Hawkesbury History

Men and Armour 1608

In September 1608 by the direction of the Right Honorable Henry Lord Berkley Lieutenant of Gloucestershire  a survey was carried out by JohnSmith of North Nibley.

The purpose of this survey was to form a Muster Roll of able bodied men who could be called upon for service and the weapons and armour they held.

armourl.jpg (29325 bytes) armourr.jpg (32263 bytes)

click to enlarge image

The pictures above depicts armour that was current from 1550-1600 a full suit (full Harness) was rare it was not even common to have parts of the armour the best a commoner could expect was leather and a quilted coat stuffed with wool which worked very well against sword blows the following is a description of some armour found in the following pages :-

HARNESS-- A full suit of armour  if " for man and horse" then horse is also armoured  (equivalent value today a top of range car a man would need it modified probably 3 times in his lifetime)

CORSLET--an upper body armour consists of breast and back plate and armlets with gauntlets or any part of.

PIKE or PYKE--long pole 3-4 meters in length.

SPLINTS -- lower arm protection often two metal plates bound around the arm

CALYVER— a calyver or caliver is " a light kind of harquebus fired without a rest" or "a soldier armed with a caliver"  it looks like a small short barrell on a rod.

MUSKET—match lock gun fired by a lighted cord.

The codes contained on the lists are as follows ~

1-A man of approx age 20+

2-A man of approx age 40+

3-A man of approx age 50-60

P-Tallest stature recommended for use of Pike

M-Medium stature recommended for use of Musket

Ca-Short stature recommended for use of Calyver

Py-Very short stature recommended for use as Pyoner

Tr-Shows that the man has or may have trained as a soldier

Sub-Shows the man to be a subsidy man

Below are Charfield, Horton, Hawkesbury inc Hillesley,

Alderley, Boxwell & Lieghterton, and Acton Ilger (Iron Acton)