Thursday, September 4, 2014

16 Robert Herrick m Elizabeth Manby


1584   ROBERT HEYRICK, (Ironmonger).
   
Eldest son of AId. John Heyrick, mayor in 1557; born at Leic. in 1540, was one of the forty-eight councillors 1567, M.P. for Leic. 1588, a J.P. and alderman, and again mayor 1593 and 1605.

There were 5000 residents for all these councillors!

Ald. Robert Heyrick married at St. Martin's 11 November 1567 Elizabeth, daughter of Ald. Wm. Manby of Leic., by whom he had a numerous family (vide St. Martin's registers). For some years prior to his death, he resided in a mansion house within the precincts and grounds of the dissolved Grey Friars monastery, nearly opposite St. Martin's church. 

Here he died 14 June 1618 aged seventy-eight, and was buried at St. Martin's two days later. M.I. there. Will dated 26 March 1617, was proved in the P.C.C., London, 30 July 1618. His portrait, with that of his younger brother Sir William Heyrick of Beaumanor Park, is still preserved in the Guildhall. 

A townsman of note, and one of the most influential and active members of the corporate body of his time. In 1598, in conjunction with his younger brother Sir William Heyrick of London, goldsmith, later of Beaumanor, he obtained a confirmation of the ancient family arms, with the addition of this crest :-A bull's head argent, the muzzle ears and horns tipped sable, gorged with a chaplet of roses leaved vert. The family motto VIRTUS NOBILlTAT being adopted by later members of the family. 
Alderman Robert Herrick, Mayor of Leicester, whose garden contained a stone column marking Richard's grave.


Second son of Thomas Heyrick of Leic., and brother of AId. Nicholas Heyrick (No. 167). He was born in 1513, enrolled a freeman 1534-5, elected a chamberlain 1543-4, and again mayor 1572. He resided in the Saturday market at the corner of Cheapside ; married Mary, daughter of John Bond of Ward End, co. Warwick, who died in 1611, by whom he had five sons and seven daughters. 




All flesh is grasse both young and old must die : and so we passe to judgment by and by. 






Within the Leicester Cathedral is St Katherine's Chapel, and it is in this chapel that the graves and memorials for numerous Herricks can be found.

It was a complete surprise to find this when we visited.




Here lyeth the bodie of Robert Herick Ironmonger and Alderman of Leicester who had beene thrice Maire thereof. He was eldest sonne to John Herick and Marie, and had 2 sonnes and 9 daughters by one wife with whom he lived 51 years. At his death he gave away 16 pounds 10 shillings a year to good uses. He lived 78 years; and after dyed very godly the 14th of June 1618.
Elizabeth Manby's grave
Robert Herrik's grave










Robert Herrick (also spelled Heyrick, 1540-1618), from a family of successful ironmongers, followed in his father’s footsteps as Mayor of Leicester, holding the position in 1584, 1593 and 1605.


Robert and Elizabeth's home and its place in history!

Sir Robert Catlyn, Chief Justice to Elizabeth I, acquired the site from Bellowe and Broxholme, and it was later bought by Robert Herrick (Heyrick), three-times mayor of Leicester. Herrick built a mansion fronting onto Friar Lane,with extensive gardens over the east end of the Friary grounds.

These gardens were visited by Christopher Wren Sr. (1589–1658) in 1611, who recorded being shown a handsome stone pillar with an inscription, "Here lies the body of Richard III, some time King of England".

The Herrick family, who also owned the country estate of Beaumanor, near Loughborough, sold the mansion to Thomas Noble in 1711,who, like Herrick 130 years before him, represented Leicester in Parliament.


He was also a Justice of the Peace and at various times the town’s Chamberlain, Coroner and MP.

The Mayoral Roll records: “For some years prior to his death, he resided in a mansion house within the precincts and grounds of the dissolved Grey Friars monastery, nearly opposite St Martin's church.”

Herrick built a house on the eastern part of the grounds, visited in 1612 by a young man named Christopher Wren, who was tutor to Herrick’s nephew at Oxford. (This was not the famous architect but his father, later Dean of Windsor.)

Lost Garden of Robert Herrick Found
Wren wrote in his diary that Herrick showed him a stone pillar with an inscription ‘here lies the body of Richard III, some time King of England’. This was the last recorded location of Richard’s body.

Herrick’s daughter Frances married Thomas Noble and one of their descendants (also Thomas Noble, c.1656-1730, later the town’s MP) bought the Greyfriars land in 1711.

His son, yet another Thomas, divided the site into two in 1740 with the appropriately named New Street, along which houses were built, with numerous burials discovered during the building work. Herrick’s house and garden passed in 1743 to Roger Ruding of Westcotes, in 1752 to hosier Richard Garle, and in 1759 to banker William Bentley who built a fine house with the address ‘17 Friar Lane’.
Sep 7, 727 days ago

Lost Garden of Robert Herrick Found

Lost Garden of Robert Herrick FoundArchaeologists from the University of Leicester who are leading the search for the lost grave of King Richard III announced today that they have made a new advance in their quest.
They have uncovered evidence of the lost garden of Robert Herrick – where, historically, it is recorded there was a memorial to Richard III.
Now the ‘time tomb team’ as they have become to be known has discovered paving stones which they believe belong to the garden.
The University of Leicester is leading the archaeological search for the burial place of King Richard III with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.
In 1485 King Richard III was defeated at the battle of Bosworth. His body, stripped and despoiled, was brought to Leicester where he was buried in the church of the Franciscan Friary, known as the Grey Friars. Over time the exact whereabouts of the Grey Friars became lost.
- See more at: http://fossilhd.com/lost-garden-of-robert-herrick-found/#sthash.VnJ91gT1.dpuf





Sir William Herrick (1562-1653)


Robert's brother William Herrick became a goldsmith in London, and ran the family affairs in London.  He married Joan May and was a very powerful person.  He was goldsmith to King James I and made pieces for him.  From the papers it is his letters that give an insight into just how life was for the Herrick family.
King James I

He speaks of the diseases and hopes people are well, he speaks also of arranging marriages with important merchants and others for his children.  He was knighted and eventually was able to purchase Beaumanor a most beautiful property outside Leicester.  King James I asked him to quote to restore Leicester Castle, he was approached by the councillors to arrange for the Newarke  hospital to be built.

Leicester Castle was built over the Roman town walls.

According to Leicester Museums, the castle was probably built around 1070 (soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066). The remains now consist of a mound, along with ruins. Originally the mound was 40 ft (12.2 m) high. Kings sometimes stayed at the castle (Edward I in 1300, and Edward II in 1310 and 1311), and John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile both died here in 1399 and 1394 respectively.

Eventually, however, it was used mainly as a courthouse (sessions being held in the Great Hall), rather than a residence. Apart from being used for Assize Courts (J. M. Barrie visited regularly and spent many hours inside as reporter for a newspaper when the hall was used as a court house), the Great Hall was also used for sessions of the Parliament of England most notably the Parliament of Bats in 1426, when the conditions in London were not suitable and its connections with the Plantagenet family.

The Castle, the Turret Gateway, the Great Hall and "John of Gaunt's Cellar" (erroneously called a dungeon) are all Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and are variously listed buildings also. St Mary de Castro is a Grade I listed building.

A section of the castle wall, adjacent to the Turret Gateway, has gun loops (holes) that were poked through the medieval wall to use as firing ports by the city's residents when parliamentarian Leicester was besieged, captured, and ransacked, by the royalist army in the 1640s during the English civil war. The third storey of the Turret Gateway was destroyed in an election riot in 1832

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