Blackmore Area Local History

John Carre (d. 1570)

John Carre (d. 1570)

Text by Revd. E. H. L. Reeve (c. 1900)

John Carre, one of the earliest members of the Merchant Adventurers Company, died in 1570.  He was married twice, because two ladies appear with him in the handsome brass to his memory.  His nephew was Henry Giles of “Giles’ Charity” fame, still going strong in the village.  

The will is a very lengthy one, covering several pages of closely written folio. The “goods, chattels, money owing to him, household stuff, plate, jewels, and ready money” are to be divided into three equal parts, of which, one part he bequeaths to his wife Agnes, the second part to his daughter, and the third part “for the performance” of certain legacies.  These include £10 for sermons to be preached in the church of the parish where he dies, viz., one each year for 20 years; £5 for a dinner to be made, at the discretion of the executers, by the parson and churchwardens of the parish of Stondon for “the inhabitants and honest householders by way of gratification;” £5 to the “poore man’s boxe” of Stondon Parish; £15 in current money to be distributed at the discretion of the executers “among the most honest of the Stondon parishioners of the poorest sort,” half the amount on the day of his burial and half within the next half year. further sum of £400 is given to the “Mystery of Ironmongers” on condition that for the next 21 years after his decease “two wardens of the said mystery or occupation, and two others of the same fellowship shall provide a preacher learned in Divinitie before the Feast of Pentecoste to ryde to Stondon in Essex, and at the same feaste in the Parish Church there shall be a sermon”. For their expenses yearly on this behalf £5 is specially given.