SIR WALTER RALEGH’S LAST EXPEDITION

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 189, 12 August 1936, Page 16

SIR WALTER RALEGH’S LAST EXPEDITION

■JVT ANY CURIOUS and interesting things are recalled by the old documents from Temple Newsam, near Leeds, which were sold at Sotheby’s recently by order of Lord Halifax. He inherited the seventeenth-century mansion of Temple Newsam from his aunt, the Hon. Mrs. Meynell Ingram, to whoso husband it had descended from his grandmother, Elizabeth Ingram, daughter and co-heiress of Charles Ingram, tenth .Viscount Irwin. The founder of the Ingram family was a certain Sir Arthur Ingram, a Yorkshireman, who made a fortune as a linen-draper in London, was knighted in. 1613, and died in 1642. He was a born. speculator, after lent money to King Janies 1., arid was, moreover, extremely unscrupulous in his methods of business. His son was raised to the peerage in 1661 as Viscount Irwin. It yvas Sir Arthur Ingram who acquired the Temple Newsam estate and built the existing house. A large number of the papers now to be sold date from his time and throw light upon his transactions. ... . “Undoubtedly tho most important of the-Temple Newsam papers,” said Mr C. des Graz, of Sotheby’s, “are those .which show Sir Arthur Ingram’s connection with Sir Walter Ralegh’s unfortunate last voyage. There is, for example, a document, dated March 26, Y 617, which is the equivalent to a chare certificate in the undertaking. It is signed by Ralegh, and shows that Ingram invested £330 in the expedition to America. What is especially curious is that there is also in the collection the document, dated April 28, 1618, by which Ingram transferred his interest in the venture to Richard Goldthorp, a relative of his mother’s.’’ One is tempted to suspect that Sir Arthur may have received in London eome information, not available to his cousin in Yorkshire, that things were going badly, and so hastened to sell cut. Ralegh returned to England in

Documents For Sale

June, 1618, and on October 29 was executed. “Any signature of Ralegh, or any document connected with him,” continued Mr des Graz, “is very rare and much sought after. These papers include five such documents, on one of which there is a fine seal. Sir Arthur Ingram knew everybody of note in his day, and there is much interesting correspondence, especially a series of nine letters from the Earl of Strafford, whose autographs are extremely uncommon.” “Another interesting section of the Temple Newsam papers centres round the rebellion of 1745. The Lord Irwin of tho day, took a leading part in organising the defence in the North ot England at that time. Such of his papers as have survived make up a miniature history of tho local reaction of the rebellion.” This group of documents includes George ll.’s authority to Lord Irwin to raiso troops, and also instructions from tho Duke of Newcastle, ordering him to oppose the rebels should they enter the East Riding. There a're lists from Hull and Beverley of those who subscribed to the cost of raising and maintaining forces, as well as resolutions passed in Leeds by the Mayor and Deputy Lieutenants, and various letters concerning the progress of the rebels. There is also the evidence of one Charles Henderson, late of Darlington, giving an account of the planning of tho invasion of England in France.