14 



Longleat Papers, No, 3. 



X. — 154-2. Assassination of John Ponde, Somerset Herald 

 at Arms, near Dunbar. 



[In the year 1542, King" Henry VIII. sent a hostile expedition into 

 Scotland under the command of Thomas Howard, third Duke of 

 Norfolk, who was accompanied by the Earl of Shrewsbury, and 

 Edw. Seymour, Earl of Hertford (afterwards Protector Somerset) 

 on whom Sir John Thynne was in attendance. The murder to 

 which the following letters relate is thus mentioned in Cooper's 

 Chronicle (p. 316.) :— 



" In this season an heralde of Englande, ridyng on the bordere side to doe a 

 message, was mette by certayne rebelles, which cruelly against all lawe of armes, 

 slew him in his coat arnmre. But they for this moste vengeable deede were sent 

 to the King the yere followyng, who worthyly executed them for that offence." 



The victim was John Ponde, Esq., of w T hom there is this account 

 in Noble's History of the College of Arms, p. 125 (1804) :— 



"John Ponde, Esq., Somerset Herald, went to the Interview between the 

 English and Trench Monarchs. Henry VIII. sent him into Scotland to deliver 

 a message to James V. He unfortunately fell beneath the stroke of an assassin 

 upon the borders of that Kingdom near Dunbar, in that skirmish * in which 

 Lord Bowes and his brother, Mr. Sadler, Sir John Witherington, Mr. Salisbury, 

 Mr. Heron, some of the Percys of Northumberland, Sir Ralph Ives, Mr. Brian 

 Latour and other captains of the Borders were taken prisoners. As this was in 

 open violation of peace and in defiance of all honour, Somerset being basely slain 

 in his tabard, Henry ' vowed to God, singularly, that he would have a revenge for 

 the same,' telling James that if he did not make reparation, ' he would put such 

 order to him as he had done to his father, having the self -same wand in keeping 

 that dang his father ; ' meaning the Duke of Norfolk who whilst Earl of Surrey, 

 had defeated and slain James IV. at Flodden. The Scottish monarch saw his 

 danger and felt the disgrace, which is allowed by historians to have greatly con- 

 tributed to bring on that complaint of which he died. The Scots fearing the 

 effect of a potent sovereign justly enraged delivered up Leech, bailiff of Lowth, 

 Edward Leech his brother, with a priest,f who were all executed at Tyburne as 

 traitors : the first, May 8, 1543 ; the other two June 12 following. Leech who 

 killed Somerset was an Englishman by birth having been one of the Lincolnshire 

 rebels. I presume he [Mr. Ponde] married a daughter of Wriothesley, York 

 Herald, who, surviving him, received a legacy of £40 from her brother Thomas, 

 Earl of Southampton, K.G., Chancellor of England." 



*The Longleat papers appear to say that the herald was not killed in any actual skirmish, but 

 was assaulted while riding on his journey on the King's highway. 



t This seems to be a mistake. The name of the third person was Presteman. 



