COUNTER TO CORONET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20306, 13 July 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

COUNTER TO CORONET.

NOBLE FAMILIES' ORIGINS.

OBSCURITY OF ANCESTORS.

LONDON APPRENTICE BOYS

ENTERPRISE AND GOOD LUCK,

It is not common knowledge perhaps that tho foundation of many of Britain's noble families can be traced to the industry, the enterprise, and tho luck of sumo humble and obscure ancestor. There are innumerable examples of Disraeli's well-remembered declaration that " the British peerago owes to a largo extent, its very existence to apprentice boys whose blood mingles in its veins with that of the Percys ami tho Howards." It is dillicult to recall ono truly great family whose origin is not founded in commerce, and whose history does not begin with business ronianco. Tho News «>f tho World publishes an article devoted to illustrations of the remarkable manner in which small beginnings in other centuries wero destined to establish the .stately homes thcro aro in England today. To a London audience recently the Duke of Leeds made this significant observation: "So far from being ashamed, I am proud to think that, at the head of my family tree, the founder of my houso is n. mail who served behind a counter, and who, by grit and honesty and industry, with certainly a stroke of good luck, rose to ho Lord Mayor of London." Ho was referring to Edward Osborne, the city Apprentice, who—and this was tho stroke of luck—rescued his employer's only daughter from the swollen waters of the Thames, married her, succeeded his father-in-law, •Sir William Hewitt, as a grsat London merchant, and had for great-grandson tho first of tho ducal lino of Leeds. Druggist and Duke's Daughter.

Tho Duke of Leeds is but ono of very tunny noblemen who similarly owe riches nnd rank to tho industry of forefathers who have served behind city counters, Tho Dtiko of Northumberland can trace liis existence, and not a little of his wealth, to ono Hugh Smithson, a yeoman's son, who left the paternal farm to servo behind tho counter of Ralph and William Robinson, haberdashers, in the 17Lli century. From tho haberdasher's apprentico descended, in tho fifth generation, that other Hugh Smithson, who, as tho story goes, was serving in a London druggist's shop when accident made him acquainted with the Lady Elizabeth Seymour, only child of Algernon, seventh Duke of Somerset, and representative of tho long line of Percys., How the duke's daughter lost her heart and gave her hand to the druggist's assistant, and how this descendant of husbandmen blossomed into Earl Percy and Duke of Northumberland, is one of the most romantic of all peerago stories. Tho Marquis of Salisbury is rightly proud of his descent from three centuries of ennobled Cecils, headed by the famous Lord High Treasurer Burleigh, but ho should bo, and probably is, proud also to count among his forbears one Christopher Gascoigno who was a merry London apprentico nearly two centuries ago, and who was tho first Lord Mayor to make Lis homo in tho Mansion House. Two Other Apprentices.

The Marquess of Bath need not search long among Hie ramifications of his family treo to find ono William do Bothefeld, who was a worthy under-forestcr in Shropshire a good many centuries ago, and whoso descendant, who gave his name to this noble family, was known as " John o' th' Inno," at Church Strctton. Tho marquess is singularly rich in city forefathers, for among his ancestors aro at least two other apprentices—Richard Gresh.im, who was Lord Mayor in 1537, and whoso daughter married Sir John Thynne, of Stretton, and Sir Rowland Heyward, cloth worker, and father of 16 children, all of whom are porpetuated in his monument in St. Alphego's Church, London Wall. Tho present Earl of Onslow—son of a former Governor of New Zealand—is linoally descended from Sir Thomas Foot, who," from dipensing tea and suj;ar behind a city counter in early Stuart days, rose to be Lord Mayor of London, to bo dubbed knight by Cromwell, and to see four of his daughters ladic3 of title—two as tho wives of knights, and two as baronets'

spouses. The Earl of Warwick, whose pedigree bears such great names as Plantagenct, Neville, Beauchamp and Newburgh, would not bo quite the man he is but for tho enterprise of two apprentice forefathers. One was Sir Samnol Dasliwood, vintr.er, who, from very small beginnings, lived to play the host to Queen Anno in tho Guild-

ball, arid to see his daughter " my Lady ' Brooke." The other was William Creville, who left his modest homo at Campden to seek and win fortune as a woolstapler in London. Yard Measure in Draper's Shop, Godfrey Doleyn, a light-hearted and stout-armed apprentice of nearly five centuries age, was grandfather of an Earl of Wiltshire, who, in turn, had for a granddaughter none other than Queen Elizabeth. Godfrey Fielding, who served city ladies of tho fifteen!h century in a Milk Street shop, and who was London's chief magistrate in 1452, was an honour- ' nblo ancestor of tho Earls of Denbigh. Tho veteran Earl ol Loicester comes lineally from Thomas Coko, who used a yard measuro in a city drapery shop, and who bad to pay £BOOO of his hard-earned go'd, by way of fine, to that rapacious monarch, Edward IV

Earl Brownlow has for ancestor—as also

bos. Lord Onslow—Sir Samuel Fludyer, ft Cloth Hall factor, who, it is said, originally came to London from the West Country in charge of a team of clothier's pack Jiorr.es, Ho rose so high above his lowly origin as to find a second wife in tho granddaughter of a nobleman and a niece of tho Earl of Cardigan. William Beckford, tho descendant of a Maidenhead tailor, married his daughter to a Duke of Hamilton.

A one-storeyed cottage in the sum]] vil]ago ofApplotnewick, in Yorkshire, was the oradlo of tho house of Craven, of which tho presen' peer is tho fourth earl, and thereby hangs a very remarkable romance.

One day, in the roign of " good Queen Pess," William Craven, tho youthful son of William Craven, a husbandman, left tho paternal roof Partly on foot, partly in the carts of friendly carriers, ho made the long journey to London to win some of the gold with which its streets wero said to ho paved Errand Boy to Sheriff.

When the fad. footsore, but strong of heart, found a place as errand hoy in a city diaper's shop, ho considered him self already on the high road to riches. Indeed, ho reallv ivni To such excellent use did he put his shrewd Yorkshire head Hid robust constitution that, in 1600, he ''•.is made Sheriff of London Eleven jeais later he reached the goal of his imp m" 'c' th,> lonl mayoralty, and in ■urn- farm labourer's son died Sir William Craven, one of London's richest Ci T hon T' C(l cilizc »s His two sons corn became narons

One of these sons was that brave sol ,° f'tistavus Adolphiis, who is sup posed to have married the widowed Queen of Hobe-nia, daughter of King .Tames I. while of his two daughters, one found a husband in a baronet, the othor i n Thomas. Lord Coventry All four children of tho husbandman's son, cradled in a hovel, thus bore titles, whilo he had for daughters-in-law a queen. the daughter of a King of England, and a daughter of a lord (Sponcor). It is, however, from Ilonry Craven, undo of tho boy who founded tho family fortunes that the present earl is descended. The noble House of Dudley had as one PI its founders William Ward, son of a

poor Staffordshire man. Liko William Craven, lie, too, left his native villago to win forfuno ; n London. There lie became apprentice to a jeweller, and found the business so lucrative that he amassed a great fortnno, largely through the Queen's patronage. His son climbed several rungs higher still up tho social ladder. He was dubbed a knight, married a baroness in her own right, and died Lord Ward. Tho name Humble, given to this pioneer Ward poor by his father tho jeweller, is borne to-day bv his descendant, tho twelfth Earl of Dudley. Tho Earl of Carrington (Marquess of Lincolnshire}, for whom a lineal descent is claimed from " Sir Michael Carrington, standard-bearer to King Richard tho First in tho lloly Land," has, in fact, a much less distinguished, if equally honourable, origin. The founder of tho family was plain John Smith, " a respectable draper at Nottingham." John Smith appears to have had no ambition loftier than that of being an honest shopkeeper, in which character he lived and died. John Smith's three sons, however, found a larger sphere for their activities. Thomas pved to be High Sheriff of Leicestershire; Samuel flourished as a London goldsmith and wedded the daughter of a wealthy man in the same lucrative business; while Abel, the third son, turned banker, and succeeded so well Hint, ho was elected to Parliament. It was Abel's second son, Robert, who, as Baron Carrington, first brought a coronet into the draper's family and inaugurated the line of Carrington peers. The Earls of Radnor owe their place in tho British peerago to tho enterprise of

a Flemish lad, Laurence des Bouveries. Laurence was no stay-at-homo youth, content to lead tho narrow, humdrum life of his Flemish ancestors. lie had heard wonderful talcs of tho money that was to bo made in England; and, shaking tho dust of Flanders off his foot, ho made bis way, I alone and unfriended, with a brave heart and an almost empty purse, to Canterj bury. In spito of a stern fight he won I no great riches; but he laid a substantial foundation for the edifice on which tho noble House of Bouverio was to rise in later rears. Ilis descendants were flourishing* Turkey merchants; ono became a knight; and Jacob, the third baronet, found his way through Parliament to the first of tho family peerages, when the second George was King. It was at. equally adventurous youth who founded tho earldom of Essex. The cradle of tho Capels was a poor homo at Stoke Nayland, in Suffolk, which young William Capel left ono day about tho middle of the fifteenth century to tramp to London. Thero he fared so well that, like so many ancestors of nobles, he wa3 made Lord Mayor, and as " Sir William" was a small potentate of the city. So tempting were his money bags that Henrv VII., that "Royal plunderer, fixod his covetous eyes on them, and extracted £2700 by way of an iniquitous fine. When, however, Ild claimed £2OOO more, tho merchant stoutly resisted the imposition, and was promptly sent to the Tower to meditato on tho vanity of riches and the cruelty of Kings. Sir William's son, Giles, lived to wear well-won golden spurs, and to wed a lady

of tho great feudal Uouso of Roos, of Belvoir. From him came, in the fifth generation, the first of the Capel peers. The Earl of Jersey owes much of his wealth and one of his lordly pleasure houses and estates to the industry of

Yancis Child, apprentice to William

Wheeler, a Fleet Street goldsmith, whose daughter he won for his wife. It was a maiden of the apprentice's family 'the daughter of Robert Child) who was tho rieroino of tnai romantic runaway match with the young and handsome Lord Westmorland, and to whose son-in-law, George Child, fifth Earl of Jersey, tho largo fortune founded by tho goldsmith fell.

'lhe Eatls ot Ilarewood flourish on .tho wealth made by their, eighteenth-century ancestors in trado. and Lords Downo and Aveland spring lineally from Gilbert Heathcote I'he latter, from being a Lon don apprentice, rose to bo its Lord Mayor. Iheso are but a few of our noble families who owo, and, in most cases, aro proud to owo, title and great possessions to humble forefathers, who once dispensed tea and libbons and other commodities .over shop counters.