INTRODUCTION. THE beautiful valley of the Axe lies in south-east Devonshire, about four miles west of Dorset. The red marl and brown and sterile summits of the green sand-hills mark the situation with unmistakable signs. A real Devonshire valley cannot be confounded with any other; nor can its climate. Mild in winter, when southern Italy has frost and snow, and when Greece is not to be traversed from the same causes, its curative influence at length begins to be appreciated. Within four miles of Dorset stands the ancient town of Axminster, five miles above the mouth of the Axe; and Colyton, another ancient town, lies at a distance of three miles from the sea, at the opening of the beautiful valley of the Axe. The old commercial borough of Lyme Regis lies at a distance of five miles to the east, and one mile inside Dorsetshire. British and Danish earthworks, a battle-field between the Saxons and Danes, and the site of a famous Abbey, render the tract we have described truly classic ground. London, when coaches were unknown, was too distant to be visited by more than a few from this remote part of the country. Exeter was the metropolis of the West. Great men and abbots had their inns or town residences in this city. An almost magic power has virtually brought this city within five hours of London instead of a Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 25 Sep 2021 at 10:17:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042169900012268 VHl INTRODUCTION. week. Centralization and the constant intercourse now maintained with other counties are rapidly causing peculiarities and distinctions to disappear. The Yonge Diary, the property of the Editor, was kept by Walter Yonge, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, a Justice of the Peace, Sheriff for Devon, and Member of Parliament for Honiton, at his mansion- houses in Colyton and Axminster, from A.D. 1604 to 1628. The Diary in Manuscript is in small writing, excepting the part detailing the Gunpowder Plot, which is in Roman characters. It measures six inches in length by four in breadth. It was purchased in a lot of old books at a sale at Taunton by Mr. Marsingal, a retired registrar of the Savings Bank of that town. Soon after, this worthy plain person, who loved antiquity for its own sake, came to Lyme Regis for the benefit of his health, parted with his MS. to the pre- sent possessor, and soon afterwards deceased. Brief must have been any mention of the YONGE family without access to the very extensive and invaluable stores of Devonshire antiquarian matters, particularly of pedigrees, collected by James Davidson, Esq. of Secktor House, in the parish of Axminster. These have been liberally offered, and that gentleman is here assured that no written history could have conveyed more than a small part of the information embodied from his collections. William Yonge is mentioned by Betham in his Baronetage as Member for Dorchester, in the reign of Edward III. Thomas Yonge was Mayor of Bristol, 12 Henry IV. John his son rose to the dignity of Lord Mayor of London, and was afterwards Member for London; while another of the family became a Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry VI. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 25 Sep 2021 at 10:17:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042169900012268 INTRODUCTION. IX The YONGE family was of repute in south-east Devon. Walter Yonge of Berkshire, a younger son whose ancestor had represented Bristol in Parliament in the fourteenth century, settled in Devon- shire in the reign of Henry VII. John Yonge, of Colyton, the father of the writer of this Diary, was an eminent merchant, and was associated with several others in a patent granted by Queen Elizabeth, 3 May, 1588, for " a trade to the river Senegal and Gambia, in Guinea." In the Cobb Receivers' Accompts, at this time in the archives of Lyme, appears an entry of the sailing of the " bark Yonge," for Barbary. Some of the Merchant Adventurers were settled at Lyme. We need not be surprised that several of them, the Hassards, Ellesdons, Roses, &c. who traded after the discoveries of the fifteenth century, realised fortunes and founded county families. Some adventures returned what would now appear to be enormous profit, and lands were then to be bought by these fortunate merchants at 12 years' purchase.* In Queen Mary's reign, the shipping of Lyme was a fifty-third part of that of all England; and the seamen of the town and a few parishes round a sixty-ninth part of the same. London had not six times as many vessels as Lyme. By the year 1640, the number of seamen in England was tripled. In the voyage of Richard Rainolds and John Dassel to the rivers Senegal and Gambia in 1591, the Cherubim of Lyme is spoken of. The arms granted to John Yonge in 1583 are, Ermine, on a bend cotised sable, three griffin's heads erased or. Crest, on a wreath argent and sable, a boar's head erased, bristled or, mantled gules, doubled argent. * See the Pictorial History of England, vol. III. p. 330, for statements of profits derived from East India voyages of 150 and 200 per cent. CAMD. SOC. b Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 25 Sep 2021 at 10:17:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042169900012268 X INTRODUCTION. John Yonge, the great merchant's eldest son, lived at Axminster, and died there in 1608, without issue. The merchant himself died in 1612, when Walter Yonge the second son succeeded him. WALTER YONGE, Esq., the writer of the Diary, was a Barrister- at-Law. He was seated during his father John Yonge's lifetime at Upton Helions, near Crediton, in Devonshire, and at his death in 1612 succeeded to the considerable estates of the family in Devon and elsewhere. He had a mansion-house at Colyton, called to this day the " Great House," and another at Axminster, but Resided chiefly at the former.* Walter Yonge married Jane, daughter and coheir of Sir John Peryam, of Exeter, Knt. brother of Sir William Peryam, Chief Baron of the Exchequer 1592 (by Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Roger Prideaux, of Seldon, co. Devon, Esq.), by whom he had two sons, John his heir, the first Baronet of the family, and Walter; and one daughter, Jane, who died unmarried. Walter Yonge was one of the justices in commission for the county of Devon, and of the Puritan party. He published a little treatise entitled " A Manual, or a Justice of the Peace his Vade Mecum," 12m°., 1642 ; which was enlarged and republished by Samuel Black- ersby, of Gray's Inn, Esq., in 1711, with the title "The Justice of the Peace his Companion, &c." He had the honour to be Sheriff of Devon in 1628. A Committee of the House of Commons having been appointed to ascertain what boroughs had formerly sent bur- gesses to Parliament and had discontinued to do so, reported in 1640: Honiton, among others, was in consequence ordered to be * The mansion at 'Axminster was on the eastern side of the market-place, and after- wards became an inn, with the sign of the Dolphin. It has been taken down, and several buildings now occupy its site. Yonge's aisle in the church was constructed by that family about the year 1500, when they resided at Axminster. Several members of it lie buried in the vaults beneath. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.34.90, on 25 Sep 2021 at 10:17:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042169900012268 INTRODUCTION. XI restored. Walter Yonge, Esq., and William Pole, Esq., his neigh- bour, were the two members first returned for that borough, which Mr. Yonge continued to represent till his death.* He was buried at Colyton, 26 Dec. 1649. His eldest son, John Yonge, born in 1603, knighted 1625, was elected M.P. for Plymouth in 1640, and was one of the hundred members secluded by Cromwell, who denied them entrance into the House of Commons, on which they had the courage to publish a remonstrance, asserting the legality of their right to sit in Parlia- ment; which remonstrance was signed by him, with Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and 115 others, f On the Restoration, Sir John Yonge was created a Baronet 26 Sept. 1661. He resided occa- sionally at Stedcombe in the parish of Axmouth, and married Eliza- beth, daughter of Sir William Strode, of Newenham, in the parish of Plympton, co. Devon, Knt., by whom he had five sons and four daughters. Walter Yonge, Esq. M.P. for Lyme Regis in 1661, became the second Baronet. He married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Davie, of * By the following entry in the book of burials of Colyton Church made by the Puritan minister, we not only learn the state of health of this knight, but the practice of keeping Lent during the commonwealth, and the form of licence used when a departure from the custom was rendered necessary.