some person of quality had affronted him. So he spake to Sir Henry Lee
his heire to lie in wayte for him about the Bell Inne in the Strand
with halfe a dozen or more lustie fellowes at his back and as the
partie passed along to give him a good blow with his cane and _whip
and away_, the tall fellowes should finish the revenge. Whether 'twere
nicety of conscience or cowardice, but Sir Henry the younger absolutely
refused it. For which he was disinherited, and <Sir Henry the elder>
setled his whole estate upon a keeper's sonne of Whitchwood-forest of
his owne name, a one-eied young man, no kinne to him, from whom the
earle of Lichfield[100] now is descended, as also the lady Norris and
lady Wharton.
He was never maried, but kept woemen to reade to him when he was a
bed. One of his readers was parson Jones[101] his wife of Wotton. I
have heard her daughter (who had no more witt) glory what a brave
reader her mother was and how Sir Harry's worship much delighted to
heare her. But his dearest deare was Mris. Anne Vavasour. He erected a
noble altar monument of marble (☞ see it) wheron his effigies in armour
lay; at the feet was the effigies of his mistresse Mris. Anne Vavasour.
Which occasioned these verses:--
Here lies good old knight Sir Harry,
Who loved well, but would not marry[102]....
Memorandum: some bishop did threaten to have this monument defaced (at
least to remove Mris. A. Vavasour's effigies).
<_Pedigree of the Lees of Ditchley._>
[103](1) Old Sir Henry Lee[104] of Ditchley, com. Oxon.
(2) Sir Henry Lee, whom they called _Whip-and-away_, was cosen-german
to the other Sir Henry; he dyed a batchelor, sine prole.
(3) Sir Henry Lee[105], _m._ Elenor Wortley, whose
with one eie, a | mother was countesse
keeper's son, | of Dover.
adopted by old |
Sir Henry. |
|
Harry[106] Lee _m._ <Anne> St. John, ... daughter
| of Sir John St. John, of Lydiard
| Tregoze, Wilts; now countess
| of Rochester.
|
Harry Lee[107] _m._ Anne Danvers, second daughter of
| Sir John Danvers, brother and
| heire of Henry, earl of Danby.
+-------------------------------+-------+
| |
<Eleanor> Lee _m._ James, lord Norris <Anne> Lee _m._ <Thomas> eldest
| of Ricot, since earl son of the lord
| of Abingdon. Wharton.
|
+--------+------+-------+---+---+
| | | | |
1. Montagu, now 2. James. 3 4 5
lord Norris.
Old Sir Henry Lee, knight of the Garter, and was supposed brother of
queen Elizabeth. He ordered that all his family should be christned
_Harry's_.
This account I take from my lady Elizabeth viscountesse Purbec, the
eldest daughter of Sir John Danvers, sister to the lady Anne Lee.
[108]One-eied Lee[109] _m._ <Anne> St. John _m._ <Henry>, lord Wilmot.
| |
| <John>, earl of Rochester.
|
... _m._ <Sir Henry> Lee _m._ Anne Danvers
| |
earl of Litchfield[110]. +-----+--------+
| |
Lady Norris. Lady Wharton.
=William Lee= (15-- -1610).
[111]Mr. William Lee, A.M., was of Oxon[112] (I thinke, Magdalen
Hall[Q]). He was the first inventor of the weaving of stockings by an
engine of his contrivance. He was a Sussex man borne, or els lived
there. He was a poor curate, and, observing how much paines his wife
tooke in knitting a payre of stockings, he bought a stocking and a
halfe, and observed the contrivance of the stitch, which he designed
in his loome, which (though some of the appendent instruments of the
engine be altered) keepes the same to this day. He went into France,
and there dyed before his loome was made there. So the art was, not
long since, in no part of the world but England. Oliver Protector made
an act that it should be felonie to transport this engine. Vide Stowe's
Chronicle and Baker's Chronicle, if any mention of it. This information
I tooke from a weaver (by this engine) in Pear-poole lane, 1656. Sir
John Hoskyns, Mr. Stafford Tyndale, and I, went purposely to see it.
_Note._