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NOTES UPON WELSH AND BORDER-LAND…

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NOTES UPON WELSH AND BORDER- LAND PEDIGREES. [BT A WILSH ANTNJUART.J I "Notwithstanding my good friend. Mr Alderman, Jno. Jo&eB'B assurance to the contrary, I think the differenc* is great— Between the man who own. a vast estate, And him who cirries. on his manly front, An eye that would not quail in battle a brunt. But there are none of us, who has ever dwelt upon the history of Wynnstay. and of its owners, who will not admit, that, its family rent roU haa al- ways been expended In a generous spirit-gencra. tion after generation for years untold-for the comfort and pleasure of the Welsh. Among the many men of a former generation, who enjoyed the splendid hospitality of the owners of Wynnatay. the name of HESRY WILLIAM RUN BURY. a distinguished caracaturist, will commend itself to attention. He was a genial, intelligent, and com- panionable man, who could use his facile pencil to instruct and t3 amuse mankind and in his oft re- peated visits to the Sir Watkin of his day, he left behind him many abiding proofs of his powers as an artist, and of hia goodness as a friend. Capt. Bunbury was the second son of the Rev. Sir William Bun- bury, Bart., the owner of Stanney, in Cheshire, and the representative of a gentle ancient and dia- tinguished family. He was the great grandson, also, of Sir Thomas Hanmer, M.P., of Bettisfield, and great great grandson to old Sir Kenrick Eyton, one of our Welsh judges, under the ancient juris- dicial regime, which dealt with Wales as if she had been a nation. But the gallant gentleman also claimed to have descended from the Norman eoldier of fortune St. Pierre, who, for his good ser- vices, had granted to him by Hugh Lupus, the manor of Bunbury, in Cheehire. ALEXANDER DE BUSBCRY, who lived in the time of Henry the third, was too wise a man to pretend that he had derived from Lupus. for heknew that there was no record in exist- ence that would show a sidgle line of descent from that renowned and lucky adventurer. Six hundred years later, however, it became safe enough to claim a descent from Hugh the Wolf, for there re- mained no one in England or in Walea to question it. But these Bunbury's never traded upon men's credulity in that way, and they have been content to rest their title to local distinction upon the safe ground that their progenitor Alexander de Bunbury had acquired land in Cheshire, which they atiil hold, as in iineal descent from him. DAVID DE BUNBURY, who was living in the reign of Edward the Second, added to his Cheshire inheritance by marrying Anne, the daughter of David de Stanney, and with her he obtained the lordship of Stanney, near Chester. Their descendants are said to have held it in lineal descent from that time t3 the present, which in probably true, for I happen to know that, there are manuscripts in existence which seem to sanction that claim. Burke has been content to say that the later generations of Bunbury's lineally sprang" out of the union I have just mentioned, and that Sir Thomas Bunbury, Bait., of Stanney and of Bunbury, had derived from the Norman St. Pierre, who WM a servitor under Hugh Lupus. The Rev. Sir William Bunbury was the fifth baronet of his family, and he was, as I have stated, the father of Henry William. The second son of the last named, eventually succeeded his uncle (Sir Charles John) as seventh baronet, and it appears to me that both traditionally and historically, theseBun- burys' do from first to last represent in themselves a long and continuous chapter in Cestrian records, which might be studied with advantage by all anti- quarians. But even in this comparatively faultless pedi- gree, asides" have been dragged in by some writers, which will not bear investigation for an effort has been made by one genealogist to mix them up with the Touchets, and especially with Lord James Audley, whose honored name and great gallantry have for long been the theme of story and of song. John Delves, a Cheshire youth, was one of the four esquires who attended upon Lord Audley at the battle of Poitiers, but it is alto- gether a mistake to mix Lord James up with the Touchets of Cheshire, and through them with the Bunburys at least it appears so to me, for a reason which I am about to state. ROBERT TOCCHETT, of Tattenhall, in Cheshire, did live in the early days of Edward the Third, and he had a son, Thomas Touchett, who died in the 23rd year of that king's reign. He was father to the veiy gallant SIR JOHN TOCCHETT, who was killed before Rochelle, in the 44th year of Edward the Third, and it is clear, therefore, that this last named could not represent in any way the great James. Lord Audley, who had covered himself with glory at the battle already mentioned. But loan, the daughter of Lord Audley, of Halegh, married John, the son of Sir John Touchett, and when her brother Nicholas died in 1392, she became his heir. and her son, John Touchett, was summoned to Parliament in 1405, in Henry the Fourth's reign as Lord Audley. I am certain that no Bunbury had married into the line of Robert Tonchett, of Tattenhall, during the period I have dwelt upon but I must not presume to say there had been no alliances be- tween the families in James, Lord Audley's lines, though I must doubt it until some writer can give reliable evidence to the contrary. I have been induced to adopt the line of criticisms which have distinguished these notes on a system of pedigree manufacture to try and induce our local genealogists to adopt historical records as a foundation for their studies in prefer- ence to mere tradition and to deprecate as far as it can be done the theory of assumptions upon which so many of our modern pedigrees are based. I admit that in several instances there may be some foundation for apparently unwritten state- ments, and that it is possible with care to unravel much that at first sight may appear mysterious. I will give two instances of this nature, which came under my own observation in connection with Wales and its Borders. Lord Chancellor Camden had been described in a pedigree sent to me as of Welsh descent. The truth is that his father-Chief Justice PJ&tt—had by a second wife a son, John Platt. of the Wilder- ness, in Kent, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Jeffreys, of the Priory, Brecnock, by whom he had a son, John, who, dying in 1797, left his estates to the Marquis Camden, son oj the Lord Chancellor, only because the Chancellor had himself married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Jeffreys, of the Priory, Breonock; his son thus became a sort of half Welshman through his mother, and was eventually created Earl of Brecnock, and Marquis Camden. The Chancellor himself had not a drop of Welsh blood in his vein?, but through the carelessness of the herald he has been confounded with this son. The other instance alluded to is equally laugh- able, but of a different kind, Susannah, daughter of William Hanmer, of Bettisfield, married Reginald Pinder." I searched high and low for some proof of the fact, until by accident I met with another entry, in which it was said, Elizabeth, daughter of Reginald Lygon, by Susannah Hanmer, his wife, married the Hon. John Yorke, third son of Lord Chancellor Hard. wicke." The Reginald in question had assumed the name of Lygon, and thua the vexed problem was solved at once But my good luck in that case stood me in good stead, for I found how the Yorkes had originally come to Erddig, and local fact was thus added to my store of knowledge. It appears that Simon Yorke, of Dover, in Kent, an additional, who died in 1682, bad, among other children, two eons, Philip and Simon. PHILIP I married Elizabeth Gibbon, of the ancient family of her name, long resident in Kent, and a branch of which had settled at Shrewsbury, about the close (,f the fifteenth century. Lord Chancellor Hardwicke was their son. SIMOJT YORKE I married Aune, sister and heiress of John Meller, of Erddig, and thus our county became enriched with a race who have since done honor to it, and service to the public. All your readers will concur with me in saying that Philip Yorke, of Erddig, con- ferred service to our nation by the publication of his Tracts of Powi's and The RQyal Tribes of Wales and that the gallant soldier, John Yorke, who died but the other day, has left behind him a name of imperishable fame. I close these imper- fect notes at that point, and in doing so have to thank you for their insertion in your columns.

-POLITICAL. I

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