Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/350

 332 DEVON his heirs male for ever," the usual words "of his body" being omitted(^) therein, as also in the clause giving such heirs a seat in Pari. To this was added a warrant of precedence "that he and they [his heirs] were to enjoy in Par/., as well as in all other places whatsoever, such place and precedence as any of the ancestors o/the said Earl, heretofore Earls of Devon, had ever had or enjoyed. "('') K.B. 29 Sep. 1553; Bearer of the Sword of State at the Coronation i Oct. 1553; being restored in blood, but not in honours, by Act of Pari., I Mary, c. 3. He appears to have been implicated in Wyatt's plot, and to have had ideas of marrying the Princess Elizabeth, and thus possibly obtaining the Kingdom. He was again imprisoned for a year, from 15 Mar. 1553/4 to 25 May 1554, in the Tower, and at Fotheringhay, till 6 Apr. 1555, when he came to Court, after which he went abroad. He d. unm., not without strong suspicion of poison, 18 Sep. 1556, at Padua, and was bur. at St. Anthony's there. Inq.p. m. 1 1 Apr. (1557) 3 and 4 Philip and Mary. His estates were divided among his heirs, the descendants of his great-grand-aunts, the four sisters of his great-grandfather, Edward, Earl of Devon, so fr. 1485. Note. After his death the title for nearly three centuries was considered extinct, and was conferred in 1 603, and again in 1 6 1 8 [such title still existing] on entirely different families; but, according to the strange decision of the House of Lords in 1831, it must be considered to have been dormant for these 275 years, the persons who under that decision would have been en- titled thereto being as under. None of these, however, laid claim to the same, while one of them accepted a Baronetcy in 1644, and another, in 1762, a Viscountcy, unconscious of the wonderful gyrations which hereafter were declared to belong to the (not altogether unique) patent of 1553. XXL 1556. 12. William CouRTENAY, of Powderham, CO. Devon, dejure Earl of Devon, (■=) very distant cousin and h. male, being only s. and h. of George C, by Catherine, da. of Sir George St. Leger, which George C. was 6th in descent from Sir Philip de Courtenay, of Powder- ham (^. 1406), which Philip was yr. brother of Sir Edward Courtenay, of Goodrington (rf'. v.p.), from whom Edward, Earl of Devon [d. 1556), was 6th in descent. (See pedigree, p. 335). He sue. his grandfather. Sir William Courtenay, 24 Nov. 1 535, in the Powderham estate, being then aged 6 years and upwards; was knighted 20 Oct. 1553; M.P. for Plympton, 1555; in 1556 became the male representative of his house and the de jure if) Earl of Devon as above stated. He m. (lie. fac. 28 Nov. i 545) Elizabeth, da. of John (Paulet), 2nd Marquess of Winchester, by his ist wife, Elizabeth, da. of Robert (Willoughby), 2nd Lord Willoughby (of Broke). He (*) As to the limitation in this patent, see vol. vii. Appendix F. ('') See as to "Precedency of Peers in Pari, by Royal warrant," vol. i, Appen- dix C. (■=) According to the extraordinary decision of the House of Lords, confirmed 15 Mar. 1 83 1, respecting that dignity. See text and note " b," p. 336.