sporting ami Rural Records of the Cheveley Estate. 57 



and allowing of all playing cards to be made or imported into this Dixrox 

 Realm, which inhibicon that no cards shall be bought or sold before ' _^^_ " 



the same be first viewed, searched, and sealed by the said Sir I'laving Cards 

 Richard or his deputies, for the execution of w'*" office the Card- 

 makers have granted and secured to Sir Richard five shillings 

 upon every grosse of cards by them to be made. His Ma"" doth 

 grant the said ymposicon of five shillings upon every grosse of 

 cards to be imported into his Realm from beyond the seas, as well 

 in satisfaction of a debt of iSoo"- owing by his Ma''"' to Sir 

 Richard as arrears of an anuitie of 200'' , in consideracon of the 

 surrender of a grant to him made for his life by the late Queen for 

 the sole transporting of tynne out of this realm ; and there is 

 hereby reserved to his Ma"^ for the said imposicon of five shillings 

 200" per annum, payable during this grant." It further appears 

 that in August, 161 7, he received a grant of ;^20o a year for his 

 life and the life of Lady Margaret, his wife, " and the longest liver 

 of them," in consideration of having surrendered the debt of 

 ;^i8oo due to him by the late Queen, on account of his grant for 

 the sole right of extorting tin, with a proviso that upon payment of 

 ;^iooo to Sir Richard and his ladv, the King could annul this 

 grant. 



Sir Richard's brother, Thomas Coningsby, was an adherent Thomas 



of Charles I. during the Civil War. Early in 1643 he was arrested Conmgshv. 

 bv the Parliamentarians while endeavouring to execute a com- 

 mission of array. He was imprisoned in the Tower for five years. 

 About this time he made a re-settlement of his estate, which gave 

 rise to ruinous litigation. In 1652 his widow, Henry, his son, and 

 Thomas, his second son, petitioned the Committee of Sequestra- 

 tion, in which they pleaded that by an indenture dated i8th 

 September, 4 Charles I. (1628), Thomas Coningsby, the father, for 

 considerations therein expressed, did covenant, permise, and grant 

 the manor of Ditton Valence, in Woodditton, co. Cambridge, for 

 the use of himself for life, and after his death to the use of 

 Thomas, his second son. Thomas, the father, died October 7, 



