By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 305 
obiit decimo die Septembris A.D. 1550, quorum animabus propicietur 
Deus. Amen. The English is, “ The Ladye Margaret hys fyrst wyfe 
bure to hym tii sonnes and v daughters and Ladye Elsabeth hys secunde 
wyfe bare foure sonnes and foure daught—.” The importance of 
this English inscription in the late Shrewsbury claim of peerage 
cannot be exaggerated. Every thing turns on it. Lady Margaret 
was the first wife and had three sons. If any male issue of any 
one of those sons be now alive, Henry John Chetwynd, the descen- 
dant of Lady Elizabeth the second wife, is not rightly Earl of 
Shrewsbury. The late Earls of Shrewsbury were the descendants 
of the e/dest son of the Lady Margaret, and it is clear that there is 
no existing male issue from this son. Can the same be said in re- 
spect of the two other sons of the Lady Margaret ? Did the House 
of Lords exhaust this portion of the subject? It is true, that Sir 
John of Albrighton and Grafton (the father) mentioned in his will 
the eldest son only of the three he had by the Lady Margaret. 
But this proves nothing. Sir John does not pretend to mention 
all his sons. He names two only out of four by the second mar- 
riage. And to the eldest by the first he simply alludes as leaving 
him “the Kyne at Brymschaf and two of my marys with theire 
fooles that I had of my lorde of Warwyke” (he seems to have been 
an adyanced agriculturist and stock breeder). Probably the sons 
were already otherwise provided for. The English inscription 
has been designedly defaced, rubbed down apparently, and then 
painted over with thick coats of paint to imitate alabaster. This 
must have been done a hundred years since. The paint was 
‘removed by an application of American potash and quick lime. 
The relief had been rubbed down almost to the level of the rest 
_of the stone, but the inscription on the removal of the paint could 
be decyphered, because an engraver, while forming the outline 
of his letters, inevitably presses the sharp point of his instrument 
below the surface, which he forms by merely scraping away the 
intervals. So that, even if the whole of the relief be rubbed down 
level with the surface, the thin outline, being below the surface, 
will still be visible, especially if a little dirt collect in it. 
Sir John Talbot, his son and heir, next held our quarter manor. 
Ln 
