The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-17
SOME uNwRITrEN HIsToRy

The recently announced engagement
of Lord Newton's elder son, Mr.. Richard
Leigh, and Miss Helen Meysey Thomp-
son, Lord Knaresboroughs pretty sec
ond daughter. recalls a terrible tragedy
In which bridegroom ancestor,
Sir Piers Leigh, was a guilty party.
Some three centuries ago the then Earl
Of Derby was entertaining his sover-
eign at Lathom House. and in order to
do honor to the King and incidentally
show his own importance, the Earl sent
messages to all connected with him,
demanding their attendance in his liv-
cry at certain day at Lathom. Such
command was received by Sir John
Boteler of Bewsey Hall, Warrington.
and In his absence his wife sent the
curt reply. saying that she considered
her lord quite as fit TO entertain the
Chronicle
The Lord Derby was highly incensed.
but he could do nothing, and failing to
get any satisfaction by petty annoy
ances. to which he had resorted, ar
ranged to have the knight murdered.
His agents were two Cheshire gentle
men of position---Sir Piers Leigh and
William Savage. who one night crossed
the moat at Bewsey Hall by means of a
coracle. and were conducted by two
servants whom they had bribed to Sir
John Boteler's bed room. There the
unfortunate man was brutally done to
death, as also was a trusty servant,
and the infant heir would have shared
the same fate but for the presence of
mind of a negro nurse who unperceived
carried the child away under her apron.
The murderers had doubts about one
of the treacherous servants. so they
hanged him from a tree.
Lady Boteler tried hard to bring the
miscreats to Justice, but unsuccessfully,
though Sir Piers was condemned to
build Disley church as punishment
for his share in the black deed the
penance being performed in 1921 Bew-
sey Hall, with moat surrounding it,
was in fair preservation half century
ago. Probably it is yet extant: while
in the Bewsey chapel of Warrin gton
church are the recumbent effigies of a
Boteler and his lady on a splendidly
decorated tomb, and close by these, in
an arch in the wall, was the figure of
the black nurse who saved the infant
heir.
Not far from Tisley is Lyme park, a
wildly beautiful domain of deep thick
cts and ferny brakes in which roamed
a fairly large herd of the wild white
cattle of England. The mansion is
a magnificent quadrangylar structure,
one of the stately homes of England" !"
and was designed by the famous
Thorpe, "John of Padua," the architect
of ''Burleigh House by Stamford Town.
Lyme contains a rare collection of art
treasures, and has many historic asso-
Citations. Mary Queen of Scots once
slept there, and in splendid room is
the noted door picture OF the Black
Prince. which revolves and shows o
view of another grand apartment of the
mansion, an idea which SO impressed
Sir Walter Scott that he introduced
it into his Woodstock" The drawing
room is practically the same as In the
days of Elizabeth, and the beds on
which the unfortunate Scots Queen,
Charles l.. James H., and the Black
Prince slept may still be seen. The
Leghs have owned Lyme since Richard
Ills time, and the Forthcoming we'd
ding will unite two ancient families,
for Miss Meysey- Thompson can claim
ancestors who flourished in Norman
days.