My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

MY RELATIVES AND ANCESTORS 3How or why my grandfather came to live at Hanworth(probably with his brother George, who is alsoburied at Laleham), I can only conjecture from thefollowing facts. Baron Vere of Hanworth is one ofthe titles of the Dukes of St. Albans since 1750, whenVere Beauclerc, third son of the first Duke, wascreated Baron, and his son became fifth Duke ofSt. Albans in 1787. It is to be presumed that thevillage and a good deal of the land was at that timethe property of this family, though they appear tohave parted with it not long afterwards, as a Mr. Perkinsowned the park and rebuilt the church in 18 12.The St. Albans family have a tomb in the church.Now, my father's name was Thomas Vere Wallace,and it therefore seems probable that his father was atenant of the first Baron Vere, and in his will he isstyled " Victualler." He probably kept the inn onthe estate.The only further scrap of information as to myfather's family is derived from a remark he oncemade in my hearing, that his uncles at Stirling (Ithink he said) were very tall men. I myself was sixfeet in height when I was sixteen, and my eldestbrother William was an inch taller, while my brotherJohn and sister Fanny were both rather tall. Myfather and mother, however, were under rather thanover middle height, and the remark about his talluncles was to account for this abnormal height byshowing that it was in the family. As all the Wallacesof Scotland are held to be various branches ofthe one family of the hero Sir William Wallace, wehave always considered ourselves to be descendedfrom that famous stock ; and this view is supportedby the fact that our family crest was said to be an