Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
The tract above quoted--we have modernized the spelling--does not,
however, give the Christian name of Mistress Page, and gives us the
name of her father, Glandfeeld, a merchant tradesman of Tavistock.
Glandfeeld is the same as Glanville, just as Priddis is the same as
Prideaux, and as Grenville appears in the registers and in deeds as
Grenfeeld and Greenfield.
That she was not the daughter of Justice Glanville is plain from the
above account, but she was a niece, for Eulalia was the daughter of
Nicolas, the eldest son of John Glanville, merchant, of Tavistock;
he and another brother, Thomas, were in trade at Tavistock, and they
were both brothers of Judge Glanville. This we learn from the Heralds’
Visitation of Cornwall for 1620, where Eulalia is entered as daughter
of Nicolas, but with no details concerning her.
There appeared several ballads concerning the tragedy.
1. “The Lamentation of Master Page’s wife of Plimouth, who being
enforced by her parents to wed against her will, did most wickedly
consent to his murther, for the love of _George Strangwidge_, for which
fact she suffered death at Bar[n]staple in Devonshire. Written with her
own hand a little before her death.” This is, of course, untrue. It is
one of those supposititious confessions written by the common ballad
monger. By this we know that her Christian name was _Ulalia_.
2. “The Lamentation of _George Strangwidge_, who for consenting to the
death of Master _Page of Plimouth_, suffered Death at Bar[n]staple.” In
this occurs the statement that she was the daughter of “Glandfield.”
O Glandfield, cause of my committed crime,
Snared in wealth, as Birds in bush of lime,
* * * * *
I would to God thy wisdome had been more,
Or that I had not entered in the door;
Or that thou hadst a kinder Father beene
Unto thy Child, whose yeares are yet but greene.
The match unmeete which thou for much didst make,
When aged _Page_ thy Daughter home did take,
Well maist thou rue with teares that cannot dry.
Which was the cause that foure of us must dye.
_Ulalia_ faire, more bright than Summer’s sunne,
Whose beauty hath my heart for ever won,
My soule more sobs to thinke of thy disgrace,
Than to behold mine own untimely race.
In this also, as will be seen, Mistress Page is Eulalia, and her father
Glandfield is said to have been rich.
3. “The Sorrowful Complaint of _Mistress Page_ for causing her husband
to be murdered, for the love of _George Strangwidge_, who were executed
together.” This contains no particulars relative to her relationship to
the Glanvilles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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