From Wiltshire Notes and Queries: An Illustrated Quarterly Antiquarian
and Genealogical Magazine: Volume III 1899-1901. Devizes by George
Simpson, Gazette Office, Published: London: Phillimore and Company, 124,
Chancery Lane, W.C. 1902 (the bracketed numbers refer to the endnotes).
OLD LACKHAM HOUSE AND ITS OWNERS
by Edward Kite
The present mansion, known as Lackham House, in the parish of Lacock, is described by Mr. Britton (1) as " a plain modern edifice, situated in a rich and fertile vale, near the banks of the Avon."
It is not to this building, however, that the following notes refer, but to its predecessor a fine old manor house dating at least from mediaeval times for many ages the residence successively of the Bluet, Baynard, and Montagu families but now numbered among the historic houses of Wiltshire past and gone. A few gleanings, therefore, relating to its history, as well as that of its owners, may not be unworthy of a record in the pages of Wilts N. and Q. The earliest sketch of Old Lackham House known to the present writer appears in Dingley's History from Marble, a most interesting manuscript in the possession of Sir Thomas E. Winnington, of which a facsimile in photo-lithography was published in two volumes by the Camden Society, with introduction and notes by the late Mr. John Gough Nichols, F.S.A., in 1867-8. Dingley's sketch, which is here reproduced, was taken at the close of the reign of Charles II, probably in 1684, his sketch of Lacock Abbey being dated 30 April in that year. It represents the house, an irregular structure, evidently of various dates,(2) enclosed within a large courtyard, and completely embosomed in woods.(3) The river (the lower Avon) close by, formed the ancient boundary of the royal forest of Pewisham, in which the lords of Lackham enjoyed the right of hunting by grant from Edward III which grant continued in force until the disafforesting of Pewisham in the reign of James I.
The second sketch, which more fully illustrates the details of the central portion of the building, is from a drawing by Grimm, taken in August 1790, and now in the British Museum (Additional MSS. No. 15,547). The porch, which is here shewn in perspective, forms a principal feature. A shield on the gable is apparently carved with the arms of BLUET and BAYNARD and another shield at the base of the projecting window over the entrance (4) bears BAYNARD quartering BLUET, with two unicorns as supporters. The great hall was apparently to the left on entering the porch. Its embattled parapet and large windows of three lights, occupying the whole height of the wall, are shown more clearly in the earlier sketch by Dingley. It was hung round with armour, and was evidently in Aubrey's mind when, at Easton Piers, in 1670, he wrote the well-known masterly and delightful preface to his Wiltshire Collections. Speaking of lords of manors and their houses in still older times, he says : "The lords of manners never went to London but in Parliament time, or once a yeare to do their homage and duty to the king. They kept good howses in their countries, did eate in their great gothique halls, at the high table, or oriele, the folke at the side tables." "Oriele," he adds in a note, " is an eare, but here it signifies a little roome at the upper end of the hall, where stands a square or round table : perhaps in old time was an oratorie. In every old gothique hall hereabout is one, as at Draycot, Lekham, Alderton, etc."
The gable immediately on the right of the porch, with its large projecting window and buttress, most probably included the banqueting room in which Henry VIII was entertained when visiting Lackham for several days on his way to Wolfhall, before his marriage with his third Wiltshire queen Jane, the daughter of Sir John Seymour. (5) The room was newly floored for the occasion with oak grown on the estate, and on the stonework underneath the window is seen the royal badge of Henry VIII a crowned rose, with lion and dragon as supporters no doubt introduced here in commemoration of the royal visit. At Lackham, as well as in the immediate neighbourhood, distinct traces of Roman occupation have been discovered from time to time. The Roman road from Bath (Aquae Solis) to Marlborough (Cunetio) passed a short distance to the south of Lacock, and, near it, at Wick, were found traces of a Roman villa. The frequent discoveries of Roman coins here are also mentioned by Leland, Camden, and Aubrey.
At the time of the Domesday Survey (1083-6), " Lacham " belonged to William de Ewe, a Norman baron,(6) who was subsequently attainted of treason.
In the reign of Henry III (1216-72) the family of Bluet appear as owners.(7) They were also lords of Silchester, co. Hants, and Leland's notes relating to the latter place may here be quoted as referring also to the descent of Lackham :
"Silchester lordship after the Conquest came to one Blueth, and then one of the Blueths leavyng no sons, the land not entaylid to the heire (male or generale) came by mariage to one Peter de Cusance, and after to one Edmunde Baynard, cumming out of the house of the Baynards, of Essex, whose name is now [1540] ther obscured. The lands of the Blueths entaylid to heyre male of that name yet remayning in Devonshere. Leccham longgid to Blueth [and was used by Bayn]arde as his principale how[se]." (8)
Edward I granted to John Bluet (9) the privilege of holding a fair at his manor of Helmerton (Hilmarton) and free warren in his lands there, and at Lackham. This was confirmed to one of the Baynard family, his successors 1 Henry, IV (1399). Patent Rolls.
Attached to the manor of Lackham was a Chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. By an undated deed preserved in the Lacock Cartulary, Edward Sweyn, of Lacock, gave to the nuns there the land and tenement which Richard his father had of the gift of Richard de Wyck in Lacock and Lacham, and the land which his father had of William Clovegiffre, and two acres of land in Stretforlonga, and one croft called Wodecroft, in Lacock and Lacham, paying thereout yearly to the heirs of Richard de Wycke twelve pence and one halfpenny (obolus) to the heirs of William Clovegilofre and half a pound of cummin to the heirs of Richard White (Albi) and one halfpenny to the heirs of Sewell and one penny to the Chapel of Lacham, to the light of the Blessed Mary and one halfpenny to the heirs of John, the son of Jordan, for all service, etc.
By another deed, now in the British Museum (Add. Charter No. 1533), dated 2 Edward II (1308), Sir John Bluet, knt, granted to Robert Delebrig' (of the Bridge), clerk, certain rents for his life, subject to a yearly payment of two pounds of wax to the Chaplain of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, of Lackham.
"Sciant presentes et futuri quod Ego Joh'es Bluet Miles and Dominus de Lack'm dedi concessi and p'senti carta mea confirmavi Roberto Delebrig' clerico (10) duos solidos and sex denar' annui reddit' in feodo meo de Lack'm papiend annuati videlic' de Matild' hobekins octodeci denar' and de Joh'e le Colt duodecim denar' p' mesuag' and curtilag' que de me tener' consueverunt. Preterea dedi concessi p'dicto Roberto septemdecim cum dimidia acra terre arrabil p'nt jacent in diversis locis quar' sex acr' jacent sup' le Leye and una acr' cum dimidia sup' Nethe'cote and una acra sup' Cockelegh and una acra apud Godelegh cum Rammesbrok and ap'd Manneslane dimidiam acram. Et apud pensedone una' acr'm, and apud Wynt Welle (11) una' ac'm sup' Elrig' duas acr' and jux' terr' damehawys in le inlond una' ac'm and juxta le Weylete una' ac'm and sup' fflexlegh una' ac'm and di'am. Preterea dedi concessi predicto Roberto una' ac'm prati que vocat le Meleh'mme. Habend' and tenend' p'dictum Reddit' annul Reddit' cu' p'dcis septemdecim cu' di'a acr' terr' and cu' una' acr' p'ti de me and heredibus vel meis assignat p'fato Roberto ad terminum vite sue libe quiet' bene and in bona pace. Reddend' inde and fac' annuatim ad Capellani be Mar' virginis de Lack'm duas libras Cere and michi and he'dibus meis sex denar' p' mesuag' sup'i p'noiat. Et ego vero p d'ctu' Joh'es Bluet and heredes mei p'dictum Redditum annui Reddit' cum p'dictis septemdecim cum di'a acr' terr' arrabil et cum una' acr' prati ut predictum est predicto Roberto del Elrigg clerico ad terminum vite sue warentizabim' acquetabim' and defendem' In cui' rei testimonium huic p'sent scripto ad mod' Cyrog'phi confecto sigilla n'ra a'ra alternatim sunt appensa hiis testibus Alano Brecon, Alexand'r de fraxino cl'ico, Will'o Thomas, Thorn' le Whyte, Nicho. Page et aliis. Dat' anno r' r' Ed' fil'Ed' s'c'do (no seal).
Sir John Bluet had, with the Abbess of Lacock, the alternate right of presentation to the rectory there, which right he gave to the Abbey. His tomb was in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey Church, where an obit was celebrated until the Dissolution. See Valor Ecclesiasticus.
In the Nomina Villarum, compiled 9th Edward II (1316), we find other names of Bluet as owners of property in Wilts : (12)
Kingsbridge Will'us et Johannes
Elyngdon, in parish of Wroughton Bluet
Littlecote, near Hilmarton Radulfus Bluet
From an Inquisition taken 1347-8 on the death of Alianora, wife of John Bluet, it appears that she was seised of Silchester manor, co. Hants, of the manors of Lacham and Hilmarton, with Chippenham forest,(13) co. Wilts, and lands in Berks and Essex ; also of fees in Gataker (now Goatacre), Cherloweswyk (now Wick Farm,(14) in Lacock), and Natton (now Notton). Inq. post mortem, 22 Edw. Ill, No. 30.
Leland, in his brief notes on the descent of Silchester, mentions Peter de Cusance (15) as owner there, in right of his wife.(16) He also appears at Lackham in 1352, and the arms of BLUET and CUSANCE - the latter Sable, a bend lozengy argent - were afterwards quartered by the Baynard family as their representatives. The accompanying sketch of the Baynard (17) shield, as tricked by John Withie (Harleian MS. No. 1443), includes also the quarterings of UFFORD alias WILLOUGHBY and BEKE, with the Baynard crest a demi-unicorn rampant and motto " VIVE UT VIVAS."
In 1346 the name of John de Peyton occurs as an intermediate occupier between Bluet and Cusance. In that year he obtained a licence from Robert Wyvil, Bishop of Salisbury, to hear divine service in his house at Lackham. (18)
About the year 1349 Edmund Baynard, of an Essex family, seated at Dunmow, married Elinor, daughter and heiress of Sir John Bluet,(19) and their descendants in the male line continued for ten successive generations owners of Lackham and the other estates of the Bluets. He obtained a grant from Edward III, for himself and his heirs, of the right of hunting in the neighbouring forest of Pewisham,(20) with power to kill and carry away either stag or fallow deer, as also to command the King's keepers to assist in the chase after the deer was wounded by cross-bow, etc., notice being given to the lodge (21) by winding a horn, etc." The exact date of his death has not been ascertained, but his son and heir.
Philip Baynard presented to the Chapel of Lackham, as lord of the manor, in 1410. His will, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (32 Marche), was proved in 1415. From an Inquisition post mortem taken in the same year, it appears that he died seised of Lacham manor and advowson of Chapel, held as of the manor of Hampsted Marshall, a moiety of the manor of Silchester, under the same tenure, Hilmarton manor, and assart lands in the forests of Pewisham and Pambere, the latter in co. Hants.
Robert Baynard, his son and heir, by a deed now in the British Museum (Add. Charter, No. 1534), dated 9 Hen. VI (1430), enfeoffed his manor of Lackham, with his appurtenances, to William Brocas, John Swetcok, clerk, and John Benger, on condition that they should, when required, re-enfeof the same to the said Robert, Jocosa his wife, and their heirs male ; and if it happen the said Robert to die without an heir male, then the manor of Lackham to remain to his own right heirs for ever :
" Per istam indentur' factam apud Lach'm in com' Wiltes die Jovis prox' ante festu' apostolor' Simon and Jude anno regni regis Henrici sexti nono testat' quod licet Rob'us Baynard p' cartam suam feoffamenti dedit and concessit Will'o Brocas Joh'i Swetcok cl'ico and Joh'i Benger manerium suum de lacham cum p'ti'n p'nt in quadam carta inde consecta plenius continet sub tali condicione tamen quod predicta Will'm's Joh'es and Joh'es Benger refeoffabunt aut unus eorum refeoffabit p'fat' Robertum and Jocosam uxorem suam and hered' mascul' p'dictu' Roberto quando cunque requisit fu'int aut unus eorum requisit fuit p' p'fat' Robertum and Jocosam uxorem suam. Et si contingat p'dictum Robertum sine herede masculo de corpore suo legitime procreat' obiere tune predictum manerium cum omnibus suis pertin' remanebit rectis heredibus predicti Roberti in perpetuum. In cujus rei testimonium p'tes p'dicte sigill' sua alternatu' apposuer'. Dat die loco and anno sup'dict'." (Circular seal of red wax, broken, with arms of Bluet, and part of marginal inscription in black letter" ne . rofaertu . bayna . .")
The inquisition taken on the decease of this Robert, and his wife Jocosa, is dated 16 Hen. VI (1437). His property included Lackham manor ; a moiety of the manor of Silchester, with advowson of the church ; and assart lands within the forest of Pewisham.
The south transept of the parish church of Lacock appears to have been used for many ages by the owners of Lackham as a place of burial,(22) and some of their funeral achievements and penons were hanging there when the church was visited by Dingley in 1684. In his History from Marble, vol. ii, p. cccccxiii, he gives a drawing of an altar tomb of which no visible portion now remains. He describes it as standing "against ye south wall of the south cross isle," the inscription on the verge cutt in stone :
SEQUERE . IVSTITIA' . ET . INVENIES . EAM . AVDI . ALTERA' . PARTE'.
In the front, in three compartments, as many shields, with these arms :
1. A fess between two chevrons - BAYNARD ; impaling a chevron engrailed between three fleurs-de-lis - BROWN.
2. Quarterly, 1 and 4 - BROWN ; 2 and 3 a chevron between three pears pendant - STEWKLEY.
3. An eagle with two heads displayed - BLUET ; impaling BROWN.
At the end of the tomb, in another compartment, is a shield with the arms of BAYNARD, quartering BLUET, and two unicorns as supporters. (23)
The late Mr. John Gough Nichols, F.S.A., the able editor of Dingley's manuscript, ascribes this tomb to Philip Baynard, but, from a careful comparison of its heraldry, as given by Dingley, with that still remaining on the wooden tablet to Edward Baynard (who died 1575), also in the south transept of Lacock Church, the present writer is rather inclined to believe that Robert Baynard, who died in 1437, and his wife Jocosa (Brown ?) were the individuals commemorated by this now missing tomb.
Philip Baynard, the second of that name, appears to have inherited Lackham, as son and heir of Robert and Jocosa. His name occurs, 22 Hen. VI (1443), as witness to a deed relating to the manor of Easton Piers, in Kington St. Michael. (Wilts Collections, Aubrey and Jackson, p. 441). Six years later, 28 Hen. VI (1449-50), he filled the office of Sheriff of Wilts. From the heraldry on the later monument of Edward Baynard in Lacock Church, it appears that his wife belonged to the family of Abarow, whose arms, Azure, two swords in saltire between four fleurs-de-lis or, also appear quartered on the fine brass of John Webbe, A.D. 1570, in St. Thomas' Church, Salisbury, his mother having been an heiress of Abarow.
Robert Baynard, son and heir of Philip, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Ludlow, of the family of the name long seated at Hill Deverill. His arms - BAYNARD and BLUET quarterly, impaling LUDLOW, Argent, a chevron between three martens heads, erased sable - were formerly in Corsham Church, in the north window of the Neston Chapel. (24) (Wilts Collections, p. 81.) In 1 Edw. IV (1461-2) he, with John Crycklade, Walter Samborne, and John Lane (probably as trustees) granted lands in Stokeley, Chittleworth, and Blakelowe, co. Wilts, to Thomas Pucklechurch and his wife Agnes, also other lands in Ampney Crucis, co. Gloucester. The deed is dated at Ampney, two of the witnesses being Edmund Hungerford and Edward Stradling.
His will is in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (3 Blamyr). He died 26 August, 1501, and his fine brass in the pavement of the south transept of Lacock Church represents him bare-headed, with long hair reaching to the shoulders, and wearing over his suit of armour a tabard as worn by the Heralds, embroidered with the arms of BLUET and BAYNARD quarterly. His wife is also represented in an heraldic mantle reaching to the feet and bearing the arms of BAYNARD quartered with those of her own family LUDLOW. From the inscription (in Latin) we learn that he was "vir egregius et legis peritus in armis bellicis multum strenuus dapifer precipuus inter primos pacis conservator diligentissimus" a distinguished man and skilled in the law, a very active soldier, an excellent housekeeper, and a zealous promoter of peace. In looking for a moment at the historical events of the time we find that his father's term of office as Sheriff of Wilts (1449-50) was marked by the breaking out of Jack Cade's insurrection, and the consequent murder of the Bishop of Salisbury (Ayscough), which took place at Edyngdon (a few miles from his own residence at Lackham) in June of the latter year. Next followed the wars of the Roses, in which his two near neighbours at Bromham the Lord St. Amand, and Sir Roger Tocotes taking part with the Duke of Buckingham against Richard III were both attainted, and sacrificed their estates.(25) In some of these struggles of his earlier days between the rival Yorkists and Lancastrians the lord of Lackham himself, as an active soldier, may also have been engaged. His advancing years, however, saw more peaceable times, and the accession of Henry VII in 1485, with the quiet which followed until his own death in 1501, must have given him an opportunity of attending to the requirements of his numerous household, and to the dispensing of his hospitality among his neighbours as well as the more immediate dependants of his Wiltshire manor, justifying the words of his epitaph, which describe him as " dapifer precipuus " an excellent house-keeper.
By Elizabeth Ludlow, " devotissimam uxorem " his most devoted wife, he appears to have had no less than eighteen children thirteen sons and five daughters, all of whom, in accordance with a singular custom often indulged in by the mediaeval engravers of monumental brasses, are represented of precisely the same height, excepting the eldest, who appears much taller than the rest, and wears the gypcière, or large external purse of the period, suspended from his girdle an appendage which, together with his additional stature, may have been intended to denote his heirship.
Of the whole of the effigies on this brass a drawing and description, by the present writer, will be found in Wilts Archceological Magazine, vol. iv, and Wilts Brasses, plate xi, p. 39. That of the second son an ecclesiastic has, however, been reproduced here on a larger scale for the purpose of shewing a peculiarity in his costume, of which very few examples are to be met with. Instead of the hood and cape usually worn over the cassock ; a kind of short scarf is here thrown over the shoulders arid fastened, apparently by a button, to the front of one of them.(26) A rosary is also represented hanging from the right side of the girdle.
Some of the eighteen children may have died young. Three of them only are mentioned in the Heralds' Visitations of A.D. 1565 and 1623, viz. : Philip the eldest, a younger son George, and a daughter Jane, married to William Temmes, of Rood Ashton, to which family also belonged Johanna Temmes, the last Abbess of Lacock a preferment which she might have owed to this connexion through marriage with the Lackham family. To these three we may perhaps add Richard, a Winchester scholar, admitted 1479; William, who was M.P. for Hindon 1491-2; and Henry, to whom Sir Edward Hungerford, (27) in 1520, confirmed land in .Sheldon, near Chippenham. The will of Henry Baynarde, gent., Lacock, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1551 (F. 35 Bucke). There is also in the same office the will of Elizabeth Baynard, Chippenham, proved in 1540 (F. 15 Allenger).
Philip Baynard, the third of that name, and next heir of Lackham, appears to have been M.P. for Chippenham in 1491-2, during his father's lifetime. In 1519 he was trustee, with Sir Edward Hungerford, just mentioned, and John Ernley, of Bourton, in Bishops Cannings, for a minor of the Tropenell family to whom Great Chalfield owes its fine old mediaeval manor house, still standing. (Additional MSS. No. 6363, p. 175.) He married Jane, daughter of Nicholas Stewkeley, of Affeton, co. Devon. His will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1522 (3 Ayloflfe).
Robert Baynard, his son and heir, was Sheriff of Wilts 26 Hen. VIII (1534), and his will was proved in P.C.C. (1 and 7 Crumwell) two years later. He married Ann, daughter of Robert Blake, a family who resided for some four hundred years, until the last century, at Pinhill, an old moated dwelling in Calne. (28) He had, according to the Heralds' Visitations, one sister Mary Baynard married to Roger (or Robert) Blake, also of Pinhill. His own family consisted of five sons and three daughters : 1, Edward ; 2, Robert, (29) of Silchester, who married and had issue ; 3, Lawrence ; 4, Richard, died without issue ; 5, Thomas, of Barton, co. Gloucester, whose descendants were at Wanstrow, co. Somerset, Colerne, Wilts, and Cliff House, co. Dorset. Of the three daughters, Gertrude, Ann and Cicely, the first married Ambrose Adlaine, of Westbury, Wilts ; the second, John Willoughby, of Turner's Piddle, co. Dorset ; and the third was twice married, first to Robert White, secondly to Thomas Berington, of co. Herts. To these may be added another daughter, Jane, who married Leonard Knoell, of Sandford Orcas, co. Somerset, and appears in the pedigree of that family, although not entered in the Visitation of Wilts. Edward Baynard, the eldest son and heir, was born about the year 1512, and must have been nearly or quite 24 years of age when he succeeded to the Lackham estate in 1536 the same year that the marriage of Henry VIII with Jane Seymour took place and the royal visit here is presumed to have been paid. In 1539, three years afterwards, upon receipt of information that the Pope had, by means of Reginald Pole, incited the Princes of Christendom to invade the realm, King Henry visited the coasts in person, caused block-houses and fortifications to be made, put the navy in readiness at Portsmouth, under the Great Admiral of England, the Earl of Southampton, and issued commissions throughout the kingdom for the muster of the people, and view of harness and weapons. From "the Certyfycatt of the vewe of abull men, as well Archars as Byllmen," for several of the hundreds in North Wilts, taken 10th April, 1539, by virtue of the royal commission, and preserved in the Public Record Office, we learn that upon this occasion the " Tithing of Lackham " was prepared to furnish seven archers, and eight billmen, and had in readiness a horse and harness, with other small weapons. (30)
This lord of Lackham, following the royal precedent of his day, was thrice married. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Leonard Poole, of Sapperton, co. Gloucester ; the second, Eleanor, daughter of Edward Walsingham, of Chislehurst, co. Kent, both of whom died without issue. The latter was buried at Lacock, 20th August, 1559. He subsequently married for a third wife a Wiltshire lady, Elizabeth, daughter of John Warneford, of Sevenhampton, near Highworth, who became the mother of ten children, all baptized at Lacock between the years 1561 and 1575. 1 Edmund, 2 Robert, 3 Nicolas, 4 John, 5 Giles, 6 Philip, 7 Edward, 8 Benjamin, 9 Mary, 10 Anne. Of these, Edmund, the eldest, died an infant, Robert became the heir, Giles and Edward married and had issue.(31) Of the two daughters, Mary and Anne, the first married Edward Perce (Pierce ?), the second Edward Reade, of Corsham. (32)
Within a few days of the death of King Edward VI, on the 6th July, 1553, followed that of Sir William Sharington, the grantee from the Crown of the site of Lacock Abbey, as well as other monastic property in the neighbourhood. Sir William was at the time .Sheriff of Wilts, and there is still extant among the Public Records an order dated 14th July, 1553. for the making of letters patent to constitute Edward Baynard, the Lord of Lackham, Sheriff in the place of Sir William Sharington, late sheriff, deceased. This document is signed "Jane the Queene," and is of especial interest from the fact of its being the only signature of Lady Jane Gray as Queen. It was, of course, superseded by another similar order from Queen Mary, antedated 6th July, 1553, the day of Edward VIth's death, and the claim of Lady Jane Grey to the throne having been set aside, the lord of Lackham became Sheriff of Wilts for the first year of the reign of Queen Mary. He was M.P. for the neighbouring borough of Chippenham in 1559 and dying in 1575 was buried with his ancestors in the Baynard aisle of Lacock Church.
His monument is a curious one. It is a mural tablet, not of stone or marble, but of panelled oak, well-seasoned, and doubtless the growth of the Lackham estate. It was erected by his eldest surviving son in 1623,(33) nearly half-a-century after his father's death, and in the very year of one of the Heralds' Visitations of the county. Its armorial display was evidently arranged under the superintendence of a skilled officer of arms. Around the central inscription are eight shields, with single impalements, showing the marriages of the deceased, and five generations of his ancestors, the whole being surmounted by the quartered shield and crest of the Baynard family, as shown in the accompanying illustration. The epitaph is a quaint production of the time of James I.
"Heare lyeth ye Body of Edward Bainarde
Esquire who for the space of many yeares
Yeven to his dyinge day was Justice of
Peace and Corum and sometimes Custos
Rotulorum and Hygh Sherriffe of the
County of Wiltes : A Bountifull friend
to his brethren and sisters and to
his servants liberal ; and an enemy
to noe man : he lyved to the age of
63 yeares and dyed (34) and was buryed
the 21 day of December 1575.
Lett envy saye what it can,
This was an honest man :
Whoe in his life did many goode
And to the trueth firmely stode :
Religious, wise, and just was hee,
And ever lyved worthylie."
Two years after Edward Baynard had succeeded to the Lackham estate came the dissolution of monasteries, but from this source he does not appear, like some of his near neighbours, to have profited by any direct grant of Abbey lands from the Crown. His forty years' ownership saw the close of Henry VIIIth's reign, with those of Edward VIth, Mary, and the first two decades of that of Queen Elizabeth, and the successive changes in our national religion which took place during this unsettled period. He seems to have maintained his own private chaplain at Lackham, for in the parish register of Lacock we find the following entry of burial :
"1565, Sir Michael Brickett, Chaplain to Edward Baynard, Esq., May 7."
Of his family, the eldest son, Edmund, baptized at Lacock, 3 January 1561, died an infant, and the second son, Robert, afterwards Sir Robert Baynard, who was about twelve years old at the time of his father's death, became heir to the Lackham estate. He was M.P. for Chippenham 1584-5, and for Westbury 1586-7. In January, 1618, he was knighted at Theobalds by James I (35) ; the monarch who, whilst hunting on one occasion in Pewsham Forest, is said to have been challenged by Sir Robert for a deer which he happened to kill within a certain distance from the river Avon, the latter alleging a royal grant from Edward III to his ancestor, as already mentioned.
Sir Robert married a lady, who, although descended paternally from an old Yorkshire family, must have been tolerably well acquainted with the neighbourhood of Lacock. She was a daughter of Sir Robert Stapilton, of Wighill [or Wighall], co. York, by his second wife Olive, daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Sharington of Lacock Abbey,(36) and widow of John Talbot, Esq., of Salwarpe, co. Worcester.
By the Lady Ursula [née Stapleton], who was baptized at Chelsea 10 July, 1587, Sir Robert Baynard had two children, Edward, baptized at Lacock, 19 August, 1616, who died an infant; and Mary, baptized 26 March, 1621, who subsequently became heiress of Lackham. Two years after the birth of the latter, their mother, the Lady Ursula, died at the early age of 36, and was buried at Lacock, 9 November, 1623.
It was on the occasion of his wife's death that Sir Robert caused to be set up on the east wall of the "Baynard's Aisle" in Lacock Church, two quaint wooden tablets emblazoned with heraldry, one of which, to the memory of his father, has been already described.(37) The second tablet, the memorial of the Lady Ursula, is precisely similar in outline. The eight shields, around the central inscription, bear single impalements showing the successive marriages of the Stapilton family, the whole being surmounted by the quartered shield of STAPILTON and FITZALAN DE BEDALE, enclosed within a Garter, with the crest of the former - Out of a ducal coronet or, a Saracen's head ajffronty, round the temples a wreath knotted behind, all proper.
1. STAPILTON - Argent, a lion rampant sable; impaling, Sable, fretty or - BELLA AQUA.
2. STAPILTON ; impaling, Cheeky or and azure, a canton ermine within a bordure gules - BRITTANY.
3. STAPILTON ; impaling, Barry of six or and gules - FITZALAN DE BEDALE.
4. STAPILTON; impaling, Bendy of six argent and azure S- T. PHILIBERT.
5. STAPILTON ; impaling, Argent, on a fess azure three fleurs de lis or - USFLETE.
6. STAPILTON ; impaling, Ermine, a lion rampant azure - PICKERING [Dingley]
7. STAPILTON ; impaling, Or, three bars azure - ASKE [Dingley]
8. STAPILTON ; impaling, Gules, between two flanches cheeky argent and azure, as many crosses patty in pale of the second fimbriated or - SHARINGTON.(38)
The inscription is as follows :
" Heare lyeth the Body of the Lady
Vrsula Baynard, Daughter of Sir
Robert Stapilton of Wyghall in the
County of Yorke, Knight, and wife
to Sir Robert Baynard, Knight, by
whome shee had Issue Edward her
Sonne heare buryed, and Mary hir
Daughter. She lyved to the age
of 36 yeares, and departed to God
in most firme fayth in Christ in
the yeare of our Lorde God 1623.
Gods goodness made her wise and well beseeming,
Discreet and Prudent, Constant, True and Chaste,
Hir virtues rare won her much esteeming,
In Courte and Country, still with favour graste,
Earth could not yelde more pleasing earthly blisse,
Blest wth two babes, though Death brought hir to this."
Sir Robert was Sheriff of Wilts in 1629 [5 Charles I]. His will is dated 16 March, 1635-6, and dying soon after, he was buried at Lacock, on 7 June (39) in the latter year, without either monument or inscription.
From an Inquisition taken at Marlborough, 6 October, 1636, it appears that besides his manor of Lackham, Sir Robert died seised of "divers messuages, lands, tenements, pastures, woods, etc., in the fields, parishes, and hamlets, of Laycocke, Lackham, Notton, Bewley, Reybridge, Chippenham, and Bowdon, parcels of the said manor; divers closes or parcels of pasture situated within the parish of Laycocke, called Dene Hill, Pennesdowne,(40) the Pyke and the Lukehorne, containing 217 acres," given to his father by [Sir William or Sir Henry] Sharington,(41) of Lacock Abbey, in exchange for other lands within the parish, then parcel of Lacock manor ; also the tithes of grain, and hay of all the demesne lands of Lackham manor, likewise given by Sharington to Edward Baynard, deceased [father of Sir Robert], and his heirs. The whole of this property is stated by the jurors to have been, at that time, of the value of £41 6s 8d, and held of the king in chief by the service of one twentieth part of a knight's fee.
By deed 16 February, 1628, eight years before his death, Sir Robert gave to Anne Fisher, spinster, daughter of Joan Fisher, of Lacock, apparently his housekeeper, who survived him, an annuity of £10 out of a messuage and land in Lacock, called Arnoldes, to have the same immediately after his decease, full possession thereof being given her on payment of sixpence.
The writer of these notes was for a long while in possession of a vellum roll, sixteen feet in length; the original Inventory of all goods, chattels, cattles, heirlooms, etc., in Lackham House, taken in 1637, after the decease of Sir Robert Baynard. This document has now found a more appropriate place among the many valuable records preserved in the muniment room at Lacock Abbey. It enumerates in detail the contents of the old mansion with its private chapel and many apartments, the massive old oak furniture, and rich hangings, the arms in the great hall, the old fashioned vessels, wooden trenchers, etc., in the kitchen, buttery, and minor offices, together with the goodly array of pewter, which alone constitutes a very considerable item.
Mary Baynard, the surviving daughter and sole heiress of Sir Robert, shortly before her father's death, and when only fourteen years old, married Captain the Hon. James Montagu, third son of Henry, first Earl of Manchester. The marriage took place at Lacock, 11 November, 1635. Her father, by his will, bequeathed the manor of Lackham, with its appurtenances, and all other his lands in Wiltshire, to them both for their lives, with remainder to their eldest son and his heirs male, for default successively in tail male to their second and younger sons, for default to the use of all the sons successively of the said Mary by any other husband, for default to her daughters by any other husband, and their heirs, for default to his nephew Robert, only son of his brother, Giles Baynard, and his heirs male, for default to another nephew, Edward, only son of his younger brother Edward, lately deceased, and his heirs male, and lastly for default to his own right heirs for ever.
But Lackham was not without a male heir, and that in the direct line, for Captain James Montagu had issue by his wife Mary, eleven sons and two daughters, the names of the eldest ten of which, viz., 1. Walter, 2. James, 3. George, 4. Robert, 5. Henry, 6. Sidney, 7. Edward, 8. Charles, 9. William, and 10. Mary,(42) appear among the additions to the printed Wilts Visitation of 1623, which continue the pedigree to the year 1650. Two younger sons, Thomas and John,(43) with another daughter, Katharine, are mentioned on a monumental tablet in Lacock Church.
The Hon. James Montagu died in 1665, at the age of 57, his widow surviving him nearly twenty years. The funeral penon, here reproduced, was at the time of Dingley's visit to Lacock Church, in 1684, hanging in the Baynard Aisle. It bore at the staff end, the arms of MONTAGU - Argent, three lozenges conjoined in fess gules, within a bordure sable (differenced by a mullet for a third son) impaling BAYNARD, as already blazoned. Dingley has also preserved sketches of other shields which he saw on the funeral achievements and streamers of Montagu, in the Baynard Aisle
1. MONTAGU, with bordure and mullet, as on the penon, quartering Or, an eagle displayed vert, beaked and membered gules - MONTHERMER.
2. MONTAGU singly, and crest, with mullet, but without the bordure sable.(44)
Of Captain Montagu's eleven sons, Walter, the eldest, died young, and James, the second son, aged 12 in 1650, and consequently about 27 at his father's death, became the heir. He married in 1671, Diana, daughter of Anthony Hungerford, of Black Bourton, afterwards of Farley Castle. (45)
"James Montagu, of Lackham, co. Wilts, Esq., bachelor, about 32, and Mrs. Diana Hungerford, of Black Bourton, co. Oxon., spinster, 21 ; consent of mother, Mrs. Rachel Hungerford, widow, at Black Bourton aforesaid, 30 May, 1671." Chester's Marriage Licences.
Endnotes:
(1) Beauties of Wiltshire, Vol. iii, p. 246 published in 1825.
(2) Some portion of the old building is traditionally said to have belonged to the Norman period.
(3) The arms in a lozenge underneath, MONTAGU impaling HUNGEBFORD, are those of the widow of James Montagu, the late owner of Lackham, who had died at an early age in 1676. She was the daughter of Anthony Hungerford, of Farley Castle.
(4) The hatchment which nearly covers this window is that of James Montagu (grandson of the lady whose arms are given by Dingley). He was buried at Lacock 3 May 1790 three months before the date of Grimm's drawing. The arms are those of MONTAGU and MONTHERMER quarterly, impaling HEDGES quartering GORE his wife Eleanor, who predeceased him, having been the daughter of William Hedges, of Compton Basset, by the heiress of Gore, of Alderton.
(5) This must have been in 1536 for Henry's marriage with Jane Seymour took place on the 20th May in that year the day after his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had been brought to the block. There is said to be extant a curious old print representing in different compartments the preparations at Lackham the rats and mice running away from the servants, who with mop and broom are cleansing the house in readiness for the reception of the royal guest.
(6) This William de Owe, or Ewe, also held, at the same date, the lordship of Hilmarton, which afterwards passed with the Lackham estate to its later owners the Bluets and Baynards.
(7) They probably held here under Bigod, Earl Marshal; for in the Inquisitions post mortem 35 Edw. I. (1306-7) we find Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England, and Alice his wife, seised of knights' fees in Lackham, Hilmarton, Goatacre, and other places in Wilts.
(8) Itinerary, vi, p. 53.
(9) The arms of BLUET Or, an eagle with two heads displayed gules in stained glass were formerly in one of the hall windows of South Wraxhall Old Manor House (Aubrey and Jackson, P. I, No. 10); and those of COWDREY impaling BLUET in a chamber there (Ib., P. III, No. 35).
(10) Among some early grants to the Cistercian Abbey of Stanley, printed in Bowies' History of Bremhill, is one (p. 105) from Robert de la Hebrigge conveying to the monks his right to common of pasture in the wood called the More, without the said Abbey, on the south part thereof.
(11) Samuel Michell the elder, of Notton, clothier, by will dated 1694, bequeaths to his grandson, Thomas Colborne, his term in two grounds at Winterwell in Lacock, purchased of Nicholas Gore and John Grist; "and the lease of the grounds at Winterwell, and the little ground at Notton, which I purchased of Sir Edward Hungerford ; in trust for the use of my daughter, Anna Warn, and her children."
(12) A Devizes deed, dated 26 Henry VI (1447-8), also mentions " Bluette's Court," in Southbroom. This document came into the hands of the writer with some leases relating to the Drewe family, from which it may perhaps be inferred that " Bluette's Court " afterwards passed to Drewe and became part of the Southbroom property.
By this deed Alice, daughter and co-heir of John Gilbert, sen., late of Southbrome, near Devizes, deceased, quit-claimed to Richard Gilbert, Margaret his wife, and their heirs, her right and claim of and in the whole of that court called Bluette's Court, with its appurtenances, in Southbrome, in the Hundred of Canynges Episcopi, between a tenement late of Henry Clakke on one part, and a tenement late of Henry Webbe and the King's highway on the other. Witnesses: John Coventre, sen., of Devyzes aforesaid, Thomas Coventre, John Spycer, John ffauconer, Thomas Haukyn', Peter Dayster, William Rede, and many others. Broken seal of red wax (circular), with shield bearing apparently a chevron, and part of marginal legend illegible.
Three cottages, called Blewitt's, with land in Southbroom, were leased by William Page, of Devizes, in 1545.
(13) Probably the assart lands (i.e., lands reclaimed from a forest or waste, and cultivated) in Pewisham forest, mentioned in later Inquisitions post mortem of the Baynards.
(14) The name of Richard de Wyck occurs in one of the early deeds above quoted. In some interesting notes on the pedigree of Croke and Bonham, later owners of Wick Farm (Wilts N. and Q., vol. ii, p. 311), Mr. Talbot, its present owner, identifies this property with a second manor at Lacock, mentioned in Domesday, as having been held by Carlo in the time of Edward the Confessor.
(15) William de Cusancia, knt., was seized, 19 Edw. Ill [1344-5], of the manors of Wyke, Dounamney and Kynemaresforde, in co. Gloucester. Inq. post mortem. The same name occurs in the Inq. post mortem of Thomas de Holand, Earl of Kent, and his wife Alesia, 20 Rich. II [1396], as holder of a fee at Temple Sutton, co. Essex. A Gerald de Cuzance was presented to Rectory of Hilperton in 1299. Wilts Institutions.
(16) Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden's Britannia, published 1695, thus describes three shields of arms seen by him in the windows of Silchester Church :
" In a small church of modern building (Silchester) I searched for ancient inscriptions. I found nothing but some coats of arms in the windows, viz., in a field sable, seven fusils argent bendwise ; as also, in a field sable,afesse between two chevrons or, and in afield or, an eagle displayed with two heads gules. I find these last to be the arms of the Blewets, to whom this estate came after the time of William the Conqueror ; the second are the arms of the noble family of Bainard, of Leckham ; and the first is the coat of the family of Cusanz, by whom this estate pass'd hereditarily from the Blewets to the Bainards."
(17) In a paper entitled "Notes on the Walpoles," which appeared in the Genealogical Magazine for May, 1899, the writer suggests that the Baynards probably derived their arms a fess between two chevrons from the Fitz Walters, under whom they appear to have held at an early date the bearing itself being derived in turn from the three well-known chevrons of De Clare.
(18) A similar licence was granted by Bishop Wyvil, in the same year, to Galfridus le Eyr, at Bromham.
(19) Sir John probably had several daughters, on the death of one of whom, without issue, the property passed to the other, and eventually came to Baynard and his heirs. This would account for the temporary ownership, through marriage, of Cusance, and also perhaps for that of Peyton.
(20) See Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire, iii, p. 247, where the name is printed Edward Baynard. Aubrey, writing 1659-70, gives a somewhat different version, but apparently from hearsay. " There is a report," he says, " that if the king should happen to kill a deer in the forest, so near to the river Avon that one might throw a horne, the lord of Lackham, by custome, could challenge it for his own, which Sir Robert Baynard did in King James' time, and alleged his graunt for it from a King - query his name." O my soule," said King James, " he was a wise king that made such a graunt." Wilts Collections, p. 95.
(21) Mr. Britton mentions two buildings, on the banks of the river Avon, opposite to Lackham, known as the Great and Little Lodge ; formerly lodges in Pewisham forest.
(22) Aubrey, Wilts Collections, p. 93, calls it " Baynard's Aisle."
(23) Aubrey, Wilts Collections, p. 93, notices the same monument, but appears to have been much less successful than Dingley in deciphering its heraldry. He describes it as "a gothique altar monument of ... Bluett," without even noticing the principal coat of Baynard, with supporters at the end. It was probably seen by him in a hurry and by a bad light, for, in his notes on the Abbey, he writes, " Mem. Desire my brother William to visit this for me, for it was late when I was there, and could not stay."
(24) Aubrey says that this shield and two others were taken out of the window of Corsham Church in 1675, and placed in the great parlour windows of Neston House, by William Eyre, Esq., its then owner. From Neston they were afterwards removed again by Sir William Hanham to his house in Dorsetshire.
(25) Richard Beauchamp, of Bromham, son and heir of William Beauchamp, buried at Market Lavington in 1457, by Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Gerard Braybrooke, and heiress of the Barony of St. Amand, which had previously been in abeyance since the death of her great grandfather, Almeric de St. Amand, without male issue, in 1402. She married secondly Sir Roger Tocotes, of a Yorkshire family, whose fine altar tomb, with effigy, is still in the centre of the Lady Chapel at Bromham, where by his will, dated 1492, he desires to be buried. Both Sir Roger and his son-in-law, the Lord St. Amand, were among the " greate compaigny of noble menne " mentioned by Richard Grafton, in his continuation of Harding's Chronicle, who in 1496 went with Edward, Duke of Buckingham, to meet King Henry VII at Taunton, the latter being then in pursuit of Perkin Warbeck.
(26) The late Rev. Herbert Haines, of Paddock House, Gloucester, in the second edition of his Manual of Brasses, 1861, the most valuable work on the subject hitherto published has noted ten instances only of the hood thus worn, in slightly varied forms, between the years 1500 and 1530 the Lacock example being the earliest. In one of them, at Northleach, co. Gloucester, the hood is represented fastened to the surplice instead of the cassock.
(27) This Sir Edward Hungerford died in 1522, leaving a second wife, Lady Agnes, who a year afterwards was hanged at Tyburn for the murder of a former husband. In the inventory of her goods, etc., forfeited to the Crown, she mentions a debt from one of the Temmes family, mentioned above :
" Item. Robert Temmes, gentleman, dwelling in Red (Rood) Aston, owyng to me xviij li and more to be payd at Penticost last past.
(28) In the British Museum (Harl. MS., No. 1443, fol. 258) there is a drawing of two kneeling figures copied by John Withie, in the year 1616, from the chancel windows of Calne Church. The male figure is represented in a tabard with the arms of BLAKE singly. On the mantle worn by the female is Gules a bend argent, with a crescent for difference. See also Aubrey, Wilt's Collections, plate iv, p. 37, who adds a portion of an inscription: "ORATE . P . . . . BLAKE . DE . PINHILL . A . . "
(29) Robert Baynard. aged 11, was admitted a Winchester scholar in 1532, was scholar of New College, Oxford, and Fellow in 1541.
(30) Lacock could, on the same occasion, muster 22 archers, 27 billmen, 2 horses, 6 harness, 4 bows, 4 sheafs of arrows, and other small weapons.
(31) Edward had lately died in 1636, leaving an only son of the same name. Giles, who was living in Ireland in 1623, also left an only son Robert, and the following entry in the Parish Register of Rowde apparently records a collection made there for his widow in 1647 :
" Aug. 15, Collected for Mr. Giles Baynard's widdow 9s. 9d."
(32) She died 23 August, 1615. On her monumental tablet in Corsham Church, she is described as " ex inclyta familia Baynardorum de Lecham Oriundae."
(33) On the occasion of the death of his own wife, which happened in that year and to whom he erected a similar memorial emblasoned with the heraldry of her own family.
(34) The day of his decease had evidently been forgotten, and that of burial was supplied from the Lacock Parish Register.
(35) James I appears to have been in this neighbourhood in 1616, 1618, 1621, and 1624. Pewsham was soon afterwards disafforested.
(36) Sir Robert Stapilton was M.P. for Yorkshire, and High Sheriff in 1580. He died 1606, and Lady Olive appears to have resided, during her second widowhood, at Lacock Abbey, and, dying at an advanced age in 1646, she was buried at Lacock. Besides Lady Ursula Baynard, she had four sons and three daughters. Her second son, Robert Stapilton, who matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, 19 June 1607, aged 17 [see Foster], was, in 1616, presented by her to the rectory of Lacock.
(37) The writer has already remarked that the armorial display on these tablets must have been the work of a skilful hand. The Baynards were, it appears, in possession of a vellum pedigree, drawn up by John Philipott, Somerset Herald temp. James I, showing their Norman descent (see Gents. Mag., May 1826, p. 418); but he would here suggest that the arrangement and execution of the heraldry on the Lacock tablets was probably the work of John Withie, "Citizen and paynterstayner of London", the transcriber of the fine manuscript volume now in the British Museum (Harleian MS. No. 1443) containing a copy of the Wilts Visitation of 1623, engrafted on the earlier one of 1565, with the arms beautifully tricked - a manuscript well known to Wiltshire genealogists. Withie's father, through a first marriage into the family of Nicholas, of Calne, resided in that town, as did also his own half-brother, by the same marriage. His grandmother was a sister of Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury [1560-1571], the friend of Sir Henry Sharington, of Lacock Abbey, the grandfather of Lady Ursula Baynard ; a link which, at least, seems to connect him pretty closely with the neighbourhood. He made some Church notes at Calne in 1616, and was 30 years of age in 1623, when the heraldic tablets in Lacock Church were set up. He obtained from Richard St. George, Clarenceux, a confirmation of arms Per pale ermine and or, a lion rampant gules previously granted to his family, in 1615, by the antiquary Camden.
(38) In a paper on the Baynard Monuments in Lacock Church by the present writer (Wilts Arch. Mag., iv, p. 6) the coats No. 2 and 7, here impaled, are ascribed to DB RICHMOND and CONSTABLE. The subsequent publication of Dingley's History from Marble, and the pedigree of Stapilton, in the Genealogist, makes it more probable that they are BRITTANY and DE ASKE, as here given.
(39) See Lacock Register ; but the Inq. p. m. gives 14 April as the date of his death.
(40) Spelt " Pensedone " in a deed of 1308. See p. 5.
(41) Both names appear in the inquisition. Edward Baynard, of Lackham, and Sir William Sharington, of Lacock Abbey, had both married into the family of Walsingham.
(42) She afterwards married Thomas Ewer, of the Lee, co. Herts.
(43) He became Rector of Upton Scudamore, near Warminster, where he was buried in 1691.
(44) These arms, either with or without the bordure sable, were borne by the Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury. John de Montacute, Lord Montacute, second son of the first Earl of Salisbury of that name, married the heiress of Monthermer, and they appear with the bordure on his tomb in Salisbury Cathedral. He died in 1389-90 ; since which time all succeeding Montacutes, and, on questionable authority the Montagus, have quartered the arms of Monthermer.
Dingley notes that the coat of Montagu in the heraldry at Lacock is given both with and without the bordure sable. He also remarks that the griffin's head in the Montagu crest is here, in one instance, beaked sable and langued gules, and in the other is all or a kind of fanciful variation by no means unknown in other instances of undertaker's heraldry.
(45) Son of Sir Anthony (of the Down Ampney Branch of Hungerford), who settled at Black Bourton, by a second marriage, and half-brother of Sir Edward, of Corsham, the Parliamentary Commander. He sat for Malmesbury in the Long Parliament until disabled in 1644, when he was heavily fined for delinquency, though he had not borne arms for the king, and thrown into the Tower. In 1648 his estates were seized. Cromwell wrote him a sympathetic letter dated 30 July 1652, which was formerly in the chapel at Farley Castle (see Carlisle's Cromwell, p. 216). The next year he succeeded to Farley, and dying in 1657, was buried in Black Bourton Church. His widow, Rachel, was a Jones, and his spendthrift son, Edward, who sacrificed a noble fortune to the follies and vices of the reign of the second Charles, sold Farley Castle, which had been for three centuries the residence of the Hungerfords, in 1686.
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