Sir Hugh Smithson, 1st Baronet

Arms of Smithson of Stanwick, Yorkshire (ancient): Argent, a chevron engrailed sable between three oak leaves erect slipped vert[1]
Augmented arms of Smithson Baronets of Stanwick: Or, on a chief embattled azure three suns proper[2]

Sir Hugh Smithson, 1st Baronet (c.1598–1670) of Stanwick St John, North Yorkshire, was a Royalist supporter during the Civil War for which he was rewarded with a baronetcy by King Charles II on the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. His great-great-grandson was Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet (1715-1786), who having inherited by his marriage half of the great Percy, Earl of Northumberland, estates, and the title 2nd Earl of Northumberland by special remainder from his father-in-law Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (d.1750), changed his surname and arms to Percy and was created in 1766 1st Duke of Northumberland.

Origins

He was the son and heir of Anthony Smithson of Newsham[3] anciently "Newsham Broghton Lith",[4] in the Parish of Kirkby Ravensworth, North Riding of Yorkshire,[5] by his wife Eleanor Catterick, daughter and heir of George Catterick of Stanwick.[6]

Career

In 1638 he purchased the manor of Stanwick from his relative Anthony Catterick for the sum of £4000.[7] He was a Citizen of the City of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers[8][9] and "an adventurer in Irish lands".[10]

According to Collins:[11]

"(He) eminently distinguished himself for his zeal and loyalty to his sovereign Charles II in whose service he liberally employed his fortune, seeking all occasions to promote his majesty's interest during his exile, for which he was at length no small sufferer, having his estate sequestered as a recusant after being twice fined for refusing to act as sheriff to avoid taking the oaths imposed in those days of rebellion".

He was fined for recusancy by the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents.[12]

Grant of augmented arms

As a further token of the king's gratitude, in order to distinguish hi from the rest of his family, he was granted the honour of a different coat of arms: Or, on a chief embattled azure three suns proper.[13]

Landholdings

His landholdings included:

Marriage & progeny

He married Dorothy Rawstorne (alias Royston), daughter of Jerom Rawstorne of Plaistow in Essex.[16] The will proved on 22 Nov. 1658 of "Jeramy Rawstorne" of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors survives in the Lancashire Archives (the family was also of New Hall, Preston Lancashire) summarised as follows:[17]

"To be buried at St. Lawrence Jury, near his father Jeremy. To sisters Elizabeth Baxter, Dorothy Smithson, Leah Shippard, and to cousin Hester Rawstorne £5 each. To brothers Heugh Smithson, Mathew Shippare, Robert Bardard, and to uncle Richard Halford and aunt Anne Harrise, and aunt Mary Younge £2 each. To Elizabeth and Grace daughters of brother Francis, decd. £20 each, etc."

By his wife he had four sons and two daughters, of which only three survived him:

Death & burial

Monument and effigies of Sir Hugh Smithson, 1st Baronet (d.1670) and his wife, St John the Baptist's Church, Stanwick

He died on 21 October 1670, aged 72, at his home at Tottenham High Cross (which formerly belonged to the Hynningham family),[24] Middlesex, and was buried in his parish church of St John the Baptist, Stanwick St John, where survives his elaborate monument showing two effigies, of himself and his wife, probably sculpted by William Stanton (1639–1705) of London.[25] It displays the following inscription:

Certa resurgendi fide cryptam subtus dormitoria sibi sulso(?) ad inhumandi ritus suo solius sumptu curari jussit Anno 1670 Hugo Smithson Miles et Baronett ("In certain faith of rising again, in the year 1670 Hugh Smithson, Knight and Baronet, ordered to be undertaken at his sole expense the rite of burial in the crypt below as his dormitory").

Sources

References

  1. Collins' Baronetage of England; The old arms can be seen carved in wood impaling the arms of Fairfax (A lion rampant) on the staircase of Moulton Hall, Richmond, York, made following the 1653 marriage of George Smithson. See image in: Smithson, George R., Genealogical notes memoirs of the Smithson family, London, 1906, plate between pp.24&25
  2. Collins, Arthur, The English Baronetage, vol.3, part 1; Victoria County History, Stanwick St John
  3. Collins, Arthur, The English Baronetage, vol.3, part 1, London, 1741, pp.126-8
  4. Smithson, George R., Genealogical notes memoirs of the Smithson family, London, 1906, p.5
  5. A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire (EPNS 5), Cambridge 1928
  6. Victoria County History, County of York North Riding, Volume 1, ed. William Page, London, 1914, pp.127-134: Parishes: Stanwick St. John
  7. Victoria County History, County of York North Riding, Volume 1, ed. William Page, London, 1914, pp.127-134: Parishes: Stanwick St. John
  8. "Will of Hugh Smithson, Haberdasher of London", proved 21 June 1672, National Archives PROB 11/339/231
  9. Collins, Arthur, The English Baronetage, vol.3, part 1, London, 1741, pp.126-8
  10. An Account of the Decendants [sic] of William Smithson of Newsham, Temp. Elizth.
  11. Collins, Arthur, The English Baronetage, Vol.3, Part 1
  12. Clay, John William, Yorkshire Royalist Composition Papers, or, the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents during the Commonwealth, Vol.3, Cambridge, 1896, p.188
  13. Collins, Arthur, The English Baronetage, vol.3, part 1; Victoria County History, Stanwick St John
  14. Historic Tottenham
  15. Collins Peerage, re Percy
  16. Collins, p.126
  17. Lancashire Archives, DDR 16/3
  18. Collins Peerage, re Percy
  19. History of Parliament biography of Sir Henry Johnson
  20. Collins, English Baronetage
  21. History of Parliament biography of Sir Henry Johnson
  22. History of Parliament biography of his son Hugh Smithson (c.1662-1740), MP
  23. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/smithson-hugh-1661-1740
  24. Robinson, William, History and Antiquities of the Parish of Tottenham High Cross, in the County of Middlesex, London, 1818, p.132
  25. Further reading: The Smithson Monuments at Stanwick, North Yorkshire by Bulter, L., published in Journal of the Church Monument Society Volume XV, 2000. 6pp, 4 b/w pls
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