Probatum fuit testament. suprascriptum apud London. coram
judice 5^o Septembris 1634.
Several of Mr. Noye’s works have been printed, and others remain in
manuscript.
Noye’s Grounds and Maxims of the English Law, various
editions; the last, with additions by Charles Barton, Esq.
in 1800.
Noye’s Reports, printed in 1656, 2d edition in fol. 1669.
Noye’s Perfect Conveyancer, London 1655.
Noye’s Complete Lawyer, London 1661, and a second edition in
8vo, 1674.
Noye’s Treatise of the Rights of the Crown, declaring how
the King of England may support and increase his Annual
Revenues, in 12mo, 1715, but written in the 10th year of
Charles the First. The Editor has two MSS. of this work.
The following MSS. are preserved in the British Museum.
Some Notes from Mr. Attorney-general Noye’s Reading in
Lincoln’s Inn, Aug. 1632, where he showed that Law Readings
are of great antiquity.――Harl. MSS. No. 980, art. 164.
From the same Readings. That every Inn of Court is an
University, extolling the Ancient Lawyers for not assuming
Lofty Titles, &c.――Ibid. art. 165.
From the same, relative to Officers in the Forest.――Ibid.
art. 166.
His Opinion that Espousals in Facie Ecclesiæ are but pro
honestate publicanda.――Ibid. art. 174.
Ex Ultima Voluntate sive Testamento Willelmi Noye, Attornati
Generalis.――Harl. MSS. 980, art. 226.
Mr. Noye’s Argument on the Earl of Suffolk’s case, 16th
April 1628――Harl. MSS. 2305, art. 51.
The Will of Mr. Wm. Noye, (Lat.) June 3d, 1634.――Cotton MSS.
Titus B. VIII. 344.
Memoirs of William Noye.――Sir Hans Sloane’s MSS. see
Ayscough’s Catalogue, vol. II. p. 736.
Mr. Noye also left in manuscript several collections from the Records
in the Tower, especially two large volumes:――
One respecting the King’s prerogative for maintaining the
Naval Power according to the practice of his Ancestors.
The other relating to the Privileges and Jurisdiction of
Ecclesiastical Courts, to which Doctor Thomas James, the
learned Compiler of the Bodleian Catalogue, acknowledges his
obligation in a work, entitled “A Manuduction or
Introduction into Divinity,” Oxford, 1625, 4to.
Mr. Noye had the honour of receiving the public thanks of his College,
under the following circumstances: Sir William Petre, son of John
Petre, of Torbryan in Devonshire, well known as Secretary of State in
the time of King Henry the Eighth, and successively in the reigns of
his three successors, had been a Commoner of Exeter College, and from
thence elected a Fellow of All Souls. He afterwards became Principal
of Peckwater Hall, one of the Visitors of Religious Houses, and
finally Secretary of State. Sir John Petre, by participating in the
good fortune of all those who were favourites at Court in this
eventful period of our history, appropriated to himself a share of the
Confiscated Church Lands, most profusely distributed; and by so doing
became the founder of a family still existing, with an hereditary seat
in Parliament, and professing the Catholic religion. Wishing perhaps
to make some restitution, Sir John Petre founded eight Fellowships at
Exeter College, in the Protestant University of Oxford, to all of
which, called Petrean Fellowships, he continued to nominate during his
life, according to an ancient custom in similar cases; but when his
successors attempted to exercise the same right or privilege, they
were resisted by the College, and the cause came to be tried in the
Court of Common Pleas, under the form of a replevin; they were
successfully and gratuitously supported by Mr. Noye, as will appear
from the passage in the College Register.
A. D. 1614. Circa idem tempus reclivimus vaccas Edmundi Lord per
replevin de Walton Court, ubi hæsit paulisper negotium donec Baro
Petreius illud transferri curavit ad Communia Placita, ut ibidem
decernatur.
Petimus autem nos per Dominum Chamberlyne, servientem ad Legem, ut,
bonâ cum judicum veniâ, in Comitiis Oxoniensibus coram Justitiario
Regis hoc transigeretur, sed obnixe obstitit Baro Petreius. Sic
convenerunt Rector et Magister Chambers, ex Collegii consensu, ad
causam promovendam in Communibus Placitis. Qui adeuntes Dominum
Gulielmum Noye, olim hujus Collegii Baccellarium, virum in jure
municipali (si quis alius per totam Angliam) perspicacissimum et
profundissimum, ab eo semper acceperunt quod esset faciendum.
Perlegit ille, et diligentissime perpendit omnes evidentias nostras et
statuta, expendit rationes utriusque partis, conteruit solide
compendia sive brevia quibus servientes (nam tales solum audiuntur in
Communibus Placitis) informabantur. Ipse (sc. Dominus Gulielmus Noye)
eos, relictis propriis negotiis, una cum nobis edit et instauravit;
quæ omnia sponte fecit et alacriter, sine omni expectatione præmii,
quæ ideo in fastos referenda duximus, ut agnosceret talis viri in
Collegium pietatem grata posteritas.
The Editor possesses a picture of Mr. Noye painted on oak, by
Cornelius Jansen; and at the desire of Exeter College, he has recently
presented to them a copy, which is placed in the Hall.
Mr. Noye was succeeded by his eldest son Edward; but the melancholy
forebodings expressed in his will: “I have left all the remainder of
my property to my son Edward (whom I have constituted executor of this
my will) to be squandered, nor have I ever hoped any better,” were
rendered vain by the death of this young man, soon after that of his
father, in a duel with a Captain Byron.
Humphrey then succeeded as eldest son, and in the year 1637 allied
himself by marriage with the very distinguished family of Sandys, of
The Vine, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire.
The Editor has their marriage contract, which may be esteemed a
curiosity, as compared with the more lengthened writings of recent
times.
“Articles of agreement, indented, had, made, and agreed upon
the three and twentieth day of May, in the thirteenth year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace of
God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, King,
Defender of the Faith, &c. Between Henry Sandys, of the
Vine, in the county of Southampton, Esq. and Hester Sandys,
one of the daughters of the said Henry Sandys, of the one
part, and Humphrey Noye, of Carnanton, in the county of
Cornwall, Esq. of the other part, as followeth, viz.:
“Whereas a marriage is intended to be had and solemnized
between the said Humphrey Noye, of the one part, and the
said Hester Sandys, of the other part, if the laws of God
and the Holy Church shall permit the same,
“In consideration of which marriage it is covenanted and
agreed, by and between the said parties, as followeth:
“Imprimis, the said Henry Sandys, for himself, his heirs,
executors, and administrators, and for every and either of
them, doth contract, promise, and grant, to the said
Humphrey Noye, his executors, administrators, and assigns,
and to and with every and either of them, by these presents,
that in consideration of the said marriage, he the said
Henry Sandys do and shall give and pay unto the said
Humphrey Noye, his executors, administrators, or assigns,
the full sum of two thousand pounds current money of
England, as a marriage portion for and with the said Hester
Sandys his daughter, to be paid unto the said Humphrey Noye,
his executors, administrators, and assigns, in manner and
form following, viz.: the sum of one thousand pounds current
money, parcel of the said two thousand pounds portion, to be
paid in hand at the very day of the marriage aforesaid, and
the sum of one thousand pounds residue, parcel of the said
two thousand pounds portion, to be paid in manner and form
following, that is to say, five hundred pounds in and upon
the first day of November next ensuing the date hereof, and
the other five hundred pounds residue thereof, in and upon
the feast day of the Ascension of our Blessed Lord and
Saviour, then also next ensuing.
“Item. The said Humphrey Noye, for himself, his heirs,
executors, and administrators, and for every and either of
them, doth covenant, promise, and grant, to and with the
said Henry Sandys, his executors, administrators, and
assigns, and to and with every and either of them, by these
presents, that he the said Humphrey Noye, in consideration
of the said marriage, at or before the feast of All Saints
next ensuing, shall and will in due form of law convey,
settle, and assure, to and for the use of the said Hester,
his intended wife, so much of his lands and tenements as
shall be of the clear yearly value of three hundred pounds,
by the year, for and during the term of the natural life of
her, the said Hester, for and in lieu of her jointure, freed
and discharged of and from all and all manner of
incumbrances whatsoever, the security thereof to be made in
such manner and form as by Counsel learned in the law, of
the said Henry Sandys and Humphrey Noye, shall be reasonably
devised, advised, or required.
“In witness whereof the parties abovesaid, to these present
indentures, interchangeably have set their hands and seals
the day and year first above written.”
The seals appended under the signatures Henry Sandys and Hester
Sandys, bear the impressions: Argent, a cross raguly Sable; arms of
their maternal ancestors, Sandys, of The Vine.
This lady’s grandfather, Sir Edwin Sandys, nephew of Edwin Sandys,
Archbishop of York, whose family originated from St. Bees, in
Cumberland, bearing for their arms, Or, a fess dancette between three
crosses crosslet fitchy Gules; married Elizabeth, daughter and sole
heiress of William Baron Sandys, of The Vine, by tenure in fee, under
a writ of summons issued by King Henry VIII. on the 3d of November
1529, in the 21st year of his reign. Their son Henry Sandys, party to
the above marriage settlement, married his first cousin Margaret,
daughter of Sir William Sandys, of Hedbury, in the County of
Worcester, and lost his life in one of the battles of the Civil War,
in 1644. They had several children, of whom William, Henry, and Edwin,
were in succession summoned to Parliament on the right deduced from
their grandmother, and with the last of these the barony fell again
into abeyance. Hester, their eldest sister, married Colonel Humphrey
Noye, and their daughter, Catharine, on the 21st of July 1679, married
William Davies, of St. Erth. John Davies, their son and ultimate heir,
married Elizabeth Phillips, of Tredrea; and their daughter and heiress
married the Rev. Edward Giddy, whose only son is the Editor of this
work.
Another daughter of Colonel Humphrey Noye and Hester Sandys,
christened Bridgman, in remembrance of Sir Orlando Bridgman, an early
friend and patron of the Attorney-general, married Mr. John Willyams
of Roseworthy, in Gwiniar, and, dying without issue, left him
Carnanton, which had fallen to her share. Mr. Willyams married
secondly Dorothy, daughter of Mr. John Day, by whom he had two sons.
John, the elder, married the daughter and heiress of Mr. Oliver, a
gentleman of Falmouth. They had a son, Mr. John Oliver Willyams, for
many years Colonel of the Cornwall Militia; and a daughter Ann,
married to Mr. William Lemon, jun. only son of the great Mr. Lemon.
The younger son was James; whose son James Willyams succeeded to
Carnanton, under the will of his first cousin John Oliver Willyams, in
the year 1809; and his son, Humphrey Willyams, Esq. now resides there,
having so much altered and improved the house and gardens, as to place
Carnanton among the gentlemen’s residences of the first class in
Cornwall.
Thomas Willyams, a Captain in the Navy (brother of Mr. John Willyams,
who married Miss Bridgman Noye,) married ―――― Fox, of Deal; they left
a son John Willyams, also a Captain in the Navy, who married Anne
Goodyere, and their son, the Reverend Cooper Willyams, Rector of
Kingston, near Canterbury, is known to the world by various
publications:
A History of Sudeley Castle.
A Campaign in the West Indies, with the reduction of the
Island of Martinique, &c.
A Voyage up the Mediterranean, with description of the
Battle of the Nile; and some others.
He married Elizabeth Snell, of Whitby.
Mr. Cooper Willyams died July the 17th, 1816, leaving two sons and two
daughters.
The late Mr. John Oliver Willyams related to me an anecdote,
illustrative of the contingencies which are incident to human life,
and of the concatenation between public and private events.
His grandfather, Mr. John Willyams, had undertaken a journey to Oxford
in the year 1685, but was stopped at Exeter by the Duke of Monmouth’s
invasion; he returned in company with a gentleman of St. Columb, and
remained there a few days, where at some public exhibition he met with
Miss Bridgman Noye, who soon afterwards became his wife.
Mr. Hals devotes some pages to the virulent abuse of Colonel Humphrey
Noye, against whom it is obvious that he must have entertained a
personal animosity; but the Editor, having omitted various similar
effusions, hopes that he shall not be accused of any partial favour
towards his own ancestors, by omitting this also, which does not carry
with it the semblance of truth.
Mawgan in Pider measures 6078 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4016 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 360 6 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 543 | 622 | 580[6] | 745
giving an increase of 37 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Philip Carlyon, instituted on his own
presentation in 1806. Net income in 1831, 585_l._