By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



281 



By Sir Griffith Ryce she had the daughter Agnes, named in the 

 Will above. 



It has been frequently stated that Agnes Ryce was the second 

 wife of William Lord Stourton. Collins (Peerage), Sir R. 0. Hoare 

 and others (simply copying Collins) represent her as such, 

 and as having had no issue by him. But Sir Harris Nicolas, (in 

 Testamenta Yetusta, p. 729,) observes that " from the manner in 

 which she is described in the Will as < Mistress (i.e. Miss) Ann 

 Rhese,' she could not have been his wife at the date of the Will 

 8th September 1548 " (only a few days before his death) ; and he 

 adds that "unless Lord Stourton had married the Countess of 

 Bridgewater, and the said Mistress Anne Rhese was the Countess's 

 daughter by her first husband Sir Griffith Rhese E.G., the inference 

 to be drawn from William Lord Stourton's bequest to, and des- 

 cription of her, tends to raise a suspicion by no means favourable 

 to Agnes Ryce's memory. William Lord Stourton, the Testator, 

 died shortly after the date of the Codicil to his Will, and it con- 

 sequently may be concluded that M ris . Agnes Ryce never became 

 his wife. Whether the Countess of Bridgewater was the second 

 wife of William Lord Stourton has not been positively ascertained." 



This last supposition appears to be groundless and may be 

 dismissed : but what Sir H. Nicolas says about the maiden name 

 is to a certain extent corroborated by the fact that the same name 

 is found upon another occasion where her married name, had she 

 been married, might naturally have been looked for. After Wil- 

 liam Lord Stourton's death Agnes became the wife of Sir Edward 

 Baynton of Rowdon near Chippenham : yet in the Baynton pedi- 

 gree she is not called Lady Stourton, widow, but merely, as in the 

 Will above M ri \ Agnes Ryce. This however, though unusual, is 

 not conclusive ; nor is the way to any conclusion yet quite clear. 

 For it has been lately discovered that Agnes Ryce, during her own 

 life-time, produced witnessed in the Court of Chancery to depose 

 to the fact that she was married to William Lord Stourton. 



She had by him a daughter who, by the name of Mary Stourton, 

 was afterwards married to Richard Gore of Alderton co. Wilts. 

 Now it happened that the great-grandson of Richard Gore and 



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