In Norman times one John, Baron of Monmouth, appears to have been Lord of Birtsmorton, and those who have studied the architecture of the basement believe they can trace relics of the foundation of a Norman keep. There was a Brute, or de Brute, here in the days of Edward I. In his reign, too, the Birts or Brutes intermarried. with the family of Ruyhalles, who took their name from Rhyalle, the hamlet in the parish of Upton-on-Severn. In the days of Henry IV. we are confronted with the two great historic names of Owen Glendower and Sir John Oldcastle. Tradition says that one of the great Welsh chieftain's daughters married John Scudamore, of Kentchurch, in the County of Hereford. When on a visit to the late Colonel Scudamore, some years ago, I directed his attention to the fact that the armorial bearings of his ancient family ornamented one of the panels in the old room at Birtsmorton Court, when he showed me a very old painting on panel, which he told me tradition had assigned as the portrait of Owen Glendower. Colonel Scudamore was acquainted with the tradition that Glendower was in the habit of disguising himself in a shepherd's dress, and going backwards and forwards to his daughter's and other friend's houses, among which were Birtsmorton Court and the Old Grange, at Dymock. Another tradition is that he was buried at Monnington, in Herefordshire. The Transactions of the Woolhope Club for 1869 contain a notice of "The ancient Forest of Deerfold" and "The Lollards in Herefordshire," by Dr. Bull, who shows how this great forest afforded a refuge to some of the earliest and most noted followers of Wycliffe, and among these we find the name of Walter Brut, a "layman and learned," and who was probably one of the family from Birtsmorton. For ages tradition has fixed upon Birtsmorton Court as one of the hiding places of Sir John Oldcastle, and I have mentioned elsewhere ("Old Stones," new ed.) how the venerable Mrs. Webb, of Ledbury, now in her 103rd year, well remembers that she was frightened as a child when she was shown the hiding place of Sir John Oldcastle, the secret chamber in the panelled room. The Brutes seem to have intermarried with the family of the Oldcastles, as in 1420 we find a Richard Oldcastle concerned in the presentation of the living with John de Brute. About this time we find that the Brutes of Morton held the manor of John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," on the presentation of a rose. The Tudor rose, too, the heraldic emblem of the Dukes of Lancaster, appears on the old seats in the church. It is not easy to make out when the ancient Cornish family of Nanfan came to reside at Birtsmorton. There was a great Cornish esquire, John Nanfan, whose last will is dated in 1446, and whose effigy, as a man in armour, appears upon the south side of the old medieval altar tomb in Birtsmorton Church; but he was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey, and gave 40 marks for masses for the good of his soul. He was esquire "for the body with King Henry VI." The brass tablet of this tomb is gone, and it is not possible now to say to whom it was erected; but, as we find there the effigy of Richard Nanfan, who became Captain of Calais, presented to the living in 1501, and was "squire to Henry VII," it is probable that the tomb was built to the memory of Sire John Nanfan, to whom Cardinal Wolsey was chaplain when he was but a "boy bachelor," and whose ancestors figure as effigies. It seems probable, too, that although other Nanfans held the manor, this was the first who really lived at Birtsmorton Court. The "Oumphrey Arundel," "Lord John Arundel, Bishop of Chester," and "Dame Elizabeth Lygon," an ancestress of the Beauchamps of Madresfield, were, I suppose, relations and connections of the Nanfan family; but that the tomb was not erected until the time of Henry VII. is certain from the effigies of Richard Nanfan, who was his esquire. I like to think that this tomb was erected through the gratitude of the great Cardinal Wolsey to the memory of his early friend and patron, John Nanfan, who presented Master Thomas Pechye to the living, A.D. 1510. With respect to the armorial quarterings upon the panels, it is the opinion of those versed in heraldy that some of the devices are as old as the Wars of the Roses, that these were added to by the Nanfans in the days of Henry VII., and that in the time of Queen Anne the Earl of Bellomont made one or two additions. In the time of Charles I. "the Bloody Meadow duel" was fought between Sir Giles Nanfan and the lover of his sister Bridget. The lover was buried in the Berrow Churchyard, and Bridget left the "Bloody Meadow" by will to the poor of Berrow, and devoted a sum to the payment of a minister to deliver a sermon against the sin of duelling. I may here mention that many years ago I went with Sir William Guise to examine the parish registers respecting the name and date of the burial of Bridget's lover. We found the entry, and made a copy, which I regret to say I have mislaid. Some time ago Sir William went with me to examine the register a second time, but we were informed that the register book "was lost," and Mr. Harkness, the former incumbent, does not remember ever to have seen it. The book certainly disappeared between the incumbency of the Rev. James Hughes and that of Mr. Harkness. Inquiries should be made everywhere respecting this abstraction. Bridges Nanfan, the last male heir of the direct line, died in 1704, and his only daughter, Catherine, married Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, who died in 1700. This lady distinguished herself by marrying four husbands, the last she married at the age of 72. Neither of the Earls of Bellomont distinguished himself in anyway whatever; but the English stateman, William Huskinson, was born at Birtsmorton Court, and his father was churchwarden in 1797. In the church there is a fine monument to Rear-Admiral Caldwall, the second husband of Catherine Nanfan. This paper, on the ancient home of Rosamond and Sire Hildebrand, was listened to with the most wrapt attention, and the party again started to find another delightful object of interest in "Payne's Place," Bushley, where the Rev. E. R. Dowdeswell met the clubs, and very kindly explained the curious features of the farm house, which has long formed a portion of the estate of his ancestors. At the close of the battle of Tewkesbury, Margaret, seeing her gallant son a prisoner, her troops slain or dispersed, all hope gone, committed herself to the care of two poor monks belonging to some small religious house in the neighbourhood. There was no bridge then, but the guides knew well the ford which existed at the Lower Lode, and safely conducted her to Bushley, which then owned the Earl of Warwick for its lord, and lodged her in the house of Thomas Payne, a trusty supporter of the House of Lancaster. Through the kindness of the Rev. E. R. Dowdeswell we are enabled to supply the following curious particulars relating to PAYNE'S PLACE, BUSHLEY. The fine old half-timbered house now occupied by Mr. W. Stokes, was known in the old times by the name of "Payne's Place," and is so described in old deeds. It was built after the fashion of the houses used by the small gentry of the day (about 1405). The framing was of solid oak, the spaces between the timbers being filled with "wattle and daub," and whitewashed. The chief feature in the house was the hall. That at Payne's Place was 20 feet square; it was open to the roof, and the rafters were supported by a very handsome arch of oak, which may still be seen in perfect preservation in one of the bedrooms. In this great hall the household dined at one great table. The fire burnt in the midst of the hall, and the smoke found its way up into the old rafters of the roof, there being no chimney to conduct it, as now, into the outer air. These halls, large, cold, and comfortless, were usually screened from the main door by a panelled oak partition, which ran across the room about 10 feet high. A portion of such a screen was found at Payne's Place, where it seems to have been more than usually necessary, for there were two doors in this hall exactly opposite to each other, and a right of way through this passage from Bushley to Tewkesbury had existed from very early times, which right was claimed and acknowledged within the memory of some now living. If the house was built as we may safely conjecture, about the year 1450, the bedroom floor which hides the interior of the handsome roof from ordinary visitors, was probably inserted in the hall about 100 years later. The eastern wing was pulled down early in this century, and replaced by ordinary and ugly brickwork. The overhanging upper storey in the remaining wing, and the beautiful barge boards in the gable are still extant in good condition. Such then was the house at Bonnett's End when first we hear of it. It was then inhabited by a man of substance, named Thomas Payne, who had probably built it. We do not know much of good Master Payne, or where he came from. One William Payne, of Rodborough, in the County of Gloucester, married Margery Spelman, of Spelman's Court, in that parish, in the year 1461, and through his wife inherited the house and property there, calling the house after his own name, Payne's Court. Our Mr. Thomas Payne, of Bushley, who called his house at Bonnett's End Payne's Place, was probably a connection of the family of the Payne's, of Rodborough, and like them seems to have been a clothier by trade. He was a faithful retainer of the great Earl of Warwick, who was Lord of the Manor of Bushley. In a fine piece of oak carving, which was originally in the house at Payne's Place, but now figures in the cottage of A. Cole, at Churchend, may still be seen the "Bear and Ragged Staff," which was the crest and cognizance of that noble house. While Warwick made and unmade kings of England, good Master Payne lived quietly in Bushley, but at last, if he would not go to the wars, the wars came to him. In 1471, Margaret of Anjou, Henry's courageous Queen, was caught with her army, by the victorious Edward, of Tewkesbury. We all know the result of that fatal field. After the batttle Margaret was conducted to Payne's place. Master Payne and good Dame Ursula, his wife, welcomed the fallen Queen, and prepared for her that pretty room in the eastern wing of the house, on the first floor, with its great window looking out towards the sad battle-field, and the glorious old abbey rising over it, which still is called, in memory of that night, "The Queen's Room," and although the historians never knew it, the fact was handed down through all these centuries by tradition, and "The Queen's Room" is still to be seen in Payne's place, in which Queen Margaret slept after the disastrous day at Tewkesbury. This was in 1471, and time was flying by, and good Master Payne remembered that some day he must die. Now there had been a nice little church here, at Bushley, for many a day served by the monks from Tewkesbury. It was nice for the neighbours to have a church close at hand, but they felt it rather hard that, though while living they could use the church at home, when dead they had to be carried across the river, all the way to Tewkesbury, to be buried, and all because there was no churchyard at Bushley; and so Master Payne busied himself about the matter. He went round to all his neighbours to get them to sign a petition to the Abbot of Tewkesbury, to ask him to grant them land for a churchyard, and to get it consecrated, and, after the usual fuss, I suppose the petition was granted, and is still to be seen at Pull Court, bearing the mark, or signature, or seal of all the leading parishioners, though the seal of the Abbey is gone. The deed was dated April 12, 16 Ed. IV., 1477-8, and Thomas Payne died in March, 1500, and was buried in the churchyard which his zeal had obtained for his fellowparishioners. The brass effigies of himself, and his wife, and his children, were placed in Bushley Church, with the following inscription: : "Hic jacet Thomas Payne et Ursula uxor ejus per cujus quidem Thomae "laborem instantiam, licentia prius habita fuit et obtenta ad sepeliendum in hac "ecclesia et ejusdem cemetrio fidelium corpora. Quivero Thomas obiit penultimo 'die mensis Octobris A.D. milesimo quingentesimo. Quorum animabus pro"pitietur Deus.” 66 Beneath this inscription were the effigies of their seven sons and four daughters. In the lapse of time the inscription, together with the figures of the children, disappeared, the two principal figures of Thomas Payne and his wife alone remaining. The words of the inscription, however, having been preserved in Dr. Nash's History of Worcestershire, they were again transferred to a brass plate, and restored to their proper place in connection with the brasses. By his will, which is preserved at Somerset House, we find that he left his house at Bushley, with all his goods, to Ursula his wife. Fifty years after Thomas Payne's death, we have a family of the name of Stratford settled at Payne's place, which family, for more than 100 years, lived there highly respected. This was a branch of a very ancient family which had held large possessions in the parishes of Farmcote, Temple Guyting, Hawling, &c., since the year 1320. The head of the family resided at Farmcote, and Mr. Strat ford, of Bushley, seems to have been a son of the branch settled at Guyting. He married Margaret, daughter of the William Tracy, of Toddington and Stanway, who died in 1530, under strong suspicion of being a heretic. Margaret and her husband came to settle in Bushley, and her brother William Tracy, dying in 1558, left all his lands in Bushley to his sister Margaret Stratford, with remainder to her sons, Anthony and Giles, while his pewter vessels he bequeathes to her daughter. This Mrs. Margaret Stratford died a widow, in a good old age, and was buried in Bushley in 1621. Their son Anthony "To lyve as we shoulde always dye it were a goodly trade, They run as Between the couplets were two shields illuminated with the initials A.S. and M.S., and the date, 1574, putting it beyond all doubt that the decoration was executed in honour of the young bride. They had several children who were all baptised in Bushley Church; William, Thomas, who succeeded his father in 1608, Simon, John, and Elizabeth. Mrs. Stratford must have been nearly 90 years of age when she died in 1648, and the respect and love which her husband had earned for himself is touchingly recorded in the parish register at the time of his death. His son and heir, Thomas Stratford, born in 1587, married, about 1619, a Bushley girl named Joan Trigge. They had one son, Anthony, who was born in 1620. These were troublous times, and young Anthony Stratford, coming of a good old stock, started early with his kinsman, Mr. William Stratford, of Farmcote, to join King Charles's army. He fought with great zeal and courage throughout the war, until compelled, when all was lost, to compound with the Parliament for his estates at Bushley for £40, his more wealthy cousin, at the same time, paying no less than £700 to retain his family estates at Farmcote. But the expenses of the war had far exceeded the loyal gentleman's means, and like many another noble hearted servant of King Charles, he had brought upon himself utter ruin in his master's cause; on the 17th August, 1676, he executed a deed by which "All that 'capital messuage, &c., in Bushley, at a place called Bonnett's End, and wherein "the said Anthony Stratford dwelleth, called and known by the name of Payne's "Place," together with all his lands in Bushley, was sold to Mr. Richard Dowdeswell, of Pull Court. From that time to this, the old house has been in the same quiet times has had little of interest to add to the stirring The spirit of one of the old Stratfords was said to haunt the 66 family, and in these records of the past. |