (33 Henry VIII). |
The marriage of the secular clergy was not made legal until the reign of Edward VI., though it was generally recognised before that time. As John Austen probably married before he took Holy Orders, we may assume that his children were born while he was still a layman. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Roger Elyot of Shalford. It is interesting to note that Roger Elyot had been Bailiff and Collector of Tithes for the Augustinian Canons of the London Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, Without Bishopsgate, to whom belonged the Rectory, tithes and advowson of St. Mary Shalford, which had been presented to them in 1305 by Edward I. On the dissolution of the Religious Houses by Henry VIII, the Rectory of Shalford reverted to the Crown. So thenceforth Roger Elyot collected the rents and tithes for the King instead of for the Augustinian Canonshis former employers. Brasses to the memory of Roger Elyot and his wife were let into the floor of the old Church at Shalford, and when it was rebuilt for the second time in 1847, they were placed on the south wall of the chancel where they now are. These brasses are referred to in Manning & Bray's History in the following words – 'In the chancel of the old church on the floor, was the effigie of a man in a gown with a pouch by his side, and another of his wife. And under them was written:
Off your charitie pray for the sowlis of Roger Elyot gentilman and Margaret his wyfe the which Roger deceasyd the XXIII day of March in the yere of Our Lord MCCCCCIX (1509) on who's sowlis 1'hsu have mercy.
The Elyots were of Green Place, Graffham, in the parish of Wonersh. They were a family of some importance. Thomas Eliot or Elyot was Filacer for Surrey in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV. He died in 1467 and left Green Place to his son who sold it. The Elyots afterwards removed to Busbridge in Godalming. Roger Elyot belonged to a junior branch of that family. Wool, throughout the Middle Ages, was the Principal source of England's wealth. It was long her principal export, and later, when Flemish weavers taught the English how to make cloth and dye it, the finished material took the place of the raw wool and English broadcloths and frieses were sold all over Europe. The customs revenue was derived chiefly from the export tax on wool, and to this day, the Lord Chancellor, as the King's representative, takes his seat in the House of Lords on what is still called by courtesy 'the Woolsack'. Guildford in Plantagenet and Tudor days took a leading place as a wool stapling and cloth producing centre. Two wool sacks are among the charges of the Arms of the town, and in the reign of Elizabeth ‘every ale-house keeper was obliged by an ordinance of the corporation to have a signboard, with a woolpack painted thereon, hung up at his door under the penalty of 6/8-in case of neglect.’ This was to give prominence to what was then its principal industry. A Surrey woolpack weighed 24 lbs. and was wrapped in canvas. The country round produced plenty of wool, for there was good grazing for sheep on the Chalk Downs and in the forest clearings of the Weald, known as the 'fold country' of which Chiddingfold, Dunsfold and Alfold were the principal villages. Most of John Austen's parishioners paid their tithes in kind, so when the harvest was a good one his tithe barn would be full, not only of bulging corn sacks, but also of much prized woolpacks. We can imagine with what satisfaction ‘Sir’ John Austen, this being the customary designation of a parishpriest inthose days would chant the Harvest Thanksgiving Psalm, LXV, ‘Te decet hymnus’ with its apt allusions to sheep and corn, - 'The folds shall be full of sheep, and the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing. When this fortunate parson had garnered his corn and barley with other ‘kindly fruits of the earth’, he would borrow or hire a neighbour's wain to take his woolpacks to Guildford market where they found a ready sale among the wool staplers of the town. The friendly relations that he established with these merchants enabled him to apprentice his son John to a representative of that flourishing business. John Austen wasthus instructed in the art and mystery of the wool trade and the methods by which wool and cloth were sold and distributed, both at home and abroad. John Austen, Rector of Chiddingfold, died there in 1542. When John Austen junior had completed his apprenticeship, he became a Wool Stapler on his own account and he seems to have been a prosperous one. The wool staplers bought, sold and sorted wool according to its staple and adaptability to different manufacturing purposes, the women spun it, the fullers cleaned it, the dyers dyed it, the clothworkers weaved it, and the shearmen clipped its nap or surface. Most of the clothworkers of Guildford lived on the left bank of the Wey, near the mills. Saint Blaise was their Patron Saint and on his festival, which wason February 3rd, the Dominicans of the Guildford Friary used to celebrate a solemn High Mass at St. Nicholas' Church ‘nigh unto the river where the fulling took place.’ The day was observed as a general holiday and in the evening the Merchant Gild of the town met for the election of office bearers for the year, and for a feast thereafter. Early on the following morning the newly elected officers attended Mass and made their corporate Gild Communion and offering. After the Reformation these religious observances fell into disuse, but St. Blaise's Day was observed as a holiday down to Stuart times. John Austen became one of the Probi Homines or Approved Men of Guildford and a member of its Merchant Gild; but he was too enterprising to be satisfied with the limited trading opportunities afforded by a small country town. He extended his business to London where he became a member of the Merchant Adventurers Guild. He must have been among the first to trade in the Mediterranean. His enterprise as a supercargo or shipowner took him to Genoa, Venice and the Levant. According to Hakluyt, ‘between 1512 and 1534, divers tall ships of London, Southampton and Bristol had an unusual trade to Sicily, Candia and Chios, and sometimes to Cyprus, Tripoli and Beyraut, in Syria. The adventurers who freighted them exported sundry sorts of woollen cloths and calf skins, and imported silks, camlets, rhubarb, Malmsey, Muscatel and other sweet Wines, oil, cotton wool, Turkey carpets, galls and Indian spices. These voyages usually took seventeen months and were accounted hazardous and dangerous’. |
In one of these voyages John Austen visited Candia or Crete, where the Knights of St. John, known also as the Hospitallers, had taken refuge after the capture of Rhodes by the Turks. There in 1523 his ship was chartered by the Knights to convey some of themselves and their followers to Messina. It is interesting to note that the Turcopolier of the Order, the official then charged with the supervision of its maritime activities, wasSir John Weston, who belonged to a well-known Surrey family - the Westons of Sutton Place near Guildford. The willingness of John Austen to place his ship at the disposal of the Knights may have been inspired by a feeling of sympathy for the cause which they had defended so bravely; on the other hand it may have been actuated by a friendly feeling for one who was a Surrey man like himself, and possibly a personal acquaintance; for the Westons were closely connected with Guildford and long maintained a chantry chapel in Holy Trinity Church. This chantry was on the site of the vestry, in the church as now rebuilt.
John Austen married Joan, daughter of William Snelling of East Horsley. William Snelling, one of her kinsmen, was Mayor of Guildford in 1559 and 1567. These Snellings were of a good yeoman stock, numerously represented throughout Surrey as well as in Guildford itself. There are two fine brasses to the memory of the Snelling family in East Horsley Church. Both are described in Manning & Bray's History. As one of them is to the memory of Joan Austen's uncle and aunt, its inscription may be quoted –
Of your charite pray for the soulis of Thomas Snellinge ... and Jone his Wyff. Which Thomas disceased the XXVIII day of May in the yere of Our Lord MCCCCCIIII [l504] and for the soulis of the faders and moders of the foresaid Thomas and Jone with all their children on whose sowlys Almighty Jhesu have mercy. Amen.
In the course of his busy life John Austen witnessed great changes. He started Life as a Roman Catholic and as a boy he must have attended Mass in his father's church. As a young man under Edward VI., he watched with approval the spread of the Reformation and the growth of the Protestant doctrine which in Guildford was strongly Calvinistic. Under Philip and Mary, he witnessed the revival of Roman Catholicism and the persecution of Protestants. In Guildford, it nearly brought to the stake Morris and Alice Abbott, his friends and neighbours, parents of the famous Abbott brothers, George who became Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert who became Bishop of Salisbury and Maurice who was knighted by Charles I, and was elected a Member of Parliament and Lord Mayor of London. The latter, many years later, became John Austen's kinsman by marriage, for he wedded his granddaughter Joan Austen.
John Austen's indignation was stirred to its depths by Mary's religious persecutions; but he was no seeker after martyrdom himself, so he bowed to the storm and attended Mass as he had done in the days of his youth. The accession of Elizabeth to the throne brought about the creation of the Anglican Church, which was accepted by most sensible man as a reasonable compromise between the rigid doctrines of the Roman Church and the freedom of belief, amounting to license, claimed by the hot gospellers of Calvin.
John Austen had two sons - John and George, both of whom shared in his business. Both were Approved Men of Guildford, but John, the elder, became a Merchant Adventurer, a Citizen of London, and a Member of the Haberdashers Company. George, the younger, remained in Guildford and succeeded his father in his business as a Wool Stapler. The brothers were both men of ability and well educated according to the standard of those days.
John Austen, the elder as a prominent citizen of Guildford, took a leading part in the activities of the town. His son George tells us that he was 'sometyme Maior of Guldeford'. In Brayley's History of Surrey, 1561 isgiven as the year of his death. This cannot be correct as in 1569 he started ‘buyldinge for the Grammar School, the houses, sellar, romes, lodginges and chimneys called the Scholemaster his lodginge,’ and died in 1571, the work being then unfinished. It is clear, therefore, that John Austen's death occurred some ten years later than is stated in this history. His Will, which was proved in 1572, reads as follows
John Austen of Guildford Co. Surrey, Yeoman,
To John, my son, 1 give my goulde ring and 60 pounds;
To George, my son, all my books;
To Harry Bedell [kinsman and apprentice] his board until 21;
To George, my son, my messuage in Guildford;
The reversion of lands in Stoke next Guildford which I purchased of John Parvis of Slyfold, I give to the said
George my son and the heirs of his body, also half an annuity of £13. 6. 8. out of the manor of Wyke. The other half to my son John, remainder to Ann, wife of the said George remainder to Joan, my wife, and in default to the common utilitie and benefit of some poor schollars within the Kings Grammar Schoole of Guildford and of the common treasure of the towne, or for the mayntenance of the great bridge there; To my sister Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Gascoigne, five marks; Joan, my wife and my said son George, to be my executors; My friend Mr. George Parvis, my cosen John Smallpece to be supervisors, also Mr. Roger Goade, Provost of King's College Cambridge and Mr. Francis Taylor, now Scholemaster of Guildford.
The Will ends with the following curious injunction -
The said John, my son, shall have and enjoye the Chamber called the Upper New Chamber for his own use; only at such tymes as he shall come downe into the countrie to make merie with his friends.
The witnesses to John Austen's signature were Francis Taylor, Symon Tallye, William Stere, and John Smallpece - all typical local names. They end with the mark of his friend Morris Abbott, the poor weaver who was the father of six sons all of whom survive him, and three of whom rose to positions of dignity and authority as already stated.
Joan Austen, wife of John Austen and mother of John and George, died in 1582. By her Will she bequeathed an annuity of thirteen shillings and fourpence for distribution annually to the poor of the town. This is one of the oldest charities administered by the Borough of Guildford. John Austen senior, died in 1571 much respected by his contemporaries.
John Austen, junior, the elder of John Austen's sons, had a share in his father's business, but he concerned himself chiefly with the export side of its activities. He was a Citizen of London and a member of the Haberdashers Guild. Like his father he was a Merchant Adventurer but on a bigger scale. In his early years he passed much of his life abroad, trading in the Levant and staying sometimes for months at Venice, which was the principal entrepot for the trade of the East and the best market in which to purchase the fancy articles known as haberdashery, for which there was an ever increasing demand. The trade of the Haberdasher was an offshoot of that of the Mercer. It came into prominence about the time of the Renaissance, which brought about a taste for various luxuries that had been almost unobtainable in Feudal England.
Up to the end of the Wars of the Roses, the revenues of the great English nobles were spent chiefly in the upkeep of their castles or fortified manor houses and the maintenance of the hundreds of armed retainers who bore their badges and fought under their banners. These private armies, so dangerous to the peace of the realm, were abolished after the battle of Bosworth (1485). By the Statute of Liveries, which became law early in the reign of Henry VII, it was an indictable offence for noblemen and gentlemen to maintain armed servants wearing their liveries. Those who, like the Earl of Oxford, disobeyed this order, even unwittingly, were tried by the Court of Star Chamber and heavily fined.
With no followers to eat up their revenues the richer landowners found, to their great content that they often had a surplus of income available for the building of stately houses, with beautiful gardens ornamented with statues, and funds for furnishing these lordly dwellings with pictures, tapestries, carpets, mirrors, glassware, books and other imported luxuries. They, or their wives, and more especially the latter, also indulged in more sumptuous styles of dress. There thus arose a demand for the rich fabrics manufactured in the East, as well as for the jewellery, powders, scents, hair dyes, fans, laces, ribbons, and other articles de luxe required for the use and adornment of the fair sex. The principal centre for the manufacture, purchase and distribution of these luxuries was Venice which also retained the monopoly of the Eastern trade in spices, silks and muslins until it passed to Lisbon, through the discovery by the Portuguese of the way to India and China round the Cape of Good Hope.
The demand for costly materials for clothes and dresses and for the luxury articles already mentioned was turned to account by Henry VIII whose warlike adventures on the Continent created a greater demand for horses than England could supply. To encourage horse breeding, an Act was passed in 1542, called the 'Bill for Greate Horses' which ordained that
all persons, as well spiritual as temporal, should, according to their rank and degree and the value of their estates and goods, keep and maintain from seven to one downwards of stone horses (i.e.,Stallions) able for the warres, of the ages of 3 or 4 or more, and 14 hands high.
By the same Statute it was also decreed that
every temporal person whose wyfe shall were any goun or peticote of sylke, or any French hood, or any chavne of gold about her nekk or in her partlett or in any apparell of her bodie, or weare any velvet in the lining or other part of the goun other than in the cuffs or perfels, or ellswere any velvet in the kyrtell, should keep and sustain one such trotting horse for the saddell as above described.
The Merchant Adventurers who had prevailed on Edward VI. to revoke the privileges of the Hanseatic League, obtained from Queen Elizabeth in 1564 a Charter which constituted them a Corporation with a common seal, which could exercise authority in any part of England. It contained a clause that if any member married a wife from beyond sea in a foreign country, or held lands, tenements or other hereditaments in Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Flanders or Germany, he should be disfranchised of his fellowship. This clause may have had a direct influence on John Austen's life and prospects as we shall explain presently.
The way in which Merchant Adventurers carried on their business was approximately as follows. A number of them would meet together at the Royal Exchange in London and agree to charter a ship and subscribe shares in some suitable sum, say a thousand pounds, to be laid out in the purchase of her freight. This was composed of articles produced in their respective trades and likely to command a ready sale abroad. The freight as a whole represented the joint stock ofthe venture, and profits and losses were apportioned according to the amount subscribed by each Adventurer. The business was highly speculative, for in addition to ordinary trading risks there were the perils of the sea - the risks of fire and shipwreck involving a total loss of vessel and cargo, besides the risk of capture by the Queen's enemies or by the pirates who swarmed in the Channel and Irish Sea and who were particularly active in the Mediterranean; for there they were mostly Moslems from Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli and capture by them meant slavery for years and probably for life. The Elizabethan Age was, however, an age of adventure, and in every walk of life men took great risks.
The cargo shipped by John Austen in these ventures consisted chiefly of wool and the stout blue Guildford cloth dyed with the local woad which was in great demand throughout Europe for the clothing of soldiers and retainers. His fellow Adventurers would ship wool, hides, leather, cutlery and other commodities of English manufacture or origin. John Austen seems to have made several voyages to the Mediterranean as a supercargo, acting as such on behalf of his partners who stayed at home. He disposed of part of hisfreight at Lisbon, Cadiz, or other Spanish ports if they happened to be open to English trade; but the bulk of his cargo was reserved for Venice, for there he was sure of a ready sale for his merchandise and of facilities for the purchase of his return cargo, consisting of the luxury articles previously mentioned, and of felt hats for ladies as well as men.
The Haberdashers specialised in the sale of head gear, for their Worshipful Company included that of the Hurriers or Hatters. These necessary articles were then manufactured at various places in northern Italy. The ladies of those days did not get their hats from Paris. They got them chiefly from Milan, hence the word 'Milaner' or 'Milliner' came to mean one engaged in the making or selling of hats and bonnets. Mantua produced women's wraps and mantles. A mantua maker came to mean one who made or sold these garments and eventually a dressmaker. In late 17th and early 18th century books, we find many references to mantua makers in this sense.
Pins, which form such an essential item of female equipment, were then luxury articles, procurable only in Italy, and their supply became one of the most important items of the Haberdashers' trade. The demand for pins became so great that English fathers and husbands came to describe the allowances they made to their daughters and wives as 'Pin Money'. The importation of pins soon ceased however, for their manufacture was started in England, and the shops on old London Bridge became the principal retailers and distributors of the useful articles.
After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, many of the skilled craftsmen of that city fled to Venice where they re-established their trades. With them came scholars bringing with them the Greek manuscripts in which the New Testament and the ancient Classics were recorded. These proved of absorbing interest to the learned men of Western Europe, and stimulated not only that eager seeking after knowledge which produced the renaissance of literature and art but also the spirit of religious enquiry that culminated in the Protestant Reformation. There consequently arose a great demand for books, for through the discovery of the art of printing libraries were being formed all over Europe. This demand was met by the fine productions of the Aldine Press of Venice which were exported in considerable number to England. This set a fashion which was copied in most of the capitals of Christendom, so in a few years the printed word displaced the beautiful but laboriously produced manuscripts of the monastic Scriptorium.
As already stated, John Austen spent many years abroad, more especially in Venice which was a convenient centre for the purchase of the articles required in his trade as a London Haberdasher. The Venetian Republic welcomed all strangers who visited their city to buy and sell, and were very tolerant, in religious matters. The Signori, as good Catholics, acknowledged the spiritual authority of the Pope; but like Henry VIII of England they challenged the Holy Father's right to interfere in secular matters, more especially in those which might in any way affect their trade.
Queen Elizabeth was anathema to the Papacy, but her Ambassador to The Signori of St. Mark was allowed to have his Anglican chapel and to import Bibles and other books on the Roman Index Expurgatorium without objection on the part of the Doge or his officials. This friendly attitude was due not so much to religious tolerance as to a lively desire to retain, at any price, the valuable trade with England. It was for this reason that English merchants like John Austen, professing the Protestant religion were nevertheless encouraged to sell their wares to the merchants of Venice and to purchase their own requirements from the latter in return.
Venice was to the pleasure-seekers of the 16th and 17th centuries what Paris was to those of the Victorian Age. Life there was brilliant and sumptuous with a great display of wealth. There was a glamour too, about the night life of Venice and a freedom from social conventions which was supposed to be demoralizing for well brought up young Englishmen. Masked ladies, gondolas, guitars, to say nothing of bravos, stilettos and poisons, seemed shocking to straight-laced English folk, and the literature of the time is full of references to the danger and evil of 'becoming Italianate'. In a society which was essentially commercial, English merchants of good standing met with a ready welcome and those of the better sort enjoyed the hospitality of the merchant princes whose palazzos lined the banks of the Grand Canal. John Austen must have been one of the favoured few for he seems to have had the entree of the Palazzo Grimani, the home of Antonio Grimani who was Doge of Venice in 1521.
The story of Antonio Grimani's life is one of great vicissitudes - at one time discredited and on the verge of ruin, at another powerful and rich. He is said to have suggested the character of Antonio in Shakespeare's play 'The ‘Merchant of Venice'. He had the misfortune to be in command of the Venetian fleet when it was crushingly defeated at Sapienza in 1499. The news of this disaster caused intense consternation and grief in Venice. The Council of Ten ordered the return of Grimani in irons, an order which his son Vincenzo entreated him to obey and on his declining to do so, the son himself placed the fetters on his father to mitigate, by this outward sign of obedience, the wrath that he knew was hot against him. The loss of Lepanto a few days later caused a furious burst of indignation against the unfortunate Grimani, who was received with shouts of ‘Antonio Grimani, ruina de Christiani.’ Other misfortunes followed, and the proud Republic of Venice, humbled to the dust, was compelled in 1503 to seek a disastrous peace with the Turks by which she was deprived of most of her Mediterranean possessions.
As his successors proved no more successful than himself, the indignation against Antonio Grimani died down and he regained his former popularity. His youth had been spent in poverty, but as he advanced in years he acquired immense wealth and his luck as a merchant was so great that his dealings as to investments, acquisitions and speculations were closely imitated by his neighbours. Antonio Grimani died in 1523, just after the capture of Rhodes by the Turks, after its heroic defence by the Knights of St. John. The influence of the Grimani family continued, for Marino Grimani, who was either Antonio's son or a near kinsman, was Doge in 1595. He was probably the Grimani who entertained John Austen.
John Austen's friendship with the Grimani family led to a romance which became a cherished though, unsubstantiated tradition of the Austen family. Our young merchant is said to have fallen in love with and married a beautiful Venetian lady, named Giullana Grimani, known as 'the Contessa', who was probably a member of the Doge's family. There is no documentary or other evidence to support this tradition, except that the oldest of the family portraits is one of this lady, attributed to Paul Veronese, but which is either a copy or the work of one of his pupils. The portrait shows her to have been beautiful and richly adorned, as might be expected of a lady of so wealthy and distinguished a family.
Whether John Austen married her, or whether their love affair was nipped in the bud and went no further than an exchange of portraits, history does not relate. A 16th century marriage between a young English middle class Protestant and a lovely Venetian girl, Patrician by birth and Roman Catholic by religion, seems highly improbable, especially as the marriage of English Merchant Adventurers to foreigners was forbidden about that time, the penalty of disobedience being expulsion from the Guild. But love knows no barriers, and improbable as it may be, John Austen, the Puritan Adventurer, may have developed, in a Venetian environment into an ardent and reckless lover. Their marriage, if it ever took place, must have been contracted in Venice, and the lovely Giuliana presumably died there, for there is no record of her ever having come to England.
Though he lived chiefly in London when not abroad, John Austen paid frequent visits to Guildford and kept close touch with his friends and relations there. Besides being one of its 'Approved Men', he served as Mayor in 1566, after having represented the borough in Parliament in 1563. Among the possessions of the Guildford Corporation is a silver drinking cup bearing the Arms of the Haberdashers' Company presented to 'his loving brethren' by John Austen. He retired from business about 1598 and settled in Guildford, near his brother George, who had married three times and had children by each of his wives.
John Austen married Joan, daughter of William Snelling of East Horsley. William Snelling, one of her kinsmen, was Mayor of Guildford in 1559 and 1567. These Snellings were of a good yeoman stock, numerously represented throughout Surrey as well as in Guildford itself. There are two fine brasses to the memory of the Snelling family in East Horsley Church. Both are described in Manning & Bray's History. As one of them is to the memory of Joan Austen's uncle and aunt, its inscription may be quoted –
Of your charite pray for the soulis of Thomas Snellinge ... and Jone his Wyff. Which Thomas disceased the XXVIII day of May in the yere of Our Lord MCCCCCIIII [l504] and for the soulis of the faders and moders of the foresaid Thomas and Jone with all their children on whose sowlys Almighty Jhesu have mercy. Amen.
In the course of his busy life John Austen witnessed great changes. He started Life as a Roman Catholic and as a boy he must have attended Mass in his father's church. As a young man under Edward VI., he watched with approval the spread of the Reformation and the growth of the Protestant doctrine which in Guildford was strongly Calvinistic. Under Philip and Mary, he witnessed the revival of Roman Catholicism and the persecution of Protestants. In Guildford, it nearly brought to the stake Morris and Alice Abbott, his friends and neighbours, parents of the famous Abbott brothers, George who became Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert who became Bishop of Salisbury and Maurice who was knighted by Charles I, and was elected a Member of Parliament and Lord Mayor of London. The latter, many years later, became John Austen's kinsman by marriage, for he wedded his granddaughter Joan Austen.
John Austen's indignation was stirred to its depths by Mary's religious persecutions; but he was no seeker after martyrdom himself, so he bowed to the storm and attended Mass as he had done in the days of his youth. The accession of Elizabeth to the throne brought about the creation of the Anglican Church, which was accepted by most sensible man as a reasonable compromise between the rigid doctrines of the Roman Church and the freedom of belief, amounting to license, claimed by the hot gospellers of Calvin.
John Austen had two sons - John and George, both of whom shared in his business. Both were Approved Men of Guildford, but John, the elder, became a Merchant Adventurer, a Citizen of London, and a Member of the Haberdashers Company. George, the younger, remained in Guildford and succeeded his father in his business as a Wool Stapler. The brothers were both men of ability and well educated according to the standard of those days.
John Austen, the elder as a prominent citizen of Guildford, took a leading part in the activities of the town. His son George tells us that he was 'sometyme Maior of Guldeford'. In Brayley's History of Surrey, 1561 isgiven as the year of his death. This cannot be correct as in 1569 he started ‘buyldinge for the Grammar School, the houses, sellar, romes, lodginges and chimneys called the Scholemaster his lodginge,’ and died in 1571, the work being then unfinished. It is clear, therefore, that John Austen's death occurred some ten years later than is stated in this history. His Will, which was proved in 1572, reads as follows
John Austen of Guildford Co. Surrey, Yeoman,
To John, my son, 1 give my goulde ring and 60 pounds;
To George, my son, all my books;
To Harry Bedell [kinsman and apprentice] his board until 21;
To George, my son, my messuage in Guildford;
The reversion of lands in Stoke next Guildford which I purchased of John Parvis of Slyfold, I give to the said
George my son and the heirs of his body, also half an annuity of £13. 6. 8. out of the manor of Wyke. The other half to my son John, remainder to Ann, wife of the said George remainder to Joan, my wife, and in default to the common utilitie and benefit of some poor schollars within the Kings Grammar Schoole of Guildford and of the common treasure of the towne, or for the mayntenance of the great bridge there; To my sister Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Gascoigne, five marks; Joan, my wife and my said son George, to be my executors; My friend Mr. George Parvis, my cosen John Smallpece to be supervisors, also Mr. Roger Goade, Provost of King's College Cambridge and Mr. Francis Taylor, now Scholemaster of Guildford.
The Will ends with the following curious injunction -
The said John, my son, shall have and enjoye the Chamber called the Upper New Chamber for his own use; only at such tymes as he shall come downe into the countrie to make merie with his friends.
The witnesses to John Austen's signature were Francis Taylor, Symon Tallye, William Stere, and John Smallpece - all typical local names. They end with the mark of his friend Morris Abbott, the poor weaver who was the father of six sons all of whom survive him, and three of whom rose to positions of dignity and authority as already stated.
Joan Austen, wife of John Austen and mother of John and George, died in 1582. By her Will she bequeathed an annuity of thirteen shillings and fourpence for distribution annually to the poor of the town. This is one of the oldest charities administered by the Borough of Guildford. John Austen senior, died in 1571 much respected by his contemporaries.
John Austen, junior, the elder of John Austen's sons, had a share in his father's business, but he concerned himself chiefly with the export side of its activities. He was a Citizen of London and a member of the Haberdashers Guild. Like his father he was a Merchant Adventurer but on a bigger scale. In his early years he passed much of his life abroad, trading in the Levant and staying sometimes for months at Venice, which was the principal entrepot for the trade of the East and the best market in which to purchase the fancy articles known as haberdashery, for which there was an ever increasing demand. The trade of the Haberdasher was an offshoot of that of the Mercer. It came into prominence about the time of the Renaissance, which brought about a taste for various luxuries that had been almost unobtainable in Feudal England.
Up to the end of the Wars of the Roses, the revenues of the great English nobles were spent chiefly in the upkeep of their castles or fortified manor houses and the maintenance of the hundreds of armed retainers who bore their badges and fought under their banners. These private armies, so dangerous to the peace of the realm, were abolished after the battle of Bosworth (1485). By the Statute of Liveries, which became law early in the reign of Henry VII, it was an indictable offence for noblemen and gentlemen to maintain armed servants wearing their liveries. Those who, like the Earl of Oxford, disobeyed this order, even unwittingly, were tried by the Court of Star Chamber and heavily fined.
With no followers to eat up their revenues the richer landowners found, to their great content that they often had a surplus of income available for the building of stately houses, with beautiful gardens ornamented with statues, and funds for furnishing these lordly dwellings with pictures, tapestries, carpets, mirrors, glassware, books and other imported luxuries. They, or their wives, and more especially the latter, also indulged in more sumptuous styles of dress. There thus arose a demand for the rich fabrics manufactured in the East, as well as for the jewellery, powders, scents, hair dyes, fans, laces, ribbons, and other articles de luxe required for the use and adornment of the fair sex. The principal centre for the manufacture, purchase and distribution of these luxuries was Venice which also retained the monopoly of the Eastern trade in spices, silks and muslins until it passed to Lisbon, through the discovery by the Portuguese of the way to India and China round the Cape of Good Hope.
The demand for costly materials for clothes and dresses and for the luxury articles already mentioned was turned to account by Henry VIII whose warlike adventures on the Continent created a greater demand for horses than England could supply. To encourage horse breeding, an Act was passed in 1542, called the 'Bill for Greate Horses' which ordained that
all persons, as well spiritual as temporal, should, according to their rank and degree and the value of their estates and goods, keep and maintain from seven to one downwards of stone horses (i.e.,Stallions) able for the warres, of the ages of 3 or 4 or more, and 14 hands high.
By the same Statute it was also decreed that
every temporal person whose wyfe shall were any goun or peticote of sylke, or any French hood, or any chavne of gold about her nekk or in her partlett or in any apparell of her bodie, or weare any velvet in the lining or other part of the goun other than in the cuffs or perfels, or ellswere any velvet in the kyrtell, should keep and sustain one such trotting horse for the saddell as above described.
The Merchant Adventurers who had prevailed on Edward VI. to revoke the privileges of the Hanseatic League, obtained from Queen Elizabeth in 1564 a Charter which constituted them a Corporation with a common seal, which could exercise authority in any part of England. It contained a clause that if any member married a wife from beyond sea in a foreign country, or held lands, tenements or other hereditaments in Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Flanders or Germany, he should be disfranchised of his fellowship. This clause may have had a direct influence on John Austen's life and prospects as we shall explain presently.
The way in which Merchant Adventurers carried on their business was approximately as follows. A number of them would meet together at the Royal Exchange in London and agree to charter a ship and subscribe shares in some suitable sum, say a thousand pounds, to be laid out in the purchase of her freight. This was composed of articles produced in their respective trades and likely to command a ready sale abroad. The freight as a whole represented the joint stock ofthe venture, and profits and losses were apportioned according to the amount subscribed by each Adventurer. The business was highly speculative, for in addition to ordinary trading risks there were the perils of the sea - the risks of fire and shipwreck involving a total loss of vessel and cargo, besides the risk of capture by the Queen's enemies or by the pirates who swarmed in the Channel and Irish Sea and who were particularly active in the Mediterranean; for there they were mostly Moslems from Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli and capture by them meant slavery for years and probably for life. The Elizabethan Age was, however, an age of adventure, and in every walk of life men took great risks.
The cargo shipped by John Austen in these ventures consisted chiefly of wool and the stout blue Guildford cloth dyed with the local woad which was in great demand throughout Europe for the clothing of soldiers and retainers. His fellow Adventurers would ship wool, hides, leather, cutlery and other commodities of English manufacture or origin. John Austen seems to have made several voyages to the Mediterranean as a supercargo, acting as such on behalf of his partners who stayed at home. He disposed of part of hisfreight at Lisbon, Cadiz, or other Spanish ports if they happened to be open to English trade; but the bulk of his cargo was reserved for Venice, for there he was sure of a ready sale for his merchandise and of facilities for the purchase of his return cargo, consisting of the luxury articles previously mentioned, and of felt hats for ladies as well as men.
The Haberdashers specialised in the sale of head gear, for their Worshipful Company included that of the Hurriers or Hatters. These necessary articles were then manufactured at various places in northern Italy. The ladies of those days did not get their hats from Paris. They got them chiefly from Milan, hence the word 'Milaner' or 'Milliner' came to mean one engaged in the making or selling of hats and bonnets. Mantua produced women's wraps and mantles. A mantua maker came to mean one who made or sold these garments and eventually a dressmaker. In late 17th and early 18th century books, we find many references to mantua makers in this sense.
Pins, which form such an essential item of female equipment, were then luxury articles, procurable only in Italy, and their supply became one of the most important items of the Haberdashers' trade. The demand for pins became so great that English fathers and husbands came to describe the allowances they made to their daughters and wives as 'Pin Money'. The importation of pins soon ceased however, for their manufacture was started in England, and the shops on old London Bridge became the principal retailers and distributors of the useful articles.
After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, many of the skilled craftsmen of that city fled to Venice where they re-established their trades. With them came scholars bringing with them the Greek manuscripts in which the New Testament and the ancient Classics were recorded. These proved of absorbing interest to the learned men of Western Europe, and stimulated not only that eager seeking after knowledge which produced the renaissance of literature and art but also the spirit of religious enquiry that culminated in the Protestant Reformation. There consequently arose a great demand for books, for through the discovery of the art of printing libraries were being formed all over Europe. This demand was met by the fine productions of the Aldine Press of Venice which were exported in considerable number to England. This set a fashion which was copied in most of the capitals of Christendom, so in a few years the printed word displaced the beautiful but laboriously produced manuscripts of the monastic Scriptorium.
As already stated, John Austen spent many years abroad, more especially in Venice which was a convenient centre for the purchase of the articles required in his trade as a London Haberdasher. The Venetian Republic welcomed all strangers who visited their city to buy and sell, and were very tolerant, in religious matters. The Signori, as good Catholics, acknowledged the spiritual authority of the Pope; but like Henry VIII of England they challenged the Holy Father's right to interfere in secular matters, more especially in those which might in any way affect their trade.
Queen Elizabeth was anathema to the Papacy, but her Ambassador to The Signori of St. Mark was allowed to have his Anglican chapel and to import Bibles and other books on the Roman Index Expurgatorium without objection on the part of the Doge or his officials. This friendly attitude was due not so much to religious tolerance as to a lively desire to retain, at any price, the valuable trade with England. It was for this reason that English merchants like John Austen, professing the Protestant religion were nevertheless encouraged to sell their wares to the merchants of Venice and to purchase their own requirements from the latter in return.
Venice was to the pleasure-seekers of the 16th and 17th centuries what Paris was to those of the Victorian Age. Life there was brilliant and sumptuous with a great display of wealth. There was a glamour too, about the night life of Venice and a freedom from social conventions which was supposed to be demoralizing for well brought up young Englishmen. Masked ladies, gondolas, guitars, to say nothing of bravos, stilettos and poisons, seemed shocking to straight-laced English folk, and the literature of the time is full of references to the danger and evil of 'becoming Italianate'. In a society which was essentially commercial, English merchants of good standing met with a ready welcome and those of the better sort enjoyed the hospitality of the merchant princes whose palazzos lined the banks of the Grand Canal. John Austen must have been one of the favoured few for he seems to have had the entree of the Palazzo Grimani, the home of Antonio Grimani who was Doge of Venice in 1521.
The story of Antonio Grimani's life is one of great vicissitudes - at one time discredited and on the verge of ruin, at another powerful and rich. He is said to have suggested the character of Antonio in Shakespeare's play 'The ‘Merchant of Venice'. He had the misfortune to be in command of the Venetian fleet when it was crushingly defeated at Sapienza in 1499. The news of this disaster caused intense consternation and grief in Venice. The Council of Ten ordered the return of Grimani in irons, an order which his son Vincenzo entreated him to obey and on his declining to do so, the son himself placed the fetters on his father to mitigate, by this outward sign of obedience, the wrath that he knew was hot against him. The loss of Lepanto a few days later caused a furious burst of indignation against the unfortunate Grimani, who was received with shouts of ‘Antonio Grimani, ruina de Christiani.’ Other misfortunes followed, and the proud Republic of Venice, humbled to the dust, was compelled in 1503 to seek a disastrous peace with the Turks by which she was deprived of most of her Mediterranean possessions.
As his successors proved no more successful than himself, the indignation against Antonio Grimani died down and he regained his former popularity. His youth had been spent in poverty, but as he advanced in years he acquired immense wealth and his luck as a merchant was so great that his dealings as to investments, acquisitions and speculations were closely imitated by his neighbours. Antonio Grimani died in 1523, just after the capture of Rhodes by the Turks, after its heroic defence by the Knights of St. John. The influence of the Grimani family continued, for Marino Grimani, who was either Antonio's son or a near kinsman, was Doge in 1595. He was probably the Grimani who entertained John Austen.
John Austen's friendship with the Grimani family led to a romance which became a cherished though, unsubstantiated tradition of the Austen family. Our young merchant is said to have fallen in love with and married a beautiful Venetian lady, named Giullana Grimani, known as 'the Contessa', who was probably a member of the Doge's family. There is no documentary or other evidence to support this tradition, except that the oldest of the family portraits is one of this lady, attributed to Paul Veronese, but which is either a copy or the work of one of his pupils. The portrait shows her to have been beautiful and richly adorned, as might be expected of a lady of so wealthy and distinguished a family.
Whether John Austen married her, or whether their love affair was nipped in the bud and went no further than an exchange of portraits, history does not relate. A 16th century marriage between a young English middle class Protestant and a lovely Venetian girl, Patrician by birth and Roman Catholic by religion, seems highly improbable, especially as the marriage of English Merchant Adventurers to foreigners was forbidden about that time, the penalty of disobedience being expulsion from the Guild. But love knows no barriers, and improbable as it may be, John Austen, the Puritan Adventurer, may have developed, in a Venetian environment into an ardent and reckless lover. Their marriage, if it ever took place, must have been contracted in Venice, and the lovely Giuliana presumably died there, for there is no record of her ever having come to England.
Though he lived chiefly in London when not abroad, John Austen paid frequent visits to Guildford and kept close touch with his friends and relations there. Besides being one of its 'Approved Men', he served as Mayor in 1566, after having represented the borough in Parliament in 1563. Among the possessions of the Guildford Corporation is a silver drinking cup bearing the Arms of the Haberdashers' Company presented to 'his loving brethren' by John Austen. He retired from business about 1598 and settled in Guildford, near his brother George, who had married three times and had children by each of his wives.
By this time the brothers John and George Austen tad begun to invest considerable sums in the purchase of land in and around Guildford. The field of investment in those days was very limited. There was no Funded National Debt to which people could subscribe, no Joint-Stock Companies in which they could purchase shares, and no Colonial or Municipal Loans or Railway, Canal, Gas, Water or Electrical Undertakings in which a prudent man might invest his savings. Money saved, unless put into a business, had to be invested either in the purchase of land or in mortgages on real estate.
George Austen had been a landowner for some time, for he had acquired Nore in the parish of Bramley as the dowry of his first wife Ann, daughter of Thomas Mellersh of Godalming. This had been followed up later by the purchase of the Manor of Smithbrook, chiefly in Dunsfold, which had belonged originally to the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. On the dissolution of the Monastic Houses by Henry VIII, the possessions of the Knights were forfeited to the Crown and the Manor of Smithbrook was sold to Edward Wymarke of London who conveyed it on 31st October 1588 to George Austen of Guildford. Other purchases followed.
While George Austen was building up his estate in and around Bramley, Dunsfold and Chiddingfold, his brother John was doing the like round Guildford, more especially in Shalford where he picked up a field here and a meadow there, as opportunity offered. In 1599 came the chance for which the brothers had been eagerly waiting. The Austen brothers purchased in that year from Sir George More of Loseley the Rectory, Rectorial Tithes, and Rectorial Manor of Shalford with all hereditaments appertaining thereto. These had belonged originally to the Prior and Augustinian Canons Regular of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem Without Bishopsgate. On the dissolution of the Religious Houses, the Rectory of Shalford, including the Rectorial Manor and Tithes, etc., passed to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth gave them to her Latin Secretary, Sir John Wolley of Pirford, and he sold them to his brother-in-law Sir George More of Loseley, from whom they were bought, as stated above, by the Austens.
The property acquired included the Rectory of Bramley as well as that of Shalford, also the Great Tithes of both parishes, together with the profits arising from market and fair. By this curious transaction, the Austens became Lay Rectors of Shalford cum Bramley, or 'Rectors Impropriate' to use the legal term, their clerical responsibilities being delegated to Vicars. The Lay Rectorship of Bramley was disposed of by Sir Henry Austen about the middle of the last century, but that of Shalford continues in the hands of his descendants. It is now a possession of rather doubtful value, as the Great Tithes, once a good investment, now bring in very little, while the cost of keeping the chancel in repair, which is one of the liabilities attaching to the Rectorship, is at times considerable. As Lay Rectors of the Parish, the Austens retain the right to a pew in the chancel of Shalford Church, the walls of which are decorated with the hatchments and memorials of their departed representatives, whose coffins fill the vault below.
As soon as the brothers Austen became possessed of the Rectorial Manor, Parsonage, Tithes, Glebe and other lands and hereditaments in Shalford, they resolved to build a dwelling which would be the mansion house of the Austen family and of their newly-acquired estate. Meanwhile John Austen went into residence at the old Parsonage, which had been provided by the Augustinian Canons for the accommodation of their Vicar and his family, in obedience to an order dated 1434, of Cardinal Beaufort Bishop of Winchester. John Austen's brother George, with his numerous offspring, lived in Guildford as before, for he was still in business as a wool stapler and had to attend to his Parliamentary and Municipal duties. We learn from a map in the Family Book which was drawn by George Austen himself about 1605, that the original Parsonage was a small gabled brick building standing between the Church and the River Wey, of which no trace now remains. Its approximate site is indicated by the still existent 15th century Dovecot and the foundations of a Tithe Barn, long since demolished, which stood in what is now the Stable Yard.
John Austen had made a fortune in business, the majority of his ventures had proved successful, and most of his ships had 'come home'. He was anxious to found a family, and being unmarried and without issue of his own, determined to build a house in collaboration with his brother George, which he proposed to occupy during his own lifetime, but which would pass to his brother after his death and eventually to his nephew and godson John Austen, whom he made his heir.
The building of Shalford House was commenced in 1601, and detailed accounts of the cost of its construction with particulars as to where the materials were obtained, have been preserved among the family archives. It was a moderate sized gentleman's country house in the ordinary late Tudor or early Jacobean style, and was built of brick and stone, the latter quarried from Nore, George Austen's house in the parish of Bramley. A water colour drawing executed about 1770 shows the house as it appeared in its original form. It was completed in 1611, about two years before John Austen's death, so he cannot have occupied it except for a brief period. The house was fairly commodious, but having regard to the size of George Austen's family, and the number of domestics required for such a big household, there can have been scant room for the servants. These, however, were housed in those days with little regard for comfort or privacy. All the men slept in one attic, all the maids in another, and, as may be seen at Nore, there was a sliding panel in the doors of both rooms, by which the master of the house might from time to time observe the behaviour of his domestics while they were supposed to be at rest.
So far as one can gather from Wills, Deeds and other papers, the brothers John and George Austen lived and worked together in perfect harmony. John looked after the administration of the joint estate, George after the building of Shalford House. It may seem strange that John, the retired Merchant Adventurer, who had spent much of his life in London and abroad, should have taken so readily to country pursuits. There was then, however, no such divorce between the tastes and occupations of the town dweller and the countryman as now exists, and men passed from one to the other without difficulty. This was due to the fact that the younger sons of the lesser gentry, who were then usually apprenticed to trades in London and the principal towns, never lost the interest in country pursuits which they had acquired in their boyhood. England in those days was self-supporting, and every town and village was in all essentials capable of providing for its own needs. It was only when there was a local failure of some particular crop or a murrain among, the cattle, or swine fever among the pigs, that it became necessary for a district to make good from its surplus, any shortage that might exist in the resources of its neighbours. The agricultural character of England as a whole was reflected in many of its social customs. For instance, the length of the Long Vacation of the Law Courts and of the Universities was not fixed with the object of favouring the legal and scholastic professions in the matter of holidays, but to meet the agricultural needs of the country, the idea being that at harvest time, everyone including lawyers, professors, students and undergraduates should be at their homes to assist in the gathering in of the crops.
John Austen was a man of culture, and some of the more attractive features of Shalford House may be attributed to his taste and judgment. The north-west corner room with its fine armorial mantel, panelling and cieling, the latter inscribed J and G A MD[C]I (1601) was his work, and the carved overmantel in the north-cast corner room, containing figures of saints, was perhaps placed there by him after its removal from the Dominican Friary in Guildford which his brother George pulled down in 1606. On the other hand, and that more probably, this overmantel and its carved figures may have come from the parlour of the old Parsonage which the Prior of the Augustinian Canons Regular built for the Vicar of Shalford, and been removed therefrom by John Austen when he and his brother pulled the Parsonage down so as to clear the grounds of Shalford House. They are undoubtedly of pre-Reformation date and must have come from some Religious Foundation. Their preservation in the dwelling of a Protestant family may have been due to John Austen's tender re-collections of Giuliana Grimani, and his consequent unwillingness to destroy images which he knew that she, as a Roman Catholic, would have held in reverence.
John Austen, First Squire of Shalford, devoted brother and beloved uncle of numerous nephews and nieces died in 1613. As his wealth provided in great measure for the purchase of the Rectory, Rectorial Manor, Great Tithes and Glebe lands of Shalford, besides providing at least half the cost of building Shalford House, he may be regarded, jointly with his brother George, as the Austen who established the family among the landed gentry of Surrey. But even if John could be described as the root of the family, he should not be recorded as its stem, for he left no issue. That distinction falls to George, whose descendants were squires of Shalford till 1759 when the direct line became extinct through lack of male heirs. It then became necessary, as we shall see presently, to graft a new stock on the original stem, so that the Austen name might be preserved.
This portion of the Austen history may fitly be concluded with extracts from John Austen's Will dated 5th February 1611, which in its wording and the uncertainty of its spelling is typical of his times-
In the name of God Amen…. I John Austen the elder, of Shalforde in the Countie of Surrey, Gent, sicke in bodye yet neverthelesse of good and perfect memorye (thankes be to Almightie God) do make and declare my last Will and Testament in manner and forme following. And first I bequeathe my soule to Almightie God my Maker and Creator hoping to have salvation by the deathe and meritts of my onlie and sole Redeemer Jesus Christe and my Bodye to be buryed by the discretion of my executor undernamed. Item 1 give will and devise to my neiphue John Austen eldest sonne of my brother George Austen and to his Heires all my moytie of the Rectorye of Shalforde aforesaid and of all Gleabe Landes Dovehouse Tithes and Hereditaments with th' appurtenances thereunto belonging paying yerelie out of the same ten poundes and fower shillings of lawful money of England to and for the use of such poore people at such times and in such sort as yt shall be devised by the Council learned in the Lawe of the Maior and Approved Men of Guldeford in the said countie and of my saide Brother George and of my said neiphue John Austen within as short time after my deathe as convenientlie may be, provided always that good care be had that the same be yierelie employed and bestowed upon such poor people as then shall be of good and honest conversation and life and in nowise upon any such as be or shall be detected or defamed or vehementlie suspected to be Drunkards Whoremasters or of any such infamous or lewde life or ill behaviour. Item my earnest desire is that my saide neiphue John Austen may have and enjoye jointlye with my said brother my moytie of all the Oxen, Horses, Cartes, Weynes, Ploughes, Chaynes and Implements of Husbandrye now used or employed by my Brother and me joyntlie in and for Tillage and Carriages. Item. I give and bequeathe to my said neiphue John Austen my best Deske called a Danske Deske with the Frame thereunto belonging. Item. I give and bequeath to my loving sister Elizabeth wife of my said Brother my best Diamond rynge. Item I give and bequeath to my cosin Wighte the somme of Fiftie pounds out of that hundred poundes which he oweth me and to his wife my Niece my best Cipres Chest. Item 1 bequeath to my cosin Thomas Tewsley for the use of his daughter Elizabeth the somme of Fiftie pounds allowing to my executor the money and debt which he oweth me to be deducted. Item to my neiphue Henry Beadle Parson of Pultenham the Fiftie poundes which he received of me upon a Bargain of an annuity which he should have assured to me and myne heirs. Item. I give to my cosin Mrs. Jane Stowghton wife of George Stowghton Esquire as a token of my good will a golde ringe with a stone in yt of divers coloures. Item to my Aunt Gaston of East Shalford widow fyve poundes and to my kynnesman, John Snelling the elder of Guildford fyve poundes. Item to John Pitstowe my servant tenne poundes and to Marjery Tisbury my kynneswoman servant to my said sister tenne poundes. Item I give towards the mending of the Bridges and Church walls in Shalford where most neede shall be by the discretion of my said brother tenne pounds. Item I give to Mr. Martin Bond of London Marchant for a token of my love to him twentie pounds to buy him a peece of silver plate and to John Parker my godson the sonne of Leonard Parker tenne poundes. Item I give and bequeath to Daniell, Francis, Robert and Raffe Austen and the rest of my said brothers children unmarried, to every of them the somme of one hundred and fiftie poundes apeece of lawful money of England (if it may be raised out of the rest of myne estate) except the sayed John Austen my neipbue, to be payed to them or the survivors of them at theire several ages of fower and twentye years. Item to the Maior and his Brethren of Guildford by the discretion aforesaid twentie pounds. All the rest of my goods and challtes not bequeathed I give to the said George Austen my brother whom I make sole Executor of this last Will and Testament. And thus 0 Lord have mercy upon me.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seale on the day and year first above written.
Witnesses
Ag: Muschampe Joh: Wighte
John Austen Thomas Tuesley
William Shawe James Bladsworthe
Thus ended the life of a fine type of Elizabethan Merchant Adventurer. His kindly nature, charity, civic sense of duty and concern for his relations and fellow men are revealed in the terms of his Will. The latter is also interesting because of its quaint wording and spelling, and the genealogical details furnished by the names mentioned therein.
George Austen had been a landowner for some time, for he had acquired Nore in the parish of Bramley as the dowry of his first wife Ann, daughter of Thomas Mellersh of Godalming. This had been followed up later by the purchase of the Manor of Smithbrook, chiefly in Dunsfold, which had belonged originally to the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. On the dissolution of the Monastic Houses by Henry VIII, the possessions of the Knights were forfeited to the Crown and the Manor of Smithbrook was sold to Edward Wymarke of London who conveyed it on 31st October 1588 to George Austen of Guildford. Other purchases followed.
While George Austen was building up his estate in and around Bramley, Dunsfold and Chiddingfold, his brother John was doing the like round Guildford, more especially in Shalford where he picked up a field here and a meadow there, as opportunity offered. In 1599 came the chance for which the brothers had been eagerly waiting. The Austen brothers purchased in that year from Sir George More of Loseley the Rectory, Rectorial Tithes, and Rectorial Manor of Shalford with all hereditaments appertaining thereto. These had belonged originally to the Prior and Augustinian Canons Regular of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem Without Bishopsgate. On the dissolution of the Religious Houses, the Rectory of Shalford, including the Rectorial Manor and Tithes, etc., passed to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth gave them to her Latin Secretary, Sir John Wolley of Pirford, and he sold them to his brother-in-law Sir George More of Loseley, from whom they were bought, as stated above, by the Austens.
The property acquired included the Rectory of Bramley as well as that of Shalford, also the Great Tithes of both parishes, together with the profits arising from market and fair. By this curious transaction, the Austens became Lay Rectors of Shalford cum Bramley, or 'Rectors Impropriate' to use the legal term, their clerical responsibilities being delegated to Vicars. The Lay Rectorship of Bramley was disposed of by Sir Henry Austen about the middle of the last century, but that of Shalford continues in the hands of his descendants. It is now a possession of rather doubtful value, as the Great Tithes, once a good investment, now bring in very little, while the cost of keeping the chancel in repair, which is one of the liabilities attaching to the Rectorship, is at times considerable. As Lay Rectors of the Parish, the Austens retain the right to a pew in the chancel of Shalford Church, the walls of which are decorated with the hatchments and memorials of their departed representatives, whose coffins fill the vault below.
As soon as the brothers Austen became possessed of the Rectorial Manor, Parsonage, Tithes, Glebe and other lands and hereditaments in Shalford, they resolved to build a dwelling which would be the mansion house of the Austen family and of their newly-acquired estate. Meanwhile John Austen went into residence at the old Parsonage, which had been provided by the Augustinian Canons for the accommodation of their Vicar and his family, in obedience to an order dated 1434, of Cardinal Beaufort Bishop of Winchester. John Austen's brother George, with his numerous offspring, lived in Guildford as before, for he was still in business as a wool stapler and had to attend to his Parliamentary and Municipal duties. We learn from a map in the Family Book which was drawn by George Austen himself about 1605, that the original Parsonage was a small gabled brick building standing between the Church and the River Wey, of which no trace now remains. Its approximate site is indicated by the still existent 15th century Dovecot and the foundations of a Tithe Barn, long since demolished, which stood in what is now the Stable Yard.
John Austen had made a fortune in business, the majority of his ventures had proved successful, and most of his ships had 'come home'. He was anxious to found a family, and being unmarried and without issue of his own, determined to build a house in collaboration with his brother George, which he proposed to occupy during his own lifetime, but which would pass to his brother after his death and eventually to his nephew and godson John Austen, whom he made his heir.
The building of Shalford House was commenced in 1601, and detailed accounts of the cost of its construction with particulars as to where the materials were obtained, have been preserved among the family archives. It was a moderate sized gentleman's country house in the ordinary late Tudor or early Jacobean style, and was built of brick and stone, the latter quarried from Nore, George Austen's house in the parish of Bramley. A water colour drawing executed about 1770 shows the house as it appeared in its original form. It was completed in 1611, about two years before John Austen's death, so he cannot have occupied it except for a brief period. The house was fairly commodious, but having regard to the size of George Austen's family, and the number of domestics required for such a big household, there can have been scant room for the servants. These, however, were housed in those days with little regard for comfort or privacy. All the men slept in one attic, all the maids in another, and, as may be seen at Nore, there was a sliding panel in the doors of both rooms, by which the master of the house might from time to time observe the behaviour of his domestics while they were supposed to be at rest.
So far as one can gather from Wills, Deeds and other papers, the brothers John and George Austen lived and worked together in perfect harmony. John looked after the administration of the joint estate, George after the building of Shalford House. It may seem strange that John, the retired Merchant Adventurer, who had spent much of his life in London and abroad, should have taken so readily to country pursuits. There was then, however, no such divorce between the tastes and occupations of the town dweller and the countryman as now exists, and men passed from one to the other without difficulty. This was due to the fact that the younger sons of the lesser gentry, who were then usually apprenticed to trades in London and the principal towns, never lost the interest in country pursuits which they had acquired in their boyhood. England in those days was self-supporting, and every town and village was in all essentials capable of providing for its own needs. It was only when there was a local failure of some particular crop or a murrain among, the cattle, or swine fever among the pigs, that it became necessary for a district to make good from its surplus, any shortage that might exist in the resources of its neighbours. The agricultural character of England as a whole was reflected in many of its social customs. For instance, the length of the Long Vacation of the Law Courts and of the Universities was not fixed with the object of favouring the legal and scholastic professions in the matter of holidays, but to meet the agricultural needs of the country, the idea being that at harvest time, everyone including lawyers, professors, students and undergraduates should be at their homes to assist in the gathering in of the crops.
John Austen was a man of culture, and some of the more attractive features of Shalford House may be attributed to his taste and judgment. The north-west corner room with its fine armorial mantel, panelling and cieling, the latter inscribed J and G A MD[C]I (1601) was his work, and the carved overmantel in the north-cast corner room, containing figures of saints, was perhaps placed there by him after its removal from the Dominican Friary in Guildford which his brother George pulled down in 1606. On the other hand, and that more probably, this overmantel and its carved figures may have come from the parlour of the old Parsonage which the Prior of the Augustinian Canons Regular built for the Vicar of Shalford, and been removed therefrom by John Austen when he and his brother pulled the Parsonage down so as to clear the grounds of Shalford House. They are undoubtedly of pre-Reformation date and must have come from some Religious Foundation. Their preservation in the dwelling of a Protestant family may have been due to John Austen's tender re-collections of Giuliana Grimani, and his consequent unwillingness to destroy images which he knew that she, as a Roman Catholic, would have held in reverence.
John Austen, First Squire of Shalford, devoted brother and beloved uncle of numerous nephews and nieces died in 1613. As his wealth provided in great measure for the purchase of the Rectory, Rectorial Manor, Great Tithes and Glebe lands of Shalford, besides providing at least half the cost of building Shalford House, he may be regarded, jointly with his brother George, as the Austen who established the family among the landed gentry of Surrey. But even if John could be described as the root of the family, he should not be recorded as its stem, for he left no issue. That distinction falls to George, whose descendants were squires of Shalford till 1759 when the direct line became extinct through lack of male heirs. It then became necessary, as we shall see presently, to graft a new stock on the original stem, so that the Austen name might be preserved.
This portion of the Austen history may fitly be concluded with extracts from John Austen's Will dated 5th February 1611, which in its wording and the uncertainty of its spelling is typical of his times-
In the name of God Amen…. I John Austen the elder, of Shalforde in the Countie of Surrey, Gent, sicke in bodye yet neverthelesse of good and perfect memorye (thankes be to Almightie God) do make and declare my last Will and Testament in manner and forme following. And first I bequeathe my soule to Almightie God my Maker and Creator hoping to have salvation by the deathe and meritts of my onlie and sole Redeemer Jesus Christe and my Bodye to be buryed by the discretion of my executor undernamed. Item 1 give will and devise to my neiphue John Austen eldest sonne of my brother George Austen and to his Heires all my moytie of the Rectorye of Shalforde aforesaid and of all Gleabe Landes Dovehouse Tithes and Hereditaments with th' appurtenances thereunto belonging paying yerelie out of the same ten poundes and fower shillings of lawful money of England to and for the use of such poore people at such times and in such sort as yt shall be devised by the Council learned in the Lawe of the Maior and Approved Men of Guldeford in the said countie and of my saide Brother George and of my said neiphue John Austen within as short time after my deathe as convenientlie may be, provided always that good care be had that the same be yierelie employed and bestowed upon such poor people as then shall be of good and honest conversation and life and in nowise upon any such as be or shall be detected or defamed or vehementlie suspected to be Drunkards Whoremasters or of any such infamous or lewde life or ill behaviour. Item my earnest desire is that my saide neiphue John Austen may have and enjoye jointlye with my said brother my moytie of all the Oxen, Horses, Cartes, Weynes, Ploughes, Chaynes and Implements of Husbandrye now used or employed by my Brother and me joyntlie in and for Tillage and Carriages. Item. I give and bequeathe to my said neiphue John Austen my best Deske called a Danske Deske with the Frame thereunto belonging. Item. I give and bequeath to my loving sister Elizabeth wife of my said Brother my best Diamond rynge. Item I give and bequeath to my cosin Wighte the somme of Fiftie pounds out of that hundred poundes which he oweth me and to his wife my Niece my best Cipres Chest. Item 1 bequeath to my cosin Thomas Tewsley for the use of his daughter Elizabeth the somme of Fiftie pounds allowing to my executor the money and debt which he oweth me to be deducted. Item to my neiphue Henry Beadle Parson of Pultenham the Fiftie poundes which he received of me upon a Bargain of an annuity which he should have assured to me and myne heirs. Item. I give to my cosin Mrs. Jane Stowghton wife of George Stowghton Esquire as a token of my good will a golde ringe with a stone in yt of divers coloures. Item to my Aunt Gaston of East Shalford widow fyve poundes and to my kynnesman, John Snelling the elder of Guildford fyve poundes. Item to John Pitstowe my servant tenne poundes and to Marjery Tisbury my kynneswoman servant to my said sister tenne poundes. Item I give towards the mending of the Bridges and Church walls in Shalford where most neede shall be by the discretion of my said brother tenne pounds. Item I give to Mr. Martin Bond of London Marchant for a token of my love to him twentie pounds to buy him a peece of silver plate and to John Parker my godson the sonne of Leonard Parker tenne poundes. Item I give and bequeath to Daniell, Francis, Robert and Raffe Austen and the rest of my said brothers children unmarried, to every of them the somme of one hundred and fiftie poundes apeece of lawful money of England (if it may be raised out of the rest of myne estate) except the sayed John Austen my neipbue, to be payed to them or the survivors of them at theire several ages of fower and twentye years. Item to the Maior and his Brethren of Guildford by the discretion aforesaid twentie pounds. All the rest of my goods and challtes not bequeathed I give to the said George Austen my brother whom I make sole Executor of this last Will and Testament. And thus 0 Lord have mercy upon me.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seale on the day and year first above written.
Witnesses
Ag: Muschampe Joh: Wighte
John Austen Thomas Tuesley
William Shawe James Bladsworthe
Thus ended the life of a fine type of Elizabethan Merchant Adventurer. His kindly nature, charity, civic sense of duty and concern for his relations and fellow men are revealed in the terms of his Will. The latter is also interesting because of its quaint wording and spelling, and the genealogical details furnished by the names mentioned therein.