John, eldest son, succeeded his father in 1805, as SECOND MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. He was born December 6th, 1765, and in 1786, and again in 1790 was elected member for the borough of Chipping Wycombe. He married, May 27th, 1805, Lady Giffard, relict of Sir Duke Giffard, Bart. of Castle John, in the county of Meath, in Ireland,

Titles. John Petty, Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl of Wycombe, Viscount Calne, Lord Wycombe, Baron of Chepping Wycombe, in Great Britain; also Earl of Shelburne, Viscount Fitz-Maurice, and Baron of Dunkerron, in Ireland.

Creations. Baron of Dunkerron, in the county of Waterford, and Viscount Fitz-Maurice, October 7th, 1751, 25 Geo. II. Earl of Shelburne, in the county of Wexford, June 26th, 1753, 27 Geo. II. and Lord Wycombe, Baron of Chepping Wycombe, in the county of Buckingham, May 17th, 1760, 33 Geo. II. and Marquis of Lansdowne Earl of Wycombe and Viscount Calne, November 30th, 1784.*

Arms. Quarterly, 1. and 4. ermine on a bend, az. a magnetic needle, pointing at a polar star, Or, for Petty, 2. ar.d 3. Argent, a saltire, Gules, and chief, ermine, with a crescent for difference.

Crest. On a wreath, a bee-hive, beset with bees, diversely volant, proper. Also on a wreath a centaur, party per fess, proper and Argent, with his bow and arrow, proper.

Supporters. On the dexter side, a pegasus, ermine, with bridle, mane, tail, wings, and hoofs, Or, and charged on the shoulder with a fleur-de-lis gules: on the sinister, a gryphon, Or, Motto. Virtute non verbis.

Chief Seats. Bow-wood park, near Calne, in Wiltshire, and Southampton,

THIS is certainly a family of considerable antiquity: our antiquaries assert that it is one of the oldest in the county of York, and of Anglo-Saxon origin, though they differ as to its patriarch, whom some will have to be Sir Alan Gower, said to be sheriff of that county at the time of the Norman Conquest, A. D. 1066, and Lord of Stittenham in the same county, now possessed by the present Marquis;, whilst others with greater probability assert, that it is descended from one Guhyer, whose son, called William Fitz Gubyer, of Stittenham, was charged with half a mark (or rather a mark) for his lands in the sheriff's accounts, 1167, 13 Hen. II. and that Alan was, very likely, his son, who in the 25th of the same reign, was taxed with one hundred shillings in the sheriff's accounts, for three parts of a knight's fee.

In 1257, was living Sir Walter, probably the father of Sir Robert de Guer, alive in the 18th and 22d years of Edw. I. about which time, perhaps, the name began to be differently written : for in the 28th of that monarch's reign, Sir John Gower was one of those persons of note a summoned to be at Carlisle with horse and arms, on the feast of the nativity of St. John Baptist, to march against the Scots: also the year after (29 Edw. I.) had summons to be at Berwick with horse and arms on the same account.

b

In 7 Edw. II. LAWRENCE Gower, of that county, had the King's parden, for being concerned, with Thomas Earl of Lan

MS. in Bibl. Joh. Anstis Arm Not. B. c.
b Ryley's Placit. Parl. p. 494.

Rymer's Ford. tom. iii. p. 443,

caster, in the murder of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, the great favourite of Edward II. at Blacklow-hill in Warwickshire, on June 19th, 1312. To Lawrence succeeded

d

Sir NICHOLAS Gower, Knight, who in 12 Edw. III. being with William de Remington returned Knights of the shire for the county of York, to a great council held at Northampton, by Edward, Duke of Cornwal (commonly called the Black Prince) guardian of the realm, in the absence of King Edward beyond the seas, had on that account 57. 12s. for fourteen days attendance. He was in the great battle near Durham, so fatal to the Scots, October 17th, 1346, and having taken there several prisoners, the King sent his precept to him to convey them to the Tower of London, the better to prevent their escapes. In 21 Edw. III. he was again' elected knight of the shire for the county of York, with William de Scurveton; and the year after, with Thomas de Ingleby. In 24 Edw. III. he had the King's leave to go to Rome, with six valets and seven horses in his retinue: and (the year after) on August 2d, 1351, was commissioned to hear and determine a certain riot and offence committed on Hugh, Archbishop of Damascus, at Newsted near Boghland, or Boland. He had issue Sir Thomas Gower his son and heir.

Which Sir THOMAS Gower married Agnes, daughter of Thomas Thwaytes, of Lovetofts in com. Ebor, Esq. by whom he had two sons, Thomas, hereafter mentioned, and Sir John, second son continuator of the line; also four daughters, Anne, married to Sir Ralph Ellerker, of Risby, Knight; Margaret, to James Aislaby, of South Dalton, Esq.; Alice, to William Hungate, of Saxton, Esq.; and Joan, to Robert Constable, Esq.

THOMAS Gower (eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Gower) in 11 Henry IV. was constituted one of the commissioners of array in the North-riding of Yorkshire. And serving in the French wars under that victorious monarch Henry V. so far signa. lized himself, that he was made governor of the castle of Mans. And in 5 Henry VI. when the town, being under the government of the Earl of Suffolk, was betrayed to the French by the treachery of the citizens, whereby the English (as Hollinshed relates) fled to the castle of Mans, then under the command of this Thomas

Pryn's 4th Part of a brief Regist. p. 163.

• Rymer's Foed. tom. v p. 533

Rymer, tom. v p. 681.

Pryn's Brev. Parl. p 34

n Ibid. p. 720.

I Vis de com Ebor by Glover, p. 152, penes Johan. com. Egmont.

Rymer's Fœd tom viii. p. 640.

Gower, in which they were immediately besieged, and which, through want of provisions, they were unable to hold, he privately informed the Lord Talbot of their condition, who suddenly set upon the enemy, slew a great number, and relieved the city

On April 7th, 1421, the King reciting that he is going into Normandy, and other parts of France, and having need of money for the payment of his soldiers, going with him in the expedition; he in confidence of the loyalty and care of this Thomas Gower,' commissions him with Henry Earl of Northumberland, and others, to summon all persons both clergy and laymen, in the Northriding of Yorkshire, as they shall think proper, to treat with them about a loan, to be paid into the hands of the treasurer of England before May 1st ensuing.

The said Thomas Gower, during his abode there, married a French Lady. For in 11 Henry VI on his petition to the parliament in England," setting forth, that Joan his wife was born at Allançon in France, and praying that his children by her might be naturalized; it was accordingly enacted, that all the children between them shall be denizens. One of these, probably, was Walter Gower, who is styled of Stittenham, 9 Hen. V. and 14 Hen. VI. and by his dying without issue, before his father, the estate might devolve to his uncle Sir John, the brother of Thomas, this Walter's father, who was living in 25 Hen. VI. being then the ninth in the list of the forty-three principal persons in Yorkshire, who, with the sheriff, returned James Pickering, and Willam Normanvil, Knights of the said county, to the parliament held in that year: For, by all writs before that time, the Attornies (or proxies) only of Nobles, Barons, Ladies, and some few Knights, who were suitors in the county court, made the elections of the Knights of Yorkshire, and sealed the indentures, as Prynne observes in his Brevia Parliament. Parti. p. 152, 153, 154. Sir JOHN

Gower, above-mentioned, is said to be son and

' Rymer's Fœd. tom x p 96.

m Cotton's Abridg of Rec f 610

The earlier editions of Collins have confounded this person with Job Gower, the poet, the cotemporary of Chaucer. But the later editors have abandoned this, perceiving its anachronism. The poet died, according to Warton, in 1402 Tanner says he derived his origin from this family of Stittenham, in Yorkshire. Bibl. 335. See a full and critical account of him in Warton's Hist. E. P. vol. ii. p 1-31. It seems he was born in Wales.

• Vis de com Ebor. præd. p. 134.

heir of Sir Thomas, by Agnes his wife, daughter of Thomas Thwaytes of Lovetofts, in com. Ebor. Which Sir John P was standard-bearer to Prince Edward, son of King Henry VI. and being taken at the battle of Tewkesbury, May 4th, 1471, was there beheaded. Stow, by mistake, calls him James, and relates, that he and others having taken sanctuary in the church, King Edward would have entered and taken them out; but a priest brought the sacrament before him, and refused to let him enter, till he had granted his pardon to them. On which they staid in the church, when they might have escaped, from Saturday till Monday, and then, notwithstanding the King's promise, they were taken out and beheaded.

t

This Sir John had issue by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Edward Goldsborough, Baron of the Exchequer, in 1 Hen. VII. five sons, Edward; John, who, accompanying Thomas Earl of Surrey, in 13 Henry VII. in his expedition into Scotland, was knighted for his valour in taking Ayton Castle; George, Robert, and Walter also three daughters, Joan, married to Hugh Clytherow, of Brantingham, in com. Ebor. Elizabeth, to Christopher Fenton, of Creake, in the same county, Esqrs.; and Anne.

EDWARD, the eldest son and heir, received the honour of knighthood, and marrying Margery, daughter of Sir Robert Constable, of Flamborough in Yorkshire, Knight, and relict of John St. Quintin, of Harpham, Esq. by her had two sons, and three daughters; Thomas, his heir, and Richard, who by Agnes his wife, daughter" and coheir of William Leving, of Aclam, in com. Ebor. had issue four sons, Edward, Thomas, Francis, and Ralph. His three daughters were, Catharine, married to Walter, son of Thomas de la River, of Bransby in Yorkshire, Esq.; Agnes, to Sir John Widdrington, of Widdrington in com. North.; and Barbara, to Sir Henry, son and heir of the said Sir John Widdrington, by a former wife.

X

THOMAS, eldest son of Sir Edward, was constituted on

P Stow's ann p 424

• There seems something deficient in this part of the pedigree. The time requires at least another generation.

Vis. de com. Ebor ut antea.

Pa I Hen VII p. 1.

MS. in Bibl Cotton sub. Effig Claudius, C. 3.

u Vis de com. Ebor præd.

* Leland mentions, in his Itinerary, Mr. Gower's house at Stittenham.

› Bill sign 35 Hen VIII.