Thomas Martin, the second son, lived at Park Pale, Dorsetshire, married the daughter of William Gerrard of Somersetshire, and had Francis, Thomas, William and John Martin. William Martin the third son, of Park Pale, married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Maunsell of Somersetshire, whose son and heir, Thomas Martin of Park Pale, was born in 1604. Hutchins, in his History and Antiquities of Dorsetshire, says: "The name leads us to conjecture it was formerly a park of the Martins of Athelhampston. It was the estate and residence of a younger branch of that family. In 1645, Park Pale Farm, valued (1641) £60. per annum, and the impropriation of Southover £30. belonging to Mr. Thomas Martin, recusant, was sequestered. It is claimed that this Thomas Martin of Park Pale, Dorsetshire, was the father of Thomas Martin of Talbot County, Maryland, as it was a well known fact in the family that his father was named Thomas, and the name of his brother John, who came to the Province of Maryland with him in 1663, as well as the names of four of his own sons, were the same as those borne by the latter generations of the Martins of Athelhampston House and Park Pale, Dorsetshire. Thomas Martin the settler was born in 1629, and arrived in the Province of Maryland with his brother John in 1663. He acquired several large tracts of land in Talbot County, his residence being at "Hampden," on Dividing Creek, near the Choptank River, which he named in honor of the famous John Hampden, who had been the leader in opposition to the abuses which had caused so much injury to his family in England by sequestration in 1645. One of the tracts of land which he acquired in 1665, remained in the family until 1888, a period of two hundred and twenty-three years. When the parishes were laid out in 1692, in the various counties of the Province, Thomas Martin was elected by the freeholders one of the vestrymen of St. Peter's Parish, Talbot County, his associates being Mr. Thomas Bowdle, Mr. Thomas Robins, Mr. George Robins, Colonel Nicholas Lowe and Mr. Samuel Abbott, Sr., and for two hundred years, with little intermission, one or more Martins were always Vestrymen in this parish, worshipping at old White Marsh Church, now in crumbling ruins. The records of the parish are fairly continuous from the year 1708, and are full of quaint phraseology and interesting sidelights on ceremonials now obsolete and therefore well worth preservation. Thomas Martin, the elder, married in 1666, not long after his arrival in Maryland, Elizabeth Day, a native of Hertfordshire, England, and died in 1701, leaving five sons and one daughter. Among the prominent members of this family were: WILLIAM MARTIN, 1714-1774. Justice of Talbot County, 1767-1773. NICHOLAS MARTIN, 1743-1808. Captain 38th Battalion Maryland Militia, 1776. Member House of Delegates, 17801781, 1795, 1801-1802. DR. ENNALLS MARTIN, 1758-1834. Assistant Surgeon War of the Revolution, 1777-1781. WILLIAM BOND MARTIN, 1770-1835. Member Md. House of Delegates, 1794. Judge Court of Appeals, 18141835. DANIEL MARTIN, 1780-1831. Member House of Delegates, 1813, 1815-1817, 1819-1821. Twice Governor of Maryland, 1828-1829, 1831. NICHOLAS MARTIN, 1784-1870. Member House of Delegates, 1819-1823, 1827-1828. State Senator from Talbot County, 1838-1843. ROBERT NICOLS MARTIN, 1798-1870. Member of Congress, 1825-1827. Chief Judge Western Circuit of Maryland, 1845-1851. Judge Superior Court of Baltimore City, 1859-1867. JAMES LLOYD MARTIN, 1815-1872. Member House of Delegates, 1839-1840. Deputy Attorney General for Talbot County, 1851. State's Attorney, 1851-1860. THE SPENCERS Among the "great governing families of England," from the Norman Conquest to the present time, few have been more illustrious or more distinguished than the Despensers and Spencers. The family was of noble degree in Normandy. Banks, in his Dormant and Extinct Baronage, 1808, says: "Almaric D'Abetot, lord of the town and territory of D'Abetot, in Normandy, whence this surname was derived, had two sons, Urso and Robert, which last was surnamed le Despenser, because steward* to William the Conqueror, and was ancestor to the noble house of Despenser, or Spencer, yet flourishing." It is a well known fact to students of English history, that the Despensers and Spencers have been titled people in England continuously from the Norman invasion to the present day. Urso D'Abetot was made hereditary Sheriff of Worcestershire by William the Conqueror, and died without male issue, leavan only daughter, Emeline, who married Walter de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and thus she became an ancestress of the great de Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, who figured so conspicuously in the annals of England for several generations. Favored by William the Conqueror with numerous lordships -four in Warwickshire, one in Gloucestershire, fifteen in Lincolnshire, and seventeen in Leicestershire-as a reward for his services in his successful endeavour to obtain possession of the Kingdom, Robert le Despenser is recorded by the monks of Worcestershire as a very powerful man in those days, and was among the bishops and barons assembled in Council with William the Conqueror in London, A.D. 1082. His name, Robertus *The office of Lord Steward of the Household, in England, was one of great trust and dignity. His authority was very great, and extended over many other offices. He was a member of the Privy Council, and by virtue of his office took precedency of all peers of his own degree. (The Book of the Court. Thoms, 1844.) Dispensator, is in the great Domesday Book, and also in the somewhat discredited Roll of Battle Abbey. During the reign of Henry iii, (1216–1272), there were then living two brothers, Sir Hugh le Despenser, and Geoffrey le Despenser, sons of Sir Geoffrey le Despenser, the youngest being the ancestor of the Dukes of Marlborough, the Earls Spencer and of various branches of the Spencer family. Sir Hugh le Despenser was one of the greatest Barons of his time. He was Chief Justiciary of all England in 1260, presiding in the King's Court, and by virtue of his office Regent of the Kingdom during the absence of the Sovereign, and thus the greatest subject in the Kingdom. He was created a Baron by writ, 14 December 1264, his ancestors having been Barons by tenure, and summoned to the first Parliament by Henry ii, when the great Council of the Nation was established. He was killed at the battle of Evesham, 4 August 1265. The Barony of le Despenser still exists in the Boscowen family, now represented by Viscount Falmouth, and officially it is the second oldest barony in England. His son Hugh le Despenser, Sr., Earl of Winchester, and his son Hugh le Despenser, Jr., Earl of Gloucester, the ill fated and unfortunate favorites of Edward ii, and who took such a prominent part in the Baron's wars, were both beheaded in 1326. In 1321, the lands of the Despensers included sixtynine manors, situated in eighteen counties in England and Wales. Sir Hugh le Despenser, 4th, son of Hugh le Despenser, Jr., Earl of Gloucester and his wife Alianora de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, whose name appears at the head of Magna Charta, and his wife the Princess Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward i, was summoned to Parliament by Edward iii, in 1338. He succeeded to the "Memories of power and pride which long ago, Like dim processions of a dream had sunk In twilight depths away." He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, and was actively engaged in the business of war during the greater part of his young life. His nephew, Edward, 5th Lord le Despenser, K.G. who died at Cardiff Castle in 1375, was a man of mark, one of the early Knights of the Garter, and a hero at the battle of Poictiers, under the Black Prince. His son, Thomas, 6th Lord le Despenser, who married his cousin Constance Plantagenet, daughter of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, and grand daughter of Edward iii, was beheaded 13 January 1400, at the early age of twenty seven, for taking an active part to dethrone Henry iv, and restore Richard ii. His daughter, Isabel le Despenser, born at Cardiff Castle, a few months after her father had been beheaded, and one of the greatest heiresses of that day who died in 1439, was the last of the Despensers. She married first Richard de Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny and Earl of Worcester, and secondly his cousin Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Their daughter Anne Beauchamp married Richard Neville, by virtue of his wife Earl of Warwick, and commonly known as the King maker, "the last of the Barons." Their two daughters, of pathetic story, were Isabel and Anne Neville. Isabel, the eldest, became the wife of the unfortunate Duke of Clarence, and Anne was the unhappy wife of Richard iii. On the eve of the battle of Bosworth Field, Shakespeare makes the ghost of Queen Anne to appear and say to the King, Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne, thy wife, That never slept a quiet hour with thee, And fall thy edgeless sword-despair, and die. He was slain on Bosworth Field, 22 August 1485, and with his death ended the "Wars of the Roses," and the reign of the Plantagenet Kings. In this battle Sir Rhys ap Thomas, a powerful Welsh Chieftain, at the head of a large body of horse, fought valiantly, and performed a distinguished and important part in placing Henry vii, of the House of Tudor, upon the English throne. The Despensers were the Lords of Tewkesbury, and were all laid to rest beneath the traceried roof of Tewkesbury Abbey, |