Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/139

 ii s. x. AUG. is, MM.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

133

the Hon. Gerald Valerian Wellesley, D.D. should lay out the money in. lands, manors, and tenements. In obedience to the direc- tions of this Act, the Duke became possessed of the lordship of the manor of Wellington Borough with hereditary rights. The above explains, to some extent, the connexion oi the Duke of Wellington with this town since 1813, but it throws no light on the reasons which led him, in 1809, to select Wellington for his title. The Duke visited the town in 1814, and was publicly received. The family of the Duke of Wellington had close associations with Somerset long before Wellington Manor was purchased for the gallant Duke. The surname of this eminent family was originally Cowley or Colley. The first to be mentioned was Walter Cowley, who was an English gentleman sent to Ireland in the time of Henry VII., in the political service. From that period the family was closely associated with Ireland. One of them married a Wellesley of Dangan, co. Meath, a branch of the Wellesley family of Welleslej-, Somerset, a place about one and a half miles from the city of Wells. This family is said to have had connexion with the cider county as early as 1261. The father oSrthe great Duke of Wellington was Garret Wellesley, first Earl of Morning- ton, and when his son Richard came to the peerage he was created Baron Wellesley of Wellesley, county Somerset. The Iron Duke was knighted before he went to Spain. Sub- sequently he was created Baron Douro of Wellesley, and there is, perhaps, nothing surprising about the fact that, when the Act was passed giving certain trustees the right to purchase land on his behalf, this par- ticular estate being in the market at the time, the Duke should have chosen it, seeing that it was not far removed from Wellesley, which had been associated with his family from the very earliest days. The Duke of Wellington has thus a closer association with the West of England than is, perhaps, generally known.

It may be interesting to mention that it was on 5 Sept., 1815, that, at a meet- ing which was held at "The White Hart Inn," Wellington, it was decided to per- petuate the memory of the Duke of Welling- ton by erecting a monument at the highest point of Blackdown, which formed part of the estate of the Duke. The foundation stone was laid on 26 Oct., 1817, but the structure was, in a large measure, rebuilt on a more worthy scale in 1860.

\V. G. WILLIS WATSON. Exeter.

The subject of the connexion of the Duke of Wellington with the town of Wellington in Somersetshire has been dis- cussed at various times. The most authori- tative statement is one which in 1891 the present Duke of Wellington authorized his secretary, Mr. George Coxon, to make to a correspondent, and I believe that it em- bodies in brief all that can be said with certainty upon the subject. It is as follows :

"Richard Colley, 1st Baron Mornington," the Duke's grandfather, succeeded to the Wellesley estates, and assumed the name and arms iu 1728. It is not improbable, therefore, that the Duke, when looking about for a title, should go to the county and neighbourhood of the family property."

This memorandum was printed in The Somerset County Gazette, 11 July, 1891, Further correspondence appeared also in the same paper both in 1890 and 1891.

The inhabitants of the town of Wellington are very proud of the association of the great Duke with the place. Travellers by the Great Western route to Exeter notice, soon after leaving Taunton, a stone pillar pro- minently placed upon the Blackdown range, overlooking the town of Wellington. This- monument was erected to commemorate the victories of the Duke, and to mark his con- nexion with the town from which he took his title.

In 53 George III. an Act was passed entitled

" An Act for granting a sum of money for purchasing an estate for the Marquess of Welling- ton, in consideration of the eminent and signal services performed by the said Marquess of Wellington to His Majesty and the public."

It was enacted that a sum not exceeding 100,OOOJ. should be paid out of the Con- solidated Fund, and that certain trustees should lay out the money on manors, lands,. &c. These trustees were Charles Abbott (the Speaker), Bobert Banks, Earl of Liverpool, Nicholas Vansittart, William. Wellesley Pole, and the Hon. Gerald Valerian Wellesley, D.D. In obedience to the direc- tions of this Act, the Duke became possessed of the lordship of the manor of Wellington Borough with hereditary rights, as well as other property elsewhere.

In 1815 some few men of influence in the neighbourhood of Wellington expressed a desire to start a subscription for the pur- pose of putting up a monument on the Blackdown Hills. They met at " The White Hart Hotel," Wellington, then the chief inn in the place, on 5 Sept., 1815, presided over