Exeter & London Connected
There is a letter from John Wyle in Exeter to his cousin John Wyle a merchant in
London, telling of his friend, King Charles II's wellbeing. By the time John received the
letter in London, unknowingly to him, the King had died!
John must have been 'extremely pleased' to receive the letter.....which cost him 3d.
His stingy cousin had only paid 3d to send it and it wasn't enough to cover the weight and
distance. Total cost was 6d (2.5p) which was rather a lot of money at that time.
The letter is 316 years old and is almost totally illegible. This is due in some
respect to the age but added to that the way in which it was written, as we would normally
write, down the page, but then across the page. This was done to save money on the
postage. (It was quite common during the days of W.W.I to save paper).
The letter was up for sale at Spinks Auction House in London on 7th June 2001 and was
expected to fetch around £350.
Wouldn't it be nice if someone could decipher it and post it to this site?
Salisbury Historical Connection
Tomb of the Bishop of Salisbury, Walter de la Wyle
Bishop of Salisbury, Walter de la Wyle 1263-1271. Walter began his career as a chaplain
to Robert Bingham, bishop of Salisbury from 1229-1246.
As no Parish Registers were kept in England before 1538, there is no record of Walter's
birth.
A bit nearer our time
George Wyle
was born March 22, 1916, in New York City. He
was an 'all rounder' on the music scene,
composing, conducting etc. George also worked in
television and is probably best known for his
opening theme for Gilligan's Island. He has
worked with many famous people and
was the music director for The Andy Williams
Show. There are many web sites where you can
find out more about this creative man. George
Wyle was his pseudonym but he was at the Ealing
Studios, which was of course, where our George
Wyle had moved to.
Grandson of George Wyle is Adam Levy who writes for 'Guitar Player' and is
an accomplished musician. He was born in Encino, Los Angeles and moved to San
Francisco in
1989 but now lives in Brooklyn, New York. |
