Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/105



In Burke's Landed Gentry, vol. ii. p. 117., will find a full account of the family, drawn, I know, from authentic sources.

Availing myself of his kind offer to supply further particulars about any of the ladies he has enumerated, I would request to know what he can communicate about Beatrix de Bitton? From her descended the longest, and in a direct line, of that ancient family, ending in Col. J. Strode, who died at his seat, Southill, Somerset, 1805, s. p. Of her family, in the reign of the early Edwards, there were three bishops, and all of them from the family who resided at a Manor Place, now called Barres Court, Gloucestershire, then known by the name of Hannam, whither the family had migrated from the land of their father, D'Ameneville, and thence took the name.

On the death of Lady Barre, 1485, s. p., her large possessions were divided between Strode- Bassett, and Hamptons, then represented by Cradoch Newtons.

Clyst St. George.

The most direct descendant of this ancient family I presume to be Sir Henry Oglander, Bart., who now possesses and inhabits their fine old mansion of Parnham, near Bedminster, in the county of Dorset, and whose ancestor, Sir William Oglander, married Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Sir John Strode, Knt.

Your correspondent will find a pedigree of this ancient and knightly family, drawn and collated by Sir John Strode from ancient pedigrees, evidences, and records in his possession, 1636, met. 75, and continued by his successors, in Hutchins's Hist. of Dorset (edit. 1774), vol. i. p. 270.

From the list of names which has given, his pedigree would appear to be more full, if not more complete, than this; and it would be desirable that they should be closely compared. An old connexion led to the introduction of the arms of Strode into one of the oriel windows of my brother's house at Bingham's Melcombe; and I subjoin Hutchins's description of them, as they are there figured.

As professes himself to be "no scollard" at heraldry, it is possible that his sketch may be incomplete; and it is quite possible that there should be errors in our glass in this as in other cases:

"1. (Erm. on a quarter sa., a crescent surmounted with a mullet, A.) Strode. 2. Quarterly; 1. & 4. erm. on a fess sa., three amulets conjoined A., Bitton. 2. & 3. G. a bend between six crossletts, Furneaux. 3. G. a Hon rampant

Or, over (all) a bend erm., Fitchet. 4. A chevron G. between three ermines sable, Gerard. 5. G. a wivern, his wings elevated, and tail rowed A., Drake. 6. A. on a chevron sa., between three ermine spots, as many cinque-foils of the first. 7. Quarterly; 1. & 4. A., a fess party indented vert, and sa, between two cotizes countercharged, Hody. 2. & 8. A. a bull passant sa. within a bordure be- zantee, Cole. 8. Strode."

The arms of Bitton, as given by Coker, are "Erm. a fess G.," precisely coinciding with the MS. pedigree in quartering 2. 1. & 4.

Quartering 5. I take to be the arms of Brent, and not of Drake, to which family Hutchins attributes them.

Quartering 6. is correctly blazoned by Hutchins as it stands on our window. But to whom does it belong?

Quartering 7. 3. is wanting on our window, but seems to me to be probably the arms of Jew, of Whitfield, Devon, viz. "Ar. a chevron between three Jews' heads couped, sa.;" whose coheiress married Lord Chief Justice Hody, temp. Hen. VI. These Jews' heads might be easily mistaken for "three mens' heads helmeted."

Any illustration of these coats would be interesting to Dorsetshire antiquaries. {{right|{{sc|C. W. Bingham}}.

A copy of the pedigree mentions is in my possession. In the coat of arms at the seventh division, the emblem is a "bull" statant sable. In answer to his question, "Who are the most direct descendants of the Strodes ?" I beg to inform him that the direct male line is extinct. The present Sir H. Oglander, of Runvele, in the Isle of Wight, is the representative of the elder branch of the Strodes, and in right of his ancestor, Sir W. Oglander, who married Elizabeth, sole heiress of Sir John Strode, circa 1696, holds Parnham in Dorsetshire. This John Strode, Knt., was styled "of Chantmale," and was the last male of the elder branch of the Strodes. John de Strode, founder of the Strodes of Shepton Mallet, was the head of the junior branch; and a granddaughter of Edward Strode, last male representative of the elder line of this branch, married into the Bayley family; and the late Col. Zachary Bailey, R.R.A., recently deceased, held the Strode estates at Downside, &e, and had the control of the valuable Strode charities founded at Shepton Mallet by one Edward Strode. I believe Col. Bailey has left a son. The present Sir Henry Bailey is his surviving brother. From the before-mentioned John de Strode was descended Col. John Strode, of South Hill, in the parish of West Cranmore, near Shepton Mallet; although married, he died sine prole, and was the last of the name, holding, by right of descent, any portion of the vast estates once in possession of the descendants of Warinus de la Strode. On the de-