Mr. Threlkeld's birthplace was Hatherleigh, in Devon, but the family belonged originally to the county of Cumberland, and there to the village of Threlkeld, which either had its name from them or gave its name to them. In "Burke's Peerage," we read of Threlkeld of Threlkeld in the time of Edward I. That family became extinct in the male line in the reign of Edward IV, but the name was continued through a younger branch, Threlkeld of Melmerly, in the same county.
A romantic story from the Wars of the Roses connects itself with a Sir Lancelot Threlkeld by his marriage with the widow of Lord Clifford. Clifford had much power in Yorkshire, where his estates were, but, although related to the House of York, he was a keen supporter of the Lancastrians, and with his own hand he killed the youngest son of the Duke of York in cold blood after the battle of Sandal, in revenge for an injury he had received The sanguinary conduct of Lord Clifford on this occasion is commemorated by our poet, Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' in the lines beginning:—
"Where York himself before his castle gate,
Mangled with wounds, on his own earth lay dead,
Upon whose body Clifford down him sate,
Stabbing the corpse, and, cutting off' his head,
Crowned it with paper, and, to wreak his teene.
Presents it so to his victorious Queene."
Three months after this, Clifford was himself shot through with an arrow in the battle of Towton, and the Yorkists, being now victorious, stripped the Clifford family of all their estates and possessions; this happened in the year 1470. The heir to Lord Clifford's name and fame was a little boy then six years old. His mother feared that the House of York would seek to avenge on him the murder of their own boy, the young Earl of Rutland; she had now no powerful friends to protect her and her son, and she knew that her movements were watched; in these circumstances she resolved, for safety, to commit her boy to the care of her faithful retainers, and have him brought up as a shepherd on his own estates. Meanwhile, the report was spread that he had been sent to Holland and had died there. When he had reached the age of twelve years, his widowed mother married Sir Lancelot Threlkeld. This was a fortunate thing for the lad, for it led to his removal from the neighbourhood of his own home to places of greater security among the mountains of Cumberland; and his new father, being entrusted with the secret, faithfully assisted in watching over the life of the orphan heir. To avert suspicion, it was still found necessary to continue his disguise; but, although he was thus left without education, and could neither read nor write till happier days had come, yet the culture of his race showed
