Page:The Wentworth Papers 1715-1739.djvu/17

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��Inirodttctory Memoir.

��SIR WILLIAM WENTWORTH, of Wentworth Wood- house, in the county of York, descended from an ancient family of that name settled in the wapentake of Strafford before the Conquest, was created a baronet in June, i6ii. He had three sons; Thomas, the eldest, who suc- ceeded his father at Wentworth Woodhouse, became the famous minister of Charles I., created in 1640 for his services Baron Raby and Earl of Strafford, and was executed on Tower Hill in May, 1641. The third son, George, settled at Woolley near Wakefield, where his descendants still remain ; he was a distinguished soldier, received the honour of knight- hood from King Charles, and ultimately suffered severe losses from his devoted adherence to the royal cause in the Civil Wars. The second son, William, with whose descend- ants we are chiefly concerned in the present work, settled at Ashby Puerorum in Lincolnshire. He was also knighted by Charles I., and fell fighting for the king at the battle of Marston Moor, leaving a wife, who was daughter and co-heir of Thomas Savile, of Northgate Head in Wakefield, and two children. Sir William's daughter Anne married Edward Skinner of Thornton College in Lincolnshire, and his son William married Isabella, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, treasurer of the household to James, Duke of York, Lucy Apsley, sister to Sir Allen, it is interesting to remember, married the well-known Puritan Colonel John Hutchinson, governor of Nottingham, and wrote the famous memoirs of her husband. William Wentworth, early in the reign of Charles II., also received knighthood, and inherited the

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