Garter.

GEORGE III Stepney, facing the-south west angle of the west porch. Over her grave is a flat stone, testifying, that "She was a woman adorned with every "virtue that could make life happy, and death to be lamented." The stone is inscribed to "Filial duty to the best of parents," and to "tender "affection to the most deserving wife," by Garter, then a "citizen of "London." The arms upon it are two Ears of Big, in pale, couped and bladed, Or; quartering those of Babington, Errington, and others: Crest a Lion passant regardant, Gules, holding in his dexter Gamb an Ear of Big, Or motto, " Gratitudo." The colors are supplied. The gravestone also notices, that there also is buried Charles Wilkins, brother of Mrs. Bigland, who died September 17, 1740, aged eighteen years. Garter's second marriage was with Ann, daughter of Robert Weir, of a family originally of Blackwood, in the kingdom of Scotland: she died April 5, 1766, leaving no issue. The only child of the former alliance is Mr. Richard Bigland, of Frocester, born April 3, 1738; who, by Mary, eldest daughter of William Raymond, of Boseley in the Forest of Dean, Esq. married to him in 1768, has three daughters, Anna-Maria, Clarence, and Mary.

April 27, 1784-Sir ISAAC HEARD, Knight.

Who has now, for a considerable time, most worthily presided over the College at Arms.

Provincial
Kings.

Clarenceux.

PROVINCIAL KINGS.

CLARENCEU X.

Geo. 11.-CHARLES TOWNLEY, Knight.-See Garter.
May, 1773.-RALPH BIGLAND, Esq.-See Garter.
March 11, 1780.-ISSAC HEARD, Esq.-See Garter.

May 18, 1784.-THOMAS LOCKE, Esq.

The present Clarenceux, descended from a branch of the Somersetshire Lockes, one of whom was the justly celebrated John Locke, Esq.

1

NORROY.

Geo. 11. WILLIAM OLDYS, Esq.

As Mr. Grose has given an history and character of this Norroy, I shall use it, by transcribing all he says of him.* " William Oldys, Norroy

66

King at Arms, author of the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, and several others

" in the Biographia Britannica, was natural son of a Dr. Oldys, in the "Commons who kept his mother very privately, and probably very

meanly, as when he dined at a tavern, he used to beg leave to send "home part of the remains of any fish or fowl for his cat, which cat was "afterwards found out to be Mr. Oldys' mother.† His parents dying " when he was very young, he soon squandered away his small patrimony, " when he became first an attendant in Lord Oxford's library, and after"wards librarian. He was a little mean-looking man, of a vulgar address, " and when I knew him, rarely sober in the afternoon, never after supper. " His favorite liquor was porter, with a glass of gin between each pot. " Dr. Ducarrel told me, he used to stint Oldys to three pots of beer "whenever he visited him. Oldys seemed to have little classical learning, " and knew nothing of the sciences; but for index reading, title pages, " and the knowledge of scarce English books and editions he had no

equal. This he had probably picked up in Lord Oxford's service; after " whose death he was obliged to write for the booksellers for a subsistence. Amongst many other publications, chiefly in the biographical line, he wrote the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, which got him much reputation. The Duke of Norfolk, in particular, was so pleased with it, " that he resolved to provide for him, and accordingly gave him the patent " of Norroy, King at Arms, then vacant. The patronage of that Duke oc"casioned a suspicion of his being a papist, though I really think without

Hhh2

* Grose's " Olio," published by the late Mr. John Williamson.

66

reason;

† In Queen Ann's reign was Sir William Oldys, a gentleman usher and daily-waiter, afterward Usher of the Black Rod, knighted in June, 1710. Dying November 5, 1718, was buried in the church of Barnet Fiarn, in Middlesex.

GEORGE III.

Provincial
Kings.
Norroy.

GEORGE III.

66

Provincial

Kings. Norroy.

reason: this for awhile retarded his appointment. It was under-hand propagated by the heralds, who were vexed at having a stranger put " in upon them. He was a man of great good nature, honor, and inte

grity, particularly in his character as an historian. Nothing, I firmly be"lieve, would ever have biassed him to insert any fact in his writings he did " not believe, or to suppress any he did. Of this delicacy he gave an " instance, at a time when he was in great distress. After his publica

" tion of the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, some booksellers, thinking " his name would sell a piece they were publishing, offered him a con" siderable sum to father it, which he refused with the greatest indig" nation. He was much addicted to low company: most of his evenings " he spent at the Bell in the Old Bailey, a house within the liberties " of the Fleet, frequented by persons whom he jocularly called Ru

lers, from their being confined to the rules or limits of that prison. "From this house a watchman, whom he kept regularly in pay, used to " lead him home before twelve o'clock, in order to save six-pence paid " to the porter of the Herald's Office, by all those who came home after " that time: sometimes, and not unfrequently, two were necessary. He

" could not resist the temptation of liquor, even when he was to officiate

on solemn occasions; for at the burial of the Princess Caroline he was

so intoxicated, that he could scarcely walk, but reeled about with a crown " coronet" on a cushion, to the great scandal of his brethren. "His method of composing was somewhat singular. He had a number of " small parchment bags inscribed with the names of the persons whose lives " he intended to write: into these bags he put every circumstance and anec" dote he could collect, and from thence drew up his history. By his excesses " he was kept poor, so that he was frequently in distress; and at his " death, which happened about five on Wednesday morning, April 15,

1761, he left little more than was sufficient to bury him. Dr. Taylor, "the oculist, son of the famous Doctor of that name and profession, claimed " administration at the Commons, on account of his being nullius filius, Anglice, a bastard. He was buried the 19th following, in the north " aisle of the Church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, towards the upper end " of the aisle. He was about seventy-two years old. Amongst his "works is a Preface to Dr. Walton's Angling."

Such is Grose's relation of this singular man. The coloring we must believe somewhat heightened by the writer himself, not a little eccentric, and whose vein of ridicule is well known. The Oldis, Oldesh, or Oldys family, was eminently loyal in the great rebellion. John Oldis, of Chetnol in Dorsetshire, gentleman, was fined, as a delinquent, by the republicans, £68. 5. Norroy's grandfather was William Oldis, M.D. of New College, in Oxford, proctor of that University, created D.D. January 26, 1641: he became vicar of Addingbury in Oxfordshire. Loyal and orthodox, he became peculiar obnoxious to the Parliament soldiers, which obliged him to leave his house to find an asylum in Banbury, then fortified by His Majesty. Going with his wife and son, the latter of whom he intended to place either at Winchester school, or Oxford: his design being known, the soldiers placed themselves in the road he was to pass. Suspecting danger, he desired Mrs. Oldys to ride on, and if they were royalists, to hold up her hand, and then he would follow; if she did not, he would attempt to escape. Finding that she did not give him the signal he fled; the soldiers pursued. As he passed his own house, which he was obliged to do, the horse stopping he was overtaken: he threw his money along the road, which they seemed more to value than his person, until one, formerly fed by his bounty, shot him dead with a pistol; an act that even his comrades disapproved and reprobated. It is said the person who gave intelligence of his journey some time after dropt down and instantly expired, upon the spot where Dr. Oldys was murdered. This catastrophe happened about 1644. Susanna, his daughter, married to the Rev. Thomas Beaumont, second son of Sir Thomas Beaumont, Bart. William Oldys his son, the father of Norroy, was educated also in New College, and June 17, 1667, obtained the degree of LL.D. His father's sufferings and his own merit gained him considerable promotion. He became advocate in the Court of Admiralty, and to be the Earl Marshal's Chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln, and official to the Archdeacon of St. Albans. Such was Norroy's father and grandfather. Unfortunately he was illegitimate; this prevented his inheriting a larger fortune, and having a better education. The story of the cat is, I suppose, equally authentic with Wittington and his puss. Norroy was an imprudent man, especially as to liquor; but this, I suspect, is much heightened. The story of hi 'n

GEORGE III.

Provincial
Norroy.

GEORGE III. toxication, and the jeopardy of the coronet at the Princess Caroline's Provincial funeral, is not accurate; the crown, when borne at the funeral of the Kings. King or Queen, or the coronet at the burial of a Prince or Princess, is always Norroy. carried by Clarenceux, not Norroy. The heralds had reason to be displeased with his promotion to a provincial kingship. The College, however, will always be pleased with ranking so good a writer amongst their body. As to his being a member of the church of Rome, it was only a plea to prevent a stranger's intrusion. His library was sold with those of the Rev. Mr. Emms, of Yarmouth, and Mr. William Rush's. He left many manuscripts: one of them was "Remarks upon Langbaine's Lives of the "Dramatic Poets." The late Mr. Steevens had a copy of "Fullers' Worthies," full of manuscript notes by him and Mr. Thoresby, and to which Mr. Steevens had made additions. It was sold at that gentleman's death for £43.

1761.-THOMAS BROWNE, Esq.-See Garter.

May, 1773.-RALPH BIGLAND, Esq.-See Clarenceux.

Oct. 1774-ISAAC HEARD, Esq.-See Clarenceux.

March 21, 1780.-PETER DORE, Esq. F. A. S.

This gentleman probably was sprung of a family originally of Dore in Herefordshire. When he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, June 4, 1778, he wrote himself of Badgemore in the county of Oxford. In the west of England there is a very genteel family of this surname. He purchased the place of Blue-mantle, by Mr. Pujolas' resignation of it in his favor, for £300. His subsequent promotions appear gratuitous. Norroy went to Gravesend,* to visit his friend, Mr. Price, commander of the Dutton East-Indiaman, and whilst dining on board fell from his chair, and instantly expired, being struck by an apoplexy. This happened September 27, 1781: on October 1, following, his corpse was brought to his apartments in the College, from whence it was removed. for interment to Christ's Church in Newgate-Steet, London, on the 6th, with

* Somerset, Brooke, says Greenwich, but all the periodical papers say Gravesend. He also wrongly states the day of Norroy's death to be October 7, which the epitaph contradicts.