Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/131

Rh ordered that, from thenceforth they should constantly attend at this church, and have sepulture in the churchyard here, all other places within the compass of the town, except the church and churchyard of St. Nicholas, being prohibited from having any ecclesiastical burial in them."

Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, began to rebuild the church, and his will, dated Sept. 6, 1369, contains the following clause:—"I will that my executors new build the quire of the collegiate church of Warwick, where I order my body to be buried." This design was carried out in the noblest manner by his second son and successor, Thomas Beauchamp, "who finished the quire 15 R. II. (1391), and newly built from the ground the whole body of the church;" but this building was destroyed by the great fire in 1694.

A very valuable inventory of goods belonging to St. Mary's church in 1464 is printed at length, pp. 14 to 20. To make this more generally useful, notes have been appended. From the long list of books, jewels, and vestments here given, some idea may be formed of the richness of the furniture of churches at that period. The treasures were kept in the vestry, and the sextry above the vestry, in several receptacles, which are thus enumerated: "It. in the sextry above the vestrye, i old ark at the auter's ende, i olde coofrc ire(n)bounde having a large lok of the olde facion, and i lasse nyewer coofre havyng iij lokes, cald the tresory cofre, and certeyn Almaries."

Many of our old churches still retain the original vestry, and the sextry over the vestry, usually on the north side of the church. The Account Roll of the collegiate church for 1464—5 printed from the original in the possession of W. Staunton, Esq., contains some curious items, amongst which is one for strewing a church with straw and grass according to the season: "pro le strawynge ecclesie de Spellesbury cum stramine et viridi, secundum tempus anni."

On the 20th of August 1534, the common seal of the college was affixed to the deed by which the supremacy of Henry VIII. and his heirs was acknowledged. This was the speedy forerunner of its dissolution, which took place in the 37th Henry VIII., when it was granted by letters patent bearing date 15th May of the same year to the inhabitants of Warwick, by the title of Burgesses of Warwick and their successors. On the 5th September 1694 Warwick was visited by a destructive fire, which burnt a great portion of the town: the loss sus-