Ch. 9: Master John Horseleigh, Knight

In the earliest and mustiest volume of the Havenpool marriage registers
(said the thin-faced gentleman) this entry may still be read by any one
curious enough to decipher the crabbed handwriting of the date. I took a
copy of it when I was last there; and it runs thus (he had opened his
pocket-book, and now read aloud the extract; afterwards handing round the
book to us, wherein we saw transcribed the following)--

Mastr John Horseleigh, Knyght, of the p'ysshe of Clyffton was maryd to
Edith the wyffe late off John Stocker, m'chawnte of Havenpool the
xiiij daje of December be p'vylegge gevyn by our sup'me hedd of the
chyrche of Ingelonde Kynge Henry the viii th 1539.

Now, if you turn to the long and elaborate pedigree of the ancient family
of the Horseleighs of Clyfton Horseleigh, you will find no mention
whatever of this alliance, notwithstanding the privilege given by the
Sovereign and head of the Church; the said Sir John being therein
chronicled as marrying, at a date apparently earlier than the above, the
daughter and heiress of Richard Phelipson, of Montislope, in Nether
Wessex, a lady who outlived him, of which marriage there were issue two
daughters and a son, who succeeded him in his estates. How are we to
account for these, as it would seem, contemporaneous wives? A strange
local tradition only can help us, and this can be briefly told.

One evening in the autumn of the year 1540 or 1541, a young sailor, whose
Christian name was Roger, but whose surname is not known, landed at his
native place of Havenpool, on the South Wessex coast, after a voyage in
the Newfoundland trade, then newly sprung into existence. He returned in
the ship Primrose with a cargo of 'trayne oyle brought home from the New
Founde Lande,' to quote from the town records of the date. During his
absence of two summers and a winter, which made up the term of a
Newfoundland 'spell,' many unlooked-for changes had occurred within the
quiet little seaport, some of which closely affected Roger the sailor. At
the time of his departure his only sister Edith had become the bride of
one Stocker, a respectable townsman, and part owner of the brig in which
Roger had sailed; and it was to the house of this couple, his only
relatives, that the young man directed his steps. On trying the door in
Quay Street he found it locked, and then observed that the windows were
boarded up. Inquiring of a bystander, he learnt for the first time of
the death of his brother-in-law, though that event had taken place nearly
eighteen months before.

'And my sister Edith?' asked Roger.

'She's married again--as they do say, and hath been so these twelve
months. I don't vouch for the truth o't, though if she isn't she ought
to be.'