Page:The Life of Thomas Linacre.djvu/17

 extinct, after a long and uninterrupted line of nineteen generations. During this time John Linacre enjoyed the rank of esquire, either by descent or creation, in an age when that honour was estimated in proportion to the difficulty of attaining it; and the commission issued, 12 Hen. VI. for inquiring into the names and number oiF the nobility and gentry of the different shires, returned two of this lineage, as holding the latter rank. The families, with which their name lids beeii successively connected, proclaim their importance; and their fortunes were increased by successive marriages with the heiresses of Bralesworth, Glasswell, Hakenthorpe, Bakewell and Plombley; In addition to their possessions at Linacre, they also held other property in the same county; since their arms, in compliance with the usage of proprietorship or benefaction, are noted in a window of Beighton church as late as the year A.D. 1569. William de Linacre held lands in Hampshire of the prior and convent of St. Swythin, at Winchester, of which he died seised in the fourteenth century.

Robert Linacre also, in the sixteenth century,