USA > Maryland > Portrait and biographical record of the Sixth congressional district, Maryland V. 2 > Part 35
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-tira bellement-a yoke-tyra, etc., i. e., "he will draw well." Under this noble tomb is a little freestone vault in which his and his wife's bones lie, Sir Thomas Tropenell and Agnes or Margaret Ludlowe, his wife, 1490. The other smaller altar tomb has a shield Tropenell impal- ing Carew.
From before the Norman Conquest, 1066, until early in 1200 the head of the House was a Sir Osbert and possessed large landed estates; there may have been and probably were collateral lines. They were owners of twenty manors, eighteen in Wilts, one in Gloucester and one in Somersetshire. This Sir Osbert Tropenell, knight, divided his estate between his two sons, Sir James and Walter. Sir James' two daughters subdivided their share. Margaret married Hugh Parans and by deed 1206 gave her portion at Sopworth to Monkton Farleigh Priory. Lucy married Leonard Mautravers and their son John "who had the keeping of King Edward until his death" gave part of his land to the same religious house. Walter Tropenell gave his portion to his daughter Galiena, and she, about the same time, 1260, gave her share to the Priory. Sir James had no sons. Walter Tropenell, about 1240, mar- ried Catherine, daughter of Sir William and sister of Sir Harry Percy, both knights and lords of Much, otherwise East or Great Chalfield and West or Little Chalfield, and they were scions of the great Norman house of Percy, ultimately the most powerful of the English border families. These manors were diverted from their legitimate course by a Lady Constance Percy, who had ac- quired a life estate in them by a marriage with Sir Henry Percy. After his death she took for her third husband Sir Philip Fitswarren; by him she had a daughter, Isold, and she retained these manors. She married John Rouse and their son Sir William sold Great Chalfield to Lord Salisbury. Sir Thomas Tropenell, fifth in descent from Wal- ter, who married Catherine Percy, determined to secure the manor of his ancestors and after infinite litigation, in 1446 succeeded, except the constable- ship of Trowbridge Castle, which his son after- ward secured; the pedigree makes it plain how
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Great Chalfield Manor House was erected by Sir Thomas Tropenell about 1460. Elyard says: Equidistant from the towns of Melksham and Bradford on Avon in a sequestered situation re- mote from the high road, stands this magnificent example of mediaeval building. This manor house has been one of quite exceptional beauty. The north front is nearly perfect, with the hall in the center, flanked by a gable building at either end, both ornamented with oriel windows of great beauty. The gabled porch projects to the right of the hall and has the usual chamber over the entrance archway. To the west of the entrance in the right wing is an octagonal oriel with panelled corbelling, which springs out from just above the label of the square- headed window of the room below; it is finished off at the top by the arms and supporters of the Tropenells. The corresponding gable at the eastern end of the building has a semi-circular oriel of rare beauty. This oriel is corbelled out from both sides of a strong stone prop that supports the window, and elaborately decorated with panel- ing, foliated pateras and head; it is crowned by a battlement composed of the elegant ornament known as the Tudor flower. The finials to the gable are all most admirably carved; two of them represent griffons, the badge of the Tropenells, presenting the arms of the house to each other; the others, men in armor. One of the stone effigies has been removed from the apex of the gable and placed on the lawn in front of the house. It is a spirited representation of an armed man of the time of Henry VI. On the western side stands the gate house, now much altered and incorporated in the farm buildings, but still retaining evidence of its former charac- ter. The outer walls of inclosure remain in part, together with ivyclad ruins of two bastian towers, probably demolished during the civil wars and never rebuilt, still washed at their base by the waters of the moat, which i.npart an air of remote antiquity to the whole. Drawings of the interior of the hall in its original condition have been preserved in Pugin's works on the architecture of the middle ages. And these ex- hibit, amongst other characteristics, three curious
masks of stone, with perforated eyes and mouth, which were formerly fixed to the northeast and west walls for the purpose of enabling persons in the adjoining chambers to obtain a view of the banqueting hall without themselves being seen. This banqueting hall used to extend the length of a great part of the front and all the width and height of the building. The motto, "Le jong tyra bellement," is introduced in various places in the ceiling of the great hall, always with the repre- sentation of a yoke such as was used with oxen. The principal sources to obtain information of the family are Murry's Guide to Wilts, pages 21 and 51; Walker's History of Chalfield; Aubrey and Jackson's Wiltshire Collections; Some Old Wilt- shire Homes, illustrated by Elyard and Sir R. C. Hoare; and History of North Wilts. Walker de- rived his account from the Tropenell manuscript, a curious document on vellum, which has disap- peared. Aubrey refers to it frequently. John Au- brey was born in Wilts, 1625, died 1696. The Book of Tropenell commenced Allhallewyn Day + Ed- ward IV, 1464, and related the pedigree and estates of Sir Thomas Tropenell, reciting, however, many charters and grants long before his time, con- cerning other lordships, towns and estates. This book, which Aubrey often alludes to, was in the custody of Mr. Dickenson of Monks, in Corsham parish, 1744, and is supposed to have passed from that gentleman into the possession of either the Mordaunts or the Neals. After Sir Thomas Tropenell's succession to the estate in 1446, he appears to have always resided at Chalfield; it is a Saxon word and means: "A seat or post on the line of passage to the heights." Later on in life, when his splendid home was completed, he turned his attention to the little All Saints Church that stands quite close beside the eastern gable of the manor house and added the west window in which his arms and badge appear, the porch and the bell turret, and the Tropenell Chantry Chapel, and at the same time adorning the interior with the elegant stone screen where- on is recorded so much of his own lineage (it also divided the chapel from the church) on which are shields of arms. The center shield has only the Tropenell arms; then on one side of this are
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two shields-to the extreme heraldic dexter Tropenell impaling Percy. This is to signify the marriage of Walter Tropenell and Margaret Percy. Next shield, Tropenell impaling Rouse; this is to signify the marriage of Robert Trope- nell and Christian Rouse. On the other side are two shields, Tropenell impaling Ludlowe; this is to signify the marriage of Sir Thomas Tropenell with Agnes or Margaret Ludlowe, daughter of Sir William Ludlowe, butler to Kings Henry V, VI and VII. The last or fifth shield has Trope- nell impaling Roche, to signify the marriage of Henry Tropenell with Edith Roche. So three of the shields on the screen celebrate three steps in the pedigree by which Sir Thomas Tropenell proved his right to the manor; another shield is because of his own marriage. This same shield of Tropenell and Ludlowe is found repeatedly in the decoration of the roof of the banqueting hall. It is an established fact that the Tropenells were churchmen of the old British type, for though the church of Rome made encroachments more and more till at last you could not distinguish the Eng- lish church planted in the first and second century from the church of Rome and planted by Augus- tine, there were always Englishmen who ob- jected to the encroachments of Rome. We know the Tropenells were churchmen. Most likely the first Sir Osbert Tropenell was and his descend- ants. Certainly Sir Thomas Tropenell was, who built the Great Chalfield manor house, for he built the Chantry Chapel onto the church on pur- pose for his family to worship apart. He died after a long and busy life, in 1490, and with Agnes, his wife, lies buried under a rich altar tomb in the Tropenell Chapel, St. Bartholomew or Neston Church, Corsham, and less than a cent- ury later his estate passed with an heiress to the family of Eyre, of Little Chalfield.
"As leafs from trees, mankind do drop away, So sonnes of mortals flourish and decay; What mortals build, time does as rubbish lay, As fate's decree ye destinies obey."
The roof of Great Chalfield manor house and the roof of Chantry Chapel are the same placed there by Sir Thomas Tropenell, 1450 and 1460, respectively. They are of stone, eighteen inches
square and one inch thick; the rafters of the house seemingly in as good condition as when placed there.
The property of the Tropenell family in 1519 was as follows: The manor and advowson of Great Chalfield, together with the office of con- stable of Trowbridge Castle, and lands in Great Atworth, Little (alias Cottle's) Atworth, Lyn- ford Holt, and Boughton Gifford, the Manor of Maiden Bradley, and lands at East and West Codford. The Manors of Chicklade (with the advowson), and Hindon, and lands in Knoyle Episcopi and Milton, the Manor of East Harn- ham and land in Homington, the Manor of Little Durnford and lands at Old Sarum and Fisherton Ancher, the Manor of Neston, with the Chapel of St. John the Baptist there and an enclosure ad- joining it in the ridge and lands at Upton, Strat- ford, sub Castro, Hartham and Cosham land with divers messuagers in Chippenham and Pewsham, Allington, Longdean, Great and Little Sherston, Castle Combe, Lockridge, Kington, St. Michaels, Tollard and New Sarum. Also the advowson of Chevenell and lands at Bourton County, Gloucester, Kilinersdore and Hassage, near Littleton County, Somerset. In the year last named, 1519, Sir Edward Hungerford, Philip Baynard and John Earnley were trustees of these estates for some minors. of the Trope- nell family. (See Add. MSS. 6,363, p. 175. Brit. Mus.) Great Chalfield and Neston Park is now owned by J. B. Fuller, Esq: The Trope- nells sold Longdean in 1640 to Thomas Wilde, a Bristol merchant, Burke's Landed Gentry, .sup- plement, page 49. The estate of Broadfield near Hereford, passed by grant, dated August 8, 1266, at Kenelworth, to John Tropenell. By a survey book of the Manor of Tisbury, made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it appears that Christopher Trapnell, Esq., held a moiety of the Manor of Chicklade by the military service of half a knight fee. In the catalogue of Cam- bridge, England, Graduates 1659 to 1800, page 425, Thomas Trapnell Cain's A. B. 1777. John Tropenell (1518) suffered death at the stake for denial of the Roman dogma of tran- substantiation. Bradford on Avon-the same is
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found in the register of Bishop Audley, which will soon be in print. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
In the Herald's College there are four coats of arms of the Tropenell or Trapnell family or house. (1) Trapnell of Wiltshire, blazon of arms; Gules a fesse engrailed, ermine between three griffon's heads erased argent. (2) Trepe- nell, blazon of arms; ermine on two chevronells, three leopards' faces. (3) Tropenell, of Corn- wall, blazon; chevrony of six ermine and sable, three leopards' faces sable. (4) Tropenell, blazon; chevrony of six ermine and sable, three roses argent. Our subject is satisfied that the first is the oldest; it is the same shield which is on the Manor house at this time, in three places, cut into the stone over four hundred years ago. The shield on the noble altar tomb of Sir Thomas is the same. Sir Thomas adopted the ox yoke device, the supporters and the motto of old Nor- man French "Le jong tyra bellement." Burke's General Armory gives Trapnell the same shield, but the crest is a griffon's head couped azure beaked or, the motto adopted by the line of our subject is "Ora et Labora," which is traced to 1602. The crest in all instances is more recent than the shield and the coat of arms of Sir Thomas' time was that of his an- cestry without his adoption of motto, badge and supporters. Of the sons of Dr. Philip Trap- nall, of Baltimore County, Md., who moved to Harrodsburg, Ky., early in this century, John, the second son, was one of the early adventurers to Texas previous to the revolution in that coun- try; he was captured by the Mexicans and confined in the Castle of Perote, where he died. Frederick William, the eldest, married Martha Francis Cocke, niece of Governor Pope, of Arkansas. He was a vestryman thirteen years of Christ Church, Little Rock, Ark. He died at Monticello, July 4, 1853, while running for congress. His last words were the Lord's prayer. He lived just back of the church in a fine old place now, which he built. There is a monument to him in the cemetery. He died a very wealthy man for the times. His brother Philip, the youngest son, married the daughter of Col. Sandy Faulkner,
the "Arkansas Traveler." In the old days of Arkansas aristocracy, when the rich planters and men of note gathered at the Ashley mansion, Miss Faulkner was the belle, petted and admired by everyone. Her wardrobe came from Paris and her admirers from everywhere. Philip T. is also interred with his brother at Little Rock. Andrew married a Mrs. Roane, granddaughter of Patrick Henry. George, a banker and attorney- at-law, married his cousin, Miss Finnie Thomas. T. William Vincent and Benjamin Casey, also attorneys-at-law, did not marry, and with their parents, Dr. Philip and wife, are buried at Harrodsburg. Judge Benjamin Casey Trapnall placed the memorial mindow in St. Philip's Church to his father and mother. The family is now extinct. Daniel Casey, who was the treas- urer of the United States during the administra- tion of President Pierce, was a brother of Mrs. Dr. Philip T. and Gen. James Casey, of the Federal army during the war of 1861-1865; was a nephew, also brother-in-law of General Grant. There was a life of Dr. Philip T. pub- lished a good many years ago; it was very inter- esting, telling of his ancestry.
The birthplace of Rev. Joseph Trapnell, D. D., our subject's father, was Bemerton, Wiltshire, the historic residence of George Herbert. His mother was Harriet Wildes. Her ancestry in the male line had been clerks of Bemerton Church for many generations to and after the time of the sweet poet, George Herbert, who is buried beneath the chancel. Joseph Trapnell married Emily Green, second daughter of Nicholas John Watkins, of Annapolis, born May 10, 1817, died at the rectory of St. Mark's Parish, Petersville, Frederick Coun- ty, Md., March 11, 1862, and is interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick City, Md. Her an- cestry were of Welsh descent. Our subject mar- ried Edmonia Smith, sixth daughter of George W. Marlowe, Esq., an attorney-at-law and a large landed proprietor near Leesburg, Loudoun County, Va. The rite was solemnized in St. James Church, Leesburg, Va., January 6, 1876, by Dr. Joseph Trapnell, assisted by Rev. Richard Davis, rector of the parish, and Rev. William I .. Braddock, assistant at St. Paul Parish, Frederick
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County, Md., where Dr. Joseph Trapnell was rector. The family is of English descent. Her great-grandfather was a captain in the Continental army from Maryland. The poet, Christopher or Kil-Marlowe, was an ancestor, as was also the Lord Mayor of London, 1409-1417. There are two coats of arms in Burke's General Armory, Marlowe, Quarterly, Gules and Azure, an orle of Martlets or Marlowe argenta a fesse raire or and gules, between three billetts of the last. She had two brothers, the elder, Richard C., a lieutenant in the Confederate States Army with Stuart, 1861-1865. ' Our subject's brother, Joseph Trapnell, Esq., of Charlestown, W. Va., was also a member of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, under Rossers' Brigade, Confederate States Army, 1862-1865.
Our subject, who is a prominent physician at Point of Rocks, Frederick County, was born in the city of Annapolis, Md., October 27, 1844.
Dr. Joseph Trapnell, the doctor's father, was born in England, June 19, 1814, and at the age of five years was brought by his parents to this country, landing in Baltimore, where they lived in that vicinity for a number of years. From there they removed to Urbana in Frederick County, and after two years settled in Frederick City, where he was educated until sixteen years of age. Later he entered St. John's College, Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1837 with the honors of the class. From his alma mater he received the degrees of A. B. and A. M., and in 1875, the degree of D. D. He studied theology with the president of the same institu- tion, Rev. Hector Humphrey, D. D., and at the same time was assistant professor of English literature in the college. October 31, 1838, he was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Moore at Richmond, Va., and was made priest by Bishop Doane in Annapolis, February 3, 1840. He came to his first charge, Trinity Church, Prince George's County, Md., December 1, 1838, and in 1844 became rector of St. Andrew's Church in Baltimore. He entered upon the pastorate of St. Michael's Church in Bristol, R. I., Decem- ber 1, 1851, and on the ist of October, 1857, he accepted the position as rector of St. John's
Church in Keokuk, Iowa. Exactly four years later he became rector of St. Mark's parish, in Frederick County, Md., and St. Paul's, at which place he remained until January 9, 1883, and then, retiring from active work in the ministry, he set- tled in Middletown, where he made his home with his son-in-law, Dr. J. E. Beatty, until his death, . October 3, 1887, at seventy-three years of age.
The grandfather of our subject, Rev. Joseph Trapnell, was born in Ottery, St. Mary, Devon- shire, England, November 8, 1775, and married Harriet Wildes, of Bemerton, Wiltshire, Eng- land, in 1808. Coming to America, he was made rector of St. Peter's parish, in what is now Poolesville, Montgomery County. He died at St. Mark's rectory September 6, 1870, and was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, where his son, Joseph, also lies. The grand- father was a schoolmate and intimate friend of the famous poet, Coleridge, a son of the vicar of Ottery, St. Mary, Devonshire, and was baptized by the poet's father.
Rev. William Trapnell, eldest son of Rev. Joseph Trapnell, was born at Bemerton, Wilts, December 12, 1811; and died rector of Trinity Parish, Prince George County, Md., May 25, 1872. He was a graduate from the theological seminary at Alexandria, Va., and an A. B. of St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. He was ordained deacon in St. Paul's Church, Alex- andria, Va., July 11, 1839, by Richard C. Moore, Bishop of Virginia, and was ordained priest in Trinity Church, Wilmington, Del., February 3, 1840, by Rt .- Rev. H. N. Underdonk. He was rector of Trinity Church, Wilmington, Del., St .. Ann's Church, Amsterdam, N. Y. (where he is interred), St. Peter's, Poolesville, Md., Christ Church, Rockville, Md., and Trinity Church, Upper Marlborough, Md., which was his last parish and the first parish of his brother, Rev. Joseph Trapnell. His splendid theological library of fifteen hundred volumes he bequeathed to the theological seminary, Alexandria, Va. Descrip- tion of pulpit in St. Anne's Church, Amsterdam, N. Y., a memorial by his widow, M. Annie Trapnell: The pulpit is of brass and carved oak. The design of the main part consists of three
-
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panels of open work, the top and bottom decorated with beautiful twining vines. The symbols on the side panels are the Alpha and Omega, em- braced by the two emblems of perfection, the square and the circle. The symbolism of the middle panel is expressed by the two great cir- cles of time and eternity, intersected by the wide- stretched arms of the sacrificial cross. The in- scription is: "To the Glory of God and in Mem- ory of Rev. William Trapnell, 1811-1872. Be- hold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Luke ii: 10."
The mother of our subject was a daughter of Nicholas J. Watkins, of Annapolis, whose ances- tors went from Wales to England and from there to America. She died at St. Mark's rectory March 11, 1862. In her family there were four sons and four daughters. Joseph, an attorney-at- law, lives in Charlestown, Jefferson County, W. Va .; William died August 18, 1874, aged twenty- six years, and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Emily is the wife of Dr. J. E. Beatty, of Middle- town; Fannie and Ella, who are unmarried, reside in Middletown. During boyhood our subject at- tended the schools of Baltimore, Bristol, R. I., and Keokuk, Iowa. January 29, 1863, he commenced to read medicine with Dr. George W. West, of Frederick County, and afterward he was with Dr. J. E. Beatty, then of Frederick. He graduated from the University of Maryland March 3, 1866, and afterward practiced for one year in Jefferson, a similar period at Leitersburg, and for one year at Waterford, Va., from which place he came to Point of Rocks, April 6, 1874, and was here associated with Dr. L. T. Duvall.
In politics the doctor votes the Democratic ticket and in fraternal relations is a Mason. He is a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. Like others of his family, Dr. Trapnell is deeply interested in church work. He was largely instrumental in building St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel here; the edifice contains a memorial window which was placed there by the family and guild of the two parishes, SS. Mark's and Paul's. The inscription.is: "To the glory of God and in loving memory of Dr. Joseph Trapnell, many years rector of this parish,
1890," and another memorial, a lectern on an inlaid brass cross, "To the Rev. Joseph Trap- nell, D. D., from members of his former parish, St. Michael, Bristol, R. I., 1851 and 1857."
HE family of Dr. Philip Trapnall, in Mary- land, descended from English ancestors, long established at Staffordshire, England. The male portion of the family have generally been, and still are, ministers of the Established Church. Quite a number of the Vincent family, from which the doctor was a lineal descendant, through his grandmother, were also distinguished ministers of the Established Church. William Vincent, Bishop of London, a distinguished critic and divine, Philip Vincent, Bishop of Durham, and Admiral Vincent, a distinguished naval com- mander, were second cousins of the doctor. His grandfather emigrated to this country from Staf- fordshire during colonial days.
Vincent Trapnall, his father, was a farmer in Baltimore County, Md., where the doctor was born on the 4th of January, 1773. It may be said with truth, therefore, that he was nursed in the lap of the revolution, and received all of his early impressions during that stormy period. After having received all the mental training which parental care and good neighborhood schools could impart, he was sent to school at the age of fourteen, at Annapolis, where he completed his preliminary education, which was of a very high order. He graduated in the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1796, at the age of twenty-three. He practiced medicine at Hagerstown with flatter- ing success the two succeeding years, as the con- temporary and intimate professional associate of Dr. Frederick Dorsey. He was one of the in- corporators of the Medical and Chirurgical Society or Faculty of Maryland, which was passed at the state assembly January 20, 1799. He now re- solved to gratify a wish he had long indulged, that of emigrating west, which he effected in the fall of 1800, by locating in Harrodsburg,
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where he remained until his death, a period of fifty-three years. He had not been long an oc- cupant of his new field of labor before he found himself in the midst of an overwhelming practice. His masculine vigor of intellect and superior literary and professional attainments at once placed him in the foremost rank of the profession. He acquired an exceeding wide range of practice, often going to Danville, Lancester, Versailles, Lexington, and occasionally Louisville, on pro- fessional duty. It is said by those intimately ac- quainted with his practice that he possessed re- markable insight into the nature and character of diseases, was exceedingly accurate in his diag- nosis and rarely ever mistaken in the judgment he formed. So scrupulously cautious was he, that in obscure, complicated cases he not in- frequently deferred his prescription until a second visit, and a more thorough exploration of the case. Such caution, though highly commendable, is not apt to meet a just appreciation from the non-medical public, who not infrequently construe it into either indifference or ignorance.
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