The Golden Falcon

The Golden Falcon

Chapter XIV/1 - Whiterose

THE WHITE ROSE

As I walked across the hill.

On Sunday, and a friend with me,

We read together a letter's news

No joyful tale we gathered there.

 

Many a hero, mighty, brave,

Today in Scotland mourns for thee,

In secret are they shedding tear

Who keenly would have followed thee.

 

Each hill-slope and mountain side,

On which we ever saw thee move,

Now has lost its form and hue

Since thou ne'er shalt come again.

 

Farewell to the White Cockade,

Till Domesday he in death is laid,

The grave has ta'en the White Cockade,

The cold tombstone is now his shade."

 

("An Suaithnass Bann" - William Rose)

 

During the reign of William IV (1762-1830) letters were written by a solicitor John Winter to his father and others regarding his claim to be descended from the Lydney Winters.

 

John Winter senior (who also wrote his "Reminiscences") was born at Great Ealing, Middlesex on 25.1.1.1775 and married M. E. Burroughs in the reign of George III (1738-1820).

 

A copy of this unidentified MS was in the possession of the Rev. Charles H. Winter, rector of Reymerston, Attleborough and Stonegate, Aylsham in Norfolk, had been collected by his eldest brother and the MSS lent to Rev. Charles Henry Winter (born in Ceylon), rector of Ware, Hertfordshire, Penhow, Monmouth and subsequently Vicar of Elsdon, late of the "King's Peace", Grayshott, Hindhead, Surrey.

 

"Reminiscences"

 

25.2.1825 (reign of William IV 1762-1830).

 

By John Winter who was born at Great Ealing, Middlesex on the 25th day of November 1755 and married M. E. Burroughs in the reign of George III (1738-1820).

 

My father's name was John Winter, he was married on 28.10.1744 to Anne Staine of Coventry, the daughter of Richard Staine.  They were married at St. Sepulchre's Church, London.

 

My father had two sisters, Sarah and Elizabeth.  Sarah the eldest child, was married in 1743 to William Evans, citizen and skinner of London (a Welshman), who resided in Jewin Street, Cripplegate, as a wine merchant.  They both died and were buried as were all their children at Perivale, as appears by the register and tombstone.

 

Elizabeth married about the same time, Cassan, a plumber.  She died without issue and was buried at Great Ealing (1765).

 

My father resided in a house at Great Ealing (which I have purchased) from the time of his marriage until his death in the year 1787.

 

My mother died on 19.8.1782.  Their surviving children were:

 

(a) Anne married to Mr Gerard Scorer, partner of Messrs Masterman and Co.,

     bankers.

(b) John married to Mary Elizabeth Burrough buried at Ealing.

(c) Sarah married first to Mr John Slater, surgeon and secondly to Mr Eustace.

(d) Thomas married Pleasant Fenn of Portsmouth.

(e) Elizabeth married first Rev. William Jones of Weyland, Essex and secondly

     Mr Sackville Turner, son of Sir Bernard Turner.

 

William Evans, citizen and skinner, died leaving issue William and Thomas and by his Will bequeathed to me a legacy of £20 as his nephew.  His son William married the widow Newbank, a daughter of Mr Nicholas Carter and on his decease these surviving two sons, William and Leonard (vide his Will).

 

Leonard died unmarried without issue.  Thomas the son of William Evans died unmarried and was buried at Great Ealing or Perivale.  By his Will (prepared by Mr Thomas Turner of Skinner's Hall and duly executed), he bequeathed to his cousins, John Winter, Anne Winter and Sarah Winter, all his estates and effects.

 

My grandfather John Winter married Mary (Elizabeth) Strange about the year 1714.  He married very young and was born about the year 1695.  He was buried at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

 

Copy from the register of burials for the parish of High Wycombe - 1717 John Winter of ye parish of Cheping Wictham - August 3rd.

 

My aunt Evans, my aunt Cassan, my father and his mother (the widow) attended the funeral.  He died in London and if he was this son of Sir George Winter, he was shot in St. James's Square, of this I was informed by Dr. Harrington of Bath, who lived to be upward of 90 years of age.

 

In the year 1773 I was informed by Lady Petty (the aunt of Lord Lansdown) who resided at Totteridge, that Sir Edward Winter, who died at Battersea and whose monument is there, was of the Gloucestershire family and this I think, more than likely as Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke had a palace there and the St. Johns and the Bathursts were all in power and office at the same time.

 

Epitaph on Sir Edward Winter:

 

"Alone, unarmed a tiger he oppressed

And crushed to death the monster of a beast,

Thrice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew,

Single on foot, some wounded, some he slew,

Dispersed  the rest, what more could Samson do?"

 

This brings to my recollection the well-known circumstances of "Winter's Leap".  He rode down or leapt his horse off the cliff, and the horse carried him twelve miles in the sea, aboard a ship.  [This occurs in Miss E. Winter's copy].  My aunt Evans had an original picture of this horse, and it is now in the Carter family or the Dalbys.

 

Sir John Strange. the Master of the Rolls, was a trustee in Mr Blathwayt's settlement upon his marriage with Mary Winter, said to be sole heiress of Sir John Winter, her picture is at Dyrham Park, a noble domain, the house was improved greatly by Mr Blathwayt.  Sir George Winter has a marble tomb in the church which adjoins the house and is represented as followed by six of his children - how they were disposed of God only knows.

 

The Bathursts are in possession of Lydney Park and of Sir John Winter's estates said to extend from Chepstow Bridge to Gloucestershire.  The Blathwayts are in possession of their estate (Dyrham) by the marriage of Mary Winter said to be the sole heiress of Sir John Winter.  There is a picture of Sir Charles Winter in Dyrham Park very much resembling myself.

 

Now I believe that Mary Strange who was married to my grandfather about the years 1710-13 was a relation of the Master of the Rolls who died soon after my grandfather, and was an accomplished woman.  They were married very young (and I do believe that the Legard family mentioned by Sir Richard Steele in the "Guardian" Nos. 13 and 14 were the sons of Sir George Winter (of Dyrham) who were encouraged in their dissipations even unto death).  For the daughter or relation of Sir John Strange, my grandfather's wife, being dead, it might not have been convenient for the Bathursts, Blathwayts or the Stranges to attend to my grandfather's children after they were stripped of both Lydney and Dyrham.

 

Sir Charles Winter's Will is not to be found in Doctor's Commons but it is proved and registered.  The proof was twelve years in litigation and the proceedings should be looked up and the evidence investigated.  Mr Jenner would do this.

 

Mr. Blathwayt's settlement under a decree in Chancery is enrolled and beautifully emblazoned with the Winter Arms - why all this fuss?

 

The Winters of Lydney were buried in a vault there, of which the Bathursts have taken possession.  My son Bernard and myself examined this vault and was (sic) shown three skulls said to be of the Winters.

 

In the year 1780 [George III] I made a visit of curiosity to Lydney in company with General Gabbith's nephew and having been permitted to view Lydney House, the Park and gardens, I went to the top of Gloucester Cathedral and there cut out the mark of my foot and his name in the lead coverings, which I dare say still remains.  But a singular circumstance occurred of which I was informed by Mr ---- (who rented the ironworks at Lydney) and by his foreman, Mr Gardner, that Mr Bathurst, the then occupier of Lydney, hanged himself in his summerhouse a few days afterwards, leaving only an illegitimate female child, having by his Will devised the estate to Mrs Pooley for life and then to Mr Bragg Bathurst.

 

Another odd circumstance.  Hearing of Mr Bathurst's death, I called on Mr Pye (the Secretary of Lunatics and Lord Bathurst's solicitors and relative) to make some enquiry as to the Lydney estate.  He promised to give me what information he could but was very fidgety.  He died in a very few days.

Fowler Walker Esq., of the Chancery Bar, a relative of Lord Bathurst, told me he knew I should have some difficulty to prove my grandfather's marriage.  He was my good friend and introduced me to my partnership with Mr Acton by which means I became solicitor to the Bank of England.

 

Thus having disposed of my grandfather by his burial at High Wycombe, let us see what became of his children.

 

Sarah, the eldest was placed by the Rev. Harrison, Vicar of Cirencester (Lord Bathurst's parish) with his sister, maiden ladies living in Perivale, near Ealing. with them she continued till her marriage with Mr William Evans, citizen and skinner.

 

Elizabeth the next daughter was taken care of my Lady Ingoldsby and my father was placed, at five years of age, with Mr Ormerod, a farmer at Gunnersbury, which farm is now held by Mr Thorne.

 

Now it is a little singular that Sir Richard Steele, who had a place in the Treasury under the Bathursts and Blathwayts, should have lived in Gunnersbury at the time, as appears by his life and he probably wrote No. 13 and 14 of the "Guardian" there.

 

The tradition in our family has always been that during my father's stay or abode with Mr Ormerod, several attempts were made in his life and he was supposed to have been wilfully thrown under a cart wheel from which (if an accident) he recovered in St. Bartholomew's Hospital.  A man named Daniel Moody was suspected as the party.

 

My father, when he married, lived in the family of Thomas Gurnell Esq., at Ealing and my mother with his maiden sisters at Ealing.  Miss Sarah Gurnell left my sister Ann Winter, now Mrs Scorer, a legacy of £100 which was paid to my father by John Harman Esq., her executor.

 

The Grand Party - Benjamin Bathurst, Blathwayt, Sir John Strange, Lady Ingoldsby, Rev. Harrison, Sir Richard Steele, Chancellor Morgan and understrappers including Daniel Moody.

 

Our family has always acknowledged a cousinship with the family of Adam Strange of Long Wittenham in Berkshire who married a Miss Rosa King.  They had several children, all dead but one, Mary Strange, now at Benson, Oxfordshire, aged 70 and upwards married to Pastor V. Palmer.

 

This Mary Strange was for many years with my aunt Evans and knows a great deal of the family stories.

 

My father was applied to in early life after his marriage to sign a conveyance or release of some sort which he did as a matter of form. as he was told and for which he received a sum of £10.

 

Mary Strange now Mrs Benson [Palmer] can prove the Evan's connection in all its parts.  So can Mr Gregg of Skinner's Hall and Mr Robert Miles, his clerk if living.  On Mr Ormerod's death, I know that my father gave the ringers a guinea for a dumb peal.

 

It has puzzled me to account my grandfather's burial at High Wycombe, the hearse being drawn by his piebald horses.  Now Lord Melbourne [the formation of the letters is uncertain but this should read Shelburne] was then owner of Wycombe and Lady Petty told me, when I was about 18 years old as I have already mentioned, - that the Melbourne family were acquainted with the Winters, the Bathursts, the Bolingbrokes etc may of whom are buried at High Wycombe.

 

If my grandfather was shot in St. James Square, it must have been much talked of, and if he was considered the last of the family, it is likely some attention would be paid him.

 

Sir Roger Winter the first recorded of the family married Lord Mohun's sister from them descended the Gloucestershire family.  Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton are said to have fought a duel in the year 1712, in fact it appears that they were both murdered by General MacCartenay.  Dean Swift in his last four years says Lord Mohun had been twice tried for murder.

 

Another history of Queen Anne (1738) says that there is no doubt Lord Mohun and MacCartenay were incited to undertake the murder of the Duke of Hamilton by a certain party of men (Mohaukes) and that the hands of MacCartenay had been dyed with three foul murders.

 

The Winters were Catholics and sacrificed their all for the Stewarts.  Might not my grandfather have been shot in St. James Square by McCartney?  On the death of Queen Anne, the Bathursts turned the scale against the Pretender.  MacCartenay was tried for the murder of the Duke of Hamilton and found guilty of manslaughter.

 

My father married in the year 1744.  By executing the conveyance or release he probably saved his life."

 

Gunnersbury Park in Brentford, Middlesex is near Osterley Park in Isleworth.  Osterley Park House (originally built by the Elizabethan Sir Thomas Gresham who founded the Royal Exchange) came into the possession of the Roundhead Sir William Waller, a professional soldier, great landowner and MP who was appointed Major General for Gloucestershire.  He was a colleague of the Earl of Essex who besieged Gloucester but did not get on with him.  He may have been a relative of Sir Hardress Waller, one of the judges who condemned Charles I to death, was arraigned at the bar of the Sessions House on 10.10.1660 but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.  Sir William's son also named Sir William Waller was JP for Westminster, an iconoclast and a great hunter of Catholics during the time of the Titus Oates Plot.  Osterley came to Sir Francis Childs the banker and Robert Adams re-designed it between 1761 and 1780.  Osterley Park was inherited by Sir Josiah's descendants the Child Villiers, Earls of Jersey descended from George Villiers, duke of Buckingham favourite of James I whose descendant Edward Villiers was created earl of Jersey in 1697.

 

The family of Strange existed in Buckinghamshire since the 13th century and held the manor of Westbury, in the Buckingham Hundred of Buckinghamshire.

 

Half Westbury was held in 1275 by Simon St. Lis (son of Richard St. Lis of Seaton, Rutland).  It was held in 1278 by Joan de Somery, Lady of Westbury (probably Joan de Somery of Olney, Bucks., wife of John Strange of Knockin).  In 1330 it passed to Ewald or Ebulo le Strange (d. 1335) and then to Roger Strange of Knockin whose widow Alice (née de Lacy whose first husband was Thomas Plantagenet, duke of Lancaster) married Hugh le Fresne.  In 1373 the manor was in the hands of Roger, son of Roger le Strange who granted it to John, son of John Strange of Walton, Co. Warwick and Mabel his wife.  In 1396 John alienated it to Alan Strange and Margaret his wife, daughter of John Wyard.  Alan (d. 1417) held it of the Honour of Wallingford.  It passed to Michael, Thomas, John and Baldwin Strange, brothers of Alan and Philippa and Ida his sisters.  In 1485 Thomas Strange held it at his death.  His sisters Margaret and Anne were his co-heiresses.  Anne (d. in 1518) married John Strange of Little Massingham, Norfolk and secondly Edward Knyvett.

 

The second half of Westbury was held in 1346 by William Cauntelow from Rose, widow of Stephen (Simon) de St. Lis who held it of the St. Walery Honour.  In 1260 Simon St. Lis of Radclive was owner and in 1274 received 7 acres of wood.  In 1284-6 Westbury was listed in the feudal assessment.  Simon died in 1288 leaving a widow Isabel and son Andrew St. Lis who held it in 1301 and 1316 of the earl of Cornwall.  A contemporary Agnes, widow of Roger St. Lis who claimed dower in 1327.  He was succeeded by Ralph St. Lis who conveyed it to Ewald Strange.

 

Alan Strange held lands in Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire including Wellesbourne Strange and Wellesbourne Montfort (Inq. pm. No.16, 5 Henry V).

 

Margery, wife of Baldwin Strange held lands in Shropshire, Gloucestershire, Kent, Essex and Middlesex.  The Will of Elizabeth, wife of Robert Mouleners (Molyneaux?) daughter and heiress of Margaret, wife of Baldwin Strange went to probate in Stafford.

 

The coat of arms of the Le Strange, L'Estrange or Strange family "argent, 2 lions passant in pale gules, armed and langued azure" were quartered by their heirs the Srtanleys, earls of Derby and through them by Granville Leveson Gower, earl of Sutherland.  These arms were also quarterd by Sir John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury.

 

The marriage of John Winter and Elizabeth (not Mary) Strange took place on 14.10.1711 in the parish of Bradenham, Buckinghamshire ("The Buckinghamshire Registers - Marriages VI - edit. Phillimore & Gurney).  She may have been Elizabeth, daughter of William Strange baptised on 6.1.1691 at West Hanney, Buckinghamshire.  Bradenham manor belonged to Thomas, Lord Windsor and was rebuilt in 1670 by the 2nd baron.  A Windsor was involved in the Gunpowder Plot).

 

The tomb of John Winter of Ealing has the following inscription:

 

"John Winter d. 18-- of this parish, armiger, only son of John Winter of Lydney Co. Glos., buried at West Wycombe, leaving above, John, Sarah and Elizabeth and Anne his wife, daughter of Richard Stein of Coventry and their children, William, Sarah, William, Richard leaving them surviving, John, Thomas, Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth". [MI Churchyard, Ealing St. Mary, Middlesex].

 

Anne Winter married Gerard Scorer at All Hallows, Lombard Street in 1783 [Boyds Marriages - Middlesex 1776-1800].

Thomas Winter of Ealing, Co. Middlesex married Pleasant Fenn of Portsmouth at Portsmouth on 14.10.1783 [PCC licence].  The surname Fenn is an alternative spelling of Venn.  Thomas Venn, by name of Thomas Fenn, leased messuages in St. Nicholas Lane, parish of St. Nicholas Acon, London on 2.5..5.1661.  [Thomas Fenn alias Venn No. B542, Fire Court held after the Great Fire of London of 1666].

 

Elizabeth, daughter of John & Elizabeth Winter was baptised on 23.4.1714 at Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

 

Adam (29.11.1759), Anne (1750) and Catherine (1764), children of Adam Strange and Rosa King were baptised at Long Wittenham, Berkshire.

 

Mary, daughter of Adam Strange of Long Wittenham, Berkshire and her husband Pastor Vaughan Palmer were the parents of the novelist Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Palmer born on 13.1.1856 at York.  Her father was a clergyman who had been an officer in the Royal Artillery.  At 28 she married Arthur Stannard by whom she had one son and three daughters and died at Putney on 1.3.12.1911 at the age of 55, following an accident.

 

She began writing in 1874 at the age of 18 as "Violet Whtye" and in 1881 as "John Strange Winter", a character in one of her early stories.  This was not traced by the British Library and probably in one of the journals (one was the "Family Herald") in which her short stories, about military life, were published.

 

There is no record either of a John Winter in the "List of Characters of Fiction" in the British Museum nor was there a Clerk of London or Westminster recorded according to Westminster Library.

 

Robert Winter (b. 1728, obsp. 1802) worked in the London Pipe Office but he belonged to the Brecon family ["History of Brecknockshire" - Theophilus Jones].

 

There were many Jacobite aldermen and mayors of London and two Jacobite spies in the Post Office.

 

Allen Bathurst, 1st earl, MP for Cirencester in 1705-12, created baron and granted a pension of £2,000 a year, became earl in 1727, died in 1775 and was buried at Cirencester.  He was a friend of Alexander Pope, Arbuthnot, Swift, Gray, Prior and Burke.  His son, the 2nd earl, was Lord Chancellor and owned Cirencester Court (his seat), Hempstead and Sappertone where Charles I stayed on 14.7.1644 (all in Gloucestershire).  Mr Bragg Bathurst was a MP and Hon. Freeman of the Bristol Venturers Company.  Sir Benjamin Bathurst, Cofferer of the Household to Queen Anne inherited Paulerspury, property of Arthur Throckmorton the Diarist through the marriage of Anne Throckmorton, his youngest daughter with Sir Edward Hales.

 

Dr Henry Harrington, son of Henry Harrington, born at Kelston, MD (1727-1816), musician and author, BA Oxon, physician at Wells married Miss Musgrave.  They had 2 sons.  He was descended from John Harrington married Mary Rogers of Cannington therefore Dr. Henry Harrington was a kinsman of the Dyrham Winters.  The Harringtons were cousins of the Markhams, relatives of Frances Napier.

 

The Bethleham Hospital for Lunatics, known as Bedlam was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London at Moorfields in 1675.  It was again rebuilt on 8 acres at St. George's Fields, Lambeth in 1814 and patients moved in there in 1815.  It was rumoured that there was a tunnel from Lambeth Palace to Bedlam).  Evelyn wrote:

 

21.4.1657 - "At my returne I stept into Bedlame, where I saw several poore miserable creatures in chaines; one of them was mad with making verses."

 

18.3.1678 - "I went to New Bedlam Hospital, magnificently built and most sweetely placed in More-fields since the dreadful fire in London".

 

Sir William Petty (b.1623, d. 1688), whose descendants became Lords Shelburne (mentioned in both Pepy's and Evelyn's Diaries), was Sir Robert Southwell's cousin and a friend of William Blathwayt, Southwell's nephew.

 

Sir William Petty was an eminent physician, "celebrated for his proficiency in every branch of science", he designed and built a flat-bottomed ship with two keels which sank during a storm in the Bay of Biscay with other vessels, his map of Ireland was the most accurate ever drawn and he was Surveyor of Forfeited Lands in Ireland during Cromwell's Protectorate.

 

Anthony, father of William Petty (b. Romsey, Hants. 26.5.1623, d. London, 16.12.1687 aged 64), a cloth worker and tailor, owned a house and perhaps a farm land.  When aged 15, William became a cabin boy and was in the navy (1638-42).  He said that when stranded in Caen (c.1639-1643/6) with his younger brother, he subsisted by giving lessons in English and navigation and by trading.  He studied with the Jesuits there for a year and medicine in at Utrecht, Leiden (matriculated 1644), Amsterdam, Paris (1643-46).  He returned to England (1646), worked as a clothier for a time, improving machines used in textile processes and went to Oxford (1648, matriculated 1650), where he was fellow of Brasenose College (till 1659), vice-principal and Professor of Anatomy (1650) and Professor of Music at Gresham College (1651-1660).

 

Petty was a Parliamentarian; Physician General to Cromwell's army in Ireland, and personal physician to the commander (1653-9).  He was paid more than £13, 000 for doing the Down Survey (1655-6), was personal secretary to Henry Cromwell, governor of Ireland, Clerk of the Council (1655-9) and made Commissioner for the Distribution of  Confiscated Land (1656).  He obtained a very large estate.  On the Restoration, he became Registrar to the Irish Court of Admiralty (1676) and a Commissioner of the Navy in England.  He was knighted by Charles I (1661).

 

He invented many things - a “double-writing” (c. 1646), a mechanical grain planter, inventions associated with dyeing and cloth making, a proposed propelling power for ships, a new carriage and designed and constructed 3 twin-hulled ships (1662-4 & 1684).  He was a member of the Royal Society where he delivered a discourse on building ships.  He manufactured iron on his estate in Kerry (destroyed c. 1687).  He was member of the Royal Society (1660) where he presented papers and became vice-president (1673) and the Royal College of Physicians (1651).  He knew John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys.

 

In 1667 he married the daughter of Sir Hardress Waller and widow of Sir Maurice Fenton of Ireland.  James II created Petty’s widow and eldest son Baroness Shelburne and Lord Shelburne (a barony in Ireland).

 

Evelyn wrote of him:

 

22.3.1675: "Supp'd at Sir William Petty's with the Bishop of Salisbury and divers honourable persons.  We had a noble entertainment in a house gloriously furnish'd; the master and mistress of it were extraordinary persons.  Sir William was the sonn of a meane man somewhere in Sussex and sent from schole to Oxon, where he studied philosophy, but was most eminent in mathematics and mechanics: proceeded doctor of physick and was grown famous as for his learning.  Sir William came from Oxon to be tutor to a neighbour of mine; thence when the rebells were dividing their conquests in Ireland, he was employ'd by them to measure and set out the land, which he did on an easy contract, so much per acre.  This he effected so exactly, that it not only furnish'd him with a great sum of money, but enabled him to purchase an estate worth £,400 a yeare.  He afterwards married with the daughter of Sir Hadress Waller; she was an extraordinary wit as well as a beauty and a prudent woman."

 

William Petty’s second son, Henry Petty, was created Baron Shelburne in 1669.  William Petty left only a daughter Anne (Shelburne’s sister) who, in 1692, married Thomas fitzMaurice, lord of Kerry and Lixnaw, 21st baron Kerry, created Viscount Clanmaurice and Earl of Kerry by George I (1722).  His heir was John Fitzmaurice (d. 1761) who was Anne, Countess of Kerry’s second son.  His son William became 1st earl of Shelburne in 1761.

 

His heir William Petty, 1st marquis of Lansdowne, 2nd earl of Shelburne (1737-1805), attended Christ Church, Oxford, served as a colonel in Germany during the Seven Years War, and was elected MP for Chipping (West) Wycombe (1760), succeeding his father the following year.  He was on he Board of Trade (1763), Secretary of state for the Southern Department (1766-1768) and finally as Prime Minister (1782-1783).

 

His circle at Bowood attracted Franklin and Morellet; and included Joseph Priestley, Richard Price, and Jeremy Bentham.

 

He was a shareholder in the East India Company and an official dealing with America.  In 1763, he helped draft regulations for North America.  He became Secretary of State under Chatham and when Prime Minister, Shelburne he played a crucial role in the 1783 peace treaty.

 

The Petty property Loakes House or Wycombe Abbey passed to Francis Smith, 1st Lord Carrington in 1798.  There was a marriage between a Winter and a Petty, ancestors of to the present family of Winter-Petty of Canada.

 

A part of Wycombe manor (called Temple Wycombe later Loakes), was granted by King John to Robert Vipont who gave it to the Knights Templar and when they fell, it went to the Knights Hospitallers.  It was granted (in 1552) to John Cock.  In the 17th century the manor was sold by the owner Thomas Archdale to Henry Petty, Lord Shelburne (afterwards Earl of Shelburne).  It was inherited by his nephew John Fitzmaurice, created Earl of Shelburne (1753) and Baron of Chipping-Wycombe (1760).  His son, created Earl Wycombe of Chipping-Wycombe and Marquis of Lansdowne (1784), sold his property in lots and was bought (about the year 1795) by Lord Carrington.

 

John Winter was incorrect in thinking there was a recent marriage between a Mohun and a Winter.  According to the "Visitation of Gloucestershire" Roger Winter, the first of his family to settle in Droitwich in the reign Edward II, married Margaret, widow of John, Lord Mohun of Dunster but there was no Mohun widow named Margaret so perhaps she was an unidentified daughter who is not mentioned in the Mohun genealogy or she was Elizabeth fitzPiers.  There is no record of this marriage in the College of Heralds.  However John Mohun held Whichford in Warwickshire.

 

Charles Mohun (1675-1712), a member of the Whig Kit-Cat Club, a notorious rake and dueller tried twice for murder before the age of 24, was one of the generals of John Churchill, duke of Marlborough's.  Evelyn wrote in his Diary:

 

4.2.1693: "After 5 days trial and extraordinary contest, was the Lord Mohune acquitted by the Lords of the murder of Montford the Player notwithstanding that the judges (from the pregnant witnesses of the fact) had declared him guilty but whether in commiseration of his youth, being not 18 years old, though exceeding dissolute, or upon what other reason (the King himself present, some part of the trial) and satisfied they report that he was culpable.  69 Lords acquitted him and only 14 condemned him."

 

The Hamiltons, Earls of Arran, were descended from James, Lord Hamilton (d. 1479) who married Mmary Stuart, sister of James III (1460-88) of Scotland.  James, 3rd Marquis of Hamilton, was Charles I's page and became Master of the Horse.  He was one of the principal courtiers of Charles I, sat on the English Council, became Commissioner for Scotland and was created Duke of Hamilton.  When he returned from Scotland, he was arrested by Charles I with his brother William, Earl of Lanark, Secretary of State for Scotland who escaped and joined the Roundheads.  The Duke of Hamilton was tried by Cromwell on 1.2.1649 and executed on 5.3.1649.  His wife was a Villiers (of the family of the Dukes of Buckingham) and died early leaving 2 daughters and 3 sons.  His sons predeceased him so his brother William Hamilton succeeded as 2nd duke.  The Duke of Hamilton was one of Charles II's frivolous friends and a member of the clique (accused of leading the king astray) which included George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.  The Duke of Hamilton was a friend of John Evelyn, visited him to see his garden on 26.8.1660 and on 30.10.16 1688 when visiting Lord Boyle, told Evelyn about Mary, Queen of Scots and Rizzio.  On 12.1.1688 his eldest son Lord Arran married Lady Anne Spencer, daughter of the Earl of Sunderland, Lord President of the Council.  Evelyn wrote on 24.6.1690 that the Duke was captured in ireland fighting for James II.

 

The Hamilton-Mohun duel took place on 15.11.1712.  James Douglas became 4th duke Duke of Hamilton (1658-1712) after his mother (who administered the Scottish properties) resigned her titles on his marriage on 16.7.1698.  He was heir to the throne of Scotland (but not that of England) after the exiled Stuarts and wanted to proclaim James III as king.

 

He was imprisoned in 1708 for his part in a Jacobite Plot and was suspected of receiving money from the Pope via Paris to bribe the Scottish Parliament to support a Jacobite restoration.

 

Hamilton had been sent by Robert Harley and John St. John, Lord Bolingbroke to negotiate the Treaty of Utrecht with Louis XIV.  One clause stipulated that the French King should no longer allow James III to remain in France.  James, "The Old Pretender", was forced to leave and in 1713 and settled at Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine with the Duc de Bouillon.  The Duke of Hamilton may have had enemies even amongst the Jacobites for this betrayal.

 

Queen Anne disliked him heartily and he used to arrive drunk in Parliament but in 1711 he was in her favour as she created him Duke of Brandon, Baron Dutton, a Knight of the Garter, a peer of Great Britain and ambassador to France.

 

As Hamilton (then Lord Arran) was in debt and in trouble for his Jacobite sympathies, he married a young heiress Elizabeth, daughter of Baron Digby Gerard who had large estates in Lancashire and Staffordshire.  They rented a house in St. James Square and never returned to Scotland.

 

He was involved in a lawsuit because he had promised to pay Lady Gerard £10,000 her expenses in bringing up Elizabeth on his marriage, but he refused to stand by his agreement after marriage.  The litigation dragged on for years, even after Lady Gerard's death.  She left Elizabeth 5 shillings and a diamond necklace in her Will.

 

Her brother the earl of Macclesfield, took up her claim which his eventually passed to his heir, Lord Mohun (Hamilton’s brother-in-law according to W. M. Thackery in “Henry Esmond”).

 

Hamilton delayed his departure to Paris and on 13.11.1712 met Mohun at the Chancery Temple.  The latter was drunk and they quarrelled violently.  The next day Mohun's friend MacCartenay called on the Duke with a challenge.

 

MacCartenay (Mohun's second during the infamous duel), was one of Marlborough's senior officers and was dismissed when the Whig Government fell.  MacCartenay was a notorious gambler with a reputation for violence, both he and Mohun were Whigs with a grievance against the Tories.  Major-General MacCartenay, Lieutenant General Meredith and Brigadier Honywood, three officers in Marlborough's camp, were cashiered for shooting an at effigy of Robert Harley, the Tory Prime Minister.

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