The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West Part 18

At the death of Lord Cheney, his property devolved to his nephew and heir, Sir Thomas Cheney, son of his brother Sir William Cheney.

The scene of our little history now s.h.i.+fts from the broad chalk downs of south Wilts, to the kindred chalk measures of south-west Bedfords.h.i.+re, and for a short time intermediately to northern Kent, the original seat of the family of Cheney.

Sir Thomas Cheney, nephew and heir of John, Lord Cheney, K.G., married first Frideswide, daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Frowyke, knt., Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. By her he had three daughters: Catherine married to Thomas Kemp, Esq., of Glendich, Kent; Frances, to Nicholas Crips, Esq., son and heir of Sir Henry Crips, knt.; Anne, to Sir John Perrot, knt.; and Margaret, to George Nevill, Lord Abergavenny. (Burke.)

Secondly, he married Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Broughton, knight, of Toddington, Bedfords.h.i.+re, by his wife Mary daughter and heiress of Thomas Peyvre, lord of the manor of Toddington, by whom he acquired the estate. By her he had one son Henry (afterward Lord Cheney), his successor.

Sir Thomas is described as having been "a person of great gallantry and note in the reign of Henry VIII., accompanied that monarch to the field of the Cloth of Gold, where he was one of the challengers against all gentlemen, who were to exercise feats of arms on horseback or on foot for thirty days."

He was created by Henry VIII. Knight of the Garter, Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Treasurer of the Household. Upon the death of Edward VI., he espoused the interests of Queen Mary, and was called to the Privy Council by Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her reign, which same year he died, 1558-9, and was buried at Minster in Kent.

Hasted (_History of Kent_) has the following notice of this Knight,--

"Sir Thomas Cheney was a man of great account in his time; 7 Henry VII., he was Sheriff of this county, and served in Parliament for it 6 Edward VI., and 1, 2, and 5, Queen Mary. He was elected a Knight of the Garter in the reign of Henry VIII., by whom he was appointed Constable of Queenborough Castle, Governor of Rochester, Warden of the Five Ports, and Treasurer of the Household, in which office he continued in the next reign of K. Edward VI., of whose Privy Council he was one, and at his death, espousing the cause of Queen Mary, he was again made Warden of the Five Ports. Queen Elizabeth continued him Treasurer of her Household, and made him of her Privy Council. He resided at Shurland, the mansion of which he had new built, with great hospitality and sumptuous housekeeping, till the time of his death, which happened in the Tower on Dec. 8, in the first year of that reign, and was buried with great pomp and magnificence in a small chapel adjoining the parish church of Minster in the Isle of Sheppey. He had been twice married, first to Fridwith, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Frowike, Lord Chief Justice of England, by whom he had issue one son John, married to Margaret, daughter of George Nevill, Lord Abergavenny, and three daughters at length his coheirs, Katherine married to Sir Thomas Kempe, knt., Frances to Nicholas Crispe, Esq., and Anne to Sir John Perrott, knt. His second wife was Anne daughter and coheir of Sir John Broughton of Toddington, in the county of Bedford, knt., by whom he had an only son Henry, who became his heir.

"He was buried in great state in a chapel which had been the Conventual church, adjoining to the north-east part of the parish church of Minster, but his son Henry, Lord Cheney, having on 22 October, 1581, anno 24 Elizabeth, obtained a license to remove the coffins and bones of his father and ancestors from thence, he having sold the materials of the said chapel to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and placed them in the parish church, the coffin of his father was, among others removed, and deposited in the north chancel of it where a handsome monument was erected over him."

Sir Henry Cheney, knt., his only son and heir, was of Toddington. He married Jane, daughter of Thomas Wentworth of Nettlested, Suffolk, created Baron Wentworth in 1529, and Lord Chamberlain of the Household to Edward VI.; by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Andrew Fortescue, knt.

Sir Henry was created by Queen Elizabeth BARON CHENEY OF TODDINGTON, by Writ of Summons dated 6 May, 1572, and had summons to Parliament from 8 May, 1572, to 15 October, 1586.

Hasted, speaking of this n.o.bleman and his Kentish possessions, narrates,--

"Henry Cheney, Esqr., succeeded his father at Shurland, among his other Estates in this County, and in the third year of Queen Elizabeth he had livery of it with the rest of his inheritance; in the fifth year of it, he kept his Shrievalty for this County at his seat, in which year he was knighted, in the fourteenth year of that reign he was created Lord Cheney of Toddington in the County of Bedford. By his expensive method of living he acquired the name of "_the extravagant Lord Cheney_," and before his death had dissipated the great possessions which his father had left him and died without issue 30 Elizabeth, anno 1587.

However, long before his death, having removed to Toddington, where he had built a most magnificent seat, he exchanged the manor and seat of Shurland, with other estates in the neighbourhood of it, with the Queen, and the fee of it remained in the hands of the Crown, till King James I., in his second year granted it to Philip Herbert, younger brother of William, Earl of Pembroke, who the next year was created Lord Herbert of Shurland, and Earl of Montgomery. Sir Thomas Cheney--his father--seems to have had some foreknowledge of his son's future extravagance, for by his last will he devised his lands and manors to his son Henry and the heirs of his body, remainder to Thomas Cheney of Woodley, Esqr., and to the heirs male of his body, upon condition, that he or they or any of them should not alien or discontinue.

"Henry, Lord Cheney was possessed of much land in this parish, which with all the rest of his estates, through his profuse manner of living he was obliged to alienate from time to time.

"The Cheneys bore for their arms, _Argent, on a bend sable, three mullets or_, which coat on their marrying the heiress of Shurland, they bore in the second place. But the Lord Cheney bore his own coat in the first place, and that of Shurland second, and afterwards those of Shottesbroke, Broughton, Beard, Foster, Pevre, Loring, Beaple, Blaine, Manseck, Perrott, Hemgrave, Stonham, Burgat, Barneck, Neame, Engaine, Dawbney, Denston, and Wanston. For his supporters, _Two Thoyes vert, spotted gules and or, collared and chained or_. Sir Thomas Cheney bore for his crest, _on a wreath argent and vert, two horns of a bull argent on the curled scalp or_;--but the Lord Cheney changed it to '_a Thoye pa.s.sant, collared with a ducal collar or_. Arms of Shurland, _Azure, five lions rampant argent, a canton ermine_, which arms are on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral.'"

Lord Cheney was one of the peers who sat on the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. He died without issue in 1587, leaving the whole of his remaining property to his widow. He erected a magnificent seat at Toddington, concerning which Lysons adds,--

"Lord Cheney built a n.o.ble mansion at Toddington, about half a mile from the church, of which nothing now remains but the kitchen, which is remarkably s.p.a.cious, having two fireplaces, each twelve feet in width, and a few rooms fitted up as a farm house. The greater part of the building was pulled down by the Earl of Strafford about the year 1745. It appears by an antient plan of the house (in 1802 on a fire-screen at the farm) that it occupied four sides of a quadrangle, at each corner of which was a turret; the north and south fronts were two hundred and ten feet in length, the chapel was thirty feet by twenty-four, the tennis court was sixty-five feet in length, and a marble gallery, fifty-eight."

Thus this fine edifice shared the fate of its predecessor erected by the Peyvres, from whom, through Broughton who married their heiress, Lord Cheney inherited the manor of Toddington, by marrying the heiress of Broughton.

From the dismantled earthly home of the extinct Cheneys to the final one appointed for all, is but the natural sequence of this world's history of human life. The olden possessors of Toddington, successively Peyvre, Broughton, and Cheney, are all gathered together in death, in the south transept of the church. Of them, and the fate of their memorials, a few words.

The Peyvres were an antient family, holding the manor of Toddington, as early as the reign of Henry III. Paulinus Peyvre, Steward of the Household to Henry III., was, says Lysons,--

"a man of mean origin, and when he went to Court, was not possessed of two carucates of land; but by means lawful and unlawful, (as Matthew Paris observes) acquired such wealth, that he soon became possessed of five hundred carucates; a most insatiable purchaser of lands (says the historian) and a most incomparable builder. Not to speak of those in other places, his house at Toddington was like a palace, with a chapel, chambers, and other buildings, covered with lead, which raised the admiration of all beholders. His workmen are said to have received a hundred s.h.i.+llings, and more than ten marks for their wages."

So much for the grandeur of Paulinus Peyvre's mansion, and then the same authority significantly adds,--

"The site of this n.o.ble mansion is not known. Near the church at Toddington is a mount called Conger Hill, which seems to have been the keep of a castellated mansion, and there are considerable earthworks near it. This might have been the site of Sir Paulinus Peyvre's mansion. This favourite of fortune died in 1251."

Thus perished the mansion of the Peyvres, and it is curious to reflect, a like fate awaited the n.o.ble building erected by their successors the Cheneys. It was Mary, daughter of Thomas Peyvre, sixth in descent from Sir Paulinus, that brought the property to her husband Sir John Broughton, and his daughter and coheir Anne to Sir Thomas Cheney.

The Peyvres are buried in the south transept of Toddington church, which was antiently a Chantry, as there is a piscina in the south-east corner.

Continuing his description, Lysons (writing in 1806) thus speaks of the then shameful condition of the transepts and monuments of this fine old church,--

"In the south transept are some antient monuments of the Peyvres as appears by their arms: one of them was a crusader. In the same transept are monuments of Anne, wife of Sir Thomas Cheney, K.G.--1561,--Henry Lord Cheney, 1587,--and his widow, Jane Lady Cheney, 1614. On each of these were the effigies of the deceased, now much mutilated lying on the ground, mingled with the broken ornaments of the tombs, and the dung of birds and bats. The north transept which was the burial place of the Wentworths is not in a much better condition. The costly monument of Henrietta, Lady Wentworth, the Duke of Monmouth's mistress, who died in 1686, on which her mother who survived her ten years, directed the large sum of two thousand pounds to be expended, and another monument which appears to have been no less costly in memory of Lady Maria Wentworth, who died at the premature age of eighteen, in 1632, are in a state little better than those of the Cheneys. The windows of the aisle being without gla.s.s, and the roof much decayed, they are daily receiving much injury, by being exposed, to the ravages of the weather, and the depredations of children."

Notwithstanding the damage the Cheney monuments have sustained through this miserable neglect (they were buried in the same transept) the interesting memorials of the Peyvres have not suffered quite so badly.

There are three effigies to them, and the indents on some bra.s.sless stones in the floor. One figure is a crusader, he is considerably mutilated, was originally a very fine example, on his s.h.i.+eld are sculptured the arms of Peyvre,--_On a chevron, three fleurs-de-lys_.

Under monumental arches in the south wall are, singly, two well-preserved and most interesting effigies. The knight in chain and plate armour, with bascinet. He wears a rich baudrick, and his surcoat is embroidered with the arms of Peyvre. A lion is at his feet, and angels support the head, holding with one hand an inscribed label which pa.s.ses across the neck of the effigy under the chin, an unusual arrangement. The lady is in long robes, with rich reticulated head-dress. These figures being sheltered by the arches over them, have not suffered so much by exposure to the weather as did the unprotected effigies of the Cheneys.

It should be mentioned that the transepts have of late for a long period been roofed and restored, and the remains of the monuments carefully got together and looked after.

Sir Thomas Cheney, K.G., who married Anne Broughton of Toddington, appears to have been buried as before mentioned in Minster church, in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where he held the manor of Shurland, as descendant of that family.

In Minster church, says Weever,--

"I saw some antique monuments of the _Shurlands_, sometime lords of the mannor of Shurland, hereunto adioyning: of whom the inhabitants have many strange relations. Sir _Robert Shurland_ flourished in the raigne of King _Edward_ the first."

He then gives the following inscription,--

HIC IACET DOMINUS THOMAS CHEYNE INc.l.i.tISSIMI ORDINIS GARTERIJ MILES: GUARDIa.n.u.s QUINQUE PORTUUM, AC THESAURARIUS HOSPITIJ, HENRICI OCTAVI, AC EDWARDI s.e.xTI, REGUM: REGINaeQUE MARIae, AC ELIZABETHae, AC EORUM IN SECRETIS CONSILIARIUS, QUI OBIJT ...

MENSIS DECEMBRIS: ANN. DOM. M.D.LIX. AC REG. REGINae ELISAB.

PRIMO.

and continues,--

"This Sir _Thomas Cheyne_ was also Constable of Queene-Borough Castle, a strong fortresse in this Isle, pleasant for sight, built by King _Edward_ the third; to the terrour of his enemies, and solace of his people; unto which he adioyned a Burgh, and in honour of _Philip_ the Queene his wife, called it Queene-Borough, or as one would say the Queenes Burgh. This hath been an office ever thought worthy of many great personages."

Among these "great personages" three of the Cheneys followed each other as Constables,--Sir William, as thirteenth; Sir Francis, as fourteenth; and Sir Thomas aforesaid, as fifteenth, in their succession.

The three effigies of the Cheneys in the south transept, formerly a Chantry of Toddington church, are ranged facing the east wall, on the site of the antient altar. The remaining portions of the tombs have been built together to the shape of the originals, as near as may be, and the mutilated figures laid on them.

The first of the series from the south wall is Dame Anne Cheney, wife of Sir Thomas Cheney, K.G., buried at Minster, and daughter of Sir John Broughton. She survived her husband two years, and was buried at Toddington.

The effigy, of white stone, is greatly denuded,--she wears a close-fitting cap, small ruff, long gown b.u.t.toned down in front, collar edged with fur, full sleeves puffed and slashed at the shoulders. The head rests on two embroidered cus.h.i.+ons, the hands are raised in prayer.

Underneath, on each side are three panels, in one is a crest, apparently _a squirrel sejant cracking a nut_ (BROUGHTON?)--the others have blank matrices of s.h.i.+elds, surrounded by scroll-work. The bra.s.s s.h.i.+elds which originally covered them are gone.

Around the cornice of the tomb is this inscription,--

HERE LYETH DAME ANNE CHEYNE DAVGHTER AND HEYRE OF S^R. JOHN BROVGHTON KNIGHT MARRYED TO S^R. THOMAS CHEYNE KNIGHT L^O. WARDEN OF THE CINQ PORTES TREASOROR OF HER MAIESTIES HOVSHOLD OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER AND ONE OF HER MAIESTIES PRIVIE COVNSELL WHO HAD BVT ONE ONLY CHYLDE THE SAME BEING THE LORD HENRY CHEYNE AND SHE DYED THE 16 DAIE OF MAIE THE THYRD YEARE OF Q ELIZABETH HER RAIGNE ANNO D'NI 1561.

On the panel at the end of the tomb is an escutcheon with these arms,--Quarterly of fifteen:--1. _A chevron between three mullets_ (BROUGHTON).--2. _Three moor's heads._--3. _A chevron between three bird-bolts._--4. _On a chevron, three fleurs-de-lys_ (PEYVRE).--5.

_Quarterly, over all a bend._--6. _Quarterly per fess indented._--7.

_A bend vaire between six escallops._--8. _A saltire engrailed._--9.

_On a cross, five escallops._--10. _Paly of six._--11. _A barnacle._--12. _A fess dancette between six cross-crosslets._--13. _A cross engrailed._--14. _Two lions pa.s.sant guardant._--15. _On a chevron, a fleur-de-lys._

The next tomb in the succession is that of Sir Henry Cheney, son of the foregoing, created Baron Cheney of Toddington, 6 May, 1572.[29]

[29] "SR HENRY CHEYNY, now LORDE CHEYNY, called by wrytte to the Parlement holden at Westmr. anno ... (knighted by the Queen's own hand 1563.) Arms, quarterly of seventeen:--1. _Azure, six lioncels rampant, three and three, argent, a canton ermine_ (CHENEY).--2. _Ermine, on the dexter side of a chief, per pale indented or and gules, a rose of the last._--3. _Argent, a chevron between three mullets gules._--4. _Argent, three blackamoors' faces sable._--5. _Sable, a chevron ermine, between three bird-bolts argent._--6. _Argent, on a chevron gules, three fleurs-de-lys or_ (PEYVRE).--7. _Quarterly argent and gules, a bend of the second._--8. _Quarterly per fess indented or and azure._--9. _Gules, a bend vaire, between six escallops or._--10.