Comwainicaieil by Mr. James Waylen. 



325 



sum appearing and certified to be in surplusage of the rents and 

 profits arising out of the two-thirds aforesaid, since he submitted to 

 compound, be paid back forthwith to Lord Stourton." 



Sharington Talbot, of Salwarp, in Worcestershire, and after- 

 wards of Laycock, in Wilts, Esq. Soon after the dissolution of the 

 monasteries Laycock Abbey was granted to Sir William Sharington. 

 Aubrey records a tradition that he had been Henry the Eighth's 

 tailor, which Canon Jackson discredits altogether, asserting that, 

 though Sir William had an evil reputation for clipping and shearing, 

 the art was practised, not on the King's broad cloth, but on his coin. 

 It is known that he was implicated in Sir Thomas Seymour's revolt 

 against his brother, the Protector, in furtherance of which he was 

 charged with having forged £10,000 at the Bristol mint. All that 

 need be added here respecting him is, that, dying without children, 

 he was succeded at Laycock by his brother, Sir Henry Sharington. 

 Sir Henry's heirs were two daughters, Grace, wife of Sir Anthony 

 Mildmay, of Apethorpe, whose daughter married Francis Fane, first 

 Earl of Westmoreland, already noticed among the Wilts com- 

 pounders ; the other daughter, Olivia, who married John Talbot, of 

 Salwarp, the romantic young lady who is traditionally said to have 

 leaped from the battlements of Laycock Abbey into her lover's arms, 

 and to have well-nigh killed him by the action. She long outlived 

 this devoted husband, and also a second husband, Sir Robert 

 Stapylton, of My ton, near Boroughb ridge ; and eventually returned 

 to pass her second widowhood among the beautiful scenery of her 



, nativity. Here she maintained in old-fashioned style the honours 

 of what was called " good housekeeping " ; and the hospitalities of 

 Lady Olivia Stapylton long made Laycock Abbey a favourite 



1 stopping-place for Royalty and gentry during the western " Pro- 

 gresses " of Elizabeth and James's time. Her portrait is still 



| preserved there. Sharington Talbot, the compounder, to whom we 



, must now revert, is Lady Olivia's grandson. 



Mr. Talbot, in conjunction with his son, of the same name, was 



' early in arms for the King, and a prominent agent in putting in 

 execution the Royal commission of array, for which the Parliament 



