40 Belgrave Square
June 23 1840
My dear Henry.
My reason for asking you about the pedigree is this. You are aware that the Barony of Zouch of Harringworth was given to Sir Cecil Bishopp <1> in 1815, and you suppose that we might have claimed it with equal right. Perhaps you do not know that the Zouches were also Lords Grey of Cadnor and Lords Seymour. I have been strongly recommended to try my right to the Barony of Grey, which I am told I shall get as a matter of course, provided I can prove my descent from Mary Zouch. On the same grounds I take it that you can claim the Barony of Seymour. But on looking at the pedigree you send me, I am disposed to question the fact that we are descended from Mary Zouch at all.<2> Your account makes Sir John Talbot born in 1630. Now the fact is ascertained that Mary Zouch was [illegible deletion] born in 1582 and married in 1603 to Thomas Leighton, son to Sir Thomas L. governor of Guernsey – These two facts are irreconcileable with the existence of an intermediate generation of Sherington Talbot the younger who married a Littleton – For otherwise but 27 years would elapse between Mary Zouch’s marriage and the birth of her great grandson.<3>
Edmonsons pedigree of Lord Talbot, makes Sherington Talbot, the elder, the father of six sons who died without issue, & 3 daurs viz. Ann, Barbara & Gilberta. He acknowledges no Sherington Talbot the younger. He says Ann m. Sir John Ivory, & Barbara m. Visct Longville – <4>
It has occurred to me that young Sherington Talbot may have been an elder brother of Sir John, who i.e. S. T. may have died without issue, & erroneously inserted as his father.<5>
By looking at the dates you will see the difficulty of any other hypothesis – If you can solve this eris mihi magnus Apollo!<6>
You do not give the date of young Sherington Talbots birth, marriage or death. They are important. Wottons Baronetage article “Leighton” says tout bonnement that Mary Zouch had two daurs one married to St John the other to Talbot from whence the noble families of Talbot and St John –<7>
Yours ever truly
C R M Talbot
Notes:
1. Sir Cecil Bishopp or Bishop, known as the 12th Lord Zouche of Haryngworth (1753–1828). He succeeded to the title, which had been in abeyance since 1625, in 1815.
2. Mary Zouche (1582-1652) m. 1602/3 Thomas Leighton. Kit's argument that he was guaranteed the Barony of Grey of Codnor if he could show descent from her was not proven wrong until 1989, a century and a half later. In 1496 on the death of the 4th Baron, the Barony of Grey of Codnor fell into abeyance between his three aunts, Lady Lenthall, Lady Newport and Lady Zouche. In 1989 the barony was called out of abeyance when the senior descendant of Lady Lenthall's line established his right of succession. In the event, Kit was not descended from Lady Zouche, and even if he were, it did not guarantee him succession.
3. The direct lineal descent of Sir John Talbot from Mary Leighton, née Zouche, depended on Sir John’s grandmother, Elizabeth Talbot, née Leighton, being Mary’s daughter. Kit argues that Mary’s marriage 1602/3 and the birth of a great grandson in 1630 are impossible to reconcile.
4. Edmonson’s Pedigree is misleading. Ann, Barbara and Gilberta and their brothers were the children of Sir John Talbot by his second wife Barbara Slingsby. Anne Talbot married Sir John Ivory. Barbara Talbot (c. 1666/1671 - 1763) m. Henry Yelverton, 1st Viscount de Longueville (1664-1703/4). Gilberta Talbot was unmarried - see Doc. No: 02134.
5. Sir John Talbot (1630-1714) did have an elder brother, Sharington Talbot (d. 1630, predeceasing his father.
6. For me, you will be like mighty Apollo.
7. Thomas Wotton, The Baronetage of England; containing a genealogical and historical account of all the English baronets now existing... (London: G. Woodfall, 1771) - the reference to Mary Zouche’s children is in v. 2, p. 513.
8. WHFT did confer with his lawyer on this - see Doc. No: 04106