Salisburies of Lleweni
Chapter 4
Salisburies of Lleweni
Chapter 4
Having supplemented a former Chapter by adding to it Mr.William's interesting account of the Salusburies, it is proper that I should, in this place, give some information about the Cottons of Combermere, to whom Lleweni had passed on the marriage of the heiress, Hester Salusbury, to Sir Robert Cotton. The Cottons settled at Combermere in Cheshire in the reign of Henry the 7th, and have contiuned to dwell there from that time. The Robert Cotton with shom we have to do was the first baronet, so created in March, 1677. He married, as has been stated, Hester Salusbury, and in that way became the owner of Lleweni. They had a large family; the eldest son John had pre-deceased the father, so had the second son Hugh, and again the third son George. In 1710 Lady Cotton died, and 2 years afterwards Sir Robert died. It is a great satisfaction to find that the old property in Wales had passed into the possession of a fine English gentleman, who, in addition to the affection hebore to his wife, had also cherished a warm regard for her ancestry. When Lady Cotton died, her remains were removed to Whitechurch for burial, and when Sir Robert himself died, his remains in like manner were taken to the same resting place. There is a marble monument set up at the old church near Denbigh, with the following inscription upon it:... "In the vault adjoining to this monument (being the burial place of the ancient family of the Salusburies of Lleweni, descended from the House of Bavaris, as appears by their pedigree), lies inter'd Hester Lady Cotton, daughter of Sir Thomas Salusbury of ye same place, Bart., the loving and much beloved wife of Sir Robert Cotton, of Combermere, in this county of Chester, who changed this life for a better on ye 7th of October 1710, aged 73; having brought her husband 5 sons and 11 daughters, from whom she lived to see above a hundred of her offspring; she became heiress to the estate of her ancestors by the decases ofher brother, Sir John Salusbury,Bart., who died without issue, Ano.1684. Sir Robert, as a Testimony of His Affection to her dear spouse, ordered by His Last Will and Testament that he should be buried separate from his own Ancestors in this vault, Near the body of His said wife, where he was accordingly interred January the 12, Ano.1712, aged 81. He was a Gentleman of Great Hospitality, a Loving Husband, a Tender Father, a True Friend, a Kind Master, And was so well belov'd in His county that he serv'd it for 32 years in Parliament without interruption. "Here also 2 of their children, John, a young Gentleman of Great Hope, and a Daughter named Jane. Sir Robert is succeeded in Honour and Estate by His 4th son Sir Thomas, who married Philadelphia, sole daughter and heiress of His Excellency Sir Thomas Lynch,Kt., a person remarkable for his Valour and Loyalty, having been 3 times Governor and Cap'm Generrall of Jamaica, in which Government He died, leaving His Daughter a Vast Fortune, Honestly Gotton, Well-bestowed and Prudently Managed." The sculptor, says Mr.Williams, was not content to confine himself to panegyrics on the dead, but he must needs pass fulsome eulogiums on the living... "This Lady has already Brought forth a Numerous and Hopefull issue to preserve the Memory of their worthy Progenitors." "This monument is erected by the Piety and at the charge of Sir Thomas, in dutyfull Memory of His Father and Mother." "Time will these letters wear away, And Marble Moulder as 'twere clay, Yet nothing shall annoy the just, Their virtues Flourish in the Dust, Secure from Age, or Moth, or Rust." We may smile at the boastful tribute which is thus conveyed to us of the greatness of the family, but we cannot do otherwise than respect the deep affection of the son, who wished in this way to perpetuate the many virtues of his parents, and the love he bore to his wife and her progenitors. On the death of the first baronet,he was succeeded in his honours and estates by his 4th and eldest surviving son... SIR THOMAS COTTON, Bart., who married Philadelphia, daughter of Sir Thomas Lynch, of Esher in Surrey. He had by her 9 sons and 6 daughters: "The numerous and hopefull issue" refered to on the Whitechurch tablet. It is not our intention to follow these numerous branches in their collateral degrees. We may however record their names in this place, as members of a family in which we are interested: THOMAS SALUSBURY, ROBERT SALUSBURY, STEPHEN SALUSBURY, JOHN SALUSBURY, LYNCH SALUSBURY, WILLIAM SALUSBURY, HENRY SALUSBURY, and HUGH CALVELEY; Hester, Sohpia, Sidney, Herbert Anne and Vere. SIR THOMAS wa Sheriff of Cheshire in 1713, and died on the 12th of June 1715. The eldest of his sons had predeceased him, so that he was succeeded in his titles and estates by his second son,..... SIR ROBERT SALUSBURY COTTON, Bart., who married Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Earl of Dysart. He sat in Parliament for several years as member for his county, and died greatly regretted by his constituents and friends in 1745, without leaving issue. His brothers Stephen and John had died childless, so that the titles and estates devolved upon the next brother... SIR LYNCH SALUSBURY COTTON, Bart., who also became M.P. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Rowland Cotton of Etwall, in Derbyshire, and had by her Robert Salusbury, Rowland, Lynch, George, Thomas, William, Richard and Henry Calveley; also 5 daughters Elizabeth, Philadelphis, Mary Salusbury and Hester Salusbury. Sir Lynch died in 1775, and was succeeded by his eldest son,... SIR ROBERT SALUSBURY COTTON, Bart. He sat in Parliament for Cheshire for many years. In 1767, he married Frances, daughter of James Russell Stapleton of Bodrhyddan, and had by her a large family. The eldest son, Robert Salusbury, died unmarried in 1799. It is siad that he was a very accomplished man, and was much attached to his mother's family, and to the Lleweni tenantry. He appears to have spent much of his leisure in Wales, and to have acquired a thorough knowledge of the Cambrian tongue, to have studied the literature of the country, and in many other ways to have identified himself with the people. In a letter to a friend of his he states that he "Spent much time in examining some old family papers at Lleweni, and thus I found numerous references to some of my Welsh ancesteros and kinsmen, whose names are greatly honoured by my father." It is a great misfirtune that these old records should be allowed to perish. There are many boxes at Combermere filled with Lleweni "Family papers", some of them doubtless of historic value, all of them interesting to us. LordCombermere is too far advanced in life to pay much attention to them, but his son may do so hereafter, and thus add to the store of knowledge we so much require in Welsh history. A daughter, Penelope, died unmarried 1786. Another son, Lynch, a colonel in the army, died in India 1808. Another daughter, Frances, who was married to Viscount Kilmorey, died in 1818.Another daughter, Sophia, married in 1803 Sir Harry Mainwaring. Another son, William, was a clerk in holy orders. And another son, the greatest of the whole, Stapleton Stapleton Cotton,has lived to become heir to the estates, and to add yet greater honour and dignity to the famous old houses of Combermere and Lleweni. This last named child was born at Lleweni, why there, has puzzled most people; for one would naturally suppose that he would have been born at Combermere, the ordinary residence of the family. I can authoritatively state how this came to pass, and I do so upon the testimony of my great-grandmother, Mary Norbury afterwards Swanwick; and also upon that of Dr. Cotton, Dean of Bangor, who had been told the same story by his father. Lady Cotton...then Mrs. Cotton...was as has been stated, a daughter of Bodrhyddan in Flintshire. She wa devotedly attached to the Welsh, and a short time preceeding the birth of this child she had expressed a strong desire to go to Lleweni for her confinement. The family and friends reasoned with her in vain; they pointed out to her the dangers and risks of such a journey in her delicate state of health, but go she would, and go she did, her friends and protege, Mary Norbury, accompanying her. The day after her arrival at her loved Welsh home, she was taken unwell, and before any medical man could reach her, Stapleton was born, and received into Mary Norbury's hands. He was the last of the race born in that old house. The place of his birth is undoubted, not so the time when it occured. The family and their friends have searched the parish of Henllan; Bodfari and Whitechurch in vain for any record of this important event. My friend Dr.Phillips Jones of this city, who had resided at Denbigh for a great number of years, had made diligent search for the record of Lord Combermere's birth, he had done so at the places I have named; he had also examined a mass of old papers which had found their way to Kinmel Park from Lleweni. Lord Dinorben (who had become the owner of the Lleweni estate) had given the Duke of Sussex, when on a visit there, a scrap of paper purporting to be a reliable record of the date in question; but upon enquiring at the War Office, it was found that no reliance could be placed upon it. Dr.Jones told me upon the authority of Lord Combermere's uncle, Hugh Calveley, that he was baptized at Lleweni, and that the rejoicings consequent upon the birth of another son, a descendant of the family who had dwelt for so many generations in that old house, had driven the Welsh people mad; that father, uncle, parson, and friends got so drunk on the occasion f the christening, and kept up the carouse for so many days, that when at length they sobered down every remembrance of the necessity for recording his birth or baptism had escaped them, and that no living man could tell the month or year he was born. The family returned to Combermere and very shortly afterwards the father, Robert Cotton, sold the Lleweni estate; why, no one can tell. Lord Combermere assured me, in the year 1858 that no member of his family knew why it had been sold, and that he never sorrowed so much for any event that had happened to him in his long life, as he did for this. I can easily believe it. he was a very simple minded man, but as proud of his lineage as any man could well be. It was a proud thing for him to look at Combermere Abbey, and to be able to say that it had been in his family for nearly 400 years, but of Lleweni he might have said that it had been theirs for more than 600 years. The disputed point ofhis birth-place was settled publicily in the year 1832, when the following letter from the noble lord to a Mr.Hugh Davies, of Holywell, appeared in the Camb, Quart, Mag., May Number,p.516;... Sir,.... I am very proud to say that Lleweni, the residence of my forefathers, the Salusburies, in Denbighshire, was my birthplace...I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Combermere. Combermere Abbey, Decr.15th 1831." It has been the fashion to treat him as "The Cheshire Hero" and this had annoyed the Welsh, hence the correspondence Cheshire, forsooth ! he was the hero of the nation, and good reason had to be proud of him, but if any locality must need claim such a man for her own; them let Denbigh bear the rightful palm, for he was her son, gainsay it who may. I fain would think ofhim as the greatest of our many Welsh heroes, for he loved our nation, although he did not build us a synagogue. He adopted the military profession when quite a child, and to give the history of his many valourous deeds would fill a volume. I must content myself with the following note, which I have taken from Mr.William's volume on Denbigh, as a very fair eptione of his life, and a somewhat appropriate pendant to what has been said about him already. "Our second-door neighbors in the "Land of cheese," have hitherto boasted not a little of their "Great Cheshire Hero" the gallant and distinguished General Lord Combermere, and we anticapate that they will not be so 'agreeably surprised' to be told that their hero is not a Cheshire man by birth, having drawn his first breath within the liberties of the ancient borough of Denbigh. The following facts are from the pen of a gentleman who has taken no little trouble to investigate this matter, expressly for this work;..."it may not be generally known that Lleweni is the birth-place of that distinguished military commander, General Lord Combermere, one of Her Majesty's Privy Council, Kinght Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Guelphs of Hanover, Constable of the Tower of London, Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the Tower Hamlets, Colonel of the 1st Life Guards, Governor of Sheerness, and Doctor of Civil Law. This venerable and gallant nobleman is son of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, Bart., (creation 1677) , by the daughter of James Russel Stepleton, Esq. His lordship was born at Lleweni, bu the year of his birth is a matter of some doubt, as the omission of his age in all works on the Peerage would seem to imply. Dod's Summary of all the Titled Classes supplies the additional and not uninteresting information,...the place of birth of all holders of title. Therein it is very correctly made to appear that Stapleton Stapleton Cotton, was born at Lleweny Hall, Denbighshire:" yet it is a somewhat singular fact that there is not to be found in the parish registers of Denbigh, Henllan, or Bodfray, a record of the then infant heir of the Combermere Abbey and Lleweny estates ( and also the inheritor of a baronetage, and the representative of one of the most ancient Cheshire families; and through the female line of the very old family of the Salusburies of Lleweny), having recorded the rite of baptism. Yet, notwithstanding the neglect of registering the rite, it is beyond cavil that this Stapleton Stapleton, first and present Viscount Combermere is, by birth a native of the Principality; for his lordship was, most unquestionably, born at Lleweny; although, probably he is the last of his race connected in any way with the neighborhood of Denbigh., And, further, tradition has it that the infant heir of lleweny, &c. was admitted into the Church by baptism, in the great hall of his honoured father's last-named seat. The same testimony (tradition) bruits is that so great were the rejoicing, and the excess to which they were carried, on the occsaion of the "thrice happy" event, that the important duty of recording the ceremony was never once thought of. We now come to the fact held in some doubt...the year of his lordship's birth. Dod, in his work before alluded to, has it that he was born in 1780, and Forester, in his Peerage Compendium, gives the same year. Yet, with great deference to the above authorities, we feel bound to state that there are a number of circumstantial facts, all supporting the conviction that, in this particular, they are in error. In the very subsequent year, 1781, we find on the list of sheriffs for this county, the name of the Honourable Thomas Fitzmaurice ( father of the late Lord Viscount Kirkwall, brother of the first and uncle of the presentr Marquis of Lansdowne), the them proprietor of the estate by purchase, from the aforenamed, Sir Robert Cotton. It may positively be affirmed that "1780" assigned by the quoted authors as being the year in which the subject of this memento was born, is decidedly incorrect: and that there is not now left among " the oldest inhabitants" even one able to recount that great local event...the birth of the then heir of Lleweny, &c. while there are now living several indiciduals who well remember the following year, 1781, as that of Mr. Fitzmaurice's sheriffialy...his splendid equipage and grand cavalcade, on the occasion of his escorting the judges of the Court of Great Sessions in the spring and autumn of that year. It may likewise be statedm that some years ago there resided in this town an aged female, who went by the appelation of "Nurse", from the fact of her having acted in that capacity to the infant heir at Lleweny. This person was in the receipt of gratuties from the Cotton family, for several years previous to her death. In further proof of the error alluded to, we give the dates of his lordship's several commissions, and an eptione of his military services;...Second Lieutenant, 26th February 1790, Lieutenant, 16 March 1791, Captain, 28 February 1793, Major, March 1794, Lieutenant-Colonel, 9th of the same month and year, Colonel, 1st January 1800, Major-General, 30th October 1805, local rank of Lieutenant-General, August 1809, Lieutenant-General, January 1812, General, 27 May 1825, Colonel of 1st Life Guards, 19th September 1829. In August 1793, his lordship accompained his regiment, 6th Dragon Guards, to Flanders, and served to the end of that campaign, and until June in the following one. In 1796 he embarked, in command of the 25th Light Dragon, for the Cape of Good Hope, and served a short but active campaign under Sir Thomas Graig; whence he accompained his regiment to India, where he served in the memorable campagins of 1798 and 1799, against Tippoo Saib, including the battle of Mullavelley, and the sieze of Seringapatam. At the former he particularly distinguished himself. In 1809 he proceeded to the Peninsula in command of a brigade of Cavalry, consisting of the 14th and 16th Light Dragons, at the head of which he distinguished himself during the campaign in the north of Portugal, including the operations at Oporto, and afterwards at the battle of Talavera. Early in 1810 our heroic countryman was appointed to the command of the whole allied Cavalry, under that most illustrious warrior, the Duke of Wellington, and remained in that command until the termination of the war in 1814; having distinguished himself at the head of the cavalry upon every occasion that presented itself, including the various actions in covering the retreat from Almeida to Torres Vedras, battle of Busaco, actions of VIlla Garcia and Castrujun, battles of Fuentes d'Onor and Salamanca, where he was severely wounded and second in command; actions at El Bodon, battles of the Pyreness, Orthes and Toulouse. In reward for his services, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Combermere, of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire. His lordship has repeatedly recieved the thanks of Parliament for his services in the Peninsula, and he has recieved a medal for Seringapatam, the gold cross and one clasp for the battles of Talavera, Fuentes d'Onor, Salamanca, Orthes and Toulouse, and the silver was medal with 3 clasps for Busaco, Cuidad Rodrigo, and the Pyreness. In 1825 and 1826 as Commander-in-chief, his lordship served at the siege and capture of Bhurtpore, when he was rewarded by being advanced to the dignity of a Viscount in the latter year. Here we may remark that his name is second amongst the general officers on the Army List for the present month, and that the Earl of Cork there appears as the first general in the services, both having been gazetted the same day, 27th May 1825. It will seem strange that Lord Cork, stated by Dod and others, and doubtless correctly, to have been born in the very year (1767) om which Lord Combermere;s parents was married, who has served in Flanders, at Valenciennesm and Dunkirk; accompanied the expedition under Lord Moira in 1794, served in Egypt in 1801, and was present at the taking of Alexandria, and is made to be Combermere;s senior by 13 years, should not also he his senior officer of some years standing. But the fact is, both of these noble and gallant officers are much, very much, nearer of an age, as the following record of Lord Combermere's parents' marriage, and the birth of their issue, will clearly demonstrate; to say nothing of the absurdity of the thought that at the immature age of 16 years young Cotton ( supposing him to have been born in 1780) could have been entursted, in 1796, to embark for the Cape of Good Hope in command of the 25th Light Dragons:... "Sir Robert Cotton, 5th Baronet, married (1767) Frances, co-heiress of James Russell Stapleton of Bodryddam, Esq., and has issue;... 1. Robert Salusbury, who died in 1799. 2. Stapleton, 6th Baronet, and Viscount Combermere. 3. William, in Holy Orders. 4. Lynch, colonel in the army, died in the Esat Indies 1799. 5. Francis married (1792) Robert, 11th Viscount Kilmorey. 6. Penelope died 1786. 7. Hester Salusbury Maria died unmarried in 1845, aged 73. 8. Sophia married (1803) Sir Henry Mainwaring Mainwaring of over Peover, Co.Chester, Baronet, and died in May 1838. "Therefore Hester Salusbury, their 7th issue must have been born in 1773, but Stapleton Stapleton, their second child was not born until 1780, 7 years after his younger sister, which as Euclid would say, is absurd, and a clear proof that our veteran warrior is a much older man than stated by Dod." He married in 1801 Anna Maria, daughter of the Duke of Newcastle, and had by her 2 sons and a daughter; they all died young. In 1809 he succeeded to the baronetcy and to the Cheshire estates, but his first wife was then dead. In 1814, he was elevated to the peerage, and in the same year he married Caroline, daughter of William Fulke Greville, Esq., and had by her a sone, Wellington Henry, born 24th November 1818 (who married Susan, daughter of Sir George Sitwell); a daughter Caroline, who is married to Arthur Earl of Hillsborough, and another daughter Maliora. He was separated from his second wife for reasons which need not be touched upon here. In 1826 he was advanced to the dignity of a Viscount of the united Kingdom. His second wife having died in 1837, he married in the following year Mary Wooley, daughter of Robert Gibbings of Gibbings Grove, in Ireland. He has been Governor of Barbadoes and Commander-in-Chief of the froces in the East Indies; is a Field Marshal, and a Constable of the Tower. Far advanced in years, he is enegetic as ever; with hosts of friends he keeps up the character of a kind and generous old soldier; and does the honours of his house with a princely grace befitting his lineage and his place in society. To us he is the worthy lineal descendant of Thomas Salusbury hen of Lleweni, a born Welshman and the type of a noble race, the head of our family.. although he does not now own an acre of the soil which had been in the possession of his Welsh ancestors for so long a time. There are a number of very interesting facts in relation to the Salusbury-Cotton family, that might properly enough be added to this account, but the past must suffice. The failure of the principal branch of any family in the male line often leads to their re-habitation under other distinguished names. This Cotton family is a case in point, for many of our most distinguished names in England trace themselves back through the Cottons to the still older family of Lleweni. In proof of which I have had the following statement supplied to me;... "There are a number of very distinguished families who trace their descent to the old Lleweni family through our own house of Cotton of Combermere in your county. I could give you a pretty complete list of t hem, but it would fill a large manuscript volume, and in proof of my statement I may refer to 2 of your oldest county families as examples of my meaning...The Mainwaring and the Gleggs. I will just give you a very short extract from my list in proof of this;...Sophia, daughter of Sir Robert Cotton, of Combermere, who was great-grand-daughter of Hester Salusbury of Lleweni, was married to Sir Henry Mainwaring Mainwaring, Bart., of Over Peover, in Cheshire, in 1803 and had;..Harry Mainwaring, born 1804; Sophia Frances born 1806; Hester Salusbury, born 1807; Thomas Mainwaring, born 1808; Phillip Mainwaring, born 1811; Charles Augusta, born 1812, Katherine, born 1813; Arthur Mainwaring, born 1815. "The Gleggs of Gayton in Cheshire in the same way; Elixabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Cotton, Bart., of Combermere, by Hester Salusbury of Lleweni, was married to Sir William Glegg of Gayton. He died in 1706, leaving a son, Robert Glegg, who married Juliana, daughter of Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart., and by her had a daughter, mary, born at Heswall 1711. She was married to John Baskerville of Withington, and upon the death of her father succeeded him in possession of the Gayton property, her husband assuming the name of John Baskerville Glegg. They had a son and successor, John Glegg of Withington and Gayton. He married in 1778 Bridget Kelsal of Dodleston, and had a son and successor, John Baskerville Glegg of Gayton, born 1784. He married Anna, daughter of Townley Parker of Entwistle, in Lancashire, and on his death was succeeded by his son, John Baskerville Glegg, who now inherits the property." I might add to this list, but enough has been said to shew how it is, that tie up estates as you may, multiply honours and distinctions as best you can, lands and honours must, in the nature of things: "flourish (only) in the dust," and that in the end we can but speak of them as "things of the past." In looking over my papers, I found 2 scraps that refer directly to the Lleweni family, and although they may appear to be somewhat out of place, I think it better to insert them in this chapter than to pass them over altogether. The Rev. Walter Davies said that " Robert Salusbury, who accompained Henry 5th to France, resided at home in 1414. He was the second son of Henry Salusbury of Lleweni. He was present at Agincourt, but not killed there; he came home and died in this county. Roger Salusbury, the third son, was also present at the same battle; he also returned to Wales, and resided at Denbigh. In 1428 he left Wales, selling his lands to Robert Dolben, and marrying a cousin of his in Essex, he went there to reside. He had a son, William Salusbury, Rector of Arlesford in Kent, in 1455; a son Roger Salusbury, who married Jane Moysey and their son became a soldier and was killed in France." Mr. Davies further adds that he has seen a deed, dated in 1454,between Thomas Salusbury, Constable of Denbigh Castle and Thomas Dutton, Seneschal, and a letter from the Earl of Leicester, dated 1571, to John Salusbury and the Justices of Denbigh, but he is not sure if this is the same John Salusbury who was keeper of Garth Meed Park during the reign of Henry 8th. There was a strange enquiry at Denbigh in 1691, upon some Common rights, and the Salusburies are referred to in the proceedings. "John Salusbury, Esq., a stout man, and not to be baffled by anybody," is spoken of by Hugh Salusbury, a tailor, who was at the time an old man of 72. It is very laughable to read how effectually the "stout man" was "baffled" by his neighbour and relation, Mrs. Peake. It appears that Mr.Salusbury wished to cut down some underwood upon the Common, or debateable land, and had taken with him for this purpose a number of workmen. Mr.peake, who asserted his rights to the Common, seeing Salusbury and his merry men cutting down the brushwood, took up his gun, and hastened to the spot to withstand this wanton attack upon his property. Mrs.Peake, fearing mischief, followed her husband, whereupon stout John accosted her with fair words, calling her Cousin, and so forth. She would have none of his compliments, and very soon drove Couisn John and his men away. As for Peake he got no peace, for Sir John Salisbury's goats "which did gnaw the trees", gave him endless trouble, and caused 'great anger between the families." I fear that he did not gain much comfort from the "enquiry" for an old man...Charles Jeffreys, aged 70...proved thathis father and grandfather, had been shepherds at Lleweni, and that the Sslusburie goats and sheep had pastured upon these lands time out of mind. The strong man armed generally has the best of it, and no doubt it was so in this particular instance, notwithstanding Peake's anger and the wife's contempt for "Cousin John." The Sir Robert Cotton who married Hester Salusbury of lleweni was committed to the Tower in 1683, for a supposed conspiract against King James the Second. Lord Combermere shewed me a copy of the warrant under which his ancestor was put into prison. It was dated the 23rd of September in the year I have named and was signed by Lord Sunderland. There could have been no serious ground for the charge, although it is possible that the Cottons, like a great many other English Protestants, did not place confidence in the king. It is very certain that few families of note in this nation can shew a better title to loyalty than the Cottons of Combernere and the present representative of the family has fully indicated their character in this respect. He must have gone into the army when quite a child, for his father had obtained a commission for him so early as 1790, in our crack regiment, the Royal E.Welsh Fusilliers, He, like so many others of our distinguished soldiers, had passed through Westminister School, but to pretend that he had been educated there would be a farce. I have heard Mr.Charles Wynn...himself a descendant of the Lleweni family...say, that he was his schoolfellow, but that young Cotton was no scholar. He added that they always looked forward to the annual visit of Sir Watkin Wynn to the school on St.Taffy's Day (1st of March) when each Welsh boy was presented with a guinea by that fine, patriotic gentleman, but that Cotton always recieved 2 guineas, inasmuch as he was godson to the donor, and a Welshman withal, which Mr.Wynn thought unfair, seeing that he himself was a son of Wynnstay. Young Cotton went out to India very soon after he had become an officer...I do not known the year, but he was certainly there in 1799, for my grandfather, Joseph Gibbon, served under him in that year against Tippoo, and died there. Colonel Cotton naturally took a warm interest in "dear Joe. Gibbons," for he was son-in-law to the Mary Norbury (my great-grandmother) who saw him brought to the world at Lleweni. It was he who brought the news of my grandfather's death, and delivered to my great- grandmother ( in the year, 1800, I think) at Combermere, some small thing of his, which he had brought over with him on his return from India. Making every allowance for the affection borne to him by his first nurse and kinswoman, my great-grandmother, we may believe her story that "Young STapleton was a fine, genial, and gallant young sprig." I have heard her relate some of his Irish reminiscences in proof of this, for he was present at Dublin with his regiment when Robert Emmetrt was executed there, and he pitied the fate of that noble, but sadly misguided, young man. It is difficult to give a description of his person, for he was old when I saw him first, some 30 years back, but I recollect that his face reminded me of my own father's face; it was not dark, but it had a foreign cast, his eyes being a brown hazel, or as we say in Wales, Black. It was a pleasant face to look at,,, kind and jocular, but with a dash of the old Cambrian fire ab out it. He could be a tartar if he liked, for there was a resolute air about the chin and mouth, and plenty of daring at command whenever that quality was called into requisition. He was a very old man when we last met; somewhat feeble, but very lively, and once in the saddle, every inch a soldier. What a life there will be to record when he is gathered to his fathers ! The history of the last of the old race born at Lleweni; the binding link between the present generation and the fine old soldier Black Sir Harry ! We see in him the sole represenative of the direct line of the old blood of a long list of gallant sons who suffered and even died for their country; and in bidding a last farewell to the old house, it is done with the proud reflection that in Lord Combermere we find a noble display of those many virtues which have tended so greatly ti endure to the Cambrian heart the Salusburies of Lleweni.
©Grant Salisbury 1997