Henry VIII, King of England

Letters Patent bearing the Great Seal of England and Initial Letter Portrait of the King, granting Sir John Gresham the Manor of Warlingham, lately belonging to Bermondsey Abbey, dated 3 June 1544: being a Grant, in fee, to Gresham and Thomas Roo, of London, merchant tailor, for £391-2s-6d of the reversion and rent reserved on a Crown lease, 14 April [1541], to Richard Wooden, of Warlingham, Surrey, and John Carter, of London, vintner, of the rectory of Warlingham and chapel of Chelsham, and the manor or lordship of Warlingham, except the advowson of the vicarage of Warlingham, for 21 years, at £20-5s-4d rent; also granting all the premises (including the advowson) a messuage, etc., in tenure of Richard Wooden in Warlingham, and a 20-acre wood called Gottys Wood in Warlinghan and Chelsham—Bermondsey monastery, a single skin of vellum 19¼ x 33¾ ins. 49 x 86 cm., the outline of the royal portrait in woodblock-printed outline finished in pen-and-ink, showing the enthroned King with sceptre and orb, with an elaborate historiated first line in pen-and-ink, the third Great Seal of Henry VIII in dark green wax suspended from the document by plaited white and green silk cord, worn, showing on the obverse the enthroned King (upon which the portrait is modelled) and on the reverse the armoured King on horseback with flourished sword, plus running greyhound, in dark green wax, minor dust-staining and rubbing, Westminster, 3 June 36 Henry VIII [1544].

***The third Great Seal attached to this document is a good impression and well-preserved, with minimal damage. The third seal of Henry’s reign, sometimes described as being the first in Renaissance rather than Gothic style, was designed by Morgan Wolff and in use from 1542 until Henry’s death in 1547. Appropriately, considering this document, it marks Henry’s break with Rome: in 1538, Henry had been stripped of his title Fidei Defensor by Pope Paul III and had to have it re-instated by Parliament, although by now referring to his defence of the national rather than universal church. Our seal also bears his new title as [Supreme] Head of the Church of England. Sir John Gresham (1495-1556), who here benefits from the Dissolution of the Monasteries, was later to serve as Lord Mayor of London and in 1555 founded the famous school in Norfolk that bears his name (then described as ‘the Free Grammar School of Sir John Gresham, knight, citizen and alderman of London’). In 1546, he was one of the King’s commissioners to survey the properties of the chantries to be dissolved in Surrey and Sussex. By then he was possessed of such a large fortune that he was able to lend the King £40,000. His nephew, Thomas, attained further fame as founder of the Royal Exchange. The manor of Warlingham, fourteen miles south of London, had been given in 1144 to the convent of Bermondsey, who held it until 1538, when the priory of Bermondsey surrendered its estates to the Crown.