[15] This connection of the two Cromwells, through the Kemeys family, is worth notice.
[16] Of the Tynte family, Burke gives the following account:—
“The family of Tynte has maintained for centuries a leading position in the west of England; of its surname, tradition has handed down the following derivation:—‘In the year 1192, at the celebrated battle of Ascalon, a young knight of the noble house of Arundel, clad all in white, with his horse’s housings of the same colour, so gallantly distinguished himself on that memorable field, that Richard Cœur-de-Lion remarked publicly, after the victory, that the maiden knight had borne himself as a lion, and done deeds equal to those of six crusaders; whereupon he conferred on him for arms, a lion gules on a field argent, between six crosslets of the first, and for motto, Tynctus cruore Saraceno.’”—Commoners.
[17] C. J. Kemeys-Tynte, Esq., M.P., F.R.S.—whose father, C. Kemeys-Tynte, Esq., succeeded to the estates of his great-uncle, the last baronet—is coheir to the barony of Grey-de-Wilton; and in July, 1845, was declared by a committee for privileges of the House of Lords, to be senior coheir of the whole blood to the abeyant barony of Wharton.—Dod’s Parliam. Comp., 1847.
[18] With regard to the tower called “Longine,” the tradition ran, that “it had been erected by one Longinus, a Jew, father of the soldier whose spear pierced the side of Christ. He was condemned either for some crime of his own, or for having given birth to a criminal, to repair to Britain, and there to erect a religious edifice on the river Wye. That edifice was the Chapel of our Lady in the castle; and although a Jew, the said Longinus appears to have had a fine Gothic taste.”
[19] Of the supposed chapel, Mr. Williams says—“This is not in the usual style of such a building: the windows, arches, and other decorated parts were extremely rich, and in the finest Gothic taste. There are, however, several traces of plain Saxon arches filled up in the wall [arches of construction], which indicate a higher antiquity than the general decorations of the castle.”
[20] By him the vote was proposed, that the King’s statues at the Royal Exchange and other places should be taken down, and the following inscription substituted:—“Exit Tyrannus, Regum ultimus, Anno Libertatis Angliæ Restitutæ primo, A.D. 1648.” When it was proposed, “that the House of Peers in parliament was useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished,” Marten proposed that the word dangerous should be omitted, and that useless alone should be retained, and that it should be declared that the Lords were useless, but not dangerous.—Parl. Hist.
[21] Sir Henry Marten, his father, was one of the brightest ornaments of the age in which he lived. He was principal Judge of the Admiralty, twice Dean of the Arches, a Knight, and, in 1684, Judge of the Prerogative Court, in all of which offices he was allowed to be one of the most eminent civilians that ever filled them. He was in high favour with his sovereign, King James, who jocularly used to remark on Sir Henry, “that he was judge over the dead and over the living.” He died the 26th of September, 1641, aged 80, and was buried at his seat at Longworth, near Abingdon, in Berkshire.—Heath.
[22] On the contrary, it is said by other writers that he was affectionately attended by his wife and daughters during his incarceration in Chepstow Castle.
[23] This anecdote does credit to Marten’s spirit, and very little to Mr. Lewis, “who first violated the rules of good breeding towards a man who, at the very time, was expiating what power had made a crime, and then revenged himself by a petty inhospitality. It was punishment enough, surely, for poor Marten to have been imprisoned for twenty years, without having to accept a dinner on such terms.”