Chivalry was opened with great solemnity, in the Painted Chamber, March 3, 1731-2, in relation to which he had taken a principal part. In 1733 he appointed Francis Bassans, of Chester, his deputy, as Norroy, for Chester and North Wales; and about the same time asserted his right, as Norroy, to grant arms in North Wales; which right was claimed by Mr. Longeville, who had been constituted Gloucester King of Arms partium Wallic, annexed to that of Bath King of Arms, at the revival of that order. He drew up a petition in January 1737-8, which was presented to the King in Council, for a new Charter, with the sole power of painting arms, &c.; which petition was referred to the Attorney and Solicitor General; but they making their report favourable to the Painters, it did not succeed. He printed, in 1744, "Reasons for granting Commissions to the Provincial Kings at Arms for visiting their Provinces. Dr. Cromwell Malone having, in 1747, proposed to establish a Registry for Dissenters, in the College of Arms, he had many meetings with the heads of the several denominations, and also of the Jews; and drew up articles of agreement, which were approved by all parties; proposals were printed and discussed, a seal made to affix to certificates, and the Registry was opened, Feb. 20, 1747-8; but it did not succeed, owing to a misunderstanding between the ministers and deputies of the congregations. A bill having been brought in by the Proctors in the Session of Parliament for 1748, for taking the number of the people, with their marriages and births, he solicited a claim in favour of the College; but the bill did not pass. He being fixed upon to abstract the fair Register Books belonging to the most noble Order of St. George, they were delivered to him by Dr. Booth, dean of Windsor, in 1755; and, by Dr. Booth's importutunity, he continued it from the death of Queen Anne; an undertaking the more necessary, as it had been wholly omitted from the decease of her Majesty. Garter completed the whole within that year. year. This having been translated into Latin, was deposited in the Registrar's Office of the Order. As Garter King of Arms, he was appointed, in 1769, as a Plenipotentiary, jointly with the Marquis of Granby, for investing Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick with the ensigns of the Order of St. George. For the execution of this duty he left England in September, attended by two of his sons; one an herald, the other his secretary. On the 44th of October his Highness received the habit and insignia, at his head-quarters of the camp of the allied army at Nordorf on the Lahne. And in 1764 he was joined in a like commission with Colonel David Grieme, as Plenipotentiary for the investiture of his Serene Highness the Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, her Majesty's brother; which ceremony was performed at Nien Strelitz, on the 4th of June *. Garter, in 1726, published his "Nummi Britannici Historia, or Historical Account of British Money." A second edition, with large additions, was printed in 1745, dedicated to the Duke of Norfolk. It is much to Mr. Leake's honour, that he was the first person who has written professedly upon the English coinage. From affectionate gratitude to Admiral Sir John Leake, and at the particular desire of his father, he had written a history of the life of that Admiral, prepared from a great collection of books and papers relating to the subject which were in his possession. This he published in 1750, in large octavo. Fifty copies only were printed, to be given to his friends: this book is therefore very scarce and difficult to be procured. Mr. Bowyer, in 1766, printed for him 50 copies of the Statutes of the Order of St. George, to enable him to supply each Knight at his Installation with one, as he was required to do officially. *The particulars of this ceremony, "in honour of our excellent and justly beloved Queen," are given at large by Mr. Noble, in his valuable "History of the College of Arms," p. 410; a work which has enabled me to fill up the meagre skeleton given in a memoir of Mr. Leake in my former edition. Garter, Garter, ever attentive to promote sciences, was constantly adding to his store of knowledge, but more particularly in what related to arms, descents, honours, precedence, the history of the College, and of the several persons who had been officers of arms, and on every other subject in any way connected with his office. He also wrote several original essays on some of these subjects. These multifarious collections are contained in upwards of fifty volumes, all in his own hand-writing; which MSS. with many others, he bequeathed to his son, John Martin Leake, esq. to whom the publick, through the medium of Mr. Noble, are indebted for this particular narrative, and full detail. This valuable Head of the College married Anne, youngest daughter, and at length sole heiress, of Fletcher Pervall, esq. of Downton, in the parish and county of Radnor, by Anne his wife, daughter. of Samuel Hoole of London, by whom he had nine children, six sons and three daughters, all of whom survived him. He died, at his seat at Mile-end, Middlesex, March 24, 1773, in the 70th year of his age; and was buried in the chancel of Thorpe Soken church in Essex, of which parish he was long impropriator, and owner of the seat of Thorpe hall, and the estate belonging to it, inheriting them from his father. His widow died Jan. 29, 1782, in Hertfordshire, aged 86. Three of his sons were connected with the College of Arms. His eldest son, Stephen Martin Leake, esq. was created Norfolk Herald Extraordinary, Sept. 21, 1761. John Martin Leake, esq. his second son, was constituted Chester Herald, by patent, Sept. 27, 1752; which post he surrendered, in 1791, by permission of the Duke of Norfolk, to his youngest brother, George Martin Leake, esq. now Chester Herald. John Martin Leake, esq. was also appointed secretary to the Earl of Suffolk, as Earl Marshal, Dec. 23, 1763; in which office he continued till his Lordship's resignation, in 1765, when the Earl of Scarborough was appointed Deputy Earl Earl Marshal; to whom Mr. John Martin Leake was also secretary *. . SMART LETHIEULLIER, esq. gentleman commoner of Trinity College Oxford, was the second son of John Lethieullier, esq. of Aldersbrook in Essex; where he had a noble collection of MSS. choice books, medals, and natural curiosities, which he had collected in his travels through France, Italy, and Germany. His father dying Jan. 1, 1736-7, and his elder brother being dead before, he became possessed of the paternal estates, which were very considerable. He was an excellent scholar, a polite gentleman, and universally esteemed by all the learned men of his tine. In a letter to Mr. Gale, in 1735, he gives a particular account of a Roman pavement at Wansted Park; of which the substance is transcribed below *. *Noble's History of the College of Arms, pp. 408-415; where see a good portrait of Mr. Garter Leake, engraved by T. Milton, from a painting by K. F. Pine. + Who died Jan. 1, 1737, æt. 78. "Though my attendance in the country at this season of the year will not permit me to be present at the weekly meetings of the Society at the Mitre, yet I shall have the greatest respect for it, and be glad on all occasions to do what lies within the compass of my poor abilities, either to promote the end of its institution, or entertain the gentlemen who compose it. As I remember, there is only a slight memorandum in the great drawing-book relating to a Roman pavement discovered about twenty years ago in Sir Richard Child's (now Earl Tylney's) park at Wansted in Essex. As the whole is now obliterated, and the face of the ground so much changed, that a curious enquirer must ask, Ubi Troja fuit? I hope the following account of it will not be thought an intrusion upon your time. The occasion of this discovery was, the digging holes for an avenue of trees from the gardens. Mr. Adam Holt, the gardener, perceiving several of the tessera thrown up, soon conjectured what he was upon, and earnestly endeavoured, though in vain, to obtain leave to lay it quite open: however, he examined it so far as to find that its extent from North to South was about twenty feet, and from East to West about sixteen; that it was composed of small square brick tessera of different sizes and colours, as black, white, red, &c. of all which I have specimens. That there was a border about a foot broad went round it, composed of red dice, about three Amongst other proofs of Mr. Lethieullier's attention to antiquarian pursuits, may be mentioned three-fourths of an inch square, within which were several ornaments, and in the middle the figure of a man riding upon some beast, and holding something in his hand; but, as he opened it only in a hurry, and in different places, he was able to give no better account of it. There was then found a silver coin, but of what Emperor I have not been able to learn, and one of the small brass of Valens, DN VALENS PF AVG; Reverse, SECVRITAS REIPVB; Exergue, LVG. P.; now in my possession; which are all the coins or other antiquities that were ever found at this place, at least to my knowledge. I have frequently visited it (once I think with you, when you favoured me with your company at Aldersbrook), and have found not only many of the aforesaid tesseræ, but several pieces of large Roman brick, some hollowed, probably for gutters. This pavement was situated on a gentle gravelly ascent toward the North, and at a small distance from the South end of it I remember a well of exceeding fine water, now absorbed in a great pond. From this well the ground rises likewise toward the South till it comes to a plair, which extends a considerable way, and is now my warren; but by tradition was once covered with wood. On the brink of this very plain, and about 300 yards due South from the said well and pavement, there were in my memory the ruins of foundations to be seen, though now destroyed by planting trees round the park pales; the mounds about them having been since levelled, has raised the ground very much. The place where this antiquity was discovered is a part, as I said before, of Earl Tylney's park, which lies on the South side of his gardens, and is bounded to the South by my estate at Aldersbrook, a part of which it was, till King Henry VIII. inclosed it within his newmade park, as the words in his grant to my predecessors express. As it both is and probably ever was a retired corner, no vestigia of camps, roads, or other Roman antiquities near it, this pavement can hardly be presumed to have been the floor of a prætorium, or a Roman general's tent, as many of them doubtless were. Will it bear the face of a tolerable conjecture, therefore, that the aforesaid ruins were the foundations of a Roman villa, the retirement perhaps of some inhabitant of Londinum, which is scarce six miles distant; or of Durolitum, which is hardly three, if Low Leyton be allowed to have been that station? The soil thereabout is dry and inviting, the opening to the South, and directly opposite to Shooter's-hill in Kent, very agreeable and pleasing. The aforementioned spring or well might perhaps induce the owner to make a walk or garden down to it, and the pavement be of the banqueting-house, or room for entertainments, which terminated his view. That luxuries of this nature were introduced into Britain will not, I believe, be denied. But I fear I go too far with my conjectures and your patience; perhaps the Natale Salum prevails; and the VOL. V. fancy BB |