vii Richard, first Earl of Portland. 2. Herbert, married Catherine Thimelby, daughter of Sir John Thimelby, of Irnham, in the county of Lincoln, Knt. 3. John, married, but had no issue. Of the daughters, 1. Frances, married Sir William Persall, of Canwell, in the county of Stafford, Knt. 2. Gertrude, married Henry Thimelby, Esq. brother to Sir John Thimelby. 3. Constantia, married Walter Fowler, Esq. of St Thomas Priory, near Stafford. Of all these persons, and of their correspondents, the reader will find some information hereafter, in the proper place. TIXALL LETTERS. PART THE FIRST. LETTERS TO AND FROM SIR WALTER ASTON, KNIGHT OF THE BATH, AND BARONET, AFTERWARDS LORD ASTON, BARON OF FORFAR, IN SCOTLAND. 1617-1638. LETTER I. To my most esteemed frend Sr Walter Aston, SR, Yor ltre was very wellcome unto me, becaus it brought me the good news of yor safe arri * The order of baronets was instituted in the year 1611, five or six years before the date of this letter. It was originally suggested to King James I. by Sir Robert Cotton, the famous antiquary, and founder of the Cotton library. The number of them, by the original patent, was always to be restrained to 200: every person to be created a baronet was VOL. I. * ving at Bloys, and I must confess, I love to heare of my frends being well in absence, wth the same sence of ioy, wch mine eys make me to be a gentleman by two descents; his father, and grandfather, must have been gentlemen; and he must have been possessed of at least 1000l. a-year, in landed property at that time. But these regulations have since been dispensed with; and this new order of nobility has proved so generally acceptable to the nation, that the baronets of the united kingdom amount, at present, to about four times the number originally proposed. They had several privileges given them, and an augmentation of their arms, to them, and their heirs male. They were allowed to charge their coat with the arms of Ulster ; which are Argent, a hand gules: as each baronet, by way of purchase for the honour, became bound to maintain 30 foot soldiers, for 3 years, at 8d. a day each, to assist the king in the reduction of the province of Ulster, in Ireland, which was then extremely harassed by the rebels, or to pay into the Exchequer, a sum sufficient to do it. The price consequently was 10951. Ninety-three were created at once. Sir Edmund Bacon was the first baronet; and his descendant Sir Edmund Bacon, of Raveningham, in Norfolk, is now Premier Baronet of England. Sir Walter Aston's patent is dated 22d May, 1611; and he is thus described: Creamus dilectum nostrum Walterum Aston de Tyxal, in comitatu Stafford militem, virum, familiâ, matrimonio, censu, et morum probitate spectatum. * Blois, a town of France, near Orleans, situated on the feele, when they present any good of theirs unto me, when they are present. And I shall now send you a testimony of yor master's noble remembrance of you, for yor place of the privy chamber, though I must hartily grieve at the occasion. As soon as the king heard of the death of that worthy gentleman, and my deare frend, Sr Will. Godolphin, who dyed in the end of August, he wthout motion, sayd he would reserve the place for you, and so doth. Neither shall you need to alter yor resolution of travell, for the place shall still be reserved for you, except I write expressly for yor coming over. All other news I have in brief river Loire, in a most delightful country. This town has always been celebrated for the beauty of its women, and for the purity, with which the French language is supposed to be spoken by its inhabitants. Sir W. Aston appears at this time to have been making a tour in France, with a part of his family, and in company with Sir Benjamin Rudyard, who was a particular friend of Lord Pembroke's. * There is no date of the year to this letter, and I have not been able to ascertain in what year Sir William Godolphin died. But as the Earl of Pembroke was Lord Chamberlain, in 1617, and in the next letter addressed to Sir W. Aston, dated 1619, the king says, "By the experience we have had of you in your long attendance on our per son, as one of the gentlemen in ordinance of our privy |