Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/585

 i2s. vii. DEC. is, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

481

LONDON, DECEMBER IS, I9SO.

CONTENTS. No. 140.

NOTES: John Thornton of Coventry and the Great East Window in York Minister, 481 Ford's Posthumous Play, "The Queen,' 4S3 London Coffee-houses, Taverns and Inn" in the Eighteenth Century, 435 -Spoonerisms in French Kpitaphs mentioning Day of the Week Gilbert Bournford, Burnford, or Burford. 487 Sheffield : Old Underground Passage, Warwickshire Folk-lore : Roll- right Stones, 488.

QUERIES ; -Charles II. and the Smith Family, 488-Pierre Francois Gaillard John Lloyd of Stockport-The Posse Comitatus of 1798, 489 Heraldic ' The German Review ' Friday Street Louis Napoleon : Poetic Works Gozzi and Tragic Situations Ballard Colban, Earl of Fife Coddington: English Dictionary Baptism of Infant on its Mother's Coffin Gervaise de Cornhill, 490 Author of

. Quotation Wanted, 491.

REPLIES : William Sanderson, 491 English Merchants of Portugal in the Eighteenth Century " Hun" Ety- ' mology of "Sajene" and " Arschine," 492 A Letter of Thackeray Mile. Mercandotti (?) Countess of Fife- Richard Marsh Francis Burn The Tragedy of New England, 493 Gentlemen Ushers of the Black Rod to the House of 'Lords "Craspesiorum" Family of Sir John Cheke, 494 Author Wanted: Genealogy News of Napoleon's Death -Armorial Bearings upon Tombs, 495 Quarr Abbey : Foundation Charter. 496 -The Strand Law Courts English Plays performed in Paris Violins Heralds' Funerals Book-Title Mis-translated, 497 Snipe in Belgrave Square Sarah Wilkes, 493 Authors of Quotations Wanted, 499.

NOTES ON BOOKS : - ' William Bolts : A Dutch Adventurer under John Company' ' Occultists and Mystics of all Ages'' A Corpus of Runic Inscriptions.'

Notices to Correspondents.

JOHN THORNTON OF COVENTRY AND THE GREAT EAST WINDOW IN YORK MINSTER.

'THE following notes on this artist may be of interest to students of the history of glass-painting.

1. Nothing is known of Thornton pre- vious to 1405 with the exception that he was "of Coventry." He seems to have been a product of the school of glass -paint- ing of the midland counties situated at Nottingham or Coventry, most probably the former.

P^As suggested by Mr. John Le Couteur {' Ancient Glass in Winchester, ' p, 20 and note). 'it is possible he was the son of the John'fCoventre who was working as a

" closour and joynour " (t.e.,alead glazier) in the royal glass - painting establishment at Westminster in the years 1352 and 1353, when the windows for St. Stephen's Chapel and for Windsor Castle were being painted and afterwards as a fixer at Windsor, when the glass was being set up. In order to rush the above work through Edward III. had impressed workmen from various parts of England, and Thornton being a youth of promise and ability worked his way up from the comparatively humble employment of his father, through the various grades, until he became a draughtsman and designer.

He was not the founder of the York school of glass-painting as suggested by by Westlake, in which the development of the particular type of design followed by the northern school had been continous for more than a century before his time. Thornton was evidently a protege of the great Scrope family. Archbishop Scrope whose "judicial murder " for the part he played in the rising against Henry IV. took place in 1405 ; had been Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1386 until his elevation to the arch- bishopric in 1398. It was probably he who when the question of the window was pending, brought John Thornton to the notice of the Dean and Chapter as an artist of outstanding merit. The archbishop's brother, Sir Stephen le Scrope, second Lord Scrope of Masham, who died in 1406, and who was buried near his illustrious kinsman in the choir ; in his will directed :

Item, lego Johaimi Thornton vj s viij*

/Test. Ebor. Surtees Soc., vol. iii. p. 37.)

2. At the time John Thornton executed the above window he was not an indepen- dent artist with his own atelier, but was merely an employe of the Dean and Chapter. Many writers have fallen into the error of believing that the contract drawn up between John Thornton and the Dean and Chapter was for the supply of a finished work, whereas it was an agreement for the hire of professional services at a weeklj 7 wage. Winston, although a lawyer, has been entirely misled by thus misreading the contract. He says, "In 1405 John Thorn- ton of Coventry contracted for the execution of the great east window," and adds "It is remarkable that the sum agreed to be paid to John Thornton, exclusive of the contingent ten pounds " (which he was to receive on the completion of the work) "is a trifle less than the wages paid to the master glaziers employed on St. Stephen's