Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/22

 differ. Whereof I marvel what moved my Lord my father to alter it."

To this it may be added that in the Patent Rolls David's name is spelt: Scisseld, Cecille, Cecill, Cecile, Sicile, Ceyssell, and the variants Cicyll and Cecyll occur in connection with his son Richard.

David Cecil, then, settled in Stamford, and soon established himself as a worthy citizen. He was admitted to the freedom of the borough in 1494, and was a common councillor and one of " the twelve " in the following year. He was alderman, or mayor of the borough in 1504, 1515, and 1526, and represented it in three Parliaments. In 1507 he founded a chantry in St. George's Church, and in 1509 his name occurs in the list of the yeomen of the King's guard at the funeral of Henry VII. The same year he was made Bailiff of Preston, Uppingham, and Essen dine, in Rutland, and of Skellingthorpe, in Lincolnshire; and in June, 1511, he received the appointment of Water-bailiff of Wittlesea Mere, Huntingdon, and Keeper of the Swans there and throughout the waters and fens in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Northampton, for the term of thirty years. Two years later he was made one of the King's Serjeants-at-Arms, and in 1517 he secured for his son Richard the office of a King's page. He also obtained the Keepership of Clyff Park, Northamptonshire, jointly with his son, and afterwards received the further appointment of Steward of the King's