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NATHANIEL STEPHENS, Esq., of Eastington and other manors, co. Gloucester,was Knight of the Shire in Parliament together with Sir Robert Poyntz,Knt., 1628-9, and 1640-1648. He married Catherine, daughter of RobertBeale, Esq., of Prior's Marston, co. Warwick, Secretary of the PrivyCouncil of Queen Elizabeth. She died February 22, 1632. He raised aregiment of horse of which he was Colonel, and fought on the Parliamentside in the Civil War in the time of King Charles I. He was buried May30, 1660. According to the "Parliamentary History of the County ofGloucester",2 the fatal illness which attacked him "a few months afterhis acquiescence in the King's death gave rise to the legend ofChavenage", the story of the Stephens family ghost--which is one of thebest known in England, has been many times told,3 and was, so late as1845, the subject of a poem by the Rev. R. W. Huntley of Boxwell,entitled "Chavenage". The story is that when the lord of the manor diedand all were assembled for his funeral a hearse drew up at the door ofthe manor house driven by a headless man, and the Squire was seen to risefrom his coffin, and enter the hearse after a profound reverence to theheadless personage, who as he drove away assumed the shape of the martyrKing,Charles I-- this being regarded as a retribution for the Squire'sdisloyalty to the King. And thereafter till the line became extinct,whenever the head of the family died, the same ghost of the King appearedto carry him off. "So it is very doubtful", says a writer, "if any ofthat line were ever comfortably buried, or that even their bones could befound in England--they having gone away body and soul with KingCharles".1 So runs the legend. Col. Nathaniel Stephens had issue; I. Henry, who died unmarried at the University of Oxford, during the lifetime of his father. II. RICHARD, born 1620, the heir, of whom presently. III. Robert, born 1622, sergeant-at-law, who died unmarried, November 4,1675. IV. Nathaniel, who died in infancy. V. Margaret, who married 1638, Sir John Fitz James, Knt., of Sutton, co.Devon. VI. Edith, who died unmarried September 8, 1632, at the age of fourteen. VII. Catherine, born 1618, who married Thomas Bloomfield, Esq., ofLondon. VIII. Sarah, born 1623, who married Sir John Stawell, Knt., of BoveyTracy, co. Devon. IX. Hannah, baptised April 11, 1626, who married Peregrine Palmer, Esq.,of Fairfield, co. Somerset. X. Abigail, baptised September 25, 1628, who married Sir Edward Harley,K. B., of Brompton Brian, co. Hereford, Member of Parliament for the shire, in the Parliament whichrestored King Charles II, She had issue; 1. Robert, who was Member of Parliament for Tregony, Cornwall, and laterfor Radnor. In 1700 he became Speaker of the House of Commons, and amember of the Privy Council, and in 1710 Chancellor of the Exchequer anda cabinet minister of the crown. He was created May 24, 1711, Earl ofOxford, Earl of Mortimer, and Baron Hartley of Wigmore, co. Hereford.1 Inthe same year he was made Lord High Treasurer of England. His room isstill to be seen at the Stephens manor house of Chavenage. He marriedfirst Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Foley, Esq., of Whitly Court, co.Worcester, and secondly Sarah, daughter of Thomas Middleton, Esq., anddied May 21, 1724, having had by his first wife issue; (a) Edward, second Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, who married Lady HenrietaCavendish, daughter and heiress of John Holles, last Duke of Newcastle,of that family. He died June 6, 1741, leaving an only daughter andheiress, Lady Margaret Cavendish, who married in 1734, William, secondDuke of Portland; when the earldom passed to his uncle Edward. (b) Lady Abigail, who married George, Earl of Kinnoul, and died 1750. (c) Elizabeth, who married Peregrine Hyde, Duke of Leeds. 2. Edward,third Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. ----William Lackey Stephens;http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/t/e/William-Lackey--Stephens/index.html
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