![JohnTame Died1500 BrassRubbing FairfordChurch Gloucestershire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/JohnTame_Died1500_BrassRubbing_FairfordChurch_Gloucestershire.PNG)
John Tame (c. 1430
- 8 May 1500) of
Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
and of Beauchamp Court (or "Warwick Court") in the parish of
Fairford
Fairford is a town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswold hills on the River Coln, east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park.
History
Evidence of ...
, both in Gloucestershire, England, was a wealthy wool producer and merchant who re-built the surviving St. Mary's Church, Fairford, the former structure of which had been built by one of the Beauchamp
Earls of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Overview
The first creation ...
in the 15th century. The 28
Fairford stained glass windows he installed in the church are considered amongst the finest and most complete in England. He and his son Sir Edmund Tame (d.1534) so fostered the trade transacted at Fairford, that it came to rival that of the nearby long-established town of
Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
, which increase was remarked upon by his contemporary the antiquary
John Leland (d.1552): "Fairford never flourished afore the cumming of the Tames into it".
Origins
According to his near contemporary the antiquary
John Leland (d.1552), John Tame "came out of the house of Tame of Stowel" and "The elder house of the Tames is at Stowell, by
Northleche in Gloucestershire". The Tames of Stowell were wool merchants and cloth dealers, already well established in the early 15th century.
John Tame (d.1500) was one of the two sons of John Tame of Stowell, the other son being Richard Tame who went to Calais or the Netherlands to conduct the foreign branch of the family's wool trade.
The parish of Stowell in the
Cotswold Hills is one of the smallest in Gloucestershire. The
manor of
Stowell, within the parish, was inherited by the senior line of the Tame family long after the Tames of Fairford rose to prominence, when Thomas Tame (died c. 1545), a sheep breeder, inherited it from his mother Agnes Limerick, daughter and heiress of Thomas Limerick (d.1486) of Stowell, and husband of William Tame.
Career
John Tame was a merchant of the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
, and
according to the Gloucestershire historian
Ralph Bigland
Ralph Bigland (29 January 1712 – 27 March 1784) was an English officer of arms, antiquarian and cheesemaker. He was born at Stepney, Middlesex, and was the only son of Richard Bigland and his wife, Mary. His father was a native of Westmorland, ...
(d.1784), served as
Sheriff of the City of London
Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...
. In 1492, soon after the siege of Boulogne (1491), Tame, presumably
sailing under letters of marque, captured a vessel bound for Rome from the Low Countries.
[Neale, p.117] It is stated by Neale (1846) that the captured ship was carrying a beautiful set of twenty-eight stained-glass windows, intended for a present to the Pope and that Tame brought the glass, and the workmen who were accompanying it, to England, and in order to display it fittingly, decided to rebuild the parish church at Fairford "on a plan of costly magnificence, suited to the beautiful windows which he intended thus to consecrate to God."
This task he commenced in 1493. However it is now believed that the glass was in fact made at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
by the
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
glazier
Barnard Flower Barnard Flower (died July or August 1517) was a Flemish glazier. He was King's Glazier to Henry VII and Henry VIII from 1505 to 1517, the first non-Englishman to hold this office.
Flower came to work in England in the late 15th century. By 1496 ...
(d.1517), glazier to King Henry VII (1485-1509), and thus the story of the glass having been seized from a foreign ship is inaccurate.
Acquires Fairford
In 1479 John Tame, together with the Cirencester lawyer and clothier
John Twynyho (d.1485), had obtained a lease of the
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
of the manor of Fairford from King Henry VII, to whom the manor had temporarily reverted during the minority of
Edward Plantagenet (1475-1499) (later 17th Earl of Warwick), son of
George, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Warwick (d. 1478) by his wife, the heiress of Fairford,
Isabel Neville
Lady Isabel Neville (5 September 1451 – 22 December 1476) was the elder daughter and co-heiress of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the ''Kingmaker'' of the Wars of the Roses), and Anne de Beauchamp, suo jure 16th Countess of Warwick ...
. Isabelle Neville was one of the daughters and co-heiresses of
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
(d.1471) "The King-Maker" by his wife
Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick
Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick (13 July 1426 – 20 September 1492) was an important late medieval English noblewoman. She was the daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and his second wife Isabel le Despenser, a daught ...
(d.1492), who inherited Fairford on the death of her niece Anne de Beauchamp (d.1449), daughter of
Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick
Henry Beauchamp, 14th Earl and Duke of Warwick (22 March 142511 June 1446) was an English nobleman.
Life
Henry was the son of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and Isabel le Despenser. In 1434, he married Cecily Neville, the eldest daug ...
(d.1446), whose mother was
Isabel le Despenser (d.1439). John Tame (or his son) memorialised these noble families which had been connected with the manor of Fairford (de Clare, Despencer, Beauchamp) by the inclusion of their armorials (together with those of Tame) on the tower of Fairford Church.
Tame also acquired the manor of
Rendcomb
Rendcomb is a village in the Cotswold local authority area of the English county of Gloucestershire. It is about five miles north of Cirencester in the Churn valley.
History
Etymology
Remdcomb is thought to get its name from the stream runn ...
, Gloucestershire, by grant from the Crown, to which it had reverted after the attainder of the Earl of Warwick. His son Sir Edmund Tame rebuilt Rendcomb Church. In 1497 John and his son Edmund Tame levied a fine of land in
Hatherop
Hatherop is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about north of Fairford in Gloucestershire, England. The River Coln forms part of the western boundary of the parish.
History
Barrow Elm, which is ab ...
, an adjacent village.
John Tame died before he had completed the rebuilding of Fairford Church, which task was finished by his son Edmund.
John Tame's business headquarters were at Cirencester,
[BGAS, Vol.53, 1931, p.91] and his great wealth derived from the production and sale of wool, which came from his vast flocks of sheep for the grazing of which he secured large tracts of land.
Amongst the many bequests in his will were those to four of his "head shepherds" at various places.
Fairford Church
![Fairford st mary 011 brighter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Fairford_st_mary_011_brighter.jpg)
John Tame built Fairford Church purposely for the reception of his stained glass, and thus the design is "necessarily somewhat cramped". Twenty-eight stained glass windows survive, considered amongst the best in England of the period. The church was consecrated in 1497 by the
Bishop of Worcester
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, within whose
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
lay most of Gloucestershire at that time.
Marriage and progeny
![JohnTame Died1500 FairfordChurch Gloucestershire](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/JohnTame_Died1500_FairfordChurch_Gloucestershire.png)
He married Alice Twynyho (d. 20 December 1471) a daughter of
John Twynyho (d.1485), a lawyer and cloth merchant of Cirencester who had acquired the lease of Fairford in partnership with John Tame, whose monumental brass survives in
Lechlade
Lechlade () is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England, south of Birmingham and west of London. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable, although there is a right of navigation that contin ...
Church, Gloucestershire. By his wife he had progeny as follows:
*William Tame, eldest son, disinherited by his father;
*Sir Edmund I Tame (d.1534) of Rayton, second son and heir, a courtier and
Knight of the Body of King Henry VIII, knighted by King Henry VIII in 1516,
Sheriff of Gloucestershire
This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire, who should not be confused with the Sheriffs of the City of Gloucester.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (in England and Wales the office previously kn ...
in 1505 and 1513, and father of Edmund II Tame. He was Steward of Cirencester Abbey and lived in a large mansion house in the market place of Cirencester.
[Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol.17 (1892-3), p.279] He married twice: firstly to Agnes Greville (d.1506) (by whom he had four children) a daughter of John Greville of Milcote, Warwickshire and a sister of Sir Edward Greville and a descendant of
William Greville
William Greville (died 1 October 1401) (''alias'' Grevel, Graville, Grevill, etc.), of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire and a Citizen of the City of London, was a prominent wool-merchant and is the ancestor of the present Greville Earls of ...
(d.1401) of
Chipping Campden
Chipping Campden is a market town in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century. ("Chipping" is from Old English ''cēping'', 'market', 'market- ...
, "the flower of the wool merchants of all England"; secondly to Elizabeth Tyringham, a member of the Tyringham family of
Tyringham
Tyringham (/ˈtiːrɪŋəm/) is a village in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile and a half north of Newport Pagnell.
The village name is an Old English language word, an ...
in Buckinghamshire, without progeny; He completed the rebuilding of Fairford Church and also rebuilt Rendcombe Church. He is commemorated by two different monumental brasses in Fairford Church, which duplication is unique in the county of Gloucestershire.
*Thomas Tame, a priest, parson of
Castle Eaton
Castle Eaton is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England, on the River Thames about northwest of Highworth. It was historically in the area governed by the (former) Wiltshire County Council, but since 1997 has b ...
(''alias'' Castleton) in Wiltshire, in which parish the Tames held land.
*Eleanor Tame, who married and survived her husband;
Death and legacy
John Tame died in the year 1500,
seised of Fairford and Rendcombe.
By his will dated 1497 he assigned £240 to found a
chantry
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
# a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or
# a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...
in Fairford Church but later used the money to buy land in
Castle Eaton
Castle Eaton is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England, on the River Thames about northwest of Highworth. It was historically in the area governed by the (former) Wiltshire County Council, but since 1997 has b ...
, Wiltshire, for its endowment.
[''Fairford'', in ''A History of the County of Gloucester'': Volume 7, ed. N. M. Herbert (Oxford, 1981), pp. 69-8]
/ref>
Monument
John Tame is buried in Fairford Church in a Tomb, chest tomb on the north side of the chancel (the most usual burial-place for a founder). On the ledger stone on top of the chest tomb are various monumental brasses, set into the slab, the main ones showing John Tame and his wife standing facing each other.
See also
* Monumental brasses of Gloucestershire
References
Sources
* Bigland, Ralph, Historical, Monumental, and Genealogical Collections relative to the County of Gloucester, Vol. 1. ''Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society'', 1989. p. 571. (Illustration.)
* Bigland, Ralph,
An Account of the Parish of Fairford in the County of Gloucester
'. London: Printed by John Nichols for Richard Bigland, 1791. pp. 11–12
*"B.W."; Neale, John Mason (ed.)
Illustrations of Monumental Brasses
', No.VI. Cambridge: Cambridge Camden Society, 1846. pp. 113–132
*Davis, Cecil T
Monumental brasses of Gloucestershire
''Gloucestershire Notes & Queries''. London: Philimore & Co., 1899. pp. 98–103, 141–149
*Holt, Henry F.,
The Tames of Fairford"
''Journal of the British Archaeological Association'', No.27, 1871, pp. 110–148.
* Maclean, Sir John (ed.),
Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot
'. London: 1885. p. 260. (Pedigree of Tame)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tame, John
1430 births
1500 deaths
15th-century English businesspeople
People from Cirencester
People from Fairford