133 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book III. 



hunting- establishment, and a numerous stiite of court 

 officials, arrived in Newmarket, when his Majesty 

 knighted two gentlemen.'" The following day four 

 more knights were duly dubbed, and then the royal 

 party sallied forth to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. 

 The result is thus described in the parish register at 

 Fordham : "1604-5. Upon Wednesday, the 27 of 

 February, the high and mighty Prince James, by the 

 grace of God, King of Great Britain, Defender of the 

 Faith, &c., did hunt the hare, with his own hounds, in 

 the fields of Fordham, and did kill six near a place 

 called Buckland ; and did afterwards take his repast 

 in the field at a bush near the King's Park." Sir 

 Alan Percy,^^ writing from Newmarket, about this 

 date, to Sir Dudley Carleton,''^ mentions that the 

 court was " extremely occupied with field-sports." \ 

 Beyond these few facts no further particulars are 

 traceable touching the first sojourn of James I. to our 

 "little village." 



^° Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, son and 

 heir of William Somerset, the 3rd Earl, K.G., and Christian, 

 daughter of Edward North, Lord North of Kirtling, near 

 Newmarket, succeeded to the family honours and estates on 

 the death of his father, February 21, 1589. His lordship 

 married Elizabeth, daughter of Frances, Earl of Huntingdon, 

 by whom he had several children. In 1604 he was invested 

 with the order of the Garter, and on resigning his office of 

 Master of the Horse to James I., on January i, 1616, having 



* James I. made ninety-nine knights at Newmarket during his reign. 

 Their names are chronologically given at the end of Book IV. The 

 barons, earls, knights of the garter, etc., created at Newmarket, are 

 recorded [inter alia) in the text. 



t State Papers, Domestic, vol. 12, No. 93. 



