Walter Long (c. 1594 – 1637)

Sir Walter Long (c.1594 -1637) was an English knight and landowner born in Wiltshire, the son of Sir Walter Long (1565-1610) and his wife Catherine Thynne of Longleat.

He succeeded to his father's estates, including Draycot, in 1610 and he married firstly in 1614, Anne Ley, daughter of James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough. There was one son from this marriage, his heir, Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet. According to historian John Aubrey, Long's father-in-law spent so much time at Draycot House with his daughter and her husband, that he had a gateway erected there with his own Coat of arms on it, but afterwards there was a quarrell, which probably arose from some family disapproval of the Earl's marriage with a third young wife. The rift seems to have continued till the end of the Earl's life - in his will he 'begged pardon of the Lady Anne'.

Long married secondly, Elizabeth Master c.1636, and they had one son, Walter (d.1673).

Sir Walter Long died in July 1637, and his widow died in 1658. According to one of William Waller's men writing about the capture of Long's son Sir James at Devizes in 1645, Sir Walter Long had died after falling from his horse near Chichester and broken his neck. He was supposedly 'in drink', and his son James 'almost spurred the horse to death that broke his father's neck'.

Sources

• The House of Commons 1690-1715 - David Hayton, Eveline Cruickshanks 2002
• Hand of Fate. The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire. Tim Couzens 2001 ISBN 1 903341 72 6