Communicated by Mr, James Waylen. 83 
held the rectory of Tilshead, in Wiltshire; and when the troubles 
arose, appears to have resisted a claim for rent issuing thereout due 
to William Mewe. Hopton’s father and grandfather having in 1600 
acknowledged a statute-merchant of £600 to William Mewe, 
granted a rent-charge out of the rectory for ninety-nine years, 
dependent on three lives; but on Mewe’s death in 1642 Lord 
Hopton stopped payment to the son and heir, William Mewe, 
who, owing to his daily attendance on the Assembly of Divines was 
unable to prosecute his claim, till by order of Parliament he re- 
covered it; although the Wilts Committee had in the meantime let 
the impropriation for £160 to William Crabb and John Randell. 
The Mewe family, it may be inferred, were Parliamentarian ; Richard 
Mewe was a lieutenant of horse in Fairfax’s army; commission 
gyvanted by the Rump Parliament in 1659. 
' Another property which Lord Hopton owned in this county was 
Fitzurse Farm, at Kington Langley, near Chippenham, with its old 
moated house on the summit of a rising ground, long the abode of 
the ancient family of the Fitzurses, one of whom is known in 
English history as among the murderers of Thomas 4 Becket. 
Near this house stood a chapel dedicated to St. Peter, which in 1670 
was converted into a private dwelling-house, though not a trace of 
it is now discoverable. The revel of the village was kept on the 
Sunday following St. Peter’s Day (29th June), on which occasions 
a temporary officer called “‘ the Peter-man ” used to be appointed, 
bearing the office, it may be presumed, of master of the sports. A 
-new Church was raised here in 1855, The estate of Fitzurse was, 
during the Protectorate, sold by the Hopton family to Mr. Bampfield 
Sydenham, from whom it has descended to the children of the late 
Mr. Sydenham Bailey. (Canon Jackson.) 
Tuomas Howarp, Baron Howarp or CHARLTON, AND EARL OF 
Brrxsuire. The breaking out of hostilities must have been emi- 
nently distasteful to this nobleman. He was considerably advanced 
‘in life, his family was very numerous, and his domestic affairs were 
disordered; but neutrality was out of the question, as he was bound 
to the King’s interest by a variety of ties, personal and official, 
Though long past the age of military service, yet on the mere 
G2 
