Chapter IX: Part 9

[29] "SR HENRY CHEYNY, now LORDE CHEYNY, called by wrytte to the
Parlement holden at Westmr. anno ... (knighted by the Queen's own
hand 1563.) Arms, quarterly of seventeen:--1. _Azure, six
lioncels rampant, three and three, argent, a canton ermine_
(CHENEY).--2. _Ermine, on the dexter side of a chief, per pale
indented or and gules, a rose of the last._--3. _Argent, a
chevron between three mullets gules._--4. _Argent, three
blackamoors' faces sable._--5. _Sable, a chevron ermine, between
three bird-bolts argent._--6. _Argent, on a chevron gules, three
fleurs-de-lys or_ (PEYVRE).--7. _Quarterly argent and gules, a
bend of the second._--8. _Quarterly per fess indented or and
azure._--9. _Gules, a bend vaire, between six escallops or._--10.
_Sable, a saltire engrailed argent._--11. _Argent, on a cross
azure, five escallops or._--12. _Barry of six argent and
sable._--13. _Argent, a horse-barnacle sable._--14. _Gules, a
fess dancette between six cross-crosslets or._--15. _Or, a cross
engrailed vert._-16. _Azure, two lions passant guardant in pale
or._--17. _Argent, on a chevron sable, a fleur-de-lys of the
field._ CREST:--_An heraldic tiger statant vert bezante, ducally
gorged and lined or._" (METCALFE'S _Book of Knights_.)

This tomb and effigy is by far the most mutilated of the three. The portion of the tomb immediately under the figure appears to have had originally the form of a sarcophagus, with ornamented panels probably below.

Of the effigy only the upper part remains, and this is very much denuded and weather-worn. The material used is alabaster, and from the few traces left of the more sheltered portions, was originally of very beautiful workmanship, heightened with gold. He was clad in armour, embroidered trunk-hose, and with collar turned out over the _mentonniere_; the head bare, with curled hair and beard, and the hands raised in prayer. He lies on a mattress, rolled up under the head, which rests on an embroidered cushion laid upon it.

It is grievous to witness the maltreatment and neglect this fine memorial has received, and no trace of inscription or heraldry remains.

The third is the tomb of his wife, Dame Jane Cheney; this is in much the same condition as the first in the series.

The effigy, of alabaster, is headless and much weather-worn. She wears a robe with tippet edged with fur, long gown and waistband. The head rested on two embroidered cushions. The figure was of fine workmanship, similar in character to her husband's.

The tomb below has panels with arabesques, and in their centres shields, originally covered with brasses. On the end panel, under the head, is this inscription,--

HERE LYETH D^A. JANE LATE WIFE OF S^R. HENRIE CHEYNE KNIGHT L^O.
CHEYNE OF TODINGTON AND ELDEST DAVGHTER OF S^R. THOMAS WENTWORTH
KNIGHT L^O. WENTWORTH AND LORD CHAMBERLAINE TO KING EDWARD THE
SIXT WHO DECEASED THE 16 DAIE OF APRIL A^O. D^O. 1614.

HERE LIES MY BODIE IN CORRVPTIONS BED,
MY SOVLE BY FAITH AND HOPE TO HEAVEN IS LED,
IMPRISONED BY LIFE, DEATH SET ME FREE,
THEN WELCOME DEATH, STEP TO AETERNITY.

Before we quit the sacred precincts of the old edifice, our steps take us to the chancel, and in scanning the memorials around, are arrested awhile by the record of an interesting but sad episode of home life, occurring during the last days of the residence of the Cheneys in their grand home at Toddington. A small tablet on the south side of the altar,--despoiled apparently, like the tombs in the transept, of its ornamental accessories,--still speaks to us this tribute of sisterly affection,--

IN MEMORIAM FRATRIS POSUIT-SOROR ALISIA BRVS
AMORIS ERGO.

GYLIS BRVSE ESQR YONGEST SON'E TO S^R. JOHN BRVSE OF WENHAM IN
SUFF' KNYGHT WHO COM'INGE TO TODDYNGTO' TO VISYTE HIS SYSTER
ALICE BRVSE THEN ATTENDING ON YE RIGHT HO' YE LADYE CHEYNE THERE
DYED YE 13 OF MARCH 1595 AND WAS BY HIS SAYDE SYSTER HERE
INTOMBED YE 14 OF MARCH REGNO REGINAE ELIZAB: 38 AETATIS SUAE 33.

As our stranger-foot turns to depart, the suggestive reflection crosses the thoughts concerning the untoward fate of the vanished Cheneys,--their name extinct, their sumptuous habitation razed to the ground, and their costly memorials also subjected to almost unparalleled indignity, neglect, and injury, short of actual destruction,--can the well-worn but true adage, _sic transit gloria mundi_, ever have received ampler verification?

But why should such striking collapse of this world's artificial grandeur sadden the mind that rejoices in the unobtrusive station, and simple unenvied delights--ever the best--of every-day life? In truth it does not; as we pass out into the pleasant daylight, the olden opulence and state of the departed Cheneys fades into the past as a dream, for a much more healthful sight is before us. To-day is the little rural town's holiday, and its inhabitants are enjoying themselves with unrestrained pleasure, while the fine peal of bells in the tower is also adding melodious tribute to the passing hour. Their delightful cadence follows our retreating steps for a long distance, and as their sweet sound dies to the outward ear, our walk continues to be beguiled with this vagrant inward echo to their

DISTANT CHIMES.

Of poets song, inspirer oft,--yet still
Many of thy sweet changes wait unsung,--
Differing as are the hearts thine echoes fill,
As various the thoughts then through them rung:--
Who may define these pleasures that arise
Within the soul by quickening spell set free?
As lief may hand essay to paint the skies,
Whose passing glories change eternally.

Is it because we know not whence they come,
And only feel the magic of their power?
Outside our ken, from some Elysian home,
Spring the delights that charm the passing hour;
And heaven itself, beyond thought's bounding line,
Lies pictured still as wishful hearts incline.

Thus ends our visit to what was once the grand earthly home and possessions of '_the extravagant Lord Cheney_'--one more strange, but not altogether uncommon phase of human life. How many of these historic apparitions have crossed the path of our desultory wanderings over the west-country, flashing like meteors through the gloom of the past, when summoned by the wizard hand of research, and as quickly fading and disappearing when its sympathetic power is withdrawn. In the glance of their happier, or more fortunate, transitory radiance, may shine the pre-eminent glory of the crown, the mild lustre of the mitre, the bold glow of the rod of office, or brilliant flash of the sword; yet thickly interspersed albeit with the lurid gleam of the axe, and perchance, as to-day, with the pitiful, hasty flicker of the spendthrift.

So do the glimpses of these noted actors on the passing stage of human existence, and the memories of their short but eventful careers, come back to us, with intensely interesting, because real power, alongside which the strongest flight of Romance is as a phantom. He who affects to contemn such investigations, and lives only in and for the present,--ignorant, careless, or indifferent as to the past, and bent on enjoying, as it is termed, the passing hour,--little wots of the care, the pain, and the strife, through which those who have gone before, have fought and toiled and suffered;--lives but half a life, in itself barren and ephemeral, as it is disassociated from all that has preceded it and built the foundations of that life up. Whether for good or for evil, matters not, the continuity of influence cannot be dissevered, for

"In to-day already walks to-morrow."

From Toddington and our musing over his collateral descendants, our story finally leads us back to the giant Knight himself, and the solemn grandeur of Salisbury Cathedral. We take a final look at the armoured form of this son of Anak, and as we glance at the lines of recumbent forms,--ecclesiastics,--statesmen,--soldiers, and others, that held high place during their lives in the government of their native land, for the five or six eventful centuries, in which, through much contention, that government was slowly determining and settling,--the thought arises, how comprehensively this grand building, as a sheep-fold, whose door is the Gate of Death, hath silently and surely gathered together here these erstwhile great ones of the earth at last,--even all sorts and conditions of men,--the consecrated, the peaceful, the devoted, rest side by side with the ambitious, the restless, the proud,--

"They live with God, their homes are dust;
But here their children pray."

To the passing wayfarer the glowing desires and anxious longings, that animated their lives, are now well-nigh forgotten or unknown, and have vanished in the past as a tale that is told,--"in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace," even the peace that passeth all understanding.

BOSWORTH FIELD.

But one chance left--'mid these misfortunes vast,
Looming like avalanche upon their prey,--
"Treason!" he cried, "the White Rose die is cast,"
And like an unchained eagle spurred away,--
"The fiery Dragon to the heart I'll wound,
And him that with it seeks to snatch my crown,--
Swift! follow me! see Brandon bites the ground,
The giant Cheney from his horse is down,--
Fortune attend! my steed, a few strides more,
And the Red Rose shall doubly-dyed appear--
Can I but reach him--steeped in its own gore,
Or Death, come thou as foe I never fear,--
Traitors make way!"--but they in vengeful ring
Closed, and 'neath blows relentless fell the King!

"WITH THE SILVER HAND."

A warm sunny morning in early May, and turning our steps from the thriving and somewhat busy town of Trowbridge,--a place which, like its quieter sister of Westbury, "stondith mostly by clothiers,"--its forest of smoking chimneys, garish town-hall, and tall spire,--our path inclines by the broad south-westerly road that leads to Frome and the parts adjacent. The walk is pleasant enough in its way, but without special incident to interest the wayfarer, beyond the ordinary pedestrian and vehicular motion of the hour.

In this direction we continue for about a mile and a half, and having passed through the village of Studley, halt at a stile or gateway on our left, and looking across a meadow of some extent, discern, environed by orchards, the grey outline of a building, having the unmistakable time-worn appearance of survival from a former age, albeit not of large size, and flanked with clustering outbuildings, that betoken its present inmate to be engaged in the great primeval occupation.

Instinctively--from a memory sympathetically stored--a reverie for the moment takes possession of the thoughts, as at the sight of the unpretending structure, a large picture passes rapidly before the mental eye, and with measured emphasis we observe,--a mother unknown,--a son the most famous,--their last descendant the most unfortunate!

Why--friend of mine--say you, do we propound this enigmatic commentary as we view the old place? Gives it short clue to characters, presumably, once connected with it, whose lives have embodied striking phases of human existence, which whet the imagination to contemplate, and to divine with all its subtle ingenuity, incidents conformable to animate them?

Listen. Yonder is Suthwyke;--there, back in the middle of the fourteenth century, a scion of the great family of Stafford of mediaeval fame, found his way from the county that gave them their patronymic, and he, marrying the daughter of its then possessor, settled himself within it, and became its lord and master.

Around its grey walls, so retiring and unpretentious, cluster traditions of the first importance, that lead us out into the great field of national history. From the first of this knightly race that then dwelled therein, by a mother unknown,--who may have been the comely daughter of some villain residing near,--issued a son, who, despite all the contumely of his birth, won the mitre of the adjoining See, rose to the supreme station of being the custodian of the nation's purse, the keeper of the conscience of its reigning King, and finally sat on the archiepiscopal throne of the realm, when the Church was in her best estate. Of his grandson, styled of this place, who, deputed to maintain the royal prerogative against plebeian agression, fell fighting under the fierce onslaught of Wat Tyler in distant Kent. Again, of his son, who rising high in the favour of his Sovereign, was by him dignified with a patent of nobility named after his heritage in this rural spot, with honours further increased; but who, meanly swerving by ingratitude and petty dudgeon, in the first service imposed on him by the monarch who had so recently honoured him,--to the confusion of his royal patron,--was by the same kingly hand, as suddenly and ignominiously extinguished, and with him perished also the name and race of the family, of which he was its last representative.

So we deliver the solution to our parable, as we leisurely cross the broad meadow, but as we draw near the house, or Court as it is termed,--our foot is abruptly stayed by a comparatively invisible--until we are close on its edge--but decisive hindrance to nearer approach, and indicative at once of the olden character of the habitation, a deep and wide moat, still well supplied with water, that surrounds the area on which the house stands. But no mail-clad warrior, with glance of lance and pennon, salutes us, no wimpled lady passes like a shadow around the old gable corners,--all the signs of life visible are a bevy of ducks busily disporting themselves in the water below, and a group of calves on the opposite brink, thrusting their dappled faces through the bars of the fence, and calling lustily to their foster-mother, the dairy-maid, to bring them their accustomed meal.

A short distance below, a friendly stone bridge reveals itself, which spans the chasm, and leads to a building,--that probably still perpetuates in form and size the antient gate-house,--with a large semi-circular-arched, and somewhat ornamented doorway, ghost of the original portal, with its attendant portcullis and drawbridge.

We cross the bridge, but observe at a glance that it is doubtful if any traces of the dwelling of the Stafford dynasty, or their immediate successors, will be found in or upon it, and such proved to be the case. The building is of moderate size, bears the characteristics of having been erected early in the seventeenth century, and these distinguishing features, with the exception of the mullioned windows, a rather fine balustraded and newelled staircase, and the appearance of an old nail-studded door here and there,--have been nearly obliterated by adaptation to modern requirements. No dates were visible, two panels over the entrances may contain such, but they are carefully plastered over.

Suthwyck--Suthwyk--Southwyke, now modernized to Southwick Court, is apparently built on the antient site, and probably very nearly represents the original size of the building. A domestic chapel was attached to the little mansion. This was situate a short distance from it, on the other side of the moat; it now forms the corner of the farm court, and was converted, about the year 1839, into a stable. No trace of ecclesiastical use is found within it, but a few of the old roof-timbers are discernible; the piscina, windows, &c., being doubtless removed when it underwent the process of conversion.

"In Southwick, a tything of North-Bradley," says Canon Jackson,--

"two carucates of land belonged in 1274 to William de Greyville
or Greynville, who held under the Abbess of Romsey. About 1294,
his son Adam de Greynville, (there was a Justice in Eyre of his
name in 1267) attached to his house at Southwick Court a Chapel
dedicated to St. John the Baptist. By surrendering to the Rector
of Bradley, (at that time the Prebendary of Edington) a ground
called Alerleye, he obtained the right of presenting to his
Chapel a chantry priest, who in acknowledgment of fealty, was to
offer two pounds of wax in Bradley church, every year on the
anniversary of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. In 1369 the
Bishop of Sarum (Robert de Wyvil) granted a license for Mass to
be said in the private mansion house of Southwick. This chaplain
in after times was always instituted to his office by the rectors
of Edington Monastery, to whom the church of Bradley then
belonged."

At the dissolution of Chantries in the reign of Henry VIII., Southwyke, Grenefreds (Grenvylles) Chantry, as it was called, was reported by the Commissioners "Baltazar Segytte, incumbent, with six pounds seven shillings a year. The plate weighed eight ounces one pennyweight, and the goods were valued at nine shillings, whilst eight and fourpence was allowed for a bell."

Suthwyke Court, and manor passed by successive heiresses through the families of Greynville, Stafford, Cheney, and Willoughby. About 1483, during a temporary forfeiture, it was given by Richard III. to his favourite Ratcliffe; it was however restored, and about 1520 sold by Robert, second Lord Willoughby de Broke to Sir David Owen, a supposed son of Owen Tudor, who in his will, dated 1529, mentions this Manor and Chantry. It was afterward disposed of in parcels, but the Court, by descent, is now held by the old Wiltshire family of Long of Rood-Ashton.

Of its former possessors, a few words.

Sir John Stafford, knt., of Amelcote and Bromshull, Staffordshire, who was living in 1361, married as his second wife the Lady Margaret, daughter of Sir Ralph Stafford, K.G., and one of the original founders of that Order, second Baron Stafford, and who was subsequently raised to the Earldom 5 March, 1351, and died in 1372; by his wife Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Hugh de Audley, Baron Audley.[30] He had issue by this marriage a son and heir named Humphrey.

[30] "Here (Tunbridge, Kent,) sometime lay entombed the bodies of
_Hugh de Audley_, second son of _Nicholas_, Lord _Audley_ of
Heleigh Castle, in the county of Stafford, who was created Earle
of Gloucester by King _Edward_ the third. This _Hugh_ died 10
November 1347. His wife _Margaret_ (first married to _Pierce
Gaveston_ Earle of Cornwall) dyed before him in the yeare of our
Lord 1342, the 13 day of Aprill. They were both together
sumptuously entombed by _Margaret_ their daughter, the onely
heire of her parents, wife to _Ralph de Stafford_, Earle of
Stafford. The said _Ralph de Stafford_ and _Margaret_ his wife,
were here likewise entombed at the feet of their father and
mother, this Ralph by the marriage of his wife _Margaret_, writ
himself in his charters and deeds, Baron of Tunbridge. Hee died
31 August, 1372, _Margaret_ his wife dyed 7 September, 1349."
(WEEVER.)

This son, Sir Humphrey, migrated into Wilts, and married first Alice, daughter and heir of John de Greynville, the then possessor of Suthwyke. By her he "acquired a large estate, viz., the manor, mansion house, and patronage of the Church of St. John Baptist thereto annexed of Suthwyke juxta Frome-Selwood, in the parish of North-Bradley, Wilts,--the manors and advowsons of Clutton and Farnburgh, Somerset, and the manor of Burmington, Warwick," and she was married to Sir Humphrey before 1365. Her father bore for his arms, _Argent, six lioncels rampant gules_. By her husband Sir Humphrey, she had a son Humphrey, who became her heir. Sir Humphrey married secondly, Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir William d'Aumarle of Woodbury, Devon, who died 15 November, 1362, and widow of Sir John Maltravers of Hooke, in Dorset, who died 15 June, 1386, and whose arms were, _Sable, a fret or_. She had no children by Sir Humphrey, but two daughters by her first husband; Maud, married first to Peter de la Mare, of Offelegh, Herts, who died about 1395, and secondly to Sir John Dinham, of Buckland-Dinham, Somerset, who died about 1428;[31] and Elizabeth, married to her second husband's only son. He was sheriff of Dorset and Somerset 12 Henry IV., 1411.

[31] Query, if the fine effigies of a knight and lady in
Kings-Carswell church in south Devon do not represent this Sir
John Dinham and his _first_ wife, Maud Maltravers. The Knight has
the arms of Dinham on his surcoat, and the shields on the tomb
below display Dinham impaling a _fret_ or _frette_. There is
another interesting effigy of a lady in the same church, that may
possibly be intended for the _second_ wife of Sir John Dinham who
was a daughter of John, Lord Lovel.

Elizabeth, the second wife of Sir Humphrey died the 15 Oct., 1413, and the knight himself survived her sixteen days only, dying on the 31 Oct., 1413, and both were buried beside her first husband, Sir John Maltravers, in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury. He was the first of his line that bore for his arms, _Or, a chevron gules within a bordure engrailed sable_.

All the foregoing coats of arms including also D'Aumarle, _Per fess gules and azure, three crescents argent_, are found among the heraldic display on the tomb of their descendant the Lady Elizabeth Willoughby-Greville at Alcester.

Sir Humphrey Stafford--only child of the foregoing--was of Suthwyke in right of his mother, and of Hooke, _jure uxoris_. He was surnamed "_with the Silver Hand_,"--a 'periphrasis' whose meaning has not been explained,--and married Elizabeth, the second daughter of his father's second wife, by her first husband Sir John Maltravers. By her he had three sons, Richard, John, and William, and one daughter Alice.

Sir Humphrey, having thus married the heiress of Maltravers, probably removed to Hooke, their antient seat, and made it his residence. Coker says of Hooke House, that "in foregoing ages the Cifrewasts, men of great antiquity and note dwelled there." Maltravers married Cifrewast's heir, and the old historian continues, "Humphry Stafford who married Maltravers' heir, was the great builder of it. This place hath since been much beholden to William Pawlitt, Marquis of Winchester, who augmented it with new buildings and often lived there, but his successors have not thought so well of it, wherefore it is like to run to decay." Paulet held it through his wife Elizabeth Willoughby, by inheritance from Cheney and Stafford.[32] Arms of Cifrewast of Hooke,--_Azure, three bars gemelles or_,--also found at Alcester.

[32] See page 33.

Sir Humphrey died 27 May, 1442, his wife had pre-deceased him, dying about 1420, and both were buried in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, in the Chapel of St. Anne therein, which he had founded.

Before proceeding further with this descent of Stafford, our little annals confront us with its most distinguished representative--albeit by a side issue--John Stafford, consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 1425, Archbishop of Canterbury 1443, Lord Chancellor to Henry VI., and who died in 1452. Who were his parents, and where is his position in the family pedigree? The recognized 'authorities' on the subject describe him as being _another_ son of the first Sir Humphrey, and brother to him "_with the Silver Hand_." Yet no definite proof thereof has been forthcoming. His presumed father Sir Humphrey made his will at Hooke 5 April, 1413, with codicil dated 30 Oct., same year, but in it he does not even mention him. Yet Sir Humphrey's second wife Elizabeth Maltravers in a codicil to her's, dated 14 October, 1413, does refer to him by bequest, _Item, Magistro Johanni Stafford, &c._

Sir Humphrey Stafford also, the only son of Sir Humphrey (the Archbishop's presumed father), in his will dated 14 Dec., 1441, includes bequests to the future Archbishop, thus recorded,--

_"Item, do et lego Johanni fratri meo divina pietate Bathoniensis
et Wellensis episcopo, unum par de fflacons argenteis et
deauratis._

"_Item, eidem Episcopo unam ymaginem argenteam et deauratum
decollationis sancti Johannis Baptiste, ac unam magnam peciam de
Aras vocatam doser._"

He also appoints the said bishop _his brother_, and William his son, with others to be his executors.

An extraordinary confusion appears to have enveloped the statements of historians and antiquaries as to the pedigree of Stafford, and the Archbishop's origin; this however has of late been satisfactorily cleared up by the researches of an accomplished and accurate genealogist. He _was_ the son of the first Sir Humphrey, but not born within the legal pale of wedlock, and his mother's name was Emma, that she was subsequently admitted to the Sisterhood of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Canterbury, of which her son the Archbishop was a Brother, but _who_ she was has not as yet been recovered. She died 5 Sept., 1446, and was buried in a mortuary chapel in the north aisle of the parish church of North-Bradley, Wilts, in which Suthwyke is situated.

"As her son was elevated to the primacy in 1443 he is here (on
the gravestone) correctly described as Archbishop at the time of
his mother's death, which could not have been done had she died
in 1440. Considering that the archbishop raised this mortuary
chapel as a resting place for his mother's remains,--if not for
his own--in the church of the parish in which Suthwyke manor
house is situate, and that his father resided at Suthwyke until
the period of his marriage with his second wife, when he removed
to her dower house of Hoke in Dorsetshire, it is not unreasonable
to infer that the archbishop was born in the parish of
North-Bradley.

"As his mother survived Sir Humphry's last wife, who died in
1413,--only sixteen days before Sir Humphry--it is impossible the
archbishop's mother could have been Sir Humphry's wife, at the
time her son was born. His birth must be set as far back as 1387,
if not earlier, as in 1413 he was made LL.D. at Oxford, and in
the same year he was collated to the Prebendal stall of Barton in
the Cathedral church of Wells."[33]

[33] See a most able and comprehensive account of "_Stafford of
Suthwyke_," in _Notes and Queries for 1871_, by B. W. GREENFIELD,
ESQ., F.S.A., &c., from which we quote; and for other help kindly
afforded, we here gratefully acknowledge.

The mortuary Chapel that the Archbishop erected to the memory of his mother, and to which doubtless he had her remains conveyed, and therein interred, occurs at the east end of the north aisle of North-Bradley church, and is of the width of the last bay of the arcade. It is of square form and projects with definite character from the church, to which it forms a kind of transept.

The architecture is Perpendicular, and of rich character. The east window square-headed, of some height from the floor, shewing that there was an altar once below it, and a piscina occurs in the pier of the arch on the south side. The south window is of large size, bay-shaped, and extends to the roof, the side jambs are panelled with window-shaped tracery, and along the top is a string-course of quatrefoil panels with bosses, and these are repeated at the base over the tomb; here they have shields in the centre, but with no charges on them. The roof, in a good state of preservation, is a richly trussed one of oak, with deeply moulded transoms, again subdivided by smaller ones, the squares between ornamented with quatrefoils, having well-carved bosses in their centres, and others at the intersection of the trusses. On one nearest the chancel is the cross and crown of thorns,--on others the arms of Hungerford, the double rose, and some display, apparently representations of stags, a fox, man on horse, &c.

The tomb of the Archbishop's mother is in the recess of the bay of the north window. It occupies its whole width and depth, and assumes the form of a plain solid bench rising some height from the ground, with no ornament of any kind. It is composed of white stone, as is also the gravestone, let in on the top, which appears to be of somewhat different kind, and of more friable character.

On this gravestone the effigy of the mother of the Archbishop is incised, below her feet is a pedestal, and over her head a rich canopy supported on side buttresses. Although the lines of the figure are somewhat denuded, yet sufficient remains to shew she was clad in the ordinary costume of a lady of the period. On her head she wears a coverchief that depends to the shoulders, a wimple around her neck, and she is otherwise attired in long gown and robe over. The hands are raised in prayer, and at her feet is a dog, apparently a spaniel, from his dependant ears and clouded coat. The incised lines are filled with a black composition, as is also the inscription that forms a ledger-line around the stone,--

=Hic jacet d'na Emma mater Venerandissimi patris et domini D'ni
Joh'is Stafford dei gra' Cantuariensis Archiepi' que obiit quinto
die mensis Septembris anno d'ni Millesimo cccc^mo quadra's'mo
vi^o cuj' anime p'piciet' de' am'=

On the outside, the Chapel is very noticeable, on account of its height and rich character as compared with the main fabric of the church. The corner buttresses have pinnacles at their stages, and the space below the north window is filled with quatrefoiled panels, and lozenges, traceried, with plain shields in their centres. A remarkable peculiarity is observable,--the carved ornamentation of the Chapel was never finished, the pinnacles on one buttress are completed, the crockets on the other only roughed out, and the cusps of the panel work above the tomb inside, still display the pencil marks of the intention of the carver, which his chisel never gave form to. The shields also are all perfectly plain and uncharged, and no trace of the armories of Stafford are at present visible anywhere on the Chapel, either within or without.

When Aubrey visited the Chapel in 1669, he notes,--

"By the north aisle is a peculiar chappell of excellent worke,
the roof of wood curiously carved. I guesse the worke to be about
temp: Henry VI. about which time this kind of Gothique
architecture was at the height. This was as noble a Chapelle as
any in the county, now, in the windowe, like a great bay windowe
is only one scutcheon left entire; viz: Stafford,--_Or, a chevron
gules._ Another was quarterley, _now broken_: another thus
Stafford, imp: Beville. At the bottom thereof is a flatt
gravestone of freestone well worked, lineally with the figure of
a lady in a Gothique niche. In the limbe thereof this inscription
"=Hic jacet d'na Emma, &c=."

The old antiquary gives the inscription fairly correct as it now is found, but at the end he adds these further words,--"=O Deus trina me John conserva ruina=,"--(_O triune God, save me, John, from perdition_). But such never could have existed on the face of the gravestone, as the inscription, without this addition completely fills the ledger-line around its edge. Probably he saw it in one of the windows. He then goes on to say,--

"In the limbe of the windowe are these fragments "=Emme matris
d... d'ni Joh'is Archiep...r...dicti=." In the top of this
windowe, and also of the other, in scrolls,--"=Gnothi seauton:
Nosce te ipsum.=" The other windowe is all broken, but the scrolls
aforesaid: only the picture of the archbishop, except his head,
remains, of curious painted glass, he in his formalities, with
pall, crozier, &c., in a cope of sky colour. In a limbe of this
windowe "=hujus capelle ... Archiepi Cantuar=." In the carved wood
work of the roofe are several little hunting figures, as of men
carrying a deer, shooting a deer in the wood. One scutcheon of
Hungerford in wood. This chapell is built outside the church, as
Hungerfords at Sarum, but the scutcheons of stone are not
charged."

A review of the circumstances attending the origin and career of John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, furnishes a subject of peculiar interest. Born, as we have observed, outside the legal pale, and as a consequence, subject to all its worldly disadvantages, this drawback appears to have found no hindrance to his advancement on the path of life, which ultimately led--short of sovereignty--to the highest station it had to offer. This result exhibits another striking instance of those marvellous careers, that have so often waited upon these natural children of mankind, who bearing down all obstacles in their way, and contemptuous of the goody-goody frowns and askant glances of their more piously-bred neighbours, by the force of their character, and the self-reliance engendered by what is termed misfortune of birth, have achieved the position of standing among the leaders and rulers of their race.

Examined by the light of common sense, the cause of this innate distinction is perhaps not far to seek. In its highest and truest sense, such have received their being under the strongest impulses that animate the human heart, knit by the influence of attachment often so powerful, that no present consequence, or after consideration received at the time a moment's parley, and Nature in the result asserts the aristocracy of her lineage; whereof the life of the Archbishop is a notable example. Proscribed doubtless, then as now, by the social world from assuming equality with them, and unable therefore to pursue any of the usual worldly professions with equal chances of success, it is refreshing to find the highest human vocation, the office of the Christian minister, was at his acceptance,--the Church opened her door to the human waif,--who was destined afterward to become her chief pastor. From his presumed father--as usual--he received scant help, but five years before his death, Sir Humphrey bestowed on him a costless gift, by presenting the future Archbishop to the family living of Farnboro', in the diocese of Bath and Wells,--a See he afterward presided over.

The close affection also that evidently existed between the Archbishop and his mother, cemented doubtless by the circumstances of his birth, and her consequent comparative isolation from society, is a delightful trait in his character; and it may be fully surmised caused him to take her to Canterbury, there to become a Sister of the religious house, of which fraternity he was a Brother, in order that she might be well cared for, and be near him, and where she probably passed the last twenty years of her life. She lived long enough to see her distinguished son ascend the Archiepiscopal throne, and as Lord Chancellor also to the reigning sovereign, King Henry VI., become at once the first citizen of his native land, both in Church and State; a remarkable privilege, that few mothers indeed,--no matter what distinction of birth or station they inherited,--have been destined to witness.

At her death in 1446, the Archbishop had her body conveyed back to North-Bradley, of which place she presumably was a native, and where probably her son was born. There he deposited her remains in the mortuary chapel attached to the parish church he had specially built to receive them, under a tomb whereon he caused her form to be depicted, and surrounded it with the simple inscription that still remains to bear witness of his filial affection.

It is noticeable that some intimacy must have sprung up between his father's family and himself, for although Sir Humphrey does not mention him in his will, yet his second wife Elizabeth D'Aumarle does so in hers. This intercourse probably ripened toward the end of his life, for his legally-born half-brother, Sir Humphrey "_with the Silver Hand_," who died ten years before the Archbishop, bequeaths him some silver plate, and constitutes him one of his executors. This acknowledgment would be quite in accordance with the ordinary ways of the world, Sir Humphrey doubtless properly felt that the honour of the friendship had now passed to the side of his presumed half-brother,--the stray off-shoot of the Stafford blood, had outgrown and overshadowed in position and fame, all the other branches of the family tree, and consequent on this, as a matter of course, his kinship was not disowned, and the Archbishop became the "_frater meo_" of the Knight "_with the Silver Hand_."

But, strange irony of this world's remembrance,--in death, if not in life their memory was to be avenged,--not a fragment of a memorial, nor the trace of an inscription remains to any direct member of the influential family of Stafford of Suthwyke and Hooke. Eschewing the humble precincts of the churches of the parishes in which their homes in Wilts and Dorset were situate as a place of burial, they caused their dust to be carried many miles away to the grand Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, and deposited in a Chantry they had founded therein, with its attendant priest to supplicate unceasingly for the welfare of their souls. Not very long after the last member of their race was laid within it, ruthless hands razed the great fabric to the ground, when all the memorials to the dead it contained were destroyed, and with such completeness, that even the position of their sepulchres may not at present be discerned, so that now, the tomb of the mother of the Archbishop alone remains in these western parts, to bear indirect witness of their former existence.

The Archbishop appears to have died at Maidstone on the sixth of July, 1452, and was buried in the "Transept of the Martyrdom" in Canterbury Cathedral.

He lies under an immense (Purbeck?) marble stone, perhaps the very largest in the cathedral, eleven feet five inches in length, by four feet six inches in breadth. On this was originally a magnificent brass, almost entirely filling the stone, but only the indent, now also much frayed, remains.

The outline shews us the effigy of the Archbishop _in pontificalibus_, with mitre and pastoral staff. He stands under a rich canopy with pinnacles and finials, supported on long buttresses that extend down to the base of the composition. Below his feet there was evidently a square panel which probably contained the "confabulatorie epitaph" seen and copied by Weever. Around the edge of the stone is a ledger-line, that probably had the emblems of the Evangelists at the angles.

The Archbishop's gravestone has shared the common fate accorded to all the brass-inlaid stones, that doubtless formerly thickly adorned the pavement of the cathedral, but of which not a single undespoiled example now remains.

On a boss in the vaulting immediately above, are the prelate's arms, being those of the See of Canterbury, impaling, _Or, on a chevron gules, a mitre argent, within a bordure engrailed sable_ (STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE, _with difference_).

Weever,[34] thus speaks of the Archbishop.--

[34] Edition, 1631.

"Here (Canterbury Cathedral) lies interred in the Martyrdome an
Archbishop, very noble, and no lesse learned, one of the
honourable familie of the _Staffords_; sonne (saith the Catalogue
of Bishops) vnto the Earle of Stafford, but I finde no such thing
in all the Catalogues of Honour; a man much favoured by King
_Henry_ the fifth, who preferred him first to the Deanrie of
Wells, gave him a Prebend in the Church of Salisbury, and made
him one of his privie Councell, and in the end Treasurer of
England. And then although this renowned King was taken away by
vntimely death, ye hee still went forward in the way of
promotion, and obtained the Bishopricke of Bath and Welles, which
with great wisedome hee governed eighteene yeares, from whence he
was removed to this of Canterbury, in which he sate almost nine
yeares; and in the meanetime was made Lord Chancellour of
England, which office hee held eighteene years (which you shall
hardly finde any other man to have done) vntill wearie of so
painfull a place, he voluntarily resigned it over into the King's
hands. And about three yeares after that died at Maidstone July
6. _Ann_: 1452. Vpon a flat marble stone over him I find this
confabulatorie Epitaph:--

=Quis fuit enuclees quem celas saxea moles?
Stafford Antistes fuerat dictusque Johannes.
Qua sedit sede marmor queso simul ede?
Pridem Bathonie. Regni totius et inde
Primas egregius. Pro presule funde precatus
Aureolam gratus huic det de Virgine natus.="

Of the Archbishop's public career as Metropolitan and Lord Chancellor, this belongs rather to the province of national history, and is altogether too extensive for even short notice here, it has been amply treated by Dean Hook in his _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_. Lord Campbell in his _Lives of the Chancellors_ thus speaks of Stafford in that capacity,--

"Having with great reputation taken the degree of Doctor of Civil
Law at Oxford, he practised for some time as an advocate in
Doctors Commons, when Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury
elevated him to be Dean of the Arches and obtained for him the
deanery of St. Martin, and a prebend in Lincoln Cathedral. He
then became a favourite of Henry V., who made him successively
Dean of Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and
Treasurer of England. He attached himself to the party of
Cardinal Beaufort, by whose interest in 1425, he was appointed
Bishop of Bath and Wells.

"From the Close Roll we learn 'that the Lord Cardinal, Archbishop
Kempe, on 25 Feb. 1432, delivered up to the King, the gold and
silver seals, and the Duke of Gloucester immediately took them
and kept them till the fourth of March, on which day, he gave
them back to the King and they were delivered by his Majesty to
John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells for the despatch of
business.'

"He filled the office of Chancellor till 1450 a longer period
than any one had before continuously held the Great Seal. This
took place on 31 Jany. 1450, the day the Parliament pursuant to
the last adjournment, when 'the Archbishop of Canterbury was
discharged from the office of Chancellor, and John Kempe,
Cardinal and Archbishop of York was put in his place.'

"He retired from politics and died at Maidstone, in Kent, on 6
July 1452. He was _pars negotiis neque supra_, one of those
sensible, moderate, plodding safe men, who are often much
relished by the leaders of political parties, as they can fill an
office not discreditably, without any danger of gaining too much
_eclat_, and with a certainty of continued subserviency."

"Sensible--moderate--plodding--safe,"--words which may be condensed into, and construed to embody that most useful, homely, yet withal rarest, of all endowments,--common-sense--whose practice in the long run is of far greater value from its reliability, than the too-often-found instability and hazard of careers termed brilliant,--and ever forms a most desirable, if not a great character.

To return to the descent of Stafford and the four children of Sir Humphrey "_with the Silver Hand_."

Sir Richard Stafford the eldest son, married Maud daughter and heir of Richard Lovell, Esq., by Elizabeth daughter and coheir of Sir Guy de Briene, knt. By her he had one child only, a daughter, named Avice, ob. 3 June, 1457, "a great heiress," married as his second wife, to James Butler, fifth Earl of Ormonde, created Earl of Wiltshire and K.G. in 1449. He was also Lord Treasurer of England and a staunch adherent of the Red Rose, was taken prisoner after the battle of Towton, by Richard Salkeld, Esq., and beheaded at Newcastle 1 May, 1461. Sir Richard died about 1427, his wife afterward married John Fitzalan, thirteenth Earl of Arundel, K.G., ob. 12 June, 1435, by whom she had a son Humphrey, fourteenth Earl. She died 19 May, 1436, and was buried with her first husband in the Chapel of St. Anne in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury.

Sir John Stafford, second son, married Anne daughter of William the third and last Lord Bottreaux, ob. 14 May, 1462, by his wife Elizabeth daughter of John, Lord Beaumont. By her he had one child only, Humphrey, who died in Scotland 6 Aug., 1461. Sir John died 5 Nov., 1427, and was buried with his kindred at Abbotsbury Abbey.

The presumed tomb with effigies of Lord and Lady Bottreaux, the parents of Anne, is in the church of North-Cadbury, Somerset. Its original position was in the Founder's place, on the north side of the chancel, but it is now relegated to a corner of the tower at the west end. The knight is in complete plate armour, the lady in richly ornamented horned head-dress, and long robes. A canopy is over their heads. Lord Bottreaux married first Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Beaumont, she died about 37 Henry VI. (1459). By her he had two sons and two daughters. William, who died before 1434; Reginald, ob. 1420; Anne, married to Sir John Stafford; and Margaret, who died 7 Feb., 1478-9, eventually sole heiress to the large property and titles of Bottreaux and Mules, married to Robert, Lord Hungerford, ob. 14 May, 1459. Lord Bottreaux married secondly Margaret daughter of Thomas, Lord Roos. He died seized of fifty manors, in the western counties, among them North-Cadbury, which they possessed through the heiress of Mules, and in that church (which they probably rebuilt), by his will he ordered himself to be buried. Reginald, the second son, and brother of Anne, was buried at Aller church, near Langport, which parish was part of the family property. On a flat stone formerly in the pavement of the chancel, but now set upright, on a ledger-line is incised the following inscription,--

=Hic jacet Roginaldus filius William dom' de Botreaux qui obiit
xxx die mensis Julii anno dom' m^o cccc xx=

In the centre is a shield,--_A griffin rampant_ (BOTTREAUX), impaling _semee of fleurs-de-lys, a lion rampant_ (BEAUMONT).

William Stafford, Esq., third son, was of Suthwyke; he married Katharine daughter of Sir John Chidiock, knt., by whom he had one son Humphrey, subsequently created Lord Stafford of Suthwyke and Earl of Devon. More with regard to him presently. William Stafford, together with his relative Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, knt., Commander of the King's forces, were both killed in the encounter with Jack Cade and the Kentish insurgents (who came off victorious), at Sevenoaks, 18 June, 1450. His wife married secondly Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall, knt., ob. 12 Nov., 1473, and thirdly Sir Roger Lewkenor, knt., ob. 4 Aug., 1478. She died 10 April, 1479.

Alice, their only daughter, married first her neighbour Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, Wilts, and by him had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.[35] Secondly she married Walter Tailboys of Newton-Kyme, Yorkshire, ob. 13 Apl., 1444; by him she had one daughter Alianore, married to Thomas Strangeways, Esq., by whom she had two sons Henry and Thomas, and one daughter Joan. Thomas Strangeways died in 1484, his wife Alianore 2 April, 1502, and both were buried in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey church of Abbotsbury.

[35] See page 5.

Our thoughts now concentrate on the last--most greatly honoured, yet withal most unfortunate--representative of Stafford of Suthwyke, who rose to the highest dignity conferred on the family, but whose possession of the distinction was indeed short, and his life still more suddenly and disastrously extinguished.

This was Humphrey, the only son of William Stafford of Suthwyke, killed at Sevenoaks in 1450. His cousin Humphrey, son of his uncle Sir John Stafford, dying in Scotland in 1461, he became the sole male heir left remaining. He was born about 1440, and appears to have identified himself with the cause of the White Rose, and to have been in much favour with Edward IV.

Stafford is accused of having been ill-disposed toward the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, who were zealous adherents of the Red Rose; naturally so, for they were descendants of that branch of the royal blood, and with such devotion, that the three brothers, Thomas, Henry, and John, who were the last representatives of the elder descent of that illustrious house, lost their lives, either in the battlefield or on the scaffold, and their property by confiscation, in support of its claims. They were the sons of Thomas Courtenay, first of that name, Earl of Devon, who died 3 Feb., 1458, by his wife Margaret Beaufort, second daughter of John, Earl of Somerset, eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third wife Katharine Swynford.

A necessary digression respecting the Courtenays takes place here, as Stafford bears the sinister reputation of acquiring, by means not the most honourable, a large portion of their property and their title.

Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, the eldest of these brothers, fighting for the Red Rose, was made prisoner after the battle of Towton, 29 March, 1461, taken to York, attainted and beheaded by order of Edward IV., and all his property confiscated to the crown.

He appears to have been one of the most lawless and unscrupulous men of that lawless era,--his father it was, who is said to have fought with Lord Bonville on Clyst-Heath, and himself, the son, the leader of the outrage and murder of poor old Radford the lawyer, at Poughill, near Crediton, so graphically described in one of the Paston letters, and which as a picture of the ferocity of the time will bear extract here,--

"Also y'r is gret varyance bytwene ye Erll of Devenshire and the
Lord Bonvyle as hath be many day and meche debat is like to growe
y'rby for on thursday at nyght last passed ye Erll of Denshyres
sone and heir come w't lx men of Armes to Radfords place in
Devenshire which was of counceil w't my Lord Bonvyle and they
sette an hous on fyer at Radfords gate and cryed and mad an noyse
as though they had be sorry for ye fyer, and by that cause
Radfords men set opyn ye gats and yede owt to se ye fyer and for
w't th'erll sone foreseid entred into ye place and intreted
Radford to come down of his chambre to spike w't' them p'myttyng
him that he shuld no bodyly harm have upon whiche p'mysse he come
down and spak w't ye said Erll sone.

"In ye mene tyme his menye robbe his chambre and ryfled his
hutches and trussed suyche as they coude gete to gydder and
caryed it away on his own hors.

"Thanne y'erll sone seid, Radford thou must come to my Lord my
Fadir, he seid he wold and bad oon of his men make redy his hors
to ride w't 'hene whiche answerd hym yt alle his hors wern take
awey, thanne he seid to y'erll sone s^r yo'r men have robbed my
chambre and thei have myn hors yt I may not ride w't you to my
Lord yo'r fadir, wherfor I p'y you lete me ride for I am old and
may not go.

"It was answerid hym ageyn yat he shuld walke forth w't them on
his feete and so he dede till he was a flyte shote or more from
his place and yanne he was ... softly for cawse he myght not go
fast and whanne yei were thus dep'ted he t'ned ... oon forw't
come ix men ageyn upon hym and smot hym in the hed and fellid ...
of then kyt his throte." (28 October 1455.)

We fear the feud between Bonville and Courtenay, that began with the 'valiant performance' on Clyst-Heath, was still raging, and it may be, the cause of poor old lawyer Radford's death, as it is mentioned he "_was of counceil w't my Lord Bonvyle_," which circumstance the Courtenays appear to have resented in this terrible manner. Six years afterward the edge of the axe fatally crossed the throat of "_ye said Erll's sone_," and leader of this outrage, at York.

The place from which this free-booting party set out was Tiverton Castle, the family residence, where his father the Earl was then living. The castle and manor of Tiverton formed part of the Courtenay possessions afterward given by Edward IV. to Stafford.

Henry Courtenay, the next brother, and Earl of Devon, for alleged complicity with Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, and his brothers, then exerting their influence for the restoration of Henry VI., was with Sir Thomas Hungerford of Farleigh Castle, seized, attainted of treason, and after a short trial before the King's Justices, both beheaded at Salisbury, 4 March, 1466.

John Courtenay, the third and last of these brothers, fell fighting for the Red Rose at the battle of Tewkesbury, 4 May, 1471. In his death, that branch of the family became _extinct_ for the cause of the Red Rose, as their neighbours and relatives the Bonvilles suffered extermination, about the same time, and in a similar manner, contending for the White Rose.

But the charge against Humphrey, Lord Stafford, chiefly related to his alleged antagonism to Henry Courtenay, the second of these brothers, who was executed at Salisbury, and whose death he is said to have 'procured.' In those days of feud and intrigue, it is impossible to say what men may not have covertly done, to carry out their aims and designs, but it is to be hoped such was not really Stafford's conduct in this case, for if so, the signally sudden and similar retribution, that so soon afterward overtook him, was well deserved.

But be that as it may, it is certain that a large portion of the confiscated possessions of the Courtenays, "the bulk of the estate," about the time of the death of Henry Courtenay, was bestowed by Edward IV. on Stafford, and three years afterward, 7 May, 1469, he was raised by that monarch to the old and coveted title of Earl of Devon, and this while John Courtenay, the last of the three brothers, was still alive, as he perished at the battle of Tewkesbury two years afterward.

But John Courtenay, the true heir to the distinguished title, lived long enough to see this pretender to it as ignominiously extinguished, and it is remarkable that this illustrious heirloom, although twice conferred on others, each attempt has proved futile to wrest it from the rightful owners.

Sir Humphrey Stafford had been created BARON OF SUTHWYKE, first by Writ of Summons dated 21 July, 1461, afterward confirmed by patent dated 24 April, 1464, and, as we have observed, he was further advanced to the dignity of EARL OF DEVON, 7 May, 1469.