Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/177

DE I.A WARR 159 the style of " William West, Esquire,") he was joint Lieut, of Sussex. He was knighted (by the Earl of Leicester), 5 Feb. 1569/70, at Mampton Court, and on the same day was cr. by patent BARON DELA- WARE.(^) He was sum. to Pari, from 15' Sep. (1586) 28 Eliz. by writ directed WiUielmo fVest dc la H^arr ChTr to 19 Feb. (i 591/2) 34 Eliz., taking his seat as y««/or Baron, m which place he sat until his death. In 1572 he was one of the Peers on the trial of the Duke of Norfolk (after whose execution he was sent to the Queen of Scots to expostulate with her), and in 1589 he was on the trial of the Earl of Arundel. He w., istly, before 1555, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Strange, of Chesterton, co. Gloucester. He ;«., 2ndly, Anne, widow of Thomas Oliver, da. ot Henry Swift, of Andover, Hants, by Elizabeth his wife. He d. 30 Dec. 1595, at Wherwell, Hants, aged over 75. In(^. p. m. 6 Apr. 1596. Admon. (as Sir tVi/Iiam IFest, Lord La fVarre,) 12 Feb. 1 600/1, to Richard Nesfield, of Wherwell afsd. His widow m. Richard Kemish, of Andover afsd., who d. 6 Oct. 161 1, C") and survived him. XL 1595. 2. Thomas (West), Baron de la Warr, s. and h., aged JO in 1596. M.P. for Chichester 1571, for East (») Sir Edward Walker (MS. WQ 89, in the College" of Arms), according to Courthope, gives an account of the ceremony of his creation by patent on Shrove Tuesday, 5 Feb. 1569/70, at Hampton Court Palace. The document is printed in Round's Peerage and Pedigree, vol. i, pp. 64-66, and the date corrected to Shrove Sunday. No enrolment of the patent is however to be found. See also notes, sub 1570, in Creations, 1483-1646, in App., 47th Rep., D.K. Pub. Records. Townsend, Windsor Herald (1784-18 1 9), one of the most competent authorities in such matters, in his additions to Dugdale {Coll. Top. et Gen., vol. vii, p. 159), makes the following "observations upon the new creation of the title in William, and the restoration, as it is called, of the son of William to the ancient place and precedency of his ancestors. — The precise date of this new creation is nowhere mentioned with cer- tainty. [See, however, above]. I have never seen any letters patent for it, and am of opinion that none ever passed. William was sum. to Pari, for the first time in I57'» and placed as junior Baron, and during the rem. of his life, more than 25 years, continued to be ranked according to that date; an undeniable proof that he was considered as holding his dignity by a new creation and not as the right heir of the ancient Barony; neither tvas he the right heir according to any of the known rules that govern the descent of Baronies by writ. According to those rules, the Barony fell into abeyance at the death of his uncle in 1554 and was in' the same state at the moment [1597] when the ancient place was adjudged to the son of William. William was certainly heir male to his uncle and he is expressly so described in the Act of Restitution, but he was not heir general, and therefore I am at a loss to discover the principle upon which that judgment rested, which gave the rank of the ancient Barony to a person, who could not pretend to be the legal representative of the ancient Barons." Townsend's observations, however, are superseded by Round's exhaustive discussion and the document he has printed, which was signed by William Penson, Lancaster Herald. (*•) See F.C.H., Hampshire, vol. iv, pp. 354-5, where his monument at Andover is described. (J. H. Round). V.G.