Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 343 
ever. On the above it is thought that a fine of £2710 was paid, 
which was declared in December, 1649. 
Sir John Danvers’s first wife was Magdalen (Newport), widow, 
of Richard Herbert, of Chelsea, and mother of George Herbert, the 
well-known parson and poet of Bemerton. ‘ He married her,” says 
Aubrey, “for love of her wit, though she was old enough to have 
been his mother.” The union took place in 1609, when Sir John 
would be about thirty-four years of age, and the parties lived to- 
gether for eighteen years. Shortly before the lady’s death her son, 
George, the Bemerton parson, still farther cemented the family tie 
by marrying a daughter of Charles Danvers, Esq., of Baynton, near 
Devizes, a kinsman of Sir John. From a tradition respecting the 
personal and mental beauty of Sir John, the father of Earl Danby, 
George Herbert appears to have held the entire family in great 
estimation, as is evidenced by an epitaph, preserved by Aubrey, in 
which the following lines occur :— 
“What makes a Danvers? would you find P 
In a fair body, a fair mind. 
Sir John Danvers’ earthly part 
Here is copied out by art, 
But his heavenly and divine 
In his progeny doth shine.” 
Sir John’s (the regicide) second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of 
Ambrose, son of Sir John Dauntesey, of West Lavington; which 
lady brought him a vast accession of wealth. She died in 1635, 
leaving three children, Henry, Elizabeth, and Anne, of whom here- 
after. This marriage induced a lengthy residence at Lavington, 
where Sir John constructed a family mansion, environed with 
objects peculiar to Italian horticulture, a taste which he had acquired 
in the Chelsea gardens attached to Sir Thomas More’s residence on 
the Thames, which also eventually became his own. Of the 
Lavington gardens a bridge and a short canal alone survive as relics , 
The time of his coming to Lavington was that period of popular 
discontent which everywhere met the Court’s demand for ship- 
money. The advent of so prominent a malcontent to their neigh- 
bourhood was an interesting event for the Devizes community, who 
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