RICHARD II. 1. BRIAN CORNWAL.-He was also this year sheriff of Shropshire; so that the two adjacent counties were under his inspection. 4. ROGER de WIRLEY.-When I observe how this gentleman is fixed in his generation, I cannot satisfy myself whether he lived nearer unto his ancestor Robert de Parvâ Wirley, who flourished in this county under king Henry the Second (if not before); or whether he approached nearer unto his descendant, Sir John Wirley, that learned knight now living at Hampstead. In my arithmetic he is equally distanced from them both. HENRY VI. 12. THOMAS STANLEY.-His true name was Audley; for, after that Adam, youngest brother to James Lord Audley, had married the daughter and heir of Henry de Stanley, William their son assumed the surname of Stanley, and transmitted it to posterity.* As for this Thomas Stanley, till I be clearly convinced to the contrary, he shall pass with me for the same person whom king Henry the Sixth made Lord Stanley, knight of the Garter, lord deputy of Ireland, and lord chamberlain of his household; and father unto Thomas Stanley, whom king Henry the Seventh created the first earl of Derby. 34. JOHN DELVES, Esq.-He is the last of that ancient family appearing in this catalogue, who were fixed in this county in the reign of king Edward the Third. This Sir John Delves (for he was afterwards knighted) left one daughter and sole heir, called Helene, married unto Sir Robert Sheffield, knight, and recorder of London, ancestor unto the present earl of Moulgrave.† EDWARD IV. 1. WALTER WROTESLEY.-He was lineally descended from Sir Hugh Wrotesley, one of the first founders of the most noble order of the Garter. HENRY VIII. 28. JOHN DUDLEY.-I had thought his ambition had been too high to come under the roof of such an office, and discharge the place of a sheriff. But know, that as yet Sir John Dudley was but Sir John Dudley, a plain but powerful knight, who not long afterwards, viz. the 38th of king Henry the Eighth, was Camden's Remains, p. 142. † Sampson Erdeswicke, MS. Camden's Britannia, in this county. SHERIFFS -BATTLES-THE FAREWELL. 155 created Viscount Lisle; and then earl of Warwick, in the first of king Edward the Sixth ;* and in the fifth of the said king, Duke of Northumberland. However, now he waited at Assizes on the itinerant judges, who afterwards made all the judges of the land (justice Hales alone excepted) attend on him, and dance after the pipe of his pleasure, when the instrument was drawn up (testament I can hardly term it) whereby the two sisters of king Edward the Sixth were disinherited. KING CHARLES. 3. WILLIAM BOWYER, Knight.-Thomas Bowyer, his ancestor, from whom he is lineally descended, did, in the reign of king Richard the Second, marry Catharine, daughter and heir of Robert Knipersley, of Knipersley in this county, with whom he had a fair inheritance.t The Bowyers of Sussex (invited thither some two hundred years since by an earl of Northumberland) are a younger branch from these in Staffordshire. THE BATTLES. At Hopton Heath, in this county, in March 1643, a fierce fight happened betwixt the king's and parliament's forces, on a ground full of cony-burrows, therefore affording ill footing for the horse. But an equal disadvantage on both sides is no disadvantage on either. The royalists may be said to have got the day, and lost the sun which made it: I mean the truly loyal and valiant Spencer earl of Northampton, though still surviving, as in his grateful memory, so in his noble and numerous issue, no less deservedly honoured by others than mutually loving amongst themselves. THE FAREWELL. To take our vale of Staffordshire. I wish that the pit-coal (wherewith it aboundeth) may seasonably and safely be burnt in their chimneys, and not have their burning ante-dated, before they be digged out of the bowels of the earth. The rather, because I have read, how in the year 1622 there was found a coalmine actually on fire, between Willingsworth and Weddesbury in this county. I find not by what casualty this English Etna was kindled, nor how long it did continue. And although such combustions be not so terrible here as in the south of Italy, where the sulphureous matter more enrageth the fury of the fire, yet it could not but cause much fright and fear to the people thereabouts. Reader, by this be pleased to rectify what before [not so exactly] was written of his honour, in his character under the title of SOLDIERS.-F. Sampson Erdeswicke, MS. Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 218. WORTHIES OF STAFFORD WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. George Lord ANSON, circumnavigator; born at Shugborough 1697; died 1762. Elias ASHMOLE, founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, skilled in chemistry, antiquities, heraldry, mathematics, &c.; born at Lichfield 1617; died 1692. Thomas ASTLE, antiquary, author on writing; born at Yoxhall 1735; died 1803. Philip ASTLEY, equestrian, originator of "Astley's Amphitheatre;" born at Newcastle-under-Line 1742; died 1814. John BOYDELL, lord mayor of London, engraver, patron of the arts; born 1719; died 1804. Isaac Hawkins BROWNE, elegant poet in Latin and English; born at Burton-upon-Trent 1706; died 1766. Theophilus BUCKERIDGE, divine, antiquary, and learned writer; born at Lichfield 1724; died 1803. George BUTT, divine, author of a collection of poems, and other works; born at Lichfield 1741; died 1795. Arthur CLIFFORD, author of a History of Tixall, and other works; born 1778; died 1830. Sir William CONGREVE, engineer, inventor of the Congreve rockets, &c.; born 1772; died 1828. Charles COTTON, poet, principally in burlesque; born at Beresford 1630; died 1687. Thomas DILKE, dramatic writer; born at Lichfield about 1699. Elijah FENTON, scholar and dramatist, assisted Pope in his Odyssey; born at Shelton near Newcastle 1683; died 1730. Sir John FLOYER, physician and author; born at Hints 1649; died 1734. Alan Lord GARDNER, celebrated admiral; born at Uttoxeter 1742; died 1809. Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's hospital in Southwark, and benefactor to his native town; born at Tamworth 1644; died 1724. Richard HURD, bishop of Worcester, philological writer; born at Congreve 1720; died 1808. R. JAGO, divine and poet; born at Beau-Desert 1715; died 1781. Dr. Robert JAMES, inventor of the Fever Powders bearing his name; born at Kinverton 1703; died 1776. JERVIS earl of St. Vincent, naval commander; born at Meaford Hall 1734; died 1823. Dr. Samuel JOHNSON, lexicographer, critic, poet, biographer, and moralist; born at Lichfield 1709; died 1784. Samuel JOHNSON, divine, writer in favour of civil liberty; born 1649; died 1703. WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF Fuller. 157 Gregory KING, draughtsman, herald, and political economist; died 1712. Dr. John LIGHTFOOT, learned divine, who assisted in the Polyglot Bible; born at Stoke-upon-Trent 1602; died 1675. R. MEADOWCROFT, divine, critic, and annotator on Milton; 1697. Thomas Moss, divine, author of the Beggar's Petition, and other poems; born about 1740; died 1808. Thomas NEWTON, bishop of Bristol, author of "Dissertations on the Prophecies;" born at Lichfield 1703; died 1782. Henry SALT, traveller in the East, and British consul in Egypt; born at Lichfield; died in Alexandria 1827. Rev. Stebbing SHAW, historian of his native county; born at Stone 1762; died 1802. Gilbert SHELDON, archbishop of Canterbury; born at Stanton 1598; died 1677. George SMALRIDGE, learned bishop of Bristol; born at Lichfield 1663; died 1719. Izaak WALTON, "honest Isaac," celebrated angler and amusing writer; born at Stafford 1593; died 1683. Josiah WEDGWOOD, improver of the manufacture of pottery; born 1731; died 1795. Samuel Pipe WOLFERSTAN, eminent antiquary; born at Statfold 1751; died 1820. William WOLLASTON, philosophical writer; born at Coton Clamford 1659. James WYATT, architect of the Pantheon, London, Beckford's Fonthill, &c.; born at Burton 1743; died 1813. The county of Stafford has been fortunate in its historians. So early as 1603, Mr. Sampson Erdeswicke, whom Camden styles "Venerabilis antiquitatis cultor maximus," made Collections for a topographical History of Staffordshire, which Dr. Fuller frequently cites in the course of this work. A portion of these were published in 1717, and the remainder in 1723. In 1820, the Rev. T. Harwood brought out an enlarged and greatly improved edition of Erdeswicke, of which another edition is now in preparation. Histories of the county have also been published by W. Tunnicliffe (1787); by the Rev. S. Shaw (1798 and 1802); and by W. Pitt (1817); besides the Natural History of Staffordshire, by Dr. Plott, which was published so early as 1686. Several local histories have also appeared at different times; as the Histories of Lichfield, by J. Jackson (1805), and by the Rev. T. Harwood (1806); of Eccleshall, by S. Pegge (1784); of Shenstone, by the Rev. H. Sanders (1794); Roby's Tamworth; the Rev. S. Shaw's Histories of Byshbury, Shenstone, the Three Ridwares, Tamworth, Walsall, &c.—ED. SUFFOLK. SUFFOLK hath Norfolk on the north, divided with the rivers of Little Ouse and Waveny; Cambridgeshire on the west; the German Ocean on the east; and Essex, parted with the river Stour, on the south thereof. From east to west it stretcheth forty-five miles, though the general breadth be but twenty, saving by the sea-side, where it runneth out more by the advantage of a corner. The air thereof generally is sweet, and by the best physicians* esteemed the best in England, often prescribing the receipt thereof to the consumptionish patients. I say generally sweet, there being a small parcel nigh the seaside not so excellent, which may seem left there by Nature, on purpose to advance the purity of the rest. NATURAL COMMODITIES. CHEESE. Most excellent are made herein, whereof the finest are very thin, as intended not for food but digestion. I remember, when living in Cambridge, the cheese of this county was preferred as the best. If any say that scholars' palates are incompetent judges, whose hungry appetites make coarse diet seem delicates unto them, let them know, that Pantaleon, the learned Dutch physician,† counted them equal at least with them of Parma in Italy. BUTTER. For quantity and quality this county doth excel, and venteth it at London and elsewhere. The child not yet come to and the old man who is past the use of teeth, eateth no softer, the poor man no cheaper (in this shire), the rich no wholesomer food, I mean in the morning. It was half of our Saviour's bill of fare in his infancy, " Butter and honey shall he eat.” ‡ It is of a cordial, or, I may say, antidotal nature. The story is well known of a wife which, desiring to be a widow, incorporated poison in the butter, whereon her husband had his principal repast. The poor man, finding himself strangely affected, Speed, in his Description of Suffolk. † Camden's Britannia, in Suffolk. Isaiah vii. 15. |