1 64 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book HI. 



ancestors when Domesday Book was compiled, was the 

 natural son of Sir Richard Egerton, of Ridley, in the same 

 county, by a young woman named Alice Sparke, He was born 

 in 1540, and having been brought up to the bar, attained the 

 highest honours of his profession, and filled, during the reign 

 of Queen Elizabeth, successively the offices of Solicitor and 

 Attorney General, Master of the Rolls, and Lord Keeper of 

 the Great Seal. Upon the accession of James I., Egerton was 

 appointed Lord High Chancellor of England, and elevated 

 to the peerage July 21, 1603, as Baron of Ellesmere, in the 

 county of Salop, and further advanced November 7, 16 16, to the 

 dignity of Viscount Brackley, which the wits of Westminster 

 Hall, who objected to his interference with the judgments of 

 the Common Law Courts, converted into Viscount Break-law. 

 During the intervals of his laborious avocations his chief 

 relaxation was in the sports of the field, and several noble 

 clients gave him licence to " hunt and kill " in their parks 

 and manors. James I., who appears to have regarded him 

 with great affection, is said to have parted from him with 

 tears of gratitude and respect, and to have signified his in- 

 tention to raise him to an earldom. Though death prevented 

 the Lord Chancellor from receiving this last mark of his 

 sovereign's favour, little more than two months elapsed before 

 his Majesty proved his sincerity by creating the heir Earl of 

 Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, on May 27, 161 7. This title 

 was changed into a dukedom in 1720, but both have since 

 become extinct. The earldom, however, was revived in 1840, 

 in the grand-nephew of the last duke, about which time the 

 great Bridgewater estates devolved, after much litigation, on 

 the Earl of Brownlow. 



To Thomas Childe, Marshall Farryer vpon two bookes 

 signed by the Lorde Chamberleyne for allowance of Mar- 

 shallrye done in the Hobbye stable, the Coursers stable, and 

 Carrayadge stable from Christmas 161 1 to Christmas 161 2. 

 Q-ii ^s j^d_ * — Wardrobe Ace. Treas. of the Chamber. John 



* These were annual charges slightly varying in amounts. 



