Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/22

 D&wm Notes and Queries. 7 standing his ill-health he figured more than once in the history of the County of Devon. He lived chiefly at Ford, which had been added to his vast estates by his marriage in 1648 with Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Waller, the famous Parliamentary general, of Ford, near Newton Abbot. His own Castle of Powderham, which had been garrisoned by the Royalists, had been attacked and taken by the Parliamentary Forces under Fairfax in 1646. Some years before this Charles I. had created him a Baronet, but the Patent was never taken out. No doubt he scorned the honour, as he was rightfully the Earl of Devon — the title being dormant until the claim was formally recognised, early in the last century. This letter shows that Sir William owned upwards of 35,000 acres in Ireland, and it is interesting to note that the quality of the land was equal to that which he possessed at Alphington. But he does not appear to have been satisfied with the rent his Irish acres brought him, and possibly wished he could have transported them bodily to Devonshire. Curiously enough his Devon estates were substantially increased by the capricious bequest of his notorious cousin Gertrude Fitz (the wife of four husbands), who, disinheriting her own daughters, left him all her pro- perty, including the park and Castle of Okehampton. Sir William was living at Ford when William, Prince of Orange, landed at Brixham in 1688, and we have Dr. Burnet's authority for the statement that he sent his son to bid the Prince welcome to Ford and to invite him to " lie at his house that evening." The bed on which the Prince slept is still shown at Ford. When the Prince of Orange became William HI., King of England, he offered Sir William a Barony. In 1689, ^^^ ^^^ of Shrewsbury wrote to him, by command of the King, as follows : — ** His Majesty hath of his own accord been pleased to design you to be a Baron of England and I do not question but it will be so much the more acceptable to you as it is owing to the King's immediate favour and the opinion of your deserts. It is left to you to choose your own title and as soon as I know it the warrant shall be prepared.*' But apparently the Barony was as much scorned as the Baronetcy had been earlier in his life. Sir William died in 1702, and was buried in Wolborough Church. 7r7,v