Sybill of Eynsford and Farningham

( 373 ) SYBILL OE EYNSFORD AND EAENINGHAM. BY R. H. ERNEST HILL, A.R.I.B.A. IN the pedigree of this family, printed in Arch. Cant., Vol. XXVI., there are some errors, which recent research has enabled me to correct. On page 85 I stated : " No children named in will of Edward Sibell, but Philipot mentions ' a daughter and heir married to . . . . Hide; ' " and on page 89 : " In the undermentioned Chancery suit, in which Ann Hope was plaintiff, she distinctly states that her uncle Edward died without issue, and no children are mentioned in his will. Philipot, however, remarks that ' Edward Sibill, the last of this name, resolved into a daughter and heir, married to . . . . Hide.'" This vague remark of Philipot is only partly true, inasmuch as a Sybill lady did marry a Hyde, but she was not the daughter of Edward Sybill. Her own name and those of her father and husband are supplied by the inscription on the latter's brass, formerly in Tisbury Church, Wilts. Illustrations occur in Hoare's History of Wilts, 1822, vol. iv., p. 147, and in Edward Kite's Monumental Brasses of Wilts, 1860, plate xxvi. The brass exhibited figures of the husband and wife with their children, standing on a tiled floor shewn in perspective, and under canopies of classical detail. The marginal inscription, partly missing, ran as follows : " This Lawrence Hyde was ye thirde sone of Robert Hyde of . . . . sones by Anne his wife being y° daughter of Nicholas Sibell of Chimbhams in ye cou'ty of Kent esquier . . . . Hamonet and Edward died in their infancy the rest survived their father." Anne Sibell was therefore probably the daughter of Edward Sibell's graud-uncle Nicholas of Chimhams (see 374 SYBILL OP EYNSPORD AND PARNINGHAM. pedigree), a relationship which is confirmed by such dates as are known. A reference to Rev. F. Browne's Somersetshire Wills shews that she was twice married, first to Matthew Colthurst of Claverton, co. Somerset (will dated 1559), and second to Laurence Hyde of West Hatch, co. Wilts (will dated 1584, proved 1590). By her first marriage she had eight children and by the second ten, of whom two died young. Her third son Henry, by Laurence Hyde, became the father of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, the famous Lord Chancellor 'and historian of the Civil War, whose daughter Anne married James, Duke of York. It is therefore interesting to note that the Sybill-Hyde marriage connects this long-extinct Kentish family with the blood of an English queen. Browne's Somersetshire Wills also informs us that Nicholas Sybill of Chimbhams had, besides Anne, a son Edward of Chimbhams and a daughter Lucy. Clarendon's autobiography mentions the " care and providence " of his grandmother, and that she " was left very rich, as well by his (Laurence Hyde's) donation as from her husband Colthurst." Her first marriage with Matthew Colthurst explains the bequests to Matthew and Andrew Colthurst in the will (proved 1593) of her first-cousin once removed, Edward Sibell of Sevenoaks. The above information will be clearer in the form of a pedigree. Nicholas Sybill of Chimbhams, co. Kent, Esq.=p Edward Matthew Colthurst (l)=f=Anne Sybill,=f (2) Laurence Hyde Lucy c . , . : . , .» .v r» i.... - _. • , ! . , . . . . , of West Hatch, co. Sybill. Wilts, died 1690. Sybill of of Claverton, co. Chimb- Somerset, died about hams. 1559. •will dated 1604; married probably before 1550. Eight Henry Hyde, 3rd son,=pMary Lang- Nine other children, two ohildren. died 1632. I ford. of whom died young. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, etc., 1608—IGH.T2 SYBILL OP EYNSPORD AND PARNINGHAM. 375 £.1 Anne Hyde, (1st wife) married before=pJames, Duke of York, afterwards 1660; died 1671. I King James II. Queen Mary. Queen Anne. I have not gone very deeply into the question of dates, not being able to make exhaustive research, but enough has been said to establish the connection between the Hydes and Sybills.