436 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. YIII. Nov. 26. '59. 



L' Holme of Tranmur, Boteler of Warrington, 

 Wentworth of Brougliton, and Mathew Ellis of 

 Overleigh. I have consulted Ormerod's Cheshire,, 

 and it is remarkable that I do not find a Fitzhugh 

 mentioned; neither do I find Cotgrave till 1735, 

 when a person of that name was mayor of Chester. 

 The Holmes' (the famous Randle Holmes) pedi- 

 gree is given, but no match with Butts. Several 

 of the name of Mathew Ellis occur between the 

 year 1574, when Mathew Ellis, son of Ellis ap 

 Dio, died, and the year 1685. For Boteler of 

 Warrington, I consulted Baines's History of Lan- 

 cashire,, but found no match with Butts ; in fact 

 the name does not, as far as I can see from con- 

 sulting the Indices and the .history of the several 

 places, occur in either work. The next in de- 

 scent mentioned is William Butts (son of Will. 

 Butts and Ursula Ellis) of Shouldham Thorpe. 

 Congleton here ceases. This William is the first 

 mentioned in the Visitation of 1619 ; his wife was 

 a Kervell ; and from him to Leonard Butts, who 

 sold the Norfolk property, and settled at Bromley 

 in Kent, the " Table of Descent" follows the pedi- 

 gree of the Visitation. Of Cheshire I can say no 

 more than I have above ; but, with regard to the 

 Butts family being Lords of Shouldham Thorpe 

 at the earlier period, it can be distinctly proved 

 that they were not. 



Deeds and Court Rolls show that the manor of 

 JRussels in Thorpe came to Dorothy Frende as 

 cousin and heiress of Nicholas Seaman (see Blome- 

 field, vii. 427.). She carried it by marriage to 

 Thomas Harpley, Yeoman, who sold it to Thomas 

 Gawsell; his son, Richard Gawsell, dying in 1538, 

 Ursula his widow married, secondly, Will. Butt of 

 Shouldham Thorpe, who held his first court, ju7'e 

 uxoris, in the 11th of Elizabeth. The manor of 

 Shouldham Thorpe, originally in a family who 

 took their name from the place, was even- 

 tually bought, together with that of Fodeston, by 

 William Butts, grandson of the above-named 

 William, in the 9th Jac. I., from Sir Robert Riche, 

 Knt., for the sum of 1500Z. ; and the whole was 

 afterwards sold by Leonard Butts to Sir John 

 Hare, Knt. 



Leonard Butts married Jane, daughter of 



Lennard of Suffolk ; he signed the Visitation Pe- 

 digree of 1619; and as I supposed died without 

 issue. I was therefore surprised to find in the 

 " Table of Descent " in the Autobiography, that 

 he had ascribed to him a son. Sir Leonard Butts, 

 Knt., from whom Mrs. Sherwood's father is di- 

 rectly deduced, — Sir Leonard, if the pedigree is 

 correct, being his greatgrandfather. Never hav- 

 ing met with a Sir Leonard Butts, I wrote to ray 

 friend Mr. King, York Herald, who, in reply to 

 my questions, stated that he had gone through the 

 lists of knights of the times of Elizabeth, James I., 

 and Charles L, but found no such person knighted 

 in either reign. He also furnished me with the 



substance of the funeral certificate of Leonard 

 Butts, which states as follows ; — 



" Leonard Butts of Bromley, co. Kent, Esq., died at his 

 house at Bromley, 18th December, 16.33, and was buried 

 in the parish church of Bromley on St. Thomas's Day 

 next after. He married Jane, daughter of Mr. Lennard 

 of the county of Sufifolk, by whom he left 7io issue. He 

 made Mr. Francis Pigott of Stradset in Norfolk, Esq., 

 and Mr. Hatton Berners of Watlington in Norfolk, Gent., 

 executors of his yi'iW." 



The funeral certificate is generally considered 

 an authentic document to be relied on, but here it 

 is in direct opposition to the " Table of Descent." 



The pedigree in the Autobiography makes Sir 

 William of Thornage, the king's physician (Hen. 

 VIII.), to be the son of John Butts, M.P. for Lis- 

 keard, 1456, and grandson of the William Butts 

 who married a Kervell.* I should be very glad 

 could any of your readers inform me whether this 

 is correct, or give any authentic information 

 with regard to the earlier part of the pedigree. 

 The family may have been of some consequence 

 in early times; and I shall be happy, through 

 " N. & Q." or privately, to receive proofs ; but it 

 seems to me clear, from various existing docu- 

 ments, that, as regards the branch at Shouldham 

 Thorpe, they were, prior to Henry VIII. or Eliza- 

 beth, not above the condition of yeomen. 



Geo. Hen. Dashwood. 



Stow Bardolph. 



SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS. 



(2°'^ S. viii. 410.) 



If Abracadabra will again refer to my volume 

 on Rubens, he will find that he is mistaken in 

 saying that " my book is silent as to the departure 

 of the great Flemish painter from England, ex- 

 cepting only the minute of the Council Register 

 granting his pass, Jan. 31, 1629-30." At p. 146. 

 is the following note, 192 : " Rubens arrived in 

 London about 25th May, 1629, and left about 

 22nd Feb. 1629-30." 



While upon this subject it may perhaps be in- 

 teresting to note that Mr. Bruce's forthcoming 

 new volume of Calendars of State Papers has 

 brought to light two letters which are curious, 

 not only as showing the name of the ship that 

 brought over the great artist to England, the 



* There was a family of Kervell at Shouldham Thorpe, 

 whether a decayed branch of the Wiggenhall or Wat- 

 lington family I cannot say : but Simon Kervell by his 

 will, dated 1470, leaves " 1 pair of sheets, 1 blanket, 1 co- 

 verlyt, 1 pot, 5 dishes, 1 pewter dish, 13 trenchers, &c., 

 to his son and heir, John Kervell ; also his messuage and 

 2 acres and a half of land, on condition that he pays to 

 Stephen Lecham the sum of 13 shillings and 4 pence, 

 which sum the said Stephen had lent him on mortgage 

 of his messuage and land." He appoints his son John, 

 and William Butt, his executors. Query, Did William 

 Butt marry the daughter of Simon Kervell ? 



