Great Letter o the Pudding Lane

Some of our Palaeography Group recently discovered a letter in the Walter Traill-Dennison Collection (Reference number D14) which was addressed to a man staying in a tavern in Pudding Lane in London. It was dated 1661, 5 years before the Great Fire of London which destroyed the whole area. 

Of course the Palaeography Group excitedly set out to transcribe it to see what it was all about and find out why Orkney captain Peter Winchester was there. 

Address on one side of the letter

However it has proved to be quite a difficult one to do, with the writer of the letter, Thomas Buchanan, using his own version of Secretary Script the common handwriting style of the day, his own abbreviations (which we have had to guess) and also using the letter "v" where we would use the letter "w". So words like "well", "what", "who", etc are "veil", "vhat" and "vho". You will see that there is no punctuation, so your guess is as good as ours where the sentences begin and end. But there are some funny bits...

So apologies for all the question marks for the words we were not sure of. If you have any suggestions of your own, do please let us know. 

Below is the Palaeography Group's transcription of the letter and below that and the image of the original letter is an English translation of our transcription, which shows that phrases like "al relations is veill" actually means "all relations are well". 

TRANSCRIPTION

 

[Address:]

For

Peitter Winchester

att Mr James Kinneirs

at the Kings Head Taverne

in Pudding Lane in Fish Street

London

F These

 

[Letter Text:]

Much respected                               Edin[burgh]: the 2: Ap[ri]ll: 1661:

This morning brought y[ou]r last to my handes dait 28 of the last vhereby* I

perceau* you are more nor greevet at such hard emountes you doo

meet vith pocks on the pack of them I clearly find you ane looser*

vhilk I have shown to Gairsay* and uthers if your first bargane had

stood good al had been veill  I wish you meet vith somevhat home =

vard to make up your losses outvard.

Know I re[ceived?] all your formes to me I think 3: tym[e]s sinc[e] my last to you

& had sent some of them home to arther & sall [----] for the rest

I delyvered yours to Mr Frait [Trail?] lykas to Gideon Muray I sall not omitt

your 3 last emptie cask to be sent home or to y[ou]r order for know that

Ja[mes] Trail & his merc[han]d Da[vid] Cragie were in hier 2 dayes sinc[e] v[i]t[h] contrair

vinds & storms from the coast of Noroway and all in a hazard

att spoiling & hating* lykas arth[u]r Cock v[i]t[h] Munt hooly vhen I have

sold some att 5:# [pounds] 12 sh[illings] & some att 5:# [pounds] 16 sh[illings] a bole they export

the bush* vas ready at Elwick vaiting a vind & now the esterne

vinds keep them in

Sir know as to your businesse I vas necessitat to use my power

& my [end?] vith [of?] Chanceller & after may als[o] obtined ane sus=

pention against them all v[hereu]pon my finding such ay and vhile

the signett be patent vhilk I have intimate & booked and

had extracted the act out of the books off L[e]ith? for our varrand

this is all to this purposse & al is veill

I have no more to add bot know all relations is veil in ork[ney?]

only Egilsha* his vyffe is dead the Lady Hoy also & I [tear in page]

Moodie is were heer & know that honest [Maurice?]* [fent?] has

your bill honestlie to me v[hil]k I have giwen Gairsay who took 50# [pounds]

bill on [hundreth/inn[te]rest?] & the rest heer in [muny?] as at meeting you war

heeroff comitting yow to the almightie I ewer rest and am

yours att Comand to serv[e] yow

Thomas Buchanan

 

* see notes below

1. The writer uses the letter v for the letter w

2. perceau = perceive

3. DSL has looser in under loser meaning one who has made a financial loss https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/looser

4. hating = Orcadian for heating

5. The Bush was a ship

6. Gairsay, Eglisha (Egilsay) and Munt Hooly (Mount Hoolie) were people who were referred to by the property they owned. 

7. After we thought this said "honest Maurice", we could not think what else it could be. Could it really be "honest Maurice"??? 

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

[Address:]

For Peter Winchester  at Mr James Kinnier's  at the Kings Head Tavern in Pudding Lane in Fish Street

London

[signed] F [Lese/Cese/Hese?]

 

[Letter Text:]

Much respected                               Edinburgh the 2nd April 1661

This morning brought your last [letter] to my hands dated 28 of the last [month] whereby I perceive you are more nor grieved at such amounts you do meet with pocks on the pack of them I clearly find you a loser which I have shown to Gairsay and others if your first bargain had stood good all have been well I wish you meet with somewhat homeward to make up your losses outward.

Know I received all your forms to me I think 3 times since my last [letter] to you & had send some of them home to Arthur & shall [---?] for the rest I delivered yours to Mr Frait/Trail? like as to Gideon Murray I shall not omit your 3 last empty casks to be send home or to your order for know that James Trail & his merchant David Craigie were in here 2 days since with contrary winds & storms from the coast off Norway and all in a hazard at spoiling & heating like as Arthur Cock with Mount Hooly when I have sold some at £5 12 shillings & some at £5 16 shillings a boll they export The Bush was ready at Elwick waiting a wind & now the eastern winds keep them in.

Sir know as to your business it was necessary to use my power & my [---?] with [--?] Chancellor & after may also obtain a suspension against them all whereupon my finding such [--?] and while the signet be patent which I have intimated & booked and had extracted the act out of the books of Leith for our warrant this is all to this purpose & all is well I have no more to add but know all relations is well in Orkney only Egilsay’s wife is dead the Lady Hoy also & I [tear in page] Moodie were here & know that honest [Maurice?] has [sent?] your bill honestlie to me which I have given Gairsay who took £50 bill on one hundredth interest & the rest here in money as at meeting you were hereof committing you to the almighty I ever rest and am yours at command to serve you

Thomas Buchanan

Another interesting fact we discovered while researching the Pudding Lane area is that it is in the parish of St Magnus the Martyr in London. So we wondered whether it was a particular haunt of Orkney travellers. 

Document Reference: D14/8/9 Letter 2nd April 1661 TB to PW

********Update*******************

We've had a fascinating update to our Puddling Lane letter. The Parish Clerk from St Magnus the Martyr Church sent us this photo from 1979, with the Great Fire memorial in the background. 

He said, "The Kings Head Tavern was a well-known hostelry in St Magnus parish dating from the 15^th century, which was famous for its wine.  It was situated in Kings Head Court between Fish Street Hill (New Fish Street) and Pudding Lane.  An Elizabethan ballad mentions the “Kings Head in New Fish Street where roysters do range." The King's Head had an unrivalled position close to the northern edge of old London Bridge and to the stairs at Billingsgate and Old Swan either side of the bridge, where one would have caught a boat to go down or up river.

Kings Head Court (with red car) can be seen on the far left side of the photo below, taken from the east side of Pudding Lane in 1979 (with the Monument in the background). At that time the area was still mainly occupied by fish and fruit merchants, but the site was redeveloped again as offices following the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982. Unfortunately Kings Head Court disappeared at that time."

Peninsular House, 112-116 Lower Thames Street, 1979 

Hobley's Heroes (City of London archaeology) website. 

hobleysheroes.co.uk

"The Kings Head Tavern was next door to the baker’s house in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started, but was rebuilt after the fire and survived until shortly after 1900 (when the City Corporation widened the stretch of Lower Thames Street between Fish Street Hill and Botolph Lane and the area was redeveloped).  In Victorian directories the Kings Head is listed at 5 Kings Head Court or 12 Pudding Lane."

Magnus 900 - Research Sources

This year marks the 900th Anniversary of the death of Earl Magnus of Orkney. The Orkney Archive and Orkney Room have many sources of information in connection with Earl Magnus, some of which I will share with you below:

In Magnus Saga the Life of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney 1075-1116 Palsson and Edwards sums up the story on the back page,
  "The Norwegian's held sway in the most northerly areas of present-day Scotland for 600 years, from the 9th century to 1469. And in this earldom of Orkney, Magnus Erlendsson (St Magnus of Orkney), was in every way a central figure.
   ...His father fought on the Norwegian side at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. He himself ruled as Earl of Orkney with his cousin Haakon, following an early life of piracy and Viking expeditions and a time living at the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland.
     But this biography written in Icelandic in about 1250, is particularly concerned with the execution of Magnus which took place on the island on Egilsay in 1116 or 1117 and which led to his veneration in every part of the Scandinavian world, and to the building of the great cathedral in Kirkwall.
    ...St Magnus Day is still celebrated on the 16th April."

He is described as "a man of extraordinary distinction, tall, with a fine, intelligent look about him. He was a man of strict virtue, successful in war, wise, eloquent, generous and magnanimous, open-handed with money and sound with advice, and altogether the most popular of men." (p83 of Orkneyinga Saga The History of the Earls of Orkney Translated by Palsson and Edwards)

He offered himself as a martyr to Earl Hakon, when their joint rule fell apart, "'There's still one offer left for me to make', said Magnus, 'God knows that I'm more concerned with the welfare of your soul than with saving my life. For your own sake, have me mutilated in any way you choose, rather than take my life or else blind me and lock me in a dungeon'
I'll accept these terms', said Hakon, 'and make no further conditions'"
To the man told to kill him, Magnus said, "This is nothing to weep over, a deed like this can only bring fame to the man who carries it out. Show yourself a man of spirit and you can have my clothes according to the old laws and customs. ... Stand in front of me and strike me hard on the head, it's not fitting for a chieftain to be beheaded like a thief."
 (p87-8 of Orkneyinga Saga The History of the Earls of Orkney Translated by Palsson and Edwards)

Magnus was killed and his bones left on Egilsay.

Traditions grew up around the place where he was slain. Ernest Marwick has collected a few which can be see in D31/37/1 Folder entitled St Magnus - Traditions and Pictures containing press cuttings, notes, pamphlets, photographs and correspondence here in the Orkney Archive:

"There was a legend that when Magnus was slain on Egilsay his blood stained the daisies red, and that in the place a lovely thornless rose grew which flowered each Christmas morning. If a leaf was plucked while the dew was still on it, it would cure black death and leprosy"

"That one will always find an open flower growing there."

Egilsay Kirk drawn by Dryden in 1894



On the instructions of his mother, Thora, Magnus' bones were moved from Egilsay to Birsay and buried there. They were probably taken by boat from Egilsay to Evie.

Ernest Marwick collected traditions in St Magnus Folder reference D31/37/1 regarding resting-places of the body of St Magnus on the way from Evie to Birsay. From an interview with Mrs Matches of Brochlea, Birsay in 1972 he gained this story:

"There was a Mans Stone at Crowdue between eighty and a hundred years ago. Robert Harvey of Crowdue decided to break it up because it was near the old road, and something of an impediment to the traffic on the road. He was warned by auld Ibbie o Moosakelda to desist for it was a sacred stone. A splinter of it entered his hand between the thumb and forefinger and he died a week later of lockjaw."

In the John Mooney papers, reference D49/1/11, there is a bundle of correspondence and press cuttings received by him following the publication of "St Magnus, Earl of Orkney" in 1936. It includes a letter from J. Graham Callander, National Museums of Antiquities, Edinburgh regarding discoveries at Garth, Nether Brough; and mention of a symbol stone found at the Brough of Birsay, 22 May 1936.

"Magnus Saga" says: "The body of Earl Magnus was carried to Birsay and given burial at Christ Church, which Earl Thorfinn had built."



TK3036 Photo of Birsay Village

Then "Magnus' Saga" mentions the sanctification of St Magnus on St Lucy's Day, December 13th, over 20 years after his death by Bishop William and later still: 'After Earl Rognvald Kali, nephew of the Holy Earl Magnus, had come to power in Orkney and settled down, he had the ground-plan drawn up for St. Magnus' Cathedral in Kirkwall and hired builders for the work. The structure progressed rapidly and well; it is a remarkable building, on which great pains were bestowed, and later the holy relics of Earl Magnus were transferred to it. Many miracles continued to take place there. Nowadays it is the episcopal seat, the same that used to be at Christ Church in Birsay."

More traditions collected by Ernest Marwick in the St Magnus Folder D31/37/1:

"Sigurd Tandrisson was the name of a farmer who lived at Dale in Shetland. He became so mad and violent that he had to be sewn up in a cow-hide. He was brought like that to the shrine of St Magnus, and there he got back his wits and full health, and went away quite whole."

and from Mrs Matches again:

Birsay to Kirkwall

"The procession went by the Strathyre stane. They crossed through Greeny, and there was a resting-place between the Mill of Housby and the Loch of Sabiston."

St Magnus Stone

"This broken earth-fast stone marks, according to local tradition, the first resting place of the procession, when the relics of St Magnus were brought from Birsay to Kirkwall. It is in a field below the house called Strathyre in Birsay."

[Caption to photograph above, written by Ernest Marwick, D31/37/1]

Blessing the Stones
"My old teacher, Miss Stanger of Wrangleha, who was a very careful body about her facts, often said that there was an old Birsay tradition that the stones that were set up to show the places where the body of St Magnus rested had oil poured over them and they were blessed. After that everybody looked on them as sacred and nobody would touch them."

From William Sabiston, Swartabreck, Birsay in 1968, "MANSEWAL (MANSE = MAGNUS; WAL = WELL) along public road not far from Mill Cottage on road to Wattle. Said to be a traditional resting place for the bearers of the remains St Magnus on the road to Kirkwall."

Ink drawing of St Magnus Cathedral by Alexander McGibbon from Magazine, "The Builder" Oct 7, 1893 (Orkney Room 726.6 Y)

Sources used in this blog:
Orkneyinga Saga The History of the Earls of Orkney Translated from the Icelandic and introduced by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, pub 1978. Orkney Room reference 839 ORK

Magnus' Saga - The Life of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney 1075-116 Translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, published by the Kirk Session of St Magnus Cathedral in 1996, 0952816407. Orkney Room reference: 839 ORK

Ernest Walker Marwick Archive Collection - reference D31/37/1 Folder Entitled St. Magnus - Traditions and Pictures containing press cuttings, notes, pamphlets, photographs and correspondence.

John Mooney Archive Collection - reference D49/1/11 Bundle of correspondence and press cuttings received by John Mooney following publication of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney in 1936

Papers regarding St Magnus Cathedral containing pages from The Builder, 7 Oct 1893, p261-264. Orkney Room reference: 726.6 Y

Update: Since I first wrote this blog post, a new pilgrimage route called the St Magnus Way has been created. The St Magnus Way is a 55 mile pilgrimage route through Mainland Orkney, inspired by the life and death of Magnus, Orkney’s patron saint. For more information click here.

If you are visiting the Orkney Archive and the Orkney Room and would like to see some books or archives  just ask a member of staff in the Archive Searchroom who will help you find them. 

Double Dutch Mystery Document

We have this wonderful document* from September 1659, which we believe was written in Dutch. But we have no idea what it is about.  Can anyone help? Have we any Dutch followers who can also read 17th century documents?

 

We can identify two words which are repeated a lot "Looft God" which means "God Bless" , so perhaps it is a religious document, or connected in some way with St Magnus Cathedral?

 

September 1659 was mid-way between the resignation of Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell,ending the Protectorate in May 1659 and the Restoration of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660.

 

*Archive reference: D14/8/8 part of the Walter Traill Dennison papers.

 

After receiving such wonderfully quick responses to the appeal above, I enclose the second page of the document here below:

 

 

St Magnus Day

Today is also St Magnus day and we can see the two Orkney Flags flying from the Town Hall and the Bishop's Palace.

Margaret Tait was born on Armistice Day and died on St Magnus Day 1999.

George Mackay Brown died on the 13th of April 1996, but his funeral was held in St Magnus Cathedral, on St Magnus Day, 14 years ago. St Magnus was one of the great inspirations to George Mackay Brown's writing and he saw the Earl's execution on Egilsay as one of the most important episodes in Orkney's rich history.