58 Sporti)!g and Rural Records of the Cheveley Estate. 



DlTTON 



Valence, 



Lord 

 Coningsby 



Cheveley 



Charles 



Se}'mour, 



Sixth Duke 



Somerset. 



1652, when the manor came to the petitioner, but was sequestrated 

 for his deHnquency. On November 10 the claim of Thomas and 

 Henry Coningsby was allowed, and sequestration discharged, with 

 arrears, from the date of the petition. Six days afterwards 

 Speaker Lenthall reported his opinion on the case, when the 

 claims of the petitioners were admitted. This Thomas, when a 

 lad, was surreptitiously married to Barbara, daughter of Ferdinando 

 Gorges, of Eye, a merchant from Barbadoes, who contrived to 

 possess himself of some of the Coningsby estates. The misdeeds 

 of Gorges vi'ere productive of ruinous loss to his son-in-law, from 

 which he could never extricate himself. He was created Baron 

 Coningsby, of Clanbrassil, co. Armagh Ireland, April 1 7, 1693, 

 and was elevated to the peerage of Great Britain by George I., 

 June 18, 1 715, as Baron Coningsby, of Coningsby, co. Lincoln. 

 He was an ardent supporter of the revolution of 1688. When 

 William III. went to Ireland Lord Coningsby was with him, and 

 when the King was wounded, at the battle of the Boyne, he was at 

 his Sovereign's side. He was \'ice-Treasurer and Paymaster of 

 the Forces in Ireland. In the latter years of his life he was involved 

 in continual trouble and overwhelmed in innumerable lawsuits. 

 Owing to complicated settlements it is almost impossible to say 

 off hand to what member of the family the manor of Ditton 

 Valence really belonged at the time of Lord Coningsby's death, 

 which occurred in 1729, when his title became extinct. At any 

 rate, we know beyond dispute the manor of Ditton \'alence was 

 bought of Roger and Mary Coningsby in i 736, by Charles Duke 

 of Somerset. 



Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, youngest son of 

 Charles, second Lord Seymour of Towbridge (ob. 1665), and 

 fourth son by his father's second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of 

 °f William Alington, first Lord Alington, who was lord of the 

 manors of Newmarket and Horseheath. The father was the 

 eldest son and heir of Francis, first Lord Seymour, younger 

 brother of \\'illiam, second Duke of Somerset. Charles's elder 



