Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/521

 9* s.x. DEC. 27, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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transept of the handsome little church. It was erected to the memory of Benjamin Hynmers, the son of Mrs. Yale by her first husband, Joseph Hynmers, and has as one of its ornaments a medallion bearing the sculptured profile likeness of the gentleman commemorated. The inscription is lengthy and eulogistic, after the fashion of its time. Benjamin Hynmers was "a person of sin- cerity, integrity, innocence of manners, and universal benevolence to mankind." He died 5 October, 1743, aged sixty-five, and "Jona- than Elford, Esq., and William Hall, gentle- man, the executors of his will, in perform- ance of it erected this monument.''* Jona- than Elford was, doubtless, of Mrs. Yale's family, and the name occurring here is corro- borative. With regard to Mrs. Yale and other members of the family the record is thus :

" In the same vault also are deposited Mrs. Catherine Yale, relict of the late Governor Yale, and, by her former husband, mother of Mr. Hynmers, who dyed Feb. 8th, 1727; aged 77 ; Mr. David Yale, who dyed March 3rd, 1727, aged 30; and Mr. Francis Cheeseman, who dyed Oct. 27, 1740, aged 17."

Further is added :

" Ursula Yale, the third and youngest daughter of Elihu Yale, Esq. deceas'd, sometime Governor of Fort St. George in India. She departed this life the llth of August, 1721, in the 36th year of her age. Eminent for many virtues, particularly charity, in which she excell'd. And at her death shew'd the same by a very liberal donation to the poor."

Thus from the tomb some genealogical items are gathered. But the relationship of David Yale, aged thirty years, is not in- dicated. Mrs. Penny in her book ' Fort St. George' (1900) shows clearly from the register that' Governor Elihu in January, 1688, lost a son David, aged between three and four years. Possibly a second David may have been born in 1697, two years before Elihu left Fort St. George ; but, dates and ages considered, this is not probable. Francis Cheeseman was a relative ; to Lydia Cheese- man his cousin, wife of John Cheeseman, an annuity is left by Hynmers in his will. We learn also that the youngest daughter, Ursula, died a month after her father, in her thirty -sixth year. Hynmers in his will (at Somerset House) mentions his " sisters, Mrs. North (wife of Dudley North, grandson of the Earl of Guilford) and Ursula Yale, and we know also of Anne, wife of Lord

late rector, Rev. Bryant Burgess, in ' Records ot Buckinghamshire,' vol. vi. p. 27 (1887), Aylesbury, G. T. Be Fraine. The 'Records' are not at the British Museum.
 * For further description see ' kaiimers,' by the

Tames Cavendish. I have not the dates of

e marriages.

That Mrs. Yale spent her latter years at Latimer, and there has her final resting- place, is explained by the fact that Governor Yale, at or about the time he married his daughter to Lord James Cavendish to whom, as a younger son of the first Duke of Devonshire, the estate had come appears bo have obtained a lease of it. His object may have been to provide a residence for his wife, should she survive him. She did sur- vive rather less than six years, and during that interval her name is on the court rolls as lady of the manor. The Governor himself may have resided" at Latimer, but it is stated that he died in London, 8 July, 1721, aged seventy- three, and was buried at Wrexham, in Wales, near which was Plas Grono, a

Eroperty he had bought, and not far distant "om Plas y n Yale, the home of his ancestors. Benjamin Hynmers seems to have acted as steward of the Latimer estate during the whole period of ihe Yale occupation, and after his mother's death his name is on the court rolls. Doubtless he was a man of energy, and so prospered. His will disposes of his property at Cross Keys and Stacys in Essex, and 'at Louth and Keddington in Lincolnshire. He was unmarried, and be- queathed 1,0001. to Mary Hall, spinster, his faithful servant, and, curiously, he also left to her the portraits of his "father and mother, and of his sisters Mrs. North and Ursula Yale, and two pictures of himself." I wonder what has become of these por- traits. Perhaps there was no relative to care for them ; Lady James Cavendish (his half- sister) had died in 1734, but had left a daughter.- He provided 100^. for the family tomb, which, unfortunately, suffered disturb- ance by the enlargement of the church in 1867, and further he has a memorial in the communion plate which he presented.*

is long, and not sufficiently of general interest to be here fully detailed. It may, however, be noted that his executor, Jonathan Elford, was of Bick- ham, Devon ; that he, after the death of Mary Hall, housekeeper, was to have one of the two portraits of testator ; that the other portrait should go to such of his relatives as Mary Hall should direct ; that the said Jonathan should also have " the picture of my cousin Judith Elford, and also my two old pieces of plate, consisting of a dish and salver, which were given to me by the said Judith, and belonged to my late grandfather, which 1 desire may for ever remain and be kept by, and go to, the chief of the family of Elford." Mrs. Ilbert, sister of said Jonathan Elford, has a legacy, as also testator's cousin, Richard Elford, of Godalming. Anne Taylor and Lydia Cheeseman, cousins, have
 * The will of Benjamin Hynmers (Boycott, 314)