Richard de HOGHTON

                   Sir Richard entertained King James I on his return from Scotland atHoghton Tower in 1617.  During his stay James liked his loin of beef sowell that he took out his sword and "knighted" it naming it Sir Loin(sirloin), which is what it is called today.  Previously it was calledsurloin.

Entertaining the King and his 600-800 retainers was so expensive thatRichard was bankrupt after the visit, even though he got some rights tomining interests from the King as a result of the visit.  Apparentlyentertaining a king/queen was so expensive that  some nobles, uponhearing that they had been selected for a royal visit would burn downpart of their manor house as an excuse for not hosting the King, figuringthat it was cheaper to repair the house than to entertain the King andhis company for a period.

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Sir Richard Hoghton, 1st Baronet, so created 22 May 1611, of HoghtonTower; b. Sep 1570, knighted Jan 1589/90; Sheriff of Lancs 1599, MP; m.Katharine (d. 17 Nov 1617), daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard, of Gerard'sBromley, Staffs, and d. 12 Nov 1630, having had 4 sons and eightdaughters.  [Burke's Peerage]

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Sir Gilbert Hoghton of Hoghton Tower and the Civil Wars in Lancashire
Author: Alan Radford, by Appointment Piper to Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Bt.

Orders of the day, Volume 33, Issue 3, 2001.

Hoghton Tower is a large fortified house on a hilltop between Preston andBlackburn. It was built around a medieval pele tower, which originallystood between the inner and outer courtyards of the present house. Theancestral home of the de Hoghton family since the Norman Conquest,Hoghton Tower is one of the most dramatic-looking houses in the North ofEngland. The present house was built almost entirely in the Elizabethanperiod and is reached by an impressive steep, straight carriageway overhalf a mile long. Construction was completed by Thomas Hoghton in 1565,but he, a recusant, lived in it only four years before fleeing to the LowCountries, where he died.

Thomas's nephew Richard held rather more politically correct views, andearned the favour of James I, who made him a baronet in 1611. He stayedat Hoghton in 1617 before visiting the home of the Earl of Derby, LathomHouse, which was to be the site of the most heroic Royalist defence inthe whole of the Civil Wars. Sir Richard laid out the red carpet forJames' visit for the entire length of the half mile avenue leading to thehouse. The Banqueting Hall, with its Minstrels Gallery, is where James Idubbed the loin of beef Sirloin in August 1617 and where previouslyWilliam Shakespeare had started his working life as a tutor. The housestill contains the Kings Bedchamber, Audience Chamber, Ballroom andother staterooms used by the King, the Duke of Buckingham and othernobles. There is also a Tudor well house with its horse-drawn pump andoaken windlass, the underground passages with dungeons, wine cellar andthe stone cells which housed malefactors and cattle thieves.

On the Sunday of the Kings stay at Hoghton Tower he received a petition,signed principally by the Lancashire peasants, tradespeople and servants,representing that they were debarred from lawful recreations upon Sunday,after evening prayers, and upon holy days, and praying that therestrictions imposed by Commissioners in the reign of Queen Elizabethagainst "pipers and minstrels playing, making and frequentingbear-baiting and bull-baiting, on the Sabbath days, or upon any otherdays in time of divine service; and also upon superstitious ringing ofbells, wakes and common feasts; drunkenness, gaming and other viciouspursuits". The King declared such restrictions incompatible with theprivilege of his subjects, and offered redress in the form of aproclamation. This declaration formed the basis of "The Book of Sports"issued to all bishops in 1618 to be read and published in all parishchurches. The subsequent re-issue of "The Book of Sports" by Charles Iearly in his reign, antagonising clergy and Parliament, was one of theroot causes of the subsequent Civil Wars.

King James must have been impressed by the lavish welcome and thefeasting which followed. These honours were all very well, but as aresult of his great expenditure on entertainment, aggravated by anoverdue mortgage on his alum mines at Hoghton, Sir Richard becamebankrupt and was imprisoned for a time in Fleet Prison.

Sir Richard died in 1630, and was succeeded to the baronetcy by his sonGilbert.

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The following is from "The Pedigree of de Hoghton of Hoghton Tower",
Visitors Information Brochure (nice place to visit):

Sir Richard Hoghton, 1st Baronet 1589-1630, Born 1570.  Succeeded in 1589and knighted in 1590.  Sheriff of Lancashire 1589.  Represented County ofLancaster in Pariament 1601-1611.  Created Baronet on the institution ofthat Order on 22nd May 1611.  Entertained King James I on his return fromScotland, at Hoghton Tower 1617.  Gained Royal Concession 1608-1629 tomine for alum, coal, copper and slate.  Married Katherine daughter of SirGilbert Gerrard.  Master of the Rolls.