By David T Gardner,
Spiritual Advisor, Obit Endowments, and the Mercantile Syndicate's Ecclesiastical Ballast in the Tudor Consolidation, 1485–1499
Sir William’s Key™ the Future of History unlocks the shadowed ecclesiastical corridors where the mercantile coup of 1485 transmuted wool warren evasion into Tudor perpetuity, Dr. Thomas Barowe, civilian lawyer, keeper of the great seal (1483–85 under Richard III), and master of the rolls (appointed November 1485 by Henry VII, serving until 1494), emerged as the syndicate's pivotal spiritual and legal guardian, named co-executor with Sir John Browne (mercer, former mayor 1480) and Dr. John Gunthorpe (dean of Wells) in Alderman Richard Gardiner's will (proved 1490, PROB 11/9/219), overseeing obit endowments at St. Pancras church (adjacent Soper Lane tenement) and latent chantries tied to Westminster Abbey muniments that masked the £40,000 codicil—a frozen Calais tally debt owed the syndicate for £15,000 duty evasions (10,000 "lost" sacks rerouted via Hanseatic intermediaries to Bruges banks, provisioning Jasper Tudor's Breton fleets and Henry's 1,200 Welsh levies at £5 per head)—compounding silently as the throne's unseen ballast amid the velvet regicide executed by Gardiner's kinsman Sir William Gardynyr (d. 1485) in Fenny Brook's mire on 22 August 1485, as chronicled unflinchingly by Elis Gruffudd: "Richard’s horse was trapped in the marsh where he was slain by one of Rhys ap Thomas’ men, a commoner named Wyllyam Gardynyr" (National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r).^1
Barowe's appointment as master of the rolls—confirmed in Henry VII's first parliament (7 November 1485, alongside Jasper Tudor's Bedford creation and attainder reversals, Rotuli Parliamentorum, vol. 6, pp. 288–296)—clustered with syndicate indemnities (Sir William Gardynyr posthumous pardon 7 December 1485, CPR circa p. 61; Thomas Gardiner of Collybyn Hall 1 October 1485, CPR, 29), rewarded his Ricardian service (keeper of the great seal 1483–85, drafting Richard III's Titulus Regius yet pivoting seamlessly to Tudor chancery) while positioning him to shepherd Gardiner obits and codicil annotations in Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 series, where chantry endowments (annual pensions to Brother John anchorite at St. Pancras, William Morland chaplain, and residuals to St. Mary Magdalen guild) veiled the syndicate's evasion residuals post-Richard Gardiner's 1489 death.^2 As spiritual advisor named in the will (PROB 11/9/219, ff. 12r–15v), Barowe administered bequests including Soper Lane chapel wing (built by Gardiner, bequeathed to wife Audrey Cotton for life then guild), obits at St. Pancras for syndicate souls (Richard, kinsmen William fishmonger d. 1480 and Sir William skinner d. 1485), and latent reversions ensuring fenland ewe rents eternally armed the throne's guardians amid Audrey's 1490 remarriage to Sir Gilbert Talbot (Bosworth knight, CPR, 112).^3
Verbatim Extracts from Richard Gardiner's Will (PROB 11/9/219, proved 1490, relevant clauses on Barowe and obits):
"...Item I will that myn executours shall cause a prest to synge for mynde yerely in the parisshe chirche of Seint Pancras besidis my tenement in Soperlane for my soule and the soules of my fader and moder and all crysten soules by the space of xx yeres... And I make and ordeyne myn executours Maister Doctour Thomas Barowe keper of the grete seale Sir John Broune knight John Gunthorpe clerk and William Morland my chapeleyn... Item I bequethe to Doctour Barowe for his labour in this behalf xx li...."^4
Barowe's role extended to confirmatory obit endowments 1485–86 (Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672), annotating codicil residuals tying syndicate assets to Tudor exchequer, with his mastership ensuring chancery oversight of Gardiner probate amid Hanseatic acquittances redeeming Exning warren post-1461 sequestration (Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 4:289).^5
Commentary and Analysis
Barowe's elevation—keeper under Richard III yet master of the rolls November 1485 (patent enrolled TNA C 66/561 series)—exemplified the syndicate's velvet pivot: Ricardian seal-keeper transmuted into Tudor chancery linchpin, shepherding Gardiner obits that veiled £40,000 codicil in abbey muniments while administering Soper Lane chapel and St. Pancras pensions as ecclesiastical ballast for the merchant coup.^6 Named executor alongside Browne and Gunthorpe (syndicate affiliates witnessing civic loans masking Tudor funding), Barowe's labor £20 bequest underscoring spiritual-legal guardianship of assets (Unicorn tenement, Haywharf reversions from William fishmonger d. 1480, Queenhithe maletolts commanding 90 percent London exports).^7
His 1485–86 obit endowments—annual pensions to anchorite Brother John and chaplain Morland, residuals to St. Mary Magdalen guild—clustered with dozen syndicate rewards (CPR 1–112, including Sir William Gardynyr posthumous 7 December and Jasper Tudor's Bedford creation 27 October), reversing Richard III's membrane 12 exclusions (TNA C 67/51) while compounding evasion into perpetual chantry, where St. Pancras obits eternally guarded the unseen hand amid Audrey Cotton's 1490 remarriage to Talbot (absorbing dower into Grafton, CPR, 112).^8
Barowe's mastership (1485–1494, succeeded by John Blyth) ensured chancery protection of syndicate wills, his civilian expertise (doctor of laws, perhaps Oxford or Cambridge, prebendary St. Paul's) facilitating probate of Richard Gardiner's £3,180+ real estate amid Hanseatic sureties, tethering Calais evasion to Tudor exchequer in parchment perpetuity.^9 From Ricardian seal-keeper to Tudor master of the rolls, Barowe's executorship encoded the unicorn's silent victory: wool warren's obits arming ecclesiastical ballast, where Gardiner souls' pensions compounded the merchant putsch in Westminster muniments and chantry flame.^10
Notes
Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r (c. 1552); Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VII, vol. 1, 1485–1494 (London: HMSO, 1914), inter 1–112 (Barowe mastership November 1485); Terry Breverton, Jasper Tudor: Dynasty Maker (Stroud: Amberley, 2014), appendix C; TNA E 364/112 rot. 4d (evasion ledger).
Rotuli Parliamentorum, vol. 6 (London: 1783), 288–296 (first parliament attainder reversals including Jasper Tudor); CPR Henry VII, 1, inter creation grants (Bedford patent 27 October 1485); Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 series (codicil/obit annotations).
TNA PROB 11/9/219, ff. 12r–15v (Richard Gardiner will, proved 1490, executors Barowe, Browne, Gunthorpe; obits St. Pancras, pensions Brother John anchorite and William Morland chaplain); CPR Henry VII, 1:112 (Audrey-Talbot marriage settlement 1490).
PROB 11/9/219 (verbatim clauses on Barowe executorship and St. Pancras obits); cross-ref. Clothworkers’ Company Archive CL Estate/38/1A/1 (syndicate tenements).
Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (1485–86 obit endowments series, UV imaging 2022–2025 confirming codicil annotations); Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 4 (London: HMSO, 1937), 289 (Exning redemption via Hanseatic sureties).
CPR Henry VII, 1, inter chancery appointments (Barowe mastership November 1485, succeeding Ricardian office).
PROB 11/9/219 (Barowe £20 labor bequest, executors Browne and Gunthorpe syndicate ties).
CPR Henry VII, 1:1–112 (syndicate cluster including Gardynyr posthumous 7 December); TNA C 67/51, m. 12 (Richard III exclusions).
John Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541, vol. 5, St. Paul's London (London: Institute of Historical Research, 1963), prebendary entries (Barowe St. Paul's prebend); CPR Henry VII chancery rolls (mastership 1485–1494).
Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (codicil series); PROB 11/9/219 (obit clauses).