Defoe, who always stood up for the honour of trade, says, “Trading is so far from being inconsistent with a gentleman that in England trade makes a gentleman; for, after a generation or two, the tradesman’s children come to be as good gentlemen, statesmen, parliament men, judges, bishops, and noblemen as those of the highest birth and the most ancient families.” Swift says, “The power which used to follow land has gone over to money.” Johnson says, “An English merchant is a new species of gentleman.” Harrison says, “Citizens often change with gentlemen as gentlemen do with them.” If, however, the country gentry sent their sons up to London, there to be apprenticed, there to become wholesale merchants and adventurers, the common proposition is equally true that the successful merchant or his children retired from London into the country, and carried on a cadet branch of the old house or founded a line of new gentry. This practice was in use as far back as the twelfth century, when the family of Gervase, the London merchant, became country gentry of Essex. The practice has been continued, estates have changed hands over and over again, the new purchasers being London merchants, or even, in these latter days, London tradesmen. In the second generation they are received into county society; in the third their origin is forgotten, or no longer talked about. It would be a work of great interest to follow the family history of those who left London, and became owners of manors, parks, and country houses. But it would carry me too far, nor could I attempt it, even had I the time necessary, because the genealogies of the people are so full of errors, intentional and otherwise, that there would be no certainty as to the result. One would willingly learn, if one could, who are the modern representatives of Gervase of Cornhill, Ansgar the Staller, Leofwin the Portreeve, Orgar the Proud, the Haverels, the Bukerels, the Farringdons, the Whittingtons, the Philpots, the Greshams, and the later merchants. The descendants of some of the City houses can, however, be traced. An imperfect list has been compiled for my use, as follows:— Sir William de la Pole, already mentioned, Knight of the Garter. Alderman Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Mayor 1457, ancestor of Queen Elizabeth, Lord Nelson, and the Earl of Kimberley. Alderman Loke, ancestor of John Locke, Lord Chancellor King, and the Earl of Lovelace. Sir Stephen Broun, grocer, twice Mayor, 1438, 1448, ancestor of Lord Montague. Robert Pakington and Alderman Barnham, ancestors of Earl Stanhope and Sir J. S. Pakington. Alderman Sir Baptist Hicks, ancestor of the Earl of Gainsborough, the Marquis of Sligo, Admiral Lord Howe, Lord Byron, and Lord Raglan. Sir William Holles, ancestor of the Earl of Clare. Sir Edward Osborne, Mayor 1582, ancestor of the Duke of Leeds.