« I04 THE ANCESTOR HERALDIC GLASS FROM LYTES CARY, CO. SOMERSET THE shields of arms, of which illustrations are given here- with, were, for more than two centuries, in windows of the old manor house of Lytes Gary, co. Somerset. They were made for John Lyte, who considerably altered the house be- tween the years 1523 and 1566. His arms and those of his wife, Edith Horsey, are still to be seen there in several places, on the gable of the oriel of the east front, on the ceiling of the 'great chamber,' and on the large bay window of the south front, which also bears their initials and the date 1533.^ Inasmuch as some of the shields are known to have been in the lower part of that window, in the ' parlour ' under the 'great chamber,' we may reasonably suppose these to have been made in or about that year. The remainder, showing the handiwork of several artists, cannot in any case be very much later in date, for the marriage of John Lyte's eldest son Henry, in 1565, is commemorated by glass of a totally differ- ent character. Nearly all the shields executed in glass for John Lyte have the Lyte arms on the dexter side, his object having been to show the marriages of different male members of his family. It is, however, very remarkable that his own grandson, Thomas Lyte, a keen genealogist, who had inherited a large collection of old deeds and evidences, failed to locate some of these alli- ances in his elaborate pedigree of the Lytes of Lytes Gary. ' Ten foote and halfe of glasse,' recorded to have been ' sett upp in the chappie windoe at Lytes Gary by Henry Lyte, Esquire, Anno Domini 1567,' presumably consisted of plain quarrels. A further series of shields was certainly made for Thomas Lyte, who ' newely repayred ' the chapel in 1631, and adorned its walls with the arms of various relations. When the Lytes sold their ancestral home in 1755, they appear to have removed the heraldic glass, but as late as 1 8 1 o there were persons living who remembered the time when the
- Detailed information with regard to Lytes Gary and its owners will be
found in the Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archceologtcal Society y xxxviii. i-i 10.
