Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 3.djvu/51

 DE LA WARE. 49 (1591/2), 35 Eliz. ; taking his seat as junior Boron, iu which place he sat until his death. In 1572 lie was one of the Peers on the trial of the Duke of Norfolk (after whose execution lie was Bent to the Queen of Scots to expostulate with her), and in 1589, he was on the trial of the Karl of Arundel. He in. firstly before 1555, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Stiunoe of Chesterton, co. Gloucester. He in. secondly Anne, widow of Thomas Oliver, da. of Henry Swift of Andover, Hants, and Elizabeth. He d. 30 Hee. 1595, at Wherewell, Hants. Inq, post mortem 6 April 1596. Admon. (as "Sill WlLLUM West, Loud la Wabrb") 12 Feb. 1G00/1, to Richard Nesfield of Wherwell afsd. His widow m. Richard Kemisii of Andover afsd. who d, 6 Oct. I011,( a ) and survived liim. II. 1595. 2. TnoMAS (West), Baron De La Warr, s. and h., aged 40 in 1596. Sheriff of Hants, 1535 ; Knighted before 2 March 1589. Ou his succeeding to his father's Peerage he claimed the precedency of the ancient Barony, when the House of Lords decided that the disability of his father was personal only, operating against his father for his life, but not affecting the petitioner: that the acceptance of a new creation could not injure the claimant, but that ou the death of his said father, the old and new dignities decended together to the petitioner, and that the old should be preferred. Ou 14 Nov. 1597, he was accordingly placed in the precedency of the ancient Barony^ 11 ) viz : next below the Lord Willoughby De Ereaby and next above the Lord Berkeley. He was oue of the Peers that sat in 1601, on the trials of the Earls of Essex aud Southampton. He w. 19 Nov. 1571, Anne, da. of Sir Francis KNOWS, KG., by Catharine, da. of William Cahey. He d. 24 March 1001 2. III. 1602. J. Thomas ( West), Baron de La Warr, 2d but 1st surv. s. and h., b. 9 Julv, 1577, and bap. at Wherwell, Hants( c ) matric. at Oxford (Queen's Coll.), 9 March 1591/2 ; knighted at Dublin by the Earl of Essex (Lord Lieutenant) 12 July, 1599 ; M.A., Oxford, 30 Aug. 1605,( l1 ) Gov. aud Baron, and during the rem. of his life, more than 25 years, continued to be ranked according to that date ; an undeniable proof that he was considered as holding his dignity by a new creation and not as the right heir of the ancient Barony ; neither VXU he the right heir according to any of the known rules that govern the descent of Baronies by writ. According to those rules, the Barony fell into abeyance at the death of his uncle iu 1554 and was in the same state at the moment [1597] when the ancient place was adjudged to the sou of William. William was certainly heir male to his uncle and he is expressly so described in the Act of Restitution, but he was not heir general, and therefore I am at a loss to discover the principle upon which that judg- ment rested, which gave the rank of the ancient Barony to a person, who could not pretend to bo the legal representative of the ancient Barons." (") See Essex Arch. Soc, vol. in, N.S., where his lion, inscr. at Andover is printed. ( b ) " Vide lltport of ike Lords' Committee to report on the Dignity of a Peer of the Realm, p. 25. After this decision, it may appear presumptuous to have hazarded the assertion in the last page, that the ancient Barony is vested in the representatives of Mary, the da. and heir of Sir Owen West, uncle of this Baron ; but the case is analogous to that of the Barony of Percy, in which instance, although Algernon Seymour (afterwards Duke of Somerset), was sum. to Pari, in 1722 as Baron Percy, on the supposition that he had succeeded his mother in the ancient Barony, and although he was placed in and sat with the precedency of the ancient Barons Percy, yet it is held by the most competent judges of the subject, that the only Barony of Percy to which his descendants, the Dukes of Northumberland,* have succeeded, is that created by the writ of 1722, the said Algernon Seymour, Lord Percy, having erroneously had the precedency of the old Barony assigned to him." ["Nicolas.'] See also, i«6 " Abergavenny," iu this work, vol. i, p. 20, note " b," as to precedency [allowed in several cases] to certain ancient Baronies. ( c ) " Sponsors " Sir Thomas Shirley, Mr. West of Testwood and Lady Ann Askin." ('') See note sub " Effingham," as to the M.A.'s a: on this occasion. Athole [S.] E
 * Sic ; but, since 1865, such descendants and representatives have been the Dukes of