An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY Leman, and died 1713, having by his will left the property to such child or children as she was "enscient or bigg withal." Such child was stated to have been Elizabeth Rye, who married James or Jacob Mount– agne said to be ancestress of Bishop Mountaigne, of Canada, but our branch always alleged that she was a supposititious child. It is a very extra– ordinary coincidence that my sisters bought the house at Hemel Hempstead in which they now live from her descendants; and (b) James Rye (7). 7. James Rye, of Cromer, was afterwards of Erping– ham when he married in 1709, at Banningham, Elizabeth, daughter of William Bacon, of Thurgarton, one of a family descended from the very old family of Bacons of Bacons– thorpe.1 Through this marriage we are cousins to the Spurrells of Bassingham, the Macks, the Drosiers, and other East Norfolk families. Another William Bacon, of cr'hurgarton, dated 1792, left his Thurgarton property away from the family to his godson, William Roper, son of Snelling Roper, which gave the deepest offence to bis relations. My grandfather wanted to open the question on the ground of" undue influence," and I have always under– stood that he made my father a lawyer for the express purpose of such intended litigation. His son 8. Edward Rye, of Cromer and South Repps, was born in 1714, and was married on 17th Au-gust, 1740, at .St. Luke's Chapel, Norwich, to Mary Smith, of South Repps, whose ancestry I naturally cannot trace, as she bore such a common surname.. They were parents of 9. James Rye, baptized 25th August, 1743, at South Repps. HewasofBarninghamParva in 1766,where he married Hannah, daughter of Nicholas Thaxter, of Bassingham, by Frances, daughter of Robert Youngman, of East Beckham, by his wife Mary Townshend. The Thaxters had been yeomen and blacksmiths at Bassingham since 1395 (see pedigree in East Anglian iii., pp. 35-8). Through them I have female descents from– Youngman, Townshend, Makefeld, Mertens, and Hawpe. T The history of this, perhaps the oldest Norfolk family, has yet to be issued. They are by no means to be confounded with the' Bacons, the "premier baronets," a plebeian family which has long endeavoured to steal the arms and pedigree, but who are really descended from a sheep-reeve of the Abbot of Bury (see Norfolk Families, p. 16).