Hitherto the Danvers family have been found seated in Oxfordshire and the adjacent counties, but towards the end of the fifteenth century John, second son of Richard Danvers, of Prescote, married a great heiress, Anne Stradling, the lady of Dauntsey, and the family thus became 'Danvers of Dauntsey.' Anne represented the elder branch of the Dauntseys, and a younger branch of the Stradlings, of St Donat's.

DAUNTSEY FAMILY

The village of Dauntsey is situated some three or four miles south of Malmesbury, and was at a very early period the home of a family who took their name therefrom, holding the manor of the Abbey of Malmesbury.  In the years 1162 and 1166, as we learn from the Pipe Rolls,8.1 Milo de Danteseia was Sheriff of Wiltshire, and the Liber Niger tells us that in the year 1165 the same Milo held a fief of Earl Patrick in the county, and we have many other notices in ancient records of the presence of members of the family in Wiltshire.  Moreover, the early genealogy of the family is set forth in the venerable chartulary of Malmesbury Abbey,8.2 a manuscript of the thirteenth century, which is preserved in the British Museum.

Before 1281

It is curious to read a genealogy which ends with a member of the family who, in the tenth year of Edward I (1281), is 'still living,' but the story begins with one 'Milo Vetus Ceppus,' lord of Daunteseye.  The ancient name, therefore, of the family, before they took that of Dauntsey, was in its Latinized form 'Vetus Ceppus.'  But what was the English name which the monks of Malmesbury thus translated?  Now, the good monks were fond of a play upon words, and one may imagine the brother who was engaged upon the chartulary exclaiming, 'But tell me, Brother So-and-so, here is our friend Oldstock, to whom the Abbot has given the manor of Daunteseye, how shall I render his name?'  'Oh,' rejoins the other, 'we know well how to name the stocks-"Ceppus"-call him "Vetus Ceppus";' and thus Milo Oldstock, of Dauntsey, became in the chartulary Milo Vetus Ceppus.8.3  However, Milo Vetus Ceppus acquired the lordship of Dauntesey, and thenceforwards his descendants were known by the name of their patrimony.  The first Milo had a son, who was his heir, and he had also a daughter, or perhaps two; on this point the chartulary is not quite clear-either Milo had two daughters, one of whom married Thomas and the other Hugo Golafre, or his one daughter, Sybill, married one of the two, Hugo or Thomas.  Hugo Golafre had a son, Roger, who had a son also Roger, who had a son John Golafre, who, says the chartulary, is now living.  To return to Milo de Daunteseye, son of Milo Vetus Ceppus, he had two sons, Milo, his heir, and Richard.  This third Milo had four sons, Roger,8.4 Gilbert, Richard, and Engeliman.  Richard had a son, Richard,8.5 who was living, 10 Edward I (1281), when the manuscript was written, and is probably the Richard who was born in the year 1230.  Richard, son of the second Milo, received from his father the manor of Bremelham; he had a son, Matthew, and two daughters, Emma and Imeyna.  Matthew had a son, Richard, who died leaving no children.  Emma had a daughter, Milisant, mother of Clement and of Jordan Sporum [sic].  Imeyna was the mother of Matthew Scay, and thus this genealogy ends in 1281.

After 1281

It may, however, be supplemented by means of an authentic piece of genealogy, which is found in the Coram Rege Roll of the year 1484,8.6 when there was a question in dispute between Henry Danvers and Richard Pole regarding the guardianship of Edward Stradling-a dispute to which reference will again be made.  The pedigree of the Dauntsey family was produced (see Appendix to this Chapter) as part of the case, and was not disputed.  It may be summarized as follows.  Richard Dauntsey8.7

 had a son, Richard, whose wife's name was Katherine.  Richard and Katherine had a son, John, who had a son, John, which latter John had a son, Walter, and a daughter, Joan.  Walter died leaving no children, and his sister, Joan, married to Sir John Stradling, was his heir.  Joan and John had a son, Edmund Stradling, and Edmund had a son, John, who married Alice Langford, and was the father of the Edward Stradling, regarding whom the dispute arose between Henry Danvers and Richard Pole.  Another bit of the pedigree of the Dauntsey family is preserved in the Plea Rolls8.8 (Mich., anno primo Edward III) and in Dugdale's Baronage of England.8.9  Elias, son of Elias Giffard, of Brimsfield, was twice married first to Isabel Musard, by whom he had three daughters, Isabel, Matilda, Mabilla; by his second wife, Alice Maltravers, he had a son, John, who became his heir.  Mabilla, daughter of Elias, married Richard Dauntsey, father of Richard, father of a Richard Dauntsey who was at the time, 1 Edward III (1327), aged 40, and who was, therefore, born in the year 1287.  This Richard, looking to the dates, must have been the grandson of the second Richard, of the Malmesbury pedigree, who was alive in the year 1282, and was born in the year 1230.

Giffard and de Bavent Families

Of the matches of the Dauntsey family, prior to that of John and Elizabeth Beverley, we know but two.  Of these the first was that of Richard Dauntsey with Mabilla, daughter of Elias Giffard and Isabel Musard.  The Giffards were a famous family in the early days of English history, men of renown, warriors, and statesmen.  Their ancestor, Osbert Giffard, had in the time of the Conqueror lordships in many counties including Gloucester and Wiltshire; and one branch of the family, that to which Elias belonged, was seated, first at Brimsfield, but later on made Winterbourne, in Wiltshire, the head of their barony.8.10  Mabilla Giffard had a sister, Matilda, whose grandson was Roger de Bavent, of the family of the next Dauntsey match regarding which we have evidence.  We learn from the Dauntsey shield that an early member of the family married a de Bavent heiress, whose arms their descendants quartered from an early period.  The de Bavents came from Bavent, near Caen, and settled in Sussex.  One of them, Adam de Bavent, married Alice, daughter and heiress of Peter Scudamore, lord of Norton and Fifhide, Wiltshire, which manors she carried to her husband.  Their grandson, Roger de Bavent (died 1373), conveyed Norton and Fifhide to the King, who conceded them to the convent of Dartford, Kent.8.11 And, writes Sir Richard Hoare,8.11 'in some way or other it would seem the family of Dauntesey had an interest in the manors of Fifhide and Norton,' for the King (46 Edward III) in 1372 granted to Sir John Dauntesey and his wife, Joan, the manor of Merdon (Marden) for one red rose, on condition that they observed the arrangements regarding the manors of Norton and Fifhide, which the Prior of Dartford held as the gift of the King.  Not improbably Joan, the wife of the John Dauntesey to whom the King made the above-mentioned grant, was heiress of a younger branch of the de Bavent family.

Dauntsey to Stradling

This John Dauntesey died in the year 1391, and, as we learn from his will,8.12 from his post-mortem inquisition,8.13 and from the Book of Aids8.14 held the manor of Dauntesey of the Abbey of Malmsbury, that of Winterbourne Dauntesey of the honor of Gloucester, and that of Marden of the King.  His wife's name was Joan; his son and heir was John, aged 34 years at the time of his father's death; he left two other sons, Edmund and Edward.  John, the younger, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Beverley,8.15 of London, of Penkridge, Stafford, and of Mendesdene, Hertfordshire.  Elizabeth, by way of dowry, carried to her husband the manor of Mendesdene,8.16 and houses in the parish of St Nicholas ad bladum, in London, in Paternoster Row, and in Wood Street, parish of St Albans, London.  Elizabeth predeceased her husband, and her property8.17 devolved first to him, and on his death to their son, Walter.  John Dauntsey, husband of Elizabeth, died in February, 6 Henry IV (1403/4).8.18  His inquisition shows that he held property in London as above, also a third part of the manor of Mendesdene in Hertfordshire, and the manors of Marden, Smythcote, Dauntesey, Winterbourne Dauntesey, Bremelham, and Willesford, in Wiltshire.  John of Dauntesey was followed by his son, Walter, who was 14 years old at the time of his father's death.  Walter married early, but all we know of his wife is that her Christian name was Thomasia, and that she and her husband had no children.  He died in the year 1420, at the age of 22, and was buried before St Mary's altar in Dauntsey Church.  In his will8.19 he mentions his wife, Thomasia, and his uncle, Edmund Dauntsey, who was at the time alive.  He directs that an almshouse be established in Dauntsey, wherein five poor men and women are to be maintained for ever to pray for his soul.  To Dauntsey Church he left a missal, a gradual, a chalice, and some vestments.  From Walter's post- mortem inquisition8.20 we learn that his heiress was his sister, Joan, who at the time of her brother's death was aged 26 years and more.  Joan was then the wife of Sir John Stradling, whom she married after the death of her first husband, Sir Maurice Russell, of Kingston Russell, Dorset.  Sir Maurice's first wife was Isabel, daughter of Sir T. Chelrey, by whom he had a son and two daughters.8.21  Sir Maurice was buried in the tomb of his first wife, at Derham, Gloucester.  Joan Dauntsey was the last of the Dauntseys who owned the manor; but a younger branch of the family continued the name in the county, and from them descended the Dauntseys of West Lavington, one of whom, Elizabeth Dauntsey, was second wife of Sir John Danvers, the regicide.

Joan Stradling (Dauntsey)

On the death of Sir John Stradling, Joan Dauntsey took a third husband (circa 1438), John Dewale, whom she survived, and on his death resumed the name of Stradling.  Her inquisitions,8.22 state that her heir is her son, Edmund Stradling, aged at the time of her death 28 years and more.  Her eldest son, Richard Stradling, died childless before his mother.  Sir John Stradling's inquisition is No. 16 of 13 Henry VI (1434).  In right of his wife he held the above-mentioned Wiltshire manors.  His heir is his son Richard, aged 12 years and more.  Joan and her third husband, John Dewale, are buried under an alabaster slab before the altar of Dauntsey Church.  On it they are represented at full length, he in armour.  Round the margin of the slab runs a now almost obliterated inscription:

'Hic jacet Johannes Dewale armiger et D￱a Joha￱na uxor ejus quondam uxor D￱i Mauricii Russel militis, qui quondam Johannes Dewale obiit mense .  .  .  die ultimo MCCCC .  .  .  III.  Et prefata Johanna obiit in primo die a￱o D￱i .  .  .  Quorum aiabus p'pcietur Deus.  Amen.'

Above her head are the arms of Dauntsey, above his head are those of Russell, but the Russell chevron only can be now distinguished; the cross crosslets are worn away.  It is remarkable that the arms of the first husband should be introduced, and that the inscription makes no mention of the second husband, Sir John Stradling.

STRADLING FAMILY

Coleshill Family

Sir John, Joan's second husband, was second son of Sir William Stradling, of St Donat's, by Isabel, daughter and heir of Sir John St Barbe, of Somersetshire.  Sir John died about the year 1434, leaving a son, Edmund Stradling, aged 28 and more at the time of his mother's death.  Edmund was Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1452-53 and he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Renfrew Arundell, of Lanherne, by Joane, daughter of Sir John Coleshill, whose arms, with those of Arundell, are quartered on the Danvers shield, and side by side with them is placed the shield of Carminowe, from a daughter of which ancient house, Danvers and Arundell have a common descent.

Scilly Isles

Leland, in his account of his journey, in 1540-42, through Wiltshire to Devon and Cornwall, writes: 'One Davers, a gentleman of Wiltshire, whose chief house is at Dauntsey, and Whittington, a gentleman, of Gloucester, be owners of Scylly, but they have scant 40 markes a yere of rentes and commodities of it.'  Canon Jackson notes on this: 'In the fifteenth century the Scilly Isles were held under the crown by the family of Coleshill, of Dulo, Cornwall, at the rent of fifty puffins, or 6s. 8d. per annum.  The heiress of the Coleshills married Sir Renfrew Arundell, of Lamburn, knight.  The heiress of the Arundells married, first, Whittington, and secondly, Sir Edmund Stradling, then owner of Dauntsey.  Their grand-daughter, Anne, brought the Dauntsey estate, with Scilly and the puffins, to Sir John Danvers by marriage, and their grandson, Silvester Danvers, who died in 1551, was probably the Davers alluded to by Leland.' 8.23

In the works to which references are subjoined,8.24 the line of descent of Danvers from Arundell is not uniformly given, but no account of the descent can be correct which does not recognise the common descent of Danvers and Whittington from Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Renfrew Arundell and Joane, daughter of Sir John Coleshill, for it is matter of history8.25 that Danvers and Whittington were joint heirs of the Scilly Isles, and that they derived their inheritance from the Coleshills, the ancient possessors of the isles.  The descent, as given by Canon Jackson, is confirmed by a case which came before the courts in the reign of Henry VIII.8.26  The case was between William Courtenay, esquire, Anne Danvers, widow, and Thomas Whittington, esquire, at the suit of Robert and Richard Bray, regarding the right of presentation to Lanyvett Church.  Anne is called daughter of John, son of Elizabeth, daughter of Renfrew Arundell, and sister to Renfrew, father of Edward Arundell.  Thomas Whittington is son of John (Whittington), son of the said Elizabeth.  Elizabeth married first Whittington, by whom she had a son, John Whittington, and secondly Edmund Stradling, by whom she had a son, John Stradling.8.27

Elizabeth had a third husband, William Lygon, who was alive in 1465.  Edmund, her second husband, died in 1460.  Pardon Roll of 1 Henry VIII (1485),8.28 affords further evidence regarding the descent of Anne, wife of Sir John Danvers.  She is there called daughter and heiress of John Stradling, formerly of Dauntsey, cousin and one of the heirs of Joan (Colshill), formerly wife of William Houghton, and cousin and one of the heirs of John Colshill, formerly of Bevenmy, and one of the heirs of Edward Arundell, formerly of Tremodart.  Tremodart belonged originally to the Hiwis family, whose heiress, Emmeline, widow of Sir Robert Tresilian, John Colshill married.

The manor and arms of Carminowe came to the Arundells by the marriage of Sir John Arundell, ancestor of Sir Renfrew, with Elizabeth, one of the heiresses of Sir Oliver Carminowe.

Sir Ranulph de Blanchminster

Before continuing the history of the Stradling family, it may be interesting to notice briefly the descent of the Coleshills,8.29 whom the Stradlings represented.  During, or before, the reign of Henry II, a family named Blanchminster (de Albo Monasterio) were settled at Bevamy and Stratton in Cornwall.  The Blanchminsters largely increased their patrimony by marriage with the heiress of another ancient Cornish family that of Bauceyn.  In the time of Edward I, Ranulph de Blanchminster held the castle of Ennor by the service of finding twelve armed men to keep the peace in the isles of Scilly.  He paid yearly to the crown 300 puffins, or 6s. 8d.  Sir Ranulph lived at Bynaway in the parish of Stratton, and lies buried in Stratton Church, where his effigy is still to be seen laid along in one of the windows of the north aisle, habited like a Knight Templar, his legs across.  Another Ranulph was member for Cornwall in 1314, and his descendant John was member in 1373.

Emmeline Hiwis and Sir John Coleshill

Sir John de Blanchminster, dying towards the end of the fourteenth century without issue, his estates passed to Emmeline, only daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Hiwis (Hwyshe), who had married Alice, daughter of Sir Ralph Blanchminster, and aunt to Sir John.  Emmeline married first Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and, secondly, Sir John Coleshill, to whom in the year 1393 Guy de Blanchminster, Rector of Lanfallos, released all rights in the manors of Stratton and Binamy.  Sir John Coleshill, son of the above, was killed at the battle of Agincourt in the year 1415, leaving by his wife, daughter of Courtney, a son, on whose death without issue the estates passed to his sister Johanna, who was married, first, to Sir Renfrew Arundell, a younger son of the Lanherne8.30 family, secondly, to Sir John Nanfant, and thirdly, to Sir William Houghton.  Sir Renfrew (or Remfry) had two sons, Sir Renfrew, who succeeded him, and John, Bishop of Lichfield and then of Exeter.  Sir Renfrew had a son, Edward, who died without issue, and was succeeded in the estates by the two sisters of his father, one of whom, Elizabeth, married, first, Thomas Whittington, and then Edmund Stradling.

EDWARD STRADLING

Edmund Stradling died in the year 1460; his post-mortem inquisition (No. 12 of 1 Edward IV, 1461) shows that he held the same manors as his father, Sir John, and, in addition, those of Castlecombe, Pertenall, and Trowe.  His heir is his son John, aged 11 years and more.  John Stradling, son of Edmund, died ten or eleven years after his father, whose manors he retained.  John's inquisition is No. 21 of 11 Edward IV (1471).  His heir is his daughter Anne, the future 'lady of Dauntesey,' aged 2 years.  She, however, was deprived for a time of the heirship to the estates by the birth, after her father's death, of a brother, who was named Edward.  Alice Langford, the mother of Anne and Edward, belonged to the family of Langford of Berkshire, with whom, as we have seen,16 the Dauntsey family were closely connected by marriage.  She was probably the sister of the Thomas Langford who, as we learn from the post-mortem inquisition of his father Edward (No. 38, 14 Edward IV), was 34 years of age in the year 1474, and who, as we learn from the Coram Rege Roll of 2 Richard III (1484), was holding the manor of Merden, Wiltshire, in trust for Edward Stradling during his minority.

Abduction by Richard Pole

After her first husband's death, Alice Stradling married Richard Pole of Isleworth, and till the time of her second marriage had perforce acquiesced in the guardianship of her son Edward by Henry Danvers, the nominee of the trustees whom Richard Fowler by his will appointed (see Will of Dame Sybil Danvers in Chapter Six).  Richard Fowler had somehow, probably by purchase, obtained the wardship and marriage of the young Edward Stradling from the Abbey of Malmesbury, from which the Stradlings held the manor of Dauntsey, and in his will Fowler directed that Edward Stradling should be married to his daughter Joan Fowler when she became 15 years of age.

But Richard Fowler had forgotten, or perhaps he did not know, that the young Edward had another suzerain, the King, from whom he held, in virtue of a gift of Edward III to his ancestor John Dauntsey, the manor of Merden.8.31  Richard Fowler's trustees or executors took possession of Edward Stradling and handed him over to the guardianship of Henry Danvers, whose house was in the parish of St Vedast in Faringdon Ward, doubtless with the intention that when Edward came of age he should be married to Joan Fowler.  But in the meantime his mother, Alice Stradling became the wife of Richard Pole, and on June 27, 1483, Richard Pole, in all likelihood incited thereto by his wife, seized and carried off young Edward from his guardian's house in Faringdon Ward.  On this happening, Henry Danvers brought an action against Richard Pole, alleging that by the abduction of his ward he had suffered a loss of at least £1,000.  The case came into Court.  'Richard Pole, late of Islylworth, in Co. Midd, Esqre., was attached to answer to Henry Danvers of plea why with force and arms he took away Edward Stradling, kinsman and heir of Edmund Stradling, being under age, whose custody and marriage belong to the said Henry.' 8.32

On the side of Henry Danvers the descent of the young Edward is shown, and that he held his manor of the Abbot of Malmesbury, that Richard Fowler had become duly possessed of the wardship which he by his will had made over to Henry Danvers.  Richard Pole, in reply, shows that, in virtue of the minor's possession of the manor of Merden, which Edward held by the yearly rent of a rose of Thomas Langford, Alice, the boy's mother, had him in custody until Henry Danvers took him away.  Clearly an arrangement had been made in the lifetime of John Stradling under which Thomas Langford had been enfeoffed to the manor of Merden in order that he might, with Alice his sister, have custody of the boy during his minority.  The hearing of the case was postponed, and we have not been able to discover in what way it ended.  The village tradition is that the boy was not long after living with his mother at Dauntsey, and that they were murdered in the manor-house.  As we shall find, the probable date of his death was in the first half of the year 1488, when he would be about 16 years of age.

Murder of the Stradling Family

The tradition in question is related by Aubrey in his History of Wiltshire, but his able editor, Canon Jackson, was not able to meet with any other written account of the murder, nor was he ever able to find elsewhere the most remote allusion to it.  However, writes Canon Jackson, the 'tradition still lives in the parish of Dauntsey, not only vivens, but vivax: though probably now as unlike the original truth as any tale could well be that has been flitting from village mouth to mouth for nearly 400 years.  The popular version appears to be that the father had gone to Parliament and had left his wife and son under the parson's charge; that he and the parish clerk committed the murder as they thought undetected, but the ploughboy, hidden in the oven, saw and told; that the parson's name was Cuthbert; and that he was starved to death in a cage on a gibbet in a field close by the Parsonage.  All this, however, presents nothing in aid of Aubrey's story.  No such name as Cuthbert appears either in the lists of incumbents of Dauntesey or in the register of the clergy of Wiltshire about the period.  The person who seems to have been Rector of Dauntesey when the crime was committed was John Jones, rector from 1465 to 1503.'

Is it not probable that the story of the murder had its rise in the quarrel regarding the guardianship, and possibly in some attempt made at Dauntsey to recapture the boy from his mother?  As regards the story of the murder of the Stradling family, we might let the story pass without further notice, regarding it, as does Canon Jackson, simply as the outcome of village gossip, repeated from generation to generation.  But since Aubrey's time the story has been marvellously developed, and, as recently told in print, reflects cruelly upon an honourable and honoured family.  All that Aubrey knew and said is as follows: 'Here was a robbery committed at the manor-house on the family of the Stradlings; he (Sir Edward) and all his servants, except one plowboy, who had hid himself, were murthered.'  How vastly different is this from the story as we have it told in Mr Walter Chitty's History of the Long Family, which was published in the year 1889.  There, instead of Aubrey's simple story of robbery and murder at the Dauntsey manor-house, we learn that, long before Aubrey's time, Sir John Danvers, who married Anne Stradling in the year 1487 had been openly accused of implication in the murder, and that the deed was done by his retainers or at his command.  That the Long family cherishing this belief, bitter enmity grew up between them and the Danvers family, and culminated in the murder of Walter Long in the year 1594 by Henry and Charles Danvers.  The story even goes so far as to hint that Anne Stradling may have known something of the deed.  'Whether,' writes Mr Chitty, 'Anne knew anything of the matter will probably never be known, but it is probable she did not.  Be this as it may, she died eventually, and also Sir John Danvers, and their secret, if they had one, died with them.'  Truly one need not wonder at any development of a simple story in the comparatively benighted period between Edward Stradling's death and the time when Aubrey wrote, if in these later and more enlightened days it can thus have grown and changed.  One might have expected that an author, when making or repeating a charge of this kind against the Danvers family, would at least have acquainted himself with so much of the history of the family as the story told by him includes.  His story is that Joan Dauntesey brought Dauntesey to Sir John Stradling; that they had a very large family, who were all murdered excepting the daughter Anne, who was staying in London, and subsequently married Sir John Danvers.  Now, Anne Stradling was indeed the daughter of a John Stradling, but this John was the grandson of the Sir John who married Joan Dauntesey, and so far from Anne being one of a very large family, the only other child of the marriage was her brother Edward.  Moreover, the quarrel between the Danvers and Long families occurred in the lifetime of a Sir John Danvers, who was great-grandson of Sir John Danvers and his wife, Anne Stradling.  Let it, too, be noted that the story of the robbery and murder, as Aubrey relates it knows nothing, hints nothing, of any implication of the Danvers family in the matter, and Aubrey's able editor, Canon Jackson, who thoroughly explored the local history of that part of Wiltshire, was never able to meet elsewhere with the most remote allusion to the murder.  We would add, were the story in its latest development true, and in any way connected with the Long catastrophe, we should almost certainly have found an allusion to it in the notes for the defence of her son, which Lady Danvers wrote shortly after the death of Walter Long in 1594.  In the account of that affair which is given at length in the journal of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, vol. i, which takes the point of view of opponents of the Danvers family, it is distinctly stated that the source of the provocation given by the Longs was unknown.  Further, if at the time of Edward Stradling's death and his sister's marriage, there was any outspoken mention, or even suspicion, of the implication of Sir John Danvers in the death of his brother-in-law, is it likely that Sir John would have been made Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1494, and of Wiltshire in 1503, that he could have married his numerous children amongst the leading county families of the neighbourhood, and, finally, that he and his wife should have passed together many years of married life in that affection and happiness which is evidenced by the language of his will, and by the inscriptions upon their tombs?  The Danvers account of the murder of Henry Long (later in this chapter) is that the quarrel arose from the misdoings of the Long family, and owing to murders committed by their servants.

SIR RICHARD POLE

But in reference to this matter an interesting question arises, and it is this-Who was Richard Pole, the second husband of Alice Stradling?  Was he the individual who subsequently married Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury daughter of George, Duke of Clarence?

Sir Geoffrey Pole

Richard Pole, husband of the Countess, was the son of Sir Geoffrey Pole, descended from an ancient family, the Pooles of Cheshire.  Sir Geoffrey's first wife was Edith, daughter of Sir Oliver St John, of Bletsoe, and half-sister to Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of King Henry VII, to whom therefore Richard Pole was 'nye of kin,' (see Chapter Six).  Sir Geoffrey's second wife was Bona, sister to Henry Danvers the guardian of Edward Stradling.  Moreover, there was this further relationship between the families-that Henry Danvers married Beatrice, daughter of Sir Ralph Verney and granddaughter of Sir Geoffrey Pole.

Marries Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury

Dugdale, in his Baronage of England, tells us that Sir Richard was a valiant and expert commander, who greatly served the King in the war with Scotland, and being a person of great accomplishments, was made chief gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince Arthur, and a Knight of the Garter.  Sir Richard married, or rather the King as a matter of policy married him to, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury and Warwick, daughter of the Duke of Clarence, and sister to Edward, Earl of Warwick.  Sir Richard died in the year 1504,8.33 leaving by his wife, the Countess Margaret, four sons and a daughter.  The Countess survived her husband many years, and 'the last of the Plantagenets' was in her seventy-third year cruelly murdered by order of Henry VIII, 'to secure his crowne, and to gayne crownes into his purse.'  Of her children, Henry, Lord Montacute, the eldest, was beheaded three years previously to his mother; Geoffrey and Arthur were imprisoned, while Reginald, afterwards the famous Cardinal Pole, had to flee for his life, but lived to become Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Pope's legate to England in the reign of Queen Mary.

Possible Marriage to Alice Stradling

And so we return to the question, was the Richard Pole, who about the year 1492 married Margaret Plantagenet, the same with the Richard Pole who in the year 1483 was the husband of Alice Stradling, the man who carried off the young Edward Stradling from Henry Danvers' house?  Richard Pole's age at the time of his marriage with the Countess is quite consistent with a previous marriage, for, so Sir John Oglander tells us, 'he wase very old when Henry ye VII. maryed him to ye Countis of Salisburie, she beinge a brave, spirited younge woman, hoping she should have no children by him, but having children, brought them to ye Coorte in white coates pourposely that Henry VII. might seem them.' 8.34  Nor at the period in question can any mention be found of any Richard Pole, a man of position, other than Richard, son of Sir Geoffrey Pole.  That Alice Stradling's second husband was a man of good station may be assumed from the fact of his marriage with her, and from his daring 'with force and arms' to carry off Edward Stradling from the house of Henry Danvers, an individual who had powerful friends.  Further, it must be considered that Richard Pole, the son of Sir Geoffrey, was closely connected with the Danvers family and was therefore quite in the circumstances which would bring about an intimacy with Alice Stradling.  Taking all the circumstances into consideration, it may be assumed with a considerable degree of probability that Richard Pole, the husband of Alice Stradling, was the individual who subsequently married Margaret Plantagenet.  Nor can objection be made to this view on the grounds that Richard Pole was a man of position too high to marry the widow of a country squire, for as a matter of fact, though he was of kin to the King, and though by his valour and accomplishments he subsequently raised himself to a high position in the Court of Henry VII, he does not appear at the time of the suit, in the reign of Richard III, to have reached any higher position than that to which he was entitled by his birth, for in the year 1485, the first of the reign of Henry VII,8.35 he was simply an squire of the body to the King on a salary of 50 marks annually, and in the following year, when he received pardon and release for all manner of offences, he is called 'Richard Pole, late of London.'  We learn from Harleian MS. 433, p. 181, that amongst other grants of the Crown, temp. Richard III (1483 - 1483), is one of July 11, 1484, to Richard Pole, one of the squires of the King's body, as reward for services rendered by him, 'the wardship, custody, and marriage of Edward Stradling, son and heir of . . . Stradling squier, until he is of full age.'  The circumstances of the grant confirm our view that Richard Pole husband of Alice Stradling, and Richard Pole husband of the Countess of Salisbury, were one and the same person.

ROBERT FITZHAMON IN GLAMORGAN

Jestyn, Lord of Glamorgan

And now to return to the Dauntsey family.  At the time when Milo Vetus Ceppus, from whom the Dauntsey family sprung, was still young, a notable person in the kingdom was Robert Fitzhamon, of the blood of Rollo and the Conqueror, a great noble and warrior, but perhaps best remembered as the founder of Tewkesbury Abbey, where, in the Abbey Church, he, with many of his descendants, lies buried.8.36  In the year 1091 Robert Fitzhamon, weary, it is said, of the court and a peaceable life, started on a fighting expedition into South Wales, and amongst the twelve knights who accompanied him was William le Esterling.  This le Esterling established himself in Glamorganshire, and from him sprung the L'Esterling, or Stradling family, whose authentic history in Glamorganshire reaches back to a very early period.  To this day, the castle of St Donat, standing out boldly upon the north shore of the Bristol Channel, attests the former greatness of the Stradling family, and it was a scion of the race, Sir John Stradling, who married Joan, the heiress of Dauntsey; and it was their great-granddaughter, Anne, who married Sir John Danvers, thus adding to his coat of arms the achievements of many an ancient race.

The old historian8.37 of Glamorganshire relates that 'In the year of our Lord 1091, in the reign of William Rufus, one Jestyn, the son of Gurgant, being Lord of Glamorgan, Rees ap Tewdyr, prince of South Wales, made war upon him.  Whereupon the said Jestyn, understanding himself unable to withstand Rees without some aid otherwise, sent one Eneon, a gentleman of his, to England to Robert Fitzhamon, a worthy man, a Knight of the Privy Chamber to the King, to retain him for his succour.  The which Robert being desirous to exercise himself in feats of war, agreed soon with him thereto for a salary for the same.  Whereupon Robert retained to his service for the journey twelve knights, and a competent number of soldiers, and went into Wales, and, joining there with the power of the said Jestyn, fought with Rees ap Tewdyr, and killed him and one Conan his son.

Fitzhamon wins Glamorgan

After which victory Robert minding to return home with his company, demanded from Jestyn payment according to the covenant.  The which to perform in all points the said Jestyn denied, and thereupon they fell out, so that it came to be tried by battle.  And because Eneon saw his master go from his promises, which he had concluded on his behalf, he forsook him, and took part with Robert Fitzhamon.  In the conflict Jestyn was slain, whereby the said Robert won the possession of the whole lordship of Glamorgan, of the which he gave certain castles and manors in reward of service to his twelve knights.8.38

Knights of Fitzhamon

And these knights were: William of London, Richard Greenfield, Pain Turberville, Robert S. Quintine, Richard de Syward, Gilbert de Humfreville, Roger de Berkerolles, Reginald de Sully, Peter le Soore, John le Fleming, Oliver de S. John, William le Esterling, whose ancestors came out of Danske to England with the Danes, and is now by shortness of speech called Stradling.'

Sir Paine Turberville and Sara of Coyty

But the story runs, that when Fitzhamon had endowed eleven of his knights, the twelfth Sir Paine (Paganus) Turberville demanded his share, to whom Fitzhamon replied: 'Here are men and arms, go get it where you can.'  So, with his men, Paine Turberville went to Coity and demanded of its lord Morgan, one of the princes of the land, that he should yield its possession.  Whereupon Morgan brought out from the castle his daughter, Sara, and passing through the army, offered to Paine the castle if he would marry her, and if he would not he besought Paine to meet him in single combat, that they two might decide the question, for why should the blood of others be shed?  Upon this, Paine, holding his naked sword in his left hand, gave it to Morgan, and with his right hand embraced his daughter, and so, shortly marrying, came to the lordship of Coity by true possession.  And to this the ruins of his castle still witness.

Stradling

But of the families of the twelve knights only that of the Stradlings had in the sixteenth century descended in the male line, and they having married with the Berkerolles and Turbervilles, carried the shields of those families upon their escutcheons, and with them that of the Justyns, who descended from Jestyn, the sonne of Gurgant, all which to this day the Danvers family have the right to bear, in virtue of the marriage of their ancestor, Sir John Danvers, with Anne of Dauntesey, the heiress of the Stradlings.

Fitzhamon Chronicle Studied

Such in brief is the story of the winning of Glamorganshire as told by the old chroniclers, but recent writers8.39 do not scruple to throw discredit upon many of its details.  Yet Jestyn-ap-Gurgant and Rees ap Tewdyr were unquestionably amongst the princes of the land in the time of William Rufus, and were of those whom Fitzhamon dispossessed; and it is quite probable that Fitzhamon, while following up the settled policy of the English against the Welsh, may have taken advantage of a quarrel between those princes with a view to the conquest of the land.  Indeed, there can be little doubt that Fitzhamon's action was altogether of set purpose, and that the King gave him the honour of Gloucester in order that he might undertake the conquest of Glamorgan.

Knights of Fitzhamon

Moreover, it is quite probable that some or all of the knights whom tradition names were veritably amongst Fitzhamon's companions.  This is almost certain as regards Sir Paine Turberville; and it is no mere legend that he won Coyty, and that he or his son married the heiress.  So, too, Sir William and Sir Roger Berkerolles held fiefs in Gloucester or Glamorganshire of Fitzhamon; 8.40 and we find the brothers and Sir Roger's sons, William and Robert, joining in a grant to the Abbot of Glastonbury.  From Fitzhamon's time, too, the Haweys, of Combe-Hawey, Somerset, held the manor of St Donat's until the time of Edward I, when their heiress carried it to her husband, Sir Peter Stradling.  Some countenance also is given to the story of the twelve knights by the fact that in the earliest list which we have (circa 1262) of the owners of the fiefs in Glamorganshire, seven of the number bear the names which are amongst those of Fitzhamon's companions.  They are Turberville, de London, Syward, Umfraville, le Soor, de Sylye, le Fleming.8.41

Turberville Family

As regards the Turbervilles, it is well authenticated that Sir Paine, great-grandson of the first Sir Paine, married Maude, daughter and heiress of Morgan Gam, one of the nephews of Justyn ap Gurgant, and therefore their son, Sir Gilbert Turberville, quartered the arms of Justyn.  Another Sir Paine Turberville married Wenllian, daughter of Sir Richard Talbot, and their great-grandson, Sir Richard Turberville, having no issue, entailed the lordship of Coyty to Sir Roger Berkerolles, who had married Katherine, Sir Richard's eldest sister.  This Sir Roger Berkerolles was son to William Berkerolles by his wife Phelice, one of the daughters of de Vere, Earl of Oxford.  Wenllian, one of the heiresses of Sir Roger Berkerolles, married Sir Edward Stradling, whose grandson, another Sir Edward was, as we learn from the post-mortem inquisition (1411) of Sir Lawrence Berkerolles, nearest heir to Sir Lawrence, being son of William Stradling, son of Wenllian, one of the sisters of the said Sir Lawrence.  Sir Edward Stradling was at the time aged 22 and more.  The same inquisition also tells us that Richard Turberville died childless, and seised of Coyty and other places, and that Lawrence Berkerolles was one of his heirs, as he was son and heir of Katherine, one of Richard Turberville's sisters.  Many notices of the families of Berkerolles and Turberville may be found in the indexes to Clark's Charters, etc., of Glamorgan.

STRADLING FAMILY

St Donat's

As regards the Stradling family, we have no well-authenticated information of their presence at St Donat's till the year 1317, when we find Edward Stradling holding one fief in Sancto Donato, and at the same time William Berkerolle held the neighbouring fief of East Orchard.  The Edward Stradling in question was the son of Sir Peter Stradling and his wife Julia, sole daughter and heiress of Thomas Hawey, of Compton Hawey, Dorset, Hawey, Somerset,8.42 and St Donat's Castle, Glamorgan.8.43  The Haweys, so says Mr Clark, had held St Donat's since the time of Fitzhamon, and in all probability one of them was his companion in the winning of Glamorgan.  The Sir Peter Stradling who married their heiress was, according to the chroniclers, eighth in descent from the William L'Esterling whom they, the chroniclers, reckon amongst the companions of Fitzhamon.  In the year 1314 Sir Edward Stradling (Stradling correspondence) did homage to the Abbot of Sherborne for Compton Hawey.

Strongbow and Gernon

In the year 1341 Sir Edward Stradlyng, lord of St Donat's, and his wife, Elena, made provision with William, Abbot of Neath, for an obit for their souls.8.44  Elena, or Eleanor, was the daughter and heiress of Gilbert Strongbow, a younger son of the Pembroke family; his mother was daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Gernon, hence the presence of the Strongbow (de Clare) and the Gernon coats amongst the Stradling quarterings.

Berkerolles, St Barbe, and Beaufort

Both Sir Edward Stradling and his son, Sir Edward, find frequent mention in the charters and muniments of Glamorgan.  The latter was sheriff of the county in the year 1367, and was member for Somersetshire in the year 1344.  He it was who married Wenllian Berkerolles, of East Orchard Castle, heiress to her brother, Sir Lawrence.  They had a son, Sir William Stradlyng, who married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir John St Barbe, and his wife, Margaret,8.45 and had three sons-Edward, the eldest, married Joane, daughter of Henry Beaufort, afterwards Cardinal; he died about the year 1453.  William, the third son, was ancestor to the Stradlings of Ruthyn.

Dauntsey

Sir John, the second son, was the Stradling who married Joan, daughter of Sir John Dauntesey, and heiress to her brother, Sir Walter.  Their eldest son, Richard, was born in the year 1422, so that we may place the date of the marriage at about the year 1420.  Sir John Stradling died in the year 1434, and his wife three or four years after married her third husband, John Dewale.  Some of the genealogists of the Stradling and Dauntesey families have fallen into strange errors regarding this Sir John Stradling: a favourite assertion is that after his wife's death he took holy orders, and became in 1448 Archdeacon of Llandaff, and this heedless of the facts that Sir John predeceased his wife, and died in the year 1434.  It is clear, on reference to Mr Clark's volumes of the Muniments of Glamorganshire, that Sir John Stradling had a contemporary, or perhaps two contemporaries, of the same name, who outlived him, and one of whom was Sheriff of Glamorgan in the year 1451.  Amongst the Glamorganshire deeds is one dated 1452,8.46 a grant of land in Coyty by Edmund Stradling; a note to the deed states that Edmund was son of Sir Edmund, of Winterbourne Dauntesey, son of Sir John Stradling and Joan Dauntesey.  The seal attached to the deed quarters 1 and 4 paly of six, a chevron (Stradling), 2 and 3, three bars undy for Dauntesey.  The Stradlings seem to have used two coats-the above, but more commonly paly of six on a bend three cinquefoils.  The elder branch of the Stradlings-the Stradlings of St Donat's-died out in the person of Sir Thomas Stradling, Bart., born in the year 1710, died, unmarried, at Montpellier, September 27, 1738.

DAUNTSEY

Village

To return to the village of Dauntsey, anciently Domec's Eye, an island belonging to Domec.  The church, which is some little distance from the village, is situated close to, almost upon, the east bank of the Avon.  On the east and south and partly on the west it is surrounded by the churchyard, but its northern face and the western face of the tower are within the private grounds of the adjacent manor-house.

Church

The church, dedicated to St James, consists of chancel and north chapel, a nave of four bays, with north and south aisles, north and south porch, and a western embattled tower.  The original church was Norman, and the north and south doorways remain 'with segmented heads and cushion capitals, with pearl ornaments'.8.47  The present church is mainly Early English, but it has been added to and altered during the Decorated and Perpendicular periods, and the whole fabric was restored in the year 1630 by Danvers, Earl of Danby, who added a north chapel to the chancel as a burial-place for himself.  'This is a very fine church,' writes the historian Aubrey, 'and hath had better luck in the late warres than any hereabout.'  The tower, or, at any rate, the upper part of it, was rebuilt by Danvers, Earl of Danby, who placed his coat-of-arms with coronet and supporters on its western face.  Shields bearing coats-of-arms of the family were at the same time placed below the battlements, three on each side of the tower.  Those on the southern face are, in the centre, Danvers, on either side Stradling and Nevill (fretty on a canton, a ship).  On the east, in the centre, the Danvers shield is repeated; on either side, Dauntsey, and a shield, much worn, which appears to be vairy, a chief .  .  .  On the north are, in the centre, Dauntsey, on either side, Brancestre, and a shield, much worn, which may be Stradling; the bend is quite distinguishable.  On the west face is Dauntsey, and on one side Courtenay, and on the other Nevill (a saltire).

The interior of the church has happily escaped modern restoration.  The ancient Perpendicular chancel screen, a portion of the old panelled oak roof, the pavement (excepting that of the chancel), and, above all, the very fine oak benches, remain; and these, with the remains of the painted glass in the chancel, and the ancient tombs on either side the altar, give to the church an old-time look, very refreshing to the visitor, especially to one who has been saddened by the brand new interiors of some of the 'restored' churches of the neighbourhood.  May Dauntsey Church long preserve this happy distinction!

The church contains many reminiscences of the former lords of Dauntsey, for besides their monuments, the family coats-of-arms are displayed on roof, and screen, and benches.  In the north-west corner of the church are portions of the doom picture, which probably once surmounted the screen.

The oldest monument in the church is the incised alabaster slab in front of the altar, which marks the resting-place of Joan of Dauntsey and her third husband, John Dewale.  The inscription is now almost illegible; so much as could be read of it in Aubrey's time has been already quoted.  The figures are so worn down as to be scarcely distinguishable.  Above Joan's head is the Dauntsey shield, and above her husband's is the shield of her first husband, Sir Maurice Russell.

Danvers Monuments in Dauntsey Church 

On the north side of the altar against the north wall is placed the freestone altar-tomb of Sir John Danvers and his wife Anne of Dauntsey, which forms the subject of one of our illustrations.  The tomb is 5 feet 9 inches in length, by 2 feet 2 inches across; it is covered by a slab of black marble, on which, cut in brass, are the full-length effigies of Sir John and Dame Anne.  Round the verge runs the inscription:

'Here lyeth buryed Syr John Danvers knyght sometyme lorde of this manor, and patron of this church in the ryght of Dame Anne his wyf, the which said Syr John the iiii. day of the monethe of January, deptyed thys lyfe too transitory the yere of our Lord God MCCCCC. and XIIII.'

At the four corners of the slab are placed shields as follows: Above Sir John's head, Brancestre quartering Verney.  The arms are two bars, in chief two bucks' heads cabossed.  We have already explained (Chapter Seven) that these are the arms of de Langelee, which were assumed by Verney of Byfield, whose heiress was the first wife of John Danvers, of Calthorpe.  His children by both his wives continued to bear the arms of Brancestre in the place of Danvers; but while those of Alice Verney quartered her arms, the children of the second marriage, those of Joan Bruley, quartered the Bruley arms.  Thus, from the record8.48 which we have of the conferring of knighthood on Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, and his half-uncle, Sir William Danvers of Chamberhouse, we learn that Sir John's arms were: Quarterly 1 and 4 argent on a bend gules three martletts or winged vert; 2 and 3 gules two bars or, in chief two bucks' heads cabossed of the second; over all a crescent for difference.  Crest two hands conjoined in pile, argent.  Sir William's arms were 1 and 2 as above, 2 and 3 ermine on a bend gules three chevrons or (Bruley).  Aubrey, in his History of Wiltshire, calls the Verney arms those of Barendes, or Barrandyne (Barrantyne).  But the Barrantyne family never bore such arms, and Aubrey's authority was, as we learn from the MS. of his editor, Canon Jackson some comparatively modern shields which were in the abbey church of Cirencester, and were intended to illustrate the alliances of the Danvers family.  Under the one in question was written Barrandyne, but the names placed under three or four of the other shields were also wrong, and it is probable that the work was that of some ill-informed local genealogist.  In Lansdowne MS. 209, the arms are given as those of Chevauchesul, but had they been such, they would have been borne by the children of both Alice Verney and Joan Bruley.  It must be remembered that we have Vincent's high authority for the shield being that of Verney.  At Sir John's feet, the same impaling Stradling quartering Dauntsey.  Above Dame Anne's head is Stradling quartering Dauntsey; at her feet, Brancestre and Verney impaling Stradling and Dauntsey.  It is noticeable that the bars upon the Dauntsey shield are nebuly, and this is also so on Dame Anne's brass; but on the shields represented in the windows, on Joan of Dauntsey's monumental slab, and elsewhere in the church, the bars are wavy.  They are so also on Dame Anne's seal appended to a charter now in the possession of the British Museum.8.49

The south and west faces of the tomb are richly panelled; the panelling of the east end of the tomb, if ever present, is now destroyed.  Upon a shield carved on the west face are the Dauntsey arms.  Two shields on the front of the tomb bear respectively the Brancestre arms, and Brancestre quartering Verney.

Above the tomb of Sir John Danvers and his wife is a window of four lights, once richly filled with coloured glass, of which, however, but little now remains.  Each light is divided into three compartments, in the uppermost of which in the first light is Brancestre quartering Verney, and impaling Stradling quartering Dauntesey.  In the middle compartment in Aubrey's time was the picture of a king holding the head of a young king in his hand; in the lower compartment were, so Aubrey states, the representations of four 'lovely' boys, 'resembling their father,' kneeling in gowns with wide sleeves.  Over their heads a scroll:

'Sancte Fredismunde ora pro nobis,'

and this scroll explains the meaning of the figure which Aubrey calls a king carrying a young king's head.  The picture was no doubt intended to illustrate the legend of St Fredismund, which will presently be noticed.

In the second light in the upper compartment is a shield, Brancestre quartering Verney.  In the central compartment 'our Ladie'; on a scroll from our Lady:

'Ecce ancilla D￱i fiat michi secundum verbum tuum.'

Underneath a picture of Sir John Danvers, a handsome young gentleman kneeling in armour, over which is his coat-of-arms; on a scroll:

'Sancta Dei genitrix semper virgo Maria, ora pro nobis.'

The scroll only remains (1890), with the shield and a part the robes of our Lady.

In the third light, upper compartment, is a shield, Stradling quartering Dauntsey; in the central compartment, 'Angelus Annuncians,' under Dame Anne kneeling.  'Over, her cloathes, her coate of arms.'  On the scroll:

'Intercede pro nobis ad Dominum .  .  .'

The face only of the angel remains (1890), and is very beautiful, as is also the colouring of that portion of the robe which is left.

In the fourth light, the arms, as in the first light, are repeated; beneath is the figure of St Ann kneeling; very little of the figure is left.  'Below are four or five daughters kneeling;' only three of them remain (1890) and of these the head of only one.  On the scroll:

'Sancta Anna ora pro nobis.'

In the limbe (margin) at the bottom this inscription:

'Ai￣bus Johannis Danvers militis et Dm Anne .  .  .  pro aiabus fili￵r fili￣rque suaru .  .  .  Anno Dni MCCCCCXX .  .  .'

The crescents are in all the Danvers' coats in the shields, showing that Sir John was of the second house of Danvers.

The window opposite, on the south side of the chancel, has also four lights in which are the 'entire pictures of Sancta Magdalena, Sta Katherina, Sta Margerita, and Sta Dorothea with her basket of roses; overthwart everyone a scroll, in which "As please God so be it." '  In the second light is a shield, Dauntsey quartering Brancestre, and impaling Hungerford, beneath which is written:

'Rectoris .  .  .  Benefactorum .  .  .  hujus fenestri 1525.'

George Herbert

Probably these windows were all perfect when the sweet singer of the house of Herbert, newly married to Jane, the great-great-great-granddaughter of the first Danvers of Dauntsey, was staying in the old manor-house, and was accustomed to muse and pray within the adjoining church.  Above the tombs of his wife's ancestors he saw the picture of St Fremund carrying in his hands his head, of Sir John Danvers kneeling in prayer beneath the figure of the Blessed Virgin, with the scroll:

'Sancta Dei genitrix semper virgo Maria ora pro nobis.'

There, too, were, with Sir John, the representations of his sons-'the young and old'-and there, too, he saw St Dorothea with her poesy of roses, and above her head a scroll with the words, 'As please God so be it.'  And with all this before him, George Herbert composed the hymn, 'To all Angels and Saints,' which may well rank amongst the most beautiful of his compositions:

'O glorious spirits, who after all your bands, 

See the smooth face of God, without a frown

Or strict commands;

Where everyone is king, and hath his crown,

If not upon his head, yet in his hands:

Not out of envy or maliciousness

Do I forbear to crave your special aid.

I would address

My vows to thee most gladly, blessed Maid,

And Mother of my God, in my distress:

Thou art the holy mine, whence came the gold,

The great restorative for all decay

In young and old;

Thou art the cabinet where the jewel lay:

Chiefly to thee would I my soul unfold.

But now, alas! I dare not; for our King,

Whom we do all jointly adore and praise, 

Bids no such thing:

And where His pleasure no injunction lays

('Tis your own case), ye never move a wing.

All worship is prerogative, and a flower

Of His rich crown, from whom lies no appeal

At the last hour:

Therefore we dare not from His garland steal,

To make a posy for inferior power.

Although, the, others court you, if ye know

What's done on earth, we shall not fare the worse,

Who do not so;

Since we are ever ready to disburse,

If any one our Master's hand can show.'

On the south side of the altar is a canopied recess, within which is a raised tomb, above which, against the wall, is a brass plate to the memory of Anne Danvers.  She is no doubt buried with her husband beneath his tomb, and the history of the plate, suggested by Canon Jackson (MS. notes), is that Anne placed it during her lifetime within the recess belonging to a then existing tomb, probably that of her grandfather, Edmund Stradling.  But some of the ornaments of the tomb are of a date later than the period of Edmund Stradling, and not improbably the present canopy and its supporting pillars were added during the lifetime of Anne Danvers.  Comparison of the tombs in Dauntsey and Broughton Churches shows the likeness between this tomb and that of the Edward Fiennes, who married the daughter of Anne Danvers, and died in her lifetime.

On the brass8.50 within the recess Dame Anne is represented kneeling between, on her right hand, a representation of the Holy Trinity, and, on her left, the shield of the Dauntsey family.  Over her head her name, Anne Danvers, is inscribed, and from her hands uplifted in prayer a scroll bearing the words, 'D￱e miserere mei.'  Beneath is the inscription:

'What vayleth yt riches or what possession

Gyftes of high nature, nobles in gentry

Daftenes depuryd or pregnant pollyey

Sith prowess, sith power, have theyr progression

Fate it is fatall on short succession.

That world hath no thing that smellith not frealtie

Where most assurance, is most unsuertie.

Here lieth Dame Anne, the lady of Dauntsey

To Syr John Danvers spowse in conjunction,

To Syr John Dauntsey by lyne discencion

Cosyn and Heire; whose herytage highlye,

Fastely be firmed in Christe his Mancion.'

Upon the canopy are the words:

'I pray you of your charity, and in the worship of ye Trinitie, for an sole saye a Pater Noster and an Ave.'

The initials A.D. appear in several places on the tomb.  In the centre of the canopy is the Dauntsey shield, (per pale or and argent, gules three bars undy) supported by angels; to the left of this is a shield bearing the arms of Dauntsey, impaling [1] and [4] Arundel quartering, [2] Carminow, and [3] Coleshill.  On a corresponding shield on the right-hand side is Dauntsey impaling Courtenay.

In the east window was once a shield displaying the arms of Thomas Danvers (eldest son of Sir John and Anne Stradling), quartering Dauntsey impaling those of his wife, Margaret Courtenay, over it 'Danvers, Dauntesey, and Courtenay.'  On another shield the arms of Sir Walter, afterwards Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury, and his wife Susanna Danvers.  All of the coloured glass of the east window has disappeared.

'On the north side of the chancel is,' writes Aubrey, 'a handsome burying-place rayled with iron, which was built by the Earle of Danby; wherein lye buried 1, his father, old Sir John Danvers, 2, the Earl of Danby-who was, my cousin Villiers told me, page to Sir Philip Sydney-and 3, Lady Gargrave, the Earl's sister.'

In the centre of this chapel is the noble altar-tomb of white marble, which was, as ordered by him in his will, erected to the memory of the Earl of Danby.  The inscription states that he was second son to Sir John Danvers, and Dame Elizabeth daughter and co-heir to Nevil Lord Latimer, born at Dauntesey 28 April 1573, baptized in this church July 1 following, being Sunday.  Died January 20, anno 1643, and lieth here interred.  The inscription goes on to recount the Earl's employments and honours.  On the east side of the tomb is the epitaph on the Earl, which is said to have been composed by George Herbert although he died 10 years prior to the earl in 1633.

Legend of St Fremund

Let us for a short space revert to the subject of the first light of the window which is above the tomb of Sir John Danvers.  In the upper compartment of the light appear the arms of Sir John, and below these was, in Aubrey's time, the picture of 'a king holding the head of a young king in his hands'; beneath this picture appeared the likenesses of Sir John's four sons, and on a scroll above their heads:

'Sancte Fredismunde ora pro nobis.'

Aubrey does not appear to have been acquainted with the legend of the saint; at any rate, he does not refer to any connection between the prayer upon the scroll and the subject of the picture beneath which the scroll was placed.8.51

St Fredismunde, or Fremund, was a Saxon saint, a king, and a martyr, but not a saint of wide renown, and his body in the time of Sir John Danvers, rested beneath an almost neglected shrine in the priory church of Dunstaple, a place with which the Danvers family do not appear to have been at any time or in any way connected.  How, then came it about that St Fredismunde was, for a time at any rate, the patron saint of the Danvers family?  Was it because the scene of his life or martyrdom was near their paternal home at Bourton or Prescote?  Let it be remembered that Prescote signifies the 'priest's house,' and that Walter Gostelow, writing of Prescote in the year 1655, says: 'Some religious house I conceive it to have been; an altar and chappel I have known in it.'  Further, let us remember, that the house stands on slightly rising ground close to the confluence of the Charwell with a little stream which joins it from the north, that the ground around the house is very low, and that very possibly before the spread of cultivation in the neighbourhood the site was a wooded island, stranding up amongst swamps; just such a safe and retired place as a recluse would fix upon for his hermitage.  A little to the north of Prescote the affluent of the Cherwell is crossed by 'Broadmoor' bridge'; and the stream appears to have been called the 'Bradmere' in Leland's time, for he speaks of the confluence of the Cherwell and the Bradmere.  Further, before relating the legend of St Fredismunde, let us note that in his will Richard Danvers, of Prescote, father of John Danvers, of Dauntsey, who was, we believe, buried in his parish church of Cropredy, close to Prescote House, leaves 20 shillings to Sir Randle, chaplain of the chapel of St Frethmund, to pray for his soul; he also leaves '100 shillings to the works of the body or nave of the prebend church of Cropredy, and 20 shillings towards the repaid of the chapel of St Frethmund, where his shrine is situated.'  Richard's son, Sir John, of Dauntsey, leaves to Cropredy Church, St Frethmund Chapel, Culworth Church, and Dauntsey Church, 20 shillings each; while Ann, his wife, also makes a bequest of ten ewes 'to the chapel of St Frethmund, in Cropredy.'  From these bequests it would appear that there was formerly a chapel of St Frethmund in the church of Cropredy, and very likely another adjoining, or perhaps within, Prescote House.

The legend of St Frethmund, or Fremund, is as follows, and it is given here very nearly in the words of Mr Hardy:8.52

Fremund was the son of a pagan king who reigned in England, named Offa, and of his queen, Botilda.  He is baptized by Bishop Heswi, performs many miracles, and converts his parents.  Offa resigns the kingdom to his son, who, after governing a year and a half, forsakes the throne to serve God in a desert place, accompanied by Burchard (who afterwards wrote about his life).  He then embarks in a vessel, and is driven to a small island called Ylefage, where he lives seven years on fruits and roots.  Hinguar and Hubba ravage England and put St Edmund to death.  Offa sends twenty nobles to seek his son throughout England; on finding him they implore his aid.  He attacks and defeats the enemy, but while he is prostrate in thanksgiving for the victory, Oswi formerly one of Offa's commanders, who has apostatized, cuts off Fremund's head.  Blood spurts over Oswi, who implores absolution and forgiveness, which the head grants.  Fremund rises and carries his head some distance, where, a spring bursting forth, he washes his wound, falls prostrated in adoration and expires.  His body is buried at the royal mansion called 'Offechurch' about the year 865, and is removed to a place between the Charwell and the Bradmere sixty-six years after his death.  His body is again discovered by a Divine revelation in the time of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester.  It is then removed to a placed called 'Redic,' and a chapel constructed over it.  In later times the body is removed to Dunstaple.

The Acta Sanctorum (volume containing St Frethmund's Day, May 11) gives the legend very much as does Mr Hardy, and refers to the same authorities for its materials.  But Cressy, in his Church History,8.53 asserts that St Fremund was not the son of Offa, but the son of a Duke of the East Saxons called Algar and his wife Thova, that he lived a hermit in solitary retirement, from which he was called to assist his countrymen against the Pagans who ravaged the land in King Ethelred's reign, and that he was slain in the year 871 at Wydford in Warwick near Utchington.

We venture to think, in explanation of the names of the places mentioned in the legend, that St Frethmund lived in his early days in Warwickshire, and that, desiring to live a religious life, and seeking for a place of retirement, he found one not far off his paternal home, at Prescote; that there he lived, and that there his father's servants in their hour of need discovered him.  The legend states that he was buried, in the first instance, where he fell at Offchurch, and that some sixty years after his body was translated to Prescote, between the Charwell and the Bradmere, a place known at the time as the scene of his religious life and labours.  That next, when the first church at Cropredy was built, a shrine was prepared for him there, and to it the body of the saint was translated.  The 'Redic' of the legend we take to be the last two syllables of Cropredy.  Finally, about the year 1207, the relics of the saint were removed to the church of Dunstaple Priory, a translation which may with great probability be explained as follows:

From Morin's Chronicles of Dunstaple we learn that in the year 1206 Richard the Prior was, by the legate of the Holy See, made visitor of all men in religion in the See of Lincoln, in which Prescote was, excepting Templars, Hospitallers, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians, and doubtless the good prior set forth on his first visitation with an ardent wish to serve those over whom he was placed, and to bring back from his travels valuables, especially relics, for the benefit of his Priory church and of his brethren.  In the course of his journeyings he would visit the religious houses near Cropredy, Clattercote, Chaucombe, and others, and very probably the shrine of St Frethmund and its chaplain at Cropredy, and there, we imagine, he found an opportunity for the gratification of his pious wishes.  The village was a growing one, and sorely needed a new church, but could not find the funds wherewith to build.  But, urges Prior Richard, that can be arranged if you will consent to part with the relics of St Fremund, just keeping a bone or two to maintain the sanctity of the shrine.  However this may have been, so it happened, as we learn from the Chronicles of Dunstaple, that in the following year, 1207, an altar was dedicated in the Priory church to St Fremund; and the good deed of the Prior bore its fruits-the fruit for which, no doubt, he had looked-for in the chronicle of the year 1210 we read: 'Circa Pascha in Ecclesia de Dunstaple Dei et Beati Frehemundi Regis et Martyris miracula a Deo crebuerunt, quod longe et lat￩que diffusa est fama et multiplicatae sunt in populo gratiarum actiones.'  One only other notice of St Frethmund's shrine do we find in the chronicle, and that in the year 1275, when the brethren took from it 100 shillings wherewith to buy oats.  Possibly the fame and shrine of some other saint by this time had eclipsed at Dunstaple that of St Frethmund.8.54 At the time of the Reformation the whole of the conventual part of the priory church of Dunstaple was destroyed, leaving only the nave with its aisles, with the west front, to serve, as it still does, as the parish church of the town.  Neither in the post-Reformation records of Dunstaple nor of Cropredy can we discover any notice of the shrine or shrines of the Saxon king and martyr, St Frethmund.  It is right to add that Canon Wood in his notice of St Fremund in the Antiquary gives a quite different explanation of the translation of the saint's relics to Dunstaple, which, says tradition, was in consequence of a sign given in a dream to Edelbert, a pilgrim to the Holy Sepulchre.  He was to hasten homeward toward the river Charwell, where under a willow tree hard by a chapel where there were priests five he would rediscover St Fremund's body, and a further sign was that he should find at the place a milk-white sow with young pigs.  Edelbert obeyed the vision, and discovered the relics, which, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, were removed to Dunstaple-though why Dunstaple should have been chosen does not from the legend appear.

In a recently printed appendix to his paper, Canon Wood records an interesting discovery at Prescote House, embedded in the interior of which, and doubtless preserved from the older structure, is a sculptured stone of a sow with two pigs, which on inquiry the Canon was told was long since brought from Freeman's Holme.  'And there's no other place in these parts,' said an old man who had lived at Prescote, 'that's called by that name.'  Freeman's Holme, which Canon Wood identifies with Fremund's Island, is a flat field near Prescote House, an island still by virtue of a tiny branch of the Charwell which runs round it, and joins the main stream at Cropredy bridge.  And thus, with Canon Wood's good help, we have been able to explain how it is that in far-away Dauntsey Church, in a window above a Danvers tomb, is found pictured 'a king carrying a young king's head.'

Dauntsey Manor-House

The manor-house of Dauntsey is situated close to the church, a wide terrace intervening between it and the river Avon.  On the other side of the river is a broad expanse of meadow, doubtless the land to which the historian Aubrey (circa 1670) refers when he writes: 'Here is a stately park with admirable oakes; the ground, too, good.  The meadowes and pastures here are famous at Smithfield market; no better fatting ground in England.  Rich meadows watered by the Avon.'

The western and principal face of the house is comparatively modern, but at the back appear portions of an older house, which may very possibly belong to the manor-house of the Danvers period.

The last of the male line of Danvers who inhabited Dauntsey House was Sir John, the regicide, to whom it came on the death of his brother, Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby.  Sir John died at Chelsea, but his body was removed for burial to Dauntsey, and, as we learn from the parish register, was buried in the church on April 28, 1655.  The only other Danvers entries in the register are the following:

27 March 1654 Baptised Danvers S. of Danvers Allen.

The child was buried the 10 November following.

1655 Buried Alice wife of Thomas Danvers, Gent., May 9.

1668 Buried Elizabeth Danvers.

At the Restoration Sir John was attainted, but the greater part of his estates were restored to the family.  Dauntsey, however, was not of these, and it was granted in 1662 to James, Duke of York, one of whose sons bore the title, Baron of Dauntsey.  In 1685 the manor was granted to feoffees in trust for the Queen, Mary of Modena, and five years after, 1690, was granted by the Crown to Charles Mordaunt, Baron Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough.  The families of Danvers and Mordaunt were connected by the marriage of Silvester Danvers with Elizabeth, daughter of John, first Baron Mordaunt.

Dauntsey Church

On the floor of the chancel within the rails are two slabs, (1) Lieut.-General Harry Mordaunt, son of Lord Mordaunt, died January 5, 1719; and (2) Charles Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth, died June 16, 1814, aet. 56.8.55

From the Mordaunt family Dauntsey descended to Mordaunt Fenwick, Esq., by whom it was sold to Charles W. Miles, Esq., and his brother (Jackson).  The manor and estate were sold by the Miles family to Sir Henry Meux, Bart.

Rectors and Patrons

The following table is compiled from that of the Rectors of Dauntsey which hangs in the church porch, and from the Institutions of the Bishops of Salisbury, printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps in his Wiltshire Tracts:8.56

Year Name of Cleric Place Patron

1297 John de Hulle Dauntsey Unknown

1298 Ric. de la Deen Bremelham Chapel Ric. de Dauntsey

1303 Walter de Coleshull Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1303 Peter de Coleshull Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1303 Nich. Walrond Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1326 Thom. de Dauntsey Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1332 Robt. de Dauntsey Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1344 Corston Chapel John de Bradenstoke

1347 Bremelham Chapel Ric. de Dauntsey
and Chantry beatae
Annae de Smythcote

1347 Peter de Dauntsey Dauntsey Ric. de Dauntsey

1349 Smythcote Chapel Ric. de Dauntsey

1350 Corston Chapel John de Bradenstoke

1353 Bremelham Chapel John de Dauntsey

1360 Robt. Graythorpe Dauntsey Unknown

1360 Corston Chapel John de Bradenstoke

1376 Nich. Perkyn Dauntsey John de Dauntsey

1379 Rich. Scut Dauntsey John de Dauntsey

1384 Welpeley Chapel Philip Dauntsey and wife Margaret

1387 Smythcote Chapel John Dauntsey

1388 Welpeley Chapel Philip Dauntsey

1390 Welpeley Chapel Episcop. per laps.

1390 Bremelham Chapel John Dauntsey

1393 Corston Chapel Agnes, widow of W. Boteler

1393 Nich. Steere Dauntsey John Dauntsey

1385 Corston Agnes Boteler

1396 Welpeley Chapel Philip de Scutifer

1405 Win. Carryngton Dauntesey King Henry IV

1412 Welpeley Chapel Marye English, widow of Philip Dauntsey

1412 Bremelham Chapel The King

1412 Bremelham Chapel Walter Dauntsey Domisillus

1414 Bremelham Chapel Walter Dominus de Dauntsey

1417 Bremelham Chapel W. Hankford, and other feoffees

1418 Walter Leye Dauntsey W. Hankford, and other feoffees

1420 John Fairest Dauntsey W. Hankford, and other feoffees

1428 Corston Chapel Johanna Catermayn

1429 Corston Chapel Johanna Catermayn

1430 Bremelham Chapel John Stradlyng

1432 Wm. Bristowe Dauntsey John Stradylyng

1432 Corston Chapel Johanna Quatermayn

1433 Bremelham Chapel John Stradlyng

1439 Bremelham Chapel John Dewale and Johanna his wife

1439 Bremelham Chapel John Dewale and Johanna his wife

1442 Smythcote Chapel Episcop. per laps

1444 Bremelham Chapel Johans de Dauntsey, jure uxoris

1445 Bremelham Chapel John Dewale

1465 John Jonys Dauntsey Wm. Lygon and Elizabeth his wife by concession of feoffees of Edward Stradlyng

1502 Welperley W. Cotterell

1503 John Danyell Dauntsey Wm. (John?) Danvers, Mil.

1507 Corston Chapel Episcop. per laps

1508 Rich. Walker Dauntsey John Danvers, Mil

1517 John Gardner Dauntsey Anna Domina de Dauntsey

1521 Chantry of Edward Baynton, Mil
St Nicholas in
Ecclesia de Bromeham

1524 Corston Chapel Coll. of St Mary Magdalene, Oxon

1528 Henry Wilkyns Dauntsey Ann Danvers

1538 Cap. de Whelpeley John Ryngwood, Arm

1547 John Robynson Dauntsey Silvester Danvers

1554 Bromeham Andrew Baynton

1595 Bremelham Rex per laps

1611 Elias Woodruffe Dauntsey Henry, Earl of Danby

1627 Bremelham Henry, Earl of Danby

1642 Ric. Chesshire Dauntsey Unknown

1659 Robt. Davenant Dauntsey Unknown

1674 Willm. Clement Dauntsey James, Duke of York

1703 Bremelham Thomas Wharton, Rob. Welborne, pro hac vice

1712 Lawrence Brodrick Dauntsey

1713 Joseph Trapp Dauntsey Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke

1722 Peter Rival Dauntsey Charles, Earl of Peterborough

1730 Thom. Burgess Dauntsey Earl of Peterborough

1750 Robt. Atkins Dauntsey Executors of Charles, Earl of Peterborough

1757 Francis M. West Dauntsey The Bishop, by lapse

1800 George Bissett Dauntsey Charles, Earl of Peterborough

1824 G. A. Bidermann Dauntsey Unknown

1859 W. E. Elwell Dauntsey Unknown

1875 Arthur Law Dauntsey Unknown

1584-91 Bishops' Registers missing.

1597-98 Bishops' Registers missing.

SIR JOHN DANVERS AND ANN STRADLING

The sketch which has been given of the history of the families of Dauntsey and Stradling leads on to that of their representative, Ann Stradling, the 'Lady of Dauntsey,' who, by her marriage with John Danvers, transmitted to his descendants the blood, honours, and heraldic achievement of many ancient and knightly families of the West Country.

Sir John Danvers

Ann, as we learn from her father's post-mortem inquisition (No. 21 of 11 Edward IV, 1471), was born in the year 1469, and at the time of his death was his heir-a heritage of which the subsequent birth of her brother, Edward, for a time deprived her.  Sir John Danvers, her husband, was the second son of Richard Danvers, of Prescote, and was born abut the year 1455, a date which we with some certainty assume, since Richard, the elder brother, was, as we learn from their father's inquisition, born in 1451, or perhaps two or three years later.

Sir John was evidently the favoured son-possibly he was of a more vigorous and business-like character than his brother-anyhow, his father made him his executor, enfeoffed him of the Northamptonshire estates, and gave him the succession to those in Oxfordshire on his brother's death.  Before his death, Richard Danvers witnessed the marriage of his son John with Ann Stradling, and the birth of their heir.

Marriage

John Danvers and Ann Stradling were married on the 13th December, A.D. 1487, and in the marriage certificate Ann is called simply daughter of John Stradling, of Dauntsey.  This implies that her brother Edward was still living, for had he not been so she would have been called daughter and heir of John Stradling, or sister and heir of Edward Stradling.  It is almost certain that Ann's brother died within the next six or seven months, for in the deed dated 25 July 1488,8.57 which confirms the Culworth manors to her husband, she is called 'sister and heir of Edward Stradling, of Dauntsey.'

The marriage certificate of John Danvers and Ann Stradling has been preserved, and is a very curious and an almost unique document.  The certificate was written immediately after the ceremony of the marriage, and was no doubt placed, with the other family papers, in the muniment chest of Culworth manor-house.  There it remained till the manor passed away from the Danvers family towards the end of the eighteenth century.  Since then it has, with the other Culworth muniments, changed hands more than once, and was in the year 1893 purchased by the British Museum, where it now figures as 'Additional Charter No. 38875.'  The certificate sets forth that the marriage took place on December 13, 1487, in the chapel of the Holy Trinity, within the precincts of the College of St Martin-le-Grand.  The college was a house of Augustine canons, and, next to St Paul's was the oldest monastic foundation in the City.8.58  It was a liberty in itself, and had right of sanctuary within its precincts-a privilege which lasted long after the dissolution of the religious houses.  In the sanctuary Miles Forest, lately one of the murderers of the two princes in the Tower, died-rotted away piecemeal.  The precincts extended over the site of the General Post-Office, and adjoined those of the Grey Friars, now the site of Christ's Hospital.  The college was therefore close to Paternoster Row, where the Stradlings had a house inherited from the Beverley family, and it is quite possible that Ann Stradling was living there at the time, and that the chapel of the Holy Trinity was chosen for the marriage on account of its propinquity.

The certificate notifies that John Danvers, who is described as gentleman, and of the diocese of Lincoln, with his right hand took that of Anna, and said:  'I, John, take thee, Anna, to my wife, and pledge to you my faith.'  Then, having withdrawn his hand, Anna incontinently took John by her right hand, and said:  'And I, Anna, take thee, John, to my man and husband, and to this I pledge you my faith.'  And then they, having so said, and withdrawn their hands, kissed one another.

The certificate also sets forth the names of the worshipful and eminent gentlemen, dwellers in London, who, with many others, witnessed the marriage.  The names given are as follows:  Thomas Frowyk, Lewis Pollard, Richard Elyot, Thomas Ingylfeld (Englefield), Thomas Sabcotys (Sapcotes), Richard Langston, Thomas Marrow, Robert Brudenell, Edmund Tame, Edmund Bardesey, John Baff, Thomas Jakys, and William Malett.

Additional Charter 38875

In dei nomine Amen per presens publicum Instrumentum cunctis Appereat evidenter Quod Anno Domini Millesimo quadringentesimo octuagesimo septimo Indictione Sexta pontificatus Sanctissimi in Christo Patris et Domini nostri domini Innocencii Passe octavi Anno quarto mensis vero Decembris die decimotercio.  In quadam Capella sancte Trinitatis infra precinctum Collegii sancti Martini magni Civitatis London juxta Claustrum ejusdem Collegii situat' mei que Notarii publici subscripti et testium subscriptorum presencia Constituti personaliter Johannes Danvers generosus Lincoln' dioc' et Anna Stradlynge filia naturalis et legittima ut asseruit Johannis Stradlynge dum vixit de Daunsey Sarum dioc' nuper defuncti ubi et quando iidem Johannes et Anna palam publice et expresse dixerunt et affirmarunt tunc ibidem quod ipsi fuerunt et sunt concordati de matrimonio inter eos contrahere ac illud matrimonium coram me notario publico et testibus subscriptis tunc ibidem presentibus contrahere voluerunt ut dixerunt et contraxerunt in hunc qui sequitur modum videlicet dictus Johannes Danvers capiens dictam Annam Stradlynge per manum suam dexteram dixit eidem Ego Johannes capio te Annam in vxorem meam et ad hoc do tibi fidem meam et retraxerunt manus Et incontinenti tunc ibidem prefata Anna capiens dictum Johannem per manum suam dexteram dixit eidem sic Et ego Anna capio te Johannem in virum et maritum meum et ad hoc do tibi fidem meam et iterum retraxerunt manus et in hiis dictis et factis pariter osculati sunt ipse quoque Johannes eandem Annam uxorem suam et ipsa Anna dictum Johannem maritum suum hincinde nominantes et nominarunt Super quibus premissis omnibus et singulis prefati Johannes Danvers et Anna Stradlynge requisiverunt me notarium publicum subscriptum eis publicum vel publica conficere Instrumentum seu Instrumenta Acta fuerunt hec omnia et singula premissa prout suprascribuntur et recitantur sub Anno domini Indictione Pont' mense die et loco predictis presentibus tunc ibidem venerabilibus et Egregiis viris Thoma ffrowyk Lodowico Pollard Ricardo Elyott Thoma Ingylfeld Thoma Sapcotys Ricardo Langston Thoma Marrow Roberto Brudenell Edmundo Tame Edmundo Bardesey Johanne Baff Thoma Jakys et Willmo Malett generosis London' comorantibus Ac pluribus aliis testibus ad premissa vocatis specialiter et Rogatis.

Et Ego Willms Chaunte clericus Norwicen' dioc' publicus Auctoritatibus apostolica et imperiali notarius curie que cantuarien' procurator generalis premissis omnibus et singulis dum sic ut premittitur sub anno domini Indiccioni pontificatu mense die et loco predictis agebantur et fiebant una cum prenominatis testibus presens personaliter interfui ea que omnia et singula sic fieri vidi et audivi aliunde que occupatus premissa per alium scribi feci publicum et in hanc publicam formam redegi manu que mea propria me hic subscripsi ac signo et nomine meis solitis et consuetis signavi Rogatus et Requisitus in fidem et testimonium omnium et singulorum premissorum.

Witnesses to the Marriage

The names and lineage of the witnesses to the marriage are worthy of note.  They are described in the deed as worshipful and eminent gentlemen, dwelling in London.  And that the epithets were not misapplied may be judged of from the fact that, out of the thirteen witnesses who are named, eleven can be identified after a lapse of four centuries.  Thomas Frowyk (Sir) was of the ancient Middlesex family of that name, seated for many generations at Gunnersbury.  He was the son of another Sir Thomas Frowyk,8.59 of Gunnersbury.  The younger Sir Thomas was a lawyer.  Educated at the Inner Temple, he rose rapidly in his profession, and in the year 1502 was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.  He died in 1506, and was buried at Finchley.  His widow married Thomas Jakys, Esq.-no doubt the Thomas Jakys who was one of the witnesses of the Danvers marriage.  Thomas Frowyk was brother to the Sir Henry Frowyk who married John Danvers' first cousin, Joan, daughter of Sir Robert Danvers.

Lewis Pollard,60 afterwards Sir Lewis Pollard, is enumerated by Prince amongst the worthies of Devon-'the fragrant odour of his faithfulness and reputation perfumes his memory to this day.'  He also was a lawyer, and, like Sir Thomas Frowyk, rose to the position of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.  He died in the year 1540, but retired from the Bench some fifteen years before his death, and was succeeded by Sir Thomas Englefield, son of another of the witnesses.  One of his daughters married Sir Hugh Courtenay, of Powderham Castle, of the family into which Thomas, eldest son of John and Anne Danvers, was to marry.8.60  Richard Elyot, of the Devonshire family of that name, was also a lawyer, and of the Middle Temple.  He was raised to the Bench as a Justice of the Common Pleas in the year 1513.  Sir Richard made his will in the year 1520, and desired that he might be buried in Salisbury Cathedral, in the grave of Robert Elyot probably his son.  He died in the year 1522.  Thomas Ingylfield8.60 was the Sir Thomas Englefield who married Margery, John Danvers' sister.  He was twice elected Speaker of the House of Commons, and became Justiciar of Chester.  His son, Chief Justice Sir Thomas Englefield, followed Sir Thomas Frowyk on the Bench.  Thomas Sapcotys, the next-named witness, was of the family of that name long settled in Lincolnshire, Rutland, and Northampton.  He was, no doubt, Thomas Sapcotts of Burlegh, Northampton.  The Sapcotts were allied to the Tames,8.61 a Northamptonshire family, to which Edmund Tame, another of the witnesses, belonged.  Richard Langston, the next witness, was the Richard Langston, son of John Langston and Amicia Danvers-cousin, therefore, to the bridegroom.  Thomas Marow was also a lawyer, a Serjeant-at-law.  He was the grandson of Sir William Marow, Lord Mayor of London in the year 1456.  Thomas Marow8.62 was of Berkswell, Warwick.  He died in the year 1530, and was buried at Wolston, Warwick.  Robert Brudenell, afterwards Sir Robert Brudenell,8.63 was of the famous Buckinghamshire and Northampton family of that name, son of Edward Brudenell and Philippa Englefield.  He was a lawyer, and was made Chief Justice in the year 1520.  He married a cousin of John Danvers.  His first wife was Margaret Entwissell, of Stanton Wyvil, by whom he had issue.  His second wife was Philippa, daughter of Elizabeth Danvers and Thomas Poure.  He died in the year 1531, and was buried, with his two wives, in Dean Church, Northampton, where their monument remains.  Edmund Bardesey and John Baff we have failed to identify.  William Malett,64 the last of the witnesses, was the son of Thomas Malet, of the Malets of Enmore, Somerset.  He was dead in the year 1530, when his son and heir, Hugh, presented to the church of Enmore.

SIR JOHN DANVERS OF DAUNTSEY

Culworth, Sulgrave, and Prescote

Doubtless the bride and bridegroom left London not long after their marriage for their home at Culworth, and were warmly greeted on their arrival by old Richard Danvers, who was living close by at Prescote.  Two years after the marriage Richard Danvers died, and John Danvers became absolute possessor of the Culworth and Sulgrave manors.  Not till the death of his elder brother Richard, in the year 1505, did he become owner of Prescote manor and manor-house.  In the year 1494 John Danvers was still living in Northamptonshire, for he was that year Sheriff of the county; but shortly after he must have removed to Dauntsey, as in the year 1503 he was Sheriff of Wiltshire.

Contemporary Events

Let us connect this part of John Danvers' life with the history of the times, by bearing in mind that his marriage took place about two years after the battle of Bosworth, and the death of Richard III had placed Henry VII on the throne.  The Danvers marriage followed very closely upon that of the Lancastrian King with the Princess Elizabeth of York-the marriage which finally united the rival houses of York and Lancaster, and gave to the children of the King the hereditary right to the throne which in his own case was wanting.  In the year 1501, on the occasion of the marriage of the Heir-Apparent, Prince Arthur, John Danvers was made a 'knight of the sworde,' and the crest he bore, two hands conjoined, was probably a tribute to the occasion.

The year 1503, the year that John Danvers was Sheriff of Wiltshire, was that of the death of the Queen, and of the commencement of the intrigues on the part of the widowed King, who hoped by a second marriage to strengthen his position in Europe.  It was a time of peace at home, and of growing prosperity both to the middle classes-whether represented by the country gentlemen or the City merchant-and to the industrial classes also; for it was the policy of the King, as it was his natural bent, to encourage trade and commerce.

Deed Confirming the manor of Prescote to Sir John Danvers

In the year 1511, the feoffees of the manor of Prescote, Thomas Lovett and Thomas Langton, confirmed to Sir John Danvers and his wife Anne the said manor.  The seals are, unfortunately, imperfect, but the signatures of the feoffees are quite legible.  Amongst the witnesses we find the name of Thomas Lovett, son of the Thomas who signs the deed.

Death

In the year 1513 Sir John Danvers was again Sheriff of Wiltshire, and at this time a numerous family had grown up about him-four sons and six daughters.  Of the sons, the eldest, Thomas, was married to Margaret Courtenay, and three of the daughters were also married.  This, the year 1513, was the last of the life of Sir John Danvers; his lines had fallen to him in pleasant places, and as he paced the terrace which then, as now, intervened between Dauntsey manor-house and the Avon, and took counsel with his wife regarding their affairs, their children and estates, he had good reason to remember the many happy and prosperous years that they had spent together at Culworth, and Prescote, and Dauntsey, while the many sons and daughters growing up about them gave promise of the continuance of their line.  Sir John's will bears evidence to the confidence and affection which ruled between himself and his wife; it was made on January 2, 1514, and was proved in London on the 24th of the same month.  The inscription on his tomb tells us that he died on the 14th.

The Northamptonshire post-mortem inquisition of 1520 65 states that John Danvers Miles died seised of the manors of Culworth Mandeville, Culworth Pinkney, and Sulgrave Pinkney; it recites the trustees appointed, and that the manors were to pass to use of his son Richard, and failing him to the use of William Danvers, third son of John and Anne.  His heir is his son Thomas, of full age.  Anne, wife of John, holds and occupies the manors.

With reference to the above manors, the will illustrates the plan customary at the time when the testator wished to leave landed property otherwise than to his eldest son.  By a prior deed John Danvers had placed those manors in the hands of trustees, Sir Thomas Englefield, Sir Richard Fowler, and others, with a declaration that he desired after his death his second son, Richard, and his heirs male should have the use of them; and that failing these his third son, William, and his heirs male should enjoy the use.  And now, though he may not will away the landed property, he can will that his former declaration should take effect according to its full tenor, and the manors will therefore be transferred by the trustees to the use of the third son, William Danvers, and his heirs male.

It is noticeable, too, that there is no mention in the will of the eldest son, Thomas, but that he was present and agreed to the provisions is evidenced by his signature, which, as a witness, it attached to the will.  After payment of the legacies for religious purposes, and to his three unmarried daughters, John Danvers leaves all his personal property to his wife, desiring her to be 'good mother to her children and myn.'  Doubtless at the time of their marriage the manor of Dauntsey and other manors had been settled for life upon Ann, and at Dauntsey she seems mainly to have resided during her long widowhood.  And so John Danvers was laid to his rest in the sanctuary in the neighbouring church to the north of the altar, and there his wife erected to him, and to herself, the raised tomb which still exists, while in the window about she inserted the painted glass, of which, unhappily, but little remains.

Will

John Danvers, Knight (4 Holder).

In the name of God Amen.  The 2nd day of January 1514.  I Sir John Danvers Knight do make my last will in manner following :

I bequeath to my Mother Church of Sarum 3s. 4d., and to the Mother Church of Lincoln 3s. 4d.  Also to Cropredye Church, St. Frethemonde Chapel, Culworth Church and Dauntesey Church 20s. each.

Also I bequeath to my daughters Margaret, Susan and 'Costaunce' 'to help to marry them' £100 each 'if they be of good rule and disposicion, and to be ordered in their marriage by myn Executors.  And else not to have penyworth of my goodes.  Whereas there is a recovery had by Sir Thomas Englesfeld and Sir Richard Fowler Knights and others against me the said Sir John Davers and Dame Anne my wife by a "Write of entree in the post" of the Manors of Coulworth Maundevile, Coulworth Pynkney and Sulgrave Pynkney with their appurtenances in the county of North, as may appear by the records of the 2nd and 3rd year of the reign of King Henry the 8th, the intent whereof I have declared in a declaration signed and sealed by me bearing date the 11th day of December 3 Hen. 8 [1511] I now will that everything comprised within the said declaration do take effect according to the tenour thereof.'

The residue of all my goods I give to Anne my wife desiring her to be 'good mother to her children and myn.'

I make my Executors the said Anne and Richard my son charging the latter with my blessing to meddle with no manner of administration during his mother's life but with her advice,

Witnesses: Thomas Davers Esq., John Baker, clerk, Richard Barkeley gentleman and Harry Bagoot, with others.

Proved at Lambeth the 24th day of January, 1514.

(4 Holder)

Whereas Thomas Englesfeld, Richard Fowler Knts Edward Chamberlayne Thomas Langston John Fetyplace &c. &c. have recovered against me the said Sir John Davers and Dame Anne my wife by a 'writ of entree in the post' the manors of Culworth Maundevyle, Culworth Pynkeney, and Sulgrave Pynkney, as by the Records of Easter term 2 and 3 Hen. 8 may appear: my will is that the said Sir Thomas Englesfeld and his co-recoverers shall remain feoffees in all the premises to the use of me (Sir John Danvers) and of Dame Anne my wife for our lives; and after our decease to the use of Richard Danvers our son and of his heirs male, and for default of such issue to the use of William Danvers and John Danvers my sons for the term of their lives, and after their decease to the use of my heirs, and for default to the use of the right heirs of me the said Sir John Danvers.

DAME ANN DANVERS (STRADLING)

Widowhood

Anne Danvers survived her husband twenty-five years, and, from an expression which she uses in the first paragraph of her will, it seems likely that she had taken vows such as were common with widows in those days, and in token thereof wore the brown robe and ring of her vocation.  Doubtless so well endowed a widow, still but middle-aged, would have had many and urgent suitors had she not thus protected herself against all advances of the kind.  If in her will we read Ann's character aright, she was a masterful woman, quite able to manage her own estates, a prudent housekeeper, yet withal devout and charitable, a very lady bountiful amongst her poor neighbours, a careful, loving mother and relative, and a kind and thoughtful mistress.

Managing Estates

The Dauntsey estates, with those that had belonged to her husband in Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, were hers for life, and it would seem that she retained her interest in the Cornish estates which she had brought to her husband, for in the De Banco Roll of 21 Henry VIII (1529), concerning the advowson of Lanyvett Church, Ann Danvers, widow of John Danvers, is a party to the suit.  And besides these estates, she had others which had been bought from the neighbouring convents of Bradenstoke and Malmesbury, no doubt at the time when the religious houses, in anticipation of the coming storm, were converting into ready money those lands which they had power to sell.  Moreover, we see in the dispositions of her will that Ann Danvers had a thorough knowledge of the resources of her well-stocked farms, and we witness there also the careful mother stocking the farms of her younger sons, and the careful householder arranging for the maintenance of her dearly loved home, 'the house of Dauntesey,' and for the corn for those who should visit Culworth for the performance of her will.  And, as usual in those days, Dame Ann, a religious woman, provides for the repose of her soul-a thousand masses to be said by poor priests and scholars at Oxford, and one hundred shirts and smocks to poor folks about Dauntesey and Prescote to pray for her; gifts to relatives and friends for the same purpose; and at Dauntesey an honest priest for twelve years, with a stipend of £6 13s. 4d., to pray for her soul and for all Christian souls.  And we may notice that the priest whom she appoints is Sir Thomas Greenwoode, not the parson of Dauntesey, Sir Henry Wilkyns, whom in the year 1528 Ann, Domina de Dauntesey, had preferred to the living, and to whom she leaves the colt that she had bought at Somerford.

Prescote and Swerford

Ann Danvers seems to have lived occasionally at Prescote, which we know was at times the home of her early married life, a period of which a relic remains in the initials of her name, 'A.D.,' carved upon the screen of the Prescote chapel.  A curious hint of her journeyings appears in the will.  The legacy of the ten ewes which she intended for the shrine of St Frethmund is altered, and the ewes are given to the Church of Swerford, that her soul may be prayed for in that church.  Very likely she was in the habit of resting the first night at Swerford on her way from Prescote to Dauntesey, and remembering her visits to the village, is led to divert her gift from St Frethmund's shrine at Cropredy.

Family

During her widowhood, and before her death, great changes had taken place amongst Dame Ann's family.  Thomas, her eldest son, was dead, and Silvester, his son, was now heir to her estates, and to him she leaves all the household stuff, not otherwise bequeathed, in her house of Dauntesey.  He is married to Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Mordaunt.  Richard, her second son, is also dead, and lies buried near the Temple Church in London.  William, her third son, is married to Elizabeth Fiennes, and has two sons-John, the eldest, and Thomas, to whom Dame Ann makes a bequest.  She has long since, during the lifetime of her son Thomas, and by arrangement with him, secured the possession of the manors of Culworth and Sulgrave to William and his heirs.  John, her youngest son, is also married, and to him she leaves her farm of Tocknam.  Of her daughters, Dorothy, the eldest, has lost her first husband, John Fettiplace, and is now married to Sir Anthony Hungerford.  Elizabeth, the second daughter, is married to Sir John Abarowe, and has a daughter, Mary; and the third, Margaret, who was married to Edward Fiennes, has, since his death, married Thomas Nevell, whom Dame Ann makes one of her executors.  She remembers in her will her grandson, Richard Fiennes, who in due time will carry on the long line of his ancestry.  Ann, the fourth daughter, has also lost her first husband, Thomas Lovett, and is now married to .  .  .  Wykes, probably the Wykes who witnesses the will.  Susan, the fifth daughter, is the first wife of Lord Hungerford, and Constance, the youngest daughter, is married to John Staveley, and has a daughter, Dorothy.

Death

And so Ann, the lady of Dauntsey, dies, having accomplished her threescore years and ten, and is buried amongst her ancestors in the chancel of Dauntsey.  It may be on the south side of the altar, where possibly during her lifetime she had placed the inscribed brass which still remains, but more probably in her husband's tomb on the north side of the chancel.

Will

Her will runs as follows :

Will of Lady Anne Davers widow.  (1 Alenger.)

In the name of God, Amen.  The 20th of November, 31 Hen. 8 [1539].  I Dame Anne Danvers widow late the wife of Sir John Danvers Knt. 'in my pure widowhood being hole of mynde and of good Remembrance' do make my will as follows :

I bequeath to the Mother Church of Sarum xxs; to the high altar of the Church of Dauntesey xxs; to the Churches of Cropredy, Cowlworthe, Brynkworthe, Cristenmalforn, Seygrey & Brodsomerford 6s 8d each.

To my cousin Silvester Danvers I give all my household stuff (in my will unbequeathed) in my house of Dauntesey, my second bason and ewer of silver & my 2 salts gilt &c. &c. which must be left to the heirs male, and this plate to remain in the custody of my son Sir Anthony Houngerford until the said Silvester shall accomplish the age of 24 years.  If the said Silvester die then the plate to remain in the hands of the said Sir Anthony to the use of my son John Danvers, Provided that if the said Silvester will not permit my Executors to execute this my will or if he in any way trouble my sons William or John Danvers or my servant James Vanse or any other to whom I have given any of my lands or any annuities or annual rents as comprised in a pair of Indentures between my Lord Mordaunte and me, then the bequests made to him shall be void & shall remain to the use of my son John Danvers.

To my son John Danvers I give 2 good featherbeds and 10 kine of them that be at Tocknam.

I also give to my son John & to his wife my farm of Tocknam which I have by Covent Seale of the house of Bradenstoke.  I will that 200 of my sheep of my stock at Cowlwerth and Prescote be brought to Tokenam to the use of my said son John.  If my son John & his wife die without issue then I will that my son William Danvers have all the years yet to come in the same farm of Tokenam.

I will that my Executors suffer the tething of Seygreve which I have of the house of Bradenstoke to be occupied by the oversight of Sir Henry Wylkyns for maintenance of the house of Dauntesey.  To my son John all the young horses at Prescote at the time of my death.  One cow to each of the churches of Cropredy and Cowlworth.  And whereas I have given ten ewes to the chapel of St Frethmund in Cropredy, I now will that the said ewes be given to the church of Swerford that I may be prayed for there.  I give to my son Nevell one of my standing cups with the cover, also £20 that he borrowed of me.

I give to his young son William Nevell £10, and to my daughter Margaret his [sic] wife one of my best diaper towels, &c. desiring my said son to be good and assisting my Executors in the performance of this my will.

To my daughter Constance Staveley I give my kirtle of black damask &c.

To the preferment of Dorothy Staveley in marriage I give £10.

I give to my son John Abarro £10 which he borrowed of me, & to my daughter Elizabeth his wife I give a pair of fine sheets &c. also towards their daughter Mary Barow marriage £10 to pray for me.

I give to my son William Danvers my silver salt with the cover that is occupied every day at the second mass, to him also all the debts owing to me for sheep and other stuff at Prescote.  I will that his son Thomas Danvers shall have £20 of the debts to find him a exhibition to school.

To my said son William I give 12 score of wethers out of my stock of Cowlworthe.  I also give him my farm which is called Fulweke beside Chippenam which I purchased of the late Abbot of Malmesbury.

Whereas I have certain yeres yet to come in the parsonage of Colworth I will that my son William have it for all the years, he finding corn sufficient for such as shall come into those parts for the performance of my last will.

I give to Water [sic] Houngerford the younger my best 2 pots parcel gilt, to be kept by my son Sir Anthony Houngerford until the said Water shall be married, but if he happen to die then the said pots to remain to my Lord Hungerford his father.

To Richard Fynes I give my best bason & ewer of silver when he shall be 21.

To my daughter Dorothy Lady Houngerford my great bowl with the cover gilt, and after her decease to my Goddaughter Bridget Houngerford for ever.

Further I desire my daughter Hungerford that she will do so much for me as to send to Oxforde amongst the poor priests and scholars there after her discretion to have 1,000 masses immediately after my decease; and also to have 100 shirts & smocks to be given to poor folks abut Dauntsey and Prescote to pray for my soul.

To Sir Anthony Houngerforde I give one of my gilt standing cups with the cover, to him also the £60 which I laid out for young Thomas Staveley, desiring him to see this my will fully performed.

I give to my daughter Anne Wykes 2 kine.

I give to William Houngerford to help to find him to school £10.

To Robert Buckull I give 2 kine & £3 6s. 8d. in money to help my Executors to perform my will.

To my Goddaughter Anne Adams to pray for me I give a heifer and 20s.

[Long list of legacies to servants.]

I will that my Executors distribute amongst the poor householders next adjoining to Dauntesey & Prescote 12d to every house as they shall think necessary to the sum of £10.

I give to Mr Baker vicar of Clame (sic) my nag called Rosse.

To Sir Henry Wylkyns parson of Dauntesey I give the colt that I bought at Somerford.

To Sir William Smalbone I give a colt or a mare which ever he prefer.

To John Gyldon my Godson I give my farm of Cowiche which I have by Covent Seal of the house of Bradenstoke and I will that he suffer his mother Margery Long to have an honest chamber within the said farm.

I give to Constance Danvers towards her preferment in marriage £100 to be delivered to her by my Executors if she be ruled in marriage by them, 'or else not one penny.'

I will that my Executors find an honest priest for 12 years next after my death in the Church of Dauntesey to pray for my soul & for all Christian souls he to have for his stipend £6 13s. 4d., whom I will shall be Sir Thomas Greenwoode, & after him the said priest to be appointed by the parson for the time being and by my Executors.

I will there be left in the Manor of Dauntesey 12 kine & 8 oxen to the use of my son Silvester, to be delivered to him at his age of 21, if he decease before attaining that age then the kine & oxen to remain to my son John Danvers.

I give to my Godson 'the Clerk of Dauntesey his son' to help to find him to school a cow and a heifer.

I will that my Executors take the issues and profits for 12 years of all such lands & Sir Anthony Houngerford and Dame Dorothy his wife, Thomas Nevell Esq. & Will. Danvers my son have for the term of 3 lives by my grant.

I make my Executors Sir Anthony Hungerford Knt. my daughter Dorothy his wife, Thomas Nevell, my son William Danvers & Robert Buckull.

Witnesses John Wykes Esq. George Worth gentleman, Henry Wylkyns, clerk, John Foster, clerk & James Vanse.

Proved at London the 21st day of January 1539.

[After some of the legacies to servants and others is written 'trusting Silvester will do the same.']

THOMAS DANVERS

Marries Margaret Courtenay

Thomas Danvers, the eldest son of Sir John, married Margaret, youngest daughter of Sir William Courtenay, of Powderham Castle, Devon, and his wife Cicely, the daughter of Sir John Cheney, of Pincourt.  This Sir William was renowned for his martial prowess, temp. Henry VIII (from 1509).  He died in 1512.  He was the son of Sir William Courtenay, eldest son of Sir Philip.  Sir Philip, sixth son of Hugh de Courtenay, second Earl of Devonshire of his name, was direct ancestor of the present Lord Viscount Courtenay.8.66

Death

In the Patent Roll of 3 Henry VIII (1511) Thomas Danvers is called of Powderham, Devon, and is pardoned for having in self defence killed one James Leore.  Thomas died in the year 1532 (24 Henry VIII).  His post-mortem inquisition8.67 taken at Lostwithyell in Cornwall states that his son and heir, Silvester, was 13 years, 41 weeks, and 2 days old at the time of his father's death.  The inquisition refers to a deed of settlement between Sir William Courtenay and Sir John Danvers and his wife Ann, of 2 Henry VIII, which settled upon the heirs of Thomas Danvers and his wife Margaret the manors of Bevamye, Stratton, Swancottes, St Mary Wyke, St Clare Coleshill, Liskerd Coleshill, and Wykeborough, manors which Ann Danvers inherited from the Blanchminsters through the families of Hiwis, Coleshill, Arundell, and Dauntsey.

Family of Thomas Danvers and Margaret Courtenay

Besides his son Silvester, Thomas left two daughters, Constance and Ann.  Constance is mentioned in her grandmother's will.

RICHARD DANVERS

Richard Danvers, the second son of Sir John, was a lawyer and belonged to the Inner Temple.  According to Aske, 'he died in the Temple Church.' 8.68  Lansdowne MS., 260, p.108, records that 'in the round walke before the west doare in the Temple Chirche under a marble stoane in an armour picture & scutchons, att his feet this:  "Here resteth Rc Danvers armiger late fellow of thinner temple 2 sonne to Sr John Danvers Kt, lord of Dauntesey in comitatu Wilts in right of his wyfe, who died ye 17 of July 1517, his scutchon quarterly 1 & 3 pales & a bend charged with 3 cinquefoils, the second 2 barres nebulee" ' (Stradling and Dauntsey).

DAUGHTERS OF JOHN DANVERS AND ANN STRADLING

Dorothy Danvers

Of the daughters, Dorothy, the eldest married first John Fettiplace8.69 (died 1524), of East Shefford, Berkshire.8.70  He was grandson of a John Fettiplace who was brother to William the first husband of Katherine wife of Sir Robert Danvers.  Dorothy's second husband was Sir Anthony Hungerford, of Down Ampney.  She died in the year 1557, and was buried in East Shefford church.

Hungerford Family

Susan, Dorothy's younger sister, married Sir Walter Hungerford.

The Hungerfords8.71 were for many generations amongst the wealthiest and most powerful of the Wiltshire families.  They appear to have sprung originally from Hungerford in Berkshire, but members of the family held lands in Wiltshire in the twelfth century.  The first of them to settle in the county was Walter, who married Maud, daughter of John de Heytesbury.  By alliances and other means the family amassed great wealth and large landed possessions.  In lineal descent from Walter was the Sir Walter of Heytesbury, who died in the year 1449.  He was followed in the Heytesbury estates by his son Robert, while he settled on the other son, Edmund, the Down Ampney estates which he had purchased.  Of the latter branch was the Sir Anthony Hungerford who married Dorothy Danvers, and was executor to her mother, Dame Anne.  Sir Anthony had previously married Jane Darrell, by whom he had five sons and a daughter Dorothy, who married John Fettiplace.  His eldest son, John, married Bridget Fettiplace, the Bridget mentioned in Dame Ann's will.  Sir Anthony's second wife, Dorothy Danvers, died in 1559; by her he had two sons, George and Henry, and two daughters, Jane and Ann.

Sir Walter Hungerford

The Sir Walter Hungerford whom Susan Danvers married belonged to the elder, or Heytesbury, branch of the family, and was called to Parliament in 28 Henry VIII (1536) by the title of Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury.  He appears to have made himself obnoxious to the king by opposing his schemes, and was attainted and executed on Tower Hill in 1541.  Lord Hungerford was three times married; first to Susan Danvers, second to Alice Sandys, third to Isabel, daughter of Lord Hussey.  By Susan, his first wife, he had a son, Sir Walter, who is mentioned in Dame Ann's will.  He became Sir Walter of Farley Castle, and was known by the sobriquet 'amicis amicissimus.'  He left a son and three daughters, but the son dying without issue, the elder branch of the Hungerford family became extinct in the male line.

Elizabeth Danvers

Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir John Danvers, married, during her father's life, Sir John Abarowe, or d'Abarow, son and heir of Sir Morrice Abarowe,8.72 of the ancient family of that name, long seated at Dichett and Northborough in Somerset.  Sir John and his wife were both alive in 1539 when Dame Ann Danvers made her will, and had then a daughter, Mary, to whom her grandmother left £10 towards her marriage to pray for her.  The Visitation of Warwick,8.73 states that Elizabeth married first Burrowe (one of the many ways of spelling Abarowe), and, secondly, Lord Audley; but the latter match does not appear in the Audley family's tables of descent.

Margaret Danvers

Margaret, 74 the third daughter, married Edward Fiennes, of Broughton Castle, who died in the year 1528, leaving a son, Richard.  Richard is mentioned in his grandmother's will; he succeeded to the family honours and estates.  His sister, Elizabeth, married Sir Francis Barrantyne, of Great Haseley, Oxon.

From Dame Ann's will we learn that Margaret Fiennes took as her second husband Thomas Nevell,8.74 who, as we learn from the will, had a young son named William.  Thomas Nevell was of Holt, Leicester.  According to Nichols' History of Leicester,8.75  he was three times married: (1) to Clara, daughter and coheir of Ralph Nevell, of the same family, by whom he had a daughter, Margaret, eventually her father's heir; (2) Katherine, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Foljambe, of Walton; (3) daughter of .  .  ., of Oxfordshire, and this third wife was no doubt Margaret, widow of Edward Fiennes.  Sir Thomas Nevell was Sheriff of Leicester in the year 1539; he died in 1569.8.76

Ann Danvers

The Thomas Lovett who married Ann Danvers, fourth daughter of Sir John Danvers, belonged to the ancient family of Lovett,8.77 of Loueth, one of whom settled at Astwell, in Northampton.  Thomas Lovett died in July of the year 1523; and his inquisition states that his son and heir, Thomas, was at the time six years of age.8.78  He left two other sons and three daughters; neither of the sons left heirs male, and the Astwell estate passed to John Shirley, of Rakedale, Leicester, who married Jane, grand-daughter of Thomas Lovett and Ann Danvers.  From her the present noble family of Ferrers is descended.  Jane was daughter of Thomas Lovett, junior, and Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Fermor.

Baker, in his History of Northamptonshire, states that Ann died before her husband, Thomas Lovett; but this seems to be a mistake, as she was alive when her mother,8.79 Dame Ann, made her will in the year 1539, and was then married to .  .  .  Wykes, no doubt one of the ancient Devonshire family of that name, of Northwyke.  The signature of Thomas Lovett is, with that of Thomas Langston, appended to the deed dated A.D. 1511, by which they, as feoffees, confirm to John Danvers the manor of Prescote.  Amongst the witnesses is Thomas, son of Thomas Lovett.

Constance Danvers

The John Stavely who married Constance Danvers was son and heir of George Stavely, of Bignell, Oxfordshire, and his wife Isabel, daughter of Sir John Strelly, of Lynby, Notts.  The Dorothy Stavely80 mentioned in Dame Ann's will was the eldest daughter of Constance, who had besides two sons and two daughters.  John Stavely was 'a very profuse person and spent and sold almost all his estate, consisting of many manors and lordships, excepting those settled as jointure on his wife Constance, which, she surviving, descended to his heirs, and, proving to be so good a support to her family, her memory is gratefully preserved by her descendants.'

SILVESTER DANVERS OF DAUNTSEY

Heir of Dame Anne Danvers (Stradling)

Silvester Danvers was the only son of Thomas Danvers and Margaret Courtenay, and was born in the year 1518.  His grandmother, Dame Anne, outlived her eldest son, and Silvester became her heir when she died, in the year 1539, succeeding her in the Wiltshire and other estates, excepting those which had been specially devised to the uncles, William and John Danvers.

Marries Elizabeth Mordaunt

In the year 1537 Silvester married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir John Mordaunt, first Baron Mordaunt of Turvey.  By this his first wife Silvester Danvers had three sons, John, Henry, and Anthony, and three daughters, Anne, Ursula, and Elizabeth.  They are all mentioned in his will. 81  Margery, another daughter of Silvester Danvers, was buried in Cropredy Church, February 19, 1549.

Marries Elizabeth Rede

Silvester's second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of William Rede, of Milton, by whom he had a son, Giles, whose birth he seems to have been expecting when he made his will in July 1549 (proved in 1552).  Giles is mentioned as the son of Silvester Danvers in the Harleian Roll,8.82 and we find him taking part in the management of the Dauntsey estates.

Family

Silvester's post-mortem inquisition is No. 88 of 5 Edward VI (1551), part ii.  His heir is his son, John, aged eleven at the time of his father's death.  Of John we shall have more to say hereafter, and so also of Henry, from whom sprung the Danvers family of Baynton.  To Anthony, the third son, Silvester left his manor of Winterbourne Dauntsey, and we know that Anthony was alive in 1588, as his name is amongst those who subscribed to the defence fund which originated in the alarm caused by the fitting out of the Spanish Armada.  But there is no record in the Lay Subsidy Rolls of his presence at Winterbourne Dauntsey, and he does not seem to have left any children.  Of Silvester's daughters, Anne married (1) John Hungerford, of Stoke, near Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, and (2) William Knyvett, at St Martin's-in-the-Fields, 17 September 1553; Ursula, the second daughter, married Thomas Welbore, of Pondes, in Clavering, Essex, and was buried in Clavering Church; Elizabeth, the third daughter, married John Bands, of Bedford.

Contemporary Events

The life of Silvester Danvers extended through the troubled period of the Reformation, and through the years of disquiet in affairs spiritual and temporal which followed upon it during the reign of Edward VI (1547 - 1553).  The restless activity and meddling disposition of the Protector, Somerset,8.83 and his evident sympathy with the ultra-Protestants, stirred up discontent, and ultimately insurrection in the extreme east and west of the kingdom, in Norfolk and in Cornwall.  In the west, on Whit-Monday of the year 1549, the villagers of Sampford Courtenay insisted upon the priest resuming his old dress and saying Mass in Latin, and thence the insurrection spread to Devonshire, and broke out in the manor of St Mary's Clyst, near Exeter.  One of the leaders of the insurgents was a distant cousin to the Danvers family, Humphrey Arundell.  At St Mary's Clyst was fought the battle which broke the strength of the insurgents, and then for a time Silvester's tenants and neighbours suffered grievously from the martial law which was inflicted upon the offending counties as a part of their punishment.

It was also Silvester's lot to experience the transference to the Crown of the over-lordship of his manor of Dauntsey from its ancient possessors, the Abbots of Malmesbury.  With sad hearts must he and many of his neighbours have witnessed the dismantling of the great Norman church of the abbey, the secularization of the monastic buildings, and the dispersal of the brethren.

SIR JOHN DANVERS OF DAUNTSEY

Marries Elizabeth Nevill

Silvester was succeeded in his estates by his eldest son, John Danvers, who was born in the year 1540.  John Danvers was a more notable man than his father-notable because of the active part he took in the county during the preparations for the defence of the land from the coming of the Armada; notable because of the great match which he made with Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheiresses of John, last Lord Latimer of the line of Nevill, and notable by reason of the well-known lines which his relative, George Herbert, penned upon the sight of his portrait: 8.84

'Passe not by.

Search and you may

Find a treasure

Worth your stay.

What makes a Danvers

Would you find?

In a fayre bodie

A fayre mind.

Sir John Danvers' earthly part

Here is copied out by art;

But his heavenly and divine,

In his progenie doth shine.

Had he only brought them forth,

Know that much had been his worth.

There's no monument to a sonne,

Read him there, and I have done.'

Sir John's three sons also were men of note, though in very different ways.  Sir Charles, the eldest, after distinguishing himself in the French wars, was executed on Tower Hill for participation in the treasonous schemes of the Earl of Essex.  Sir Henry, the second son, became, as Earl of Danby, a prominent figure in the reigns of James I and Charles I; while Sir John, the third son, is known in history as 'the Regicide,' and in the Danvers history as the man who brought disgrace and misfortune upon his branch of the family.8.84

Sir John Danvers, the father, was Sheriff of Wiltshire in the sixteenth and twenty-seventh years of Elizabeth I (1573 and 1584), and in the year 1588 we find him summoning the gentry of the county to make preparations against the Armada; he himself commanded one of the military divisions into which the county was divided.  The account of the arming of the county is interesting, but its reproduction would occupy more space than can here be spared, and it may be found in vols. xiv and xv of the Journal of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society.

Death

With his wife, Lady Elizabeth Nevill, Sir John Danvers received a rich dower in lands in Yorkshire and elsewhere, including Danby Castle, over the ruined gateway of which his coat-of-arms may still be traced.  He died in December 1594, leaving behind him great possessions.  The mere enumeration of his manors occupies a considerable space in the post-mortem inquisition, and these for the most part passed eventually to his second son, Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby.  Sir John was buried in Dauntsey Church, but no monument distinguishes his grave.  It is likely that when Lord Danby built the north chapel as a burial-place for his family he removed to it his father's remains.

Ann and Lucy Danvers

Sir John left three sons, Charles, Henry, and John, and had besides seven daughters, of whom six survived him, and are mentioned in his post-mortem inquisition made in the year 1595.8.85  Two of the daughters were already married when their father died-Anne to Sir Arthur Porter, of Lanteney, Gloucester, and Lucy to to Sir Henry Baynton, of Bromham, Wiltshire.

Descent of the Dukes of Leeds

Another daughter, Eleanor, married Sir Thomas Walmesley, of Dunkenhalgh, Lancashire, from whom descend the Duke of Leeds and Lord Petre.  Sir Edward Osborne, of Ashford, Kent, was created a baronet in 1620.  His second wife was Anne, widow of William Middleton, of Stockeld, York, and daughter of Thomas Walmesley and his wife, Eleanor Danvers.  Their son, Sir Thomas, was created Earl of Danby 26 Charles II (1685), and Duke of Leeds in 1694.8.86

Elizabeth and Katherine Danvers

Elizabeth, another daughter of Sir John's, became the second wife of Sir Edward Hoby, of Bisham Abbey, and her arms are displayed in the east window of the south aisle of Bisham Church.  Katherine, Elizabeth's sister, married Sir Richard Gargrave, of Nostel, Yorkshire.

Dorothy Danvers and Dorothy Osborne

Dorothy, another daughter, married Sir Peter Osborne, of Chicksands, Bedford at St Mary le Strand, February 20, 1609-10.  Dorothy's youngest daughter, another Dorothy Osborne, is well known as the writer of the letters which bear her name, and also as the wife of Sir William Temple.  Dorothy Osborne the elder died in the year 1653, aged sixty.  Her eldest son, Sir John Osborne, married his cousin, Elinor, daughter of Charles Danvers of Baynton, who was grandson to Silvester Danvers.

Lady Elizabeth Danvers (Nevill)

Lady Elizabeth Danvers, after her first husband's death, married Sir Edmund Carey, by whom she had no children.  She died in the year 1630, aged 84, and was buried in the church of Stowe, Northamptonshire, under an altar tomb which stands beneath the eastern arch on the south side of the chancel.  Baker says the monument may fairly be pronounced, both in point of design and execution, one of the finest pieces of sculpture of the age.8.87  The figure is of white marble, recumbent on a mantle lined with ermine, and fastened round the neck with rich jewels.  The attitude is expressive of tranquil sleep, the right hand placed on her breast, the left falling carelessly by her side.  The head, enveloped in a loose hood, reposes on a flowered cushion, behind which are two griffins supporting a shield, on which are the arms of Nevill, Beauchamp, and Vere.  At the east end of the tomb are the arms of Danvers impaling Nevill, and at the west end Carey impaling Nevill.  The Danvers arms, wherever displayed upon the tomb, are the chevron between three mulletts, the ancient arms of the family, which Sir John Danvers had resumed.

SIR CHARLES DANVERS OF DAUNTSEY

Sir Charles Danvers, the eldest son of John Danvers and Elizabeth Nevill, was born about the year 1568.  He matriculated at Oxford, and was created M.A. June 16, 1589; subsequently he joined the Middle Temple.  But before taking the M.A. degree Sir Charles was travelling on the Continent, for we find him as early as 1584 writing to thank Walsingham for having obtained permission for him to travel.  He was M.P. for Cirencester 1586-87 and 1588-89.  In 1588 he was serving in the army, under Lord Willoughby in the Netherlands, and was knighted by him the year 1588.8.88 Then followed, in 1594, the implication of Sir Charles in the death of Mr Henry Long, his flight with his brother Henry to France, and their outlawry, which was terminated by their pardon in August of 1598.  The pardon was, however, conditional on the brothers contenting Sir Walter Long, Henry Long's brother, by paying him £1,500.  In the year 1596 we find the Earl of Shrewsbury writing from Rouen to Cecil:  'Heare is daily with me Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers, two discreet fine gentlemen who carry themselves heare with great discrition, reputacion, and respect.'

On June 20, 1598, Sir Charles writes from Paris to Secretary Cecil:  'I am infinitely indebted for your care to finish this long exile.  In your industry you seem to have drawn the offices of all other men into your hands.  Pray take care that what you have carried through so many storms perish not in the entry of the harbour.' 8.89

Essex's Conspiracy

In the year 1599 Sir Charles was given a colonel's commission in Essex's army in Ireland, and the intimacy which he there formed with his commander, together with his devotion to the Earl of Southampton-to whom he considered himself indebted for saving his life by the shelter which he afforded him after the Long catastrophe-led to his becoming implicated in the conspiracy of those noblemen in the year 1601.

The conspiracy is matter of history.  Sir Charles, in one of his examinations before the Council, stated that he bore no malice to anyone, but was drawn into the affair by affection to the Earl of Southampton, to whom he owed his life.  It was clearly proved before the Council, and, indeed, confessed by Sir Charles, that the part assigned to him was to overpower the guard at the door of the presence-chamber in Whitehall Palace, while the Earl of Essex sent others to guard the court and water-gate.  The place having been thus secured, Essex, Southampton, and Rutland were to present themselves to the Queen, and to obtain from her authority to change the Government, and to call a Parliament, which they trusted would condemn their opponents for misgoverning the State.

Sir Charles Danvers is beheaded on Tower Hill

Finally, Sir Charles was found guilty, and condemned to death.  His old friend Cecil, amongst others, grieved for his fate, which, however, he was unable to avert.  On February 9 the Earls of Essex, Rutland and Southampton, and Lord Sandys were brought to the Tower at 3 a.m. by the Lord Admiral and others, and in the afternoon of the same day Lords Cromwell and Monteagle and Sir Charles Danvers by Sir Walter Raleigh and others.  On 18 March 1601, between 7 and 8 am., Sir Charles Danvers was brought from the Tower to the new scaffold erected for the execution of the Earl of Essex, and was there beheaded, and his body was the same day buried in the Tower Church.

Sir Charles 'bore his death with a most Christian calmness and composure, having first craved God's pardon and the Queen's, to whom he wished all prosperity; as also the Lord Gray, who was there present, to whom he acknowledged he had been ill affected, not from any injury he had suffered from him, but purely on the Earl of Southampton's account, to whom the Lord Gray professed an absolute enmity.' 8.90

Under the attainder, Sir Charles's large property in Wiltshire and elsewhere was forfeited to the Crown, but it was restored to his brother Henry by James I in July, 1603.

FATAL QUARREL WITH HENRY LONG

The death of Henry Long91 at the hands of Henry Danvers and his brother Charles caused a considerable sensation at the time, but the attendant circumstances have been variously told by friends and foes of the family.  The story as given by Aubrey in his History of North Wiltshire, and in the Journal of Archaeological Society of Wiltshire,8.91 is briefly as follows:

Henry Long, the victim, was the younger brother of Sir Walter Long, of a family long seated in the county, neighbours of the Danvers, and from time to time associated with them as members of Parliament, Sheriffs, or Justices of Peace for the county.  The narrative states that the nature of the provocation, whether public or private, remains unknown, but the death occurred on October 4, 1594, at a house in Corsham, where several gentlemen, including Sir Walter Long, were assembled.  Sir Henry Danvers, followed by his brother and a number of tenants and retainers, burst into the room, and without further ado shot Henry Long dead on the spot.  The brothers then fled to Whitney Lodge, a secluded place near to Titchfield House, the seat of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.  There they appear to have been sheltered and maintained for a time by the Earl, and with his assistance they escaped across Southampton Water to Calshot Castle, and thence to France, where they remained till they were pardoned in August 1598.

Very different, however, is the account of the affray told by Lady Elizabeth Danvers, mother of the offenders, in her petition on their behalf to the Privy Council.  The petition is amongst the Domestic State Papers vol. 219 No 78, held at the London Record Office and with it is a duplicate dated 15 April 1595, which seems to have been prepared as instruction to counsel.  The heading of the document runs:

'Grounds of the mislike of Sir Walter Long and Henry Long against Sir John Danvers.'  The grounds stated are that, owing to the industry of Sir John, two robberies had been brought home to Sir Walter's servants, and that Sir Walter had been reprehended by the Justices of Assize for his action in the matter, and further, that he was committed to prison for his conduct towards Sir John Danvers.  Another ground of mislike was that, on another occasion, Sir John Danvers, as a Justice of the Peace, had committed four of Sir Walter's servants for a murder of which they were guilty.  Because of Sir John's action, Sir Walter and his brother, followed by many insolent servants, provoked an affray in which a servant of the Danvers family was killed, and another dangerously wounded.  Sir Walter had also entered the house of one of Sir John's tenants, and had there, unprovoked, thrown a glass of beer in the face of Sir John's principal servant.

Sir Charles Danvers, knowing of Sir Walter's insolent behaviour, questioned him as to his privity to the outrage, and requested satisfaction, which was conceded.  But Sir Charles received from Henry Long a very violent letter, in which he gave the lie in the throat, and called him 'ape, puppie, foole, and boye.'

Then follows Lady Danvers' account of the affray (see appendices to this chapter) which resulted in Henry Long's death:

Sir Charles being moved by the continued insolence of the Longs, determined to requite publicly so many and great disgraces, and repaired with friends to the ordinary at Corsham, where Sir Henry Long happened to be in company with others, and entering the room struck him with a stick-cudgelled him-and having done so turned to leave the room.  But the door being fastened by one of Long's company, Long and his friends fell upon and dangerously wounded Sir Charles.  Meanwhile Sir Henry Danvers burst his way into the room, and seeing his brother bleeding and fainting, discharged his pistol at Henry Long, believing that only by doing so could he save his brother's life.

The document goes on to state that:

Since the death of his brother, Sir Walter Long had endeavoured to hinder justice by, though a party in the affair himself, taking down the testimony of undue witnesses, and that he had endeavoured to corrupt others, and further had riotously and outrageously pulled down enclosures upon the Danvers estate.

But here the remainder of the statement in both copies of the petition has been torn away.

Pardon

Finally, whether because of the interest made of them by the French King, whose service the brothers had entered, and whose notice they had won by their conspicuous bravery, or because inquiry had proved that the account of the affair given by Lady Danvers was correct, the brothers were pardoned in June 1598. The pardon was, however, conditional on the brothers contenting Sir Walter Long by paying him £1,500. They returned to England the following August.

But the coroner's indictment, on which they were outlawed, was not reversed till 1604, and then on a technical ground.  In suing for a writ of error the representatives of the brothers endeavoured to upset the indictment on the plea that the Latin was bad, so bad in fact that it was not Latin at all.  This plea was rejected, but the fact that the word 'percussit' was omitted in the account of the shooting was accepted as valid ground against the indictment and accordingly it was quashed.

Appeal to Sir Robert Cecil by Sir Charles Danvers

In a review of the Hatfield Papers, The Times dated 20 November 1895, has the following reference to the exile of Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers:

The adventures of Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers, and their flight in consequence of a fatal quarrel with Henry Long, form themselves almost a historical novel; but the details, though fairly plentiful fail to satisfy one's curiosity.  The brothers escaped to France where Sir Charles sought the aid of Sir R. Cecil.  To quote the excellent preface to this correspondence:  "It was not infrequently the practice at this time, beneath the wax which sealed the missive, to fasten down a number of strands of fine silk.  So attached to the letter now referred to, securely held in the waxen seal, is a skein, composed not of silk, but of what, microscopically examined, proves to be human hair.  It is yellow flaxen colour and of fine texture, and if, as not improbably is the fact, it is a lock cut by himself from his own abundant tresses, here is at once lively evidence of a kind of sentimental appeal to Cecil's heart and a pathetic and remarkable relic of the woeful exile, Charles Danvers."

SIR HENRY DANVERS, EARL OF DANBY

Sir Henry Danvers,8.93 second son of Sir John Danvers and Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Nevill, last Baron Latimer and Lady Lucy Somerset, was born at Dauntsey, Wiltshire, on the 28 June 1573.  He matriculated at Christ Church College, Oxford, in May 1589.  During his younger days he was page to Sir Philip Sydney.  In 1591, at the age of eighteen, he was knighted before Rouen by the Earl of Essex.  In 1594 he took part in an affray which led to the death of Henry Long which resulted in Henry being exiled till August 1598.  During his exile Henry served with distinction in the French army and thus prepared himself for the important post which he subsequently held in the English army.  Sir Henry also served in the navy and the Earl of Nottingham called him the best sea-captain in England.  In 1605 Sir Henry was restored in blood as heir to his father by Act of Parliament, and was settled in the estates which, on his brother's attainder, had been forfeited to the Crown.  In July 1603 he was created Baron Danvers of Dauntsey, and in February 1625, Earl of Danby.

The Earl was noted for his hospitality and liberality.  Aubrey said the expenses of his kitchen at Cornbury amounted to £3,000 annually, and as examples of his liberality we have his foundation of the Botanic Garden at Oxford, and his restoration of Dauntsey Church.  Aubrey relates that his installation as Knight of the Garter in 1633 was the greatest solemnity known in the memory of man.  (The van Dyck portrait of the Earl shows him in his Garter robes.)  The Earl was a steady loyalist, and had he lived till the Sequestrators began their work would no doubt been heavily fined; as it was a fine of upwards of £20,000 was imposed on his estate.

Tomb at Dauntsey

He died in 1643 at his home at Cornbury and was buried under a fine marble monument in the chapel which he had built on the north side of the chancel in Dauntsey Church.

His epitaph runs as follows:

'Henry Earle of Danby 2d so￱e to Sir John Danvers Kt and Dame Elizabeth, daughter and co-heyre to Nevil, Ld Latimer, borne at Dauntesey in the countie of Wiltes, the 28th day of June Ao D￱i 1573, and baptised in this church the 1st of July the following, being Sunday.  He departed this life on the 20th day of January Ao 1643, and lieth here interred.'

North side:

'He was partly bred up in the Lowe-countrey warres, under Maurice Earle of Nassaw, afterwards Prince of Orange, and in many other military actions of those times, both by sea and land.  He was made a Captaine in the warres of Fraunce, and there knighted for his good service under Henry IV., then French King.  He was employed as Lieutenant-Generall of the horse and Sergeant-Major of the whole army in Ireland under Robert Earle of Essex and Charles Baron of Mountjoy, in the reigne of Queen Elizabeth.'

South side:

'He was made Baron of Dauntesey, and Peer of this Realme by King James the First; and by him made Lord President of Munster, and Governor of Guernsey.  By King Charles the First he was created Earl of Danby, made of his privy councell, and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter.  But declining more active employments in his later time, by reason of his imperfect health.  Full of honour, woundes, and daies, he died at his howse in Cornbury-parke, in the county of Oxford, in the yeare 71 of his age.  Laus Deo.'

On the east side of the tomb is the following epitaph, composed by George Herbert:

'Sacred marble, safely keep

His dust; who under thee must sleep,

Until the graves again restore

Their dead, and time shall be no more;

Meanwhile, if he (which all things wears)

Does ruin thee, or if thy tears

Are shed for him; dissolve thy frame,

Thou art requited: for his fame,

His virtue, and worth shall be

Another monument to thee.'

SIR JOHN DANVERS OF CHELSEA

Sir John Danvers,8.94 third son of the elder Sir John and his wife Elizabeth Nevill, was born about the year 1585, and on July 16, 1601, at the age of sixteen, matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford.  In March, 1611-12, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on the request of Thomas Wentworth, Recorder.

Sir John marries Magdalen Herbert (Newport)

He was knighted at Royston on March 3, 1608-9, and shortly after, when about twenty years of age, married Magdalen, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, twelve years the widow of Richard Herbert, of Montgomery Castle, and the mother of ten children, who were living at the time of her second marriage.  Of these children, the eldest son was Edward, who succeeded his father in the family estates; another son was Lord Herbert of Cherbury; and another, the best known of all, the saintly George Herbert, poet and divine.  Magdalen Herbert was about forty years of age when she married Sir John Danvers, who was captivated as well by the beauty which she still retained as by her wit and accomplishments, and the sweetness and nobility of her character.

The year after his marriage Sir John Danvers entered Parliament as member for Arundel.  He was member for Montgomery in the year 1614, for the University of Oxford in the years 1621-22, for Newport in 1624-25, again for the University of Oxford in the years 1625-26, 1628-29, and in the year 1640; in the years 1645-53 he sat in the Long Parliament for Malmesbury.

Sir John's character

That Sir John was a well-read man and of scholarly tastes, we learn from the circumstance mentioned by Aubrey that Lord Bacon frequently visited him at Chelsea, and that he submitted to him his History of Henry VII for criticism before it was printed.

Aubrey says of him that he had a fair body and a mind harmonical, and his complexion so beautiful that during his travels abroad people would come after him in the street to admire him; and, moreover, he had a fine fancy, chiefly for gardens and architecture.  His house at Chelsea stood close to the river, near to Old Chelsea Church and to the mansion once inhabited by Sir Thomas More.  The house, a very sumptuous one, enriched with marbles, was surrounded by fine gardens laid out after the Italian method.  Aubrey, in his Letters (edition of 1813), tells us that the chimney-piece of Sir John's chamber was formerly that of the chamber of Sir Thomas More.  Here Sir John received the many visitors-nobles, statesmen, divines, philosophers, and wits-whom the fame of his house and the beauty and wit of his noble wife attracted.  Here, too, Sir John showed generous hospitality to the children of his wife by her former husband, and more especially to her daughters and to her son George, who, writing from college, acknowledges many favours received from his stepfather.  Here, too, in the May of the year 1627, Magdalen Danvers died, and hence she was carried to her burial, not in the splendid tomb which she had provided at Montgomery, but in a grave unmarked, and now unknown, in Old Chelsea Church.

Sir John's development of Parliamentary Loyalty

John Danvers was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I, but early in that King's reign he began to put himself in opposition to the Crown, and his house at Chelsea, formerly the rendezvous of loyal gentlemen, became, to the grief of his wife and brother, a very centre of sedition, and a meeting-place for the men who were engaged in plotting against the Church and King.  It is said, and this is not unlikely, that Sir John's disloyal tendencies were fostered by a disposition soured by the pecuniary difficulties in which his extravagant expenditure on house and gardens and entertainments had involved him.

Sir John marries Elizabeth Dauntsey

The year after his first wife's death Sir John Danvers took, as his second wife, Elizabeth, one of the daughters and heiresses of Ambrose Dauntsey, Esq., (more correctly one of her grandfather's coheiresses).  These Dauntseys of West Lavington appear to have descended from a branch of the family which, as early as the year 1391, held the manor of Winterbourne-Dauntsey.  With Elizabeth Sir John obtained, in dower, the rich manor of West Lavington; and here, in his new home in Wiltshire, he again gave the reins to his love for extravagance in gardening, planting, and display.  By this his second wife, Sir John had several children; she died in the year 1636, and was buried at West Lavington.

Sir John marries Grace Hewes

Sir John remained a widower for twelve years, and then, in the year 1648, married his third wife, Grace, daughter of Thomas Hewes of Kimerton, by whom he had one son, John.  Grace survived her husband, and, dying in the year 1670, was buried at Isleworth.

Sir John in Parliament

But in the meantime Sir John had thrown in his lot with the rebels, and was returned by Malmesbury as a Parliament-man in the year 1645.  In the year 1649 he served as one of the Commissioners appointed to try the King, and of his judges was the only one whose face the King recognised.  Sir John took an active part in the trial, and was one of those who signed the death-warrant.

On his brother's death, in the year 1643, Sir John Danvers removed to Dauntsey, and, not content with the large estates which had been left by the Earl to his nephew Henry, Sir John's son, and despite the generous arrangements for the relief of his difficulties which the Earl had made, Sir John began scheming to upset his brother's will on the plea that, owing to his devotion to Parliament, he had lost the estate which ought to have descended to him.  Though he did not succeed in ousting his sisters, Lady Gargrave and Lady Osborne, from the estates which the Earl had bequeathed to them, he obtained a grant of that portion of the fine which the Sequestrators imposed upon Lady Gargrave, besides other benefits from the Earl's estate.  About the same time, in conjunction with his relative, Baynton, and with the Earl of Pembroke and others, he warmly engaged in the persecution of the Wiltshire gentlemen who had remained loyal to the King.

Death of Sir John Danvers

Finally, despised by his relatives and disowned by Cromwell, he was obliged to fly the country, under suspicion of having plotted against the life of the Protector.  Suffered to return to England, he spent his last days at Chelsea, where he died 16 April 1655.  Bates, the Royalist historian of the regicides, asserts that in Sir John's latter days he came under the influence of the famous divine, Dr Fuller, who often preached at Chelsea, and that before his death Fuller brought him to repentance for his political action in the past.  His body was removed to Dauntsey, and, as the church register testifies, was buried there April 28; but the exact place of his burial is unknown.  On the Restoration, Sir John's name was excepted from the Bill of Indemnity, and his estates were forfeited to the Crown; but were subsequently, in part, restored to his heirs, no doubt because of the loyalty of many members of his family, who, like his brother, the Earl of Danby, suffered heavily on that account.

Will of Sir John Danvers

Sir John's will was made in July 1654, and was proved by his widow, Grace Danvers, his sole executor, in June, 1655.8.95  The will gives no information regarding the estates which had been put in trust; the testator charges his son Henry, to whom he states he had left the larger portion of them, to see that his wishes were carried out.  He leaves one moiety of his personal estate to his wife, and the other to their son John.  His friends, Bulstrode Whitlock (Chief Justice), Edmund Atkins (Justice of the Common Pleas), the Dean of Christchurch, and others, were nominated overseers of the will.

FAMILY OF SIR JOHN DANVERS AND ELIZABETH DAUNTSEY

Henry Danvers

Sir John Danvers had by his second wife three sons and three daughters.  Two of the sons and one daughter died in infancy; the other son, Henry, was alive when his father made his will, yet predeceased him, dying of small-pox at the age of twenty-one on November 19, 1654; and on his birthday was buried, according to his wish, in West Lavington Church, 'at the feet of his dear mother,' Dr Fuller preaching his funeral-sermon.  By his will, dated 18 November 1654,8.96 Henry, so far as he could, left his great estates to his sister Anne.

Ann Danvers and Sir Henry Lee

Anne Danvers married Sir Henry Lee, of Quarendon, Bucks, and Ditchley, Oxon on the 1st June 1655 at West Lavington before William Yorke, a magistrate, and subsequently in Ditchley Church.  They had two daughters, one of whom, Eleanor, by her sister's death, became sole heiress to her father, and married James Bertie, Baron Norreys of Rycote, son and heir to Montague Bertie, second Earl of Lindsey, created Earl of Abingdon in 1682.  The Countess Eleanor died 31 May 1691, and was buried, first at West Lavington, whence her remains were subsequently removed to be buried with those of her husband in Rycote Church.

'Scarcely she knew that she was great, or fair,

Or wise, beyond what other women are;

Or, which is better, knew, but never durst compare.'8.97

From the Earl and Countess the present Earl of Abingdon is descended.

Elizabeth Danvers and Robert Wright

Elizabeth, the other daughter of Sir John Danvers, married Robert Wright, or Villiers, who took the name of Danvers, and called himself Viscount Purbeck.8.98  Elizabeth and Robert had a son George, and a daughter Mary who married, on 8 July 1672, Edward Davies.8.99

JOHN DANVERS OF PRESCOTE

John Danvers at Prescote

John Danvers of Prescote, son of Sir John of Chelsea by his third wife, Grace Hewes, was of four sons the only one who survived his father.  Born in the year 1651, he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in the year 1666, and appears to have been entered at Lincoln's Inn the same year.  He obtained by petition a portion of his father's estates which had been confiscated, and held office for some years as a Commissioner of Revenue.  Accumulating considerable wealth, he was able to indulge a taste which he had inherited for building and gardening.  He added greatly to the old manor-house at Prescote, and especially a room, which was apparently built to receive the magnificent oak panelling which he bought out of Warkworth House.  His arms and initials appear over the present entrance of the house, above the fireplace of the room just mentioned, and in other places about the house and grounds.

John Danvers marries Elizabeth Morewood (Danvers)

John Danvers married, on 3 January 1710, 99 Elizabeth Morewood, widow of Samuel Danvers, Esq., of Swithland.  Elizabeth married her first husband on 18 November 1683. 99 By her first husband she had four sons, Samuel (baptised 31 October 1685), Henry (baptised 2 December 1686), Joseph (baptised 5 Jan 1688, created baronet 1746), and John (died without issue), and three daughters, Frances, Eleanor and Anne.

At his death, John Danvers of Prescote left his estates to the sons of Elizabeth Morewood by her first husband, Samuel Danvers of Swithland.  Probably with the estates went many of the much-desiderated muniments of the Danvers family.

Sir Joseph Danvers of Swithland left a son, Sir John Danvers, of Swithland, who married Mary Watson. Sir John was intimately acquainted with Daniel Danvers of Bath (refer Chapter Fourteen) as their wives were first cousins. Sir John died in 1796 and, his son John Watson Danvers having pre-deceased him (December 1769), left a daughter Mary, married to Hon. Augustus Richard Butler, who assumed the additional surname of Danvers.

Death of John Danvers

John Danvers of Prescote died in July, 1721, and, according to directions given in his will, was buried in the Prescote (south) aisle of Cropredy Church, while a monument to his memory was placed on the neighbouring wall.  The gravestone remains in situ, but the monument has been removed to the north wall of the church.  The epitaph sets forth his age, lineage, and marriage, and states that he served with honour and integrity in the reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George.

Will of John Danvers

John Danvers' will8.100 was made in October, 1720, and proved in August of the following year.  The will is interesting in its mention of various members of the family, and also as an example of a futile endeavour to keep landed property in the testator's family.  Evidently John Danvers was proud of his name and lineage, for he caused the latter to be inscribed upon his monument, and placed the family arms prominently in various places in his mansion.  Moreover, he endeavoured by his will to keep the ancestral estate of Prescote in the Danvers family.

He leaves his manors of Prescote and Chilton in Oxfordshire, and of Basmey in Bedfordshire, with his lands in Prescote, Cropredy, Basmey, Appleby, and elsewhere, to Joseph Danvers of Swithland, his wife's son by her first husband; and, failing his heirs male, to John, his brother, and his heirs male; and failing them, to Charles Danvers, woollen-draper (his second cousin), eldest son of Charles Danvers, late Recorder of Devizes; and in default of his heirs male, to Charles Danvers' right heirs.  (See the pedigree of Danvers of Baynton in Chapter Seventeen.)

With the lordship of Prescote, as heirlooms in the family, were to pass two pictures in water-colours by Hoskyns of his father and mother, the picture of his uncle, Earl of Danby, in his Garter robes, the pictures of his father and his second wife, and of his grandmother, daughter of Lord Latimer.  Other pictures, plate, and personal property were to be sold, and with the proceeds were to be bought land which he entailed with his manors.

Amongst numerous other legacies were those to the two eldest sons of Mr Charles Danvers, woollen draper, and to John, brother of Charles.  He leaves £1,000 to his nephew, George Villiers, of Christ Church, Oxford, and in case of his death before a certain time, to Charles Danvers, or, failing him, to his children, and to Charles' brothers and sisters.  Other legacies were to his cousin, Mrs Mary Hewes; to his niece, Dame Frances Dereham, widow of Sir Richard Dereham, and if she be dead, to her sons, Thomas and Richard; to his late wife's two daughters, Anne and Eleanor; to Elizabeth, granddaughter of Sir William Temple, now wife of John Temple; to Dorothy, another of Sir William's granddaughters, wife of Nicholas Baron; to his godson, Robert, son of Sir John Osborn, of Chicksands, and to Sir Danvers Osborn; to Mrs Philadelphia Dyke, sister of Sir Thomas Dyke; and to Mr Stannier, Vicar of Cropredy.  And he also leaves a legacy to Christ's Hospital.

Heirs of John Danvers of Prescote

As mentioned, Sir Joseph Danvers of Swithland left a son, Sir John Danvers, of Swithland, who died in 1796, leaving no male heir, and his uncle, John Danvers, brother of Joseph, died childless.  Doubtless it was John of Prescote's intention that, under the circumstances, his landed property should now pass to the heirs male of Charles of Baynton, but it is doubtful if any such heirs were alive in 1796.  In all probability the Charles Danvers of Kensington and his son Henry,8.101 the former of whom died in 1757, and the latter probably in 1771, were the last male descendants of Sir John Danvers and Lady Elizabeth Nevill.  As to the 'right heirs male' of Charles Danvers, they would be found amongst the Culworth Danvers, descended from William Danvers of Culworth, son of John Danvers and Ann Stradling.  But the male line of the elder branch of the Culworth family ended with the death of Sir Michael of Culworth in the year 1775, after which event the right heirs male of John of Prescote were the descendants of Daniel Danvers, brother to Samuel Danvers of Culworth, and grandson of William of Culworth and Elizabeth Fiennes.  It need hardly be added that they, however, had no legal claim to the estates of John of Prescote.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER EIGHT

LONDON. CORAM REGE ROLL, HILARY, 2 RICHARD III, NO. 7, M. 66.

Richard Pole late of Isylworth in co. Midd. Esq. was attached to answer to Henry Danvers of plea why with force & arms he took away Edward Stradlyng kinsman & heir of Edmund Stradlyng being under age, whose marriage belonged to the said Henry, living at London, against the will of the said Henry & against the peace of the King.  Thereupon the said Henry by James Starky his attorney complains that whereas Richard de Dauntesey Knt. was seised in his demesne as of fee of 1 mill, 20 a. of land, 3 a. of meadow, 3 a. of pasture & 20 a. of wood with appurts. in Dauntesey in co. Wilts & held the same of William late Abbot of Malmesbury by knights service, to wit, homage & fealty, & to the scutage of the King 40d when there shall happen 40s., of which services the said Abbot was seised in right of his said house by the hands of the said Richard de Dauntesey.  The said Richard so seised enfeoffed Hugh Gernen & Henry Baylemeund, to hold to them & theirs heirs for ever.  They, being so seised, gave the said premises to Richard Dauntesey son of the said Ric. Dauntesey Knt & Katherine his wife, & to the heirs of the said Richard & Katherine; for default fo such issue, the premises to remain to the right heirs of the said Ric. Dauntesey Knt.  By virtue whereof the said Ric. & Katherine were seised of the premises in their demesne as of fee-tail, & they had issue John.  After their death the premises descended to the said John as their heir.  John had issue John & died, after whose death the premises descended to the said John son of John.  The said John had issue Walter to whom the premises descended.  The said Walter died without heirs, after whose death said premises descened to Joan his sister.  Joan had issue Edmund to whom the premises descended & who entered into the same & was thereof seised as of fee-tail & had issue John who had issue Edward.  Afterwards the said John father of the said Edward died, and the said late Abbot died, after whose death John late Abbot of Malmesbury was chosen Abbot there.  The said Edmund being so seised of the premises one William Davy entered upon his possession thereof & disseised him.  The said William had issue Thomas to whom the premises descended.  The said Thomas entered into the said premises & was thereof seised in his demesne as of fee, and so seised he enfeoffed thereof Richard Fowler, Esq., Thomas Boteler, Esq., Richard Chambarleyn, Esq., Richard Danvers, Esq., John Langston, Esq., Thomas Rokes, Esq., Thomas Fowler, Esq., Drugo Brudenell, Esq., Thomas Tremayll, Thomas Lovedon, Richard Boteler & Thomas Fayrewell: to hold to them, their heirs & assigns for ever.  Afterwards the said Edmund died, the said Edward being under age, to whom as kinsman & heir of the said Edmund the premises descended.  On the 1St January, 14 Edw. 4 [1475] there proceeded out of the Court of Chancery a certain writ of formedon in descender (de forma donationis in descender) against the said Ric. Fowler & the others above mentioned, directed to the Sheriff of Wilts, wherein it is supposed that the said Ric. Fowler & the other have unjustly deprived the said Edward of 1 mill, 20 a. of land, 3 a. of meadow, 3 a. of pasture & 20 a. of wood in Dauntesey.  The said writ was returned to Westminster within 15 days of Hilary, & the said Edward by Thomas Gurney his guardian demands the said premises.  The said Ric. Fowler, &c. &c. cannot deny the action of the said Edward Stradlyng, nor that the said Hugh Gernon & Henry Baylemond gave the premises to the said Richard Dauntesey & Katherine & to their heirs, nor that the said premises were the right of the said Edward.  It is therefore considered that the said Edward shall recover seisin of the premises against the said Ric. Fowler, &c. &c., & a writ was sent to the Sheriff of Wilts commanding him to cause the said Edward to have his seisin which was accordingly done, the said Edward being still under age.  The said Henry declared that the custody of the said Edward belonged to the said John late Abbott until the 26th February, 14 Edw. 4, when the said Abbot gave the custody & marriage of the said Edward to the said Richard Fowler, to hold until his coming of age.  So seised, the said Ric. Fowler made his Will in London in the parish of St. Lawrence in Old Jewry in the Ward of Cheap, & appointed Joan his wife to be his executrix who by virtue thereof became possessed of the wardship of the said Edward & remained so until the 6th Sept., 21 Edw. 4 [1481] when she gave to the said Henry the said wardship & marriage, to hold until the said Edward should be of full age.  By virtue whereof he held the same until the 27th day of June, 1 Ric. 3 [1483] upon which day the said Richard seised & carried away the said Edward, whereby he (Henry) has sustained damage to the amount of £1000.

The said Ric. Pole says that Henry Danvers ought not to maintain his action because the said Edmund Stradlyng was seised of the manor of Merden in co. Wilts in his demesne as of fee which he held of Thomas Langford by fealty & the yearly rent of 1 rose.  After the death of the said Edmund the said manor descended to the said Edward as his kinsman & heir, to wit, son of John, son of Edmund, then being a minor, by virtue whereof Alice Stradlyng his mother took him into her custody, and she then married the said Richard Pole by pretext whereof they were possessed of the custody of the body of the said Edward until the said Henry Danvers took him away.  Afterwards the said Richard in right of his said wife took the said Edward out of the possession of the said Henry Danvers as it was lawful for him to do.

[The case is not finished]

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC, ELIZABETH, VOL. 219, No. 78.

A true declaracon of the ground of the conceaved mislike of Sir Walter Longe, Knighte, & Henry Longe gent his Brother, ageinste Sir John Danvers, Knighte, his Sonnes, & ffollowers.

ffirste, ffor that the said Henry Longe, & one Nicholas Reade Sir Walter Longes Servant, having committed a Robberie vppon Complainte made, weare discovered by the Industrie of the said Sir John Danvers.

Secondly, ffor that a second Robberie was discovered by the said Sir John Danvers, to be Committed by one Mathewes a Servaunte in Sir Walter Longes howsse.

Thirdly, ffor that the said Sir Walter Longe was by the Justice of Assizes sharpelie reprehended for vndue proceeding in matter Concearning the said Robberie, vppon Examinacon taken by the said Sir John Danvers.

ffourthly, ffor that the said Sir Walter Longe was by the order of the honourable Lords committed to the ffleete, for his vndue corse ageinst the said Sir John Danvers, for his due proceeding in hir Majesties service.

ffiftely, ffor that the said Sir John Danvers As a Justice of the Peace committed iiijor of the Servauntes of the said Sir Walter Longes, for a Murther by them latelie committed.

The Abuses offered by Sir Walter Longe & his Brethren, ageinste Sir John Danvers, his Sonnes, & Servauntes, in regard of ye premisses.

ffirst the said Sir Walter Longe his Brothers & ffollowers by manie Insolent behaviours & termes provoked & moved quarrell ageinste the said Sir John Danvers.

Secondly the same not sorting to theire desired effecte, a Servaunte of the said Sir John Danvers was murthered by Servauntes of the said Sir Walter Longes, & one other Servaunte verie daungerouslie wounded.

Thirdly, no occasion of brall being thereby taken, the said Sir Walter Longes brother to give further occasion of quarrell, being gardyd with manie of Sir Walter Longes Servauntes, in verie disordered manner entred the howse of a Tenaunte of the said Sir John Danvers, and in Insolent manner (without anie culler of occasion) A glasse of Beere was throwne in the face of the principall officer of the said Sir John Danvers: Saying in derision They had nowe doubbed him a Knighte allsoe.

ffourthly Sir Charles [sic] Danvers (finding theis Insolent behaviours offered) by gentlemanlike letters (without anie termes of offence) desired to be satisfied by Sir Walter Longe, whether the same weare done by his privitie, whereof vppon mutuall Letters passing betweene them, he remayned satisfied.

Whiche being to the said Henry Longe knowen, and finding the same sorted not to suche publique offence as he desired, and purposing to move quarrell by what meanes soever he cared not, thereby to effecte his mallice conceaved (without anie shadowe of Cause) wrote his Letters of defyaunce to the said Sir Charles Danvers, giving therein (besides manie rude termes) manie tymes the lye in the throate, for no matter.  Concearning himself, and sondry times sending him word That wheresoever he mett him, he would vntye his pointes, and whippe him with a Rodd: Calling him Asse, Puppie ffoole & Boye.

The manner of the Affray & deathe of the said Henry Longe.

The said Sir Charles Danvers being moved by the Continuall extremitie & Insolencie of the said Cawses, determyning with some small disgrace to requite so manie & greate disgraces as before offered, repaired with others to the place of the said Henry Longes aboade, being an Ordinary, where giving the said Longe ij blowes with a Cudgell (without offring anie other weapon or violence) and being therewith satisfied, offered to departe the Chamber, but the doore being fastened by one of Longes Companie and himself pursued by the said Longe, & by him daungerously wounded in vij severall places, & therewith faynting, Sir Henry Danvers his Brother then (& not before) comming into the said Chamber, & finding his Brother bleeding & fayntinge, to prevent his deathe dischardged his Pistoll, without which the said Sir Charles had byn then slaine.

The Indirect proceeding of the said Sir Walter Longe since the deathe of the said Henry Longe.

ffirste to prevent all due & indifferent Corse of proceeding for th' examinacon of the premises, he by himself, his vncle & Brothers in lawe (without any others) hathe taken vppon them (being in nature parties to the Cawse) to examyne & sett downe the testymonie of divers very parciall & vndue wittnesses.

Secondly he hathe by one Thomas Tromplin & Edmond Powell his Instrumentes practised to Corrupte wittnesses, to accuse your humble Peticioner with matter of felony, tending to the endaungering of hir liffe & estate, by rewardes given & promised.

Thirdly he hathe incyted dyvers Riotous persons (in moste Contemptuous & outragious manner) to pretend tytle & to pull downe divers Incl[osure]s many yeeres contynewed in & vppon the grounds of the said Sir John Danvers (himself pretendinge no tythe therein).

[Endorsed] La: Danvers.

[This endorsement is crossed through in the original.]

STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC, ELIZABETH, VOL. 261. No. 81.

That Sir John Danvers geatlye indevored to save the saide Trumplyn his lief vpon his killinge of one Pontinge.

That the saide Trumplyn was by the only meanes of the saide Sir John Danvers greatly advaunced in Marriage in Landes Chattles and other substance to the valewe of xvijc li.

That the saide Trumplyn served the saide Sir John aboute twentye yeares together at Michaelmas laste paste and for the moste parte of that tyme was Sir John Danvers keeper of Daintesie Parke and his woodward yearly worthe to him xli li.

That the saide Sir John Danvers at Michaelmas laste for manye greate and vrgente Causes did dismisse the saide Trumplyn of his service viz.

ffor killinge stealinge and Conveyinge awaye of his deare without the privitye of the saide Sir John.

ffor procuringe John Powell father of Edmonde Powell John Foxe and divers others since he wente from the Parke to steale deare therhence.

And that the saide Trumplyn did harbor and habett in his owne howse as well the outragious persons that offered the violence and disgrace vppon the saide Sir Johns officer.  As also is a principall procurar and mainteynar of very manye other disorders and vnlawfull actions with the Townshippe of Christe Malforde where he is Comorante as a freehoulder.

And that the said Trumplyn is otherwise a man of a very badd and loose behaviour, and that he and his servantes have of longe tyme byn suspected for stealers of beastes horsse Sheepe suckinge pigges Turkeyes and poultrie.

That he by his earneste laboringe this practise of Corrupte suborninge againste the La. Danvers, Commynge vpp to Powell into Bread streate in London the laste Candlemas tearme did diswade Powell from his dutye towardes his Mistress in the presence of one Thomas Shewell.

That he Chiefly hathe labored and Entised Edmund Powell nowe prisoner oute of the La. Danvers service and by his meanes did place him in the service of Sir Walter Longe and hathe byn with him divers tymes since at Sir Walter Longes.

That he Chiefly hathe plotted by Corruption with the saide Powell and Walsoe being bothe her servantes that by some meanes or other they shoulde Contrive for to accuse the La. Danvers their Mistress of fellonye to the indaungering of her lief and Estate by rewardes given and promised ever affirminge that what anye man dothe testifie for the Queene yt muste be taken for good for that non shoulde gainsaye yt and in all these procedinges the saide Trumplyn dothe warrante them to be defended by Sir Walter Longe thoughe yt shall Coste him all his lande.

That he began the onsett to Cutt vpp and pull downe and incouraged divers others of his like yll inclination and behaviour to doe the like vpon sundrye inclosures of the La. Danvers of verye manye yeares continuance himself havinge noe Intereste in the saide inclosures takinge vpon him the name of their Captayne in that Action.

That he was of late a Chiefe dealer with one of the Coroners of that Sheire aboute the smotheringe vpp of the killings of one Elysander by Sir Walter Longes men vpon a servante of Sir John Danvers.

[Endorsed] Concerning the La. Danvers cause with Sir Wa. Long.8.102

NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT

8.1 Pipe Roll of Wiltshire, 9 and 13 Henry II (1162 and 1166).

8.2 British Museum, Additional MSS., No. 15667, fol. 38.

8.3 Table of descent of Danvers of Dauntsey in Chapter Five.  'Odestochte' appears in Wiltshire in the Domesday Record.  'Odestok' in the Roll of the Hundreds.  We have referred 'Vetus Ceppus' to half a dozen antiquaries and Latinists, and they agree in thinking that the name is best translated 'Oldstock.'

8.4 Roger de Danteseia, a Justice in Wiltshire, Rotuli Lit. Claus., 10 Henry III (1225), and in the Testa de Nevill holds a fief in Smethcote, Wiltshire. London Fine 95 of 16 Henry III (1231), Roger de Dantesye and Matilda his wife.  Gilbert de Danteseia, Chancellor of Beverley circa 1220, Calendar of Ancient Deeds, vol. i, p. 54.

8.5 Richard had a brother Gilbert, as we learn from the Abbrevat. Placitorum, 20 Edward I (1291), Pasch.; Gilbert de Dauntesey had a brother Richard, whose son and heir is also named Richard, Calend. Genealog., vol. i, p. 55. 38 Henry III PM Inquis. of Ric. Danesy, Richard, his son and heir, is 23 years of age. Refer also to many references to members of the family in the extracts from ancient deeds appended in Hoare's Wilts to the history of each hundred.

8.6 Coram Rege Roll of 1484, Hilary, 2 Richard III, No. 7, m. 66.

8.7 Circa 1230 . Testa de Nevill, Rich. de Dauntesey a fief in Wiltshire.  Rotuli Hundredorum, 1278, heirs of Rich. de Dantesey in Winterbourne Dauntesey.  Calend. Genealog., Rich. de Dauntesey in Wiltshire 1288.  Nomina Villarum, 1316, Rich. de Dauntesey in Winterbourne Dauntesey.  Lay Subsidy Rolls, Wiltshire, 1327 and 1333, Rich. de Dauntesey in Dauntesey and Smethcote.

8.8 Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i, p. 129.

8.9 Dugdale's Baronage of England, vol. i, p. 499.

8.10 Dugdale's Baronage of England, vol. i, p. 499; and Banks' Dormant Baronage, vol. i, p. 323.

8.11 Hoare's Wiltshire, 'Hundred of Chalk, Fifhide', p. 115.

8.12 Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. v, p. 87.

8.13 PM Inquis. No. 19 of 15 Richard II (1391).

8.14 Book of Aids,  20 Edward III (1346).

8.15 Four or five wills of the Beverley family will be found in Calendar of Wills of Court of Hustings, London, 1889.

8.16 In the reign of Richard II the manor of Mendesdene was in possession of John de Beverle, who died seised thereof 4 Richard II.  He had two daughters-Elizabeth, who married John Dauntesey, and Anne who married William Langford, Sheriff of Berks and Oxon 6 Henry IV (1404).  The daughters shared their father's property with his second wife, Amicia, who subsequently married Robert Bardolf.  William and Anne Langford had a son, Robert, who succeeded them, and was followed by his son Edward.  Edward was followed on his death, about 1474, by his son Thomas, to whom we shall have to recur.  Cf. Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, vol. iii, p. 33, and PM Inquis. of Edward Langford, No. 38, 14 Edward IV (1474).

8.17 PM Inquis. No. 24, 13 Henry IV (1411).

8.18 PM Inquis. No. 19 of 6 Henry IV (1404).

8.19 Hoare's Wiltshire, 'Frustfield', p. 83.

8.20 PM Inquis. No. 37 of 8 Henry V (1420).

8.21 Wiffen's Memoirs of Russells, vol. i, p. 149.

8.22 PM Inquis. Nos. 1 and 6 of 35 Henry VI (1456).

8.23 Wiltshire Archaeological Society's Journal, vol. i, p. 156.

8.24 'Harleian Society's Publications', vols. ix and xiv; Colonel J.H. Vivian's Visitations of Cornwall; Edmondson's Baronagium Genealogicum, vol. iv, pp. 376, 398; Brydge's Collins' Peerage, vol. vii, p. 40; Harleian MS. 1041, fol. 71; Aske in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i, p. 307.

8.25 On a shield on the tomb of Anne Danvers Dauntsey impales quarterly Arundell 1 and 4, 2 Carminow, 3 Coleshill.  See also Leland as previously quoted in this chapter; also Domestic State Papers, vol. of 1566-1579, p. 599; also Dr Borlase's Account of the Scilly Isles, and Lysons' History of Cornwall, p. 79.

8.26 De Banco Roll, Mich. 21 Henry VIII (1529), M. 548-608.

8.27 Edmund Stradling and Elizabeth Arundell had other children- Edmund, married Joane Trenouth, Renfrew, and Margaret who married . . . Hethe (Canon Jackson's MSS.).

8.28 Pardon Roll of 1 Henry VIII (1485), Pt. i, M. 16.

8.29 Cf. Lysons' History of Cornwall and Borlase's Account of the Scilly Isles, Oxford, 1756; also Harleian MS. 1041, p. 71, 'Visitation of Gloucester'.

8.30 Sir Renfrew Arundell was the son of John Arundell and the 'daughter of Lamburne, the heiress of Carminow. John was the son of John Arundell of Lanherne and the daughter of Sir William Lestecote.

8.31 Abbrev. Patent, Origin, 46 of Edward III (1372), and Book of Aids of Edward III.

8.32 Coram Rege Roll, Hilary, 2 Richard III (1484), No. 7, M. 66.

8.33 Exchequer Escheats, series 2, file 3: 'Richard Pole.'  Taken at Wendover 20 Henry VII (1504).  Seised of the manor of Ellysborough; died 20 December, 1504 or 1505.  Son and heir, Henry, is aged 12 years and more' (see also Journal of Sussex Archaeological Society, vol. ii, p.76)

8.34 Oglander Memoirs, Long's edition.  London, 1888.  Pp 99, 100.

8.35 Materials for History of Henry VII, Rolls Series, vol. i, pp. 97 and 188.

8.36 See a very interesting article on Tewkesbury Abbey by Dean Spence in Good Words for January, 1892.

8.37 Rice Merrick's Antiquities of Glamorganshire, written in the year 1578, published by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., in 1825.  Also Caradoc's History of Wales, Dr Powell's edition, published 1832.  Caradoc was a contemporary of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and his history extended from the end of the seventh to the end of the twelfth century.  Also The Stradling Correspondence, edited by the Rev. J. Traherne, London, 1840.

8.38 Nicholas, County Families of Wales.

8.39 Nicholas (Thomas), History of Glamorgan, London, 1874; G. T. Clark, The Land of Morgan, London, 1883; and Charters, etc., of Glamorgan, 4 vols., Dowlais, 1859-91.

8.40 See notes to PM Inquis. of Sir L. Berkerole in G. T. Clark's Charters, etc., of Glamorgan, vol. i.

8.41 Clark's Muniments of Glamorgan, vol. i, p. 197.

8.42 For an account of St Donat's Castle, see its history, illustrated, by G. T. Clark, Cardiff, 1871.

8.43 Hutchins' Dorset, vol. iv, p. 167.

8.44 Clark, vol. i.

8.45 Margaret was daughter of Sir Hugh Langland by Margaret, sister and co-heiress of Simon Furneaux.  Pedigree of St Barbe in Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. v, 'Frustfield', p. 10.  Charter Roll of 18 Edward I, No. 75: 'The King grants market and fair to John de Strattelenges and his wife Maude at their manor of Wellesburn (Warwick).' For John de Strattelenges (Stratling, Stradling) and his wife, see Dugdale's Warwick, pp. 572 and 576.

8.46 Clark, vol. ii, p. 169.

8.47 Canon Jackson's MS. notes now in the possession of the Royal Society of Antiquaries.

8.48 Metcalfe's Book of Knights, London, 1885.

8.49 British Museum Additional Charter 38881.

8.50 This brass, and that on the tomb opposite, are figured in Kite's Brasses of Wiltshire.

8.51 Rev. Canon Wood, D.D., Vicar of Cropredy, published in the Antiquary, numbers of May and June 1893, a very interesting article on St Fremund.

8.52 Materials relating to History of Great Britain and Ireland, by Thomas Duffus Hardy (Rolls Series), vol. i, part 2, p. 521.

8.53 Cressy's Church History, Edition of 1668, p. 739.

8.54 Cf. Bibliothec. Topograph. Britan., vol. iv, p. 57.

8.55 Jackson's Aubrey's Wiltshire.

8.56 'Institutions of the Bishops of Salisbury', printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps in his Wiltshire Tracts, British Museum Catalogue, 577, 1. 24, and 577, 1. 36.

8.57 British Museum, Additional Charter 38869.NO TAGNO TAG

8.58 Cf. Besant's London.

8.59 F. C. Cass's History of South Mimms, and Foss's Judges of England.

8.60 Burke's Extinct Baronetages, and Foss's Book of Judges.

8.61 Harleian Society, vol. iii, p. 46; and Baker's Northampton, vol. i, p. 152.

8.62 Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 981.

8.63 Foss's Judges, and Bryde's Collins' Peerage, vol. iii, p. 487.

8.64 Collinson's Somerset, vol. i, p. 90, and vol. iii, p. 496; also Harleian Society's Publications, vol. vi, p. 178.

8.65 Northamptonshire PM Inquis.; file 684 of second series of Escheators' Accounts, Record Office Calendar, 12 Henry VIII (1520).

8.66 Brydge's Collins's Peerage, edition of 1812, vol. vi, p. 262.

8.67 46 of 25 Henry VIII (1533), and 20 of 29 Henry VIII (1537).

8.68 Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica.

8.69 Harleian MSS., 1532, p. 40; and 1139, p. 100; and Clarke's Hundred of Wantage, pedigree of Fetiplace.

8.70 Dorothy Danvers and John Fettiplace probably had a son, Edward (died 1540).  See Hilary Spurling's Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book. -Ed.

8.71 See Dugdale's Baronage of England, vol. ii, p. 203, and Sir Richard Hoare's Hungerfordiana.

8.72 From Aske's pedigree of Danvers.

8.73 Visitation of Warwick, Cat. No. 438, in the library of Caius College, Cambridge. See also Harleian Society, 'Visitation of Oxon', vol. v.

8.74 She was probably the Margaret Danvers, born in 1504, listed in the International Genealogical Index of the LDS. She married Thomas Nevell in 1539.

8.75 Nichols' History of Leicester, vol. ii p. 730.

8.76 British Museum, Additional Charter 38882; also Harrison's Index (Record Office), vol. xii, pp. 461 and 694; also Nichols as above, and Family of Foljambe, Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i, p. 359; also Burke's History of Landed Gentry, 'Neville of Holt', and Harleian Society's Publications, vol. v, p. 21.  See also Daniel Rowland's History of the Family of Nevill, London, 1830.

8.77 See R. E. C. Waters' Family of Chester, and Baker's Northampton, vol. i, p. 732; Bridge's Northampton, vol. i, p. 217; Betham's Baronetage, vol. iv, p. 87; Lipscomb's Bucks, vol. iii, p. 457.

8.78 Exchequer Escheats, Series 2, File 795, 14 Henry VIII (1522).

8.79 'My daughter, Anne Wykes,' p. 8-22.  May this Anne have been a godchild or granddaughter?

8.80 Bibliothec. Topograph. Britan., vol. vii, p. 152, and Harleian Society's Publications vol. v, p. 192.  See also Rev. J. C. Blomfield's History of Deanery of Bicester, Part ii, p. 71.

8.81 Will; Powell 14.

8.82 Harleian Roll, p. 5.

8.83 Cf. Bright's History of England, vol. ii, p. 431.

8.84 Bernard Mayston, of North Yorkshire, having conducted many years of research, is currently (1995) writing a biography of Sir John Danvers (the son) entitled The Seventh Man.  One of the issues raised by Mr Mayston in correspondence with the editors, is that the poem which Macnamara refers to as penned by George Herbert about the Sir John Danvers (the father), may have been about Sir John Danvers (the son), who was step-father to the poet.  In support of this theory, Mr Mayston points out that:

(1) the younger Sir John was renowned for his beauty, but no such reference is made about his father; and

(2) the younger Sir John had no children during most of the years the poet knew him (Herbert died three years after Sir John's marriage to Elizabeth Dauntsey), hence the lines

But his heavenly and divine,

In his progenie doth shine.

Had he only brought them forth,

Know that much had been his worth.

Mr Mayston also seeks to justify Sir John's actions and presents him as a much maligned character.

8.85 PM Inquis. of Sir John Danvers of 1595; 38 Elizabeth I, part ii, No. 100.

8.86 Collins's Peerage, vol. i, p. 253.

8.87 Baker's Northamptonshire, vol. i, p. 447.

8.88 Metcalfe's Book of Knights.  Also 'Sir Charles Danvers' in Dictionary of National Biography.

8.89 Domestic State Papers, vol. 1598-1601, June 20. Also Harleian MS. 4289 ff 51 - 53.

8.90 Cobbett's State Trials, vol. i, p. 1414.

8.91 See Journal of Archaeological Society of Wiltshire, vol. i, p. 306, and vol. iii, p. 239.  Also the copy of Lady Danvers' petition and of a statement by her, appended to this chapter.

8.92 Journal of Arch￦ological Society of Wiltshire, vol. i p. 306 and vol. viii p. 239.

8.93 Canon Jackson's Aubrey's Wiltshire, pp. 216-227, and Dictionary of National Biography; vols. for the period of Domestic State Papers; also MacKenzie's Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, vol ii, p. 25.

8.94 Dictionary of National Biography,-'Sir John Danvers' also vols for the period of Domestic State Papers, Aubrey's Wiltshire, and Life of George Herbert, S.P.C.K.

8.95 Sir John Danvers will; Aylett 264.

8.96 Moore Smith's Dorothy Osborne's Letters, 1928 p. 222. The will of Henry Danvers; Aylett, 188.

8.97 See Dryden's poem dedicated to her memory.

8.98 See Baker's Northampton, vol. ii, p. 423.

8.99 The dates for various births and marriages are drawn from the 1992 LDS International Genealogical Index. -Ed.

8.100 Will: Buckingham, 145.

8.101 In Chapter Seventeen (page NO TAG) Macnamara gives the name of the son of Charles Danvers of Kensington as John. -Ed.

8.102 See also letter of John Calley to Sir R. Cecil in Part V, Hatfield MSS.

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Digital edition first published: 1 Mar 2020             Updated: 12 Jul 2023                garydanvers@gmail.com