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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029786344
A GOTSWOLD FAMILY
THE MEMOIRS OF THE OUCHESSE
DE DINO.
Afterwards Duchesse de Tallyrand and
de Sagan, 1831-1835. Edited with
notes and a biographical index by
Peincesse Eadziwill (riee Castel-
lane). Translated from the French by
G. W. Chbystal. 1 volume, demy
8vo, with photogravure frontispiece,
price 10s. net.
THE TRIBUNAL OF THE TERROR.
By G. Lenotbe, author of "The
Flight of Marie Antoinette," " The Last
Days of Marie Antoinette," etc. Trans-
lated from the French by Feedeeic
Lees (OfBcier d'lnstruction Publique).
1 volume, demy 8vo, with many illustra-
tions, price 10s. net.
THE RETURN OF LOUIS XVIII.
By Gilbebt Stengee. Translated
from the French by Mrs. Ktjdolph
Stawell. 1 volume, demy 8vo., with
many illustrations, price 10*. net.
THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION,
1789-1793.
By P. Keopotkin, author of "Mutual
Aid," etc., etc. Translated from the
French by N. F. Dbyhuest. 1 volume,
demy 8vo, price 6s. net.
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF GENERAL.
WOLFE.
By Beckles "Willson. 1 volume,
demy 8vo, with many illustrations,
price 12s. Sd. net.
A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
HICKS AND HICKS BEACH.
By Mrs. William Hicks Beach.
1 volume, demy 8vo, with many
illustrations, price 12s. 6d.
LONDON : WILLIAM HBINEMANN,
21, Bedfobd Steeet, W.C.
J5> , T B BBS BT Htffc'"'^
Br
Bf Hi -
B
F^JJy«jj^j™
BL * v <sh
:
SIR ELLIS HICKS.
(Front a picture at Wit combe Park.)
A GOTSWOLD FAMILY:
HICKS AND HICKS BEACH.
BY MRS. WILLIAM JHCKS
BEACH, AUTHOR OF " AN
INLAND FERRY." LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN. a
1909 a a a a a
Copyright, London, 1909, by William Heinemann
TO
MY HUSBAND
PREFACE
It will be obvious enough to anyone who reads it,
that "A Cotswold Family" could never have been
written unless I had made myself troublesome to a
great number of people ; but when I look through its
pages I realise that a list of all those to whom my
thanks are due would be an endless one. Two people,
however, must be named. Without the invaluable help
of Miss Ethel Grogan, the documents in the Record
Office and the British Museum could never have been
deciphered by me ; and gratitude to Viscount St. Aldwyn
for his careful criticism and his corrections of details
must certainly be recorded.
To Hicks and Hicks Beach ghosts I offer an apology
for all that I have said about them which is wrong-
headed or unskilful; to the present Hicks Beach
generations I apologise for all that I have left unsaid ;
and to Hicks Beach posterity I make the promise that
I will try to leave behind me material sufficient to carry
on the story from the point I have left it off.
SUSAN HICKS BEACH.
Witcombe Park,
August 6th, 1909.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
i. sir ellis hicks 1
ii. " the web of fate is of a mingled yarn " . . . 4
iii. the hicks of gloucestershire 11
iv. the hicks of cromhall court house .... 29
v. robert hicks of cheapside ...... 50
vi. juliana and clement hicks 64
vii. baptist hicks 83
viii. michael hicks, secretary to william cecil, lord burghley 102
ix. michael hicks and robert cecil ..... 12s
x. michael hicks and his friends ..... 143
xi. the married life of michael hicks .... 167
xii. elizabeth hicks 190
xiii. sir william hicks, bart., i. and ii. 1612 to 1680 and
1680 to 1703 202
xiv. sir michael hicks, knight, ii. 1645 to 1710 . 223
xv. howe hicks. 1710 to 1727 239
xvi. sir harry, sir robert, and sir john baptist hicks.
1703 to 1791 256
xvii. sir howe hicks. 1727 to 1801 265
XVIII. MICHAEL HICKS BEACH 294
XIX. SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 1801 TO 1834 .... 345
XX. THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 1839 TO 1885 361
XXI. WITCOMBE TO-DAY 371
INDEX 373
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sir Ellis Hicks (from a picture at Witcombe "Park) . Frontispiece
The Countess of Longford (from a picture at Witcombe
Park) Tofacep. 14
"Thomas Hycks holds a Water Mill" ... „ 44
The Vanished Homestead „ 44
Cheapside in the Sixteenth Century (from a print in
the British Museum) ...... ,,50
Hall of Witcombe Park (with Juliana Hicks' tapestry) „ 66
Hicks Hall (from a water-colour drawing) ... „ 96
One of the Summer Houses that flank the Terrace . „ 100
The Market House of Campden . . . . „ 100
Lord Burghley (from a picture by Mark Gerard, in
possession of the Hon. Mrs. Trollope) . . ,,104
Sir Robert Cecil (from a picture at Hatfield House) . „ 128
Sir Francis Bacon (from the picture by P. van Somer) „ 148
Sir Fulke Greville (from the picture in the Guildhall
Library) „ 148
Michael Hicks (from a picture at Witcombe Park) . „ 166
Monuments to Michael and Elizabeth Hicks in Low
Leyton Church, Essex ,,190
Monument to Sir William Hicks, first Baronet, in Low
Leyton Church, Essex „ 202
Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire (from a print at
Witcombe Park) ,,212
Sir William Hicks, second ( (sons of Sir William Hicks, ")
Baronet . . . I first Baronet, from pic- > „ 218
Sir Michael Hicks, Knight (_ tures at Witcombe Park) )
2 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
thumb-nail sketch of the miller's wife, who " does not
run about stupidly and awkwardly, for she knows what
she can do ; she's as soft as a zephyr and as strong as
a storm ; she knows how to begin a thing carefully and
to have her own way." There, perhaps, Andersen did
essay to come near to the heart of that he wished the
windmill to express about itself in relation to the world ;
but his words remain an essay only, and serve to warn
from a venture into a maze of metaphors, from any
attempted contrast between the windmill at work on
the hill and the battle, which, the historian John Richard
Green says, " was to England the beginning of a career
of military glory, which, fatal as it was destined to prove
to the highest sentiments and interests of the nation,
gave it for the moment an energy which it had never
known before. Victory followed victory."
But " the highest sentiments and interests " — aren't
they represented by the miller, the civilian, the man
of endurance, tough, slow, and sure ? By the man who
knows every secret of labour, and who " placed on a
new planet would know where to begin " ? * By the
man who has for wife a woman " soft as a zephyr and
strong as a storm"? Robert Hicks, who, in a later
century, laid the foundations of the fortune which gave
the family its effective momentum, was one. of those who
" placed on a new planet would have known where to
begin." He knew where to begin on this planet at least.
Wealth is one of the forces of Nature, and he made that
force his own, and a possession which enabled those who
came after him to carry out their plans and purposes
and to achieve their ends. No son of his needed to go
about the world cap in hand, to eternally ask permission.
It is in some ancestor such as this that any family
with a consecutive record has its real beginning, and yet
no portrait of Robert Hicks hangs at Witcombe Park
to-day in the narrow room which looks eastward. In
its place has been contrived the painting which later
* Emerson.
SIR ELLIS HICKS. 3
Hicks have learned to know to be Sir Ellis, who fought
long ago under the Black Prince's banner on the sloping
land in Ponthieu, with the windmill on the hill behind
him and the French host in front. From the vantage
ground between the windmill walls the English king
watched the battle and his son's hard passage of arms
serenely, for he could see that all went well. Perhaps
he could see quite plainly, too, Ellis Hicks' great deed
and the desperation of the " energy " which made him
possessor of French banners. We are to believe that
when the battle was over Ellis Hicks was knighted
there and then, kneeling on the ground in the shade
of the windmill sails. And this legend of foolhardy
Sir Ellis has had more meaning for his descendants
than the tale of the material achievement of the later
Robert. And to seek for the reason of this one need
not go into bye-ways of human consciousness.
" Delightful heroism ! Dehghtful self-indulgence ! "
That is how a writer in nineteenth-century Oxford talks
of the taking of standards in battle. But in the seven-
teenth century Sir William Temple writes, " whether
it be wise in men to do such actions or no, I am sure it
is so in States to honour them " ; and his words have
been placed by Robert Louis Stevenson at the head
of the essay in which he says, " it is at best but a
pettifogging, pickthank business to decompose actions
into little personal motives and explain heroism away.
I desire to see nobility brought face to face with me in
an inspiriting achievement. The finest action is the
better for a piece of purple. We desire a grand air
in our heroes ; and such a knowledge of the human
stage as shall make them put the dots on their own
' i's,' and leave us in no suspense as to when they mean
to be heroic."
Was Sir Michael Hicks of the seventeenth century
singular when he desired for the family an ancestor
with the grand air ? Sir Ellis had dotted his own ' i '
quite conclusively !
b 2
CHAPTER II.
"THE web of fate is of a mingled yarn."
The publication of books which need a small hand-
cart to take them from one room to another has gone
somewhat out of fashion ; but in 1811 it was not so, and
one William Playfair, Esq., Inventor of Linear Arith-
metic ; Author of an Inquiry into the Causes of the
Decline and Fall of Nations ; Editor of the last Edition
of Dr. Smith's Inquiry, with Notes and a Supplement,
etc., etc., did with the aid of the publishers, Thomas
Reynolds and Harvey Grace, of No. 13, Thavies Inn,
Holborn, issue a stupendous work entitled British
Family Antiquity, Illustrative of the Origin and
Progress of the Rank Honours and Personal Merit of
the Nobility of the United Kingdom, accompanied with
an Elegant Set of Chronological Charts.
Among the Nobility on the 121st page of the sixth
volume of this work we get an account of the Hicks
family prefaced by the usual legend of Sir Ellis, and, in
his Introduction, the prolix, but by no means wholly
irrelevant, remarks which William Playfair makes on
the topic of ancestry in general.
" No sooner do we see a stranger than we wish to
know from whom he is descended. The very im-
portant enquiry of what he does? is in general a
secondary question.
"Although the actions of a man himself are the
truest proof of his merit, yet it is impossible for the
mind not to connect them with the opinion we have
of his extraction ; and whoever pays due attention to
THE WEB OF FATE. 5
the natural sentiments of mankind (while he keeps
clear of the absurd prejudice which gives honour and
respect to extraction alone) will acknowledge, that
the actions of men are not the only ground of
respectability or estimation in the world. It is true,
that a respect for ancestors seems to be founded on
what (in the present times) is called prejudice ; and
respect for actions on what is termed reason, but this
is not altogether the fact.
" It is to be considered, that the motive of a man's
actions not being always known, and even the real
merit of an act being frequently uncertain, it is, in a
vast majority of cases, impossible to form a very
decided conclusion. On the other hand, though it is
absurd to honour and esteem a man merely because
he is descended from great and good men, yet, even
in doing so reason mingles with prejudice ; for
personal merit or blame cannot, in almost any case,
be measured so accurately as not to require all the
assistance which circumstances will afford, in forming
an opinion on this subject ; it becomes therefore
necessary to take into account all the collateral
circumstances, of which extraction is incontestibly
one."
"It becomes therefore necessary to take into account
all the collateral circumstances, of which extraction is
incontestibly one."
This is the austere call to those who would trace too
light-heartedly the fulfilment of fatality ! For the
telling of the history of the dullest of families is always
an attempt, be it conscious or unconscious, to unravel
the mystery of fatality or of destiny — the Destiny of
Race. In such a history, consciously or unconsciously,
all the collateral circumstances are catalogued, and not
always apologetically, in order that the family as it is
may render its account of itself beneath the stars.
In prose born of the enchanted mind, Mr. William
6 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Sharpe* has tried to translate the spell which the sense
of destiny has always cast over men's minds, the sense
which, as he says, " finds its expression in a deep and
terrifying sigh throughout literature, from the fierce
singers of Israel to the last Gaelic Rhapsode." And
here and there he touches on that mystery of the
destiny which becomes native to certain localities where
it has been too slowly worked out, the sense of a doom
— and it is not necessary to think of that in its tragic
meaning — which is not only a personal fatality, but
which incomprehensibly will involve a whole family,
and will give its quality to the very wind round the
house-roof and the rain on the windows. And then
from this curious truth, and from other half-truths,
with which, as the old Greek tragedians knew, the
subject is packed, he turns away, and energetically he
cries to us :
" Is there any wave upon the sea or leaf before the
wind more feeble than the aimless will ? — or is there
any disaster of the spirit worse than that by which a
Winged Destiny may become a wingless and obscure
fate ? ... it is borne in upon me that, in its
final expression, the Secret of Destiny must be
sought within, in the interior life ; in a word that
Destiny as we commonly understand it, is but the
vague term of a quality of spiritual energy."
But this can be said more tersely. Character is
Fate : Fate is Character. The words transpose and
repeat themselves easily, and either transposition is a
truth. And yet at what precise juncture in the history
of a family is it possible to lay an arresting finger on
the page, to declare this, then, is the character of the
race, and these the circumstances which forged it ?
The thing has been done, for much brilliant history has
been written, but it can only be achieved by laying
* " The Winged Destiny," Fiona Macleod.
THE WEB OF FATE. 7
accurate boundaries to the stage, and the older
heraldic motto of the Hicks admonishes of the fictitious
brilliancy of final judgments !
Nondum metam is a motto which, for a short time,
seems to have been connected with the arms. Mottoes,
as most people know, are not usually recorded at the
Heralds' Office, because they are a personal choice and
are not hereditary. No motto appears with the grant
of arms to Sir Michael and Sir Baptist Hicks in 1604,
but Sir William Hicks of Beverston recorded a
pedigree at the Visitation of Gloucester in 1623, and
in the Harleian MSS. Nondum metam is quoted, to-
gether with what represents itself to be that pedigree,
and with the description of the arms. At the Visitation
of London in 1687, however, the jauntier, more deter-
minate and ungrammatical Tout en bon heure appears
and is recorded. It is somehow a little too triumphant,
and yet it does not reach out far enough, and the
present owner of Witcombe, when he put a sundial on
the new south front of the house, returned to the older
legendary form, and Nondum metam is painted below
the dial face.
" Not yet the Goal " — but where was the beginning ?
The Hicks are what is vaguely called an old county
family. A scrutiny of any county history will reveal
that landowning families, as a rule, retain possession of
any given estate for a very short time, and that the
adjective ' old ' when applied to them is, for the most
part, only a comparative term. Sir Robert Atkyns
wrote his "History of Gloucestershire " in 1712 and pre-
faced it with some three hundred and odd coats of arms
of nobility and gentry living in the county. Of these,
to-day, only twenty-eight are in possession of the whole
or part of their residential estates, while the hold of
many of these twenty-eight on the land is visibly
weakening, and those who seem to be securely seated
are so, either because they or their ancestors have
married heiresses, or because the property was, in
8 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the first instance, so large that the diminishing processes
of time have not yet completed their work.
Atkyns is not to he relied on absolutely for all his
facts, but, in the main, he is borne out by earlier and
by later histories. It seems to be the case that only
one Gloucestershire family owns its lands in succession
from the Norman Conquest. This is the family of
Clifford, of the Grange, Frampton-on-Severn ; the
youngest branch of the family descended from the
Norman Pontz, to whom the manor was granted by
William I. — the family whose most notorious daughter
was Fair Rosamond. The Berkeleys of Berkeley
Castle, now represented by Baron Fitzhardinge, have
an older family tree. They claim descent from
Ednothus, an English thane. They owned manors
in Somersetshire and in other counties, but not in
Gloucestershire, it seems, until the reign of Stephen.
The Guises of Elmore date, as landowners, from
Henry III. (though their pedigree, too, goes further
back). The Kingscotes of Kingscote owned land there
in the time of Edward II., and the Estcourts of
Shipton, now represented by Baron Estcourt, possessed
the manor of Le Estcourt in the reign of Edward IV.
The Leighs of Adlestrop are the well-known Cheshire
family which dates from before the Conquest. The
Chamberlaynes of Maugersbury and the Duttons of
Sherborne are of Norman descent. The Somersets
are directly descended from John of Gaunt. But none
of these — to make a loose statement — became Glouces-
tershire landowners until about 1600.
Of the remaining twenty families, some can carry
their family trees further back than the dates of acquire-
ments of property, but only one or two can make
precise statements about anything previous to 1550
or 1600. These twenty families are : —
The Barkers of Fairford.
The Bathursts of Cirencester (now represented by
Earl Bathurst).
THE WEB OF FATE. 9
The Boveys of Flaxley Abbey (now Crawley-
Boevey).
The Blathwayts of Dyrham.
The Chesters of Almondsbury (now Chester Master).
The Codringtons of Dodington.
The Colchesters of Westbury (now Colchester-
Wemyss).
The Dightons of Clifford.
The Freemans of Batsford (now represented by Lord
Redesdale).
The Fusts of Hill (now Jenner-Fust).
The Hales of Alderley.
The Hicks and Hicks Beachs of Witcombe and
Williamstrip and Coin St. Aldwyn (now repre-
sented by Viscount St. Aldwyn).
The Holfords of Westonbirt.
The Mortons of Tortworth (now represented by
Earl Ducie).
The Noels of Campden (now represented by Earl
Gainsborough).
The Jenkinsons of Hawksley.
The Rogers of Dowdeswell (now Cox well-Rogers).
The Rushouts of Upper Swell.
The Whitmores of Lower Slaughter.
The Winnyats of Dymock.
So it can be calculated that in Gloucestershire, and
in the course of two hundred years, 90 per cent, of the
owners of land have disappeared and their places have
been refilled, and there is no reason to doubt that the
process is still going on, and perhaps at an increased
rate, and that Gloucestershire is not a solitary instance
among counties.
A seeming stability, even if it dates from only the
day before yesterday, has, therefore, quite a conse-
quential air in the middle of so much that has slipped
away ; and it is perhaps only an ungracious mind that
tries to unravel the shadowy threads of consequence,
of that web of tradition loosely woven of names,
10 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
monuments, fragments of stories, family portraits, the
ambiguous statements of county histories.
The unravelling process has a fascination, even if it
is without practical value, and destructive only — there
lie the unravelled threads ! Are they worth replaiting ?
The Witcombe tradition has been vaguely that of
perpetual existence in Gloucestershire, and there has
been no insistence on the existence of Robert Hicks of
Cheapside, the first authentic ancestor. And yet the
tradition, like so many other traditions, has its founda-
tion in fact, as the will of Robert himself proves. The
little document, folded to a square of four inches and
stained with the dust of three-and-a-half centuries,
shows that, in the first place, Robert had land in
Gloucestershire to dispose of, and, in the second place,
that he was of kin to a Gloucestershire family of the
same name. Hicks, Hick, Hickes, Hicke, Hyckes,
Hycks, Hyks, Hyx, Hix, Hixe, Hikes, Hicckes,
Hikkes, Hikkys, Hecks are some of the ways of
spelling it in records and registers.
CHAPTER III.
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
There is an attractive theory about the origin of the
name of Hicks.
The Hwiccas were a Saxon tribe inhabiting the
greater part of Gloucestershire to the east of the
Severn and Avon up to near Warwick, including most
of the Cotswolds. When family proper names came
into use, it would have been a natural thing that a
person clearly belonging to that tribe should have been
called Hicks.
The dictionary reminds us that Patronomatology is a
doctrine and not a science I But it is not in the least
improbable that Hicks is a tribal surname ; and Hwicca
or Huicca is said also to be transmitted in the names of
several places, such as Warwick and Wickwar.
(Worcester = Wigorceaster = Hwicca's Chester.)
For proof of the existence of the kingdom of Wiccia
(the spellings are numerous) we can go to the " Eccle-
siastical History " of the Venerable Bede, where it is
mentioned three times. In the " Saxon Chronicle," too,
that confused history of invasion and bloodshed, we are
told that "Ethelmund, ealdorman, rode over from
the Wiccians at Cynemeeresford " (Kempsford). The
sequel to that being that there was a " great fight " !
It is as impossible to keep arranged in the mind the
story of Anglo-Saxon Britain between the withdrawal
of the Roman legions in a.d. 411 and the Norman
Conquest as it is to retain the tale of the Italian
Republics in the Middle Ages. The Romans had
12 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
civilised Britain, and it had been converted to Chris-
tianity by missionaries from Iona ; but the Romans had
not encouraged the Britons in proficiency in the art of
war, and they found themselves, after the withdrawal of
the Roman army, at a disadvantage among their piratical
neighbours. The Scots of Ireland, the Picts of Scotland,
and the German pirates of the North Sea were a for-
midable combination. To their undoing, it was with
the Germans that the Britons made alliance against
their other foes.
The German pirates were of three nations — the Jutes
of Jutland, the Saxons of Holstein, and the Angles of
Sleswick. They are named in the order of their respec-
tive conquests of Britain. The Jutes, under Hengist
and Horsa, landed in the Isle of Thanet and established
themselves in Kent.
In 477 Saxons under Ella invaded Sussex. In 495
two Saxon ealdormen, Cerdic, and Cynric, his son, came
up Southampton Water with five ships ; and if the
fortunes of this particular band are followed up in the
" Saxon Chronicle," it can be discovered that, under
succeeding leaders, it fought its way slowly westward
and reached Gloucestershire in 577, eighty-two years
afterwards. It can be accepted as a fairly well-estab-
lished fact that these pirates were the tribe of the
Gewissas, or Hwiccas, and the ancestors — to dispense
with all boring criticism — of every Gloucestershire
Hicks ! More than that, there need be no further dis-
cussion as to the exact person with whom the Hicks
family tree should begin, for the Chronicle traces the
descent of Cerdic from the god Woden himself !
The native inhabitant,- defending his own hearth-
stone, has never failed to be a valiant foe, and the final
Huiccian victory at Dyrham in Gloucestershire, when
the three British kings of Gloucester, Bath, and Ciren-
cester were killed on the field, was probably a battle
tough and savage enough. There must have been a
tremendous struggle for the pleasant land which the
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 13
River Severn, the Malvern Hills, and the River Teme
enclose on one side, and which the Roman Foss Way, .
along the crest of the Cotswolds, bounds upon the
other. The soil itself yields up its evidence of the stout
defence of the Romano-British, and there have been
dug out of it
" Skeletons with the iron bosses of their mouldered
wicker shields under their heads ; with gilded bronze
brooches ; with iron spear-heads by their sides, and
clay or wooden cups in their hands. These were the
skeletons of the heathen Saxons, pursued by those
they invaded, and buried where they fell, ready to
renew their fierce conflicts and drinking-bouts in the
Hall of WalhaUa."
So say the Records of the Gloucestershire Archaeo-
logical Society, and the bosses, the brooches, the
spear-heads, the cups may be seen in the Museum at
Gloucester.
Roman civilization had not made the British effete —
they could resist stoutly, it seems. But they must have
been in every way so much more respectable than the
Viking savages. One test of Huiccian lineage ought to
be the existence of a lurking grudge against respect-
ability, and the occurrence — if not infrequently — of
atavistic dreams of galleys and landings and of respect-
able persons sprinting before a thirsty blade !
There are surmises by which we live ; and there is a
picture of a woman of Hicks lineage at Witcombe
which makes the Saxon savage not a probable, but the
only possible, ancestor. The savage may die out in
man, but it will never die in woman ; and this truth
the picture of Kneller's declares. The Countess of
Longford has a narrow head and a very long, narrow
nose. Her lips are red and full, and are pinched
together to suppress laughter, and on either side of the
mouth, at a distance from the eye, the cheeks are
bulbous, and the colour in them is most likely artificial.
14 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
The eyes themselves, high in the face, are of the purple
of sloes, and the lids above are thick, and are fringed
only by slight lashes. The hair is coarse and is of red
gold, and it is massed in carefully made puffs over each
ear and falls in carefully disarranged curls over the
clumsily modelled bosom. There are great pearls
hooked into the ears, and jewelled clasps hold the satin
dress rather insufficiently together. The Countess of
Longford is the Huiccian savage reincarnate, with the
savage's compressed intellect and generous talent of
savoir vivre, the savage's instinctive shrewdness and
lack of the virtues which Christianity has fostered and
hallowed.
The elimination of Christianity from the conquered
territory shows how complete the Huiccian conquest
was. The Christian British collected themselves
together again into a nation, but it was on the further
side of that wide river which, as hunting people know
too well, divides the land upon one side of it from the
land upon the other as completely to-day as it did then.
They took their language with them across the river, as
well as their religion. It is impossible to pretend that
the Hwiccas did Gloucestershire a lingual wrong when
we chant to-day the resonant Saxon :
" Before the mountains were brought forth or ever the earth and
the world were made, Thou are God from Everlasting and world
without end."
But it is equally impossible to regret that one has no
heritage in its Welsh equivalent :
" Cyn gwneuthur y mynyddoedd a llunio o honot y ddaear a'r byd ;
ti hefyd wyt Dduw, o dragywyddoldeb hyd dragywyddoldeb."
The people among whom this language has survived
have had no mean vitality ! And that it has survived
is evidenced by the fact that the sale of the Welsh
Scriptures during the last century amounted to three
and a half millions. It is a sturdy resistance of nation-
ality, and in early days there was a persistence, too, in
THE COUNTESS OF LONGFORD.
By Godfrey Kneller.
(From a picture at Witcombe Park.)
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 15
their own religious customs, which drew down upon
them the exhortation of the Roman Church. Bede
gives an account of the matter.
In 603, after the conversion of Kent and its king,
Augustine, for the furtherance of the conversion of the
rest of England, seems to have conceived the idea of a
conference with the. bishops of the older Christianity.
The Hwiccas, by this time, were under the rule of
Anglian Mercia, and it was the Mercian king, Penda,
who gave the safe-conduct both to Augustine and to the
Welsh bishops. It was somewhere on Huiccian soil
that the meeting took place, and one legend has it that
it was at Aust, on the eastern bank of the Severn,
where was the Roman ferry (Trajectus Augusti). It
is permissible to conjure up the picture of the boat-
load of seven bishops in their copes and mitres, huddled
together, crossing the wide water between the high
cliffs on either shore. But —
" When they came, Augustine was sitting on a
chair, which they observing were in a passion, and
charging him with pride, endeavoured to contradict
all he said."
This " sitting on a chair " was decidedly an indiscreet
assumption of ecclesiastical superiority. The seven
fiery provincial Celts would listen to no terms whatever
from this ambassador of the Universal Church. Hwiccian
churls, spear in hand, would be there to police the
occasion and to take Augustine back to the Hwiccian
marches, but it is not recorded that the Roman bishop
found the opportunity to make a convert of any Hicks,
and Gloucestershire remained defiantly pagan for another
sixty years. Then Mercia (of which it was now a part)
fell under the dominion of Christian Northumbria, and
with the northern army came the missionaries from Iona.
" Like a tidal wave," says the History Book, " the Faith
spread across Mercia."
16 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Between the first Hwiccian convert — for such a
man there was — and Nicholas Hickes of Hampton
Maysey, who, in the first year of King Edward III.
(1327), is mentioned in a taxation of one-twentieth
granted to the king by the laity, the gap is one of six
and a half centuries, of time, which itself does so little
for us except to make destitute. This Hickes of the
fourteenth century would be bereft of the simplicity of
the Viking nature ; instinctively, we seem to know, he
was not the man who would do battle for an egg, or
would die for an idea : a primitive nobility had inevit-
ably gone from him, and the pertinent question is
whether, in its place, was that moral originality and
strenuousness which man finds so much more burden-
some than physical endurances. Was the age one of
which the strenuous person was a natural product ?
There is in existence, and now in the British Museum,
a manuscript book full of pictures which makes the
question not a bit a vain one asked to the air. The
Athenaeum of December 29th, 1888, gives an account
of it:
"This MS. is known to students as MS. ROY
10 E. IV. It consists of 314 folio leaves of parch-
ment upon which are written Gregory IX. 's Decretals.
MSS. of this sort, as is well known, were written in
Italy and sent with blank margins to the various
parts of Christendom to be illustrated according to
the taste of each place. This copy was meant for
France, as its first words show : —
" ' Gregorius episcopus, servus, sevorum Dei, dilectis
filiis doctoribus et scolaribus universis parisiis com-
morantibus salutem, et apostolicum benedictionem.'
But the work of illustrating the book was scarcely
begun in Paris when the volume found its way to
England, where it was thoroughly illustrated from
the first page to the last. This book came into the
possession of the famous St. Bartholomew Monastery
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 17
in London, as testified by this mention on the fly-
leaf, Liber domus sancti bartholomei in Smythfylde.
According to the style of dress the illustrations
appear to have been painted during the early part of
the fourteenth century. This can be fixed by the
fact that ailettes are worn by knights (fol. 305) and
these are known to have been in fashion from the
closing years of the thirteenth century to the middle
of the reign of Edward III. The pages are orna-
mented with scrolls, grotesques, etc., the margin at
the foot of the page being reserved usually for scenes
with personages, and in these especially lies the great
interest of the book. There is no exaggeration in
saying that all English mediasval life is to be seen
there. There are scenes of peace and war, of public
and of private life, battles and sea-fights, storming
of castles and jousts to please ladies : all the games .
of England are there ; all its sports too ; there is
hawking, deer-stalking, rabbit, bird, and squirrel
shooting, fishing in rivers and ponds, games of bowls,
tops, ninepins, dice, dances of every sort, tricks of
tumblers, minstrels, jugglers, bearwards without end.
All trades are represented, such as spinning, corn-
grinding (several representations of hand-mills), house
and church building, shoe-making, carpentering, bak-
ing, begging, etc. Private manners are profusely
illustrated ; people are shewn at their dinner-table, in
bed, sitting in their room, attending to kitchen
business, dictating letters. Then you see a letter
taken by a messenger to a lady, the lady dictates in the
same way her answer, and a little further on the result
of all this dictating is perceived, as well as what the
writing was about : the lady and gentleman have each
mounted their horses and meet at a lonely place ; they
leave their horses to pages and kiss most lovingly. The
saddles are to be noted, for being now empty, their
shape is to be seen to advantage ; they are exactly
similar for the man and for the woman, being shaped
c.f. c
18 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
like an arm-chair, for people to sit in them and ride
astride, as was then the custom for ladies as well as
men."
So the account goes on, and as one turns over the
pages of one of the most fascinating picture-books in
the world, one echoes the final words, that- —
" It is greatly to be desired that this book may be
taken in hand by a competent scholar for the purpose
of identifying the illustrations throughout. Every-
one who has looked over these pages of so much
historical and literary importance will agree that they
should be put beyond the possibility of destruction,
because they form one of the most abundant sources
of information concerning English life at the time of
the Edwards available at the present day."
But it isn't because it is illustrative of the time
of the Edwards that the manuscript is of transcendent
value. It is illustrative of the age of Chaucer, and
with that remembrance, and with the pictures of the
Decretals as an index, the Taxation of a Twentieth
{Lay Subsidy. Gloucester. Boll ™) in the Archives
of the Record Office glows with a thousand colours.
Gloucestershire of the fourteenth century becomes a
land where there was a perpetual May-time, and the
grass was always green ; where birds sang in the trees,
and there was a gay avoidance of all that was too
serious and moral. Life was simple and full of humour;
it was picquant, full of sentimentality, full of ever-
lasting talk, of mirthful idleness and the love of women.
It was a life not concerned with great conflicts nor
great causes ; it was simply very glad, with the gladness
of a people rejoicing as children, who rejoice without
reflection, in the completion of a unity and freedom
towards which all their slow seven centuries of history
since the Hwiccian conquest had led them. It was
a life, a gladness, not aware of shadows across it of
great things from which it shrank.
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 19
But the complete list of Hicks who were taxed in
1327 ought to be given.
From Nicholas Hickes of Hampton Meysey .
viijft.
93
Robert Hickes of Kynmaresforde
xixtf.
93
Alice Hickes of Barndeslegh
vjtf.
97
John Hickes of Tettebury .
xviijtf.
J)
John Hickes of Guytyngs Poer .
xiiijdq.
>>
Walter Hykes of Hynelden
xijtf.
93
John Hickes of Little Whyticombe
X*.
33
Robert Hickes of Aston Super Carent .
yiq-
19
John Hickes of Asshton . . . .
iijg.
39
Robert Hikkes of Wynterbourne
viijS'.
Anyone with a geographical knowledge of Gloucester-
shire will see at once how widely diffused the name was
— that it was not merely a local one. Hill and Vale —
the whole territory of the Hwiccas — are equally repre-
sented on the list.
Fourteen years later the name appears twice again in
"Inquisitions taken before the Abbot of Wynchecumbe to
enquire into the true value of the ninth of sheaves, fleeces
and lambs granted to the King in the County of Glou-
cester." Roger Hickes is one of the jurors for the
Chapel of Horefield ; and in a very torn Inquisition of
the Deanery of Stonehouse, with Church and Christian
name gone, one Hikkes appears as another juror.
Nicholas, Robert, Ahce, John, Roger, pass in
Chaucerian procession in the sunshine, with wimple
and kirtle and pointed shoe and doublet and hose —
crimson, and blue, and green, and yellow. There is a
castle with turrets on a hill behind them in the picture ;
a mill is beside a brook, and star-like daisies grow along
the wayside in the foreground. They go gaily, and
chatter as they go — and then the brief glory of Crecy,
and the radiance of the Canterbury Tales which
illuminates them, fade, and we are at once in that direst
age of English history, which ended with the tyranny
of the Tudors.
The Black Death swept away Chaucer's England as
effectually as a sponge will obliterate the devices on a
c2
20 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
slate. Two years after the triumph of Crecy, this
plague came from the East across Europe, and reached
Britain from the shores of the Baltic. The tradition of
its ravages has been borne out by modern research.
More than half the population of England perished.
Smith, in his Lives of the Berkeleys, says : " Soe
great was the plague within this lords manor of Hame,
that soe many worke folks (as amounted to .1144. days
worke) were hired to gather in the corn of that manor
alone, as by their deaths fell into the lords hands, or
elce were forsaken by them " ; while in Bristol, in the
south of the county, the living were scarcely able to
bury the dead.
That uncouth poem, The Complaint of Piers
Ploughman, tells of the realities of the years which
followed ; and the very next list of Hicks in the
Record Office is a fist of lives bound down to those
realities.
Behind the lives, as on some gloomy arras, is the
perpetual war with France — the Hundred Years' War
of history — which, although lighted here and there by
English heroisms and triumphs, lost all national
meaning, and became an endless struggle of European
dimensions, with endless demands on the national
finances. Now famine had followed on the heels of
plague. For scarcity of hands to gather them harvests
rotted on the ground, cultivation of the land became
impossible, and when the first panic was over, there was
such a sudden rise in wages consequent on the diminu-
tion in the supply of free labour that landowners and
craftsmen were threatened with ruin. The strife
between Capital and Labour was nakedly visible for
the first time, and Capital began a desperate struggle
to reduce the labourer to fresh serfage. Life had no
economic outlook ; and no other outlook either. Its
narrowness, its misery, its monotony, Longland sets
forth with grim intensity. Its pleasures were
Hogarthian. Its religion the religion of common
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 21
sense and despair. Edward III.'s dishonoured death
in old age was followed hard by the raising of a sub-
sidy ; and then, three years later, in 1380, the grant
was renewed, and a Poll Tax, graduated from £l to Is.
per head, was imposed on every male and female. Its
exaction set England on fire. It goaded to frenzy the
labouring class already seething with discontent, and
the great peasant rising known as Wat Tyler's
Rebellion was the result.
Here is the list of the Hicks whom the Plague spared
to pay the tax — or, at least, to have the tax demanded
of them. The roll is numbered Gloucester ^, is dated
2 or 4 Richard II, and is labelled Poll Tax.
Hundred of Salemundesbury;
Stowe St. Edward.
vjs. Philip Hickus,* merchant,
xijtt. Emma his wife,
vijd. Robert Hickus.
vjtT. Jut his servant.
Donynton.
xijtT. Robert Hickus.
xijtT. Agnes his wife.
Hundred of Holford and Greston.
Wyhewone.
xijft. Richard Hyccke.
xijtt. Cecilia his wife.
Staunton.
xijiT. John Hickus.
xijit. Christine his wife.
xijd. Sibilla his daughter.
Stanleye.
xijS. John Hickus.
xij?$. Margery his wife.
Gruytyng Power.
xijtf. Walter Hickus.
* In this roll "us ' seems always to be used instead of " es," e.g.
Hobbus for Hobbes, Gibbus for Gibbes, etc.
22 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Hundred of Kyftesgate.
Clopton.
xij9. John Hickus.
xijtf. Thomas Hickus.
xijEf. Anic (Avice ?) his wife.
xijtJ. Robert his son.
xijft. Richard his servant.
Social denunciations of some sort ought to follow on
a list like this — a fragment of the literature of a great
social crisis. It is trivial to be diverted to the contem-
plation of the existence of Hicks wives — but they have
such alluring names. Emma, Agnes, Cecilia, Cristine,
Margery, and Avice. Mr. Abbey could fashion for us
their head-dresses and sweeping sleeves, their tight,
short-waisted corsages and voluminous skirts. Shak-
spere could have given us the human nature of them —
of the six woman souls. George Eliot would have
delighted to philosophise over their narrow lives : —
" Yet these commonplace people bear a conscience,
and have felt a sublime prompting to do the painful
right ; they have their unspoken sorrows and their
sacred joys ; their hearts have perhaps gone out
towards their first-born, and they have mourned over
the irreclaimable dead. Nay — is there not a pathos
in their very insignificance — in our comparison of their
dim and narrow existence with the glorious possibilities
of that human nature which they share ? "
Amos Barton.
And it is pretty certain that of Sibilla, slender
daughter of John Hicks, she would have exclaimed : —
" Could there be a more insignificant thread than
the consciousness of a girl, busy with her small infer-
ences of the way in which she could make her life
pleasant ? — in a time too, when ideas were with fresh
vigour making armies of themselves, and the universal
kinship was declaring itself fiercely : a time when the
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 23
soul of man was waking to pulses which had for
centuries been beating in him unheard, until their full
sum made a new life of terror or of joy. What, in
the midst of that mighty drama, are girls and their
blind visions ? They are the Yea or Nay of that
good for which men are enduring or fighting. In
these delicate vessels is borne onward through the
ages the treasure of human affections."
Daniel Deronda.
So we come abruptly to the crude wonder who Sibilla
Hicks married ! And in a Pontifical, done for the use of
a Bishop of Exeter towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, there is a miniature enclosed in an initial
which gives us in glowing colours, and in microscopic
detail, what might have been the very wedding of Sibilla
herself, for it is the wedding of just ordinary folk. The
bride's great, winged head-dress is of gold wire, and her
frail neck bends beneath it. No hair is visible, and the
high forehead must surely have been shaved. With
raised eyebrows and puckered mouth, and yet with self-
possession, she seems to give a hand that shrinks a little
to the eager bridegroom. He is gay in scarlet hose,
with crimson vest and blue tunic. There is no lack of
colour. The mitred Bishop wears a green cope over his
scarlet cassock, and the copes of the other priests are
respectively blue and scarlet. The two elderly witnesses
betray yet further the fashion of the day — behold the
woman's glorified ' Eton ' collar, and the sleeves falling
to her knee and lined with white. How healthy such
pre-occupation with detail and with human functions
must have been in those dismal days ! Historians hail
down so many objugatory adjectives on the age that it
is a revelation to turn over these old missals. They
betray so quietly and effectively in their minute
illuminations that, beneath the historical turmoil, real
life itself — the thousand unrecorded lives of inhistorical
souls — persisted obstinately.
24 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
' Real life,' we say — for is not Destiny complete in
itself ? Has not the hearth its flame — that imaginative
solace ? There, on a headland, a beacon blazes, but the
road runs by it-—and past. To live as a man, to carry the
burden of his class and time, to keep hold of common
sense — isn't that man's wisest choice? Isn't that the
life for all of us ? We can only live as part of ourselves.
In an Alien Subsidy of 1439* appears the name of
Robert Hicckes of the Hundred of Berkeley, who was
taxed for his servant Hankyn, a Frenchman. Robert
plainly had a little homestead and a household, but
there is no reason to suppose that he lived as part of
himself only. For there is a mysterious Gaelic saying,
"It is not everyone happy or unhappy, good or bad,
who has a living soul ! " On a headland, in that decade,
a beacon had blazed fiercely. Europe saw it, and in its
light rode a woman clad in white armour and bearing a
banner. Robert Hicckes and Joan of Arc were con-
temporaries, and fast wedded to common sense were the
Englishmen who burnt her at Rouen as a sorceress.
With her death, which had been preceded by the
death of Henry V., the Hundred Years' War came
virtually to an end, leaving the French masters of
France ; and the next date at which a Hicks is men-
tioned is 1452, the year of the beginning of the Wars of
the Roses, when —
" England presented to Phillippe de Commines the
rare spectacle of a land where brutal as was the civil
strife, ' there are no buildings destroyed or demolished
by war, and where the mischief of it falls on those
who make the war.' The ruin and bloodshed were
limited in fact to the great lords and their feudal
retainers. Once or twice the towns threw themselves
into the struggle, but for the most part the trading
and agricultural classes stood apart from it."
J. B. Green.
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 25
Simon Hykkys, no doubt, stood quite apart from it.
He appears among the names of farmers and tenants of
the Royal College of St. Mary of Eton by Windsor
assessed for a whole fifteenth and tenth, and for a half
of a fifteenth and tenth granted in 31 Henry VI. by
the laity of Gloucestershire. His land was at Aston-
upon-Carent in the Hundred of Tewkesbury, where
Robert Hickes was taxed of a ' twentieth ' more than
a hundred years before. Simon lived, possibly, to see
in old age the advent of the Tudors with the accession
of Henry VII. in 1485, and thus the definite end of
the Middle Ages.
This is a historical full-stop, and a place where a
category of surmises can be made.
Hereditary surnames (supra nomina, because, when
written, they were placed over the Christian name,
?ihn s )j did not come into use until some time after the
Norman Conquest. It was probably about the time
that the Domesday Survey was made that, here and there
in Gloucestershire, certain men of Huiccian lineage,
who, unconsciously and in slipshod manner, had been
wont to make use, if occasion required, of the name of
the vanished tribe, adopted it definitely, in terse form,
for the better security of their holdings, and handed it
on as a legacy to their sons.
It is a distracting annoyance that Domesday Book is
nothing but a rate book: William the Conqueror's
whole object in compiling it was revenue. The names
of the owners of manors are given, but the names of
the tenants are not ; the latter are only numbered and
classified.
William had been forced by the resistance of the
English to a wholesale confiscation of the soil. The
English nobles either fell in battle or escaped into exile,
but there was no new partition of their lands — a
Norman was simply put in the place of the dead or
outlawed Englishman, who was regarded as his legal
26 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
ancestor. In the Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire
about fifty names are given of barons of greater or lesser
degree, who were lords of manors and freeholders, and
these names are all Norman. The rest of the manors
in the county were vested either in the Crown or in the
Church. It was William's policy to make changes only
in essentials — besides the tenantry of the manors were
too insignificant to be disturbed. There is no possible
doubt that the Domesday dry classification of nameless
tenants of manors deprives many a family of the right
of claiming descent from freebooters who had navigated
the Channel and had landed, sword in hand, six hundred
years before these Norman parvenus !
The Hicks are so fortunate in having a name which
makes any attempt to foist a comparatively modern
Norman ancestry on them futile !
Saxon, husbandmen, and impervious they: Saxon
decidedly by name. Husbandmen, distinctly, too. Every
place we find them in is rural— is a village, and some-
times a very tiny village, to this day ; and the amounts
for which they were taxed point to the fact that, for
the most part, they belonged to the yeoman and not to
the cottar class. What Bishop Latimer describes his
own house to have been would have fitted many of
them perfectly : —
" My father was a yeoman and had no lands of his
own ; only he had a farm of three of four pounds by
the year at the uttermost, and thereupon he tilled so
much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had a walk for
a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine.
. . . He kept me to school : he married my sisters
with five pounds apiece, so that he brought them up
in Godliness and the fear of God. He kept hospitality
for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to
the poor."
Here and there in Gloucestershire, houses of archi-
tecture Saxon in origin still exist — black-timbered
THE HICKS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 27
dwellings with roofs of thatch, such as may be seen
along the shores of the Baltic. The Normans brought
with them the art and the custom of building castles in
stone, but it was only with the increased prosperity of
the middle-class under the Tudors that there arose those
grey, gabled farmhouses and cottages with stone roofs
which are the peculiarity and glory of Cotswold villages,
and round which, to-day, a whole literature clusters.
It was under thatched roofs, behind walls of wattle and
plaster, that the Hicks of the Middle Ages lived out
their impervious lives.
Imperviousness was, perhaps, not more their key-note
and strength than it is that of a rural existence to-day
— than it was that of the German race from which they
sprang and of whom Tacitus has recorded his impres-
sions : " They live apart, each by himself, as woodside,
plain, or fresh spring attracts him" — their love of
independence, even within their little settlements, was,
he marked, that which parted them from the world to
which he himself belonged. Round the flame on the
hearth the whole of life revolved. And we can say
about such men that here were those who did the real
work of the country, while the barons, their landlords,
were at the wars. It's not so long ago. Wars abroad
and social revolutions at home are still a perpetual
experience — so is the imperviousness to them of the life
of husbandry and of the attitude it breeds. It breeds a
quality which gives a clarity to the character — an irony
which is aware of things and is not unsatisfied with
them : a conclusiveness of point of view : an intelligence
of the views of others which is without self-conscious-
ness : a nature in which nothing is left vague.
A chapter in which quotation has a large place, shall
end with quotation from a modern mystic : —
" The earnest wayfarer along the road of life does
but become more deeply convinced as his travels
extend of the beauty, the wisdom, the truth of the
28 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
simplest lives. He no longer vexes the hours as
they pass with prayer for strange or marvellous
adventure, for that comes only to such as have not
yet learned to have faith in life and in themselves.
. . . And yet he is the poorer for lacking the efforts
he might have put forth, the memory of what might
have been done ; for in these lies a force that is
precious and vital, that often indeed will transform
many more things within us, than a thought that is
morally and mentally worth many thousand such
efforts and memories. And indeed it is therefore for
that alone that we should desire a brilliant feverish
destiny ; because it summons to life certain forces
and feelings that would otherwise never emerge from
the slumberous peace of an over-tranquil existence."
CHAPTER IV.
THE HICKS OF CROMHALI. COURT HOUSE.
It is a commonplace of most family histories that it
is impossible to produce definite proofs of a consecutive
existence before the time of the Tudors ; and it is a
commonplace which everyone who sets out to write
a family history boldly determines to reduce to cinders.
That it doesn't generally undergo this withering process
is probably due, as in the present case, to the fact that,
in most localities, neither wills nor Church registers are
available before 1500. (It was Thomas Cromwell who
made the keeping of them compulsory). This chapter
is full of evidence of the existence of the Gloucester-
shire ancestors of Robert Hicks, of Cheapside, but it
may as well be confessed at once that it altogether
fails to put a name either to his father or grand-
father; and the provocation of the failure is intense,
because a certain will was once in existence which,
could it be found, would probably reveal the names
of both.
Robert, in his own will of 1557, leaves a gold ring to
his cousin, Richard Hicks, of Cromhall.
Now the will of this Richard Hicks, described as
'yeoman,' was proved November, 1558, and is in the
Diocesan Registry at Gloucester. He had no children ;
and gives and bequeaths to Edithe (Neale), his wife, for
term of her life, according to power given him by his
father's last will and testament, after the decease of his
mother, the " syte and manner " of Cromhall and all
other the premises with their " appurtences " in as large
30 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and ample manner as in that said will and testament is
specified. And after her life is ended, the rest of the
year not expired, the lease of it he gives to his brother
Morgan.
Morgan Hicks is thus another cousin of Robert.
His will is also at Gloucester, and was proved June,
1565. He mentions his father by name as Thomas.
It is thus plain that Richard and Morgan had a
father, Thomas Hicks, who owned Cromhall Court
House, in some sort the ' family place ' ; that he was the
uncle of Robert, and that if his will, which existed,
could be unearthed, we should probably get at Robert's
grandfather, and perhaps his father (brother to Thomas)
as well.
The search for the will has been fruitless. It is not
in the Diocesan Registry at Gloucester where the old
wills have been sorted and indexed of late years, nor at
Worcester, where Gloucestershire wills were proved
before the formation of the separate See in 1541. It is
not in the Probate Registry at Bristol, where the first
Hicks will is dated 1631. It is not at Somerset House,
where many old wills were deposited when the Court
of Probate was created in 1858. It is not at Lambeth ;
the Registry there contains a great number of old
Gloucestershire wills, but the name of Hicks does not
occur once in the index. There do not seem to be any
local Peculiar Courts in which it could be interred. It
has to be taken for granted, therefore, that it is no
longer in existence ; and all that can be proved is the
fact that Robert's father was a younger brother of the
first Thomas Hicks, of Cromhall, of whom we have
documentary evidence.
Anyone with knowledge of manorial history will
wonder exactly how, and from whom, Thomas Hicks
and his father, and, probably, his grandfather and
great-grandfather, held the Court House at Cromhall.
Cromhall is mentioned in Domesday Book as being
part of the great Manor of Berkeley : —
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 31
" Two brothers held five hides in that manor in the
time of King Edward. In demean are two plough-
tillages, and six villeins, and five borders having six
plough-tillages. Those two brothers might do as they
pleased with themselves and their land. Earl William
committed them to the care of the Steward of Berchelai
that he might have their service as Roger says."
In another place it says, " Two hides in Cromale belong
to Berchelai."
The object of the Norman Survey was to ascertain
the revenue of the country and not the conditions of
its inhabitants, and so its social conditions cannot be
trusted.
Mr. Hone, in his "Manor and Manorial Records,"
says : —
" It is clear that the Commissioners, looking upon
the ploughs as the important units of taxation, and
taxing by carucates and hides, described many who
were personally free under the generic term of
villains. . . . Freemen holding in villainage and
villains born, getting mixed up under the same
name."
It is an involved subject, and the more one goes into
it, the more difficult does it seem to draw hard and fast
lines between the tenants on an Anglo-Norman manor.
Here, in Cromhall, however, it seems clear that the two
richest and most important men in the village were two
nameless brothers, free and independent landowners
evidently, but who were henceforth to owe service to
the Lord of Berkeley; then we have six nameless
villains, either full villains with farms of thirty acres, or
semi-villains with holdings of fifteen ; then five name-
less borders, or cottars, with some five acres. There
would be further gradations down to the man with his
quarter of an acre.
" These all occupied the places their forefathers had
formed for themselves, places gradually shaped by
32 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
circumstances rather than by system. Poverty had
depressed one to the verge of slavery, while success
had raised another to almost independent position."
Bateson, " Medieval England."
What percentage of Huiccian blood was there, one
wonders, in Cromhall at the time of the Norman
Conquest ? Thirteen people of Saxon blood are
alluded to in the Survey, and it is a sure inference that
some of them were lineal descendants of the first Saxon
invaders and came to be known by the tribal name.
No one who has ever given a thought to the miracle of
the persistence of life, or a thought to the insignificance
of that which is called Time, will question the surety.
" We wake, and find ourselves on a stair ; there are
stairs below us which we seem to have ascended ; there
are stairs above us, many a one, which go upwards out
of sight." *
Thomas Hicks of the Court House (Robert's uncle),
stands on the stairway of the family history, and is no
very unsubstantial wraith. In a Lay Subsidy of 1542
{Roll ^|), which is very imperfect, his name occurs : —
Cro — all.
Thomas Hyckes in goods — ... — Xs.
In a Court Roll (Portfolio 175, No. 4), he appears
again : —
Hundred of Berkeley.
View of frankpledge held there on Monday after the feast of
St. Simon and St. Jude 35 Hen. VIII. (A.D. 1543).
Cromehale,
The tithing man there presents that Thomas Hycks holds a water
mill and takes (excessive toll) of the grain to the injury of the King's
lieges, therefore he is in mercy viijd.
Thomas Hyckes is elected in the office of constable and sworn.
Thomas, in the reign of Henry VIII., descended
from either villain or bordar of the time of William I.,
* Emerson.
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 33
was one of that yeoman class, the direct product of the
social crisis of the Black Death. 'Yeoman' is what
his son describes himself in his will. The prosperity of
the family had undoubtedly been built along a historical
groove. Long ago the services by which they held
their plot of land, would have been commuted for a
money payment. Then came the plague and its devas-
tation of life, the scarcity of labour, and the rise in
wages. ,The tenants of a manor were no longer able to
work their farms at a profit sufficient to meet their
rentals ; there was a universal lowering of rents, and
in the end the lord of the manor was content to
give up the cultivation even of his demesne lands
to them.
The whole question of tenure under a manor is a
most intricate one, as many a present-day lord of the
manor knows well. There does not want an ample
literature on the subject, but Chambers' Encyclopedia
— it sounds a prosy source of information — puts the
matter clearly.
"MANOR in English law is a freehold estate
held by the Lord of the Manor who is entitled by
immemorial custom to maintain a tenure between
himself and the copyhold tenants, whereby a kind of
feudal relation is kept up between them. As, how-
ever, sub-infeudation in England was prohibited by
the Statute of Quia Emptores in the reign of
Edward I. and no manor could be created since
that date, it follows that all existing manors must
trace their origin from before that time."
" COPYHOLD is expressed technically as ' tenure
by copy of Court Roll, at the will of the lord accord-
ing to the custom of the Manor.' This means that
it is tenure of land being part of a manor, the title
being evidenced by the Court Rolls of the Manor,
and the right of the owner being in conformity with
the manorial customs of the Manor which form the
C.F. D
34 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
law of the tenure; as this custom must be imme-
morial, i.e., extending to the reign of Richard II., no
copyhold can now be created.
The custom of each manor may vary in important
particulars. In some, the copyhold lands are held for
life only ; in some they descend according to par-
ticular rules of their own ; in most however, they
descend according to the ordinary rules of succession.
But the custom, whatever it may be, cannot be
altered by the holder of the copyhold. He cannot,
for instance, entail his land unless the custom
warrant him."
Cromhall Court House with its surrounding acres
was not entailed. Thomas Hicks left it to his wife for
life, and then to his son Richard. Richard left it to his
wife Edithe (ne'e Neale) for life, and then to his brother
Morgan. Morgan left it to his wife for life, and then to
his son Arthur. If Arthur died without issue it was to
go to " William Hixe son of my cosen Thomas Hixe."
" If he die," it is left to a succession of Neales — and
why is not clear, for there were other Hicks cousins
who had children : Robert of London in the first place,
and then a Richard who had a son Adrian, and a
certain Christopher also.
But Arthur did not die without issue. This is to be
discovered in that wonderful example of what a Family
History ought to be — The Lives of the Berkeleys,
from 1066 to 1639, by John Smyth of Nibley, who was
steward of the hundred of Berkeley and of all the
manors of the great Berkeley estate. For two and a
half centuries the MSS. were closely preserved by
successive Lords Berkeley in the Muniment Room at
the Castle. In 1883 Lord Fitzhardinge allowed the
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society to print them,
and a limited number of copies of the book were
published by subscription. It is a unique book.
Irrespective of public events, it reflects the manners,
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 35
habits and customs of all classes of the community
within the Hundred during the period over which it
extends. It traces the devolution of lands and gives
valuable genealogical details — so truly says its Preface.
In Vol. III., in the course of a description of the
parish of Cromhall, there is definite information about
Arthur's sons. Their names were Thomas, Arthur
and Morgan, and in 1606, Thomas, the heir, altered
and built on to the Court House, and entered into a
fresh agreement concerning the property with Sir
William Throgmorton, then lord of the manor. The
said agreement is now in the possession of the present
lord of the manor, the Earl of Ducie (lineal descendant
of Sir Robert Ducy), who has kindly allowed a copy to
be made of it: —
" 1616. Dec. 18. Agreement between Sir Wm
Throgmorton and Thos : Hicks, Clothier.
"Bylndre of Feoffment — between Sir Wm Throck-
morton Knt and Bart. W m Tracey Esq and Urian
Wise Gent : of the one part and Thomas Hicks,
Clothier of the other part — In consideration of £150
— paid to Sir W. Throckmorton and 20/- to s d Wm
Tracey and Urian Wise by s d Thos : Hicks they
granted enfeoffed released to s d Hicks his Heirs and
assigns. The Cap 1 Megse or Site of the Manor of
Cromhall with the appurts in Cromhall afs d with all
Houses, Gardens, Orchards &° belonging.
" A close of Arable with a meadow and Grove at
the end called and all such comon Liberty
and Feeding in the Wastes as usually enjoyed with
,s d Lands — And all Houses &° And the Rev 11 &c.
And all the Estate saving and excepting to and for
the s d Sir W. Thr n , his H r3 and Ag s full Liberty
to hawk, hunt, fish andfowle* at all convenient and
seasonable times in or upon the s d premises or any
part thereof except only in such Ponds as are or shall
* Italics inserted.
d2
36 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
be upon the several grounds of the sf Thos Hicks
before thereby granted, To Hold except as aforesaid
unto and to the use of the s d Thos Hicks, his Hrs :
and Ag s for ever — At and under the yearly rent of
£6. 11. 2 payable half yearly and for non-payment
28 days the further rent of £3. 5. 7 with power of
distress for both rents."
The ' chief rent ' was paid to the lord of the
manor until 1874, but the sporting rights, so strin-
gently reserved in the deed, had been allowed to lapse.
In order to recover the rights of his ancestors, Lord
Ducie was obliged to buy the freehold of the Court
Farm, for it was a tongue of land running right up
between his coverts.
Thomas is called clothier, not yeoman, in the deed.
This means that the family had moved with the times
and had their part in the prosperous cloth trade of the
Gloucestershire of the Tudors.
If one wishes sometimes that somebody would write
a History of the Gloucestershire Cloth Trade, it is
because of the thought of the pictures such a book
would have. The history of the trade really comes
to the mind in a kaleidoscopic series of pictures.
1. A woodcut of a Saxon loom on a Saxon manor,*
where the yarn spun and woven supplied the rough
frieze for the clothes of the lord and his dependents.
2. The great wolds which the Norman landowners
turned to profitable use as sheep-walks — and not only
they, for after the Conquest the tenants' sheep ceased
to form part of the royal rent, and remained at the
tenants' own disposal, so that sheep-shearing became
' worth while ' to everyone.
3. A twelfth-century company of Flemish mer-
chants with their train of packhorses, journeying over
the Gloucestershire hills to the Gloucestershire wool
* There should be previous pictures; for the Romans, and the
British before them, wore woven cloth.
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 37
marts. The cavalcade is seen in silhouette, with angles
of quaint head-gear standing out against the sky.
4. The Cotswold wool-markets of Campden, North-
leach and Cirencester, with their Woolstaplers' Halls
and warehouses — but who that does not know these
Cotswold hill towns personally can ever realise their
charm ?
5. The market-places of Bruges and Calais, from
whence the wool was dispersed over Europe — first at
Bruges, then at Calais, the staple was.
6. An interlarded portrait of Edward III., who
imported Flemish weavers and their methods into
England, so that English wool might be now
manufactured into fine cloth at home.
7. A series of scenes in a Gloucestershire vale
village, through which there ran a stream of suffi-
cient force to turn the wheel of a fulling mill. The
wool, brought from the hill markets, was weighed
out to the weavers in the mill yard ; it was woven
on their cottage looms ; it came back to the mill to
be scoured and put under the fulling stocks to be
sheared and scalded. (From first to last there were
twenty-eight processes.)
8. A series of pictures of the princes among the
wool merchants and all that they achieved : William
Grevel, ancestor of the houses of Warwick and
Willoughby de Broke, John Tame of Fairford,
and others. Theirs was the wealth which built the
splendid churches of Campden, Northleach, Fairford,
Cirencester, and many a great Cotswold house.
Gloucestershire in Tudor days was at an apex of
prosperity. Look at the prints of the gabled Tudor
palaces in Atkyn's "History." Who has wealth to
build such houses now? If there are wealthy men
still, the source of that wealth is not the invigorating
one of a local industry.
With the dawn of the nineteenth century and
38 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
machine-made modern life the tide of the Gloucester-
shire wool trade began to ebb. The Gloucestershire
clothiers had not divested themselves of their yeoman
predilections — " impervious they ! " It was impervious-
ness which kept them long unaware of the revolution in
trade which the introduction of railways and of steam-
driven machinery in the cloth factories in the north
of England would entail. On account of the great
distress prevailing a Royal Commission sat in 1849,
and a Mr. Samuel Sevill gave evidence. The Blue
Book quotes him : —
" The foundation cause of loss of trade in Glou-
cestershire lies in the coal pits of Yorkshire, where
coal is only one-half the price, besides the great
advantage of being able to say for certain when an
order could be executed. Now this is not the case
with the water-mills of this county. In the summer
months the supply (of water) was uncertain, not
enough to employ the people in the mills above
five or six hours in the day. This state of things
gradually led to the erection of steam-engines to
equalise the power of the water-mills. But by the
time these changes had taken place the capital of the
leading clothiers was nearly exhausted. The cause
of this exhaustion might be traced in a variety of
ways, but the principal undoubtedly was the large
establishments and expensive habits of living in
which they indulged. While the men of Leeds or
Huddersfield were constantly in their mills, and
taking their meals at the same hours as their work-
people, the clothiers of Gloucestershire — some of
them — were indulging in the habits and mixing
with the ' gentle blood ' of the land."
The lust of land was in their yeoman blood. Mr.
Wyatt of Stroud, banker, stated that —
" In his opinion many of the manufacturers
failed through an ambition to become large landed
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 39
proprietors before they had secured sufficient capital,
inasmuch as they frequently borrowed half the pur-
chase money at five per cent., when the land did not
yield more than three per cent."
The Commissioner himself says : —
"In Yorkshire there is more capital and more
speculation. In Yorkshire the manufacturer makes
to force or find a market, in Gloucestershire he waits
for a demand and then prepares the supply."
The whole subject of the practical extinction of the
Gloucestershire trade is, of course, far more intricate
than these scattered extracts from the Report of the
Commission can demonstrate. Between 1820 and 1840
one firm after another failed. Shephard's at Cam was
the largest failure, and ' the year Shephard's failed '
was, until quite lately, a commonly quoted date. The
Hicks firm at Eastington failed about the same time.
Eastington is considerably to the north of Cromhall,
and two miles from Stroud, round which town, in the
eighteenth century, the Gloucestershire cloth trade had
concentrated itself. But there is evidence, logical
enough, that the Hicks of the Eastington mills were
the outcome of the Cromhall clothier of the deed of
1616. The cloth mill of 1600 was not necessarily in
Cromhall itself, and Cromhall is not mentioned in the
list of mills given in the Report of the Commission.
It is probable that Thomas Hicks of 1616, who married
Elizabeth Clutterbuck of Eastington, as the Clutterbuck
pedigree proves, had several children, and that, when
the Court House descended to the eldest son, the cloth
mill went to a younger.
Both branches have now died out in the direct line.
The far-away representative of the Cromhall branch
to-day is Mr. Samuel Dyer of Paignton. The repre-
sentative of the Eastington branch is Mr. Hicks Austin
of Ashleworth, Gloucestershire. In a correspondence
40 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
which lately passed between them on the subject of their
common Hicks ancestry, Mr. Dyer, unable to supply
facts, or not interested in them, yet unconsciously gave
proof of the relationship by regretting the "jolly family
party " of by-gone days. The Eastington plate, which
Mr. Hicks Austin now possesses, carried the Hicks
arms. As the monuments in the church there show,
the Cromhall family quietly used the arms granted to
Robert Hicks' descendants, although when Thomas
Hicks of Cromhall claimed the right to them at the
Visitation of 1623 he was put in a list of those
" disclaymed " somewhat abruptly as " no gent." The
Eastington family had no doubt in their own minds
as to their descent, through Cromhall, from Sir Ellis,
and their cousinship to the Hicks of Beverstone and
Witcombe ; and Mr. Hicks Austin relates that, as a
boy, he was one day impressed with the sight of the
Witcombe chariot, driving through Gloucester with
its somewhat startling liveries of sky-blue and scarlet
facings, and that his father told him that his grand-
father, Henry Hicks of Eastington, had used the same.
With vitality and a single mind, there was no reason
why the Cromhall family should not have far out-reached
Robert's descendants in wealth and importance. With
its cloth mill it held the torch of opportunity in its hand.
Why did the torch flicker and go out ?
Mr. Hicks Austin possesses a diary kept by his
ancestor, John Phillimore Hicks, in 1823, and it bears
out all that the Commission Report states. J. P. Hicks
(who gives evidence before the Commission) was
partner with his father in the mill, but " business " is
the very last thing he mentions. The diary begins on
the day he leaves home to stay with his relations, the
Phillimores, at Kendals, in Hertfordshire. He arrives
on January 23rd and on the 25th makes the
trenchant remark : " The day passed in perfect vacuity."
On the 28th he goes to a ball at Hatfield, and is pretty
trenchant again : —
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 41
" Lady Salisbury's appearance bespeaks a life spent
in dissipation, and her countenance suggested to my
mind ideas not very favourable to her — her figure is
tall and well formed. A Mrs. Field was the only
handsome woman in the room, and she is not to be
compared with some of our Gloucestershire belles —
The evening went off rather flat, and the company
broke up soon after twelve o'clock."
Was the clothier a tedious prig, or are his sentiments
merely pre- Albertian ?
" A chaise brought us home soon after two o'clock,
and I do not envy the feelings of those who can
return to a Wife and Children, even after a short
absence, without emotion. There is something
intoxicating in the constant succession of new objects
and the whirl and bustle of travelling, but to a mind
fond of reflection, the repose of home affords a
tranquil happiness of a most delicious kind."
He discourses on Dr. Jenner, on Dutch pictures,
fossils, melon frames, and Peveril of the Peak, and
always on the Sunday sermon — it were irreverent to
quote. He goes to the Gloucester ball and dines out
continually. He is sinful, and repents of the sin : —
" Went to Church in the morning — the afternoon
badly spent — evil thoughts possessing my whole
mind, and I so far forgot the Sabbath that I wickedly
assisted in hunting a rat with the servants."
Here and there we get the entry : " A day of business."
But all was not going smoothly. There is —
"A day never to be remembered without regret
from having been betrayed into a violent dispute
with my father on the subject of the business. May
God grant me pardon for this and many other acts
of undutiful behaviour, and dispose my heart to bear
42 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the reproof of my parents (however unjust or harsh)
with meekness."
Later on there is a quarrel unrepented of : —
"A violent discussion in the Counting House
respecting a new brushing machine."
The disputes were evidently all about the introduc-
tion of the newly-invented machinery, and there is a
short account of a journey he took to inspect Yorkshire
mills. But although bankruptcy was impending, no
vein of mundane anxiety runs through the diary. Dis-
putes disturb the facile tenour of life, and ruffle the
temper before dining out, but the issue of the dispute
never obtrudes itself; there is, in all the diary, no
consciousness of " that salt tide of life that streams for
ever past the sands and shoals of pleasure and echoes
upon the rocky shores of time ! "
That swift " salt tide of life " — well, it has receded
far from the mills at Eastington, and far away from
Cromhall Court House to-day.
There is no Cromhall Court House any longer. The
ruined garden walls and some farm buildings still stand,
but of the house itself not even the foundation stones
are left. The village is a scattered one, and the church, at
the extreme end of it, is isolated on sloping meadows
beyond which rise Lord Ducie's woods. It is a green,
lonely spot, over which, for ever in the memory, a
gleaming grey sky broods. The church stands out so
boldly against the background of woods and sky that it
would be more appropriately the fitting shell for the
monuments of a fighting race than of those of a family
whose only history is that it let go of life. It is almost
a great surprise not to see leaning walls, a moss-grown
roof, and the whole below the churchyard level. In
the church are mural monuments, and flat stones in
the nave cover the bones of those whose lives were
lived within a few yards of their graves. Against the
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 43
churchyard wall — or even within the boundary of the
present wall — the Court House stood. It faced south,
seemingly, and in the court in front of it was the well,
now filled in, but its site still visible. Behind the
house was the enclosure of the flower-garden, and
beyond that again the larger enclosure of the vegetable
garden — that was the well-planned and invariable
sixteenth century arrangement. The garden walls are
crumbled, and in places broken down, but there they
are : although the turf that lies between them now
links the vanished pleasaunce to the surrounding
pasture. Mr. Bennett, Lord Ducie's tenant, who now
farms the land, remembers the house. "You went
straight into a big, low room something like a hall " —
and that is exactly what you would do in the house of
a mediaeval manorial estate, where the plan and con-
struction of the better homesteads approached that of
the lord's, who was only " an essential unit of the
composite whole," says Mr. Hone. Even in the
manor house itself —
" The hall served as the common sitting-room and
dining-room for the family and domestics. The
furniture was scanty. From inventories we find
that the tables were simple boards laid on trestles so
that they could be easily removed when not in use.
Some forms and stools, or, perhaps, a long bench
stuffed with straw, a few chairs of wood with chests
for linen and other household stuff, formed the
ordinary suite. Around the walls hung the instru-
ments of husbandry, as scythes, reaping-hooks, corn-
measures, and empty sacks, interspersed with some
weapons and trophies of the chase. In some of the
larger mansion houses, we find the " solar " or apart-
ment where special guests were entertained — the
parlour of the later farmhouse — generally built
towards the south, as its name implied. A winding
stair of stone, in many instances exterior to the
44 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
building, led to the dormitory which was usually
divided by rude partitions. A lean-to kitchen and
oven completed the main structure."
The rector of Cromhall has inherited from his
predecessors a book of parish " Memoranda " and on
the fly-leaf of that is pasted a picture of the church,
showing, beyond it, the outline of the gables of the
Court House. But the picture leaves one cold. Only
between the ghost walls, on the cropped turf itself,
with the ghost gables overhead, comes the moment
when the passionate word explaining the inexplicable
misadventure in things is half betrayed — half! — no:
the silence holds ; the spell is unbroken ; the instant
fades. Another word takes the place of that mute,
estranged, that broken one —
All ends in song — the doing and undoing,
The taken fortress, and the lost campaign ;
The patient waiting, and the hot pursuing,
The pride of life, the peril and the pain ;
All ends in song — love, honour, bliss and woe,
The glad heart's thrill, the sad heart's bitter throe.
" All ends in song " — song set to music : song set
sometimes to cold music.
Inside, the crumbling garden walls were once path-
ways for lovers' feet. Two pastures' length from
the walls a space is reached where brambles grow
thickly, and there, austere in the midst of the sprawl-
ing shoots, stand gate-posts topped by stone balls
and with the iron gates still hanging on the hinges.
These were the gates to the fore-court of another
vanished homestead — the dwelling of the Webbs, as
anciently seated in Cromhall as the Hicks themselves.
And by the monument, which is in the corner of the
south transept of the church, you shall discover that, in
the reign of William and Mary, Thomas Hicks of the
Court House took to wife Mary, the daughter of
Thomas Webb of Abbotside. Pull the rusty gates ajar
• THOMAS HYCKS HOLDS A WATER MILL.
THE VANISHED HOMESTEAD.
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 45
— Mary Webb, in her hoop, and curls dipping to her
kerchief, has slipped through them —
Phyllis and Damon met one day
(Heigh-ho !)
Phyllis was sad, and, who can say,
Tired with treading a separate way.
Damon sighed for his broken flute :
(Heigh-ho!)
Phyllis went with a noiseless foot,
Under the apple-trees stripped of fruit.
Met they, parted they, all unsaid ?
(Heigh-ho !)
Ah, but a ghost's lips are not red :
Damon and Phyllis both are dead —
(Heigh-ho ! Heigh-ho ! )
Heigh-ho ! Come away. There needs to be no
lingering on a spot where one is reminded only fruit-
lessly of the strife between Destiny and the will of
man. Neither does it serve any purpose beyond that
of finishing the long-winded story diligently, to pursue
the matter of Cromhall Court House and its owners
any further. But the material for a diligent conclusion
exists, and a conclusion that starts again at the begin-
ning and gives a complete list of all the Hicks who
lived at the Court House during two and a hah
centuries, will prove that, important as are the virtues
of the limpet when a foothold on a given spot is to be
maintained, yet are such virtues, in the long run, not
all-sufficing.
1. Thomas Hycks I. is mentioned in a Lay Subsidy
of 1543 in Record Office. He is mentioned in his son's
wills as having made a will leaving the Mansion House
and grounds at Cromhall to his wife for fife. The said
will is not to be discovered. He had two sons, Richard
and Morgan.
2. Richard Hickes left a will proved at Gloucester,
1558, in which he leaves the Court House to his wife
Edithe (Neale) for life and then to his brother Morgan.
46 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
He is mentioned as a cousin in the will of Thomas
Hicks of Cheapside, the ancestor of the Hicks Beach
family.
3. Morgan Hioce left a will proved at Gloucester,
1564, in which he leaves his lands and tenements to his
son Arthur. He was evidently married twice : (1) to a
Mrs. Lawrence, to whose three children by her first
marriage he leaves one heifer, and (2) to one Marget
Crewe whom he makes his executrix.
4. Arthur Hixe, son of Morgan, was reigning at the
Court House in 1608. He is mentioned in a manu-
script in the possession of Lord Sherborne. This MS.
was compiled by John Smyth who describes it as —
" Three bookes in folio containing the names of each
inhabitant in this County of Glouc 1 how they stood
charged with Armor in A" 6 Jacobi. And who was
Lord or owner of each manor or Lordship within the
County ; which you may call my Nomina Villarum."
The names of sixty-one male inhabitants of Cromhall
and one widow are given, and the list begins with —
Arthur Hixe Clothier 3, ca. hath one Corslet and a Calyver furn'
sub.
Thomas Hixe sonne of Arthur Hixe aforesaid.
John Curnocke servant of the said Arthur Hicks.
John Awpas servant unto the said Arthur Hicks.
William Crewe apprentice unto the said Arthur Hicks.
A key is furnished to the numbers and letters, so we
learn that Arthur Hixe was (3) "betwene fifty and
threescore," was (ca) "of a lower stature fitt to serve
with a Calyver," and was (sub) a subsidy man as distin-
guished from a trained soldier. He was apparently the
first Hicks, clothier. He had three sons : Thomas,
Morgan, and Arthur, all mentioned in Lives of the
Berkeley s, Vol. III., p. 163. Thomas succeeded him.
Morgan and Arthur both married and had families, and
both were buried at Cromhall. Births and deaths
of their children are in the Diocesan Records at
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 47
Gloucester, and the Cromhall Register begins in 1653
in time to record the deaths of them both. A flat slab
in the nave of Cromhall Church covers the remains of
Arthur.
5. Thomas Hicks II. had .succeeded his father in
1616, when he entered into a new agreement with the
lord of the manor in the deed given previously in this
chapter. The deed calls him 'Clothier.' He married
Elizabeth, daughter, of William Clutterbuck of Easting-
ton, Bradly and Bristol {vide Clutterbuck pedigree).
This makes a connection with Eastington, and the
Hicks cloth mill which existed there in 1823 ; and the
surmise is that the Hicks mill was never in Cromhall,
but at Eastington always, and that it became the
property of a younger son, from whom John Phillimore
Hicks, the keeper of the diary, was descended. After
this date no Hicks of the Court House is called
' Clothier.' Elizabeth Hicks died July 28th, 1629,
and lies beneath a slab in the church floor near the
present stove.
6. Thomas Hicks III must have been her eldest
surviving son. His wife's name was Joane. The
Cromhall baptismal register records the birth of two
sons and a daughter to "Mr. Thomas Hickes and
Joane his wife " in 1654, 1655 and 1660. The burial
register contains the entry: "1718 Feb. 11 Joane ye
wife of Tho: Hicks." She outlived her eldest son.
7. Thomas Hicks IV. had a wife Martha. Flat
stones in the nave of the church relate that Thomas
died in 1707, and Martha in 1730 aged 86, and that
their daughter, Esther, whom the register says was
married to Ambrose Marklove in 1697, died in 1707.
The baptismal register shows that they had also two
sons : Thomas, born 1671, and John, born 1678.
8. Thomas Hicks V. was married to Mary Webb
of Abbotside. The entry of this in the marriage
register is dated "1700 April 25th." The baptismal
register contains the names of their five children ; and a
48 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
monument in the corner of the south transept, and
now hidden by the badly placed organ, gives a summary
of the fate of all of them : —
In this Church, the Sepulchre for many ages of the family of Hickes
of the Court House in this parish, he interred the remains of Thomas
Hickes who died 11 Jan 1726 aged 53. Mary his wife March 1749.
Also the following children. Mary and Richard died in infancy.
John died 1741 aged 36. Thomas, the eldest son died in London and
was buried there.
In filial remembrance of her beloved parents, this monument was
erected by Mary, daughter, and heiress of the above Thomas Hickes
and Mary his wife, daughter of Thomas Webb of Abbotside in said
parish 1777.
Mary Hickes died 25th day of May 1783 aged 76.
9. John Hicks was the ninth owner of the Court
House. " 1741 Mr. John Hicks of the Court," in the
burial register, is his sole record. He died intestate.
10. Mary Hicks, his sister, succeeded him, and lived
to be a spinster of 76. And with her, in 1783, the
Hicks of Cromhall Court House came inconsequently
to an end, perished of that disease which is as fatal to
families as to individuals — the disease of perpetual
adolescence.
Mary Hicks left an elaborate will and small legacies
of £10 and £20 and £30 to an enormous number of
cousins and cousins' children : Webb, Austin, Wharton,
Marklove, Pill, Cook, Shepherd, Witchell, Turner,
Davis, Pew, Prankard, Pratlington, Dyer, are the
names of relations that occur. There are also legacies
to friends and servants, and in a codicil dated the year
of her death, she says, " I desire to be buried in the
Hickes chancel which is my own." The Cromhall
property, with land in Siston, Wick, Abson and
Faliield, and a house in Bristol, she leaves to " Cousin
Thomas Webb of Stone-Berkeley, Gentleman."
There is a Webb monument in the nave of Cromhall
Church which shows that Robert and Lucia Webb of
Abotside (the parents of Mary Webb who married
Thomas Hicks 1700) were succeeded by their son Robert,
THE HICKS OF CROMHALL COURT. 49
and that he was the father of Thomas Webb of Stone.
Thomas married Catharine, daughter of John Llewelin
of Bridgend, Glamorgan, who predeceased him in 1780.
Thomas died in 1802, aged 77. He had evidently no
children, for the Cromhall property passed to his sister
Elizabeth, who had married John Dyer in 1746.
From a Mr. John Dyer Lord Ducie purchased the
property in 1876.
Note :- — -The most important-looking Hicks monument in Cromhall
Church has not been mentioned. It hangs in the chancel, and bears
the arms and a long Latin inscription relating to one Nicholas Hicks,
who was rector of Charfield (the next village) and who died in 1710,
aged 75. As he was born in 1635, before the baptismal register
begins, and as the monument does not reveal his parentage, it is not
possible to give him a place in the skeleton family pedigree which
has been sketched out. The family, of course, had its innumerable
ramifications as the registers show
C.F. E
CHAPTER V.
B.0BEKT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE.
Cheapside of to-day is one of the seven arteries
which pour their roaring human tide out into the space
in front of the Royal Exchange. Halfway down
Cheapside is Queen Street, a street re-christened in
honour of Queen Henrietta Maria, but known, when
Robert Hicks lived, by the name of Soper's Lane.
Robert's shop, the White Bear, was at ' Soper's Lane
End,' and, as the registers there show, Robert lived in
the parish of St. Pancras ; the White Bear, therefore,
was clearly at that angle of the two streets which is
nearer the Exchange, for the opposite corner is in the
parish of St. Mary-le-Bow — Queen Street divides the
two parishes. The shop of one Gladwell, a seller of
cheap prints, and constructor of cheap picture frames —
all as unpicturesque as can be — now stands on the spot
where Robert Hicks hung out over the rough cobbles
the effigy of a white bear, and carried on, in a low
raftered space open to the street, a retail mercery.
And above, where once was the over-hanging dwelling
house, storey on storey, with leaded casements, and
sixteenth-century gables, are now the plate-glass
windows of a Scottish insurance office.
There was more space and leisureliness in sixteenth-
century Cheapside than belongs there to-day. Then a
man might stand, without being hustled, before his door,
with feet apart and arms akimbo, in the attitude
inherited from a yeoman grandfather. The dark jerkin,
the hose, the soft shoes, the flat cap which such a citizen
would wear, may all be seen in the Guildhall Museum.
CHEAPSIDE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
[From a Print in the British Museum.)
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 51
Signs similar to that above his head may he seen
there — there, too, the furniture, the utensils, the very
knives and forks belonging to the family life in the case-
ment rooms over his booth. Material exists sufficient
to rebuild all the outward show of the life of Tudor
times, and Robert Hicks can be come at too — standing
on the cobblestones, beneath the White Bear, with feet
firmly planted.
For his, after all, was only a repetition of the patient
adventure of his Hwiccian forefathers. The fierce
ancestors of the Saxon race had fought their way west-
ward through Europe to Saxon soil, had fixed them-
selves there tenaciously, and had become of the soil
with amazing stolidity, aware of, but impervious to, the
world beyond the guarded homestead. Existence
became stable and limited ; life was a thing measured,
calculation an element in it ; and then of it spirits were
bred who were superfluous, and an exodus of adven-
turers with atavistic instincts took place. They crossed
the sea this time. And the adventure was a patient
one ; was a century old before the limpet-like occupation
of conquered land began all over again, and the stakes
were re-set round isolated communities once more —
Cromhall one of these.
Within the boundaries of Cromhall and other
Gloucestershire villages the impervious life of hus-
bandry was again enshrined, and went on from genera-
tion to generation, its continuity unaffected by any
waves of religious or civil revolutions. And, from time
to time, superfluous spirits were ejected from it, and
Robert Hicks and, perhaps, his father before him
were of these. And Hwiccian-descended Robert,
planted on the London stones, was the pioneer of
a third patient adventure which should end for his
descendants only in the hedged life of security all over
again — only in that ; even if the hedges swept a wider
circle, and the life within them had more colour and
luxury.
E 2
52 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
The explanation of Robert's life is his will. It is in
his own handwriting : —
in nomine dei amen, i robehte hyckes Citizen and Iremonger of
the Citie of London, wholle of mynde and of parfit remembrance,
thankes be given to God, do ordeyne make and delare this my last
Will and Testament as hereafter foloweth, renouncynge and denyinge
all other former Willes and testamentes heretofore by me made
and declared. Ffirst I bequeath my soule to Almightie God the
Ffather and to Jesus Christ his Sonne my Redymer. My boddie I will
honestlie to be buryed after the order of the Catholick Churche, and
by the discrecon of myn Executrix, within some convenyent place of
my Parryshe Churche, yf yt shall please God to suffer me to die
within the same parryshe Churche in London. All my landes tene-
ments, Rentes, Revercons, services, and hereditamentes with all and
singler their appurtennces, sett lyinge and beinge within the Cittie of
Bristowe and the Countie thereof and within Barkeley Homes and
Tedburye in the Countie of Glos I will and bequeth and devyse hereby
to Julyftn my welbeloved Wief and her assignes for terme of her lief,
and upon condicon that she pay to Margaret Hickes myn owne
Mother tenne powndes yearelie duringe the said Margarettes lief at
foure termes of the yeare by eaven porcons, the remaynder thereof
after the said Julyans death, Mighell Hickes my eldest Sonne and to
the heirs males of his boddie lawfullie begotton ; and for fault of
suche issue the remaynder thereof to Clement Hickes my seconde
Sonne and to the heires males of his boddie lawfullie begotton ; and
for default of shuche issue the remaynder thereof to Babtiste Hickes
my third Sonne and to the heires males of his boddie lawfullie begotton;
and for default of suche yssue the remaynder thereof to Richarde
Hickes my brother for terme of his lief ; and after his decease the
remaynder thereof to Adryan Hicks my said Brothers Sonne and to the
heires males of his boddie lawfullie begotton ; and for lack of suche
issue the remaynder of all the premysses to the Maisters and
Governours of Christes Hospitall within the said Cittie of London
and to theire successours for ever to the use of the poore their and
within other of th'ospitalls of the said Cittie. The residewe of my
landes tenementes rentes and hereditaments with all and singuler
there appurtennces no we lyinge within the parryshe of Saint Katheryns
Colman within the said Cittie of London I devyse will and bequethe
to my fforesaid brother Richard Hickes and his assignes for term of his
lief the remaynder thereof after his decease to Julyan my wellbeloved
Wief and her assignes for term of her lieff and after her decease
the remaynder to Mighell Hickes my said eldest Sonne and to the
heires males of his boddie lawfullie begotton and for default of suche
issue the remaynder of the same to Clement Hickes my seconde Sonne
and to the heires males of his boddie lawfullie begotton And for lack
of such issue the remaynder thereof to Baptist Hickes my said third
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 53
Sonne and to the heires males of his boddye lawfullie begotton And
for lack of such issue the remaynder thereof to Adrian Hickes my
said brothers Sonne and to the heires males of his boddie lawfullie
begotton and for default of suche issue the remainder thereof lickwyse
to the Maisters and Governers of Christes Hospitall foresaid and to
their successours to the use of the poore their and within other of
th'ospitals of the said Cittie for ever. All my goodes, chattells,
leases, plate, Jewells, monye, howshold stuff, debtes, due to me.
All other my things movable and immovable whatsoever and whear-
soever they be, my debtes dewe to my creditours and funerall charges
first paid discharged and allowed out of my wholl substaunce, I
will apploint and devise to be devyded and apporcyoned into thre
equal partes accordinge to the custome of the said Cittie of London
for Ffreemens goodes in that case provided whereof one full thirde
parte I devyse and bequeth to Julyan my said Welbeloved Wieff her
Executours and assigns, one other thirde parte thereof egallie in thre
partes to be devided I devise and bequeth to Mighell, Clement and
Baptist my said thre sonnes, and to the survivour and survivours of
my said children I will and devise his or theire parte or partes
aforesaid that of theyme shall fortune to dye before he or they come
to full age or before the delyiverye of theire said parte or partes owt
of the Chamber of the said Cittie of London accordinge to the full
order in that case appointed. And if all my said thre children do
happen to dye before theire said full age or deliveraunce of theire
partes aforesaid, Than I will and devise all my said childrens thirde
parte of all my goodes and substaunce to Julyan my said welbeloved
Wieff her executors and assigns. The laste third parte of all my
said goodes and chattells I reserve Keape and appointe for myn owne
legacys and distribucon out of which I geve and bequeth to my said
Brother Richarde Hickes his executours and assigns all manner myn
apparrell whatsoever and whearsoever it bee as yt shall be praised
without payinge peny or pennys worth for the same. And also I
lickwise will and devise hym my best sherte of meale my Corselett
my best halberte my sworde and my buckeler to be delyvered with
my said apparrell to my said brother his executours or assignes
within one month after my decease And further I geve and
bequeth to my said brother Richarde Hickes owt of my said thirde
parte one hundreth powndes of currannt monye of Englond the one
moytie or half thereof to be paid to my said Brother Richarde Hickes
his executours or assignes within one halfe year after my decease
an th'other moytie or half deale at the yeares ende after my
decease without any longer delay or puttinge of. I devyse also to
the Maister and Wardyns of oure Companye of the Iremongers
within the said Cittie of London as to the use of oure Hall my best
standinge Cupp with a cover of silver and all gilt as yt shall be
praysed for a token and remembraunce of my poor good will towards
theym to be delivered within one month after my decease Item I
54 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
will and devise to the poore enhabitauntes of Tedburye aforesaid fyve
markes to be devided to the poore howsholdes there by two shillinges
or 12 d . to one howshold and not above nor under and to everye of
theym poore howsholdes of my one parryshe here in London I devise
five shillinges a peace to be paid and distributed w th the said five
mkes within one half yeare by my Executrix after my death More-
over I geve and bequeth to the said Maisters and Governers of
Christes Hospitall before mencyoned as to the use of the poore
theare and as aforesaid twentie powndes of currannt monye of
Englonde to be paid by my Executrix at yeare and yeare after my
decease by eaven porcons. Also I geve and bequeth to my Cosen
Xpofer* Hickes, Symon Melsambye my Cosen Richarde Hickes of
Cromwell Thomas Richardes, John Sprynt, and Alice Grigge gold
Ringes of two Angells waight and value a peace besides the fFashion
Item I geve and devise to my ffrynde Maister Anthonie Penne one
black gowne one coate cloth to it and a licke gold ringe And to my
old Servanntes Willm Rowe and John Rosewell eache of theym a
black gowne To Goodwife Hockey a gowne of Bristowe ffreese and
fortie shillinges in monye for her paines taken with me in my
sickness And to my S r vannt Austen I devise eight powndes And
to my S r vannt Walter Thomas tenne pownds to be paid unto theym
at the comynge owt of theire yeares of prenticeshipp so as all the
meane tyme they trulie diligentlie willinglie and faithfullie serve my
said Wief and otherwise not The residue of all my goodes and
chattells and of my said third parte of all my substannce not before
devised geven or bequethed I will and devise to Julyan my said
welbeloved wiefF her executours and assignes whiche said Julyan my
WiefF I ordeyn make and appointe to soole and onlie Executrix of
this my last Will and testament And overseers thereof my ffrende
Mr. Osborne and my said Brother Richard Hickes In witness
whereof I the said Robart Hickes have sealed subscribed and
delivered this my present last Will and testament the 20th day of
November 1557 et Annis Regnim Philippi et Marie Regis et Reigne
quarto et quinto
By me Robart Hickes Iremonger.
The will wants categorical comment.
1. " Citizen and Iremonger." Although Robert
Hicks carried on a mercer's business at the White Bear,
he was apprenticed to an ironmonger as a boy, and was
a member of the Ironmongers' Company. The earliest
book the Company possesses is a " Presentment Booke "
* Christopher.
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 55
from the year 1515 to 1680, and it contains the
following entry: —
" Item That I Robert Hycke Apprentyce
with Thomas Bartylmew Ironmonger of London
promysed by my faith and truth to be obedient to the
Master and Wardens of the Fellowship and Crafte of
Ironmongers and to their successors for ever. In
witness hereof I have wrytten this with my hone hand
the fourth daye of Auguste Ano 1538
"Pme Robert Hycke."
The name of his master, Thomas Bartylmew, appears
on a list of the Company for the year 1537 deposited in
the Chapter House at Westminster, but no particulars
of him are given.
" The History of the Ironmongers' Company " says
that the Guild is first mentioned in 1351, and that their
warehouses and yards were chiefly in Ironmongers'
Lane and the old Jewry. They exported and sold bar
iron and iron rods, but they had also shops where they
sold manufactured articles. Ironmongers' Hall (which
has been rebuilt three times) was in Fenchurch Street,
on the spot where the present hall stands. Robert was
the first and last member of bis family who belonged to
the Company. The quotation from the " Presentment
Booke " shows that he took up his Freedom by " servi-
tude," and not by " patrimony " — i.e., did not inherit it
— and the record of admissions does not include the
names of any of his descendants. There are no means
of tracing how the apprentice to the ironmongers
became a mercer, but in the books of the Mercers'
Company, under the date 1580, is mention of —
" Baptist Hyckes, the son of Robert Hyckes, late of
London,, Ironmonger, but while he lived he occupied
a retail mercery : made free with us and of the City
of London by redemption gratis."
56 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Baptist Hicks, his son, became Master of the Mercers'
Company, and carried on his father's business in the same
house. The proof of this being that, after the death of
Robert's wife Juliana, who had a life interest in it,
Michael, the eldest son, in a deed dated December 10th,
1592 (now at Witcombe), made an assignment to
Baptist of "all his interest in the Whyte Beare in
Chep-syde."
2. " / will honestlie to be buryed after the order of the
Catholick Churche" Robert died in the last year of Queen
Mary's reign. The innovations of the Reformation of
Henry VIII. had been too harsh and too precipitate.
The reformed doctrine made progress in the reign of
Edward VI., but, says Hallam, " it is certain that the
re-establishment of Popery on Mary's accession must
have been acceptable to a large part, or perhaps to the
majority of the nation." It had been " acceptable " to
Robert, no doubt.
3. " Within some convenyent place of my Parryshe
Churche." The White Bear was in the parish of St.
Pancras, Soper Lane, but there is no entry of Robert's
burial in its registers. St. Pancras was destroyed in the
Great Fire and was not rebuilt. The parish was united
with that of St. Mary-le-Bow, in which Church the old
St. Pancras registers are now kept. The little burial
ground of St. Pancras is still in existence. Out of
Queen Street of to-day you turn into Pancras Lane,
and there it is, railed in, hemmed in by precipitous
warehouses, and with three altar tombs with illegible
lettering still remaining in the corner. Two of Robert's
children and two of his servants are entered in the
burial register, and lie beneath the bushes in the black
soil and the moss-grown gravel edged with tiles.
Registers were not rigidly kept in those days — Robert
may be there too.
4. " All my landes . . . within the Cittie of Bristowe
and the Countie thereof and within Barkeley Homes and
Tedburye in the Countie of GlOs." That Robert
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 57
owned property in Bristol is groundwork for the legend
which Burke and others have in print, that he began
life in the trading port of the West, and that the
exodus from Cromhall was to Bristol in the first instance.
Robert's wife came from the neighbourhood of Bristol,
and it seems to be a workable theory that his father, a
younger brother of Thomas Hicks of Cromhall, who
was alive in 1543, went to Bristol, had some success
and position there, and so was able to apprentice his son
Robert (perhaps a younger son too) to a London iron-
monger — because it was only youths of good family
who might be so apprenticed. Bristol has thirteen
churches whose registers date from 1538 to 1589. It
was within the Hwiccian zone, and the name of Hicks
occurs constantly in them ; but they do not go back far
enough. Robert would not have been born later than
1523, for his eldest son was born in 1543. The entry
of his baptism, which would give his parents' names, is
therefore not in existence.
As to wills, the earliest Hicks will proved in the
Bristol Diocesan Registry is Mary Hicks, 1631. Every
way to a discovery of a Robert's Bristol parentage
seems to be barred. From the Patent Roll Calendars
it is to be discovered that, in 1571, William Hickes,
Mercht., was one of the sheriffs of Bristol ; in 1586 he
was a constable of Bristol, and in 1587 he was mayor.
In the Bristol Directory of to-day is a considerable list
of persons of the name of Hicks, and they are in all
walks of life.
" Barkeley Homes." John Smythe spells this
Berkeley " Hernerse," and calls it " nooks or corners
of Berkeley" : of the Hundred of Berkeley, he means.
" Tedburye." In Tetbury there must have been con-
siderable property, and to it Michael Hicks, on whom
it was entailed, added at a later date the neighbouring
castle of Beverstone.
5. " Julyan my welbeloved Wief" is described in every
Hicks pedigree as Juliana Arthur of Clapton in
58 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Gordano, near Bristol ; and the inference certainly is
that that was her maiden name, because in the earliest
edition of the Hicks arms, the arms of the Arthurs of
Clapton, gules, a chevron argent between three rests (or
clarions) or, are impaled. In Collinson's " History of
Somerset " is a long account of the very ancient family
of Arthur of Clapton. And the account states that
John Arthur, who was lord of the manor in the time
of Henry VII., had a sister Juliana. She married Hugh
(or Richard) Mead of Mead's Place in a neighbouring
parish, and neither the history nor the pedigree in the
" Visitations " of Somerset gives any other Juliana.
The Clapton registers, however, show that it was a
favourite name in the Arthur family. Unfortunately
one has to repeat the old story that the registers do not
begin till 1559. The manor became at last the heritage
of a Mary Arthur, who married William Winter, and
so the name died out. The Arthur monuments are in
a chapel on the north side of Clapton Church. Clapton
is a straggling village of thirty-five farms and cottages
near Portishead. Part of the old Manor House still
stands, and is now called the Court Farm.
6. " Margaret Hickes myn otvne Mother." At Glou-
cester there are the wills of two Margaret Hickes who
died in 1562 and 1568 respectively. They rouse a
sense of aggravation, because one of them might so
easily have been the will of the right Margaret. But
the first lady (of Tewkesbury) mentions no relations,
leaves most of her money to the curate of Tewkesbury,
20*. to the ' reparation ' of the Abbey, and 20*. to the
' reparation of the long bridge ' (the beautiful red-brick
bridge that spans the Avon and the water meadows).
The second lady (of Marche in Berkeley) leaves her
property to her son Bichard ; but he is a minor at
the time of her death, so could not have been the
Richard who was Robert's brother and a married man
in 1557.
7. " Mighell Hickes . . . Clement Hickes . . . Babtist
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 59
Hickes." The registers of St. Pancras do not contain
any mention of Clement and Baptist, only of Michael
and of three other sons who died.
"The xxj u day of October A d XXXV Regis Henrii Octavi
(A.D. 1543) was Mighell Hycke the sonne of Robert Hycke borne,
whose Godfathers were Robert Bowser and Edward Sprynt and
Sybell White godmother."
" Item the xxix" day of January A xxxvj Regis Henrici octavi
was Fraunces Hykke son to Robert Hykke of this parisshe cristened.
Fraunces [ blank ] the Kinge Ma ties Foteman and John Haskyns beyng
godfathers and Margaret Nevyll godmother."
" Item the xiiij day of January an 1545/6 was lllary Hyggs the son
of Robert Hyggs crystenyd. John Broke and Anthony Hykeman
godfathers and one Bartellma godmother." *
" The xvij day of Marche A secundo Regis (Edwardi sexti) was
John Hycke (borne) and buryed in the churchyarde."
" The xiiij day of July a° predicto was Hyllary Hycke son to
Robert Hycke buried in the churchyarde."
The history of the three surviving sons of Robert
briefly is, that Michael became Secretary to Lord
Burleigh, and was knighted ; Clement became Searcher
of Customs at Chester, and died there ; and Baptist, who
stuck to the shop, became Master of the Mercers' Com-
pany, and was created Viscount Campden.
8. " Richarde Hickes my brother . . . and Adryan
Hicks my said Brothers Sonne." The Gloucester-
shire property was entailed on brother and nephew
failing heirs to the three sons. The London property
was left to the brother Richard for his life, and then
entailed on the sons. The inference is that Richard
was involved in the management of the property in
some way, and that, as the sons were all young (Michael
fourteen) at the time of Robert's death, Robert judged
it better that the management should remain in
Richard's hands.
9. " My landes . . . within the parryshe of Saint
Katheryns Colman." St. Katherine's Coleman is in
Church Row out of Fenchurch Street where the
* No doubt wife or daughter of " Thomas Bartylmew."
60 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Ironmongers' Hall is situated. Robert's property was
therefore round about the Ironmongers' Hall, in the
heart of the City. The register does not begin till
1559, so it is not possible to find out if Robert was
buried there instead of at St. Pancras.
10. " Christes Hospitall " did not stand much chance
of benefiting under the will, except to the extent of
the small definite legacy out of the personal property.
The school was founded in 1553, so that it was quite
a new institution when the will was made, and the
well-known blue dress was, of course, the very dress
of a London citizen of the time.
11. " All my goodes, chattells .../... devise . . .
accordinge to the custome of the said Cittie of London
for Ffreemens goodes"
"Every freeman of the City of London might
make a will and alter it as often as he pleased. In
disposing, however, of his personal estate, it was
necessary for him to follow the custom of the City
by leaving to his wife one-third of such estate, and
to his children, if any, another third ; or, if he had
no children, by leaving one-half to his wife. If on
the other hand he left children and no wife, the
children were entitled to the same proportion of his
property. The residue in each case was at the free
disposal of the testator, and was known as the
legatory or dead man's portion ; if left undisposed of
by the testator it fell under the direction of the
Statute of Distributions, and was no longer con-
trolled by the custom of London, but as a matter of
fact it was usually devoted to pious uses for the
benefit of the testator's soul. The shares of the wife
and children were called their reasonable parts, to
recover which there was at Common Law a writ de
rationabili parte bonorum."
From " Calendar of Wills in the Court of
Hastings," edited by B. B. Sharpe.
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 61
12. "My best sherte of meale my Corselett my best
halberte my sworde and my buckeler." The City Com-
panies could each provide a certain number of armed
men for war and for various other purposes such as
pageants, May games and plays. In 1497 the
* Yemenry ' sent a petition to the Master of the Iron-
mongers for certain rights. In 1524 the names of
fifty-six 'Yemenry' are recorded. In 1544 a list is
given of the plate that was pledged when "the Co
Sound xiiij men in harnes to go over the sea w th the
Kyng's army in to France." In 1559 the Ironmongers
sent forty-two men in armour to the May game when
the Queen went to Greenwich. Richard Hicks,
dressed in Robert's armour, would not be among them,
for he never was a Freeman of the Company.
13. " To the use of oure Hall my best standinge Cupp
•with a cover of silver and all gilt." In Vol. 1. of the
Court Book (the Minute book) of the Ironmongers'
Company is the entry : —
" At a Quarter Court holden the 26th day of April
1558 being the next working day after Saint
Mark's day
" Received at this Court a standinge Cupp with a
cover gilte waving xxvj ounces three quarters and a
half, which was given unto this Company by Robert
Hyckes deceased late one of this company."
The cup is not now in the possession of the Iron-
mongers. On various occasions in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries they sold plate to meet the requi-
sitions of the Crown and their own liabilities. Several
gilt cups and covers were sold in 1644, and the names
of the donors are given in the Court Book. Robert
Hicks' cup is not mentioned, so it was probably sold at
an earlier date.
14. " Gold Binges of two Angells waight. " Of the
relations and friends to whom these are left, only
Richarde Hickes of Cromwell and John Sprynt can
62 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
be identified. The Sprynts were relations : Edmond
Sprynt was the son Michael's godfather, and the name
comes into the family correspondence in later years.
Nothing is left to Robert's godchildren, and the St.
Pancras register shows that he had at least two,
Robert Stylle and Thomas Robyns. Juliana, too,
was in great request as a godmother ; she appears
constantly in that rdle — ' Gillyan Hyggs ' she is spelt
in one place.
15. "My ffrynde Maister Anthonie Penne" not
only got a black gown and a cloth coat, and a thick
gold ring, but he eventually had the use of the whole
property too by becoming the second husband of " my
welbeloved wief Julyan."
The life of professional success, with its hard-working
days on a narrow and often dreary stage, and its con-
ventional domestic background — that was Robert's life
as the will betrays it. But the will betrays more than
that. It shows a clearness and strength of tempera-
ment, and a high-hearted dealing with life — faith in the
security of the small platform he had built for his
family, but faith also out-reaching, faith in time and
the will of man. The manufacture of an entail by the
Cheapside tradesman, and the discovery of his affection
for the continuance of a name not at all distinguished,
might have had a comic air after three centuries. It
hasn't a comic air because what he desired has become
fact : he meant to found a family : he did found a
family. There is no ambiguity either in the wish or
in its fulfilment : there is no vagueness, no stretch-
ing forth helplessly to life beatific. It is life under
the limitations and conditions of time that the will,
in its blind language, means to establish firmly in
continuity. ,
Such established continuity has its inimical quality ;
as time goes on, it is apt to breed parasites and not
ROBERT HICKS OF CHEAPSIDE. 63
individuals. The Cromhall family, after the exodus of
Robert, became parasitical only, and then perished.
On the other hand, the individual who is to be really
individual (for whose sake alone the human race was
called into being) must have his beginning, and why
should not that beginning be in those pleasant places
where the best sort of family life is enshrined ?
Behind the cramped phraseology of an Entail, a
vision lurks : the founder of an entail always knows, in
a thick-sighted way, that it is there. However unskil-
fully, he has tried to ensure that, generation after
generation, man and woman shall dwell in the garden
he has created and make it bloom ; pleasure — pleasure
in the earth and the rapturous uses of it, their portion.
And the vision has its further element — the possibility
that, here and there, in the story of generations shall be
the coming of a Soul Elect ; for whom no provision can
be made ; who will leave the garden and have for por-
tion not happiness, but the beckoning freedom of un-
known things — of all that is profoundest and most
illogical, most impossible, and most eternally true.
Does the will of the retail mercer of Cheapside say
much of all this ? Did he mean much of this ? Does
he carry himself on that account to-day with sprightly
port that makes the ghosts gaze ?
CHAPTER VI.
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS.
Enough material (mainly in the form of letters)
exists to make of Robert's surviving family a book to
themselves. There is, in fact, an embarrassment of
material, and this is owing to the fact that the Hicks
family letters have been preserved among the letters of
Lord Burghley, to whom Michael was Secretary, and
who left behind him stupendous masses of manuscript.
In the possession of Lord Salisbury at Hatfield are
over 30,000 manuscripts. These have been calendered
up to 1600, and published by the Historical MSS.
Commission. They contain 25 letters of, or relating
to, Michael and Baptist Hicks. The uncalendered
manuscripts at Hatfield contain 14 Hicks letters.
In the British Museum is a collection known as the
Lansdowne MSS. This contains 852 Hicks letters. A
preface to the collection, dated March 15th, 1819, states
that it is divided into two parts, the first consisting of
the Burghley papers only. Of the Burghley papers,
one volume contains copies of charters and other docu-
ments of an early period ; but the remainder, amount-
ing to 121 volumes in folio, consist of State papers
interspersed with miscellaneous correspondence, and
among these is the private memorandum book of Lord
Burghley. The Burghley papers descended from Sir
Michael Hicks to his great-grandson, Sir William
Hicks, who, about 1682, sold them to Richard Chis-
well, a stationer in London, who again disposed of
them to the Rev. John Strype, Vicar of Low Leighton
in Essex. On Mr. Strype's death they were sold to
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 65
Mr. James Webb, and from him came into the posses-
sion of Lord Lansdowne. Mr. Strype wrote what he
called " An Historical Account of the Family of
Hicks," which is now in the British Museum with the
other papers. In it he quotes letters which are not now
in existence, and there can be no doubt that, in passing
from hand to hand, many of the letters have been lost
or stolen.
In order to make a consecutive story out of this
disjointed mass of material, it would be necessary to
write, not only the history of the reign of Elizabeth,
but also a Life of Lord Burghley ! Nothing so com-
prehensive will be attempted. Only a very drastically
weeded-out selection of the letters will be given, and a
decision has been come to that, with few exceptions,
the letters shall be transcribed. They lose enormously
in character thereby, but the task of reading them
becomes less tedious.
The letters to and from Juliana Hicks, who became
Juliana Penn, are few in number, but, if they illuminate
her only partially, they illuminate her rather vividly.
They show her to be the mother of her son, Baptist,
money-lender to kings, builder of palaces ; the mother
of her son Michael, who walked in tortuous political
paths. She was alive with the life of her age — the
spacious, gorgeous, dramatic Elizabethan age.
There was no attempt on the widow's part to live
a life of sober thrift over the Cheapside shop. Two
years after her husband's death she acquired a messuage
on Peter's Hill, on the land sloping from St. Paul's
to the river. In a list of deeds at Witcombe, made by
Howe Hicks four generations later, the conveyance of
the messuage is stated to be from John Broke* and
his wife, and the date is August 5th, 1559. Two
further deeds, relating to the recovery and settlement
of the same are dated 14 and 30 Eliz. The land may
have been bought to add as garden to a house already
* Godfather to Juliana's son Hilary (see p. 59)-
C.F. F
66 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
there, or it may have been acquired to build a house
which was certainly in existence later ; for more than
one letter to Juliana is endorsed, " To the worshippfull
M ris Penne at hyr house on Snt. Peeters hyll in
London." All kinds of narrow old lanes wind down
this hill to the water, says Mr. E. V. Lucas in his book
about London. Godliman Street, Sermon Lane, Trig
Lane, Distaff Lane, Garlick Hill, Stew Lane, are
names of some of them. " All make for the wharves
and the river and ultimately the open sea." John
Strype says that after the Great Fire the house was
divided into two tenements, and it must have been
thus divided when, together with Witcombe Park, it
was settled, at his marriage, on Juliana's great-grandson,
Sir Michael Hicks. At a later date it was sold, and
it is certain that the tapestry with floral border, now
in the hall at Witcombe, is that mentioned in the
following fragment in Juliana's handwriting : —
" This wretyng made the xix of the rane of the
qwne grase.
" The xij. daye of July last I haue in wretyngs I
thynke they be good debts the some of . . . xviijc* 1
" be side platt Juels and my lese of the Whight bere
in Chepes syde and my house that I now dwell in be
syde tapstre and lenneng and all the forneture of my
howse/ I geve God thankes for ytt/ I knolege my
selfe from the fwrst daye of my berthe I never
deserued pene or pese of brede butt Rightt damnacion
and tru to me/ butt his marce ys on home he will
haue marce
" I haue lost since that tyme by Mr. Hardyke and
Churman and other yll dette and furneture of the
Whigte bere ... of this mone . . . vjc tt
" I thanke God for bothe by case God hath don
ytt all/ geyeng and taken."
CJ
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JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 67
This fragment reveals three things. Firstly, that,
in an age of growing domestic luxury and personal
splendour, Juliana, with her tapestry and her plate,
her linen and her jewels, had not been left behind.
Secondly, that in the era of the creation of Shakspere's
heroines, before the days of the Puritan ideal, Juliana
had an individuality not self-conscious, but not involved
in that of any husband whatever. She managed her own
income, and we become (thirdly) aware that she tried
to increase that income by loans to the impecunious.
Anthony Penn, her second husband, seems a strangely
ghost-like factor in her life. The date and place of
their marriage are not known, but he lived, probably,
until 1572, in which year his will was proved. In it
he leaves everything without specification to his wife,
and the only trace of character is an anxiety to have
something of a funeral — fifty gowns are left to fifty
poor men to bring his body to the church — but that
only at his wife's discretion. He mentions a sister, a
brother, and his son; also an Anthony Penn, who may,
or may not, have been Juliana's son too — she, in the
only other communication with her husband that exists,
calls him " Anthony your sone." This letter is undated
and is simply one of phrases, some of which are a little
obscure in sentiment. Juliana is glad to get her hus-
band's letter ; there is no greater grief than absence,
she says, and she feels for him the same affection that
he writes with, is sorry when he is moved to heaviness
and glad in his cheerfulness. Her mind leads her
hand to make an end; his son is in health; she sends
him two barrels of beer and a glass of preserved
cherries, prays him to eat them, and is his friend of
all others the assuredst.
This is the only one of Juliana's letters that is at all
domestic. There is a letter to her signed 'Francis
Howarde ' and written on behalf of a daughter whom
he calls "your cousin," and who, he says, is much
beholden for friendly courtesy, makes bold to ask for
F2
68 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
some more of the jelly, but desires that it may be
red jelly, and not too much rose-water in the taste,
but as plain made as may be. There is another letter
which must be quoted, entirely for the sake of the
name of the writer. John Gilpin of classical fame
might have written it himself.
" Mistress Penne, your old servant John Guylpyne
desires you, for God's sake, to be pitiful to this
bearer, my wife's nurse, that her mother, a woman
of fourscore years, may have a simple goun as a
mourner for the right worshipful Mistress Alderman
Roo. I am sure you will grant me this Request in
Recompense of many good dinners and suppers that
I have had at your house, for (by any other merit)
otherwise I can crave nothing at your hands. Your
assured loving and dutiful ' Jo Gktylpin.'
" This old woman's name is Alice Patt, and she is
the first body that I ever craved your good word for."
But it is Juliana's business letters that betray the
vivacity and the driving power which her son Baptist
inherited. In the inventory of her property made in
1576 — 7 she says she has lost money by Mr. Hardyke
(Hard wick), and she gives a long technical account of
the matter in a paper whose probable date is 1580,
because she mentions that Mr. Penn died eight years
before 'this present examination.' To Mr. Hardwick
himself, in the Debtors' Prison, she does not hesitate,
in all calmness, and in a very long letter, only part
of which is quoted, to speak her mind.
"... Only my request is because I neither have
present money to defray my necessary expenses, and
am daily driven to pawn my plate to supply ordinary
charges. And further . . . (because my son being
now ready to trade and to set up for himself) the
want thereof will be a let and stay to his detirmina-
tion, and so consequently both turn to his discredit
and hindrance, and to my no small reproof, who am
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 69
bound both by nature and the laws of this City, to
see him instantly and truly satisfied . . . Concerning
the causes between you and your creditors, I am
very glad to hear that they grow well towards an
end . . . The summer comes on apace, hot seasons
are contagious, especially in prisons and such melan-
choly places; yourself, a man brought up in other
sort, and unacquainted with so hard lodging and so
homely fare . . . And further you are to consider
how, by your absence from your own house, the state
of your things will go to rack and to havock. The
master's eye makes a diligent servant, and the land-
lord's presence makes a dutiful and thankful tenant.
But, above all, you are to consider that, being a
Justice of Peace, the county claims a right in you,
and finds a want of you. Being of an ancient house,
and of so great revenue, the poor lack relief and
hospitality ; being of understanding and experience,
the ignorant and rude people lack a counsellor and
director ; being of credit and authority, wronged and
oppressed these want a protector and defender. All
of which causes laid together . . . hath moved me
as your poor and true friend to entreat you to seek
all the good ways for your speedy deliverance out of
trouble ... So that having liberty and a quiet life,
and a worshipful estate of living besides, you may be
the better able, now in your old days to pass the
remainder of your life in the service of God with
a good and quiet conscience. And these much have
I been told as your careful friend to advise you, how
well I know not, but in very good will I am sure."
To the Earl of Kildare * she sends a dunning letter
written with less placidity : —
" ' My lord a Keldar.' I will be no more a suitor
to you to sue for my own, in whom there is no truth
* Henry, twelfth Earl of Kildare. The title is now merged in that
of the Dukes of Leinster.
70 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
nor honour towards me. Do you forget the great
swearing and oaths, denying God if you did break
one of them with me (?) You could not be content
with yourself, but brought in ' my lord a Tomontt,' *
who is as true of his speech and swearing as the
rest is. My lord do you believe in God, ' and (does)
my lord Tomontt ' (also) and in His whole law, and
that he will perform every word that He hath
spoken upon the Just and the wicked (?) As sure
He will, then are you both undone. But sure I
believe you believe in none of them, which is sorrow
to my heart for that latter day which you both shall
come to, and I (also) For you never durst offend
His Majesty without you thought there were no
salvation for you. ' My lord Ammarh 1 ' t and your wife
I honour and love ; but your false swearing and
promise I utterly abhor (hoterle a pore). ' My lord
a Keldar ' but for the love I bear to ' my lord
Ammerall ' and my lady, your wife, I had ended
my suit ; for I had complained to the Queen, who
hath promised me that I shall take no wrong at
man's hand."
Lord Kildare's reply to this exhortation is as con-
ciliatory as may be. It is addressed to " my very
lovinge frende Mrs. Penn." He writes from Greenwich
on June 23rd, 1591. The Court was there, and it is,
he says, a place of great charges, and he has been
obliged to spend the money with which he had meant
to pay his debts.
" I desire you now to bear with me, but till my
man return with money out of Ireland, which will
be within this fortnight."
Reference to the Day of Judgment was evidently a
frequent form of appeal with Juliana. In a letter to
* Thomond, an extinct Irish peerage,
f Admiral.
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 71
the Earl of Oxford written in the same year, "that
dredfull day " plays its part again ; but the widow
hints pretty plainly that she does not mean to leave
the settlement of the affair to so distant a date. The
Earl of Oxford married Anna, eldest daughter of Lord
Burghley, in 1572, The marriage was an unhappy one.
Oxford had danced himself into the good graces of the
Queen, and his mother-in-law openly condemned the
philandering. Elizabeth was much enraged, but, says
Gilbert Talbot in a letter to Lord Shrewsbury in 1573,
" at all these love matters my Lord Treasurer winketh
and will not meddle any way." Prudent he ! In 1575
there was a tremendous family quarrel, and the whole
of the documents are in the Hatfield papers. Oxford,
on his return from a mission to Germany, had declined
all communication with his wife, saying that her
parents had influenced her against him. It is plain
that Burghley treated his son-in-law with inexhaustible
patience. Oxford was extravagant, eccentric, and
quarrelsome, and had not been able to keep the
Queen's favour. In 1582 Burghley interceded for
him with Hatton, and again, in 1583, with Raleigh,
the Queen's new favourite, who replied, "I am con-
tent for your sake to lay the serpent before the fire,
that, having recovered strength, myself may be in most
danger of his poison and sting."
This " serpent " Juliana had lodged in her house, and
it is to recover money due for board and lodging that
she takes up a respectful but plainly angry pen : —
" You know my Lord you had anything in my
house whatsoever you or your men would demand,
if it were in my house ; if it had been a thousand
times more, I would have been glad to pleasure
your lordship withall."
That the debt remained unpaid is clear^ because one
Thomas Churchyard, who had become surety for it,
writes to Mrs. Penn that he has taken refuge in a
72 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Sanctuary for fear of her arresting him. It seems that
Churchyard, acting on behalf of the Earl, had taken the
rooms by the quarter at the rent of £100 a year (in the
money of the time), with such necessaries "as were
named," but that napery and linen were not included,
nor, apparently were coals, fagots, beer or wine, as they
are part of the debt. And there, as far as the twentieth
century is concerned, the matter ends.
Other letters of a like nature to and from Juliana
there are, but they are only variations of the same
theme. Yet among the many excuses for non-payment
which the widow received, one deserves humorous
mention. It is from Thomas Reade, a citizen of
St. Helen's (Bishopsgate) : —
" I would willingly myself come if I might to see
you, but my sore leg makes me unable (unhable) to
visit you at this present."
There are two letters, one from and the other to
Juliana, which take us away from these money matters
into the wide spaces where English ships swept the
seas. The first letter, signed "Yo r haltinge and
uprighte frend Julyan Penne," is to an acquaintance
in the West of England : —
" You discharge yourself so thankfully and so
' clenly ' withal, for my small remembrance to your-
self and others, that I must needs account you wise
that can make full recompense with so little a charge.
Your rich return that you certify of Drake's arrival
in the west, though long before I heard it for certain
in the east, that I take it from you as thankful and
fresh news."
This puts a date to an undated letter. It was in
September, 1580, that Francis Drake finished his
voyage round the world, and brought the Pelican
quietly to an anchorage in Plymouth Sound. The
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 73
story of all that led up to that adventure is too long
a tale to be repeated here, but the Queen had sworn a
great oath to have the head of him who should inform
the King of Spain of it, and had given commandment
that the Lord Treasurer should be kept in the dark.
(Burghley's spies served him too well to make that
possible.) A syndicate financed the expedition. Juliana
may have been one of the* shareholders " besides them-
selves for joy " (says Mendoza) when the news came to
Europe that the tiny ship with its crew of adventurers
had passed the Straits of Magellan, had ravaged the
coasts of Chili and Peru, had seized the galleon which
sailed yearly for Cadiz with a cargo of precious stones,
had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and was home-
ward bound with treasure of over half a million in
her hold.
Of Spanish booty the following letter speaks, and the
date at the foot of it is that of the year of the Armada,
and of a month when the Armada was of the past : —
" Good Mrs. Penn. I do receive from you many
kindnesses, for which I heartily thank you, and yet
at this time must I make bold with you for a thing
which you may get, and to which I would be
beholden to no other but yourself. So it is my Lady
Gorge hath a pretty silver bell, that was Don Pedro's
the Spaniard. It was taken at sea. The weight of it
in silver is all that to her it can be valued at. If you
of yourself would desire to buy it, I would willingly
pay whatsoever she will ask, so that it might not be
known unto her that I am to have it, for I would not
be beholden unto her ; you see how bold I am with
you. If I may pleasure you or yours I will be most
ready. And thus wishing you health and long life
for my friend's good your eldest son, I commit you
to God. From my Lodging this 3 of Obre 1588.
" Yo r loving frend
" Robt Cecill."
74 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
This letter leaves one in doubt whether it was the
gentleman who wrote it, or Mistress Penn to whom it
was addressed, who was devoid of a sense of humour.
Sir Robert Cecil was the younger son of Lord
Burghley, who was twice married. Burghley's first
wife was Mary Cheke, sister of his great friend at
Cambridge, John Cheke the scholar, whose widowed
mother kept a wine shop in the town of Cambridge,
and who became Regius Professor of Greek and tutor
to Prince Edward. Mary Cheke died about a year
after she had given birth to a son Thomas. Thomas
Cecil was an ill-conducted and unmanageable young
man ; unworthy, unruled, lewd, are some of the epithets
his father sadly applies to him. He married a daughter
of Lord Latimer, and was created Earl of Exeter by
James I. He is the ancestor of the family of the
Marquis of Exeter of Burghley.
Lord Burghley's second wife was Mildred Cooke,
eldest and learned daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of
Giddy Hall, Essex, the Governor of Prince Edward
and one of the pioneers of the new learning. By her,
Burghley had several children, of whom there survived
two daughters (Lady Oxford and Lady Wentworth)
and a son Robert, who married a daughter of Lord
Cobham, became eventually Earl of Salisbury, and is
the ancestor of the present Salisbury family.
Robert Cecil had character and brilliant talents.
From youth he had imbibed his father's policy and
methods, and towards the end of Burghley's life
relieved his father of much of his laborious work. He
entered Parliament as member for Westminster in 1584
and sat for Herts from 1588 to 1601. He was made a
Privy Councillor and was knighted in 1591. He
became Secretary of State in 1596, Lord Privy Seal in
1597, and Lord Treasurer, like his father before him, in
1608. He held these offices conjointly until his death.
He died in 1612, in the very same year as died Michael
Hicks, his father's secretary and his own life-long friend.
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 75
It is his friend's mother to whom Robert Cecil writes,
and there are letters (three to Juliana ahd one to
Michael) which show how various were Juliana's
activities. It is certain that, on a wider stage, she
would have intrigued with gaiety and success. The
letters, dated 1592, relate to one Charles Chester,
whom Sir Robert accuses Mrs. Penn of harbouring
under her roof. Now the Chesters were a very well-
known family in Bristol and its neighbourhood, and it
will be remembered that Juliana herself was native
there. Thomas Chester (third in descent from a Henry
Chester, who died, sheriff of Bristol, 1470) was a
great Bristol merchant, was successively Sheriff,
M.P. for and Mayor of Bristol, purchased the manor
of Almondsbury (which his descendant, Colonel Chester
Master, still possesses), and was High Sheriff of Glou-
cestershire 1577. He was one of the four Bristol
merchants who contributed (in the same year) £25 each
to the second voyage of Martin Frobisher in search of
the North- West Passage. A nephew of his, Charles
Chester (son of his younger brother Dominick, who was
M.P. for Minehead), accompanied the expedition, and
in his will, dated September 18th, 1577, Thomas leaves
money to all Dominick's children, and to Charles, "if
he comes home in safety," £20. Apparently he did
come home in safety — here he is, fifteen years later, a
prisoner in the Gate-house at Westminster. It must
surely be he, for there is no other Charles on the Chester
pedigree at that date, and the reference to " my Lord
Admiral " in the first letter shows that the culprit was
connected with sea-life. His father, his uncle (who
knows ?), may have been an old lover of Juliana's in
Bristol days — who knows, indeed !
Robert Cecil's first letter is conciliatory, but firm : —
"Mistress Penn because you are my very good
friend, I have thought good to make a difference
between your house and others in like cases ;
76 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
presuming so much upon your discretion as that you
will surely deliver up all such papers, books, caskets
or other things belonging to Charles Chester (who is
by my Lord Admiral and me committed close
prisoner to the Gate-house), upon this my private
letter as if I had sent expressly a Pursuivant to make
a search : which I will not offer unto you, although it
be creditably informed that your house hath been of
long time his chief receptacle, and that there are in
your house divers things of his fit to be reviewed.
And thus requiring you that they may be all forth-
coming, I leave you to God. From the Court, this
20th of June 1592. Your loving friend Ro. Cecill.
" You shall do well to deal clearly in the discovery
of such things as be in your house, for his confession
will otherwise discredit your denial."
It is to be deplored a million times that Juliana's
answer to this is not in existence. It is clear that she
was able to convince Sir Robert that she was not really
privy to the affair, and of her sincerity he has no doubts.
The next letter he writes her is from Theobald's,
Burghley's country house : —
" good Mrs. Penn. I am very sorry to hear how
extreme sick you are by your son Michael my friend ;
and the rather understanding that you have not been
well ever since you were here. If you took any cold by
coming to my lord's house, being not very accustomed
to stir abroad of long time, I hope it will away with
discreet and warm keeping. If any other conception
should trouble you, surely this letter may assure you
that there was not, nor is, the least suspicion con-
ceived of any privity of yours to any ill of his who is
now a Prisoner in the Gate-house. For my part I
do wish the poor soul no harm. Some things
there are found out of his lewd disposition to the
State, which is the cause of his Restraint. With
time it may be qualified ; wherein, though no private
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 77
respects shall make better or worse my conception of
any man's offences, yet shall I be the more apt in
pity to deal for him (I must confess) if he do forbear,
according to his vile humour, to rail at my (?) Henry
Cecil out of prison by letters whereof I am imformed;
being of my blood, and one who never deserved of
him but too well. For the letter you sent, it showed
your sincerity, of which I was never doubtful, as I
have told your son often when he sued to me for him.
I wish you health and contentment and so do bid you
heartily farewell. Your loving friend Ro : Cecyix."
This was all very well ; but Sir Robert was quickly
convinced that he had been hoodwinked, and the next
letter shows him in a very different temper : —
" I have foreborne for your children's sake to do by
you as I would have done by your betters. And, in
that your answer was that you wanted spectacles, I
have forborne to send to you. But I do fear it will
prove that your house has fostered him to no good
purpose. And it will go near to be proved that in
your hearing his tongue hath walked further than to
speak of subjects. Your silence in answering me, as
though you scorned me for dealing friendly with you,
and your privy intelligence with him since his appre-
hension, I can assure you must be answered. I love
(I confess) your sons well, but do not imagine that
any of their credits with me shall make me blind
when I am ill-used. And thus I bid you Farewell.
Ro : Cecyix.
"I will expect your answer, and that such you will
affirm in writing to be true. And if it come not the
sooner I will send a Pursuivant to your house which
I would be loath (to do) ! "
Yet behold ! Juliana again cozens Sir Robert into
believing that she has been suspected wrongfully, and
78 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
that she is really not guilty of privity to the affair.
The next letter is to her son Michael : —
" Mr. Hycke. I pray you thank your mother for
her apricots. And for any matter of suspicion that
I conceive against her for being an accomplice or an
allower of his villany against the state, I think you
know that I ever cleared her. This, nevertheless,
which of good will I made you show her, I pray you
require her not to speak of. For I am not able to
answer it that I should show it to anybody. Your
loving friend Ro : Cecyll."
The State papers make no mention of the affair, and
it was evidently of minor importance as a State affair,
although, as a personal affair, it must have agitated
several lives. It made no permanent breach in Juliana's
friendship with the Cecils. Robert continued to be the
widow's useful friend. Some buildings to which she
objected had been put up next her house, and Sir
Robert, in a letter to Michael, says that he has been to
see them, and protests that they are most maliciously
begun and most negligently tolerated by the mayor.
He has "rattled up the young, lusty builder as well
as ever he was in his life," and in conclusion bids
" good Michael " deliver this letter so as " my lord "
may read it.
The road to ' my lord's ' eye and ear was not always
such a direct one. Thomas Lychefeld, who had a
" suyte " he wished to further, found it devious. He
writes from the Charterhouse, so he was probably of
the household of the Duke of Norfolk, who bought the
Carthusian buildings in 1565 from the Norths. He
writes to " ye Lady Gerrard " : — *
" Madam. Whereas I delivered unto your Lady-
ship two silver salts for my very good friend Mistress
* She must have been the wife of Sir Gilbert Gerard, the Attorney-
General, and not the wife of his cousin, Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn,
committed to the Tower for complicity in one of those many plots
concerning the Queen of Scots.
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 79
Penn, to the intent your Ladyship should further her
in the suit I brake with you concerning her son, the
which I understand may no ways be obtained : there-
fore, at this instant lying on my deathbed, I am
earnest to request your Ladyship to redeliver the said
salts, that the gentlewoman have me not in suspicion.
And so, living at the Pleasure of the Almighty, with
my humble commendations I commit you to God.
Charterhouse the xx th of September.
. " Your Ladyship's in all humbleness
" Thomas Lychefeld."
It is thus possible to leave Juliana with the know-
ledge that she was not quite easy of access when it
came to the very usual matter of bribes. She was
buried in the church of St. Mary Magdalene close to
the Guildhall, in which parish her son Baptist was then
living. This is the entry in the register (which is now
kept in the church of St. Laurence, Savoy) : —
1592. Mrs. Julian Penn was buried Novembris vicesimo tertio.
Juliana's will, dated 1592, is in the list of documents
at Witcombe which Howe Hicks made ; but it is not to
be found. There is, however, a paper of the same date,
signed by her sons Michael and Baptist, which contains
ten articles of agreement concerning the administration
of their mother's estate. The articles are not par-
ticularly interesting except that Michael makes a deed of
gift of all his interest (under his father's will) in the White
Bear to Baptist, and that they each agree to pay an
allowance of £20 a year to their brother Clement (the
second surviving son of Robert and Juliana), who is
also to have any money that can be recovered from
Sir Thomas Ffynche and Edward Churchman. It
would seem as if Clement did not find this agree-
ment a very satisfactory one. In 1595 he writes
to Michael that he has heard nothing from Ludlow,
who promised to serve the process on Churchman,
80 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and fears that Ludlow "makes his benefit" by-
Churchman. And apparently it was not until 1596
that Baptist began to pay the allowance — or, at
any rate, to promise to pay it. Clement tells Michael
in that year that he has received the promise and
has written to thank Baptist for it. However,
in 1612 he acknowledges the receipt of £10 for his
" annuity."
Clement's letters are all dated from Chester. He
was Searcher of Customs there, and it is evident that it
was Michael's influence with 'My lord' (Treasurer)
which had obtained him the post, for he thanks his
brother for his own good opinion, and hopes to justify
it while he remains in office. Of its emoluments he
does not speak highly. He had, it would seem, to
make what he could out of it, and he apologises that he
has troubled Michael too much in the matter of obtain-
ing from my lord a fee to the office, but will be very
grateful if he will renew the same suit. He is greatly
hindered, he says, by the smallness of the traffic at
Chester, which is occasioned by the wars (in Ireland),
and will be worse every day. He has to live for the
most part at his own charge, and, says he, " I am not
able to maintain my credit in this strange place where I
dwell."
The registers of Holy Trinity Church, Chester, show
that Clement was living in that parish from 1597 to
1603 and again from 1610 to 1627. In 1619 he,
together with a number of other parishioners, sub-
scribed to a fund for the rector and parish clerk in
order that Morning Prayer might be said daily. The
old Customs House of the port of Chester stood at the
south-west corner of the old church, with its back
looking on to the (then) rectory gardens, and refer-
ences to its neighbourhood occur in the parish books.
Holy Trinity Church is in Water-Gate Street, and
Clement's later letters are dated from " my house in
the Watter Gatt Street," which, he says, he has taken
JULIANA AND CLEMENT HICKS. 81
on a lease of twenty-one years, but cannot put in repair
unless his brothers will help him — as they have already
done by upholding the front part of his house which
was ready to fall on his head. He prays for £10 to
repair his house. He mentions that Sir Baptist has
sent him a letter of attorney for £9 and odd money
that Mr. Arthur Cotton owes him, which he freely
gives to him (Clement) if he can get the same ; but it is
no use to him as he cannot find Mr. Arthur Cotton.
The last letter, dated June 29th, in the year of Michael's
death, 1612, says that the bearer has seen his house,
and can certify how much it needs repairing, and also
how dear everything is in Chester (double the price),
because of knights and gentlemen who have left their
houses in the country, and are in Chester to ease
themselves, and who raise the price for others.
Clement Hicks' will was proved at Chester, 1628.
He leaves "unto everie godchild now living and
remayning in this Cittie of Chester, two shillings and
sixpence a piece." Ten shillings goes to Mr. Hopwood
(who was rector of Holy Trinity, 1615 to 1632),
entreating him to preach at the funeral, and there are
other small legacies. All the rest of his property (it
amounted to £102 17s. 2d.) goes to his second wife,
Margaret, and he wishes to be buried in Trinity Church
in the place where his former wife is buried.
In 1865 the ancient church of Holy Trinity, Chester,
'Was pulled down and an entirely new one was built on
the site. At the east end of the north aisle of the old
church was a chapel dedicated to St. Patrick, with a
painted altar. Here, says Webb, in his "Description
of the City and County Palatine of Chester," published
1650, was a little monument of brass in the wall. On
the brass was this engraven : —
"Here lyeth the body of Ellen Hicks, wife of Clement
Hicks Gent, her Majesty's Chief Searchers of the port of Chester
and Liverpool, being of the age of 35 years who deceased the
11th day of April Anno Domini 1598."
C.F. G
82 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
Without, the street of old Chester leading to the
waterside. Within, the chapel at the end of the aisle
with its crudely painted altar, the space re-opened in
the flags beneath the brass monument on the wall, the
mourners in their cloaks, the second wife in her pro-
vincial ruff and black hood — that was the end of
Clement Hicks ; and it is all blank and obliterated for
us. The thoughts there round his grave, the feelings
there, are things quite dead.
CHAPTER VII.
BAPTIST HICKS.
Neither Clement nor Baptist Hicks belongs really
to the thread of this story, which, after Juliana, should
concern itself at once with her eldest son Michael.
But anyone who has seen Baptist's monument in the
church of the Cotswold town of Campden, will realise
that some sort of account of him there must be.
It is perfectly plain that, of Juliana's three sons, the
youngest most resembled her in capacity, in vivacity,
and in an inherent liking for the splendours of life.
He had neither the education nor the social oppor-
tunities of Michael, but he out-distanced him in worldly
success. If, of the three brothers, Clement had
obviously the least vitality, Baptist as certainly had
the most.
It was Baptist's appointed lot to go back to the
Cheapside mercery, and to live a citizen life in
the rooms over it which his mother had deserted.
That he did live there, and that a dwelling-place
over the shop was not for the socially ambitious, a
proposal of marriage, which will be presently quoted,
gives evidence.
He was admitted as a Freeman of the Mercers'
Company in 1580, and he was Master of the Company
in 1611 and 1622. His arms with the Fleur-de-Lys
hang on the dark panelling of the Mercers' dining hall
to-day.
Of Baptist as a mercer we only get fleeting glimpses
in the Lansdowne and Hatfield letters. Thomas Cecil,
the Lord Treasurer's prodigal heir, was one of his
G 2
84 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
customers, and there is a letter from Baptist to Michael
in which he begs his brother to 'prevail' with his
lordship to pay him the money for the goods bought,
which had long been owing. The wife of the more
powerful Robert Cecil found it economical to deal at
the White Bear. In a letter to Michael, Sir Robert
says : —
" Sir W. Rawley and 1 dining together in London,
we went to your brother's shop, where your brother
desired me to write to my wife in anywise not to let
anybody know that she paid under £3 10*. a yard for
her cloth of silver. I marvel that she is so simple as
to tell anybody what she pays for everything."
In another letter Baptist openly sends Sir Robert
Cotton "a little present," in order that he may have
his favour in a cause wherein he is " malisciously prose-
cuted by a lurking proud enemy." The silk is a piece
he has had specially made for his friends, and, says he,
" I persuade myself out of the judgement and skill that
I have gathered in process of time touching the com-
modity, you shall find it Very extraordinary for the
goodness." Everybody knows how tiresome relations
are to do business with, and how difficult striped
material is to manipulate, and how the polite tradesman
must keep his temper, even with relations. Baptist
writes to his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hicks : —
"Sister Hickes. I did not know that the purple
striped stuff with gold had been returned me again,
unless my brother had told me thereof, and that you
did not cut it to serve your turn for marring of the
pattern : I pray you give me leave to tell you that no
pattern comes amiss to me to pleasure you."
This is a little too much the bowing mercer behind
the counter. " Assuring you at all times of our best
services," as the modern phrase has it.
BAPTIST HICKS. 85
Baptist's silks and satins played their part in very
varied scenes. In 1598 an embassy was sent to France
to negotiate peace with Spain, and it consisted of Sir
Robert Cecil, Sir Thomas Wilkes, clerk of the Council,
and Dr. Herbert. The instructions taken by them are
contained in the very last State paper written by the
dying Lord Treasurer. For this expedition Baptist
supplied Wilkes with silks and satins, velvets and
taffetas ; and the bill for them, which is among the
domestic State papers, came to £68 3s. 2d. This was
the last earthly journey of poor Wilkes, who had so
often crossed the Channel on similar errands. He died
at Rouen on the way to Angers to meet King Henry.
The death of Queen Elizabeth brought Baptist
an order to provide " velvets damasks and satins of the
colour crimson, to serve the coronation " of James I. A
warrant to pay him £3,000 for them is dated August 7th,
1603 ; but in 1606, in a petition by him to the Privy
Council, which is among the Cecil papers, and which
concerns the King's debts to him in general, he mentions
that the proportion of stuff ordered was altered, whereby,
he protesteth upon his faith, there was left upon his hands
more than 1,400 yards to his very great hurt and damage.
The same petition, and the Calendars of Close Rolls,
reveal that the great fortune which Baptist eventually
built up, was by no means the product of mere trading
in silks. Like his mother, he was a moneylender (in a
day when it was one of the few forms of investment),
and it is perfectly clear that, in order to lend on a
scale that gradually became princely, he himself borrowed
large sums of money. To borrow at low interest and
lend at high interest — that is financial genius ! He was
often in difficulties in early years — often in " a very
tight corner," as we should say — his letters to his brother
Michael reveal that. He borrowed even from Michael,
and vehement are his remarks about his own creditors
— the Lord Treasurer's interest again and again is
invoked through the secretary. The Close Rolls
86 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
contain (as near as may be counted) ninety indentures,
where, buried in the most tedious of all language — legal
language— lies the history of Baptist's monetary trans-
actions with all sorts and conditions of men, and with
the king himself — some of James' bonds are for £24,000,
£150,000 (this is together with Sir Thomas Hayes and
others), £30,000, and for many and various sums.
Another form of investment, investment in land, he
did not neglect. The Close Rolls contain about fifty
indentures where estates, portions of estates, and Church
livings all over England are either mortgaged or sold
to him. The most interesting of all these is an inden-
ture dated November 25th, 1612, by which the Treasurer
and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City
of London for the first Colony in Virginia, bargain and
sell to Sir Baptist Hicks and ten others, " the islands
called Bermudas, and now Somer Islands, being in the
Ocean bordering on the coast of the said first Colony,
with all havens, fishings, mines, etc., in the said islands."
Success in business brought the inevitable corollary
of want of time for the amenities of life. There is a
letter to Michael which is evidently an answer to a
pressing invitation : —
" yet notwithstanding can I not possibly be
with you and be here again to dispatch business :
which I know you will wish me to omit no oppor-
tunity to accomplish it : entertainment of Friends
are very pleasing and comfortable, when more serious
affairs are not impeded thereby. ... In my absence
I would have you give your friends the best enter-
tainment you can, and not stick to venture your
money where so much is to be gained. ... I wish
myself with you at your mask, some furniture
thereunto I send you."
He has so much private business on hand that he will
by no means be made an alderman. He sends for his
brother in all haste : —
BAPTIST HICKS. 87
" If I were not ill at ease by reason of a cold I have
taken, I would come to you myself. And therefore
I have written these few lines to let you understand
that, very suddenly, and very much unexpected, there
is a bill delivered up unto my L. Mayor with the
names of 4 Commoners for the choice of an Alder-
man, amongst which four I am nominated, and do
very greatly fear that, if speedily I make not the
better friends it will be my hap to be chosen, and
then will turn me to a far greater trouble and suit
than now it will do. Therefore I pray you do me
that brotherly kindness, as to come to London this
present Monday (for it requires expedition) and that
I may find that friendship at your hands by your
friends as may stay the course pretended against me
which I know by some is done of malice, as more
particularly you shall understand when I confer with
you."
The result of the brotherly conference is to be
discovered among the State papers, in the draft of a
paper requiring the lord mayor and aldermen to for-
bear to elect Sir Baptist Hicks because he is employed
in the King's service. This was in 1603, and in the
next year there is the same sort of business again over
his election as sheriff, and again the King's intervention.
But he was not always able to wriggle out of his public
duties. In 1606 he was foreman of the jury at the
Guildhall which convicted the Jesuit Father Garnet
of Gunpowder Plot fame. In 1611 he was actually
elected alderman of Bread Street Ward, and though
he brought forth the King's original letter, he was
obliged to pay a fine of £500, and to pay again in
1613, when he was finally discharged from the incubus
of municipal service — a service which he had calcu-
lated would serve him not at all. The talent for
eliminating that which is not of import is necessary
for success in life.
88 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
But a prudent marriage was not among those things
to be eliminated. The lady to whom the following
letter was addressed may, or may not, have been a
widow, but it is evident that she had a large and inde-
pendent income. The letter is enormously long, and
is only partially quoted (and part of it is too Elizabethan
to quote). There is a tremendous preamble, and then
he says : —
" I will be bold to enter into an answer of such
some particular objections as I remember have been
made touching the inequality of our intermarriage.
" And first, whereas they allege that there is nine
or ten years difference in our ages, there is none I
think that hath but half an eye, and doth behold us
both, that can so judge. And yet if any man should
be so far mistaken, since we were both born in this
City, the Register books of our birth will both
readily and evidently convince their error. And
albeit the truth were, that I were so many years
younger than you are, yet what harm can come
thereof. . . .
" Another matter which they urge both very
earnestly and very often, is, the difference of our
estates, both in wealth and worldly reputation. For
your wealth — as it is not that I seek after, so it hath
not been the thing that I have enquired after. That
which I know concerning it is only by common
report, as all men know besides that have ears to
hear. Whatsoever it is, I wish it for your sake with
all my heart a thousand times more ; but in respect
of myself (rather than it should be any impediment
to my proceeding with you) I protest unto you I
wish it a great deal less.
" But as touching mine own, (estate sic) as I ac-
knowledge that it is a great deal more than I am
worthy of, so I know it is not so little as they would
make you believe. And I would to God that you
BAPTIST HICKS. 89
could find no other unworthiness in me than want of
wealth, then I would not doubt (when it pleased you
to call my estate in question) to be able to prove
myself of such ability, as in any indifferent man's
judgment I shall be thought meet to match with a
woman of reasonable good substance. What other
benefit or advancement is likely to come unto me
hereafter by some of my friends, I will not now
speak of, because they are but things in possibility,
and not in present possession.
" And now, whereas they object that to marry a
man of my trade were a great embasing of your
credit and calling — Truly, methinks (as they may
worst do it that have risen themselves from meaner
beginnings) so they do great wrong to the trade
itself, which in reputation all men know to be of
chiefest account in this City. And as it cannot be
denied that there are some which bear office now in
this City which have been of that trade, so is it as
evident that there are more which have been called
to that place, and might worthily have accepted of it,
if they had not preferred a quiet life before glorious
titles.
" But howsoever the trade itself, is in itself, yet it
is not necessary that your marriage with a Mercer
should make you keep a shop, or sell a yard of silk
(as some have in a disdainful and scornful manner
objected). For there is a(n) example not far off from
me, of a woman of good wealth and credit who
married with a man of my trade, yet she neither
makes nor meddles with shop nor silk, but having all
things allowed her as are fit for a gentlewoman, she
passeth her own time at her own pleasure, either
here, or at her house in the country, as she herself
thinks good.
"But, if in your eyes and judgment, the trade
itself doth seem too mean for him whom you mean
to make your husband, I see no impediment to
90 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
satisfy your mind wherefore I may not, of a mercer,
become a merchant; and traffic as profitably and
conveniently in that course as in this I am in. Of
the which also, there is one example not far off from
me, that, of a well traded mercer is become, and
proves, both a good and skilful merchant.
" But alas ! what need I labour thus to persuade
you in these points, considering that the best hope
and encouragement that ever I have had of my suit,
hath been the persuasion that I have gathered and
grounded upon your wisdom and humbleness of
mind. That it is not money that you shoot at, but
the man. That it is not worldly dignity, and wor-
shipful titles that you desire, but a husband with
whom you may lead a quiet and contented life in the
fear of God ; who will love you for yourself, and not
for that which you have ; who will allow you to the
uttermost of his ability, and will use you in all
gentleness and kindness, as becomes an honest man
and a good husband. Than the which, if you might
have your own heart's desire, what could you wish for
more or better ? "
Another letter, which starts with " Swete Wedow,"
is much shorter, is in a different key altogether, and
is obviously addressed to a different lady 1 " Next
vnto God you ar dearest $nto me," is the impassioned
text of it.
A third unsuccessful proposal is to a Mistress
" Katherin." It would appear that he has sent the
lady a letter and a " token," and that she has re-
turned the latter with a reply on the " modesty " of
which he compliments her effusively, and assures her
that —
" it was the least part of my thought either to pry
into your goodwill without your favourable leave, or
to press upon it towards any point of perfection with-
out the privity of your good parents and friends. No
BAPTIST HICKS. 91
truly Mistress Katherin, my only meaning was to
sound, if I might, the inclining disposition of your
mind, and not to require your final resolution in the
matter."
A long essay on the young lady's duty towards her
parents then follows, quite obviously intended for these
parents' eyes. Indeed, it needs not much penetration
to surmise that the " token " had been waylaid, and had
been returned by parental command. The sequel seems
to say that the following highly meritorious sentiments
were quite wasted. He has remarked, Baptist says,
with —
" special good liking that godly and earnest care
you have in the applying of your whole actions and
thoughts to the pleasing of your parents, the which as
it is a thing highly acceptable before God, and greatly
commendable towards the world, so, without the con-
tinuance thereof will breed in time, both a sweet
contention (content sic) to yourself, and a singular
comfort to all your friends."
And so on, gliding at length gracefully into saying
that his next care now consists in making known his
suit to the said parents, together with a true and full
discovery of himself and his estate.
" This done, I doubt not but, upon the hearing of
my cause, to have the conquest of my suit. If not,
what remains, but that I sigh and say, that a happy
end doth not always follow a well meaning mind in an
honest matter."
These rejected addresses are so delightful that they
make one wish heartily that the letters which eventually
won him a wife had survived too. Or did he learn
wisdom of experience, and the perfect futility of pen and
ink in such a service ?
Baptist married in 1585, when he was thirty-four
years old, Elizabeth May, of good citizen stock like
92 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
himself. Her father was a member, and sometimes
Master, of the Merchant Taylors' Company. The proofs
that she was precisely the wife he needed for his
ambitions are very slight, but they do exist.
" Burstling " and " imperious " are two lucid words
applied to her in contemporary letters which tell of a
tedious dispute about precedency, which she and
Baptist, as knight and lady, carried on in their City
circle. Her marble effigy in her ample peeress' robes
in Campden Church does not give the lie to the descrip-
tion, and she had a successful brother too — these things
are in the blood. Sir Humphrey May, as he became,
was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and had the
ear of James I. "Sir Hum. May can make any
suitor, be they never so honest, disliked by the King,"
says a letter among the State papers.
The succession of James to the Crown of England
was an event on which Baptist had staked a good
deal. James had knighted 237 gentlemen in the course
of his month's progress from Edinburgh to London, so
that the knighting of the City mercer at Whitehall on
July 24th, 1603, the day before the coronation, cannot
have been a conspicuous event ! Sir Baptist Hicks, no
doubt, had for the honour that confident gratitude which
is described as " a lively sense of favours to come."
He had undoubtedly helped James, and other needy
Scotsmen too, in a day when that form of investment
was very speculative indeed. He sets forth the matter
in his petition to the Privy Council in 1606, of which
the following is a partial abstract : —
" Considerations to move his Majesty and their
Lordships to have a more special regard to Baptist
Hicks for his debt due to him, than to any other
creditor.
"The debt that now remains due from the King
to Baptist Hickes is between 16 and 17 thousand
pounds, whereof there is above £6,000 in the account
BAPTIST HICKS. 93
of Sir John Fortescue. The said B. H. hath done
to his Majesty many good and acceptable services
before he came into England, not only in giving him
large credit, but also in helping his Ambassadors
and Ministers with money . . . All which his ready
services and affection to serve his Majesty, his
Majesty then graciously accepted, as by divers his
letters written to the said B. H. doth appear . . .
His Majesty of his own royal consideration, before
he came into England, did allow consideration always
to the said B. H. for forbearance when his Majesty
failed of payment at his day, as sometimes he
did ... If his Majesty should deal so graciously
with him for the debt now owing, the interest would
arise to above £4,000."
The petition goes on to say that Baptist has not
been " clamorous or importune," to complain that part
of his daughters' marriage portions are still owing and
he has to pay interest on the same ; and finally he
brings up the 1,400 yards of stuff left on his hands
from the coronation.
"Fayre speakers and slow performers" is what he
labels his lesser Scottish creditors in a letter to Michael,
but it is certain that out of this tangled web of money-
lending Sir Baptist did not eventually step forth the
loser. He was fifty-two years of age at the time of
James' accession, and his shrewd optimism had brought
him to the point from whence the search for the final
purpose of all this gathering together of wealth might
begin — a final purpose, an end, which must be adequate
to justify the means employed to gain it. The heart
and will to gain it were there ; the man was one of
those, unique, incalculable, to whom accomplishment
does seem to become a reality ; and yet the end could
be overtaken only along accepted paths, and it is
certain that, when Baptist died at seventy-eight, he
knew that it had eluded him. And if he left this
94 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
world without angry impatience at the mortality of
men, it must have been with the other sense of the
inconsequence of things ; of the insignificance of the
individual, of his happiness, of his usefulness — of
the perplexity and confusion of it all. But the effort
was worth while. And that, three hundred years later,
is still as far as men have got. The effort must be
staged among the sincerities of human life, and be
vital, and be fragrant, and then, "Vanity" be it, but
" there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice
in his own works, for that is his portion." That was
Baptist's portion. It is quite impossible to doubt that
any sense of the elusiveness of things ever made him
feel that he had inherited the wind, ever made him
come to any other genuine conclusion than that it
was all tremendously worth while.
To a zest for life as keen as his was, the titles he
earned, the palaces he built, the liberalities he practised,
are but as the algebraic ocyz, and only an exercised
imagination can make a catalogue of them at all
impressive.
1. 1609. He was made contractor for Crown lands,
and between that date and 1612 was made Justice of
the Peace for Middlesex.
1620. He sat as M.P. for Tavistock, and in the
same year was created a baronet.
1624. He sat as M.P. for Tewkesbury, until 1628,
when he was succeeded there by his nephew, Sir
William Hicks, first baronet, whose heir, tenth in descent,
the Hon. Michael Hicks-Beach, is member for the
district to-day.
1625. He was made Deputy Lieutenant for
Middlesex.
1628. He was raised to the Peerage by Charles I.
under the title of Baron Hicks of Ilmington, in
the County of Warwick, and Viscount Campden of
Campden in the County of Gloucester (Ilmington and
BAPTIST HICKS. 95
Campden are adjoining parishes), with remainder to
his son-in-law, Edward, Lord Noel, Baron Ridlington,
in the county of Rutland.
2. It may have been at the time of his marriage that
Baptist ceased to live over the mercery in Soper Lane,
and took a house in Milk Street, in the Old Jewry,
close to the Guildhall, in the parish of St. Mary
-Magdalene. In 1605 he had moved along the street
into the parish of St. Laurence, Jewry, whose vestry
meetings he attended regularly from 1605 to 1627.
He was sometime churchwarden of St. Laurence, and
the church records mention him continually. To the
end of his life — indeed he died there — the house in
Milk Street was the centre of his business activities.
It is expressly mentioned as his residence in two
mortgages of land to him, dated respectively 1620
and 1628.
In 1600 (and long before that, probably) Lady Hicks
was making known her wish for a house in the country.
At the end of a letter (February 28th) to Michael,
which is all about a debt due from one John Littleton,
Baptist says, "I pray you comend me hartely to my
sister, and I wishe that my wife were as well placed
in the country as she is, but it avayles not to wishe
it." In 1610 he was evidently not feeling the pinch
of poverty so severely. In the county of his yeomen
ancestors he bought the manors of " Campden, Chip-
ping Campden, Broade Campden and Berington," from
Sir William Bond, Sir William Withens and others, as
the deed (dated March 14th, 1610) sets forth ; and he
began to build in Campden, to the south of the church,
the house over whose remains all Cotswold literature
of to-day grows eloquent. Eight acres the buildings
covered, and about £100,000 in the money of to-day the
frontage of the house alone is reported to have cost.
In 1613 he bought the living of Campden, and year
by year, as the Close Rolls show, he added, field by
field, to the size of his property.
96 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
In 1612 he won at cards from Sir Walter Cope
(so the story has survived, and no deed of purchase
is in the Close Rolls) a few acres of land in rural
Kensington, on the hill behind the parish church.
Here he built another house for himself, which was
in the country and yet not so far from the City as
the top of the Cotswolds. This mansion he called
Campden House, and it has given the name to the hill
itself, and to all the region that lies behind St. Mary
Abbotts, Kensington. He added to the property in
1616 by considerable purchases, from one Robert
Horseman, of the Manor House, Kensington, and
divers closes. A description of Campden House is in
Faulkner's " Kensington." It remained in the Noel
family until 1720. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century it was a famous ladies' school. Then a Mr.
Wolley bought it to hold a collection of Renaissance
furniture. It was burnt out in 1862, and a long
litigation took place with Insurance Offices. It was
to a certain extent restored, and, although shorn of
all its country-house adjuncts and divided into two
houses, one called Little Campden House, and the
other Lancaster Lodge, it still retains a seventeenth-
century dignity behind its garden wall in the midst
of a wilderness of red-brick flats and houses on the
top of the hill.
3. In Stow's " Survey of London " (edition 1633) is
" A brief Remembrance of such noble and charitable
deeds as have been done by the Right Honourable
Baptist, Lord Hicks, Viscount Campden, as well in" his
life as at his death ; Recorded to the Glory of God, his
owne honour and good example of others."
Here is a still briefer summary of the benefactions : —
To the Mercers' Company, besides other large gifts, he
gave half the great tithes of the parish of Woodhouse
in Northumberland for founding scholarships from St.
Paul's School at Trinity College, Cambridge. (It seems
probable that he had been educated at the school).
HICKS HALL.
The original Clerkenwell Sessions House.
(From a water-colour drawing.)
BAPTIST HICKS. 97
To the County of Middlesex, in 1612, he gave a
Sessions House. Up to that time the Middlesex
justices held their Sessions at the Castle (or Windmill)
Tavern, just outside Smithfield Bars in St. John's
Street, Clerkenwell. Hicks Hall, as it was called, was
built in the middle of St. John's Street (which is very
wide), and just at the point where St. John's Lane runs
into it. The Hall remained in use until 1782, when the
present Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green* was
Opened, and the old one was pulled down. The fine
dining-room chimney-piece, with its centre inscription,
was preserved, and is now in the magistrates' room in
the new building. In the same room is hanging a
water-colour sketch of the old hall ; but the portrait of
Sir Baptist by Paul Van Somer is now in the Sessions
House at Westminster. There is a plan of Hicks Hall
in the Guildhall library, which shows that it had an oval
central hall, and underneath this hall must have been
the oval room, depicted in the last plate of Hogarth's
" Progress of Cruelty," where the bodies of criminals
were publicly dissected. In Vols. II. and IV. of the
"Middlesex County Records," edited by Mr. J. C.
Jeaffreson, a detailed account of the history of the hall
will be found. Clerkenwell has immortalised its bene-
factor in its own way. In the narrow slum called St.
John's Lane, which leads from the site of Hicks Hall
to the old gateway of the priory of the Knights of St.
John of Jerusalem, is a gin palace called the Baptists
Head. It was once the house of Sir Thomas Forster
who died in 1612. It has been a public-house, with its
present name, ever since.
To the town of Campden Sir Baptist gave a market
house. He also built and endowed twelve almshouses.
" For pure craftsmanship in stone masonry it would be
hard to find anything finer than these noble almshouses,"
says one of the many modern Cotswold books. For
* Soon to be abandoned also.
C.F. H
98 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Campden Church he did much. He roofed the chancel,
built a gallery, made a window, walled the churchyard,
and gave a pulpit cloth and cushion, a ' brass faulcon,'
two communion cups, and a bell which is now No. 5 in
the peal and has the inscription : " Ex dono dignissimi
Baptiste Hicks Militis 1618." He left a sum of money
to the poor of Campden by will, and bought the impro-
priation of Winfrith in Dorsetshire to add to the value
of the living.
To the Parish of Kensington Lord Campden gave a
sum of money which, with money willed by his widow,
now forms the ' Campden Charities,' and brings in an
income of about £3,000 a year. He also put a window
into the chancel of the church.
To the Church of St. Laurence, Jewry, he gave, with
other benefactions, a stained-glass window, which was
destroyed in the Great Fire, and, in fact, to all churches
of any parishes where he had property (and they were
many) he gave generously.
Baptist Hicks was buried in Campden Church, and
his monument is there. It bears this inscription : —
To the Memorie of her deare and deceased husband
Baptist Lord Hicks, Viscount Campden, borne of a
worthy family in the citie of London ; who by the
blessing of God on his ingenious endeavours, arose
to ah ample estate, and to the foresaid degrees of
honour : and out of those blessings disposed to
Charitale uses, in his lifetime, a large portion to
the value of 1 0,000£.* Who lived religiously, vertu-
ously and generously, to the age of 78 years : and
died octo: 18: 1627.
* The "Episcopal Report" of the Gloucester Diocese in 1750 says
that Sir Baptist Hickes was a Turkish merchant, and he vowed, when
taken by the Moors, to lay out £500 in charity if he ever returned to
England. In a few hours afterwards he was retaken and he laid out
in charity over £10,000. If this is true (but it was written 150 years
afterwards) it is but a proof of what an incomplete history of Sir
Baptist's activities this chapter is.
BAPTIST HICKS. 99
Elizabeth Viscountesse Campden,
his deare consort, borne of the family of the
Mays, lived his life in all peace and contentment,
the space of 45 years, leaving issue by her said
lord and husband two daughters Juliana married
to Edward Lord Noel now Viscount Campden, and
Mary maried to sir Charles Morison knt and
Baronett, hath piously and carefully caused this
monument to be erected as a testimonie of their
mutuall love, where both their bodies may rest
together in expectation of a joyfull resurrection.
The inscriptions say much, and say it soberly, but the
two effigies beneath the overwhelming marble canopy
upheld by twelve marble pillars say vastly more. Here
are the figures of two idealists — they are both that :
their sculptured hands betray it no less than their
faces, and they have the aspect of divine survival.
Serenely they he, with regal bearing : they are the
fulfilment of their world. No other force than theirs
has dared to dominate this grey hill town : their
influence still sways it, for such fives are an inheritance,
are permanent. There is stuff in the legend of these
two, and over the locked iron gates of the chapel,
beneath the glowing colours of their ' arms,' Nondum
Metam in large lettering meets the eye of those who
pass by that way.
Outside the church, all along the south side of the
churchyard, is a high grey wall, and in the midst of it,
just opposite the chancel porch, is a built-up doorway.
From the one to the other a pathway once stretched,
and through the postern, from their palace on the other
side of it, my lord and my lady used to come to worship.
On the other side of the doorway to-day is the glimpse,
in an enchanted hour, of the barrier which ends all
experience, of the starting point of a greater adventure
— all that — but there is no actual palace any longer.
The tiny fragment that remains of the great facade stands
on the edge of the wide terrace, sentinel over glory
departed — glory of which the details of its stonework
h2
100 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and the generous dimensions of the grass terrace speak
graphically; and even were the fragment perished,
those more considerable remnants, the summer-houses
which flank the terrace, would be sufficiently eloquent
of all that once was ; it needs but to consider their
many chambers, their carved pillars and friezes, and
then to remember what a mere adjunct a summer-house
is. Below the great terrace, to right and left, are two
more terraces, and a fourth encloses, on the further side,
a sunken level, now an orchard, but once part of the
garden, "without which," as Francis Bacon said,
" buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks."
This garden must have been as princely as any Bacon
could have desired. Terrace below terrace there is ;
then comes a brook which, doubtless, had its part in
the scheme. Beyond the brook the ground rises again
and the horizon is a narrow one. On the other side of
the house, next the church, is a space which legend calls
the Italian Garden, and the remains of a courtyard,
with arched gateway and lodges. This gateway over-
tops the main street of Campden which goes downhill
from it. On the right are Baptist's almshouses ; on
the left is an inhabited house of considerable dimen-
sions, once part of Baptist's stables ; and so the street
goes on into the heart of the town, where it gets
wider, and there, in the middle of it — a drowsy,
empty street to-day — is the market house which Baptist
built.
" A Defiance to Death being the Funebrious Com-
memoration of the Right Honourable Baptist Lord
Hickes, Viscount Campden late deceased " — that is the
title of a book which Mr. John Gaule, rector of Campden,
published after his patron's death. At the sign of the
Blacke Beare in St. Paul's Churchyard it was to
be bought, the title-page says, and the contents consist
of the funeral sermon Mr. Gaule preached in Campden
Church on November 8th, 1629, and a number of
elegies in verse, one of them being in the form of an
ONE OF THE SUMMER HOUSES THAT FLANK THE TERRACE
THE MAKKET HOUSE OF CAMPUEN.
BAPTIST HICKS. 101
acrostic. They all belong to a taste which has had its
day : as a survival of that they are of interest. The
Dedication of the book is to " the truly honourable and
religious Ladies, Julian Viscountess Camden, and Mary
Lady Cooper." For Baptist was survived by no son :
he founded no family. These two women were all that
were left of five children who are entered in the
St. Mary Magdalene register of christenings.
1586 Julian Hicke was baptised, Julii tricesimo primo.
1587 Marie Hicke was baptized, Februarii undecimo.
1 590 Arthur Hicke was baptized, Octobris quarto.
1592 Elizabeth Hicke was baptized Septembris vicesimo quarto.
1 594 Baptist Hicke was baptized, Februarii nono.
It was in accordance with all the rules of infant
mortality of the day that the burial register should
subsequently account for the majority of these off-
spring.
1596 Arthur Hicks was buried, Augusti vicesimo octavo.
1599 Elizabeth Hicks was buried, Septembris septimo.
Baptist Hicks was buried Octobris ondecimo.
CHAPTER VIII.
MICHAEL HICKS, SECRETARY TO WILLIAM CECIL,
LORD BURGHLEY.
In 1828, after years of laborious plodding through
thousands of documents, Dr. Nares, Regius Professor
of History at Oxford, produced a ponderous " Life of
Lord Burghley," which Macaulay (if that need condemn
it) pronounced to be unreadable. But the truth is, of
course, that, except to the student, the details of the
long life of a statesman pure and simple cannot be any-
thing but wearisome — dust and ashes in the telling is the
tale of the weaving of the million strands of the web of
power. The earliest life of Burghley is an anonymous
one, and is printed in the "Desiderata Curiosa." At
the end of the article on him in the " Dictionary of
National Biography " is the remark that " a really satis-
factory biography is still a desideratum," and this perhaps
is what lately inspired Major Martin Hume to wrestle
again with the stupendous subject. In his " Life of
the Great Lord Burghley " he tries within the limit of
five hundred pages to extricate the man from the policy,
then to weld them together again and to make a
summary. A review of the book which appeared in
the Standard newspaper puts William Cecil into more
concrete form still : —
" It would not perhaps be quite true to say that
nothing is remembered by the public of to-day about
the greatest statesman of Elizabethan times but his
nod ; but it is certainly the fact that of all the crowd
of sailors, soldiers, adventurers, courtiers, poets and
thinkers who thronged the court of the Virgin Queen,
MICHAEL HICKS. 103
his figure is the most shadowy. According as the
policy of Elizabeth is regarded as mean, vacillating,
and heartless, only saved from shameful failure by
the prowess of Hawkins and Drake, or as a very
miracle of prudent statesmanship, so is the character
of William Cecil defamed or extolled; but it is
always the policy, not the man, which is blamed or
praised.
" The almost universal neglect of his memory is,
indeed, the best proof of his success in the course
which he set himself throughout life. Cecil was a
devotee of the via media ; he had an unerring instinct
for the line of least resistance ; he was a past master
of intellectual Jiu-jitsu. Only on rare occasions did
he set himself in direct opposition to the plans of the
sovereign, or of the adviser for the moment in power.
He would bend ; but he would neither break nor be
broken, and, like a steel spring of the finest temper,
the further he was bent, the greater his resistance.
He moves among the ruffling Court, a sober figure
in a fur-trimmed gown, aping none of the extrava-
gances of fashion,, though consumed with the desire
to be a great nobleman ; turning none of the deft
compliments which the age of euphemism — amid all
its greatness — kept as part of its stock-in-trade ; yet
always and everywhere his hand can be traced,
baffling the poor old Bishop of Aquila, Philip's
Ambassador, and the more dangerous Guzman,
hoodwinking de Foix, humouring, while he thwarted,
the vanities and amativeness of the Queen and
Leicester. With an adroitness too profound to be
easily recognised, he held apart Philip and the Guise
faction in Prance, and he brought about the Protes-
tant League of Europe. He laid the train effectually
fired by the heroes of the Armada struggle."
This is the master to whom Michael Hicks was
servant, and who — pile word on word vainly — still
104 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
eludes the imagination. He himself explains himself
to his son, and yet somehow the final word is not there.
The Queen, on an occasion, had called him a " froward
old fool," because unable to prevail with her at the
moment he had said he would " for ten days go take
physic " ! He writes : —
" My loving son Sir Robert Cecil Knt, I do hold
and will always, this course in such matters as I
differ in opinion from her Majesty. As long as I
may be allowed to give advice I will not change my
opinion by affirming the contrary, for that were to
offend God, to -Whom I am sworn first, but as a
servant I will obey her Majesty's Command, and no
wise contrary the same ; presuming that she being
God's chief minister here, it shall be God's will to
have her commandments obeyed — after that I have
performed my duty as a Councillor, and shall in my
heart wish her commandments to have such good
success as she intendeth. You see I am a mixture of
divinity and policy ; preferring in policy her Majesty
before all others on earth, and in divinity the King of
Heaven above all."
This is his Apologia pro vita sua, but it gives no clear-
cut edges to the great shade behind the Throne — in
whose shadow lived Michael Hicks, himself only to be
guessed at in the midst of a wilderness of ink and paper.
Surmises, misgivings, half -intuitions, all the dim instincts
of a moral borderland, wake to an ephemeral life in front
of the portraits of the Lord Treasurer and his secretary.
A remembrance of the portraits of Burghley makes the
half-smile with which Michael Hicks, from his wall at
Witcombe, listens to Gloucestershire twentieth-century
conversation quite translatable ; and, transversely, there
is no more curious comment on William Cecil extant,
than this face in its frame against its red background.
It is the face of one who has listened to little purpose at
doors all his fife, " peeping now and then at the presence
LORD BURGHLEY.
(From a picture by Mark Gerard in possession of the Hon. Mrs. Trollope.)
MICHAEL HICKS. 105
door, but never presuming to peer into the privy
chamber," as he says in a letter to his friend, Mr. Manners,
excusing himself that he has no matters of great novelty
to communicate.
The first fourteen or fifteen years of Michael's life
were spent in Cheapside, in the frame house at the street
corner. It is possible that he went to St. Paul's School
close by, but the register of scholars is incomplete
before 1748. His father died when he was fourteen,
and, immediately, was the accession of Elizabeth,
and the enthusiastic beginning of a new era for the
nation. Michael would have been in the Cheapside
crowd which acclaimed the woman of twenty-five, with
her long face, her intelligent eyes, and her red-gold hair.
The coronation and its attendant ceremonies meant
much business for the City mercers, and the widow
Juliana was not one who would let opportunities slide.
It was in the White Bear, over the sale of silks to the
court gentlemen, that those acquaintances were made
which were useful, when it came in later years, to the
matter of starting her eldest son in life. Next, there
was Juliana's move from the rooms over the shop to the
house on St. Peter's Hill and its greater luxuries, a life
in which there was more diversity and more colour, and
presently a second marriage.
Anthony Penn was too colourless in character to have
failed to be anything but a perfectly amiable stepfather
to the three boys. There is one letter from him to
Michael, dated March, 1561, and endorsed "Too Mychael
Hicke w t]1 Mr. Blyth in Trini Colledg in Cambridg,"
which is of quite exemplary vapidity : —
" Michael. I am glad to hear that both you apply
your learning and profit very well therein. The book
you wrote and sent to Mr. Osborn is very well liked
and much commended of him and all others that have
seen the same ; the print whereof will be yours, and
the continuance of your diligence must needs be to
106 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
your advancement ; and your tutor Mr. Blith hath
deserved by your forwardness great praise and com-
mendation — to whom I and your friends are much
bound for his care of you and the pains he hath taken
in your bringing up. And thus with my thanks for
your verses you sent me I wish you much increase
of virtue and learning from London the first of
March 1561 your loving Father Ant Penn."
The endorsement of this letter is a proof that Michael
was at Trinity, as all the published accounts of him
state, but the general admission register of the college
does not go back beyond 1635, and it looks as if he did
not take a degree, as his name does not appear on the
registers of the university. His tutor, Mr. Blithe, was
Fellow and Junior Dean in 1560.
After leaving college Michael was entered as a
student at Lincoln's Inn. This was probably done (as
was usual at the time) to give him a standing in London.
In the books of the Inn his name occurs three times : —
Admission Register, Vol. I., p. 73.
1564-5 March 20 Michael Hickes of London.
Black Books, Vol. I., p. 36 1
(under Pensioners' Accounts).
1567-8 Payments . . . £4 6s. 8d. to Mr. Hickes for victuals for many
gentlemen of the Middle Temple who came here to dance the Port Revels
with the gentlemen of this Inn (at the Pasification last before the Honour-
able Earl of Rutland).
Black Books, Vol. I., p. 402.
1577 February 11 Galled to the Bar . . . Hickes . . .
There is no evidence that Michael ever practised as
a lawyer, but he began at once (under his mother's
guidance at first we may be sure) that judicious system
of investment of money, which, although it never made
him the very rich man that his brother Baptist became,
yet enabled him, before he died, to add a Norman castle
to the lands his father had left him in Gloucestershire.
MICHAEL HICKS. 107
As early as 1565 there is an indenture in the Close
Rolls by which Nicholas Beaumont of Coleoverton, co.
Leicester esquire, mortgages to Mighell Hickes of
Davies Inne in Holborn co. Middx. gent., an annuity
of £40 going out of the manor of Coleoverton.
There is no evidence that the capital for this investment
was raised (as often, and quite openly in later years)
from any suitor to my lord, for it is quite uncertain
when it was that Michael was attached to Burghley's
household — at first, for seven years, in a vague and
insignificant capacity, and then as one of the two
secretaries of the minister. Among the MSS. are the
drafts of two letters to Burghley in Michael's hand-
writing, but, as drafts, they are undated. They are
endorsed "Ires to ye 1. Trer by myself." They are
immensely long, and Cecil must have been immensely
bored with them, but they are an ingenuous revelation,
and the first is given in its entirety : —
" May it please your good Lordship. I have now
been attendant upon your lordship for the space of
8 years and upwards, of the which I have spent a
twelvemonth and somewhat more in the place of one
of your lp secretaries : during which latter time, your
lp having often occasion to use me in services incident
to the place, 1 observed sometimes, but of late
especially, that your lp had a hard conceit of me, as
of one that neither conceiveth with that dexterity, nor
yet dispatcheth with that celerity as is required in the
execution of that service. For the which cause, though
not forbidden by your lp, yet have I forborne, to my
great grief, to enter into your lp chamber, or to offer
or to intermeddle in suits according to my accustomed
manner. The alteration of which your lp good opinion
once conceived of me (?) because I am afraid it may
draw with it also some declination of your lp honour-
able favour to my irrecoverable discredit (which I
trust I neither have or ever will deserve) I have,
108 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
presumed under your lp favourable correction to offer
unto your lp herein a plain and true declaration of the
state of my case, committing both myself and it to
your lp grave and gracious consideration.
" First, my very good L., I protest it was neither any
benefit, or preferment which I might receive thereby,
that moved me to desire to serve your lp, but only
an ardent and zealous affection I had to be near
about your lp ; by the opportunity whereof I might
increase my small knowledge and better my slender
judgment.
"Secondly, albeit I desired to be in your lp
presence by the occasion of my service, yet I never
made suit for the place ; albeit I do not but think,
and also acknowledge it with my most dutiful thanks,
that the good report given by some of me to your lp,
did the rather move your lp, both to conceive the
better of me, and to do me so special a favour.
" Thirdly, touching the errors and oversights com-
mitted by me, and noted at sundry times by your lp,
(of the which I could call to my remembrance either all
or the most part) I could, with your lp honourable
favour and patience, though not altogether excuse
them, yet in some sort qualify the imputations laid
upon them.
"And, my very good 1., in my good opinion, I
think it a hard matter for a man of good pregnancy,
and otherwise well qualified in such a multitude and
multiplicity of causes, to keep stroke with the sharp-
ness of your lp conceit — or with his pen that hath
served so many years as your lp Secretary — except it
please your lp to vouchsafe to allow unto him some
reasonable time to acquaint himself with the course
and sundry natures of your lp affairs.
" But, lastly and specially, my hope is wherein also
consists my chiefest comfort, that, neither your lp
hath noted, neither yet that it hath been informed to
your lp, that I have behaved myself undutifully
MICHAEL HICKS. 109
towards your lp, or insolently towards suitors, either
by careless neglecting, or a needless protracting or
by any unjust and unhonest exacting for their dis-
patch ; whereby I might give offence to them, bring
slander to the place, or dishonour your lp.
"The consideration whereof, together with this,
that my enabling to the place proceeded from your
lp good opinion, and my calling to the same from
your honourable favour (whereof I make mention, as
well to acknowledge the deeper and straighter bond
of my thankfulness towards your lp, as also, in some
good ' congruency ' as I think, to excuse or cover at
the best my insufficiency) may give occasion to your
lp to consider, that your lp hath rather been deceived
in me than by me ; and therefore, howsoever your lp
good opinion touching ability shall cease and deter-
mine, yet I have not deserved to be deprived of the
sweet comfort of your honourable favour.
" And therefore, I do in most humble and earnest
manner, beseech your good lp to take my poor credit
into your favourable protection ; if not in regard to
myself, yet in respect of my poor old mother, who,
in her natural love and care, foretasting, and, per-
adventure, accounting of the profit and preferment
that might befall me, by the example of others that
have gone before me — when she shall find her expec-
tation frustrate in both, it cannot but make a very
deep impression of grief in her heart, and, with all
hazard, the impairing of her love and withdrawing
her good meaning from me ; for that she will never
be brought to think that this could ever have
happened without some notable evil desert on my
part towards your lp. The which to shun and avoid,
if it shall please your lp of your honourable favour to
make trial of me for some further time, employing
me only in services of less difficulty and weight, and
which may abide more leisurable dispatch, I hope I
shall make myself fitter for your lp greater causes,
110 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and therein acknowledge myself extraordinarily bound
to your lp.
" But, if so be that your lp have conceived such a
firm and settled opinion of my insufficiency, as that
your lp thinks that I neither am, nor can be, made
fit to discharge this service to your lp good liking
and ' contention ; ' and that your lp have intention
to make choice of another ; yet, then at the least I
humbly beseech your lp (which I trust your lp will
not deny unto me) that I may continue and have
access to your lp as heretofore I have had, as ordinary
occasions shall offer ; and that it will please your lp
to use me sometimes in employment agreeable with
that capacity and discretion which your lordship con-
ceives to be in me ; until I may apprehend some
good occasion or honest colour (excuse ?) to retire
myself like a hurt deer out of the herd, and betake
myself to some private life in the country, more
answerable, I confess, with my unstirring disposition,
than either the Court or public causes.
" But howsoever it shall please your lp to dispose
of me, such is, and always hath been the reverent
and zealous affection which I have borne to your lp,
as I will continue a most faithful honest and dutiful
servant towards your lp during your fife.
" And so, praying to Almighty God to protect
your lp with His mighty power and to direct your lp
with His , Holy Spirit, and to give you many happy
and healthful years, to the good and comfort of her
Majesty, and the good government of the common-
wealth, I most humbly take my leave."
This servility is really rather attractive ! Between
his old mother's determined ambition for him, and
Cecil's impatience with his obvious incompetence, poor
Michael was indeed between the devil and the deep
sea ! Perhaps he was not quite so incompetent as it
was Burghley's policy to let him believe — or, it is much
MICHAEL HICKS. ill
more likely that Burghley was jfar too pre-occupied to
have any policy concerning him at all, and did not, as a
matter of fact, find him of much duller edge than any
other of his tools. At all events, for the time, it was
all a black tragedy for Michael. My lord was evidently
quite unmoved by the pathos of the lengthly appeal,
and another had to be drawn up : —
" May it please your good L. having presumed to
trouble your lp so lately with so long a letter, I will
now only be bold to remember and renew to your lp
my former request. For since it seems your lp is
settled in opinion touching my inability for the dis-
charge of this service, howsoever I may otherwise
seem fit in my own fancy, or be ' enabled ' in the
judgment of any other ; yet I wholly submit myself
herein to your lp grave censure without any further
allegation or argument.
" Ingenium vultu stat que credit que tuo. And
albeit, haply (happely) I might, by means and medi-
tation, through the facility of your lp honourable
and inclinable nature, win from yr lp this unde-
served favour ; yet, in this prejudice of your lp
conceit, whereby every day shall bring with it new
occasions of dislike, as it were a mere folly in me to
desire it. So, for my private respect or particular
favour, to require a place of such publick service as
this is, wherin want of knowledge, conceit, and
quickness in him that is to execute it, may be pre-
judicial and hurtful to such a number and of all
sorts of persons — to be served by a man of slow
dispatch and of slender understanding, were a matter
in my opinion both against reason and conscience.
And therefore, myself being discovered in your lp
wisdom to be such a one, I may not think myself
hardly dealt withal by your lp to be put from it;
albeit I cannot but think my fortune to be very hard
that I ever entered into it. For, the case standing
with me as it doth, except your lp shall have an
112 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
honourable regard to me, it cannot be avoided but
that I shall grow into great contempt with men of
my own coat, into obloquy and discredit with the
world, and into a secret suspicion of some bad desert
amongst my acquaintance and best friends. Where-
upon must likewise needs ensue to myself these
two grevious and bitter effects — SHAME and
SORROW. In which extremity and perplexity, if
I have recourse to myself only, I cannot find or
bethink me of any other remedy, than of SILENCE
to cover the one as I can, and of PA TIENCE to
digest the other as 1 may. So again, when I cast
mine eye upon your lp honourable disposition " (and
so on) ..." And therefore my very honourable
good Lrd I do once again most humbly and earnestly
beseech your lp, not only to continue me in the
number of those upon whom yr lp vouchsafeth your
honourable favour, but also to continue me in some
such service about your lp in ordinary suits, as I
may have access to your lp in fit times and upon
meet occasions : whereby the world may see that I
am not altogether discarded, and, my fall being by
degrees, and not all at once, may redound to my
less discredit and disgrace. And this do I require,
and with the greater confidence hope to obtain at
your lp hands, for that I may boldly say (because I
say it truly) that, how far short soever I come touch-
ing my sufficiency, of those that have served your lp
in this place before, yet neither they, nor any that
shall come after me, ever had, or shall have, truer
heart and affection towards your lp, or a greater
desire, or more earnest and careful endeavour to
please your lp, than I had, or hope to hold during
my fife. And so, referring my case to your lp
honourable consideration "... etc., etc.
The presumption is that the sole answer to this
rigmarole of a profoundly anxious soul was a con-
temptuous form of the historical nod. At least no
MICHAEL HICKS. 113
other answer exists, nor does there exist any sort or
kind of letter from Burghley to his secretary, and the
fleeting glimpses we get of Michael in the Cecil papers
are rare — amazingly rare when the mountainous mass of
manuscript is considered; for in half the "affairs"
(there were two secretaries), at least, Michael must have
played his underling's part. In the Historical MSS.
Commission Calendar of the Cecil papers the following
are examples of entries where he is mentioned : —
1593. Sept. 10. M. Brandaye to Mr. Hicks one of the Secretaries
of the Lord Treasurer, re warrant for conveyance of munition to
Brittany.
1595. March 28. Earl of Oxford to Mr. Hicks re the custom of
tin.
1597. Nov. 10. Hicks on the Committee touching monopolies.
1597. Nov. 15. Hicks on the Committee touching the subsidy.
After all it is of trivial bricks like these that the
house of history is reared — it is no use being impatient
with them. Michael's whole life, metaphorically, was
that of the bricklayer's "labourer" handing the bricks
to the master-hand which laid them. Yet the position
must have had its more poignant moments too — there
was intercourse sometimes to be had with agreeable
rogues.
Among the domestic State papers is a series
of twenty-one documents relating to one Denis
O'Rowghane, an ex-priest, whom Sir John Perrot,
when Lord Deputy of Ireland, had employed as a spy.
O'Rowghane used to extort money from Papists by
warrants on which he had forged Sir John Perrot's
name. Por this he was imprisoned by Sir John in
Dublin Castle. When Sir William Fitzwylliams
succeeded Perrot as Lord Deputy, O'Rowghane pro-
duced a letter purporting to be from Perrot to Philip
of Spain, and offered to prove that he had been the
bearer of it. The letter promised that Philip should be
made master of England and Ireland if Perrot were
allowed to keep Wales for himself! Fitzwylliams
C.F. 1
114 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
sent the letter to Burghley in 1590. It was manifestly
a forgery, and it was said that Fitzwylliams, had he
wished, could have proved it to be so. A letter of
commission was sent from the Privy Council to the
Bishop of Meath and others directing them to take
into their custody the body of Sir Denis Rowghane,
priest, to examine him relative to his accusations
against Sir John Perrot, and to transmit the result of
their examinations and Rowghane himself over to
England for further proceedings. One chamber of the
double Gate-house of Westminster was used as the
Bishop of London's prison for " clerks convict." Here
the priest was locked up, and here, on a summer
day, came Michael stepping importantly, a list of
" Interrogatories " in his hand. Of the futility of the
interview he writes thus to his master in a letter dated
June 11th, 1690 :—
" He (O'Rowghane) is nothing abashed or dismayed
with anything objected therein against him, but
laughing oftentimes (as it were heartily) seems to have
in derision the matter brought against him as vain
and false, and relies much upon the incompetence both
of the Commissioners and some of the deponents."
He relied also, it would seem, a good deal on his own
epistolary eloquence. Two letters of his to Burghley
are endorsed in the Treasurer's handwriting " a very
vayn Ire " and " a fryvoloss he." There are other
letters also, in which he says that he is most desirous
to see the Queen herself personally, that he may con-
fess all his wicked pretences against her. Of the end
of the matter (as regards O'Rowghane himself) there is
no record. Only the impression is left that in morals
he was no worse than his betters, and that his Irish
gaiety was rather attractive.
Mr. Francis Donee, keeper of the manuscripts in
the British Museum, who catalogued the Lansdowne
MICHAEL HICKS. 115
papers in 1819, adds to one of them (dated 1609, eleven
years after Burghley's death) a note to the effect that
there is much to justify suspicions that neither Michael
nor his two masters were altogether innocent on the
score of corruption. The accusation is at once elusive
and too arbitrary, because, while it is pretty plain that
both Robert Cecil and Michael Hicks took bribes,
there is no evidence in the Lansdowne letters that
Burghley ever did. That he was silently cognisant of
the fact that others could be bought, and were
bought, is another matter. When Dean Nowell of
St. Paul's wrote to ask good Mr. Hicks to do him
a very small favour with my lord, my lord may
never have known that a small token accompanied the
request in the shape of an image of Edward VI. (" the
Josias of Englande ") ; but that he was as blind as his
son and his secretary hoped he was when a certain
Dr. Tobie Mathew was translated from the deanery
to the bishopric of Durham is not likely — it is very
unlikely. Tobias Mathew, who was educated at Christ
Church, Oxford, was the son of a John Mathew of
Bristol (of Welsh lineage), who, perhaps, like many
others, had only conformed to the new religion under
pressure of the penal laws. Strype (in his " Annals ")
makes this inference because, after Tobias took orders
in the Anglican Church, his relation, Archdeacon
Calfhill of Colchester, wrote to Sir William Cecil that
he was bound by all honest means to prefer his cousin
Tobie as well in respect of his abilities as that he had
followed his advice in entering "intothe ministry" against
the goodwill of his father and mother and other his able
friends. Abilities which led him from preferment to
preferment Mathew undoubtedly possessed. He was
in turn Archdeacon of Wells, President of St. John's
College Oxford, and Canon and then Dean of Christ
Church ; when he married a lady who was the daughter
of William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, and who was
also the widow of Archbishop Parker's son. Mistress
i2
116 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Frances Mathew's lengthy epitaph in York Minster
records that "A Bishop was her Father, An Arch-
bishop her Father-in-law ; She had four Bishops her
Brethren ; * And an Archbishop her husband " — for
Archbishop of York is what Tobie Mathew became,
notwithstanding that the Queen, never reconciled to
clerical marriages, " stuck for a great while," says
Strype, at the aspirant's wife and at his youth, before
she would give him the deanery of Durham, which
proved to be the first step towards it. Under the wing
of the Earl of Leicester Mathew hung about the Court
for some considerable time before the matter of the
deanery was settled in his favour, and Strype declares
that before he left, Burghley, "according to his grave
and godly way, gave him much good counsel, for his
sure and good behaviour of himself and discharging of
his duty in that place." If the Lord Treasurer ever
did have a garrulous lapse of this sort, he atoned for it
when the bishopric of Durham became vacant some
years later. That hour found Tobie Mathew at Court
once more, and making use this time of Burghley's
secretary for the furtherance of his wishes ; and it is
not far-fetched to wonder if a common Bristol ancestry
was the means of bringing the two together. Three
letters are extant, and the first of them, from Michael
to the dean, is an answer to a letter accompanying one
for Burghley, and which the Lord Treasurer seems to
have perused with perfect stolidity and to have handed
back to his secretary without a word : —
" Sir. Upon the receipt of your letter yesterday
unto me with another directed to my Lord, because I
knew I was to come to London I required your man
to come to me for an answer sometime in the after-
noon ; which I do not understand that he did. But,
because it were both an ungentle and an unjust part
to receive a remembrance from you and not to
* Brothers-in-law.
MICHAEL HICKS. 117
remember you, I have sent my man herewith to let
you understand that yesterday, in the forenoon, I
delivered your letter to my Lord at a fit and con-
venient time. After the deliberate reading whereof
his lp gave it to me again into mine own hand,
whereby it is, and shall be, kept from the view of
any common eye, or any eye besides. I doubt not
but my L. doth well apprehend the matter therein
contained, and doth so well conceive of the writer
as there will not want his good furtherance as he
hath already his good word. For myself, I am but
as one that giveth aim, and can but wish well and
hope well where preferment is so well deserved. I
will not say better than some that I seek it not Quia
bonum opus, sed quia magnus bonos, because com-
parisons are odious. Sir, I know you have a very
honourable friend though not mentioned, yet I think
meant in your letter ; and of me you shall have a
poor friend, ready to hold the candle to give light to
the game whilst others play it. From my lodging in
the Strand the first of Sept. 1594."
The dean replied to these somewhat groundless
assurances with urgency ; and the direct appeal to
Burghley having failed, he responds cautiously to
Michael's hint about an " honourable friend," but
would rather confer with Michael in person than
commit himself on paper. Michael, he remarks, shall
have no cause to repent his part in the matter.
" Sir. You have by your letter satisfied me greatly
every way, not only by signifying the delivery of mine
so conveniently to his Lordship, and by promising to
suppress the same from the sight of others, but by
putting me in good hope withal that I need not
despair of some effect. Howbeit, but that causes of
this quality- be not commonly accelerated over fast, I
should be very sorry of your so speedy departure from
the Court and 'so slow return : for that by the one I
118 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
cannot well speak with you myself, and by the other
I shall happly, or rather unhappily, be disappointed of
my most desire : because I think it is expected that I
should not here or hereabout make so long abode as
to be here at your coming back. Which to me is so
much grief the more for, that when I am once gone
homeward, I shall be far off to remember others of
myself, and to be certified how things in time are
like to work. Indeed, I know I have been, and am,
exceedingly beholden and bounden to that honourable
Councillor whom both you and I do mean ; but I
would not doubt to increase his favour and further-
ance by your own good and friendly solicitation in
case (i.e., if only) I could confer with you before your
journey or mine. To which purpose I would willingly
resort tol your Lodging were you not upon your way,
as it were, already. Play how they will, I pray you
look on at my request ; shoot as they can, let me
desire you to give aim. It may be, by our sight or
their oversight, somewhat may be effected to serve
the turn. But, sine sic sine secus, I am very glad to
have taken this occasion to enter acquaintance with
you ; whereof I hope you shall have no cause to repent
you. And I heartily request you that it may con-
tinue and increase on your part, as on mine I will by
all means show myself desirous and ambitious to
nourish it by all the good offices or pleasures I can do
you. So if it be not my good hap any more to see
you now, Sir I take a long leave of you, with a
thousand thanks and commendations. Your ass.
Lo. friend Tobie Matthew.* At the Court 1 Sept.
1594."
The sequel, a letter from Robert Cecil to Michael,
shows that the " honourable Councillor " was Robert
Cecil himself. He had been made a member of the Privy
*rLike all other names of the period a letter more or less was
immaterial.
MICHAEL HICKS. 119
Council in 1591, and at this time (1594) was doing the
work of the Secretary of State, although the office itself
was vacant because Essex, the favourite of the moment,
wished it for his proUg£ Davison. Like most of Robert
Cecil's hastily - expressed, hastily - written and often
illegible letters, it does not entirely explain itself, and
part of the letter has been deliberately mutilated. It is
impossible not to make inferences when Robert is filled
with so much anxiety that his particular interest in the
affair shall be concealed from the Queen and others, and
when he is obviously annoyed that it has come to his
father's ears. It was a curious part that Michael had to
play too — he was in the service of the father and in the
confidence of the son. This was a small enough affair,
of course, but it is symbolical of the whole political
atmosphere.
" Mr. Hycks, Things past are known unto you,
and the . . . difficulties were ; the more content-
ment now to r(emember) them being overcome.
That which is to come I pray you take care of, which
is especially that I may not be known to have any
particular dealing in the matter, more than out of the
conceit I had that his words justly entitled him to
this Fortune. For it will disable me to do him or
others pleasure hereafter if my access to her Majesty's
ear, which now I so used as her Majesty cannot
suspect that I looked to anything but her service —
which as I profess and protest I did, and do most of
anything in all my recommendations, so do I not deny
to myself the liberty that when other things concur
my friends are not nearest to me in my wishes and
honest endeavours. The Party named ... is
surely a worthy man, and one of whom I ever will be
loathe to be misjudged ; and therefore do only take
care of this, that with silence he be content to enjoy
my true friendship, which will be most honourable for
him and most agreeable to my humour. I hear that
120 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
divers about my L. do tell him of my furtherance in
it. You can guess how it comes but by overhearing
me at one time when I was most in danger, for other-
wise more than that I cannot avoid their speeches to
me. I have not discovered any particular divided
affection, more than that I knew not where of such a
pair any one might be elected and no choice to be
discommended. I refer all other things to yourself,
and if your discretion fail me I shall alter my faith,
and so scribbling hastily I will send it you unread
over, because I know it shall be buried. The eyes of
men will now be more vigilant and their tongues more
frequent in the exercise of discourse of his proceedings
in the cradle of this fortune than it will ever be in any
time after when he hath passed over three or four
months discharging the place. Your friend
" Ro. Cecyll.
" If there be any secret cause to be dealt between
us only I will have you used, but for common cour-
tesies and ordinary occasions let him not make me a
stranger for he is honest and of good nature, yet in all
things I would make some difference."
There is no further reference to the matter in the
Lansdowne MSS., but among the Cecil papers is a
letter to Burghley from the firmly-seated Bishop of
Durham. It is dated May 3rd, 1596. On the
14th of the preceding month, owing to Elizabeth's
vacillations, Calais had fallen into the hands of the
Spaniards, and her policy had received a severe blow.
The bishop writes to the Lord Treasurer to say that
the death of the late Lord Lieutenant of Durham and
the loss of Calais " marvellously embolden the hearts of
the bad effected."
" Might I entreat you for a warrant dormant for
such impost as you usually allowed my predecessors,
and myself last year ? I should the seldomer trouble
MICHAEL HICKS. 121
you, and be the more beholden ; not meaning thereby
in anywise to lessen any officer's yearly fees accus-
tomed. Wherein if I might obtain your favour, I
would appoint one to attend to know your pleasure.
At Mr. Maynard's hands or Mr. Hick's sometime this
term or next."
A complete biography of the prelate cannot be given
here, nor must anything be said about his still more
vivacious and versatile son (of the same name) whowasthe
" Alter Ego " of Francis Bacon, and who died a Jesuit.
The Bishop's portrait hangs in the dining-room at
Bishopsthorpe to-day, and he left a characteristic diary
behind him, which has been edited by a Mr. Thomas
Wilson. Accounts of him appear in various Yorkshire
Histories, and a certain view of him is presented in the
interesting "Life of Sir Tobie Matthew," his son, recently
put together by Mr. Arnold Harris Matthew. He
became Archbishop of York in 1606, and his " cheerful
sharpness in discourse" is said to be attested by the
story of his declaration that he exchanged his post for
want of grace. He died in 1628, and is buried in the
Lady Chapel of the Minster under a black and white
marble monument.
He thus survived by many years William and Robert
Cecil and Michael Hicks. Lord Burghley died in 1598.
He had had bad health nearly all his life, and was a martyr
to gout, for which defiant malady his friends were ever
suggesting remedies. A stewed sow nine days old, and
a hedgehog stewed in rosewater are among some recom-
mendations of Lord Audley in 1553. Twenty years
later Lord Shrewsbury confidently praises " oyle of
staggs blood," a German doctor prescribes medicated
slippers ; and very many other nostrums are to be found
in the Cecil and Lansdowne manuscripts. Allusions to
Burghley 's health are wedged into many a State docu-
ment, and into the letters which his secretary received
and wrote. " I dread in my soul it will overthrow him
122 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
in health," says his son to Michael, writing in his urgent,
scrappy way about some bad news that had to be com-
municated in 1592. " Freshly pinned with the gout
and unable to write," says Michael to Robert in 1596,
after the news had come of the fall of Calais. A year
later Michael was at his house of Ruckholt in Essex,
and had a letter from one John Norton at Court.
" My Lord is still lame of the gout and keepeth his
chamber, but now are good hope of amendment if
please God to send fair weather : whereof 1 wish you
part for the better finishing of your bowling alley and
your walks, I have sent you herewith the pattern you
desire."
This letter is dated August 2nd, and a year and a day
later, the Lord Treasurer, lying in his bed at Cecil
House in the Strand, took leave of his children, prayed
for the Queen, handed his will to his steward, turned
his face to the wall, and died as he had lived, silent,
self-controlled, dignified to the last.
CHAPTER IX.
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL.
The evidences of Robert Cecil's venality do not
condemn him. Why should they ? The traffic in
offices was covertly recognised. " If Portington think
to get it without cost he is I find deceived," said
Robert to Michael in a letter of 1589 respecting an
applicant for a small post. And in 1609, when Robert,
Earl of Salisbury was Lord Treasurer, if he himself (and
that is not certain) was beyond the need of adding to
his income in such trivial ways, his secretary Michael
was not ; and Michael's family, it is evident, knew them
as a perfectly justifiable source of revenue.
Sir Charles Moryson of Caishobery,* Hertfordshire,
the writer of the two letters given here, was the first
husband of Michael's niece, Mary, the second surviving
daughter of his brother Baptist. The nephew-in-law
writes thus : —
" Worthy Uncle. If my leisure would let me, I
acknowledge it would become me to begin with
excuses before I make requests : for now you never
receive my letters but upon occasion : you may think
I would not write at all but for necessity : but such
is my extreme haste as that I have no more time
than in brief to acquaint you how there came one to
me at my last being in London who desired to buy a
place of you in the ' Lycens of Alienation Offices.'
His payment will be good, and he will give as much
as another if you have not promised it already. I
* Cassiobuiy.
124 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
desire to hear from you because I may put the
suitor out of pain. Thus, remembering my service
to my aunt, I rest yours in any service to Command
" C. MORYSON.
"I have been much laboured to move you in a
great suit, but you shall not know it till I meet you.
A thousand pounds he offers, I know you may
easily do it."
Another letter quickly followed : —
" Good uncle. Fearing least my coming to
London may be uncertain, and when I do come my
stay not long, and the while I am there uncertain to
find you ; I have resolved out of all these doubts to
send you these ; whereby you may be both acquainted,
as also a little digest the business before I meet you.
Shortly these : — Meeting this summer with Mr.
Doctor Wyatt one of the King's Chaplains, he began
to ask me (being in familiar talk) how I thought he
might get the Deanery of Salisbury ; that being the
place which of all the gifts in England he desired.
To which I answered that although he had named
many great friends, yet, Sacra pecunia cuncta, and he
was as well to pay as to pray. Whereupon the
consultation grew to this, that he indeed did desire,
having placed himself in the country, to use some
friend which might effect the premises ; he not to be
troubled. Then did I tell him how I thought I
might persuade you to deal for him, but I did think
it would be a suit of great trouble, as, by so much,
the more charge. To which he replied, I will give
him a thousand pounds for his pains so I may have it.
Now if you can do it I will bring him to you some-
time at London, when you may speak of more
particulars. Thus, wishing all happiness to your
motion, which I think you may bring to pass, I rest,
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 125
with remembrance of all respects to my worthy aunt,
your very loving nephew to be commanded
" C. Morrison.
" Mr. Doctor Gurdon is now possessed of the place,
but is not likely to continue by reason of his years."
These letters are both dated October, 1609, and there
is virtuous satisfaction in recording that Dean Gurdon
lived for ten years after Sir Charles so confidently
disposed of him, and that when the place had to be
filled up it was given to John Williams, afterwards
Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of York.
These evidences of barter of places (and there are
others just as positive) make one inclined to suspect
motives behind the simplest actions, but after all there
are numbers of letters which seem to say that Michael
was often content to be a kind intermediary without
thought of advantage. He was asked to intermeddle in
very varied matters.
Doctor John Bull* pray shim to use his influence to
change his name " in favour " of his child ; unaware
that it would become famous !
Mr. Vincent Skynner writes urgently to Michael
about a Doctor Bright who has invented the art of
shorthand and who desires some " effectual fruit of his
labour," and thinks there should be no difficulty in
obtaining it considering how some other States
encourage their own people and reward inventors.
Mr. Skynner himself thinks it a great matter to put so
much into so small a compass and to be able to take a
speech from any man's mouth as he delivers it ; he
encloses the Epistle to Titus in shorthand as an example,
and it certainly looks, to the uninitiated, precisely like
the shorthand of to-day. Yet it is likely enough that
Dr. Bright went to his grave unrewarded.
The Cecil household made use of Michael too. He
intercedes, with many excruciating puns, on behalf of a
* See Dictionary of National Biography.
126 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
musician named Oxford who had had the temerity to
marry without leave, and when Lord Salisbury was at
last made Lord Treasurer, he became ambassador in
many causes !
" Mr. Gerrard thinks your Lordship will now have
a gentleman of your horse. If your Lordship shall
think him meet for the place, he will accept it with
his most humble thanks, and seek no further, and
serve your Lordship with all duty, diligence, and
trustiness.
" White, your lordship's cook, humbly prays your
lordship to bestow on him the place of the cook for
the Star Chamber, which belongs to your lordship to
give. He will acknowledge it as an honourable
favour, and hopes to discharge it very sufficiently
without any hindrance to your lordship's service
otherwise.
" The late Lord Treasurer bestowed on his steward
the writing and keeping of the book of Imposts of
wines. If it please your Lordship to bestow the
place on your lordship's steward now, he shall be
much bound to you for your favour in it, and I think
can very sufficiently discharge it.
"Mathew Davies (sometimes my man for XII.
years whilst I served my Lord your Lordship's father,
and for these 3 or 4 years a Messenger of the
Chamber) very earnestly besought me (which I have
very unwillingly yielded unto) to move your Lord-
ship, that whereas your lordship is to appoint one to
be your messenger, that it would please your lordship
to grant it to him. If your lordship shall think him
worthy, or if it please your lordship to bestow it
upon any of your own servants (that shall not
execute it) he will give him good contentation for it.
" This is written but to give your lordship overture
of their desires, which in modesty they are backward
to do for themselves."
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 127
" By whose benefit I am here," writes a certain
William Beecher, in 1606, from Paris to Michael ; and
discharges his debt of gratitude by a long letter of
gossip about the Court of Henry IV. with apologies
that he has not news to send of a more important kind
to one " who has been so long trained in the forge of
our English affairs."
" But immediately after my coming happened that
short broil of Sedan, since the composing whereof, the
king (though he were never thought greatly disposed
to enter into new troubles) hath been observed to be
more averse than before from those actions which
might engage him in foreign hostility ; as having
retired his own pieces and thereby secured his quiet
at home. This hath made him fall back into his
pleasures and delights more resolutely, though with a
more uncertain and disdainful appetite as made weak
by years. So as the news of this Court are the
King's Loves and change of Mistresses, which some
compare with the practice of Lewis the XL, who,
growing old, because he would maintain himself in
talk and reputation, did nought but change his
officers and many times cut off their heads ; which
the King doth more plausibly by changing his
mistresses. Among the rest, after many treaties,
they say he is fallen in agreement with the gentle-
woman that was in England with Madame de
Beaumont, whom some call Mademoiselle de L'Am-
bassade, and that he is to give her 30,000 crowns and
a pension of 4000°° a year. And that which more
confirms the matter is that immediately Monsieur de
Beaumont is nominated Ambassador to Rome, though
the other's time comes not yet out this twelve-
month. . . . Here was lately, upon very slight
occasion, a great quarrel between the Prince of Conde"
and the D. of Nevers ; the prince coming to knock
at the Queen's cabinet, where the Duke was before,
128 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
was jested at by the Duke, who protesteth that he
knew him not. The other next day challenged him
the field but they were both taken in the field by the
King's order, who made them immediately friends.
They say he told the Prince that he must not be so
light in his actions, though this in him were pardon-
able, as proceeding from courage, and that he had
rather see him dead than to hear that he were one
that would endure injuries : though afterwards he
made a jest and scoff of their quarrel somewhat to
their discontent. And indeed they who do other-
wise admire him for his wisdom do tax him for a
little incontinency of his tongue."
Middle-class British William Beecher proses thus
about the old age of Henry de Navarre. Michael
Hicks can hardly have needed the letter of the good
William to inform him at this time of day that Henry
was amorous and free of tongue ! For in 1606 the
day was over, or far spent, for all the chief actors of the
European drama of the sixteenth century. Elizabeth
was dead, Philip II. was dead, the House of Valois was
extinct, Navarre was near his death too. On all their
fevered ambitions, policies and deeds Time's cooling
hand was already laid. Burghley, of course, was dead,
and Robert Cecil also was soon to lay down the reins
from his weary hands.
Robert Cecil's overmastering weariness at the end of
life marks the whole difference in temperament between
father and son. The house of Cecil had for ambition
the building up of itself on firm foundations — that
passion swayed Robert as strongly as it had ruled
Burghley himself, and with it he had inherited the
desire for clean hands withal. " 'Tis a great task to
prove one's honesty and yet not mar one's fortune. . . .
I am pushed from the shore of comfort," says Robert
in a letter to Sir James Harrington, which is quoted
in Burke's " Peerage." " My life full of cares and
SIR ROBERT CECIL.
(From a picture at Hatfield House,)
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 129
miseries desireth to be dissolved," was his tale on his
death-bed. Perpetual consciousness of the 'means'
stole from him all pleasure in the ' end.' Yet he
would forego neither the one nor the other. His father,
without losing sight of either, had the sublime talent
of the deaf ear when they clashed too thunderously.
Robert's self-consciousness meant a life of perpetual
tension for him, and it had its physical cause. He
had a slight curvature of the spine and was under
middle height, and he was intensely sensitive about the
deformity. In a scurrilous lampoon of the day his
" wry neck, crooked back, and splay foot " are, of
course, exaggerated ; but his cousin Francis Bacon wrote
a cruel essay which gives a certain view of him perfectly.
"Deformed persons are commonly even with nature,
for, as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by
nature, being, for the most part (as the Scripture saith)
void of natural affection, and so they have their revenge
on nature. Certainly there is a consent between the
body and the mind, and where nature erreth in the one
she ventureth in the other — Ubi peccat in uno, pericli-
tatur in altero. . . . Who never hath anything fixed in
his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a per-
petual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself
from scorn ; therefore all deformed persons are extreme
bold. First, as in their own defence, as being exposed
to scorn . . . they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free
themselves from scorjn, which must be either by virtue
or malice ; therefore, let it not be marvelled if some-
time they prove excellent persons. . . ."
Thus did Francis Bacon seek to get his knife into his
inscrutable cousin. No living soul ever knew if he
succeeded. The legend is that Robert Cecil never had
a friend — "particeps curarum," a partner in care. In
any case the office was not filled by Michael Hicks.
Where intercourse was close and frequent, if not daily,
letters are not of the first value ; but these that exist
show that the often jocular intercourse of youth stiffened
o,f. k
130 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
into a strange formality, and not into friendship with its
magnanimity and equality. The failure was not neces-
sarily Michael's. If Robert Cecil found himself baulked
by compliance, by what Emerson calls " a mush of con-
cession," when he looked for furtherance or at least
resistance, it is also true that the only way to have a
friend is to be one. The friendship about which essays
are written and poems are made was not between these
two. Yet, at first sight, all the appearances of it are
there. There is, for instance, a letter of thanks for
some books Robert had asked to have sent him in 1589.
It was the year of the murder of Henry III. of France.
Henry had betrayed Catholicism in the previous year
by the murder of the Guises, Duke and Cardinal.
Catholic France had burst into insurrection, Henry
was obliged to take refuge in the camp of the Protes-
tant King of Navarre ; the two kings had marched on
Paris, and, while lying beneath its walls, Henry, the
last of the Valois, was murdered by a monk named
Jacques Clement. Navarre at once assumed the title
of Henry IV., and similarity of policy made it necessary
for Elizabeth to help him in his ambiguous position.
Of all this Robert gossips for gossip's sake to a familiar
soul : —
" Our news is here from France good, for Mylls
hath been with Gourden that is governor of Calais ;
who wept most bitterly for the death of his king
(but) standeth now firm to this successor ; and where
the Queen offered to recommend him to the King of
Navarre's favour, he answered bravely that he would
require no foreign recommendation, but would, as he
had deserved regard of the late King dead, so recover
this Prince's favour by his own merit ; promising
ever firmly to hold this town at his Majesty's deno-
tion. The camp lieth still afore Paris, and acknow-
ledgeth this king for their sovereign, being the bravest
company of soldiers together that ever France had ;
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 131
only wanting pay ; which the queen will, or might,
help them with.
" The King of Navarre hath under his hand and
seal, vowed no way to change any religion ; only
reserving to him and his, as before, free profession.
"This Mylls you know was towards Randall (?)
He brings word that of 6 orders of Friars 5 (or 8 ?)
in every house had vowed by Sacrament to do this
villany. In Paris they make bonfires for the act ;
but it cannot long hold out."
There is vitality in this unnecessary outpouring of
news to an unimportant person, but Michael laboured
too much to return answers to Sir Robert's letters which
should pleasure Sir Robert. Cecil is not to be blamed
if, as life went on, he got tired of a triteness that was
not always even sincere. In the matter, for instance,
of the Secretaryship of State which he ardently desired,
he found his father's amanuensis too anxious to assure
him that all would be as he wished, and he sends
answer : —
"I thank you for your letter but I hardly can
imagine the fortune so good, because my Lord writ to
me yesternight, which to-day I received by Charl (?)
that he heard no more of my matter yet."
Michael was evidently not in my lord's confidence,
and had been drawing on his kindly imagination, for
this letter is dated March 10th, 1590, and it was not
until five years later that Cecil got the office. Two
other letters on the matter survive of the many
Michael must have had.
" If you can conjecture by Mr. Lake's being with
my Lord, or my Lord's speech to him, whether my
Lord had been thinking of Secretaries or no, or speak-
ing with the Queen, seeing I hear nothing, I pray you
answer my desire to write to me."
k2
132 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Another letter is in a different key : —
" Immediately your bowling games be ended send
me word pray you of the Election, Creation, sus-
pension or confusion (of) her Majesty's principal
Secretary. Deliver my Lord this letter soon when
he comes from the Queen for it requires no haste."
This last, which is undated, is signed not only by
" Ro : Cecyll," but by " Ely : Cecill," too ; so it cannot
have been written after 1591, for Robert's wife,
Elizabeth, the daughter of Lord Cobham, died in that
year after giving birth to a son. In a message of " love
and service " to Lord Cobham, sent through Michael in
the previous year, Robert says, " I hope to be the cause
that his daughter shall make my lady a grandmother."
And that Michael was the customary channel for these
domestic confidences is quite clear. There was nothing
about the Cecil family, its quarrels and its money
matters, that he did not know. When Burghley died,
the question of the wardship of his three granddaughters,
the daughters of Lord Oxford, who had deserted their
mother and now had married again, became a burning
question. Their grandfather had made provision for
them, but Thomas Cecil, who had been left no jewels,
was in a mood to make difficulties, and then there seem
to have been all the hackneyed disputes about personal
possessions. Robert is weary of it all, he says, and only
anxious that his nieces be not kidnapped.
" I thank you for your letter and for your care.
As for my Lord of Oxford's claim, if Mr. Bellot do
not turn him to us we shall do well enough ; and
above all things we desire that he do say, though not
swear, that such charge was given him by ' Parroll ; '
which Mr. Maynard shall witness.
" In the doctor's cavil to defeat them of their
portion, God knoweth I never intend it, but be you
sure my brother thinks so hardly to have none of the
Jewels, as I fear me he will stand now upon all
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 133
advantages. But I will never consent in such a kind
to break my father's testament.
"For my private things at Theobald's, good
Mr. Hycks end them, for I am weary of the noise
of such beggarly things as they are and will be when
they are best (I commit all to you).
" Tell Mr. Bellot if the Earl of Oxford desire the
custody he cannot have them of anybody. For if he
look upon the deeds whereby my Lord hath con-
veyed them their lands, he shall find that, for default
of issue, their land comes to the Heirs of his body.
Now whether he that never gave them grant (and)
hath a second wife and another child be a fit guardian,
consider you. If once my Lady Bedford were
come to town he would quickly conclude. I wish
Mr. Bellot to have a good care they be not stolen
away by his means : I would they had some honest
man there while Mr. Bellot's eye is absent from them.
When you are there I pray you take order with my
wardroper that any stuff they want, or anything else,
may be given them.
" On Monday night I shall be at London, but I pray
you do not come from Theobald's without some end.
I have written out my eyes to-day and therefore
farewell. Your loving friend
" Ro : Cecyll."
Theobald's, in Hertfordshire, had been settled on
Robert Cecil, while to the elder brother, Thomas (made
Earl of Burghley by the Queen on the occasion of his
father's funeral), went the magnificent Burghley House
by Stamford town, Wimbledon House, and Cecil
House in the Strand. Robert found Theobald's too
large for his means, and he entered into negotiations for
a house at Harrow.
i
" I have nothing to say to Theobalds but that I
wish it less. The ' Garner ' would be sold ; speak to
134 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Mr. Amuas and tell him I would fain know the
certainty of the lease about Harrow Hill."
But Theobald's remained in Robert's possession until
1607, when James I. took a fancy to it and offered him
Hatfield in exchange. Lord Salisbury was not able to
refuse, and he at once set to work and, with the
architect, Robert Limminge, began to plan and con-
struct Hatfield House as it stands to-day. He had not
the passion for a garden that swayed his father, who
both at Burghley and Theobald's had made gardens
glorious ; but the garden at Hatfield, as part of the
whole, would not be out of his thoughts, and the vines
for which Michael took thought in 1609 may be at
Hatfield still.
" Having been lately at Sir Edward Sulyard's, and
finding that his grapes being ripe (especially the
white) were in my opinion as good as ever I tasted of
for the relish and sweetness, I prayed him to send
some to your Lordship to taste of, to the end that if
you liked of them you might have some grafts of the
same vine. But he told me that if your Lordship do
like of them, he will give you half a dozen roots to
set, which he saith are far better to take, and will
bear in 2 years where the other will not bear in 3
or 4. Besides, he will give your Lordship two
Nectarin plum trees of several kinds when the time
of the year is to plant ; and anything else he hath in
his garden or orchard."
Michael was rather officious with his presents, and it
is plain that more than once he had been severely
snubbed. Yet as late as 1608 he is not discouraged.
" May it please your Lordship, I have forborne for
some years past to present your Lordship (amongst
others who make acknowledgment how much they
are bound to your Lordship) with any Token, accord-
ing to the use of this time. It pleased you to say
that it was needless betwixt your Lordship and me,
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 135
as a matter that did make a greater diminution of
my state than an addition to yours. Nevertheless,
lighting by chance, and at so fit a time as this is,
upon this poor piece of plate, which I found to serve
for 3 uses more than it makes show for, I did pre-
sume your Lordship would be pleased to accept of it ;
and although you should never have need to use it,
yet that you would esteem it for the uses sake than
of a thing of greater value. It comes accompanied
with the heartiest wishes both of health and happiness
to your Lordship this year and many, from him, who
in affection is faithfully devoted, and in duty and
service (with the meanest of your servants) always
most willing and ready."
Apricots from his house at Ruckholt Michael was
evidently always allowed to send. There are several
allusions to them, and in July, 1603, he reports that
they "begin somewhat to draw to ripening colour."
In August of the same year he says : —
" Because it pleased you to thank me for the
apricots I sent you, which were the first, now I send
you the last, and but a few, having lost many of my
small number with pecking of birds and earwigs. I
have a heart to send you things of value, but you
have often said it is not the measure of your honour-
able favour towards me, nor of my love and affection
towards you."
Judging by results, the measure of Cecil's honourable
favour towards Michael was not very tremendous. He
was not advanced to any office. He remained secretary
always. This may, of course, have been because he
had become far too useful to be spared, and besides, he
never seems to have asked for anything of an ambitious
nature, or for anything that could not be held together
with the secretaryship. It is not quite clear what a
" wardship " was, but Cecil refused him that several
times. In 1603 he also refused him his " stewardship,"
136 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
although it is plain that Michael had been acting as
agent and steward ; and apparently he was to continue
to do the work while my Lord of Devonshire was to
hold the office.
" For your money, this note will fetch it. For
your Deputation, I will sign it when it is brought.
But for my Stewardship I have given it to my Lord
of Devonshire, and with condition not to put out
you. Believe it you are under one who I know
loves me and mine ; in which I will never be short of
him, though he be taller than I am."
In the same year (1603), however, Michael was
made Receiver-General of the counties of Middlesex,
Hertford, Essex and the city of London. There is
no mention of it in the letters, but the warrant is
among the State papers, and in June of the following
year there is the grant of the same to John Davy " on
surrender of Michael Hicks." Possibly Michael hoped
to get something better, and forgot that " a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush " ; a letter of Cecil's
dated 1604 tells him that the importunities of others are
so great that he cannot " this time " fulfil his request.
Great prizes for Michael Hicks there were not, but
amenities by the way there were plenty; the letters
are strewn with mention of them. A scrivener writes,
at Cecil's corhmand, he says, about a little house at Joy
Bridge in the Strand which Michael is to have either
for his own use or for disposal ; Lord Cobham, Robert
Cecil's father-in-law, promised to give Michael his
coach, and Michael writes to remind his lordship's
steward about it ; Cecil sends a hawk and promises
some doe venison (buck venison, he says plainly, he wants
for others). But what Michael, as the result of his
connection with the Cecils, father and son, must have
valued most was the fact that it landed him at once in
the inner circle of the Court. Courts have their
intangible magnetism which philosophy derides in vain ;
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 137
and Elizabeth's Court, above any, in English history at
all events, must have been a place where life really
vibrated, and where it was extraordinarily interesting.
There never had been and there never will be another
Elizabeth Tudor. Greater than any of her great
ministers, harsh in voice, impetuous in will, furious in
anger, sensuous, splendid, without self-restraint, trivial,
wilful — yet of a temper purely intellectual, frugal and
hardworking, of a real simplicity of feeling. And, as
example of violent contrasts in her character, there is
no need to go further than the facts that she listened
with delight to the "Faery Queen," and yet, because
of some verses Michael Hicks wrote for her eye, did
not banish him at once to Hades. In the twentieth
century it is impossible to quote the verses, but in the
sixteenth century they were quite a fit subject for
queenly " chaff" ; and there can be no doubt that the
following letter must have uplifted Michael (who had
obviously offended in some trivial way) very much
indeed : —
" Michael. I ly not to you. The Queen is now
very pleasant and excuseth you as much as any. I
told her y* I cold not tell what you sayd, but I
saw what you writt, w ch in my fancy was as prety
and Pythy as ever I saw. I marry sayth she but he
writt them not him self. I sware before God I knew
you dyd,/well sayth she when I see him next we
shall have good sport./ This is the treuth and y"
whole treuth, I assure you faithfully.
" Yor ass : frend Ro : Cecyll."
It was an age of violent contrasts. The Queen was,
after all, only typical of it, and Michael, to whom
obscenity was native, was also very glib with religious
sentiments. Towards what was the end of life for
both of them, he writes to the Earl of Salisbury : —
"I beseech God increase confirm and strengthen
you in the knowledge of his truth. Inspire you
138 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
with all Godly wisdom and Counsel. Arm you
with true fortitude and Christian patience. Protect
you against all the wicked plots and practices of
God's enemies and yours for His cause. And pre-
serve you this year and many to the advancement of
God's Glory and the public weal of this state and
Kingdom ; whereof many thousands of the subjects
of the best sort who know you not but by their ear
only, and do never expect any benefit from you, yet
do both praise God, and pray to God heartily and
daily for you : in the which calendar I have enrolled
myself with them as a poor bedeman, and by myself
by my particular obligation as a poor friend ready
always to do you service."
No doubt these, and similar words, were all perfectly
sincere, and how fitting it would be if this imperfect
account of the long fellowship of these two could be
left just there : but it is almost tragic that it cannot,
and that the last vision to be had of Robert Cecil is of
one stricken, prostrate, and with what bear a rather
strong family resemblance to birds of prey gathering
around him.
Lord Salisbury's health had been very bad for a year
or two before his death. Like his father before him he
suffered terribly from gout, and there were other com-
plications. In the spring of 1611 he was said to be
dying, but he continued to transact business all
through the next winter. On April 11th, 1612, Lady
Shrewsbury (wife of the seventh earl and daughter of
" Bess of Hardwick," his stepmother) wrote from the
Tower to Michael about some remedies for his children's
" infermetes," and added as a postscript : " I hard
from my lo : to-day that my lo : Treasurer mendes
excedengly well God be thanked for it." Towards the
end of the same month Lord Salisbury set out for
Bath to see what the waters there would do for him.
Michael Hicks and Sir Walter Cope were in his train,
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 139
and from Ditton Park near Windsor, then occupied by
Lord Chandos.* Michael wrote on April 29th, "to
my very Lovinge frende Sir Hugh Beeston knight at
Beeston Castle or thereabouts."
" Sir Hugh Beeston, I commend me unto you :
but wherein I should commend you to any man else
I know not. And though I know no cause, yet as
your countryman was wont to say, Beeston I love
thee ; so I say I know no cause except it be for old
acquaintance. You went away out of town and
never bid me farewell, and to fare the better by you
I never could yet in 40 years, nor never shall though
we should live 40 years more together. And yet
you see my kind and generous nature in participating
with you in your griefs, in rejoicing with you in
your benefits, yea, and in soliciting your business for
your profit. And that you may see that I continue
my care to think upon you when there is any likeli-
hood to do you good, I do at this time take this pain
to write unto you to give you knowledge that albeit
it hath been bruited in such remote countries as
yours isf that my Lord was dead, yet, thanks be to
God, his Lordship at the writing hereof was (is) at
Ditton Park on his journey towards the Bath ; and.
in reasonable good state of body, only his legs a little
swollen (as they were wont to be) which we hope
will also abate before we come to Bath ; he eats well,
and is as merry as a man may be in his case. And
because I think he would be the merrier (if he had
such a merry man as your worship is in his company)
I have thought good to advise you setting all your
affairs for the county and his Majesty's service apart,
to make your present repair to the Bath without any
delay. In this advice of mine Sir Walter Cope doth
join with me.
* It was Crown property,
-f- Presumably Norfolk.
140 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
" Now to persuade you. Besides your love and
duty to my Lord, the best argument I can use to you
is ab utili. For assume yourself, if my Lord be in
any case fit to play at tables, we shall be sure to get
4 or 5£ apiece from him and Sir W. Cope. For you
know (God wot) they cannot play anything well ;
and you can without cause chafe, swear, and ' brable,'
and for a need, enter and bear a man falsely, and
therefore we have good advantage of them. But if
this should fail, yet it is hard luck if you wring not
one ' pidling ' suit or other from him ; or at the least
some velvet cloak or saddle not much the worse for
the wearing ; for Sergeant Goddnis hath gotten a
velvet pair of breeches already.
" My Lord is ready to take his coach for this day's
journey, which is to ' Cawsam ' to my Lord Knowles,*
and I am ready for my breakfast, and, as you know
if you understand Latin, Venter non habet aures.
And therefore I will end with my paper, and com-
mendations to my Lady Beeston, who I make no
doubt will give you leave for your absence upon this
cause who have taken leave so long and so often to
be from her upon so small cause. Your old acquain-
tance and good friend for small desert Mich : Hickes.
" Sir W. Cope and I moved Mr. Chaunceler (?) to
write unto you to require you to meet my Lord at
Bath : which I make no doubt he hath done. And
as a Councillor (he) may command you, and I know
you will do much for him as long as your suit
* Corsham, near Bath, was pronounced without the ' h ' until a few
years ago. Some grass fields there, in the possession of Mr. Fuller of
Neston Park, are still called c Knowles' Lands.' Close by was once
an old manor house which Leland says was " in Dowage to the
Quenes of England," and was partially pulled down in " Quene
Anne's " days. This refers to Anne Boleyn, whose nephew, Sir
Wm. Knollys was Treasurer to the Royal Household and was created
Baron Knollys (Knollis or Knolles) in 1603. He may either have been
granted the lands and remnant of house or have been there in 1612
looking after what was Crown property.
MICHAEL HICKS AND ROBERT CECIL. 141
is depending for the recusants. But that one
Recusant should pray upon another it is strange ; but
that bonus odor lucri ex re qualibet."
Bonus odor lucri, alas ! " There shall the vultures be
gathered together " — and they must gather quickly
now. The Bath waters were of no avail, and Lady
Shrewsbury, always ready with her nostrums, writes
to Michael at Bath that she understands the spleen
to be the cause of Lord Salisbury's uncomfortable
fits. She recommends him to try quintessence of
honey which she says is good for the spleen and
lungs and against all obstructions. A grain of musk
must be taken with it, she says, and will much comfort
the heart and spirits, and a spoonful is the most
that must be taken at one time. The prescription,
an infallible one no doubt, came too late. Robert,
Earl of Salisbury, knew himself to be dying, and was
resolved to die at home ; and on May 24th, attended
by his " Court," he set forth, and got as far as
Marlborough where his strength failed. He died at
the vicarage house there on May 24th, 1612.
All that he confided to Sir Walter Cope in his dying
hours, and the manner of his death itself, was sum-
marised by Francis Bacon : " Men in great place are
thrice servants : servants of the Sovereign or State :
servants of fame : and servants of business. So as
they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor
in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange
desire, to seek power and to lose liberty, or to
seek power over others and to lose power over a man's
self. The rising into place is laborious ; and by pains
men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base ;
and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing
is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at
least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing : Cum non
sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere. Nay, retire
men cannot when they would, neither will they when it
142 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
were reason ; but are impatient of privateness, even in
age and sickness which require the shadow ; like old
townsmen, that will still be sitting at their street door,
though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly,
great persons had need to borrow other men's opinions
to think themselves happy ; for if they judge by their
own feeling they cannot find it ; but if they think with
themselves what other men think of them, and that
other men would fain be as they are, then they are
happy, as it were by report ; when, perhaps, they find
the contrary within. Certainly men in great fortunes
are strangers to themselves, and while they are in the
puzzle of business they have no time to tend their
health, either of body or mind : Illi mors gravis incubat,
qui notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi."
CHAPTER X.
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS.
In St. Mary's Church at Warwick is a tomb with
this inscription : —
Fulke Greville, Servant to Queen Elizabeth, Councillor to King
James, and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney.
Trophoeum Peccati.
How much it would have added to the fragrance of
Michael Hicks' memory if there had been written over
him, " Friend to Fulke Greville and to Francis Bacon."
It would have been quite true, although it is also true
that " friendship has its degrees and diverse uses," and
it is not always the greater spirits who need a friend
who shall play Jonathan to their David. Francis Bacon
discourses of friendship that " maketh indeed a fair day
in the affections from storm and tempests ; and maketh
daylight in the understanding out of darkness and
confusion of thought " ; but he goes on to say that
"this second point of friendship, in opening the
understanding (is not) restrained only to such friends
as are able to give a man counsel (they indeed are
best) ; but even without that a man learneth of
himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light,
and whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself
cuts not."
That Michael Hicks' friendship was a " fair day from
storm and tempests " for Fulke Greville, or " daylight
in the understanding" for Francis Bacon, cannot be
supposed, but both the great gentleman and the great
genius had the friendliest feeling for one who helped
them without criticism.
144 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
The name of Fulke Greville stands — and yet it is
impossible to say how or why — for all that is sweet
and fine in English character. Nothing that he did
remains in the memory, but what he was — that has
survived with a persistence that seems immortal. He
was the largest landowner in Warwickshire, and was
directly descended from William Greville of Campden
in Gloucestershire, a rich wool merchant of the reign
of Richard II., whose tomb is in Campden Church.
William Greville bought the manor of Milcote in
Warwickshire, and the family settled there and in-
creased their stability by marrying heiress after heiress,
until the culmination came with Fulke's grandfather,
who took to wife Elizabeth Willoughby, the greatest
heiress then in England. Beauchamp's Court became the
family seat, the already large property was augmented
by purchase, and to all this Fulke, in due time,
succeeded.
He was entered at Shrewsbury School on the same
day as Philip Sidney, and their long friendship then
began; but, when Sidney subsequently went to Oxford,
Greville was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge. They
left college in the same year, and in 1597 they went
to Court together. There Greville at once attracted
the Queen's notice and had " the longest lease and the
smoothest time without rub of any of her favourites."
Of the sweetness of his temper and the grace of his
hospitalities his contemporaries talk, and Bacon him-
self said, that " he used his influence with the Queen
honourably, and did many men good." He evaded mar-
riage and its possible discrepancies, and it would have
saved him from many futilities if he had evaded a good
deal besides. As a man of action, a man of affairs and
a man of letters, his fate was to be mediocre. From
wanderings and wars afield the Queen herself did her
best to restrain him, and when he went abroad with
Sidney, and served for a short time with Navarre
in Normandy, he did so surreptitiously, and brought
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 145
displeasure on his head. Robert Cecil's envious hostility
to him kept him successfully from high employment,
but he filled various small civil posts as "Treasurer"
of this and that, and after Cecil's death, James, who
had previously made him K.C.B., made him Chancellor
of the Exchequer and then "Baron Brooks," and
bestowed the ruined castle of Warwick upon him.
But it was as a man of letters, perhaps, that he really
wished to excel and to be remembered, and it is in
his writings that he failed most piteously. He wrote
elegies, tragedies, poems, and tracts in verse, and, in
1652, published the discursive " Life of the Renowned
Philip Sidney." In all his writing he was only a harsh
echo of his friend — his style was sententious and his
imagination non-existent.
But all that had nothing to do with himself as he
was. The fact is, that he had the mysterious gift of
charm. That mystery which, Mr. Frederick Green-
wood has said, may be described as the effluence of the
spirit of candour — the candour of generous and gentle
minds. " Mind there must be, where there is charm ;
but among its many tokens of a divine origin must be
counted the fact that brilliancy of intellect is rarely its
companion. The light that naturally belongs to it is
a steady, sweet, and cheerful wisdom which helps it to
the last."
So to Fulke Greville belongs that rarest of all forms
of immortality which has nothing to do with the
immortality of achievement, and it is only because of
this, that his six existing letters to Michael Hicks have
their interest.
The first letter is one of mere friendliness, and is
endorsed " Jan. 18. 1600 " : —
"Sir. Coming home yesterday from Chatham,
where I have been this two days about the Queen's
business, I found Doctor James was dead. Where-
upon, bethinking with myself his place for the
C.F. L
146 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
Keeping of Records in the Tower might he fit for
myself, I presently sent to seek you here; and finding
you not, I send this bearer purposely to advertise
you of the same. Wherein, if you mean to engage
your friends, I will be very ready to join with them
to the uttermost of my power to do you good.
Therefore, I pray if you take liking to it, come
presently hither, that you and I may confer together
of some courses which must necessarily be followed
in the pursuit of this matter."
The next two letters are both written in July, 1603,
and it was Michael this time who was to do service,
though not, it would seem, without remuneration : —
" Sir. The heavy burthen that is fallen upon me
for the securing of my whole estate, makes me to
intreat your favour in this matter. I am to pay to
Sir David Fowles £500 at a very short day, and
have no other means to raise so great a sum, but
by laying all my plate to gage. I do therefore
very heartily pray you to be a means to procure me
such a sum, upon a sufficient pawn, of some good
friend, whereby I may escape the rumour of the
world, and leave my plate safe ; either for three
months or half a year. I will willingly give the usual
consideration, and take it as a very kind favour at
your hands."
" Sir. I thank you very heartily for the pains you
have taken about this money : wherein I was more
willing to trouble you, because I am very loth to
have my name in question amongst them that
practice in this kind upon the Exchange. And, if
there be no remedy, but that we must use their help,
let me I pray you be thus much more beholden unto
you and your brother. Allow that my plate may
remain in your hands and custody, and that, betwixt
you, the lenders may have such security as may
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 147
content them, without notice of me, or passage of
my plate through unknown hands in this infectious
time."
There follow letters written in 1605 and 1606,
after the Queen's death, at the beginning of the new
reign, when the scramble for places was at its height.
The first is from Wedgnock Park, a Warwickshire
estate which had been Elizabeth's gift to him. He
had induced Cecil, whom he would propitiate, to visit
him there, but is philosophical as to the result : —
" Sir Michael Hixe not to you, but to the better
part of yourself I adventure to send this buck ; if
he come not sweet and worthy of her I am sorry,
and the carrier is only to blame, whose diligence
may easily do it, and he is hired and instructed of
purpose. The noble Earl of Salisbury hath taken
a long journey out of his way to visit me and my
poor Cottage. The honour he did me in it is
more than I can deserve, but when he shall please
to command my service, he and the world shall see
that I am a more natural subject to love than power.
Good Sir Michael commend me to yourself and the
good woman, and let us some time this winter have
your companys for I unfeignedly love you both."
The other letter of 1606 shows that Greville is hoping
still that his services may be commanded. Indeed, his
words almost foreshadow a day when Cecil's star shall
have set : —
" If your leisure serve, a word how the neither
house (?) and the Judges agree about this Naturalisa-
tion by law, would be welcome. And you shall
command more of me whensoever I live in the light
and you in darkness."
The last of the letters is pure compliment, and is
dated December 29th, 1610 :—
l2
148 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
" Sir Michael Hicks. Commend me kindly to
yourself and your good lady, and take this poor token
in good part, only to bear witness that I am not
willing to forget or be forgotten by such hearty
friends and neighbours. One hears that my Lord
Treasurer should be a little touched with a cold at
Cherme (?) in his gums. Good Sir, write a word
how he doth, by whom all we do much the better.
If it please you to ask after my health, in few words
I assure you my hearing is worse for my coming into
the country, but my disposition of body showing
something better."
" Sylla chose the name of Felix and not of Magnus,"
says Francis Bacon in his essay on Fortune. It is
not certain that Fulke Greville would have made the
same choice, and yet to him is, indubitably happy fame;
while, to Bacon himself, fame came in any guise but
that. Dean Church says of him : " The life of Francis
Bacon is one which it is a pain to write or to read. It
is the life of a man endowed with as rare a combination
of noble gifts as ever was bestowed on a human intellect ;
the life of one with whom the whole purpose of living
and of every day's work was to do great things to
enlighten and elevate his race, to enrich it with new
powers, to lay up in store for all ages to come a source
of blessings which should never fail to dry up ; it was
the life of a man who had high thoughts of the ends
and methods of law and government, and with whom
the general good was regarded as the standard by which
the use of public power was to be measured ; the life of
a man who had struggled hard and successfully for the
material prosperity and opulence which makes work
easy and gives a man room and force for carrying out
his purposes. All his life long his first and never-sleep-
ing passion was the romantic and splendid ambition
after knowledge, for the conquest of nature and for the
service of man ; gathering up in himself the spirit and
ft.
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 149
longings and efforts of all discoverers and inventors of
the arts, as they are symbolised in the mythical
Prometheus. He rose to the highest place and honour;
and yet that place and honour were but the fringe and
adornment of all that made him great. It is difficult
to imagine a grander and more magnificent career ; and
his name ranks among the few chosen examples of
human achievement. And yet it was not only an
unhappy life ; it was a poor life. We expect that such
an overwhelming weight of glory should be borne up
by a character corresponding to it in strength and
nobleness. But that is not what we find. No one ever
had a greater idea of what he was made for, or was fired
with a greater desire to devote himself to it. He was
all this. And yet, being all this, seeing deep into
man's worth, his capacities, his greatness, his weakness,
his sins, he was not true to what he knew. He cringed
to such a man as Buckingham. He sold himself to the
corrupt and ignominious Government of James I. He
was willing to be employed to hunt to death a friend
like Essex, guilty, deeply guilty to the State, but to
Bacon the most loving and generous of benefactors.
With his eyes open he gave himself up without resist-
ance to a system unworthy of him ; he would not see
what was evil in it, and chose to call its evil good ; and
he was its first and most signal victim."
Francis Bacon and Robert Cecil were first cousins.
Their mothers were sisters, and had both been second
wives — the one of Burghley, the other, Anne, of
Nicholas Bacon, who became Lord Keeper. As the
younger son of a second marriage, it behoved Francis,
at eighteen, when his father died, to make his own way
in life, and to that end nature had given him genius,
magnificent ideas, enthusiasm for truth, a passion for
benefiting mankind, charm of manner, unremitting
patience. " Men," quotes Dean Church, " are made up
of professions, gifts and talents ; and also of themselves?
In Bacon's ' self ' was that subtle flaw noted and named
150 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
by Aristotle and St. Paul, and which can only be ren-
dered in English by saying that he was a pleaser of
men. There were, however, two whom a lifetime of
' pleasing ' left cold, and on whom untiring importunity
had no effect ; these were the two Cecils, his uncle
and cousin, and their steadfast undervaluation of him
has never been explained. His ability was recognised
and undoubted, and Burghley was not the man to
neglect a useful instrument who betrayed such good
will to serve him — yet, to the last, Burghley (and his
son after him) abstained from advancing Francis
Bacon's fortunes. There was one man, however, who
seemed to have the ability, and who certainly had the
wish to serve him, and this was the Earl of Essex, the
most brilliant of all Elizabeth's favourites. The friend-
ship of these two was of the closest kind, and was of
genuine affection, and Essex, who had great gifts, who
began life with noble ideals, who had imagination and
love of enterprise, was, of all Bacon's contemporaries,
best fitted to sympathise with his ideas and aims.
Obliged to earn his living, Francis took up his abode at
Gray's Inn in 1579, and followed all the usual steps
of his profession. In 1584 he entered Parliament.
Clogged with debt, his life was a pertinacious seeking
after Government employment which should put money
in his pocket, and, in 1593, when the Attorney-
General's place became vacant, Essex, who in that year
became a Privy Councillor, determined that he should
have it. To Robert Cecil, who hinted that the Queen
would not easily digest the demand, he replied, " Digest
me no digesting ; for the Attorneyship is that I must have
for Francis Bacon." Yet Bacon found that Essex, who
could do most things, could not do this : his life-long
enemy, Coke, got the post, and Essex vainly pressed
that the Solicitorship, which was also vacant, should be
given to Bacon instead. In the same year, 1593, Bacon
was arrested for debt at the instance — so he always
suspected and declared — of Coke himself.
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 151
It was at this juncture in his life that the first exist-
ing letter to Miohael Hicks was written. Michael, as
usual, was to play the part of mediator, and the post-
cript makes it clear that he was also one of Bacon's
many creditors. This letter was written by Bacon
from Gorhambury (which his mother had for her life),
on September 28th, 1593 : —
" Mr. Hicks. Still I hold opinion that a good
Solicitor is as good as a good Councillor. I pray, as
you have begun so continue to put Sir Robert Cecil
in mind. I write now because I understand, by
occasion of Mr. Solicitor's being at the Court, things
are like to be deliberated if not resolved. I pray
learn what you can, both by your nearness to my Lord
and by speech with Sir Robert ; and write what you
find. Thus in haste I wish you right well. Your
friend assured Fr. Bacon.
" I pray send me word what is your day of pay-
ment, and whether you can be content to renew,
because my brother's land is not yet sold."
To Fulke Greville, Bacon unburdened himself at this
crisis in a long letter, in which he said he was " like a
child following a bird, which, when he is nearest, away
and lighteth a little before, and then the child after it
again, and so in infinitum." But from his monetary
troubles at Court, Essex was able for the time to
extricate him ; he gave him £l,800, and Bacon
thanked him with the words : " I esteem it like the
pulling out of an aching tooth, which, I remember, when
I was a child and had little philosophy, I was glad of
when it was done." And then, before the second letter
to Michael Hicks was written, came the cataclysm of
this friendship with his greatness and its generosities.
Bacon, the lawyer, was called on to take a leading part
in the prosecution which ended for Essex in ruin and in
death ; he obeyed the call apparently without difficulty
152 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
or surprise ; he played his part with infinite ability. Nor
was his part at an end when the grave had closed over
his benefactor. The death of Essex was a tremendous
shock to the popularity of Elizabeth. An elaborate
justification of the whole affair was felt to be necessary,
and Francis Bacon, already of world-wide literary fame,
was fixed on as the man to do it.
It is all an impenetrable tragedy of the soul. And it
was such a futile tragedy too. The Declaration of the
Treason of the Earl of Essex seemed to justify the
Government, but the odium of it clung to Bacon all his
life, and the immediate reward was trivial. Of the
fines and forfeitures which followed an affair of this
kind he had his share, and he hoped to pay some of his
creditors, among whom Michael Hicks still retained a
place.
" Sir. The Queen hath done somewhat for me,
though not in the proportion I hoped. But the order
is given ; only the monies will not in any part come
to my hand this fortnight. The later by reason of
Mr. A. H. absence, — busied to entreat the Queen.
And I am loath to borrow the meanwhile. Thus,
hoping to take hold of your invitation some day this
vacation, I rest your assured friend Fk. Bacon."
" Not in the proportion I hoped : " — indeed he had
sold his honour for a veritable mess of pottage ; for a
mere dole, small, and contemptuously flung. All that
he had bartered could not, while the Queen lived, bring
him what he craved, and that was official place — a
platform where, supposed necessities provided for, he
could live, unfettered, that other strange life of visions
which was as truly his life as the distressful one of self-
seeking and disappointment. It is the appreciation of
that " other " unbroken life of dreams, noble, original,
and irresistible, which gives his anxious letters about
preferment, and about his everlasting debts their only
interest. In 1600 he was still piling loan upon loan.
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 153
"Mr. Hickes. Your remain shall be with you
this term. But I have now a furder request which
if you perform I shall think you are of the best
friends I have, and yet the matter is not much to
you. But the timing of it is much to me. For I
am now about this term to free myself from all debts
which are only ways in suit or urged, following a
faster pace to free my credit than my means can
follow to free my state, which yet cannot stay long
after. I having resolved to spare no means I have
in hand (taking other possibilities for advantage) to
clear myself from the discontent speech or charger of
others. And some of my debts of most clamour and
importunity I have this term, and some few days
before ordered and in part paid. I pray you to your
former favours which I do still remember and may
hereafter requite, help me out with £200 more for
six months. I will put you in good sureties, and
you shall do me a great deal of honesty and reputa-
tion. I have writ to you the very truth and secret
of my course, which to few others I would have done,
thinking it may move you. And so with my loving
commendation I rest, your assured loving friend
"Jan. 25, 1600." "Fr. Bacon.
Michael seems to have returned an answer, to which
the next letter is an answer again : —
" Mr. Hicks. I thank you for your letter testifying
your kind care of my fortune, which, when it mendeth,
your thanks will likewise amend. In particular you
write you would be in Town as on Monday which is
past : and that you would make proof of Mr. Billett
or some other friend for my supply, whereof I see
you are the more sensible because you concur in
approving my purpose and resolution in first freeing
my credit from suits and speech, and so my estate by
degrees. Which in very truth was the cause which
made me sub impudens (somewhat impudent?) in
154 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
moving you for new help when I should have helped
you with your former monies.
" I am desirous to know what success you have had
since your coming to Town in your kind care. I have
thought of two sureties for one hundred pounds apiece.
The one Mr. Fra. Anger, of Gray's Inn, he that
was the old Count of Lincoln's executor, a man very
honest and very able with whom I have spoken and
he hath promised. The other Sir Tho. Hobby, whom
I have not spoken with, but do presume of, although
I never used him in that kind. So, leaving it to
your good will I rest, your assured loving friend
" Fr. Bacon."
Two years later there is a letter which bears out what
Dean Church says about his attitude to Robert Cecil.
" To the last there was one thing that Bacon would not
appear to believe — he did not choose to believe that it was
Cecil who kept him back from employment and honour.
To the last he persisted in assuming that Cecil was the
person who would help, if he could, a kinsman devoted
to his interests and profoundly conscious of his worth.
To the last he commended his cause to Cecil in terms
of unstinted affection and confiding hope."
" Mr. Hicks. The apprehension of this threatened
judgment of God* percutiam pastorem, et dispergentur
oves gregis,^ if it work in other as it worketh in me,
knitteth every man's heart unto his true and approved
friend. Which is the cause why I now write to you
signifying that I would be glad of the comfort of
your society and familiar conference as occasion
serveth. And, withall, though we cardholders have
nothing to do but to keep close our cards and to
do as we are bidden, yet I ever used your mean
to cherish the truth of my inclination towards
* The approaching death of the Queen.
t " I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be
scattered abroad."
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 155
Mr. Secretary, so now again I pray, as you find
time, let him know that he is the personage in this
State which I love most : which containeth all that I
can do, and expresseth all which I will say at this
time. And this, as you may easily judge, proceedeth
not out of any straits of my occasions, as might be
thought in times past, but merely out of the largeness
and fullness of my affections. And so for this time,
I commend me to you from my chamber at Gray's
Inn, this 19th of March 1602 Your assured friend
" Fr. Bacon."
Bacon was among the three hundred gentlemen
knighted at Whitehall before the coronation of James,
but, although he obtained a private interview with the
King, for the first year of the reign he was unnoticed.
In 1604 James' first Parliament met, and with it Bacon
returned to public life, and in the House of Commons
came at once to the front. He took a leading part in
the contest about privileges, and was the spokesman of
the House in the various conferences, and, although he
never wavered in allegiance to the House, he contrived
to soothe the susceptibilities of the King. His attitude
was rewarded by a small salary, and he was made
secretary of the Commission for the Union of the Two
Kingdoms — work which occupied him from December,
1604, to November, 1605. His next letter to Michael
Hicks is dated January 17th, 1605 : —
" Sir, for your travail with all disadvantages, I will
put it upon my account to travel twice so far upon
any occasion of yours. But your wits seem not
travailed; (or travelled?) but fresh by your letter,
which is to me an infallible argument of heartesease,
which doeth so well with you as I must entreat you
to help me to some of the same. And therefore I
will adjoin our conference to your return to the
Strand on Monday, where I will find you if it chance
right. And this day would I have come to your
156 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Friars,* but that I am commanded to attend the
Enditements at Westminster. And so, glad to per-
ceive your good disposition, I remain your assured
" Fr. Bacon "
Parliament met again in November, 1606, which is
the date of the following note : —
" Sir I pray you try the conclusion I spoke to you
of out hand. For it is a mind I shall not continue
in if it pass this very tide. So I rest yours Fr. Bacon."
In Parliament all the involved questions arising out
of the Union were keenly debated and with much
jealous feeling. Bacon was the willing servant of
the House, and it came to pass that, without comment,
on June 25, 1607, he was appointed Solicitor-
General. At the age of forty-seven he had thus won
the first step to success in life and could enjoy at last
the immense convenience of being rich and powerful,
and all the supposed necessities of the Thinker and the
Prophet. And it is simply part of the incongruity of the
whole of his life that he, who had betrayed Essex with
facility, did not cast aside the acquaintance of Michael
Hicks when there was nothing more to be had from
him. The last letters are of the purest friendship.
" Sir. There is a Commission touching the King's
service to be executed at your house on Tuesday
next. The Commissioners are Mr. Recorder of
London, Sir John Bennett, Sir Thomas Bodley and
myself. I hear there are blanks left for other names
such as you in your wisdom shall think fit to fill.
Mr. Hendon is wished, for the better countenance of
the service, and Sir Thomas Lowe is spoken of;
but these and others are wholly left unto you.
" It will take up a whole afternoon, and there-
fore no remedy but that we must dine with you.
But for that, you are not so little in grace with
* Austin Friars, where Michael Hicks had a house.
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 157
Mr. Chancellor but you may have an allowance ;
the Exchequer being first full. Hearof I thought
most necessary to give you notice. So I remain
your assured guest and friend Fe. Bacon.
"This Sunday at afternoon Aug. 6. 1609."
There had been a day, not long ago, when to have
provided a dinner suddenly for so large a company,
would have been to Francis himself an immense
embarrassment ; and, from the little there is to be
gleaned about his unsuccessful marriage, it is possible
that Lady Bacon would not have risen so triumphantly
to the occasion as, we may feel certain, Lady Hicks
did. Bacon married, in 1606, not the widowed Lady
Hatton whom Essex had tried to win for him and who
became the wife of his rival, Coke, but Alice Barnham,
an alderman's daughter and step-daughter to Sir John
Packington who was the original of Sir Roger de
Coverley. " I have found out an alderman's daughter,
an handsome maiden to my liking," wrote Francis to
his cousin Robert Cecil. There was not as much
money as Bacon had believed when he entered into the
affair, but the wedding was celebrated with a good deal
of curious pomp in the month of May, and Dudeley
Carleton wrote to John Chamberlain on the 11th : —
" Sir Francis Bacon was married yesterday to his
young wench at Maribone Chapel. He was clad
from top to toe in purple, and hath made himself
and his wife such stores of fine raiments of cloth of
silver and gold that it draws deep into her portion.
The dinner was kept at the lodging of his father-in-
law, Sir John Packington, over against the Savoy,
where his chief guests were the three knights, Cope,
Hicks and Beeston ; and upon this conceit, as he said
himself, that since he could not have my Lord
Salisbury in person, which he wished, he would have
him at heart in his representative body."
158 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
The marriage was an unhappy one, and twenty years
afterwards, in his will, Bacon showed his dissatisfaction
with his wife ; while his essay Of Marriage and Single
Life proclaims emphatically for the blessedness of the
latter state. " He that hath wife and children hath
given hostages to fortune, for they are empediments to
great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."
If there ever was a woman's influence in Bacon's life
(and that is doubtful) it was his mother's. Anne
Bacon, the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, Prince
Edward's governor, and sister to Lady Burghley, was
a woman of great intellect and imperious will. She
loved her elder son Anthony the more passionately of
the two, but for both sons' advancement she laboured
incessantly, and she ministered to their necessities by
denying herself firing and sufficient food. Her self-
sacrifices were endless, and she thought that they gave
her a claim to proffer advice that was endless too.
There was nothing in her sons' fives about which she
did not freely express her opinion, and she was an
intolerant Calvinist and would have her sons, too,
acknowledge the Puritan infallibility. It was the last
tyranny to which Francis, with his appreciation of facts
and his balance of mind, was likely to bow, and, as the
years went on, Anne Bacon's ungovernable temper led
to many a furious passage of arms. Her mind lost its
balance completely towards the end of her life, and
in 1600 she died.
u
Sir Michael Hicks. It is but a wish, and not
anyways to desire it to your trouble, but I heartily
wish I had your company here at my Mother's
Funeral, which I purpose on Thursday next in
the forenoon. I dare promise you a good sermon, to
be made by Mr. Fenton the preacher of Gray's Inn ;
for he never maketh other. Feast, I make none.
But if I might have your company for two or three
days at my house I should pass over this mournful
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 159
occasion with more comfort. If your son had
continued at St. Julian's (?) it would have been an
Adamant (magnet ?) to have drawn you. But now
if you come I must say it is only for my sake. I
commend myself to my Lady and commend my
wife to you both, and rest yours ever assured
" Fr. Bacon."
The last of the letters, written in 1611, the last year
of Michael's life, discovers Francis in debt once more,
but this time in humorous wise. There had evidently
been a loan to him of a pair of stockings : —
" Sir Michael. I do use, as you know, to pay my
debts with time. But indeed if you will have a good
and perfect colour in a carnation stockings it must be
long in the dying. I have some scruple of con-
science whether it was my Lady's stockings or
her daughters', and I would have the restitution to be
to the right person else I shall not have absolution.
Therefore I have sent to them both, desiring them to
wear them for my sake as I did wear theirs for mine
own sake. So wishing you all a good new year,
I rest Yours assured Fs. Bacon."
Legend has it that Sir Walter Raleigh was a third
famous friend of Michael's, and Mr. Strype in his
" Historical Account " quotes a letter written by Sir
Walter. The letter is one of those no longer in
existence ; it concerns a certain Captain Spring and
£300 owed to that gentleman, and begs that Michael
will " further " him with the Lord Treasurer. It is by
no means the " familiar " epistle which Strype labels it,
and Michael was evidently to Raleigh nothing but a
mere acquaintance. Among the Talbot papers is an
immensely long letter from Michael to the Earl of
Shrewsbury, which contains a vivid and detailed account
of Raleigh's trial. It has been printed in Vol. III. of
Lodge's " Illustrations of British History," and is a
160 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
valuable historical document, but nothing in the tone
of it shows that Michael is writing of one for whom
he had a personal feeling. Raleigh was not one of his
friends.
To his friends ' indeed,' Michael wrote voluminously,
and he could be exceedingly candid. To a lady,
apparently the wife of a clergyman, whose name is
almost obliterated in the manuscript, but which may
be possibly " Howard," he offers unexceptional advice
regarding reconciliation with her spouse : —
"Friend. I am very glad to hear of the
forwardness of the reconciliation betwixt you and
Mr. Ho. . . ., although I hear withal it be offered
on his part with some hard and froward conditions.
But when I consider that an unjust peace is better
than a just war, and that Commonwealth to be in
better case which hath a Tyrant than that which
hath no king, I cannot but advise you to accept of
any course which they that deal in the cause betwixt
you will advise you unto. Considering they are
both wise and love you well, and especially the one
of them by his long experience in the World and
knowledge in the Word of God, is able to give you
very sound counsel. And there is in that house, and
hath been many a year, the very pattern of woman-
hood and wifely obedience that I do know in England ;
by whose example, you might observe and learn
many good things to imitate, if you should remain
there any time ; which I hope you shall not by the
blessed help of your peacemakers. And though I be
none of them, yet I wish it with them of all my
heart, and that it may be sound without dissimula-
tion, and firm without interruption ; the which, in
my poor opinion, shall be the better effected if there
be but bearance and forbearance betwixt you. That
is, to speak plainly, if you can bridle your nature to
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 161
forbear him in his fury, and he temper his fury to
bear with your folly. Friend, I do advise you
to yield him love and subjection, for you owe it to
him ; and I wish him to yield you love and benevo-
lence for it is due unto you ; that ye may both walk
together in knowledge, giving no offence to God, as
becometh couples of your profession. I would have
been glad to see you, and the rather to see him, but
I am returning to the Court."
To Lady Willoughby, in her matrimonial troubles,
Michael writes in a strain precisely similar, but in a
tone slightly differentiated. Lady Willoughby, who
had been Lady Mary Vere, was one of the two
daughters of Lord Oxford, and therefore, of course,
was a granddaughter of Burghley's. She was one of
those sisters over whose custody, as was shown in the
last chapter, such war was waged on Burghley's
death, and whose persons Robert Cecil feared would be
kidnapped. Lady Mary married the twelfth Lord
Willoughby de Eresby, to whom the ancient barony
had descended through his mother the Duchess of
Suffolk. In expeditions by sea and by land he played
a gallant part ; and if the marriage was not a halcyon
one, perhaps the faults were not all on one side.
Michael's fatherly tone is natural, for he had known
her ladyship from childhood.
" Madame,
"If I, that have been so oftentimes partaker of
your joys, should in these your troubles take no part
of your griefs, truly I might justly be accounted both
a forgetful friend and an unthankful person. For
the which cause, since the occasion gives me not
hope to see you (as I would) I thought it good to
send to you (as I might) these few lines, as records
for me that, if I had but half so much power to
redress your mishaps as I have to lament them, your
162 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Ladyship should not continue many hours discon-
tented. But since my small ability . . . (torn off)
no further but to wish you well and to give you that
friendly advice that I can (which would require more
words that I can well now commit to writing) I will
only for the present say thus much : —
"Good Madame, commit your unhappy case to
God by your prayer, and commend your honest
cause to the world by your patience. And I would
to God it had been my hap to have been with you
when these broils were a-brewing, and I doubt not
(for the honest opinion that I trust your Ladyship
hath of me) I could have persuaded with you in such
sort as they should never have burst forth to such
extremities. Nevertheless my trust is that it will
please God to rid you shortly out of them all which
He hath laid upon you — no doubt for the best.
Until which time, if your Ladyship shall cast your
whole care and confidence upon Him, and exercise
yourself in the reading of His Holy Word, and the
meditation of His great mercies, as surely you shall
both provide well for the health of your body and
find a sweet comfort for the sorrows of your mind.
" Only this, withal, that, according to the ordinance
of God, and the covenant of your marriage, you
endeavour to subdue and submit your will to the
pleasure of your Head in all honest and lawful
things, seeking rather to win his goodwill with
covering his faults and bearing with his infirmities,
than to convert him to your own by revealing his
shame and resisting his commandments.
" And this is that, that I thought good to write ;
which I protest unto your Ladyship I have done in
the soundest wit that I have and with the heartiest
goodwill that I can ; the which although it may
seem hard to flesh and blood, yet is it fully warranted
by the Word of God, which binds all women of
whatever birth and calling soever they be, to yield
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 163
due benevolence and obedience to their husbands.
The which, if your Ladyship shall do (as I doubt not
but you will) besides that you shall bridle the ill
tongues of your ill-willers and give the world cause
to witness on your side, you shall have the testi-
mony of a good conscience at home, than the which
there is not in this life, either a stronger bulwark
against temptations or a sweeter comfort in all our
troubles.
" And thus beseeching Almighty God to bless you
with His Spirit of meekness and patience, I beseech
Him withal ever speedily (if it be His Will) to mollify
the heart of . . . (erased) towards you and to over-
throw the malice and devices of all your enemies.
And so I humbly take my leave.
" Your Ladyship's true and hearty poor friend,
" Michael Hickes."
With a lady called Mistress Bowland, Michael had a
serious misunderstanding, and he delivers himself in
this wise : —
"To mistake a word may be want of wit in a
woman, and to misconstrue a man's doing the pro-
perty of your sex ; but to misreport of a man's
good meaning, what can it be but sound and sheer
malice.
" To charge you with the second first, were not to
blame you but nature ; and to bear with you in the
last passeth the patience of a melancholy man. And
yet when I consider what a folly it were to be at
war with a woman (whose manner is to break a
man's head without a playster) I am content to carry
it with quietness, least, in seeking to revenge the old
I be recompensed with a new.
" Only this is my poor comfort ; that, albeit
women are commonly soon angry, and upon slight
occasions, yet, having once conceived a displeasure
against one, it is long time ere they forgive it, and
M 2
164 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
they will never forget it. Therefore very aptly it is
said that their wrath in weight is lead and in con-
tinuance marble. Which is as much to say as they
bear mortal hatred immortally."
Michael yielded a facile pen, and in admonishing his
creditors, he is much more diffuse than his mother ;
and, if not quite so drastic, yet sufficiently plain
spoken. There is a letter dated 1581, addressed to his
cousin John Sprynt, who turns up several times in the
family correspondence and always in a financial plight.
The letter is of great length and is perhaps an answer
to one still longer : —
" Cousin,
" I have received a long and large letter from you,
wherein are some words that I cannot read, and
some that I do not understand and cannot answer at
all. . . . You think you are sharply reproved when
you are but highly admonished, and cannot abide to
be touched where the sore is. ... If I said that you
break your promise often I said truly. ... If I
wished you not to depend in your own payments
upon other men's promises or bonds, I gave you
sound and necessary counsel. . . . Now if you
excuse it to say other men break with you, then I
reply and say, what's that to me ? You have rather
to complain of their ill dealing towards you, than, by
their example to deal so with others. . . . But
whereas you seem to insinuate that covetousness is
the cause that spurs me on thus eagerly to call for it,
and, as it were shamefully to crave it, especially in a
matter of so small value — now truly, cousin, I
cannot choose but smile to see how you are deceived.
For (God wot) if this seed had taken any root, or
but little hold in me, my state would be much better
than it is, and I have less cause to be so earnest with
you as you take me to be. . . . Touching the half
dozen of cheeses, which you write that you have
MICHAEL HICKS AND HIS FRIENDS. 165
wished here with my mother half a score of times — I
can tell you if you send them not before they come
with wishing, they will be mouldy before they be
eaten. But if indeed they be not worth the cost of
the carriage, you were better not to send them at all
than have them wished with you again. Tokens are
very good and necessary remembrances betwixt
friends that are far asunder, but a token that in his
kind is not according (if the sender do know of it)
doth rather declare the little account he makes of his
friends than expresseth his goodwill towards him.
. . . For the pasty of red deer which you wish to
me, I do wish you thanks again, and would have
given you thanks if you had sent it. But this, and
that which you promised to Mr. Branthwait, Mr.
Spencer and me in Lent was two years, will be
deferred so long as I am afraid it will grow to a
horseload at the last."
Mr. Robert Southwell, Mr. Manners and Mr. Thomas
Beaumont were friends with whom Michael corre-
sponded at leisurely length, and it is amazing how little
information he managed to convey at the expense of so
much ink and paper. One of his letters to Mr.
Beaumont, however, contains reflections on a London
life that are not without modern interest : —
" London is the only place of England to winter
in, whereof many wise men might be put for
examples. If the air of the streets be fulsome,
the fields be at hand. If you be weary of the
City, you may go to the Court. If you surfeit of
the Court you may ride into the country; and so
shoot as it were at rounds with a roving arrow.
"You can wish for no kind of meat but here is
a market, for no kind of pastime, but here is a
companion. Here is some of all sorts, either to
comfort a weak stomach or provoke an ill one. If
166 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
you be solitary, here be friends to sit with you.
If you be sick, if one doctor will not serve your
turn, you may have twain. When you are weary
of your lodging you may walk into (St.) Paul's,
where you shall assure to fill your eyes with gallant
suits, and fill your ears with foreign intelligence.
In the middle aisle you may hear what the Pro-
testants say, and in the others what the Papists
whisper ; and when you have heard both, believe
but one, for but one of Both says true you may
be assured. To be short, you can want nothing
here if you want not money."
At the end of his fife, Michael wrote to his friend
Sir Hugh Beeston, who had been his companion on so
many jovial occasions, a letter of condolence on the
death of Sir Hugh's only son. The platitudes are not
more futile than such platitudes have been in all ages
in the face of irreparable loss, and whether they served
as a plaster to Sir Hugh's perplexed mind such as Sir
Michael hoped seems unlikely enough. But at the end
of the tremendous piece of composition were words
that seem to ring truly enough : —
"And now Sir Hugh Beeston to join in counsel
myself with you. For as much as the glass of our
life is almost run out and the fight of our candle
burnt to the socket, let us with David learn to
number our days and to apply our hearts to wisdom.
Let us redeem the time past with an earnest appre-
hension and meditation of our approaching end Et
ideo serio quia sero. To which end let us cast off
all worldly cogitations and cares, which are but grigs
in our heads and thorns in our hearts, and being
balanced and valued, are nothing else but trash and
transitory."
MICHAEL HICKS.
From a picture at Witcom.be Park.)
CHAPTER XI.
THE MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS.
It is certain that the question of a prudent marriage
for her eldest son would have been a preoccupation
of Juliana Hicks from the day Michael left college.
She died in 1592, and a letter of Robert Cecil's of
1595 proves that Michael was then a married man.
The marriage probably took place after his old mother's
death. Mr. John Strype gives an account of her im-
patience, and says that she sent Sir Robert Cecil a
suit of hangings, with a message that she had kept
them thirty-two years expecting Michael's marriage,
and that unless he would make haste and marry she
promised Sir Robert to give him also her house and
all the stuff belonging to it.
That Michael had been preoccupied with the matter
also, if only unsuccessfully, is, however, quite certain,
for two carefully composed proposals of marriage of
his survive, and it looks as if they had done service
more than once, because another name has been written
over the Mistress Loftus of the one letter, and the
name of Mistress Woodcocke has been erased in the
other. Both ladies were widows, and Mistress Wood-
cocke was so for the second time. The letters them-
selves, perhaps, explain why Michael, at fifty years
old was still a bachelor. They repeat each other in
tone, and sometimes in actual words, so that it is ,
not necessary to quote them both. That to Mistress
Woodcocke is the more emphatic of the two : —
" Good Mistress Woodcocke. Albeit in the time
of your first widowhood you were a woman unknown
168 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
to me but by sight only, yet such was the good
report as was generally given of you, that I was
not only moved to love and desire you, but was
minded also to have been a suitor to you. But
my wavering hope being thwarted and overthrown
with the view and weight of my own unworthiness,
I gave over my determination in seeking you for
a wife, though I could not leave (off) to love you
as such a woman doth deserve.
" And now also, albeit the like occasion is offered
me by the death of your second husband yet (I
assure you) if I were as well able to master the
affections of my mind as I have power to govern
the actions of my body, I would rather with grief
smother my thoughts in their cradle, than betray
my folly in shooting at a mark so far beyond both
my reach and reason.
"For when I look into my own manifold wants
and imperfections, and consider withal what a
number of good parts and virtues there be in you,
I see plainly the more cause I have to love you,
the less hope I have to enjoy you.
" Besides this, when I hear it commonly reported
how many, both of good ability and credit, have
already, and are like daily, to resort unto you in
this behalf, I may be thought either very simple
or very arrogant in hoping to find favour where my
betters are put back.
" But to deal plainly with you, truly Mistress
Woodcocke, the reasons that moved me to put it
on proof were these.
"First, I considered that it is only God that
beares the stroke in all our detirminations, counsel,
and proceedings, ordering and disposing them as
seems best to Him, and is best for us.
" Secondly, mine own conscience doth witness
with me that the foundation of my affection is
grounded upon the fear of God, and an assured
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 169
opinion of your virtue, and that I seek you for
yourself and not for that which you have.
" The last, and not the least reason is, that 1 have
certainly heard and do verily believe that you are a
woman of that wisdom and understanding that you
will marry a man and not money, that you will make
your choice by your ear and not by your eye, that
you prefer a peaceable quiet and contented life before
either worldly wealth or all the glorious titles of the
world.
" To these may be added as a poor help of my
doubtful hope, that many times it is better to be
happy than wise, and that women sometime, even of
the wiser sort, do in nothing sooner overshoot them-
selves than in their marriage.
" These were the causes that have encouraged me,
being but a mean shooter, to adventure to cast my
shaft in the company of so many good archers.
" Of myself I will forbear to say anything, though
peradventure I could say somewhat. They are not
always the deepest waters that make the greatest
noise, nor yet the best fruit that bear the fairest
blossom.
" Only this I protest and promise for myself, as in
a thing best known to myself, that if you had ten
thousand suitors, there is none can either love you
more or will use you better ; that desires you for
better respects or to a better end.
" And therefore (good widow) if I may be bold
to use so familiar a term upon so small acquaintance,
weigh well the effect of my words, and make not
light of his love whose love is not light towards you.
Think my bark that bears a low sail above board may
carry a heavy burden under the hatches. And
though I myself wear not a coat of scarlet, yet I shall
be able, and will maintain my wife in a gown of silk.
Measure not a man's mind by his looks. They be
not always of a froward condition that be of a choleric
170 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
complexion ; and although a wise woman will seldom
desire to have her own will, yet a wise man will never
deny it to a loving wife.
" And so I take my leave of you, till it shall please
you to give me leave to see you, who have been bold
as you see without your leave to send to you. In
the mean (time) I pray God to direct you with His
Holy Spirit, and to give to us both the accomplish-
ment of our heart's desire so far forth as they stand
with his glory and our good.
" Yours without change and without end
" Mihcle Hickes.
" To Mistress Woodcock in Aldermanbury."
The wise woman seldom desiring her own will was
far to seek, and all the evidence seems to say that
Michael never found her. It was probably in 1594 or
1595 that he married the widowed Mistress Elizabeth
Parvis or Parvish, a lady somewhat richer in ancestry,
but of wholesome provincial blood like himself. She
was one of the four daughters of Gabriel Colston of the
Grocers' Company, and of his wife Alice, daughter of
Michael Foxe of the same Company. On both her
father's and her mother's side she owned a considerable
" pedigree."
The Colstons are a Lincolnshire family of Norman
lineage, descended from Robert de Colston of Colston
Hall. From them comes the famous Colston family of
Bristol ; and from a sister of Edward Colston, the
philanthropist, who married Sir William Hayman, and
whose descendants afterwards assumed the name of
Colston, comes the present-day family of the Colstons
of Roundway Park, Wiltshire. These bear on their
arms the " two dolphins counter haurient respecting
each other," which were likewise the arms of Elizabeth's
father, Gabriel Colston the grocer. In the pedigree at
the Heralds' College, Gabriel's father is given as Robert
Colston of Corby, in the county of Lincoln ; and his
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 171
mother as Katherine, daughter and co-heiress of John
Malory of Walton, in Leicestershire. Gabriel's wife,
Alice Foxe, has a reference attached to her which
takes us to a pedigree of the Foxes of Northampton-
shire, and on which both she and her father are to
be found.
Elizabeth's childhood was most likely spent in the
City, but her father was prosperous, and he bought a
country house on the edge of Waltham Forest ; " Forest
House " it was called, and it was still existing in 1777,
for it is on a map of that date. Walthamstow adjoins
Leyton, and the third entry in the Leyton marriage
register is this : —
Novembris 1578. The xviith day were married Henry Parvish
and Elizabeth Colston.
Morant's " History of Essex " says that Henry
Parvish was " a merchant who traded to Italy." He
traded successfully, for in 1592, the year before his
death, he bought from William, Lord Compton, the
manor of Ruckholt, close to his wife's old home. He
seems to have left the property to his wife for life, and
then to his eldest son Gabriel Parvish (who must have
been about fifteen at the time of his father's death).
Ruckholt manor house, which became Michael's
home, and where his descendants lived until 1720, is
now submerged beneath the sea of yellow brick build-
ings which covers that part of Essex, and which is
known as 'London over the Border.' So complete
and so appalling in monotonous dreariness, is the
metamorphosis of this once country village, so bewilder-
ing is the maze of drab streets all exactly alike that it
is not possible for the most conscientious searcher to be
certain of the exact site of the manor house. Mr.
Kennedy, in his "History of Leyton," says that a
farmhouse called Tyler's was afterwards built on the
site and stood " at the end of the road on the left hand
side of the present Town Hall." A map of the manor,
172 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
made by one Thomas Archer, surveyor, in 1721, shows
that the entrance gates were on the high road leading
from Leyton to Stratford — to-day a broad thoroughfare
lined with dwellings, mainly mean, and along which
trams travel continuously. The map seems to say that
a double avenue led from the high road through a
" warren " to gates again, that these gave on to an outer
yard, and that then there was an inner yard and the
house itself, which appears to have had outstanding
wings. Behind the house was a garden with a pond at
the bottom of it, and beyond was the twelve acres of
rook-infested grove which gave the house its name.
Beyond the grove again, meadows went down to the
River Lea and a mill and to Leyton Marsh. To the
right of the house more meadows stretched away to a
lane which was the boundary on that side, and on the
left, in the direction of Leyton Church, was a consider-
able demesne intersected by a brook which ran into the
Lea. On the other side of the high road in front of the
house, the property stretched away to Leytonstone and
the borders of Waltham Forest — about five hundred
acres there may have been in all, and they had changed
hands pretty often. Mr. Kennedy says : —
The Manor of Ruckholt which took its name from the Saxon
words 'hroc holt' — Rook Wood — was, about 1284, the property of
William, son of Robert de Bumpsted Steple, who then recognised a
deed by which he had conveyed this manor to Sir Richard de la Vache.
In the year 1360, Philip de Bumpsted, son and heir of Robert de
Bumpsted of Stoke, released to Adam Francis, citizen of London, all
his right and interest in this Manor. It is probable that Francis had
purchased it of the heirs of Sir Richard de la Vache. Sir Adam
Francis, who died seised of this manor in 1417, left two daughters,
co-heiresses, Agnes, wife of Sir William Ponter, who died without
issue in 1461, and Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Charlton, whose son,
Sir Thomas, died seised of this manor in 1465. His son, Sir Richard,
inherited it ; he, like many another Englishman before and since,
interested himself in the affairs of his country and thereby came to
trouble; for in consequence of his attachment to Richard III., he
was attainted of high treason, and the Manor fell into the hands of
the Crown. In 1487 Henry VII. granted it to Sir John Rysley, on
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 173
whose death it escheated to the Crown, and was granted in 1513 by
Henry VIII. to William Compton, ancestor of the Earls of Northampton.
William Lord Compton, sold it in 1592 to Henry Parvish whose
widow married Sir Michael Hickes.
This account makes it probable that the manor
house itself may have been several centuries old, but
there is evidence that the garden, or part of it at least,
was laid out in the latest mode. There is a portrait at
Witcombe of one of Sir Michael's grandsons, and he is
standing on the terrace at Ruckholt and holds a bunch
of grapes in his hand. The terrace is flagged in black
and white, and from the opening in the balustrade a
path goes to white wooden gates between red brick
pillars. On either side the pillars are tall clipped hedges ;
over them looms a grove of trees. In the midst of the
path near the terrace is a fountain in two tiers, and a
stone Cupid with a bow stands on the topmost basin.
Around the fountain and down the path as far as the
gates are grouped square beds with box edges and small
clipped trees, about two feet high, at each corner. It is
all as ' Elizabethan ' as can be.
But Michael did not live, immediately after his
marriage, on the little Essex estate in the midst of his
wife's large family of growing-up children. He prepared
his house on St. Peter's Hill for his bride. " Wherein,"
says Baptist to him in a letter, " I hear you take much
pains to make it neat and fine against my sister's coming."
Here, in January, 1596, their eldest son William was
born. The date is certain because, in a precisely worded
and dated letter, Dr. William Mount, master of the
Savoy, congratulates Mr. Hicks on the birth of his son,
and sends Mrs. Hicks some cordials. While Robert
Cecil says, " Good Mich : I and Bess do send to you to
know how your wife and your Jewell do."
Burghley, of course, was to be godfather, and William
was to be the child's name. Robert Cecil wrote to
Michael at length about the christening, but a great
deal of the letter is obliterated. He says he will find
174 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
out from my lord what day will suit him, and whether
in the church or not. He himself thinks it will be best
in the church with a short sermon, and Mr. Wolston to
do it. The body of the letter is occupied by a rig-
marole about a "Lady R." whom Cecil thinks will
look for it to be bidden to be godmother, and of whom
he apparently disapproves ; but the subsequent censor-
ship does not help to make his reasons clear. Mr. Strype
relates a story of the christening, which, he says, he had
heard from the hero of the occasion (afterwards Sir
William Hicks) himself. It is trivial enough, but it
illuminates Burghley in a genial moment. " The old
Lord pulling out his Purse to take out some gold to give
to the servants, one or two pieces dropt down and fell
somewhere under the Bed : which he would not suffer
anyone to take up again, saying Let the sweepers
have it."
Michael soon found the house on St. Peter's Hill
too small for the hospitalities he exercised. The
following letter is from his fellow-secretary, Henry
Maynard, of Easton Lodge : —
" This morning I was with my Lord Chamberlain.
. . . Some speech he had with me touching your
house, saying that he understood that it was scant
of lodgings and offices. Whereupon I took occasion
to tell his Lordship that it was true, and that I con-
ceived it did trouble you that you had no convenient
place to entertain some of her Majesty's necessary
servants. His answer was that you were unwise to
bear any such charge but only to leave the house to
the Queen ; and wished that there might be presented
to her Majesty from your wife, some fine waistcoat,
or fine ruff, or like thing, which, he said, would be as
acceptable taken as if it were of great price. He said
two days since, upon speech of your house and of your
marriage, the Queen fell into an exceeding commen-
dation of Mr. Parvis, as that she never had such a
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 175
merchant in her kingdom ; whereupon his Lordship
saith that himself and others standing by, gave the
like commendation to her of your wife."
Neither the waistcoat nor ruffle brought to Michael a
town house large enough to hold the family of stepsons
and stepdaughters, and it is evident that after this first
year Ruckholt became his headquarters. And to
Ruckholt presently came the Queen, to judge for
herself of the perfections of Mistress Hicks.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that those per-
fections did not include great personal beauty. There
is a sentence in one of Robert Cecil's letters which tells,
although in balder language, that Mistress Elizabeth
was exceeding stout ; and a letter from Michael to Sir
John Stanhope seems to say that she found favour in
the royal eyes, not always inclined to regard female
comeliness with complacency ! The said letter is all
that exists to betray that the royal Elizabeth found in
Elizabeth Hicks a composed, capable hostess set in the
midst of a house and demesne in perfect order, and that
had it not been for the far too anxious host, the visit
might have been regarded as an entirely successful one.
..
I assure you I was very much troubled before
her Majesty's coming to my house out of the care and
desire I had she might find all things there to her good
liking and contentment. But since, I have been much
more troubled and perplexed, having heard by some
(who overheard it) that her Majesty took some conceit
and note towards myself for my silence, although
(in her princely favour) it pleased her to like of my
house, with the mistress of the house, and all things
besides. Truly Sir, I am very sorry it hath so fallen
out, and, though I shall like the better of my house
and my wife (because it pleased her Majesty to like
of them) yet I know I shall like the worse of myself
as long as I live. And I will the less believe Cato
176 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
(though he were a wise man) who taught me when I
was a boy, Non ulli tacuisse nocet.
" But to confess to you truly, I was purposed, in as
few words as I could, to have expressed the great
joy and comfort I took to see her Majesty at my poor
house, my most humble thankfulness to her Majesty
that it pleased her Majesty to vouchsafe to honour my
house with her princely presence, and my like humble
request that it would please her to pardon and cover
all the faults and defects she should find there with
the veil of her gracious and favourable acceptation.
But the admirable majesty and resplendance of her
Majesty's royal presence and princely aspect did on a
sudden so daunt all my senses and dazzle mine eyes,
as for the time I had use neither of speech nor
memory. For the which, though I be very sorry that
it so fell out, yet am I not much ashamed, remember-
ing, as I think both her Majesty and you can
remember, that men of great spirit and very good
speech have become speechless in the like case, as
men astonished and amazed at the majesty of her
presence.
" Sir, you have known me long, and, if I be not
deceived, have loved me also, though without my
desert. I beseech you for that your long acquaint-
ance and your love, help to restore me to her
Majesty's good opinion and conceit, and to repair my
credit with some public testimony to the world from
her Majesty of her Majesty's princely grace and
favour. I hope it shall be no hard thing for you
to obtain, my fault being an oversight not an
action, an error of omission not an offence of
commission. . . ."
\
This is by no means the end of a not altogether
guileless letter, which proceeds, at some length, to
quote Ovid on the topic of the clemency of princes ;
and it seems pretty certain that Michael had hoped
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 177
that the Queen would have made her visit the occasion
for the bestowal of knighthood ; it was a natural hope
enough, for lesser men than himself had successfully
cherished it under similar circumstances. Who knows
but that Elizabeth had entered the Ruckholt avenue from
the high road with every gracious intention, but had
been moved to impish passivity in the matter by a knee
and a back too redundantly bent ? Later on, when the
Queen was at Theobalds, it appears as if Cecil had used
some urgency in the matter, as if Michael had then
shown a crookedness of mood and temper to match
that of Royalty itself, and as if he had formed an
obstinate determination to be knighted on his own
hearthstone or not at all. Cecil willed that he, as well
as his brother Baptist, should be made a knight at
James' coronation, and told him so in the postscript
of a letter of 1603, which is all about the unintelligible
conspiracy known as the ' Main ' or ' Rye ' conspiracy.
Michael replied to the letter at great length, and dis-
coursed piously on the foulness and fearfulness of the
plot, adding: —
" I humble thank you for the postscript of your
letter, and so much the more moving out of your
own honourable favour. But since I refused it at
Theobalds, when it had come with the greatest grace
and credit to me, as a mark of your honourable
favour, I can be content to stay at this time. And
if it shall happen (as it is likely) that the King do
come to the Forest where I dwell, to hunt, and to
come to my house (as it is not unlikely that he will)
then if it shall please him, by your honourable inter-
vention, to think me worthy, it may be I will accept
of it for my wife's sake, whom I think worthy to be
a lady, though not myself fit to be a knight, but by
way of comparison with a great number that have
been, or may be, made."
" Good Mr. Hicks that would not be Sir Michael,"
C.F. N
178 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
jeers Cecil in September of the same year. But from
1604 onwards the letters from himself and others are
addressed to ' Sir Michael,' so the honour was obviously
conferred somehow and somewhere, and, although no
authority can be found for his statement, John Nichol,
in his " Progresses of James I.," states that " Sir Michael
Hicks was visited by the King at Ruckholt on
June 16th, 1604, and was knighted at Theobalds in the
following August." If that be true, this second royal
visit for which Michael had schemed brought again its
mortification.
The life that Michael led after his marriage was,
evidently, a very comfortable one. Mistress Hicks was
of undoubted repute as a housewife and a hostess ; the
house must have been spacious and comfortable, and
not only were Michael's friends glad to visit him, but
there is an instance of a father whopays to Ruckholt
the compliment of regarding it as the most fitting
temporary asylum for his widowed daughter. A letter
from Sir Nathaniel Bacon about his daughter Anne
Townshend plunges us momentarily into the history
of a family of antiquity and great services, and calls
up besides the vision of all that remains to-day of the
magnificent house which Nathaniel's half-brother,
Francis, used as a model when he wrote his famous
essay on Building. Sir Nathaniel Bacon (knighted
also in 1604) was the second son of the Lord Keeper
by his first wife. His father had left to Nathaniel all
the lands in Norfolk belonging to the monastery of
Thetford, which had been given to him by Henry VIII.
at its dissolution. These lands included the manor of
Stiff key, and it is from ' Stif key ' he writes to Michael
Hicks in August, 1605. He had no son, and his
eldest daughter and heiress, Anne, married Sir John
Townshend of Raynham, of an ancient Norfolk family.
Sir John was M.P. for Norfolk, and sat in the first Parlia-
ment of King James ; but in 1602 he was killed in a
duel with Sir Matthew Browne, leaving his widow with
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 179
two sons and a daughter. Stiffkey still belongs to the
Townshend family, and enough remains of the house
to show how splendid it once was — ' a princely palace,'
indeed. It is built of Norfolk flints and cornered with
stone, and nearly all that Francis Bacon described
can be traced out. It lies down an incline from the
high road, by a bridge that goes over a trout stream ;
and the marshes with their wild-fowl and the sea
that divides from the Pole are not far away. The
entrance arch is bricked up : only a portion of the
banqueting hall remains and only a few of the stair-
case towers : a late Georgian doorway is the way to
the few rooms that are still habitable : through a gap
is seen the tangle of the old garden with its ruined
turf and the high terrace above the bowling alley under
the wall. Close by is the church, where the bones ot
Sir Nathaniel lie, and where is the monument he erected
to his two wives. It was in 1605 that he took up his
pen in his closet at Stiffkey to write to Sir Michael
Hicks, who was evidently his creditor as well as his
friend : —
" Sir, I would be glad to hear that my brother
Sir Francis Bacon were not towards marriage, but
bestowed in marriage, for then, I know, his debt and
mine to you would come to be discharged. I have
such a report made unto me as if he had some ways
attempted marriage, but cannot yet hear of any
going forward thereof. I wish that God would raise
him up such friends, as, if Mr. Attorney be called to
be Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, that he might
succeed him. I do fear that he will find many
oppositions, and too many for him, to prevail in the
obtaining of that place.
" When you and I spoke last together, there passed
speech between us about my daughter Townshend's
sojourning at your brother's house. And I rather
wished it at your house. If my daughter might
N 2
180 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
herein prevail, either with you, or with your brother
by your means, she and I will acknowledge ourselves
beholden to you for it. Her Company is herself and
her daughter, being a child of 9 or 10 years, her two
maids and two men. And she will be content to
give for their board that which shall be to your
liking ; and this to be for a year or half a year. I
hope that her company will be to the liking both of
you and your wife. If this my suit with you may
be obtained, I then intreat you that you will be
content to signify so much unto me by your letter.
I guess by the late adjournment of the Parliament
that the same will hold now at Hallas (?) at which
time it is like that we shall meet, and then commune
further of my brother Francis' business. Thus I
heartily commend you to the grace and favour of
Almighty God. From SthTkey this (blank) of Aug.
1605 Your very assured friend Na : Bacon."
If Lady Townshend came to lodge at Ruckholt,
she would have been there later in the year, when, for
some reason or another, Juliana Hicks' marriage to
Sir Edward Noel took place from her uncle's house.
The wedding was in Low Leyton Church, and the
entry is in the register there : —
December 1605. Edward Noell Knight and Julian Hickes were
married the XXth. December 1605.
A note in the margin, by a much later hand, remarks
that she was "daughter of Sir Baptist Hicks." She
was Sir Baptist's eldest daughter and heiress, and her
dot was sadly needed to replenish the Noel coffers. Of
lineage that traced back to the reign of Henry I., the
family had become wealthy at the dissolution of the
monasteries ; but Sir Edward's father, Sir Andrew, was
a lover of magnificence, and upon him Queen Elizabeth
is said to have made a distich : —
The word of denial and letter of fifty,
Is that gentleman's name who will never be thrifty.
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 181
He had a considerable family, and Sir Edward,
knight-banneret, was the eldest. Sir Edward was
made a baronet in 1611 and a baron in 1616, and when
Sir Baptist himself was elevated to the peerage as
Viscount Campden, in 1628, it was with remainder to
his son-in-law, Lord Noel. Both titles are now sub-
merged in that of Gainsborough. Sir Baptist had no
country house in 1605, and it is more than likely that
Juliana did not want to be married from Milk Street,
and ' Aunt Elizabeth ' could be depended upon to
arrange everything with distinction.
"I pray you heartily at your next coming to
London let me understand the charge of my
daughter's dinner, for I shall not be quiet in mind
to have it unsatisfied ; although I know out of your
love you could afford me a greater matter, yet, in
such a kind as this, I may not accept it. I thank my
sister and you for our good entertainment ; everything
was so well that it pleased much the company."
So wrote Baptist to Michael when it was all over,
and "so well" did it all go off that Baptist's other
daughter elected to be married at Ruckholt too, and
the very next entry in the register is : —
1606 Sir Charles Morrison Knight and Mary Hickes were married
the iiii* 11 of December 1606.
Sir Charles Morrison lived in Hertfordshire, at
Cassiobury, which the seventh Earl of Essex now owns
the first Earl of Essex being the son of Elizabeth
Morrison, Sir Charles' only child.
Of going and coming at Ruckholt there seems, to
have been no end. Among the visitors were Lord and
Lady Shrewsbury, and both of them were letter- writers.
Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, was the eldest son of
George, the sixth Earl, who had had the custody of Mary
Queen of Scots, and who had married secondly, and as
182 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
her fourth husband, Elizabeth Hardwick of Hardwick,
known to fame as ' Bess of Hardwick.' Gilbert married
his stepmother's daughter, Mary Cavendish. She has
been met with in a previous chapter recommending
nostrums for all sorts of ailments : it is a way in which
certain female vitality expends itself. The Shrewsburys
owned the manor of Sheffield (which descended through
their third daughter Alathea to the Duke of Norfolk).
They write from Sheffield in September, 1603, to thank
both Mr. and Mrs. Hicks for their many kindnesses,
and especially for the hearty welcome and kind enter-
tainment given them at Ruckholt. They are settled
in their country life at Sheffield as if they had never
been absent, and as the autumn is an apt time for
physic they have Doctor Barron of Cambridge with
them to cure Lord Shrewsbury of his infirmity. The
latter has found a little nag by chance which Lady
Shrewsbury will needs send to Mr. Hicks' son, and the
bearer of the letter is paid for the horse's food by the
way, and is charged to take nothing at the delivery of
him but a cup of beer. That cup of beer was never
quaffed, for Lady Shrewsbury writes a month later
from Worksop (another manor which the Duke of
Norfolk now possesses) to say that the man who was
bringing the horse is dead of the plague, and the horse
is lost. She is most anxious to know how they all are
at Ruckholt, and begs them not to stay in a house " so
shrewdly besieged with the infection round about."
She sends two pies — perhaps to compensate for the loss
of the horse ! — and says she is sure they are reasonable
good if the cook has not been too much intoxicate
with the news of the death of his friends of the
plague.
There is another letter of Lord Shrewsbury's to
Michael, written from Greenwich in 1611, all about a
" strykynge clock made lyke a watch to stand uppon
a cubbart " which he is sending for Lord Salisbury's
acceptance. He complains of the fatigue common to
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 183
courtiers. " I am weary with waytynge on ye Queene
overstandynge myself and therefore I will hast to
bedd."
Essex, in 1600, was a sociable county. Sir Robert
Wroth of Loughton Hall* was High Sheriff in 1587,
and he had also considerable property in Middlesex,
for which county he was member of Parliament. He
acquired Loughton through his wife, Susan Stonard,
and lived there a good deal, and here is an invitation
to ' dine and sleep ' at Loughton : —
" My good friend Saint Michael. I have expected,
and have been in good hope, that we should have
met sometime this summer and to have been merry
together. The time draweth very near out for sport
in hunting, if therefore I might intreat you and your
wife, with Mr. Alderman Lowe and his wife,f your
brother Colston and his wife, and any other good
company, whomsoever you will bring or appoint, I
shall be most glad thereof, and you shall be as
welcome as to your own house with all the rest.
And in any wise you must determine to lodge with me
one night at the least. And the time of your coming
I desire it may be upon Thursday morning next,
and to meet about Fairmead, where I will appoint to
hunt and to make the gentlewomen some sport with
Mr. Ralph Colston's hounds and mine. And so,
earnestly desiring you not to fail herein, and to send
me word of your determination, and to be very earnest
with Mr. Alderman Lowe to have his company and
his wife's, I will bid you farewell. Loughton this
9 September, 1600. Your assured Friend
"Robert Wrothe.
" If the gentlewomen cannot be stirring so soon,
appoint to come to dinner upon Thursday, and in the
* Now the property of the Rev. John Whitaker Maitland.
| She was the sister of Elizabeth Hicks.
184 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
afternoon we will find some sport at bowls or
otherwise. And therefore bring your bowls with you
for yourself and your other company, among whom
I pray forget not to bring with you your brother
Baptist."
In August, 1611, is another letter inviting the same
company to stay at Loughton for three or four days,
and a letter from Henry Maynard of Easton Lodge,
Dunmow (now the property, by inheritance from him, of
the Countess of Warwick), makes it evident that these
house parties of county neighbours were a popular form
of entertainment. Maynard was co-secretary with
Michael, and he puts Michael and Lady Hicks in mind
of promises to come and stay at Easton, says there is
no time like the present, and that if they will come at
once they will meet another Essex neighbour, Lord
Petre* of Thorndon Hall (still the property of the
Petre family), together with his two sons, Sir William
and Mr. John Petre, and Sir William's wife, Lady
Catherine (a daughter of the Earl of Worcester).
Another neighbour, Sir Edward Suliard of Flemings,f
was to be there too, and he was not behind others in
hospitality. In 1603 he invites Mr. and Mistress Hicks
to spend Christmas with them and bargains that
William Hicks (six years old) and Mr. Parvis shall
not be left behind. Gentlewomen, he says, will some-
times send a trunk or two before them, and his cart will
" fitly " be in Stratford. Indeed there is nothing in all
this to divide 1600 from 1900 except the curious fact
that this social correspondence, which is nowadays
entirely in the hands of the women of a family, was
then almost exclusively carried on by the men.
There is no evidence that Mistress Hicks ever
accompanied her husband to Court. Michael himself
had, occasionally at least, to follow the Court about
* First Baron Petre, M.P. for Essex.
f Both name and house have disappeared from Essex.
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 185
and was probably as uncomfortably lodged as minor
officials have been in all centuries. His brother-in-law,
Alderman Lowe, came to his succour on an occasion
when the Queen was to stay for two days with the
Bishop of London. Thomas Lowe says that he knows
Fulham Palace is not large enough to receive all the
Queen's honourable followers, whereof he observes
Mr. Secretary to be one of the chief and principal, and
therefore he thinks it his duty, without presumption, to
offer his poor house at Putney to him. Thomas
wished to be something of a wag.
If Elizabeth Hicks did not go to Court she was
a welcome guest elsewhere. She stayed more than
once at Theobalds, and Cecil's carriage was at her
disposal too.
" Roger let Mr. Hicks have my horses and my
bigger coach to bring his wife from her house to
London, let mine own coachman go with it, and let
her use it as she pleaseth.
" Your master R. Cecyll."
In London itself the pair were not without invita-
tions.
" Sir. This night, of four of the clock, my Lord
Cranborne and my Lady, Sir Walter Cope and his
Lady and some others, will be at Westminster.
They have a play before supper and another after, if
you will be pleased, and my lady, to bear them
company I shall be much bound to you, and so
rest your loving friend and servant.
"George Montaigne."
This letter is dated from ' Sir Walter Cope's House,'
January, 1611. Its writer was Dean of Westminster,
and it was to the deanery that Sir Michael and Dame
Elizabeth were bidden. Sir Walter Cope himself was
186 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Master of the Court of Wards and one of the Chamber-
lains of the Exchequer. He built Holland House
at Kensington, and it descended to the Earls of
Holland through his only daughter. Lord Cranborne
was Robert Cecil's son, and was just twenty years old.
He had been married for three years to Lady Catharine
Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk.
At this gay party at the deanery, in the year before
his death, it would be well to leave Michael — leave him
there in the good company he loved.
For the gathering up of the threads of what is left to
be told of his industrious, merry and (in every mundane
sense) successful life, is in the nature of an anticlimax.
The remaining details cannot make the shadowy
portrait a more definite one. Like his first master,
Burghley, Michael Hicks eludes the definitions of
posterity, and is for his own descendants only a
'picture on the wall.'
That he suffered from deafness, for instance, must
have mattered a good deal to him ; but for a later age is
only interesting because of a letter from Sir John
Evelyn of Godstone, uncle of the more famous John
Evelyn of Sayes Court and of the Diary. The letter
describes Sir John's own deafness at some length,
commiserates Michael on his, and tells of a marvellous
cure of oil dropped into the ears and hot loaves clapped
on the top. At the end of the letter Evelyn observes,
incidentally, of course, that he has written to 'my
lord' touching his old friend, Mr. Sprentall and one
Fabyan. He asks for Michael's help in furtherance of
their suit, and assures him " in both their names, there
shall be that thankful remembrance had of your pains
and travail that you shall think it very well bestowed."
It was an accumulation of " thankful remembrances "
which enabled Michael, as is recorded on his tomb, to
die a rich man. The wealth so acquired was invested, as
the Close Rolls and Patent Roll Calendars show, in the
two ways usual ; either in loans to the impecunious, or
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 187
in mortgages on, or purchases of land. Several manors
passed through his hands, and, because of this, it is not
possible to assert that either imagination, or that passion
for ' founding a family ' which was particularly strong
in Elizabethan days, had anything to do with the
acquirement of the Norman Castle of Beverstone on
land adjoining that which his father, Robert, had
entailed on him at Tetbury in Gloucestershire. The
castle and its surroundings had once been part of
the great Berkeley estates, but in 1610 it belonged to
one Henry Fleetwood. There are two deeds in the
Patent Roll Calendars for 1610. In the first, dated
' Easter,' the final agreement with Fleetwood for
purchase is made ; and in the second, dated ' Trinity,'
Maurice Berkeley, for the sum of £200, renounces all
manorial rights. The property is described as " the
Castle and Manor of Beverstone, 30 messuages, 10
tofts, 2 mills, 2 dovecotes, 30 gardens, 20 orchards,
1,000 acres of land, 200 acres of meadow, 500 acres of
pasture, 200 acres of wood, 500 acres of heath and
furze, and £8 rent in Beverstone and Kingscott."
It is not at all likely that Michael, at sixty-seven
years of age, had any thought of leaving the pleasant
Essex neighbourhood and settling far away in Glouces-
tershire. But Ruckholt, of course, was his wife's
property, not his own, and Beverstone may have been
bought for his son William. He went there to see it
once, at least, for a letter of a Gloucestershire worthy,
Sir William Cooke, exists, in which he promises to be
a kind friend and neighbour to Sir Michael Hicks now
he has come into Gloucestershire, and says that he has
already dispatched his keeper with his hounds to kill
him a buck.
Michael died at Ruckholt two years later than this,
on August 15th, 1612. His will was made with
obvious haste on the day before he died. His wife, his
brother Baptist, and his brother-in-law, Thomas Lowe,
were made executors, with injunction to use their
188 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
discretion as to the bestowal of property among wife
and children : —
" In which disposition I entreate the said Sir Baptist Hickes and
Sir Thomas Lowe to have a Care of my sayd wife, whose love, care,
and tender affection towards me I have great cause to respect. And
withall I entreate my saied executors to remember Clement Hickes
my brother, and my daughter in Law Mary Purvys, as alles such
servants as I nowe have."
Next day, on the day of death itself, a memorandum
was added in which his son William was added to the
executors, his daughter Elizabeth's portion was directed
to be £2,000, and £200 was to be given to Mary
Purvis.
The 'Inquisition' of his property taken at the
Guildhall on October 7th following shows that he
possessed a house in Austin Friars, as well as that
on St. Peter's Hill and his property in the parish of
St. Catharine Colman. He possessed also, at the time
of his death, as well as the estate of Beverstone, con-
siderable lands in Nottinghamshire, formerly parcel of
the possessions of the dissolved priory of Lenton.
The jurors said they were ignorant of whom the said
lands were 'held' and there is no trace of their
acquisition in the Close Rolls.
Michael Hicks was buried in the chancel of Leyton
Church, and a monument of beautifully designed and
coloured marble was placed there by his widow. On
it, he is represented lying with his head on his mailed
hand, in the armour he never donned, and with a close
beard in the fashion of the day, which he is certainly
without in his portrait at Witcombe. In the arched
recess behind him is the Latin inscription : —
In obitum Clariss, Viri D. Michaelis Hickes
Equitis aurati, etc.
Quae volui in Vita Vidi dulcissima nuper Piqnora,
Consortem charam, Sortenq ; beatae Prolis, erant
Nati Gemini, Nata una Parenti-Optabam Christum :
Hinc Morti succumbo, lubensq ; Consortem, Sortem,
Natos, Natamq ; relinquo.
MARRIED LIFE OF MICHAEL HICKS. 189
To be translated thus : —
On the death of the most illustrious gentleman
Sir Michael Hickes, Knt, etc.
Those things I desired in life I attained, pledges
lately deemed the sweetest, a dear wife and a
fortune. I was happy in my family ; two sons and
a daughter called me father. I hegan to long for
Christ, therefore I willingly yield to death ;
willingly I leave wife, fortune, sons and daughter.
CHAPTER XII.
ELIZABETH HICKS.
With head on hand, and feet towards, and almost
touching, those of her second husband, lies Elizabeth
Hicks' effigy in the church at Low Leyton. Her
dress, her widow's coif, her shoes, are black. The
colour of the book in her hand is red, and her lips are
very red too. Under her generously arched brows the
widely set eyes are open, and the aquiline nose conies
down towards a squarely-modelled chin. The effigy
gives the effect of simplicity of mind and dignity
of nature. Beneath the marble arch behind her is this
inscription : —
Me tua Mors Viduam fecit : tu jam Viduatus
Coimibium Christi, nonviduandus, habes
At junctum hoc Tumulo me Sponsam rursus habebis,
Sic tua semper ero, quae tua nuper eram.
(Thy death hath widowed me ; thou, snatched from
me, hast wedded Christ, from whom thou shalt
never be parted ; but united to thee once more in
this tomb thou shalt again possess me a bride —
thus I, who was lately thine, shall ever be thine.)
Right away, on the other side of the church on the
south wall, is a plain stone : —
Henry Parvish 4 of August 1593. He was an
eminent merchant of London. Owner of the
Manor of Ruckholts in this Parish: His widow
matched to Michael Hickes Esq: afterwards Kt.
and of her son Gabriel Parvish was the Manor of
Ruckholts purchased by her son Sir William
Hickes.
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ELIZABETH HICKS. 191
In the Visitation of Essex, 1634, the Parvish pedigree
begins with Henry himself, and says that he and
Elizabeth had five children, Gabriel, Elizabeth, Anne,
Ellen (Helena) and Mary. But they must have had at -
least seven, for there is a letter to Elizabeth from a
son, Henry, and reference in another letter to a son,
Thomas.
That Elizabeth ruled not only them, but her second
family also, with affection, firmness and foresight — if
without imagination — the few letters give evidence.
1. Gabriel Parvish must have been about fifteen
when his father died, and about seventeen when his
mother married again. As Ruckholt is not mentioned
in Elizabeth's will she must have had only a life
interest in it. Gabriel not only sold that to his
step-brother, Sir William Hicks, but also disposed
of a property in Shalford, co. Surrey, which seems to
have been in the Parvish family for three generations.
2. Thomas Parvish was apparently not of gigantic
stature. One of Elizabeth's sisters had married a
citizen named Benet. The eldest son was Sir John
Benet, and the younger brother carried on the family
business, evidently that of a haberdasher. When it
came to the matter of putting her son Thomas out in
the world Elizabeth cast an eye in the direction of the
Benet shop. But it was not to be ; Thomas was not
tall enough. Her nephew, Sir John, writes to her from
Putney, 1604 :—
" My very good aunt. I would have been right
glad to have satisfied your desire for placing your
son Thomas with my brother Benet. But the truth
is, after my brother was intreated at many hands (as
you have understood) and found himself very willing
to yield to our requests, he took a view of him, and
perceived that, by reason of his small stature, he was
not able to do him such service as his trade requireth,
in bearing, pitching, and removing of broad cloths.
192 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
This answer he gave me finally upon Wednesday
last (after sundry earnest solicitations) in the presence
of my father (in-law) Lowe, and enforced the matter
so fully, as neither he nor I could tell how to make
reply."
Thomas' career does not seem to have been entirely
blighted. He is referred to in later life in a letter from
his brother Henry. (A Harleian pedigree says that he
had four sons.)
3. Henry Parvish evidently carried on his father's
business of " trading to Italy," and was established in
Venice.
"Venice, the 21 July 1613.
" Dear Mother. With all humility ever performed,
and your kind letter of the 10th past acknowledged,
craving pardon for my former ignorance ; which
being blotted out of your remembrance, and your
blessing so freely bestowed upon me, I will hope
hereafter better to pleasure your favour ; desiring
only that once in a year I may receive your blessing,
I praying daily for the same.
"And, for my late father-in-law, (step-father)
assure yourself I did know him kind and honest
towards you and yours, and no doubt he hath received
the fruit of an honest man.
" For my Father's estate if I was ignorant, let my
travels excuse me. . . ."
Hereupon follows an explanation of his own financial
position, which finishes with the assertion that he is in
good credit and out of debt.
" I shall be glad to understand the estate of my
sisters — as well those married as to marry. For
however I live, or wheresoever I leave my bones, I
hope to have something in advance ; and having no
children (as yet I have none) amongst my blood must
be divided the fruit of my labours. For which I
ELIZABETH HICKS. 193
desire the rather to hear how they are married and
increase with children. Because I protest unto you
what per (with) my youthful marriage (and) little
content, and troubles in this world, I esteem myself
not long lived ; which, now I have obtained your
favour, I esteem less than you can imagine. ..."
He goes on to say that he has sent his sister Mary a
pair of earrings and his brother Gabriel a waistcoat ; he
commends his mother to heaven, and himself to all the
other members of the family, and says that his wife,
Cecilia, wishes to remember " her duty to / you and
yours." If the Harleian edition of the Visitation of
London, 1568, is correct, he had subsequently three
sons, and his kind testamentary dispositions towards
his sisters came to naught. And if Elizabeth ever sat
down, pen in hand, to give him a really candid account
of the married lives of her daughters, it is a million
pities that the document has not survived. Some of
his sisters, it is evident, would have been only too
grateful for a little pecuniary help.
4. Elizabeth Parvish, the eldest daughter, married a
neighbour, Charles Pratt of Homechurch.
5. Anne Parvish married, first of all, Timothy
Whittingham of Holmside, Yorkshire. There is a
letter all about her written to her mother, from a rela-
tion of her husband's who signs himself ' Jarrard Birk-
head,' and who writes from York. It would seem as if
Anne's husband were lately dead. Part of the letter has
been deliberately destroyed — the writer praying this may
be the fate of the whole epistle. The remainder gives
a sufficient picture of discomfort under the roof of a
mother-in-law, but Anne was probably something of a
hussy, with a train of admirers, of which Mr. Jarrard
Birkhead was evidently not the least. At all events,
deliverance from an impossible domestic situation came.
Anne married again, and her second husband was
Henry Luter of London, merchant. She was destined,
c.f. o
194 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
too, to have a third hushand, and by her last marriage
with Sir John Dryden, Bart., became the aunt of the
poet.
6. Ellen, or Helena Parvish, Elizabeth's third
daughter, married one John Delahay, and the Parvish
pedigree says, elaborately, that he was of Halternes, or
Altyrings, between three and four miles west of Dore
and Ewias Harold, co. Hereford.
7. Mary Parvish at the time of her step-father's
death in 1612 had not finished her education. Her
marriage is the only one of the sisters' which is in the
Leyton register : —
1617 Sir Robert Charles Knight was married to Mrs. Mary Parvis
daughter to the Lady Hickes 6th May 1617.
Sir Robert lived at Romford and so was a neighbour.
It was to this large family, with its multifarious
interests and temperaments and tempers, that Mrs.
Parvish heroically added a second husband, two more
sons, and a fifth daughter !
No letters of Michael's to her exist, and there is only
one of hers to him, and the beginning of that is torn off.
(It is given in the original spelling and punctuation.)
"... I wret to you though . . . and cheses
which you sent . . . you sente it for it was very
good and it was well eaten we dranke to you and
wisht you here to eate of it, but I cannot have it with
wishing if I coulde you shoulde not be from hence so
much as you ar, but if I had all that I wolde I thinke
I shoulde be unwilling to leave the worlde therefore
I thinke it tis well as it is. I pray God bles you and
giue you helth for I protest to you it tis the chefest
thing 1 desier in this worlde. I had sent your men for
you though you hat not scute for them. I was at my
Brother Colstones and came home a porpose to write
to you he toulde me that he wolde goe to London in
the morning and come home a fote with you at night
ELIZABETH HICKS. 195
for this wether it tis better to goe then to ride or to
come in your coche, it freses so harde that my encke
will cease fale (scarce fall) out of my pene nor my
fingers houlde my pene, but that I write to you I
shoulde cease (scarce) write in your countinghouse
without a fier, but I will nowe bed you Godnight
and sende you good reste and bles us with his
grace.
" Your boy and gerl is well I thanke God
" Your euer louing wife
"Elizabeth Hickes."
Except for its extreme tranquility of tone this is
not very illuminating.
Michael and Elizabeth Hicks had three children :
William, Michael and Elizabeth. The two boys were
sent to school at Moreton, not far from Chelmsford and,
indeed, very near home. The school was kept by a
Mr. Goodwin, and was near Easton. It was on Henry
Maynard's recommendation that William, first of all,
was sent there in 1608, and in 1611 both the boys were
at Moreton, for Lady Maynard, writing in July, says
that she went there " yesterday and thanks be to God
both the young gentlemen, Mr. Will and Mr. Michael
Hickes all very well."
In 1613 William had left Mr. Goodwin, but Michael
was still with him and in need of a new jerkin. The
following letter is in beautiful writing on pencilled
lines : —
"Most lovinge Mother. I have allwaies found
your loving and mindfull toward me. Wherefore
I knowe it to be my dutie to wright very often unto
you, because I consider that nothinge can fall out
more acceptable unto you then to heare of me, and
of my good proceedings in learninge. Therefore I
will alwaies have a redie mind unto my studies, that
I may requite (though it be the lest part) of your
benefites. So remembringe my most humble dutie
o 2
196 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
unto you, and intreating you to send me a jerkin,
I take my leave and committ you to God
" Your most obedient sonne
"Michael Hickes."
In 1613 William was at Trinity College, Cambridge,
under the care of a Mr. Francis Nethersoll, two of
whose letters to Lady Hicks exist, but concern his own
movements only. The ' Family Tree ' records that
Michael also went to Trinity College, and that he died
there. Possibly he did ; there is no further mention of
him at all.
As for Elizabeth, her education, too, was a certain
preoccupation. She and her half-sister Mary had
Masters for all the accomplishments, and one of them
who signs himself ' P. Erondelle ' had the temerity
to send a French teacher down to Ruckholt.
"To the end that the gentlewomen do not over
much neglect their French, I have thought it good
to recommend this bearer unto your Ladyship, for
whose honest behaviour and diligence in teaching I
will be answerable ; which I would not do unless I
had certain knowledge of his sound religion and
conscience. . . . He intendeth to tarry with you
some fortnight, upon trial of your liking."
In 1619, Lady Hicks' last remaining daughter was
married to Sir William Armine, or Ermine, of Osgodby
in Lincolnshire, the representative of an old Lincoln
family. The baronetcy was dated November 28th and
the wedding was on December 14th (so the pedigree
says). Elizabeth had a son who married Anne Crane
of Chilton, but they had daughters only, and the
baronetcy became extinct in 1688.
Besides her children, her household, her friends and,
we may be sure, her charities, Lady Hicks had the
occupation of looking after her own money matters.
ELIZABETH HICKS. 197
Her name appears several times in the Close Rolls and
Patent Roll Calendars, and in the Close Rolls of 1612
is an indenture made to her by John Chamberleyn.
This was a mortgage purchased by her on the manor of
Widcombe Magna in Gloucestershire, and is the
beginning of a long story.
The manor of Widcombe is not mentioned in
Domesday Book, and is first heard of in 1275 when
Edmond, Earl of Cornwall, was seised of it. Later on
it was certainly part of the lands belonging to the
priory of St. Oswald in Gloucester and, on the dissolu-
tion of the monasteries, it, together with an immense
amount of land in the same neighbourhood and county,
became the property of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne,
ambassador in that, and in the three subsequent reigns,
to the Courts of Hungary, Sweden, Portugal and Spain.
Sir Thomas, who was descended from the Tankervilles,
High Chamberlains of Normandy, had three wives* and
a considerable family, and to the eldest son, John, went
the wide Gloucestershire acres, soon to know a rapidly
diminishing process.
From the Witcombe title-deeds the following tale
has been culled : —
Sir John Chamberlayne was in debt to Sir Thomas
Thynne of Longleat to the amount of £l,3Q0 and he
wanted Sir Thomas to become surety for £600 more.
To this end he gave him a deed of conveyance on the
manors of Prestbury, Churchdown, Hucclecote and
Widcombe, and on land in Badgeworth and Upton St.
Leonards. The conveyance was not to come into force
until Sir John's death : then land was to be sold
sufficient to repay Sir Thomas, and the residue was to
revert to Sir John's widow and heirs.
This deed was dated May 26th, 1612, and on Decem-
ber 21st in the same year Sir John gave a mortgage
* From Sir Thomas and his second wife, Elizabeth Luddington,
are descended the family of the Chamberlaynes of Maugersbury,
Gloucestershire.
198 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
for £2,000 for two years to Lady Elizabeth Hicks on
the manor of Widcombe. At the end of the two years,
Sir John was not able to repay the £2,000 he had
borrowed, so Lady Hicks descended, in the person of
her agent, on the manor, for the purpose of receiving its
rents. She found, however, that Sir John had issued
a notice to the tenants not to pay her, and that Sir
Thomas Thynne declared that he had a prior claim.
The matter was brought before the court of Chan-
cery, March 5th, 1615, when Sir John Chamberlayne's
defence was that, his debt to Thynne being only £2,000,
he was of opinion that the land conveyed to Thynne
over and above the manor of Widcombe was sufficient
to pay all the engagements.
The court, however, "conceived a great suspicion
of fraud," and ordered a subpoena to be issued on
Chamberlayne to show cause why Lady Hicks should
not enter into possession of the said manor or else have
her money. The defendant not being able to show
reason for this, an injunction was issued on June 12th,
granting Elizabeth peaceable possession of the manor
free of all incumbrances. On June 1st, 1616, a deed
was signed confirming to her the lordship and posses-
sion of the manor, and on June 10th another deed, by
which Sir John Chamberlayne, for himself and his
heirs, quitted claim for ever.
It is not in the least probable that it ever occurred to
Elizabeth that she should go and live on her new estate
so far away in a Cotswold valley. It had been a mere
investment, and had happened to turn out a very
profitable one — and there, for her, the matter ended.
Yet, if she never saw the Wide Combe, with the
Roman road dropping down through it from the high
plateau to the Severn side, she missed a vivid sensation.
Modern means of travelling the roads swiftly have made
the sensation a recurrent one to-day. If the whole
journey from London is not often made by road, as
it had to be made then, yet it is a pleasant thing to
ELIZABETH HICKS. 199
leave the train at Oxford and to come straight across
the tops of the Cotswolds, through the whole of the
characteristic Cotswold country and those two entirely
Cotswold towns, Burford and Cirencester. From
Cirencester the Roman Ermine Street stretches for ten
miles hefore the eyes, in an unbroken straight line to
the edge of the Cotswold plateau, and on each side of it
lies the wind-swept, undulating land with its spectre
trees and isolated barns. The road dips, rises, sweeps
through a village of low stone houses with stone roofs,
and with the last of them the edge of the hills is
suddenly gained. It is like an abrupt arrival on the
brink of cliffs that overhang a seashore, for, like a sea,
and wide as the sea, the whole plain of the Severn
valley — a different country, with a different climate and a
different people — lies before the eyes. And connecting
the two lands, and curving slightly inwards in a horse-
shoe formation where Ermine Street reaches the vale,
are the beech-crowned slopes of the Wid(e)combe of
yesterday, and the Witcombe of to-day, with their
gabled farmhouses and their pastures and orchards ; and
Ermine Street leaves them behind it, and goes straight
as an arrow once more across the plain to where
the cathedral of Gloucester stands high above the haze
of the river-side.
It is possible that Elizabeth may have gone into
Gloucestershire to visit Sir Baptist and his lady in their
great house at Campden, and may, from there, have
journeyed across devious hill-roads from a northerly
direction, and so have come at last to the edge of the
plateau and of her Witcombe woods. There is no
vestige of proof that she ever did so — but she kept the
estate, and if she had ever seen it she must infallibly
have done that.
After her husband's death Elizabeth seems to have
lived a great deal at the house in Austin Friars which
Michael's executors had made over to her. All that
neighbourhood was a mass of dwellings and gardens ;
200 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
many of the houses had been part of the friars' stables
and offices, and in their midst rose the gilded vanes of
the great house which Thomas Cromwell had built on
the site of the monastery itself. It was a semi-rural
settlement, with quick-set hedges and muddy lanes,
all within the boundaries of the old monastery, and
within a few paces of the exchange and the heart of the
City. Elizabeth would be there in near touch with
relations on both sides of the family, close to Sir Baptist
and his wife in Milk Street, and close to her married
sisters' town houses too. But she outlived Sir Baptist,
for she did not die until 1634, in the summer of which
year, while she was at Ruckholt, she made her will.
Its provisions are more definite than those of the death-
bed testament of Michael, her husband : —
Anno Domini 1634 the 14th July — In the name of God Amen.
I, Dame Elizabeth Hicks, late wife to Sir Michael Hicks Knight
deceased, do, the day and year above written, make this my last will
and testament, being infirm of body but (thanks be to God) in perfect
sense and memory, for which His Name be praised. First I yield up
my soul into the hands of Almighty God who created it, and in His
infinite mercy, through the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed
it ; with hope and confidence that, in the accomplishment of all His
mercies extended unto me in His good time, He will grant me a part
of the Resurrection of the Just ; that in that Great Day I may with
comfort behold His glorious Countenance.
My body I will to be buried in the Church of Leyton parish in a
convenient place, with ceremonies according to the Church of England.
And for my funerals, I leave them to be performed at the discretion
of my Executors and Overseers of this my last will and testament.
I will that all such debts as shall be found owing by me at the
time of my death be duly paid out of my estate.
To the poor of Leyton parish I leave it to my Executor to give
and supply their necessities as he shall find fitting. To George Tillery,
Joyce my maidservant, George Gardiner and Edward the Warrener,
my ancient servants, I refer to my Executor to give them what he
shall please to bestowe of them.
I give and bequeath unto John Delahay, my grandchild, the
sum of five hundred pounds, out of which is to be paid such a sum
as shall be given for his preferment in service to a Master, either
Merchant or other Trader as his friends shall find fitting for his
training up. And what the residue of the said five hundred pounds
may amount unto, I will that it be let out at interest for the use of
ELIZABETH HICKS. 201
the said John Delahay for the increasing of this my said legacy.
And that the said legacy, with the full interest, be paid unto the said
John Delahay or his Assigns when he shall arrive unto the full term
of one and twenty years.
I give and bequeath unto my son Sir William Hicks Knight,
Baronet, the manor of Widcombe in Gloucestershire, and all my
personal estate. That is to say all sum or sums of money due unto
me by bonds, mortgages, bills or debts, or any other specialities or
contracts whatsoever.
Likewise I give and bequeath unto my said son Sir William Hicks,
all manner of household stuff, plate, jewels, rings or pearls that I
shall die possessed withal, either in my now dwelling house at Ruck-
holts in Essex, or in my house in St. Austin Friars in London ; except
only such household stuff and plate as is or shall be found in both or
either of my said houses of Ruckholt or Austin Friars at my decease,
belonging or appertaining unto the estate of my first husband Henry
Parvish deceased. All which said household stuff and plate I give
and bequeath unto my son Gabriel Parvish.
And I ordain and make hereby my said son Sir William Hicks
my sole and full executor of this my last will and testament. And
likewise make Sir Robert Quarles Knight and my son Gabriel Parvish
my Overseers. And I give to each of them for a legacy ten pounds
apiece. And so I leave my blessing with them. And I pray God
continue his peace amongst them. Eli : Hickes Sealed and subscribed
and delivered as her deed in the presence of us Eliza : Pratt Richard
Alline.
CHAPTER XIII.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART., I. AND II. 1612 TO 1680
AND 1680 TO 1703.
On his father's death in 1612 William Hicks became
possessed of the castle and lands of Beverstone in
Gloucestershire ; on his mother's death in 1634 he
became owner of the manor of Witcombe in the same
county, and, when his mother's life interest in it ceased,
he bought Ruckholt, in Essex, from his step-brother
Gabriel Parvish ; so the Parvish monument in Leyton
Church says.
He was born in 1596, in the reign of the last of the
Tudors, and he did not die until 1680. His lifetime
covers a period when the history of many families
flames suddenly with passion, and despair, and burns
down into the steady glow of Fortitude — into necessary
endurance of the ' thing desired.'
Sir William and passionate incident were not linked
successfully together, and Fortitude — as Botticelli
conceived of her at all events — was certainly never
the goddess of his hearth. In the two counties in
which he was a landowner, the Royalist and the Puritan
levies marched and counter-marched, and we can
believe, as Sir William's monument records, that he
"Underwent great Trouble and Danger." But the
trouble had been all over for twenty years when that
was written over him, and it would have proved a
robuster mood if it had been forgotten. It seems to
betray a nature of low vitality, and famous contemporary
diaries verify the impression. Other households had
been wrecked disastrously on the rocks of the Common-
wealth, and had patched their shattered hulks together
s
wffiUA^H^L^Bar? LieutwMBt of ^ Fore.4 of WAXTHAM, one of $ Deputy Lieutenant., of this
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iWHtNDTte said WIIOAM crying fid of Djyei * Honour, mas IiutkI n.ith a Decency due to
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4ym« at WESTMINSTER, ruu interred in^Attry Cknrrri there.
■I
=—
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MONUMENT TO SIR WILLIAM HICKS, FIRST BARONET, IN LOW LEYTON
CHURCH, ESSEX.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 203
and raised sail merrily once more when Royalist breezes
began to blow ; but Sir William, in his gloomy old
house in the Essex marshes, had that curious form of
vanity which shows itself in being unnecessarily
wretched. A door swinging latchless ; torn arras
dangling in the draught ; meals shockingly served to
the music of rooks cawing ceaselessly in the swaying
trees close to the windows — that is the picture we get
of his latter days ; and his sculptured, loosely-knit figure,
lying on the monument, seems to say pathetically that
he could not help the deliberate pose !
It was on the Essex stage that his life was lived out.
Then, as now, the county held within its boundaries
very divers elements. It had, in the first place, its
purely country districts, where a church and a village
were the nucleus of an estate ; where the squire and the
parson reigned supreme, and where the old faith and the
old manorial customs died a lingering death. Secondly,
there was the large district, which was then, as truly as
it is now, ' London over the Border.' Here, from early
Plantagenet days onwards, city merchants had rooted
themselves in the soil as landed proprietors, and had
built houses on the rising ground backed by the great
Essex Forest and fronting the reaches of the Thames
and distant views of its wooded Kentish banks. Ruck-
holt was in this neighbourhood, which had been
dominated from mediaeval times by the culture and the
wealth of City princes, and which was, on a large scale,
simply a suburb of London itself. Lastly, there were
the small Essex towns. Chelmsford, the county town,
practically owned by the Mildmay family, was
unimportant and not even incorporated : then there
were Maldon, Saffron Walden, Thaxted and others,
with Colchester in the north of the county.
Colchester had had a continuous history from the
days of its Roman greatness onwards, and in the
seventeenth century it was a centre for the weaving of
' bays and says,' and had a population of over 8,000, an
204 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
immense number of whom were of Dutch or Flemish
extraction — the children of refugees from the Low
Countries. Harwich, close by, was the great port of
Northern Europe, and in constant intercourse with the
Continent. It is not too much to say that Harwich and
Colchester were the channel through which the liberal
opinions of the reformed faith percolated into England.
The defeat of the Armada brought about a revulsion
against the Puritan spirit all over the country, and in
Essex itself are many recorded instances of incumbents
presented to the bishop by their churchwardens for
infractions of the Book of Common Prayer and neglect
of its rubrics. On the whole, however, the beginning of
the historic struggle found Essex strongly Puritan and
Colchester itself a hotbed of disaffection, and one
reason for this state of affairs may have been that
many of the old Essex families had disappeared. The
De Veres, who had been the first family in the county
for six centuries, had become impoverished, and the
nineteenth earl had married a Dutch woman and lived
in Holland. The Fitzwalters, who were in Essex for
four centuries, had been succeeded by the Radcliffes, to
whom Henry VIII. gave the earldom of Sussex, which
died out with the sixth earl in 1641, and the two
Radcliffe heiresses married Sir Thomas Cheke and Sir
Henry Mildmay, who were both Parliamentarians ;
while another Essex house, the Darcys of Chiche,
found themselves, at the beginning of the war, without
a male representative — Earl Rivers, head of the family,
having died in 1639.
Essex was, in short, the last county in England in
which a man who was a pronounced Royalist would
willingly have found himself in the years of tumult
which began with the dismissal of the Parliament of
1628. But the truth is that, until the day when he did
turn with a certain decision from an abhorrent extreme,
Sir William Hicks, floating with the tide, did not
discover his environment to be uncomfortable.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 205
It is quite likely that if he left Cambridge with any
opinions at all, those opinions were Liberal, for that was
the prevailing spirit of the university, although Trinity
College itself was not specially Puritan in tone. In the
years after leaving college, however, it is certain that
the Puritan ideal did not harass him particularly. His
uncle, Sir Baptist, was a powerful member of the Court
party, and he himself was rich in a Court that always
needed money. In the year 1619, at the age of twenty-
three, he was made a baronet by James I. The grant
was made out at Theobalds on July 18th in wordy
Latin, and on July 21st another lengthy document
was signed, the purport of which was that William
Hicks was to be acquitted of the sum of £l,095, usually
paid in respect of the dignity of a baronet, because he
did voluntarily offer aid for the maintenance of thirty
footmen in the army in Ireland for three whole years.
In a gossipping letter dated August 23rd in the same
year, Sir John Chamberlain, writing to Sir Dudley
Carleton from London, tells him of three or four
knights made into baronets : —
" The first was Sir Villiers, eldest brother to the
L. of Buckingham. . . . Another was Sir James Lee,
Attorney of the Court of Wards : besides Sir William
Harny that married the old Countess of Southampton,
and younge Hickes sonne to Sir Michael Hicks that
comes to it I know not by what title."
"By what title" Sir William Armine got his
baronetcy in November of the same year is likewise
a mystery. He married William's only sister, Elizabeth,
in Low Leyton Church in December, and proved to be,
in the time to come, an active Parliamentarian. Mar-
riages complicated life tremendously, and Sir William
Hicks' own marriage in 1625, to a daughter of Lord
Paget, plunged him into a family that was decidedly
Puritan. The Pagets seem to have had their origin in
206 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the little town of Uxbridge, and, in 1547, Henry VIII.
gave the manor of West Drayton, close by, to Sir
William Paget, afterwards Lord Paget of Beaudesert.
He was succeeded by his two sons, Henry, who died in
1568, and Thomas, third Lord Paget, who was a Roman
Catholic. Thomas, Lord Paget, was attainted of treason
in 1587 and his estates, including West Drayton, were
forfeited ; but after his death Elizabeth granted the
reversion of the manor of West Drayton to his son
William, who afterwards recovered, by Act of Parlia-
ment, the remainder of his father's estates and the title.
He was the fourth Lord Paget, and it was his youngest
daughter, Margaret, whom Sir William married.
Margaret Paget had had a strict Protestant unbring-
ing, for her mother was Lettice Knollys, grand-daughter
of Sir Francis Knollys, one of the well-known Protes-
tants added to the Great Council of Elizabeth,* while
her mother was the daughter of Sir Ambrose Cave,
another of the seven. One of Margaret's elder sisters
married Sir William Waller, who was, later, one of
Cromwell's most famous generals ; and her eldest brother,
the fifth Lord Paget, married Lady Frances Rich,
daughter of Lord Holland, a leading Parliamentarian.
All this would necessarily be an influence in Sir
William Hicks' early married life. The wedding took
place in West Drayton Church.
1625 September 8. William Hickes Knight and Baronet and
Margaret Paget oldest daughter of the Lord Paget by Licence.
is the entry in the register. Lord Paget's house was
built in what was once the churchyard, and is now
the churchyard again. A rectangular gatehouse is all
that remains to-day of a very considerable mansion
and outbuildings.
Lord Paget was Lord Lieutenant of Buckingham-
shire, where Great Marlow had just been created a
* His mother-in-law was Mary Boleyn, sister to Anne Boleyn.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 207
borough with two members, and in 1626, he put his
son-in-law in as one of them ; and thus was Sir William
pitchforked into the hurly-burly of the Parliamentary
struggle.
Parliament had met at Oxford in 1625, in a stern
temper, for Charles I. had defied it. He defied it again,
for its determination to consider public grievances was
checkmated by dissolution, and Buckingham, resolved
to lure the mind of the country from the constitutional
struggle by the triumphs of war, got together a great
fleet which was sent to the coast of Spain. The
expedition was an idle one and the enormous debt
incurred made a new summons of the two Houses
imperative, and it was this Parliament of 1626 to which
Sir William was elected for the first time.
The Parliamentary leader of these earlier stages of
the struggle was Sir John Eliot. He called for an
enquiry into the failure before Cadiz ; Charles answered
with threats, but Buckingham's impeachment was
voted and carried to the Lords and pressed home by
the invective of Eliot. Charles' reply was fierce and
sudden, and Eliot and Digges were committed to the
Tower. Till their members were restored, the Com-
mons refused to proceed with public business, and the
King had to yield ; but Eliot's release was instantly
followed by another dissolution and by an appeal to the
nation to pay as a gift the subsidies which Parliament
had refused.
But the tide of popular resistance — apart as yet from
the resistance of Parliament — was gradually rising, and
refusals to give anything came from county after
county. Charles met the failure by defiance of the law
and the levy of a forced loan. "Every means of
persuasion as of force was resorted to," says J. R.
Green. " The pulpits of the Laudian clergy resounded
with the cry of ' passive obedience.' . . . Poor men who
refused to lend were pressed into the army or navy.
. . . Eight peers, with Lord Essex and Lord Warwick
208 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
at their head, declined to comply with the exaction as
illegal. Two hundred county gentlemen whose
obstinacy had not been subdued by their transfer
from prison to prison were summoned before the
Council." John Hampden, who was one of them,
declared that he must refuse to lend for fear of drawing
down on himself the curse in Magna Charta.
That fear did not haunt Sir William Hicks. Essex
was one of the counties which resisted most strenuously.
Lord Warwick was Joint Lord Lieutenant of the
county with Lord Sussex, and behind him were most
of those prominent in Essex life. But Sir William's
name does not appear in any list of delinquents — he
gave no trouble — he paid what was demanded. Yet his
acquiescence does not seem to have involved him with
his neighbours, for when, in the following year, Lord
Warwick " bought out " Lord Sussex and became sole
Lord Lieutenant of the county, he made Sir William a
Deputy Lieutenant — an honour then rarely bestowed.
It was Buckingham's folly — the abortive expedition
to Rochelle — which forced on Charles, again over-
whelmed with debt, the summoning of yet another
Parliament in 1627. Sir William did not stand for
Great Marlow this time, and that is a sure indication of
his indecisive mood — a mood that must have been
universal enough. It looks, too, as if the predominating
influence was for the moment not his Paget father-in-
law, but his uncle, the Royalist Sir Baptist ; for when
Sir Baptist, who was sitting as member for Tewkesbury
in this new Parliament, was suddenly made a peer in
1628, he put his nephew in as member for Tewkesbury
in his place. So it came about, after all, that Sir
William was behind the locked doors of the House of
Commons during that strange scene when the Speaker,
in tears, was held down in his chair ; when the Usher of
the House of Lords, with the order for adjournment,
knocked vainly, while Denzil Holies read the famous
protest, and Eliot uttered the prophecy, "None have
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 209
gone about to break Parliaments but in the end
Parliaments have broken them."
Sir William was not the only person in that fevered
atmosphere with a fundamental distaste for revolution.
The tide of passion had risen so high that it would seem
as if a climax must have been reached there and then.
But when the guards came to force the doors they
found an empty chamber ; and so was inaugurated the
eleven years of King Charles' personal rule.
There was -no dubiety about the effect of those eleven
years on Sir William.
In 1640 Scotland was in arms. < " The discovery of a
correspondence between the Scotch leaders and the
French Court raised hopes in the King that an appeal
to the country for aid against Scotch treason would still
find an answer in English loyalty." Relying on a burst
of popular indignation, he thought it a propitious
moment in which to summon a Parliament once more
and ask for a heavy subsidy. But " every member of
the Commons knew that Scotland was fighting the
battle of English liberty " ; they set aside the intercepted
letters and declared, as of old, that redress of grievances
must precede the grant of supplies.
Three weeks was the measure of Charles' patience
with them ; the old weapon of dissolution fell again,
and with strange infatuation all the old measures of
exaction were continued with renewed energy.
In this Parliament, known to history as the Short
Parliament, Sir William Hicks sat for Great Marlow
once more, as the nominee of the Puritan Pagets, and,
for the next three years, at least, the fine he took was
definitely Parliamentarian, although he evaded re-elec-
tion to the Long Parliament.
It was the occupation of Newcastle by the Scotch
army and their threatened march on York which
obliged Charles, with wrath and shame, to summon the
Houses again to Westminster ; and there stepped to
the front at once John Pym, the first definite leader of
C.F. P
210 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the House of Commons. Pym was a political genius,
and he foresaw clearly from the first the issue that must
now, at last, be forced — the doctrine that, as an element
of constitutional life, Parliament was of higher value
than the Crown.
Two years later England was plunged in a civil
war. Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Cam-
bridge, Huntingdon and Lincoln formed themselves
into an ' Eastern Counties' Association ' in aid of
the Parliamentary cause, and Sir William Hicks was
on the committee for Essex. In 1642 he was
nominated one of the committee for carrying out the
' Scandalous Ministers' Acts ' ; in 1643 he was one
of the Essex committee of assessment and was on the
Essex sequestration committee ; and in June of the
same year, as the borough MSS. at Colchester show,
he and others became surety for the payment of £2,000
raised for the pay of the Essex forces. But recruiting
was becoming more difficult ; the first ardour of the
county for the Parliamentary cause was cooling.
Complaint was made of the poor attendance of the
county gentry at a meeting at Chelmsford, and Sir
William's own excuse * was that he desired to attend
Mr. Waller's trial f next day ; and in October he and
some of his influential neighbours made a formal protest
against a new levy of men from their district, which,
they say, had already sent more than its full share of
soldiers.
All classes were beginning to feel the strain of these
heavy exactions, and in December Sir William showed
his first sign of revolt and definitely refused to pay
an assessment of £800 made upon him. Parliament
had but one answer for that sort of behaviour, and
* In a letter to Sir Thomas Barrington, June 29th, 1643.
■j- Edmund Waller, the poet, who was connected with the Pagets
by marriage, had been engaged in negotiations with King Charles.
Two of his associates were hanged, but he escaped with a fine of
£10,000.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 211
a warrant, dated January 16th, 1644, was made out for
his " safe custody." The order for his discharge is
dated a week later, and he is directed to pay the £800,
the collector's salary and charges, and to contribute
£120 7s. 4d. in plate because that part of his estate in the
county of Gloucester is under the power of the King's
forces.
In 1644 Sir William's Gloucestershire property,
Beverstone Castle, was in the hands of Royalist troops
under Colonel Oglethorpe. It is extraordinary that,
during the two and a half centuries they possessed it,
the Norman stronghold never had any appeal for the
Hicks' imagination. To-day the shadow of its great
keep lies across the rectory croquet hoops, and jack-
daws caw undisturbed in the trees that lean towards it ;
but the " Bureston " of Domesday Book* stood out
nakedly on the Cotswold hillside, 600 feet above the
Severn river, and overlooked the plateau from Kingscote
to Cirencester, the whole length of the vale of White
Horse and the downs round Marlborough and Calne.
The accepted theory seems to be that some Norman
named Bure, or Bever, in the train of the Norman
Queen Emma, obtained a grant of land from Canute,
and on it built his castle after the manner of his own
country. Such as he made it, did it remain until it
was granted by Henry II.. as part and parcel of the
great manor, since known as the manor of Berkeley, to
Robert Fitzharding, whose eldest son, Maurice, married
the daughter of Roger de Berkele. Maurice Fitz-
harding's third son, Robert, took the name of De
Weare, and Beverstone became his portion. His son,
Maurice de Weare, rebuilt the castle, about 1225, and
left it to his sister's son, Robert de Gournay. Anslem
de Gournay was the next owner ; then John de
* " Beverstone : Its Church and Its Castle." By J. Nowell Brorae-
head, Rector of the Parish.
P 2
212 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Gournay, and then a granddaughter who married Lord
Ap Adam. The only son of this marriage, Thomas
Ap Adam, sold back the castle, in 1331, to the
Berkeley family — to Thomas, commonly called the
Great Lord Berkeley. He reconstructed the whole
place out of ransom money obtained for prisoners in
the battle of Poitiers.
Lord Berkeley made the castle a place of great
strength and adorned it with stone carving. It was a
quadrangular pile, with a tower at each angle, and the
south-west tower was probably reared on the founda-
tions of the original building and more or less represents
it. Between each tower was a curtain-wall, with
galleries and chambers behind it. Beyond the port-
cullis were the flanking walls of a barbican ; then came
a deep moat which encircled the whole castle and was
crossed by a drawbridge, while a second moat lay at a
distance of 80 or 90 yards beyond the south face.
It was, in fact, a magnificent — a ' baronial ' — place ;
and what a chapter for this book the story of its siege
might have made, had its owner but been a person in
whom the dramatic sense was at all developed !
Once before in its history Beverstone had been
occupied by troops who desired to overawe the city of
Gloucester. In 1051 an army was gathered to force
King Edward the Confessor, who lay at his residence
at Gloucester, to dismiss his Norman favourites. Uley
Bury and Beverstone were occupied for the purpose,
and Earl Godwin, with his sons, the Earl of Gloucester
and the Earl of East Anglia, were at Beverstone. In
1643 it was the People's Army which was in possession
of Gloucester, and the King's men who had seized
Beverstone ; which commanded all the disaffected cloth-
weaving valleys between it and the city. Its seizure
by the Royalists was easy enough, for it was quite
unfortified. Sir William's tenant there was a yeoman
named John Shipway, who occupied a very small part
of the great pile. It is likely enough that Shipway
MH
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 213
was himself a Royalist — in any case, resistance on his
part would have been useless.
The castle is said to have withstood more than one
assault from Gloucester, and, early in 1644, Colonel
Massie, who commanded the Parliamentary troops
there, made a determined attempt to take it with 300
foot soldiers and 80 horsemen. Guns were placed
close to the entrance, and there was an effort to blow
up the gate, but the attacking force was driven back
by hand grenades and stones, and after twelve hours'
hard fighting retired to Wotton-under-Edge. In May
of the same year, however, the castle came into the
hands of the enemy. It is not a particularly inspiring
story. Colonel Oglethorpe, its commander, was seized
by Massie in the house of a young woman in the
neighbourhood of whom he had become enamoured,
and Massie wrote to the lieutenant, who was second
in command, offering him and the garrison "faire
quarter and true performance " if they would surrender.
Perhaps the position had really become untenable. At
all events, the officer struck some sort of a bargain, and
he and his men made their way to Malmesbury.
Colonel Massie put a Parliamentarian garrison at once
into the evacuated castle and Sir William Hicks was
called on for its support. He appealed against the
demand to the Committee of Both Kingdoms, and an
order, dated August 26th, 1645,* was sent to the
committee at Gloucester : —
"We are informed by Sir Wm. Hicks that you
require him to maintain the garrison of Beverstone
Castle, of which he is the Proprietor, or else that it
must be slighted. Having suffered much in his
estate for his good affection to the Parliament, he
assures us that he is not of ability to do that, besides
the place being small, it may be kept by a garrison
of only 40 musketeers, the which we conceive
* State papers.
214 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
probable, for that, Sir Thomas Fairfax being so near
at Bristol, it cannot be in any great danger. You
are therefore to afford it such a small garrison that
the Castle may not suffer more than it has already
done, but be still preserved for him."
From this concession it is clear that Sir William's
half-hearted pecuniary revolt at the beginning of 1644
had been forgiven. Indeed, in May of that same year,
he was made one of the Committee for the General
Assessment of the East and West, and in 1645 he was
both on the Committee for Raising and Maintaining the
New Model, and on that for Raising the Scots Assess-
ment. It was that curious social and religious medley,
the army of the New Model, with which King Charles
found himself confronted at Naseby. With Naseby
the issue of the Civil War was decided once for all,
and, with the complete downfall of the Royal cause, it
was but human that the natural loyalty of the average
Englishman to the Crown should reassert itself. Sir
William was an average Englishman, with average
caste instincts, and, after Naseby, it is quite clear that
he belonged to that party which thought that things
had gone far enough, but did not realise that they had
gone too far for accommodation, and not far enough
for a genuine popular reaction.
In Essex the reaction, which culminated in the siege
of Colchester, was peculiarly disastrous. On May 4th,
1648, 2,000 men of Essex, claiming to represent 30,000
more, marched to Westminster with a petition praying
for an agreement with the King and the disbandment
of the army. In June Sir William Hicks and most of
the country gentlemen were assembled in Chelmsford,
and Lord Norwich, who had already raised Royalist
levies in Kent, was negociating with them.
The Duke of Beaufort has in his possession a manu-
script narrative of the siege of Colchester, by an
eye-witness. It relates that the Houses at Westminster
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 215
were alarmed at the threatened union of the two
counties : —
" They humbled themselves to theire old arts and
offer'd us an Act of Indempnitie, upon condition
that we would render to them the gentlemen of
Kent as a well pleasing sacrifice . . . we were too
well acquainted with theire thirst of blood to thinke
this offering could appease ; ... all the advantage
we could have expected from theire Act of Indemp-
nitie, was no more than Polyphemus promised
Ulisses, to be the last devoured, yet this deceipt so
wrought upon the feares of some of our meane
spirited counterymen, as Sir William Hicks and
others — who march'd in the first ranks of our
petitioners — that they were frighten'd into an infamous
apostacie to their loyalties and honours, and to a
breach of theire faithe, which they had forengaged to
the gentlemen of Kent : whom by the bonds of
justice, honour and interest, we were obliged to
assist.
"This meene example of the gentlemen shaked,
and had almost dissolv'd the assembly of our
counterymen, had not the honourable Sir Charles
Lucas — like a worthy patriot — stept in, to the
rescue of his countery, and reason'd those that
remained into a resolution of adhering to their first
engagement."
Another account in the Civil War pamphlets
says : —
" The Commons from Parliament were here, and
published the indempnity to the inhabitants, and Sir
Wm. Hicks and divers others of the gentlemen sub-
mitted. But Sir Ch. Lucas that eminent Cavalier
came into them, and by his insinuations hath
prevailed with the Cavalier party and the soldiers.
And they seized on Sir Wm. Hicks and several
216 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
other gentlemen of the county and plundered some,
which hath much discontented the inhabitants."
It is not possible to unravel the threads of all that
really took place in those heated Chelmsford councils.
But, although it is true that it was Sir Charles Lucas
who was henceforth leader of that more ardent section
of the county gentlemen who felt they had gone too
far to retreat, it is not fair to say that Sir William was
an infamous apostate. " Some thought it best to
depart privately from the town, lest an unexpected
inconveniency should arise and occasion their persons
to be seized," says Matthew Carter, who left a long
account of the whole matter. Lord Warwick's
steward, Arthur Wilson, is another who wrote down
what happened, and his story is that, when Sir Charles
Lucas and his followers seized the Parliamentarians
of Chelmsford, he was sent down by his master to
secure his house at Leez. On his road from London
he met, returning thither, the three commissioners
who had gone to Chelmsford to offer the terms
of indemnity. To them he told the news, just
received, that General Fairfax had routed the Kentish
Royalists at Maidstone, and, says Wilson, " They
desired me to inform Sir William Hixe of it and others
of the leaders at Chelmsford, which I did. But it took
no impression in their belief." Wilson goes on to
relate how the Essex Royalists at once took the field,
and that the soldiers elected Sir Charles Lucas to be
their general, " one who had been a great commander
for the King." It has to be remembered that Sir
William at this time was fifty years old, and that he
had had no practice in warfare at all, and had no taste
for it ; but, if he went not forth to battle, he did at least
stick to his newly-adopted intentions.
General Fairfax, flushed with his Kentish victories,
crossed the river into Essex and drove the Royalist
forces north to Colchester. That town, after, a faint
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 217
show of resistance, opened its gates to them ; then the
gates were shut; the Royalists faced about; Fairfax
was under the walls, and the famous siege began. It
lasted ten weeks before the garrison was finally starved
out, and, years afterwards,* when kings had come again
to their own, one John Heyes of Woodford based an
appeal about some small matter of land, on the fact
that he and his servant were in arms at Chelmsford
" when Sir William Hicks and the rest of the gentry of
the country were there to receive commands from
Colchester."
Lord Capell, who had married the only child of Sir
William's cousin, Lady Moryson of Cassiobury, was
one of those condemned to death after the surrender.
Mr. John Strype's story is that Sir William himself
as " privy to, and concerned in that business was kept
in prison about six weeks," but no warrant for the
imprisonment is in the State papers. What is more
positive is that his estates were confiscated and the
rents stayed in the tenants' hands ; but, on June 27th,
1649, five months after the King's execution, he com-
pounded for his delinquency by payment of £l,000,f
and was discharged by the Essex commissioners. In
April, 1650, the sequestration of Beverstone was
removed as well.
The story of Sir William Hicks resolves itself inevit-
ably into a catalogue, and, at this point in his fortunes,
that can be realised in full force, because, in November,
1649, he, with his eldest son, William, his nephew,
Michael Armyne, and a servant, went " beyond seas " ; J
and the fact has just to be stated and then left as a
bald statement — as another item in the catalogue.
And what else but a further item is the information
that he had eleven children, of whom, in this year of
1649, six survived ? The fact does not in the least call
* State papers, 1670.
f State papers.
| Passport in State papers.
218 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
into being daily existence at Ruckholt during thirty-
eight years of married life. It is as if between our-
selves and the real drama hangs a curtain, which leaves
but a narrow space between itself and the footlights ; and
Sir William seems to step across the strip of boards but
occasionally in order to give us the bare heads of all that
is going on behind. It is clear that when Sir William
decided " over seas " to be the happiest place for such
as he, Ruckholt was shut up, and Lady Margaret his
wife, and her five younger children went to live in the
London house on St. Peter's Hill. There, in 1652,
she died, and she was buried in Westminster Abbey
— on the north of King Henry VII.'s monument, the
Abbey register says.
Who can tell what her death meant to Sir William ?
The power to portray what it did really mean would
alone suffice to make their history of immortal interest.
Which of them was it, in their long relationship, who
gave gold for the other's silver? Which was the
happier, the giver of gold ? Not Sir William, perhaps,
for the melancholy which he assiduously courted had,
maybe, for its mainspring causes not purely political.
Politics, however, continued to be for him melancholy
enough. He had evidently come back from abroad
with his Royalist tendencies intensified — was, at all
events, strongly suspected of the powers that were — and
in 1655, as a sequel to a semi-successful Royalist rising
in Wiltshire, he, with eighteen other Essex gentlemen,
was arrested as a mere precaution, and sent prisoners
to Yarmouth. In October, however, he signed a bond
for £1,500, binding himself not to plot nor conspire,
and to reveal any plot that came to his knowledge ;
so his release was ordered — " Major Hezekiah Haynes
to see it done," says the warrant.* In 1658 Oliver
Cromwell died, and a Cheshire gentleman, Sir George
Booth,f once a Puritan too, put himself prematurely
* State papers.
f Created Lord Delamere at the Restoration.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 219
at the head of the movement for the restoration of
monarchy. The reaction of feeling was, however, not
yet universal enough, and, well planned as the rising
was, it failed, and Ruckholt was one of the Royalist
houses searched for arms in the hour of retribution.
Sir William was "barbarously treated" by John
Topham, the commander of the troop of horse who
carried out the search — so said one Gerard Foukes,
four years later, when he wanted Topham's place of
Sergeant-at- Arms. *
" It is my own fault that I did not come back sooner ;
for I find nobody who does not tell me he has always
longed for my return," said Charles II. ironically, when
he landed in Dover the next year. It had been supposed
that the landing would be at Harwich, and Sir William
was, no doubt, among the troop of Essex gentlemen,
with Lord Maynard at their head, who assembled there
to do the King honour. And The Loyal Address oj
the Gentlemen of Gloucestershire, presented by Lord
Herbert on June 19th, contained Sir William's name
as a Gloucestershire landowner. " Always true to the
Royal Cause, and to the Church of England," says the
vicar of Low Leyton of him — prefacing that by the
more cautious statement that he lived in " difficult
times."
In the year of the Restoration Sir William was sixty-
four years of age, and he lived for twenty years longer
in the manor house of Ruckholt, which got shabbier and
shabbier as time went on. Mr. Strype says that he had
faced it with brick, "much improving and beautifying it" ;
but Mr. John Evelyn, that typical country gentleman
of the day, was not at all impressed with it : —
" I went to Rookwood and dined with Sir William
Hickes where there was a great feast and much
company. It is a melancholy old house environed
with trees and rooks "
* Petition in State papers, 1663.
220 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Thus wrote Evelyn in his famous Diary, on May
28th, 1659 ; and the date is interesting because it was
in the spring of the year after the death of the
Protector, and it was just before the abortive Booth
affair — it was in fact, a moment when Royalist hopes
were running very high. But the realisation of those
hopes was not made the occasion for setting Ruckholt
in order. Another more garrulous diarist, Samuel
Pepys, went there six years later and painted a picture
of extreme desolation : —
" 1665— Sept. 13th. My Lord Brouncker, Sir J.
Minnes, and I took boat, and in my Lord's Coach to
Sir W. Hickes's whither by and by my Lady Batten
and Sir William comes. It is a good seat, with a
fair grove of trees by it, and the remains of a good
garden ; but so let to run to ruine, both house and
everything in and about it, so ill furnished and miser-
ably looked after, I never did see in all my life. Not
so much as a latch to his dining-room door ; which
saved him nothing, for the wind blowing into the
room for want thereof, flung down a great bow pott,
that stood upon the side table, and that fell upon
some Venice glasses, and did him a crown's worth of
hurt. He did give us the meanest dinner (of beef,
shoulder and umbles of venison which he takes away
from the Keeper of the Forest,* and a few pigeons,
and all in the meanest manner ;) that ever I did see
to the basest degree. I was only pleased at a very
fine picture of the Queene Mother when she was
young by Vandike ; a very good picture and a lovely
face."
It is very possible that, in his old age, Sir William
really had persuaded himself that he was a ruined
martyr in the Royal cause. It may have been an
* Sir William was Ranger or Lieutenant of Waltham Forest. The
date of the appointment is uncertain.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, FIRST BARONET.
(From a drawing in the possession of Viscount St. Aldwyn.)
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, BART. 221
honest conception, evolved out of the curious morbidi-
ties of the human mind, or it may have been a deliberate
attitude maintained for a purpose. Little came of it,
however. The King, Charles II., was entertained at
the Ranger's house one day when he was hunting in
the forest,* and the apparent poverty he beheld there
did make him aware of expectations with which he
was familiar enough ; so he knighted the old baronet's
two sons, William and Michael, there and then, and
discharged what debt there was in that way.
William Hicks was sixteen years older than his
brother Michael, who was at this time a boy of eighteen
or nineteen, and they and a younger sister, Elizabeth,
were all that were left of the once large family, for
Letitia, the only other surviving daughter, had been
married to Lord Donegall for some years. William
married in 1665, Michael in 1674, and Elizabeth died in
1776 at the age of twenty-seven, so that the last few
years of old Sir William's life were solitary ones. As
a magistrate and as Lieutenant of the forest he took
part in county affairs up to the end,t and then, at eighty-
four years of age, he died, and his son William reigned
at Ruckholt in his stead.
Of Sir William Hicks, second baronet, nothing is
known beyond what his rector has recorded of
him : —
" Sir William Hicks Kt. and Baronet, son and heir
of S r William (receiving University Learning also at
Trinity College) came to y° Honour and Estate in
October Anno 1680, and lived many years in Honor
and Reputation at his antient seat of Ruckholts, was
High Sheriff of y county of Essex Ann 16. . . . and
served that Office at his own Expence, with much
credit and splendour, y e L. Chief Justice Vaughan
* Narrative of John Strype.
f Various unimportant references in State papers.
222 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and Sir Tob. Charleton then Judges of y" Assize at
Chelmesford."
Sir William II. married, in 1665, Marthagnes,
daughter of Sir Harry Coningsby of North Ryms Park,
Hertfordshire.* They had thirteen children, and the
the eldest, Harry, became the third baronet. Both
Sir Harry's surviving sons died childless, and the title
passed to the son of his brother Charles, who was child-
less also. Thus it came about that the baronetcy went
eventually to the grandson of Michael — Sir Michael —
who was the youngest son of Sir William I. and the
brother of Sir William II. It is with this Sir Michael
Hicks, Knight, that the story has to be continued.
Note. — The monument to Sir Michael Hicks and Elizabeth his wife was
originally erected along the east wall of the chancel in Leyton Church. In
1698 a new chancel was built, the monument was replaced, and opposite to
it, along the west wall, Sir William Hicks II. put a monument to Ms father,
who is represented lying down with his elbow on a cushion, and the staff of
the Lieutenant of the forest in his other hand. The standing figures of Sir
William II. himself and his wife, Marthagnes, were added in due course, one
on either side. They are a striking example of the degenerate taste of the
day. In 1822 the church was enlarged and altered, and the Hicks monuments
were taken out of the chancel. A small chapel or vestry was built for them
at the bottom of the north aisle, and there they face each other to-day, while,
in the space between them, stands a table from which the ' Hicks' Charity '
is still distributed in the form of loaves of bread.
In 1704 Sir Michael Hicks gave a piece of land called Smallgains to
provide bread for the poor of the parish. Sir William Hicks II. left a
legacy of £50 to the parish, and his widow decided that it should be invested
in more land and go to the bread charity. The whole of the land was sub-
sequently enfranchised by Sir Harry Hicks, the lord of the manor. In 1732
it was all let at a rent of £3 15s. per annum ; in 1854 it was bringing in
£72 10s., and it must, of course, be worth a good deal more than that to-day.
* Sir Humphrey Coningsby, founder of the family, was a judge of
the King's Bench, 1509.
CHAPTER XIV.
Sir Michael Hicks, Knight, II.
1645 to 1710.
No ghost walks Witcombe to-day with quite the
same gay air of proprietorship as that of the second
Sir Michael Hicks. A man may live in this world for
sixty-five years a life completely uneventful (as we
count events) and not altogether praiseworthy (as we
apportion praise), and yet may leave behind an impres-
sion of himself far more vital than that of a man who has
'achieved.' And apart from the actual perpetuation
of personality (which is a subject curious enough), it is
also a fact that Sir Michael was so completely a man of
his day and hour — and the hour that of the Restoration
— that his memory is almost a theatrical one.
He was born in January, 1645, in the year of the
Self-Denying Ordinance and of the battle of Naseby,
when, with the triumph of the newly-modelled Puritan
army, the Civil War was ended at a blow, and a dim
beginning was made of the England in which we live.
The atmosphere of his early childhood was that of the
tedious struggles which, after Naseby, went on in
Essex, as in nearly every county, and there would be
his father's mysterious absences and the domestic
economies which followed the fines. When he was
six years old his sister Letitia married the Earl of
Donegall,* and it is certain that the wedding of the
handsome worldly girl took place with all the circum-
stance of which the impoverished household was
capable ; and then in the following year his mother died.
* She was his third wife.
224 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Michael was probably sent to some Essex school,
and from that went to Pembroke College, Oxford — to
the Royalist university, and not to Cambridge like his
elder brother. The family Bible at Witcombe was
given him when he left Pembroke, and inside the cover
is written, " This Sacred Volume was given me by the
Right Reverend Father in God John Hall Lord
Bishop of Bristol and Master of Pembroke College,
Oxford." At Witcombe too is another gift of about
the same date, and that is the miniature of Charles II.
given Michael on the occasion of his knighthood. He
was not quite twenty then, and was Sir Michael from
thenceforward. The miniature has a beautifully
enamelled back, but the diamonds have all been
removed from the framework.
Of the decade between Sir Michael's college days
and his marriage there is no record whatever, but
details are very unnecessary because he was in the hey-
day of cheerful youth in an age that was sober neither
in manners, speech, nor dress, that exceeded the bounds
of decency in all three, and looked on such excess as
the hall-mark of fashion. " Whatsoever " Sir Michael's
hand found to do (such as it was) he generally did with
all his might, and there is no reason to suppose that he
sowed his wild oats with anything but supreme zest.
And then, with all the good will in the world, he came
to be thirty years old, and he took to wife a plump,
dark-eyed, foolish woman, the daughter of a City
alderman (and sometime sheriff) and the widow of a
barrister.
Mrs. Susannah Everard, the widow of Mr. Samuel
Beaumont Everard of the Middle Temple, was the
second daughter of Sir Richard Howe, a City knight.
She was one of three children only, and her dower was
the third portion of that part of a manor in Surrey
which belonged to her father, and which was known
by the name of Old Paris Garden. The manor
is long submerged in the slums of Southwark, but its
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 225
records still exist. The marriage evidently pleased
Michael's father, Sir William, for he settled con-
siderable property on his son. The deed is dated June,
1674, and states that in consideration of five shillings of
lawful money of England duly paid, and the receipt
thereof hereby acknowledged, Sir William sells to Sir
Michael the house in Augustine Friars, two houses on
St. Peter's Hill, the manor of Witcombe, and certain
lands at Chigwell in Essex.
All Sir Michael's ten children (and there were others
who did not survive birth) were baptised in the church
of St. Peter's, Paul's Wharf, and for the first fifteen
years of his married life he must have lived con-
tinuously in one of his houses on St. Peter's Hill. The
deed of conveyance states that the 'great tenement'
in possession of Julian Hicks, Sir William's grand-
mother, had been burned down in "the late dreadfull
fire" (1666), and that Sir William had erected two
tenements in its place ; and gardens, yards, ways,
lights, easements, waters, watercourses, commodities and
appurtenances are spoken of as being attached to them.
It sounds in fact an airy and healthy dwelling place,
and it stood high above the river down to which the hill
sloped sharply. Yet the mortality among Michael's
children as revealed on the fly-leaves of his Bible was a
thing truly fearsome, and Sarah, his eldest daughter, died
at thirty, while his one surviving son, Howe, lived to
be only thirty-eight. The following list was not at all
an unusual family record in those good old days : —
Sarah,
baptised
I 20 May,
1680,
Letitia,
,,
7 Oct.,
1681,
Letitia,
24 Jan.,
1682,
William,
,,
10 Sept.
1684,
Michael,
>»
3 Sept.
1685,
Michael,
,,
17 Oct.,
1687,
Howe,
i,
2 Sept.
1689,
Elizabeth,
,,
5 Dec,
1690,
William,
»»
5 Feb.
1691,
Alice,
»,
15 Sept.,
1693.
died 18 Feb.,
2 Aug.,
28 June,
10 July,
7 Nov.,
3 July,
12 Feb.,
19 May,
1710.
1682.
1685.
1685.
1686.
1689.
1727.
1691.
C.F,
20 March, 1694.
Q
226 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
The babies were all buried at Low Leyton, with the
exception of one buried at Witcombe, and attendance
at their funerals must have been quite an occupation
for Sir Michael; and otherwise there are very few
indications of how his London existence was passed.
It is only clear that he evaded parochial duties. Two
papers there are which show that he would be neither
churchwarden of his parish of St. Peter's, nor constable
and questman of his ward of Castle Baynard. He was
elected churchwarden in 1697 and got out of that by
offering £5 for the use of the poor, and he was quit of
the other obligation in 1699 by the expenditure of
£10.* In the parish affairs of his old home, however,
he continued to take keen interest, and the only letter
from him which exists is an excited one to his brother
about Low Leyton matters. The vestry minutes
there do not reveal what the " Difference ' mentioned
was : —
" For Sir William Hickes at his house at Ruckholts in
Essex.
" St. Petee's Hill, this 26 Apr. 1694.
" Sir,
" Being taking a bottle with Mr. John Hill the
last night, I was telling him of the Difference you
have about Low Leyton Church and this Day Mr.
Hill came to me and assured me that Harvey and
the rest of that gang were this morning at the
(Doctor's) Commons, and will be too hard for you if
you do not take speedy care ; for they are cunningly
undermining you. You would do well to come or
to send Mr. Thomas to Mr. Hill, for he says he may
at present serve you. I thought good to acquaint
you with this that you may not be surprised.
"With my kind love to your sister and yourself
* The title deed calls him ' His Worship,' so it is probable that he
was a justice of the peace.
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 227
and ray Respects to my cousins being all at this
time,
" from your affectionate Brother
" Michael Hickes."
Michael was evidently on good terms with all his
relations, and the Bible records that they stood as
sponsors to his children, and some of them over and over
again as the children died off. Sir William and Lady
Hicks, Sir Richard and Lady Howe, the Countess of
Donegall, her daughter the Countess of Longford, Lady
Ingram, Lady Barnham, Sir William Franklyn, Mrs.
Lowfield (nke Elizabeth Howe), Mr. Thomas Joanes,
Mr. William Weston, are all names that appear ; and
Sir William Franklyn, who was ' of Maverne,' Bed-
fordshire, was Lady Donegall's second husband. Lady
Donegall died in 1691, and, like her mother before
her, was buried in Westminster Abbey, where she had
been christened. The register of burials in the Abbey
has the entry : —
1691 May 15 Letitia Countess of Donegall in Oliver's Vault.
The explanation of what seems a strange choice of
tombs is in the unofficial register. It says that the
vault had been used for the interment of Cromwell's
family ; after their remains had been ejected it passed
to the Duke of Ormond, and has been known as the
Ormond vault ever since. Now, James, Marquess of
Ormond (created 1642) was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
at the beginning of the Civil War, and after the Restora-
tion he was made an English duke for his loyal
services. Lord Donegall, who had been Colonel
Chichester, M.P. for county Antrim, had been raised
to the peerage on Ormond's solicitation in 1647, in
consideration of his services against the rebels ; and he
was one of the four hostages sent by the marquess
that same year to the English Parliament as surety
o 2
228 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
for the delivery of Dublin and other garrisons to
their Commissioners. There was evidently friendship
between the two families, but that hardly explains
why the widow of one friend should have been buried
in the family vault of the other. But there she is —
and her name is one of those in the list on the two
slabs in the floor over the vault to-day.
Letitia Donegall left £100 to her brother William to
buy a ring, and to his wife twelve silver plates, a pair
of silver candlesticks, a silver cup and cover, and a silver
' cullender ' : —
I give to my dear brother Sir Michael Hicks all my estate and
interest of and in two tenements in Belfast in the Kingdom of Ireland
with the appurtenances, one late in the tenure or occupation of John
Chekhr (?) the younger aforesaid Victualler ; the other now, or late,
in the tenure or occupation of Alice Meeke alias Beche of Belfast
aforesaid widow or her assigns. Also I give to my said dear brother
Sir Michael Hickes my Camlett Bed lined with yellow satin and all
the furniture belonging to it, and my gilt cup and salver all which
are now in his custody ; together also with all other goods chatels
and furniture which he hath of mine in his custody. To my sister,
the Lady Hicks his wife I give a dozen of my silver plates which I
bought during my widowhood and are engraven with my arms in a
lozenge, and a pair of my silver candlesticks engraven with the arms of
my late dear Lord the Earl of Donegall and my own arms ; all which
plate is now in the custody of the said Sir William Franklyn.
Witcombe of to-day would think a great deal of the
Camlett bed lined with yellow, and would treasure the
Jacobean cup and salver and the silver plates with the
Donegall arms. They have disappeared. The Belfast
property has disappeared, too, but a reason for that
is easily found. Although no deeds exist, there can be
little doubt that Sir Michael sold it in order to add to
his Witcombe property. For, if Sir Michael had a
passion — if there was for him "a world within the
world " — it was his manor of Witcombe in the county
of Gloucester.
All the tumult of the Civil War had passed
Witcombe by — passed it by nearly, close overhead.
THE COUNTESS OF DONEGALL.
By Sir Peter Lely.
[From a picture at Witcombe Park.)
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 229
At Painswick, the Cotswold town on the hills, six
miles to the south-west, Sir Ralph Dutton, lord of the
manor there, raised a regiment of 800 pikemen, and he
joined the King's standard at Nottingham on August
23rd, 1642. In February, 1643, Cirencester in the
hills, eleven miles off, was taken by the Royalists. In
July of the same year, Bristol, in the south of
Gloucestershire, capitulated to Prince Rupert, with
whom was Colonel Dutton, and the map shows how
necessary it was to take Gloucester also, in order to
open up communications between the Royalist forces at
Bristol and those in the north.
On August 7th, King Charles stayed at Berkeley
Castle, dined at Tetbury next day, and slept that
night at Cirencester with the Chester Master family.
He set out from Cirencester for Painswick on August
9th. It is very unlikely that those who guided him took
him along the field paths between the two places ; if there
were baggage it would have been too difficult a journey.
He must have come along Ermine Street, straight to
the sharp ridge of the Cotswolds where Witcombe
Wood dips downwards. There, 900 feet above the level
of the Severn river in the vale beneath, he would halt
to look down on the town to be besieged — standing far
off by the river with the immensity of level valley again
beyond it and the dim hills in the horizon. All along
the road at the top of Witcombe Wood he would ride
after this, leaving the crest of Witcombe Valley at last
where he entered Cranham Wood, and so on through
that into the open once more, and across the bare Wold
to the north of Painswick.
Neither he nor Prince Rupert stayed in the high
pitched camp on Painswick Common. The Prince had
his quarters at Princenage (Prinknash), halfway down
the hillside, where he was the guest of Mr. George
Bridgman, a Deputy Lieutenant of the county. The
King was lodged right in the vale itself, with the
Selwyns at Matson House, at the hill-foot, five miles
230 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
from Gloucester. In September, when the siege was
raised, it was from Matson that he set out, up the hill
to Painswick once more ; from there, in the wind and
the rain,* across the downs to the beech woods, along
the edge of Witcombe Valley again, and then, from
Birdlip to Cobberley, Andoversford, Charlton Abbots,
up hill and down dale, to the castle at Sudeley.
And that was all Witcombe knew of the Revolution.
It heard, as it can hear to-day, horsemen and waggons
clattering along the hidden road which crowns its
wooded sides. Perhaps it paused in its day's work
to listen and to wonder — but that is by no means
certain.
Witcombe's immunity from the turmoil was of course
mainly owing to geographical reasons, but it was also
owing to the fact that there was no squire to raise
a levy from the stone-roofed farms and cottages and
to ride at its head out into the fray in the vale. The
lord of the manor, Sir William Hicks, was far away
in Essex, and indeed there was no house in the valley
which would have been a fitting residence for him, with
the exception of a stone-gabled farmhouse which had
always been known as Witcombe Farm, and which was
securely held on a lease of lives at that time by the
ancient family of Hellow. That was a house substantial,
roomy, and of a certain dignity. Very little spending
would have been required to turn it into the conven-
tional manor house of the day with all the conventional
appurtenances. It was not available, however, and it
was probably chance happening, the accident of the
lease of another farm falling in, that determined the
present site of Witcombe Park.
Sir Michael of Restoration days, whose life was
* "When we drew off (from Gloucester) it proved to be most
miserable tempestuous rainy weather." From a " Military Order "
now in possession of Mr. W. H. Herbert of Paradise House, Pains-
wick, and quoted by Mr. St. Clair Baddeley in his book "A
Cotteswold Manor."
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 231
otherwise objectless, had the object of becoming a
country gentleman. Witcombe, with its hilltop boun-
daries, was a kingdom, carved out, definite, which must
have appealed to the most primitive imagination.
Indeed, it was of course the primitive element in him
that took fire — the Saxon lust for the proprietorship of
land, and of land hedged in, where he might lead the
life of freedom jealously guarded.
It is doubtful if his vision was shared at all by
his wife, the alderman's daughter. For her were
the cares of an enormous family, and the trivial
sociabilities of life as she knew it. Gloucestershire was
an unknown desert, very far off. It was not a " basket "
into which she would place lustily all her ' eggs.' Sir
Michael had to be content to do what he could, not
what he would. Backwards and forwards along Ermine
Street he travelled during those first twenty years of
marriage. The inns all along the London Road knew
him well, and as his Witcombe plans took shape
and coherence it is certain that his importance and
his geniality increased, and the clatter of his arrivals
and departures in the inn yards became louder.
Among pastures and orchards in the innermost curve
of Witcombe Valley, under a bank rising sharply to the
woods was a stone farmhouse with a stone roof which
directly faced the western spur of the valley and the
sunsets. Over the mantelpiece in the farmhouse parlour
1607 was carved, so that it was, in part at least, a
comparatively new house. Sir Michael saw no financial
prospect of being able to build in the valley the palace
of his dreams. The lease of the farm fell in, and he
proceeded to raise, at right angles to the existing
building, a frontage with parlours, bedrooms, and, above,
attics with dormer windows in the deep pitched stone
roof. Of timber from his woods he built the framework
of this wing, it was completed with laths and plaster,
and it, and the older portion as well, were covered with
a coat of rough stucco. The new parlours and the new
232 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
entrance door looked directly south and faced the bank
and the woods. On the level piece of ground between
house and bank a garden was walled in, a gazebo or
garden house was built, while a road from the front
door was driven right through the garden, out of great
gates erected at the end of it, and up the hillside
through the park to another set of gates at the top
of that. For a park Sir Michael would have. He
turned into pasture a piece of fallow land on the lower
bank, and he partially cleared a piece of the wood
above, and round about he set a stone wall and
established within it a herd of deer. The print of
Witcombe Park in Sir Robert Atkyn's "History of
Gloucestershire " is a spirited attempt to represent Sir
Michael's achievement ; and, as Sir Michael planned it,
so did house and demesne remain for two hundred years.
Granary and great barn, cider-mill house and all the
outhouses, he probably found in existence as they exist
to-day, but stables he had to build. The old farmhouse
made capital servants' quarters. The farmhouse par-
lour became a servants' hall, and beyond the kitchen
was the bakehouse, the brewhouse, the laundry, and
the slaughter-house. It was all finished at last. The
gazebo carries the date 1697 on the spiral which bears
its weathercock, and it was about then, and in the
reign of William and Mary, that Sir Michael insisted on
the practical evacuation of the tenement on St. Peter's
Hill.
The road through his park curved away towards
Cranham on the right as you looked uphill, but, besides
that, he had made, for the private use of his own coach
and his own baggage waggons, a road which followed the
line of an age-long track through the beechwoods, and
which travelled away to the left and emerged at Birdlip.
So it was down this road that there came rumbling
presently all the household goods. Persian and Turkey
carpets certainly there were, and feather beds, and
voluminous bed-hangings ; and there was a great deal
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SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 233
more which Witcombe of to-day despiseth not. Some
Jacobean oak furniture for the servants' rooms ; walnut
cabinets and stools in the latest mode for the parlours.
For the guest chamber upstairs great-grandmother
Juliana's verdure tapestry, and a yellow Japanese cabinet
with a silvered Florentine standandpedamentwhich must
have been inherited from grandmother Elizabeth, and
have been a trophy of Parvish trading. Then there were
Oriental bowls and jars, and blue Oriental dinner services
and tea services, with a pewter service all emblazoned
for everyday use ; and silver plate too, candlesticks,
flagons, salt-cellars and sugar castors. There were
books also — calf-bound tomes in Latin, a collection
of Restoration plays, and smaller books in parchment
covers of Elizabethan date and mostly of a religious
character. Lastly there were family portraits : Sir
Ellis, the hero of Crecy, in Cromwellian armour ; the
excellent portrait of Sir Michael the Secretary, in ruff
and skull-cap ; two full length portraits of the brothers
William and Michael as boys, in long skirts, and holding
immense brimmed hats in their hands ; a present-day
portrait of Sir Michael himself, in his cumbersome wig,
and another of Dame Susanna, whose costume a later
and censorious generation has thought fit to modify ; a
portrait of Sarah, the eldest daughter, just grown up ;
and lastly, the pictures of Lady Donegall by Sir Peter
Lely and of Sir Michael's niece, Lady Longford, by Sir
Godfrey Kneller.
There is another picture at Witcombe which is also
of Sir Michael's day, but it was painted on the spot ;
and, apart from its real beauty, it is of immense interest,
because, together with his portrait, it is a complete
betrayal of Sir Michael's zest for his new rdle. It is a
picture of the vale of the Severn seen from the hill side
from a gap in the wood, with the house and the garden
in the middle distance. It is, in fact, the same view as
that of Atkyn's print, with the miracle of atmosphere
added to it, and the laborious details left out. Behind
234 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Cooper's Hill, the spur of the valley to the left, is
the after-glow of the sunset. Out in the vale to the
right stands the isolated Chosen Hill, with the bold
outline of the Malvern range beyond it and the Welsh
mountains blue in the far distance. Between Cooper's
Hill and Chosen Hill, across the flat pastures, straight
as a dart goes Ermine Street, to where there is a gleam
of the river with the great tower and the spires of
Gloucester. At the foot of Cooper's Hill, but out of
the shadow which it casts across the pastures in the
sunset hour, stands Witcombe Park House, its front
and great gates gleaming white. " Yea, I have a goodly
heritage," might fitly have been inscribed upon the
silvered frame, for that quite positively was Sir Michael's
mood, emphatically insisted on by the humorous groups
in the foreground. At the summit of a mound topped
with trees on the right of the picture sits the artist
busily at work. On the ground beside him sprawls Sir
Michael, with a hand impatiently reached out towards
the goblet which the butler is filling to the brim. Near
by sits the boy Howe, the heir to the valley kingdom,
playing with a spaniel. At a short distance behind a
groom holds three horses. Lower down the slope stand
the parson and the doctor, satellites ; they are talking
together with immense animation. In the centre of the
foreground, down near the frame, is a flock of sheep,
and among them are some cows of the old Gloucester-
shire breed, with the white stripe all along the back.
Beyond these to the left is a surveying party, who have
instruments for levelling ; and then in the corner we
come to the gamekeeper and the bailiff. The painter
of the picture was the well-known Adrian Van Diest,
who was born at the Hague in 1655, and lived most of
his working life in this country, dying in 1703.
Numbers of his landscapes exist in country houses in
the west of England, where he stayed to paint the local
scenery on commission. The Witcombe picture is
eight feet wide. It hung for two hundred years over the
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 235
fireplace in the dining parlour on the left of the entrance,
illuminating rather vividly the Book of Ecclesiastes.
" One generation passeth away, and another generation
cometh : but the earth abidethfor ever.
" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and
that which is done is that which shall be done.
"I made me great works; I builded me" houses ; 1
planted me vineyards.
" And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from
them, I withheld not my heart from any joy ; for my
heart rejoiced in all my labour : and this was my portion
of all my labour.
"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had
wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do."
There is a tradition about a curious brown stain in
the middle of the great picture. If Sir Michael, very
fashionably drunk, ever did take aim at it with a glass
full of wine, there may have lain beneath the action
a subconsciousness of the old refrain that echoes down
the centuries : —
" Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity.
" What profit hath a man of all his labour which he
taketh under the sun ? "
From the tribulations that dog the path of the
owner of land Sir Michael was not exempt, and he was
particularly harassed by a lawsuit with his rector.
Mr. John Abbott, A.M., was rector of Witcombe
Magna from 1681 to 1733, and in 1694 he sued Sir
Michael for " tythe " which he declared was due to him on
the timber cut in Witcombe Wood. Sir Michael, he
said, had begun in 1682, and had continued yearly ever
since, to cut down great quantities of the wood, some
of which he had converted into charcoal,* and the rest
he had sold for fuel and firing. The tenth of the wood
* There are old charcoal pits in Witcombe Wood.
236 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
— so the rector maintained — was yearly worth £100,
and ought to have been paid to him for several years
past, because the wood was under twenty years' growth,
and was all beech, hazel, ash and sally, which was never
esteemed or counted timber in the parish of Witcombe
or the county of Gloucester.
Sir Michael's reply to all this was that the wood cut
was of the age of two hundred years and upwards ; that
Witcombe Wood was described as a timber wood in
the deed of conveyance of the estate to his grand-
mother, Dame Elizabeth Hicks ; that the " most ancient "
in Witcombe, who had known it for sixty years, always
remembered it as a great wood of timber of very great
age and growth ; that the wood, when sold, was not
contracted for by the cord, as copse or underwood, but
by the number of trees, marked out in the woods by
the buyer ; that most of it had been converted into
boards, joists and rafters, to be used in building ; that
he knew of at least forty houses within five miles of
Witcombe which had been built and repaired with his
beech timber ; and that some of it was of so large a
growth that it had been bought by millers and clothiers
and used for making mill shanks, mill crooks, and
shrouds for mills.
The case was directed to be tried at Gloucester
Assizes. There the petition was dismissed as regarded
the beech wood ; but as regards the other woods a small
commission of magistrates was appointed, with Sir
Francis Winnington of Willersley as chairman, to visit
Witcombe Wood and make a report. The report
upheld Sir Michael's contention, and the matter was
given in his favour, but without costs.
The relations between the rectory and the park were
perhaps somewhat strained after this little adventure
at law. But although Witcombe was a cul-de-sac it
was not entirely without other neighbours given a
desire to be neighbourly and a gregarious disposition.
The roads were dreadful and the coach of the day
SIR MICHAEL HICKS, KNIGHT, II. 237
was amazingly cumbersome, but time was no object,
and visits were paid, and neighbouring ladies sat with
Lady Hicks in her garden house and sipped syllabub in
long-stemmed glasses, while the children played battle-
dore and shuttlecock on the lawn. It was all very gay
and leisurely, and with some of the neighbours real
friendships were made. Mr. John Bridgman of Prink-
nash, the beautiful old monastic house on the further
side of Cooper's Hill, and Mr. Jonathan Castleman,
who lived in a house close to the church at Cobberley
up on the ridge beyond Birdlip, were made executors
of Michael's will, so there must have been intimacy
there ; the Hyetts of Hunt Court were friends also, and
other neighbours were . the Snells of Witley Court, the
Singletons of Parton Manor, the Lawrences of the
Greenway, the Selwyns of Matson House, the Sandys
of Miserden Park, the Rogers of Dowdeswell Court, and
Mrs. Tracy of Sandiwell Park.
A natural sequence would have been that Sarah should
have married one of these country squires, but she never
married at all. Her portrait in its oval frame gives an
impression of ill-health, and when she was thirty years
old she died in London in February, 1710. Very
likely the family migrated each winter back to the
home on St. Peter's Hill. The Witcombe Bible has
the entry : —
On Sunday Feb. 18, 1710, my Daughter Sarah Hickes dyed at my
house on St. Peter's hill, London, and was buried on Friday the 24th
of the same month under my pew at St. Bennet's Church, London.
And in the following May Sir Michael died too, in
an inn on the London Road between Abingdon and
Faringdon — a road along which he had travelled very
often, and an inn at which he was beyond doubt very
well known : —
May 4, 1710, being Thursday, Sir Michael Hickes departed this
Life about five in the afternoon on the Road at Kingston's Inne, and
was buried in ye Chancel of ye Parish Church of great Widcomb (his
seat) in the County of Gloucester.
238 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Born into a Puritan England, Sir Michael, in his
sixty-five years of life, had lived to see the inglorious
Restoration of one Stuart King and the ignominious
flight of another ; had survived the interlude of the
Dutch William, and did not die until the reign of Queen
Anne was almost over. He had been born in the life-
time of John Milton, had lived in the atmosphere of
the Restoration dramatists, and died one year before
the first number of the Spectator was published.
In the Norman chancel of Witcombe Church is an
oak altar, black with age, on which is carved, " The gift
of Charles Hellow, 1688." On the wall to the left of
this hangs the marble monument of Sir Michael. At
the top of the monument is a scutcheon with two coats,
viz., Hicks impaling Howe. The red and the gold
and the black have been renovated within the last
decade, and the painted shield, perched above the wordy
legend within its frame of carven marble, has an air of
inimitable gaiety.
CHAPTER XV.
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727.
Sir Michael left his widow the house on St. Peter's
Hill for her life, and certain Witcombe rents. Howe,
who was nineteen years old when his father died, was
to have the Witcombe estate, and deeds prove that Sir
Michael had added to it considerably in his lifetime,
not only by buying up small freeholds within the parish,
but also by purchases in the adjoining parishes of Badge-
worth and Shurdington. Alice's portion was to be
£2,500. This was augmented by half of the similar
portion which would have been Sarah's, and owing to the
latter 's death she got eventually both her mother's pearl
necklace and "great diamond." There is a miniature
of her at Witcombe with brown hair piled high above a
girlish face. She married in her nineteenth year, just
nine months after her father's death.
In the Vicar-General's office, Lambeth, —
22nd Feby 1711-12 appeared William White of Little Somerford
Wilts Esq aetat 23 Bachelor and alleged that he intended to marry
Miss Alice Hicks of St. Peter's Paul's Wharf London, aged 18,
spinster, with consent of her mother Dame Sus ah Hicks of the same,
widow, and prayed for license to marry in the Parish Church of
St. Bennett's Paul's Wharf, London.
The intended marriage duly took place, and in the
register of Little Somerford is a memorandum : —
Susannah * the daughter of William and Alice White was born
August 6th and baptized August the 23rd 1713 at Widcombe
Gloucestershire.
* She married Mr. William Earle of Eastcourt, Wilts, and had a
great deal to do with the Witcombe of the next generation.
240 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Alice had very probably come to Witcombe to be
present at her mother's marriage, for it was in that year
of 1713 that Susannah Hicks married, as her third
husband, Jonathan Castleman, a Witcombe neighbour
and one of the executors of Sir Michael's will. The
wedding took place in Witcombe Church. The old
Witcombe register was kept in the house of the clerk
and was mysteriously burnt, and the present one does
not begin till 1749 ; but there are a number of tran-
scripts in the diocesan register at Gloucester, and among
them is : —
Jonathan Castleman married Susan Lady Hicks 1713.
The Castleman family had bought the manor of
Cobberley from Lord Downe about 1650, and the
ancient Court house, with its oriel windows, was near
the church. From the evidence of letters which will
be quoted, it would seem that Jonathan Castleman was
a widower with grown-up children, and that Howe,
whose mother and sister had both deserted him, joined
the family party at Cobberley for a time. In 1720,
however, Jonathan sold Cobberley for £40,000 to Mr.
John How, the father of the first Lord Chedworth, and
he and Susannah then migrated to the little town of
Painswick.
In the year 1717 Howe Hicks himself married a lady
named Mary Watts. Her father's name was Jeffry
and her mother's Fortune, and they lived at Leigh
Magna in Essex and were people of some substance ;
and Fortune's picture is at Witcombe and portrays a
fair, clearly-cut face which looks down from its frame
out of a white hood with an air of immense reticence ;
and there is another very decorative picture of a fair-
haired boy holding a bow and arrow, who, legend says,
was Mary Watts' first husband, Benjamin Eames — so
she must have been a widow when Howe married
her. The marriage settlement has disappeared, but is
referred to in a list of deeds, and she is there named as
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 241
Mary Watts. It doesn't matter much — she would not
matter at all, except that she is so absolutely Georgian
in appearance that she might have come directly from
corrupt little Herrenhausen itself, in the wake of the
first George, with whose reign her married life at
Witcombe was almost contemporaneous, for both ended
together in 1727. King George I. was uneducated and
had neither wit nor taste, and even provincial manners
became infected by the depravity of the Court ; and
Mary's portrait is a most curious commentary on that
fact. If it had been painted a century later she
would, no doubt, have had the air of a stout, plain,
yet eminently virtuous British matron; but the Georgian
artist has made her stolid and reminiscent of mean
asperities, and yet, somehow, not virtuous at all — not
positively so at any rate.
Life in the narrow manor house facing the woods
did, perhaps, deteriorate in those few years ; did,
perhaps, lose its hold on realities and tend to become
a survival only. It is this want of apparent continuity
in things which is the desolation of the egotist. For
Sir Michael had been the rapture of creation — quite
beyond any expression of his, no doubt, but there all
the same — and within the framework he had achieved,
life should have grown towards a completeness not of
pleasure, of course, but of actual experience, with
insight into all the present moment holds. The father
had made ready for the arrival of to-morrow, but the
son was not the one appointed to gather that which lay
on the horizon — for him was no tide calling in the
night. People's accounts are always a complete betrayal
of their lives, and Howe's accounts are startling enough
because of the limitations of the spending. Here is a
page selected for its greater interest : —
£ s. d.
pd for a Peck of Turnips . . . .003
pd for Grinding Benjamin's sisors . . .002
pd for Shrimps . . . . . .006
The horse myself and Pike . . . .006
C.F. R
242 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
£ s. d.
pd for a Leg of Veal 4
pd for three Cupple for Chirkins . . .026
pd for one Cubbard hinge . . . .002
pd for a neck of Mutton . . . .012
Give a poor man . . . . . .001
pd for spinning the Mop Yarn . . .016
pd for two Quartes of Sack and bottles . .053
Spent 10
pd for a Necke of Mutton . . . .012
Paid for Trype 10
The horse myself and Pike . . . .007
Give a poor man . . . . . .002
pd for a Goose 2
pd for shooing the horse . . . .006
pd for a pair of Storkins for Mrs. Hickes .020
pd for a Crabb 10
For 4 yards and half of Fryse . . . 19 6
pd for a Jews harp 1 J
pd for a horning Book . . . . .002
pd for Quilting two Petty Coats . . .066
pd for two pairs of Gloves . . . .016
pd for two Gallons of Brandy . . . 6
pd for two pair of Cotten Sleeves . . .030
My own expenses . . . . . .020
pd for rosting pig . . . . .020
Give John Birk's man a Quart of Ale . .003
pd for sossages . . . . . .007
for Oysters 12
The Jew's harp and the horning book are the only
direct evidences here of the presence of children at
Witcombe. Howe had a Bible of his own, and wrote
on the fly-leaf: —
My Eldest Daughter Susannah was Born the 19th of June 1718.
My Second Daughter Mary was Born the 20th of Nov br 1719.
My son Michael was born the 5th of Jan 1721
And dyed the 6th of March 1721.
My Second Son How was born August 8th 1722.
In the attics in the steep dormer roof the children
lived their rigorous Georgian lives, and in the closet
built out of the dining-room their father sat at his
inlaid walnut bureau and added up figures with the aid
of tails of dots (there are sheets of paper covered
with these dots), and paid his outdoor servants from
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 243
the closet window, and penned, at his leisure, letters to
his step-father, and made leisurely copies of the same
for the joyous edification of his posterity.
In February, 1718, Susannah Castleman, who still
called herself Lady Hickes, made up her mind that she
was dying, and from her bed at Cobberley she scribbled
incoherently to her son : —
"Dear How. If I should die suddenly before I
see you, pray pay my debts, and don't think it hard.
For the three years and half I was a widow I never
received a hundred a year, and since I married not
full three hundred rent charged (?) For the twenty
pounds I receive in Gloucestershire do not pay the
taxes and charges of that at London. For you
know that I have but 4 score and ten pounds, and
that twenty pounds will not make that up one
hundred a year. So if you reckon hundred and fifty
pound a year to make them rent charge, it is but four
hundred and fifty pounds a year, and I have no
monies to make good six hundred pounds a year per
annum, so that considering this it is not so hard.
" I desire you to carry me privately to Widcome,
and lay me by your father as privately as you can,
and hope you will mourn for me, though I leave you
no mourning, and hope your sister will do so too.
This is the earnest desire of your dying mother
"S. Hickes."
Susannah did not die for nearly six years after this,
and two years later Cobberley manor was sold and the
Castlemans migrated along the hilltop to Painswick
town. From here Jonathan Castleman presently sent
to his step-son by hand the following epistle : —
" Painswick, Friday 19 July 1723
"Sir
" Being in great Distress, even in such distress that
I was forced lately to borrow Thirty Guineas, and
e2
244 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
having perused our Account (Errors excepted) I find
you are in arrear last Midsummer 208 - 5 - 8, the 2
Bills you paid my son Lowfield included.
" I desire you seriously to consider that your
estate is certain, Terra Firma; mine Floating and
precarious, which gives me many a melancholy
thought, and obliges me to make the most of what I
have, and to lay up what I can for my poor younger
children. I am grown old, and my time may be but
short : Ten pounds per annum is too much for me to
lose, and you may remember you have more than
once voluntarily promised to make me satisfaction
for the time you, your servant and horses were at
Coberly.
" Therefore, that you may not give me the
uneasiness of writing, nor yourself the uneasiness of
receiving, such letters as this, for the future I desire
you to pay me this money as soon as you can, and
you'll oblige
" Your humble Serv*
"J. Castelman."
Howe kept a copy of his answer, and it is dated
August 3rd, 1728 :—
" Sir.
" I had answered yours by your Servant, but that
I thought it required some consideration ; accord-
ingly I have taken your advice and done it seriously,
and cant say, that, Considering the Difficulty of
raising Money, and the daily unavoidable expenses of
a family but that I am glad to find the Arrears Rise
no higher against me. I need not tell you that it is
impossible to convert the Profit of Land into Money
fast enough to answer so near a Demand ; and I
hope you would not desire me to run into debt to
answer the Present Deficiency of my Estate which
in time will be able to make good your whole
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 245
Demand without any assistance. I purpose to help
you to what money I can speedingly, and endeavour
at Michaelmas or quickly after to even with you to
Lady Day, when I hope you wont insist upon the
loss of ten pounds per annum : for were the Estate
grown, you must have better luck with it than ever I
have had, to be paid so well. I can truly say I have
one tenant that has not even'd with me to last Lady
Day twelvemonth, or I would not have given you
cause to have sent to me now. I dont pretend to
deny what I promised at Coberley, but flattered
myself to think you would have been so kind as to
have Esteem two hundred per annum a sufficient
demand upon a little estate at present, and have
waited for the promise of the performance till
my annuity might cease when either I (or They
that Survive me) may be better able to answer
your charge. Especially since I believe you may
remember you have said you would never put me
to straights, which a Compliance with your present
Demand must certainly bring upon Sir, Your humble
Servant
"H. H."
Susannah Castleman died at Painswick in November,
1724, and, in accordance with her wish of six years
earlier, she was brought to Witcombe and buried
beside her second husband in the chancel of the church
there ; and the inscription on the monument makes no
mention either of Mr. Everard or Mr. Castleman.
Fifteen months later the latter again took up his
pen: —
" D r S ir
" The tender regard I bear to the memory of your
late deceased mother and my wife, makes me sollici-
tous about the payment of her Debts, fearing least
any scandalous Reflections should be thrown upon
246 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the Ashes of so dear a Friend ; and I doubt not but
the memory of so Indulgent a Parent, as I know
she has been in a more particular manner to you, will
have the same effect upon you.
" She has now been dead more than a year, it is
therefore high time that All her Debts were paid ; I
need not I hope remind you that Nature as well as
Duty requires this Last kind Office at your Hands,
which you know she so earnestly desired, both by
Letter, and a Message sent to you by your Sister
White, which could not be about her Bond debts,
and therefore must be her Debts in General, Which
you Yourself so often and so solemnly promised Her
upon Her Dying-Bed before so many Witnesses of
the Best People this Town affords ; and such a
Promise to anyone at such a Juncture ought to be
looked upon as Sacred and Invoilable, but more
especially to a Tender Dying mother, who depending
entirely upon the Performance of that Promise, went
out of the World without Doubt, with the more
Complacency and Satisfaction.
" The payment of these Debts is what the World
expects from one of us, though we are neither of us
obliged thereto by Law, nor I by promise, though
you are, and therefore by Conscience.
" She never expected nor desired me to pay them,
and you may remember that you not only assured
me that you would pay them, but gave me your
Hand upon it.
" Neither can your promise be fulfilled by paying
only the Debts you were bound for, because you
were Obliged to that before : besides your promise
being General, without any Exception, must neces-
sarily extend to all her debts ; and I think the
Uneasiness which happened betwixt your mother
Mrs. Hickes and yourself so near her Death (which
I daresay you have been sorry for since) should
be a particular Reason for the fulfilling a Promise to
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 247
her, the Performance of which (if she could know it)
would even Now be pleasing to Her.
" You know I was at a considerable Charge for the
Funeral, and I assure you I lent Her a great deal of
Money, so I hope you'll not expect that I should do
any more, nor take this letter by the wrong Handle,
as if I intended a breach of Friendship, for I desire to
Live and Die in Love and Charity with all the World,
and more particularly with You, from the ' Relation
there is between us. All my family joins with me in
humble service to yourself and Mrs. Hickes and your
little ones. I am S r your humble Servant
"J. Castelman.
" Painswick, Fri 2 Feb 1725-6."
To this immortal composition Howe returned a
spirited answer : —
" Sir. The Close of your late Letter discovers an
earnest inclination for our Living in a Friendly
becoming Manner, which is sincerely my Desire, for I
bear not only a regard for you but for every individual
Branch of your Family : what at present remains for
me to do is to acquit myself of a Seeming Casuistical
Charge. In order to do which be pleased to remember
that some years ago at Coberley you told me my
mother wanted to borrow a hundred pounds of you,
and offered me as a Security ; one would think my
answer Then was Sufficient to Discover the intentions
of my mind ; for I told you I was too deeply Engaged
before, and would be concerned no farther. Again,
upon a later application of my mother to me for
money, I sent her for answer (a copy of which I have
by me, and read once to you) that nothing had ever
bred so much uneasiness between my wife and me ;
inasmuch that I had Soberly Promised Her never to
be further Engaged, nor suffer my money to be drawn
out of my Pocket. These Declarations seem to need
248 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
no Explanation ; Mrs. Lawrence and Mrs. Clement
can testify I often pressed her to Dun for her Debt,
for as she might think it hard to lose it, I should
think it as much so to pay it ; neither would I pay
Her or anyone else more than I was engaged for.
But to coroborate these assertions I seem to have
your Concurrent Testimony ; for I cant imagine, had
you deemed me my mother's paymaster, you would
have suffered anyone to< Ransack her Boxes and
Trunks, but have left them for my Examination.
" The Creditors themselves plainly discover where
they expect their payment, for, excepting Lander
(who told me he was sent by you) not one has
Pretended to make a Demand upon me ; and I think
you might as well have sent Holder the Butcher with
his Bill because my mother ordered the meat. You
seem to lay great stress upon the contents of a letter
writ seven or eight years ago wherein my mother
desires me, in case she should Dye Suddenly and
before she should see me again — I would bury her by
my Father. (Had she then dyed) The many
Hundreds I have paid you Since would have enabled
me to do it and have left Plenty in my Pockets
besides, but the number of times we have met since
have made that letter of no Significance. And as for
the message sent by my Sister White — I dont
remember there was one word about the debts ; but
in case there was, I dont think anyone desiring me
to pay Their Debts is a Sufficient Reason to Engage
me to it.
" You farther think I can be discharged from my
Promise by paying only the Debts I am Engaged
for; but I can assure you had my mother kept
her promise, I had had no Reason to pay either
Principle or Interest (which she often assured me I
never should). But when I came and found her in a
Dying Condition, and unable to perform her Promise,
I thought it my Duty to do what lay in my Power
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 249
to make her last moments easy by acquitting Her
of it.
" But for you to suppose me to engage for Debts
that I know nothing of, you could Judge me to be no
better than a Mad-man or a Fool : and that she could
not mistake my meaning must appear from the
contents of the letter sent her as above, which if you
had bin pleased to communicate to the Parties (who
were then Present in the Room) it would necessarily
have set their opinions right; whereas, hearing but
part of what had passed betwixt us, no wonder if they
ran into wrong Judgment.
" You suppose the Debts will be expected of one
of us, but that neither of us are obliged to pay 'em.
That's a Question I wont take upon me to Determine,
tho' I think myself very safe, and am apt to believe,
should my wife run in Debt, I should scarcely find a
Conscientious person that would pay the money
for me.
" The Dispute you mention, that happened between
my Mother, Wife and Self sometime before her
Death, occasions no uneasiness to either of us, for as
we said Nothing but the Truth, I see no reason to be
concerned.
" I am Sensible no man can be on Evidence in his
own Cause, but believe anyone may be admitted to
explain his own meaning, which I think I have done
sufficiently. You go on to explain you have lent my
Mother a great deal of Money : So have I my wife,
which you would think very unreasonable to pay.
Had my Mother died a Widow, and without Effects,
I would have taken care to provide a decent Inter-
ment for Her : but I know not what I have more to
do to Bury your wife, than you mine, and I am apt
to believe had Mrs. Horde* died first, you would
have thought it His business and not yours to have
Reposited her Remains.
* Must have been a Castleman relation.
250 A COTSWOLD FAMILY. „
" There ought to be more, and much better linen
than what I have yet received, which my Mother
must either have left in Trouble (like other things) or,
by a too rough usage, have converted into floor cloth
before the time.
"As to what things properly Appertain to my
Mother, every individual one ought to be sold (be it
never so small a value) before anyone should be
Questioned for her Debts ; but as I dont design
to trouble myself about 'em, I need not be under any
concern more than for my Own, an Inventory of
Which, if my mother had given me, as she ought,
there had been no Room (through Mistakes) for any
injury to be done to Either of us. What I have to
add is that the whole world must allow I can best tell
whether I speak Truth or not ; I shall therefore esteem
myself a properer Judge of my own Conscience that
Anyone Else : I cant do better than give the same
advice you do, which is that you would not take this
Letter by the wrong Handle, since the Intent of it is
only to set Truth in a clear Light, which yours to me
made necessary to be done.
" You had not stayed so long for an answer, but
that I have bin almost continually out of order, and
at best but an indifferent Proficient at the Pen
especially upon such unwelcome occasions.
" Our Respects wait on you and all the good Family,
and I desire to continue S r your humble Servant as
long as I remain
"How Hickes.
" I find a few Books belonging to you, therefore I
send them by the Bearer, being unwilling to Detain
another's Right."
To Jonathan, however, was the triumph of the last
word.
" S r . Meum and Tuum is said to separate Best
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 251
Friends, and that I might do nothing unbecoming a
Gentleman or a Xtian ? you have staid so long for an
Answer, that, in a cool and sedate temper, I might
write nothing unfit for me to send or you to receive.
" In this Casuistical charge (as you are pleased to
call it) if you have satisfied yourself, you have
satisfied me ; very likely I have seen your letter to
my wife, but have since forgot it ; and since you are
resolved not to pay these Debts, I am resolved I will,
though not from any the least sense of Danger,
having the Opinion of the Learned in the Law that I
am not liable but from the Honour and Love I bear
to her Memory, verily believing that had she outlived
me, she would have paid my debts if I had left any.
" If the Occasion of my last letter was unwelcome
to you, I Desire this may not be so, and I wish you
had Expressed your Resentments in Milder Terms.
" As for the Ransacking her Boxes and Trunks, it
was not done Privately, Mr. Abbot* being present,
and I dare Affirm that you are now no greater a loser
than if you had been by, for you know she could
leave nothing of value behind her, one half Guinea,
one shilling, and a few halfpence being all that was
found : this I shall say to Nobody but her own Son ;
and I flatter myself you have still a better Opinion of
my honesty than to think I would conceal anything.
Any Writings or Papers of Concern or whatever
Else of Right belonging to you would have been
kept for you.
" The Creditors you may be assured would never
come to you because of your declaring your Resolu-
tions to pay none of them, and, in my Judgment
your Opinion is very ill-grounded that I might as
well have sent Holder with his bill as Lander, because
his bill was for Sugars Syrrops and other things for
the use of her Physik Closet ; neither had I sent him
had you not promised to pay her Debts ; and I
* Rector of Witcombe Magna, 1681 to 1733.
252 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
cannot think you really believe I would have Ordered
him to bring you a Bill for Sugars or anything else I
had used in my House. I will Judge more charitably
of you than you seem at Present to Judge of me,
and think that if my Wife had lived till this time or
longer you would not have unwillingly paid her Rent
Charge, considering she Quitted so good a Jointure
in your Favour.
"You will allow there must be some difference
between the desire of a Mother to her Son to pay her
debts, and such a desire from one Acquaintance to
Another.
"My wife's promise to you that you should pay
neither principal nor interest cannot say I ever heard
of before, but you must needs know her poor
Circumstances too well to believe she could perform
it — These debts I suppose will not reach an hundred
pounds, and No Body could have judged you either a
Madman or a Fool for generously paying Such a sum
for Such a Mother — This your letter to my Wife
I have not seen since I came hither, neither do
I know where it is (probably it is lost or burnt) so
that I could not have communicated it, and if I could,
I should not, because I thought then you would pay
these debts.
" I shall say no more of the Dispute between your
mother and you, only that Truth, such Truth, ought
not to be spoke at all Times nor to all Persons,
especially to a mother in such a Condition. If you
had, in your Promise to your mother on her Death-
bed excepted all the Debts but those you were bound
for, your words would have needed no Explanation.
" As to the Linnen, I know not, neither do my
Daughters, of one the least piece belonging to you
in this House, and as a Proof that I sent you all, you
may remember I sent you a parcel of Towells with
no mark because they were pinned up with one
marked with H. and I believe my wife would not
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 253
have converted any Linnen into Florcloth that had
heen fit for any other use. ,
" What things properly appertained to your mother,
I think properly appertain to me, for you have a just
claim to nothing but what was your Father's, as
I hear you have fairly acknowledged ; and since
I have just paid some, and will pay the rest of her
Debts, There will be no Occasion to sell anythings
that appertained to her, for I will keep y m (as of little
value as they are) yet very valuable to me) for her
sake ; and if you please to look over our Marriage
Agreement, you will find, where she orders her goods
to be sold to pay her debts, she excepts her wearing
Apparel. I suppose if you had asked for an Inven-
tory your mother would have given you one. A
clear Conscience is a blessed Comfort. I am sorry
you have been out of order, and this I hope will find
you better. I have received the Books, and question
not if you find more I shall have them ; neither would
I Conceal or Detain your Right. You know of
the clock in the Hall which a workman has valued at
5 or 6£, a Jack which I will send you by Holder,
a Cane Chair, the outside of the Bed my wife dyed in,
in which I desire to dye also, and a quilt. Therefore
what you think it worth, if you please, I will pay you
for them. Here are some little pictures, and small
silver Trifles, wch when you see (and Judging them
your Father's demand them) I will deliver to you.
" I desire to have no Answer to this letter, only the
return of a visit which you have long Owed me, that
the Friendly usual Correspondence may be Continued
between you and
"S r
" Your humble servant
"J. Castelman."
" Painswick, Sat 30 April 1726.
" I send you three books. I am not sure, but
254 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
I think Sir P. Herbert's Memoirs is yours and the
ArchBp of York's Sermons, and if I find more you
shall have them. I remember Mr. Brown said you
knew of ten Pounds due to my wife, and there
were ten pounds left in Mr. Feary's hands, I think,
which my son Lowfield left her for mourning. And
if you know of any Arrears of Rent due to her, the
Michaelmas before she dyed I shall be obliged to you
to Inform me.
" My Brother John's and my Daughter's and my
humble Services to yourself, My Daughter, and my
Blessing to your little ones."
Howe had no intention of ending the matter in
the friendly manner suggested by his step-father : for
horse and man it was but six miles across country to
Painswick, but there is no evidence that the suggested
visit was ever paid, and since he was debarred from
writing again to Jonathan, it was to Miss Castleman
that a final letter was directed. It is not conciliatory,
and betrays intense pettiness. : —
" Charles informs me Mr. Castelman would
willingly keep the chairs in the Little Parlour, the
Clock and the two Peer Glasses : as for the Chairs
already sent, they are so much the worse for wearing
that they are worth next to nothing, therefore I shall
expect the others, and for the Glasses I shall likewise
have occasion for them. As for the Clock — if Mr.
Castelman pleases he shall have it at what any under-
standing workman shall value it at."
Jonathan lived for twelve years after all this fuss,
and there is a monument to him in the chancel of
Painswick Church surmounted by his arms, Azure on
a mount in base proper, a castle triple towered Or : —
In Memory of Jonathan Castleman Esq 1 , who
was a Person of strict Probity, extensive Charity,
primitive Piety. He died Anno jEtatis 77 Dom
1738.
HOWE HICKS, 1710 TO 1727. 255
His name also appears twice in the lists on the
painted boards hung in the north aisle ; he was one
of the eleven trustees of the Painswick Charity School,
and was also a donor of £10 to the said school. He
evidently took his part in the small affairs of the hill
town, although he left no permanent mark on its
history, and it has not even been possible to discover
where he lived. Laughable as he is, he emerges
insensibly from the correspondence with an air of
placid, if meretricious, triumph ; and he achieved that
which is a solid triumph in any quarrel — he out-lived
his step-son.
Howe probably had bad health ; he complains of
being " out of order," and he died in 1727 at the age of
thirty-eight. He left Witcombe to his wife for her
life, and she was to have the right of entry to the wood,
and as much firewood and timber for repairs as she
wanted. She did not survive to enjoy these privileges,
for she died in the following year, and drew up a will
of her own of which she made Charles Hyett of the
city of Gloucester and the Rev. John Browne of
Salperton Park and rector of Coberley executors. She
left money and jewels to her daughters, but the bulk
of her estate to her son Howe, and to him also " my
largest gold watch with the picture of our Blessed
Saviour and his mother sett in gold on silver and
usually hung thereto."
CHAPTER XVI.
sir harry, sir robert, and sir john baptist hicks.
1703 to 1791.
Howe I. died, and Howe II. reigned in his stead,
and was five years old at the time of his father's death ;
and he lived to the age of seventy-eight and succeeded
to the family baronetcy in 1792. His life covers practi-
cally the whole of the eighteenth century, and behind
it are the vague shadows of his cousins, Sir Harry,
Sir Robert, and Sir John Baptist.
Sir William Hicks, second baronet,* of Ruckholt and
Beverstone, who had married Marthagnes Coningsby of
North Mims, was the father of Sir Harry, and the
grandfather of Sir Robert and Sir John Baptist, who
were first cousins, John Baptist being son of Sir
William's youngest son, Charles Hicks.
Sir Harry Hicks, third baronet, was forty-seven years
old in 1703, when he succeeded his father, Sir William,
and inherited the Beverstone property in Gloucester-
shire, together with Ruckholt and the other Essex
estate of Chigwell Hall which his father had bought
in 1667. He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of
Admiral Sir John Holmes, and had three children who
all died in childhood. Elizabeth herself died in 1705,
and Sir Harry then married Barbara Johnson, the
daughter of a Walthamstow neighbour, and by her
had ten children, four of whom, Robert, Michael,
Martha, and Anne, lived to maturity.
Sir Harry was evidently in constant need of money,
* Elder brother of Sir Michael Hicks, Kt., of Witcombe.
SIR H., SIR R. AND SIR J. B. HICKS. 257
and there is no need to suppose that his eldest son's
debts were his sole embarrassment. It is laid to his
charge that he cut down the great grove at Ruckholt ;
but, after all, trees do not live for ever, and the right
moment to fell them may have arrived.* In 1720 he
sold Ruckholt itself to Benjamin Collier, and its
subsequent vicissitudes are related by Mr. Kennedy in
his " History of Leyton." From Collier it was bought
by the Earl of Tylney for his eldest son, Lord Castle-
main, who did not live there after he succeeded to the
title, but let it to one William Barton, who made it
into a public Breakfasting House, and it was advertised
by Barton in the years 1742 to 1744 in the Daily
Advertiser as one of Queen Elizabeth's palaces. There
is another account ot Ruckholt in the Gentleman s
Magazine for 1814, in No. VII. of a series of articles
Of the London Theatres: "Ruckholt-house is said to have
been the mansion of Queen Elizabeth ; it is now
mentioned as forming for a short period an auxiliary
place of amusement for the summer to the established
theatres, and situate within the environs of London.
It was opened about the year 1742 by the proprietor
Wm. Barton with public breakfasts, weekly concerts,
and occasional orations. The place is described in a
ballad addressed To Delia : —
Delia in whose form we trace,
All that can a virgin grace,
Hark where pleasure blith as May,
Bids us to Ruckolt (haste) away.
Verdant vertos, melting sounds,
Magic echoes, fairy rounds,
Beauties everywhere surprize,
Sure that spot dropt from the skies.
Delia in, etc.
The " sweet singers of Ruckholt " are immortalised
by Shenstone ; and the place appears to have been the
drive of fashion for about three seasons. In " Music in
* Mr. Strype says that it had.
C.F, S
258 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
good Time : a new ballad 1745," it is enumerated with
other places in the following stanza : —
That Yauxhall and Ruckholt and Rcmelagh too,
And Hoocton and Sadler's, both old and new,
My Lord Cobham's head, and the Dulwich Green-man
They make as much pastime as ever they can.
Derry down, etc.
Public amusements did not continue there after the
summer of 1756. The house was pulled down in 1757.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century a small,
square farmhouse was built on the site of what had been
Ruckholt Manor House, and a Mr. Samuel Turner
lived there and farmed the land until 1804, when he
was followed by his son William, whose only daughter
married John Tyler. The Tylers succeeded to the
farm, which was known by their name for forty-nine
years. In 1880 the house was engulphed in the rapidly
advancing tide of yellow brick of the modern Leyton,
and it is impossible to-day to be sure of its exact site,
but it is somewhere in the neighbourhood of, and to
the south of, the town-hall.
The dilapidation of the Ruckholt house was, perhaps,
a valid reason for its evacuation by Sir Harry, but he
sold a great part of the Chigwell estate too, although
he kept the manorial rights, and, as a schedule of 1800
shows, enough property to bring in a rental of about
£1,000 a year. He lived in Chigwell itself, in a
house which he built and which has been pulled down
within the last twenty years. Chigwell is a village on
the borders of Epping Forest, and has kept its country
character. " The greatest place in the world," Charles
Dickens called it in 1841, when he invited his friend
John Forster to go with him there. " Name your day
for going, such a delicious old inn facing the Church,
such a lovely ride, such forest scenery, such an out-of-
the-way rural place." The delicious old inn, the Kings
Head, is the Maypole Inn in " Barnaby Rudge." Sir
Harry's brick house was in a road called Chigwell Row,
SIR H., SIR R AND SIR J. B. HICKS. 259
and was divided from it by a hedge and a screen of
trees. The house, which he called the Bowling Green,
was long known as Bowls.
Sir Harry Hicks died in 1755 and was buried, at his
desire, in the churchyard of Low Leyton, and in the
same grave as his first wife, Elizabeth ; a plain altar
tombstone on the west side of the church bears both
their names, and a Latin eulogy on Elizabeth says that
she was, with much else, " courtly and modest, virtuous
and affectionate."
Two wills of Sir Harry's are in existence. In the first,
dated 1749, he directs that property at Minety in
Gloucestershire is to be sold to the extent of £1,000,
and that with it an attempt is to be made to compound
with his son Robert's creditors. Annuities of £200 a
year are left to each of his four children. In the case
of Robert this was to be paid quarterly and into his
own hands : " My Intent being that it shall not be in
the power of my said son Robert Hickes to alien or
Dispose of the said Annuity or any part thereof before
the same shall be actually received, the same being
intended by me for a Personal provision and Main-
tenance for my said son Robert Hickes only during his
natural life." He goes on to say that his further will
and mind is that if Mary Greydon, alias Hickes, shall
survive Robert Hickes she is to have £50 per annum
for life in quarterly payments. The will of 1749 then
provides that all profits of the estates, shall be divided
between the brothers Robert and Michael yearly as the
trustees in their discretion shall appoint, and a strict
entail is made. But in the final will of 1743 Robert is
cut out altogether ; everything is left (after the debts
and annuities are paid) to Michael and his heirs, and
the estates are then entailed on John Baptist, the son
of Sir Harry's brother Charles.
Sir Robert Hicks, fourth baronet, is, somehow, less
of a shadow than his father, perhaps because his
disreputable life was a perfectly definite thing. He
s2
260 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
had apparently no resentment against the brother who
had supplanted him, for three months after their father's
death he writes a friendly letter "to be left at the
Coffee House in the Grove " at Bath : —
" Dear Sir. As you desire the copy of the Will
in my Hands by return of the Post (I) send it you
torn as it is, not being willing to make you wait the
transcribing. I was in hopes to have heard the
Waters proved salutary and the Companys agreable
but find business at present takes place both of
Health and pleasure. However shall interrupt you
so far to let you know an affair affirmed to be just
discovered and not known but to a Few. Vid z . We
are to be invaded in 3 places nearly at the same time :
one is in Scotland by Twenty Thousand Swedes as
Auxiliarys to France, one in the South of England
by the French, and the other by D° in the West.
However whether this prove true or no, Transports
are certainly sailed for the Hessians and Dutch. I
believe something Extraordinary must be near at
hand for the Ministry press their friends hard to fill
this Subscription which is now at a Discount. In
your next, if your Business is with the Lady's, I
hope to hear they are like to prove as kind as fair.
I am Sir your most affec* 8 Brother
"R. Hickes.
" Thursday Feb. 5 : 1756.
" My Dame desires to be kindly remembered to
you.
"I believe you have Noblemen and Members of
Parliament with you."
The year 1756 saw the beginning of that general
European war known to history as the Seven Years'
War, and the baronet's letter to his brother is a direct
illustration of the assertion of Bright, the historian :
" Meanwhile the courage of the nation had sunk very
SIR H., SIR R. AND SIR J. B. HICKS. 261
low. There was a dread of an immediate French inva-
sion ; and the Government so thoroughly lost heart as to
request the King to garrison England with Hanoverian
troops. This dread was kept alive by a simulated
collection of French troops in the North."
Only one more letter of Sir Robert's is in existence ;
it is dated 1757, and is signed "with great affection
your loving brother." It is evidently one of a series, not
only from himself, but from Mary Greydon too, and it
shows that Michael was making him an allowance of
three guineas a week paid weekly, and that Robert
considered it might just as well be five guineas. In
the following year Michael himself wrote a letter which
he meant to be final, and of which he kept a copy.
The opening sentences allude to the fact that Sir
Robert had gone blind : —
" May y" 23 d 1758
" Dear Sir. Your letter of the above date is this
moment come to my hand. I answer it with trouble
in my own mind, not seeing it wrote by your own
hand. But Acts of Providence we must all willingly
resign to.
"My accounts I regularly keep, and have kept,
and will stand the test, both in my Father's and my
own time since. The money you have had, and I
paid, I will swear to. Any acts you have done are
your own preservative more than mine, and I can
faithfully declare both before God and man, I never
asked you to do any act or deed upon my own
account in my life or ever will.
"Necessitys of humane life are well and easily
supplied with prudence and ^Economy, which in my
last letter I hinted to you.
" Brotherly affection and tenderness to each other
are just and laudable, and every man is my brother
who uses me well.
" I did never neglect my duty to you, but I will
not beggar and draw myself into the same calamities
262 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
with you, for then I can neither serve you, nor take
care of the little estates that yet remain, nor follow
the instructions of a dying parent.
" Voluntary necessities are not the Acts of Provi-
dence but our own seeking, and I verily believe the
greatest part of every man's misfortunes are generally
owing to their own misconduct. Pardon this digression.
I am always ready to draw a veil over all disagreeable
actions and topicks, and no cure can ever be adminis-
tered by relation of past facts ; nor do I trouble
myself about them.
" I shall conclude this answer to yours with a text
out of Scripture : ' He is wise, who is wise to
Salvation.' "
The problem of the ne'er-do-weel is a recurrent one
in nearly every family, and is as baffling as the rarer
occurrence of genius itself. Both the ne'er-do-weel and
the genius, in their different ways, diverge at a tangent
from the main current of the family history, and the
family regards the one divergence as a tragedy and
looks on the other with elation. As a rule it is
sufficient merely to be sorry about the one and glad of
the other — and let it rest at that : for the divergence in
both cases ends, it can be generally observed, in a
cul-de-sac.
Robert died in 1768 and was buried in the church-
yard of Hemel Hempstead, in a grave which cannot
now be identified. His burial certificate is very
curious : — -
"April y e 6th 1758 Sir Robert Hicks Baronet
aged about 55 years. He departed this life
March 31 st preceding. N.B. This gentleman was
the eldest son of the late Sir Harry Hickes Bart of
Chigwell in Essex. He married Mary the only
daughter of Admiral Greydon late of Fordwick in
Kent, grand Daughter of the learned and celebrated Sir
Edwd Gregory, his present disconsolate Dame — a
SIR H., SIR R. AND SIR J. B. HICKS. 263
lady endued with every accomplishment which can
add ornament and honor to her sex."
This is the only marriage certificate of Mary
Greydon's in existence. She outlived Sir Robert
fifteen years, and was buried at Hemel Hempstead, too,
on June 3rd, 1783, under the name of Mary Hicks.
Sir John Baptist Hicks, fifth baronet, is for posterity
simply a name on the pedigree and a monument in a
church.
Charles Hicks, his father, younger and only surviv-
ing brother of Sir Harry, had married a Coningsby
(evidently one of their mother's relations, and probably
a cousin) ; John Baptist was their only son, and there
were two daughters, Juliana and Genevieve, or, as it is
sometimes spelt, Jenaviva.
Charles Hicks died in 1760, so when his nephew, Sir
Robert, died in 1768, it was John Baptist who
succeeded to the title. He married, May 2nd, 1771,
at St. Andrew's, Holborn, Farrington Bristow, of a
Nottinghamshire family. Thoroton's " History of Not-
tinghamshire " says that John Bristowe was Cup-bearer
to Henry IV., that in 35 Hen. VIII. John Bristowe
possessed the manor of Beesthorpe, and that William
Bristowe of Beesthorpe, a justice of the peace for the
county, had by his wife, one of the daughters and
co-heirs of John Bookey of Woodford, Essex, two sons
and two daughters. Farrington, who married Sir John
Baptist Hicks, was the youngest daughter, and she
inherited a moiety of the manor of Winchburn. The
names of these places and people cannot be galvanised
into life. John Baptist lived in Hertfordshire, where
he had been brought up. He had a house in the little
country town of Hoddesdon, and was buried in the
church of the next parish of Broxbourne, where an
unpretentious marble tablet says that he died on
November 23rd, 1791, aged seventy, and that Lady
Farrington Hicks lived till 1813, when she was aged
264 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
eighty-eight. The Chigwell and Beverstone property
had been entailed by Sir Harry on his nephew, but
John Baptist had no children, and his cousin Michael
was nearly his own age ; they came to an agreement,
and by a deed dated November 27th, 1755, the entail
was barred and Michael acquired the fee simple.
CHAPTER XVII.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801.
No letters or documents of any sort exist to show
what became of the three Hicks children at Witcombe
after their parents' death in consecutive years. When
their mother died in 1728, Susannah was ten, Mary was
nine, and Howe was six years old. The only thing
that can be stated certainly is that the house and
gardens at Witcombe were let, partially furnished only,
to a Mrs. Chapman, at a rent of £60 a year ; so it is
evident that the children were taken away and placed
under someone's care.
A torn schedule exists of the "Household stuff
remaining in the Mansion House demised unto Mad m
Chapman" The establishment was evidently not
without maps. One hung in the " white parlour,"
one on the "stayer," and in the summer house were
" one ovel table, a duz of Chayers, one little fframe of
Martyrs over the door, eight mapps with a lock and key
to the door." It is curious to find left in " my Lady's
Chamber" "two little brushes, one powder box, one
pach box " ; and the " moehire curtaines and valians
lined with white sarsnett " of the bed can be noted with
the emotion which one has for a returning fashion.
The only possible inference is, that the Witcombe
children were taken into the household of the Rev.
John Browne of Salperton Park, one of the executors
of their mother's will ; and this inference for the reason
that there is no trace of their being under the influence of
anyone else, and the Browne domination of Witcombe
lasted for the rest of the century.
266 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
When he was seventeen years old, Howe Hicks was
married to Dr. Browne's daughter Martha, aged
twenty-four. July 28th, 1739, is the date.x
The children's natural guardian was their cousin Sir
Harry. There is a letter from him written on the eve
of Howe's coming of age, which shows that he was
concerned in the management of the Witcombe estate,
but was otherwise a stranger. Dr. Browne's co-executor
was Mr. Charles Hyett, of Hunt Court, a near
Witcombe neighbour ; but Mr. Hyett was the occupied
M.P. for Gloucester, and was moreover, at this time,
busy building the fine house at Painswick where the
family still live. His portrait hangs in the dining-
room there, but unfortunately no Hyett letters of that
date are in existence.
The Brownes were a respectable Gloucestershire
family and owned Norton Court in the neighbourhood
of Gloucester. There is a monument to Richard
Browne, who died 1636, in Norton Church. His eldest
son (also Richard) went to America where he made
money and became possessed of a property in Richmond
which he named Brownville. He died unmarried, and
Norton went to his next brother, John.
John Browne had two sons, George Montagu Browne
and the Rev. John Browne of Salperton Park.
George Montagu inherited Brownville in Richmond
from his uncle, and sold Norton and settled in
America.
The other brother, the Rev. John Browne, who was
born in 1668, married a fortune in the person of Miss
Elizabeth Bourne of Windlebury in Oxfordshire;
being presented to the living of Cobberley on the top of
the Cotswolds, he bought the property of Salperton in
its immediate neighbourhood.
Dr. and Mrs. Browne's portraits hang side by side at
Witcombe. He fills his frame squarely, in gown and
bands and voluminous wig. He is truculent and red
of face, with all the impossible truculence and the
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 267
impossible redness of the eighteenth century, and the
humour that is undoubtedly there too, gleams coarsely
in the midst of it all. That one would rather not have
been Mrs. Browne is an inevitable reflection, and yet it
is doubtful if that lady did not hold her own. In her
tightly laced blue gown she is extravagantly meagre,
and it may have been the heroic bracing together of
the waist which contracted the mouth and gave the
nose its pinched look. The two pictures are so vivid
that they make the circumstances of the boyish
marriage imaginably preposterous, until we travel to
the portraits of Howe and Martha themselves. Then
it is seen that the slim boy — eminently a gentleman in
his blue velvet coat and white satin waistcoat and
brown peruke — is, before all other things, a self-willed
boy, with an under-lip as obstinately set as that of his
clerical father-in-law : and he is, moreover, not unaware
of his own importance in his narrow provincial world.
Plump Martha Browne by his side was seven years
older than he, but she was a little thing, with red lips
and rounded shoulders and a trim waist, and her grand-
daughter, Mrs. St. John, has left it on record that she
had a beautiful complexion and lovely hands " pink
inside like satin." If there was a boyish infatuation it
is by no means beyond comprehension. She was a
self-possessed little lady in a white satin frock trimmed
with blue, and with brown curls behind her ears.
Howe and Martha, there upon the wall, lived out the
long eighteenth century in close bodily companionship
in the two parlours facing Witcombe Wood ; and their
history for us is that they were young, and that then,
without seeming interval, they were old, and were the
pastel portraits of themselves, as old people which are
in the Manor house at Coin St. Aldwyn.
The eighteenth century preoccupied itself with the
'manner' in which life should be conducted, and its
acute thoughts on life are crystallised in the yellowed
pages of the calf-bound Spectator and Tatler and
268 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Rambler in rows on Witcombe shelves. With the
wonderful novels of their century Howe and Martha
provided themselves as well — if the books that they
bought are a testimony, they did what in them lay to
bring urbanity to the Gloucestershire wilderness. But
that very urbanity was in essence itself a crass thing.
Crassness was not invented in the eighteenth century,
and did not evaporate with it ; but if we are to have
definitions at all 'tis best to define in one word. Crass-
ness triumphant, and more than that, invincible, is the
word around which to build all there is to be said about
Howe and Martha.
The eighteenth century brought to perfection the
cult of the single eye, of the personal point of view,
of the science of crowing on one's own dunghill.
Witcombe was metaphorically that dunghill — the
culmination of the efforts of social man directed with
strenuous simplicity towards the stability of all things
that personally concerned him or his. It was a fortress
against which irony could obtain only an empty victory.
Assail the crassness of the time with what irony you
will, and Martha Hicks, with her fallen day about her,
and with her powdered hair piled high, still remains an
inscrutable vampire, a veritable eighteenth-century
Mona Lisa, a presence expressive of all that in the
ways of immemorial centuries had come to be invulner-
able. Not quite so expressive of that is Sir Howe in
old age, because his face betrays the coarsened temper
which was to be his undoing at the last, and because
he has retained a definite air of good breeding. He
lends himself, on account of these obvious qualities,
more easily to analysis ; and although it is certain that
he would have maintained the sacred immunity of his
own dunghill in the face of heaven and hell, yet it
is possible that he may have had a faint sensitiveness
to the sting of life, and this makes him — what Martha
is unbelievably — a possible forerunner of the nineteenth
century into which he lived.
■5
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 269
The men and women of the nineteenth century, with
their nervous sensibility to its miracles, were, directly,
the ancestors of the men and women of the twentieth
century, whose wills are set on the mastery of life ; and
they are all, far less obviously, the descendants of the
eighteenth century, with its unconquerable atrophies,
its obliterations, and its molluscry. The twentieth
century is taught to cast its stones at the mollusc ; but
the absence of the crusading instinct in ancestors is
by no means to be despised. The mollusc does not
sow the wind, and leaves no whirlwind to be reaped.
As ancestors, as channels through which stiffening
qualities were passed by time into the family fibre,
Howe and Martha were incomparable.
Incomparable, but sufficiently disagreeable in daily
life, it may be suspected, because all great-grandparents
of the grandparents of to-day were ! Now that the
practice of the positive deification of age, of position
and of rank, has become one of the lost arts, a won-
drous mellowing of family and social fife has taken
place ; but with it another strenuous talent has gone
too, and that may be called the art of family
behaviour. Stout Lady Hicks, very like a pouter
pigeon, and lean Sir Howe, with his obstinate jaw,
beat their children and said unthinkable eighteenth-
century things to their servants, and were full of what
the literature of the day calls ' distempers ' ; but they
had, at the same time, miraculous powers of endurance
where the said servants and children and where relations
were concerned. Servants were abused, but there was
no thought of dismissing them, even for such peccadilloes
as thirty-six hours' hard drinking or for immorality ; and
relations might pay visits of many months' duration
quite as a matter of course. It made life a wonder-
fully stable thing, and it was all firmly welded together
by regular habits of over-eating, by a tremendous
amount of courteous letter-writing, and, let it not be
forgotten, by an unbending sense of duty.
270 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Howe and Martha's portraits in youth, and then in age,
are in themselves a complete translation of their sixty-
two years of married life, and are far more illuminating
than the little that there is to he said ahout those years.
Mr. and Mrs. Howe Hicks settled at Witcomhe after
their marriage, for a letter to Howe from his cousin
Sir Harry, dated 1742, is directed to be left " att the
Post House on Burlipp Hill," at the top of the hill
above Witcombe Wood. The letter reveals, incidentally,
that one of the two houses on St. Peter's Hill, which
had been settled on Howe's grandfather, Sir Richard,
had returned to the possession of the elder branch, for
Sir Harry was living there: —
" Peters Hill, March 5, 1742.
" Cousin Hickes. I think itt Incumbent upon
you now to come upp, my House shall be att your
service for you and your wife, etc. Your House *
now Emptye. Their is a large account for Chancery
to bee made upp, to which I don't think itt proper
for you to discharge untill well adjusted, and to which
you must bee of Age first, which now is near. I have
no Ends in this butt assisting you with my best
Advice, you being so nearly related to mee. Some
Answer, if you receive this, will oblige mee who am
yours to Command Harry Hickes."
The " account in Chancery " was the result of a law-
suit over a technical point. Howe I. had left his
daughters, Susannah and Mary, legacies of £3,500 and
£3,000 respectively, but he had not made them a charge
on the Witcombe estate ; and the marriage settlement
of Mary Watts deprived him of the power to charge
any of the property in London, Essex or Surrey, save
some copyhold houses " of inheritance " in Surrey, of
the yearly rental of £33. The Master of the Rolls
decided, in 1733, that, as the legacies could not be
* Next door.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 271
paid in one way, they must be paid in another, and
that Witcombe must be charged with them. If Sir
Harry advised the young Howe to appeal against this
decision, it did not turn out to be good advice, for
in 1747 Lord Hardwicke confirmed the previous judg-
ment, and thus the Chancery account was augmented
to no purpose. Masses of papers concerning the suit
have been kept, and also some letters to and from Mr.
Hutton Perkins of Lincoln's Inn, who was Howe's
counsel in the case ; they contain nothing of immortal
interest, although the prelude to them does, for it tells
posterity that Howe had been made a magistrate, and
gives him a character for sobriety.
The letter of introduction to Mr. Perkins is written by
Howe's first cousin, Mrs. Susannah Earle of Eastcourt in
Wiltshire. She was the daughter of Mrs. AEce White,
Howe's aunt, and had been born at Witcombe. She
tells the baronet that Howe is " the person my Lord
Chancellor put into the Commission of the Peace at the
request of Mr. Earle " and that he is " a very honest
sober young man." Mrs. Earle was evidently a good
deal at Witcombe from her childhood onwards, and
her portrait is there and shows her to have been black-
haired, black-eyed, very merry and well dressed, and a
complete departure from the Hicks type as it had come
to be. She had twinkling pearl earrings and fashion-
able lace, and constantly reminded Witcombe, we may
be sure, that Gloucestershire was not the universe.
When she came on a visit she would be lodged in the
best chamber, where was the tapestry and the yellow
Japanese cabinet ; but where was everyone else bestowed
as years went on ? Howe's eldest sister, Susannah, had
married before he did, and her husband, the Rev. Thomas
Wells, was rector of Cowley, close to Cobberley and to
Salperton; but Mary remained unmarried until after
Howe's sixth child was born, and she lived with her
brother and sister-in-law. She was a slim, handsome
young woman, very like her grandmother, her father,
272 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and her brother Howe ; and it is pleasant to think
of her enjoying her youth in the sunny, walled garden
set in the circle of hills — pleasanter to think of her
there in the open air, and of the children tumbling
about in the open air too, than to realise the house-
hold in the winter days and calculate the number of
the souls cooped into the narrow house. Howe and
Martha had a son born to them in 1740, but he died
four years later. The succeeding years brought them
daughters : Martha, 1742 ; Mary, 1743 ; a child who died
at birth, 1745 ; Susannah Elizabeth, 1746 ; Alice, 1747 ;
Anne, 1749 ; and Henrietta Howe, 1752. At length,
in 1754, a much-desired son appeared and was christened
William, and six years later the family was brought to
a triumphant conclusion with another son, who, at the
desire of Michael Hicks of Beverstone, was named
Michael after him.
Sir Harry Hicks, who died in 1755, had, as will be
remembered, disinherited his disreputable heir, Sir
Robert, and had left Beverstone, Chigwell and Norfolk
property to his second son, Michael. It is evident that
the birth of William in the following year was looked
on as an important family event, and Michael wrote to
Witcombe in 1759 : —
" I hope the Hares thrive, and Will is able to mount
his Pony with a little help and ride after them ; though
I hope at the same time he will not take after my side
of the Family, and think of and love only shooting,
hunting, and a long etc. of that sort ; but while he is
young let us train him in the Way he should go, and
make him a useful member of Society, and bring
Him up in a proper sphere of life ; and then a good
Estate will be an Honour to Him and He an Honour
to a good Estate, and he may be a means (nay
the only means that I see) of raising again and
perpetuating the Family to the longest era of time
(which Almighty God grant)."
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 273
It was, as events have turned, not William, but his
younger brother, who was the means of " perpetuating
the family."
Michael, at Chigwell, writing "very late at night,"
says : —
" I rejoice to hear of the safe Delivery of Mrs.
Hicks and likewise of the additional son to your
Family, and suppose he is made a Christian by this
time, if not, if agreeable to yours and Mrs. Hicks
Inclinations, Name Him Michael, and let somebody
stand Sponsor for me."
There is a miniature of godfather Michael at
Witcombe, with powdered wig, and the scarlet coat
which the Tatler complains the country gentlemen of
the day particularly affected and flaunted in London.
He had the long narrow head and chin and the arched
brows of the idealist ; was of the type which, without the
driving force of an actual ideal, swells the ranks of the
restless. He was unmarried, and his life had no pivot.
He writes, in 1759, saying he has been at Brighelmstone
(Brighton), and is just going to Newport, in the Isle of
Wight, to stay with relations of his father's first wife,
who are " willing to amuse an idle bachelor."
"I more and more hate Essex, and think I shall
sell my dwelling House, Offices, and Gardens, but
no land of consequence not exceeding five Acres. I
can make a Great Advantage in the sale and wish it
gone, for none of our Family Elder Branch, or
younger, ever got anything by London Affairs (I
mean within the last Century)."
In 1760 he has been to Norfolk, to visit his property
of Ellingham, and gives a long account of the sport he
has had. The next letter relates that he has been ten
hours three days together with the rest of the fashion-
able world in the House of Lords listening to the trial
of Earl Ferrers for the murder of his land-steward,
C.F. T
274 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Johnson.* Then he has been at Harrogate for his gout,
of which he often complains.
"I am now returned Home from drinking the
Harrogate waters in Yorkshire, and have great
reason, amongst manifold others, to bless my Creator
for bringing out of the Veins and Caverns of the
Earth, such a pure inestimable medicine, far exceed-
ing all Chemistry and the Vain Researches of Man.
In truth I am much better than when I last parted
from you . . . and am in hopes I am cleansed in
some shape," or at least for some time, by this Pool of
Bethesda."
This was in July, 1762, and in December of the same
year he was at Bath.
" I find it impossible to keep either Servants or
Horses at Bath, My Coachman comes home every
evening drunk, and makes such a noise in the House,
He will let us have neither Rest a-bed nor up till
twelve-o-clock. For when a-Bed he hollows and
makes as much Noise as when in the Day-time."
In May, 1763, Michael went to Lisbon, and left
behind with his banker a MS. book, with an account
of his estates, his tenants' names and rents, list of
annuitants of the estates and the form of receipts the
latter were to give. It is all very clearly put and fully
annotated, and in a note at the end he states that Sir
Harry Franklin, the consul at Lisbon, is related to
him. He was back in England in the autumn, for in
October he wrote from Bath again, from " Morgan's
Coffee House," to say that he does not mean to be in
Gloucestershire again that year. This letter and,
indeed, the body of all his letters to Howe, are about
Beverstone matters, and it is evident that Howe acted
* Laurence, fourth Earl Ferrers, was hanged at Tyburn for this
murder, May 5th, 1760.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 275
as agent for him at Beverstone ; and when he died, in the
following year, Howe was summoned to London by
the lawyer and Lord Boston* to learn that Beverstone,
the manors of Chigwell and Westhatch and the manor
of Ellingham Nevels had been left to the godson and
namesake, the little Michael of Witcombe, aged four.
The letter came across the Cotswolds by express messen-
ger, travelling all through the March night, and reached
Cirencester at a quarter past four in the morning.
The postmaster there enclosed it in a note saying that
the charge is paid so far, and his further demand is
"three shillings for the horse, the boy what you please."
Michael Hicks was buried in the churchyard of
Islington parish church, t In accordance with a pro-
vision of his will, a sale of the contents of the Chigwell
house immediately took place, and a catalogue of the
household goods exists with the prices obtained against
each item. The whole amount was £623 8*. 8d.
There is no mention of the picture by Vandyke which
had hung in the dining-room at Ruckholt, nor were
there any other pictures of value.
The list of wearing apparel contains the scarlet
'roccolo,' and, besides, a suit of black cloth, a suit of
garnet-cut velvet, a suit of crimson velvet, a crimson
cloth coat with gold lace, a light silver lace coat.
Then there was a brocade waistcoat, a black bugle
waistcoat, and waistcoats of yellow sattin, of crimson
sattin embroidered with silver, of white sattin with rich
gold lace. Breeches were of blue velvet and black
velvet ; there were many pairs of white stockings, both
silk and cotton, shoes, neck-cloths, and lace ruffles. It
must have added to the gaiety of the London Road
when Michael drove along it from Chigwell in his
' crane neck post chariot on steel springs,' or in his
* Lord Boston was distantly related to the Hicks through the
Pagets. His wife was a Miss Selwyn of Matson House, four miles
from Witcombe.
| Why there, it is impossible to guess.
t2
276 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
' Italian two-wheel chaise,' and there were, of course,
all the added details of things that did not go into the
sale — the diamond rings devised in the will, the
enormous gold repeater now at Witcombe (with its
bill of £66), shoe-buckles, enamelled snuff-box. The
Chigwell plate all came to Witcombe in its great
mahogany chest clamped with brass, which is one of the
treasures of the house to-day. There is a list of the
silver that was in it, and that the godson Michael took
away when he married — happily the chest was too
cumbersome to remove.
In 1764, the year of Michael's death, the Witcombe
household was a much diminished one. Howe's sister
Mary had married a soldier named Williams and she
had died at Witcombe in 1755. Of Howe's daughters,
Mary, Susanna and Henrietta were also dead, and
Martha, Alice and Ann were married. Mary died
when she was fifteen, and was buried in the church
of Witcombe beneath a characteristic poem of the
day:—
Though few her years she not untimely died,
Who richly was with heavenly gifts supplied,
Thus God decrees — When ripe for heav'n the soul
Quits her terrestrial home without controul
Of youth, physician's care or parent's love
T' enjoy the blest abode prepar'd above.
Susanna was buried at Cobberley.* She must have
died when on a visit to the Brownes ; but how dull it is
not to be able to revive all the detail of these
daughters' lives ! All that can be done is to remember
that Miss Edgeworth was born in 1757, and Miss
Austen in 1775. Martha, it is pretty certain, was a
person in whom Miss Austen would have delighted,
and she married a neighbouring clergyman of the name
of Pettat, which is just — name and all — what Miss
Austen would have arranged. The Rev. John Pettat
* Bigland, in his "History of Gloucestershire," says there was a
monument to her, but it and eighteen others have disappeared.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 277
was rector of Stonehouse in the vale, not eleven miles
from Witcombe. He and Martha had two surviving
children : Thomas, who took orders and succeeded his
father as vicar of Stonehouse; and Martha Susanna,
who married her cousin, John Browne of Salperton
Park. Martha Pettat's tombstone is in Stonehouse
churchyard, and bears the legend that "She closed a
well-spent life on the 26th day of September 1826 in
the 84th year of her age."
The Witcombe register — not worse kept than others
of that date — is silent about all the Park weddings.
Alice and Ann did marry — the one a Mr. Lowfield of
Bath, the other a Mr. James King of Stanton in
Herefordshire — but their father did not think the facts
worth recording, and entered their deaths in the family
Bible, in 1769 and 1774, without mentioning their
surnames. Alice Lowfield died at Witcombe, for her
name is entered in the burial register.
Thus it came about that, in 1764, when Cousin
Michael died, William, aged ten, and Michael, aged
four, were the only children left at Witcombe.
Michael was a sturdy, healthy child, but William all
his life — and it was a long life — suffered from a want
of vitality ; he was undersized, he stuttered terribly and
made faces when talking. A legend has survived that
at the age of six he had a bad illness and was supposed
to be dead, but his mother's maid, Mrs. Betty Brown,
found that he was living by holding a feather to his
nose ; drastic means were employed to revive him and
he stammered ever after.
Howe Hicks had been made a magistrate when he
came of age. His commission as a deputy lieutenant is
dated 1763, but he successfully evaded being made High
Sheriff in the same year. His cousin Michael wrote to
him from Chigwell : —
" I saw your name in the list of Sheriffs for
Gloucestershire, as you have acquainted me by
278 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
letter, and I immediately upon Receival of yours
this day wrote to my old Friend the Bishop of
Winchester, and inclosed your letter to him. The
Answer, as soon as I hear the Result from the
Bishop, I shall immediately send to you which I
flatter myself will be to your Satisfaction as the
Bishop was Preceptor to the present King, and is
still often with Him."
A month later he says : —
" I am glad you are made easy by Mr. Earle and
Mr. Tracy as to the Sheriffdom."
This is all ' small beer ' enough, but Howe's life was
not an epic one. His first care was his property, which
he gradually added to and improved, and then there were
local affairs ; * and Howe seems to have been a parti-
cularly skilful auditor of parish accounts, as the
following balance sheet for the parish of Badgeworth
shows. It was presented by John Andrews, a curate of
the parish : —
£ s. d.
Received of 3 Overseers in money . 32 13 Q\
Received of Thomas Bullock in money
in part of Thomas Dowdwell's goods. 2 18 11
Received of Wm. Hooke the Ballance
of Churchwardens' Accounts . . 1 li
Received . . . . 35 13 10
Disburst more . . . 12 6 4
Easter Monday Disburst in all . 48 2
Before Easter in Puree . . . 41 12 5
6 7 9
Received 3 Rates Is. 4<#. in the
Pound 183 16 4
Own Ballance . . . 196 4 1
* He repaired Witcombe Church and rebuilt the tower and built
ajporch in 1754.
1
3
6
6
6
4
10
4
1
16
6
21
16
6
212
7
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 279
Disburst by John Andrews from £ s. d.
Aprill ye 20th, 1770, to May ye
23rd, 1770, which was left in my
hands 5 16
and disburst after out of money
received for a Bastard by me .
and to 3 Overseers of the Poor .
and after to them ....
and to Badgeworth Ballance
all Ballanced in Disbursements .
but forgot to Ballance .
and Received of Benjn. Hodges over-
seer which is in his hands . . 3 12
16th April 1771 Allowed by us Nichs. Hyett
Howe Hicks
Nicholas Hyett, Howe's partner in this staggering
auditorship, was constable of Gloucester Castle, like his
brother before him, and both were sons of the Mr.
Hyett who had been co-executor with Dr. Browne.
Howe and Martha played their parts stoutly in the
midst of their acres, but it is by no means to be
supposed that they lived on them from one year's end
to another. There are all sorts of stray references, in
letters, to journeys hither and thither, and it seems
positive that at one time the Witcombe family made a
regular practice of spending the season in Bath —
Howe's gout, and the train of unmarried daughters
supplied two good reasons for that. " I hope we shall
soon all meet well in health at Bath," wrote cousin
Michael of Chigwell in 1762, and the next year he
offers Howe the use of his house in Chappel Row
there.
The surviving daughters were married at last, and it
was round the careers — and that simply meant the
marriages — of their two sons that Howe and Martha's
interests centred in later life. Both boys were sent to
Oxford. William went to Pembroke College, where he
matriculated in 1771 and took his M.A. degree in
280 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
1775. Michael matriculated at Magdalen in 1778, but
Foster's Alumni Oooonienses has no further record of
him, and that, of course, for the reason that in the
following year, at the age of nineteen, he married.
Susannah Earle had married her only son, Giles, in
1761, to a Yorkshire heiress, Miss Margaret Bouchier
of Benningbrough Hall in the North Riding. When
the time came to find a suitable wife for her cousin
William Hicks, she was therefore able to devote her
energies to the matter with a disengaged mind. East-
court House, where the Earles lived, was about five
miles from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, just over the
Gloucestershire border. It was built between 1648
and 1660 by Giles Earle, a Bristol shipowner.*
William Earle, Susannah's husband, was for many
years M.P. for Cricklade, and evidently had some small
post in the Government.
Susannah was one of those people within whose radius
things have a way of happening. She put her husband
into Parliament and kept him there, and it is evident
that she made herself felt in Wiltshire ; but she was,
perhaps, too merry and too non-provincial to be well-
beloved of the county ladies. For self-sufficient cousin
Martha she had always just a little the tongue in the
cheek, and she wrote an Epitaph for her, which we can
be sure Martha (for it was written prematurely) thought
was a very just tribute : —
Epitaph on Lady Hicks.
The Dame whose tomb thy observation draws,
Past through each stage of life with vast applause.
For her, the Poor, the Neighbour, and the Friend,
Their tears unite, their pious sorrow blend.
Her Husband most, who to her mem'ry just,
To future times distinguishes her Dust.
For want of utterance his Heart must break,
When stones must tell, what sorrow cannot speak.
* There is a panel picture of him in one of the bedrooms, with his
house, his large family, his coat of arms and a ship, all on the panel too.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 281
Susannah was evidently an inveterate rhymster, and
an invitation to the Witcombe family to come to
Eastcourt in 1777 is all in verse. It begins with a
reference to Howe's gout : —
I was sorry to hear that my dear Cousin Hicks
Was still limping about and supported by sticks.
*****
If their sister gets better, the Sharps all intend
To come here this autumn and visit their Friend.
A Bed for yourself, Mrs. Hicks, I'll provide,
And a small one for Betsy* to lay by your side.
Mr. William and Michael did consent and agree
That for Three or Four nights they would sleep on settee.
Therefore hope you will come and this summons attend
And believe Susan Earle your affectionate Friend.
But the unknown Sharps were not vital to the
schemes of Susannah Earle. To the north of East-
court was Witcombe with its two eligible sons ; to the
south was Keevil, one of the homes of the Wiltshire
heiress, Miss Henrietta Maria Beach. It was high
time that William found a wife, and was he not undis-
puted heir to a baronetcy as well as to a very fair
estate ? The Keevil chariot at the Eastcourt door, Mrs.
Hicks and Mrs. Beach rustling their brocades in the
parlour, with Susannah as a clever third — and then,
somehow, there was a day in the following year when
William found himself driving over the Wiltshire
downs, with his young brother beside him and his
fellow behind him, on his way to visit the Beachs at
Netheravon House, for the coursing in that neighbour-
hood. Netheravon, on the further side of Salisbury
Plain, to Keevil, had been bought recently by Mr.
Beach. A red-brick, barrack-like house it was, and
you dropped down on it from the downs, and found
that below it were the water meadows, and the Avon,
and the church. A wooden painted portico was in
front of the door, and over it was the window of the
great staircase, which was as unlike the Witcombe
* The maid.
282 A COTSWOLD FAMILY,
• stayer ' as anything could be. Here it would be possible
for the only daughter of the house to stand and watch
the arrival of guests about whom she might have a
curiosity. Michael, we may be sure enough, was out
of the chaise first — a well-grown, round-headed boy of
eighteen, with the vigour of health and with an air of
being pleased with the world as he found it. William,
with his lower vitality, never had that air ; he was a
small, anxious man — all his life long a little anxious,
and very stutteringly, of his own dignity. Perhaps it was
all settled in that moment of arrival that Henrietta
should never gratify an eighteenth-century parental
ambition and be ' my lady.'
The Beachs were — for that epoch, at least — really
rich people, and the two young men found themselves
in a household carried on with a good deal more state
than was possible at Witcombe. We must think of
the Netheravon party that evening as of some picture
by Zoffany — the candles lighted in the chandeliers
hanging from the high ceilings, the card tables set out,
and the ladies in their looped-up silks sitting about on
the stiff chairs with ruffles falling from their elbows.
Netheravon demanded of its visitors the difficult talent
of crossing empty spaces of floor without self-conscious-
ness, and perhaps William was glad when the evening
was at an end. And legend will have it that, when the
next day came, the unabashed boy Michael discovered
a mislikihg for the sport of coursing, and let his brother
and his host and others of the party ride away over the
downs without him. No doubt Madam Beach did not
mind the turn affairs had taken, for Michael was actually
the better endowed of the two brothers. There is a
yew plantation at Netheravon which stretches inside the
boundary fence, along the high road from one entrance
gate to another, and the path through it is shaded from
sun, from wind, and from observation too. Along this
the Michael of the pastel portrait which is now in the
possession of Sir Wyndham Portal, and the Henrietta
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 283
Maria of the picture which is at Coin St. Aldwyn,* must
be imagined walking together. And in the following
year, when they were both nineteen, they were married
to one another in the church at the bottom of the
Netheravon garden ; and that is how it happened that
Michael did not stay long enough at Oxford to take
his degree.
There are in existence three or four letters which
Michael wrote to Henrietta Maria while they were
engaged. They begin with " My dear Madam," in the
fashion of the day, but end more warmly with " Ever
your Constant, Sincere and Affectionate Lover." " It
would be impossible for me to think any place agreeable
when you are absent as a smile from you is the greatest
pleasure I can experience," is the would-be impassioned
text of the earlier letters ; but in August, 1779, when
the wedding was near, he talks of more practical matters,
and says that he cannot hear of either a housekeeper
or a butler that will answer. The letter concludes with
the relation of a scandal about his mother's maid Betsy,
who has been alluded to before. " I foreseen the event
and told you that she would soon be rid of her dropsy,"
he crows, and is blatant of the eighteenth century : a
young man of the twentieth century might write that,
but never to the girl of nineteen he was just about to
marry.
But the taste of the eighteenth century was often
laudable. Weddings were not occasions for ostentation,
and the Netheravon wedding was so small and quiet
that not even the bridegroom's parents thought it neces-
sary to be present. It took place on October 7th, 1779,
and Mrs. Beach wrote to Mrs. Hicks when it was over
and received a reply from Martha. " We are very
happy in the agreeable connection of our fFamilys and
have the highest opinion of the merits of my daughter
Hicks," she says in prelude to a laboured exposition of
the virtues of her son Michael.
* Painted by — Beach, a pupil of Gainsborough.
284 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Henrietta Maria was a 'great fortune,' and the marriage
must have given satisfaction to Howe and Martha ; and
yet the satisfaction could not have been undiluted.
Michael was all very well, but he was amply provided
for by his cousin's legacy, and Witcombe, at the door,
could have absorbed a fortune happily. We can be
sure that Howe was ready to suggest to his heir a
thousand plans for improving the property, for enlarging
its borders, for building on to the house. It was really
rather provoking ! And when William did marry, six
years later, it was not a matter for very loud congratu-
lation. His wife was a Miss Judith Whitcomb, of a
family that must have owned the little living of
Orleton in Herefordshire, for three incumbents of that
name were instituted there in 1740, 1758 and 1776.
Her father was not one of them — was not in Orders —
but he is called ' of Orleton, although there does not
seem to have been any property — nothing of any size
or importance, at all events. A small miniature shows
Judith with black curls all round her head and falling on
her shoulders. The wedding took place in Redmarley
Church, near Orleton, on May 12th, 1785. " I think
she is a very tender person," says Martha, of Judith,
writing to her other daughter-in-law in August.
The William Hicks took a house at Withington on
the top of the Cotswolds, about ten miles from
Witcombe. Here, in June, 1786, a little son was born
and was christened Howe. Martha wrote to Henrietta
Maria, on July 5th : —
" I went to Withington yesterday to see my
daughter, she is better, but I think very indifferent
still, she have a bad cough and a little fever."
Three weeks later there is a worse account. Martha
relates that she has been summoned to Withington to
breakfast. The doctor has ordered change of air for
Judith, so she has brought her back to Witcombe.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 285
Judith is to go later to Redmarley, and the Hot Wells
at Bristol are recommended. "My poor daughter is
very indifferent, her complaints I think very alarming,"
says Martha. In August she reports that Judith is
better for being at Witcombe, but in October writes
to Michael: —
" Your poor sister W is got, with much difficulty,
being 3 days going, to Ridmarley, she is given over
by all, Doc rs and Friends, it is now a gallopping con-
sumption, nothing of Breeding has been the Case,
that have never been the least suspected, we went to
see them at Redmarley on Wednesday, found a House
of sorrow, they think this decline has been coming
on for some years. My daughter Pettat went to
Ridmarley with them, as your brother had not spirits
to see her friends without a friend of his own to help
to support him, as his affliction is great indeed.
Your sister left him on Thursday in a most melan-
choly situation, he intends to come either here or to
Stonehouse as soon as the event happens. I wou'd
wish you to enquire what will be the proper mourning
for your brother, whether dark grey or Black, and
also what will be the most proper for me Bombasin
or Black Silk trim'd with crape."
This was rather premature, for a week later Judith
was a little better : —
" They have been trying a new experiment which
they hoped might be of some service, a pan of tar
standing on a table before her, which is stirred with a
hot poker several times a day."
At the end of November the poor woman was still
alive " expecting each day may be her last," but it was
actually March, 1787, before the end came, and, merci-
fully enough, her hapless child, born an idiot, died too,
286 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
at Witcombe, in the following June, on its first birth-
day. Its grandmother wrote on June 8th : —
" I am sorry to tell you that his (William's) poor
little boy have not been so well this fortnight, but I
found him much worse when I returned from East-
court, and, turn'd his Nurse away the next morning,
who I have great cause to think have been the occasion
of great part of his weakness."
William's first matrimonial adventure had ended sadly
enough, and it was six years before he was married again,
on October 7th, 1793, in Sherborne Church, Hants, to
Miss Ann Rachel Chute, a cousin by marriage of his
sister-in-law, Mrs. Michael.
Mrs. Michael Hicks' mother, Mrs. Beach, was one of
the two surviving daughters of Mr. Charles Wither of
Hall Place,* Hants. The other daughter married, as
her second husband, Mr. Edmund Bramston, of Bore-
ham, Essex, and their only son, Wither Bramston,
inherited Hall Place from his grandfather. He was
Henrietta Maria Hicks' first cousin, and he had been
married to Miss Mary Chute of the Vyne, the historical
neighbouring property, for ten years, when William
Hicks took to wife her younger sister, Ann Rachel.
Henrietta Maria's daughter, Mrs. St. John, has left a
' note ' to the effect that Ann Rachel was " not pretty,"
but that her sister, Mrs. Bramston, was " very charming."
The following description of the wedding is from Mrs.
Bramston's pen : —
"The Bride was array'd in a Clear Book Muslin
jacket and coat with white satten ribband which
look'd very Handsome over a white silk petticoat, a
white satten bonnet with a band of gouffred (goffered ?)
white feathers, and one (long ?) white feather, a lawn
* Now Oakley Hall.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 287
cloak trimm'd with Valencienne Lace, and I assure
you she look'd very elegantly dressd.
" Mrs. Bramston * in a mulin (?) petticoat with a
quilling at bottom a clear work'd muslin robe, Pink
satten hat with a bouffant round the crown and white
feather, pink sash and shoes very smart and look'd
like a Paisanne on the stage.
" Mrs. Brocus (of Beaurepaire) in a beautiful clear
muslin worked in small sprigs of Lilac and Green.
" Miss Chute in a white persian robe, Green cloud
muslin petticoat Yellow hat lilac ribbands.
" Mrs. A. B. (Augusta Bramston) new muslin gown
lilac ribbands her hair powdered and black satin shoes.
" All the gentlemen in new habiliments.
"We had 3 cariages to Church where we all
behaved very well returnd to partake of 3 large
Bridecakes 2 made at home and 1 from London.
At dinner we partook of a very fine Haunch sent us
by a Friend, Turtle from London 2 courses, Pine
Apples from Mrs. Brocus. We spent the day very
pleasantly as it went off much better than those days
generally do. . . . My brother and sister set off for
Weymouth Thursday."
The William Hicks seem to have lived at Bath
immediately after their marriage, for their only child,
Ann Rachel, was born there in 1794. After that they
lived in'Cheltenham within a drive of Witcombe. " My
son and daughter Hicks came and dined with us yester-
day return'd in the evening," said Lady Hicks, writing
in 1795. Michael and his wife were not far away either.
They had left Shaw Hill House, near Melksham in
Wiltshire, where they lived when they first married,
and were settled at Williamstrip Park, eight miles on
the other side of Cirencester, and but eighteen miles
from Witcombe. They were rich people, they lived in
some state, and the greater prosperity of the younger
* Herself?
288 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
brother did perhaps make his near neighbourhood rather
aggravating to the elder brother and the elder brother's
wife ! Their mother writes : —
a
I have often heard him (William) say there is
great weight in money, and his fate is to possess less
of that than any other part of the family, though suffi-
cient to content him, but cant bear to be trode upon.
I have not seen my daughter Hicks since she was so
warm, as I wrote you word. I hope when I see her
next she will be more composed or otherwise those
that are to live with her are much to be pitied."
In 1791 Sir John Baptist Hicks died at his house at
Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and his second cousin
Howe Hicks of Witcombe then became the sixth
baronet.
Martha was thus at last in possession of what she quite
deliciously calls " an old family title," and although age
and infirmities were beginning to overtake Sir Howe
and herself, no Lady Hicks had ever yet existed so
consciously capable of upholding her new dignity.
Perhaps her nearer neighbours found her at first rather
insufferable. She wrote to Henrietta Maria : —
" There was two dozen of flax left at Mr. Hicks
for you, which I had brought here, and sent it, to
Williamstrip yesterday, and I hear there is a large
box of spun thread left at our Blacksmith's,* but as
I don't know what it is intended for, I must leave it
till I hear from you, we have neither of us been well
for some time, Sir Howes is his old complaint in his
Stomach, we have sent for Mr. Hinde and he has
order'd an emetick, to be taken this evening, I hope
it will be of service, he talks much of going to Bath,
* The Witcombe Forge at Horseferry Bridge was a famous one on
the high road from South Wales to London, and Welsh drovers' had
their cattle shod there in great numbers.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 289
which I suppose we shall if we don't get better soon,
mine has been a bowel complaint and pain and
giddiness in my Head, but I am much better, this
Country at this time of year is rather dull, most of
the neighbours being gone, and those few that are
left have never call'd or taken any notice of us since
we have had the misfortune to have an old family
Title descend to us, however that is not the case of
our more distant friends, for I think poor Lady
Oxford* and the Harley family are if possible more
civil than ever, we had thought if pretty well of
going to Stonehouse next week, but from a letter I
received from my daughter Pettat yesterday, I
understand they are now, and will be for a fortnight
to come, she says engaged in some very troublesome
alterations, which will render it very inconvenient to
them to see their ffriends, and tomorrow three weeks
they propose going to Netheravon, so that it is very
uncertain when we may see them, I have been in the
Chaise but once since I came from Williamstrip and
Eastcourt."
From Martha's letters — and many are in existence — it
is clear that, during her reign, Witcombe became the
social centre of the neighbourhood and that, the coming
and going of relations and friends was incessant :—
" Your brother (William) and sister (Mrs. Pettat)
and Susan (Pettat) and ye two Brownes came here
between 5 and 6 this morning from the ball at
* The old de Vere creation died out in 1702, and the title had
been revived in 1711 in Robert Harley. The Lord Oxford of 1792
was the fifth earl of the new creation, and it is his mother, Susannah,
who had been a Miss Archer of Berkshire, whom Martha alludes to.
Lord Oxford did not marry till two years later, and his wife, a clergy-
man's daughter, was a celebrated lady in the fashionable world.
" Quite a settled thing between Lady Oxford and Lord Byron," said
Lord Dudley, writing to his friend ' Ivy,' in 1813 ; and again, a month
later, " Lady O. sets off next month for Palermo and Childe Harold is
to accompany or follow her."
C.F. U
290 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Cheltenham and are now but just up. We expect
Lady Oxford and Miss Harley on Wednesday next
to spend some days with us."
"Have been a good deal hurried with company
almost every day since we came home, and indeed
have now Mr. and Miss Bunn* they have been with
us this ten days. . . . Mr. Rogers was so kind as to
make us a visit. . . . We have also had Mr. Sampson
and his daughter to spend some days with us last
week. Cheltenham is very full we have been to one
breakfast there."
"We had all our neighbours round us to take part
of the Haunch of Venison on Friday. Mr. and Mrs.
Howell, the three Sheppards, Mr. Webb and Mr.
Lawrence and your brother, and yesterday morning
we went to Gloucester market and took your brother
with us."
"Lord Oxford came here on Sunday and left us
just before your servant came. He went yesterday
to visit the King and Queen at Cheltenham and
return'd to us to dinner. The King etc behaviour
pleases every one at Cheltenham, they are perfectly
free and easy."
Sir Howe and Lady Hicks dined out incessantly
too, and sometimes at impossible distances — with the
Nibletts at Haresfield,f at Withington, at Salperton, at
Prinknash and at other places which meant climbing
hills along roads that were very bad. Even to reach
Cheltenham a mountain had first to be surmounted,
for the vale road was not in existence until half a
century later.
" We are going this evening to Cheltenham to
* Chigwell friends.
f It would seem as if it were at this halfway house that acquaint-
ance was first made with the Whitcombs of Red Marley.
SIR HOWE HICKS. 1727 TO 1801. 291
attend my Son and Daughter to the Play for the
benefit of the Royal Cheltenham Corps of Infantry,*
the Play is the Wheel of Fortune with a great
variety of entertainments of songs etc and some
of the best performers to conclude with Rule
Britannia."
They went further afield as well — to stay at Ciren-
cester and Eastcourt, at Netheravon for Christmas, and
with Lord and Lady Oxford at Egwood. They were
to make the Bishop of Gloucester and Mrs. Bendon a
visit ; and then there is a letter written from Pyle in
Glamorganshire, where they are with the Talbots, and
Martha says that they are on their way to Newton,
and if they don't like that they shall go to Swansea.
The old lady of eighty sets it all out precisely in her
beautiful clear writing and with no hint of lassitude.
Her interest in domestic affairs was unflagging too. She
discourses with spirit, and often, to her Williamstrip
daughter-in-law, who was undoubtedly a kindred spirit,
of servants' peccadilloes — " Sure never was Servants at
such a hight as they are now " — and there was a
constant traffic between Witcombe and Williamstrip in
chickens, flax, venison, young turkeys, and plush for the
men's breeches f which Henrietta Maria was to procure.
With her own relations, the Brownes at Salperton,
Martha was not on invariable good terms. "My
brother wrote to me as if nothing had happened
between us," she says, announcing her sister-in-law's
death to Michael. But her unmarried sister, Martha
Browne, lived at Witcombe in " a little dwelling," and
died there in 1786.
It was a tragedy of the old people's last days that the
house in which they entertained so royally seemed as if
it must tumble about their ears. It will be remem-
bered that Sir Michael Hicks, in 1689, had built on to
* William Hicks commanded it.
f The indoors livery was crimson plush breeches and pale blue coats.
u 2
292 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the original stone premises in timber and laths and
plaster only, and it was this timbered structure which
was in such sad disrepair. Martha gives a detailed
account of the matter in a long letter of June, 1797,
saying that it was her son Michael who discovered how
unsafe it all was, and that when they uncovered a great
portion they found it much worse than they hoped, for
the foundations had slipped ; they were preparing
timber and stone and props for the house, and the
wainscoting in both parlours would have to come
down : —
" In looking back in a Book I have found it was
44 years, since the Building was entirely uncover'd
and then only new Laths and Plaster, the Timber
then being perfectly sound, as indeed it is now
everywhere but at bottom."
Grandchildren, of course, stayed at Witcombe, and
their bodily ailments and moral perfections were an
incessant theme. Susan Pettat was constantly with
grandmother, but she was a grown-up woman when
Michael's and William's children were yet babies.
Ann, William Hicks' only daughter, was seven when
her grandfather, Sir Howe, died in 1801. He was
seventy-nine years old, and his temper had not
mellowed with old age. The spring rains had burst a
culvert under the road near the buildings of the Upper
farm behind the church, and he rode out in the afternoon
to see about it. The way the men were repairing it
did not please him, and while he was saying so in
forcible language, apoplexy intervened ; he fell from his
horse and was carried to the house across the orchards
on a hurdle.
In her thin, high voice, his granddaughter, in extreme
old age, told her heir, the present owner of Witcombe,
" I never had such a shock : I went into the dining-
room and there was poor grandpapa on the table."
That makes it extraordinarily vivid. Ann was an ugly
SIR HOWE HICKS^ 1727 TO 1801. 293
little child in a tight, narrow little frock;* her chin
would just come to the edge of the table when she
wandered into the room in the midst of the first
general confusion. "Poor grandpapa," there he lay,
and the great picture of Van Deist's, with its ever-
lasting hills and floating clouds, looked down upon
him.
Martha was seven years older than her husband, and
she survived him but a short time, and her last letter
tells that, at eighty-five, her enormous courage for life
had perhaps failed her a little for the first time.
" On Monday morning Mrs. Lawrence f sent to
enquire after me, and to say if I had no company,
she wou'd come and dine with me on Tuesday, or
any other day that I wou'd fix, so she came in a very
friendly way yesterday, and desired I would return
her visit in the same way, and very kindly wish'd
that we might see each other often which was more
than I expected as I think myself old and out of
date."
* Pencil picture at Witcombe.
f Of the Greenways, Shurdington.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH.
Because she endowed the Hicks family not only
with her fortune, but with her name, Henrietta Maria
Beach seems to have a particular importance. And,
indeed, the fortune has this importance for to-day — that
it has given to Henrietta Maria's great-grandson (with
other qualities perhaps) the leisure necessary to become
a Cabinet Minister. Some members of his family
regret that when he was made a peer he did not feel
himself justified in reviving the title of de la Beche.
In the church of Aldworth, in the deanery of
Newbury in Berkshire, under arches against the north
and south walls, are a remarkable series of eight
altar tombs with effigies, mostly of men in armour
and crusaders. They are all supposed to represent
members of the de la Beche family, and to have been
placed there in memory of his ancestors by Nicholas,
Lord de la Beche, who built the church in the reign
of Edward III. The de la Beches had a castle at
Aldworth, and the said Nicholas was constable of the
Tower of London.
" Dugdale's Baronage," and other similar books, say
that this Norman de la Beche family were the ancestors
of the Beachs of Wiltshire, who were first heard of in
the town of Warminster about 1500 ; but although the
Patent Roll Calendars from 1229 to 1469 have many
allusions to the offices held by de la Beches and to the
crimes committed by them, it has not been possible to
link them securely to Robert Beche of Warminster
whose will was proved in 1519. Yet he very likely was
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 295
a de la Beche all the same, for they had owned land in
Wiltshire two hundred years before this. An inquisi-
tion of February 26th, 22 Edward I., says that Thomas
de la Beche held lands in Wiltshire of his brother Roger.
In 1324 Philip de la Beche owned the manor of
Hacleston,* and early in the reign of Edward III.
the charge of the county of Wiltshire and of the royal
castle of Old Sarum was committed to him. In 1345
there was an inquisition of one Nicholas de la Beche
showing he had lands in Cheprigge, Farlegh and
Dydenham, co. Wilts.
Between this Nicholas, and another Nicholas Beche
of Warminster, is the gap of a century. In an undated
bundle of Chancery proceedings from 1493 to 1500 is
a suit relating to a cottage in Warminster by " Robert
■ Beche son and heir of Johane wife of Nicholas Beche."
The sequence is, of course, of names only, but this
Robert was probably he whose will was proved in 1519.
The said will describes him as a mercer, but it is likely
that he was a vendor of broadcloths and not of silks,
for there would not be much trade doing in silks in the
market town on the edge of Salisbury Plain, and there
had been a prosperous manufacture of broadcloths
there for a long time. Robert desires to be buried
in the chapel of the Blessed Mary in the church of
St. Dionysius of Warmynster, gives £20 to his sons
Christopher and Thomas and to his daughter Margery,
and leaves the residue of his property to his son John.
The daughter mentioned in the will left a will also,
which was proved August 22nd, 1552. It says that
she was one of the religious sisters of the monastery of
Amresbury, and she bequeaths a piece of gold to her
brother Christopher Beche of Warminster, to Jone his
wife and to each of his five children.
The inquisition post mortem of " Christopher beche
of Warminster gentleman " says that he died June 10th,
* Curiously enough William Beach bought it in 1678, together
with Fittleton.
296 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
1556, and that John Beach aged thirty-six, was his
eldest son.
The Warminster register says that John Beach
married a widow, Julian Stanlock, 1559. His will was
proved in 1573, and he only mentions his Stanlock step-
children, although his wife's will shows that he had a
daughter. He makes his brother Thomas his executor.
Thomas Beach married Agnes Stanlock in 1563
(Julian and Agnes were perhaps sisters-in-law).
Administration of his property was granted to his
widow, Agnes Beche, in 1576.
William Beach, son of Thomas, married Joan
Adlam, of a family who had property in the parish
of Brixton Deverill, near Warminster. He was buried
at Brixton Deverill in 1646.
His eldest son, William Beach, married Mary
Gifford of Alhampton, Somerset. In 1678, he bought
of his Adlam relations the manors of Fittleton and
Hacleston, with the mansion house of Fittleton, in
the valley of the Avon. He bought, also of William
Adlam, the mansion house of Keevil Manor in the
north of the county. He was buried at Fittleton,
1686.
His eldest son, William Beach, married Anne, a
daughter of the Rev. Gilbert Wither of Hall Place,
Hampshire. He purchased the estate of Keevil of
T. Lambert in 1680, and was buried at Keevil in 1741.
His son Thomas Beach made a particularly fortu-
nate marriage. In 1718 he married Miss Jane Harding,
the only sister of a bachelor East Indian merchant,
James Harding. His beautifully-kept account books
are in the possession of Viscount St. Aldwyn, and
show his mercantile transactions in detail. He died, a
very rich man, and left his whole fortune to his sister,
Jane Beach.
The eldest son of Jane and Thomas was yet another
William Beach, and he married his second cousin,
Miss Anne Wither, one of the two heiress daughters of
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 297
Charles Wither of Hall Place, Hants. Their only sur-
viving child, Henrietta Maria, married Michael Hicks.
All this detail demonstrates that Michael had married
into a family with whom the accumulation of fortunes
and properties had become a fixed habit.
The portrait of William Beach at Coin St. Aldwyn
shows him as a mild-natured man, with an anxious eye,
which may be accounted for by the portrait of the lady
who hangs by his side. But that is very likely a
libellous statement, for the only evidence that he was
hen-pecked is contained in an extraordinary Narrative
written by the curate of Keevil who succeeded in
marrying Mr. and Mrs. Beach's eldest daughter, and
who was, by his own showing at least, a most ingenuous
scoundrel. He could hardly be relied upon for an
unbiassed opinion of his mother-in-law. Whatever her
temper and disposition, she was the daughter of an
interesting father.
The Saturday Review of February 1st, 1908, con-
tained an article called "An Eighteenth Century
Gentleman, and gives an account of Mr. Charles
Wither, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, who
was Mrs. Beach's father. The Wither family had its
origin in Lancashire in the time of Henry I., but in
the fifteenth century Thomas Wither killed Sir Robert
Worceley and fled the county with his two brothers,
and the youngest, Robert, settled at Manydown in
Hampshire. His descendants married judiciously, and,
in the seventeenth century, became possessed of Hall
Place near Manydown, and of considerable property
in Oakley, Sherborne and Deane. Charles Wither
sat as M.P. for Christchurch from 1727 to his death.
" Quis ullum inveniet parem ? " wrote the clergyman
at Deane when recording his burial in the register.
He had a considerable family, but was survived by two
daughters only. The younger, Anne, married William
Beach of Keevil and Fittleton in 1779. The elder,
Henrietta Maria, to whom the Hall Place property had
298 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
been left, married, as her second husband, Mr. Edmund
Bramston of Boreham, Essex. They had an only son,
Wither Bramston, who married Miss Mary Chute of the
Vyne.* The Wither Bramstons had no children, and
William Hicks Beach, the second son of Michael Hicks
and Henrietta Maria Beach, eventually got Hall Place,
or Oakley Hall as it began to be called about 1800.
" An obscure unnoticed state of Affluence," is Mr.
Wainhouse, the Keevil curate's, account of the worldly
position of the William Beachs, so that it must have
been their riches only which drew down on them the
thunder of the gods. The stories of their son and eldest
daughter are really tragic. William Wither Beach,
their only son, went to New College where he had
some reputation as a poet. A poem of his called
Abradates and Panthea: A Tale Extracted from
Xenophon, was published privately with all the panoply
of good print and wide margins, but the rest of his life
— and he lived to be eighty-two^ — is a dreadful silence,
for he went out of his mind. Mr. Wainhouse's story
is that it was his mother's fault, because she crossed
him in a youthful love affair : " The Disappointment
threw the Son into a low, odd and unsociable Way, in
which he has continued ever since," says the narrator of
A Tale of domestic and uncommon Parental Barbarity.
Anne Beach cannot have been in full possession of
her senses either, if she fell in love, in the way he
would have the world believe, with the Keevil curate.
Mr. Wainhouse says of his Narrative that it was
prepared for the Press, but was withheld from publica-
tion because the tale was too horrid for the general
ear. " Wherefore the Delinquents are left to Heaven
and their own Consciences." He starts by describing
in some detail his failure to secure the hand of another
young lady of good prospects, but, things having been
brought to a crisis unfavourable to his wishes, he
turned his thoughts to Miss Anne Beach. Mrs. Beach
* Her younger sister, Rachel Ann, was William Hicks' second wife.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 299
suspected his design, and he made her a promise that
he would never make any private attempt on Miss
Anne's affections. He confesses with shame and
sorrow that he broke his word. He broke it, indeed,
with great elaboration, and he gives all the particulars
of his surreptitious addresses — the notes, the secret
avowals, Anne's consent to a matrimonial excursion to
Scotland, the little sister's awakening at the wrong
moment, the post-chaise and four that had to drive
away, the discovery of the plot, the anger of the
parents. Then there was a second attempt and a
nam'd and fix'd retreat at the midnight hour in the
shrubbery at Keevil, with the hasty descent of Mrs.
Beach on the curate's lodgings directly she missed her
daughter. The main part of the narrative, however, is
not so much occupied with a relation of facts, as with
the forcible setting forth of the hardness of heart of
Mrs. Beach, and her supposed motives ; together with
the demonstration that the Rev. William Wainhouse
himself had no motive at all but that of esteem and
pity for the young lady. Exaggerated as the whole
story is, it is likely enough that Anne's parents were
not very wise in their anger,* and the end of the
matter was that Anne came of age, and — so, at least,
he repeats with gallantry after her death — practically
forced Mr. Wainhouse to marry her by flying to him
for protection. Poor foolish Anne had caught a very
bad cold that night she hid in the shrubbery, and it
sowed the seeds of consumption. She survived the
marriage but three months, and her husband went to
lengthy pains to lay her death at her mother's door.
Henrietta Maria was only ten years old at the time
this second tragedy was being played out, but Mr.
Wainhouse does not let her escape the lash of his
censure. " The Mother, as it appears, cross'd two, out
of three, of her children in their matrimonial Desires,
* They are said to have locked her up in the room over the
porch at Keevil.
300 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and free Choice in Love. It is a very probable con-
jecture, that it is the Aim of the mother to center the
Riches of the Family in the youngest Daughter the
Object of her Idolatry. This she has effected by
the Death of her eldest Daughter. But if enriching one
Child by the Plunder and Destruction of another, can be
Matter of Rejoicing to Parents, who envies such a
Triumph ? " The child, Henrietta Maria, herself, he is
" credibly inform'd," had been heard to say that if her
sister went counter to her parents' wishes, " this wou'd
be a fine Thing for herself, as she shou'd be a great
Fortune out of it."
The picture of Henrietta Maria at Coin St. Aldwyn
was painted when she was fifteen, and shows her as a
rosy, fair-complexioned, buxom girl, with an under-
lying glint of pathos, called into being perhaps by
the weight of her piled-up head-dress. Her marriage
to Michael Hicks in 1777 probably pleased her parents
well enough ; the boy and girl were in love with each
other and Michael had birth and a fair fortune.
William Beach had bought the house and lands at
Netheravon in 1760, with the Harding money, from
the Duke of Beaufort. Netheravon and Fittleton
villages join each other, and Netheravon House
and Fittleton Manor are but a mile apart. The
young couple, however, did not settle at Fittleton —
wisely, it might perhaps be thought. They took on a
lease, Shaw Hill House, near Melksham, on the other
side of Salisbury Plain and about thirty-five miles by
road from Witcombe. Here most of their nine
children were born during the next years, and Michael
had as much coursing and shooting and fishing as he
could desire.
But the eighteenth century was drawing to its end ;
the restless nineteenth century was in the throes of its
birth — it was all in the air that the borders of life
should be enlarged. Mr. and Mrs. Beach had ambi-
tions for their daughter and son-in-law, and there are
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 301
evidences that Michael was tired of an aimless life of
sport. It was decided, as a preliminary, to invest the
rest of the Harding fortune in landed property, and
William Beach set on foot negociations to buy
Williamstrip Park, a Gloucestershire estate with a
deer-park and a big house, on the Cotswolds near
Fairford. The estate comprised the manor of William-
strip, the parish of Coin St. Aldwyn and half of the
parish of Quenington. It had no particular history and
had changed hands pretty often.* That business genius,
James Harding, would have shuddered in his grave
could he have known what a bad investment Cotswold
land was going to be a hundred years later. At the
time, however, the purchase gave unalloyed satisfaction
to everyone. The final conveyance was not signed
until 1790, but the Michael Hicks were installed there
as early as 1788, and Lord Oxford, who stayed with
them, was evidently doing the expected thing when he
wrote, " Give me leave to assure you Williamstrip
without compliment is a most fine place, the inward
real satisfaction I felt at seeing you in possession of it
is not easily to be describe."
Mrs. Beach died in 1788 and her husband died in
1790, when the responsibilities of the Netheravon, the
Fittleton and the Keevil property were added to those
Michael Hicks already had ; and, by a codicil to his
will, his father-in-law desired that he should take the
name of Beach.
It is a matter of history that Sydney Smith was
curate of Netheravon. The tale of how the new squire
and his wife, with the curate as an able third, began, as
new brooms will, to sweep very diligently there, has
been set forth exhaustively by Mr. Stuart Reid and by
Mr. George W. E. Russell in their Lives of Sydney
* One of its owners was Henry Powle, Speaker of the House of
Commons and Master of the Rolls, who was buried in Quenington
Church, 1692.
302 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Smith. Mr. Reid gives in full all the discriminating
comments which the curate, at Mrs. Beach's request,
made on a list of the Netheravon poor which the
steward had compiled; and he quotes, in full, all the
existing letters, but three, which Sydney Smith wrote
to WiUiarnstrip during this period. The village "an
oasis in the midst of Salisbury Plain " (as Mr. Russell,
full of pity for the curate's isolation, calls it) was
probably not worse, as regards its vice and its poverty,
than the average remote village of the day. Nor is it
necessary to place the Hicks Beach educational efforts
on a pedestal. Mr. Russell says patronisingly that the
Beachs " seem to have been thoroughly high-principled
and intelligent people." So they were ; but they were
not on that account constellations set apart. It was
the era of the awakening conscience — of Robert Raikes
and of Hannah More ; and the Bishop of Salisbury had
but recently urged the diocese to adopt their ideas.
The Sunday school and the industrial schools of
Netheravon had their counterparts on other estates.
The correspondence over these Netheravon matters
was carried on principally between the curate and
Mrs. Hicks Beach, and that was a custom which
extended to subsequent years — the lady's greater leisure
being given as the reason.
Michael himself was busy enough, for in 1794 he was
returned as one of the two Members of Parliament for
Cirencester, and he represented the borough until 1818.
It belonged to a Mr. Joseph Pitt,* and no doubt a
heavy price was paid for it ; yet the method was a
direct one, and, perhaps, in the long run, not more
* In his " Remeniscences of the Oxford Circuit," Lord Campbell
says that J. Pitt had been a boy who used to hold horses for a penny,
that an attorney had taken a fancy to him, that he had scraped
together money, and had become a brewer, a banker, a farmer and a
land jobber; was worth (1812) £20,000 a year and returned four
Members to Parliament. Pitt subsequently ruined himself, and partly
through laying out an estate, now a part of the town of Cheltenham,
and called ' Pittyille.'
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 303
expensive than the methods of to-day. In 1807, after
the fall of Grenville's Ministry, Michael was anxious
that his eldest son should enter Parliament as well as
himself. The Duke of Beaufort was asked to approach
Lord Mount Edgcumbe about a seat in Cornwall, and
he wrote : " As I really think there is some chance of
L a - M. being likely to seat your son, would it not be
better for you to write to some Man of business in
London, stating what terms you will give, and
empowering him to make an Agreement with L a -
Mount Edgecomb's Man of business." Young Beach
never sat in Parliament, but his father was re-elected
for Cirencester in 1787.
' Going into Parliament ' was a new departure for
a member of either the Hicks or the Beach families in
these later generations, and it can be well believed that the
matter was well discussed, and that the parents at Wit-
combe would have their opinion to give. The Earles
were consulted as well, and William Earle, Susannah's
eldest grandson, the heir to Benborough Hall, who was
in the 50th Regiment, wrote at some length : —
" My opinion is this and I will tell you in few
words. If you are by any means ambitious of getting
into Parliament, you make an experiment at a very
reasonable rate ; Should you find upon trial that you
have health and Spirits, inclination, and time, to con-
tinue in that line, which is an honourable one, you may
fulfill your engagements in the other Quarter nearest
your own residence, should you find that it will not
suit you, or agree with Mrs. H. B., you will have
made your experiment, and the dissolution of parlia-
ment will give you a very good opportunity of
quitting, when the existence of parliament is no
longer. As to what you are to do, I leave that to
your own final determination. You have been men-
tioned to the Ministry, and the way is paved for you,
or any one presented by Mr. L. to succeed him.
304 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
"Could you prevail upon Mrs. B. to mix more
with her own sex and not merely with her and your
female relations, she would extend her acquaintance,
encrease her knowledge of the World, and gradually
diminish that diffidence she has of her abilities, and
accomplishments, she will not allow she has.
"The property you have makes you one of the
properest persons to be in parliament, provided you
come in at the fair market price and by agreement,
but if you are to put yourself forward to make your-
self known as a public Character, and Mrs. B. will
not cooperate by coming forward to be acquainted
with the Wives of those with whom you are con-
nected by party politics, she will find your avocations
in the house will employ your time and from her
dislike to London, she would be forced to pass many
weeks alone without your society, which she has
never been without, from the day of your marriage.
Should you get into parliament you will (have) different
society and different connexions, Your party dinners
and the conversation annexed to it, will be a scene of
a different kind from any you have ever as yet
experienced. Whatever you do, as you and Mrs. B.
have a mutual regard for each other, make her your
friend, and do nothing without her knowledge or
assent. She brought you to a fortune, and has some
title to be consulted. I wish to see you known, and
popular, in your own county, and in Wiltshire, visit-
ing, and visited by the people of rank, Character and
fortune, in those two counties. Your own expences
would be lessened, and the credit and satisfaction of
having good company is among the first comforts in
life. You intimated when in Wiltshire you intended
to come forward and take a different line in life,
1 was very sincerely happy to hear it. Leave off
gradually a certain . . . whose behaviour and con-
versation can adorn no society, and who are only
happy and at their ease, when in the society of such
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 305
men as Toys or . . . The friendship you express for
me induces me to give my opinion thus freely, if I
have taken too great a liberty forgive it, I mean
neither to be troublesome or officious. It is a real
regard for you and Mrs. B. that has made me give
the rein to my ideas."
This throws a strong side-light on Mrs. Hicks Beach,
and some of the candidly expressed opinions of Sydney
Smith and her own letters to her husband make the
picture of her rather a complete one. It is perfectly
clear that nothing would ever have made her into a
woman of fashion, but that, in keeping herself aloof
from that side of life, she yet managed, when occasion
required, to hold her own with great spirit. She was
very deliberate, very conservative, very far-seeing, and
had an immense care for detail which has been
transmitted to some of her descendants.
" Remember me very kindly to Mrs. Beach of whom
I never think without recollecting and admiring her
great good sense and many amiable qualities," said
Sidney Smith, writing to the husband in 1794. In 1799
the friendship had ripened and he felt able to poke a
little fun at the lady : —
" You are now seriously immersed in all these
weighty operations which fill up the sum of country
life. You are flinging barley out to the pigeons.
You are hearing the hideous death of peafowls that
have been eat by foxes. You have drawn half a
carnation, you have observed several times that the
grass is green and the may sweet. You have gap'd
several times and pull'd Caesar by the ears — and
heard above eight and thirty stories which Anne
and Henrietta have to tell you about Grandpapa
and Grandmamma."
Halcyon as this life was it was not without its
tragedies.
O.F. X
306 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
"I sympathise with you upon the loss of poor
Bloxam,* and the circumstances of his death render
it the more distressing,— his loss is great I admit,
but you will think it irreparable— no new thing ever
compensates you for the loss of an old one — a new
hat or bonnet which gives pleasure to other Ladies
is to you a source of sincere mortification. The
preceding one becomes dear to you as it becomes
shapeless, and when it is on the eye of dissolution,
you quit it with a pang."
" I cannot take leave of you in silence without thank-
ing you individually for the distinguishing kindness
you have ever shown me," wrote Sydney Smith to
Henrietta Maria in 1803, when he was about to sever
his connection with the Beachs ; and many years
before, during a holiday in Bath, when he was com-
missioned to interview a governess for the Beach girls,
he had said : —
" Upon the fair share of respect and attention with
which a person who has still all the feelings, and once
had the situation, of a woman of independent fortune,
will expect to be treated, I shall say nothing. For I
never saw a family in which they were more delicately
attended to than in yours."
That was all very well for phrases, but in the course
of his career as tutor to the Beach sons he and
Mrs. Beach had a very considerable difference of
opinion as to a want of deference which the angry
husband considered had been shown to Mrs. Smith.
" So Sidney Smith has laughed himself into the good
graces of Miss Pybus," wrote William Earle in 1800.
The marriage took place in July, and later in the summer
the Smiths seem to have accompanied the Beachs on
one of those leisurely tours in their own coach which
* The family doctor.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 307
were one of the pleasures of the day. They went
northwards to Matlock, and when the Smiths pro-
ceeded to Edinburgh, the Beachs turned and came
home. The letter here quoted was evidently not the
first of the series : —
" My dear Madam,
" When people of good breeding, and education
travel together, they share equally the pleasures and
inconveniences of the journey.
" Amongst the rest in the article of sleeping rooms
— every lady takes her Share of good, and bad,
and sometimes she is accomodated well, and at others
she yields to her fellow travellers the best that the
Inn affords. Nobody knows the rules of politeness
better than you, and if Mrs. Loveden, or Mrs. Barker
or any other of your respectable neighbors had been
of your party — you would I think have strictly
complied with them. YoU uniformly thro' the whole
of our tour put Mrs. Smith in the worst room, and
took the best for yourself — without the smallest
apology — or any one softening expression whatso-
ever.
" Is this not to say in language too plain to be
mistaken — I do not think this woman worthy of being
treated with the common forms of politeness? — If
there is any other interpretation to be put upon this,
it has escaped my attentive consideration. My wife
is of a disposition that she would not complain ,if
she were to be placed in a dungeon — but am I to
feel for her less because her disposition is amiable ? I
should be unworthy your notice — if I thought for a
moment whether my bed were good or bad — or if
the bad accomodation to which every person is
exposed in travelling could for a moment ruffle my
temper — but I want the consideration, and the polite-
ness — not the accomodation. I want not the thing
itself but the offer, and I want these much more for
x 2
308 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
my wife than myself. I would have slept in mud
and water before I would in any one instance have
suffered Mr. Beach and yourself to take the worse
accomodation, but would it have cost you much to
have shewn Mrs. Smith by only once giving her an
opportunity of dealing a choice of a bed — that you
thought her not an unworthy object of that good
breeding, which Ladies in general exercise towards
one another ? —
" While many are starving in this world, my dear
Madam, and many are toiling, God has given you
various good things, and you are blessed with
unbounded affluence, and with unruffled ease — you
are too valuable and too amiable a woman to be
rendered proud by your opulence, but let me ask
you, are you never rendered negligent of the feelings
of others by it? — are you never careless of giving
pain, — because you are exempted from any interested
motives to consult the opinions of others. On the
contrary it is ever the study of a truly Christian
Spirit to soften by gentle behavior the hard distinc-
tion of human lots, and to efface that jealousy of
contemptuous treatment, which the little have so
much to fear from the great.
" Everybody will love you my dear Madam if you
treat them with consideration, and respect, without
this — you will meet with a number of base people
who will hang upon you for their food and their
drink, but no honorable spirited man or woman
will or can be your friend. I want nothing from
Mr. Beach or you — but that for which I toil — but
I have a very great affection, and respect for you
both, and I wish with all my heart, and Soul to
preserve them. I know how easily people like
Mrs. Smith and myself are apt to be disregarded
— unprotected as we are by the Splendor of birth
and fortune — and you and your husband would feel
it, if you could change situation. I am not the
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 309
man to barter the respect due to me and due to
my wife for any earthly consideration — she is the
best of women, she has given up affluence for me,
and may God Almighty curse me — if ever I cease
to feel for her more, and to love her better than
myself. All this seems much to write about a bed,
but negligence and contempt may be shewn in a
thousand different ways. None but a fool can
quarrel with the vehicle, it is the thing conveyed
which is hateful. You will call me selfish for cloud-
ing the good humour of a party, and not sacrificing
my resentment to their entertainment, but my dear
Madam there is a much more general, and a much
better rule, than that which this imputation includes,
and that is 'not to act so as to give rational cause
of dissatisfaction to those with whom you travel '
for it is much easier to consult the feelings of others
than to stifle our own. I cannot for a moment
suppose that any difference was made in this case
by Mr. Beach defraying the expence of the journey,
because had I been the Pay Master I should have
thought it the most cogent reason possible for treat-
ing my companion in a different manner. Nor was
I a mere idle traveller at his expence — myself and
wife had an object in the journey. If after all you
really think I cared for accomodations, considered
by themselves, ask your Son's Servant, If in our
journies, the most impartial justice was not preserved
between me and your Son. I make you no apology
for my resentment, because I think it wise, and just,
— but I do apologise to you most sincerely, — If I
have expressed that resentment now or at any time
indecently. Farewell my dear Madam, you are little
accustomed to such plain truth as this Letter con-
tains, and yet I do not think you will hate me for
telling them to you whether you do or not — my
opinion of you founded upon an acquaintance of
6 or 7 years, will remain invariably the same, and
310 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
when I think or speak of Good women you will be
one of the first on my Lips and in my memory,
" Farewell —
" Your obedient humble servant,
"Sidney Smith.
" I think it may be as well to drop the subject
entirely my great object in writing this Letter was
to explain to you the cause of my dissatisfaction on
our journey."
But Mrs. Hicks Beach was not at all inclined to let the
matter drop. It is rather natural that, whether she
were guilty, or whether she were not, she would equally
have been angry. But it is probable that, being what
she was, she expressed her anger temperately. Unfor-
tunately she kept no copy of her letter, and we can only
judge of its tenour by the answer to it : —
" Tuesday, October 2nd, 1800.
" My dear Madam, I lay down this simple principle
that under all the circumstances of our journey, and
from every principle of good breeding with which I
am acquainted, a fair share of the accomodations
experienced on the road ought to have been offered
to Mrs. Smith. If such as you say was the fact — or
nearly the fact — my conduct has been quite unpardon-
able, by myself and by you. If the very reverse was
the fact, as appeared to me at the time and after-
wards upon reflection, then I have had fair right to
complain. What the facts were we cannot agree.
" I never accused you my dear Madam of inten-
tional disrespect or neglect to me or any body — I am
sure you are quite incapable of it — but I said to you,
in the spirit of that respect I truly feel for you ' ask
yourself if you never give pain — by not attending to
the feelings of people in a different situation of life
from your own.'
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 311
" You have involved Mrs. Smith in our difference,
who never complained directly or indirectly to you,
and answered only such questions as I put to her.
I have spoke my mind very freely to you in my last
letter, tho' I hope neither rudely nor disrespectfully
— as long as you and I continue to have any acquaint-
ance together — I will always do so — unless you prefer
that I should address myself to Mr. Beach, but my idea
on this Subject is that man and woman go thro' the
quarrels indispensable to human life more pleasantly
and good naturedly, than Man and Man or Woman
and Woman. I have perfectly forgot the whole busi-
ness days ago. If you and Mr. Beach mean to con-
tinue as angry with me as I can easily see you are
by your last Letters — I can only say I am extremely
sorry for it — and will beg you hereafter when you
meet with a poor and proud man to remember this
in justification of his faults — that the same pride
which renders him perhaps litigiously jealous of his
Superiors in condition guards him from mean and
dishonourable conduct in difficult Situations. . . .
" Your obedient humble servant,
"Sydney Smith."
Mrs. Hicks Beach's reply to this is in existence : —
" Williamstrip Park, October 18th, 1800.
" My dear Sir,
"A few more words on the disagreeable subject
of our last letters, and I hope to have done with
it entirely. You tell me if I have stated the
fact, or nearly the fact in my former letter your
conduct has been quite unpardonable, now the
account I gave you, appears to me, as far as I am
capable of judging, to be perfectly correct, and I
am fully persuaded that any unprejudiced person
who was to see the rooms, would be of my opinion.
When Mr. Hicks Beach and myself were at Matlock
312 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
some years ago, we certainly chose the room you had
this autumn, because we thought it the best.
" I do not suppose you always looked at the
different rooms yourself, if you had, perhaps you
might have agreed with me, if you did not, as you
know I generally did, why should you disbelieve me
— it is not pleasant to be suspected of telling an
untruth, the fault itself I abhor and hope I shall
always endeavour to avoid it according to your own
way of thinking my good Sir I have some reason to be
angry, altho' I am not at all inclin'd to consider your
conduct as unpardonable. Those lines in your letter
mark'd with strictures I really do not comprehend.
" Your letter has not offended me, on the contrary I
think you have done well in accounting for your very
extraordinary behaviour at Bank House. But you
must excuse me for contradicting your assertion, for
indeed you are much mistaken in supposing that
Mrs. Smith had always the worst bed-room during
our journey, I do assure you her room was sometimes
equal to mine and sometimes better. On the subject
of travelling we certainly do not think exactly alike,
but I forbear giving you my sentiments at large,
because I am confident as your letter has not made
a convert of me, mine never would convince you. I
must do myself the justice to say good Sir, that after
a strict review of my late behaviour from the com-
mencement of our acquaintance, I can fairly acquit
myself of having at any time treated you or Mrs.
Smith with negligence or disrespect, I have uniformly
endeavour'd to pay you both every proper attention
and can only add, I am sorry to find I have not
succeeded better in her opinion and in yours. . . .
Mr. Hicks Beach unites with me in compliments to
Mrs. Smith and love to William.
" I am, dear Sir,
" Your obedient Servant,
" H. M. Hicks Beach."
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 313
Unconvincing this was, as Henrietta Maria had
prophesied !
" 79 Queen Street, October 1800. Friday Night.
" My dear Madam,
" You have surely put a hard construction upon my
last letter when you say " that I suspect you of telling
an untruth." You have said that it was your intention
to give Mrs. Smith as good accomodation as yourself,
and that in the selection of rooms you had this
object in view. I am therefore bound to believe your
intention to have been irreproachable. I do and did
believe them to be so, directly as you explained them.
It is a justice I owe to every person of character in
common with yourself, but I am at full liberty to say
that 1 do not think you were very successful in
evincing the obliging consideration you felt, and that
the best tempered man living might from the same
evidence have been betrayed into the same jealousy
which I felt, and confessed. I saw the rooms much
more frequently than you imagine Mrs. Smith
always, except the first night. You say our rooms
were better occasionally, doubtless you thought them
so, or you would not say it, I am only sorry that
some very definite mode of judging of these things
should so completely have blinded me to your civil
and friendly conduct. It is some little pity that
Mrs. Smith in conformity with established usages was
never once offered to choose her own accomodations
first, and that you never in any instance appealed to
her own ideas of best and worst, this would have
settled and sweetened everything in a moment, would
have convinced you of the disposition of the woman
you had to deal with and would have prevented me
from mis-conceiving the conduct of my old and
respected friends and benefactors. The sentence you
allude to in my last letter contains a very trite
and true opinion in morals, and has literally no
314 A COTSWOLD FAMILY,
sort of meaning but what the words obviously
convey.
" You say ' according to my own way of thinking,
You have reason to be angry with me.' I have only
to say in reply that you will find me a most willing
martyr to your rules, whenever you chuse to make
me so, and that I rather court such martyrdom than
avoid it. State to me any incongruity between my
practice and principles, and I will make every effort
of candor to own myself wrong. . . .
" Your obedient humble servant,
" Sydney Smith."
It is impossible to believe that Henrietta Maria did
not contrive to have the last word, but it is not in
existence. She had a facility in letter-writing, and her
husband preserved a great number of the letters she sent
him during the first years he was in Parliament, when
he used to lodge at Reddish's Hotel in St. James'
Street.* The first of those kept is a perfect example of
the rest. It is from Netheravon, where the Beachs
seem to have lived for three months every year.
" My dear Mr. Hicks Beach 1796.
" Your kind letter which I rec'd yesterday, was a
cordial to my spirits, and fill'd my eyes with pleasure,
Be assur'd since you wish to hear often you shall not
be disappointed, altho' you must not expect very
entertaining Epistles, for you know these Downs do
not abound with variety, however I trust I may
have it in my power to send you good accounts of
our healths, and the uniformity of those reports will
not I am sure be unpleasing to you and sometimes
perhaps for a remarkable piece of intelligence you may
hear of a certain married lady not a hundred miles
from Salisbury plain, corresponding with a Gentleman
who is unknown to her Husband, during his absence in
* In later years the Beachs had a house in Harley Street.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 315
the duties of his Senatorial office. But to have done
with this nonsense, if it has not already convinc'd you
I am well enough to he saucy, I will now assure you
in earnest, that I am God be prais'd, so much better
that Bloxham has order 'd me to take Bark Draughts
which you may perhaps recollect he recommended
after the sore throat I had when we went to Mr.
Smiths at Stokepark, and which could not be given
during the time it lasted. I mention this in hopes of
removing any uneasiness you may feel on my account ;
the little Girls and William also are quite well, some
of the servants have had the same complaint, and
Salter has it now therefore I hope most sincerely
that Mr. Pitt will delay the call of the House &c. a
little longer, or if not I hope you will not come, till it
is quite over, for I should feel uncomfortable with the
idea of your taking it now, and I trust this frosty
weather will as Bloxham supposes purify the air and
carry off these complaints.
" You could not possibly hunt if you were here for
the ground is cover'd almost with ice, and it is hardly
safe to ride even on the road, tho' the Horses shoes
are turn'd up. Susan and James were ask'd the
second time yesterday, so suppose they will soon
become Man and Wife.
" We have been feasting on the bounty of our
neighbours, Mr. Fowle very obligingly sent us a fine
brace of Partridges a few days since, which I enjoy 'd
much and yesterday Mr. G. Moore presented me
with two couple of Snipes. I had a long letter from
Mr. Talbot* yesterday which I send you, let me have
it again when you write, and I must beg you will let
me know whether you think 5 Guineas will be too
much to give the attendants, and if not whether I
should send a country bill of a £5. (note) or if I should
desire Mr. T. to pay it for me. I send you a letter
* Jane Beach, sister of William Beach of Netheravon, and Mrs.
Hicks Beach's aunt, had married a Talbot of Margan, Glamorganshire
316 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
I have Written to Mr. Andrews who applied for
Beaumonts character. I mention your name, not
mine as he does the same by Sir Edmund & Lady
Hartopp for whom he is enquiring after a House-
keeper if you approve my letter be so good as
to convey it according to the direction, I shall be
happy to hear from you when convenient but pray do
not hurry yourself to write, God bless you my dear
Mr. Hicks, we unite as usual,
" Believe to be
" Your obt. & affectionate wife
" H. M. Hicks Beach.
" Mr. Bramston says I ought only to mention
Beaumonts not suiting us in general terms if you
think pray let me know & I will write another letter.
" Love to Michael."
The letters are naturally full of details about the
children — " dear Jane is better than could be expected,
she has eaten bread pudding for Dinner and Tapioca with
two Buns for her Supper," and " Ann has recover 'd her
complexion again, and has an amazing appetite." Ann,
who seems to have been always delicate, died when she
was only seventeen years old and while she was on a
visit to her aunt and uncle at Witcombe. A brass plate
on the floor of Witcombe Church commemorates her.
Jane lived to be an old woman, and when she was forty-
seven she married a Mr. Edward St. John of a Hamp-
shire family, and reigned as Aunt Jane St. John well
into modern days. Henrietta Maria, who was evidently
Sydney Smith's favourite among the daughters (for he
mentions her constantly in his letters) died when she
was twenty-four. The other children who survived
infancy were the two sons, Michael the heir, and his
younger brother, William.
In one of Sydney Smith's letters to Henrietta Maria
from Netheravon he had said, " Nothing can equal the
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 317
profound the immeasurable, the awful dulness of this
place, in the which I he, dead and buried, in hopes of a
joyful resurrection in the year 1796." Two years later
the resurrection came. Young Michael Hicks Beach had
left Eton, and his parents decided that, before going to
an English university, he should go to a German one, and
that the Netheravon curate should be put in charge of
him. Tutor and pupil were to have set out for Weimar
in the summer of 1797, but war had broken out in
Germany, and it was finally decided that they should go
to Edinburgh instead. They arrived there in June, 1798,
and it was Sydney Smith's home until August, 1803,
during which time he had under his care consecutively
Michael and William Hicks Beach.
As this is not the story of Sydney Smith's life, it is
impossible to quote at any length from the very large
number of letters which are in the possession of Viscount
St. Aldwyn and of Major Beach of Oakley Hall. It
was the tutor's practice to try to write to the parents
every fortnight about his charges, so that the letters in
existence can be but few in proportion to those actually
sent. A famous modern headmaster has recently said
that the parents of this generation have become too
fussy about the upbringing of their children, but the
whole of the Edinburgh and Williamstrip correspondence
demonstrates that 1800 was not a whit behind 1900 in
this respect. Michael and Henrietta Maria were
minutely anxious that their sons should be worthy of
the fortune which was to be theirs, and Sydney Smith,
who laughed at most things, never laughed at this
anxiety. It would seem from the letters that William,
the younger brother, was, of the two, his favourite. At
all events, there is no doubt that he found him easier to
manage than Michael, but when William came to him
he was no longer a novice in the art of bear-leading; he
had been chastened by marriage, and had learned too,
perhaps, not to sharpen his wit too pitilessly on youthful
foibles. At a later date some of his difficulties with
318 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Michael might never have occurred. Nearly fifty of
Michael's letters to his parents have been preserved, and
they begin with childish letters written under supervision
from a preparatory school. When he went to Eton
supervision ceased, the letters became lively and candid,
and they are in a hand which is large, and free-flowing
and legible ; they are full of character and humour, and
are as different as can be from the letters written from
Edinburgh. The handwriting of these is detestable ; it
is exceedingly small and fine with enormous ' tails,' and
is so redolent of the then fashion in such things as to be
almost illegible. The manner and phrasing of the letters
is as tiresome ; the sentences are stilted, and an air of
dull oppression pervades all. Says poor Michael, how-
ever, after three months' striving, " I have the vanity to
flatter myself that with Mr. Sidney Smith's assistance
I have improved my style of writing as well as my
hand." It is evident that between his parents' epistolary
exhortations on the one hand, and his tutor's witty
diatribes on the other, the unhappy young man had
'self-improvement' on his nerves. Sydney Smith made
him feel he was a fool, and that result never yet
served an educational purpose. He writes about some
invitation : —
" I did not accept her invitation because I thought
Mr. Smith would not like it, but I find he has no
objection to be left alone — and indeed I do not see
why Mr. Smith should have any objection for he
might as well be alone as in such company as
mine."
An evening to himself, free from the company of the
boy so much his intellectual inferior, must indeed have
been a heaven-sent boon to the tutor, but it does not
need saying that the ideal tutor would not have let the
pupil be alive to the fact. The ideal tutor, for this
particular pupil at all events, Sydney Smith never was,
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 319
and one incident alone proves it. There is an introductory
letter : —
"Anxious as you and Mrs. Beach are for the welfare
and improvement of your son. ... I can always
promise you one thing in my correspondence, I will
always tell you the truth in everything that concerns
your son, whether that truth be likely to give you
pleasure or pain. Our beginning has been very
auspicious ; as far as we have hitherto gone I am
extremely pleased and satisfied with Michael. My
first serious conversation with him was upon the
subject of his toilette, and the very great portion of
time he daily consumed in adorning himself. This
Michael took in high anger, and was extremely sulky.
And upon my renewing the conversation some time
after, he was still more so. Without the smallest
appearance of anger or vexation on my part, I turned
his sulkiness into ridicule, and completely laughed
him into good humour. He acknowledged it was
very foolish and unmanly to be sulky about anything,
promised that he would hear any future remarks of
mine about his conduct with cheerfulness and that he
would endeavour to dress himself as quickly as he
could. Mithoffer* was extremely fond of standing at
his elbow while he was dressing and reaching him
everything he wanted ; this I have put a stop to.
Habits of indolence are soon learnt, Michael is a very
apt Scholar in these particulars."
The tutor's triumph was premature. A year later the
battle had to be fought again, and this time Sydney
Smith was not able to say he had shown no vexation.
" I am sure that you will do me the justice to say
that it has not been my habit to harass you with
trivial complaints of your son's conduct, and Indeed
as I never troubled you before upon the subject, you
* Michael's valet.
320 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
may believe that I should not now do it, unless the
occasion appear'd to me to be such, as fully called for
your interference. Is it not my duty to correct the
foibles and mistakes of your son ? Is it not his duty
to hear what I say to him, if not with respect and
attention, at least without insolence, contempt, and
defiance ? You have no conception of his frivolous
minuteness and particularity in every thing which
concerns his dress and person — it is more than
feminine. And upon venturing the other morning to
make some observation about the inutility of his
troubles with his own boot-jack, his behaviour was so
extremely improper and disrespectful, that I did not
open my lips to him for two days — in all this time no
sort of apology. This morning I had a very long and
serious conversation with him on the subject, and
tho' he knew I intended to write to you not a
syllable of apology. Perhaps my dear Sir a few
observations from you on that politeness and respect
which he owes to those to whom you delegate your
authority would do him more good than I am sorry
to say any advice of mine can do. You expect, and
have an undoubted right to expect, from me, the
strictest attention to every thing which goes to make
up the character of your son as a man and a gentle-
man, and I am sure you will use your influence and
authority to protect me from insult and injury. One
single word of apology on the part of your son would
have prevented you from ever hearing what passed
between us. I was the more hurt on this occasion as
Mithoffer was present during the whole of his improper
behaviour.
" I have read over this letter to your son, but he
heard without the least notice and without a single
word."
This letter could have but one result, whatever opinion
the father may have had of the tutor's tact.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 321
" I was too well convinced of the proper sentiments
in which you have educated your children to doubt
for a moment of the manner in which you would
express yourself to Michael upon that conduct of
which I complained. Your letter produced every
effect you could have wished from it. He not only
apologised to me in the most ample manner, but
(which convinced me he really thought himself wrong)
brought in Mithoffer before whom the affront was
given to witness the apology. Of course I said every-
thing handsome to him on the subject, and I daresay
we shall only be better friends for what has passed.
I am very sorry my dear Sir to have troubled the
tranquility of yourself and Mrs. Beach, but it would
have been a most injurious and mistaken complai-
sance to have sacrificed the real good of your son to
the present feelings of his parents."
Michael's own letter to his father does him entire
credit : —
"I am extremely sorry for having behaved in
such an ungrateful manner to Mr. Smith, whom I
hope for the future I shall respect as much as I
ought ; but I am still more so for having vex'd
and offended my Mother and yourself so much as
I fear I must have done ; yet I am perfectly assured
that if my future conduct is such as to deserve for-
giveness, you will forgive me as well as my Mother ;
therefore I shall endeavour to conduct myself properly
particularly towards Mr. Smith until I see you again,
and then I shall hope to regain your approbation.
" You little think how much I am obliged to you
for your letter, so justly severe (tho' I hope I may
never deserve such another) for as I foolishly thought
I was forgiven, I am affraid that without so positive
a command from you, I should not, even by this
time have apologised for being so impertinent to one
whom at least I ought to have esteem'd too much
322 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
to have offended in that manner. I have at last
attempted to make a proper apology : but Mr. Smith
was so good he would not suffer me : he said ' my
dear friend one word by way of apology is enough.'
I can never forget those words, and only hope that I
may prove what he then called me.
" Tho' I cannot deny that I wish'd very much to
stay at Penrice to see Lady Mary * present the
colours ; yet I can assure you that my quitting
Penrice was not the cause of my misbehaviour, but
Mithoffer, for I lost all command over myself when
questioned and reprimanded before him "
The incident may have been a lesson in the art of
behaviour to Sydney Smith as well as to Michael Hicks
Beach, and no repetition of it ever took place ; partly
perhaps because, after a time, tutor and pupil shook
down into different social niches in the Edinburgh
world, saw less of each other, and rubbed against each
other less. Sydney Smith had his place in University
and legal circles, and drew some of the keenest minds
in the city to listen to his sermons at Charlotte Chapel
in Rose Street ; while Michael was made a welcome
guest in fashionable and more frivolous society, and
had various love affairs which the tutor conscientiously
made himself aware of, and faithfully reported to the
mother in far-away Gloucestershire. To Gloucester-
shire from time to time went summaries of Michael's
character.
" The great apprehension I entertained of Michael
was that he would hear everything I said to him with
a kind of torpid silence, and that I should never be
able to learn whether he acquiesced voluntarily or
from compulsion in my proposals, or get him to state
candidly his objections, and prefer openly and ingenu-
ously his observations. From an entire ignorance
* Lady Mary Talbot,
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 323
of his opinions and disposition, I should then have
always been working in the dark. This difficulty,
however, upon better acquaintance with him, has
vanished, he talks over a subject boldly with me,
and makes his objections like a man."
" I can safely say he has no vice about him. His
temper is good, a little inclined to sulkiness perhaps,
but these fits are neither long nor frequent. He has
no great literary ardour upon him. His amusements
will be the common pleasures of the country. You
will always find him a good son, a very respectable
country gentleman and a good man."
"I am now decidedly convinced that whatever
share of knowledge Michael may gain by reading
with me, it is quite out of my power to give him
a taste for books in that degree which I think useful
and ornamental in his situation in life. Do not be
disheartened by this opinion, Michael will, as I have
often told you, be a very worthy, prudent man, with
a sufficient share of sound understanding leading to
conduct : an excellent heart, and manners by time
and his father's assistance soft and gentlemanlike,
and though literature is an excellent addition to all
these, it is hardly worth the least of them."
"He is in the essential points of character an
extremely good young man, honest, honourable, and
friendly without the smallest tendency to any one
vice whatsoever. In little points of disposition he
never affronts, but he has not that desire to oblige
and to please which is so conspicuous in his brother."
But from Michael's disposition, his manner of spend-
ing money, the details of his studies, his dancing lessons,
and his amusements, Sydney Smith occasionally turns
with an air of relief. He had explained to Mrs. Beach
in a former letter that, thanks to the clergy, the practice
y 2
324 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
of religion was now entirely confined to females of the
middle class. To her protest he replies : —
" You may depend upon it my dear Madam that
my observations upon the clergy are just. Religion
(I am sorry to say) is much like Heraldry — an
antiquated concern. A few people attend to the
one and the other, but the world laughs at them for
engaging in such superannuated pursuits. In fifty
years more, the whole Art of going to Church — how
the Squire's lady put on her best hat and cloak, and
how the Squire bowed to the parson after Church,
and how the parson din'd with the Squire, and all
these ceremonies of worship — will be in the hands
of the antiquarian, will be elucidated by laborious
investigation, and explained by appropriate drawings."
On the weather of Scotland he had his observations
to make : —
" We are just going to Church. The wind is
outrageous — to the infinite joy of those Ladies who
can boast of good ankles, who will not fail this day
to be punctually attentive to the public duties of
religion — while those of more clumsy fabric will no
doubt discover that prayers read at home are quite
as efficacious."
" We have had tremendous weather here. The
country is in a most dreadful state from the thaw
which has now taken place. Except the morning after
the Flood was over, I should doubt if it had ever
been dirtier. On that day Mrs. Noah's white flounce
petticoat which was made by an antedeluvian Milliner
in the Land of Edom, was dirtied from top to bottom,
but as she had carried two of every kind into the
Ark this was no great evil. She changed her clothes,
and, after a little muttering and swearing, took a
dram of brandy which Noah had had by him for 520
years — and all was well."
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 325
Towards the end of 1799, Michael Hicks Beach went
to Christ Church, and in June, 1800, William joined
Sydney Smith at 46, George Street, Edinburgh, to
which house, later in the year, came the newly-married
Mrs. Smith. Subsequently there were two other
pupils — Mr. Powlett, a son of Lord Bolton, and a son
of Mr. Gordon of Ellon.
All Sydney Smith's biographers, beginning with his
daughter, Lady Holland, have dilated on the Beach
generosity towards him, and the gratuities with which
they gratefully endowed him over and above the fixed
payments. But the truth seems to be that, although
they were perfectly easy about money matters, Mr. and
Mrs. Hicks Beach did not think it needful to pay more
than was necessary, and that the hot-headed and
sensitive tutor would not allow any discussion as to
what the value of his time actually was — he wished to
be explicit himself, but did not ask for a similar lucidity
on the part of his employers.
"79 Queen Street. 1800. Sunday, 9th November.
"My dear Madam,
" As I consider Mr. Beach as not very fond of
writing — and yourself as his deputed Secretary — I
presume it to be a matter of indifference whether
I address myself to one or the other. I am rather
inclin'd upon a consideration of times and circum-
stances to postpone my attempt of preaching in
London for two or three Years. Beginning then at
the period when I finish'd with Michael and was
ready to receive William last June — take either 2 or
3 Years. If I dedicate my time at this place to
William for either one of these two periods as you
may please, have I any further remuneration of any
kind to expect from Mr. Beach than the £200 per
Annum I now receive ? We seem my dear Madam
to be all so much agreed that this kind of explicit
conduct is so much the most agreeable for all parties
326 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
— that I should owe you rather an apology for not
pursuing, than pursuing it
"The only circumstance that gives me pain in
putting this question to you — is the panegyric upon
William and the pleasing account of our progress I
have given you from time to time, but be assured,
that you could hardly find any man as the guardian
of your Son's education and morals who would not
be as much delighted as I have been — by his good
sense and his strong desire to give pleasure and to do
his duty."
" 79 Queen Street. 1800. 3rd December.
" My dear Madam,
" I believe 200 per Annum will in addition to my
own fortune nearly defray expences in this place, —
and therefore if the whole question was, what
William cost me by his residence in my house, there
could be nothing farther to arrange. You ask me to
state what I conceive to be the value of my time.
This is to me so new a question, and so delicate
a one, that I am rather embarrassed in answering
it. The remuneration which the Clergy receive who
may be engag'd in the task of education, differs with
a prodigious variety of circumstances. I will how-
ever select one criterion. Mr. Beach's former
estimation of my Services — for two years study with
Michael — I received from him £730.— and all my
expences were paid — and this at a time when money
was of more value, and an unsettl'd life a less evil
than it is now. To this criterion however the natural
liberality of Mr. Beach's temper is an objection which
I will remove. If Mr. Beach will continue my
allowance of £200 per Annum and give me his note
of hand for £300 June 1802 if I remain so long with
his Son — or for £600 June 1803 if I remain so long,
I shall be well content. In the case of staying the
longer of these periods, I shall have given up five of
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 327
the best years of my life to the education of your
children, and shall be a richer man by about £1330.
This Sum sunk in an income at 9 per Cent, would
bring me in an income of £121 — per Annum, which
in recollecting the various instances of emolument
derived either from money or preferment by gentle-
men of my profession does not appear to me
exorbitant — but with which I shall be perfectly
satisfied — and deem all obligation dissolved between
us, except that which I shall always owe to you and
Mr. Beach — for the compassion, and protection I
experienced at your hands in my unhappy solitude at
Netheravon.
" If Mr. Beach shall differ in opinion with me
on this offer, and should rather prefer placing
William with Mr. Stewart, my reluctance in parting
with so truly amiable a young man will be in some
degree mitigated by the pleasure I shall have in
forwarding by my mediation any wish Mr. Beach and
you may entertain for the welfare of your Son. . . .
" In Edinburgh we are all storm — in England a
storm is like a mild man in a passion, Every body
stares, and asks why."
And the Beachs, although the man was not " mild,"
must have stared and asked why, too, when they got
the third letter : —
" 28th December. 1800. 79 Queen Street.
" My dear Madam,
" The contents of your Letter did not require that
deliberation which you were so kind as to allow me
to give them. I confess I had great objections
to propose terms myself because I thought it unpre-
cedented and incorrect, but having so done in
compliance with your desire, I cannot allow myself
even to think of accepting any others, or to consider
the question of interest when the question of decency
and propriety (which should always be prior in
328 ' A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
the order of reflections) is so very plain and obvious.
I shall therefore in the Spring, resign my charge into
your hands, with that reluctance for his loss, which
his charming understanding and admirable disposition,
will most unfeignedly inspire.
"I am surprised the quoted passage in my last
Letter should be considered by you as in any degree
ambiguous. I am making a calculation, and stating
on one side the Services render'd and on the other the
advantages receiv'd. The first I specify to be 5 of
the best years of my life given up to the education of
your children. You ask me if it was not a matter of
choice — to be sure my dear Madam it was a matter
of choice on both sides — you were as free to abandon
me as I was to abandon you — any body is free to
leave any lucrative situation, but as long as they
do not exercise that freedom they remain entitled to
remuneration. You have always said with the most
humane and generous attention to my welfare —
do not let your engagement with us be any obstacle
to your views in life, and I could prove to you plainly
enough if it were worth while how completely you
abolished the possibility of using such a permission by
giving it in so friendly a manner.
" Why should you suppose me desirous of fixing
the charge of obligation upon Mr. Beach and you —
when I have said repeatedly, ' my lobor bestow'd and
my Salary receiv'd, there is an end of all obligation
between us upon this point.'
" Immediately upon the receipt of your Letter I
waited upon Mr. Stewart, and am sorry to inform
you that he is completely full, for a year or two, and
that it is wholly out of his power to receive
William. I subjoin his address, if you think you
can add to my sollicitations or to the very high
character I gave William. Dugald Stewart, Esq:
Lothian House, Cannongate, Edinburgh.
"Mr. Stewart, and myself are both considering
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 329
what other eligible Situations this place affords — one
very superior man we mean to try — but with little
hope of succeeding. I shall send you in a day or two
the exact result of our deliberations — and will give
you a description of Mr. Sandfords, that you may see
if you approve of his establishment. You may
depend upon it no exertion of mine shall be wanting
to effect your object. In the mean time, as the
knowledge I can have of the character of people here
must necessarily be limited. It would be better
perhaps to get what information you can from Baron
Norton, or any other friend you may have in this
place.
" You shall hear from me in a day or two. I have
sent notice of giving up my house, and taken the
usual steps preparatory to bidding adieu to this
country in the Spring — and it is my intention to try
my fortunes in London, and can only make you this
offer, which I do with the greatest sincerity in the
world and with the most friendly disposition towards
my old benefactors. If contrary to all probability you
should not meet with an eligible situation for
William by the time I am settl'd in London, my
services to superintend his education till you can
succeed in placing him elsewhere are most entirely at
your disposal and I shall conceive myself amply
rewarded by the pleasure of improving so good a
young man.
" Yours my dear Madam, with great respect,
"Sydney Smith."
This seemed final, and it is to be wondered if Sydney
Smith ever was aware of the reason it did not actually
become so, and of his old father's intervention.
"February 7th, 1801. No. 25 Circus. Bath.
" My dear Madam,
"I am sure you will have the goodness to allow
my freedom on a subject so very near my heart, I
330 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
will yet flatter myself not quite indifferent to you —
the happiness and honor of my misguided Boy.
" I have been favored with a very kind answer
from Mr. Beach for a letter I wrote him — in the
hasty reply to which on my return from Beauchamp
I find it was sent to Reddishs Hotel St. James Street
— when he directs to be written to Williamstrip
Park.
" To prevent accident I make free to trouble you
Madam with the explanation to Mr. Beach should
he not have receiv'd my letter, will have the goodness
to write for it, you doing this it is impossible for me
not to avail myself of the opportunity of begging
your intercession with Mr. Beach offended as he has
the justest reason to be with Sydney's conduct for
my opinion of which allow me Madam to refer you
to the letter now in London.
" I had not the most distant information of the
business from Sydney till last week ; he too well
knew my sentiments of your past goodness and the
eternal gratitude it so truly merited — and it is with
grief I confess I feel myself very much hurt from
this pointed neglect so recent after his marriage at
which and all its arrangements I was equally an utter
stranger.
" Yet I am convinced he is a good Man holding
you and Mr. Beach in the highest esteem and attached
to your Son William warmly — nor do I believe there
exists another who would more honorably devote his
time and faculties and the trust you have repos'd
in him.
" He has mistaken the point of honor of which he
thinks improperly — and fearful of sinking in your
opinion — had not courage to recede from a point to
which he never should have committed himself. Mr.
Beach's offer was of a piece with his former friendship
and ought not to be increas'd, but Madam it will be
shewing such superiority over this false parade of
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 331
Sydney's to indulge me in the proposal I have taken
the liberty of making to him as must have most
beneficial effect in future — added to which that I am
convinc'd his coming either to London or Bath will
be followed with the consequence I dread of all
others.
"You will thus save the young Man you have
hitherto not found insensible of your kindness, you
will secure a sincere sensible affectionate tutor to
your dear Boy who I believe is not discontented
with his situation.
" You will releave me Madam too from a weight
of shame I never expected to have met you with
and I will yet hope for a favorable turn at the earnest
intercession of
" Dear Madam
'< Your ever Faithful and obliged humble Servt.
"Robeet Smith.
" It quite escap'd me to thank Mr. Beach for
Mr. Messater having given business last Sept : over
to my Son Robert whose character expands every
day and business increases.
" Any opportunity Mr. Beach may have of men-
tioning him to his stewards will be doing me great
kindness. The leading passion and object of my life
having been to establish my Boys, whose exertions
and conduct have hitherto justified my most sanguine
hopes."
The sequel to this was that Mr. Beach made an
arrangement by which Sydney Smith was empowered
to draw on him for whatever he thought fair ; * over
and above his expenses — and thus everyone's dignity
was saved.
* "Dee. 23rd, 1801. Will you have the goodness to inform Mr.
Beach that I drew on him yesterday for £100. It is my intention to
draw on Mr. Beach for £400 in the whole between June last and
June to come if that arrangement is agreeable t6 him."
332 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
" 79 Queen Street, February 24, 1801.
" My dear Madam,
" I do not like to do that which will afterwards
make me uneasy and unhappy, — as I should have
been, if William had been left here in a situation
with which yourself and Mr. Beach were not entirely
satisfied, however this is all over. I shall take a
house here — till the Spring of 1803, — and I am
flatter'd with the confidence in me which Mr. Beach
and you both express, and which I hope you will not
find misplac'd. Will you allow me to recommend
to you the works of Burns in four volumes, including
his life, and a valuable account of the Scotch peasantry
which I think if you still continue to collect books
you will find worth attention. Farewell my dear
Madam, my best regards to Mr. Beach. I hope now
when we meet we shall be as good friends as we
used to be.
" I remain with great regard and respect
" Your obedient humble Servant,
" Sydney Smith."
The letters of 1801, 1802, 1803, are a little monotonous
in their reiteration of William's perfections : —
" He continues to give me that perfect satisfaction
which his conduct has done since the first day of his
acquaintance."
"He is fatter, handsomer, and stouter than he
was. . . . Nothing can exceed the propriety, polite-
ness and good humor of his general behaviour to
everybody in this house."
" He is without exception the very best and most
gentlemanly young Man I ever saw, and will be an
ornament and a comfort to his family."
" That he will be a very accomplished gentleman
— and a very sensible tho' neither a very profound
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 333
or a very learned man — is what I have repeatedly told
you before."
Criticism came from the father and was answered : —
" You hinted to me that his disposition was more
reserv'd than you wish'd — the remark is certainly
just — but the habit of mind is I am afraid too strong
for correction — he will probably remain a cautious,
deliberate man as long as he lives — a character not
certainly the very model we should select — but which
contains many advantages if it have some unpleasant
traits, but on the whole my dear Sir you must allow
me to say you have not only no cause to complain,
but much to be proud of."
From the eternal subject of William, as from the
eternal subject of Michael, the scribe sometimes turns
with hearty enjoyment : —
" We have been unpleasantly engaged for these
two or three days past in bidding adieu to some very
pleasant families who are quitting this place, — all
adieus are melancholy, and principally I believe
because they put us in mind of the last of all adieus,
when the Apothecary, and the heir apparent, and
the nurse who weeps for pay surround the bed, —
when the Curate engaged to dine three miles off
mumbles hasty prayers — when the Dim Eye closes
for ever in the midst of Empty pill boxes — Gallipots
— phials — and Jugs of barley water — at that time —
a very distant one I hope my dear Madam, may the
memory of good deeds support you."
William Hicks Beach went to Oxford in 1822, and
there were a good many letters of consultation about
that, and then from the little house, 8, Doughty Street,
Brunswick Square, Sydney Smith, with his face turned
eagerly towards his new London life, wrote what was,
334 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
for many years, his last letter to Henrietta Maria
Hicks Beach : —
" Adieu Dear Madam, everything good attend you.
I often think with great kindness of my friends at
Netheravon — and of their antient kindness to me in
the days of my misery.
" Adieu —
" Sydney Smith."
Twenty years later, Mrs. Beach, hearing that Sydney
Smith's son was at Oxford,* wrote to him at his York-
shire rectory, and got an answer as characteristic as
ever: —
"Foston York. January 4 1824.
" My dear Madam,
" My son is not yet gone to Oxford and will not go
there till the Month of May nor have I been at Oxford
for these ten years : — but it has been some fat man who
has taken my name. I am however much oblig'd to
him for the Imposture, as it has given me this proof
on the part of Mr. Beach and yourself of kind recol-
lection, and continued good Will. I shall have very
sincere pleasure in seeing you all again and if I
possibly can pay you a Visit, I will.
"Allow me to give you a short history of my family
and myself. My eldest daughter is a sensible amiable
Girl not bad looking of 22 years of age — my eldest
Son is Captain of Westminster a very sensible
judicious young man a quality this last which you
will easily believe he does not derive from me — then
comes Emily a remarkably clever Girl of 16 — and
then Wyndham, a lively Boy of 10 fond of Mud and
Noise. Mrs. Sydney keeps her health — so do I —
I have one moderate Living and another good one to
hold for nine years. My Parsonage is extremely
comfortable and I am full of Spirits and talk, in short
* Oxford is twenty miles from Williamstrip.
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 335
happy enough. You us'd to make Tours. I wish
you would come, you and Mr. Beach and all of you —
and make us a Visit. There is much worth seeing in
Yorkshire. I think of you both with real regard —
and do not believe I should forget my early friends
even if I was a Bishop — and yet Bishops commonly
do. . . .
" God bless you my dear Madam — health, happiness
and many years to you and yours,
"Sydney Smith."
To William, the well-beloved old pupil, several
invitations were issued to bring his horses and hunt
from Foston. " Corn is very cheap — therefore poultry
is very plentiful, therefore foxes are very strong, and there-
fore Sport is very good." William Hicks Beach's grand-
father, William Beach had left him the Keevil property,
and he sat as M.P. for Malmesbury* from 1812 to 1818,
and it is evident that he conscientiously went through
all the round of county duties, including the duty of
being in the North Gloucestershire Militia, of which he
eventually became colonel. In 1826 he married, but
he did not go further afield for his wife than Salperton
Park. For the third time, there was a Browne marriage
in the family, and Jane Henrietta Browne was his third
cousin. His grandfather, in leaving him Keevil, had
made a condition that he should drop the name of
Hicks altogether and be Beach only. He discarded
Hicks accordingly by Royal Warrant in 1839, and by
that time his second cousin, Wither Bramston, had
diedf and had left him the Hall Place (Oakley Hall)
property. The present owner of Witcombe remembers
that, as a small boy, he had an exeat from his preparatory
school at Dummer and went to Oakley, where he was
taken into the study to see great-uncle Beach. He
* It was, like Cirencester, one of the four boroughs which belonged
to J. Pitt.
t He died 1830.
336 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
found a very old gentleman, with a charm of manner
which made the half-sovereign which changed hands an
ineradicable memory. ' Beloved by all ' is the memory
he has left behind him. Burke tells the story of his
three children : —
(1) William Wither Brainstem (Right Hon.), P.C., of Oakley Hall,
Hants, and Keevil House, Wilts, J.P., and D.L. for Hants, formerly
major Hants yeomanry cavalry, M.P. for North Hants 1857-85, and
for W. Hants 1885-1901, and at the time of his death Father of the
House of Common's, M.A. Oxon, b. 25th Dec, 1826 ; m. 8th Oct., 1857,
Caroline Chichester, youngest daughter of Colonel Cleveland, of Tape-
ley Park, Devon, and d. 3rd Aug., 1901, leaving issue.
(2) Mary Jane, m. 19th April, 1849, Sir Wyndham Spencer Portal,
first baronet. She died 4th Nov., 1903, leaving issue. He died 14th
Sept., 1905.
(3) Henrietta Maria, m. 22nd June, 1852, Colonel Sir John Williams
Wallington, K.C.B., Keevil Manor, Wilts, and died 26th Oct., 1905,
leaving issue (see " Landed Gentry."); -
The further history of the elder brother Michael is
not a long one. He came of age in 1801, and his
mother then penned him a letter of many pages in
which she told him that no pains or expense had been
spared in his education, that no one had had greater
advantages, and that it was highly proper he should turn
his thoughts to the consideration of what was most
likely to make him esteemed and respected by the best
part of mankind.
"Be civil and obliging in your behaviour to all
but make very few friendships, and let these be
form'd with the greatest circumspection or you will
frequently lay yourself open to imposition and
may be wretchedly deceiv'd in your progress through
life.
" Cultivate the acquaintance of men of sense and
Literature, their society will improve and delight you,
besides giving you a degree of consequence in the
opinion of the world."
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 337
That these, and all her other counsels, were of a half-
way-house perfection, Henrietta Maria probably had
little suspicion ; and, after all, the pre-occupation of
1801 with externals was with the externals of great
things. The admonitions, " Avoid trifling and insignifi-
cant pursuits — Be Constant in your Daily Prayers to
God — Always Attend public worship," were the husks
of verities, and the very length of the letter shows that,
as the mother wrote on and on, she was perhaps half
conscious that the pith of it all had somehow eluded
her.
And it is certain that counsels of perfection would
have been hurled at Michael in vain, for, notwithstand-
ing parental ambitions, the heir to Williamstrip and
Netheravon never was more than a young man of
amiable but average energies. From Christ Church he
wrote to his sister Henrietta letters as lively as those of
pre-Edinburgh days, and in the large, plain handwriting
to which he had immediately reverted. But he did not
cast off his old tutor's acquaintanceship as well as his
teaching ; by the time Michael left Oxford Sydney
Smith was settled in London, and he tells his sister
of visits exchanged between them, and that he is to
be allowed to take little Saba Smith driving in the
country. He betrays his desire to escape from London
life and his liking for children in the same sentence.
In the next year, 1804, a letter of William Earle's
to his father shows him introduced to Royalty.
" I have to thank you for returning me so speedy
an answer as you did from Weymouth. I am very
happy to find that you are so well received and
entertained on the water as well as on Land by the
Royal family.* I wish Mrs. Beach's health had per-
mitted her to have obeyed the Queen's commands, as
from the Royal family considering themselves when
absent from London more free from restraint a very
* George III. and Queen Charlotte.
C.F. Z
338 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
considerable portion of Court etiquette is laid aside,
and she would have seen them in a Character more
nearly allied to private life than they would or could
with propriety display at a public Drawing room. I
am sure my old friend Michael will feel himself quite
at home at Weymouth. As for William I guess he is
following his pursuits at Oxford. . . . Should the
King's levees continue to be open as usual, you
ought, after your Audiences and Personal invitations
at Weymouth to attend a Levee and Drawing room
attended by Michael, as a mark of respect for the
Civilities the King and Queen intended to shew you
and your family."
There is no evidence that young Michael took any
active part in public affairs except that, like his uncle
William Hicks at Witcombe, he threw himself into
the Volunteer movement and raised a body of one
hundred and twenty men from the parishes of Coin
St. Aldwyn, Quenington, Hatherop and Aldsworth.
In his duties as Captain of this troop, in spOrt, and
in country house visiting, the years slipped away until
he was twenty-nine years old, when he married, on
January 26th, 1809, Miss Caroline Jane Mount, of
Wasing Place, Berkshire. Her family was of the
precise social standing of his own, and had had much
the same sort of origin. No match could have been
devised for him less likely to introduce alien elements
into the race ! The engagement, was the occasion for
one of Henrietta Maria's marked characteristics.
" My dear Mr. Hicks Beach,
"The little conversation we have had respecting
Michael's settlement after his marriage has given me
serious uneasiness, because I am apprehensive from
your not mentioning any plan for a habitation he may
call his own, that it is either very uncertain or distant,
and this leads me to communicate my sentiments to
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 339
you now that you may have time to consider them
attentively ; and I also wish not to wait till I have
seen the Lady, least I should feel myself hiass'd by
partiality.
"I like Williamstrip very much and should be
sorry were we to share it as a residence with any
family whatever, but circumstanced as Michael is
respecting his future prospects in life, I should think
his Family the most improper of any — whilst he
remain'd single it was always my wish that he should
look upon our house as his home — as a married man
it is totally different, and might involve us in very
great and unnecessary trouble and inconvenience,
which it is much easier I think to prevent than to
remedy.
" As it is settled for Michael to go to Williamstrip
on his marriage there is nothing to be said about
that, and whilst the eddy of Spirits usual on such
events exists, it is not so likely to do any harm, but
if he is accustom'd to be there in our absence, and to
enjoy all the conveniences and comforts of the place
and neighbourhood, quite unrestrain'd and in his own
way, it is too probable that he may feel some reluct-
ance to resign it for any other situation ; he will
insensibly begin to wish himself permanently fix'd
there, and perhaps he will almost unconsciously
encourage a hope that you would give him an oppor-
tunity of enjoying it in the prime of his life by
resigning it to him, and when once an idea of that
kind is form'd in the mind, it extends itself farther,
till by degree he may persuade himself that he has
a right to expect such an indulgence from you, and
this opinion may be strengthen'd by unguarded
speeches, made to him by inconsiderate people, —
or if you guard against this evil by never suffering
him to be there but with us, he will in time fancy
that he has a sort of joint partnership in the house,
and look upon it rather as a right than an indulgence,
z 2
340 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and if he does not feel himself too much restricted
by our presence, will dislike to remove to any other
place, when perhaps you yourself may be desirous
he should. Besides nothing is more likely to occasion,
or has been more productive of family discord &;
Variance than two familys living under the same
roof. You will recollect when you read this that
I have a high opinion of Michael's principles and
goodness of heart, and have always sided with him,
but we know from our own experience that human
nature is weak and erring, and that it is much easier
to receive bad impressions than to eradicate them. I
am thoroughly persuaded Michael has not at present
a thought or wish about your giving up Williamstrip,
and I hope he never will, so I cannot on any account
approve of Yr. giving it up, but it appears to me of
great consequence that every thing should be care-
fully avoided that may tend in the slightest degree
either at present or at a later period to give him or
any other person in or out of the family, the shadow
of an idea that you ever intend doing such a thing.
God bless you my Dear Mr. Hicks Beach.
" Believe me your truly affectionate &; obedient wife.
"H. M. Hicks Beach."
There is a happy honeymoon letter written by
Michael to his father from Williamstrip — evidently in
the eddy of spirits which his cautious mother had fore-
seen. But her caution bore fruit, for the young couple
took a house called Banks Fee, nearly twenty miles
from Williamstrip and near Moreton-in-the-Marsh.
Here they lived out the six short years of their married
life. Michael died at West Cowes, October 5th, 1815,
from the result of a sunstroke while swimming in the
sea. He and his wife had gone to the Isle of Wight
for sea air for the three children — another Michael,
another William, and a little girl who afterwards died
in early childhood*
HENRIETTA MARIA HICKS BEACH.
Died 1837
(From a miniature in possession of Sir William Portal )
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 341
After her husband's death Caroline Jane Hicks Beach,
the widow, lived at 7, Portman Square. She was the
grandmother of the living generation who are now
themselves grandparents, but their youthful recollec-
tions of her are overshadowed by the more pungent
memories of the dentist with whom Portman Square
visits were invariably connected. Her eldest grand-
daughter says " she was very upright and spick and span
and particular. She wore a brown 'front' with curls
on each side, a lace cap tied under the chin, a folded fichu
and substantial silk or satin skirts." She is revealed,
to some extent in her few existing letters, written in
a flowing 'Italian' hand; and, between the lines of
those, two facts emerge : the first, that she found her
well-dowered widowhood very bearable ; the second,
that her mother-in-law, the redoubtable Henrietta
Maria, had no particular liking for her. Many of the
letters are dated from country houses. " I have such
a lot of visits to get through this autumn that I scarcely
know how to arrange them," she says, for the joy of
humorous descendants, who reflect that her type has not
yet ceased to inherit the earth. In another letter she
supplies a piece of Victorian history, and gives a
description of visits to Gunter's and Bridgeman's to
see the Queen's wedding cakes. " The former has the
most elegant display. 15 cakes made by him are for
each of the Ministers, and the large cake something
like a fort ... is beautiful indeed and is to be placed
before the Duchess of Kent at the Banquet given at
St James on the day of the wedding." Indeed, the
letters in their well-bred spuriousness are as unlike
anything that Henrietta Maria would have written as
well can be. When her father-in-law died, in 1830,
Caroline would have hastened from Portman Square
to Williamstrip, for it was certainly the ' proper thing '
to do. Jane, the only surviving daughter there, had to
convey, as politely as could be, the decided opinion
that she was the last person wanted.
342 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Williamstrip and Witcombe were in fact for Caroline
only two among the country houses she stayed at in
her autumn tours ; but she took care that her son
Michael, who was heir to Williamstrip, and her son
William, who was heir to Witcombe, should be more
constant and intimate visitors ; and when Michael, who
had just left Christ Church, fell in love with a hand-
some Miss Stratton at a county ball, it was she who
pointed out to him the propriety of consulting the
grandmother whose approval would mean so much.
Henrietta Maria was at Weymouth when the letter
reached her : —
"Williamstrip Park,
" March 10th, 1832.
" My dear Grandmother,
" In a letter I wrote to my Mother the other day,
I mentioned a certain subject which I wish no
longer to conceal from you, as I know that you are
very anxious about my happiness. At the last Stow
Ball I met a Miss Stratton with whom I candidly
confess I was very much taken. This being the case
I should never forgive myself were I to embark any
farther in so serious an affair without first asking
your consent. I have managed through a friend to
obtain some information with regard to the family —
from whom I learnt that the Joddrils, the Cheshire
Leighs, and the Lights of Somersetshire are their
immediate relations, with these I feel assured you
will raise no objection. I cannot refrain from adding
this much from my own observation — she appeared
to me to be as sensible, ladylike and (I must say) as
handsome a girl, as I have ever seen. It only remains
for me, before I proceed any further, anxiously to
await your answer, which I very much hope, and
have no doubt, will perfectly coincide with mine and
my Mother's sentiments on the subject. Perhaps I
ought to have communicated with you in person,
rather than by letter, but I thought considering all
MICHAEL HICKS BEACH. 343
things that a letter would be to you the less trouble-
some of the two. I must now conclude, with best
love to my Aunt
" I remain dear Grandmother
" Your ever affec te grandson
"M. H. Hicks Beach."
The marriage took place the same year, Michael
being twenty-three years old ; and in 1834, when his
great-uncle Sir William Hicks of Witcombe died, he,
the third Michael Hicks Beach, succeeded to the family
baronetcy. Four years later, on the death of his grand-
mother Henrietta Maria at the age of eighty, he became
the owner of Williamstrip Park and Beverstone Castle
in Gloucestershire, and of Netheravon House and
Fittleton Manor in Wiltshire. He sold the castle
and land at Beverstone in 1842 to Mr. Holford of
Westonbirt, whose property it adjoined. His son
tried, but unsuccessfully, to re-purchase it when he
was raised to the peerage in 1906 — it was the obvious
title.
Sir Michael Hicks Beach, eighth baronet, contested
the division of East Gloucestershire in 1854, and, after
a struggle, still remembered locally, wrested the seat
from his popular opponent, Mr. Edward Holland of
Dumbleton Hall.
When Radicals declare Beech roots run underground,
They're wrong in their orthography, and the metaphor's unsound.
By this time they know better. Both time and spelling teach
How thy wild waves. Democracy ! beat vainly on our Beach.
So wrote Mr. Hyett of Painswick from Rome to
the Gloucester Chronicle ; but Michael was the Con-
servative " Beach " for a very short time. He died of
typhoid fever the next year, leaving his wife, the hand-
some girl of the Stow ball, with an eldest son of seven-
teen, a younger son of thirteen, and six daughters.
Harriet Vittoria, Lady Hicks Beach, died in 1900,
344 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
and is survived by seven of her eight children — Viscount
St. Aldwyn (created 1906) * ; William Frederick Hicks
Beach of Witcombe Park ; Lady Dillwyn Llewelyn ;
Mrs. Fuller of Neston Park, Wiltshire ; Mrs. Barneby
of Longworth, Herefordshire ; Mrs. Lowbridge Baker
of Ramsden House, Oxfordshire ; and Lady Crawshaw.
" She was a daughter of the handsome, upstanding
Strattons," said a local paper in its account of Lady
Hicks Beach's funeral. She was more than that — but
this is not the place to estimate what her children have
inherited from her of intellect and character, and what
they owe to her definite ' upbringing.'
* Entered Parliament as member for East Gloucestershire 1864.
Has been Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board, Under
Secretary for the Home Department, twice Chief Secretary for
Ireland, Secretary of State for the Colonies, President of the Board
of Trade, twice Chancellor of the Exchequer.
LADY HICKS BEACH, WIFE OF EIGHTH BARONET.
(From a picture at Williamstrip Park.)
CHAPTER XIX.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 1801 TO 1834.
When old Sir Howe Hicks died so suddenly in
1801, his eldest son, William, was already forty-seven
years old, and he was living on the outskirts of the
little market town of Cheltenham, in a house called
Belle Vue, on the London Road, where the coaches
passed by. The house had a considerable garden, and
the ground in front of it went down to the willow-
fringed stream, the Chelt, and then rose gradually
towards Leckhampton Hill, an outstanding angle of
the Cotswolds, over which ran the road to Witcombe.*
The house is now known as the Hell Vue Hotel, and
the district has completely lost its rural character,
although there are still some remains of the garden.
At the end of the eighteenth century Cheltenham was
a place of about two thousand inhabitants, had a small
brewing trade, and was a considerable coaching centre
—as many as thirty or forty coaches passed down the
High Street every day. The paved High Street, with
its inns and its motley collection of houses and small
shops, was barred at either end by a turn-pike gate, and
close to the gate on the Tewkesbury Road was the
market-place, and beyond that the Grammar School
and the beautiful old church on opposite sides of the
way. At the further end of the High Street was the
'Plough,' the principal inn, with its low entrance
leading into its large yard ; and then there were more
houses and the London Road pike, and the open
* The vale road through Shurdington to Painswick was not made
until 1841.
346 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
country, with its scattered houses, and Belle Vue on
the left as you travelled London-wards. The discovery
of the mineral waters in the middle of the eighteenth
century had not affected the size of the place at all.
When George III. was advised by his doctors to drink
them, and came to Cheltenham in 1788 with Queen
Charlotte and the Princesses, Cheltenham was, in the
language of the Morning Post, " a summer village."
But the Royal visit made the village fashionable, and
in 1801, the year of Sir Howe's death, the speculative
builder had already begun his dire operations.
Sir William kept on the Belle Vue house when he
inherited Witcombe, and came there every year for a
period, and he played a considerable part in the affairs of
the growing town. He sat on the Cheltenham Bench,*
and in the old numbers of the Cheltenham Chronicle his
name constantly appears as being present at public
meetings. To his relations he was a little, frail man,
with a puckered brow and a stuttering tongue, who
was not expected to be too much in the foreground ;
but, after the death of his indomitable parents, he
developed an unexpected virility, and an unexpected
temper, too ; for " milk and mildness," as was observed
of Mrs. Tulliver, " are not the best things for keeping."
Gloucestershire raised a tremendous regiment of mounted
volunteers during the Napoleonic scare, and Sir William
was captain of the Cheltenham troop, and was peppery
enough to keep them all in very good order. But it
is doubtful if, from first to last, he would not have been
happier without the Cheltenham connection — it brought
him disaster later, and, somehow, he does not seem to
fit comfortably into the meretricious life of the Georgian
spa. The Times of September 4th, 1807, records that
Sir William and Lady Hicks were among the company
present at the Cheltenham Theatre when His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales commanded The Rivals,
* He was Chairman.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS, SEVENTH BARONET.
(From a pastel picture at Coin St, Aldwyn.)
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 347
which was performed to a very crowded house. The
Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Leicester, Lord and
Lady Carherry, Lord and Lady Glerawley, Sir C. R.
Boughton, Ladies Barrington and Myers, Sir John and
Lady Callender and Dr. Jenner are all mentioned as
being there too, and the plumes in Lady Hicks' turban
would no doubt quiver contentedly in such good com-
pany ; but Sir William has to be pictured as a meagre
figure in the shade of the corner of his box, perfectly
conscious of himself as a local magnate and the possessor
of what his mother had called " an old family title," but
somewhat lacking in the talent of making Royalty
aware of his importance. Yet he was a better man than
the poor Royal George on the other side of the theatre
— " nothing but a coat and a wig and a mask smiling
below it," says that severe censor of Georgian Royalty,
Thackeray. " I look through all his life and recognise
but a bow and a grin. I try to take him to pieces, and
find silk stockings, padding, stays, a coat with frogs
and a fur collar, a star and blue ribbon, a pocket hand-
kerchief prodigiously scented, one of Truefitt's best
nutty brown wigs reeking with oil, a set of teeth and
a huge black stock, underwaistcoats, more underwaist-
coats, and then nothing." The Prince — "Prince
Florizel," Thackeray calls him — gave a great ball in
Cheltenham, to which all the elite were invited, and, as
George IV., he paid the town a brief visit many years
later, in 1821 ; but after 1807 his brother, the Duke of
Gloucester, came every year for twenty-nine years, and
Witcombe Valley became accustomed to the passage
through it of Royalty and fashion. The Bath Road
from Cheltenham climbed the Cotswolds for six miles
to Birdlip, and its famous ' Slack Horse ' inn, with
the thatched tea-house Overlooking the vale, which
Richard Dancer had lately erected. Fashionable Chel-
tenham patronised the inn prodigiously, but, unless
acquainted with Sir William, had to turn and go back
the same way they had come, while Sir William's own
348 A COTSWOLD FAMILY,
friends might drive through Sir William's beech woods
down to Sir William's house nine hundred feet below.
The entrance to the road down the wood, which Sir
Michael had made a century before, was just beyond
the ' Black Horse' No house in Gloucestershire, as
Sir William knew well, had a road to its door equal in
beauty and interest to his Witcombe drive of over a
mile long. The view of the vale from between the beech
stems was pronounced later by Charles Darwin — if he
were an authority on views — to be the most wonderful
in the world. The manor house, with its walled garden,
was not a very imposing goal after the glories of the
hillside; but if the cookery books with Sir William
Hicks' book-plate in them are to be believed, there
was, at all events, nothing Liliputian about the dinner
which awaited the arriving guests.
But, after all, little Sir William's country seat was
not his greatest social asset, for he had an only
daughter. It was a day when the cult of the heiress
was at its height, and Ann Hicks was not only the
heiress of Witcombe, but, as was well known, was
to inherit her uncle Thomas Chute's property of the
Vyne in Hampshire as well.
" A History of the Vyne," by Chaloner W. Chute,
was published in 1888, and it says that the house
was originally a Roman posting station, Vindomis,
{vim domus, ' the house of wine '), on the military road
between Winchester and Reading. But so different
were the 'lie' of the eighteenth and the nineteenth
century high- ways that there came to be a saying, " The
Vyne is the end of the world and Beaurepaire is
beyond it."
At the Conquest, the manor of Sherborne, in which
the Vyne is situated, was granted to Hugh de Port*
with fifty-five other lordships in Hampshire. His
grandson John, in conjunction with the feudal tefiant,
* He is the reputed ancestor of the Marquis of Winchester.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 349
William Fitzadam, built and endowed a chantry
chapel at the Vyne in the twelfth century. John de
Port's son married an heiress of the St. John's, and their
son William took the name of St. John. The
St. Johns used the Vyne as a hunting resort.
In the fourteenth century the manor belonged to the
family of Cowdray, and Sir Thomas de Cowdray
re-endowed the chantry chapel. In 1386 it passed to
the Sandys family by marriage, and remained in their
possession until the Commonwealth.
The first Lord Sandys was Lord Chamberlain to
King Henry VII., and, having married an heiress,
he pulled down the old buildings and erected the
present house and chapel. In 1535 the King and
Queen Anne Boleyn were entertained by him, and
in 1569 Queen Elizabeth stayed at the Vyne with his
grandson William, the third baron. In 1643, during
the siege of Basing, the Parliamentary troops under Sir
William Waller* were quartered at the Vyne, and
tradition has it that the painted glass of the chapel
windows escaped destruction at Puritan hands by the
simple device of taking it down and burying it under
the adjacent stream. About 1650 William Sandys,
the then owner, was obliged by poverty to part with the
estate which was already heavily mortgaged, and he sold
it to Chaloner Chute, a famous lawyer, who was made
Speaker of the House of Commons in 1659.f His
portrait by Vandyke hangs at the Vyne and there is
a recumbent monument of him in a ' Tomb Chamber '
built out of the chapel.
Succeeding Chutes went into Parliament, kept race-
horses and played their part stoutly in Hampshire life.
The Speaker's great-grandson John Chute, who suc-
ceeded his brother in 1754, was the survivor of a family
of ten children, and he had spent most of his life
* Brother-in-law of Sir William Hicks.
t The Chutes can trace a male descent from Alexander Chute of
Taunton who died in 1268.
350 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
travelling on the Continent. In Florence he had made
friends with Horace Walpole and with the poet Gray,
and letters from both of them are preserved at the
Vyne. Walpole became a frequent visitor there, and
suggested numerous alterations, such as the addition of
two towers, a Roman theatre with an obelisk, and
the complete metamorphosis of the garden. John
Chute, however, had his own ideas, and the alteration he
finally made was the construction of the present stair-
case. He died unmarried in 1776, and with him the
male line of the Chutes came to an end. His only
relation was his cousin, Elizabeth Chute, who had
married Thomas Lobb of Pickenham Hall, Norfolk.
To their son Thomas, John Chute left the Vyne, with
the proviso that he would take the name of Chute.
Thomas Lobb Chute, the fortunate inheritor of the
Vyne, married Ann Rachel, only daughter of William
Wiggett, mayor of Norwich, and he was the father of
Lady Hicks, Sir William's wife, and also, it will be
remembered, of Mrs. Wither Bramston of Oakley Hall.
He had a third daughter who died unmarried, and none
of his three sons — two of whom succeeded to the Vyne
— had children. The Wither Bramstons were childless
also, and thus it came about that Ann Rachel Hicks
was the Chute heiress.
There is in life the frequent tragedy of character
ill-matched with the meanness of opportunity. The
other tragedy, of opportunity ill-rmatched with inade-
quacy of character, is less frequent, and somehow not
so tragic, because opportunity is not lost, but slips into
more competent hands. Poor little Ann Hicks was
physically and mentally quite inadequate to her back-
ground.
" Little Ann has recovered from, the small pox and
looks very sprightly and clear from any humour," wrote
her mother to Williamstrip ; and a few months later
(1795) her grandmother pronounced her " as good a
child as can be, but have not cut a tooth yet." Later
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 351
on Ann's cousin Michael alludes to her several times in
letters to his sister Henrietta, and he makes it evident
that her health was a family topic. He had been at Wit-
combe with his brother William in order to go to balls and
plays at Cheltenham, and gives it as his opinion that Ann
would be very well if her mother would not force her to
drink asses' milk ; but he says a year later that her growth
is so gradual that it is imperceptible. She grew up to be
not quite five feet high, and, from first to last, from
childhood onwards, she was ugly — that is harshly
definite, but she was in fact a feminine replica of her
father, if without the stutter. And her ' Prospects ' —
her background — dwarfed her hopelessly. " Whatever
should I have done with that immense house, my
dear ! " she said in old age, in her high, cracked voice, to
Mrs. Beach of Oakley, who drove her over to the Vyne
to see her lost inheritance. What indeed !
But the story of the forfeiture of the Vyne has yet
to be told.
Ann grew to womanhood, and, with a complaisance
that seems criminal, her parents launched her into the
strange whirlpool of Georgian fashion which Cheltenham
had come to be. To carry on the metaphor — she was
pushed into it, all sails set, and without an ounce of
ballast. The only wonder is that the shipwreck did
not come sooner.
Three of her ball dresses have been preserved. Two
are gauze over-dresses, white and deep yellow, with
satin hems, and bands of coloured flowers embroidered
in floss silk on the gauze. The line of the waist is just
under the armhole, and the transparent sleeves reach
to the waist. The third dress must have been copied
exactly from a description of London fashions in the
Cheltenham Chronicle of 1816. "Frock of white crape
over white satin with crape bouillione, intercepted with
bunches of riband and finished by an elegant festooned
wreath of roses ; short sleeves of crape, not very full,
trimmed with blond, and surmounted with imperial
352 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
wings elevated. The hair," the account goes on to
say, "arranged in bands, with very few curls, and
short at the ears ; a bandeau of pearls surmounted by
a bunch of full-blown roses." The only pictures of Ann
which exist are in childhood and old age, so that she
has to be imagined with her dwarf stature, and with
her thin, sloping shoulders and long neck rising out of
the glories of the Crape bouillione, and with the pearls
and the roses on her poor head. Beauty, or even
ordinary good looks, would have been such a safeguard
in the extravagantly foolish world of fashion in minia-
ture. " Beauty is usually proud, because of a conviction
of its own worth : while a want of beauty often breeds
vanity, which is the desire of rousing that conviction
in others so that one may come to it at last secretly
oneself." Ann was not the first plain heiress who was
inordinately vain. But she was in her twenty-second
year, had danced at many a Cheltenham ball before the
catastrophe came. It was foreshadowed by a paragraph
in the Cheltenham paper dated Thursday, February 22nd,
1816:—
" It is rumoured in the Fashionable circles that the
only daughter of a worthy Baronet in this neighbour-
hood is about to receive the flowery wreath of Hymen
from the hand of a late wily visitor of good family
connections."
The adventurer in question was an Irishman named
William Lambart Cromie. It is true that he was the
only son of a baronet, but that did not commend him
to Ann's parents. William Playfair, in his " Baronet-
age of Ireland," proses about the Cromie family: —
"It is the lot of some families to derive their
splendour from ancient ancestry, and a long series
of distinguished actions : but, undoubtedly, however
enviable or desirable these circumstances may be,
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 353
yet, perhaps, in the eye of reason, the family that
owes its rise to individuals, who have benefited their
country by mercantile exertions, is equal, at least, if
not in many instances superior, to the proudest, when
those families can boast of nothing else but a highly-
traced lineage."
~o v
Which is the preamble to the statement that a
certain Michael Cromie, the son and grandson of
Dublin merchants was M.P. for Ballyshannon, was
made a baronet in 1776, and married the only
daughter of the Earl of Cavan. In the year 1816,
the said Sir Michael had been leading a wandering
life abroad for many years ; his only daughter had
married a Mr. West in 1801, and his only son,
William Lambart, was seeking his fortune at the
English Spas.
Miss Hicks was too valuable a prize to be let slip by
Mr. Cromie because of a little provincial parental opposi-
tion, and the very next number of the Cheltenham
Chronicle, February 29th, 1816, had the following
startling piece of news : —
" A great sensation was excited in this town, last
week, by the sudden disappearance of Miss H.
daughter of Sir W. H. and sole presumptive heiress
to more than one large fortune. The young lady
took the road to Scotland, by a circuitous route,
accompanied by Mr. Cromy, to whom, according to
a letter received from her, dated Carlisle, she has
been united by the Gretna Parson. The previous
proceedings and arrangements were, it seems, artfully
concealed under love demonstrations directed towards
another lady. A pursuit was ineffectually instituted
for the purpose of bringing back the fair fugitive.
We fervently hope that, as the first impulses of
surprise and irritation have subsided, the return of
natural fondness will produce the usual results of
C.F. A A
354 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
forgiveness and reconciliation ; particularly as there
is not any circumstance of disparagement connected
with the young lady's choice."
The editor's pious aspiration was not destined to be
fulfilled, for Ann Cromie was never forgiven — the
sequel proved to be too humiliating.
Nearly a hundred years have passed away, and the
story of her elopement is now a cherished legend of
which every scarce detail is valued, but at the time —
oh dear, at the time! — how Sir William must have
stuttered, how fast pens must have scratched over
paper in those respectable strongholds, Williamstrip,
Oakley Hall and the Vyne ! Alas, that it should all
have been regarded so tragically ! for the result is that
every single letter that was written about it at the time
has been carefully destroyed.
The " ineffectual pursuit " was undertaken by Ann's
cousin, William Beach of Oakley, who must have been
in Cheltenham at the time, and report has it that
Sir William gave him a table for his pains — a comic
enough descent into the matter-of-fact out of the heroic
ragings of the moment ! There was a descent into the
matter-of-fact for foolish Ann too, for, three weeks
later, she was remarried in Marylebone Church ; tied
securely with all the formalities of the Establishment
to the husband who was already certain that domestic
life, as interpreted by Ann, did not suit him at all.
The date of this ceremony was March 16th ; it was
performed by Luke Heslop, D.D., and the witnesses
who signed the register were Mary Arundell, John A.
Giffard and J. W. Fermot. The register states, "these
parties having been heretofore married to each other in
Scotland."
A honeymoon on the Continent, and a long honey-
moon too, was an obvious sequel to the scandal, and all
that poor Lady Hicks could do was to see to it that her
daughter took a really competent maid with her. That
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 355
accomplished, Sir William and she set out in their coach
for Witcombe, and perhaps before they got to the end
of the tedious journey they had resolved that they must
make the best of the matter, and be as philosophical
over it as they knew how.
But Ann's first letter from Paris was a sufficiently
rude shock to any philosophy, for it appeared that she
was alone in her hotel and Lambart Cromie and the
competent maid had disappeared in each other's
company.
Think of Sir William, as he crossed the Channel for
the only time in his life, and of the hateful journey
home again, for himself and Ann, to the valley, to the
narrow house, to the familiar things and faces which
were not to be evaded. Think of what the passing days
meant to Ann after this. For it was Ann who was most
to be pitied. She had to sit, on every day in every week
in every year as it went by, at table with parents whose
mood remained an unmodified one, and whom she
herself had deprived of healthier distractions ; for
the Cheltenham house was given up after that fatal
year of her marriage, and life was confined mainly to
Witcombe interests and to the society of relations.
Cheltenham card-parties, if they had served no other
purpose, would at least have been useful as a counter-
irritation !
The derelict Ann was clearly no fitting mistress for
the Vyne. Her uncle, William Chute, was M.P. for
Hampshire, and he kept at his own expense a pack of
foxhounds which were the origin of the Vyne pack
of to-day. He is to be met with in all sporting
annals, and he seems to have been a real character
— a lovable man with a thousand small peculiarities.
But he was not peculiar enough to look charitably
on his niece's escapade. His immediate heir was his
clergyman brother, Thomas Vere Chute, who was
unmarried, and the two brothers were unanimous as
to what was to be done. William had a godson and
A a2
356 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
namesake, the second son of a Wiggett cousin.* On
the condition that he should take the name of Chute,
William Lyde Wiggett, then a boy at Winchester,
was solemnly decided on as heir to the Vyne in the
place of Ann Cromie. For Ann herself, this decision,
which seemed so momentous to her Chute uncles,
which must have been the keenest mortification to
her mother, had probably little or no importance ; for
it needed an educated imagination to deplore a forfeited
sovereignty of the red-brick Tudor pile, with its panelling,
its tapestries, its statuary, its cabinets, and its other
countless treasures.
It is impossible to speak with any certainty about
Ann's later relations with her husband. He eventually
died in a madhouse, and it is a fact that for some years
she visited him there annually. But it would seem that
about the year 1827 he reappeared in Cheltenham, and
that Ann, then over thirty years of age, was disposed
to extend forgiveness to him. Mrs. William Beach
of Oakley Hall, writing to WiUiamstrip, says, " I was
much surprised and vexed to hear of Lady Cromie's
conduct ; surely she has caused already her too indul-
gent parents sufficient trouble without continuing
to torment them, at least Sir William ; for it seems
Lady Hicks' feelings are quite subdued ; still I think
Ann is very much to be pitied, more especially as she
has the misery of reflecting (did she reflect at all) that
she has been the principal cause of their sufferings."
In a letter of July, 1830, to her cousin Jane at
WiUiamstrip Ann herself gives what seems, without
any context, a startling piece of news. " I am going
to Cheltenham to-morrow where Lambert will arrive
to-day and look out for a house for us in the meantime, to
save the trouble of going to an hotelfirst and then moving.
I have not the least idea how long we shall stay there."
* This cousin, their mother's nephew, James Wiggett, was rector
of Crudwell in Wiltshire, where was Eastcourt, the home of the
Earles.
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 357
Whether this project was carried out or not, it is
impossible to say, but the fact that Sir William put
into concrete form at this date his determination to
disinherit his daughter if she ever lived with her
husband again, makes it seem as if the flitting from
Witcombe was either prevented or was of very short
duration. Sir William's Will was pretty drastic. It
provided that if his daughter ever lived with her
husband again, she was to have an income of anything
between one shilling a week and one pound a day, as
the trustees in their discretion should appoint. The
same provision was to hold good if her husband died
and she ever married another Irishman. Otherwise
she might marry again with the written consent of the
trustees and might inherit the Witcombe estate after
the death of her mother.
The discovery of a Roman villa at Witcombe in
1818, two years after the Cromie catastrophe seems
to posterity to have been discovery at an ironical
moment. Fortune had turned her back on the
owner of the wide, green combe ; his dwelling-house
was again beginning to show signs of decay, and he him-
self was daily deteriorating in temper because of his
powerlessness to command the future, to impel in the
coming centuries the continuance of his direct descen-
dants on the property which, to him, was the world :
and then the goddess Chance, who takes so many
strange forms, took the form of a labourer's spade,
and, with all her accustomed sarcasm, quietly brought
to light on the hillside the site of the dwelling-place of
him who had been the landowner of the valley sixteen
centuries before. Opportunity was thus given to testy
little Sir William to reflect that, sixteen centuries hence,
the family of Hicks would be certainly unknown, and
that the grass would be growing over the foundations
of the house in which they had fretted out their lives ;
but that, nevertheless, the young moon would still rise
358 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
over the crest of the woods in her silver irony — that
the world would in fact, still go round.
Under the supervision of a famous local antiquarian,
Mr. Samuel Lysons, Sir William proceeded with the
excavation of the villa, and parts of it were protected
with stone huts with thatched roofs. Mr. Lysons read
a paper on the villa before the Society of Antiquarians
in 1818 and 1819, and in February, 1908, Mr. St. Clair
Baddeley read a paper on the same subject in the
Guildhall, Gloucester, to the Gloucestershire Archaeo-
logical Society. The antiquarian conclusion seems to
be that the Witcombe Villa, lying between the two
important towns of Corinium (Cirencester) and Glevum
(Gloucester), was the abode of a magistrate and senator
who owned all the land in the valley lying on either
side of Ermine Street, and that it had been built early
in the third century, after the grant of the Roman
franchise to all free inhabitants of the Empire, when
a great push was given to the building of country
houses.
For the Roman landowner, as well as for Sir Michael
Hicks of the seventeenth century, had been surely
the rapture of creation ; and the Roman set his house
and demesne between a foreground and a background of
everlasting beauty. In the foreground beyond sloping
meadows was that view of the vale which Van Deist
painted for Sir Michael 1500 years later, with Ermine
Street running across it like a spear to Glevum, and with
all the recurring atmospheric glories and the eternal hills
beyond. The colonnaded court and gardens of the villa
looked towards this view, and the house was a much
more considerable one than any the valley has known
since. It was built of brick, of stone and of marble, and
on either side of the court were groups of buildings — the
service rooms on one side, and the baths on the other.
It faced the morning sun in glistening dignity, and
was outlined in such an hour with unearthly brilliancy
against the purple and black of the beech stems, which
SIR WILLIAM HICKS III. 359
towered on the hillside above it, with the belt of their
foliage melting away into the mysteries of the sky.
The house sheltered a whole population. There was
the family priest, the steward, the secretary, the
amanuensis, the janitor, the hairdresser, the bathing
man, gardeners, woodmen, cooks, smiths, keepers of
the stock, the keeper of the dogs, the chauffeurs for
the furnaces, the textores or weavers of household
linen, the delicatae or housemaids. The house was a
centre of organised industrial life, and the position of
its owner as a municipal magistrate and senator of
Glevum made it a centre of Civil Justice as well ; of its
luxury and beauty, the pottery, the silver plate and the
toilet accessories that have been excavated tell their
own tale.
Yet, if to Oblivion so complete, to Silence so
impenetrable, it is the lot of every generation to
make its ultimate submission, why trouble to repeat,
and repeat again and over again, in one small valley
of the whirling earth, this country house life, that
needs so much strenuous thought and care if, in its
peaceable security, free from the struggle of creeds
and tariffs, it is to be kept from gross materialism ?
Would it not be wiser to withdraw, if opportunity
should offer a dignified retreat, from a battle
with untraceable Destiny, in which the things of
inheritance, of creation, and of desire, must infallibly
be obliterated?
To Sir William Hicks, to whom grandchildren had
been denied, an opportunity for this wisdom was offered,
and he differed no whit from his Roman predecessor in
that he rejected it passionately. In the year before his
death, his daughter Ann was thirty-nine years old, and
her husband (Sir Lambart by that time) was still alive.
It was necessary to provide for the ultimate future of
Witcombe, and, as his younger nephew at Williamstrip
was already provided with the properties of Oakley
Hall and Keevil Manor, Sir William directed that
360 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Witcombe should go to his grand-nephew William, the
second son of his elder nephew Michael. A condition
was attached to the legacy — William Hicks Beach was
to become William Hicks.*
* This provision was for himself only and not for his heirs.
CHAPTER XX.
THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 1839 TO 1885.
There is a saying of Lafcadio Hearne's that everyone
meets the Sphinx in life, but that sometimes she doesn't
kill people ; she only bites and scratches them. The
Sphinx scratched the pigmy heiress of Georgian Chelten-
ham pretty severely, but it is an enormous tribute to
her inherited invulnerability that in later life only one
person ever knew how much the scratches smarted, and
that, for the world around her, they were completely
hidden behind the disguising pomp of a spreading
crinoline and the prestige of consistently living beyond
her income. For, to the imagination of the twentieth
century, Dame Ann Cromie steps at once from the
Gretna Green episode into a grim old age as the lady
of the manor of Witcombe, who was an old lady so long
that her age became mythical. The interval between
the two stages never seems to count at all, and yet there
was a period of eighteen years, during which she sat at
her father's table in an atmosphere of perpetual dis-
approval, and became first thirty, and then forty years
of age. Endless years they must have seemed — and
dreadful years from every point of view one would
suppose. That they affected her nerves there are
curious scraps of evidence to prove. " Lady Cromie's
tongue goes as fast as if worked by steam" wrote
Caroline Hicks Beach after she had been staying at
Witcombe ; and young William, her son, who was to be
heir to the property, said, " Lady Cromie hasn't much
the matter with her except a stiff knee which the doctors
tell her requires rest — the only thing she seems
362 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
determined it should not have as she is fidgetting up and
down stairs and round and round the room perpetually."
Poor restless Ann ! She had a sort of outlet in religious
emotion, but perhaps that only made her the more tire-
some ! When her uncle Michael died at WiHiamstrip
in 1830, she wrote to her cousin Jane there saying that
she had a bilious attack, and recommending a book
called " Cecil's Visit to the House of Mourning " ! "I
am well aware my dear Jane (having been taught by
painful experience) that Religion is the only consolation
in affliction, and then when the mind can be brought to
dwell on the subject there is a comfort in reading books
of this sort which nothing else in this world can give."
Sir William died in 1834 when Ann was forty years
old, but Lady Hicks* lived five years longer. She had
been an invalid with gout for a long time, and many of
her letters are dictated and are in Lady Cromie's hand-
writing. For weeks and months at a time she was
shut up in her bedroom looking on to the garden and
the rather sprightly letters are about nothings. She tells
her sister-in-law that she has collected in her room all
the best china in the house, and all the things she brought
from the Vyne, and that she keeps there two Chinese
mice in a gilded cage tied up with pink ribbons and
hung round with little bags of scented flowers and herbs !
She was of easier temperament than Sir William, was
good natured, trivial and foolish, and was not able to
keep up a life-long anger with her daughter. There was
affection between them, and we can believe that Ann
was lonely enough when her mother died. But it was
the beginning of a healthier life for her. She was now
mistress of the Witcombe estate, was of ' consequence,'
and had independence and responsibility. Life was
only half over and its profoundest emotion was still
unfledged.
Of that emotion — her friendship for Francis Close,
* Me Chute.
THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 363
Rector of Cheltenham — it is impossible to speak without
a little gentle laughter.
When Francis Close came to Cheltenham in 1824, it
was as curate to the lately-built church of Holy Trinity.
He married in the following year, and in 1826 he was
made rector of Cheltenham. ' King in Jeshuran,' it is
said he shortly became, and it is a fact that, during the
thirty and odd years of his reign, he raised money for
the building of eight churches, a hospital and a training
college for elementary teachers, and was instrumental
in founding the boys' college of to-day as well. In fact,
he made the Cheltenham of to-day. He found it an
overgrown country village with a stream of noisy
fashion flowing through it, and he left it in his sixtieth
year, for the Deanery of Carlisle, a town of ordered
streets of peculiarly hard pavements, and with an
established population. He left it, moreover, a strong-
hold of Evangelicism. Gone for ever were the hey-ho
tables and the pea-and-thimble tables which used to
make the High Street such a diverting place at the
times of the races ! " We went to the Old Church
which was crowded to hear the Rev. Mr. Close preach
against horse racing and the playhouses," says Dolly
Dubbins in her Diary of the thirties.
" You must not to the races go,
At least your pastor tells you so,
Whose fraught with proper notions ;
And if you to the Playhouse get.
Old Nick will know it, for he'll set
One CLOSE to watch your motions."
Each generation has its popular preachers, and the
undying secret of their power is, in the vernacular of to-
day, the possession of a magnetic personality. It was
towards the man, Francis Close himself, that the
shrunken soul of Ann Cromie went forth, and so there
came to her in the desert of middle age, the gift of a
new initiative. All the circumstances combined to
make it a comfortable friendship for them both.
364 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Many volumes of "Close's Miscellaneous Sermons"
stand on Witcombe shelves ; they are much marked in
pencil, and the tenour of the scored paragraphs is the
same : —
Those whom God loves, and whom He is training for eternity are
chastened and afflicted most severely. The dearest objects of their
affection are torn from them, their earthly prospect is clouded and
darkened, one source of temporal enjoyment after another is taken
away, and sometimes the servant of God seems left alone in the
world, bereft of all that delighted his eyes and cheered his heart ;
like the solitary blasted oak of the wilderness, spoiled of its leaves,
with its branches torn off by the tempest.
The underlining of the last sentence is a whole revela-
tion — the revelation of a pose. With Ann's purely
personal views of all things human, it is impossible that
any blow of Fate could have obtained a permanent
importance, but the suggestion from the pulpit that the
blasted oak was for the preacher a more interesting
object than the healthy growing tree, was an insidious
temptation. The facts of her tragic story were undeni-
able, and they made perfectly legitimate a demand on
the sympathy of the busy divine.
He gave that sympathy freely. Witcombe became
eloquent of the fact that he was freely repaid — it is
impossible to keep a little sarcasm out of the laughter.
He came out to Witcombe not infrequently, and not
infrequently he drove away again along the lanes with
a cheque which brought some one of his many plans
for the welfare of Cheltenham nearer to its accomplish-
ment. He was a good man, and he prayed with the
lady of the manor in the panelled parlour at Witcombe
in all singleness of soul — but the single eye enabled
him to see Cheltenham only : it never occurred to him
that the panelling of the parlour was rotten, nor that the
timbers which upheld the roof above his head would,
with little provocation, fall on it ; it never occurred
to him to have any practical surmises about the
cottages and farms he passed on his road.
THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 365
And who can blame him if he supposed Lady Cromie
to be a richer woman than she was ? Part of her appeal
for him was, without doubt, her social position. She
belonged by birth to a class with whom — at the begin-
ning of his ministry, at all events, and because he girded
at its amusements — he was very unpopular. To be a
friend of her ladyship's was an asset for him, and perhaps
her ladyship was not unaware of it.
Yet the part of grande dame was, very likely, not
assumed consciously at all — it may have been simply
the outcome of strict adherence to the eighteenth-
century tradition. The twenty servants, the pale-blue
liveries, the over-abundance of food and drink, the
continuous giving out at the back door — it was all part
of a system which was rigidly adhered to decades after
other country houses had modified or revolutionised it
— it was adhered to long after conditions made it an
economic impossibility.
When Ann Cromie first came into her kingdom there
is witness that she had the usual emotions of the new
broom. There was a row of stone cottages close to the
church which were in very bad repair, and she pulled
them down and built for Witcombe a school and a
schoolhouse ; and then, as there was stone left, she
built, at the suggestion of her lawyer, a lodge at the
portal of the wood, at the Birdlip boundary of her
property. This was in 1845, and in that year her
heir, her younger cousin at Williamstrip, William
Hicks Beach, died unmarried. He had the power of
appointing a successor to his Witcombe prospects,
and had left directions that they were to devolve on
his younger nephew, his brother Sir Michael's second
son, who was another William Hicks Beach, and, at
this time, a child of three years of age.
This change of heirs, in which she had had no choice,
made the future of Witcombe somewhat of an abstrac-
tion to its female tenant for life ; and it is perhaps hardly
a matter for declamation that, from this time onwards,
366 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
she allowed her interest in the development of religious
Cheltenham and the claims of an adopted family to
outweigh her practical responsibilities towards the land
from which she drew her income. Her sentimental
responsibilities were never neglected — up to the last
she was wheeled in her chair into the low-raftered
kitchen to superintend the gifts of beef to the cottage
tenants at Christmas time, and all the year round an
ever-flowing stream of milk puddings and soup linked
the big house to the village. But as the nineteenth
century went on, and, together with Ann Cromie's own
life, drew towards its close, the battle with deterioration,
which has to go on persistently if deterioration is not
to gain foothold, was given up altogether.
In her ninetieth year Lady Cromie was awaked one
day from the doze of old age by the entrance of her
heir into the panelled parlour, and she startled him
with a decisive utterance : " William, you must see
that the road is in good order, for Sir Michael will
want to bring his coach down it next week to Quarter
Sessions." This is proof that the dozing dreams of his
many-times descended granddaughter were not haunted
by (the angry ghost of Sir Michael of 1700, who had
made the wood road, and who might have had his
spookish denuniciations for the person who had allowed
the main artery of the property to become a mere
timber track. Yet she had no feminine horror of
mortgages.
An adopted family has been alluded to only, and it
is not possible to tell the story with detail to make
it interesting, because of those still living whom it affects
nearly. Ann burdened the little estate with extraneous
lives, but it was a reparation — and the only possible
reparation — she could make for her own disastrous
obstinacy and ill-judgment.
Ann's elopement, it will be remembered, did not
take place until she was twenty-two years old, and
she must have reigned as an heiress of the Cheltenham
THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 367
season for several years before that, and Mr. Cromie
was, of course, not the only aspirant to her hand and
fortune. There had been a Colonel Donovan, a
Welshman, who had served in the Peninsula, and who
was afterwards at Waterloo — he eventually married a
Miss Treherne, of a Glamorganshire family, and his
wife died and left him with a young daughter, for
whom Lady Cromie seems to have had a real affection,
and the girl stayed at Witcombe for long periods. She
grew up quickly, as girls will, and then there appeared
the inevitable lover. The father disapproved of him
entirely, and with all the good reasons in the world,
beyond that he was, by birth, a gentleman ; but Ann
Cromie, with her strong streak of inherited self-will,
and her innate lack of worldly knowledge, saw fit to
foster the affair, and the part she played put an end
once for all to the half-romantic friendship between
herself and Colonel Donovan. The marriage took
place, Colonel Donovan was entirely justified in all
his objections, and, in 1852, the poor wife, with two
fair-haired little daughters, came back to Witcombe
and lived there until she died.
As life went on this heroism of Ann's became — as
all acts of the will do become — its own justification.
The girls grew to tall and slender womanhood in the
house in the valley, and a perennial interest in their
good looks, their ball dresses, and eventually, of course,
their lovers, helped to keep for Ann a living heart behind
the mask of a formality which grew to be impenetrable,
and, because of that, to be awe-inspiring. Her grimness
became a legend — was an aura, which had its radius
far beyond the circle of her beechwoods. Witcombe
women, themselves now in old age, still recall with
bated breath the ordeal of Christmas morning, when,
ranged before her ladyship in the servants' hall, all the
village boys and girls had to produce for her criticism
the stockings they had knitted. The ceremony was
very likely two centuries old. The wool came from
368 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
Witcombe sheep, was spun by the very old women
who were pensioners, and was then given out to the
youngsters who had to render their account. Holland
enough for a smock was each boy's reward, and the
girls got a straw bonnet with a plain riband ; and Ann's
redoubtable grandmother, Martha Hicks herself, could
could not have exacted profounder obeisances.
The placing of persons in their proper places and the
keeping of them there, which came to be, perhaps, the
most conspicuous talent of Ann's middle age, tended
at last, as talents will, to petrify, and the petrifaction
had sometimes its grotesque features. A guest of the
occasion has a recollection of a dinner at Witcombe
when her ladyship missed a dish of stewed kidneys she
had ordered, and which the cook, it would seem, had
thought superfluous. " Tell the cook I mean to have
the kidneys, and we will wait till they come," was her
order to the butler. And wait the company did, and
a very long time too 1 A later episode was related by
herself to her heir. Dean Close of Carlisle was dead,
but a clergyman, who had been his curate when he was
in Cheltenham, had come there in charge of one of the
new churches. This gentleman remembered the friend-
ship, profitable and pleasant to both, which had existed
between his old rector and the lady of Witcombe, and
in a hired Cheltenham cab he set forth on his adventure.
It was afternoon, and Ann was established on the sofa
by the round table in the panelled parlour. " And
before I could make out who he was or where he
came from, he knelt down by the table and began
to say a prayer," she related in high indignation.
" I never before suffered such impertinence. I rang
the bell at once and said, ' Kindly shew this gentleman
out.' "
That panelled parlour, with the battered family
portraits crowded together on its pink painted walls,
with the afternoon sun pouring in through the drawn
white blinds, with the shining round table and its circle
THE LAST HICKS OF WITCOMBE. 369
of books and the tight posy in the centre — that was the
prison-house where, for the last twenty years of life,
Ann Cromie made her soul : for the last ten years she
never left it except to be carried to her bedroom.
" I am sure I don't know what all this coming and
going means," the high, fatigued voice behind the mask
used to say ; and coldly and shrilly, in response to
patient explanation, "No; I don't understand it at all."
Behind the mask the mind was still alive, able to realise
the existence of new and compelling conditions : and
the will was still alive too, prompt to reject them if
possible. " It was always so in my poor grandfather's
time," was the steadfast answer to any revolutionary
proposition — and how far that took all things back, for
Sir Howe had probably said the same ! It is quite likely
that Witcombe was the very last house in England
where a pewter service was used in the servants' hall,
and where the servants had beer for breakfast. And it
is almost impossible to realise that, as late as 1885,
there was an audit dinner-party which differed in no
particular from a dinner-party of Georgian days, with
a whole salmon in its dish on the table, with a joint
and boiled chickens to follow at either end, and six
side dishes beneath their silver covers. The rector,*
the family lawyer, the doctor and, in the last years, the
heir were the invariable guests at this biennial festivity,
and all that made it seem an anachronism was their
accumulating consciousness that it was so. Every year
the fat coachman, who came in to help when there was
a party, grew stouter ; every year the buttons in a row
down his livery seemed larger ; every time the running
rattle with which they twanked against the edge of the
door when he inserted himself into the room, seemed
louder. And then the twanking rattle played its part
as a nineteenth-century joke for the last time, for Ann
Cromie lay dying at last.
* Ann's cousin, Charles Pettat, was rector of Witcombe from 1889
to 1845. He married his cousin, Caroline Browne of Salperton.
C.F. B B
370 A COTS WOLD FAMILY.
In the small bedroom over the servants' hall, in the
narrow tent bed which she had used since childhood,
she lay. From out her furrowed face her ninety years
looked forth, with all their still-born passions, with their
thin pleasures, with their patience of unfulfilment.
" The Kingdom and the Power and the Glory "
She heard the words, for she stirred faintly ; but those
watching knew that she had heard them only as a
trumpet blast upon another shore.
CHAPTER XXI.
WITCOMBE TO-DAY.
Of the Witcombe of to-day all that can be said must
be said tentatively — said with a hesitation none the less
profound because of spiritual certainties.
In the year 1855 the city of Gloucester, six miles off,
needed a reservoir, and an Act of Parliament was passed
compelling Lady Cromie to sell land for the purpose.
Her trustees used the money to add to the property,
and bought Cranham Wood, while William Hicks
Beach's trustees bought land too ; so, when he inherited
the Witcombe estate at last, it was considerably larger
than it had been in Sir William Hicks' lifetime. But
the house itself was no longer habitable. After Lady
Cromie's death an architect was called in and his advice,
if drastic, was inevitable. The whole of the timber and
plaster frontage was pulled down and the older, stone
servants' quarters were left standing and were let as a
farmhouse.
In the year 1891 it became a matter of immediate
expediency to provide a house for the estate and,
because of so much that was ready to hand, because
of stables, greenhouses, garden walls, the old garden
house and the servants' quarters of 1600 still intact, the
owner of Witcombe raised, on the site of the old front-
age, four walls and a roof to close them in. Between
the walls, beneath the red roof, are partitioned spaces
wider and loftier than the parlours of the old house,
and at the back of the rooms which face the sunny
garden and the towering woods, runs a long hall, where,
372 A COTSWOLD FAMILY.
between Juliana Hicks' tapestry from St. Peter's Hill,
the grandchildren of the twentieth century — those
keepers of unknown redemptions — may play battledore
and shuttlecock. Into this hall is the entrance to the
provisional house — and the adjective is used defiantly ;
with the consciousness that the expediency, the com-
fort, the decency of to-day, will be the least important
things of to-morrow.
O ghosts of the Valley Manor, have done with your
hampering task ! You filled the hold of the Ship of
Destiny with ballast, and that was well for its day and
in its hour, but " the fear that the Ship may pitch or
roll on leaving the roadstead is no reason for increasing
the weight of the ballast by stowing the fair white sails
in the depths of the hold. They are not woven to
moulder side by side with cobble stones in the dark.
Ballast exists everywhere : the pebbles of the harbour
and the sand on the shore will serve for it. But sails
are rare and precious things : their place is not in the
murk of the well, but' amid the light of the tall masts,
where they will collect the winds of space."
INDEX
Abbott, John, lawsuit of, against
Sir M. Hicks, 235
Adlam, Joan, marries William Beach,
296
Ap Adam, Thomas, 212
Axmine, Sir William, marries daugh-
ter of Sir M. Hicks, 196
Arthur, Juliana, marries Eobert
Hickes of Cheapside, 57, 58
Atkyns, Sir Eobert, County Families
in History of Gloucestershire by,
7, 8, 9
Awpas, John, mention of, in Nomina
Villarum, compiled by John Smyth,
46
Bacon, Anne, 158
Bacon, Francis, appointed Solicitor-
General, 156; career of, 150-9;
character depicted by Dean Church,
148-9 ; essay of, on Marriage and
Single Life, 158 ; friendship for
Michael Hicks, 143 ; letters to
Michael Hicks, 151-7, 158-9;
marriage of, 157-8 ; on men in
great place, 141-2 ; part played
by in prosecution of Essex, 151-2 ;
relationship to Eobert Cecil, 149
Bacon, Sir Nathaniel, 178-80
Bacon, Nicholas, 149
Baddeley, St. Clair, 358
Baker, Mrs. Lowbridge, 344
Baptist's Head, The, in Clerkenwell,
97
Barkers of Fairford, the, 8
Barneby, Mrs., of Long worth, 344 _
Barnham, Alice, marries Francis
Bacon, 157-8
Bartylmew, Thomas, Eobert Hickes
of Cheapside apprenticed to, 55
Bathursts of Cirencester, the, 8
Beach, Anne, marries Eev. William
Wainhouse, 298-9
Beach, Henrietta Maria, 281-343;
correspondence of, with Hicks
Beach family, 314-6, 338-40, 342-
3; with Sydney Smith, 302-14,
324-32, 334-5 ; death of, 343 ;
fortune of, 294; marries Michael
Hicks, 283
Beach, Jane, 296
Beach, John, 296
Beach, Mary Jane, 336
Beach, Thomas, 296
Beach, William, son of Thomas
Beach, 296
Beach, William Hicks, 298; dis-
cards name of Hicks, 301, 335
Beach, William Wither Bramston,
336
Beaumont, Nicholas, 107
Beaumont, Thomas, letter of Michael
Hicks to, 165-6
Beche, Christopher, 295
Beche, Nicholas, 295
Beche, Eobert, 294
Beecher, William, letter of, to
Michael Hicks, 127-8
Beeston, Sir Hugh, letters of Michael
Hicks to, 139-41, 166
Benet, Sir John, 191
Bennett, Sir John, 156
Berkeley, Lord, Beverstone Castle
reconstructed by, 212
Berkelevs of Berkeley Castle, the, 8
Bermudas, The, 86
Beverstone Castle, 187, 211-4
Beverstone Manor, 187
Black Death, the, 19, 20
Blathwayts of Dyrham, the, 9
Bodley, Sir Thomas, 156
Bond, Sir William, 95
Boston, Lord, 275
Booth, Sir George, 218-9
Bouchier, Margaret, 280
Boveys (now Crawley-Boevey) of
Flaxley Abbey, the, 9
»
374
INDEX.
Bowland, Mrs., letter of Michael
Hicks to, 163-4
Bramston, Edmund, 286, 298
Bramston, Wither, 286, 298
Bright, Dr., 125
Bristow, Barrington, marries Sir
John Baptist Hicks, 263-4
Browne, Caroline, marries Charles
Pettat, 369
Browne, Jane Henrietta, marries
William Hicks Beaoh, 335
Browne, Bev. John, 265
Browne, Martha, marries Sir Howe
Hicks, 266-9
Browne, Sir Mathew, duel of, with
Sir John Townshend, 178
Burghley, Lord, 71-122 ; biographies
of, 102 ; character, 102 ; death of
121-2; Hicks family letters pre
served among letters of, 64
Michael Hicks, secretary to, 74
first and second marriages of, 74
policy of, 104
Burghley, Thomas, Earl of, 133
Campden', town of, benefactions of
Baptist Hicks to, 97-8
Campden, Viscount, 83-101. See
Hicks, Baptist.
Capell, Lord, 217
Carleton, Dudley, letter to Sir John
Chamberlain, 157
Castleman, Jonathan, marries
Susannah Hicks, 240; letters to
Howe Hicks, 244-6, 251-4
Castleman, Susannah. See Hicks,
Susannah.
Cave, Sir Ambrose, 206
Cavendish, Mary, marries Earl of
Shrewsbury, 182
Cecil, Elizabeth, 132
Cecil, Henry, 77
Cecil, Bobert, Earl of Salisbury, 118-
142 ; account of affairs in Prance
by, 130-1 ; bribes accepted by. 115 ;
correspondence of, with Sir James
Harrington, 128-9, with Michael
Hicks, 78, 84, 119, 120, 131-3, 137-
8, 177, with Juliana Penn, 75-6
death and character of, 141-2
described by Francis Bacon, 129
grants by, to Michael Hicks,
135-6 ; peace with Spain nego-
tiated by, 85
Cecil, Thomas, becomes Earl of
Exeter, 74
Chamberlain, Sir John, correspon-
dence with Sir Dudley Carleton,
157, 205
Chamberlayne, Sir John, 197
Chamberlayne, Sir Thomas, 197
Chamberlaynes of Maugersbury,
the, 8
Cheapside, description of, in six-
teenth century, 50, 51
Cheke, John, 74
Cheke, Mar y, marries Lord Burghley,
74
Cheke, Sir Thomas, 204
Chester, Charles, 75
Chester, Doroinick, 75
Chester, Henry, 75
Chester, Thomas, 75
Chesters of Almondsbury, the (now
Chester Master), 9
Chigwell, 258
Chiswell, Bichard, sells Burghley
papers to John Strype, 64
Church, Dean, on Prancis Bacon,
148-9
Churchyard, Thomas, 72
Chute, Ann Bachel, marries William
Hicks, 286
Chute, Chaloner, Speaker of
House of Commons, 1569. ..349
Chute, Chaloner W., "History of
the Vyne," by, 348
Chute, Elizabeth, 350
Chute, John, 349-50
Chute, Mary, 286, 298
Chute, Thomas Lobb, 350
Chute, Thomas Vere, 355
Chute, William, 355
Cleveland, Caroline Chichester,
marries W. W. B. Beach, 336
Cliffords of the Grange, Gloucester-
shire, 8
Close, Prancis, Bector of Chelten-
ham, 362-4
Cloth trade in Gloucestershire, 36-7
Clutterbuck, Elizabeth, 39 ; marries
Thomas Hicks, 47
Cobberley Manor, 240
Codringtons of Dodington, the, 9
Coke, Attorney-General, 150
INDEX.
375
Colchesters of Westbury (now Col-
ohester-Wemyss), the, 9
Coin St. Aldwyn Manor, 267
Colston, Elizabeth, marries Henry
Parvish, 171
Colston, Gabriel, father-in-law of
Michael Hicks, 170
Colston, Robert, of Corby, 170-1
" Complaint of Piers Ploughman,''
20
Compton, Lord William, 171
Coningsbv, Sir H., marries daughter
of Sir W. Hicks, 222
Cooke, Sir Anthony, 74
Cooke, Mildred, second wife of Lord
Burghley, 74
Cooke, Sir William, 187
Cooper, Lady, 101
Cope, Sir Walter, 96, 141 ; builds
Holland House, 185-6
Copyhold, technical definition of, 33
Corsham, 140
Cotton, Sir Robert, letter to, from
Baptist Hicks, 84
Cranborne, Lord, 186
Crane, Anne, 196
Crawshaw, Lady, 344
Crewe, Marget, second wife of Mor-
gan Hixe, 46
Crewe, William, mention of, in
Nomina Villarum, 46
Cromhall Church, Hicks monuments
in, 48, 49
Cromhall Court House, 34 ; descrip-
tion of, 42-4
Cromhall Manor, mentioned in
Domesday Book, 30 ; grant of, to
Thomas Hicks, 35
Cromie, Lady, friendship with
Francis Close, 361-2 ; life at Wit-
combe, 365-70
Cromie, Michael, 353
Cromie, Sir William Lambart, elope-
ment of Ann Hicks with, 353-4 ;
death of, 356
Cromwell, Thomas, 29
Curnocke, John, 46
De Gouhnay, Anselm, 211
De Gournay, John, 212
De Gournay, Robert, 211
De la Beche, history of family of,
294
De la Beche, Nicholas, 294
De la Beche, Philip, 295
De la Beche, Roger, 295
De la Beche, Thomas, 295
Delahay, John, legacy of Lady Hicks
to, 200 ; marries Ellen Parvish,
194
De Vere, Earl, 204
De Weare, Maurice, 211
De Weare, Robert, 211
Dightons of Clifford, the, 9
Domesday Book, names of owners of
manors recorded in, 25
Donee, Francis, catalogues Lans-
downe MSS., 114-5
Donegall, Lady, 221, 223, 227-8
Donegall, Lord, 221, 223
Donovan, Colonel, 357
Drake, Francis, 72-3
Dryden, Sir John, 194
Ducie, Lord, 49
Dutton, Sir Ralph, 229
Duttons of Sherborne, the, 8
Dyer, John, marries Elizabeth
Llewelin, 49
Dyer, John, sells Cromhall property
to Lord Ducie, 49
Dyer, Samuel, of Paignton, 39
Dyrham, Huiccian victory at, 12, 13
Earle, Giles, 280
Earle, Susannah, 271, 280-1
Earle, William, 238, 280
Earle, William, letters to Michael
Hicks Beach, 303-5, 337-8
Eastcourt House, 280
Eastington, cloth mills belonging to
Hicks family at, 39
Eliot, George, extracts from writings
of, applicable to lives of the Hicks,
22
Eliot, Sir John, 207
Elizabeth, Queen, 71, 73 ; character,
137; displeasure of, with Lord
Burghley, 104 ; distich on Sir
Andrew Noel, 180; visit of, to
Ruckholt Manor House, 175-6
Erondelle, P., 196
Essex, Earl of, 150-1
Estcourts of Shipton, the, 8
Evelyn, Sir John, 186
Evelyn, John, diary of, 219-20
Everard Samuel Beaumont, 224
376
INDEX
Everard, Susannah, marries Sir
Michael Hicks, 224
Ferrers, Earl, 273
Eittleton Manor, 296
Eitzharding, Maurice, 211
Fitzharding, Robert, 211
Fitzwylliams, Sir William, 113
Eorster, Sir Thomas, house of, in
Olerkenwell, 97
Fortescue, Sir John, 93
Foxe, Michael, father-in-law of
Michael Hicks, 170
Eranklyn, Sir W., 227
Freemans of Batsford, the, 9
Frobisher, Martin, 75
Fuller, Mrs., of Neston Park, 344
Fusts of Hill (now Jenner-Fust), the,
9
GAiNSBOROTjaH, titles of Campden
and Noel merged in that of, 181
Garnet, Jesuit Father, Sir Baptist
Hicks' part in trial of, 87
Gaule, Bev. John, writes commemo-
ration of his patron, Viscount
Campden, 100
Gewissas, the, or Hwiccas, Saxon
ancestors of Hicks family, 12
Gifford, Mary, marries William
Beach, 296
Gloucestershire, architectural cha-
racter of buildings in the Middle
Ages, 26-7 ; wide diffusion of
name of Hicks in, 19 ; names of
lords of manors recorded in
Domesday Book, 26 ; old county
families of, 8, 9
Green, J. B., historian, on Battle of
Crecy, 2 ; on England at the be-
ginning of the Wars of the Boses,
24 ; on exactions of Charles I.,
207-8
Greville, Fulke, character of, praised
by Francis Bacon, 144 ; favourite
of Queen Elizabeth, 144 ; hostility
of Bobert Cecil towards, 145
letter of Francis Bacon to, 151
letters to Michael Hicks, 145-8
peerage conferred upon, 145
Harding, James, 296
Harding, Jane, marries Thomas
Beach, 296
Hard wick, Mr., letter of Juliana
Penn to, 68
Harleian MSS., Sir William Hicks of
Beverston, 1st baronet, records
pedigree in, 7
Hatfield House, 186
Hatton, Lady, 157
Hayes, Sir Thomas, indebtedness of
James I. to, 86
Hayman, Sir William, marries into
Colston family, 170
Haynea, Major H., 218
Herbert, Dr., 85
Hicckes, Bobert of the Hundred of
Berkeley, 24
Hicke, Arthur, 101
Hicke, Baptist, 101
Hicke, Elizabeth, 101
Hicke, Julian, 101
Hicke, Marie, 101
Hickes, Adrian, 52
Hickes, Alice, 19
Hickes, Baptist, son of Bobert
Hickes, of Cheapside, 52
Hickes, Baptist, grandson of Bobert
Hickes, of Cheapside, 56
Hickes, Christopher, 54
Hickes, Clement, 52, 59
Hickes, John, of Asshton, 19
Hickes, John, of Guytyngs Poer, 19
Hickes, John, of Little WTayticombe,
19
Hickes, John, of Tettebury, 19
Hickes, Margaret, 52 ; will of, 57
Hickes, Michael, 52
Hickes, Nicholas, 16, 19
Hickes, Bichard, 45-6, 52, 54
Hickes, Bobert, of Aston Super
Carent, 19
Hickes, Bobert, of Kynmaresforde,
19
Hickes, Boger, juror in the inquisi-
tion before the Abbot of Wynche-
cumbe, in 1341. ..19
Hickes, William, Mayor of Bristol in
1587. ..57
Hicks, the, of Gloucestershire,
various spellings of name in records
and registers, 10 ; derivation of
name, 11
Hicks, Alice, marries William
White, 238
Hicks, Alice, daughter of Sir Howe
Hioks, 272, 277
INDEX.
377
Hicks, Ann, daughter of Sir Howe
Hicks, 272 ; marries James King,
of Stanton, 277
Hicks, Anne, daughter of Sir Harry-
Hicks, 3rd baronet, 256
Hicks, Ann Bachel. See Cromie,
Lady
Hicks, Austin, of ABhleworth,
present representative of East-
rngton branch of Hicks family, 39
Hicks, Sir Baptist, Baron Ilmington
and Viscount Campden of Camp-
den, 83-101 ; benefactions of, 96-8 ;
grant of arms to, 7 ; letters of, 84,
86-91 ; manors and property pur-
chased by, 95-6; marriage of,
91-2; offices held by, 94-5;
petition of, to Privy Council, 92-3 ;
share of, in purchase of Bermuda
Islands, 86 ; tomb and inscription
in memory of, 98-9
Hicks, Charles, 256
Hicks, Clement, 79-81 ; will of, 81
Hicks, Edith, 30
Hicks, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
Michael Hicks, 195
Hicks, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
William Hicks, 1st baronet, 221
Hicks, Dame Elizabeth, 194; suit of,
against Sir John Chamberlayne,
197-8 ; will of, 200, 201
Hicks, Ellen, 81-2
Hicks, Sir Ellis, St., portrait of,
at Witcombe Park, 1, 233 ; fightB
under Black Prince at Crecy, 1, 3
Hicks, Esther, marries Ambrose
Marklove, 47
Hicks, Genevieve, 263
Hicks, Sir Harry, 3rd baronet, 222 ;
marriage, 256 ; wills of, 259
Hicks, Henrietta Howe, 272
Hicks, Howe, son of Sir Michael
Hicks, Kt., 239; marries Mary
Watts, 240 ; household accounts of,
241, 242 ; correspondence with J.
Castleman, 243-55
Hicks, Sir Howe, 6th baronet, son of
H. Hicks, 256, 265-9; Chancery
lawsuit, 270-1, 272-93
Hicks, John, 48
Hicks, Sir John Baptist, 5th baronet,
256, 263, 288
Hicks, John Phillimore, diary of,
40, 41, 42
Hicks, Juliana, 62, 65-6 ; corre-
spondence, 69-78 ; will of, 79
Hicks, Juliana, daughter of Charles
Hicks, 263
Hicks, Lady, wife of Sir William
Hicks, 7th baronet, 362
Hicks, Letitia, daughter of Sir W.
Hicks. See Donegall, Lady.
Hicks, Letitia, daughter of Sir M.
Hicks, Kt., 225
Hicks, Margaret, wife of Sir W.
Hicks, 1st baronet, burial of, in
Westminster Abbey, 206, 218
Hicks, Martha, wife of Sir Howe
Hicks, 6th baronet, 267-70, 288-9,
290-3
Hicks, Martha, daughter of Sir
Harry Hicks, 3rd baronet, 256
Hicks, Martha, daughter of Sir Howe
Hicks, 6th baronet, 272 ; marries
Rev. John Pettat, 276-7
Hicks, Mary, last of the Hicks of
Cromhall Court House ; death in
1783...48
Hicks, Mary, will of, proved in
Bristol Diocesan Registry, 1631...
57
Hicks, Mary, daughter of Sir Howe
Hicks, 242, 272, 276
Hicks, Sir Michael, Kt., 222-3;
marries Susannah Everard, 224;
children of, 225-6 ; legacy from
Lady Donegall, 228 ; lawsuit with
John Abbott, 235-6 ; monument
to, in Witcombe Church, 238
Hicks, Sir Michael, Kt., secretary to
Lord Burghley, 74-8, 86-7, 102-6,
115, 167 ; correspondence of, with
Francis Bacon, 151-7, with
Lord Burghley, 107-14, 177-8,
with Lord Salisbury, 126, with
Sir John Stanhope, 175-6, with
Lady Willoughby, 161-3, with
Mrs. Woodcocke, 167-70 ; marries
Elizabeth Parvis, 170, Queen
Elizabeth entertained at Buckholt,
175-6; schedule of property of,
186-8 ; epitaph in Leyton Church,
188-9
Hicks, Morgan, will of, 1565... 30
Hicks, Nicholas, rector of Charfield,
49
Hicks, Eichard, will of, 1558. ..29,
30
378
INDEX.
Hicks, Robert, of Cheapside, of kin
to Hicks of Gloucestershire, 10 ;
lays foundations of family fortunes,
2 ; will of, 52-63
Hicks, Sir Robert, 4th baronet, 256 ;
correspondence with Michael
Hicks, 260-2
Hicks, Sarah, 225, 237
Hicks, Sibilla, 22,23
Hicks, Susannah, 242, 272, 276
Hicks, Thomas, of Cromhall Court
House, 30, 32
Hicks, Thomas, mentioned in
Diocesan Records, 47
Hicks, Sir William, 7th baronet, son
of Sir Howe Hicks, 272, 277, 279,
280, 284 ; marries firstly, Judith
Whitcomb, and secondly Ann
Rachel Chute, 286 ; account of,
345-6 ; provisions of will as re-
garded his daughter, 357 ; super,
vises excavation of Roman villa
at Witcombe, 357-9 ; legacy to
William Hicks Beach, 360; death
of, 362
Hicks, Sir William, 1st baronet, part
played by in Civil War, 215-6 ;
imprisonment and confiscation of
estates of, 217 ; life in Essex,
201-3 ; marriage to daughter of
Lord Paget, 205-6 ; Parliament
fines, 210-11; pedigree recorded
at Visitation of Gloucester in
1623. ..7 ; political indecision of,
208
Hicks, Sir William, 2nd baronet,
221 ; marries Marthagnes Con-
ingsby, 222
Hicks Beach, Ann, 316
Hicks Beach, Caroline, 361
Hicks Beach, Lady, 343
Hicks Beach, Henrietta Maria, letters
to Mr. Hicks Beach, 314-6, 338-
40 ; letters of Sidney Smith to,
325-35 ; letter to, from Michael
Hicks Beach, 342-3
Hicks Beach, Jane, marries Edward
St. John, 316
Hicks Beach, Michael, son 'of Sir
Howe Hicks, 272, 277, 280 ; marries
Henrietta Maria Hicks Beach,
283 ; letter of William Earle
to, 303-5 ; sits in Parliament,
302-3
Hicks Beach, Michael, grandson of
Sir Howe Hicks, 316 ; education
of, 318-25 ; marriage of, 338, 340
Hicks Beach, Sir Michael. 8th baronet,
342 ; letter to Henrietta Maria
Hicks Beach, 342-3; marriage, 343 ;
inherits Williamstrip Park and
Beverstone Castle in Gloucester-
shire, and Netheravon House, and
Eittleton Manor in Wiltshire, 343 ;
successfully contests East Glouces-
tershire in 18 54... 343
Hicks Beach, William Frederick, 344
Hicks Hall, account of, in " Middle-
sex County Records," 97
Hickus, Agnes, 21
Hickus, Avice, 22
Hickus, Christine, 21
Hickus, Emma, 21
Hickus, John, 21
Hickus, John, of Clopton, 22
Hickus, Margery, 21
Hickus, Philip, 21
Hickus, Robert, 21
Hickus, Sibilla, 21
Hickus Thomas, 22
Hickus, Walter, 21
Hikkes, — , juror in the inquisition
before the Abbot of Wynchecumbe,
1341. ..19
Hikkes, Robert, 19
" Historical Account of the Family
of Hicks," by Rev. J. Strype, 65
Hixe, Arthur, 46
Hixe, Morgan, will of, 46
Hixe, Thomas, mention of, in
Nomina Villarum compiled by
John Smyth, 46
Holfords of Westonbirt, the, 9
Holland, Mr. Edward, defeated by
Sir M. Hicks Beach in contest for
East Gloucestershire, 343
Holland, Lady, 325
Holies, Denzil, 208
Holmes, Elizabeth, marries Sir
Harry Hicks, 256
Holmes, Admiral Sir John, 256
Howard, Lady Catharine, marries
Lord Cranborne, 186
Howe, Lady, 227
Howe, Sir Richard, 224, 227
Hume, Major Martin, author of
' ' Life of the Great Lord Burghley,"
102
INDEX.
379
Hundred Tears War, the, effects of,
on social and economic life in
England, 20, 21
Hwiccas, or Gewissas (Saxon tribe
in_ Gloucestershire), ancestors of
Hicks family, 11, 12
Hyocke, Cecilia, 21
Hyccke, Richard, 21
Hyetts of Hunt Court, 266
Hykes, Walter, 19
Hykkys, Simon, 25
Jenkinsons of Hawksley, the, 9
Johnson, Barbara, marries Sir Harry
Hicks, 3rd baronet, 256
Keevil Manor, 281-96
Kennedy, Mr., "History of Ley ton"
by, 171-2
Kildare, Earl of, letter to, from
Juliana Penn, 69, 70
King, James, marries Ann Hicks, 277
Kingscotes of Kingscote, the, 8
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, picture of Lady
Longford by, 233
Knollys, Sir Francis, son-in-law of
Mary Boleyn, the sister of A™
Boleyn, 206
Knollys, Lettice, 206
Lansdownb MSS. in British
Museum include many Hicks
family letters, 64
Latimer, Bishop, 26
Lawrence, Mrs., 46
Leighs of Adlestrop, the, 8
Lely, Sir Peter, picture of Lady
Donegall by, 233
Limminge, Robert, architect, Hat-
field House constructed by, 134
" Lives of the Berkeleys, The," valu-
able genealogical details afforded
by, 34
Llewelin, Elizabeth, of Bridgend, 49
Llewelyn, Lady Dillwyn, 344
Longford, Countess of, 13, 14, 227
Lowe, Mrs., 183
Lowe, Thomas, Alderman, 184-5
Lowe, Sir Thomas, 156
Lowfield, Mr., marries Alice Hicks,
277
Lucas, Sir Charles, 215-6
Luddingten, Elizabeth, 197
Luter, Henry, second husband of
Anne Parvish, 193
Lychefeld, Thomas, letter to Lady
Gerrard, 78-9
Lysons, Samuel, antiquarian, super-
vises excavation of Roman villa
at Witcombe, 358
Malory, John, 171
Malory, Katherine, 171
Manor, system of tenure under a,
33
Marklove, Ambrose, marries Esther
Hicks, 47
Marklove, John, 47
Marklove, Thomas, 47
Massie, Colonel, attacks Beverston
Castle, 213
Mathew, Frances, epitaph in York
Minster, 116
Mathew, Dr. Tobias, 115-8; becomes
Archbishop of York, 121
May, Elizabeth, marries Sir Baptist
Hicks, 92
May, Sir Humphrey, 92
Maynard, Henry, letters of, to
Michael Hicks, 174-5, 184
Mildmay, Sir Henry, 204
Montaigne, George, Dean of West-
minster, 185
Morison, Sir Charles, 99; letters to
Michael Hicks, 123-4 ; marries
Mary Hicks, 181
Morison, Lady, 99
Mortons of Tortworth, the, 9
Mottoes connected with arms of
Hicks family, 7
Mount, Caroline Jane, marries
Michael Hicks Beach, 338 ; widow-
hood of, 341-2
Nabes, Dr., author of " Life of Lord
Burghley," 102
Netheravon House, 282
Noel, Sir Andrew, 180-1
Noel, Sir Edward, marries Juliana
Hicks, 180
Noels of Campden, the, 9
Norman survey, the, objects of,
treated by Mr. Hone in his "Manor
and Manorial Records," 31
380
INDEX.
Norton Court, 266
No well, Dean, letter to Michael
Hicks, 115
Oglethorpe, Colonel, 211, 213
Ormond, James, Marquess of, 227
O'Rowghane, Denis, employed as a
spy by Lord Deputy of Ireland,
113-4
Oxford, Earl of, letter of Juliana
Penn to, 71
Oxford, Lady, daughter of Lord
Burghley, 74
Oxford, Lady, wife of 5th earl,
friendship of, with Lord Byron,
289
Packington-, Sir John, 157
Paget, Margaret, marries Sir William
Hicks, 206
Paget, Thomas, Lord, 206
Paget, William, Lord, 205-6
Parvish, Anne, 191, 194
Parvish, Elizabeth, marries Michael
Hicks, 170. See alio Hicks,
Elizabeth.
Parvish, Ellen, 191, 194
Parvish, Gabriel, 191
Parvish, Henry, tomb of, in Leyton
Church, 190-1
Parvish, Henry, 192-3
Parvish, Mary, 191, 194
Parvish, Thomas, 191-2
Penn, Anthony, marries widow of
Robert Hicks, of Oheapside, 62 ;
letter to Michael Hicks, 105 ;
will of, 67
Penn, Juliana. See Hicks, Juliana.
Pepys, Samuel, visits Sir W. Hicks,
220
Perrot, Sir John, 113-4
Pettat, Charles, 369
Pettat, John, 276-7
Pettat, Martha Susannah, 277
Pettat, Susan, 292
Pettat, Thomas, 277
Playfair, William, account of Hicks
family in " British Family Anti-
quity " of, 4, 5
Pontz, Norman, ancestor of Clifford
family, 8
Portal, Sir Wyndham Spencer,
baronet, 336
Pratt, Charles, marries Elizabeth,
daughter of Henry Parvish, 193
Pym, John, political genius of, 209,
210
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 159, 160
Beade, Thomas, letter to Juliana
Penn, 72
Bich, Lady Frances, 206
Bidlington, Baron, son-in-law of Sir
Baptist Hicks, 95
Rogers of Dowdeswell (now Coxwell-
Rogers), the, 9
Buckholt Manor, history of, 257-8
Ruckholt Manor House, home of
Hicks family until 1720.. . 171-3 ;
visited by James I., 178
Rushouts of Upper Swell, the, 9
St. Aldwyn, Viscount, 344
St. John, Edward, marries Jane
Hicks Beach, 316
Salisbury, Lady, reference to, in
diary of John Phillimore Hicks,
41
Salisbury, Robert, Earl of, son of
Lord Burghley, ancestor of present
Salisbury family, 74
Salperton Park, 266
Sandys, Lord, 349
Saxon Chronicle, the, shows settle-
ment of Saxon ancestors of Hicks
family in Gloucestershire, 12
Sevill, Mr. Samuel, 38
Sharpe, William, 6
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 159, 181-3
Shrewsbury, Lady, 141 ; letter to
Michael Hicks, 138-9 ; visits
Ruckholt Manor, 181 ; letters to
Hicks family, 182
Sidney, Philip, friendship with Eulke
Greville, 144
Smith, Sydney, 301-2; correspon-
dence with Hicks Beach family,
305-35
Smyth, John, author of "Lives of
the Berkeleys," 34
Somerset family, descent from John
of Gaunt, 8
INDEX.
381
Sprynt, John, cousin of Michael
Hicks, 164
Stanhope, Sir John, letter of Michael
Hicks to, 175-6
Stevenson, E. L., 3
Stiffkey Manor, description of, 178-9
Stratton, Miss, marries Michael
Hicks Beach, 342-3
Strype, Eev. J., author of " Historical
Account of the Family of Hicks,"
65, 115-6, 159, 167, 174
Suliard, Sir Edward, 134, 184
Surnames adopted about the time
of the Domesday Survey by
Huiccians of Gloucestershire, 25
Talbot, Gilbert, 71
Talbot, Lady Mary, 322
Temple, Sir William, 3
Theobalds, 133-4
Throgmorton, Sir William, Articles
of Indenture of Feoffment between
Thomas Hicks and, 35
Thynne, Sir Thomas, 197
Topham, John, 219
Townshend, Anne, 178
Townshend, Sir John, duel with Sir
Matthew Brand, 178
Van Dibst, Adrian, Witcombe pic-
ture by, 234-5, 358
Van Somer, Paul, portrait of Sir
Baptist Hicks by, 97
Wahthouse, Eev. William, marries
Ann Beach, 298-9
Waller, Edmund, trial of, 210
Waller, Sir William, 206
Wallington, Colonel Sir J. W., 336
Warwick, derivation from Hwicca,
11
Watts, Jeffry, 240
Watts, Mary, marries Howe Hicks,
240-1
Webb, Mary, marries Thomas Hicks,
44-5, 48
Webb, Thomas, marries Catherine
Llewelin, 49
Wells, Eev. Thomas, marries
Susannah Hicks, 271
Wentworth, Lady, daughter of Lord
Burghley, 74
Whitcombe, Judith, marries William
Hicks, 284
White, Susannah, marries William
Earle, 238
White, William, marries Alice Hicks,
238
White Bear, the, shop of Eobert
Hicks, of Cheapside, 50, 51
Whitmores of Lower Slaughter, the,
9
Whittingham, Timothy, 193
Wiccia, Kingdom of, mentioned in
Saxon Chronicle and by Venerable
Bede, 11
Wickwar, derivation from Hwicca
or Huicca, 11
Wiggett, Ann Eachel, marries
Thomas Lobb Chute, 350
Wiggett, William Lyde, 356
Wilkes, Sir Thomas, 85
Williamstrip Park, 301
Willoughby, Elizabeth, 144
Willoughby, Lady, letter of Michael
Hicks to, 161-3
Wilson, Arthur, 216
Winnyats of Dymock, the, 9
Witcombe, 13, 197-8, 348, 357-9,
369, 371-2
Withens, Sir William, 95
Wither, Ann, marries William
Beach, 296
Wither, Ann, 297
Wither, Charles, 286, 297
Wither, Henrietta Maria, 297
Wither, Eobert, 297
Wither, Thomas, 297
Woodcocke, Mrs., letter to, from
Michael Hicks, 167-70
Worcester, derivation from Hwicca,
11
Wroth, Sir Eobert, letters to Michael
Hicks, 183-4
Wyatt, Mr., of Stroud, 38-9
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