The Hydes of Norbury, in the county of Cheshire, celebrated by Camden in his “Britannia,” had handed down that possession from father to son since the far-back days before the Norman Conquest, but the first of the race with whom we need concern ourselves is the grandfather of the future Chancellor.[[3]]
[3]. “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, from his Birth to the Restoration of the Royal Family,” written by himself. (1759.)
Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” To Mr Sprat, Chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham, afterwards Bishop of Rochester.
Laurence, the seventh son of Robert Hyde of Norbury, could claim, naturally, but a small provision from the paternal resources, but his mother seems to have looked carefully to his education, as the best chance for his future, and he was placed as a clerk in one of the auditors’ offices of the Exchequer.
Thence he was employed in the affairs of Sir Thomas Thynne, who under Protector Somerset in a short time raised a great estate, and was the first of his name to possess Longleat.
Laurence Hyde, however, held the post little more than a year—and gained nothing by it—but soon afterwards he married Anne, widow of Matthew Colthurst of Claverton, near Bath, who brought him a fair fortune, and by this marriage he had four sons and four daughters, the sons being Robert, Laurence, Henry and Nicholas. He bought, at the time of his marriage, the manor of West Hatch in the county of Wilts, but at his death he left the greater part of his estate to his widow.
Of the four sons above mentioned, the second, named also Laurence, became eventually “a lawyer of great name and practice,” being attorney to Queen Anne of Denmark, and obtaining knighthood in due course. His next brother, by name Henry, was at the time of his father’s death already entered at the Middle Temple, being a good scholar and a Master of Arts of Oxford. He was supposed (probably by his brothers and sisters) to be his mother’s favourite, and perhaps it was because he was the “spoilt child,” that he stoutly announced that “he had no mind to the law” but wished to enlarge his mind by travel. Having with some difficulty, as may be conjectured, extracted his mother’s unwilling consent, he went joyfully off on the Grand Tour, going through Germany from Spa to Italy. There he visited Florence, Siena and Rome, which, by the way, was then inhibited to the subjects of Elizabeth, and he somehow managed to obtain the protection of Cardinal Allen, probably a very necessary precaution. However, in due time Henry Hyde came safely back from what was then, and for long afterwards, considered a perilous undertaking, and was of course on his return persuaded forthwith to marry.
The wife who was chosen was Mary, one of the daughters and heirs of Edward Longford of Trowbridge, and Henry Hyde appears from this time to have settled down peaceably in his native county. He served as burgess for some neighbouring boroughs in many parliaments, and moreover, like his father before him, had a numerous family of four sons and five daughters.
Of his sons, the third, Edward, lived to be the Lord Chancellor.
Edward Hyde was born at his father’s house of Dinton, Wilts, on 18th February 1609, and as a child was taught by a schoolmaster to whom his father presented the living.