DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32039#0079
AT SOUTH WRAXHALL, WILTSHIRE.
57
Dorset in 1539; and M.P. for Wilts, 1552, 53.* He married, first, Frideswide,
daughter of Sir John Hungerford, of Down Ampney, great-grandson of the
Lord Treasurer; and, secondly, Eleanor, daughter of Richard Wrottesley, of
Wrottesley, in Staffordshire, relict of Edmund Leversedge, of Frome Selwood,
Somersetshire. Sir Henry was present at the siege of Boulogne, accompanied
Henry VIII. to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and was knighted for making a
gallant charge at Therouenne, in Picardy, in the sight of Henry, when a new
crest, consisting of a lioris head, with a man’s liand in its mouth, was granted to
him : his banner bears the motto,—“ Fortune soies heureux,” neither of which is
to be found in the manor-house, so that, with greater safety, we may attribute the
pure Gothic portion of the building to an earlier period than during his possession;
since it may be fairly presumed that a crest, so nobly obtained, would have
inspired vanity shfficient to “ cause it to be graven in stone ” on any building
he may have projected. A fireplace there is indeed, but of bad detail, in
the bedroom, over what is presumed to have been the ancient parleure, and
ascended by a staircase from it, which, in one spandril, bears the initials
Jz>* 3L for Sir Henry Long, and in the other, pj* (2L linked together by a
Gordian knot, for Henry and Eleanor, his second wife. By the first marriage
he had no male issue to survive him; but by the second, six sons and three
daughters. The eldest son,
Sir Robert Longe, Knight, inherited Wraxhall and Draycot; he was
sheriff for Wilts in 1575, served at the siege of Boulogne, and was esquire
of the body to King Henry VIII. He married Barbara, daughter of Sir
Edward Carne, of Wenny, Glamorganshire, by whom he had issue, four
sons and one daughter. Sir Robert, who probably was the first Protestant
member of this family, enclosed the Long’s Chapel, in South Wraxhall Church,
by building up a doorway to the left of the monument mentioned above, and a
solid wall to the right, for the convenience, no doubt, of a family pew, by which
the east and west ends were destroyed (on the east end is still to be seen one-
half of an angel, with expanded wings). In after times the work of desecration
was completed, for the south side was sadly mutilated before Aubrey saw it,
which, he says, “was as the north, but nowe almost defaced.” The sculpture
seems to have been, since then, wilfully chipped off, to allow of its being more
* The following occurs in “ Valor Ecclesiasticus ” (26 Hen. VIII. a.d. 1535) under Priory of Farleigh
Fced’
“ Henrici Long milit' sen 1' capit'lis dci priorat’ per annu’^2.”
I
57
Dorset in 1539; and M.P. for Wilts, 1552, 53.* He married, first, Frideswide,
daughter of Sir John Hungerford, of Down Ampney, great-grandson of the
Lord Treasurer; and, secondly, Eleanor, daughter of Richard Wrottesley, of
Wrottesley, in Staffordshire, relict of Edmund Leversedge, of Frome Selwood,
Somersetshire. Sir Henry was present at the siege of Boulogne, accompanied
Henry VIII. to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and was knighted for making a
gallant charge at Therouenne, in Picardy, in the sight of Henry, when a new
crest, consisting of a lioris head, with a man’s liand in its mouth, was granted to
him : his banner bears the motto,—“ Fortune soies heureux,” neither of which is
to be found in the manor-house, so that, with greater safety, we may attribute the
pure Gothic portion of the building to an earlier period than during his possession;
since it may be fairly presumed that a crest, so nobly obtained, would have
inspired vanity shfficient to “ cause it to be graven in stone ” on any building
he may have projected. A fireplace there is indeed, but of bad detail, in
the bedroom, over what is presumed to have been the ancient parleure, and
ascended by a staircase from it, which, in one spandril, bears the initials
Jz>* 3L for Sir Henry Long, and in the other, pj* (2L linked together by a
Gordian knot, for Henry and Eleanor, his second wife. By the first marriage
he had no male issue to survive him; but by the second, six sons and three
daughters. The eldest son,
Sir Robert Longe, Knight, inherited Wraxhall and Draycot; he was
sheriff for Wilts in 1575, served at the siege of Boulogne, and was esquire
of the body to King Henry VIII. He married Barbara, daughter of Sir
Edward Carne, of Wenny, Glamorganshire, by whom he had issue, four
sons and one daughter. Sir Robert, who probably was the first Protestant
member of this family, enclosed the Long’s Chapel, in South Wraxhall Church,
by building up a doorway to the left of the monument mentioned above, and a
solid wall to the right, for the convenience, no doubt, of a family pew, by which
the east and west ends were destroyed (on the east end is still to be seen one-
half of an angel, with expanded wings). In after times the work of desecration
was completed, for the south side was sadly mutilated before Aubrey saw it,
which, he says, “was as the north, but nowe almost defaced.” The sculpture
seems to have been, since then, wilfully chipped off, to allow of its being more
* The following occurs in “ Valor Ecclesiasticus ” (26 Hen. VIII. a.d. 1535) under Priory of Farleigh
Fced’
“ Henrici Long milit' sen 1' capit'lis dci priorat’ per annu’^2.”
I