The statement in the Dictionary of National Biography that Wolsey appointed Cromwell collector of his revenues in 1514 is apparently unfounded[32], and no reference is given for the assertion in Singer’s Cavendish[33] that the Cardinal first met his future servant in France. Another unverified story is that Lord Henry Percy, who had been an intimate of the Cardinal’s household in his early years, borrowed money from Cromwell, and conceiving a high opinion of his creditor, introduced him to Wolsey[34]; while Mr. Phillips informs us that Robert Cromwell (the son of Walter Cromwell’s brother John), who was vicar of Battersea under the Cardinal, gave to his cousin Thomas the stewardship of the archiepiscopal estate of York House, after Wolsey had been made archbishop there. Though Mr. Phillips has again failed to cite his authority for this last statement, it is but fair to say that the probabilities are strongly in its favour: the theory that Cromwell owed his appointment as Wolsey’s servant to his cousin Robert seems particularly plausible, as the latter was certainly well known to the Cardinal. It is possible that the origin of the connexion had something to do with the young Marquis of Dorset, who later became Cromwell’s patron. Wolsey had long been acquainted with the Marquis; he had been the friend and tutor of his father when he was principal of Magdalen School, and had been given the living of Limington in Somerset by a still older member of the family in 1500[35]. The date of the origin of Cromwell’s connexion with Wolsey must remain as much a matter of conjecture as its cause. It seems probable that those historians who have placed it as far back as 1513 or 1514 have been at fault, for had Cromwell entered the Cardinal’s service as early as that there would almost certainly have been more entries in the State Papers to show it. As it is, we possess only one piece of evidence in contemporary records to show that he was known to Wolsey before October, 1520, and that is of such a nature that little reliance can be placed on it. On the back of a letter, written in August, 1514, by the Abbot of Winchcomb to Wolsey[36], are some lines in a hand which bears some resemblance to Cromwell’s, apparently intended as an exercise in penmanship; the similarity of the handwritings, however, is not so striking that it can be regarded as affording any very conclusive proof: moreover as the words on the back have no connexion with the letter itself, it is quite likely that they were written at a much later date. It is safe to say that the lack of information on the subject in the State Papers makes it probable that if Cromwell’s connexion with Wolsey began much before 1520, it was certainly of very minor importance.