Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/311

 9th S .vii.ApRTL2o,i90i.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of Wales bestowed on him lands worth 100 marks for the term of his life. All these statements rest on the authority of the Delves deeds ; and as John de Delves was a noteworthy soldier, he may indeed have been present at Poitiers without having necessarily been in the train of Sir James Audley.

Thirdly. Of Robert de Fowleshurst, who died in 1390, little is known. According to his Inquisitio post mortem, he held no lands in the Audley barony, and, being no tenant of Sir James Audley, it is difficult to see how he could have been his esquire by attach- ment, especially when it is remembered that he had the title of knight at least seven years before Poitiers was fought ; for " Robert de Fowleshurst, Knight," occurs as a witness to the Delves deed dated Monday after Palm Sunday, 1349, already alluded to.

The fretty or in the coat armour of Fowles- hurst of (Jrewe was not an augmentation, but was bbrne in the field, the arms being Gules, fretty or, a chief ermine ; and as Dr. prmeroa pointed out long ago, the same bearing was used by the Fowleshursts (or Fulleshursts, as the name is also written) of Edlaston, near Nantwich, then represented by a Robert de Fulleshurst, a minor, of the age of sixteen, in the year 1356, who was no relation to Sir Robert Fowleshurst of Ore we.

Whether Sir Robert served at all in the French wars is not known ; but it seems most unlikely that he fought under the banner of Sir James Audley at Poitiers.

Fourthly. If Sir John Hawkestone's fame, as one of the heroes of Poitiers, depends for proof on the grant of the fretty or decoration on the fess of his coat armour, that fame must fall to the ground ; for both he and his two brothers had that bearing on their shields before the year 1356. This is shown in the published 'Visitation of Cheshire, 1580,' pp. 92-3 (Harl. Soc. pub.), as follows :

Sir Thomas Hawkestone, Knt., who died in or before 1358, bore Ermine, a fess gules, fretty or. Sir John de Hawkestone, his younger brother, living in 1386, had for arms Ermine, a fess gules, fretty or, a bordure engrailed of the second ; and Nicholas Hawkestone, the youngest brother, living in 26 Edward III. (1352), bore Argent, a fess gules, fretty or, between three birds sable.

Sir John de Hawkestone held in the time of Richard II. the manor of Smallwood in Cheshire, worth 20. per annum, subject to homage and service to the heirs of Nicholas Audley, the son of Sir James Audley not, however, by grant or reward from Sir James, but by heirship after the death of his

brother Sir Thomas Hawkestone, who had obtained the said manor from Adam de Dray ton in 24 Edward III. (1350).* ^ Sir John Hawkestone, like Sir Robert Fowleshurst, has no military renown in history, and therefore it seems a gratuitous assumption to say he was present at Poitiers.

Lastly. This much cherished Cheshire story, which Dr. Ormerod nearly a hundred years ago regarded as a doubtful tradition, apparently originated at Doddington, when statues were set up to commemorate the supposed heroes. But although feudal chiefs in ancient times often granted a portion of their armorial bearings to favoured followers in battle, or to holders of land under them, yet the tradition that the heads of the families of Dutton, Delves, Fowleshurst, and Hawkestone were so rewarded cannot be accepted, because it contradicts chronology.

It may be pointed out that two other con- temporary families in the southern part of Cheshire bore a fret on their shields, namely, Trussel of Warmincham and Chanut of Willaston, near Nantwich. Sir Alan Chanu was certainly in attendance upon the Black Prince at Poitiers, and had a grant of an annuity of 40/. by warrant dated February, 1357 (Cheshire Recognizance Rolls) ; but I hold no brief for members of these families as armigers, or armour-bearers of Sir James Audley, believing the names of Sir James Audley's esquires, like the names of many of the world's worthies, to be still unknown.

JAMES HALL.

Lindum House, Nantwich.

LALLY-TOLENDAL: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

MR. J. SCHWALM, of Rouen, says in a sketch of Tolendal contributed to the Leeds Weekly Mercury, 17 November, 1900 :

" Trophime-Gerard, Marquis of Lally-Tolendal, legitimatized son of Thomas Arthur, Baron of Tolen- dal, Count of Lally, and of Felicity Crafton, was born in Paris, March 5, 1751, and died there, March 11, 1830. When the French Revolution broke out he was sent to the Etats Ge'neraux by the nobility, and sided with the King's party. He went to Switzerland for some time, and returned to France in 1792, was arrested, but managed to escape from prison, and fled to England. When Louis X\ 1. was arraigned before the Convention, Lally asked to be allowed to return to France in order to plead for the King. That, however, being not granted to

p. 56.
 * See Ormerod's 'History of Cheshire,' vol. iii.

f The Trussel arms were Argent, fretty gules, on each joint a bezant. The Chanu arms were Lozengy, a bend fretty (tinctures not given).