It is well known, that the elevation of the BERTIES was produced by a fortunate marriage at the close of the reign of Henry VIII. with Katherine, Baroness Willoughby of Eresby, widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk."

. The genealogical flattery of Collins in this instance raises a smile. But I cannot refuse it a place in this note.

"This family," says Collins," originally came into England from Berti land in Prussia, when the Saxons first invaded this nation; and by the gift of one of the Saxon Kings had a castle, and also a town, which was denominated from them Bertiestad, now Bersted, near Maidstone in Kent; Sted and Stad denoting, in the Saxon language, a town."---Unfortunately, surnames were derived from places and not imposed on them.

"It appears from an old manuscript in the Cotton library, that LEOPALD de Bertie was constable of Dover castle in the reign of King Ethelred from whom descended HIERONYMUS de Bertie, founder, or at least a great benefactor to one of the monasteries in Kent, the north part of which he built at his own expence, and himself was buried in a chapel there, where these arms were put up against a pillar, viz Three Battering Rams in Pale.

"The said Leopald quarrelling with the monks of St. Austin at Canterbury, about tythes, and the monks endeavouring to carry them off by force of arms, a fight began, wherein a son of Leopald's was slain; of which he

a Philpot's Survey of Kent.

VOL. II.

b Ex Collect. Rob. Glover, Som, • Ibid.

B

Thomas Bertie, Esq. was captain of Hurst Castle in the Isle of Wight, the latter end of the reign of Henry VII. and was living in the reign of Edward VI. as appears in a grant of his arms and crest, bearing date July 10th, 1550, by Thomas Hawley, Clarenceux King of Arms; wherein he certifies, "that he was descended of an house undefamed, was then captain of Hurst Castle for the King's Majesty, and had of a long time used himself in feats of arms and good works; so that he was worthy in all places of honour to be admitted, numbered and taken in the company of other nobles, &c." By his wife, a daughter of .... Say, of the county of Salop, he had issue, RICHARD," who had his education first in Corpus Christi college, Oxon, of which house he was fellow, and afterwards under Thomas Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton, Lord High Chancellor of England; and

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complained to the King, but receiving no satisfaction, he flew for aid to Swain, King of the Danes, who invaded the kingdom with a powerful fleet, which was divided into two squadrons, one steering towards Northumberland, and the other for Kent, where they joined Leopald's forces, and laid siege to Canterbury, which they took in the year 1014, leading the archbishop away captive. But Swain dying, the scale soon turned, for Ethelred miserably persecuted the Danes, and BURBACH Bertie, the only surviving son of Leopald, conscious of his father's actions, went to Robert, King of France, who received him honourably, and taking to wife a French woman, settled there, where his posterity continued till the year 1154, when PHILIP Bertie, with his family, accompanied Henry II. into England, and by that Prince's favour, recovered his patrimony in Bersted.

"This Philip had issue& MARTIN, who was father of ROBERT, who had issue WILLIAM, who had issue EDWARD, who was father of JEROME Bertie, who lived at Bersted aforesaid, in the reign of Henry V.

"This Jerome, one Sunday in Lent, hearing a monk in a church exclaiming against the murder occasioned by his ancestor, rushed in upon him, and slew him; for which rash act he was excommunicated by the archbishop, from which he could not be absolved at any rate; so he went to Rome, where he obtained absolution, with this injunction, viz To hear, in the monastery of Canterbury, mass publicly on a Sunday; then to ask first of the archbishop, and then of the monks, pardon; then to be absolved, and receive the sacrament, and to give to the convent two pieces of gold, as the fruit of his repentance, and for the souls of his ancestors.' He afterwards became a benefactor, by new building, at his own charge, their church, by which (as my author saith) he much impaired his fortune on earth, but by it he obtained a greater in heaven. "To this Jerome succeeded ROBERT de Bertie, his son and heir, who had issue a son of his own name, father of WILLIAM, who by his wife, a daughter of Pepper, had issue THOMAS Bertie, of Bersted in Kent, Esq. Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. i. p. 276. a. Hollinsh. P. 1143.

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being singularly accomplished and learned in the French, Italian, and Latin tongues, he gained the affections of Catherine, widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. She was, in her own right, BARONESS WILLOUGHBY OF ERESBY, being daughter and sole heir of William Willoughby, the last Lord Willoughby of Eresby, of his sirname, as will be shewn under that title. But this Lady being most zealous for the reformation, in the reign of Edward VI. Stephen Gardiner, after that he was restored by Queen Mary to his bishoprick of Winchester,d sent for this Richard Bertie her husband, in the first year of her reign, and amongst some questions touching his religion, asked, "Whether the Lady, his wife, was now as ready to set up mass as she had been to pull it down, when in her progress she caused a dog in a rochet to be carried, and called by his name?" Whereupon being advertised by his friends, that the bishop meant to call the Duchess, his wife, to an account for her faith; and foreseeing the danger, he procured the Queen's licence to travel beyond sea, under colour of looking after such debts as were due from the Emperor to the late Duke of Suffolk, his Lady's former husband. And having obtained it, passed the seas at Dover, in June the same year, 1554, leaving her behind; who, in January following, went disguised from her house in Barbican, London; and passing to Leigh in Essex, privately took shipping, and after much danger at sea, met her husband at Santon in Cleveland, where, after some stay, discerning that they were like to be questioned for their religion by the bishop of Arras, they were necessitated to haste away on foot with her daughter, a child, and two of the servants, to Wesel, a Hanse Town in the Duchy of Cleveland; but being got thither, extremely weather-beaten with rain, and going from inn to inn to obtain lodging, it was refused them, by reason he was suspected for a lance knight, and she his mistress: resolving therefore to get shelter in the church porch, and to buy coals to warm them there, in their way, hearing two young men speak Latin, he enquired of them in that language, where they might go to some Walloon's house, and were happily brought where Mr. Petusel lodged, who had formerly received some courtesies in England from this Duchess. By his means being kindly entertained, they changed apparel with the good man and his wife, and after hired a house in that town, having got a protection from the magistrates for their stay there; and here the Duchess being brought to bed

Hollinsh. p. 1144

Ibid. p. 1142.

f Ibid. p. 1143, 1144

of a son, October 12th, 1555, he, by reason of his birth in that country, was christened Peregrine.

But when they thought themselves happily settled, intelligence was sent to Mr. Bertie, that it had been contrived in England to seize them there; whereby they were obliged on a sudden to haste to a town called Winheim, in the Palsgrave's dominions, where they staid till their necessaries began to fail; and then it providentially happened, that Sigismund II. King of Poland, hearing of their distress, invited them into his country.

They set forth from Winheim in April 1557, but in their way underwent divers great hardships, with no little danger of their lives by the Landgrave's soldiers; who by reason of a quarrel for a spaniel, which they had along with them, thrust boar-spears into the waggon where the Duchess with her children and the other women were, and, upon pursuit of her husband into a village, had murdered him, but that he forsook his horse, and ran up a ladder set to a garret window, near the top of an house. By which means escaping their sudden fury, one of the burgh masters came to him, and brought another person who could speak Latin; to whom submitting himself, he presently dispatched letters to the Earl of Erbagh (dwelling within eight miles) who, thereupon repairing thither, shewed them such respect as properly belonged to persons of their quality. And seeing the Earl's behaviour to them, the authors of the fray got off, and made all the friends they could to them, not to report their usage in the worst manner. After which they passed on quietly towards Poland, where they received courteous entertainment from the King, and were honourably placed in the Earldom of Crozan in Sanogela; in which place having the absolute power of governing, they continued in great quietness and honour till the death of Queen Mary, and then returned into England.

In 6 Elizabeth, waiting on the Queen to Cambridge, when the university, for five days, entertained her with comedies, tragedies, and orations, Mr. Bertie had then the degree of master of arts conferred on him.

He died in the sixty-fourth year of his age, on April 9th, 1582, as the inquisition taken after his decease, August 14th, 24 Elizabeth, at Bourne in Lincolnshire, sets forth, and was pos sessed of one third of the monastery of Vawdie, alias Valdy, the

Hollinsh. p. 1145.

Cole's Esc. lib 4 p. 64 N. 61. A. 15. in Bibl. Harley.