30 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. IX Jan. 14. '60. 



Hildersham, agree in making her the wife or se- 

 cond wife of Thomas Hildersham of Stechworth, 

 Cambridge, though the name of the place is very 

 variously spelled. The arms of this Thomas Hil- 

 dersham were — sable, a chevron between three 

 crosses patonce, or. He was the son of Thomas 

 Hildersham (married, 1. Miss Hewston of Swaff- 

 ham, and 2. Margaret Harleston of Essex), and 

 grandson of Richard Hildersham (married Miss 

 Ratcliffe of Stechworth), and great grandson of 

 Thomas Hildersham of Ely. (Harleian MSS., 

 1534. fol. 121. or 122.; 1449. fol. 27 b.; 1103. 

 fol. 22 b., &c). He had also two brothers : 1. 

 Richard, who removed to Moulton, in Suffolk, 

 where he died (30th July, 1573) ; he adopted 

 three cinque/oils in lieu of the crosses patonce in his 

 arms; and his will was proved at London, 11th 

 Feb. 1573-4; and 2. William, who died at Cam- 

 bridge, leaving a nuncupative will, proved at 

 London, 7th June, 1599. By Anne Pole he had 

 the well-known Arthur Hildersham (" N. & Q." 

 2 nd S. viii. 474.), born 6th Oct. 1563, at Stech- 

 worth ; married, 5th Jan. 1590, to Anne Barfoot 

 of Lamborn Hall, Essex, who survived him ten 

 years ; died 4th March, 1631, leaving, as appears 

 by his will (proved at Leicester, 7th May, 1632), 

 three sons : Samuel, Timothy, and one between, 

 name unknown ; and one daughter, Sara Lum- 

 mas or Lomax. In this will he mentions his bro- 

 ther Richard, but whether by whole or half-blood 

 does not appear. Lady Pole, relict of Sir Geof- 

 frey, left a will, proved in London 20th Sept. 

 1570, in which she mentioned all her children 

 known to be living at the time, except Anne. 

 But we have reason to suppose from Clarke's Life 

 of Arthur Hildersham, annexed to his Martyro- 

 logy, that she, as well as her husband, was alive 

 when Arthur was at College, which could not be 

 earlier than 1578, as .they then cast him off on 

 account of his change of religion. Moreover they 

 must still have been in relation with the Pole 

 family ; as Thomas, his father, had intended to 

 get him forward by the interest of the Cardinal. 

 From this time all trace is lost of Thomas Hilder- 

 sham and Anne Pole. Information is required as 

 to when and where they were born, married, died, 

 or had their wills proved ; as to the name of 

 Thomas's first wife or Anne's second husband, and 

 as to their other children by this or other mar- 

 riages. The registers of Stechworth begin in 1666, 

 a century too late, and contain no trace of the 

 Hildershams. Those at Moulton contain the 

 births of the second family and the death of Ri- 

 chard Hildersham, all under the name of Elder~ 

 sam. There is, however, an old MS. note in the 

 fly-leaf of my copy of Arthur Hildersham's Ser- 

 mons on the 51st Psalm, which has been altered 

 by a second hand. The words inserted by the 

 second writer are added in brackets, and those 

 omitted are italicised in the following copy : 



" The author of this book, Arthur Hildersham, was 

 brother in law or half brother to Miss [M r ] Ward, they 

 being both by the same mother, but by different fathers, 

 and the said [who had issue] Miss Ward mar. John 

 Savidge of Ashby Old Park." 



This would imply that Anne Pole married a 

 Mr. Ward as her second husband, and that the 

 Miss Ward was her daughter or grand- daughter 

 by this marriage. But Anne Pole's grandson 

 Samuel was probably born in 1592 (he was ejected 

 from the living of West Felton, in Shropshire, as 

 a Nonconformist in 1662), and it is therefore not 

 likely that her grand-daughter should have been 

 born in 1657, and died in 1735, like this Miss 

 Ward. A generation may have been skipped by 

 the writer. Miss Ward, that is, Mrs. Savidge, is 

 stated on her tombstone at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 

 to be the daughter of Thomas and Anne Ward, 

 and her own name was Anne. Her parents were 

 of Burton-on-Trent, where the registers have 

 these entries : — 



" 16o3. Thomas Ward, paterfamilias, sep. 18 Aug. 



" 1660. Sara Ward, filia Thorn, et Annas, Bapt. 27 

 Septembris. 



" 1662. Thomas Ward, paterfamilias : sepultus 11 

 March." 



The recurrence of the names Anne and Sara 

 (not Sarah), seem to favour the connexion with 

 Anne Pole and Sara Hildersham (afterwards Mrs. 

 Lummas or Lomax). I am particularly interested 

 in tracing this connexion between Anne Pole and 

 the Wards. The latter are supposed to have been 

 originally from Stenson, near Derby, and may 

 have been connected with the Wards of Shenston, 

 near Lichfield, whose history is in Nichols's Lei- 

 cestershire. Any information which would tend 

 to verify or disprove the assertions in the MS. 

 note above cited, will be most thankfully re- 

 ceived. Alex. J. Ellis. 



2. Western Villas, Colney Hatch Park, N. 



SEA- BREACHES. 

 (2 Dd S. viii. 468.) 

 I, too, have heard many wonderful stories of the 

 inroads of the sea in the neighbourhoods referred 

 to by your correspondent (?). Among the rest 

 my boyish fancy was tickled with the story of a 

 Norfolk Curtius who was a very fat man, who 

 stopped a breach at its commencement by de- 

 liberately sitting down in it while others placed 

 sand-bags, faggots, &c, behind him ! Subsequent 

 inquiries have not confirmed this anecdote. The 

 first Act of Parliament I have found on the sub- 

 ject is Anno Vicesimo Septimo Elizabethan Re- 

 ginae, cap. xxiv. (1585). This recites an Act 

 2 & 3 Philip & Mary, for employing statute labour 

 on highways; states that such labour is not re- 

 quired in the neighbourhood of these banks, and 

 empowers the Justices of the Peace in the general 



