Sir Cuthbert Buckle (also Buckell or Buckley) (?c. 1533;This birth year is given to Christopher Buckle, the father, at 'Buckle, of New Hall', in J. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols (Henry Colburn, London 1835), II, p. 573 (Google); but is transposed to his son Cuthbert in later editions, and in either case no authority is stated. died 1594) was a 16th-century English merchant and Lord Mayor of London of Westmorland origins.
Life Young life and marriages Born in Stainmore near Brough-under-Stainmore, Westmorland, he was the son of Christopher Buckle.
He became a freeman of the Vintners Company of London. In January 1563/64 he married Joan (or sometimes spelled Johane or Joane) Davye at St Mary Woolnoth, London; he was churchwarden in that church in 1568-1569.J.M.S. Brooke and A.W.C. Hallen (eds), The Transcript of the Registers of the United Parishes of S. Mary Woolnoth and S. Mary Woolchurch Haw, in the City of London, from their commencement 1538 to 1760 (Bowles and Sons for the Parish of St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London 1886), p. xxxvii (churchwarden), p. 125 (marriage), p. 13 (baptism of John), and p. 193 (burial of Joan) (Internet Archive). In the year of his marriage, 1564, Buckle petitioned to have his house "at the Bisshoppeshead" (in Pope's Head Alley, in that parish) included among the forty "permitted taverns" fully licensed to operate in the city of London.K. Rogers, 'On some issuers of seventeenth-century London tokens whose names were not known to Boyne and Williamson', The Numismatical Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatical Society, Series 5, vol. VIII, no. 29/30 (1928), pp. 61-97, at p. 83. The Bishop's Head, formerly called The Pope's Head, had been demised by indenture by Thomas Hancoke and his wife Marie, on 23 August 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, to Robert Golding, citizen and Vintner, whose wife Joan afterwards became the wife of Ralph Davye, citizen and Vintner. Ralph held the Bishop's Head in the right of his wife, and in his will written 12 May 1563 restored it to her.Will of Ralph Davye, Vintner of London (P.C.C. 1563, Chayre quire). Four deaths in the household of Rauff Davye, Vintner, in September 1563, culminated in Rauff's death on 8 October.Brook and Hallen, Transcript of Registers of St Mary Woolnoth, p. 187 (Internet Archive). The proving of his will by the oath of his widow and executrix Joan on 8 November 1563 shortly preceded the marriage of Johane Davye to Cuthbert Buckle on 24 January 1563/64.
In 1570 he was a witness to the will of Alderman Sir William Harper.Will of Sir William Harper, Alderman of City of London (P.C.C. 1574, Martyn quire): transcript "The Will of Sir William Harper", in J.G. Nichols, 'The Biography of Sir William Harper Alderman of London, Founder of the Bedford School Charities', Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeologicaal Society, IV (1871), pp. 70-93 (Society's pdf), at pp. 91-92.For whom, see A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 34 (Internet Archive). Although resident in London, Buckle maintained his Westmorland connections, for in 1576 he presented to Brough-under-Stainmore "a handsome reading desk", which was inscribed as his gift and was at some time kept in St Michael's church.J. Nicholson and R. Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, 2 volumes (W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London 1777), I, p. 571 (Google). The record transcribed from the St Mary Woolnoth register as the burial of "Joane, wief of Gilbert Buckle, Vintner' on 3 June 1577 refers to the death of Cuthbert Buckle's first wife. They had one son, John Buckle, who was baptized on 14 March 1567 at St Mary Woolnoth.
He re-married to Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Maston or Marston of London, gent,'Funeral Certificate: Sir Cuthbert Buckle, 1594', in J.J. Howard (ed.), Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, New Series, Vol. IV (Hamilton, Adams, and Co., London 1884), p. 7 (Google). and sister of Nicholas Marston, Archdeacon of Cornwall, and his brethren.cf. Will of Thomas Marston, Haberdasher of London (P.C.C. 1581, Darcy quire). Elizabeth's will shows that she was the niece of Alice Bradbridge (died 1604), the silk merchant who was married to the London Alderman, Sheriff and Master Draper, Francis Barnham (died 1576), a relationship confirmed in Alice's will of 1604:Will of Alice Barneham or Branham, Widow of Saint Clement Eastcheap, City of London (P.C.C. 1604, Harte quire). See abstract of a certified copy in West Sussex Record Office ref: Add Mss 2586 (Discovery Catalogue). in the pedigree of Robinson of Cheshunt shown by Sir Henry Chauncy it is shown that Sybil the wife of Thomas Marston (and mother of Elizabeth) was indeed the sister of William Bradbridge, bishop of Exeter.'Pedigree of Robinson', in H. Chauncy, The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (Ben Griffin et al., London 1700), p. 302 (Google). Elizabeth was the widow of George Utley, Draper (died July 1579), by whom she had two sons of her own.Will of George Utlay, Draper of London (P.C.C. 1579, Bakon quire), who names father-in-law Thomas, and the Marston brothers and sisters. Buckle was Treasurer of St Thomas's Hospital from 1579 to 1581. In June 1581 his son John Buckle died, and was buried at St Mary-at-Hill (Billingsgate ward), the church associated with the later part of Cuthbert Buckle's life.
Alderman and sheriff Having refused election as one of the Sheriffs of London in 1580 (by payment of a £200 fine),'The Chamberlain's Account 1584-5: No. 139 (d) and note 120', in B.R. Masters (ed.), Chamber Accounts of the Sixteenth Century (London Record Society, 1984), pp. 30-62 (British History Online, accessed 10 October 2022). he was elected alderman of Farringdon Without in 1582,A.B. Beavan, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 41 (Internet Archive). (This work includes occasional details now subject to correction.) and served almost a full term in that year as sheriff (with William Rowe), to complete the term of John Haydon, who died in office on 24 November.T. Milbourn, The Vintners' Company: Their Muniments, Plate, and Eminent Members, with Some Account of the Ward of Vintry (Vintners' Company, London 1888), p. 86 (Google). In August 1584, he as alderman was allocated persons and places in St Mary's Overy Place, London Bridge and elsewhere, to investigate with the assistance of Serjeant Mylles and Messrs Cure and Bates, in the general search for evidences of Papistry (Roman Catholic sympathies): Buckle certificated their findings.R. Lemon (ed.) Calendar of State Papers (Domestic), Elizabeth I: A.D. 1581-1590 (Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, London 1865), p. 198, nos. 104-106 (Internet Archive). Among others he detained Edward Hartley, a servant of Cecily Stonor, who had hosted Edmund Campion's press at Henley-on-Thames.M. Questier, Catholics and Treason: Martyrology, Memory and Politics in the Post-Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2022), p. 141 (Google).
In August 1585 he dined with Aldermen Rowe, Woodcock and Sir Rowland Hayward, and others, as they conducted their inspection of the decayed pipes at the conduit-heads.'The Chamberlain's Account 1584-5: No. 80', Chamber Accounts of the Sixteenth Century, pp. 30-62 (British History Online, accessed 10 October 2022). On 14 December following, he and Henry Billingsley were deputed by the Court of Aldermen to hear the complaints of the Basketmakers against Christopher Johnson: their Report gave much satisfaction and was entered in the Repertory.H.H. Bobart, Records of the Basketmakers' Company (Dunn, Collin and Co./Broadwater Press, London 1911), at pp. 42-44. On 25 March 1586, he was attached to a small delegation with Aldermen Ralph Woodcock and Henry Billingsley as from the Court of Aldermen to the Stationers' Hall, to hear and to certificate the Stationers' complaints concerning standards in bookbinding, and the conduct of their craft. In particular, the number of leaves or sections to be sewn in folio, decimo and octavo volumes (respectively) was specified, and that they were to be sewn on a sewing press and never stitched or pricked through (the Statutes of Parliament excepted): that only apprentices and immediate members of the family (stipulated) should be put to work in binding, folding or sewing of books for a bookbinder, with penalties to be approved: and that booksellers and retailers should never put out any unbound books to be bound by any foreigner or Stranger, or indeed to anyone who was not a freeman of the city, as was already laid down in an Act.S.T. Prideaux and E.G. Duff, An Historical Sketch of Bookbinding (Lawrence and Bullen, London 1893), pp. 239-41 (Google).
From 1586 to 1594 he was alderman for the Bridge ward. He successfully obtained judgement on behalf of the City in a debt of 2000 Marks against three Derbyshire manorial landowners in March 1588.Derbyshire Record Office: Vernon Family of Sudbury Hall, ref. D410/T/676. View the Final Decree, 12 February 1589/90, of Sir Christopher Hatton in Chancery, C78/70 no. 20, mm. 47-48, enrolments at Anglo-American Legal Tradition, images 0085-0088 (R. Palmer, University of Houston). In April 1589 Buckle took a 21-year lease of the smeltmill, lead mines and extensive areas of land in Marske, Swaledale, for £1,000, from Arthur and Francis Phillip, sons of James Phillip of Brignall, who had died in 1582 leaving his estates encumbered. The mill, with two furnaces, was then occupied by Richard Willance, and in June 1589 Buckle leased the premises to Willance and two other merchants of Richmond by means of two separate leases, detaching the mill and lands (at £100 per annum) from the mines. In the following August the merchants leased the mines back to the Phillips for the residue of the term of Buckle's lease.L.O. Tyson, 'Mining and smelting in the Marske area, Swaledale' British Mining No. 50: Memoirs 1994, The Northern Mine Research Society (Sheffield 1994), pp. 24-40, at p. 28 (Society's pdf).J. Raine, 'Marske, in Swaledale', Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal VI (1881), Part XXII, pp. 172-286, at p. 237, note (Internet Archive).
During 1589 Buckle was an assessor for the London Subsidy, together with Aldermen Hugh Offley, Stephen Soame, William Rowe, William Whitmore and others, including Henry Prannell,H. Stanford London, ed. S.W. Rawlins, Visitation of London, 1568, With Additional Pedigrees, 1569-90, the Arms of the City Companies, and a London Subsidy Roll, 1589, Harleian Society CIX, CX (London 1963), p. viii. who in the same year named him an overseer in the execution of his will, and soon afterwards died.Will of Henrie Prannell, Alderman of London (P.C.C. 1589, Leicester quire). See Nina Green's transcript (2016) at pdf, (www.oxford-shakespeare.com).Agnes Prannell followed her husband's example, but her probate in February 1594/1595 came too late for Buckle to assist: Will of Agnes Prannell, Widow of Saint Michael Le Querne, City of London (P.C.C. 1594, Dixy quire). Buckle and Prannell, senior Vintners, each stood for loans of £500 heading the Company's required contribution to national defence at the time of the Spanish Armada, 1588.T.C. Noble, 'The London City Guilds subscription lists, 1588', in W.H.K. Wright (ed.), The Western Antiquary: or Devon and Cornwall Notebook VII: June 1887 to June 1888 (Plymouth, London and Exeter 1888), pp. 280-85, at pp. 282, 284 (Google). In 1591 Mr Alderman Buckle presented a copy of the King's Bible to Queen's College, Oxford, though membership of the college is not thereby inferred.J.R. Magrath, The Queen's College, 2 vols (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1921), II: 1646-1877, p. 258 and pp. 266-69 (Internet Archive).