18 THE MO BEL MERCHANT 



testimonies as to his age at his death. " His mother appears to hare 

 been married again '' very soon after her husband's death, to Thomas 

 Berkeley, of Coberley, "^ in this County, by whom she had a second 

 family, her eldest son by the second marriage becoming High Sheriff 

 for this County, an honor which his father had also enjoyed. There 

 is another circumstance which is well worthy of notice. I find that 

 shortly before the death of William Whittington (Richard's father) 

 he was outlawed'' by the king, and died during his outlawry. I cannot 

 find the cause of this heavy sentence, but whatever it was, the estate 

 would necessarily have to pay a heavy fine for the inlawry again of the 

 family. This circumstance, together with the jointure charged to his 

 widow upon the Pauntley estate, would leave but a small fortune to the 

 eldest son, to say nothing of the younger ones. Eichard, then, having 

 lost his father, and perhaps not being kindly treated by his elder 

 brothers, (for though one of them, viz. Robert, left a family, we do not 

 find that our hero bequeathed any of his vast riches to his nephew), 

 and finding, perhaps, but an uncomfortable home in the family of 

 strangers into which his mother had married, he determined with his 

 very small patrimony to seek his own fortune. Gloucester would 

 have been too near his own estranged family, midway as it was 

 between Pauntley and Coberley. To London, therefore, he would go. 



first and fourth, Azure ; second and third, Ermine. In Pauntley Church, first 

 and fourth, Azure ; second and third, Argent. In Gloucester Cathedral, first and 

 fourth, Azure ; second and third, Argent. 



a It also hears out the age of Elstrack's portrait, supposing the original to 

 have been painted within a year or two of his death. 



b Calcnd. Inquis. post mort. vol. 4. p. 454. " Thomas de Cobbcrlcye filius et 

 hseres Johannae qute fuit uxor Willclme de "Whityngton defuncti." Probatio 

 Eetatis. Glouc. 



Dame Joan "Whittington held the estate at Pauntley* as her jointure from her 

 fiSt' husband, and died possessed of it in 1373-4. She also held Stoke Orchard, 

 in Cleeve parish, as jointure from her 'sotioW husband. It appears she outlived 



both.t 



c The monument of Thomas Berkeley is still to be seen in Coberley or Cubberley 

 Church, and also that of a female figure, probably his wife, Whittington' s mother. 

 d Calendarium Inquis. post mortem. Edw. III. 



* Parliamentary "Writs, 

 t Atkyns' History of Gloucestershire, under Cleeve. 



