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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Shot himself is in Suicide.
On 4th September 1701 Charles Granville 2nd Earl Bath (age 40) shot himself; he was found dead in a chair in his bedroom, wounded in the head, with two pistols, one of which had been fired. His son William (age 9) succeeded 3rd Earl Bath, 3rd Baron Granville of Kilkhampton and Biddeford.
On 1st January 1755 Henry Bromley 1st Baron Montfort (age 49) shot himself. He was buried at the Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street. Baron Montfort of Horseheath extinct. He left debts of £30,000 with an estate out of repair and in a very ruinous condition.
In 15th August 1776 John Damer (age 32) shot himself at the Bedford Arms Covent Garden being heavily in debt.
On 13th February 1818 Richard Croft 6th Baronet (age 56) shot himself as a consequence of the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta Hanover to whom he had been physician during her labour. A copy of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost was found open with the passage (Act V, Scene II): "Fair Sir, God save you! Where is the Princess?". He was buried at St James' Church, Piccadilly.His son Thomas (age 19) succeeded 7th Baronet Croft of Croft Castle in Herefordshire.
On 17th January 1848 Henry St John-Mildmay 4th Baronet (age 60) shot himself. His reason for committing suicide believed to be financial difficulties. His son Henry (age 38) succeeded 5th Baronet St John-Mildmay of Farley in Southampton.
On 4th February 1941 John Lambton (age 20) shot himself.
Sydney Morning Herald, 5th February 1941: "Viscount Lambton, who was found shot on the lawn of his family's home in Northumberland on Tuesday, was found by the coroner to have committed suicide while temporarily unbalanced. It was stated in evidence that he had been an abnormal child and had tried to turn night into day, sleeping in the daytime and working at night.
On 4th March 1952 Vivian Tyrell Champion de Crespigny 8th Baronet (age 44) shot himself in the head. Baronet Champion de Crespigny of Champion Lodge in Surrey extinct.
On 22nd October 1983 Thomas Craven 7th Earl Craven (age 26) shot himself. His brother Simon (age 22) succeeded 8th Earl Craven in Yorkshire, 8th Viscount Uffington, 14th Baron Craven of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire.
Montreal Gazette: "Earl of Craven fears olf curse and kills himself. Eastbourne, England (AP). The seventh Earl of Craven — who lived in fear of a curse that all the males of his family would die young — has killed himself at age 26, police said. Thomas Robert Douglas Craven fatally shot himself at the home of his mother, Countess Elizabeth Craven, police reported. His body was found Saturday. None of Craven's direct ancestors going back to the 17th century reached the age of 60. His father, the sixth earl, drowned at age 47 when he fell off a yacht during a party in 1965. Leukemia killed his grandfather, the fifth earl, at age 35. The reputed curse says that all Craven boys will die before their mothers, Residents in the earl's village of Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire, said it was uttered by a village mother whose daughter was made pregnant by a Craven ancestor. 'They were a family that over the years never mixed closely in village affairs and I think the curse developed because of the antagonism between them and the local folk,' said one elderly man. The young earl was unmarried. Anne Nicholson, his former girlfriend and mother of their seven-year-old son, Thomas, was quoted last year as saying: 'The curse of the Cravens does worry him (the earl) a lot. He rarely discusses it, but it’s at the back of his mind most of the time. It's an awful thing because it seems tp have come true in the past. It makes me worry about our little Tommy.' The earl's only son will not inherit the earldom because he is illegitimate. The title passes to the earl's 22-year-old brother, Simon George Craven, The Cravens can trace their line back to William the Conqueror, who invaded England and won its crown in 1066. The Craven estates were once among the largest in Britain, embracing 8,000 hectares in Berkshire alone, but they have dwindled to a few properties."
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On 22nd April 1998 John Arscott Molesworth-St Aubyn 15th Baronet (age 71) shot himself. He was buried at St Conan aka Petroc's Church, Egloshayle [Map]. His son William (age 39) succeeded 16th Baronet Molesworth of Pencarrow in Cornwall.
The Independent of Ireland reported:
A millionaire aristocrat killed himself after becoming depressed by the huge task of managing his country estates. Lieut-Col Sir Arscott Molesworth-St Aubyn, 71, shot himself in the butler's pantry at his Georgian mansion as his wife Lady Iona slept upstairs.
He had property worth an estimated £41m but struggled with the workload involved in generating enough income to keep 12-bedroom Pencarrow House, near Wadebridge, Cornwall, and its 1,500 acres.
An inquest heard how Sir Arscott and Lady Iona, 63, had battled for years to improve the estate, which he inherited 30 years ago. A suicide verdict was returned after a jury heard the baronet had a 14-year history of depression.
Captain Clarence Trelawny shot himself.