Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1059. This year was Nicholas chosen pope, who had been Bishop of Florence; and Benedict was expelled, who was pope before. This year also was consecrated the steeple⁸⁴ at Peterborough, on the sixteenth before the calends of November.

Note 84. This must not be confounded with a spire-steeple. The expression was used to denote a tower, long before spires were invented.

Letters and Papers 1534. 17 Oct 1534. R. O. 1273. George Lord Rochford (age 31) to Lord Lisle (age 70).

I desire your favor to the bearer, my servant William Atkyns, that he may pass into Flanders with such small baggage as he shall bring with him, which he is to sell there and with the proceeds purchase me certain hawks, Hampton Court, 17 Oct. Signed.

P. 1. Add. Endd.: 17 Oct. 1534.

Annales of England by John Stow. 16 Oct 1551. The 16, of October, Edward Seimer Duke of Somerset (age 51), the Lord Gray of Wilton (age 42), Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Thomas Palmer, Sir Myles Partridge, Sir Michael Stanhope (age 44), Sir Thomas Arundell (age 49) knightes, and divers other Gentlemen, were brought to the Tower of London [Map]. The next morrowe, the Dutchesse of Somerset (age 54) was also brought to the Tower [Map].

The liberties of the Stilpard [Map] were ceased into the kings hands for divers causes forfeited, contrarie to the enter-course.

On 17 Oct 1555 Anthony Browne 1st Viscount Montagu (age 26) was appointed 336th Knight of the Garter by Queen Mary I of England and Ireland (age 39).

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1659. I visited Mr. Howard (age 31), at Arundel House [Map], who gave me a fair onyx set in gold, and showed me his design of a palace there.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1660. Office day. At noon came Mr. Creed to me, whom I took along with me to the Feathers in Fish Street, where I was invited by Captain Cuttance to dinner, a dinner made by Mr. Dawes and his brother. We had two or three dishes of meat well done; their great design was to get me concerned in a business of theirs about a vessel of theirs that is in the service, hired by the King, in which I promise to do them all the service I can. From thence home again with Mr. Crew (age 62), where I finding Mrs. The. Turner (age 8) and her aunt Duke I would not be seen but walked in the garden till they were gone, where Mr. Spong came to me and Mr. Creed, Mr. Spong and I went to our music to sing, and he being gone, my wife and I went to put up my books in order in closet, and I to give her her books. After that to bed.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1663. Thence to the Dolphin Tavern, and there Mr. Gauden did give us a great dinner. Here we had some discourse of the Queen's (age 24) being very sick, if not dead, the Duke (age 30) and Duchess of York (age 26) being sent for betimes this morning to come to White Hall to her.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1663. Up and to my office, and there we sat a very full board all the morning upon some accounts of Mr. Gauden's. Here happened something concerning my Will which Sir W. Batten (age 62) would fain charge upon him, and I heard him mutter something against him of complaint for his often receiving people's money to Sir G. Carteret (age 53), which displeased me much, but I will be even with him.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1664. Rose very well and not weary, and with Sir W. Batten (age 63) to St. James's; there did our business. I saw Sir J. Lawson (age 49) since his return from sea first this morning, and hear that my Lord Sandwich (age 39) is come from Portsmouth, Hampshire [Map] to town.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1664. Thence I to him, and finding him at my Lord Crew's (age 66), I went with him home to his house and much kind discourse.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1664. I went with my Lord Viscount Cornbury, to Cornbury, in Oxfordshire, to assist him in the planting of the park, and bear him company, with Mr. Belin and Mr. May (age 43), in a coach with six horses; dined at Uxbridge, lay at Wycombe.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1665. I went to Gravesend, Kent [Map]; next day to Chatham, Kent [Map]; thence to Maidstone, Kent [Map], in order to the march of 500 prisoners to Leeds Castle, Kent [Map], which I had hired of Lord Culpeper (age 39). I was earnestly desired by the learned Sir Roger Twysden (age 68), and Deputy-Lieutenants, to spare Maidstone from quartering any of my sick flock. Here, Sir Edward Brett (age 57) sent me some horse to bring up the rear. This country, from Rochester, Kent [Map] to Maidstone, Kent [Map] and the Downs, is very agreeable for the prospect.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1666. After dinner took him and my wife and Barker (for so is our new woman called, and is yet but a sorry girle), and set them down at Unthanke's, and so to White Hall, and there find some of my brethren with the Duke of York (age 33), but so few I put off the meeting. So staid and heard the Duke (age 33) discourse, which he did mighty scurrilously, of the French, and with reason, that they should give Beaufort (age 50) orders when he was to bring, and did bring, his fleete hither, that his rendezvous for his fleete, and for all sluggs to come to, should be between Calais [Map] and Dover, Kent [Map]; which did prove the taking of La Roche[lle], who, among other sluggs behind, did, by their instructions, make for that place, to rendezvous with the fleete; and Beaufort (age 50), seeing them as he was returning, took them for the English fleete, and wrote word to the King of France (age 28) that he had passed by the English fleete, and the English fleete durst not meddle with him. The Court is all full of vests, only my Lord St. Albans (age 61) not pinked but plain black; and they say the King (age 36) says the pinking upon white makes them look too much like magpyes, and therefore hath bespoke one of plain velvet.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1666. Thence to St. James's by coach, and spoke, at four o'clock or five, with Sir W. Coventry (age 38), newly come from the House, where they have sat all this day and not come to an end of the debate how the money shall be raised. He tells me that what I proposed to him the other day was what he had himself thought on and determined, and that he believes it will speedily be done-the making Sir J. Minnes (age 67) a Commissioner, and bringing somebody else to be Comptroller, and that (which do not please me, I confess, for my own particulars, so well as Sir J. Minnes (age 67)) will, I fear, be Sir W. Pen (age 45), for he is the only fit man for it. Away from him and took up my wife, and left her at Temple Bar to buy some lace for a petticoat, and I took coach and away to Sir R. Viner's (age 35) about a little business, and then home, and by and by to my chamber, and there late upon making up an account for the Board to pass to-morrow, if I can get them, for the clearing all my imprest bills, which if I can do, will be to my very good satisfaction. Having done this, then to supper and to bed.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1667. After dinner I to the office, where we all met with intent to proceed to the publique sale of several prize ships, but upon discourse my Lord Anglesey (age 53) did discover (which troubled me that he that is a stranger almost should do more than we ourselves could) that the appraisements made by our officers were not above half of what he had been offered for one of them, and did make it good by bringing a gentleman to give us £700 for the Wildboare, which they valued but at £276, which made us all startle and stop the sale, and I did propose to acquaint the Duke of York (age 34) with it, and accordingly we did agree on it, and I wrote a severe letter about it, and we are to attend him with it to-morrow about it.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1667. This afternoon my Lord Anglesey (age 53) tells us that the House of Commons have this morning run into the inquiry in many things; as, the sale of Dunkirke, the dividing of the fleete the last year, the business of the prizes with my Lord Sandwich (age 42), and many other things; so that now they begin to fall close upon it, and God knows what will be the end of it, but a Committee they have chosen to inquire into the miscarriages of the war. Having done, and being a little tired, Sir W. Pen (age 46) and I in his coach out to Mile End [Map] Green, and there drank a cup of Byde's ale, and so talking about the proceedings of Parliament, and how little a thing the King (age 37) is become to be forced to suffer it, though I declare my being satisfied that things should be enquired into, we back again home, and I to my office to my letters, and so home to supper and to bed.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1667. Came Dr. Barlow (age 59), Provost of Queen's College and Protobibliothecus of the Bodleian library, to take order about the transportation of the marbles.

Pepy's Diary. 17 Oct 1668. Up, and to the office, where all the morning sitting, and at noon home to dinner, and to the office all the afternoon, and then late home, and there with much pleasure getting Mr. Gibbs, that writes well, to write the name upon my new draught of "The Resolution"; and so set it up, and altered the situation of some of my pictures in my closet, to my extraordinary content, and at it with much pleasure till almost 12 at night. Mr. Moore and Seymour were with me this afternoon, who tell me that my Lord Sandwich (age 43) was received mighty kindly by the King (age 38), and is in exceeding great esteem with him, and the rest about him; but I doubt it will be hard for him to please both the King (age 38) and the Duke of York (age 35), which I shall be sorry for. Mr. Moore tells me the sad condition my Lord is in, in his estate and debts; and the way he now lives in, so high, and so many vain servants about him, that he must be ruined, if he do not take up, which, by the grace of God, I will put him upon, when I come to see him.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1671. Being come to the Ducal palace [Map], my Lord (age 43) made very much of me; but I had little rest, so exceedingly desirous he was to show me the contrivance he had made for the entertainment of their Majesties, and the whole Court not long before, and which, though much of it was but temporary, apparently framed of boards only, was yet standing. As to the palace, it is an old wretched building, and that part of it newly built of brick, is very ill understood; so as I was of the opinion it had been much better to have demolished all, and set it up in a better place, than to proceed any further; for it stands in the very market-place, and, though near a river, yet a very narrow muddy one, without any extent.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1671. Next morning, I went to see Sir Thomas Browne (age 65) (with whom I had some time corresponded by letter, though I had never seen him before); his whole house and garden being a paradise and cabinet of rarities; and that of the best collection, especially medals, books, plants, and natural things. Among other curiosities, Sir Thomas (age 65) had a collection of the eggs of all the fowl and birds he could procure, that country (especially the promontory of Norfolk) being frequented, as he said, by several kinds which seldom or never go further into the land, as cranes, storks, eagles, and variety of water fowl. He led me to see all the remarkable places of this ancient city, being one of the largest, and certainly, after London, one of the noblest of England, for its venerable cathedral [Map], number of stately churches, cleanness of the streets, and buildings of flint so exquisitely headed and squared, as I was much astonished at; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the flints, in which they so much excelled, and of which the churches, best houses, and walls, are built. The Castle [Map] is an antique extent of ground, which now they call Marsfield, and would have been a fitting area to have placed the Ducal palace in. The suburbs are large, the prospects sweet, with other amenities, not omitting the flower gardens, in which all the inhabitants excel. The fabric of stuffs brings a vast trade to this populous town.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1671. My Lord Henry Howard (age 43) coming this night to visit my Lord Chamberlain, and staying a day, would needs have me go with him to Norwich, Norfolk [Map], promising to convey me back, after a day or two; this, as I could not refuse, I was not hard to be pursuaded to, having a desire to see that famous scholar and physician, Dr. T. Browne (age 65), author of the Religio Medici and Vulgar Errors, now lately knighted. Thither, then, went my Lord and I alone, in his flying chariot with six horses; and by the way, discoursing with me of several of his concerns, he acquainted me of his going to marry his eldest son (age 43) to one of the King's (age 41) natural daughters [Note. Either Anne Fitzroy Countess Sussex (age 10) or Charlotte Fitzroy Countess Lichfield (age 7).], by the Duchess of Cleveland (age 30); by which he reckoned he should come into mighty favor. He also told me that, though he kept that idle creature, Mrs. B-- [Note. Jane Bickerton Duchess Norfolk (age 28)], and would leave £200 a year to the son [Note. Henry Howard and Jane Bickerton had three sons; not clear which is being referred to since the eldest may have died and the reference may be to a surviving son.] he had by her, he would never marry her, and that the King (age 41) himself had cautioned him against it. All the world knows how he kept his promise [Note. meaning he didn't keep his promise since Henry Howard did marry Jane Bickerton - this a case of John Evelyn writing his diary retrospectively?], and I was sorry at heart to hear what now he confessed to me; and that a person and a family which I so much honored for the sake of that noble and illustrious friend of mine, his grandfather, should dishonor and pollute them both with those base and vicious courses he of late had taken since the death of Sir Samuel Tuke (age 56), and that of his own virtuous lady (my Lady Anne Somerset, sister to the Marquis); who, while they lived, preserved this gentleman by their example and advice from those many extravagances that impaired both his fortune and reputation.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1683. I was at the court-leet of this manor, my Lord Arlington (age 65) his Majesty's (age 53) High Steward.

Evelyn's Diary. 17 Oct 1686. Dr. Patrick, Dean of Peterborough (age 60), preached at Covent Garden Church on Ephes. v. 18, 19, showing the custom of the primitive saints in serving God with hymns, and their frequent use of them upon all occasions: touching the profane way of mirth and intemperance of this ungodly age. Afterward I visited my Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (age 53), with whom I had long and private discourse concerning the miserable condition that kingdom was like to be in, if Tyrconnel's (age 56) counsel should prevail at Court.

Roger Whitley's Diary. 17 Oct 1690. Friday, 2 men came about taking land (I know not theire names), they dined with Huson in the buttry, went past one; Tomkinson went to Brombrow about 11; after dinner (about 3) Jackson came from Chester; stayd all night.

After 17 Oct 1839. Memorial to William Drake Irby (deceased) at St Nicholas Church, Whiston [Map].

William Drake Irby: On 18 Sep 1808 he was born to George Irby 3rd Baron Boston and Rachel Ives Drake Baroness Boston. On 17 Oct 1839 William Drake Irby died.

Middleton. On the 17th, 18th, and 19th of October, and 1st of November, some further researches were made in the Flax Dale Barrow [Map], near Middleton-by-Youlgrave, where a large cinerary urn with its deposit of burnt bones was found, in 1846. Although the present more extensive excavation was not equally successful, it afforded us an opportunity of becoming acquainted with a plan commonly adopted by the Britons in the construction of their tumuli, by first making a circle of large stones, within which the interments were placed, and then covered with an accumulation of stones, until a mound was formed surrounded by a kind of wall of one or two courses, consisting of the aforesaid circle; the whole was then covered with earth, which, though thinly laid on at the summit, was suffered to extend considerably further than the walled circle thus concealing all the stonework. The earth around the circumference of the barrow was very compact, particularly near the outside, and in some places abounded with pieces of melted lead and calcined flints, which led us to think it probable that fire had been employed to harden the earth whilst moist, with the intention of rendering the mound more durable. The only interment discovered on this occasion was just within the S.W. side of the stone circle: it consisted of a deposit of calcined bones which had originally been placed within an urn so imperfectly baked as to have almost become disintegrated, the decay having been accelerated by the atmosphere, eighteen inches of loose stone only covering the deposit. Some flints, fragmentary human bones, and a chip from a stone celt were casually found in the stony part of the mound.

The adjoining field is called Foggy Lees, which may be a corruption of Foggy Low.