Note 50 — HISTORY OF SIR JOHN ELAND, OF ELAND, AND HIS ANTAGONISTS.

It is stated in Hopkinson's MSS. "that when sir John Eland gave bread to Adam Beaumont, he threw it at him with disdain; on which sir John said he would weed out the offspring of his blood, as they weed out the weed from corn;" but this threatening was so far from being verified that sir John's male issue were entirely cut off, whilst that of Beaumont continued in John the third son. The preceding verse mentions only "two boys;" but the pedigree of the family gives a third, who probably was an infant at the time, and therefore too young to be noticed. Adam appears to have only been about five years of age; this may account for the different behaviour of the two boys.