Newbury's Corporation Grant and Neville's 'Mr. Chambers,' 1595
Newbury's incorporation and “Mr. Chambers”
Sourced Facts
The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic prints an abstract of Henry Neville's 15 February 1594/5 letter to Thomas Windebank. Neville asks whether the Queen's grant for the corporation of Newbury has passed the signet and privy seal and asks Windebank's favor “in bill for Mr. Chambers”; the calendar adds that the whole country would be obliged if Windebank could procure him “to settle amongst them.” The public witness is printed page 10, item 29.
Newbury's civic history identifies 1596 as the year of its first Elizabethan royal charter. The charter created a mayor, high steward, six aldermen, and twenty-four capital burgesses. Neville's February 1595 query therefore documents the grant while it was still moving through signet and privy-seal stages, rather than referring retrospectively to a completed 1596 corporation.
Quoted Source Text
Neville asks whether the grant was already:
“passed under the signet and privy seal or nay”
Of Chambers, he says:
“all that part of the country shall be beholden to you, if by your good means we may be able to settle him amongst us.”
Identity gate
“Mr. Chambers” is not yet securely John Chamber. The name, Berkshire setting, and Neville's later 1599 passport request for John Chambers, clerk and fellow of Eton, make the identification worth testing. They do not prove it. The unknown “bill” could concern a benefice, school, office, dispensation, or unrelated local placement.
Until the bill or related correspondence is recovered, the correct statement is: Neville promoted a Mr Chambers whose settlement he represented as desirable to the surrounding country; John Chamber is a plausible research candidate, not an established identification.
Next documents
Trace the grant through signet, privy seal, and patent rolls; inspect the 1596 charter and its named officers; search Windebank papers for the bill; and compare every plausible Chambers candidate's office, clerical status, and chronology.
Citations
- Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, 1595–1597, p. 10, item 29, page image.
- Newbury Town Council, Civic history.
- Berkshire Family History Society, The Mayors of Newbury.
Notes on Access
The Archive.org page provides the public calendar control. The fuller wording quoted here comes from the project transcription of Neville's letter and should be collated with the underlying State Paper before use as a diplomatic transcription.