The Last Savages of Bobbing

( 164 y THE LAST SAVAGES OE BOBBING. BY G. 0. BELLEWES. THE foUowing table shews the last three generations of the ancient family of Savage of Bobbing:— Sir Arnold Savage of Bobbiug.=fEleanor , Administration (Lambeth) 6 Aug. 1375. Inq. p.m. 1375-6 (now lost), (See Will No. I., infra). Sir Arnold Savage, died^Joan, dau. of William A dau., mar- Eleanor. 29 Nov. 1410. Brass in Bobbing Church. EchynghamofEohyng- ried Boger ham. (See Will No. Northwode. II., infra.) Sir Arnold Savage,=Katharine Scales. Inq. p.m. Elizabeth, married (1) Sir died s.p. 25 March 1437, Thomas, Lord Scales, Reynold Cobham of Run- 1420. Brass in brother and heir. (See Will dale and Allington, who Bobbing Churoh. No. IV., infra.) died in 1405 ; (2) William (See Will No. III., Clifford, who died in 1438. infra.) Inq. p.m. 1451. The first Sir Arnold Savage here shewn sat in Parliament in 1352, and afterwards rendered various services abroad, including negotiations with King Pedro of Castillo. His wife is described, in the life of his son in the Dictionary of National Biographg, as " Mary or Margery, daughter of Sir Michael de Poynings " (cf. Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. xv.., p. 15). It seems clear, however, that Eleanor his widow was the .mother of his children. The next Sir Arnold Savage served with John of Gaunt in Spain, hut is pf course best known to history as the "incomparably" Speaker qf the House of Commons, to -whose,homilies Henry IV. listened,with more than kingly patience. In 1404—6 he was one of the King's Council. . Sir Arnold Savage was one of the executors (1408) of John Gower the poet. It is not clear whether the Speaker or his son is meant. The vdeath of the latter s.p. negatives the claims of THE LAST SAVAGES OP BOBBING. 165 various members or descendants of Savage families, including the late Mr. Walter Savage Landor, to descent from the famous Speaker. Elizabeth, the eventual heiress of the Savages, is of considerable genealogical importance. It is unfortunate that Hasted, in his Kent, has given four inconsistent and mostly inaccurate descriptions of her. Under Tracies (vol. ii., p. 558) and Bobbing (vol. ii., p. 636) he calls her Eleanor instead of Elizabeth, and says that there was no issue of her first marriage. Under Sutton Valence (vol. ii.; p. 412) he makes the same statements, hut notes that " in some pedigrees she is called Elizabeth." Under Milton-next- Gravesend (vol. i.,.p. 455) he calls her Isabel, and mentions Thomas Cobham, her son by her first husband. A Chancery Suit (undated, about 1452) was brought by her grandson Alexander Clifford against Thomas Keryell, John Martyn, and the other feoffees of the gavelkind manors of Bobbing, Holmes, Ustede, and Kylmesle, that had belonged to "Dame Elizabeth Cobham, late the wife of William Clyfford, esquire." He complained that the feoffees refused to convey to him the manors held in trust to the uses of her will, which directed feoffment to be made to him ("Early Chancery Proceedings," B. 19, No. 142). A like suit was afterwards brought by her younger son John Clifford (ibid., B. 22, No. 142). The feoffees, in their answer (No. 142b) to the latter suit, mention that a contingent remainder in both moieties of the manors was devised to her daughters Eleanor and Isabel. ABSTEACTS OE WILLS. I. Testamentum Domine jElianore Savage, relicte Domini Arnoldi Savage. To be buried before the high altar in the chancel of the priory church of Walyngford. To the.works of the said church 40s. Two aunuals for two chaplains, the one to celebrate where my lord's body is buried and the other to celebrate for my soul and my benefactors' souls in the chapel in the castle of Walyngford for a whole year. To the monks of the priory 20s. among them, and to each of them a silver goblet price 13s. id. to use at table. To the priests of the college in the castle of Walyngford a silver goblet, and.maser for use at table, to remain there for remembrance 166 THE LAST SAVAGES OP BOBBING. of the souls of my lord and myself. To the chaplain of the college 20s. To the clerks of the chapel 13s.