zabeth, daughter of Spencer Phipps, esq. had (with three daughters, Ruth, Elizabeth, and Lucy,) a son, JOHN VASSALL, esq. who settled at Boston in America, but was deprived of his lands there in the first American war for his attachment to the parent state. He returned to England, and resided alternately between Charles Lodge, in the county of Wilts, and the city of Bath. He m. Miss Elizabeth Oliver, and had issue, 1. JOHN, who wedded Miss Elizabeth Athill, and his son, JOHN, d. 23rd March, 1827, s. p. 2. SPENCER-THOMAS. 3. Thomas Oliver, who d. s. p. rited contempt, immediately replied, "Sir, I disdain your pity, and am ready to share the fate of my general." After experiencing every kind of indignity, and having been twice led out for execution, these brave men were at length released, and allowed to return to England. Shortly afterwards Major Vassall purchased the lieutenantcolonelcy of the 38th regiment, and was for some years stationed in Ireland, where it was his fortune to be the field officer, of the day in Dublin, on the memorable 23rd July, when Lord Kilwarden, and many others were killed by the insurgent populace. His cool determined conduct upon that occasion obtained for him the high commendation of 4. Robert Oliver, who settled in Ja- the Irish Government, and of the com The second son, SPENCER THOMAS VASSALL, being designed for a military life, obtained an ensigncy in the 59th regiment of foot, at the early age of twelve. He soon afterwards embarked for Gibraltar, where he served during the memorable siege, and from that period until his gallant career closed on the ramparts of Monte Video, he was uninterruptedly engaged upon active service in almost every part of the globe. He was twice with the army in Flanders, once in the West Indies, several times on the coast of France, and once on that of Spain. He was the first man that landed in the Isle Dieu, and planted the British colours there. He formed part of both expeditions to Holland; in the last of which he was ordered by the Duke of York to attend General Don to the enemy's camp with a flag of truce. On that occasion, when Brun, the French commander in chief, in a fit of rage, pretending to suspect the motives of the mission, declared to General Don that he was determined to treat him as a spy, he turned round to Major Vassall, and said with a contemptuous smile, "Pour vous, monsieur, je vous plains," Vassall receiving the proffered sympathy with me mander in chief. He subsequently embarked with his regiment for the Cape of Good Hope, and assisted at the capture of that important settlement; of the town and fortress of which he was appointed commandant. This lucrative and honorable post he resigned to embark with his regiment in the second expedition dispatched to the coast of Spanish America, and there he found a soldier's grave in gallantly leading his troops to the assault of Monte Video. His conduct, his courage, his fate are so faithfully depicted in the following letter from his orderly serjeant, to Sir Home Popham, that we know not how we could better close this summary of his valiant achievements. SIR, Monte Video, 10 Feb. 1807. Pardon the liberty I am taking, as the gratitude I owe to my everlamented and best friend, Colonel Vassall, obliges me to give you and his friends an authentic account of his last; I being his orderly serjeant, and the chief person to witness his bravery, and the gallant manner in which he acquitted himself in doing his duty, in that unfortunate hour in which he fell. On our approach to the wall we missed the breach; the grape and musketry flew so hot it drove the men into confusion, and would have made numbers of them retreat but for his exertions. When he observed any of the men stoop or flinch, he cried out as loud as possible, "Brave 38th, my brave men, don't flinch; every bullet has its billet. Push on, follow me, thirty eighth !" He rallied them repeatedly in this manner, until he got them inside the breach. He immediately directed a party to take possession of the corner battery next the sea, which was done in a few minutes, and another, under the command of Major Ross, to advance to the great church, and he was advancing himself to the main battery on the right, when a grape shot broke his leg, and as soon as he fell he cried out, "Push on, 66 somebody will take me up, my good soldiers, charge them, never mind me; it's only the loss of a leg in the service." He sat up, and helped to tie on a handkerchief to stop the blood, and cried out all the time of the action, I care not for my leg, if my regiment do their duty, and I hope they will." As soon as the town surrendered he heard the men cheer, he joined them with as great spirits as if nothing had happened, and called to me to have him carried to the head of his regiment. I feel to the heart for his family. I could wish to have fallen with him, sooner than part with a man who was so good a friend to me. At half-past three on the morning of the 3rd, he received his wound; at one o'clock on the morning of the 7th, he departed, and at eight the same Your very humble obedient servant, The remains of this gallant soldier were at first interred in the grand church at Monte Video, with military honors, but were afterwards removed to England, and deposited in the family vault in the church of St. Paul's, Bristol, where a monument, designed by Flaxman, executed by Rossi, and erected by Colonel Vassall's widow, bears the following inscription. Sacred to the Memory of After twenty-eight years of active and unremitting service, Was mortally wounded at the storming of Monte Video, in South America, At the moment he had conducted his intrepid followers within the walls of the fortress, Aged 40. His beloved remains, brought to England by the companions of his victory, Where, to record her own, her children's, and her country's loss, Stranger, if e'er you honor'd Sidney's fame, Colonel Vassall espoused 10th July, 1795, Catherina - Spencer-Alicia - Beresford, + The poetic part is from the pen of Mrs. Opie. Arms-Az. in chief a sun, in base a chalice or, and for honorable augmentation, on a fesse of the second the breached bastions of a fortress, above which the words Monte Video; on a canton arg. the number "38th" within a branch of cyprus, and another of laurel, the stems united in saltire. Crests-First, on a mount vert, a breached fortress, thereon hoisted a flag gules, with the inscription "Monte Video," in letters of gold. Second, a ship with masts and shrouds ppr. Mottoes-Sæpe pro rege, semper pro republica-and Every bullet has its billet. Seat-Milford, Hants. BAGOT, OF PYPE HALL. BAGOT, THE REV. EGERTON-ARDEN, of Pype Hall, in the county of Stafford, b. 3rd January, 1777, s. to the estates upon the demise of his father in 1806. Lineage. This is a branch of the ennobled family of BAGOT. SIR WALTER-WAGSTAFFE BAGOT, LL.D. representative in parliament successively for the borough of Newcastle-under-line, the county of Stafford, and the University of Oxford, espoused, in 1724, the Lady Barbara Legge, eldest daughter of William, Earl of Dartmouth, and had (with several daughters, the eldest of whom, Barbara, wedded Ralph Sneyd, esq. of Keel,) six sons, viz. 1. WILLIAM (Sir), his successor, M.P. for Staffordshire, who was elevated to the peerage in 1780, as BARON BAGOT, of Bagot's Bromley, in the county of Stafford. II. Charles, who assumed, by act of parliament, the surname and arms of CHESTER, in pursuance to the will of his cousin, Sir Charles Bagot Chester, bart. He m. in 1765, Catherine, dau. of the Hon. Heneage Legge, a baron of the Exchequer, and dying in 1792, left issue, 1. CHARLES, b. in 1770. 2. Anthony. 3. William, in holy orders. 4. John, an officer in the army. 5. Henry. 6. Catherine. 7. Louisa. III. WALTER, of whom presently. IV. Richard, who assumed, by sign manual, the surname and arms of HOWARD, upon his marriage with the Hon. Frances Howard, sister and heiress of Henry, twelfth Earl of Suffolk. He d. in 1818, leaving an only daughter and heiress, MARY, m. 7th July, 1807, to the Hon. Colonel Fulk GrevilleUpton, who has assumed the surname and arms of HOWARD only. v. Lewis, Lord Bishop of Norwich, m. in 1771, Mary, daughter of the Hon. Edward Hay, and d. in 1802. VI. Thomas d. unmarried. Mary. Jane-Margaret, m. to Edward-Vaughan Agnes, m. to John Farquhar Fraser, esq. Mr. Bagot d. in 1806, and was s. by his eldest son, the present Rev. EGERTONARDEN BAGOT, of Pype Hall. Arms-Erm. two chevrons az. Crest-Out of a ducal coronet, or, a goat's head ar. attired or. Motto-Antiquum obtinens. HAY, OF LEYS. HAY-BALFOUR, DAVID, esq. of Leys, in the county of Perth, and of Randerston, in Fifeshire, succeeded his father in 1790, and is now male representative of the noble family of HAY. Lineage. The traditional origin of the house of Hay runs thus:-In the reign of Kenneth the Third, anno 980, the Danes, who had invaded Scotland, having prevailed at the battle of Luncarty, near Perth, were pursuing the flying Scots, from the field, when a countryman and his two sons appeared in a narrow pass, through which the vanquished were hurrying, and impeded for a moment their flight. What," said the rustic," had you rather be slaughtered by your merciless foes, than die honorably in the field; come, rally, rally!" and he headed the fugitives, brandishing the yoke of his plough, and crying out, that help was at hand: the Danes, believing that a fresh army was falling upon them, fled in confusion, and the Scots thus recovered the laurel which they had lost, and freed their country from servitude. The battle being won, the old man, afterwards known by the name of Hay, was brought to the king, who, assembling a parliament at Scone, gave to the said Hay and his sons, as a joint reward for their valour, so much land on the river Tay, in the district of Gowrie, as a falcon from a man's hand flew over till it settled; which being six miles in length, was afterwards called Errol; and the king being desirous to elevate Hay and his sons from their humble rank in life, to the order of nobility, his majesty assigned them a coat of arms, which was, argent, three escutcheons, gules, to intimate that the father and two sons had been the three fortunate shields of Scotland. The stone on which the falcon lighted is still to be seen in the carse of Gowrie, in a small village called Hawkstone. So much for tradition. But the incontrovertible fact is, of the lands of Errol, from William the WILLIAM DE HAYA, who obtained a grant Lion, espoused Juliana, daughter of Ranulph de Soulis, Lord of Liddesdale, and had issue, 1. WILLIAM, his heir. He 2. Robert, witness to a charter con- William de Haya, who held the office of SIR WILLIAM DE HAYA, who obtained from WILLIAM the Lion, the manor of Herrol, now Errol, in Perthshire; erected into a barony, for the service of two soldiers, to which Hugh, Bishop of St. Andrews, is a witness. He m. Eva de Petenalin, and thereby acquired the lands of Petenalin; which he and his wife, Eva, gave to the Priory of St. Andrews. Sir William died towards the close of the twelfth century, and was s. by his son, DAVID DE HAYA, who wedded Helen, daughter of Gilbert, Earl of Strathern, and had two sons, viz. 1. GILBERT, who succeeded his father The second son, WILLIAM DE HAYA, obtained from his brother Gilbert, in 1235, a grant of two carucates of land, in Errol, called LEYS; which grant was afterwards confirmed, in 1451, by William, Earl of Errol, to Edmund Hay, of Leys, the lineal descendant of this William. He was s. at his demise, by his son, DE HAYA, of Leys, father of EDMUND DE HAYA, of Leys, an eminent patriot, who distinguished himself in favour of King ROBERT I. In 1312 he obtained, to himself and his son William, a lease, from the abbot and convent of Scone, of the lands of Balgarvie. From this Edmund de Haya, the estate of Leys passed from father to son, to his great-great-grandson, EDMUND HAY, of Leys, to whom, William, Earl of Errol, granted a charter of confirmation in 1451. He had issue, I. EDMUND, his heir. II. Peter, from whom descend the fa- The eldest son and successor, } PETER, who predeceased his father. PATRICK, successor to his father. Walter, Thomas, Edmund Hay died 31st January, 1497, and was s. by his second, but eldest surviving son, both mentioned in a charter dated 1496. PATRICK HAY, of Leys, who m. Elizabeth, daughter of John Moncrieff, of Moncrieff, and had a son, EDMUND HAY, of Leys, who had a charter, as heir to his father, upon a precept of clare constat, 18th and 20th March, 1513. He espoused Elizabeth Durham, and was s. by his son, GEORGE, his heir. James, merchant of Dundee, b. in 1694, who is named in an instrument of resignation by David Hay-Balfour, of Leys, 10th June, 1758. He married, and had issue, whose descendants still reside at Dundee. Jean. Margaret. Peter Hay, of Leys, died in 1712, and was s. by his son, GEORGE HAY-BALFOUR, esq. b. in 1682, who wedded his cousin Mary, daughter of JAMES BALFOUR, esq. of Randerston, in Fifeshire, and thus acquired that estate. By this lady he had issue, PETER, his heir. |