UNIV. Of CALIF. LWWARY, L 
 
 LIBRARY OF 
 
 ARCHITECTURE AND 
 
 ALLIED ARTS 
 
 Gift of 
 
 The Heirs 
 
 of 
 R. Germain Hubby, A. I. A
 
 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND
 
 AMERICAN SHRINES 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED T. STORY 
 
 WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND 
 EIGHTEEN IN MONOTONE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1908
 
 First Published in igo8
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 Uo 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 T N giving my little book to the public 1 
 * wish to express my thanks to the Rt. 
 Hon. Earl Spencer, K.G., for his permission 
 to photograph, as an illustration to the 
 volume, the portrait (by Mark Gerards) of 
 Sir Robert Spencer, first Baron Spencer of 
 Wormleighton ; interesting to the readers ot 
 "American Shrines in England " because he 
 was the constant and ever-loyal friend and 
 patron of Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave 
 and Brington, and of his sons, one of whom 
 was the direct ancestor of the first President 
 of the United States. Also for allowing the 
 Althorp Household Books to be gone 
 through for the verification of entries therein,
 
 vi AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and for other aids. Thanks are due likewise 
 to Mr. A. L. Y. Morley, his lordship's 
 agent, for various courtesies and helps ; as 
 also to the Rectors of Brington and Ecton 
 for similar kindnesses. 
 
 A. T. S. 
 " OAKLANDS " 
 
 ST. MARGARETS-ON-THAMES 
 December^ 190?
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE . . I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS ... 28 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 WORMLEIGHTON 48 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON . . . .69 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SPENCER AND WASHINGTON MONUMENTS AT 
 
 BRINGTON . 91 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, THE RECTOR OF PUR- 
 LEIGH . . 114 
 
 vii
 
 viii AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS . . . .136 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS . . .163 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO . . .192 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE. . . .211 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE . . . .236 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE . . . 253 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 OTHER MEMORIALS AND SHRINES IN AND NEAR 
 
 LONDON 287 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SOME OTHER HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION. 311 
 INDEX 341
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PLATES 
 
 THE BELL TOWER, EVESHAM . . Frontispiece 
 
 From a drawing by A. R. Quinton. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 ROBERT, 1ST LORD SPENCER (CREATED BARON 
 
 SPENCER OF WORMLEIGHTON, 1603) . .22 
 
 From a portrait by Mark Gerards, at Althorp, by 
 permission of the Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer, K.G. 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 THE CHURCH, GREAT BRINGTON .... 24 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 SULGRAVE MANOR HOUSE 40 
 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 THE TOWER, WORMLEIGHTON HOUSE . . -54 
 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 WASHINGTON HOUSE, LITTLE BRINGTON . . 74 
 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 CARVED BENCH-END, BRINGTON CHURCH . . 78 
 
 ix
 
 x AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 OLD SUNDIAL WITH WASHINGTON ARMS, LITTLE 
 
 BRINGTON 78 
 
 WESTMINSTER ABBEY, FROM WESTMINSTER SCHOOL 88 
 From a drawing by John Fulleylove, R.I. 
 
 THE SPENCER CHAPEL, GREAT BRINGTON (LOOK- 
 ING NORTH-WEST) 91 
 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 ECTON CHURCH 141 
 
 Photograph by T. C. Pinny. 
 
 JORDANS MEETING HOUSE 222 
 
 Photograph by F. Mtlller. 
 
 PLAs-YN-YALE MANOR HOUSE . . . .236 
 
 HARVARD HOUSE, STRATFORD-ON-AVON . .257 
 
 Photograph by J. Valentine & Sons, Dundee. 
 
 HARVARD MEMORIAL CHAPEL AND WINDOW, SOUTH- 
 
 WARK CATHEDRAL 265 
 
 PERSHORE ABBEY AND BRIDGE .... 294 
 From a drawing by A. R. Quinton. 
 
 THE TEMPLE CHURCH . . , . . .310 
 
 From a drawing by John Fulleylove, R.I.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi 
 
 IN THE TEXT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE WASHINGTON ARMS, IMPALED WITH THOSE 
 
 OF THE BUTLERS 105 
 
 THE BRASS OF ROBERT WASHINGTON AND HIS 
 
 WIFE 10 7 
 
 ARMS OF ROBERT WASHINGTON, WITH CRESCENT 
 
 IN SIGN OF CADENCY IO8 
 
 PART OF MEDIAEVAL SOUTHWARK . . . 259 
 
 From an old engraving. 
 
 STARTING ON THE PILGRIMAGE TO CANTERBURY . 278 
 From an old engraving. 
 
 ENTRANCE TO CHAPTER HOUSE .... 289 
 From " Westminster Abbey," by G. E. Troutbeck
 
 AMERICAN SHRINES 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 
 
 1 ^ VERY American who is interested in 
 * ' the origins of his countrymen, and 
 especially in the origin of the men who 
 have made their mark in their country's 
 annals, must desire, on visiting England, 
 to see places that have become almost 
 sacred from their association with names 
 that are among the most honoured and 
 revered in the records of their country. 
 England is not the ancestral home of all 
 the great men who have figured in the 
 story of the United States, far from it ; 
 but it so happens that a great many of
 
 2 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 those who helped to shape the country's 
 early destinies, and in an especial way 
 stamped upon it their character, and we 
 might say their ideal, were linked by 
 home and kindred with Great Britain. 
 Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and a 
 host of others, who were associated with the 
 founding of the Republic, together with 
 Penn, and many more, who helped in its 
 building all were of British stock, and of 
 the best blood of that stock, which, what- 
 ever else may be said of it, is possessed of 
 a nation-making strain such as no other 
 race we know of has shown. 
 
 It is curious to note, too, how many of 
 these men, or their forebears, came from 
 Mid-England, from the shires that pack 
 the inland area from Bucks to York ; while 
 two of the strongest and most notable 
 of America's worthies, Washington and
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 3 
 
 Franklin, had their root-stock in the very 
 midmost county of them all, not far either 
 from Naseby or Navesby, as some authori- 
 ties tell us was the original form of the 
 name, the village, 'tis said, being so called 
 because it is situated at the very centre, or 
 navel, of England. 
 
 That may be, and probably is, merely a 
 notion of some pedant or philologist of the 
 old school ; but there is this much to be said 
 about it, namely, that if it be far-fetched it 
 is not far from the truth, and as Great 
 Brington, one of the most notable of the 
 Washington homes in England, is barely 
 six miles south of Naseby, it may with 
 truth be said that the first President of the 
 United States sprang from the very heart of 
 England ; as did likewise Benjamin Franklin, 
 the birthplace of whose father, Ecton, is 
 but eight or nine miles, as the crow flies, east
 
 4 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 of Brington, Northampton lying between, 
 though nearer Ecton. 
 
 The town records tell of a Washington 
 who was twice mayor of that borough, and 
 there is direct and complete evidence 
 connecting him with the Washingtons of 
 Virginia and hence with the first President 
 of the United States. This Washington 
 was named Lawrence. He was the son of 
 John Washington, of Warton, in Lancashire, 
 a place situated near the Westmorland 
 border. His grandfather also was a John 
 Washington, though he belonged to 
 Whitfield, in the same county. The family 
 is thought to have come originally from 
 the county of Durham,* and seems to have 
 
 * Although there is no direct evidence of this Durham 
 origin there is much to be said in its favour. Washington 
 Irving, in his " Life of George Washington," tells us of 
 a Washington family that was established in the diocese 
 of Durham as early as 1183. It was originally named
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 5 
 
 been of that good sound yeoman stock that 
 has played so large a part in the making 
 of England and of all that in the world 
 to-day bears the stamp of English genius 
 and character. An imaginative American 
 genealogist* has gone beyond this Durham 
 origin and derived the family from no less 
 a hero than Odin, King of Scandinavia, 
 but into this large pedigree we need not 
 enter here. 
 
 Hertburn, but in the year named a William de Hertburn 
 exchanged his village of Hertburn for the manor and 
 village of Wessynton, in the same diocese. The family 
 changed its name with its estate, and henceforth assumed 
 that of De Wessyngton. About the end of the i4th century 
 the estate passed from the Washingtons by marriage, and, 
 with the exception of a John de Wessyngton, who became 
 prior of the Benedictine convent attached to the cathedral 
 of Durham in 1416 (died 1446), we hear no more of this 
 branch of the De Wessyngtons, though the name is 
 frequently met with in other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 * "A Pedigree and History of the Washington Family," 
 by Albert Welles, 1879.
 
 6 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 The mother of Lawrence Washington, 
 who became twice mayor of Northampton 
 (1532 and 1545), was Margaret, the daughter 
 of Robert Kitson (or Kytson, as we find it 
 written in the old records), of Warton, and 
 sister of Sir Thomas Kitson, of Hengrave, 
 Suffolk. This relationship to the Kitsons 
 had, as we shall see, a most powerful in- 
 fluence upon the fortunes of the Washington 
 family. Lawrence Washington was trained 
 to the law, studying at Gray's Inn, of which 
 he became a Bencher ; but while yet young, 
 probably on the advice, and likely enough 
 with the aid, of his uncle Sir Thomas Kitson, 
 who was one of the most successful 
 merchants of his time, he turned his 
 attention to commerce, and, settling in 
 Northampton (whither it is supposed he 
 went in the first instance with his father), 
 was blessed with great prosperity and, as
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 7 
 
 we have seen, became twice mayor of the 
 town. 
 
 Nor is it unlikely that his relationship to 
 Sir John Spencer of Althorp (who had 
 married his cousin Catherine, the daughter 
 of Sir Thomas Kitson) had something to 
 do with the choice of Northampton as his 
 place of residence. Wool was in those 
 days the chief product of Northampton- 
 shire, as of the neighbouring county of 
 Warwick, and the Spencers had grown 
 rich in that industry. Northampton was 
 naturally the centre of the trade for that 
 part of the country, and its wool-combers 
 were a thriving and energetic body. The 
 industry may be said to have been still 
 in its infancy, but so profitable was it 
 found that year after year larger and 
 larger numbers of merchant-adventurers 
 were drawn into it, and larger and larger
 
 8 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 areas of land, in both Northamptonshire 
 and Warwick, devoted thereto.* It was 
 a stirring age. Of the long wars that 
 had but recently been brought to a close 
 men had got tired, and with peace and 
 the breaking up of old shackles, they went 
 into all the new lines of life that presented 
 themselves with a verve and energy that 
 had never been seen in England before, 
 and into nothing with more striking results 
 than this sheep-farming and wool-stapling 
 business, which was, moreover, given such 
 an enormous impulse by Henry VII I. 's 
 policy of dissolving the monasteries ; the 
 
 * This devoting the land to the breeding of sheep 
 was a great grief to the poor in those days. An old 
 writer (i6th century), speaking of Warwickshire, says 
 that the sheep were " most large in bone, flesh, and wool, 
 in this county, especially about Wormleighton. In this 
 county the complaint of John Rous continueth and in- 
 creaseth, that sheep turn cannibals, eating up men, houses, 
 and towns, their pastures make such depopulation."
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 9 
 
 effect of which can only be faintly 
 realised at the present day by trying to 
 imagine what would happen if some 
 strong hand were to "henry" the vast 
 lands tied up to-day by our old feudal 
 laws and let loose upon them the busy 
 hands and busier brains of the doers of 
 effective things. 
 
 One of the leading patrons of this new 
 industry was the first Lord Spencer, a 
 man of whose connection with the Wash- 
 ington family it will be necessary to say 
 more presently. Of him there is a local 
 tradition to the effect that he aspired to 
 be the owner of 20,000 sheep, but a 
 mortality always attacked his flocks between 
 the nineteenth and twentieth thousand. It 
 is probably but a jest that says he once 
 reached the very odd number of 19,999. 
 
 How much he threw himself into this
 
 10 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sheep-rearing business, and how greatly 
 he loved it, is evidenced by a remark 
 made by Wilson, the historian of James I. 
 " His fields and flocks," he says, " brought 
 him more calm and happy contentment 
 than the various and unstable dispensa- 
 tions of a court." 
 
 This Spencer was of a later day than 
 the Washington of whom we are speak- 
 ing, who had risen to the dignity of 
 mayor of his adopted town in 1532, when, 
 therefore, Henry VIII. was king, at 
 which time the Spencers were a growing 
 family growing by their devotion to the 
 sheep-breeding industry, if we may believe 
 an anecdote told by the above-named 
 historian in relation to the before-men- 
 tioned Lord Spencer. On the occasion 
 of a dispute between him and Lord 
 Arundel in the House of Lords, the latter
 
 WASH1NGTONS OF NORTH ANTS 11 
 
 twitted him with the remark that " when 
 these things you speak of were doing, 
 your ancestors were keeping sheep " ; 
 whereto Lord Spencer replied, with an 
 equal touch of venom : " When my an- 
 cestors, as you say, were keeping sheep, 
 your ancestors were plotting treason." 
 
 Now it was when the Spencers were 
 "keeping sheep" that Lawrence Wash- 
 ington was induced to go into the wool- 
 stapling trade at Northampton, and it 
 may have been largely through his con- 
 nection with Sir John Spencer, who was 
 practically, as a wool-grower, in the same 
 trade, that he was enabled to grow rich 
 by buying the gold-making fleeces from 
 the sheep-farmers of the district and 
 selling the wool to the manufacturers of 
 Norfolk, Essex, and Yorkshire. He soon 
 became a prominent citizen (with his
 
 12 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 house probably on the Market Square or 
 near it), was made a member of the 
 corporation while still a young man, and 
 chosen mayor in 1632. Nothing of any 
 note is known of Lawrence Washington's 
 first mayoralty ; but during the second 
 year of office (in 1645), says a little 
 brochure, published by The Northampton 
 Mercury, on " Northampton Mayors," the 
 corporation had to face an unemployed 
 difficulty, with heavy rates, scant work, 
 and high prices. "In their ' discrete dis- 
 cretion,' as the original entry runs in the 
 book still preserved in the Town Hall, 
 the mayor and corporation, to keep 
 down the price of bread and other 
 necessaries, enacted : 
 
 " ' That no baker should send into the 
 country more than one horse load of 
 bread in any one day.
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 13 
 
 " ' That no miller, nor person acting 
 for a miller, should go near the market 
 on market day.' 
 
 "As it was already illegal to sell corn on 
 market days anywhere except in the market, 
 this was intended to bring the private house- 
 holder into direct commerce with the producer. 
 
 (< ' That no person bringing corn into the 
 town should be allowed to keep it from 
 one market day to another.' 
 
 " That was to ensure that corn, if there 
 were any, could be purchased at the market 
 value, and could not be kept for a rise. 
 
 " The mayor who could issue and enforce 
 such a decree was no ordinary man," com- 
 ments the writer of the brochure, and we 
 thoroughly agree with him. 
 
 Reference has been made to Lawrence 
 Washington's relationship to Sir John 
 Spencer, of Wormleighton and Althorp, by
 
 14 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 his marriage with Catherine, the daughter 
 of Sir Thomas Kitson. This tie was 
 strengthened by the marriage, en seconde 
 noce, of Lawrence Washington to Amee 
 (or Amy) daughter of Robert Pargiter, of 
 Gretworth,* Northamptonshire (his first 
 wife having been Elizabeth, the widow of 
 William Gough, of Northampton), whose 
 near relative, William Pargiter, married 
 Mistress Abigail Willoughby, sister of the 
 
 * In " Memorials of Old Northamptonshire," edited 
 by Alice Dryden, there are, connected with some details 
 respecting the Northamptonshire Militia " taken the 
 xxx daye of September in the Ffyrst year (1559) off the 
 rayne of o r sov'ayne Lady Elizabeth," the following 
 interesting items : 
 
 " Soulgrave : Mr. Washington is charged to fynd an 
 archer on foot and the rest of y' towne to furnyshe a 
 byll man. 
 
 " Grytworth : M. P'gyter is charged to fynd an archer 
 on foot and the rest of y* towne to furnyshe a byll man. 
 
 " Aston-in-the-wall : Mr. Butler is charged with 
 a lyght horseman."
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 15 
 
 deceased wife (pb. 1597) of Robert, ist 
 Lord Spencer, of Wormleighton (pb. 1627). 
 This nobleman and his son William were, 
 as we shall see, the close and devoted friends 
 of the son and grandsons of Lawrence 
 Washington. The triple relationship here 
 set forth will be seen at a glance in the 
 subjoined genealogical tree : 
 
 Robert Kitson, of Warton, Lancashire. 
 
 | 
 
 Sir Thomas Kitson, of Margaret = John Washington, 
 
 Hengrave, Suff. I of Warton, Lanes. 
 
 Catherine = Sir John Spencer. Lawrence Washington = 
 
 Amy Pargiter. 
 
 Sir Thomas Kitson (1485-1540) was one 
 of the princely merchants of his day, and 
 appears to have made his fortune out of the 
 fleeces with which the Spencers were so 
 largely concerned and into the trade in 
 which his nephew Lawrence threw himself 
 with so much energy and success. He was
 
 16 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 a member of the Mercers' Company, was 
 twice its Warden, and its Master in 1535. 
 Two years earlier he had been Sheriff of 
 London, and was knighted on May 3oth 
 of the same year. In the Act of Parliament 
 (1524) which was necessary to make secure 
 his possession of the manors of H engrave, 
 Suffolk, and Colston Basset, Nottingham- 
 shire, after the attainder of Buckingham, 
 from whom he had purchased them in 1521, 
 he is described as " citizen and mercer 
 of London, otherwise called Kytson the 
 merchant." 
 
 It may be well understood that in Sir 
 Thomas Kitson, of the Mercers' Company, 
 and Sir John Spencer, with his thousands 
 of sheep, Lawrence Washington, wool- 
 stapler, had powerful friends ; and we can 
 hardly doubt that it was to some extent 
 through their interest and influence that he
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 17 
 
 became wealthy so rapidly so rapidly 
 indeed that between his two periods of 
 mayoralty (in short in 1539) he stretched 
 forth his hand and became possessed of the 
 lands of Sulgrave, thrown into the market 
 by Henry's disruption of the monasteries. 
 
 Sulgrave, which is somefourteen miles south- 
 west of Northampton and about six north-east 
 of Banbury, was at the time of the Dissolu- 
 tion the property of the Priory of St. Andrew, 
 at Northampton. Lawrence Washington 
 therefore knew all about it, and with such 
 a "friend at court" as Sir John Spencer 
 he doubtless found little difficulty in obtaining 
 a grant of the alienated lands of that religious 
 house ; the more especially as the rector of 
 Brington was at that time no less a person 
 than Dr. Richard Layton, Cromwell's principal 
 commissioner for the dissolution of the 
 
 monasteries. Thus at a stride, as we may 
 2
 
 18 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 say, he lifted himself from the simple rank 
 of a tradesman or merchant to that of the 
 squirearchy of the district, although in truth 
 he was as well born, and probably as well 
 connected by marriage, as any of his 
 neighbours, possibly as wealthy also. He 
 built himself a handsome house and so 
 made himself one of the proud magnates 
 of the county of " spires and squires." 
 
 Besides the estate at Sulgrave with which 
 Robert de Pinkeney had endowed the Priory 
 of St. Andrew at Northampton, Lawrence 
 Washington became possessed at the same 
 time of other properties at Woodford, Stotes- 
 bury, and Cotton, which had belonged to the 
 priory, as also of certain lands in Sulgrave, 
 the belongings of the dissolved priories of 
 Canons Ashby and Catesby (places, like 
 Sulgrave, brimming with history), the sum- 
 total of his payment for the same being
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 19 
 
 ^321 145. lod. As already said, this 
 transaction took place in 1539, and some 
 four years later (1543) the Northampton 
 wool-merchant still further extended his 
 worldly possessions by the purchase from 
 Sir John Williams and Anthony Stringer of 
 a great barn at Stotesbury, doubtless for the 
 convenience of his wool-stapling operations. 
 Lawrence Washington had a numerous 
 family, but as we are chiefly concerned 
 with the eldest son, Robert, the ancestor 
 of George Washington, we need but glance 
 at the fact that his second son, Lawrence, 
 become a man of some note and eminence. 
 He was at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 
 1560 to 1567, graduating B.A. in the last- 
 named year; joined Gray's Inn in 1582 
 and became a Bencher in 1599; was re- 
 turned member of Parliament for Maidstone 
 in 1604, and continued to represent that
 
 20 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 borough until 161 1, when he died at the age 
 of 73. His son, Lawrence (or " Laurence" 
 as it was usually spelled in his day), 
 followed his lead in becoming a lawyer, 
 and (in 1619) succeeding him as Registrar 
 of the Chancery Court. The honour of 
 knighthood was conferred on him in 1607. 
 He died at Oxford in 1643, while the 
 city was being held by the King's forces. 
 Robert Washington succeeded to the 
 Sulgrave estate on the death of his father 
 in 1585 (February iQth), being at the time 
 in his fortieth year. He continued in un- 
 disturbed possession until 1610, when for 
 some unexplained reason, supposed to have 
 been pecuniary embarrassment, it was found 
 necessary to part with it to another branch 
 of the family. The whole of the circum- 
 stances that led to this alienation are in- 
 volved in mystery. If pecuniary difficulties
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 21 
 
 arose they would appear to have developed 
 suddenly, as up to the time named Robert 
 Washington maintained his position in the 
 county and gave his sons an education 
 suitable to their station. Two, Christopher 
 and William, went to Oriel College, Oxford, 
 matriculating, both of them, in that most 
 memorable of all memorable years when 
 England was in the making the ringing 
 year of the Armada, Christopher graduating 
 B.A. six years later (1594-5). 
 
 The eldest son was named Lawrence, after 
 his grandfather, and with his consent it 
 was decided to sell Sulgrave to Lawrence 
 Makepeace, a descendant of Lawrence 
 Washington, of Northampton, through one 
 of his daughters, who married an Abel 
 Makepeace. In this family the manor 
 remained for barely fifty years, thus curiously 
 illustrating the ill-luck supposed to fall upon
 
 22 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 those who held alienated church property 
 before the completion of the third genera- 
 tion. It was a strange declension of for- 
 tune, and was, we can hardly doubt, one 
 of the proximate causes of the emigration, 
 between forty and fifty years later, of that 
 John Washington (grandson of the second 
 Lawrence) who founded the Virginian 
 branch of the family. 
 
 It was at the unfortunate crisis of 
 the family fortunes which necessitated the 
 sale of the Sulgrave property that the 
 Spencers proved a valuable stay and sup- 
 port, Lawrence Washington then (following 
 his brother Robert) going to live at 
 Brington, close to Althorp, the famous 
 Northamptonshire seat of that family, and 
 finding in Robert, Lord Spencer, a true 
 and constant friend. 
 
 In the annexed genealogical tree will be
 
 *MI-EIGHTON, 1603) 
 
 : portrait by Mark Gerards at Altlwrp
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 23 
 
 seen the detailed pedigrees of the Washing- 
 tons from John Washington, of Whitfield, 
 Lancashire, through John Washington, of 
 Warton, to Lawrence Washington, of Sul- 
 grave and Brington, who joined with his 
 father, Robert Washington, in breaking 
 the entail and disposing of the Sulgrave 
 property : 
 
 John Washington of Whitfield (Co. Lanes.) 
 
 John Washington, =p Margaret, d. of Robert Kitson, 
 of Warton. of Warton. 
 
 Lawrence Washington, =j= Amy, d. of Robert Pargiter, 
 
 of Northampton and Sulgrave 
 
 Lmpto: 
 (d. I 
 
 585). 
 
 of Gretworth 
 (d. 1564). 
 
 Robert Washington, =p Elizabeth, d. of Robert Light, 
 of Sulgrave (d. 1619). of Radway, Co. Warwick. 
 
 1 
 
 Lawrence Washington, = 
 of Sulgrave and Brington 
 (d. 1616). 
 
 = Margaret, d. of Rbt. Washington (d. 
 Wm. Butler, of 1622) Elizabeth 
 Tighes, Sussex. Chishull. 
 
 Sir Wm. Sir . 
 Washington. Washi 
 
 bhn Rev. Lawrence Washington 
 ngton. of Purleigh.
 
 24 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Baker, in his "History of Northampton- 
 shire," says that Lawrence Washington went 
 to live at Brington upon the sale of the 
 Sulgrave property in 1610. But, as a 
 matter of fact, it is far from clear when he 
 took up his residence in that parish and 
 how long he remained there. What we 
 know is that he must have been living 
 there in 1606-7, in which year the parish 
 register records the baptism and burial of 
 a son, Gregory. But we know also that 
 two years later (August 3rd, 1608) he had 
 a son, George by name, baptized at 
 Wormleighton. 
 
 The former circumstances led Mr. J. N. 
 Simpkinson,* a one-time rector of Brington, 
 to infer that Lawrence Washington went 
 to live at Brington in 1606-7, and remained 
 there until the completion of the transfer 
 * Author of " The Washingtons," 1860.
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 25 
 
 of the paternal estate to Lawrence Make- 
 peace in 1610, and that then he transferred 
 himself and his belongings to London, his 
 brother Robert succeeding him as tenant 
 of the house he had occupied at Brington. 
 A good deal of this, as will be seen, is mere 
 supposition. 
 
 Robert Washington was a resident at 
 Brington long before 1610, a will (that of 
 one John Robyns, of Althorp, dated xi. Jan., 
 1601 (24 Eliz.), still in existence, having as 
 witnesses Thomas Campion, Robert Wash- 
 ington, John West, Thomas Detherick, and 
 Richard Warwick. Of course it is barely 
 possible that Robert Washington was merely 
 a visitor at Brington or Althorp when he 
 thus put his name to John Robyns' will 
 as a witness, though it is hardly probable. 
 We know that he resided for some time 
 at Wormleighton, just over the Warwick-
 
 26 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 shire border, and that he was married 
 there to Elizabeth Chishull (daughter of 
 John Chishull, of Moor Hall, Essex), 
 February i9th, 1595. Between that date 
 and 1 60 1 he apparently took up his resi- 
 dence for good at Brington, where he died 
 in 1622. 
 
 The evidence that Lawrence Washington 
 spent much time there is very slight only 
 the baptism and burial of a son there 
 (1606), and his own burial ten years later. 
 He had a large family eight sons and nine 
 daughters ; and the almost utter silence of 
 the parish register respecting them, ex- 
 cepting his daughter Amy, married to 
 Mr. Philip Curtis in 1620, leads one to 
 suppose that, though not living all those 
 years at Brington, Lawrence Washington 
 was not far away. Possibly, for the sake 
 of the education of his sons, he may have
 
 WASHINGTONS OF NORTHANTS 27 
 
 established himself in some Midland town, 
 not far away, like Northampton, Bedford, or 
 Warwick, where there was a good grammar 
 school, and from time to time returned 
 for a season to Brington, to be near his 
 friend and patron, Lord Spencer.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 
 
 T3EFORE saying more about Brington 
 ^-* it will be well to set down what we 
 know about Sulgrave and its connection 
 with the Washingtons. It has been called 
 the cradle of the family, and although that 
 is a misnomer, in so far that we know there 
 were at least two or three generations of 
 Washingtons at Whitfield and Warton, in 
 Lancashire, yet it may be taken as a fitting 
 designation, insomuch as from Sulgrave a 
 new family arose having important and far- 
 reaching destinies. Sulgrave is a typical 
 old English village, and, situated as it is 
 in the midst of a beautiful and delightfully 
 rural country, is well worth a visit. It
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 29 
 
 may be reached with equal ease from 
 Banbury (either driving or afoot, as the 
 happy pilgrim elects), or from Helmdon 
 and Moreton Pinkney stations. Nothing 
 can exceed the charm of a walk from the 
 latter place via Culworth, starting early, 
 if the weather be warm, taking the lanes 
 and by-ways quietly, with an eye for 
 every change of scene and "scape" of sky; 
 and returning, due attention having been 
 given to the place, when evening is taking 
 the lingering hour from afternoon and the 
 cottage chimneys are sending up tenuous 
 pillars of smoke in token of the day's work 
 done and the evening meal preparing. At 
 this season the country-side is very still, 
 hardly a lark shaking the lazy air with a 
 trill ; it is somewhat sedate in its moods, its 
 richest note of colour being the scarlet of 
 the poppy in the corn-fields, or it may be,
 
 30 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 if luck and the gods favour, a patch of 
 that sweetest blue of all blue flowers, the 
 meadow geranium (G. pratense\ gently 
 rocking its delicate petals amid the way- 
 side grass. Very different is it if the 
 pedestrian choose the spring-time for his 
 pilgrimage. Then every hedgerow and 
 copse will have its quire, and the descant 
 will here and there touch the higher octave 
 of passion and joy, these too echoing them- 
 selves in the silent music of the flowers. 
 
 Arrived at Sulgrave, the first object to 
 attract the attention is the church, with its 
 solid-looking tower, standing at the west 
 end of the village. It is, in the main, in the 
 style of architecture known as Decorated, 
 and hence dates back to the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. The chancel, with one well-preserved 
 Perpendicular window, is later, as is like- 
 wise the south porch, which is dated 1564;
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 31 
 
 while the porch on the north side is of 
 the same period as the earlier parts of the 
 edifice, which consists, in addition to the 
 chancel, of nave and north and south aisles, 
 these being separated from the nave by a 
 Decorated arcade of four bays. Its square, 
 embattled tower, with square buttresses, 
 set as it is amid ancestral elms, forms a 
 conspicuous object in the landscape. Nor 
 must we omit to mention a west door of 
 plain but unusual design. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the church does not 
 rank high in a county famous for structures 
 of this kind, some of them among the most 
 interesting in the country. Still Sulgrave 
 church is not without its objects of special 
 interest. Among these must be placed the 
 hagioscope, or " squint," enabling persons 
 who were in the south aisle to witness the 
 elevation of the Host. Then, on the south
 
 32 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 side of the chancel, beneath the window of 
 Perpendicular design above referred to, is 
 to be seen a small window provided with an 
 oaken shutter, usually known as a " leper's 
 window," its purpose being to enable a 
 person suffering from leprosy to follow 
 the service without entering the church. 
 On each side of the chancel roof are 
 carved heads, supposed to be those of 
 Edward III. and his Queen (Philippa). 
 
 Worthy of note, too, are the old octa- 
 gonal font and the Norman doorway with 
 its quaint ball-flower moulding ; also, on 
 the south side of the altar, near the floor, 
 the small square piscina. Equally in- 
 teresting is the ancient oaken treasure-chest 
 of the church, curiously banded athwart 
 and across with strips of iron. These old- 
 time receptacles for records, church plate, 
 vestments, and the like, are not uncommon,
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 33 
 
 though there are not many examples similar 
 to the one at Sulgrave ; which, moreover, 
 enjoys the distinction of having at one time 
 served as a hiding-place in which a local 
 gang of burglars and highwaymen stored 
 their ill-gotten gains, the parish clerk being 
 an accomplice and covering them and their 
 nefarious proceedings, as it were, by the 
 screen of his semi-sacred character. The 
 rogue was condemned to death for his part 
 in the gang's doings in July, 1787, but 
 got off with transportation for life. The 
 marauders, known as the Culworth gang, 
 were the terror of the country-side for 
 many years. 
 
 Interesting as are all these various objects 
 and details in the old church, they are less 
 attractive to the American pilgrim than 
 some others that have a direct and very 
 personal relation to the Washingtons who 
 3
 
 34 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 settled in the village, carrying with them, 
 as all must, their inevitable sorrows, which 
 here find record in the sacred edifice, some 
 parts of it then comparatively recent, others 
 added in the earlier years of the new squire, 
 probably with his aid. A slab under the 
 east window of the south aisle, still to be 
 seen, formerly contained memorial brasses 
 of the first Lawrence Washington and his 
 family. They were six in number, but 
 what remains of them is very imperfect and 
 much mutilated. 
 
 The head of the family is represented 
 wearing a close-fitting doublet, a long loose 
 gown bordered with fur and having demi- 
 canon sleeves, and large broad-toed shoes 
 in short, the ordinary attire of well-to-do 
 citizens in the days of the virgin Queen. 
 The head of this brass is missing, as is 
 the whole of that representing the wife.
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 35 
 
 Fortunately a drawing of the whole has 
 been preserved, and from it we can see 
 how the wife, and also the children, were 
 represented. She appears in a plain costume, 
 such as was worn by women of her rank 
 in Tudor times. The four sons and seven 
 daughters of these twain were represented 
 in groups, as " weepers," as they were 
 called, on two other brasses. The former 
 appear in the long doublets and breeches 
 of the period, with long hose and the 
 usual broad-toed shoes ; the girls in close- 
 fitting caps, with gowns reaching to the 
 ankles, secured by a band round the waist. 
 The memorial slab was mutilated in 
 August, 1889, by two well-dressed individuals 
 who desired admission to the church and 
 who, when gone, were found to have carried 
 away the brasses of the " weepers." Time 
 has told, too, on the brass representing the
 
 36 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 family coat of arms argent, two bars gules, 
 in chief three mullets of the second. The 
 plate recording the interment is thus 
 inscribed : 
 
 Here lyeth y e bodys of Laurence Wasshingto, 
 Gent, and Amee his vvyf, by whome he had issue 
 iiij sons & vij daughts, w c Laurence dyed y e 
 day of an. 15 , & Amee deceassed the 
 
 vj day of October an Dni. 1564. 
 
 This inscription was evidently written 
 and placed in situ on, or soon after, the 
 wife's death, the blanks being left to be 
 filled in when the husband, Lawrence, should 
 follow her to their last earthly home. But 
 when, nineteen years later (1585), he came to 
 take his place by her side, the spaces for 
 the date of death were left unfilled a 
 curious omission. Can it be explained by 
 the supposition that the trouble which was
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 37 
 
 ere long to drive the family from Sulgrave 
 was already overshadowing it ? Or was 
 there some lack of business grip and manage- 
 ment in Lawrence's eldest son, and that 
 this may account for the omission referred 
 to, as well as for the speedy declension of 
 the family's fortunes ? Vain are such 
 surmises, however. 
 
 It is worthy of note that care has been 
 taken to preserve this interesting memorial 
 of the Washingtons from further hurt or 
 decay, while a reproduction of the original 
 inscription (dating from 1890) has been 
 placed upon the wall above it by the present 
 members of the family. 
 
 From the church let us turn to what 
 remains of the old Manor-house, which 
 stands at the east end of the village. Built 
 of the stone of the district, it was in the 
 style of the period, and of a size suitable
 
 38 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 for persons of the rank and fortune of 
 Lawrence Washington. What it was 
 originally, and the appearance it now 
 presents, are two very different things. 
 Turned into a farmhouse after it passed out 
 of the hands of the Makepeaces, it under- 
 went in course of time many changes and 
 transformations, and not a few disfigure- 
 ments. What remains of the original 
 structure faces south, away from the village 
 street, from which it is approached, pre- 
 senting to the view on that side the farm- 
 yard, out-buildings, and other appurtenances 
 of the farmer's calling. Altogether it has 
 greatly descended from its whilom high 
 estate, and it would be hard to see in the 
 house as it now exists the home of a man 
 of Lawrence Washington's pretensions, did 
 we not know how humble were the domestic 
 arrangements and appointments required
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 39 
 
 in Tudor times in comparison with what 
 they are to-day. 
 
 The house as it stands affords a good 
 specimen of the domestic architecture of 
 the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. 
 It is neither better nor worse than many 
 other similar edifices of its class and kind, 
 and shows that the builder, even when he 
 decided to provide himself with a house, 
 did not aspire too high. Some have opined 
 that the original plan was on a larger and more 
 elaborate scale, designed possibly with the 
 idea that fortunate descendants might carry 
 it out, if they thought fit, which however 
 they never did. There are indications that 
 the east wall of the hall was not an exterior 
 wall, and it has been surmised that the 
 building may have extended some distance 
 to the east. What of the original structure 
 remains shows that all the work connected
 
 40 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 with it was good and substantial, and the 
 adornments of a tasteful though by no means 
 florid character. These it is not always 
 easy to make out, so much have they 
 suffered from indifference and neglect. But 
 the general style of these enrichments may 
 be gathered from the projecting bay con- 
 taining what was the entrance door on the 
 south. This is gabled, albeit with a lower 
 pitch than the roof proper. The doorway 
 has a low Tudor arch with square mouldings, 
 having the bars and mullets of the Washing- 
 ton arms in the spandrels. Half-way between 
 it and a square window above, with small 
 square panes, is a shield in plaster, with 
 the arms defaced. On the right of the 
 window is a sundial, and above it, also in 
 plaster, are displayed the royal arms as 
 used by Queen Elizabeth and bearing her 
 monogram.
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTON'S 41 
 
 The hall, which was entered from the 
 south door, now forms two rooms (used 
 as dining and sitting-room respectively). 
 The old fire-place, under a four-centered 
 arch, and the old mullioned windows still 
 remain, as also some other interesting 
 features. The old character of the place, 
 however, has for the most part been com- 
 pletely changed. The window, it should 
 be said, in accordance with the custom of 
 the time, originally contained stained glass 
 representing the family arms.* When the 
 house was visited by Washington Irving, 
 at the beginning of last century, this was 
 still there ; but it has long since been 
 removed, part of it (six shields) to Fawsley 
 
 * Since this was written I learn that some little time 
 ago a metal plate, which had long been used for domestic 
 purposes, was discovered to bear the Washington arms, 
 and was handed to the present representatives of the 
 family.
 
 42 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 church, some eight miles north. Two other 
 pieces are known to be at Weston Hall, 
 a few miles to the north-east. Another 
 characteristic of the place, which could not 
 well be taken away, are its stout oak 
 beams and flooring. A good deal of the 
 old oak panelling likewise remains, still 
 giving something of the old-time character 
 to the house, and the wide oak staircase. 
 
 It is worthy of note that a closet in 
 the house is associated with an interesting, 
 if doubtful tradition, connecting Queen 
 Elizabeth, as simple Princess, with the 
 place. The story goes that here that 
 royal lady found for a time an asylum, 
 when her more religious than amiable 
 sister was very anxious to find her, and 
 that on one occasion, when an agent of 
 Queen Mary paid a surprise visit to the 
 Manor, the future sovereign of these realms
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 43 
 
 was fain to take refuge for the night in a 
 closet, which is said to be still in existence. 
 Such at least was the story narrated by 
 the Vicar of Culworth, a man brim-full of 
 the legendary lore of the district, to the 
 writer on the occasion of his first visit 
 to these parts, now more than a few 
 years ago.* 
 
 * The legend has found expression in a ballad which 
 was published some years ago. It is entitled " A Legend 
 of Queen Bess," and is as follows : 
 
 " Sister Mary ! Sister Mary ! 
 
 Here I sit in this dark niche, 
 While your henchman, Mr. Tresham, 
 
 Moles the land with subtle speech. 
 a Thus, 'tis said, in Sulgrave Manor, 
 
 Once in papal Mary's reign, 
 Hid and sighed Ann Bullen's daughter, 
 
 When for her the queen was fain. 
 " Here I sit in gloom and tremor, 
 
 While he lurks and spies below, 
 Seeking, for to do you pleasure, 
 
 Me in death's grim shrine to cow. 
 " But, dear sister, hark the whisper 
 
 That comes gladly to my soul,
 
 44 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 While speaking of legends, a very quaint 
 one, with an old-world flavour about it, is 
 
 Bidding me be high of courage, 
 
 For I shall escape your goal. 
 " Yes, escape and reign, while sadly 
 
 You lie rotting in the grave 
 Rotting, sister, rotting, rotting 
 
 In our father's England brave. 
 " Not to-day, nor yet to-morrow 
 
 Sister, call you not to mind 
 How we once drew straws for fortune, 
 
 And the straws to me were kind ? 
 " Twice and thrice we drew, you mocking, 
 
 And the lot fell aye to me. 
 Still you mock and scorn, dear sister, 
 
 But I bide my destiny. 
 "To my heart it whispers, whispers 
 
 Now, e'en now in this dark hole ! 
 Saying, ' Keep thy heart up stoutly 
 
 Thou shall play a queenly role. 
 "'Thou shalt reign and men shall worship, 
 
 Thou shalt make thy country great ; 
 England, England 'so it whispers 
 
 "Neath thy sway shall go its gate 
 
 " ' Lift itself, up ! up ! to splendour 
 
 Till the nations look aghast ! ' 
 Now I sit in this dark chamber, 
 
 But I'll win to light at last ! "
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 45 
 
 still told by the old folk in reference to 
 a slight elevation near the village, known 
 as Barrow Hill. On the top of it used 
 to stand an ancient ash-tree, so withered 
 and scarred that the villagers got the idea 
 that it was the haunt of witches and a 
 scene of their unholy rites and revelries. 
 Wherefore it was decided that it should 
 be cut down, and a posse of men pro- 
 ceeded, axe in hand, to effect their purpose. 
 Barely, how r ever, had they given two strokes 
 to the weird old ash ere a cry was raised 
 that the village was on fire. And sure 
 enough, on casting their eyes upon the 
 place, every one saw it enveloped in flames. 
 All now rushed back to save their homes 
 to find, on reaching " town-end," that 
 they had been deluded, no sign of fire 
 being then visible. Some returned to 
 Barrow Hill to proceed with the demoli-
 
 46 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 tion of the tree, but when they saw that 
 the gashes their axes had made in the 
 old trunk had been healed, they opened 
 their mouths in amaze, and hastily left the 
 spot. And henceforward, it is said, no 
 man of Sulgrave ever ventured to raise 
 a finger against the " unked " ash of 
 Barrow Hill. 
 
 There are many other features of the 
 place and neighbourhood that it would be 
 interesting to dwell upon did space permit 
 the " immemorial elms,"* the silence as 
 of waiting that hangs about the church- 
 yard, the rustic bonhomie of the village- 
 folk, the history with which the whole 
 
 * In which, be it noted, Washington Irving, with the 
 eye of the nature-lover and poet, marked a colony of 
 rooks, " those strange adherents of old family abodes," 
 which still " hovered and cawed about their hereditary 
 nests," no doubt in their ancient tongue making 
 preachment anent the vicissitudes of things human.
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE WASHINGTONS 47 
 
 district is crowded. Edgecott Park, where 
 Charles I., with his sons Charles and James, 
 lodged the night before the battle of Edge- 
 hill, but a stone's-throw, as it were, over 
 the Warwickshire border, is within an hour 
 or two's walk. Nor is Wormleighton much 
 farther Wormleighton, which is much more 
 interesting to us just now ; for here stands 
 the ancient and interesting Manor House 
 of the Spencers, already referred to as the 
 original home of Sir John Spencer, who 
 took to wife Catherine, the daughter of 
 Sir Thomas Kitson, and whose descendant, 
 Sir Robert Spencer, the special and par- 
 ticular friend of the Washingtons, was 
 created Baron Spencer of Wormleighton in 
 1603. Here too, as we have seen, resided 
 for a season both Lawrence and Robert 
 Washington, ere they went to Brington.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 
 
 r I "HERE seems to be little doubt that 
 * ' the sons of Robert Washington, who 
 entered into possession of the Sulgrave 
 estate on the death of his father, one time 
 mayor of Northampton, in 1584, early came 
 under the protection and patronage of Sir 
 Robert Spencer, afterwards (1603) created 
 Baron Spencer of Wormleighton. Robert, 
 Lord Spencer, was the fourth in descent 
 from Sir John Spencer, Kt., who in Henry 
 VII.'s reign purchased the manor of Sir 
 William Cope, of Hanwell (a cousin by 
 marriage), and built himself a handsome
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 49 
 
 mansion thereon. Of the foundation of this 
 house Dugdale says : 
 
 "3 Sept. 22 Hen. VII. (1507) the said 
 Will. Cope * sold his lordship to John 
 Spencer, Esquier, who soon after began the 
 structure of a faire mannour house, wherein, 
 when that inquisition was taken (9 & 10 
 Hen. VIII. 1518-19) he had his residence, 
 with Ix persons of his family, being a good 
 benefactor to the church in ornaments and 
 other things." 
 
 Wormleighton, as already stated, is just 
 
 * The manor was for many generations in the Mont- 
 fort, or Mountford, family (of whom Sir Simon de 
 Montfort, who summoned the first representative Par- 
 liament in 1265, was the most distinguished member). 
 The Montforts got into trouble with Henry VII., and 
 the head of the family was executed and his property 
 seized by the king in 1495. Three years later Henry 
 gave Wormle'ighton to William Cope, Esq., " coferer of 
 the household to the king, to be held in socage, paying 
 20 marks per annum into the exchequer." 
 
 4
 
 50 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 over the Warwickshire border, about one 
 and a half miles north-east of Fenny Compton 
 station, and stands on comparatively high 
 ground, being 431 feet above sea-level, 
 the ridge, indeed, forming the watershed 
 between the Avon and the Cherwell. The 
 parish, through which runs the Oxford 
 canal, is a small one, so far as population 
 goes, the village numbering barely two 
 hundred souls.* The church, which stands 
 a small stretch north of the Manor-house, is 
 dedicated to St. Peter, and was given by 
 Geoffrey de Clinton to the canons of Kenil- 
 
 * The " old town " of Wormleighton was situated 
 some little distance from the present village. There is 
 reason to believe that it was destroyed and its people 
 sent adrift by the William Cope who became possessed 
 of the estate tempo Henry VII., and later sold it to 
 John Spencer. As we have seen, the great idea then 
 was sheep-farming, and so he cleared his estate of men 
 to make room for sheep, as landowners to-day clear 
 theirs to make room for game.
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 51 
 
 worth. It is built of Hornton stone, and 
 consists of a nave with aisles, chancel, and 
 west tower, chiefly of the transition Norman 
 period. The nave and aisles are connected 
 by three bays in the style of the period 
 named. The clerestory is of later (Perpen- 
 dicular) work. The north aisle shows good, 
 though not uniform, windows of the four- 
 teenth century. There is, too, one four- 
 teenth-century window in the south aisle, the 
 rest being modern. The chancel arch may 
 be of the same period, although the rudely 
 cut capitals seem to suggest an earlier date. 
 
 An old carved oak rood-screen (fifteenth 
 century), with late restorations, divides the 
 nave from the chancel. Report or tradition 
 says it was removed from the Manor-house ; 
 but it is more likely, from its style, to have 
 been brought from some religious house 
 closed by Henry VIII.'s decree. It is a
 
 52 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 handsome piece of work, though somewhat 
 too large for its present position, and shows 
 workmanship of a specially high order. In 
 the chancel are monuments to members of 
 the Spencer family, among them being one 
 (on the north wall of the chancel, adorned 
 with shields) to "John Spencer, Esquire, son 
 and heir of Sir Robert Spencer, Knight, 
 Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, which John 
 Spencer departed this life at Blois in France, 
 the sixt of August . . . 1610" (in his 
 twentieth year). Near the altar rails is a 
 circular stone bearing an inscription to the 
 effect that a portion of the remains of the 
 said Sir Robert repose there. Beneath a 
 canopy in the north wall of the aisle is an 
 empty tomb. The arms of the Spencers are 
 seen on the wall above the belfry arch. 
 
 The tower shows as early work as any 
 part of the edifice, being of early thirteenth
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 53 
 
 century, if not actually of twelfth century 
 date. The door is certainly of the latter 
 century. Note also the grotesquely carved 
 corbels supporting the low belfry story. 
 Other features worthy of note are (in 
 chancel) the carved grotesques of the bench- 
 ends, all of good early work, and other 
 designs and geometrical ornamentation ; the 
 carved oak panelling round the sanctuary ; 
 the tesselated pavement (thirteenth century) 
 of the nave and aisles, bearing the arms of 
 the Botelers of Oversley and Wemme ; and 
 the font, a plain truncated cone on a quite 
 recent pedestal. There is, too, a fine old 
 carved chest, now standing at the east end 
 of the north aisle. 
 
 The Manor-house was largely destroyed 
 during the Civil Wars, and only a portion 
 of the original edifice, now a farm-house, 
 still exists. It is an embattled structure of
 
 54 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 two stories, with mullioned windows, now 
 mostly blocked up. The tower and gate- 
 house, of stone, however, remain intact. 
 Here we have a central archway with a 
 room over it. On the font are the royal 
 arms, and at the back the Spencer arms 
 and motto, " Dieu defende le droit." 
 
 The house, built in Henry VI I. 's days, is 
 of the usual flat red brick of the time, with 
 stone dressings, and must, in its original 
 state, have been a very handsome edifice, of 
 good proportions and fine style. The leads 
 and battlements above, with covered niches, 
 are in keeping with the semi-defensive type 
 of house of Tudor days. The north door, 
 though now without a porch, appears by the 
 proportions of the lobby and its panelled 
 ceiling to have been the main entrance 
 (although some are of opinion that the 
 original door, now blocked up, was a little
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 55 
 
 west of the existing entrance). A postern 
 on the south leads to the hall, a fine plain 
 room, 31 ft. long by 22 ft. wide (now used 
 as a brewhouse), lighted on the north side 
 by two large windows of four lights, each 
 arched in the head and divided by transoms, 
 and at the east end by a handsome bay- 
 window of six lights, arched and divided 
 like the others. 
 
 Above this apartment is a room of the 
 same size as the one below, having gilt 
 stars on the lintels and head of the former 
 doorway, and in the panels over one of 
 the windows, and hence called the " Star 
 Chamber." * It was originally lighted like 
 
 * In an interesting book recently published (" Nooks 
 and Corners of England "), there is a curious statement 
 altogether unfounded, as we think to the effect that, 
 though Mary Queen of Scots was subjected to a mock 
 trial at Fotheringay, she was actually condemned "in 
 the Star Chamber at Westminster," which "fine old
 
 56 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the one below, - but the bay-window has 
 been removed and the space walled up. 
 In it is an interesting fireplace of coloured 
 stone, in the spandrels whereof are two plain 
 Spencer shields. The chamber is reached 
 by means of a newel staircase in the south- 
 west angle. 
 
 On the south (or outer) front of the 
 tower and gatehouse, already mentioned, are 
 the royal arms with crest, supporters, and 
 motto ; on the north side three shields ; 
 while on the east and west sides appear 
 the arms of the Spencers (with seven 
 quarterings) and the Willoughbys respec- 
 tively, both with date 1613. On the east 
 side is a square tower, 45 ft. in height, 
 having an interior staircase enclosing a well 
 
 room," we are told, " may yet be seen not very many 
 miles away, at Wormleighton, near the Northamptonshire 
 border of south-east Warwickshire." One would like to 
 know on what authority this assertion is founded.
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 57 
 
 designed to accommodate the weights of a 
 curious old clock contained in the upper 
 storey which strikes the hour but is without 
 a dial. From the roof of the tower a fine 
 view may be had of the surrounding country, 
 extending on a fine day as far west as the 
 Malvern Hills. 
 
 The house was garrisoned by Royalist 
 troops, under Prince Rupert, the night 
 before the battle of Edgehill (October 23rd, 
 1642), and on January 7th, 1646, Dugdale 
 records in his diary : " Wormleighton House, 
 in Warwickshire, burnt by His Majesty's 
 forces of Banbury to prevent the rebels 
 making it a garrison" which event accounts 
 for the present greatly reduced size of the 
 house. 
 
 The church registers contain the record 
 of the marriage of Robert Washington, 
 the second son of Robert Washington, of
 
 58 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Sulgrave, and Elizabeth Chishull. This 
 event took place on February iQth, 1595. 
 The church books record also the baptism 
 of George Washington, a younger son of 
 Lawrence Washington, gentleman, on 
 August 3rd, 1608. It would appear, as 
 already stated, that Robert Washington was 
 the first to go to Wormleighton, and that 
 his brother Lawrence took up his residence 
 there after Robert had gone to Brington. 
 This transference of domicile must have 
 taken place as early as 1601-2, or even 
 earlier, as the extant will of Sir John Spencer, 
 made at "Oldthrappe" (Althorp), and proved 
 on January nth, 1599 (42 Eliz. would be 
 ifto) bequeaths to " Elizabeth Washington, 
 wife of Robert Washington, of Great Brin- 
 ton, in the Co. of Northampton," the sum of 
 twenty pounds " in regard of her pains about 
 me in my sickness." It would appear from
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 59 
 
 this that as early as 1599 Robert Washington 
 was established at Brington, and that the 
 relations between his family and that of 
 the lord of the manor were so intimate that 
 his wife practically took charge of the aged 
 knight's sick-room in his last illness. Pos- 
 sibly the words of the will may not bear 
 such interpretation, although they seem to 
 do so ; for, as we know there were no trained 
 nurses in those days, at least not in the 
 sense that we understand the term to-day, 
 every woman, gentle as well as simple, 
 had to be nurse on occasion according 
 to her capacity. 
 
 We do not know what took the Washing- 
 tons to Wormleighton, but may readily 
 surmise that it was the genial kinship and 
 kindly patronage of the Spencers, ever a 
 generous and noble-minded race the same 
 kindly patronage which continued through
 
 60 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the next two generations of Washingtons. 
 We are equally ignorant as to where the 
 sons of Robert Washington could have 
 dwelt at Wormleighton. Except the manor 
 there appears to have been no house in the 
 parish traditionally said or likely to have 
 been inhabited by them, most of the farm- 
 houses at the present time being of com- 
 paratively recent date. There was a house 
 at Watergall, two miles to the north-west 
 (whereof only the foundations remain), which 
 was suitable for gentlemen of their standing, 
 but practically nothing is known of its 
 history, not even if it was of the Spencer 
 holding, or belonging to another family. 
 
 When the Washingtons first went to live 
 at Wormleighton Sir John Spencer was the 
 lord of the manor, as also of that of Althorp. 
 He was succeeded by Sir Robert Spencer 
 (Baron Spencer of Wormleighton), who,
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 61 
 
 according to repute, was of enormous 
 wealth (having the most money of any man 
 in England, said report). He was a man, 
 too, of great interest and influence in many 
 ways. His wife was Margaret, daughter 
 and co-heiress of Sir Francis Willoughby, 
 of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, and her sister 
 Abigail became the wife of William Pargiter, 
 of Greatworth, or Gretworth, on the Oxford 
 border, near Banbury, a cousin of the 
 Washingtons. They were married at Bring- 
 ton on April 26th, 1601, and the registers 
 of Wormleighton record the burial there of 
 the said Abigail Pargiter on October i2th, 
 1654 (at. 78). 
 
 Hence we can well understand this noble 
 kinsman extending a kindly hand to the 
 grandsons of the first Northamptonshire 
 Washington in their trouble, and giving 
 them a welcome to Brington, so intimately
 
 62 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 associated with both Robert and Lawrence 
 Washington. 
 
 It is worthy of mention in connection 
 with these notes on Wormleighton that the 
 Spencer house there figures in Prince 
 Rupert's diary of the events that led up to 
 the battle of Edgehill. Warburton (in his 
 " Memoirs of Prince Rupert ") gives the 
 following account of what happened : " On 
 the 22nd October Prince Rupert advanced to 
 Lord Spencer's at Wormleighton ; the Prince 
 of Wales's regiment being quartered in some 
 villages under Wormleighton Hills. At this 
 time, such was the scarcity of information, 
 or the want of skill in collecting it, that 
 the two great armies were in total ignorance 
 of each other's movements. Lord Digby 
 was sent forward in the afternoon with 
 four hundred horse to reconnoitre, but re- 
 turned with information that all was quiet.
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 63 
 
 The prince's quartermaster, however, as he 
 entered Wormleighton to arrange quarters 
 for the troops, encountered the quartermaster 
 of Essex, just arrived there on a similar 
 business with a party of the enemy. The 
 Cavaliers fell suddenly upon this party, took 
 twelve prisoners, and returned in hot haste 
 to Rupert. From them he learned that the 
 main body of the enemy occupied the town 
 of Kineton, only four miles distant." Later 
 on, in his account of the battle, Warburton 
 says, " Aston's dragoons, under Lisle and 
 Ewins, skirmished also on the left; Wash- 
 ington on the right." 
 
 We do not know for certain who this 
 particular Washington may have been, but 
 suppose it was Colonel Henry Washington, 
 son and heir of Sir William Washington, 
 who in the following year (1643) was with 
 Prince Rupert at the storming of Bristol,
 
 64 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and who, when the assailants were beatei 
 off at every point, broke in with a handful 
 of infantry at a weak part of the wall, made 
 room for a horse to follow, and so opened 
 the path to victory. He distinguished him- 
 self still more by his defence of Worcester 
 (1646), when elevated to the command there 
 on the capture of its governor by the enemy. 
 But whether this Washington or another, he 
 must have been well acquainted with the 
 position and importance of Lord Spencer's 
 house at Wormleighton who of the Wash- 
 ington kin could be otherwise ? and the 
 thought occurs, could it have been on his 
 suggestion that a troop was sent to seize 
 the place in order to protect it and its 
 owner,* a known Royalist, from the enemy ? 
 
 * Henry, third Baron Spencer, created Earl r 
 Sunderland, June 8th, 1643, and died fighting for tl 
 king at the battle of Newbury the same year (Sep 
 tember 2oth).
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 65 
 
 v There was another in the encounter at 
 Edgehill one indeed who lost his life 
 there who probably knew the famous house 
 at Wormleighton as well as Washington ; 
 he was, at any rate, a close and honoured 
 friend of the Washingtons, and was, as we 
 shall see later, not without his influence 
 upon the fortunes of some members of the 
 family. This was Sir Edmund Verney, 
 of Middle Claydon, Bucks, who on that 
 fatal day carried the king's standard into 
 the fight, and lost it (though it was after- 
 wards recovered), the hand that held it 
 aloft being severed at the wrist by a 
 sword-cut. Whence the legend of the 
 neighbourhood that he used ever there- 
 after to " walk " on the day of the battle 
 Poking for his lost hand, as set forth 
 ,1 the ballad, " Sir Edmund Verney's 
 Ghost " :
 
 66 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 There's one that walks the battle-field 
 
 Secure, at dead of night, 
 On every anniversary 
 
 Of Edgehill's bloody fight. 
 
 His coat of mail is rusty, 
 
 His countenance full wan, 
 And all so baleful gleam his eyes, 
 
 He seems no mortal man. 
 
 He bears no helmet on his head, 
 His hair is stained with earth : 
 
 One saw him in the moony haze 
 And never more knew mirth. 
 
 His hair, with worm-casts all defiled, 
 Hangs o'er his eyes of glede ; 
 
 With which he searches o'er the ground, 
 As poor men search in need. 
 
 What seeks he thus with such dread calm 
 Beneath the winking stars ? 
 
 Seeks he amid the tussocky grass 
 Some boon to heal his scars? 
 
 Scars has he : lo, the handless wrist 
 That still is red with gore ! 
 
 It bleeds, it drips, though in his heart 
 Shall never blood be more.
 
 WORMLEIGHTON 67 
 
 A Cavalier so gay was he 
 
 Who sang on that fatal day 
 For that the proud standard of the King 
 
 He bore into the fray. 
 
 " I'll carry it in," he said in pride, 
 
 "And bring't all safely out, 
 Or never I'll leave the foughten field 
 
 Till the trumps of Judgment shout." 
 
 He bore it in, but another than he 
 
 It was who bore it thence, 
 For off 'twas lopped with his stalwart fist 
 
 As he fell 'neath the pressure dense. 
 
 Then was he trampled in blood and mire 
 
 Until all calm in death ; 
 Yet every time the battle-day comes 
 
 He walks as though with breath. 
 
 He walks and seeks for the severed hand 
 That held the King's standard high, 
 
 For he must carry it out again 
 Ere the trumps of Judgment cry. 
 
 He walks by night on that battle-day, 
 But ne'er what he seeks will find 
 
 'Twas ta'en by a witch of Wormleighton 
 For the cure of a son that pined. 
 
 It is worthy of note, whilst speaking of
 
 68 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Wormleighton, that in the interesting old 
 (Dec.) church of Fenny Compton, on the 
 south side of the altar, is a brass bearing 
 the inscription : 
 
 Here lyeth buried the bodie of Richard Willis, 
 of Fenny Compton in the countye of Wanvicke 
 gent, sonne of Ambrose Willis deceased, which 
 said Richard had by Hester his wife, five children, 
 that is to say, George, William, Richard, Judithe 
 and Marie, all now lyvinge, who deceased the 
 tenth day of June 1597. 
 
 These Willises afterwards emigrated to 
 America, and among their descendants was 
 Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), whose 
 name became a household word in his own 
 country, and hardly less known in England, 
 for his many graceful writings, chief of 
 which, perhaps, must be reckoned his 
 " Pencillings by the Way."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 
 
 A S we have seen there were two 
 -^* Washingtons, grandsons of Lawrence 
 Washington of Northampton and Sulgrave, 
 whose names were associated with the parish 
 of Brington, Lawrence and Robert. Baker, 
 in his " History of Northamptonshire," says 
 that Lawrence, after the sale of the Sulgrave 
 estate (in 1610), " retired to Brington, where 
 he died." Mr. Simpkinson, the one-time 
 Rector of Brington, believed this to be a 
 mistake, pointing to the baptism and burial 
 of Gregory Washington, a son of Lawrence's, 
 in 1606-7, as proof that the latter was 
 
 residing at Brington as early as 1606. He 
 6 9
 
 70 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 held, therefore, that Lawrence Washington's 
 residence at Brington began or had begun 
 in 1606, and that it was terminated by the 
 sale of the Sulgrave estate ; which (as he 
 was induced to join in cutting off the entail) 
 was attended with some immediate advantage 
 to himself. He goes on to say that " on his 
 departure he was succeeded by his brother 
 Robert, who would thus have had twelve 
 years of residence to justify the expression 
 employed in his epitaph." But it is apparent 
 from the will witnessed by Robert in 1601, 
 and from the will of Sir John Spencer, 
 proved in 1599, which gives a legacy to 
 Elizabeth Washington, Robert's wife, for 
 attending him in his last illness, that the 
 second brother was a resident in the parish 
 many years prior to 1610. 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that both 
 Robert and Lawrence were at one and the
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 71 
 
 same time living in the parish of Brington, 
 that is, from 1606 to 1610, if Mr. Simpkin- 
 son's conjecture is a right one in regard to 
 Lawrence, and again in 1616 (if not earlier) 
 when the last-named died and was buried 
 there. This raises a very difficult question, 
 one which Mr. Simpkinson found very hard 
 of solution when he supposed that Robert 
 only went to live in the parish after Lawrence 
 had left (to reside in London, as he con- 
 jectured, for the convenience of educating 
 his sons). It is the question as to where 
 the two brothers could have found house- 
 room at one and the same time, when 
 Mr. Simpkinson found it so difficult to 
 allocate a place for one ? The one-time 
 rector came to the conclusion that a small 
 house, of a style above that of the generality 
 of houses in the village of Little Brington, 
 and, according to the date which it bears, built
 
 72 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 in 1606, was the one inhabited by Lawrence 
 Washington. But if such was the case, 
 where did his brother Robert live during 
 the twenty or more years that he was a 
 resident in the parish ? 
 
 The question appears impossible of solu- 
 tion at this distance of time. But one 
 conjecture may be hazarded. It is this : 
 Mr. Simpkinson, in his book, " The Wash - 
 ingtons," tells us of a gentleman's house 
 formerly existing in Little Brington, only a 
 portion of which remained in his day, and 
 that used as a labourer's cottage. It was 
 originally the manor-house of the village, 
 and belonged to the Bernard family. " But," 
 he says, " it would seem that it was already 
 decayed and deserted at the time we speak 
 of; for there is no trace in the parish 
 register of the Bernards or other gentle- 
 man's family having lived there between
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 73 
 
 the years 1558 and 1606; nor did it belong 
 to Lord Spencer in the seventeenth century, 
 having been separated from the manor when 
 the latter was sold to him, and having 
 probably been bought by one of the yeomen 
 in the parish as a residence for himself." 
 
 Such is Mr. Simpkinson's statement, but 
 if a yeoman could have purchased the house 
 as a residence for himself, might not Robert 
 Washington (or his brother) have bought or 
 rented it from the then owner for his 
 residence ? We can only ask the question. 
 Only by the assumption that one or the 
 other of them did so buy or rent the old 
 manor-house can we get over the difficulty 
 of finding a place of residence for the two 
 in the parish of Brington during the years 
 that they were both residents. 
 
 Having said so much we must dismiss 
 the subject as being involved in a mystery
 
 74 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 too dark to be penetrated, and give what 
 details we have about the other house, 
 known since the issue of Mr. Simpkinson's 
 book as the " Washington House," and in 
 which, there can be little doubt, either 
 Lawrence or Robert did live. 
 
 Little Brington is about half a mile south 
 of Great Brington, and the Washington 
 House is situated in the village street, from 
 which, as will be seen from our illustration, 
 it is divided by no court or garden. It is 
 a simple structure with a high-pitched gable 
 and thatched roof, but having certain architec- 
 tural features that indicate beyond question 
 that it was originally built for a family 
 above the ordinary run of the village folk. 
 For instance, its four lower windows in the 
 front are mullioned, and there is a square- 
 headed door with moulded dripstone features 
 possessed by no other dwelling in the
 
 THE WASHINGTON^ OF BRINGTON 75 
 
 hamlet. Above the doorway appears a slab 
 bearing an inscription fraught with a world 
 of pathos : 
 
 THE LORD GEVETH 
 
 THE LORD TAKETH 
 
 AWAY BLESSED BE THE 
 
 NAME OF THE LORD 
 
 CONSTRVCTA 
 
 1606. 
 
 Speculation has been busy as to whether 
 these lines had reference to the family mis- 
 fortune in having to dispose of Sulgrave, 
 or whether they referred to the death of the 
 child Gregory, the son of Lawrence and his 
 wife Margaret, daughter of William Butler 
 of Tighes (or Tees as it is written in the 
 inscription over his tomb), Sussex, who was 
 buried at Great Brington, January 
 1606-7.
 
 76 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Internally the house has been much altered 
 to adapt it to modern requirements ; but 
 the old-fashioned staircases, with sturdy oaken 
 supports, remain as when first built. The 
 rooms are low and quaint-looking, the upper 
 ones lighted by small windows close to the 
 eaves. One of the bedrooms shows the old 
 timbers supporting the roof and ceiling. The 
 big crossbeam appears to stop short about 
 the centre of the room, and immediately 
 beyond a modern partition screens off the 
 room from the staircase and landing. The 
 latter are quite plain, and, with the old beams, 
 oaken floors, panelling and downstairs cup- 
 boards, are undoubtedly of early date. There 
 is no indication of anything in the way of 
 elaborate ornament having been attempted. 
 A beam in one of the lower rooms has been 
 moulded on its sides, but that is all. Of 
 course, the whole has been greatly altered
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 77 
 
 internally to adapt it as much as possible 
 to the needs of the families of the two 
 working men who now occupy the house. 
 
 At the back there is a good stretch of 
 garden, and, viewed from this point, the 
 place seems to retain something of its ancient 
 quality and gentility. It was doubtless here 
 that an old sundial, discovered some years 
 ago in a neighbouring garden and bearing 
 the arms of the family, formerly held its 
 gnomon (now gone) to the sun and told 
 its silent story of the hours. It is now some 
 sixteen or eighteen years since Mr. Wykes, 
 an old resident, noticed that the stone, which 
 is said to have been in the garden for at 
 least forty years, was a sundial ; but it was 
 reserved for Mr. A. L. Y. Morley, the 
 agent of Lord Spencer, to find out its real 
 importance. 
 
 It is a round slab of sandstone, apparently
 
 78 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 from the neighbouring Harleston quarry, and 
 is i6J inches in diameter and 3 inches thick, 
 chamfered on the lower edge. The lines, 
 figures, and shield shown in our illustration 
 are incised about Yg-th of an inch in depth. 
 Two of the mullets, or stars, on the shield 
 are hardly decipherable, having been greatly 
 worn of late years. Formerly they were 
 much more distinct. In the centre of the 
 shield (the fesse point) there are indications 
 of a crescent, which is the heraldic sign of 
 cadency, indicating a second son, and can 
 be seen on the memorial-stone to Robert 
 Washington in the church. 
 
 Below the shield are faint indications of 
 incised letters which were at first made out 
 to be R. W. and held of course to stand 
 for Robert Washington but, from a careful 
 examination recently made (July 25th, 1907), 
 there appear to be three letters, thus : R W L.
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 79 
 
 which leads one to question whether they 
 could have been meant to stand for Robert 
 and 'Lisbeth Washington. 'Lisbeth, of 
 course, is the familiar and at one time 
 very common abbreviation of the name 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 As to the village of Little Brington itself, 
 it is, like its larger neighbour, Great Brington, 
 charmingly rural and picturesque, with its 
 well-kept cottages, quaint well, covered by 
 a conical thatched roof supported by wooden 
 pillars, its spacious green, and its general 
 air of quietude and repose. There is nothing 
 of the sordidness and decay about it so mani- 
 fest in many English villages to-day. The 
 same may be said of Great Brington, and, 
 indeed, of all the demesnes under the sway 
 of the noble earl who is the present owner 
 of the Spencer estates, who has ever set 
 an example to thousands of his class by
 
 80 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the way he has provided for the good 
 housing and general comfort of all his 
 tenants. 
 
 Of Great Brington , it may be said with 
 truth that there are not many more picturesque 
 villages in the English Midlands. The whole 
 of the country hereabout, indeed the whole of 
 Northamptonshire, is undulating, with pleasant 
 prospects, shaded vales, far-stretching corn- 
 lands and meadow, interspersed with well-to- 
 do farmsteads, great houses, and far and near 
 the inevitable spire for which the county is 
 famous. Brington lies to the west of Althorp 
 Park, through which the best approach is 
 made to it from Northampton. The road 
 winds through a large expanse of even sward, 
 grazed by numberless cattle and herds of 
 deer, and studded, especially along the sides 
 of the road, by lordly trees, in the hot weather 
 making a grateful shade.
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 81 
 
 Althorp House lies to the right, presenting 
 a long frontage to the view, backed by noble 
 gardens and orchards, and containing within 
 its walls memories and memorials of a long 
 line of men and women whose deeds are a 
 part and often no mean part of the history 
 of their time. It is, however, no part of our 
 theme to speak of Althorp save incidentally, 
 and as it concerns the Brington Washingtons. 
 Suffice it to say here that the original modest 
 mansion built by Sir John Spencer (pb. 1522); 
 the great sheep-farmer, has grown out of all 
 recognition by the additions and alterations 
 of successive owners. One of the greatest 
 embellishers of the place was Robert Lord 
 Spencer of Wormleighton, and, after him, 
 the Countess of Sunderland, known to 
 fame (through Waller's christening) as 
 "Sacharissa," who, during her widowhood, 
 transformed it in many ways both within and
 
 82 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 without, and made it a place at which unfor- 
 tunate Royalists and dispossessed clergy were 
 ever welcome. It was a much later owner 
 who laid the foundation of the splendid library, 
 now located and having its special treasure- 
 house at Manchester, for which city it was 
 bought and presented thereto as a memorial 
 of her husband by the late Mrs. Rylands. 
 
 An alternative route from Northampton to 
 Great Brington (for those who prefer to drive 
 or walk in place of going by train to Althorp 
 Park Station) is by way of Duston, Nobottle, 
 and Little Brington, the last stretch being 
 along a country lane whose note in the early 
 summer is its profusion of wild roses and 
 in the autumn its equal plenty of blackberries, 
 both so beloved of children. The position 
 occupied by Great Brington may be described 
 as a low plateau. The church (dedicated to 
 St. Mary) occupies its highest point, whence
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 83 
 
 the view on a fair summer's day is one which 
 any man may be forgiven for becoming 
 dithyrambic over, as does Why te- Melville 
 in his " Holmby House." That well-known 
 novel takes its name from Holdenby House, 
 which came through Elizabeth Holdenby to 
 the Hattons, and was sold by the famous 
 Sir Christopher Hatton to James I. for his 
 son Henry. Whence, on account of the 
 death of that prince, and the fact of King 
 Charles having been taken prisoner there 
 by Cornet Joyce,* it got the name of being 
 unlucky : which it certainly was, in that it 
 was all but completely destroyed after its 
 
 * Having been sold to Parliament by the Scotch army 
 (in 1645) Charles was removed to his own house of 
 Holmby ; whence he used frequently to ride over to 
 Althorp to play bowls (there being no green for the 
 game at Holmby), as he did, according to tradition, 
 on the very day that he was forcibly carried off by 
 the Army.
 
 84 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sale by order of Parliament in 1650. The 
 house (or what remains of it) lies a little 
 north-west of Brington, near the verge of 
 the opposing range of hills. 
 
 " The slope of ground which declines from 
 it on all sides," writes Whyte-Melville, "offers 
 a succession of the richest and most pastoral 
 views which this rich and pastoral country 
 can afford. Like the rolling prairie of the 
 Far West, valley after valley of sunny 
 meadows, dotted with oak and elm and other 
 noble trees, undulates in ceaseless variety 
 far as the eye can reach ; but, unlike the 
 boundless prairie, deep dark copses and thick 
 luxuriant hedgerows, bright and fragrant with 
 wild flowers and astir with the glad songs of 
 birds, diversify the foreground and blend 
 the distance into a mass of woodland beauty 
 that gladdens alike the fastidious eye of the 
 artist and the stolid gaze of the clown. In
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 85 
 
 June it is a dream of Fairyland to wander 
 along that crested eminence, and turn from 
 the ruin of those tall gateways cutting their 
 segments of blue out of the deep summer 
 sky or from the flickering masses of the still 
 tender leaves upon the lofty oaks, yellowing 
 in the floods of golden light that stream 
 through the network of tangled branches, 
 every tree to the up-gazing eye a study 
 of forest scenery in itself, and so to glance 
 earthward on the fair expanse of homely 
 beauty stretching from one's very feet. 
 Down in the nearest valley, massed like 
 a solid square of Titan warriors, and scattered 
 like advanced champions from the gigantic 
 array profusely up the opposite slope, the 
 huge old oaks of Althorp quiver in the 
 summer haze, backed by the thickly wooded 
 hills that melt in softened outlines into the 
 southern sky. The fresh light green of
 
 86 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the distant larches blooming on far Har- 
 lestone Heath, is relieved by the dark belt 
 of firs that draws a thin black line against 
 the horizon. A light cloud of smoke floats 
 above the spot where lies fair Northampton, 
 but the intervening trees and hedgerows are 
 so clothed in foliage that scarce a building 
 can be discerned, though the tall sharp spire 
 of Kingsthorpe pierces upward into the sky. 
 To the west a confusion of wooded knolls 
 and distant copses are bathed in the vapoury 
 haze of the declining sun, and you rest your 
 dazzled eyes, swimming with so much beauty, 
 and stoop to gather the wild flowers at your 
 feet." 
 
 Such is the beautiful prospect seen, under 
 fitting sun and season, from the edge of 
 the declivity whereon Great Brington church 
 stands. Hard by is the picturesque rectory, 
 the residence of Earl Spencer's agent,
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 87 
 
 Mr. A. L. Y. Morley (the rector occupying 
 another house in the parish), and opposite 
 thereto, under the wide-spreading arms of 
 a large elm, stands the village cross, fronting 
 the churchyard gate. It is approached by 
 three stone steps, octagonal in shape, like 
 the shaft which they support. On the top 
 of the shaft is a Decorated capital, above 
 which rises a broken octagonal column. 
 Hence for some distance stretches an avenue 
 of elms, shading the road and forming a 
 picturesque foreground to the village, whose 
 old thatch-roofed cottages, mingled with a 
 few of more modern design and outlook, 
 present conditions the like of which are 
 too seldom met with in rural hamlets. 
 
 The church itself is an object of great 
 interest, holding a place, if not in the first 
 rank of Northamptonshire churches, at least 
 taking a good one in the second. Its square
 
 88 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 embattled west tower is a landmark, especially 
 on the west and north, for miles around, 
 and, for its fine proportions and sturdy 
 build, is greatly admired. It is of Early 
 English character, as are likewise the arcade 
 of the nave and aisles, together with the 
 ancient font, which is of extremely curious 
 and even remarkable workmanship. The 
 greater part of the church is Decorated in 
 character, but the clerestory; chancel, and 
 chapel (north) are Perpendicular in style, 
 to which period also belong many of the 
 windows. 
 
 These and other details are so uniformly 
 good that a tradition exists to the effect 
 that the architect of Henry VII.'s chapel 
 at Westminster had a hand in the design. 
 Whether there be any warrant for the idea 
 or not, it is not at all unlikely. Sir John 
 Spencer, Kt, who was the first of his name

 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF BRINGTON 89 
 
 to own the estate, undoubtedly did much 
 for the edifice, and the late Perpendicular 
 of the features named would appear to 
 synchronise with the later years of his life. 
 Perhaps, however, the tradition referred to 
 may have arisen from the fact that a bay 
 of five sides, each with a large window, was 
 added in 1846 by the fourth Earl Spencer 
 as a memorial of his father, mother, and 
 brother, the design of which was taken 
 from the Westminster chapel. 
 
 A somewhat singular feature of the in- 
 terior are the fluted octagonal piers of the 
 nave arcade on the south. A still more 
 noteworthy feature of the nave is the old 
 oaken benches, with their grotesquely carved 
 finials representing poppy-heads, accompanied 
 by shields bearing simple heraldic charges.* 
 They date from between 1446 and 1457, 
 * See illustration facing p. 78.
 
 90 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 as may be determined from the shields 
 themselves. The series, which are curiously 
 reminiscent of similar work at Wormleighton, 
 present a very quaint feature of the interior 
 of the church. Noteworthy, too, is the 
 canopy arch in the exterior south wall, 
 beneath which (long hidden by shrubs 
 growing out of the masonry) is the re- 
 cumbent effigy of an unknown ecclesiastic, 
 now protected by an iron railing, erected 
 by the care of Earl Spencer in 1903.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SPENCER AND WASHINGTON MONUMENTS 
 AT BRINGTON 
 
 A CHAPTER might be written on the 
 * * Spencer memorials. They fill the 
 family chapel on the north side of the chan- 
 cel, as well as the arches dividing the two. 
 The earliest (of date 1522) is that of Sir 
 John Spencer, the first of the Althorp line,* 
 
 * The Spencers (who trace their descent from the 
 Despencers of the Battle Abbey Roll) had, at the time 
 of this Sir John Spencer, been possessed for some 
 generations of considerable estates at Snitterfield and 
 other places in the Midland counties ; and to these, 
 about the end of Henry VII. 's reign, they added, 
 by purchase from the Catesbys and others, the manors 
 of Nobottle, Brington, Althorp, etc., with the intention 
 of establishing their principal seat there. The Sir John
 
 92 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and Isabel his wife (ne Graunt, of Snitter- 
 field, Warwickshire), who brought him con- 
 siderable property, enabling him to purchase 
 the lordship of Wormleighton. Their effigies 
 repose upon a high altar-tomb, having on 
 either side three compartments containing 
 shields within enriched quatrefoils. Over 
 the figures rises a fourteenth-century arched 
 canopy with a quatrefoiled entablature, 
 surmounted by a Tudor-flower cresting 
 and flanked by panelled and embattled 
 turrets. The recumbent knight is in plate- 
 armour, bareheaded, having a tabard charged 
 with the ancient (discarded) Spencer arms, 
 and an outer robe of scarlet charged with 
 green. His wife, who wears a reticulated 
 
 of the earliest memorial was the one who enclosed the 
 park, probably built or enlarged Althorp House, and 
 enlarged the parish church, adding to it a mortuary 
 chapel for the use of the family. He was knighted by 
 Henry VIII.
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 93 
 
 head-dress, is clad in a white kirtle over 
 a scarlet gown, and has a rosary at her 
 girdle and three massive chains about her 
 neck. Across her bosom is a rich heraldic 
 mantle. The date of the knight's death 
 is given, but not that of his wife. The 
 entire memorial shows the greatest taste 
 and refinement, and is doubly interesting 
 from the fact of its being the latest Gothic 
 monument with effigies in Northamptonshire. 
 The sculpture is of the highest quality, and 
 the portraits, it is held, undoubted. 
 
 Near the above, beneath the east window, 
 is the low altar-tomb, without effigies, of 
 Sir William Spencer (son of Sir John), 
 who died in 1532, and his wife Susan 
 (Knightley), with nine shields of arms in 
 quatrefoils within square panels. 
 
 Under the central arch of the arcade 
 dividing the Spencer chapel from the
 
 94 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 chancel is the tomb of the Sir John Spencer 
 who took to wife Catherine, the daughter 
 of Sir Thomas Kitson, of Hengrave Hall, 
 Suffolk, and through her became a kinsman 
 of the Washingtons. The monument, very 
 elaborate in detail, is of classic design, with 
 much display of heraldry, there being no 
 fewer than thirty shields of arms, besides 
 those on the two figures. The knight is 
 represented in a complete suit of plate- 
 armour, wearing over it a tabard charged 
 with the Spencer arms (ancient as well as 
 modern). The wife is shown with her 
 hair gathered beneath a hood, which covers 
 the head, and behind reaches below the 
 waist. There is a pyramidal pillar at each 
 angle of the tomb, and one of the ancient 
 Spencer crests, a moorhen, at one end. 
 The whole is characteristically Elizabethan, 
 florid, and yet extremely artistic.
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 95 
 
 This Sir John Spencer was a grandson 
 of the last-named Sir John, and died in 
 1586. Like his father and grandfather 
 before him, he owned immense flocks of 
 sheep, but is said to have paid more 
 attention to agriculture than wool-growing. 
 He was twice member of Parliament for 
 North Hants, and four times sheriff. It 
 was this Sir John who was the life-long 
 friend of Lawrence Washington, of North- 
 ampton and Sulgrave, his kinsman. 
 
 The third arch is devoted to Robert, first 
 Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, and his 
 wife, Margaret Willoughby of Wollaton, 
 Nottinghamshire, to whom he was married 
 in his seventeenth year. He was grandson 
 of the last-named, and died in 1627 (Octo- 
 ber 25th). Lord Spencer is represented in 
 a complete suit of armour of the period, and 
 his wife (pb. 1597) in a large fluted hood,
 
 96 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 wearing also an heraldic counterpane charged 
 with the quarterings of eleven families. 
 Over the effigies is a semicircular canopy, 
 while at the angles are Corinthian columns 
 supporting an entablature, from which, on 
 either side, rise three obelisks. In this 
 case also the portraits are reputed to be 
 good likenesses. A circumstance worthy 
 of note in connection with this monument 
 is the fact that the iron buckles and leather 
 straps forming part of the accoutrements of 
 the Baron's effigy are still in working order. 
 It was this scion of the noble house who 
 occasioned the scene in the House of Lords 
 previously referred to, which resulted in 
 both himself and the Earl of Arundel being 
 arrested, and in the end reparation being 
 ordered to Lord Spencer, as having been 
 first provoked. 
 
 In 1603 tne Queen of James I. and
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 97 
 
 Prince Henry visited Althorp on their way 
 from Holyrood to London, when a masque, 
 specially composed by Ben Jonson, was 
 performed in their honour. A few months 
 later Sir Robert was created a Baron, and 
 in the same year was sent on an embassy 
 to Frederick, Duke of Wiirtemberg, to invest 
 him with the Order of the Garter. In 
 commemoration of his elevation to the 
 peerage, and perhaps the royal visit, the 
 baron had a hawking-tower (bearing the 
 royal and his own arms) put up the park 
 at Althorp, which was used in connection 
 with the very popular sport of falconry. 
 Since that pastime fell into desuetude it 
 has been turned to account as a residence 
 for keepers. Many years ago a series of 
 water-colour drawings, showing hawking 
 and other scenes, were discovered on the 
 walls, but on exposure they quickly perished. 
 7
 
 98 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Sir Robert died at Wormleighton October 
 25th, 1627, leaving a will in which he 
 expressed a desire to be buried in the same 
 tomb as the wife whom he had so tenderly 
 loved and who had died thirty years before, 
 under circumstances similar, it is said, to 
 the present noble earl's sad bereavement. 
 His long widowhood was the occasion, it is 
 said, of Ben Jonson's well-known quatrain : 
 
 Who since Thamyra did die 
 Hath not brook'd a lady's eye, 
 Nor allow'd about his place 
 Any of the female race. 
 
 On the north side, opposite that of the 
 first baron, is the beautiful monument to 
 William Lord Spencer (pb. 1636) and 
 Penelope Wriothesley, his wife (pb. 1667), 
 eldest daughter of the third Earl of South- 
 ampton. It consists of a basement table 
 of black and white marble, upon which
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 99 
 
 rests the low altar-tomb of black marble. 
 On these lie the effigies in pure white. 
 Lord Spencer is shown habited in his 
 state robes and wearing the Order of the 
 Bath ; Lady Penelope in a flowing gown 
 and enriched mantle. Above them rises a 
 lofty canopy upheld by eight Corinthian 
 pillars of black marble with white capitals. 
 The monument, one of the most chaste of 
 the series, is the work of Nicholas Stone. 
 It was erected by the bereaved widow at 
 a cost of ^600. 
 
 This William Lord Spencer (b. 1591, 
 d. 1636) was a very different person from 
 his father Robert. He took little interest 
 in politics, and appears to have kept him- 
 self sedulously aloof from parties, although, 
 in accordance with the family tradition, he 
 remained true to the Royalist cause, and 
 had the honour of a visit from Charles I.
 
 100 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and his queen at Althorp in 1624 (when 
 it is said he spent about ,1,300 on one 
 banquet, exclusive of game, poultry, meat, 
 fruit, flowers, and vegetables provided by 
 the estate). His greatest pleasures were 
 connected with rural and country sports. 
 He was a great patron of horse- racing, 
 and in conjunction with the corporation of 
 Northampton established the races in that 
 town. Like his father, he was a staunch 
 friend of the Washingtons. Sir John (and 
 with him his son Mordaunt) still figures 
 in the household books as a visitor, and 
 it is during Lord William's reign that 
 " Mistress Lucy Washington's " name ap- 
 pears at the head of the list of servants. 
 She is the lady housekeeper, a position 
 often taken in those days by persons of 
 good family and connections. 
 
 On the other side of a five-sided bay is
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 101 
 
 the monument of Sir John Spencer (pb. 1599) 
 and Mary Catelin,* his wife, daughter and 
 heiress of Sir Robert Catelin, Lord Chief 
 Justice of England. It is a stately structure 
 of Elizabethan character, and consists of a 
 low altar-tomb, enriched with shields and 
 bearing effigies like the rest, over which 
 is a lofty canopy, supported by square 
 pillars and having at the outer angles a 
 Corinthian column bearing a frieze and 
 entablature. The Sir John of this monu- 
 ment is the one who died in 1599, and 
 who, we learn from his will, was nursed 
 
 * It is interesting to note in connection with this 
 marriage, and as indicating a peculiarity in the domestic 
 relations of high families in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, that in the Althorp household accounts of 
 1635, under the heading "Servants wages payed the 
 25th of March," appear the following entries : 
 
 To Wingfield Catelyn . . . 03 . oo . oo 
 Ralph Catelyn * ' . . 03 . oo . oo 
 ,, Mrs. Lucy Washington . . 03 . oo . oo
 
 102 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 in his last illness by Elizabeth, the wife of 
 Robert Washington, of Little Brington. 
 
 It is worthy of note that when the coffin 
 of this Sir John Spencer was opened in 
 1846 it was found that his features and 
 the disposition of his hair and beard had 
 not been accurately represented in the 
 effigy. In the year named it was necessary 
 to remove this and the other tombs on 
 the west side of the chapel in order to 
 enlarge it by a bay of five sides, and upon 
 this being done it was discovered that these 
 tombs displayed no fewer than three hundred 
 and seventy-five quarterings, on which 
 account, as well as from the various 
 costumes and figures presented by them, 
 they rank very high among the monuments 
 of the period. 
 
 These comprise all the memorials of 
 Spencers who were noted for their friend-
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 103 
 
 ship for and patronage of the Washington 
 family. Henry, the third baron (created 
 Earl of Sunderland by Charles I. in 1643), 
 who died fighting for the royal cause at 
 Newbury in the same year, has no monu- 
 ment at Brington, although his heart found 
 sepulture there. When the vault was re- 
 cently opened the leaden box, of circular 
 form (about 24 in. by 18 in.), containing 
 the heart-shaped leaden casket in which 
 the heart was sealed up was still to be 
 seen there, but there was no inscription 
 upon it. 
 
 It was of course in the time of the second 
 earl and his countess (n4e Ann Digby) that 
 the incident occurred (previously referred 
 to) on the day of the king's forcible 
 abduction by the army. He had ridden 
 over to Althorp, as was his wont, to play 
 bowls, and was thus engaged when the
 
 104 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sudden appearance of Cornet Joyce among 
 the spectators of the game induced the com- 
 missioners to hurry back their royal charge 
 to Holdenby. 
 
 There are many other Spencer monu- 
 ments and memorials, some of them of 
 course modern, not a few of them showing 
 splendid work, as, for instance, that of 
 Margaret Georgiana (Poyntz), wife of John, 
 first Earl Spencer, with sculptured figures 
 of Faith and Charity, by Flaxman. They 
 are, however, of less interest to us here 
 than the Washington mementoes. These 
 are of exceptional interest, being more 
 numerous than are to be found in any 
 other place associated with the Washington 
 family. 
 
 Sulgrave, as we have seen, contains the 
 tomb of Lawrence Washington, twice mayor 
 of Northampton, and his wife, but there is
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 105 
 
 no trace there of any memorial of his son 
 Robert, who, after the sale of the estate, 
 very curiously drops out of the picture. 
 
 THE WASHINGTON ARMS, IMPALED WITH THOSE OF 
 THE BUTLERS. 
 
 Mr. Simpkinson supposes that he went to 
 live at Brington with his son, but there 
 is no evidence to support the assumption. 
 His eldest son, Lawrence, and Robert, the
 
 106 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 second son, however, together with their 
 wives, find suitable memorials at Brington. 
 The tomb of the first-named is in the 
 chancel, on a stone in the floor of which 
 may still be seen (with the permission of 
 the rector) the Washington arms, impaled 
 with those of the wife, and the epitaph : 
 
 Here lieth the bodi of Laurence Washington, 
 sonne and heire of Robert Washington of Soul- 
 grave in the countie of Northampton, Esquire, 
 who married Margaret, the eldest daughter of 
 William Butler of Tees in the countie of Sussexe, 
 Esquire, who had issue by her 8 sonns and 9 
 daughters, which Laurence decessed the 13 of 
 December A. Dni. 1616. 
 
 Thou that by chance or choyce of this hast sight, 
 
 Know life to death resigns as day to night ; 
 
 But as the sunns returne revives the day, 
 
 So Christ shall us, though turned to dust and clay. 
 
 This inscription is very distinct, as are 
 also the deeply sculptured arms above it.
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 107 
 
 The tomb of Robert Washington and 
 his wife (who both died in the same year, 
 1622) is in the nave, and above it a brass 
 recording : 
 
 1 1 ERE LIES INTERRED Y BODIES OF tLI^ABlViA^HINC^ v\ 
 
 Y 15? OF MARCH fG22- ASJALSO v BODY OF ROBERT 
 
 WASHINGTON GENT* HERJ-ATE HVSBAND SECOND 
 
 SONHE Of ROBERT VV^HiNCTOhT OF SOLCRAVE INTJ 
 COVWTYOF NORTH: ESO.WHO DEPTED THIS LIFE \ 
 io OF MARCH -fG22 AFTERTHEY uvEDLoviNGLYTocETrtR 
 
 - MAW YBARESIN THIS PARISH 
 
 Accompanying this inscription appear the 
 Washington arms (as given on next page), 
 with the sign of cadency indicative of a 
 younger brother. It need hardly be said that 
 from this Washington coat of arms some hold 
 that the " Stars and Stripes " flag of 
 America was derived. Others, on the con- 
 trary, consider the derivation erroneous. 
 
 Robert Washington is supposed to have
 
 108 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 carried on the business of a farmer and 
 miller, as it is known by an entry in the 
 Althorp household books that he rented a 
 windmill (no longer in existence) belonging 
 to Lord Spencer, situated about a mile 
 
 ARMS OF ROBERT WASHINGTON, WITH CRESCENT 
 IN SIGN OF CADENCY. 
 
 from the village. The entry is as follows : 
 " 1610. Oct. 6. After this week Robert 
 Washington did take the windmill of me " 
 (the memorandum being in Lord Spencer's 
 handwriting). 
 
 No trace of this mill remains, but those
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 109 
 
 best able to judge fix its probable site as 
 being a plot of high ground marked in 
 the estate books as " mill furlong," a short 
 distance from Little Brington. 
 
 It is curious to note that, with the ex- 
 ception of the two references to his son 
 Gregory, the Brington parish register con- 
 tains no reference to Lawrence Washington's 
 family between that date and his own death 
 in 1616. It was this circumstance which 
 led Mr. Simpkinson to suppose that he 
 went to live in London with a view to the 
 better education of his children. Of his 
 numerous family (eight sons and nine 
 daughters, according to his epitaph) most 
 of his daughters can be traced, but only 
 three of the sons (if we bar the infant 
 Gregory and the Thomas who died in 
 Spain). These, as our pedigree table shows, 
 were Sir William Washington of Packington,
 
 110 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Sir John Washington, of Thrapston, North- 
 amptonshire, and the Rev. Lawrence 
 Washington, Rector of Purleigh, Essex. 
 The third son, Richard, is mentioned in 
 the Althorp household books, but as no 
 further trace of him is discoverable it is 
 assumed that he died young. 
 
 Sir William and Sir John (whom Sir Isaac 
 Heard, Garter King-at-Arms, and others 
 after him, assumed to be the emigrant to 
 Virginia, and the great-grandfather of the 
 first President) find frequent mention in 
 these household books. As already seen a 
 sister Lucy is likewise mentioned therein, 
 she having acted as housekeeper at Althorp, 
 and her name being down in the accounts 
 for the salary she received. 
 
 Another sister, Amy, was living at Brington 
 in 1620 (possibly with her uncle, Robert 
 Washington and his wife), in which year
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 111 
 
 she was married to Philip Curtis, a gentle- 
 man respecting whom we have little informa- 
 tion beyond the fact that he was undoubtedly 
 of a good family and a frequent guest at 
 Althorp. 
 
 Amy Washington's brother John had 
 already married into the same family, but 
 was soon left a widower with three children, 
 as we learn from a mural monument in the 
 tower of I slip church, bearing the inscrip- 
 tion : 
 
 Here lieth the body of Dame 
 Mary : wife unto Sir John Wash- 
 ington Knight, daughter of Phil- 
 lipe Curtis Gent : who had is- 
 sue by Hur sayd Husbande 
 3 sonns Mordaunt John and 
 Phillipe deceased the i of 
 Janu : 1624. 
 
 Another epitaph in the same church is as 
 follows :
 
 112 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Here Heth the bodie of Katherine 
 the wife of Phillipe Curtis Gent : 
 who had issue one sonne Phillipe 
 
 and fower daughters, 
 departed in the fayth of Christ 
 
 Apprill 24. Anno Domini 1626. 
 
 I slip is a village very pleasantly situated 
 on a hill about half a mile from Thrapston, 
 the one-time residence of Sir John Washing- 
 ton. The two places are connected by a 
 bridge across the Nene. Islip church, 
 dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a small but 
 beautiful edifice of stone in the Perpendicular 
 style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, 
 aisles, south porch, and an embattled tower 
 with crotcheted spire and pinnacles. 
 
 As already stated, it was long thought 
 that Sir John Washington was the emigrant 
 to Virginia, and the great-grandfather of the 
 first President ; and it was only after Colonel
 
 MONUMENTS AT BRINGTON 113 
 
 Chester had shown the impossibility of this 
 conjecture, and Mr. H. F. Waters had made 
 his important researches, that attention 
 became fixed upon John, the eldest son 
 of Lawrence Washington, the Rector of 
 Purleigh, as the probable great-grandfather 
 of the first President. It is to this Rev. 
 Lawrence Washington, therefore, that we 
 must now devote a little space and set forth 
 what Mr. Waters and others have discovered 
 respecting him, his interesting family and 
 its fortunes.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, THE RECTOR OF 
 PURLEIGH 
 
 T AWRENCE WASHINGTON, the 
 
 * ' brother of Sir William Washington 
 of Packington and Sir John Washington of 
 Thrapstone, must, it is held, have been born 
 about 1602, as he matriculated at Brasenose 
 College, Oxford, November 2nd, 1611, in 
 his nineteenth year. Two years later he 
 obtained his B.A. degree, becoming M.A. 
 in 1626. He was Fellow of his college from 
 1624 to 1633, Lector in 1626, and Proctor 
 in 1631. He was at Oxford therefore some 
 
 twenty-two years, and finally quitted the 
 114
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 115 
 
 University to take over the rectorship of 
 Purleigh, in Essex. 
 
 Purleigh is situated in the south-east 
 division of the county, three miles south- 
 south-west of Maldon, and, being on elevated 
 ground, enjoys an extensive and varied 
 prospect of wood and mead. To the north 
 and north-east the view includes Blackwater 
 Bay, seen over the distant marshes, while in 
 the mid-distance lies the town of Maldon. 
 The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a 
 handsome structure, with nave, aisles, 
 chancel, and an ancient embattled tower of 
 flint and stone, having over the west door 
 carved heads of a man and a woman, said to 
 represent the founders. The interior is neat 
 though not striking, containing no monu- 
 ments of any special note. 
 
 It is assumed that Lawrence Washington 
 married on accepting the rectorship of
 
 116 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Purleigh. His wife was Amphillis, the 
 daughter, it is supposed, of one John 
 Roades, who was farm-bailiff to Sir Edmund 
 Verney, of Middle Claydon, Bucks. It is 
 known that Sir Edmund was intimate with 
 one member of the Washington family from 
 the following circumstance. There was a 
 Thomas Washington in the retinue of Prince 
 Charles when he and the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham went on their romantic expedition to 
 Madrid to see the Infanta of Spain, and 
 among other gentlemen in the Prince's 
 service was Sir Edmund Verney. In one 
 of Howell's "Familiar Letters" (Section 3, 
 Letter xx.) written from Madrid in the year 
 1623 (in which this clandestine visit took 
 place), the following incident is related in 
 connection therewith : 
 
 " Mr. Washington, the Prince his page, is 
 lately dead of a calenture : and I was at his
 
 REV. LA WHENCE. WASHINGTON 117 
 
 burial, under a fig-tree behind my lord of 
 Bristoll's house. A little before his death, 
 one Ballard, an English priest, went to 
 tamper with him ; and Sir Edmund Varney, 
 meeting him coming downstairs out of 
 Washington's chamber, they fell from words 
 to blows : but they were parted. The 
 business was like to gather very ill blood, 
 and arise to a great height, had not Count 
 Gondomar quasht it ; which I believe he 
 could not have done, unlesse the times had 
 bin favourable ; for such is the reverence 
 they bear to the church here, and so holy a 
 count they have of all ecclesiastics, that the 
 greatest Don in Spain will tremble to offer 
 the meanest of them any outrage or affront. " 
 The incident, which roused much indigna- 
 tion in England at the time, is referred to 
 by Tom Telltruth in his famous libel (see 
 Somers's "Tracts," vol. ii.), and is men-
 
 118 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 tioned also by David Lloyd in his sketch 
 of Sir Edmund Verney. 
 
 It is held to be proved, almost beyond 
 question, that this Thomas Washington was 
 one of the sons of Lawrence Washington 
 of Sulgrave and Brington, and accordingly 
 a younger brother of Sir William Washing- 
 ton, who had married a half-sister of the 
 Duke of Buckingham, and who, living at 
 Leckhampstead, was a near neighbour of 
 Sir Edmund Verney, who had likewise 
 another neighbour of the same family in 
 Sir Lawrence Washington, the Register of 
 Chancery, whose residence was at Westbury. 
 
 These particulars are given to show that 
 it was possible that Lawrence Washington 
 of Brington and Brasenose may have been 
 a frequent visitor at Middle Claydon, where, 
 it is supposed, he found his wife, and by 
 marrying her, possibly caused some dis-
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 119 
 
 satisfaction in the family "married beneath 
 him," as they would say. Such, at least, is 
 thought to have been the case by some of 
 those who have investigated the circum- 
 stances of his life, although in truth there 
 is but little ground for the inference. A 
 grievous misfortune fell upon him in his 
 later years, and that seems to have cast 
 a shadow upon his whole life. He was 
 appointed Rector of Purleigh in March 
 1632, and held the living until 1643, when 
 he was ejected by order of Parliament as a 
 malignant Royalist. 
 
 This information is given in " The First 
 Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests 
 made and admitted into Benefices by the 
 Prelates," etc., published by order of Parlia- 
 ment in 1643. Herein Lawrence Washing- 
 ton is referred to as " a common frequenter 
 of ale-houses," as one "dayly tippling
 
 120 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 there" and "also encouraging others in 
 that beastly vice"; but there is a further 
 addition of statements he is alleged to have 
 made about Parliament and its army that 
 seems to indicate that his real fault was his 
 fidelity to the royal cause, a fidelity which 
 he appears to have shared with the entire 
 Washington family. 
 
 It is impossible to say, after so long a 
 lapse of time, how much truth there was 
 in the charge, if any. Clergymen in those 
 troublous days found it a hard task indeed 
 to satisfy all men. What with Protestants 
 on the one hand and rigid Puritans on 
 the other, they had to walk very warily, 
 and not always even then could they be 
 sure of escaping trouble. In short, so high 
 did religious as well as political feeling run, 
 that over-zealous partisans were ever ready 
 to pick holes where none existed and to
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 121 
 
 magnify tiny molehills of faultiness into 
 grievous mountains of error ; the result 
 being that in many instances worthy men 
 were deprived of their livings for no other 
 reason than that their sympathies went with 
 Cavalier instead of Roundhead, or perhaps 
 vice versa. That there were careless and 
 evil livers among the clergy appears to be 
 undoubted. Both Fuller and Baxter, as 
 well as others, make statements to that 
 effect which cannot well be impugned. 
 The former, however, tells us that those 
 who brought charges of evil living against 
 the clergy were, in many cases, factious 
 people ; and Clarendon speaks to much 
 the same purport. 
 
 As regards the Rev. Lawrence Washing- 
 ton, John Walker, in his " Sufferings of 
 the Clergy" (London, 1714), refers to him 
 as being "a very worthy, pious man,"
 
 122 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 "moderate and sober" in his life and 
 habits ; but, according to those who knew 
 him well, " he was a loyal person." What- 
 ever may have been his real fault, how- 
 ever, the charges brought against him were 
 held to be proved, and he was ejected 
 after ten years of service among his 
 parishioners. His dismissal took place in 
 the early part of 1643, and he appears to 
 have suffered a good deal in consequence 
 of his deprivation. Later he was given 
 some slight solatium, in the shape of a 
 small living " in the same district." Walker, 
 who makes the statement, says the income 
 was so poor that it was difficult to find 
 incumbents to accept the post, but he 
 does not give the name of the place. It 
 has been surmised, and not without some 
 probability, that it may have been in the 
 neighbourhood of Tring, Herts, with which
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 123 
 
 place he was subsequently much identified. 
 After his death tardy compensation was 
 given to his widow, and it may be that 
 this partial reparation made by the Com- 
 mittee on Plundered Ministers (in 1649) 
 was intended as an acknowledgment that 
 an injustice had been done to him by his 
 deprivation. 
 
 All that is known of his subsequent life 
 amounts to but very little. He appears to 
 have spent most of the time at or near 
 Tring. Three of his children were born 
 there, and his second son, Lawrence, was 
 living there in 1665 (a short time, that is, 
 before he followed his elder brother to 
 Virginia). The latter, John Washington, 
 emigrated some time between 1655, when 
 he was made administrator of his mother's 
 property (she having died in January, 
 1654-5) a d 1657, in which year he is
 
 124 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 known to have been in Virginia. His 
 brother Lawrence, sometimes said to have 
 gone to America with John, was married 
 at Luton, Beds (twelve miles from Tring), 
 in 1660. The entry in the parish register 
 runs : " 1660, June 26. Lawrence Washing- 
 ton, gentleman ; and Mary Jones, married." 
 In December, 1663, their daughter Mary 
 was baptized at the same place. A remark- 
 able thing about this connection with Tring 
 is that it commenced before the rector's 
 ejection from Purleigh. Three of his chil- 
 dren (Lawrence, Elizabeth, and William) 
 were baptized there prior to that event, 
 the first-named in 1635, the two latter in 
 1636 and 1641 respectively. 
 
 The question arises, could Lawrence 
 Washington, of Brasenose and Purleigh, 
 have been a pluralist and enjoyed a living 
 at or near Tring as well as the rectorship
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 125 
 
 of Purleigh ? Mr. Waters gives some facts 
 that would favour such a theory. For 
 instance, we find him acting as temporary 
 surrogate in the Archdeacon's court at Whet- 
 hampstead (January 29th, 1649), in a case 
 that had to do with a will. We find also 
 that one of the most important men at Tring 
 at this period (1608-32) was Sir Richard 
 Anderson, lord of the manor of Pendley, 
 which is partly within the parish of Tring 
 and partly within that of Aldbury, but with 
 its manor-house in the former parish. The 
 estate, it is worthy of note, was purchased 
 from Sir Francis Verney, a brother of Sir 
 Edmund, in 1607. 
 
 Sir Richard's wife, Mary, was a daughter 
 of Robert Lord Spencer,* Baron of Worm- 
 
 * In the inscription on his lordship's tomb Sir 
 Richard Anderson is referred to as "of Penly in ye 
 co. of Hertford."
 
 126 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 leighton and owner of the manor of Althorp ; 
 in other words, the great friend and patron 
 of the Rev. Lawrence Washington's father 
 and uncle, Lawrence and Robert Washington, 
 of Brington. It is more than probable, 
 therefore, that Lawrence Washington, of 
 Brasenose, knew Mary Spencer in his early 
 days at Brington or Wormleighton, and 
 that through her influence and that of her 
 husband he may have obtained some pre- 
 ferment which would account for his con- 
 nection with Tring. Sir Richard Anderson 
 died in August, 1632 ; his widow was buried 
 at Tring in 1658. In his will Sir Richard 
 bequeaths forty shillings to Lawrence Wash- 
 ington of Brasenose (whom he designates 
 "my cousin"), also to the Right Hon. the 
 Lord Spencer and others ten pounds each. 
 We gather these and many other in- 
 teresting facts connected with the Rev.
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 127 
 
 Lawrence Washington, the father of the 
 emigrants, from the researches made by 
 Henry F. Waters in regard to the Wash- 
 ington pedigree, and published in The New 
 England Historic and Genealogical Register 
 for October, 1889. The first fact of im- 
 portance thus hit upon was the discovery 
 by Mr. Waters of the letters of adminis- 
 tration granted in 1677 to one Edmund 
 Jones,* of Luton, on the English property 
 of Lawrence Washington, the younger of 
 the two emigrants, who had died in Virginia. 
 This interesting find was followed by others, 
 the result whereof was to show that John 
 and Lawrence Washington were the sons 
 of a Mrs. Amphillis Washington, who died 
 in 1654-5, and was buried at Tring. Here 
 Mr. Waters's discoveries ended ; he could 
 
 * Possibly a brother-in-law, Lawrence's wife, as we 
 have seen, having been a Jones.
 
 128 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 get no farther, and it still remained to con- 
 nect this Mrs. Washington, whose husband 
 was named Lawrence, and who was a 
 clergyman and a Master of Arts, with 
 the Lawrence Washington of Brasenose 
 and Purleigh, whom we know (from " The 
 Herald's Visitation" of 1618) to have 
 been the brother of Sir William Washington 
 and Sir John Washington, sons of Law- 
 rence Washington of Sulgrave and Brington 
 (whom Heard and Baker had assumed, 
 though mistakenly, to be one of the two 
 emigrants). Waters believed that he was 
 the father of the emigrants, but his facts 
 broke off just short of the point of actual 
 proof. 
 
 Thus the matter remained until the acci- 
 dental discovery in the State Department 
 at Washington, in 1902, of the will of 
 Mrs. Martha Hayward, nte Washington, in
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 129 
 
 which she bequeaths "to my eldest sister, 
 Mrs. Rumbold " (who was living in Eng- 
 land), "aTunne of good weight of Tobacco." 
 We know from the will of one Andrew 
 Knowling (dated January i3th, 1649)* that 
 the emigrants had three sisters, of whom 
 this Martha Hay ward was the youngest, 
 the others being named Elizabeth and 
 Margaret respectively, the elder of the 
 two being, as we have seen, Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Rumball, or Rumbold. 
 
 The chief clause in Knowling's will is 
 as follows : 
 
 "I will give and bequeath unto Laurence 
 Washington (my godsqn) all my freehold 
 lands and tenements wheresoever lying and 
 being within the parish of Tring aforesaid 
 or elsewhere within the realm of England, 
 to have and to hold the same to him and his 
 
 * Given among other documents by Mr. Waters. 
 9
 
 130 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 heirs for ever. Then I give and bequeath 
 to Amphillis Washington, my daughter-in- 
 law (and mother of the said Laurence), the 
 sum of threescore pounds of current money 
 of England, to be paid her within six 
 months of my decease." 
 
 In addition there are bequests to Eliza- 
 beth Fitzherbert, another daughter-in-law, 
 and to William Roades, a son-in-law ; also 
 ^28 a-piece to John Washington, William 
 Washington, and to Elizabeth, Margaret, 
 and Martha Washington, " daughters of the 
 said Amphillis Washington, my daughter- 
 in-law." 
 
 From these dispositions it is inferred 
 that Andrew Knowling had married the 
 widowed mother of William Roades, 
 Amphillis Washington, and Elizabeth 
 Fitzherbert. 
 
 We know from Baker (" History of
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 131 
 
 Northamptonshire") that the Rector of Pur- 
 leigh's eldest sister, Elizabeth, was married 
 to a Mr. Francis Mewce, who is supposed 
 to have held some office in the King's 
 household at Holdenby, and that in her 
 will (given by Mr. Waters) occurs the 
 item : 
 
 " I give and bequeath to Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Rumball, my niece, five pounds." 
 
 Thus we have the sister of the Rev. 
 Lawrence Washington, of Brasenose and 
 Purleigh, referring to a daughter of the Rev. 
 Lawrence Washington, the father of John 
 and Lawrence Washington, who emigrated 
 to Virginia, as " my niece." Nothing could 
 well be more conclusive as showing that 
 though Lawrence Washington, of Brington 
 and Purleigh, who figures in the " Herald's 
 Visitation" of 1618-19, was not one of the 
 emigrants of 1657 and 1666, as held by
 
 132 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Heard and Baker, he was their father, and 
 that, therefore, George Washington, the first 
 President of the United States, was a lineal 
 descendant of the Washingtons of Sulgrave 
 and of their forebears of Warton in Lanca- 
 shire. 
 
 We do not know when the Rev. Lawrence 
 Washington died, or where he was buried. 
 He was alive when the will of Andrew 
 Knowling was made, but predeceased his 
 wife, who passed away in January, 1654-5. 
 Her eldest son, John, is supposed to have 
 been born prior to 1634, as he must have 
 been of age when probate was issued to 
 him to administer his mother's estate in 
 February, 1655. He would, therefore, be 
 about twenty-four years of age when (in 
 1657) he went to Virginia. His brother 
 Lawrence, born in 1635, was a year or two 
 his junior, and died in Virginia in 1677.
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 133 
 
 The Washington pedigree, therefore, com- 
 pleted from page 23, is as follows : 
 
 Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave =p Margaret, d. of William 
 and Brington (pb. 1616). Butler, of Tees, Sussex. 
 
 I I 
 
 Sir Wm. Wash- Sir John Wash- Rev. Lawrence =p Amphillis, d. 
 
 ington. ington. Washington, 
 
 Rector of 
 Purleigh. 
 
 of Roades. 
 
 John Wasrr'ngton, =p Ann, d. of Nathaniel Lawrence Washington, 
 b. at Tring (circa Pope (emig. Virginia about 
 
 1634), emig. Vir- 
 ginia about 1657. 
 
 (second wife). 1666). 
 
 Lawrence Washington =p Mildred Warner. 
 (ob. 1697). 
 
 Augustine Washington. 
 George Washington. 
 
 It is worthy of note that when these 
 scions of the Washington family " pulled 
 up stakes" in England, resolved to try 
 their luck in the new land beyond the sea, 
 it had become common, if not fashionable, 
 for younger and poorer members of noble 
 and aristocratic families, seeing things so
 
 134 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 much against them here, to cast in their 
 lot with the pioneers of "the Wilderness." 
 Many friends of the young Washingtons 
 had already gone thither (including Tom 
 Verney, a son of Sir Edmund) and others 
 were going. Then they had a powerful 
 friend in Sir Edwin Sandys (son of Dr. 
 Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York), who 
 was treasurer of the Virginia Company, and 
 with whose family there was a Washington 
 connection, Alice Washington, an aunt of 
 the emigrants having been married to Robert 
 Sandys, of London, eldest son of Thomas 
 Sandys, a brother of Sir Edwin's. Later 
 the widow of their cousin, Colonel Henry 
 Washington, also became wife to a Sandys, 
 she having espoused Samuel, another nephew 
 of the treasurer. 
 
 Most of those who elected to go out to 
 Virginia did so for the sake of rinding a
 
 REV. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 135 
 
 home and a career, and there is no reason 
 to suppose the Washingtons had any other 
 motive for going (unless, indeed, the recol- 
 lection of the treatment their father had 
 received either at the hands of the Puritans 
 for his loyalty to the king, or from his 
 family and family connections because of 
 his marriage, rankled in their bosoms). Not 
 a few, however, had chosen exile (and others 
 continued to do so) in the hope of enjoy- 
 ing greater freedom of worship in the new 
 land. Among these must be reckoned the 
 first Earl of Baltimore, the founder of 
 Maryland ; who, although he did not live 
 to carry out the project in person, left it 
 in such a state of forwardness that his sons, 
 of whose work something is said later on, 
 had only to realise his plans. Thus did 
 some of the best blood of the old country 
 go to the making of the new.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 
 
 TV 7 EXT to George Washington himself, 
 * ^ no man perhaps stands higher in 
 the esteem of his countrymen for the services 
 he rendered in connection with the founding 
 of the American Republic than Benjamin 
 Franklin, who from the position of a humble 
 journeyman printer rose by his ability and 
 achievements to be a fellow of the Royal 
 Society, to win the highest academical dis- 
 tinctions of the Universities of Oxford, 
 Edinburgh, and St. Andrews, and to hold 
 high and important office in connection with 
 the newly formed State, for which his 
 
 wisdom had done so much in helping to 
 136
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 137 
 
 pilot it through troubled and dangerous 
 waters into the haven of safety. As already 
 stated, Franklin, like Washington, was de- 
 scended from a Northamptonshire family ; 
 but, unlike the Washingtons, the Franklins 
 had been long established in the county 
 when an offshoot, detaching himself from 
 the parent stock, went over and took root 
 in the American continent. 
 
 In the case of Benjamin Franklin there 
 is no doubt either as to his ancestry or his 
 descent. His father was a native of Ecton, 
 and was already a married man with children 
 when he emigrated to America about 1685. 
 The Franklins had been established at Ecton 
 three hundred years, and probably much 
 longer. They were of that sturdy class 
 known as yeomen, and enjoyed a patrimony 
 of thirty acres. Besides the cultivation of 
 this freehold a blacksmith's business was
 
 138 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 carried on, whereby the family resources were 
 considerably augmented. The eldest son 
 was always brought up to this trade, which 
 was then, of course, a much more important 
 one in every village than it is to-day. 
 
 The first of the family concerning whom 
 we have any record was one Henry 
 Franklin, whose son Thomas was baptized 
 at Ecton Church on October 8th, 1598. Of 
 this Thomas Franklin little is known, except 
 that he was a man of some weight in the 
 village counsels, and that he must have 
 been a person of considerable parts. He 
 was acting as churchwarden in 1653, when 
 a collection was made in the village for 
 the relief of the townsfolk of Marlborough, 
 Wilts, who appear to have been in great 
 distress, from some cause not ascertained, 
 and he signed the register in confirmation 
 of the fact on September 6th of that year.
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 139 
 
 According to his son Josiah "he was im- 
 prisoned for a year and a day on suspicion 
 of being the author of some poetry that 
 touched the character of some great man." 
 This appears to point to a literary gift which 
 ran in the family, and cropped out again 
 to some purpose in his grandson Benjamin. 
 This rural Thomas the Rhymer had four 
 sons, of whom the eldest, named Thomas 
 after his father, was baptized at Ecton in 
 1637, and died there on January 6th, 1702-3. 
 The second son, John, became a wool-dyer, 
 and settled in Banbury, while Benjamin, 
 the. third, after whom his great nephew 
 was named, went to America and died there 
 at an advanced age. Of the fourth and 
 youngest son, Josiah, it has already been 
 said that he was the father . of the states- 
 man and philosopher. He served an 
 apprenticeship to his brother John, and in
 
 140 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 middle life, when married and dowered with 
 three children, he emigrated to America. 
 
 Of these four brothers, Thomas cuts the 
 most considerable figure. Although brought 
 up to his father's trade, learned in the 
 blacksmith's art, and, according to some, in 
 bell-founding (an art which it is thought, 
 though without much warrant, that the 
 Franklins practised), he did not confine 
 himself to these crafts, but, taking to book- 
 learning, and being encouraged thereto, 
 equally with his brothers, by an " Esquire 
 Palmer," the "principal inhabitant" of the 
 parish, he qualified as a scrivener and 
 attained to more than local repute in the 
 county. He became clerk to the Com- 
 missioners of Taxes, * and it was probably 
 
 * In a letter written from London after his visit to 
 Ecton in 1758, Franklin says of this uncle, "He was a 
 conveyancer, something of a lawyer, clerk of the county 
 courts, and clerk to the Archdeacon in his visitations."
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 141 
 
 in this, or some similar public capacity, 
 that he made the acquaintance of Lord 
 Halifax, who was thenceforth his friend and 
 patron. This uncle of Franklin's was a 
 man of such undoubted intelligence, and 
 the recital which some elderly persons made 
 to the statesman and his son of his 
 character when they visited the village was 
 so extraordinary from its similarity to what 
 the latter knew of his father, as to cause 
 him to remark that if his great-uncle had 
 died four years later on the same day 
 (which was the date of Benjamin Franklin's 
 birth) they might have imagined that a 
 transmigration had taken place. 
 
 Among other anecdotes related to them 
 respecting this last of Franklin's ancestors 
 who lived at Ectofi was the following : He 
 set on foot a subscription for erecting 
 chimes in the steeple of the parish church,
 
 142 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and effected his purpose. " And we heard 
 them play," Franklin comments (in a letter 
 dated London, September 6th, 1758). 
 They may still be heard, playing the same 
 old airs, " Britons, strike Home," and a 
 hymn tune. Is this putting up of the 
 chimes the ground, one wonders, on which 
 is based the supposition that the Franklins 
 were bell-founders as well as smiths ? 
 More striking, and quite in the style of 
 his famous nephew, was the good man's 
 discovery of a method whereby their village 
 meadows could be saved from drowning, 
 as they not infrequently were by the over- 
 flowing of the river Nene. Franklin does 
 not explain what the method was, though 
 he tells us that when he was there it 
 was " still in being." When first pro- 
 posed " no one could conceive how it 
 could be done," but they said, "If Franklin
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 143 
 
 says he knows how to do it, it will be 
 done." 
 
 These and other instances of the old 
 yeoman's grip and character were related 
 to Franklin and his son by the wife of 
 the rector (the Rev. Eyre Whalley),* who 
 was a granddaughter of the famous Arch- 
 deacon Palmer (whose father, Thomas 
 Palmer, bought the rectory in 1712 from 
 the Catesbys), and remembered a great 
 deal about the family and its doings and 
 dealings. 
 
 Thomas Franklin's gravestone is still to 
 be seen, and, thanks to the care of the 
 present rector, the Rev. J. C. Cox- Edwards, 
 its inscription read in Ecton churchyard. 
 The inscription is as follows : 
 
 * Whalleys appear to have held the rectorship for the 
 greater part of the eighteenth century, Thomas Palmer 
 succeeding Bradley Whalley (installed 1715) in 1720, and 
 then four Whalleys following each other from 1732 on.
 
 144 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Here lyeth the body of Thomas Franklin, who 
 departed this life January 6th, Anno Dni. 1702 
 in the sixty-fifth yeare of his age. 
 
 His widow survived him some nine years, 
 dying in 1711. The stone at the head of 
 her grave, which is near his, bears the 
 inscription : 
 
 Here lyeth the body of Eleanor Franklin, the 
 wife of Thomas Franklin, who departed this life 
 the I4th of March, 1711, in the 77th yeare of her 
 age. 
 
 | 
 
 It is characteristic of these Franklins that 
 they were strong Protestants, and during 
 Mary's reign ran some danger of persecution 
 on account of their hostility to the ancient 
 faith.* Howbeit they appear to have 
 
 * Benjamin Franklin tells in his "Autobiography " how 
 he learned from his uncle that, in the perilous days of 
 Mary, the family concealed their English Bible by 
 means of tapes under and within the cover of a joint- 
 stool. When his great-grandfather wished to read it to
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 145 
 
 steered clear of ecclesiastical molestation 
 until the house of Protestantism became 
 divided against itself, when, some of the 
 ministers ejected for their nonconformity 
 holding meetings in the neighbourhood, 
 Benjamin and Josiah Franklin became in- 
 oculated with the views they taught and 
 remained true to them all their lives. It 
 appears, however, to have been owing to 
 their dissent that the two brothers in the end 
 found their way to America. Such was 
 certainly the case as regards the younger. 
 " The conventicles being at that time for- 
 bidden by law," says his son, "and frequently 
 disturbed in the meetings, some considerable 
 
 his family, he placed the joint-stool on his knees, and 
 then turned over the leaves under the tapes. One of 
 the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw 
 the apparitor, an officer of the spiritual court, coming 
 that way ; in which case the stool was turned down 
 upon its feet and the Bible concealed as before. 
 10
 
 146 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 men of his acquaintance determined to go 
 to that country, and he was prevailed with to 
 accompany them thither, where they expected 
 to enjoy the exercise of their religion with 
 freedom." Thus for ever and again we 
 find a live people kicking against the pricks 
 of sacerdotalism and justifying the wisdom 
 of ceaseless question and doubt. 
 
 Respecting his father (born at Ecton in 
 1698) Benjamin Franklin tells us that he was 
 a man of sound sense and independent 
 character, strong in his views on political 
 and religious matters, and though precluded 
 by his large family and straitened circum- 
 stances from taking part in public affairs, he 
 was frequently consulted by leading citizens 
 as to his opinion on matters of public 
 interest, and those of the church to which 
 he belonged. As to his private character, 
 we learn that he was careful in regard to the
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 147 
 
 bringing up of his children (of whom he 
 reared thirteen out of seventeen), and would 
 have, as often as he could, some sensible 
 friend or neighbour to converse with, so 
 that, starting some ingenious or useful topic 
 of conversation, their discourse might tend 
 to improve the minds of his children. We 
 learn further that he was something of a 
 draughtsman, had a little skill in music, and 
 used very agreeably to lighten the evening 
 hours, after work was done, by singing very 
 pleasantly to his own accompaniment on the 
 violin. His first wife was a Jane White, of 
 Banbury, his second a daughter of Peter 
 Folger, who, born at Norwich, was one of 
 the first settlers of Waterton, Mass., a man 
 of exceptional parts and character, with some 
 literary gifts, from whom Franklin may have 
 inherited some of his remarkable endow- 
 ments, as he is said to have done facial
 
 148 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 characteristics, or if not from him, at least 
 from the Folger family. 
 
 The brother who, like Josiah, changed 
 from " Northamptonian earth" to the broader 
 lands of New England, was equally gifted in 
 his way. His famous nephew considered 
 him too much of a politician for his station 
 a silk dyer and possibly thought the weak- 
 ness had militated against his success in life. 
 He was an ingenious man, a great reader, 
 and, like his father, addicted to poetry. 
 One gathers that he had not a little influence 
 upon his godson, whom he taught a system 
 of shorthand that he had invented, and 
 possibly turned his attention to literary 
 matters. Of the second brother, John, who 
 settled at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, less is 
 known than of the others, though he appears 
 to have been a man of intelligence and of 
 an estimable character. Benjamin Franklin
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 149 
 
 records having seen his gravestone at 
 Banbury in 1758. With him his father went 
 to reside in his declining years, leaving the 
 Ecton house, with the land, to his son 
 Thomas, who in his turn bequeathed the 
 estate to his only daughter, who, together 
 with her husband, a Mr. Richard Fisher, 
 a grazier and tanner, of Wellingborough, 
 sold it to Mr. Isted, the lord of the manor.* 
 According to his brother Josiah he died 
 worth fifteen hundred pounds. 
 
 The will of this Thomas Franklin, a most 
 interesting document, is as follows : 
 
 I, Thomas Franklin of Ecton in the County of 
 Northton Yeom n doe make this my last will and 
 testam t in maner following that is to say Ffirst I 
 give to Eleanor my wife in lieu of her third and to 
 
 * Benjamin Franklin found this Mr. Fisher and his 
 wife still living and in very comfortable circumstances at 
 Wellingborough when he visited the county in 1758. 
 They had had only one child, a daughter, who died 
 unmarried about the age of thirty.
 
 150 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 my only Daughter Mary my messuage and all my 
 lands in Ecton aforesd with their appurtenances 
 viz 1 : two yard lands in Badger's Hide ffive leyes 
 & a halfe at Cockins hedge. Two leyes at Mill 
 Dike and one acre in the east Rye field w~ was 
 purchased of one W m . Glen for & during their 
 lives, and after my said wife's death to my said 
 daughter & her heires forsed Also I doe declare 
 that about Two hundred pounds by me put out of 
 my said Daughters money upon securities taken in 
 her owne name is her only proper money & part 
 of my Estate and therefore need not be put into 
 the Inventory of my Goods Also I doe hereby make 
 my said wife and daughter joynt Executrixes of 
 this my Testam 1 to whom I give all the rest & 
 residue of my p'sonall estate betweene them equally 
 to be divided after my debts paid witnesse my hand 
 & scale the 15 day of September Anno Dm 1697 
 Thomas Franklin sen r 
 
 Hen Bagley 
 
 Thomas Franklin jun 
 
 Edm: James 
 
 Prob: 17 April 1703, by Eleanor Franklin & 
 Maria Franklin
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 151 
 
 The Thomas Franklin who, with Henry 
 Bagley and Edmund James, witnesses the 
 above will, is evidently a member of a 
 collateral family of the same name then 
 living at Ecton, and is probably the same 
 Thomas Franklin who in the will given 
 below is appointed overseer (i.e. trustee) by 
 the testator, Nicholas Franklin. 
 
 In the name of God Amen this twelfth day 
 of August Anno Dni 1674 And in the six and 
 tvventyeth yeare of the Reigne of o r Soveraigne 
 Lord Charles the Second by the grace of God 
 King of England & Scotland Ffrance & Ireland 
 defend 1 " of the faith I Nicholas Ffranklin of 
 Ecton in the County of North'ton Yeoman 
 being sick in body but of complete under- 
 standing and memory doo make this my last 
 will and testam 1 in mafier following ffirst I 
 comitt my soule into the hands of Almighty 
 God my maker and redeemer and my body I 
 comitt to the Earth to be buryed in decent and 
 christianlike matter at the discression of my
 
 152 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 executrix hereafter named, Alsoe I give unto 
 my Cozen Robert Wiseman of Buckingham the 
 sume of twenty pounds twelve monthes after 
 my decease Also I give to Humphry Pratt of 
 Ecton my best suite of Cloathes And my next 
 Suite I give to Robert Allen of Moulton And 
 to Thomas Martin of Ecton my old Coate 
 Alsoe I give unto my godson Thomas son of 
 the said Humphry Pratt ffive shillings To my 
 godson Nicholas Allen ffive shillings And to 
 the rest of my godchildren hereafter named 
 viz* Richard Malerd of Ecton Anne now wife 
 of David Palmer of Earles Barton Elizabeth 
 daughter of John Hensman of Ecton and William 
 sonne of William Barker of Ecton I give twelve 
 pence apeece Twelve monthes after my decease. 
 Alsoe I give to Anne Brice of Pasham Twenty 
 shillings twelve monthes after my decease Also 
 after the decease of my wife I give my cup- 
 board in the Hall to Elizabeth daughter of 
 George Bett of Ecton Also I give to the nine 
 children of George Bett of Ecton aforesaid Tenne 
 shillings apeece at their respective ataynm 1 of 
 the age of one and twenty yeares Also I give
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 153 
 
 to the poore of Ecton Tenne shillings to be 
 paid twelve monthes after my decease Also I 
 give to the foure children of Pearcy Eaglestone 
 of Lamport Two shillings and sixpence apeece 
 when they shall come to their respective age of 
 one and twenty yeares Also I doe desire John 
 Morris late of Billing and Thomas Ffranklin 
 the young r of Ecton aforesaid that they will be 
 overseeres of the performance of this my last 
 will and testam* To whom I give twenty shillings 
 apeece yet my mind and will is that if more 
 debts shall be charged upon my executors than 
 I now thinke of or by casualty mistake or 
 otherwise howsever my money goods & chattells 
 (household goods excepted) shall fall short of 
 raising money to pay my debts legacyes and 
 funerall expenses that then so much as they 
 shall fall short shall be deducted and abated 
 out of the legacyes aforesaid and I doe hereby 
 make my wife sole executrix of this my last 
 will & Testam ts And if any doubt question of 
 controversy shall happen to arise between my 
 Executrix legateyes or any of them touching 
 my Intent in any clause or sentence herein
 
 154 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 conteyned It shall be judged and finally deter- 
 mined by my said overseeres or such umpire as 
 they or the survivor of them shall choose In 
 witness whereof I the said Nicholas Ffranklin 
 have hereunto put my hand & seal the day and 
 yeare first above written 
 
 Nicholas Ffranklin 
 
 His X marke 
 Jonathan Langdall 
 Richard Hensman 
 
 His X mark 
 Above Proved 22 Aug. 1674. 
 
 When Benjamin Franklin visited Ecton 
 some eighty years later there appears to 
 have been no one of the name left in the 
 village. After hundreds of years of residence 
 the last scion of the race had disappeared. 
 Thus, one may remark, passed away from 
 its ancestral home one of those families that 
 have ever been among the best assets of 
 English life, giving quality, character, and
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 155 
 
 genius to the country, and sending out 
 into the world strong and farseeing men 
 who have done such yeoman service in 
 building up the nation and the nations 
 that have grown from the English stem. 
 It produced a Benjamin Franklin, and so 
 justified its generations of high purpose 
 strenuous thought, and wholesome labour 
 and living. To-day the reflected light from 
 his personality and achievement illumines 
 the little village where his forefathers lived 
 and toiled for so many generations, possibly 
 even from Saxon times, when the name 
 they bore stood for a class of freeholders 
 above the free tenants (Libere tenentes], but 
 below the Miles and Armiger in social 
 position. In short, the " Frankelein " (as 
 we have it in Chaucer) was distinguished 
 from other freeholders by the extent of his 
 possessions.
 
 156 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Franklin was proud of his ancestry, 
 proud to have descended from so respect- 
 able and worthy a stock, and it is in truth 
 no small test of a family's strength and 
 virility to have been able to maintain its 
 grip on the one home and holding for 
 hundreds of years, and come out on top 
 at last. He took great pains when in 
 England to find out all he could about 
 his forebears and their home at Ecton. 
 
 Ecton is a quiet little village some four 
 or five miles to the north-east of North- 
 ampton, on the high ground overlooking 
 the valley of trje Nene, with any number 
 of interesting places round about, including 
 Weston-Favel, remembered by some as 
 the one-time home of Hervey, the author 
 of " Meditations among the Tombs " ; Earls 
 Barton, with its fine old church, notable 
 as showing vestiges of Anglo-Saxon work ;
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 157 
 
 Castle Ashby, one of the beautiful homes of 
 the Earls of Northampton ; Yardley Chase, 
 with its rare sylvan beauties; Easton Maudit, 
 so long the residence of Percy, of the 
 " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," 
 before he became Bishop of Dromore, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 It is permissible to note in this connection 
 that Percy was presented to the collegiate 
 living of Easton in 1753, and that three 
 years later the rectorship of Wilby, a few 
 miles away, fell into his lap both which 
 incumbencies he resigned in 1782 on being 
 raised to the episcopal bench. One of his 
 daughters was married to Ambrose Isted, 
 lord of the manor of Ecton, and purchaser 
 of the Franklin freehold. 
 
 Although so intimately associated with 
 the Franklins, Ecton has to-day no house 
 clearly definable as their dwelling-place.
 
 158 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 When Benjamin Franklin visited the place 
 in 1758 the house was still standing, "a 
 decayed old stone building," even then 
 known as the " Franklin House," and occu- 
 pied by a person who kept a school. We 
 are not told, however, where it stood. 
 Cole, in his (< History and Antiquities of 
 Ecton" (written in 1825), says it was situated 
 in the lower part of the village, but had 
 long ago been demolished. A tradition of. 
 the place says it was destroyed by fire. 
 There is, or was, in a garden adjoining 
 the rectory a well known as Franklin's Well, 
 and it is thought that the smithy may 
 possibly have stood at this spot, being, as 
 it is, situated near the main street of the 
 village. 
 
 Some have pointed to the manor farm 
 as having probably been the habitation of 
 the Franklins ; but the tradition, if tradition
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 159 
 
 it may be called, though interesting, is very 
 doubtful. It is, however, barely possible 
 that the manor-house became the home of 
 the last of the race to reside at Ecton. 
 Thomas, the scrivener, conveyancer, or what- 
 not, with his many public employs, could 
 hardly have continued to work as a black- 
 smith while holding the offices he did ; and 
 as he had no son to succeed him, it is 
 not at all unlikely that he gave up the 
 smithy, and with it the house connected 
 therewith, finding the manor-house more 
 convenient and suitable to his dignity as a 
 county official. It should be possible, and 
 it certainly would be interesting, to settle 
 this question, if some one with access to 
 county records would take the trouble to 
 ransack them a couple of centuries or so 
 back. 
 
 There is, anyway, a good deal of fascinat-
 
 160 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 ing history connected with the old manor- 
 house, as well as with the rectory. Mr. 
 Whalley, the rector, and William Hogarth, 
 the famous painter and satirist, were in- 
 timately acquainted, and the latter used to 
 visit his friend at Ecton and spend much 
 time there at his favourite occupation. These 
 visits extended over a number of years, and 
 during one of them he is said to have 
 painted a sign for the village inn known 
 as The World's End. Cole, in his little 
 book above cited, says : " The World's End 
 was built about sixty years since," and he 
 goes on to say that, as Hogarth was staying 
 in the village about that time, "it is very 
 probable that it received its sign from that 
 celebrated artist's curious emblematical pro- 
 duction under the same title." 
 
 This is not at all unlikely. Tradition 
 says that the sign showed a replica of the
 
 THE HOME OF THE FRANKLINS 161 
 
 roofless hut with the post and cross-tree in 
 front carrying a board whereon was painted 
 a globe on fire, to be seen in Hogarth's 
 grim conception of the end of the world. 
 The painting may, of course, have been 
 done by some local limner as a sly way of 
 showing honour to the rector's frequent 
 guest ; although it would have been quite 
 in keeping with Hogarth's spirit of jest to 
 paint it himself and present it to the village 
 Boniface. Ecton was noted in these days 
 for the number of Hogarthian pictures it 
 could show. There were some at the 
 rectory ; Mr. Isted, the lord of the manor, 
 possessed others ; and if we may believe 
 what perhaps is no more than common 
 report, there were a few at the manor- 
 house. 
 
 One wonders if the sign was there when 
 Franklin paid his visit to the place in 1758, 
 ii
 
 162 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and found the rector's wife so " good-natured 
 and chatty," and if he heard from her gossip 
 also of that master-spirit of a curious, many- 
 coloured, low-grovelling yet upward-aspiring 
 age, of whom and his mordant though not 
 unkindly art she must have heard much, if 
 she had not actually met the man.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 
 
 " I ^HERE is hardly a more interesting spot 
 "* in all England to New Englanders than 
 the little village of Scrooby in Nottingham- 
 shire, close to the Yorkshire border. It is 
 a typical English village, and though of 
 course much modernised it still retains many 
 of its old-time features, including the parish 
 church, albeit that too has undergone some 
 changes. Dedicated to St. Wilfrid, its lofty 
 octagonal spire, shooting up into the blue 
 from the pinnacled tower, seems to look 
 around with quiet delight upon the fair 
 scene of woodland and mead that once 
 
 formed part of Sherwood Forest and is 
 163
 
 164 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 still to the inner eye peopled with fairy 
 folk and the dreams of old romance. It is 
 an ancient embattled edifice of stone in 
 the Early English and Decorated styles, 
 fair to look upon, with many memorials of 
 the past, but none to equal the memories 
 that might be yielded up by its cracks and 
 crannies had what are sometimes called 
 dead objects the living power to give forth 
 again the treasured sights and sounds 
 gathered up and everywhere stored by the 
 palpitating ether that fills and vitalises space. 
 For Scrooby is situated on the great north 
 road between Tuxford and Doncaster, and 
 was at one time an important "post" for 
 those who had to use the highways for 
 business or pleasure. Since the building of 
 the Great Northern Railway, however, on 
 which Scrooby possesses a station, the 
 village has lost its importance as a posting
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 165 
 
 centre, though it is still a busy little place, 
 and the focus of much agricultural life and 
 activity. The rivers Idle and Ryton bound 
 the parish on the north-east and west sides, 
 and these, in Tennyson's phrase, still " flow 
 on for ever," as in the days of Wolsey, in 
 the days of Sandys, and in those of the 
 Brewsters and Bradfords, with whom its 
 name and fame are to-day so closely, and 
 in the minds of New Englanders, so lovingly 
 associated. 
 
 At one end of the village street the 
 course of the Ryton is spanned by a 
 picturesque mill, the ancient stones of which 
 bear the names of the people who cut them 
 in 1710. The old archiepiscopal mansion 
 belonging to the See of York, once its 
 glory, has long since disappeared, albeit 
 some buildings formerly connected with it 
 still remain. Though not exactly of palatial
 
 166 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 dimensions, it formed a very considerable 
 residence, " builded yn courtes whereof the 
 first is very ample," Leyland tells us in his 
 " Itinerary," and when it was the fashion 
 for prelates to hunt its walls echoed to 
 many a merry wassail. Henry VIII. once 
 spent a night within its walls on his way 
 into Yorkshire, and Wolsey in the heyday 
 of his prosperity is known to have visited 
 it several times. In 1530, on the eve of 
 his downfall, he passed some weeks at this 
 pleasant but sequestered retreat, no doubt 
 with thoughts often in his mind similar to 
 those which Shakespeare puts into his 
 mouth : 
 
 Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal 
 I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies. 
 
 After leaving Scrooby he proceeded to 
 Cawood, and was there arrested.
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 167 
 
 Here, it has been suggested, the project 
 for the colonisation of New England may 
 have been first mooted. But though that 
 is doubtful, there can be no question that 
 at Scrooby, at all events, the spirit arose 
 which led to the founding of the first 
 colony, and here those who were moved 
 by that spirit found their nobly inspired 
 leaders. William Brewster, one of the 
 chief founders of the Plymouth colony, was 
 a native of Scrooby, born there either 
 during the last half of 1566 or the first 
 half of 1567.* His father, named William 
 like himself, held the position of bailiff of 
 
 * It has been held by some that, because the coat 
 of arms preserved in the Brewster family in America 
 is identical with that of the ancient Suffolk family of 
 the same name, Elder Brewster must have been a 
 descendant of Brewsters of that county. The circum- 
 stances, however, may be accounted for by the sup- 
 position that the Brewsters of Scrooby were a collateral 
 branch of the Suffolk sept.
 
 168 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the manor of Scrooby, which belonged to 
 the See of York, being appointed to the 
 post by Archbishop Sandys in the month 
 of January 1575-6. He was accorded a 
 life-tenure of the office, his residence being 
 the old palace or hunting-seat, which, it 
 has been remarked, under the graver manners 
 of Protestantism, a prelate like Sandys 
 would hardly require. To his office of 
 bailiff" Brewster joined that of postmaster ; 
 that is, he had to furnish horses to travel- 
 lers who arrived at Scrooby, and wished 
 to go forward to the next "post," either 
 north or south. Under certain circum- 
 stances also he might be required to supply 
 them with food and lodging. 
 
 Here therefore young Brewster spent his 
 youth, seeing such life as was to be met 
 with in a small hamlet like Scrooby, slow 
 and rude for the most part, though not
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 169 
 
 without its livelier episodes when gay 
 cavalcades of travellers or other wayfarers 
 appeared upon the scene, filled the air for 
 a brief space with visions of the larger 
 world, and then passed on ; or when per- 
 chance some heavy-browed man, weighted 
 with the cares of State, tarried for an hour's 
 rest, or may be spent the night there, 
 supping with the tenant of the old archi- 
 episcopal palace, listening to the gossip as 
 to who had lately come and gone that way, 
 and hearing in return news of the doings 
 at Court or in the world beyond the seas, 
 where in those stirring days there were 
 always things going on calculated to fire 
 men's blood. Many an enterprise of the 
 kind must have come to young Brewster's 
 ears while yet in his callow youth, when 
 in company with his cousin James he was 
 taking in the rudiments of learning as they
 
 170 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 were understood in Elizabeth's days. For 
 there was, contemporary with William 
 Brewster, the elder, a Henry Brewster, 
 supposed to have been his brother, who 
 was at once Vicar of Sutton-cum-Lound 
 and Rector of Scrooby, and who after thirty- 
 eight years of service was (1598) succeeded 
 by his son James. The signature of this 
 James (who died in 1614) is said to have 
 had so striking a resemblance to that of 
 the younger William Brewster as to suggest 
 their having been educated together, possibly 
 by the father and uncle, Henry Brewster. 
 
 To whomsoever it was that he owed his 
 early education, it must have been very 
 thorough, as we find that he matriculated 
 at Peterhouse, Cambridge, December 3rd, 
 1580, that is, if the assumed year of his 
 birth be the correct one, when he was about 
 fourteen years of age. How long he re-
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 171 
 
 mained at the University is not known. 
 Bradford, in his "Memoir" of Brewster, 
 says he "spent some small time" there, 
 attaining " some knowledge of the Latin 
 tongue and some insight in the Greek." 
 In any case he appears not to have re- 
 mained long enough to take his degree, 
 and while still in his nonage he left college 
 and entered the service of William Davison, 
 Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, 
 who, we are told, found him so " discreete 
 and faithfull," and so given to serious 
 thoughts, that he was led to " esteem him 
 rather as a son than as a servant," and 
 employed him in matters of special trust 
 and confidence, in preference to his fellow 
 clerks. When, in August, 1585, Davison 
 went on his embassy to the Netherlands, 
 Brewster accompanied him and was again 
 trusted with such implicit confidence that
 
 172 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 into his keeping were given the keys of 
 three of the "strong places" of Holland, 
 which the ambassador received as security 
 for a loan, and of these he was so careful 
 as to sleep of nights with them under his 
 pillow. 
 
 These months spent in Holland must 
 have had a powerful influence upon so 
 thoughtful and receptive a mind as Brewster's. 
 The " sight of a brave people in arms for 
 national and religious freedom " was one 
 calculated to awaken feelings and start 
 trains of thought that never again became 
 entirely dormant and were in the coming 
 years to rise like plants in the springtime 
 and bear flowers and fruit in season. 
 
 On his master's return from his mission 
 Brewster continued to serve him until his 
 downfall in 1587, when (one of his bio- 
 graphers tells us) he " turned away from
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 173 
 
 the dangerous attractions of the Court, that 
 had proved so fateful to Davison, and 
 returning to Scrooby, acted as assistant to 
 his father in the duties of the post." There 
 he lived " in good esteem amongst his 
 friends, and y e gentlemen of those parts, 
 especially the godly and religious," doing 
 much good " in promoting and furthering 
 religion." * 
 
 In 1590 Brewster was appointed admini- 
 strator of the estate of his father, who died 
 in the summer of that year. He appears 
 at' that time to have succeeded to the 
 tenancy of the manor farm, and applied for 
 the postmastership. Sir John Stanhope, 
 however, who had become Postmaster- 
 General in June 1590, appointed one Bever- 
 cotes to the office, and it was only through 
 the influence of his old friend Davison that 
 * Bradford's Memoir.
 
 174 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Brewster was finally granted the post which 
 his father had held so long, and, it is 
 thought by some, his grandfather before 
 him. In this position the future Plymouth 
 Elder remained from April, 1594, or earlier, 
 until the autumn of 1607. 
 
 During these years his place of residence 
 was the manor-house, or old archiepiscopal 
 palace, above referred to, his salary as 
 "post" being at first is. 8d., and then 
 (after July, 1603) 2S - 5^. per diem. Here 
 it was, we are told, that, having become 
 converted to those serious views of religion 
 which were then spreading through the 
 country, especially in the Midland counties, 
 Brewster " on the Lord's Day entertained 
 with great love" a company of Brownists 
 or Separatists, " making provision for them 
 to his great charge." Tradition says they 
 gathered for worship in one of the out-
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 175 
 
 buildings of the manor, there being no 
 other convenient place in the village wherein 
 they could meet. With his zealous example 
 as their guide, aided by the ministrations 
 of John Smyth, once curate of Gainsborough, 
 and Richard Clifton, who had held the 
 livings of Marnham and Babworth, the 
 growing congregation made great progress. 
 Notable accessions to its numbers were 
 found in the Rev. John Robinson, whose 
 name has been handed down to posterity 
 in honourable connection with the story of 
 the Pilgrim Fathers, and in William 
 Bradford, the son of a yeoman of Auster- 
 field, a little Yorkshire village a mile or 
 two north of Scrooby, the old manor-house 
 of which, the home of the Bradfords, is 
 still in existence. 
 
 Here, when the subsidy of 1575 was 
 collected, the only persons having sufficient
 
 176 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 property to be rated were William Brad- 
 ford and John Hanson. Nine years later 
 the son and daughter of these two, named 
 William and Alice respectively, were 
 married, and in due course two daughters 
 and a son were born to them. The son 
 was William Bradford, afterwards Governor 
 of the Plymouth colony, and according to 
 the entry still to be seen in the old register, 
 was baptized in the parish church on 
 March igth, 1589. The family held the 
 rank of yeomen, and on the death of his 
 father in 1591, young Bradford, according 
 to Mather, was left with a comfortable 
 inheritance, and was "cast on the education 
 first of his grandparents and then of his 
 uncles," who trained him, like his ancestors, 
 to the calling of husbandry. He is said 
 to have had his attention turned to religion 
 through the reading of the Geneva Bible
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 177 
 
 at the early age of twelve or thirteen, and 
 shortly afterwards took to attending the 
 ministry of the Rev. Mr. Clifton, the 
 Puritan Rector of Babworth, whither, with 
 William Brewster and others, he used to 
 walk on Sundays to hear that " faithful 
 pastor's edifying word." 
 
 As, however, the distance to Babworth 
 was a matter of five miles, it was not a 
 walk which all could take, even though 
 they were thirsting for the truth. And 
 that there were thirsting ones at Scrooby 
 was known ; for though, when James I. 
 came to the throne, there was supposed to 
 be but one Separatist church left in the 
 whole of England, and that at Gains- 
 borough (twelve miles west of Scrooby), 
 whence its members were, in 1605-6, com- 
 pelled to seek refuge in Holland ; yet here 
 
 and there were left individuals and small 
 12
 
 178 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 groups of the faithful whom persecution 
 had only driven into hiding, not into denial, 
 and of these not a few were to be found in 
 Scrooby. Of these it was necessary to take 
 thought, and so Brewster soon after to be 
 elected Elder began to gather them together 
 under the roof of the old archiepiscopal 
 hunting-box, and as Richard Clifton appears 
 to have been ejected from his living about 
 this time, he was chosen pastor of the little 
 flock. 
 
 Little remains of the old palace save the 
 manor-farm, to an outer wall of which a 
 brass plate has been affixed, bearing an 
 inscription to the effect that the tablet was 
 so placed by the Pilgrim Society of Ply- 
 mouth, Massachusetts, to mark the site of 
 the ancient Manor House wherein William 
 Brewster organised the Pilgrim Church. 
 
 Bradford soon threw in his lot with the 

 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 179 
 
 rest. Notwithstanding the strong opposition 
 of his relatives and the scoffs of neighbours, 
 he joined the Separatists on May ist, 1606, 
 at the house of his friend Brewster. Being 
 a youth of spirit and resolution, as well as 
 of some prospective means, his accession 
 to the little community doubtless tended to 
 strengthen and encourage it, although the 
 progress of the movement appears to have 
 been chiefly due to the zeal and influence 
 of Brewster, who, according to Bradford, 
 was "a special stay and help" to the little 
 flock. Though, in point of social position, 
 the former was hardly superior to Bradford, 
 and possibly some others of the community, 
 he was, as regards education and experience 
 of the world, the best qualified to take the 
 lead, as well in worldly as in other affairs. 
 When they " had been about a year 
 together" the threat of persecution caused
 
 180 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the community to resolve on following the 
 example of the Gainsborough congregation 
 and removing with their families and effects 
 to Holland. This determination was come 
 to towards the end of 1607. Brewster 
 relinquished his post in September of that 
 year, and those of his fellow religionists 
 who had property turned it into cash. 
 Meanwhile Bradford and some other mem- 
 bers of the party had entered into negotia- 
 tions with a Dutch captain, who agreed to 
 embark them at Boston, forty miles distant 
 from Scrooby, somewhat decayed from what 
 it had been, but still a port of considerable 
 importance, whose church (of St. Botolph) 
 Longfellow tells us 
 
 Far over leagues of land 
 
 And leagues of sea looks forth its noble tower, 
 And far around the chiming bells are heard. 
 
 Thither, at the time appointed, carrying
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 181 
 
 such valuables as they wished to take with 
 them, they made their way, men, women, 
 and children, with no small toil and diffi- 
 culty. The King, however, had closed the 
 ports against such as had not his licence 
 to depart, and the Dutch skipper, either 
 through fear, or to get a further bribe from 
 the authorities as an informer, betrayed 
 them to the catchpoles, with the result 
 that the poor Pilgrims, when they hoped 
 to be soon out at sea and watching Boston 
 " Stump," as the old church tower was 
 called, gradually receding from view, found 
 themselves seized and roughly hauled ashore. 
 Not only did they thus lose their passage 
 money, but while in the boats on their 
 way to land they were robbed of their 
 money and effects and otherwise barbarously 
 handled. 
 
 It is creditable to the good feelings and
 
 182 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 humanity of the magistrates of Boston to 
 be able to say that they treated the fugitives 
 with courtesy, and would have discharged 
 them if that course had been within their 
 power. As it was not, most of the poor 
 people languished in prison for a month 
 and were then dismissed. Brewster, Brad- 
 ford, and five other leading men were kept 
 in prison until the assizes, when they were 
 subjected to heavy fines. This robbery by 
 the minions of the law at Boston, followed 
 by legal fines, fell heavily upon the little 
 company, and especially upon Brewster, who 
 was thereby " rendered so nearly destitute 
 that for years he lived in Holland in the 
 greatest poverty he who," as one of his 
 biographers quaintly observes, " had once 
 kept the keys of Dutch cities and feasted 
 with princes and ambassadors." 
 
 It is worthy of remark that, though the
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 183 
 
 Pilgrims were treated so badly at Boston, 
 in after-years the evil recollection rankled 
 so little in their minds that their chief city 
 was named after the old port. This arose 
 from the fact that our Lincolnshire Boston, 
 noted at the time for its liberality, soon 
 after became distinguished for its Noncon- 
 formity, as well as for sending out many 
 notable men to the New England colony. 
 One historian gives it credit for contributing 
 a greater number of the leading families 
 to the Massachusetts Bay settlement than 
 any other place except London. It cer- 
 tainly is a striking fact that among the 
 emigrants who went thence were the vicar, 
 John Cotton, Governors Thomas Dudley, 
 Bellingham, and Leverett, and the magistrate, 
 William Coddington, afterwards governor of 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 In the following spring many of those
 
 184 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 who had been baulked in their first attempt, 
 with others, agreed with the captain of a 
 Dutch vessel then at Hull to embark them 
 at Grimsby Common, a tract of waste land 
 near the mouth of the H umber. Making 
 their way thither by stealth via Gains- 
 borough, some managed to get on board, 
 and, after a prolonged and dangerous passage, 
 arrived in Amsterdam ; others were again 
 foiled ; albeit in the end most of those 
 whose zeal held out, aided by the patriarchs 
 of the flock, Clifton, Robinson, and Brewster 
 (all, with the Rev. John Smyth, Cambridge 
 men), succeeded in reaching their present 
 haven of peace Holland, a land notable 
 in its day for the lead it gave the modern 
 world in respect of liberty and tolerance 
 touching religious matters. 
 
 Brewster was one of the last to leave. 
 Both he and Bradford, as well as others,
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 185 
 
 had a hard time of it in the country of their 
 adoption, many of them having to learn 
 new handicrafts or ways of living in order 
 to meet their daily needs. In any case 
 their sojourn among the Dutch was not a 
 bed of roses, and in course of time, actuated 
 by the desire to live " as English folk under 
 English rule," the idea, first mooted, it is 
 said, in the Scrooby days, of emigrating 
 to an English colony, came up afresh, and 
 found warm supporters in both Brewster 
 and Bradford. 
 
 Impetus was no doubt given to the 
 scheme by the fact that an order was issued 
 for Brewster's arrest, at the instance of the 
 English Government. Brewster after a time 
 supported himself at Leyden by teaching 
 English to German and Danish students 
 at the University. Afterwards he set up 
 a printing press, issuing therefrom such
 
 186 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 theological works as could not safely be 
 published here, and some of these finding 
 their way to London, the English Govern- 
 ment (in 1619) complained and asked to 
 have Brewster arrested and sent for trial 
 in England. The Dutch, having just then 
 special reasons for wishing to be on good 
 terms with James, at once agreed, and in 
 due course an arrest was made of some 
 one with a name not unlike Brewster. This 
 knowledge coming to the latter's ears, he 
 immediately took flight and, getting back 
 to England, found London a safe and com- 
 modious hiding-place. 
 
 Here privily and with the aid of friends 
 (among whom must be named the Rev. John 
 White, rector of Holy Trinity, Dorchester) 
 he was able to help forward the emigration 
 scheme. Originally the choice of the Pil- 
 grims lay between Guiana and Virginia, but
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 187 
 
 for obvious reasons the latter colony was 
 finally decided upon. One of Brewster's 
 companions while in the employ of Davison 
 was Sir Edwin Sandys, the son of the 
 Archbishop, afterwards treasurer of the 
 Virginia Company, and it was with his 
 assistance that a patent was eventually ap- 
 plied for and obtained for a tract of land 
 to found a settlement in that colony. The 
 remainder of the story need not be told 
 here ; it is too well known to need re- 
 capitulation. On September 5th, 1620, 
 Brewster and Bradford, with a company of 
 Pilgrims, numbering in all a hundred men, 
 women, and children, embarked for their 
 destination in the Mayflower and Speedwell 
 at Southampton ; but before they had gone 
 far down the Channel, the captain of the 
 latter refused to continue the voyage, de- 
 claring his vessel unseaworthy. Wherefore,
 
 188 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 putting in at Plymouth, all the Pilgrims were 
 then transferred to the Mayflower, which 
 then continued her voyage ; and as Provi- 
 dence and the elements would, landed in 
 due course on the rock where they were 
 destined, more perhaps than any other single 
 body of men, to lay the foundations of a 
 State that to-day stands second to none in 
 the living world. 
 
 Plymouth,* as the last port the emigrants 
 touched at before committing themselves to 
 the broad sweep of the Atlantic, fittingly 
 gave its name to the rock upon which 
 Mary Chilton was the first to spring and 
 to the settlement which, it may be truly 
 said, started a new era in the world's 
 history ; seeing that the Pilgrims, before 
 
 * Where, on the sea-wall, is to be seen a tablet 
 bearing an inscription giving the date of the sailing of 
 the Mayflower, while a stone in the pavement of the 
 adjacent pier marks the place of embarkation.
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 189 
 
 landing, actually drew up and signed a 
 social or civic contract such as Rousseau 
 afterwards dreamed and wrote about. 
 
 Before the departure of the ships Elder 
 Brewster, it is said, paid a visit to his old 
 home by the Idle, to see and say farewell 
 to many co-religionists who, from age or other 
 disabilities, were compelled to live out their 
 days, patient and resigned, in their little 
 houses and narrowed bounds. Little houses 
 with narrowed bounds : and yet how many 
 have been the great souls the world has 
 seen struggling to light in them ! We can 
 imagine the great-hearted Brewster going 
 from one to another, bidding them farewell, 
 with words of cheer and encouragement, 
 and leaving behind him the never-to-be- 
 obliterated memory of a man of noble stature, 
 habited in a coat of purple velvet, green 
 vest, and grey corduroy small clothes, but,
 
 190 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 more than all these, wearing ever a smile 
 of ineffable sweetness on his grave and 
 handsome face. 
 
 At the same time, we may be sure, he 
 paid also a visit to the faithful at Gains- 
 borough, so intimately associated with the 
 Puritan movement, and with the labours of 
 John Smyth and John Robinson, especially 
 the latter (held by some to have been 
 born there), to whom a Memorial Church 
 was erected in 1896, when the foundation 
 stone was laid, on June 29, by the Hon. 
 T. F. Bayard, the American Ambassador 
 to England. 
 
 Nor is it unlikely that he was accompanied 
 by John Carver, one of the elders of the 
 company of Pilgrims, who, though it is not 
 known for certain, is supposed to have been 
 a native of those parts. Certain it is that 
 he took refuge in Holland with the others
 
 SCROOBY AND THE PILGRIM FATHERS 191 
 
 in 1607-8, and became a deacon of Mr. 
 Robinson's church at Leyden. A "grave, 
 pious, prudent, self-denying, and judicious " 
 man, he, along with the rest, threw his estate 
 into the common lot when the brotherhood 
 set out for the New World, and on arrival 
 there was chosen first governor, to hold the 
 office until the following year (1621) only, 
 death then taking him from the scene.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 
 
 Just then the ghost drew up his chair 
 And said, " My name is Standish " ! 
 
 LOWELL. 
 
 IV /T ILES of that ilk ; that is, of Standish 
 * by Wigan in Lancashire : from 
 which county came, as we have seen, another 
 family that gave to the New World a man 
 as stalwart as he to wit, George Washing- 
 ton, the first President. Nothing much is 
 known of Miles Standish's early life, save 
 that, a scion of the old Lancashire family 
 that takes its patronymic from the village 
 of that name, he was probably born, though 
 this is not certain, at Duxbury Hall, situate 
 
 between Wigan and Chorley (ij miles 
 192
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 193 
 
 south of the latter place), and within two or 
 three miles of Standish. From his will 
 we learn that his great-grandfather was a 
 " second or younger brother of the house 
 of Standish, of Standish," while from the 
 circumstance that he gave to his estate in 
 New England the name of Duxbury it 
 has been inferred that he was descended 
 from the Duxbury branch of the family. 
 
 This inference would appear to be borne 
 out by the circumstance that his arms and 
 crest were those of the Duxbury branch. 
 He (says Longfellow) 
 
 Still bore the family arms, and has for his crest a 
 
 cock argent 
 Combed and wattled gules, and all the rest of the 
 
 blazon ; 
 
 the crest of the Standish branch being an 
 
 owl with a rat in its claw proper. These 
 
 arms are still to be seen in the chancel 
 13
 
 194 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 window of Chorley old church, where 
 the quaint family pew of the Standishes 
 (in the nave opposite the pulpit) is also 
 shown. 
 
 For some unknown reason he appears to 
 have been deprived of a part, if not the 
 whole, of his inheritance. The clause in 
 his will referred to says: "I give unto 
 my son and heir-apparent, Alexander 
 Standish, all my lands as heir-apparent by 
 lawful descent in Ormskirk, Burscough, 
 Wrightington, Mawdsley, Newburrow, 
 Croxton, and in the Isle of Man, and given 
 to me as right heir by lawful descent, but 
 surreptitiously detained from me, my great- 
 grandfather being a second or younger 
 brother of the house of Standish, of 
 Standish." 
 
 There is something inexplicable in the 
 charge herein contained ; albeit some colour
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 195 
 
 is given to it by the circumstance that the 
 pages of the church register of Chorley 
 containing the births for 1584-5 (in the 
 former of which years Standish is supposed 
 to have been born) has been defaced. One 
 investigator into the family history and 
 pedigree finds that in the great controversy 
 between Catholics and Protestants there was 
 a division in the family, part adhering to 
 the ancient faith, and part to the Protestant 
 religion. Thus there arose, as it were, two 
 families the Standishes who were of Stand- 
 ish Hall and the Standishes who were of 
 Duxbury Hall. The inference intended to 
 be drawn from . this statement is, apparently, 
 that the odium theologicum led to Miles, the 
 Puritan scion of the house, being deprived 
 of his patrimony. On the other hand, it 
 has been shown that the two branches of 
 the family existed from a very early date.
 
 196 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Contemporary with Miles Standish there 
 was at Standish Hall (in the main line) 
 Ralph Standish, while the representative of 
 the Duxbury Hall branch at the same time 
 was Thomas Standish, whose three sons suc- 
 cessively held the estate, the last of them 
 being the father of Sir Henry Standish, 
 Bart, (created such in 1677). To add to 
 the mystery of this alleged deprivation of 
 inheritance, it has been pointed out that, 
 if Miles Standish belonged to the Standishes 
 of Standish, it was very odd that he should 
 have given to his estate in New England 
 the name of Duxbury, in honour of the 
 branch of the family to which he did not 
 belong. 
 
 The whole story, however, is a dead one 
 now, and need not further concern us here. 
 More to our present purpose is the fact 
 that he came of an ancient and sturdy race.
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 197 
 
 In Froissart we read how, in the time of 
 Richard II., the rebel, Wat Tyler, was 
 slain by a " squyer of the Kinges called John 
 Standysshe," who was honoured with knight- 
 hood for his valliancy. Longfellow refers 
 to this act in his " Courtship of Miles 
 Standish " : 
 
 One of my ancestors ran his sword through the heart 
 of Wat Tyler ; 
 
 and he shows how the Puritan Standish 
 was of the same quick, resolute, courageous, 
 and resourceful spirit as his doughty fore- 
 bear. Moreover, his natural powers had 
 been whetted and made keener of edge by 
 experience in war, he having while still 
 a youth entered the army and fought under 
 the Veres in Holland, rising to the rank 
 of captain. 
 
 We can well believe that Standish was 
 no mere soldier of fortune, but was led to
 
 .-. 
 
 198 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 turn his sword against the Spaniards by 
 the faith, and we may add, by the fury 
 of the conviction within him ; for he was 
 no player in these things, but a soldier to 
 the finger-tips, one who came to the point 
 with the suddenness and rush of a thunder- 
 bolt (as when he got three traitorous 
 Indians into a room by themselves and slew 
 the lot). 
 
 After the truce of 1609 Standish went 
 to Leyden, and if he did not actually join 
 the Separatist or Puritan congregation there, 
 under the charge of John Robinson, he 
 showed himself sufficiently in sympathy with 
 them and their aims to become one of the 
 Pilgrim company which in 1620 embarked 
 in the Mayflower for the Western World, 
 and in due course landed with them in 
 the bay of Cape Cod. Here, before dis- 
 embarkation, Standish was appointed military
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 199 
 
 commander, his duty being with a small 
 body of armed men, having "every one 
 his musket, sword, and corselet," to explore 
 the country round and see that no lurking 
 foes were about. On November 21, we 
 .are told, sixteen such warriors, "under the 
 command of Captain Myles Standish, were 
 despatched ashore on a second exploration." 
 For those who like to picture the hero at 
 the head of this little company, Long- 
 fellow's description will serve : 
 
 Clad in doublet and hose, and boots of Cordovan 
 leather. 
 
 Short of stature he was, but strongly built and 
 
 athletic, 
 Broad in the shoulders, deep chested, with muscles 
 
 and sinews of iron ; 
 Brown as a nut was his face, but his russet beard 
 
 was already 
 Flaked with patches of snow, as hedges sometimes in 
 
 November.
 
 200 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Five years later Standish revisited England 
 as agent for the colony (doubtless with an 
 eye also to the recovery of his inheritance) ; 
 returning in the following year with supplies. 
 During the intervening months in the home- 
 land we can imagine the feelings with which 
 he retrod the beloved scenes of his youth, 
 and heard again the well-remembered dialect. 
 We can imagine too the emotion with 
 which he was stirred at sight of Duxbury 
 Hall and the old church ; of Standish, too 
 (with its old cross and stocks, well known 
 of delinquents, in the market-place), so 
 intimately associated with the lives of his 
 people ; but, deeper still, the emotion with 
 which he was moved as, treading shaw 
 and clough, he felt the joy of the earth- 
 mother, when, breaking from under ground 
 with flower and leaf to meet the newly 
 returning sky-lover, she caused the whole
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 201 
 
 land to resound with the chavish of laverock 
 and throstle. Very different now is the 
 scene, with its coal-pits and iron-works, 
 from what it was in Standish's day ; but even 
 yet, notwithstanding blackness and grime, 
 hedgerows whiten in spring-time, and fields 
 gladden with colour and song, the more 
 perhaps because of the contrast. 
 
 Returning to Massachusetts, " the first 
 commissioned military officer of New Eng- 
 land," as Miles Standish has been styled, 
 settled down for the remainder of his 
 days at Duxbury, living some thirty years 
 longer in his new home, and leaving behind 
 him a reputation that has inspired the 
 pens of two of the best poets of his 
 country, Lowell and Longfellow, besides 
 others, one of whom styles him, and not 
 inaptly, " the Greatheart of the Pilgrim 
 band."
 
 202 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Much such another man as Standish, in 
 general character, was John Winthrop, first 
 governor of the colony of Massachusetts 
 Bay. Born at Edwardston, Suffolk, in the 
 month of January, 1587, his early life was 
 spent at Groton Manor, situated about five 
 miles east of the little town of Sudbury, 
 in a pleasant undulating country, famous 
 as having given birth to two of England's 
 greatest painters, Gainsborough and Con- 
 stable. 
 
 The Manor was in former days a pos- 
 session of the Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds, 
 and in the third year of Richard I. Abbot 
 Sampson (of whom we learn so much in 
 Carlyle's " Past and Present ") leased it to 
 one Adam Copefield for life. Subsequently 
 (1544) Adam Winthrop, of Lavenham, a 
 substantial clothier, who had been granted 
 the freedom of the city of London in 1526,
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 203 
 
 and was Master of the Clothworkers' Com- 
 pany in 1551, obtained the estate by grant, 
 and there settled for good, having been (in 
 1548) empowered to sign himself " Armiger." 
 Adam Winthrop was the grandfather of 
 John, later known as the " Moses of New 
 England." His father appears to have 
 been called to the Bar, and was auditor 
 to Trinity and St. John's Colleges, Cam- 
 bridge, whither he went from time to time 
 on the business of his office. 
 
 John Winthrop was admitted at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, in December, 1602, 
 and continued his studies there until his 
 marriage, in 1605, to the daughter and 
 heiress of John Forth of Great Stambridge, 
 near Rochford, in the south-eastern district 
 of Essex, in which place he abode for some 
 years. He is said to have been made a 
 justice of the peace at the age of eighteen,
 
 204 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 In 1626 Winthrop was appointed attorney 
 in the Court of Wards and Liveries, pre- 
 sided over by Sir Robert Naunton. The 
 aspect of affairs in Parliament, however, 
 together with the impending crisis in the 
 political world and his sympathy with the 
 Congregationalist movement, caused him to 
 turn his thoughts towards emigration ; and 
 on the twentieth day of October, 1629, the 
 London proprietors of the Massachusetts 
 Company having determined to transfer the 
 seat of government to the New World, 
 John Winthrop was elected governor of 
 the colony. He went out in the following 
 year with eleven ships and a large number 
 of emigrants, arriving at Salem in the 
 month of June. Shortly thereafter he re- 
 moved to Charlestown ; whence in the 
 September following he and his fellow- 
 colonists again made a move this time to
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 205 
 
 the site now occupied by Boston, which 
 they founded. During twelve of the nine- 
 teen years that John Winthrop lived in 
 Massachusetts he was governor of the 
 colony, and in his way did as much as 
 any to mould the character of the people 
 with whose destinies he had cast in his lot. 
 He was a man of pious and kindly dis- 
 position, frugal, temperate, and industrious, 
 and from the love that his fellow-colonists 
 bore him he got the name (which has 
 ever since been as a wreath about his 
 brow) of the Father of Massachusetts. 
 
 At Groton (where a Winthrop still reigns) 
 are many memorials of the first Governor's 
 family and connections. The church con- 
 tains tablets to the memory of John Win- 
 throp himself, to his first wife Mary Forth, 
 and to his second wife Thomasine Clopton. 
 Windows in the nave and aisles contain
 
 206 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 shields bearing the arms of the Forth and 
 Clopton families impaled with those of the 
 Winthrops, as also those of the Winthrop 
 and Tyndale families, the Governor having 
 taken as his third wife a daughter of Sir 
 John Tyndale. The tomb of the second 
 Adam Winthrop, in the churchyard, also 
 bears the chiselled coat-of-arms of the 
 family. The present Hall is not the one 
 in which Winthrop lived prior to his 
 departure for the Western World. 
 
 It took four ships to convey the first 
 Governor and his companions to their des- 
 tination. The names of some of those 
 companions cannot be read without a feel- 
 ing of wonder at the depth of feeling 
 which must have stirred the country to 
 induce men and women of their stamp and 
 eminence to leave refined and, in many 
 cases, comparatively luxurious homes, in
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 207 
 
 order to take up their abode in what 
 was then an unreclaimed wilderness, with 
 ferocious savages as their nearest neigh- 
 bours. Among the number were William 
 Coddington, already named as a subse- 
 quent Governor of Rhode Island; Thomas 
 Dudley (for many years Deputy-Governor 
 of Massachusetts and twice its Governor) ; 
 Simon Bradstreet (also afterwards Governor 
 of Massachusetts) and his wife Anne (ne 
 Dudley), famed in her day as a poetess*; 
 Lady Arbella Johnson (daughter of the 
 third Earl of Lincoln), and her husband, 
 Isaac Johnson, a native of Clipsham, Rut- 
 landshire (who died a few months later, 
 the richest man in the colony) ; the Rev. 
 George Phillips and wife; and some others 
 
 * In one of her poems, relating to her children, 
 occur the lines : 
 
 I had eight birds hatcht in one nest 
 Four cocks there were and hens the rest.
 
 208 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 less known to fame but of equal standing 
 and education. 
 
 We might go on to speak of Sir Henry 
 Vane and John Endicott, one a member 
 of the well-known Vane or Fane family of 
 Kent, the other a native of Dorchester, 
 or of that southern part of the country, 
 both of whom left their mark on the new 
 country, though Vane was only a few years 
 there, destiny then calling him to a higher 
 and more perilous place in the home land. 
 Endicott went out in 1629, at the head of 
 a band of settlers intent on forming a colony 
 on a tract of land on the Merrimack River 
 purchased for the Plymouth Company. A 
 man of education, with a knowledge of affairs, 
 and some acquaintance with things military 
 (in which capacity he was a leader in the 
 war against the Indians), Endicott was 
 noted for his piety and high principle : noted
 
 A LANCASHIRE AND A SUFFOLK HERO 209 
 
 also as a great stickler for Puritan manners 
 and methods. In this respect some of his 
 actions have been taken exception to, but 
 chiefly his having pulled down a Maypole 
 erected at a place called " Merry Mount," 
 now Quincy, and cut the cross from the 
 English flag. Some, however, say that it 
 was not the cross that moved his ire but 
 the flag itself, which was the symbol of a 
 tyrannous government that had driven them 
 all into exile. And as a proof that he had 
 nothing against the Christian emblem they 
 adduce the fact that he wore his beard, 
 Crusader-fashion, in the form of a cross. 
 Something of Crusader methods, indeed, 
 he appears to have shown towards the 
 Quakers, who they also wishing to escape 
 persecution in England sought a home in 
 the new land, but were repulsed by his 
 " sour and joyless nature." Both Long- 
 14
 
 210 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 fellow and Whittier give dark pictures of 
 this man's Puritan narrowness and cruelty. 
 The former in his " New England Tragedy 
 of Endicott " makes him give utterance to 
 the words : 
 
 Four already have been slain, 
 And others banished upon pain of death. 
 But they come back again to meet their doom, 
 Bringing the linen for their winding sheets.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 
 
 XTOTHING, we imagine, can ever 
 * ^ deaden or diminish the interest, not 
 only of Americans, but of all educated 
 English-speaking people, in that part of 
 Buckinghamshire so intimately associated 
 with William Penn, the founder of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and since his time popularly known 
 as the Penn country. There was a Penn 
 country, however, before Penn ; that is, before 
 Penn of Sylvania, if we may so speak of 
 him. If we take up a copy of the Ordnance 
 Map we see on the west border of the 
 .county, where it adjoins Oxfordshire, a little
 
 212 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 cluster of houses accompanied by a church 
 named Penn. This is the village of Penn. 
 It is situated on a headland or " pen " of the 
 Chiltern Hills, whence the name. Around, 
 its little church looks down upon beech 
 woods, formerly extending from the Thames 
 to the borders of Oxfordshire, but now broken 
 by stretches of arable and pasture, the 
 former, as the eye rests upon the scene, 
 gladdening with the promise of the yellowing 
 corn. Here as early as the thirteenth century 
 lived Penns, Hugh de Penn in 1273 present- 
 ing the rectory of Penn to one William de 
 London. The Penns appear to have been 
 retainers of the Berkeleys or in some way 
 connected with them, and from that family 
 they acquired, some time towards the end 
 of the fifteenth century, the manorial rights 
 of Penn. 
 
 The Berkeleys form an important link
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 213 
 
 too between the Perms of Penn, Bucks, and 
 the Penns of Minety, Wiltshire, from whom 
 William Penn was a direct descendant. 
 Minety is on the Gloucestershire border ; 
 it was indeed formerly in part a parish of 
 that county, but was afterwards incorporated 
 by Act of Parliament with Wilts. There 
 are no other Penns in the West country 
 except those of Minety, and it is supposed 
 that the first Gloucestershire Penn went 
 thither in the following of a Berkeley, his 
 feudal superior, who had his castle at 
 Berkeley on the Avon near its junction 
 with the Severn, bearing with him the 
 coat of arms of the Buckinghamshire family. 
 There is, however, no direct evidence of 
 the connection ; although the monument to 
 Admiral Penn, the father of William, in 
 the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, 
 tells us that he was the son of Giles Penn
 
 214 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 of the Penns of Penn Lodge,* in the 
 county of Wilts, and the " Penns of Penn, 
 in the county of Bucks," thus showing 
 that there was at least a family tradition of 
 the existence of such connection. 
 
 William Penn was born neither in Wilt- 
 shire nor in Bucks, but on Tower Hill, 
 in a court adjoining London Wall (1644). 
 In his fifteenth year he went to Christ- 
 church, Oxford, but was expelled from 
 the University for imbibing Quaker views.^ 
 Thus and then began the trouble and 
 
 * Penn Lodge appears to have been in Wiltshire; 
 but the Penns seem to have had property and also 
 to have resided in Gloucestershire. William Penn's 
 descent from the original Penn of Minety is shown in 
 the annexed table : 
 
 William Penn, of Minety, yeoman (died 1591). 
 William Penn =r Margaret Rastall. 
 (Law-clerk) | 
 Giles Penn =r Joan Gilbert. 
 
 William Penn (Admiral) =r= Margaret Jasper. 
 William Penn.
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 215 
 
 turmoil of his life. They need not be 
 referred to here except in so far as they 
 bear upon his connection with Buckingham- 
 shire. Persecuted for his faith, he found 
 in this part of the country staunch friends 
 who stood firmly and faithfully by him all 
 through his chequered career. At Chalfont 
 St. Peter's, " at their house called the 
 Grange," lived Isaac Pennington and his 
 family. Pennington was a Quaker, and his 
 house was always open to those who 
 were of the Society of Friends. Here 
 Ellwood, the friend of Milton, was a fre- 
 quent visitor; indeed for seven years he 
 was the tutor of Pennington's children. 
 Pennington's brother William, a London 
 merchant, was also frequently at the Grange, 
 bringing with him from time to time others 
 who held the same religious views as him- 
 self and his brother, possibly persecuted
 
 216 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 ones like themselves. Nor is it at all im- 
 probable that William Penn owed his first 
 personal acquaintance with this part of the 
 country to some such chance visit. He 
 became known to Isaac Pennington in 
 or about 1668, when he was twenty-four 
 years of age, and then it was probably that 
 he for the first time visited the village of 
 Penn, but five or six miles away, walking 
 by woodland paths or leafy lanes bordered 
 by hedges of sweet wild roses and trailing 
 clematis. The sight of the little village 
 with its plain unobtrusive church of flint 
 and brick, and its old manor-house (now 
 very different from what it was in his days) 
 could not fail to stir up mingled feelings 
 in a breast so young as his and so full 
 of deep and varied emotions. 
 
 In the church (as unpretentious within as 
 without) he would see memorials of a
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 217 
 
 number of Penns ancestors as they doubt- 
 less were who had fought their fight and 
 lived their lives according to such ideals 
 as they had, and so passed into the void, 
 leaving their little mementoes telling who 
 they were and when their earthly span was 
 run. They begin with the names of John 
 Penn (d. 1597) and his wife Ursula, and 
 end with that of Roger, who died unmarried 
 in 1732, the estate then passing through 
 his sister, the wife of Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 
 to another family. 
 
 In the year that has been mentioned as 
 the one wherein he became acquainted with 
 Isaac Pennington, Penn appeared as a 
 preacher and an author, and on account of 
 an essay entitled " The Sandy Foundation 
 Shaken," he was imprisoned in the Tower, 
 where he remained seven months. During 
 this time he wrote his most celebrated
 
 218 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 work, " No Cross, no Crown," as well as 
 " Innocency with her Open Face." In 
 1670 his father died, leaving him his 
 estates and all his property. The same 
 year the meetings of Dissenters were for- 
 bidden and severe penalties prescribed for 
 infractions of the law. The Quakers, how- 
 ever, continued to meet as usual, and Penn 
 once more found himself in prison, passing 
 six months in Newgate because he refused 
 to take the oath at his trial. While in 
 confinement he wrote " The Great Case of 
 Liberty of Conscience," and other pamphlets, 
 thus offsetting the curtailment of his bodily 
 liberties by the greater enfranchisement of 
 the spirit. 
 
 In such manner did the comedy of en- 
 deavouring to make Christians according 
 to the will and measure of the bishops (the 
 comedy so often played in England, and
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 219 
 
 so often turned into a farce) go on from 
 year to year. The comedy (though it 
 proved tragic enough in numbers of cases) 
 appears to have done little to sadden or 
 break the spirit of young Penn. The time 
 not spent in prison, or engaged in the 
 work of preaching, he seems at this period 
 to have spent with his friends at Chalfont 
 St. Peter, where from the first an attrac- 
 tion as great as that of religious fellowship 
 the presence of Gulielma Springett, the 
 step-daughter of Isaac Pennington, whom 
 Quaker Ellwood found "completely comely" 
 gave a touch of romance to a course of 
 life that was apt to be prosy enough when 
 not harrowed to the borders of tragedy by 
 persecution. This dainty lady was so re- 
 served, and yet so winsome in her maiden 
 freshness, so meek, and yet so lofty in 
 her patrician aloofness, that to the young
 
 220 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 men who visited her step-father's house 
 she appeared like a pure white lily curtsy- 
 ing to the uprising sun. To none, however, 
 was she so gracious as to the high-spirited 
 and greatly daring William Penn, " half 
 martyr and half hero," as he has been 
 described, " mingling the single-mindedness 
 of the apostle with the practical energy of 
 ' the man of affairs." 
 
 For him " she was reserved," as Ellwood 
 puts it, and in the spring of 1672, after a 
 time of wooing that had embraced many 
 trials, the two were married in a farmhouse 
 called King's, near Chorley Wood, on the 
 borders of Buckinghamshire and Hertford- 
 shire, the first months of their wedded life 
 being spent at Basing House, Rickmans- 
 worth, in the latter county. The little 
 town is but three or three and a half miles 
 from Chalfont, and busy though Penn was
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 221 
 
 for the next few years preaching and pro- 
 selytising for the most part he and his* 
 young wife often found their way through 
 the pretty country lanes to visit their 
 friends at Chalfont and in the neighbour- 
 hood, possibly now and again to witness 
 the earthly remains of a Friend who had 
 gone to his or her rest being laid away in 
 the little cemetery of Jordans, midway, as 
 it were, between the two Chalfonts, and 
 but recently set apart for its sacred purpose. 
 
 Jordans is one of the " show " places, if 
 we may so use the term, of the Quakers. 
 There lie some of their most honoured 
 dead, William Penn, Thomas Ellwood, Isaac 
 Pennington, Penn's two wives (for after the 
 death of Gulielma he married again), and 
 several of his children. The burying ground, 
 containing but a rood of earth, was pur- 
 chased and consecrated to the peace of
 
 222 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 death in 1671. Some years later (1688) 
 additional land was obtained, and an un- 
 pretending little meeting-house (with care- 
 taker's cottage) erected. It is a lonely 
 spot almost as lonely as when selected 
 for its present purpose two centuries ago 
 situated at the west end of the parish of 
 Chalfont St. Giles, at the point where it is 
 joined by the lane from Chalfont St. Peters, 
 and is so embowered with and shaded by 
 stately trees, elms and beeches chiefly, 
 with here and there an ash, that it gives 
 one at first the impression of a lodge in a 
 vast wilderness. You may chance upon it, 
 let your wayfaring be in the spring-time, 
 when the hedgerow psalm of praise is in 
 the key of primrose and violet, or in the 
 autumn, when upon the beechen woods 
 has fallen the dream of peace, and their 
 glow of colour is a promise of the year to
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 223 
 
 come you may chance upon the spot at 
 such a time when hardly a sound is heard 
 to break the stillness of the scene, save 
 the twitter and call of birds, or the sound 
 of a distant cart travelling the rutty lane. 
 Or you may (as once happened to the 
 writer) chance to time your visit to an 
 early Thursday in June when the Friends 
 of the district are holding their half-yearly 
 meeting, in part for business, in part for 
 praise, when you will likely enough see 
 well on to a dozen vehicles, from open 
 barouche to farmer's dog-cart, with one or 
 two perhaps more humble still, that have 
 brought worshippers from far and near. 
 On the occasion in question a dramatic 
 touch was given to the proceedings by a 
 newspaper report that was handed to the 
 chairman just as the meeting was about to 
 close to the effect that in far-away Penn-
 
 324 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sylvania a project was afoot to purchase 
 the remains of William Penn and carry 
 them " over there." Whereupon with a 
 whimsical smile the chairman put it to the 
 assembly whether they would allow such 
 a thing to take place, and with a quiet 
 shake of the head everybody answered " No." 
 There lay their honoured dead (they seemed 
 to say), and there they must continue to 
 lie English dead in English earth, brooded 
 over by the peace and silence of the beechen 
 woods.* For that is the key-note of the 
 place, if we may so put it silence, peace, 
 both so befitting a fellowship whose worship 
 is silence, whose watchword is peace, and 
 (may we not add ?) whose principle of life 
 is simplicity. 
 
 * American visitors to Jordans still from time to time 
 give expression (one hears) to the desire of their country- 
 men to have Penn's remains transferred to the States.
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 225 
 
 Nothing simpler could mark the resting- 
 place of one who fought the battle Strenu- 
 ous for peace and good-will, who left a 
 name and an influence on two continents, 
 and whose life-work is still telling, his soul, 
 as in the words of the song, still " marching 
 on." There is no ambitious monument with 
 artistic enrichment or lofty blazonry, simply 
 a head-line with his name and the date of 
 his death. His two wives, Gulielma and 
 Hannah, lie by his side, while near by are 
 the graves of Thomas Ell wood and Isaac 
 Pennington, known to all who are acquainted 
 with the early doings and sufferings of the 
 Friends as two of the staunchest and most 
 noteworthy of the followers of George Fox. 
 The former, in his autobiography, tells how 
 in 1670, after the passing of the Conventicle 
 Act, a couple of informers made a plan to 
 watch the meeting " then holden at the 
 15
 
 226 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 house of William Russell, called Jourdans, 
 in the parish of Giles Chalfont, the county 
 of Bucks." The house here indicated, a 
 small farmhouse, still stands in good repair 
 on the hillside above the meeting-house, 
 with its accompanying grave-yard, now no 
 longer used for interments. Other farms, 
 though not visible from the spot, are to 
 be found within a short distance, but the 
 knowledge of their existence seems to 
 emphasise rather than diminish the impres- 
 sion of solitude that attaches to the place 
 a place dedicate, as we feel, to one of the 
 strongest characters and most inspiring souls 
 that ever sprang from English stock. 
 
 As already said, the meeting-house was 
 not built until 1688. In an enclosure ad- 
 joining the burial-ground, it is a plain brick 
 structure, with high-pitched roof, and ap- 
 pears as well preserved to-day as when
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 227 
 
 first put up over two centuries ago. It is 
 now partially covered with creepers, and 
 from the lane to Chalfont St. Peters, where 
 is the entrance gate, has a pleasing if not 
 very picturesque appearance. The door 
 into the meeting-house faces the grave- 
 yard, and is overshadowed by a beautiful 
 hornbeam tree. 
 
 The interior is quaintly simple in its 
 fittings and furniture, being panelled with 
 plain, unvarnished oak, and having high- 
 backed benches of the same durable material, 
 made, one fancies, to remind the worshipper 
 that this was no place for lolling or in- 
 attention. At one end is a raised platform 
 with a few seats, while at the opposite end, 
 a little below the ceiling, is seen a row of 
 movable panels, behind which is a small 
 "secret" chamber. This, in the days of 
 informers and persecution, was used by the
 
 228 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 women folk. The little chamber is reached 
 through the caretaker's portion of the 
 premises (of whose manage it forms an 
 upper room), and as, when the panels were 
 closed, there was nothing to indicate the 
 presence of listeners behind them, the 
 feminine portion of the congregation, in case 
 of disturbance in the shape of informers or 
 others, could either withdraw unobserved 
 or lie concealed until the trouble was over. 
 One can well understand that, on the 
 merest hint that intruders were about, the 
 sliding panels could be closed, and a mouse- 
 like stillness observed. 
 
 This quaint arrangement to protect as far 
 as might be the female portion of the 
 congregation from possible annoyance or 
 molestation gives a touch of the dramatic 
 to this otherwise very drab and prosaic 
 interior. How often were these sliding
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 229 
 
 panels quietly shut in this way on the 
 appearance perhaps of some strange head 
 in the place ? How often did William Penn, 
 how often Gulielma Springett, witness such 
 intrusions ? That plans were laid by in- 
 formers in order to further persecution we 
 know, but the demure old place holds its 
 secrets well, saying nothing but to the 
 imagination. What a reflection on man's 
 inconceivable littleness it all is, and at the 
 point too where, if anywhere, he should at 
 least touch greatness ! 
 
 There is, however, another place, besides 
 those already mentioned, with which Penn, 
 in his later years, was much identified. This 
 was Warminghurst in Sussex, some four 
 miles east by south of Pulborough, and about 
 the same distance as the crow flies to the 
 south-west of West Grinstead, beautifully 
 situated in the weald of England's most
 
 230 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 south-easterly county. Warminghurst was 
 originally attached to the monastery of Sion, 
 at Isleworth, Middlesex, but on the sup- 
 pression of the religious houses it passed 
 by grant into the possession of Edward 
 Shelley, one of the four masters of the 
 household to Henry VIII. (as also to 
 Edward and Mary). Subsequently, after 
 going through several hands, it became the 
 property of Henry Bigland, from whom 
 Penn is said to have purchased it in 1676. 
 Another account, however, states that it 
 came to him through his marriage with 
 Gulielma Springett, whose early home had 
 been at Ringmer (some twenty miles east 
 of Warminghurst), where her father, Sir 
 William Springett, had an estate. 
 
 Here the Penns lived for some years, and 
 in a style consonant with their fortunes. In 
 1702, however, the place was sold to James
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 231 
 
 Butler, who rebuilt the old house and sur- 
 rounded it with a park. A century later 
 (1805) the estate came into the hands of 
 the Duke of Norfolk, who pulled down the 
 house and again turned the park into farm- 
 land. Hence nothing of the place remains 
 as Penn knew it save one thing, a small 
 meeting-house, built by him at Coolham, not 
 very far from where the Manor stood. It is 
 constructed in the old-fashioned Sussex 
 style of oak beams and posts filled in with 
 brick, the timber having been derived, it is 
 said, from one of Penn's ships, and bears 
 the odd name of the Blue Idol. One of 
 Penn's children lies buried in the little 
 graveyard attached to the place, which is 
 still used as a meeting-house. 
 
 At Warminghurst the beloved Gulielma 
 died, and nothing was ever again there. as 
 it had been. As we know, her remains were
 
 232 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 taken for burial under shadow of the 
 Buckinghamshire beeches, where, as from 
 the Sussex turf, at the first vernal yearnings, 
 purple and saffron crocuses come forth with 
 smiles, saying that nothing which goes down 
 into the earth is dead. 
 
 It remains but to say that, though William 
 Penn was buried at Jordans, his last days 
 were spent, not amid the uplands and 
 " bottoms " of Bucks, but at Ruscombe, a 
 little way over the Berkshire border, where 
 he died, after some years of failing health, 
 in 1718. That in his final sleep he was 
 pillowed upon Buckinghamshire earth no 
 doubt arose from a wish on his part to be 
 buried near his first wife, and in a spot 
 which, from the time when he found his 
 way to the Chalfonts and made the ac- 
 quaintance of the Friends there, and par- 
 ticularly of Gulielma Springett, must have
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 233 
 
 been a place of very pleasant and very 
 sacred memories. 
 
 Something has been said of the Penn 
 monuments in the old church at Penn.* But 
 there is one memorial there which was 
 passed over. It is to the infant grandchild 
 of William Penn, the son of Thomas Penn, 
 of Stoke Park, Stoke Poges, in the grounds 
 of which is still to be seen (or was until 
 lately) a memorial of the founder of Pennsyl- 
 vania's treaty with the Indians in the shape 
 of a portion of the old elm-tree under which 
 that famous document was signed. By this 
 little memorial the two branches of the Penn 
 family, that of Gloucestershire and that of 
 
 * It is on record that Thomas Penn had once the 
 opportunity offered him of purchasing the Penn pro- 
 perty in the old Bucks village, and he decided to do so, 
 but in consequence of the delay occasioned by a servant 
 forgetting to post a letter the chance was lost, and the 
 estate passed into the hands of the Curzon family.
 
 254 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Bucks, are again, as it were, linked together 
 in death, and the glory that was won by a son 
 of the younger branch sheds its lustre at once 
 over the old stock and the parent county, 
 and the portion of which Jordans may be 
 called the centre becomes in a broader and 
 deeper sense the Penn country par excellence. 
 It is curious to note, while speaking of 
 the Penns of Stoke Park, that it was John 
 Penn of that ilk, the grandson of William 
 Penn, who, out of pure admiration for the 
 genius of the poet (whom it so inappro- 
 priately commemorates), raised the very 
 unsightly, but still highly interesting monu- 
 ment to Gray in the field near the entrance 
 to the churchyard whose " rugged elms " 
 and " yew-tree's shade," with other details 
 of its mournful suggestiveness, made so 
 deep an impression on the mind of the 
 melancholy-haunted man. The famed church-
 
 PENN'S HOMES AND BURIAL PLACE 235 
 
 yard is to-day so greatly changed from what 
 it was in the elegist's time that one can only 
 imagine that, could he revisit the scene, he 
 would turn away with something of dis- 
 pleasure from its endless array of tasteless 
 and toylike mementoes and adornments, 
 which seem as though they would not leave 
 nature alone to do as she liked with her 
 own and heave " the turf in many a 
 mouldering heap," as we find the simple 
 undesecrated mounds at Jordans. 
 
 Mention has been made of Thomas 
 Ellwood and his friendship with Milton. It 
 was while the poet was at Chalfont St. Giles, 
 in the " pretty box " which at his request 
 the young Quaker had taken for him, that 
 the latter suggested the writing of " Paradise 
 Regained " as a necessary sequel to " Para- 
 dise Lost." The cottage is but two miles 
 from Jordans.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 
 
 " I "O those who, sojourning in North 
 * Wales, pay a visit to the beautiful 
 ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey, it is, so to 
 speak, but a few steps further to view the 
 house and the church, indeed the scene 
 as a whole, associated with the family 
 whose most notable descendant gave his 
 name along with his benefactions to the 
 famous Connecticut University which has 
 sprung out of Yale College. To be parti- 
 cular, Bryn Eglwys, in which parish the 
 manor-house of Plas yn Yale is situate, 
 lies about four miles north-east of Llan- 
 
 santffraid, on the north bank of the Dee. 
 236
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 237 
 
 It is on the high road to Wrexham, and 
 may be reached either from Corwen or 
 Llangollen. From the former place the 
 way is the more direct. To drive or cycle 
 from the latter place necessitates a longish 
 detour, though there are paths across the 
 hills, via Llantysilio and Bwlch y Garnedd, 
 which, inviting to the sturdy and pedestrianly 
 inclined, open up some delightful views, 
 and thus repay a hundred-fold the fatigue 
 of a few bits of rough road and one or two 
 stiffish climbs. The way lies over the 
 Llantysilio Mountain, and shows an ever- 
 varying scene of hill and vale, woodland 
 and heath, beautiful to behold in fine weather, 
 especially towards the later equinox, when 
 Nature spreads her broad palette with 
 purples, and the rooks throw up their hearts 
 if not their caps in the freshening wind. 
 The climax of the trudge is reached when
 
 238 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Moel y Gamelin is seen on the right and 
 Moel y Gaer on the left, with Moel Morfydd, 
 the giant of these Llantysilio heights, further 
 to the south-west. 
 
 The whole district is a little out of the 
 common even for Denbighshire. It is 
 placid and retired, one is apt to think it 
 somewhat forgotten ; yet just as these hills 
 and dales, with their various covering of 
 grass, heath, or tree, are wrinkled and scarred 
 by the hand of time and the elements, so 
 one cannot dip down into the records of 
 human life without finding that here too 
 the ploughs and harrows of the spirit have 
 been at work and have left their indelible 
 mark. 
 
 The old manor-house of Plas yn Yale (or 
 lal, as it is written in Welsh) lies about two 
 miles to the north-east of Bryn Eglwys. 
 It is an unpretentious dwelling, of moderate
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 239 
 
 proportions, much decayed from what it 
 formerly was, and showing, as all such 
 buildings do, how different are our notions 
 as to housing from what they were when 
 our years of grace were written in sixteens 
 and seventeens instead of eighteens and 
 nineteens. Here Yales have lived for many 
 generations, descendants presumably of the 
 family of the same name who held the old 
 lordship of Yale-in-Powys, which included a 
 large domain in these parts. That they were 
 a dominant race and occupied a position in 
 the district equivalent to that of the English 
 squire is shown by the fact that in the little 
 church of Bryn Eglwys is a small transept 
 known as the Yale Chapel. Here generation 
 upon generation of Yales acknowledged the 
 Ancient of Days and lifted their hearts 
 and voices in His worship and praise. 
 Elihu Yale, the subject of this notice,
 
 240 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 was born in or near Boston, Massachusetts, 
 April 5th, 1648. He was the second son 
 of David Yale, a member of the old Yale 
 family of which we have been speaking, 
 who emigrated with his step-father, Theo- 
 philus Eaton, to Newhaven, Connecticut, 
 on the foundation of the colony there, but 
 afterwards settled in Boston. 
 
 This David Yale, the father of Elihu, 
 was the son of Thomas Yale, gentleman, 
 who married Ann Lloyd, daughter of 
 George Lloyd, Bishop of Chester, but, 
 dying young, his widow took as her second 
 husband Theophilus Eaton, Esq., of London, 
 merchant, who was Governor of the New- 
 haven colony from 1639 until 1656. 
 
 Thomas Yale was the son of David Yale, 
 vicar-general of the Right Rev. George 
 Lloyd, Bishop of Chester, and died either 
 in 1625 or 1626; and David Yale was
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 241 
 
 the son of Thomas Yale, LL.D., Chancellor 
 to Mathew Parker, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. His will, which was proved April ist, 
 1578, leaves to his son David, who was 
 co-executor with the widow, " his house in 
 Yale," that is, the manor-house of Plas- 
 yn-Yale. 
 
 The following scheme shows the pedigree* 
 in brief: 
 
 Thos. Yale =p Johane (?) 
 
 David Yale =j= Frances Lloyd. 
 Thos. Yale =p Ann Lloyd = Theophilus Eaton, Esq. 
 
 | | 
 
 David Yale=pUrsula (?) Capt. Thos. Anne Yale = Edward Hop- 
 d. 1690. I Yale, of kins, Esq., 
 Newhaven Gov. of Con- 
 Colony, necticut Col. 
 
 I and founder of 
 
 | | | the Hopkins 
 
 David Yale, Elihu Yale, Thos. Yale, School, 
 b. 1645 ; b. 1648 ; d. 1697, 
 d. 1690. d. 1721. aged 37. 
 
 * Details of the pedigree, drawn up by C. H. 
 
 Townshend, of Paynham, Newhaven, appeared in 
 
 the " New England Hist. Genealogical Register " for 
 January 1899. 
 16
 
 242 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 David Yale returned to England and 
 settled in London in 1652, when therefore 
 his son Elihu was but a few years old. 
 Of the education of the latter we know 
 nothing ; but when twenty-two years of 
 age (about 1670) he went out to India in 
 the service of the East India Company 
 and remained there until 1699, filling various 
 subordinate positions, but finally (1687) 
 rising to be Governor of the Company's 
 settlement at Fort St. George, Madras. 
 Stories are on record of his high-handed 
 doings while holding this post, but as the 
 worst of them is of doubtful authenticity, 
 and as moreover it was very much the 
 custom of the Company's servants to act 
 in those days in a high and haughty who- 
 shall-question-me manner, too much perhaps 
 need not be made of such dark cross- 
 hatchings.
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 243 
 
 In the year 1692 Yale was deprived of 
 the governorship, his engaging in private 
 trade being deemed derogatory to one in 
 his position. But for this, however, he 
 would certainly not have finally retired with 
 the considerable fortune he did. He re- 
 turned to England in 1699, and became a 
 governor of the famous old Company, the 
 memory and romance of whose doings still 
 hang about Leadenhall Street and the 
 thoroughfares adjacent, and will talk to 
 one in the quiet hours of the great and 
 stirring days when men fought with a 
 free right hand for themselves and with 
 the left added islands and continents to 
 the inheritance of the doted old mother at 
 home. 
 
 There was undoubtedly something of what 
 we call the "fine old style" about this Welsh 
 gentleman with the high-handed ways, who
 
 244 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 quarrelled with the Council at Madras and 
 with the governors at home, who united 
 merchant, adventurer, and official under 
 one hat, made a notable fortune, and then 
 scattered it with a wise and abundant 
 liberality. The library of St. Paul's School 
 contains a number of volumes that were 
 a gift from him, and the fine old parish 
 church of Wrexham, the largest town in 
 the county of his forebears, was the re- 
 cipient of many benefactions at his hands. 
 Among his other gifts thereto is the altar- 
 piece representing the institution of the 
 Sacrament. 
 
 It may have been the repute of these or 
 other beneficences that caused Cotton 
 Mather to invite Elihu Yale to help the 
 struggling Collegiate School of Connecticut, 
 which was established first at Saybrook and 
 afterwards removed to Newhaven, noted as
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 245 
 
 being the home of the famous University 
 which sprang from that precarious beginning. 
 Yale sent over a large quantity of books, 
 pictures, and other effects, the sale of which 
 realised a considerable sum, and in gratitude 
 wherefor the trustees bestowed his name 
 upon the new college. Afterwards, by the 
 charter of 1745, the whole institution was 
 named Yale University, and to-day alumni 
 and all connected with the place proudly 
 point to the full-length portrait of Elihu 
 Yale by Enoch Zeeman (the gift of 
 Dudley L. North), as their first and 
 greatest benefactor. 
 
 Yale died in London on July 8th, 1721, 
 and was buried on the 22nd of the same 
 month in the churchyard at Wrexham, where 
 his tomb (west of the tower), with its curious 
 epitaph, is still to be seen. The latter reads 
 as follows :
 
 246 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Born in America, in Europe bred, 
 In Afric travell'd, and in Asia wed ; 
 Where long he lived and thrived, 
 
 In London died. 
 
 Much good, some ill, he did, so hope all's even, 
 And that his soul through mercy's gone to heaven. 
 You that survive and read this tale, take care 
 For this most certain exit to prepare, 
 When, blest in peace, the actions of the just 
 Smell sweet and blossom in the dust ! 
 
 The tomb was in 1870, and again in 
 1895, restored and newly inscribed by the 
 Corporation of Yale College, " in grateful 
 remembrance of his timely aid in money and 
 other values." Besides this monument to 
 Elihu Yale in the churchyard, the chancel 
 of St. Giles contains tablets to members of 
 the Yale family, which, as already said, was 
 one of some consideration in this part of 
 Wales. These include brasses to Elihu's 
 father (died 1690) and to his brother David
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 247 
 
 (died 1693). Not far from Wrexham was a 
 property known as Plas Grono, which came 
 to Elihu from his brother Thomas, who 
 inherited it from his eldest brother David, 
 who lies buried in Wrexham Church. 
 
 Thomas Yale was an East India merchant, 
 who died in October, 1697, leaving his estate 
 " to the heir male lawfully begotten of my 
 brother Elihu Yale, and to be annexed to 
 the hereditary estate in Denbighshire, Wales, 
 for the use of such heir for ever, and in 
 fault of such heir then to the use and behoof 
 of the heir male of my uncle Thomas Yale 
 in New England, and his right heir for 
 ever." 
 
 The " hereditary estate " to which the 
 property of Thomas Yale was to be annexed 
 was of course Plas-yn-Yale. Plas Grono 
 may have been an acquisition through mar- 
 riage. Elihu Yale resided in the old house
 
 248 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 after his return to England, and doubtless 
 often did the honours there of the shrievalty 
 of Denbighshire, which he held for some 
 time. The old mansion has now disap- 
 peared, its site being occupied by a farm- 
 house, though the old enclosed garden still 
 remains. 
 
 As regards Yale's being " wed " in Asia, 
 it should be said that he married Catherine 
 Hymners, widow of his predecessor in the 
 governorship of Fort St. George, by whom 
 he had one son and three daughters. The 
 son, David Yale, died in Madras. His 
 eldest daughter, Ursula, never married. 
 Anne, the second, married Lord James 
 Cavendish, and the youngest, Katherine, 
 Dudley North, Esq., whose great-grandson, 
 the last descendant of Elihu Yale, was 
 Dudley Long, who took the name of North 
 and died in 1829. He it was who (in 1789)
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 249 
 
 presented to Yale College the portrait of 
 his great-grandfather, by Zeeman, a Dutch 
 artist resident in England, by whom the 
 one-time governor of Fort St. George was 
 painted in 1717. 
 
 It is not a far cry from Plas-yn-Yale 
 to the charming village of Gresford, on 
 the Alun, a tributary of the Dee, three 
 miles north of Wrexham, and a well-known 
 resort of anglers. As such it was known 
 to Washington Irving, who, though no 
 disciple, was a warm lover of Izaak Walton 
 in his literary and philosophical aspect, 
 and who, though he did not care to fish, 
 had a keen appreciation of such streams as 
 the Alun and the sylvan beauty amid which 
 they meander. Hence his stay at Gresford, 
 what time he was making those quiet 
 studies of his for the " Sketch Book,"
 
 250 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 and in especial for that delightful picture 
 of rural and contemplative life, " The 
 Angler." The way in which he depicts 
 the scene shows how fully he enjoyed it. 
 "The country around" (he says) "was of 
 that pastoral kind which Walton is fond 
 of describing. It was a part of the great 
 plain of Cheshire, close by the beautiful 
 vale of Gresford,* and just where the 
 inferior Welsh hills begin to swell up from 
 among the fresh- smelling meadows. The 
 day, too, like that recorded in his book, 
 was mild and sunshiny, with now and 
 then a soft-dropping shower that sowed 
 the whole earth with diamonds." Who 
 that has sojourned in Wales but knows 
 that diamond-strewn weather? 
 
 " It is delightful " (he continues) " to saunter 
 
 * In the "Sketch Book" it is generally written 
 "Gessford," but this is a mistake.
 
 THE FOUNDER OF YALE COLLEGE 251 
 
 along those limpid streams which wander, 
 like veins of silver, through the bosom of 
 this beautiful country ; leading one through 
 a diversity of small home scenery ; some- 
 times winding through ornamental grounds ; 
 sometimes brimming along through rich 
 pasturage, whose fresh green is mingled 
 with sweet-smelling flowers ; sometimes 
 venturing in sight of villages and hamlets, 
 and then running capriciously away into 
 shady retirement. The sweetness and 
 serenity of nature, and the quiet watchful- 
 ness of the sport, gradually bring on 
 pleasant fits of musing, which are now 
 and then agreeably interrupted by the song 
 of a bird, the distant whistle of a peasant, 
 or perhaps the vagary of some fish, leap- 
 ing out of the still water and skimming 
 transiently above its glossy surface." 
 
 Such is the introduction to "a morning
 
 252 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 stroll along the banks of the Alun " which 
 leads to the "counterfeit presentment" of 
 that almost unique figure the angler, "an 
 old fellow with a wooden leg, with clothes 
 very worn but very carefully patched, be- 
 tokening poverty, honestly come by and 
 decently maintained," whose "face bore 
 the marks of former storms, but present 
 fair weather." A delightful story, which 
 any one loving the quiet hills and pastoral 
 scenes and what they tend to produce in 
 our human kind, may turn to and peruse 
 for the twentieth time with ever-fresh 
 enjoyment.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
 
 T T is not a little singular to relate that 
 *- America's two foremost teaching in- 
 stitutions were founded and largely endowed 
 by Englishmen, John Harvard and Elihu 
 Yale, the former a native of Southwark, 
 the latter the son of a Welsh mother who 
 emigrated with her second husband early 
 in the seventeenth century. 
 
 John Harvard was the son of a butcher 
 of Southwark, Robert Harvard by name, 
 who lived and carried on his business in 
 the middle of the present High Street, near 
 the ancient collegiate and priory church of 
 St. Saviour (St. Mary Overy), now the 
 
 Cathedral of Southwark. Canon Thompson, 
 253
 
 254 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 in his history of the church, states that 
 the house was directly east of the Lady 
 Chapel, and adds that the old " Token 
 Books " still in existence indicate its number 
 and location in the ancient maps. These 
 tokens, a record of which was kept in the 
 said books, were small circular pieces of 
 lead, having some characteristic device, 
 which were distributed by the churchwardens 
 to parishioners above the age of fifteen or 
 sixteen as summons to attend Holy Com- 
 munion. They were given up to the 
 officers of the church when the rite had 
 been duly honoured, and when the fact 
 had been registered went back in due 
 course each to its allotted parishioner, so 
 that none might shirk their religious duty 
 without being found out. It was a queer 
 system, and no doubt had its weight in 
 causing the revulsion that in the coming
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 255 
 
 time was to send so many like the Harvards 
 and others over the water to freer views 
 and larger ways. 
 
 The Harvards seem to have been a 
 respectable and thrifty family long and 
 honourably connected with the borough of 
 Southwark, although, in accordance with 
 the faulty custom of spelling of that day, 
 the name appears indifferently as Harvye, 
 Harverd, Harvard, and even Harwood, not 
 only in the vestry books of the time, but 
 in wills and other legal documents. It was 
 this divers spelling of the name which stood 
 for some time in the way of a satisfactory 
 elucidation of the origin and pedigree of 
 the founder of Harvard University. But 
 the difficulty was in the long run overcome 
 by the patience and skill of Mr. Henry F. 
 Waters, whose admirable genealogical in- 
 vestigations into the Harvard as into the
 
 256 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Washington pedigree are a model of scien- 
 tific research. Through the most crabbed 
 and intricate legal documents and entries 
 in parish and other registers of the most 
 puzzling description, he traces with most 
 convincing certitude the origin, birth, and 
 career of the subject of his inquiries. For 
 instance, a son of Robert Harvard by his 
 first wife is entered in the baptismal register 
 of St. Saviour's as Robert Harverd, and 
 the same in the register of burials as 
 Robert Hervey, while the mother of the 
 child is buried as Barbara Harwood. And 
 John's father appears in the church burial 
 register as " Mr. Robert Harvey, a man, 
 in the church " (August 24th, 1625). 
 
 To the late Dr. Rendle, the author of 
 " Old Southwark," is due the credit of being 
 the first to point out the possible connection 
 of John Harvard with the parish of St.
 
 FORD- ON- A VON
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 257 
 
 Saviour's, Southwark, of which his father 
 was a vestryman, although he did little 
 more than set afloat a likely and alluring 
 conjecture. The conjecture, however, was 
 soon made a certainty, so that we are 
 now made fully cognisant of the position 
 and pedigree of the family. Robert, the 
 " botcher," as we find him described, went 
 in 1605 to Stratford-on-Avon, and there, 
 from her father's house in the High Street, 
 married Katharine Rogers, his second wife. 
 Her father, Thomas Rogers, was an alder- 
 man of Stratford. The house which he 
 built for himself in his prosperity is still in 
 existence and in good preservation, " one 
 of the oldest and certainly the best remaining 
 example of ancient domestic architecture in 
 Stratford." The front is richly adorned 
 with carvings, and has projecting windows 
 resting upon corbels, some of which show 
 17
 
 258 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 quaintly sculptured heads. Beneath the 
 broad window of the second story appear 
 the characters : 
 
 T R 1596 A R 
 
 In this house Katharine Rogers lived from 
 the above date until her marriage to 
 Robert Harvard in 1605, when the scene 
 of her life was changed to the Southwark 
 High Street, where, in 1607, her son John 
 was born, being baptized at St. Saviour's 
 on November 29th in that year. 
 
 Here in all probability the boy continued 
 to live, attending, no doubt, the Blue Coat 
 or some other neighbouring school until, 
 in consequence of the plague of 1625 (which 
 made sad ravages in the family), his mother 
 quitted the old house in Southwark, and is 
 found soon after living near Tower Hill 
 with a new husband. 
 
 To this new house John Harvard migrated
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 259 
 
 with his mother, and from thence in 1627 
 he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 
 
 PART OF MEDIEVAL SOUTHWARK. 
 
 The entry in the college register is as 
 follows : 
 
 "John Harverd Midlsex : Decemb. 19, 
 1627 o. 10. o."
 
 260 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 which is the acknowledgment of his fee 
 of IQS. for admission. The "Middlesex" 
 for some time baffled and bothered Mr. 
 Waters, the genealogical pathfinder, until 
 he made the discovery of the re-marriage 
 of Mrs. Harvard and her removal to a new 
 parish and a new county. Subsequently the 
 good woman, having lost her second husband, 
 returns to Southwark, weds Richard Year- 
 wood, intimate and friend of her first 
 husband, Robert Harvard, and spends the 
 remainder of her days in a house within a 
 few doors of the old home in High Street. 
 Her son John was at this time at Cam- 
 bridge. Here he remained, no doubt a 
 diligent student, for eight years, taking his 
 B.A. degree in 1631, and his M.A. in 1635. 
 The same year his mother, who survives 
 her third spouse, makes her will, as 
 Katharine Yarwood, in favour of John and
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 261 
 
 Thomas Harvard, sons of her first husband, 
 and her only remaining children. In this 
 covenant she describes the first-named as 
 "my eldest son John Harvard, clarke" 
 (i.e. scholar). 
 
 Two years later, by which time he had 
 married Ann, the daughter of the Rev. 
 John Sadler, a Sussex clergyman, the 
 scholar, accompanied by his wife, took leave 
 of the old home and went to live in New 
 England, barely twenty years, that is, after 
 the first Pilgrims had set up their first 
 tabernacle in the wilderness there, and was 
 appointed minister to the first church in 
 Charlestown. 
 
 In the year previous to that of his arrival 
 the New England colonists had started a 
 project for the establishment of a college 
 for the education of English and Indian 
 youth in " knowledge and godliness." No
 
 262 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sooner did Harvard hear of this scheme than 
 it called forth his warmest sympathy, a 
 sympathy, too, that was of so practical a 
 nature that he bequeathed to it half his 
 fortune, amounting to nearly ,800, a much 
 larger sum in his day than it appears to 
 us. In addition thereto he gave his library, 
 consisting of 320 volumes. Such a gift 
 practically set the project on its feet. 
 Newtown was chosen as the site of the 
 institution, but in recognition of Harvard's 
 beneficence it was resolved to change the 
 name of the place to Cambridge, as a tribute 
 of respect to the University which had 
 nurtured so worthy a son, and to call their 
 humble seminary, after the name of its chief 
 founder, " Harvard College." Whether 
 Harvard lived to see the school opened 
 we do not know, as in the year following 
 that of his arrival he died of consumption,
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 263 
 
 leaving no posterity, and, strange to say, 
 the place of his burial is unknown. 
 
 Such is the story of the founder of 
 America's premier institution of learning, 
 but, like many another exemplifying a similar 
 spirit, it has a sequel. For upwards of two 
 centuries nothing was known as to Harvard's 
 ancestry or place of birth. Then, as we 
 have seen, the discovery of his connection 
 with Southwark was made, and not only 
 with Southwark, but with what is now the 
 cathedral church of the diocese, and Mr. 
 Henry F. Waters, to whom is due the 
 credit of unravelling the tangled skein of 
 evidence and proof, wrote after one of his 
 visits to St. Saviour's : 
 
 " As I passed through this venerable 
 edifice I noticed that the great window of 
 the south transept was of plain glass, as 
 if Providence had designed that some day
 
 264 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the sons of Harvard should place there a 
 worthy memorial of one who is so well 
 entitled to their veneration." 
 
 The challenge was not taken up until 
 the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, at the time 
 American Ambassador to England, himself 
 a graduate of Harvard, on looking over the 
 church, with its wonderful array of monu- 
 ments and memorials to great and noteworthy 
 men, was seized with the desire to add one 
 more to the number in the shape of a 
 memorial window, as suggested by Mr. 
 Waters, to the venerated founder of the 
 American Cambridge. Naturally the offer 
 was gratefully accepted by the rector, and 
 in due course a beautiful stained-glass 
 window, the work of Mr. J. La Farge 
 of New York, was placed in situ at the 
 east end (west side) of the Chapel of 
 St. John the Divine, later, as we shall see,
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 265 
 
 to be known as the Harvard Memorial 
 Chapel. 
 
 The main subject of the window depicts 
 the baptism of Christ (in allusion of course 
 to the christening of John Harvard in the 
 church). This scene occupies the lower 
 central panel, and has two angels in attend- 
 ance, one on either hand. A panel of old 
 stained glass, a remnant from a former 
 painted window, occupies the middle centre, 
 and is flanked on each side respectively 
 by the arms of Harvard University and 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the former 
 on the right, the latter on the left. The 
 whole makes a very striking contrast to 
 the other stained-glass windows in the 
 church, chiefly from the fact that the lead- 
 ing follows the folds of the drapery and 
 the shaded lines of the figures, thus 
 doing away with the breaking up of the
 
 266 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 picture into a multiplicity of rectangular 
 spaces. 
 
 This noble memorial was formally unveiled 
 by Mr. Choate just before his departure 
 from England in May, 1905, in the presence 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop 
 of Rochester (Bishop-Elect of the diocese), 
 Canon Thompson (the rector), Dr. Butler, 
 Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, the 
 Rev. A. T. Chapman, of Emmanuel College, 
 and others. After drawing aside the 
 American flag which covered the window, 
 Mr. Choate said it was nearly three centuries 
 since John Harvard, whose father lived 
 close to the end of London Bridge, was 
 baptized in that venerable church. Educated 
 in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where 
 he spent eight years, during at least four 
 of which Milton was at Christ's, he and 
 Milton must have received substantially the
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 267 
 
 same nurture and discipline, and must often 
 have been thrown together. At any rate, 
 he imbibed something of the same spirit 
 as Milton, for his contemporaries spoke of 
 him as a scholar and pious in his life. Seek- 
 ing larger freedom of thought than could 
 be found in the freedom of that day, he 
 made his way to Massachusetts, and there, 
 within two years of his arrival, he died 
 prematurely, as it then seemed, but in the 
 fulness and perfection of time as was now 
 manifest ; for, finding the infant colony 
 struggling for means to establish a college 
 in the wilderness, in the first decade of their 
 settlement, he bequeathed to its foundation 
 his library and half his considerable fortune, 
 and, what was better still, his name, which 
 has now become so illustrious. 
 
 The colonial record (Mr. Choate continued) 
 was quaint and touching : " After God had
 
 268 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 carried us saf$ to New England and we 
 had builded our home, provided necessaries 
 for our livelihood, reared convenient places 
 for God's worship, and settled the civic 
 government, one of the next things we 
 longed for and looked after was to advance 
 learning and perpetuate it to posterity, 
 dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to 
 our churches when our present ministers 
 shall lie in the dust. And as we were 
 thinking and consulting how to effect this 
 great work, it pleased God to stir up the 
 heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentler 
 man and lover of learning then living 
 among us) to give the one half of his estate 
 (it being in all about ,1,900) towards the 
 erecting of a college, and all his library. 
 After him another gave ^300, others after 
 him sent in more, and the public hand of 
 the State added the rest. The college
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 269 
 
 was by public consent appointed to be 
 at Cambridge, a place very pleasant and 
 accommodate, and called according to 
 the name of the first founder Harvard 
 College." 
 
 Speaking of the arms adopted by the 
 college (possibly suggested by Harvard), 
 Mr. Choate said: "It assumed in its coat 
 of arms, as you will see in the window, a 
 double motto, Veritas, truth a word broad 
 enough to embrace all knowledge, human 
 and divine and, what meant the same 
 thing, Christo et Ecclesw, for Christ and 
 his Church, that the supply of godly 
 ministers might never fail. And now, after 
 the lapse of three centuries, the little college 
 in the pathless wilderness has become a 
 great and splendid university, strong in 
 prestige and renown, rich in endowments, 
 and richer still in the pious loyalty of its
 
 270 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 sons, who supply all its wants upon demand 
 with liberal hand. It is not unworthy to 
 be compared with Oxford and Cambridge, 
 those ancient nurseries of learning from 
 which it drew its first life. And the name 
 of John Harvard shares the fame which 
 mankind accords to the founders of states. 
 And if you ask if she is still true to her 
 ancient watchword Veritas and Christo et 
 Ecclesia, I can answer that, in our time, 
 in a single quarter of a century, she has 
 sent forth Phillips Brooks to be a pillar 
 of Christ and the Church, and Theodore 
 Roosevelt to be a champion of the truth, 
 and a thousand more who, in humble 
 spheres, follow in their footsteps and share 
 their faith and their hope. Thus the name 
 of John Harvard, unknown and of little 
 account when he left England, has been 
 a benediction to the New World, and his
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 271 
 
 timely and generous act has borne fruit a 
 millionfold." 
 
 It is a striking confirmation of Mr. Choate's 
 eulogy of the sons of Harvard that they 
 should so soon have followed up his noble 
 gift by generously providing the means for 
 restoring the ancient Chapel of St. John 
 the Divine, and thus making it, as it is 
 henceforth to be called, a Harvard Memorial 
 Chapel. The work of restoration was com- 
 pleted within two years of the unveiling of 
 the memorial window, and in time to be 
 dedicated, in a sense, as a tercentennial 
 offering to the spirit of him who was 
 baptized here on almost the last day of 
 November, 1607 a spirit larger than the 
 church (in his day) wherein he was brought 
 up, and which has manifested itself in so 
 many splendid efforts in the land in which 
 he elected to end his earthly course.
 
 272 AMERICAN SHRINES IN EN 7 GLAND 
 
 Mr. Choate, in laying his wreath upon 
 the Harvard shrine, expressed the hope that 
 it would long remain for Americans a place 
 of pilgrimage to remind them " where one 
 of their proudest institutions had its origin " ; 
 and if we may judge from the number of 
 " Pilgrim " names that crowd the visitors' 
 book, his desire bids fair to be abundantly 
 gratified. Those who do thus visit the 
 old fane, some parts of which date back 
 four or five hundred years before Harvard 
 was christened there, will find a great many 
 other objects and memorials to awaken their 
 interest and call forth their admiration, 
 because they tend to show how inseparable 
 are English and Americans " in history and 
 destiny." It may be that the tomb of the 
 great and learned Bishop Andrews will not 
 stand for much to all who enter the sacred 
 precincts, but none can fail to be interested
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 273 
 
 in his monument, and especially in the effigy 
 of him moulded by the Dutch sculptor 
 Janssen, the same who fashioned the Strat- 
 ford bust of Shakespeare (as any one who 
 sees the two will readily detect). But even 
 more than this, at least to those who have 
 become imbued with a deep sense of the 
 noble heritage we all enjoy in the literature 
 which our forefathers have handed down 
 to us, will be the interest awakened by 
 the simple names of Edmund Shakespeare 
 (brother of the poet), John Fletcher, and 
 Philip Massinger, all of whom were buried 
 in St. Saviour's. On the two latter Sir 
 Aston Cockayne (1608 1684) wrote the 
 epitaph : 
 
 In the same grave was Fletcher buried, here 
 Lies the stage poet, Philip Massinger ; 
 Plays they did write together, were good friends, 
 And now the grave includes them in their ends. 
 18
 
 274 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 The epitaph, however, does not appear 
 upon their graves, nothing indeed but their 
 names ; the same is true as regards Edmund 
 Shakespeare, whose name is shown in the 
 ancient church register, followed by the 
 words " a player." Little is known of him 
 beyond the fact that he came to Southwark 
 to try his fortune as an actor, and died in 
 his twenty-seventh year. He is but one of 
 many actors who were associated with the 
 old church, in death if not in life. The close 
 proximity of Bankside and the "Globe" 
 Theatre, as well as the " Rose " and the 
 " Mope," will account for the fact. The 
 church books contain many references to 
 players and their families, especially as 
 regards baptisms and burials. It would 
 probably be hard to find another church 
 having so many links with literature and 
 the stage, certainly in England. Among
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 275 
 
 the most notable of the players thus con- 
 nected with the place was Edward Alleyn 
 (1566 1626), who lived for a time a little 
 west of the cathedral (" hard by the clynke 
 by the bank side, neere Wynchester-house "), 
 and was churchwarden of St. Saviour's in 
 1610. To him Dulwich owes the magnificent 
 foundation of the " College of God's Gift," 
 an institution that has been a blessing to 
 thousands of boys. Fuller (in his "Worthies") 
 says of him : " Thus he, who out-acted 
 others in his life, out-did himself before 
 his death." And the authorities of the 
 church which he attended have, out of 
 regard for the honour he did alike to him- 
 self and the parish in which he lived, erected 
 a pictured window in his honour one of 
 five that have been devoted to the per- 
 petual memory of distinguished parishioners, 
 the other four being Shakespeare, Massinger,
 
 276 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Fletcher, and Beaumont, the last two inti- 
 mate friends and close collaborators in their 
 plays, occupying the same rooms in the 
 parish, having (as we are told by Aubrey) 
 " the same cloathes and cloake betweene 
 them," and being : 
 
 In fame as well as writings, both so knit, 
 That no man knows where to divide your wit. 
 
 Two other men, notable in their day as 
 being connected with the theatrical pro- 
 fession, likewise found fitting rest in the 
 church. These are Richard Benefield, whose 
 memorial, with its quaint and somewhat 
 fulsome Latin epitaph, may be seen in the 
 south transept ; and Philip Henslowe, a 
 vestryman and churchwarden, whose remains 
 were deposited in the " Channcell " (January 
 loth, 1615). Henslowe was a noted thea- 
 trical manager, and did a good deal in the 
 way of buying plays and interludes, likewise
 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 277 
 
 patronising and assisting dramatists. His 
 stepdaughter became the wife of Edward 
 Alleyn. 
 
 He had as neighbour in the chancel the 
 renowned Sir Edward Dyer,* poet, and 
 the intimate friend of Sir Philip Sidney, 
 whose tomb is in the chancel. Gower, one 
 of the fountain-heads of English poetry, 
 and Chaucer's "master," already has a 
 sufficient memorial. Here he too lies buried, 
 his tomb being in the north aisle of the 
 nave. It is a beautiful piece of work in 
 the Perpendicular style, and consists of a 
 canopy of three arches, with cinquefoil 
 tracery, supported on either side by angular 
 buttresses, surmounted by carved pinnacles. 
 His effigy shows him with his hands put 
 
 * Who does not remember his delightful poem on 
 " Contentment " beginning 
 
 My mind to me a kingdom is?
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 279 
 
 together and raised in prayer ; round his 
 brow is a chaplet of roses, and at his feet 
 a lion couchant. Altogether it is one of 
 the most notable monuments to a man of 
 his calling of the period in which he lived, 
 and is one of the gems of old St. Mary 
 Overy. It is quite in keeping too with 
 the place that there should be a memorial 
 (unveiled in October 1900) to Geoffrey 
 Chaucer, who must have known the church 
 as well as he knew the near-lying "Tabard," 
 whence he sent his Pilgrims on that im- 
 mortal journey of theirs to Canterbury, 
 which all the cultured of English speech 
 have read with such unfeigned delight. 
 
 Another memorial which will have excep- 
 tional interest to Americans is that to one 
 William Emerson in the south transept. It 
 shows a strangely emaciated effigy with the 
 inscription :
 
 280 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Here under lyeth the body of William Emerson, 
 who lived and died an honest man. He departed 
 out of this life the 2yth of June, Anno 1575, in 
 the year of his age 92. VT SVM SIC ERIS. 
 
 This William had a grandson, Thomas 
 Emerson, who left substantial benefactions 
 (1620) to the poor of the parish, which are 
 still the occasion of blessings being bestowed 
 upon his long-passed spirit. It is con- 
 jectured by some that the late Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, of Concord, Massachusetts, may 
 have been a descendant of this worthy 
 South wark family. It may be that he was. 
 According to the records, Emerson's first 
 ancestor in New England was one Thomas 
 Emerson, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, baker 
 and farmer, known to have been of that 
 township as early as 1638. This worthy 
 was supposed to have belonged to a younger 
 branch of the family of Ralph Emerson, of
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 281 
 
 Durham, who in 1535 was ennobled by 
 Henry VIII., and received by grant the 
 heraldic arms which have been used since 
 - 1640 by the descendants of Thomas Emerson, 
 of Ipswich. 
 
 This Thomas had two sons, both of 
 whom became ministers, and after them the 
 ministerial profession ran almost continuously 
 in the family down to Ralph Waldo's time, 
 when preaching had run in the blood for 
 nearly one hundred years. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson traced his descent 
 from the Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Meudon, 
 who married at Concord (1665) Elizabeth, 
 daughter of the Rev. Edward Bulkley, D.D., 
 who was rector of the little parish of Odell, 
 or Woodhill, in Bedfordshire, from 1588 to 
 1620, and who, by reason of Laud's per- 
 secutions, was compelled to take refuge in 
 Massachusetts, where he settled first at
 
 282 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Cambridge (1634) and then at Concord, 
 dying at the latter place in 1659. 
 
 Much has been made of Shakespeare's 
 connection with the parish ; and it has been 
 surmised that John Harvard may, as a boy, 
 have heard the voice and been dandled 
 upon the knee of " sweetest Shakespeare, 
 Fancy's child," who, as we know, did not 
 retire from the stage until 1613, when the 
 Globe Theatre (so near the Southwark 
 butcher's home and place of business) was 
 burnt down, and was back again in the 
 following year, when it was rebuilt. Though 
 this is not improbable, seeing that Robert 
 Harvard must have known Alleyn, Hens- 
 lowe, and Benefield, who, like himself, were 
 vestrymen, and doubtless intimately well 
 acquainted with the poet, yet it is very 
 easy to make too much of possibilities like 
 these. A more probable speculation is that
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 283 
 
 John Harvard's mother, being a native of 
 Stratford-on-Avon, and having in her girl- 
 hood days been a near neighbour of Thomas 
 Quiney, who married the dramatist's daughter 
 Judith, may have known and been known 
 to his family. Nor is it at all unlikely that 
 the acquaintance continued after her removal 
 to London, to a house so near the centre 
 around which his life and activities had, as 
 it were, revolved during some of the busiest 
 and most important years of his life. All 
 this is possible, we might even say more 
 than probable ; for neighbourliness in those 
 days was a warmer quality, and a more 
 potent begetter of kindliness and friendship, 
 than in these later times of chilly stand- 
 offishness and reserve. But still we do not 
 know. What we do know or, at least, 
 seem to feel is that after John Harvard 
 had seen his name inscribed on the register
 
 284 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 of Emmanuel College, everything changed 
 to him, his mind gradually finding its way 
 into a world altogether different from that 
 in which his childhood and youth had been 
 brought up, redolent of the stage and of 
 the seamy side of things of which the 
 stage, then as now, in spite of the splendours 
 and glories that hovered about it, was so 
 largely made up. Nothing can be more 
 certain than that, otherwise there would have 
 been no going away with a young wife to 
 that wilderness across the sea, where he so 
 soon ended his brief though beneficent career, 
 leaving " footsteps on the sands of time " 
 that only the decay of a civilisation can 
 wholly obliterate. 
 
 To those knowing their Stratford-on-Avon, 
 as our American friends generally do, there 
 are other shrines in which the pilgrim will
 
 THE FOUNDER OF HARVARD COLLEGE 285 
 
 be specially interested besides the Harvard 
 House. Not to mention the Memorial 
 Fountain, presented to the town by Mr. 
 George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, and 
 dedicated to public use by Sir Henry Irving 
 in 1887, there is the beautiful window in the 
 south transept of " Shakespeare's Church," 
 another gift from America, unveiled by 
 the Hon. T. F. Bayard, United States 
 Ambassador, on the poet's birthday in 1896. 
 The sentimental traveller, too, will want to 
 see the inn " parlour " delightful old word ! 
 associated with the visit of Washington 
 Irving to Stratford. The inn is the " Red 
 Horse " in the Market Place, and the room 
 with memories of the genial essayist is the 
 front room to the left on entering the gate- 
 way of the old hostel. " To a homeless 
 man," writes the much-travelled man, " who 
 has no spot in this wide world which he can
 
 286 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 truly call his own, there is a feeling of some- 
 thing like independence and territorial 
 consequence, when, after a weary day's 
 travel, he kicks off his boots, thrusts his 
 feet into his slippers, and stretches himself 
 before an inn fire. Let the world without 
 go as it may ; let kingdoms rise or fall, 
 so long as he has the wherewithal to pay 
 his bill, he is, for the time being, the very 
 monarch of all he surveys. The armchair 
 is his throne, the poker his sceptre, and the 
 inn parlour, some twelve feet square, his 
 undisputed empire."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 OTHER MEMORIALS AND SHRINES IN AND 
 NEAR LONDON 
 
 T ON DON has a number of memorials 
 * ' specially interesting to American 
 pilgrims, as well as to Englishmen, besides 
 that enshrined in the cathedral church of 
 Southwark. Westminster Abbey contains, 
 too, a bust in affectionate memory of the 
 poet Longfellow, whose simple thoughts and 
 homely verse won for themselves a niche 
 in thousands of English hearts long ere the 
 thought arose to honour him with a place 
 by the side of our own most admired singers. 
 
 The well-known face fronts one on approach- 
 
 287
 
 288 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 ing Poet's Corner from the nave. Beneath 
 it is the inscription : " This bust was placed 
 amongst the memorials of poets of England 
 by English admirers." He is well at home 
 in the high company he there keeps ; and 
 amid the throng of those who, reposing 
 thus after their tides have run out, one could 
 imagine some of them turning in their sleep 
 with a smile and a sigh as they hear those 
 fine lines of his, murmured perchance in 
 reminiscence by some one as he passes by : 
 
 I remember the black wharves and the slips, 
 
 And the sea-tides tossing free ; 
 And the Spanish sailors with bearded lips, 
 And the beauty and mystery of the ships, 
 And the magic of the sea. 
 
 His compatriot poet, James Russell Lowell, 
 one-time American Minister to the Court of 
 St. James (1880-85) he too finds an equally 
 honoured place in our English Valhalla,
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 289 
 
 accorded him because, though American to 
 the core, he was a friend to international 
 friendship, a lover of amity and the common 
 literature that carries within it the seeds 
 
 ENTRANCE TO CHAPTER HOUSE 
 
 of a comity, of individuals as well as of 
 nations, which transcends all dynasties and 
 policies, and will make the world one and 
 great when humanity will. 
 
 Lowell's memorial takes the form of a 
 19
 
 290 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 coloured window and tablet in the vestibule 
 to the old Chapter House. The inscription 
 says : " This tablet and the window above 
 were placed here in memory of William 
 Russell Lowell when United States Minister 
 to the Court of St. James, from 1880 to 
 1885 by his English friends." Beneath 
 the inscription is the word " Veritas," which 
 ever appeared to those who knew him 
 best to stamp Lowell's highest wish and 
 aim. The thought in all its breadth and 
 fulness is enshrined in the lines : 
 
 Once to every man and nation comes the moment to 
 
 decide, 
 In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or 
 
 evil side ; 
 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each 
 
 the bloom or blight, 
 Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep 
 
 upon the right, 
 And the choice goes by for ever 'twixt that darkness 
 
 and that light.
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 291 
 
 Lowell was a worthy descendant of his 
 Puritan forefathers, and showed the ingrained 
 devotion to liberty of his race by his earnest 
 endeavours in the cause of negro emanci- 
 pation, which find expression in the 
 nineteenth-century panel of the memorial 
 stained-glass, a natural sequence to that 
 of the seventeenth, which we may take to 
 symbolise the sturdy Nonconformity of 
 his Bristolian ancestors. 
 
 For the Rev. Charles Lowell, James 
 Russell's father, was the seventh in descent 
 from Percival Lowell, a well-to-do Bristol 
 merchant, who, with his children and grand- 
 children, left England in 1639 and settled 
 in Newbury, Mussachusetts. The poet's 
 mother was Harriet Spence, daughter of 
 Mary Traill, who was the daughter of 
 Robert Traill, of Orkney. This Traill 
 family is the same as that of which Minna
 
 292 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Troil of Scott's novel " The Pirate " was 
 a member. 
 
 The Lowells of Bristol, it is interesting 
 to note, came originally from Broadway, in 
 Worcestershire, a typical Cotswold village, 
 six miles south-east of Evesham, present- 
 ing substantial Tudor and Jacobean houses 
 well worthy of the praise that has been 
 bestowed upon them. Among the most 
 notable is the Lygon Arms, situated at 
 the lower end of the village. It is 
 built of the grey stone of the district, 
 and with its pointed gables, mullioned 
 windows, and fine carved doorway, tells an 
 interesting story of the taste of its age 
 and founders. Nor does the inside belie 
 the exterior. There are many corridors, 
 leading by stout oaken doors to roomier 
 apartments, some finely panelled, others 
 having moulded ceilings and carved stone
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 293 
 
 fireplaces. A feature of the interior is 
 the wide oak staircase with deep-set window 
 on the first landing. The house has tradi- 
 tions of both Charles I. and Cromwell, the 
 first-named having, it is said, stayed in 
 the house several times, while one of the 
 oak-panelled rooms is still called after his 
 enemy the Protector. 
 
 Further up the village is seen Tudor 
 House, also of grey stone, with ball-sur- 
 mounted gable-ends and bay-windows ; 
 enriched too with finely carved heraldic 
 shields. Equally noteworthy is the house 
 of Mr. F. D. Millet, the well-known 
 American artist, who has acquired the 
 place and taken up his abode there. It 
 was formerly the manor-house of the 
 Abbot of Pershore, and has portions dating 
 back to the time of Edward III. A quaint 
 and deeply interesting structure, full of
 
 294 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 old-time " notions," if one may so name 
 them, calculated to carry the mind back 
 to an age when life was less complex 
 than it is to-day, and yet, and for 
 that very reason perhaps, more wonderful 
 and picturesque. The place, with its asso- 
 ciations with historic Evesham and its 
 interesting Bell Tower, as well as with 
 Pershore Abbey, is one specially beloved 
 of Americans. 
 
 But to return to the Abbey of West- 
 minster, there is another modest memorial 
 there which the cultured American will 
 not willingly pass by. It is to a scholar 
 and antiquary whose name and labours 
 have been more than once quoted in the 
 foregoing pages, and may be found in the 
 south aisle beneath the mural monument 
 to Isaac Watts. On a simple tablet is 
 the inscription :
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 295 
 
 COLONEL JOSEPH LEMUEL CHESTER, 
 
 LL.D. OF CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE, NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 ALSO D.C.L. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 BORN 30 TH APRIL, 182 1, AT NORWICH, 
 
 CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 
 
 DIED 25 MAY, 1882, IN LONDON, 
 
 WHERE HE HAD RESIDED FOR MANY YEARS. 
 
 THE LEARNED EDITOR OF 
 
 " THE WESTMINSTER ABBEY REGISTER," 
 
 IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE DISTINGUISHED 
 
 LABOUR OF AN AMERICAN MASTER 
 OF ENGLISH GENEALOGICAL LEARNING, 
 
 THIS TABLET WAS ERECTED 
 BY THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 Nor should one forget, while speaking 
 of Westminster Abbey, that Richard Hak- 
 luyt, whose book, preserving all that was 
 memorable in the early voyages to America, 
 did so much to make the country known 
 that he, too, has his memorial here. He 
 lies buried in Poet's Corner. He was a 
 Westminster boy, became Prebendary of 
 St. Augustine's, Bristol, whence the Cabots,
 
 296 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the Gosnolds, and so many others sailed 
 to the Western World in those days ; and 
 on his death was held worthy of a place 
 with England's best and noblest. Some, 
 too, may deem the monument to that un- 
 happy victim of a fratricidal war, Major 
 Andre, worthy of a passing thought and 
 a sigh. 
 
 Under the shadow of the Abbey stands 
 St. Margaret's Church, with which is asso- 
 ciated another name dear to Americans 
 (as to Englishmen), although he never set 
 foot on any part of the northern half of 
 the Western Continent. For here, in the 
 chancel, were buried the remains of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh (or Ralegh), and here a 
 memorial window to him was placed by 
 American citizens in 1882, with an inscrip- 
 tion by James Russell Lowell. It is as 
 follows :
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 297 
 
 The New World's sons from England's breast we drew 
 Such milk as bids remember whence we came ; 
 
 Proud of her Past, from which her Present grew ; 
 This window we inscribe with Raleigh's name. 
 
 Fitly was the memorial with its inscription 
 so placed ; for, as has been well observed, 
 it was due to Raleigh's initiative that the 
 first attempts were made "to found a neV 
 and greater England beyond the seas." 
 Great was the time and much the money 
 he spent in his various efforts to found 
 a colony in Virginia abortive, we must 
 think, in the main, because he was not 
 allowed to conduct them in person, so well 
 did the Virgin Queen like to have his 
 fine figure and handsome face about her 
 Court. 
 
 Needless here to recount his story. It 
 is one of the most romantic of those stirring 
 and romantic days ; one of the most unfor-
 
 298 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 tunate too, ringing, as it does, the changes 
 between Court favourite under Elizabeth 
 and prison and the block under James. 
 And yet what does it matter ? Full enough 
 was his life between the days when, as a 
 boy, he roamed and played on the banks 
 of the Otter, or talked with the sailormen 
 oh the beach at Budleigh Salterton, Devon, 
 imbibing from their lips the secret and 
 mystery of the sea, and the day when, 
 largely through the itch and impulse thus 
 communicated to his blood, never to be 
 eradicated, he was brought to the axe in 
 Palace Yard, confident that it did not signify 
 in what direction his head was turned so 
 long as his heart was right. First seeing 
 the light at Hays, or Hays Barton, close 
 to East Budleigh, on the Otter, and within 
 sound and almost within sight of the sea at 
 Budleigh Salterton (one and a half miles
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 299 
 
 south by west of Exmouth), Raleigh may 
 be said, like so many famous Devonians, to 
 have been born with the salt water in his 
 heart. His father, originally of Fardell, 
 near Plymouth, rented an estate at Hays 
 about 1550, a year or two before Sir 
 Walter's birth, and there his splendid youth 
 was spent. In later years, when at the 
 top of his luck, Sherborne Castle was one 
 of his places of abode ; but we may be 
 sure that he was never so happy anywhere 
 as on the banks of the Otter, unless it 
 were when the maker of his fortunes being 
 dead, and a raw Stuart in the place of the 
 generous Tudor he could, as he lay in 
 the upper story of the Bloody Tower, on 
 Tower Hill, calmly review the backward 
 scene and, putting it against the forward, 
 accept with pleased content the happy 
 requital. Anyway, there with his wife and
 
 300 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 son he spent many a peaceful day ere th-. 
 tragic end came. 
 
 About midway between Westminster 
 Abbey and the cathedral church of South- 
 wark, leading up from the river to the 
 Strand by Trafalgar Square, is Craven 
 Street, where may be seen, on the left 
 hand going up, the house in which Ben- 
 jamin Franklin lived during his second 
 visit to London. A commemorative tablet, 
 let into the wall by the Society of Arts, 
 notifies the fact as one that posterit 
 should not forget. Here it was that Lo 
 Chatham called upon him in 1758 with . 
 view to getting his views upon the all- 
 important subjects that were beginning to 
 cause trouble between the Colonies and 
 the Mother Country. From hence it was, 
 too, that the famous man wrote (in 1760) a 
 peculiarly interesting letter to Lord Kames
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 301 
 
 Dative to the portrait of William Penn, 
 which his lordship had offered him. "Were 
 it certainly his portrait," he wrote, "it 
 would be too valuable a curiosity for me 
 to think of accepting it. I should only 
 desire the favour of leave to take a copy 
 of it. I could wish to know the history of 
 the picture before it came into your hands, 
 and the grounds of supposing it his. I 
 have at present grave doubt about it ; first, 
 because the primitive Quakers declared 
 
 gainst pictures as a vain expense ; a 
 jin's suffering his portrait to be taken 
 
 : as conceived as pride; and I think to 
 this day it is very little practised among 
 them. Then it is on a board ; and I 
 imagine the practice of painting on boards 
 did not come down so low as Penn's time ; 
 but of this I am not certain. My other 
 reason is an anecdote I have heard viz.
 
 302 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 that when old Lord Cobham was adorning 
 his gardens at Stowe with busts of famous 
 men, he made inquiry of the family for a 
 picture of William Penn, in order to get a 
 bust formed from it, but could find none ; 
 that Sylvanus Bevan, the old Quaker 
 apothecary remarkable for the notice he 
 takes of countenances, and a knack he has 
 of cutting in ivory strong likenesses of per- 
 sons he has once seen hearing of Lord 
 Cobham's desire, set himself to recollect 
 Penn's face, with which he had been well 
 acquainted, and cut a little bust of him in 
 ivory, which he sent to Lord Cobham, with- 
 out any letter or notice that it was Penn's. 
 But my lord, who had personally known 
 Penn, on seeing it, immediately cried out, 
 'Whence comes this? It is William Penn 
 himself!' And from the little bust, they say, 
 the larger one in the gardens was found."
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 303 
 
 It would be interesting to learn what has 
 become of this bust of Penn. On the death 
 of Lord Cobham in 1 749, Stowe, one of 
 the most princely houses in Buckinghamshire, 
 passed into the family of the Grenvilles. 
 Later, when in the possession of Richard, 
 the first Duke of Buckingham, Louis XVIII. 
 and Charles X. of France, and their suites, 
 were entertained there during their enforced 
 residence in England. In 1845 Queen 
 Victoria and the Prince-Consort were re- 
 ceived, and feasted there at enormous cost. 
 Three years later, as the result of these 
 extravagances, Stowe was dismantled of its 
 sumptuous contents, and these, put up for 
 auction, realised, in a sale that occupied 
 forty days, over .75,000. It has been well 
 said that, of the many instances of fallen 
 fortune to be found in the annals of families, 
 none presents a sadder fate than that of
 
 304 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Stowe and its owners. It is as though, as 
 in all such cases, Nemesis lifted the minatory 
 finger and bit into the pia mater its tardy 
 after-thought: "Ambition, vanity, folly! 
 Contentment is best." 
 
 There is another shrine in the London 
 area that should be interesting to Americans. 
 It is the house in Church Street, Stoke 
 Newington, wherein the Rev. John Bransby 
 kept the school at which Edgar Allan Poe, 
 the poet, spent two important years of his 
 youth. Born at Baltimore, U.S.A., in 1811, 
 Poe was at an early age adopted by a 
 Mr. Allan, a man of wealth who had no 
 children of his own. At the age of nine 
 he was placed with Mr. Bransby, and re- 
 mained under his charge until he was eleven, 
 two years in all, and not five, as he himself 
 states. Poe describes the house, which is 
 on the northern side of the street, near
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 305 
 
 that once occupied by Isaac D'Israeli, the 
 author of " Curiosities of Literature," in his 
 " partly biographical " story of " William 
 Wilson " ; and there can be little doubt that 
 much of the romantic element later to be 
 developed in his writings was due to his 
 having lived, at so impressionable an age, 
 in a house and neighbourhood abounding 
 in so many varied and interesting associa- 
 tions. Daniel Defoe, Thomas Day (of 
 " Sandford and Merton " fame), and John 
 Howard, with many others less known to 
 popular fame, were all at one time residents 
 in or near Church Street. " One of the 
 first houses on the northern side of the 
 way," says " Old and New London," " was 
 the house of Isaac D'Israeli, before he 
 settled in Bloomsbury Square, and the white 
 house near it was the scene of the school 
 days of the eccentric and gifted poet." 
 20
 
 306 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 While speaking of the various places in 
 and about London that are of interest to 
 Americans, it would be unpardonable not 
 to mention one " shrine " to which in times 
 to come many pilgrim feet will wander, 
 because it is associated with one of their 
 country's greatest living men at a specially 
 interesting point in his career. St. George's, 
 Hanover Square, is noted as having been 
 the scene of many a notable wedding and 
 not a few romantic ones. But it will pro- 
 bably be a long time before another predes- 
 tinate American President takes his bride 
 there to have the nuptial knot tied, as did 
 Mr. Roosevelt on December 2nd, 1896. In 
 the marriage register the bridegroom is 
 described as " Theodore Roosevelt, twenty- 
 eight, widower, ranchman," and the bride as 
 " Edith Kermit Carow." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was not then the famous
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 307 
 
 man that he has since become, and for a 
 long time few American visitors knew of 
 the interesting link between this fashionable 
 West-End church and the President. One 
 day, however, a tourist of a more than 
 usually inquisitive turn of mind made the 
 discovery, and feasted his eyes upon the 
 entry ; then, proud of his achievement, he 
 immediately noised the fact abroad among 
 his compatriots, with the result that since 
 that time St. George's has been visited by 
 " troops and shoals " of Americans. 
 
 Then, not to leave so remarkable a man 
 out in the cold, there is Benjamin West, 
 who succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as 
 President of the Royal Academy, several of 
 whose admirable works are to be seen in 
 the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House, 
 Piccadilly. He was a notable figure in his 
 day, and the house in which he lived in
 
 308 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Newman Street is still standing, as well 
 as that on the Terrace, Hammersmith, to 
 which later he removed. 
 
 With these various and discursive notes 
 it would be culpable not to include some 
 few particulars of another shrine not unfre- 
 quently visited by Americans to wit, the 
 tomb of the only American princess ever 
 married to an Englishman, Pocahontas by 
 name. Most who have read anything about 
 the early colonial days have read her story : 
 how, the daughter of Powhatan, she took 
 greatly to the whites, and especially to 
 Captain John Smith, the true founder of 
 Virginia, whose life she saved at the risk 
 of her own ; how, after his departure (1609), 
 she was not so much seen among the 
 Jamestown colonists, but was subsequently 
 seized and held as a hostage for some white 
 prisoners in the hands of her people ; and
 
 SHRINES IN AND NEAR LONDON 309 
 
 how, finally (1613), she was converted to 
 Christianity, given the name Rebecca, and 
 in the year 1614 was married to John Rolfe, 
 with whom two years later she came to 
 England. Her beauty and the devotion 
 she had shown to the whites caused her 
 to be presented at Court, and received by 
 all classes with great enthusiasm. She was 
 hailed as the daughter of an American " king," 
 and as such feted and acclaimed. Civilisation 
 and the English climate, however, did not 
 agree with this simple child of the woods, and 
 she died in the month of March, 1617, at 
 Gravesend, where her body was laid to rest 
 in St. George's Church, the following curious 
 entry being made in the parish records : 
 
 1616 (1617), May 2J, Rebecca Wrothe wyff of 
 Thomas Wrothe, gent., a Virginia lady borne, 
 here was buried in ye chauncell. 
 
 Pocahontas and Rolfe had one son,
 
 310 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Thomas, who, after living for many years 
 in England, emigrated to Virginia. From 
 him, according to the " New International 
 Encyclopedia," many prominent Virginia 
 families trace their descent, including the 
 Boilings, the Murrays, the Greys, the 
 Whittles, the Robertsons, the Eldridges, 
 and that branch of the Randolphs from 
 which sprang John Randolph of Roanoke. 
 
 Finally, a word anent the Temple, which 
 has been enshrined in the hearts and minds 
 of many famous Americans, because, as 
 Lowell once said, next to Westminster 
 Abbey, it is the most venerable spot connected 
 with the race in all London ; and further, 
 because so many of America's accredited 
 representatives to England have taken home 
 with them pleasing recollections of Gandy- 
 day hospitalities enjoyed within the ancient 
 and honoured precincts.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SOME OTHER HEROES OF AMERICAN 
 COLONISATION 
 
 EFERENCE has been made to 
 Captain John Smith in speaking of 
 Pocahontas Captain John Smith, who was 
 one of the first company of English colonists 
 to make a successful settlement in America, 
 and one of the best. A Lincolnshire man, 
 born at Willoughby in that county in 1579, 
 he, on the death of his father in 1596, 
 accompanied the sons of an English noble- 
 man on a tour on the Continent as page, 
 but soon left them and enlisted in a 
 Protestant company in France, and fought 
 against the Spaniards, afterwards joining 
 
 3"
 
 312 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 the insurgents in the Netherlands. About 
 1600 he returned to his home in Lincoln- 
 shire, and remained there for some time, 
 living, as would appear from one of his 
 biographies, a Robinson Crusoe sort of life 
 in the woods ; and then, probably when 
 that could be continued no longer, taking 
 again to a life of wandering and fighting. 
 He had wonderful adventures in Styria, in 
 Turkey,, and finally in Morocco. Then, 
 having seen so much of the Old World, he 
 thought he would like to feast his eyes 
 upon the New, and sailed with the ex- 
 pedition to colonise Virginia, which left 
 Blackwall on December igth, 1606. Dis- 
 sensions broke out before the three ships, 
 of which the little flotilla consisted, reached 
 its destination, and Smith was arrested 
 (and some accounts say condemned to be 
 hanged) on the charge of wishing to murder
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 313 
 
 the commander of the expedition, Captain 
 Christopher Newport, and make himself 
 king of Virginia. Providence, however, 
 spared him from that harsh fate, and he 
 became one of the most active and useful 
 members of the colony, conducting ex- 
 plorations, making important discoveries, and 
 obtaining supplies of food from the natives 
 when other sources failed. In fine, so 
 unmistakably did Smith prove himself to 
 be the man par excellence of the whole 
 company of settlers that he was in the 
 end entrusted with the guidance of the 
 colony. 
 
 For a time he was a prisoner with the 
 Indians ; then it was that, according to 
 Smith's own narrative, his life was saved 
 by Pocahontas a story which was at one 
 time discredited, but is now much more 
 generally believed. There is no inherent
 
 314 AMERICAN SHRINES LN ENGLAND 
 
 improbability about it ; and when the Indian 
 maiden's high character is considered, and 
 Smith's acknowledged general veracity, a 
 fair judgment must incline towards a belief 
 in its truth. One of his companions has 
 put it on record that " in all his proceedings 
 he made justice his first guide and ex- 
 perience his second, ever hating sloth, 
 baseness, pride, and indignity more than 
 any dangers ; never allowing himself more 
 than his soldiers ; that upon no danger 
 would he send them where he would not 
 lead himself; that he would never see 
 them want what he had or by any means 
 could get them ; that he would rather want 
 than borrow, or starve than not pay ; loved 
 action more than words, and hated falsehood 
 worse than death." 
 
 In 1609 Smith was obliged to return 
 to England because of hurts which he had
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 315 
 
 received that no one in the colony could 
 medicine for him. He afterwards visited 
 the New England coast several times for 
 the purpose of trade, being on the last 
 occasion taken prisoner by a French ship, 
 but was released after he had served with 
 his captors against the Spaniards. His 
 death occurred in 1631, when his remains 
 were interred in the choir of St. Sepulchre's 
 Church a church famous in its way as 
 being hand and glove, as it were, with the 
 Old Bailey near by.* 
 
 * Whilst writing, an interesting point in legal history 
 has been marked by a handsome tablet in the entrance 
 hall of the new Old Bailey. 
 
 " Near this site," runs the inscription, " William Penn 
 and William Mead were tried in 1670 for preaching 
 to an unlawful assembly in Gracechurch Street. 
 
 "This tablet commemorates the courage and endur- 
 ance of the jury, Thomas Vere, Edward Bushell, and 
 ten others, who refused to give a verdict against 
 them, although locked up without food for two nights,
 
 316 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Smith's various works, not only in the 
 new country, but on the various matters 
 which he wrote upon, are well worth read- 
 ing to-day ; although nothing in all his 
 writings strikes one or leaves an impression 
 like that of his character, so deep-based is 
 it and sterling. 
 
 We know nothing of Smith's rank or 
 ancestry beyond the fact that he was the 
 son of George and Alice Smith. One 
 surmises that he may have been of good 
 yeoman stock. That he was anyway of 
 first-rate stock is evident from the grit 
 and grip he displayed,- as also from the 
 
 and were fined for their finding a verdict of ' Not 
 guilty.' 
 
 "The case of these jurymen was reviewed on a 
 writ of habeas corpus, and Chief Justice Vaughan 
 delivered the opinion to the Court which established 
 the right of juries to give their verdict according to 
 their convictions."
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 317 
 
 malleableness and polish to which they 
 lent themselves. It is interesting to note 
 that he attributed what he was as a man 
 and a soldier to his study of Marcus 
 Aurelius and Machiavelli's "Art of War." 
 
 The early history of Virginia presents 
 us with but few men of the calibre of 
 Captain John Smith, and this though of 
 the hundred persons who took part in the 
 expedition which resulted in the foundation 
 of Jamestown fifty-four are recorded to 
 have belonged to the rank of gentlemen ; 
 while of the reinforcement of emigrants 
 (numbering 130 in all) which reached 
 Jamestown two years later (1608), at least 
 thirty-three were gentlemen. There is a 
 particular reason for the cachet of gentility 
 which from the first attached to Virginia. 
 Elizabeth was specially interested in it, and 
 the fact that she was caused many of the
 
 318 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 highest aristocracy to back the various 
 efforts at exploration and colonisation with 
 their money and influence. Nor did this 
 interest decline under James. Of the 325 
 incorporators whose signatures were attached 
 to the charter of 1612, twenty-five were 
 peers of the realm, 1 1 1 were knights, sixty- 
 five esquires, and twenty " gentlemen " a 
 designation which in those days had a 
 meaning more distinctive of a special social 
 class than it has now. 
 
 Nor did this interest stop at supplying 
 the funds of war. The annals of Virginia 
 contain name after name of men belonging 
 to the highest aristocracy who in one way 
 or another were mixed up with the affairs 
 of that colony or of others neighbouring 
 it. In this regard they present a striking 
 contrast to what we see at the present 
 day. They were then builders of towns,
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 319 
 
 cultivators of the wilderness ; their descen- 
 dants turn cultivated lands into wilderness, 
 and make villages a desolation for the sake 
 of sport. 
 
 Among the more distinguished of these 
 aristocratic colony-builders was the founder 
 of Maryland, briefly referred to in a pre- 
 vious chapter. George Calvert, Secretary 
 of State to James I., was the. first man to 
 conceive the idea of a colony in north 
 Virginia. He was a Roman Catholic, and 
 one of the original members of the Virginia 
 Company. In 1631 he visited the colony, 
 and observing that there was no settlement 
 north of the Potomac, he resolved to obtain 
 a grant of land and colonise it with persons 
 of his own faith, who were then bitterly 
 persecuted in England. 
 
 George Calvert, who, though he became 
 an Irish peer in 1625, was of English
 
 320 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 descent (having been born at Kipling in 
 Yorkshire, in 1582), had in 1623 obtained 
 a charter to found a colony in Newfound- 
 land under the name of the province of 
 Avalon, " in imitation," says Lloyd, " of old 
 Avalon in Somersetshire, where Glastonbury 
 stands, the firstfruits of Christianity in 
 Britain, as the other was to be in America." 
 He crossed the ocean himself in 1627 and 
 again in 1629, taking his family with him, 
 but finding the climate very trying (besides 
 suffering greatly from the hostility of the 
 French), he relinquished the idea of a 
 colony in Newfoundland, and applied for 
 a grant of land in the more congenial 
 region of Virginia. The king endeavoured 
 to dissuade him from the project, but finally 
 (in 1632) gave him a grant of the territory 
 subsequently named Maryland, after Queen 
 Henrietta Maria. Before the charter was
 
 tEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 321 
 
 issued, however, Sir George died, and the 
 patent devolved upon his son Cecil, who 
 thus became the actual founder of the 
 colony. Cecil Lord Baltimore appointed 
 his brother Leonard governor, and in 
 November, 1632, that worthy man sailed 
 with two hundred gentlemen and a number 
 of dependents, and landed in the following 
 February near the mouth of the Potomac. 
 The colony was well managed, and made 
 more progress in six months than Virginia 
 had done in so many years. This was in 
 part owing to the fact that the Indians 
 were treated in much the same spirit 
 which Penn adopted with such success at 
 a later date. Troubles, however, came 
 with the Protectorate, and these were not 
 healed until after the Restoration, when 
 Lord Baltimore appointed his son Charles 
 Tovernor. The latter, following the maxims 
 21
 
 322 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 of his father, succeeded in establishing 
 peace and prosperity in the colony, albeit 
 only for a season, the fact of his being 
 a Catholic causing him then and after- 
 wards, when, on the death of his father, 
 he succeeded to the title and the proprietary, 
 a vast deal of trouble. 
 
 These Baltimores were a capable family, 
 taking their name from an estate in County 
 Longford ; but in a few generations the 
 race became extinct, and Irish Baltimore 
 knows them no more. 
 
 It is curious to note how " English " 
 was the first colonisation of Virginia and 
 New England. In the early annals com- 
 paratively few Scots' names appear, and 
 rarely an Irish one. Later, of course, the 
 aspect of affairs changed, the Dutch and 
 Swedes in particular gradually appearing 
 upon the scene as the American seaboard
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 323 
 
 became more generally known. But in 
 the early days of migration it was the 
 English counties, and more especially the 
 midland and eastern ones, which, as would 
 appear, supplied the chief human pabulum 
 for the hungry lands of the western 
 continent. Lincolnshire was especially 
 prolific of recruits, and not a few of the 
 notable names of early New England 
 history can be traced back to that county. 
 That of the Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, 
 has already been mentioned. From him 
 was descended, through his daughter Maria, 
 the famous Cotton Mather, one of a notable 
 family of New England divines. His grand- 
 father was the Rev. Richard Mather, of 
 Lowton, Lancashire, who became pastor 
 of the episcopal church at Toxteth, and 
 on being deposed in 1633 (at the age 
 of thirty-eight), betook himself to Massa-
 
 324 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 chusetts, where he settled at Dorchester, 
 and remained there for the rest of his 
 life.* As his second wife he espoused 
 the daughter of the Rev. John Cotton, 
 pastor of the first church in Boston ; his 
 eldest son, the Rev. Increase Mather, being 
 issue of his first wife, Catherine, daughter 
 of Edward Holt, Esq., of Bury, Lancashire. 
 Few of the divines who found their way 
 across the Atlantic for conscience' sake are 
 held in more honour than John Cotton, 
 who, leaving English Boston (where, in 
 the Cotton Chapel, St. Botolph's, is a tablet 
 to his memory, erected by admiring 
 Americans), landed in Boston harbour on 
 September 4th, 1633, along with Thomas 
 Leverett, an alderman of the old borough, 
 
 * It is worthy of note that seventy-seven English 
 divines, belonging to the Church of England, became 
 pastors of churches in America before 1640.
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 325 
 
 and afterwards governor of the colony, 
 the Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of 
 Connecticut, and several other notable men. 
 Hooker was born at Markfield, Leicester- 
 shire (1586), and educated first at Market 
 Bosworth Grammar School, and then at 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he 
 took the degree of B.A. in 1608 and that of 
 M.A. in 161 1. After holding a fellowship at 
 Cambridge for some time he became rector 
 of a church at Esher, Surrey. Some years 
 later (1629), when winning renown as a 
 preacher at Chelmsford, he was made to 
 feel the tyrant hand of Laud for his Puri- 
 tanism, and found it convenient to seek 
 refuge in Holland, the nearest house of 
 refuge for those persecuted for conscience' 
 sake. He made a sojourn there of three 
 years, and then sailed for New England, 
 settling at Cambridge (October 1633), and
 
 326 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 becoming pastor of the first church there. 
 Three years later he, with members of his 
 church, removed into the Connecticut Valley, 
 and so started that colony. 
 
 The successor of Hooker at Cambridge 
 was Thomas Shepherd, or Sheperd, a 
 Towcester (Northants) man, and, like his 
 predecessor, a graduate of Emmanuel College, 
 Cambridge. Educated at the grammar 
 school of his native town (where his people 
 were substantial landowners of the yeoman 
 class), he passed thence (in 1619) to 
 Cambridge, where he took his M.A. in 
 1627 ( tne Y ear tnat J onn Harvard went 
 up), and after ordination, became minister 
 at Earls Colne, Essex, but in 1635 found 
 himself compelled to migrate to New 
 England on account of his Nonconformity. 
 The year after his arrival he was appointed 
 pastor of the church at Cambridge, and took
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 327 
 
 an active part in the foundation of Harvard 
 College, of which he was the first minister. 
 It will be noticed how many of these 
 early pioneers for religion's sake were 
 educated at Cambridge. Something like a 
 hundred university men cast in their lot 
 with the settlers of Massachusetts Bay 
 during the twenty years from 1630 to 1650. 
 Of these seventy were from Cambridge, 
 twenty of them being graduates of Emmanuel 
 College. They were indeed so many, and 
 their influence for good was so great, and 
 is so still, that the famous university town 
 on the Cam is like a Mecca for pilgrims 
 from across the Atlantic, but especially for 
 Harvard men, who, in a window of the 
 chapel of his college, may see their own 
 memorial to the founder of their Alma Mater, 
 and beneath it a tablet bearing a suitable 
 inscription.
 
 328 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 How much the honour paid to Cambridge, 
 and the gratitude felt towards it are deserved, 
 may be gathered from the fact that the 
 roll of those who carried the spirit they 
 there imbibed to the over-sea colony in- 
 cludes, besides those already named, such 
 men as Henry Demster (of Magdalene 
 College), the first president of Harvard ; 
 Charles Chauncey (of Trinity), the second 
 president ; John Eliot, the apostle to the 
 Indians (of Jesus College), a native of Wid- 
 ford, Herts; and Roger Williams, the founder 
 of Providence, Rhode Island, the son of a 
 merchant tailor of London, a Charterhouse 
 scholar, and graduate of Pembroke College 
 a man who, like the last named, was a 
 perfect hero in his way, sterling and upright 
 to the last degree, albeit badly touched with 
 " theologitis." 
 
 Of the sister university was John Daven-
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 329 
 
 port, the founder of the colony of Newhaven. 
 A native of Coventry, where his father once 
 filled the jnayoral chair, he was educated at 
 Merton and then at Magdalen College, 
 where he took his M.A. and B.D. degrees 
 in 1625. After holding a chaplaincy at 
 Hilton Castle, Durham, for some time, 
 he became vicar of St. Stephen's, Coleman 
 Street, London, but was obliged to resign 
 the living on account of his theological 
 views and retire to Holland. Returning 
 thence two years later, he took the advice 
 of John Cotton and sailed for Boston in 
 1637, and in the following year, along with 
 friends who had gone out with him, he 
 proceeded to Quinnipiac, and there founded 
 Newhaven. 
 
 Among those who went to New England 
 with Davenport was Theophilus Eaton 
 (already referred to in connection with
 
 330 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Elihu Yale), who was a native of Stony 
 Stratford, Bucks, his father holding a curacy 
 there at the time of his birth. Subsequently 
 the latter became vicar of Holy Trinity, 
 Coventry, and then vicar of Great Budworth, 
 Cheshire, of which county he was a native. 
 Whilst at school at Coventry Theophilus 
 Eaton formed a lifelong friendship with 
 John Davenport, whose parishioner he sub- 
 sequently became when, as a merchant, he 
 settled in London and acquired the freedom 
 of the city. When his friend decided to 
 proceed to America, he elected to go there 
 with him. Together they went to Newhaven 
 (1638), of which colony he was elected 
 president the following year, an office he 
 continued to hold until his death (in 1658). 
 
 Another notable family (hailing from 
 Lincolnshire) was that to which Mrs. Ann 
 Hutchinson belonged a lady who created
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 331 
 
 no small stir in her day. Of the same stock, 
 originally of Alford, was Governor Hutchin- 
 son, a man of more sedate character and 
 balanced judgment than his female relative. 
 
 Governor Bradstreet also was a Lincoln- 
 shire man, having been born at Horblin, 
 near Spalding, in that county in 1603. 
 After spending a year at Emmanuel College, 
 Cambridge, he resided for some time in the 
 family of the Earl of Lincoln as steward, 
 and then in that of the Countess of Warwick 
 in the same capacity ; after which, with 
 Winthrop, Dudley (a Northampton man 
 by birth), and others, he elected for the 
 New World, sailing thither in 1630, taking 
 with him his wife the poetess (already 
 referred to), whom both Dana and Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes were proud to reckon 
 among their ancestors. 
 
 Yorkshire likewise gives not a few famous
 
 332 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 names to the American Valhalla. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet, among 
 others, traced his descent from a Yorkshire 
 family, and not only on his father's but 
 on his mother's side likewise. The latter, 
 Zilpah, was the daughter of Samuel Peleg 
 Wadsworth, who, it may interest some to 
 know, counted among his ancestors the John 
 Alden and Priscilla Mullens of Longfellow's 
 well-known poem, " The Courtship of Miles 
 Standish." 
 
 In speaking of James Russell Lowell it 
 was noted that on the spindle side he 
 was descended from an Orkney family. 
 Another famous American writer, Washing- 
 ton Irving, traced his descent from the same 
 region, his father being the son of Magnus 
 Irving, of Shapinska, one of the Orkney 
 Islands, and Catharine Williamson. His 
 mother, Sarah Sanders, was a Falmouth
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 333 
 
 woman, and at Falmouth she and her 
 husband, who was an officer on an armed 
 packet-ship running between that port and 
 New York, were married (in 1761). Two 
 years later they settled in New York, where 
 in due course their famous son was born. 
 When he came over to this country one 
 of the first places he visited was Scotland, 
 where he was gratified to find that one of 
 his ancestors was no other than William 
 de Irwin, armour-bearer to Robert Bruce. 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of " The 
 Scarlet Letter," was not altogether proud 
 of his " Pilgrim " ancestor, but he records 
 of William Hathorne (as the family spelled 
 the name until Nathaniel put a "w" to 
 it), who accompanied Winthrop in the 
 Arbella, that he belonged to a Wiltshire 
 family which had its residence at Wigcastle, 
 Wilton. He at first settled at Dorchester,
 
 334 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 but moved thence to Salem (in 1636), where 
 he received a large grant of land. A man 
 of strong and energetic will, suffering from 
 a Puritanism of the worst type, he is said 
 to have been instrumental as a magistrate 
 in sending " Anne Coleman and four of 
 her friends " to be whipped through Salem, 
 Boston, and Dedham for witchcraft. His 
 son John outdid even his father in narrow- 
 minded bigotry and cruelty, especially to- 
 wards the Quakers. Thus does bigotry 
 and intolerance ever beget their like. 
 Happily out of such harsh Hathornes it 
 is always possible that a richer growth ot 
 Hawthornes may blossom forth in time. 
 
 One might refer to many other famous 
 Americans and the parts whence they came 
 on this side : to John Adams, for instance, 
 the second President, whose earliest known 
 forebear was an Ap Adams of the " Marches
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 335 
 
 of Wales." The sixteenth in descent from 
 this " Ap " was a Henry Adams, who broke 
 up his home in Devonshire and sailed with 
 his eight sons to Massachusetts, "to be 
 quit of the religious persecution " which 
 then made the old country intolerable. 
 He settled in Braintree, and was the great- 
 great-grandfather of the famous John Adams 
 who succeeded Washington in the presi- 
 dency. Or we might refer to Thomas 
 Jefferson, author of the American Declara- 
 tion of Independence, whose grandfather is 
 said to have owned a small property near 
 Chesterfield (though other accounts represent 
 him as having belonged to a Yorkshire 
 family). But, by way of conclusion, let it 
 suffice to recall the name of a family which, 
 it is averred, has produced a larger number 
 of distinguished men, both in statesmanship 
 and war, than any other that England gave
 
 336 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 to America. This is the Lee family, from 
 which sprang Robert E. Lee, of Washington 
 County, Virginia, Commander-in-Chief of the 
 armies of the Southern Confederation. The 
 one to plant the name in the new country 
 was Colonel Richard Lee, who emigrated 
 to Virginia about 1641-42. It is not 
 known whether he was descended from the 
 Lees of Ditchley or the Lees of Coton, 
 but whether the one or the other, he 
 unquestionably sprang from a line of 
 ancestors of whom it has been said that 
 " they were knights and gentlemen of high 
 position before the ancestors of half the 
 present peerage of England had emerged 
 from obscurity." * There appears to have 
 been no political motive in the emigration 
 of Colonel Richard Lee. He was led to 
 throw in his lot with the planters of 
 * " Social Life in Virginia," by Philip A. Bruce,
 
 HEROES OF AMERICAN COLONISATION 337 
 
 Virginia simply in the hope of thereby 
 greatly improving his fortunes. 
 
 How many more names might fittingly 
 find a record here ! the names of men who, 
 in their various spheres, dared and did, let 
 us say, in the first place for the expression 
 of their manhood, and in the second, as 
 it proved, for the good of humanity. But 
 there is a limit to all things, and necessarily 
 to the length of a book ; and so we will bring 
 our American Shrines to an end with " a 
 pair of words," as our German friends would 
 say, on the naval hero into whose mouth 
 the most original of American poets puts 
 the words (said to be historic), when his 
 ship appears to be sinking, and he is called 
 upon to surrender : " I have only just begun 
 fighting." The hero in question was Paul 
 Jones, or more properly John Paul, the 
 youngest son of a gardener of that name, 
 22
 
 338 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 living at Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire, who, 
 looking upon the Solway from his earliest 
 youth, learned to love the sea, was appren- 
 ticed to it, and became one of its most daring 
 sons, not only as an intrepid navigator but 
 as a fighter. For in his days (1747 1792) 
 there was ever much fighting to the fore 
 fighting in the slave trade, fighting in the 
 smuggling trade, as well as in the more 
 open trade of war and Jones did his 
 share in all. In, or about, 1773 he became 
 Americanised through the death of an elder 
 brother in Virginia, leaving property, which 
 he went out to take charge of, and in this 
 employ was kept for some time in the States. 
 Two years later (December 1 775) he accepted 
 a commission in the American Navy, serving 
 first as lieutenant in the Alfred frigate under 
 the name of Jones, which he then assumed, 
 afterwards in other vessels. The action
 
 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 339 
 
 that made him famous, which Whitman cele- 
 brates as above, was fought in Le Bonhomme 
 Richard against the British frigate Serapis 
 off Flamborough Head, September 28th, 
 1779, and resulted in a complete victory 
 for Jones. It was a splendid bit of work, 
 but as it may be read about in the bio- 
 graphies of the hero, there is no need to 
 give any details of it here ; this being 
 not a history so much as a mirror in which 
 is shown how some of Britain's noblest 
 and most strenuous sons went about the 
 making of a new world and a great imperial 
 people.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abbot, Sampson, 202 
 
 Adam, VVinthrop, 202 et seq. 
 
 Adams, John, 334 
 
 Admiral Penn, 213 
 
 A Lancashire Hero, 192 
 
 Alice Washington, 134 
 
 Alleyn, Edward, and the "Col- 
 lege of God's Gift," 275, 282 
 
 Althorp, v., 7, 13, 22, 25, 58, 
 60; Park, 80; House, 8l, 
 83, 91, 92, 97, 100, 103 
 
 Alun, 249 et seq. 
 
 Ambrose Willis, 68 
 
 American Republic, founding of, 
 136 
 
 Amphillis Washington, 116, 127, 
 128, 130 
 
 Anderson, Sir Richard, 125 
 
 Mary, 125 
 Andre, Major, 296 
 Archbishop Sandys. See Sandys. 
 Armada, 21 
 
 Arms, Spencer, 54, 92, 94 
 
 Washington, 40, 41, 42, 105, 
 106, 107, 108 
 
 Arundel, Earl of, 96 
 Aston Cockayne (quoted), 273 
 Aubrey (quoted), 276 
 Avalon, 320 
 
 Baker, historian of Northants 
 (quoted), 24, 69, 128, 130 
 
 Ballad of Sir Edmund Verney's 
 
 Ghost, 65 
 
 Baltimore, Earl of, 135 
 Bankside, 274 
 Baxter, 121 
 Bayard, the Hon. T. F., 190, 
 
 285 
 
 Beaumont (the dramatist), 276 
 Bell Tower, Evesham, 294 
 Bellingham, Governor, 183 
 Ben Jonson, 97 ; (quoted), 98 
 Benefield, Richard, 276, 282 
 Berkeleys, The, 212 
 Bernard family, 72 
 Bevan, Sylvanus, 302 
 Bevercotes, 173 
 Bigland, Henry, 230 
 Blue Idol, The, 231 
 Boston, Lincolnshire, 180 
 Bradford, William, 171 et seq. 
 Bradstreet, Anne (poetess), 207 
 
 Simon, 207, 331 
 Bransby, Rev. John, 304 
 Brewster, William, 167 et seq, 
 Brington, Great, 3, 4, 22, 23, 
 
 24, 25, 26, 59, 61, 73, 74, 75, 
 79 ; church of, 82, 86, 91 
 
 Little, 71, 74, 82, 105, 109 
 Bristol, 292, 295 
 Broadway, Worcestershire, 292, 
 
 2 93 
 
 Brooks, Phillips, 270 
 Brovvnists, or Separatists, 174 
 Bryn Eglwys, 238 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 15, 118, 
 
 33 
 Budleigh Salterton, 298
 
 342 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Bulkley, Rev. Edward, 280 
 Butler, Margaret, 23, 100 
 William, 23, 75, 106 
 
 Calvert, Cecil, Lord Baltimore, 
 321 
 
 Charles, 321 
 
 George, Lord Baltimore, 319 
 
 Leonard, 321 
 Cambridge University, 259, 260, 
 
 327, 328 
 
 U.S.A., 262, 264 
 Canterbury, Pilgrimage to, 278 
 Cape Cod, landing at, 198 
 Carlyle's " Past and Present," 
 
 202 
 
 Carver, John, 190 
 Catelin, Mary, 101 
 
 Sir Robert, 101 
 Catelyns, 101 
 
 Cathedral, Southwark, 253 et 
 
 seq. 
 
 Cavendish, Lord James, 248 
 Chalfont St. Giles, 222, 226, 235 
 
 Peters, 215, 227 
 
 Chapel, the Spencer, 93 et seq. 
 Charles I., 47, 83, 99, 100 ; as 
 
 Prince, 116, 293 
 Chatham, Lord, 300 
 Charlestown, 261 
 Chaucer (the poet), 277, 278 
 Chauncey, Rev. Charles, 328 
 Chester, Colonel, 112, 295 
 Childs, George W., 285 
 Chilton, Mary, 188 
 Chishull, Elizabeth, 23, 26, 58 
 
 John, 26 
 
 Choate, Hon. Joseph H., 264, 
 
 266, 271, 272 
 Chorley old church, 94 
 Clifton, Richard, 175, 177, 178, 
 
 184 
 Clopton, Thomasine, 205 
 
 Cobham, Lord, 302-3 
 Coddington, William, 183, 207 
 Cockayne, Aston (quoted), 273 
 College, Harvard, founder of, 
 
 253 et seq. 
 
 Constable, the painter, 202 
 Coolham, 231 
 
 Cope, Sir William, 48, 49, 50 
 Copefield, Adam, 202 
 Cornet Joyce, 83 
 Cotton, John, 183, 323, 329 
 Countess of Sunderland, 81 
 " Courtship of Miles Standish," 
 
 332 
 
 Cox-Edwards, Rev. J. C., 143 
 Cradle of the Washingtons, 28 
 Craven Street, Franklin in, 300 
 Cromwell, 17, 293 
 Crusader methods, 209 
 Culworth, 29, 33, 43 
 Curtis, Philip, 26, in 
 Curzon family, 233 
 
 Dana, the writer, 331 
 Davenport, John, 328, 329, 330 
 Davidson, William, 171, 173 
 Day, Thomas, 305 
 Defoe, Daniel, 305 
 Demster, Henry, 328 
 Despencers, 91 
 Digby, Ann, 103 
 Lord, 62 
 Diploma Gallery, 307 
 D'Israeli, Isaac, 305 
 Dryden, Alice (quoted), 14 
 Dudley, Thomas, 183, 207,331 
 Dugdale (quoted), 49, 57 
 Durham, 4, 5 
 
 Duxbury, Massachusetts, 2OI 
 Duxbury Hall, the home of the 
 
 Standishes, 192, 195, 196, 200 
 Dyer, Sir Edward (the poet), 
 
 277
 
 INDEX 
 
 343 
 
 Eaton, Theophilus, Esq., 240, 
 
 329, 330 
 Ecton, 3, 4, 138 et seq,; rectors 
 
 of, 143 
 
 Edgecott Park, 47 
 Edgehill, 47, 57, 62, 65 
 Eliot, John, 328 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 14, 40, 42 
 Ellwood, Thomas, 215, 220, 221, 
 
 225, 235 
 Elm- tree memorial at Stoke 
 
 Park, 233 
 
 Emerson, 278 et seq. 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
 
 259, 265, 284, 325, 326, 331 
 Endicott, John, 208 et seq. 
 Evesham, 292, 294 
 
 Farge, Mr. J. La, 264 
 Fawsley, 41 
 
 Fenny Compton, 50, 68 
 Fitzherbert, Elizabeth, 130 
 Fisher, Richard, 149 
 Flaxman, sculptured figures by, 
 
 104 
 Fletcher, John (the poet), 273, 
 
 276 
 
 Folger, Peter, 147 
 Forth, John, 203 
 
 Mary, 205 
 
 Fountain, Memorial at Stratford- 
 
 on-Avon, 285 
 Fox, George, 225 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 2, 3, 136 
 
 et seq., 300 
 
 Benjamin (uncle of the states- 
 man), 139, 145 
 
 Henry, 138 
 
 John, 139, 148 
 
 Josiah, 139, 145 
 
 Thomas, 138^ seq.; will of, 149 
 
 Froissart, 197 
 
 Fuller, 121 ; (quoted) 275 
 
 Gainsborough, Memorial Church 
 
 at, 190 
 
 Gainsborough (the painter), 202 
 Gerard, Mark, v. 
 Ghost, Sir Edmund Verney's, 65 
 Globe Theatre, 274, 282 
 Gondomar, 117 
 Gough, Elizabeth, 14 
 William, 14 
 Gower (the poet), 277 
 Graunt, Isabel, 92 
 Gravesend, 309 
 Gray (the poet), 234 
 Greatheart of the Pilgrim Band, 
 
 20 1 
 Gresford, North Wales, 249 et 
 
 seq. 
 
 Grono, Plas, 247 
 Groton Manor, 202 
 Gulielma Penn(wife of William), 
 
 221, 225, 229, 231, 232 
 
 H 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard, 295 
 Halifax, Lord, 141 
 Hanson, John, 176 
 " Harvard House," 285 
 Harvard, John, 253 et seq. 
 
 Robert, 253, 256 et seq. 
 Hatton, Sir Christopher, 83 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 333 
 
 William, 333 
 
 Hay ward, Martha, 128, 129 
 Heard, Sir Isaac, no, 128 
 Helmdon, 29 
 Hengrave, 6, 16 
 Henry VII., 48, 49, BO, 54, 88, 
 91
 
 344 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Henry VIII., 8, IO, 17, 51, 92, 
 
 1 66, 280 
 
 Henry, Prince, 83, 97 
 Henslowe, Philip, 276, 282 
 Herald's Visitation, 128, 131 
 Hertburn, 5 
 Hervey, Rev. J., 156 
 " History and Antiquities of 
 
 Ecton" (quoted), 158, 160 
 " History of Northamptonshire," 
 
 24, 69 
 
 Hogarth, 160, 161 
 Holdenby, Elizabeth, 83 
 
 House, 83 
 
 Holland, Flight of Puritans to, 
 
 1 80 et seq. 
 
 Holmby House. See Holdenby 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 331 
 Holy rood, 97 
 
 Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 325 
 Hope Theatre, 274 
 Howard, John, 305 
 Howell, his " Familiar Letters" 
 
 (quoted), 116 
 Hutchinson, Ann, 330 
 
 Governor, 331 
 Hymners, Catherine, 248 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, 285 
 
 Washington, 4,41,46; " Sketch 
 
 Book" (quoted), 249, 285, 
 
 332 
 
 Isaac Walton, 249 
 Islip, mural monuments at, in, 
 
 112 
 
 Isted, Mr., of Ecton, 149 
 " Itinerary" of Leyland (quoted), 
 
 1 66 
 
 J 
 
 James I., Queen of, 96 
 Janssen, the sculptor, 273 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 2, 335 
 Johnson, Isaac, 207 
 
 Lady Arbella, 207 
 Jones, Mary, 124 
 
 Paul, 337 
 
 Sonson, Ben, 97, 98 
 ordans, 221 et seq. 
 oyce, Cornet, 83, 104 
 
 Kames, Lord, 300 
 Kitson, Catherine, 7, 14, 15, 
 47, 94 
 
 Margaret, 6, 15 
 
 Robert, 6, 15 
 
 Sir Thomas, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 
 47. 94 
 
 Knightley, Susan, 93 
 Knowling, Andrew, his Will, 
 
 129, 132 
 Kytson. See Kitson 
 
 La Farge, Mr. J., 264 
 Layton, Dr. Richard, 17 
 Lee, Colonel Richard, 336 
 
 Robert, E., 336 
 
 Legend of Queen Bess, A, 43 
 
 of Sir Edmund Verney, 65 
 
 of Sulgrave, 44 
 Leverett, Governor, 183, 324 
 Leyden, church at, 191 
 Leyland (quoted), 1 66 
 Light, Robert, 23 
 
 Lloyd, David, 118 
 Long, Dudley, 248 
 Longfellow (quoted), 193, 201, 
 
 209, 287, 332 
 Lowell, James Russell (quoted), 
 
 192, 201, 288, 290, 291, 332 
 
 Rev. Charles, 291
 
 INDEX 
 
 345 
 
 Luton, 124, 127 
 
 " Lygon Arms," Broadway, 292 
 
 M 
 
 Machiavelli's "Art of War," 
 
 317 
 
 Makepeace, Abel, 21 
 
 Lawrence, 21, 25 
 Marcus Aurelius, 317 
 Maryland (Founder of), 135, 
 
 320 
 Mary, Queen, 144 
 
 Queen of Scots, 55 
 Massinger, Philip (the poet), 
 
 273. 275 
 Mather, Cotton (quoted), 176, 
 
 244, 323 
 
 Rev. Richard, 323 
 Mayflower, 187, 188, 198 
 Memorial Chapel, Harvard, 265, 
 
 266 
 
 Fountain at Stratford-on- 
 Avon, 285 
 
 Memorials in and near London, 
 
 287 et seq. 
 
 Miles Standish, 192 et seq. 
 Millet, F. D. (the artist), 293 
 Milton, 215, 235, 266, 267 
 Montfort, Sir Simon de, 49 
 Moreton Pinkney, 29 
 Morley, A. L. Y., v., 77, 87 
 " Moses of New England," 203 
 
 N 
 
 Naunton, Sir Robert, 204 
 New England (project to colon- 
 ise), 167, 322 
 
 Historic and Genealogical 
 Register, 127, 241 
 
 Norfolk, Duke of, 231 
 North, Dudley L., 245, 248 
 Northampton Mayors, 12 
 
 Mercury, 12 
 
 Odin, 5 
 
 Old Bailey, Penn Memorial 
 315 
 
 Palmer, Archdeacon, 143 
 
 " Esquire," 140 
 
 Thomas, 143 
 
 "Paradise Lost" and "Re- 
 gained," 235 
 Pargiter, Abigail, 61 
 
 Amy, 14, 23 
 
 Robert, 14, 23 
 
 William, 14 
 Paul Jones, 337 
 
 Pedigree, Washington, 23. 133 
 Penn, Admiral, 213 
 
 Gulielma, 221, 225, 229, 
 
 231 
 
 Hannah, 225 
 
 William, 2 ; his Homes and 
 Burial Place, 211 et seq. ; 301, 
 32, 321 
 
 Penn village, 212, 233 
 Pennington, Isaac, 215, 216, 217, 
 221-5 
 
 William, 215 
 Pennsylvania, 223 
 Percy, Bishop, 157 
 Pershore Abbey, 294 
 Pilgrim Fathers, 1 75 et seq. 
 
 Society of Plymouth, Mass., 
 178 
 
 Phillips, Rev. George, 207 
 Plas Grono, 247 
 
 yn Yale, 236, 238, 247, 249 
 Pocahontas, 308, 313 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan, 304 
 Poyntz, Margaret Georgiana, 
 
 Lady Spencer, 104 
 President, First, of the United 
 
 States, 113, 132, 192 
 Prince Charles, 116
 
 346 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Prince Rupert, 7 
 Pulborough, 229 
 Puritans, The, 135 
 Purleigh, 23, 113, 115, 116 
 
 Quakers, Penn and, 214, 235 
 
 their treatment by Endicott, 
 209, 234, 301 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, 14, 40, 42, 43, 
 171, 317 
 
 Henrietta Maria, 320 
 
 of James I., 96 
 
 Mary, 42, 43, 144 
 
 Victoria, 303 
 Quincy, Thomas, 283 
 Quinnipiac, 329 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 296 et seq. 
 
 Randolph, John, 310 
 
 Red Horse Inn, Stratford-on- 
 
 Avon, 285 
 Rendle, Dr., author of " Old 
 
 Southwark," 256 
 Ringmer, Sussex, 230 
 Roades, William, 130 
 Robinson, Rev. John, 175, 184, 
 
 190, 198 
 Rogers, Katharine, 257 
 
 Thomas, 257 
 Rolfe, John, 309 
 
 Thomas, 310 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 270, 306 
 Rose Theatre, 274 
 Rumbold, Mrs. Elizabeth, 129, 
 
 IS' 
 
 Rupert, Prince, 57, 62, 63 
 Ruscombe, 232 
 Russell, William, 226 
 Rylands, Mrs., 82 
 
 " Sacharissa," 8 1 
 Sadler, Ann, 261 
 
 Rev. John, 261 
 St. Mary Overy, 253 
 Sampson, Abbot, 202 
 Sandys, Dr. Edwin, Archbishop 
 
 of York, 134, 165, 168 
 
 Sir Edwin, 134, 137 
 
 Robert, 134 
 
 Thomas, 134 
 
 Scrooby and the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 
 163, 1 66 et seq. 
 Separatists, 177, 179 
 Shakespeare, 273, 275, 282 
 Simpkinson, Rev. J. N., 24, 69, 
 
 71, 73, 165, 169 
 Shelley, Edward, 230 
 Sheperd, or Shepherd, Rev. 
 
 Thomas, 326 
 
 " Sketch Book " (quoted), 249 
 Smith, Captain John, 308, 311 
 
 et seq. 
 Smyth, Rev. John, 175, 184, 
 
 190 
 
 Somers's ' ' Tracts " (quoted), 1 1 7 
 Southampton, Earl of, 98 
 Spence, Harriet, 291 
 Spencer, Mary, 125, 126 
 
 Lord Robert, v., 9, 10, n, 
 15,22, 27, 47,48, 52,60, 81, 
 97, 98, 125 
 
 Memorials, 91 et seq. 
 
 the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, 
 K.G., v., 77, 79, 90 
 
 Sir John, 7, n, 13, 16, 17, 
 47,60, 70,81,88,91,94,95. 
 
 101, 102 
 
 Lord William, 15, 98, 99 
 
 Sir William, 93 
 Springett, Gulielma, 219, 229, 
 
 230, 231 
 
 Sir William, 230 
 Standish, Miles, 192 et seq. 
 Stanhope, Sir John, 173
 
 INDEX 
 
 347 
 
 "Star Chamber," 55 
 " Stars and Stripes," 107 
 Stoke Newington and Poe, the 
 poet, 204 
 
 Park, 233, 234 
 
 Poges (and churchyard), 
 233-4 
 
 Stowe, 303 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 257, 258,284 
 
 "Sufferings of the Clergy" 
 
 (quoted), 121 
 Sulgrave, 17, 1 8, 21, 22, 23, 24 ; 
 
 description of, 29 et seq. ; 
 
 church. 30 ; memorials, 34 et 
 
 seq. ; Manor-house, 37 et seq. ; 
 
 48, 70, 75^ 104 
 Sundial, The Washington, 77 
 Sunderland, Earl of, 64, 103 
 Syon, Monastery of, 230 
 
 "Tabard," The, and the Pil- 
 grimage to Canterbury, 278 
 Thompson, Canon, 253 
 Tom Telltruth (quoted), 117 
 Townshend, C. H., 241 
 Traill, Mary and Robert, 291 
 Treaty with Indians, memorial 
 
 of, 233 
 
 Tring, 122, 123, 124, 126, 129 
 Troil, Minna, 291-2 
 Tyndale, Sir John, 206 
 
 U 
 
 University, Cambridge, 259, 327 
 
 Harvard, 260, 265 etseq. 
 
 Oxford, 328 
 
 Yale, 245 
 
 Valle Crucis Abbey, 236 
 Vane, Sir Henry, 208 
 
 Veres, Miles Standish with, in 
 
 Holland, 197 
 Verney, Sir Edmund, 65, 116, 
 
 117, 118, 125, 134 
 
 Francis, 125 
 
 Tom, 134 
 
 Vicar of Culworth, 43 
 
 Virginia, 123, 124, 131, 132, 
 '34. 298, 308, 310, 317, 318, 
 320, 321, 322, 336, 338 
 
 Virginia Company, 187, 319 
 
 Virgin Queen, 297 
 
 W 
 
 Walker, John (quoted), 121 
 Waller, the poet, 81 
 Warburton (quoted), 62, 63 
 Warminghurst, 229, 230, 231 
 Warton, 4, 23, 28, 132 
 Washington, Amy, 26, 36, no, 
 III 
 
 Amphillis, 116, 127, 130 
 
 Christopher, 21 
 
 Elizabeth, 70, 102 
 
 George, 2, 4, 19, 24, 58, 132, 
 136 
 
 Gregory, 24, 69, 75 
 
 Henry (Col.), 63, 134 
 
 House, 74, 76 
 
 John (later Sir), 4, 15, 22, 23, 
 
 100, IOI 
 
 John (son of Rev. Lawrence), 
 113, 123, 131, 132 
 
 Lawrence (of Sulgrave and 
 Brington), v., 4, 6, II, 12, 13, 
 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 24, 26, 34, 
 36, 47, 58, 69, 72, 95, 104, 
 106 
 
 Lawrence (Rev.), of Purleigh, 
 23, no, 113, 114 et seq. ; his 
 children, 124 
 
 Lawrence (Sir), 118 
 
 Lawrence (son of the Rev. 
 Lawrence), 123 et seq.
 
 348 AMERICAN SHRINES IN ENGLAND 
 
 Washington, Lucy, 100, no 
 
 Mordaunt, 100 
 
 Richard, no 
 
 Robert, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 
 24, 47, 48, 57, 58, 59, 60, 69, 
 73, 105, 106, 107 
 
 Thomas, 116 
 
 William, 21,23,63, 109, 118 
 Washingtons, The, of North- 
 amptonshire, I, 9, 28, 33 
 
 Watergall, 60 
 
 Waters, H. F., 113, 125, 127, 
 
 128, 255 (quoted), 263 
 Welles, Albert, 5 
 Wessyngton, John de, 5 
 West, Benjamin, 307 
 Westminster Abbey, Memorials 
 
 in, 287, 294 
 Weston Hall, 42 
 White, Rev. John, 186 
 Whitfield, 4, 23, 28 
 Whitman, Walt., 339 
 Whittier (quoted), 2IO 
 Why te-Melville, 23; (quoted), 84 
 Williams, Roger, 328 
 Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 68 
 Willoughby, Abigail, 14, 61 
 
 Margaret, 95 
 
 Willoughbys, 56, 6 1 
 Wilson, historian of James I., 10 
 Winthrop, Adam, 202 et seq. 
 John, 202 et seq. ; 331 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 165, 166 
 Wool-stapling, 8 
 Wormleighton, 13, 25, 47 ; 
 description of, 49 ; et seq. 90 
 Wrexham, 237, 244, 245, 247 
 Wriothesley, Penelope, 98, 99 
 Wykes, Mr., 77 
 
 Yale Chapel, 239 
 
 College, The Founder of, 236 
 et seq. 
 
 Elihu, 239, 253, 330 
 
 David, 240, 246 
 
 Thomas, 240, 247 
 
 Plas yn, 236, 241, 247, 249 
 Yale-in-Powys. 239 
 
 Yales, Pedigree of, 241 
 
 Zeeman, Enoch, painter, 245, 
 249 
 
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