280 



Charles, Lord Stourton, 8fc. 



Under his father's Will, of which Charles Stourton was Executor, 

 all the plate, jewels, debts and other valuable personalty were given 

 to one " Mistress Agnes Ryce." To this person, so favoured, may 

 probably be attributed much of the trouble in which he afterwards 

 became involved. He was indignant at the position in which the 

 Will, if carried out, would have placed him : he accordingly re- 

 nounced the executorship, and obtained administration as of the 

 goods of an intestate, intending thereby to defeat the bequest to 

 Agnes Ryce. As this grievance forms a new and material feature 

 in his history, it is necessary to enquire into her's. 



Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk (who died 1524) had 

 by his second wife Agnes Tylney several children, and among 

 them a daughter Lady Katharine Howard, being his seventh child. 

 About this Lady Katharine little seems to be known. Edmondson 

 in his pedigrees of Howard strangely omits the whole of this 

 second family, except the eldest son Lord William Howard (named 

 above as one of the Overseers of William Lord Stourton's Will) 

 afterwards (1554) created Baron Howard of Effingham. In the 

 rare and valuable folio vol. called "Indications of Memorials, 

 Monuments, Paintings, &c. a of Persons of the Howard family, 

 by Henry Howard Esq. of Corby Castle 1834," 1 nothing is said 

 about this Lady Katharine Howard, except that authorities are 

 not quite agreed as to which was her first and which her second 

 husband. But it is generally received, that she married 1st, Sir 

 Griffith Rhese or Ryce K.GK, (sometimes called Rhese ap Thomas) : 

 and 2ndly, Henry Daubeney, Earl of Bridgewater who died without 

 issue in 1548. Hence her title of " Countess of Bridgewater." 

 She appears to have been residing for some years at this period at 

 Stourton Caundel in Dorsetshire, one of the Stourton Estates. 2 



1 A copy of tbis work, being the Presentation copy from its author to Louis 

 Philippe, King of the French, is now in the Library of Sir John Neeld, Bart., 

 at Grittleton House. 



2 In a MS. account of Wm. Lord Stourton' s Rents is the following entry. 

 " Cow-hire. For the rent of mylch-kyne letten to my Ladie Bridgewater at 

 Caundel at vis. viiid. the cowe, xls." It will be recollected that it was to this 

 house Charles Lord Stourton went from London, just before he appointed the 

 Hartgills to meet him at Kilmington. See above p. 248. 



