The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-05-05 00:00:00

Doratsb irt.

DORSET ?il I LITI A. —After all the various statements that
have been made with respect to the annual training Of
this regiment, we helieve the following may be reganled
so the real facts of the case. The recruits will muster in
Dorchester. on Monday the Ist of June, and undergo the
pluminary month's drat On Monday, June Stith, the
hands" will aaaenible, and a glay or two later the
regiment will proceed to Aldershot, where they will he
located for five weeks; and, we doubt not, at the end of
that time most of our militiamen will be glad to return
to their peaceful occupations. During the past week,
Col•Sergt. Foot, has received a gratuity of 11S iu considers-
; tine of long service, and general good conduct.,
\Veto OF LELWORTII CASTLE, AND I'IIIOIOCE HOUSE,
DORSET. —There are, unfortunately, conflicting oyinions
among genealogists respecting the origin of the Vields of
hulworth Castle. Some of the authorities trace the decent
of thin old Catholic race to Edric the Saxon. Other
writers hesitate to deduce the lineage of the Welds from
• period further lack than the reign of Edward 111.
Burke, in his Landed Gentry. 104$, vil ii., title "Vold of
Ltilworth," says : "The family of Weld derives from
Kirk. dUlTialikeil Wild, or Sylvaticu, who was nephew to
Earle, Duke of Merit,. hustand of Edina, den. of King
Ethelred." Burke however, in Anse editions of his works,
alluiks in ternma of doubt and hesitation to the circum •
stints., of the Welds being sprung from Kirk the Saxon 1
The editors of the third edition of Ilutehius's Doract,Pl6l
vol. i. part li. pp. 371-373. adopt • ' 'tar course in deal' ,
ing with this difficult and intricate question ; but, on the
other hand. it will lie found, upon consultins the three '
editions of the County Ilistory.• that it is clearly and •
distinc • astertal on a 1 ~,,,, uniental inscription at East
hula.
ol
but schich is " now removed altogether from
the church," that Elilriil the Saxon Wai unquestionably
the progenitor of this ancient and venerable gentle house.
I conceive this would Its presumptive evidence in • court
of law. Onuerisfs Cheshire viii ii. p. 131, e 'non the
Weld pedigree Umpire Epward 111., but (I believe it is
stated in ii. 130 of that publication that the Welds have
resided at Welds, in Cheihire, from the reign of Henry
111, to that of Charles 11., a hen they removal to Newbold
Anthury. I have not • copy Ormeral in my library, and
consequently I OM not able to serify the accuracy of the
quotation for myself. I understand that the Its ords of
the County Palatine of Chester contain names of the
Welds to the most remote reigns of Plantagenet,.
Shirley, in his Noble ond Gentle Men of England, Inth4 p.
7-7. . , observes that the family was "founded by William
Weld, Sheri/ of London, in Ira, who married Anne
Wittenhall ; his posterity were seated at Cheshire, till
the reigh of Charles II." lam happy to be enabled to
say that I am prepared to prove that this theory of Shirley
Is wholly incorrect, and does great injustice to the high
claims of the Welds to equestrian and patrician extraction.
Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King at Arms, in • " Grant of
Crest to John Weld, of Eton (qy. Eaton), Gentletuan,
(dated), Enh Aprd, Lid,- incidentally refers to" Waliant
Weld, Alderman and Sherif of London the zsviiith years of
Eelearde the Thyrde, ie hoso Ancestors have bps the bearers
of there (ekes, and ancient A rots of Honour. This extract
from Deithick Incontrovertibly established the fact that
William Wald had a long line of predecessors previeua to
the fourteenth century. I sin informed that the authori-
ties at the Ileralds' College have, on some occasion in-
directly and inferentially admitted that the welds of Lul-
worth Castle are dosended from Edric the Saxon.
Perhaps some of your correpadents, distinguished for
their learning and power of research, will be kind
enough to assist use in endeavouring to arrive at • satis-
factory conclusion 'llan a subject schich has hitherto
defied all the united efforts of heralds, antiquaries, and
archaeologist, I recollect seeing many years since a list
of Saxon gentry in" S.& Q.' lle name of "Weld of
hulworth occurs amongst the families enumerated.
TIIOIIA3 PARR ILENINU, in Sided and tiurries
• First Edition, Int, vol I. p. 141; third edition, 1961, vol.
I. part id p. 376. The Rained of the first eight ancestora of
the Welds are given 011 the 14414 In [total socoesoion.
The het beiriad Vita Edric himself.