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RALEGHANA. 

BY 

T.    N.    BRUSHFIELD,    M.D. 

'  (Read  at  Ashburton,   July,   1896.) 


{^Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of  the  Devonshire  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Literature,  and  Art.     1896. — xxviii.  pp.  272—312.] 


-RALEGH- 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY    OF 

NORTH    CAROLINA 


■D\C)7 


RALEGHANA. 

BY 

T.    N.    BRUSHFIELD,    M.D, 

(Read  at  Ashburtou,   July,   189(3.) 


{Reprinted  from  the  Transactions  of  the  Devonshire  Association  for  the  Advance^ 
ment  of  Science,  Literature,  and.  Art.     1896. — xxviii.  pp.  272-312.] 


EALEGHANA. 


BY    T.     N.     BRUSHFIELD,     JI.D. 


(Read  at  Ashburton,  July,  189G.) 


In  his  first  lecture  on  Heroes  and  Her o-ivor ship,  T.  Carlyle 
remarked,  "  Universal  History,  the  history  of  what  man  has 
accomplished  in  the  world,  is  at  bottom  the  History  of  the 
Great  Men  who  have  worked  here."  This  he  condensed 
into  the  axiom,  "  The  History  of  the  World  .  .  .  was  the 
Biography  of  Great  Men." 

To  descend  from  the  general  to  the  special,  we  find  the 
following  passage  in  the  "Address  to  the  Eeader,"  in 
E.  Cleaveland's  well-kuown  work:  "The  History  of  the 
Family  of  Courtenay  may  in  effect  be  said  to  be  an  History 
of  the  County  of  Devon."  ^ 

Coming  more  innnediately  to  the  subject-matter  of  this 
paper,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  history  of  England  of  the 
Elizabethan  period  is,  to  a  considerable  extent,  represented 
by  the  life  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh,  more  especially  from  the 
time  of  his  first  appearance  at  Court  until  the  death  of 
Elizabeth,  in  1603.  It  is  less  a  biography  than  a  chapter — 
and  a  very  important  one — in  our  history.  With  the  advent 
of  James  I.,  his  more  active  physical  energies  and  politicaa 
life  may  be  said  to  have  terminated.  How  extensive  an  arel 
his  actions  covered,  and  how  greatly  they  influenced  the 
history  of  his  period,  is  thus  related  by  one  of  his  eminent 
literary  contemporaries  (also  a  Devonian),  Dr.  Nathanael 
Carpenter,  in  his  Geographie,  published  in  the  first  year  of 
Charles  I. 

'^  The  title  Reliquice  Bjaleghancc  would  have  been  a  more  appropriate  one, 
but  it  had  been  already  used  to  designate  a  work  published  in  1679,  consist- 
ing of  discourses  and  sermons  by  Dr.  Walter  Raleigh,  Dean  of  "Wells, 

^  Hist,  of  the  Courtenay  Fainily  (1735),  vij. 


RALEGHANA.  3 

"  Who  hath  known  or  read  of  that  prodigie  of  wit  and  fortune  1 
S^  Walter  Raivleigli,  a  man  vnfortunate  in  nothing  els  but  the 
greatnes  of  his  wit  and  advancement  ?  whose  eminent  worth  was 
such,  both  in  Domestick  Policie,  Forreigne  Expeditions,  and 
Discoveries,  Arts  and  Literature,  both  Pradick  and  Contemplatiue, 
which  might  seeme  at  once  to  conquere  both  Example  and  Imita- 
tion."3 

Very  few  Englishmen  have  had  their  biographies  so 
frequently  written,  or  their  actions  commented  upon,  as 
Ealegh,  and  yet  there  are  wide  gaps  in  his  public  career  to 
be  filled  up ;  and  of  the  details  of  his  private  life  we  know 
but  little.  No  one  will  gainsay  the  importance  of  taking 
advantage  of  all  fresh  sources  of  knowledge,  to  supply  many 
of  the  missing  links  of  information,  that  may  serve  to  throw 
light  upon  the  guiding  motives  of  many  of  his  deeds,  and 
give  a  clearer  insight  into  his  general  character,  and  which 
at  the  present  day  is  certainly  misunderstood.  Another 
desirable  point  is  the  investigation  of  many  statements 
respecting  him,  which,  though  generally  accepted  as  facts, 
are  apt  either  to  be  exaggerated,  or  to  be  altogether 
erroneous.  Moreover,  our  knowledge  of  his  family  is  of 
a  very  meagre  description. 

The  object  of  the  writer  of  the  present  paper  is  to  gather 
into  it  many  fragments  relating  to  Sir  Walter  Ealegh,  and  to 
the  members  of  his  family,  some  of  which  are  now  brought 
under  notice  for  the  first  time ;  bearing  in  mind  the  follow- 
ing authoritative  opinion  of  a  leading  modern  historian  : 

"  Everything  that  in  the  remotest  way  bears  upon  the  history  or 
institution  that  he  [the  historian]  is  describing,  has  its  special 
value."  4 

1.  WALTER  RALEGH  AND  HAYES  BARTON. 

The  birthplace  of  Sir  W.  Ralegh,  Hayes  Barton,  as  it  has 
been  termed  of  late  years,  though  formerly  known  simply  as 
Hayes  (and  so  designated  by  his  biographer,  J.  Shirley,  in 
1677),  has  already  been  fully  described.^  Of  the  history  of 
his  father,  Walter  Ralegh,  we  possess  but  few  fragments. 
Assuming  that  he  ceased  to  be  a  ward  in  1518,^  the  only 
incidents  of  his  life  that  have  as  yet  been  found  recorded 
consist  of  the  following :  The  carved  bench-ends  in  East  Bud- 
leigh  Church,  displaying  his  coat  of  arms,  and  dated  1537, 

3  Ed.  of  1625,  bk.  2,  p.  261. 

"*  Lectures  on  Mediaeval  History,  hj  [Bp.]  W.  Stubbs,  D.D.,  lect.  5,  p.  97. 

5  Dev.  Assoc,  xxi.  312-320.  ^  Ibid.  xv.  165. 

B 


NcU 


4  RALEGHANA. 

must  have  been  done  under  his  auspices.  Hoker  records 
that  he  nearly  lost  his  life  during  the  rebellion  of  15497 
In  1553-4,  he  assisted  Sir  P.  Carew  to  escape  in  a  bark 
belonging  to  him,^  and  on  September  14  of  the  same  year, 
"  Walter  Eaylegh,  Esq.,  and  Katherine,  his  wife,"  are  men- 
tioned in  a  Latin  deed  of  that  date  relating  to  land  in  the 
parish  of  Mewy  [Meavy].^  The  tithes  of  tish,  etc.,  of  Sid- 
mouth  were  leased  by  him  and  his  two  sons  in  1560,  and 
disposed  of  by  them  in  1578.^  He  was  churchwarden  of 
East  Budleigh,  in  1561  ;  and  in  a  list  of  debts  due  to  the 
estate  of  an  Exeter  merchant  named  Lante,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  in  1569,  is  this  entry : 
"  It.  M^  water  Eawley  v«  ix^."- 

He  had  married  and  buried  two  wives,  and  in  1548,  or 
following  year,  had  taken  his  third  wife. 

At  what  time  he  entered  upon  his  occupancy  of  Hayes, 
is  entirely  unknown ;  but,  according  to  Wood,^  he  "  had  a 
remnant  of  a  lease  of  80  years  in  it."  Probably  ife  took 
place  within  a  short  period  of  his  marriage  with  Joan  Drake, 
some  time  between  1518  and  1525.  Although  conjectural, 
we  may,  if  Wood's  statement  be  correct,  assume  that  this 
remnant  would  be  about  25  years.  It  must,  however,  have 
terminated  about  1550  or  1551,  as  we  know  by  a  document 
that  has  recently  been  discovered. 

Preserved  among  the  large  mass  of  papers  and  documents 
that  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Eolle  family  in  1785,  at 
the  time  of  the  purchase  of  the  estates  belonging  to  the 
Dukes,  there  was  found  a  copy  of  a  lease  dated  1551,  relating 
to  Hayes,  and,  from  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  Ealegh 
family,  it  is  now,  through  the  kind  permission  of  the  Hon. 
Mark  Eolle,  printed  in  exienso. 

"CI)tfi  ^fj^^^^tore  the  sixt  day  of  October  in  the  fifte  yere  of 
the  reigne  of  our  Sovereigne  Lord  Edwarde  the  Sixt  by  the  Grace 
of  God  Kyng  of  Englande,  Ffraunce  and  Irelande  defendo^"  of  the 
faith  and  in  earth  of  the  Churche  of  Englande  and  also  of  Irelande 
the  supreme  hedd  Between  Eichard  Duke  Esquire  of  th'  one  pht 
and  Walter  Ealegh  Esquire  and  John  Ealegh  Gentleman  sone 
of  the  same  Walter  of  th'  other  pht  Witnesseth  that  the  said 
Eichard  hath  dymyssed  graunted  and  to  farme  letten  and  by  these 
presents  dymysseth  graunteth  and  to  farme  lett  etc  (1)  to  the  said 
AValter  and  John  his  capital  messuage  of  his  Barton  of  Powreshayes 
and  all  his  houses  buyldyngs  landes  medowes  and  pastures  to  the 

7  Descrip.  of  Exeter  (1765),  41,  2.  ^  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  172-5. 

*  »S'.  P.  Bom.  Mary,  iii. '  -  Notes  and  Gleanings,  i.  138. 

9  Inf.  of  the  late  Mr.  R.  Djmond.  '^  Ath.  Ox.  ii.,  ed.  Bliss,  II.  235. 


RALEGHANA.  5 

same  Barton  belonging  and  appteynyng  tother  with  the  comen  of 
pasture  from  the  premysses  unto  the  Townes  of  Woodbury  and 
Lympston  and  w*^^  the  pasture  of  the  Wood  called  Haywoode 
kepyng  preserving  and  fensyng  well  and  sufhciintlie  the  same 
Woode  and  the  Spryng  thereof  from  tyme  to  tyme  from  distrucon 
and  bityng  of  beaste  after  the  fellyng  of  eny  woode  there  by  the 
said  Eicharde  Duke  his  heires  or  assignes  all  which  premesses  the 
said  Walter  now  holdes  in  farme  Except  and  alwey  reserved  to 
the  said  Eicharde  Duke  his  heires  and  assignes  the  meadows  called 
Haymede  otherwise  called  Clape  mede  and  Lytell  mede  And  also 
except  and  alwey  reserved  to  the  said  Eicharde  Duke  his  heires 
and  assignes  free  libertie  power  and  authoritie  from  tyme  to  tyme 
to  do  and  take  their  pleasure  to  hawke  hunte  fishe  and  fowle  in 
and  upon  all  the  premysses  conveyd  reserved  to  the  said  Walter 
Ealegh  and  John  Ealegh  To  have  and  To  hold  all  and  singular  the 
premesses  w*^  th'  apptence  (except  before  excepted)  to  the  said 
^Valter  Ealegh  and  John  Ealegh  from  the  feast  of  Saynt  Mychaell 
th'  Archangell  last  past  before  the  date  hereof  unto  thence  and 
terme  of  Fourescore  yeares  then  next  folowyng  fully  to  be  complete 
and  ended  if  the  said  Walter  Ealegh  and  John  Ealegh  or  either  of 
them  so  long  do  lyve  Yelding  therefor  yerely  to  the  said  Eicharde 
Duke  his  heires  and  assignes  Twelve  pounds  of  lawfull  money  of 
Englande  at  the  Feaste  of  the  Birth  of  o'^  Lorde  God  the  annun- 
cyaion  [sic]  of  o'^  Ladye  the  Yirgyne  the  natyvyte  of  Saynt  John 
Baptiste  and  Saynt  Michaell  th'  Archangell  by  even  portions  to  be 
paid  during  the  said  terme  And  the  said  Walter  and  John  to  paye 
or  cause  to  be  paid  yerely  for  and  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the 
said  Eicharde  his  heirs  and  assignes  for  respyte  of  sute  of  Court  to 
the  ffee  of  the  Barony  of  Okhampton  Fiftene  pence  yerely  And  to 
the  heires  of  the  Lorde  .  .  .  p]  sometyme  Lorde  of  the  Mano^  of 
Woodbury  for  rent  of  pcell  of  the  said  comen  of  pasture  Foure 
pence  or  a  pounde  of  .  .  .  p]  yerely  And  also  to  do  the  office  of 
the  [Tyt]  hyngman  of  the  Tythyng  of  Powes  hayes  and  sute  to  the 
Court  of  the  Hundred  of  Est  Bud[leig]h  And  also  to  repair 
susteyne  and  mayneteyne  well  and  sufficientlie  the  said  Capitall 
mesuage  and  all  .  .  .  premysses  so  well  ,  .  .  and  dyches  as  often 
as  nede  shall  require  during  the  said  terme  at  the  coste  and  charge 
of  the  said  Walter  and  John  and  shall  leve  the  same  sufficientlie 
repaired  at  the  end  of  the  said  terme  And  it  is  agreed  between 
the  said  pties  that  the  said  Walter  Ealegh  and  John  Ealegh 
shall  once  yerely  competent  and  sufficient  hedgbote  firebote  and 
ploughbote  in  and  upon  the  lands  of  the  said  Barton  as  of  the 
underwoods  in  the  said  Woode  called  Haywood  and  to  be  spent 
and  be  occupied  in  and  upon  the  premysses  during  the  said  terme 
w^i^out  delyverye  and  that  the  said  Walter  and  John  shall  have 
sufficient  housbote  to  be  taken  as  well  upon  the  landes  of  the  said 
Barton  as  in  the  said  woode  for  the  necessary  repacons  of  the  same 
as  often  as  nede  shall  require  duryng  the  said  terme  And  if  it 

B  2 


6  RALEGHAXA. 

happen  the  said  yerely  rent  of  Twelve  pounds  to  be  behynde  or 
unpaid  in  pte  or  in  the  hole  by  the  space  of  Syxe  wekes  after  any 
of  the  said  Feasts  at  which  it  ought  to  be  paide,  if  in  the  mene- 
tyme  it  be  demanded  and  no  sufficient  distresse  may  be  founde  upon 
the  premysses  or  if  the  said  Walter  Ralegh  and  John  Ralegh  do  dye 
w^Mn  the  said  terme  that  then  it  shalbe  lawfull  to  the  said  Richarde 
Duke  his  heires  and  assignes  in  to  all  and  singuler  the  premesses  to 
reenter  and  the  same  to  repossede  and  have  ageyne  as  in  their  first 
estate  This  Indenture  or  eny  thyng  herein  conteyned  to  the 
contrary  not  w*^  standyng  Provided  alwey  and  it  is  agreed 
betwene  the  said  pties  that  it  shalbe  lawfull  to  the  said  Richard 
Duke  his  heires  and  assignes  from  tyme  to  tyme  to  take  fell  and 
carry  away  or  cause  to  be  taken  felled  and  caried  away  at  their  will 
and  pleasure  the  Trees  and  Woode  in  the  said  Woode  called 
Hay  wood  e  w^^out  let  or  interrupcon  of  the  said  Walter  and  John 
or  of  any  other  psoue  or  psunes  by  their  means  assent  or  procure- 
ment this  Indenture  or  any  thyng  therin  conteyned  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

"  In  witness  whereof  the  said  pties  to  these  present  Indentures 
interchaungeably  have  putte  their  scales  the  day  and  yere  first  above 
wrytten.  "Duke 


There  are  a  few  points  in  this  document  worthy  of  notice. 
It  was  drawn  up  in  the  year  1551,  when,  probably,  Carew 
Ralegh  was  a  year  old,  and  the  future  Sir  Walter  had  not 
been  born.  John  was  the  second  son  by  the  first  marriage, 
and  while  both  he  and  his  father  are  mentioned  several  times 
in  it,  the  name  is  invariably  "Ralegh."  Although  it  had 
been  some  time  in  the  hands  of  the  Duke  family,  and  was 
subsequently  known  as  Dukeshayes,  at  the  date  of  the  deed 
it  was  termed  "  Powreshayes."  The  holding  must  have  been 
very  extensive  with  respect  to  the  common  land,  which  is 
noted  to  extend  to  "  the  Townes  of  Woodbury  and  Lymps- 
ton."  "  Haywood,"  the  one  facing  the  present  farmhouse  to 
the  south,  had  probably  been  a  wood  for  centuries  previously. 
The  "  Spryng  "  was  the  young  underwood,  and  the  term  is 
still  employed  in  the  North  and  in  East  Angiia,  but  it  is 
absent  from  West-country  glossaries.  The  field-names  of 
"  Haymede,"  or  "  Clape  mede,"  and  "  Lytell  mede,"  are  un- 
able to  be  identified.  The  "Clape  mede"  was,  perhaps,  one  of 
the  enclosures  intersected  by  a  brook  not  far  from  the  house, 
and  united  by  a  clapper  bridge — a  plank  thrown  across. 


RALEGHANA.  7 

The  various  allowances  formed  very  important  items  in 
the  economy  of  the  farm  and  buildings ;  "  hedgbote,"  thorns 
and  frith  for  the  repair  of  hedges;  "firebote,"  tiring  for  the 
tenant ;  "  ploughbote,"  wood  for  repairs  of  ploughs,  carts,  and 
agricultural  implements  generally;"*  and  "  housbote,"  timber 
for  repairs  of  tenement.     All  materials  yielded  by  the  estate. 

The  lease  was  held  on  the  two  lives  of  the  father  and  son, 
no  provision  being  made,  such  as  was  customary  at  a  later 
period,  for  a  third  life  to  be  entered,  to  replace  one  of  the 
others  who  had  died.  It  was  for  eighty  years,  and  hence 
would  have  expired  in  1631 ;  but  probably  it  was  surrendered 
soon  after  the  death  of  Walter  Ealegh,  in  1581. 

Several  reasons  have  already  been  given  why  Walter 
moved  from  Fardel  to  Hayes  in  his  early  life — retrenchment, 
interest  in  shipping  matters,  and  the  vicinity  of  his  first 
wife's  residence.^  But  the  fact  of  his  family  possessing  the 
manors  of  Withy  combe  Ealeigh,  on  the  S.W.,  and  Colaton 
Ealeigh,  on  the  N.E.  of  Hayes,  the  latter  being  situated 
about  midway  between  them,  may  have  acted  as  another 
powerful  cause. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Hayes,  advantage  may  be 
taken  to  draw  attention  to  two  passages  in  the  original  letter 
of  Sir  Walter  Ealegh,  first  printed  in  its  entirety  in  Dev. 
Assoc,  xxi.  319,  and  there  shown  in  italics,  which  serve  to 
point  out  the  portions  omitted  from  all  the  copies  previously 
printed.  Eemarkably  enough,  these  omissions  contain  the 
only  allusions  to  the  assistance  rendered  by  "M^  Sprinte," 
in  the  attempt  made  by  Sir  Walter  to  purchase  the  property. 
Who  that  gentleman  was,  enquiries  at  the  time  the  paper  was 
written  (1889)  failed  to  discover;  since  then,  through  the  kind 
aid  of  the  Eev.  E.  E.  H.  Duke, vicar  of  Monk  Fryston,  Lumby, 
Yorkshire,  he  has  been  identified,  and  much  light  has  been 
thrown  on  the  subject-matter  of  Sir  Walter's  letter. 

Eichard  Duke,  the  possessor,  inter  alia,  of  the  Otterton 
estate  and  of  Poerhayes,  died  in  1572,  leaving  a  daughter, 
Christiana,  who  had  married,  as  her  first  husband,  George 
Brooke,  second  son  of  Lord  Cobham  ;  and  in  the  Eegister  of 
Baptisms  of  Otterton  he  is  thus  noticed : 

"  1565.  20  Octob.  Petrus  fil.  Georgii  Cobham  ats  Brooke  armig." 

■*  G.  PuLMAN,  in  the  glossary  to  his  Rustic  Sketches  (1871),  126,  has 
the  following  note:  "Plough.  In  addition  to  the  well-known  agricultural 
implement,  the  farm  waggon  and  horses  are  often  included  under  the  general 
term  of  plough.  '  Farmer  Smith  got  a  cappical  plough ' — meaning  that  his 
waggons  and  teams  are  excellent." 

^  Dcv.  Assoc.  XV.  165,  6. 


8  RALEGHAXA. 

Her  second  husband  was  George  Sprent,  or  Sprint,  and 
according  to  Hutchins,^  the  manor  of  Stalbridge,  *'  late  parcel 
of  Sherborne  abbey,"  was  in  15  Eliz.  (  =  1572,  3),  held  by 
"  George  Sprent,  in  right  of  his  wife  Christian,  daughter  and 
heir  of  Eichard  Duke." 

He  is  again  recorded  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery^  in  1572,  the  plaintiff  being  "Gilbert  Drake  gent," 
and  the  defendants  "  Gregory  Sprinte  and  Christiana  his  wife 
and  Rich.  Duke."  The  premisses  were  "  Lease  granted  (by 
Margery  Trowe  late  Prioress  and  the  convent  of  the  dis- 
solved Monastry  of  Polslove)  of  the  Ptectory  of  Budleigh 
and  Millacombe  [Withy  combe]  Ptaleigh  and  the  messauges 
advousons  and  churches."  "  George "  and  "  Gregory " 
Sprinte  were  evidently  the  same  person.^ 

These  particulars  point  out  the  relationship  of  G.  Sprinte 
to  the  Duke  family,  and  it  was  most  probably  owing  to  his 
marriage  that  he  became  possessed  of  the  moiety  of  Otterton. 
Particulars  of  his  property  at  "  Colliton " — presumably 
Colaton  Raleigh— are  unknown.  In  his  letter,  Sir  Walter 
shows  that  if  he  failed  to  purchase  the  Hayes  property  direct 
from  Mr.  Duke,  he  made  the  alternative  proposition,  that 
Mr.  Sprinte  (with  whom  he  had  previous  dealings)  was 
willing  to  exchange  his  moiety  of  Otterton  with  Mr.  Duke 
for  Hayes,  in  which  case  it  is  assumed  he  would  sell  the 
latter  to  Sir  Walter.  The  Rev.  R.  E.  H.  Duke  is  of  opinion 
that  R.  Duke  could  not  part  with  Hayes,  having  entailed  it 
and  the  Otterton  property  on  his  nephew. 

It  only  remains  to  record  that  Sir  Walter's  letter  has 
found  a  fitting  resting-place  in  the  Albert  Memorial 
Museum,  to  which  it  was  generously  presented  by  its 
possessor,  Mr.  W.  F.  Glubb,  of  Great  Torrington. 


2.   WALTER   RALEGH'S  THREE   WIVES. 

I.  Joan  Drake. — The  year  in  which  Walter  Ralegh 
married  his  first  wife,  Joan  Drake,  is  unknown.  No  facts 
in  her  history  have  descended  to  us ;  and,  although  her 
tomb  is  yet  preserved  in  its  original  site,  in  the  centre  of 
the  nave  of  the  Church  of  East  Budleigh,  the  date  of  her 
death  is  no  longer  decipherable  on  it.  There  are,  however, 
two  points  relating  to  her  which  deserve  present  mention. 

6  Dorset  (1868),  iii.  675. 

^  S.P.,  Chancery  Proceedings,  Series  ii.  bundle  55,  No.  22. 
^  In  Vivian's  VisitationSy  George  Brooke  is  noted  as  the  second  husband 
of  Christian  Duke,  instead  of  the  first. 


RALEGHANA.  y 

1.  In  the  Ealegh  pedigree,  in  Vivian's  Visitations  of  Devon, 
her  name  is  entered  as  "Alice,"  and  in  a  footnote,  "  The  Harl. 
MS.  has  Joane,  which  is  an  error"  (639).  In  the  Drake 
pedigree,  it  also  appears  as  "Alice"  (293).  Kevertheless, 
the  evidence  of  her  name  being  Joan  is  too  strong  to  be 
overturned  ;  it  is  so  given  in  the  Visitation  of  1564,^  and  also 
in  the  Records  of  the  College  of  Arms,  by  George  Harrison, 
Windsor  Herald.^  Colonel  Vivian  appears  to  have  been 
misled  by  the  name  "  Alice,"  in  the  Drake  pedigree,  being 
signed  by  a  member  of  the  family,-  and  this  he  accepted  as 
testifying  to  its  correctness  ;  but  both  relatives  and  heralds 
sometimes  made  terrible  mistakes  in  genealogies.  We  have, 
however,  positive  testimony  in  the  inscription  on  her  tomb, 
recording  her  name  as  "Johanne  Ealeyh."  He  commits 
another  mistake  by  terming  her  the  second  wife  of  Walter 
Ealegh  ;  corrected  in  a  later  page  (293,  639). 

2.  Attention  has  already  been  directed  to  the  inscription 
on  the  edge  of  her  tombstone  being  reversed,  and  having  to 
be  read  from  right  to  left^— a  peculiarity  of  which  no  other 
example  has  yet  been  noted. 

Eeasons  have  been  already  adduced  for  believing  that  she 
died  about,  or  probably  prior  to,  the  period  of  the  Eeforma- 
tion  f  and  that  the  inscription  on  her  memorial  stone,  com- 
mencing, "Orate  pro  anima,"  was  designedly  reversed,  to 
serve  some  special  object,  although  we  may  perhaps  be 
unable  to  solve  the  actual  reason.  It  is  certain  that  Ealegh 
had  become  an  early  follower  of  the  Eeformed  doctrine — how 
early,  we  know  not,  but  most  probably  some  time  before  his 
wife's  death,  as  otherwise  he  would  scarcely  have  authorized 
the  reversal  of  the  inscription  to  be  made.^  As  she  evidently 
died  in  the  Eoman  Catholic  communion,  be,  while  desirous 
of  paying  every  respect  to  her  memory,  whether  by  or  with- 
out her  expressed  wish,  probably  directed  the  evidence  of  her 
faith  to  be  incised  on  her  tomb,  but  in  reversed  characters,  so 
that  at  the  period  when  altered  forms  of  worship  were  being 
rapidly  made,  the  inscription  would  be  less  obtrusive  by  the 
greater  difficulty  experienced  in  reading  it.     Whether  this 

y  Ed.  Colby,  180,  from  Harl.  MS.  1,080 

1  PriDted  in  Howakd's  Misc.  Gen.  et  Her.  ii.  155. 

2  Vis.  of  Devon,  1620,  Harl.  Soc.  94.          _ 

2  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  170,  and  accompanying  illustration. 

'^  Hid.  XV.  171. 

5  Assuming  that  she  died  about  1534,  the  entire  absence  on  the  carved 
bench-ends  in  East  Budleigh  Church,  dated  three  years  later  (1537),  of  any  mark 
or  symbol  of  a  religious  character,  serves  to  indicate  that  he  had  ceased  to  be 
of  his  wife's  faith,  as  he  must  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  designs  they 
bear. 


10  KALEGHAXA. 

surmise  be  correct  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  its  peculiarity  has 
assisted  in  preventing  its  subsequent  mutilation. 

II. Darrell. — Walter  Ralegh's  second   wife  is   thus 

noted  by  Westcote :  "  Secondly  he  married  a  daughter  of 
Darrell  of  London  "  (536).  This  is  confirmed  by  the  Visita- 
tion of  1564,  where,  however,  the  name  appears  as  "  Dorrell."'^ 
She  is,  however,  not  mentioned  by  Pole,  nor  in  the  Holland 
and  Harrison  pedigrees. 

Edwards  (i.  facing  8)  gives  a  facsimile  of  a  Ralegh  pedi- 
gree, made  by  H.  St.  George,  Richmond  Herald,'^  where  her 
name  is  entered  as  "  Darrell."^  Notwithstanding  this, 
Edwards  was  of  opinion  that  Walter  Ralegh's  second  wife 
was  a  daughter  of  Jamekyn  de  Pant,  a  merchant  of  Genoa ; 
but  this  was  an  error,  and  how  it  originated  has  already  been 
pointed  out.^ 

III.  Katherine  Champernown. — The  third  wife  of  Walter 
Ralegh  was  Katherine  Champernown,  to  whom  the  only 
reference  under  the  present  heading  is,  from  a  religious  point 
of  view,  of  some  importance.  In  his  Memoir  of  "  Ralegh," 
Mr.  Edm.  Gosse  affirms  that  "  his  mother  seems  to  have 
remained  a  Catholic"  (2),  and  bases  it  upon  the  following 
statement,  contained  in  the  Acts  and  Monuments  of  John 
Eox,^  under  the  heading,  "  The  trouble  and  martyrdome  of  a 
godly  poore  woman  which  suffered  at  Exeter,"  with  a  wood- 
cut of  "  the  patient  martyrdome  of  a  poore  woman  at  Exeter, 
being  one  Prest's  wife." 

1557.  "There  resorted  to  her  a  certaine  worthy  Gentlewoman, 
the  wife  of  one  Walter  Rauley,  a  woman  of  noble  wit,  and  of  a 
good  and  godly  opinion :  who  comming  to  the  person,  and  talking 
with  her,  she  said  her  Creed  to  the  Gentlewoman,  and  when  she 
came  to  the  article,  He  ascended,  there  she  staid,  and  bade  the 
Gentlewoman  to  seeke  his  blessed  body  in  heaven,  not  in  earth  and 
told  her  plainly  that  God  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with 
hands,  and  that  sacrament  to  be  nothing  else  but  in  remembrance 
of  his  blessed  passion,  and  yet  (said  she)  as  they  now  use  it,  it  is 
but  an  Idoll,  and  far  wide  from  any  remembrance  of  Christ's  body; 
which,  said  she,  will  not  long  continue,  and  so  take  it  good 
Mistresse.     So  that  as  soon  as  she  came  home  to  her  husband,  she 

»  Ed.  Colby,  180. 

7  From  Harl.  MS.  1,080,  ff.  3,606,  361.  H.  St.  George  was  Richmond 
Herald  in  1615. 

^  The  name  is  Darrell  in  the  MS.,  but  in  the  facsimile,  in  Edwards'  work, 
it  looks  like  "  Parrett,"  or  "  Parrell,"  owing  to  the  figure  2  being  in  close 
contact  with  the  initial  letter. 

9  Bev.  Assoc,  xv.  172.  ^  Ed.  of  1641,  iii.  588  et  seq. 


KALEGHANA.  11 

declared  to  him,  that  in  her  life  she  had  never  heard  a  woman  (of 
such  simplicity  to  see  to)  talke  so  godly,  so  perfectly,  so  sincerely, 
and  so  earnestly ;  insomuch,  that  if  God  were  not  with  her,  she 
could  not  speak  such  things,  to  the  which  I  am  not  able  to  answer 
her,  said  she,  who  can  reade,  and  she  cannot." 

Mr.  Gosse  adds,  "This  anecdote  would  not  have  been 
preserved  if  the  incident  had  not  heralded  the  final  secession 
of  Ealeigh's  parents  from  the  creed  of  Philip  II."  (3.)  This 
took  place  in  1557,  but  according  to  Mr.  Gosse's  own  state- 
ment, Walter  Ealegh  "  was  a  Protestant  when  young  Walter 
was  born,"  in  1552  (2),  and  in  fact  must  have  been  one  some 
years  before,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out. 

That  Katherine  Ealegh  was  a  Catholic  can  scarcely  be 
deduced  from  the  dialogue  quoted  from  Fox's  work,  and 
which  appears  to  have  been  of  the  same  character  that  would 
probably  take  place  at  the  present  day,  between  a  moderate 
churchwoman  and  one  holding  advanced  evangelical  opinions. 
We  can  readily  believe  that  her  "hatred  of  bigotry  and  of 
the  Spaniard  "  equalled  that  of  her  second  husband,  and  that 
she  was  a  staunch  Protestant  before  she  married  him.  Not 
only  were  her  own  children,  by  both  marriages,  of  the  same 
persuasion,  but  there  are  indications  that  her  own  family,  the 
Champernowns,  had  been  followers  of  the  Eeformed  faith  for 
some  years ;  e.g.  an  endeavour  had  been  made  by  Bishop 
Gardiner,  in  1546,  to  prosecute  Queen  Catherine  Parr  and 
some  of  the  ladies  of  her  Court,  of  whom  Katherine  Ealegh's 
sister.  Lady  Denny,  was  one,  for  sympathizing  with,  and 
rendering  assistance  to,  Anne  Askew,  then  under  trial  for 
heresy,  and  who  was  subsequently  burnt  on  July  16  of  the 
same  year.  She  is  reported  to  have  been  examined  concern- 
ing them  before  she  was  racked,  and  in  her  reply  to  the 
question,  whether  there  were  not  "divers  Ladies  that  had 
sent "  her  money,  she  answered,  "  That  there  was  a  man  in 
a  blew  coat  which  delivered  me  ten  shillings,  and  said  that 
my  Lady  of  Hertford  sent  it  me ;  and  another  in  a  violet 
coat  gave  me  eight  shillings,  and  said  my  Lady  Denny  sent 
it  me,  whether  it  were  true  or  no  I  cannot  tell.  For  I  am 
not  sure  who  sent  it  me,  but  as  the  maid  did  say."  ^  The 
attempt  to  implicate  Lady  Denny  failed,  and  was  not  renewed, 
probably  owing  to  the  death  of  the  King  soon  afterwards  (on 
January  28th,  1547;. 

There  are  some  side  issues  connected  with  the  foregoins 
remarks  relating  to  Katherine  Ealegh,  which  must  not  be 

2  Fox,  Ed.  of  1641,  ill.  578  ;  cf.  Strype,  Ecc.  Mem.  i.  (1816)  620. 


12  EALEGHAXA. 

omitted,  especially  as  they  relate  to  Devonshire  occurrences. 
They  refer,  in  a  great  measure,  to  Agnes  Prest,  over  whose 
persecution  and  martyrdom  Dr.  Oliver  throws  a  halo  of 
doubt.  "  The  bishop's  register,"  he  notes,  "  is  perfectly  silent 
on  the  lamentable  persecution  of  Agnes  Prest  for  religious 
opinions.  If  she  suffered  death  for  them  in  August,  1558 — 
another  account  says  loth  November,  1557 — it  must  have 
been  when  Bishop  Turberville  was  absent.  *  Indeed,'  says 
Fuller,  *  her  death  was  procured  more  by  the  violence  of 
Blaxton,  the  chancellor,  than  by  any  persecution  of  the 
bishop.'"^  Hoker,  the  City  of  Exeter  Chamberlain,  was 
between  31  and  32  years  of  age  at  the  time  Agnes  Prest  was 
burnt,  and  is  not  likely  to  have  invented  a  statement  as  to 
this  occurrence.  He  specially  mentions  that  "  for  Eeligion 
and  Heresy,"  she  ''was  burned  in  Southinghay  for  the  same." 
He  further  quotes  the  commencement  of  the  Indictment  (in 
Latin),  taken  at  Launceston  "  before  William  Stanford,  then 
Justice  of  the  Assize."^  This  is  corroborated  by  the  historians 
of  Launceston  and  Dunheved,  R.  and  0.  Peters  (1885),  in  the 
following  quotation  from  their  work  : 

"  In  the  4th  week  of  Lent  2  &  3  Philip  and  Mary,  1555,  Agnes 
Prest,  of  Northcott  Hamlet,  Boyton,  was  indicted  at  Launceston 
for  denying  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  and 
for  saying  that  no  Christian  doth  eat  the  Body  of  Christ  carnally 
but  spiritually.  A  true  bill  was  found  against  her,  and  the  petty 
jury  also  found  her  guilty.  She  was  then  sent  to  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter  for  further  examination.  She  persisted  in  her  former 
opinion,  and  was  condemned  as  a  heretic.  Finally  she  was 
delivered  to  the  Sheriff  of  Devonshire,  and  was  executed  at 
Southernhay,  outside  the  walls  of  Exeter,  in  November,  1558. 
Daring  her  long  imprisonment  all  attempts  to  induce  her  to  recant 
must  have  failed.  She  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  only  martyr 
for  the  Protestant  rehgion,  in  the  diocese  of  Exeter,  during  jMary's 
reign.  "^ 

In  our  local  history,  the  subject  is  of  some  importance. 
Dr.  Oliver  alleges  "that  but  one  person  in  this  extensive 
diocese,  Agnes  Prest,  is  even  alleged  to  have  been  the  victim 

3  JSps.  of  Exeter,  136,  7.  Dr.  Oliver's  quotation  is  not  altoojether  accurate. 
In  his  account  of  Agnes  Prest,  Fuller  remarks,  "  She  was  presented  to  James 
Troublefield,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  by  him  condemned  for  denyin";  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Altar.  .  .  .  She  was  the  onely  person  in  whose  persecution 
Bishop  Troublefield  did  appear  ;  and  it  is  justly  conceived  that  Black-stone, 
his  Chanceliour,  was  more  active  than  the  Bishop  in  procuring  her  death." 
(Worthies  of  Englaiui  (1662),  pt.  i.  250.) 

•*  Bps.  of  Exccster  (1765),  142. 

■^  200.  Cf.  Izacke's  Memorials  (1677),  128  ;  and  Penaluna's  Hist.  Survey 
of  Cornwall  {im^),  i.  77. 


RALEGHANA.  13 

of  this  barbarous  law."^  He  had,  however,  overlooked 
another  exanaple,  that  of  Thomas  Bennet,  who  was  "con- 
demned of  Heresy,"  and  burnt  at  Livery  Dole,  Heavitree,  in 
January,  1531,  as  recorded  by  Hoker,  and  cited  by  the  Doctor  J 
It  is  true,  he  doubts  the  occurrence — his  words  are,  "  We 
have  suspicion  of  the  fact" — partly  because  he  hesitates  to 
accept  the  testimony  of  Hoker,  and  partly  for  the  reason  that 
it  is  not  alluded  to  in  the  Bishop's  Act  Book.  The  fact  of 
Thomas  Benet  having  been  burnt  at  Livery  Dole  on  January 
10,  1531,  is  recorded  in  a  Psalterium  vetus  cum  Kalendario,  a 
MS.  of  the  thirteenth  century,  preserved  in  the  Chapter 
Library,  Exeter  (No.  3508  in  the'  Catalogue),  in  a  marginal 
note  made  in  the  sixteenth  century;  but  whatever  else 
may  have  been  the  cause  of  the  omission,  it  was  not 
customary  for  the  Bishops  to  record  executions  for  heresy, 
after  the  subjects  had  been  delivered  over  to  the  secular 
power.^  Hoker's  authority  is,  however,  not  so  easily  got  rid 
of.  "Hoker  at  the  time  must  have  been  but  an  infant," 
states  the  Doctor,  but  as  he  was  born  in  1526,  he  was  seven 
years  old,  and  such  a  scene  would  make  a  powerful  and 
lasting  impression  on  himself,  his  relatives,  and  friends ;  its 
very  object  being  to  strike  terror,  "  by  which,"  wrote  Queen 
Mary,  in  a  letter  to  her  Council,  shortly  after  her  marriage 
with  Philip  XL,  "  they  shall  both  understand  the  truth,  and 
beware  not  to  do  the  like."' 


3.  WALTER  RALEGH'S  CHILDREN. 

Walter  Ealegh  had  issue  by  each  of  his  three  wives ;  but 
in  the  Visitation  of  1564  (ed.  Colby,  180),  all  the  children 
are  erroneously  assigned  to  the  second  and  third  wives.  Of 
these,  two  were  by  the  first  wife,  one  by  the  second,  and 
three  by  the  third.  It  is  believed  that  all  six  were  born  at 
Hayes ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  this  or  of  their  respective 

6  Hist,  of  Exder  (1861),  104.  ^  ^lys.  of  Exeter,  122. 

^  In  the  case  of  Agnes  Prest,  the  Doctor  remarks  "  I  look  in  vain  for  any 
mention  of  such  an  occurrence  in  the  Register  of  Bishop  Turbeville,  or  the 
Act  Books  of  our  Common  Council."  {Hist.  Exder,  104.)  The  present 
Town  Clerk  of  Exeter,  G.  R.  Shorto,  Esq.,  informs  the  writer  that  the 
Chamber  Act  Books  contain  matters  confined  strictly  to  the  Corporation 
itself,  and  do  not  record  executions,  with  which  the  Corporation  had  nothing 
to  do. 

^  Lingard's  Hist,  of  England,  v.  (1823),  82.  This  letter  is  believed  to  have 
been  written  prior  to  the  arrival  of  Cardinal  Pole  in  England  on  November 
21,  1554  ;  and  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  statements  made  by  Dr,  F.  G. 
Lee,  in  his  Life  of  Pole  (1888),  189-90,  e.g.  :  "  She  [Mary]  entirely  dis- 
claimed every  degree  of  force  and  violence  against  those  who  had  been 
seduced  into  heresy  and  schism  "  (190). 


14:  liALEGHANA. 

ages  in  the  East  Budleigh  Registers,  which  do  not  commence 
until  the  year  1555.  (Where  the  second  wife  is  omitted  from 
the  pedigree — as  in  the  Holland  one — the  name  of  her  child 
does  not  appear.) 

I.  Children  ly  Joan  Ralegh  (first  wife). — 1.  George.  We 
know  little  of  his  personal  history.  Pole  affirms  "he 
dwelled  at  Furdell  (322),  and  he  retained  that  estate  until 
the  time  of  his  death,  when  it  passed  to  his  brother  John. 
Full  possession  he  would  probably  obtain  when  his  father 
died  in  1580-1.  Prior  to  the  latter  event,  he  had  evidently 
left  there  to  reside  either  in  Littleham  or  in  Withycombe 
Ealeigh.  His  name  is  thus  recorded  in  the  list  of  the 
churchwardens  of  the  former  place  : 

"  George  Ralegh  es.    )     ^^gQ,, 
John  Periman         j 

That,  like  his  father,  he  had  some  direct  interest  in  ship- 
ping matters,  the  two  following  examples  will  prove. 

a.  "George  Rawleyghe  gent."  appears  in  a  list  headed 
"  the  names  of  Sea  Captaynes  the  v^^  of  Januarie  1585  [6]  "  ; 
remarkable  for  including  all  four  of  Walter  Ralegh's  sons.^ 

h.  Letter  from  "  Sir  F.  Walsyngham  to  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  [of  Exeter]  From  the  Court  at  Somerset  House, 
26  Nov.  1588 : 

'  I  am  given  to  understand  that  at  suche  tyme  as  ther  was  geven 
'  this  last  sommer  for  the  settinge  forthe  of  certain  shippes  out  of 
'  your  Citie  yet  apperethe  that  emongst  others  you  tooke  a  man  of 
'warre,  beinge  a  shippe  appertayning  unto  Mr.  George  Rawley, 
'  making  agreement  w*^  him  for  the  furnishing  and  setting  of  her 
'fourthe  for  her  Ma*'*^^  service,  but  now  you  refuse  to  make  him 
'  satisfaction  for  the  same.'  Prays  them  to  pay  him  without  more 
delay.  '  I  have  saved  him  from  acquaynting  their  Lordships  w*^ 
'  your  slackness  herein  uppon  the  perswasion  I  have  that  this  my 
'own  letter  shall  sufficiently e  prevaile  Yi^^  you.'"^ 

He  probably  lived  in  Withycombe  Raleigh  (the  estate 
belonged  to  his  step-brother.  Sir  Carew  Ralegh)  during  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  commencing  some  time  before  the 
transaction  related  in  the  following  paragraph,  and  which, 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  refers  to  him : 

"1591.  Nov.  18.  Decree  in  Chancery  in  favour  of  William 
Vynton  against  G-eorge  Rawley,  for  a  lease  of  two  mills,  proved  to 
be  put  in  writing  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  testator  \_Docquet\.^^'^ 

^  S.  P.  Dom.,  Elizabeth,  vol.  clxxxvi.  In  the  Calendar,  the  family  of 
Drake  is  alone  mentioned. 

2  "  Exeter  City  Muniments,"  in  Notes  ami  Gleanings,  ii.  106. 

3  Cal.  S.  P.  Dom.,  Elizabeth,  ccxl.  QQ. 


RALEGHANA. 


15 


(Several  members  of  the  Vynton  family  are  recorded  in 
the  Kegisters  of  Withycombe  of  that  period). 

He  died  there  in  1597,  the  following  being  a  transcript  of 
the  entry  in  the  Burial  Register  : 

1597.  "George  Rauligh  Esquier  dyed  the  xxij*^^  of  ffebruarye 
but  was  buryed  the  xij*^  of  Marche  1596."  [o.s.] 

He  was  interred  in  the  parish  church  (St.  John's  in  the 
Wilderness),  as  thus  recorded  by  Dean  Milles:^ 

"At  the  North  east  corner  of  y^  North  isle  on  a  flat  stone  is 
this  inscription  to  George,  the  eldest  son  of  Walter  Ealeigb,  and 
eldest  Brother,  by  a  first  wife,  to  y«  famous  S'"  Walter : 

*  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  George  Raleigh  of  Fardhill  Esquier 
'who  departed  this  life  the  xw^'^  day  of  Februarie,  and  in  the  yere 
*of  oure  Lorde  One  thousand,  five  Hundred  ninety  and  seven.' "^ 

It  is  singular  that  the  interment  did  not  take  place  until 
nearly  three  weeks  after  death.  The  site  of  the  grave  is 
easily  identified,  but  no  tombstone  remains,  having  most 
probably  been  removed  when  the  church  was  dismantled 
many  years  ago.  At  that  time  the  north  aisle  was  shortened 
to  its  presentliimensions,  and  George  Ralegh's  grave,  formerly 
within,  became,  by  this  alteration,  outside  the  church  building. 
Much  uncertainty  exists  as  to  whether  he  married,  and 
if  so,  the  name  of  his  wife ;  or  whether  he  did  not  marry, 
and  had  illegitimate  issue.  Some  authors,  like  Oldys, 
do  not  refer  to  the  matter  at  all.  According  to  Westcote 
(536, 566)  he  married— first,  "  Katharine,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Gilbert,  of  Compton,  esq ,"  and  "Isabel,  daughter  and  heir 
of  John  Reynward  of  Cornwall";  and  second,  "Dorothy, 
daughter  of  Sneddal,  of  Exeter,  esq." 

Now  the  Visitation  of  Devon  of  1564  asserts  George 
Ralegh's  wife  to  have  been  Katharine,  daughter  of  Otho 
Gilbert,  and  Katherine  Champernown,  who  became  subse- 
quently the  third  wife  of  Walter  Ralegh.^  If  this  were 
correct,  George  married  his  step-sister— an  improbability. 

Westcote  is  the  only  author  who  af&rms  he  was  twice 

4  Dean  Milles  formed  a  large  collection  of  MSS.  relating  to  Devonshire, 
now  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  The  quotation  is  from  MS.  To}}. 
of  Drvon  c.  12.  He  was  precentor  of  Exeter  Cathedral  m  1747,  and  Dean 
in  1762,  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1784,  and  it  was  within  these  dates  that 
he  made  his  collections.  .     ,  -n  ^     -u 

5  It  is  noteworthy  that,  according  to  this  transcription,  George  Kalegn 
died  on  Feb.  16,  whereas  in  the  Burial  Register  the  assigned  date  is  Feb.  22. 

6  Ed.  Colby,  112,  180  ;  not  in  the  Ralegh  pedigree,  but  in  that  of  the 
Gilbert  family. 


16  RALEGH  AN  A. 

married ;  but  the  name  of  the  second  wife  alone  appears  in 
the  Holland  pedigree : 

"  Georgius  Ealegh  primo  genitus  =  filia  JoEis  Snedall."'' 

Pole,  on  the  contrary,  affirms  he  "  died  without  lawful  issue," 
and  this  seems  to  be  corroborated  by  the  circumstance  of  his 
brother  John  being  successor  to  the  Fardel  estate  (322).  In 
the  Gilbert  pedigree,  Vivian,  in  his  Visitations,  affirms  he 
married  Katherine  Gilbert,  but  subsequently,  in  his  table  of 
the  Kalegh  family,  he  corrected  this,  and  against  his  name 
simply  added,  "died,  leaving  illegitimate  issue"  (406,  639). 

la.  His  son  George  (No.  2)  is  thus  entered  in  the  Eegister 
of  "  Christenings,"  Withycombe  Kaleigh : 

'*  1567.  George  Rauleigh  the  xxi*^  daye  of  December." 
His  University  career  is  thus  noted  in  Boase's  Reg.  Coll. 
Eo:on.  Ox.,^  "  George  Ealeigh  or  Eawlye,  pleb.  of  Exmouth, 
M[atriculated]  14  Oct,  1586,  age  18,  B.A.  9  July  1590,  at 
Inner  Temple,  1595."  He  married  in  1597,  as  shown  by  an 
entry  in  the  Act  Book  of  Bishop  Babington,  recording,  on 
April  15th  of  that  year,  a  licence  of  marriage  being  granted 
bet\veen  "  Georgio  Eawley  ats  Blake  de  Withiecombe  Kawley 
gerf  et  Mar^^  Drake  de  ead.'^" 

(Is  not  this  an  evidence  of  his  illegitimacy  ?  Blake  being 
probably  his  mother's  name.  How  else  could  he  assume  it  ?) 
Westcote  affirms  she  was  the  "daughter  of  Thomas  Drake, 
of  Harpford  "  (536).  The  ceremony  took  place  in  the  month 
after  his  father's  funeral.  His  children  are  thus  recorded  in  the 
baptismal  ("Christenings")  register  of  Withycombe  Ealeigh: 

1600.   "George  the  sonne  of  m^  George  Eauleigh  the  xi*^  daye 
of  December  1600." 

1602.   "Marye  the  daughter  of   m^  Gorge  Ealeghe  the  xiij  of 
februarye  1602." 

1604.  "  John  Ealeghe  the  sonne  of  m"^  George  Ealeghe  was  the 

vj*^  daye  of  Maye  1604." 

1605.  "  Margeret  Ealegh  the  daughter  of  m^  George  Ealeghe  the 

xij*i»  daye  of  Septemb.  1605." 

1606.  "Jane  Ealegh  the  daughter  of   m^  George  Ealegh  the 

xxvjti^  daye  of  October  1606." 
1608.   "Drake  Ealegh  the  sone  of  m''  George  Ealeghe  the  v*^^  of 
maye  1608."^ 

''  It  is  curious  that  Mary,  Walter's  daughter  by  his  second  wife,  is  reported 
to  have  married  Hugh  Snedall,  of  Exeter.  And  William  Sanderson,  who 
wrote  a  History  of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James,  containing  calumnious 
statements  about  Sir  Walter  Ralegh,  answered,  it  is  said,  by  his  son  Carew, 
'•'was  husband  to  Ralegh's  niece,  Margaret  Snedall."     (Stebbing,  242,  3.) 

^  Commoners,  1894,  266. 

^  The  Registers  had  evidently  been  examined  by  Westcote  and  by  Dean 
Milles,  each  recording  the  six  names. 


RALEGH  AN  A.  17 

Of  these  children,  the  Eegisters  yield  us  the  following 
information  : 

Mary  married  John  Wermau,  January  16th,  1626-7,  and 
had  issue. 

Margaret  married  Thomas  Whithorn  gen.,i  October  7th, 
1628,  and  had  issue. 

Jane  married  Henry  Collin,  January  3rd,  1632-3. 

Drake  died  January  20th,  1640-1. 

(The  surname  acted  as  the  first  name  of  a  local  family : 
"  Eauleigh  Toller  "  is  recorded  several  times  in  the  Eegisters 
between  1582  and  the  close  of  the  century.) 

His  death  is  thus  entered  in  the  Burial  Eegister  of  the 
same  parish  : 

"  m'  George  Ealeghe  the  xxiij  day  of  October  1616  " 

Pole  states  that  the  Withycombe  Ealeigh  property  was, 
"  by  S""  Carew  Ealegh,  sold  unto  George  Ealegh,  base  Sonne 
unto  George,  elder  brother  unto  S*"  Carew,  whose  sonne  doth 
now  enjoy  it  "  (155). 

lb.  George  (No.  3).  the  son  alluded  to  in  the  extract  from 
Pole's  work  just  quoted,  married  the  "second  daughter  to 
Gideon  Haydon  of  Cadhay  in  Otlery  St.  Mary,  esq."^ 

His  earlier  history  is  thus  given  in  Boase's  Beg.  Coll.  Exon. 
Ox.^ :  "  George  Ealeigh  or  Eawleigh,  1  s.  George,  Esq.,  of 
Withecombe  Ealeigh,  near  Exmouth,  M[atriculated]  17  Dec. 
1619  age  19,  adm.  to  Bodleian  30  Aug.  1625,  at  Inner 
Temple  1623." 

The  Withycombe  Ealeigh  Eegisters  are  signed  at  the 
bottom  of  the  page  of  1640-1  by 

"Georgio  P^alegh\p       ,.        ,.,,  „ 
William  Peeke  j  ^^^'^^'^'''  ^^^^• 

2.  John.  The  earliest  notice  of  him  we  possess  has  been 
already  recorded  in  the  account  of  Hayes,  of  which  he  was, 
with  his  father,  the  co-lessee,  in  1551.  He  married  "Anna 
daughter  of  Bartholomew  Fortescue  of  Filley  in  com.  Devon, 
Esq."*  Sir  W.  E.  Drake  has,  in  error,  stated  she  was  the 
wife  of  George  Ealegh,^  and  the  relict  of  Gaverick  of  Ford.^ 

1  Probably  a  near  relation  of  Captain  Richard  Whitbourne,  of  Exmouth, 
author  of  A  Discourse,  etc.,  of  New-Joiind-laml,  1620,  vide  Dev.  Assoc,  xxv. 
90  ;  xxvii,  340  et  seq. 

2  Westcote,  536.  ^  Commoners,  1894,  266. 

■*  Harrison  pedigree  ;  cf.  Holland  pedigree  and  Vivian's  Visitations  (639). 
^  Devonshire  Notes,  244, 

^  Westcote,  536,  and  Oldys,  i.  10  ;  the  latter  records  the  name  as 
*'  Gaicrick." 


18  RALEGH  ANA. 

With  his  brother  George,  his  name  appears  in  the  list  of  sea- 
captains  on  January  6th,  1585-6.  We  next  hear  of  him  in 
the  following  entry,  transcribed  from  the  Churchwardens' 
Accounts  of  Woodbury : 

"1587-8.  Rec'^  of  John  Eawleigh  for  the  litell  AUe  howsse 
iiij«." 

Part  of  the  common  rented  by  him  was  in  Woodbury 
parish. 

On  the  death  of  his  brother  George,  in  1596-7,  he  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Fardel  estate,  which  he  subsequently  sold  to 
his  step-brother.  Sir  Carew  Ralegh.^  Although  Oldys  states 
that  he  had  issue,  both  Pole  and  Westcote  affirm  the  con- 
trary. No  entry  referring  to  him,  or  to  them,  can  be  found 
in  the  Registers  of  Withycombe  Raleigh  ;  but  in  the  account 
of  the  Church  of  that  place,  in  the  MS.  of  Dean  Milles,  the 
place  of  his  interment  and  his  epitaph  are  thus  recorded : 

"In  the  middle  of  y^  Alley  of  y®  ^orth  Isle  on  a  flat  grave- 
stone, on  which  is  carved  a  cross,  is  y®  following  inscription  : — 

"  '  Of  your  cheryte  pray  for  y^  soil  of  Johan  Ralyghe  (Pater- 
noster and  Ave)  who  departed  y®  15*^^  daye  of  December 
mvcxxix.' "  ^ 

It  is  open  to  doubt  whether  this  memorial  refers  to  the 
same  John  Ralegh  of  whom  we  have  been  writing,  and  this 
is  caused  solely  by  the  assigned  date  upon  it  being  1629.  If 
Walter's  son  John  was  21  years  old  when  he  became  co-lessee 
of  Hayes,  in  1551,  he  would  be  aged  about  99  at  the  time  of 
his  recorded  death,  in  1629.  It  is,  however,  possible  that  he 
was  considerably  under  age  at  that  time,  and  we  possess  a 
good  precedent  for  this  in  the  lease  of  the  tithes  of  fish,  &c.,  of 
Sidmouth,  granted  in  1560  to  "Walter  Raleye  thelder  esquir 
and  Carowe  Raleye  and  Walter  Raleye  the  younger  sonnes  of 
the  same  Walter,"^  when  young  Walter  was  only  eight  years  of 
age,  and  his  brother  Carew  not  more  than  two  years  his  senior. 
That  he  was  George's  brother  is  indicated  by  the  circum- 
stance that  he  continued  to  his  life's  end  in  the  same  faith  as 
his  mother. 

No  incised  gravestone  is  at  present  discoverable  in  "y® 
Alley  of  y^  North  Isle  "  of  the  church,  but  there  is  an  oblong 
flat  stone,  apparently  of  Purbeck  marble,  answering  to  the 
position  described  by  Dean  Milles ;  but  whatever  inscription 

7  Pole,  322. 

^  "  1529  "  is  crossed  through  here,  and  these  letters  inserted. 

^  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  173. 


RALEGHAXA.  19 

it  may  have  borne  originally  has  long  since  been  worn  away. 
(The  under  surface  is  rough.)^ 

II.  Child  hy Ralegh  (second  wife). — According  to  the 

Visitation  of  Devon  of  1564,^  there  was  no  issue  ('*s.p.")  by 
the  second  marriage  ;  but  Westcote  (536)  affirms  that  there 
was  ;  and  Oldys^  states  that  it  was  "  a  daughter  named  Mary, 
who  was  married  to  Hugh  Snedale,  of  Hilling  in  Cornwall, 
esq.,"  and  Oldys  adds,  "  and  had  issue."  An  enlargement 
and  slight  modification  of  this  is  given  in  Vivian's  work  : — 

"Mary,  only  da.  mar.  13  Oct.  1563,  at  St  Mary  Arches  to  Hugh 
Snedallof  Exeter"^ 

III.  Children  hy  Katherine  Ralegh  (third  wife). — 1.  Careui 
The  third  son  of  Walter  Ealegh  and  the  eldest  child  by  his 
third  wife;  born  circ.  1550.  In  the  Harrison  pedigree  he  is 
named  "  Gary,"  and  in  that  of  St.  George  as  ''  Gharles  or 
Carew." 

The  earliest  mention  we  find  of  him  is  in  the  Sidmouth 
lease  of  the  tithes  of  fish,  &c.,  in  1560,  and  again  in  1578  ;^ 
next  among  those  who  adventured  with  Sir  H.  Gilbert,  "  in 
monny  or  comodities,"  on  December  12,  1582,^  where  his 
name  appears  as  "M^  Carrowe  rawley  esq."  On  July  31, 
1584,  a  Commission  by  the  Lord  High  Admiral  was  issued 
"  to  Sir  Francis  Drake  and  Carew  Eawley,  Esquire,  for  the 
apprehension  of  pirates,  &c."'^  His  name  is  included  in  the 
list  of  "  Sea  Captayns,"  in  January,  1585-6,  when  there  was 
an  alarm  of  invasion.*  He  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  of  Sir 
Gilbert  and  John  Gary,  dated  July  27,  1588,  as  desiring  to 
have  some  pieces  of  ordnance  for  Portland.  Castle.^  A 
"  certificate  by  Garu  Eawligh  of  the  tinners,"  relative  to  their 
exception  from  contribution,  is  dated  September  30  of  the 
same  year.^     He  is  alluded  to  in  a  document  of  February  18, 

1  The  writer  begs  to  acknowledge  the  attention  and  courtesy  of  the  Vicar, 
the  Rev.  G.  P.  de  Patron,  in  affording  him  every  assistance  in  the  examina- 
tion of  the  sites  of  the  graves  of  George  and  John  Kalegh,  as  mentioned  by 
Dean  ^lilies  ;  and  also  for  facilitating  his  investigation  of  the  parochial 
records,  for  references  to  members  of  the  Ralegh  family. 

2  Ed.  Colby,  180. 

^  i.  10,  quoting  from  the  Visitation,  also  of  1564,  from  a  MS.  in  the 
Heralds'  Otfice,  by  William  Hervy,  Esq.,  Clarencieux — this  one  is  not 
mentioned  in  Colby's  list,  at  p.  4  of  his  work. 

■*  639.  Stated  to  be  taken  from  the  Parish  Register  of  St.  Mary  Arches, 
Exeter  ;  but  the  Rector  informs  the  writer  that  no  marriages  are  recorded  in 
the  Register  of  that  year. 

■^  Dcv.  Assoc.  XV.  173,  4.  ^  S.P.  Dom.,  Eliz.,  vol.  clvi.  13. 

^  Ibid,  clxxii.  38.  ^  jj^vZ.  clxxxvi.  8. 

^  Ibid,  ccxiii.  43.    Letter  printed  at  length  in  Notes  and  Gleanings,  i.  83. 

^  Ibid,  ccxvi.  48. 

VOL.    XXVIIL  U 


20  RALEGH  AX  A. 

1589.  On  March  (1?),  1591,  his  name  appears  with  that  of 
Sir  Walter,  relative  to  four  ships,^  and  on  26th  of  the  follow- 
ing October  respecting  the  sale  of  a  quantity  of  dried  fish 
taken  in  a  prize.^  He  is  alluded  to  in  a  letter  written  in 
1594,  relating  to  victuals  to  be  provided  at  Weymouth  for 
the  Brest  expedition.* 

In  1601,  just  before  the  departure  of  Queen  Elizabeth  from 
Basing  House,  where  she  had  been  entertained  by  the 
Marquess  of  Winchester,  she  "made  eleven  knights,  one 
being  M'^  Carew  Eawleigh."^  He  married  "  Dorothie  da:  of 
gr  ^m  Wroughton  K*  the  relict  of  Jo :  Thynne  of  Longleate 
K*."  (St.  George  pedigree.)  To  the  latter  he  had  been 
"gentleman  of  the  horse." ^ 

The  Fardel  property,  which  came  into  his  possession  at  the 
death  of  his  step-brother  John,  "  hee  sold  unto  Walter  Hele 
of  Cornwood " ;  and  that  in  Withycombe  Ealeigh  he  "  sold 
unto  George  Ealegh  [No.  2],  base  sonne  unto  George,  elder 
brother  unto  S""  Carew."  (Pole,  155,  322.)  He  probably 
parted  with  his  Devonshire  property  on  the  occasion  of,  and 
prior  to,  his  retirement  into  Wiltshire,  where  he  subsequently 
married,  his  residence  being  Downton  House,  a  few  miles 
from  Salisbury.  He  was  living  in  1623,  but  the  date  of  his 
death  is  unknown. 

Of  him  Aubrey  remarked,  "  I  have  heard  my  grandfather 
say  that  S'"  Carew  had  a  delicate  cleare  voice,  and  played 
singularly  well  on  the  olpharion  (w^^  was  the  instrument  in 
fashion,  in  those  dayes),  to  which  he  did  sing."  He  describes 
the  instrument  to  be  "  as  big  as  a  lute,  but  flat-bellyed,  with 
wire  strings."^ 

According  to  the  Harrison  pedigree  he  had  three  sons, 
Gilbert,  Walter,  and  George ;  all  born  in  Wiltshire.  The 
second  one  was  the  ill-fated  Dean  Ealeigh,  the  author  of 
Reliquice  Raleghance  (a  collection  of  thirteen  Sermons  and 
Discourses  printed  in  1679),  who  was  killed  by  a  soldier, 
circ.  1645. 

2.  Walter  Ralegh,  afterwards  Sir  Walter  Ealegh. 

3.  Margaret.  Whether  she  w^as  born  before  or  after  Sir 
Walter  is  unknown ;  is  not  mentioned  by  Pole,  or  in  the 
Harrison  pedigree.  She  appears  in  the  Holland  pedigree  as 
"  Margareta "  and  "  Margery."     According  to  Westcote   she 

2  S.  P.  Bom.,  Eliz.,  ccxxxviii.  63.  ^  jn^^  cxlii.  44,  98. 

4  BisL  MSS.  Com.,  Hatfield  MS.,  pt.  iv.  563. 

^  Baigent  and  Millard's  ifw^.  of  Basingstoke,  416. 

^  Aubrey,  Letters,  &c.,  ii.  510,  ''  Ibid.  Letters,  &c.,  ii.  510. 


RALEGHANA.  2 1 

was  "  married,  first  to  [Lawrence]  Eadford  of  Mount-Eadford, 
esq.,  clerk  of  the  peace ;  secondly  to  [George]  Hull,  of  Lark- 
bear  near  Exeter,  esq."  (536.)  Her  marriage  to  "  Lawrence 
Eadford"  is  noted  in  the  Visitation  of  1564,^  but  as  he  did 
not  die  until  1590,  the  second  husband  is  not  alluded  to. 
The  name  appears  as  "  John  Eadford "  in  Edwards'  work ; 
certainly  an  error.^ 


4.    DEATH  AND   INTERMENT   OF  WALTER   RALEGH  AND 
HIS   WIFE. 

Hitherto  nothing  has  been  known  of  the  deaths  of  Walter 
Ealegh  and  his  third  wife,  and  little  but  surmise  as  to  the 
place  of  their  interment.  Eecent  researches  have,  however, 
thrown  light  upon  both. 

The  well-known  letter,  written  by  Sir  Walter  to  his  wife, 
in  December,  1603,  when  under  sentence  of  death  at  Win- 
chester, contains  this  paragraph : 

"  Begg  my  dead  body,  which  living  was  denyed  you  ;  and  either 
lay  itt  att  Sherborne  if  the  land  continue,  or  in  Exiter  church,  by 
my  father  and  mother."^ 

This  has  generally  been  supposed  to  be  intended  for  Exeter 
Cathedral :  an  opinion  entertained  by  Wood,^  and  thus 
emphasized  by  Edwards:^  "Sir  Walter's  father  and  his 
mother  are  buried  in  Exeter  Cathedral."'*  According  to  the 
Eev.  Chancellor  Harington,  the  monument  usually  assigned 
to  them  was  "erected  to  the  memory  of  'Sir  John  Gilbert 
and  Lady.' "5 

The  late  Mr.  Eobert  Dymond,  during  his  examination  of 
the  Eegisters  of  St.  Mary  Major,  Exeter,  drew  the  attention 
of  the  writer  to  the  following  entries  amongst  the  burials : 

1580-1.   "M""  Walter  Eawlye  gentelman  was  buriede  the  xxiij*^ 

of  februarye." 
1583,  May  13.   "  Joane  Courtney,  serv*  to  M"-  Eawley." 

8  Ed.  Colby,  180.  »  Cf.  Vivian,  637,  639.  ^  Edwakds,  ii.  207. 

2  ii.  243.  3  I  15^ 

*  Aubrey  dissented  from  this.     Cf.  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  175. 

^  N.  and  Q.  5th  S.  viii.  515.  The  only  tomb  to  a  member  of  this 
family  recorded  in  the  Monuvientarium  of  the  Cathedral,  by  the  Rev.  J.  W. 
Hewett,  is  that  of  Richard  Gilbert,  D.D.,  who  died  in  1524  {E.D.A.S.  iii. 
110).  There  is,  in  the  south  choir  aisle  of  the  Cathedral,  an  "effigy  of  a 
knight  in  armour,  cross-legged,  said  to  commemorate  one  of  the  Chichester 
family"  {Ibid.  108  ;  cf.  History  of  the  Chichester  Family,  17),  and  attributed 
to  the  14th  century.  Mr.  W.  Cotton  has  shown  that  it  may,  with  greater 
probability,  be  assigned  to  Sir  Henry  de  Ralegh,  who  died  circa  1301. 
{Gleanings from  Cath.,  dec,  Records,  1877,  5-10.) 

c  2 


22  EALEGHAXA. 

No  record  of  the  interment  of  Katherine  Ealegh  could  be 
found. 

In  the  course  of  last  year  (1895),  a  copy  of  her  will  was 
discovered  in  the  Probate  Eegistry  Office,  in  Exeter,*^  and  a 
transcript  is  now  given  in  extenso,  for  wdiich  the  writer  is 
indebted  to  the  late  Mr.  Winslow  Jones. 

"Probate  Eegistry  at  Exeter. 
"Consistory  Court  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Book  4,  fol.  430^^ 


"  Exceter  Testm  Katherina  Eawley     gen 

Deare  sonnes  by  my  Last  Will  and  Testament  I  most  earnestlie 
entreate  you  that  after  my  death  you  will  see  such  debts  to  be  satis- 
fied as  shalbe  demaunded  after  my  departure  and  that  you  will  see 
my  servants  satisfied  and  to  have  there  due  in  such  thinges  as  I 
have  bestowed  vpon  them  to  the  vttermost  farthinge  to  the  end  I 
may  ende  my  dayes  towards  god  w*^  a  pure  harte  and  fayth  full 
concience  and  so  I  bidd  you  all  farewell  The  xviij*^*^  day  of  Aprill 
1594. 

"Imprimis  due  to  John  Ynckle  a  Butcher  viij^\  Itm  due  to 
Henrie  EUett  the  Apothicarie  iij^^  xv^  Itm  due  to  M'  Bodley  the 
Marchante  xvij^  vj^  Itm  due  to  M'  Christofer  Spicer  to  the  brode 
gate  for  liveries  iiij^^  vj^  vj^  Itm  due  to  Marie  Weare  xx^  Itm  due 
to  Emline  Baker  the  greate  salte  in  parte  of  payment  for  xP  Itm  I 
giue  to  Mris  Katherine  Hooker  the  bedd  wherein  I  lie  performed 
my  saddle  and  saddle  Clothe  pfourmed  the  little  salte  and  two 
spones  one  payer  of  hollande  sheets  the  little  horde  w'^^  the  greene 
Carpett  Itm  I  give  to  Marie  Weare  all  the  apparell  that  I  weare 
besides  a  writiuge  that  she  hathe  to  showe  Itm  to  Joane  Jellicott  I 
give  xx^  Itm  I  give  to  Johane  Wise  x^  Itm  I  give  to  Jaces  Waye 
xx^  Itm  I  give  to  mother  Cosens  x^  Arthure  Gilbert  Nicholas 
Bolte  and  Eichard  Jarman  Wittnisses 

"Administratio  bonorum  suprascripte  Katherina  Eawley  generose 
"  Commissa  fuit  per  magistrum  doctorem  Sutcliffe  xj°  maii  1594 
"  Domino  Johanni  Gilberte  militi  eius  filio 

"Exhibitumest    )    ixiiU  xin«  iiiid  " 
Inventorium  ad  j        "^        J       J 


'''"Civitas  Ex  on.  Administratio  bonorum  Katherine  Eaweleighe 
xj*'  Maii  Anno  Domini  1594.  Venerabilis  vir  M'  Doctor  Sutcliffe 
commisit  administrationeni  bonorum  Katherine  Eaweleighe  generose 
nuper  parochie  sancte  Marie  maioris  Civitas  Exonie  filio  suo 
Domino  Johanni  Gilberte  militi.  Et  habet  ad  exhibendum 
Inventorium  citra  festum  sancti  Johannis  Baptiste  proximum." 

^  Book  4,  fol.  430&-446J.  It  is  unnoticed  in  C.  Worthy's  recently  published 
work  on  Devonshire  Wills.  "^  fol.  4466. 


RALEGHANA.  23 

This  will — apart  from  the  interesting  particulars  as  to  the 
gifts  recorded  in  it — is  of  great  importance  to  us,  in  showing 
that  Katherine  Ralegh  was  resident  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary 
Major,  and  that  Walter  llalegh,  who  was  interred  in  the 
church  belonging  to  it,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  must 
have  been  her  husband.  Her  widowhood  of  thirteen  years  is 
quite  sufficient  to  explain  the  absence  of  her  name  from  the 
Burial  Register,  inasmuch  as  she  died  in  1594,  and  the 
Register,  from  1591,  is  wanting  for  many  consecutive  years. 
Their  residence  in  this  parish  is  corroborated  by  Izacke. 
In  his  Memorials  of  Exeter  (1681)  he  relates,  under  the  year 
1618,  an  account  of  the  trial  and  death  of  Sir  W.  Ralegh, 
and  concludes  his  notice  thus : 

"  Some  say  that  he  was  born  at  Budley  in  Devon,  others,  that  he 
was  a  Native  hereof,  and  born  in  the  house  adjoyning  to  the  Palace- 
gate,  on  either  account  as  our  Countrey-man,  I  held  it  unfit  to  pass 
him  by  altogether  in  silence"  (147). 

The  comment  of  Oldys  upon  this  statement  of  Izacke, 
that  it  "  has  no  authority,  and  perhaps  had  not  so  much  as 
rumour  to  countenance  it,"^  is  correct  enough  with  respect  to 
its  not  having  been  the  place  where  Sir  Walter  was  born,  and  to 
this  alone.  Izacke's  testimony  of  the  Raleghs  having  resided  in 
a  house  "  adjoyning  to  the  Palace-gate,"  is  confirmed  by  the 
passage  in  the  will,  recording  that  Katherine  Ralegh  was 
•'  nuper  parochie  sancte  Marie  maioris,"  the  street  known  as 
Palace-gate  separating  that  parish  from  the  precincts  of  the 
Cathedral.  We  must  bear  in  mmd  that  Richard  Izacke 
(1624-1698)  was  born  within  six  years  of  Sir  Walter's 
execution,  and  within  living  memory  of  those  who  could 
testify  to  the  Exeter  residence  of  the  Ralegh  family. 

In  what  year  Walter  Ralegh  and  his  wife  left  Hayes,  for 
Exeter,  w^e  are  unaware ;  but,  in  all  probability,  several  had 
elapsed  prior  to  his  death,  in  1581,  when,  according  to  the 
data  already  given,^  he  must  have  been  about  85  years  old ; 
and,  as  his  widow  survived  him  for  13  years,  she  was  probably 
much  younger  than  he  was  at  the  time  of  their  marriage. 

The  selection  of  a  residence  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary 
Major  may  have  been  influenced  by  the  number  of  Katherine 
Ralegh's  kinspeople — the  Gilberts — dwelling  there,  judging 
from  the  number  of  that  family  recorded  in  the  Registers. 

Doubtless  some  memorial  in  stone,  to  the  memory  of  Sir 
Walter's  parents,  was  erected  in  the  old  Parish  Church,  but 
all  traces  thereof  have  vanished. 

8  i.  12.  ^  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  165. 


24  KALEGHANA. 

At  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  in  1581,  Sir  Walter  was 
serving  in  Ireland.  He  was  living  at  Sherborne  in  1594, 
when  his  mother  died. 

5.  BIRTH-YEAR  OF  SIR  W.  RALEGH. 

In  what  year  ^vas  Sir  AValter  Ealegh  born  ?  is  a  question 
that  has  not  been  answered  by  his  biographers  as  satis- 
factorily as  could  be  wished.  The  earliest  memoirs  of  him, 
by  Winstanley  and  Shirley,  as  well  as  one  of  the  latest  and 
most  important — that  by  E.  Edwards — make  no  allusion  as 
to  the  date  of  his  birth,  nor  to  his  age  at  death.  Although 
Oldys  does  not  record  Sir  Walter's  age  at  the  time  of  his 
beheadal,  he  gives  two  widely  different  authorities  for  re- 
cording the  year  when  he  was  born.     Here  is  the  first : 

"  I  find  the  computation  has  been  made,  from  Camden's  account 
of  his  age  at  his  death,  that  he  was  born  in  the  year  1552."^ 

This  is  evidently  based  on  a  statement  in  Camden's 
Annals  of  King  James  I.^  that  Ealegh  "  was  beheaded  in  the 
66*^  year  of  his  age  " ;  and  as  this  took  place  in  1618,  it 
points  to  1552  as  that  of  his  birth. 

The  second  is  thus  recorded  by  Oldys : 

"Herewith  corresponds  an  observation  I  have  found  in  an 
astrological  author,  who,  fixing  his  birth  in  the  sixth  year  of  King 
Edward  YI.  .  .  .  calls  it  '  a  year  remarkable  in  our  chronicles ; 
first,  for  that  strange  shoal  of  the  largest  sea-fishes,  which,  quit- 
ting their  native  waters  for  fresh  and  untasted  streams,  wandered 
up  the  Thames  so  high,  till  the  river  no  longer  retained  any 
brackishness ;  and  secondly,  for  that  it  is  thought  to  have  been 
somewhat  stained  in  our  annals  with  the  blood  of  the  noble 
Seymer,  duke  of  Somerset :  events  (says  he)  surprisingly  analogous 
both  to  the  life  of  this  adventurous  voyager,  sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
whose  delight  was  in  the  hazardous  discovery  of  unfrequented 
coasts,  and  also  to  his  unfortunate  death.'  "^ 

As,  however,  portents,  omens,  and  coincidences  are  not  at 
the  present  day  accepted  as  facts,  we  may  dismiss  from 
further  notice  any  consideration  of  Oldys'  second  reference. 

Another  age  is  thus  noted  by  W.  Stebbing,  Ealegh's  latest 
biographer : 

"  If  the  inscription   on  the  National   Portrait  Gallery  picture, 

1  Life  of  Sir  W.  R.,  in  Works  (1829),  i.  12. 

^   Vide  Kenxett's  Eist.  of  England,  ii.  (1706)  650. 

3  Quoted  by  Oldys  (12-13)  from  "Supplement  to  G.  Le  Neve's  Collection  of 
Nativities,  MS.  ^^c/ies  me,  fol.  9."  This  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Biblio- 
graphical Notes  appended  to  the  Memoir  of  W.  Oldys,  by  W.  Thorns 
(1862)  ;  nor  has  the  MS.  been  traced  to  any  library,  public  or  private. 


RALEGHANA.  25 

1588,  'aetatis  suae  34,'  and  that  on  Zucchero's  in  the  Dublin 
Gallery,  'aet.  44,  1598,'  be  correct,  his  birth  must  have  been,  not 
in  1552,  but  about  1554."^ 

The  same  author  describes  a  contemporary  miniature, 
preserved  at  Belvoir  Castle,  as  "of  especial  interest,  on 
account  of  the  age  inscribed,  sixty-five,  and  the  year,  1618, 
which  imply  a  belief  that  he  was  born  later  than  1552  "  (29). 

Two  remarkable  epigrams  on  Ralegh  are  contained  in 
vol.  103  of  State  Papers,  Domestic,  of  James  I.  sub.  Oct.  31, 
1618,  one  of  which  assigns  to  him  a  much  older  age. 

"  An  Epigram  of  S""  Walter  Rawely  beheaded  at  74  years  of  his  age. 

Who  best  did  calculate  the  life  of  man 

Found  threscore  and  ten  years  made  up  his  span 

If  more  then  to  suruiue  be,  to  be  dead 

Life  lost  not  Raweley  when  he  lost  his  head." 

The  second,  although  not  relevant  to  the  present  subject, 
may,  owing  to  its  being  comparatively  unknown,  find  a 
place  here. 

"Another. 
Hope  flattered  thee  though  lawes  did  life  convince 
Yet  thou  might'st  dy  in  fauour  of  thy  prince 
His  mercy  and  thy  liberty  at  last 
did  sealle  beleife,  and  make  opinion  fast 
In  truth,  when  time  had  puld  thee  out  of  Gayle 
And  newe  hopes,  had  sette  againe  newe  saille 
As  many  of  this  world  as  held  free  will 
Thought  thou  wert  safe  and  had'st  escapt  thy  ill 
But  nowe  wee  see,  that  thou  wert  bay'ld  by  fate 
To  line  or  dy,  as  thou  couldst  serue  our  state 
And  then  wert  lost,  when  it  was  vnderstood 
Thou  might'st  doe  harme,  but  could'st  not  doe  more  good." 

Attention  was  first  called  by  Mr.  A.  C.  Ewald  to  these 
pieces,  in  Gent!s  Mag.  for  1883  (cclv.  45),  and  subsequently 
in  Studies  Re-studied  (1885),  203,4.  The  foregoing  have  been 
transcribed  from  the  original  MS.  Mr.  Ewald  affirms  that, 
"  shortly  before  his  execution  Ealeigh  drew  up  [these]  two 
epigrams " ;  but  they  contain  inherent  evidence  of  having 
been  written  by  some  friend,  and  certainly  not  by  Ealegh 
himself  He  never  spelt  his  name  "  Eawely,"  or  "  Eaweley," 
and  could  not  have  asserted  he  was  seventy-four  years  of 
age,  as  that  would  have  placed  the  year  of  his  birth  m  1535, 
many  years  prior  to  the  marriage  of  his  mother  with  Walter 
Ealegh.^     We  may   therefore   conclude  he   could  not  have 

^  Memoir  {l^n),  6. 

5  The  paper  on  which  the  epigrams  are  written  bears  no  watermark,  and 
the  handwriting,  in  the  opinion  of  Miss  Toulmin  Smith,  is  "  not  later  than 
the  middle  of  the  17th  century." 


26  IJALEGHAXA. 

been  seventy-four  years  of  age  in  1618.  That  he  was  born 
in  155-1  is  much  more  probable.  The  Baptismal  Register  of 
East  Budleigh,  the  parish  in  which  he  was  born,  renders  us 
no  assistance,  as  the  earliest  entry  is  dated  1556. 

The  first  husband  of  Katherine  Champernown,  the  mother 
of  Sir  Walter,  was  Otho  Gilbert,  of  Compton,  who  died  on 
Feb.  18,  15-17.  Allowing  at  least  a  year  for  her  widowhood, 
we  may  fairly  infer  that  she  married  her  second  husband, 
Walter  Ralegh,  some  time  in  1548.  Three  children  were 
the  issue  of  this  union ;  Carew,  the  eldest,  Walter,  and  a 
daughter.  Whether  the  latter  was  the  second  or  third  child 
is  unknown  ;  but  assuming  that  Walter  was  the  youngest, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  he  was  born  in  1552.  If  Wood 
be  correct,  that  in  1568,  or  thereabouts,  he  became  a 
commoner  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,*'  he  (Ralegh)  would  in 
that  year  be  sixteen  years  old;  and  many  of  his  con- 
temporaries went  to  the  University  about  the  same  age.'^ 
This  has  been  generally  accepted  by  biographers  as  correct. 
If  born  in  1554,  he  might,  in  1568,  have  been  considered  too 
young  to  be  sent  to  College,  as  he  certainly  was  for  foreign 
military  service,  which,  according  to  Camden,  he  entered 
upon  in  the  year  following  (1569),  as  recorded  in  his  Annates 
(1635),  117: 

"The  Queene  .  .  .  permitted  Henry  Champernoun  ...  to 
leade  into  France  a  Troupe  of  a  hundred  voluntary  Gentlemen  on 
horse-backe  .  .  .  Amongst  these  .  .  .  were  .  .  .  Francis  Barkley, 
and  Walter  Ralegh  a  very  young  man,  who  now  began  first  to  be 
of  any  eminent  note." 

There  is  some  confusion  in  the  statements  made  about 
Ralegh's  movements  at  the  University.  Wood  affirms  that 
"  C.  Champernowne,  his  kinsman,  studied  there  at  the  same 
time,"  and  that  "  after  he  had  spent  about  three  years  "  there, 
"  he  left  the  University  without  a  degree  "  (ii.  235).  Foster, 
in  his  Alumni  Oxon.,  accepts  1568  as  the  date  of  Ralegh's 
entrance  ;  at  the  same  time  it  appears  that  his  name  is 
entered  in  the  College  Books  as  "  W.  Rawley,"  in  1572,  in 
the  same  year  as  C.  Champernowne.^  At  first  sight  this  is 
irreconcilable  with  his  journey  into  France  in  1569,  where 
he  is  recorded  to  have  remained  three  years.  (Edwards 
states  six,  i.  21.)  Stebbing  suggests  that  his  name  may  have 
been  retained    in  the   Oriel  list    until   1572    (9),   and   this 

«  Ath.  Ox.,  ed.  Bliss,  ii.  235. 

7  Camden  (1551-1623)  went  to  Oxford  in  1566  ;  Haklnyt  (1553-1616)  in 
1570  ;  Sir  P.  Sidney  (1554-1586)  in  1569. 
^  Reg.  Univ.  Ox.,  A.  Clark,  ii.  pt.  2,  40, 


RALEGHANA.  27 

appears  to  be  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  the  list  in  which 
Ealegh's  name  appears  is  headed  "  Lists  of  Members  on  the 
College  Books  (1563-lo83)."9 

A  due  consideration  of  all  these  circumstances  leads  to 
the  belief  that  Camden's  statement,  from  which  we  infer 
Ealegh's  birth-year  to  have  been  1552,  to  be  correct. 

6.    BOYHOOD   OF   SIR   W.    RALEGH. 

Of  the  manner  in  which  he  passed  his  boyhood,  or  how  he 
was  educated,  we  do  not  possess  any  direct  evidence ;  and  a 
similar  statement  may  be  made  of  many  of  those  prominent 
individuals  who  lived  during  the  Elizabethan  period.  Only 
one  fact  connected  with  the  period  of  his  youth  is  known, 
viz.,  that  in  1660,  when  he  was  eight  years  of  age,  and  the 
year  prior  to  his  father's  election  as  churchwarden,  his 
signature  is  appended  to  a  deed  below  that  of  his  father 
and  brother,^  and  the  writing  is  remarkably  good.  A  man 
with  the  large  amount  of  brain  power  he  possessed,  with  so 
many  faculties  highly  developed,  must  have  had  these 
gradually  and  well  trained  in  his  early  youth,  and  we  can 
have  little  doubt  that  much  of  his  intellectual  vigour  was 
derived  from  his  mother;  partly  from  heredity,  and  partly 
from  her  tuition.  She  must  have  possessed  great  mental 
endowments  and  physical  energy;  "an  especially  grand 
woman  indeed,"  exclaimed  Kingsley,  "for  few  can  boast  of 
having  borne  to  two  different  husbands  such  sons  as  she 
bore."  2 

The  vicar  of  the  parish  may  have  assisted  him  in  his  early 
studies,  and  if  he  went  to  school  at  all,  it  would  probably  be 
to  the  one  at  Ottery  St.  Mary,  instituted  in  1545.  Kingsley 
pictures  him  as  "a  daring  boy,  fishing  in  the  grey  trout- 
brooks,  or  going  up  with  his  father  to  the  Dartmoor  hills  to 
hunt  the  deer  with  hound  and  horn,"  &c.  (87.)    It  is,  however, 

^  Reg.  Univ.  Ox.,  ii.  pt.  2,  9.  Another  explanation  is  possible.  May  not 
Ralegh  have  entered  the  University  in  1572,  and  not  at  the  earlier  date  ? 
Two  circumstances  are  in  favour  of  it.  1.  His  kinsman,  C.  Champernowne, 
is  on  the  College  list  of  the  same  year,  and  he  took  his  B.A.  degree  in  1576. 
2.  Ralegh's  movements  between  1572  and  1576  are  unknown.  Although 
some  authors  affirm  that  he  was  in  Paris  during  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Day,  Aug.  24,  1572,  Stebbing  declares  "  there  is  no  foundation  for  the 
story."   (11.) 

^  Dev.  Assoc,  xv.  172-4. 

-  Works,  xvi.  (1880)  87.  Buckle,  the  historian,  remarked,  "I  shall  here- 
after, from  a  vast  collection  of  evidence,  prove  that  the  popular  opinion  is 
correct,  that  able  men  have  able  mothers."  [Life,  by  A.  H.  Huth,  i.  253.) 
It  is  noteworthy  that  neither  Ralegh  nor  Buckle  are  included  in  Mothers  of 
Great  Men  and  Women,  by  J.  A.  Holloway.    (Xew  York,  1884.) 


28  KALEGHANA. 

somewhat  strange,  that  although  he  was  no  doubt  accustomed 
to  manly  sports,  he  does  not  allude  to  them  in  his  works. 
Naunton's  remark  of  him  that  he  was  "an  indefatigable 
reader,"  2  was  probably  equally  as  true  in  his  boyhood  as  it 
was  in  his  manhood.  We  can  feel  certain  that  he  exhibited 
an  early  predilection  for  the  sea,  although,  as  Gosse  states, 
''  it  is  tantalising  that  we  have  not  the  slenderest  evidence  of 
the  mode  in  which  this  particular  schooling  was  obtained." 
(6.)  Still,  though  direct  knowledge  is  wanting,  we  have  to 
bear  in  mind  the  surroundings  of  his  early  years,  which 
serve  to  indicate  how,  daring  that  period,  he  became  acquainted 
with,  and  his  taste  was  fostered  for,  naval  pursuits.  We 
know  that  his  father  was  interested  in  shipping  matters.* 
During  his  visits  to  Exmouth,  Dartmouth,  and  Plymouth, 
the  youth  could  not  fail  to  hear  recounted  the  wondrous 
adventures  of  Drake,  Hawkins,  and  his  kinsmen,  the  Gilberts. 
Probably  he  accompanied  one  of  the  latter — Sir  Humphrey 
— on  some  of  his  voyages.  (Gosse,  7.)  Then,  again,  the  sea- 
coast  bounded  his  own  parish  to  the  south  in  the  bay  of 
Budleigh  Salterton — then  Salterton  or  Salterne — two  miles 
only  from  his  residence,  and  visible  from  the  ridge  immediately 
in  front  of  the  latter.  All  these  circumstances  could  not  fail  to 
tincture  the  mind,  and  to  influence  the  pursuits  of  his  future 
life.  This  form  of  naval  education  (if  such  it  can  be  termed) 
has  been  embodied  in  a  painting  by  the  late  Sir  J.  Millais, 
entitled  "The  Boyhood  of  Ralegh,"  suggested  (as  he  informed 
the  writer)  by  a  passage  in  Fronde's  England's  Forgotten 
Worthies,^  a  picture  less  familiar  to  the  public  than  the 
majority  of  his  works,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  has  never 
been  engraved.  It  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in 
1870,  and  is  of  especial  local  interest  owing  to  the  subject 
being  a  purely  Devonshire  one,  and  for  having  been  painted 
at  Budleigh  Salterton.  A  sunburnt  sailor,  seated,  is  relating 
his  history  to  two  boys,  his  right  arm  extended  towards  the 
south,  "  for  there  lies  the  Spanish  main,  the  scene  of  all  his 
troubles  and  adventures."  Young  Walter  "sits  up  on  the 
pavement,  and,  with  his  hands  locked  about  his  raised  knees, 
and  with  dreaming  eyes,  seems  to  see  El  Dorado,"  &c. ;  the 
other  boy,  "whose  intelligence  is  not  of  the  vision-seeing 
sort  .  .  .  lies  almost  at  length  on  the  ground,  leaning  his 
chin  within  both  his  hands."  ^  The  sailor  was,  at  the  time 
the  picture  was  being  painted,  a  resident  of  Budleigh  Salterton. 

^  Fragmenta  Regalia  (1641),  31.  ^  Dcv.  Assoc,  xv.  165,  6. 

5  Short  Studies,  iv.  (1868),  294-333. 

^  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Grosvenor  Gallery  (1886),  57. 


KALEGHANA.  29 

(Miss  Gibbons  informs  the  writer  that  he  was  a  swarthy- 
visaged  man,  named  Vincent,  a  native  of  Jersey,  and  well- 
known  for  being  the  ferryman  across  the  river  Otter  at  its 
mouth.)  In  the  Art  Annual  for  1885  (6),  there  is  the 
facsimile  of  a  sketch  of  the  sailor,  differing  somewhat  from 
that  in  the  finished  picture.  The  latter  "has  a  pathetic 
interest  of  its  own  in  the  fact  that  the  two  boys  in  it,  the 
dark  one  and  the  fair,  are  portraits  of  the  painter's  two  sons ; 
for  the  fair  boy  died  before  he  grew  into  a  man,  and  his  death 
has  been  the  grief  of  his  father's  life."^ 

One  interesting  circumstance,  that  seems  to  indicate  his 
prolonged  home  residence  during  his  early  years,  is  thus 
related  by  Aubrey : 

"Old  S'^  Thomas  Malett,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  King's 
Bench,  tempore  Car.  I.  et  II.,  knew  S^  W.  and  I  have  heard  him 
say,  that  notwithstanding  his  so  great  mastership  in  style,  and  his 
conversation  with  the  learnedest  and  politest  persons,  yet  he  spake 
broad  Devonshire  to  his  dying  day."^ 

History  repeats  itself;  while  Ralegh  is  affirmed  to  have 
spoken  "with  that  strong  Devonshire  accent  which  was  never 
displeasing  to  the  ears  of  Elizabeth"  (Gosse,  21),  the  late 
Earl  of  Iddesleigh,  when  Sir  Staflbrd  Northcote,  is  said  to 
have  amused  our  present  Queen  with  Devon  stories  in  their 
proper  dialect. 

7.  LADY   RALEGH. 

That  Elizabeth,  one  of  the  Queen's  maids  of  honour,  and 
the  daughter  of  Sir  Nicholas  Throgmorton,  "  an  able  states- 
man and  ambassador,"  was  the  lajvful  wife  of  Sir  Walter 
Ealegh,  has  never  been  questioned  by  any  writer ;  but  where 
and  when  the  marriage  ceremony  took  place  is  unknown, 
and  has  been  assigned  to  various  periods,  ranging  from  the 
latter  part  of  1591  to  the  corresponding  one  of  1592.  A 
grave  charge  has,  however,  been  made  against  him,  that  it 
was  preceded  by  intrigue,  "the  worst  action  in  his  whole 
life,"  as  it  was  termed  by  Prince.  This  assertion,  first  made 
by  Camden,  and  by  him  alone,  of  all  the  writers  of  his 
period,  has  been  accepted  as  true  by  the  majority  of  Ealegh's 
biographers,  down  to  a  recent  period.^     Some  modern  writers 

7  Ibid.  This  picture  formed  the  subject  of  a  poem  in  The  Grey  Friar,  ii. 
(1892)  98  ;  and  of  comment  in  The  English  School  of  Painting,  by  M.  Ernest 
Chesneau,  quoted  in  Ruskin's  Notes  of  the  works  of  Sir  J.  Millais  (1886),  31. 

^  Letters,  &c.,  ii.  519. 

^  Some  authors  have  gone  a  stage  further,  illustrations  of  which  will 
be  found  in  Lucy  Aikin's  Court,  d-c,  of  Queen  Elizabeth  (published  by 
Ward,  Lock  &  Co.,  n.d.,  428) ;  and  in  a  Memoir  of  Sir  W.  Ralegh,  by  S.  G. 
Drake  (1862),  23. 


30  EALEGHANA. 

believe  this  to  be  corroborated  by  the  contents  of  a  letter,  to 
which  attention  was  first  directed  by  J.  P.  Collier,  in  1851. 
Each  of  these  demands  a  separate  examination. 

The  work  of  W.  Camden,  well  known  under  the  short 
title  of  Annales,  published  1615-27,  contains  this  passage, 
remarkable  for  being  recorded  under  the  year  1595,  im- 
mediately prior  to  Ealegh's  voyage  to  Guiana,  instead  of 
under  1592 : 

"Ac  maiora  contra  Hispanos  quidam  Angli  priuate  &  Eegina 
publice  aggressi  sunt :  Walterius  enim  Raleighus  Regii  Satellitii 
Prsefectus,  honoraria  Eeginse  virgine  vitiata  (quam  postea  in  vxorem 
duxit)  de  gratia  deiectus  &  per  plures  menses  custodia  detentus, 
nunc  liber  factus  est  sed  ab  aula  relegatus  genio  suo  obsequutus 
est."  (Pt.  ii.  93,  4.) 

_  The  impression  left  on  the  mind  of  Ralegh's  latest 
biographer,  after  a  careful  consideration  of  the  foregoing 
quotation,  he  thus  records  : 

"  The  sole  independent  testimony  [of  the  intrigue]  is  the  single 
sentence  of  Camden's.  ...  If  Camden  had  not  spoken,  and  if 
Ralegh  and  she  had  not  stood  mute,  it  would  have  been  easy  to 
believe  that  the  imagined  liaison  was  simply  a  secret  marriage 
resented  as  such  by  the  Queen.  .  .  .  Had  contradiction  been 
possible,  Camden  would  have  been  contradicted  in  1615  by  Ralegh 
and  his  wife."^ 

At  first  sight,  this  appears  to  be  almost  unanswerable,  but 
much  of  the  effect  disappears  with  the  knowledge  that, 
whereas  the  first  part  of  Camden's  work  was  issued  in  1615, 
and  terminated  with  15^8— the  year  of  the  Armada,  the 
second  part,  containing  the  Ralegh  episode,  was  not  published 
until  1627 — nine  years  after  Sir  Walter's  death ! 

There  is  some  uncertainty  as  to  the  date  when  a  know- 
ledge of  the  occurrence,  whether  of  intrigue  or  marriage, 
first  reached  the  ears  of  the  Queen.  On  March  10,  1592, 
Ralegh  wrote  a  remarkable  letter  to  Sir  R.  Cecil,  in  which 
he  alludes  to  the  "mallicious  report"  of  his  asserted 
marriage.2  He  started  upon  a  naval  expedition  on  May  6, 
and  was  almost  immediately  summoned  back  again,  but  for 
what  reason  has  never  been  satisfactorily  explained.  The 
intrigue  or  marriage  could  not  have  been  known  to  the 
Queen  for  some  time  after,  as  on  June  8  he  addressed  a 
letter    to    Lord     Howard    of    Effingham,    "from    Durham 

1  W.  Stebbing,  Life  of  Ralegh  (1891),  89,  90. 

2  Edwards,  ii.  46.  Tytler,  in  his  Life  of  Ralcrih  (1833,  129),  believes  it  to 
have  been  written  "after  the  private  marriage  had  taken  place." 


KALEGHANA.  31 

House."=^  But  in  the  following  month,  July,  three  letters  of 
his  to  Sir  R.  Cecil  were  written  from  the  Tower, ■*  to  which 
place  he  had  been  sent  by  the  Queen. 

That  "Mrs.  Throgmorton "  was  imprisoned  at  the  same 
time,  we  learn  from  a  letter  of  Sir  E.  Stafford  to  Anthony 
Bacon,  dated  July  30,  1592,  containing  the  following 
passage : 

"Yff  you  have  anye  thinge  to  doe  with  S"^  Walter  Rawley  or 
anye  loue  to  make  to  W^  Throgmorton  att  the  Tower  to  morowe 
you  maye  speake  with  them  ytf  the  countermande  come  nott  to- 
night."^ 

The  Tower  imprisonment  must  not  be  accepted  as  proof  of 
the  offence  said  to  have  been  committed  by  Ralegh.  Eliza- 
beth was  accustomed  to  punish  her  favourites,  who  married 
without  her  consent,  by  consigning  them  to  a  prison,  and 
banishing  their  wives  from  Court ;  Leicester,  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, Essex,  Sir  T.  Perrott,  were  notable  examples.^ 

According  to  Mrs.  A.  T.  Thomson,  "  there  were  other  and 
deeper  sources  of  offence,"  that  led  to  Ralegh's  imprison- 
ment;  and  from  the  tenor  of  a  letter  WTitten  by  Cecil 
"there  is  considerable  reason  to  conckide  that  the  Queen's 
displeasure  had  some  reference  to  Ralegh's  appropriation 
of  certain  prizes,  which  Cecil,  with  other  commissioners,  was 
appointed  to  superintend."^  That  lady  has,  however,  mis- 
construed the  facts  of  the  case.  Cecil's  letter  of  September 
21  shows  that  Ralegh  had  been  sent,  although  still  a  prisoner 
C'y^  Queen  of  England's  poore  captive"),  to  Dartmouth,  to 
assist  in  partitioning  and  preventing  embezzlement  of  the 
spoil  forming  the  cargo  of  the  great  carrack,  the  Maclre  di 
Dios,  which  had  been  captured  during  Ralegh's  imprison- 
ment, and  by  his  ships.  Based  upon  a  letter,  dated  Sep- 
tember 23,  sent  by  "  a  correspondent  about  the  Court  of  the 
name  of  Colman,"  Collier  was  of  opinion  that  Ralegh  ceased 
to  be  a  prisoner  on  proceeding  to  Dartmouth  f  but  Cecil's 
testimony  shows  this  to  be  incorrect.  His  release  took  place, 
most  probably,  in  December  of   the  same  year.     Another 

3  Edwards,  ii.  46-8.      In  the  Cal.  S.  P.  it  is  stated  to  be  addressed  "to 
Lord  [Burghley]." 
•*  Edwards,  ii.  48-52.     None  of  the  three  records  the  actual  day. 

5  Transcript  kindly  supplied  by  Mr.  Kershaw,  the  librarian  of  Lambeth 
Palace,  from  Lamhcth  MSS.  648,  No.  123.  It  contains  verbal  differences 
from  the  version  printed  by  J.  P.  Collier,  in  Archceologia,  xxxiv.  160. 
Stebbing  affirms  the  date,  July  30,  to  be  "impossible.'^ 

6  Edwards,  i.  50-1,  135,  252  ;  Lives  of  the  Earls  of  Essex,  i.  160,  211  ; 
Oldys,  i.  180. 

'  Life  of  Ralegh  (1830),  92,  482-3.  ^  Archceologia,  xxxiv.  162. 


32  RALEGH  AN  A. 

author  affirms  that  Ealegh's  imprisonment  was  partly  on 
account  of  a  clandestine  attachment,  etc. ;  and  partly  on 
account  of  a  tract  which  he  had  published,  entitled  The 
School  for  Atheists?  a  work  unknown  to  bibliographers. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  a  letter  contained  in  a 
paper  by  J.  P.  Collier,  entitled  "  Continuation  of  New 
Materials  for  a  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh,"  printed  in 
Archceologia,  xxxiv.  160-170,  a  transcript  of  which  is  now 
given  at  length : 

'^  S.  W.  R.,  as  it  seemeth,  hath  beene  too  inward  with  one  of 
her  Ma*^^^  maides ;  I  feare  to  say  who,  but  if  you  should  guesse  at 
E.  T.  you  may  not  be  farre  wrong.  The  matter  hath  only  now 
been  apparent  to  all  eies,  and  the  lady  hath  been  sent  away,  but 
nobody  believes  it  can  end  there.  S.  W.  R.  hath  escaped  from 
London  for  a  tyme  ;  he  will  be  speedily  sent  for,  and  brought  back, 
where  what  awaiteth  him  nobody  knowetb,  save  by  coujecture. 
All  think  the  Tower  will  be  his  dwelling,  like  hermit  poore  in 
pensive  place,  where  he  may  spend  his  endlesse  daies  of  doubt.  It 
is  affirmed  that  they  are  marryed ;  but  the  Queen  is  most  fiercely 
incensed,  and,  as  the  bruit  goes,  threateneth  the  most  bitter  punish- 
ment to  both  the  offenders.  S.  W.  R.  will  lose,  it  is  thought,  all 
his  places  and  preferments  at  court,  with  the  Queen's  favour ;  such 
will  be  the  end  of  his  speedy  rising,  and  now  he  must  fall  as  low 
as  he  was  high,  at  the  which  manie  will  rejoice.  I  can  write  no 
more  at  this  time,  and  do  not  care  to  send  this,  only  you  will  hear 
it  from  others.  All  is  alarm  and  confusion  at  this  discovery  of  the 
discoverer,  and  not  indeed  of  a  new  continent,  but  of  a  new  in- 
continent" (161). 

If  this  letter  were  genuine,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  justify 
Camden's  assertion,  but  there  are  several  circumstances 
incident  to  it  of   an  adverse  character. 

In  some  prefatory  remarks  upon  it,  Collier  alludes  to  it 
as  "a  Letter  which  bears  only  the  date  of  1592,  without  the 
month  or  day,  in  my  possession,"  and  "must  have  been 
anterior  to  "  the  imprisonment.  He  then  adds,  "  It  does  not 
appear  to  whom  .  .  .  [it]  was  addressed,  nor  by  whom  it  was 
written,  the  concealment  having  probably  been  designed,  in 
consequence  of  the  peril  to  which  it  might  then  have  exposed 
the  parties"  (160-1). 

All  this  is  rendered  the  more  unsatisfactory  by  the  know- 
ledge that  it  has  never  been  recorded  by  any  other  author. 
Mr.  Collier  does  not  inform  us  from  whence  he  obtained  it, 
and  we  are  unaware  whether  it  was  ever  seen  by  anyone, 
excepting  himself.  Moreover,  since  his  death,  all  traces  of  it 
have  disappeared. 

»  Did.  of  Gen.  Biori.,  by  W.  L.  R.  Gates  (1881),  1087. 


«•  <» 


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jjxH  M^  ^v%x^  u 


«-«  ^CZj  (f»  <.*.(<',  ^^*-  ■'*^»«-.  '^^C*' 


RALEGHANA.  33 

A  great  portion  of  Collier's  MS.  collections,  in  his  own 
handwriting,  and  on  which  he  founded  his  papers  on  the 
''Life  of  Sir  W.  Ealegh,"  that  appeared  in  the  Archceologia, 
xxxiv.-xxxv.,  are  in  the  possession  of  the  writer,  and  amongst 
them  is  a  sheet,  containing,  what  appears  to  be  a  draft  copy  of 
this  very  letter,  in  Collier's  writing ;  and,  as  the  matter  is 
one  of  great  literary  importance,  a  facsimile  of  it  is  now 
given,  so  that  it  may  be  the  more  readily  compared  with 
the  printed  version. 

That  wide  differences  exist  between  them  is  at  once 
apparent.  In  the  following  comparison  of  their  respective 
contents,  the  first  word  or  phrase  is  taken  from  the  fac- 
simile;  the  second,  from  the  printed  version — I.  Verbal, 
e.g.  "  Q "  for  "  Majesty "  ;  "  suppose "  for  "  think."  II. 
Grammatical,  e.g.  "if  you  guess  at  E.  T.  you  will  not  be 
farre  wrong  "  for  "  if  you  should  guesse  at  E.  T.  you  may  not 
be  farre  wrong  " ;  "I  feare  to  say  which  "  for  "  I  feare  to  say 
who  " ;  "  bruit "  is  a  verb  in  one,  a  substantive  in  the  other. 
III.  Sentences  reconstructed ;  e.g.  "  what  awaiteth  him  I 
know  not  but  by  conjecture "  for  "  what  awaiteth  him 
nobody  knoweth  save  by  conjecture."  IV.  The  printed 
version  contains  several  important  additions,  especially  in 
the  latter  portion.  V.  Of  the  four  alterations  in  the  first 
(two  interpolations  and  two  erasures),  only  one — an  inter- 
polation— is  found  in  the  second.  True  it  is  they  are  of  that 
character  not  unlikely  to  occur  in  any  ordinary  draft  copy. 
It  is,  however,  noteworthy  that  of  55  letters,  &c.,  transcribed 
from  State  Papers,  and  other  sources,  by  Collier,  for  his 
Ealegh  articles  ;  also  of  a  similar  collection,  more  than  three 
inches  thick,  formed  by  him  towards  a  "  Life  of  the  Earl  of 
Essex  "  (unpublished),  all  in  his  own  handwriting,  on  letter- 
paper,  and  extending  in  some  instances  to  four  pages — all  of 
which  are  in  the  writer's  possession — no  one  sheet  contains 
so  many  alterations  as  are  shown  in  the  facsimile. 

VI.    The  facsimile  contains  this  couplet : 

"  Like  hermit  poore  in  pensive  place  obscure 
Where  he  may  spend  his  endless  days  of  doubt  " 

In  the  printed  copy  the  word  "  obscure  "  is  omitted,  and 
the  metrical  character  of  the  lines  is  thereby  changed. 
Collier  makes  some  comment  upon  the  poem  (of  which  the 
above  quotation  forms  the  opening  couplet),  and  of  its 
publication  the  year  after  the  date  of  the  letter  in  the 
Fhcenix  Nest,  and  that  owing  to  its  appearance  in  the  former, 
"it  ought  hereafter  to  be  added  to  the  productions  of  Ealeigh's 


34  RALEGHAXA. 

muse."  It  had,  however,  been  already  assigned  to  Sir  "Walter 
so  far  back  as  the  year  1644,  in  a  small  4to  of  eight  leaves, 
entitled  To-day  a  man,  To-morroio  none}  It  is  very  remark- 
able that,  in  his  Bibliographical  Catalogue,  published  in  1865 
(fourteen  years  after  he  had  read  his  paper  before  the  Society 
of  Antiquaries,  containing  the  letter  quoted),  and  including 
an  extended  account  of  this  poem,  there  should  be  no 
reference  to  this  letter  of  1592  for  containing  the  earliest 
notice  of  it. 

It  is  always  distressing  to  call  in  question  the  good  faith 
of  any  author;  but  after  a  due  consideration  of  the  foregoing 
statements,  it  is  simply  impossible  to  receive  the  letter  cited 
by  Collier  as  evidence  in  the  matter  sub  jvdice,  until  its 
genuine  character  is  either  proved,  or  further  light  is  able  to 
be  thrown  upon  it.  It  has  had  a  variable  effect  on  the 
various  biographies  of  Kalegh  that  have  been  issued  since 
1851.  Edwards  (1868),  although  quoting  from  Collier's  article 
in  the  Archceologia,  makes  no  allusion  to  this  letter.  Gosse 
remarks,  "  there  is  a  lacuna  in  the  evidence  as  to  what 
actually  happened  early  in  1592 ;  the  late  Mr.  J.  P.  Collier 
filled  up  this  gap  with  a  convenient  [sic]  letter,  which  has 
found  its  way  into  the  histories  of  Ealegh,  but  the  original 
of  which  has  never  been  seen  by  other  eyes  than  the  tran- 
scriber's" (56).  St.  John  (1869)  relies  upon  its  accuracy;  as 
does  also  Stebbing  (1891),  who  quotes  the  sentence,  "it  is 
affirmed  that  they  are  marryed,"  which  is  absent  from  the 
fac-simile  (90). 

Dismissing  Collier's  letter,  we  have  to' depend  solely  on  the 
assertion  of  Camden  as  to  Ealegh's  intrigue,  and,  in  doing  so, 
must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  second  part  of  his  work 
(published  in  1627)  recording  it  was,  to  use  Camden's  words, 
submitted  to  James  I.  for  "his  Majesty's  judicious  censure — 
whether  it  please  him  they  shall  be  suppressed  or  published, 
for  I  am  indifferent.  If  published,  whether  not  in  his  name, 
as  dictated  to  me  from  his  Majesty."- 

He  probably  heard  some  of  the  petty  gossip  of  Elizabeth's 
Court,  and  more  than  twenty  years  afterwards  published  what 
he  had  heard,  as  facts.  The  intrigue  of  1592  was  apparently 
unknown  until  the  publication  of  Camden's  work.  Men 
attending  the  same  Court,  contemporaries  of  Kalegh,  such 
as  Sir  R.  Naunton  and  Sir  R.  Winwood,  who  knew  much 
more  of  the  inner  life  of  the  Court  than  Camden  did,  make 

1  It  is  included  in  the  list  of  Ralegh's  writings  by  the  Rev.  J.  Hannah  in 
his  Courthi  Poets  (1870),  12,  13. 

2  Camden  Epistolce,  Ed.  Tho.  Smith  (1691),  letter  287. 


RALEGH  AN  A.  35 

no  allusion  to  it ;  nor  is  it  mentioned  in  any  lampoon  or 
ballad.  A  clandestine  marriage  was  quite  sufficient  for 
Elizabeth  to  order  both  offenders  to  be  imprisoned;  had  it 
taken  place  subsequent  to  this  imprisonment,  it  would  have 
been  more  easily  traced.  Stebbing  records  that  "  so  careful 
were  they  to  avoid  publicity  that  Lady  Ealegh's  brother, 
Arthur  Throckmorton,  for  some  time  questioned  the  fact, 
though  his  suspicions  were  dissipated,  and  he  became  an 
attached  friend  of  the  husband's "  (91) ;  which  he  would 
hardly  have  done  had  Ralegh  acted  dishonourably  to  his  sister. 

The  most  reasonable,  and  certainly  the  most  charitable 
conclusion,  is  that  arrived  at  by  two  modern  authors.  A.  C. 
Ewald  remarked,  '•'  he  [Ralegh]  proposed  and  was  accepted, 
and  the  lovers  were  secretly  united;  indeed,  so  secretly 
that,  according  to  some,  intrigue  had  preceded  marriage."^ 
And  the  present  Bishop  of  Peterborough  (Dr.  Creighton) 
has  thus  given  his  opinion :  "  Elizabeth  disgraced  her 
favourite  for  having  dared  to  marry  secretly  one  of  her 
maids  of  honour,  Elizabeth  Throgmorton."^ 

Of  the  marriage,  be  it  said  that,  to  his  life's  end,  Ralegh 
had  the  greatest  affection  for  his  wife  "  Bess."  Oldys^  affirms 
"  they  lived  together  ever  after  in  the  most  exemplary  degree 
of  conjugal  harmony  "  ;  and  in  his  letter  to  her  of  December, 
1603,  when  in  daily  expectation  of  being  executed,  he  spoke 
of  himself  as  having  "comforted  you  and  loved  you  in  his 
happiest  tymes."  ^  There  is  good  evidence  that  she  treasured 
up  his  memory  throughout  her  long  widowhood  of  twenty- 
nine  years.^ 

Two  authors  were  under  the  impression  that  Sir  Walter 
had  been  married  twice.  Thus  Aubrey,  writing  about  1680, 
stated,  "  He  had  2  wives ;  his  first  was  .  .  .  Throckmorton ; 
2d  .  .  .  mother  of  Carew  Ralegh,  2^  son."s  And  Sir  R. 
Schomburgk,  in  the  introduction  to  Ralegh's  Discoverie  of 
Gviana,^  remarked,  "we  recollect  having  seen  it  stated 
somewhere,  that  doubts  were  expressed  of  Elizabeth  Throg- 
morton's  having  been  his  first  wife."  There  is  no  evidence 
of,  or  reason  to  believe,  the  correctness  of  either  of  these 
statements. 

3  studies  Re-studied  (1885),  170.  "  Age  of  Elizabeth  (1888),  185. 

M.  180,  i.  6  Edwards,  ii.  286. 

''  Separate  miniatures  of  Sir  "Walter  and  his  son  are  preserved  at  Belvoir 
Castle,  together  with  an  enclosing  case  embellished  with  a  "  heart  and  other 
emblematic  ornaments"  and  the  intertwined  initials  W.E.R.  (Walter  and 
Elizabeth  Ralegh)  ;  no  doubt  worn  by  Lady  Ralegh  "in  memory  of  her  son 
and  husband."  Wood-cut  illustrations  and  description  are  given  in  the  Art 
Jouriialiox  X^xW,  1896,  103. 

8  Letters,  tfcc,  ii.  510.  «  Hakl.  Soc,  1848,  xliii. 

D 


86  KALEGHANA. 

8.  THE  CHILDREN  OF  SIR  W.  RALEGH. 

The  issue  of  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth  Throgmorton  was 
two  sons :  (1)  Walter ;  and  (2)  Carew. 

I.  Walter. — In  the  pedigree  of  the  Ealegh  family  by  Geo. 
Harrison,  Windsor  Herald/  is  the  following  entry : 

"Walter  Ralegh  Capt.  1  November,  1593,  at  Lillington.  Killed 
in  America,     s.p.  aged  23." ^ 

This  points  out  the  probability  that  he  was  born  at  Sher- 
borne, at  which  place  his  parents  were  residing  about  that 
period.^ 

A  fall-length  portrait  of  him,  with  that  of  his  father,  is  in 
the  possession  of  Sir  J.  F.  Lennard,  Bart.,  by  whom  it  was 
lent  to  the  Tudor  Exhibition  of  1890,  and  is  thus  described 
in  the  Catalogue:  "Near  him  [Sir  W.  E.]  stands  his  son  in 
blue  doublet,  trunks  and  hose  laced  with  silver,  buff  shoes, 
falling  white  band,  sword-belt  white  and  gold  embroidered ; 
in  right  hand,  glove  ;  left  on  his  hip,  holding  black  hat  ' 
(109).  On  the  picture,  dated  1602,  is  the  inscription — 
'' M.  s\E  8."^  He  was  sent  to  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Oxford,  where  he  matriculated  on  October  30th,  1607,  aged 
14,  and  became  B.A.  June  21,  1610.^  He  was  a  pupil  of  Dr. 
Daniel  Fairclough — now  better  known  by  the  name  Featley, 
subsequently  assumed  by  him — and  there  is  preserved  a  letter 
of  his  in  reply  to  one  he  had  received  from  Sir  AV alter 
Ralegh,  respecting  his  son,  and  remarkable  for  its  allusion  to 
two  phases  in  young  Walter's  character,  that  had  been  pointed 
out  to  him  by  his  father : 

"  I  shall  haue  more  leisure  to  ouersee  his  carriage  and  instruct 
him  in  learning,  in  both  which  you  required  my  care,  and  gaue  me 

^  In  the  College  of  Arms,  and  printed  in  Howard's  3Iisc.  Geneal.  et 
Heraldica,  ii.  155-7. 

2  The  Registers  of  Lillington,  Dorset,  "had  several  of  the  Kelways,  Coles, 
and  Walter,  a  son  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  but  only  the  modern  books  now 
remain"  (Hutchins'  Dorset,  1870,  iv.  199).  The  Rector  informs  the  writer 
that  the  earliest  register  preserved  commences  in  the  year  1712. 

^  Letters  from  Sir  Walter  Ralegh  to  Sir  Rob.  Cecil,  written  in  1593,  are 
preserved  in  the  Hatfield  Collection,  and  are  thus  dated:  "From  Sherbora 
Castle,"  August  15th;  "From  Gillingham  Forest,"  August  27th;  "From 
Weymouth,"  October  8th;  "From  Sherburne  Castell,"  February  25th, 
1593-4  (Edwards,  ii.  83-7). 

"  "  This  picture,"  according  to  Oldys  (i.  353),  "  of  Sir  Walter  and  his  son 
did  belong  to  the  Carews  of  Beddington,  whence,  by  marriage  with  a 
daughter  of  the  late  sir  Stephen  Leonard,  baronet,  it  was  removed  to  West 
W^ickham  in  Kent ;  near  which  place,  at  a  gentleman's  seat,  where  there  is  a 
copy  that  was  taken  from  it,  I  lately  saw  it." 

^  Foster's  Alum.  Oxon.  Although  entered  as  14  years  old,  he  must  have 
been  within  a  day  or  two  of  15. 


RALEGHANA.  37 

uery  good  directions  in  your  letter,  discouering  vnto  me  two  of  the 
most  dangerous  euills,  one  vnto  his  mind,  the  other  vnto  his  body, 
vnto  which  he  is  subject — straunge  company  and  violent  exercises."^ 

His  character,  in  many  respects,  resembled  that  of  his 
father ;  he  was  brave,  daring,  and  full  of  impetuous  energy ; 
but  whether  his  mental  capabilities  would  have  developed  like 
those  of  the  former,  we  know  not.  Nearly  all  the  particulars 
of  his  known  history  are  recorded  by  Edwards  (I.  622-6). 
The  day  he  was  killed  in  Guiana  is  uncertain ;  but  it  must 
have  taken  place  on  or  before  January  8th,  1618,  as  on  that 
day,  Captain  Key  mis  wrote  to  his  father  to  announce  it. 

II.  Carew  was  born  in  the  Tower  of  London,  and  baptized 
on  February  15th,  1605,  at  St.  Peter  ad  Vincula,  in  the 
Tower  (Harrison  pedigree),  but  authors  {e.g.  Stebbing)  assign 
his  birth  to  the  latter  end  of  the  year  previous.'^  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  his  godfather  was  Eichard  Carew,  of 
Antonie,  the  author  of  the  Survey  of  Corniuall.^ 

He  entered  Wadham  College,  Oxford,  in  1619,  matriculated 
on  March  23rd,  1620-1,  and  retained  his  name  in  the  College 
books  till  1623.^  A  remarkable  anecdote  incident  to  his 
admission  is  thus  related  by  T.  G.  Jackson  : 

"In  the  Statutes  [of  the  College]  .  .  .  James  had  altered  the 
qualitication,  '  in  Anglia  natus,'  into  '  in  Britannia  natus,'  and  he 
now  writes,  on  Oct.  30,  1618,  to  desire  the  College  to  admit  to 
the  next  vacant  Fellowship,  William  Durhame,  M.A.  of  St. 
Andrew's  ^notwithstanding  anie  thing  in  your  Statutes  to  the 
contrarie  I  The  College  turned  for  help  to  the  Chancellor,  Lord 
Pembroke,  pointing  out  that  Durham  was  ineligible,  and  thougli 
we  do  not  know  the  whole  history  of  the  dispute,  in  the  event  the 
College  was  successful.  James's  letter  is  dated  the  day  after  vSir 
Walter  Raleigh's  head  fell  on  the  scatfold,  and  it  was,  perhaps,  not 
only  sympathy  with  the  King's  victim,  but  indignation  at  the 
attempted  intrusion  of  the  Scotch  M.A.,  that  provoked  the  College 
to  add  to  the  usual  dry  record  of  admission  of  a  Fellow-Commoner, 

"  Printed  at  length  in  Wood's  Ath.  Ox.  iii.  169. 

"^  None  of  the  works  on  the  Tower  of  London  contain,  any  account  of  births 
that  took  place  within  its  precincts,  especially  of  children  of  notable  person- 
ages. D.  C.  Bell  records  all  who  were  buried  in  the  Chapel  of  St.  Peter  ad 
Yincula,  in  a  work  published  in  1877,  and  states  that  "the  entries  of 
christenings  commence  in  1587  "(42). 

^  His  Life,  written  by  his  kinsman,  Hugh  Carew,  prefixed  to  the  Survey 
(1769,  xxj.),  states  "Sir  Walter  Raleigh  had  a  Son,  whose  Christen-name 
was  Carew  ;  and  probably  our  Author  was  his  Godfather. " 

^  Information  courteously  supplied  by  the  College  authorities.  Sir  Walter 
and  his  sons  went  to  different  Colleges  :  Sir  Walter  to  Oriel,  Walter  to 
Corpus  Christi.  and  Carew  to  Wadham. 

x2 


38  RALEGH  AN  A. 

Carew  Ealegh,  in  1619,  'fortissimi  doctissimique  equitis  Gualteri 
Ralegh  films.' "  i 

In  general  character  he  appears  to  have  been  more  like 
his  mother.  Wood  remarked,  he  "  proved  quite  different  in 
spirit  from  his  father  .  ,  .  far,  God  wot,  was  he  from  his 
father's  parts,  either  as  to  the  sword  or  pen " ;  also  that  he 
had  written  several  poetical  pieces  (ii.  244,  5).  He  made 
very  strenuous  efforts  to  regain  possession  of  the  Sherborne 
estates,  and  presented  a  petition  to  the  House  of  Commons 
on  the  subject.^ 

He  was  M.P.  for  Haslemere  in  1649-53,  and  for  Guildford 
in  1659.  Whether  he  also  represented  Callington,  in  Corn- 
wall, has  formed  the  subject  of  several  articles  in  Notes  and 
Queries^  but  remains  undecided.  He  was  appointed  Governor 
of  Jersey  in  1659,  through  the  influence  of  General  Monk. 
At  the  Eestoration  he  declined  knighthood  from  Charles  II., 
who,  however,  conferred  that  honour  upon  his  son  Walter. 

In  1629,  the  manor  of  East  Horsley,  Surrey,  was,  by  the 
Earl  of  Southampton,  conveyed  to  Carew  Ralegh,  from  whom 
it  was  subsequently  purchased  by  the  "  eldest  surviving  son 
and  heir  of  Sir  Christopher  Hildyard,  of  Winested,  in  the 
County  of  York."^ 

On  the  death  of  his  uncle.  Sir  Nicholas  Throgmorton,  in 
1643,  "either  by  gift  or  devise,  the  estate  of  West  Horsley 
passed  to  his  nephew,  Carew  Ralegh."^  According  to  the 
Harrison  pedigree,  he  "settled  the  West  Horsley  estates  on 
his  two  sons,  Walter  and  Philip,  and  their  heirs  male,  by 
deeds  dated  26  and  27  December,  1656."*^  On  the  death  of 
Walter,  on  June  15,  1660,  the  estate  reverted  to  his  father, 

'  Hist,  of  IVadhara  College  (1893,  iii). 

2  This  was  printed  in  1669  with  the  title  of  A  brief  Rdotion  of  Sir 
Walter  s  Troubles,  &c.  ;  also  in  the  Harlcian  Miscellany,  Somers  Trctcfs,  &c. 
&c.  To  him  has  been  attributed  a  reply  to  a  work  containing  some 
calumnious  statements  against  his  father,  written  by  William  Sanderson  ; 
the  rejoinder  being  beaded,  Observations  iqwn  some  po.rticular  Persons  and 
Passages  ill  a  Book  lately  made  xmblic,  &c.,  and  was  issued  in  1658.  Stebbing, 
however,  shows  good  reason  tor  believing  he  was  not  the  author  (243).  In 
Halkett  and  Laing's  Dictionary,  it  is  assigned  to  Carew  Ralegh  on  the 
authority  of  Wood,  but  this  is  scarcely  correct  ;  all  that  Wood  records  is  to 
mention  Carew  as  the  author,  "as  'twas  generally  reported"  (ii.  244). 

•^  6th  S.  xii.  448-4.57  ;  7th  S.  i.  57  8,  116,  176. 

*  iManxing  and  Bray's  History  of  Surrey  (1814),  iii.  31. 

^  Brayley  and  Britton's  Surt-ey,  ii.  76.  On  the  death  of  his  uncle,  Sir 
Francis  Carew,  Sir  N.  Throgmorton,  brother  to  Lady  Ralegh,  took  the  name 
of  Carew  on  succeeding  to  the  estates  in  1607.  In  the  same  work  (iv.  55), 
the  date  is  altered  to  1611. 

^  Tliis  is  accompanied  by  a  facsimile  of  his  signature  appended  to  the 
deed  of  Dec.  27,  1656,  settling  the  lands  upon  Walter. 


RALEGH  ANA.  39 

who  sold  it  to  Sir  Edward  Nicholas,  as  thus  recorded  by  the 
latter  in  a  private  memorandum  book : 

"On  the  second  of  March,  1665,  I  paid  Mr.  Carew  Raleigh  the 
sum  of  9,750/.,  being  the  full  purchase  money  for  the  manor, 
lands,  &c.,  of  West  Horsley,  in  the  county  of  Surrey."^ 

He  lived  in  St.  Martin's  Lane,  London,  "  on  the  west  side, 
from  1636  to  1638,  and  again  in  1664,"^  where,  at  the  close 
of  1666,  he  probably  died,  and  was  buried  in  his  father's 
grave  in  St.  Margaret's  Church,  Westminster — thus  entered 
in  the  Burial  Register : 

"  1666  [7]  Jan.  1  Carey  Rawleigh,  Esq.,  kild.  m.  chancel."^ 

The  only  explanation  of  this  entry  that  has  yet  been  made 
is  that  Carew  Ralegh  was  killed,  and  that  his  body  was 
interred  in  the  m[iddle]  of  the  chancel — a  position  which 
answers  to  the  site  of  his  father's  grave.  Of  the  actual 
circumstances  attending  his  death  we  know  nothing. 

An  abstract  of  his  nuncupative  will  has  been  printed  "from 
memory."  1  The  following  transcript  is  from  the  original  docu- 
ment preserved  in  the  Probate  Office  at  Somerset  House  ; 

"Test.  Carew  Ralegh  Jany  lO*'^  1666  juxta 

Memorand.  that  Carew  Ralegh  Esq.  of  the  parish  of  S*  Martin  in 
the  Fields  in  the  County  of  Middlesex  did  several  times  whilst  he 
lived  but  more  especially  on  or  about  the  28^^  day  of  December 
AD.  1666  with  an  intent  and  purpose  to  make  and  declare  his  last 
will  and  Testament  nuncupative  utter  and  speak  these  words 
following  or  the  like  in  efiect  viz  :  I  do  make  my  wife  my  sole 
Executrix  and  I  give  unto  her  all  my  estate  whatsoever  which 
words  or  the  like  in  effect  he  uttered  and  declared  with  intent  and 
purpose  that  the  same  should  stand  for  and  be  his  last  will 
nuncupative  in  the  presence  of  Sir  Peter  Tyrrell  Baronet  and 
Frances  Cox  and  of  Dame  Philipp  Ashley  alias  Ralegh  the  said 
Mr.  Ralegh's  then  wife  and  executrix  and  that  he  was  at  the 
premises  in  his  perfect  memory  and  understanding. 

Pet.  Tyrrill       ,^.       ,. 
10  Jany  1666  Frances  Cox    (Signed) 

(Sworn  and  proved  the  same  day  10th  Jany  1666  at  Exeter 
House)" 

"  Gent's  Mag.,  1790,  i.  419. 

8  Haunted  London,  by  W.  Thorn  bury  (1865),  256. 

^  So  recorded  in  Gent's  Mag.  for  October,  1850,  338,  and  since  verified  by 
Mr.  Ellison,  the  Parish  Clerk.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  latter  portion 
of  the  entry  is  omitted  in  the  quotation  from  the  Register  in  Walcott's 
Memorials  of  Westminster.  In  Vivian's  Visitations  of  Devon,  the  year 
1667-8  is  given  in  error.  The  date  is  assigned  to  1680,  in  Manning  and 
Bray's  Surrey^  and  that  the  interment  took  place  in  West  Horsley  Church  ; 
errors  repeated  in  Alumni  Oxon.,  and  in  other  works. 

1  Ibid.  368-9. 


40  EALEGHANA. 

'No  portrait  of  him  is  known. 

His  son  Philip  survived  him,  and  was  reported  to  be 
living  in  1692.2 

III.  Had  Sir  Walter  Ealegh  a  daughter?  is  a  question 
which  was  never  raised  by  his  earl}^  biographers,  although 
answered  affirmatively  by  his  later  ones,  and  on  testimony  of 
the  most  slender  kind. 

The  earliest,  as  well  as  the  only  information  we  possess, 
was  first  made  public  by  the  Eev.  J.  S.  Brewer,  in  his  edition 
of  Bishop  Goodman's  Co2irt  of  King  James,  published  in 
1839.  To  this  the  editor  contributed  a  letter,  from  a 
"  contemporary  copy,  transcribed  from  Serg.  Yelverton's 
collection  in  All  Souls  [Oxford],  marked  MS.  16,  18,  fol. 
100  b,"^ 

Ealegh  w^as  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower  on  July  17, 
1603,  and  this  letter  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  a  few 
days  later — in  Gosse's  opinion,  on  the  21st.'*  The  following 
extract  from  it  contains  all  that  is  pertinent  to  the  present 
enquiry,  and  is  the  only  occasion  when  a  daughter  is  men- 
tioned, or  even  referred  to  : 

"  That  thou  didst  also  love  me  living,  witness  it  to  others ;  to 
my  poor  daughter,  to  whom  I  have  given  nothing;  for  his  sake, 
who  will  be  cruel  to  himself  to  preserve  thee.  Be  charitable  to 
her,  and  teach  thy  son  to  love  her  for  his  father's  sake.  .  .  .  The 
Lord  for  ever  keep  thee  and  them."^ 

This,  and  the  portion  that  precedes  it,  shows  that  the 
suggestion  of  Gosse  (o5),  "  that  it  was  the  birth  of  this  child 
[daughter]  which  brought  down  the  vengeance  of  Queen 
Elizabeth "  upon  the  parents,  is  untenable.  Upon  this 
information  alone,  authors  have  affirmed  that  Ealegh  had  a 
daughter,  and  that  she  was  illegitimate.  "Who  is  the 
daughter  mentioned  in  this  letter  ? "  asks  the  historian 
Gardiner.^  "  Does  anybody  know  what  became  of  her  ?  "  is 
a  question  that  appeared  in  Notes  and  Queries  (vi.  S.  x.  46), 

-  Harrison  pedigree. 

3  Reprinted,  with  several  errors,  by  Edwards,  ii.  383-7.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  although  he  visited  All  Souls  Library,  he  was  "accidentally 
deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  collating  this  letter  with  the  MS." 

•*  Brewer  heads  it  "  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh  to  his  wife,  after  he  had  hurt 
himself  in  the  Tower,"  and  adds,  in  a  foot-note,  "This  letter  at  once  deter- 
mines the  much-vexed  question,  whether  or  not  Sir  Walter  did  attempt  to 
stab  himself  in  the  Tower."  The  writer  has  no  intention  of  discussing,  on 
the  present  occasion,  this  alleged  attempt  of  Ralegh  to  commit  suicide,  but 
the  letter  under  notice  must  have  been  penned  before  he  made  any  such 
attempt. 

5  Brewer,  ii.  94,  97.  "  Hist,  of  England  (1883),  1.  122. 


RALEGH  AX  A.  41 

and  neither  enquiry  has  yet  elicited  a  reply.  The  statement  in 
the  letter  recording  her  existence  is  uncorroborated  in  print 
or  MS.,  as  far  as  is  yet  known.  She  is  like  a  shadow,  forced 
upon  our  attention,  and  departs  as  one,  leaving  "not  a  wrack 
behind."  ("The  extraordinary  apparition  of  an  otherwise 
invisible  daughter.")^  In  it  there  are  nine  references  to  his 
"  child,"  and  two  to  his  "  son  " ;  but  the  context  shows  them 
to  relate  to  his  son  Walter— Care w  had  not  then  been  born. 
It  contains  no  special  feature  indicating  that  Sir  Walter  was 
the  author ;  or,  if  genuine,  that  the  portions  quoted  were  not 
interpolations.  It  is  a  copy,  undated,  unsigned,  unaddressed, 
and  found  entered  in  a  commonplace  book  belonging  to  the 
Yelverton  family,  in  the  hand  of  a  copyist  "of  ordinary 
seventeenth  century  character."^ 

Let  it  be  contrasted  with  another  letter  of  Ealegh's,  the 
authenticity  of  which  no  one  has  ever  cast  doubt  upon ;  one 
written  to  his  wife  in  December,  1603,  "  in  the  most  solemn 
moment  of  his  whole  life,"  and  in  daily  expectation  of  death. 
One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  touching  of  its  kind  that  was 
ever  penned  by  man  ;  the  difference  in  tone  and  character 
will  be  at  once  manifest.^  In  this  there  is  no  allusion  to  a 
daughter.  In  the  earlier  one,  supposed  to  have  been  written 
while  Ealegh  was  in  a  state  of  despair,  he  in  a  most  business- 
like ^vay  makes  out  a  catalogue  of  his  debts.  The  work  of 
Stebbiug  must  be  referred  to  (as  it  is  the  only  one  wherein 
the  subject  is  adequately  examined)  for  a  critical  comparison 
of  these  two  letters  ;  where  the  conclusion  arrived  at  is  that 
"  the  obstacles  to  the  acceptance  of  this  composition  as 
authentic  are  almost  insuperable  "  (197).  It  is  very  singular 
that  Edwards  makes  no  comment  whatever  respecting  this 
"  apocryphal  daughter,"  as  Stebbing  terms  her.^ 

"  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,"  wrote  Froude,  "  is  commonly  repre- 
sented by  historians  as  rather  defective,  if  he  was  remarkable 
at  all,  on  the  moral  side  of  his  character."  ^     Such  represen- 

7  Stebbing,  198.  ^  Stebbing,  195. 

"  The  original  has  not  been  preserved,  but  there  are  three  contemporaneous 
transcripts  from  which  Edwards  collated  the  one  printed  in  his  work 
(ii.  284-7).  It  has  always  been  remarkably  popular  since  its  first  publication 
in  1644,  under  the  title  of  To-clmj  a  man,  To-morrow  none  ;  next  in  1648,  in 
The  Arraignment  of  S.  W.  Puiwleigh,  "  Coppied  by  Sir  Tho:  Overbvry  "  ; 
and  in  each  edition  of  the  Remains,  commencing  in  1651,  &c.  &c. 

^  There  is  a  ballad  in  the  Roxburgh  Collection,  entitled  "Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  Sailing  in  the  Low- Lands"  (reprinted  by  the  Ballad  Society  in 
Roxburgh  Volumes,  vi.  418-421),  in  which  Sir  Walter  is  made  to  say  to  the  boy 
who  is  the  hero  of  the  ballad  :  "  My  eldest  daughter  thy  wife  shall  be."  On 
this  the  editor  remarks,  "  He  [Sir  Walter]  certainly  had  a  daughter."  But 
according  to  this  ballad  he  must  have  had  three  ! 

2  Short  Studies,  i.  315. 


42  KALEGHAXA. 

tatioDS  have  been  based  upon  his  supposed  prenuptial 
intrigue,  and  upon  an  alleged  illegitimate  daughter.  It  is 
but  simple  justice  to  his  memory  that  the  data  upon  which 
such  charges  have  been  made  should  be  rigorously 
investigated.  How  far  either  of  these  assertions  can  be 
depended  upon  for  accuracy  or  the  reverse,  has  been  the 
object  of  the  writer  to  indicate.