General Gatacre Part 1

General Gatacre.

by Beatrix Gatacre.

PREFACE

The main object in laying this book before the public is to provide an authentic narrative of Sir William Gatacre's work in South Africa. At the time of his recall no despatch giving the reason for this step was published, but a letter dealing with this matter has since appeared as an Appendix in the _Official History_ of the war; it is with reluctance that I have been persuaded to reprint this letter at the end of this volume. It seemed, however, that Sir William's previous career was such a large factor in determining any opinion regarding his later work that some account of the man and his surroundings from the beginning would not be without interest.

In preparing the first half of this story I have been entirely dependent on the recollections of others, and have studiously avoided any attempt to eke out the material with an imaginary amplification; in the latter half my own personal knowledge of himself and his affairs has enabled {x} me to seek my information from numerous sources, and to draw the portrait in richer colours on a more suggestive background.

I wish to acknowledge in full the loyal a.s.sistance afforded me by my husband's friends. In every case I have received the most cordial response and co-operation. I am sincerely grateful both to those who have asked me to refrain from naming them and to those who have given me the support of their names. Through the courtesy of these officers and others, I am able to say that every word has been read by one who has personal knowledge of the incidents recorded. In this way I trust that this narrative will have acquired an unimpeachable accuracy.

I am also deeply indebted to the _Official History of the War in South Africa_. Indeed, before the publication of this authoritative statement my task would have been impossible.

To the facts therein recorded I have added extracts from officers'

reports, and from Sir William's own letters, and also the words of certain important telegrams which I had found amongst his papers, and for the reproduction of which official permission has been graciously accorded.

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I beg the indulgence of the reader for faults of literary inexperience, and trust that he will recognise my honest endeavour to handle the facts fairly and dispa.s.sionately.

BEATRIX GATACRE.

_April_ 8, 1910.

CHAPTER I

1843-1862

GATACRE

According to a venerable Shrops.h.i.+re antiquarian, that county "has ever been inhabited by a race of men characteristic for uniformity of principle and energy of action."[1] Mr. Eyton goes on to tell of various places mentioned in the Domesday Book, and among these of the Manor of Claverley, which included a very large tract of country, and is described as an "ancient demesne of the Crown." The Manor of Claverley was broken up into various towns.h.i.+ps, to three of which he accords special notice, "in regard that the King's Tenants thereof were of a rank superior to that of the average cla.s.s of Freeholders in Royal Manors. These Towns.h.i.+ps were Broughton, Beobridge, and Gatacre."[2]

[1] _Antiquities of Shrops.h.i.+re_, by R. W. Eyton, 1854, preface.

[2] _Ibid._, vol. iii. p. 77.

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[Sidenote: Ancestors]

There is a well-authenticated tradition that the family established at Gatacre at the time of the Conquest held their lands by tenure of military service, under a grant from Edward the Confessor. Eyton speaks of them as "a family of knightly rank, which, having early feoffment in Gatacre, took its name from the place. The period of such feoffment it is vain to conjecture, as being beyond all record of such matters."[3]

[3] Eyton's _Antiquities of Shrops.h.i.+re_, vol. iii. p. 86.

In the reign of Henry II., Sir William de Gatacre had a suit with one Walter, about half a hide of land in Great Lye: this was subject to a Wager of Battle, and apparently Gatacre proved himself the better man, for Great Lye is even now held by his descendant. This same William appears in another record as one of the four "Visors," who in July 1194 had to report to the Courts of Westminster on the validity of the "essoign of Cecilia de Cantreyn, a litigant. Gatacre's a.s.sociates in this duty--to which knights only were usually appointed--were Henry Christian, Philip Fitz HoleG.o.d, and William de Rudge, all his neighbours and of equal rank with himself."[4]

[4] _Ibid._

He was succeeded by Sir Robert, his son; who sat on a Jury of Grand a.s.sizes in April 1200, to try a question of right in relation to lands at Nordley Regis, at the "Iter of the King's Justices."[5]

[5] _Ibid._

The tenure of the estates was in great jeopardy {3} in the life of Thomas de Gatacre; for it is told how a certain Philip de Lutley, the King's Escheator, did "seize the estates of Gatacre, Sutton, and Great Lye into the King's hand, on the ground that Thomas de Gatacre had entered upon these estates without doing homage and fealty to the Crown, and without paying his relief, so that he had occupied the same unjustly for twenty-two years and more."[6] At this unfortunate moment Thomas died, leaving Alice, his widow, to fight for herself and their son Thomas. She appealed to the King (Edward III.) in Chancery, in the Michaelmas Term 1368. There was a trial by twenty-four jurors, being knights and others in the visnage of Sutton not being kin to Alice.

She herself appeared in person at Westminster, and won her cause, for a "King's writ of the same year commits to the same Alice, widow of Thomas de Gatacre, custody of the Manor of Gatacre and the hamlet of Sutton with their appurtenances."

[6] See Eyton's _Antiquities_, vol. iii. pp. 90, 91,

The grandson of the younger Thomas was called John; he flourished in the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., and was High Sheriff of Shrops.h.i.+re in 1409. In a contemporary stained-gla.s.s window now in the hall at Gatacre there is a portrait of the same John, who is described as "Groom of the body to Henry VIth." He was succeeded by his son John, who was Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth in the twelfth year of Edward IV.

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[Sidenote: The ancient house]

The house at Gatacre stands in the parish of Claverley, and is about two miles distant from this village. Inside the church--a red sandstone building full of interest to the archaeologist--are many monuments, of which the most ancient are two incised marble slabs inlaid in the eastern wall; these are about six feet high. On one is shown a man in armour, elaborate and perfect in all its detail, commemorating William Gatacre, who died in 1577, and his wife and eleven children; and on the other his successor Francis, 1599, is depicted in civilian dress with his wife at his side.

Close by is a very fine alabaster tomb on which lie three full-length rec.u.mbent figures, being the effigies of Robert Brooke of Madeley Court, who is described as "Recorder of London, Speaker of P'lyament, and Chiefe Justice of Com'on Pleace," and his two wives, one of whom was a daughter of Gatacre.[7]

[7] See _Shrops.h.i.+re_, by A. C. Hare, p. 319.

Thomas, brother to Francis named above, was destined by his parents for the law; but he "diverted his mind from the most profitable to the most necessary study, from law to divinity," and, much to the grief of his parents, who were of the old persuasion, embraced the Reformed Faith, and became Rector of St. Edmond's, Lombard Street. He died in 1593; but his son and grandson followed the same profession. The former, Thomas (1574-1654), was a friend of Archbishop Ussher, and a member of the Westminster a.s.sembly of Divines. {5} He took part in preparing the annotations to the English Bible, and published a work on Marcus Aurelius; in 1648 he subscribed the Remonstrance against the trial of Charles I. His son, Charles, was Chaplain to Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland, and was also the author of many books.[8] This younger branch of the family settled at Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and has always spelt the name Gataker. Though there has never failed a male heir to the senior line, this is the only cadet branch that has survived.

[8] See quotation by A. C. Hare, from Thomas Fuller, 1662.

The house inhabited by this ancient family was a unique survival of very early times.[9] Where we should now use iron girders our ancestors used oak-trees; they erected them upside-down, so that the roots made arches on which to lay the roof. Large stones were hewn to fill in the walls, and in this particular building the outer surface of the stones was incrusted with a transparent green glaze, very similar to what is now seen on rough pottery. This curious specimen of domestic architecture survived in a habitable condition till the early part of the eighteenth century, when it was wantonly destroyed, and replaced by a brick mansion of the dark and uninteresting type of the early Georges. Portions of the glazed stones are still preserved in the house amongst many other relics of more obvious value.

[9] See _The Severn Valley_, by John Randall, 1882, and _Archaeologia_, iii. 112, quoted by him.

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