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The Eyres of Hassop, and Some of Their Connections, from the Test Act to Emancipation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Extract

A previous study traced the career of Rowland Eyre the cavalier during the Civil War and Commonwealth (Recusant History, vol. 8, no. 1). The present account continues the story from the time of Charles II; the earlier history of the family will not be recapitulated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1967

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References

1. Gentlemen Pensioners' Rolls, E407 Box 1/51 et seq. Chamberlayne's Angliae Notitia 1672, 1676. List of the 40 names, Cal. TB. 1669-72, 853-4.

2. Cal. TB, 1685-9, 1970.

3. Hassop Inventory of 1852, Bag.C.372A.

4. MS Letter book of William Blundell.

5. Blundell letter of 15.7.1671, to Alice Clarke, mentions Anne in Paris.

6. Receipts for dowry, Bag.C.2707.

7. Among a bundle of receipts (Bag.C.369) are several for £6, annual interest on £100 apparently held by Rowland Eyre for pious uses. Receipts are signed by or for William Staley of West Hallam, Eliz. Steward of Stanley Grange and John Staveley (Staley) of London, goldsmith, 1658-66.

8. Foley, vol. 5, 939;Google Scholar Camden Soc, 1st Series, vol. 52, 3.Google Scholar

9. Bedingfeld search, Foley, vol. 5, 624 Google Scholar. Caryll letter, The Month, March 1933. Carrington, HMC (17) House of Lords, 1678-88, 60.

10. HMC (32) Fitzherbert, 125, 145. (Printed as Mr Ayrep).

11. E 377/74-77, Leicestershire and Derbyshire membranes.

12. HMC (17) House of Lords, 1678-88, 236, 232.

13. Cal. SPD, 1679-80, 327; Lords’ Journal 1675-81, 515-6; HMC (17) House of Lords, 1678-88, 154.

14. Cal. TB, 1689-92, 1265.

15. Bag.C. 2392-2404.

16. Cobbett's State Trials, vol. 8, 526 ff.Google Scholar

17. E178/6195 Proceedings before the Exchequer Commission, The following information is from this document, unless otherwise mentioned.

18. Camden Soc., 1st Series, vol. 52, 56.Google Scholar

19. MS Letter book, William Blundell, junior, to his sisters Alice and Mary Blundell, Jan. 28, 1682/3.

20. Bag.C. 2110-2113 are the Litton agreement and receipts. There is a letter from William Blundell, dated 25 Feb. 1674/5, to Heaton, in which he says: “I am glad to hear that this paper is like to find you at Hassop”. (MS Letter book).

21. Bag.C. 2407-2409; Cal. TB. 1689-92, 1191-2, 1265; information from the vicar of Newark, quoting terriers of 1770 and 1909.

22. Settlement, 1 Dec, 1682, Bag.C. 2639; marriage date from letter of Sir Jas. Poole dated 28 Feb. 1682/3, Bag.C. 2707.

23. Bag.C. 2799; Cal. SPD. 1689-90, 521; Cal. TB. 1685-9, 583.

24. HMC (24) Rutland, vol. 2, 85.

25. HMC, Appendix to 9th Report, Pt. II, 399a; Commission of the Peace in Leics. CRO.

26. Rawlinson MSS A139 (in Bodleian), quoted Yeatman's Feudal Derbyshire Sec. 3, 247. There was a Thomas Eyre in the Derbyshire Commission of the Peace at the time (and after T.E. of Hassop's death) but this was an Anglican cousin, Thomas Eyre of Rowtor.

27. Probate copy of will, Bag.C. 2644.

28. Burstall, E. B., “The Pastons and their manor of Binham” (in) Norf. Arch, Soc. Trans., vol. 30, 112,Google Scholar quotes the marriage settlement. In his notes in Norfolk Record Office he gives a number 9265 for this and some other abstracts but the item has not been traced.

29. Ed. Bedingfeld's Obit book, ZSW, 545 in Northumberland CRO.

30. Parish register, in Guildhall Library.

31. HMC, Appendix to 9th Report, Part 2, 399a.

32. Chatsworth MSS, 64.0.

33. Cal. SPD. 1690-91, 196, 1691-92, 130 (Fingal); 1691-92, 189. 336, 401 (Aylmer).

34. Wigan parish register; Original will, 3 Dec. 1691, Bag.C. 2645. For Henry, Rowe see Stephens, E., The Clerks of the Counties, 114.Google Scholar

35. HMC (35) Kenyon, 310.

36. “Listes des Noms des principaux officiers”, Carte MSS 181 (Bodleian). See also Jones, G. H., The main stream of Jacobitism, 1954, 42 ff.Google Scholar

37. See Nicholas Blundell's letter to his mother, July 12, 1707, mentioning that Sir James Poole goes from one good house to another, including Crosby and Mossborough, but cannot be persuaded to do anything for his own good and has not “one Penny but what his son Fran, gives him”. (Blundell MSS).

38. Constables’ returns in Derby CRO.

39. Narcissus Luttrell, Historical Relation, vol. 2, 403;Google Scholar passes for her, her son and daughter and servants, Cal. SPD. 1691-92, 206, 208; Davidson, L. C.. Catherine of Braganza, 481.Google Scholar

40. J. Chamberlayne. Angliae Notitia, 1702 and 1704; “the Queen's money”, Bag.C. 2698.

41. Hampton & Sons, Sale Catalogue, Hassop Hall, April 29, 1919, Nos. 547 ff.Google Scholar

42. Bill for Bradwell Commons case, Bag.C. 364; Mrs. Eyre's letter dated 24 March 1710/11, Bag.C. 313.

43. Edleston receipt, Bag.C. 2584; mortgages, Bag.C. 2668-2685; trust deed, 2649.

44. Prenuptial settlement, 12 Nov. 1706, Bag.C. 2711. (Not the same family as the Stanleys of Bickerstaffe, below).

45. VCH. Lanes., vol. 3, 385n; under her mother's marriage settlement she was entitled to £1500 portion.

46. Steele, R., Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, 1910, vol. 1,Google Scholar covers the period 1689-1714 and contains numerous anti-papist proclamations. Farr, M. W., “Correspondence between Sir Robert Throckmorton and Nathaniel Pigott, 1706-7” in Univ. Birmingham Hist. Journal, vol. 8, 1962,Google Scholar shows the more tolerant aspect of affairs. For a case of action taken on a proclamation, see that of John Hanmer, mentioned below.

47. Baines, E., History of Lancaster, 1836, vol. 4, 329;Google Scholar Records of the Mock Corporation in Harris Public Library, Preston; for Preston in the 18th century see A. Clemesha, History of Preston.

48. Tyldesley's diary ed. J. Gillow. Tyldesley's mother was the daughter of Rowland Eyre the cavalier's youngest sister Gertrude (married Sir Thomas Fleetwood).

49. Settlements: 1708, Thornton papers in Northumberland CRO. ZTR/1/60; 1710, Bag.C. 2712 in SCL.

50. Letters in Hodgson's Northumberland Pt. 2, vol. 1, 225–6.Google Scholar

51. Baines, op. cit. vol. 4, 324;Google Scholar Patten, R., A history of the late rebellion, 107.Google Scholar

52. FE/C2/10L Claims for losses at Preston.

53. Note of indictment and trial in Appendix 2 to 5th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, 164; mention of Thornton in Patten, op. cit. 131; general account of trials in Arnold, R., Northern Lights, 1959 Google Scholar (a good popular account of the Rebellion).

54. Blundell's Great Diurnal.

55. Letter of Mannock Strickland, dated July 11, 1738, mentioning the date of James Thornton's coming of age, ZTR. XVI/1. It is possible that Mrs. Thornton was allowed to join her husband in his prison quarters.

56. FE/C2/51, 55. Decree, T/55. Buried at Hartburn, Northumberland, April 16, 1742.

57. Cobbett's State Trials, vol. 15, 803 (Viscount Kenmure's letter).

58. Commons’ Journals for the dates mentioned.

59. ZTR./I/65-71 (family papers); ZTR. XIII/4 (sale particulars).

60. Bag.C. 2699.

61. ZTR. XVI/1.

62. Estcourt and Payne, 34, 36,157. Bag.C. 362 is a series of rentals for purposes of registration, 1723-34.

63. Bag.C. 369(48), 363.

64. This and the following letters to Baker are from Bag.C. 363.

65. CRS. vol. 9, 108 (list of clergy, 1692); CRS. vol. 12 (Obituaries), 2 and 3; MDA/A653, A1207.

66. The following quotations are from letters from Bag.C. 313.

67. Dates of death in FMG., 562. The details given there may be from a monument, but this does not now exist; will mentioned, Bag.C. 2700; trust mentioned, BagC. 2658, 2659.

68. Burstall, op. cit., 112. An older daughter died an infant on 14 May 1687 (Ed. Bedingfeld's Obit book). Dates of family deaths and marriages in this chapter are from Bedingfeld's Obit, book and book of weddings (ZSW545/1 and 2) unless otherwise stated.

69. The poems and fables of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley, 1962, 1801.

70. PCC.64Fagg.

71. C E. Ward, Life of Dry den, 1961, 242. See also Osborn, J. M., “Dry den's absences from London”, 204-5, in John Dryden, some biographical facts and problems, 1940.Google Scholar Lady Elizabeth Dryden's sister, Bedingfeld's first wife, was dead in 1689. The Bedingfelds seem however to have kept up with the Drydens and when Sir Henry Bedingfeld's son was on the continent with his tutor in 1700 they visited the poet's youngest son, a Dominican, at Bornhem (Marwood, 63, 67).

72. Foster's, J. Register of admissions to Grays Inn, 348 Google Scholar (entered as Henry Eyes) and 352.

73. Marwood, 75; Nicholas Blundell’s Great Diurnal, 9 May, 1703; Foley, vol. 7, 238

74. Foley, vol. 7, 238.

75. Register of St. Gregory's, CRS. vol. 19, 115; Marwood, 90.

76. Marwood, 91; information from the original diary of the convent, now St. Augustine's Priory, Ealing, W.5.

77. Marwood (editor's notes), 157.

78. Marwood, 45n.

79. Visitation of Norfolk, 1664 (Harleian Soc, vol. 86, 149).Google Scholar The daughters there given as Teresa's were not hers, as is proved by their ages; Norris's will, PCC.7 Dyer; MI. in Blomefield, vol. 4, 324; Estcourt and Payne, 195.

80. Harleian Soc, vol. 86, 149; The Jerningham Letters, 1780-1843, 2 vols., 1896, mention a family of Norris (RC) in Norwich, passim; London Gazette, 2 May, 1778, with signatories’ names (re-printed as a handbill, copy in ACM.).

81. Lowe pedigree in The Reliquary, vol. 11, pi. xxxiv.

82. Deeds of sale of Owlegreaves, etc., 1727, quoting settlement, will and subsequent chancery proceedings, ACM.DD/92 and 93.

83. Estcourt and Payne, 194; Blomefield, vol. 5, 85.Google Scholar

84. Admissions to Grays Inn, 302 (27 Apr. 1667); CRS. vol. 7, 235.

85. ZSW550/10 (names per County archivist).

86. Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. G. Sherburn. vol. 1. 141.

87. Marwood, e.g. 22 June and 20 July 1701, 105, 107.

88. PCC.64Fagg.

89. Blundell's Great Diurnal, 27 Dec. 1715.Google Scholar

90. Radcliffe letters in Essex Record Office D/DPF271 and F273/1.

91. Add. MSS 28227/233.

92. HMC.(56) Stuart papers, vol. 1, 327. Also vol. 1, 312, 314, 317 and vol. 2, 528-9

93. Blundell's Great Diurnal, 15 Dec. 1715 and 3 Jan. 1716.Google Scholar

94. Radcliffe papers, D/DPF271.

95. SP35, vol. 3/69.

96. Letter from Richard Tempest, 11 May 1714, in ACM. Transcript in Sheffield City Libraries: Catalogue of the Arundel Castle MSS, 61 n; Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, vol. 1, 536 Google Scholar; Foley, vol. 7, 332.Google Scholar

97. Blundell's Great Diurnal.

98. Add. MSS 20310/55. Letter endorsed in a contemporary hand: “P[ère] Eyre, Conf[esseur] du Roy”.

99. The Memoirs of James II, trans. A. L. Sells, 1962, 54. Preface gives bibliographical notes. Foley, Gillow and the DNB, basing their statements on Kirk, all mention the Life in their entries for Thomas Eyre.

100. See e.g. Edward Blount to Pope, 11 Nov. 1715, in Correspondence of Alexander Pope, vol. 1, 320.Google Scholar

101. Letter of 9 May 1706, 89, in “Correspondence between Sir Robert Throckmorton and Nathaniel Pigott”, University of Birmingham Historical Journal, vol. 8, 1962.Google Scholar

102. Accounts, possibly of Lady Derwentwater's executors, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1913-1915. Payments to Eyre and Pigott noted in vol. 6 (1914), no. 17, 183, no. 19, 195, no. 28, 276.

103. 2 George I, c.13.

104. Diary of Dudley Ryder, 1715-16, ed. William, Matthews, 1939, 155.Google Scholar

105. 2 George I, c.55.

106. Add. MSS 28,227/279, 285, 304, 426.

107. Estcourt and Payne, 157, 194, 197, 33; trust estates, 176, 180, 211, 297.

108. Add. MSS 28,227/449.

109. MI. in Holm Hale Church (Blomefield, vol. 4. 13); PCC 72 Kidd.

110. PCC. 195 Henchman.

111. Add. MSS 28,228/264.

112. Settlement 21 July 1721, fortune £4500 (Swinburne deeds ZSW11/2).

113. Further details on points at issue in ACM/DD/92 and 93.

114. Add. MSS 28,228/219.

115. Berry's Kent Pedigrees, 102,Google Scholar and Sussex Pedigrees, 165. Mary had one son.

116. Joseph Petre, who had succeeded as the male heir of his elder brother, died in 1729 and apparently left no children by Teresa. His heir was his brother, Bishop Petre, who resided at Fithlers. (Maire, H., General collections illustrating R.C. families of England, ed. Howard, J. J., 1887, pedigree of Petre of Fithlers).Google Scholar

117. Margaret was b. in May 1708, died without issue 17 July, 1750, buried at Old St. Paneras church. The Maire family subsequently took the name of Lawson. (Burke's Peerage and Baronetage under Lawson).

118. Married 16 Feb. 1710 (settlement 20 Dec. 1609). “The Southcote family” in Morris, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, 1st Series, 366; Burstall, op. cit., 112. The date of the legal action (1709) there mentioned appears to be incorrect.

119. Add. MSS 28,228/280. See also 28,228/252 and 264.

120. Add. MSS 28,228/316.

121. MDA./A365 (Letter from Peter Dunn, 2 Aug. 1720).

122. CP. 43/666/7.

123. Foley, vol. 5, 567 Google Scholar; vol. 7, 710.

124. Add. MSS 28,228/316.

125. MI. in Holm Hale church (Blomefield, vol. 4, 14).Google Scholar

126. PCC. 195 Henchman.

127. Parish register (in Guildhall Library).

128. CP. 43/666/7. All the beneficiaries under the will were parties to a fine levied in 25 George II (Hassop Evidence Book II).

129. Portuguese Embassy chapel records, CRS. vol. 38, 93. Eleanor Wood, 34 years, is stated to have married William Keetin, son of Benjamin Gerard Keetin, born at Chester, merchant of Dunkirk, 39 years; Robert Suffeld, her brother-in-law, acting for her father. Witnesses John Maire, Robert Suffeld, Teresa Petre (printed Hetre).

130. CRS. vol. 24, 64.

131. Ibid., 66.

132. Nicholas Blundell's Great Diurnal.

133. The poems and fables of John Dryden, ed. J. Kinsley, 1804.

134. Dalton, C., English Army lists, vol. 2, 190–1.Google Scholar

135. Settlement, 1 June 1709, listed in a schedule, Bag.C. 2701; DNB. under Cheyne, William, 2nd Viscount Newhaven.

136. ACM/DD. 135A and B.

137. Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports and Papers, vol. 22, 266, quoting additional note to the “Speculum Dioeceseos Lincolniensis” of Bishops Wake and Gibson (c. 1716-23).

138. CRS. vol. 19, 206.

139. Bag.C. 363 (letter); Nichols, J., Leicestershire, vol. 2, 168 (burials).Google Scholar

140. Bag.C. 363 (and the quotation following).

141. Widow of Richard (who died in the earlier part of 1724) and mother of Anthony. The latter wrote to Baker, 29 Aug. 1724: “You may derect yr. letters either to me or My Mother, as you please. The business Goes under her name att present, I wanting one year of age myselfe.” (Bag.C. 363, which includes a number of notes for discharge of bills by the Wrights, from July 1723-4).

142. Sir Sitwell, G. R., The Hurts of Haldworth, 235.Google Scholar

143. Bag.C. 313.

144. Chauncy of Edgcott pedigree, Harleian Soc. 87, 47.Google Scholar Banbury was a borough in the Earl of Guildford's interest (a Whig family at that time), see Robson, R. J., The Oxfordshire election of 1754, 1949, 12.Google Scholar

145. Complete Baronetage, vol. 3, 188 Google Scholar (Curson of Water perry). Lady Curzon's mother was Anne, daughter of Rowland Eyre the cavalier. She appears to have taken an active interest in her cousins on the Eyre side, e.g. she played a conspicuous part in the arrangements for Nicholas Blundell's marriage to Lady Webb's granddaughter. (Nicholas Blundell's diary, ed. Margaret Blundell, 10-13). Lady Curzon died 12 Oct. 1746 (CRS. vol. 7, 396).

146. She was Mary, daughter of Henry Wells of Bambridge, Hants. She died at Warkworth, which suggests she and her husband (whose father Sir Charles Browne was still living) probably lived at Warkworth. See Baker's, G. County of Northampton, 1822, vol. 2, 741 Google Scholar (Holman-Eyre pedigree). William Hol-man's will (PCC. 296 Browne) relates to his personal estate only.

147. Registrations of papists’ estates, Northampton CRO.

148. Baker, op. cit., vol. 2, 740.Google Scholar Baker appears to have seen the Eyre deeds to the Warkworth estate, not now available. The price was £15,656.16s. From later enrolled deeds (KB 122/269 (24 and 25)) it appears that the trustees of the settlement were the same persons as those appointed under his will.

149. PCC. 104 Lisle. For the Herberts see VCH. Buckinghamshire, vol. 4, 65;Google Scholar for the Fermors of Tusmore, Gentleman's Magazine 1827, vol. xcvii(1), 117.Google Scholar

150. CRS. vol. 12, 7. See also Stapleton, Mrs. B., A History of the Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire, 40.Google Scholar

151. MDA.C506.

152. Add. MSS. 35,588. Letter to Lord Hardwick from Sir Geo. Oxenden, 12 Dec. 1745, speaks of “a most abominable neglect in this County (Northants)”.

153. There was a similar Association in Derbyshire, but there non-subscribers did not make themselves conspicuous or vocal as in Oxfordshire. List of subscribers in Cox, J. C., Three centuries of Derbyshire annals, vol. 1, 195.Google Scholar

154. For the Oxfordshire election and politics of the preceding years see Robson, R. J., op. cit., esp. 79.Google Scholar

155. George Browne succeeded his father, Sir Charles Browne of Kiddington, as 3rd baronet in 1751. His marriage connections with the Eyre circle were complicated. After the death of his second wife (Holman's widow) he married Frances (née Sheldon), widow of Henry Fermor of Tusmore (Complete Baronetage, vol. 3, 21 (Browne of Kiddington)). This George Browne was not the original Sir Plume of “The Rape of the Lock” for whom see G. Tillotson's edition, 354. For the Sheldons of Weston, Warws., and Steeple Barton, Oxon., see Burke's Landed Gentry, 1850, under Sheldon of Brailes. It is possible that the “Mr. Sheldon” mentioned by Dashwood was the father, Edward Sheldon and not the son, William.

156. These until recently belonged to Sir H. G. M. Dashwood, Bart. They were used by Mr. Robson in the work cited; this is concerned primarily with the election and it is unlikely that he would have noticed Thomas Eyre's name, as he was dead several years before that date.

157. Sheet, Somerscales and Widdrington, by a Connection of the same, 1906, 115-117.

158. 9 July, 1737, enrolled KB 122/165, r.65.

159. Will, PCC Collier E209; 7th Douai Diary, CRS.28, 112-48.

160. Wills of Henry Francis Widdrington and William Tempest Widdrington, Skeet, Somerscales and Widdrington, 118-121.

161. The Hassop Library, left for religious purposes by the will of Thomas Eyre (d. 1792) and now at Tollerton Hall, Notts.

162. Burke's Peerage: Newburgh; R. Arnold, Northern Lights, 202-3; KB. 122/269 (24 and 25).

163. ZTR XVI(1).

164. Rate books in Westminster Public Library. 1746: “Thomas Ayer Esq.”, written against “Maj. Gen. Sir John Cope” (the previous occupant).

165. Quotation from will of Hon. Bernard Howard, dated 27 Jan. 1712/13. PCC. 233 Whitfield. The burial registers, now in the Record Office of the Greater London Council, contain many Roman Catholic names from about that date. See also Cansick, F. T., A collection of … epitaphs … of St. Paneras, Middlesex, 2 vols., 1869–72.Google Scholar

166. Information from the Augustinian Priory, Newton Abbot, previously St. Monica's, Louvain.

167. Married 1 June, 1750 (CRS. vol. 19, 196).

168. Will, PCC. 104 Lisle.

169. The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. Toynbee, Mrs. P., vol. 3, 181.Google Scholar

170. MDA/C595, August 1754.

171. MI. at Warkworth, Baker, G., op. cit., vol. 2, 745.Google Scholar Enrolled will KB122/ 290/130.

172. “Durham recusants’ estates”. Surtees Soc. vol. 173, 53.

173. “Records of Invercauld: Monaltrie papers”, New Spalding Club, 1901; “The prisoners of the ′45”, Scottish Historical Society, 1929, vol. 2, 182;Google Scholar Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952 under Farquharson of Invercauld. The Farquharson sources give Elizabeth Eyre's Christian name and father's name incorrectly.