16 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBOENE 



at Rogate, Sussex, Anne, daughter and heiress of 

 Mrs. Holt, of East Harting, Sussex, the widow of 

 the Rev. Thomas Holt, Rector of Streatham, Surrey. 

 Mrs. Holt was daughter and heiress of Benjamin 

 Hyde (or Hide), of Chichester, Esquire, a Russia 

 merchant; whose father, Benjamin Hyde, in return 

 for some kindness shown to King Charles I. 

 when a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle, received 

 from the King his ribbon of the order of the 

 Garter. ^ 



Benjamin Hyde, jun., Mrs. Holt's father, had 

 married Anne Ford, daughter of the second son of 

 Sir William Ford of Winchester, t who brought him 

 property at East Harting, which descended to Mrs. 

 Holt. 



Upon his marriage with Miss Holt, John White 

 retired from London and the Bar, where his 

 practice had not become considerable. 



It seems probable that he was at first without a 

 fixed residence, for in the summer of the year 



• The ribbon, which is still in the possession of a member of the White 

 family, is enclosed in a paper inscribed, "This is the original George ribbon 

 of King Charles L, and given to Mr. Benjamin Hide, when the King was 

 a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, and kept in memory of that good 

 King." Mr. Hyde was certainly not "governor of Carisbrook Castle" as 

 stated by Mr. Bell (vol. i. p. xxii.); but probably, as a shipowner, was 

 a party to one of the abortive attempts to escape to France planned for 

 the King. 



t The Ford family was of some note in Hampshire and Sussex. Anne 

 Ford's uncle, Sir Edward Ford of Up Park, Harting, had a daughter 

 Catherine, who, marrying Ralph Grey, Arm., became the mother of Lord 

 Grey of Werke, created Viscount Glendale and Earl of Tankerville by 

 William III. A Lord Tankerville purchased property at Harting, inherited 

 through Anne Ford, of John White of Selborne, and his wife. 



