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Henry Hichmough, Richard Washington, and a Windsor obligation, 1593

Primary Manuscript And Independent Control Needs Review evidence packet

Henry Hichmough and Richard Washington at Windsor, 1593

Finding

Royal Berkshire Archives D/EN/F6/1/3 is a sealed obligation from Henry Hichmough, yeoman of Windsor, to Richard Washington of Windsor. It is not a bond to Richard Waynman of Witney, as an earlier reading proposed.

The obligation is dated 6 December 1593 and acknowledges a debt of £9 13s. 4d, payable on demand. Hichmough calls Washington “my master.” Henry Neville is not named, and the document does not state why the money was owed.

Primary-image control

The opening identifies:

“I Henry Hichmoughe of windsor in the county of Berks yeoman”

as indebted:

“unto my master Master Richard Washington of windsor aforesaid”

in the sum of £9 13s. 4d. The amount is repeated in a second hand at the foot as the “holle Som.” The date and Hichmough's signature are clear. The witness area is obscured.

The phrase “my master” establishes hierarchy but does not tell us whether Washington was an employer, household head, occupational superior, or former apprenticeship master.

Document type and limits

The wording follows the form of a simple bill obligatory: debt acknowledgment, creditor, sum, demand clause, and binding of the debtor and his representatives. William West's Symboleography provides a close contemporary precedent. West's separate form for money lent explicitly says that a loan occurred; Hichmough's document does not. The instrument proves debt, not its cause.

Nor does its archival location prove that Neville owned, assigned, or collected the debt. The public catalogue groups the item in a miscellaneous Neville file, but the photographed obligation contains no Neville name, assignment, receipt, or explanatory docket.

Richard Washington

Tighe and Davis's Annals of Windsor names a Richard Washington among Windsor's aldermen in 1604 and records “Mr. Washington Maior” in the corporation accounts. A modern list assigns Richard Washington mayoralties in 1596, 1600, 1606, and 1613. The shared full name and Windsor residence make identification with the 1593 creditor highly probable, but the obligation itself gives no civic office or trade.

Safe formulation

In December 1593 Windsor yeoman Henry Hichmough acknowledged a debt of £9 13s. 4d to Richard Washington of Windsor, whom he called “my master.” Washington is probably the man who later served repeatedly as mayor of Windsor. The instrument neither explains the debt nor connects it directly to Henry Neville.

Sources