A HISTORY OF THE FAMILY OF FORTESCUE

A HISTORY OF THE FAMILY OF FORTESCUE

THE FAMOUS AND RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN FORTESCUE KNIGHT LORD CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND TO KING HENRY THE SIXTH From Faithene s print of an original portrait on wood belonging to Sir John Fortescue Bart of Salden AD 1662

A HISTORY OF THE FAMILY OF FORTESCUE IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. BY THOMAS (FORTESCUE) LORD CLERMONT. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: ELLIS AND WHITE, 29, NEW BOND STREET 1880.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. This family history is the result of a desire felt by the Author, when collecting the Works, and examining the career of Chancellor Fortescue, to know something more than what the Peerages record of the links which connect him by descent with that eminent person. He had at first no intention to inquire into the history of any branch of the Fortecues, excepting that of which the Chancellor is a direct ancestor. In searching, however, for materials to carry this scheme into effect much was found which related to other branches of the house; several persons of the name who occur in the Chronicles or Histories of England proving to be lineal descendants, not of the Chancellor, but of his brothers; while others were traced to forefathers who formed part of the common stock at an earlier period. The writer therefore having, as it were, drifted into this more general investigation resolved to include in his account all that could be discovered relating to any and every branch of the Fortescue family, not excluding those who remained in Normandy after the Conquest of England. His chief source of information has been, in the first and principal place, the British Museum, where a large part of the genealogical and biographical matter has been drawn from the Herald s Visitations, from the Inquisitions post Mortem, and from collections of public and private letters. The Record Office, whose stores of State Papers are now accessible for reference through the printed Calendars, has also furnished many details of interest, as have the Carte Papers in the Bodleian Library; while for actual genealogy based upon the records of birth, marriage, and death, the Pedigrees and extracts from Parish Registers in Stemmata Fortescuana drawn up in the year 1795 by Mr. Benjamin Incledon, and now belonging to Earl Fortescue who kindly placed the MS. volume at the Author s disposal, have been largely used, together with the Wills at Doctors Commons, and the Funeral Certificates at the College of Arms. In arranging the numerous items of this subject, spreading as it does over a space of eight centuries, the Author has, among the great mass of what is dry or unimportant, met not infrequently with incidents and details sufficient, when read by the light of contemporary history, to bring out tangibly, to his own perception at least, something of the life and character of the person to whom they refer; and he trusts that by putting those incidents on record, and thus supplying to the dry bones of a skeleton pedigree the flesh and spirit of actors in scenes, historical or social, of real life, he may succeed in imparting to his Cousins near and distant, the only readers which a Work of this nature can be expected to attract, some of the interest in the subject which he has himself acquired. It has been his desire, by tracing the various branches of the Family to a common ancestor, who lived at the time when the history of Anglo-Norman England may be said to begin, to present it as an ideal whole, taking part through one or more of its members, and to a greater or less extent, in the events of almost every period of the history of our country; not, indeed, with any such prominence as to entitle it to a place among the powerful families of the land, but sufficiently to stamp it as a fair example of a knightly and noble House of England. The Author has received assistance from many quarters, as well from members and connections of the Family as from others; and his requests for information on particular

points have always been courteously answered, some times at the cost, he fears, of considerable trouble to those to whom he has applied. The names of these contributors need not be repeated here, as their services are acknowledged in the pages of this volume. He must, however, record the valuable help received, for every part of this work, from Mr. Richard Sims, of the British Museum, whose intimate knowledge of the MSS. and genealogical works in the Library there has supplied the Author with a great part of his materials. 35, Hill Street, February 6th, 1869. CLERMONT.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The distribution of a small edition of this Family History, privately printed in 1869, has shown that there are persons beyond the range of family connections who take an interest in such genealogical narratives as the present. I am consequently encouraged to issue for publication a limited number of copies as a new edition of the work. A few additions have been made - the principal being a series of letters from Sir John Fortescue, of Salden, Queen Elizabeth s Minister, to Sir Robert Cecil and other public men of the period, from the Hatfield col1ection, to which I lately obtained access through the obliging courtesy of the Marquis of Salisbury. A last reading over of the beginning of the volume induces me to remind the reader that the so-called early history of this family, like that of many others, is really not history at all, not being founded on documentary evidence, but tradition deserving of credit so far only as it is not contradicted by probability or historic fact. The Domesday Book does not record, in any recognizable form, an ancestor of the Fortecues among the persons who received grants of land from William the Conqueror. The residence, therefore, at Wimstone, immediately after the Conquest, of Adam Fortescue, either as a tenant-in-chief or as an under-tenant, must not be unreservedly accepted. If the Fortecues were there at all at that early time, it was probably in some other capacity than that which either of those tenures would imply. I must here renew my acknowledgments to Mr. Richard Sims for valuable assistance in almost every inquiry connected with this new edition; and in particular for carefully editing the Norman Rent-roll now appended to the work. After the printing of this volume was finished, I was favoured by Mr. Knight Watson, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, with a notice of a remarkable sketch communicated to the Society on the 21st of December, 1769, by the Honourable Daines Barrington, purporting to represent Chancellor Fortescue in his robes of office, bearing a bag with the Great Seal; and I desire to express my obligation to that learned Body for allowing it to be lithographed for this work. The hat, and the manner of wearing the beard, more in accordance with the fashion of Elizabeth s reign than with that of Henry the Sixth, seem to refer to the later period the execution of the sketch; the chief intention of which may have been to illustrate a mode of carrying the Seal-bag. 35, Hill Street, August 19th, 1880. CLERMONT.

CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME. Preface to First Edition Preface to Second Edition List of Sheets of Pedigrees List of Illustrations Introduction CHAPTERS 1 The Fortescues of Wimstone including 1885 Appendix... 3 2 The Fortescues of Preston, and of the Second Line of Wood.. 9 3 The Fortescues of Spridlestone...... 11 4 The Fortescues of Cookhill and Wheatley.... 15 5 The Fortescues of Fallapit, Second Line...... 27 6 The Fortescues of Norreis and Wood, and of Fallapit, First Line. 44 7 Chancellor Sir John Fortescue...... 50 8 Chancellor Fortescue s Declaration upon Certain Writings.. 106 9 The Fortescues of Filleigh or Castlehill..... 126 10 The Fortescues of Buckland-Filleigh..... 148 11 The Fortescues of Dromiskin and Ravensdale.... 169 12 The Fortescues of Punsborne and Falkborne.... 234 13 The Fortescues of Salden........ 255 14 The Fortescues of Salden continued..... 312 15 The Fortescues of Salden continued..... 417 16 The Fortescues of Normandy...... 448 Appendix.......... 483 Chartrier de Richart Fortescu. General Index.

SHEETS OF PEDIGREES IN THIS VOLUME Family of Wimstone........ 3 Family of Preston........ 9 Family of Spridlestone....... 11 Family of Cookhill and Wheatley...... 15 Family of Fallapit, Second Line...... 27 Family of Wells-Fortescue of Fallapit...... 42 Family of Wood, and of Fallapit, First Line..... 44 Family of Castlehill........ 126 Family of Buckland-Filleigh....... 148 Family of Shebbear....... 150 Family of Inglett-Fortescue of Buckland-Filleigh.... 167 Family of Dromiskin and Ravensdale...... 169 Family of Stephenstown....... 210 Family of Whiterath........ 212 Family of Punsborne and Falkborne...... 234 Family of Salden........ 254

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS VOLUME. Chancellor Fortescue, by Faithorne..... Frontispiece Signatures of Sir Nicholas Fortescue and others..... 17 Sir Edmund Fortescue........ 30 Ebrington Manor House........ 59 Chancellor Fortescue carrying the Seal-bag..... 64 Signature of Chancellor Fortescue...... 73 Facsimile of MS. of De Laudibus...... 79 Ebrington Church........ 84 Tomb of Chancellor Fortescue....... 91 Chancellor Fortescue, from Bosworth Picture..... 94 Wear Giffard......... 126 Old Castlehill House......... 131 New Castlehill House........ 135 Second Earl Fortescue........ 138 First Lord Fortescue of Credan....... 143 Facsimile of Letter by Alexander Pope...... 156 Buckland-Filleigh House and Church...... 160 Right Honble. William Fortescue...... 166 Arthur, First Lord Chichester....... 174 Banner of Sir Faithful Fortescue...... 188 Facsimile of Letter of Sir Faithful Fortescue..... 194 Marchioness of Lothian....... 205 Facsimile of Receipt by Sir Joshua Reynolds..... 207 Lord Carlingford........ 209 Earl of Clermont........ 211 The same, on horseback....... 214 Countess of Clermont....... 218 Ravensdale Park House....... 222 Brasses in Falkborne Church....... 250 Facsimile of Handwriting of Sir Adrian Fortescue.... 263 Sir Adrian Fortescue....... 273 Monument to Lady Fortescue....... 279 Sir John Fortescue of Salden, engraved by Hunt..... 312 Salden House......... 326 Facsimile of Letter of Sir John Fortescue of Salden.... 367 Sir John Fortescue of Salden, engraved by Zobel..... 372 Monument to Sir John Fortescue of Salden..... 375 Monument to Sir Francis Fortescue..... 417 Map of the Cotentin........ 449 Coats of Arms borne by the Fortescue Family..... 474 Facsimile of first page of Norman Chertier.... Chartrier 1 Facsimile of folio 13 of same....... 12

WOODCUTS PRINTED WITH THE TEXT. Fallapit House........ 28 Seal of Chancellor Fortescue....... 72 Buckland-Filleigh Church....... 149 Seal of Richart Fortescu....... 172 Seal of Sir Faithful Fortescue....... 175 Carisbrooke Church, Isle of Wight...... 197 Signature of Sir Adrian Fortescue...... 271 Seal of the same...... 271 Seal of Sir John Fortescue of Salden...... 334 Sir John Fortescue of Salden, with Cecil and Popham.... 358 Brass to Lady Fortescue in Murseley Church..... 376 Coat of Arms of Thomas Fortescue...... 424 Seal of Jehan Fortescu, A.D. 1379..... 457 Seal of Jehan Fortescu, A.D. 1388..... 459 Seal of Guillaume Fortescu, A.D. 1403..... 461 Seal of Pierre Fortescu, A.D. 1419..... 463 Two Seals of Arms, A.D. 1403 and 1429.... 476 Signature of G. Fortescu..... On last page of Chartrier Clermont Lodge, Norfolk..... On first page of Index

AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF FORTESCUE. INTRODUCTION. The family of Fortescue, like many others of our ancient houses, is of Norman extraction, and claims to have been planted in England by a Companion or follower of William the Conqueror, known to the pedigrees of all its branches as Sir Richard Le Fort, or Fort-Escu. An ancestor of this soldier of the invasion was, as we may safely assume, one of those Danish or Norwegian sea rovers who scarcely more than a century and a half before, under the leadership of Rolf, or Rollo, landed on the French coast, and made themselves masters of Rouen and the eastern parts of the modern province of Normandy: and who, thirty years later, after the defeat of a Breton prince, extended their territory as far to the west as the present boundary of Normandy and Brittany, driving the native inhabitants into the latter province, and dividing among themselves, to soldiers as well as to chiefs, the vacant lands. The double operation of conquest and colonization was performed both thoroughly and speedily; for the district, known afterwards as the Côtentin and the Bessin, became within the space of a few years, although the last annexed, one of the completely Normanised, so that, as the historian tells us, it came to be reckoned as the very Normandy of Normandy. 1 Here the Danish language and the heathen religion kept their ground until the close of the tenth century, and here the rough knights and barons, proud of their Scandinavian blood, which was purer than in the rest of the Duchy, and remarkable for their turbulent independence 1 Palgrave s History of Normandy and England, vol. ii. p. 178.

INTRODUCTION 2 of the Rouen government, were accustomed to go into battle crying for aid to Thor, rather than to the God of their Christian fel1ow-countrymen 1. It was chiefly in the northern part of this region, in what the Historian of the Conquest styles the noble peninsula of the Côtentin 2, the cradle of Anglo-Norman families, that the ancestors of the Fortecues appear to have received their shares of the conquered territory. It was there, at all events, that the first mention of the name occurs, and it was there, within a few leagues of the town of Carentan, that, as we learn from abundant documentary evidence, the Fortecues held many fiefs, and occupied many residences from an early period. The venerable and almost uniform tradition relating to the origin of the name, and to the establishment of the family in Normandy and in England, is as follows. Richard 3, surnamed Le Fort, a very strong man, a Norman knight, and cupbearer to tine Duke of Normandy, landed in England with his master in the year 1066, and fighting the great battle of Senlac or Hastings, saved the Duke, who had three horses killed under him, from the blows of his assailants, protecting him with his shield. In allusion to this deed of valour Richard, before named Le Fort, under which name, as Fort or Forz, he appears in Graftons and Holinshed s copies of the Rolls of Battle Abbey, was thenceforward known as Richard le Fort-Escu, or the Strong Shield, which surname, writes Holinshed, is deduced from the strength of his shield whereof that familie had first originall. Afterwards, when the use of mottoes was introduced, his descendants chose one with reference to the same event Forte Scutum Salus Ducum, that is, A strong shield the safety of leaders. The tradition further says that after the Conquest Richard Fort-Escu returned to Normandy, where his descendants through a second son flourished until the eighteenth century, leaving behind in England his eldest son Sir Adam, who had also fought at Hastings, and who was the ancestor of all the English Fortescues. Whether the incident on the battle-field has any foundation in fact or not, we are probably justified in considering the name of Le Fort rather as that of a family than as a cognomen acquired by the aforesaid Richard. He may have been a soldier belonging to the family of Le Fort, well known within and near the Côtentin in early times; and an event such as that referred to by the motto may have actually taken place under less remarkable circumstances, and may have suggested the two last syllables of the new surname. In whatever way the fact is to be accounted for, it is certainly true that within a century and a half from the invasion of England, the name of Fortescue is found existing both in Normandy and in Devonshire, and that, being obviously not of local or territorial origin, it can hardly have arisen otherwise than from some such personal incident as that which tradition has handed down to us. 1 Thierry, Conquête de I Angleterre par les Normans, vol. i, p. 2:5. 2 Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i. 182, 2nd edition. 3 The French genealogists make him Robert or William.