Murder of Henry Long, Esq. 309 
Michel, who married Ann Long, Henry’s only sister) and Henry 
Smyth, Esq.,! with several other gentlemen. Who Chamberlayne . 
was or in what house he lived, has not been ascertained. There is 
no mention of ladies being present. From which circumstance, as 
well as from the earliness of the hour and the apparent liberty of 
entrance, it is most likely to have been a meeting of gentlemen of 
the neighbourhood for business at some tavern. Sir Henry Danvers, 
followed by his brother and a number of their tenants and re- 
tainers,? burst into the room and without more ado shot Mr. Long 
dead upon the spot. The brothers then fled on horseback to 
Tichfield House, as already stated, and succeeded after some days 
concealment in making their escape out of the country in a boat from 
Cawshot Castle, a fort on the opposite side of Southampton water. 
A coroner’s inquisition was held, upon which they were outlawed. 
But no indictment seems to have been preferred either by the gov- 
ernment or the family of the deceased. From the document No. 3 
1 That this Henry Smyth, Esq., was at that time the owner of the principal 
house and estate at Corsham there is the following evidence. The orginal 
Manor House at Corsham was pulled down (according to Leland) before 1536. 
[See above, p. 143, Note 2.] And Aubrey (born 1625) distinctly says that ‘‘ the 
Great House at Corsham” (of his day) ‘‘ had been built by Customer Smyth.” 
This must have been the older portion of the present house, the south front of 
which bears the date of 1582. Thomas Smyth (an ancestor of Lord Strangford) 
was a wealthy contractor for the Customs (from which vocation he obtained the 
name of ‘‘ Customer’’) in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. On marrying 
the heiress of Judd, Lord Mayor of London, he acquired the estate of Osterhanger 
in Kent. He died 1591. His eldest son succeeded him in the latter estate; but 
his second son Henry Smyth had Corsham for his portion. There can be very 
little doubt that he was the person mentioned above as being present at Mr. 
Long’s murder in 1594. Others of the family are mentioned as of Corsham so 
late as 1623. (See A. Wood’s MSS., Ashm. Mus. Oxon., and Wilts Visit. 1623). 
2 The circumstance of Sir Henry being attended by so many followers, makes 
it not improbable that the quarrel between Danvers and Long, was one of those 
Montague and Capulet family hostilities, of which we have frequent notice, 
especially about this very period. Strype the historian particularly mentions 
that in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Micenses from the Crown were often granted to 
Lords and gentlemen to have twenty or more retainers. ‘They were ‘‘servants,” 
not menial, but only wearing their Lord’s livery, and occasionally waiting upon 
him. ‘These licenses were given for the purpose of maintaining quarrels: and 
by means of them many murders were committed and feuds kept up. (See 
Strype Memor. LI. I. 61). 
