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of the family refers. They were first located near Sheffield, but afterwards removed to Tetley. George Stovin, the seventh in descent, was living at Tetley, during the civil war between the King and Parliament; and is stated to have confederated with the Rebels*, who destroyed Sandtoft Church, and to have obtained possession of the Participants' lands in Epworth and Croule.

After the restoration, however, I think it extremely probable that the loyalists were determined to pay him off; for an accusation was preferred against him, for attending a religious service in an unlicenced place, conducted by a Minister, Mr. Durant, who had not complied with the terms prescribed in the Act of Parliament. This is the family tradition, as related to me by the present owner of Tetley. "The soldiers came in search of him twice. The first time his wife had just lain in. One of the soldiers said, "take the calf, and the cow will blate." This, however, the mother had the firmness not to do, and rather than discover the retreat of her husband, she suffered them to take her eldest son. They conveyed him part of the way to Croule, and then threw him into the snow, where he was found by an old servant, who brought him home. On the second visit of the soldiers, which took place in the winter season, Stovin was concealed in the oak woods behind Tetley. After standing the severity of the weather for a considerable time, he sought refuge in his own house, and was betrayed by an old servant. He died in Lincoln Castle, in consequence of severe treatment in his conveyance thither, or from the injury which his health had experienced during his lurking in the woods. Joseph Isle, a man of property, and a native of Epworth, his fellow prisoner, helped to carry him to his grave. Mr. Durant preached his funeral sermon, from Job xxi, 23d. verse, “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. ness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. dust, and the worms shall cover them." From

And another dieth in the bitter. They shall lie down alike in the which text the preacher would

no

* History of the First Nine Years of the Drainage.

no doubt enlarge upon religious intolerance, and the hardships of the prisoner's fate; but I conjecture that he said not a word about the lawless violence of the proceedings at Sandtoft, or the share which George obtained in the spoils of the Participants' lands. He married Mary Clarke, of Croule, the grand-daughter of Richard Brewer, for his first wife; and for his second, Ann, daughter of Robert Stovin. He was one of those persons who assumed the motto, Libertas et Proprietas, and who armed themselves with clubs during the troubles of the civil wars, and whose object was to resist effectually the military marauders of both parties, declaring themselves neither for the King nor Parliament, but for their own liberty and property. George, his eldest son, succeeded to the property at Tetley, but sold it to his brother James. This gentleman was High Sheriff of the County of Lincoln, in the reign of George the First, and, in consequence of his large property and independent character, possessed great influence in the Isle of Axholme. He had five active sons, who inherited his property and influence, George, the antiquary, was the oldest. He was born about 1695, and, before the death of his father, married an heiress of the ancient family of Empson, of Goulet. This gentleman was not brought up to any profession, but led the life of a country gentleman, which afforded him abundant leisure to prosecute the topographical and antiquarian researches, to which, from early life, he was addicted. He took great interest in the affairs of the Levels, being a very assiduous Commissioner of Sewers, and at the same time a Justice of the Peace. He scarcely ever left the Levels, living at Croule and in its vicinity; and, with the true feeling of a native antiquary, thinking no part of England equal to Axholme, and no town comparable to Croule. In the latter part of his life, however, he crossed the Trent, and fixed his residence at Winterton. There he spent the concluding years of a long life, living in a little cottage, which he had made arcadian with honey-suckles and other flowers, where he was to be seen with his pipe every morning at five and was accustomed to amuse his neighbours

* Hallam's Constitutional History. † Hunter's History of the Deanery of Doncaster.

neighbours with a variety of anecdotes with which his memory supplied

him.

He died in May, 1780, and was buried in the Chancel of the Church, at Winterton. We owe to him the best account of Lindholme, from which some extracts have been already given in this work. This was printed on a single sheet, together with an engraving of the Hermit's Cell, and a Poem, written by Samuel Wesley, a copy of which I have not been able to procure. He also communicated to the Royal Society an account of the discovery of the body of a female, in the turf moors of Amcoats, which I have narrated at length in the topography of that place. He left in manuscript many notes of Roman Roads and stations, in the counties of York and Lincoln, the result of personal observation. But the most important of his topographical works, is a small thick quarto volume, bound in rough calf, consisting of transcripts of all documents which in any way he could obtain, interspersed with many curious topographical notes, relating to the Isle of Axholme. At the end of the manuscript, are proposals for printing by subscription, in one volume, folio, with marginal notes, the History of the Drainage of the Great Level of Hatfield Chase, in the Counties of York, Lincoln, and Nottingham, by George Stovin, Esq. near forty years an acting Commissioner of Sewers in the same Levels. The price was to be a guinea in sheets. The work, most probably, from want of encouragement, was never published. This valuable manscript is now in the possession of the widow of the late Rector of Rossington, by whose kindness, through the friendly offices of Henry Lister Maw, Esq. the author of this work has been allowed to avail himself of its contents. The only surviving son of the antiquary, was the late James Stovin, Esq. who built the house at "Shooter's Hill," in the parish of Rossington. From this place he removed to Whitgift, where he inherited a handsome mansion and a good estate, from his uncle Cornelius Stovin, the youngest brother of the antiquary.

FAMILY OF MAW.

I HAVE not been able to obtain any information concerning the origin of this very numerous and ancient family. They have resided in all the principal places in the Isle of Axholme, for the last three centuries, as substantial freeholders: and wherever I have made inquiries of families, of this name, now residing on the east side of the Trent, they all state that their ancestors came out of this part of the country. The family name of M'Coglan, is, in Irish, beautifully abbreviated into Maw, and hence some persons have supposed that this family came originally from Ireland; but I think it more probable that Maw is an abbreviation from Mowbray, and that the present Maws are descended from some minor branch of that ancient and honourable family, the original progenitor of which was enfeoffed by the owners of the soil with considerable freehold property. It appears, from an entry in the Herald's Visitation Book, 1561, for the county of Suffolk, that Symon, the eldest son of John Maw, of Epworth, had migrated to Randlesham, in that county; and from the proceedings in Chancery, about the same period, we learn that his brother Robert was also settled in the same county, he having filed a bill against Edward Grimston and others, respecting a promise made by Harbottle Grimston, Esq. to provide for plaintiff's son, his grand-child, in performance of which, the bill stated, that the defendant Joan, his widow, purchased the manor of Crowfield in that county. Leonard, the fourth son of Symon Maw, was fellow of Peter-house, at Cambridge, and afterwards Master of Trinity College, Prebendary of Wells, and Chaplain to Prince Charles, on whom he waited when his Royal Highness went to Spain to court the Infanta. On the translation of Laud to London, he was promoted to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells; but he enjoyed that preferment but a short time, as he died at Chiswick, in Middlesex, 2d. September, 1629, where he was buried.

The descendants of his uncle, John Maw, continued to reside at Epworth,

until

until a few years past, when John Maw, who married Elizabeth Lister, removed his residence to Doncaster. Captain Maw, the eldest son of this gentleman, of the 23rd. regiment of Royal Welch Fusileers, was killed at the storming of Badajos, in Spain, on the night between the 6th and 7th of April. He had served on the Quarter Master General's staff, at the battles of Vimiera and Talavera, in the Peninsula, and previously in the same department of the army, under Lord Cathcart, in Scotland.

Henry Lister Maw, another son, now resident at Tetley, also distinguished himself as a naval officer, not only in action, but also by his enterprising passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the Andes, in the northern provinces of Peru, and descending the river Maranon or Amazon, and who has obtained an honourable name in literature, by the admirable manner in which he has described his voyages and travels, and the scenes of warfare in which he has been engaged. A short account of this enterprise, from the Author's Journal, cannot be otherwise than acceptable to readers in general.

Mr. Maw being at Lima in November, 1827, as a lieutenant on board his Majesty's ship Menai, having heard that there existed much interest about the interior of Peru, and that a rout across Peru and down the river Amazon, though little known, was supposed to be practicable, he resolved, having obtained the consent of his superior officers, to undertake the expedition at his own expense.

Having crossed the Andes, he embarked in two canoes at Balsa Puerto, on the 12th of January, 1828, on the Cachi Zaco river, which he describes as a broad but shallow river, accompanied by Mr. Hinde, and seven Indians. Proceeding down the stream, for the distance of about one hundred miles, they arrived at its junction with the Guallaga, the current being at the rate of about four miles an hour, and its depth inconsiderable. After making a short stay at the village of Yurimaguas, they proceeded down the Guallaga to Santa Cruz, and from thence to Laguna; where the Indians, who had brought them thus far on the voyage, were paid off, and fresh ones procured. Having procured fresh canoes and Indians, the voyagers proceeded down

the

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