281 Harte v Weldon

281 HARTE V WELDON

Sir Percival Harte of Lullingstone, co. Kent, knt v Sir Anthony Weldon of Swanscombe, co. Kent, knt

December 1639

Abstract

Harte, a county deputy lieutenant, complained that Welden 'by a scandalous writeing' said that he 'was a man of a sneaking spirit, that he knew not [the] way of nobleness'. Weldon allegedly added that Harte 'intended to play the knave with him', and that he 'was a hypocrite', thereby provoking him to duel. Process was granted on 12 December 1639, but no further proceedings survive.

Document

• Initial proceedings
  • Petition to Arundel: 2/88 (12 Dec 1639)
  • Plaintiff's bond: 2/113 (12 Dec 1639)

Initial proceedings

2/88, Petition to Arundel

'Sheweth that Sir Anthony Welden of Swanscombe in the said countie, knight, did within two months last past, by a scandalous writeing, say that the petitioner was a man of a sneaking spirit, that he knew not way of nobleness, and that the petitioner intended to play the knave with him, and that the petitioner was a hypocrite, thereby provoaking the petitioner to duell. The petitioner giving him no just cause to use any such termes or language.'

Petitioned that Weldon be brought to answer.

Maltravers granted process on 12 December 1639.

2/113, Plaintiff's bond

12 December 1639

Bound to appear 'in the Court in the painted Chamber within the Pallace of Westminster'.

Signed by Percyvall Hart.

Sealed, subscribed and delivered in the presence of Humphrey Terrick.

Notes

Sir Percival Harte of Lullingstone, knt, married Anne, daughter of Sir Roger Manwood. He was a justice of the peace and in March 1637 he bound over John Swan of Southfleet, co. Kent, to appear before the Lords of the Admiralty for refusing to carry sea coal from Gravesend to Northfleet. In September 1639 his park at Lullingstone provided 280 loads of timber for rebuilding of the warship The Prince . During the civil wars his family were among Kent's royalist sympathisers.

R. Hovenden (ed.), The Visitation of Kent taken in the years 1619-21 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 42, 1898), p. 144; CSP Dom. 1636-7 , p. 528; CSP Dom. 1639 , p. 533; A. Everitt, The Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion, 1640-1660 (2^nd edn, Leicester, 1973), pp. 190, 215.

Sir Anthony Weldon of Swanscombe, co. Kent, was the eldest son of Sir Ralph Weldon of Swanscombe (1546-1609), clerk of the green cloth and Elizabeth, daughter of Leven Buskin. James I knighted Sir Anthony at Berwick in 1617. In 1638 he promoted a scheme to improve the collection of ship money. At the outbreak of civil war he headed the Kent county committee that held Kent for parliament. He was buried at Swanscombe on 27 October 1648. His son, Ralph Weldon of Swanscombe, esq, was a colonel in the New Model Army.

J. Marshall and S. Kelsey, 'Sir Anthony Weldon (1583-1648)', Oxford DNB (Oxford, 2004); G. J. Armytage (ed.), A Visitation of the County of Kent, 1663-8 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 54, 1906), p. 177.

People mentioned in the case

• Buskin, Elizabeth
• Buskin, Leven
• Harte, Anne (also Hart)
• Harte, Percival, knight (also Hart)
• Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers
• Howard, Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey
• Manwood, Anne
• Manwood, Roger, knight
• Swan, John
• Terrick, Humphrey
• Weldon, Anthony, knight (also Welden)
• Weldon, Elizabeth (also Welden)
• Weldon, Ralph, knight (also Welden)
• Weldon, Ralph, esq (also Welden)

Places mentioned in the case

• Kent
  • Gravesend
  • Lullingstone
  • Northfleet
  • Southfleet
  • Swanscombe
• Middlesex
  • Westminster
• Northumberland
  • Berwick

Topics of the case

• civil war
• denial of gentility
• insulting letter
• justice of the peace
• office-holding
• parliamentarian
• provocative of a duel
• royalist
• royal servant
• ship money
• taxation