he entered Scotland with 5,000 men and "won the Church of Annan, took sixty-two prisoners, fired most part of the spoil, and overthrew the fort with powder; took Milk Castle, which they fortified strongly, and planted a garrison therein, and after much spoil and waste of the country returned safely into England." Shortly afterwards (February, 1547-8) they made a second raid and occupied Dumfries. At the same time Wharton sent his son Henry to burn Drumlanrig and Durisdeer, but owing to the treachery of Maxwell, Henry well-nigh lost his life; and in revenge Wharton hanged his pledges at Carlisle, and thus initiated a lasting feud between the two families. Henry Wharton was knighted in 1548, and died two years afterwards, leaving a widow, Jane (Mauleverer) of Allerton, but no children. In 1550 Wharton was appointed a Commissioner to arrange a treaty of peace with the Scots. And in the last year of Edward VI. (1553) he had an augmentation of arms granted to him for service done against the Scots at Solway Moss, viz. a bordure engrailed gold, remplired with lion's legs in saltire, erased gules armed azure (in allusion to his having permanently maimed the Scottish lion!). Throughout the reign of Mary he retained his wardenship, and was appointed Captain of Berwick Castle (1555), and member of the Great Council of the North. An interesting incident is mentioned in the records of the Privy Council, February 24th, 1557, when he was thanked for his diligence in accompanying and entertaining the Ambassador of Russia. This was Osep Napir, who had been sent by the Czar of Muscovy to treat a perpetual league and friendship with this country, and suffered shipwreck on the coast of Scotland, losing besides abundance of rich goods, all the presents sent from his master to the Queen. On the accession of Elizabeth, Wharton practically retired from public service, wherein he had acquired many honours, and accumulated considerable wealth. Of his numerous manors, lordships and other possessions, most of which formerly belonged to the dissolved monasteries, the following deserve special notice :-(1) The Manor of Kirkby Stephen, late of St. Mary's Priory, York, purchased in 1546, also the rectory and advowson. (2) The Manor of Ravenstonedale, late of Watton Priory, Yorkshire, including the holdings of 189 tenants, purchased in 1546 for £935 16s. 8d. (3) The site and demesne of the dissolved Abbey of Shap, Westmorland, 1541. (4) The Manors of Healaugh and Catterton, and one hundred messuages, with lands in the same, purchased September 7th, 1531, of the Earl of Northumberland for £500; lease of the site and demesnes of Healaugh Park Priory 1536, purchased with tithes and advowson in 1541. (5) The house and site of the late Monastery or Priory of Sinningthwaite, and lands in Walton, Bickerton, and Bilton (long afterwards called "Bible Lands"), purchased of Robert Tempest in 1560. (6) The Manor of Muker and other lands in Swaledale, which had belonged to Rievaulx Abbey, purchased in 1545. In view of the manner in which these estates were ultimately dispersed, one can hardly fail to be reminded of the ancient saying, "He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them." Lord Wharton appears to have begun the rebuilding of Wharton Hall about the year 1554. On August 14th, 1555, he wrote to Francis Talbot, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury: "I am sorry that my house at Wharton is not in readiness for your lordship's lodgings. I beseech your lordship to take some sport of my little ground there. My lady may shoot her crossbow, and your lordship may see coursing with your greyhounds. My son Musgrave can be your lordship's guide, though he be not a good hunter." According to the inscription over the entrance of the Hall the work was finished in 1559 (1 Eliz.). About the same time he set his heart upon enclosing a huge deer park in Ravenstonedale, which he accomplished by removing the tenants within the prescribed area under pressure, such as he was able as feudal lord to exert upon them. He compensated them, indeed, with lands elsewhere, but required them to build a piece of the outside wall of the enclosure in proportion to the size of the lands they held. Some parts of this wall, nine feet in height, remain to this day. The work was begun on the morrow of Michaelmas Day, 1560, and finished in one year and one month, November, 1561, and its total cost in money was £127 16s. Tradition says that when the park was made wages were one penny per day or a peck of barley.* In the same month in which the park was completed Lord Wharton, having been a widower many years, brought home his second wife, Anne, daughter of the fifth Earl of Shrewsbury before mentioned, and widow of John, Lord Bray (the last of an ancient line), whom he married at Sheffield on November 18th, 1561. Her brother George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, was husband of the notable "Bess of Hardwick," and chosen by Queen Elizabeth keeper of Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity. In the latter part of his life Lord Wharton lived entirely at HEALAUGH, three miles from Tadcaster. The name of this place (Domesday, Hailaga) is supposed to signify Heiu-laeg, or Hiev's territory, with reference to the famous Abbess Heiu or St. Heiv (A.D. 650). A house of regular Black Canons was established here in 1218; and after the dissolution of the monasteries the materials of the Priory buildings were used in the erection of a manor-house in which Lord Wharton resided till his death. He was doubtless a man of ability and courage, but of fiery temperament, shrewd, wilful, and ambitious, and overbearing in his dealings with others. In a letter to John Maxwell (1546) he wrote: "Ye writ in your letters words falsely, and call me a tyrant lord, which is not truly nor advisedly." The "History and Traditions of Ravenstonedale," by the Rev. W. Nicholls, 1877. accusation was, nevertheless, not entirely without foundation. In one of his letters he wrote: "My two sons shall undertake any two sons of equal honour in Scotland who will take Maxwell's quarrels"; and in another, "Let the Scots be punished for their abominable falsehood; I am glad to be ill-beloved by them." He was equally ill-beloved by his nearer neighbours. His own tenantry resented his high-handed dealing with them. There was a tradition that when going over Ash Fell into Ravenstonedale he was struck with blindness "as a punishment for his injustice and tyranny." His unhappy relations with the Commoners of Westmorland were probably one of his reasons for leaving his ancestral home and fixing his residence on the banks of the Wharfe. One of his last public acts was the founding of a Grammar School at Kirkby Stephen, November 9th, 1566; and the terms of its foundation are of curious interest : "The parsonage house on the east side of the church-yard to be for a schoolmaster, who is to have £12 yearly as his hire and wages. He shall read to the scholars no corrupt or reprobate book or works set forth at any time contrary to the determination of the universal Catholic Church. Every morning and evening, at 6 o'clock, they shall go to the Church and repair unto the Chapel or quire where I have made or set a tomb, and there sing one of these Psalms: 103, 136, 145, 46, 111, 61, 24, 30, 90, 96, 100, 51, 84, 86, 45. He shall read to them the Ten Commandments in Latin, and Cato, Tully's Offices, De Amicitia and Senectute, Sallust, Vergil, Terence. One of the poorest born in Kirkby Stephen to be usher with 26s. 8d. yearly. Two scholars to be sent to Oxford or Cambridge with £3 6s. 8d. each year for seven years. Payments to be made out of the tithes of the tithe sheaves and corn of the town fields and territories of Kirkby Stephen and Winton." His will, made July 18th, 1568, ran as follows: "I, Thomas Wharton, Knight, Lord Wharton, make my last will and testament in manner and form following: First, thanks be given to Almighty God, being whole of body and in perfect mind and memory, do call to my remembrance how dangerous a thing it is, in the hour of death, to be troubled with the disposition of worldly things and transitory vanities. I do first humbly give my soul to Almighty God, and desire the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the holy company of Heaven and in earth to pray for me; and my body to be buried in the parish church of Healaugh in the queare [quoir] there." He provides for the payment of his debts; his dear and well-beloved wife to occupy and enjoy the manors, lands, and tenements in Healaugh, Sinningthwaithe, and Catterton, with the rectory and tithes there, and after her decease to Sir Thomas Wharton and Philip, his son. Various sums to different persons named, and residue to his wife. Witnesses: Anne Wharton, Thomas Wharton. Proved April 7th, 1570. Administration to Dame Anne Wharton and Mr. Robert Bowes, About a month after making his will he died at Healaugh Hall, August 24th, having lived in five reigns, and his body was conducted in the midst of an imposing procession from the Hall to the Parish Church, and laid in its final resting place there, September 22nd, 1568. A monument of Derbyshire marble marks the place of his interment. It is a fine altar-tomb, bearing the effigies of Lord Wharton and his two wives, and having the following inscriptions (in Latin): (Round the upper edge.) "Lo, this one tomb covers the three bodies of Thomas Wharton, his wife Eleanor and Anne. Living, I was joined with them in the bridal chamber and dying in the grave. Grant, O Christ, that with them I may be joined in the heights of Heaven." (On the east end.) "The House of Wharton gives me my birth, My victorious right hand my honours, And I govern three northern boundaries of the kingdom. Two wives have I: Eleanor Stapleton blesses my youth with Two knights my sons; Anne of Sussex makes Thomas a father; Two also my daughters; Joan wife to William Pentelon, Agness A cenotaph in sandstone of a similar form stands in the Wharton Chapel of the Parish Church of |