(Vol. ix., p. 19.)
Many years have passed away since I went over Bisham Abbey; but I was then
informed that any family portraits belonging to the old House had been
taken away by the widow of Sir John Hoby Mill, Baronet, who sold the
property to Mr. George Vansittart in 1780, or shortly afterwards. I am not
aware that there are any engraved portraits of the Hobys, excepting those
mentioned by your correspondent MR. WHITBORNE, which form part of the
series of Holbein's _Heads_, published in 1792 by John Chamberlaine, from
the original drawings still in the royal collection. In the meagre account
of the persons represented in that work, Lady Hoby is described as
"Elizabeth, one of the four daughters of Sir Antony Cooke, of Gidea Hall,
Essex," and widow of Sir Thomas Hoby, who died in 1566, at Paris, whilst on
an embassy there. The lady remarried John Lord Russell, eldest son of
Francis, second Earl of Bedford, whom she also survived, and deceasing 23rd
of July, 1584, was buried in Bisham Church, in which she had erected a
chapel containing splendid monuments to commemorate her husbands and
herself. The inscriptions will be found in Ashmole's _Berkshire_, vol. ii.
p. 464., and in Wotton's _Baronetage_, vol. iv. p. 504., where the Hoby
crest is given as follows; "On a chapeau gules turned up ermine, a wolf
regreant argent." The armorial bearings are described very minutely in
Edward Steele's Account of Bisham Church, Gough MSS., vol. xxiv., Bodleian,
which contains some other notices of the parish.