THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL JOHN OFFLEY, OF 

 MADELEY MANOR, IN THE COUNTY OF STAF- 

 FORD, ESQUIRE,* MY MOST HONOURED 

 FRIEND. 



SIR, I have made so ill use of your former favours, as by them 

 to be encouraged to entreat, that they may be enlarged to the 

 patronage and protection of this Book : and I have put on a 

 modest confidence, that I shall not be denied, because it is a 

 discourse of Fish and Fishing, which you know so well, and both 

 love and practise so much. 



You are assured, though there be ignorant men of another 

 belief, that Angling is an Art : and you know that Art better than 

 others ; l and that this is truth is demonstrated by the fruits of 



VARIATION.] 1 than any that I know. ist and zd edit. 



* Son and heir of Sir John Offley, of Madeley, in the county of Stafford, Knight, 

 and great-grandson of Sir Thomas Offley, who was Lord Mayor of London in 

 1557. Mr Offley, to whom this work is dedicated, succeeded his father in 1646, and was 

 twice married : first to Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Lidcott, of Mousley in Surrey; 

 ;md secondly, to Mary, daughter of Thomas Broughton, of Broughton in Staffordshire. 

 He died in 1658, leaving, by his second wife, John, who was thirteen years old in 1663 ; 

 Thomas, then aged twelve ; and Mary, who became the wife of Sir Willoughby Aston, 

 of Aston, in the county of Chester, Bart. John Offley, the eldest son, acquired Crew, 

 in Cheshire, in right of his wife, Ann, daughter and co-heiress of John Crew, of that 

 place, Esq., by whom he had, first, John ; second, Crew ; third, Mary, who married 

 Robert, Viscount Kilmorrey. John Offley, his son and heir, assumed the name of Crew, 

 and died in 1749, leaving John Crew, of Crew, Esq., his son and heir, who was living in 

 1751, three other sons, and three daughters. Crew Offley, of Wichner, in the county of 

 Stafford, the second son, married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Lawrence, of Chelsea; 

 and dying in 1739, left, by her, two sons, John Offley, of Wichner, in the county of 

 Stafford, living unmarried, and aged thirty-four, in 1751, and Lawrence Offley, who died 

 in 1749, unmarried. Records of the College of Arms, marked C 36 and 3 D 14. This 

 Dedication is not the only evidence of a personal acquaintance between the families of 

 Walton and Offley : a John Offley proved the will of Agnes Walton, of the parish of 

 Madeley, on the 22d of April 1573. 



