584 Bradninch.-Mr. George Conon. July 1653, after a long suit before "The Commissioners for Compounding with the Delinquents," by paying a heavy composition: but all the estates in fee, in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Yorkshire, were confiscated. We were favoured with a perusal of all the pleadings, &c. before "The Honorable the Commissioners for Compounding with Delinquents" and the receipts, one of which I copy. They are printed, with blanks for the name and money (what is written is printed in Italicks.) "Received by us, Richard Waring and Michael Herring, Treasurers of the moneys to be paid into Goldsmiths' Hall, of Samuel St. Hill of Bradninch, in the county of Devon, Gent. the summe of Three Hundred Seventy fower Pounds, seventeen Shillings, Six pence, in p'te of Seven hundred forty nine Pounds, fifteen Shillings £.874 17s. 6d. Imposed on him by the Parliament of England, as a fine for his Delinquency to the Common-wealth. We say Received this 24th day of September, 1651, in parte Ri Waringe. I have taken notice of this acquittance M. H. Harleian MSS. 1080. [XCY. at present to be met with in Devonshire. The manor of Sainthill (antiently Swenthull), from which the family derive their name, is in the parish of Kentisbeare. Richard Sainthill (father of the first Peter) resided there in the reign of Henry VII.; and the first Peter, in Harleian MSS. No. 1457, is termed "St. Hill of Sainthill and Bradnyuche." Sir Walter Swenthull, who represented Devon in the Parliaments of Edward II. and III. resided at Honiton; and his brother Reginald at Wadheys, which was conveyed to him in the time of Edward I. by Henry De Boteler (Harleian MSS. 2410). Sept. 30. I left Bradninch for Collumpton, Dec. 10. OUR ingenious Correspondent A, in his very interesting memoir of of the Rev. SAMUEL WALKER of Truro, Padstow and its worthies, has spoken and of THOMAS RAWLINGS, esq. in terms so just and appropriate, that all who are any way acquainted with the characters of these venerable men, would wish for further information; but the sincere Christian would more especially be gratified by such biographical notices of those who had taken sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as friends." For a third person, however, I looked to the Padstow memoir; as he was an intimate friend of Walker and Rawliugs, and equally distinguished for his religiousness. I mean Mr. GEORGE CONON; who, after having been many years Master of Truro Grammar School, retired to Padstow, where he died. In Polwhele's "Cornwall," vol. V. Mr. Conon is thus noticed: "Both my father and myself were instructed in the principles of religion and the elements of the Greek and Latin tongues, under George Conon, a Scotchman;-a sound grammarian, a Christian firm in belief, and punctual in practice. He was once an usher at Westminster. At Truro he was a second Busby; he flogged like Busby; and like Busby he taught. We feared him, but we loved him. And when, from the infirmities of old age, he was forced to relinquish his charge and retired to Padstow, we all regretted his departure with tears! Nor were they, though the tears of childhood, "forgot as soon as shed"." (P. 64.) 2. ANCIENT Mr. URBAN, Camberwell, Dec. 13. mention is made of "an ancient seat of the Bowyer family," situate at Camberwell, on the road leading to London. It certainly seems worthy of some notice, if only from the tradition that it was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and used by him as a temporary residence, when engaged in the erection of St. Paul's Cathedral. It strikes me, however, that it has claims to higher antiquity; for a large cedar tree which stands before it is traditionally styled "Queen Elizabeth's tree." It is one of those "modest mansions," which in the words of Lord Bacon, seem rather to have been built to live in, than to look on. Its exterior has a sombre and uninviting appearance, but some of its apartments are tastefully embellished. The hall is well worthy of observation. Opposite the entrance from the front garden, and surrounding a doorway, now disused, is some curious carved work of foliage, fruits, and flowers, disfigured by a tawdry colouring. Against its North wall is a female portrait, a companion to that in an upper apartment, which tradition styles "the Lord of the Manor." Report ascribes to this of "his ladye." Over the husband's picture is the representation of some animal carved in wood, doubtlessly the Bowyer crest, which Mr. Bray describes as "a wolf or tiger sejant on a ducal coronet." The room which forms the North wing is ornamented with "carven imageries, of fruits and flowers," in relief. Over the chimney-piece, which, with the whole wainscoting, is of cedar, is a small but exquisite piece of painting,. in which Saturn devouring his children is shewn in the centre, surrounded by ruins. The apartment into which this cedar room opens is lofty and spacious; the carved work bold, prominent, and exceedingly well executed. The South and East sides are ornamented with large paintings, in each of which the principal figure seems, from the crow which accompanies him, and the glory surrounding his head, to be intended for Apollo. The above Vignette shows the exterior of this side of the building, and is chosen principally for the air of antiquity conferred by its "imbowed windows." The rooms corresponding to those just described on the other side the *This refers to the period when this house was tenanted by the Bowyers, who held estates, manors, and parcels of manors here and hereabouts. See Bray, vol. III. GENT. MAG. Suppl. XCV, PART II.. B house, 586 Account of the Bowyer Family. house, are used for the purposes of a Literary Institution; the smaller one for a library of reference, containing several hundred volumes on theology, history, philosophy, and belles lettres; and the other for a reading room, which is supplied with several daily papers, and all the periodicals of note. This Institution does not seem to be so generally known as its merits ought to render it; the books are well selected and numerous; and the lectures, which are suspended during the summer season, have hitherto afforded much to interest and instruct. The following account of the family of Bowyer I have selected from various sources, and as the name is so intimately connected with the history of this building, and of Camberwell in general, it may not be irrelevant here to state particulars. Their pedigree is traced up through William Bowyer, his great grandson Richard, his grandson, and Ralph his son, to John Bowyer of Chichester. Thomas the son of William, and John his grandson, are buried in the church of Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset, where the family had been long settled. John, a son of the last-named, married Ann Jenes, and afterwards Elizabeth Draper. The husband's common-place book gives a singular and concise account of this transaction, as may be seen by an extract given in Lysons's Environs, vol. I. a This John and his wife are buried in the chancel of Camberwell Church, where there is a brass exhibiting man and woman kneeling at a table, behind him eight sons, and behind her three daughters." The figures are well executed, and from the circumstance of Aucher's arms appearing on the escutcheon, could not have been set up till near the middle of the seventeenth century, as previous to that time the families were not connected. Above the effigies are three escutcheons. In the centre, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, a bend vaire cotised, or as Gwillim has it, "a bend verrey between two cotises." "This coat," says he, pertaineth to Sir Edmond Bowyer of Camberwell, in the county of Surrey, knight.” ." 2d, on a fess humette, three leopards' heads, as given by Gwilliin in his "Heraldry." This coat was confirmed by Sir William Segar, Garter, May 2, 1629, to Henry Brabourne, alias Brabon, of London, descended from John Brabourne, alias Brabon, keeper of the mowed hawks to King Edward III, They are quattered by Bowyer in consequence of John, the son of Thomas Bowyer of Shepton Beauchamp, having married into the family of Brabant of Bruton. The third quarter is charged with a chevron between three acorns. Over the husband are the arms of Bowyer, impaling six coats; viz. 1st and 6th, on a fess between three annulets, two covered cups, between them a mallet for distinction. This coat was confirmed to Henry Draper of Colebrook in the county of Middlesex, gent, 14 Oct. 1571. 2d. Two chevronells, on each three martlets, between three escallop shells (Draper). 3d. Ermine, in chief three lions rampant, "the coat armour of Sir Hewitt Aucher of Bishopsbourne in the county of Kent, knight and bart.; it was borne by Robert Aucher, M. A. priest, of Queen's College, third son of Sir Anthony;" to whom I have seen a letter under the hand of Queen Elizabeth, in which she styles him her "good freende," assuring him that she will so remember his towardness" in a certain business, "that whensoever occasion may serve," says she, "I woll requite it*" -How the families became related will be seen hereafter. The fourth court is Ermine, a fess checky. The fifth, a pale counterchanged, three acorns. Over the wife is the impalementalone. The inscription reads thus: "Here lyeth the body of John Bowyer, esquier, and Elizabeth his wife, one of the daughters of Robert Draper. They had issue 8 sons and 3 daughters, and John died the x day of October, 1570. Elizabeth, after maryed William Forster, esquier, and had issue one sonne and one daughter, and dyed the xxij of April 1605." She seems to have outlived her last husband; for a house adjoining the Free School is said, in 1615, to have been "late in the tenure of Elizabeth Forster, widow." Sir Edmond Bowyer, who figurės conspicuously in the annals of this parish, to which he was a considerable benefactor, was born at Camberwell 12th May, 1552. He served Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex (the two counties having then but one Sheriff'), in 1600; he was knighted by King James the First, at the Charter House, on that See Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. I. p. 3. Mo PART 11.] On the Surname of Whatton. Monarch's first arrival In London, May 11, 1603; and in 1614 was one of the witnesses to the deed of crea tion of College. His last will bears 11 July, 1626, and in it he desires to be buried in the church there, requesting his executors to erect a "tomb of alabaster or white marble and jet, as they think fit," over his remains: he also begs that he may not be bowelled," and that his funeral may take place in the day-time. His nephew of the same names, in 1648, presented a petition to the Commons on part of the population of Surrey, praying for the restoration of their King, and a return of peace and quietness. He was one of the Court of Record, constituted on occasion of a fire, which on the 26th of May, 1676, burnt the Townhall and other places in Southwark. His monument, on the South side of the chancel of Camberwell Church, has this inscription: "In hopes of a glorious resurrection to eternall life by the merits of Jesus Christ, here lyes buried ye body of dame Hester Bowyer, late wife of Sir Edmoud Bowyer of this parish, knt. and daughter of Sir An thony Aucher, knight. There was a happy sympathy betwixt ye vertues of ye soule and ye beauty of ye body of this excellent deceased person: she lived a holy life, and dyed the death of the righteous, December ye 10, 1665. ༧༦ A good lyfe hath but a few days, But a good name endureth for ever. Sir Edmond also (as he desired) lyes here by his loving and beloved wife. Likenes begat loue, and loue happiness, true here, complete in heaven, where they reape the fruit of their faythe and good works. He dyed ye 27 of January, 1681, in ye 67 year of his age. Tam pios cineres nemo rclurbet.” This Edmond had a son Anthony, who married Katherine St. John, and died in 1709. In his epitaph against the South wall of the chancel, Camberwell Church, he is styled a gen. tleman generally esteemed in his lifetime, and universally well read, especially in the laws and Constitution of his country, which gave him an equal aversion to tyranny and anarchy: he did justice, showed mercy, and was a friend to the poor." His wife died in D. A. BRITON. 1717. 687 ing in your Magazine, perpetuis futuris temporibus, the result of my researches and inquiries relating to the surname of John de Watton, the husband of Ella Bisset, and their eldest son, dictus Bisset, described in Part i. p. 38, to obviate any misinterpretation the variation of it might in future engender, from the circumstance of that appellation (which has also been written Wathon) having been expressed at least half a dozen different ways. The families of Watton, Heriz, Mandeville, Newmarche, and Bisset, were all seated in the county of Nottingham, a few miles asunder, as in Thoroton may be seen, and hence they became connected by marriage. These branches of the Bissets and Wattons in a series of years removed, the former into Wiltshire, the latter into Hertfordshire, and, according to Sir Henry Chauncy, p. 23, John de Watton was High Sheriff 25, 26 Hen. III. Richard de Rypariis married Margaret, the eldest daughter of Bisset, John de Watton "Ellam secundo natam," and Hugh de Plessetis, Isabel the third daughter; see the pedigree of Basset (whose daughter Bisset married), Shaw's Staff. II. 12, Clutterbuck's Herts, I. xxix.; Salmon's Herts, 362, App.; and the Topographer, II. 318. The family of Watton derived the three besants in their escutcheon, which they bear at this day, by marriage with Ella Bisset, being the second course of besants in Bisset's arms, Azure, ten besants, 4, 3, 2, 1; the rest of their armorial bearing from their ancestors, especially Guillaume, surnamed De Watone, a cadet of the house of Tyrel, Seigneurs de Poix, in Picardy, and of Flemish extraction by the mother's side; which is confirmed by the similitude of their arms, described in the Dict. Geneal. Herald. de France. Resuming the explanation of the point in view, it appears by a deed, Carta Johannis de Rypariis de Terris in Kedeministre," that John de Wutton was a witness. Mon. Angl. II. 409. In the Harl. MS. No. 2038, p. 150, the name is written Sir Jo. Wooton. In the Black Book, at the Heralds' College, it is written Wotton, and so is the son's surname. This an * In Cartulario antiq. Eccles. de Watuna. Ex autog. pen. Johis de Knyveton. Chron. de la Trin. du Mont l'Rou. Reg. de Blia, g. c. 588 William Injustly styled Conqueror. cient memoir exhibits the Bissets as Barons of Kidderminster, and remarks that the son was living 31 Ed. I. The former were not Barons of that denomination, but of Combe-Bisset in Wiltshire; and the latter was dead 28 .Ed. I. according to the inquisition. There is a memorandum, "Q'odam memorial," relating to Wich-Malbanc, where the name is Wotton. In Fines, 17, 18 Ric. II. by Walter Romesey, in Madox's Bar. Angl. the father and son are called Wotton; Ella Bisset is also described as the third daughter. By the inquisition on the death of her mother, Harl. MSS. 2038, p. 149, 1967, p. 121, and Dug. Bar. I. 632, she was the second daughter. It is evident, however, that the surname was neither Wooton or Wotton, for no person of either denomination appears on record contemporary with John de Watton first mentioned, who could by any possibility have been the husband of Ella Bisset. The assimilation of these surnames was not unusual, for the village of Watton in Hertfordshire had four divisions, according to Domesday Book. In the fourth, the name is written differently from the rest, viz. Wodtone, which being famous for its timber, was 'called Wood Town. Salmon's Herts, p. 216. But the etymology of words IS, "Levis et fallax et plerumque ridicula, for, sæpenumero ubi proprie tas verborum attenditur, sensus veritatis amittitur." In a licence to enfeoff lands at Kidderminster, 27 Ed. I. the son is called Wotton, and in the Inquisition on his death, 28 Ed. I. it is the same; hut the definition of the son makes nothing against the father, and the diversity is inmaterial, for every Antiquary knows the frequency of change of surname in olden time. There is an inquisition of 16 Ed. I. which mentions only two daughters of Basset, though the fact of there being three is indisputable; for Alice, one of the daughters, married Bisset, 5 Hen. III. (Ormerod, III. 218), a glaring blunder in a record of that description, to which much confidence is usually assigned. Upon the whole, the contiguity of residence, the identity of the family connection, the circumstance of Watton, Wooton, and Wotton, being here one and the same person, videlicet, the identical John de Watton first named, appear to me, Mr. Urban, with all due respect to the judgment of your impartial and intelligent readers, decidedly to establish my antecedents communications on the subject of this descent. It should be observed, however, that in allusion to the elder branch of the family of De Dunstanville, detailed in page 417, their arms are variously expressed, but the greater probability is that they were-Argent, a fret Gules, on a canton of the second a lion of England, and that the bordure ingrail. ed Sable was assumed for distinction sake by January, a collateral descendant of John de Dunstanville, a younger son of Walter, the second Baron of Castlecombe. The same arms appear to have been quartered by Thomas the fourth Earl of Southampton (the representative of that younger branch), who died about the year 1667, with out issue male. The family of Helligan of Devon, who carried, Or, three Torteaux, a chief Azore, derived their lineage from the heiress of William de Dunstanville, the descendant of another junior branch; and 1.2.1.0 Basset, who married the heiress oỂ Helligan, at one time quartered the same bearings. In conclusion, permit me to add that in Harl. MS. 5801, p. 59, are noticed the marriages of the two sisters of Sir John Whatton of Leicester Town, afterwards of East Sheen in Surrey, who is mentioned in Part i. p 305. The eldest sister, Catharine, married Thomas Hackett, Bishop of Down and Connor; the youngest, Sence, Sir Tho mas Ogle, Governor of Chelsea Hospital. HENRY W. WHATTON. Mr. URBAN, Norfolk, Dec. 14. WILL you permit a remark or two two seemingly decisive arguments to on your Correspondent J. D.'s prove that William the Bastard has no right to the title of Conqueror, Eugland not having been conquered by him (see Gent. Mag. Aug. 1825). The first is grounded on William having granted the demands of the Primate for "the preservation of their liberties." And the second, on the arms of part of Kent being a rampant white horse, with the motto "Invicta *,” * Kent was conquered 53 years before the Christian æra by the Romans under Julias Cæsar, and put under the direction of the Governor of Britannia Prima. It was again conquered by the Saxons, and Hengist became its King. Baldred, the seventeenth |