Tyzack (De Hennezel, De Thietry, and Du Thisac)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
COLLECTIONS FOR A GENEALOGY OF THE NOBLE FAMILIES OF HEN ZEY, TYTTERY, AND TYZACK (DE HENNEZEL, DE THIETRY, AND DU THISAC), "Genfilshommes Verriers," from Lorraine. With a narrative Pedigree of the Stourbridge branch of the first-named family and its descendants, including the several families of BitETTELL, BATE, D1xoN, HILL, JESTON, JERVIS, P1ncocK, and others. BY H. SYDNEY GRAZEBROOK, ESQ., F.R.H.S., Au.t!ior of "The Hera.ldry of fVorcesterskire," E-"'-'C., &c. "L'art de la Verrerie est noble et ceux qui y besongnent sont nobles."-BERNARD PALISSY. STOURBRIDGE : PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOB BY J. THOS. FORD, HIGH STREET. 1877. ·- ~r~. ___,--------,.._-WPR1E·G .• PREFACE. "I declare myself. infinitely: delighted with a Preface. Is it exquisitely written ? No literary morsel is more delicious. Is the author. inveterately~ dull? It ..is a kind of preparatory information which may be very useful. It argues a deficiency of taste to turn over an elaborate preface unread : for it is the attar of the author's roses, every drop distilled at an immense cost. It is the reason of the reasoning, and the folly of the foolish." Thus wrote Isaac cl'Israeli; and I must confess to an entire concordance in his sentiments. But I have observed that the custom of prefixing an introduction to a book is fast falling into disuse ; and it has long been one of the 'things generally known ' that the ordinary reader seldo1n takes the trouble to peruse the author's prologue. Being, however, conservative in my notions, and there fore somewhat of a laudator temporis acti·, I venture to add a porch to the little building I have here erected, wherein the descendants of the noble families of Henzey, Tyttery, and Tyzack will (to use the ,vords of the illustrious Dugdale) "see very much of their worthy ancestry." But the raison a: etre of this little book and the causes which have induced me to rush into print and submit the result of my researches to the (necessarily) select few· among whom this my libellus will circulate are so· fully set forth on p. 28 et seq_. that I find myself in the somewhat awkward predicament of having little or nothing to say by way of preface, save to tender my warmest thanks to those ··who have assisted me in my labours-and I hope they will accept this general acknowledgm-ent of their favours. There is, however, one subject, but lightly touched upon in the text, which I think I may appropriately discuss here,-viz., what is to be understood by the words 9entilhomme verrier 1 IV.• I have placed by ,vay of motto on my title page the words of the fa1nous Bernard Palissy that ' g-lass-1naking is a noble art and those who practice it are noble.' This very ren1arkable state1nent-if taken in its strictly literal sense-see1ns to require a few words of explanation. Among· the descendants of the Henzeys, an idea prevails .that those only of noble blood were allowed to engage in glass-making ; and l\tI. Sauzay, in his interesting work " Les 1nerveilles de la Verrerie " informs us that, according to the testimony of several. authors, the general opinion ' admitted even £n the present day '-is that formerly the mere trade of glass-making carried nol:>ility with it-that in short every common glass-maker was ennobled- by the mere fact of the nature of his trade. Neither of these assertions is correct. That a roturier glass-maker became ipso facto noble is a proposition so utterly repugnant to common sense that it is difficult to understand how it ever came to be, as M. Sauzay expresses it, "an admitted historical fact;" while there is abundant evidence to prove that the Henzey tradition is equally erroneous. Yet that some such claim to the degree of nobility on the part of glass-makers of plebeian birth was preferred is perfectly clear from a decree of the Gour des .A.£des at Paris in 1597, the text of which is cited by M. Sauzay, which, while it a-dn1its that a genti"lltomme did not forfeit his nobility, by exercising the· art of glass-making, expressly affirms that a rotur£er did not acquire nobility by engaging in that trade. 'fhe highest in_ rank in this " nation of shopkeepers" may engage in commerce without .' losing caste' :- Lord Stafford mines in coal and salt, The Duke of Norfolk deals in malt, The Douglas in red herrings. But ' they managed these things better (?) in France ? under the ancien regime. "La noblesse (says Desbois) se perd par le trafic." A law as ancient as the nobility itself decreed that by engaging in trade a gentilhomme not only degraded himself but his posterity. v. This being the case, how was. it possible for such an anomaly as a Gen.tilltomme Verrier to exist ? The opinion of M. Sauzay is that although the stringent law I have referred to was admitted to press harshly upon those of the nobilitv who from divers causes had fallen into poverty, yet the"' respect then borne to ancient custon1s, was so great that the Kings themselves dared not abrogate it, nor even except fro1n its operation a single trade. At last a new Industry sprang into existence-that of glass making-which not being specified in the list of prohibited trades enabled the Kings, ,vhilst upholding in all its rigour the ancient law, to profit by its silence in regard to glass making, and thus open a resource as indispensable to the rising trade as to the re-establishrnent of the nobleman's fortune. Numbers of the poorer nobility took advantage of the means thus afforded them to retrieve their fallen fortunes ; and when once the fact was established that no forfeiture of rank was involved in pursuing 'the art and mystery of glass-making,' their richer brethren largly ·increased their revenues by the· same means ; and so in time the " Gentils ho-m-me Verriers" became an influential and wealthy class, and in Lorraine were regarded as very little inferior in rank to the g'rands and pet£ts chevaux of that province. Thus though the trade was not exclusively carried on by the Nobility, so great a prestige attached tQ it that it came to be looked upon as a 'noble art ' and ' those who prac tised it as noble.' Many of the nobility of France, Lorraine, and Burgundy were personally engaged in glass-making. But it by no means follows that all the " Gentilshommes V erriers " one reads of were literally rnakers of glass any more than the Duke of Norfolk is a m~ltster, or the Douglas a fish- -· monger. "Being noble by birth (says M. Sauzay) and no longer in dread of the la,v of forfeiture, the Gent,£lsltom11ies Verriers, in consideration of certain dues, delivered up their forests to the irerriers roturiers. The latter, thanks to the nobles, found therein everything which they required, that is, space VI• • . adapted to their trade, wood, without which they could ·not work; and still further, all the profits accruing from the exemptions .which being accorded to the lord alone formed, what in the present day would be known under the name of co1nmon captital ( apport ou fonds social)." From the preceding then we learn that generally speaking a Gentilkornme Verrier was a noble who had the n1onopoly worked on his estate ; but the title was also accorded to those who like the HENZEYS, TYTTERYs, and TYZACKS were literally nobles and glass-rnakers. It is scarcely necessary to add that the word noble bears on the continent a less restricted sense than iu this country, where we apply it only to the members of a titled family. In France nobility is quite independent of title. The nubility of the Henuezels had been repeatedly acknowledged. On many occasions they were admitted to be gentt7shommes de race, ,.qentilshommes d' e:vt1·action, issu d' une tres noble et tre.s ancienne maison, &c.; but until Jean Claude de Hennezel obtained in 1716 the erection of his estate of Beaujeu into a Comte, the highest titles they bore were chevalier and ecuyer. When in France the nobility of an individual was acknow ledged, it was a matter of indifference whether his title was marquis, comte, vieomte, or baron; or whether he. had any title or not.· The only important question was, not what t'itle he bore, but whether he really was a gentz1homme. " When about the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI -I am quoting a curious treatise on the Nobili"~l/ qf tlie British Gentry by Sir James Lawrence, Knight of J\'Ialta, an ordinance appeared that no individual should be pre sented at Versailles, unless he could prove four hundred years of nobility, or that his ancestors were already noble before the year 1400, a 1nultiplicity of Counts and l\1arquises were rejected; although many an untitled Gentilhonin~e left their ( s£c) towers and chateaux in Britanny and Languedoc and posted up to Paris to shew their pre-eminence." I \vill not speculate on what ,vould be the result were . such an ordeal introduced at _St. James' s ; but supposing the ordinance had been in force in France during the second .. vu. empire, among the few who might have put in an appear ance would have been a poor charcoal burner from the forest of Compiegne-the Marquis de Crequy, the last re presentative of one of the most illustrious houses of France. One word as to the illustrations with which this work is (to use the popular phrase) " embellished." The frontis piece requires no -explanation.