A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE business, to be treated of presently, forming the second of the Reading bellfoundries. Goroway (or Galaway, etc.) has no recog- nizable work surviving to the present day, and, documentary notices of him being ex- tremely meagre, his business (if he ever had one of his own, independent of being a fore- man in the old foundry) was, we may sup- pose, very slight. In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Lawrence's parish, Reading, for 1564, is an item of izs. received of ' Vin- cent Gorway ' for 10 pounds ' of certayne brasse,' and in those of St. Giles's, Reading, for 1569, is an entry of 13*. 4^. paid to ' Vyncent ' for the ' pte of Castinge of the Bell.' But as Vincent appears as a surname in these accounts on several occasions, though never as a bellfounder, it is a matter of con- jecture whether it is here meant for Goro- way's Christian name. William Welles, the third of the contem- porary bellfounders in Reading, has been considered as the successor of Saunders in the old business, but there only remain two bells, so far as I am aware, which we can put to his credit. One of these, the treble at Leck- hampstead (Bucks) is inscribed ' gaude virgo matr ' in the large set of black-letter smalls introduced by Saunders, the letters spaced with most surprising irregularity. It should perhaps be placed to Saunders's account, but if so, Leckhampstead being over forty miles distant as the crow flies from Reading, it is not unlikely that he sent his assistant to cast it on the spot, and Welles is very likely to have been that assistant. The other bell, also in Buckinghamshire, at Radclive, has an interesting mixture : SANCTE GEORGE ORA. The S is a clumsy imitation of the fourteenth century crowned Woking- ham set, and so is probably the G, though it has no crown. The O is a stranger to me ; the smalls are the same large set of black- letter, except the o in George, which is not black-letter, and is smaller than the other letters. The words are divided by a stamp between each, namely the pair of Royal Heads usually believed to represent Edward III. and his queen Philippa. This is the only known instance of the appearance of these wanderers in Reading. The words are fol- lowed by the well known stamp of William Dawe, alias Founder (already mentioned, p. 417), who flourished in London between about 1385 and 1418. These three stamps, whose original home was London, may show that Saunders or his successor had something to do with a London business. So far as is known, this re-appearance of Dawe's stamp is a unique instance. The inscription ends with the letters K and V. The former is Hasyl- wood's letter (placed on its back), and the latter is about the size of the Wokingham set (but uncrowned). I can find no possible donor's or rector's name to fit these initials, and can only speculate whether the former stands for Knight and the latter for Vincent Goroway. A good many entries of Welles or Wells are in the Registers and Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Lawrence's and St. Mary's, Reading ; among the accounts of the former parish, a ' Goodman Welles,' whose interment charges are entered in the year 1573-4, was probably the bellfounder, who most likely died about March 1572-3. The inventory of his goods at Somerset House is an inter- esting document, mentioning among his other possessions ' ij bowes, a sheiffe of arrowes, a habbarde, a sworde and a coote of plate.' His trade is proved by an iron beame, pott- mowldes, meltinge pannes, etc., ' In the bell- house.'* Other curious items are quoted in Church Sells of Bucks, p. 78. The inventory is not itself dated, but is docketed 1572. By 1578 Joseph Carter was manager of this foundry, but whether he started on the death of Welles or whether any one intervened is not known, but the former, however, is more probable. His name first appears in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Lawrence's, Reading, for the year 1581, but the items for the recasting of the ' great bell ' and one other, run through those of the two previous years, without the founder's name being mentioned, and had there been a change of personnel during that time we may suppose the former name would also have been men- tioned. His name is repeated in the accounts for 1582, 1584 and 1585. In 1593 he was churchwarden of the church of St. Lawrence. Under date ' 29 of December 1596 ' : At this accompt also y' was agreed That our gret Bell should be cast againe, and not so much the Tune of the bell was cared for, as to have y* A lowd bell and hard fltar. And the churchwarden, Joseph Carter, consented and agreed, to cast yt before Midsomer ffollowing : And so he was chosen againe Churchwarden the second Time. There being present m r . ffranceys More, m r . John- son, mr. Lydall, Goodma Russell, the church- wardens, w" 1 others. I have notes of fifty-two bells by Joseph Carter between 1581 and 1609. In Berk- shire, sixteen ; Buckinghamshire, eight ; Essex, one ; Hampshire, six ; Kent, three ; Oxfordshire, ten ; Surrey, one ; Sussex, seven. There is also a bell at Pamber (Hants) dated two years earlier than any of these, which is probably by him, and which appears to have 418
