favour throughout successive reigns; and Sir Francis Knollys, one of
his descendants, who likewise was a garter-knight in the earlier part
of the sixteenth century, espoused Catherine Cary, a grand-daughter of
the Earl of Wiltshire, and a grand-niece of Queen Anne Boleyn. Two
sons were born of this marriage, and were named Henry and William
respectively. Henry died before his father, and William, who was born
in 1547, succeeded to the family honours in 1596. He had worn them for
seven years, when King James created him Baron Knollys of Grays, in
Oxfordshire, in 1603. Sixteen years afterwards, King James further
showed his royal favour towards him by creating him Baron Wallingford,
and King Charles made him Earl of Banbury in 1626. He was married
twice during his long life--first to Dorothy, widow of Lord Chandos,
and daughter of Lord Bray, but by her he had no children; and
secondly, and in the same year that his first wife died, to Lady
Elizabeth Howard, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Suffolk. The
couple were not well-assorted, the earl verging on three-score years,
while the lady had not seen her twentieth summer on the day of her
nuptials. Still their married life was happy, and her youth gladdened
the old man's heart, as is proved by his settlement upon her, in 1629,
of Caversham, in Berkshire, and by his constituting her his sole
executrix. In the settlement, moreover, he makes mention of "the love
and affection which he beareth unto the said Lady Elizabeth his wife,
having always been a good and loving wife;" and in the will he calls
her his "dearly-beloved wife Elizabeth, Countess of Banbury." Lord
Banbury died on the 25th of May 1632, having at least reached the age
of eighty-five.

No inquiry was made immediately after his death as to the lands of
which he died seised; but about eleven months afterwards, a commission
was issued to the feodor and deputy-escheator of Oxfordshire, pursuant
to which an inquisition was taken on the 11th of April 1633, at
Burford, when the jury found that Elizabeth, his wife, survived him;
that the earl had died without heirs-male of his body, and that his
heirs were certain persons who were specified. Notwithstanding this
decision there appears to have been little doubt that about the 10th
of April 1627, the countess had been delivered of a son, who was
baptized as Edward, and that on the 3d of January 1631, she had given
birth to another son, who received the name of Nicholas.