Autograph letter signed to "my cozen Tunstall," most likely Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall

Rokeby, John (d. 1573). Autograph letter signed to "my cozen Tunstall," most likely Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559). 1 - 1/2pp. N.p., n.d. 223 x 184 mm. Fine apart from light soiling.

From ecclesiastical lawyer John Rokeby, who acted as one of Henry VIII's counsel in his divorce from Katharine of Aragon and later served as a member of the Council of the North, a regional administrative body originally established by Richard III and later reinstated by Henry VIII in 1530 as a means of exerting control over England's pro-Catholic northern counties. His correspondent was most likely Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, who served as president of the Council in 1530 and 1537; Tunstall is best known today as the author of De arte supputandi libri quattuor (1522), the first book published in England devoted exclusively to mathematics.

In his letter Rokeby asks Tunstall for a "contribution to enable me to go through with my presant Undertaking . . . I began this Method last yeare but was check'd by ill health & want of the proper Instrument Lond. being too expensive for me & some necessary Cloaths awanting however am now determin'd to goe by sea as soon as possablely I can . . ." Rokeby and Tunstall may have been related, as they were both from the same part of England and Rokeby addressed Tunstall as "cozen."