Anonymous British

Epitaph of William Walworth

Hereunder lyth a man of Fame, William Walworth callyd by name; Fishmonger he was in lyfftime here, And twise Lord Maior, as in books appere; Who, with courage stout and manly myght, Slew Jack Straw in Kyng Richard's sight. For which act done, and trew entent, The Kyng made him knyght incontinent; And gave him armes, as here you see, To declare his fact and chivaldrie. He left this lyff the yere of our God Thirteen hundred fourscore and three odd. Found in the footnotes of Washington Irving's The Sketch-book, Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap. 'I cannot but turn aside, while thus speaking of illustrious men, to observe that St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, contains also the ashes of that doughty champion, William Walworth, knight, who so manfully clove down the sturdy wight, Wat Tyler, in Smithfield; a hero worthy of honorable blazon, as almost the only Lord Mayor on record famous for deeds of arms:-- the sovereigns of Cockney being generally renown as the most pacific of all potentates. ''footnote'' The following was the ancient inscription on the monument of this worthy; which, unhappily, was destroyed in the great conflagration. . . . An error in the foregoing inscription has been corrected by the venerable Stow. ''Whereas,'' saith he, ''it hath been far spread abroad by vulgar opinion, that the rebel smitten down so manfully by Sir William Walworth, the then worthy Lord Maior, was named Jack Straw, and not Wat Tyler, I thought good to reconcile this rash-conceived doubt by such testimony as I find in ancient and good records. The principal leaders, or captains, of the commons, were Wat Tyler, as the first man; the second was John, or Jack, Straw,'' etc. , etc. -- Stow's London. '