Description:Documents concerning Sir Walter’s debts reflect the financial difficulties which he experienced towards the end of his life and the type of formalities involved in pledging to repay monies which had been borrowed. Documents relating to the Leveson family’s finances also tell us about the kind of lifestyle they enjoyed in the late sixteenth century, providing details about their possessions and the size of their households.
The extent of Sir Walter’s debts are evident in a number of documents produced whilst he was in Fleet prison including lists of Sir Walter’s ‘statutes and recognisances’.
Documents such as the one featured above indicate that Sir Walter owed many large amounts of money, ranging from one to two thousand pounds, and even higher, the largest debt listed being owed to the ‘Earle of Shrousburie’ amounting to ‘fower thousand poundes’.