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To return to the Lees.

Hitherto the course of this family's descent has been based on a chain of positive facts; but, before we trace the consanguinity marked by heraldic bearings, some degree of inferential testimony must be admitted. This very numerous family is to be distinctly followed in our early archives-as that of Domesday, the Inquisitions, Valuations, Rotuli, and the curious record of royal rights intituled the Testa de Neville; from all of which excerpta have been made and compared. As before stated, the Leghs or Lees were all-powerful in Cheshire, as those of High Lee, of Lyme, of Ridge, of Begulegh, of Adlington, of Twemlow, and of Booths; but the branching off of the several casts into other counties, was under circumstances the particulars of which are now, perhaps, unattainable. Yet there is evidence that the Lees of Morton withdrew into Buckinghamshire in the early part of Henry the Fourth's reign, to avoid the persecution to which they were liable in consequence of their manifested attachment to the cause of the unhappy Richard the Second. The men of Cheshire were devoted to that monarch-the self-styled Princeps Cestria-as his crafty successor well knew; and no fewer than two hundred of their knights and squires lay dead upon the ensanguined field at Shrewsbury. Still it is shewn that, when Henry of Lancaster marched against Chester, the nidus of the Royalists, Sir Robert and Sir John a Legh were dispatched with a deputation to meet him, and surrender everything; and the family must have considered their safety as thereby guaranteed. But no sooner was the usurper in safe possession of the castle, than he ordered Perkin a Legh to be forthwith beheaded, and his head placed upon one of the loftiest towers of the city. This summary act excited great commiseration for the veteran warrior, whose father-in-law, Sir Piers a Legh, had received the lordship of Lyme from King Edward the Third, for taking the Count of Tankerville, Chamberlain of France, prisoner at Crecy, and bravely relieving the banner of the Black Prince.

An inscription which was placed to the memory of Perkin in an oratory belonging to the Lees of Lyme in Macclesfield church, at once briefly records the cause of his doom, and intimates that he fell a victim to treachery. This epitaph has been copied by Camden, Browne Willis, Lysons, and others; but,

as they all differ in a slight degree from one another, I took advantage of my son, Charles Piazzi, returning to Edinburgh in October, 1850, and stopping at Macclesfield, to procure me a rubbing from the brass itself: This has enabled me to present a faithful copy :

HERE LYETH THE BODIE OF PERKIN A LEGH
THAT FOR KING RICHARD THE DEATH DID DIE,

BETRAYED FOR RIGHTEOVSNES

AND THE BONES OF SIR PEERS HIS SONNE
THAT WITH KING HENRIE THE FIFT DID WONNE

IN PARIS.

THIS PERKIN SERVD KING EDWARD THE THIRD, AND THE BLACK PRINC
HIS SONNE IN ALL THEIR WARRES IN FRANCE AND WAS AT THE BAT-
TELL OF CRESSIE AND HADD LYME GIVEN HIM FOR THAT SERVICE:
AND AFTER THEIR DEATHES SERVED KING RICHARD THE SECOND,
AND LEFT HIM NOT IN HIS TROVBLES, BVT WAS TAKEN WITH HIM,
AND BEHEADED ATT CHESTER BY KING HENRIE THE FOVRTH, AND
THE SAYD SIR PEERS HIS SONNE SERVED KING HENRIE THE FIFT,
AND WAS SLAINE ATT THE BATTELL OF AGENCOVRT.

IN THEIR MEMORIE SIR PETER LEGH OF LYME, KNIGHT, descended
FROM THEM, FYNDING THE SAYD OVLD VERSES WRITTEN VPPON
STONE IN THIS CHAPPELL, DID REEDIFIE THIS PLACE AN° D'NI 1620.

A

Another branch of the Cheshire main, which held Lee Engleys and Lee Fraunceys, in Lancashire, sold the then unimportant manor of Liverpool to King John they seem afterwards to have domiciliated as Der Edlen am Lee in the baillages of Kyburg and Gruningen, in the territory of Zurich, where they are now extinct, or sunk into the class of peasantry.

Macclesfield church, notwithstanding parts of its body are both modern and bizarre, is a goodly old pile, with the date 1218 over the great tower door.

*This word wonne, from the Saxon punan and German wohnen, to dwell, is not yet, I am informed, entirely out of use in that part of the kingdom. Perhaps a recollection of the epitaph induced Lady Elizabeth Lee to use the word in her stanzas on the Shepherd's Bower. (See page 42.)

†This must be an oversight, for Lyme was not bestowed for his own service at Crecy (see ante), where he must have been a mere boy. The battle of Crecy was fought in 1346, and the decapitation of Perkin was perpetrated in the year 1399.

There are various monuments of the Lees and the Savages; of which a remarkable one commemorates a Roger Lee (ob. 1506), with his wife Elizabetha (ob. 1489); and there are kneeling behind them thirteen children. Between the figures is a plate whereon appears a mitred priest, perhaps Archbishop Savage himself, at his prayers, and under him an inscription which is defectively given in Gibson's Camden. In itself it is curious and exact as far as it goes, but the price of so comfortable a remission of torment which it pronounces, should have been added: "The pdon for saying of v. paternost and v. aves and a cred is xxvi. thousand yeres and xxvi. dayes of pardon." It is on a wall of what is called Earl Rivers's Chapel; and there are in it recumbent figures of some of the Savage family.*

In the south-east angle of the body of the church is a more modern epitaph on a William Lee, setting forth that he was a master of great erudition in the school of King Edward the Sixth, (it was actually founded by Sir John Percivale in 1502,) in Macclesfield; that he "sweated" therein for forty-three years, and sent many pupils to either university; that he taught Hebrew, Greek, and Roman; that he knew French, Spanish, and Italian; and that he died in 1630, at the age of seventy-four. This is recorded in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and it is, moreover, shewn, that William Lee was a person of peace, a lover of concord, and preferred to suffer meekly than resent violently.

The close recurrence of such names as Macclesfield, Rivers, and Savage, cannot but strongly recall the startling and deeply-interesting narrative of Dr. Johnson. It must, however, remain a matter of wonder, how so sturdy a moralist could have been induced to varnish and vamp so profligate a character as his warm-hearted Fidus Achates undoubtedly was.

The genealogical Pedigree-Tables of Hampden, Ingoldsby, Lee, Beke, Antonie, and Fiott, from which the Doctor's descent is derived, are severally inserted in Lipscomb's History of the County of Buckinghamshire, where the

* Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Savage, knt. was married to Sir John Hampden, who was High Sheriff of Bucks in 1528. On a slab near the middle of the chancel of the church of Great Hampden, she is placed on the right hand of Sir John, and between them are the figures of three daughters.

inquiring antiquary can consult them; but as a convenient general reference, I
have here drawn up for the main stock

A GENEALOGICAL TABLE

OF THE FAMILY OF
OF LEE, OF HARTWELL,

FROM THE JUNCTION OF THE HOUSES OF HAMPDEN AND LEE.

Sir THOMAS LEE, Knt. of East Claydon and Morton; ELEANOR HAMPDEN, dau. and eventually heiress of Michael married 1570; died 1626. Hampden, of Hartwell; born 1554; died 1633. THOMAS LEE, of Morton and Hartwell; born 1573;JANE, dau. of Sir James Throckmorton, of Fulbrock; MICHAEL LEE. high sheriff 1629; died 1641. died in 1642.

MARY, dau. of George Dowse, Esq. of
Sparsholt, Hants, widow of Sir N.
Fuller; ob. s. p.

And twenty-two other children.

THOMAS LEE, only son, buried in
Hartwell church, 1st September,
1643.

ELIZABETH, dau. of Sir George Croke, one of the Judges of the King's Bench; married 1633; and re-married to Sir Richard Ingoldsby, K.B.; died 1675.

MARY, married to
Sir John Morley,
of Bere Court, near
Reading.

Sir THOMAS LEE, K.B.; born 1635; created Bart. 1660; ANNE, dau. and heiress of Sir
died 1690; buried at Hartwell; served in several parlia- | John Davis, of Pangbourne, by
ments, and was one of the Lords Commissioners of the Anne, dau. of Sir John Suck-
Admiralty.
ling, the poet; died 1708.

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WILLIAM LEE, died cœl. in

Turkey of the plague.
GEORGE LEE, died 1679.
SAMUEL LEE, born 1639.

FRANCES, viv. 1707.
JANE, born 1672;
ob. innupta 1738.
ANNE, twice marr. ;
ob, ante 1707.

JOHN LEE,
bo. 1695;
Col. in the
Guards;
ob. 1760.

WILLIAM LEE,
of Totteridge
Park, Herts;
ob. 1778.

DEL-
PHIA,
ob. in-
nupt.

MARY, d.
of John
Browne,
Esq. of
Arlesey,
Beds.

ודד

ר

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PHILADELPHIA, dau.
of Sir Thomas Dyke,
Bart. of Lullingstone
Castle; ob. 1799.

PHILA HARRIET,
bo. 1763;
ma. 1782;
ob. 1795;
buried at
Totte-
ridge.

EDWARD
FIOTT,b.

12 Jan.
1791;
Lieut. in
the Ma-
dras Ar-
my; ob.

NICHOLAS
FIOTT, b.
5th June
1794; late
Fellow of
St. John's
Cam-
bridge,

18 Nov. M.A.
1824.

phrey

Morrice, 1693.

of Lon

don, ob.
1743.

THOMAS LEE, Equerry to H.R.H.
the Duke of Gloucester; ob.
1814 cœlebs.

JOHN LEE, an Ensign in the
Guards; ob. ante 1802.

JOHN FIOTT, Esq. merchant, of
London, fourth son of Nicho-
las Fiott, Esq. lord of the fee
and seigniory of Melesches, in
Jersey; b. at St. Helier's, 1749;
died at Bath 27th Jan. 1797;
buried at Totteridge, co. Herts.

HARRIET JEN-
NER, dau. of
Sir Percival
Hart Dyke,
Bart. of Lul-
lingstone Cas-
tle, co. Kent;
ma. June 11th
1835.

די
ודד

רד

LOUISA, mar. to Edward Arrowsmith, Esq. of Totteridge; d. June, 1840. SOPHIA, ob. innupt.

PHILADELPHIA, born 10th May, 1784;
mar. to John Ede, Esq. merchant, of
London.

HARRIET, born 5th June, 1785; ob. 6th
Feb. 1841, innupt.

LOUISA, born 6th Oct. 1787; ob. innupt.
1 March, 1832.

SOPHIA, b. 6 Oct. 1789; d. in Nov. 1795. SARAH-ANNE, born 27th Oct. 1792; died in Feb. 1794.

From what is now placed before him, the reader will perceive that the Hartwell Family have continued in undisputed enjoyment of the inheritance, through an uninterrupted succession of their posterity, from about the year 1268 to the present time. Hence Browne Willis, in the before-mentioned manuscript written a century and a quarter ago, observed-"Having thus concluded my account of this manner (manor), I cannot omit here remarking that few parishes I have ever met with can shew for so long a series, viz. upwds of five hundred years, such an uninterrupted possession of an estate, which has never been alienated otherwise than as it has passed in marriage or failure of issue male, wherefore it may still be said to continue in the same family." But in rendering this notice to the proprietors of the soil, that learned antiquary might also have adduced, as an equal tribute to local stability, that most of the tenants were of very long standing; and, though some of them have either migrated or died out in the last century, even now there are still on the Doctor's rent-roll the names of Monk, Horton, Gurney, Todd, and Carter, whose progenitors appear as standards on the terriers for 1550 and 1555, recently examined by me at Hartwell: and in another for 1570, William Flameborow occurs, whose line still exists through the variations Pharmborough, Farmborow, and Farmborough.* Hence it is seen that this estate bears holders, whose respective fore-fathers have occupied farms "on his honour's estate" for upwards of three hundred years; and it is certain that a majority of the others are of one hundred years' standing. This, considering the changes of recent times from speculation and high farming, is equally creditable to the lords of the manor and the tenants.

Having thus traced the Lees from their first establishment at Hartwell to the year of Grace 1850, it only remains to notice their heraldic bearings. The acknowledged adherents of Richard the Second, no doubt, wore the cele

* Could one of this family have been the prototype of Goldsmith's honest farmer, in the immortal "Vicar of Wakefield"? There is inferential testimony to Oliver's having visited these parts; and from a dinner given to him at Bedford, he has perpetuated the epulary powers of the Corporation of that place in his play, "She stoops to Conquer."

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