Kimberley Hall.

This estate passed from the family of Fastolf, by whom it had before been possessed, to that of Wodehouse, in the reign of Henry IV., by the marriage of the heiress with Sir John Wodehouse, Knight.

The old house, which had the honour of a visit from Queen Elizabeth, in one of her Royal progresses, was pulled down in the year 1659 by the then proprietor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, and the present mansion built on its site.

Among many objects of interest in the house is a throne erected for the said Queen in the great hall. It is covered with crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold, and has the arms, quarterings, and supporters of the family very curiously worked.

The park is large and beautifully wooded, and has the additional ornament of a fine sheet of water of twenty-five acres in extent, and bounded on two sides by a small stream.

Lord Kimberley is a staunch protector of our native birds, and in a letter to me from his Lordship some time since he sent me a list of no fewer than one hundred and forty-two species which have found a safe home within the bounds of the estate, if so we may say of one of them, the Little Auk, which there came to its last resting-place.

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Sir John Wodehouse, Knight, by his marriage with Margaret Fastolf, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Fastolf, of Kimberley, was father of

Sir John de Wodehouse, of Kimberley, M.P. for Norfolk four times in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V., married Alice Furneaux, and, dying in 1430, left a son,

Henry Wodehouse, of Kimberley, to whom King Henry V. had stood sponsor. He died the year after his father, and was followed by his brother,

John Wodehouse, Esq., of Kimberley, who was fined for refusing the offer of knighthood. He married Constance, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Geddinge, Esq., of Icklingham, and widow, first, of Henry Pooley, Esq., and, secondly, of John Aleyne, a Baron of the Exchequer. He died in 1465, leaving a son and heir,

Sir Edward Wodehouse, of Kimberley, who, by his wife Jane, daughter and heiress of Edmund Swathyng, had a son,

Sir Thomas Wodehouse, of Kimberley. He married for his second wife, Thomasine, daughter of Sir Roger Townshend, Knight, of Raynham, and his son was

Sir Roger Wodehouse, of Kimberley, knighted by Edward VI. in 1548. He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir Robert Ratcliffe, Knight, and secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of John Drury, Esq., of Besthorpe, and by the former had four sons, of whom the eldest,

Thomas Wodehouse, of Kimberley, M.P., married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Shelton, Knight, and by her, who, at his death, in the lifetime of his father, was given the dignity of a knight’s wife, had a son,

Roger Wodehouse, of Kimberley, successor to his grandfather, M.P. for Aldborough, knighted by Queen Elizabeth, married Mary, daughter of John Corbet, Esq., of Sprouston, Norfolk, and left a son and successor,

Sir Philip Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, Knighted by the Earl of Essex for his bravery at the battle of Cadiz, and created a Baronet June 29th., 1611. He married Grizell, daughter of William Yelverton, Esq., of Rougham, and widow of Hamon L’Estrange, Esq., of Hunstanton, and was succeeded by his son,

Sir Thomas Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, M.P. in the Long Parliament in 1639—40, who married Blanche, daughter of John, Lord Hunsdon, and left an heir,

Sir Philip Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, M.P. for Thetford at the Restoration, married to Lucy, daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton, Bart., and had an elder son,

Sir Thomas Wodehouse, knighted by Charles II. in 1666, who married Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir William Armine, Bart., of Osgodby, and dying in 1671, in the lifetime of his father, was followed by his son,

Sir John Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, heir to his grandfather. He married, first, Elizabeth, sister of John, Lord Bingley, and secondly, Mary, daughter of William, Lord Lempster, and by the latter had one son,

Sir Armine Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, M.P. for Norfolk, born in 1714, who

married, in 1738, Letitia, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart., of Garboldisham Hall. Their eldest son—he died in 1759—

Sir John Wodehouse, Bart., of Kimberley, born in 1741, was elevated to the Peerage, October 26th., 1797, as Baron Wodehouse, of Kimberley. He married, in 1769, Sophia, only child and heiress of the Honourable Charles Berkerley, of Bruton Abbey, Somersetshire, and by her, left at his decease, May 29th., 1834, an eldest son,

John Wodehouse, second Baron, born January 11th., 1771, who married, November 17th., 1796, Charlotte Laura, only daughter and heiress of John Norris, Esq., of Witton Park and Witchingham, Norfolk, and their eldest son,

Henry Wodehouse, born in 1799, Lord Lieutenant and Vice Admiral of Norfolk, Colonel of the East Norfolk Militia, and High Steward of Norwich Cathedral, married, in 1825, Anne, only daughter of Theophilus Thornhaugh Gurdon, Esq., of Letton, Norfolk, and died April 29th., 1834, having had, successor to his grandfather, who died May 29th., 1846,

John Wodehouse, third Baron, born January 7th., 1826, High Steward of Norwich Cathedral, married, August 16th., 1847, Lady Florence Fitzgibbon, eldest daughter and coheiress of Richard, third and last Earl of Clare. He was raised to the Earldom of Kimberley, June 1st., 1866. The eldest son,

John Wodehouse, Lord Wodehouse, born December 10th., 1848, married, June 22nd., 1875, Isabella Ceraldine, daughter of Sir Henry J. Stracey, Bart.