Derbyshire Monuments to the Family of Foljambe32
By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
All that can be attempted in this article is to give an outline account of the succession of the family of Foljambe during the six centuries that they were numbered among the chief landowners of Derbyshire, with more particular reference to their burial and tombs in the three churches of Tideswell, Bakewell and Chesterfield.
The Foljambe family were connected with Tideswell and Wormhill from very early times. One of them was enfeoffed as a forester of fee (that is an hereditary forester) by William Peverel in the days of the Conqueror. William Foljambe, who was probably his grandson, died in 1172. Thomas Foljambe, of Tideswell, is mentioned in 1208, and again in 1214, when he was a knight. He had three sons, whose names appear as witnesses to various charters between 1224 and 1244; John and Roger are described as being of Tideswell, and Thomas of Little Hucklow. John died in 1249.
Sir Thomas Foljambe, son of the above-mentioned John, was of Tideswell and Wormhill; he was living throughout the reign of Henry III., and for the first ten years of Edward I. He was also of some position in Yorkshire, for in 1253–4 he was seized of a knight’s fee in the Wapentake of Osgoldown; in 1282 he had the manor of Tideswell from Richard Daniel. He died on the Saturday next after the feast of St. Hilary in 1283. One of his brothers, Henry Foljambe, was bailiff of Tideswell in 1288.
It matters but little what class of old records connected with North Derbyshire is studied, the name of Foljambe is certain to occur in important matters, and usually with some frequency. Some serious attention has lately, for the first time, been given to the history of the Peak Forest (Victoria County History of Derby, i., 397–425), though the mass of documents relative to its administration yet awaits thorough study. In these records members of the family are continuously mentioned. Thus, at the Forest Pleas of 1251, the heaviest vert or “greenhue” fine (damage to or illicit appropriation of timber) was that of twenty marks imposed on Roger Foljambe for a variety of transgressions; and his two pledges for future observance of the forest assize were John Foljambe and Walter Coterell. At these Pleas, too, Thomas Foljambe was returned by the jury as one of the foresters of fee for the Campana division of the Peak Forest. The next Forest Pleas were not held until 1285. The rolls of the successive bailiffs or stewards of the forest since the last session were produced, from which it appeared that Thomas Foljambe had been bailiff for the year 1277, and again in 1281. In the latter year he was also constable of Peak Castle; his total official receipts for that twelvemonth amounted to the then great sum of £260.
Sir Thomas Foljambe was succeeded by his eldest son, another Sir Thomas Foljambe, of Tideswell, who was a knight of the shire for the county of Derby in 1297, and died in the following year. He was succeeded by his son, yet another Sir Thomas Foljambe, of Tideswell; he represented his county in Parliament in 1302, 1304–5, 1309, and from 1311 to 1314. He was one of those Derbyshire knights who in 1301 were summoned to the muster at Berwick-on-Tweed to do military service against the Scots. He died in 1323, and was succeeded by a fourth Sir Thomas Foljambe, who married the heiress of the family of Darley in the Dale, and so acquired considerable estates in that neighbourhood, which passed to his younger son, Sir Godfrey.
There is interesting information with regard to the Foljambes in the rolls of the Forest Pleas of 1285, from which it appears that the family at that date held two of the hereditary foresterships of the Peak.
The Campana foresters of fee of that period were John Daniel; Thomas le Archer; Thomas, son of Thomas Foljambe, a minor in the custody of Thomas de Gretton; Nicholas Foljambe, who had been a minor in the custody of Henry de Medue, but was then of full age; and Adam Gomfrey. Of these foresters, Adam Gomfrey and Thomas Foljambe held jointly the same bovate, which had formerly been divided between two brothers. Also Thomas Foljambe and John le Wolfhunte held another bovate in the same way, John holding his half by hereditary descent, whilst Thomas Foljambe, senr., had acquired his half by marriage with Katherine, daughter of Hugh de Mirhand. This sub-division of serjeanties became burdensome to the district, as each forester of fee endeavoured to have a servant maintained at the expense of the tenants; but the jurors confirmed a decision of the Hundred Court of 1275 to the effect that there could be only four such servants or officers, according to ancient custom, for the Campana bailiwick.
The bovate of land held by Wolfhunte and Foljambe was a serjeanty assigned for taking of wolves in the forest. On the jurors being asked what were the duties pertaining to that service, the following was the highly interesting reply:—
“Each year, in March and September, they ought to go through the midst of the forest to set traps to take the wolves in the places where they had been found by the hounds: and if the scent was not good because of the upturned earth, then they should go at other times in the summer (as on St. Barnabas Day, 11 June,) when the wolves had whelps (catulos), to take and destroy them, but at no other times; and they might take with them a sworn servant to carry the traps (ingenia); they were to carry a bill-hook and spear, and hunting-knife at their belt, but neither bows nor arrows: and they were to have with them an unlawed mastiff trained to the work. All this they were to do at their own charges, but they had no other duties to discharge in the forest.”
Wolves abounded in Derbyshire to the end of the thirteenth century. They were troublesome in Duffield Forest as well as in the Peak. There are two highly significant entries on the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. as to the devastation then caused by wolves in this county. In 1160–1 25s. was paid to the forest wolf-hunters as an extra fee. So great was the value set on the skill and experience of the Peak wolf-trappers, that Henry II. in 1167–8 paid 10s. for the travelling expenses of two of them to cross the seas to take wolves in Normandy. The accounts of Gervase de Bernake, bailiff of the Peak for 1255–6, make mention of a colt strangled by a wolf in Edale, and of two sheep killed by wolves in another part of the district.
Reverting to the descent of the eldest line of the Foljambes of Tideswell, John Foljambe succeeded his father, the last named Sir Thomas Foljambe, in 1323. This John Foljambe had a younger brother, Thomas, who had two sons, John and Thomas, of Elton, both of whom appear to have died childless. John Foljambe entailed the family estates in 1350, and a second entail was made in 1372, whereby on the extinction of the male descendants of the elder line, the estates of Tideswell and Wormhill passed to the younger branch of the family.
The oldest known burial-place of the Derbyshire Foljambes was in the chancel of the church of Tideswell. To be buried in such a place is a sure proof of the importance of the family in that district, for such a privilege would not have been granted by the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, as rectors, except to those of considerable distinction. This privilege must have been granted at an early date, long before the present beautiful fourteenth century chancel was erected. The family settled in this parish soon after the Conquest, and John Foljambe, who died in 1249, aged seventy-one, desired to be buried in the chancel of the church at Tideswell with his forefathers. This burial-place was used by the senior branch of the Foljambes until the time of its extinction in the male line by the death of Roger Foljambe in 1448. In the early part of the fourteenth century there were three Foljambe brasses with effigies extant in this chancel, but they have long since disappeared. They respectively commemorated (1) Sir Thomas Foljambe, who died in 1283, aged seventy-six, and Margaret, his wife, daughter of William de Gernon; (2) Sir Thomas Foljambe, who died in 1298, aged sixty-eight, and Catherine, his wife, daughter of William Eyre; and (3) Sir Thomas Foljambe, who died in 1323, aged sixty-seven, and Alice, his wife, daughter and heiress of Gerard de Furnival.
Thomas Foljambe, son of Sir Thomas Foljambe III., married twice. By Aveline, his first wife, he had a son, John, from whom the elder branch at Tideswell were descended. By Alice, daughter and heiress of Darley, of Darley, he had a son Godfrey, the founder of the Bakewell chantry. This John Foljambe, who married Joan, daughter of Anker Frechville, died on August 4th, 1358, and was buried at Tideswell. John, like his half-brother Godfrey, was a chantry founder on a munificent scale. He assigned two hundred acres in Tideswell, Wormhill and Litton for the support of two chaplains, who were to say divine service at the altar of Our Lady in the church of Tideswell. In conjunction with this chantry a flourishing gild of brothers and sisters was established. The chantry was refounded on an extensive scale in the reign of Richard II.33
On the north side of the chancel, a floor-slab, bearing the matrix of the despoiled brass of the effigy of a man in armour with an inscription above his head, and another round the edge of the slab, long remained. One of the younger branch of the Foljambes, about 1675, desirous that the memory of this benefactor should not be forgotten, placed a small brass tablet across the breast of the former figure, which bore, in addition to a shield of the arms of Foljambe, the following inscription:—
“Tumulus Johanis filii Domini
Thomæ Foljambe qui obiit quarto
die Augusti Ano Domini millesimo
Trecentessimo quinquegesimo octavo
Qui multa bona fecit circa
fabricationem hujus ecclesiæ.”
In 1875, the late Earl of Liverpool caused this brass effigy of his ancestor to be restored. The inscription round the margin is simply a more classical rendering of that given above, with the addition of the date of its restoration. The old inscription has been transferred to another stone at the head of the brass. The fine east window of this chancel is due to the Earl’s munificence.
This is the only remaining assured instance of the once numerous memorials to the great Foljambe family with which this church must have at one time abounded. It was, however, Lord Liverpool’s opinion that the two stone effigies, both of ladies, in the north transept of the church—the one dating from the end of the thirteenth, and the other from the latter half of the fourteenth century—represented members of his family. In this he is supported by local tradition, but the question can probably never be settled. In the south transept are two effigies of later date to a knight and his lady on a table tomb. These have been claimed to represent Sir Thurston de Bower and his wife Margaret, who died about the close of the fourteenth century. This monument was considerably restored and renovated in 1873, and a marginal inscription added naming the effigies. It is, however, quite possible that Lord Liverpool’s conjecture as to these effigies also representing members of the Foljambe family is correct.34
Thomas, the elder of the two sons of John Foljambe, the benefactor to the church, died without issue in his father’s lifetime; John was succeeded by his younger son, Roger, who is mentioned in various charters of the reign of Richard II. His son and heir, James, died in Roger’s lifetime, but left a son, Edward Foljambe, who was at Tideswell, Wormhill, and Elton in 1416. He took part in the Battle of Agincourt, and was knighted, and dying about 1446–7, left two sons. These sons were: Roger, who succeeded him and died in 1448, leaving three daughters; and Thomas, who died shortly before his brother, without issue. Thereupon, the entailed estates of Tideswell, Wormhill, etc., came to Thomas, son and heir of Thomas, younger son of Sir Godfrey Foljambe, of Darley.
The Darley estates passed, as has been already mentioned, in the time of Edward III. to Sir Godfrey Foljambe, the younger son of Sir Thomas, of Tideswell. Sir Godfrey was a man of considerable repute; he acted as seneschal to John of Gaunt, and was for some years Constable of the Peak; he also represented Derbyshire in the Parliaments of 1339–40, 1363–4, and 1369–71. Sir Godfrey Foljambe, who held the old Gernon manor in Bakewell parish and much other property, died in 1376, at the age of 59. A remarkable monument of beautiful finish is to be seen in Bakewell Church, against one of the nave piers, to his memory, and that of his second wife, the co-founders of a chantry in this church.
Sir Godfrey and his wife are represented in half-length figures of alabaster, carved in high relief, beneath a double-crocketed canopy. The knight is represented in plate armour, and having on his head a conical helmet or bascinet, with a camail of mail attached to its lower edge. The lady wears the reticulated head-dress or cowl. Over the knight are the arms of Foljambe—sa., a bend between six escallops, or—the same being represented on his surcoat; over the lady are represented the arms of Ireland—gu., six fleurs-de-lis, arg., 3, 2, 1. The monument is complete as it stands without any inscription, but in 1803, Mr. Blore, the antiquary, placed here a slab of black marble with the following inscription in gilt letters: —
“Godefridus Foljambe miles et Avena un: ej. quæ postea cepit in virum Ricardum de Greene militem dno dnaque manerius de Hassop, Okebroke, Elton, Stanton, Darley-over-hall, et Lokhowe, cantariam hanc fundaverunt in honorem sanctæ Crucis ao. rr. Edri tertii xxxix + Godefrus ob: die Jovis pr: post fest: ascens. dni ao: regis pdci 1o obiitq Avena die Sabbi pr: p: nativ: b: Mariæ Virg: ao. rr. Ric. II vio.”
This may be translated: —
“Sir Godfrey Foljambe, Knight, and Avena his wife (who afterwards married Richard de Greene, Knight), Lord and Lady of the manors of Hassop, Ockbrook, Elton, Stanton, Darley-over-hall, and Locko, founded this chantry in honour of the Holy Cross, in the 39th year of the reign of King Edward III. Godfrey died on the first Thursday after the feast of the Ascension, in the 50th year of the aforesaid King, and Avena died on the first Saturday after the feast of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the 6th year of the reign of Richard II.”
At the bottom of this slab is the word “Watson,” which is in itself sufficient to stamp this inscription as of modern date; for the old monumental sculptors were never guilty of the offence of advertising themselves on the inscribed slabs that they erected. It has been stated that Mr. Blore obtained this inscription from a document in the British Museum where the original epitaph was quoted. This, however, is an impossibility, for a contemporary inscription could not possibly have contained the blunders of this supposed transcript. The date of the foundation of the chantry is wrong, and it was, moreover, founded by Sir Godfrey Foljambe in conjunction with his first wife Anne, and not with his second wife Avena. The family from which Anne, the first wife, came is not known, but his second wife, Avena, was the daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Ireland, of Hartshorne, by Avena, daughter and heiress of Sir Payn de Vilers, of Kinoulton and Newbold, Notts.
There has been much confusion as to the date of the founding of the chantry of the Holy Cross in Bakewell church—Lysons gives the date as 1365, whilst Glover assigns it to 1371; but the one has been deceived by an inquisition taken on the death of one of the chaplains or trustees of the chantry property, and the other by a confirmation deed of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The true date is 1344, as is proved by a variety of original documents now extant at the Public Record Office.35 There was a gild of some importance in connection with this well-endowed chantry. The ordinances to secure the regular attendance of the chaplain of this foundation were rigorous. He was to reside constantly in the chantry house which adjoined the churchyard. This house was only pulled down in the year 1820. He was never to be away from Bakewell for as much as three days without licence from the Lord of Hassop for the time being, and if the lord was not in residence, he was to obtain leave from the vicar of Bakewell. If the chaplain was ever away without licence for so long a time as fifteen days he was to be at once removed, and another chaplain was to be presented by the Lord of Hassop for institution by the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield.
The site of the chantry of the Holy Cross was at the east end of the south aisle. This interesting mural monument is placed against one of the piers between the south aisle and the nave. It is not quite certain whether this is the original position, but it has certainly been there for two and a half centuries; Ashmole, who visited the church in 1662, gives a rough draft of the memorial, which he describes as “set upon a pillar betweene the upper end of the south Isle and the body of the Church.” There was daily mass at the altar of the Holy Cross, and the chaplain was instructed, after the confiteor in each mass, to turn to the people and say in the mother tongue, “Pray for the soul of Sir Godfrey Foljambe and Anne his wife, and his children, and for the brethren of the Guild of the Holy Cross, and for all the faithful departed.”
This is the only Foljambe monument at Bakewell, but the following members of the family were probably buried in the parish church:—Alice (Darley), widow of Sir Thomas Foljambe; Sir Godfrey Foljambe, of the monument, and his two wives, Anne and Avena; three of the sons of Sir Godfrey by his second wife, Avena, viz., Sir Godfrey Foljambe II., Alvared, the fourth son, and Robert, the fifth son; Sir Godfrey Foljambe III., grandson of Sir Godfrey of the monument, who died in 1389; and Margaret, daughter of Sir Simon Leche, and wife of the last named Sir Godfrey.
Meanwhile, a younger branch of the family, founded by Thomas Foljambe, second son of the first Sir Godfrey, by Avena, his wife, settled at Walton, near Chesterfield, through the marriage of this Thomas with Margaret, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Loudham, of Walton. Sir John Loudham gained the Walton estate, in the parish of Chesterfield, by marriage with Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Bretton.
Thomas, son and heir of Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, and Margaret (Loudham), his wife, became heir male of the family in 1448, on the death, as has been already stated, of Roger Foljambe, of Tideswell. Though still landowners in that parish, the family ceased from that time to be residents at Tideswell; for in 1451, this Thomas, then aged forty, inherited further estates on the death of his uncle, and thenceforth the Derbyshire home of the family was at Walton. The Tideswell property was eventually sold by Sir Francis Foljambe, Bart., who died in 1640.
We now leave both Tideswell and Bakewell in the search for Foljambe monuments, and go to one of the south chapels of the great church of Chesterfield, which was the burial place of the family for more than two centuries. In this chapel of the south aisle of the quire, long known as the Foljambe chapel, there used to be a brass to Thomas Foljambe, who was the first of the family to acquire Walton. There were also brasses to his son, Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, who married Jane, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Ashton; and also to his son, a third Thomas Foljambe, who died childless in 1468. But these three brasses disappeared in the seventeenth century.
Among the Osberton muniments are letters testimonial from the commissary of the Bishop of Lichfield, dated 27th May, 1469, granting to Henry Foljambe, of Walton, and John Foljambe, administration of the goods of Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, deceased, in the estate, the same having been appraised by James Hyton, dean of Scarsdale, and others, and proclamations made at mass in Chesterfield church.
The oldest of the memorials now left is a finely wrought table or chest tomb (of the kind usually misnamed “altar-tomb”), which commemorates Henry Foljambe, brother and heir of the third Thomas Foljambe, of Walton, who married Benedicta, daughter of Sir Henry Vernon, of Haddon. On the sides of this tomb are many sculptured figures of squires and ladies under rich canopies, representing the seven sons and seven daughters of Henry and Benedicta. The names of these children were Godfrey, Thomas, Henry, Richard, John, Gilbert, Roger, Helen, Margaret, Joan, Mary, Benedicta, Elizabeth, and Anne. An agreement was entered into between the executors of Henry Foljambe, in conjunction with his widow and children, and Henry Harpur and William Moorecock, of Burton-on-Trent, “to make a tomb for Henry Foljambe, husband of Bennett, in St. Mary’s quire, in the church of All Hallows, in Chesterfield, and to make it as good as is the tomb of Sir Nicholas Montgomery at Colley, with eighteen images under the table, and the arms upon them, and the said Henry in copper and gilt upon the table of marble, with two arms at the head and two arms at the feet of the same, and the table of marble to be of a whole stone and all fair marble.” This agreement is dated 26th of October, 1510; £5 was paid in hand, and another £5 was to be paid when all was performed; it seems probable that this contract referred only to the stonework of the tomb. The brasses on the top of this table-tomb, consisting of the effigies of Henry and his lady, together with a marginal inscription brass, were for a long time missing, but were re-supplied by the late Lord Liverpool; the shields bear the arms of Foljambe, Vernon, Loudham, and Bretton.
Near to this table-tomb is a floor-slab bearing the brasses of a knight and his lady. This is the tomb of Sir Godfrey Foljambe IV., eldest son of the last-mentioned Henry, and his wife Catherine, daughter of Sir John Leeke, of Sutton-in-the-Dale.36 He was born at Walton on Easter Day, 1472. By his will, made in 1531, he desires:
“My carcass to be buried in the Chappell of Saint George, besides my lady my wife in Chesterfield... my funeral mass and dirge, with all other suffrages and obsequies to be done and ministered for my soul according as worship requires, after my degree, that my sword, helmet, with the crest upon the head, and my coat of arms be hanged over my tomb and there to remain for ever.”
The knight is depicted in plate armour, his head resting on his helmet and his feet on a stag; his surcoat bears the quartered arms of Foljambe, Loudham, and Bretton. The lady wears the low-pointed head-dress, with falling lappets, of the sixteenth century, and is clad in a long mantle, which bears the arms of Leeke; the gown is confined at the waist by a girdle, fastened with a clasp of three roses, and round the neck is a chain with a pendant cross. Sir Godfrey died in 1541, and his wife in 1529. This Sir Godfrey was thrice high sheriff of the county, namely, in 1519, 1524, and 1536.
Against the east wall of the Foljambe chapel is an elaborate mural monument to Sir James Foljambe, the eldest son of the fourth Sir Godfrey, who died in 1558. This monument was erected by his grandson, and is a costly and elaborate example of the fashion of mural monuments that then prevailed. Bateman, the Derbyshire antiquary of last century, wrote of it as a specimen of “cumbrous style and horrible taste.” But although it clashes with its Gothic surroundings, it is quite possible to admire the beauty and workmanship of some of the component parts. The kneeling figures of Sir James, his two wives and thirteen children, are all represented. This Sir James Foljambe enjoyed a plentiful fortune from his father, but had it much augmented through marriage. His first wife was Alice, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Fitzwilliam, of Aldwark,37 who was slain at Flodden Field, 1515; she brought him considerable landed property at Aldwark, and in other parts of Yorkshire. By her he had issue, Godfrey, George and James, twins, and three daughters, Frances, Cecily, and Mary. Sir James’ second wife was Constance, daughter of Sir Edward Littleton; by her he had issue, a son Francis, two other sons, and four daughters. The Latin epitaph, composed by Sir James’ grandson, is expressed in grandiloquent terms. Sir James is therein described, according to a translation by Lord Liverpool, as “a man highly adorned by piety, by the integrity of his manners, by the heraldic bearing of his ancestors, and by his own virtues.” By inquisition taken at Chesterfield after his death, it was found that he died seized of 40 messuages, 7 watermills, 200 acres of meadow, and £5 rents in Brampton, half the manor in Bremington, the manors of Elton and Tideswell, as well as a great variety of lands, messuages, and rents in more than a score of other townships in Derbyshire.
His eldest son, Godfrey, was twenty-four at the time of his father’s death. He was subsequently knighted, and died in 1585. He married Troth, daughter of William Tyrwhitt, of Kettleby. The table-tomb to the fifth Sir Godfrey and his wife bears their recumbent effigies in alabaster. Sir Godfrey wears a double collar ruff, and ruffles round the wrists; he is clad in the plate armour of the period, and is bare-headed; the head rests on the helmet, whilst a lion supports the feet. The lady is in ruff and mantle, her head on a cushion and a dog at her feet. Round the margin of the tomb are twenty shields, bearing the various Foljambe alliances, whilst at the foot is a shield of all these Foljambe quarterings impaling Tyrwhitt, whose arms are three tirwhits or lapwings. An elaborate Latin epitaph appears on a mural slab above the altar-tomb. Sir Godfrey is there described as “highly adorned by his innocence, his integrity, his faith, his religion, and his hospitality.”
Against the south wall of this chapel is the table-tomb and monument of Godfrey Foljambe, the only son of Sir Godfrey Foljambe V., who erected the elaborate monuments to his parents and grandparents. He also erected the monument to himself during his lifetime. He died in 1594; but the sculptor placed on the margin the true date of the execution of the work, which was 1592. The sculptured work round this tomb is a beautifully modelled example of renaissance carving, and has been considered worthy of special illustration in Mr. Gotch’s recent important work, Early Renaissance Architecture in England.
On the floor near by there is a large alabaster slab bearing the incised effigy of a man in armour, with a much mutilated marginal inscription. It appears, from church notes of the eighteenth century, that this is the monument of George Foljambe, of Brimington, who died in 1588; he was the second son of Sir James Foljambe. In this chapel there is also to be seen the exceptional kneeling figure of a knight in plate armour, which is described and engraved in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1794. It has undergone various mutilations and restorations. There is some difficulty in deciding whom this monument is intended to represent; but it seems probable that it was erected to the memory of Sir Thomas Foljambe, who was buried at Chesterfield in 1604. He was the son of Francis Foljambe, the eldest son of Sir James, by his second wife; he was succeeded by his brother Francis, who was created baronet in 1622.
One of the most painful features of the troubles of the Elizabethan recusants, or adherents to the unreformed faith, who were numerous in this county, was the deliberate way in which family feuds were promoted, and the bribe of inheriting forfeited estates held out to conforming relations who would give information as to recusancy.38
Among the Talbot papers at the College of Arms is a letter from Francis Leeke to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated February 2nd, 1587, wherein he states:—
“I was this day at Tupton where I found the Lady Constance Foljamb. I did impart to the Lady Foljambe my comitione to comitte her to the chardge of my cousin Foljamb. Her answer was that she was by age, and the sikeness of the stone, not abell to travell either on horseback or on foot, and so desired me to let your Lordshipp understand: whereuppon she yet remeenethe at Tupton till your Lordshippe’s pleasure be further knowne.”
The Earl answers that her commitment is necessary, and on February 16th of the same year, receives a letter from Godfrey Foljambe stating that he had apprehended “the Lady Constance Foljambe, my grandmother, and now have her in my custodie, whom, by God’s help, I shall safely keep.” The zeal of the conforming grandson was not altogether disinterested, for when he set her at liberty, twenty months later, by order of the Council, he retained for his own benefit “her living, goods, and chattels.” On September 22nd, 1589, the Lady Constance wrote to the Earl thanking him for her release. From another source comes an interesting evidence of the endeavours of the aged lady, within a few days of her release, to conform sufficiently so as to escape renewed custody at the hands of her grasping grandson. In the common place book of Roger Columbell, of Darley Hall, occurs this note:
“Mem. Godfrey Foljambe of More Hall, myself, my brother Blunt were at Tupton in the Lady Constance Foljambe’s house, the 28th September, 1589, when all the morning prayers, saving the ij. lessons omitted for want of a byble & the collect for the daye, for want of skyll to find it out, was distinctley read with the Latinne also by Nicholas Harding; her man-servant, & Elianor Harrington, hir waytinge woman beinge present, who reverently and obediently behaved themselves during all the service tyme, as we aforenamed with Edward Bradshawe, John Browne, and John Hawson, are to witness whensoever we shall be called by other or otherwyse as by a byll under our hand according to my sade cousen Foljambe of More Hall appeareth.”
Sir Francis Foljambe, Bart., sold Walton Manor House and the Derbyshire estate to Sir Arthur Ingram in 1633. From that time Aldwark became the chief residence of the family. Sir Francis died, leaving no male issue, in 1640, and the representation of his family devolved on his third cousin, Peter Foljambe, who was able to prove his descent and claim to the family estates. He lived at Steveton, one of the inherited estates in the parish of Sherborn, Yorkshire, and died in 1668. It is from the Foljambes of Aldwark and Steveton that Cecil George Savile Foljambe, Baron Hawkesbury 1893, Viscount Hawkesbury and Earl of Liverpool 1905, who died in 1907, was descended.