THE DOWER OF ANN OF CLEVES.
At the Reformation, when the monastery of St. Pancras, at Southover, was
destroyed, by order of Henry VIII., on its being surrendered to that
monarch, by Prior Robert Crowham, November 16th, 1537, the manor of
Southover, Lewes, which included the priory, was granted to Thomas
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who also held one moiety of the manor of
Brighthelmston-Lewes:--
4. Hen. VIII. One moiety of this manor, with several other
possessions in Sussex, was recovered by petition, by Thomas, Earl of
Surrey, they having been devised by the Marquis of Berkeley, to Henry
VII., and an act passed in the 7th of that king, whilst the
petitioner was absent on the king's business in the north, and
ignorant of it till the said parliament was ended. The answer is
"_Soit fait come il est desiree_."
The petition is contained in the Burrell MSS. 5637. Folios 36 and 37.
On the attainder and execution of the Earl of Essex, Sir John Gage, of
Firle, was appointed chief steward of Southover and other manors
forfeited by that nobleman within the county of Sussex. But on the 20th
of January, 1541, they were granted to Ann of Cleves, one of the injured
queens of Henry VIII. The Burrell MSS. record:--
32. Hen. VIII. The King granted this manor (Brighthelmston-Lewes)
and advowson to Ann of Cleves; with a great many others in Sussex,
including the manor of Falmer (originally Fald-mer), which, on her
death, again reverted to the crown, and after various successions and
alienations, was purchased of Sir John Shelley, of Michelgrove, by
Thomas, Lord Pelham, on the 2nd day of May, in the year 1770. It
still continues in the possession of the Pelham family, being held by
the Earl of Chichester, of Stanmer, the manor adjoining.
Miss Strickland, in her "Lives of the Queens of England," says:--"The
marriage was dissolved by mutual consent; and she being content to abide
in this realm, and to yield to its laws, and to discharge her conscience
of that pretended marriage, the king, of his especial favour, granted to
her certain manors and estates in divers counties, lately forfeited by
the attainder of the Earl of Essex,--Cromwell, whose spoils formed the
principal fund for the maintenance of this princess,--and Sir Nicholas
Carew, to be held without rendering an account from the Lady-day
foregoing the same grant, which was dated on the 20th of January, 1541."
These grants were made to Ann by Henry VIII., on her assent to the
invalidity of her marriage with that monarch, who refused to consort with
her. On the 8th of August, 1540, Henry married Catherine Howard. The
manor of Falmer was also part of Ann's dower, and in seclusion there she
resided some time; though on her divorce she took up her abode at Preston
House, in the village of Preston, where still, in one of the rooms, is a
large and well executed portrait of her, by some considered the work of
Holbein. It was seeing this portrait which induced the king to desire an
union with hor. She landed at Dover, December, 1538. Henry met her
there, and such was his dislike to her, from her beauty not being equal
to Holbein's portrait, that he spoke of her as a "Flander's Mare," and
used other expressions respecting her of an equally contemptuous
character.
Ann died on the 17th of July, 1557, at the Palace of Chelsea, and was
buried on the 3rd of August, near the high altar, in Westminster Abbey,
near the old portraits of Henry III. and King Sebert.
The manor formerly belonged to the Shirley family, several monumental
tablets to the members of which remain within Preston church. Mary, the
second sister of Sir Richard Shirley, Bart., was married to Thomas
Western, Esq., of Ravenhall, in Essex, who died April 1st, 1733, leaving
an only child, Thomas Western, who married Ann, the daughter of Robert
Callis, Esq., and died in May, 1766, leaving Charles Western as his heir.
Charles Western, Esq., married Frances Shirley, only daughter and heiress
of William Bolland, Esq. His end was of the most melancholy character.
Whilst riding with his eldest son, Charles Callis, a child then about
four years of age, along the road by Goldstone Bottom, the horse
stumbled, and they were precipitated from their carriage, the father
being killed on the spot. The life of the child was preserved by his
being thrown into a furze bush, by the roadside. This occurrence took
place on the 24th July, 1771. The widow, with her two children, Charles
and a younger brother, Shirley, about three years old, shortly after left
Preston, where none of the family ever after returned, and the estate
eventually was purchased by William Stanford, Esq., for 20,000. His
grand-daughter, a minor, is his heiress; and so improved is the estate,
through the favourable circumstance of the railroad from Brighton to
London passing through it, that the portion alone used for the formation
of the line realized 30,000.
Charles Callis Western, who was born on the 9th of August, was created
Baron Western, on the 28th of January, 1833. He died, unmarried, in
1841, when, his brother being dead, the title became extinct.