332 



The Wiltshire Cow pound era. 



other brother, Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, that King Charles at 

 this crisis conferred a baronetcy on him, dated 15th June, 1611. 

 It is from this latter branch that the present possessors of Longleat 

 are derived. 



Domestic disagreement did not in this case, as it did in many 

 other families, issue in political estrangement, for both the brothers 

 were now embarked in the Royal cause. They fell also simul- 

 taneously under the power of the Parliament. Sir Henry Frederick 

 Thynne was made prisoner at Shrewsbury in September, 1645, and 

 being sent for up to London to make composition, his fine was 

 declared at £5160, to which he stoutly demurred ; of which more 

 hereafter. His residence was Cawse Castle, in Shropshire, in which 

 county his estate principally lay, though he had also large property 

 in Wiltshire and the neighbourhood of Frome ; and here he had 

 entirely to relinquish the valuable rectories of Kempsford, Buckland, 

 and Laverton into the hands of trustees for augmentation of minis- 

 ters' stipends. But first of all it seemed imperative that the dower 

 of " Dame Katharine Thynne " should be confirmed and assigned, 

 covering, as it did, a third part of the old rents, manors, and lands 

 in Wilts and Somerset, derived from her late husband, Sir Thomas 

 Thynne, besides a claim on the other two thirds in execution by 

 elegit for satisfaction of £3411, damages recovered by judgment at 

 law for so much sustained while her dower was detained. The case 

 was accordingly submitted to Mr. Bradshaw; consequent on whose 

 report it was — " Ordered that the committee by whom the said lands 

 are sequestered on Sir James Thynne's account shall permit her and 

 her assigns to enjoy her dower recovered, and also the extended 

 lands, according to the report, from the time of the delivery of the 

 said lands into her possession by the sheriffs, notwithstanding the 

 sequestration aforesaid."" Signed John Wilde. 



Thus matters stood for three years, the fines remaining unpaid, 

 till the death of Lady Thynne, in 1650, soon after which event Sir 

 Henry caused to be read in the House of Commons a paper entitled 

 " The true state of Sir Henry Frederick Thy line's case " — showing 

 that in the year 1646 his fine both for his real and personal estate 

 was by mistake set at a sixth, whereas by his coming into the 



