7th March, 145% Prior and Convent of Galfridus Spergore, per

No Patron mentioned. Ric. Webester per resig:

*Feb. 5th, 1868... Rev. Florence Thomas Florence Thomas

Wethered.

Wethered (the present Vicar) per mort: Florence James Wethered.

* These three last Institutions are taken from Records now in Hurley Vicarage. NOTE.-Geoffrey de Mandeville (II.), the grandson of the famous Geoffrey de M., who founded the Monastery at Hurley, died excommunicate, so it is said, on account of outrages committed on the monks of Ramsey. And the Knights Templars carried his corpse, arrayed in the habit of their order, into their orchard in the old Temple, enclosed it in lead and hung it up on the branch of a tree until absolution had been obtained from Pope Alexander, which was granted on the intercession of the Prior of Walden. It was then taken down and buried privately in the Porch of the new Temple. We have all this on the authority of Planché (who reserves "all rights.") Watcombe, mentioned in the Hurley Charter, is referred to in the Pipe Rolls as being under the charge of a Provost in 1166. On one of our (three) Church Bells are the words (abbreviated) "Sancte Sebastiae": after which the arms of the See of Winchester occur. There is no date. In Hurley Church there is a gravestone which, clearly, covers the remains of Edith, sister of Edward the Confessor. In Hurley Churchyard is a very old recumbent stone, 5 feet 10 inches long, which has puzzled antiquarians. Referring to the situation assigned to Hurley Town Pound (in 1704), I wish to cancel the statement made as to it in Paper No. III.

Swallowfield and its Owners.

By Lady Russell.

(Continued from page 87.)

1663. Sir William Backhouse who, by right of his wife, became possessed of Swallowfield in 1663, was son of Nicholas Backhouse, of Widford, Herts, a merchant and Sheriff of London, and Christian, daughter of John Williams, also a merchant of London. He was grandson of Rowland Backhouse, Sheriff of London in 1628, and great grandson of Nicholas Backhouse, Sheriff of London in 1577.

He was baptized on the 16th February, 1641, at St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and lost his father in 1650. On the 9th November, 1660, he was created a baronet, in recognition of the good services of his family to the Crown. He married his cousin, Mrs. Flower Bishop, at the old church of St. Andrew's, Holborn, on the 13th November, 1662.

1664. In 1664, he was made High Sheriff of Berks and this same year the Backhouse pedigree was recorded at the Herald's Visitation. It commences with Thomas Backhouse, of Whiterigg, Cumberland, who married Eleanor, daughter of John Parkyn, of Burtlaw, Cumberland, and was great, great grandfather to Sir William. There is still a very old tamily of the name of Backhouse living at Whiterigg, in the township of Anthorn, in the parish of Bowness on Solway, and there is a Mr. John Backhouse living in Anthorn.

1665. Sir William and Lady Backhouse spent most of this year at Swallowfield in consequence of the terrible visitation of the plague, the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, being one of the first where it raged. Sir William subscribed largely for the sufferers, the King setting the good example of subscribing £1,000 weekly. Sir William was well able to be generous for he owned at least three Adventurers' Shares in the New River Water Company, one of which he represented himself, Thomas Henshaw of Westminster another, and Mr. Francis Michell the third, his wife also holding no less than eleven.

1666. In September, 1666, we can imagine Sir William Backhouse with his friend, John Evelyn, visiting the smoking remains of the buildings in which his forefathers had accumulated their fortunes. Evelyn describes "going on foote from Whitehall as far as London Bridge, thro' the late Fleete Street, Ludgate Hill, by St. Paules, Cheapside Exchange, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate, and out to Moorfield's, thence thro' Cornehill, &c., with extraordinary difficulty, clambering over heaps of yet smoking rubbish," and frequently mistaking where he was.

1669. Sir William Backhouse died at Swallowfield on the 22nd August, 1669, in the 29th year of his age, leaving no issue.

In a certificate taken by Elias Ashmole, to be registered in the Office of Arms, attested by "Dame Fflower Backhouse," 16th November, 1669, we have the following particulars about the funeral of Sir William, which took place at Swallowfield on the 28th September. "His body (accompanied with divers Baronets, Knights, Esquires and gentlemen, his neighhours, in coaches) was conveyed in a hearse covered with black cloth and adorned with escocheons, unto the Parish Church of Swallowfield, where he was solemnly interred in a vault under an aisle situate on the north side of the said church, lately built at his and his lady's costs and charges. The officers which directed this funerall and marshalled the proceeding were Elias Ashmole, Esq., Windsor Herald, Henry Dethick, Rouge Croix, and Ffrancis Sandford, Rouge Dragon, Pursuivants at Armes."

Sir William's widow had a handsome marble monument erected in the aisle over the vault. It is still there and in perfect preservation. The inscription, which is in Latin and very lengthy, is occasionally somewhat obscure in meaning. Possibly, in re-lettering it many years ago a word or two may have got altered. It states that the monument is not that of one man alone, but of a family belonging to the ancient race of the Backhouses, once lords of a large hereditary property both in town and country, and that it was placed to the memory of Lady Backhouse's grandfather,1 grandmother, aunt, uncle and his wife, brother,5 children, parents," and husbands.8

4.

Sir John Backhouse, K.B., and Flower Henshaw.

5. John Backhouse.

6. William and Anne Bishop.

7. William Backhouse and Anne Richards.

8. William Bishop and Sir William Backhouse, Bt.

1670. On the 19th October, 1670, Flower, Lady Backhouse, being then 29 years of age, was married for the third time at Swallowfield Church, by Dr. Lloyd, to Henry Hyde, Viscount Cornbury, K.B., eldest son of Edward Hyde, the celebrated Earl of Clarendon, by his second wife, Frances, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, Bart., Master of the Requests and of the Mint. Lord Cornbury was not the first Hyde who settled in Berks; the Hydes of South Denchworth had been seated there since 1220, and a branch of that family had been for many generations at Purley. It was in the house of Francis Hyde at this latter place that the Lord Chancellor's first wife died in 1632. He was then only Edward Hyde, of the Middle Temple. His wife was Anne, daughter of Sir George Ayliffe, of Grittenham, whom he describes as "very fair and beautiful." She died of small-pox aged 20, and was buried at Purley, where there is a monument to her memory.

Lord Cornbury at the time he married Lady Backhouse was 32 years of age, and a widower, having married first in 1660 Theodosia, daughter of Arthur, Lord Capell,* by whom he had one son Edward, aged at this time 9 years.

He was M.P. for Wilts and Lord Chamberlain to Queen Catherine, for which office he received £160 a year, as we learn by an entry of the salaries paid to the officers of her Majesty's household found among the Strickland papers at Sizergh Castle ; Sir Thomas Strickland then being Keeper of the Privy Purse to the Queen.

1671. Lord and Lady Cornbury were thrown into mourning in 1671, by the death of his sister, the Duchess of York, on the 31st March, followed the same year by the death of one of the duchess's daughters and her sole remaining son. Mary and Anne, who alone of her children survived, successively ascended the Throne of England. It has been frequently stated that Queen Anne was born at Swallowfield, but this was not the case. She was born in February, 1665, more than five years before the Hyde family had any connection with Swallowfield. She probably did visit her uncle there and the long gallery in the house still bears her name, being called Queen Anne's Gallery to this day.

* One of Sir Peter Lely's best pictures represents two sitting figures of Henry, Lord Cornbury, and Theodosia, his wife. This picture belongs to the present Earl of Clarendon and is at The Grove. A small copy by Russell is at Hampton Court. Another picture by Sir Peter Lely of the same two persons is in Lord Essex's Collection at Cassiobury.