Person:Balthazar Willix (2)

The Will of Balthasar Willick Alford, 7 February 1598 [1598/9]

"To be buried in the church of Alford. To Anne my wife for the good and vertuous education of my children the lease of one messuage in Alford wherein Willyam Brockbancke lately dwelt, which I had from my Lord Willoughby of Willoughby and Earsby for twenty-one years; also the lease of one other messuage in AIford late in the tenure of Richard hornsey or his assigns, which I also had from my said Lord Willoughby for twenty-one years; also one other lease of a tenement in Well in the parish of Alford late in the tenure of Richard Parrishe or his assigns, which I had also from the sayd Lord Willoughby for twenty-one years; also all my other leases, bonds, and assurances to my sayd wife for the good bringing up of my sayd children, together with all my stock and moveable save that I give to Mr. Frances Merburie for the good will which I beare unto him my best gowne. Anne my wife, executrix. Witnesses: Robert Wight, Lenord Thory, Willm. Bellingham. Proved at Lincoln 16 February 1598 [1598/9]. (Consistory of Lincoln, 1598, fo. 200.)"^[2]

1. ↑ 1 Balthasar Willix, in Noyes, Sybil; Charles Thornton Libby; and Walter Goodwin Davis. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. (Portland, Maine: Southworth Press, 1928-1939)
   759.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Sanborn, Victor Channing. The Lincolnshire Origin of Some Exeter Settlers. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jan 1914)
   68:79-80.

   Balthasar Willick of Alford seems to have been a man of substance, and was perhaps a protegé of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. The oldest son of this Balthasar was evidently named Peregrine in honor of Lord Willoughby, and here one may indulge in theory to help out the gaps in genealogy. Nowhere else in Lincolnshire or in England have I found the name of Willick. It has a Flemish sound. Peregrine Berte was a typical Elizabethan nobleman, a friend of Sidney, and in command when the latter fell at Zutphen. Bertie was born at Cleves, and from 1582 to 1590 was almost constantly abroad on diplomatic or military service, mainly in Holland and the Low Countries. In 1597 he was made governor of Berwick Castle. He died in 1601, and is buried at Spilsby in Lincolnshire. It may well be that Lord Willoughby attached to himself the Flemish youth, Balthasar Willech, and brought him to England on one of his numerous visits. This would explain the fact that the name appears nowhere else in England, and might account for the leaseholds which Balthasar Willech of Alford acquired from his lord.