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CrystalCupGift

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years ago

Why did Sarah Cocks give the Crystal Cup to St Peter's Church?

 

Previous speculators as to the origins of the Crystal Cup did not know that Mrs Sarah Cocks was born Sarah Solme, that she had been previously married to Mr John Ball, and that she was on close terms with Sir Richard and Lady Ryves. Previous historians have therefore missed the most obvious motives for presenting the Crystal Cup which is related to the timing of the gift.

 

England was recovering from the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth. Many churches had lost much of their valuable altarware. The presentation of the Crystal Cup in honour of the memory of Sarah's dead husband is the most obvious motive for her gift. The gift probably would have made up any loss of church plate in the Civil War and would have been well within her means.

 

There is a second possible motive for the presentation of the Crystal Cup to the church. Sir Richard Ryves, the new owner of Hall Place, had died in 1671 fourteen months after John Ball, Sarah's first husband. In his will Sir Richard had instructed his wife to purchase a gift for Sarah:

Alsoe I give unto my loving Friend and Neighbour Mrs Sarah Ball of Yateley widdow twentie Pounds, and I desire my Executrix to be carefull to bestowe the same upon a peice of Plate to be presented unto her

 

The Churchwardens‘ Accounts in 1675 actually record three sets of gifts to the Church, the first two related to Sir Richard Ryves;

* Given by Sir Richard Ryves, a set of books called The Polyglott, to the Parish Church of Yateley

* Given to the Parish Church of Yateley, by the Lady Ryves, one damask table cloth and napkins

* Given by Mrs. Sarah Cocks, when she was a widow, to the Parish Church of Yateley, for the use of the Communion Table, one Christiall silver and gilt bowl with cover; one damask table cloth and one damask napkin.

It is very likely that Lady Ryves and Mrs Sarah Ball, both recently widowed, decided to make these gifts in memory of their husbands, and that Sarah decided to present the Crystal Cup, perhaps purchased by Lady Ryves as Sir Richard's bequest to Sarah, or perhaps purchased with Sarah's own money. Sarah's gift could have been in Sir Richard's memory, or to John Ball's memory, or perhaps to both their memories.

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In my opinion the most unlikely reason for Sarah to make the gift is that she suddenly remembered she had been given, or inherited, a Crystal Cup made by a Royal cupmaker who once lived in Yateley. This is this reason promoted by previous speculators of the Yateley Crystal Cup Myth.

 

If Sarah presented the gift on behalf of some long-dead royal cupmaker then how did she come to own the Crystal Cup? Was she or her husband a direct heir of one of the royal cupmakers? Was it made for her wedding to John Ball on 3 Sep 1651? Not likely since this was two years after the beheading of Charles I. Was it made for her mother's wedding and presented to the Church in her memory? This is another possibility in view of the Elizabethan attribtion by W. W. Watts FSA, but no explanations are given by previous historians, and it would rule out Richard White as the maker.

 

If the Crystal Cup had been made by either Richard White or William Geale, had been part of the St Peter's church treasure before the Civil War, but had been taken into safekeeing by Sarah's grandfather, then it would have been presented back to the church by her mother immediately after the Restoration 15 years earlier, and the note in the Churchwardens' Accounts would have recorded this reinstatement.

 

The most likely explanation remains that Mrs Sarah Ball, when she was a widow and before she married Nathaniel Cocks purchased the Crystal Cup with her own money, or with the legacy from Sir Richard Ryves, and that she and Lady Ryves made a joint presentation of plate and linen to St Peter's in memory of their husbands.

 

VERDICT: The Yateley Crystal Cup was not made by either of Yateley's Royal Cupmakers

 

Back to The Crystal Cup Myths

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