say to you — 'The Queen shall have a rope, before she shall have my house.' " He then forced Mrs. Cradock, as she stated, to bring the matter before the Magistrates. No examination took place until October, 1598, more than a year after the event. Mrs. Clarke denied on oath that she had made use of the words complained of, and the case then dropped. It was revived, however, in the following autumn, when another witness appeared against Mrs. Clarke, but there is no record of any conviction and the case does not appear to have been carried any further.
Thomas Clarke died on June 28th, 1603, and was buried in St. Martin's Church in Leicester, on the 30th of the same month.
His Will, which bears date the 15th day of June, 1603, is at Somerset House. It does not contain any reference to the Blue Boar Inn, nor to the famous bedstead. Thomas Clarke "Innholder," gave the bulk of his fortune to his wife during her widowhood, with remainder to his kinswoman, Margaret Fearne, if she should marry with his supervisor's consent, but otherwise to his overseers to be disposed amongst his other kinsfolk. Among other legacies he gave "to my loving friends the Mayor Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Borough of Leicester and to their successors for ever for the Under Usher of the Free School an annuity of 20s. out of the Orchard purchased by me the Testator from the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester in St. Nicholas' parish near the Soar"; also £5, "whereof they owe me £3" to be yearly thereafter employed "in sea coal for the use of the poor people of Leicester." He also left to the widows of St. John's Hospital, twenty shillings; to the mother of Margaret Fearne, two milch cows; to William Dethick, the Town Clerk, forty shillings; to George Brook, one of the Town Chamberlains, "my best taffata doublett," and to John Wilkinson, his brother-in-law, "my best hat." If this John Wilkinson was the glover of that name who had been "carted" a year or two before with one Mary Smith, he would hardly expect to receive a legacy from his wealthy relative.
The testator appointed his wife sole executrix, and the first-named overseer of his Will was Mr. Thomas Sacheverell,
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