Elizabeth Hardwycke,
Countess of Shrewsbury,
A.D. 1520-1608.

By REV. F. BRODHURST, M.A.

N the two Heralds' Visitations of Derbyshire-the one by Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1621, preserved in the College of Arms in London, and the other by William Flower, Norroy King of Arms in the year 1569, and preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford-the Hardwycke, or Hardwyke pedigree is taken back six degrees, thus:

to

Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Heralds' College in 1621, in his MS. Visitation of Derbyshire, where, after giving the main line descent of the Hardwyckes of Hardwycke Hall from William and Elizabeth, 19 Henry VI., "Bess of Hardwycke" and her brother and sisters, commits himself to the statement, in a side-note, that they were descended from Sir William de Hardwycke of Hardwycke, grandson of Sir Joscelyne de Havermere de Hardwycke, son of Sir Joscelyne who fought at Hastings. The tradition in other branches of the Hardwycke family who were settled at Pattingham, co. Stafford, and at Hardwycke Hall, near Bromyard, and. elsewhere, who claim to be descended from Roger Hardwycke, of Hardwycke Hall, co. Derby, is that their remote ancestor, Sir Joscelyne de Havermere, of Hardwycke, co. Derby, was a noble Saxon Thane, who fought at Hastings on the side of Harold, and was degraded by William the Norman, to whose memory there is now erected at Caen, in Normandy, an equestrian statue, with this inscription:

WILLIELMUS.

DUX NORMANNIE.
VICTOR ANGLIE.

The memorial-stone of the Robert Barlow who died in the year 1467, the father of Nichola Barlow, who married Roger Hardwycke of Hardwycke, is still preserved in Barlow Church, with this inscription:

Orate pro anima Roberti Barley nuper defuncti qui obiit in die Assuptois Beate Marie Virginis, anno dni Millesimo cccco lxo vijo. Item orate pro bono statu Margarete uxoris sue."

There was also formerly a memorial-stone to Robert Barlow, who was betrothed to Elizabeth Hardwycke, with this inscription:

66

Hic jacet Robertus Barley et uxor ejus quidem Robertus obiit 2 die Februarii Anno Dom. 1532 quorum animabus propitietur Deus. Amen."

It will be seen a space is left for the name of his wife, Elizabeth Hardwycke, but she married three times afterwards,

and found a resting-place at All Saints' Church, Derby. Elizabeth Hardwycke was the third daughter of John Hardwycke, of Hardwycke Hall, co. Derby. Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leeke, of Hasland Manor, a member of the Sutton Scarsdale family, the head of which family was created Baron Deincourt, 26th October, 1624, and Earl of Scarsdale, 11th May, 1645, which peerage became extinct in the year 1736. Elizabeth Leeke, before marrying John Hardwycke of Hardwycke, had married a Leche of Chatsworth. This accounts for some pedigrees stating that he married Elizabeth Leeke, and others Elizabeth Leche. The Leches sold Chatsworth to the Agards, the Agards to Sir William and Lady Cavendish.

There is a MS. in the Chatsworth Library, by Nathaniel Johnston, M.D., written in the year 1692, which gives this account of the first marriage of Elizabeth Hardwycke to Robert Barlow:

"I have been informed by some ancient gentlemen, it was accomplished by her being at London attending the Lady Zouche at such time as Mr. Barlow lay sick there of a Chronicall Distemper. In which time this young gentlewoman making him many visits upon account of their neighbourhood in the country and out of kindness to him, being very sollicitous to afford him all the helpe she was able to do in his sickness by ordering his dyet and attendance, being then young, and very handsome, he fell deeply in love with her, of whose greate affections to her she made such advantage, that for lack of issue by her, he settled a large inheritance in lands upon herself, and her heirs, which by his death a short time after she fully enjoyed."

Robert Barlow was aged fourteen, Elizabeth Hardwycke was aged twelve, at the time of their betrothal. He died 2nd February, 1532.

The life of Elizabeth Hardwycke is naturally divided into the periods of her four marriages and her widowhood of seventeen years. Something has already been said of her first marriage.