vention of the genealogist, for Robert Lawrence of Ashton, Esq. died 1450, leaving his eldest son James in his twenty-third year; and William Gerrard of Ince (ancestor of Lord Gerrard of Gerrard Bromley), having married Cecilia the daughter of Laurence Standish, he makes her daughter of Sir James Laurence, and carry_Ashton Hall to the Gerrard family. This was an ingenious operation, out of two individuals, James Standish, and Laurence Standish, to compose Sir James Laurence of Standish. Thus the genealogist was ignorant that Ashton Hall had passed through heiresses from the Lawrences to the Butlers of Rawcliffe; from the Butlers to the Ratcliffes of Wimersley; and from the Ratcliffes to the Gerrards of Gerrards Bromley; but conceived that it had passed immediately through a daughter of Sir James from the Lawrences to the Gerrards. It has since passed, through the heiress of the last Lord Gerrard, to the Dukes of Hamilton.

When John Lawrence, son of Sir James, was killed at Flodden Field, the chief part of the Lawrence property was divided between the four daughters of Robert Lawrence, only brother of Sir James, or their de scendants; whilst other manors descended to Lancelot Lawrence of Yeland Hall, as the next male descendant to Sir Robert, and consequently head of the family; whereas the curious pedigree passes over in silence the Lau rences of Yeland Hall, and makes this Robert leave three sons, Robert, John, and William, and makes this William marry Isabella, heiress of John Molyneux. Of this marriage there is no record, but William Molyneux of Sef, ton married Elizabeth Clifton, granddaughter and coheir of Robert Law. rence. This William Lawrence, according to the pedigree, in 1509 sold all his property in Lancashire; but for what reason is not certainly known, and purchased Norton in Warwickshire, and lands at Withington in Gloucestershire, whose revenues were anciently more than 2000l. a year.

We may remark, that about 1510 a certain John Lawrence, of Tishoe in Warwickshire, bequeaths lands at Norton Limesi, in Warwickshire, to his cousin William Lawrence (registro Bennet).

William Lawrence of Withington, by his will (registro Chauncy) 1559,

bequeaths five hundred pounds, and five hundred sheep, among his five sons or their children. He having survived Thomas and Edmund, he names Richard Lawrence of Foxcote the supervisor of his will, and directs that he should be buried at Withington, near his late wife Alice (and not Isabella). 1. John, his eldest son, was parson at Withington; he died intestate 1568, and his brothers William and Robert administered his will. This John Lawrence must not be confounded with another John Lawrence, prebendary of Worcester, whose will is registro Buck, 1551. 2. Thomas Lawrence died before his father, 1559 (registro Chauncey); he left three children, John, Agnes, and Eleanore. John, settled at Stowgumber, died 1596 (registro Drake), having survived his son Richard of Stowgumber, who died 1593 (registro Nevile), leaving daughters. 3. Robert Lawrence of Shurdington, Yeoman, died 1585 (registro Brudenell), leaving William, Robert, and Antony, who was of Sevenhampton. William of Shurdington died 1638, leaving William, Antony, and Isaac, who married Grizel Lawrence of Chelsea. 4. William Lawrence of Yanworth, Yeoman, died 1582 (registro Tyrwhit), leaving William of Cricklade. 5. Edmund Lawrence, Yeoman, died before his father 1559 (registro Chauncy), and Richard Lawrence of Foxcote, Yeoman, died 1575 (registro Carew).

Such was William of Withington, and his immediate descendants. Without any pretension to gentility, they were richer than half the gentry of the land. For though he must be ignorant of the value of money, who could assert that his revenues were two thousand pounds a year; yet few squires in the days of Queen Bess had five hundred pounds to bequeath; and, though many of our most illustrious peers are descended from less elevated ancestors, it would be absurd to believe that a yeoman was the nephew of Sir James Lawrence of Ashton Hall, whose brother-in-law the Viscount Welles had married the Princess Cecilia, daughter of King Edward IV.

The Lawrences of Ashton Hall being cut off in 1513, the Lawrences of Yeland Hall became the senior branch. Thomas Lawrence, the second son of Sir Robert, had married Mabilla daughter and heir of John

Redmain of Yeland-Redmain, whose pedigree is in the Bodleian Library, Dodsworth, vol. 120. Thomas Lawrence, Miles, according to Dodsworth, vols. 147 and 149, was Sheriff of Lancashire from the 11th to 23d of Hen. VI. He had six sons, Edmund, John, William, Robert, Richard, and James. One of the elder sons must have been father of the above-mentioned Launcelot, who died 26th Hen. VIII. leaving Thomas and Robert. Robert died 2d Philip and Mary, leaving by Anne daughter of Thomas Bradley of Bradley, an only daughter Anne Lawrence, who married Walter Sydenham, third son of Sir John Sydenham, of Brimpton in Somersetshire. Observe that the fifth son of Thomas of Yeland was named Richard.

But to return to the curious pedigree. Nicholas Lawrence of Agercroft, younger brother of Sir James, married an heiress of Moore. Here are three errors; Sir James had no brother but Robert. Agercroft, a mansion near Manchester, belonged to the family of Sir Robert Lungley, and the heiress of More, who was widow of

Nicholson, was not the mother, but the first wife of Sir Oliver Laurence, and hence his descendants quartered her arms. Nicholas had seven sons, Thomas, Robert, William, John, Richard, Henry, and Sir Oliver. The fifth son of this brood was a Richard also. This Richard, says the genealogist, was seated at Stapleton, co. Dorset.

Now the Lawrences of Winterton Stapleton, of whom Hutchins gives an account, were the descendants of the above-mentioned Richard of Foxcote, a yeoman, and consequently could not be of the Ashton Hall family.

But according to Harl. MS. No. 5533, add. Cat., Richard Lawrence, Gent., in right of his wife Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Franks, Chancellor at Law, 9 Hen. VII. was of Hertingfordbury, co. Herts, from 23 Hen. VII., to 28 Hen. VIII. William Laurence, Gent., who married Dorothy daughter of Walter Wrottesley of Wrottesley Hall, co. Stafford, was of Hartingfordbury from 28 Hen. VIII. to 3 Eliz. Roger Lawrence, Gent. who married Elizabeth, daughter of George Minne, Esq. of Hartingfordbury, was of Hartingfordbury from 3 Edw. to 6 Eliz. Susan Laurence, daughter and coheir of Roger, married John Darnel, Esq. by whom she had

four daughters; the eldest, Elizabeth, married Christopher Vernon, Esq. son of William Vernon of Stukeley, co. Hunts. He died 1652, and on the monument which she erected to his memory, she styles her mother Susan, coheres Rogeri Laurence, post varias Laurentiorum successiones in Hertingfordbury prædictâ vere celeberrimas, masculorum ultimi.

In Mr. Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, Richard is named John, but his account of the family is less circumstantial than the above.

Now this Richard bore for difference in his arms an annulet; he therefore must have been a fifth son. He has been considered the brother of Sir Oliver; but as the deaths of the father, son, and grandson, succeeded so rapidly, he might have lived to a very old age, and have been the son of Thomas of Yeland; and as nothing is known of the father of Sir Oliver, neither where he dwelt, nor whom he married, and as Nic. and Ric. Nich. and Rich. in the decyphering of antient deeds, are so easily confounded, it is not impossible that Richard of Hartingfordbury has been converted into Nicholas of Agercroft. William died either in the 3d of Edw., or 3d of Eliz., and Sir Oliver, who died 1558-9, mentions in his will his sister Dorothy. This may possibly mean his sister-in-law. Thomas Franks bore the same arms as the Franks of Campsal; and at York is the will of Thomas Lawrence of Campsal, proved 1530. This Thomas may be one of the seven sons. In two Harleian MSS. Nos. 1457 and 4198, are the arms of John Laurence, Esq. bearing the Lion of Saint Ives placed among the Yorkshire gentry; and the two wives of William Laurence, of Saint Ives, Sheriff and Knight of the Shire of Hunts, were Frances, daughter of Henry Hunston of Loudham, Notts, and Margaret Kaye of Woodsom, Yorkshire. (See Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1815.)

These observations may be useful to those (and several there are) who at no small expense and trouble are endeavouring to make out the Laurence pedigree. The Hertingfordbury wills, could they be discovered either at Buckden, at Hertford, or at Lincoln, would clear up every difficulty. Three generations of so distinguished a family could not have died intestate. The inquisitions post mortem at the Rolls

or Lancaster-office, would ascertain whether William could have been the elder brother of Sir Oliver, or his nephew. The second wife of Sir Oliver was Anne Wriothesley, sister of Thomas Earl of Southampton, and Sir Oliver leaves a hundred marks to his daughter Juliana, wife of Wriosly, or Wrotsly (for the word is not very legible), and Henry Lawrence of Tisbury, Gent. brother of Sir Oliver, bequeaths a legacy to his brother's daughter's son, John Wriosly or Wrosly, 1566 (Registro Grimes). These wills of Hertingfordbury would connect every link, and might be useful to other junior branches, in uniting them to the antient stock.

Nor can we deem the successiones Laurentiorum celeberrimas, an exaggeration. Through Dorothy Wrottesley, daughter of Walter (or Richard) Wrottesley, by Dorothy daughter of Edmund Sutton, who died in the lifetime of his father John Lord Dudley, K. G. the Laurences of Hartingfordbury were allied to all that was great and illustrious, and cousins to the ambitious Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to the Earls of Warwick, to

take the liberty to observe, that while marks of cadency are highly useful to distinguish the different branches of the same family, the practice of granting to different families arms nearly similar, defeats the chief purpose of blazonry, which is distinction, and not confusion. The nearer two families approach in name, the wider their arms should differ.

But not only the Mayor and Aldermen, but the Common Councilmen about this period seem to have taken a fancy to the cross ragulée Gules, and "intra muros peccatur et extra." The genealogists in London were not more scrupulous than at Chelsea, and produced also a pedigree (Harl. MS. 5533) in which they filled up all the vacancies with their favourites; so that, if Nicholas Laurence, who may have lived, but certainly not at Agercroft, were to come to life again, he would be surprised at the number of his descendants. But I must not forget the Cardinal d'Este's question to Ariosto, “Messer Ludovico, dove avete pigliate queste coglionerie?" ST. IVE'S.

Mr. URBAN,

Aug. 10. following account of the Plays

Baker's last edition of Stage Writers and their works:

Yet this branch also the curious pedigree omits, but atones for the omission by naming Sir John Laurence, Mayor of London during the plague, among the worthies descended from the Crusader. His activity, charity, and munificence, have been celebrated by Dr. Darwin, and would have been honourable to any family; but the Roman custom of adoption never prevailed in England: the Lord Mayor. was the grandson of a Fleming, who left the Netherlands in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and settled in the parish of St. Helen's, where Sir John built a mansion worthy of a Doge of Genoa. Having been ennobled, together with one of his brothers, by a he was knighted at a grant of arms, city feast given to Charles the Second.. These arms were a cross ragulée Gules, with a canton Sable. Here I will

"Neither Langbaine, Jacob, nor any of the other writers have mentioned him as a Dramatist; but Coxeter tells us he has seen an old MS. to the play called the Merry Devil of Edmonton, of 1608,' which MS. declares it to have been written by Mich'. Drayton, Esq. No authority whatever appears for this assertion. Meres, however, speaks of him as a writer of tragedy, and the following dramatic pieces (none of which are extant) have been ascribed to the pen of Drayton :

1. Connan, Prince of Cornwall; Play, 1598. N. P.

2. Earl Godwin and his Three Sons : Part ii. 1598. N. P.

3. The First Civil Wars in France; Play, 1598. N. P.

4. Sir William Longsword; Play, 1598. N. P.

5. Wars of Henry I. and the Prince of Wales; Play, 1598. N. P.

6. Worse afeard than hurt; Play, 1598. N. P.

7. The Two Harpies; Play, 1602. N. P."

To the preceding particulars, it is to be observed that Drayton was regarded as a prominent star in the mighty.

Poetic constellation which shed a splendour over the age of our august Elizabeth-and the Poets of that time, whose names will occur in his epistle to his friend Mr. Henry Reynolds, have been regarded as his intimately-connected friends. The Dramatic writers are especially included; and, as doubts have been entertained by many whether the Plays ascribed to him in the above list were really from his pen, or whether he produced any, the following Sonnet of Drayton may, I conceive, be received as evidence and proof of his having written for the stage, and written successfully, which is the aim of this Essay. The Sonnet also evinces that his feelings of triumph were evanescent, as towards the close he speaks thus of his state of mind:

"When the proud round on every side hath

men:

SONNET 47.

From the small Quarto of 1613. In pride of wit, when high desire of fame Gave life and courage to my labouring pen, And the first sound and vertue of my name Wan grace and credite in the eares of [presse, With those the thronged Theatres that I in the circuit for the lawrel strove, Where the first praise, I freely must confesse, [move In heate of bloud a modest minde might With showts and claps at everie little pause, When the proude round on every side hath rung,

Sadly I sit, unmov'd with the applause, As though to me it nothing did belong : No publique glorie vainely I pursue, All that I seeke is to eternize you."

Fuller has mentioned Drayton among the "Worthies of Warwickshire," and asserts that "the place of his birth was near that of his countryman William Shakspeare." This may not, however, be correct, as some accounts state that Drayton was born in Leicestershire. Their births certainly occurred nearly at the same time; Drayton was born in 1563, and Shakspeare in 1564, so that their career as writers must have run closely together during

the life of our favourite, whom Drayton survived full fifteen years. The Poly-Olbion of this latter writer was first published in 1612, at which time Shakspeare had partially withdrawn from public life, and devoted himself to the improvements of his newlyformed retreat on the banks of the Avon. Drayton speaks of this river in the 13th and 14th Song in this elaborate Poem; but in neither can any complimentary tribute be traced to Shakspeare, although the opportunities were favourable as well on the first publication of the Poly-Olbion, as subsequently when the work appeared with the twelve additional Songs, after Shakspeare's death.

It is, however, due to Drayton to say that he possessed very sound judgment as a critic. This will appear manifest by the following short selections from his Epistle to his friend Henry Reynolds, which are confined solely to the writers for the stage; and the admired Shakspeare's praises are therein confined to four verses.

"Neat MARLOW, bathed in the Thespian