By G. Pouktt Scrope, Esq., M.P. 13 



on the 19th November, I. Henry IV. 1399. His venerable father, 

 Lord Scrope, Richard's late Chancellor, rising from his seat, his 

 eyes streaming with tears, while admitting the justice of the sen- 

 tence, and deploring the conduct of his son, entreated that the pro- 

 ceedings might not affect the inheritance of his other children ; a 

 prayer which the politic King granted in gracious terms on the 

 instant.^ 



It does not appear that William Lord Scrope held any other 

 territorial possessions in the county from which he took his title, 

 than the Town and Castle of Marlborough, then however one of 

 its chief strongholds. His two brothers, Roger and Stephen, 

 having married two of the three coheiresses of Robert Lord 

 Tibetot, were at the time in possession of two-thirds of the Barony 

 of Castle Combe, and therefore of extensive fiefs within the county. 

 And this may have been one of the reasons for the selection of 

 Wiltshire as his Earldom.^ He himself married Isabel, daughter 

 of Sir Maurice Russell, of Dorsetshire, but had no issue by her. 



The arms borne by Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, were, according to 

 a Roll of arms compiled in the reign of Richard II., Quarterly 

 1st and 4th, the arms of the Isle of Man, with a label of three 

 points argent ; and 2nd and 4th, azure a bend or, (his family 

 coat), with a label of three points gules. His crest was a plume of 

 feathers azure, issuing from a coronet or, signifying the sovereignty 

 of Man. His badge was a crab or, being the crest formerly borne 

 by his family, and retained by the Masham branch, while that of 

 Bolton kept the royal plume. 



II. Butler, Earl of Wiltshire. 1449. 



Exactly half a century later, in the year 1449, this dignity was 

 revived by Henry VI., in favour of Sir James Boteler, or Butler, 

 Knight, son and heir apparent of James, fourth Earl of Ormond, 



1 Scrope and Orosvcnor Roll. 

 2 The Calliedral Church of Salisbury liad the duty enjoined of prayers to bo 

 said and sung in it for tlio prosperity of the Earl of Wiltsliirc during his life, 

 and the repose of his soul after dcatli, by the ^\'ill of John Waltham, Bishop of 

 London, in requital for his best and most valuable vestincut bequeathed on tliis 

 conditiuu to the said church. 



