44 Report of Meetings for 1890. By Dr J. Hardy. 



first recorded owners, held the lands in drengage serjeantry* in 

 capite of the King, from the time of "King William Bastard," 

 for so the Conqueror is called in deeds, till the end of the reign 

 of Henry III., when the heir, Gilbert de Calveleya, whose father 

 and he had only recently gained emancipation from the old tenure, 

 and the honour of Knighthood, unable to redeem his debts, sold 

 Callaly and Yetlington to a Jew, who again disposed of it to the 

 family of Fitz-Eoger, Lord of Warkworth and numerous other 

 manors, who subsequently took the surname of Clavering from 

 their principal estate of that name in Essex. In later times the 

 Olaverings in their perplexity for complicity in the rising of 

 1715, found a friend in need, but no one interfered to rescue 

 the descendants of the men of the land, who have an equal claim 

 on our sympathy, from the fangs of the usurers. It has been a 

 well preserved inheritance, for Major Browne's family is only 

 the third possessor since 1066, during 800 years. The Oale- 

 wellees or Kalvaleghs holding by drengage, represented one of 

 the old Anglo-Saxon landowners of a secoudax-y rank, like their 

 neighbours the Eslingtous. Edward John Clavering, Esq., the 

 last of the male line of this branch, died in 1876, leaving 

 Augusta an only daughter, who was married to Sir Henry 

 Greorge Paston-Bedingfeld of Oxburgh, Norfolk. f The estate 

 was sold, 6th June 1877, to the present proprietor Alexander 

 Henry Browne, Esq., J. P., descended of an old Northumbrian 

 race. 



Within the mansion the rooms are richly furnished with old 

 carved fmmiture, bureaus, chests, chairs, and side-boards, and 

 decorated with statuaiy, old china, pictures, prints, Indian 

 swords, armour, and ornaments. Some of the hangings, etc. are 

 of the finest cashmere and Indian lace ; and the couches, etc. are 

 covered with flowered Indian silks. The tapestry representing 

 the conversion and martyrdom of St. Paul was wrought by 

 Belgian nuns. The pi*ecious consignment of antiques from 

 Kent, brought down expressly to show to the company, comprised 

 golden lunate ornaments from the East, "the round tires like 

 the moon" of the prophet Isaiah ; silver scarabs from Egypt ; 



* By -Dren;7a(/e according- to Testa de JSTevill, p. 389 ; hy Thenaye accord- 

 ing to p. 393. The services required are those of Drengage. 



t It is nnderstood that a History of the Clavering family is being pre- 

 pared under the direction of Sir Henry A. Clavering, Bart., of Axwell 

 Park, the last of the Clavering family in the male line. 



