BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1S91 l//.;Z0j3j^2. Z^./jy./.^..< CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 088 003 342 J Al Cornell University yjJM Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924088003342 LIFE AND WOEKS OP THE FIRST MAEQUIS OF HAIJFAX VOL. I. afte^'f-y/in^ -e 11 -q ta'ttv/ig, t'/j rylt>-uM''/ayK.ey?iy THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP SIR GEORGE SAYILE, BART. FIRST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX &c. WITH A NEW EDITION OF SIS WOEKS NOW FOB THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED AND REVISED BY H. C. FOXCEOFT ' Turning to scorn, with lips divine, The falsehood of extremes ' IN TWO VOLUJrES— VOL. I. LOA'GMANS, GEEEN, AND (! 0. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1898 All rights- reserved PEEFACE ' J'ayme les Historiens, ou fort simples, ou excellens : Les simples . . . qui n'y apportent que ... la diligence de ramasser tout ce qui vient a leur notice . . . nous laisseut le jugement entier, pour la oognoissauce de la verity. — Montaigne. ' Circumstances must come in, and are to be made a part of the matter of ■which we are to judge ; positive decisions are always dangerous, more especially in politics.' — Halifax (' A Bough Draught '). In an article on the works of Lord Halifax which appeared in the ' English Historical EeTiew ' for October 1896 — and which constituted, in fact, a. brief epitome of the following pages — attention was called by their author to the comparative neglect which has overshadowed the reputation of the brilliant writer and statesman to whose life and works they are devoted ; and readers were re- minded that authorities so varied and so distinguished as Hume and Eanke, as Ealph, Mackintosh and Mac- aulay, have described Lord Halifax in the language of superlative. Von Eanke, a by no means friendly critic, pronounces him one of the finest pamphleteers that have ever lived.' Mackintosh, whose estimate of Savile's political action is seldom favourable, accords to him the attribute of a ' brilliant genius ; ' ^ regards his ' Letter to a Dissenter ' as ' the most perfect model, perhaps, of a pohtical tract ; ' ^ and observes that ' the fragments of his writing which remain, show such poignant and easy wit, such lively sense, so much insight into character, and so dehcate an observation of manners, as could ' Englische Geschichte, v. 148, edit. Berlin, 1859-68. 2 History of English Revolution, p. 8. " Ibid. p. 174. vi LIFE OF FIRST MAKQUIS OF HALIFAX hardly have been surpassed by any of his contemporaries at Versailles.' ' Lord Macaulay — whom we should have supposed incapacitated, by the prejudice of party and by the limitations of an intellect robust rather than subtle, from due appreciation of his merits — entertained for him, as is well known, a progressive admiration, which verged upon enthusiasm. To his championship Lord Halifax owes what little popular recognition he has attained ; while, despite serious errors of conception and of detail, the brilliant portraits enshrined in the pages of the ' History ' ^ — and even, to an inferior extent, the earlier and less adequate estimate of the ' Essay on Sir William Temple ' ^ — display an imaginative insight rarely evinced by the great Whig historian. He declares Halifax, in point of genius, the first statesman of his age ; asserts for his tracts their true place among the classics of English literature ; and dilates on the extraordinary sagacity which, distinguishing Lord Halifax ' from all other English statesmen,' enabled him almost invariably, ' through a long public life, and through frequent and violent revolu- tions of public feeling,' to take ' that view of the great questions of his time which history has finally adopted.' The article then demonstrated, in detail, the need for a ' Life and Works ' of the statesman so suggestively eu- logised. An error in this part of the essay '' (kindly pointed out by Mr. Seccombe) calls for revision ; brief apprecia- tive notices of Lord Halifax, with short extracts from his pamphlets, occur in Craik's ' English Prose Selections ' ' and in Dr. Garnett's ' Age of Dryden.' <* Mention should also have been made of Mr. Saintsbury's eulogistic references, in the ' Pocket Library of Enghsh Literature,' ^ which ' History of English Revolution, p. 8. ■= See especially in chapter ii. vol. i. p. 252, edit. 1858, and chapter xxi. vol. vii. p. 171. = Essays, iii. 81-85, edit. 1848. * ' His name occurs in no history of English literature, etc.' Mr. Seccombe also mentions an article by Mr. A. C. Ewald|(Temple Bar, liii. 211). It is unimportant. ' "Vol. iii. p. 209 (by Principal A. W. Ward). ' Pages 251-254. ' Vol. iv. pp. i, xi, xviii, and 1 (published by Percival & Qq,, 1892). PREFACE vii includes the ' Letter to a Dissenter ; ' while two of the Halifax tracts have been since republished, by Mr. Pollard, in the ' Pamphlet Library ' of Mr. Waugh. Shortly after the appearance of the above article the writer had the honour of seeing in proof the ad- mirable notice of Lord Halifax contributed by Mr. Seccombe to the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' As stated by Mr. Seccombe, the manuscript of the present work was subsequently placed in his hands for the correc- tion of his proofs. On the other hand, the present author is indebted to Mr. Seccombe' s article for several very valuable references. Of these, by far the most important is the citation of an article by Mr. Elliot in ' Macmillan's Magazine,' vol. xxxvi. p. 452, which with information in the present writer's possession led to the identification of the manuscript designated throughout this work as the ' Devonshire House Notebook ; ' but material assistance has also been derived from Mr. Seccombe's allusions to Chester's ' Westminster Abbey Eegisters,' to the ' Peerage ' by G. E. C, to the ' Genealogist ' (vol. x. N.s.), to Dart's ' Westmonasterium,' to Sir E. Maunde Thompson's edition of the ' Hatton-Finch Correspondence,' to the Dangeau ' Journal,' and to the Ailesbury ' Memoirs.' The author is further indebted to the courtesy of Professor Maitland, for the correction of a legal statement on pp. 4 and 5, vol. i. ; to Mrs. Salmon, for references to Poster's ' Yorkshire Pedigrees ' ' and Musgrave's ' Obi- tuaries ; ' Mo the Eev. J. S. Moore, for extracts from the Dagenham Eegisters ; ^ and to the Eev. J. B. Medley for five valuable notes.'' Materials previously unpublished have been obtained from the Eecord Office ; the Eegistry of Wills at Somerset House ; the Manuscript Departments of the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries ; ^ and from collections ' See infra, chapters i. and ii. and Pedigree. ' See infra, vol. ii. p. 20, note 3. ' ' Ihid. * See infra, vol. ii. p. 291, note 2 ; p. 351, note 1 ; p. 413, note 2 ; p. 429, note 1 ; p. 528, note 1. * In the latter case by kind permission of the authorities. viii LIFE OF FIRST MAKQUIS OF HALIFAX in the hands of private owners, who have been good enough to permit the toranscription of manuscripts in their possession. The history of the Savile archives is unfortunately obscure. On the death of the second (and last) Marquis, in 1700, Eufford (the principal seat of the family) passed to a younger branch. We presume that papers immediately relating to the final generations of the extinct line were removed to Halifax House, the town residence of the family, which seems to have descended to the co-heiresses of the second Marquis, In 17^tf the house changed hands, and we find Lord Nottingham, maternal grand- father of the young ladies, writing to one of them (Lady Dorothy Savile) respecting the removal of family papers. ' You may afterwards,' he adds, ' upon perusal of y™ judge what are fift to be kept and iv' to be burnt.' ^ This last expression is ominous, and lends colour to the tradition which looms — a tantalising spectre — before the vision of the disappointed biographer. It appears tolerably certain, from the vague and disjointed notices upon which we are compelled to rely, that the first Marquis left behind him, among other unpublished papers, two copies of a manuscript described as his ' Journal ' or ' Memoirs.' It has been stated in a note to Malone's ' Dryden,' on the authority of Lord Orford,'^ that Lord Nottingham burnt one copy of the so-called ' Journal,' and that the second was destroyed by Lady Dorothy Savile herself (who married the last Earl of Burlington), at the instigation of Alexander Pope, who regarded them as too critical of the Roman Catholic religion. ' Savile and Finch correspondence, British Museum Add. MSS. 28,.569 f . 152: March 1, 1712 : ' . . . when ye writings and family pictures and such things as are yours or you desire to have are remov'd to a room w"' we must hire for the custody of them, I think it will be best to sell the rest. . . .' March 8, 1715 : '- As for those boxes and holes which you desire to search for papers, if you will trust me (if I am able) or L" Finch, he shall take care to search every ye least hole or corner and to bring away every scrip w"'out looking into y"" y' you may afterwards upon perusal of y" judge what are fitt to be kept and w' to be burnt ' (t. 154). ' Vol. ii. p. 209, note 1. PKEFACE IX Despite this act of Vandalism, admirers of Halifax owe much to the memory of Lady Burlington. A woman of talent and literary taste, we must probably ascribe to her initiative the publication in 1742 of Algernon Sidney's correspondence with Mr. Henry Savile ; ^ and of the ' Character of Charles II.' and ' Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Eeflections,' written by her illustrious grandfather, which were published in March 1750 ^ from originals in her possession. Lady Burlington died September 21, 1758.3 g^g left an only surviving daughter and heiress, Charlotte, married March 28, 1748, to William Lord Hartington, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire.' We should suppose there- fore that the Halifax papers must have passed into the possession of the Cavendish family. Permission was very courteously accorded for the investigation and transcription of the Halifax manuscripts still at Devonshire House. A large portion of the official correspondence of Lord Halifax, described in a manuscript catalogue yet extant, seems to have disappeared. We do not gather, however, that these documents were of historical value. Others among the more interesting items of the collection have been long since published.^ Of the re- maining papers, by far the most valuable are the petition drawn up by Lord Halifax in 1688 for the seven imprisoned bishops ; a number of very important memoranda, on loose sheets, in the hand of Lord Halifax (principally notes for speeches in Parliament during the years 1689-95) ; and the so-called ' Halifax Notebook.' Meanwhile, curious to relate — and we are unable to offer any explanation of the circumstance — a proportion, ' The originals were recently discovered at Devonshire House ; they no doubt passed into the possession of the first Marquis of Halifax on the death of his brother Henry, to whom the letters are addressed. '^ Gentleman's Magazine, xx. 144. ' Ibid, xxviii. 452. Her husband had predeceased her in 1753. (See ibid. xxii. 590.) ' Burke. ' The Sidney letters (1742) ; letters of Lady Kussell and Lady Sunder- land (1819) ; the Savile Correspondence (edited by Mr. Cooper for the Camden Society, 1858, from a copy letter book), X LIFE OF FIRST MAKQUIS OF HALIFAX almost equally large, of the Halifax manuscripts {including letters from Lady Burlington to her daughter) has found its way to the Spencer archives.' Special thanks are due for the liberality that has permitted a thorough inspection of these papers, which are admirably arranged. The mass of correspondence included in the collection has furnished much material, but the two most important items are : {a) a joui-nal of conversations between William III. and Lord Halifax during the first year of the monarch's reign, evidently compiled by the Marquis about March 1690 from his original memoranda ; and (b) a very interesting manuscript character of Lord Halifax, entitled 'Saviliana.' To both of these manuscripts further reference is made below. The Longleat collection ^ contains several letters from Lord Halifax, two of especial interest. These, with various other valuable specimens of contemporary corre- spondence, and an early manuscript version of the ' Character of a Trimmer,' were most kindly placed at the disposal of the present writer. Acknowledgments are also due for the courtesy which has contributed complete transcripts of letters in the Wel- beck and Netherby collections, previously but imperfectly reported by the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Two questions relative to the papers examined require a more detailed explanation. I. As regards the identity of the so-called Diaries, Journals, and Memoirs of Lord Halifax, it appears certain that the Marquis left notices of contemporary events in three (or perhaps four) different forms ; — {a) Eough jottings and memoranda on loose sheets, of which several are extant at Devonshire House. (Two clerical transcripts of the ' Journals ' at Spencer House, which are there preserved with the Halifax manu- scripts, were, as is distinctly stated, copied from similar memoranda.) ' The collection is briefly catalogued in Hist. MSS. Com. liep. ii., Appendix. ^ Catalogued in Hist. MSS. Com. Eep. iii. and iv. PREFACE xi {h) Journals, in chronological order, arranged from the former. (An existing example is the Jom-nal at Spencer House.) (c) Notebooks, in which notabilia from the preceding are arranged under subject headings, in index order, (Of this we have an instance in the Notebook now at Devon- shire House — of which many entries are drawn from the Spencer House Journal. The former curious little volume is evidently identical with the ' Diary ' of Lord Halifax, said to have been temporarily entrusted in 1781 to Eobertson the historian for the purposes of an historical project eventually abandoned;' with the 'Halifax MS.' or ' MSS.' believed to have been employed by Fox in his " History of James H.,' but never quoted by him, though cited freely by Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Wallace ; ^ with the ' Diary ' understood to have been in the possession of the sixth Duke of Devonshire, but to have been missing at his death ; ^ with the ' New Manuscript of George Savile, first Marquis of Halifax,' discovered during the year 1877 in the possession of Mrs. Trotter, grand- daughter of the first Lord Dunfermline, and described at length by Mr. Elliot in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for October 1877. [That editor points out the curious fact that the Notebook contains obvious quotations from the Eeresby ' Memoirs,' which must therefore have been seen by Lord Halifax in manuscript.] The Notebook, we are informed, will be eventually published entire; in the meantime per- mission has been very kindly given to make use of extracts.) (d) It is, of course, impossible to state whether the so-called ' Memoirs ' destroyed in the eighteenth century ' Tyers, Political Conferences, p. 147, quoted in Mr. Christie's article on Lord Halifax, Saturday Review, February 22, 1873. ' History of the English Revolution, pp. 9 (note), 10 (note), 55, 84 (notes d, e), 200 (note b), 279 (note b), 380 (note 6), 381 (note c), 396 (note a), 452 (note It is said to be from a picture in the possession of Sir George Savile Bart. (i.e. at Eufford). = Lord Orford, TVorfes, iv. 12."i, edit. 1798 : ' Houbraken . living in Holland, ignorant of our history, uninquisitive of what was transmitted to him, engraved whatever was sent.' PREFACE XV the monumental alto-relievo medallion which (supported by substantial cherubs) adorns the tomb of Lord Halifax in AVestminster Abbey. Lord Macaulay considered it more lifelike than any other representation of the Marquis with which he was acquainted.^ With regard to the plan of the present work, it is best defined in the language of Montaigne quoted above. The object has been less to obtrude the opinion of the compiler than to give the reader every facility for forming an independent judgment. All the evidence available is cited, where possible, in the words of the original authority; and this attempt affords the apology for a multiplicity — • it is feared, a redundancy — of footnotes. Faults of a yet more serious kind will be apparent to all discerning readers ; nor has the writer any wish to deprecate the censure which they deserve. Some indulgence,' however, may be accorded to one compelled to retrace on occasion, in very pedestrian fashion, the ground rendered classic by Macaulay ; while a lenient construction is requested for any such errors, verbal or literal, as may be subsequently detected in transcripts from private collections, which, owing to the great mass of papers examined, had often to be taken with some rapidity. ' History, vol. iv. p. 143, edit. 1858. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME George Savile, First Marquis of Halifax . . Frontispiece After the engraving by Houbraken. PAGE Preface v Part I. LIFE AND LETTEBS CHAPTEB I History op the Savile Family — Birth of George Savile, AFTERWARDS MaRQUIS OF HALIFAX 1 appendix : THE SAVILE-WENTWORTH LITIGATION . . 15 CHAPTER II Youth of Sir George Savile 17 APPENDIX : notices RELATING TO THE SAVILE ESTATES, 1644-60 27 CHAPTER III Introduction to Political Life — Relations with Lord Chancellor Clarendon 28 appendix: the savile estates, 1660 . . , , 57 CHAPTER IV The Ascendency of Buckingham and the Development of the 'Cabal,' 1667-72— Embassy of 1672 . . . . 59 appendix : the middleburgh manifesto . . . 102 CHAPTER V In Opposition, 1673-79— Relations with Lord Shaftesbury and Sir William Coventry 103 VOL. I. a xviii LIFE OF FIRST JIARQUIS OF HALIFAX CHAPTER VI PAGE The Privy Council of 1679 141 appendix : lettee from algernon sidney to lord HALIFAX • • 204 CHAPTER VII In Retreat, Feb.-Sept. 1680 . . . . 205 CHAPTER VIII The ' Exclusion ' Contest op 1680-81 233 APPENDIX : essential clauses of the exclusion bill 293 CHAPTER IX In the Government, 1681-85 Part I. — Preliminary : at Rufford, Maeoii-May 1681 . 294 Part II.— 'First Minister,' May 1681— March 16|i . 298 Part III. — Ascendency of the Duke of York, March 1682-AuG. 1684 857 Part IV.— The Revulsion of 1684 420 appendices : i. the accusation of subornation . . 436 II. commission to manage the ecclesias- tical patronage of the crown . 436 iii. the marquis of halifax to viscount ■weymouth 437 CHAPTER X In Disgrace, 1685-88 Part I. — President of Council, Feb.-Oct. 1685 . . 438 Part II.— Out of Office, Oct. 1685-Oct. 1688 . . . 451 appendix : the marquis of Halifax to viscount weymouth . . 510 COBBIGENDA Page 193, note 6, fo7- Musgrave rend Mulgrave. Page 215, note 3, /or Sir Thomas Thynne the ekler read Sir Henry Frederick Thynne. Page 488, for As is estified by Baxter. . . whence it proceeded, read As is testified by Dr. Calamy in his Life of Baxter ; and for the AppHcation read, this Application. Ibid, note 2, for Eeliquise read Calamy's Baxter, edition 1713, voh i. pp. 376, 377. Part I. LIFE AND LETTEES OF GEOEGE SAVILE FIEST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX GOBBIGENDA AND ADDENDA. A . — Authorities. Vol. I. p. vi, line 30, after made add of Mr. Gosse's ' History of Eighteenth Century Literature ' [1HS9], pp. 89, 90, and his ' Short History of Modern English Literature' [1898], pp. 183-4 ; of Mr. Saintsbury's ' Specimens ' [1885], pp. 99-103, and p. vii, note 4, /or p. 291, note 2, read p. 291, note 3. Vol. II. p. 314, note 2, add Carte's ' Ormonde,' iv. B03-8. p. 105, after his Lordship's innocence, add reference to Devonshire House Notebook. p. 392, note a, for first read second. B. — Connection of Lord Halifax with Shrewsbury School. Vol. I. p. 13, line 25, add On February 15, 1642/3, George and William Savile, ' equitis aurati tilii eboracensis,' were entered at Shrewsbury School, then under the charge of Thomas Chaloner, a staunch Boyalist, the school buildings being at the moment occupied by the Eoyal troops. p. 18, line 24, /or in default— conclude that, read it is not clear whether p. 18, line 26, for and this, read but in any case this p. 18, line 28, after career, add As regards his immediate fortunes, the young Saviles can scarcely have remained at Shrewsbury after Chaloner was superseded by the Puri- tans, February 22, 164|. [Information kindly contributed by E. Tudor Owen, Esq.; Eev. G. Fisher; T. E. Pickering, Esq.] C. — Disposition of the Savile Estates. Vol. I. p. 5, line 9, for with Eufford, read with the reversion of Eufford and Brierley. Vol. II. p. 191, /or the estates . . . Scarborough Lumley's, read the estates being divided between his sisters and co-heirs, through whom respectively they passed to the Poljambes of Osber- ton, and the Scarborough Lumleys. [Foster's ' Yorkshire Pedigrees ; White's Worksop,' pp. 161-180.] D. — Works attributed to the Marquis of Halifax. Vol. II. p. 636, add TVa. The Character of the Protestants of Ireland . . . MDCLXxxix. A sensible and impartial investigation into the pecuniary position of the Irish Protestant refugees. Though anonymous, it is ascribed to the Marquis of Halifax by Halkett and Laing (' Dictionary of Pseudonyms,' p. 788) on the authority of a contemporary MS. note, (' supposed to be written by [A'c.],') but the pamphlet bears no trace of his style. IV*. ' A Letter from a Nobleman in London ' [Ac] This anonymous pamphlet, of which a copy is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, is attributed to Lord Halifax by Halkett and Laing (p. 1353). It is in fact an able and rather virulent production, the work presumably of a Scotch Jacobite, and betrays not the slightest resemblance to the style and contemporary sentiments of the Marquis. Certain allusions, however, in the ' Letter ' with which the tract commences, together with the significant fact that it is dated February 8, 1689 [90], on which day Lord Halifax resigned the Privy Seal, suggest a deliberate attempt at imposture. [r.T.o. Halifax's Life. Vol. II. p. 541, add IX. ' The Equivalent Explain'd.' This pamphlet, of which there is a copy in the Advocates' Library, is ascribed to Lord Halifax by Halkett and Laing (p- 788). In reality it was written during the reign of Queen Anne, by some anonymous Scotch supporter of the then impend- ing Union. E. — Pedigree. Re Lady Mary Talbot, dele February 16g| [and on p. 5, line 24, Vol. I. substitute for tliese loords — before the end of the 16th century]. For Thomas Savile, died 1546, read 1646. Be Arabella, sister of Sir George Savile, eighth Bart., delete the present, and substitute — Arabella = John Thornhagh, of Fenton and Osberton, co. Notts Savile, sister [ aud co-heir Two daughters, (/. unm. I Mary, : daugliter and heir (1st wife) Francis Ferrand Foljambe, of Aldwark, co. York John Savile Foljambe — Elizabeth d. v.p. I Willoughby I M I Four sons d. s.p. Two daughters Harriett, daughter of Sir W. Milner, Bart. George Sarile = Lady Selina Charlotte (Dow. Viscountess Foljambe i ililtou), daughter and co-heir of 3rd Lord LiTerpool (2nd wife) Francis Savile Foljambe, of Osbertu)) Cecil G-eorge Savile Foljambe, 1st Baron Hawkesbury I I Two sons Two daughters I 1 I I Four daughters LIFE AND LETTBBS ^> OF THE FIBST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX CHAPTBE I HISTORY OF THE SAVILE FAMILY — BIETH OP GEORGE SAVILE, AFTERWARDS MARQUIS OF HALIFAX Ancestral history — always, where available, an interest- ing and valuable introduction to biography proper — demands even unusual attention in the case of George Savile, first Marquis of Halifax ; a man in whom the pride of race was strong to a fault, and whose inherited prepossessions so often modified, after a somewhat fan- tastic fashion, the conclusions of a sceptical intellect. Nor is the story of the Savile family in itself devoid of curious and even romantic episodes, upon which we shall now briefly touch, omitting the dryer genealogical items. In spite of the accident which led the first Marquis of Halifax, the head of the house, to select Kufford in Nottinghamshire for his residence, the Saviles are essen- tially a Yorkshire family ; one of the most illustrious, if not the most illustrious in the West Eiding of the county of York.' Whitaker, the great Yorkshire antiquary, de- scribes the race as ' distinguished almost above every other in the public concerns of the county of York, as well as by the spirit and genius of its principals in several of the later descents ; ' ^ and Hunter is even more emphatic.^ In noticing the transference of the Lupset estates during the ' Cooper, Introduotion to the Savile Correspondence. " Loidis and Elmete, pp. 310-326. ■* Antiqitarian Notices of Lupset, p. 11, 1848. VOL. I. B 2 LIFE OF FIRST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX cii. i. fifteenth century to the hands of ' a family of the first distinction in the county,' he adds that those who are acquainted with the topographical or genealogical history of the ' parts of Yorkshire westward from Wakefield along the left bank of the Calder ' will at once understand ' that the family alluded to can be no other than the Saviles.' He tells us how, from the tenth to the eighteenth century, ' the Savifian family ' (which in his day, as in our own, could boast a single surviving branch),' ' existed in many distinct lines, to every one of which belonged old halls, surrounded with estates of greater or less extent. Many of these halls,' he continues, ' stood near the line of the Calder, from Bradley beyond Elland to near the union of that river with the Aire.' He reminds us that in a family ' of great and varied ability ' some were eminent as scholars, some as lawyers, and some were ' of much energy and aptitude for business, so that they filled eminent stations in their own county, and were engaged influentially in the general affairs of the realm.' In conclusion he refers to the fact that the administra- tion of the Manor of Wakefield and the Honour of Ponte- fract, both appurtenances of the Crown, became almost hereditary in the Savile family. The origin of this distinguished name is obscure. Some have claimed^ for the family a connection with the noble Roman house of the Savelli, now extinct — a plea which appears to have been investigated'^ by Lord Halifax, who applied to the Savelli family for information. Others rightly reject this improbable derivation and fix their attention on a ' Sheville ' whose name appears on the list of Battle Abbey. The great Yorkshire anti- quaries,'' however, usually trace this celebrated patronymic to the Borders of Anjou, where there are two towers of the name, and suppose that the Saviles came over with Geoffrey Plantagenet.'"' When the thirteenth century opens, we find the family settled in that south-west corner of the West Eiding within which its various branches, with very ' The Mexboroughs. ' Preface to Savile's Bcports. " Henry Savile the younger (eldest son of Lord Halifax) to his father, Eome, .January 19, 1678, Spencer MSS., box .SI, bundle 1.5. M. du Moulin (tutor to Henry Savile) to Lord Halifax, Eome, October 16. 1677, and January 12, 1678, Devonshire Hovsr MSS. ' Hopkiuson, Hunter, Watson. = Hunter, South Yorkshire, ii. 261, mentions a lliohard de Savile, quoted by Brompton as present at the coronation of Geoffrey's grandson, Coeur de Lion. CH. I. HISTORY OF THE SAVILE FAMILY 3 few exceptions, subsequently flourished, and which — in- cluding as it does Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and Wakefield — is now regarded as one of the chief industrial centres of England ; for in 1225 Golcar, close to Halifax, be- longed to Henry de Savile ' — in right, it is said, of his wife. The importance of the family was rapidly enhanced by judicious alliances. Thus in the reign of Edward I. a John de Savile married one of the three co-heiresses of Eishworth, and obtained with her a third part of the Eishworth estates, situated close to Eland, in the neigh- boiurhood of Halifax ; - while his eldest son and successor, another Sir John, purchased about 1350 ' the hand of Isabell, only surviving representative of the Elands of Eland. The manors of Eland, Tankersley, Eulridge, Hinchfield and Eatchdale, with a second portion of the Eishworth estates, passed, in consequence of this marriage, into the possession of the Savile family.'' But the rich inheritance brought with it a tragical stigma. A catastrophe of mingled guilt and horror had closed the annals of the Eland line. The brutal murder' of Beaumont of Whitley, on the victim's own hearth-stone, at the hands of Sir John Bland, Sheriff of Yorkshire, had been as brutally avenged on the part of the Beaumonts by the successive assassinations of Sir John, his son, and his grandson. The tragedy appears to have made an unusual impression on the popular mind ; a local drama extant as late as the times of Charles II., with a ballad which may be studied in the pages of Watson, preserved the sinister story. Nor can we wonder at the remonstrances with which Henry Savile, brother of Lord Halifax, subse- quently greeted the announcement that the head of the house had adopted Eland as his second title.*' A younger son of the Savile-Eland marriage secured the heiress of Thornhill,' an estate which lies between Halifax and Wakefield ; ' and to this branch the Savile- ' Hunter, South Yorkshire, ii. 260 (other early notices will be found in the same work) ; and Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees, 1874. ^ Watson, Halifax, pp. 86-113. ■■ Ibid. p. 169, from Comput. seneschal, honoris de Pontefract, p. 17. ■* Poster gives a different account of these acquisitions. ^ Watson and Hunter. " Mr. Cooper explains the allusion otherwise, but, I think, erroneously (Savile Correspondence, p. iii). ' Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete ; and pedigree in the Badcliffe Corre- spondence. See also Foster. ' The second son of this marriage married the heiress of Copley of Copley, from which union the Saviles of Copley, Methley, Bradley, Hullenedge, Newhall in Eland, Haigh, Watergate, Blathroyd, Wath, not to mention the existing family of Mexborough, all traced their descent. So the pedigree B 2 4 LIFE OF FIEST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX cii. i. Eland estates passed when, in the second generation, the elder line came to an end. Thornhill thus became the principal seat of the family, and so remained for over two hundred years ; and in the beautiful Savile chantry at- tached to the parish church their tombs may yet be seen. The history of the house from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries need not detain us. Its representatives ranked among the great men of the county, and their names appear regularly in the lists of sheriffs and knights of the shire. In the sixteenth century it could boast of a con- nection with the reigning house of Tudor ' and of an intimacy, more practically valuable to a North Country family, with the powerful race of Talbot, whose principal representatives as lords of Hallamshire lived like petty kings among the sturdy cutlers of Sheffield.'^ But Sir Henry Savile, K.B.,^ in whom the glories of the Savile name appeared to culminate, left as heir^ a son, Edward, of weak intellect and under age, whose marriage, con- tracted some years earlier, had proved childless. Scarcely therefore had the unhappy youth attained his majority ere fierce disputes as to the fate of his lands, should he die without leaving issue, arose between his sister — Henry Savile of Lupset,'^ head of a branch which had separated from the parent stem about a hundred years previously — and a bastard half-brother, on whom the father had settled everything alienable, and whose descendants, under in the Badcliffe Comspondcnce. Earlier pedigrees, accepted by Foster, ante- date the alUanee by several generations. This branch produced two dis- tinguished men, Sir John Savile of Bradley (1545-1606), a Baron of the Exchequer and author of Savile's Beports ; and his brother, the celebrated scholar Sir Henry (1549-1622), Greek tutor to Queen Elizabeth, Warden of Merton, and founder of the Savilian professorships. ' Through .Joan, an heiress of the ancient Yorkshire house of Paston of Woodnoth, whose mother was Joan, daughter and co-heiress 'of Edmund Duke of Somerset. 2 Lady Joan Savile, above mentioned, remarried with Sir Richard Hast ings, brother to the Lord Hastings executed under Kichard III, and of the Countess of Shrewsbury. Hastings, in 1511, obtained the wardship of his stepson, but in some unexplained fashion the Shrewsbury family assumed an interest in the trust (Hunter, South Yorkshire, ii. 302 ; Hunter, Litpset; Taylor's Wakefield ; Whitaker's Loidis and Elmcte, p. 326). ' He has been described as one of the ablest and most influential men of his time. For his correspondence with the Talbots, see the Devonshire MSS. and catalogue of Bufford MSS. {Hist. MS8. Com. Bep. xi.. Appendix, part 7, p. 120). For his correspondence with the Cecils, see catalogue of Hatfield MSS. (published by the Hist. MSS. Com.) ■" The inqnisitio post mortem includes among his estates 300 messuages, 300 tofts, 10 water mills, and 20,080 acres of land. Whitaker conjectures that the wastes amounted to an equivalent acreage. A great deal, however, he ahenated in favour of a bastard son, as above (Loidis and Elmete, p. 312)'. ' Lupset is not far from Wakefield. cn. 1 HISTORY OF THE SAMLE FAMILY 5 the successive titles of Savile and Sussex, long eclipsed the 1604-5 legitimate branch.' A settlement of the property on the Lupset branch was made, but ascribed by some to undue influence on the part of the Talbots, to whom the care of the young Edward's minority had been entrusted ; nor were these impressions removed by the suspicious circumstances under which the marriage of the miserable young man was annulled in the ecclesiastical courts, while an infant daughter of the house of Talbot, with Rufford in Notting- hamshire as her dowry, was married to young Savile of Lupset. The unhappy lord of Thornhill seems to have survived until old age, a tool in the hands of his powerful connections, who assumed entire management of his affairs.- On his death in 1604, a year after the accession of James I., Sir George Savile of Lupset succeeded to the Bland-Thornhill estates and became head of the great Savile connection. He maintained the most intimate relations with the Talbots, and supported that active part in local business which was a family tradition ; ^ and when in 1611 James created the order of baronets of England,'' Sir George Savile was one of the earliest upon whom the distinction was conferred,'^ no doubt for the usual consideration. His first wife. Lady Mary Talbot, died February 1605, leaving an only son, born in 1683.'^ By a second marriage the baronet had several children, and we suspect a desire on his part to enrich these at the expense of his son and heir, with whom relations became evidently strained.' ' The magnificent mansion built at Howley by the second of this line is described in Markham's Fairfax, p. 103. - See for this story Hunter, South Yorkshire, ii. 302 ; St. Pap. Dotn. Elizabeth, iv. 32, ibid. xii. 3 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi., part 7, p. 119 (this seems to be incorrectly given) ; St. Pajj. Doin. Eliz. xxiv. 52 ; Devon- shire MSS. ; and Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi., part 7, pp. 120-122. The Record Office papers were discovered by Mr. Cooper, but his account is not very clear {Savile Correspondence, Introduction) ; he is certainly wrong in attributing to these transactions Henry Savile's repugnance for the title ot Eland. Edward was of Thornhill rather than of Eland. ' He matriculated at St. .John's College, Oxford, before 1566, and is believed to have been of Lincoln's Inn in 1568 (Foster's Alumni Oxmii- enses, iv. 1318). For bis correspondence, see Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi., part 7 ; Devonshire MSS. He was knighted in Holland 1587 ; represented Boroughbridge 1686-87, and Yorkshire 1593 (Alumni O.ronienses, iv. 1318). He was sheriff 1614. ' The order of ' Baronets in England ' preceded by some years, in date of institution, the order of 'Baronets of Scotland' (or Nova Scotia). = See Cal. St. Pap. Dom. James I. for a warrant to antedate the patent (.July 2, 1611). 6 See letter from his father to Lord Shrewsbury, askmg him to stand godfather, April 12, 1583 (Devonshire MSS.). ' See a letter in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi., part 7, p. 123. Lupse was 6 LIFE OF FIEST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX ch. i. 1607 But this son, another Sir George, did not want for friends. Left a widower during the same month which had seen the death of his mother,' he had remarried September 14, 1607, with Ann, eldest daughter of his neighbour Sir William Wentworth of Wentworth AVood- house, a man of ancient lineage and local importance. Her eldest brother, Thomas Wentworth, the ' Strafford ' of history, at the time of her marriage a boy of thirteen, developed a passionate affection for his brother-in-law, which was soon put to the proof. During the month of August, 1614,^ less than ten years after his marriage, and within the lifetime of his father, died Sir George Savile, of ' Soothhill, Knight,' leaving to the care of his brother- in-law and of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury ' (his former tutor at Oxford), his two little sons.'* He could not have made a better choice. Wentworth had just succeeded, at the age of twenty-one, to an estate of 6,000Z. a year and the charge of eleven brothers and sisters. He was distinguishing himself, moreover, in county busi- ness by his opposition to old Sir John Savile of the bastard Howley branch, known to history, though scarcely to fame, as the first Lord Savile. Yet, despite these weighty preoccupations, the young guardian accepted his new responsibilities with characteristic energy,-^ which was stimulated in this case by the strong affection he had entertained for his sister's husband. He erected in the Savile chapel at Thornhill a magnificent monument to the memory of the dead man,'' received his sister and settled upon John, eldest son of the second marriage, afterwards an active Parliamentarian. (See Markham's Fairfax, p. 68.) A series of letters from Sir John will be found in Bell's Fairfax Gorresjiondence, i. 177-181. The Eufford estates eventually passed to his descendants, when in 1700 the elder line, and with it the peerage, became extinct. ' His first wife died, like his mother, in February, 160.5 {SaviU-Finch Correspondence, British Museum, Add. MSS. 28,569, f. 160 ; RadcUffe Correspondence, Pedigree). A project for his remarriage in March 16^4 (i.e. within a month of his wife's death) seems suggested in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii., part 1, p. .56. For particulars concerning him, see Alumni Oxonienses. ^ Cooper says he was buried at Thornhill, August 24, 1616 ; but Savile- Finch Correspondence and Alumni Oxonienses refer the event to August 24, 1614, and the petition mentioned in a subsequent note distinctly states that he died ' August, 12 Jacobi '—that is, 1614. ' Forster's (Browning's ?) Strafford, p. 218, fromEushworth, i. 4.51. Even the reversion of this important wardship was coveted (Loidis and Elmete i. 313 ; from Harleian MSS. 6,986). ' The birth of the elder is mentioned in RadcUffe Corresvondcnce February 1, 1612, p. .57. ' ^ See a letter from Edward Talbot, brother of Lady Mary, to Sir Thomas dated April, 1616 (Strafford Correspondence, i. 3). * Whitaker, Loidis and Elmete, p. 323. CH. I. HISTORY OF THE SAYILE FAMILY 7 her sons into his establishment/ and was prodigal of his leu labours on their behalf. 'He spent,' says his confidant, Sir George Eadcliffe, ' eight Years Time, beside his Pains and Money, in solliciting the Businesses and Suits of his Nephews, Sir George and Sir William Savile, going every Term to London, about that only, without missing one Term in thirty, as I verily believe : And all this merely in memory of the Kindness which had passed between him and his Brother in Law Sir G. Savile, then deceased.' This litigation, to which Sir Thomas and Sir George Savile the elder were parties, concerned, it would seem, the Eland-Thornhill estates, which, as Wentworth appears to have contended, had become legally vested, presumably b}' the terms of the Savile-Talbot settlement, in the j'ounger Sir George.^ At one stage of the contest the old baronet and his wife were actually committed to the Fleet for contempt of court, and proceedings seem only to have ceased with his death on November 12, 1622.' He was succeeded by his elder grandson ; but this youth. Sir George, second baronet, having matriculated at University, May 5, 1626, died in college December 19 following.'' The title and estates devolved on his brother William, destined to be the father of George, afterwards the first Marquis of Halifax, the subject of this memoir. It is obvious that the Savile trust exercised important influence over the political career of Sir Thomas Went- worth. It probably exaggerated the jealousy between himself and Sir John Savile,-' which first brought Went- worth into collision with Savile's patron, the omnipotent favourite, Buckingham ; and to this feud, intensified as it was by the fears of the great man and the ambition of the Yorkshire baronet, the popular sympathies of Went- worth's earlier career may be ascribed. The contest culminated with the imprisonment of Wentworth about the date of his elder nephew's death,^ and his disgrace ' List of his household in Hunter's South Yorkshire, ii. 84. ' Strafford Correspondence, i. 3, ii. 436, and petition given in Appendix to this chapter. ' For further mention of him, see Loidis and-Elmete, p. 317 ; Baddiffe Correspondence, pp. 112, 114, 117 ; Ashmolean, 836, f. 565 (Bodleian). ■' Alumni Oxonienses, which further says that he matriculated at the age of fifteen, and was buried at Thornhill, January 20. In this last item Savile-Finch Correspondence (f. 160) and Mr. Cooper agree ; but the former authority gives his age as seventeen, and Whitaker declares that he was buried in the college chapel. = For which, see the Strafford Cmrespiondence and Fairfax Coirespond- ence (Johnson), vol. i. « See Baddiffe Correspondence, April 30, 1627, p. 140. 8 LIFE OF FIRST MARQUIS OF HALIFAX ch. i. 1028 involved that of his co-trustee, Archbishop Abbot, whose intercourse with Sir Thomas seems to have entirely depended on the Savile trust.' Ere long the Court, conscious of Wentworth's value, opened secret negotia- tions vs'ith the daring Yorkshireman, and during the summer of 1628 he became a Privy Councillor, receiving moreover a peerage, with the vast powers attaching to the Northern Presidency.^ Nor did the new statesman neglect his nephew's interests. A year later his influence secured for the young Sir Wilham, a high-spirited boy of seventeen,^ the hand of Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas, first Lord Coventry, Keeper of the Great Seal. The young couple were married at Thornhill, the bridegroom's seat, December 29, 1629 ; and the aUiance, of which George, afterwards first Marquis of Halifax, was the first male issue, proved an eventful one for the fortunes of the house. The new Lady Savile was a woman of considerable character, devout, able, energetic, and endued with a courage which found, as we shall see, frequent scope in the troubled days of the Civil War. The Coventry connection, moreover, which pos- sessed in an unusual proportion both ability and political interest,'' was destined to exert no small influence over the character and career of her eldest son — a man, as he appeared in the sequel, peculiarly susceptible to the ties of kinship. Henry, her fourth brother, will often meet us in di- plomatic and ministerial capacities during the reign of Charles II. Thomas Thynne, eldest son of her sister, Joan, Lady Thynne,' became a valued friend and ally of ' Forster's (Browning's?) Strafford, p. 218 ; from Eushworth, i. 451. See a letter from Savile of Methley (