A Key Chart of the Pedigree of the Wigsell Culpepers
          to Illustrate their Relationship with Virginia

IX.
Walter Culpeper (1475?-1516) Under Marshall of Calais. A younger son of the Sir John Culpeper of Bedgebury, co. Kent, who was buried at Goudhurst, 1480, this Walter took as his portion, under his father's will, the ancient Culpeper inheritance of Wigsell in Sussex; where his son founded a new house. (Father of William below)

X.
William Culpeper (1509-1559) of Wigsell, co. Sussex. (Father of John below)

XI.
John Culpeper (1530-1612) of Wigsell. (Father of Thomas, John, and Alexander below)

XII.
Thomas Culpeper (1561-1613) of Wigsell. A member of the Virginia Company, 1609-1613 (Father of Sir John  below)

  
John Culpeper (1565-1635) of Feckenham, co. Worc. A member of the Virginia Company, 1609-1625. (Father of Thomas and John of Northampton below)

  
Sir Alexander Culpeper (1570-1645) of Greenway Court and Ulcombe, co. Kent, His will (P.C.C. Rivers, 157, and Fairfax, 153) is the key to his pedigree. (o.s.p.)

XIII.
Sir John Culpeper (1st Lord) (1600-1660) of Wigsell and Hollingbourne. M.P. Master of the Rolls, etc. created 1644. Lord Culpeper of Thoresway. A member of the Virginia Company, 1617-1623. One-seventh proprietor of the Northern Neck under the charter of 1649. (Also see article from Britannica On-Line) (Father of Thomas below)

Thomas Culpeper (1602?-1652?) of the Middle Temple of the Middle Temple. One-seventh proprietor of the Northern Neck under the charter of 1649. Emigrated to Virginia, 1649, and there died. (Father of Alexander, Anne, John of Albemarle, and Frances below)

John Culpeper (1606-1674) of Northampton Co, Virginia.  Sometime a Virginia merchant of London, and at the end of his life, Clerk of Northampton County. (o.s.p.?)  Culpepper Connections Note: While Fairfax Harrison believed John may have died without issue, more recent research indicates that John of Northampton may be the progenitor of most American Culpeppers.

XIV.
Thomas Culpeper (2nd Lord) (1635-1689) of Leeds Castle. Succeeded, 1660, as second Lord Culpeper. {Married 1660, Margaret Van Hesse (1635-1710), who was one-sixth proprietor of the Northern Neck under will of Alexander Culpeper, 1694-1710; and who devised that interest to her grandson, Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax.} Member of the Council for Foreign Plantations, 1671-1674. Governor of Virginia, 1677-1683; Proprietor of the Northern Neck under charters of 1669 and 1688; viz: one-sixth until 1681, and thereafter, five-sixths. Proprietor of all Virginia under the Arlington charter of 1673; viz. one-third, 1673-1681, and the whole, 1681-1684, when he surrendered to the Crown. [Paintings of Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret are on the Home Page of Culpepper Connections!] (Father of Catherine below)

Alexander Culpeper (1631?-1694) of Hollingbourne, Esq. Surveyor- General of Virginia, 1671-1694. One-sixth proprietor of the Northern Neck under the charters of 1669 and 1688; devised his interest to the widow of the second Lord Culpeper. (o.s.p.)

Anne Culpeper (1630-1695). Married in Virginia, 1652, Christopher Danby of Thorpe Perrow, co. Yorks. A daughter married Joseph Goodrich of Rapphannock Co, VA

John Culpeper (1633-post 1680) of Albemarle in Carolina; the 'Carolina Rebel' of 1677. From him may have descended the later Culpepers of Lower Norfolk Co, VA.

Frances Culpeper (1634-post 1690). Married, 1st, 1652, Samuel Stephens of Warwick Co, VA, sometime Governor of Albemarle; 2nd, 1670, Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia; 3rd, 1680, Philip Ludwell of James City Co, VA, sometime Governor of Carolina.  (o.s.p.)

XV.
Catherine Culpeper (1670?-1719) of Leeds Castle; married 1690, Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1657-1710). She was five-sixth proprietor of the Northern Neck, 1689-1719; devised Leeds Castle and her interest in the Northern Neck to her descendants in tail male. (Mother of Thomas, Robert, and Frances below)

XVI.
Thomas Fairfax (1693-1781) of Leeds Castle and Greenway Court, Virginia. Succeeded 1710 as sixth Lord Fairfax. One-sixth proprietor of the Northern Neck, 1710-1719; sole proprietor 1719-1781; devised Alexander Culpeper's one-sixth interest in the proprietary, together with Leeds Manor in Virginia, to his nephew Denny Martin, on condition that he should assume name Fairfax. (o.s.p.)

Robert Fairfax (1706-1793) of Leeds Castle. Succeeded 1781 as seventh Lord Fairfax. Five-sixths proprietor of the Northern Neck, 1781-1786, when the proprietary was abolished by the Virginia Assembly. Collected £13,000 as the measure of his life interest from the British government under the American Loyalists Compensation Act.  (o.s.p.s.)

Frances Fairfax (1703-1791). Married Denny Martin of Loose, co, Kent. (Mother of Denny, Thomas, and Philip below)

XVII.
Denny Martin (1726-1800) of Leeds Castle. Assumed additional name of Fairfax, 1781. One-sixth proprietor of the Northern Neck, 1781-1786, when the proprietary was abolished by the Virginia Assembly. Sold Leeds Manor in Virginia and his claim in proprietary, to John Marshall & Co.  (o.s.p.)

Thomas Bryan Martin (1731-1798) of Greenway Court in Virgina. Emigrated to Virginia, 1751, and in 1752 was vested with the Virginia Greenway Court by his uncle, the sixth Lord Fairfax. County Lieutenant of Hampshire, VA, 1755. Devised Greeway Court to his housekeeper, Betty Powers. (o.s.p.)

Philip Martin (1733-1821) of Leeds Castle.  A general in the army. Succeeded to Leeds Castle, 1800, on the death of his brother Denny, and being without issue and the last heir male of Catherine, Lady Fairfax, devised that property to a remote kinsman on his father's side, Fiennes Wykeham, who assumed the additional name of Martin. (o.s.p.)

The Proprietors of the Northern Neck

Chapter 2a
Wigsell

At the time of their check at the hands of Edward II, the Culpepers seem to have recently inaugurated their characteristic practice of land acquisition by the time honored expedient of marrying heiresses. It was from their first manor so acquired, that of Bayhall in the Kentish parish of Pembury on the southern border of the weald, that they spread, as Hasted remarks, 'over the whole face of the county' of Kent; and, we may add, eventually of adjacent Sussex as well.

In this process, the Walter Culpeper who fought at Agincourt, being of the seventh recorded generation of his family,²⁷ put his roots in the ground a few miles southeast of Bayhall. About 1425 he married the widow of the last Bedgebury of Bedgebury in Goudhurst and was buried with that family in Goudhurst church. His tomb described him as 'arm. filius Thorne Culpeper militis... obiit 24 November 1462' (Weever, Antient Funeral Monuments, 1767 ed., p. 69); which identifies him genealogically as the Walter, son of Thomas, who himself left sons, John, Richard and Nicholas, as rehearsed in DeBanco Roll, 4 Edw. IV, Hilary Term, membrane 484.

It follows that it was this last mentioned John who served the office of Sheriff of Kent in 7 Edw. IV (1468) and was buried in Goudhurst, beside his father; being described on his tomb as 'Johannis Culpeper, militis obiit 22 December 1480’ (Weever, loc. cit.).

It appears from an indenture dated 4 January, 21 Henry VIII [1529/30] which has survived (Harl. Charter, 76 H 12) that Sir John⁸ left a will (otherwise lost) disposing of his estates among two sons, Alexander and Walter, named respectively for their maternal uncle, Alexander Clifford of Bobbing (thus introducing among the Culpepers a name which was to appear in Virginia), and for their grandfather, the Squire of Agincourt. These estates included the manors acquired by the Bedgebury marriage (Bedgebury and Haselden) in Kent, an inherited Culpeper manor (Wigsell) in Sussex, and certain lands in Essex which Sir John had purchased; and the will in question divided them among the two sons, the intention of the testator being that, despite the Kentish custom of gavelkind, the elder should take all the lands in Kent, and the younger those in Sussex and Essex.

Wigsell, which thus devolved upon Walter⁹ and was to be the seat of three generations of his descendants, was at the time of the death of Walter's father a manor 'holden by Knights service of the Lord of the Castle of Hastings,' consisting of some 600 acres of plough and pasture, with as much more of wood and heath, in the Sussex parish of Salehurst; lying close under the southwestern border of Kent, not far from Bayhall and Bedgebury. It was purchased in 1348 (Sussex Feet of Fines, 22 Edward III) from Simon de Etchingham by Sir John Culpeper;⁵ whose heir, Sir Thomas;⁶ records in his will of 1429 (Harl. Ch., 80 H 27) that it was settled upon him on the occasion of his first marriage. Wigsell was not yet a place of residence, however: its original value lay in the supply of charcoal which its forest cover provided for the iron smelting industry in which the Culpepers, like so many of their neighbours in the Weald, were profitably engaged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Victoria County History, Sussex, ii, 241). At the death of Sir John,⁸ Wigsell must already have been somewhat denuded and so of less value than it had been; but the title was sufficient, nevertheless, to enable its inheritor to pursue the thrifty practice of his ancestors and negotiate a marriage which established Culpeper of Wigsell for a century and a half to come.

With the founding of this house, from which came the proprietors of -the Northern Neck of Virginia, we begin our detailed examination of genealogical testimonies.

IX. Walter Culpeper (Sir John⁸ of Bedgebury), 1475?-1515, of Calais and Wigsell, began life, like his grandfather, the squire of Agincourt for whom he was named, as a professional soldier; but, unlike his grandfather, he did not live to retire to his estates. The earliest record of him is on the page of national history, at the very end of his career.

The Chronicle of Calais (Camden Society, No. 35, p. 6) recites him in October, 1508 as under marshal of that town, present at the treaty for the marriage of Mary, daughter of Henry VII to the Duke of Burgundy, afterwards the emperor Charles V; and in that capacity there was assigned to him at the beginning of the next reign (July, 1509) a Crown tenement in Fisherstrete in Calais and an annuity of £ 20 out of the revenues of the town. Two years later, in November, 1511, being then recited a 'squire of the body' of Henry VIII, lie was granted also the post of bailiff of the Scavage of Calais and the isle of Colne (L. & P. Henry VIII, i, 47, 94, 298).

His crowding hour came in August, 1513, when his young master was engaged in the invasion of France to assert an outworn claim of inheritance of that realm, and it was Walter's fortune to be left for the moment in responsible command of the garrison of Calais. The chronicler Hall records (Holinshed iii, 580) that as the King lay before Therouanne on the Flemish border, the captain of Boulogue made a night foray on Calais seeking booty and to insult the invading English. Arriving with a thousand men at the bridge which defended the causey leading to the town, the Frenchman surprised the guard and captured the ordnance there mounted. Retaining 600 men at the bridge 'for a stale' he then dispatched the remaining 400 'into the marishes and meadows to fetch away the beasts and cattle which they should find there.' Some of these foragers approached so near the walls of Calais as to raise the alarm, whereupon

"about five of the clocke in the morning the gate of Calis, called Bullongue gate, was opened, and by permission of the deputie one Culpeper, the under marshall, with two hundred archers under a banner of Saint George, issued forth,' and 'set so fiercelie on that finallie the Frenchmen were discomfited and four and twentie of them slaine, besides twelve score that were made prisoners and all the ordnance and bootie again recouered. These prisoners were brought to Calais and there sold in open market."

Walter⁹ died before June 24, 1515 (when he was recited dead on the appointment of Sir H. Banaster to his bailiffry, L. & P. Henry VIII', ii, 168), leaving a will which bristles with as many old world weapons as a modern museum.

He married in 1500(?) Anne, daughter and heiress of Harry Aucher of Lossenham. in Newenden, co. Kent,

The marriage is shown on both the Culpeper and Aucher pedigrees recorded at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, in Harl. Pub., x1ii, pp. 62, 181. Thereby it appears that the Lossenham Auchers, here in question, were the senior stem of an ancient Kentish family, of which the junior and persisting branch, seated at Otterden (Hasted, ii, 501), also had ties with America. One of them was the wife of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh; another, Sir Anthony Aucher, whose mother was a daughter of Archbishop Sandys, was a member of the Council for the Virginia Company (Brown; Genesis, ii, 818). Their blood was brought to the colony by the Lovelaces and Gorsuches (Va. Mag., xvii, 292; xxvi, 393; xxviii, 285).

Lossenham lies near the Sussex border, a few miles southeast of Wigsell. It remained a Culpeper property from this marriage until 1628, when (Hasted, iii, 78) it was sold by Sir John¹³ (i.e., the first lord, not his grandfather as implied by Hasted).

'Anne my wyff’ named in the will of Walter⁹ completes her identification by the reference to her father and children in her own will.

Extracts from the 1532 Will of Anne Culpeper

If I happen to dye at Canterbury then I wyll my body to be buryed at the frears there, and yf I happen to dye at Cranbroke then I wyll my body to be buryed at the frears of Lossenham besyde my ffather there buryed. To Wyllm my sone my weddynge rynge and all my platte except my lyttle lowe salt w^t the couer and vj my best sponys which I wylle to my daught^r Anne Tooke. To my sone Wyllm Colepeper all my stoke at Lossenham. To every of the children of Elysabeth my daughter xl^s. She mentions Francis, Anne, Constance, Katheryn and Mary the children of Thomas Wylford, my goddaughters. To my daughter Culepeper ij of my best gownes. Executor and residuary legatee my son Wyllm. All my manors and lands in Newenden Rowynden and Biddenden to certain trustees to hold them to the use of my sone Wyllm and his heirs--in default to the right heirs of Harry Ager, Esq., my father.

and by her had:

i. Anne Culpeper living 1532, m. ? Tooke.

As she was not named in Walter Culpeper's will of 1514, the only testimony for her is the legacy in her mother's will of 1532 to 'my daughter Anne Tooke.'

There is no clue to her husband in any of the Kentish Visitation pedigrees: certainly he was not of the family of 'Toke of Bere' in West Cliffe. But the Sir Brian Tuke (spelled also Tooke and Tuck) who was clerk of the Council of Calais in 1510 and later Secretary to Wolsey and Henry VIII (D. N. B. re-issue, xix, 1252). while a Kentish man, acquired lands, on which his descendants lived, in Essex (Morant, i, 407) ; and it will be recalled that this Anne Culpeper's father also held lands in Essex under the will of Sir John Culpeper¹¹ Moreover Sir Brian Tuke's father was a Richard Tuck, and the Wylford pedigree shows that a daughter of 'Anne Tooke's' sister married a Richard Tuck of a later generation. Considering these evidences and the propensity of Kentish families (like Virginia families) to marry cousins, it is possible that this was such a marriage; and that 'Anne Tooke's husband was of the family of Sir Brian Tuke.

ii. Elizabeth Culpeper, d. ante., 1532, m. ante. 1514, Thomas Wy1ford of Hartridge in Cranbrooke, co. Kent.

She is named in her father's will (1514) 'my daughter Elizabeth Welford,' and referred to in her mother's will (1532) as then dead, by provision for 'the children of Elizabeth, my daughter… the children of Thomas Wylford.' The m. was noted at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, not only in the Culpeper pedigree but in that of the Wylfords (Harl. Pub., x1ii, 53, 61, 104). From the latter it appears that the James Wylford, who witnessed his maternal grandmother's will in 1532, was that outstanding soldier, Sir James Wylford (1516-1550), who distinguished himself at the battle of Pinkie (1547) and subsequently withstood a notable siege at Haddington (D. N. B. re-issue, xxi, 236; Froude, Edward VI, chap. ii).

As a family, the Wylfords had several ties with Virginia. One sister of Sir James in. Archbishop Sandys (see her MI. in Morant Essex, ii, 34) and another in. Leonard Digges of Wooton, co. Kent, from whom descended the Edward Digges of Belfield, York County, Virginia, Governor of the colony, 1655-58, whose name was long a synonym for the best Virginia mild tobacco, the 'E Dees' (Va. Mag., xvii, 292). It would be interesting to prove a connection with these Wylfords of that Dr. Robert Wellford of Fredericksburg, of the generation after the American Revolution whose descendants have inter-married with Virginia families. See W. & M. Quar., xi, I; x, 139.

iii. Thomas Culpeper, living, 1514, but o.s.p. ante., 1532.

iv. Anthony Culpeper, living, 1514, but o.s p. ante., 1532.

They are both named in their father's will (1514) ; but not in that of fheir mother (1532), which treats the youngest son, William, as the heir.

v. William Culpeper (1509?-1559) of Wigsell, of whom presently.

X. William Culpeper (Walter⁹ of Calais), 1509?-1559, of Hunton and Wigsell, born a youngest son, was named in his father's will (1514) as 'my sonne Willm,' with provision to be 'founde to schole.' That this injunction was carried out and that he was put through grammar school, and sent thence to London to reside at either Barnard's or Staple Inn, may be deduced from his admission to Grays Inn in 1530 (Foster, fo. 423).²⁸

This would be the year he came of age, when the deaths of his two elder brothers had already left him his father's heir. This appears both from. the contemporary instrument (Harl. Charter, 76 H 12, already cited) which confirmed to William as 'son and heir' of his father the dispositions of the will of Sir John⁸ in favor of Walter⁹; and from his mother's will two years later.

It may be that William Culpeper began life as a practising lawyer. The earliest public record of him is not in itself inconsistent with such an hypothesis. In 1538 he was included in the long list of gentlemen enrolled as 'servants' to Henry VIII's servant Thomas Cromwell, then Lord Privy Seal and at the dizzy height of his prosperity; for he was not part of the household, but one of those who were to attend only when called (L. & P. Henry V111, xiii, pt. 2, p. 497). The patronage resulting from this service was part of the contemporary spoil of the monasteries. He had a grant of an annuity charged on the priory of Christ Church at Canterbury, and on March 10, 1538/9, the seizing of the lands of the dissolved priory of Lossenham, which his Aucher ancestor had founded (ibid., xiv, pt. I, p. 224; xx, Pt. I, p. 324).

It is significant that in all these testimonies William¹⁰ appears only in relation to Kent. In his grant of the priory of Lossenham he is, indeed, described as 'of Hunton,' while his second son was listed at Winchester College in 1553 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, 1888, p. 132) by the same qualification. Thus it appears that on his marriage, which took place in 1530 as appears from the record of the family settlement of that year, William¹⁰ established himself, not at Wigsell, but in the midst of the Kentish weald, on the river Beult near its junction with the Medway. This was an eminently agreeable place of residence, but Hunton was not a Culpeper lordship. It was vested in the Wyatts of Allington (Hasted, ii, 229), a family which, like the Culpepers, later produced a Governor of Virginia.

In relation to the Wyatts, William Culpeper achieved also his next appearance in a public record: for when, in January, 1540/1, Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, was involved in Cromwell's downfall and for some weeks was held a prisoner in the Tower, William Culpeper was, on Wyatt's nomination, permitted by the Privy Council to have the custody of Allington Castle (L. & P. Henry V111, xvi, 229). He did not, however, persistently follow their fortunes. Whether, unlike his youthful kinsmen of Bedgebury and Aylesford, he remembered the check his family had had in the reign of Edward II, whether he had never accepted the break with Rome (three of his sons were named for saints), or whether it was merely his fortieth year which counseled prudence, William was loyal to Queen Mary's government in the crisis of 1553 and did not follow the poet's son into 'Wyatt's rebellion.' His record then was that of an active justice of the peace; at first in organizing police, and, after the danger had passed, charged with the custody of sequestered estates (Acts P. C., 1554-56) pp. 70, 85).

In the course of this last duty William moved his residence several times, which explains why his third son, Martin, was entered at Winchester (Kirby, supra) as 'of Barfriston' in east Kent. It follows that it was not until the very end of his life that William settled down at Wigsell, where he made his will.

He married in 1530, Cicely, daughter of John Barrett of Belhouse in Alvethy, co. Essex,

The Culpeper family settlement of 4 January, 1529/30 (Harl. Chart., 76 H12, already cited) provided for the holding of Wigsell by trustees 'to the use of said Anne Colepepyr [widow of Walter⁹ for life; remainder to said William Colepepyr and Cecele Barett, and the heirs of their bodies; in default to said William Colepepyr in tail, in default to the right heirs of said Sir Alexander Colepepyr [of Bedgebury].' This is testimony at once that on the date of the charter of 1530 the marriage had been arranged and was still to be consummated.

In the Culpeper pedigree returned at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, the bride is described only as 'Cecelia, filia… Barrett,' but the Barrett pedigree returned at the Visitation of Essex, 1612, which also certifies the marriage, identifies the bride's father.

The Barretts, descended from a companion of the Conqueror (see the Visitation of Essex, 1612, Harl. Pub., vol. xiii, 145), were long seated in Hawkhurst, co. Kent (Hasted, iii, 72), but in 1397 one of them married the heiress of the family of Belhouse in Essex and removed thither his residence (Morant, i, 78). His descendants were raised to the peerage by James I as barons Newburgh of Fife after an intermarriage with the Falkland Carys.

The John Barrett of Belhouse, whose daughter married William¹⁰, but who died in 1526, before that marriage was celebrated, is described by Morant as 'applying himself to the study of the law, became eminent in that profession.' His contemporary, John Leland the antiquary, in his Encomia Illust. viror. (Works, 1774 ed., v, p. 107), vaunts his forensic eloquence in latin verse:

'Sic tua sollicitos facundia rara clientes
Sublevet, et medio stet tua caussa foro.'

It would seem, therefore, that it must have been the tradition of this John Barrett, quite as much as the legal education of William Culpeper himself, which was the inspiration of the procession of the Wigsell Culpepers towards the Inns of Court.

and by her had.²⁹

i. John Culpeper (1531-1612) of Wigsell, of whom hereafter.

ii. Elizabeth Culpeper, m. John Wildigos of Iridge in Salehurst, co. Sussex.

She is named in her father's will 'Elizabeth Wilgosse, my daughter,' and was bur. in Salehurst, 1606, as 'uxor johannis Wildigos, armiger.'

Her husband appears in the Elizabethan records as the colleague of his brother-in-law, John¹¹, in the commission of the peace and as church warden of Salehurst.

For this family, long since extinct, see Berry, Sussex, and Hodson, Salehurst.

iii. Anne Culpeper, married Simon Edolphe of St. Radigunds, co. Kent.

She is named in her father's will, 'Anne Edolf, my daughter.' The marriage is noted in the Edolphe pedigree certified at the Visitation of Kent, 1663. For this family see the full pedigree in Misc. Genealogica et Heraldica, N. S., iv, 169.

iv. Francis Culpeper (1538-1591) of Greenway Court, co. Kent, of whom hereafter.

v. Martin Culpeper (1540-1605) of Feckenham, co. Worcester, of whom hereafter.

vi. Walter Culpeper (1541?-1616) of Handborough, co. Oxon, o. s. p. m.

He is named in his father's will (1559) 'Walter Culpeper my fourth son.' He seems to have been the first of his family to matriculate at Hart Hall, Oxford, whence he graduated B. A. in 1569 (Foster).³⁰  He was also of Grays Inn, 1565 (Foster) and later was included in the commission of the peace of Oxfordshire. The other records of him are chiefly in the parish register of Handborough, co. Oxon, where his brother Martin had acquired an estate, as appears from his Will.

Walter married

1st, 1571, Anne Dance, widow, of Mackney, co. Berks.,

The marriage bond, dated 13 Eliz. (printed in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1797, lxvii, p. 645) recited his brothers John and Francis as sureties, and was conditioned that Walter should 'well, honestly and lovingly use and live with the said Anne as an honest man ought to use and live with his lawful and good wyff,' or in default the said Anne might 'sever herself from the said Walter ... whensoever it shall please her.'

and by her, who was buried at Handborough, April 1, 1580, had

Margaret, m. (at Handborough, 1599) Sir William Sandys of Fladbury, co. Worc.

2nd, 1581, Mary, widow of George Holbrook of Newington in Sittingbourne, co. Kent, s. p.

The mar. lic. at Canterbury, June 26, 1581, describes him as 'Walter Culpeper gent., ' and the m. is recorded in Harrietsharn register, June 29, 1581, simply as 'Walterus Culpep-Maria Hoolbroke.' She was buried at Handborough, 1593.

3d Jane… s. p.

As Jane Culpeper, she administered upon his estate (P. C. C. Admon Act Book, 1616), and was herself buried at Handborough, 1636.

vii. Thomas Culpeper (1543-1603) of Wilmington, co. Sussex, o. s. p.

He is named in his father's will (1559) as 'Thomas Culpeper my fifth son,' and in the will (1581) of John Sydley of Southfleet, as 'my brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Colepepyr.' His mar. lic. at Canterbury, December 17, 1579, describes him as 'of Hawkhurst, gent.,' but he is named in the will of his brother, Francis (1590), as 'of Willmington, Sussex, esquire.' He died, 1603, and was buried at Wilmington, 'aged 60;' leaving a will which was proved as P. C. C. Bolein, 102.

He married in 1579, Elizabeth, widow of John Gode of London, but described in the mar. lic. as 'of Harrietsham.' His will shows that he left no issue.

His widow's will, proved in 1604 as P. C. C. Stafforde, 54, shows that she had children by her first husband, John Gode, `merchant taylor,' viz: John Gode, 'of London, gent.;' Francis; Anne, wife of Cassian Cooper; Katheryn, wife of Robert Hampson, Alderman of London; and Mary, wife of John Leade, 'merchant taylor.'

In 1643 one John Goode emigrated to Barbados and, before 1660, removed to Virginia, where he left numerous descendants. He is assumed (Goode, Virginia Cousins, 1887, P. 24) to be of the family of John Goode of Whitstone, co. Cornwall, M. P. for Camelford in 1604. These Culpeper wills may be a clew to his more immediate provenance.

viii Richard Culpeper (1545?-post 1594) of Newton Longville, co. Bucks.

He is named in his father's will (1559) as 'Richard Colepepyr my vj (8th) son,' in that of John Sydley of Southfleet (1581) as 'my brother-in-law Mr. Richard Colepepyr;' and makes his next appearance in a mar. lic. at Canterbury, May 17, 1589, as 'Richard Colepepyr gent. & Jane Steede, spr., dau. of... Steede of Harrison [Harrietsham], co. Kent, gent.' His wife was a daughter by her first marriage of Joan Pordage, the second wife of his brother Francis of Greenway Court, thus celebrating the first of several Culpeper-Stede marriages. He is not named in Francis' will (1590), but appears in that of his wife's mother (1594) as 'my son Richard Colepepyr' This is the last record of him alive,

He left a son William, who is named in the will (1605) of Dr. Martin¹¹ as 'William Culpeper, son of my late brother Richard^.' This William¹² was apprenticed in London as a skinner at Christmas, 1605, 'aged 10 years,' and died in 1630, leaving a Will, P. C. C. Scroope, 100, in which he named only a natural daughter.

ix Edmund Culpeper (1547?-post 1605). Canon of Lincoln, etc.

He is named in his father's will (1559) as 'Edmonde Culpeper my Vij th (9th) son.' Foster records that he graduated B. A. Oxford, 1573 'from Hart Hall,' and subsequently proceeded M. A. (1578) and B. D. (1585). He was canon of Lincoln, 1581, and rector successively of Staplehurst, Kent (1585); of Ashbury (1587); of Sunningwell (1590); and of Milton, Berks (1591).

Although Col. Attree says (Sussex Archeological Collections, xlvii, 63) that this Edmund 'apparently died unmarried' in 1591, he was certainly still living in 1605, for he was named in the will of his brother Martin in a bequest 'to my brother Edmond Culpeper, the first advowson [he seems to mean presentation] of the parsonage of Staplehurst, Kent, where Dr. Newman now dwelleth.'

Culpeper of Barbadoes: As Edmund¹¹ is the only one of his generation for whom no conclusive genealogical evidence has been found, it is possible, if not probable, that he was the father of the otherwise unidentified William Culpeper, who (although he does not appear in the published lists of either of the universities) was in February, 1628, presented to the living of Wychling, co. Kent, by Sir Thomas Culpeper¹² and Dr. William Stede as guardians of Cromer Stede (Foster), and is named in the will of Sir Alexander Culpeper¹² (1645) as 'my cousin William Culpeper, minister of Wickling, or (if dead) to his wife or children.'

This William was licensed to marry April 29, 1633, as 'William Culpeper clerk, M. A., parson of Wychling, bach. about 28 (i.e., born, 1605) to Margaret, dau. of the worshipful Richard Allen, D.D., parson of Stouting,' subsequently emigrated to Barbadoes [hence the uncertainty of Sir Alexander¹² as to whether he was living, 1645] and there left descendants who still persist in the West Indies and Natal (See Oliver, Monumental Inscriptions in Barbados, 1915, p. 194, and Col. Attree's chart, 'Culpeper of Barbados'). If he was a son of Edmund, he would be of Sir Alexander's generation and his 'cousin' as also a likely candidate for presentation to a living by his other cousins of the same generation.

Postscript by Warren Leigh Culpepper: I have discovered the following baptismal record in the IGI Index:

William Colepeper: Christening 23 Dec 1605 at Sunningwell, Berkshire, England; Father, Edmund Colepeper; Mother, Marye. [Film no. 0088422]

I believe this is conclusive evidence that William was the son of Edmund, and the connection of the Barbados and English line is thus proved.

(Continued in Chapter 2b)

Footnotes

²⁷ As to the earliest generations of the Culpepers, we have followed the reasoned and documented enumerations of Col. F. W. T. Attree in his study of The Sussex Culpepers (Sussex Archeological journal, xlvii, 47 ff.), which has superseded the authority of the Culpeper pedigrees in Wykeham-Martin, Leeds Castle, 1868. (Return)

²⁸ So far as the surviving records show, William¹⁰ of Wigsell was the first of the Culpepers to be enrolled at any of the Inns of Court merely for education. Those of his name who preceded him (and there were several, including Henry IV's judge) all made careers as lawyers and were called to be serjeants, or at least 'ancients' of their inns. (Return)

²⁹ It is at this point that confusion begins in the testimonies for the'Wigsell Culpepers.The return of Bedgebury at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, carried their cousins of Wigsell to and including the eldest son of William¹⁰, and there stopped abruptly. Intending to bring this deduction up to 1619, the heralds subsequently made a note (Stow M.S., 618) setting out all the sons of Wiffiam¹⁰ and proceeding with the descendants of the eldest to and including his grandson, Sir John¹³, whose identity is established by the entry of his two marriages. But in tacking this extension to the visitation pedigree, some successor of Stow assumed that the John and his brothers with which it began were the sons of the last John entered on the visitation pedigrees; and in consequence that sacrosanct genealogical authority, the Harl. Pub. (in vol. x1ii) is guilty of the duplication of a generation at Wigsell.

Meanwhile, Hasted also contributed a red herring. Seeing that there was a superfluous generation somewhere on the herald's pedigree, he eliminated one by stating (ii, 476) that Sir John¹³ (afterwards first lord Culpeper) was son of John¹¹. Hasted's error, which was merely in the name selected for elision, has persisted and propagated. On the revered authority of the 'prince of county historians,' it was adopted not only by Wykeham-Martin and Cave-Brown, but by specialists like Professor Firth and G. E. C. (including his latest editor, Vicary Gibbs); and in the process reduced Alexander Brown to sterile conjecture in his attempt to array the Culpepers in relation to the Virginia Company. (Return)

³⁰ As in the case of his eldest brother, the educational records make it possible to distinguish this Walter^1l of the Wigsell family from another of the same name and generation. The Oxford career of Walter^1l. son of Thomas¹⁰ of Bedgebury, is recorded by Foster as 'B. A. 1559, fellow of All Souls, B. C. L. 1566’ He died unmarried in 1575 'of Burston' (P. C. C. Admon Act Book, 1575).

By enrolling at Hart (or Hertford) Hall in Oxford, Walter of Wigsell set a precedent which was thereafter numerously followed by his house. His older brothers had matriculated at New College, going thence from Winchester on William of Wykeham's twin foundation: but the tradition is that while New College was building some of its students lodged at Hart Hall, an ancient adjacent foundation on the site of the modern Hertford College; and so set a precedent. This is probably the explanation of the Culpepers' resort thither; for throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Hart Hall was vested in Exeter College and was deemed a dependence upon it, and the Culpepers had no interest in a west country foundation as such. Among the members of Hart Hall in the seventeenth century were Hobbes, Clarendon, Walter, Sir Matthew Hale, and Dean Swift. (Return)

The Proprietors of the Northern Neck

Chapter 2b
Wigsell

XI. John Culpeper (William¹⁰), 1531-1612, of Wigsell, was named in his father's will (1559) as 'John Culpeper my eldest son,' and lived out a long and uneventful life at Wigsell. There is no record of his education. If he was not sent to Winchester like his younger brothers, he probably spent some years in residence at one of the inns of chancery: but he was not admitted to any of the Inns of Court. It is thus possible, by the process of elimination, to distinguish him from the other three Johns of his generation.³¹

All the public testimonies for him are in the acts of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council ranging from 1558 to 1592. These show him an active Justice of the Peace, included in the quorum of the Commission for the Rape of Lewes and the Cinq Ports of Sussex, in such periodical correspondence relating to the routine of local government as made up his father's public record also.

The inquisition taken in 1614, after the death of his eldest son (post), testifies that he made a settlement of his estate in 1589 in lieu of a will, and died on October 20, 1612. He was buried in Salehurst, October 21, 1612, as 'Johanes Colepeper, armiger, etatis 82,' whence it may be deducted that he was born the year after his parents' marriage. If there was an MI., it was destroyed in the desecration of Salehurst Church during the Commonwealth.

He married in 1560? Elizabeth, dau. of William Sydley (or Sedley) of Southfleet, co. Kent,

Before the Sydleys flowered at the last Stuart courts in the persons of Sir Charles Sedley the wit, and his historically well known dau., Catherine, Countess of Dorchester (entered by Berry as having married James II!), they had had a long history in Kent (Hasted, ii, 170). They rose to wealth, however, by the industry of a younger son temp. Henry VIII, and thereafter intermarried several times with the Culpepers. This particular marriage is shown on the Sydley pedigree, returned at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, but there is better evidence for it in the Sydley wills collected by Waters (Gleanings, ii, 961, ff.).

John Sydley, grandfather of Elizabeth Culpeper, described himself in his long and racy will of 1530 (P. C. C. Thower, 20) as 'oon of the Kinges Auditours in His Exchequer, and Citezein and Stacioner of the Citie of London and late Warden of the Crafte of Stacioners.' The son William named in that will left in turn a will dated November 28, 1553 (P. C. C. More, 37), by which he devised 'to Elizabeth Sydley my daughter all my lands, etc., in Frensbury, in Kent,' with a bequest of money and plate and the injunction 'to my daughter Elizabeth, she to marry at her pleasure, by the counsel of her aunt, my sister [i. e., Dorothy, described in her father's will, before the dissolution of the monasteries, as 'a Norme in Dertford Abbey'], and of John, my son, her brother, and to have meat, drink and lodging till she be married or else be found in a good service.' That the Elizabeth so named was married to a Culpeper prior to May 14, 1574, appears from the reference to her in the will bearing that date (P. C. C. Pyckering, 5) of her brother Nicholas Sydley as 'my sister Elizabeth Culpeper;' while the will of her brother John, whose counsel she was to take, dated March 29, 1581 (P. C. C. Darcy, 31), completes the identification, in a bequest 'to my natural sister, Elizabeth Colepepir, wife of the said Mr. John CoIepepir, to make her a ring, ten shillings.'

She survived her husband and her eldest son as well, living in Newenden, i.e., at Losenharn (as shown by her son's inq. p. m.), and was buried in Salehurst, May 17, 1618, as 'Eliza, relict Johannes Culpeper, armiger.

and by her had

i Thomas Culpeper, 1561-1613, of Wigsell, of whom hereafter.

ii William Culpeper, 1562-1587, o.s.p.

He matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxon, 1579, as 'of Sussex, aged 17' (Foster), was admitted to the Middle Temple April 21, 1583, as '2d son of John Colepeper of Wigsell, esq.' and was there recorded in 1584 an 'inner barrister' (Hopwood, i, 260, 285). He was buried in Salehurst on January 29, 1586/7, as 'William the son of Mr. John Colepeper.' That he died unmarried is a deduction from the lack of reference to children by him in any of the succeeding family wills.

iii John Culpeper, 1565-1635, of Feckenham, co. Worc., of whom hereaf ter.

iv Cicely Culpeper, married in 1586, Sir William Stede of Harrietsham, Co. Kent.

The allegation for the mar. lic. at Canterbury, June 11, 1586 (Harl. Pub., xxv, p. 150) runs 'William Steed, gent., and Secilia Colepyr, spr., of city of London, dau. of John Colepyr of Wiggessell co. Sussex, gent.' The bridegroom was the eldest son, by her first marriage, of the second wife of the bride's uncle, Francis¹¹. of whom hereafter.

v Sir Alexander Culpeper, 1570-1645, of Greenway Court, co. Kent, o.s.p.

He testified in his will that he was born in Salehurst, but the loss of the parish register prior to 1585 leaves the date to a deduction from his age at death. He was educated at the inns of chancery and was admitted to Grays Inn, November 25, 1594, as 'Alexander Culpeper of Wigsell, co. Sussex, gent., late of Staple Inn.' This would be when he was twenty-four. His next appearance on the surviving record is 1603, when at his marriage he was described as 'of Harrietsham, arm,’ (indicating that he had established himself in the neighbourhood of the family of his uncle, Francis Culpeper¹¹ of Greenway Court, of which hereafter); but is identified by the will of Thomas¹² of Wigsell (1609) as 'my brother Alexander Culpeper' On his marriage he went to live in his wife's St. Leger dower house and thereafter is described as 'of Ulcombe' whenever he appears in documents (e.g., in the allegation for the mar. lic., 1636, of the youngest dau. of Thornas¹² of Wigsell, noted post); but after his wife's death in 1636 he removed to Greenway Court, and so in his will described himself as 'of Greenway Court.' He was knighted by James I, November 19, 1621 (Nichols, iii, 732), as 'of Kent.'

The fullest record of him is in the dark days of the Troubles, which overtook him in the decrepitude of age. He then gave a loyal support to the Crown, with the result that his estate was sequestered. At a hearing held after his death, at which his executors claimed the privilege of compounding for his estate (Cal. Committee for Compounding, 1643-60, pt. ii, P. 1058), it was stated that he was 'never any house keeper,' that he had been 'drawn down to Oxford and Bristol' in March, 1643, but 'never bore arms,' being 'sick of a dead palsy,' and that he died at Bridgewater with the King's army, in August, 1645, aged 75. A fine of 1550 was assessed and paid. He left an elaborate will, which, in its provisions for all his nephews and nieces and their children, as well as others of the connection, is the key to the tangled genealogy of the next generation of the Culpepers. That will, [was] evidently drawn at Oxford, and probably by his nephew Thomas¹³ of the Middle Temple.

He m. 1603 Mary (who d. 1636), dau. of Sir Thomas Scott (1535-1594) of Scotshall in Smeeth, co. Kent, and widow of Anthony St. Leger of Ulcombe, co. Kent, who d. 1602.

The allegation for the mar. lic. at Canterbury describes the parties as 'Alexander Culpeper of Harrietsham, esq., and Mary Sentleger of Ulcombe, widow: at Harrietsham; John Culpeper (i.e., his brother, later of Feckenham.), of London, gent. bonds.' The mar. is recorded: in Harrietsham. parish register, December 7, 1603, by the same description translated into latin; in the pedigree of Scott of Scotshall, certified at the Visitation of Kent, 1619; and in Mr. E. Y. St. Leger's documented Stem.mata St. Leodigaria (1867) in Wykeham-Martin, Leeds Castle; finally she was buried at Ulcombe April 23, 1636, as 'Domina Maria Culpeper, uxor Alexander Culpeper, militis'. These interesting families, of Scott of Scotshall and St. Leger, implicit at once of the history of Kent and of Virginia (Cf. Brown, Genesis, ii, 990, 996), are fully discussed biographically in D. N. B.

Mary Scott had four sons and a dau. by her first husband, but no children by Sir Alexander Culpeper. Her eldest son was that Sir Warham St. Leger (1579-1632) who commanded his own ship in Raleigh's Guiana expedition of 1618 and in consequence of the losses then incurred was obliged to sell Leeds Castle. See post. Of his thirteen children recorded in the Stemmata St. Leodigaria, the three youngest are of special interest to Virginia, viz:

(11) Ursula St. Leger, m. Daniel Horsmanden, parson of Ulcombe, whose son, Warham. Horsmanden, emigrated to Virginia, was a member of the Council in 1657 and married his dau.. (widow of Samuel Filmer) to the first William Byrd of Westover (See Va. Mag., xv, 315; xx, 295, and Dr. Stanard's Byrd pedigree in Bassett, p. 446);

(12) Katherine St. Leger, who was adopted by Sir Alexander Culpeper¹², and, as rehearsed post, married his nephew, Thomas Culpeper¹³ of Feckenham, one of the proprietors of the Northern Neck named in the charter of 1649, and was the mother of Frances Culpeper, wife of Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia;

(13) Mary St. Leger, married William Codd of Pelicans in Waterinbury, co. Kent, whose son, St. Leger Codd, emigrated to Virginia and in 1671 was resident in the Northern Neck (Va. Mag., xxiii, 382, x, 374).

XII. Thomas Culpeper (John¹¹), 1561-1613, of Wigsell, was probably born at Wigsell (his younger brother, Sir Alexander, testifies in his will that he was there born), but the evidence is lacking; the record of the surviving Salehurst register begins only with the burials of this generation. As a consequence, the proof of the date of his birth rests on his matriculation at Hart Hall. Oxford, in 1579, as 'of Sussex, aged 19' (Foster).

He was admitted 'generally' to the Middle Temple, April 21, 1583, as 'son and heir of John Culpeper of Wigsoll, Sussex, esq.,' and in May, 1596, was still in residence; but, being then recorded after thirteen years as no more than an 'inner barrister,'³² it is apparent that he had not pursued the law with the intention of a professional career (Hopwood, i, :260, 366).

It was this Thomas¹² who inaugurated his family's interest in Virginia.

The explanation is patent. During the period of his residence at the Middle Temple that ancient college was a centre of the discussion, translated into action, of the voyages which lead to the English colonization in America. It suffices to cite the Middle Templars of this period whose names are on the American bead roll. Richard Hakluyt the elder, Sir John Popham, Walter Raleigh and his captains, Philip Amadas, Ralph Lane and Bartholomew Gosnold, were all members of the Society, as of a younger generation were George Percy, Richard Martin and the Ferrars (Bidwell). Our Thomas¹² was undoubtedly in commons when Sir Francis Drake dined there in 1586 to be congratulated on his safe return from his voyage around the world, as he and his brother John must also have been in 1593 and 1594, when similar visits were paid by Frobisher and Hawkins. More than that, these Culpepers were members of the family connection of the sons of Archbishop Sandys who took the lead in the Virginia Company; while Thomas¹² whetted his own appetite for colonial speculation by his marriage in 1597 with the daughter of a great London overseas merchant.

It was against such a background that Thomas Culpeper of Wigsell and John Culpeper, later of Feckenham, became subscribers to and members of The Treasurer and Company for Virginia under the second charter of May 23, 1609 (Brown, Genesis, i, 218; ii, 869); and it was with those subscriptions, made forty years before the date of the first Northerh Neck charter in which the subscriber's respective sons were to be named, that the history of the Northern Neck proprietary may be said to begin.

There is no further public testimony for Thomas¹², but his personal record is amply documented. He died September 18th and was buried in Salehurst, September 19, 1613, as 'Tho. Colepeper, armiger,' leaving a will, followed by an inq. p. m.

He married. 1st, 1597, Anne, daughter. of Sir Stephen Slaney (1524-1609), Alderman of London,

Sir Stephen Slaney was one of the most picturesque of the Elizabethan Merchant Adventurers. Son of John Slaney, of Mitton, co. Stafford, but of a Shropshire family reputed to be derived from Bohemia (Visitation of Shropshire, 1623, Harl. Pub., vol. xxix), he went up to London to make his fortune and there embarked in the Mediterranean trade as what was later styled a Turkey merchant. On one occasion he was taken at sea by the Turks and had to sacrifice his entire fortune in ransom, but soon got on his feet again. In 1583 he was one of the committee appointed by the Merchant Adventurers of London to confer with Captain Christopher Carleill 'upon a Voyage intending to the uttermost parts of America,' but it does not appear that thereafter he took part in the plans for the colonization of Virginia. In 1584 he was chosen alderman and served the office of Sheriff, and in 1595 was Lord Mayor. He died in December, 1608, leaving a will dated August 2. 1598, and proved January 3, 1608/9 (P.C.C. Dorset, 5). His widow, Margaret, survived until 1619 and left a will dated October 12, 1612, followed by a codicil dated July 20, 1618, which were proved May 24, 1619 (P.C.C. Parker, 42).

These Slaney wills are the clews to the identification of the father of the first Lord Culpeper. That of Sir Stephen (1598) rehearses two daughters, including 'Anne, wife of Thomas. Colepepper, esq.' and that of his widow (1619) recites:

Whereas my son-in-law, Mr. Thomas Colepepper is lately deceased much indebted, and hath left his son and heire, Slanye Colepepper my-grandchild, a ward: and hath not left neither said Slanye Colepepper, nor John Colepepper his brother, nor Elizabeth Colepepper, his sister, being also my grandchildren, so sufficiently advanced as I did expect that he should have done.

Anne Slaney was buried in Salehurst, February 26, 1600/i, as 'Ann Colepepper, uxor Thomae, armigeri.'

and by her had:

i Elizabeth, 1598?-1683, married in 1620 Sir Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall in Yoxford, co. Suffolk.

The identification with the Elizabeth named in the will of Dame Margaret Slaney is clinched by the mention of 'my sister Lady Brooke' in the will of the first Lord Culpeper and by the biographical funeral sermon preached by Lady Brooke's chaplain, Nathaniel Parkhurst, in 1683 (Cf. D. N. B., re-issue, ii, 1328).

ii Slaney, 1599-1618, o.s.p.

His first appearance on the surviving record is in the will of his father (1609) as 'my eldest son [when he] comes to the age of xxiiij years.' He is first named in the will of his maternal grandmother (1612) as 'Slanye Culpeper one of the sons of my dau. Anne Culpeper dec;' which is followed by the reference in one of his father's codicils (1613) to 'my sonne Slaney Culpeper' In his father's inq. p.m. (1614 it is stated that 'Slany Culpeper esq. is his son and heir by said Anne... and was 14 years, 10 months and 18 days at his father's death [September 18, 1613]. Finally, he is named in his grandmother's codicil (July, 1618), written a few months before his death, in the language already quoted.

He matriculated at Hart Hall, April 26, 1616, as 'of Sussex, aged 17' (Foster); and was admitted to the Middle Temple, February 6, 1617/18, as 'Mr. Slanye, son and heir of Thomas Culpeper, of Wigsell, Sussex, Esq. dec.' (Hopwood, ii, 625).

That he died at Lossenham (in Newenden) unmarried,'December 12, 1618, leaving his brother John his heir appears from the inq. p.m.

iii John, 1600-1660, first Lord Culpeper, of whom hereafter.

Thomas Culpeper married, second, 1605, Mary, daughter of Roger Beeston, of Lon, don, and widow of Francis Gibbon,

Her husband's will (1609) refers to her as 'my now wife... Mary,' and to 'her mother Baistone.' The other evidence for her is her will (LINK), from which it appears that she survived until 1661, living in Frittenden, co. Kent.

and by her had:

iv Mary, 1606, ob. unmarried.

She was baptised in Salehurst, August 10, 1606, as 'Maria Culpeper filia Thomae, armigerl,' but is not further identified. The language of her father's will, supplemented by the fact that she is not named in her mother's will, indicates that she died in infancy, and was probably buried in Hawkhurst or Newenden.

v Thomas, 1607, ob. infans.

The entry in the Salehurst register of his baptism, December 13, 1607, is 'Thomas Culpeper filius Thomae armigeri, permissione baptisatus fuit, ecclesia de Haukehurst;' but he was buried in Salehurst, December 30, 1607, as 'Thomas Culpeper filius Thornae, arm.'

vi Filia, 1608.

The Salehurst register records the burial, December 5, 1608, of 'filia Thomae Culpeper arm. inbaptizata.'

vii Cicely, 1610-1620, unmarried.

She was baptised in Salehurst, July 8, 1610, as 'Cicelie Culpeper filia Thomae, arm.' and buried there January 17, 1619/20 as 'Cicely Culpeper filia. Thomae, esq.'

viii Anna, 1611-post 1660, married in 1636 Thomas Scott of Smeeth, co. Went.

The Saleburst register records the baptism, November 10, 1611, of 'Anna Culpeper filia Thomae, arm., permissione baptizata erat apud Hawkhurst.' Her next appearance is in a mar. lic. at Canterbury, October 7, 1636, viz: 'Thomas Scott of Smeeth, bach. about 21 son of Robert S. of same, who consents & Ann Culpeper of Frittenden, virgo. who, her father being dead, is now under the government of Sir Alexander Culpeper of Ulcomb, Knight, who also consents.' The marriage was recorded among the Scotts of Scot Hall at the Visitation of Kent, 1663. Her mother's will names 'Thomas Scot... and my dau. his wife,' indicating that she survived her mother.

Footnotes

³¹ The other three were (i) the John who was admitted to the Inner Temple from Barnard's Inn in 12 Henry VIII 0520) and appears on the Inner Temple records until 1553, when he was 'pardoned all offices' (Inderwick, Inner Temple Records, i, 54, 66, 16q, 244). We take him to be the John10 of the Bedgebury family; (2) the John, whom Foster enters as 'of Kent, Hart Hall, 1569, aged 14,' whom we take to be the john'l of Bedgebury; and (3) John1l of the Aylesford family, who was admitted to Grays Inn, 1553, and died 1561, leaving a will (P. C. C. Streat, 5). (Return)

³² Cf. T. Denton's report in 1545 to Henry VIII on the Inns of Court:

The whole company and fellowship of learners is divided into three… degrees:... Benchers... Utter barristers, and Inner Barristers. Utter barristers are such that for their I ' earning and continuance are called by the Readers to plead and argue in the said house doubtful cases and questions... and are called Utter Barristers for that they, when they argue the said Motes, sit uttermost on the formes which are called the Barr; and this degree is the chiefest... in the house next the Benchers. All the residue of learners are called Itmer Barristers, which are the youngest men

The Proprietors of the Northern Neck

Chapter 3a
Hollingbourne

Just before it cuts through the chalk of the North Downs to drain the Weald of Kent into the estuary of the Thames, the river Medway is fed at the shire town, Maidstone, by a westward flowing stream called the Len. The narrow valley of this stream separates the Downs from the parallel ridge of Lower Greensand (known locally as 'the Quarry,' because it is the site of the beds of limestone which are worked as 'Kentish Rag') and so opens to the traveller the most ancient of the trade routes leading inland from the English channel. ³³

On the orchard-clad slopes of the upper end of this valley lies the hundred of Eyhorne, made up of the parishes of Harrietsham, Hollingbourne, Bromfield and Leeds; including, with the manors from which the parishes took their names, those of Greenway Court and Elnorthing.

During 'great Eliza's days' most of these lands were, and long had been, vested in the St. Legers of Ulcombe; but the protracted and uncompensated Irish service of those stalwart soldiers gradually wore down their fortunes until they were compelled to sell their Kentish lands manor by manor. In that process the St. Legers were steadily superseded by the Wigsell Culpepers. It was a succession, characteristic of the beginning of the seventeenth century, of men of the robe to men of the sword.

Having acquired the St. Leger lands in the Len valley, and finding them good, the Culpepers abandoned their long inherited seats of Wigsell and Lossenham and concentrated their family life on their new acquisitions. Their monuments and records which survive in Hollingbourne show how they were justified in this decision: for by persistent intermarriage with the neighbouring territorial families of Pordage of Rodmersham; Stede of Harrietsham; Cage of Bersted; Wyat of Boxley; Filmer of East Sutton; Harlakenden of Woodchurch; Clarke of Wrotham; Scott of Scots-hall; and with the St. Legers themselves, they became, during the flowering period of their history which we have now reached, the locally dominant factors of the part of Kent in which their ancestors first made their appearance as simple retainers of a lord of Leeds Castle.

The opportunity to accomplish this was created by one of William¹⁰ of Wigsell.

XI. Francis Culpeper (William¹⁰ of Wigsell), 1538-1591, of Greenway Court, was named in his father's will (1559) as 'ffraunces Culpeper, my second son,' after he had already begun his career. Entered at Winchester School at the age of 13, he secured, in 1553, an appointment as a Scholar on the foundation, being recorded of 'Hunton, Kent' (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, 1888, p. 132). Thence he went on as an approved Wykhamist to New College, Oxford, where he was in residence from 1558-60 on a scholarship of that foundation. But, unlike his younger brother Martin, who thus far had emulated his career, Francis now abandoned the shades of Academe and, as the New College record has it, resigned his scholarship, and 'contulit se ad studium juris regni.'

He may have betaken himself to Clements Inn, where his eldest son later pursued preliminary law studies, but Francis¹¹ is not himself enrolled as a member of any one of the Inns of Court, nor is there other record that he followed a professional career; indeed, there is nothing more to testify for him at all until, in his thirty-fourth year, he took up his residence in Kent in the vicinity of the Hunton manor house of his boyhood.

The baptism of his second son (1573) and the burial of his first wife (1574) at Harrietsham indicate that it was in 1572 that he inaugurated his family's landholding in the Len valley, by purchasing from his 'cousin,' Sir Warham St. Leger, the manor of Greenway Court.³⁴ There he maintained his residence for twenty years, and thence he was buried, in Hollingbourne, June 1, 1591, as 'ffraunces Culpeper, generos.' His youngest son subsequently erected for him and his second wife the first of the Culpeper M.I.'s in Hollingbourne church, as follows:

'Franciscus Culpeper de Greeneway Court Ar(miger) Filius S(e)c(un)dus Willemi de Wigsell, et Joanna uxor ejus, Filia Joh(ann) is Pordage de Rodmersham, Ar(miger), expectant hic adventum D(omi) ni et properari orant. Ille. ultimo Maij A. D. 1591, aetat 53, Illa, xxmo Martij A. D. 1597 aetat 60, in coelum rediit. Exiguum. hoc officii et amoris ergo posuit Thomas unicus iis communis filius; et eorum piae et integrae vitae memoria suae, et suis exemplar vivat precatur.'

His will dated May 20, 1590, and proved November 22, 1591.

He m. 1st, 1567? Philippa, 'dau. and heir of . . . of Hinckstead.

The christian name appears from her burial at Harrietsham, July 7, 1574, as 'Philippa, uxor Francisci Culpep'.' The description quoted above is that given in one of the Rowe More Kentish pedigrees (B. M. Add. MS. 5528, fo. 176). No other identification has appeared.

and by her had

i John (1568-1607) of Folkington, co. Sussex.

He matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, November 18, 1586, as 'of Kent, aged 17' (Foster) ; and was described in his father's inq. p. m., October, 1591, as 'son and next heir, of the age of 23 years and more.' On March 12, 1593/4, he was admitted to the Middle Temple as 'Mr. John Culpeper, late of Clements Inne [was he a contemporary of justice Shallow?³⁵], gent., son and heir of Francis C., late of Hollingbourne, Esq., deceased' (Hopwood, i, 339). By his will (P.C.C. Windebank, 30) proved in 1607, he styled himself 'of Fogington.' By his wife, who was a Scott of Seven Oaks (an aunt of that George Scott who was a diligent 'private member' of the Virginia Company to its end. Cf. Brown, Genesis, ii, 996) and with whom he had Folkington, he left issue which persisted for three generations and became extinct in 1693 with John Culpeper of Riverhead in Seven Oaks, co. Kent. For this family see the pedigree of 'Culpeper of Fogington,' recorded at the Visitation of Sussex, 1633-34; the wills P.C.C. Coke, 136; Duke, 130; and Coker, 100; and the case of Culpeper v. Wigg, 1679, in Chancery Reports temp. Finch, 426.

ii Walter, 1573-1595, o.s.p.

He was baptized in Harrietsham, November 2, 1573, as 'Walterus filius Francisci Culpep'; and is named both in his father's will and in that of his father's widow, the latter indicating that he was living in March, 1594/5. The visitation pedigrees enter him as 'slayne in Holland,' and it seems likely that he died fighting under Sir Francis Vere, perhaps in the wild foray on Crudenburg on August 22, 1595 (See Markham, The Fighting Veres, 214).

2d, Joan, 1574, dau. of John Pordage of Rodmersham, co. Kent, and widow of William Stede of Harrietsham.

For Pordage of Rodmershain (near Sittingbourne and only a few miles north of Greenway Court) see Hasted, ii, 593; The Genealogist, vi, 76. For Stede of Harrietsham, with whom the Wigsell Culpepers several times intermarried in consequence of this alliance of Francis¹¹, see the pedigree returned at the Visitation of Kent, 1619 (Harl. Soc. Pub., xlii, 71) and Berry's continuation in his Kent. One of these Stedes, whose mother was a Culpeper, served in America as Governor of Barbados.

Joan Pordage was buried in Hollingbourne, April 7, 1598, as Joane Culpeper, vidua' and left a will, which combines genealogical material of the Stedes and Culpepers.

and by her had

iii Sir Thomas (1575-1661) of Hollingbourne, of whom presently.

XII. Sir Thomas Culpeper (Francis¹¹ of Greenway Court) 1575-1661, of Hollingbourne, called 'the elder.' He was baptized in Harrietsham, December 8, 1575, as 'Thomas, filius Francisci Culpep'. On October 15, 1591, he matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, 'aged 16' (Foster) ; and on May 15, 1594, was entered at the Middle Temple as 'Mr. Thomas, third son of Francis Culpeper, late of Hollingbourne, Kent, esq., deceased' (Hopwood, i, 343). He commenced parliamentman soon after he came of age, and is shown by the Official Returns of M. P.s 1878 to have been successively burgess for Rye (1597), Winchelsea (1601), Chippenham, co. Wilts (1614), and Tewkesbury, co. Glouc. (1628). He was knighted by James I, September 19, 1619 (Nichols, Progresses of James I, iii, 568). In 1621 he presented to parliament, and subsequently published, a Tract against the high rate of Usurie in which be argued for a reduction of the legal rate of interest from 10% to 7% (D. N. B. re-issue, v,:287; Wood, Athenae Oxon, iii, 533, where his parliamentary activities are confused with those of the first Lord Culpeper). This tract, supplemented by a similar argument by Francis Bacon in 1625, resulted in the act of 21 Jac. I, c. 17, reducing the rate of interest to 8%: but he kept up the fight for 6% and reprinted his tract in 1642 (It was subsequently reprinted also in 1668, both by his son and as an appendix to Sir Josiah Child's well known Discourse on Trade; and in 1754 was translated into French). For these public services Cambridge University created him M.,A. in March, 1635/6 (Venn, i, 431).

Having by his marriage greatly enhanced his paternal estate, in 1623 he purchased from his cousin Sir John, later first Lord Culpeper, the ancestral seat of Wigsell and settled it upon his eldest son, Cheney; and in 1632 purchased Leeds Castle also, and settled it upon his two surviving sons in tail male.

During the Troubles he 'stood for his King' and while 'never in arms' was deemed by the Parliament a malignant; and, despite the interest of his eldest son, was required to compound for his estate, paying on April 30, 1646, the large fine of £1318 (Cal. Committee for Compounding, ii, 1235, 1289). The last record of him is a petition to the Crown immediately after the Restoration for a lease of the profits of a sinecure post 'to him and his youngest son, to repair the ruin of his family by their loyalty' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665-66, p. 143, where this petition, being undated, is doubtfully attributed to 1665. The reference to the 'youngest son' is evidence that the petitioner was Sir Thomas 'the elder' and so the petition must have been made before his death in January, 1661/2).

After his wife's death he rebuilt and dedicated to his family an ancient chapel at, the east end of the north aisle of Hollingbourne Church, which he embellished with monuments. There he was buried January 27, 1661/2 (recorded in the parish register as 'Sir Thomas Culpeper, Knight') but although he had composed MI.'s for all his family, there was none to perform that office for him. His will.

He m. 1600 Elizabeth (1582-1638), dau. of John Cheney of Guestling, co. Sussex.

She was the heiress of the junior branch of the ancient family of Cheney of Shurland, co. Kent, for which see Suckling, Suffolk, i, 104 Horsfield, Sussex, 468; Fuller, Worthies, i, 525; Cave-Brown, Story of Hollingbourne.

She was buried in Hollingbourne Church, October 30, 1638, as 'Elizabeth, the virtuous Lady of Tho. Culpeper, Knight and there her husband erected the notable tomb which, with its recumbent effigy, emblazonment of arms and elaborate MI. is, to the genealogist, one of the most satisfactory of such records extant. That MI. is as follows:

Elizabeth uxor Thomae Culpeper, Militis, Filia unica et haeres Johannis Cheney de Gestlinge, in Comit. Sussex, Ar (miger) 27 die Octobris Anno D(omi)ni 1638, aetat 56, in Coelum rediit Optima Foemina, vere pia, fidem operibus manifestans, magni ingenii et cogenitionis plusquam muliebris, omnium virtutum cultrix studiosissima, humilitatis admiratrix; Optima Conjux, Optima Mater, cujus eximiae virtutis memoriam hoc quoque exili amoris pignore semper lugens maritus suis commendat.

Beata haec foemina marito suo peperit filios tres; Cheney primo, genitus, qui Elizabeth-am Johannis Stede de Harrietsham Militis filiam uxorem duxit; Franciscum, qui juvenis obiit; Thomam natu minimum: filias octo, Paulinam natu maximam, Gualtero Harlackenden, de Woodchurch, Armigero nuptam; Elizabetham quae mitis et modesta Virgo obiit; Juditham, Johanni Culpeper, Militi, Cancellario et Sub-Thesaurario Scaccarii et serenissimo Regi Carolo a Consiliis Prevents; Joannam Gulielmo Cage de Bersted Ar (migero) ; Ceciliam Radulpho Freke de Allington in Thornham Ar(migero) ; Mariam Gulielmo Clarke de Wrotham Ar(migero) Franciscam Gulielmo Freke de Hannington, Ar(migero), nuptas, et Philippam natu mimmarn Elizabethae moribus et morte sororern et consortem; quae matris in aegritudine Londini famulans quinto post die in Coelum secuta est.

and by her had

i Sir Cheney, 1601-1663, of Leeds Castle, o.s.p.m.s.

He was baptized in Hollingbourne, July 15, 1601, as 'Cheanye, filius Thomae Culpeper;' matric. at Hart Hall, November 6, 1619, 'aged 17' (Foster) ; admitted to the Middle Temple, May 7, 1621, as 'only son' of his father (Hopwood, ii, 662). When he came of age in 1623 his father purchased Wigsell for him from Sir John¹³, afterwards first Lord Culpeper (Close Roll 21, Jac. I, pt. 26). Knighted by Charles I, September 8. 1628, at Farnham (Metcalfe, p. 189), on July 9, 1629, he was sent to the Hague to carry a letter of condolence to the Queen of Bohemia on the death of her eldest son (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629-31, pp. 7, 509).

In October, 1632, he m., in London, his cousin Elizabeth, dau. of Sir John Stede of Harrietsham (the marriage license read 'The Rt. Worshipful Sir Cheney Culpeper, Kt. bach., 28, and Mrs. Elizabeth Steede, spr., 18, her parents being dead, consent by Lady Steede, her mother-in-law, and Dr. Steede, her uncle,' Harl. Soc. Pubs., xxiii, .208; xxvi, 308). His first three children were baptised in Harrietsham.

During the Troubles, alone of his family, he adhered to the Commonwealth. On October 21, 1651, the Council of State voted to restore Leeds Castle to him as 'the proprietor, a gentleman well affected to us' (Cal. State Papers, Commonwealth, xvi, 589). Meanwhile, in August, 1650, he had been appointed one of the Commissioners for regulating Trade, and in June, 1659, served also on the Commission for the Militia of the City of Westminster (Acts and Ordinances of the Interegnum, 1642-1660, ed. Firth, ii, 403, 1290). Although during the remainder of his life he was known as 'of Leeds Castle' (e. g., on the pedigree of his daughter's husband 'Cage of Bersted,' returned at the Visitation of Kent, 1663), he was ruined by the Restoration, and when he died in 1663, without a will, his estate was administered by his creditors (P.C.C. Admon. Act Book, 1663, and again, 1691, d.b.n.). He was buried in the Temple Church 'at the entrance into the north isle the second of April, 1663 (Inderwick, Inner Temple Records, iii, 445). His widow survived until 1674, when her will (P.C.C. Bunce, 74) was proved.

His only son, Thomas, was baptised in Harrietsham, March 9, 1636/7, and buried in Hollingbourne on February 8, 1637/8. He had also four dau. of whom the youngest m. her cousin german, Sir William Cage of Bersted.

ii Paulina, 1603?-1625, m. 1617 Walter Harlakenden (1603-1628) of Harlakenden in Woodchurch, co. Kent.

She was not baptised either in Harrietsham or Hollingbourne and so perhaps was born in London. Her first appearance is, therefore, in her mar. lic. at Canterbury, June 14, 1617, 'Walter Harlackenden of Funstall and Paulina C. of Hollingbourne, virgo. at Hollingbourne or elsewhere in dioc. Cant.' The Hollingbourne register records the m. June 16, 1617, 'Mr. Walter Harlaccenden, generosus, and Pelina Collepeper;' the baptism October 4, 1624, of 'Thomas, the s. of Walter Harlackenden, Gent.;' and the burials, November 26, 1625, of 'Paulina, the wife of Mr. Walter Haerlackenden, ' and December 20, 1628, of 'Walter Harlackenden, Esq.'

While owning property in Kent, the Harlakendens were a family long established in Essex. See their full pedigree in Topographer and Genealogist, i, 228, 395; ii, 215, where it appears that it was the son of Paulina Culpeper, whose baptism is recited above, who (as noted infra) m. Philippa, dau. of the first Lord Culpeper by his first marriage.

iii Elizabeth, 1605?-1626, unmarried.

She was 'the meek and modest virgin' of her mother's MI., and was buried in Hollingbourne, September 10, 1626, as 'Elizabeth Culpeper.'

iv Judith, 1606-post 1651, m. 1631 Sir John Culpeper, later first Lord Culpeper, of whom hereafter.

She was the first of her family to be baptised in Hollingbourne, June 1, 1606, as 'Judethe Colepeper, filia Thome Colepeper, gener.'

v Joan, 1607- , m. 1637 William Cage of Milgate in Bersted.

Her only entry in the Hollingbourne register was her baptism, August 16, 1607, as Joane, filia Thome Culepepper.' She m. in London, under lic. from the bishop of that diocese, December 2, 1637 (Harl. Soc., xxvi, 232), reading 'William Cage of Milgate, wid. 30, & Joane Culpep., dau. of Sir Thos. C. of Hollingbourne., Spr. 27.'

This first Cage-Culpeper m. was not shown on the Cage pedigree returned at the Visitation of Kent, 1663-64; apparently because Joan o.s.p. Her husband's son, Sir William Cage, who m. Cicely, dau. of Sir Cheney Culpeper, was born of his first m. with Susan, dau. of Sir J. Cage of Stow, co. Camb.

vi Francis, 1608-1610, ob. infans.

Both baptism and burial are in the Hollingbourne register.

vii Cicely, 1610-1651, m. 1636, Ralph Freke (1596-1684) of Aldington in Thornham, co. Kent.

Her entire career is in the Hollingbourne register. Baptised October 10, 1610 as 'Sisle Colepeper, filia Thomae Colepeper, generosus;' she m. August 18, 1636, as 'Ralphe Frieke, Esq. and Cicely, the dau. of Sir Thomas Culpeper, Knight by licence;' and was buried January 6, 1650/1, as 'Cisly Ferke, wiffe of Ralfe Ferke.' An MI. was subsequently erected by a granddaughter (Cave-Brown, p. 35).

Ralph Freke's grandfather was that Robert Freke of Shoroton, co. Dorset, who was many years Auditor of the Treasury under Henry VIII, and died leaving what was later termed 'a plum,' i.e., £100,000. His father was the Sir Thomas Freke, M.P. from Dorset, who was named one of the Council for Virginia in 1607, and was later a member of the Virginia Company (Brown). He settled the manor of Hannington, co. Wilts, jointly upon two younger sons, viz: this Ralph and William, infra (See The Family of the Frekes in Sir Thomas Phillip's Middle Hill collections). On his m. Ralph established himself in the neighborhood of Hollingbourne.

Of the four daughters of this m. the third, Frances, b. 1644, m. George Norton of Leigh near Bristol, and appears in Clarendon's pages by reason of the shelter she gave Charles II during his escape in 1651 after Worcester fight (Rebellion, vi, 528). A dau. of this Norton m. was that Grace, wife of Sir Richard Gethin, to whom MI.'s were erected not only in Hollingbourne but in Bath and Westminster abbeys by reason of a 'curiosity of literature' which Isaac D'Israeli (ii, 270) recorded. The story is elaborated by Cave-Brown, p. 31 ff.

viii Mary, 1612- m. Sir William Clarke, of Wrotham, co. Kent.

She was baptised in Hollingbourne, January 3, 1611/12, as 'Marie Colepeper, filia Mr. Thomas Colepeper;' and m. there also, January 7, 1635/6, as 'Mr. William Clarke and Mrs. Mary Cullpeper, by licence.'

Her husband, descended from a baron of the Exchequer temp. Henry VI (Hasted, ii, 239), and, through his mother, who was a Stede, from John Culpeper¹¹ of Wigsell, was a true 'Kentish Sir Byng.' Clarendon (Rebellion, iv, 504) records his death at Cropredy Bridge on the Cherwell in Oxfordshire, June 29, 1644, aet. 36, when in a glorious victory 'we lost two colonels, Sir William Boteler and Sir William Clarke, both gentlemen of Kent, of fair fortunes, who had raised and armed their regiments at their own charge and were both killed dead upon the place.'

A younger brother of this Sir William, shown on the Clarke pedigree certified at the Visitation of Kent, 1619, as 'John aet. 5, 1619,' died in Virginia, 1644, when Edward Wyatt administered upon his estate (W. & M. Quar., iii, 37)

ix Frances, 1613-1682, m. William Freke (1605-1656) of Hannington, co. Wilts.

She was baptised in Hollingbourne, October 3, 1613, as 'Frances Colepeper, filia Thomas Colepeper,' and died in London, 1682, where her estate was administered as 'Frances Freke, widow' (P.C.C. Admon Act Book, 1682).

x Philippa, 1615-1638, unmarried.

She was baptized in Hollingbourne, March 14, 1614/15, as 'Philipe Colepeper, tlie daughter of Thomas Colepeper;' and the same register, recording her burial November 4, 1638, as 'Philippa, daughter of Tho. Culpeper, Knight,' confirms the mention of her upon her mother's MI., for that burial was five days after that of her mother.

xi Sir Thomas, 1625-1697, of Hollingbourne, called 'the younger.'

He was baptised in Hollingbourne, November 3, 1625, as 'Thomas Culpeper, s. of Sir Thomas Culpeper,' and matriculated at University College, Oxon, April 27, 1640, 'aged 14,' being almost contemporaneously elected to a fellowship of All Souls; from which the Parliamentary commissioners ejected him in 1649 (Foster). He proceeded B.A., February 8, 1643/4, and M.A., May 26, 1653. Meanwhile, on December 1, 1647, he was 'specially admitted' to the Middle Temple as 'Mr. Thomas, second son of Thos. Culpeper of Hollingbourne, Kent, Knt.' and on November 22, 1661, 'Sir Thomas Culpeper [was] called, of grace, to degree of the Utter Bar' (Hopwood, iii, 958, 1167).

The last entry shows that he was knighted by Charles II soon after the Restoration, but he is not recorded by LeNeve or Shaw.

After his father's death he retired to Hollingbourne and devoted himself to editing, republishing and enforcing his father's works against usury, publishing, incidentally, Moral Discourses of his own (See the bibliography in Athanae Oxon, iv, 447; D. N. B. re-issue, v, 287).

In 1679 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent and served that office until 1693, when his commission was withdrawn in consequence of his tory politics (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1679-80; 1693).

He was buried in Hollingbourne, September 27, 1697, as 'Sir Thomas Culpeper, Kt.' and left a will which was proved as P.C.C. Pyne, 274.

He married:

1st, 1661, a lady who is recorded only as Dame Dowse Culpeper, who died s.p.s. (Cf. baptism of her child, July 25, 1662, at St. Paul's Covent Garden, London (Harl. Soc., xxxiii); her own burial in Hollingbourne, August 5, 1662, and the adm. on her estate P.C.C. Admon. Act Book, 1667).

2d, 1663, Alicia (1639-1730), daughter of Sir William Culpeper (1588-1651) of Aylesford (The mar. lic. December 18, 1663, ran, 'Sir Thomas Colepep', Kt. of Hollingbourne, co. Kent, widr. about 35 & Mrs. Alicia Colepep' of Aylesford, spr. about 24, consent of mo. Dame Helen Colepep) and by her had several sons and daughters, including Frances (1664-1740), who m. John, third Lord Culpeper, and William (1665-1727), the promoter of the Kentish Petition of 1701 heretofore noted.

From this William¹⁴ descend the persisting Colepepers (as they once more spell the name) represented by Frederick Henry Colepeper²⁰, of Brockley, living 1903.

In 1628 the attraction of this family of Sir Thomas¹² drew also to Hollingbourne the head of his house. Thereupon Wigsell ceased to be the designation of this branch of the Culpepers, and for a generation they were practically unanimously 'of Hollingbourne' or its immediate neighbourhood: which brings us back to the descendants of Thomas¹² of Wigsell.

(Continued in Chapter 3b)

³³ The archeological artefacts found in the Len valley prove that that geological trough was a British trade route long before the Romans opened their Watling Street to the north of it, That it againbecame a main travelled road in Saxon times, leading to the port of Hythe, is proved by the location of Leeds Castle. Still later, the 'Pilgrims Way' and a railway successively followed it. (Return)

³⁴ Greenway Court, from which the sixth Lord Fairfax derived the name of his wilderness lodge in Virginia, still stands, close at the foot of the North Downs, on the boundary line of Harrietsham and Hollingbourne. Some of the old masonry dates from the fourteenth century, but the house has been several times rebuilt. Hasted says (ii, 466) that it "was formerly esteemed a manor, the mansion of which was a seat of good account." Originally held by a family called Greenway, the estate came into the possession of the Crown and was settled by Henry VIII upon the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, of whom it was held by the St. Legers, Culpepers and Fairfaxes successively until 1758, when Robert, seventh Lord Fairfax, alienated the leasehold to the banker, Sir Francis Child. Although the manor of Alnorthing was usually held with Greenway Court, the latter was in itself never more than a dwelling house and curtilage. Sir Alexander Culpeper¹² describes it in his will (1645) as "11 acres and no more," As -appears from the text, the house, though modest according to modern standards, or when compared with Leeds Castle, was occupied in turn by every branch of the Wigsell Culpepers, during an hundred and eighty years, and was always held by that family in high esteem and affection as a comfortable refuge from a cold world, where a tradition of old hospitality and a simple family life might be maintained in dignity. (Return)

³⁵ "I was once of Clements Inn: where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet... The very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. Jesu! Jesu! the mad days that I have spent" (2 Hen. IV, act iii, scene 2). (Return)

The Proprietors of the Northern Neck

Chapter 3b
Hollingbourne

XIII. Sir John Culpeper (Thomas¹² of Wigsell), 1600-1660, first baron Culpeper of Thoresway (First Lord Culpeper), (Also see article from Britannica On-Line) was baptised in Salehurst, August 7, 1600, as 'Johanes Colepeper, filius Mri Thomae, armigeri'; was named by his maternal grandmother, Dame Margaret Slaney in her will (1612) as 'my godson John C. another of the sons of my dau. Anne C.,' as well as in her codicil (May, 1618) in the language already quoted; and, in the inq. p.m. of Slaney C.¹³ (May, 1619) appears as 'John C. his only brother and heir, and heir of the body of said Thomas by Anne his wife; and is at taking of this inq. under :21, viz: 18 years, 9 months and 9 days and no more.'

He matriculated at Oxford from Hart Hall, April 26, 1616, as 'of Sussex, aged 15' (Foster) and was admitted to the Middle Temple, February 6, 1617/8, as 'Mr. John C., second son of Thomas C. of Wigsell, Sussex, deceased (Hopwood, ii, 625). Having become, by the death of his elder brother in December, 1618, 'primi sternmatis Wigsellensis' (as he later described himself on the MI. of his first wife), he was knighted by James I at Theobald's, January 14, 1621/2 (Nichols, iii, 751).

Clarendon³⁶ testifies that he 'never cultivated the muses.' If he ever had any intention of pursuing a career at the bar in the tradition of his uncle, John of Feckenham, he abandoned it when he became 'of Wigsell.' Being just of age as he was knighted, and having no home ties, he forthwith prepared to spend 'some years of his youth in foreign parts and especially in armies, ' and to that end liquidated his property.

He had inherited his father's share in the Virginia Company and had already taken a part in the politics of that society (in April, 1623, he allied himself with the Warwick faction, Brown, Genesis, 982), when at the court held May 7, 1623, 'Mr. Deputy propounded the passing of One Share from Sir John Culpeper to Mr. ffreake of the Middle Temple, gentleman' (Records of the London Company, L. C. ed., p. 412). In the same year, 1623 (Close Roll, 21 Jac. I, pt. 26) he sold Wigsell to Sir Thomas C.¹² to be vested in his eldest son, Cheney.³⁷ It would thus seem that Sir John must have left England in the autumn of 1623; for there is no further record of his until October, 1628, when he. contracted his first marriage. It was accordingly after five years of soldiering in the wake of Gustavus Adolphus that, as Clarendon says, 'in very good season and after a small waste of his fortune' he returned to England, 'retired from that course of life and married and betook himself to a country life.' He now established himself in Hollingbourne (he describes himself 'of Hollingbourne' in his mar. lic., 1631, and is so described again in the Commonwealth act of 1650, and, under the influence of Sir Thomas¹², commenced politician. To quote Clarendon again, his school was county affairs, 'the business of the country and the concernments of it, in which he was very well versed: and being a man of sharpness of parts and volubility of language he was frequently made choice of to appear at the Council board in those matters which related to the country, in the managing whereof his abilities were well taken notice of.' The result was that he was returned (Official Returns of M. Ps. 1878) to the Short Parliament (1640) as burgess for Rye (Cinq Port). In the Long Parliament he was Knight of the shire for Kent and made his celebrated speech against monopolies (Rushworth, iv, 133).

The remainder of his career is part of the history of England. His fundamental conservatism soon drew him into opposition to the crescent 'reforming party.' In the small company of Falkland and Hyde he stood at last by the bishops and against the Grand Remonstrance; with the result that all three were invited by Charles I to join the government. On January 2, 1642, Culpeper was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, which office he exchanged the following year for that of Master of the Rolls. Notwithstanding these dignities, 'as his courage was always unquestionable,' when war came he did service also in the field: at Edgehill (Keinton) he charged with Rupert's cavalry, acquitting 'himself like a brave man-at-arms,' and at Newbury again 'enobled his Gowne with Martiall Achievements.' For the example of these acts, as well as his service in the Council Chamber, the King raised him to the peerage in 1644;³⁸ but in so doing 'did much dissatisfy both the court and the army.' Clarendon's own comment (Rebellion, v, 4) is that 'though he did imprudently in desiring it, did deserve it.' In 1645 he became, with Hyde, a member of the Council set up in the west of England for the Prince of Wales;³⁹ and eventually escorted his young master from Cornwall to Scilly. Thence Culpeper left to join the Queen mother in Paris: and so began his long wanderjahr on the continent.

During the exile, the future fortunes of Culpeper's family were shaped by two lawyer-drawn papers. On September 18, 1649, he and his cousin-german Thomas Culpeper (son of John¹² of Feckenham) were included in the patent which created the proprietary of the Northern Neck of Virginia;⁴⁰ and in 1651 the Commonwealth by act of Parliament (Acts, 1651, c., 10) declared forfeited and ordered sold all the manors and estates of 'Sir John Culpeper, late of Hollingbourne in the County of Kent, Knight:' a description which was intended for an insult by disregarding the warborn peerage.

Culpeper survived to take part, at the age of sixty, in Charles II's entry into London. After that dramatic 'ride in triumph through Persepolis' he was destined for a large part in the restoration government (see Ranke's comment on him) ; actually he assumed his function as Master of the Rolls (swearing in, in that capacity, his old colleague Hyde as Lord Chancellor), and for some weeks sat regularly at the Council board. But in June of the restoration year he fell ill, while he 'lay' at Hartinge, co. Sussex, in the house of his friend, Sir Edward Ford, whose daughter his dead son Alexander, had married. Weary after more than ten years of exile, he planned here a settlement of his disordered estate. His English property had been sequestered and sold and he was deeply in debt. 'He used to say,' his son reported later (Gent. Mag., lxvii (1797) p. 477) 'that the usurer and he were not yet even; for he had only scratched the usurer, the usurer had stabbed him.' He was, however, comforted by a promise from the King of a grant sufficient to put his house in order; and, quite unconscious of the part that promise was to play in the history of Virginia, died on July 11, 1660 [the date is on his MI.], having made the following will.

It does not appear from the Hollingbourne register that he was buried there, but in 1695 two of his children then surviving erected in Hollingbourne church a monument with the following MI.:

'To the lasting memory of John, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thoresway, Master of the Rolles and Privy Counsellor to two Kings, Charles the First and Charles the Second. For equal fidelity to the King and Kingdome he was most exemplary. And in an exile of above ten years was a constant attendant and upright Minister to the Prince last mentioned. With him he returned tryumphant into England on the 29th of May 1660; but died the 11th of July next following in the 61st year of his age to the irreparable loss of his family. He commended his soul to God his faithful Creator, and ordered his body here to expect a blessed Resurrection. His Patent of Honour from King Charles the First dated the 21^st of October 1644 may serve for his immortal Epitaph. Part whereof is here below faithfully copyed from the Latine original & translated into English: [the latin text, which follows, is here omitted]

'Whereas our well beloved and most faithful Counsellor John Culpeper Kt. Mr. of the Rolles of our Chancery, of the Antient and Noble family of the Culpepers in our Counties of Kent and Sussex many ages past renowned for persons of eminent ability both in War and Peace, hath given us signall testimonies of his approved Loyalty, singular Manhood, and profound judgment; who, in that never to be forgotten Battell of Keinton, where both our own and the publick safety were manifestly at stake, being then chancellor of our Exchequer, acquitted himselfe like a brave man-at-arms; who, at Newberry, and on other occasions always enobled his Gowne with Martiall Achievements; and lastly, who, in our most perilous junctures by his seasonable and solid Counsells hath been a principal support of our Crowne and Dignity, &c.'

'By his wife Judith, daughter of Sir John (sic) Culpeper of Hollingbourne Kt. he had 7 children that survived him, Thomas, later Lord Culpeper, John now Lord Culpeper, Cheney, Frances, Elizabeth, widow of James Hamilton Esq. late Groom of the Bedchamber to King Charles the Second, Judith, and Philippa. Of these John Lord Culpeper and Elizabeth Hamilton, equally zealous of expressing their Duty, have on the 10th day of June in the year 1695 erected this Monument.'

He m. 1st, 1628, Philippa (1610-1630), dau of Sir George Snelling of West Grinstead, co. Sussex.

The m. was October 29, 1628, at St. Bodolph, Bishopsgate, London (Harl. Soc. Pub., vol. 50), as 'Sir John Culpeper, Knt. & Mrs. Philip, dau. of Mr. Geo. Snelling of West Grinstead, Sussex,' and is recorded in the pedigree of Sherley of West Grinstead (of which family she was heiress), reported at the Visitation of Sussex, 1633-34 (Harl. Soc. Pub., vol. 53, pp. 4, 119; Cf. Fuller's Worthies, 1840, iii, 254).

She was buried in Hollingbourne, September 16, 1630, as 'Phillip, the wife of Sir John Culpeper, Knight;' and there was set up the following MI.:

'In memoriam Philippae filiae unicae Georgii Snellinge, Equitis Aurati, et Ceciliae, filiae et unius heredum Thomae Sherley, armigeri, uxoris Johannis Culpeper, Ordinis Equestris, Primi Sternmatis Wigsellensis, cui cum duos fiberos, Alexandrurn et Philippam, care-emptam, peperisset, animarn Creatori redidit, xvi die Septembris, Anno salutis, MDCXXX, Aetatis suat XX.'

and by her had:

i. Alexander, 1629-1649, m. 1648 Catherine (1634-1682), dau. of Sir Edward Fokd of Harting, co. Sussex, o.s.p.,v.p.

The record of his baptism is lacking, but he is named in his mother's MI.; and in the will (1645) of his great uncle, Sir Alexander Culpeper¹², is described as 'Alexander C. my godson, eldest son of John, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thoresway.' He m. at Calais, September 8, 1648 (his wife being 12 years of age and he 19) and died in London, March 2, 1648/9 (G. E. C. Complete Peerage). As a consequence, he is not mentioned in his father's will (1660) ; but on January 4, 1664/5, his widow (then wife of the son and heir of the Lord Grey of Warke) made a final record by taking out admon. upon his estate, viz: 'Honourable man Alexander Culpeper of [blank] in co. Kent, but died in Drury Lane, Middlesex, Esquire, to relict Katherine wife of Ralph Grey, Esq.' (P.C.C. Admon Act Book, 1664).

ii. Philippa, 1630-ante. 1660, m. Thomas Harlakenden (1625-1689) of Harlakenden in Woodchurch, co. Kent.

Named in her mother's MI., the only other testimony for her is the record among the Harlakendens (Topographer and Genealogist, i, 228; Cf. Wykeham-Martin, Leeds Castle, p. 176) of her m. to the eldest son of Paulina, dau. of Sir Thomas Culpeper the elder (See ante.). As she is not mentioned in her father's will, she may have died during the Commonwealth.

2d, 1631, Judith (1606-post 1651), dau. of Sir Thomas Culpeper (1578-1661) of Hollingbourne, called 'the elder.'

The mar. lic. at Canterbury, January 12, 1630/1, read 'Sir John C. of Hollingbourne, Knight, wid. & Judith C. same parish, virgo., about 22 [She was baptised June 1, 1606, as noted, supra], dau. of Sir Thomas C. of said parish, Kt., who consents... at Huckinge [i.e., the church lying above the North Downs, about 3 miles from Hollingbourne].'

In May, 1651, 'Dame Judith Culpeper' appeared before the Committee at Goldsmiths Hall to attempt to secure release of some of her husband's estate (Cal. Com. Compounding, 1643-60, pt. ii, p. 1289) and a few weeks later had a pass to go to France (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651, p. 527). There she joined her husband, and, as she is not referred to in her husband's will, must have died before the Restoration.

and by her had

iii. Elizabeth, 1632, ob. infans.

She was baptised April 3rd and buried April 9, 1632, in Hollingbourne as 'Elizabeth, dau. of Sir John Culpeper, Knight.'

iv. Thomas, 1633, ob. infans.

He was baptised December 29, 1633, and buried August 25, 1634, in Hollingbourne as 'Thomas, sonne of John Culpeper, Knight.'

v. Thomas, 1635-1689, succeeded as second Lord Culpeper, of whom hereafter.

vi. Elizabeth, 1638-1709, m. 1661 James Hamilton, Groom of the Chamber to Charles II.

She was baptised in Hollingbourne, January 4, 1637/8, as 'Elizabeth Culpep', daughter of Sir John Culpep' and Dame Judith, his wife;' and was named in her father's will as unmarried, 1660, with provision for her portion. Her m., 1661, is noted in Collins Peerage, ed. Brydges, 1812, ii, 527, to record the fact that her son succeeded as sixth earl of Abercorn. In 1695 she recorded herself on her father's MI. as 'Elizabeth, widow of James Hamilton, late Groom of the Bed Chamber to King Charles the Second,' and was buried in Hollingbourne, February 6, 1709/10, as 'the Honourable Elizabeth Hamilton.' She had acquired in 1698 the manor of Chilston, co. Kent, and it was there that she died, aet. 72; and was succeeded by her younger son, William, who m. a dau. of Sir Thomas C.¹³ of Hollingbourne, and d. 1737, having served the office of Sheriff of Kent (Hasted, ii, 435).

vii. Judith, 1638-1691, unmarried (She did marry.  See note below).

She was baptised in Hollingbourne, September 28, 1638, as Judeth, the dau. of Sir John Culpep' and Dame Judith, his Lady,' is named in her father's will (1660) and, finally, was buried in Hollingbourne, November 21, 1691, as 'the Honourable Judith Culpeper.'

She remained in England during her father's long exile (Cf. the reference to her in June, 1654, in Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii, 377), and employed her time in embroidering the elaborate decorations which are still in use in Hollingbourne church. Hasted (ii, 471) describes her work as 'a. most superb altar cloth, a pulpit cloth and cushion of purple velvet, ornamented with different figures of fruits, of pomegranet and grapes, wrought in gold, the needle work of the daughters of Sir John Colepeper... who employed themselves for almost the space of 12 years in the working of them during their father's absence abroad with Charles II.'

Alone of her family, she kept on friendly terms with her brother, the second Lord Culpeper (Cf. her letters in Notes and Queries, 2d Series, ii, 130, 177) ; and it was to her that he addressed his letter from Boston in 1680 (Va. Hist. Reg., iii, 189). Her name appears in the State Papers several times after 1675 in the family controversy over the 'Six Clerks' place,' of which hereafter.

Postscript by Warren Leigh Culpepper: At age 53, two years prior to her death, the spinster Judith married her second cousin, Alexander Culpeper, Surveyor General of Virginia, who was 58 and a bachelor. The marriage was on 19 Dec 1689 at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Old Fish Street, London.

viii. John, 1641-1719, third Lord Culpeper, o.s.p.

He was baptised in Hollingbourne, March 4, 1640/1, as 'John, sonne of Sir John Culpeper, Knt. and Dame Judith his wife; had a pass to go to France with his brothers in 1651 (Cal. State Papers, 1651, P. 529) ; and was named in his father's will (1660) as 'my son John,' with injunction to 'make his brother Thomas his executor in case he die under 21 or unmarried.' After the Restoration he had a commission as lieutenant in the navy (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1673, pp. 202, 435) and during the Dutch wars was, as his MI. recorded 'in four sea fights.' He subsequently engaged in a bitter controversy with the second Lord Culpeper over some patronage which Charles II had intended for the benefit of the first Lord Culpeper's younger children (See infra) ; in consequence of which he was himself appointed in 1681 to the profitable post of one of the Six Clerks in Chancery (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1681).

In 1689 he succeeded as third Lord Culpeper and precipitated the attacks on the estate of his elder brother which are rehearsed infra but, being unsuccessful in recovering more than a small annuity, had difficulty in maintaining his dignity as a peer. He left no will, nor was there any administration.

He m. his cousin Frances (1664-1740) dau. of Sir Thomas Culpeper the younger, of Hollingbourne; died s.p.; and was buried in Hollingbourne, July 22, 1719, as 'the Rt. Honourable John, Lord Colepeper.' There his widow set up the following MI.:

'In hopes of a blessed Resurrection to Eternal life, near this place lyeth the body of the Right Honourable John, Lord Colepeper, Baron of Thoresway, in the County of Lincoln. He was the best of Friends and the best of Husbands. He was in four Sea-Fights, wherein he behaved with great Courage & Bravery, having his Cabin shot to pieces and his Commanding Officer kil'd. He attended the House of Lords 18 years constantly, with a very small fortune, where he always behaved with steadiness for the good of his King & Country. He resigned his soul to God the 8th of July, 1719, and ended his days with Resignation and Piety. He married Francis, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Colepepper, of this place, by whom he had no issue...

'The Right Honourable Francis, Lady CoIepeper erected this Monument to show the great Respect she had to the Memory of her Husband, John, Lord Colepeper.'

ix. Cheney, 1642-1725, fourth and last Lord Culpeper, o.s.p.

He was baptised in Hollingbourne, September 6, 1642, as 'Cheney, sonne of the right honourable Sir John Culpeper, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Dame Judith his wife;' and went to France with his brothers in 1651. In the roaring days of the Restoration he killed an officer of the guards with a blunderbuss and was pardoned only because he was brother to a peer. In 1667 he was called to the Bar (Inderwick, Inner Temple Records, iii, 49).

The only other records of him are that, surviving his brother John, he was buried in Hollingbourne, June 19, 1725, as 'Cheney, Lord Culpeper,' and was included in John's MI. by the following notice (omitted supra) :

'He left one Brother, Cheney, who succeeded him in Honour, a Gentleman of great worth and fine Accomplishments, who survived his brother till the year 1725, and then died in his retirement at Hoffron St. John, where he had lived many years; by which this branch of that most antiente and Knightly family became extinct.'

x. Philippa, 1650-1719, unmarried.

She was baptised in Hollingbourne, February 14, 1649/50, as 'Dame Phillip Culpeper, daughter of the Rt. Hon'ble John Culpeper, Baron of Thoresway, and Dame Judith his wife;' and is named in her father's will with provision for her education until 18. In 1675 she was brought into the family controversy over the 'six clerk place' (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1675-76, p. 294), but there is no further record of her until her death. She was buried in Kirby Cane Church, co. Norfolk, and her will was proved as P.C.C. Shaller, 132.

xi. Francis, 1652-1663, o.s.p.

He is the only one of his generation of whom there is no record in Hollingbourne. Evidently born abroad after his mother had rejoined her husband for the exile, he made his first appearance in his father's will as 'my son Francis,' with recitation of a settlement which was to be ineffective 'if he die under 21.' He was then entered at Westminster School; where the name F. Culpeper' is inscribed on one of the monumental lists of Captains of the School between 1653 and 1682 (Welch, Queen's Scholars of Westminster, 1852; p. 532).

He was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, November 1. 1663, as Francis Culpeper, one of the King's scholars' (Chester, Westminster Burials, Harl. Soc. Pub., x, p. 159, where Col. Chester conjectures that he was a son of the second Lord Culpeper).

His name was not included in the list of children surviving their father on the first Lord Culpeper's MI.; but as that record was not made until 1695, it is apparent that Francis' survivorship had then been forgotten.

(Continued in Chapter 3c)

³⁶ The first Lord Culpeper is one of Clarendon's celebrated 'characters,' in Life (1927 ed.), i, 106 ff. See also Rebellion, passim, and Sir Philip Warwick, Memoirs, p. 195. His many letters to Hyde are in Cal. Clarendon State Papers, vol. i, passim. The best modern biography is that by a specialist on the 'Troubles,' Prof. C. H. Firth in D. N. B., re-issue, iv, 749. (Return)

³⁷ After having been a Culpeper possession for 300 years, Wigsell passed, in the ruin of Sir Cheney Culpeper's estate, to one who had been 'table boy under the Colepepers whom at length he bought out.' Ultimately, it came to a branch of the Harcourt family and is now the residence of Lord Edward Cecil of the Egyptian service. The house has been several times rebuilt and so now bears little relation to its appearance when the Culpepers possessed it (See Hodson, Salehurst). (Return)

³⁸ As Baron Colepeper of Thoresway, co. Linc. See the quotation from the patent in his MI., quoted post. While there were Culpepers in Lincolnshire in the fifteenth century, it does not appear that the Wigsell Culpepers had any inheritance from them (Lincolnshire Notes & Queries, x, 37). Thoresway was a royal manor in the wolds of Lincolnshire, attached to the Duchy of Lancaster (Allen, Lincolnshire, 1834, ii, 207) and was granted to Lord Culpeper to support the dignity of his peerage. See the references to it in Cal. Committee for Compounding, v, 3277: and in the proceedings to settle the estate of the second Lord Culpeper, quoted post. (Return)

³⁹ There is a highly coloured and entertaining glimpse of Culpeper at this time (when he was 46 years of age) in the following letter of Sir Richard Grenville to Lord Ormonde, which f ell into the hands of the Parliament and was published in London as a pamphlet (The King's Pamphlets, E, 333, British Museum) to show the disorganization of the royalists, viz:

'Right Honourable... I am now at Nantes in France, and about to depart hence towards Italy for the war against the Turk... Hopton flying into Cornwall with his men dispersed several wayes... The News thereof made the Prince command the Earl of Branford and Lord Culpeper, with all speed, to meet the Lord Hopton and Lord Capel at Wadebridge, nigh the heart of Cornwal, to advise on affairs for the safety of the West (I think to shut the stable door when the horse was gone) ; but Culpeper in his haste and way, finding some Gentlemen merry and drinking in Penrin town, he would needs make one amongst them, and so did, till night came; and then Bacchus prevailing, Culpeper's eloquence displeased Mr. Slingsby, by which grew a quarrel betwixt them two onely, and at bare fistycuffs they were a good space, till the company parted them; and then Culpeper and Slingsby, in the moonshine, got them into the garden, and like two Cocks at the end of a Battel, not able to stand well, offer'd and peck'd at one another, till the weight of Slingsbie's head drew him to the ground; which advantage Culpeper took hold of, and by it got Slingsbie's sword; and then like St. George, made more such triumphant flourishes over Slingsby, then a German Fencer at the beginning of a Prize; but by good fortune, the rest of the associates came in, and easily persuaded the Duellists to end the quarrel by the cup again; which service continued till the next day, with divers and several bouts at fistycuffs. The next day (about ten of the clock) they having red Herrings and mustard for Breakfast, Culpeper again gave Slingsby distaste, whereon he threw a dish of mustard at Culpeper's face (taking his Nose for a red Herring) ; which procur'd another grievous incounter, in such sort, that the market people (to part the fray) thronged the house full, whereby that also was taken up, and the saucy Lord fain to get his mustard-Face, Eyes, Beard, Band and Coat wash'd; and about four of the next evening, Culpeper rid on in his hasty journey to overtake the Lord of Branford, who rid chasing & staying for him above twenty four hours in his way. Such a Privie-Councellor will soon finish his Masters businesse one way; preferring his own delights before the important businesse that concerns the safety of the Prince &c. This story is indeed very true in every particular, and so I leave it with you and depart.

Your Lordships humble Servant
R. Grenvile.
Nantes in France
9 April, 1646.' (Return)

⁴⁰ The original Northern Neck charter of 1649 is now in the British Museum as Additional Charter, 13585. The grantees therein named were 'our Right trusty and well beloved Ralph, Lord Hopton, Baron of Stratton; Henry, Lord Jermyn, Baron of St. Edmund's Bury; John, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thoresway; Sir John Barkeley; Sir William Morton; Sir Dudley Wyatt; and Thomas Culpeper, Esqr.' There were several changes in the personnel of the proprietors before the second Lord Culpeper bought them all out, as recited post. The second charter (Patent Roll 21, Car. 11, pt. 4, No. 6, Cf. Am. & W. L, 669-74, p. 22) recited that on May 8, 1669, 'said Lords Hopton and Culpeper, Sir Dudley Wyatt and Thomas Culpeper are dead, said Lord Hopton [having] conveyed all his estate and interest in the premises to John Trethewy [whereby] all said premises [are] vested in said earl of St. Albans [the Jermyn of the charter of 1649] John Lord Berkeley, Sir William Morton and John Trethewy.' St. Albans and Berkeley were both parties to the conveyance to Culpeper in 1681, but Sir William Morton's interest was then represented by his son, Sir James (Cf. D. N. B. re-issue, xiii, 1065), and that of John Trethewy by his younger brother and heir, Anthony (Cf. Visitation of Cornwall, p. 498). (Return)