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between them, begun at Antwerp. A list of the prints is given in Evans's 'Catalogue of Engraved Portraits,' Nos. 4648-4654, and by Granger in his 'Biographical Dictionary,' vol. i., p. 298. I have given in this Work those by Thew, Michel, and Delaram; the last is reduced from the Mercers' picture, and is rather a scarce print. There is one in Lodge's 'Portraits' from the Mercers' picture; another by Vertue in Ward's 'Lives of the Gresham Professors;' another by Faber, with a ship in the background, dated 1714, and dedicated "Domino Carolo Gresham Equiti Aurato;"* one by Hollar, in a small circle, in a view of the Exchange. Besides these, there are a host of small prints (one by Benoist) to illustrate popular histories, all taken from the Mercers' portrait, and one from the sitting portrait by Sir Antonio More, with a view of the Exchange in the background. There are two impressions of the print by Thew, one of which is dedicated to Sir William Curtis, Bart., and published in 1823.

It is to be hoped that we shall soon hear the last of the legend repeated, usque ad nauseam, in story-books and at popular lectures, and which has found its way even into a sermon,† viz., that Sir Thomas Gresham was a foundling, exposed in a field, and discovered to a passer-by from the loud chirping of a grasshopper, for which reason he adopted that device for his crest.‡ That James Gresham, his great-grandfather, sealed eleven letters among the Paston Letters, from 1443-1481, with his seal, the grasshopper, and that it appears with the initials R. G. on the porch of Intwood Hall, disposes of that part of the story; and that the son of Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor of London in 1537, and one of the most opulent of the City merchants of his day, should be exposed as a foundling, carries its own refutation with it. The reason of the grasshopper being adopted as the family crest is satisfactorily accounted for by a writer in 'Notes and Queries,'§ who connects it with Gresham or Grass-ham, their native place in Norfolk. The Titsey branch of the family bore a grasshopper proper; Sir Thomas, and his father Sir Richard, a grasshopper or.

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One would like to know the reason that prompted the adoption of their motto, "Fiat Voluntas Tua," one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. The carving from the old mantel-piece at Titsey Place, given among the illustrations, carries it back to the early

*This was Sir Charles Gresham, Bart. A Baronet is not uncommonly designated as "Eques Auratus."

+ In the Children's Service Book,' by the Rev. H. Martyn Hart, 1875, p. 266, is a Sermon on Hagar and Ishmael, where we read how, about 350 years ago, a woman deposited her baby on the grass and went her way. By and by down the lane came a schoolboy, and hearing a grasshopper chirping very loudly, sprang over a gate, discovered the baby and ran home with him. A kind farmer's wife adopts the little orphan who had been saved from death by a grasshopper. The baby-boy becomes the merchant, places the grasshopper on the pinnacle of the Royal Exchange to proclaim to the world that his valuable life had been saved by it, and this we are bidden to remember as often as we pass the spot. The prevalence of the tradition was curiously illustrated some twenty years ago, when an old dame in my own village, well versed in legends of the past, enquired of me whether I knew the origin of the Greshams, and then proceeded, mutatis mutandis, to relate the story, substituting a member of the Titsey family for Sir Thomas, and pointing out Newhall in Limpsfield, one of their manor-houses, as the scene of the legend.

Notes and Queries,' 5 sec., x., 69.

§ 3 sec., iv., 175; 5 sec., x., 135.

"Grassheim" is, in German, grasshopper; it is a canting crest.

part of the sixteenth century. Was it the pious sentiment of some member of the family evoked by domestic bereavement or reverse of fortune? We shall never know, but it forms a fitting and appropriate motto on the modern oak pulpit on which it is carved, and on the fragments of old glass in the tower window of Titsey Church.

Genealogical works of this kind have largely increased of late years, and the taste for them has been stimulated not only by facilities of access to public documents, but also because family history is now recognized to hold an important place in illustrating the history of England. If it be objected that personal matters too often come in in such memoirs, it may be asked who is so fit to write them, or who has the same advantage in respect of private documents, as one who is himself descended from the ancestors whose records he chronicles. With merchant princes such as Sir John,† Sir Richard and his still more illustrious son, Sir Thomas Gresham, originated that system of trade and commerce which has made this country the wealthiest and most powerful in the world; and not the least debt of gratitude (but one which is sometimes forgotten) which we owe to Sir Thomas Gresham is the part his policy exercised in the victory over the Spanish Armada, although he did not live to see it. It was his foresight, which for years before had collected the gunpowder and materials of war, which made the victory of Sir Francis Drake possible, and secured the independence of England‡ from foreign domination.

GRANVILLE LEVESON GOWER.

TITSEY PLACE,

June 15, 1883.

* I exhibited this carving at the Society of Antiquaries lately, and, from the costume of the heads and the form of the letters, it was pronounced to be of not later date than 1535, or thereabouts. If, as I think not impossible, it was removed from the Old Manor House at Holt, Norfolk, by Sir John Gresham when he converted it into a school in 1546, and taken to one of his other houses, it may be even older than 1535, and belong to the beginning of the sixteenth century, as Holt had been the family house from early times.

+ We get an idea of his wealth from his loan to the Crown in 1546 of £40,000; his revival of the splendid pageant of the "Marching Watch," with its 2000 attendants, during his Mayoralty in 1547; the sumptuousness of his funeral, as narrated by Stow; and the number and amount of the bequests and legacies in his Will. The furniture in Sir Thomas Gresham's house at Mayfield, Sussex, was estimated at £7553 10s. 8d.; that at Westacre, Norfolk, at £1655; and that at his house in Bishopsgate Street, London, at £1127.

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‡ Burgon [‘Life of Gresham,' vol. ii., p. 337] says, 'How frequently must it have been a subject of congratulation with Queen Elizabeth and her Secretary that they had listened to the often-repeated and urgent solicitations of Sir Thomas Gresham, and supplied the country with those military stores which now kept the Continent in awe, while this rendered England secure and independent." In Appendix to same work, No. xvi., vol. i., p. 478, is a list of certain "Armewr and Monnyssyones" which he procured in 1560; among which are 15,000 handguns, 18,000 daggers, 8000 pikes, 260,000 lbs. weight of serpentine powder, 160,000 lbs. weight of corne powder, 310,000 lbs. weight of saltpetre, 150,000 lbs. weight of sulphur, 60,000 lbs. weight of matches. The sum total he expended in this service was £108,956 13s. 4d., or nearly a million of our present money.

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MITCHELL & HUGHES, PRINTERS, 24 WARDOUR STREET, W.

MDCCCLXXIV.

Genealogical Memoranda relating to the

Gresham Family.

GRANT OF AUGMENTATION TO JOHN GRESHAM, SHERIFF OF LONDON, 1537.

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To all Nobles and Getylls thes p'sant letters beryng or seyng Thomas Hawlay al's Clarenculx princypall herauld and Kyng of Armes of the Southe est and West Parts of this Realme of England from the Trent Southewards Salutyth wt humble recome'dacons as equyte willithe and reson ordanyth that in vertuus and of noble corage be by ther merett and good renoune rewardyd nott a lonly ther p'sons in this lyve mortell so brefe and trasytore but after them thos that shall desend and come of ther bodys to be in all places of honner p'petualme't wt other Nobles and Getylls renouned exceptyed and taken be sarten Insynes and demostrances of honner and noblist that ys to say blason helme & tymber to thend that be their exsamples other shall Inforce ther selves in fetts of Armes & marks vertuus to gett the Renoun of Anshant noblist in ther lyves and posterites and therfor Clarenclux Kyng of Armes as above ys writyn not a lonly be the comon report but also be the Report and wytnes of dyvers Worshypfull Worthe to be taken of ther worde that John Greshame Mersar of Londonn son of John Gresham of Holt Market in the Count' of Norffolk Gentylman ys desendyd of a good howse undefamed beryng Armes vnder the lawse he nott wyllyng to doo nothing that shall be preudercall to no Gentylman of name and of Armes ther for he hathe dyssired and Required me to over se them and sett them in do order and forme and to devys and order for hym his helme Crest and ma'tell wt sum token of honner to p'ference the said Armes therfor the said Clareseulx Kyng of Armes seying the Request so Gentyl descreet and honnerable and also he hathe borne hyme selve honerable descretly

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