MR. THOMAS BOOTHBY 41 



Park they lived from about the year 1 64S. The Boothby 

 family would appear to have been more or less addicted 

 to racing, for under date 1st November 1672, five 

 years before Mr. Thomas Boothby was born, is the 

 entry in Isham's diary: 1 "Nov. 1672. — We heard that 

 Mr. Bainbridge had won ^5 at Harleston Races on 

 the race between Mr. Hanbury and Mr. Boothby, 

 and Saunders won ^3. They also said that Boothby 

 challenged Hanbury to run him for ^100." Mr. 

 Boothby the master of hounds married a Miss Scrim- 

 shire or Scrymshire, a lady possessed of a considerable 

 amount of property, and took her name in addition to 

 his own. His son, who predeceased him, had a son, 

 and daughter, Anne. The latter married, as his second 

 wife, Mr. Hugo Meynell, who succeeded Mr. Boothby 

 in the mastership of the hounds. The Gentleman s 

 Magazine for August 1752 records Mr. Boothby's death 

 in these words : " Thomas Boothby, of Tooley Park, 

 Esquire, Leicestershire, one of the greatest sportsmen 

 in Enoland." 



The Boothbys were a very old family, and Mrs. 

 Boothby, an elegant woman, was likewise sprung from 

 an ancient stock, for Mr. J. Cradock, jun., in his 

 " Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs," published in 

 1828, wrote that, before he went to the jubilee of 

 George III., Mrs. Boothby, of Tooley Park, requested 

 him to obtain any information as to " her family of the 

 Cloptons who were connected with Shakespeare." This 

 Mrs. Boothby was a lady not only of commanding 

 presence, but of much celebrity during the later years 

 of George II. and the beginning of the reign of George 

 III., and at that time, as Lord Denbigh declared, she 

 " disposed of more preferment in the county of Leicester 

 amongst her friends than any other person whatever." 



Fielding, the novelist, was closely connected with 



1 " History of Newmarket," by J. P. Hore, vol. iii. p. 126. 



