ADMIRAL SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVELL, KNIGHT.
His Traditional Connection with Hastings.
I acknowledge with grateful thanks the ready and valuable assistance given to me by the late Hon. Robt. Marsham-Townshend, a descendant and biographer of Sir Cloudesley, in revising my proof of this portion, and the loan of the curious document accompanying it, thus stamping it with the authority of one who has studied and written much upon the question. Author.
Every local guide book, from that of Stell, published in 1794, down to the present day, refers with pride to the connection of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and his Mother with Hastings, and any work on "Hastings of Bygone Days" would be incomplete without reference to the subject.
On September 5th, 1902, I wrote to the Hon. Robert Marsham-Townshend for any information he could give in reference to Mr. Brett's contention that Hastings was the birth-place of Sir Cloudesley Shovell, and the identity of the traditional house of Mrs. Shovell, his mother. He replied as follows : September 7th, 1902 : " I am very much obliged to you for so kindly writing and promising to give me any information you may come across respecting the traditional residence of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's mother in Hastings. I have put all the new points I have been able to discover about him into two articles in " Notes and Queries " of December 27th, 1884, and January 19th, 1895, and there being a very good memoir of him, by Professor Laughton, in the Dictionary of National Biography. At the same time, I am always glad to pick up any fresh details respecting him, and shall be much interested in hearing if you can find any entries in rate books, etc., that will corroborate the local tradition in regard to her probable residence there. She certainly returned to Norfolk, and was buried at Morston, in 1709. Brett searched the old rate books of All Saints and found no reference whatever to the names of Cloudesley or Flaxman, the latter being her second husband's name."
The Dictionary of National Biography has the following reference "Clowdisley or Cloudisley Shovell (Admiral), baptised at Cockthorpe, Norfolk, November 25th, 1650. Engaged in many naval battles, including : Battle of Sole Bay, Bantry Bay, Beachy Head, Capture of Gibraltar, and finally subdued the French-Spanish Fleets. In 1707 was wrecked in his ship "Association," was cast on the rocks of Scilly alive, was found by a woman who coveted an emerald ring he was wearing, and killed him. She afterwards confessed. His body was embalmed and buried in Westminster Abbey. The mystery which so long clouded the family history of Shovell has been cleared away in recent years by the researches among Norfolk Registers, by the Hon. R. Marsham-Townshend."
It would appear that much of the information contained in the -
