In 1572 his brother, now Duke of Norfolk, was accused of plotting to marry Mary Queen of Scots, and Banister, the Duke’s confidential agent, declared in his confession that Henry was the subject first proposed for the hand of Mary Queen of Scots. Henry Howard was at once seized, but proving his innocence to Elizabeth’s satisfaction, he was released, and a pension assigned to him. To follow him would be to write an elaborate book; but, in short, his life of seventy-four years was too full of variety to be peaceful or pleasant. He was constantly suspected of strong Roman Catholic sympathies, and he was often in close correspondence with Mary Queen of Scots, although, as regards the tendency of his influence, he himself at least said that he gave her the prudent advice to “abate the sails of her royal pride.”
At all events, much romance must always attach to the name of anyone who, like Henry Howard, was oft exchanging tokens with Mary Queen of Scots. In the latter years of Queen Elizabeth he entered into a secret correspondence with James of Scotland, who wrote to him often on intimate terms, and who, on hearing of Elizabeth’s death, sent Howard a ruby as a token. On January 1st, 1604, Howard became Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and soon afterwards Baron Howard of Marnhull, Dorsetshire, and Earl of Northampton. In the next year he was made a Knight of the Garter, and in 1608 he was appointed to the office of Lord Privy Seal.
Sir Percivall Hart, Chief Server, and Knight Harbinger to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, died in 1580, leaving a son, Sir Percivall Hart, who married twice, first to Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Manwood, Knight, Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, by whom he had a son, William; and his second wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope of Grimston, Knight, by whom he had issue Sir Henry Hart, Knight of the Bath, who died in his father’s lifetime, having married Elizabeth, daughter of—— Burdet, and a widow of Sir Simon Norwich, by whom he left Percyval, Francis, George, and Elizabeth, who died young; Percyval and Jerome, who died without issue; and George, who married Elizabeth, daughter of—— Berisford, and left two sons, Percival and George, and two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth.
William Hart, only son of Sir Percyval by his first wife, succeeded his father in the possession of Lullingstone, and died on March 31st, 1671, aged seventy-seven, and was buried there. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Anthony Weldon, of Swanscombe, Knight, who died in 1677, and lies buried there, by whom he had no issue, upon which the Manor of Lullingstone descended to Percyval Hart, Esq., eldest son of Sir Henry Hart, Knight of the Bath, eldest son of Sir Percyval Hart, Knight, by his second wife as abovementioned. He was afterwards knighted, and left issue by Anne, his wife, one son, Percyval Hart, Esq., who was of Lullingstone, was sheriff in 1707, and Member of Parliament for the county in the ninth and twelfth years of Queen Anne. He died October 27th, 1738, aged seventy, and was buried in Lullingstone Church, having by Sarah, his wife, youngest daughter of Henry Dixon of Hilden, Esquire, an only daughter and heir, Anne, then married to her second husband, Sir Thomas Dyke of Hexham, in Sussex, Baronet.
The notes given below, and many more, all evidently in the hand of John Crane, are in a 1649 copy of Reliquiæ Sacræ Carolinæ:—
Look back in the Record Office to the time of Naseby fight. There is written as follows:—
1645, June 23ʳᵈ.—Ordered in the Comon’s House this day that the 23 members here named are added to the committee where Mr. Tate hath the chaire, and are to meete tomorrowe morning att 7 of ye clocke in ye Queenes Court, and to appoint persons to transcribe those particulars (in the several letters and papers taken at Naseby field) that are most materiall, and to consider what shall be done with the Portugall Agent, and to examine Mr. Browne & his sonne (if ye House sitt not) when they are brought up.
This Mr. Tate has been indexed as Zouch Tate, M.P. for Northampton, chairman of the committee for regulating the armies.
Baker’s Northamptonshire relates that John Crane, of Loughton, Bucks, Clerk of the Household to James the First and Charles the First, was living in 1651 at the age of seventy-five and lived long after that. He married Mary, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham. They had many children, including a son John and a daughter Anne; the latter marrying Francis Arundell of Stoke Park.
On the blank lower half of the page preceding the Eikon, and on the title of the Eikon:—