Dictionary of National Biography over Professor Laughton's initials, was supplied by the Hon. Robert Marsham-Townshend.)
In the Article in Notes and Queries of December 27th, 1884, the Hon. R. Marsham-Townshend writes : "That mention is made of his mother in Sir Cloudesley's will, and referred to as Flaxman. She was buried at Morston, near Cockthorpe, and Cley-next-the-Sea, as ' Mrs. Ann Flaxman, widdow,' June 17th, 1709. Sir Cloudesley's origin is provokingly hard to trace."
In the same Journal of
January 19th, 1895, in a note, headed "The Parentage" of Sir Cloudesley Shovell," he refers to the above, and having in the interval made a thorough search in the registers of several parishes in Norfolk, finding frequent mention of the name of Shovell, he succeeded in finding that of " Nathaniell Shovell, gent.," who was buried at Binham, near Wells-by-the-Sea, April 18th, 1636, and who bequeathed lands at Morston to his son Nathaniel, and his issue, and failing them to his son John. Of Nathaniel the younger he could find -
