Moss, p. 150, says, however, "We have the testimony of a curious and rare tract, published shortly after the Admiral's lamented death, addressed to his widow, that he was not a native of Hastings. A consolatory letter, published in 1708, written to the Lady Shovell, by Gilbert Crockatt, M.A., and Rector of Crayford, a parish in which Sir Cloudesley's Kentish residence, May Place, was situated." In a preface, the writer proceeds thus : " It may here be expected, that some account should be given of the life of the renowned Admiral Shovell, and his two sons-in-law. As to the Admiral, he was born in the year 1650 in the County of Norfolk, of an ancient family, chiefly considerable for loyalty, and plain downright honesty, which was, therefore, hereditary to Sir Cloudesley. Nor was it inconsiderable for estate. However, the good old gentlewoman, Sir Cloudesley's mother, being still alive, enjoys no contemptible competency, which has been transmitted for many years from father to son in the family, and being by her son redeemed from some incumbrance, was, by his natural affection, continued entire to his mother. . .
When he was thirteen years of age, Sir Christopher Mynns being then an Admiral, and most famous in his time, coming to visit this family (to which he was then related) desired to have one of their sons under him in the royal navy, and observed some things extraordinary hopeful, and promising in young Cloudesley, who readily and cheerfully agreed to go under him, as a Gentleman Volunteer." Campbell's "Lives of the Admirals," and Entick's "Naval History, with the Lives of the Admirals and Navigators," are both silent as to the place of his nativity.
The circumstances of his parents have also been a subject of some controversy. Chalmers says : "His parents were in middling circumstances." Noble : "That he was the son of a poor man, and that he was a runaway apprentice of a shoemaker, in order to enter the Navy."
Smiles in his "Self Help" alludes to the Admiral thus : "Shoemakers have given us Sir Cloudesley Shovell, the great Admiral." This quotation recently appeared in a local newspaper, and I wrote to the Hon. Robert Marsham-Townshend as to whether he knew of any ground for this statement, to which he courteously replied : "Many thanks for your letter, in answer to which, you will find an excellent memoir in the Diet. Nat. Biog. giving accurate information about his origin. That he was ever apprenticed to a shoemaker there is no evidence whatever, and I have never been able to find any shred of support for the Hastings story, which appears to have been started long after his death. Is there any chance of his mother's name (Mrs. Flaxman as she had become by a second marriage), appearing in the Hastings rate books ?" [I am not aware in whose custody the old rate books are, now that the Corporation is the sole rating authority, but if any official who may come across the old rate books of All Saints' or St. Clement's where the names of Flaxman or Cloudesley or Shovell -
