Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/723

 APPENDIX H 701 It is not possible in this paper to marshal and examine all the events in peerage history which show the development of the imposition; we will therefore confine ourselves to indicating one or two landmarks in the evolution of barony by writ. The earliest official document the writer has encountered in which the issue of a writ of summons to Parliament is said to have the effect of making the barony thereby bestowed on the recipient inheritable by his son is the following letter written in 1597 by Sir Robert Cecyll to the Chancellor. Lord Thomas Howard was supposed to be at the point of death and not expected to survive the night. Queen Elizabeth, wishing to honour Lord Thomas's infant son, directed that a warrant for the issue of a writ of summons to the father should be instantly prepared. This method of creation was presumably selected as being more expeditious than a creation by patent. My good L. The Q. is minded to leave a testimony in my L. The. Howards child of her favour. My L. is in great extremity, and if he be dead, then can not his soon be capable of this grace, who is an infant. If it please your Lo. to send hyther a warrant for the Q. to sign to you, she will sign it instantly, for prevention of Gods calling him to his mercy, which I fcare wilbe before morning. In the meane time I beseech your Lo. to send for the record when his ancestor was created, and to have a writt ready against your Lo. receave the Q.'s warrant; he is now to be called to [by r] writt and not created. My L. you shall do a noble woork, for which God will reward you. Yours to com., Ro. Cf.cvi.l.(») He must be called Tho. Howard de Walden, Cheavalier. The warrant was issued under the Queen's sign-manual and bears date 5 Dec. 40 Eliz. (1597). There is, however, evidence earlier in the i6th century that the idea of a heritable dignity being created by a writ of summons was gaining ground. We will take two cases which within a few years show a striking contrast in recognition of the doctrine. [A] John Bourchier, called Lord Berners, died in 1533, leaving an only surviving daughter, Jane or Joan. John had been summoned to Parliament from 1495 to 1529; his father had died v.p. his grandfather, John, had been summoned from 1455 ^° 1472. When John the grandson died in 1533 Joan was sole heirj^"") but she apparently made no claim to the barony; her son died in her lifetime. Her grandson, Sir Thomas Knyvett, put forward a claim which was recog- nised by the Commissioners for the office of Earl Marshal in a certificate which they granted him in 161 6, but he died before obtaining the royal (*) Camden Soc, Egerton Papers, ed. J. Payne Collier, 1840, p. 268. 'I'he writer is indebted to Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte for drawing his attention to this document. C") There was no abeyance in this case, as some writers have alleged. Mary, Joan's sister, d. v.p. and s.p.