Читать книгу The Discovery of Witchcraft. Facts, Fiction & Conspiracy Theories Behind the Medieval Witch Hunt онлайн

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The son of this second Sir William, named Sir John, being connected with the Woodvilles, and therefore with the wife of Edward IV, and being a staunch Yorkist, and apparently a man of intelligence, was employed in special embassies to Charles, Duke of Burgundy, especially in 1467, when he went to treat of the marriage of the king’s sister with the duke. He had also various other and more substantial favours conferred upon him from time to time, from 1461 onwards, including that of Chilham Castle for life, as somewhat oddly, and I think wrongly, noted in the extract from Philipot. He died in 1485, and probably intestate, as no will is recorded.

To him succeeded his son, the third Sir William in this account, and he dying in 1524, was succeeded by his son, a second Sir John. This last, by his marriage with Anne, daughter of Reginald Pympe, had three sons, and died on the 7th October 1533. The eldest, William, followed his father on the 5th June 1536, and leaving no offspring, his next brother, Sir Reginald, took his place. Of the third brother, Richard, the father of our Reginald, I shall speak presently. Meanwhile, returning to the main line, I would say that Sir Reginald, dying on the 16th October 1554, was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas, the “cousin” to whom Reginald was much indebted, and one of the four to whom he dedicated his Witchcraft. He was, in his day, a man of note, intelligence, and action. Finding his estate in debt, he yet kept one hundred at his table, was most hospitable, and died owing nothing, though, of course, to provide for the younger of his very numerous progeny, various portions of his estate were by his will sold after his death. He was deputy-lieutenant of his county, sheriff of Kent in 1576, knight of the shire for the Parliaments of 13 and 28 Elizabeth, chief of the Kentish forces at Northbourne Downs, where they were assembled to repel any landing from the Armada; and it may be added, as showing his promptness, readiness, and decision, that 4,000 of these were there, equipped for the field, the day after he received his orders from the Privy Council. He was one of the Commissioners to report on the advisability of improving the breed of horses in this country, and either before or after this, is said to have published a book on the subject. He was a Commissioner for draining and improving Romney Marsh, and afterwards Superintendent of the improvements of Dover harbour. Various letters to and from him in reference to Dover harbour, as well as to the Kentish forces, are to be found in the State Calendars. Having been the parent of seventeen children by his first wife, Emmeline Kempe, a relative by maternal descent, he died on the 30th December 1594, and Ashford parish offered to pay the expenses of his funeral if only they were allowed to bury him in their church. Most of these facts are noted in the following verses, which I give, chiefly because there are some probabilities that they were by Reginald. A copy of them seems to have been found among the family papers, in his handwriting. That he made some of the verse translations given in his Witchcraft is extremely probable, from the want in these cases of marginal references to the translator’s name; hence a second probability. The verses themselves render it likely that they were one of those memorial elegies then affixed επι ταϕον by affectionate friends and relatives, and not what we now call an epitaph; and the third verse clearly shows that they were written at least some little time after Sir Thomas’s decease, and therefore were not improbably written to be affixed to the handsome tomb erected over his remains. Hence a third probability; but beyond the accumulated force of these we cannot go.