What can A. B. mean by "Henry, Edmund, and John, successively dukes of Somerset," to whom he conjectures Margaret Beaufort might have been sister? There were not three brothers Beaufort successively dukes of Somerset; nor were there ever three successive dukes of Somerset named Henry, Edmund and John; though there certainly was a succession of John, Edmund, and Henry, they being respectively father, uncle, and cousin of Margaret.
John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, who had been created Marquis of Somerset and Dorset, was, on his death (1410), succeeded in the earldom of Somerset by his eldest son, Henry Beaufort, who dying without issue (1418), the second son, John Beaufort, succeeded to this earldom. He was created Duke of Somerset (1443), and on his death without male issue (1444), the dukedom became extinct; but the earldom of Somerset descended to his brother, Edmund Beaufort, Marquis of Dorset (the third son of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset), who was afterwards (1448) created Duke of Somerset. He was slain at the battle of St. Alban's (1455), and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Beaufort, who was beheaded in 1463. He is said to have been succeeded by his next brother, Edmund Beaufort; but it is doubtful if the fact were so, and the better opinion seems to be that the dukedom became extinct by the attainder of Duke Henry in 1463.
"The second and last Duke John," alluded to by A. B., is altogether a myth: the last Beaufort Duke of Somerset was either Henry or Edmund; and there was but one Duke John, and he was not the "second and last," but the first duke.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge.
Church of St. Bene't Fink (Vol. iv., p. 407.).
—I think some account of the inscriptions, or of their having been transcribed, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, as well as of those removed by the destruction of the church of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, in order to make the approaches for new London Bridge; there, also, I think I have seen some account of the inscriptions in the church pulled down for the erection of the Bank of England. The preservation of the monumental records of the dead has been so frequently suggested in "NOTES AND QUERIES" that I will not occupy space by urging further arguments in favour of the scheme proposed for the transcription and preservation of inscriptions on monuments and grave-stones. The numerous churches which, in these days, are undergoing alterations and repairs, call for your continued exertion to effect the object you have already submitted for the purpose in former numbers. The ancient church of St. Mary, Lambeth, has just been rebuilt, and many of the monumental tablets will of necessity be removed from their former sites, and grave-stones may disappear. The venerable Ashmole lies at the entrance of the old vestry, under a flat stone; and outside, a short distance from the window, lies Tradescant, under a large altar-tomb in a state of decay!
G.
When the church of St. Bene't Fink was pulled down, to make room for the new Royal Exchange in 1844, the monumental tablets, &c. were removed to the church of St. Peter's-le-Poor in Old Broad Street, to which Parish the former is now annexed.
J. R. W.