down the coffin and carry it to Walden, whom the Earldom of Essex was conthe templars being aware of the design, ferred by King Stephen. buried it privately in the church-yard of MARMYON. The chiefs of this great the NEW TEMPLE, viz. in the porch house are stated to have been hereditary before the west door." champions to the Dukes of Normandy, William de Mandeville, last surviving prior to the Conquest of England: cerson of this famous noble, succeeded as tain it is that Robert de Marmyon, Lord third Earl of Essex, at the decease of his of Fonteney, obtained from his royal brother Geoffry, and not long after made master, not long after the Battle of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At his Hastings, a grant of the manors of death, which occurred in 1190, the feudal Tamworth, co. Warwick and Scrivelsby, lordship and estates he enjoyed devolved co. Lincoln, the latter to be held" by the on his aunt, Beatrix, wife of William de service of performing the office of chamSay'; and from her, passed to the hus- pion at the King's Coronation." His deband of her grand-daughter-the cele- scendants and eventual coheiresses were brated Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Justice of Joan Cromwell, wife of Alexander, Lord England, whom Matthew Paris charac- Frevile, and Margaret de Ludlow, wife terizes as ruling the reins of govern of Sir John Dymoke: between whom ment so, that after his death, the realm his estates were partitioned, Freville rewas like a ship in a tempest without a ceiving Tamworth, and Dymoke, Scripilot." His only daughter and eventual velsby with the championship of England, heiress, Maud, wedded Robert de Bohun, which is still held by his representative Earl of Hereford, and had a son, Hum- Sir HENRY DYMOKE, Bart. of Scriphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and velsby. Essex, with whose male descendants the

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MALEUILE. The great Northern latter Earldom continued until the House of Melville claims this Norman as decease in 1372, of Humphrey de Bohun, the patriarch of their race. Galfrid de Earl of Hereford, Northampton and Maleville, the earliest of the family who Essex, whose elder daughter and co. appears in Scottish history, had the hoheir, Alianore, married Thomas of nour of being the first Justiciary of ScotWoodstock, Duke of Gloucester, sixth land on record. From him descend the son of Edward III., and was mother of Earls of Melville.

Anne Plantagenet, the consort of Wil- MARTEINE. This entry on the Battle liam Bourchier, Earl of Ewe in Nor- Abbey Roll refers to the famous Martin mandy. Of this alliance, the son and de Tours, who came over from Normandy heir Henry Bourchier, Earl of Ewe, ob- with the Conqueror, and was distintained a patent of the Earldom of Essex guished at the battle of Hastings. Subin 1461, and was succeeded therein by sequently he acquired by conquest, as his grandson, Henry Bourchier, 2nd one of the Lords Marchers, a large disEarl of Essex, at whose demise in 1539, trict in Pembrokeshire, called Cemaes or the representation of his illustrious KEMES, and became Palatine Baron house and of the Mandevilles and Bohuns, thereof, exercising within his territory, Earls of Essex, devolved on his sister, subject to feudal homage to the King, all Cicely, wife of John Devereux, Lord the jura regalia, which, at that period, Ferrers of Chartley, whose great-grand- appertained to the crown of the English son, Walter Devereux, 2nd Viscount monarch. He made Newport the head Hereford, was raised in 1572 to the of his Palatinate, and there erected his Earldom of Essex, a title that expired castle, the ruins of which still exist. with Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl, the From this potent noble, the Palatine Parliamentary General. It was however Barony of Kemes has descended to the revived in about fifteen years after in the present THOMAS DAVIES LLOYD, Esq., person of Arthur, Lord Capel, whose wife, Bronwydd, co. Cardigan, who derives the Lady Elizabeth Percy, was grand- from Martin de Tours, through the famidaughter of Lady Dorothy Devereux, lies of Owen of Henllys, and Lloyd of sister of Robert, Earl of Essex, the Penpedwast. He holds the lordship by favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Thus the the same tenure, and exercises the jura present Earl of Essex can deduce an regalia in the same manner as his great unbroken line of descent through each ancestor did under the Conqueror. Newsuccessive family that held the honour, port, the "caput baroniæ,” has been, from Geoffrey de Mandeville upon time immemorial, under the local juris

diction of a mayor (appointed annually MORTIMER. Ralph de Mortimer, supby Mr. Lloyd of Bronwydd,) and twelve posed to have been son of the famous burgesses: courts leet and baron are held Norman general, Roger de Mortimer, at stated periods in the town, where all and to have been related to the Conthe business of the lordship is transacted, queror, held a principal command at the fresh grants of land given by the bur- battle of Hastings; and, shortly after, as gesses, under the sanction of the lord, the most puissant of the victor's captains, and other affairs settled. The lordship was sent into the Marches of Wales to is fifty miles in circumference, and each encounter Edric, Earl of Shrewsbury, farm in it pays what is called a "chief who still resisted the Norman yoke. This rent" to Mr. Lloyd, of Bronwydd. He nobleman, after much difficulty and a is obliged to walk the boundaries every long siege in his castle of Wigmore, five years, a task which generally occu- Mortimer subdued, and delivered into pies a week. the king's hands; when, in requital of The immediate male descendants of Mar- his good services, he obtained a grant of tin de Tours were summoned to parliament all Edric's estates, and seated himself at in the Barony Martin, which,at the decease Wigmore. Thus arose, in England, the of William, Lord Martin, in 1326, fell into illustrious house of Mortimer, destined abeyance between his heirs, Eleanor Co-to occupy the most prominent place on lumbers, his sister, and James de Audley, the roll of the Plantagenet nobility, and his nephew, as it still continues with to transmit to the royal line of York a their representatives. right to the diadem of England, which, MARE. The descendants of this Nor-after the desolating contests of the Roses, man knight occupied a prominent position triumphed in the person of Edward. in Staffordshire, in the time of the early Earl of March, who ascended the throne Plantagenets. William de Mere occurs as fourth of his name, Roger, Lord Mortias High Sheriff of that county, temp. mer of Wigmore, so notorious in our hisEdward II., and in the next reign, Peter tories as the paramour of Queen Isabel, de la Mere filled the speaker's chair in the was grandson of Roger Mortimer, the ilHouse of Commons. At an early period, lustrious adherent of Henry III. in the bathe family possessed the manor of Maer, ronial war, to whom Prince Edward was co. Stafford, and are also found resident indebted for his deliverance from captiviat Norton, in the Moors. The name is ty after the battle of Lewes. The exploit spelt, in ancient deeds, de Mere, de is thus recorded by Dugdale :-" Seeing Mare, but the more recent orthography his sovereign in this great distress, is Mayer. and nothing but ruin and misery at

MAULEY. The first of this name we tending himself, and all other the king's can trace is Peter de Mauley, a Poictevin, loyal subjects, he took no rest till he had Baron of Mulegrave and Lord of Don-contrived some way for their deliverance; caster, in Yorkshire. He appears to have and to that end sent a swift horse to the been an adherent of King John, and to prince, then prisoner with the king in have acquired his English estates in mar-the castle of Hereford, with intimation riage with Isabel, daughter and heir of that he should obtain leave to ride out Robert de Thurnham, whose wife was for recreation, into a place called WidJoanna Fossard, heiress of Mulgrave, a mersh; and that upon sight of a person descendant, probably, of the Domesday mounted on a white horse, at the foot of Nigel. Camden says, that " by marriage Tulington Hill, and waving his bonnet Peter de Mauley came to a great inhe-(which was the Lord of Croft, as it was ritance at Mulgrave, and that the estate said), he should haste towards him with was enjoyed by seven Peters, Lords de all possible speed. Which being accordMalo-lacu, successively, who bore for ingly done (though all the country theretheir arms or, a bend sa." But the abouts were thither called to prevent his seventh, who had summons to parliament escape), setting spurs to that horse he from 22 Ric. II. to 3 Hen V., dying overwent them all. Moreover, that being s. p., his possessions were divided be- come to the park of Tulington, this tween Sir John Bigot, Knt, and George Roger met him with five hundred armed Salvaine, of Duffield, who had married men; and seeing many to pursue, chased his sisters. The manor of Mulgrave is them back to the gates of Hereford, now the property of the Marquess of making great slaughter amongst them." Normanby. At the ignominious death, on the com

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VOL. IV. NO. XVII.

S

mon gallows, of Roger Mortimer, Queen ble manner possible, in one of the chamIsabel's favourite, his earldom of March bers at Berkeley Castle. So conscious became forfeited, but was restored to his was Maltravers of guilt, that he fled imgrandson, Roger, Lord Mortimer, a war-mediately after the foul deed into Gerrior of distinction and a Knight of the many, where he remained for several Garter. His son and successor, Edmund, years, having had judgment of death Earl of March, espoused the Lady Phi- passed upon him in England; but in the lippa Plantagenet, daughter and heir of 19th of the same reign, King Edward Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and dying in being in Flanders, Lord Maltravers came 1381 (being then Lord Lieutenant of and made a voluntary surrender of himIreland), left with two daughters, the self to the King, who in consideration elder, Elizabeth, wife of the gallant of his services abroad, granted him a Hotspur, three sons, the eldest of safe convoy into England to abide the whom, Roger, fourth Earl of March, was decision of parliament; in which he had father of the Lady Anne Mortimer, who afterwards a full and free pardon, (25 wedded Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Edward III.,) and was summoned as a Cambridge, and conveyed to the house BARON to take his seat therein. That of York, the right to the Crown of Eng- was not, however, sufficient, King Edland ward constituted the murderer of his

MONTRAUERS. Although none of father, soon after, Governor of the Isles the family founded by this Norman of Guernsey, Alderney, and Sarke. knight were barons by tenure or had After the decease of this Lord Malsummons to parliament before the time travers, the BARONY passed to his of the third Edward, yet were they an-granddaughter, (the eventual sold heiress ciently persons of note. In the reign of his predeceased son, Sir John Malof Henry I., within less than half a cen- travers,) Eleanor, wife of the Hon. John tury after the Conquest, Hugh Mal- Fitz-Allan, whose son John was sumtravers was a witness to the charter moned to parliament as Lord Maltravers, made by that Monarch to the Monks of and succeeded as eleventh Earl of ArunMontacute in the county of Somerset ; del, and the Barony of Maltravers has and, in the 5th of Stephen, Maltravers since merged in that superior dignity, gave a thousand marks of silver and one Lady Mary Fitz-allan, the daughter, hundred pounds, for the widow of Hugh and ultimately sole heiress of Henry, Delaval and lands of the said Hugh, eighteenth Earl of Arundel, married during the term offifteen years and then Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and to have the benefit of her dowry and brought the barony and earldom into marriage. the Howard family. These dignities

The infamous part which John, Lord descended to her son, Philip, who was Maltravers, took in the cruel murder of ATTAINTED in the 32nd Elizabeth, King Edward II., is too well known to when the barony fell under the attainder, need recitation here-enough is it to state but it was restored to his son, Thomas that the wretched monarch was removed Howard, twentieth Earl of Arundel; and from the custody of Lord Berkeley, who by Act of Parliament, 3rd Charles I., had treated him with some degree of the BARONY OF MALTRAVERS, tohumanity, and placed under Lord Mal-gether with those of Fitz-Allan, Clun, travers and Sir Thomas Gournay, for the and Oswaldestre, was annexed to the mere purpose of destruction, and that title, dignity, and honour of ARUNDEL, those ruffians ultimately fulfilled their and settled upon Thomas Howard, then diabolical commission in the most horri- Earl of Arundel.

To be continued.]

CURIOUS TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE

ARISTOCRACY.

No. XIII.-THE CRIMES AND VICISSITUDES OF WILLIAM PARSONS, THE SON OF A BARONET.

THE singular story of this miserable man's life of guilt is to be found included in almost every English collection of criminal trials. For its authenticity, it is not here intended to vouch further than that this William Parsons was tried, convicted, and eventually executed, and that as he was the member and heir of a highly honourable family, it is more than probable the tale would, were it false, have been long before now contradicted. The account presents certainly one of the most extraor dinary instances of perverseness in crime ever recorded: its very strange. ness makes it interesting, and affords the best excuse for its insertion here. A word or two, however, first about the family of Parsons, to which the subject of this melancholy history belonged.

The Parsons were of Northamptonshire origin, and became afterwards seated at Boveny, in the county of Bucks. Sir John Parsons, Knt., of Boveny, married Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of Sir John Kidderminster, of Langley in Buckinghamshire, and had a son, William Parsons, Esq., of Langley, who was created a baronet, the 9th of April, 1661. Sir William Parsons, the grandson of this first baronet, himself the third baronet, married for his first wife Frances, daughter of Henry Dutton, Esq., by whom he had issue, beside a son, John, who died young, and a daughter, Grace, to whom her maternal aunt, the Duchess of Northumberland, left a considerable fortune, another son, WILLIAM, the subject of this narrative, who married Mary, daughter of John Frampton, Esq., of the Exchequer, and had an only surviving son, Mark. Sir William Parsons married, secondly, Isabella, fifth daughter and coheir of James Holt, Esq., of Castleton in Lancashire, and relict of Delaval Dutton, Esq., but had no other issue. Sir William died about 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson Sir Mark Parsons, who died unmarried in 1812, when the baronetcy became extinct.

The history of William Parsons is as follows.

William Parsons, the son of Sir William Parsons, Bart., was born in London, in the year 1717. He was placed under the care of a pious and learned divine at Pepper-harrow, in Surrey, where he received the first rudiments of education. In a little more than three years, he was removed to Eton College, where it was intended that he should qualify himself for one of the universities.

While he was a scholar at Eton, he was detected in stealing a volume of Pope's Homer in the shop of a bookseller named Pote. Being charged with the fact, he confessed that he had stolen many other books at different times. The case being represented to the master, Parsons underwent a very severe discipline.

Though he remained at Eton nine years, his progress in learning was very inconsiderable. The youth was of so unpromising a disposition,

that Sir William determined to send him to sea, as the most probable means to prevent his destruction, and soon procured him the appointment of midshipman on board a man-of-war, then lying at Spithead under sailing orders for Jamaica, there to be stationed for three years.

Some accident detaining the ship beyond the time when it was expected she would sail, Parsons applied for leave of absence, and went on shore; but having no intention to return, he immediately directed his course towards a small town about ten miles from Portsmouth, called Bishop's Waltham, where he soon ingratiated himself into the favour of the principal inhabitants.

His figure being pleasing, and his manner of address easy and polite, he found but little difficulty in recommending himself to the ladies.

He became greatly enamoured of a beautiful and accomplished young lady, the daughter of a physician of considerable practice, and prevailed upon her to promise she would yield her hand in marriage.

News of the intended marriage coming to the knowledge of his father, Sir William, and his uncle, the latter hastened to Waltham to prevent a union which he apprehended would inevitably produce the ruin of the contracting parties.

With much difficulty the uncle prevailed upon Parsons to return to the ship, which in a few days afterwards proceeded on her voyage.

The ship had not been long arrived at the place of destination, when Parsons resolved to desert, and return to England, and soon found an opportunity of shipping himself on board the Sheerness man-of-war, then preparing to sail on her return home.

Immediately after his arrival in England, he set out for Waltham, in order to visit the object of his desires; but his uncle being apprised of his motions, repaired to the same place, and represented his character in so unfavourable, but at the same time in so just a manner, that it prevented the renewal of his addresses to the physician's daughter.

He went home with his uncle, who observed his conduct with a most scrupulous attention, and confined him, as much as possible, within doors. This generous relation at length exerted his interest to get the youth appointed midshipman on board his Majesty's ship the Romney, which was under orders for the Newfoundland station.

Upon his return from Newfoundland, Parsons learnt, with infinite mortification, that the Duchess of Northumberland, to whom he was related, had revoked a will made in his favour, and bequeathed to his sister a very considerable legacy, which he had expected to enjoy. He was repulsed by his friends and acquaintance, who would not in the least countenance his visits at their houses; and his circumstances now became exceedingly distressed.

Thus situated, he applied to a gentleman named Bailey, with whom he had formerly lived on terms of intimacy; and his humanity induced him to invite Parsons to reside in his house, and to furnish him with the means of supporting the character of a gentleman. Mr. Bailey also was indefatigable in his endeavours to effect a reconciliation between young Parsons and his father, in which he at length succeeded.

Sir William having prevailed upon his son to go abroad again, and procured him an appointment under the governor of James Fort, on the river Gambia, he embarked on board a vessel in the service of the Royal African Company.

Parsons had resided at James Fort about six months, when a disagree