Heralds.. shire descent does not appear. The Journals of the House of Lords call him JAMES I. Treswell. Being recommended to the Earl of Essex when Blue-mantle, his lordship intended to have taken him with him in his expedition to Spain. He was prevented going thither by the pregnancy of his wife. He was a very troublesome, disagreeable member of the College, always engaged in something which involved him in misfortunes. In 1601 he was arrested for debt, at the suit of one Margaret Fitchet; being a servant of the Queen it was highly resented: the affair was brought before the House of Peers by the Earl of Worcester, December 4th. It was ordered that she, William Smith, and William Lane, who arrested him, should attend the House on the following day, when he also was commanded to appear at the bar. On the Tuesday following, the affair was referred to her Majesty's Commissioners for executing the office of Earl Marshal, when the parties were ordered to be discharged. The College were so disgusted with his, and York's conduct, that May 16, 1620, they complained of them, as common disturbers of the peace of their society. December 4, 1621, he and York, having been unanimously condemned by the Commissioners, for having spoken contemptuously against the Earl of Arundel the Earl Marshal, were sent to the Marshalsea. Going with the Earl of Nottingham into Spain, to take the oath of Philip III. to the treaty of peace in 1604, he composed a relation of it, printed in the first volume of " Collectanea Curiosa." His embarrassed circumstances compelled him to sell his office, June 14, 1624. I have not seen the date of his death. Stow acknowledges his obligations to him: Weaver used his epitaphs he had copied from the churches in London. Garter Dethick speaks thus of him, in 1597, when he had been Blue-mantle he said eight years; that he was studious in arms and pedigrees, understood marshalling funerals, and that he had a knowledge of the Latin and French languages. His abilities will not be disputed, as he must have much improved himself afterwards. Being married, he brought his wife into the College; but it being unusual to admit females there, she was obliged to leave it. She was Susanna, daughter of Andrew Lion, of the isle of Guernsey. Dying December 23, 1590, she was buried in the church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate-street. Upon a tablet, placed against the south wall in the body of the church, was this inscription: JAMES 1. Heralds. Somerset. "Hic jacet Susanna Creswell, Andra Lionis Patria Garnseyensis unica filia, "uxor Roberti Creswell, alias Blue-Mantle Prosecutoris ad arma serenissimæ Eli"zabethæ, Angliæ Regina." "Quæ modo fido Deo, quæ vixit cara marito, "23 Decemb. Anno Domini 1590." It is evident from this inscription, that he called himself Creswell. Whether he remarried I cannot affirm*. His arms were Argent, a Bend cotised Sable, three Mullets Gules; a Label Azure. JOHN PHILIPOr, Esq.-See next reign. Created at Arundel-House, on Thursday July 8, 1624. Richmond, RICHMON D. Eliz.-JOHN RAVEN, Esq. Son of John Raven, of Creating, in the parish of Hadley, in Suffolk, by Alice Emringal, was an officer at arms of great skill. Dethick, Garter, strongly recommended him to Lord Burleigh: he was, however, long before he was raised to an herald's place. In 1597 he says of him, that he had been eight years Rouge-dragon pursuivant, but that he was of more than twenty years experience in office; that he had a knowledge of Latin, and understood some French. Camden, Clarenceux, much employed him, as his deputy or marshal, in visitations: Weaver expresses his obligations to him. He wrote a very beautiful hand. This very respectable man died on February 13, 1615. He bore Or, a Raven proper, placed on an Orb, Gules. Residing at Creating, in Hadley, the seat he inherited from his father, he married Ann, daughter of Thomas Parkens, of Hadley, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters. John Raven, M. D., one of his sons, * Query.-Whether John Creswell was not a descendant of Somerset. By Margaret. his wife, he had Mr. Richard Creswell, the great bookseller in St. Paul's Church yard; who had two wives, Sarah, daughter of John King, and Mary, daughter of Richard Royston, bookseller. By the former he had five children, who died young: by the latter John, who died in India; Richard, and Royston, the former a merchant in London. Mary, the second wife of the father, was buried in Christ's Church in London, as were her husband and his father and mother. This Mr. Richard Creswell, the bookseller, was born Jan. 4, 1639, and died May 3, 1711. 9 sons, was living in 1634. Maty, one of Richmond's daughters, marrying JAMES I. William Winchell, of London, Painter-Stainer, drew this herald to favor those of his trade, who were very troublesome at this time to the officers at arms. HENRY ST. GEORGE, Esq.-See next reign. Heralds. LANCASTER. Eliz.-FRANCIS THYNNE, Esq. Descended from a branch of the ennobled family, now having the title of Marquis of Bath. The ancient name was Botteville, taken from a place in Poitou, whence they came to assist John in the barons' wars. Settling at Stretton in Shropshire, and losing their old name, they acquired that of le Thynne, literally the Inn, a significant term for their large spacious mansion at Stretton; the houses of the great being in former ages called inns. William le Thynne, of Stretton, by Joan, daughter of John Higgons of that place, had issue two sons; Thomas le Thynne, seated at Stretton, from whom descended the Marquis of Bath, and William le Thynne, Chief Clerk of the Kitchen to Henry VIII., afterwards Master of the Household to that Monarch. He was father to Lancaster Thynne, who was born at Stretton, and educated at Tonbridge school, under Mr. Proctor, the historian, commended by Holingshed; from thence he went to Oxford. Upon his leaving that university, he was sent to Lincoln's Inn to study the law: but fond of heraldic and genealogical pursuits, he presented a petition to Lord Burleigh, then presiding at the head of the commission for executing the office of Earl Marshal, requesting to be admitted into the College, desiring a previous examination, even in the deepest points of armory which. could be obtained, without the knowledge of philosophy and history, mentioning, as a recommendation in his own favour, that he had drawn out a series" of the lord treasurers, and composed "certain circulary pedigrees of the earls and viscounts of England." His acquirements were acknowledged: he was raised to the office of an herald, without having ever been a pursuivant. He was then fifty-seven years old. He died in 1608; not in 1611, as Wood mentions, who has fallen into many mistakes about him. Camden calls him "an excellent antiquary, and a gentleman painful Lancaster. Heralds. JAMES I. painful and well-deserving of his office whilst he lived." Garter Dethick put his name down as a fit person to be raised to be Norroy. His arms were Or, five Bars Sable. Hearne published " A Discourse of the Dutye "and Office of an Heraulde of Armes, written by him the third Day of "Marche, 1605." In the year 1651 were printed his "Histories concerning Ambassadors and their Functions," dedicated to his good friend William, Lord Cobham. He continued the Chronicle, known by the name of Holingshed's, finishing the annals of Scotland, from 1586 down to where they now end. He drew up a list of English Cardinals, added to the reign of Mary I. He wrote the Catalogue of English Historical Writers. His "Discourses" upon the Earls of Leicester, Archbishops of Canterbury, Lords Cobham, and the Catalogue of the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, were suppressed. He also wrote his History of Dover Castle and the Cinque Ports; the Genealogical History of the Cobhams; Discourses of Arms, concerning the Bath and Batchelor Knights; the History and Lives of the Lord Treasurers, mentioned in a manuscript life of him, now in the collection of Sir Joseph Ayleffe, Bart. Numerous as these works are, yet there are various other literary productions of his : some of them are preserved in the Cotton library, others were possessed by Anstis, sen., Garter, His heraldic collections are in the College of Arms, and in the Ashmoleian Museum at Oxford. Some of his manuscripts are collections of antiquities, sepulchral inscriptions, taken by him from English churches, and elsewhere. He intended to have published an edition of Chaucer's works, but declining that, gave his labours relative to it to Speght, who published them in his edition of that poet's works, with his own notes, and those of his father, who printed the first edition of this ancient writer in 1542, being the oldest of any except Caxton's. Thynne, Lancaster, had meant to have written a comment upon the text: some verses of his are prefixed to Speght's edition. NICHOLAS CHARLES, Esq. Created on Friday, April 21, 1609. His real name was Carles, being son of George Carles, of London, butcher, son of Richard Carles, of Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickshire*. He * The Careless family, as they afterward spelt it, until lately, if not now, remain at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the church is a grave-stone laid over Thomas Careless, who died March 8, 1774, aged 78; Diana, his wife, April 5, 1757; and Thomas, their son, Feb. 16, 1761, aged 47: 2 He took for his arms Ermine, on a Chief, Gules, five Lozenges of the first. Charles was almost as eminent an ornament to the College as his predecessor Thynne. Mr. How, the editor of Stow's Chronicle, acknowledges his assistance. Milles, in his Titles of Honor, calls him" the ingenious N. Charles, "alias Lancaster, whose judicious knowledge in pedigrees and arms" he commends, exemplifying that in him and others learning lived in heraldry, though their merits were unknown. Happily for their memory, their worth has reached us. It was an era of great names in the College, whose works have given food to the historian, biographer, genealogist, and antiquary : future ages will likewise be benefited by their labours. Camden, who employed him as his deputy in some of his visitations, knowing the worth of his great collections, purchased them for £90., and gave them to the College. He died November 19, 1613, according to Camden: others write, that his death happened on the 13th of that month. Penelope, his widow, daughter of Segar, Garter, remarried to Timothy Cartwright, of Mashborne in Gloucestershire, by whom she had issue. Dec. 16, 1613.-WILLIAM PENSON, Esq.-See next reign. JAMES I. Heralds. Lancaster. PURSUIVANTS. ROUGE-CROI X. Eliz.-THOMAS KNIGHT, Gent.-See Chester. May 5, 1604.-WILLIAM WYRLEY, Gent. Pursuivants; Son of Augustine Wyrley, of Netherseile, in Leicestershire, by Mary, Rouge-croix. daughter of William Charnells, of Snareston, in that county, and grandson of William Wyrley, of Handsworth, in Staffordshire, descended from an ancient stock, seated at Rowley, in that county. Rouge-croix was born in Staffordshire, and being educated at a school in the vicinity of the place of his birth, was noticed by the antiquary, Sampson Erdeswick, of Sandon, in that county, Esq. This gentleman wrote the history of Staffordshire, or rather, of the descents of the estates in it, now become extremely scarce. Taking Wyrley to his house, he encouraged his heraldic turn. Under his inspection, perhaps with his assistance, the future Rouge-croix published "The "true Use of Armory shewed by History, and plainly proved by Exam-. ple, |
