Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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On 23rd April 1831 John Kelley Halswelle was born. He was baptised at St Dionis Backchurch, London, on 6th July 1831.
1864. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 32]. "A Newhaven Fish-Lassie".
1873. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 41]. "Under the Lion of St. Mark's".
1873. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 41]. "On the Steps of a Venetian Church".
1882. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 50]. "Valley of the Thames".
1886. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 54]. "Passing Storm". Ely Cathedral [Map].
1888. John Kelley Halswelle [aged 56]. "A Pastoral with Verse". The verse of the title is taken from Herbert George's 1633 poem 'Vertue': 'Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. The bridal of the earth and sky; The dew shall weep they fall tonight; For thou must die.'
On 11th April 1891 John Kelley Halswelle [aged 59] died of pneumonia in Paris.