She was the last heiress of the great house of Canossa, whose fiefs stretched from Mantua across Lombardy, passed the Apennines, included the Tuscan plains, and embraced a portion of the duchy of Spoleto.
They occupied Thomson's house and Great Island (New Castle) and built the " Great House " on what is now Water Street, Portsmouth.
On the death of James in December 1542 he attempted to assume office as one of the regents for the infant sovereign Mary, founding his pretensions on an alleged will of the late king; but his claims were disregarded, and the earl of Arran, head of the great house of Hamilton, and next heir to the throne, was declared regent by the estates.
Thus Josiah Spode the second was born here in 1754, and had a great house at Penkhull, on the western outskirts of Stoke.
Although Lake Champlain could not be reached by;boat up the Piscataqua, and although the enterprise was ulti mately a failure, the company sent over colonists who occupied the house left standing by Thomson, and, not far away, built " Mason Hall " or the " Great House " in what is now Portsmouth, a name (for the entire settlement) that replaced " Strawberry Banke " in 1653.
