1600.] DONCASTER. 



95 



1591— jLine 7, 1592; and 2ndly, Sir George Shcrly, Bart., 

 ancestor of the Earls Ferrers. 



'^^ Sir William Courtenay, Knight, only son and heir 

 of Sir William Courtenay and Elizabeth, daughter of John 

 Powlet, Marquis of Winchester, succeeded his father, who was 

 killed at the storming of St. Quintin, in 1557. This notable 

 Turfite was High Sheriff of Devonshire in 1581, and four 

 years later became one of the undertakers to send over 

 settlers for the better planting of Ireland, and thus laid the 

 foundation of the prodigious estates in that kingdom which 

 his descendants until recently enjoyed. Sir William married 

 Elizabeth, daughter of Henry, Earl of Rutland, and, dying 

 in 1630, was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Francis 

 Courtenay, Esq., of Powderham Castle, county Devon. 



-^ Sir Matiiew Arundell, of Wardour — son of Sir 

 Thomas Arundell and Margaret, daughter and co-heir of 

 Lord Edmund Howard, third son of Thomas, Duke of Nor- 

 folk, and sister of Catherine, fifth wife of Henry VHI. — 

 married Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, Knight, 

 of Wollaton, county Nottingham. Sir Matthew died in 1598, 

 and was succeeded by his elder son, created Baron Arundell 

 of Wardour, May 4, 1605. 



'■^^ Of this gentleman we know nothing beyond the fact 

 of his being a member of the Privy Council and a patron 

 of the Turf in those days. 



" The commencement of horse-racing at Doncaster 

 may be ascribed to the sixteenth century ; there cer- 

 tainly was a race-course In 1600, for on the Doncaster. 

 2ncl of May of that year an order v^^as made ^^^' 

 by the Corporation, ' That whereas Hugh Wyrrall, 

 gentleman, had caused a stoope to be sett on Doncaster 

 More at the west end of the horse race, yt Mr. Maior, 



