Charles, Lord Stourton, fyc. 



(the subject of this Memoir), five other sons, and two daughters/Ursula 

 who married Edward Lord Clinton, and Dorothy who married Sir 

 Richard Brent. William Lord Stourton is stated in some pedigrees 

 (as in Sir R. 0. Hoare's) but not in Edmondson's and others, to 

 have married a second wife, Mistress Agnes Ryce, daughter of the 

 Countess of Bridgewater. Who these ladies were and whether 

 this was a real marriage or not, we shall have occasion to consider 

 at some length by and by. 



About the year 1541 William Lord Stourton purchased of Walter 

 Devereux Lord Ferrers all his lands in the co. of Somerset, and 

 among them Norton Ferrers in the parish of Kilmington which 

 adjoins the parish of Stourton. The Letter in which, with an old- 

 fashioned courtesy, Lord Ferrers takes leave of his family property 

 forms Document No. 17. 



William Lord Stourton being much employed towards the end 

 of his life in Henry the 8th's Expedition to France, left his 

 estates under the sole management of William Hartgill ; and died 

 about the month of October 1548. 



Charles Lord Stourton 7th Baron, his eldest son and heir by 

 Elizabeth Dudley, married Anne daughter of Edward Stanley 3rd 

 Earl of Derby. 



For the convenience of reference, a Tabular Pedigree is annexed 

 shewing a few generations of the Stourton Family and their con- 

 nexion with various persons whose names will occur in the course 

 of this memoir. 



The other dramatis personce were the Hartgills. This name, 

 in the person of Edward Hartgill, appears once in the list of Sheriffs 

 for co. Somerset A.D. 1479 : and twice in that for Wilts, A.D. 1477 

 and 1484. He was also M.P. for New Sarum : and is presumed to 

 have been ancestor of the feartgills of Kilmington, William the 

 father and John his son, to whom the present story refers. William 

 was a landed proprietor and is described as Esquire. Of his ante- 

 cedent history nothing is known, except that (as above-mentioned) 

 he acted for many years as Steward of the estates of William Lord 

 Stourton. The house in which he is said to have lived at Kilming- 

 ton, N.W. of the Church, was taken down long ago. There are 



