Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/48

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [II s. iv. JULY 15, 1912.

SIR NICHOLAS ARNOLD.

SIR NICHOLAS ARNOLD was Lord Justice of Ireland in 1565-6, and M.P. for Glouces- tershire in 1545-7, 1553, and 1555 ; Glou- cester City, 1559 and 1563-7 ; Cricklade, 1571 ; and Gloucestershire again, 1572 till decease. A brief notice of his life appears in the first supplementary volume of D.N.B.'

Sir Nicholas was descended from an old Monmouthshire family, being the son of John Arnold, who had acquired Highnam Court in Gloucestershire about 1542, and died there in 1550. In early life Nicholas was actively employed by Thomas Crom- well, and, there can be no doubt, had been rewarded by grants of some of the Church lands. He was knighted by Edward VI. about 1553, and afterwards went to Ireland, where he ruled as Lord Justice during the absence of the Deputy from May, 1564, till June, 1565, leaving the year following. The remainder of his life was spent at Highnam Court, which he had inherited from his father, and there he died in 1580,

The pedigree of Sir Nicholas down to his grandchildren, as entered in the Visitation of Gloucestershire 1623, forms the basis of all our genealogical information of the family down to recent date. A much fuller one is given in J. A. Bradney's ' History of Monmouthshire,' but the value of this, un- fortunately, is much lessened by the almost entire absence of dates. According to the Visitation, Sir Nicholas was twice married. In 1529 he married Margaret, daughter of Sir William Dennys of Dyrham, co. Gloucester, by whom he had in addition to a younger son William (died s.p.) and daughter Catherine an elder son Rowland, who is stated to have succeeded to High- nam, to have married Mary, daughter of John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos, and left a daughter and heiress Dorothy, wife to Thomas Lucy, son of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlcote, to whom she carried Highnam Court. The second wife of Sir Nicholas is described as -, daughter of Ysham (i.e., Margaret, daughter of John Isham of Bryanston, Dorset by whom he left one son John, who settled at Llanthony Abbey in Monmouthshire, where we learn from Mr. Bradney he was ancestor of a long lino of Arnolds who flourished until the eighteenth century.

The will of Sir Nicholas cannot be said altogether to confirm the foregoing account of his family. The abstract for which I am indebted to my friend Mr. A. Rhodes is as follows :

Sir Nicholas Arnold, Knight, of Hyneham, Co. of City of Gloucester dated 10 April, 1580. Sick of body, but sound memory. To be buried anywhere without pomp. To wife, Dame Mar- garet Arnold, all 1 in the hands of Mr. Atkyns H.M. Attorney-General, and leases of property in N. Wales. To my son-[in-law] Lucie and my daughter his wife, Lease of Upleadon and Rud- ford. To Sir Thomas Lucie my bay ambling colt I rode on which I bought of Mr. William Morwent. To Sir Thomas Porter, Knight, a colt. To my brother Richard Arnold a colt. Gifts to servants. My wife, Sir Thomas Porter, Knight, William Ouldworth, and Henry Isam, Esq., executors, to each 10Z. Witnesses, Arnold Palmer, Wm. Madock, Richard Mayo (his mark), Walter Pickle, John Clerk (mark), Thos. Prichett. Proved 13 May, 1580, by Margaret Arnold, relict. (17 Arundel).

The will is thus brief. A peculiar feature is that there is in it no allusion whatever to any son or sons ; yet in the face of the Visitation made hardly more than 40 years after his death, and, I think we may take it subscribed to by his grandsons, it is impos- sible to doubt their existence.

That there is, however, something not quite accurate in the Visitation account seems fairly certain. The wife of Sir Thomas Lucy the younger (knighted in 1593) is clearly stated by Sir Nicholas to have been his daughter (and not grand- daughter, as in the Visitation). The Lucy pedigree in the Visitation of Warwickshire agrees with that of Gloucestershire in call- ing her the daughter of Rowland Arnold. On the other hand, Burke's 'History of the Commoners ' (sub. Lucy of Charlecote), following Wotton's 'Baronetage,' agrees with the will that she was daughter of Sir Nicholas. The will can hardly be in error.

The Visitation is certainly wrong on one other point. Rowland Arnold did not marry Mary, daughter of John, 1st Lord Chandos, for that peer had no daughter of that name. Sir Egerton Brydges in his ' Chandos Peerage ' says the wife of Rowland Arnold was daughter of Thomas Brydges of Cornbury, Oxon, brother to the 1st Lord Chandos. When did Rowland Arnold die? He seems to have left no will in either London or Gloucester.

The fact that Dorothy Lucy inherited Highnam Court would almost seem to con- firm the Visitation rather than the will. It is difficult to understand how she could have succeeded while she had brothers living, unless by special bequest of Sir Nicholas, of which there is no evidence in his will. I may add that the Visitation