Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/121

 ing and hoping to be employed in the following spring (Correspondence of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, i. 177); but he had no further chance, dying of gout in the stomach, 13 Dec. 1746.

Nothing in Lestock's official conduct or correspondence warrants the reputation for remarkable ability which is often assigned him, principally on the ground of the successful issue to which he brought his court-martial and his quarrel with Mathews (, Letters, i. 350). There are many indications of his being, in reality, a confused, puzzle-headed man, quite unable to clear himself in a difficult situation like that in which he was placed at the battle of Toulon.

Lestock married and had issue. The wife, Sarah, who died 12 Sept. 1744, described herself in her will, dated 4 Feb. 1741–2, as formerly of Chigwell Row in Essex, and now of Portsmouth (cf. Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vi. 287). A Richard Lestock, baptised at Chigwell, 14 July 1723 (, Environs, iv. 126), may thus probably have been her son. If so, he presumably died young. James Peers, who was promoted by Lestock, 26 Aug. 1732, to be captain of the Kingston at Jamaica, is spoken of as his son-in-law (Captain Windham to Lestock, 25 Aug. 1732); the promotion, however, was not confirmed; Peers did not get post rank till 1741 and died in November 1746. In Sarah's will no child is mentioned except Elizabeth, who proved the will 9 Jan. 1746–7. This daughter married James Peacock, a purser in the navy; had two sons, Lestock and James. Mrs. Lestock seems to have been on bad terms with her husband. Lestock in his will, dated 17 July 1746, left absolutely all his property to William Monke of London, apothecary, with the exception of 200l. to ‘my honoured friend Henry Fox, now secretary-at-war,’ to buy a memento. During Lestock's later years he is said to have been ‘under the shameful direction of a woman he carried with him,’ to whose evil influence the failure at Lorient is attributed (, Continuation of Rapin's History of England, ix. (of the continuation) 271). His portrait is in Holland House (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. vi. 452). 

L'ESTRANGE, HAMON (1605–1660), theologian and historian, baptised at Sedgeford, Norfolk, 29 Aug. 1605 (par. reg.), was second son of Sir Hamon L'Estrange, knt., of Hunstanton, Norfolk, and was brother of Sir Nicholas [q. v.] the first baronet, and of Sir Roger [q. v.] The father, great-grandson of Sir Nicholas le Strange [see under ], born in 1583, was knighted by James I at the Tower of London on 13 March 1603-4; was sheriff of Norfolk in 1609, and M.P. for the county in 1630; was royalist governor of Lynn in 1643, suffered much for his loyalty to the king, and died at Hunstanton 31 May 1654. Sir Hamon was author of a work (often erroneously attributed to his son) entitled 'Americans no Jews, or improbabilities that the Americans are of that Race,' London, 1651 (October 1651). On p, 72 the author, who is described as a knight on the title-page, says: 'About forty years I adventured for the discovery of the north-west passage,' and on p. 77, 'This short discourse of Taprobane I wrote many years since, as also a far longer one of Solomon's ophir.' This book was written in answer to 'Jews in America; or, Probabilities that the Americans are Jews,' by T. Thorowgood, B.D., 1650.

Hamon was admitted to Gray's Inn 12 Aug. 1617, but does not appear to have been called to the bar. his life was passed, according to his own assertion, 'in the vales of rural recess,' and was mainly devoted to theological study, in which he sought to reconcile his own Calvinistic sentiment with an hereditary reverence for the church of England. On the outbreak of the civil wars he made a careful and impartial study of the constitutional and religious questions in agitation, and resolved, like other members of his family, to throw in his lot with the king (see his Alliance, Pref.) He was accordingly soon sent for as a delinquent for affronting the parliamentary committee of the county of Norfolk (Commons' Journals, ii. 884). With his father and brother he was embroiled in the attempted delivery of Lynn to the royal forces (August 1643; Hist. MSS. Comm.6th Rep. p. 39, 7th Rep. p. 559), and he is also stated to have been at a little later period a colonel in the royal army (Clar. State Papers, No. 2188). In the preface to the 'Alliance' he speaks of having undergone an eight years' sequestration, apparently