NOTICES

OF

SIR NICHOLAS LESTRANGE, BART.

AND HIS FAMILY CONNEXIONS.

COMMUNICATED BY J. G. NICHOLS, ESQ. F.S A.

THE person who now makes his first appearance as a posthumous author, after a lapse of nearly two centuries from the days in which he lived, is one for whose biography the apparent materials are exceedingly scanty, and whose mere existence as a country gentleman of Norfolk is almost all that is recorded. It requires, indeed, a little research before the reader of the "Merry Passages and Jests," now the MS. Harl. 6395, can satisfy himself of the identity of their collector; for the book contains no contemporary statement that directly specifies his name. But in the course of the volume, and particularly in the catalogue at the end, which gives the authorities from whom the anecdotes were derived, he mentions so many of his relatives, that at length it is fully ascertained that the writer was no other than Sir Nicholas Lestrange, the first Baronet of Hunstanton; the elder brother of a person of considerable reputation at the latter part of the 17th century, in what is now called periodical literature, that voluminous essayist and political pamphleteer, Sir Roger Lestrange.

Having arrived at this conclusion, we find that several of the anecdotes which are given on the writer's own knowledge, are marked S. N. L.-the first letter being the initial of his title of knighthood, a

practice which was usual until the frequent occurrence of more than one baptismal name rendered it ambiguous and uncertain.

Sir Nicholas Lestrange was the representative of a junior branch of the Barons le Strange of Knockyn in Shropshire, which, seated on the manor of Hunstanton in Norfolk, had for many generations occupied a prominent station among the knightly houses of that county. But it is not necessary to enter here into the early history of the family. It will be found detailed at length in the History of Norfolk, and in the Baronetage by Wotton, published in 1741; and its most important points have more recently formed the subject of a memoir by Daniel Gurney, esq. F.S.A. in the XXVth volume of the Archæologia, where a long series of domestic accounts of the household at Hunstanton, during a large portion of the 16th century, have been presented to the world. The present notices will be almost entirely confined to the parties mentioned in the MS. volume which has given rise to these remarks.

Sir Nicholas was born in the year 1603; and during the whole of his life, with the exception of fourteen months, was only a heir apparent. His father Sir Hamon Lestrange, who was knighted at the Tower of London immediately on the arrival of King James the First in the metropolis of his new kingdom, on the 13th March 1603-4; and who was afterwards Sheriff of Norfolk in 1609, and M.P. for that county in 1620; was living until the 31st of May 1654, when he died at the age of seventy-one, and was buried at Hunstanton. His epitaph is characteristic not only of the age in which such quibbling epitaphs were common, but also of the Anecdotist his son, by whom or with whose concurrence we may presume it was inscribed:

"HAMO EXTRANEUS miles ob. 31 Maij 1654, ætat. suce 71.

In terris Peregrinus eram, nunc Incola cœli.

In heaven at Home, o blessed change!
Who while I was on earth was Strange."

More than thirty of Sir Nicholas's anecdotes are given on the authority of "My Father," or "Mon Pere;" and a still larger number on that of "My Mother," or " Ma Mere." The latter was Alice, the younger daughter and coheiress of Richard Stubbe, of Sedgford in Norfolk, esq. by Anne a, daughter and heiress of Richard Goding, of Boston, co. Lincoln, esq. which Anne had been previously the wife of John Lestrange, esq. of Sedgford, a younger brother of Hamon Lestrange, esq. of Hunstanton, the grandfather of Sir Hamon. Alice (Sir Nicholas's mother) was baptized at Sedgford, March 6, 1595 b; and died on the 26th Nov. 1656.

Besides his father and mother, Sir Nicholas quotes the authority of

Der Stubbe, Nos. 67, 68, 90, 108.

My bro. Ham. Nos. 180, 423.
Broth. Ham. S. No. 277.

My Sist. Ham. No. 353.

My bro. Roger, Nos. 179, 236, 242, 243, 564, 565, 566.

My sister Eliz. No. 262.

Mr. Spring, No. 195, and many between
Nos. 201 and 276.

Sir W. Spring, many between No. 202
and the end.

Bro. Spring, many from No. 245 to the end.

The La. Spr. No. 431.

The preferments of Dr. Stubbe might perhaps be found by turning over the pages of the History of Norfolk, but there is no index to the incumbents. He was probably, however, the same with Edmund Stubbe, S.T.P. whose son John died in 1662, aged 60; and was buried at Thurton, in that county, the arms on whose tomb agree with those of Stubbe of Sedgford.

The greater part of the very numerous anecdotes furnished by the name of Spring were probably derived from one person, Sir William Spring, Bart. of Pakenham, in Suffolk, who married our author's sister Elizabeth. He is first called " Mr. Spring" before his creation to a

a

"A wench came to my Grandmother Stubbe to seeke a service," &c No. 358.

b Pedigree by Le Neve in the College of Arms: but perhaps we should read 1585. Her epitaph at Hunstanton (in the History of Norfolk, 1809, vol. x. p. 326,) states her age at her death to have been 71; in which case she was two years older than her husband, which is not improbable, as she was the daughter of his great-aunt.

Baronetcy in 1641, and before his marriage; and probably the earlier anecdotes assigned to "Sir W. Spring" came from his father of the same name, who was knighted in 1610, and was Sheriff of Suffolk in 1621. Afterwards the son might be called indifferently "Sir W. Spring" or " Brother Spring." The Lady Spring, as she occurs late in the book, is probably the writer's sister; or if she was the old Lady Spring, she was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Smith, of Theydon Mount in Essex, Knt.

Sir Nicholas's brother, Hamon Lestrange, was baptized at Sedgford on the 29th Aug. 1605. He married Dorothy, daughter of Edmund Lavarich, of Upwell in Norfolk, by whom he had Hamon Lestrange, esq. his son and heir, who was living at Pakenham at the period of Sir Edward Bysshe's Visitation of Suffolk in 1664. This brother Hamon was the author of "The Reign of King Charles, an History faithfully and impartially delivered and disposed into Annals," published anonymously, in folio, 1655. He also wrote "An Answer to the Certamen Religiosum, or the Conference between Charles I. and the Marq. of Worcester," 8vo. 1651, which created a controversy with the celebrated Dr. Peter Heylin; and two theological essays, one on the Sabbath, published in 1641; another on the Liturgy, entitled "The Alliances of Divine Offices," fol. 1659; and also a third essay, written to ✓prove "The Americans no Jews," 4to. 1652.

с

Of Sir Roger Lestrange it will not be necessary to say many words, as there is a long memoir of him in the Biographia Britannica, which has of course been transferred, in part, to other works of a similar nature. It may be remarked, however, in illustration of the anecdote of the "very choice Rose Viole," told on his authority (No. XLI.), that his performance on the same instrument, at a private concert held at the house of Mr. Hinckson in St. James's Park, during the course of

See Wood's Athenæ Oxon. by Bliss, ii. 527; iii. 201, 563.

d An original portrait of Sir Roger, by Kneller, which it is believed has never been engraved, is in the possession of Richard Frankum, Esq. a member of the Camden Society.

66

which the Protector Cromwell unexpectedly came in, ❝ and found them playing " (for such was Sir Roger's explanation of the affair), afterwards gained him from his political antagonists the nickname of "Oliver's Fidler." e Sir Roger was thirteen years younger than his eldest brother, having been born at Hunstanton Dec. 17, 1616: after incurring various hazards from his political zeal, he lived to the advanced age of eighty-eight, and, dying in 1704, was buried in the church of St. Giles's in the Fields.

According to the usual practice of former times, Sir Nicholas speaks of his wife's relations as his own. Of these we find

nor, of Denham in Suffolk, Knt. an alliance which is peculiarly memorable in the history of the family of Lestrange, as through it their present representative is one of the coheirs of the ancient Barony of Camoys. She was born in the year 1612, and was consequently about

• There is a pamphlet in the British Museum, printed in 1683, attacking him under the title of "The Loyal Observator; or, Historical Memoirs of the Life and Actions of Roger the Fidler; alias, The Observator."

- f See the case of " Henry Le Strange Styleman, of Hunstanton, in the county of Norfolk, Esq. on his claim to the title and dignity of Baron Camoys," in the House of Lords, Session 1838; also the "Minutes of Evidence given before the Committee of Privileges, to whom the Petition of Thomas Stonor, of Stonor, Esq. claiming to be the senior co-heir of the Barony Camoys, was referred." Printed by order of the House of Lords, 1838.