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Lady Place, Hurley, Berkshire.

particularly distinguished. He had been educated in the Monastery of Bec, in Normandy, under Lanfranc and Anselm, successive Archbishops of Canterbury, with the latter of whom he kept up a constant correspondence, founded on a sincere friendship. He was repeatedly employed in embassies by Henry I., and is said to have been a very honest and good-natured man, and learned in all the sciences of the times. Some of his theological writings are still extant. He died in the year 1117, and lies buried under one of the three old stone effigies which still remain in the pavement of the great cloisters in Westminster Abbey, near Mr. Pulteney's tomb. In his time, Geoffry de Mandeville himself was interred in the little cloisters of Westminster Abbey, in a chapel, now a court yard, belonging to the house of the receiver of the Abbey rents. Geoffry, the son of the founder, created Earl of Essex, was likewise a benefactor. He married Roisia, sister to Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford. This lady caused a subterraneous chapel to be cut out of the solid chalk, near the centre of the present town of Royston, in which she was buried. This chapel, on the walls of which many rude figures are still to be seen in relievo, after being lost and unknown for ages, was accidentally discovered by some workmen in 1742, and an account of it was published by Dr. Stukeley. It is well worthy the attention of tourists; and being perfectly dry and easily accessible, is often visited by strangers passing between London and Cambridge.

To return from this digression. The Earl of Essex was Standard-bearer of England, in the times of the Empress Maud and of King Henry II. The family seems to have acquired considerable possessions, and probably gave rise to several distinguished individuals, who, in their posterity, may still be existing in honorable stations.

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As to Hurley Priory, except that Godfrey, the prior in 1258, exchanged the greatest part of the tithes belonging to the original endowment, with the Abbot of Walden for the church of Streatley, in Berkshire, it remained nearly in the same condition for about 450 years.* It was suppressed, among the lesser monasteries, in the 26th year of Henry VIII. 1535, when the annual income, according to Dugdale, amounted to 1211. 18s. 5d.; according to Speed, 1347. 10s. 8d.†

In the 33rd year of Henry VIII. the Priory of Hurley became the property, by grant, of Charles Howard, Esq., and three years afterwards, the site, then and ever since called Lady Place, from the convent having been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as already mentioned, became the property of Leonard Chamberleyn, Esq. From him it passed the same year to John Lovelace, Esq., who died in 1558.‡ The son of that gentleman went on an expedition with Sir Frances Drake against the Spaniards, and with the money acquired in this adventure, built the present house on the ruins of the ancient convent.

Of the original buildings belonging to the Priory, the only visible parts remaining are the Abbey yard,§ behind the parish church, on the North side, and some parts of a chapel, or rather, as it is generally supposed, of the refectory, (now stables) of which the window arches, though formed of chalk, are still as fresh as if lately erected. The durability of chalk, indeed, is wonderful, when once it becomes indurated by the sun and air, and fixed in an erect position. In the house itself, however, some remains of the form of the convent may still be traced. Under the great hall, which strikes every spectator for its grandeur and proportions, is a vault or cellar, in which some bodies in monastic habits have been found buried, probably some of the priors, as

* It appears from a deed executed in the 15th of Richard II. that Edith, sister of Edward the Confessor, had been buried at Hurley, on which and some other claims the prior and mouks obtained the appropriation of the church of Warefeld from the King.

In the valuation of Pope Nicholas we find this entry, "Ecclesia de Hurle cu' vicar' indeci'abili, Prior Rector, 10l. Taxatio decima, 17.”

It has been supposed that Lovelace the poet, who died in 1658, was of the same family.

§ In the walls bounding this quadrangle a former proprietor of Lady Place, Joseph Wilcocks, Esq. has put up tablets with inscriptions, recording some eminent persons connected with the foundation of the Priory.

1831.]

Lovelace, Wilcocks, and Kempenfelt Families.

is indicated by the staff on the stones covering their remains. This hall, and the cross rooms at the East end, seem to have been the church, not of the parish, but of the convent; and the numerous small apartments at the west end, forming the boundary of the parish cemetery, appear to have been the dormitories of the monks.

Respecting the Lovelace family, long the proprietors and occupiers of Lady Place, it is proper to notice that it soon grew rich and powerful in this country, and was ennobled in the reign of Charles I. under the title of Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley. In the succeeding reign it lived in great splendour. Two or three ceilings, painted by Verrio, probably at the same time with those in Windsor Castle, and more particularly the landscapes by Salvator Rosa, in the great room, attest the magnificence and wealth of the family.

During the short reign of James II. private meetings of some of the leading nobles of the kingdom were held here, in the subterraneous vault under the Great Hall, for calling in the Prince of Orange; and it is said that the principal papers which brought about the Revolution, were signed in the dark recess at the extremity of that vault. It is certain, that after King Wiliam obtained the crown, he visited Lord Lovelace at Lady Place, and descended with him the dark stairs to see the place. Inscriptions recording this visit, that of George III. and of General Paoli, in 1780, to the same vault, as the cradle of the revolution, were put in it by a worthy proprietor, Joseph Wilcocks, Esq., who will again be mentioned in the sequel.

On the decline of the Lovelace family, which speedily followed, the estate was sold under a decree of Chancery-one part of it, by far the most valuable, the manorial rights, the impropriate rectory, and the advowson of the vicarage, became the property of Robert Gayer, Esq., who, according to Bishop Tanner, possessed various accompts, rentals, and charters of the Priory; though no register of it is known to exist, nor any regular list of the priors. This estate, with its appurtenances, was subsequently purchased of the Gayer family by the late Duke of Marlborough, who died in 1817. His Grace afterwards exchanged them for lands in Oxfordshire

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with Thomas Walker, Esq. of Woodstock, from whose granddaughter and sole heir, Miss Freind, married to Henry Lord Viscount Ashbrook, it has lately descended to their only surviving son, the Hon. Henry Flower, who on coming into its possession, assumed, by royal authority, the name of Walker.

The remaining part of the Lovelace estate, consisting of Lady Place and the Woodlands, was purchased by Mrs. Williams, sister to Dr. Wilcocks, Bishop of Rochester, which lady in one lottery had two tickets only, and one of them came up a prize of 500l. the other of 20,000l. with which she purchased the property here. The daughter of Mrs. Williams, married to Dr. Lewin, Chancellor of Rochester, possessed it from her mother's death in 1745; and dying without issue, bequeathed it to her relative, Joseph Wilcocks, Esq., son of the Bishop, who on succeeding to it in 1771, and not being able to let the house to a tenant, came to inhabit it himself, and died at an advanced age. He was the author of a posthumous publication under the title of “Roman Conversations," written when a young man, but suppressed from a modesty of disposition, for which, as well as every amiable virtue, he was distinguished through life.

The next person in the entail was the brave and unfortunate Admiral Kempenfelt,* * who went down in the Royal George, as is well known, in Portsmouth harbour. His brother, Gustavus Adolphus Kempenfelt, Esq. succeeded to Lady Place, and made it his residence; but dying unmarried, as his brother and Mr. Wilcocks had been, and being last in the entail, he left the property to his relative, the late Mr. Richard Troughton, of the Custom House, who resided only occasionally here, and whose representatives sold the estate in lots, about three or four years ago. The mansion called Lady Place, and part of the estate, were purchased for the Hon. Henry Walker; and the re

It has been said, but the writer of this knows not on what authority, that the Kempenfelts were descended from the Will Wimble of the " Spectator." The portrait of the Admiral in his uniform, is, or was lately, to be seen in the Great Room occupying the east side of Lady Place.

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Notices of the Family of Copinger.

mainder by the late Sir Gilbert East, of Hall Place, Bart., in the parish of Hurley.

The old mansion of Lady Place, with its enclosure of fifteen acres, having fish-ponds communicating with the Thames, and venerable even in decay, having been much neglected, or inadequately occupied, for so many years, is almost past repair as a modern habitation, nor is its future destination at present known. It cannot fail, however, to be agreeable to the numerous readers of the Gentleman's Magazine, to have an accurate view of a place of such notoriety (see Plate I.) from a recent drawing by that celebrated artist, John Buckler, Esq. F.A.S., to whom and his son, John Chessell Buckler, Esq. author of "Observations on the original architecture of Magdalen College, Oxford," and of "An Account of the Royal Palace at Eltham," our ecclesiastical and other antiquities are under the highest obligations for correct delineation and description.

MR. URBAN,

W. M.

Some brief Notices of the Family of COPINGER, of Buxhall, co. Suffolk. Glebe House, Navestock, Essex. SUBJOINED are a few scattered Notices of the Family of Copinger; a family which was once so famous for its hospitality, that "to live like Copinger" became a proverbial expression throughout the county of Suffolk.

They were originally, and at a very early period, seated at Farcings Hall, in the parish of Buxhall, and were lords of that manor. Here they flourished in great repute for many generations.

The first of this ancient and highlyrespectable family, of whom I find any authentic account on record, is John Copynger, who was twice married. His first wife appears to have been Anne, the only daughter of John Sorrel, from whom he inherited the manor of Bucks-hall. He deceased in 1517, and was interred in the church of Buxhall, with the following inscription, as given by Weever: viz.

"John Copynger, Esquire, Lord and Patron, Anne and Jane his wives, who had vii. children, and dyceased an. MDXVII."

II. He was succeeded by his son, Walter Copinger, who married Bea

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trix; and who, dying on the 10th of March, 1532, was buried likewise in the same place, together with his wife, who deceased on the 2d of Feb. 1512, with the following memorial:

"Walter Copynger, gent. which died the x. of Marche, an. MDXXXII. and Beatrix his wife, the second of February MDXII.”

The following curious grant, given in the year 1513 to this Sir Walter Copinger, by that ruthless monarch Henry the Eighth, who, in this instance seems to have had a special regard to the head of his loving subject,

is still extant in the Glebe-house at Buxhall :

"Henry R.-Henry, by the grace of God King of England and of France, and Lord of

Ireland.

"To all manor our subjects, as well of the spiritual pre-eminence and dignities, as of the temporal auctority, these our Letters hearing or seeing, and to every of them greeting. Whereas we be credibly informed that our trusty and well-beloved subject Walter Copinger is so diseased in his head that without his great danger he cannot be conveniently discovered of the same: In consideration whereof, we have by these presents licensed him to use and wear his Bonet upon his said head, as well in our presence as elsewhere, at his liberty. Whereof we will and command you and every of you to permit and suffer him so to do, without any your challenge, disturbance, or interruption to the contrary, as ye and every of you tender our pleasure. Given under our signet, at our manor of Greenwych, the 24th day of October, in the fourth year of our reigne.-Henry R."

They had issue two sons, viz. Henry, of whom hereafter, and William," who was bred a fishmonger in London, and so prospered, through God's good providence, in his trade, that he became Lord Mayor of that city in the year 1512, and received the honour of knighthood. What estate God gave him, which was very large, he divided at his death to God and man; that is, half to the poor, and other pious uses, and half to his heirs and kindred."

"His bounty," says Fuller, "mindeth me of the words of Zaccheus to our Saviour: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.'-Luke, xix. 8.

"Demand not of me whether our Copinger made such plentiful restitution, being confident there was no cause thereof, seeing he was never one of the publicans; persons universally infamous for extortion. Other

1831.] Notices of the Rev. Henry Copinger, of Lavenham.

wise I confess, that that charity which is not bottomed on justice, is but built on a foundered foundation. I am sorry to see this gentleman's ancient arms (the epidemical disease of that age) substracted (in point of honour) by the addition of a superfluous Bordure."

III. Henry Copinger, the eldest son, succeeded his father at Buxhall. He married Agnes, the seventh daughter of Sir Thomas Jermyne, of Rushbroke, Knt., by Anne his wife, the daughter of Thomas Sprynge, of Lavenham, esq. They had issue eleven sons, of whom Ambrose was presented by his father, in 1569, to the rectory of Buxhall, and died in the following year.

IV. Henry, the fourth son, was born in 1550, and received his academical education at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which Society he was elected Fellow. On entering into holy orders, he was promoted to a Prebendal stall in the cathedral church of York. By a mandate from Queen Elizabeth, he was elected Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, which, at her request, and to avoid a forcible removal, he afterwards resigned; but soon after this, viz. in 1577, he was presented by the Earl of Oxford, the then patron, to the rectory of Lavenham. He was an intimate friend of that eminent scholar and renowned wit of the seventeenth century, the Rev. George Ruggle, A.M. and Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, the ingenious writer of that celebrated dramatic satire, the comedy of "Ignoramus," and from him received the following legacy :

"Item, I give and bequeath to my worthy friend, Mr. Henry Copinger the elder, of Lavenham, fifty shillings to make him a ring."

Dr. Fuller, in his "Church History," gives the following interesting account of this spirited divine :

"1622, Dec. 21.-Henry Copinger, formerly Fellow of St. John's College, in Cambridge, Prebendary of Yorke, once Chaplain to Ambrose Earl of Warwick (whose funeral sermon he preached), made Master of Magdalene College in Cambridge, by her Majesty's mandate, though afterwards resigning his right at the Queen's (shall I call it?) request, to prevent trouble, ended his religious life. He was the sixth son of Henry Copinger of Bucks Hall, in Suffolke, esquire, by Agnes, daughter of Sir Thomas Jermyn. His father, on his death-bed, asking him what course of life he would em

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brace, he answered, he intended to be a divine. “I like it well," said the old gentleman, "otherwise what shall I say to Martin Luther, when I shall see him in heaven ; and he knows that God gave me eleven sons, and I made not one of them a Minister?" An expression proportionable enough to Luther's judgment, who maintained, some hours before his death, that the saints in another. Laneham living fell void; which heaven shall knowingly converse one with both deserved a good minister, being a rich parsonage; and needed so, it being more than suspicious that Dr. Reinolds, late incumbent, who ran away to Rome, had left some superstitious leaven behind him. The Earl of Oxford, being patron, presents Mr. Copinger to it, but adding withal that he would pay no tithes of his park, being almost half the land of the parish. Copinger desired to resign it again to his lordship, rather than by such sinful gratitude to betray the rights of the church. • Well! if you be of that mind, then take the tithes,' saith the Earl, 'I scorn that my estate should swell with church goods.' However, it afterwards cost Master Copinger sixteen hundred pounds, in keeping his questioned and recovering his detained rights, in suit with the agent for the next (minor) E. of Oxford and others; all which he left to his churches quiet possession; being zealous in God's cause, but remiss in his own. He lived forty and five years the painful parson of Laneham, in which market town there were about nine hundred communicants; amongst whom, all his time, no difference did arise which he did not compound. He had a bountiful hand and plentiful purse (his paternal inheritance, by death of elder brothers, and other transactions, descending upon him), bequeathing twenty pounds in money, and ten pounds per annum, to the poor of the parish; in the chancel whereof he lieth buried under a fair monument, dying on St. Thomas his day, in the threescore and twelfth year of his age."

Mr. Copinger deceased on the 21st of December, 1622, and was interred in the chancel of the church of Laven

ham; where, on the north side of the altar, a very handsome monument is erected to his memory, of marble and alabaster, gilt and painted. It consists of an arched recess, between two Corinthian pillars, supporting a cornice surmounted with the arms of the family. In this recess are represented, in alto relievo, the reverend divine and his wife, facing each other, and kneeling before a table, with their hands in the attitude of prayer. They are both habited in black, with white ruffs round their necks. Under the principal figures are three compartments.

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Notices of the Rev. Henry Copinger, of Lavenham.

In the middle are seen their children habited in black, and kneeling before a covered table; eight sons, two and two, on one side, and four daughters, singly, on the other. The first of the former is represented cross-gartered down the leg, in the fashion alluded to by Shakspeare in the fifth act of his Twelfth Night. On either side of the monument, upon a pedestal, stands an angel at full length, with a scroll in his hand, on one of which is written, “ dilecti accipite coronam vitæ ;" and on the other, "mortui venite ad judicium." Over one angel, on the cornice, "novissimus lectus sepulchrum;" and over the other, "viventes sequentur mortuos."

On a tablet, on the left hand, is this inscription:

"Sacrum memoriæ Henrici Coppingeri, antiquissima Coppingerorū familiâ, in agro hoc Suffolciensi, oriundi, hujus ecclesiæ per quadraginta et quinque annos pastoris ; pacifici, fidelissimi, et vigilantissimi. Monumentum hoc, amoris et pietatis ergo, dilectissima uxor, Anna, marito optimè merenti, heu invita superstes, mærens posuit.

Amans maritus, prole fœcundus pater,
Sancti pius pastor gregis,
Qui sensa dextrè codicis docuit sacri
Nec voce quàm vitâ majus;
Qui largâ abundè favit indigis manu

Securus annonæ domi.

Hic plenus annis, plenior deo, jacet,
Secum polo gregem trahens
Mutus jacet; sed lingua quæ vivo decus,
Vitam paravit mortuo."

On a tablet on the left side

"This monument was erected at the sole cost of Mrs. Ann Coppinger, in memory of her deare husband, the Rev'd and godly divine Mr. Henry Copinger, (fourth son of Henry Copinger, of Buxhal, in this county, esq. by Agnes his wife, daughter to Sir Tho's. Jermine, of Rushbrooke Hall, knt.) the painful and vigilant Rector of this church by the space of 45 years, Prebendary of the metropolitan church of St. Peter's in Yorke, Lord of the towne, and patron of the church of Buxhall aforesaide; who marryed Ann, daughter to Henry Fisher, of Linne, in Norfolk, gent., and by her had 8 sonues and 4 daughters; and, after he had lived godly 72

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years, died peaceably the 21st of Dec. A. 1622."

On a tablet underneath

"This monument of Dr. Henry Copinger was new beautified, Auno Domini 1721, by Mrs. Judith Brinkley, daughter of Thomas Burly, gent. and Margaret, his wife, third daughter and coheir of Ambrose Copinger, D. D. by Judith his wife, only daughter of Roger Keddington, gent.; which Ambrose was second son of the said Henry, and also he was buried." Rector of this parish, and of Buxhall, where

In a circle-"Justorum memoria benedicetur."

On the top of the monument are three escutcheons, viz. :— 1. The arms of Copinger.

2.

Jermyn, Sable, a crescent between two mullets in pale, Arg.

3. In the centre, six quarterings; viz. 1st, Copinger; 2d, on a bend four...; 3d, Clopton, Sabl. a bend Arg. between two cotises dancette; 4th, Arg. a fess between three boars' heads couped; 5th, Arg. a fess between three bugle horns stringed proper; 6th, Copinger.

Under the arch, Clopton impaling Fisher; viz. Gul. a chevron between three lions passant Or.

Mr. Copinger devised by his will,* dated the 31st Dec. 1621, as follows:

"To four of the most aged, needy, and impotent persons in Lanehame, which shall be after the death of Ambrose my son, and Judith his now wife, I give all the benefit and profit which shall arise of the tenement and yard, which now James Write dwelleth in and used, and all the free meadow called the Church Meadow, and the three rood, more or less, of copie lying in that meadow, if the lord of that manor will consent thereunto, to the use of four such parties as before be named successively for ever; which four persons, proposed to receive that benefit, are to be nominated by my sons, William, Henry, Ralph, Francis, and Thomas, the parson of the town then being, the headboroughs of that town, or the greater number of them; and if all my sons be dead, or being requested to join in choice of any of these, refuse, then my mind is, that the parson and headboroughs, if the parson be resident, otherwise the greater part of the headboroughs without the parson, to make

For the copy of this will, I am indebted to Mr. McKeon's interesting "Inquiry into the Charities of Lavenham;" a work recently published, and which, in its execution, evinces great talent and research. It affords much matter for serious reflection; and if it should, unfortunately, not lead to the reform of any present misapplication of the large bequests which belong to that parish, it will at least serve as a record to preserve the existing funds from future malversation, as well as a lasting proof of the author's benevolent intentions.

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