afTTTTTT m Digitized by Microsoft® CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 088 003 169 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archi\f^,{^/^g^^/^u31 9240880031 69 Digitized by Microsoft® '^ie (Jlreat (iotjetntns ^Families of Cnglanti Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE GREAT GOVERNING FAMILIES ENGLAND JOHN LANGTON SANFOED AND MEREDITH TOWNSEND IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. L WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXV Digitized by Microsoft® '5' I c5i^ T;;o ^' I \ President V/hite | Digitized by Microsoft® $ref ace» In the compilation of these histories, the object has not been to produce a work of original research, or one based on unpublished or exclusive materials, but (while not neglecting to make use of any facts of this description which the Authors' own reading occasionally supplied) to subject rather the matter already existing in a more or less scattered form in printed books to the test of the accepted rules of historical evidence, and (with the limitations imposed by selection and condensation) to place before the general reader, in a popular form, the leading ascer- tained facts in the history of our Great Families in connection with the results of the latest researches into our national history. Such being the plan of the book, references to authorities, and acknowledgments of obligations to particular writers, were (except in rare cases) out of the question. For the justification of their judgment Digitized by Microsoft® vi ^Preface, on facts and persons, the Authors must appeal to those who have studied the subject for themselves, merely observing that they have endeavoured to steer a just course between the extremes of scepticism and cre- dulity — to reject absolutely only manifest errors and fabrications — ^to admit, under the reserve of a suspended judgment, possible facts and probable hypotheses, and to carefully distinguish these from statements resting .on positive and satisfactory evidence. The papers have now been revised throughout, and matter has been occasionally added which had been previously omitted through want of space. Digitized by Microsoft® Cotttfttts of tfje Jtrst UoUime. PAOE INTRODUCTION, 1 THE PERCIES, 21 THE GREYS OF HOWICK, 47 THE LOWTHERS, 54 THE VANES OR FANES, 66 THE STANLEYS OF KNOWSLEY, 90 THE GROSVENORS, 112 THE FITZWILLIAMS 124 THE CAVENDISHES, 137 THE BENTINCKS, 162 THE CLINTONS, 189 THE STANHOPES, 213 THE TALBOTS, 239 THE LEVESON-GOWERS, 266 THE PAGETS, 276 THE MANNERS, 290 THE MONTAGUS, 303 THE OSBORNES, 330 THE PITZROYS, 344 THE SPENCERS, 358 MAP, Opposite TUle-page. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE GREAT GOYERMNG FAMILIES ENGLAND. 3ftitrot)itittion. England is governed in times of excitement by its people; in quiet times by its property. That is, I believe, a true as -well as a brief description of that " aristocratic " element in the constitution which alike in its habitual force and in its occasional failures so often perplexes the critics of the Continent. The ultimate sovereignty rests, and, under more or less cumbrous forms, always has rested, with the tax-pay- ing body, and, whenever fairly aroused by a great danger, a widespread desire, or a novel conviction, they have exercised their authority with a force be- fore which class resistance has become almost imper- ceptible. That resistance has regulated the tide, but from the Eeformation to the Crimean war it has never succeeded in arresting or seriously retarding its flow. In quiet times, however, when the people has no A Digitized by Microsoft® 2 Introtiuction. angry grievance or immediate want, is unstirred by any strong current of emotion, and not impelled by any appeal to its imagination, this country has always been governed by a limited class, whom, with our usual adherence to words after their meaning has passed away, we continue to term the aristocracy. Their organised power, it is true, is in appearance a thing of the past. The country is not, as it was under the Conqueror's sons and the Plantagenets, ruled by a small number of families, combining all political privileges with aU the rights of ownership. The land- holders are not, as they were under the Tudors — when their individual power had become illegal, and their collective sway was impaired by the reverence paid to the reigning house — the effective depositaries of all military strength. Nor can they now, as they could in all quiet times from the Great Eebellion to 1831, nominate a clear working majority of apparently in- dependent legislators, with rights greater than those ever yet legally exercised by a European sovereign. But their influence on ordinary occasions, and within the limits specified, is still almost irresistible, and could they ever agree to unite to use their strength as a body — as they very nearly do, for example, ia defence of the Established Church — might be danger- ously strong. It is difficult to over-estimate, for ex- ample, the direct power of the two or three hundred individuals whose names are recorded upon the map which faces the title-page of this volume. They could not, it is admitted on aU sides, arrest a popular reh- gious reform, or refuse to commence an ardently longed-for war, or drive the country into a course of policy to which the commercial and working classes Digitized by Microsoft® Introliuction, 3 were, either from instinct or conviction, definitively opposed. They could not, for example, send an army to reseat the Pope, or abohsh trial by jury, or drive the nation back into a protective tariff. But they could, without doubt, so completely control provincial opinion, as, with the aid of the classes who habitually foUow them, to select a majority of the Legislature. They could, if united, render the existence of any Cabinet of which they did not approve impossible for long periods, and they could and do impose on every poHtical administration, every political party, and most political manifestations, certain strict tradition- ary rules of action, certain limits within which the whole play of the forces created by the constitution must be carried on or be arrested. It is their influ- ence, partly direct and used through their property, partly and chiefly indirect and exerted through social position, which keeps the popular force from spending itself on ideals, as in France, or in vague and purpose- less efibrts equally marvellous for strength and steri- lity, as for the hour in America. The direct power of this class, best defined as that of the larger Landowners, through their property, is, we conceive, habitually under-estimated. Unhke the Prussian nobility or the Austrian, they are, fortunately for the State, so disunited that their immense legal authority is, though not unfelt, still unresented. If the nation ever believes itself to be fighting a caste, as it believed in the matter of the Eeform Bill, it stiU fights it with members of the same caste, using the same means and wielding the same powers, marching at its head. Had all the landowners overtly resisted that measure, the first step of the nation after its inevi- Digitized by Microsoft® 4 Introljuction, table success would have been to abolish primogeniture — ^tbe key to modem EngHsb society — and so render the existence of a landlord power in the State in a few years impossible. This is what the Dutch, who live in a great measure under social conditions identical with our own, have actually done, and the measure is just beginning to pulverise their aristocracy. It is only when united by some attack on a vital privilege like this that the direct power would be painfully visible, or that we should fuUy realise that the land- lords could, by simply threatening to use the property- right of changing tenants without reason assigned, nominate, at least, one clear half of the reformed House of Commons — ^viz., most of the county members, many of the medium borough members, and all the members for those boroughs which, like East Eetford, though nominally towns, are really strips carved out of the surrounding county. We simply mention the fact, however, to show that " aristocracy," or, in other words, landlord influence, has in England a legal basis, for the postulate assumed is the most extreme expres- sion of the truth. No union is possible, nor is any occasion conceivable, on which it would be worth many landlords' while to caU up from the soU an entirely new body of tenantry. The power, however, exists, and, as applied to individual elections, has been repeatedly and efi'ectively employed, and only seems endurable or natm-al because if Blenheim seats a Tory for Woodstock, Woburn Abbey can seat an extreme Liberal for Tavistock. The extent of the direct sway may be illustrated, to quote only one example, from the Act passed a session or two ago, for strengthening the Game Laws. The towns had no manner of wish Digitized by Microsoft® Introtiuctiott, 5 to increase the stringency of those laws — rather, if anything, dishked the measure, as at once unjust and superfluous. The tenant-farmers felt the innovation as one more attack on their rights, and the agricul- tural labourers viewed the enlarged powers conceded by it to the police as undisguised oppression. Still the law was swept through by a majority far greater than any which usually secures the gravest measures when proposed by the most popular administration. It is, however, through indirect means that the landlords usually exercise their power. The million of voters who are in England the legal trustees of the people, partly from traditionary respect, partly in the counties from fear of consequences, and partly from habitual and rooted self-distrust, turn, on the occur- rence of any event, to the educated few for guidance. ^ Those few in their turn are swayed — naturally, as Englishmen think, though the fact is almost peculiar to Great Britain — by the men whose property has for generations enabled them to stand close to the political centre, and whom, therefore, they think, on the whole, the best informed. Why they should be so swayed is a point which an entire history of England might be written to explain. Nobody dreams of such a ref- erence in Germany, or Sweden, or any of the many countries of Europe which still recognise a privileged class. Mr Disraeli explains the practice as growing out of the imaginative influence secured by " the sus- tained splendour of their stately lives ;" but we con- ceive, though that has its effect, its root is to be sought in the confidence that the great landlords will care first of all for the interests and honour of Eng- land, that the great families may be relied on for B Digitized by Microsoft® 6 Introtiuctioti, freedom from personal motive — that, in short, the "stake in the country" idea is a reality. History certainly does not suggest that that confidence is misplaced. A house, for example — it is not, strictly speaking, a family— which, like that of Percy, has six times staked its grand position and the heads of its members upon political objects having no political bear- ing, has earned its claim to be heard when the public weal is ia question. The majority of those it advises do not, perhaps, know its history ; but they do know that it has been their habit to take that advice, and tni full cause has been shown Englishmen do not abandon habits. The advice so given spreads from castle to grange, grange to mansion, thence through the limited but powerful society which lives ia habitual contact with the great, and in a few weeks three or four hundred individuals have laid down the ideas on which Parliament and the Cabinet alike will act. The Upper House feels them at once, and the Lower stands directly en rapport with the great pro- prietors. They, as we have said, return an enormous proportion of county members. Their social weight brings the class which has wealth but not distinction to their feet, and they have besides all these a link to the House of Commons known elsewhere in Italy alone. Whether from innate flunkeyism, as Mr Bright would assert, or from the effect of historical associa- tions, as the compilers of Peerages would affirm, or from the influence of property supported by both these feelings, as we should be apt to believe, the act is certain. In the most Eadical borough in the most Eadical county of England, the chance of the eldest son of a great landed proprietor is, cceteris pan- Digitized by Microsoft® Introlruction. 7 bus, better than that of any conceivable opponent, except a recognised statesman or orator of the very first stamp. Earl Grosvenor unknown AviU, unless a very outrageous Tory, beat any local notability in a place like Marylebone, and, if an outrageous Tory, will have a thousand or two more votes than any merchant or banker who might for party purposes venture to stand a contest on the same side. The sons of the landlords do habitually so come forward ; and the consequence of this feeling, combined with their direct power, is, that there were, in the session of Parliament of 1864, 1 Marquess, 5 Earls, 15 Viscounts, 34 Lords, 72 Baronets, 58 Honourables, and 100 pal- pably belonging to the historic names of the land, seated in the House of Commons. In other words, the members in direct and constant communication with the great landlords, who habitually defer to them, and who, above all, take from them their poli- tical tone, control the whole of the Upper House, and, with their allies among the nouveaux riches, a ma- jority in the Lower. As we have before said, this influence seems less, because it is so divided, but it is clearly apparent in matters of Church government, and the present position of ecclesiastical questions exactly iadicates both its extent and its limits. The aristocracy are, on the whole, more liberal in theolo- gical opinion than the middle class, and probably would, if the matter were left to them, completely re- model the whole arrangement of subscriptions, tests, and articles of belief They are utterly powerless to do anything of the kind, afraid almost to open their Kps, lest their liberality should be mistaken by the ignorant for infidelity. Here they are in conflict Digitized by Microsoft® 8 Ititroiurtton. with the nation, and therefore without even the sem- blance of active leadership. But they can, and do, marshal an almost impregnable array in defence of an abuse at which the nation looks askance, but which it is not yet prepared vehemently to assail — viz., the territorial status of the Irish Church. Who doubts that but for their shield that Church would at once go down, or that they could, if united, protract its existence, perhaps for centuries more ; or that, were the nation resolved — as resolved as on the Corn Laws — the irresistible opposition would silently melt away, tm men wondered how they ever believed reform so hopeless or so distant ? The existence of a real and permanent aristocratic power in English politics, wielded by men whose num- bers are by no means very great, is, I conceive, as cer- tain as that of the people or the throne. With its merits or demerits I have at present nothing whatever to do. My own belief is that its habitual action, if limited by severe restraints and co-existent with the essentially democratic influence of a free press, is de- cidedly beneficial. The pressure from above anneals the governing class below, hardens all " ideas " tiU they become plans, narrows all floods of emotion tiU they can work as regulated motive powers. Above all, the class serves, as it were, to strain the popular sentiment, relieving the torrent of its impurities, eliminating that element of Aoilgarity which, in poli- tics as in social life, has its root in a contempt for the feelings and rights of others. The present purpose is analysis, and not argument, — to point out that even now, whatever a few thinkers may assert, the power of the aristocracy is stfll the most direct and constant Digitized by Microsoft® Introljuction* • 9 of the five influences — the landlords, commerce, the priesthood, the press, and the population — which in quiet times direct the internal and external policy of Great Britain. It is, then, perhaps, worth while to define what the English " aristocracy " really means. It is, I conceive, only another word for the greater owners of land. It has little to do with office, though that ia England has been, and is, rarely held by very poor men. Still less has it to do with pedigree, though ancient birth may increase the influence which prim- arily belongs to property. The possession of estates by one house through a long series of years indefin- itely increases the authority of that house, but it is from the influence of habit, not from any reverence paid to blood. No one cares as a political point whether the Stanleys are Smiths or no ; but the loss of their estates would at once destroy their local power. The Percies have from the Conquest always held their present position, though the family has been absorbed once in the Lovains, then in the Sey- mours, and finally in the Smithsons, a race, though by no means plebeian, comparatively without a pedigree, but, nevertheless, exercising the hereditary influence as fuUy and with as Httle resistance as if they had descended unbroken from the first man who robbed the Saxons. There is no pedigree in England, and very few in Europe, which can vie with that of the Earls of Devon — and, imlike most, it is not of her- alds' manufacture — ^but an additional five thousand acres would represent five times the political influence derived fi-om that descent. It is doubtful whether the pedigree of the Sovereign in the least exalts her rank in the eyes of her people, for the inflnite majority of Digitized by Microsoft® 10 Introtiuctton* the middle class trace it back to tlie Electress Sophia, and there stop. It is true that in the centre of the group of landlords occur some great historic names, and that the most prominent — Percies and Stan- leys, RusseUs and Howards, Lowthers and Grenvilles — are intertwined with the whole history of Great Britain; but a famUy now of vast influence — the Gowers — ^is but faintly Hnked into the national an- nals, and of those we have mentioned not one can show what Continental heralds call unbroken descent. Historic associations convey influence, but they chng to the property rather than the race, and the " aristo- cratic element " of the Enghsh constitution is, in fact, simply the class which owns the soil. It was with these views that I suggested the pub- lication, in a popular form, through the columns of the ' Spectator,' of a series of histories of the greater English families — those few whose influence being still great has from age to age been perceptible in our an- nals, who form, as it were, the backbone of the aris- tocratic system. Consulting Mr Langton Sanford, a gentleman whose studies had led him to a minute in- vestigation of several periods of English history, he was struck with the idea, and agreed to carry it out to the end. The bulk of this work is therefore his, and it is only in deference to his generous dislike to assume the credit of any labour however trifling, or any idea however inchoate, which was not his own, that my name is attached to it at aU. AH that I have contributed is the original suggestion, this introduc- tion, a few notes, and a general supervision — ^very real as regards the Percies, Stanleys, Lowthers, Gowers, and one or two others — quite illusory as regards the Digitized by Microsoft® Introtuctton. ii remaining histories. The patient and thorough in- vestigation which has marked each narrative is no credit of mine, nor have I anything whatever to do with the most original portion of the whole, the per- sonal sketches, which amount in some cases — notably in that of the Protector Somerset — to new biographies. It remains only to explain, with something more of detail, the strict, and, as it appeared to many, some- what capricious limits of selection. The object of the series was not the history of aristocratic influence in Great Britain. That immense subject, which would be worthy of a Hallam, was altogether beyond the range of any newspaper, even of one which dares think that educated men care nearly as much to read of the origin of political powers as to watch their daily operation. The purpose was simply to remind the readers of the ' Spectator ' of a fact always forgot- ten, the permanence given to English policy by the influence continuing through centuries of a limited group of families. That group contains only the houses which, whUe now in the front rank, have been for generations distinguished by holding high ofiice in the field or civil administration, who have advised cabinets or won victories. The lesser aristocracy, however wealthy or however old, had in the plan no place whatever. Under any scheme, no family, how- ever old, was included unless it was now also great ; no family, however great, could be reckoned unless it had also a great political history. The first rule struck out, as to my own surprise it proved, every commoner, with the doubtful exception of the Wynns of Wynnstay; the second left us dubious only as to the claims of the clergyman-peer who now repre- Digitized by Microsoft® 12 IntroUucttou* sents the mighty family of the King-maker, and whose descendants, if they continue to manage their wide but poor estates as he is doing, may yet claim a place among the most powerful in the land. My object was to elucidate the half-forgotten but car- dinal fact of British constitutional history, the ex- istence in the empire of a few great families who have exercised from age to age an unbroken influence upon its policy, who have occasionally been powerful enough to govern the country as if it were their pro- perty, and who even now, when the feudal regime has disappeared, when opinion has become an executive force, when xdtimate power has been legally transferred to the whole middle class, are stronger than any other single interest, and, if united, could resist almost any combination of interests. The origin of these families has been various — conquest, service, Court favour, or high business ability — the single uniform fact being that they can survive everything except the loss of their lands ; but from the time of the Eeformation they have been leading influences in the State, the fixed data with which every Government and party and political genius has had sooner or later to reckon. They wrested from the people the spoils of the monas- teries, and they defended the people against the pohcy of the Stuarts ; they built up the constitutional throne under William the Dutchman, and saved it under George the German ; they fought Europe through the great struggle which lasted our fathers' lives, defied the people in 1831, were beaten by them in 1832, and have, as will be speeddy shown, in the succeeding thirty-two years, once more rebuilt their power. That power, as the series shows, has rested on many circum- Digitized by Microsoft® Introljuctton* 13 stances ; but it has always been connected inseparably witb the possession of land. Duriag the feudal times the class ruled naturally, for the great owners of land were by the feudal system the oidy men m command of military force. When the Wars of the Roses, the cruelly subtle pohcy of the House of York, and the extraordi- nary personal qualities of the House of Tudor, appeared to have shattered their strength, they and their depen- dants contrived to seize the third of England which belonged to the Church, and when the last Tudor died they retained under the Stuart dynasty the only cour sistent power. Could Cromwell but have conciliated them we should stUl in. all human probability be living under the shadow of a national dynasty, English in lineage and speech and habit of thought, English, too, in aU likelihood, in its narrow insularity. As it was, the steady abstinence of the nobles prevented the necessary enthronement, gave time for the reaction, and enabled the people once more to recall the evil Scotch House who in England never entertained a policy their people approved — who never built aught, or founded aught, or reformed aught — ^to whom power brought nothing so sweet as the opportunity of tyranny, and adversity no lesson so keenly felt as the value of dissimulation. When the reaction had become intoler- able the great families called in a Stuart, who was also a Dutchman ; and when the curse which in aU ages has, fortunately for Englishmen, rested on the race, had spoiled even that experiment, when half-Stuart Wdliam, and Stuart Mary, and Stuart Anne, had died childless, they summoned the German House, under whose reign we and they alike have flourished beyond historic precedent. Digitized by Microsoft® 14 Introljurtton. From the Act of Settlement to 1831, Englisli history is but the record of the intrigues of the governing families ; and when in 1832 the people deprived them of the legal autocracy they and their cousins possessed through their majority in Parliament, they bided theh time, secure that in " the long-run the influence of pro- perty was sure to tell." It did tell. During the long peace which followed 1832 their property increased enormously; the abUity the class has always displayed led them to take the lead in aU productive enterprise; they reformed agriculture, opened mines, built great harbours, planted forests, cut canals, accepted and profited by the railway system, and built the faubourgs of the great cities. Able and audacious, stUl regarded with curious liking by the people, and full of that in- dividuahty, that sense of personal right, which is the strength of an aristocracy, they again threw them- selves into politics, and speedily regained nearly their ancient monopoly of power. They alone could afl'ord to follow politics from boyhood as a profession, and that fact gave and gives them a twenty years' start of aU competitors. They alone have as a class that in- stinct of control given to able individuals in aU classes, and they therefore speedily monopolised high offices. Above all, they alone had as a class not to be made known to the people. Smith must serve before a con- stituency knows who Smith is, but a Seymour's name tells the same constituency aU about him, his antece- dents and his connections, his fortune and his tone. Hence a preference on the hustings almost ludicrously strong — so strong that in the counties a bad specimen of the class, some red-eyed, knock-kneed, gawky lad of twenty-one, has often a better chance of public favour Digitized by Microsoft® JntroUuction* 15 than the man who has all his life been the guiding mind of the locality. So powerful has been the action of these circumstances, so engrained is in England the preference for these houses, that the thirty-one families whose histories we have related supply at this moment one clear fourth of the EngHsh House of Commons, the ultimate power in the State. A careful analysis shows that the thirty-one families at this moment sup- ply one hundred and ten members, or a clear working fourth of the Enghsh section of the representation — have, in fact, as great a direct power as the whole king- dom of Ireland, double that of Scotland, five times that of London, as much as that of London and the forty next greatest cities. I believe it to be beyond aU shadow of doubt that when we have added the great Irish and the great Scotch proprietors, it wiU be found that sixty families supply, and for generations have supplied, one-third of the House of Commons, one -third of the ultimate governing power for an Empire which includes a fourth of the human race. The political signification of a fact Hke this needs little exposition, but I may in a few words just point to the main advantage and disadvantage which the Empire has derived from its existence. The great houses have been, and to a large extent still are, to our poHtical system what bones are to the body. Un- seen, they have given strength and firmness to what might else have been a gelatinous mass. No king, or demagogue, or soldier has been able to mordd the mass according to his own fancies because of these hard substances. They have frequently resisted even the apparently irresistible current of events ; once, in the great Continental war, decidedly and very un- Digitized by Microsoft® 16 Entrolructton. wisely they turned it back. Slow, like all oligarchies, to admit the necessity of change, tenacious of ideas once received, daring in experiment when a need has once become patent to them, they have given to our policy consistency, courage, and, above all, that faculty which all democracies without exception lack — an almost asinine patience. Seymours or Percies, Eussells or Herberts expect to be great next century as now, plan for next century as well as this, reckon immediate advantage light when compared with the great ob- jects, the permanent grandeur and rank and power which they desire England to hold, because with the greatness of England their own is indissolubly bound up. It is the element of resistance, the breeze in the brick, the hair in the mortar, the fibre in the wood, the bone in the body, which they contribute to our social fabric, the quality of permanence which they add to our institutions. They are the trees in the hedge ; and that simile also expresses the one great disadvantage of their existence. They shade the field too much. Corn must be very good and the sunshine very bright for it to ripen under them. Or to quit metaphor, it is the disadvantage of aristocracy that all political ability not immediately connected with rank has a double task to perform — ^first to rise to the aristocratic level, then to persuade the people. It takes an able man twenty years to obtain from the nation the consideration these families obtain from birth, to put Jones at forty-five on a level with Caven- dish at twenty-one. This is true not only of Parha- ment but of the services; and the consequence is, that three-fourths of the ability and courage and genius of the people is lost to the service of the State. A Digitized by Microsoft® EntroUurtton. 17 Wellesley is a general at thirty, a Havelock or Camp- bell wastes his life in rising to the point at which men think of making him a general. The conse- quence is, that unless England happens at any one moment to find a genius in the highest rank, she must either do without one, or content herself with one who comes from the mass, and has wasted half his power in raising himself above them. But for the fact that the great families sometimes adopt a man of striking ability, as they adopted Burke, Pitt, Peel in part. Sir Cornewall Lewis, and may yet adopt Mr Gladstone, this evil would, in the long-run, outweigh aU the advantages of their power; for if, in the cloudy lesson of history, there be one maxim clear, it is that nations in their hour of trial are saved by men and not by systems — that though a patriciat may govern Eome, it is the individual dictator who must in emergency preserve it. Even as it is, this mischief is most marked, and will before long call for some strong remedy, if we would not acknowledge to aU the world that England is becoming effete. Strength and ex- clusiveness are the good and the evil of the oligarchi- cal element in the British Constitution. Fortunately for the country the division into parties, while it leaves the strength intact, diminishes the exclusive- ness. Whigs and Tories maintain on all grand points, such as the necessity of power at sea, the same tradi- tional policy ; but as neither Whig nor Tory can rely on the whole of the aristocratic strength, each is thrown back on the people, and Lord Derby stands surrounded by a Cabinet of commoners, and even Whig magnates angrily doubt whether the son of a West Indian merchant can be prevented from becom- Digitized by Microsoft® 18 3hitrot(ttction. ing Premier. But for this, and the total inaptitude of the class for journalism, the only political function they have never attempted, the exclusiveness might yet make our history resemble too nearly that of Venice. The Republican oligarchy ruled ably a thousand years and died, while the little dukedom which was once its feeble rival has expanded into a sixth Great Power. Will the influence of these great families endure ? The answer of most thinkers is that it will not — that the steady growth of the democratic idea has pul- verised influences greater than theirs, and must ulti- mately pulverise them. I cannot feel so certain — cannot blind myself to the facts, that after Csesarism had crushed the Eoman world to one uniform level of slavery, the patriciat had stiU a monopoly of regu- lar administration ; that in modern France the Fau- bourg St Germain still rules society ; that in modem America it is a real help to a man to be born Adams, or Randolph, or Winthrop ; that in this England of ours the abolition of the Upper House would instantly fill the Lower one with great Peers. Let the suffrage be universal, and Earl Derby stand for Lancashire, does any one know any Hodgson who would have a chance ? The re-division of property may ultimately shatter their power, but short of that their dignity and consideration will probably for a century steadily increase. We are probably but on the threshold of commercial success, and of that vast enterprise it is they who always reap the first-fruits. No trade can flourish that for every pound does not pour a shilling into the treasury of a Grosvenor or a Bentinck, a Rus- sell or a Stanley, a Neville or a Gower. They own Digitized by Microsoft® Introtiuctton. 19 the soil, and rental rises with wealth, as the surface of a field rises from successive deposits of guano. Every year, too, the pedestal on which they stand, the greatness of the Anglo-Saxon race, rises and spreads wider. In another hundred years these thirty-one families will be the marked and ticketed families among two hundred millions of English- speaking men, the only persons possessed of advan- tages to which ordinary men cannot attain, the only figures higher than that increasing crowd. A Percy, say, was great under the Tudors— that is, among two millions of half-civilised men. He is less now com- paratively, but positively he stands socially above sixty millions of wholly civilised men, who are rack- ing nature to find him means of gratification. His political power may decline, but his social power must increase. A Scott might once have taken the field at the head of four thousand followers — the Duke of Buccleuch could not rely on the swords of four; but then 190 members of Parliament would not have voted that a road should be turned lest the house of Scott should be compelled to look on coaches. Every year, too, adds to the number of the nouveaux riches, precipitates into society some four or five men, each with his million, with the power which belongs to a million, and with a sovereign reverence for the few families which have millions too, and something else they themselves can neither pretend nor buy, a direct connection with the past history of an imperial race. Dukedoms may be abolished by the year 2000, — we pretend to no opinion on that point — ^perhaps no man save John Stuart Mill could give us even a reasonable prophecy ; but of this we feel assured, that if they Digitized by Microsoft® 20 Entroiuction. are not abolished, an English dukedom will in that year be a prize beyond all social compare — a prize such as a throne is now — a position the ultimate goal of all that is great, or ambitious, or rich, among a race which will by that time be ruling directly or ia- directly over half the world. The increase of inteUi- gence, the new rapidity of intercommunication, the terrible publicity under which all our children will be doomed to live, will only increase this tendency, as telescopes make the boulders on a plain more and not less prominent to the eye. The political power may depart, though I do not think it will, for wealth grows stronger instead of weaker, and the great houses more conscious of their position, and therefore more careful for its maintenance ; but the social power must in- crease; and, unless we greatly mistake, a hundred and thirty years hence a popular journalist will still find in this series materials which will interest a far larger and more widely -scattered audience. Mankind is more conservative than enthusiasts dream; and, re- membering that after all the long and weary struggles of the nations the descendants of Henry the Fowler still move all the armies of Europe save the French, we cannot feel certain that our great-grandchildren will have lost the help or escaped the influence of the Great Governing Families. MEREDITH TOWNSEND. Digitized by Microsoft® CJe Mercies. ^NGLISH family history dates from the Conquest,* two hundred years later than the appearance of the royal caste of Europe, who may be said generally to date from Charlemagne. There are a few families who claim a Saxon descent, but scarcely one of them has risen to the first rank, and, perhaps, only one of them, the reigning house, can show a root in the Heptarchy beyond all doubt or cavil. Not one even claims to be descended from a Eoman settler, though the Eomans held England four hundred years, and erected a civilised state, * Pedigree is one of the permanent delusions of mankind, thougli the foimder of a great race is always its greatest, and a plebeian ; and there seems no primd facie reason why some families should not be very much older — why, for instance, the Roman consular houses should have died out so completely. As a matter of fact, however, the tide which submerged the Empire washed out the record, and the modern patriciat starts from 800. ■ The oldest provable succession is that of the Ranas of Oodeypore, who have reigned in one place 3000 years ; but it is kept up by adoption. The man who died about 1036, as the last Prince of the Captivity, had possibly a pedigree stretching through all history. He was the descendant of a family which, in the time of Domitian, was accepted by all Jews and by the Emperor as descended from David ; and if that belief were correct — as, from the similar history of Mohammed's family, it may have been — that would be a pedigree traceable name by name to Adam. There is no other instance that we know of a pedigree even possibly older than Eome. — (M. T.) Digitized by Microsoft® 22 Zijz farcies. whose history may yet be recovered, and some of whose rulers must have retreated with the Britons into the hills. Not one is certainly Briton or Dane ; the two or three said to be Saxon owe a great deal to heralds; and even of early Normans but few can he proved to survive. Among the very earliest is the great house of Percy, which represents directly, though somewhat imperfectly, a man who followed William the Bastard to the conquest and spoil of England, and which has a history to show of almost unique grandeur. At least, we know of no other uncrowned house in Europe which has seven times driven hack the tide of foreign invasion, and for eight hundred years stood in the front of resistance to regal tyranny. Who the first Percy was no historian has discovered. The Duke of Northumberland very possibly beUeves that Manfred, a Danish pirate, ravaged Neustria in 886, that his son Geoffrey accompanied EoUo, and settled amidst the general pOlage in " Percy," a vil- lage stm existing near VUledieu. He may have war- rant for his belief, which is just as likely as any other of the theories invented to account for a family name; only as he has first to prove the existence of EoUo, then of his follower, and then his relation to one of the miscellaneous scum of Europe who followed the Bastard, the inquirer may prefer to begin with a fact a little less legendary. It is quite certain that in 1066 one William de Percy did land in England; it is also certain that he was the recognised leader of a number of more or less disciplined fighting persons ; and it is highly probable that this number was con- siderable, and that he led them well, for WiUiam the Norman gave nothing for nothing, and Domesday Digitized by Microsoft® Wi)t Mercies. 23 Book shows that he gave Percy much. He received in LincoLishire thirty-two lordships, among them Inuningham, Cabourne, and Ludford ; and in York- shire eighty-six lordships, among which Topcliffe ia the North Eiding and Spofforth in the West Eiding, became the chief seats of the family in those parts for many succeeding ages. The king, too, was not his only benefactor. The Conqueror's nephew, Hugh Lupus, the grim Earl of Chester, gave him, wherefore we are not told, the whole lordship of Whitby, with the large territory adjacent, in the North Eiding, and here William de Percy, to soothe his conscience, founded anew the Abbey of St Hilda, ravaged, he said, by a Danish and pagan ancestor, in whom he, perhaps, believed. StUl further to soothe his conscience, he is said to have married Emma de Port, of whose lands at Seamer, near Scarborough, he had taken possession by the sword. Legend has it that she was the daugh- ter of Earl Gospatrick, the great Saxon Earl of North- umberland, and that it was Lord William who saved his father-in-law after the last Saxon rising. Be that as it may. Lord William, nicknamed Percy Alsgernons — i.e., Percy of the Whiskers — undoubtedly was a real personage, who was great enough to coerce the hard- fisted Conqueror into Hberality, who founded a great Yorkshire family, rebuilt the Abbey of St HUda, ac- quired a reputation which made his subjects willing to repeat stories of his Saxon rights and Saxon cle- mency, and died a crusader with Eobert Curthose in the Holy Land ia 1096. He was the true Founder — the strong man who built himself a house and stamped his name on the soU. The founder's son was Lord Alan, of whom we know little save that he Digitized by Microsoft® 24 Eije ^ttzits. married Emma Gaunt, granddaugliter of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, and had seven legitimate sons and one bastard, mother unknown. The eldest son, Wil- liam, on that principle of inheritance by iadivisible mil- itary tenure, which we now confound with the totally different Mosaic regulation of primogeniture, took aU the properties, staked them by adopting Stephen's side — i. e., the side of aristocratic against regal power — and performed the first of the endless services of Ms house by repelling a Scotch invasion ia the terrible battle of the Standard, a duty which for four hundred years was never again absent from the thoughts or plans of the Percy. In that battle the bastard brother fought on the Scottish side. By his wife, Alice de Tonbridge, Lord William had several sons, who all died before him — it is a specialty of this family, as we shall see, to Idll off collaterals — and two daughters, Maud and Agnes, the former of whom died without issue, while the latter carried the vast Percy estates into the house of Louvain. Here, then, in 1168, in the reign of Henry II., after a hundred and two years of splendour, ended the fijst male line of the Percies. Sea rovers or French adventurers, they had at all events done their part on earth. They belonged, it is true, as Mr Disraeh. says, to the " limited class which had then a monopoly of action;" but the family which in a century invades a great country successfully, carves out therefrom a mighty lordship, so conciliates the conquered that its legends all bear trace of an effort to justify submission, fights a crusade, saves its adopted country from invasion, and so graves its name into the popular heart that all successors are compelled to adopt it, and leaves such a tradition that Digitized by Microsoft® Wilt Mercies. 25 after a lapse of seven hundred years the name is of itself a patent of nobUity, cannot be classed even by Liberals with the faineant eaters of beeves. The new Percies were greater ia the way of pedi- gree than those whom they superseded. Josceline de Louvain, who married the heiress, was a younger son of Godfrey with the Beard, Duke of Nether-Lorraine and Count of Brabant and Louvain, who claimed de- scent from the pagan chiefs of Hainault, and from the only Hne which might tempt a thinker to wish for a pedigree — that of Charlemagne. Josceline's sister Adelise had been second wife of Henry L, and brought over her brother to marry the Percy under condition of accepting either her name or her arms. He chose the former, which was popular, substituting only his own arms for those borne, and probably in- vented, by Lord William the founder. (From the eldest brother of this Josceline are descended the Electors of Hesse-Cassel and the mother of the Prin- cess of Wales.) Queen Adelise had obtained a grant of the honour and castle of Arundel, in Sussex, from Henry I., and after his death she and her second husband, William de Albeney, appointed Josceline castellan of Arundel, and granted him the honour of Petworth, in Sussex, which grant was confirmed by Henry 11., while still only Duke of Normandy, and was the title of the Percies to the great Sussex posses- sions they held for so many years. He had four sons, the eldest of whom seems to have been a nonentity, for the sway of the house passed to the youngest, Eichard. He claimed and obtained — by a quaint compromise between the Norman idea of succession to eldest male, and the Saxon and Oriental idea of Digitized by Microsoft® 26 Wi}t Mercies* succession to eldest efficient male — the great Whitby property for life, and wliHe lie lived was Adrtual head of the Percies. He deserved his position, for he calmly staked it and his head in resistance to John Lackland, was a leader among the framers of the organisation which extorted the Great Charter, and was one of the Five-and-twenty appointed armed guardians of that great pact — a pact, by the way, which anybody who takes the trouble to read it, will see was a national as well as a baronial scheme. His disobedience to the Pope's Legate earned him an excommunication, then as now irrefragable proof of nobility, then as now despised among strong Enghsh- men ; and when the barons, in despair of the Planta- genets, resolved on the policy which, in 1688, their descendants carried out, and brought over Prince Louis, the Percy reduced all Yorkshire to obedience. He died in 1244 (being buried before the high altar m Fountains Abbey), and the estates reverted to his nephew, William, who ought to have had them on the Norman theory before, and who had acquired through his second wife the tract in Durham now known as Dalton-Percy, which descended to his younger son. Lord WiUiam, however, survived his great uncle but one year, and his son Henry de Percy com- menced a less creditable and not very intelligible career. He seems to have been at heart a Constitu- tionalist, and stood up for the Great Charter ; but King Henry III. seized his lands, and to save them he acted first against the barons, and afterwards as mediator between the King and Simon de Montfort. His son, also Henry, however, redeemed the family honour ; was knighted by Edward I. before Berwick ; Digitized by Microsoft® €\it Mercies. 27 fought at Dunbar; was appointed governor of Gal- loway and Ayr ; was invested with a vague authority or Lord-Lieutenancy over Westmoreland and Cum- berland ; and fortified his principal seats, Spofforth and Leckonfield in Yorkshire, and Petworth in Sussex. It is from him, too, that the family dates as a Nor- thumbrian house. On November 19, 1309, Anthony Beck, " proud " Bishop of Durham, granted and sold to Lord Henry the Barony of Alnwick in Northum- berland ; and from that day forward the family have been known as the Percies of Alnwick, and described as a house whose root is in Northumberland. He resisted Gaveston in the popular interest, and on the minion's faU received his office of Warden of all Forests north of the Trent. He died in 1315, leaving his wife Eleanor (a Fitzalan) guardian of the estates, and a son, Henry, who at seventeen obtained a grant of all the estates in Northumberland belonging to Dunbar, Earl of March, then in rebellion, and at twenty-one was acknowledged chief of his house. Like his father he detested the corrupt rule of the favourites ; was one of Prince Edward's firmest sup- porters ; and received from Edward IH., on the throne, the title of Lord of the Marches and the castle and barony of Warkworth, with other magnificent gifts. According to the ethics of that day he earned them well, devoting his life to Edward's grand but pre- mature idea of a united island. He fought and won at Halidon Hill, for which victory Edward Baliol gave him Annandale and Moflfatdale, then held by Eandolph, Earl of Murray; and he commenced that struggle of generations with the Douglas, around which ballad and legend have thrown such a romance. Digitized by Microsoft® 28 Wifz percies. His greatest exploit, however, was his command at Nevill's Cross, in Durham, where, in 1346, he crushed the great army with which David Bruce, tempted by Edward's absence in France, had invaded England Next year we find him raising an army to the assist- ance of Edward Baliol, and in the next, transporting it to France to the aid of the Black Prince. He died in 1352, a soldier and statesman of the first rant. His successor, still Henry de Percy, third Henry of Alnwick, by a daughter of Lord Clifford — the great old Cumberland race, whose territory is now ruled from Lowther Castle — led a comparatively quiet life. He only fought at Crecy, passed his life " regulating " the Border — i. e., hanging marauders and besieging ob- streperous chieftains — and made a semi-royal alliance, marrying the Lady Mary Plantagenet, granddaughter of Edward of Lancaster, second son of Henry III. His royal connection was well supported by his truly regal estate, he being possessed at his death of the manors of Leckonfield, Claytop, Settle, Giggleswick, Naflferton, Chatton, Wharram-Percy, Walton, parcel of the manor of Spoffbrth, ScarbothaU in Craven Top- clifie, Seamer, Tadcester, and Pocklington, in York- shire ; of the manor and castle of Alnwick, with the appurtenances, in the county of Northumberland ; as also of the manor of Rock, the castle and manor of Warkworth, the towns of Berling, Acklington, Roth- biry. East Wetton, Threpston, Snitter, Over-Bothal- ston, Teggisden, the manors of Corbridge, Newburne, Thrasterton, with the hamlets of Botlaw, Walbothall, and the fishing in the river Tyne ; and of the inheri- tance of Joan, his wife, of the manor of Toft-juxta- Witham, in Lincolnshire ; as also part of the manor Digitized by Microsoft® Wifz f mtcs, 29 of Old Bokenham, and hundred of Shropham (parcel of the barony of Tate-shale), in Norfolk, and the manor of Cratfield, in Suffolk. The two sons of this third Lord Percy of Alnwick played most important parts in the reigns of Edward III., Eichard II., and Henry IV., and both obtained the rank of Earl, Henry Percy, the elder, becoming (July 16, 1377) first Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Percy, the younger. Earl of Worcester. These are the Percies whom Shakespeare has mentioned in his historical plays of Eichard II. and Henry IV., and the former of them is the father of Harry Hotspur, first knight of that age. Henry (the fourth Lord Percy of Alnwick) was one of the few nobles whose power, aided by John of Gaunt, shielded Wycliff, and so fostered the germs of the Eeformation. He quar- relled, however, with Lancaster, and, the Scots seiziug Berwick, was adjudged by Parliament to forfeiture of aU his estates — an early instance of that tremendous system of forfeiture which, during the Wars of the Eoses, prostrated almost all barons. The King, how- ever, refused to confirm the sentence. About the 8th of Eichard II., the Earl, having married as his second wife Maud, sister and heiress of Anthony, Lord Lucy, joined with her in a settlement of the honour and castle of Cockermouth, in Cumberland, with a large proportion besides of her great inheritance, upon him- self and her, and the heirs-male of their bodies ; in default, to the heirs of her body; in default, to Henry, Lord Percy, his eldest son by his first wife, and the heirs-male of his body, on condition of bearing the arms of Percy; in default, to the Earl's brother Thomas, and the heirs-male of his body ; in default, Digitized by Microsoft® 30 W^e '^txdm. to Sir Thomas Percy, second son of the Earl, and the heirs-male of his body, with remainder to Sir Ralph Percy, the third son of the Earl, and the heirs-male of his body, remainder to the right heirs of the said Maud. In 1398 Lord Henry, who had recovered his influence, was one of the Twelve appointed to control Eichard II. The King did not forgive this measure, and on the recovery of his power next year he sentenced the Earl to perpetual banishment, and so produced the weU-known " Conspiracy of the Three Henries" — Henry de Percy, Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster (and kinsman of the Percy), and Henry Hotspur, the Percies' heir-apparent. The con- spiracy ended in the deposition and death of Eichard — as Harding, the Percy's servant, says, against his master's will. That seems doubtful, and, at aU events, he accepted from the successful Henry IV. a gift of the Isle of Man, and was made Lord High Constable of England, Constable of the Castles of Chester, Conway, Flint, and Carnarvon, General Warden of the West Marches, and Governor of Carlisle. The Border warfare continued; and on August 15, 1388, Hotspur had fought Otterbourne, better known to baUad-loving mankind as Chevy Chase,"'" in which James, Earl of Douglas, was killed, and Hotspur and his brother Ealph — whose portrait not having been painted by Shakespeare seems comparatively indis- tinct — were taken prisoners. The ransom enabled * " The Persd owt of Northombarlande, And a vowe to God mayd he, That he wolde hunte in the mountayns Off Chyviat -within dayes thre, In the manger of donght^ Dogles, And all that ever with him be." Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Mercies. 3i Lord Jolin Montgomery to build a castle, but the Percies scarcely felt the blow, and on 14th September 1402, they, with an army raised by themselves, fought the terrible battle of Homildon against Archi- bald, Earl of Douglas, and 12,000 men. It was the imluckiest achievement in the whole family record. Henry, who, like every Plantagenet, understood king- craft, and did not wish to divide his realm, rewarded the magnificent service by a grant of a great section of the Douglas estates in Scotland — a process like giving Lord Clyde, for example, a lawsuit instead of a pension — and demanded all the prisoners. The Percy blood took fire at an act as distinctly unjust as a seizure of all prize-money would be now, and, re- leasing the Douglas, Percy declared for the Earl of March, head of the Clarence branch of the Planta- genets. The King, however, was no mean soldier ; he had an army just levied for Wales, and in the battle of Shrewsbury he overthrew the Earl, killed Hotspur, resumed his grant of the Isle of Man — which he gave to Sir John Stanley, whose descendant now heads Her Majesty's Opposition — and tried hard to impoverish Percy by a fine. He was baffled, how- ever, by an incident perhaps more creditable to the Percies than any in their history. Whether from his brilliant personal character, the romantic popular feel- ing for his son, or the recollection of Homildon, all England rose iu protest against serious harm to the Earl. The Peers acquitted him of treason, and the Commons passed a formal vote of thanks to the King for remitting his fine on the mighty Peer. Henry could not, however, cease from hating him, and the proud old noble, unable to bear the slights to which he Digitized by Microsoft® 32 Wi)z Mercies, was exposed, again rebelled, fled first to Scotland, tlien to Owen Glendower — whence some of Shakespeare's finest scenes — then to France, and, re-entering his estates from Scotland, was, on 29th February 1408, surprised and killed on Bramham Moor. His head was set on a pole on London Bridge. Spofibrth was given to Kokeby, the SheriS" of Yorkshire, who had defeated him, and the rest of his vast estates to the King's son, John, Duke of Bedford. His brother, the Earl of Worcester, taken prisoner at Shrewsbury, was shortly after that battle beheaded, and the house of Percy seemed — specially to John of Bedford — utterly swept from the land. Only one lad remained, a son of Harry Hotspur, and he had been placed by his father in Edinburgh, and grew up the favourite page and companion of Prince James. Had Henry IV. lived, there is little doubt that the family, like hundreds of others, would have disap- peared ; but his successor was at once more generous and more deeply interested in the affairs of the Con- tinent. He was statesman enough to see that the deep-rooted power of the Percies, sanctioned by the traditions of four hundred years and the attachment of the population north of the Trent, was the best counterpoise to the dangers always imminent from the alliance of Scotland and France. He restored the dignities of the family, and so backed the heir's peti- tion to Parliament that in 1414 that body voted a restoration in blood, and the restitution of all the estates held in tad, — those only held in fee simple passing away to the King. Henry V. sent Sir Joha Neville and the Lord G-rey to bring the young lord from Scotland. " On coming into England," as an Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Mercies, 33 old writer expresses it, the young Percy married the Lady Eleanor Neville, daughter of the Earl of West- moreland, at Berwick-on-Tweed. There is a poem on their loves, called ' The Hermit of Warkworth.' On 16th March 1415 he did homage to Henry in presence of the Estates as second Earl of Northumberland. The Duke of Bedford, moved by the King, resigned the lands assigned to his share, ia consideration of an annuity of 3000 marks a-year; and the house, once more invested with the Wardenship of the Border, was re-established in all its dignity. The family attributed this restoration to the personal grace of Henry, and for three generations following staked and lost their lives and liberties and possessions for the sake of the house of Lancaster. The restored Earl, after escorting the captive King of Scotland, his own fellow - pupil, back to Edinburgh, and endowing the three Divinity Fellowships in University Col- lege, Oxford, took up arms for the son of his bene- factor, by whom he had been created Constable of England. He was slaia fighting, on 20th May 1455, in the battle of St Alban's, along with the Duke of Somerset, and lies in the Abbey Church. He held the Northumbrian and Yorkshire and Petworth pro- perty, Crawley, and two other manors in Sussex; Wrentham in Suffolk, Wilton -Hockwold in Norfolk, eight manors and the hundred of Cannington in Somersetshire, and sixteen manors and the hundred of Folkestone in Kent ; had also a joint part with Sir Eobert Manners of the goods and chattels of Sir Eobert Ogle, outlawed; possessed Dagenham and another manor in Essex, fifty-eight manors in Lia- colnshire, the manor of Foston in Leicestershire, the Digitized by Microsoft® 34 Wifz ^ercic0. castle and manor of Cockermoutli, and eight and a half manors, besides parcels of another manor, several advowsons of churches, and a fourth part of the "barony of Egremont," in the county of Cumberland. His son Henry was at the time in his thirty-fourth year, and had abeady served in several very import- ant capacities. He had married, through the influ- ence of Cardinal Beaufort, the heiress of the three Baronies of Poyniags, Fitzpayne, and Bryan, and, with his paternal estates, possessed, therefore, in all probability, a larger territorial dominion than the family have ever since held, — one of the largest ever owned by a British subject. It was all staked again, —the Earl supporting the Lancastrian cause by force throughout the North, and falling sword in hand while leading Margaret's vanguard in the decisive battle of Towton. Three of his brothers also fell fighting in the same cause, — one. Sir Eichard, along with him at Towton ; another. Sir Thomas, who had been made Baron Egremont, at the battle of North- ampton, in 1460; and the third. Sir Ealph, at Hedge- ley Moor, near ChUliugham Castle, in 1464, exclaim- iug as he died, " I have saved the bird in my bosom!" i.e., his faith to King Henry.* The next heir was thrown into the Tower ; the Yorkist Parliament held in November attainted the family; the earldom and estates were granted to John Neville, Lord Montagu, brother to the King-maker, and once more the house seemed to have been torn up by the roots. This time the eclipse was of short duration. In October 1469, King Edward, jealous of the excessive power of the * He had previously submitted and taken the oath of fealty to King Edward. Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt ^mtes. 35 Nevilles, bethouglit himself of the Percy, and sum- moned the prisoner to his presence. The Percy, be- lieving further resistance hopeless, or tamed by eight years of confinement, took the oath of allegiance, and regained at once his honours and his estates, — Lord Montagu receiving in exchange the barren title of Marquess.* The battle of Barnet, which crushed the Nevilles so completely that the clergyman who now holds the lands of Abergavenny is the only Peer directly representing that almost regal house, con- firmed the Percies in their inheritance. They resumed their old function of ruling the Border, and in 1482 Earl Henry was second in command to Eichard of Gloucester on his triumphant march to Berwick and Edinburgh. He acquiesced in the revolution which placed Eichard on the throne of his nephew. Dis- gusted, however, with Eichard's tjrranny, or annoyed by his obvious determination to break down the bar- onial power, the Earl, on Henry Tudor's arrival, obeyed the Lancastrian instinct of his house, and at the battle of Bosworth drew ofi" his forces to a neigh- bouring hill, and there remained only a spectator. The act was treacherous, and it was expiated; for Henry VH. contrived to bring the Percy, for the first and only time in the history of the house, into direct conflict with the people. Parliament, in 1489, granted * The ease with, which these transfers were effected is one of the many difficult social questions presented by the Wars of the Roses. We believe, however, the explanation is this. All the classes benefit- ing by the feudal system admitted the royal right to transfer estates after attainder ; and the people, however deeply irritated, could not resist the armed class. They, however, liked their old lords best ; and the moment the King's word replaced them resistance became impos- sible. A transfer from them was accepted like an act of conquest — a re-transfer to them like a grace. — (M. T.) Digitized by Microsoft® 36 Wift ^etcits. a heavy subsidy to the King for the war in Bre- tagne; the Earl in vain endeavoured to obtain an abatement, and the people of the north, still Yorkist in their leanings and wild with disappointment and rage, rose in rebellion, and murdered him in his house at Cocklodge, near Thirsk, in Yorkshire. Skelton wrote an elegy on his death. His successor, the fifth Earl, was a man in whom the second attribute of the family — a stately fondness for learning and magnifi- cence — flowered out so fully as to conceal or efface their first — the passion for military success. In 1497, at the age of twenty, he was one who fought and defeated James Touchet, Lord Audley, in the battle of Blackheath, and was with Henry VIH. at the battle of the Spurs, in France ; but he disliked active life, obtained leave to resign the Wardenship of the Marches to the Earl of Surrey, and devoted himself to study and stately ceremonies. The "Household-Book" of this Earl, which has been preserved, presents a singu- lar picture of the semi-regal state of a great noble of those days — a state which combined the feudal power with the social magnificence of later times. There was a council of the great officers of the household, who assisted the Earl in drawing up his code of eco- nomic laws ; the constables and bailiffs of his castles waited on his person in regular succession; all the officers of the household were gentlemen, and the table at which they sat was called the Knights' Board. He kept eleven resident priests, and a doctor or bache- lor of divinity as dean of his chapel, with a regular establishment of choristers. The number of persons permanently supported in his household was two hun- dred and twenty-three, and the annual cost of house- Digitized by Microsoft® Wiie f CTcies. 37 keeping was, in our money, £8951. This magnificent Peer died in 1527, and was succeeded by his son, Henry Algernon, sixth Earl of Northumberland, who as a lad had been educated in the household of Cardinal Wolsey, and had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn. It is still doubtful whether they had not entered iato a contract of marriage when the Cardinal interfered, and Henry Percy was married offhand to a daughter of the Talbots. The in- terference seems to have permanently affected his character. He plunged into debt tiU he acquired the nickname of Henry the Thriftless, and was com- pelled to sell the Poynings estates, lived unhappily with his wife, and separated from her without children. His brother. Sir Thomas Percy, in 1536 joined the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grrace, was exe- cuted at Tyburn, and his whole famUy attainted in blood. Within a month, June 1537, the Earl died of heartbreak ; and, as the nephews could not inherit, the house of Percy-Louvain came momentarily to an end. During this temporary interregnum, the title and the estates were transferred to the Dudleys, the Northumberland, minister of Edward VL, being of that and not of the Percy family ; but the catastrophe of Lady Jane Grey swept them out of the road. Thomas Percy, nephew of the last Earl, regained Scar- borough (seized by a son of Lord Stafford), and Queen Mary annulled the attainder, and regranted estates and earldom to him, with a clause in the patent including his younger brother Henry. Queen Elizabeth con- firmed these grants, and reappointed Earl Thomas War- den ; but he fell under suspicion as an ardent Catholic, D Digitized by Microsoft® 38 W^t jetties, the Wardenship of the Middle and West Marches was bestowed on Lord Grey de Wilton, and a copper miae, discovered on the Percy estates, and from which the Earl appears to have expected unbounded wealth, was appropriated by the Crown. The Earl, greatly dis- gusted, already secretly a friend of the Papacy, most probably involved in some of the many plots of that dangerous period, on the arrest of the Duke of Norfolk, took up arms with two other northern Earls, ia the movement known as the " Eising in the North," and he is the hero of the ballad which bears that title.* The forces of the insurgents were soon discovered to be in- adequate for the enterprise, and after some slight suc- cesses, Northumberland fled, taking refuge in Scotland with an old friend, Hector Graham of Harlaw. In January 1570 Graham betrayed him to the Eegent Murray, and in Jvlj 1572 Morton delivered him up to Lord Hunsdon, and he was beheaded at York, affirm- ing with his last breath the supremacy of the Pope. He left no heir, but the clause in Mary's patent saved the house, and his brother Henry was summoned to Parliament as eighth Earl of Northumberland. Though he had opposed his brother in the field, and at first, at any rate, was hostile to his schemes, Earl Henry had ofiered to assist in liberating Queen Mary of Scotland, which ofier was refused through distrust of him. Elizabeth's ministers, however, seem to have considered h i m in earnest, for they sentenced bim to a fine of 5000 marks. It was never levied, and no opposi- tion was ofiered to his accession to the earldom ; but * " Listen, lively lordings all, Lithe and listen unto mee, And I will sing of a noble earle, The noblest earle in the north countrie." Digitized by Microsoft® W^Z ^tXtitS, 39 for ten years lie had been forbidden to depart from the vicinity of the metropolis, when he was accused of complicity in Throckmorton's conspiracy, and com- mitted to the Tower. Here he remained for more than a year without being brought to trial ; but on the 20th June 1585, a servant of Sir Christopher Hatton's was substituted as his keeper, and the next morning the Earl was found dead, with three bullet- wounds in his chest, and a discharged pistol on the floor. A coroner's inquest returned a verdict of sui- cide ■ but Ealeigh at least believed that the death lay at Hatton's door. Be this as it may, England was getting too hot for the Catholics ; and the Earl's son, Henry, ninth Earl, accompanied Leicester to the Low Countries, joined in the siege of Ostend, and when England was menaced raised a squadron at his own charge, and under the Catholic Howard of Effingham helped to defeat the Axmada. Elizabeth granted him a lease of Sion Park, January 15, 1602; and July 5, 1604, James I. granted him Sion House, a dis- solved nunnery which the Dudleys had possessed, to- gether with the manor of Isleworth. He might, strong in the history of his famUy, have lived down the jealousy caused by his creed, more especially as he was himself a Moderate, but unfortunately he did a Stuart a service — an offence which that famUy, like the Bourbons, could scarcely forgive. The Earl was looked up to by the Catholics as their natural chief, and James promised him in return for his support all manner of favour to the members of the oppressed creed. The negotiations were conducted through a relative of the Eail's, Thomas Percy (afterwards the Gunpowder-Plot conspirator), who was at one time Digitized by Microsoft® 40 W^t Perctcs. Hgh in favour and confidence with James. But on the accession of that King, although he at first afiected favour to Northumberland, and made him one of the Council of State, and Captain of the Band of Gen- tlemen Pensioners, the influence of Cecil was para- mount, and Northumberland soon fell under a cloud. Together with his friends Cobham and Ealeigh, he made secret overtures (not accepted) to the Frencli Court. However, he had the prudence to stop here ; and though he was examined strictly on the discovery of Kaleigh's subsequent plot, no evidence could be found against him, and he was released, after a short confinement. On the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, however, he fell again under suspicion. He had admitted Thomas Percy into the Band of Pensioners without his taking the usual oath, and he was accused of having neglected to use means for his apprehension when he fled into the North on the discovery of the plot. The Earl was first ordered to confine himself to his house (November 7, 1605), and then brought before the Star -Chamber, where the first article against him was that " he had endeavoured to be the head of the Papists, and to procure them toleration ; " and the King had actually the baseness to allow the negotiation with the Catholics, through Thomas Percy, at the end of the reign of Elizabeth, in his own favour, to be brought as evidence in support of this charge, Percy himself being silenced by death. The Earl defended himself very ably, but was sentenced to a fine of £30,000, the loss of all offices, and imprisonment for life in the Tower. James not only confirmed the sentence, but, pleading some delay in the payment of the first in- Digitized by Microsoft® stalment, seized the estates, and leased them for his own benefit.* The Earl remained in prison till July 18, 1621, fifteen years, which he spent in mental cul- ture. He studied mathematics and astronomy — per- haps also astrology — gathered learned men round him, three of whom were called Northumberland's Magi, and earned for himself by his researches the nickname of Henry the Wizard. He was, perhaps, the most accomplished gentleman of his age, and with his fel- low-prisoner Sir W. Ealeigh, turned the rooms of the Tower into a school, to which the flower of the rising generation resorted for instruction. He fell again under suspicion in 1611, was re-examined, but again baffled his enemies, who could find no new evidence against him. At last, released, after he had paid £11,000, by the intervention of the Earl of Carlisle, who had married his youngest daughter (Lady Lucy Percy, Waller's goddess), he exhibited his contempt for the court in an outburst of characteristic magnifi- * "In a petition, addressed to the King (14tli April 1613), the Earl offers Sion as an equivalent for the oppressive fine imposed on him : 'Sion, and please your Majesty, is the only land I can put away, the rest being entailed. I had it before your Majesty's happy entry 48 years by lease, without paying any rent, but such as was given back again certain in other allowances. It hath cost me since your Majesty bestowed it upon me, partly upon the house, partly upon the gardens, about .£9000. The land as it is now rented and rated is worth, to be sold, .£8000, within a little more or less. If your Majesty had it in your hands, it would be better by .£200 a-year more, by the copy- holder's estates, which now payeth but two years' old rent fine ; dealing with them as you do with all your copyholders in England, is worth at the least .£3000. The house itself, if it were to be pulled down and sold, by view of workmen, comes to 8000 and odd pounds. If any man, the best husband in building, should raise such another in the same place, .£20,000 would not do it ; so as according to the work, it may be reckoned, at these rates, ^£31,000 ; and as it may be sold and pulled in pieces, .£19,000 or thereabouts." This proposal, it appears, was not ac- cepted. — Aungier's ' Hist, of Syon Monastery,' pp. *114, *115. Digitized by Microsoft® 42 Wijz ^mit&. cence. Buckingham drove six horses, so the Earl traversed London with eight, and retired first to Bath and then to Petworth, where he maintained a court thronged by nobles and men of learning. The Stuarts paid for their baseness. Earl Henry's eldest son, Algernon, who, in 1632, succeeded him as tenth Earl — who was in 1637 Lord High Admiral, and a man of such influence that Charles I. said "he had courted him like a mistress," and of so stately a character that even Clarendon half forgets his party hatred — stood through life the unswerving foe of the royal power. On the breaking out of the Civil War he was one of the Peers who remained at "Westminster. He tried to negotiate with the King at Oxford, and leaned to the Peace Party in 1643, retiring for a time in iH- humour to Petworth, but after the insincerity of the King became manifest, took his position as a recog- nised leader of the Independents, and after the King's death took the oath to the Commonwealth. On Monk's advance from Scotland, the Earl strove earnestly to secure guarantees before re-admitting the Stuarts, and resisted the punishment of the members of the High Court of Justice which sentenced King Charles, for the avowed reason that the execution, which he had at the time opposed, would be a wholesome warning to future sovereigns. For the rest of his life the stately old man occupied himself with magnificent gardening at Petworth, and, dyiag October 13, 1668, was succeeded by his son Josce- line, namesake of the first of the house, eleventh and last Earl of the house of Percy-Louvain. He died at Turin, 21st May 1670, and once again the line ended in a daughter. It had lasted five hundred years Digitized by Microsoft® WifZ farcies. 43 all but a few montlis, and during that entire period had never been named in Scotland without a sense of fear, or in England without the feeling that here, at least, was one family which could be trusted to face the throne. From the signing of Magna Charta to the last protest against the unconditional re-admission of the evil Scotch house as kings, the Percies had done battle with lives and fortunes against the royal power, were the only great nobles who tried arms against the imperial Henry VIIL, and the last of the barons who ventured to trust their followers in the field against the organised power of the Crown. A brief interregnum carried the famUy over the Eevolution. Earl Josceline's only surviving daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Percy ,'*''■ conveyed the estates, by her second marriage, to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset ; and, as if the family spirit had passed into his brain as its revenue did into his purse, he was among the first to welcome the Prince of Orange in the Eevolution by which the great nobles saved Eng- land from tyranny and themselves from slow extinc- tion. His son Algernon was created Baron Percy, but he again had but one daughter, who, on July 18th, 1740, married Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., of Stanwick, Yorkshire. The Smithson baronetcy arose with Hugh Smithson, the second son of Anthony Smithson, Esq., * She was first married at the age of thirteen to Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, son of the Duke of Newcastle, who assumed the name of Percy, hut died a few months after his marriage. The great heiress was then wooed among others hy Thomas Thyme of Longleat HaU, WUts, and by the adventurer, Count Konigsmark. She leaned to the latter, but her friends affianced her to the former. Before the wedding, however, Thyme was assassinated by agents of the Count, who fled from justice to the Continent. Three months after the murder, she was married (not being yet sixteen) to the Duke of Somerset. Digitized by Microsoft® 44 W^e ^ttcitQ, of Newsome or Newsham, in the parish of Kerby-on- the-Mount, Yorkshire, who was thus rewarded for his past Eoyalist services in the year 1660. The grand- father of the bridegroom had been brought up as a Eoman Catholic, but conformed to the Church. The Duke of Somerset strove for influence, and on 2d October 1749, he was created Baron Warkworth and Earl of Northumberland, with remainder to his son-ia- law. Sir Hugh, and all heirs-male of the Lady Ehza- beth ; and next day Baron Cockermouth and Earl of Egremont, with remainder to his nephew. Sir Charles Wyndham, son of his sister Katherine. With this latter peerage went the estate of Petworth and the Cumberland property, which thus, on the death of the Duke, passed away from the Percies to the family in which they still remain. The Duke dying in 1750, Sir Hugh Smithson succeeded him under the patent, and sixteen years after, on 22d October 1766, was created Earl Percy and Duke of Northumber- land. Petworth was almost made up for by tlie estates at Stanwick, at Armine, in the West Eiduig, and at Tottenham, in Middlesex, which Sir Hugh brought into the family, and the new house revived to the full the magnificence of the Percy-Louvains. The first Duke rebuilt Sion House, Northumberland House (purchased by the ninth Earl from the Howards), and Alnwick Castle, and planted a great part of the county of Northumberland— planting annually, for twenty years, from eleven to twelve hundred thou- sand trees. He also devoted great attention to agri- culture, and for these services— supported doubtless by the purchase of Werrington in Cornwall, whicli commands the borough of Launceston— he obtained Digitized by Microsoft® Eije l^ttdzs, 45 in 1784 the Barony of Alnwick, with remainder to his second son, Algernon, afterwards Baron Lovaine and Earl of Beverley, the bearer of which titles stands now nearest to the family succession. The second Duke (1786), also Hugh, served in America, espe- cially at Lexington; the third (1817) — again Hugh — was the popular and convivial Lord -Lieutenant of Ireland ; and the fourth, Algernon, who was created Baron Prudhoe of Prudhoe Castle, North- umberland, November 27, 1816, and succeeded to the dukedom February 11, 1847, was first Lord of the Admiralty to Lord Derby's Administration, and has been noted for years for a liberality princely in its degree. He has built, rebuUt, and endowed more churches than any peer in Great Britain ; and he estab- lished, at his own expense, a complete system of life- boats along that wild north-east coast, where his name has so long been a household word. "About two years ago," says a writer in the ' Tim.es ' newspaper (I864)i "the Duke of Northumberland, with the co- operation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, estab- lished five new ecclesiastical districts in the large seaport town of North Shields, and appointed the requisite number of clergymen to them. It has not been definitely settled with the Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners what is to be the exact proportion of the Duke of Northumberland's contribution to this magnificent scheme of church-extension, but we believe his Grace does not expect that it will fall much short of £100,000. Exclusive of this large outlay for churches and parson- age-houses, and the immense expenditure upon Aln- wick Castle, the following sums have been expended by the Duke on his estate siace he came into posses- Digitized by Microsoft® 46 Wifz pmieg, sion in 1847. The amounts, under their respective heads, are made np to December 31, 1863 : For roads, bridges, &c., £39,689, Os. Id.; buUdings, cot- tages, &c., £308,336, 12s. 9d.; draining, £176,582, 4s.; total, £524,607, 16s. lOd." The vast possessions of his house have been increased to an extent which probably only the Duke knows, by the development of the underground wealth of his estates; and in 1864, as in 1100, there is in the North no rival in magnificence or social weight to the representative of the Percies. Throughout that great interval, the whole of our Eng- lish history, there has never been a period of twenty years during which the vote of the Percy has not been of the first importance to the Government, scarcely a century in which the Hves and lands of the house have not been staked in defence of the popular cause. There is no other house in England with a history approaching theirs; but their career is enough to indicate why England accepts and Liberals bear the aristocratic influence which foreigners believe to be supported entirely by astute but unprincipled intrigue. Digitized by Microsoft® %fit (Bxt^s of ||0\lJtcll. T seems scarcely fair to tell the story of the Greys immediately after that of the Percies; it will read beside theirs so short and so iasignificant. Our object, however, is to explain the existence of the governing families; and for the last sixty years the great house of Northumberland has had less influence over the course of British policy than its comparatively feeble county rival, and once at least the lesser, house has performed an incomparable service to the nation. To write a history of the families in the north of England which bear or bore the name of Grey, would be a work in itself. Our present object is simply to give a brief notice of the one Grey 'family which is a great political house at the present day, viz., the Greys of Howick, and of other Greys, only those who can be proved to have been of the same blood. The Greys are, in a genealogical sense, some five hundred years old, though they claim, or the " Peerages" for them, a much higher antiquity.^"' Sir * The noble family of Gray in Scotland (summoned as Lords of Parliament in that kingdom in 1437), it may be remarked, bear the same arms as the English Greys, and Douglas in his 'Peerage' conjectures them to have been a younger branch of the latter. Digitized by Microsoft® 48 Wijt &xt^s of ^oMth Thomas de Grey was a gallant soldier in the wars of Edward III., and held, among other manors in North- umberland, that of Howick ; but, as we have no links to connect him with the subsequent Greys of Howick, the historian who cares about accuracy instead of heraldic probabilities wUl prefer to date the existing family from Sir John Grey of Bermck, who was alive in 1372. His son, Sir Thomas Grey of Berwick and Chniingham, had two sons, from the eldest of whom, Sir John Grey, were derived the Lords Grey of Powys, Earls of Tankerville in Normandy, who he- came extinct ia 1551. This Sir John was a distia- guished soldier under Henry V., pushed his fortunes in the war which so nearly ended in the conquest of France and ruin of England, and was at last killed with Thomas, Duke of Clarence, in the disastrous de- feat which that Prince suffered at the hands of the French King's Scotch auxiliaries. From his brother, Sir Thomas Grey of Warke, descended, through three intermediate generations. Sir Ealph Grey of Chilling- ham, in the reign of Henry VIIL, who possessed a moiety of the manor of Howick. His second son. Sir Ealph Grey of Chillingham, who ultimately became his heir, was the father of the first Lord Grey of Warke, who played an important part in the civil war, fought on the popular side, and for some time acted as Speaker of the House of Lords. The great-grand- son of this Lord Grey, though a man devoted at heart to the same cause, is probably the one ancestor of whom the famUy is ashamed, being Forde, third Lord Grey of Warke, one of the very few men of his time and class ever convicted of a want of nerve sufficient to overpower alike the pride of class and the sense of Digitized by Microsoft® K\it ©regs of HoiMtcft. 49 duty. On the explosion of the Eye-House Plot he fled to HoUand in 1683; and, rettirning with the Duke of Monmouth in 1685, accepted the command of Mon- mouth's cavalry, but fled with it from the field of Sedgemoor. He saved himself by giving evidence against his friends ; and his intrigue with his sister- in-law. Lady Henrietta Berkeley, which gave rise to a cause celehre, seems to have outraged even the ideas of that wild age. His trial (in 1682) is one of the strangest records of real overmastering passion ever written. He committed a great crime, but it is im- possible to read the duUy picturesque report in the State Trials without perceiving that the private de- fence of the accused noble, that he was utterly over- mastered by his over love, was true — an admission which, in the majority of such cases, would be utterly false — that by one of those strange accidents, which are never impossible, yet so seldom occur, he had in Henrietta Berkeley found his double, and that for once, in open court, before all England, Paul FerroU's dream was realised — the dream of a love which could survive alike ruin, and sarcasm, and crime. At the last moment, when aU ignominy might have been avoided, and Lord Grey had worked himself up to promise that he would never see his paramour again, he broke down, and refused all terms unless he were permitted to see her. The case was ultimately withdrawn — why, was never explained. His party seem also to have forgiven his cowardice and treachery ; for, on June 11, 1695, he was created Viscount Glen- dale and Earl of TankerviUe. His sole surviving child, a daughter, carried the estate of Chillingham iato the family of Bennet, Lord Ossulston (Arlington Digitized by Microsoft® 50 Wijt (&xt^s of f^otoicft, of the Cabal belonged to these Bennets), who was therefore created Earl of Tankerville; and her de- scendants to this day own the great Chillingham Park, and the breed of white wild bulls, and divide with the Greys of Howick and the Percies the political influ- ence of Northumberland. Sir Ralph, the father of the first Lord Grey of Warke, had a younger brother, Sir Edward Grey of Howick, whose descendant, Henry, was in 1736 owner of the whole of the manor of Howick, and was created a baronet. Two of Sir Henry's sons died unmarried, the eldest having represented the county in 1754 and 1762; another was killed in a duel with Lord Pom- fret ; and the fourth, Charles, was the founder of the existing peerage. He was a soldier of some mark, and distinguished himself, so far as anybody did, m the American war, fought with Earl St Vincent m the West Indies, and in 1801, under the Addington Administration, was raised to the peerage as Baron Grey de Howick, and in 1806 was created Viscount Howick and Earl Grey. He died on the 14th Novem- ber 1807, leaving his dignities to his eldest surviving son Charles, second Earl, and founder of the modem political greatness of the family. He was elected in 1786, being then only twenty-two, member for North- umberland, and threw himself with ardour into poh- tical life. Like all his family he was a determined Whig, followed Fox, shared in the convivialities of Carlton House, and perhaps believed that the Prince who had betrayed every human being who trusted him would not betray a Grey. He was soon known as one of the smaU group of aristocrats who clearly foresaw the future, who contended for Catholic eman- Digitized by Microsoft® Efje &xt^s at l^ototcft, 5i eipation, the removal of the disabilities of the Dissen- ters, the reform of Parliament, the suppression of the slave-trade, and the purification of the administrative machine, which had slowly rotted into an engine for efficient corruption. In 1806 he entered the Gren- ville Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty, and on the death of Fox, succeeded him as Secretary for Foreign Afiairs. The question of Catholic emancipa- tion formed, however, a bar to his further rise under George III., — Whigs in those days having convictions as well as traditions, — and on the Eegent's accession, he was, like the rest of his party, betrayed, the King hoping to compound for a hundred perjuries by keep- ing one oath which he did not comprehend. The Earl, fortified by a pride such as only an EngKsh Whig Peer, a Cardinal, or a Brahmin ever honestly feels, neither compromised nor gave way ; and even when Canning made a movement towards Liberal opinions, and drew around him some of the leading Whig statesmen, Lord Grey stood haughtily aloof, proclaiming in no whispered voice his want of confi- dence. The people admired his consistency, and on the accession of William IV. he was the recognised head of the Whigs, and in that capacity succeeded the Duke of Wellington as Premier. Then came the Eeform struggle, in which the unbending character of the Earl was the very mainstay of his party, and en- abled them for the first time in English history to effect a complete transfer of power without an appeal to arms or a change of dynasty. Mr Eoebuck will have it that the Earl quailed at last, and would, had the Kiag been firm, have decfined to swamp the Up- per House; but the statement is inconsistent with the Digitized by Microsoft® 52 Wi}t <&xt^s of l^ototcft. fact, that the vote could have been carried by the ele- vation of elder sons and other devices, without that possibly disastrous resort. Be that as it may, in the first Eeform Administration the special character of the Premier and the special uses of an aristocracy came out in their strongest colours. No Parliament ever sat in which "dangerous" tendencies were more apparent. Brains had grown hot in the contest, and the people were more than half inclined to plunge at once into the unknown, and effect farther radical changes in the constitution which had worn so well, Fortunately for all the empire, except Ireland— which under the new middle-class power lost its best chance of final reorganisation — every mood of the popular mind had to be strained first through the aristocratic sieve, which when it included Earl Grey had very- close meshes indeed, and time was allowed for the trial of an organisation which, after thirty years of determined and not inglorious effort, now once more seems feeble, because, throughout an empire whose power, as Pozzo di Borgo said, "has earth for its base," there is not out of Ireland a grievance sharp enough to stir the national blood. Earl Grey retired in 1834 from official life (dying July 17, 1845) ; but the political influence of his family, founded on his reputation, has not been diminished in the hands of his successor, Henry, second Earl, — a man in whom all his father's qualities seem intensified. If he were not the most impracticable of mankind, there would be in England no statesman with a chance against Earl Grey; and his administration of the colonies, still but partially understood, will one day be found to have involved as bold, as successful, and Digitized by Microsoft® W^t <&xts& of llotoicfe. 53 as important a revolution as that wHch Ids great father carried through. At this moment there is, perhaps, no family in England more largely employed in the public service than that which looks to Earl Grey as its head, and scarcely one in which there have been so few conspicuous failures. E Digitized by Microsoft® Ci)e iLo\utf)Ersi. J HE history of tlie Lowthers is that of immense and almost unbroken eiyO success. Though they date from the earlier feudal period, and possess to this day a power more nearly feudal than that of any famUy in England except the Percies and the Wynns, they would be defined on the Continent as belonging rather to the peerage " of the robe " than the nobility of the sword, A race of proud, sensitive, and singularly efficient men, they have filled high ofiice as lawyers, battled bravely as politicians, and performed once or twice great service as Ministers of the State ; but they have not contributed generals, or reared up great admirals, or flung back invasion at their own cost and charge. They have been great servants of the State, not great members of it. Their original ancestry is hard to trace, but it cannot have been a high one, for the family takes its name from the little Westmoreland river. The name of William de Lowther appears at the head of the gentry of Westmoreland as witness to a deed in the reign of Henry H., and Sir Thomas and Sir Gervase de Lowther occur in the register of Wetherel Priory, under Henry HI. The great-grand- Digitized by Microsoft® €]}e ILototJjers, 55 son of Sir Gervase, Sir Htjgh de Lowther, performed the functions of Attorney-General in the twentieth year of Edward I., and may be accepted as the founder of the great fortunes of the house. This Sir Hugh possessed lands in the hamlet of Whale and in Thurmby, as well as the manor of Lowther, and was also seised of the manor and town of Widehope in Cumberland. Sir Hugh represented the shire of West- moreland in Parliament in 1300 and 1305, was "a justice itinerant and escheater on the north side of the Trent," and for five hundred years there never again sat a Parliament which was not attended by a Lowther or a Lowther's direct nominee. His eldest son, also Sir Hugh, sided with the Earl of Lancaster in the struggle with Gaveston, but subsequently made his peace with the King ; and a brother, Thomas de Low- ther, became in 1330 a justice, and in the following year Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland. It was a habit of this house, as we shall see, to export its cadets to Ireland. The second Sir Hugh married the daughter and heiress of Lucie Lord Egremont, Baron of Cockermouth, and obtained licence ta make a park in his manor of Lowthee. This feudal privilege obtained, the family rested for years, though Sir Hugh's great-grandson was at Agincourt; but the grandson of the Agincourt hero married the daughter of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, a half-sister of Henry Lord Chfford — the " Shepherd Lord" of baUad and romance — and his grandson again intermarrying with his cousin, the daughter of the "Shepherd Lord," the double alliance greatly increased the consequence of the Low- thers. Sir Eichard was made Warden of the West Marches and High Sheriff of Cumberland — then a Digitized by Microsoft® 56 Efje ILofotJinrs. quasi-military dignity — and was sent by Queen Eliza- beth to receive Mary of Scotland after her flight from the field of Langside. He earned the Queen's dis- pleasure in this office ; but he had not incurred the hate of any of the Queen's Ministers, and died peace- fully ia his bed, having " kept up plentiful hospitality for fifty-seven years." His fourth son. Sir Gerard, who possessed the manor, town, and park of Lowther in Fermanagh, besides other landed property in Ireland, became Chief Justice ia that kingdom, was ex officio one of the Lords Justices who carried on the govern- ment, and in 1654 was appointed by Cromwell Lord Chancellor. Another son. Sir Lancelot, of county KjI- dare, was also a Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland ; but the main line were Eoyahsts, and only kept their estates by living in close retirement. Their head ia the earlier part of the reign of Charles I. was Sir John Lowther, nephew of the Irish Chancellor, who pur- chased for his second son Christopher the lands of the dissolved monastery of St Bees, at Whitehaven, in Cumberland, and it is to this son that the rise of that port is due. The use of coal had then just become general in England, and Sir Christopher conceived the idea of making his possessions productive by opening some collieries, " but no considerable progress was made till after the Eestoration," when his son, Sir John Lowther, " formed a plan for working the miaes on a very extensive scale, and in 1666 procured a grant of aU 'the ungranted lands within the district." Two years afterwards he obtained a gift of "the whole sea-coast for two mUes northward, between high and low water-mark." He then turned his attention to the port, and formed the present haven. Besides tMs Digitized by Microsoft® Whitehaven property, out of which he had carved an estate for his second son Sir Christopher, the head of the Lowthers left to his eldest son, John (created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1640), in the county of Westmoreland, the manors of Lowther, Helton-Flecket, Banpton, Knipe, Crosby, Ravensworth, and the moiety of the tithes in Shaps Land, Sleagill, and G-reat Strick- land ; and in the county of Cumberland, the manors of Thwaites, Threlkeldwaite, Sliddal, Malmesmeburn, Drunburgh Castle, and the moiety of Regal Grange. Sir John's eldest son (Colonel John Lowther) dying before his father, and leaving a motherless boy also called John, the latter was brought up entirely by his grandfather, and at the age of fifteen sent to Queen's College, Oxford, and thence abroad. On the death of his father, John Lowther was returned as one of the Knights of the Shire for Westmoreland, which county he continued to represent as long as he remained a commoner. He was in opposition to the Duke of York during the debates on the Succession Bill, rather leant to the Crown at the commencement of the reign of James II., but grew, with most other Protestant gentlemen, alarmed at the King's favour to Roman Catholics, and joined in the invitation to William of Orange. So earnest was he in the cause that he aban- doned the somewhat over-pacific tactics of his house, secured Carlisle, and induced the counties of West- moreland and Cumberland to declare in the Prince's favour. He was rewarded with the Lord-Lieutenancy of Westmoreland and Cumberland; and in 1690, on Carmarthen becoming first Minister, Sir John Lowther assumed the lead of the Lower House. Lowther, says Macaulay, " was a man of ancient descent, ample Digitized by Microsoft® 58 Eije iLototl^Ers. estate, and great Parliamentary interest. Thougli not an old man, he was an old senator ; for lie had before he was of age succeeded his father as Knight of the Shire for Westmoreland. In truth, the repre- sentation of Westmoreland was almost as much one of the hereditaments of the Lowther family as Lowther Hall. Sir John's abilities were respectable ; his man- ners, though sarcastically noticed in contemporary- lampoons as too formal, were eminently courteous; his personal courage he was but too ready to prove ; his morals were irreproachable ; his time was divided between respectable labours and respectable pleasures; his chief business was to attend the House of Com- mons and to preside on the Bench of Justice; his favourite amusements were reading and gardening. In opinions he was a very moderate Tory. He was attached to hereditary monarchy and to the Estab- lished Church ; but he had concurred in the Revolu- tion ; he had no misgivings touching the title of William and Mary ; he had sworn allegiance to them without any mental reservation, and he appears to have strictly kept his oath. By Carmarthen's influ- ence Lowther was now raised to one of the most im- portant places in the kingdom. Unfortunately it was a place requiring qualities very different from those which suffice to make a valuable county member and chairman of quarter sessions. The tongue of the new First Lord of the Treasury was not sufficiently ready, nor was his temper sufficiently callous for his post. He had neither adroitness to parry nor fortitude to endure the gibes and reproaches to which, in his new character of courtier and placeman, he was exposed. There was also something to be done which he was Digitized by Microsoft® Wist Hototljcrs, 59 too scrupulous to do, sometliing wHcli had never been done by Wolsey or Burleigh, something which has never been done by any English statesman of our generation, but which, from the time of Charles II. to the time of George III., was one of the most important parts of the business of a Minister." We need hardly say that this was " corruption," and as his agent in this work in the House of Commons, Carmarthen passed over Lowther and selected Sir John Trevor. Lowther underwent the usual fate of a prominent Minister — unlimited abuse from his political oppo- nents, and for a time alienated the affections of his friends the country gentlemen also. In one of the debates on ofl&cial salaries he was quite overwhelmed by the storm of objections. "He lost his head, almost fainted away on the floor of the House, and talked about righting himself in another place." Such, in- deed was his susceptibility on points of honour that once, while he was First Lord of the Treasury, he actu- ally accepted a challenge from a Custom-house ofiicer whom he had dismissed, and received a severe wound in the duel. Such a man was Httle fitted for the leadership of the Commons, and in 1692 he accepted a seat at the Board of Admiralty, and was succeeded at the Treasury by Sir Edward Seymour. On the Triennial Bill he differed from Carmarthen, taking the side of the Tory squires, who strongly opposed it ; and on the 28th May 1696, he was raised to the Peer- age as Baron Lowther and Viscount Lonsdale. He was expected to afford the King's Government great assistance in the Lords ; but his health broke down, and for the next two years "he employed himself in. beautifying his new house, planting the Digitized by Microsoft® 60 El)^ ILototijers. neighbourliood, and caUing in Verrio to paint gorgeous frescoes representing the gods at the banquet of Ambrosia." In 1698 be, as a trusted personal friend, yielded to the King's importunity, accepted the office of Lord Privy Seal, and resisted the "Eesumption Bill," the measure for resuming the Irish grants to the King's favourites. He was named in July 1 700 one of the Lords whom Queen Mary was to consult ; but his death on the 10th of the same month rendered the appointment a merely nominal honour. He was suc- ceeded by two sons successively, the latter of whom, Henry, Lord of the Bedchamber and Lord Privy Seal, died in 1750, unmarried, the last of the Viscounts Lonsdale. The family succession was not, however, interrupted. The Viscount left his estates to Robert Lowther of Meaburn, Westmoreland, his heir-at-law, the grandson of Eichard Lowther, a "Turkey mer- chant," uncle of the first Lord Lonsdale. James Lowther, son of this Eobert Lowther, seems to have caught the commercial instinct. He turned the college buUding, erected by his predecessor, into a manufactory "for most beautiful stockings, and car- pets of strength and look little inferior to those of Persia. A few of these were sold for from £63 to £105 ; but they were wrought chiefly for his own use, or to be given in presents to his friends." Sir James also erected a steam-engine for the use of the collieries at Whitehaven, in which property he had succeeded his relative, Sir James Lowther of Whitehaven. The new head of the family was for more than thirty years a member of the House of Commons for the counties of Westmoreland or Cumberland, and Lord -Lieutenant of both counties. Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz ILofajtl^ers* 61 On the 24th of May 1784 he was raised to the titles of Baron Lowther, Kendal, and Burgh (the latter title derived from a place in Cumberland), Viscount Lonsdale and Lowther, and Earl of Lonsdale; and on October 10, 1797, he was created Baron and Viscount Lowther of Whitehaven, with a collateral remainder of these titles to the heirs male of the body of his cousin, the Eev. Sir William Lowther of SwlI- lington. Baronet. In 1761 he married a daughter of the celebrated Earl of Bute, the favourite of George IIL's mother, and died May 24, 1802, without issue. In him the Lowther peculiarities culminated in an eccentricity which almost approached to madness. Of a gloomy and morose disposition, full of evU tempers and great ideas, he was known throughout Westmoreland and Cumberland as the "Bad Earl." De Quincey relates how he used to drive through small towns in which every face was grave from dread of his oppressive temper ; and the people of his estates felt his arrival as those of a guilty town might feel that of an executioner. He used to exhibit his con- tempt for form by driving about in an old neglected carriage with untrimmed horses, and allowing droves of wild horses to thunder about his park. He seldom went to London, but even there his haughty temper displayed itself ; and he actually left an estate to his successor as a reward for standing as second in a duel no one else would take up. His carriage had been stopped by an officer in command of a party appointed to keep Piccadilly clear for the attendance on a great levee, and he actually challenged the officer, who iasisted on doing his duty in spite of the remon- strant's rank. There was, however, a sentimental Digitized by Microsoft® 62 Wift iLototfjcrs, side to the character of this gloomy Earl. " He loved with passionate fervour a fine young woman, of humble parentage, in a Cumberland farmhouse. Her he had persuaded to leave her father, and put herseK under his protection. Whilst yet young and beautiful she died ; Lord Lonsdale's sorrow was profound— lie caused her to be embalmed, a glass was placed over her features," and at intervals the Earl paid visits to "this sad memorial of his former happiaess." He resisted the payment of aU biUs on principle — nearly ruining the Wordsworths, among others ; and the first task of his successor was to remedy the many acts of injustice of which his cousin's half -lunatic, haK-impe- rial mind — the man offered to give and maintain a seventy-four for a war which he disapproved — had induced him to commit. The memoirs of his day are full of the strange acts of the Bad Earl, and he had the honour of forcing Parliament to pass an Act to restrain his inju.stice. " The Portland family enjoyed the manor of Penrith by a grant from King WiUiam IIL, and they had likewise, for almost seventy years, possessed the adjoining forest of Inglewood, thougli not strictly included in the terms of the original grant." Sir James Lowther — it was in the year 1768, before his ennoblement — " the dangerous neighbour of the Bentincks in those parts" — determined to avail himself of the ancient legal maxim that the rights either of Crown or Church are not lost by any lapse of time — Nullum tempus occurrit Regi vel Ecchm. He solicited a lease of the King's interest in the forest of Inglewood, and the boon was too readily and too partially yielded by the Ministry, not displeased to mortify a political opponent, as the Duke of Portland Digitized by Microsoft® SDJje ILolMtljcrs* 63 had then become. This act of Sir James provoked a Bill in Parliament called the Nullum Tempus Bill, to secure the property of a subject at any time after sixty years' possession from any dormant pretension of the Crown. The outrage struck half the nobles of England ; and though the Earl had strength enough, through his influence with Lord North, to get the Bill postponed for one session, it passed in the next almost without opposition. The source of that strength is, perhaps, best indicated in the letters of William Pitt. Sir James had been induced, through the Duke of Eutland, to nominate him for Appleby, and " I have seen Sir James," writes Pitt to his mother, " who has repeated to me the offer he had before made, and in the handsomest manner. Judging from my father's principles, he concludes that mine would be agreeable to his own, and on that ground, to me of all others the most agreeable, to bring me in. No kind of condition was mentioned, but that if ever our lines of conduct should become opposite I should give him an oppor- tunity of choosing another person. Appleby is the place I am to represent, and the election will be made (probably in a week or ten days) without my having any trouble, or even visitiag my constituents." In a second letter he adds, " I have not yet received the notification of my election. It will probably not take place tUl the end of this week, as Sir James Lowther was to settle an election at Haslemere before he went into the north, and meant to be present at Appleby afterwards." That was the system from which the Reform Bill delivered us, though it has at the same time prevented the possibility of men like Pitt enter- ing at twenty-one into Parliament. The peerages Digitized by Microsoft® 64 W^t ^.ototJjers. bestowed on Sir James Lowther were doubtless tokens of tlie appreciation by tbe King and his Minister of the services thus rendered to both. The Earl, how- ever, did not reciprocate this gratitude, for on the occasion of the Regency BUI, in 1788, he yielded to the personal solicitation of the Prince of Wales to oppose Mr Pitt. " The Earl issued his mandate accordingly, and Lord Lonsdale's people," as Mr Grenville terms them — that is, the members whom he nominated — " declared themselves, reluctantly per- haps, against the Government." All the Lowther estates went (as we have men- tioned), on the first Earl's death, to his cousin, Sir William Lowther of Swillington, in Yorkshire, de- scended from William, a brother of the Sir Jolin Lowther who was grandfather of the first Viscount Lonsdale. One baronetcy had become extinct in this branch, but Sir WiUiam's father had obtained a new patent, and Sir William became, by virtue of Earl James's patent of 1797, Baron and Viscount Lowther, and in 1819 was raised to the dignity of Earl of Lonsdale. He seems to have been an amiable man — an amiability not the less appreciated from his contrast to his wild predecessor ; but he is chiefly remembered as a munificent patron of the fine arts, and the peer who changed Lowther Hall into the magnificent seat now styled " Lowther Castle." His son, the present Earl, has taken a prominent part in public life from 1810, when he became a Lord of the Admiralty, down to February 1852, when he was Lord Derby's Presi- dent of the Council. He is the Lord Eskdale of Disraeli's ' Tancred ' — a man with every ability except the ability to make his powers useful to mankind. Digitized by Microsoft® Eije 5Lototi)cri5, 65 The race under the present patents is in no danger of dying out ; it still rules Westmoreland and Cumber- land, and is, perhaps, among English families, the best representative of those "lesser barons" of the Plan- tagenet period who, except in Northumberland, have eaten out their mighty and warlike rivals. In all the qualities which make citizens they are, perhaps, the better class ; but the Lowthers are scarcely the men who, m the hour of utter ruin, will say as their single boast, "I have saved the bird in my bosom." Digitized by Microsoft® Cf)e ¥mt& ox jFanes* /^!77?^t^l HIS family is now represented by the Earl of Westmoreland in the elder brancli, and by the Duke of Cleveland and Frances Marchioness of London- derry and her son, Earl Vane, ia the yoimger branch. The heralds of the reign of Elizabeth gave it a Welsh pedigree from a supposed " Howel-ap-Vane of Monmouthshire " — time not stated, but who, from a computation of genera- tions, must have lived before the Conquest. No names of residences or any authorities, however, ap- pear in support of this genealogy, until we reach a Henry Vane who is said to have been knighted for his gallantry at the battle of Poictiers. But the pedigree still gives us no habitat for the family until we reach the reign of Henry VI., when we find a Heney Vane of the manor of Hilden, in the parish of Tunbridge, Kent, who would seem to be the undoubted ancestor of the great families above mentioned. This Hem-y Vane of Hilden, Kent, had three sons — John, Thomas, and Henry, of whom Thomas left a son, Humphrey, who died without issue. By his will, dated 1455, their father devised the manor of Hilden to his eldest son, John, and the par- Digitized by Microsoft® Ei)e Fanes or jFanes* 67 sonage to Ms youngest, Henry. The manor was sold in the tenth year of Henry VH. ; and the parsonage was also sold in the reign of Edward VI. Henry Vane had a son, Ealph, who was knighted at the fight at Boulogne, 1544 ; and in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Henry VHI. granted to him (as Sir Ealph i'kne) and to Anthony Tutsham, Esq., the manor of Shipborne, Kent, with its appurtenances, lately be- longing to the monastery of Dartford, and the manor of Shipborne alias Puttenden, lately belonging to the monastery of Tunbridge, and the lands in the tenure of John Hart, and the lands and chapel of Shipborne with all their appurtenances, to hold of the King in capite by knight's service ; soon after which Anthony Tutsham released all his interest to Sir Ealph. The latter, for his valour at the battle of Musselburgh in the first of Edward VI., was made a Knight Banneret, and became a favourite and leading counsellor of the Protector Somerset. He shared his downfall ; and, being engaged in the conspiracy against Dudley, which proved fatal to the Duke, he was apprehended in October 1551. He had escaped over the river, but was taken in a stable in Lambeth hidden under the straw. Palmer, the informer, stated that Sir Ealph Vane was to have brought 2000 men to assist the Duke in his enterprise. He was brought to trial, found guilty, and executed on Tower HUl, February 26. Burnet says of him : " Sir Ealph Vane was the most lamented of them aU. He had done great services in the wars, and was esteemed one of the bravest gentlemen of the nation. He pleaded for himself that he had done his country considerable service during the wars, though now, in time of peace. Digitized by Microsoft® 68 Wi}z Vants or Janes, the coward and the courageous were equally esteemed. He scorned to make any submissions for life. But tHs height of mind in him did certainly set forward his condemnation ; and, to add more infamy to him in the manner of his death, he and Partridge were hanged, whereas the other two were beheaded." On the scaffold he protested with the rest that he had never been guilty of any design either against the King or to kill the Lords ; and he added " that his blood would make Northumberland's pillow uneasy to him." He died without issue. John Vane, the elder brother of Sir Ealph's father, Henry, obtained either by grant or purchase the mansion and estate of Hadlow Place, in Tunbridge, and had four sons and three daughters. He took or used the spelling "Fane;" and by his will, bearing date April 16, 1488, writing himself "John Fane of Tunbridge, Esq.," he makes certaiu bequests to the church of Tunbridge, and also 6s. 8d. to every one of the churches of Had- low, Leigh, East Peckham, Seale, Morden, Lamber- hurst, Betburgh, Wittersham, and Snargate, in Kent, in all of which places he held lands. He bequeathed to Eichard Fane, his second son (ancestor of the Earls of Westmoreland), the manor of Snargate, and, after his wife's death, his lands in Morden and Lamber- hurst; to his third son, Thomas, the mansion, &c., that was his father's ; and to his youngest son, John (ancestor of the noble families of Vane), when he came of age, all his lands and tenements called " Holynden." The rest of the landed property is left to his eldest son Henry, and his other sons in succes- sion — his lordship called "Albonys" being left to this Henry in fee. John Fane or Vane's will was proved Digitized by Microsoft® K\}z Fanes or £fmzs. 69 on June 8 of the same year. His eldest son, Henry, resided at Hadlow, and was Sheriff of Kent in 23d Henry VH. He died without issue in 1538; and by his will, left to his youngest brother, John, all his lands lying in Great Peckham, Kent ; and in default of issue male, to Ealph Fane his cousin and the heirs male of his body; remainder to Eichard Fane, his next brother ; and after several other remainders, to Ealph Fane and his heirs for ever ; and his manor and place wherein he then dwelt, with aU his lands in Hadlow and Capel, to Ealph Fane in tail male ; remainder to each of the sons of his youngest brother, John Fane, successively in like tail. The here to the rest of his property was his brother, Eichard Fane. The third brother, Thomas (of London), had died before Henry Fane in 1532, and bequeathed to his brother, John Fane, his grey ambling maxe which he had of his gift, and his lands lying in Tunbridge, called the " Vault- ney." From this Thomas descended Thomas Fane of Fairlane, Kent, who died in September 1692, and left his estate of £30,000 per annum to Mildmay Vane, seventh son of Vere Fane, Earl of Westmoreland. We will first pursue the fortunes of the elder branch — the Westmoreland Fanes. Eichard Fane, elder brother of the above Thomas Fane and of John Fane, the ancestor of the Vane or younger branch of the Fanes, married Agnes, daughter and heir of Thomas Stidolph, Esq., of Badsele, in Tudeley, Kent, with whom he had that estate, on which he resided. His only son, George Fane, was seated at Badsele, which was settled on him. by his father. He was Sheriff of Kent in the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary, and died February 4, 1571. He married Joan, Digitized by Microsoft® 70 Wift Fams or jFaneiS. daughter of WiUiam Waller, Esq., of Groombridge, Kent, and was succeeded by bis son Tbomas, who in bis youtb was one of tbe gentlemen of Kent that engaged in Sir Thomas Wyat's insurrection in Mary's reign, was committed prisoner to tbe Tower, and at- tainted of high treason, but was pardoned by the Queen. He was knighted at the Castle of Dover August 26, 1573, by Robert, Earl of Leicester, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. The fortune of the Fanes was made by his second marriage (December 12, 1574, at Birling, in Kent) to Mary Neville, daugh- ter and heiress of Henry, Lord Abergavenny. On the death of her father she inherited the manors of Bir- ling, Eyarshe, Ealding alias Yalding, Luddesdon, the rectory of All Saints in Birling, and advowson of the vicarage of Birling ; the manor of West Peckham and Maplecomb in West Peckham, and advowson of the church ; the manor of Mereworth, and advowson of the church, and farm of Old Haie alias Holehaie, all in the county of Kent. Her husband. Sir Thomas Fane, died March 13, 1589. He resided sometimes atBad- sele, sometimes at his wife's seat of Mereworth Castle. Mary, Lady Fane, his widow, had on the death of her father in 1587 laid claim to the title of Baron- ess of Abergavenny or Bergavenny, in opposition to Edward Neville, son of Sir Edward Neville, younger brother of George Lord Abergavenny, Lady Fane's grandfather, on which Sir Edward Neville the Castle of Abergavenny had been settled by wiU and by Act of Parliament. The claim was not determined till after Sir Thomas Fane's death. May 15, in the 1st of James I., when the barony of Abergavenny was adjudged to the heir male, the ancestor of the present Earl of Digitized by Microsoft® K\iz Fanes or jFanes* 71 Abergavenny, tlie only existing heir male of the great house of Neville. As some compensation to Lady Fane, the old barony of Le Despencer was called out of abeyance in her favour, with the ancient seat, place, and precedence of her ancestors, to her and the heirs of her body, as being descended from Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Isabel, sister and heir of Richard le Despencer, Earl of . Gloucester and Lord le De- spencer, son of Edward Lord le Despencer (by Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh), descended from Hugh le Despencer, Earl of Winchester, and Baron le Despencer (Edward XL's favourite), son of Hugh le Despencer, Justice of Eng- land in the reign of Henry IIL The barony of De- spencer continued in the Fane family till 1762, when it fell again iato abeyance between the sisters of the Earl of Westmoreland, and was called out again in 1763 in favour of the Dashwood family, from whom in a similar manner it has passed to tlie Stapletons. Mary Fane, Baroness le Despencer, died June 28, 1626, and the barony then devolved on her eldest son, Francis, who was made a Knight of the Bath, July 15, 1603, and on December 29, 1624, was advanced to the titles of Baron Burghersh and Earl of Westmore- land. He married Mary, daughter and heir of Sir Anthony Mddmay of Apethorp, Northamptonshire, with whom he had a great estate. He died in 1628. His eldest son, Mildmay, succeeded him as second Earl of Westmoreland, adhered to Charles L in the Civil War; but in 1643, with several other noblemen, abandoned that cause in disgust at the Irish " Cessa- tion," submitted to the Parliament, and on April 22, 1645, with the Earls of Holland, Thanet, and Mon- Digitized by Microsoft® 72 Efje Uanes or jFaites. mouth, and the Lord Saville, took the oaths required from those who adopted this course. He was author of a volume of poems, ' Otia Sacra,' privately printed in 1648, and died February 12, 1665. He was twice married, his second wife being a daughter and co- heiress of Horace, Lord Vere of Tilbury ; and his two sons by these marriages, Charles and Vere, became successively third and fourth Earls of Westmoreland, the latter dying December 29, 1693, and being suc- ceeded by his sons, Vere, Thomas, and John, succes- sively as fifth, sixth, and seventh Earls of Westmore- land. The sixth Earl held the household appointments of a Lord of the Bedchamber to Prince George of Den- mark, and Gentleman of the Bedchamber to George I., was Chief Justice of the Forests south of the Trent, and sworn of the Privy Council in 1717. On May 19, 1719, he was appointed First Lord Commissioner of Trade and the Plantations, which ofiice he resigned in May 1735, and died June 4, 1736. His brother and successor, John, seventh Earl, distinguished him- self in the wars under the Duke of Marlborough, and had the command of several regiments. On October 4, 1733, he was created a peer of Ireland as Baron Catherlough, and served in the English House of Commons during several Parliaments. In 1737 he was appointed Warden of the east baUiwick in Eocking- ham Forest, and joint Chief Eanger with the Earl of Exeter. In 1739 he became Lieutenant-General in the army. He then retired to his seat of Mereworth Castle, which he rebuilt after a plan by Palladio. On January 1, 1754, he was appointed Lord High Steward of the University of Oxford, and in 1759 he was elected Chancellor of that University. He died Digitized by Microsoft® Eije Uanes ov Jaws. 73 August 26, 1762, without issue, when, tlie barony of Despencer, as we have said, fell into abeyance, and the earldom of Westmoreland and barony of Burghersh devolved on his cousin. Thomas Fane, of Brympton, in Somersetshire, merchant in Bristol, great-grandson of Sir Francis Fane, younger son of Francis the first Earl of Westmoreland. Six Francis had obtained some reputation as a dramatic writer, and as Governor of Doncaster Castle and Lincoln for the King in the Civil War. His third son, Henry, was made a Knight of the Bath in 1661 ; and, April 18, 1689, was ap- pointed by William IH. Commissioner of Excise, and sat in several Parliaments of that reign. His son Charles was of the Privy Council to George I., and was created in 1718 Viscount Fane and Baron of Loughairne in the Irish Peerage, which titles became extinct in 1782. Thomas Fane, who succeeded as eighth Earl of Westmoreland, died November 12, 1771, and was succeeded by his son John, ninth Earl, who as well as his father represented Lyme Eegis in Parliament before their accession to the Peerage. He died April 26, 1774, and was succeeded as tenth Earl by his son John, who married first Sarah Anne, sole daughter and heiress of Eobert Child, Esq., of Osterley Park, Middlesex, the celebrated banker ; and his eldest daughter by her. Lady Sarah Sophia, by the will of her grandfather Child, inherited his large fortune, which by her marriage to Mr George Villiers, after- wards Earl of Jersey, she carried away to that family. The Earl of Westmoreland, her father, died December 15, 1841, and was succeeded as eleventh Earl by his son John, a distinguished officer during the French war. Digitized by Microsoft® 74 STJje Fanes or iFaties, and well known afterwards as Ambassador at Berlin and Vienna, and still better as an amateur composer and patron of music. He died October 16, 1859, and was succeeded by his son Francis WiUiam Henry, tweHth and present Earl of Westmoreland. The Fanes have for some time been supporters of the Tory or Conservative interest, but have not been prominent in domestic politics. We must now turn to the other branch of the Fanes or Vanes — descended from John Fane, younger brother of the ancestor of the Westmoreland family. John Fane had received, as we have seen, some lands at Holynden, Kent, from his father, and by the will of his elder brother, Henry, lands lying in Great Peckham. He married Joan, daughter and coheiress of Edward Haute, Esq., by whom he had three sons, Henry, Eichard, and Thomas (of Winchelsea). Henry succeeded, by virtue of the entail made by his uncle Henry, to the manor of Hadlow, after the execution of Sir Ealph Vane, and he seems to have also obtained the rest of his unfortunate kinsman's property at Shipbome and elsewhere. He engaged, like his rela- tive of the Westmoreland branch, in Wyat's insurrec- tion, like him was sent to the Tower, and also par- doned by the Queen. The whole family, indeed, were among the early and most zealous Protestants. In the two first Parliaments of Elizabeth he was returned for Winchester, and became a leading member of the House of Commons. He died June 11, 1581, leaving his son and heir, Henry, of the age of twenty years. He repaired to the camp at Tilbury on the occasion of the Spanish invasion in 1588, the county of Kent contributing thereto 150 horse and 5000 foot, a larger Digitized by Microsoft® Wiit Fanes or Jatxes. 75 force than any county except Middlesex. He liad afterwards a command in the forces sent to France to the assistance of Henry of Navarre, and died at Rouen, October 14, 1596. His will and that of his father show that they were strongly imbued with the religious tone of the more earnest Protestants of that age. It appears by the inquisition taken after his death that he possessed, besides the manors already enumerated, those of Goodins alias Fromonds, Crowberry alias Croweberry, and Camiston alias Cawstons, all in Kent, which descended to his eldest son and heir, Henry, then of the age of seven. This Henry Fane, born in 1589, resumed the old form of the family name — Vane. He was knighted by James I. in 1611, and afterwards travelled for three years and mastered several foreign languages. On his return to England he was elected to the Parliament of 1614 for Carlisle, and from this time for many years was very influential in the counsels of James and Charles. The former King appointed him, soon after his entrance iato Parliament, cofierer to the Prince ; and the latter retained him on his accession to the throne, and made him one of his Privy Council. He sat for Carlisle in the Parliaments of 1620 and 1625, and in every suc- ceeding Parliament during his life, for Thetford in Norfolk, the county of Kent, and (in the Long Parlia- ment) for Wilton in Wiltshire. He was eminent as a diplomatist, but in other respects a mere self-seeking, laborious man of business, without the slightest eleva- tion of character. But he was an ambitious man, and he seems to have desired to emulate the kindred Westmoreland branch by founding in his own family a peerage. The great estates of the Nevilles Earls of Digitized by Microsoft® 76 Efje Fanes or jFattes. Westmoreland in the north, which had been forfeited for their rebellion in the reign of Elizabeth, were at this time in the hands of the citizens of London, to whom they had been granted by the Crown as trustees for the purpose of sale ; and probably it was the fact of the Fanes having obtained by marriage some of the Kentish estates of the Abergavenny branch of the Nevilles that led Sir Henry Vane of Hadlow to turn his attention to the Neville estates in the bishopric of Durham. Accordingly he purchased, during the reign of James I., the great lordship and manor of Eaby Castle in that county, and seems to have continued his purchases over several years, in 1626 becom- ing the purchaser of the honour of Barnard Castle in the same county, and acquiring altogether a large estate in that district, of which he made Eahy Castle the chief seat. He also purchased about the year 1639 another estate in Kent, viz., the mansion of Fairlawn, with the lands belonging to it, in Wrotham ; and at a subsequent period he disposed of the family estate of Hadlow, and Fairlawn became the centre of the Kentish estate of the Vanes, including the manors of Shipborne, &c. In 1631 Sir Henry was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Denmark, and in a similar capacity to confirm a peace and alliance with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and concluded both missions successfully. He returned home in 1632, and the next year gave a princely entertainment at Eaby Castle to King Charles, then on his way to Scotland to be crowned. He again entertained him at the same place in 1639, in the expedition against the Scots, in which Sir Henry also held the command of a regiment. In this year he was made Comptroller Digitized by Microsoft® W^z Fanes or Janes. 77 of the Household, and some months afterwards Prin- cipal Secretary of State. He experienced in this last elevation the greatest opposition from Wentworth, who managed to delay the appointment for some months. But the Queen's influence secured it at last for Vane, who received a further afiront from Wentworth in the January following, when the latter, on being created Earl of Strafford, chose also for an additional barony that of Eaby of Eaby, Durham, a title which Sir Henry Vane had doubtless anticipated for himself. This led him to grow cooler in those courtier-like feelings by which he had been hitherto actuated, and during the Long Parliament he gradually allowed his eldest son Henry to carry him over to the popular party, to whom his experience and business habits made him a welcome recruit. Charles, at the close of the year 1641, marked his displeasure by dismissing him from the ofiice of Secretary of State, which he still nomin- ally held, and giving it to Viscount Falkland. Vane sat on in the Long Parliament, following in the wake of his son, but being otherwise a nonentity. On December 1, 1645, the Parliament, in its propositions for peace, voted to recommend to the King the crea- tion of Sir Henry Vane to a barony. He was among the members who retained their seats in the House after Pride's Purge and the establishment of the Commonwealth, sitting on Cormnittees, but taking no leading part in public affairs. He died at his seat of Eaby Castle in the latter part of the year 1654. He had married Frances, daughter of Thomas Darcy, Esq., of Tolleshunt-Darcy, in Essex, and had by her three sons who grew to maturity, the eldest of them being the famous Sir Henry or Haery Vane. The Digitized by Microsoft® 78 Wijz Fanes or Jams. second son, George, was knighted at WMtehall, November 22, 1640, and had his seat at Long- Newton, in Durham. He espoused the Royahst side in the Civil War, and in July 1645 surprised Eaby Castle, which was held in his father's name for the Parliament. He obtained the estate of Eogerley, in Durham, with his wife, daughter of Sir Lionel Maddi- son, and died in 1679. We find his name, as well as those of his father and brother, stdl sometimes spelt "Fane." His great-grandson, the Eev. Henry- Vane, Prebendary of Durham, was created a baronet in 1782, and married Frances, daughter of Joha Tempest, and sister and at length heiress of Joha Tempest of Wizstytlrd and Old Durham; and their only son, Sir Henry Vane, Baronet, on succeeding to his maternal uncle's estate, assumed the name of Tempest in addition to that of Vane. In 1807 he was elected member for the county of Durham in the independent interest against a powerful coalition, and in 1812 re-elected without opposition. He died in 1813, having married Anne, Countess of Antrim and Baroness Dunluce in her own right, by whom he had an only daughter, Emily Frances Anne, who became the second wife of Charles William Stewart, afterwards Marquess of Londonderry. This lady still survives, and is the present possessor of the great Vane-Tempest property in Durham. Her eldest son, George Henry Charles Robert Vane, is the present Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham, of Seaham, Durham, in which titles he succeeded his father (who had been created to them 1823, with limitation to the sons of his second marriage) ia 1854. The collieries on the Vane- Tempest property have rendered it exceedingly valu- Digitized by Microsoft® €\ft Fanes or JFaneiS* 79 able, and tlie political influence of the family in the county — now exerted, as is that of the Fanes, in the Conservative interest — is very considerable, and more active than in the case of the kiadred family. Charles Vane, the third and youngest son of Sir Henry Vane the elder, was an eminent diplomatist in the service of the Commonwealth and Cromwell, and envoy to Lisbon. One of Sir Henry's daughters mar- ried Sir Thomas LiddeU of Eavensworth, ancestor of the present Lord Eavensworth, and another married Sir Thomas Pelham, ancestor of the family now repre- sented by the Duke of Newcastle and the Earls of Chichester and Yarborough. But the most famous by fax of Sir Henry's children was his eldest son Henry, without whom itideed the family would have little claim to a place among the political houses of England. He was born in 1612, and educated at Westminster School. " I was born a gentleman," he himself says, " had the education, temper, and spirit of a gentlemen, as well as others, being in my youthful days inclined to the vanities of this world, and to that which they call good-fellow- ship, judging it to be the only means of accomplishing a gentleman. But about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of my age Grod was pleased to lay the founda- tion or groundwork of repentance in me, for the bringing me home to Himself, by His wonderful rich and free grace, revealing His Son in me, that by the knowledge of the oidy true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent I might, even whilst here in the body, be made partaker of eternal life in the first- fruits of it." His father, the worldly old courtier, was much puzzled and disturbed at this religious Digitized by Microsoft® 80 Wijz Fanes or Janes. manifestation — much as Shelley's father was at his philosophical vagaries. He sent the lad as a gentle- man commoner to Magdalen Hall, Oxford. But when he was called upon at his matriculation to take the usual oaths, young Vane " quitted his gown, put on a cloak, but studied notwithstanding for some time in the said hall," — much being forgiven to a Minister of State's son. He then left Oxford for the Continent, passing through France to Geneva, and there imbibed opinions on Church matters little congenial with the doctrines fashionable at the English Court. His father, still more perplexed, on his return got Laud, then Bishop of London, to talk to the young heretic ; but the Bishop, who had little command of his temper, only quarrelled with young Vane. The latter had already, in the opinion of the courtiers, suffered " much hurt" from the society of Sir Nathaniel Eich and Mr Pjrm, and soon announced his intention of quitting England and going to the newly-formed Puritan colo- nies in New England. He landed at Boston in 1635. Here he was received with all the iclat attendant on the accession of the son and heir of one of the King's Ministers, was admitted to the franchise of Massa- chusetts, and in 1636, before he had completed his twenty-fourth year, elected Grovernor of that colony. In this position, however, the young English gentle- man soon came into collision with some of the rehgi- ous and republican prejudices of his new subjects, and we find him remonstrating against excessive scruples of conscience and defending the Royal authority against provincial democracy. He found also a formidable rival in "Winthrop, the leading and most talented of the New England emigrants, who no doubt viewed Digitized by Microsoft® E^t Fanes or Janes* 8i with some jealousy the sudden elevation of the young son of an English courtier. They engaged in contro- versy, both orally and in pamphlets, and ultimately the influence of Winthrop proved the stronger, and the authority of Vane grew less. Matters were pre- cipitated by the part he took in defending Mrs Anne Hutchinson (a female preacher, who by her personal allusions to the clergy and interference ia families had caused much heartburning in the colony, but, on the other hand, was persecuted with great and cruel intolerance for her " Antiaomian" opinions by the leading Puritan clergy of New England), and Vane quitted the colony for the old country in August 1637, leaving behind him many friends and a general reputa- tion for high character and abUity which survived the temporary differences with Winthrop and the clergy, and bringing home with him views matured and sobered, but not substantially altered, by experience. He lived for some time after his return in retirement, marrying Frances, the daughter of Sir Christopher Wray, of Ashby, in Lincolnshire. A Parliament, however, being at last called in April 1640, young Vane entered the House of Commons as member for Hull. His father, to add the ballast of office to his new political career, obtained from the Earl of North- umberland, Lord Admiral, the appointment of young Vane to the office of joint Treasurer of the Navy (with Sir W. EusseU), a place of great trust and profit, and the King backed the appointment by conferring on him the honour of knighthood. " Young Sir Henry Vane," as he was now called, maintained silence dur- ing the Parliament of April, though he courted the society of Pym and Hampden ; but with the meeting Digitized by Microsoft® 82 Efjc Fanes or JFanes* of the Long Parliament a career at last opened before him on which he was not slow to enter. No longer ham- pered and embarrassed by the narrowness and petti- ness of colonial prejudices, his genius rapidly made itself felt in the House of Commons, and under Pym's guidance he acquired by degrees a considerable share iu the confidence of the popular party. His discovery of the celebrated notes of the Privy Council taken by his father, and his communication of them to Pym, their production ia the House of Commons during Strafford's trial, and the scene which followed be- tween the cautious old Vane and his son, are to be found recorded in the ' Journal' of Sir Simmonds D'Ewes, or less authentically in Clarendon's ' History.' There was still some of the rash impetuosity of youth which at times detracted from the political weight of Henry Vane. He made an enemy, for instance, very unnecessarily, of the Earl of Essex, by his indiscreet and inopportune manner of speaking the truth respectiag that dilatory and jealous general. He was more in his element in religious matters, and we find him busy in the committees on Church government. Here, as in aU other matters, he displayed great subtlety of mind and depth of thought, with a considerable power of reasoning, though he was apt to overlook broader practical facts ia following out his reasonings to their consequences. Some of the distiactions which he made ia estimating motives were of a curiously subtle kind, and may well have gained him the character of a visionary even in that age of speculation. But he was no mere visionary. When real practical work had to be done, no one was more practically efficient, or ready in sagacious practical expedients, than Sir Digitized by Microsoft® K\jt Fanes or Janes, 83 Henry Vane the younger. There were times, indeed, when the natural tendency to casuistry in his miud seems to have somewhat affected the frankness of his conduct ; but the cause of this was so apparent that it never permanently injured his reputation as an honest high-minded Englishman. We cannot pre- tend to follow his career in detail, for it is henceforth identical with the history of the Great Eevolution. His next important service to the Parliament was negotiating in 1643 the National League and Cove- nant with the Scots. Here, again, he is accused of having juggled with the Presbyterian Covenanters, and persuaded them by an ambiguous form of words to embark in a cause entirely alien to their views of Presbyterian exclusiveness. But there is ample evi- dence that if there was any ambiguity it was inten- tional on the part of the leading men of both nations. There was a special explanation published by Parlia- ment at the time, which is decisive against the narrow interpretation set upon the Covenant afterwards by the more intolerant Presbyterians ; and a glance at Principal Baillie's ' Journal' and ' Letters' is suffici- ent to show that the Scotch Presbyterians were as studious, in courting the Independent party in Eng- land, to sink for the time their intolerance, as young Vane was in Scotland careful not to put forward pro- minently his notion of the indifferency of forms of Church government. He became one of the most eminent of the Independent party, and at length di- vided the leadership of that section of the Parliament with OHver Cromwell. They differed as to the execu- tion of the King, Vane disapproving of the interference of the army and Pride's Purge, and withdrawing from Digitized by Microsoft® 84 Wijt Vmm or jFaties. the House until brought back, after the death of the King, by Cromwell's own earnest exertions. Vane, however, had now in his own mind moulded the ex- isting state of things into a theory of government, and was prepared to abide by this as the basis of any future settlement. He regarded the existing frag- ment of a Parliament as the only remaining repre- sentative of the national will, and applied to it in this capacity all the arguments properly applicable to the nation at large. Thus he regarded it as the only source of all authority in the nation, while Cromwell, on the other hand, looked upon it as only a useful but temporary instrument for working the Government, and was desirous, as much as possible, to distribute again among several co-ordinate bodies the powers which necessity had concentrated in this one body. Vane was willing and desirous to recruit the House of Commons by new elections ; but he could see no ultimate authority in the nation but the House of Commons ; and though he framed, or joined in fram- ing, a new scheme of representation, he hesitated long to fix a day for the dissolution of the existing House. There was also no doubt a personal jealousy between the two leading men of the Commonwealth, of which neither of them was entirely conscious. Vane was no soldier, but he had experience at the Navy Board, and he devoted himself to perfecting the fleet of England as a counterbalance to the army. He also opposed the officers of the army in the House in an injudicious manner. But the real point at issue between the two men was this : Was the House of Commons to be supreme and irresponsible, or was it to be checked and balanced by other co-ordinate authorities ? The Digitized by Microsoft® K]}t Fanes or jFanes. 85 real facts of the final struggle in tlie Long Parliament in 1653 between Cromwell and Vane have yet to be unravelled. There seem to have been some meetings between them to arrange matters, at one of which, as Cromwell considered, there was an understanding ar- rived at to delay the bill for dissolution until it could pass in a form agreeable to all parties. Vane seems to have carried away, or at any rate acted on, a dif- ferent impression, and when he was hurrying the Bill through the House during Cromwell's absence, the latter, as is well known, hastened to the place, and the scene ended in the employment of force to put an end to the sitting of the House. Cromwell certainly lost control over his temper on the occasion, and the words he used respecting Vane, " One man might have pre- vented all this, but he is a juggler, and hath not com- mon honesty," must be held to convey the irritation of the moment rather than his deliberate estimate of his former friend. " Oh, Sir Harry Vane ! Sir Harry Vane! the Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!" — his famous retort to Vane's protest that this was not honest conduct — was no doubt an equally impatient outburst against the over-subtle policy of the philo- sophical statesman. Vane remained in opposition to Cromwell's Government throughout, but on more than one occasion showed a disposition to come to a friendly compromise, recognising " the wise and honest Cene- ral" if he would consent to hold his authority under the House of Commons. This Cromwell never would, believing (independently of any personal ambition) that the only way to bring back a really national government was to prevent all authority from being concentrated again in that one body. After Crom- G Digitized by Microsoft® 86 Efie Vmts ox Janes* well's death Vane pursued tlie same course towards his son, not hostile to the person but the Government. On the restoration of the Long Parliament he re- sumed his seat in the Council of State ; but on the second dissolution of the Eump by the army, having learnt "wisdom by experience, he acquiesced in the change, and consented to take his seat in the new Committee of Safety which governed till the eve of the Eestoration, thus quarrelling with Hesibige and others of the Eepublicans who had the folly to call in Monk to subvert the authority of Lambert and Fleet- wood. On the Eestoration, Vane was arrested, throwu into the Tower, and removed from thence at length to the Scilly Islands, where he remained a prisoner tiU his fate was decided in Parliament. After much de- bate as to exceptiag him from the Act of Indemnity, in which the Lords appeared against him and the Commons in his favour, as a compromise he was ex- cepted, but the two Houses joiaed in a petition to the King, that if Sir Henry was convicted he should not be executed. The King gave a general but fa- vourable answer; and on 2d June 1662, Vane was arraigned before the Court of King's Bench for com- passing King Charles II.'s death and aiding in his exclusion from the throne, and after considerable argu- ment consented to plead " Not Guilty." He was brought to his trial four days subsequently, and after a spirited defence of himself, convicted. The King's promise should now have been fulfilled, but Charles wrote that Vane was " too dangerous a man to let live if we can honestly put him out of the way," and on the 11th of June he was sentenced to be executed, having vainly offered a paper of exceptions to the Digitized by Microsoft® Eije Fanes or Janes. 87 judgment. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on June 14, dying, as a Cavalier present said, " like a prince." Sir James Mackintosli has pronounced a high eulogium on his genius as a profound thinker, and there can be little doubt that, with all his failings of temperament, England lost in him an eminent statesman as well as a high-minded gentleman. He had four sons, three of whom died without issue. Christopher, the survivor, was more pliant or more fortunate than his father. He was knighted by Charles H., sworn of the Privy Council to James II. (July 25, 1688), and created by William a Peer of the realm July 8, 1699, as Baron Barnard of Barnard Castle, Durham. He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Gilbert Holies, Earl of Clare, and sister and coheiress of John Holies, Duke of Newcastle, and died October 28, 1723. He suffered from long-continued HI health, and this perhaps added to his general disinclination to politics ; but he is spoken of as an excellent manager of his estate, and is said to have thrown large sums of money into the Bank of England when there was a run upon it, in order to support public credit. He was a tolerant member of the Established Church, without the genius or the dangerous speculations of his father. His younger son, WilUam, a man of ex- tremely amiable character, and who represented the county of Durham and other places in Parliament, had Fairlawn and the Vane estates in Kent left to him by his father, as well as a large fortune out of the Newcastle estates. On June 12, 1720, he was created Viscount Vane and Baron of Duncannon in the Irish Peerage ; but his son William, the second Viscount, ran through nearly all the property, and Digitized by Microsoft® 88 Efje Fanes or Janes. died in a state of great embarrassment in 1789 with- out issue, leaving Fairlawn to the Papillon family, who afterwards sold it. Gilbert, the eldest son of Lord Barnard, succeeded him as second Lord Barnard, and died April 27, 1753, leaving several sons, of whom the second, Morgan, Comptroller of the Stamp Office, is represented hj the present Henry Morgan Vane, Esq., to whom the second Duke of Cleveland is understood to have left a considerable fortune. Henry, the eldest son, who succeeded as third Lord Barnard, represented Durham and other places in Parliament, and was appointed Vice-Treasurer and Paymaster-General of Ireland in 1742, a Lord of the Treasury in 1749, and on April 3, 1754, was raised to the English Peerage as Viscount Barnard and Earl of Darlington, was made joint Paymaster of the Forces, and died March 6, 1758. He married Lady Grace Fitzroy, third daugh- ter of Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Cleveland (eldest son of Charles IL by Barbara Villiers). His eldest son by her, Henry Vane, succeeded as second Earl of Darlington, having previously served in Parliament for the county of Durham and other constituencies. He was Master of the Jewel Office, Governor of Car- lisle, Lord-Lieutenant of Durham, &c., and a Colonel in the army, and died September 8, 1792, being suc- ceeded by his only son, William Henry Vane, third Earl of Darlington, who married Catherine, daughter of Henry Pawlet (or Powlett), sixth and last Duke of Bolton. He was created Marquess of Cleveland 5tli October 1827, and, supporting the Eeform Bill at a great sacrifice of borough interest, was raised on the 29th January 1833 to the Dukedom of Cleveland, Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Fanes or Janes. 89 with the additional creation of Baron Eaby, of Eaby Castle — the coveted title of his ancestor Sir Henry Vane the elder. He died January 29, 1842, having been throughout his life a stanch Whig, and leaving aU his disposable property to his youngest son, Lord Harry George Vane, of Battle Abbey, also a consistent Whig. His second son, William John Frederick, suc- ceeded to his grandfather the Duke of Bolton's large disposable estates, and assumed the name of Powlett. Henry, the eldest son of the first Duke, succeeded as second Duke of Cleveland to the entailed , Vane estates, and died without issue, January 18, 1864. He was at first devoted to field sports, afterwards a practical agriculturist, and throughout a strong Tory. The same politics in a modified form were professed by his brother WiUiam, who succeeded him as third Duke of Cleveland. He has had a very brief tenure of the dignity, dying September 6, 1864 ; and his brother, Lord Harry George Vane, is now fourth Duke of Cleveland, the family thus resuming its place among the great Whig houses. Their wealth is now very considerable, the Vane property having increased in value enormously. Digitized by Microsoft® %f\t ^tmlt^Q of ^tiotusle^^ )HEY are a strange race these Stanleys, and not precisely the men that the popular opinion formed dm-ing the agitation for the Eeform Bill would make them out to be. Strong, brave, and efficient, with maxvellous luck in marriage and at Court, they have owed their pros- perity in no slight degree to a less winning power, so often and so successfully exerted that we may call it political " divination." They have almost always fore- seen before other men the side which was going to wia, and on that side at its moment of supreme triumph the Stanley has usually appeared. The house, now, perhaps, the greatest among our Parliamentary fami- lies, the only one which in modern days has seated father and son at the same time in the Cabinet, now comprehends one baronetcy — Stanley (now Errington) of Hooton, in Cheshire, representing the eldest branch — and two peerages, the Earldom of Derby of Knows- ley, in Lancashire, and the Barony of Stanley of Alderley, in Cheshire ; besides inferior branches at Dalgarth, in Cumberland, in Staffordshire, Sussex, Kent, and Hertfordshire. The history of the Knows- ley branch, the only one with which we have now to Digitized by Microsoft® Efje StatiUgs of ltnotosleg» 91 deal, commences properly with. Sir John Stanley, who was bom in the twenty-eighth year of Edward III., and died in the very beginning of the reign of Henry V. He represented indirectly or claimed to repre- sent Adam de Audley, who, in the reign of Henry I. held Eeveney in Cumberland, and whose grandson William, obtaining by a family arrangement the manor of Stoneleigh or Stanleigh, in Staffordshire, adopted the name of Stanley. His son. Sir William, obtaining by marriage the manor of Stourton and baUiwick of Wjrrrel Forest in Cheshire — the famUy were, as we shall see, as lucky in their marriages as the Hapsburgs — assumed the arms still borne by the ennobled house. Of his two grandsons, again, the younger, John, is the ancestor of the Cumberland Stanleys, and their offshoots in the south of England; the elder. Sir William, had sons, of whom the eldest. Sir William, was the ancestor of the Stanleys of Hooton, the second. Sir John, of the Knowsley race. Sir John Stanley, founder of the latter branch, inherited the old seat of Newton in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and marrying Isabella, heiress of Sir Thomas Lathom, whose ancestress again had been heiress of Thomas de Knowsley, became master of the estates around which his descendants' princely property has accreted. The rise of Sir John Stanley, a cool, shrewd, and efficient man, during the reign of Eichard II., was unusually rapid. In 1385 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, obtaining in that capacity a grant of the manor of Blake Castle, in that kingdom ; in 1399 first Lord-Justice, and then Lord-Lieutenant. Between these last two appointments occurred the revolution which seated the house of Lancaster, and the first of Digitized by Microsoft® 92 " Wi}t Stanlcgs of %no'mslt^. those- political "transactions" which enriched the house of Stanley. Sir John accompanied King Eichard on his return from Ireland to Wales, and was in Conway Castle with him when Bolingbroke and the Percy approached in their successful career, but foresaw the catastrophe, and at once hastened to join Henry. As his reward he went back to Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant under the new king, and on his re- turn, after two years' service, his brother Sir William remained as his deputy. In the year 1405 the revolt of the Percies gave him an opportunity of rising still further. He was commissioned with Roger Leke to secure the city of York and the Isle of Man, suc- ceeded, and in the following year, 1406, the Isle of Man, taken from the Percies, was given to him, at first for life, but afterwards in perpetuity, to be held of the king by homage, and the presentation of two falcons on coronation days. By this grant the Stan- leys obtained an absolute jurisdiction over the people and the soil — a hundred and eighty thousand acres — and became, with the exception of a few baronies, immediate landlords of every estate in the island — a semi-regal position which they retained till 1765, when Charlotte Duchess of AthoU sold the royalty to the Crown for £70,000. The authority exercised there, and which was very difierent in degree if not in kind from that of an ordinary feudal lord, affected the character of the house, and perhaps justified ia their own eyes their habit of making alliances with their kings rather than keeping fealty to them. Be- sides this magnificent grant. Sir John was custodian of endless royal palaces and parks and castles, and in the first year of Henry V. was appointed Lord-Lieu- Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Statxless ot l;itoiosles. 93 tenant of Ireland for six years, with almost regal powers. He landed in Ireland once more in October 1413, but died in the following January, haviug dur- ing bis long life raised his famdy from simple country gentlemen to the head of the lesser baronage. His second son, Sir Thomas, founded the Stanleys of Pipe, in Staffordshire ; and the elder, again a Sir John, was Knight of the Shire for Lancaster, Constable of Caer- narvon Castle, and Justice of Chester. He died in 1431, and his son, Thomas, after serving as Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, and Lord-Chamberlain to Henry VI., emerged from among the country gentry (in or before 1456) as Lord Stanley. He also died in 1459, and from his third son. Sir John Stanley, who married the heiress of Sir Thomas Weever, of Weever, in Cheshire, the Stanleys of Alderley are descended.* This first Lord Stanley was supposed to be an ad- herent of the house of Lancaster, but from first to last, throughout the Wars of the Eoses, the house fought for its own hand, changed sides at its own discretion, and usually received an enormous re- ward for its far-sighted adhesions. The Stanleys always, however, stanchly protected their own people, and throughout that frightful period no battle was ever fought in Lancashire, neither side caring to make a deadly enemy of a family whom the people would always follow. Sir Wdliam, iadeed, second son of the first Lord, managed to get himself attainted by the Lancastrian Parliament called after * Sir Jolm Thomas Stanley, Baronet, was created Baron Stanley of Alderley, ChesMre, May 9, 1839. Hia son, Edward John, the present Lord, was created May 12, 1848, Baron Eddisbury, and has been pro- minent in the Whig administrations. — See 'Ormerod's History of Cheshire,' a very valuable work. Digitized by Microsoft® 94 m^e Statiless ot l^notoslcg* the battle of Ludlow ; but the elder son, Thomas, ran a career of successful faithlessness almost without a parallel in English history. His sister's husband, Sir Eichard Molyneux, of Sefton (ancestor of the Earls of Sefton), feU fighting at Bloreheath on the Lancas- trian side ; but Lord Stanley himself had. married a daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, who commanded the Yorkists in that battle, and sister of Warwick the King-maker, and fell, therefore, under suspicion of tte Lancastrians. The Commons framed articles against him in the Parliament of 1459, which record a line of conduct so precisely like that he afterwards pursued that the accusations may be accepted as substantially true. He seems to have declined summoning his tenantry tiQ the last moment, sending excuses of every kind. When at last he took the field, he halted his men, 2000 in number (he increased that by-and- by), six miles short of Bloreheath, where he remained during the engagement and three days afterwards, and then excusing himself to Margaret, marched home again with unbroken array. The night after the battle he wrote to the Earl of Salisbury (commander-in-chief of the enemy), " thanking God for the good speed of the said Earl," which was natural to his father-in- law, " trusting in God he should be with the Earl in another place to stand him in as good stead as he should have done had he been there," i.e., at Blore- heath, which was treason. He appears, moreover, to have given Salisbury private assurance of his friendly feeling, and countenanced his tenants in serviag under his brother on the Yorkist side. Still, so powerful was Lord Stanley, or so open did he seem to both parties, that the King was advised to reject the Com- Digitized by Microsoft® Wifz ^tanlegs of Ittioinsles. 95 mons' impeachment with. " Le Roy s'avisera." The battle of Northampton which followed in July restored the Yorkist fortunes, and we read that Queen Mar- garet and her son were nearly taken near Chester in their flight by a retainer of Knowsley. Lord Stanley accordingly appeared as a Yorkist when Edward ascended the throne in 1461, but contrived to keep neutral between the factions into which the dominant party split. He married his son G-eorge to the heiress of Lord Strange, of Knockyn, Salop, whose wife was a sister of Elizabeth WoodviUe, but held aloof from the WoodviUe party, the new people Edward was trying to build up. When Warwick and Clarence revolted they had strong hope of Stanley's aid, and when Lord WeUes was defeated and Warwick com- pelled to fall back, the applications became urgent. The wily chief, however, looked to his own interest, and never struck a blow either for Warwick or Edward, took no share in hastening Edward's flight to the Continent, brought no aid to his gallant re- turn, but on his re-accession in 1471 re-appeared at Court as the sovereign's right hand. He then struck the boldest and most adroit stroke of his whole life. Still nominally a Yorkist, he married as second wife the Countess of Eichmond, mother of Henry Tudor, the new Lancastrian chief, and thus guaranteed him- self on both sides. On the fall of the Woodvilles, he entered on a sort of alliance with Lord Hastings, and with him the two Archbishops and Bishop Morton formed a kind of neutral junto at Ely House, apart from Richard of Gloucester's cabal at Crosby Hall. Nothing, however, ever deceived his scent. He divined that Richard would strike Hastings, warned him of Digitized by Microsoft® 96 mit Stanless of l^notosleg, his danger by relating a dream of a boar who had grazed both their shoulders ; and in the violent scene when Hastings was arrested and hurried to execution, Lord Stanley also (wounded during the scuffle) was arrested and committed to the Tower. Here he was visited by Richard, who freed him and made him Lord Steward and Constable of England for life— and when the revolt of Buckingham exposed the treason of the Countess of Richmond, remitted the death penalty on her for her husband's sake, and specially ordered that the forfeiture ordered of her property should not be allowed to damage the interests of the Lord Stanley. Even in January 1485, when Rich- mond's invasion was expected, Richard appointed Lord Stanley with his brother Wdliam and his son George to the command of the forces raised in Cheshire to oppose the invaders. Yet at this very moment Lord Stanley was pledged to Richmond's cause, and as Steward of the Household was sending him informa- tion of all Richard's plans. As the time drew near, however, he shrank from the charge of the Wild Boar, and retired to Cheshire, leaving his son George, created Lord Strange, as his hostage. When Rich- mond landed Richard summoned Lord Stanley to his side, but he pleaded sweating sickness, and his son made an unsuccessful effort to escape. He was cap- tured, and confessed his father's treason, and prayed for mercy, pledgkig himself that the Stanleys shotdd abandon their designs ; and Richard, who did not want to make the father an inveterate enemy, contented himself with placing the son under ward. At last the opposing parties arrived at Bosworth, Richard with 23,000 men, Richmond with only 5000. Of the 23,000 Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Stanleys of Unotosles* 97 no less than 8000 obeyed the Stanleys, 5000 under the noble on the right, and 3000 under Sir William on the left flank of the army. Lord Stanley, as Eichmond's men dashed to their first great charge, threw off his disguise- and charged boldly against his master on his stepson's side. The royal army recoiled, but a despe- rate charge, headed by Eichard himself, who, hunch- back or none, was one of the fixst generals of that age, restored the day, and Eichmond might have been lost, when Sir William Stanley on the left also threw off his disguise, and with a final assault of his fresh troops left Eichard dead on the field. The crown was hewn from his helmet, and Sir William, amidst the shouts of the army, placed it upon the victor's head, ending in the act, though he knew it not, the Wars of the Eoses, the Plantagenet line, and the power of the feudal barons. Henry was not ungrateful. On the 27th October in the same year Lord Stanley was created Earl of Derby, confirmed Lord Steward and Lord High Constable for life, and died in 1504, almost the only baron who survived the Wars of the Eoses with added power and splendour. His originally great possessions had been swollen throughout his life by enormous royal grants. Early in his reign Henry VIL gave him almost all the estates forfeited in the north, and thus he acquired (after the battle of Stoke, in 1487) the estates of Sir Thomas Broughton of Broughton, of Sir James Harrington of Hornby, of Francis Viscount Lovel, of Sir Thomas Pilkington, and what Sir Thomas had in right of his lady, the heiress of Chetham. From this Sir Thomas Pilking- ton came aU the Stanley property in Salford Hundred. The Earl had also the estates of Pooton of Pooton, Digitized by Microsoft® 98 Wiiz Stanleys ot ^^notosleg, Bythom of Bythom, and Newby of Kirkby, in Lan- cashire, "with at least twenty gentlemen's estates more." A record ia the Duchy Office, in enumerat- ing these estates, mentions Holland, Nether Kelletli, Haleswood, Samlesbury, Pilkington, Bury, Chetham, Chetewood, Halliwall, Broughton in Furness, Bolton in Furness, Underworth, Shuttleworth, Shippelbotham, Middleton, Oversfield, Smithells, Selbethwaite, Tot- tington, EUeslake, Urswick, and many others forfeited by attainder.* He had also a grant from the King, in 1489, of Burford St Martyn in Wiltshire. Before, however, the Earl terminated his prosperous career ke had to witness in silence a tragedy in his family which must have shaken even his equanimity. The career of his brother Sir William Stanley, whose chief estates were Holt Castle in Denbighshire and Eidley in Cheshire, had been, except in one point, as prosperous as his own. At the commencement of the reign of Edward IV., as a reward for espousing openly the Yorkist side, he was made Chamberlain of Cheshire, and by Eichard III. Justice of North Wales. During the reign of the latter King he received from the royal demesne lands an immense grant in Cheshire and Wales, stretching to Shropshire, chiefly as a royal bounty, but partly in exchange for money and other manors, and in the fourth of Henry VII. this grant was confirmed by Act of Parliament to him and his heirs. He was also made Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Knight of the G-arter. Lord Bacon says, he was "the richest subject for value in the kingdom," *Baines's 'History of Lancashire' contains mucli interesting local information bearing on the fortunes of the Stanleys ; but it is unfortu- nately most inaccurately compiled. Digitized by Microsoft® having in his castle of Holt " 40,000 marks in ready money and plate, besides jewels, household stuff, stocks upon the ground, and other personal estate exceeding great. And for his revenue in land and fee it was £3000 a-year old rent, a great matter in those times." But he was not, like his elder brother, raised in the peerage, and it was said he had solicited and been re- fused the gTeat Earldom of Chester. Some said that Henry coveted his great wealth ; but be the excuse what it may, during the Perkin-Warbeck affair. Sir Eobert Clifford, who had turned informer against the adherents of Warbeek, accused Sir WiUiam Stanley of being in league with the Pretender, and instanced his saying to him, " That if he were sure that Perkin Warbeek was King Edward's son he would never bear arms against him." The King appeared astonished at the accusation, and cautioned Sir Eobert, who, how- ever, persisted in his charge. The next day Sir Wil- liam was himself examined before the Lords of the Council, when it is said he neither denied nor at- tempted to extenuate his guUt. Henry probably seized the opportunity of striking a blow at the Stan- leys, which would intimidate the Earl from following his brother's example, without the awkwardness and danger of a direct attack on the husband of his own mother and the powerful head of the county of Lan- caster. No intercession availed to save Sir William, and six weeks after the time when the accusation was preferred he was arraigned of high treason, found guilty, and on the 16th of February 1495, was be- headed as a traitor. His granddaughter carried his blood into the family of the Breretons of Malpas in Digitized by Microsoft® 100 m}t StanIc2S of Itnotosleg. Cheshire, whose head during the Civil Wars of Charles I.'s time took the lead in those parts against the Stan- leys. It was, perhaps, to ascertain by personal obser- vation how the Earl bore the death of his brother, that King Henry in the snmnier of the same year " did make his progress into Lancashire, there to make merry with his mother the Countess of Derby, who then lay at Lathom in the country." And Kennett tells us " a notable tradition, still believed, how Henry, after a view of Lathom, was conducted by the Earl to the top of the leads for a prospect of the country. The Earl's fool was in company, who, obserAdng the King draw near to the edge of the leads not guarded with banisters, he stepped up to the Earl, and pointing down the precipice, said, 'Tom, remember Wdl ! ' The King understood the meaning, and made all haste down stairs and out of the house ; and the fool long after seemed mightily concerned that his lord had not courage to take the opportunity of revenging him- self for the death of his brother." This was, then, the old splendid Lathom House as built by the Lathoms. The Earl's eldest son. Lord Strange, preceded him to the grave. His principal act of historical interest after his narrow escape from Richard's heavy hands, and before his death in 1497, was his gallantry at the battle of Stoke, where he was one of the commanders under Henry VIL against De la Pole, Earl of Lincob. This led to the grants of some of the forfeited lands which we have enumerated to his father the Earl. Lord Strange himself had also a grant in the fourth of Henry VH. of the manors of Hasilbeare, West Lud- ford, and Blackdon in Somersetshire. His younger brother. Sir Edward Stanley, who lived at Hornby Digitized by Microsoft® Wilt Stanlegs of Enobjsles, loi Castle in Lancashire, won great glory for the house of Stanley at Flodden Field (September 9, 1513), har- assing the Scots so much, it is said, by his archers, that they abandoned their advantageous position on the hill, and breaking their ranks in descending, ex- posed themselves to the disastrous defeat which fol- lowed. This is the Stanley of " On, Stanley, on ! " The story is that it was in reference to this hill ex- ploit and to the crest of the Stanleys that Sir Edward was created by Henry VIII. Baron Monteagle. His grandson, the third Lord Monteagle, left an only child, a daughter, who married Edward Parker Lord Morley, and their son William Lord Morley and Monteagle was the lord to whom the celebrated Gunpowder Plot letter was addressed in the beginning of the reign of James I. George, first Lord Strange, left three sons, of the youngest of whom. Sir James Stanley of CroxhaU, Lancashire, the present Earl of Derby is the lineal descendant, tracing thus an unbroken male descent back to a man who was gres^t under Henry I. — a rare pedigree of seven hundred and eighty years, surpassed in England by scarcely any noble of the first class, and in Europe by very few. In three hundred years the family had reached by fortunate alliances, rare policy, and great tact in conciliating all under their power, a position which brought them close in blood and in power to the Royal House itself ; and but for the great qualities of the new line, one with which no noble contended successfully for a month, they might have gone even higher. The Stanleys continued under the Tudors what they had been under the Plantagenets — a powerful, H Digitized by Microsoft® 102 W^t Stanleys of %noWlt^, efficient race, greatly beloved by tbeir immediate fol- lowers and neighbonrhood, but with an instinct which their friends called foresight and their enemies faith- lessness. Lord Strange's eldest son, Thomas, who succeeded his grandfather as second Earl of Derby, was a man of little historic note. He was, however, a favourite and constant attendant of Henry VHI. ; and was created by a charter of that King Lord Mohun, Basset, Burnal, and Lacy, and Lord of Man and the Isles. He died before May 13, 1522; and besides the Lancashire and other property already- enumerated, most of which descended to him, died possessed of an eighth of the manor of Hunden St Kynar, an eighth of the barony and castle of Lewes, a fourth of the manor of Brighthelmstone (the present Brighton), and nine other manors in Sussex, of the manor of Milton or Middleton in Cambridgeshire, and the manors of Colham and Hillington ia Middle- sex. He had also the manors of Barlborough in Derbyshire, Heveringham and Flintham in Notting- hamshire, Bosley in Cheshire, and Cople in Bedford- shire. The great religious controversies of the age might have been expected to give to the ambiguous pohtics of the Stanleys a more decided character. Edward, however, who succeeded his father as third Earl, and lived through the whole time of the struggle, seeing the faith proscribed by Henry VHL, as a young man victorious under Elizabeth, then growing old, pursued the coiirse M'hich, during the "Wars of the Eoses, had saved his house, and with the same results. Though at heart a Catholic, he belonged politically neither to the Catholics nor the Protestants. The King's middle Digitized by Microsoft® Wiiz Stanlegs of EnotosUg. los scheme suited him exactly, being the one which did not iuvolve the penalties of treason. When the Pil- grimage of Grace in 1536 threatened to involve the whole North of England in insurrection, Lord Derby showed much activity in obeying the King's orders to raise the militia of Lancashire and Cheshire, and by his attitude kept in check the rising in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the north of his own county of Lancashire. At the coronation of King Edward VL he was made a Knight of the Garter, and in 1548 he was appointed one of the Commissioners for advancing the Eeformation. But when, in the beginning of 1 5 4 9, the first Act of Uniformity was passed, he strongly resisted the disuse of the Missal; and three years later, 1552, protested against the Act prohibiting the simoniacal practices of reserving pensions out of bene- fices and granting advowsons while the incumbents lived, and the next and most necessary Act allowing the marriage of the clergy. His son. Lord Strange, was, nevertheless, bred a strict Protestant with Ed- ward VL, and even advised his master to marry a Seymour instead of a French princess — a highly Pro- testant step. The Earl remained, however, a Catho- lic, was one of the few nobles who escaped the snare laid by Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, when he ordered the Peers to sign the King's patent appoint- ing Lady Jane Grey his successor, and when Mary appealed to the nobles, rose in arms at the head of 20,000 men. At her coronation he was appointed Lord Steward, the ancient office of his house, and came to Westminster attended by fourscore gentle- men in velvet and 218 yeomen in livery. So com- pletely did he throw ofi" the mask that he, a Commis- Digitized by Microsoft® 104 Wi}t Stanlegs of l^notoslea* sioner for the advancing of the Reformation, became a persecutor, and received a pointed rebuke from a poor Lancashire yeoman. Marsh had become a Pro- testant curate and schoolmaster, and was brought before the Earl, whose eldest son was as guilty, to answer for those high crimes. "It is strange," said poor Marsh, " that your lordship, being of the Honour- able Council of the late King Edward, consenting and agreeing to acts concerning faith towards God and religion, should so soon after consent to put poor men to a shameful death for embracing the same religion." ' The remark did not help Marsh, who was committed by the Earl to Lancaster Castle, confined with common felons, and then handed over to the Bishop of Chester, who, being a priest, and unable, therefore, to shed blood, had him pubhcly burned alive. Notwithstand- ing this complicity in Mary's policy, the Earl was so powerful and so adroit that on Elizabeth's accession he was sworn of her Privy CouncU, and actually appointed in the first year of her reign, with others, to take care that no man in the North held office who had not taken the oath of supremacy, and named a commissioner to inquire into the persecutions and to enjoin the new book of service. The Earl did not like his task in his heart : the Reformation retro- graded in Lancashire, hunted Papists found there an easy refuge ; and Elizabeth, roused in all her Tudor susceptibilities, wrote one of her letters to the Earl. He was well informed, and before the letter could reach him, the peer who had surrendered Marsh to the flames was actively hunting Catholics. In 1569 the Northern Earls were preparing the rising of the North; and having gained over two of the Earl's Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Stanlegs of l^noixisles. 105 sons, tried to tempt over himself. The Earl, however, had the family instinct ; and. Catholic all the while, he sent their letter to the Queen. Next year, how- ever, he was again under suspicion, as we learn from a private letter of Lord Huntingdon's to Burghley, in which he describes Lathom House as full of Papist counsellors, and accuses Lord Derby of keeping a con- juror. (This charge of witchcraft, as we shall see, stuck to the famUy for generations.) His son Thomas was, moreover, committed to the Tower for complicity in the Duke of Norfolk's plot to liberate Mary of Scotland ; and the Earl lived, therefore, an anxious life. He made amends to himself for political agita- tions by a princely life in Lathom House ; and Cam- den says that at his death the glory of hospitality seemed to faU asleep. Holinshed and Stow teU us of " his godly disposition to his tenants, — never forcing any service at their hands, but due payment of their rent; his liberality to strangers, his 'famous house- keeping,' and ' eleven score ' menial attendants with- out discontinuance for twelve years ; his feeding threescore and odd aged persons twice a-day, besides all comers thrice a-week ; and ' every Good Friday, these thirty-five years, one with another, 2700 with meat, drink, money, and money's worth.' " He spent, they tell us, annually, £4000 on his housekeeping. He was also celebrated for his skUl in setting bones and in surgery — the explanation, perhaps, of his deal- ings with the forbidden art. Earl Edward died 24th October 1574; and his son Henry, fourth Earl, whose mother was a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, was one of the few members of the family ever constant to one opinion. Favourite Digitized by Microsoft® 106 E\)t StatiUgs of mnotosleg* with Edward VI., he was under Elizabeth known as a bitter opponent of the " recusants " — even presiding at the trial of his own cousin, Philip, Lord Anindel. His wife, however, Margaret, granddaughter of Mary Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and younger sister of Henry VIII., lost the favour of Elizabeth, nominally for consultiag wizards, like her father-in-law, but really, perhaps, for being one of the Suffolk line. Earl Henry died September 25, 1592; and Ferdinand, his son, the fifth Earl, though seemingly a man of spirit and sense, is noted only for dying " of witch- craft" on April 16th, 1594. He left only three daughters (among whose descendants the baronies of Strange of Knockyn, Mohun, and Stanley are in abey- ance) ; and their uncle, William, the sixth Earl, pur- chased from them the Isle of Man ; and procuring a new grant from the Crown, obtained also an Act of Parliament to ratify it. He was appointed Cham- berlain of Chester for life, and afterwards conjointly with, his son for their joint lives, and died Septem- ber 29, 1642. His son James, who was summoned to the Upper House, February 17, 1628, as Lord Strange, is the well-known (seventh) Earl of Derby of the Great Rebellion. The romance which has attached itself to his death, to the character of his heroic wife Charlotte de la TremouUIe, and to his double position — then beginning to seem question- able — as demi-sovereign in Man, has blinded men's eyes to the fact that he was a man of haughty tem- per, little talent, and half- decided views. Before the King raised the standard he was considered an adherent of the popular party; and his watchfuhaess over Papists in Lancashire and Cheshire was specially Digitized by Microsoft® 2r|je Statiless ot Itnotosles. 107 acknowledged by the House of Commons. D'Ewes, a fervent Presbyterian, speaks of him as a great counte- nancer of religion, and a constant practiser of it in his own family for many years ; but in 1641 he was suspected of swaying towards the King ; and in 1642, though he was included in the list of Lord-Lieuten- ants trusted by the Parliament, and presented to the King as their nominee for Cheshire, his Puritan neigh- bours, headed by Mr Eigby, a lawyer and member of Parliament, prevented the addition of Lancashire to his jurisdiction. Whether this influenced Lord Strange or not, he, on the 20th June 1642, appeared at Preston at a county meeting as chief of the King's party, seized the magazines of Lancashire, joined the King at York, and was invested at once with both Lord-Lieutenancies. From York he proceeded to Lan- cashire, and was busily engaged ia raising troops for the King, when he was stopped by an intimation from the King's Council that the noisy musters which he had made were for his own ambitious designs, and it was not safe for the King to intrust him with so much power. He was also deprived of his Lieutenancy of Chester and North Wales, and it was proposed to in- vest Lord Elvers with that of Lancashire in his stead. The latent cause of this strange proceeding' it is now impossible to discover, unless the King suspected him of pretensions to the throne — and Clarendon accuses him of the opposite vice, inactivity, and attributes it to panic at the excessive hostility of the people around. It is certain that for the rest of his life he entirely lost his power over his people on the mainland — the island- ers remained for a time faithful — and that when, his father being dead, he finally declared for the King, he Digitized by Microsoft® 108 Efi0 Statiless of Itnoijjsleg, only raised three regiments of foot and three troops of horse — less than a fifth of his house's following. With them he battled bravely against his Puritan neighbours, but was at last compelled to retire to the island, where he was secure, leaving his wife to defend Lathom House. The Countess defended it against the Parliamentary leaders ia a style which made her the heroiae of local romance, and tempted Scott to give her immortality, untU ia May 1644 she was relieved by Prince Rupert. The Prince summoned the Earl, and together they attacked Bolton. It was taken by storm, the Earl leadiag the assault ; and either he, or the Prince, or both, put twelve hundred of the people to death after the town, was taken — a crime which won for the Earl the deathless hate of the Puritans and their future chief. The Earl soon after retired to Man, Lathom House surrendered, and the estates of the Stanleys were placed under sequestration, a fifth part of the income and the manor of Knowsley being allowed for the children's maintenance. Lord Derby continued to hold his island, at first in defiance, but afterwards with the tacit consent of Parliament, till the attempt of the King of Scots in 1651, when the Prince summoned him to his standard. The Earl obeyed, and endeavoured to raise Lancashire; but alone among that long line he was personally dishked and distrusted, and whUe gathering feeble forces he was surprised by Colonel Eobert Ldburne and com- pletely routed. He fled ahnost alone to the Prince, to share in the disaster of Worcester, and then fled on again to Cheshire, to be intercepted and surrender on promise of quarter. The court-martial held that "quarter" only exempted him from death on the spot, Digitized by Microsoft® Wi)t StanUgs of Itttotosles* 109 and sentenced him to death ; but he appealed in a manly letter to the Lord General Cromwell. Crom- well loved not executions ; but the memory of Bolton stood between the Earl and the Puritans, and on the 1 5th October 1 6 5 1 he was executed. His Countess, the lady who executed Mr Christian of her own sovereign power, had surrendered Man on the Earl's recom- mendation, and lived till the Restoration in very straitened circumstances. Her son Charles, the eighth Earl, had indeed received a grant of £500 a-year ; but he joined the Cheshire revolt of 1659, and was, after the battle of Nantwich, taken prisoner. Parliament spared him, however, and on the Restoration he was by Act of Parliament restored in blood, and this chapter in the family history ended. The remainder we may tell more briefly. The restored Earl died in 1672, and his son William George Richard, ninth Earl (1672), and his brother James, the tenth Earl (1702), adhered with the accus- tomed fortune to William and Mary and the house of Hanover, but were not conspicuous beyond their own great estates. The latter Earl dying (February 1, 1736) without male issue, the barony of Strange (the creation of 1628), with the sovereignty of Man, descended to the heir-general, James Murray, second Duke of AthoU, and grandson of the third daughter of James, the seventh Earl, who was executed at Bolton.* The Earldom of Derby reverted, as before mentioned, to the descendant of James Stanley, the * The nintli Earl of Derby leaving two daughters, the barony fell into abeyance between them from 1702 to 1714 ; then devolved on the elder, Henrietta, wife of John, Lord Ashbumham. Their daughter, Anne, succeeded to it in 1718, but dying unmarried in 1732, the barony reverted to the Earldom of Derby in the person of her uncle, the tenth Digitized by Microsoft® 110 Wijz .Stanlegs of Itnotoslcg, third son of the first Lord Strange of Knockyn, of this house, viz., Sir Edward Stanley of Bickerstaff, Lancashire, Baronet, who thus became eleventh Earl of Derby. His son James (improperly called Lord Strange) marrying the heiress of Hugh Smith, of Weald Hill, Essex, took the name of Smith ia addi- tion to his own (whence the curious fallacy that the Stanleys are not ancient), and his son Edward Smith- Stanley succeeded his grandfather as twelfth Earl ia 1776, and died October 21, 1834. The thirteenth Earl, Edward Smith-Staidey, called to the Upper House in 1822 as Lord Stanley, was chiefly remark- able for the stanchness of his adherence to the Whigs, his great knowledge of ornithology, and his enormous espenditure ; but his son Edward GeoSiy Smith-Stanley, the present Earl, has the hereditary failing, and more than the hereditary strength, having, after jumping on a table to protest against taxes till the Eeform Bill was passed, gone over to the Conservative side and risen to its lead. He and his son Lord Stanley — Whig in opinion, Tory Cabinet Minister in fact — have rebuilt the political influ- ence lost with the execution of the seventh Earl, and maintain to the full that respect and affection from their tenantry which, save to that one man, have never faded. Lathom House was transferred by marriage in 1714, and now belongs to the Bootle- Wdbrahams Lords Skehnersdale ; but the Stanleys have of late been able managers, the growth of Liver- Earl. On his death without issue it passed to his heir-general, the Duke of Atholl, whose daughter and heiress Charlotte (who married her cousin, the third Duke of Atholl) sold the sovereignty of Man to the Crown, as already mentioned. The Dukes of AthoU still enjoy the harony of Strange. Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Stanlegs of Enotosk^. m pool and of the cotton trade has poured wealth into their coffers, and though their island sovereignty has passed away, they may vie in social dignity with the proudest who ever bore their name. They conquered at Flodden for England, supported the Dutchman who gave her the freedom she has used so magnificently, and strove hard and successfully to carry the blood- less revolution of 1831 ; but it is by an irony of fate that their motto is now, as at Flodden, "Sans changer." Digitized by Microsoft® C|)e (§ro6\jetiors* ENGLISH respectability culminates in the Grosvenors. As a family, they have in their long career done few striking acts, have furnished no great states- men, yielded no orators, or generals, or admirals, or men of the highest rank in any one department of life. But they have been steady, sensible men, who have done what they found to do efficiently, have never skulked from difficulties, and though siven to accumulation have shown that they could, on adequate occasion, risk their properties for political principle. Consequently they have pros- pered, and having been lucky beyond measure in marriage and in the acquisition of a great Middle- sex tract, are now the wealthiest famUy in Europe — perhaps, due regard being had to security, the wealthiest uncrowned house on earth. The Lichten- steins have a throne, the Rothschilds are still exposed to the chances of the market, and there is no other family extant which certainly possesses a larger income. The family, though from its want of great men it is never remembered as a feudal house, is stiU of considerable antiquity. The present branch dates, it is true, only from Henry VI., in whose reign Sir Digitized by Microsoft® K\}t <3xo&hmox8. 113 Eaufe le Gkosvenoe, married Joan or Jane, the heiress of John Eton of Eton (now spelt Eaton), in Cheshire, and acquired the manor round which the monstrous wealth of the house has gradually accreted. But he was the second son of Sir Thomas le Grosvenor, whose ancestry stretches away into the Scandinavian mist. Sir Thomas's eldest son, Eobert, had only daughters, and the patrimony was muddled away amongst coheiresses ; but the second, whose marriage rebuilt the house, then became the heir-male of an old stock. He claimed to descend from an uncle of EoUo, a fighting pagan of some mark, and peerage-makers are at liberty to admit his claim.*" As it involves, however, some particularly large assumptions, students of history Will, in spite of Icelandic sagas, prefer the certainty that in the reign of Richard II. Sir Eobert le Gros- venor, grandfather of the Eton bridegroom, fought a celebrated lawsuit with Sir Eichard le Scrope, in which most of the English nobles gave their evidence. The Grosvenors said they were lineally descended from Gilbert le Grosvenor, nephew of Hugh Lupus, the great Earl of Chester (the man who gave the Percies Whitby), who, according to the family tradi- tion, gave the manor of Over-Lostock, ia Cheshire, to Gilbert's son Eobert, in whose family it remained till the year 1465 ; and affirmed that one Grosvenor (a Eobert) was a crusader with Coeur de Lion, another (stiU a Eobert) served with Edward I. in Scotland, a third, Sir Eobert le Grosvenor, was with Edward III. * The story is that the name "Le Grosvenor" is derived from "Le Gros Veneur," " the Grand Huntsman," an hereditary office alleged to have heen held by the family in Normandy. Of course it may equally well be translated " the big hrmter," but this would spoil the genealogy. All is pure conjecture. Digitized by Microsoft® 114 E\se ®ros&mors« at Crecy and the siege of Calais — all people respect- ably performing their duty. These claims seem to have been generally admitted, and the house recog- nised as one of the "early Norman;" but as the estates were chopped up for the coheiresses, the race, but for Sir Eaufe's marriage, would have disappeared from the surface. There he was, however, after his wife's death, circa 1465, Lord of Eaton, worth ten marks a-year, and lands in Burwardsley, Stockton, Haugton, and Wigland, a burly country squire. His grandson Eichard enriched this estate by marrying Catheeine, one of the four coheiresses of Eichaxd Coton, or Cotton, of Eudware-Hampstall, iu Stafford- shire, a wealthy landowner in that county, and in Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire ; and by the inquisition after the death of this Eichard Grosvenor (34th of Henry VIIL) he held the manor of Eaton, the toll of the ferry, the fishery, a free boat, and forty messuages therein, as the twentieth part of a Knight's fee — value £26, 13s. 4d. ; also lands in Burwardsley, Hargreave, Huxley, Doddleston, Tushingham, Briudley, Stockton, Hampton, Wigland, and Oldcastle — total value, £46, lis. This fishery and ferry on the Dee are described more particularly in an early legal docu- ment, relating to one of the Eaton family, as "the serjeancy of Dee, from Eton Weir to Arnoldsheyre (a rock opposite Chester Castle, now called Arnold's Eye), by the service of clearing the river from all nets improperly placed there, and a moiety of aU fish forfeited, and of the fish therein, as far as stall nets are placed, viz., from Dee Bridge to Blakene, and from there to Arnoldsheyre to have one out of aU the nets taken, and all the fish therein, and to have a ferry- Digitized by Microsoft® E\ft ©ros&mors, lis boat at Eton over the water, for which he shall be paid by the neighbours according to their pleasure, but shall receive from every stranger, if he has a horse and is a merchant, one halfpenny ; and if not a merchant, the payment to be at his option." Also toU from every " flote " at Eton, passing through his weir, " de prima knycke unum denarium, qui vocatur hachepeny, et de quaibet knycke sequente, unam quadrantem," as well as waifs and wrecks on his manor of Eton, and two stall nets and two free boats on the Dee. This serjeantcy of the Dee, which must have produced much revenue, has been laid claim to by the Grosvenors as lately as the end of the last century, and is one of the very few sources of profit the Grosvenors ever lost. His wife made this Richard father of five sons and eleven daughters, and their great-grandson, also Eichard, had by one wife three sons and fourteen daughters ; and as most of the ladies married well, the Grosvenors became a very powerful connection. It may have been this tendency to multiply which made them so thrifty, for they grew as no other family ever did, and this Eichard, whose fore- fathers since Crecy had done nothing of note, possessed ia the 21st year of Elizabeth's reign the manor of Eaton, with certain messuages, a free ferry, and the serjeantcy of the Dee, "by services unknown," from the Queen, as of her Earldom of Chester ; and also the manors of Tushingham, Belgrave, and Thurcaston, half the manor of Doddleston, and lands in Stockton, Droybayche, Wigland, Stocklach, Hampton, Edge, Horton, Kiddington, Oldcastle, Hargreave, Burwards- ley, GreenwaU, Pulton, Pulford, GorstUow, Rowton, Oscrofte (this came from Catherine Cotton), Kyn- Digitized by Microsoft® 116 Efje ®ros&enors. aston, Bromfield, Gresford, and Barton; right of common in Burton, County Denbigh, and coal mines in Wrexham. The house woke out of its torpor with Richard, the son of this wealthy squire. James I., in 1622, made him a baronet, and he sat as Knight of the Shire for Cheshire in the Parliaments of 18tli James I. and 2d and 3d Charles I. In the latter he took a high position, and it would appear from a speech of his stdl extant that he was an able man and a zealous member of the Puritan party. The speech was delivered on 13th February 1629, ia a debate in which Oliver Cromwell took part, on the pardons and preferments granted to diviaes condemned for Arminian doctriaes, and preaching the divine right of kings. Sir Eichard seems to have acted up to his profes- sions to his own hmrt, for he became security for a brother-in-law, Peter Daniel, of Tabley, and involved himself so deeply that he was thrown into the Fleet, at the suit of one Bennet, and despite the "protec- tion " of the King's Council he disappeared from the political stage — a sad termination for such promise. He did not die tUl 164.5 ; but his son, Richard, the second baronet, long before his father's death, took the lead of the famUy, and being of opposite pohtics raised the posse comitoAus of Cheshire against Lord Fairfax. He lived and died a consLstent upright Royalist, his estate was sequestrated, and he was turned out of Eaton to live in a little house on the border of his own property. Even then Oliver Crom- well found so much reason for suspicion in his con- duct that he flung him into Chester Castle. His Digitized by Microsoft® Efje 0ros&enor0. 117 eldest son Eoger, "who died during his father's life- time, was also an ardent Royalist, and the family might have perished, had not Charles II., for once, befriended those who had served him well. They regained aU their property, and Roger was to have been one of the Knights of the Royal Oak, when that project was abandoned for fear of reviving animosities. Roger was kUled ia a duel in 1661, but he had previ- ously married Christian, daughter of Sir Thomas Myd- delton, of Chirk Castle, Denbigh, an active Presbyterian, who became, in 1648, a Royalist. The family fortunes seem to have been little affected by Sir Richard's bonds, for Roger, during his father's life, had an in- come of £3000 a-year ; a sum which, though the rise of prices which distinguished the Tudor period had reached its maximum, was stiU very large. His son Sir Thomas, who succeeded his grandfather as third baronet, represented Chester in Parliament during the reigns of Charles II., James II., and William III., and seems to have been a thoroughly honest, high-prin- cipled man. " Sir Thomas was certainly at first supposed to be a warm supporter of the measures of the Crown, hav- ing been singled out by Jeflfreys as the foreman of a jury, who presented the necessity of requiring sureties of the peace from the principal Cheshire noblemen and gentlemen who paid attention to the Duke of Monmouth in his progress through Cheshire ; and for that presentment Sir Thomas Grosvenor had after- wards an action of libel brought against him by the Earl of Macclesfield. On the bill for the repeal of the penal laws and test acts being brought into the House, he was closeted with the King on the subject, I Digitized by Microsoft® 118 STije 0rosbenors, and his support of the measure was solicited, the royal request being acconapanied with the offer of a peerage, and of the Earl of Shrewsbury's regiment of horse, in which he then commanded a troop in the camp of Hounslow. On this occasion the constitutional prin- ciples of Sir Thomas Grosvenor were honourably de- veloped : the offers were rejected ; he resigned the commission which he already held, and, proceeding to the House, gave his negative to the measure." He was Sheriff of Chester during the Eevolution, and died in 1700, having first married in 1676 the tMrd heiress who had enriched the Grosvenors. She was Mary, only child of Alexajstdee, Da vies, of Ebury, a Middlesex proprietor, and brought to him an inherit- ance then valuable, now princely — viz., the huge shoe of London on which the wealth of the house is now mainly based, and which includes among other pro- perty the whole of the now fashionable region of Bel- gravia, Tyburnia, and Pimlico. The story is, that during the general panic and social disorganisation consequent on the Great Plague of London, a large amount of valuable property, money, and title-deeds was left by neighbouring families in Mr Daviess charge, most of which the owners never lived or re- turned to reclaim. Alexander Davies made such excellent use of the capital thus placed at his disposal — there is no imputation against his honesty — that he was enabled to bring together, by fresh purchases, the large landed property in the metropolis with which his daughter eventually enriched the Gros- venors. His son. Sir Eichard Grosvenor, fourth baronet, sat for the city of Chester in the Parliaments of the 1st and 8th of George I., and the 1st of George Digitized by Microsoft® Efje (Srosbenors. 119 IL, in the latter of which he was associated with his younger brother, Thomas Grosvenor. He was Mayor of Chester in 1715, and at the coronation of George IL officiated as grand cup-bearer of England, in right of his manor of Wymondley, in Hertfordshire. Though twice married, he left no children, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his next brother, Sir Thomas Gros- venor, who died unmarried at Naples in a consumption ia 1733, and was succeeded by a third brother. Sir Robert Grosvenor, sixth baronet, who had sat along with him for Chester, being elected in the room of the fourth baronet. He sat for the same city in four other Parliaments of the reign of George IL, and was mayor of the city in 1737. He married Jane, the heiress of Thomas Warre, of Swell or Swill Court, and Shepton- Beauchamp in Somersetshire and of Sandhall in Hamp- shire, and carved an estate out of this property for his younger son, Thomas Grosvenor, who succeeded him as member for Chester. On his death, in 1755, Sir Robert was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eld- est son. Sir Richard Grosvenor (seventh baronet), who officiated as grand cup-bearer at the coronation of George HI., and was M.P. for Chester in 1754 and mayor of the city in 1759. In 1758 he purchased the manor of Eccleston, of which Belgrave was a ham- let, and was, on the 8th of April 1761, raised to the peerage as Baron Grosvenor, Lord Bute having been gazetted Secretary of State a fortnight before. His domestic relations were, however, most unfortunate. He married, in 1764, Henrietta, daughter of Henry- Vernon of Hnton, StaffiDrdshire ; and, while still young and beautiful, Henry, the licentious Duke of Cumber- land, seduced her. Lady Grosvenor's husband. Lord Digitized by Microsoft® 120 Wi}t 0ros&enors. Stanhope observes, "it must be owned, offered lier no small grounds of alienation. The Duke followed her secretly into Cheshire, meeting her in disguise, yet not unobserved, at various times and places. On the dis- covery which ensued. Lord Grosvenor, though &om his own conduct hopeless of divorce, brought an action for criminal conversation, at which, for the first time, a Prince of the Blood appeared in the situation of de- fendant. The verdict was against him, and damages were awarded to the amount of £10,000." The un- happy lady was, of course, immediately deserted by her royal admirer. In July 1784, Pitt thought Lord Gros- venor useful enough and powerful enough to be pro- moted, and he made him Viscount Belgrave and Earl Grosvenor. The family completely controlled Chester, sitting for it in Parliament as if the seat had been an estate; but in return they were magnificent bene- factors to the ancient city, whose gates they rebuilt, one in 1769 and the other a few years after. Kobert, the second Earl, was as a member sufiiciently conspi- cuous for a notice from Lord Stanhope, who, after observing that, on the 12th of April 1802, Sir Fran- cis Burdett, in moving for a committee of the whole House to inquire into the conduct of the late admin- istration, " inveighed especially against Pitt, and ar- raigned with much bitterness the entire course of the war," continues : — "It may well be supposed that this attack was very ofiensive to the large majority of members who had supported Mr Pitt in all his meas- ures. Lord Belgrave became the mouthpiece of their indignation. He moved an amendment that, on the contrary, the thanks of the House should be given to the late ministers for their wise and salutary conduct Digitized by Microsoft® Ei)t &xos'omoxs. 121 throughout the war. The Opposition cried out that such a motion was contrary to the forms of Parlia- ment ; but the Speaker decided that it was regular, though very unusual, and that it might be put. But here Pitt rose. In his loftiest tone he said that he would not offer one word on the original motion, but he hoped he might be allowed to suggest that the amendment was certainly, for want of notice, against the general course of proceeding in the House, and that it ought to be withdrawn. Lord Belgrave did accordingly withdraw it, and after some further debate the House divided, and the motion of Sir F. Burdett was rejected by an immense majority. Upon this Lord Belgrave gave notice that he would, after the re- cess, bring forward a vote of thanks to the late admin- istration. But a second attack on Pitt being made on the 7th of May, by a Mr NichoUs, who concluded by moving an address of thanks to the King for hav- ing been pleased to remove the Eight Hon. W. Pitt from his councils," Lord Belgrave rose, "and pointed out that the foundation of the proposed address was entirely false. The King had not dismissed Mr Pitt. That minister had of himself resigned." He then re- stated the arguments he had urged in the former debate, and concluded by moving the amendment of which he had given notice. The amendment was vehemently opposed by Grey, Erskine, Fox, and Tier- ney ; and supported by Wilberforce, Sir Eobert Peel, Lord Hawkesbury, and Addington. On a division. Lord Belgrave's resolution was carried by a majority of 222 to 52. The Grosvenor family was therefore stUl, nominally at least, Tory. This Lord Belgrave (second Earl Grosvenor) was a Digitized by Microsoft® 122 W^e ©ros&enors. Lord of the Admiralty in 1789, Mayor of Chester in 1807, and Lord-Lieutenant of Flint, in which county the Grosvenors had now a seat called Halkin Hall. Their old luck with heiresses had not deserted them. The second Earl married Eleanor, heiress of Thomas, Earl of Wilton, the representative of one of the co- heirs of the old Lords Grey de Wilton, of Border renown ; and the earldom of WUton was, therefore, entailed on his second son, Thomas, who has since succeeded to that title, and keeps up the old Tory politics of the Grosvenors. Earl Grosvenor himself seems to have moved for- ward gradually to the Canning party, then took his side definitely with the Liberals, and, on 13th of Sep- tember 1831, was raised to the rank of Marquess of Westminster. He was one of the few great peers who strenuously supported the Keform Bill, and, on 7th October 1831, he made in his place a speech con- taining the remarkable statement, that he knew of his own knowledge that Mr Pitt had never abandoned his desire for parliamentary reform ; that he saw in it the only chance of "salvation" for Great Britain, hut that he had thought it useless to contend with the "borough -oligarchy." He never changed his views during the reaction which swept away so many great peers, but, till his death in 1844, remained a conr sistent and strenuous Whig and supporter of the Grey and Melbourne administrations. An admirable man of business, an honest politician, his character was deformed only by a thrift, always more or less ap- parent in the family, which in him rose to a mania. The very rich in England are often very economical, for they are bred up with the idea that they are ob- Digitized by Microsoft® Efje ©ros&mors, 123 jects of incessant plunder ; and tradesmen know well that it is the nouveaux riches and not the aristocracy who pay exorbitant bills without inquiry. Still the thrift which gives rise to stories such as those told of the Marquess is unusual, and has done much to lower the great popularity of the house. On his death his eldest son, Eichard, became Marquess ; his second son, Thomas, was already Earl of Wilton ; and on the ele- vation of his third son, Eobert, to the barony of Ebury, three brothers sat side by side as peers of the realm. Chester, moreover, returns the future heir to the House of Commons, Flint sends up a cadet, and the family have a sort of prescriptive claim to one seat for Mid- dlesex. All are liked by the people, as men who, though ennobled, have a sort of bourgeois respectability and aptitude for business ; and, as the family wealth develops with every succeeding year, they may yet carve out more peerages without impoverishing the main stem. By every law of succession they ought now to develop some mad spendthrift ; but if they avert that danger, and can avoid internal disputes, they may by 1900 be better represented in the Peers than any family in the land. Their connection is enormous ; for besides all other links with the great aristocracy, Earl Grosvenor has married a daughter of the Gowers, and thus become one of that group of brothers-in-law "Who form a clan without a rival in Great Britain. So high have consistent respectability, luck, and steady thrift, brought up a Norman squire. Digitized by Microsoft® %\^t jFtt^\nilUams. ^;^~^^^HEEE is an atmosphere of health about (S^£j|^») the Fitzwilliams such as does not often r^P^^^^lB] surround these great families. Strong, K^j^^l^^ efficient, but thoughtful men, with an ^PHHlH^j eye to their own interest and a hearty ail^^^Ella sympathy for the people around them, they have come down through history as a family addicted at once to governing and accumulation, forc- ing all manner of chaotic men and things to assume some semblance of order, redressing all visible griev- ances, standing always in the fore-front of the popu- lar battle, and withal very dangerous to attack, as their county rivals know. Their character would justify the family legend that they are the children of a bastard of William the Norman, but it is not supported by any ascertained facts. In the misty domain of the pedigree-makers, we hear of WUham FitzwiUiam, who gave, in 1117, land in Elmley and Sprotborough, in Yorkshire, to the monks of Biland, who may have been the son of another FitzwiUiam, and of Eleanor Elmley of Elmley, and the grandson of this bastard of the Conqueror's, or of William Eitzgodric, cousin of Edward the Confessor, and marshal of the army which conquered at Hastings and changed aU Digitized by Microsoft® E\jz JitjtotlUams, 125 English history. But all this is conjectural. The first distinct figure who steps out of the mist is an Alder- man, Sir William Fitzwilliam, a man, it would seem, of pure Norman blood ; but who, as son of a younger son of a Northamptonshire squire, had taken to trade, prospered exceedingly, and under Henry VII. and VIII. became a great City magnate, Alderman, and Sherifi" of London, and in 18th Henry VII. purchased the lordship and manor of Milton", in Northamptonshire, which he and his never let go again. That he was of gentle blood is clear ; for his ancestry, though it can- not be carried to the Conqueror, is distinct to a Fitz- william of Elmley and Sprotborough, to whom Edward I. granted the right to turn the highway which ran through the middle of his park — -a pretty sure proof of his grade and consideration. These ancestors must have been, too, somewhat popular persons ; for one of the family set up a cross, which was standing down to 1520, and on which these words were engraven in brass : — - " Whoso is livmgry, and lists to eate, Let him come to Sprodburgh to his meate ; And for a night, and for a day. His horse shall have both corn and hay, And no man shall ask him where he goeth away ! " The family, we may remark en passant, threw ofi", in the reign of Eichard II., a branch from which sprang William Fitzwilliam, Vice- Admiral of the Fleet, Trea- surer of the King's Household, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Admiral of England, Wales, Ireland, &c., and Lord Privy Seal in the reign of Henry VIII., by whom he was created a Knight of the Garter in 1537 and Earl of Southampton. This statesman and soldier died in 1543, leaving only nieces as his heiresses. Digitized by Microsoft® 126 Efje iFitjbJilUams. The Alderman — he was Alderman of Bread Street Ward — rebuilt the gates of the Church of St Andrew Undershaft at his own expense, and in 1506 was ap- pointed, on the express command of Henry VII., Sheriff of London. He was again elected in the 2d of Henry VIII., but refused to serve, and was fined a thousand marks, say ten thousand pounds, and disfranchised; hut four years after he was Sheriff of Essex, in which county- he owned the manor of Gainspark Hall, and iu nine years more was Sheriff of Northamptonshire. He was a great personal favourite of King Henry, who knew a man when he saw him, and one day came to blows with the stout Alderman. Fitzwdliam had been in early hfe in the service of Cardinal Wolsey, and ui his disgrace entertaining him at Milton, he was asked by the King himself how " he dared " to receive " so great an enemy of the State." Such a question frona a Tudor meant death, but the Alderman replied sturdily that he had acted from no contempt of his Majesty, but that the Cardinal had been his benefactor, and had helped to advance his fortunes, and he was bound to receive him. The King declared that lie had few such servants, knighted FitzwUliam, and made him one of his Privy Council, being a Tudor who understood other things than etiquette. Sir William had in his prosperity a kindly feeling for the poor, gave a charity of £12, 13s. 4d. a-year to the poor of Marham, in whose church his family lie, payable through his guild — that of Merchant Taylors — and another, se- cured in the same way, to maintain for ever six poor women in an almshouse at Gainspark Hall ; and in his wiU, dated May 1534, he gives £100 for the marriage portion of poor maidens among his tenantry, and re- Digitized by Microsoft® SDije jFitjtoilliants, 127 mits all debts due from poor creditors who " could not content the same/' under whose names he had written in his seventh book of debts "Amove Dei remitto." He bequeaths to the poor scholars within the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge £40, to be distributed by the advice of two Doctors of Divinity ; and £30 amongst poor people ; also £50 for the mak- ing the highway between Gaiuspark Hall and Chigwell in Essex; and the same sum towards mending the highways between Thornborough and Sawtrey Chapel in Huntingdonshire, and to the fellowship of Merchant Taylors his best standing gUt cups with covers, with a perpetual remembrance of him, to be kept in their hall, and they to pray for his soul. For the safety of the same soul he makes plentiful provision in several other quarters. He was three times married — first, to the daughter of a City knight ; next, to MUdred, second daughter of Eichard Sackville, of Buckhurst, in Sussex, ancestor to the Dorset family ; and lastly to Jane Ormond. To his eldest son by his first wife, William FitzwUliam, he bequeathed 300 marks ster- ling, " with all his harness and coats of fence in his gallery chamber, his rich briganders, his cross of gold with a ruby, set with three diamonds, on condition that he keepeth it as long as he liveth ; likewise his several pieces of plate, and all his household stuff", &c., at Gainspark Hall and his manor-place of Milton." He settles on him, besides (after her death) his wife's portion (the manors of Hennials, Maydells, Marshalls, and Armeways, with other lands and tenements in the county of Essex), his manors of Milton, Marholme alias Marham, Etton-cum-Woodcroft, Butlers, Thor- oldes, Minskip, and Gainspark Hall, and all his other Digitized by Microsoft® 128 Wi}z JitjbjilUams. manors, &c., within the counties of Northampton, Essex, and Lincoln, to him and his heirs male, with remainders in case of default. He also makes very- liberal provision in lands or money for his other four sons. He bequeaths to his wife his mansion-house in the parish of St Thomas the Apostle during her life, whilst she remained his widow, on condition of paying £4 per annum to his executors, to be by them be- stowed yearly for the relieving of poor prisoners within the city of London that shall be acquitted and remain for their fees. He also bequeathed "to his singular good lord " the Earl of Wiltshire, father of Queen Anne Boleyn, his rich rose of diamond and rubies, " beseeching him to be aiding to his executors in the performance of his will." And he directs that the residue of his plate, jewels, ready money, &c., and what he has not specifically bequeathed, be divided into two parts, the one half among his children in- differently, and the other among his poor kinsfolk and for the benefit of his soul, according to the discretion of his executors. Altogether he was a substantial citizen who meant gain, but meant also justice and mercy, and to go heavenwards as far as he knew how. One of his daughters by his first marriage became the wife of Sir Thomas Brudenell, of Deane, Northamp- tonshire (ancestor to the Earl of Cardigan) ; and the other, marrying Sir Anthony Coke, of Giddy or Ged- ney Hall, in Essex, had by him a daughter, Mildred, celebrated for her knowledge of Greek by Koger Ascham in his ' Epistles,' and who became the second wife of Elizabeth's William Cecil Lord Burghley, and the mother of Eobert Cecil, the Secretary of State to Elizabeth and James L, and first Earl of Salisbury. Digitized by Microsoft® ^¥ JFitjiJJtlliatns, 129 The good Alderman's eldest son and successor at Milton, also a Sir William, was brought up in the household of John Lord Eussell, first Earl of Bedford — a kinsman of his mother — and he procured him the Marshalship of the King's Bench under Edward VI. On the death of Edward he joined his relative Francis Earl of Bedford, Sir Maurice Berkeley, and Sir Henry Neville in proclaiming Queen Mary, was by her em- ployed in Ireland under the Earl of Sussex, then, in 1554, made Commissioner for the Crown, and in the following year Keeper of the Great Seal. This is the commencement of the Fitzwilliam connection with Ireland, where to this day they hold a vast estate, and where they, almost alone among Norman settlers, have once at least had the honour of national mourn- ing at their departure. From this date he was, in various ofiices, as Lord Justice, Lord-Deputy, Treasurer at War, and what not, for thirty-nine years virtual or ostensible ruler of Ireland, retiring only when worn out with toil and honour to die, in 1599, in his native hall. He was a real Governor of Ireland in times when government there did not mean the careful proportioning of official pay between two rival creeds. Fuller, in his ' Worthies of England,' speaking of the repeated renewal of his Irish trust to Fitzwilliam, says, "A sufficient evidence of his honesty and ability, Queen Ehzabeth never trusting twice where she was once deceived in a Minister of State. And she so preserved him in the power of his place that, sending over Walter Earl of Essex, in 1573, to be Governor of Ulster, the Earl was ordered to take his commission from the Lord Deputy." Sir John Davis, in his ' Discourse of Ireland,' bears testimony also that Digitized by Microsoft® 130 Eije jFitjtoilUams. Fitzwilliam " was veiy serviceable in the reduction of Ireland ; first in raising a composition in Munster, afterwards in settling the possessions of the lords and tenants ia Monaghan, one of the last acts of State (tending to the reformation of the civil government) performed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His vigil- ance was very conspicuous in the memorable year of the Spanish invasion, anno 1588, when the noted Armada, on its return, dared not to land iu Ireland, except against their wills, driven by tempest, when they found the shore worse than the sea to them." During one of Sir William's absences in England, Elizabeth displayed her trust in him by constituting him governor of Fotheringay Castle (in Northampton- shire), which was the prison of Mary of Scotland. " He behaved himself with so much civility," says one of his famUy, to his illustrious prisoner, "that the morning before she was beheaded she presented him vidth the picture of her son, which picture is still in the family." Fitzwilliam married an aunt of Sir Philip Sidney, a sister of Sir Henry Sidney (who was also one of the Governors of Irela,nd); and the latter, writing to Burghley by Sir William, on his return to England, in June 1566, says, "I beseech you, sir, be good to this bringer, my brother, Fitzwilliam. In my conscience he is a true man in all his service and charges to the Queen's Majesty. Doubtless I durst be bound, upon forfeit of aU my lands, that he hath not willingly deceived the Queen in nothing, and for his cheques I do not think that the Queen shall gain much above that which he hath ever confessed In debt sure I thiak he is, and yet far from that sum which hath been reported. He hath deserved well, Digitized by Microsoft® ®fje JFttjtotlUams. I3i which is not to be forgotten, if it were but one day's service, in which he saved the honour of our nation in this land, and the lives of as many Englishmen as were on foot that day in the field. I pray you, sir, second him, for in truth he is honest." In May 1590, he suppressed a mutiny among the soldiers; and in July 1591, TjTone by his means was made a county, and divided into eight baronies. In the same year he made the settlement of the county Monaghan, already alluded to, on occasion of the forfeiture by treason of Hugh (Roe) M'Mahon, the Irish chief; dividing the greatest part of it among the natives, except the Church lands, which he gave to English servitors, reserving £400 a-year and upwards to the Crown. For this service the Queen returned him her thanks ; but the M'Mahons objected in such a prac- tical form that "the good effects of his regulation were to a great degree frustrated." " Up to this time," says a biographer, "he was a most disinterested governor, and it was reported that, thinking his great services merited some further recompense than the established entertainment, he sought it from the Queen; but being answered by a lord in great fa- vour at Court that the Government of Ireland was a preferment, and not a service, he ever after endea- voured to make his profit of the post." The result was the gradual aggregation of a large landed estate ia that kingdom, particularly in counties Donegal, "Westmeath, Tyrone, and Wicklow. As already stated. Sir WiUiam was prompt and active against the M'Mahons, Macguires, O'Neills, and O'Hanlons, and his other dangerous Irish neighbours ; but his government of Ireland will be chiefly remembered Digitized by Microsoft® 132 STfje Jttjtoilliams. by the construction of Trinity College, Dublin, the first stone of which buUding was laid on the 13th March 1592 by the Mayor of Dublin; Sir William having two days before issued a circular letter "to encourage forwarding and perfecting so good a work, and, to set an example, gave for his own contribution £200, and was so zealous in having it finished that it was made fit for the reception of students on the 9th of January in the following year, his coat-armour being then placed over the gate to perpetuate the memory of so great a benefactor." One of Sir William's daughters married into the Byron family, and was grandmother of the first Lord Byron. The Sir William Fitzwilliam, who succeeded the Lord-Deputy of Ireland, did nothing worthy of especial notice. His son and successor, WiUiam FitzwUliam of Milton and Gainspark HaU, was, ia December 1620, created Baron Fitzwilliam of Lifibrd, in the county of Donegal — an Irish peerage only — and died "at his house in the Strand," January 6, 1644, leaving the title and estates to his son WiUiam, second Lord Fitzwilliam. This nobleman had during his father's lifetime represented Peterborough in the Parliaments of April and November 1640, and in the latter (the Long Parliament) attached himself to the cause of the Parliament, to which he adhered steadily during aU the vicissitudes of the first Civil War. Joining the party of the Presbyterians, and votuig, at the end of the year 1648, that the King's Newport proposals were a sufficient basis for an accommodation, he was one of those excluded on that account by Colonel Pride. He took no active part against the Commonwealth, however, and died peacefully at his Digitized by Microsoft® E\)z Jttjtoilliatns. 133 house in the Savoy in the beginning of 1658. His second daughter married Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's. His successor, the third Lord Fitzwilliam, also a William, was a Whig in politics, and at the accession of the house of Hanover was appointed Custos Rotulorum of the city and liberty of Peterborough, and in 1716 raised to the titles of Viscount MiUtown of MUltown, in the county of Westmeath, and Earl FitzwUliam of Tyrone. He also sat for Peterborough in some Parliaments. He married the heiress of Edmund Cremor, of West Winch, in Norfolk, and (his two eldest sons dying before him) the head of the family at length ceased to be a William, and he was succeeded by his son John, second Earl FitzwUliam (of Ireland), who was also member of Parliament and Custos Rotulorum for Peterborough. Earl John married the heiress of John Stringer, Esq., of Sutton-upon-Lound, Nottingham- shire. Their only son, WUliam Fitzwilliam, third Earl FitzwUliam, of Ireland, who was left a minor, was created by George II. in 1742 a peer of Great Britain, as Lord Fitzwilliam, Baron of Milton in Northamptonshire ; and in September 1746 was further raised to the dignity of Viscount Milton and Earl Fitzwilliam of Norborough in Northampton, and in 1744 he consolidated his fortunes by a marriage with Lady Ann Wentworth, eldest daughter of Thomas Marquess of Eockingham. This family pos- sessed the wide Yorkshire estates of the Wentworths, Earls of Strafford, William Wentworth, second Earl, son of " Thorough," having devised his possessions to his nephew, Thomas Watson- Wentworth, grandfather of Lady Anne. Her brother Charles, second Marquess, K Digitized by Microsoft® 134 Cfje JttjtoilUams. the Whig statesman, dying in 1782 without heirs, bequeathed his estates, with Wentwoeth-Wood- HOUSE, to his nephew William, the second Earl (of Great Britain), who thus became master of the estates possessed by the man for whose execution his ances- tor had voted. The Earl remained a Whig till the French Revolution, when, like most of the magnates, he quitted Fox, and in 1794 he, like other friends of the Duke of Portland — the Bentincks are Whigs by right of birth — took office with William Pitt. He was immediately afterwards appointed to his ancestral ojBSce in Ireland, and some secret understanding arrived at as to his future policy. The Earl was at heart a strong friend of Catholic emancipation, but he seems to have agreed not to bring any bill on the subject into the Irish Parliament, while Pitt, for his part, promised if Grattan introduced it that it should have full " con- sideration." This arrangement, however, was not made public, and the Earl and the Premier were ahke in a false position. On the landing of the new Lord- Lieutenant, Catholics and Dissenters hurried to him with addresses full of anticipated sympathy on his part with their views. He did sjonpathise with them heartily, and was not the man to disguise his sym- pathy. The rumour of his friendly feelings soon spread, the agitation for emancipation gained fresh strength, petitions poured into the Irish Parliament, and Mr Grattan was compelled — whatever he may have wished to do out of deference to Pitt — to intro- duce his bill at once. Then the ultra-Protestants of Ireland burst forth into violent expressions of indig- nation and alarm. Pitt wrote to Lord FitzwiUiam, stating plainly, though courteously, that the Govem- Digitized by Microsoft® Efje iFitjhJtlUatttS* 135 ment could not approve of the bill. Lord Fitzwilliam, with the proud honour of a true Whig, at once sum- moned the Chancellor to his presence, and announced his intention to lay down his government and return to England within a very few days. On the 25th of March 1795, he quitted Dublin, having only held the office since the preceding January. " The day of his departure was one of general gloom ; the shops were shut, no business of any kind was transacted, and the greater part of the citizens put on mourning, while some of the most respectable among them drew his coach down to the wharf-side ;" and his departure and the arrival of his successor were followed by riots, particularly directed, as the mob said, "to extinguish" Mr Beresford. A challenge was exchanged between the latter gentleman and Lord Fitzwilliam after his return to England. This was occasioned by some words applying to Mr Beresford which occurred ia one of two long letters addressed to Lord Car- lisle, and published by the Earl in his own vindi- cation. The parties actually met, but the arm of the law arrested the duel, and then Lord Fitzwilliam apologised " in generous terms." The subject of the resignation was renewed in the English Parlia- ment, the Duke of Norfolk and Fox taking up the case of Fitzwilliam; but Portland and Windham, with the other Whig seceders, adhered firmly to Pitt. The truth seems to have been that the Earl, in his clear-sightedness and sympathy with the people, forgot his official subordination. He lived, however, to see aU his dreams realised, and died at the commencement of the first reformed Parliament, having in a long public life steadily postponed his own comfort, posi- Digitized by Microsoft® 136 Wi}t JitjbJilltams. tion, and reputation to the development of civil and religious liberty throughout the three kingdoms. His son, the late Earl, pursued the same course, strenuous- ly supporting free trade, and so governing his estates and contesting elections as to elicit the warm affection of the people of the West Eiding, who, new as the house is in the county, still prefer the Fitzwilliams to any more sleepy race. The great election contest for the county is still talked of, in which the house of FitzwUliam is said to have expended £100,000, and their competitor all his West India estates. The last Earl at his death divided his vast inheritance into three unequal parts, but the earldom is still supported by revenues which, till the character of their owners change, will not be grudged. A manlier or more com- petent race does not distinguish the English peerage. Digitized by Microsoft® CJe Ca\jentiis|)es. )E are among a new order of magnates. The house of Cavendish does not be- long to the roll of Norman nobles, con- quered no acre of soil, sent no leader to the Crusades, lost no member during the Wars of the Eoses, and, though of high historic importance, is as a great house not old. It rose above the surface during that redistribution of England popularly known as the dissolution of the monasteries, the greatest social event between the Conquest and the Eeform Bill ; but its real founder was a woman, Elizabeth Haedwick, who devoted a long life, enduring beauty, matchless wit, and a heart above or below most scruples, to the aggrandisement of the Cavendishes. The first man of the race who can be admitted to have risen above the mass was Wil- liam Cavendish, who, in the reign of Henry VIII., obtained an appointment in the Royal Exchequer. He was the second son of Thomas Cavendish, of Cavendish-OverhaU, in Suffolk, a well-to-do though undistiaguished squire. Genealogists will have it that Thomas was the lineal descendant of Sir John Caven- dish, Chief-Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of Edward III., who obtained the lordship of Caven- Digitized by Microsoft® 138 K])t Ca&OTt(t0flE0, dish-Overhall by his marriage with, the heiress of John de Odyngseles ; and that the Cavendishes of Grimston Hall, in Suffolk, who produced the greatest man of the name, Elizabeth's illustrious navigator, were of the same stock ; but the latter pedigree at any rate must be pronounced untenable. So must the pleasing story that it was the first of the house who was gentleman- usher to Wolsey, who wrote his life, devoted himself to the Cardinal in his misfortunes, and was, therefore, the honoured friend of Henry VIH. Great houses absorb the achievements of all who bear their name, but this man was George, of Glemsford, Suffolk, elder brother of the founder,''" and the repute of mention by Shakespeare and aid in the defeat of the Armada must be struck from the famUy claims. All that is certain is, that William Cavendish, a gentleman owning some small lands in Suffolk, was, in the year of the Car- dinal's death, one of the commissioners for taking the "surrenders" of several religious houses, and in 1539 was appointed one of the auditors of the Court of Augmentation — a tribunal established to perform a task which at that time puzzled all English statesmen, viz., so to " augment " the King's revenue that lie might be able to put England in a condition of decent defence. In those days the ox who trod out the com was not muzzled, and on the 26th of February 1540, little more than three hundred years ago, WUliam Cavendish received a royal grant of the lordships and manors of Northawe, Cuffeley, and ChUdewicke, in Hertfordshire, all abbey property. Six years after lie was knighted and appointed Treasurer of the Chamber * See 'Wio wrote Cavendisli'a Life of Wolsey ? ' 1814. A tract, by the late Rev. Josepli Hunter. Digitized by Microsoft® STfje (tt^a&entitsfjfS, 139 to tlie King, " a place of great trust and honour," and no contemptible pickings in the way of small abbeys, out-of-the-way rectories, and other trifles then going pretty freely, sometimes in grants, more often in sales forced on with ruinous speed. The exchequer was always selling, and the officials naturally knew well where the fat morsels lay. So well did William Cavendish employ his opportunities that, in the last year of Edward VI., he received a royal grant of " divers lands belonging to several dissolved priories and abbeys in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staff'ord- shire, Dorsetshire, Cornwall, Kent, and Essex," in ex- change for his manors at Northawe in Hertfordshire, Northawberry in Lincolnshire, the site of the priory of Cardigan, and other lands in Cornwall and other counties, and so blossomed from a minor official into a very considerable landholder. This was pretty well for one generation, but fortune had fallen in love with the Cavendish, who seems to have had very indistinct ideas of any other worship, for he continued to hold under Mary the office which he had held under Henry and Edward VI. Two wives had died leaving no male issue, when he wooed Mistress Barley, widow of Alexander Barley, of Barley, Derbyshire, the Elizabeth Hardwick of whom we have already made mention. She was the daughter and (after her brother's death) the heiress of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, Derby- shire, and had been married at fourteen — her husband, who died soon after, bequeathing her his whole estate. It is probable that she warmly loved her second choice, for during her long career the single object which lay close to the heart of this extraordinary woman was to exalt the name and wealth of the Cavendishes. Digitized by Microsoft® 140 Wijz Ca&mttslies. Her first command — ^which, like every other she ever issued ia life, was at once obeyed — was to sell aU the southern estates, and aggregate the Cavendish proper- ty round her ancestral farms. Among the consequent purchases was the manor of Chatsworth, then in the possession of the Agard family, but formerly the seat of the Leeches, of Leech, who had built there a decent mansion and laid out a park. Lady Cavendish, how- ever, foresaw her destinies, and persuaded her husband to pull down the hall, and build what Camden calls a " spacious elegant house," a quadrangular affair with turrets, bearing little resemblance to the existing palace. Sir William did not live to finish it, dying in 1557 ; but his widow did, as she did everything else which might tend to Cavendish advantage. There were three sons of the marriage, and three daughters; but Sir William Cavendish, like Alex- ander Barley, left everything to his widow, who, with three inheritances, was naturally courted by many suitors. After a curious list of proposals she found the connection she wanted. Sir William St Loe, of Tormarton, in Gloucestershire, owner of several fair lordships. She insisted, however, on her price, and in the marriage articles a clause was inserted by which, in default of more children, all the lordships and manors of St Loe passed from his race to the children of William Cavendish, to the exclusion of St Loe's brothers and his own daughters by a previous mar- riage, — ^perhaps the coolest stipulation ever made even by a widow. This husband, too, died; and the widow, still beautiful and with a tongue which must have been of almost magical power, captivated the great- est subject then in the realm, George Talbot, Earl of Digitized by Microsoft® Eije CaSjcntiistes, 141 Shrewsbury. She made excellent terms with him, too ; for besides a great jointm-e — heaped up always for Cavendishes — he consented to a triple union of the families. His son and heir, Gilbert, was bidden to marry Mary Cavendish, youngest daughter of Sir William; while Henry Cavendish, eldest son,* married Lady Grace Talbot, the Earl's youngest daughter. The Countess married her other two daughters equally well — the eldest, Frances Cavendish, to Sir Henry Pierrepont, of Holme -Pierrepont, Notts, by whom she bore the ancestors of the Earls and Dukes of Kingston, and (through a female) of the Earls Man- vers, who at present possess the Pierrepont property; her second daughter, Elizabeth, she contrived to marry iato the royal famdy — viz., to Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox, younger brother of the unfortunate Henry Lord Darnley, King of Scotland — and Elizabeth Caven- dish became by him the mother of the equally unfor- tunate Lady Arabella Stuart. This relationship, as we shall see, gained the Chatsworth Cavendishes their step to the peerage. The Countess of Shrewsbury led a very unhappy life with her new husband, who complained bitterly of her overbearing conduct. But both Queen Elizabeth, and a bishop, who was called in to mediate, took the lady's side, and the Earl had to hear his lot as he best might. The Countess resided occasionally at Chatsworth during her union with her fourth husband, and the Earl having been intrusted with the custody of Mary Queen of Scots, the hall * Henry Cavendish, a natural son of this Henry Cavendish, had an estate at Deveridge, in Derbyshire, from his father, and is the ancestor of the present Henry Anson Cavendish, Lord "Waterpark (an Irish peerage). Digitized by Microsoft® 142 W^t Ca&entiisfjes, " acquired a more than common interest," as having been one of the prisons of that princess. The Countess survived her fourth husband also * and lived in great splendour for many years on her rich jointures. Besides Chatsworth, she built two other houses in Derbyshire, Oldcotes and Hardwick, leaving at the latter place her old family mansion standing near the new edifice, and transmitting them all three to her second and favourite son, WiUiam Cavendish, who, we may mention, inherited nearly all his elder brother's fortune (on his early death), and stood lord of the greater portion of the vast accumu- lations carved by his father from abbey lands, and by his mother from the estates of every family with whicli four wealthy marriages had brought her in contact Among the exceptions was Welbeck Abbey, Notting- hamshire, bequeathed with other estates by the mother to her third son, Charles. He married, as his second wife, Catherine, daughter and heiress of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, of Ogle Castle, Northumberland, and henceforward the Cavendish stem splits into two mighty branches, — the Chatsworth, or elder Caven- dishes, masters of endless abbey and other property; and the Welbeck, or younger Cavendishes, possessors of the lordships accumulated by the extinct house of Ogle. Such a rise from a petty estate in Suffolk effected in one lifetime is almost without a precedent even in a country where, from the Conquest to the death of Wil- liam III., the personal favour of the sovereign could in a day make a gentleman an immensely wealthy peer. We foUow the Welbeck branch first. The Ogle heiress was, on the death of her father and husband, * See under tlie history of the Talbots, postea. Digitized by Microsoft® STije Ca&mtiisijeg, 143 declared by letters patent Baroness of Ogle, and, dying in 1629, her eldest surviving son, William Cavendish, irJierited her title, the vast Ogle and part of the Cavendish estates, and was created successively Baron Ogle of Bothal, Northumberland, and Viscount Mans- field, Nottinghamshire (Nov. 3, 1620); Baron Caven- dish of Bolsover, Derbyshire, and Earl of Newcastle- upon-Tyne (March 7, 1628); Marquess of Newcastle (October 27, 1643), and Earl of Ogle and Duke of Newcastle (March 16, 1664); the three last of these dignities being bestowed upon him in reward for mag- nificent services to the Stuarts. Like all the Caven- dishes for generations, he was a man of a large but self-indulgent nature, indolent and voluptuous, with a certain greatness of soul which nothing but severe political pressure — " stormy times," in other words — could bring out of him. By his great power and in- fluence in the North — his property there affording him a gallant regiment of tenants, the renowned White- coats — and his steady principles, he managed to over- balance the Parliamentary interest there ; and, on the whole (though with great changes of fortune), he kept the advantage over the Fairfaxes till the advance of the Scotch army in 1644 drove him to the shelter of York walls, whence he emerged (against his will) with Prince Eupert to encounter the defeat at Marston which the latter had brought on by his obstinate rash- ness. After the battle the Marquess took shipping at Hull and returned to the Continent, being unable, as he himself said, to encounter the laughter of the courtiers at his discomfiture. Soon after his arrival at Paris he feU in love with, and married as his second wife, Margaret Lucas, one of Queen Henrietta's maids Digitized by Microsoft® 144 W])e ®abmtrig]^es. of honour, daughter of Thomas Lucas, of St John's, near Colchester, and sister of the Sir Charles Lucas shot by Fairfax after the capture of that town in 1648. This is the well-known blue-stocking, and most eccen- tric and learned Duchess of Newcastle, who was so much admired in her own day and has been so much ridiculed since. Whether she were a wise person or not, she was certainly a devoted and admiring wife, as her Avritings testify. His estate being under seques- tration, he was put to great straits in living, till the death of his younger brother Sir Charles, a mathemati- cian of the highest class, described by Clarendon as a magnificent soul in a frail body, brought him an income of £4200 a-year, on which he lived till the Eestoration. Sir Charles had fortunately been induced to compound with the ParKamentarians, and he had bought in as much of his brother's confiscated estates as he could lay his hands on, preserving, for example, Welbeck and Bolsover. On the return of the Marquess to England, however, he found his means sadly crippled, and the statement of his losses will illustrate better than entire histories the position to which the younger Cavendishes had risen, and the sacrifices entailed by the Civil War on a great English landed proprietor. Of eight parks that he possessed before the Civil War all but Welbeck were destroyed. Clipston Park, Nottinghamshire, seven miles in compass, and filled with magnificent trees, estimated at £20,000, in which he had chiefly delighted, was utterly defaced, not a tree being left standing. He had stUl, however, re- maining in Notts £6229 per annum : in Lincolnshire, £100 per annum ; in Derbyshire, £6128 per annum; in Stafibrdshire, £2349 per annum ; in Gloucestershire, Digitized by Microsoft® STfje Cabentiisifjes. 145 £1581 per annum; in Somersetshire, £1303 per annum; in Yorkshire, £1 700 per annum; in Northumberland, the baronies of Bothal, Ogle, and Hepple, £3000 per annum; total, £22, 3 9 per annum.''"' His losses his wife computes at £941,300, of which she attributes £403,000, without interest, to the Civil War ; lands lost, £2000 per an- num ; and lost ia reversion, £3200 ; and he sold lands to pay his debts to the value of £56,000. His woods cut down she estimates at £45,000. As a compensa- tion for his losses he asked and obtained a step iu the peerage, and was, accordingly, in 1664, made Duke of Newcastle. He died in. December 1676, and was suc- ceeded by his son Henry (his eldest son Charles, Lord Mansfield, having died before him), who adhered firmly to the Stuart family — was greatly trusted and admired by James H., opposed the Eevolution, and, refusing to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, re- tired from public business, and died at Welbeck in 1691. Henry's four sons preceded him to the tomb, and he left five coheiresses ; but the bulk of the New- castle property passed eventually through one of them to the Holies family, thence by a second heiress to Harley, Earl of Oxford, and thence by a third heiress to the Bentincks, Dukes of Portland, who now enjoy it. The younger branch was extinct. It had lasted but two generations; the almost regal Duke, whose op- position to a new dynasty was a great question of State, being only the great-grandson of WUliam Cavendish, clerk in the Exchequer, and manager of the Tudor confis- cations. The family had done their work in the world, and their eagerness to accumulate was only equalled * We have omitted the odd shillings and pence in our statement of the items. Digitized by Microsoft® 146 Wifz Ca&Ent(i0!je0» by the splendid decision with which they staked their much-desired wealth on behalf of the cause which, like most of the new noblesse, they held to be that of duty. The elder, or Chatsworth branch, however, remamed still in prosperous existence. William Cavendish, son of the Sequestrator, after the ordinary career of a great country gentleman during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, serving as sheriff and sitting in Parliament, was, on the 4th of May 1604, created by James (through Arabella Stuart's influence). Baron Cavendish of Hard- wick. He had caught the passion of the day for geo- graphical adventure, was one of the first "adventurers" who settled a colony and plantation in Virginia, and on the discovery of Bermuda was one of the knot of nobles to whom the King granted the island. They settled and provisioned it in 1612, and in memory of the fact one of the eight counties of Bermuda still bears the name of Cavendish. On the 7th of August 1618, he was created Earl of Devonshire, and died at Hard- wick, 1625, at the age of seventy-five. His son Wil- liam (second Earl) survived him only three years. He was a man notorious for his accomplishments, his dissoluteness, and his half insane expenditure. The King married him to Christian, the daughter of his Scotch favourite, Edward Lord Bruce of Kinloss — his younger brother is ancestor of the Earl of Elgin, the late Governor-General of India — taking that means of rewarding Lord Bruce by marrying him into an abeady great family. He gave the bride himself £10,000 on the wedding, and on the father of the bridegroom making a second marriage, enjoined him not on that account to diminish the inheritance which he would leave to his eldest son. Before his father's death, however, Lord Digitized by Microsoft® Efje (ITa&mUtsfjes. 147 Cavendish had already contracted a large debt, and when his fortunes were by that event reinstated he launched out into still larger expenses, making his house more like a palace than the dwelling of a sub- ject. He was, however, more than a spendthrift and a rou6. Hobbes had been his tutor, he had travelled, he knew European languages so well that he was used as courtly interpreter to foreign ambassadors, and he was a magnij¢ patron of literature and the fine arts. His vices have been obscured by the praises heaped upon him in return, but he nearly undid all the efforts of the Sequestrator and Elizabeth Hardwick. At his death (June 20, 1628, at his house near Bishopsgate, on the site of the present Devonshire Square), his affairs seemed in hopeless confusion — a vast and increasing debt, and upwards of thirty lawsuits, constituting the inheritance. For the second time, however, a w^oman built up the house. His widow Christian was guar- dian of the minor, and she calmly devoted her life to the unravelling of the skein. She had a jointure of £5000 a-year, a clear head, a fascinating tongue, and that incapacity of blundering in matters pecuniary which is included in Scotch descent. With this, and stUl more with her own woman's wit, perseverance, and fascination of manner, she fought successfully all the lawsuits against powerful adversaries, and brought them to an end in moderate time, so that King Charles said to her in astonishment, " Madam, you have all my judges at your disposal." Some of the debts she liqui- dated by the sale of some estates disentailed by her husband by Act of Parliament (a rare act of grace in those days), the rest she fairly paid off by more prudent management of the property, and she handed over to Digitized by Microsoft® 148 Wife Cabenttisi^es. her son his inheritance scarcely impaired by his father's mad extravagance. When her son came of age she retired to her seat, Leicester Abbey, and resided there till the Civil War broke out, remaining, we may add, the Providence of the family. The Earl, under her ad- vice, flung in his lot, like his great cousin of Newcastle, with the King, voted for the King at Westminster to the last minute, obeyed his summons to York and to the Anti-Parliament at Oxford, and then ran away to the Continent. The motive for this act will never now be explained; but it seems possible that Christian had made the blunder of aU women of her kind, and governed her son till his manliness was somewhat questionable. She saved him again, however. Parliament admitted him to composition, and on her advice he got over his obstinacy, came to terms, returned to England, and lived in strict retirement till the Eestoration, dying a highly respectable nonentity in 1684. His younger brother, Charles, had more of his mother's spirit. The Templars chose him captain of the body-guard they raised for the King. He distinguished himself at Edge- hiE, took Grantham and Burton-on-Trent by storm, became his cousin Newcastle's lieutenant-general of horse, and seems to have had in him the qualities of a great and successful commander. His destiny, however, crossed Cromwell's, and instantly snapped. CromweU met him near Gainsborough, broke his force, and drove him into a quagmire, where he was slain by the famous Captain Berry (Baxter's friend), with "a thrust under the short ribs." Thirty years after his mother ordered his body to be exhumed, that it might lie next hers, and all Eoyalist England mourned loudly for the perfect Cavalier, Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}z Ca&enitsfjcs, 149 By 1664, then, the Cavendislies, who but began to grow in 1530, had advanced thus far. They had earned a dukedom and earldom, had contributed three great captains to the royal cause, and were collectively, with- out exception, the richest landed proprietors in Great Britain. In 1691 only one branch remained ; but that still held the earldom, nearly all the Sequestrator had seized, and most of all his wife had gathered so patiently, and had commenced with William, fourth Earl, a new and far brighter career. The second history of the Cavendishes, their career as a great Whig house, devoted to the cause which in those days represented freedom — the cause, that is, of aristocratic as opposedto regal government — commences before the death of the third Earl. He lived for years, as we have said, as a respectable nonentity ; but his son, after receiving the usual education, and making the grapd tour, married a daughter of the house of Ormond, served in a naval action, went in the suite of Mr (afterwards the Duke of) Montagu to France, where he was nearly killed in an encounter with three of the French King's guards at the Opera House, on his return was elected for Derbyshire, and threw him- self warmly into the " country party," of which Lord EusseU was the acknowledged head. By his deter- mined conduct he greatly incensed the Court party, distmguishing himself particularly by his zeal for the Protestant religion and against Popery. In 1679 he was appointed with his friend Lord Russell one of the Privy Council, exerted himself strenuously in support of the Exclusion Bill, and suffered from the reaction produced by that violent measure. Accordingly, we find in the ' Gazette ' published at Whitehall, January Digitized by Microsoft® 150 ®|jc Ca&ml(is|je0, 31, 1680, this curt notice :— "This evening the Lord Eussell, the Lord Cavendish, Sir Henry Capel, and Mr Powle prayed the King to give them leave to retire from his Council Board. To which his Majesty was pleased to answer, ' With all my heart!'" Lord Ca- vendish contianed to attend aU the consultations of Eussell and his friends, till at length he objected to something brought forward as too dangerous, and ab- sented himself thenceforth, though he kept up his political connection with the party. This probably saved his head when Eussell and Sidney suffered, but he never flinched from their side, appearing at the trial as a witness in Lord Eussell's favour, offering to change clothes with him and remain in prison in his stead, and attending him to the last with unswerving devotion and affection. In 1684 his father's death made him Earl of Devonshire, and from this time he assumed the leadership of the Opposition ia the Upper House. " He was well qualified to do so," says Mac- aulay. "In wealth and influence he was second to none of the English nobles; and the general voice designated him as the finest gentleman of his time. His magnificence, his taste, his talents, his classical learning, his high spirit, the grace and urbanity of his manners, were admitted by his enemies. His eulo- gists, unhappUy, could not pretend that his morals had escaped untainted from the widespread contagion of that age. Though an enemy of Popery and of arbi- trary power, he had been averse to extreme courses, had been willing, when the Exclusion BiU was lost, to agree to a compromise, and had never been con- cerned in the illegal and imprudent schemes which had brought discredit on the Whig party." In the Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Ca&enUisfjcs. 15 1 following year the Prince, whom he had endeavoured to exclude, succeeded as James II., and a mischance befeU the Earl which is differently related by differ- ent writers. We will confine ourselves to Kennet's account, who afl&rms that a Colonel Culpeper was instigated to insult the Earl in the precincts of the Court. Devonshire, though a man of quick temper and proved courage, at first scornfully pardoned his antagonist; but after the defeat of Monmouth, Culpeper was prevailed on to encounter the Earl agaia in the presence-chamber, and give him an insulting look. The proud Peer lost all patience, seized the bravo by the nose, led him out of the chamber, and then struck him with his cane. For this offence, a great one against etiquette, but against etiquette only, he was summoned to the King's Bench, vainly pleaded his privilege as a Peer, was fined £30,000, and was com- mitted to the King's Bench until the sum should be paid. The amount was probably more than one year's income, or equivalent to a fine at the present day of £150,000 ; and the Earl, boiling with indignation^ broke prison, and betook himself to Chatsworth. The Sheriff of Derbyshire was ordered to arrest him ; but by this time the Cavendishes had a hold on their tenantry other than that of money, and the Earl turned the tables by arresting the official, and keeping him ia Chatsworth in honourable custody till he had made terms with the King. His mother offered James bonds for £60,000, signed by Charles I. and II., for monies received during their necessities from the third Earl ; but the faithless tyrant cared as little for the . honour of his house as for justice, repudiated the debts, and demanded a bond for the whole amount. It was Digitized by Microsoft® 152 Wijt Ca&enUtsijes. given, and was found among James's papers after his flight, and cancelled by William III., while the House of Lords reversed the sentence as contrary to Magna Charta. The Earl, duriag his seclusion from business, which lasted nearly four years, occupied himself with rebuilding Chatsworth, laying out the grounds afresh, and furnishing the house in a style which excited the envy of foreign magnates. As the tendency of the King's Government, however, became more evident, he secretly plunged into politics once more, and opened a correspondence with the Hague, strenuously urging the Prince of Orange to interpose. On the first alarm of the preparations in Holland, James summoned the Earl to Court, but he excused himself ; and when his cousin, the Duke of Newcastle, visited him and talked much of the danger of revolution, he answered only in general terms. , The instant the Duke had disappeared he held a meeting with his old enemy the Earl of Danby, for whose impeachment he had voted; and after a full reconciliation and avowals of past indis- cretion, they concerted measures with Lord Delamere, Sir Scroop Howe, and others of the greatest influence, to raise Derbyshire on behalf of the Prince. The smaller gentry, however, were terribly afraid of an- other " Bloody Assize," and when the Deliverer's fleet was driven back by the storm, there was danger lest the Earl himself should be seized and retained in arrest. He, however, never lost heart, and the moment the Prince arrived, placed himself at the head of his tenantry — an act which, had James succeeded, would have cost him his life and lands — and read to the corporation of Derby the Prince's first declaration. The town refused to move, and the Earl, with his Digitized by Microsoft® 2Ci)e Catientiisljes. 153 force swelling at every step, marclied to Nottingham, where he issued a declaration of the views and desires of his party, and where he was joined by the Princess Anne. He escorted her with his whole force to Ox- ford, and thence repaired to Sion House, where he was welcomed by WUliam as one of his steadiest friends. In the Convention Parliament he was the most con- spicuous supporter of extreme Whig ideas, and it was at his house that the Lords assembled to devise some compromise between the claims of William and Mary. It is to him, too, that the sentence which, for the first time in our history, assigned the supreme power in the State to the House of Commons, is ascribed. The Tory Lords wished to proceed to business on the 25th January, but Devonshire proposed and carried a delay till the 29th, " by which time," he said, " we may have some lights from below which may be useful for our guidance," a pregnant remark for which he was severely censured. On the accession of the new sovereign he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire, and sworn of the Privy CouncU, in which capacity he is recorded to have refused an enormous bribe. In January 1691, he attended WiUiam to the Hague, disting-uishing himself as usual by the magnificence of his life ; but he resented keenly William's leaning towards the Tories. He could not comprehend that the Prince had become King of England, not of the Whigs, and ex- pressed himself so bitterly that Macaulay thinks his language gave rise to what Lord Preston stated on his trial — that William Penn had told him that Devon- shire was in communication with the Court of St Ger- main's. No one, however, credited the assertion ; and when Preston was proceeding to repeat this part of his Digitized by Microsoft® 154 Ef)0 €B!i3tntiisl)t&. accusation in the King's presence, William stopped him, saying to Carmarthen, " My lord, we have had enough of this." In 1694 William showed his sense of the Earl's services by creating him, on the 12th of May, Marquess of Hartington (Derbyshire) and Duke of Devonshire, on the same day that the Earl of Bed- ford was raised to a similar dignity. In 1695, the Queen being dead, Devonshire was appointed one of the Lord - Justices during the absence of WUliam, and in. that capacity received the confessions of Sir John Fenwick, implicating Shrewsbury, GodolpLin, and Marlborough, and transmitted them direct to the King, without showing them to his colleagues — a pro- ceeding which the accused ministers much resented, but William, probably, much appreciated. On the bill of attainder against Sir John, however, Devonshire, at the head of a small section of the Whigs, while sup- porting the earlier stages of the bUl, to intimidate, as he said, the prisoner into further revelations, refused to support the third reading unless the prisoner's life were guaranteed, and his sentence commuted to per- petual banishment, declaring his dislike of bills of attainder. He strongly opposed, however, the "Ee- sumption Bill " for royal grants in Ireland, and con- tinued ia the King's favour to the last, being one of those present at his death. Queen Anne continued him in the office of Lord Steward, and he consistently supported the measures of the Whig party, the war with France, &c., and was appoiated one of the Eng- lish commissioners to settle the union with Scotland. He died on the 18th of August 1707, at Devonshire House, Piccadilly, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, leaving one of the few unblemished memories of that Digitized by Microsoft® EJje Ca&etxliisiies. 155 period of political demoralisation. He was the flower of his race, the one member of the house to whom it had been given to stake lands and life on a side which, though that of an order, was also that of the people. His eldest son, William, the second Duke, was not a man of any great political weight beyond the influ- ence attaching to his position as the head of a great Whig house. This secured him on three several occa- sions the office of Lord President of the Council, and he was more than once appointed a Lord -Justice during King George's absence in Germany. He at- tached himself in politics more especially to Town- shend and Walpole, in opposition to Stanhope and Sunderland, and died in June 1729, having married Lady Eachael Eussell, daughter of his father's friend. Lord Wniiam RusseU. His third son, Lord Charles Cavendish, was the father of Henry Cavendish, one of the founders of the present science of chemistry. Henry Cavendish had been alienated from most of his family by his refusal to enter on a political or public life ; but an uncle, approving of his conduct, left him a large fortune. He lived in strict retirement, being eccentric in his habits,— he would not see a female, and if any of his maid-servants came near him, she was at once dismissed; accumulated a splendid hbrary, and died in 1810 at an advanced age, leaving funded property to the amount of £1,200,000, of which he bequeathed £700,000 to his cousin, Lord George Cavendish; £200,000 to the Earl of Bessborough; and the remainder in legacies to other members of the Devonshire family. The Duke's eldest son, William, third Duke, like his father and grandfather, acted as Lord Steward of the Household. He was four times Digitized by Microsoft® 156 Wi)z Ca&mtiisljcs. one of the Lord-Justices during the King's absence from England, and in 1737 was appointed Lord-Lieu- tenant of Ireland, in which office he continued for seven years. His talents, though not brilliant, were respectable and solid. Sir Eobert "Walpole, to whom he was consistently attached throughout life, even said of him that on a subject that required mature deliberation he would prefer his opinion to that of any other person ; and Horace Walpole, calling on him one day at Devonshire House, and finding him from home, left the following epigram on his table : — " Ut dominus domus est ; non extra fulta colunmia Marmoreis splendet ; quod tenet intus habet ;" which may be translated : — " Like host like house ; without, no pillared show Of marble shines ; within, their wealth they stow." In his administration of Ireland he only followed the instructions of Walpole, without leaving any mark of personal character on the Government ; but he has the merit of at least once intimidatrag into submission Dean Swift, who had had the cathedral beUs muffled lest they should ring a peal in honour of his arrival. After the fall of Walpole, disgusted with the character of the Duke of Newcastle, and the timidity of his brother, Mr Pelham, the Duke, in 1749, resigned his post of Lord Steward (to which he had been re-appointed on his return from Ireland, with a seat in the Cabinet), and retired to Chatsworth, where he died, December 5, 1755. His eldest son and successor, William, fourth Duke of Devonshire, had filled several public offices during his father's hfe- time. He had sat for Derbyshire in. the Commons, and had been called up to the House of Peers in the Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Caijcntrtsijes. 157 barony of 1605. He was Master of the Horse in 1751 ; one of the Privy Council and a Lord of Eegency in 1752. In January 1754 he was made Governor of the county of Cork ; in the February of the following year, Lord High Treasurer of that king- dom, in room of the last Earl of Burlington. These two offices he retained all his life. In March 1755 he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in which post he continued till November 1756, when he was made First Lord of the Treasury. This last appoint- ment ensued on the resignation of the Duke of New- castle, the elder Pitt becoming Secretary of State. Up to that time Devonshire's connection had been with Fox — of course the elder Fox. Lord Stanhope says of him, "This nobleman was, like his father, naturally averse to public business, but, like his father also, was highly esteemed by all parties for probity and truth. Dr Johnson, for example, though opposed to the Duke in politics, bears a strong testimony to his character : ' He was not a man of superior abili- ties; but strictly faithful to his word. If, for in- stance, he had promised you an acorn, and none had grown in that year in his woods, he would not have been contented with that excuse, — ^he would have sent to Denmark for it.' " Devonshire continued to hold this office after Pitt's resignation down to June 1757, when Newcastle and Pitt forced their way into power again. With the new reign, new influences, and, indeed, a new policy, came into play; and the Duke, whom the Princess-Dowager sarcastically called the "Prince of the Whigs," was naturally an object of intense dislike to the Earl of Bute and the King, who was striving to break the power of the great Whig Digitized by Microsoft® 158 Wi)z Ca&mtrisJjes. connection. In October 1762, a crisis occurred. The Duke of Newcastle, driven from power, intrigued with the great Whigs, and persuaded two of them— Devonshire and Rockingham — to resign their places in the Household. A few days afterwards, the King in Council called for the Council-book, and ordered the Duke of Devonshire's name to be struck from the list. Soon after, Newcastle, Grafton, and Eockiag- ham having been dismissed from the Lord-Lieutenan- cies of their counties for censuring the terms of the peace, Devonshire, whose dismissal also had been de- signed, but averted by Fox, threw up his commission voluntarily. After this, though in the prime of life, his health gave way ; he sought relief at Spa, in Ger- many; but on October 2, 1764, a renewed attack of palsy carried him off at the latter place, at the age of forty-four. Lord Stanhope, observing on the great loss sustained by the Whig party in his death, says that " it is not easy to discriminate between his char- acter and his father's, whom he seemed to have suc- ceeded in principles and disposition as much as in title and estates." Had he survived a little longer he might have assumed again high place on the return of Pitt to power, and have proved an ally in Pitt's real policy — that of pursuing liberal measures by the aid of the great aristocratic faction. His eldest son and successor, WUliam, fifth Duke, was then only sixteen years of age, and " at no time did he study State affairs. But the importance of the house of Cavendish was, in great measure, upheld by the late Duke's brothers. Lord John especially, the youngest of all, was well read, held in just esteem for his truth and honour, and resolute in his views, Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Ca&nttrts!)e0. 159 though shy and bashful in his manner ' Under the appearance of virgin modesty,' says Horace Walpole, 'he had a confidence in himself that nothing could equal.'" " In reality, however," continues Lord Stan- hope, "his abilities were only moderate, nor yet did he bring to public life any very steady application." Burke, notwithstanding his eulogies of him after his death, during his lifetime writes in a much more sub- dued tone respecting him, and in a letter expresses a wish that Lord John could be induced to show "a degree of regular attendance on business." "Lord John ought to be allowed a certain decent and reason- able portion of fox-hunting ; but anything more is intolerable." Lord John was Chancellor of the Ex- chequer in 1782 and again in 1783, and died unmar- ried ia December 1796. His elder brother, Lord George Cavendish, who died two years before him, also unmarried, brought to the Cavendish property an accession — the Holker estate, in North Lancashire, left him by Sir James Lowther, of Whitehaven, in 1753. We may also mention here that the Caven- dishes have added to their influence in this part of the kingdom by purchasing the estates of the old family of Curwen, iu the western part of the adjacent county of Cumberland — estates the Curwens had received, we believe, duriag the great distribution of the abbey lands, and which, had they been retained, would have made them by this time peers, and enabled them, perhaps, to win their brave but hopeless fight of two centuries with the Lowthers. We are approaching the present day. The fifth Duke was chiefly remarkable as the husband of Georgiana, daughter of John Earl Spencer, the beau- Digitized by Microsoft® 160 Wi)z ^Rhtntiisijm, tiful Duchess -who won the vote of a Westminster butcher for her friend Fox with a kiss. This Duke had inherited Chiswick House, Middlesex, Lismore Gastle, County Waterford, and other large Irish estates, with the title of Lord Clifford of Lanesborough, from his mother, Charlotte, daughter and heiress of Eichard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork ; and on Septem- ber 10, 1831, his younger brother, George Augustus Henry Cavendish, was raised to his maternal grand- father's title of Burlington, and also created Baron Cavendish of Keighley, Yorkshire. This first Earl of Burlington of the Cavendish family married Lady Elizabeth Compton, daughter and heiress of Charles, seventh Earl of Northampton, who brought him Compton Place, Eastbourne, Pevensey Castle, and other property in Sussex. His eldest grandson is Duke of Devonshire, the sixth Duke, son of the fifth (whom he succeeded in 1 8 1 1), dying unmarried. Another peerage was created, January 15, 1858, in the person of Charles Compton Cavendish, youngest brother of the present Duke of Devonshire ; and his son, William George, is now the second Baron Chesham, both father and son having represented the county of Buckingham in Parliament. The sixth Duke, William Spencer, was remarkable for his marvellous taste in horticul- ture, which he gratified with the assistance of Sir Joseph Paxton, whom he picked up as an under- gardener at Kew, till Chatsworth and Chiswick be- came the noted centres of all that was novel and magnificent in his favourite pursuit. A true Caven- dish in every instinct, magnificent, accomplished, and dissolute, he was pursued through life by a story which asserted that he was a changeling, bound by a Digitized by Microsoft® Efje (labenliisfjes. 161 family compact not to marry. He did not marry, and lie did dip the estates ; but in those two facts lay the only evidence in support of a charge probably loased on the tale of some discarded waiting-maid. There is scarcely a noble in England whose title is not as- sailed by some such rumour, though it more generally takes the form of a secret or Scotch marriage, made by some half-forgotten ancestor. The sixth Duke died January 17, 1858. The present and seventh Duke — also a WUliam — has taken little part in public life, though the conjoiaed wealth of the Devonshire and Burlington titles gives him enormous influence; but his heir, the Marquess of Hartington, has devoted him- self to politics, and bids fair, with the assistance of a brother who is just coming forward, and from whom the advanced Whigs hope much, to revive the politi- cal influence of the house of Cavendish. Their fur- ther rise will be watched without annoyance ; for though founded by a sequestrator, made by marrying a widow, and distinguished throughout their history by a personal character which is that rather of Con- tinental than of English nohlesse, they have deserved well of their country. There was no English royalist like the chief of the younger branch, no Whig who dared or suffered more than the head of the elder race, who made of a family of courtiers a steadily liberal house. Their use in politics has been that of men ready to lead forlorn hopes ; and as magnates they, at least, teach the middle class that there are modes of life more brilliant and many-coloured, if less virtuous, than the steady pursuit of bourgeois respec- tability. For three hundred years the Cavendishes have been gentlemen. Digitized by Microsoft® C!)e Betititicfes* ^HE house of Bentinck occupies a posi- tion in English history which is ia many respects unique. It is (if we except the Barings) the only house founded by a foreigner since the days of the Plantagenets which has risen to the first rank — ^the only one built by a favourite which can look back to its origin with a glow of honest pride. Other men whose pedigree is not Eng- lish are found in the Peerage, but the highest among them is only of secondary rank; other houses have been founded by favourites, but their representatives anxiously veil the personal career of the founder. The Bentincks are proud of theirs, and with reason. In the long and splendid roU of English statesnaen there is probably not a man who has accomplished more for English greatness than the bad-mannered Dutchman who loved money so much and English- men so little. Hans William Bentinck, founder of the house which now rivals the Howards, the Percies, or the Sey- mours, was the third and youngest son of Hendrick Bentinck, Lord of Diepenham, in the Dutch province of Over-Yssel, where his family had flourished for ages as Digitized by Microsoft® %\ft 38mtincfes» 163 men of knightly, if not of noble rank. He was born in tlie year 1645, and appointed, while still a lad, page of honour to the young Prince of Orange, then first among Dutch nobles, and with admitted though some- what indefinite claims to a civil primacy in Holland. He was then appointed gentleman of the bedchamber, and, with the growing confidence of his Prince, acquired a hold over his afiections which continued through life, and placed the two men, who were in many respects strangely alike, on a footing, so to speak, of schoolboy iatitnacy exceedingly rare in courts. An incident which occurred in 1675 deepened this inti- macy into unbounded trust. The Prince had taken the smallpox in its most malignant form, and all his attendants fled. Bentinck alone remained by his side, doing what thousands of women have often done, but what seemed to our hard ancestors so won- derful that Sir William Temple recorded it on the Stadtholder's own authority : — " I cannot forbear to give Monsieur Bentinck the character due to him of the best servant I have known in princes' or private families. He tended his master during the whole course of his disease, both night and day ; and the Prince told me that whether he slept or no he could not teU, but in sixteen days and nights he never called once that he was not answered by Monsieur Bentinck, as if he had been awake. The first time the Prince was well enough to have his head opened and combed, Monsieur Bentinck, as soon as it was done, begged of his master to give him leave to go home, for he was able to hold up no longer. He did so, and fell immediately sick of the same disease, and ia great extremity; but recovered just soon enough Digitized by Microsoft® 164 Efje aSentincits. to attend the Prince into the field, where he was ever next his person." William never forgot this service, and through life Bentinck was the single human being whom he publicly acknowledged as a man favoured by his own heart. From this time forth, through life, he gave him but one employment. He naver made him premier either in England or Hol- land, never used him. as, what he was, a very com- petent soldier, never gave him defined or permanent high ofl&ce. Only, whenever it seemed necessary that the Prince himself should do some work which it was impossible for him to do, he rayed out Bentinck from his side as alter ego. If there was a nearly hopeless mission to be performed, Bentinck was sent to do it ; and though personally, like his master, a stern, cold man, with a gloomy manner, made endurable only by its grave dignity, and the sense of repressed force which it inspired, he was in such missions uniformly successful. He had a knack, it would seem, like William, of persuading people that they had not a great many alternatives. Thus, in 1677, he was sent by the Prince to England to negotiate a marriage be- tween himself and the Princess Mary, eldest daughter of the Duke of York, and heiress presumptive to the throne — a work of singular difficulty, and, as matters turned out, of singular importance. William was a great man, but in 1688, had not the Tory squires been able to conceal the fact of an election to the throne under the fiction of James's abdication and Mary's consequent title, England would have run with blood. In 1677, however, the Duke of York was strongly opposed to the match, liking neither the Dutch Pro- testantism nor William's hostility to France; but Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz 3Snttmcltg. 165 Charles wanted to please his people, and Bentinck managed his task so adroitly that he brought over the Duke to a favourable answer. The marriage was completed, but in 1683 all its good effect for England, as well as Europe, seemed to have passed away. The Eye-House Plot had just exploded, and all Whigs were looked upon with acute disfavour. William was counted among them, and at this moment Austria was so menaced by Turkey that Holland might have been left alone to encounter the sleepless wrath of Louis XIV. Bentinck was, therefore, hurried over to assure Charles of his master's detestation of the pro- ceedings of the Whigs, and so to conciliate him as to preserve intact the English alliance with Holland. He succeeded, but after the accession of James II. the new monarch made a demand for a proof of all this concern in the shape of the surrender of the Duke of Monmouth, Lucy Walters's all -popular bastard. The States agreed to surrender the Duke, when Wil- liam despatched his confidant to warn him of the danger and offer him high command in the Hungarian war. Monmouth evaded the offer, reached the Texel and England, and endeavoured to lead the Whigs in arms. William, who, though a Whig, did not want to see Lucy Walters's boy mount a throne, to the prejudice of his wife and his own collateral claim — people always forget that William, on the mother's side, was a Stuart — and who did want very much to command an English army, seized his opportunity, and through Bentinck offered his personal services to his father-in-law, though without success. The offer, indeed, was scarcely sincere, for William was even then preparing for a descent on England, and Ben- M Digitized by Microsoft® 166 ^\jz 3Smtincfts. tinck, soon after his return, was sent to acquaint the Elector of Brandenburg (afterwards first King of Prussia, a person of little ability but much ma^iifi- cence) with the design, and obtain from him, who dreaded France nearly as much as his descendant, promises of assistance. He received them, and then returning, took charge of the hardest detaU in the design, — the secret gathering of the ^ transports, and finally, when all was complete, stepped on board by "William's side. The Eevolution triumphed, and Bentirick, who had incidentally contended for William as against Mary, was one of the first to experience the Eoyal Stadt- holder's gratitude. He was appointed Groom of the Stole and First Lord of the Bedchamber, an ofSce which then resembled more nearly that of Ministre de la Maison de VEmpereur, with £5000 a-year, and was created Baron Cirencester, Viscount Woodstock, and Earl of Portland, with some considerable English grants of land. In 1690 he- sailed with WUliam for Ireland, shared in the battle of the Boyne, and routed the Irish before Limerick. He received the general direction of the military operations in Scotland, where he steadily supported General Mackay against the Scotch councillors, who were anxious to supersede him. Mere defeat never struck either Bentinck or his master as any proof of want of generalship. In 1693 he was despatched on an errand of singular delicacy — to consult Sir WiUiam Temple, then residing at Moor Park, Farnham, on the wisdom of the opinion which the King had conceived, that he ought to veto the Triennial BiU. Temple gave his opinion decidedly against the King's opinion, and despatched his humble Digitized by Microsoft® Eije Bmtincfes. 167 secretary, Jonathan Swift, to explain to William more fuUy the grounds of the view which he took of the matter. It is said that he did this because he was afraid of trusting the matter to the report of Bentinck alone, as that statesman was so imperfectly acquainted with the history and nature of the English Constitu- tion. Here, indeed, lay the great drawback to Ben- tinck's public career in England. He could not converse in the English language — he knew little of, and cared still less for, English feelings, habits, and prejudices ; he regarded England only as an instru- ment in the advancement of his master's greatness in Europe, and was interested in her prosperity simply ia so far as it was directly involved with the fortunes of William himself. He never could understand or appreciate the English, — he never was understood or appreciated by them. All the dislike to foreign fav- ourites which was instinctive in the English nation was exaggerated tenfold in his case by his unconcealed want of sympathy with the people from whose re- sources he was building up a gigantic fortune. For Bentiuck was, as his advocates admit, fond of accumu- lating wealth, avaricious, indeed, and grasping in the pursuit of personal aggrandisement, so far as the limits of honour permitted. Wherever pickings could be obtained from the public purse or the private bounty of the Sovereign without violating the rules of justice and honour, there Bentinck was always on the look-out, and generally a successful candidate. Large slices from the royal domain in many counties of England were carved out for the "King's confiden- tial friend ; many more estates he purchased with the large sums of money which came to his hands either Digitized by Microsoft® 168 Wift Bmtmcfts. from the direct gift of the King, or as the salary or perquisites of his various offices and commissions. The English people, cognisant of this unseemly crav- ing for the loaves and fishes on the part of one who refused to be an Englishman in anything but name — he had been naturalised — suspected Bentinck of a hankering after dishonourable gain. They confounded that passion for acquisition, often found in men who are aware that they use acquisitions well, with or- dinary greed, and accused him privately of taking bribes. Fortunately for his career they were splen- didly undeceived. A Parliamentary inquiry, in 1695, into the distribution of secret-service money by the East India Company, for the purpose of unduly in- fluencing persons in official or Parliamentary posi- tions, disclosed the fact that not less than £50,000 had been offered to Portland, and rejected; and that the money had been held at his service for a whole year, in the hope that he might change his mind, until at length Portland told the Company that if they persisted in thus "insulting" him by this offer, he would become their irreconcilable foe. It is still more characteristic of Bentinck that he resented as an affront the compliments which were paid him on all hands when these facts became known. StiU the proud, reserved, money-loving, but honourable Dutch- man never made himself tolerable to the English. High and low alike called him morose and boorish, and it became a fashion among the English nobility to speak of him as a mere heavy blockhead — "a Hogan Mogan" — only just fit to carry royal mes- sages. The facts of history return a very different verdict, and show that his cool, clear, sagacious intel- Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Benttncfes. 169 lect was of inestimable service to the interests of his adopted as well as his native country. Nor do the French writers and statesmen of that time confirm the English estimate of his morose and unmannerly de- meanour; on the contrary, they are loud in their praises of the chivalric courtesy and polished manners of M. Bentinck, as well as distinct and unanimous in their appreciation of his diplomatic ability. But Ben- tinck spoke French as fluently as if it were his native tongue, and (notwithstanding the political chasm be- tween him and the countrymen of the Grand Mon- arque) evidently was much more en rapport with French manners than with English. It is curious that, at the same time that Bentinck was the object of a popular outcry in England as a Dutch favourite, the Burgomaster and Senate of Amsterdam were moving heaven and earth, appealing to the Constitu- tion of the United Provinces, petitioning and protest- ing both to Holland and England, against the same iadividual taking his seat in the States Assembly of Holland and West Friesland. Bentinck had been en- rolled as Baron of Ehoon in the body of the nobility of Holland as far back as 1676, but the deputies of Amsterdam declared that his right of sitting was for- feited because he had become a naturalised English subject and a member of the English Parliament, and might be supposed, therefore, to be entirely devoted to the interests of England. This was in the year 1690, and the King was greatly incensed at the pro- ceeding, declaring that it arose out of the animosity of the city of Amsterdam to himself personally. The Dutch nobles also resented the interference of the burghers in a matter affecting their own order, and Digitized by Microsoft® 170 Wift 33mtmcfts. Amsterdam, not being supported by the other towns, bad to give way. The same question, however, was, at a later period, raised with respect to Keppel, who was finally allowed to sit as one of the nobility of HoUand, but with the special permission of the States; and was obliged to solicit their permission when- ever he desired to go to England. Thus some in both countries seemed disposed to repudiate a man to whom both were so eminently indebted, and of whom, with all his faults, either of them might have been proud In the campaign of 1693 Portland shared the danger of his master in the disastrous rout of Landen (29tli July). One musket-shot passed through his peruke, a second through the sleeve of his coat, and a third inflicted a small contusion in his side. He seems, also, from a letter of Archbishop Tillotson's, to have received some injury in his hand. William, who had lost sight of him in the flight, and knew that Portland was in bad health, was full of anxiety for his safety, and on learning his escape wrote off a hasty note of joy and congratulation. On his return from this campaign, WiUiam resolved to reward his imequaUed services once for all, and ordered the Treasury to make out a warrant granting to Portland a magnificent estate in Wales — \iz., the lordships of Denbigh, Bronfield, and Yale, said to be worth more than £100,000, and the annual rent re- served to the Crown was only 6s. 8d. " With the property were inseparably connected extensive royal- ties, which the people of North Wales could not patiently see in the hands of any subject." A centuiy before, when Elizabeth made the same grant to her ^ favourite, Leicester, the people of Denbighshire had Digitized by Microsoft® Wift iScntincfes. I7l risen in arms, and Leicester thouglit it expedient to relinquish the grant. The principal gentlemen of the district on the present occasion had recourse to the Lower House, who voted unanimoiisly an address to the King begging him to stop the grant. Portland had the discretion, Hke Leicester, to beg his Majesty that he might not be the cause of a dispute between him and his Parliament. The King gave way, though with a bitter feeling of mortification, saying, " Gentle- men, I have a kindness for my Lord Portland, which he has deserved of me by long and faithful services, but I should not have given him these lands if I had imagined the House could have been concerned. I will, therefore, recall the grant, and find some other way of showing my favour to him." Accordingly, soon afterwards, William conferred on him a grant of the royal house of Theobalds, with the demesnes be- longing to it in Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and also the office of ranger of the great and little forests at Windsor. It should be added that the remonstrance of the Commons took place before the disclosure of Bentinck's integrity in the East Indian affair, and was argued as a constitutional question. In the Feb- ruary of the following year (1696), Portland had the opportunity of repaying William's indiscreet gener- osity on his behalf by saving his life. Hearing from two quarters that the assassination of the King was planned for a particular hunting day, he has- tened to the palace and implored William not to leave the house on that day. The King positively refused to credit the story, or to alter his. plans. Portland persisted, and at length threatened he would make the intelligence at once public if the King did Digitized by Microsoft® 172 Efje aSentincfes. not give way. William then gave way, and the dis- appointed conspirators exclaimed, " The fox keeps his earth." On the 9th of February 1697, William made him a Knight of the Garter, and in Ji;ne of the same year, finding that there was little but a solemn farce going on between the negotiators at Ryswick, he resolved to avail himself of Portland's friendship with Boufflers, and endeavour to cut matters short by a pri- vate interview between these two honourable straight- forward men. Portland accordingly requested half- an-hour's conversation with the French Marshal, and the latter, having sent off an express to Louis and obtained his sanction, complied with the suggestion. In the conferences which thereupon ensued between these two men, the leading points were settled which were afterwards embodied in the peace of Eyswick. In this private negotiation Bentinck displayed talent of the highest order, and it is probable that it was this service which induced William to perform the most indefensible action of his great career. He gave his able but greedy servant a second colossal grant. Nearly a third of Ireland had fallen to him by seques- trations, and he had promised Parliament to bestow these lands only with their consent. BiUs were accordingly introduced into the House, but defeated, and William was persuaded to believe himself absolved from his promise. He gave the whole to his personal following, one enormous estate going to Elizabeth Villiers, the only woman whom William ever trusted with State secrets, and who rivalled Mary in his some- what cold affection. The jealousy of the Commons took fire. They would not remember that most of these men had, in saving England, forfeited European Digitized by Microsoft® EJje 3Bmtincftg. 173 careers, and saw only new men and foreigners raised above the old nobility. They appointed a Commission, and the Commissioners reported that the number of acres was 1,060,692, of the annual value of £211,623, or present value of £2, 6 8 5, 1 3 8 . These estimates -were said afterwards to have been greatly exaggerated for party purposes. Among the grants figured one to Wilham Bentinck, Esq., Lord Woodstock (Bentinck's eldest son, who died before him), of 135,820 acres. In the ensuing session (1700) the Tory party brought in the famous Eesumption Bill, founded on this report, by which the grants were all resumed and placed in the hands of Commissioners for the public service, one-third being reserved to the King to grant out for eminent pubHc services. To insure its passing, the bill was tacked on by the Commons to the Army and Navy Supply Bills. The Lords angrily resented this as an infringement of their rights, a money bUl not being subject to amendment by them, and, treating the Eesumption Bill separately, sent it down amended. The Commons refused to recognise it in this form, and many angry discussions ensued between the two Houses. At first, William thought of fighting the battle in the Lords, and on the 5th of April he told Portland that if the bill was not stopped in the Upper House he should count all as lost, and the same day he declared that he was resolved not to assent to the biU. But his Dutch prudence and good sense got the better of the Stuart blood he derived from his mother, and he intimated privately to the Lords that he wished them to give way. The bill was accordingly voted by them, Bentinck and Keppel both making a point of voting in the majority, and on the 11th of April Digitized by Microsoft® 174 ■Efjt aSmtincfts, William went down to the House and gave it the royal assent without another word. He then immediately prorogued Parliament without a speech from the throne. This, however, is anticipating a little. A more serious danger awaited Bentinck than the loss of a grant, vast as it would have made his possessions. Bentinck loved his master dearly, but he regarded him with all the exacting affection of a lover, and could not endure the slightest approach to a rivalry in the place which he held in his confidence. "He had tolerated Zulesteia and Anverquerque, for they were contented to be the honoured servants and respectful friends of the King, and left to Bentinck the position of bosom friend. But a younger man was now creep- ing into the affections of William." This was Amoud Joost Van Keppel, a young Dutch gentleman who had accompanied William in his expedition to England. " Keppel had a sweet and obliging temper, winning manners, and a quick, though not a profound under- standing. Courage, loyalty, and secrecy were common between him and Portland. In other points they differed widely. Portland was naturally the very opposite of a flatterer, and having been the intimate friend of the Prince of Orange at a time when the interval between the house of Orange and the house of Bentinck was not so wide as it afterwards became, had acquired a habit of plain-speaking which he could not unlearn when the comrade of his youth had be- come the Sovereign of three kingdoms. He was a most trusty, but not a very respectful subject. There was nothing which he was not ready to do or suffer for William ; but in his intercourse with William he Digitized by Microsoft® W,\iZ iSmtitxcfts. 175 ■was blunt and sometimes surly. Keppel, on the other hand, had a great desire to please, and looked up with unfeigned admiration to a master whom he had been accustomed, ever since he could remember, to consider as the first of living men. Arts, therefore, which were neglected by the elder courtier were assi- duously practised by the younger. So early as the spring of 1691, shrewd observers were struck by the care with which Keppel observed every turn of his master's countenance. Gradually the younger courtier rose in favour ; he was made Earl of Albemarle and Master of the Eobes," and Earls of Albemarle the Keppels stni continue. This elevation, however, gave little offence, for the suave courtier was popular, liberal, and almost afiectedly English, while his rival, as Kep- pel advanced, became at once more unbearably re- served and more avowedly Dutch. At last William, partly for peace, partly because Bentinck alone could carry out his designs, made him Ambassador to France. The "grudging Dutchman" accepted the post, and in five months spent in his master's honour eighty thousand pounds, say a quarter of a million of to- day. A day or two after his departure William wrote a most affectionate letter to Bentinck : — " The loss of your society," he says, " has affected me more than you can imagine. I should be very glad if I could believe that you felt as much pain at quitting me as I feel at seeing you depart ; for then I might hope that you had ceased to doubt the truth of what I solemnly declared to you on my oath. Assure your- self that I never was more sincere. My feeling to- wards you is one which nothing but death can alter." Bentinck took the historian Eapin with him as tutor Digitized by Microsoft® 176 E!)0 38eixtinrftisi, of his son, Lord Woodstock, and Prior as the Secre- tary of Legation ; and never was embassy con- ducted in more stately, dignified, and able manner. The French people worshipped the magnificence of his equipages and household. The French courtiers were astonished at the grave but courtly dignity of his bearing in the presence of the great King. The French statesmen were deeply impressed with the calm, shrewd sagacity which characterised his diplo- macy. In this atmosphere of respect Bentinck was himself again; but on his return he found Keppel stOl higher in favour, and though he shared in the negotiations of Loo in 1699, he flung up all his posts, and retired to the noble seat — Bulstrode Park, ia Buckinghamshire — which he had lately purchased of Lord Jefireys's son-in-law, and which had once belonged to Bulstrode Whitelocke. Here, as in his other seats, he adorned the interiors, laid out the grounds, erected aviaries, and spent on all other matters as little as he possibly could. He was still consulted on State afiairs, and in 1 700 he and Lord Jersey were employed to sign the Partition Treaty which settled the respective claims of the Bourbon and Hapsburg houses. It was a fair treaty for Europe, but the Spaniards, who were signed away without their own consent, resented the indignity : their imbecile King was made to sign a will in favour of the Bourbon claimant, which was endorsed by Louis, notwithstanding the treaty; and the Commons, in wrath at the aggrandisement of France, impeached Bentinck, who had negotiated the treaty, his colleague escaping without a reprimand. They also impeached Lords Somers, Halifax, and Orford, and, anticipating the result of the trial, prayed Digitized by Microsoft® J i i E\ie Bentincfts. 177 William to dismiss them all from his councils. This bm'st of party spite was, however, too much for the Lords, who first presented a counter-address, and then, quarrelling over points of form, threw out the articles. This was the Earl's last public appearance. He at- tended his master's deathbed on the 8th of March 1702. "With his last articulate words the King asked for Bentinck, who "instantly came to his bedside, knelt down, and placed his ear close to the King's mouth. The lips of the dying man moved, but no- thing could be heard. The King took the hand of his earhest friend, and pressed it tenderly to his heart. In that moment," adds Macaulay, " no doubt, all that had cast a slight passing cloud over their' long and pure friendship was forgotten." Bentinck, after that event, for six years devoted himself to Holland. In 1708 he found his intellect failing, and he returned to England, to die on the 23d November 1709, and be buried in Henry VIII. 's Chapel, in Westminster, by the side of the Prince whom he had so dearly loved and so faithfully served. Though a foreigner in feel- ing, both his wives were Englishwomen — the first a Vilhers, sister of Earl Jersey ; the second a Temple, sister of Henry Viscount Palmerston. His only sur- viving son by his first marriage, Henry, succeeded him as the head of the English house of Bentinck ; his two sons by his second marriage, William and Charles John, succeeded him as nobles of the United Pro- vinces. The Earl also left nine daughters, of whom seven married into high English families, and one died unmarried. The remaining daughter married one of the chief noblemen of Holland. The character of Hans Bentinck, like that of every Digitized by Microsoft® 178 W^z 33mtmcfts. Hero of a reyolutionary period, has been variously re- presented; but to those who understand 1688 — and who that can read English does not ? — it is not hard to decipher. He was William III. in homespun — and that was the impression which he stamped upon the family he had built. Whenever a Bentinck comes to the front it is as a great Dutchman that he succeeds ; whether, like Lord George, he risks a fortune upon a horse without a quiver of the lip ; or, as Lord Wil- liam, he earns the hate of every contemporary Anglo- Indian by his ungenial manners, and the reverence of every subsequent proconsul by his administration — so wise, benevolent, and far-sighted. When Hans died he had accumulated lands worth half a million, and had surrendered as much more, and contemporaries murmured at the greed which stood so horribly in their way. Since his death, however, no historian has ever adjudged him overpaid. Henry, the second Earl, was a widely different per- son from his father. A man of so sweet a disposition that it is said all were at ease around him, he had neither his father's bad manners nor his unerring judgment. His first step was fortunate, for he mar- ried, during his father's lifetime, the Lady EHzabeth Noel, eldest daughter and coheir of Wriothesley Bap- tist, Earl of Gainsborough, with whom he received, besides other estates, the moiety of the lordship of Tichfield, Hampshire, and the manor-house of tlie Wriothesleys, Earls of Southampton. There he re- sided up to his father's death, effacing by a profuse hospitality the grudge felt in England against the close-fisted Dutchman. So successful was he in so- ciety that King George, in July 1716, created liim Digitized by Microsoft® WifZ Bentinrftg. 179 Marquess of TicMeld and Duke of Portland. Unfor- tunately, his judgment was weak, the family love of acquisition was still latent and strong, and he engaged deeply in the great South Sea bubble, to the serious injury of his fortune. On the explosion he accepted the governorship of Jamaica — a post no duke would now look at — and died at St Jago de la Vega in July 1726, in the forty-fifth year of his age. The family, it may be remarked, still kept up their con- nection with Holland, one of the first Duke's three daughters marrying a Dutch noble. William, the second Duke, elder of Henry's two sons, was seventeen at his father's death, and was sent to travel iu France and Italy, where he acquired the pas- sion for antiquities by which he was afterwards dis- tiuguished. He neglected politics for science and cog- nate pursuits, was Fellow of the Eoyal Society, and Trustee of the British Museum, and seems to have been considered in that day a man of singular learning for a peer. His pursuits did not, however, prevent him from aggrandising his house, for he married the Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, only child of Edward, second Earl of Oxford — the title somewhat impudently taken by Harley, the statesman, after the extinction of the mighty house of De Vere — ^by his wife Henrietta, only daughter and heiress of John Holies, Duke of Newcastle, by the daughter and heiress of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. This lady brought to the dukedom nearly aU the vast estates of the younger Cavendishes, i.e., Welbeck Abbey and other lands, and the property of the Lords of Ogle. Bulstrode had been sold by the first Duke to the Duke of Somerset, and Welbeck Abbey was permanently selected as the family Digitized by Microsoft® 180 €\ie 33entinclts. seat. The Duchess of Portland survived her husband, who died May 1, 1762, more than twenty years, and seems to have partaken largely of some of his favourite tastes and pursuits, for she added greatly to the cele- brated Portland Museum, which had been the legacy of her own ancestors, and which she enriched by a rare and extensive collection in vertu and natural history — especially in conchology. The fortunes of the family as English aristocrats — i. e., as owners of vast masses of land — may now be said to have culminated, for William Henry, the third Duke, succeeded in 1762 to the united properties of the Bentinck, Harley, HoUes, and younger Cavendish families — whence the names of the streets around the present Duke's house — and was on his accession to the title one of the wealthiest and best educated men in Britain. He threw himself ardently into pohtics, as- sociated with Burke and Fox, and became under their influence a very vehement Whig, and very especially obnoxious to George HI., whose single leading idea was to emancipate himself from the control of the great houses who had governed the country from the death of William HI. When Lord Eockingham re- turned to power in 1782, the Duke was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, an appointment for which the singular coolness of judgment, characteristic up to the present generation, of all the Bentincks especially fitted him, and from his despatches to Fox it would seem that the Irish were warranted in their favourable impression. He was earnestly desirous that some ar- rangement should be come to by which the spirit of what the Irish hoped from an independent legislature would be conceded, without impairing more than was Digitized by Microsoft® Efje 33enttncfts. 181 absolutely necessary the central authority of the Eng- Hsh Government, or lowering the prestige of England. "There is still an appearance of government," he writes confidentially to his friend at the close of April 1782 ; " but if you delay or refuse to be liberal, Government cannot exist here in its present form, and the sooner you recall your Lieutenant and renounce all claim to the country the better ; but, on the contrary, if you can bring your minds to concede largely and hand- somely, I am persuaded that you may make any use of this people, and of everything they are worth, that you can wish ; and in such a movement it wUl be happy for them that the Government of England shall be in hands that will not take undue advantage of their intoxication." It is usual to speak of Portland as a man of high honour and excellent intentions, but a mere political nonentity. But there is a shrewd sense in his despatches, which, though far removed from genius, is equally removed from insignificance. He had, at any rate, the sagacity to see where talent lay, and to follow its guidance without jealousy, though not blindly. At this time he looked chiefly to Fox, and in the despatch from which we have quoted are unreserved intimations that he had not the slightest confidence in Lord Shelburne and his section of the Cabinet. These were the old following of Chatham whose Whig ties had always been secondary and unessential to their personal attachment to that great man. Hence Fox and the " Whigs proper " on the death of Eockingham refused to accept the leader- ship of Shelburne, and made it their ultimatum that the Duke of Portland should be the head of the new Ministry. This was refused by the King. So Fox, N Digitized by Microsoft® 182 Wift Bnttincfts. Cavendisli, and Portland resigned (followed out of office by Burke and Sheridan), and Shelburne, with his own party, a section of the Whigs, and a fraction of the former friends of Lord North, led by Dundas (after- wards Lord Melville), formed a new administration. To these was now added young William Pitt, at the age of twenty-three, in the important post of Chancel- lor of the Exchequer. The history of the short Shel- burne Ministry is one of incessant intrigue and coun- ter-intrigue, ending, as is well known, in the coalition between Fox and North, and the entrance of the two latter in conjunction into a new Cabinet, under the headship of Portland. In all these negotiations Port- land stood as steadily by Fox as Fox had by him. After a ministerial interregnum, of seventeen days the King sent for Lord North, and proposed a broad ad- ministration. Lord North suggested the King should see the Duke of Portland himself; but the King re- fused, and told Lord North to desire the Duke to send him his arrangement in writing. This was as posi- tively refused by the Duke, who sent word that, if his Majesty condescended to employ him it would be necessary for him to see his Majesty. The negotia- tions went on. At last Lord North declared he was tired of carrying messages, and the King consented to see Portland, but demanded from him a complete Hst of the intended administration in writing, which the Duke refused. After another interval and an appeal to Pitt, the King saw Portland again, and he brought a written list of the Cabinet ; but the King would not look at it, and said he would have one of the whole administration. This the Duke refused. He implored the King to look at Us paper, and held it out ; but the Digitized by Microsoft® STfje aSentmcfts. 183 King held his hands behind him and would not take it. The King sent again for Pitt, and again failed. He sent for North again, who merely said, " The Duke of Portland is ready to be Minister." " Then," said the King, " I wish your Lordship good night." But on the 1st of April the King sent again for North, and said, " WeU, so the Duke of Portland is firm ? " " Yes, Sir." " Well then, if you will not do the business, I will take him." So, on the 2d of April 1783, the new Cabinet Ministers kissed hands — Portland as First Lord of the Treasury, Fox and North as joint Secre- taries of State ; and when Mr Fox kissed hands, the old Marquess Townshend observed King George " turn back his ears and eyes, just like the horse at Astley's," said he, " when the tailor he was determined to throw was getting on him !" And thrown, accordingly, the Cabinet was, on the East India Bill — the King, whose hereditary want of courtesy was always in his way, sending for the seals at midnight, and declining an in- terview. The Whigs deserved their fall, for they had excluded Burke from the Cabinet, and filled it entirely from the great governing families. Then, in 1783, ensued Pitt's daring attempt to carry on the Govern- ment without a majority in the Lower House — an at- tempt maintained mth wonderful courage and dex- terity, but which must have faded had it not been for the outburst of the Democratic spirit in France. This alarmed a section of the great houses, who, with Port- land at their head, first supported the King's procla- mation against " divers seditious writings," directed at Tom Paine, — and so successful, that to this day coun- try people who never read a line of Paine's writings hold the poor needleman to have been a demon, — and Digitized by Microsoft® 184 Efje aSmtincte. then went over to Pitt. Portland had a bitter strug- gle with his personal affection for Fox ; but political conviction conquered, and (July 11, 1794) he accepted the Home Office. The game was won. The immense, though indefinite influence of the King, Pitt's strange hold over the middle class, and the great Lords' control of votes in the Lower House, were at last united, and a Ministry arose almost as powerful as Parliament itself. In July 1801 Portland became President of the Council under the Addington Ministry, which office he resigned in June 1805, remaining, however, in the Cabinet tiU Pitt's death, and the accession of Fox to power. On Fox's death the Duke was again summoned (March 1807), this time, as First Lord of the Treasuiy — to form a kind of stately drapery for Perceval, the real Minister — which office he retained tdl the autumn of 1809, when he retired from active life, to die within a few weeks, on October the 30th. He is a man whose character has been vari- ously described, but he was in reality a cool, sagaci- ous, determined oligarch, very anxious for England, but more anxious for his order, and so immersed in politics that he suffered his vast estates to be half ruined by mere neglect, and sudden loans raised to fight the Lowthers in the North, or carry some great political end. This Duke had four sons, the second of whom. Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, was by many degrees the ablest man who has appeared in the family since the founder. Born in 1774, he entered the army, rose to be major-general, and in 1803, when only twenty- nine, was appointed G-ovemor of Madras. The sepoys of the Presidency, long manipulated for a risiag in Digitized by Microsoft® 5Di)e Bnttincfts. 185 favour of the Princes of Mysore, took advantage of a departmental order about uniform to put forward their invariable cry of " caste in danger," and broke into the petty revolt known as the Vellore Mutiny. The Court of Directors, a body which always disliked and distrusted the Queen's officers, and, acting usually with the cold delay of an ancient mercantile firm, behaved at intervals with the unreasoning hurry of a mob, lost their senses with fright. Before they had received a single despatch from Lord William — whose only share in the orders was to obviate their effects — they censured and recalled him, a proceeding which he compelled them formally to condemn, in a letter in which they admitted that he had no share in the orders, but refused reparation, " because the misfortune which happened in his administration placed his fate under the government of public events and opinion, which, as the Court could not control, so it was not in their power to alter the effects of them." In 1810, he was sent as Plenipotentiary to the assistance of Fer- diaand of Sicily. Here he soon divined the real char- acter of the King, and of the unscrupulous though accomplished Queen Caroline, and so irritated her by his advocacy of reforms in the Government, and his support of the Liberal party in SicUy against the treacherous conduct of the Court, that in 1811 the Queen left Sicily and repaired to Vienna, where she intrigued with Napoleon against England. During her absence, the English Plenipotentiary wrung from the Court a Constitution for Sicily, drawn up by him on the most liberal basis of constitutional government. This was in 1812, and the Constitution was guaran- teed by Lord William as representative of the EngHsh Digitized by Microsoft® 186 EflE ^tntincks. Government. It was afterwards, as it is well known, shamefully violated, or rather altogether disregarded, by the restored Bom-bons, who have at length reaped the fruits of their treacherous folly, and by oppressing Sicily have lost both Sicily and Naples. In 1813, Lord WiUiam conducted an expedition from SicUy to Catalonia as a diversion in the rear of the French armies ; but was beaten, and forced to retire to Italy. In 1814 he was more fortunate in Italy, where he compelled the French garrison in Genoa to surrender. In the convention concluded by Lord William on this occasion, it was agreed that the old republic of Genoa should be reconstituted under the protectorate of Eng- land. Lord Castlereagh, however, disowned Lord Wil- liam's agreement, and gave Genoa up to Piedmont — a proceeding still resentfully recollected by the inhabi- tants, though it has proved, by the unexpected change in the political course of Piedmont, so great an advan- tage both to Genoa and Italy. Lord William, incensed at this disavowal, threw up his appointment and returned to England, where he entered Parliament as member for Nottingham. He was next sent on a mission to Eome, and on the formation of the Canning Ministry, in 1827 — in which his brother held high office — he was appointed Governor-General of India. No man so qualified ever held that great position. Cold, sarcastic, and sagacious, he saw that India needed peace and retrenchment, and he secured both. In his long reign he made but one expedition — to dethrone the atrocious Eajah of Coorg, the horrible being who was recently so well received by British society, and who was, so to say, to General Mouravieflf what Mouravieff is to Howard, — defied and re-organised the Civil Digitized by Microsoft® Efje 33entincits. 187 Service, and, in defiance of all Anglo -India, threw open the judicial service to the people of the country. He "was contemplating much wider reforms, for which his admirable thrift gave scope, when his health failed, and he returned to England, to find, like every other Indian, that the successful government of a sixth of the human race had thrown him back in the struggle for influence in England. He was Hans Bentinck over again, with a larger love for humanity and a higher education. His elder brother, the fourth Duke of Portland, pursued his father's life, living and dying a great English peer, loved by his tenantry, consulted by political allies, and used every now and then as key- stone m some political arch. Always a foe to injustice rather than a party Liberal, he moved, in 1822, the second readiag of the Bill for admitting Eoman CathoHc peers into the House of Lords, in 1827 ac- cepted the office of Privy Seal under Canning, was President of the Council under Lord Goderich — whose son is a Minister, as Earl de Grey and Ripon — voted for the Eeform Bill, and died March 27, 1854, a moderate Conservative. He had repaired by strict attention to business the family fortunes, and acquired a great Scotch property by his marriage with the heiress of General John Scott of Balconie, Fifeshire. His second son, George, preceded him to the grave, hav- ing been at the age of twenty-five successively King of the Turf and leader of the Conservative party; and he was succeeded by his son, William John Scott-Ben- tinck, fifth and present Duke of Portland. This Peer has taken no part ia politics, living a life of somewhat remarkable seclusion ; but it is understood that, unlike Digitized by Microsoft® 188 Wiit iSenttncfts. most of his family, he remains a firm and consistent Whig. The house of Bentinck has not yet been two hun- dred years among us ; but it has produced three great men, besides two Premiers, and it retains its full vitality. No house has benefited more by the vast rise in the value of land and of London property, and few who have courted popularity so little have ever acquired a stronger hold on the regard and respect of Englishmen. Had Lord George Bentinck lived, the House might even now be ruling us ; but as it is, its cadets are deeply engaged in politics, and it still ranks among the most active as weU as potent of the great governing families. Digitized by Microsoft® C|)e Clintons* ^LWAYS in front but never in command, is the sentence which best describes the fortunes of the house of Clinton. They have always been important, have furnished Admirals, and Generals, and possible Ministers without end, yet have never risen absolutely to the top ; and at this moment, though Dukes, would, but for their pedigree, scarcely stand in the front rank of English nobles. Even their pedigree has somehow escaped the popular notoriety which attaches, say, to that of the Talbots ; and one-half of our readers outside the Peerage will be surprised when we remind them that his Grace of Newcastle is the single Duke out of the Eoyal Family whose house was certainly ennobled by the early Plantagenets, or who can prove his male line to have been great before the Crusades. There is not a clearer pedigree in Europe, or one about which there has been more determined and scientific lying. Peerage-makers carry the Clintons up to who knows what Scandina- vian hero, trusting to English reverence for Dukes and English ignorance of ancient English history. AH the while their rise is fixed within a few years by the precise and express testimony of a trustworthy Digitized by Microsoft® 190 Wi)t €linttms. and contemporary historian — Ordericus Vitalis, who thus describes their position when their founder first emerged into sunshine : — " Henry I. reduced all his enemies to subjection, either by policy or force, and rewarded those who served him with riches and honours. Many there were of high condition whom he hurled from the summit of power for their pre- sumption, and sentenced to the perpetual forfeiture of their patrimonial estates. On the contrary, there were others of low origin (de ignobili stirpe) whom for their obsequious services he raised to the rank of nobles, lifting them, so to speak, from the dust, sur- rounding them with wealth, and exalting them above earls and distinguished lords of castles. Such men as Geoffrey de Clinton (Goisfredus de Clintona), Ealph Basset, Hugh de Bocheland, GuiUegrip, and Eaimer de Bath {Bada), WiOiam Troissebot, Haimon de Falaise, Guigan Algazo, Robert de Bostare, and many others, are examples of what I have stated, who acquired wealth and built themselves mansions far beyond anything that their fathers possessed. These and many others of humble birth, whom it would be tedious to mention individually, were ennobled by the King, his royal authority raising them from a low- estate to the summit of power, so that they became formidable even to the greatest nobles." Ordericus Vitalis, one perceives, did not foresee that to be men- tioned by him at aU would one day be a certificate of pedigree of which kings might be proud. This novm homo — man from the gutter — whose original name is hopelessly lost, is supposed by Dugdale to have taken his name from Clinton, a village in Oxfordshire, now caUed Glympton ; but that is avowedly only a clever Digitized by Microsoft® Efje CUntons. I9i guess. It is, at all events, certain that lie rose to be Chamberlain and Treasurer to the King, and possibly Justice of England, and that he received immense grants from Henry, who, wearied to death with the conquerors- — who had a perverse notion that they had conquered England for others besides the sons of the Bastard — tried successfully to elevate new men as a counterpoise to their power — a policy which ceased only with the death of Wdliam III. Geoffrey de CUnton had grants in Warwickshire, Oxford, Not- tingham, Buckingham, and, probably, in other coun- ties; and the largest being in Warwickshire, the family fortunes clustered around that centre, KenU- worth beiug chosen as his seat from his delight in its woods, and the large pleasant lake nestliug among them. It is also probable that he thought his career would not bear the scrutiny of Heaven, for he founded near Kendworth a monastery for Black Canons. This was the priory, afterwards abbey, of Kenilworth, and the date of its foundation is about the year 1122. By the first charter, Geoffrey de Clinton gives to the Black Canons, for the redemption of his sins, as also for the good estate of King Henry, whose consent he had thereto, and of his own wife and children and all his relatives and friends, all the lands and woods of Kenilworth (excepting what he had reserved for the makiag of his castle and park), and several manors and churches in the counties we have referred to and in Staffordshire, granting further unto them right of pasturage — viz., that wheresoever his own cattle and hogs should be, whether within his park or without, there also might theirs have liberty to feed, and their tenants' hogs to have the same freedom in all other Digitized by Microsoft® 192 Wije enintons. except liis enclosed woods and park as his own tenants had. By another charter he makes them a grant of a full tenth of whatsoever should be brought to his castle — viz., either to his cellar, kitchen, larder, granary, or "hallgaxth;" as weU as of all bought or given, either in hay, corn, hogs, muttons, bacon, venison, cheese, fish, wine, honey, wax, tallow, pepper, and cumin, though they had been tithed elsewhere before, as of his own proper revenue, together with aU his lambkins throughout all his manors, as well those as should be killed to eat as of others that might die casually. He also gave to the said canons liberty to fish with boats and nets, one day in every week, namely, Thursday, in his pool in Kenilworth. His son and grandson (Geofirey and Henry de Clinton), and his daughter Leoscelina, were also donors and benefactors to this monastery, their gifts including the greater part of Leamington and the mill of Guy's Cliff. Geof- frey de Clinton continued high in favour with Henry I. tOl 1130, — so high that his nephew, Eoger,was able to buy the Bishopric of Coventry for 3000 marks, and was ordained priest and consecrated bishop at Canter- bury on two successive days, 21st and 22d December 112.9 ; but in that year Geofirey fell under a cloud. What he did no man will probably ever know ; but Or- dericus Vitalis says he was arraigned for treason, and the fact is confirmed, though the date is altered by a few months, by Eoger de Hoveden. The latter says he was " disgraced," but the eclipse was probably only temporary, for it never afi'ected the territorial position of the house, the eldest son of the founder — also a Geofirey — being Chamberlain to Henry II. in 1165. With the grandson of this second Geofirey, however, Digitized by Microsoft® ®Jje ffl;imtons, 193 the elder branch came to an end, the stock terminat- ing, in 1232, in heiresses. Another branch of the same stock had, however, in the interim, attained baronial rank. Besides Roger, the simoniacal Bishop of Coventry, the founder had a nephew named Osbert, said to have been an elder brother of that very prompt prelate. This person is the lineal ancestor of the gentleman who was so re- cently governing the Colonies, and he received from his cousin Geoffrey a grant of the lordship of Coleshill in Warwickshire, being, therefore, styled " of Coleshill " in the Eolls of Henry II., just seven hundred and three years ago. The new baron enriched himself still farther by marrying Margaret, the daughter of William de Hatton, who brought as her marriage portion the manor of Amington, in Warwickshire. Their son, Osbert de Clinton, Lord of ColeshiU and Amington, was a keen supporter of the Barons who tore Magna Charta from John Lackland, had his estates seized by the King, and remained in overt rebellion until that monarch's death, when he made his peace with Henry III. and had his lands restored to him. He died in 1222, and his son Thomas, third Baron Clinton (by tenure), was one of the Justices of Assize for the county of Warwick,* and in the thirty-eighth year of Henry III. had a charter of free warren in the lord- ship of Coleshill. He married Mazera, heiress of James de Bisege, of Badsley in the same county. * There is no fact in feudal history so strange as the loss of the power of "high and low" justice by the English Barons. Their com- peers had it in France to 1660, and in Scotland to 1745 ; but the Eng- Ush Peers never used it on questions of life and death after the death of Stephen. The Plantagenets could not abide it, and as it was not the interest either of Church or Commune, the Kings won. — (M, T.) Digitized by Microsoft® 194 Wi)t Clintons. This manor was left by Thomas de Clinton to his fifth son, James, on payment of one penny annually to his father's heirs, and from him it passed eventu- ally through an heiress into other families. Besides this James, Thomas de Clinton's other sons were Tho- mas, his heir, who succeeded him at Amington ; Sir John (whose male line expired in 1353), who succeeded him at ColeshUl, and was one of the barons who fought with Simon de Montfort against the Crown, but was afterwards restored to favour ; Osbert, lord of the manor of Austrey, in "Warwickshire (who dying without issue, the lordship went to his eldest brother, Thomas) ; and William, rector of the church of Austrey. Thomas de Clinton (fourth Baron Clinton by tenure) married a Bracebridge of Kingsbury, and was suc- ceeded by his son by her, John de Clinton, fifth Baron Clinton by tenure. He resided at Amington, as his father had done. He was a distinguished soldier and attendant of King Edward I. in his wars, particularly in Scotland. On February 6, 1299, he was fijst sum- moned to Parliament as Baron Clinton of Maxstoke, he having married Ida, eldest of the sisters and coheirs of Sir William de Odangseles, Lord of Maxstoke Castle and other possessions in Warwickshire. John de Clinton was high in power with King Edward, who called him, as a special honour, " his beloved Esquire," and by his letters patent at Glasgow, April 2, 1301, granted to him lands in Scotland of the value of £40 per annum, part of the possessions of Malcolm Drum- mond (ancestor of the Perth family), then in arms against Edward. Edward 11. continued his favour to Clinton, for in 1308 he had the custody of the castle and honour of WaUingford. He died in or before the Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Clintons. 195 sixth year of tliis reign, leaving two sons, minors, of whom the younger, William de Clinton, rose to high distinction. In the third year of Edward III. William made a great match, marrying Julian, the heiress of Sir Thomas de Leybourne, a great Kentish heiress, and widow of John, Lord Hastings, of Bergavenny. This, says Sir William Dugdale, was a great step in his advancement. He appears, however, to have risen to a considerable position, at least as regards wealth, previously, since after his accession, Edward III., in a deed, recites that the said William de Clinton had performed great services to him and his mother. Queen Isabel, when beyond the seas, for which they had' promised him lands of the value of £200 per annum, in confidence of which he had enlarged his family ct se posuit ad Vexillum. So he now grants to the said William the castle, manor, and hundred of Halerton, in the counties of Chester and Lancaster. He accom- panied the King the sanie year in an expedition to Scotland, and in the fourth year of the reign — the year after his Kentish marriage — ^he was constituted Governor of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1333 he was appointed Admiral of the Seas, and attending the King again into Scotland, fought in the battle of Halidon. He still continued to rise in the King's favour, and on March 16, 1337, he was created by a royal charter Earl of Huntingdon. Among other martial exploits the Earl was at the sea battle with the Spaniards off Winchelsea; but he died August 25, 1354, without issue, and upon an inquisi- tion, his nephew, Sir John de Clinton, Knight, was found to be his heir, and to be then of the age of twenty-eight yeai-s. Digitized by Microsoft® 196 W^t Clintons. The younger brother who thus enriched his brother's son had far outstripped in his fortunes that brother, Sii John de Clinton, second Lord Clinton (by writ), who, however, was summoned to Parliament as a peer, served creditably in Guienne, spent funds of his OAvn on his King's service, married the daughter of Sir W. Corbett, of Chadsley-Corbett, in Worcestershire, and left by her the lad Sir John de Clinton (third Lord Clinton), who inherited the uncle's possessions in addition to his own. He was a soldier of mark, fought at Poictiers with the Black Prince, went to France in the great expedition organised by Edward IIL, in the thirty-third year of his reign — an expedition which killed off nobles like privates — and ten years afterwards, the French Kiag breaking the treaty, he and Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, earned the priceless honour of mention by Froissart, who says, " They took many strong towns and gained great honour by their conduct and valour." On 30th May 1371, he was directed by the King to repair to his manor of Folkestone, in Kent, to repel an expected invasion of the French. The same order was repeated six years afterwards ; and in 1380 Eng- land, tired of expecting invasions, began one. Land- ing in France with Thomas of Woodstock, the King's uncle. Lord Clinton, devastated the country from Calais to Brittany ; and, says Froissart, " the Lord Clinton rode with his banner displayed, and performed certain feats of arms at Nantes with Sir Galoys Daunoy." In the sixth year of Kichard IL he was again cam- paigning in France and the Low Countries, and was at the taking of Gravelines, Bruges, Nieuport, and Dunkirk. Two- years afterwards he was at Newcastle- on-Tyne, on his road against the Scots, who had taken Digitized by Microsoft® SCfje Clmtotts. 197 Berwick, but abandoned it on the approach of the English troops. The man altogether was one of the efficient sort whom able kings love, never quite at the top, but always ready for severe work, and nnapt to make blunders. He fought for England well, and prospered accordingly. He married, first, Idonea, eld- est daughter of Geoffrey, Lord Saye (by the daughter of Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick), coheir to her brother William, Lord Saye, and cousin and heir of Wniiam de Saye, Baron of Sele; and on the death of her brother and his children without issue, Idonea, Lady Clinton, became eventually the eldest coheir of the noble famUy of Saye. On the death of this first wife, Lord Clinton made a match without the consent of the King with another heiress, Elizabeth, daughter and at length heir of Wdliam de la Plaunch, of Haversham, Bucks ; and in the twentieth year of Eich- ard n., on the attainder and banishment of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, Lord Clinton had the castle of Warwick, with all the manors and lands belonging thereto, committed to his custody. He died on the 8th of September 1399, during the session of the celebrated Parliament which dethroned Eichard and raised Henry Bolingbroke to the throne, leaving by his first wife three sons, and a daughter married to Lord Berkeley. His second son was Sir Thomas de Clinton, whose seat was at Amington. He served in the Spanish and Portuguese wars with John of Gaunt; but the date of his death is uncertain. He left only a daughter, from whom are descended the Burdetts of modem political notoriety. The elder son. Sir William de Clinton, also died in his father's lifetime, but not tni he had married a sister of Ealph Neville, first Earl o Digitized by Microsoft® 198 E\fz (Slintons. of Westmoreland, and left a son, William, who suc- ceeded his grandfather as fourth Lord Clinton. This Baron was a soldier, and was engaged with credit in all the expeditions of Henry IV., Henry V., and the early years of Henry VI. In the fifth year of the last-named King he was called on to provide 25 men- at-arms and 78 archers, and four years afterwards to provide one knight, 38 men-at-arms, and 300 archers, for the French wars. In the sixth year of Henry IV., 1404, he did homage for and had livery of his propor- tion of the inheritance of his grandmother Idonea, as heir to William de Saye, and in the third of Henry V. he bore the title of Lord Saye ; but he seems to have had no legal right to it, as it was in abeyance between himself and the other coheirs of Geofirey de Saye, his great-grandfather. In November 1448, Lord CHn- ton's son and successor executed a curious deed, by which he assigned aU his right to the title of Saye to his cousin, James Fiennes, or Fynes (second son of Sir William Fiennes, the son of a younger sister of Idonea de Clinton), who had been summoned to Parliament in 1447 as Lord Saye and Sele ; Lord James in return releasing to Lord Clinton by another deed all right to all advowsons, knights' fees, wardships, rents, &c., inci- dent to the barony of Saye before the execution of the preceding deed. The whole transaction is a very anomalous one, and seems to provoke the heralds and genealogists sadly. This James Fiennes is Shakespeare's Lord Say, executed by Jack Cade's mob in 1450. William, fourth Lord Clinton, died July 30, 1432, having married a widow. Lady Fitzwavyn, and left by her, as his heir, John, fifth Lord Clinton, then twenty-two years of age. He was also a soldier in Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t CUtitons. 199 the French wars, particularly under Eichard, Duke of York, Eegent in that country. Less lucky than his ancestors, how-ever, he was taken prisoner in the nine- teenth year of Henry VL, and continued in durance for more than six years, and was then obliged to give 6000 marks for his ransom. The fine might have injured his fortunes, but he was a man with courage for other things than battle. To raise the money he took to the occupation of a merchant, obtaining in the twenty-sixth year of Henry VI. special licence to employ his agents for the buying of 600 sacks of wool in England, and to transport them from London or Southampton into Lombardy, as also six hundred woollen cloths, and to transport them to any foreign country, "paying for every sack and cloth to the King as any other denizen used to do." Perhaps his dis- tressed circumstances urged him to give up his sup- posed right to the title of Saye, which he did on his return to England in the following year. In the six- teenth year of this reign he had exchanged his castle and manor of Maxstoke with Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, for the manors of Whiston and Woodford, in Northamptonshire. In 1459, Lord Clinton, induced probably by his old connection with Richard of York, took up arms against the house of Lancaster, and was attainted in the Parliament held at Coventry in that year; but in 1461, on the triumph of York, he was restored to his lands and honours, and was joined with the Earl of Kent, Lord Faulconbridge, and Sir John Howard, in a commission for the safe keeping of the seas ; and the four knights, landing in Brittany with 10,000 men, won the town of Conquet and the Isle of Eh^e. He died on September 24, 1464, leav- Digitized by Microsoft® 200 Wijt Clmtons. ing an only son by a daughter of Eichard Fynes, Lord Dacre of Hurstmonceaux. This son, John, sixth Lord Clinton, has no history, and, to be brief, the same may be said of the seventh and eighth Lords, though they seem all to have been men of some mark, to have married well, and to have steadily added to the family property. Generations of brave and skilful soldiership had brought them lands, and that credit in the eyes of heiresses which in those days was as valuable as royal favour, and the ninth Lord, Edward, was pos- sessed, while still in his cradle, of possessions which rivalled those of the greater barons. He succeeded to the manors of Bolehall, Shustock, Pakington, Amington Parva and Magna, Pericroft and Austrey in Warwickshire, and, in the county of Kent, to the manors of Folkestone-Clinton, Huntington, alias Hun- ton, Bermsted, Golstane, alias Goddestanton, Lees, alias Elmes, alias Selmes, Poire, alias Poldrex, and lands in Poldrex called Eastdown and Eushin Marsh, also lands in Wingham and Woodenesburgh, Ashe- juxta-Sandwich, and lands in the parish of St Clem- ents, Sandwich. The family had battled their way slowly though surely up, and though they had never commanded in battle or become King's favourites, the " good service " of four hundred years had borne them at last into the position which was immediately to be recognised by the Crown. The baby heir of the favourite whose birth Ordericus Vitalis had stigma- tised was the recognised equal in rank and possessions of the few nobles who had survived that great feudal strife, the Wars of the Eoses. With Henry VHI. the Clintons commenced their second career. They had been influential before, they Digitized by Microsoft® Efje ffiUntoits. 201 were now to become great nobles. Edward, the ninth Lord Clinton by writ of summons, and thirteenth of his branch in the baronial dignity, was carefully edu- cated under the eye of King Henry in all the accom- phshments and learning of the age. His creed, there- fore, was that of every successive Tudor, and he was present at the passing of the Act for the dissolution of the monasteries, on May 23, 1539, though he es- caped his share of the misfortunes which, according to Sir Henry Spelman — from whom Cardinal Wiseman borrowed the idea (a very erroneous one) — befell most of those who participated in that measure. Like his ancestors, he was a soldier rather than a statesman, and by land and sea he shed new lustre on the family name. His choice of the sea for a field of action — any brave man being then held to be equally compe- tent on land and water, and the generation enjoying apparently an exemption from sea-sickness — was de- cided by his friendship for John Dudley Viscount Lisle, Lord High Admiral, and in 1544 he accom- panied that nobleman in the fleet sent to assist the Earl of Hertford in his expedition to Scotland, and stormed the Canongate at Edinburgh, at the head of the English forces, for which he was with others knighted by the Earl. The Admiral and his friend Lord Clinton then scoured the Scottish seas and coasts until they were summoned to attend the King at the siege of Boulogne. At the funeral of Henry VIH., Lord Clinton was one of the twelve principal p^ers of England who were selected to act as chief mourn- ers to the royal corpse ; and on the accession of Ed- ward VL, Somerset the Protector, who, as Earl of Hertford, had been a witness of his gallantry, enlisted Digitized by Microsoft® 202 Efje Clintons. his services again for an expedition to Scotland. He was appoiated to the command of the fleet, fifty men- of-war and twelve galleys, and greatly contributed to the Protector's success by the galling fire which he kept up on the Scotch and their Irish allies, as they came within his range. On his return from the ex- pedition his services were rewarded by grants of the manor of Bnmston, Lincolnshire, part of the posses- sions of Lord Hussey, executed in 1537 for the North- ern iasurrection, and the manor of Folkingham, in the same county, part of the possessions of the Duke of Norfolk, then attainted of treason, and divers other manors, lands, and tenements in Lincolnshire, with the manor of Clifibrd, in Herefordshire. Lord Clinton was next sent by the Protector's council to defend Boulogne against the French, and he held it until ordered by the King to surrender it (April 25, 1550). On his return in May he was thanked for his services by the Council and King, appointed by the latter Lord High Admiral for life, and one of his Privy Council; and had also lands of the value of £200 a-year assigned to him ; and in June following the King granted him the manors of Westenhanger, Stotewood, alias Saltwood, and other manors, lands, and tenements in Kent, Cornwall, Yorkshire, Lincoln- shire, Devonshire, and Sussex, to the value of £246 5s. Id. Clinton entered fully into the measures of Edward's Council — was one of those who signed the incriminat- ing letter to Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and was sent by the King with a menacing message to the Earl of Arundel. In the November of the same year in which he had his first grants, Lord Clinton Digitized by Microsoft® 2Dte CUntottiS. 203 obtained another, of the office of High Steward of the manor of Westborough, and four others in Lincoln- shire, for life. He was not, however, content, and honours, lands, and appointments fell on him in a shower which is absolutely astounding to read. He was, in fact, the one general at the Council's disposal, and his friend Lisle now governed England. In the January following he had a licence to make a deer- park ia the lands which he had enclosed for a park in Aslackby and Kirby Underwood, in the same county ; and the next day the King granted him duriag life the reversion of the office of steward of the manor of Bolingbroke, in that county, and of all the manors, &c., ia the parts of Kesteven, parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, after the death of Sir William Hussey. In February he obtained a gift of all the lordships, manors, lands. Sec, lying in the town of St Botolph, alias Boston, in Lincolnshire, belonging to the chan- try of Corpus Christi, founded withia the said town, to hold by fealty, and to take the profits from Easter in the 2d Edward VI. On the 7th of the next month he exchanged with the King his lordships and manors of Folkingham and Aslackby for the lordship and manor of Wye and the rectory of Wye, in Kent, with divers other lands of the yearly value of £358 Is. 8d. ; and on the 20th Lord Clinton had the stew- ardship of the lordship of Newark -upon -Trent, and aH the lands and tenements thereunto belonging, with the office of constable of the castle there during Hfe. On the 25th the King granted him a lease for sixty years of the manors of Folkingham, Aslackby, and Temple Aslackby, in Liacolnshire, with divers other lands. On April 2, he was elected a Knight of the Digitized by Microsoft® 204 EfjE Clintons. Garter, along with Henry King of France. The Kmg, or the King's CouncU, seem not to have thought even these honours and gifts enough. In the same year Lord Cliaton had a grant of the stewardship of all the King's lordships and manors in Lincolnshire, forming parcel of the possessions of the late monas- teries of Valday, Newbol, Swineshed, &c., for life, with several fees, amounting to a hundred marks, and had the King's letter to the Bishop of Carlisle for the grant of a lease for sixty years of the manor of Horn- castle, in Lincolnshire. He was sent as one of the Eoyal Commissioners for prorog-uing Parliament, and on the first appointment of lord-lieutenants of coun- ties, he and the Earl of Eutland had Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire committed to their custody. In November 1551, he set out as Ambassador Extraor- dinary from King Edward, to act as his proxy as godfather to the French King's son, afterwards the wretched Henry III. Before starting, Lord Clinton received 500 marks in French crown-pieces of six shillings each towards his expenses, and carried with him two flagons of gold and gold chains, weighing 105 ounces, which he was to present to Catherine de Medicis, and a ring to be presented to the Princess Elizabeth of France (between whom and King Ed- ward there was then a treaty of marriage, and who afterwards married Philip II. of Spain). Lord Clin- ton was ordered to negotiate this marriage. He brought back what seemed satisfactory ratifications under the Great Seal of France, and in return re- ceived new marks of the royal favour — two good lordships — Kingston, in Somersetshire, and Chissel- born in Dorsetshire, with the advowsons thereof, part Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz (CUntons. 205 of the possessions of Six Tliomas Arundel, attainted. In 1552, when the great Lords raised a considerable body of men at their own expense, splendidly attired, who were reviewed by the King, Lord Clinton had a troop of fifty, clad in black (the rest being in colours), with the Cross of St George, a silver anchor (he being Lord Admiral), and white embroidery. In the same year he was constituted sole Lord-Lieutenant of Lin- cohishire. He was also one of a commission to take account of all the lead, beU-metal, jewels, plate, &c., which had come into the King's hands from the dis- solution of monasteries or the attainder or forfeiture of iadividuals. He was next employed in dismant- hng several fortifications and removing the powder to the Tower of London, of which he was appointed constable, and ordered to take the sole charge thereof. He was one of those entrapped by Northumberland — his old friend Lisle — on the 21st June 1553, into signing the letter of acquiescence in the new disposi- tion of the Crown by Edward to Lady Jane Grey ; but he was too wary to proceed any farther in the matter, and failed the Duke in the crisis of the revo- lution; and we next find him accompanying the Duke of Norfolk, in 1554, on his unsuccessful expedition against Sir Thomas Wyat. He now was in favour with Queen Mary as he had been with King Edward, and was one of those appointed to receive Philip of Spaia when he came over to marry the Queen. On the breaking out of war with France in 1557 Clinton was again in his vocation, and he went over as Lieu- tenant-General with the Earl of Pembroke, to besiege St Quentin, and being re-appointed Lord High Ad- miral, commanded the somewhat inglorious expedi- Digitized by Microsoft® 206 Wift Clintons. tion which failed to take Brest, but burnt Conquet and its adjacent villages. Elizabeth continued the royal favour to the lucky and competent Peer, con- firmed him in his dignity of Lord High Admiral, made him one of the Commissioners to hear Murray's accu- sations against Mary of Scotland, and then appointed him to the command of the army which broke up the force raised by the Northern Earls, in the last war ever made by English nobles against an English sove- reign. They fled in utter rout, and Lord Clinton, on May 4, 1572, was raised to the dignity of Earl of Lincoln, stdl the title borne by the eldest son of the house. He died on January 16, 1585, after a hfe of such adventure, excitement, and success as few men have ever enjoyed. He was married three times, and his third wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare — Lord Surrey's Fair Ger- aldine, and still fair, though a widow, when she came to Lord Clinton. It may be added to his history that he sold Amington, so long the seat of his house, to the Kepington family, who had for many years pre- viously bought bits of the estate, which the Clintons, oddly enough, seem for generations to have regarded as a sort of bank to be drawn on whenever they wanted money. It is curious how very little of this man's character is perceptible among the voluminous notices of his deeds ; but the latter prove him to have been a true Clinton, a man of weight and activity, always very prominent, always very trustworthy as far as work was concerned, and always as efiicient as it is possible for a man without genius to be. Henry, second Earl of Lincoln and tenth Lord Clinton, who succeeded his father in 1585, although Digitized by Microsoft® ^\ft Clmtong. 207 he filled several important posts under Elizabeth and James I., reflected no credit on his family name. He fell into great pecuniary embarrassments, which, con- sidering the -wealth accumulated by his father, speaks volumes as to his spendthrift habits. He was sent on an embassy to the Landgrave of Hesse in 1596, and Sir Anthony Bacon arraigns his conduct to that Court in the most bitter terms. He is said to have been a great tyrant among the gentry of Lincolnshire, and Denzil Holies (not the patriot, of course, but a rela- tive of an older generation, who seems to have much resembled him. ia spirit) used to confront Lord Lincoln on the bench, and " carry business against him ia spite of his teeth." Lodge mentions Lord Lincoln's out- rages agaiust Eoger FuUshaw, of Wadding worth, and observes that his conduct seems to have been strongly tinctured with iasanity. He died September 29, 1616. He was twice married, and left four sons, from a younger son of the second of whom (Sir Edward Clin- ton) is descended the present Duke of Newcastle. The eldest son, Thomas, who succeeded as third Earl of Lincoln, and was forty-five years of age when his father died, inherited the following estates in Liucoln- sldre : — The manors of Aslackby and Temple Aslackby, the castle and manor of Tattershall, the house and site of the monastery of Sempringham, with the manor of Sempringham, and the advowson of the church, the manor of Billingborough, rectory of the church, and advowson of the vicarage, the manors of East and West Claughton, the honour, castle, and manor of Folkingham, and manor of Thirkingham, and advow- son of the churches, the manors of Thorp and Kirby Byrne, Eoughton, Marton-juxta- Thornton, Conisby, Digitized by Microsoft® 208 Efje CtUntons. Billingay, Walcot-juxta-Billingay, Burthorp, and Kirk- sted, alias Gristed. He sat in the House of Commons during the reign of Elizabeth for St Ives in Cornwall, and Grimsby in Lincolnshire ; and in the 1st James I. was returned for the county of Lincoln, and was one of the Parliamentary Commissioners appointed to treat with the Scotch Parliament for the union of the two kingdoms. In 1610 he was called in his father's life to the Upper House as Baron Clinton and Saye, and dying January 15, 1619, his eldest surviving son, TheophUus, succeeded as fourth Earl of Lincoln, at the age of nineteen, having been made a Knight of the Bath, along with Prince Charles, in 1616. He became colonel of a regiment of foot and two troops of horse, which were part of 12,000 men raised by Count Mans- field in England to assist the Palatine in the 22d of James I. ; but neither France, HoUand, nor Brabant allowing the troops to land on their shores, they were decimated by pestilence, and scarce one-half reached Germany. His share in this expedition shows the political leanings of the Earl of Lincoln, the Puritans being deeply interested in the Palatine's enterprise ; but these were displayed more decidedly when the rupture took place between the King and Parliament. He espoused warmly the Puritan side, attaching him- self to the Presbyterian party. He continued firm to the Parliament throughout the first civU war ; but in the year 1647 he fell under suspicion with the army, and on the 8th September he was impeached by the Com- mons, with other Presbyterian peers. The impeach- ment, however, was afterwards dropped, and he was discharged from it. He took no prominent part during the Commonwealth, but acquiesced in it, petitioning, Digitized by Microsoft® Kilt Clintons. 209 in 1649, for compensation for the demolition of his castle of Tattershall in the civil war. Like the other great Presbyterian peers, he joined in the Eestoration, and was carver at the coronation of Charles IL, and thenceforth, like them, he disappears from history, and died in 1667. He married twice, but had children only by his first wife, a daughter of William Fiennes, Viscount Saye and Sele, and a sister of Nathaniel Fiennes. His son, Edward, who sat for KeUington in the Long Parliament, and followed his father's line of political conduct, died before him, leaving by his wife, daughter of John Holies, Earl of Clare, a son Edward, who succeeded his grandfather as fifth Earl of Lincoln. This Edward, who was a political nonentity, died without issue, November 1692, and for the first time since the ennoblement of this branch of the Clintons in the reign of Henry II. the direct male line failed, and the Earldom reverted to a collateral. Sir Francis Clinton, eldest son of Francis, third son of Sir Edward Clinton, second son of Henry, second Earl of Liacoln. The Barony of Clinton fell into abeyance twice among the daughters of Earl TheophUus and their coheirs, until at length it came to the Trefusis family, who now enjoy it. Francis, the sixth Earl of Lincoln, died the year after his accession to the title, at the age of fifty-eight. His younger son, George, became a dis- tinguished Admical, and was Governor- General of New York. He was the father of the more celebrated Sir Henry Clinton, Commander-in-Chief of the royal forces during the American War of Independence. Henry, who succeeded his father Francis in 1693, as seventh Earl of Lincoln, was one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark. He Digitized by Microsoft® 210 Wijt Clintons, was a firm Whig, and strongly opposed the Harley Administration and the Peace of Utrecht, refusiag every offer made to him to join the Tories. This con- duct so delighted Arthur Herbert, Earl of Torrington, that on his death he left Lord Clinton the bulk of his property. The accession of the house of Hanover was, of course, a welcome event to the Earl. He carried the pointed sword at the coronation of George I., be- came Master of the Horse to the Prince of Wales, a Lord of the Bedchamber to the King, Paymaster- General of the Forces, one of the Privy Council, and a Knight of the Garter — Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets and Constable of the Tower, and Cofferer of the King's Household. He again carried the pointed sword at the coronation of George H., was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Cambridge, a Gen- tleman of the Bedchamber, and a Privy Councillor. He married, in 1717, Lucy, daughter of Thomas Pel- ham, first Lord Pelham, and sister of Thomas (who had taken the name of Holies), the well-known Duke of Newcastle, of the reigns of George H. and HL, and of Henry Pelham, the statesman of the same period. The Earl died September 7, 1728. His eldest son, George, who succeeded him as eighth Earl of Lincoln, died April 30, 1730, in the thirteenth year of his age, and was succeeded by his brother Henry, ninth Earl of Lincoln, who married, October 14, 1744, his cousin, Catherine Pelham, daughter of Henry Pelham. This Henry Pelham having died without male issue, his brother (the Duke of Neweastle-on-Tyne) obtained a new patent in 1756, by which he was created Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, with remainder to his nephew, the Earl of Lincoln, and his heirs male by Catherine Digitized by Microsoft® Wiit Clititons* 211 Pelham ; and, in accordance with this patent, Henry Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, became, November 1 7, 1768, Duke of Newcastle. He obtained, by this suc- cession, Nottingham Castle (purchased by the loyal Duke of Newcastle, after the Eestoration) and Clum- ber Park, in Nottinghamshire, which has become the chief seat of the family. On succeeding to his new dignity. Lord Lincoln prefixed the name of Pelham to his own. He held various offices, but was of no poli- tical rank, and died February 22, 1794, as much of a political nonentity as a duke can in England be. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, also a nullity ; and he (in 1795) by his son Henry, the third Duke (of the Clintons), who would have been a nullity but for Ms superb Toryism, and a disposition which reminded his tenants and family of the tinge of insanity ascribed to his ancestor, the second Earl of Lincoln. He crip- pled his fortunes by the only form of private war now allowed to English peers — fierce electioneering battles; and is said, though we mention this with reserve, to have never forgiven the Liberal principles of his far abler son, Henry Pelham Fiennes, the fourth Duke and the twenty-fourth noble of the family, who succeeded in January 1851. This Duke, who died October 18, 1864, held nearly all offices short of the Premiership, and rejected the one British office which affords larger scope than that — the immense Indian Viceroyalty. A follower of Sir Eobert Peel, and a man who sacrificed much for his political convictions, he fell during the Crimean war into a disrepute, which those who had means of knowing the truth assert to have been wholly undeserved ; but dukes survive clamour, and the country will rejoice if the fortunes Digitized by Microsoft® 212 2r|)c Clintons. of the house, of late years often threatened, should hereafter, as a consequence of the match made by the present and fifth Duke, Henry Pelham Alexander, be re-established on a solid material basis. It is really a great house, though strangely lacking in hold on the popular imagination, and for seven hundred years has poured out a scarcely intermitted succession of men who have spent their lives in the furtherance of Eng- land's greatness and policy. If it has never had a genius, it has also never produced a traitor ; and if it has never risen to the lofty position of one or two of its rivals, it has not in its annals chapters which it would give estates to conceal. Digitized by Microsoft® %\jt g)tan!)opes* IjHE Stanhopes stand at the head of all the peers of the drawing-room. Mo- dem society has given birth to a class of magnates who are neither "of the robe" nor "of the sword," seldom sol- diers or statesmen, yet great and use- ful in their way — men in whom strong will and keen hraia is half concealed by external polish, who make of culture a means of ascendancy, use repartees like dueUing-pistols, and fight social campaigns as difficult as those of the field. They have a tendency to cos- mopolitanism, display a singular aptitude for diplo- macy of a practical kind — the diplomacy which really settles things, and are apt to exhibit in emergencies the iron will and unscrupulous audacity of their true exemplars, the princes of the early Italian states. The late Lord Elphinstone was a perfect specimen of the kind — a man who could purr so softly till it seemed to him necessary to act, and then strike so savagely hard. The modern French Legitimists all tend to this type, and though the class is limited in England, still it exists, and in it the Stanhopes are unquestionably the first. Their whole history is in the career of the forgotten Chesterfield, the strange p Digitized by Microsoft® 214 Wift Statifjojjes. being whose wit, and insolence, and brutal amours, and courtly gallantry, and life of perils from water, and bandits, and outraged husbands, and jealous women, make up so strange a chapter in the story of that Carnival of Belial, the Stuart Eestoration. The family of Stanhope, or, as it used to be spelt, Stanhop, which now possesses three Earldoms, sprang, like the Cavendishes, from a man who grew rich on the great Sequestration. Who he was by birth is still, in some degree, uncertain; The heralds, of course, have given him a long pedigree, stretchiag up to a Stanhope who, in 1373, was Escheater (collector for the legacy duty, as we should say) in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, but the story must be dismissed as probably forged, and certainly not proven. If Earl Stanhope is anxious about it he had better rewrite it, for at present the pedigree makes a father and son marry the same woman, slurs over some heraldic itn- possibUities about arms, invents reasons to account for dispositions of property inconsistent with itself, and generally wears the appearance of a very clumsy romance. The real founder was one Michael Stanhope, pro- bably a cadet of a decent house, certainly a land- less man without arms, for he took those of the Newcastle Stanhopes, beiag the best of his name. He, " having served King Henry VIH. from his tender years," obtained from that Kiug by letters patent, bearing date January 28, in the 29th year of his reign, a grant of EveshaU forest, in the county of Nottingham ; and on the 24th of November m the same year the King granted the house and site of the priory of Shelford, in the same county, and one hun- Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Stanijopes. 215 dred and sixty-four acres of land, thirty of meadow and sixty of pasture, with the appurtenances, to Michael Stanhope, Esq., and Anne his wife, and the heirs male of Michael. In a similar manner, on the 5th February, in the 31st year of this reign, Michael Stanhope received a royal grant of the Tnanor of Shelford, and the rectories of the parish churches of Shelford, Saxendale, Gedling, Burton-Joys, and North Maskham, ra Nottinghamshire ; Eonceby and West- burgh in Lincolnshire ; and Elvaston and Okbrook, in Derbyshire ; and all manors, messuages, lands, and tenements, &c., in Shelford, Saxendale, Newton, Brig- ford, Gunthorp, Loudham, Calthorpe, Horingham, Balcote, Gedling, Carlton, Stoke, Lambecote, Flint- ham, Long-CoUingham, Caunton, the town of Not- tingham, Newark, Burton-Joys, and North Maskham, ia Nottinghamshire, late belonging to the monastery of Shelford. In the 35th year of Henry VIII., February 25, Michael Stanhope was constituted the King's steward of the great lordship of Holdeness, and of Cottingham, in Yorkshire. Two years later he was knighted by the King at Hampton Court. He had been before that time appointed Governor of HuU. We can account for the rapid rise and aggrandisement of Sir Michael, if the statement be true of his connec- tion with Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford — brother of Queen Jane Seymour, and afterwards Protector of ' England, and Duke of Somerset — whose second wife : vas Anne Stanhope, daughter of Sir Edward Stan- I hope, and, if the genealogists are right, sister of Sir i Michael. This lady, whose pride and insolent de- i meanour are said to have precipitated the fall of her < tusband, was the ancestor of the first line of Sey- Digitized by Microsoft® 216 Elje Sitanijopes. mours, Dukes of Somerset, and Earls and Marquesses of Hertford, which terminated in 1750. Burnet seems not to be aware of the connection between the Duke and Stanhope ; but supposing it to be proved, it is not to be wondered at that Sir Michael Stan- hope's fortunes culminated under Somerset's protec- torate, and came to a violent catastrophe along with his brother-in-law's. He was appointed chief gentle- man of the Privy Chamber, and in the first year of Edward VI. was returned as one of the knights for the shire of Nottingham, and in the third year of this reign was appointed with others a commissioner to examine the state of the guild lands in the kingdom. He involved himself deeply in the administrative measures of Somerset, and when the latter's power was undermined and subverted by Dudley, Lord Lisle (Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland), "on the 13th of October (1549)," says Burnet, "Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir John Thynne, and Edward Wolfe, called adherents of thp Duke of Somerset, and the principal instruments of his iU-govemment, were sent to the Tower ; and on the 14th he himself was sent thither." In the follow- ing year, after the fall of the Earl of Arundel, who had been one great agent in their overthrow, tile adherents of Somerset were discharged, on the 22d of February, on their own recognisances. Sir Michael Stanhope " acknowledging he owed the King £3000." Two years later, however, having engaged with Somerset and some of his friends in plans to overturn Northumberland, and being betrayed by Sir Thomas Palmer, they were all, with the Duchess of Somerset, thrown into prison. The charges against them. Digitized by Microsoft® JJ.j'j SDfjc Stauijope0. 217 thougli based on facts, were exaggerated, and tlie trials "were conducted with the gross unfairness char- acteristic of the time, and on 26th February 1552, Sir Michael was beheaded on Tower Hill. Burnet says he died unpitied, and hints that the unpopu- larity was, at least in part, deserved. He says, " Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Ealph Vane, and Sir Miles Partridge, were next brought to their trials. Thej^rst and the last of these were Uttle pitied. For as aU great men have people about them vho make use of their greatness only for their own ends, without regarding their master's honour or true interest, so they were the persons upon whom the ill things which had been done by the Duke of Somerset were chiefly cast." Sir Michael had three daughters and four sons. Sir Thomas (of Shelford), Sir Edward (who was one of Elizabeth's Queen's Counsel on the York circuit, and died childless). Sir Michael of Sudbury, and Sir John, who fixed his seat at Harrington, in Northamptonshire. This last gentleman rose to Court favour under Eliza- beth, was a Privy Councillor of James I., was one of the commissioners of the first treaty of union with Scotland, and on 4th May 1605 was created Baron Stanhope of Harrington. He died 9th March 1620, and was succeeded by his son Charles, who passed through the Civil War as a lukewarm supporter of the Parhament, and died in 1675 without issue, the peer- age, the first gained by the house, thus becoming extinct. They had, however, in the interim, gained another, Sir Thomas Stanhope of SheLford, eldest son of the founder, having prospered as, pace Cardinal Wiseman, almost all the holders of abbey lands have Digitized by Microsoft® 218 STije Stanl^opes. done. He was knighted by Elizabetli on her visit to KenUworth, purchased the manors of Whatton, Bing- ham, and Toveton, acquired by marriage with the coheiress of Sir John Post, Etwell, and Cubley, in Derbyshire, and bought of the Berkeleys the castle and manor of Bretby in the same county, still the seat of his descendants, the Chesterfield family. He is the Stanhope alluded to in the distich attributed to the Queen upon the Nottinghamshire knights — " Gervase the gentle. Stanhope the stout, Markham the lion, and Sutton the lout." Sir Thomas Stanhope died August 3, 1596, and his eldest son, Sir John, was knighted by James I., and resided usually at Elvaston, in Derbyshire, a property which he left to his second son, John, ancestor of the Earls of Harrington, who, again, the third son's family ending suddenly, inherited Linby from them. Sir John's eldest son, Philip, was knighted ia 1605; on November 7, 1616, raised to the peerage as Baron Stan- hope of Shelford ; and on August 4,1628, created Earl of Chesterfield. These honours bound him to the King, and from this time forward the Shelford Stanhopes were consistent and ardent royalists. The Earl and his sons were among the first in the field for King Charles, but their military career was unfortunate. One of his sons fortified Shelford and held it till Octo- ber 27, 1645 ; but it was taken by storm, and the Earl's son slain in the attack. Another son, who was at Edge- hUl, was slain at Bridgeford in Nottinghamshire, and the Earl himself, with a third son and 300 dependents, was taken prisoner in Lichfield, and died a prisoner on parole, September 12, 1656. Several of his sons had preceded him to the grave, — one by his second Digitized by Microsoft® iAA i ^ Efje Stanfiopes. 219 wife was, as we shall show, father of the first Earl Stanhope, — and the Earldom of Chesterfield fell to a grandson, Philip Stanhope. This extraordinary person, whose life reads like a Spanish comedy, is the "Milord Chesterfield" of 'Grammont's Memoirs,' and must have been one of the strangest characters even of that strange age. The materials for his biography are mmsuaUy ample; for while Anthony Hamilton, the writer of ' Grammont's Memoirs,' has devoted more pages to him than to any man not royal or of his own family, he himself left notes of the principal events in his own life, and cor- respondence of the most private character. The drawback is that half these notes are visible exaggera- tions, and there is an air of romance thrown over all the remainder. To judge from these accounts, he was the very representative man of the age — an able, dissolute man, with strong political principle, who had seen half the countries of Europe and almost every phase of life, who was drowned half-a-dozen times and robbed as many, who once begged his way to Paris only to find himself a great Earl, and who, after want- ing almost every woman he saw, and winning almost every woman he wanted, fell in love with his own wife, and commenced a new series of adventures to cure her of her disgust. "We must tell the story as we find it, but it is with the reservation that we believe it nearly as little as we believe Jean Jacques Eousseau. Philip's father, who never came to the title, died when his son was one year old, leaving a widow, who was daughter and coheiress of Thomas Lord Wootton, and governess to Princess Mary, eldest daughter of Charles L, and mother of William of Orange. The Digitized by Microsoft® 220 2Dije Stani)0pE0. widow married a Dutch gentleman, and the lad was brought up in Holland, where we find him, after being dragged out of the water by his shoestrings — so he says, at least — an attendant on the Princess. At fifteen he was drowned agaia, fifteen vessels having simk around his own between Delft and Antwerp; and at sixteen he and the " messenger " to Paris rescued a coachful of ladies who had been set upon by fifteen soldiers of fortune. Travelling to Paris, he put him- self into an academy, but was compelled to leave in consequence of a duel, in which he hurt and disarmed his antagonist. In 1649 he went to Italy; on his return through Germany he was robbed and nearly killed, but got at length to HoUand, and thence re- paired to England, which country he had not seen since he was seven years old. In 1650, according to his own dates (the Peerage books difier by two years), he married Lady Anne Percy, eldest daughter of Algernon Earl of Northumberland, and lived in retirement at Petworth for some time subsequently to this event. After two supernatural incidents or warnings, which he vouches for and evidently believes in, though he makes a feint of reasoning them away, his wife died in 1654, in childbed, and her infant son soon followed her. He then tells us he left England, taking with him only a little foot-boy, and intended to have gone " with pil- grims to Jerusalem," but not finding this practicable, went to Eome instead, having, of course, a fight with the Majorcan pirates on the voyage. He stayed about a year in Eome, and here again was nearly drowned from an attack of cramp. " I sank down," he says, " to the bottom, and not being able to rise again upon the water, and feeling the bank under the water to slope. Digitized by Microsoft® STije StanfjoiJes. 221 I crept on all fours till I came out at the side, to the amazement of the Lord Lindsey and many more, who were standers-by " — as one can well believe ! A plague soon broke out, and five persons died in the house in which he lodged ; at the same time he heard from England that a decree in Chancery had been given against him, and that his uncle, Arthur Stan- hope, youngest son of the first Earl by his first mar- riage, and ancestor of the present Earl of Chesterfield, had seized his estate, and there would be no more remittances of money. His uncle also claimed a debt from him of £10,000; and as Arthur Stanhope, he tells us, stood well with the Protector Cromwell, the young adventurer feared imprisonment if he returned home. He left Eome with £25 in his pocket for Paris, but fell HI, lost all his money, and, after a period of actual beg- giag, was rescued by a Jesuit priest, who paid his way to the capital. There he found the news of his grand- father's death, and his own accession to the Earldom. He immediately compromised matters with his uncle, regained his estates, and was pressed by Cromwell to marry his daughter with a portion of £20,000, and a command by land or sea. He refused, and Cromwell's love immediately turned to hate — a story which will deceive no one acquainted with Cromwell's real mode of negotiating matches for his children. The truth in aU probability is, that the Earl, with half the' young nobility, was a suitor for one of Cromwell's daughters, and also for Fairfax's, and was rejected by both on account of his notorious licence, a licence so great that it produced his imprisonment. A gross act of in- decency towards a lady involved him in a duel with Colonel Whalley, in which the Earl, being utterly in Digitized by Microsoft® 222 STJje .Stanfjopcg. the wrong, was, of course, the victor, and Cromwell sent him to the Tower. Next year (1658) he was three times imprisoned, the Earl of Stamford accusiag him of treason ; but " at great charge and trouble lie got off," only to kill a gentleman in a duel, and abscond to Holland There he obtained the pardon of the " King of Scots," Charles II., and returned with him to England, in fair favour from a connection which now seems almost impossible. The Earl had years before formed an intimacy with Barbara ViUiers, Charles's proud and dissolute mistress, better known as Lady Castlemaine, and Duchess of Cleveland. The intrigue had commenced when she was Miss Villiers, continued after her marriage with Mr Palmer, and lasted up to her desertion of her first lover for the restored King. Piqued at this desertion, Chesterfield paid his court to Lady Elizabeth Butler, daughter of the celebrated Duke of Ormond, and contrived, in spite of his character, to convince her of his devotion. She married him, and he neglected her, till she, enraged at his open contempt, began to intrigue in her turn. George Hamilton, the biographer's brother, became her lover, and when she threw him off" for the Duke of York, betrayed her to her husband, who suddenly carried her off" to Bretby. AU London rang with the scandal, and all the mothers in England declared that their sons should not visit Italy, " lest they should bring back with them that infamous custom of laying restraint upon their wives." The upshot of the afiair was curious. The Earl fell deeply in love with his wife, and, being one of the men who always succeed, won back her afi"ection, and the mutual confidence became complete. He learnt George Hamilton's real relation to his wife, and she that George Digitized by Microsoft® Elje ^tatifjojjes. 223 had betrayed her, and the two laid a plot which tempted the culprit down to Bretby. There the lady kept him for hours in the garden, nearly frozen to death, tUl, discovering the trick, he rode sharply back to London, only to find all town jeering at his expense, and to hear the King sarcastically compliment him on his journey. It was a delightful state of manners, and paradisiacal at any rate in the absence of shame. In 1667, Charles II. gave the Earl a regiment, which he raised in ten days, and then stationed among the swamps tUl half the men died of ague, and the Archbishop gave the Earl himself his farewell blessing. Chesterfield recovered, however, and we gladly turn from scenes of intrigue to his more credit- able political character. The Earl was from first to last, except for one short period, a strong and consist- ent Tory. He opposed the Exclusion Bill, declined to give evidence in favour of Lord EusseU without the King's consent, was excluded from the deathbed of Charles II. as too determined a Protestant, disap- proved aU James's concessions to Roman Catholics, and when the Revolution broke out rose in arms, only, as he said, to protect the Princess Anne. William, who had been bred up with him as a boy, would have taken him into favour ; but the Earl, though anxious always for his own personal fortunes, resisted his pre- tensions in every debate, and steadily refused every offer of office or emolument. He resided at Bretby, which he had rebuilt, and added to the famUy pro- perty by purchases such as Brisancoate and Hartshorn. He had, moreover, obtained by a third marriage with the heiress of the Dormers all their Buckinghamshire estates, Wing Park, Ascot, Eythorpe, and Ilmer, and Digitized by Microsoft® 224 Efje ^tanfjopes. he latterly nursed his affairs with some care. Despite his magnificent constitution, however, the penalty of a life like his overtook him in a complication of diseases, of which gout was, probably, the least formidable. He died at last in his 80th year, tormented by scurvy, at his house in Bloomsbury Square, on 28 th January 1713. After all deductions for exaggeration, he had lived a life which in romance would be pronounced absurd. Eoderick Random is true to nature, and so is Earl de Guest ; but a man who was both at once would be pronounced a failure. Yet that was Lord Chesterfield, page and wanderer, beggar and earl, who asked the hand of a Cromwell, lived with Barbara Villiers, after a life of rou^ excitement fell in love with his own wife, and with a ruined reputation was still one of the few men whom Catherine of Braganza, Charles II.'s " swarthy Kate," dared ask to be her executor. Of the son of this strange adventurer, also Philip, but little is known, save that he was a violent Tory, and suspected of being a secret Jacobite. The Bishop of Waterford says of him, " He was, as I have often heard, of a morose disposition, of violent passions, and often thought that people behaved Ul to him when they did not in the least intend it." He died Janu- ary 24, 1726, leaving four sons, the eldest of whom, Philip Dormer Stanhope, is the one Chesterfield whose name has became a household word- — as the author of ' Chesterfield's Letters.' He was born in London, September 22, 1694. His father seems to have con- ceived almost an aversion to him from his earliest years. " My father was neither desirous nor able to advise me," he says himself; and as he lost his mother while a child, his education passed into the hands of Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz Stanijo|)ES. 225 his grandmother, the Marchioness of Halifax, daughter of William Pierrepont — the "wise William" of Charles L's time — a lady distinguished for her accomplish- ments and amiable character. Young Stanhope was carefully educated, and at the age of eighteen sent to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he devoted himself to books, and especially the classics, to such an extent that he described himself afterwards as having become a perfect pedant — quoting a Latin author on every possible occasion, and believing in the classics as the key to practical life. From the University he went abroad to the Hague, where he contracted the habit of gambling deeply. From Holland he repaired to Paris, to learn the graces of society. He describes in amusing terms his gaucherie at his introduction into Parisian saloons, and how, having mustered up courage at last to address a fashionable dame with the original remark, "II fait chaud" she rewarded his courage by formally undertaking his social education on the foot- ing of easy morals then prevalent in French circles, and under her auspices young Stanhope soon forgot any awkwardness or scruples he might have brought from England. His pedantry, however, remained, but took another form — that of doing everything by rule, and endeavouring to acquire the gifts of nature by a course of self-tuition. He resolved to be a great statesman and a great orator, and he got himself up for both parts with such creditable appearance of suc- cess, that not his contemporaries only, but posterity have been puzzled to account for his ultimate fadure in one point, and the small results from his success in the other. His great rule was to be guarded ia every- thing he said or did, with the affectation of easy non- Digitized by Microsoft® 226 2Df)e Stan!jojj0S. chalance and perfect frankness. One of his biograpliers says truly enough, " h.& finessed too much." He took so much pains to do everything in the most suitable and unexceptionable manner, that rivals stepped in be- fore him, and successfully anticipated him with then- rough and ready stupidity. With a strong desire to please every one he met with — high or low — and a just conception of the true character of a gentleman in these respects, he had no real warmth of heart and no real sincerity of character. His virtues were culti- vated on such an artificial principle, that even where they were bond fide they produced little of the im- pression attaching to reality. His eloquence, though finished to perfection, was so carefuUy studied accord- ing to the best models of the ancients, that, admirable and admired as it was in the select and polished assembly of English Peers, it never touched the public heart, and laid no solid foundation for a great public reputation. On his return to England from Paris, on the accession of George I., he was elected to the House of Commons, before he had quite completed his legal majority, for the Cornish borough of St Germans, under the auspices of his cousin, the first Earl Stanhope. Speaking ardently in favour of the impeachment of the Duke of Ormonde, he received a hint, couched in complimentary terms, from one of the political friends of the latter nobleman, that he had better stay away from Parliament tiU he had attained his legal majority. So he left the House without voting, and went to Paris again, where he remained till recalled at the in- stance of his cousin, who had become Secretary of State, and was appointed a Gentleman of the Bed- chamber to the Prince of Wales. He returned with Digitized by Microsoft® Wiit ^tan^opes. 227 his character completely formed — a proud, haughty, self-willed man, striving always to influence by draw- iag-room arts, yet conscious of the ability to govern, and hungering morbidly for large excitement. He voted with the Ministry until the difierence took place between the King and Prince, when he adhered to the latter, and withstood the utmost solicitations of the Court to abandon him, extending, it is said, to an offer of a dukedom to his father. The Earl (though a Tory, if not a Jacobite) was very angry, it is said, at his son refusing this ofier. The young Lord was sufii- ciently conciliated, however, to vote with the Ministers on one or two critical occasions, and was rewarded by being appointed in 1723 Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. He declined the Order of the Bath as below his dignity. But he never succeeded in the popular assembly, being afraid of rude ridicule, and particularly standing in awe of one member distin- guished in that way. His father's death in 1726 placed him in the more appropriate sphere of the House of Lords. On the accession of George II. Chesterfield was not placed in any high office, but sent on an embassy to the Hague. It was probably intended thus to shelve him, but the post exactly suited his talents, and he added greatly to his reputa- tion by his management of the mission. While there, in 1729, he joined in a secret intrigue with Lord Townshend to supplant the Duke of Newcastle ; and though this failed, and Townshend fell from power in consequence. Sir Eobert Walpole was so much im- pressed with the ability of Chesterfield that he endea- voured to gain him by making him High Steward and giving him the Garter, Digitized by Microsoft® 228 E\it Btaitljopeg, He returned home in 1732, with impaired health, and then resumed his attendance in Parliament, soon quarrelling with Walpole, voting agarast him on the Excise Bill, asking his three brothers to do the same in the House of Commons, and being summarily dis- missed from his office of High Steward, and violently assailed by the Ministerial papers. For two years he played the part of a leader of Opposition with great zeal— even, it is said, submitting to be bled by a noble amateur doctor in order to obtain his vote. On the fall of the Minister, however, Chesterfield was not included in the new Ministry, and continued in oppo- sition, speaking very freely, and giving strong personal offence to George H. by an allusion to the battle of Dettiagen. But in 1744 Carteret fell, and the " broad-bottom " party forced their way in, and with them Chesterfield. He was, however, at first only restored to his early embassy to the Hague, with a seat in the Cabinet, the King struggling hard but vainly against conceding the latter, or even giving him a personal interview on leaving for the Hague. As it was, when Chesterfield on parting asked his Majesty's commands, the King replied gruffly, " You have re- ceived your instructions, my Lord \" Towards the end of the year 1745, Chesterfield was transferred, at his own request, and much to the surprise of his friends, to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, then looked upon as an easy sinecure, the Viceroy receiv- ing the money and the Secretary for Ireland doing all the work, and managing Ireland through the select "managing" families, as they were called, of the Orange connection. But Chesterfield had another idea of the office. He longed for an arena in which Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Stanfjopes. 229 he miglit act the affable sovereign and the impartial governor, and he had found it. There was in him, as in all the class to which the Stanhopes belong, a faint and intermittent, but still real, sense of social justice, and a covered but immovable will. He appointed an agreeable and unbusinesslike young man as the Secretary, and told him he was to take his salary but leave the work to the Lord-Lieutenant himself. He threw over the select Orange families, and had the audacity to employ a Roman Catholic as his coachman, while he kept quiet the Catholic Jacobites by telling them in private that if they remained so they should have impartial justice, but if they rose in rebellion he would prove worse to them than Cromwell. He car- ried out fully this programme, and Ireland remained under his rule more perfectly tranquil during the crisis of " the '45 " than it had been for many years before. Chesterfield's administration was a great success, for his government was firm, conciliatory, and upright, he eschewing all jobs, and clearing the adpainistration of the jobbers. His theoretical notions of toleration, however, were as narrow as those of the other Whig statesmen of that age, for he thought that the best way of converting the Irish was not merely to give them the means of education, but to enforce the laws which held out a bribe to one member of a Catholic family to become a convert at the expense of the pro- perty of his kindred. In October 1746, he consented to exchange the Lord-Lieutenancy for the Secretary- ship of State in the English Government, being tempted by an idea that he could manage the King through Lady Yarmouth. He succeeded, indeed, in conciliating the King thoroughly ; but he failed in Q Digitized by Microsoft® 230 EijE Stanfjopes, governing him, as the mistress was allo-wed no politi- cal influence ; and the clever, insinuating, and plastic Chesterfield had soon the hard fate to find he was out- manoeuvred, and made a nonentity, so far as the patronage of the Government was concerned, by the man he so much despised — the Duke of Newcastle. At last, in January 1748, he could endure the morti- fication of his position no longer, and resigned, retiring to his books, and only occasionally re-appearing in Parliament. He did one great service more, however, to his country, by proposing and carrying, in 17.51, the reform of the Calendar, against the most insane opposition out of doors. His retirement from public affairs was rendered permanent by his increasing deaf- ness, and from this time Chesterfield may be said to disappear from the roll of public men. He had gone down to White's the very evening of his resignation of office, and resumed the deep gambliug which he had been able to intermit during the larger excite- ments of his public career. He also devoted himself now to the education of his illegitimate son, to whom the celebrated Letters are addressed. Chesterfield had married a daughter of the Duchess of Kendal (George I.'s mistress), but had no children by her, and regarded her with indifference, holding matrimony itself in the light of a troublesome encumbrance. He was a man of pleasure, and his idea was to make his son not only a man of pleasure, but the model of a polished gentle- man. All he succeeded in producing was a rather learned, heavy man, without an atom of grace or polish, who failed in the House of Commons, and only rose to be Envoy at Dresden. The son married secretly during his father's life, but preceded him to Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t StanJjopes. 231 the tomb, leaving him to drag out a dreary and objectless old age. He adopted and tried to feel an interest in the next heir to the Earldom — a descend- ant of that Arthur Stanhope who was on such excel- lent terms with CromweU — but the young man was completely uncongenial to him, and all he could do was to guard as far as he could against the possible effects of his tastes by a curious proviso in his will. The Earl had felt the mischief of gambling from his own experience, and he had always detested "the turf" as ungentlemanlike — so he provided as follows : — "In case my godson, Philip Stanhope, shall at any time hereinafter keep, or be concerned ia the keeping of any racehorses or pack of hounds, or reside one night at Newmarket, that infamous seminary of ini- quity and ill-manners, during the course of the races there, or shall resort to the said races, or shall lose in any one day, at any game or bet whatsoever, the sum of £500, then, in any of the cases aforesaid, it is my express wish that he, my said godson, shall forfeit and pay out of my estate the sum of £5000, to and for the use of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster." He said that this contingent bequest to the Dean and Chapter was occasioned by his having found them so sharp and exacting in some transactions with them respecting the land on which he had buUt Chesterfield House, that he was sure they would take care to exact any penalty incurred by his heir. Before his death his sight failed him as well as his hearing; but he retained his mind and memory unimpaired, and when a Mr Dayrolles called to see him, only half an hour before he died, the old Earl cried out from his bed, in a pohte, though faint tone, " Grive Dayrolles a chair." Digitized by Microsoft® 232 Efjc Stanl^opes* He died on the 24th of March 1 773, in the 79th year of his age; and after his death, his son's widow collected all the letters the Earl had addressed to her husband in the strictest confidence, and sold them to the book- sellers for £1575. They rose at once to the popularity they have scarcely yet lost, and the fame of the old statesman who had passed his life in training himself for greatness, who succeeded in governing Ireland, and who was, perhaps, of all peers of his time, the one most competent to govern England, rests on a corre- spondence which he never dreamed of giving to the world. That correspondence has been defined as the "recipe for going to heU gracefully;" but the letters are full, nevertheless, of a Eochefoucauldian wisdom, of deep knowledge of the world, and the few living thoughts they contain have, as living thoughts do, survived all the work their author thought important. The Chesterfield's successor, Philip, the fifth Earl, was the father of the present Earl, George, sixth of the name (who succeeded August 29, 1815) — a man chiefly known for his consistent Toryism, and his devotion to the amusement Lord Chesterfield prohibited in Ms will. The family retains its great properties almost unbroken, but not unencumbered, and exercises for the hour but little political influence. The true epoch of the greatness of the Stanhopes is the reigns of the first Hanoverian sovereigns. Then, besides PhUip Dormer, the head of the Chesterfield branch, two other remarkable men buUt up the for- tunes of the younger branches of the Stanhope family. These were James Stanhope, first Earl Stanhope, and William, first Earl of Harrington. The former of these, as we have already said, was son of Alexander, Digitized by Microsoft® W])t Stanfjojies, 233 youngest son of the first Earl of Chesterfield. Alex- ander was appointed, through his nephew's interest, ambassador to Spain during the reign of the imbecile Charles II., where, and at the Hague, he earned the character of a skUful and honourable representative. His son James was born in Paris, 1673, and after a short time passed at Oxford, where he made such use of his time as to be afterwards known for his classical leamiiig — aU the Stanhopes have an instinct for cultm-e —joined his father in the embassy at Madrid. In 1691, after a tour to Eome and Naples, he entered the army of the Duke of Savoy, and then served at the siege of Namur, under William III.'s own eye, and attracted Ms especial attention for gallantry. After a brief service m Parliament, as member for Newport and then for Cockermouth, the War of Succession drew him to Spaia, in command of the vanguard of the expedition. In this capacity (combined with the diplomatic) he remained, contributing greatly to the earher victories, tdl the disastrous defeat of Brihuega left him a prisoner of war till 1712. MeanwhUe, not satisfied with his achievements as a soldier and diplo- matist, he had (with many other officers of the army) availed himself from time to time of the regular ces- sation of hostilities during the winter season to attend in his place in Parliament, and had acquired a leading position in the House as a debater and manager of the Whig party. " Your return," wrote Walpole to him, " is the only good efiect that I ever hoped from our celebrated peace." He showed his own dislike to the peace by refusing Bolingbroke's ofi'er of a personal introduction to Louis XIV., and his antagonism to the Tories was so marked that they got Shippen appointed Digitized by Microsoft® 234 Efje Stanfjopes. to the head of a commission to inquire into Stanhope's accounts during his Spanish services. Instead, how- ever, of the balance turning against him, it proved to be in his favour, and he ironically thanked Shippen in the House for assisting him to get repaid. On the accession of George I. his political position was supe- rior to that of Walpole, and he was appointed one of the principal Secretaries of State, Walpole only be- coming Paymaster, without a seat in the Cabiaet. This relative position of the two, however, though it continued in the Court and Cabinet, was in the House of Commons soon changed — Stanhope, eloquent, vig- orous, and clear-headed, was too impetuous, dicta- torial, and, above all, indiscreet in his language. He boasted of deceiving the foreign ambassadors by tell- ing them the truth ; but the English House of Com- mons preferred the cautious sagacity of Walpole. In 1716 occurred a political transaction which severed him from Townshend, and soon after from Walpole, and has exposed his memory to some obloquy. This was his journey to Hanover along with the King, and his alleged treachery to Townshend in suffering the intriguing Earl of Sunderland to have access to the King at that city, and in suddenly, in the midst of professions of friendship, writing a letter to Town- shend announcing his dismissal from the Premiership. The present Earl has defended his ancestor from the charge with some vigom-, but with only partial suc- cess. Walpole, a man singularly free from rancour, never forgave him, and on Townshend's final dismissal the Ministry was reformed. With Stanhope as Pre- mier, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and hfe and soul of the government, the" governing power of the Digitized by Microsoft® Z]}t Stanfjopes. 235 family and its cosmopolitan tendencies had at last fair play. While governing England, Stanhope — who on the 2d of July was created Viscount Stanhope of Mahon (in Minorca), and Baron Stanhope of Elvaston, and in April 1719 Earl Stanhope and Viscount Mahon — kept flying over the Continent as supreme diplomatist. No man so successful ever occupied such a post. He broke up all European leagues hos- tile to his policy, compelled the King of Spain to dis- miss Alberoni, and by cementing a firm alliance with the Kegent Orleans, reduced the hopes of the Jacobites to zero. All this while he so ruled his party that Walpole and Townshend felt it expedient to sink their personal feud, and re-enter the Ministry under him as Paymaster and President of the Council. In the height of his success he was seized with a sudden dizziness, and died after less than one day's illness, on the 6th of February 1721. His success seems to have been owing first to his genuine mental power, and a certain arrogance of temper often found in suc- cessful English statesmen ; secondly, to the excessive prominence of foreign politics which he alone un- derstood; and lastly, to a real contempt for money unusual in that age. Of the landed possessions, says his descendant, "which his representative now enjoys, scarcely one-fifth is derived from him." He purchased, however, from the heiresses of Len- nard Lord Sussex, the manor of Chevening, in Kent, stiU the chief seat of his family. His successor Phdip, second Earl, devoted his life to science, as did Earl Charles, the third Earl (1786), the husband of Lady Hester Pitt, and the Peer whose eccentricities and democratic opinions fill so curious a chapter in the his- Digitized by Microsoft® 236 Efje .Stanljopcs, tory of the reign of George III., and who died December 15, 1816. His son, Philip-Henry, the fourth and late Earl, was also distinguished by a character and a line in. politics which attracted considerable attention, being a democrat under the guise of an ultra-Tory. His son, also Philip-Henry, the fifth Earl, who suc- ceeded him on the 2d of March 1855, is the accom- plished noble who has made the founder illustrious by his history, and whose ' War of the Succession ' will probably live when the Stanhopes are forgotten. He is the one man of the aristocratic caste who writes like a peer — brings, that is to say, to his history the ma- turity of judgment, the iveight of style and thought, which should belong to men trained to affairs from boy- hood. Though a Tory in politics, his Toryism is rather royalism — a disposition to increase executive power — than that sullen resistance to all change sometimes defined by that nickname. William Stanhope, the founder of the Harrington branch of the Stanhopes, was descended from Sir John Stanhope, half-brother of the first Earl of Chesterfield, who had Elvaston, in Derbyshire, as his portion. He was a younger son, but his elder brothers dying, he in- herited the paternal estates, and led a career singularly like that of his fortunate cousin, the first Earl Stan- hope. He was a diplomatist of high merit and a gal- lant soldier, and his field of action was chiefly Spaia. His services forced him upwards, notwithstanding the dislike which Walpole cherished to the name of Stan- hope in consequence of his quarrel with the Earl; and at last, after having concluded successfully the treaty of SevUle, Wmiam Stanhope was raised to the peerage as Baron Harrington (November 9, 1729), and on the Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Stanfiopes, 237 resignation of Lord Townshend succeeded him as Secretary of State. Here his knowledge of foreign affairs was of great service, as in the case of his cousin the Earl, but unlike him he was a silent member of Parhament. He attached himself particularly to the fortunes of the Duke of Newcastle, who had first brought him into favour with the King. He was a quiet, sagacious, observing man. The Portuguese Ambassador said of him, " Lord Harrington was not accustomed to interrupt those who spoke to him." He made no personal enemies, and he disarmed all pohtical hostility by his conciliatory tact, so that he escaped wonderfully from the libels of the day. His integrity is highly spoken of ; and, indeed, Newcastle had the merit of securing disinterested colleagues, since he always appropriated the jobbing to himself. Lord Harrington served in some other posts of Gov- ernment, and from the end of 1746 to 1751 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He succeeded in this post his cousin, the Earl of Chesterfield — the exchange of offices being forwarded by the coolness of the King towards Harrington, who had seceded in February 1746, in order to gratify Newcastle, who, of course, ia return only lent him a feeble support. His Irish administration has left no special mark in history, but on February 9, 1742, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Petersham and Earl of Harrington, and died September 8, 1756. His son and grandson, WiUiam and Charles, second and third Earls of Har- rington (1756 and 1779), require no special notice, except that the former, who took to a military career, distinguished himself at the battle of Fontenoy. The two succeeding Earls, Charles (September 15, 1829) Digitized by Microsoft® 238 Eije Stanij0iJ0S* and Leicester (March 3, 1851), fourth and fifth Earls, were brothers. The former was known in early hfe as a leader of fashion and the husband of Miss Foote; the latter as an eccentric man, of a shade of politics which it was difficult to define, except, perhaps, by saying that he held every opinion for exactly the opposite reason assigned by other persons, and his political career, neither Whig nor Tory, was regulated by some similar paradoxical rule. He died September 7, 1862, and his son, the sixth and present Earl — Seymour- Sydney-Hyde — is a minor. Possessed of three Earldoms and great estates, with a history which is for four reigns that of Great Britain, the descendants of Somerset's henchman rank among the greatest families of the land, and their double history is, perhaps, best told in one curious fact. While they have governed Ireland and conquered Spain, distinguished themselves as diplomatists, lit- terateurs, and scholars, and furnished one great Pre- mier, they are still known to the public chiefly by three contributions to social life — the Chesterfield coat, the Petersham hat, and the Stanhope carriage. Digitized by Microsoft® C|)e Caltjots. IE are again among Norman magnates, men of the blue-blood, descendants of those who really conquered the land, and then stood forward for successive ages in the front rank of its defenders; who helped to extort the Great Char- ter, and fought through the Wars of the Roses ; whose single opinions hurried or retarded the Eeformation, and who could almost individually throw a casting vote for or against a revolution. Since William the Bastard died there has been no day when the adhesion of the head of the Talbots has not been distinctly im- portant to the acting Government of England. They themselves, or the pedigree-makers whom new men reward so highly, claim a still greater antiquity, and it is almost with regret that we are compelled finally to reject the claim. Had it been correct, there would have been one family among the greatest peers whose lineal ancestors had been barons before the Norman invasion, and who could prove themselves possessed of lands held without interruption from before the Conquest. Private gentlemen can ; — ^like Mr Myd- dleton, of Denton, in Wharfdale, whose single claim to his lands is a grant, or confirmation of grant, from Digitized by Microsoft® 240 Eiit STalftots, the Confessor, and one or two peers of Welsh de- scent, possibly, as, for example. Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, if his pedigree can be trusted. The Tal- bots, or Talebots, claim, on the authority of the Herald's Visitation Book of 1584-85, to be descended from Philip Talebot, Lord of Eccleswall, Credenham, and Worksop, in the reign of Edward the Confessor ; but no such person is named in Domesday Book, wliUe therein, among the under-tenants, appears Eichard Talebot, holding nine hides of land in Bedfordshire from Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, and a Geoffrey Talebot, holding lands in Essex. Eichard Talbot also appears as witness to some grants of land which this Walter Giffard made to some monks in Normandy. It is probable that he came over in some very moderate position after Hastings, for his name is not in Wace's EoU of the leading warriors in that battle in his ' Chronicles of the Dukes of Normandy;' but he was in England almost immediately afterwards. Nothing is known of him, but he must have been one of the strong men of earth, for, amidst that powerful crowd, every man of whom was hustling his neigh- bour, he rose, either during the Conqueror's life or immediately after his death, to baronial rank. He married a sister of Hugh de Gournay, ancestor of the existing Quaker family of Gurney, whose blood, though they are now known chiefly in the money market, is more ancient than that of most peers. His son Hugh was castellan of Plessy, in 1 1 1 8, for Hugh de Gournay, against Henry L ; and died a monk in Normandy, leaving a son, Eichard, who received from Henry H. a grant of the lordship of EccleswaU and Linton in Herefordshire. His son Gilbert — we follow Dugdale, Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t Ealtiots. 241 and throw over the curious list of five barons some- times inserted, as physiologically impossible — was pre- sent at the coronation of Eichard I., and in the fifth year of his reign had lands given him in Linton for his custody of Ludlow Castle, and paid in King John's reign soccage representing five knights' fees. Gilbert's son Eichard left two sons, the younger of whom be- came Bishop of London in the reign of Henry III., while the elder, Gilbert, succeeded in the barony. He distinguished himself as a soldier, as soldiers went in those days, curbing the turbulent Welsh within their marches, and was the one noble who, when Llewellyn rose in 1256, dared remain firm at his post. In the 44th year of Henry III., though then an old man, he was made Governor of Grosmond, Skenfrith, and Blanc- minster Castles, and the year after one of the Justices Itinerant of Hereford, the gentlemen whose appoint- ment was the first successful blow levelled at baronial power. He was employed all his life in Welsh trans- actions, and married Gwendolen, a daughter of Ehys- ap-Grifiith, Prince of South Wales, wherefore his son assumed his mother's arms — a lion rampant — instead of his own. This son Eichard, who succeeded in 1274, inheriting Longhope and Eedley, in Gloucestershire, and EccleswaU and Linton, in Herefordshire, was also a soldier of mark, who followed Edward I. in Wales, Scotland, and France, everywhere with distinction, and in 1301 was one of the great Barons who signed the celebrated letter to the Pope vindicating the royal authority against ultramontane pretensions. He died in 1306, leaving three sons, of whom the eldest, Gil- bert, succeeded to the principal estates, and, like the rest of the descendants of the Conqueror's following. Digitized by Microsoft® 242 €i}Z ® allots. resisted bitterly the new invasion of Angevin, Poitevia, and Fleming lords, with whom Edward II. tried to coimterbalance his great nobility. He was present when Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, executed Piers Gaveston, but obtained a formal pardon for his share in that offence, which, however, Edward never forgave. Talbot was seized in 1322 by Hugh le De- spenser, and compelled to enter into recognisances; but the Parliament held the same year released him from all penalties. He followed Edward III. in his great military enterprises, and received a grant of the castles and lordships of Blenlevenny and Bulkedin^s, in lieu of some properties which belonged to him through his Welsh pedigree, and which had been united with the Crown. He died in 1353, leaving a son. Sir Richard Talbot, then about thirty-four years of age. He was a distinguished warrior, chiefly in Scotch ex- peditions, was one of Edward Baliol's most powerful allies, and married Elizabeth, daughter and subse- quently coheiress of John Comyn, of Badenoch, with whom he obtained some Irish lands, and Goderich Castle in Herefordshire, which he made his principal seat. He followed Edward in every war, served in every Parliament of the reign, received grant after grant from the monarch — one being a private prison in Goderich Castle, " for the punishing of malefactors," and died October 23, 1356, seised of the manor of Bampton, Oxfordshire, of the inheritance of his wife, Farnham, in Berkshire, and Huntley, in Glouces- terhire; of the manor of Swanscombe, in Kent; and Credenhill, the park of Penyard, the manor of Wormlow, and hundred of Irchenfield; as also the manors of Goderich Castle and EccleswaU and Digitized by Microsoft® €\!Z Ealftots. 248 Linton, "with the advowson of the church of Cre- denhill, in Herefordshire. Gilbert, his son and heir, served, like his father, in the French wars, and in the fleet, under Michael de la Pole. He married, first, a daughter of Boteler (Butler), Earl of Ormonde, and, secondly, a daughter of the Earl of Stafford, and died April 24, 1387, leaving by his first marriage a son, Sir Eichard, then twenty-six years of age. Sir Eichard married the heiress of the Le Stranges, of Blackmere, and obtained livery of his wife's inheritance during his father's lifetime. He was a Knight Banneret, served in the fleet under the Earl of Arundel, and took part in the Castilian expedition under John of Gaunt. In 1391, as one of the heirs of the Valences and MarshaUs, Earls of Pembroke, through the marriage with Elizabeth Comyn, he had awarded to him the county of Weys- ford, or Wexford, in Ireland, and was styled Earl of Wexford. There was, however, no formal creation, and the Greys de Euthyn, as nearest heirs of the Earls of Pembroke, assumed with the title of Hastings that of Wexford. Oddly enough, that family seem to have forgotten the meaning of their own title, and now the Marquesses of Hastings use Weysford as if it were a Christian name. Eichard Lord Talbot died on September 7, 1396, master, besides the great pro- perties previously enumerated, of the manors of Great Braxted, Haslingbury, and Waldbury, in Essex; a moiety of the manor of Broughton, in Wilts ; the lordship of Leigh, in Gloucestershire ; the manors of Doddington, Wrockwardine, Blackmere, alias Whit- church, in Shropshire ; and Lidney and the castle of Kilpeck, in Herefordshire. He left five sons and four Digitized by Microsoft® 244 E\)z Ealbots. daughters. The third son became Archbishop of Dublin ; of the second, John, we shall treat presently; and the eldest, Gilbert, twelfth in succession from the founder, succeeded to all the family estates. He was made a Knight of the Garter by Henry IV., as heir of the Pembrokes claimed to carry the great spurs at the coronation of Henry V., and was made Justice of Chester by that King, being called on to brmg as his contingent to the French wars 120 men-at-arms and 240 archers. He was engaged to treat with Owen Glendower, and was in the French wars appointed Governor of Caen and Captain-General of the Marches of Normandy, and with Gilbert d'Umfraville was ordered to subdue all the forts and castles of that province. He died October 19, 1419, leaving to the guardianship of his brother John an infant daughter, named Ankaret, who died in 1421, and John, the real hero of the Talbot line, then became the head of the family. John Talbot had made a great match, marrying Maud, the eldest of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas Neville, Lord Furnivall ; and in the 1 1th of Henry IV. he was summoned to Parliament as Lord Furnivall, and afterwards as John Talbot, of Haham- shire, that property — worth now Heaven knows what number of millions ! — with the castle of Sheffield, being part of her inheritance. She brought him also the castle and manor of Alveton, or Alton, in Stafford- shire, now the chief seat of the Talbot house. In the last year of Henry IV. he was appointed Lord-Lieu- tenant of Ireland; but the new reign opened un- favourably for him. He feU under suspicion, and on November 16, 1413, was committed to the Tower; Digitized by Microsoft® W^t Eal&ots. 245 but was speedily released, and in February following was re-appointed Lord-Lieutenant, and teld the office seven years. His eminent military abilities — he was unquestionably the greatest general of that age, per- haps the greatest of the whole feudal period — soon reduced Ireland to obedience, and so secure did the Pale become that the noblemen and gentlemen there resident addressed to the King a description of his services. In 1419 his elder brother's death recalled Mm to England, and leaving his brother, the Arch- bishop, as his deputy, he transported to England and imprisoned in the Tower a great Irish chieftain, Donald MacMurrogh, whom he had captured, and with whom he had the Kiug's leave to make his own terms. He next crossed into France, accompanied Henry in his triumphal march to Paris in 1420, in 1425 was agaia appointed Lord Justice of Ireland, and then for the second time re-entered France. Here he was placed by the Eegent, John of Bedford, in command of all the English forces, and was eminently successful till, in 1429, the Maid of Orleans gave him battle and took him. prisoner. He remained a prisoner for three years, and was only released on promise to pay a large ransom, "which he accomplished with the assistance of the Duke of Brittany, who gave him 2000 muves of salt, which he transported to England custom free. The instant he was released he flew back to England, raised new forces, rejoined Bedford, and became the terror of all France, and so prized by the English Government that, on the 20th of May 1442, he was created Earl of the County of Salop, or, as it was generally but most im- properly called, Shrewsbury, which title his lineal descendant stdl enjoys. So clear is the object of the Digitized by Microsoft® 246 E\iz Ealftots. creation, that we have little doubt that the present Earl, if it were worth while, could enforce his right to the title derived from the county, and not from the town. In 1444 Talbot contrived to get £10,000 paid down, and departed again for France, carrying with him as his own contingent one baron, two knights, 96 men-at-arms, and 300 archers. In 1446 he was again, for the third time, appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and on July the 1 7th in that year he was raised to the additional dignity of Earl of Waterford (beiug also styled Earl of Wexford) and Baron Dun- garvan, while the city and county of Waterford, with the castles, lords, and barony of Dungarvan, were granted to him, with the jura regalia from Waterford to YoughaL In 1451 Shrewsbury was again on his old field of fame, and the year after he was made commander of a fleet, having 4000 archers on board. But his career was now drawing to a close. In 1453 he had been appointed Lieutenant of Aquitaine, and, although eighty years of age, marching thither, took Bordeaux, and had reduced several other strongholds, when, heariag that Chastillon was besieged by the French, he advanced thither and gave them battle. Fortune once again deserted him, and on the 20th of July 1453, having his thigh shattered with a cannon-baU and his horse killed under him, John, Earl of Shrewsbury, remaiued dead on his last battle-field. His son, John Talbot, the eldest son by his second marriage with the eldest daughter and coheir of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was slain with him. This son had greatly distinguished himself ia the wars, and had been created Lord Lisle, of Kingston Lisle, in Berkshire, in 1444, Digitized by Microsoft® J -1-} Wilt EalMs, 247 and Viscount Lisle in 1 4 5 1 . His father, when wounded, bad earnestly entreated him to leave him, but he re- fused, and remained to share his death of glory. The great Earl, when he feU, had been the victor in forty- seven battles and dangerous skirmishes. When his dead body was found on the field by his herald, who had worn his coat of arms, " he kissed the body, and broke out into these compassionate and dutiful expres- sions : — 'Alas ! it is you. I pray Grod pardon all your misdoings ; I have been your officer of arms forty years or more; it is time I should surrender it to you;' and while the tears trickled plentifully down his face, he disrobed himself of his coat of arms, and flung it over his master's body." Thus, in the fulness of years, every one of which since he could bear arms had been marked by some stout action or skilful leadership in the service of his country, died the noblest warrior of the feudal period, whom Froissart would have wor- shipped, and whose name, even at this lapse of time, excites a proud sympathy in the breasts of Englishmen. He was the popular idol of his own age, and he has iavested the name which he bore with a charm that generations of mediocrity could not destroy. We would gladly penetrate below the surface of his external actions, and learn what the man was in himself ; but the meagre facts and dry outlines of the chroniclers give us no assistance in conceiving what he really ■was who was a tower of strength to England as long as he lived, and whose death was haUed in France as the seal of emancipation.* * We have been favoured with some curious extracts made by Mr Rawdon Brown from archives at Venice, illustrative of the history of the Talbots. One of these, taken from the diaries of Maria Sanuto, ia Digitized by Microsoft® 248 Wijt STaltrots. His eldest surviving son by his first marriage, Sir John Talbot, was forty years old at his death, and showed his sense of the benefits his family had re- ceived from the house of Lancaster by warmly espous- ing their cause. He perished with his brother at Northampton, 10th July 1460. By his second wife, a daughter of James Butler, Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, he had five sons, the eldest of whom, John, succeeded him as third Earl of Shrewsbury. This Earl was made by Edward IV. Chief Justice of North "Wales, and was one of the Commissioners to treat with James HI. of Scotland on international griev- ances. He married a daughter of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and died June 28th, 1473. George, his eldest son, and successor as fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, was only five years of age at his father's death, and thus escaped all the difficulties of maturer nobles at the crisis which transferred the crown from the house of York to the house of Tudor, his uncle, however, leading his retainers to the aid of Eichmond. He was made one of Henry VH.'s Privy Council, St Mark's Library, Venice, occurs in a letter from the Venetian ambas- sador in England, Andrea Badoer, to his son-in-law, dated from Lon- don, 25th and 26th July 1512. Speaking of an expedition about to start for France under George Talbot, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, tke writer says, " The Earl of Shrewsbury is captain, and writes that they are accustomed to stiU the children in France with the name of Talbot, threatening them, when they cry, that the Talbot will come."—{' Diaries of Sanuto,' vol. xiv. fol. 488.) Most readers will call to mind Shake- speare's allusion to this, some eighty-eight years afterwards, in bis ' Henry VI.,' act ii. scene 3, ' Is this the Talbot so much feared abroad, That with his name the mothers still their babes ? " And, scene 4, ' Here, said they, is the terror of the French, The scarecrow that affrights our children so." Digitized by Microsoft® W^t l^alftots, 249 and distinguished himself in the King's service, at the battle of Stoke, against Lambert Simnel. He was made a Knight of the Garter, and sent as one of the commanders of the forces in aid of Maximilian of Germany against Charles VIII. of France. In 1509, Henry VIII. appointed him one of his household and Privy Council, and he accompanied him in most of his French expeditions,* warlike and peaceful. He seems to have attached himself personally to the King, who made him Lieutenant-General of the North and Constable of Eadnor and Wigmore Castles. The Eeformation left him still an adherent of the Crown, although he may have leant to the old doctrines; and on the occasion of the dangerous "Pilgrimage of Grace," Mr Froude pronounces that Henry was, perhaps, in- debted for his crown to Shrewsbury's resolution and fidelity. He anticipated orders in raising his forces, and overawed effectually the midland counties adjacent to the revolted district. Shrewsbury, however, seems to have been ill repaid for his great services to the Crown, since, in the 28th year of Henry's reign, an Act of Parliament was passed in Ireland, called the Statute of Absentees, whereby the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Lord Berkeley, and the heirs-general of the Earl of Ormonde, were obliged, "for their absence and carelessness in defending their rights" in that country, to surrender the same to the Crown; and accordingly, the Earls of Shrewsbury were not inserted in the Journals of the House as Irish Peers * A Venetian mercliant writes to his brothers from London, July the 14th, 1512, that Lord Shrewsbury, or, as he calls him, " Earl Talbot," was "well accustomed to beat the French."— (' Sanuto's Diaries,' in St Mark's Library, Venice, voL xiv. fol. 474.) Digitized by Microsoft® 250 Efje SCalbots. till after the Eestoration, when Charles II. restored them to the titles of Earl of Waterford and Wexford. Lord Shrewsbury died at his manor of Wingfield, in Derbyshire, on the 20th of July 1541. He married a daughter of George, Lord Hastings, and was suc- ceeded by his son Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, who was summoned to the Upper House in his father's lifetime, and in the year of his father's death exchanged with the King the manor of Farnham-Royal, in Buck- inghamshire, for the inheritance of the site of the priory of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, with divers other lands. Earl Francis had a share in Hemy VIlI.'s expedition to Scotland, when every place was desolated with fire and sword, and was appointed Lieu- tenant of the counties of York, Lancaster, Chester, Derby, Stafford, Salop, and Nottingham, and Justice of the Forests North of the Trent. In the second year of Edward VI. he was sent again into Scotland, with 15,000 men, against the French. On the accession of Mary he was made President of the Council of the North. Earl Francis devoted his life almost entirely to military services, and did not take any strong part in the religious politics of the time. He was, however, a firm though moderate Catholic. He was appelated by Elizabeth, on her accession, one of her Privy Coun- cil, but was the only lay peer, except Browne, Lord Montague, who had the courage and principle to op- pose, in his place in Parliament, aU the measures which undid the work of Mary, and re-established Protestant- ism as the religion of the State. He died a few months afterwards, September 21, 1560, at the age of sixty. His only surviving son, George, who then became Digitized by Microsoft® STfje Ealftots. 251 sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, was sent by his father, in October 1557, to the relief of the Earl of Northum- berland, then pent up at Alnwick Castle by the Scots, and remained in service on the Borders for some months after. On the 24th April 1560, Elizabeth gave him the Garter, and in the summer of 1565 appointed him Lord-Lieutenant of the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby. He was High Steward at the arraignment of the Duke of Norfolk, and succeeded him as Earl Marshal. In January 1569, the Queen of Scots was committed to his custody. From this period, for the next fifteen years of his life, the Earl was entirely absorbed in the guardianship of his dangerous prisoner. " In perpetual danger," says Lodge, in his introduction to the Earl's correspondence, "from the suspicions of one Princess and the hatred of another ; vexed by the jealousy and rapacity of an unreasonable wife, and by the excesses and quarrels of his sons, from whom he was obliged to withdraw that authoritative attention the whole of which was required by his charge, we shall view this nobleman, through the long space of fifteen years, relinquishing the splendour of public situation and those blandishments of domestic life which his exalted rank and vast wealth might have commanded." Such sacrifices did Elizabeth demand from her great subjects. How far the Earl really remained faithful in his allegiance to her under the assiduous wiles of Mary is still, perhaps, an unde- termined point in history. Elizabeth, however, kept a keen eye on him, and on the whole found no safer or more trustworthy agent in securing this to her all- important end. The Earl was twice married — first to a daughter of Thomas Manners, first Earl of Eutland ; Digitized by Microsoft® 252 €^t Ealbotg. and next, as we have abeady had occasion to notice, to the widow of Sir William Cavendish, Elizabeth Hard- wick,* and died November 18, 1590. Of his eldest surviving son and successor, Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, Lodge says he "came into pubhc hfe when the English nation was rapidly emerging from that simplicity of manners to which it had so long been confined by bigotry and war. We shall accord- ingly observe in his character certain amiable features and certain faults which were equally unknown to his ancestors. We shall find him the accomplished cour- tier and weU-educated gentleman, occasionally relaps- ing into the pomp and the ferocity of an ancient baron. The story of his public life lies within a narrow compass, for he was never called to any high ofiice of the State, though apparently better qualified than any of his predecessors of whom we have been treating. His case, in this respect, was peculiarly hard; for though it should seem that Elizabeth passed him over upon some suspicion of his disaffection to her, yet in the nest reign he appears to have been thrust aside as one of the old followers of her Court." He was summoned to Parliament as a baron a few weeks before his father's death, and installed a Knight of the Garter on the 20th of June 1592 ; in 1596 went ambassador to France to ratify the treaty of alliance with Henry the Great ; and was appointed by James at his accession Chief Justice of the Forests North of Trent. His wife, Mary Cavendish (daughter of his * Lodge, who has drawn a very unfavourable picture of this lady, says of her ; "She was a huilder ; a buyer and seller of estates ; a money-lender, a farmer, and merchant of lead, coals, and timber. When disengaged from these employments, she intrigued alternately with BHzabeth and Mary, always to the prejudice and terror of her husband." Digitized by Microsoft® 5D|je Ealttots. 253 step-mother), who seems to have much resembled her mother in character, was imprisoned in 1611 for two years as an accomplice in the flight of Lady Arabella Stuart. The Earl died at his house in Broad Street, London, May 8, 1616, and was succeeded by Edward Talbot, his only surviving brother, the eighth Earl of Shrewsbury, who had been on very bad terms with the last Earl, the latter not showing to advantage in the letters which passed between them. He only sur- vived till the 8th of February 1618, and dying with- out issue, the Earldom devolved on the descendant of Sir Gilbert Talbot, third son of John, second Earl of Shrewsbury. The direct line had ended, but the estates and titles stUl reverted to a descendant of John the Warrior, the type man of the Talbots, whose function on earth, from William Eufus to William III., was always that of soldiers. The break, therefore, made no change either in the antiquity of the pedi- gree or the connection of the title with the hero who acquired it. The recurrence to the old stock, however, did not alter the standard of the family, who, while they have never been quite unequal to their position, have pro- duced a great man only at long intervals. The new stem, Gilbert, third grandson of the hero, had not been undistiaguished under Henry VII., and had acquired the manors of Grafton, and Upton Warren, ia Worcestershire, with interests in Hambury, Broms- grove, King's-Norton, Kidderminster, Kenswick, and Estbury, forfeited by the attainder of Humphrey Stafford. His descendant, however, George, the ninth Earl, was an undistinguished man, as was his nephew John, the tenth Earl (1630), though he fought on the Digitized by Microsoft® 254 Wilt SCalftots. royal side in the Civil War, and was besieged in Alton, which was at the same time laid in ruins. He died February 8, 1653, and (his eldest son, George, the friend of the poet Habington, having died before him) was succeeded by his second son, Francis, eleventh Earl, best known as the husband of Anna Maria, second daughter of the Earl of Cardigan, the " wan- ton Shrewsbury" of Pope, who stood by Buckingham's horse, disguised as a page, whUe the profligate peer killed her husband in a duel. May 16, 1667, and clasped her lover while her husband's blood left marks on her dress/'' Chaeles Talbot, his son, the twelfth Earl, was a man of more mark, though his character still remains a puzzle to posterity — a man whose hfe leaves on the mind an impression of intrinsic honesty of purpose, and yet who acted the part of a dishon- ourable traitor. He was born July 24, 1660, and as his parents were both rigidly Catholic in their views, he was brought up strictly in those religious princi- ples. "His person," says Macaulay, "was pleasiog, his temper singularly sweet, his parts such as, if he had been born in a humble rank, might well have raised him to the height of civil greatness ; all these advan- tages he had so improved, that before he was of age he was allowed to be one of the finest gentlemen and finest scholars of his time. His learning is proved by notes, which are still extant in his handwriting, on books in almost every department of literature. He spoke French like a gentleman of Louis's bedchamber, and Italian like a citizen of Florence." Having made * Her second son, John Talbot, was also killed in a duel by Heniy, first Duke of Grafton, February 2, 1686, within a few days of his at- taining the age of twenty-one. Digitized by Microsoft® €\fZ Eal&ots. 255 the acquaintance of Tillotson, he resolved to fathom the depths of the great controversy between Catho- Hcism and Protestantism. He procured, through his grandfather, the Earl of Cardigan, the most ap- proved arguments of the Eoman Catholic priests, and, communicating them to Tillotson, received his answers and transmitted them to his grandfather. This pro- cess continued for two years, and then Shrewsbury declared himself a convert to Protestantism. His first attendance on the worship of the Established Church was at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, May 4, 1679. His morals, however, partook of the libertinism of that age, and his character generally was unsteady and im- pulsive, though governed in the main by generous instincts. He was early called the King of Hearts, and his career is only explicable by some such refer- ence to the heart rather than to the head. He had carried the pointless sword at the coronation of James n., held the command of the 6th Eegiment of horse, and was Lord-Lieutenant of Stafibrdshire, but, oppos- ing the Court, he entered into communication with the Prince of Orange, and as early as May 1687 of- fered him his services. He is even said to have mort- gaged his estate for £40,000 to raise money for the English expedition, the greatest direct service rendered to the Eevolution by any English peer. Certain it is that on Eussell sounding him as to his willingness to take part in Orange's design, he at once frankly threw himself into the affair, and agreed to stake everything on the issue. In June 1688 he was one of the seven who signed the "Association" inviting the Prince over, and co-operated heartily in the Eevolution which fol- lowed. He was one of those selected by William to Digitized by Microsoft® 256 W^z Ealbots, treat with James about removing from Wliiteliall, and accompanied the fallen King to the stairs on his em- barkation, endeavouring to the best of his power to assuage the bitterness of the moment. On the acces- sion of William he was appointed one of the Secre- taries of State, at an earlier age than had been known iu the case of any preceding Secretary. The Admin- istration, however, was soon distracted by the bitter quarrels of the two Secretaries, Nottingham, the other, being at the head of the Tory interest, and denounc- ing every nominee of his rival's as a Eoundhead and Eepublican, while Shrewsbury retaliated with the charge of Jacobitism. Shrewsbury, indeed, with aU his talents, proved himself whoUy unfitted for such an arduous post at such a difficult crisis. His nerves and his health alike gave way before the cares and anxieties of office. He was irritated with Nottingham and the Protestant Tories for endeavouring to secure a hold on the King's favour ; he was irritated at Wil- liam for lending an ear to them, and at his own party, the Whigs, for urging him on to press the King un- fairly on his personal predilections. His rehgious belief had never recovered the terrible ordeal to a really earnest mind of a conversion from his inherited faith, and he had lost with the change that purity of principle which might have supported him in his pre- sent trying position. "For his own happiness," Mac- aulay observes, with great truth, "he should either have been much better or much worse. As it was, he never knew either that noble peace of mind which is the reward of rectitude, or that abject peace of mind which springs from impudence and insensibility. Few people who have had so little power to resist Digitized by Microsoft® W:\\z Ealftots. 257 temptation have suffered so cruelly from remorse and shame." Before Shrewsbury had been six months in office he began to address to William letters full of earnest entreaties to be allowed to retire from office, and expressing in unmistakable terms the complete pros- tration of his mind and body. The letters, in fact, ■were those of a man stricken with nervous fever ; but WUHam, who believed the Earl to be true, remonstrated agaiast his resignation, and heaped new marks of favour on his head, only to have the seals of office conveyed again and again to himself, and to hear that Burnet had with difficulty restrained the Earl from an audience which would have ended in a personal altercation. Had he known the truth he would have been far more irritated than he at length became. The Earl's secret motive for his incessant repudiation of office was the command of James. Worked upon by his mother, an ardent Jacobite, Shrewsbury had opened communications with St Germains, and had been restored to favour with James, who, however, commanded him, as a test of sincerity, to resign the seals. The moment the arrangement was complete, Shrewsbury repented; and indecision, repentance, and the sense of a double treachery intensified the agitation of his nerves, and at last, obtaining his dismissal in June 1690, he shut himself up in misery at Epsom, to recover, with his health, his tone of moral charac- ter. The war with France awoke him. " The thought that by standing foremost in the defence of his coun- try at so perilous a crisis he might repair his great fault, and regain his own esteem, gave new energy to his body and his mind. In a few hours he was at Whitehall, and had offered his purse and sword Digitized by Microsoft® 258 Efje SDalbots. to the Queen," who was at the head of the Govern- ment in the absence of William. There had been some idea of placing a nobleman of high rank nomin- ally at the head of the fleet, and Shrewsbury begged for the post ; but the fear of divided counsels prevailed, and the offer was decliaed. The danger passed, and the next prominent appearance of Shrewsbury was as the proposer in the House of Lords of the Triennial BiU, a measure most distasteful to King WiUiani. That king, however, stOl retained a greater feeling of personal liking for him than for any other of the great Whig lords, and at the close of 1693, on Nottingham's resignation of the seals, he made a great effort, through his mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, backed by Wharton and Eussell, to induce the Earl to accept office again. Shrewsbury, however, declined on all sorts of pleas, the real cause, of course, being his entanglement with the Court of St Germains, and his aversion to the ex- ample of those statesmen who did not scruple at the same time to correspond with James and hold office under WUliam. From November to March Shrews^ bury stood firm in his refusal. Then his course was changed by a curious incident. Sir James Montgo- mery, who, from the representative of the Scotch nation in their offer of the crown to William had sunk to a disreputable and starving agent of the Jacobites, called on Shrewsbury and entered on a treasonable conversation with him. Shrewsbury, distrusting him, returned only cautious answers. Through some means the whole conversation reached the ears of William. He sent for Shrewsbury, and when he reiterated his excuses for not accepting the seals, observed, " There is another reason behind ; when did you see Montgo- Digitized by Microsoft® 1 J mery last ? " Shrewsbury, remembering his cautious answers, claimed the merit of having refused the offers of the agent. The King, dwelling on the danger and scandal of such communications with Jacobites, said that the only way in which Shrewsbury could clear Ms 'reputation with the nation and himself was to accept the seals at once. " That," he said, " will put me quite at ease. I know that you are a man of hon- our, and that, if you undertake to serve me, you will serve me faithfully." Shrewsbury, seeing no alterna- tive, accepted office March 4, 1694, and was rewarded by being made a EJnight of the G-arter on the 25th of April, and on the 30th was raised to the dignities of Marquess of Alton and Duke of Shrewsbury. The Duke continued to take a leading part in the Government till the arrest of Sir John Fenwick, and his confessions compromised him, along with Marl- borough and several others in the King's employment. Shrewsbury, in a state of great excitement, wrote to the King, declaring, with a want of ingenuousness, that his connection with Lord Middleton had resulted from their relationship, and had not extended to any actual offer of his services to James. William affected to believe this. " Be assured," he wrote, " that these cal- umnies have made no unfavourable impression on me. Nay, you shall find that they have strengthened my confidence in you." Shrewsbury was so overpowered at this unmerited trust that he shrank from a personal interview with the King on his return from the Con- tinent, and hastened to the seclusion of a remote seat of his, in the wolds of Gloucestershire, and availing himself of the plea of a fall from his horse, declined to come up to town or to face the Parliament. He Digitized by Microsoft® 260 ®|je t^al&ots. also again offered Ms resignation of the seals. But the King and all his friends so remonstrated that he gave way. A wretched Jacobite spy accused him of having been acquainted with the assassina- tion plot, and not warning the King, but WiUiain declared he could himself prove the Duke's innocence, and Shrewsbury was again acquitted. But he never regained his peace of mind, though at this time apparently at the height of earthly prosperity. He continued to hold the seals of Secretary tUl May 14, 1699, though in a continual state of indecision and perplexity between the King, the Whig party, and the consciousness of his secret intrigue with St Germauis. He acted frequently as a mediator between the King and the Whigs, and between the Whigs and the Earl of Sunderland, but with little success, being too easily moved himself. He was constantly importuning the King for permission to resign, and at last, in 1700, departed for Eome, where he married an Italian lady of high birth, and remained till the reign of Anne. On his return, in 1708, he was treated by his friends as a lukewarm supporter, and was persuaded by Harley and the Tories into the great attack on Marlborough and Godolphin. In 1713 he was sent to Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant, where, as one might have expected, with the best intentions he succeeded in raising the distrust of aU parties, who united for once — Tories, Whigs, and Jacobites — in a chorus of satire on his government and person. On his return from Ireland he found the Tory Ministry in a state of decompo- sition, Harley and Bolingbroke contending for the mastery; and on Harley 's discomfiture and resignation of the ofl&ce of Lord High Treasurer, the Staff was Digitized by Microsoft® €\}t Ealiots. 261 bestowed on Shrewsbury, who held both that office and his Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland at the death of Queen Anne. At that crisis, for the last time, his better spirit awoke, and, entering the Council Chamber unsummoned, and followed by the other Whig peers whose names remained on the list of the Privy Council, the Duke carried into effect, with an energy which completely discomfited the Jacobites, the plans which placed the house of Hanover on the throne. He was essentially a man who required great crises such as these, and great pressing excitement, to caU forth his resolution, and enable him to do justice to his own principles. On the accession of George L he filled several honorary offices ; but his political career was really at an end, and he doubtless felt the release from necessary action as agreeable as it was, perhaps, salu- tary for his remaining reputation. He had purchased an estate in Oxfordshire, near Woodstock, called Hey- thorpe, Alton beiag stdl in a dilapidated condition. Here, and at a house at Isleworth, he passed the remainder of his life, being carried ofi' by a fever on the 1st February 1718. He was a man of a class which only those who belong to it will ever under- stand — a man in whom high principle and great ability were neutralised by a physical condition which, except when overcome by a great crisis, rendered his powers valueless. In a great crisis he was as effective and decided as his ancestors ; in little emergencies, irreso- lute as a woman. As he left no children the Duke- dom and Marquessate became extinct, but the Earldom of Shrewsbury devolved on Gilbert, eldest surviving son of Gilbert Talbot, fourth son of John, tenth Earl, who succeeded as thirteenth Earl, but being in holy s Digitized by Microsoft® 262 Wijt Ealiotg. orders of tlie Church of Eome died without issue m 1743. It was probably with a view to his succession that the Duke obtained the Family Act, which entailed his estates for ever, so long as they should be in posses- sion of a Catholic. The priest — the only one, we believe, who, since Queen Mary's death, has been a peer of the realm — was succeeded by his nephew George, fourteenth Earl;''^ he by his nephew Charles, fifteenth Earl (1787), and he again (April 6, 1827) by his nephew John, sixteenth Eaxl, who died November 9, 1852, having taken an active though moderate part in Catholic emancipation. Leaving only daughters, the title devolved on his cousin Bertram- Arthur, the seventeenth Earl (grandson of Francis Talbot, uncle of Charles, fifteenth Earl), a fanatic Catholic, who made a desperate attempt to upset the Duke's Family Act by bequeathing the Shrewsbury property to the Howards, his advisers teUing him that as his WUl only became operative after his death, the title had ceased to be held by a Catholic and the entad to exist. The Courts decided, however, that the Wdl was the act of a living man, and title and estates must there- fore go together. To find their possessor it is necessary to re-ascend the stream. Sir G-Ubert Talbot, of Grafton, Worcester- shire (third son of John, second Earl of Shrewsbury), who led the forces of his nephew the young Earl at the battle of Bosworth, had a son, Sir John * We follow Sir Harris Nicolas, Burke, &c. A different succession is given in CoUins's 'Peerage' (by Brydges) — viz., fourteenth Earl, George, brother of the thirteenth Earl (died December 12, 1733) ; fifteenth Earl, George, son of the fourteenth Earl (died July 1787) ; sixteenth Earl, Charles, nephew of fifteenth Earl. Digitized by Microsoft® Wift Eal&ots. 263 Talbot of Albrighton, Skropshire, who is the common ancestor of the late and present Earls of Shrews- buiy, his elder son (by his first marriage), Sir John Talbot of Grafton, being the ancestor of the line which has become lately extinct, and his younger son (by a second marriage), John Talbot of Salwarp, in Worcestershire, being the ancestor of Charles Lord Talbot, who founded the family which has now suc- ceeded to the Shrewsbury title and estate. The father of Charles Talbot, William Talbot, was the only son of William Talbot of Stourton Castle, Stafibrdshire, tMrd son of Sherrington Talbot of Salwarp and Lay- cock, Worcestershire, eldest son of John Talbot of Salwarp. WUliam Talbot went into the Church, and became successively Dean of Worcester, and Bishop of Oxford, Salisbury, and Durham. He died October 10, 1730, having been a stanch Whig, of considerable eloquence and ability, leaving a large family, the eldest of whom entered Oxford, was called to the Bar, and rose on the 29th of November 1733 to the Lord Chancellorship. He was then created Baron Talbot of Hensol, in Glamorganshire, an estate he had acquired with his wife, a daughter of Charles Mathews, Esq., of Castle -y-Menich, in that county. "As an equity judge," says Lord Campbell, "Lord Talbot exceeded aU the high expectations which had been formed of him. In my long journey from the reign of Ethelred to that of George IV., I find this Chancellor alone without an accuser, without an enemy, without a de- tractor, without any one from malice or mistake to cavil at any part of his character, conduct, or demean- our. While in no respect deficient in judicial gravity and dignity, the flowing courtesy of his manners seems Digitized by Microsoft® 264 STfje Ealftots. to have won all hearts." " He was energetic and inde- fatigable in business, punctual in his hours of sitting." In the pohtical arena Lord Talbot had little to bring his talents into prominent play, the chief debates being on foreign affairs. Still he showed his independence by opposing his own Cabinet, along with his friend Hardwicke, on the provisions of their "Smuggling Bill," the enactments of which he considered danger- ous to the Hberty of the subject. While in the appa- rent enjoyment of perfect health, and with the prospect of a long and brilliant career before him, Charles Talbot was suddenly seized by a spasm in the heart, which, from the first, was pronounced to be fatal, and after a brief interval he expired on the 14th February 1737, in the fifty-third year of his age. His eldest son, a youth of great promise, died before him, and WilliaTTi, his next son, succeeded as second Lord Tal- bot. He seems to have been a man of some energy of character, and in 1761 was raised to the Earldom of Talbot, and in 1780 was made Baron Dynevor, with special remainder in the latter peerage to his daughter, who married into the family of Eice, who now, as Lords Dynevor, represent the heirs-general of the Chancellor Talbot. As Earl Talbot left no son, on his death in 1782 the Earldom became extinct, and the barony of Talbot devolved on his nephew, John Talbot, who, in 1784, was created Earl Talbot of Hensol, and Viscount Ingestre of Ingestre, in Staffordshire. He assumed by royal licence, in 1786, the name of Chet- wynd, in addition to that of Talbot, from his mother, daughter of Viscount Chetwynd of Ireland. He died in 1703, and was succeeded in the Earldom by his son, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, the father of the present Digitized by Microsoft® E!je EaKiots. 265 Earl, Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, who became fifth Earl Talbot in 1849, and in 1856, on the death of his ]diisinan,the seventeenth Earl of Shrewsbury, succeeded in establishing his right to the succession of that older peerage, becoming eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury. The great legal battle with the Howards ended, as we have said, in the decision that the Duke's Act was operative, and the eighteenth Earl, who, be it remem- bered, is the direct lineal descendant of the man re- corded in. 'Domesday Book,' and of the great John Talbot of Shakespeare, stands possessed of all the properties of his house. He was ia the navy, but has been known chiefly as a very decided Tory, and as Lord Ingestre was somewhat prominent in debates on naval afiairs ia the House of Commons. His son. Lord Ingestre, a moderate Conservative, is remarkable for Hs social leanings, and may yet take his place as one of the leaders ia the next public crisis — the great fight with pauperism. As yet the Talbots, despite their splendid pedigree, their vast estates, and the two great men they have contributed to our annals, have not reached the historic eminence which belongs to most of their younger, but more efl&cient, rivals.*' * Richard Talbot, Earl and (titular) Duie of Tyrconnel, James Il.'s favourite and Irish Deputy, the " lying Dick Talbot" of history, was the son of Sir William Talbot, of Carton, County Kildare, Baxonet, nephew of "William Talbot of Malahide, the ancestor of the present Lord Talbot of Malahide. This family trace their descent from Sir Richard Talbot, who, during the first settlement of the English in Ire- land, received from Henry II. the barony of Malahide, which, they say, has continued for upwards of 650 years in his heirs male. They also say that this Sir Richard was descended from Richard Talbot of 'Domesday Book,' the ancestor of the Shrewsbury family ; but how they do not state. Possibly he was a son of another son of the Domesday Richard Talbot, and nephew, therefore, of Hugh Talbot, the son from whom the Shrewsbury Talbots descend. Digitized by Microsoft® Ci)e ^t\M&o\u(3oWx&. I HE Leveson-Gowers are the luckiest of the great English families. They have risen -withui two hundred and fifty years from simple country baronets into the greatest, though not the rich- est, territorialists in Great Britain, and their connection is at this moment perhaps the most powerful of the English political clans. They have been people of some mark and capacity in themselves, but the source of their dignity has been a succession of lucky alliances, they being, though Gowers in lineal male descent, Levesons and Sutherlands by the female side. The pedigree, though curiously uncertain, is by no means a bad one as English nobles go. Sir Thomas GowEE, one of James I.'s baronets, was of Stittenham, in Yorkshire, and there certainly was a William Fitz- guhyer who held Stittenham in the time of Henry H., 1167. From that time Gowers owners of Sittenham are always turning up in more or less conspicuous positions, one having been Eeceiver-General of Ber- wick and Governor of Wark in 1543, and mentioned by Holinshed as a man of "too much forwardness" in battle. There was a Gower who stood by the Earl of Lancaster at the execution of Piers Gaveston, and Digitized by Microsoft® 2Di)e 2-ebeson=©ofaja;s. 267 a Gower appears to have fouglit well in the battle of Neville's Cross. Another was one of the " forty-three powerful persons" in Yorkshire who, in the 25th of Henry VI., returned James Pickering and "William Normanville as Knights to serve in Parliament, and was beheaded after the battle of Tewkesbury. As these Gowers dwelt at or owned Stittenham, or adja- cent properties, and kept up the same family names, there is little reasonable doubt that they were all of one stock, — that, in fact, a Norman named Guhyer obtained that manor and much land shortly after the Conquest, and that his descendants maintained them- selves as great squires and good soldiers until the first Enghsh Stuart. Then, as we have seen, they obtained by favour and purchase a baronetcy. Sir Thomas Gower, fiirst Baronet, commenced the series of alli- ances. He married the daughter and coheir of John Doyley, of Merton, Oxfordshire, and his son, the second Baronet, was important enough to be twice High Sherifi" of Yorkshire, and one of the leading partisans of Charles I. He attended the King in his imsuccessful attack on Hull, and raised an entire regiment of dragoons at his own charge. He married first a daughter of Sir WiUiam Howard, of Naworth Castle (ancestor of the Carlisle Howards), and then Frances, one of the two daughters of Sir John Leve- son, of Hailing, in Kent, and LiUieeshall, in Shrop- shire. Edward, his eldest son by this lady, died be- fore his father, leaving, however, a son Thomas, who succeeded as third Baronet, and who died in the King's camp at Dundalk, in Ireland, in 1689. The estates and baronetcy then devolved on his uncle, Sir WOliam, the fourth Baronet, who was adopted as heir Digitized by Microsoft® 268 Eije 1Lebeson=©oiwer0. by Ms mother's uncle, Sir Richard Leveson, of Trent- ham, in Staffordshire, since one of the principal seats of the family. This Sir Eichard Leveson was the heir of a family which ranked in the reign of Edward I. among the landed gentry of Staffordshire, and had himself married Lady Catherine Dudley, daughter of Alice, Duchess Dudley, the widow of Leicester's na- tural son, Sir Eobert Dudley — a dukedom originally German, and bestowed by the Emperor Ferdinand, hut in the person of Duchess Alice an English creation for life — and with this lady received Trentham. The adopted son received all and took the name of Leve- son-Gower, which the family has retained. He was one of the Duke of Monmouth's bail in 1683, sat during his Hfe for Newcastle-under-Lyne, and married Jane, eldest daughter of John Granville, Earl of Bath. This marriage did not at first appear a great one ; but the luck of the Gowers is a quality rather than an accident, and the lady became coheir to her nephew, William Henry, last Earl of Bath, of that family. His son by this lady. Sir John Leveson-Gower, fifth Baronet, sat for Newcastle-under-Lyne till, in 1703, he was, after impeaching the Earl of Portland at the bar of the House of Commons, raised to the peerage by Queen Anne as Baron Gower of Stittenham, York- shire. Burnet says the motive of the creation was to gain votes in the Upper House, where the most im- portant measures were sometimes carried by only one or two voices. The baronies of Finch, Granville, and Germaine, were created at the same time and with the same motive. Lord Gower was one of the Com- missioners who concluded the union between England and Scotland, and died in 1709. He married a Digitized by Microsoft® E^z a.ebeson=©olMa:s. 269 daughter of the Duke of Eutland with a portion of £15,000, and was succeeded by his son John, second Lord Gower. This man was considered in his own time a turn- coat — so great a turncoat that Johnson said to Boswell, "When I came to the word 'renegado,' after telling that it meant one who deserts to the enemy, a revolter, I added. Sometimes we say ' a G-ower.' Thus it went to the press, but the printer had more wit than I, and struck it out." The man, however, who thus es- caped an unenviable immortality seems to have been merely one of those persons who, acquiring radically new convictions, are hampered for years by the ties created under the old. He was brought up a strong Jacobite, and was elected in 1742 President of the "Board," or Jacobite meeting, in the room of the Earl of Lichfield ; but in the same year the Govern- ment appointed him Lord-Lieutenant of Stafford and Lord Privy Seal. It is said he held his Jacobite office still while serving in the Hanoverian Cabinet. He seems to have passed completely under the sway of John, the fourth Duke of Bedford, who, in 1737, had married his daughter Gertrude. On the breaking out of the rebellion of 1745, he raised a regiment of foot for King George, and, as a reward, was on the 8th July 1746 created Viscount Trentham and Earl Gower. In 1750 his eldest son, Granville, Lord Trentham, stood a severe contested election for the city of West- minster, which attracted a curious amount of atten- tion, and ended in establishing Lord Trentham's repu- tation as a competent and spirited speaker. In June 1751, a division of opinion took place between Lord Digitized by Microsoft® 270 EijE 1Le&cS0Ti=©otoers, Gower and tlie Eussells — who carried his sons with them. Lord Sandwich had procured the marriage of another of Gower's daughters, Lady Elizabeth Leve- son-Gower, with Colonel Waldegrave, against the will of her father, even allowing the ceremony to be per- formed at his apartments in the Admiralty. The Pelhams, desirous of drawing off Gower from Bedford, who was a sworn friend to Sandwich, persuaded the Earl to complain of Sandwich to the King. The King took Gower's view, and Sandwich had notice of dismissal. Bedford hastened to persuade his father- in-law to resign along with him, and Lord Trentham accompanied him. " They found Lord Gower in no humour to resign ; on the contrary, enraged at his son, who told him he could not serve under Lord Anson, the new head of the Admiralty. 'Sir,' said his father, 'he is your superior, he is a peer.' 'Who made him so V replied Lord Trentham. Lord Gower told, the Duke of Bedford that he had listed all his children against him ; and threatened Lord Trentham to disinherit him of all that was in his power ; who told him, in pretty plain terms, how much he was a dupe to the Pelhams, and, after many high words, they both left him." It ended in Lord Gower sticking to the Pelhams, and his sons going into opposition along with Bedford. Earl Gower was thrice married, his first wife, and the mother of his successor, being a daughter of Eveljm Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston. He continued to hold the office of Privy Seal till his death, December 25, 1754. Granville, the second Earl Gower, married, as his second wife. Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter of Scroop, first Duke of Bridge- water, great-grandson of Frances Stanley, a descend- Digitized by Microsoft® aat of Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Princess Mary Tudor. This marriage entitles the Gowers to quarter the royal arms, and brought eventually a large slice out of the great Bridgewater property. In December 1755, the &st Fox persuaded the Duke of Bedford to ask for the office of Lord Privy Seal for Earl Gower ; " a great promotion," says Walpole, " for so young a man." In January following there was a rumour of comiug invasion, and Lord Gower proposed that the great lords should go to their counties and raise re- cruits for the army — -a plan which was adopted, and succeeded, he himself raising 400 men. He continued to act with the Bedford party, holdiag various offices in the household until 1767, when he became Presi- dent of the CouncU, and continued so under Lord North, untn in November 1779, disapproving of the continued war with the Colonies, he resigned. "I feel," said Lord Gower, " the greatest gratitude for the many marks of royal goodness which I have received, but I cannot think it the duty of a grateful servant to endeavour to preserve a system which must end in ruin to his Majesty and the country." His secession "was felt as a severe loss by the Government. Lord North, writing to the King, says he had made every attempt to retain him. But North himself adds in the letter, " In the argument Lord North had certainly one disadvantage, which is, that he holds in his heart, and has held for three years past, the same opinions with Lord Gower." Lord Gower remained out of office till December 1783. On the resig- nation of North in 1782, the King, to avoid Eock- ingham, if possible, had solicited Lord Gower to form a new Cabinet; but he declined. He was Digitized by Microsoft® 272 W^t ^ebesott=©otoers. again solicited by the King, in the spring of 1783, and again declined. But when William Pitt accepted the office of First Lord of the Treasury and ChanceUor of the Exchequer, though not on any terms of politi- cal connection or intercourse with him. Lord Gower " sent through a friend a message to him. He stated that, desirous as he was of retirement for the remain- der of his life, he could not be deemed a candidate for office ; but that in the present distressed state of his King and country he was willing to serve ia anyplace where he could be useful. The offer was eagerly ac- cepted, and on that same day, the 20th of December, Earl Gower was declared Lord President of the Coun- cil." In November of the following year he became Lord Privy Seal, and held this office tUl 1794. On February 28, 1786, he was raised, on the recommen- dation of Pitt, to the title of Marquess of the county of Stafford. He died October 26, 1803. The family had now risen by four successive alli- ances to a Marquessate and a great territorial position; but George Granville, the second Marquess, succeeded in eclipsing the fortune of all his ancestors. On the 4th of September 1785, he married Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland and Baroness of Strathmaver, in Scotland, only surviving daughter and heiress of William, seven- teenth Earl of Sutherland, the oldest Earl of Great Britain, and lord of one-half of Sutherlandshire. She had been left an orphan by her father's and mother's early death when she was only a year old, the mother being worn out by twenty-one days of unbroken at- tendance on her husband. Her title was disputed by Sir Eobert Gordon, Bart., of Gordontown, and George Sutherland, of Forse; but after various proceedings the Digitized by Microsoft® Efje 5LE&escin=©oh]i0rs» 273 House of Lords, on March 21st, 1771, decided that the Earldom of Sutherland descended to her as lineal descendant of WUliam, who was Earl of Sutherland in 1275. "The Countess's right," says Douglas, "was thus established to the most ancient title existing in Britaui — a decision productive of the highest national satisfaction, the illustrious orphan having excited feel- ings of very lively interest, and public rejoicings took place ia diflPerent parts of Scotland in consequence." The rejoicings might not have been so warm had it been known that the new English family were about to carry out steadUy a system of clearing their High- land estates. These were almost completely ruined by the presence of great bodies of clansmen — men who would neither work, nor depart, nor let rentals rise. The new family, convinced that mercy had be- come cruelty, commenced and steadily carried through a process of eviction which was soon after extended to the rest of Sutherlandshire, purchased of Lord Eeay, the head of the Mackays. The eviction, though causing great hardship to individuals, was kindly done, the old tenantry received grants in Canada, and Sutherlandshire, rescued from profitless tillage, was devoted to sheep-farming. The result, as shown in some recent reports, has been an increase of population, as well as rental and wealth, and the country has no ground of complaiat. Whether the clansmen were not in some sense owners of the soil, tenants in common with their chief, is a moot ques- tion which the Courts decided one way and popular opinion another. The luck of the Cowers did not end here. Besides this immense accession of territory, the death of Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, in January Digitized by Microsoft® 274 SDije !Le&'eson=©oton:s. 1803, brought a second. The great landed estates of that house in Lancashire, Shropshire, and Stafford- shire, with the whole of the canal property, descended to the Marquess, and thence to his younger son, Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, who took the name of Eger- ton, and in 1846 was created Earl of Ellesmere. The second Marquess of Stafford continued to act with Pitt tOl the death of the latter, his motion in the House of Lords ia 1804 precipitating the fall of the Ad- dington Ministry. He afterwards attached himself to the fortunes of Lord Grenville, and made a motion on the fall of the Grenville Ministry stigmatisiag the pledges exacted by the King on the Catholic question as unconstitutional. From this time the Marquess gradually moved on to the Liberal party, and after the Eeform crisis, on the 14th January 1833, was created Duke of Sutherland. He died in July fol- lowing, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George Granville, second Duke, a man of consistent Whig politics, but owing to ill-health of very retired habits. He married, in 1823, Harriett Elizabeth Georgina, third daughter of George Howard, sixth Earl of Car- lisle, who is stdl alive, and during her husband's life swayed the great power of the house — a power ia- creased by her personal position as Mistress of the Eobes. A large family of children were singularly fortunate in alliances, and the third and present Duke, George Granville William, who succeeded in February 1861, stands at the head of a family group which includes the Duke of Argyll, the future Duke of Leinster, the future Marquess of Westminster, the Earl of Ellesmere, and Earl Granville. The last is the son of Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, younger Digitized by Microsoft® Efje !Le&cson;®obJcrs. 275 son of tlie first Marquess of Stafford, who, in the year 1815, was created Viscount Leveson for diplo- matic services, and raised in May 1833 to an Earl- dom as Earl Granville, the family name of the old Earls of Bath, whose property, with that of so many other old families, now swells the great stream of the luck of the Gowers. One more favour was still re- quired to raise the stream to its bank, and this, too, was accorded. The present Duke has been distin- guished only for his interest in suppressing fires — a useful but eccentric taste — and more recently as the generous host of General Garibaldi during his visit to London. But he married, in June 184.9, Anne, heiress of John Mackenzie, Esq., of NewhaU and Cromartie, and in October 1861 she was created Countess of Cromartie, Viscountess Tarbat, and Baroness Macleod and Castlehaven, with remainder to her second son, Francis, by courtesy Viscount Tarbat. In less than three hundred years the descendants of Sir Thomas Gower, Bart., of Stittenham, vpill be in possession of eight peerages— Sutherland, Argyll, Leinster, West- minster, EUesmere, Granville, Cromartie, and Blan- tyre — and an aggregate of influence scattered over the three kingdoms such as no other cousinhood in the land possesses. The direct descendants have been as a race respectable and even useful ; but their fortunes have been beyond their deserts, and we must end as we began, by pronouncing the Gowers the luckiest among the great English houses. Digitized by Microsoft® C|)e ^agetsi. |HE history of the Pagets, a family of successful men of the world, is a com- posite one. Strictly speaking they are not Pagets at all. They are Bayleys, a Scotch family with an Irish baronetcy, who settled in Wales, and married the heiress of the English Pagets. Being Scotch, the Bayleys have, of course, a pedigree, but the original Pagets have in the heraldic sense none, and with un- usual modesty do not through the Peerages claim one. William Paget, the founder of the house, and beyond aU dispute the ablest man it has ever pro- duced, was the son of William Paget, a native of Wednesbury in Staffordshire, who, in the time of Henry VII., came up to London and became one of the " Sergeants at Mace" of the City. From the proceeds of this office, whatever they may have been, he managed to give his son WUliam a good educa- tion under the famous Lilly, in St Paul's School, and afterwards to send him to Trinity HaU, Cam- bridge. From the University young Paget obtained admission into the family of Stephen Gardiner, the celebrated Bishop of Winchester, and attracted the attention of Henry VIII. by his remarkable capacity Digitized by Microsoft® for affairs. The King selected him in the twenty-first year of his reign to proceed to France, and obtain from the learned men of that kingdom an opinion in favour of the divorce. He succeeded so -well that Henry thenceforward gave him his entire confidence, and his rise was beyond all precedent rapid, the Tudors, with their instinct of kingcraft, always preferring the men whom they had built. Two years afterwards he ob- tained the custody of the castle of Maxstoke, in War- wickshire, during the minority of Peter Compton, Esq., and ia the same year was made one of the Clerks of the Signet. In 1537 he was sent (in disguise) on a secret mission to Germany, to prevent the Protestant German Princes from coming to a separate agreement with the Emperor, and to persuade them to refer their differences to Henry and the King of France. Here, again, he gave such satisfaction, that in the 32d of Henry he was made Clerk of the Privy Council, one of the Clerks of the Signet for life, Clerk of the Privy Seal, and soon after Clerk of the Parliament for life. In the year following he was made Clerk of the Privy Council for life, and sent ambassador to France. Soon after he received the honour of knight- hood, and on the 1 6th of January following the King granted to him and his heirs the lordships of Bromley and Hurst, in Staffordshire, and in the same year, 1543, he was made one of the principal Secretaries of State. In the following year he was joined in a commission with the Chancellor Wriothesley and the Duke of Suffolk to arrange the marriage between the Earl of Lennox and the Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret Tudor and niece of the King, from which marriage sprang the unfortunate Henry Lord Darnley. Digitized by Microsoft® 278 €\\t ^agcts. In the following year Paget accompanied the King to the siege of Boulogne, and after its surrender had a grant (jointly with the diplomatist John Mason) of the office of Master of the Posts within or without the kingdom, and with the Earl of Hertford was commis- sioned to treat for a peace with France. , In June foUow- ing(l546) he, with Lord Lisle andDr Wotton, concluded the peace. His own account to Henry of his manage- ment of this negotiation is characteristic, and probably tolerably correct. " Touching your Majesty, the Em- peror, the French King, the Almayn, and every Prince's councillors, I have praised, dispraised, given hope, fear, mistrust, jealousy, suspicion respectively; I have hed, said truth, spoken fair, roughly, pleasantly, promised gifts, pensions, and done aU that may be done or said for the advancement of this matter, and much more than I will abide, as Will Somers [the King's jester] saith, if I were asked the question. But aU is in God's hands, and it is He that beyond all men's expectations directeth things at His pleasure to His glory." The year before he had been sent on a special mission to Brussels, as the man best able to cope with the Emperor Charles V., and if possible to fathom his intentions. " If ordinary inquiry was baffled," says Mr Froude, " Paget possessed an art of high-bred insolence which generally exasperated the best trained dissemblers into momentary openness. Charles knew him well f' and * According to one account the Emperor said of Paget, " He deserved to be a king, as well as to represent one.'' And again, one day when Paget came to Court, " Yonder is the man I can deny nothing to ;" and the Emperor is said to have once observed that three sorts of ambassa- dors were sent him from England : " The first was Wolsey, whose great train promised much, as his great design did nothing ; the second was Morisin, who promised and did much; the third Paget, who promised nothing and did all." Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t IPaflrts. 279 if he liad chosen a Minister from the English Council whom he could have desired not to receive, it was Sir WiUiam Paget." Paget's favour with Henry continued unbroken till the latter's death. By letters-patent, dated October 26 (38 Henry VIII.), the King granted him the manors of Longdon, Heywood, and Barkes- wiche parcel of the manor of Heywood, with their members and appurtenances situate and lying in Whit- tiagton, Fisherwick, Pype, Homerwiche, Wall, Mor- whale, Strethay, and Brendwood, aU in Staffordshire ; and in the following year (1547), 1st of Edward VI., the Bishop of Lichfield, to whom they had formerly belonged, confirmed the grants, and released aU claim thereon. The manor of Longdon was of vast extent, above thirty other manors, townships, and villages, besides Cank, Heywood, and Rugeley, owing suit and service to the court-leet there. Longdon itself con- sisted of the manor of Beaudesert, with the appurten- ances, including a mine of coal below the park, and of forty-eight messuages, with the appurtenances, and a mill called Longdon Mill. The King bequeathed Paget a legacy of £300, constituted him one of his executors, and appointed him one of the Council to the young Edward. Paget had contracted a friendship with the Earl of Hertford, who, as Duke of Somerset, governed Eng- land during the first years of this reign, and he became at once one of the leading Councillors of England, had a seat in all the great " Commissions" appointed to carry out the Eeformation, and was sent as ambassador to Charles V., receiving all the while ever increasing grants from the State. It has been estimated that he obtained at intervals £20,000 a-year from Church lands Digitized by Microsoft® 280 E^t ^agets. — in those days a colossal fortune. "In 2d Edward VI., he obtained a grant of Exeter Place, without Temple Bar (formerly belonging to the bishop of that see), as also a certain parcel of ground lying within the gar- den of the Middle Temple, adjoining thereto. Which house he transformed into a new fabric for his own habi- tation, calling it Paget House." This is the Essex House of later years. When Somerset's power tottered, Paget urged him to energy with characteristic unscrupidous- ness. " The business," he wrote from Germany, "may, peradventure, at the worst, if resistance should be made, cost a thousand or two thousand men's lives. By St Mary, better so than mo ! And, therefore. Sir, go to it betimes. Send for all the Council that be remaining unsent abroad, and for because there are a good many of the best absent, call to your Grace to counsel for this matter six of the gravest and most experimentest men of the realm, and consider what is best to be done, and follow their advice. Send for your Almayn horse- men ; send for Lord Ferrys and Sir William Herbert to bring you as many horsemen of such as they dare trust out of Wales. Let the Earl of Shrewsbury bring the like out of Shropshire, Derbyshire, Nottingham- shire, Staffordshire, of his servants and keepers of forests and parks. Go yourself, accompanied with the said noblemen and their companies, and appoint the chief justices of England, three or four of them, to resort, with commission of Oyer and Terminer, to that good town which shall be next to the place where your Grace shall remain. Attach to the number of twenty or thirty of the rankest knaves of the shne. Let six be hanged of the ripest of them, the rest remain in prison. And thus. Sir, make a progress this hot Digitized by Microsoft® Wi)t ^apts. 281 weather till you have perused all those shires that have offended. Your Grace may say you shall lose the hearts of the people ; of the good people you shall not, of the ill it maketh no matter." Paget's advice, how- ever, whether transmitted from abroad or delivered in person after his return, was unable to nerve Somerset to energy of action, or rather to keep his mind in a balanced position between undue elation and despair. Yet he adhered to him, along with Cranmer, till all was lost, when he contrived to make tolerable terms for the Duke, so as to break his fall, and himself was treated with great consideration by the dominant party. On the 3d of December 1550, he was sum- moned to the Upper House as Baron Paget, of Beau- desert, his principal seat in Staffordshire, holding at the same time the ofl&ces of Controller of the House- hold and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In the early part of the following year he was appointed one of the Commissioners to conclude a peace with France. He disapproved, however, of much of the proceedings of Warwick's government, and especially of the pres- sure put upon the Priacess Mary in religious matters. Paget, whose conscience was very easy and flexible on such matters, was at heart, probably, a moderate Catho- hc, and his diplomatic associations induced him to lean rather to the oldBurgundian alliance (represented by the Emperor and Spain) than to any new Protestant connec- tions. Nor had he any sympathy with the enthusiasts of Protestantism any more than with the Catholic fana- tics. Somerset's later views were more in harmony with this middle position, and Somerset beginning to gather again his friends, Paget was induced to join in an enterprise against Warwick, though too cautious to Digitized by Microsoft® 282 W\}t ^agets. commit himself to any great extent. When the plot exploded, Paget was sent to the Tower, but no compli- city could be brought home to him ; yet, on the 22d of April 1552, he was deprived of the Order of the Garter, nominally for "defect of blood and arms for three generations," and was charged with selliag the King's land and applying the proceeds to his own use. The same charge might have been brought against every rising man in that age of rapacious self-aggrandise- ment ; but the Star Chamber deprived him of his office and fined him £6000, reduced to £4000, on con- dition of payment within a year. He contrived, how- ever, to obtain a full discharge on payment of £2000, and had his coat of arms restored to him, and after some opposition he ultimately signed the interpolated " device" for the succession of King Edward. The Eevolution which followed restored Paget to a high position, for Mary took him into favour, and made him several grants of lands, as the manor of Alcester, in Warwickshire, and other lands in the counties of Leicester and Derby ; also the marriage of Thomas WUloughby, and the reversion of the manor of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire. However, he strongly recommended her to acknowledge her sister as her presumptive successor, and he was the author of the plan for marrying Elizabeth to Courtenay, in order that these two might be declared King and Queen, should Mary remain without issue. He also, though panicstruck at Wyat's rebellion, advised Mary to remain in London, advice which saved her throne. He helped in the Spanish match, and brought over Cardinal Pole ; but he was essentially a diplomatist, and though tired of conspiracies, disapproved the vio- Digitized by Microsoft® ®fje tPagets. 283 lent acts of Mary's reign, and remained quiet till tlie accession of Elizabeth, exposed his moderate suscepti- bilities to a trial in an opposite direction. He deemed it more prudent to plead infirmities, and ask to be allowed to retire from the Privy Council and public employments, and Elizabeth allowed his plea, though retainiag to the close of his life a high opinion of his judgment and sagacity. The change of times had superseded Paget's diplomatic creed — his diplomacy had become as superannuated as himself ; but he was too acute to be hidebound entirely by old ideas. He had opposed the expedition to assist the Scotch Pro- testants against France, but he disappointed the ex- pectations of the Court of Spain by opposing also the Spanish alliance when coupled with the marriage with Leicester, and he advised, in preference, an alliance with the French Calvinists, which would bring Spain to terms of itself But, with these exceptions, his public life was virtually at an end, though he did not die till June 9, 1563, being then fifty-seven years of age. He made his will three years before, and was buried at West Drayton, Middlesex, where he pos- sessed a house. His commonplace-book, which was in the possession of Lord Boston, a descendant of the family, " contains many particulars relative to the Court, the navy, and foreign affairs, and concludes with these [characteristic] maxims : — ' Flye the courte ; speke little ; care less ; devise nothing ; never earnest ; in answere cold ; lerne to spare ; spend wdth measure ; care for home ; pray often ; live better ; and dye well.' " His character will be hardly judged by men who value principle above adroitness ; but he cared for England, and in one generation raised his Digitized by Microsoft® ti ki ^ 284 E^e Paflets. house from the lower class of society to an equality with the proudest.'^' His adhesion was a real support to a government like that of Elizabeth. The founder married the daughter and heiress of Henry Preston, Esq., of Preston, in Yorkshire, by whom he left four sons and six daughters. His eldest son, Henry, second Lord Paget, at his death in 1568 left a baby heiress, who died in 1571, and the title and estates descended to his brother Thomas, who, as third Lord Paget, had a very unfortunate career. Being a strong Catholic, he engaged with his brother Charles Paget — a busy agent for the Catholics — in intrigues in Mary of Scotland's interest, along with the Earl of Northumberland and Francis Throgmorton, and some of their letters being intercepted, and Throgmorton arrested, Lord Paget thought it wise to quit England and fly to France. Thereupon he and his brother Charles were attainted m Parliament in the year 1587, and their lands and possessions confiscated. The Earl of Leicester then obtained Paget House — then re- christened Leicester House. The unfortunate noble- man died in exile at Brussels in 1589, "his death," Camden says, " proving a sad and universal loss to the commonwealth of learning." His son, William, was knighted in one of the Earl of Essex's expedi- tions, and in the first Parliament of James L (1603) was restored to his paternal lands and honours as * Mr Bants, in his ' Dormant and Extinct Baronage,' has drawn an excellent character of Paget. " His masterpiece," he says, " was an inward observation of other men, and an exact knowledge of himseE His apprehension was quick, and his mind ever ready and present, ac- cording to occasion and emergency." His manors, &o., wiU. be found enumerated in Shaw's ' History of Staffordshire,' vol i. p. 215 ; Bur- ton-on-Trent is the most notable. Digitized by Microsoft® Wi)t ^agets. 285 fourth Lord Paget. His life was entirely uneventful. He married Lettice, daughter and coheir of Henry KnoUys, of Kingsbury, Warwickshire, and died August 29, 1629. His son and successor, William, fifth Lord Paget, was nineteen on the 13th September preced- ing his father's death, and was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles I. He was a man of singularly uncertain character, changing from side to side in the contests between the King and Parliament with a suddenness which scandalised all parties. He was a proud man, too, and once told Charles's Queen that the country lords were " as strong as Samson," ehciting the stinging rejoinder, "Verily I believe it, for ye lack not among ye the jawbone of an ass," an allusion, says Lord Eadnor, to his long lean physiog- nomy. He survived till October 19, 1678, and mar- ried Lady Frances Eich, daughter of Henry Earl of Holland, by whom he left, besides his son and heir, a second son, who became the ancestor of the present family. William, sixth Lord Paget, joined Lord RusseU, and voted in convention for declaring the throne vacant. He had the diplomatic capacity of his house, and in January 1699 contrived to conclude a treaty between the Sultan and the Emperor of Ger- many, traversing the Turkish dominions himself from Constantinople to Carlowitz, then a great feat. He also arranged a treaty between "Muscovy," Venice, and the Sultan, and quitted Turkey with many proofs of the Sultan's high regard. He had married Frances, daughter of Francis Pierrepont, a younger brother of "Wise WiUiam," and was succeeded by her surviving son, Henry, seventh Lord Paget, who, in December 1711, was, during his father's lifetime, raised to the Digitized by Microsoft® 286 Efie pagets. peerage as Lord Burton, of Burton, in Staffordshire ; and on October 19, 1714:, created Earl of Uxbridge in the county of Middlesex. In September I7l5, however, when the arrests of the English Jacobites were in full progress, the newly-made Earl resigned all his employments, and took no further part in public affairs, dying in August 1743. He was suc- ceeded by his grandson, who dying unmarried, No- vember 16, 1769, the Earldom became extinct; but the Barony of Paget devolved on Henry Bayley Paget, eldest son of Sir Nicholas Bayley, of Plas-Newydd, in the Isle of Anglesey, a baronet of Ireland, by Caro- line, daughter of Brigadier-General Thomas Paget, grandson of the fifth Baron. These Bayleys, or Bailies, claim to have been bailiffs of Lanark; but their English head came to England with James I., was Chaplain to Henry Prince of Wales, and in 1616 was created Bishop of Bangor. He possessed, or ac- quired by marriage with a daughter of Sir Henry Bagenal, of Newry Castle, in Ireland, considerable estates which the Pagets still retain. The Bishop's eldest son narrowly escaped death for his share in Penruddock's royalist rising, and his son was created a baronet of Ireland in 1730, and left a son. Sir Nicholas, second Baronet, who by his marriage with the heiress of the Pagets brought to his son the hon- ours of that family. Henry Bayley Paget, son of Sir Nicholas Bayley, the inheritor of the barony of Paget, was created, May 19, 1784, Earl of Uxbridge, and died on the 13th of March 1812. His eldest son and successor, Henry WOliam, had a more distinguished career. Having entered the army, first in the infantry and afterwards Digitized by Microsoft® 2Df)e ^agets. 287 in the cavalry, lie served under tlie Duke of York, Sir Jolm Moore, and lastly Wellington, throughout the Peninsular War, distinguishing himself as a dashing cavahy officer. At the battle of Waterloo he headed the celebrated charge of the Household cavalry which, Mghly praised at the time, has been since so greatly censured as a brilliant act of folly, which disabled the English cavalry for the rest of the battle, without producing any favourable result in itself. Be this as it may, towards the close of the day the Earl, who had behaved with great daring, received a shot in his right knee which compelled the amputation of that leg. As a reward for his military services he was created, on the 4th July 1 8 1 5, Marquess of Anglesey ; and on the 30th April 1827, he accepted the office of Master-General of the Ordnance, on the formation of the Cabinet under the Premiership of Canning. On the 1st March 1828, his personal attachment to his old comrade in arms, the Duke of Wellington, induced the Marquess to accept, in the Government which the Duke was reconstructing out of Tory materials, after the resignation of Huskisson and the Canningites on the East Retford Reform question, the Lord-Lieuten- ancy of Ireland. In this situation he fared like the Liberal Lord Fitzwilliam before him. The question of Cathohc Emancipation agitating Ireland more and more towards the close of 1828, Dr Curtis, the Catho- hc Primate of Ireland, a Peninsular acquaintance of WeUington's, addressed a letter to the Premier on the state of Ireland. This elicited an answer, December 11, "in terms cautious, indeed, but indicating not ob- scurely an intention to concede emancipation." On receiving a copy of the Duke's letter, Anglesey (De- Digitized by Microsoft® 288 STfje IPafletg. cember 23) wrote to Dr Curtis, and openly spoke of emancipation as the only means of pacifying Ireland. This latter declaration went so far beyond the imme- diate views of the Cabinet, that the next post brought the recall of the Marquess from the Lord-Lieutenancy, and the appointment of the Duke of Northumberland. On the formation of the Grey Ministry in 1830, the Marquess was again sent to Ireland as a pledge of their friendly feelings towards the Catholics ; but O'Connell at once organised a systematic opposition to him; he was personally insulted, and his proclamations were met with counter-meetings of defiance, while the re- peal of the Union was loudly proclaimed as the pan- acea. At length O'Connell and his colleagues were proceeded against by the Government for such meet- ings. They pleaded guUty to the counts charging them with holding them in defiance of Government proclamations, and the Attorney-General then with- drew the other counts. It was soon rumoured that there was some compromise between the Whigs and the " Liberator," and that the " Irish Church " was to be the peace-offering. Fresh misunderstandiags, how- ever, led to the introduction of coercion acts ; and Lord Grey and Lord Anglesey difi"ering on some points of Irish policy, the disruption in the Cabinet followed which led to Lord Grey's retirement. Dur- ing his administration of Ireland, Anglesey, though not a man of remarkable talent, had the merit of keeping his temper and assuming an appearance of amusement rather than irritation when mobbed by the Irish populace. He continued a supporter of the successive Whig administrations, but did not assume office again till 1846, on the formation of Lord John Digitized by Microsoft® E\it ^asets. 289 Russell's Grovermnent, as Master-G-eneral of the Ord- nance. He resigned with, it in March 1852, and died April 28, 1854. His domestic relations were unhappy —his first wife he obtained a divorce from, and she re-married the Duke of Argyll ; and he himself mar- ried, secondly, the divorced wife of Lord Cowley. Of his sons, the reputation of the present Marquess has suffered from a similar domestic scandal, and the poli- tical credit of the family name is now supported by a younger son of the first Marquess, Lord Clarence Paget, Secretary to the Admiralty in the present Ministry. The younger branches of the Pagets, however, are numerous and active, if not always successful, in the various branches of the public service, more particu- larly about the Court. They are a fairly competent race, rarely making official blunders, and have been throughout their career reasonably popular. Their faculty is that of men of the world, and as such they have met with a very full measure of success ; but it is doubtful whether, but for the founder, they would ever have emerged from the ranks. Digitized by Microsoft® C|)e JHanners^ 5 HE Manners have been gentlemen in character, in blood, and in English po- sition for more than six hundred years. The founder of the house as a territorial power, was one of the earliest Yorkists, who, by a lucky alliance, obtained the estates of one of the oldest English baronies, but his own pedigree was one of very unusual clearness. Not to speak of Henry de Manners (or De Manneriis), who in the 25th of Henry II. paid eighty marks for livery of his father's lands in Northumberland, and whom Lord John Manners may, we believe, safely include in the next edition of the Manners pedigree. Sir Robert de Manners was certainly extant in Henry III.'s time, and in 1272 held Hothal, now called Etal, of the Muscamp barony in that county, and his son Robert, in 1278, held so much land — two knights' fees in chief — that he was " constrained " to take on himself the hon- our and the responsibilities of knighthood. His grand- son. Sir Robert, who succeeded in 1349, was a distiact historical figure, for in the 1 7th of Edward II. he was certified as a man entitled by ancestral descent to bear arms, and in the 1st of Edward III. he distinguished himself by his defence of Norham Castle against the Digitized by Microsoft® Efje jaauneriS. 291 Scots. Edward, wlio had an idea apparently of creat- ing a new Scotch aristocracy to back him, one of the many ideas which threw back the Union, ordered him to take seisin of Selkirkshire and the forest of Selkirk and Ettrick, which, of course, he did not retain. He had, however, his own lands and bits of new grants in Northumberland, helped Lord Grey of Wark mate- rially in his defeat of the Earls of March and Suther- land, and received in reward what in that age was equivalent to a peerage, the right of fortifying his house at Etal. He was subsequently one of the War- dens of the Marches, fought at Neville's Cross, and generally proved himself a stout and efficient feudal gentleman. His son. Sir John, who married a widow, daughter of Sir Henry de la Val, of Seton Delaval, was dead before the 4th of Henry IV., and their son. Sir John de Manners, was a regular Border chief, was pursued and heavily fined for the murder of William Heron and Robert Atkinson, but was, nevertheless, knighted, and regarded apparently as a very decent person. People had to be killed in those days, and the killer's son, Sir Robert, not only was uninjured by his father's crime, but in the 27th of Henry IV. ob- tained a joittt grant with the Percy of the goods of Sir Robert Ogle, outlawed. He married a daughter of the despoiled gentleman, and their son. Sir Robert Manners, was in the modern sense the true founder — ^the man to whom we owe it that there is a Duke of ■Kutland at Belvoir, and a Lord John Manners in the Lower House. Sir Robert was an early Yorkist, and Edward IV. gave him twenty marks out of some Percy forfeitures, Locre, Newsham, Newslede, Shen- how, and Elyngham ; together with the immensely Digitized by Microsoft® 292 Wi}t iHattnerg. profitable Sheriffdom of Northumberland, an office ■wbicli was in all but name a most important vice- royalty. Neville, the king-maker, liked him too, and gave him twenty marks a-year out of Barnard Castle; and he managed so adroitly, or was personally a man of such pleasant bearing, that after the Percies re- turned in 1469-70 they appointed him Master Fores- ter. His crowning achievement was, however, his marriage with Eleajstoe, sister and coheir of Edmond DE Eoos, sixteenth Baron Roos, Norman of Normans, of the real conquering blood, and owner of some of the great slices of land carved by his ancestor out of the Saxon kingdom. The real hold over England stiU re- mained with the few of these people who had survived the Wars of the Roses, and Eleanor de Eoos brought into the new family vast lands in Leicestershire, and Rutland, and Lincolnshire, among them the barony of ^ •■ Belvoir Castle, a splendid stronghold buUt by Robert de Todenai, in the Conqueror's time. It descended ■from him to the Albini, and Isabel d'Albini brought it in Henry III.'s time to De Roos. The place has been built and re-buUt, but a Belvoir Castle has been a noble's house of the first rank in England since the Conquest, a remark not true, we believe, of any other house in the kingdom. Edmond de Roos dying with- out issue in 1508, the barony feU into abeyance be- tween his sisters, but Isabel the second, dying also childless — she was wife of Sir Thomas LoveU of RyhaU — the barony devolved on Eleanor's son, George Man- ners, who thus inherited the baronies of De Roos, Vaux, Trusbut, and Belvoir. So powerful did these lordships make him, that he aspired to a semi-royal alliance, and married Anne, sole daughter and heiress Digitized by Microsoft® E^t M^nnns. 293 of Sir Thomas St Leger, by Anne of York, eldest sister of Edward IV. His eldest son, Thomas Manners, inherited under his father's will the manors and lands of Pockley, Bindlowe, Howsom, Oswaldirk, and An- pleford, besides half the De Eoos property, of the whole remainder of which he received livery in the 16th Henry VIH. The family had now risen to the grade of the greater barons, the blood royal flowed in its veins, and in consideration of that fact Thomas was, on the 18th of June 1525, created Earl of Rut- land. The new Earl was a courtier, conducted Anne Bo- leyn &om Greenwich to her coronation, and sat as one of her judges, and fought with success against the insurgents in the Pilgrimage of Grace. In 1539 he was appointed Chamberlain to Anne of Cleves. In 1540 he was Chief Justice in Eyre of all places north of the Trent, and in the 33d year of Henry VIII. he received a magnificent slice of the Abbey lands. The King gave him the manor of Muston, Leicestershire, part of the possessions of the dissolved priory of Osulveston, and the manors of Waltham and Crox- ton, in the same county, as also the manors of UpweU, Outwell, Elme, and Ermithe, in Norfolk and Suffolk, belonging to the dissolved monastery of Nun- eaton, in Warwickshire, also the manor of Branston, ia Northamptonshire, belonging to the dissolved abbey of Lilleshall, in Shropshire, together with the manors of BeUesdale and Helmesley, and the rectory of the church of Helmesley, belonging to the dissolved mon- astery of Kirkham, in Yorkshire, with lands in Bran- desdale, in the same county, belonging to the abbey of Riesvaulx. In 1542 he accompanied the Duke of u Digitized by Microsoft® 294 Wi)t Jlatmers. Norfolk into Scotland, and died on September 20, 1543, leaving, besides an estate to each younger son, and £60 a-year and £10,000 to each daughter, the following estates to his successor : — The manor of Mel- ton Eoos, Lincolnshire, and lands in Melton Roos, Beck- lesby, Kirton, Bametby, Ulceby, Wrawby, Glanford Brigge, Elsham, and Wotton, Lincolnshire ; the manor of Orston, and the Stoke, and all the lands, &c., in Orston, Streton, Kneton, Scarrington, Carcolston, Thur- verton, Staunton, and Dallington, in Nottinghamshire, as "weE as the manors of Belvoir and Wollestrop, and certain lands, tenements, and hereditaments in Belvoir, Wollestrop, Denton, Aubotn, Haddington, WyveU, As- lackby, Cadby Magna, Uffington, Talington, Deeping, Stroxton, and Aslackton, in Lincolnshire ; and in Easton, Midleton, Melbourne, Blettesden, Barkby, South Croxton, Knipton, Muston, Bottesford, Stathem, Hardby, Howes, Lubbenham, and RedmHne, in Leices- tershire ; in Dalton and Naborne, in Yorkshire ; in Carlton, Dingley, Brampton, Braddon, Sewell, Harpole, Stoke Aubeney, Wilarston, Eushton, Desborowe, and Cottingham, in Northamptonshire ; in Collesden, Oak- ley, and Richton, in Bedfordshire ; and in Clipston, in Buckinghamshire ; and in many other manors, &c., amounting to the clear yearly value of £1862, Is. 8d., over and above the sum of £552, Is. 5|d., payable to the King for lands purchased or exchanged, and over and above all rents and deductions of baUifife' and stewards' rents. To his wife he left several manors to the yearly value of £700. The first Earl began the rebuilding of Belvoir Gastle, which Henry, the second Earl, completed. The latter was a partisan of the Dudleys, and was flimg, on Digitized by Microsoft® W^t ilEanners. 295 Mary's accession, into the Fleet; but he made his peace, and was appointed Captain-General of the forces intended to act against France. Elizabeth continued the royal favour, both to him and (after his death in 1563) to his son Edward, third Earl, who was sent, while stUl a royal ward, against the Northern Earls, grew up a " profound lawyer " and a man of singular accomplishments, and died in 1587, leaving an only child, Elizabeth, who became, as heir-gene- ral. Baroness de Roos, married William Cecil Lord Burghley, grandson of the statesman, and carried the De Roos barony for a moment into that new family. The earldom, however, remained, falling to John Manners, brother of the last Earl, who died in a few months, and was succeeded by his son Roger, fifth Earl, and Essex's fast friend. When Essex made his mad attempt Rutland was by his side, and with the Earl of Southampton was thrown into prison. He was not, however, brought to trial, and was released on the accession of James I., with whom Essex's plot was in- timately connected. After the accession of that King lie was sent on a complimentary embassy to Denmark, and was appointed steward of the manor and soke of Grantham. He died June 26, 1612, having married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of the celebrated Sir PMip Sidney, but having no children by her, the earldom devolved on his brother, Francis, sixth Earl of Rutland. This Earl, also, had spent the early part of Ms life in foreign travel. On the accession of James lie was made a Knight of the Bath, and, on his bro- ther's death, Lord-Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, and Justice ia Eyre of the forests, &c., north of the Trent ; in 1616 he was made a Knight of the Garter, and Digitized by Microsoft® 296 K\ft IHanners. accompanied the King to Scotland. In 1623 lie had the command of a fleet of ships and pinnaces appointed to bring Prince Charles back from Spain, and died December 17, 1632. In 1616 Earl Francis made a claim to the barony of Roos, as heir male of Henry, nineteenth Baron, Wniiam Cecil, the son of Elizabeth Manners, having died in the lifetime of his father without children. The ancient barony was, nevertheless, awarded to another, William Cecil, as heir-general. The Crown, however, at the same time, created, by patent, a new barony of Eoos of Hanlake, Trusbut, and Belvoir, in the person of Earl Francis ; and William Cecil dying in 1618 without issue, the ancient barony of Rocs reverted to the Manners. Earl Francis, however, leav- ing only a daughter, Katherine, married to the . first George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards to the Earl of Antrim, the barony of Roos became again separated from the earldom of Rutland. After the death of the second George ViHiers it fell into abeyance between the heirs-general of the sisters of Earl Francis, till in 1806 this abeyance was temun- ated in favour of Charlotte Boyle Walsingham, the wife of Lord Henry Fitz-Gerald (fourth son of the first Duke of Leinster), as one of the coheirs of the barony, she and her descendants taking the name of " De Eos," in addition to Fitz-Gerald. Her second son is the present Lord de Eos — a mistake in the writ of sum- mons to his brother and predecessor which seems now likely to be perpetuated. Earl Francis was succeeded, in 1632, as seventh Earl of Rutland, by his brother George, who was knighted m the Irish wars in 1599 by the Earl of Digitized by Microsoft® Wife JEanners. 297 Essex, married an aunt of the Lord Falkland, and died in his house in the Savoy, in March 1641, leav- iag no children, when the earldom devolved on John Mamiers, of Nether Haddon, Derbyshire (a property ohtaiaed by this branch by marriage from Sir George Vernon, called the "Knight of the Peak"), grandson of Sir John Manners, second son of the first Earl. John, eighth Earl of Eutland, had been Sheriff of Derbyshire, and one of its representatives in the Par- Uament of April 1640. He had married in 1628 a daughter of Edward, Lord Montagu of Boughten, and, perhaps from coming freshly out of the ranks of the gentry, he espoused the Puritan cause, becoming a leading Presbyterian peer in the civil wars. He retired from active political life after Colonel Pride's " Purge," and after the Eestoration occupied himself in rebuUdiag Belvoir Castle, which had been nearly demolished during the preceding revolutionary period. He died September 29, 1679. His only surviving son and successor, John, ninth Earl of Eutland, had sat in the first Parliament after the Eestoration for the county of Leicester, and in the April preceding his father's death had been called up to the House of Peers as Lord Manners of Haddon. His opinions were congenial with those of the " country party," but lie took no prominent part in politics during this reign. His first marriage with one of the Pierrepont family having proved unfortunate in its consequences, he procured, in 1668, an Act of Divorce from her, he then bearing the courtesy title of Lord Eoos. This Act was not carried through without warm debates, aU the bishops but two voting against it, and the Duke of York strongly opposing it. The Digitized by Microsoft® 298 W^t JHanncrs* King on the other hand as warmly supported it, and Burnet tells us it was looked upon as the prelude to the divorce of Charles himself. The Earl remarried twice, the last wife, by whom alone he left chUdren, being Catherine, daughter of Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden. Eutland, who hated Court life, and Lon- don, staked his head in the Eevolution, being one of the peers who at Nottingham associated themselves against the Government ; but he lived thenceforward in retirement. He was, however, as the head of a family which had contributed greatly to the Eevolu- tion, created Marquess of Granby and Duke of Eutland on 29th March 1703, and survived his new honours eight years. His son John, second Duke of Eutland, married the second daughter of the celebrated William Lord Eus- sell, and so produced some of Lady EusseU's best letters ; but he was a man of no note whatever, and his son John, the third Duke, who succeeded him in 1721 and died ia 1779, was little more distinguished. He held, however, high office in the Household, was singularly respected as a country gentleman, and married Bridget Sutton, heiress of the last Lord Lexington, whose great estate passed to the Duke's second son, who took that family name. The Duke's eldest son, who died before Tiim in October 1 770, was the weU-known Marquess of Granby, whose name is familiar to us on the signboards of old inns. He was a distinguished officer, who led the cavalry at the battle of Minden, and served with dis- tinction in the subsequent campaigns on the Con- tinent. His conduct on the trial of Lord George SackviUe for cowardice was marked by great gener- Digitized by Microsoft® STJje Jlatmers. 299 ositj. They had been on bad terms in the army, but, when summoned as a witness for the prosecution, Granby softened and extenuated the evidence against SackvUle as much as possible consistently with truth. On May 14, 1763, on George Grenville succeeding Lord Bute, Granby was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance, and on August 13, 1766, was made Commander-in-Chief. He had been proposed for the office the year before — chiefly to spite the Duke of Cumberland ; but the King then resisting, Grenville desisted at the express request of Granby himself Lord Granby continued to hold this office and a seat in the Cabiaet tiU January 1770, when, entirely disapprov- ing of the proceedings in the case of John Wilkes's election, he both spoke and voted against the Ministry, and, notwithstanding the request of the King to the contrary, resigned aU his employments, and went into strong opposition to Lord North's Government. His death in the autumn of the same year, in the prime of life, and of a great and increasing reputation and popularity, prevented him probably from redeeming the name of Rutland from the mediocrity which had for several generations attached to it. He had married a daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset, and his eldest surviving son by her, Charles, succeeded his grandfather as fourth Duke of Eutland. Lord George Manners, his third son, became the heir of his brother Eobert, and took the name of Sutton. Lord George's fourth son, Charles Manners-Sutton, became ultimately, in 1804, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop's eldest son, again, bearing the same name, was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 for seventeen years, and on March 10, 1835, was created Baron Digitized by Microsoft® 300 Eijc JHannors. Bottesford and Viscount Canterbury. Another peer- age also was acquired for tlie Manners family by Thomas, fifth son of Lord George Manners -Sutton, who became successively Solicitor-General, a Baron of the Exchequer, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Baron Manners, of Foston, Lincolnshire, in 1807. The fourth Duke of Rutland was the early friend of the younger Pitt ; the late Marquess of Granby, his father, having been a devoted follower of Lord Chat- ham. He had been one of the members for the Uni- versity of Cambridge, at which University he sought and made the acquaintance of young Pitt, five years his junior. When they both came to live in London a close intimacy and fast friendship was formed be- tween them, which continued to the close of the Duke's life, and determined the politics of the Man- ners family on the Tory side. It was through the interest of the Duke of Eutland with Sir James Lowther that Pitt first entered the House for one of the latter's boroughs. When Pitt formed his Ministry in 1783, Rutland entered the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal, and at the commencement of 1784 the Duke was persuaded to accept the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His post was not an easy one. " This city " [Dublin], he writes in the August of the fol- lowing year, " is, in a great measure, under the do- minion and tyranny of the mob. Persons are daily marked out for the operation of tarring and feather- ing : the magistrates neglect their duty ; and none of the rioters — ^till to-day, when one man was seized in the fact — have been taken, while the corps of volun- teers in the neighbourhood seem, as it were, to coun- tenance these outrages. In short, the state of Dubhn Digitized by Microsoft® Wifz JEanners. 301 calls loudly for an immediate and vigorous interposi- tion of Government." Pitt endeavoured to heal this state of things by stimulating Irish commerce, and some propositions of his extending the principles of free trade between the two countries were modified into " eleven resolutions " by the Duke, and passed in that shape through the Irish Legislature. However, they were rendered unpalatable to the Irish in the shape which they ultimately assumed after their passage through the English Legislature, and such was the outcry in Ireland that the biU. introduced mto the Irish Legislature to carry them into law was obliged to be withdrawn. But in other respects the Duke's Government was popular rather through his personal habits and character than any remarkable abihty on his part. " Young," says Lord Stanhope, "of noble aspect, and of princely fortune, he was generous, frank, and amiable, as became the son of the gallant Granby. Fond of pleasure, he held a court of much magnificence; and the succession of various entertainments that he gave, splendid as they were in themselves, derived a greater lustre from his Duchess, a daughter of the house of Beaufort, and one of the most beautiful women of her day. But besides and beyond his outward accomplishments, the confi- dential letters of the Duke to Pitt show him to have possessed both ability and application in busiaess." His Irish career, however, was cut short in October 1787, by a putrid fever, which carried him off at the early age of thirty-four. His son and successor, John Henry, fifth Duke of Eutland, passed through life without attaining any political prominence, re- mainmg a constant Tory; and dying January 20, Digitized by Microsoft® 302 Wiit JEanners. 1857, was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Cecil John, sixth and present Duke of Eutland, who, as Marquess of Granby, was rather prominent ia the House of Commons as a Tory of the oldest type, a stanch and unbending Protectionist, and in foreign politics a disciple of the old Holy Alliance school. He is unmarried, and his next brother, and heir pre- sumptive, is Lord John Manners, who filled the office of First Commissioner of Woods and Forests m the Derby Cabinets, and is well known both as a politician, an accomplished gentleman, and a partisan of High Church principles. For generations the family have been patricians, kindly men enough, fond of country Hfe, with fair capacities and few conspicuous vices, but stUl patri- cians, doing something and enjoying much, without much confidence in their own claims, and, therefore, very apt to push forward those of their order. They have produced at least one statesman of high ability, but essentially they have been and are English gentle- men simply, and though that is a high service of its kind, still Belvoir and its dependencies are an ample recompense. Digitized by Microsoft® CJe JHontagus. ^HAT profound ignorance of their own history which distinguishes the Eng- lish above every Continental people has given the Montagus a position which, with many other merits, they do not deserve. Their name, like that of the Howards, has become almost a synonym for aristocra- tic descent, the popular belief probably identifying them with Shakespeare's Montagues of Verona, and also making them heirs by blood of the great Earls of Salisbury — the Montacutes or Montagus — a pre- tension to which they themselves have always steadQy adhered, choosing, as they rose, the titles borne by the great Yorkist, who was the heir of those Earls. The popular belief is as ill-founded as their own claim, unless, iudeed, bastardy be descent, and the Mon- tagus must be content to remain one of the most singularly active, accomplished, and successful of the houses founded upon the grand Sequestration. Law- yers, soldiers, statesmen, and all of the first class, the specialty of the race has been power of brain, tinged in some of the family with strong religious ideas, but, ia the majority, with unscrupulousness of the kind seldom found except among the able. They Digitized by Microsoft® 304 Elit JEontasus. themselves deduce their descent from a Simon Mon- tagu, stated to have been a younger brother to John, third Earl of Salisbury, and uncle to Thomas, fourth and last Earl of Salisbury of that name, who died November 3, 1428. " Unfortunately," says Sir Eger- ton Brydges, " there is no proof of the existence of this Simon, or of any of the intermediate generations," before we come to the undoubted ancestor of the modern family. " The late Mr Thorpe (and it seems Mr Austin concurred in this opinion) suspected this family to have been descended from James Montagu, a natural son of Thomas, the last Earl of Salisbury, who lies buried in the church of Lansdowne, in Kent, of which place he derived the manor from his father. The bordure round the arms of the present family favours this idea" The true founder of the present family of Montagu was Sir Edward Montagu, the younger son of Thomas Montagu, who lies buried in the church of Hemington, Northamptonshire. " Of your charite," says the brass tablet on his tomb, " pray for the soules of Thomas Montagu, gentleman, and Agnes, his wyff. Which Thomas deceased the 5 day of September, the year of our Lord 1.517: on whose soules Jesu have mercy." Beyond this Thomas Montagu we cannot go. His elder son, John, who succeeded to the pro- perty, such as it may have been, died without issue. Edward, the younger son, born at Brigstock, near Hemington, chose the law for his profession, entered at the Middle Temple, and became Autumn Reader to that society in the 16 th Henry VIH., Double Reader in the year 1524, and a few years after- wards his legal reputation, by this time consider- Digitized by Microsoft® SCfje JWantasus. 305 able, secured Mm a seat in the Honse of Commons. There is a story that he was chosen Speaker, in which capacity he found himself in a serious predicament between the reluctance of the Commons to pass a subsidy-hill and the King's displeased impatience for it. Henry called Montagu to his presence, and said to him, " Ho ! will they not let my bill pass ? " and laying his hand on the head of Montagu, who knelt before him, he added, " Get my bill to pass by such a time to-morrow, or else by such a time this head of yours shall be off ! " and, accordingly, Montagu did procure the passing of the bUl and retained his head. Unfortunately Montagu never was Speaker at all, and if there was any such scene, it must have related to Ms conduct as a private member. But the whole story sounds very incredible. In 1531 Montagu was made a sergeant-at-law, and with his fellow-sergeants kept high feast at Ely House for five days, honoured with the presence of the King and Queen and the whole Court. Six years afterwards, October 16, 1 5 3 7, he was appointed the King's Sergeant-at-Law; and, January 21, 1539, was made Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and knighted. In the 31st of Henry VIII. he had a grant of lands in Hemington, in Northampton- sbire, belonging to Eamsay Abbey; and on November 6, 1545, he exchanged the Chief Justiceship of the King's Bench for that of the Common Pleas — " a descent in honour," says Fuller, " but an ascent in profit." The reason he himself assigned for desiring the change is, " I am now an old man, and love the kitchen before the hall, the warmest place best suiting with my age." Probably he had had enough of the legal dirty work which he had been compelled in the Digitized by Microsoft® 306 €fit JHontaflus* higher office to perform at the King's bidding. Besides having to commit both Catholics and Protestants under the statute of the Six Articles, he had to give legal opinions in conformity with the King's wishes in the cases of Anne of Cleves's divorce, Cromwell's alleged treason, and Catherine Howard's adultery. Once more, before the death of Henry, Montagu was called upon to exercise the unenviable office of keeper of the royal common-law conscience. When the Duke of Norfolk was called to account, nominally for quar- tering the royal arms without licence, the two Chief Justices were summoned to attend at his hearing be- fore the Councd, but Norfolk was persuaded to sign a declaration that he had committed an act of treason, and the Justices were only called upon to attest his confession, which but for Henry's own death would have consigned the Duke to the scaffold. On the ac- cession of Edward, Montagu attached himself at first to the fortunes of Somerset, and we find him, ui the fourth year of this reign, obtaining a licence to give liveries and badges to forty persons over and above his own menial servants. However, at the crisis with Dudley, Montagu deserted the Duke, and assisted his rival to ascend to the headship of the State. He paid for his desertion, however, for Northumberland fixed on him as the best person to give a legal sanction to the Jane Grey scheme of succession. He was sum- moned to the royal chamber, along with some other judges and law officers, and desired to draw up the required disposition of the Crown. They pointed out the illegality, and begged for time to consider the matter. The next day they repeated their objections, and stated that it woxdd be high treason in those who Digitized by Microsoft® Wifz JHontasits. 307 drew such a document and those who acted under it. Northumberland, informed of what was passing, then burst into the Council Chamber, and called the Chief Justice a traitor, using threats of violence to him and his legal associates. Two days afterwards this scene was repeated, and Montagu being completely brow- beaten, and the King commanding him on his allegi- ance to make quick despatch, he, as he himself says, "being a weak old man, and without comfort," con- sented to draw the disposition, on receiving in A^iting a commission under the Great Seal so to do, and a general pardon for obeying the injunction. On the proclamation of Queen Jane, Montagu had, of course, to appear with Northumberland at her side ; but as soon as it became evident that Mary would prevail, the Chief Justice in great trepidation, as the Jane Grey disposition was in his own handwriting, made haste to join the winning side. This did not save him from being committed by Mary to the Tower, and placed on the list for trial. He drew up a narrative in his defence, in which he denied having acted with the Council after the act to which he had been forced against his wiU, and claimed the credit of having, at great cost, sent his son to join the Buckinghamshire men in Mar/s interest. As he really had been an unwUhng agent of Dudley's, after six weeks' imprison- ment he was discharged, and pardoned on payment of a fine of £1000, and the surrender of King Edward's grant to him of lands called Eltington, of the yearly value of £50. He was at the same time deprived of his Chief Justiceship, and retired to shelter himself at bis house at Boughton, near Kettering, in Northamp- tonshire, where he passed the rest of his life in more Digitized by Microsoft® 308 Wi)t iHontasug» congenial quiet and hospitality, dying February 10, 1557. He had been, indeed, a large recipient of Church lands, and, notwithstanding the vicissitudes in his fortunes, had managed to retain his hold on most of them. In the 33d of Henry VHL, for in- stance, he had a grant from the Crown of the manor of Warkton, in Northamptonshire, belonging to the dissolved monastery of Bury St Edmunds, and the advowson of that church, with lands and messuages in Boughton, Scaldwell, Hanging-Houghton, Lamport, MaidweU, Chpston, Ardingworth, Farndon, and Hoo- thorpe, belonging to the same monastery, to be held by the service of the twentieth part of one knight's fee, and the yearly rent of sixty shillings. In the 2d of Edward VI. he purchased from the Kirkham family the manor of Barnwell-all-Saints, in Northamp- tonshire, which became one of the principal seats of his family. By his wUl, made a few months before his death, he devises to his eldest son, Edward, manors and lands in no less than thirty-two places, in four counties, besides his leases, lands, and tenements in the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West, London. These manors, &c., are Warkton, Brigstock, Houghton, Lamport or Langeport, MeUesley, Holwell, Guilsborough, Brington- magna, Brington - parva, Grafton, and the parsonage of Weekly; the manors, &c., of Weekly, Demford, Benefield, Sprotton, Luffick, and Eltington, in North- amptonshire ; Colmworth, Shirenbrook, Souldrop, Fel- mersham, Luton Hoo, PertenhaU, Mechelbome, Swiae- shead, and Woodend, in Bedfordshire ; Knighton, in Leicestershire ; and Folksworth, Stilton, Little Styveclay, March Styveclay, and Alconbury, in Hun- Digitized by Microsoft® Wilt Jlontagus. 309 tingdonsliire. His third wife, and the mother of his surviving sons, was Helen, daughter of John Eoper, of Eltham, in Kent, Attorney-General to Henry VHI. Edward, his eldest surviving son and heir, was twenty-four years old at the death of his father, was one of the knights of the shire for Northampton in the first Parliament of Elizabeth, sheriff of that county in the tweKth year of her reign, and knighted by her in 1567. He bears the character of having been a man of great piety and private worth, but he has left no mark in history. He died at Boughton, January 26, 1602. Before his death he had settled all his manors on his six sons respectively, reserving only the manor of Colmworth to himself, which, by his will, he leaves to his eldest son Edward. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Harrington of Exton, in Eutland, and from this marriage spring the different branches of the house of Montagu, which obtained severally the extinct Dukedom of Montagu and Earldom of Halifax, the Dukedom of Manchester and the Earl- dom of Sandwich. The Dukedom of Montagu is extract, but this branch played such a part in history that we must give it a few words. It sprang, as we said, from Edward Montagu of Boughton, the eldest son of the house, who, on the 29th of June 1621, was created Lord Montagu of Boughton. Two panegyrical accounts of him exist, which, though bearing evident traces of fulsome adulation, give us one or two distinct points of character which are worth preserving. One of them, after speaking of his piety, says, " He was a patron of men of letters and merit, bestowing the livings in his gift to learned men X Digitized by Microsoft® 310 Elje ilHontaflus. and such as he knew deserved them. But from his detestation to pluralities and non-residence (though he exacted no other covenant), he ever required, if they took any other living they should return his again." He is further spoken of as a tender father and good landlord, " easy of access, courteous to all, yet keeping the secrets of his heart to himself." And we are told that " the death of his second wife (Frances, sister of the famous Sir Eobert Cotton, the antiquary) touched him the most sensibly of any." His " housekeepiag " is described as " liberal and bountiful ; that it is scarce credible what numbers (1200) were fed, cheered, com- forted, and refreshed by his beneficence." In the other account he is described as a person of " a plain, down- right English spirit, a steady courage, a devout heart, and though no Puritan, severe and regular in his hfe and manners ; that he lived among his neighbours with great hospitality, was very knowing in country affairs, and exceedingly beloved in the town and county of Northampton ; but he was no friend to changes, either in Church or State." He could not make up his mind to comply with the Militia Ordi- nance of the Parliament, and in 1642, though an old man, accepting the post of Commissioner of Array to the King, he was seized by a party of horse and car- ried up prisoner to London, where he was committed to the Tower, and remained in restraint until his death in 1644. He had three sons, the eldest of whom, Christopher, died before him ; while the third, William, beame Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1676, and in 1686 was dismissed by James II. for giving it as his opinion that " the Test and Penal laws could not he taken off without the consent of Parliament." He Digitized by Microsoft® Efje JlontagttS. 3ii from tMs time lived in retirement, much respected for Ms integrity. The second, and eldest surviving son, Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughton, sat in the House of Commons for the town of Huntingdon, but took sides against his father, adhering to the Par- Hament, and keeping aloof from the Stuarts, until the death of Cromwell, when, with most of the Presby- terian peers, he assisted in paving the way for the Kestoration. He married Anne, daughter and ulti- mately heiress of Sir Ealph Winvood, of Ditton Park, principal Secretary of State to James I. Their eldest son, Edward — who had been dismissed from his post at Court for making love to Queen Catherine of Bra- ganza — died at the siege of Bergen, in 1665, and the second, Ealph, was the most successful and the most unprincipled of the entire house. He was employed as Minister in France, and, as appears from Barillon's papers, received 50,000 French crowns from Louis to ruia Danby, who was dreaded and detested by France. This ruin Jie accomplished by reading in the House letters from Danby to the French Court asking for money in consideration of a treaty. Out of such dis- graceful gains as these rose the pUe of Montagu House, tin lately occupied by the British Museum, which Lord Montagu built for his town house, intending to make of Boughton a miniature Versailles. Completely ahenated from James IL, Montagu supported the Eevolution, and was made successively (April 9, 1689) Viscount Monthermer (Essex) and Earl of Montagu, (titles borne by the Neville of Edward IV.'s time, with whom he claimed connection), and (April 14, 1705) Marquess of Monthermer and Duke of Montagu. He died March 9, 1709, leaving a son, John, who was Digitized by Microsoft® 312 E\}t jIHontaflUg* Lord High Constable of England, and Grand-Master of the Bath, and received in the reign of George II. a patent creating him Lord Proprietor and Captain^ General of St Lucia and St Vincent. He died with- out sons, in 1749, but one of his daughters having married George Brudenel, Earl of Cardigan, her hus- band was elevated in 1766 to the dignities of his father-in-law. He survived, however, his only son, John (who had been created Lord Montagu of Bough- ton, May 8, 1762), and on his death, in 1790, the higher titles which he derived from the Montagus became extinct ; but the barony of Montagu of Bough- ton (agreeably to a patent of August 21, 1786) de- volved on Henry James Montagu-Scott, second son of his daughter, Elizabeth, by Henry Duke of Buccleuch. This peer dying without issue male, October 30, 1845, the barony also became extinct, and with it expired aU the dignities of this branch of the Montagus. Henry Montagu, third son of Sir Edward, the founder of the extinct Halifax branch, and of the existing ducal branch of the Montagus, was educated at Christ College, Cambridge, and entered the Middle Temple. He soon distinguished himself, like his grand- father, in the profession of the law. Entering Parlia- ment at the close of the reign of Elizabeth for the borough of Higham Ferrers, he has left an honourable memento of himself on the records of its proceedings, by boldly asserting that there were no such precedents as one of the sergeants had stoutly quoted for the assertion that all the subjects' goods were the sover- eign's. He told the House to examine all the preambles to subsidies, where they would see that they were free gifts. Unfortunately, Henry Montagu did not support, Digitized by Microsoft® W^t Jlotttasus. 313 in his after-career, these fair beginnings of public spirit. He was Recorder of London at the accession of James, and bad been knigbted before tbe coronation. As Recorder, he was present at the opening of the New River in 1613. In the first Parliament of that reign he was elected for the City, and took an active part in the discussions, particularly those relating to tenures. As King's Sergeant, it fell to him to take part in the trial of the poisoners of Sir Thomas Overbury, and he had an action brought against him for libel as counsel in a private case, which led to the rule of the immunity of counsel for words spoken in the name of their clients. On November 16, 1616, he succeeded Sir Edward Coke as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, having bought this place by consent- ing to give the Duke of Buckingham's nominee the clerkship of the Court of King's Bench, worth £4000 a-year, which Sir Edward Coke had refused to part with. His judgments as Chief Justice are said to have been respectable, though fulsome in their tone of adulation of the King. He had the misfortune in this capacity to have to award execution against Sir Walter Ealeigh, upon the sentence of death pronounced against him fifteen years before, but he did it in a decent and sympathising manner. He next ofi"ered the Duke of Buckingham £10,000 for the place of Lord Treasurer; but this offer was refused, and on December 14, 1620, he consented to pay £20,000 for it, and on the 19th of the same month was created Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, and Viscount Mande- ville. He had purchased Kimbolton Castle of the Wingfield family, it having previously belonged to the Staffords, the Bohuns, and the Magna\'illes or Mande- Digitized by Microsoft® 314 Eije ^ntaflus, villes. The bargain for the treasurership having been concluded at Newmarket, one of the courtiers was audacious enough to ask him, with allusion to the white staff, whether wood was not very dear at that place. When Montagu was asked what the treasurer- ship might be worth a-year, he replied, " Some thou- sands of pounds to him who after death would go instantly to heaven, twice as much to him who would go to purgatoiy, and a nemo scit to him who would venture to a worse place." As Treasurer he was one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal after Bacon's faU and before WOliams's appointment. But Bucking- ham only allowed him to hold the Treasurer's staff till October in the year after his appointment, when he compelled him to resign it to Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, and take in exchange the poor office of President of the Council. The sale of the treasurer- ship to Montagu afterwards formed one of the counts of the impeachment brought against the Duke, but he alleged it was only a loan to the King, and that he himself had not | touched a penny of it. Mr Foss seems to think this defence, such as it is, supported by facts. After the first three years of Charles's reign, Mon- tagu exchanged his new office for that of Lord Privy Seal, in which he remained for the rest of his life, giving, it is said, great satisfaction in the " Court of Bequests," over which he presided. On the 5th of February 1626, he had been raised to the title of Earl of Manchester, and he continued to do the King's pleasure in the most pliant manner to the close of his life. He died November 7, 1642, just in time to es- cape from the necessity of making up his mind between Digitized by Microsoft® W'fit iMlontaflus. 315 ie King and Parliament in the Civil War. He wrote shortly before his death a little treatise of religious Heditations ; but his household at Kimbolton had the reputation of great licentiousness. He left five sons, the second of whom, Walter, became a Catholic priest, pas made Abbot of St Martin's Abbey, near Pontoise, md was a busy intriguer, and in much trouble during the whole of his life, chiefly in connection with Queen Henrietta, tiU his death in 1670. James Montagu, the third son, was a Puritan member for Huntingdon, and is the ancestor of the Montagus of Wiltshire. Henry, the fourth son, was master of St Catherine's Hospital, and died without issue. George Montagu, the fifth son, was also a Puritan, and member for Huntingdon in the Long Parliament, and an Indepen- dent, who had some reputation in the House, and, though not an extreme man, sat on in the "Eump." He was M.P. for Dover in 1661, and died in 1681. His fourth son, Charles, rose to be Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694 ; and on December 13, 1700, was created Baron Halifax, with reversion to his nephew, George Montagu. This Charles Montagu, Lord Hali- fax, first attracted notice by a satirical efiusion, in combination with his college friend Prior, ia answer to Dryden's 'Hind and Panther.' He soon dis- tinguished himself among the younger Whigs, and eatered the Convention Parliament to commence a brilliant career, in Macaulay's words, " as a statesman, an orator, and a munificent patron of learning and literature." He had been intended for the Church, hut had been tempted at the Eevolution by Dorset into the paths of politics. " At thirty," says Macau- lay, "he would have gladly given all his chances ia Digitized by Microsoft® 316 Efje Jlontagus. life for a comfortable vicarage and a chaplain's scarf; at thirty-seven he was First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a Eegent of the Kingdom, and this elevation he owed not at aU to favour, but solely to the unquestionable superiority of his talents for administration and debate." He was at college a diligent pupil of Newton's as well as a votary of the muses; the latter pursuit he gave up after entering on politics. His great talents were subject to the drawback of arrogance and coldness to old friends as he rose above them, ostentation in the dis- play of his new riches, and an inordinate desire for praise. These defects are not to be wondered at when we remember that he rose from a struggling younger son of a younger son, with barely £50 a-year, to an income of £12,000 and a magnificent villa on the Thames, furnished with every luxury. He was the great financier of the reign of William HI. — the greatest the Whigs ever had — and was impeached along with Portland, but the accusation was dropped. The attack was renewed in Anne's reign, but the House of Lords protected him. He held no office during that reign, but was active in debate, particu- larly in favour of the union with Scotland. He was mainly instrumental in the creation of the British Museum by the purchase of the Cotton MSS., which formed the nucleus of the library. He survived to receive the reward of Court favour under the Han- overian dynasty, and on October 19, 1714, he was made Viscount Sunbury (Middlesex) and Earl of Halifax. He died May 19, 1715, and his nephew succeeding to the barony, was raised to the higher titles, and left them to his son George (who assumed Digitized by Microsoft® Efje JHontagug. 317 the name of Dunk), and was Lord-Lieutenant of Ire- land in 1749, but died without male issue in 1772, ■when the Halifax honours became extinct. A brother of his, James Montagu, rose to be Chief Baron in 1722. We now turn to the existing ducal branch. Edward, the eldest son of the evU lawyer who bribed and bowed himself into the ermine and a peerage, was a man of whom any family might be proud, for he is the Earl of Manchester of the great Civil contest. He was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, at- tended Prince Charles on his expedition to Spain, and was made a Knight of the Bath on his coronation. He entered the House of Commons in the first Parlia- ment of that reign for Huntingdonshire, and sat tUl, in May 1626, he was summoned to the Upper House in his father's barony of Montagu of Kimbolton. He was more generally known, however, by the courtesy title of Viscount Mandeville. He soon became a leader of the Puritan and popular party ta the Upper House, and in 1640, was one of those peers who ad- vised the Kiag at York to call a new Parliament, and acted as a Commissioner to treat with the invading Scotch Covenanters. His name was one of those forged by Lord Savile to the letter of invitation to the Scots. In the Long Parliament Mandeville pursued the same popular career, being always in the van of the Puritan minority in the House of Lords. He was, as is well known, impeached of treason by the King along with the five members of the House of Com- mons in January 1642. Henceforth his career was determined still more decidedly on the Parliamentary side. He raised a regiment at the outbreak of hostUi- Digitized by Microsoft® 318 W\it JHontasus. ties, and became their colonel. He next had a major- generalship in some of the eastern counties, which was extended, on the superseding of Lord Willoughby of Parham, to the command of all the Eastern Associa- tion. Here, with Cromwell as his second in command, he contrived to gain success after success, tiU their return to the eastern counties after the battle of Mars- ton Moor. Then differences sprang up between the Earl, for such he had become by the death of his father, and Cromwell, on questions respecting the sectaries who formed so large a part of Cromwell's regiments, and whose extreme opinions were distasteful to Manchester, who was a Presbyterian. These differ- ences were fostered if not created by the Scotchman Crawford, the third in command, and we find both Manchester and CromweU in London busy in. securing support against each other. Manchester took counsel with the Scotch Commissioners and Essex, while Cromwell relied on the House of Commons, a great majority of whom were weary of the existing conduct of the war. Essex's defeat and surrender in the west led to the consolidation of his army with Manchester's, and the second battle of Newbury, in which Manches- ter had the command. The dissatisfation at the re- sults of this battle led to inquiry into the causes, and to counter-statements and charges by Manchester and Cromwell. These led to the Self-denying and New Model ordinances, which removed Manchester from his command. He stiU remained, however, one of the Committee of Government at Derby House. He had been previously elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and became Speaker of the House of Lords, and afterwards as such, in 1646, was appointed Digitized by Microsoft® 2Dfje Jlotitaflus. 319 along with William Lenthall to take charge of the new Great Seal until regular Commissioners should be appointed. He held it accordingly till 1648. Man- chester's political course was now again tending to- wards the party of which Cromwell was a leader. Crawford, the promoter of discord between them, had been killed at the siege of Hereford; and when Danzil HoUes and the extreme Presbyterians carried matters to such lengths in the July of 1647, and brought down mobs to coerce the Houses of Parliament, Manchester and Lenthall, with the Independent and Moderate Presbyterian members of the Houses, withdrew, and repaired to the army of Fairfax and Cromwell, by whom they were soon restored to their seats. Man- chester, however, resisted the trial of the King, and after the establishment of the Commonwealth with- drew from public life. He never, however, quarrelled with Cromwell, though the popular historians say he did, and he was named by the Protector one of the peers in his new Upper House. That House broke down, Manchester, like the rest of his order, declining to sit with the great country gentlemen and high officers out of whom Cromwell hoped to manufacture his new noblesse. With the rest of the Presbyterian peers he promoted the Eestoration, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire, was cajoled or mtinaidated into sitting among the judges who tried the"Eegicides," and persuaded the City to advance £100,000 for Charles II.'s mismanaged Dutch war; but he never took any part in Stuart politics, and died May 1, 1671, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was called a " sweet meek man ; " but though par- donably amiable and very open to the influence of per- Digitized by Microsoft® 320 Wift Mont^Qun. sons about him, lie had peculiarities of temper, and a certain quiet obstinacy, which prevent us from looking upon him as a tool in anybody's hands. He had decided opinions, and took his own course certainly more independently than most men of the time, and though not a man of the highest ability, was possessed of qualities which, had he not been eclipsed by greater men, would have secured for him a higher reputation than he actually achieved. His sitting in judgment on the "Eegicides," — most of whom had been his former companions in councU or in arms, — has been severely criticised ; but although a man of sterner stuff might have declined the ofl&ce, it must be remembered that they were few, indeed, who at that epoch had the moral courage to risk the loss of their fortunes, if not their lives, by setting themselves up as opponents of the wishes of the Crown. Eobert, his eldest son and successor, as second Earl of Manchester, was not a man of any note, and died at Montpelier in March 1682. His son and successor, Charles, fourth Earl of Man- chester, was a man of greater energy of character. Disapproving of James II.'s measures, he retired from Court, and at the Revolution secured Huntingdonshire for the Prince of Orange, raising a body of horse for his service. He was present with William at the battle of the Boyne, and was at the siege of Limerick. In 1696 he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to the Eepublic of Venice, and three years afterwards went in the same capacity to Louis of France. In 1707 he was re-appointed Ambassador to Venice, but had no further employments during the reign of Anne. After the accession of George I. he was made one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, and in April 1719, Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Jlontaflus. 321 as head of a great Hanoverian house, was created Duke of Manchester, April 28, 1 71 9,and died in January 1 722. He was a man of some humour and penetration, a friend of Addison and men of literature, and a great patron of musicians and the opera. He was strongly anti-Jacobite in his political opinions. The Dukes of Manchester, however, have not been a distinguished line of peers. William, the second Duke, was one of the Lords of the Bedchamber to George I. and George 11., and in 1737 was Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, and died October 21, 1739, being succeeded by his brother Kobert, third Duke, who sat in the House of Commons for Huntingdonshire in 1 734, and was Vice-Chamber- lain to Queen Caroline, and afterwards a Lord of the Bedchamber. After the accession of George HL he was appointed Chamberlain to Queen Charlotte, and died May 10, 1762. His younger son. Lord Charles Montagu, was M.P. for Huntingdonshire and Governor of South Carolina. George, his eldest son, and fourth Duke of Manchester, was a Lord of the Bedchamber ia 1763, and in 1780 Master of the Horse. He was sent as ambassador to Paris in 1783 by the Shelbume Ministry, along with David Hartley, to conclude the treaties of peace with America, and signed them at that city on the memorable 3d of September. He died September 2, 1788. William, his eldest surviv- ing son, the fifth Duke, who married a daughter of the Duke of Gordon, was Governor of Jamaica in 1808, and was also collector of the Customs for the Port of London. He died March 18, 1843. His eldest son and successor, George, sixth Duke, was a commander in the Eoyal Navy. He married, first, the daughter and heiress of General Sparrow, of Brampton Digitized by Microsoft® 322 Eift Jlontagus. Park, Huntingdonshire, by Lady Olivia, daughter of the Earl of Gosford — and this lady is the mother of the present Duke, and of the present Lord Eobert Montagu, M.P. The Duke married, secondly, a very young Irish lady. He was a strange man, of strong Evangelical opinions, and author of some prophetic commentaries. His resemblance to the portraits of the second Earl of Manchester, the Parliamentary general, was very striking. He died August 18, 1855, and was succeeded by William Drogo Montagu, the seventh and present Duke of Manchester, a man of respectable but not remarkable abilities. The family for the last generation or two has belonged to the Tory party, and now the younger brother of the Duke, Lord Robert Montagu, holds a prominent place in their ranks. We turn to the second existing branch. Sidney, " of Barnwell," the sixth brother of the first and worst Earl of Manchester, was Groom of the Bedchamber to James L, and was knighted by that monarch ; he be- came afterwards one of the Masters of the Requests, but his only notable act was connected with the rebel- lion. He was sitting in the Long Parliament for Huntingdonshire when the oath to live and die with the Earl of Essex was tendered to the House, and not only refused it, but produced the King's proclamation declaring all who took it traitors. He was expelled the House on December 3, 1642, and committed for thirteen days to the Tower, and on his release retired from public life. He had purchased from Sir Ohver Cromwell, of Hinchinbrook, the estate of that name for £3060, and it has remained ever since the princi- pal seat of this branch of the Montagus. Edward, Digitized by Microsoft® Wi^t Ittontasus. 323 his son, took the popular side, became Cromwell's right hand in the eastern counties, distinguished him- self in the storm of Lincoln in May 1644, fought at Marston Moor, Naseby, and the storm of Bridgewater in 1645, commanded four regiments at the siege of Bristol, and was one of the officers who signed the capitulation when Prince Eupert surrendered the city. He entered the House of Commons as knight of the shire for Huntingdon, and down to the year 1648 acted with the Independents. In that year he retired, dreading the military encroachments ; but the rise of CromweU, his intimate personal friend, re-opened the path, and he was appointed in 1653 one of the Com- missioners of the Treasury and Admiralty. He thence- forward turned his attention to the sea, and joined Blake in the direct command of the fleet. He was one of the sixty-two nominated by Cromwell to his " Other House " — an assembly not to exceed seventy in number, nor to be less than twenty-one, to be for life, and on the death of any member the vacancy not to be fiUed up except with the approbation of the ex- isting members. It was intended, doubtless, as a step to an hereditary House, and was meant at the time as a check to the House of Commons, which had been proceeding against religious fanatics like Naylor and other persons with a severity which the Protector could not interfere personally to check without coming into direct collision with Parliamentary authority. The first nominations included a considerable sprinkling of the old peers, and their sons and relatives, joined with many of the leading gentry, officers of the army and navy, statesmen and members of Parliament, and the most active adherents of the Puritan party, Presby- Digitized by Microsoft® 324 Wi)t Jlontafius* terians and Independents alike, including a certain number of men who had risen from the lower ranks of society. The House actually met and transacted busi- ness, though no regular record of their proceedings remains. Their acts, however, were stultified by the abstinence of most of the old nobility, and the steady refusal of the House of Commons to recognise their existence. At the downfall of Eichard Crom- well, Montagu was at sea, " arbitrating " in a warlike fashion between the Danes and Swedes ; but the re- stored " Eump " tried to conciliate him by naming him jointly with Algernon Sidney and others to negotiate a peace with Denmark, and afterwards jointly with Monk to the command of the fleet. Montagu's conduct at this crisis is the only blot on his political reputation. He had been ardently at- tached to the CromweU family, and hated those who had overthrown it. Charles knew this, and at once made overtures to him, and Montagu consented to accept the command of the Commonwealth fleet, with the sanction of the Stuart Prince, and the understand- ing that it was to be used in case of an opportunity to forward the Eestoration. In this matter he acted independently of Monk and anticipated him, and the latter never forgave this action, nor did, of course, the Commonwealth men. He brought over the King to England, and on the day after his landing at Dover, Charles sent him the Order of the Garter, and on the 12th of July 1660, he was created Baron Montagu of St Neots, Viscount Hinchinbrook and Earl of Sandwich, Master of the Wardrobe, Admiral of the Narrow Seas, and Lieutenant to the Duke of York, then Lord High Admiral. The rest of his life was merely an uninter- Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz Jlontagus. 325 rupted series of naval services, in which he was gene- rally eminently successful. He also gained great popularity in the navy by opposing the promotion of relatives of peers who had no other merit, and thereby gave great offence to the Duke of York. In 1672, in the war with the Dutch, lying in Solebay, off the Suffolk coast, as second in command to the Duke, he strongly warned him of the danger of their position ; but the Duke tauntingly replied that he said so be- cause he had fear. The combined English and French fleets were surprised by De Euyter and entirely de- feated. In the engagement which ensued. Sandwich's own ship, the Royal James, took fire, and refusing to leave it, in consequence of the Duke's taunt, he was blown up in it, May 28, 1672, the Duke being greatly blamed for not succouring him. Thus Montagu paid with his life for his treachery to the Commonwealth ia behalf of the house of Stuart. Nor had his per- sonal morality — if we may credit contemporary gossip- mongers — at aU improved with the advent of the Restoration to which he had lent his aid. One of his younger sons, Sidney, was, by the heiress of Sir Francis Wortley, the father of Edward Wortley-Mon- tagu, husband of the celebrated Lady Mary, and father of the eccentric Edward Wortley-Montagu. The Earl's eldest son, Edward, second Earl of Sand- wich, was not a man of any note, and died in February 1689. His son and successor, also an Edward, third Earl of Sandwich, was Master of the Horse to Prince George of Denmark, and died October 20, 1729, being succeeded by his grandson, John, fourth Earl, who was a man of a very different intellectual stamp from his immediate predecessors. Though not by any means Y Digitized by Microsoft® 326 Efje jaontaflUiS. remarkable for high ideas of public conduct, and of the most licentious private character, he had great administrative powers, great energy of mind, and some decision of character, together with great application to business. From his hour of rising, at six, till dinnner-time, he was absorbed in public business. When young he had visited Cairo and Constantinople, as well as Italy and most of the Courts of Europe. He attached himself to the Bedford party, and when the Duke was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in December 1744, he was named one of the junior Lords. In November 1746, he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the States of HoUand, and after- wards to the Congress of Aix-la-ChapeUe, being sent to conduct the preliminaries to the treaty of peace there, May 1748, nominally as assistant, but really as mana- ger of the Duke of Cumberland. In February in the same year he was appointed First Lord of the Ad- miralty and a Privy Councillor, and soon after a Lord Justice, during the absence of the King in that year and in 1 75 0. In 1 75 1 Pelham, finding the Opposition weakened by the death of the Prince of Wales, and the renewed friendship of his brother Newcastle, re- solved to get rid of the Bedfords, and as a step to so doing dismissed Sandwich. He remained out of office till December 1755, when he was made Vice-Treasurer, Eeceiver - General, and Paymaster of Ireland and Treasurer of War there. In February 1763, he was nominated Ambassador to Spain, but the legation was not carried into efi'ect, for on George Grenville suc- ceeding Lord Bute at the head of the Government ui that year he appointed Sandwich to his old post of First Lord of the Admiralty, instead of Charles Digitized by Microsoft® €\jt Jlontagtts. 327 Townsliend, for whom it had been originally designed. In August of the same year he was appointed one of the principal Secretaries of State, in which office he continued till July 1765. During this period he gained his celebrated sobriquet of " Jemmy Twitcher," from his violent attack on the blasphemous and ob- scene poem of Wilkes, called ' An Essay on Woman,' of which only eleven copies had been printed for pre- sents to friends, of one of which the Government, in a very discreditable manner, got possession. Being written as a parody on Pope's ' Essay on Man,' it was dedicated to Sandwich instead of Bolingbroke, and began, " Awake, my Sandwich ! " instead of " Arise, my St John ! " and there were notes professed to be written' by Bishop Warburton. Sandwich, in terms of virtuous indignation, denounced the character of the publication, and said it was a libel on a Bishop, a member of that House, and the House ultimately passed an address to the King to order a prosecution of the author. It was publicly reported that Sand- wich had been, only a fortnight before, one of a convi- vial meeting at the London Tavern along with Wilkes, and had there joined him in lewd catches ; and the Earl's private character being well known, the public became greatly incensed at him. The ' Beggars' Opera ' happened to be acting at the time at Covent Garden Theatre, and when Macheath came to the words, " That Jemmy Twitcher should peach I own surprises me ! " a sudden burst of applause fixed the name for the rest of his life on the Earl of Sandwich. In 1764 he stood an unsuccessful contest for the High Stewardship of the University of Cambridge, and the poet Gray wrote a stinging pasquinade on him, in Digitized by Microsoft® 328 E\)t JHontagus. which, alluding to the support he had obtained from the clergy, he makes Divinity address the Earl thus : — " Never hang down your head, you poor penitent elf ; Come, kiss me, I'll be Mrs Twitcher myself ! " In December 1770, he resigned office as Secretary, and in January 1771, the Duke of Grrafton appointed him First Lord of the Admiralty, greatly against the will of the King, who much disliked Sandwich. In this post, however, the Earl remained till the fall of the North Ministry, taking part warmly in aU the measures of that Cabuiet, and being himself as warmly attacked from time to time, getting into great disfavour with the public as the enemy of Admiral Keppel, and giv- ing occasion for Erskine's fiirst great burst of forensic eloquence, in a case brought on by Sandwich filling Greenwich Hospital with landsmen for electioneeruig purposes. He was, however, a great patron of Captain Cook, and instigated him to his last voyage, and when Admiral Eodney was made a Baron, Sandwich claimed for him an Earldom, observing that his own ancestor had been made an Earl and Master of the Wardrobe for three lives. In 1783, under the Coalition Cabinet, Sandwich took the office of Eanger of the Parks, and was dismissed from it with them. He then retired into private life, and died April 30, 1792. Among other romantic incidents of his life, his connection with Miss Eeay, an actress, by whom he had nine children, terminated most tragically, she being shot by a clergyman who had fallen in love with her. One of her sons by the Earl, Basil Montagu, obtained con- siderable reputation as a barrister and as the editor of Bacon's works, and the first who attempted to vindi- Digitized by Microsoft® W^t iHontagug* 329 cate tliat great man's moral character. The Earl was succeeded by his son John, fifth Earl, who with his son George John, sixth Earl (June 6, 1814), and his grandson John William, seventh and present Earl (May 21, 1818), present nothing calling for particular notice. To sum up a narrative which must have struck our readers as unusually dislocated, the great house of Montagu possibly springs from a bastard of the great Norman family, obtained its first wealth from a Sequestrator, and has added to the history of the country five great men, of whom two at least were also unscrupulous profligates. These were the Edward Montagu who ruined Danby, but stood by the Eevo- lution and became a Duke ; the Charles Montagu who was WiUiam Ill's financier, one of Macaulaj'-'s Whig gods ; Montagu, Earl of Manchester, and chief of the Presbyterian Puritans; Edward, first Earl of Sand- wich ; and Jemmy Twitcher, the statesman-scoundrel of the Wilkes faction fight. As a house they have, on the whole, deserved well of the people, having risked their heads and estates twice on the popular side, and even now, though both branches are distinctly Conservative, they neither profess nor favour bad im- mutable Toryism. Their specialty as a famUy has been unscrupulousness, but they have shown for cen- turies a high sense of the national weal, and from time to time have thrown off" a man in whom great ability has been united with high public honour and excep- tional private worth. Taking them as a whole, and setting the Puritan earl against the subservient judge, the stately admiral against Jemmy Twitcher, they have been no discredit to the English governing class. Digitized by Microsoft® CJe (!^6l)otnes» |E include tlie Osbomes, as we shall in- clude the Fitzroys, among the govern- ing families, partly on account of their possessions, but chiefly because the popular voice assigns them that posi- tion. They are, however, not of the older nobility, have produced but one great man, and for the last two centuries have been little more conspicuous than all considerable landowners in England are forced to become. Their pedigree is, of course, made up in Peerages, and there was, no doubt, a family named Osborne, in Kent, in the time of Henry VI., but there is nothing to coimect that house with the present, and they bore different arms. The real founder was Edward Osborne, who may have been the son of Eichard, the son of Eichard who married the heiress of the Broughtons, though it is not probable, but who certainly was apprenticed in Henry VIII.'s reign to Sir William Hewit, the cloth- worker, a leading merchant of the City, said to have had an estate of £6000 a-year. Edward's fortune was made by a romantic incident. Sir W. Hewit had a daughter, an only child, and the nurse, playing with her in her father's house, one of the best on old Digitized by Microsoft® Efje ©sftorws. 331 London Bridge, dropped her into the river. Edward Osborne saw the accident, leaped into the water, and won at the same moment a bride and an estate which made his family historical. Miss Hewit brought him lands in Barking, Essex, Wales (parish), and HarthUl, Yorkshire ; and Osborne raised himself to the Lord Mayoralty of London in 1582, when he was knighted. In 1585 he became representative of the City in Parlia- ment, and died in 1591, being succeeded by his son Hewit Osborne, who served with distinction in Eliza- beth's Irish wars, was knighted by Essex for gallantry in the field, and died in 1 614. He left, by his wife — a Fleetwood, daughter of the Master of the Mint— a son, and a daughter married to Christopher Wardesford, Strafford's deputy in Ireland and devoted friend. The son, Edward Osborne, of Kiveton, Yorkshire, conse- quently allied himself to Strafford, was created a baronet on July 13, 1620, and was made Vice-Presi- dent of the Council of the North, a machinery set up, with Strafford as President, to exercise despotic power. He was highly esteemed by Strafford, who looked upon hiTin as one of his fastest friends. Writing to him from Dublin, on the 10th of February 1639, Wentworth says : — " I send you herewith my commis- sion, which makes you my Deputy-Lieutenant-Gen- eral, and gives you absolute power amongst them, as if I were present in person ; nor do I only now give notice to the rest of the Deputies the rank, esteem, and power they must acknowledge in you, and conform themselves to your orders accordingly, but have so ordered the matter as, together with the commission, you will receive his Majesty's gracious letters requir- Digitized by Microsoft® 332 Efje ©giorws. ing all the other Deputies to observe and obey yoiif ' person and orders for his Majesty's service, as is i4 You see how much I have undertaken for you, ariff' what a field of honour you have before you ; therefoii" I shall not need to incite you to take good heed ;*»' yourself, and by your wakefulness and ^drtue in tl» exercise of so great a trust to express yourself to h:fl Majesty's satisfaction and your own great advantagiiti and, I trust, future preferment, always carrying id mind that you are sure to be looked on with an ev J eye by such of the great ones as love me not, and im hear of anything you chance to do amiss; and thjr you get by being esteemed and avowed my friemj But as this ought to awaken you to every good anjii careful duty, so I trust their displeasure shall do yoil as little hurt as hitherto, I praise God and thank tbj King, it hath done me." This " field of honour," howj ever, was closed to Sir Edward by the meeting of th.i Long Parliament, to which he was returned as memi ber for Berwick, having served for the same place % the Parliament of April preceding. On petition, ho'w ,1 ever, he was unseated, and thenceforth disappears in gj rather odd way out of history, even the date of hi^j death not being ascertained. |, He married, first, the eldest daughter of Thomaj Viscount Fauconberg, and secondly, Anne, daughte^ of Thomas Walmisley, of Lancashire, and coheiress,] through her mother, Eleanor Dan vers, of the Nevilles, j Lords Latimer. His son by the first marriage wa;^ killed by the fall of a chimney; but the elder son o^ the second refounded the family, being the mai^ known to English history as the Earl of Danby. j Thomas Osborne, born in 1631, was too young tc Digitized by Microsoft® W^z ©sionics. 333 tke any actiTe part in the great civil contest ; but 145 brought up in the strictest Cavalier pruiciplea — JKh as were held by his father, and taught in Straf- (d's school of statesmanship. Indeed, the ideas by ftich he seems to have been guided in his subsequent Beer as a minister are singularly in harmony with he principles and feelings of the great EarL Like im, Thomas Osborne was bent on the aggrandisement lite royal prerogative at the expense of the popular perties, and was a strong advocate of the doctrines of ^t divine and passive obedience. Like bim^ he had |eertain regard for the dignity of his country, and (ss desirous that the King, absolute at home, should tenme abroad an independent and leading position, ley both agreed in associating the untrammeled bemment of the Crown at home with the dignity of he nation in the eyes of Europe, quite as much as lith the gratification of the private wishes of the Gng. Thev neither of them had any desire to see ke authority of the Crown dependent merely on the 9port of a foreign government, and on this point kere was a fundamental difference between their iews and the grovelling notions of the Stuart princes, baby had the reverence for the Church of Eng- md and the dLsbke of Popery which so seriously isturbed the imanimity of the Cavalier party during le Civil ^ar. He had, at the same time, the de- eiencv in moral elevation of character and the profli- ite disretmrd of all priaciple, which detracts so much om our admiration of nearly all that school and of irafford himself. Osborne was as audacious and tf-confident as his father's great patron, of whom he as in some decree a feebler representative ; but apart Digitized by Microsoft® 334 Eije ©s&orncs. from his undoubted inferiority in intellectual power, lie had never undergone the early influences of a nobler political training, such as that to which the mind of Wentworth was subjected while he shared the counsels and friendship of Eliot, Pym, and Hampden. Osborne was a thoroughly unscrupulous man, bent on self-aggrandisement, and careless of the amount of personal degradation which he might incur in accu- mulating wealth and titles. He had succeeded to an estate seriously impaired by the Eoyalists' disasters ia the Civil War, and he devoted himself to repairing these losses at the expense of all decency and honoiur. He was only redeemed from the common herd of pro- fligate schemers of that age by his superior talents and sagacity, and his fixity of political ideas on two or three points. His versatility and plausible manners soon recommended him to the notice of the Kiag, and the ascendancy of Clarendon was the only real ob- stacle to his immediate rise to power. He was one of the most vehement of the opponents of that statesman, M^hom the old Cavalier party always distrusted and disliked, and after his fall Osborne began his political ascent. In 1671 he was appointed Treasurer of the Navy, and in May 1672, one of the Privy Council. On June 19 in the following year, on the fall of the Cabal Ministry, Osborne was placed virtually at the head of public affairs by the immensely lucrative and inportant appointment of Lord High Treasurer. On the 15th of August in the same year (1673) he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Osborne of Kiveton, and Viscount Latimer of Danby, Yorkshire ; and on the 27th June 1674, he was created Earl of Danby — which last title had become extinct in the person of Digitized by Microsoft® Efic ©sftornes. 335 Henry Danvers, brother of Eleanor Danvers. On July 19, 1675, he was created Viscount Dumblane, in Scot- land, and on April 21, 1677, a Knight of the Garter. The administration of Danby must be judged with reference to what we have said above of his views and character. It is pronounced by Burnet to have been an attempt to revive the Cavalier party, and to govern England on their principles, and Macaulay adopts this view. At home Danby was a bigoted Protestant Tory of the exaggerated Cavalier type, who sacrificed everythiag to the royal prerogative, and detested and persecuted nonconformists to the Church of England. In this province he was shamelessly venal and covet- ous. Abroad, his policy was more creditable, owing to his higher ideas of national dignity. He wished to break off the subserviency to France, and he made Sir Wilham Temple his political guide on foreign policy. Macaulay considers that he carried out this policy as well as he could consistently with the strong inclina- tions of the King for a French alliance and French money, and Danby's own determination to keep his place at any sacrifice. He contrived to bring about the match between the Princess Mary and William of Orange, which was deeply resented by Louis, and which ■was a master-stroke which stood Danby in good stead in future years. He was obliged, however, to be the agent of his royal master in his pecuniary transactions with Louis, and the latter, when he found Danby his implacable enemy, contrived, as we have seen, through Ralph Montagu, to convert this unwilling agency on the part of Danby into an engine of his ruin in Eng- land, as if he had himself been the hired servant of France. The fall of Danby — his impeachment in 1 6 78 Digitized by Microsoft® 336 Wift ©sifornes. — the postponement of the proceedings from ParUa- ment to Parliament through the rest of the reign of Charles without his ever being brought to trial — ^kis imprisonment in the Tower for five years, until he was allowed to be bailed in 1684 — the vote of the Lords, at the commencement of the new reign, that the im- peachment had fallen through by the dissolution of Parliament, and his restoration thereupon to his seat in the House and to political life,- — are matters of general history. Danby had always been a successful speaker, but his talents are said to have lain in prac- tical action and decision of character rather than in oratory or theoretical speculation. Burnet says he was a plausible speaker, but too copious, so as to be- come wearisome. He soon perceived the tendency of James's measures towards Popery and the destruction of the Established Church, and entered into corre- spondence with the Dutch Ministers and WiUiam of Orange, on whom he had a great claim as the nego- tiator of his marriage. Having decided on his pohtical course, there was no hesitation in Danby. He signed the letter of invitation to the Prince, and reconciled himself, as we have seen, to Devonshire and the Whigs, undertaking to secure York for the Eevolution. This he managed ia a very skilful manner, availing himself of a popular gathering to spread a panic-cry that the Papists were massacring the citizens, appealing to the militia, who had been called together to keep order, and, with their assistance, surprisiag and dis- arming Sir John Eeresby, the governor, and the gar- rison. He then convoked the citizens and procured their cheerful adhesion to the Prince's cause. The Eevolution accomplished, however, and King James a Digitized by Microsoft® Efje ©siornes. 337 fugitive abroad, Danby's Cavalier principles, which had been rather rudely strained in the part he had just taken in opposition to the Crown, began to revive, and lie endeavoured to accommodate theory and facts by the specious doctrine of an " abdication " having taken place by the flight of the King ; and the Prince of Wales's birth being held doubtful, and both unsub- stantiated and unsubstantiable by the flight of the only competent witnesses, he held that Mary had become actually, according to the strict rules of succession. Queen Regnant, and endeavoured to set up her sovereignty in opposition alike to the Eegency scheme of some of the Tories, and the election of WiUiam, which was advocated by the Whigs. He wrote to Mary herself, ofi"ering to support her preten- sions, but her earnest and even angry repudiation of any separate interest from her husband induced Danby to retrace his steps, and by his influence the House of Lords consented to invite William to ascend the throne, — a service of inconceivable importance to the country, and the one incident in the history of the Osbomes which justifies their dukedom, and their hold over the popular imagination. In the new Gov- ernment Danby became Lord President of the Coun- cil; William, much to his chagrin and disappointment, putting the Treasuryship into commission, instead of placing its enormous powers of jobbery and plunder at the disposal of one individual. After a sharp struggle with Savdle, Marquess of Halifax (towards ■whom he had always entertained a strong hostility), and Shrewsbury and the Whigs, Danby succeeded in 1690 in becoming the real head of the Government. On the 9th of April 1689, he had been created Mar- Digitized by Microsoft® 338 Wiiz ©glomes, quess of Carmartlien. His administration was able, but unscrupulous. He was, of course, entirely in unison -with the King's foreign policy, and at borne, at first against "VViUiani's wisb, be commenced again on a great scale tbe system of Parliamentary corrup- tion wbicb. be bad carried to great lengths in bis ministry in Charles's reign. He was bated by tbe Whigs, whose old feud against him had revived after the Eevolution; but though an attempt was made in 1690 to exclude him from power by a proposition that no one sbotild be admitted to any pubhc employ- ment who bad been impeached in former reigns, he held his ground for some time with the favour of tbe King and Queen. When Wdliam went to Ireland, he was nominated one of the Council of Nine, and Mary was requested by her husband to be guided by bim, especially in case of any difference in the Council; but a gradual divergence appeared between the King and his Minister, and though, on the 4th May 1694, be was created Duke of Leeds, he soon after fell hope- lessly from power. The crave to buUd a great bouse at any risk, which is tbe besetting sin of many pro- minent Englishmen, was never absent from bis mind, and his venaUty ruined bim at last. A committee of inquiry into the bribes said to have been received by great men, soon led to the detection of tbe bribe of five thousand five hundred guineas which Leeds bad received from the East India Company. Wharton reported this to the House of Commons, and was or- dered to impeach Leeds at the bar of the Lords in tbe name of the Commons. Leeds had been addressing tbe Lords in his defence, admitting that he bad pro- cured the money from the Company, but aUeging it Digitized by Microsoft® Wiie ©s&ornes. 339 was only for his friend Bates (the agent employed), and not for himself, and illustrating his peculiar ideas of public morality by quoting his conduct in a former case in Charles II.'s time, when he had told several falsehoods in order to obtain money for another friend. Hearing that he was about to be impeached by the Commons, he hastened thither, and obtained permis- sion to address them at the bar of that House. But Ms speech was ill-judged in its tone, and he scarcely attempted to set up any defence on the point at issue, but boasted that had it not been for him there would have been no House of Commons at all to impeach him. On his withdrawal, the Commons sent up Wharton with the impeachment, and appointed managers to draw up articles and collect evidence. But one (legal) link in the evidence proved to be wanting, and the witness who it was believed could have supplied it fled to Holland. The proceedings were therefore suspended, and were never afterwards revived. Leeds had the efirontery to assume the bearing of an injured man, and even moved the Lords (but vainly) to declare the impeachment dismissed. The King, from respect to the memory of the Queen, allowed the name and emoluments of Lord President to remain with Leeds, who was, however, given to understand that he was not to appear iu the Privy Council, or take part in the management of public affairs. He remained in this equivocal position four years, and only quitted it on receipt of very heavy grants of Crown lands. In Queen Anne's reign he took a prominent part in the defence of Sacheverel, with whom, of course, he sympathised strongly; and his excessive vitality — an attribute of almost all Digitized by Microsoft® 340 K\it ©sbornes. founders — kept his sickly body alive till July 26, 1712, when he died, eighty years old, and fuU, if not of honour, of dignities and wealth. His character, which has been the study of many English historians, may, we believe, be summed up in two words. He was a hourgeois Strafford. The Duke married Lady Bridget Bertie, second daughter of the Earl of Lindsey, and was succeeded by his youngest son. Peregrine, a saUor, who, though of questionable discretion, distinguished himself by his courage and audacity, and died in June 1729, Vice- Admiral of the Red. He had married Bridget, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Hyde, Bart., of North Myms, Hertfordshire, and had two sons and two daughters, one of whom married afterwards Lord Dundonald. The elder son died before his father, but the second. Peregrine, succeeded him as third Duke of Leeds, and after an uneventful life he was followed by Thomas, the fourth Duke, remarkable only for a marriage which constituted him the heir of the Go- dolphins, and one of the heirs of the ChurchUls, mar- rpng June 26, 1740, the Lady Mary, daughter of Francis, Earl Godolphia, son and successor of the re- markable statesman who took so ambiguous a course during the reigns of WUliam and Anne, by the Lady Harriet or Henrietta Churchill, eldest daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough. By this marriage, agree- ably to the patent granted to the Duke of Marl- borough, the succeeding Osbornes as his descendants became Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, a dignity peerage-makers might take the trouble to specify, and ultimately inherited the Godolphin property, includ- ing the seat of Godolphin, and the patronage of the Digitized by Microsoft® EJje ©s&ornes, 341 ■borougli of Helston, in Cornwall, and the G-og-magog estate among the hills of Cambridgeshire, of that name. His surviving son, Francis Godolphiti Osborne, fifth Duke, was Secretary of State for Foreign Afi'airs before his father's death, under Mr Pitt, and re- maiued such till 1791. John Adams, the American Minister, says of him : " The Marquess of Carmarthen is a modest, amiable man ; treats all men with civil- ity, and is much esteemed by the Foreign Ministers as well as the nation, but is not an enterprising Min- ister ; " and Wilberforce speaks of him in his diary as "the elegant Carmarthen." In 1787 he caused a great sensation by inA^ting, as Foreign Secretary, not only the Foreign Ministers, but Mr Fox and the leaders of the Opposition, to dine with him. In the 'Auckland Correspondence' it is told how Mr Fox was more noticed by the Foreign Ministers than the host himself, and was for once well dressed. The next year he caused equal surprise by inviting M. de Calonne to meet the French Ambassador at dinner, a lady haviug just been forbidden the French Court for visiting M. de Calonne. In 1791 he resigned, in con- sequence of Mr Pitt not persisting in his demands on Russia; but though he voted occasionally against the Government, he expressed strong aversion to the lengths to which some of Fox's Whig noblemen were goiag in foreign afi'airs. He died January 31, 1799. He had made a great match, marrying for his first wife (November 29, 1773) Lady Amelia Darcy, only daughter and heiress of Eobert, last Earl of Holder- ness. Baron Conyers, in which last dignity she suc- ceeded her father, and transmitted it to the Osbornes. This barony had been created in 1509 in the son of z Digitized by Microsoft® 342 W^z ©slrornes. Sir Jokri Conyers by Margery, daughter of Philip, Lord Darcy. With this marriage Leeds obtained Hornby Castle, in Yorkshire. The Conyers fanuly "were a branch from the parent stem at Stockton, in Durham, and rose to importance in Eichmondshire by the patronage of the Scroopes of Bolton, about the time of Eichard IL " Gul. Coniers," says Leland, " the first lord of that name, dyd great coste on Homeby Castle. It was before but a mene thing." By the Baroness Conyers (from whom he obtained a divorce in 1779) the Duke had two sons, the younger of whom. Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne, was the father of the present Duke of Leeds. The Duke mar- ried, secondly, a Miss Catherine Anguish, whose ex- quisite beauty is extoUed by Lord Sheffield in the "Auckland Correspondence.' His eldest son, G-eorge William Frederick, who succeeded him as sixth Duke of Leeds, was Lord-Lieutenant of the North Eiding of Yorkshire, and Lord Proprietor and Governor of the Scdly Islands in right of the Godolphins. On the 4th of May 1827, he was appointed Master of the Horse in Canning's Ministry, and from this time the Osbornes, who had been rather Conservative-Whigs than Tories during Pitt's reign, moved forward with the Canningites to the Liberal party. The Duke died July 10, 1838, and was succeeded by his only son, Francis Godolphin D'Arcy D'Arcy Osborne (seventh Duke), who had been summoned to the Upper House as Lord Osborne the month before his father's death, and assumed, in 1849, the name of D'Arcy in addi- tion to his own. He was married to an American lady, but died without children May 4, 1859, when all his titles, except the Barony of Conyers, devolved Digitized by Microsoft® Cije ©sftornes. 343 on Ms cousin, George Grodolphin Osborne, second Baron Godolphin (of this family), son of Lord Francis GodolpliiQ Osborne mentioned above, wbo bad been <;reated Lord Godolphin, of Farnham-Eoyal, Bucks, on the 14th May 1832, and died in 1850. This nobleman is the present and eighth Duke of Leeds, and a son and grandson promise a continuance of the dignity in the same line. The Barony of Conyers devolved on the nephew of the seventh Duke, Sackville-George- Lane-Fox, son of Sackville-Lane-Fox, Esq., M.P., by Lady Charlotte Osborne, only daughter of the sixth Duke of Leeds. The descendants of the lucky apprentice have, therefore, acquired two peerages, and estates which raise them at least to the second rank. The family risked its fate on the Eevolution, but it has otherwise not done much for England, and its most prominent member now is the present Duke's brother, Lord Sidney Godolphin Osborne, a Eector, who, as the "S. G. 0." of the 'Times,' has so often and so ably pleaded the cause of the friendless and the poor. Digitized by Microsoft® Cije fit^xo^^. HE Fitzroys are the heirs of a bastard of Charles II. The illegitimate children of that King are popularly believed to be legion, but he acknowledged only James Stuart, son of a young lady in Jersey, who took holy orders and died a Catholic priest ; James, Duke of Monmouth, son of Lucy Walters, executed for treason by his uncle's command ; Mary, daughter of the same lady, married first to William Sarsfield, an Irish gentleman, and afterwards to William Fanshaw ; Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Southampton, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland, and Anne, Countess of Sussex, all children of Bakbara Villiees, Duchess of Cleveland ; Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans, and James Beauclerk, sons of Nell Gwynne ; Charles Lennox, Duke of Eichmond, son of Louisa de QuerouaiUe, Duchess of Portsmouth ; Mary Tudor, married to the heir of Lord Derwentwater, daughter of Mary Davis ; Charles Fitzcharles, and a girl who died young, children of Catherine Pegge ; and Char- lotte Boyle, alias Fitzroy, wife of Sir Eobert Paston, Bart., afterwards Earl of Yarmouth, daughter of Eli- zabeth, Viscountess Shannon. Three of these founded Digitized by Microsoft® E|je JFitjro^s. 345 dukedoms wHch. still exist — Grafton, Eichmond, and St Albans ; and other families trace their rise to con- nection with the children of the last popular Stuart. Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, ancestress of the Fitzroys, was one of the remarkable family of ViLLiERS, she being daughter and coheiress of a half- brother of George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, of whom Felton rid England, cousin of Elizabeth Vil- liers, the mistress and counsellor of William of Orange, and niece of Sir Edward Villiers, ancestor of the Earls of Jersey and Clarendon. Her father died of his wounds, received in the royal cause, when she was only an infant. Her early connection with the eccen- tric Earl of Chesterfield has already been noticed.* Just before the Eestoration she married Mr Eoger Palmer — afterwards created Earl of Castlemaine — and on the King's return to England deserted Chesterfield for her royal lover. This connection lasted till about the year 1672, when she had a child, disavowed by the King, and generally attributed to Churchill. In 1670, she was created Baroness Nonsuch, in Surrey, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland, with remainder to Charles and George Fitzroy, her eldest and third sons. Her husband died in 1 705, and she soon afterwards married an adventurer, who treated her with such brutality that she had to seek the pro- tection of the law against him, and then discovered he had a previous wife still living. She died on the 9th of October 1709, of dropsy. Burnet says of her : " She was a woman of great beauty, but most enor- mously vicious and ravenous ; foohsh, but imperious ; very uneasy to the King, and always carrying on in- * Fide antea, under " the Stanhopes." Digitized by Microsoft® 346 ®fje JFitjrogs. trigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour towards him, did so disorder him, that often he was not master of himself, nor capable of minding business." Henry Fitzroy, the Duchess's second son by Charles II., born September 20th, 1663, a man of "more spirit," Burnet says, " than any of the King's sons," was bred to the profession of a sailor, and distinguished himself in several expeditions. On the 16th of August 1672, he was created Baron Sudbury, Viscount Ipswich, and Earl of Euston, in the county of Suffolk, and on the 11th of September 1675, Duke of Grafton in North- amptonshire, and was appointed hereditary "Eeceiver- General of the profits of the seals in the Courts of King's Bench, and Common Pleas, and of the Prises of Wines." This appointment was commuted in 1845 for a pension of £843 ; and a more valuable pension of £9000, charged on the Post OflSce, was sold to the nation in 1856 for £193,177. He received besides the appointment of Hereditary Eanger of Whittlebury Forest — Wakefield Lodge in which became one of his principal seats — and of Gamekeeper at Newmarket, acted as Lord High Constable of England at the coro- nation of James II., commanded the advance-guard against his own half-brother Monmouth, who beat him at Philip's Norton, and indeed he seemed at first dis- posed to go all lengths with the Court. He played a creditable part in the expedition to Tunis, but he had fallen completely under the influence of Churchill, and on the landing of the Priuce of Orange, instead of hastening as before to proffer his military services to the King, he joined in the petition of the Bishops and Digitized by Microsoft® t^tc Jitjross. 347 the Tory Protestants that James would call a Free Parliament. The King, when this address was pre- sented to him, was greatly incensed with Grafton. " He was sure," James said, " he could not pretend to act upon principles of conscience; for he had been so ill-bred, that as he knew little of religion, so he regarded it less." But Grafton, unabashed, replied, that " though he had himself little conscience, yet he was of a party that had a great deal." He accom- panied, however, the King and the royal army as far as Salisbury, but then, along with Churchill, took the lead in setting the example of deser- tion which was so generally followed. Grafton had been displaced from the command of the Foot Guards, but William replaced him, and intrusted him with the defence of Tilbury Fort. He voted for the Regency scheme, but took the oaths to William and Mary, bore the orb at their coronation, and in 1690 commanded William's land forces at the siege of Cork. On the 28th of September, while leading his inen to the assault, he received a shot which broke two of his ribs, and he died of the wound on the 9th of October following. He had been married by his father on the 1st of August 1672, when he had barely completed his ninth year, to the Lady Isabella Bennet, only daughter and eventually heir to Henry Bennet, the Earl of Arling- ton of the Cabal Ministry, then a very beautiful child of five years of age. From this marriage the Grafton family derive their estate and seat of Euston Hall in Sufiblk, which gives them their second title. By her he had an only child, Charles, born at Arlington House, October 25, 1683, who became, on his father's death, second Duke of Grafton, and in right of his Digitized by Microsoft® 348 ^fjz Jit|ro2S. mother, wlio died in Febraary 1723, Earl of Arlington (Middlesex), Viscount Thetford (Norfolk) — the patron- age of which borough is chiefly in the Duke of Grafton — and Baron Arlington. This second Duke of Grafton was a man of fair, but moderate abilities, who rose in 1720 to the Lord- Lieutenancy of Ireland, which office he filled in an undistiaguished, but decent manner. He was subse- quently appointed a Lord-Justice several times, and died in 1757, a worthy but only half-trusted man. He married in 1713 the Lady Henrietta Somerset, granddaughter of the Duke of Beaufort, and by her had five sons and four daughters. Lady Hervey, writing, in September 1732, of a visit paid by her to the fair at Bury, a favourite festival then among the gentry of Sufiblk, says, " The only things that pleased me there were the Duke of Grafton's daughters. The two youngest are the best behaved children I ever saw; but Lady Caroline is the best bred woman, the most agreeable dancer, the genteelest and the pret- tiest creature that ever lived. I envy the Duke that girl. You may guess what I think of any one's daughter whom I wish my own." This last-named young lady, " Lady Caroline Fitzroy, was afterwards too well known," says the editor of this correspon- dence, " as Lady Caroline Petersham and Lady Har- rington. Contemporary writers are fuU of anecdotes of this lady's conduct and manners, which, if but half of them were true, would have made Lady Hervey repent the accomplishment of her wish." She was the wife of the second Earl of Harrington. The Duke of Grafton's three eldest sons died before him, the two eldest without leaving children, and he was Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Jitirogs. 349 succeeded by his grandson, Augustus Henry, eldest surviving son of Lord Augustus Fitzroy, third son of the second Duke. Lord Augustus had served with some distinction in the navy at the attack on Car- thagena, and died at Jamaica in May 1741. His younger son, Charles Fitzroy, was created, October 1 7, 1780, Baron Southampton, and was the grandfather of the present Lord Southampton, and of the late Eight Hon. Henry Fitzroy, who was an active member of the Peel party, and died in 18.59. Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton, was born in October 1735, and in November 1756 was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber to George HI., then Prince of Wales. In the same year he entered the House of Commons as member for Bury St Edmund's, for which place he sat till his grand- father's death. During the Bute Ministry he ren- dered himself so obnoxious to the ruling powers that in 1763 he was one of the noblemen whom Lord Bute removed from their Lord-Lieutenancies (Suffolk in Grafton's case). In the same year he showed his political feelings by visiting Wilkes in prison. But on the 10th of July 1765 he consented to take office under Lord Eockingham as one of the Secretaries of State. He held this post till May 1766, when he resigned, alleging as his reason the impotency of the administration. He declared that he knew but of one man— meaning the first Pitl^who could give them proper strength. Under that person he should be willing to serve in any capacity, not only as a general officer, but as a pioneer, and would take up a spade and mattock and dig in the trenches. On the 2d of August foUowing he had the opportunity he Digitized by Microsoft® 350 Klft Jttiross. desired, being appointed First Lord of the Treasury in Pitt's second administration. But lie soon found himself in a very different position from what he calculated on. To begin with, Pitt's acceptance of a peerage and removal from the Lower House was a great and unexpected blow to his colleagues, and his subsequent illness threw the whole burden of govern- ment on the Duke. Until towards the middle of March 1767 Pitt had been effectually Prime Minister, but from that time Grafton really directed the course of events, with the disadvantage of having a censor of his actions who might revive at any time in the person of his secluded chief. He was compelled to act as he best could under these circumstances, and strengthen himself with the Bedford party, Lord North, and any others of the Opposition or outsiders whom he could secure. When Chatham's powers be- gan to revive, he expressed great jealousy and distaste at some of these appointments, and in October 1768 he resigned his office of PriA^ Seal, which he had chosen as a cover to his intended Premiership, not- withstanding all Grafton's efforts to dissuade him. Thus Grafton was left to carry on the administration of public affairs alone. Lord Stanhope says of him: " He was upright and disinterested in his public con- duct, sincere and zealous in his friendships, and by no means wanting in powers, either of business or debate. Unhappily, however, as his career proceeded, experience showed that these excellent qualities were dashed and alloyed with others of an opposite tenor. He was wanting in application, and when pressed by difficulties in his office, instead of seeking to over- come them, would rather speak of resigning it. Field Digitized by Microsoft® '^^t iFttjrogg. 351 sports, and, above all, his favourite pack of hounds at Wakefield Lodge, too much employed his thoughts, or, at least, his time. Newmarket also had great charms for him; nor could he resist a stUl more dan- gerous fascination. His frequent appearance in public with Nancy Parsons, a well-known courtesan, gave offence to the laxer age in which he lived. His con- temporaries beheld with surprise that woman seated at the head of the ducal table, or handed from the Opera House by the First Lord of the Treasury in the presence of the Queen. Other circumstances, some owing to no fault whatever of his own, tended to lower the reputation and to limit the term of his official power. Still, however, in spite of every dis- advantage and defect, he continued, through a long life, much respected by all who knew him for the uprightness and integrity of his public motives, and for a considerable period he exercised no mean in- fluence upon parties." In 1769, when the resistance took place in America to the import-duties, Grafton, at a Cabinet Council, had the good sense to propose that at the commencement of the next session they should bring in a bill for the complete repeal of the obnoxious duties. Lord North opposed the including tea in the duties to be repealed, and carried the rejec- tion of Grafton s proposal by one vote. Had Lord Chatham continued in the Cabinet, Grafton considered that America would have been saved. " But for that unhappy event," he says in his 'Memoirs,' "I must think that the separation from America might have been avoided. For in the foUowing spring Lord Chatham was sufficiently recovered to have given his efficient support in the Cabinet to Lords Camden, Digitized by Microsoft® 352 STIje iFitjro2S. Granby, and General Conway, wto, with myself, were overruled in our best endeavours to include the article of tea with the other duties intended to be repealed." And he adds, that from this time he felt himself dl at ease in his high post. He had better for his reputation have quitted it before the proceed- ings against WUkes, or, at any rate, have retired now, when outvoted on so important a question as Amer- ica. But he remained, and suffered during this year from the violent invectives of " Junius," and at its close was threatened by the formidable opposition of Lord Chatham. A few weeks after the latter's resig- nation his mental condition began to mend, and his malady found relief, and passed off in a violent fit of gout. He appeared for the first time in public at the King's levee, ia July 1769, was most graciously re- ceived, and admitted to a private conference in. the royal closet; but he treated the Duke of Grafton at the levee with cold politeness. No sooner had the new session of Parhament commenced in January 1770 than Chatham appeared as the opponent of Government, denouncing alike their Wilkes proceed- ings and the American policy. An explosion in the Cabinet followed. Lord Camden, the Chancellor, rose in his place, expressed his sorrow at having acquiesced silently in measures he so much disapproved of, and denounced the measures of the Government as much as Chatham himself. Grafton defended himself stoutly, and when Camden did not resign, sent for the seals, and through the personal importunity of the King suc- ceeded in persuading Charles Yorke to accept them, though he was pledged to the Eockingham party. The reproaches, however, with which Yorke was as- Digitized by Microsoft® C!je Jitjross. 353 sailed by Hs former friends so preyed on his sensitive mind, that he went home and destroyed liimself. Grafton found it impossible to get any one to take the vacant post. Granby, the Commander-in-Chief, had resigned, the Solicitor-General intimated a similar purpose, and Grafton at last lost heart, and on the 28th of January retired from the Premiership. The Opposition, however, did not profit by the victory, for the King, who had a singular power of personal per- suasion, induced Lord North, much against his wish, to take the command of the Cabinet, and the nation, under his guidance, was induced to involve itself in the disastrous civd. contest with the American Colonies. A violent scene took place between the Duke and Chatham in the House of Lords almost immediately after his resignation of office, Chatham denouncing the supposed secret influence of Bute (although the latter was resident abroad), and Grafton declaring that this supposition could only be " the efiect of a dis- tempered mind brooding over its own discontents." Unfortunately for his fame, Grafton, though declining to enter the North Cabinet, accepted under them the office of Lord Privy Seal, June 12, 1771. He retained this office till November 1775. Then a petition for accommodation with the mother country from the Colonial Assembly having been rejected by the Eng- lish Government, Grafton protested against this course in a letter to Lord North, and receiving in return only a copy of the King's intended speech from the throne, he came up to London and resigned, freely debating the matter with the King himself in the royal closet. At the beginning of 1779, the Ministry endeavoured to induce Grafton, Camden, Shelburne, Digitized by Microsoft® 354 SCfje JFttfrogs. and the Eockingham Whigs to enter the Cabinet; but they decKned, and this offer, the Duke says, had the effect of consolidating the Opposition, and paving the way for the second Eockingham Ministry. When this was formed, in 1782, Grafton resumed his office of Privy Seal, and continued in the Shelbume Minis- try after Fox's secession, though in so discontented a manner that he could hardly be said to support it. He opposed successfully, along with the younger Pitt, the cession of Gibraltar to the Spaniards, proposed by Shelburne, and his resignation seemed imminent when Shelbume himself abandoned office. In December 1783, when the younger Pitt was forming his Cabinet, Grafton was one of the first persons he applied to, and the offer was repeated in the following year, but both times declined, the latter time after some con- siderable hesitation, his friend Camden having ac- cepted the office of President of the Council. But the subsequent measures of the Pitt Ministry, and especially the war with France, alienated Grafton entirely from this connection, and he fell back on his old Whig principles. He lived, however, almost wholly in the retirement of country life, devoting himself to farming and the care of a numerous family. In 1797 he made a rather striking speech in the House of Lords, seconding an address of the Duke of Bedford's condemnatory of the war. In this he also urged economy in the internal government, denounc- ing the financial and monetary plans of the Ministry, and pointing to the necessity of conciliating Ireland by granting Catholic emancipation if they would avoid an immediate catastrophe. The whole speech was in a tone of solemn warning, and, delivered as it Digitized by Microsoft® ^¥ jFitjross. 355 was in the Duke's naturally impressive voice, produced considerable effect. He was equally opposed to the renewal of the war with France after the peace of Amiens. His tastes, at any rate in his later years, were more creditable than those already aUuded to. He was a warm patron of the poet Bloomfield, who came from the immediate neighbourhood of Euston. He made a large collection of rare books, and read as weU as bought them. He took considerable in- terest in theological questions, publishing anony- mously two pamphlets on the reformation of the Liturgy and relaxation of subscription to the Ar- ticles, and on public worship and prayer. He also when in town habitually attended the Unitarian Chapel in Essex Street; and it was by his encourage- ment and under his patronage that Griesbach pub- lished the second edition of his G-reek New Testament, the Duke supplying the paper at his own expense, and sending it abroad to the editor. His manners are spoken of by some as agreeable, by others as somewhat reserved and haughty. His saturnine cast of countenance strongly resembled that of his royal ancestor. His dress was very peculiar. He wore a coat of the Quaker cut and colour, and a cocked hat. Having passed many years in this retirement, the Duke died March 14, 1811, at the age of seventy-six. On December 5, 1768, he had been elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and September 20, 1769, a Knight of the Garter. He was also Governor of the Ports in Cornwall and Devon. He was di- vorced from his first wife, who remarried the Earl of Upper Ossory, the Duke himself marrying again, and having a large second family, the number of his chU- Digitized by Microsoft® 356 Eije jFit^ogs, dren altogether being sixteen. His character was a good deal discussed in his lifetime, and has been much debated since; but we conceive that Charles II., born Peer instead of King, forced into collision ■with equals, and possessed of some ambition, -would have acted precisely as Grrafton did. He was a very- favourable specimen of a Stuart in a private capa- city, the only one of whom we have any complete record. His eldest son and successor, George Henry, fourth Duke of Grafton, tdl his elevation to the peerage represented the University of Cambridge in Parliament, for which he was returned in 1784, conjointly with Mr Pitt, with whom he had formed a strong friendship, against Lord John Townshend, the former member. He continued for some time to vote and act with Pitt, becoming a Lord of the Admiralty and Treasury in his administration ; but he became discontented with the war with France, and his father's influence assisting in the change, he gradu- ally adopted Whig principles, and became an oppo- nent of Government, though he never was a violent one. After his accession to the dukedom he continued in the same line of politics — ^Wliig, of a rather Con- servative and independent character — and the re- mainder of his long life presents no features requiring special remark. He died September 28, 1844, in his eighty-fifth year, and was succeeded by his son Hemy, fifth Duke, whose polities were of the same moderate cast, and whose life was passed in country retirement. He was, however, rather a warm Churchman, inquir- ing, it is said, whether a man was a communicant before he admitted him as a tenant. He devoted great attention to his estates, visiting the cottages Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t Jit^rogs. 357 personally, and distributing blankets and other com- forts where required, and, we need hardly add, was greatly esteemed on his estates. He died March 26, 1863, and was succeeded by his son William Henry, the sixth and present Duke of Grafton, who, as Earl of Euston and representative of Thetford, pursued an iudependent Whig line of politics, not always, but generally, to be counted on by Whig Ministries. The family, despite its origin, has been, on the whole, a useful one ; but the pension, which was a stock subject of declamation with financial reformers, was exorbi- tant pay for a career like that of the third Duke. The members of the house have been markedly popular as landlords, and have been fairly free from that in- herent faithlessness which was a prominent vice of the Stuart blood. 2 A Digitized by Microsoft® Cf)e §)pencerfi* -'^HE Spencers, who have now a dukedom, an earldom, and a barony, and who have possessed several peerages, are the descendants of one John Spencee, who was believed, by those who envied his family, to have been a great grazier in- Warwickshire. He may have been a remote descend- ant of the great house of Le Despencer, now repre- sented through the female line by an heiress of the Stapletons, who married into the Boscawen family, and by the Fanes, Earls of Westmoreland ; but he did not claim this descent, and generations afterwards, during a celebrated quarrel, his heir admitted that the founder had "kept sheep." Whoever he was, he had consider- able command of money, and was a great land-buyer, beginning with the great lordship of Wormleighton, in south Warwickshire, which he bought on the 3d of September 1506, the 2 2d year of Henry VH., from the Cope family. Here he began the structure of a " fair mansion," where he resided in some state, with a household of sixty persons. Two years after his Wormleighton purchase, he bought from the Catesby family the manor of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire, which became the principal seat of his successors ; and Digitized by Microsoft® Wiiz Spencers. 359 in the 3d year of Henry VIII. lie purchased the manor of Brington, in the immediate vicinity of Althorpe, from Thomas Woodville, Marquess of Dorset. With this nobleman in the same year he exchanged some lands at Bosworth, in Leicestershire, for the manor of Wykedyve, in Northamptonshire, and purchased from him the manor of Wyke Hamon, in the same county, which the Spencers sold in 1716. He acquired other estates in the midland counties, rebuilt the churches of Wormleighton, Brington, and Stanton, in North- amptonshire, and his will contains many bequests to the religious houses. He was knighted, and became guardian to the heirs of the Catesby family, the grandchildren of King Eiehard's favourite ; and the younger Sir Richard, who succeeded ultimately to the Catesby estates at Legers Ashby and elsewhere, mar- ried Dorothy, youngest daughter of Sir John Spencer, who by him was the great-grandmother of Robert Catesby, the Gunpowder Plot conspirator. Sir John Spencer married Isabel, one of the daughters and co- heirs of William Graun, Esq., of Smitterfeild, in War- wickshire, which place he obtained from this marriage, and is first designated as " of" it. He died April 14, 1522, and by his will, made two days previously, he requires his executors to " recompense every one that can lawfully prove, or will make oath, that he has hurt him in anywise, so that they make their- claim within two years, though he had none in his remembrance ; but he would rather charge their souls than his own should be in danger." He enjoined his executors to cause proclamation to be made hereof once a-month during the first year after his decease at Warwick, Southampton, Coventry, Banbury, Daventry, and North- Digitized by Microsoft® 360 Elje .Spencers. ampton. Sir John, the founder, clearly a man of the true English type, with a taste for piety and accumu- lation, was succeeded by his son. Sir William, who died in two years, and his grandson. Sir John,""" who was Sheriff of Nottinghamshire under Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, but was undistinguished, save as a mighty grazier, who gave up even his parks to sheep and cattle. He died November 8, 1586, and left a great family — Sir John, who succeeded him in his principal estates ; Thomas, of Claredon or Claverdon, in Warwickshire ; Sir William, of Yarnton, Oxford- shire ; Sir Eichard, of Offley, Hertfordshire ; Edward, who died without issue; and six daughters; who mar- ried into county or lordly families. Sir John Spencer, who succeeded to Althorpe and Wormleighton, was knighted in 1588, and married the daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Catelyn, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, by whom he left a son, Sir Eobert, who, at the accession of King James, was believed to possess the largest amount of ready money of all persons in the kingdom. He was, therefore, created, without special services (July 21, 1603), Baron Spencer, of Wormleighton, but he seems to have been a most ex- cellent person. Camden calls him a worthy encourager of virtue and learning; and Wilson, in his ' Life of King James,' says of him, "Spencer (like the old Roman, chosen dictator from his farm) made the country a virtuous court, where his fields and flocks brought him more calm and happy contentment than the various and unstable dispensations of a court can contribute, and when he was called to the senate was * Spenser, the poet, claimed relationsMp with tMs family, and dedi- cated some of his poems to ladies belonging to it. Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Spmcers. 361 more vigilant to keep the people's liberties from being a prey to the encroaching power of monarchy than his harmless and tender lambs from foxes and ravenous creatures." His " ready money " had been made use of by King James at the commencement of his reign, he being sent, in 1603, to carry the insignia of the Garter to the Duke of Wurtemburg, one of the leading German Protestant princes. He was magnificently entertained by the Duke, and both the Duke and the ambassador were so richly attired, glittering with gold and jewels, that we are told they attracted the atten- tion of all the spectators. Spehfcer held no post at Court, and in Parliament he appeared on the popular side, and once, in 1621, is said to have come into col- lision with the proud Earl of Arundel, the head of the Howards. Happening to appeal to the actions of their ancestors as an incentive to the Peers to take a free line of action, Arundel broke forth, " My Lord, when these things were doing, your ancestors were keeping sheep." Spencer, too proud also to put forward any spurious descent from an older family, replied, " When my ancestors were keeping sheep (as you say), your ancestors were plotting treason." A violent scene ensued, and Arundel, as the aggressor, was sent to the Tower, but after acknowledging his fault, and offering to make satisfaction, was discharged. Spencer, ia the same year, with 32 other English peers, peti- tioned the King against being compelled to give rank of courtesy as to foreigners to Englishmen who had been raised to titles in Scotland and Ireland. The King was angry at this reflection on the lavish honours he was bestowing on his favourites, and rebuked Lord Spencer especially as the chief mover in the petition. Digitized by Microsoft® 362 Wijz .Spencers* Lord Spencer died October 25, 1627, surviving by thirty years his wife, Margaret, daughter and coheir of Sir Francis Willoughby, of WooUaton, in Notting- hamshire, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. He was succeeded by his second son, Wniiam (the eldest having died without issue), second Lord Spencer, who was created a Knight of the Bath along with Prince Charles, in 1616, and represented the shire of Northampton in the Commons in three Parliaments of James L and the two first of Charles L He followed the same popular course in Parliament, and died in the 45 th year of his age, December 19, 1636. He had married Lady Penelope Wriottesley, daughter of the Earl of Southampton, who survived him thirty-one years. He had by her six sons and seven daughters. The second son, Robert, was made Viscount Teviot, in Scotland, by James IL, in 1686, but left no children. Henry, the eldest son, third Lord Spencer, was born in November 1620, and educated at Magdalen College? Oxford. When he was only nineteen his guardians (his mother and the Earl of Southampton) married him to Lady Dorothy Sidney, daughter of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and sister of Algernon Sidney, the Saccha- rissa of Waller's poems, and he went after his wedding, along with his father-in-law on his embassy to France, returned to England in October 1641, in the very crisis of the Parliamentary struggle, and took his seat immediately in the House of Lords. He at once chose his side with the party of Pym, and adhered to them actively until the complete breach with the King, and really in his heart to the end of his days. But he had an overstrained idea of the guilt of Digitized by Microsoft® Efie Spencers* 363 appearing in arms against the King, and as lie himself says, he feared to abstain from fighting on one side or the other lest he should be accused of cowardice ; so he took arms with the King, though confining himself to attendance on his person and fighting as a volunteer in the Eoyal Guard. He found nothing congenial in the Eoyal camp. He writes to his wife from Shrewsbury, September 21, 1642: "How much I am unsatisfied with the proceedings here I have at large expressed in several letters. Neither is there wanting handsome occasion to retire, were it not for gaining honour. If there could be an expedient found to solve the punctilio of honour, I would not contiaue here an hour. The discontent that I and many other honest men receive daily is beyond expression." On the 8th of June 1643, the Kiag rewarded the romantic devotion of the young nobleman by raising him to the title of Earl of Sunderland. He was at the siege of Gloucester, which he predicts to his wife to be a great mistake in tactics, as they ought to have marched on London. Here he associated with Falkland and Chil- lingworth, and heard their dispute on the merits of Socinianism. When the siege was raised there, he obtained leave to go for a day or two to Oxford, where the Earl of Leicester was staying, delayed by the King's commands from going to his Lord-Lieutenancy in Ireland, and doing nothing but await the King's pleasure. From Oxford Sunderland addressed his wife again, only four days before the first battle of New- bury : " Since I came here I have seen no creature but your father and my uncle [Southampton], so that I am altogether ignorant of the intrigues of this place. I take the best care I can about my economical afiairs. Digitized by Microsoft® 364 Wi}t Spencers. I am afraid I shall not be able to get you a better bouse, everybody thinking me mad for speaking about it. Pray bless Poppet [his little daughter] for me, and teU her that I would have writ to her, but that upon mature deliberation I found it unciAol to return an answer to a lady in another character than her own, which I am not yet learned enough to do." In four days from the date of this letter (Sept. 20, 1643), Sunderland fell in a cavalry charge at Newbury. His body was carried to Brington and there buried. The Earl of Leicester wrote to his Avidowed daughter to condole with her on the event. " I know," he says, "you lived happily, and so as nobody but yourself could measure the contentment of it. I rejoiced at it, and did thank God for making me one of the means to procure it for you." He left a son, Eobert, and a daughter, Dorothy, — ^the " Poppet " of his letter, — on whom he settled £10,000 as her marriage-portion, and who became the wife of Sir George Savile, afterwards Marquess of Halifax. Lady Sunderland lived for some years in retirement, giving shelter at her house, it is said, to the distressed Anglican clergy during the civil contest. In 1652 she married, secondly, Robert Smjrthe, son and heir of Sir John Smythe, a Kentish knight, first cousin of the first Viscount Strangford. Lady Sunderland survived her second husband also, and died ia 1684. Her great-grandson from this second marriage. Sir Sidney Smythe, became Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Hitherto the character of the Spencers has exhibited high moral qualities and abilities of a very respect- able but not the highest grade. They are now to lose in moral stamp what they gain in intellectual Digitized by Microsoft® Wi}t Spencers. 365 calibre. Eobert Spencer, second Earl of Sunderland, the only son of the high-spirited youth who fell at Newbury, passed the early part of his life in foreign travel, according to the customary practice at that period, and attracted, after his return to England, the notice of those high in power by the precocity of his talents and his keen appreciation of men and manners. In 1671 he was selected by the King to go as ambas- sador extraordinary to Spain, and in the succeeding year he was sent to Paris in the same capacity, and as one of the commissioners who proceeded to Cologne with the view of negotiating a general European peace. In 1678, when Ralph Montagu was recalled from the French Embassy, Sunderland took his place, and only left this post to enter the English Cabinet, after the fall of Danby, as Secretary of State. Here he was at 'first associated with Capel, Earl of Essex, his brother- in-law, Saville, then Viscount Halifax, and Sir WiUiam Temple. After the resignation of Essex and the with- drawal of Temple, Sunderland and Halifax continued, though hating each other, and anxious for an oppor- tunity of escaping from their companionship. The Exclusion BUI was at first opposed by Sunderland; but when the debates came on he deserted the King and spoke and voted in its favour. The struggle which ensued is well known. "When it had terminated ia the discomfiture of the Whigs, Sunderland was dismissed by the King, as the punishment of his apostasy. His political character is described in a few words by Macaulay, by saying that he was quick- sighted but not far-sighted. He had been brought up in the dangerous school of diplomacy, and while he had a shrewd and keen perception of men and Digitized by Microsoft® 366 Wi}t .Spencers* events immediately before his eyes, lie looked at every passing event simply with reference to these, and for- got that there was a world without which might be regulated by very different impulses from such nice personal considerations. His powers of personal fasci- nation were nearly unrivalled, and in private society he captivated or influenced nearly every one he encountered. But in Parliament he was a silent member, and he never appreciated the nature or im- portance of popular feeling. His principles, religious and moral, were of the lowest kind. He had held in his youth, and for some time ostentatiously paraded, the doctrines of repubhcanism. But he kept them quite apart from the world of men, with whom he was willing to deal on whatever basis best suited his own personal interests. Macaulay pronounces that his lead- ing impulses were the greed of power and wealth and the fear of personal danger, and asserts that by the operation of these two impulses all his vagaries may be explained. His religious principles were as vague as his political. He defended atheism to the French envoy, while he adopted in turn either Protestantism or Catho- licism as each seemed most advantageous to his interests. He had great administrative power in all the details and subordinate arrangements of government, and much tact and adroitness in the management of individuals, and special and ascertained situations. But he was continually discomfited by the greater events of the age, and with difficulty escaped from utter ruin by the exercise of a remarkable ingenuity when the crisis be- came apparent. He was neither addicted to women nor wine, but he was an inveterate gambler, and even if his natural disposition had not led in that direction, Digitized by Microsoft® Efje .SpEncers. 367 tte encumbrances on his estates wMcli ensued from this habit would have driven him to acquiring money ia any possible way, without shame or scruple. He had no views of any kind to stand in his way, as was the case with Danby, and his only drawback to action was an almost morbid fear of personal consequences to himself His great patron at this time was the Duchess of Portsmouth, and with her assistance, the necessity for his versatile talents which was daily felt, and the co-operation of Lawrence Hyde, better known as "Eochester," the yoimger son of the Chancellor Clarendon, who was now rising into power, Sunder- land was recalled to his office in January 1682, and held it for the remainder of the reign of Charles. Nor was he dismissed at the accession of James. He managed to ingratiate himself with the new King, though he had voted for his exclusion from the throne, and in the same year succeeded Halifax as President of the Council, retaining his Secretaryship of State. From this time Sunderland tried in every possible way to secure his continuance in power by lending himself to all the King's wishes. He willing- ly joined in all his illegal measirres, sat in the High Comjnission Court, attended the King publicly at mass in the Palace, and at last professed an inclina- tion to consider the doctrines of the Church of Eome, professed himself in a state of suspense and afterwards almost a convert to those views, joining himself to the party of the Jesuits, and collecting the Eoman clique at his table every week to consult on the measures to be adopted in their interest. The same religious test, when applied to Eochester, it is said at Sunderland's treacherous suggestion, produced opposite results and Digitized by Microsoft® 368 Wi}t Spmcers, his dismissal from office. Soon after his fall, Sunderland himself found the ground beginning to shake under him, for he not only disapproved of the proceedings in the case of Magdalen CoUege, Oxford, his father's old college, but opposed the appointment of Tyrconnel to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, in place of Eoches- ter's brother. Clarendon — Tyrconnel being pledged and devoted to the destruction of the English in Ire- land. Tyrconnel blustered and cajoled, and finally Sunderland, fearing the disclosure of some expressions of his respecting the King, gave way on condition of receiving an annuity of £5000 from Ireland, redeem- able on the payment of £50,000 down. He already enjoyed a pension of £5500 from the French King for promoting his interests, and he was making a gigantic fortune by the profits and peculations of office. To secure himself in the King's favour he made a public avowal of Roman Catholicism, and was admitted into that Church. But soon after this apostasy he became suddenly aware of the real state of feeling in the country ; he opposed the attack on the Bishops, and when he found that he was powerless in arresting the King's course, he entered into secret communications with William of Orange. The agency he chose was as disreputable as his course itseE His wife, a daughter of George Digby, second Earl of Bristol, the Lord Digby of the Civil Wars— and a woman with many of the peculiarities of her father — at once a devoted attendant on Protestant popular preachers, and a busy intriguer both in love and poli- tics — had formed a love intrigue with her husband's relative Henry Sidney, and through her letters to him Sunderland conveyed his sentiments to William. Digitized by Microsoft® Wijt Sjjcnccrs* 369 They were favourably received, and Sunderland, in the interval between August and October 1688, during which the correspondence went on, contrived to do essential service to the cause of William by prevent- ing, through his influence in the French Embassy, a French army from invading Holland and a French fleet from covering the shores of England. One of Lady Sunderland's letters, however, fell into the hands of James, and Sunderland never recovered this shock to the King's confidence in him. He carried matters with a brazen front, and for the moment per- suaded the King of his innocence ; but fresh rumours of his treachery undermined his position, and in Oc- tober he was dismissed from his office while petition- ing Mary of Modena to take his part. In the confu- sion of the ensuing revolution he disappeared. He fled to Eotterdam, where he was arrested and thrown into prison by the magistrates, until released by an order of William's. Thence he repaired to Amster- dam, where he recanted his Roman Catholicism, and published a defence of his conduct, professing to have been always in favour of constitutional principles. He also studiously attended the Dutch Protestant Churches. He was excluded by name from the Act of Oblivion, but, after the dissolution of the Conven- tion Parliament in 1690, ventured over to England, and had an interview with King William. He then retired for the time to his country house ; but in the spring of 1691 re-appeared in London at the drawing- room, to the astonishment, of every one, and was most graciously received by the King. He seems to have succeeded in fascinating William completely, and the King for the rest of his political life had constant Digitized by Microsoft® 370 Eije Spmccrs, reference to him for advice. This is a great tribute to his abilities, though it produced great scandal at the time, and was one of the charges brought against King William's character. Sunderland managed to skulk down to the House of Lords on the occasion of a formal prorogation, and took the oaths and his seat ; but he did not appear again as a regular attendant in Parliament tUl 1692. In 1693 he took a house at Whitehall, was habitually consulted by the King, and by his advice William in that year called the Whigs to his counsels. His eldest surviving son, Charles, Lord Spencer, was now taking a position in political life in the ranks of that party, and Sunderland had made up his mind to act with them as the less hostUe to himself personally of the two parties. Still the Whig leaders distrusted him, and the Whig rank and file hated him as a Eomanist apostate. In 1695 he was the main instrument in bringing about a reconcili- ation between the King and the Princess Anne, who, since the death of the Queen, had been more disposed to reconciliation as the way was paved to her own succession. In the same year William paid Sunder- land a visit at Althorpe, on occasion of a Eoyal pro- gress which he was making. "All Northampton- shire," says Macaulay, "crowded to kiss the Royal hand in that fine gallery, which had been embellished by the pencil of Vandyke and made classical by the muse of Waller ; and the Earl tried to conciliate his neighbours by feasting them at eight tables, all blazing with plate." Sunderland had, during this period of restored favour, been on the whole faithful to William, though he had made one or two faint overtures to St Germains, very ungraciously received. His assistance Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Spencers* 371 to the Government had also been very considerable, as even his enemies admit that affairs went on much more successfully after he attained this position. But he had the folly, in 1697, to accept the ofl&ce of Lord Chamberlain, instead of contenting himself with ruling the country without an ofl&ce. Immediately all his enemies attacked him, Whigs, Tories, and Jacobites, in one unanimous cry of reprobation. His Whig col- leagues did not pretend to support him, and one of them described him as a fireship, more dangerous to his friends than his foes. Nothing could appease the hatred and distrust of politicians, and the whole nation echoed the cry. The King stood firmly by him, and his friends tried to persuade him to hold his ground ; but a threatened address of the Commons to the King to remove him from the Eoyal counsels for ever, frightened him so much that he insisted on resigning, and retired in the most hurried way into private life, from which he never again emerged, dying at Althorpe, September 28, 1702, leaving behind him the reputa- tion of an evil Ahithophel. He was succeeded by his younger son, Charles, who had entered Parliament in 1695 as member for Tiver- ton, and ran a remarkable career. His character is the subject of much dispute among historians. Mac- aulay is very severe in his remarks on him. " The precocious maturity of the young man's intellectual and moral character had created hopes," he says, " which were not destined to be realised. His know- ledge of ancient literature and his sldll in imitating the styles of the masters of Eoman eloquence were applauded by veteran scholars. The sedateness of his deportment and the apparent regularity of his life Digitized by Microsoft® 372 K^t Spmcers, delighted austere moralists. He was known, indeed, to have one expensive taste; but it was a taste of the most respectable kind. He loved books, and was bent on forming the most magnificent private library in Eng- land. While other heirs of noble houses were inspect- ing patterns of steinkirks and sword-knots, dangling after actresses, or betting on fighting-cocks, he was in pursuit of the Mentz editions of TuUy's ' Ofiiees,' of the Parmesan ' Statius,' and of the inestimable ' Vir- gil ' of Zarottus. It was natural that high expecta- tions should be formed of the virt.ue and wisdom of a youth whose very luxury and prodigality had a grave and erudite air; and that even discerning men should be unable to detect the vices which. were hidden un- der that show of premature sobriety. Spencer was a Whig, unhappily for the Whig party, which before the unhonoured and unlamented close of his life was more than once brought to the verge of ruin by his violent temper and his crooked politics." On the other hand, Lord Stanhope, who may have been some- what influenced by the friendship between his great ancestor and Sunderland, observes : " The character of Earl Charles has, in my opinion, been unjustly depre- ciated; he has been confounded with his predecessor, and the perfidy of the parent has cast its blighting shade over the fame of the son. The father was a subtle, pliant, and unscrupulous candidate for royal favour ; the son carried his love of popular rights to the very verge of republican doctrines. If he be sometimes open to charges of secret cabals, we find him much more frequently accused of imprudent vehemence and bluntness. . . . He was, undoubt- edly, a man of great quickness, discernment, and skill, Digitized by Microsoft® K\it Spencers* 373 of persevering ambition, of a ready eloquence. Under the show of a cold and reserved exterior there glowed the volcano of an ardent and fiery spirit, a warm attachment to his friends, and an unsparing rancour against his opponents. His learning is not denied, even by the enmity of Swift, and his activity in busi- ness seems to be equally unquestionable. In private life he might be accused of extravagance and love of play, and his conduct in more than one public trans- action appears to me either equivocal or blamable; but I may observe that several points for which he was condemned by his contemporaries would, on the contrary, deserve the approbation of more enlightened times." On the whole, perhaps, we may say that the cloud which overshadowed his father's fame gave a deeper colouring, in the popular mind, to Sunderland's moral delinquencies than the truth warranted ; but, on the other hand, that there was just enough resem- blance in his character to some parts of his father's to support the belief that the hereditary taint existed, though it may have been far less engrained than in the father's case. His father also had an affected frank- ness of manner, though no man was really less frank. In early life Charles Spencer put forward strong re- publican opinions, refusing to be called " Lord," and saying that he hoped to see the end of that order. Macaulay treats his republicanism as of the narrowest oligarchical and Venetian character, based on the aris- tocratic types of Pompey and Cicero. But the reason he gives for this opinion, the measure brought forward at a later period by Sunderland to restrict the number of the Peers, is not conclusive on the point. He cer- tainly throughout life professed strong Whig opinions, 2b Digitized by Microsoft® 374 Wi}t Spntcers. and in the Parliaments of 1695, 1698, and 1701, he advocated these principles so eloquently in the House of Commons, and, after his accession to the Peerage, in the House of Lords, that he soon rose to distinction in the ranks of the Whig party. In Parliamentary elo- quence he much excelled his father. He had first married, in 1695, a daughter of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle ; but on her death (leaving only a daughter, married to the heir of the Earl of Carlisle) he made a second and more important match Avith Lady Anne Churchill, Marlborough's second daughter and coheiress, and through his father-in-law's in- fluence, probably, he was sent in the summer of 1705 as ambassador to Vienna, to compliment the Emperor Joseph on his accession, and on the 10th of AprU 1706, was appointed one of the Commissioners for the Union with Scotland. These were only introductory steps to the more important post of Secretary of State, which the Whigs obtained for him in December 1706. Marlborough is said to have opposed the appointment at first, distrusting his son-in-law's rashness ; but the all-potent Sarah decided that it should be so. The Cabinet soon became entirely Whig by the removal of Harley, the other Secretary, and from this time down to the year 1710 Sunderland continued to act in this post with considerable abUity, though historians differ as to his discretion as a politician and a pohtical leader. According to Lord Dartmouth, " Queen Anne said Lord Sunderland always treated her with great rudeness and neglect, and chose to reflect in a very injurious manner upon all princes before her as a proper entertainment for her." But the Duchess of Marlborough's influence having then given way to Digitized by Microsoft® Etc Spencers. 375 another's, Sunderland, as her son-in-law, got naturally out of the Queen's good graces, and in June 1710, the first public intimation of the approaching downfall of the Whigs was given by the Earl's sudden dismissal from his Secretaryship. As soon as Sunderland's in- tended dismissal began to be rumoured, Marlborough, his wife tells us, wrote a very moving letter to the Queen against the step, and the Duchess herself was persuaded to condescend to similar appeals. But aU was vain, and Sunderland remained out of office for the rest of that reign. When the house of Hanover was proclaimed, he naturally looked for a high appointment in the Cabinet. But first of all both he and his father- in-law were passed over in the appointments of Lords Justices before the King's arrival, and when the new Cabinet was formed Townshend was preferred to him, and he had merely the appointment of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Incensed at this slight, Sunderland never repaired to his post, but consoled himself with annoy- ing the Government by giving all the Irish appoint- ments to " natives," to the horror of the " English " party there. He is also accused of intrigues with the Pretender, and it is certain he coquetted with the Jacobites as well as the Tories to induce them to join him against the Government, drawing off' also some of the Whigs. He alarmed the Government sufficiently to induce them, in August 1715, to make him Privy Seal with a seat in the Cabinet, and in February 1716, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. But as this gave him no real power, he continued to maintain a sulky silence in the House of Lords, and to intrigue against his colleagues. In July 1716, he had an opportunity of revenging himself on them. The King's journey to Digitized by Microsoft® 376 Eije Spencers* Hanover, as we have said in our account of the first Earl Stanhope, gave Sunderland, who was at Aix-la- Chapelle, the means of personal access to the Bang. Of this he availed himself with such effect that he captivated George as completely as his father had Charles, James, and William. He also made a friend of Stanhope, and together they contrived to get Town- shend dismissed, and in April 171T, Walpole and Pulteney shared the same fate, and Sunderland and Stanhope became the heads of a new Government — the former as Secretary of State. This post he sub- sequently exchanged with Stanhope for that of First Lord of the Treasury, and he also took for the time the post of President of the CouncU, and, on his resign- ing the latter office in February 1719, the King, as a sort of special favour, made him Groom of the Stole and First Gentleman of the Bedchamber. Sunderland now ruled the home policy of the Government as Stanhope did its foreign. In March 1719, the former introduced his Peerage Bill, restricting the number of creations — intended, it is said, by Sunderland, as an act of protection to himself and his colleagues against the Prince of Wales in case of the King's death. After passing through the House of Lords without a division, it was at last thrown out in the Commons, through the exertions of Walpole, by a large majority. Sunderland is accused of having vainly attempted to secure a pliant House of Commons by the exercise of the grossest bribery and jobbery. But, perhaps, here also we must allow something for party exaggeration and recollections of his father's conduct. He now found it necessary to conciliate Walpole, and the latter and Townshend also, despairing of overthrowing the Digitized by Microsoft® Efj0 Spencers, 377 Cabinet, consented to enter it in June 1720. The Cabinet was scarcely re-formed when the South Sea Bubble crash occurred, and among the revelations which came forth was an accusation against several of the Ministers of corruption. Sunderland especially was accused of taking £50,000 of stock without pajdng for it. Lord Stanhope discredits the charge ; other his- torians consider it proved. The public, however, at the time, from the recollection of his father's corrupt deahngs, had no doubts, and the accusation, it is said, would have been declared established if it had not been for the great exertions of Walpole. The public still continued to believe in his guilt and to clamour against him, and Sunderland, like his father, thought it prudent to beat a retreat, and in April 1721 re- signed all his appointments. He continued, however, to exercise a great influence on public affairs, and retained such favour with the King that he really nominated to the important offices, and among these appointments was that of Lord Carteret, who grate- fully defends his memory. He is accused of intriguing without cessation to remove Walpole from power and procure his own reinstatement ; and, again, of corre- spondence with the Pretender ; but it appears, on the authority of the Chevalier himself, that he merely made vague professions of goodwill to some of the Jaco- bites, most probably, as before, to gain them over, and it would also seem that he did so with the knowledge and approval of King George. In the midst, however, of his intrigues and hopes, Sunderland died suddenly, on the 19th of April 1722— so suddenly that poison was hinted at ; but on his body being opened it was found that he died from disease of the heart. Besides Digitized by Microsoft® 378 Efje .Spencers. his patronage of books and learning, he was an active member of the Kit-Kat Club. He had married a third time ; but his sons who succeeded to the property were all by his second wife, eventually the heiress of the Churchais. Of his four sons, the eldest, Eobert, succeeded as fourth Earl of Sunderland, but died unmarried November 27, 1729; the second, Charles, succeeded his brother as fifth Earl of Sunderland, and on the death of his aunt Henrietta, Duchess of Marl- borough (the wife of Earl Godolphin), in 1733, became Duke of Marlborough. John, the third son of the third Earl of Sunderland, in 1744, succeeded to the Spencer property, with Althorpe, and was the father of the first Earl Spencer. We shall first pursue the fortunes of the elder branch, who, as Dukes of Marlborough, still hold a high position in English political and social life. Charles Spencer, fifth Earl of Sunderland and seventh Lord Spencer, on the death of his cousin, the Mar- quess of Blandford, only son of Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, and Earl Godolphin, succeeded to an annual rent-charge of £8000, and on the decease of the Duchess without male issue, October 24, 1733, succeeded as Duke of Marlborough to the honours of the Churchills — a family claiming a descent from Eoger de CourcOl, who held lands in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire in the time of the Doomsday survey; but which will be only remem- bered in history as the family of the " Great Duke." The new Duke chose the career of a soldier, and became Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Dragoons, commanded the Foot Guards at Dettingen, and the great but fruitless expedition of 1758 against St Malo. Digitized by Microsoft® Wijz Spencers. 379 He had scarcely returned wlien he was placed in com- mand of an expedition to Embden, where he died, men said, of dysentery, but others suspected foul play — a gentleman having shortly before been prose- cuted for threatening, if the Duke did not supply his wants, to avenge himself " by means which no physic would remedy." His successor, George, third Duke, was a man of very retired habits, of whom Lord Lough- borough said that he would have been an excellent head for a coalition Cabinet if only he could have overcome his aversion to business. In 1789, in the ' Auckland Correspondence,' regret is expressed at his being too nervous to second the Address to the Throne. He was a Conservative-Whig in his opin- ions, and a general supporter of Mr Pitt's Govern- ment, but he scarcely took any part in politics, having a great aversion to the heartburnings and animosities often consequent on that career. He lived almost entirely at Blenheim, where he rendered himself an object of great affection to his tenants and the neigh- bourhood by his amiable and charitable disposition. His private life is described as unblemished even by the faintest scandal, and in him we seem to have a revival of the old Spencer type of character exhibited by the predecessors of the two intriguing Earls. He married a daughter of John, Duke of Bedford, and was found dead in his bed without any previous indisposi- tion, January 29, 1817, at the age of seventy-eight. The Duke's second son, Francis Almeric Spencer, was created, on the 11th of August 1815, Baron Churchill of Whichwood, Oxfordshire, and his son is the present Lord Churchill. George, fourth Duke of Marlborough, was a singu- Digitized by Microsoft® 380 Efjc Spencers^ lar man, whose career had a most promising com- mencement and a melancholy termination. He was educated at Oxford, and entered Parliament for Ox- fordshire in 1790, in room of his uncle, Lord Charles Spencer, but relinquished the seat to him again in 1796. In July 1804 he was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty, which office he fiUed till February 1806, when he was called up to the House of Peers in his father's Barony of Spencer. After his father's death, when he became Duke of Marlborough, he took by royal licence, in May 1817, the name and arms of Churchill, in addition to those of Spencer. He attached himself to the Whig party, and became a strong partisan. Some scandal was created at an election for Woodstock by the Duke's younger son standing on his father's interest against the elder, the Marquess of Blandford, who had adopted Conserva- tive views. While he was Marquess of Blandford, the Duke exhibited many of the tastes of his family, and was distinguished by the magnificence and reck- less expense with which he indulged in them. Espe- cially his gardens and his library at White Knights, near Reading, which place he had purchased in 1798, attracted general attention. At the sale of the library of the Duke of Eoxburghe, in 1812, the Marquess (as he then was) engaged in competition with his cousin. Earl Spencer, for an edition of the ' Decame- rone' of Boccaccio, printed at Venice in 1471, and obtained it at the enormous price of £2260. An im- perfect copy was already in the library at Blenheim. The Eoxburghe Club was formed on this occasion. Earl Spencer becoming President, and the Marquess of Blandford one of its members. In 1815 he bought the celebrated Bedford Missal for the sum of £698, 5s. Digitized by Microsoft® Efje Spencers. 381 Besides these expensive tastes the Duke had the family vice of gambling, and the two combiaed brotight him down from his princely position to one of great poverty. His collections were all sold, and for the latter years of his life he lived in complete but not reputable seclusion in one corner of Blen- heim Palace, and seldom quitted the spot, except for a short visit every year to a watering-place. He died March 5, 1840. His eldest son and successor, George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke, did nothing to redeem the family character, though in the first period of his succession to the dukedom he managed by rather close economy to retrieve in some measure the family property. He also quarrelled with his eldest son on the score of politics — the latter having adopted Peel principles. The Duke died July 1, 1857, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John Winston, sixth and present Duke, a man of far higher personal character and some ability, though (of late years) of rather narrow Church -Conservative principles. His younger brother. Lord Alfred Spencer-Churchill, M.P., has exhibited some talent as a politician, and is a very Liberal Conservative. We must now hastily glance at the career of the younger Spencer branch, represented by the present Earl Spencer. John Spencer, the youngest son of Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland, by Lady Anne Churchill, entered Parliament for Woodstock at the beginning of 1732, for which place he continued to sit for many years. In October 1744, on the death of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, he acquired a large property. In the first place his elder brother, in ac- cordance with his grandfather's will, relinquished the Spencer patrimony in his favour on attaining to the Digitized by Microsoft® 382 E\it .Silencers. Churcliill estates, and Althorpe became the chief seat of the new Spencer family. At the same time John Spencer acquired an immense property from the de- ceased Duchess, whose favourite grandson he was, — nearly all her large paternal (the Jennings') estates — among them the Wimbledon property — and nearly the whole of the Duchess's own accumulations of money duriag her long life. The new family, therefore, started on a scale of opulence more than equal to the elder branch. John Spencer also succeeded to the office of Ranger and Keeper of the Great Park at Windsor, which fell to him on the death of his grand- mother, the Duchess, and was the only place he was allowed by her wUl to accept. He died June 20, 1 746, and was succeeded by his only son, John, bom Decem- ber 18, 1734. He entered Parliament for Warwick in December 1757, and on April 3, 1761, was created Viscount Spencer and Baron Spencer of Althorpe, and on November 1, 1765, Viscount Althorpe, and Earl Spencer. He held no public office, and died October 31, 1783. His only son and successor, George John, second Earl Spencer, attached himself to the Whig party, and particularly that section headed by the Duke of Portland. Along with the Duke he took office, 1782, as a Lord of the Treasury, and again in July 1794, under Pitt, as Lord Privy Seal. This office he exchanged in the autumn of the same year for that of First Lord of the Admiralty, which he filled down to the year 1801. He was no debater, but had considerable administrative abilities, and it was under his guidance that the naval department of the Government remained during the greater "part of the first revolutionary war with France, besides which he had to contend with the formidable mutiny at the Digitized by Microsoft® Wiiz .Spencers. 383 Nore. He disapproved of the terms of the peace of Amiens, and, attaching himself thenceforth to Lord Grenville, with him took ofl&ce in 1806 along with Fox. After the death of that statesman Lord Spencer re- tired from public life, and at Althorpe revived the old fame of his family for hospitality and attention to their estates. He took great pains in establishing savings banks in the county, and was for many years Chair- man of the Quarter Sessions. About fifteen years before his death his tenantry presented him with a silver vase as a testimonial of their attachment, at a meeting at Althorpe, at which one tenant was present whose ancestors had held from the Spencers uninter- ruptedly from the time of the founder. Sir John Spencer, in the reign of Henry VIH. The Earl also, as we have intimated, was a great collector of books, " and the splendid library at Althorpe is a monument of his taste and energy." He had the true Spencer love of private life, and maintained the family vir- tues. His death, November 10, 1834, gave William IV. the opportunity of dismissing the Whig Ministry, of which his eldest son, John Charles, was the leader in the House of Commons as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The character of this nobleman, the third Earl Spen- cer, is well known. His early leadership of the Liberal party in the first days of the Eeform administration, his retirement into private life and assiduous patron- age of agricultural pursuits, and his advocacy of free- trade principles, are matters of recent history. He died October 1, 1845, and was succeeded by his brother Frederick, fourth Earl, who died December 27, 1857, and was succeeded by his son John Poyntz, fifth and present Earl Spencer. Neither of the two last Earls has made any position in political life, though the Digitized by Microsoft® 384 EJjc Spmcers. " estimable " character of the family seems not to have been misrepresented in their persons. We have abstained hitherto, contrary to custom, from giving any opinion on the character of this great house, chiefly for this reason. No narrative within our Hmits of space would prove what we believe to be the truth, — that the Spencers have, from first to last, belonged to a class, formerly very rare, now terribly common^ — ^men in whom great ability, sound judgment, and a positive passion for culture were always weak- ened, and frequently vitiated, by a febrile nervous- ness of organisation. Their love of private life pro- ceeded mainly from a consciousness of this fact, and so did the strange union of daring ambition and moral timidity which distinguished the ablest among them. In the Sunderland this nervousness rose to the height of morbid timidity, and we believe that the motive of all his unscrupulousness and the governing principle of his conduct was the morbid dread of consequences to himself — not consequences in the sense of direct personal danger, but consequences in the way in which these organisations always picture the unknown to themselves. There has not been a Spencer without capacity, or one who might not have repeated as his own autobiography Southey's line, — " But I all naked feeling and raw life." END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft®