102 



The Wiltshire Compounders. 



u The humble petition of Mary, Countess of Marlborough— sheweth, that her 

 son, the Earl of Marlborough that now is, hath been out of the kingdom these 

 four years past, leaving behind his only sister, the Lady Elizabeth Ley, pos- 

 sessed of all that small estate he had, known as Teffont Ewyas, of the yearly 

 value of £200 and odd. It pleased God to take away by death the said Lady 

 Elizabeth three years ago ; since which time the estate has been sequestered, the 

 dwelling-house defaced, and the trees cut down. Your petitioner being the 

 distressed mother of the said Earl, thinks herself bound to appear in his behalf, 

 and to endeavour to preserve (if by your honour and humanity she may) the 

 small remainder of the estate, by compounding for it. Your petitioner prays 

 that order may be given to stop the cutting down of the trees ; there being an 

 evident intention to sell all that is left." [1648 ?] 



What amount, if any, Lady Marlborough had to pay in her son's 

 name, I have not ascertained. Eventually, as stated above, she 

 married Colonel William Wancklyn, M.P. for Westbury, and seems 

 to have resided in Hey wood House. Among the communion plate 

 at Westbury (Sir Richard Colt Hoare informs us) is a silver chalice 

 engraved thus : — " The gift of Colonel Wanklyn and Mary Countess 

 of Marlborough. 1671." Sir Richard adds that he had seen an 

 old lease dated 1666, by which Thomas Wancklyn, of Heywood, 

 conveys an estate on lives in the manor of Bratton. We may now 

 pass on to the closing scenes in the life of her son, the third Earl of 

 Marlborough. 



When the restoration of royalty occurred, the manifold adventures 

 through which he passed at sea had already won for him the repu- 

 tation of an able navigator and a mathematician. Everything 

 marked him out as a public servant whom the restored monarch 

 would be delighted to honour ; and accordingly he was at once 

 constituted Lord Admiral of all His Majesty's ships at Dartmouth 

 and parts adjacent. On the breaking out of the Dutch War he 

 hoisted his flag on board the Old James, and he fell in the first 

 action in which he was engaged, 3rd June, 1665. This is soon told; 

 but it is connected with another fact of deathless interest, an event 

 which, while it sheds a serene radiance over his closing days, requires 

 no further comment or explanation than is conveyed in the following 

 outspoken letter, written to an old associate in arms shortly before 

 his own death : — 



" James, Sari of Marlborough, to Sir Uucjli Pollard, from on board 

 the Old James, near the coast of Holland, 24ith April, 1655. 



