Strachey of Sutton Court; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 5, No. 1

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Strachey of Sutton Court

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 1.
   (Jul., 1896), pp. 6-10.

                      STRACHEY OF SUTTON COURT

                     (Continued from page 192).

   The Strachey family is one of great antiquity.  Sir John Strachey was one of
the 20 knights made at the investiture of Edward the Black Prince, 1337.  After
him the regular order of the family from Gyles Strachey, son of William Strachey,
of Saffron Walden, in Co. of Essex, in reign of Edward VI., 1547, was as follows.
Gyles had issue:  William Strachey, of Saffron Walden (b. 1547-d. 1586).  Issue
of the lst was William Strachey (b. 1561-d.1598).  He married Mary Cook, and they
had one son William, who became Secretary to Lord Delaware, and was the author of
Historie of Travaile in Virginia.  This William married Frances Foster in 1588. 
Issue, one son, William, who married Elenor Read in 1620.  His son by this union
was William Strachey, who went to Virginia and died there in 1686, leaving one
child, Arabella Strachey, who married, 1st, John Cox, and 2d, John Walter, both
of Virginia.  By the first husband she had an only daughter, Elizabeth, who mar-
ried Col. John Smith, of Abingdon Parish, Gloucester Co., Virginia, son of Major
Lawrence Smith.  Elizabeth Smith died in 1704, and Col. Smith in 1719-20.  (See
Chart Pedigree, p. 194).  The second William Strachey, whose sone William went to
Virginia, married 2ndly, Elizabeth Cross.  Their son, John Strachey, of Sutton
Court & Gray's Inn, 1634-1674, married Jane Hodges, December, 1662, and had one
child only, a son, John Strachey, 1671-1743, who married Elizabeth Elletson.  They
had 18 children, 9 sons and 9 daughters.  Henry Strachey, the 1st son, became the
father of Sir Henry, the 1st Baronet, whose BROTHER Edward, succeeded him to the
estate, and whose son Edward, 3d Baronet, succeeded him.   (See the ouline of
pedigree, p. 194.

Page 7.

The 15th child and the 9th son of John Strachey and Elizabeth Elletson was the
John who came to Virginia and married Elizabeth Vernon.  (See outline of
pedigree).

   Dr. John Strachey located in King and Queen Co., Va.  The Virginia Gazette contains
an advertisement that on December 6, 1769, would be sold the dwelling-house of the
late Henry Strachey, deceased (his son), in King and Queen Co., situated about two
miles from Dudley's Ferry, and twenty miles respectively from the courthouses of
New Kent, King William, King and Queen, Middlesex and Gloucester counties.  It was
described as a large brick-house, with three rooms to a floor, having the necessary
out-houses, a fine crab orchard, &c.  My chief information regarding the Strachey
family is derived from Dr. Claudius H. Mastin(1), who, as shown by the chart pedigree
in the last number, is a lineal descendant of Dr. John Strachey, through his daughter
Elizabeth.  Dr. Mastin has the book-plate of Dr. John Strachey, printed from an old
copper plate now in possession of Sir Edward Strachey, at Sutton Court, and being the
plate from which the book-marks of the library at Sutton Court were printed.  The 
book-plate bears the arms of the Strachey family, viz.: Strachey quarterly with
Hodges, impaled with Elletson, and surmounted by a crest and eagle gules charged on
breast with a silver cross crosslet fitchee.  The motto was assumed by the first Sir
Henry Strachey in 1764 - Coelum non Animum.  "The arms which came to me", writes the
Doctor, "were upon heavy parchment, beautifully colored, 8 x 10 inches".

   Dr. Mastin has, in addition, the arms of his father's family, as well as the arms
of the Fairfax, Vernon and Metcalfe branches, in vellum as well as engraved on silver, 
and a seal which his grandfather, Dr. Claudius Levert, of the French Navy wore upon
his watch, also an old mourning ring of gold with an amethyst seal and enameled 
around the ring:  "John Metcalfe, obiit 26 Octr 1758".  This John was an uncle of
Thomas Metcalfe, who married Elizabeth Strachey, the father to the grandmother of
Dr. Mastin".

   Dr. Mastin's collections of old paintings consist of 1st, a very fine painting of
John Strachey, who married Jane Hodges in 1662.  He was a graduate of Oxford, and is
dressed in the red gown of a barrister at law; artist unknown.  2d, Paintings of John
Strachey and his wife, Elizabeth Elletson, descended to Dr. Mastin from his grand-
mother as the work of Sir Peter Lely.  But their author is uncertain.  3d, Portrait
of Admiral Edward Vernon, certainly from
_____________________________________________________________________________________
   (1) See Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Biography for a brief sketch of Dr. Mastin.

Page 8.

the brush of Sir Godfrey Kneller.  It is an elegant painting, in good preservation.

4th, A number of other old paintings of members of the various branches of his family,
besides a number of minatures on ivory and copper, all of which are works of art as
well as pictures of value, on account of family interest.

   A little book published by Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Talks in a Country House,
by Sir Edward Strachey, the present Baronet, contains a very good engraving of the 
south side of "Sutton Court", and also a good likeness of Sir Edward standing in his
library.  On the wall are hanging three portraits, duplicates of some which Dr.

Mastin has in his house in Mobile, and which wre painted by the same artist, Sir
Peter Lely.  A paper, descriptive of Sutton Court, written by Sir Edward Strachey, 
may be seen in the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society's Pro-
ceedings of 1867.  Sutton Court is one of the oldest, if not the oldest manor house
in England, and dates back long beyond the general survey of Domesday!

   The following interesting notes of families allied(1) to the Strachey family are
in the words of Dr. Mastin:

                              NOTES.

   THE HODGES family is one of very great age.  Sir Edward Strachey has sent me an
unbroken pedigree of them, from King John down to the union, with John Strachey in
1662, and I have in my collection of silver plate the wedding presents given at that
marriage!  Decr 1662!

   THE ELLETSON family is of very much later date, and beyond the fact of being a
family of "Gentlemen" (as the pedigree states) there has been nothing of note to
mention.

   THE CROSS family came down in line from the Earls of Ormond, and was noted as
taking an active part in the Spanish war with England.

   THE VERNON FAMILY(2).  Ralph de Vernon, of Vernon, in Normandy, was a Lord of that
little town; he went to England with the Conqueror and founded the family.  (See
Abbey Battle Roll after Battle of Hastings where his name is prominent).  James
Vernon, Secretary of State to King William III, came down in line from him.  He was
the father of Admiral Edward Vernon, who, in turn, was the uncle of Elizabeth Vernon,
who married John Strachey, M.D., of Sutton Court.  I have in my possession several
pieces of silver plate-salvers, bearing the name, and also a protrait of the Admiral,
pinxt by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

   THE MASTIN family is Welsh.  My grandfather, Francis Turner Masten
_____________________________________________________________________________________
   (1) The Metcalfe family is treated under a separate head.
   (2) "The Vernon pedigree came to me from the papers and parchments left by my
grandmother, Ann Lee Metcalfe, and have subsequently been attested by the Herald's
College" - Dr. Mastin.

Page 9.

came to America, with his brother, Thomas Bryant Mastin, when Lord Fairfax came over.
They came from the little town of Mostyn, in Wales, and by degrees has been changed
to Mostin, and then Mastin.  The brother of my grandfather, Thomas Bryant Mastin, was
one of the executors of the will of Lord Fairfax; and by consulting Hening's Statues
at Large you may likely find all you wish to know of us!  Our relationship with the
Fairfax family will enable you to trace our descent, if you have any curiosity in 
that respect.

   THE LEVERT family is an old French family which came from near Avignon.  It was a
noble family and originated from one Dominque Claude de Vert.  After the revolution
of 1793, all titles of nobility being abrogated, the family assumed the name of
Levert.  Suffice it to say of them that it was largely a family of physicians, and

all of them were, in one way or another, connected with the French Army.  My grand-
father, Dr. Claude Levert, being a fleet surgeon in the French Navy, and a personal
friend of General Lafayette, he came with the Count de Rochambeau to Yorktown, during
the Revolution.  I have in my collection of portraits a picture of General Lafayette,
which he gave my mother when he made his last visit to America.  The late General
Edward Levert, of the French Army and the Engineer of Bazine at Metz, was a nephew
of my grandfather, Dr. Claude Levert.  A daughter of General Edward Levert resides
at Angoulerne, France.

                            AMORIAL BEARINGS.

   STRACHEY, 1600.  Argent on a cross engrailed between 4 eaglets gules a fluerdelis
between 4 cinque foils or.  Crest,a lion rampant ermine, crowned and supporting a
cross patee-fitchee or.

   STRACHEY, 1700.  Argent, a cross between 4 eaglets gules.  Crest, an eagle dis-
played gules, charged upon the breast with a cross crosslet fitchee argent.
   [These are the present arms of all the Stracheys and descendants.]

   After 1764.  (Motto), Coelum-non-animum was assumed by Sir Henry Strachey.

   CROSS, of Blackmore and Somerset.  Quarterly argent and gules.  In the 1st quarter
a cross crosslet gules.  (No crest).
   [I do not know the motto, if any].

   HODGES.  Or 3 crescents sable, on a canton of the 2nd, a coronet of the 1st.  
Crest.  In a coronet or a crescent sable.
   Crest.  In a coronet or a crescent sable.
   [The Hodges have never had a motto.]

   ELLETSON, of Alverstoke.  Argent a lion gules rampant regardant - no crest brought
to the family.

   METCALFE.  Upon a field argent 3 calves sable passant.
   After 1581, A.D., Crest:  A talbot proper sejant, his dexter paw grasping a
golden target.
   (Motto).  Dulica-possideo-Arva.

   VERNON (old arms).  Upon a field or a fess blue charged with 3 sheaves of what or.
   Crest.  A woman holding a sheaf of wheat on her left arm, her right hand grasping
a reap hook.
   Motto.  Vernon-semper-viret.  Sometimes, "Vernon always green".

Page 10.

   [These arms are different with the branches of the family, owing to the various
quarterings, impalements, etc.  The crest is uniform.]

   LEVERT, de Vert.
   [The old seal in my collection has been so injured by age that I am not able to
give its colors, and, besides, French heraldy is so very uncertain that there is
little reliance to be placed upon old seals.]