Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/90

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. vn. FEB. i, 1913.

June, 1789, when the actual elopement took place, and this unpleasantness at Hanbury might have caused him to leave home as early as November, 1788, the date when the family assert that the mysterious stranger came to Bolas. I would refer to two articles written by Miss Maria Hoggins, a niece of the Countess, in Salopian Shreds and Patches, on 11 and 25 Nov., 1891. These were written partly in answer to some of MR. WOODALL'S statements, and they throw some fresh light on the circumstances connected with the marriage.

Thomas Hoggins, the Countess Sarah's father, wrote quite a good hand when he signed the Marriage Register in 1755 and 1768. He also signed the Register as a witness to the marriage of John Picken of Preston with his second wife's sister. Eleanor Bayley, on 19 June, 1777. It was this John Picken (the bride's uncle) who signed the Register as a witness to the marriage of John Jones and Sarah Hoggins on 13 April, 1790. Jane and Eleanor Bayley were the daughters of a clergyman, whose Christian name and place of residence I have not yet ascertained.

" John Jones " first appears in the Bolas Registers as witnessing the marriage of Francis Light and Sarah Massey on 18 July, 1789. Two of his children were baptized at Bolas Sophia, on 27 Feb., 1792, and Henry, on 3 Jan., 1793, both as the chil- dren " of John and Sarah Jones." Henry Jones was buried on 29 May, 1793, in the church, near the pulpit.

The second marriage took place at St. Mildred's, Bread Street, on 3 Oct., 1791, the Rev. J, Crowther, rector, being the officiating clergyman. In the Register they ,are described as Henry Cecil, bachelor, and Sarah Hoggins, spinster ; the marriage was by banns, and the witnesses were Evan Foulkes and Peter Spiers, clerk. Evan Foulkes frequently occurs in Lord Exeter's letters, as his agent in forwarding money to members of the Hoggins family. His office was at Southampton Street, Covent Garden. After the second marriage Mr. Henry Cecil must still have been known as " Jones " at Bolas, for on 1 April, 1793, " John Jones " and " Sarah Jones " witness the marriage of Francis Arkinstall and Martha Rogers.

The Countess Sarah died on 18 Jan.. 1797, and was buried on the 28th at St. Martin's, Stamford. Can any correspondent supply a copy of the inscription on her monument ? Her husband, Lord Exeter, was M.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, and M.P. for Stamford in 1774, in 1780, and

again in 1784. He must have been a man of learning, for he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Vice -President of the Society of 'Antiquaries. Their daughter Sophia is said to have been baptized (a second time) at Burghley House on 25 June, 1795; she married, on 12 May, 1818, the Right Hon. Henry Manvers Pierrepont of Conholt Park, Hants, and died in 1823. Where was she interred ?

Probably the Registers of St. Martin's, Stamford, between December, ]793, and 1798 would throw some light on the Countess Sarah's children. Lord Exeter's will might also show how far the Hoggins family were still assisted after his death.

For many of the facts here recorded I am indebted to the Rectors of Bolas, Han- bury, Wistanstow, and St. Mildred's, Bread Street, and also to the only surviving great- niece of the Countess.

W. G. D. FLETCHER, F.S A.

Oxon Vicarage, Shrewsbury.

HUGH PETERS. (See 11 S. vi. 221, 263, 301, 463; vii. 4, 45.)

VIII. PETERS AND KING CHARLES I.

KING CHARLES was publicly murdered before his own palace door on 30 Jan., 1649. This murder was planned by Cromwell two or three years previously, and he took Peters into his confidence.

In the Seventh Report of the Hist. MSS. Commission, p. 751 b (Marquess of Ormonde's MSS.), is calendared the " Brief recit. du Docteur Desfontaines, Physician general of the Army of Ireland," in which the doctor says that (in 1646) Peters described to him " his master's (Cromwell's) designs to destroy the King and set up a republic," and that thereupon he went into Holland to warn the Queen of Bohemia, and also Sir William Boswell, British Resident at the Hague. In the year 1660 Peters was tried, con- demned, and executed for " compassing and imagining the death of the King." Every effort has been made in modern times to discredit Dr. William Younge, or Yonge, a witness at Peters's trial, and the writer of a scurrilous life of Peters entitled ' England's Shame.' My previous articles will be found to corroborate Younge on most points on which he has been attacked.

Dr. Younge attended Peters at Milford, in 1649, on his return from Ireland, and said, at his trial, that he cured him " of the flux " in five days, and thus gained his confidence.