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"The body lay under a stately alcove, adorned with lights, feathers, and GEORGE 1. "trophies. All the company had rings, with death's heads set in crystal, "Near twenty clergy there, who had all rings, scarves, gloves, &c.: the "minister of Hackney, who buried him, mourning. The procession from "the Hall began about ten at night. First rode about sixty horsemen, his "tenants, in mourning cloaks, among whom were ranged four of the King's "trumpets, sounding a doleful strain, two together, attended with branch lights. After them came the trophies, with a led horse covered with

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velvet, attended by six pages in mourning; then came the herse, bedecked "with scutcheons, feathers, and streamers; then five or six and thirty coaches. " and six, led by an empty coach of state, followed by the executor, John Tyssen, his next brother, and all the mourners, the supporters of the pall, "the clergy and others. All the streets and balconies crowded as on a "Lord Mayor's day. Near one o'clock, when they got to Hackney church, "where all the horsemen lined both sides of the road up to the church; the "trumpets sounded upon every coach stopping to set down company. From the church door to the church-yard gate was railed in; the sides hung " and the ground covered with black. Church and chancel hung round " with black, filled with buckram scutcheons; communion table covered "with black cloth. Corpse buried within the communion rails, where lie "his grandfather, grandmother, father, and two sons; trophies afterwards. "fastened to the north wall, against his grave. Charge computed at £2000. " November 14 his widow delivered of a son and heir. The rumour of this pompous funeral occasioned the following advertisement in the Gazette, " November 23, by order of the Earl of Suffolk, deputy Earl Marshal : "The Post-Boy of the 14th instant, November, giving an account, "that on Monday preceding, the corpse of Francis Tyssen, Esq. lay in state " at Goldsmith's Hall, in so grand and complete a manner as had not been seen before, and that, on the Monday following, lying in state all that day, was carried in great procession, with four of the King's trumpets, &c., with a led horse, in a velvet caparison, and all the trophies proper to a gentleman on that occasion, to Hackney, where he was interred, to the “intire satisfaction of all spectators. This is therefore to satisfy the public, "that application having been made to his Majesty's servants, the officers "of arms, to direct and marshal the said funeral, they were ready to con"sent thereto; but the manner in which the body was set forth, and also

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GEORGE I.

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led horse, trumpets, guidons, and six persons, with a coach of state, being insisted upon by some of the persons concerned in the said funeral "to be used thereat (all which far exceed the quality of the deceased), the "said officers refused togive their attendance at the said funeral, although "they of right ought to have borne the trophies proper to the degree of the "defunct. Notwithstanding which, the same was carried by improper 66 persons, in so very irregular and unjustifiable a manner, that not any one "of the said trophies was carried in its right place. Which licentious li"berty, taken of late years by ignorant pretenders, to marshal and et forth "the funerals of the nobility, gentry, and others, (too often above their estate and quality), is not only an open violation of the several established "rules and orders heretofore made for the interment of all degrees, but highly tends to the lessening of the rights and honor of the nobility "and gentry in general; and more especially, when the funerals of ig"noble persons are set forth by them, with such trophies of honor as belong "only to Peers and gentry of this realm."

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July 12, 1716, the ceremony of degrading the Duke of Ormond, attainted of treason, from his Order of the Garter, was performed at Windsor. May it be the last sad memorial of a nobleman, once the pride of a court, falling into disgrace and ruin.

In the year 1727, an impostor, of the name of Robert Harman, pretending to be a herald, was prosecuted for the offence by the College of Arms, at the quarter sessions for the county of Suffolk, held at Beccles, and being convicted of the offence, was sentenced to be placed in the pillory in several market towns, on public market days, and afterwards to be imprisoned and pay a fine, which sentence was accordingly executed, proving that the impudent and designing were not to encroach upon the rights of the College with impunity.

Garter.

GARTER, PRINCIPAL KING AT ARMS.

Ann. Sir. HENRY St. GEORGE, Knt.

Second son of Sir Henry St. George, and younger brother of Sir Thomas St. George, the preceding Garters, was born in St. Andrew's parish Hertford, in July, 1625. At his obtaining this, the highest place in the College,

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College, more than seventy-eight years of age, yet he held it twelve years. GEORGE 1. In the May preceding his death, retaining his understanding, he was Garter. nominated, with Sir Isaac Newton, Knt. William Faulkner, and Whitlock Bulstrode, Esquires, commissioners for carrying on, finishing, and adorning the cathedral church of St. Paul's in London. He had certainly been a useful member of the College, in having his provinces, whilst Norroy and Clarenceux, visited by his deputies. He does not appear to have been much skilled in the profession of arms, or to have personally done much in the science. With his advantages, and having so long been an officer in the College, he might have made collections, as numerous as they would have been valuable. Dying at his apartments in the College, on August 12, or 15, 1715, in the ninety-first year of his age, he was buried the 18th following, in the chancel of St. Bennet's Church, Paul'sWharf; but there is no memorial of him, nor of any of the other heralds, except of Hare, Richmond, in the cemetary, and of King, Lancaster, and Brooke, Somerset, within the church, which is singular. Elizabeth; his lady, died at the College, and was carried from thence, November 8, 1704, and buried the same day, at Woodford in Essex. By her Garter left two daughters and coheirs, married to Wynne, of Little Chelsea, Esq. Serjeant at Law, and to -- Gregory, of Woolthorp in Herefordshire, Esq. Mr. Bridges, of Herefordshire, his executor, obtaining possession of the heraldic books which Garter had in his house, never returned them to the College: they were very numerous and valuable, being some of the original visitations, taken by or under the authority of the St. Georges. With these also were many of Clamden's books, which he had bequeathed to his successors, the future Carenceux. These original documents were scandalously sold by Messrs. Wine and Gregory to Thomas Percival, Earl of Egmont, a great lover of genealogical studies, who gave for them £500: they are now possessed by that nobleman's grandson, John-James, the present Earl of Egmont. Few men have lived to see such great changes as Sir Henry St. George, Garter, having beheld Charles I., Charles II., James II., William and Mary, Ann, and George I, upon the throne, and had been in the service of each of them, except the first. He had seen Charles I. put to a violent death, a common-wealth established, the sovereign power seized by Oliver Cromwell, who bequeathed it to his son Richard, who was thrown from his elevation by the restored long parliament, which gave

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Garter.

GEORGE I. place to the legal government of Charles II. He beheld James II. driven from his throne by William, and that settlement of the crown, which he had planned, perfected by the accession of the House of Brunswick, in the person of George I. Events as memorable and momentous as any in the annals of this kingdom. Sir Henry was the last of the St. Georges who were in the College of Arms, which had given three Garters and one Clarenceux, none of them being members, but what became kings at arms: besides these there had been an Ulster king at arms in Ireland. The length of the lives of the four former was a serious misfortune to the heralds, their contemporaries, as they seemed to bid defiance to the ordinary visitation of human nature, until they advanced to almost an antediluvian age. Garter Anstis, senior, says, that "it was a very hard fate for the suc"cession in this office, that these three last Garters should be promoted. "in the dregs of their age; the first whereof residing in the country left the "management to his son, who was unequal to the weight of the office;* "the second imposed on by the intrigues and designs of a crafty officer;† " and the last a timorous animal, governed by every creature, minding "only his iron chest and the contents of it." It might with equal truth have been added, that it was quite as unfortunate, and still more mortifying to the members, to have the two following ones, himself and his son, placed over their heads, when they had never been in any previous employment in the possession of arms. They were, however, skilful, and every other way deserving their promotion.

June 8, 1727.-JOHN ANSTIS, Esq.-See next reign.

It was remarkable that Garter, one so obnoxious to the King, had a patent of the above date under the great seal, with remainder to his son, John Anstis, jun. Esq. His Majesty died the 11th following, only three days after that date.

* Sir William Dugdale. Surely he was intitled to every honor, every emolument. Sir Thomas St. George. Who the crafty officer was, who was supposed to have governed him, is not mentioned. I suspect he means Mr. King, Lancaster; he was undoubtedly a very wise and a very accomplished herald: he might, perhaps, have had much more of the serpent than the dove.

GEORGE 1.

Clarenceux,

CLARENCEUX.

Ann.-Sir JOHN VANBRUG, Knt.

Was of Dutch extraction. The account of his family, which he gave to the Earl of Suffolk and Bindon, when he applied for a confirmation of arms, was, that before the persecution of the Flemish by the Duke of Alva, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, his family lived near Ghent, in Flanders, and bore for their arms, Gules, on a Fesse, Or, three Barrulets, Vert in Chief, a Demy Lion. For a Crest, a Demy Lion, issuant from a Bridge composed of three reversed Arches, Or. That Giles Vanbrug quitting his native country for the enjoyment of the reformed religion, retired to England, and having been bred a merchant, settled as such in London, in the parish of St. Stephen, Walbrook, where he continued until his death, in 1646; and having purchased a vault in the church was buried in it. This Giles bore his ancestorial arms and crest, but had made no entry of them in the College of Arms. The above nobleman, then deputy Earl Marshal, not fully satisfied with "this truth of the premises," nor of the authenticity of the arms given in the frontispiece of T. Fuller's B. D. Pisgah Sight of Palestine, dedicated amongst others to William Vanbrug, merchant, son of Giles, printed in London, 1650, Lord Suffolk and Bindon referred the matter to Garter and Clarenceux. They being certified of Sir John's right to bear the arms, with the consent of his Lordship exemplified, allowed, and confirmed them and the crest; the former being ordered to be quartered with the shield of his mother. The arms of Vanbrug were also allowed to be borne by all the surviving descendants of Giles, the grandfather of Sir John, with due difference. This exemplification was dated April 30, 1714. The father of Clarenceux was Giles, third son of Giles. He settled in the city of Chester, and was, it is supposed, a sugar baker, where he acquired a very ample fortune. Blome, in his "Britannia,” calls him Gentleman: afterwards he was styled an Esquire. Removing to the capital, he obtained the place of Comptroller of the Treasury-Chamber. He died in 1715, having married Elizabeth, the fifth, and youngest daughter, and coheir of Sir Dudley Carleton, of Imber-Court in Surrey, Knt. She died at Chargate, in the parish of Esher in Surrey, August 13, 1711, and was buried on the 15th in the church of Thames Ditton in that Z z 2

county.

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