Part 6 (1/2)

Then comes an interesting testimony shewing the lord of Shute still kept full interest in the older home of the family at Wis...o...b.., and at the date of his grandson's birth was engaged near there in a business transaction with squire Walrond of Bovey, living thereby. Richard Lutrell and John Prustes relate,--

”on that day Sir William Bonevile was at his manor of Southleigh busy in setting up certain boundary marks between a parcel of his own land called Borcombe to the same manor belonging, and the land of one William Walrond, on which occasion the aforesaid Richard and John were present at the special request of the said Sir William Bonevile. And then and there came Andrew Ryden, a servant of the same Sir William, and told his master that his son John had a son born to him, upon hearing which the said Sir William rejoicing exceedingly lifted up his hands, and thanked G.o.d, and immediately mounting upon his horse rode home.”

Following this is the evidence of those who witnessed the ceremony of the christening in the little church on that summer evening, William Hodesfelde, and Richard Damarle, probably a relative of the child's grandmother. They also speak of the grandfather's delight and the present he made his grandson thereon, and say,

”they were present in the said church on that day at the time of the solemnization of the baptism of the said William the son of John, to hear vespers, and as soon as the ceremony was over there came one Walter Walsche, the said William Bonevile's bailiff of his manor of Stapyldon in the county of Somerset, and told his master that he had well and finally completed the autumn gathering, both of his said manor of Stapyldon and his manor of Sokke, and had brought with him 400 lambs of that year's produce of the manor of Sokke aforesaid, of which said lambs the said William Bonevile immediately gave 200 to the said infant then and there baptized.”

Finally we get the information as to who were the child's sponsors and of the high ecclesiastic who was one of them, and doubtless came across specially from Newenham Abbey to perform the ceremony, making his distinguished G.o.dson a commensurate present. Thomas Bowyer and Ralph Northampton remember

”that they were personally present in the said church, and saw there three long torches burning, and two silver basins, with two silver ewers full of water, John Legge then Abbot of Newenham and Sir William Bonevile being the G.o.dfathers and Agnes ByG.o.de the G.o.dmother of the same child, upon whom the said Abbot there bestowed a silver gilt cup of the value, as it was said, of 100 s.h.i.+llings, with 40 s.h.i.+llings in money told, contained in the same, which as it appeared to them was the most beautiful they had ever beheld in a like case.”

Poor child! The lambs bleating outside, and the glittering gift cup,--”the most beautiful they had ever beheld,”--and filled with silver pieces! The costly christening vessels and flaming torches, the abbot in his robes, the knights and ladies in their splendid apparel, the cl.u.s.tering paris.h.i.+oners gathered round, curiously and respectfully to witness the baptism of the heir, and the solemn evening twilight softly stealing through the cas.e.m.e.nts of the little sanctuary. What a suggestive picture of country wealth and peace thus surrounding the first hours of the child, and what a contrast to the scene that was destined to environ that child's last hours, of whose bitterness, what seer, had he been then present, would have been bold enough to predicate? When crushed by misfortune, his son and grandson having fallen by the sword before his eyes a few weeks previously, and although bowed by age, yet still attracted by the glamour of the deadly conflict,--far away from these happy precincts, with a captive king in his keeping as a ransom, but powerless to save him,--he stood an unfriended prisoner alone in the hands of a relentless enemy, surrounded by the ghastly wrecks of a battlefield, and then hastily perished amid the ghastlier paraphernalia of the scaffold, the axe and block, the executioner in his mask and the jeering soldiery. With what boundless mercy are the ultimate issues of these lives of ours hidden from us!

Being in possession of his large property, it was not likely that a young man of his distinguished station, in those stirring times should long remain ”with idle hands at home.” Accordingly we find him three years afterward, in 1418, employed in the military service of his country, for ”being then a knight” he proceeded to France in the retinue of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, brother to Henry V., in that king's expedition to Normandy. In the first year of Henry VI., 1422, he served the office of Sheriff of Devon.

In 1428 we get an interesting incident recorded, of amenities pa.s.sing between Sir William and his neighbour the Lady Joan Brooke, widow of Sir Thomas Brooke, of Weycroft, near Axminster, and Holditch Court, Thorncombe, ”on the 14th April of that year Nicholas Wysbeche, Abbot of Newenham,” says Mr. Davidson,

”was appointed with five of his neighbours a mediator in a dispute between Sir William Bonville of Shute, and Joan widow of Sir Thomas Brooke, arising from the obstruction of several public roads and paths in the formation and enclosure of the park at Weycroft by the lady and her son. The transcript of an instrument has been preserved which recites the circ.u.mstances of the case at great length, and concludes with an award, which as the abbot was nominated by the lady Brooke, does credit to his justice as an umpire, as well as to his hospitality; for after deciding on every point in favour of Sir William Bonville, and directing all the ways in question to be thrown open to the public, that the knight and the lady should ride amicably together to Newenham Abbey on a day appointed, where they should exchange a kiss in token of peace and friends.h.i.+p and dine together at the abbot's table. The deed is dated at Axminster 13 August, 1428.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGY OF JOHN TALBOT, EARL OF SHREWSBURY, K. G.

WHITCHURCH, SHROPs.h.i.+RE--A.D. 1453.]

The bra.s.s effigies of Sir Thomas and his lady are in Thorncombe church, still very perfect.

Amicably and pleasantly settled, and justly too withal by the good Abbot Wysbeche, and with proper regard to the rights of way exercised by the public at large, which seem to have been duly cared for and protected by the lord of Shute.

Nearly fourteen years now elapse before we hear further of him, and then in 1442, he appears to have held a maritime command, and ”sailed from Plymouth to Bordeaux with twenty-five s.h.i.+ps and four thousand men,” and the year following was employed on land service, being ”retained by indenture to serve the king a whole year with twenty men at arms, and six hundred archers, and was made Seneschal of Acquitaine.”

In 1449, he was commissioned ”to serve the king upon the sea, for the cleansing of robbers and pirates,” and the same year he held Taunton Castle, but was compelled to surrender it to the Duke of York. In 1450 a letter was sent to him amongst others, by the king requesting help for the preservation of Lower Normandy from the French.

Doubtless in consideration of these military and other services, actively and faithfully rendered to Henry VI., he was by that king raised to the honour of the peerage, by writ of summons dated 23 September, 1449,--26 Henry VI.,--to Parliament by the t.i.tle of BARON BONVILLE OF CHEWTON (from Chewton-Mendip in Somerset), where he inherited a large property, derived from his mother as heiress of the Fitz-Rogers. He was also created a KNIGHT OF THE GARTER, being the one hundred and eighteenth in the succession of that n.o.ble Order.

In 1453 he was ordered to France with a force sent for the relief of Guienne. While there it is probable he was a partic.i.p.ator in the engagement wherein the gallant Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, lost his life. The same year ”in consideration of his further services he was const.i.tuted Governor of the Castle of Exeter, and the year following, 1454, made Lieutenant of Acquitaine.”

From this partial relation of his public services, our thoughts wander for a time, to the domestic surroundings of his home life.

Lord Bonville married first a lady named Margaret, but who she was the labours of investigators have as yet failed to discover. By her he had one son, William, and two daughters,--Philippa, who married William Grenville, brother to Sir John, and second son of Sir Theobald Grenville, by Margaret daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe, by his third wife Matilda daughter of Sir John Beaumont, and was thus grandson to Earl Hugh and Margaret Bohun of Colcombe,--and Margaret, second daughter, who married Sir William Courtenay of Powderham, Sheriff of Devon in 1483, and who died in 1485.

Lord Bonville wedded secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Courtenay, third Earl of Devon, known as ”the blind Earl,” who died in 1419, and was presumably buried at Ford Abbey; by his wife Matilda, daughter of Thomas Lord Camoys. She was then the widow of Sir John Harington, fourth Baron Harington of Aldingham in the County of Lancaster, and who died 11 Feb., 1417-18. She died 28 October, 1471, thus surviving her second husband ten years, and her first husband fifty-three years!--and was probably buried with her first husband in Porlock church, where they founded a perpetual Chantry, and where their splendid tomb still exists, with effigies rec.u.mbent; moved probably from its antient position, and now much shorn by time and ill usage of its original glory, but still displaying ample evidence of the taste and skill of the mediaeval craftsman. By his second marriage Lord Bonville left no issue.

The figures on the monument at Porlock are sculptured in alabaster, and Lady Harington-Bonville wears cote-hardie and gown, with mantle over, fastened across the breast by cordon and ta.s.sels. Around the hips is a rich cincture, and a double chain with dependant jewel encircles the neck. The head-dress is horned, the hair secured in a reticulated caul splendidly embroidered, and with jewelled ornaments filling the interstices. Just over the brow is a band-coronet, studded with pearls and crested by fleurs-de-lys, and her fingers are ornamented with rings. Angels support the cus.h.i.+ons on which her head rests, and an animal, probably intended for a boar, as allusive to her family, is at her feet. Lord Harington is in plate armour, orle around his bascinet, plate gorget, large epaulieres with deeply scolloped terminations, diagonally placed sword-belt with sword, rich baudrick across the hips with anelace, small tuilles, gauntlets, and about his neck a chain of ornamented link-work, with the usual trefoil clasp and small pendant. The head reclines on a helmet with crest of _a lion's head couped at the shoulders_, and angels were originally on each side supporting it. The feet rest on a lion. The armour is of an interesting character, and of later date than that worn at the death of the knight, being referable to what was in use about the middle of the fifteenth century, accounted for by the appearance of his wife by his side, who survived him more than half a century. There is a fine canopy over the effigies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGIES OF ELIZABETH COURTENAY, LADY BONVILLE, AND HER FIRST HUSBAND, JOHN, FOURTH BARON HARINGTON OF ALDINGHAM, PORLOCK CHURCH, SOMERSET.--A.D. 1417-71.]

We broke off our little personal history in the year 1454, when presumably Lord Bonville had returned from Aquitaine, of which province he had been made Lieutenant. The next glimpse we get of him is in the year following, and the incident, that brings him before us, is quite in keeping with the belligerent spirit of the times, and which seems to have invaded both public and private life at this turbulent and lawless era. The old historian, Westcote, gives a succinct outline of this remarkable quarrel,

”In this parish (Colyton) are yet remaining the two antient seats of two ill.u.s.trious families, Colcombe of Courtenay, Earl of Devons.h.i.+re, and Shute alias Sheet, of the Lord Bonvile; each of them having their parks and large lati-funds (broad-acres), but seldom any good neighbourhood, familiarity, or friends.h.i.+p between them. This emulation increased at length to a quarrel, and eagerly taken a both sides, about a couple of dogs, or hounds, if you will, which could not by any mediation of friends, or intercession of their equals, be qualified or appeased, until it was valiantly tried in a single combat (which is now by a fitter word termed a duel,) upon Clist-Heath, which manfully and constantly performed by both parties, and after they had well tried one the other's strength and valour, and with their sharp swords, they at last lovingly agreed and embraced each other, and ever after there continued great love and amity between them.”

Shute was antiently part of Colyton, its church being a dependant chapelry,--it now forms a distinct parish.

A very singular spectacle, this valiant performance, between these n.o.ble neighbours, and ending according to the gossiping topographer in genuine three-volume style. Dugdale says, Lord Bonville had the best of the encounter, and Prince, after narrating the bellicose transaction and ”the great love and amity” said to have existed between the combatants afterward, navely adds, ”which I can hardly believe for a reason, which hereafter may be observed in reference to this Lord.” Cleaveland however gives probably the truer version of its cause, observing