THE HISTORY OF THE DAYRELLS
OF
LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL,
FROM WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR TO VICTORIA,
WITH MENTION OF THE FAMILIES OF
GRENVILLE, SEYMOUR, NEVILLE, HAMPDEN, CAREW, PUREFOY, TRELAWNEY, AND THE ROYAL FAMILY OF ENGLAND, INTO WHICH THEY HAVE INTERMARRIED.
JERSEY;
LE LIEVRE, BROS., PRINTERS AND BOOKSELLERS,
13, HALKETT PLACE.
1885.
CHAPTER I.
THE HOME OF THE DAYRELLS
LILLINGSTONE DAYRELL, the seat of the elder branch of the Dayrell family, is situated in Buckinghamshire, about four-and-a-half miles north of the County town.
The Manor belonged in Saxon times to the Giffards, Earls of -Buckingham, but was given by William the Conqueror to a Norman Knight named D’aireI, who accompanied him on his first landing in England.
The name spelt thus “Darell” appears in the roll of Battle Abbey, amongst the Norman followers of the Conqueror, and is also in Doomsday Book. Beyond this mention, but little is known of the founder of the English branch of the Dayrells; it is, however, noteworthy that the name of the Norman follower of Duke William, who accompanied his master that invasion of England which resulted in conquest and the division of the rich Saxon lands between William and his Knights, is spelled in old Norman deeds as D’ Ayrell of D’ Ayrell Castle, four miles north of St. LO, in the diocese of Coutances, departement de la Manche, France; in the roll of Battle Abbey, is spelt Darell; in a deed of 1170, is signed Dayrell, in which way the name has continued be written.
In 1300, the Dayrells became possessed of fee-simple of the Manor of Lillingstone Dayrell consisting of 800 acres of land with extensive seignorial rights of chase and forestry.
The Manor has continued in the family by lineal descent in the direct male line down to the pres proprietor, Captain E. Marmaduke Dayrell, r.n., who is the 35th Lord of the Manor.
Lyson, the historian, says in his Magna Britannia
“The family of Dayrell appears to be the only one now existing in the male line, which is to be found in the list of the gentle families of Bucks of 1433, excepting the Grenvills, now Dukes of Buckingham, and the Chetwodes, created Baronets but who no longer reside in the county of Buckingham, although they still hold land there.”
In the second year of King John (1200) Richard son of Elias Dayrell, was seized of a messuage a half a Knight’s fee.
In 1300, we find Henry Dayrell: then Lord of the Manor, was disputed with for the lands, I presume on a mortgage, for Jolin de Foxley and Constance, his wife, impleaded Henry Darrell for the Manor of Lillingstone, and says the Roll of Suffield Priory:
Henricus Dayrell in misericordia est.
About ten years after, Henry Dayrell having agreed with Foxley and his wife, recovered the Manor.
After which we hear no more of Foxley or any other Claimants, and so the Manor seems from this time, for 685 years, to have rested in this family and acquired its second name from this family, Lillingstone Dayrell.
CHAPTER II.
CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE.
It is proper to notice that Lipscombe, the great historian of Buckinghamshire, gives a different version of this Dayrell family’s origin.
In the 3rd Vol. of his history, page 660, he states, mentioning one Roger, in the time of Edward the Confessor:
,
“This Roger is presumed to have been one of ” the family of Dayrell; for they may be traced back beyond all existing records as resident on the Estate. Everything is vague and uncertain until William Darell, a gentleman from the North part of Normandie, so called from a Castle in that countrie, coming into England with William the Conqueror, was by him for several services in the North, as well as pacifying the Rebelliion of the Yorkshire men, as in resisting the Scotch that came to aid them, not only made Knight of the City of York after the burning of it, but also endowed with the possessions of a Saxon called Ethelred of Bradsworth.”
“This Sir William had issue, William, knighted by King Henry the First, and made Constable of the Castle of York.”
HEIRESSES MARRIED BY DAYRELLS:
Juliana de Bray, wife of Sir Ralph Dayrell (1226)
Alicia Hampden, ‘’ Sir H. Dayrell (1250)
Johanna de Samford, ‘’ 2nd Sir Ralph Dayrell
Johanna of agmondeshjam, ‘’ John Dayrell
Eleanor de Langport, ‘’ 2nd wife of same (1417)
Dorothy Danvers of Colethorpe, ‘’ Sir. Thos. Dayrell
(Daughter of Home, Bishop of Winchester)
Anne, ‘’ Richard Dayrell, D. D.
(Niece of Richard, Viscount Cobham and Marquess of Buckingham, Co-heiress of the Temple family)
[Extract from Somerset Herald at Arms.]
Ralph Dayrell, the husband of the heiress of the De Brays, made good use of his money giving largely to Luffield Abbey, also building to St. Thomas the Martyr, on a distant part of the estate, far from the Parish Church of St. Nicholas,
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the gift of which has been always in the Dayrell family, and which is situated within the Manor grounds close to the house.
Marmaduke Dayrell, grandson of Sir William Dayrell, of Bradsworth, Kent, was General under Lord Scroope, and served Richard the 1st at Acre; where, by the way, this Marmaduke achieved great fame, by killing the Prince of the Isle of Cyprus in single combat, and therefore, in perpetual memorium the lion that he bare before, was now crowned, and having no crest before, had then for his cognizance a Saracen’s Head issuing out of a Crown attired after that country’s manner.
[Extract from Somerset Herald at Arms.]
CHAPTER III.
OF DAYRELLS WHO MARRIED LADIES OF HIGH DEGRE:
AND LED QUIET LIVES IN THE MANOR HOUSE.
In the reign of Richard 2nd, Sir Paul Dayrell was made banner bearer to the King of Scots, and in that capacity challenged Sir Percy Courtenay, the King of England’s banner bearer to a tournament at Smithfield where they ran several courses and gave over at last without victory to either side.
By the Dayrell pedigree, we observe a succession of father and son through several centuries, apparently of uneventful and prosperous lives, with inter-
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marriages into the Houses of Beaufort, Widville, ChicherIey, one of whom the famous Henry Chicherley was Archbishop of Canterbury and founder of All Souls College, Oxon. His niece, Florence Chicherley became the wife of John Dayrell in 1432, her husband being Sir Nicholas Peche, her second Burton and her third ! and last, John Dayrell, by whom she had six children.
Her second son Sir Richard Dayrell, became Sub-treasurer of England under King Richard the 2nd and married Margaret, daughter of Edmund Bea Duke of Somerset and granddaughter of John of Gaunt by Catherine Swinford.
This Margaret Beaufort, who the young Sir Richard Dayrell woed and won, was according to old writers, the greatest beauty of the age, and her royal descent must have been a brilliant: for the Buckinghamshire Knight. It was evil a love match, and from all accounts resulted in a happy life spent together in peace, even in stormy days of civil war.
Sir Richard and the beautiful Margaret had one child, another Margaret, who grew up and married James Touchet, Lord Audeley.
Margaret Dayrell survived her gallant husband Sir Richard, and married a second time Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, slain (in the life time of his father the Duke of Buckingham) at the battle of St. Alban’s .
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By her second husband, Margaret had a son who inherited his mother’s beauty and his father’s misfortunes.
He was that Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, beheaded at Salisbury by Richard the 3rd, 1483, of whom Shakespeare speaks.
Royal Forests, maintained chiefly as places of sports for our Kings, were subject to peculiar regulations. In the earlier periods, the laws concerning them were not so much designed for the preservation of timber, as for the protection of deer and the regulations of the rights of common enjoyed by the inhabitants Within the purlieus of the Forest.
The DayrelIs, from a very early period, had rights of hunting in the Royal Forest of Whittlebury, in token of which they possessed a Horn termed the Purlieus Horn, given by the Sovereign, and carrying with it the right of hunting deer in that forest.
When Wittlebury forest was disforested in 1821; a piece of land was given to the Dayrell family in compensation for the loss of the hunting privileges.
The horn now in possession of Capt. Dayrell, the present Lord of the Manor, is handsomely mounted in silver, with silver mouth-piece and a massive Coat-of-Arms at the large end bearing the date 1692
In 1495, in the reign of Henry 7th, we find Thomas Dayrell of Lillingstone, High Sheriff for Bucks, and again in 1504, holding the same office, also that of Forest Ranger in the Royal Forest of
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Wittlebury, where Edward the 4th, first met Lady Elizabeth Woodville and where Henry 8th took Catherine Howard a maying.
PERIUN W ARBECK.
“In the 11th year of Henry 7th, the Cornish men rose again as ready as ever to fight King Henry.
“As soon as the King heard of this he hasted his army to Exeter, as fast, as was possible and sent diverse souldiers before toward Exeter, to certify all men of his coming.
“He rested at the next town, Tantun, and there viewded his host and set it in array redye to fight he had but little affiance in same, because many his souldiers were so slenderly armed and I skylled in warre.
“When the Kyng saw Perkin Warbeck was gone to Tantun, he hasted thither after him with all spede. Thither came Henry, Duke of Buckingham a young man veray valiant and of lustie Courage and with him a great companie of noblemen and gentry as Giles Brigge, Edward Dayrell and others.
“In the Cornish Insurrection of Henry 7th those who went to quelle it was Thomas Dayrell and to cause the people to have true hearts to their Kyng, for the which many of the Cornish men fainted and had less mind to fight and for fear fled privilie in the night from their compagnie.”
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CHAPTER IV.
THE ROYAL MARRIAGE.
But while the second son of John Dayrell and Florence, the much-wedded wife of three husbands, has achieved the distinction of bearing away the belle of the English Court, the third son Sir George has done good service too. He has fought on the side of the King in those dreadful wars of the Roses.
To him, old John Dayrell has given as an estate in a neighbouring county, the fair house of Littlecote, brought into the family by Elizabeth, heiress of Thomas de Calston, Lord of Littlecote. To this fine estate Sir George retires in the rare intervals of peace and there he brings home a bride -( also a Margaret), daughter of Lord Stourton. By this lady, Sir George had one child, Elizabeth, through whom the Dayrell family rose to the proud distinction of an alliance with the Royal family of England and placing a Queen Consort upon the throne of England.
Elizabeth Dayrell, in the seventh year of Henry 7th, wedded with Sir John Seymour and bore him in due time a son, another Sir John Seymour, whose daughter, Jane Seymour, became the third wife of King Henry the 8th.
Thus, King Edward the 6th, son of Jane Seymour, was directly descended from Elizabeth Dayrell, his
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great grand-mother, and during his brief reign showed much favour to the Dayrells, not (allowing them Royal quarterings in their Coat-of-Arms but bestowing upon them the more substantial of places about the Court.
Sir George Dayrell, of Littlecote, happy in his home and the society of a wife he tenderly loved and the little daughter from whom was to eventually spring a King of England, lived a simple life at home, but had very stirring adventures abroad.
He took an active part in the wars of the Roses, fighting beside his kinsman the Duke of Buckingham his half-brother, and the Earl of Warwick, his cousin.
Late in life he had the deep sorrow to lose his wife, the beautiful and beloved Margaret, and married a second time Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Hawk. By his second wife, Sir George had one famous or more correctly” infamous” Sir Edward DayreIl, who is alluded to by Sir WaIter Scott in his poem ” Rokeby” as “Wild DayreIl.”
How true it is, “the good, men do dies with them, their evil deeds live after them.” Posterity has long ago forgotten the illustrious Dayrells ‘who fought for their country, in almost every battle fought on English soil for eight hundred years:
Sir Peter and Sir Paul, who died in defence of their country;
Sir Marmaduke, the wise counsellor of Elizabeth;
Sir Thomas, the just Judge;
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Thomas, the good Bishop, and
Thomas, whose beauty caused him to be chosen as spokesman for the Benchers in the Temple on their receiving Charles the 1st and Henrietta Maria.
All these good and honourable men have passed away and their place knows them no more, their names are forgotten; but the one blot on the family tree, the one black sheep, “Wild Dayrell,” has been a household word and a theme for wierd legend for more than 300 years.
CHAPTER V.
THE STORY OF WILD DAYRELL.
Frequent allusion being made in the Dayrell archives to the loss of the Littlecote Estate, some account of that circumstance may be acceptable.
Littlecote House is a large noble mansion, standing in a finely timbered Park, part of which is in the parish of Ramsbury and part in that of Chilton, Berkshire.
The Mansion, situated about two miles west of Hungerford, belongs now to the Popham family.
Littlecote was anciently the property of the Dayrells by one of whom it was sold to Judge Popham, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This was Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of the Court of Kings’ bench.
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The present Mansion was built by Sir Dayrell, in the beginning of the 16th Century notwithstanding subsequent alterations retains many features of the architecture and decorations of that period. The walls are still hung with the buff coats and helmets of departed Dayrells. The picture gallery is 115 feet in length.
Some mysterious circumstances connected the sale of this fine property to the Popham family are alluded to in a note to Sir Walter Scott’s popular poem of “Rokeby.” The substance of the narrative is as follows:
On a dark rainy night in November, an old midwife who resided in Berkshire, in a lonely cottage, was suddenly summoned to attend a lady in labour, for which she was promised reward. But as secrecy was necessary, she must submit to be conveyed blindfold to the place where her assistance was required.
The aged woman consented, and a handkerchief having been bound over her eyes, she was mounted on horseback behind the person who came to fetch her.
After a long and rough journey, apparently by bye roads, she was brought to a house through many and seemingly extensive appartments, until she arrived at a room in which, on her eyes being uncovered she saw the lady on whose account she had been sent for.
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There was also in the room a man of haughty and ferocious aspect.
After the lady was delivered, this man again made his appearance, and snatching the new born child from the hands of the midwife, threw it upon a large fire, then blazing in the chimney.
The child, struggling amidst its torments, rolled from the flames out upon the hearth.
The man again seized it, and in spite of the entreaties of the midwife, and the tears and cries of its agonised mother, who was a young creature of remarkable beauty and gentleness, thrust the child under the grate and destroyed it by heaping upon it live coals .
The midwife, according to promise was then handsomely rewarded and conveyed to her house in the same manner in which she had left it.
Soon after, the woman went before a Justice and disclosed the horrid deed she had unwillingly witnessed.
She had adopted two methods to enable her to identify the scene of the murder. While sitting at the bedside of her patient, she cut out a piece of the bed-curtain and brought it away with her. And she had also taken the precaution to count the steps of the stairs down which she had been led blindfolded.
Some suspicious circumstances attaching to the owner of Littlecote, better known as “Wild
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Dayrell,” a warrant was issued for his apprehension, when the piece of curtain was found to fit exactly into an opening in the curtain of one of the bedchambers at Littlecote. The stairs corresponded in number.
Sir Edward Dayrell was tried at the Salisbury Assizes-but, notwithstanding the strong circumstancial evidence, he escaped punishment.
Aubrey who concisely notes this story in his life of Sir John Popham, informs us “that the Knight Sir E. Dayrell, was brought to his tryall and to be short this Judge had his noble house, park, (and I think more) for a bribe to save his life.”
But though Sir Edward bribed his judge and escaped hanging, he could not escape what the country people considered as God’s avenging justice, for within a few months of his committing the murder of his child (borne him by a waiting maid of Lady Dayrell, whom he had seduced) this cruel man was killed by a fall from his horse.
The spot where his death occured is still called ” Dayrell’s Acre.”
This event took place in the reign of Elizabeth, and letters are in the Bodelian library, in corroboration of these facts.
Amongst the nobles and gentry of Wiltshire in the time of Henry the Seventh, Sir George Dayrell is specially mentioned as a man of honour and resource, also as the rebuilder of the Mansion.
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Littlecote came into the family by the marriage of Sir William Dayrell, his father, with Elizabeth, heiress of Thomas de Calslone.
In tile church of Ramsbury is this inscription:
” Here lye the body of Jeff Darell and Will, his son.”
The last of the ancient family of Ramsbury.
Both members of Parliament for Marlborough.
The father, member of the 1st Parliament after King Charles’ restoration; who was also for the Convention for restoring the said King.
The son, member of the first triennial Parliament being in 7th year of King William third.
Jeff, died April 2nd, 1681.
William, April 25th 1697.
Sir Edward’s first wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Crofts.
This Sir Richard Crofts, after the battle of Tewksbury, took prisoner Prince Henry 6th, on which account ’tis said he had the lion passant in the first quarter granted him as an augmentation to his Arms.
By his first wife Jane, Wild Dayrell had a son John, who was killed in battle at Arde, in Picardy, fighting the French, and who left an infant son named Edward, after his grand-father.
The will of Sir Edward or Wild Dayrell, led to litigation with the Popham family, and an applica-
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tion lor evidence in the year 1771, produced the following quaint answer from the Minister of Ramsbury Parish :-
” To Isaac Heard, ESQ.,
” Sir,
” We have an additional building to our church at Ramsbury which goes by the name of Dayrell’s Isle; not vaulted, yet, supposed to be built as a Burial Place for the family: Wherein are three, antique deceyed worn out monuments, no inscription remains, time having erased those engravings on the stones, and theives having robbed the brasses, so that there is no decyphering the one, nor blazoning the other.
” Your humble servant, “RICHARD GARRARD.
” Ramsbury Wilts,
” Feb. 7th, 1771.”
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CHAPTER VI.
THE ELDER BRANCH.
But while thus following the family and fortunes of Sir George and Sir Richard, the younger sons of John and Florence Dayrell, we must not forget their eldest son Sir James, from whom the direct line of the elder branch descends. Here let us pause a while to mark that of the six children Florence bore her husband, and the numerous grand-children; there is one who will attract perhaps greater interest than even Jane Seymour, Queen of England-for Eliza Dayrell, daughter of Stephen Dayrell, became the wife of England’s bravest soldier-Sir Philip Sydney.
Who knows but some of his charming sonnets and delicate fancies were inspired by love for this daughter of the Dayrells-frst married to Henry Nevill Lord Abergavenry-and then in her young widowhood loved by Sir Philip Sydney.
During the reign of Henry the 8th we have little to note; but the court influence of Jane Seymour, brief as was its duration, is evident in two important offices bestowed on her relatives.
Thomas Dayrell is made Keeper of Dover Castle, and Stephen Dayrell, Esq., is named Clerk of the King’s Kitchen.
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Our modern readers may be inclined to scorn an office that savours much of keeping the cook’s accounts-but in the reign of Henry 8th, the Clerk of the Kitchen was an office of great value and dignity, synonymous with that of Lord High Steward to our present Sovereign.
Captain Dayrell has in his library a very rare and curious book, “The History of Dover Castle,” by the Revd. Wm. Dayrell, Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, illustrated with ten views, and a plan of the Castle.
The original Manuscript is in the Library of the college of Arms, and the book was printed under the inspection of the late W. Oldys, Esq., then Norroy, King-at-Arms.
It was written in Latin by the Rev. Wm. Dayrell, and translated by Mr. Alexander Campbell, and printed and published in 1786.
The dedication is thus, less fulsome than many of that age:
“To the right Honourable William Lord. Cobham,.
Constable of Dover Castle, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a nobleman no less distinguished by his honour and virtue than his great accomplishments, William Dayrell, one of the Chaplains to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, wisheth success in the acquisition of all Honour, Dignity, and Happiness, with a long and uninterrupted enjoyment of Health.”
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Not only were the Dayrells the near Kinsmen of Elizabeth, by her half-brother Edward the 6th, but from early associations and near neighbourhood, she knew their worth.
Elizabeth when brought from Woodstock, by Sir Henry Bedingfield, at the interested Entreaty of Philip of Spain, her brother in law, came to reside at Ashridge, in Bucks, an estate granted her by Edward 6th, and certainly was resident there when the discovery of Sir Thomas Wyats rebellion afforded a protest for adopting violent measures towards .her. She was accordingly charged with holding’ correspondence with the conspirators, and Sir Edward Hastings and Sir Thomas Cornwallis with a troop of horse, were sent hither, with orders to convey her to London dead or alive.
On their arrival, Elizabeth is said to have been sick and in bed.
The Commissioners whose troops and retinue consisted of 250 persons, arrived at Ashridge betweel1 10 and 11 o’clock at night and communicated their orders with much rudeness and insolence.
Fox relates they were so boisterous in their behaviour as to have rushed into the Princes’ bedchamber, and abruptly told her it was the Queen’s pleasure that she should be immediately brought to London, and that they, in obedience to their commission, would convey her thither either dead or alive. Elizabeth was therefore compelled to rise forthwith and was conducted in the Queen’s Litter to London.
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Elizabeth never after visited her own house of Ashridge, but her love of Buckinghamshire was shown by many progresses during her long reign through that favoured county attended by Sir Marmaduke Dayrell, her Cofferer and Commissioner. One of her last royal visits was made to Stoke Poges the seat of Lord Chief Justice Coke, by whom she was sumptuously entertained and presented on leaving, with jewels to the then enormous value of £1000.
Queen Elizabeth also honoured Elizabeth Dudley, daughter of John Gardener, Esq., of Grove Place Chalfont-St. Giles, with frequent visits. He related that on one occasion of the Queen visiting Mrs.
Dudley, her daughter .Anne being bye, the Queen taking from her hair a jewel of great value made the young lady a present of it. This young .Anne was wife of Francis Popham, son of that Justice Popham, who took Littlecote as a bribe from Sir Edward Dayrell. His son Colonel Popham, at the head of Roundhead troops, afterwards broke into the Dayrell’s Church and destroyed the font.
Sir Marmaduke was Cofferer to Elizabeth, and remained high in her favour, and attached to her Court until her death, and afterwards held the same office with her successors, James 1st, and Charles 1st.
Finding, no doubt, that residence on his own Manor of Lillingstone Dayrell was incompatible with attendance on his Court duty, Sir Marmaduke
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purchased a small estate near London, at Fulmere, a few miles beyond Uxbridge.
Here he spent many of his later years, and here, he, by will dated 23rd February 1631, directs to be
buried. ‘
Sir Marmaduke married Anne, daughter of John Leonard of Knoll, in Kent, grand-father to Lord Dacre, and was afterwards Knighted by James 1st, to which Monarch and also to Oharles 1st, he held the office of OoHerer.
A portrait of Sir Marmaduke, now in Captain Dayrell’s possession, dated 1706, represents him in the ruff and dress of James 1st time, pointed beard, large, pensive eyes and a face of deep thought and intelligence.
Well may he look both stern and pensive, for Sir Marmaduke had been sent by his stern Mistress, Elizabeth, to witness a scene, the remembrance of which even now after three hundred years have passed away, causes a thrill of pity and regret .
Sir Marmaduke in a letter, written in his own hand and now amongst the Archives in the Tower of London, states that he was an eye-witness of the execution of that fair and frail, beloved and ill-used Queen, Mary Queen of Scots.
The letter is addressed to his cousin, William Dayrell, Esqre., of Littlecote, and was written a few hours after the Queen’s execution.
He bears testimony to the courage and magnani·
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nity with which she submitted to her fate; and the only thing he laments is, that which forms her principal merit, that she had not the weakness to yield to the cruel attempt to induce her to apostatize at a moment when it is the duty of all who sympathize with a criminal, to strengthen his reliance on the Faith, be it what it may, in which he was educated.
The warrants for Mary’s execution, of which those addressed to the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury, are preserved, were dated on the 3rd February, and many narratives of the circumstances attending that execution have been printed.
This letter exists only amongst the records in the Tower, having formed part of the papers of a member of the Dayrell family, which were seized by the Crown.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LETTER.
“Sir ,
“The convenience of this Messenger with the newes wh this place dothe presentlye yeild, c, occasionath me to trouble you with these few lynes.
I doubte not, but wth you as well as in the ” countrie here abouts, there hath been of late sondrye strange rumours bruited concerning
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the Scots Queen prisoner here; wh alas as they have been hitherto untrue, so now it is most true, that she hath endured the fatal stroke this daie. That will excuse her from being accessarye to any like matters that may happen hence forthe.
Between 10 and 11, of the clocke this present Thursdaie, she was beheaded in the hall of this Castle, there beinge present at it, us Commissioners, only the Earle of Shrewsbury and the Earle of Kent. Four other Earles were joined with them in the Commission but came not.
The Sheriffe, of this Shire, Sir Richard Knightlye, Sir Edward Montague, with divers other gentlemen of good accompte, were also here at the execution.
Touching the manner of it, all due order was most carefully observed in it, she herself endured it (as wee must all truly saie that were eye witnesses) with great courage, and shewe of magnanimitye albeit in some other respect she ended not so well as is to be wished.
The order for her funerall is not yet determined upon, but will be very shortlye, as also for her people, who we think shall be safely conducted to their native countries.
Thus have you brieflie that which will be no ” doubt very shortlie reported unto you more at
large.
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In the mean tyme, I beseche you accept in good parte this small show of my dutiful remembrance to you. And so with very humble commendations, I leave you to the merciful protection of the Almightie.
From Fotheringaie, this 8th of Februarye, 1586.
Yor. poore Kinsman to Commande,
MAR. DARELL.
To the right woorship, Mr.’ Wm. Dayrell, Esquire, at his house at Littlecote.”
CHAPTER VIII
THE END OF SIR MARMADUKE.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Marmaduke Dayrell still continued to hold the office of Cofferer or Privy Purse to his Sovereign, and appears to have been equally a favorite with James 1st. as with Elizabeth, for we find the by no means generous James giving gifts ; to quote from an old deed: “King James 1st. in 1617, for a fine of £40 paid by Sir Marmaduke Dayrell, of Fulmer, demised to him and his two sons Sampson and Marmaduke for the three lives, certain lands in “Dorney, Burnham, and Taplow at £5 5s. per
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annum ; and after the decease· of the grantee before named then at 40s. rent, in the name of a heriot.”
Sir Marmaduke also built a new house for the residence of his son, Sir Sampson, in the parish of Langport, called to this day “The Tile House.”
But Fulmer appears to have been his favorite home. Here he built a small neat Church in the year 1610. Here he desired to be buried. In the pavement of the Aisle is a large slab covering the entrance to the Dayrell vault, and against the wall are suspended the tattered remnants of banners with their crests and arms.
The sword of Sir Marmaduke is still preserved in an ancient chest, under the belfry.
In the chancel, within the Communion rails, on the south side, is a gorgeous architectural monument, with an altar-tomb or pedestal under a fine arch of white marble, divided into numerous compartments, enriched with sculpture and gilding, the front supported by two circular columns of marble with capitals of white and gold.
Under the arch repose the effigies in alabaster (party gilt) of a Knight in plate armour, on cushions, his hands devoutly pressed together, and a very long sword by his side.
The Knight and his Lady, by his right side, with her head elevated by two cushions of green and red, have great quilled ruffs.
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The lady is habited in a robe of black and at her feet, a crest-the goat’s head.
In front of the tomb, on a ledge a little above the floor, are effigies in white marble, party gilt, of a man in armour and a lady, kneeling at a desk.
There are also two other figures, and behind the man six sons; behind the lady, two daughters, all kneeling.
The men have pointed beards, and shoes with very thick heels; the females are decorated with tippets of lace, and escaloped borders, turned back on the shoulders, with epaulettes, sleeves plaited and gathered, and quilled ruffles at the wrist.
The features are delicately carved.
On a black marble tablet is carved as follows :
M.S.
Hic ille cujus fammae laudando Potuit addere nec vituperando vellet Subtratere.
Here in a vault in the south Isle of this Church, lye ye bodies of Sir Marmaduke Dayrell, Kt., sometime Lord of this Manor, and Dame Anne, his wife, daughter of John Lennard, of Knoll, in the countie of Kent, Esqre.
Which Sir Marmaduke Dayrell was servant to ye famous Queen Elizabeth in her warres; both by Sea and Land and after in her Household.
” He was Cofferer to King James, of blessed me-
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mory, and dyed Cofferer to ye excellent Prince, King Charles.
He was favoured by all these renowed Princes and employed in matters of great trust for the space of 50 years in all which he acquitted himself with credit and commendation .
He was eminent for devotion towards God, Charitie and Humilitie towards his neighbour, and mortification of Himself.
He built this Church at his own charge and gave a yearly exhibition to ye poore of this Parish for ever, and did both in his life time.
He left two sonnes behind him, Sir Sampson Dayrell, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heire of Christopher Hampden, of Wendover, Esqre; and Marmaduke, his second son, to whom he gave the Lordship of Horston, in the Countie of Lincoln, who married Elizabeth, daughter to Fitch, Gent.
His daughter Mary was married to Sir Robert Georges, of Wraxall, in the countie of Somerset, Kent. and died before Sir Marmaduke, and lies in the same vault.
After the death of his said first wife, Anne, Sir Marmaduke married Anne, daughter to Edmund Kiderminster, of Langley, Esqre, by whom he had noe issue. He died ye 22d of March Ano. Dni. 1631.”
Walter Haddon, the son of William Haddon, by Dorothy, his wife, who was afterwards the third wife of Sir Marmaduke’s nephew Paul Dayrell,
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became so conspicuous as a scholar, as to demand particular notice.
He was a prudent Statesman, a powerful Orator, and an elegant Latin poet, although his epitaph on his mother’s grave at Lillingstone Dayrell affords no favourable proof of his style or versification.
The Queen having great opinion of his talents, employed him as her Ambassador at Bruges, and other foreign Courts.
She made him one of the Masters of her Court Requests, and it is said when that learned Princess was requested to decide between the merits of the celebrated Buchanan and Haddon, Her Majesty very pithily replied :
Buchanaum omnibus antipono Hadonum nemini postpone.
An anecdote is recorded of him, which at any other time would have offended by its coarseness.
The Master of Requests coming into his Queen’s presence, Her Majesty told him that his new boots stunk! I believe, Madam, replied the civiIian, that it is not my boots which stink, but the old stale petitions, that have been so long in my bag, unopened.
Walter Haddon’s mother was a lady blessed with more than the average quiver-full of children.
In the middle of the chancel of Lillingstone DayrelI Church, is an altar tomb for Paul DayrelI and Dorothy, his wife. This Paul was High Sheriff
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of Bucks in the years 1562, and 1579, in the reign or Queen Elizabeth.
Upon the tomb are the recumbent statues of a man in plate armour, his feet resting on a lion couchant, at his side a lady in a close habit, richly laced and embroidered, her cap closely surrounding her face-the whole of stone, painted white,
At the feet or the man, a buck’s antlers, at the feet o£ the lady, a goat’s head. Shields impaling the arms of DayreIl, are placed on each side, at the West End of the Tomb.
On the South side, cut in bold relief in white marble, are statues of ten children kneeling with their parents at devotion, habited in the costume of the time or Elizabeth and her successor. Below the figures, this inscription in Latin and English, written by Dorothy’s son, by her first husband-the celebrated Walter Haddon.
Here Dorothy doth lie with many children blessed;
Who sure to husbands three, a faithful wife did rest.
That Idleness and careless life did shun and loved no waste,
Whose liberal Purse, the Poor yet everywhere did taste.
God’s servant she here lived, of whom the World said well.
Her soul to whence it came, with God is gone to dwell.
Mrs. Dorothy DayrelI, gave six little alms houses in the church end of Buckingham parish church; with an endowment of £5 4s. per annum, viz: six groats weekly to six poor persona inhabiting them,
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Sir Sampson DayrelI, the second Son of Sir Marmaduke settled in Fulmer, and formed a branch of the Dayrell family, now known as the Dayrells of Sheudy Camps, of whom the present Rector of Lillingstone Dayrell is a descendent; with this branch we have nothing to do.
The year 1626, is one particularly honorable to the Dayrell Family, Sir Sampson, of Fulmer, being returned Member of Parliament for his county, and Sir Thomas, of Lillingstone Dayrell, being appointed High Sheriff for Bucks.
This Sir Thomas, of whom a fine portrait is in possession of Captain Dayrell, married the daughter of Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester, and had by her three children.
Thomas, also High Sheriff for Bucks, who died a bachelor.
Peter, famous as an attached follower of King Charles lst, and, Mary of whom more.
Sir Thomas died at Lillingstone Dayrell (I presume of the plague) on 11th March 1617, and was buried there the next day.
There is another Sir Thomas, a nephew of the above, who belongs to the Sheudy Camps branch, who was celebrated for his learning at the bar.
Nothing is known of him in the Lillingstone family papers, but this very remarkable monument is still in existence.
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Sir Thomas Dayrell died, 1669, aged 59. On his Cenotaph is this inscription;
“In memory of Sir Thomas Dayrell of the ancient family of Lillingstone Dayrell, in the County of Bucks, where it hath continued from the Reign of William lst.
He was eminent for his loyalty and services to their Majesties Charles 1st, and 2nd, during the late Civil Wars: he was universlly esteemed for his great learning and beloved of all that knew him and particularly in this County where in his old age he served the Quality of Deputy-Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace; until the day of his death.
In his young years he was of Lincoln’s Inn, where from the comeliness of his person, he was chosen by the consent of the Four Inns of Court to Command that Grand Masque, in which many gentlemen of eminent note and quality ill the succeeding times had their several parts, that was represented before their Majesties the King and Queen in the Banqueting House, at Whitehall on Candle mass night, in the year 1633, and a second time by special direction from their Majesties, to Sir Ralph Freeman, then Lord Mayor of London; at Merchant Taylor’s Hall, where His Majesty as a mark of his Royal favour was pleased to confer on him the order of Knighthood.”
Mary Dayrell, the only daughter of Sir Thomas Dayrell, made a good choice in wedding Sir Henry
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HISTORY OF THE
St. George, Garter-King-at-Arms. Her marriage took place in the church attached to the Manor at Lillingstone Dayrell, on the 15th May 1614. This Sir Henry St. George being sent on an Embassy to Gustavus-Adolphus, King of Sweden and to invest him with the Ensigns of the order of the Garter, that Monarch, by patent dated at Darthan 26th September 1627, granted him in augmentation to his family bearings, three golden Crowns, being the arms of the Kingdom of Sweden, and conferred on him the honour of Knighthood.
Peter Dayrell, famous himself as a gallant follower of King Charles, was yet eclipsed by his two gallant young sons, Peter and Paul Dayrell. The portraits of these two brothers, in rich Cavalier dresses, with elaborate wigs, are now in the Manor House. They are strikingly alike, both handsome men of dignified presence.
CHAPTER IX.
SEIGE OF BOORSTALL.
Peter and Paul, are both amongst the defenders of Boorstall House, that famous seige in the early days of the civil war.
For some months, the fine old mansion of Bootstall held out against the Parliamentary forces, under the command of Sir William Campion, who writes to the King on the 12th May 1646 :-
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“Sir,
The enemie hath blocked us up almost eight weeks on ye 12th day of this month I received Sir Thomas Fairfax his summons; I have had several parIes with the enemie, who have told me I should have very good conditions, if I would surrender the garrison, withal that your Majestie was in their hands, and could have no hopes of relief.
My answer to the one and the other was, that if your Majestie were in their power, it could be no prejudice to them to suffer me to send a Messenger to know your Majesties pleasure and command that being refused, to sell our selves as deere as we could and though what they told me were true, I would not part with my trust without orders.
The bearer hereof Captain Pykes (of whom I beseech your Majestie to take notice) hath been content to hazard himself to fetch unto me your Majesties will and pleasure. I shall not value my life, fortune or prosperity to serve your Majestie, and I thank God, the gentlemen and others of the garrison are well resolved. As I doubt not of your Majesties care for us, my resolution is to persist unto the end.
Your Majesties most faithful, loyal, and humble subject
W. CAMPION.
May 26th, 1646.”
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The siege of Borstall House was a long and severe one-the royalists within, were for many weeks absolutely without any news from without, so closely were they surrounded by Cromwell’s troops.
The two brothers, Peter and Paul Dayrell, were quite unable to send messages to their elder brother Sir Thomas, although the Manor of Lillingstone Dayrell was in the same County, and within a ride of Borstan.
The unfortunate King Charles lst., was then at Oxford, barely able to defend himself, and quite powerless to relieve the siege.
Sir William Campion’s letter, sent by special messenger, brought no reply from His Majesty, and Sir
Thomas Fairfax was pressing for a surrender, his summons alluded to in Campion’s letter to the King, was as follows :
“Sir,
I do by these, summon you to deliver up ” Borstall House into my hands, for the use of the Parliament; you may have honourable terms for yourself and all within your garrison if you seasonably accept thereof. I desire your answer this day.
T. FAIRFAX.
12th May, 1646.”
As day after day dragged its length away and from the windows of Borstall the weary eyes of the besieged gazed over the orangery and the Italian
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gardens, to the surrounding park where the Roundheads had encamped with an evident intention of remaining until the house was surrendered, can we blame Sir William Campion if, receiving no answer from the King, he at last called a Council of War for treating for the surrender of the Mansion? Peter and Paul Dayrell, were Members of that Council, and hard pressed indeed must the brave little garrison have been before they consented to sign the following treaty on the 6th June 1646, very nearly a month after Sir Thomas Fairfax had sent his summons:
Amongst the four Commissioners General Fairfax sent to treat, was Major Harrison, who afterwards became the regicide.
There is something very plaintive in the words of this treaty, one can imagine the bitter, hopeless feelings in the hearts of those that signed it, upon these terms.
“All we, whose names are underwritten, having seriously considered all intelligences and circumstances, do verily believe the King is not in a condition to relieve us, we do therefore hold it fitting that there be a treaty for the surrender of the garrison on honorable conditions for which purpose we desire the Governor it may be done within convenient time, for his and our security and that we may not be disenabled for his Majesty’s service hereafter if occasion shall serve.”
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Here follow the signatures :
Paul Dayrell.
Peter Dayrell,
And 25 other Cavaliers. –
After the King’s forces quitted Borstall, Lady Denham returned to her house, and in the ensuing year when Sir Thomas Fanshaw, after the battle of Worcester, was marched out a prisoner through this part of the country, Lady Denham, showed him great kindness. He writes:
“She would have given him all the money she had in the house, but he returned her thanks and told her he had so ill kept his own that he would not tempt his captor with more, but if she would give him a shirt or two, and handkerchiefs, he would keep them as long as he could for her sake.
She fetched him two smocks of her own and some handkerchiefs, saying she was ashamed to give them to him, but having none of her son’s at home she desired him to wear them.”
Hearne describes Borstall thus:
“From Hudeley, I went to Borstall a mile and a half further, on purpose to look at a distance upon the great house, famous for its being a garrison in the late rebellion.
I say at a distance, because I did not care to go in. The present family of the Aubreys being
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great enemies to the hereditary succession for the sake of which I am a sufferer. It is an old house moated round and every way fit for a strong garrison.”
After the surrender of Borstall, Peter Dayrell joined King Charles in Oxford, and was shut up with the King for months in that city, while his brother Paul returned to the Manor House and had many slight skirmishes in the neighbourhood with the Parliamentary troops.
At one time the old hall was filled with shrieking women, whose husbands and sons were fighting outside and finally drove away the intruders.
Peter Dayrell had a company of the King’s troops and was constantly moving about the Country, at one time demanding entrance to the town of Banbury, which was sternly refused by the 2000 inhabitants who desired neither King’s troops nor Parliamentary troops within their walls.
Soon after, Peter writes: “General Fairfax with his army lieth at Kinton, in the Vale, about four miles from Lady Copes, we are gradually being hemmed in.”
Another letter says: “We have no orders. The King may remove to Oxford or fall back on Worcester.”
The whole County of Bucks was torn by opposite factions; many gentlemen who favoured the royal cause drew their followers together, and joined Charles at Oxford.
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Lord Paget, the Lord Lieutenant of Bucks, hastened to join the King and was thereupon at once dismissed by the Parliament from his post as Lord Lieutenant, and Lord Wharton substituted.
Many fine houses were mutilated and some even destroyed. As early as 164:0, Peter Dayrell had been sent on a bitter day in January, the 27th of the month, by Prince Rupert to demolish Chilton House, the noble mansion of the Croke family, who were antagonistic to the King. “Raze it to the ground,” said the Prince. This inhuman order was hot complied with, for the fine old house remained standing until 1740 when it was taken down by Judge Carter, and the present mansion erected.
From Banbury, Peter Dayrell went to Nottingham, where he is found holding the royal standard, saying that:
“By the grace of God, they that would wrest that standard from his hand, must first wrest his Soul from his body.”
Soon after this we find him engaged in the defence of Hillesden House. This fine Mansion, the seat of Sir Peter’s friend, Sir Alexander Denton, was garrisoned in 1641-for Charles the first-and its situation, about fifteen miles from Oxford and eight from Aylesbury, having rendered it a place of importance, it was suddenly surprised by the Parliamentary forces, said to have been not more than one hundred in number, although there were
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in the house, one hundred and forty Royalists, of whom many were taken prisoners with about five hundred stand of arms, after a desperate defence, but Sir Peter Dayrell effected his escape though
wounded severely.
This reduction of Hillesden House, which had been unsuccessfully attempted by the forces from the garrison of Aylesbury, and subsequently to which considerable quantities of ammunition and arms had been supplied, was deemed of great importance by the Parliamentarians for they boasted of having at length taken there more then “two hundred prisoners, twelve barrels of powder, arms, about fifty horses, together with Sir Alexander Denton himself and Colonel Smith, whose regiment of horse was recruited there, besides two field officers and divers Captains.”
Paul Dayrell, the younger of the two Cavaliers, it this time was summoned to Abingdon, to the funeral of his uncle Dr. Walter Dayrell, of the University of Oxford, Reader of Gray’s Inn, and Recorder of Abingdon, which took place with great state.
On a mural tablet affixed to the North side of St. Nicholas’s Church, at Abingdon, is the following :-
“A memorial of WaIter Dayrell, Esqre, who deceased 26th June 1643, in the 62d year of his age at Grays Inn, where he was sometime an approved Reader and here interred, where he was he careful Recorder of the town.
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“Lillingstone, the seat of the ancient family of Dayrell, was honoured with his birth, but this town is trusted with the treasure of his bones.
“His worth claimes fame for his Trumpet, and memory itself for his monument.
“In the famous· University of Oxford he was hopeful; in the Innes of Court compleat.
“The Barr found him not merely tongue-deep or a verbal Lawyer, for he was eminent as well for soundness of judgement as flourish of speech.
“His Law was not opposite to the Gospel.”
This Walter Dayrell must not be confused with a nephew of the same name, Dr. Walter Dayrell of Ch. Ch., axon, at the time of the great plague Archdeacon of Winchester and who took an active part in that dreadful time of panic. He lived to the good old age of 74-dying on 29th March 1684, and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
The Commons having set the Royal Authority at open defiance, Walter is said to have withdrawn from the House, but to have returned with the King’s permission; and, when the King set up his Standard he sent him a thousand broad pieces. And many Buck’s gentry favoured the King whose fear concealed their loyalty.
But though the two Walter Dayrells, uncle and nephew, followed the peaceful studies of Law and Divinity, a widely different career was still before the Cavaliers Peter and Paul.
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In all the numerous engagements recorded to have taken place between Roundheads and Cavaliers in the vicinity of Lillingstone Dayrell, there the brothers are well to the front.
Charles the Second on his restoration, was aware of the services rendered him by the Dayrell family, Peter Dayrell’s name was mentioned by the King as one of the Knights of the Royal Oak, an order of Knighthood the Merry Monarch intended instituting as a reward to his faithful followers, a good intention never carried into execution by that Sovereign of whom Rochester said :-
He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.
For King Charles after obtaining the names, took no further steps to create his Knights of the Royal Oak.
The followers of Cromwell now began to destroy the churches. At Maidsmorton, the Registry of the Parish records the circumstances of the cross having been cut from the top of the steeple 1642, by Colonel Purefoy’s soldiers, then quartered at Buckingham. The firmness of the Rector, George Bate, who, in defiance of the orders of Parliament, christened children during the whole of the Protectorate of Cromwell, and performed the marriage ceremony according to the rites of the Church or England, is worthy of note.
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THE REGISTER. A.D. 1642.
“This year the worst of Parliaments wickedly rebelling against the best of Princes, King Charles the First, the Kingdom, underwent most sad affliction, especially Churches, whilst they pretended reformation, were every were robbed and ruined by the Rebells.
In this Church of Moreton the windows were broken, a costly desk in the form of a spread eagle, gilt, on which we used to lay Bishop Jewel’s works, doomed to perish as an abominable Idol.
The Cross (which with its fall had like to have broke out the brains of him who did it) cut off the steeple by the soldiers at the command of one called Colonel Purefoy.
He carried away what he could, and amongst other things this Register was hid, and for this cause is not absolutely perfect for divers years, tho’ I have used my best diligence to ‘record as many particulars as I could come by.
Now came in force a goodly act made by the usurper Cromwell’s Little Parliament, or the Parliament of Saints as they called it, that is, of all manner of dissembling hypocrites and filthy hereticks, who ordered not the baptism but the birth of children to be recorded in the parish Registers, thereby insinuating that children ought not to be
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baptised, and encouraging people to withhold their infants from the sacred ordinance.
“But there were never any I knew, of that mind in Moreton, and though the baptism of some be not expressed here, yet these are to certify all whom it may concern, and that on the word of a Priest, that there is no person hereafter mentioned by the three registers or the parish, but was duly and orderly baptized.
“By the act before mentioned in the year 1653, marriages were not to be performed by the Minister but by the Justices of the Peace-yet none in this parish were bedded before they were solemnly wedded in the Church, and that according to the orders of the Church of England.”
Amongst these registries are
“1607, November 23. George, son of George Bate, Rector. This was afterwards the famous Dr. Bate, physician or London. Mr. George Bate, the reverend and religious rector of this town of Moreton, nearly heartbroken with the insolence of the rebels against the Church and King, dyed the 11th and was buried 14th March 1642, in the middle of the body or the Chancel.”
This Colonel Purefoy who so deeply offended the worthy Rector Bates-was a near kinsman of Captain Peter Dayrell-as we find in the register of Stowe.
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HISTORY OF THE
John Dayrell and Cicely Purefoy, of Shalstone, were married the 20th September 1619.
It was the most cruel feature of the civil war that too often brothers and sons took sides with the opposite factions and fought to the death.
Colonel Purefoy with his Roundheads, paid a visit also to the Church at Lillingstone Dayrell, where they moderated their zeal to the extent of only destroying the font and a few crosses on the Dayrell, tombs.
Here also came with the Parliamentary army, an ancient enemy of the Dayrells, Colonel Alexander Popham, and grandson of that Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice, who so unfairly obtained the estate of Littlecote from Sir Edward Dayrell.
A certain Colonel Fleetwood also, threatened to attack the old Manor House, but the brothers Peter and Paul seem to have kept all assailants at bay.
This Fleetwood was also a native of Bucks. He was one of the eighteen children of Sir George Fleetwood, of Chalfont-St. Giles-in the parish Church of which, within the Communion rails is an altar tomb of dark coloured marble ‘with effigies of a Knight in armour and two wives kneeling, with fourteen children behind one lady, and four behind the other.
Peter and Paul Dayrell had soon more greivous affairs to attend to than even the attack of Roundheads on their Manor and Church-for Cromwell’s
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soldiers now casting off the mask King Charles was forcibly taken away from Holdenby, and was entirely at the will of the Army, among whom he was carried in a sort of military triumph to Latimers, then the residence of the family of Cavendish, where he was received with a show of respect, until his rebellious subjects, no longer having any restraint, made the King a close prisoner.
Sir Henry St. George, who married Mary Dayrell, was appointed Governor of Gainsborough for the King, and shortly after, at the siege of Leicester, he fell fighting in the Royal cause.
A very fine portrait of this gentleman, with date and coat of arms, is now in the possession of Captain Dayrell, R.N.
Just before his death, during his continuance with King Charles’s forces, it is stated that on Wednesday 27th August 1645, the King came to Tring and lay in Lord Carnarvon’s house, the army in the adjoining close; that on Thursday morning one of the soldiers was hanged on a tree in Tring, for stealing the Communion plate!
The Royalist party then pushed on to Woburn and remained there sometime, making a last effort to collect men, and, what was of almost as great importance, money; for the King’s Exchequer was nearly empty.
The old Woburn Palace was surrounded by a Moat; near it was the bowling green and a wilder-
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ness of considerable extent, in which, according to a traditionary account, Lord Wharton had buried £50, in gold, in the Rebellion, which were not discovered until about 1760.
There is another tradition of one of the Lords of Wharton having concealed £60,000 in the west wood, and after the Restoration could not recollect precisely the spot, but after clearing about two acres, the whole was discovered and restored to the then owner of the estate.
Very sad times were these for the clergy of Bucks-few, like the Revd. George Bates, of Maidsmorton had courage to set Cromwell’s orders at defiance.
Mr. Robert Hocknell, of Great Brickhill was forced from his parsonage by a troop of the Protector’s soldiers, who seized on the parsonage by force, broke open the doors, turned out the inmates and gave possession to one Mead-who caused Mr. Duncombe, the patron of the living, to be declared a malignant and threatened with utter ruin.
At length Hugh Peters took the matter in hand, and tells Mr. Duncombe “that the Protector would have his heart’s blood out.”
Whereupon, Mr. Duncombe, to prevent the ruin of his family, consented to a reference and presented William Pierce, a nephew of Hugh Peters, to the living, but at the Restoration, Mr. Duncombe re-
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vived his claim and drawing up the state of the case submitted it to the consideration of Parliament, when Robert Hocknell was restored to the possession of this living.
The living of Lillingstone Dayrell was now held by Anthony Dayrell, a younger son of Sir Thomas.
He is said, when the Roundhead soldiers headed by Peters, broke into the Church, to have rushed over the fields from the Parsonage and sword in hand, done good service in driving them out of the parish.
This notorious Hugh Peters, who rode triumphing before the Royal prisoner King Charles 1st. when brought in captivity into London by his rebellious subjects, about twelve months before his conviction of high treason and execution at Charing Cross, 16th October 1660, was reported to have died at Brickhill.
Whether this rumour were purposely circulated,.in order that he might elude the fate which seemed to await him or for what other reason is unknown. His connection with this place is conjectured to have arisen from his nephew having intruded into the Rectory. Hugh Peters is said to have been it buffoon in Shakespeare’s Company.
The following letter from Sir Thomas Tyrrell of Castlethorpe to Richard Grenville, Esqre., High Sheriff of the County, furnishes some interesting particulars of this memorable period.
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“To the Right Worful Richard Grenville, High Sheriff of the County of Bucks, present these.
“Sir,
“That you may not expect me this night, Ihave sent this messenger to let you know my journey is deferred by whose whom I should meet, until Friday, so that I hope to be with you on Thursday night.
The King hath been at Leicester but we cannot learne what was done there yet.
On Saturday he came to Huntingdon where he now is: we hear that he intends to be at Sir Lewis Dives house, by Bedford, on Wednesday and so come in the county, then for Woodstock.
What the meaning is, or with what force he comes I cannot yet learn, nor am I sure of the truth of his coming.
Yours,
THO. TYRREL,
25th July 1642.”
Sir Everade Digby who had borne a prominent part in the last reign, in the Gunpowder Plot, now died, and amongst other curious gifts by his will, bequeathed to his daughter Elyze £80 within three years after his decease, if married, if not £10 and the residue to be put out in Stock, but in case of her death before marriage, the residue to provide a priest to sing for Testator’s soul as long as the money would extend to.
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While Peter and Paul did the part of gallant soldiers, their eldest brother Sir Thomas had the honour of spending his treasure and rents in the King’s service. Sir Thomas Dayrell’s name appears in the warrant of Sequestration with that of his friend and kinsman Sir William Tyringham.
By vertue of a warrant from the Committees for sequestration of Estates of Delinquents and Papists to me directed, these are to will and require you to present warning to all tenants, bailiffs, and officers, of all delinquents, and papists, within your parish, particularly of the persons hereafter named, to bring in all their Rents to the Committees at Newport, at the Saracen’s Head upon the 25th day of this instant April, by nine of the clock in the morning to be paid for the use of the King and Kingdom; requiring you to warn 2 or 3 able men in your parish to appear before the said Committees at the place and time appointed, to do such further service as they shall be required unto.
“And yourselves there, as you and they will answer at your peril; dated the 17th day of April 1644.”
At this time King Charles was closely confined in Carisbrook Castle, and in sore need of money to carry on the struggle.
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The Dayrells were amongst those who contributed to raise £500 to meet the need of their Sovereign, and Paul Dayrell was the messenger who at the risk of his life, bore a letter from the King to Sir William Tyringham and contrived with great difficulty to convey the gold to his captive Master.
CHAPTER X.
LETTER FROM CHARLES 1ST.
The following letter from Charles 1st when imprisoned in Carisbrook Castle to Sir William Tyringham is from the original in possession of W. Praed, Esqre.
“To our trusty and well-beloved friend Will. Tirringham.
We must ascribe it to a more potent arm than that of flesh that when we seem to be in the lowest condition, we are not destitute of compassionate friends, of this we have beyond our hopes a present experience even from those we esteemed our professed enemies, by whose assistance we doubt not but our affairs will suddenly be so stated, that some designs for our present enlargement will speedily be put into execution. But to make these engines move usefully, monie is our only want, a supplement thereof we cannot promise to ourself, but from
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those who have been most faithful to us, and in this rank we must ever reckon you, whose forwardness in our service, we cannot forget without purchasing for ourselves the ignominous stamp of ingratitude: if our intelligence fayle us not and we have no reason to suspect it, you are at present provided to furnish us with five hundred pound and it is a speedy and present supply must advance our designs.
We desire therefore and conjure you, as you love us and tender our safety, without delay to deliver that same to this bearer and if possible without noise in gold-to whom you may give credit, though we must not give you his name, for that he desires may be concealed and so we have reason to comply with him, that will run such a hazard for us.
All that we shall give you more in charge is, that you communicate this negociation to noe one living, and this we charge you as matter of trust and honour; we have already too much cause to make us sensible of our own and our friends suffering for want of secrecy and had it not been to prevent the like, we could not ” have thought it reasonable to move you for great a sum.
There remains only to let you know, that this service will be so acceptable to us, that it will not be easy to set a proportionable valuation upon it, yet you may be confident of such
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returns from us, as may stand most with our honour, and the merit of the engagement you hereby putt on us, we shall ever prize at the highest rate.
We rest confident or your love and be assured of ours.
CHARLES R.”
Poor King Charles did not always make or keep his friends with smooth words.
The following Recount of Henry Martin, one of the King’s Judges at his trial, may be of interest:
“Henry Martin was born at Stoke Pogis, in Bucks, he was son and heir of Sir Henry Martin: was educated at the University or Oxford. His father found a sick wife for him whom he married something unwillingly.
He was a great lover of pretty girls, to whom he was so liberal, that he spent the greatest part of his estate. King Charles complained of his living separate from his wife. It happened that Henry was in Hyde Park one day when His Majesty was going to see a race.
The King spied him, and said aloud: Let that ugly rascal be gone out of the Park, or I will not see the sport.
So Henry went away patiently and bided his time, but that speech raised the whole County of
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Bucks against the King, and in 1641, Henry Martin was chosen Knight of the Shire and proved a deadly enemy of the King.”
Another celebrated Buckinghamshire man was Sir John Maynard, who took the proceedings against Archbishop Laud, and was, after the appointment of Oliver Cromwell as Protector, made the Lord Protector’s Serjeant. He was afterwards Serjeant of Charles 2nd, and was at the age of 90 years amongst those who went to congratulate the Prince of Orange, as a gay and lively Courtier.
The Prince complimented him on his period of life, and said that he supposed the Serjeant must have outlived all the lawyers of his time; to which he replied:
I might have outlived the law too, if your Highness had not arrived,”
After the execution of the King, for whom they had fought so gallantly, the three brothers Sir Thomas-Sir Peter and Paul Dayrell, lived in great retirement.
If “happy is the country that has no history” -the Dayrell family may be counted happy from this time, for there is little to record as breaking the even tenor of their lives.
Edward Dayrell, in 1748, was Director of the Bank of England.
Seven Dayrells had, at different periods, been installed as Rectors of Lillingstone, a living in the
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family gift worth £350 a year, with a charming Rectory house. Of one of these Rectors the following obituary notice is taken from the Gentlemen’s Magazine, of August 9th, 1832 :
August, 9th. At Lillingstone Dayrell, aged 76, the Revd. John Langham Dayrell, fifty-one years rector of that parish and vicar of Stowe.
The family of the Dayrell’s is one of the most ancient and respectable in the kingdom. The name appears in Battle Abbey Roll spelt as it originally was D’Airel or D’Ayrel, from a small town in Normandy. Lillingston-Dayrell has been distinguished by name, as the residence of the head of the family for centuries.
The Gentleman lately deceased, was the fourth and youngest son of the Revd. Dr. Dayrell, of Lillingstone Dayrell, Bucks, by Anne, daughter of Sir James Langham, Bart., of Cottesbrook, County Northampton, whose mother was Maria, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, of Stowe, and sister to Lord Cobham.
He was the last of the males in a direct line, except one, his nephew, the present lord of the manor, in the event of whose death without children the estate will devole to a very distant relation, bearing the name, and in default of his male issue, passes to the Dayrells of Sheudy Camp, and Dayrells of Cale Hill; both these latter families being connected to the parent stock.
Mr. Dayrell was a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B.C.L., in 1781. He was instituted to the rectory of Lillingstone Dayrell in the same year, and presented to the vicarage of Stowe in 1783, by the late marquis of Buckingham. He was for some time before his death the senior magistrate of the County, in which
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capacity he was impartial and humane, ever espousing the cause of the poor. In his clerical duties he was exemplary and assiduous, as long as his health permitted. As a husband, master, and friend, none could equal him, the extreme kindness and amiable tenderness of his character and manners, never failed to excite the affection of all who had the happiness of knowing him; his generosity was great and without ostentation; he possessed that meekness of spirit which characterises the true Christian, and literally did to all as he would they should do unto him.
Mr. Dayrell was twice married. With the amiable and excellent lady who survives him, he had lived forty years of unalloyed happiness and his memory will long be cherished with veneration.
The castellated mansion, formerly the Langport seat of the Dayrell family, is now transformed into a farm house and is occupied by Mr. Bennet, of Stowe.
It consists of three sides of a square with turrets at the angles and in the centre, rising above the general elevation, and forms a must pleasing object in the landscape.
The ancient Manor House at Lillingstone, a castellated building, was taken down in 1767 and a smaller one built on its site by Richard Dayrell. This present building is in a pleasant situation, and has a portico supported by four pillars, the Dayrell arms in marble are over the entrance. In the immediate vicinity of the house are extensive plantations of fine fir and yew trees, and a large sheet of water.
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The late Lord of the Manor, Edmund Francis, erected a new mansion a short distance away from the Manor House, so the estate has two residences upon it.
The modern house is built in the square Italian style, with large portico and entrance hall and with very extensive stabling, even for a neighbourhood so devoted to horses and hunting as Bucks.
It stands in a well wooded park-like portion or the estate, and was erected at a cost or £36,000.
THE DAYRELLS OF SESAY.
In the reign or Edward the First, a younger son of Sir William Dayrell or Lillingstone was knighted by the King and dowered with Helena or Sesay and her broad acres. From this stock springs a younger branch, which have for hundreds of years kept pace with the elder and have now far out stripped them.
The Darells, o£ Sesay, became possessors in 1504 or the estate of Calehill, in Kent-and another in 1610 of Richmond, Surrey. The present representative of this branch is Sir Lionel Darell, Bart., of Fretherne Court, Gloucestershire.
From the Darells of Sesay there branched off a very remarkable family, now known as the Darell Trelawneys of Coldrenick, Cornwall. The founder or this family was Thomas Dayrell, the third son of Sir Thomas Darell of Pageham, in Sussex.
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This young Thomas, feeling doubtless that as third son but a small portion of the family acres would be his, boldly went into trade, and in his will, dated 18th December 1624, is described as of Allhallows, Lombard Street, Citizen and Haberdasher of London.
In this will Thomas Darell leaves large bequests to the poor of Allhallows parish, and the fine estate of Tremornan in Cornwall, to his only son Thomas.
Now come a succession of Darells of Tremornan who are all buried in St. Miniver. One daughter, Gratiana, married Sir Henry Oarew of Hoccomb. Another, Elizabeth, married Trelawney, Dean of Exeter, at St. Miniver’s on November 4th 1692. The Dean’s sons Darell Trelawney, and Charles Trelawney, both died unmarried, and the Coldrenick estates descended to Henry St. George Trelawney Darell, son of Frances Dayrell of the old branch of Lillingstone Dayrell and William Darell of Tremornan.
A portrait of Thomas Darell, the London Merchant, is in the possession of Captain Dayrell. It represents him in Puritan dress with falling collar holding an orange in his hand.
It is to be observed that the Sesay branch of the family always spell the name Darell without the y.
The Manors of Kentbury and Ambresbury, in the family of Dayrell from 1542, passed in marriage about 1670, with the daughter and heir of Sir John Dayrell, to Sir John Elwes.
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The Manor of Toweridge, in the parish of Westwycombe, Bucks, from time immemorial till within these few years a seat of the Dayrells, was sold in 1794 to Sir John Dashwood King, Bart.
Richard Dayrell, Capt. 10th Dragoons, High Sheriff for Bucks, died a bachelor in 1800, after entailing the family estates to his brothers and their male issue, and in default of such issue to the Dayrells of Lamport, in the same County of Bucks. This Richard caused a marble slab to be inserted in the tower of Lillingstone Dayrell Church, where can still be read, amid the ivy which clusters around it, despite the ravages both of time and modern improvements, the following somewhat pompous tribute to his parents’s memory:
IN MEMORY OF
RICHARD DAYRELL,. D.D.
Late Patron and Rector of this Church,
In whose ancient family the presentation Hath continued upwards of 550 years.
Obt. A.D., 1767. Aetat. 47.
ALSO OF ANNE, HIS WIFE,
Daughter of Sir John Langham, Bart.,
And Niece of Richard, Viscount Cobham.
Obt. A.D. 1759. Aetat. 89.
Their Eldest Son,
RICHARD DAYRELL, ESQRE.,
Hath caused this Marble Tablet
To be affixed A.D. 1784.
And to denote
That his Parent’s remains
By their desire, with 4 of their Children,
Are deposited in a vault beneath.
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Edmund Francis Dayrell, the successor and kinsman of Richard, was born in the island of Barbadoes, and at a very early age, being left an orphan, succeeded to the estates after a long minority, during which the late Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was his most kind and faithful guardian. He came upon his majority, into a large personal property, and the estates of Langport, Sanderton Foxley, Aston Olin ton, and Erith in Kent, besides the old Manor of Lillingstone Dayrell. Like his kinsmen, he entered the army and was a Captain in the 4th Dragoon Guards. He married Letitia, daughter of John Edward Lyster, Esqre., of Belmont, County Wexford, a famous beauty of the Irish vice-regal Court, at a time whenpro£essional beauties were not as common as at present,
An exquisite portrait of this lovely woman, is in the possession of her son, the present owner of Lillingstone Dayrell.
By his first wife Letitia, Captain Edmund Francis Dayrell, had six children.
1. John, who died young.
2. Frances, married Major Rocke and 2nd R. Crump, Esqre.
3. Kate, married Major Dewar.
4. Elizabeth, married Oolonel Thomson, Commissioner of Oude.
5. Jeanetta, married Revd. L. Davies.
6. Edmund Marmaduke, who is the present Lord of the Manor.
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Sequestration and the Civil Wars much diminished these estates which for centuries had, under the rule of a succession of honorable God-fearing men, gradually increased.
Fortunately, the Manor and its 800 acres and farms still continues in the Dayrell family, and is one of the rare exceptions of an estate transmitted from generation to generation for eight hundred years in the same family.
The fine old Elisabethan Tile house built by Sir Marmaduke still stands, but belongs no longer to the Dayrells. It has passed to a wealthy parvenu, and the children of a Jewish banker now disport themselves where the favoured statesman and cousin of Elizabeth once held his state.
Notice must here be taken of the Parish Church of Lillingstone Dayrell, which stands in the grounds close to the Manor House.
The Church, surrounded by fine elms, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a very ancient one, and consists of a Nave and South Aisle: a North Aisle is said to have been destroyed.
The chancel is large and has an east window of three lights, and on the south side of the chancel is a raised altar-tomb to the memory of Paul Dayrell and Margaret, his wife.
In the middle of the chancel is another altar-tomb, in which are recumbent statues of Paul Dayrell and Dorothy, his third wife, while on the sides of the
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tomb, in white marble, are effigies of ten children kneeling by their parents. Around, hang many escutcheons and mural tablets of the Dayrell family.
Some interesting brasses are ill other parts of the church, which for 800 years has been the last home of the Dayrells, and where no other has ever intruded.
The church was in 1868, restored by the liberality of A. Robarts, Esq., at that time a tenant of Capt. Dayrell’s, in Lillingstone House, and an organ chamber was added. The tower containing three bells, was restored in 1884, by subscription.
The living, together with a most charming Rectory House, is in the gift of Capt. Dayrell. Seven members of the family have been Rectors of Lillingstone Dayrell; and nine Dayrells have held the office of High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire between the years 1504 and 1847.
CHAPTER XI.
RECENT EVENTS.
As the old Cavaliers of the house of Dayrell fought for their country and their King, the same martial spirit animates the present possessor of the old estate. Edmund Marmaduke Dayrell, the 36th Lord of the Manor of Lillingstone Dayrell, at the early age of thirteen entered the Royal Navy, and has ever since had the honour to serve Her Majesty.
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If the old heroes of the race on the fields of St. Albans, Twedesbury, Edgehill and Worcester saw their enemies fall dead before their powerful arms, to the present bearer of that honoured name of Dayrell has been reserved a more glorious destiny not to destroy, but to save the lives of his fellow creatures.
When a mere boy on his first ship, H. M. S. Herald, cruising off the Feejee Islands, in the South Seas, a man fell from the rigging overboard at midnight. Being unable to swim, he must have unavoidably been drowned, had not the young officer of the watch, Edmund Marmaduke Dayrell, plunged after him, and with much danger and difficulty succeeded in holding the struggling drowning marine above water, until a boat was lowered arid sent to their rescue. The poor fellow evinced his gratitude by devoting his services to his young deliverer for many years as an attached servant.
This was the second act of generous daring on young Dayrell’s part, for on his way to join his ship, previously to this voyage-in passing through Oxford, he saved a woman and her two children from a burning house. Like a true sailor he sprang up a ladder, dashing into the flames, and though much burned himself, and nearly losing his life in this attempt to rescue others, had the satisfaction of bringing them out safely
Yet a fifth life was saved by Captain Dayrell, for in 1878, at a gay and brilliant regatta at
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Dalkey, Captain Dayrell was a visitor on the Alexandra frigate. All on board was excitement and pleasure, salutes were fired, when suddenly an unfortunate man named Dunn was blown over· board by the premature discharge of a gun while a salute was being fired from the Alexandra.
Captain Dayrell, who with his usual gallantry was attending upon the ladies on deck, heard the cry of ” man overboard” and saw the poor fellow with his face blackened, bleeding, holding up two mutilated stumps as if trying to paddle.
Without an instant’s hesitation, Captain Dayrell jumped overboard in full uniform, and with the aid of a sailor succeeded in saving the unfortunate man.
For this gallant conduct, Captain Dayrell, then Inspecting Commander of Coast Guard at Kingstown, was, on the 20th September 1878, presented with the Tayleur Medal. The medal was presented by Lord Talbot de Malahide in the presence of the Commissioners of Irish Lights. Captain Dayrell also received a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society.
The early years of Captain Dayrell’s life afloat were spent in H. M. S. Herald, in which he passed seven years on the Australian station, principally employed in surveying the Feejee Islands, the New Hebrides,. Soloman Islands and N. W. Coast of Australia.
Capt Dayrell, on his promotion as Lieutenant, was appointed to the Hannibal, 91 guns, bearing the
flag of Reard Admiral Sir Rodney Mundy, K.C.B., in which he served three years on the Mediterranean Station, and was present at the capture of Palermo by Garibaldi and the bombardment of that town by the Italian fleet. Also at the subsequent taking or, and triumphant entry into Naples, when Bomba was expelled from his throne.
The Hannibal and other British men of war present, became the temporary abode or the English families residing in Palermo, who took refuge on board and were hospitably received.
A most interesting account of this bombardment is given by Admiral Mundy in his book: “H. M. S. Hannibal at Palermo and Naples.”
From the Hannibal, Lieutenant Dayrell was appointed to command H. M. S. Cockchafer, on the China Station, where he remained four years, during which time he took several pirate towns, and over 40 pirate junks.
He served at this time under Admiral Sir Leopold Kuper, K.C.B., from whom he received several official letters recognising his services in the most flattering manner, and informing him mention of them had been forwarded for the favourable consideration of the Admiralty.
One or the engagements with pirates which occured on the Chinese Station, was as follows:
The town of Wanta-quan, situated in Hangchow Bay, between Chang-Ii and Ning-po had become notorious as a stronghold for pirates and rebels.
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After two unsuccessful expeditions against this place, in the second of. which Captain Dayrell took part, he was ordered to form an expedition under his immediate command consisting of the Cockchafer, a merchant steamer and 16 Chinese men-of-war. The latter being employed chiefly in conveying 500 or Colonel Cook’s Anglo-Chinese troops. On arrival off Wanta-quan with this expedition, the 500 troops with Colonel Cook were landed on the flank of the town on which they marched directly.
Lieutenant Dayrell with his crew was, meanwhile, not idle, for after taking 22 junks they landed, took and spiked the guns of the battery in front of the town and then joined Colonel Cook and his force in taking possession of the place.
This was not done without some very hard fighting as the town was occupied by 2000 pirates and rebels. These were however, eventually driven out with some loss, and the town remained in British possession for the night.
The next morning as the Cockchafer, was reembarking the force, the pirates endeavoured to intercept this operation, but on a severe fire being opened from the gun-boat they retired, and from that day the neighbourhood of Ningpo was never again harrassed by pirates during the stay of the Cockchafer in Chinese waters.
While cruising in Chinese waters, another engagement took place between the Cockchafer gunboat, Commander E. M. Dayrell, and piratical junks.
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The Cockchafer left Ningpo about the 24th April 1864, for a cruise. When twelve miles from Ningpo, the Liberia, a French brig was seen on shore.
The Cockchafer went to her assistance and found on board, besides her own men, the crew of the English ship Ella Brache which had been wrecked on the Matelota Reef. .
These poor fellows were brought to Ningpo and the Cockchafer again started on the 26th.
On the 28th she arrived in Lamporan passage and encountered three pirate junks. As soon as the gunboat have in sight, the pirates opened fire and kept up a heavy cannonade until their largest gun, an 18 pounder, was dismounted.
After this a brisk fire of musketry was sustained for half an hour until the junks were boarded.
The three junks had each from 30 to 40 men on board.
The largest mounted one 18 pounder, one 9 pounder and 4 6 pounders, besides several stands of rifles and a large number of double-barrelled guns.
The prisoners taken, confessed to having a few montns before captured two Portuguese lorchas, and a French schooner in Hanchow bay, besides a considerable number of trading junks.
The French schooner had been laden with arms, and proof of her capture was found on board one of the junks, in the shape of two thousand bayonets and fifty-two swords.
The inhabitants and merchants of Ningpo, in
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proof of their appreciation of this gallant action, presented Captain Dayrell with a valuable chronometer watch and gold chain, engraved with a suitable inscription and his crest and motto.
On his return to England Lieutenant Dayrell was appointed to H. M. S. La”k for the protection of the Irish Coast during the Fenian outbreak; and had a particularly rough time during the winter months 011 the W. Coast of Ireland.
After twelve years of active service he was now promoted to be Commander while serving on board the Cambridge gunnery ship.
After this, four years of rest on half-pay formed a very grateful interlude before again accepting a command.
Captain Dayrell married 1866, Isabella Ann, daughter of Colonel Elphinstone Holloway, C. B., of Belair, Devon.
This lady died in childbed, 1st January 1882, to the unspeakable grief of her husband and family, leaving seven young children, of whom Gerald Marmaduke de Langport is the eldest son and heir, born 15th January 1868.
Captain Dayrell subsequently, had command of the Coastguard Divisions at Plymouth, Kingstown and Waterford, and since his accession to the family estates has retired on a pension after 32 years active service.
Amongst the early mess-mates of the young middy was one favorite friend named Howard,
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who wrote these comical lines on his chum, lines that have a greater likeness than many such caricatures bear to the original:-
See that flash cove with the shiney studs,
Oh! Mother, look at the ducks;
He’s a middy gay, rigged out for the day,
He’s a native too of Bucks.
As on his toes, he dancing goes,
Look at his spicey tile,
With his waistcoat of the newest cut
You can tell him off a mile.
His voice is rough; he’s awful tough,
He’s a good’un to go his meat;
But when on shore, m’ongst ladies law,
Not sugar candy is half so sweet.
He’s a regular brick at single stick,
He’s a regular dab at paint;
In fact he’s a very good model mid,
Although he’s not much of a Saint.
The old Manor-house has recently been restored, and presents a fine specimen of a comfortable English home, the staircases and passages and most of the rooms are floored with deep black oak, in the highest state of polish. The’ old hall where once frightened women took shelter from Cromwell’s soldiers, now echoes to the click of nothing more dangerous than billiard balls; and the long dining room in which for a time infants were registered and marriages solemnized during the Protectorate, witnesses now nothing more important· than the Christmas dinner at which Captain Dayrell and his tenantry wish each other God Speed.