North parts thereabouts, and had great entertainments every where, (Master Gifford of Brightleigh excepted,) who absented himself from his house to save charges. (Dec. 23d.) At Southmolton, the Mayor feasted them all.

"(From Totness) Col. Hopton, on Dec. 22d, mustered his horse in the Marsh, and paid the soldiers 20s. a man, being about 1000, resident in the town: a greater number he hath lately entertained of journeymen tailors, shoemakers, and weavers, but wanteth horse for the present. Col. Ruthen is reported to have sent Sir Ralph Hopton a challenge to meet him upon Haldon, so many to so many, but I can hardly believe it, the rather for that Sir Ralph Hopton have drunk drink, and wished it might poison him, if he would not fight any man alive in this just quarrel of the king's, unto whom he would live or die.

*

"Baronet Seymour, and his lady, have left their house; Master

as most in this or any other county, and were most of them commanders in the king's army; not one of them left any issue." Besides Sir Hugh's brothers, however, there were, at this time, an Anthony Pollard, of Horwood, who died 1687, and a John Pollard, of Langley (1667).

The family of Hatch (or Hacche) was of North Aller, in the parish of Southmolton, and appears to have become extinct about 1750. They were of considerable consequence, and matched with the first families in the county-but I cannot trace the individual here mentioned, nor can I find the name among the composition papers.

Col. John Gifford, of Brightleigh, acted too conspicuous a part, both as a military man in these troubles, and also in his capacity of justice of the peace after the Restoration, to be despatched in a note on the mere incidental mention of his name. We shall recur to him hereafter.

* The "Baronet Seymour," here mentioned, was Sir Edward, son of Sir Edward Seymour, created Baronet in 1611, and grandson of Sir Edward, son (by his first marriage) and heir of the Protector Somerset, to whom the Castle and Lordship of Berry Pomeroy, with other great estates in Devonshire, descended; the dignity, and titles, of Duke of Somerset, Earl of Hertford, &c. with the immense possessions attached to those titles, having been, by special entail, settled on the Protector's male issue by his second marriage, and which, having been forfeited by his attainder, were partly restored in the person of William, Marquis of Hertford, the nobleman who has been already mentioned as Lord Lieutenant (for the King) of the Western Counties.

Sir Edward, the second baronet, was knight of the Shire for Devonshire in two of King James's Parliaments, and member for Totness in that which met on the 6th of Feb. 1625; on the dissolution of which he lived retired at his castle of Berry Pomeroy, which he made (says Risdon) "a stately house;" as sufficiently appears from its noble ruins at present existing. Here he died, in

Young and his family, and other gentlemen, their habitations; and dwell in Totness for more security of their persons. Exeter, St. Thomas, and other gaols, are full of prisoners, taken by the parliament forces between Ashburton and Buckfastleigh. Eight or nine horsemen were taken by Capt. Thomson, who had great treasure about them. Sir Ralph hearing thereof, sent two troops of horse, but too late. Nevertheless, they narrowly missed Captain Thomson, who swimmed with his horse over the river, and came to Capt.

1659, very much lamented," (according to the Peerage) "having, by an obliging temper, attracted the love of his country, and, by a prudent management, gained the character of a person of honour, conduct and experience."

His eldest son, also named Edward, who succeeded him, and became the third baronet, "was elected one of the knights for Devonshire, in the two last parliaments of King Charles, and, adhering to his sovereign in the times of the rebellion, had his house of Berry Castle plundered and burnt. He sat at Oxford, among those members the king convened in 1643; and, shewing a ready concurrence in the measures for supporting monarchy and episcopacy, endured many hardships, till such time as the constitution was restored, &c." He died, and was buried at Berry Pomeroy, in 1688. It is to him that the following extract applies, from the royalist composition

papers.

"Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, Esq.

"His delinquency, That he deserted the parliament, and took up arms, and was at Oxford; and it doth appear, as well by certificate of Sir William Waller, knight, as by several affidavits, that divers months before the 9th September last (1645) he expressed his intentions and desires to submit himself to the parliament, and to that end sent up his wife" (this lady was a daughter of Sir William Portman) "from Berry, about the beginning of November last, and had come up himself, but that divisions of the king's forces were then, and about two months before, quartered at his, said house, whence if he had come in person during that time, he must have left his house and all his goods to their mercy. And so within a third.” It further appears that he had taken the negative oath and covenant, in April, 1646; and his fine, after certain allowances, is fixed at the great sum of £3133.

Among the same papers we have found the following entry.

66

By a deposition (signed Robert Seymour, and others,) that the goods mentioned in duplicate, &c., taken and sold by Cornet Charleton, by order of the late committee, were not the goods of Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., but of Edward Seymour, Esq., or conveyed by him to Margaret, his sister, in part payment of her portion and that there was not, from 1642 to 1651, any goods of Sir Edward Seymour first sequestered and sold by the late committee, or their agents, neither any profits of real or personal estate taken and sold by way of sequestration. Also, whereas it is certified by the late

Clifford, of Chudleigh, and by that means he and his escaped their fury. (Dec. 24th.)

committee, that Sir Edward Seymour (with others) assisted Sir Edmund Fortescue (High Sheriff) at a Posse Comitatus at Modbury, and was there taken prisoner by the parliament forces, we do depose that the greatest part of the south division of the county was then under the power of the king's forces (except only Exeter, Plymouth, and Dartmouth,) and that the said Sir E. S., with others of the country, came thither upon summons of the said sheriff, and was taken by a party of horse that came out of Plymouth, but not then in arms, nor any hostile condition. And this we acknowledge, because we were there present, and observed his actions."

The lady of" Baronet Seymour," also mentioned in the text, was Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Killigrew, by whom, including his eldest son and successor, he had six sons and five daughters. The fourth son was named Robert, and was, probably, the person whose signature appears to the above deposition.

*

Anthony Clifford, of Borscombe, Co. Wilts, and King's Teignton, Co. Devon, who acquired Ugbrooke (the present seat of the family) by marriage with the daughter and heir of Sir Piers Courtenay, and who died in 1580, had five sons, of whom Henry (the eldest) inherited his paternal estates, and transmitted them to two generations, after which they passed by marriage to Hugh, the son of Sir Copleston Bampfylde.

Thomas, the third son of Anthony, was first a soldier, then entered into the Church, and took the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He married a daughter of Staplehill, of Bremble, and on him and his issue was settled his maternal estate of Ugbrooke. This Doctor Clifford is described by Prince as "an eminently pious and learned person," as may appear, were it not too tedious, from that large elegant Latin epigram, made in his praise by the celebrated poet Charles Fitzgeffry, beginning

Flosque, leposque virûm, proavitæ nobile germen
Stirpis, et heroæ laudis non degener hæres.

He died, according to the peerage, in 1634, and is reported (in a small volume in MS. in the British Museum, entitled "An Account of some Noble Families in Devonshire, and of some Members of the Parliament in the year 1640. By Samuel Somaster, 1694,) to have been "drowned in a duck-pond :" it is not added whether by design or accident, though the latter is most naturally to be inferred from so concise a mention of the circumstance.

His eldest son, Hugh Clifford (mistakenly called in the same MS. Thomas,) married Mary, daughter of Sir George Chudleigh, Bart., was a Colonel (according to Anthony Wood, though the fact is not borne out by Rushworth's catalogues,) in the king's army, on the expedition against the Scots in 1639, and died (according to the

("From Ermington and Modbury.

"Two hundred men and horse are here billetted, and the country have not received the worth of one penny towards their expences; and having complained to Sir Ralph Hopton, for their satisfaction and reward, he presseth the country with two hundred more.

"At Buckland, Mr. Grymes's house was pillaged, and himself and servants carried to Totness, and imprisoned, by command from Sir Ralph Hopton-Mr. Crocker,t of Lyneham, assaulted by Sir

peerage) in the latter end of the same year; but this last assertion is plainly a mistake; since his epitaph, in Chudleigh Church, attests his having lived twenty years after that period. It must be presumed that this inscription is correct; and, if so, it seems to follow that he was the "Captain Clifford" mentioned in the text; and his connexion with the Chudleigh family may sufficiently account for his house affording an asylum to a fugitive from the fury of the "Hoptonians."

This Colonel Hugh Clifford was the father of Thomas, the celebrated Lord Treasurer; who, being born in 1630, was, consequently, too young to have taken part in the Civil War, and could not, by possibility, be the "Captain Clifford" here mentioned.

It is needless therefore to speak, in this place, either of that distinguished nobleman, or his descendants, except to notice that the present noble possessor of Ugbrooke is the seventh lord in succession, though only in the fourth line of descent.

No name of a Clifford appears among the Royalist composition papers.

In the Royalist composition papers we find

"Symon Crymes, of Buckland Monachorum, Gent. His delinquency, that he was in actual arms against the parliament, and in Oxford at the time of the surrender, 24 June, 1646. He petitioned, 20 Dec. 1647; and his fine was set at £337. 10s., being for a moiety of his estate." A medical certificate annexed, represents him as "diseased man, from small pox, and other infirmities, since October, 1647."

a

This family were entitled, as grantees of the Abbey of Buckland, after the dissolution, to the manor, and other property, which had belonged to the Abbey. A great part of the estate was sold in 1620; and, in 1660, the manor itself was parted with. Crapstone (in the same parish,) which was their residence, was sold by the late Reverend Amos Crymes to John Elford, Esq., the present proprietor." Lysons, p. 84.

+ The family of Crocker is of the most undoubted antiquity, as appears by the old homely distich,

Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone,

When the Conqueror came, were at home.

"I have heard," says Prince," the present heir of the family, Courtenay Crocker, Esq., of Lineham (who hath been a traveller, and is a well-accomplished gentleman) say, that when he was in Saxony

Ralph Hopton's troopers-the beacons were fired, Captain Chidley raised the trained Tinners, and marched towards Lyneham. Farmer Westcocke slain, and others of the Tinners taken prisoners, with the loss of two of Sir Ralph Hopton's troopers. A Cornet of one troop was slain by Mr. Crocker's miller; four horse taken; Captain Arundel struck off his horse, gasping in the way for dead; taken by the Cavaliers, and brought to Berry Castle, at Baronet Seymour's; sorely wounded, if not dead.

"At Chagford, about twenty of Sir Ralph Hopton's troopers scoured the country, and did great robberies on the Moor side. Two taken, and sent to Exeter gaol; the rest still roving up and down, doing great mischief.

66

(From Brent) What with Capt. Tompkins's horse, and Sir Ralph Hopton's troopers, the town wanteth bread to feed on, and both parties have beggared that place. Mr. Forster, Mr. Carre, (the person) and others of the better sort, have fled to Exeter. Mr. Forster is gone to Sir Ralph Hopton, and made a Cornet, as reported.

he met some gentlemen of his name there; and that they gave the same coat of arms that he doth."

John Crocker, of Lineham, Esq. (the gentleman named above) was born in 1610; married, in 1657, Jane, daughter of Sir John, and sister of Sir Courteney, Pole, Barts, by whom he had issue the aforesaid Courtenay Crocker, by whose daughter, and heiress at law, the estate passed on to the family of Bulteel, its present proprietors. "There have been several other very eminent persons of this name and family, one, whom for his great loyalty to his prince, I may not pass over in silence, Sir Hugh Crocker, Knight, who, being a younger brother, was bred a merchant in the city of Exeter. God was pleased to bless him with great success a long while in that employment; insomuch, he was possessed, at one time, with no less than ten ships, entirely his own. He lived also in good reputation in the city, and was chosen mayor thereof, anno 1643, at what time K. Cha. I. of precious memory, came thither in pursuit of the Earl of Essex; whom, having overthrown, his majesty returned to Exeter again, where he was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood upon gentleman: a title which, how well soever deserved, he was not very ambitious of. For he was a person of great humility, as well as of great integrity, and eminent loyalty, always expressed to that best of princes, in the worst of times; for which, when rebellion became predominant, he suffered much, both in purse and person. His composition at Goldsmiths' hall cost him no less than £288., as it did, at the same time, his brother-in-law Sir John Colleton, of Exeter, Knight (whose sister he had married) £244. 10s."

this

This account is confirmed by the composition papers, which further inform us, that the worthy mayor's delinquency consisted in his being a Captain of trained bands in the city, and in arms at the time of its surrender.