Christopher Wyld

  Noted events in his life were:

• History: Visits to Nottingham by Monarchy, 1612. Nottingham town saw little of royalty during the days of the Tudors, but when the Stuarts came to the throne it was honoured with frequent visits from members of the reigning family. James I. did not call at Nottingham on his way to London in 1603, but the Queen and Prince Henry were there on June 21, and received handsome presents from the Corporation. The King paid his first visit in August, 1612, when the Recorder presented him with an address and a purse of money, and he was also the happy recipient of three fair gilt bowls, costing £61 12s. His Majesty stayed one night only at Thurland, or Clare, Hall—a substantial mansion which stood ‘opposite the Black-a-moors Head stables,’ and which is stated by Throsby to have been rebuilt by Francis Pierrepont, third son of Robert, Earl of Kingston, who died in 1657. Throsby says ‘the rooms are spacious but gloomy, the walls are castle-like and thick. Here on particular public occasions the noblemen and gentlemen of the county dine in the great room.’ His Majesty lodged here again in August, 1614, and on several subsequent occasions was sumptuously entertained, while the ill-fated Charles spent several nights at Thurland Hall in 1634. The Corporation records have not been edited at present beyond 1625, but Mr. Bailey gives an extract in his Annals from the Hall books, ‘that on the 4th day of August, 1634, being Monday, our Sovereign Lord King Charles and the Queen came to Nottingham, and stayed here four nights, being entertained at Thurland Hall by the Earl of Newcastle. They were received at the Cowgate by Mr. Mayor and his brethren, and their companies, and presented each of them with a piece of plate.’ The sombre-looking hall was the scene of great festivities, and the town gave itself up to hearty rejoicing, or, as Mr. Bailey terms it, ‘demonstrations of popular exultation.’

• History: Local - Calverton. The meaning of Calverton is calves enclosure, which suggests that Calverton was known more for its cattle rearing than it is today. Calverton is these days known as a mining village one of the last few in Nottingham.
In 1086 the village was valued at £1.10.10p, the population of the village stayed static at around 1000 until a local colliery opened in the early 1950's .
Calvertons most famous son is with out doubt William Lee, he invented the stocking machine in 1589 this invention changed Calverton and many other villages in the area as the stocking machines were installed in many of the cottages,the stocking machine even changed the buildings as the windows were designed to give maximum light on the machine.
AnotherCalvertonian was John Roe, he founded a religious sect in the late 18th century, it appears the method of choosing a partner was by casting lots,also he baptisms we held in a pool in his back garden (long dried up),he also gave us the Jonnie Roe plum, which is still grown locally.
Duringthe 18th and 19th centuries, agriculture and hosiery were the main employmentand this remained virtually the same until the colliery was starting inthe early 20th century.
Untilthe 1900 Century there were only 14 house's, farms and out building in Calverton. There was no electricity, gas, piped water, or sewage works.

• History: Windsor Castle, 1100. Windsor Castle is an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. A royal palace and fortress for over 900 years, the Castle remains a working palace today. Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace; for part of the year visitors can also see the Semi State rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour.
Within the Castle complex there are many additional attractions. In the Drawings Gallery regular exhibitions of treasures from the Royal Library are mounted. Another popular feature is the Queen Mary's Dolls' House, a miniature mansion built to perfection. The fourteenth-century St. George's Chapel is the burial place of ten sovereigns, home of the Order of the Garter, and setting for many royal weddings. Nearby on the Windsor Estate is Frogmore House, an attractive country residence with strong associations to three queens - Queen Charlotte, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary.

• Research: Spelling: Calverton, Nottingham, England. ³ At this time many people were unable to read or write, or even spell their own name. Names were recorded phonetically in most cases. Christopher's surname appears with the WILD spelling and also with the WILDE spelling. Either could be used as one is not neccessarily correct over the other. WYLD has been used for consistency.

• History: The Stocking Frame - William Lee. ²⁴ William Lee, to whom the hosiers owe so much, was born at Calverton; and very appropriately the village where the first frame was devised is still a hosiery village. In Calverton and Woodborough, and the immediate vicinity, we may see the knitters with busy hands and skilled fingers deftly guiding the threads which make up the best of hose on the hand frames. If they are not all making stockings, they are equally busy with other articles of attire that can be woven on their looms. Thus, as hosiers, they follow the same useful occupation that their fathers and forefathers have done for generations past—probably since the time when Calverton heard with astonishment that one of its sons had invented a machine that could be made to knit stockings.
It is unfortunate that little should be known of the man who introduced to the world an invention that has had so much to do ever since with the progress and prosperity of this country. In his native village no tablet exists to commemorate his virtues, and the parish registers do not go far enough back to contain the entry of his baptism. We have to look elsewhere for such information as is obtainable; and first of all turn to Thoroton, to see what the great historian of the county has to say on the subject. Thoroton’s book was published about sixty-seven years after Lee’s death, and the historian would be able to gain his information from old people, who would be likely to know something about Lee and his family. He says, ‘At Calverton was born William Lee, Master of Arts in Cambridge, and heir to a pretty freehold here, who, seeing a woman knit, invented a loom to knit, in which he, or his brother James, performed and exercised before Queen Elizabeth.’ The parish register of Calverton, which begins October 6, 1568, contains the entry of the baptism of four sons of a William Lee—Edward in 1574, Robert in 1577, John in 1580, and James in 1582. There is no entry of William ; but as the father is described as William Lee , the elder,’ it is tolerably certain that he had a son William Lee ‘the younger,’ who would be born before the register begins. If we assume that the four sons whose names are inscribed in the register were brothers of the inventor, it is evident he must have been very much older than they were. For on turning to that excellent authority, ‘Athenae Cantabrigiensis,’ we find that he went to Cambridge University in 1579, in which year he was entered as a sizar of Christ’s College. He subsequently removed to St. John’s College, and, as a member of that house, proceeded B.A. in 1582-3.
On designing his frame, Lee sought to enlist the aid of the great, and to receive royal patronage. But Elizabeth did not view the invention with much favour, believing that it would throw many of her subjects out of employment, and Lee felt he had no alternative but to seek in a foreign country the privileges he had been unable to secure in his own. Along with his brother and nine workmen he removed to Rouen, and set up his frames there. The French King received him graciously at Paris, and promises of support were held out to him. It happened, however, that the monarch was assassinated, and his successor feeling no interest in the invention, Lee was left in Paris with ruined hopes and empty pockets. His brother James hastened to the French capital to comfort and assist him, but ere he arrived the ingenious creator of the stocking-frame was dead and buried. Before going beyond the seas he had, according to Thoroton, trained an apprentice named Aston, for some time a miller near Bingham, and that worthy added something to his master’s invention. By degrees the frame grew into popular favour; but as late as 1611, if not later, silk loom stocking-weaving was not permitted in this country for fear of ruining the knitters. There is a letter from Sir Walter Cope in the State Papers, under date August 20, 1611, wherein he says, The English stocking-weavers, after fruitless experiments here, have gone over to Venice.’
Such were some of the disappointments of Calverton’s famous son.

• Occupation: Weaver: Calverton, Nottingham, England. Christopher owned Cow Close in Calverton, and it can be assumed that this is from where he plied his trade as a weaver.

• Will, 11 Feb 1666, Woodborough, Nottingham, England. Christopher WILD's will was witnessed by a John Lee. William Lee the inventer of the Stocking Frame had four sons Christened in the Calverton. One of these was John Lee, in 1580.
Christopher was a weaver of Woodborough. He named two sons in the will, Joseph (and his new wife, Catren) and Nathaniel. Joseph was to receive a house in Calverton and two pieces of land in Cow Close, for which he had to pay rent of £12 a year to his brother Nathaniel, as well as various domestic items including: pewter dishes; a bedstead; chests; a brewing tube; bedclothes; two looms; a sow and a heifer. The remainder of Christopher's "goods and chattels as well withindoors as without both quick and dead......." were to pass to Nathaniel.
Entries in the Parish Registers confirm the contents of the will.

• Research: Parish Registers. Parish registers were started in England in 1538. A law was passed ordering the clergy to record baptisms, marriages and burials, and that they should be written down in a book after the service on Sundays, and in the presence of the Churchwardens. Before this date there were no records, except for a few created by monks who recorded the events for prominent families. Many churches, however, did not begin keeping records until a further notice was sent out in 1558, and even then, many did not comply.
In 1597, Queen Elizabeth I decreed at all existing records should be copied into "fair parchment books, at least from the beginning of this reign". There was considerable opposition. Many churches complained that they could not afford parchment books, others began the task, some started with the 1558 records, some omitted large sections as the task was too large, and some did not start at all.
Some of the early 1538 records (re-written in 1597) still exist, but it is not at all unusual for the registers not to have been preserved. Many were lost, and it is quite common to find no preserved records for a parish until a much later date.
Most of the parish registers are now stored in a County Record Office, although a few are still in the individual churches.
Over time, more information was recorded in the parish registers.

Christopher married Katherine Hithersay, daughter of John Hethersey and Elizabeth Wylkinson, on 5 Jun 1632 in Calverton, Nottingham, England.²³ (Katherine Hithersay was born <1611> in Calverton, Nottingham, England.)