Vol 3 - Lackham Countryside Centre

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The Manor of Lackham Vol 3 : The Montagu family In 1635 the fourteen year old 178 Baynard heiress, Mary, (1621 179 - 1685) married Capt. the Hon James Montagu (1608 - 1665) who was 27 at the time. Her father Robert Baynard died only 8 months later and it is very likely that the marriage was arranged because Robert knew he was dying. Certainly Henry Montagu promised to make his son and daughter in law financially comfortable; in his will Henry makes bequests which, he says, makes good my promise unto sir Robert Baynard which was to settle two hundred pounds per annum upon my son James and his wife the daughter of sir Robert Baynard . 180 The Baynards may have been in financial difficulties; in 1639 Mary wrote to her father in law thanking him for a gift of plate and asking whether he would be pleased to be helpful unto my husban with fome money for my fathers creditors are only clamoring one him, .... that there is noe way to raise my money so that I shall desire your Lordshippe that you would be pleased to grant my husbans requests. 181 It is unknown whether the earl provided the money. The start of James and Mary’s time at Lackham was not hopeful - within a 178 Kite, E (undated) Wiltshire Pedigrees vol 2 quoting Chester’s Marriage Licences 179 Hasell, ABS (1972) Baynard : An ancient family bearing Arms p49 baptized Lacock 26 March 1620. Lacock Parish Registers Transcriptions in WANHS Library Devizes (hereafter LPRD) Bap 27 shows March 27 1621 180 Huntingdon Record Office M71/3/1/13 181 Huntingdon Record Office 21/463. This is a photocopy of a letter by Mary dated 12 th June 1639. These photocopies are of papers formerly deposited in the PRO under pro30/15/2 but [which] were withdrawn and sold at Sotheby’s on 27/10 1970 there was a further sake at Sotheby’s on 19/7/1999 48
The Manor of Lackham Vol 3 : The Montagu family decade of James and Mary inheriting, the country was suffering the Civil War. It has already been noted that James was “Captain the Honourable”. It is unknown what regiment James was in. Unlike his brother and nephew he does not appear in the history of the Civil war at all. The Montagus of Lackham do not appear to have been active locally for either side (but see below) and the Manor does not seem to have been involved directly in the great and terrible events of the 1640’s. Their near neighbours, Edward Hungerford of Corsham and Edward Baynton of Bromham, were commanders for Parliament during the war 182 War passed close by however; after the Battle of Lansdown (July 6 th , 1643), the major armies of the West were very close - “the Royalist commanders halted….and sent messages to Waller [the Parliamentary commander] offering to contest the issue afresh on the level land between Biddlestone [sic] and Chippenham”. Waller declined and “both sides spent the night of the eighth in arms, bivouacking almost within talking distance of one another in the fields west of [Lackham] 183 It seems strange that Lackham was not involved, the estates on either side were actively invested - Lacock Abbey changed hands, by force, several times and the Hungerford house at Rowden was a stronghold for Parliamentary forces; various attempts were made to take it. On February 15 th , 1645, about 500 Royalist troops besieged the house and “two days of heavy bombardment followed” 184 , after which the Parliamentarians surrendered. The canon would have been clearly audible and, the smoke at least, visible at Lackham 182 Buderidge, P & Pocock, JD (1941) Pinhills p25 “The Blakes, Erles, Bayntuns and Hungerfords with all the neighbouring gentry eagerly took up commissions in the North Wiltshire Militia. Ambrose Blake, who had succeeded his father at Pinhills, fortified the family seat against the Royalists by garrisoning the manor house with a body of musketeers” 183 MacLachlan (1977) The Civil War in Wiltshire pp104 – 105 184 MacLachlan (1977) ibid pp 307-209 49
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Vol 3 - Lackham Countryside Centre

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