Nov. 1774.-GEORGE HARRISON, Esq.-See Norroy" GEORGE III. June 5, 1784.-FRANCIS TOWNSHEND, Esq. F. A. S. '.' Heralds. Windsor. CHESTER. Geo. 11.- -JOHN MARTIN LEAKE, Esq. This gentleman is son of the late Garter Martin Leake. Resigning this office he was, in January 1774, appointed one of the Comptrollers of the army accounts. accounts. He married, on September 14, 1761, at St. Bennet's, Paul's Wharf, Miss Mary Calvert, of Lambourn in Essex. GEORGE MARTIN LEAKE, Esq. The present Chester, brother of the preceding herald. YORK. Geo. 11.-GEORGE FLETCHER, Esq. Mr. Fletcher, his grandfather, resided in Lombard Street, in London, at the time of the great fire in 1666, in a house of his own, which was burnt down, but rebuilt by him. York was second son of John Fletcher, Gent. attorney at law in Chichester: his mother was Mary, daughter of William Knowles, of Ovring in Sussex. He was born February 13, 1713-4. He never was a Pursuivant, but obtained an Herald's tabard from the Earl of Effingham, Deputy Earl Marshal, through the interest of his brother. Having a small fortune, and being employed as an agent for several gentlemen near Chichester, he never sought any higher preferment in the College. Garter Heard, transacted all his heraldic business. Having long labored with an incurable disorder, owing to a rupture, he at length paid the debt of nature, at Chichester, November 9, 1785, and was buried in Hog-lane church in that city. He never married. This gentleman's promotion was highly improper, because he had no pretension from professional merit, whatever other qualifications he possessed. Lord Effingham undoubtedly betrayed his trust in nominating him in preference to the Pursuivants in the College. Iii Chester. York. GEORGE III. Heralds. his sons. Feb. 4, 1786.-BENJAMIN PINGO, Esq. York was fifth son of Mr. Thomas Pingo, an eminent engraver of seals, and assistant engraver of the Mint, who died in December, 1776. He is mentioned by Lord Orford, as having engraved a plate of arms in Mr. Thoresby's Leeds: Lewis Pingo, Esq. the present chief, and Mr. John Pingo, the second engraver in the Mint, are two other of Their mother was Mary, daughter of Benjamin Goldwire, of Rumsey in Hants. The herald, born in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, was baptized there, July 8, 1749. A taste for heraldry led him to the College. He was one of the unfortunate persons thrown down, and trampled to death, in attempting to get into the pit at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, on the evening of Monday, February 10, 1794. His remains, attended by the members of the 'College, were buried in the chapel belonging to the Tower. He was highly esteemed by his heraldic brethren, to which his merit, as a good and amiable man, justly intitled him. He bequeathed his MSS. to the public library of the College at Arms: his books were sold by Leigh and Sotheby in 1794. March 15, 1794.-GEORGE NAYLER, Esq. F. A. S. Genealogist of the Order of the Bath, the present York. A gentleman of great knowledge and skill in his profession, whose obliging attention. to this work, and its author, demands every expression of grateful acknowledgment. Somerset. SOMERSET. Geo. 11.-RALPH BIGLAND, Esq.-See Norroy. June, 1773.-HENRY HASTINGS, Esq. Mr. John Hastings, his father, was a silversmith near Charing-Cross, in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. He died in a very advanced age, at Knightsbridge, September 6, 1786, having long survived Mrs. Hastings, who died March 9, 1765. She was a most affectionate wife, and tender mother. He was of the very illustrious house of Hastings, tracing his pedigree from William Hastings, sixth son of Francis Hastings, second Earl of Huntingdon, K. G., by Catherine, daughter and coheir of Henry Pole, Lord Montacute, son and heir of Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, K. G., brother brother to Edward IV. and Richard III., and uncle to Edward V. and Elizabeth, Queen to Henry VII. Francis Hastings, K. G., died June 20, 1560; Catherine, his Countess, September 23, 1576. He had six sons and four daughters. William was not his sixth, but his third son. Henry and George his elder brethren, were successively Earls of Huntingdon. This William in our peerages is represented as dying without issue. None of our writers mention his marriage; Collins omits him intirely. It is not improbable, that he left an illegitimate son, from whom Mr. John Hastings might spring. Somerset, born February 26, 1722-3, by the patronage of his very distant relation, Francis Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, Master of the Horse to Frederic, Prince of Wales, became a clerk in the Admiralty Office, afterward purser of His Majesty's ship Sandwich. Leaving these, he became in October, 1757, surveyor of the stables to his Royal Highness the Prince, in the room of Mr. Barber, who died at Kingston on the 17th of that month, and was admitted into the College at Arms: yet, notwithstanding his great friend's interest, he remained long only a Pursuivant. He died of an asthma, December 21, 1777, aged only fifty-four years. His corpse remaining unaltered, he was unburied for fourteen days; at length, on January 6, it was conveyed to the family place of sepulture, in St. Margaret's church in Wesminster. He died unmarried, but left several children born out of wedlock. His will, dated December 30, 1774, with a codicil annexed, executed December 31, 1776, was proved by his father, Elizabeth Schonian, widow, his sister, and Henry Hastings, his uncle, who were appointed his executors. He bequeathed £400 to each of his dear natural children, Henry Hastings, aged nineteen, and Ann-Henrietta Hastings, aged fourteen years. To Mary Lisle, mother of these children, he gave £25. To his natural sons, John Redcross, born September 1, 1771; and to William-Henry-Granville Redcross, born July 22, 1773, the sum of £400 each, and £25 to Sarah Bynon, alias Redcross, their mother. Mr. Brooke, Somerset, supposed he gave his two youngest sons the surname of Redcross, because he had been Rouge-croix Pursuivant. For the same reason we must think he desired their mother to assume that name. I cannot close this life, without noticing how very defective all the accounts are of the ennobled family of Hastings, in both the ancient and modern peerages. Many of the Hastings, Earls of Huntingdon, left younger sons, who married in all probability, but generally only their names are mentioned. It is singular, that a family of such illustrious and ancient desIii2 cent GEORGE III. Heralds. Somerset. Heralds. GEORGE III. cent should themselves be so inattentive to their own genealogy. Upon the death of the last nobleman of this line, it was supposed that the title was extinct. George, son of Mr. Hastings, of Folkstone in Kent, protected and educated by Selina, Countess Dowager, mother of the last Lord Hastings, was supposed to be the representative of this great family; but he dying of the small-pox, March 23, 1790, at the age of nineteen, the fact was never decided. Few things would surprise me less than a successful claimant to the title of Huntingdon. JOHN-CHARLES BROOKE, Esq. F. A. S. This truly amiable, elegant, and accomplished herald, was a native of Yorkshire. Whatever relates to this family deserves a place here on a double account; his worth, and the acknowledged merit of his relatives. It is highly probable, that the ancestor of this family was Robert Brooke, Esq. mercer, citizen, alderman, and lord mayor of York, in the years 1583 and 1595. He was buried in the church of All Saints' Pavement in that city, where is this inscription: Hic jacet ROBERTUS BROOKE, civis et Aldermanus civitatis Eborum, bis, qui majoratum civitatis cum tande gessit. Et JOHANNA vel JANA uxor ejus, in simul 37 circiter annos vixerant, vir et femina boni, uxor et optimi; liberos habuerunt sexdecem, undecem reliquerunt; non mali ut liberi nunc sunt omnes forsitan bonos;-illa ætatis suæ 68, fideliter expiravit 1599. Reader, live well, mourn not thy sins too late, There is no way to Heaven, but thro' this gate." One branch of this family continued to reside in York in the mercantile line, of whom was James Brooke, Esq. merchant, lord mayor of that city in 1651, and again in 1661, by express mandate from his Majesty, Charles II. Of these Brookes were the two celebrated brothers, Samuel Broke, or Brooke, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Oxford, and Archdeacon of Coventry, author of the Armenian Treatise of Predestination, which Prynne says he presented to Archbishop Laud in 1630, and died September 16, 1631; and Christopher Brooke, who leaving one of our Universities, studied the law in Lincoln's-Inn, where he was distinguished by his great abilities, especially in his Elegy consecrated to the never-dying memory of Henry Prince of Wales, London, 1613. From a bencher he became Heralds. became summer reader, and was a benefactor to the chapel. Few could GEORGE III. JOHANNES BROOK, S. T. P. Coll. Univers. Oxon. Socius, ELMLEIENSIS Pastor eras plebi dilectæ pabula vitæ, Sæpe tuæ, et doctæ Doctor in urbe dabas, Quæ te delixit mærit tua funera conjux, It appears that this divine left Elmeley to reside at Silkstone, a parish also in the West Riding, and at no great distance from York, which is upon its borders.* At Dodsworth, in Silkstone parish, near Barnesley, his des * There must be a distinction made between the Brookes, Somerset's family, and one of the same name that settled at York some little time before the restoration. These were a branch of the Baronet family, of Norton in Cheshire, John Brooke of York, Esq., mentioned |