Sir John D'Oyly, of Chislehampton, Bart. eldest son and heir, was baptized at Stadhampton, Nov. 1640, and succeeding his father about the time of his majority, espoused Margaret Cholmley, eldest daughter and coheir of the intrepid Sir Richard Cholmley of Grosmont, co. York, Knight Banneret, a Colonel in the army, one of the most gallant cavaliers of his time, and a loyal and devoted adherent of Charles I., in whose service he was slain (leaving all his children infants), Oct, 1644, being Governor of Axminster, co. Devon, during the civil war; (by Margaret his wife, second daughter of John, 1st Lord Poulett of Hinton St. George, in Somersetshire;) which Sir Richard Cholmley of Grosmont was son of Sir Richard Cholmley of Whitby Abbey, co. York, by his second wife Margaret, sister of Sir William Cobb of Adderbury, co. Oxon.; through which connexion the marriage no doubt originated. By this match the D'Oylys acquired a great accession of quarterings, blood, and connexions. Lady D'Oyly was not only niece (maternally) of John 2d Lord Poulett, and aunt of the Countess of Roscommon, but her father was half-brother of Sir Hugh Cholmley, the celebrated Governor of Scarbro' Castle for Charles I., and progenitor of the extinct Baronets Cholmley. Their father, Sir Richard Cholmley, of Whitby, was grandson of another Sir Richard, by his wife Lady Katherine Clifford, widow of John Lord Scroope of Bolton, and a daughter of the house of Cumberland (and thus descended from the Royal family of England); the sister of this Cholmley was the Countess of Westmorland; and himself was nephew of Sir Richard Cholmley, Governor of Berwick and Hull (who was knighted at Flodden Field); and grandson (by the coheir of Etton) of John de Cholmondeley, sprung from the ancestors of the Earls Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley in Cheshire, whence he was descended from a coheir of Wastneys, and thence from one of Venables.[359] By this alliance the D'Oylys were at once recognised as entitled sharers in those favours which the Restoration conferred on Charles the First's adherents. In 1666 Charles II. conferred a baronetcy patent on the husbands of each of Sir Richard Cholmley's daughter-co-heiresses. Sir Thomas Putt of Combe, co. Devon, who had married the younger, was created a Baronet 20th July 1666; Sir John D'Oyly's patent dates 7th July 1666. —After this, Sir John D'Oyly contested unsuccessfully the parliamentary representation of Oxfordshire in 1679;[360] but does not appear to have then resided in the county; probably his residence then was some estate of his wife's, or more likely still, Wantage, co. Berks, which manor the D'Oylys purchased soon after 1630 of Sir Bourchier Wrey, Bart.[361] In 1688 Sir John D'Oyly came forward for the parliamentary representation of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, and, being elected for that borough,[362] sat for it during the Revolution, 1689, and was one of those members who adhered to James II. and opposed the investing William Prince of Orange and Queen Mary with the sovereignty.[363] At this time, also, Sir John D'Oyly was a captain of the county troop; and it is said the D'Oylys and Quatremains then "divided the county of Oxford. "But a singular occurrence took place during Sir John D'Oyly's sitting for Woodstock. Legal proceedings for the recovery of some tenements in Much Baulden, co. Oxon., were commenced against him, and the plaintiff and his attorney, ignorant of his seat in Parliament, caused the declaration of ejectments to be delivered on him, which was of course contrary to the privileges of the House. The matter was brought before the Commons in June 1689, which ended in the discharge of the offenders, on pleading ignorance and paying the fees,[364] Meanwhile Sir John had become father of a very large family, which, added to the expensive habits of the aristocracy, had led him into considerable debt, and was quickly consuming the substance of his family. Thus, in 1693, he made it a stipulation on marrying his son Cholmley D'Oyly to Elizabeth Cabell, that she should pay him Sir John 6,000l. in consideration of his settling his Oxfordshire estates on her husband; while he induced her husband to execute a bond for the payment to him of 4,000l in addition thereto. His son Cholmley dying, however, before him in 1699, without surviving issue, and his widow attempting to overset her marriage with him (charging her deceased husband with bigamy), and of course all settlements made thereupon, a fierce Chancery suit ensued between herself and her second husband Richard Fownes, Esq. on the one side, and Sir John D'Oyly and several members of his family, and the trustees in the settlement of 1693, on the other side; which suit had scarcely commenced, ere another began on the part of Charles D'Oyly of Southrope, co. Gloucester, who had advanced money to the young people at the period of their marriage; while, in May 1702, Sir John D'Oyly himself filed a bill against the Fownes's, his son John D'Oyly, and the Needhams, to establish his claim to the 6,000l. and 4,000l.; accusing all the parties of combining against himself.[365]—But it is needless to wade through the details of these disgraceful proceedings. The Fownes's were at last completely beaten, first by a decree of dismission in the Court of Chancery, from which they appealed, in Nov. 1704, to the House of Lords; and secondly, by a dismission of their petition and appeal by the Lords (and a full confirmation of the Chancery decree), in Jan. 1704 -5.[366] Thus ended the contest in the D'Oylys' favour.—Lady D'Oyly died in the midst of it, and was buried at Stadhampton, Jan. 1704. Sir John D'Oyly afterwards (temp. Queen Anne) acted as a justice of the peace for Oxfordshire;[367] but only survived his wife a few years, for, dying 13th April 1709, æt. 68, he was interred beside his wife in Stadhampton Church, where a hatchment with the D'Oylys' arms remains; and on the pavement is an inscription, misengraved as to the date of Lady D'Oyly's death.[368]— Sir John D'Oyly was, though extravagant, a man of considerable worldly wisdom, and very proud; probably also as fond of acquiring as of spending. Still he patronizied men of learning, and was instrumental in promoting Nathaniel Wilson, afterwards Dean of Raphoe.[369] By Margaret Cholmley (whose arms were "Gules, two helmets in chief argent, and in base a garb or,") he had issue twelve children,
