Nostell Priory, Yorkshire;

THE SEAT OF

CHARLES WINN, ESQ.

NOSTELL lies on the right of the road from Doncaster to Wakefield, in the parish of Wragby, in the wapentake of Osgoldcross. Here was formerly a Priory for Canons of the order of St. Augustine, dedicated to St. Oswald. At the suppression of the monasteries, the site was granted to Thomas Leigh, Doctor of Laws, one of the King's visitors of religious houses. In 1625, Sir Richard Gargrave, Knt. sold it to Ireland, Esq., who sold it to George Winn, Esq., who was afterwards created a Baronet by King Charles II. The present Mansion was built by Sir Rowland Winn, Bart. at the beginning of the last century; it was erected near the site of the Priory, under the directions of James Paine, whose abilities as an architect shone at an early period of his life; he was intrusted with the care and total management of this considerable pile when he had scarcely attained the age of manhood. It stands on an eminence, in the midst of a fertile and well cultivated tract of country. The principal Front to the East is of very great length, extended by two Wings of irregular form; the Centre is ornamented with a Pediment, supported by six three-quarter Ionic columns, and displaying the Arms of the Family, finely sculptured, the Basement is rustic, with an ascent on the exterior to the principal floor of many steps; the whole is of stone. There is a good collection of Pictures; the principal one is that of Sir Thomas More and his Family, by Holbein; a very curious and most valuable painting. The distance of Nostell Priory from the towns of Wakefield and Pontefract is nearly equal, being about four miles from each.

The Family of Winn is descended from a Cadet of the House of Gwydir, who left Wales in the 16th century and settled in London. The immediate ancestor of this branch was George Winn, Draper to Queen Elizabeth, who had issue Edmund Winn, of Thornton Curtis, in Lincolnshire, who died in the year 1645; having married Mary, daughter of Rowland Berkeley, Esq. of the city of Worcester, sister to Sir Robert Berkeley, Knt. one of the Judges of the King's Bench, by whom he had three sons. George Winn, Esq., the eldest son and heir, whose residence was at Nostell, was created a Baronet by King Charles II., Dec. 3, 1660; by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Jeffreys, Esq., Alderman of London, he had Sir Edmund Winn, Bart., who died in 1694, leaving issue Sir Rowland Winn, Bart., his successor, who married the daughter and

co-heiress of William Harbord, Esq., Ambassador in Turkey, and died at Bath, Feb. 13, 1721, leaving issue Sir Rowland, High Sheriff of the county of York in 1732: he married one of the daughters and co-heirs of Edward Henshaw, of Eltham, in Kent, Esq. by whom he had three sons and six daughters; his youngest daughter, Anne, married her cousin, George Allanson Winn, who succeeded to the estates of Mark Winn, of Little Warley, in Essex, Esq., and in 1775, to the estates of his cousin, Charles Allanson, Esq., and having attained eminence in the Law, was created a Peer, Nov. 7, 1797, by the title of Lord Headley, Baron Allanson and Winn, of Aghadoe, in the county of Kerry, in' Ireland.

Sir Rowland, the son and successor of the above Sir Rowland Winn, Bart., who died in 1765, married Sabine Louise, daughter and sole heiress of Jaques Phillipè, Baron d'Hervert, Governor of Vevay, in Switzerland, and by her had Sir Rowland, his successor, High Sheriff of the county of York, 1799; he died Oct. 13, 1805, unmarried, when the title devolved upon his cousin, Edmund Mark Winn, Esq., of Ackton, and the family estates descended to his nephew, John Williamson, Esq. who, on his coming of age obtained his Majesty's licence to bear the name and arms of Winn. He dying in 1817, was succeeded by his only brother, Charles, the present possessor, who with his sister in the following year also obtained his Majesty's licence to bear the name and arms of Winn.