I have thought that the following old letter, relative to a family once
of some distinction, and especially as describing a very remarkable
individual, from whom a multitude of living persons are immediately
descended, might be of sufficient interest to occupy a place in "NOTES
AND QUERIES." It has never, that I am aware of, been published; but it
has long been preserved, amongst similar papers, with the accompanying
endorsement:--"Though Mr. Ernle's letter relating to Lady Hopton and her
family contains some fabulous accounts, and is in some parts a little
unintelligible, yet it may be urged in confirmation of the truth of the
several descents therein mentioned. He was the son of Sir John Ernle,
and could not but have some general knowledge of his grandmother's
relations."
This Mr. Ernle, afterwards knighted, died A.D. 1686.
Sir Arthur Hopton lived at Witham Friary, co. Somerset, and the heroine
of this document was, according to the pedigree in Sir R. C. Hoare's
_Monastic Remains of Witham_, &c., Rachel, daughter of Edmund Hall of
Gretford, co. Lincoln, Esq. The date of Sir Arthur's death is not there
given, but he was made a K.B. in 1603.