_Audley Family._--Can any of your correspondents inform me whether there
are any male representatives still existing of the family of _Audley_
(or _Awdeley_) of _Gransden_, in Huntingdonshire; or, if not, when it
became extinct?
Thomas Audley, created Lord Audley of Walden, Lord High Chancellor, and
K. G. by Henry VIII., had an only daughter and heiress, married to the
Duke of Norfolk. He had also two brothers, Robert and Henry. _Robert_
was of _Berechurch_, in Essex; and, on the chancellor's death without
male issue, inherited from him large landed property. His line
flourished for several generations, and ended in Henry Audley--a weak
and vicious spendthrift, who ruined himself, and died (without issue) in
the Fleet Prison, in 1714, having married a daughter of Philip, Viscount
Strangford. _Henry_, the chancellor's youngest brother, had the manor of
_Great Gransden_, in Huntingdonshire, by a grant from Henry VIII., where
his descendants were fixed for several generations. In the _Visitation
of Hunts_, made in 1613, under the authority of William Camden
(Clarencieux), there is a pedigree of the Audleys of Gransden, which
comes down to Robert Audley, married to Elizabeth, daughter of John
Marbury, who had two sons then living, _Robert_ and _Francis_, of the
respective ages of three and two (in 1613): a daughter, _Elizabeth_, was
born in 1614, and married William Sneyd, Esq., of Keele, co. Stafford;
she had issue, and died 1686, aged seventy-two.
Gransden must have passed from the possession of that family not long
after this visitation; for, in Charles II.'s time, it belonged to Sir
Julius Cæsar: and in the catalogue of lords and gentlemen who compounded
for their estates (1655), the only Audleys of Hunts who were mentioned,
are, _Wheatehill Audley, of Woodhurst_; and _Molineux Audley, of St.
Ives_ (both in Hunts). The parish registers of Gransden throw no light
on the fate of the family. The church contains no memorials, and local
tradition is silent.
Can any of your correspondents supply any information? My object is to
ascertain whether the above-mentioned _Elizabeth_, married to Wm. Sneyd,
did, or did not, become the representative of the family, by the death,
without issue, of her brothers.