lifornia tonal lity Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN AUTOBIOGRAPHY LADY WARWICK. AUTOBIOGRAPHY MARY COUNTESS OF WARWICK EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BV T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY, BY RICHARDS, 100, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. MDCCCXLVIII. COUNCIL President, THE RIGHT HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A. W. HARRISON AINSWORTH, ESQ. THOMAS AMYOT, ESQ. F.R.S., F.S.A. ROBERT BELL, ESQ. WILLIAM HENRY BLACK, ESQ. BOLTON CORNEY, ESQ., M.R.S.L. T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A., M R.I.A. J. H. DIXON, ESQ. FREDERICK WILLIAM FAIRHOLT, ESQ. F.S.A. JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ. F.R.S., FS.A. J. S. MOORE, ESQ. EDMUND PEEL, ESQ. T. J. PETTItiREW, ESQ. F.R.S., F.S.A. JAMES PRIOR, ESQ. F.S.A., M.R.I.A. WILLIAM SANDYS, ESQ. F.S.A. THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A., F .A.,Treasurer if Secretary. 1127853 PREFACE. ALTHOUGH the biography of Mary, the pious Countess of Warwick, is well known, her auto- biography is now first printed from a manuscript copy in Lord Brooke's possession, which the editor believes to have been transcribed from the original, in her ladyship's autograph ; as the title of " Some specialities in the life of M. Warwicke" has been preserved with the following note : " It appears from Lady Warwick's manu- script diary, that most of the 8th, 9th, and 10th February, 1671, were spent in recording the spe- cialities of her life." "21st December. Read some before-noted specialities of my fore-past life." The entries made by Lady Warwick, in 1673 and 1674, bring down this memoir to the latter year; and she died on the 1 2th April, 1678. Doctor Walker tells us, that " An hundred mouths, and a thousand tongues, though they all flowed with nectar, would be too few to praise her. Oh," he exclaimed, in the funeral sermon, preached by him at Felsted, in Essex, on the following 30th; PREFACE. " for a Chrysostom's mouth, for an angel's tongue, to describe this terrestrial seraphine ; or a ray of light condensed into a pencil, and made tactile, to give you this glorious child of light in viva effigie" It was then stated by Doctor Walker, that "she, very many years since, began to keep a diary," and a manuscript note on a copy of the first edition of his E"YPHKA, ETYPIIKA, in the editor's possession, enables him to add, that Lady Warwick commenced her diary on the 25th July, 1666. " She also," says the doctor, "kept a book of such wise, pithy sayings, much valuing words which contained great use and worth in little com- pass." Of this he has preserved a specimen, as well as a few extracts from her diary, and some of her ladyship's occasional meditations and pious reflections. The bulk of Lady Warwick's manuscripts must have been very considerable; and the Religious Tract Society have recently issued a selection from, or abridgment of, her diary, made by the Rev. Thomas Woodrooffe probably soon after her death, respecting which the editor has been favoured with the following particulars, from the Rev. Nathaniel George Woodrooffe, the Vicar of Somerford Keynes, Wilts. "The diary (that is Mr. Woodroojfe's abridge- ment of it) was given to me by the Rev. William PREFACE. IX Herringham, Rector of Borley, near Sudbury, who married my cousin, Anne Woodrooffe, the daughter of the Rev. John Woodrooffe, Rector of Cranham, Essex. " Mr. Herringham and the Rev. Thomas Wood- rooffe, Rector of Oakley, Surry, the only son of the Rev. John Woodroffe, were joint executors to my great aunt, Mrs. Gurdon, widow of the Rev. Mr. Gurdon, Vicar of Asington, Suifolk, and also to George Andrewes, Esq., Solicitor, of Felsted, Bury, whose mother was the daughter of the Chaplain of the Earl of Warwick, through whom the papers of Lady Warwick were conveyed. I trouble you with this detail to account for the fact, that Mr. Herringham, after giving me the diary I now possess (that is Mr. Woodrooffe^ abridgement), retained all the other papers of the Warwick MSS., and especially the missing diary from 1672 to 1678. He sold the whole of these MSS. to a bookseller of the name of Lorking, of Long Melford, Suffolk, who parted with them to another bookseller, whose name we cannot dis- cover. He went to France and there became a bankrupt. We have been endeavouring, but in vain, for several years to recover this lost diary. It seems to be in your possession, and I am re- joiced to find it is now printing by the Percy Society." PRKFACE. What has been stated, will shew that in this wish Mr. Woodrooffe is mistaken, and that the autograph diary of Lady Warwick remains to be recovered* The editor, however, can add, that about the year 1835 he saw her ladyship's original Manuscript in the possession of Messrs. T. and W. Boone, of New Bond Street ; that it was written in thirty or forty small quarto books, or " diary papers," which were unbound, and that the passages extracted by Mr. Woodrooffe had been marked for transcript. There can be little doubt, therefore, that this mass of manuscript still exists, notwithstanding the Messrs. Boone have been unable to trace it ; and references to it, and recent notes made from it by various hands for several and different purposes, convince the editor that wherever Lady Warwick's original diary may at the present moment repose, it is preserved, and with sincerity he echoes the wish of Mr. Barham (the editor of the Religious Tract Soci- ety's publication), in saying, ' f lt is hoped that this notice may be the means of bringing it (Lady Warwick's original Diary, which Mr. Bar- ham could only trace to the close of the last cen- tury) to light." To the extracts which have been published from the countess's diary, the editor refers for illustra- tions of many passages in her autobiography PREFACE. such, for instance, as those at pages 22 and 32, respecting the former, see note 21. 9th October, 1667. " My lord was passionate with me without any occasion, and shot out his arrows, even bitter words, at which I was much troubled, and could not forbear, when alone, from weeping much ; yet I prayed to God to give me patience." And the alteration in the mode of life at Lees, proposed by her brotheri-n-law, should he become Earl of Warwick 15th March, 1667. "My brother Hatton dined with us that day, and swore dread- fully, and talked so very ill, that I thought nothing out of hell could have done." Lady Warwick's original diary is a manuscript of great historical value ; she faithfully recorded daily, or nearly so, for twelve years the domestic occurrences of the period, soon after the restoration of Charles II, and was in familiar intercourse with the most active characters of his time, " pro and con" 23rd April, 1667 she notes " In the morning as soon as dressed, in a short prayer I committed my soul to God. Then went to Whitehall and dined at my Lord Chamberlain's; then went to see the celebration of St. George's feast, which was a very glorious sight. Whilst I was in the banqueting-house, hearing the trumpets sounding, in the midst of all that great show, God was PREFACE. pleased to put very mortifying thoughts into my mind, and to make me consider, what if the trump of God should now sound? which thought did strike me with some seriousness, and made me consider in what glory I had in that very place seen the late king, and yet out of that very place he was brought to have his head cut off." Regarded even as a veritable catalogue of the persons with whom Lady Warwick came in contact, and under what circumstances, her honest diary is a curious document, by which the truth of other narratives and statements may be tested. And, although, perhaps as a whole, not worth publication, the MSS. of the Countess well merit preservation in the British Museum, for reference to by historical students. The Countess of Warwick's portrait has been engraved more than once from the same picture. One is prefixed to Doctor Walker's " E"YPHKA, KYPHKA" (1678). " R. White, Sculp" The other to a memoir, of Lady Warwick, &c., published by the Religious Tract Society, in 1847, without the engraver's name, and which has been probably copied after White's print. T. C. C. 3, GLOUCESTER ROAD, OLD BROMPTON, April 26th, 1848. SOME SPECIALITIES LIFE OF M. WARWICKE. I WAS born November the 8th, 1625, 1 at Yohall, in Ireland ; my father was Richard Boyle Earl of Corke, my mother was Katheren Fentone. My father was second son to Mr. Roger Boyle, my mother was only daughter to Sir Jefrey Fentone. My father, from being a younger brother of a younger brother, who was only a private gentleman of Here- fordshire, was by his mother's care, after his father's death, bred by her at Cambridge, and afterwards at the inns of court, and from thence, by the good provi- dence of God, brought into Ireland, where when he landed he was master of but twenty-seven pounds and three shillings in the world, and afterwards God so prospered him there that he had in that country about twenty thousand pound a-year coming in, and was made Lord Treasurer of Ireland, and one of the two Lords Justices of the government of that kingdom. 2 My wise, and as I have been informed pious, mother B 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY died when I was about three years old; 3 and some time after, by the tender care of my indulgent father, that I might be carefully and piously educated, I was sent by him to a prudent and vertuous lady, my Lady Claytone, who never having had any child of her own, grew to make so much of me as if she had been an own mother to me, and took great care to have me soberly educated. Under her government I remained at Mallow, a town in Munster, till I was, I think, about eleven years' old, and then my father called me from thence (much to my dissatisfaction), for I was very fond of that, to me, kind mother. Soon after my father removed, with his family, into England, and dwelt in Dorsetshire, at a house he had purchased there ; which was called Stalbridge; 4 and there, when I was about thirteen or fourteen years of age, came down to me one Mr. Hambletone, son to my Loi'd Clandeboyes, who was afterwards Earl of Clanbrasell, 5 and would fain have had me for his wife. My father and his had, some years before, concluded a match between us, if we liked when we saw one another, and that I was of years of consent ; and now he being returned out of France, was by his father's command to come to my father's, where he received from him a very kind and obliging welcome, looking upon him as his son-in-law, and designing suddenly that we should be married, and gave him leave to make his address, with a com- mand to me to receive him as one designed to be my husband. Mr. Hambletone (possibly to obey his father) did design gaining me by a very handsome OF LADY WARWICK. 3 address, which he made to me, and if he did not to a very high degree dissemble, I was not displeasing to him, for he professed a great passion for me. The professions he made me of his kindness were very unacceptable to me, and though I had by him very highly advantageous offers made me, for point of for tune (for his estate, that was settled upon him, was counted seven or eight thousand pound a-year), yet by all his kindness to me nor that I could be brought to endure to think of having him, though my father pressed me extremely to it ; my aversion for him was extraordinary, though I could give my father no satisfactory account why it was so. This continued between us for a long time, my father shewing a very high displeasure at me for it, but though I was in much trouble about it, yet I could never be brought either by fair or foul means to it ; so as my father was at last forced to break it off, to my father's unspeakable trouble, and to my unspeak- able satisfaction, for hardly in any of the troubles of my life did I feel a more sensible uneasiness than when that business was transacting. Afterwards I apparently saw a good providence of God in not letting me close with it, for within a year after my absolute refusing him, he was, by the rebellion of Ireland, im- poverished so that he lost for a great while his whole estate, the rebels being in possession of it ; which I should have liked very ill, for if I had married him it must have been for his estate's sake, not his own, his person being highly disagreeable to me. n2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY After this match was off, my father removed to London, and lived at a house of Sir Thomas Staford's. 6 When we were once settled there, my father, living extraordinarily high, drew a very great resort thither, and the report that he would give me a very great fortune made him have for me many very great and considerable offers, both of persons of great birth and fortune ; but I still continued to have an aversion to marriage, living so much at my ease that I was unwill- ing to change my condition, and never could bring myself to close with any offered match, but still begged my father to refuse all the most advantageous prefers, though I was by him much pressed to settle myself. About this time my fourth brother, Mr. Francis Boyle then (afterwards Lord Shannon), was by my father married to Mrs. Elizabeth Kilegrew, daughter to my Lady Staford ; 7 and my brother being then judged to be too young to live with his wife, was a day or two after the celebrating the marriage (which was done before the King and Queen) at Whitehall (she being then a maid of honour to the Queen) sent into France to travel, and his wife then brought home to our house, where she and I became chamber-fellows, and constant bed-fellows ; and there then grew so great a kindness between us, that she soon had a great and ruling power with me ; and by her having so brought me to be very vain and foolish, inticing me to spend (as she did) her time in seeing and reading plays and romances, and in exquisite and curious dressing. When she was well settled in our family (but much OF LADY WARWICK. O more so in my heart) she had many of the young gallants that she was acquainted with at Court that came to visit her at the Savoy (where we lived); amongst others there came one Mr. Charles Rich, second son to Robert Earl of Warwicke, who was a very cheerful, and handsome, well-bred, and fashioned person, and being good company was very acceptable to us all, and so became very intimate in our house, visiting us almost every day. He was then in love with a maid of honour to the Queen, one Mrs. Hareson, 8 that had been chamber-fellow to my sister-in-law whilst she lived at Court, and that brought on the acquaintance between him and my sister. He con- tinued to be much with us, for about five or six months, till my brother Broguil then (afterwards Earl of Orrery), grew also to be passionately in love with the same Mrs. Hareson. My brother then having a quarrel with Mr. Thomas Howarde, second son to the Earl of Berkshire, about Mrs. Hareson (with whom he also was in love), Mr. Rich brought my brother a challenge from Mr. Howard, and was second to him against my bro- ther when they fought, which they did without any great hurt of any side, being parted. 9 This action made Mr. Rich judge it not civil to come to our house, and so for some time forbore doing it, but at last my bro- ther's match with Mrs. Hareson being unhandsomely (on her side) broken off, when they were so near being married as the wedding clothes were to be made, and she after married Mr. Thomas Howard (to my father's very great satisfaction), who always was averse to it, AUTOBIOGRAPHY though to comply with my brother's passion he con- sented to it. My brother being thus happily disengaged from that amour, brought again Mr. Rich to our family, and soon after he grew again as great among us, as if he had never done that disobliging action to us. By this time, upon what account I know not, he began to withdraw his visits to Mrs. Hareson (for that name she continued to have, not being married to Mr. Howard in a good considerable time after), and his heart too ; and in being encouraged in his resolution by my sister Boyle, began to think of making an address to me, she promising him all the assistance her power with me could give him to gain my affection, though she knew by attempting it she should lose my father's and all my family, that she believed would never be brought -to consent to my having any younger brother; my father's kindness to me making him, as she well knew, resolved to match me to a great for- tune. At last, one day she began to acquaint me with Mr. Eich's, as she said, great passion for me ; at which I was at the first much surprised, both at his having it for me, and at her telling it to me, knowing how much she hazarded by it, if I should acquaint my father with it. I confess I did not find his declaration of his kindness disagreeable to me, but the considera- tion of his being but a younger brother made me sadly apprehend my father's displeasure if I should embrace any such offer, and so resolved, at that time, to give her no answer, but seemed to disbelieve his loving OF LADY WARWICK. 7 me at the rate she informed me he did, though I had for some time taken notice of his loving me, though I never thought he designed trying to gain me. After this first declaration of his esteem for me by my sister, he became a most diligent gallant to me, seeking by a most humble and respectful address to gain my heart, applying himself, when there was no other beholders in the room but my sister, to me ; but if any other person came in he took no more than ordi- nary notice of me ; but to disguise his design addressed himself much to her ; and though his doing so was not well liked in our family, yet there was nothing said to him about their dislike of it ; and by this way his design became unsuspected, and thus we lived for some months, in which time, by his more than ordi- nary humble behaviour to me, he did insensibly steal away my heart, and got a greater possession of it than I knew he had. My sister, when he was forced to be absent for fear of observing eyes, would so plead for him, that it worked, too, very much upon me. When I began to find, myself, that my kindness for him grew and increased so much, that though I had in the time of his private address to me, many great and advantageous offers made me by my father, and that I could not with any patience endure to hear of any of them, I began with some seriousness to consider what I was engaging myself in by my kindness for Mr. Rich, for my father, I knew, would never indure me, and besides I considered my mind was too high, and I too expensively brought up to bring myself to live 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY contentedly with Mr. Rich's fortune, who would never have, when his father was dead, above thirteen or fourteen (at the most) hundred pounds a-year. Upon these considerations I was convinced that it was time for me to give him a flat and final denial ; and with this, as I thought, fixed resolution, I have laid me down in my bed to beg my sister never to name him to me more for a husband, and to tell him, from me, that I desired him never more to think of me, for I was resolved not to anger my father : but when I was upon a readiness to open my mouth to utter these words, my great kindness for him stopped it, and made me rise always without doing it, though I fre- quently resolved it ; which convinced to me the great and full possession he had of my heart, which made me begin to give him more hopes of gaining me than before I had done, by any thing but my inducing him to come to me after he had declared to me his design in doing so, which he well knew I would never endure from any other person that had offered themselves to me. Thus we lived for some considei'able time, my duty and my reason having frequent combats within me with my passion, which at last was always victorious, though my fear of my father's displeasure frighted me from directly owning it to Mr. Eich ; till my sister Boyle's taking sick of the measles (and by my lying with when she had them, though I thought at first it might be the small-pox, I got them of her), my kind- ness being then so great for her, that though of all OF LADY WARWICK. diseases the small-pox was that I most apprehended, yet from her I did not any thing, and would have con- tinued with her all her illness, had I not by my father's absolute command been separated into another room from her ; but it was too late, for I had got from her the infection, and presently fell most dangerously ill of the measles too, and before they came out I was removed into another house, because my sister Dun- garvan, 10 in whose house I was, in Long Acre, was expecting daily to be delivered, and was apprehensive of that distemper. Mr. Eich then was much con- cerned for me, and his being so made him make frequent visits to me, though my sister Boyle was absent from me, and he was most obligingly careful of me ; which as it did to a great degree heighten my passion for him, so it did also begin to make my family, and before suspecting friends, to see that they were by a false disguise of his kindness to my sister abused, and that he had for me, and I for him a respect which they feared was too far gone. This made my old Lady Staford, mother to my sister Boyle (who was a cunning old woman, and who had been herself too much and too long versed in amours), begin to conclude the truth, and absolutely to believe that her daughter was the great actor in this business, and that her being confidant with us, would ruin her with my father ; and therefore having some power with him, to prevent the inconveniences that would come to her daughter, resolved to acquaint my father with Mr. Rich's visiting me when I had 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY the measles, and of his continuing to do so at the Savoy, whither I was, after my recovery, by my father's order, removed, and where by reason of my being newly recovered of an infectious disease, I was free from any visits. After she had with great rage chid her daughter, and threatened her that she would acquaint my father with it (to keep me, as she said, from ruining myself), she accordingly, in a great beat and passion, did that very night do it. My sister presently acquainted both Mr.Rich and me with her mother's reso- lution, and when she had Mr. Eich alone, told him if he did not that very night prevail with me to declare my kindness for him, and to give him some assurance of my resolution to have him, I would certainly the next day by my father be secured from his ever speak- ing to me, and so he would quite lose me. This dis- course did make him resolve to do what she counselled him to ; and that very night, when I was ill and laid upon my bed, she giving him an opportunity of being alone with me, and by her care keeping any body from disturbing us ; he had with me about two hours dis- course, upon his knees, by my bed-side, wherein he did so handsomely express his passion (he was pleased to say he had for me), and his fear of being by my father's command separated from me, that together with as many promises as any person in the world could make, of his endeavouring to make up to me the smallness of his fortune by the kindness he would have still to me, if I consented to be his wife ; that though I can truly say, that when he kneeled down by me I OF LADY WARWICK. 1 1 was far from having resolved to own I would have him, yet his discourse so far prevailed that I consented to give him, as he desired, leave to let his father mention it to mine ; and promised him that, let him make his father say what he pleased, I would own it. Thus we parted, this evening, after I had given away myself to him, and if I had not done so that night, I had been, by my father's separating us, kept from doing it, at least for a long time ; for in the morning my father, upon what the night before had been told him by my Lady Staford, came early to me, and with a very frowning and displeasing look, bid me go (as I had before asked to do) into the country to air myself, at a little house near Hampton Court, which Mrs. Katheren Kilegrew, sister to my sister Boyle, then had; and told me that he was informed that I had young men who visited me, and commanded me if any did so, where I was now going, I should not see them. This he said in general, but named not Mr. Rich in particular, which I was glad of; and so after my father had dismissed me, with this unkind look (and I thought severe command), I was presently, by my brother Broghil, in his coach, conveyed to a very little house at Hampton, which was at that time though much more agreeable to me than the greatest and most stately one could be, because it did remove me from my father some distance, which I thought best for me, till his fury was in some measure over, which I much apprehended. That very day I removed into the country, my Lord Goreing, afterwards Earl of Nor- 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY wicb, was by my Lord of Warwick and my Lord of Hollandes appointment chose to be the first person that should motion the match to my father, and acquaint him with my esteem for Mr. Rich ; he was chose by them, and approved of by me to do it, be- cause his son having married one of my sisters, there was a great friendship between them, and he had a more than ordinary power with my father with what he was designed to do : but though he did it very well, my father was so troubled at it that he wept, and would by no means suffer him to go on. The next day, as I remember, my Lord of Warwick and my Lord of Holland visited him, and mentioned it with great kindness to him ; he used them with much respect, but told them he hoped his daughter would be advised by him, and he could not but still hope she would not give herself away without his consent, and there- fore he was resolved to send to me to know what I said the next morning, which accordingly he did ; and the persons he fixed upon to do it by were two of my bro- thers, my eldest brother, Dungarvan, and my then third brother, Broghil, who came early down to me (but I was before informed by Mr Rich of their coming), yet for all that I was disordered at their sight, knowing about what they came; but the extraordinary great kind- ness I had for Mr. Rich made me resolve to endure any thing for his sake, and therefore when I had by my brothers been informed that they were, by my father's command, sent to examine me, what was between Mr. Rich and I, and threatened, in my father's name, if I OF LADY WARWICK. 13 did not renounce ever having any thing more to do with him, I made this resolute, but ill and horribly disobedient answer, that I did acknowledge a very great and particular kindness for Mr. Rich, and desired them, with my humble duty to my father, to assure him that I would not marry him without his consent, but that I was resolved not to marry any other person in the world ; and that I hoped my father would be pleased to consent to my having Mr. Rich, to whom, I was sure, he could have no other objection, but that he was a younger brother ; for he was descended from a very great and honourable family, and was in the opinion of all (as well as mine) a very deserving per- son, and I desired my father would be pleased to con- sider, I only should suffer by the sraallness of his fortune, which I very contentedly chose to do, and should judge myself to be much more happy with his small one, than with the greatest without him. After my two brothers saw I was unmoveable in my resolution, say what they could to me, they returned highly unsatisfied from me to my father ; who, when he had it once owned from my own mouth, that I would have him, or no body, he was extraordinarily displeased with me, and forbid my daring to appear before him. But after some time he was persuaded, by the great esteem he had for my Lord of Warwick and my Lord of Holland, to yield to treat with them, and was at last brought, though not to give me my before designed portion, yet to give me seven thousand pounds, and was brought to see and be civil to Mr. 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY Rich, who was a constant visitor of me at Hampton, almost daily; but he was the only person I saw, for my own family came not at me: and thus T continued there for about ten weeks, when I was at last, by my Lord of Warwick and my Lord Goreing led into my father's chamber, and there, upon my knees, humbly begged his pardon, which after he had, with great justice, severely chid me, he bid me rise, and was by my Lord of Warwick's and my Lord Goreing's intercession reconciled to me, and told me I should suddenly be married. But though he designed I should be so at London, with Mr. Rich and my friends at it, yet being a great enemy always to a public marriage, I was, by that fear, and Mr. Rich's earnest solicitation, prevailed with, without my father's knowledge, to be privately married at a little village near Hampton Court, on the 21st July 1641, called Shepertone ; u which when my father knew he was again something displeased at me for it, but after I had begged his pardon, and assured him I did it only to avoid a public wedding, which he knew I had always declared against, his great in- dulgence to me made him forgive me that fault also, and within few days after I was carried down to Lees, my Lord of Warwick's house in the country, 12 but none of our friends accompanied me, but my dear sister Ranelagh, 13 whose great goodness made her forgive me, and stay with me some time at Lees, where I received as kind a welcome as was possible from that family, but particularly from my good father-in-law. Here let me admire at the goodness of God, that by OF LADY WARWICK. 15 His good providence to me, when I by my marriage thought of nothing but having a person for whom I had a great passion, and never sought God in it, but by marrying my husband flatly disobeyed His command, which was given me in His sacred oracles, of obeying my father ; yet was pleased by His unmerited good- ness to me to bring me, by my marriage, into a noble and, which is much more, a religious family ; where religion was both practised and encouraged; and where there were daily many eminent and excellent divines, who preached in the chapel most edifyingly and awakeningly to us. Besides a famous household chaplain, my father-in-law had Doctor Gawden there, afterwards Lord Bishop of Worcester. 14 I could not, as young as I was when I came to the family, being but fifteen years old, and as much as between the 8th of November and 21st July, but admire at the excellent order there was in the family, and the great care that was had that God should be most solemnly worshipped and owned in that great family, both by the lord and lady of it. My mother-in-law was not my husband's own mother, she (Hatton) being dead, after she had brought her husband many fine children, and the greatest estate any woman had done for many years to a family. And my lord after her decease was married again to a rich woman, one Alderman Holi- dayes widow, of the City, who because she was a citizen was not so much respected in the family as in my opinion she deserved to be ; for she was one that assuredly feared God ; but she was at my first coming 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY to Lees removed to her daughter Hungerford's, near the Bath, where she was resolved to stay till she was by some person she credited, informed whether my humour were such as would make her to live comfortably with me ; for by reason of some former disputes with my first Lady Rich (a daughter of Earl Devonshire), that had been between them, she was almost come to a resolution of never more living with any daughter- in-law. But my Lady Robertes, 15 that was my lord's sister, and a very pious woman, was pleased to assure her would be dutiful to her, and at last did prevail with her to come down to Lees, where I then was, and I was so foi'tunate as I gained so much of her kindness, that for about five years that I lived constantly with her I did never displease her, or ever had any unkind- ness from her, but found her as obliging to me as if she had been my own mother, and she would always profess she loved me at that rate, and I did when God called her away mourn much for my losing her. After her death my Lord of Warwick married again, to the Countess of Sussex (widow of Thomas Savil, Earl of Sussex), 16 with whom I had, too, the great happiness of living as lovingly as it was possible for an own mother and daughter to live, for about eleven years, in some of which time I went on in a vain kind of life, only studying to please my husband and the family I was matched into; but, alas, too much neglected the studying to please God, and to save my immortal soul ; yet in this time of my vanity conscience would often speak tome, but yet I went on, regardless, OF LADY WARWICK. 17 though I was allured by God with many mercies, and had afflictions too. In the first year I was married, God was pleased to give me a safe delivery of a girl, which I lay in with at Warwick House. And soon after the second year, I was brought a bed of a boy, in September 28th, 1643. The girl was named Elizabeth, and the boy Charles. The girl God was pleased to take from me by death, when she was not a year and a quarter old. For which I was much afflicted; but my husband as passion- ately so as ever I saw him ; he being most extraordi- narily fond of her. When I lay in with my son, the ill news of my father's death was brought to my hus- band ; 17 but by his care of me, it was concealed from me till I was up again ; and then it was told me first by my mother-in-law. 17 I was much afflicted, and grieved at the loss of one of the best and kindest of fathers in the world ; but I being young and incon- siderate, grief did not stick long with me. About the twenty-first year of my age [1646], God was pleased, by the powerful means I had con- stantly in that good family I was in, to awaken me to consider how necessary it was seriously to consider for a future state ; and I did then begin to think of being in earnest for my salvation, and made some promises to God of a new life. But these good resolutions I kept no longer than I had no temptation to break them. For when the family removed to Warwick House, and I had got again to my old companions, I neglected taking after the service of God ; yet my conscience o 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY would often call me to better things than I practised ; and though I did endeavour diverting myself as for- merly, yet God was so merciful to me, as never to suffer me to find my former satisfaction, but still dis- appointed my expectations in every thing wherein I sought for comfort. And though I could not but observe this, yet still I went on, though I had some inward persuasion that God would, some way or other, punish me for my doing so. And, at last, it pleased God to send a sudden sickness upon my only son, which I then doated on with great fondness. I was beyond expression struck at it; not only because of my kindness for him, but because my conscience told me it was for my back-sliding. Upon this conviction I presently retired to God ; and by earnest prayer begged of Him to restore my child; and did then solemnly promise to God, if He would hear my prayer, I would become a new creature. This prayer of mine God was so gracious as to grant ; and of a sudden began to restore my child; which made the doctor himself wonder at the sudden amendment he saw in him, and filled me then with grateful thoughts. After my child's full recovery, I began to find in myself a great desire to go into the country; which I never remember before to have had, thinking it always the saddest thing that could be when we were to remove. My Lady Warwick being very ill of an ague, was unfit as well as unwilling to remove, and my Lord was going to sea; 18 but at last it was by my Lord, upon my shewing a willingness to do it, resolved that OF LADY WARWICK. 19 I should with his family remove to Lees. As I was doing so, upon the road near London I unexpectedly met with my husband returning out of Essex, having been sent thither by the Parliament to prevent a rising they feared there ; and when I went from Warwick House I concluded I should come time enough to see my husband before his return to London. When I was met by him he told me he feared it might not be safe for me to go on ; and some other Parliament-men that were in the coach with him, absolutely advised me to return and not to hazard myself. Though I found in myself a loathness to deny going with my husband (having never before left him hardly, when I could conveniently be with him), yet my desire to go to be quiet at Lees prevailed so much with me, as I desired my hus- band to leave me to myself, which he did, and I then told him I would go on, for I was very confident there was no danger for me, and so parted from him, not without wondering much at myself when I had done so ; but afterwards I saw a good providence of Grod to me in it, which I must always with great thankfulness acknowledge, for I had never, to my re- membrance, before been in so much quiet as by my now going down I enjoyed, having in my father's house, before my marriage, been almost in constant crowds of company, and afterwards so too at Warwick House. And now when I came to Lees, what was believed of the rising in Essex proved true, and being headed c 2 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY by my Lord Goreing and Sir Charles Lucas, 19 they came to Lees for arms that were there, and brought thousands with them ; but my Lord Goreing being one of my best friends, I was upon that account used so well that, bating some arms they took, there was not any- thing touched, and they stayed but only a dinnering time with me, and so marched on to Colchester. My being there was well for the house, for possibly if there had been none but servants, the house would not have been secured as by my being there it was. But by these troubles that was in the country I was kept from having almost any of the neighbourhood to visit, and from London nobody came neither : and as well as I loved my husband's company, yet the appre- hension I had that if he came down he would engage, made me rather at that time desire he should forbear coming (for I always was much averse to his engaging in the wars), so that for about two months together I had a retiring time ; but, my God, how graciously did thy gracious providence provide for me a good companion, who, by thy goodness to me, proved a kind of a spiritual father to me. My Lord of Warwick had then for his household chaplain one Mr. Walker, 20 who being a very good-natured, civil, and ingenuous person, I took much delight in conversing with ; and it pleased God by his ministry in the time of my retirement to work exceedingly upon me, he preaching very awak- ingly and warmly the two texts that were, by God's mercy, set home to me : " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God"; and OF LADY WARWICK. 21 the other was : " Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." By the first I was much terrified, but by the last I was much allured to come unto God and to taste of the sweetness of religion, which he told me was very sweet, and which I afterwards experienced to be true. This good and pious friend of mine per- ceiving in me some inclination to be good, did much assist and encourage me to a holy life, and by frequent discoursing with me, did shew me the expediency and necessity of it, which made me begin to have more serious thoughts than ever in my life before I had; for I desire to acknowledge it to God's glory in changing me, and my own shame, that I was, when I was married into my husband's family, as vain, as idle, and as incon- siderate a person as was possible, minding nothing but curious dressing and fine and rich clothes, and spending my precious time in nothing else but reading romances, and in reading and seeing plays, and in going to court and Hide Park and Spring Garden ; and I was so fond of the court, that I had taken a secret resolution that if my father died, and I was mistress of myself, I would become a courtier ; and though I was at this time of my vanity by God's restraining grace kept from any gross or scandalous sin, yet I had, only to please my father, a form of godliness; but for the inward and spiritual part of it, I was not only ignorant of it, but resolved against it, being stedfastly set against being a Puritan. But, O my good God, what shall I now render unto thee for thy converting grace, who didst by 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY first shewing me the creature's inconsistency, and not letting me find my happiness in any worldly thing, but still embittering the stream that I might come to the fountain, and so by a sanctified affliction 21 didst first in some measure loosen me from the world, and then by my worthy spiritual friend, Dr. Walker's ministry, didst persuade me to come in and try what peace, happiness, and comfort there is in thy most holy ways, in which I did then find such contentment, as all my forepast life, in which I designed pleasing myself, never yielded me ; for God was pleased, at my first turning to Him, to let me find inexpressible com- fort in His ordinances whenever I approached to Him, which did make me to hate and to disrelish all my former vain and idle pleasures, and I then studied the God-breathed oracles, and spent much time in reading in the Word, laying by my idle books, and by my Lord Primate of Ireland's 22 preaching against plays, I was many years before resolved to leave seeing them, for, as I remember, I saw not above two after my being married. I was much encouraged in my new course of life by my dear sister Raneleigh, who did constantly before call upon me to turn to God, and by constant good counsel endeavoured to reclaim me from a vain and idle life ; that excellent sister of mine being from my youth constantly to me the most useful and the best friend, for soul and body, that ever any person I think had ; and for her, as she well de- served it of me, 1 had, and still retain, a particular love and esteem. 23 OF LAD? WARWICK. 23 When I had, by God's great goodness to me, had this two months of quiet, I found myself so happy in the enjoyment of it, that if I had had the satisfaction of my husband's company, I could have been contented for a time to have wanted all other, for my time was then almost quite taken up in reading, meditation, and prayer, being then very solicitous to redeem my former mispent time; so that when I heard of the return of the rest of the family that were absent with my Lady Warwick, and with her returned, as did too my sister Rich, and many more branches of that truly great and numerous family, I was sorry for it, being fearful that I should by them be drawn to vanity. But when they returned I was very fearful and watch- ful of myself, and my good spiritual friend, Dr. Walker, was so too of me, and would often be my monitor not to be drawn by company to mispend my time and to neglect the service of God. But after they had been some time with me, and could not but observe my con- stant (at such hours) stealing from them for secret retirement to my devotion, they began to take notice of the change which they said was to them very appa- rent in all my manner of life; for the thoughts of a future state having seized me then in earnest, had made me in all my way of life much more serious, and had taken away from me that lightness and vanity of mind, in some measure, which I formerly had, and which was noted by them; for the thoughts of eternity were so much upon my mind, that I delighted in nothing so much as being alone in the wilderness, that 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY I might there meditate of things of everlasting con- cernment, and therefore never was with the company but when I could not fairly avoid being so : and indeed it was no wonder to me that I appeared so altered to them, for I was so much changed to myself that I hardly knew myself, and could say with that converted person, " I am not I." All my before vain compa- nions which were so pleasant to me, .were burthens to me, and I began to be acquainted with holy and strict divines, who much frequented the house, but were before by me not much regarded. I did often converse with them alone, and found their company so much more advantageously pleasant to me than my idle, sensual companions had been, that for all I was some- times much laughed at and reproached for leaving great company for them, yet I could never be drawn from those holy and excellent companions, choosing much, rather good than great company. After God had thus, as I hope, savingly wrought upon me, I went on constantly comfortable in my Christian course, though I had many doubts and fears to conflict with, and did truly obey that precept of working out my own salvation with fear and trembling, yet God was pleased to carry me still onward ; and though I too often broke my good resolutions, yet I never renounced them ; and though I too often trifle in my journey to heaven, yet I never forsake my pur- pose of going thither. God was pleased in the year 1648 to make me fall dangerously ill of the small-pox. My distemper at the OF LADY WARWICK. 25 first made Dr. Wright, my physician, 24 believe I would die, but it pleased God, by his means, to save my life ; yet when I was, as he thought, almost past danger, that barbarous and unheard of wicked action of be- heading King Charles the First was of a sudden told me, which did again endanger me, for I had a great abhorrence of that bloody act, and was much disordered at it. In that sickness (which I had at Warwick House) I was, because of my Lady Warwick's fear, shut up from anybody coming to me ; but my constant dear friend, my sister Raneleigh, came now and then to see me, though I was against her doing it, because she had never had them; yet I saw much of God's good- ness to me in the time of my being kept from all other company, for God was pleased then to come in with much support and comfort to me, and though I had for some time before my illness much troubled myself with the great apprehensions I had of death, yet when I knew I was in some danger of it, I found that fear much to go off, and was able to say "It is the Lord, let Him do what seems good in His eyes," and was in some measure resigned to God's will for life or death. Some years afterwards I was again, at Lees, infected with a very long and dangerous sickness, in which, by reason of great fumes I had, my head was highly disor- dered, to a degree that sometimes I knew nobody, and would talk idly and extravagantly; in which sickness too, my dear sister Raneleigh came down to see me ; afterwards, when I was able, though very weak, to be 26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY put into a coach, I was by Dr. Wright's order removed to my own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, to be near my doctor, where I lay a great while in a very weak and ill condition ; but in that sickness had much satis- faction to see the great, tender, and obliging care my husband and father-in-law had of me, and my mother- in-law too was much concerned for me. It pleased my good and merciful God after a long time to cure me perfectly, by His blessing upon Dr. Wright's means, who told me, that in all his great and long practice, he had never known but one that had been as I had been. My illness was, as he told me, occasioned by fumes of the spleen, which had such strange effects upon me as to make my head shake as if I had had the palsy, and made me too many times to speak so that I could hardly be understood by anybody. In this distemper I would laugh too and cry for nothing ; and though I did recover, yet for a long time after my head by fits would be much disturbed, but at last, by God's mercy, I attained to perfect health again. In the year 1657, Mr. Robert Rich, only son to my Lord Rich, who was my husband's eldest brother, died, being aged twenty-three years. 25 He died at London, in February the 16th, to his good grandfather's un- speakable trouble. I was heartily troubled for him, but his good grandfather never was so well or merry after his death as before, and outlived him but a little while, for he died at Warwick House of the cholic, keeping his chamber but a day or two, in April 19, 1658, to my unspeakable grief, then the most smarting OF LADY WARWICK. 27 and most sensible trouble I ever had felt ; for though I had before lost my own dear and deserving father, yet my being then young and gay, made an affliction not take so deep an impression as this did: and indeed this worthy father-in-law of mine merited as much from me as was possible, for in the almost seventeen years I constantly lived with him, from the time I came into his family until his death, he was to me the most civil, kind, and obliging father that ever any person had, and never had from him any thing but constant kindness. He was one of the most best- natured and cheerfullest persons I have in my time met with, and it was some time before I could forbear ex- ceeding much to mourn for him. In the year 1659, in May 30th, died at London, my Lord's eldest brother, then Earl of Warwick, and left no son, only three daughters, which, upon his death- bed, I promised to have while I lived as great a care of as if they had been my own, and that promise I can truly say I have performed, for I have from the time of their father's death, that I took them home to me, with the same care bred those three ladies, who were all left to my care young, as I could have done if they had been my own children, studying and endeavouring to bring them up religiously, that they might be good, and do good afterwards in their generation ; and I am sure I have the affection of a mother for those three sweet, hopeful young ladies, which I beseech God to bless, of whom the name of the eldest was my Lady Ann, 26 the name of the second my Lady Mary," and the name of the youngest my Lady Essex. 28 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY By the death of all these three above-named en- deared relatives of my husband's, he, in about a year and four months, came to be Earl of Warwick, and I had this satisfaction when he came to that honour and noble estate, that I never had so much as a wish for it ; but on the contrary, hourly prayed for the recovery of them, and mourned for their deaths ; for when I married my husband, I had nothing of that honour nor fortune in my thoughts ; it was his person I married and cared for, not an estate. After my Lord's brother's death, I can truly assert that I entered upon that unexpected change of my condition with much disturbance and fear, lest by having a more plentiful estate, I ought to be drawn to love the glory of the world too well. I was very jealous of myself, and did (if ever I prayed earnestly to God) beg of Him, the day after my Lord of Warwick died, to keep me close to Him in this change of my condition. After the funeral of my Lord's brother, we removed from Lincoln's Inn Fields (where we then lived) to Lees, where I came with a design to glorify God what I could, and to do what good I could to alt my neigh- bours. 1661, July the 23d. I was going from Lees to Easton to visit my Lady Maynard, 29 and had in my coach with me my Lady Anne and my Lady Essex Rich ; and when I was just out of Dunmow town, the horses ran with us, and flung out the coachman, and overthrew us in the coach, in which fall the Lady Essex escaped being hurt ; but I was much so, having OF LADY WARWICK. 29 a great blow on my head and a great and dangerous cut in one of my knees. I was, by the great blow in my head, so disordered that for a long time I knew not anything; and by the great cut I had in my knee I was a long time so very lame that I could not go out at all, and had like to have been always so if God had not mercifully, by His blessing on the use of means, restored me to my legs again. 1662. September the second, my son Rich was, at Rohampton Chapel, married to my Lord of Devon- shire's daughter, my Lady Ann Candish f and they being too young to live together, he went to travel into France September the fifth, and I brought my daughter Rich home with me to Lees the eighth. My son stayed not so long as he was designed to do in France; but returned back to his wife, and they lived together with me till May 1664; and then, the eighth day of that month, my dear and only son fell ill, and it proved to be the small-pox, in which distemper of his, after I had removed his wife out of the house from him to her father's (for fear of her being infected), and had sent away my three young ladies to Lees, and got my Lord to remove to my sister Raneleigh's, I shut up myself with him, doing all I could both for his soul and body; and though he was judged by his doctors to be in a hopeful way of recovery, yet it pleased God to take him away by death the 16th of May, to my inexpressible sorrow. He wanted about four months of being of age. ' * " It was so sad an affliction that it would certainly 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY have sunk me had not ray good and gracious God as- sisted me to bear it, and given me this comfortable cordial of seeing him die so penitently that I had many comfortable hopes of his everlasting happiness; he making so good and sober an end. And here, my good God, let me bless Thee for enabling me to bear that great trial of my life without ever having a repin- ing thought at Thee for that sad but just chastisement of me; and for enabling me to confess with my mouth to others, and really and steadily believe in my heart, that Thou wert just in what Thou hadst brought upon me, far less than mine iniquities do deserve. I was, under this sharp trial, so enabled from above with some degree of patience, that I did endeavour to com- fort my sad and afflicted husband, who, at the news of his death, when it was told him (by my good friend, the Earl of Manchester) 31 that he cried out so terribly that his cry was heard a great way; and he was the saddest afflicted person could possibly be. I confess I loved him at a rate, that if my heart do not deceive me), I could, with all the willingness in the world, have died either for him or with him, if God had only seen it fit; yet I was dumb and held my peace, because God did it, and was constantly fixed in the belief that this affliction came from a merciful Father, and therefore would do me good. After my son's death, I was, by my dear sister Raneleigh's care and kindness to me, instantly fetched away from my own house at Lincoln's-inn-fields, where my dear child died, to her house (and never more did OF LADY WARWICK. 31 I enter that house; but prevailed with my Lord to sell it) : my dear sister took such care of me in my sadly afflicted condition that I was much supported by it ; and I was much, too, assisted and comforted by my good spiritual friend Doctor "Walker's advice, who was much with me. Afterwards I was advised to go and drink the waters of Epsom and Tonbridge, to remove that great pain I had got constantly at my heart after my son's death; and by the blessing of God I found a great deal of good in them. Then we returned back to our own house at Lees, where we had a match preferred us for my Lady Ann Rich. It was Sir John Barrington's son; and he being a very civil gentleman and of a very good family, and having a good estate, it was accepted by my Lord and the young lady; and she was married to Mr. Thomas Barrington, in Lees Chapel, in November the 8th, 1664. And after they had continued to live with me for nearly two years, she went from me to her father-in-law's to Hatfield, in Essex, 32 distant from Lees but ten miles : the nearness of the neighbourhood was a great motive to us to accept that match. After that by my dear and only child's death, my Lord's family grew so thin, that the name was like to sink; there being but one brother of my Lord's left, and he, being a very extraordinary wild man, was not like to be a very good head to it. I was (as well as my Lord), very desirous (if God saw it fit) to have more children, and sought to God for some to keep up the honour of that noble house; but I can with truth 32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY say, I desired a son more upon the account of the hopes I had that He might be honoured and owned in it, than upon any other : for that family had for se- veral generations been justly honoured in the county of Essex for the owning and countenancing good people, and for the encouraging of them; and it was a very great aggravation of my loss of my son, to think who would come in his room, if my Lord died, and what a sad change would be made if my brother Hatton should come to Lees, who would, as himself said, alter the way of that house for the entertaining there those good and holy persons that came, who he was resolved to banish thence; but though he was very confident, as himself often told many of his compa- nions, that he should be Earl of Warwick, yet God was pleased to disappoint his expectation by taking him away by death at London, in February the 28th, 1670. I can truly say I was sorry for him, though, because of his not fearing God, I could not at all delight in his company. At my son's death, I was not much more than thirty-eight years old and therefore many, as well as my Lord and myself, entertained some hopes of my having more children; but it pleased God to deny that great and desired blessing to us, and I cannot but acknowledge a just hand of God in not granting us our petition ; for when I was first married, and had my two children so fast, I feared much having so many, and was troubled when I found myself to be with child so soon ; out of a proud conceit I had, that if OF LADY WARWICK. 33 1 childed so thick it would spoil what my great vanity then made me to fancy was tolerable (at least in my person); and out of a proud opinion too that I had, that if I had many to provide for they must be poor, because of my Lord's small estate ; which my vanity made me not endure well to think of: and my husband too was, in some measure, guilty of the same fault; for though he was at as great a rate fond of his children he had, as any father would be, yet when he had had two he would often say he feared he should have so many as would undo a younger brother; and there- fore cannot but take notice of God's withholding that mercy from us when we so much needed it, being we were unthankful for them we had, and durst not trust to His good providence for more, if He saw it fit to give them to us. But, O Lord, though thou hast with jus- tice denied us an heir, and hast made our wound, in this case incurable, by letting our coal be quite put out, yet be pleased to give us in thy house a name better than that of sons and daughters. In the year 1673 it pleased God by death to take from me my dear Lord, who died at his house at Lees, upon Bartholomew day, for whose loss I was more afflicted than ever before for anything in my fore-past life; for though my son's death had almost sunk me, and my grief for him was so great that I thought it almost impossible to be more sensibly afflicted, yet I found I now was so; and though God had given me many years to provide for our separation by seeing my poor hus- band almost daily dying (for God had been pleased for 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY above twenty years to afflict him with the gout more constantly and painfully than almost any person the doctors said they had ever seen), yet I still flattered myself with hopes of his life, though he had for many years quite lost the use of his limbs, and never put his feet to the ground, nor was able to feed himself, nor turn in his bed but by the help of his servants; and by those constant pains he was so weakened and wasted that he was like a mere skeleton, and at last fell into most dangerous convulsion fits and died of the fourth. The seeing him in them was so very terrible to me, that after his death I fell into very ill fits; but by God's blessing I at last lost them again. I had this com- fort that nothing I could think was good for either his soul or body was neglected; and I had much inward peace, to consider that I had been a constant nurse to him, and had never neglected night or day my attend- ance upon him when he needed it, which he was so kind as to reward in his will, giving me his whole estate for my life and a year after, and making me his sole executrix. This greatest trial of my life did for a long time disorder my frail house of clay, and made me have thoughts that my dissolution was near; which thoughts were not at all terrible or aflrighting to me, but very pleasant and delightful. About four months after my Lord's death, my Lady Mary Rich, my Lord's niece, who I had constantly bred from the time of her father's death, was married at Lees chapel by Dr. Walker, the llth December, 1673. The match was agreed on before my Lord's OF LADY WARWICK. 35 death, but finished by me, much to my satisfaction, because it was a very orderly and religious family, and there was a very good estate, and the young gentleman she married, Mr. Henry St. John, was very good- natured and viceless, and his good father and mother, Sir Walter St. John and my Lady St. John, were very eminent for owning and practising religion. And here, O my good God, let me return thee my praises for hearing the reiterated prayers I put up to thy Divine Majesty, for her being by marriage settled in a family where thy sacred name was had in veneration. After her marriage was over, my Lady Essex Rich having, after my Lord's death, broke off a match, which was treated of before my Lord died, between Mr. Thomas Vane and her, I had several offers made me of matches for her, but they were disliked by me, because the young men were not viceless ; and I had taken a resolution that no fortune, though the greatest in the kingdom should be offered me, should be accepted, where the young man was not sober, which made me instantly give flat denials to all the above-named proposals. But afterwards I had from my Lord Keeper Finch, a match proposed for his son, Mr. Daniel Finch, about which, when I had consulted with her own relations, and found they approved of it, as I also did, upon the assurance I had from all the persons that knew him, that he was an extraordinary both ingenuous and civil person (which upon my own knowledge of him, I after- wards found to be true), 1 did recommend this match to the young lady, giving her, when I had laid the D2 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY conveniencies I believed was in it before her, her free choice to choose or not, to do as she liked or disliked ; but after some time that he had made his address to her, she consented to have him, and was by Mr. Wodrofe 33 married to him in Lees chapel, June the 16th, 1674, his father, my Lord Keeper, then being by the King made Baron of Dantery, being present, with a great many more of his and her relations. And here, O Lord my God and gracious God, be pleased to receive my solemn acknowledgments of thy great goodness to me thy most unworthy servant, for letting me have the long-desired satisfaction of seeing the three young ladies (which by thy providence being made orphans, were left to my care to educate) married to three young persons who are free from the reigning vices of these loose and profane times ; and, O Lord, I do humbly implore that thou wouldst be pleased to 'make these three young couple not only to be civil, but inwardly to be renewed in the spirit of their minds, that they may be heirs together of the grace of life, and may, as good Zakanias and Elizabeth did, walk in all the ordi- nances and commandments of thee their God blameless. O make them not only to be good, but to do good, that so thy poor and unworthy servant may with comfort see some fruits of her sincere endeavours to bring them in the nurture and admonition of thee, my Lord, and that the families they are matched into may have cause to bless thee, that ever thy good hand of provi- dence brought them amongst them. O make them to be amiable in their lives, and in their deaths let them OF LADY WARWICK. 37 not be denied. And if it be thy most blessed will, let them be like fruitful vines, that they may increase the families which by thy good providence they are matched into. After I had seen the greatest worldly business I had to do thus happily dispatched, of these three young ladies being disposed of, I met in the trust my dear Lord had imposed upon me as his executrix, in the sale of lands for raising portions and payment of debts, by reason of Mr. Jesop's death, who was one of the trustees, with a great many stops and troubles in my business, which, having not been formerly versed in things of law, I found very uneasy and troublesome to me ; but yet the great desire I had to see my Lord's will fufilled, made me go through my disturbing busi- ness with some patience and diligence ; and God was so merciful unto me, as He did, beyond my expecta- tion, raise me some faithful, knowing, and affectionate friends, who did assist me with their counsel, so as at last God was pleased to let me see my dear Lord's will fulfilled ; and though there was a great many several persons I had to deal with, yet I satisfied them all so well, as I never had anything between them and me passed that was determined by going to law, but all that was in dispute between us, was always agreed on between ourselves in a kind and friendly way ; for which, O Lord, I bless thee. O Lord, be pleased to write a law of love and thank- fulness in my heart for putting an end to my worldly business, by which I find myself too much diverted 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC. from thy service, and too much distracted in it. And, O Lord, be pleased to grant that the remaining part of my days I may be a widow indeed, living a creature wholly devoted unto thee, remembering I am not my own, but bought with a price, and therefore let me glorify thee with my body and with my soul, which are thine. NOTES. (1.) In Lord Cork's " True Remembrances," it is stated, that his daughter Mary was born the llth of November, 1624. That she, however, considered her birth-day to be the 8th November in the following year, is established by the statement at page 15, and this passage in her diary "8th November, 1671 In the morning, as soon as up, I retired into the Wilderness to meditate ; and it being my birth-day, it pleased God to make me call to my remembrance many of the special mercies with which my life was filled. And whilst I was doing so, I considered that God had for forty-six years so mercifully provided for me, that I had not ever out of necessity wanted a meal's meat, nor ever broke a bone, nor in twenty years' time been necessitated to keep my bed one day by reason of sickness ; this did exceedingly draw out my heart to love God." The discrepancy in the day of the month has been pointed out in a note on the Preface to the Memoir of Lady Warwick, published in 1847, by the Religious Tract Society ; but the discrepancy in the year is unnoticed. 40 NOTES. (2.) Lady Warwick, in this passage, follows her father's autobiography, entitled, " True Remembrances," which he drew up in 1632, and of which many copies exist in manuscript. It was first printed entire by Birch, in his life of the Hon. Robert Boyle, 1734. The editor publicly examined the correctness of these true Remembrances in the historical section of the first Meeting of the British Archae- ological Association at Canterbury, (13th September, 1844) and, he thinks, succeeded in shewing that Lord Cork's biography was a complete work of fiction. (3.) " My dear wife, the crown of all my happiness, and mother of all my children, Catherine, Countess of Corke, was translated at Dublin from this life into a better, the 16th February, 1629-30, and was the 17th privately buried in the night in the upper end of the choir of St. Patrick's church in Dublin, in the grave or vault, wherein Dr. Weston, her grandfather, and good Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Sir Geoffry Fenton, his Majesty's principal Secretary of State for this realm, were entombed. Her funerals were honourably solemnized in publick, the llth of March, anno Domini 1629. In the perpetual memory of which my virtuous and religious deceased wife, and of her predecessors and posterity, I have caused a very fair tomb to be erected, with a cave or cellar of hewn stone under- neath it." Lord Cork's " True Remembrances." (4.) [From Sir William EethamUs Collections of Boyle MSS., in the autograph of Mr. Lodge."] (Now first printed.) A form for the government of the Earl of Cork's family at Stalbridge. 1. Firste. All the servants, excepte such as are officers or NOTES. 41 are otherwise imployed, shall meete everye morninge before dynner, and everye night after supper at prayers. 2. That there be lodgeings fittinge for all the Earle of Cork's servants to lye in the house. 3. That it shall be lawfull for the steward to examine any subordinate servant of the whole family concerninge any complainte or misdemeanor committed, and to dismisse and put awaye any inferior servant that shall live dis- solutelie and disordelie either in the house or abrode, without the espetial commaund of the Earle of Cork to the contrarie. 4. That there be a certen number of the gentlemen ap- poynted to sitt at the steward's table, the like at the wayter's table, and the reste to sitt in the hall att the longe table. 5. That there be a clarke of the kytchin to take care of such provicion as is brought into the howse, and to have an espetial eie to the severall tables that are kepte either above staires or in the kytchin and other places. 6. That all the women servants, under the degree of chamber- maydes, be certenlie knowne by theire names to the steward, and not altered and changed uppon everye occation without the consent of the steward, and no schorers to be admitted in the house. 7. That the officers everye Frydaye night bringe in their bills unto the steward, whereby he maye collecte what bathe bene spent and what remaynes weeklie in the howse. 8. (Sic oriff.) Indorsed, Thomas Cross his orders for the keeping of the howse. The writing is the Earless hand. (5.) James Hamilton, the grandson of Sir John Perrot, Lord deputy of Ireland, second Viscount Claneboye, and the 42 NOTES. first Earl of Clanbrassil, who, according to Lodge's Irish Peerage, in. 5, was married in November, 1635, [articles dated 12 and 13 November] to Anne, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Gary, the second Earl of Monmouth, appears to be the person alluded to by Lady Warwick. How are the dates to be reconciled without the charge of double dealing ? Anne Gary, the Countess of Clanbrassil, having survived her lord and re-married with Sir Robert Maxwell. Admitting that Lady Warwick takes a year off her father's " true Remembrance" of her age, and further ad- mitting that she was about eleven years of age when Lord Cork called her into England, this would bring the date of Mr. Hamilton's marriage with Anne Gary, and the Hon. Mary Boyle's arrival in England, to be precisely in the same month and year. But Lady Warwick goes on to say, that for four years after November 1635, Mr. Hamilton continued to be her suitor, and this statement she supports with the fact that within a year after her " absolute refusing him," (say 1639) she saw " a good providence of God " in the matter, as " he was, by the rebellion of Ireland, (1641) impoverished, so that he lost for a great while his whole estate." It may further be observed, that a passage in Lord Cork's letter to Mr. Marcombe, dated 1 8th January, 1 639-40, subsequently quoted, expresses his Lordship's hope that his daughter Mary will be nobly married in the Spring, and bears out Lady Warwick's statement. (6.) Or rather, his apartments in the Savoy Palace, see the following note : (7.) In the autobiography of the Hon. Robert Boyle, pub- lished by Birch ; the former, under the name of Philaretus, NOTES. 43 tells us, that " towards the end of this summer, [1638] the kingdom having now attained a seeming settlement by the king's pacification with the Scots, there arrived atStalbridge,* Sir Thomas Stafford, gentleman usher to the Queen, with his lady, to visit their old friend, the Earl of Cork, with whom, ere they departed, they concluded a match betwitxt his fourth son, Mr. F. B. and E. K. [Kittegrew] daughter to my lady S., by Sir [Robert] K., and then a maid of honour, both young and handsome. To make his addresses to this lady, Mr. F. was sent, (and PhUaretus in his company) before up to London, whither within few weeks they were followed by the Earl and his family, of which a great part lived at (the Lady Stafford's house) the Savoy ; the rest (for his family was much increased by the accession of his daughters, the Countess of Barrimore and the Lady Ranelagh, with their Lords and children) were lodging in the adjacent houses, but took their meals in the Savoy, where the old Earl kept so plentiful a house, that in months, his accompts for bare housekeeping exceeded pounds. " Not long after his arrival, Philaretufs brother having been successful in his addresses to his mistress, was, in the presence of the king and queen, publickly married at court, with all that solemnity that usually attends matches with maids of honour. But to render this joy as short as it was great, Philaretus and his brother were within four days after commanded away for France, and after having kissed their majesty's hands, they took a differing farewel of all their friends; the bridegroom extremely afflicted to be so soon deprived of a joy, which he had tasted but just enough of to encrease his regrets by the knowledge of what he was forced from ; but Philaretus as much satisfied to see himself in a * See page 2. 44 NOTES. condition to content a curiosity, to which his inclinations did passionately addict him. With these different resent- ments of their father's commands, accompanied by their governor, two French servants and a lacquey of the same country, upon the end of October, 1638, they took post for Bye, in Sussex, where the next day hiring a ship, though the sea were not very smooth, a prosperous puff of wind did safely by the next morning blow them into France." (8.) Francis, daughter of Sir Richard Harrison, of Hurst, in Berkshire. She married the Hon. Thomas Howard, who, in 1679, succeeded as third Earl of Berkshire. (9.) Lord Cork writes on the 18th January, 1639-40, to Mr. Marcombe, his son's tutor. " Your friend Broghil is in a fair way of being married to Mrs. Harison, one of the queen's maids of honour, about whom yesterday a difference happened between Mr. Thomas Howard, the Earl of Berkshire's son and heir, and him, which drew them into the field ; but thanks be to God, Broghil came home with- out any hurt, and the other gentleman not much harmed, and now they have clashed their swords together they are grown good friends. I think in my next I shall advise you that my daughter Mary is nobly married, and that in the Spring I shall send her husband to keep company with my sons at Geneva." (10.) Richard Lord Dungarvan, afterwards the second Earl of Cork in the Peerage of Ireland, and Lord Clifford and Earl of Burlington in the Peerage of England, married 5th July, 1635, Lady Elizabeth Clifford, the daughter and heir to Henry, Earl of Cumberland. (11.) When the editor applied to the clergyman of Shep- NOTES. 45 perton for information on this subject, he was not aware that the wished for extract, from the parish register, had been printed in Lyson's " Historical account of those parishes in the county of Middlesex which are not described in the environs of London," p. 225. His want of knowledge, however, affords him an opportunity of conveying to the Rector of Shepperton this acknowledgement for the kind and prompt manner in which the request was met, and the following document forwarded for his information. Extract from the register of marriages solemnized in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Shepperton, Middlesex. " Mr. Charles Rich, second son to the Right Hon. Robert Earle of Warwick, and the Lady Mary Boyle, daughter to the Right Hon. the Earle of Cork in Ireland, were married the 21st of July, 1641." Extracted by WILLIAM RUSSELL, Rector. January 24, 1848. (12.) Also written Leeze, and Leighs near Braintree, Essex, " where the Earl of Warwick resided, was one of the finest seats in the kingdom. Mr. Knightly, a gentle- man of Northamptonshire, told the Earl ' he had good reason to make sure of heaven ; as he would be a great loser in changing so charming a place for hell.' See Calamy's ' Sermon at his funeral,' p. 31." Granger. (13.) Lady Catherine Boyle, the fifth daughter of the Earl of Cork, married Arthur Jones, Viscount Ranelagh, and was about ten years Lady Warwick's senior. See 23. (14.) John Gauden, successively Bishop of Exeter and Worcester, died 20th September, 1662. A man of con- siderable learning, and the reputed author of the " Eikon Basilike." (15.) Lady Lucy Rich, daughter of Robert Earl of 46 NOTES. Warwick, married John second Baron Robartes, created Earl of Radnor in 1679. (16.) Lady Anne Villiers, daughter of Christopher Earl of Anglesey, married Thomas first Earl of Sussex, who was Comptroller of the household to Charles I, and remained faithfully attached to the king during the Civil Wars. (17.) The editor has not been able to ascertain the day on which Lord Cork died, in September, 1643, at Youghall. The numerous authorities which he has consulted, enable him to state that it must certainly have been after the 15th; and probably after the 18th. The only curious point in the question, is that of time in the transmission of intelligence from Ireland to England, by which Lord Cork's own state- ment respecting his journey from Kinsale to the bed-side Queen of Elizabeth, might be tested as to its accuracy. (18.) Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, was appointed " Admiral and commander-in-chief of the ships which are now, or hereafter shall be, set forth to sea by the long Par- liament." His instructions from the Lords and Commons in Parliament are dated 5th April, 1643. Granger observes, that the Earl of Warwick " was a great friend and patron of Puritan divines, and one of their con- stant hearers ; and he was not content with hearing long sermons in their congregation only, but he would have them repeated in his own house." Yet in his morals Lord War- wick is said to have been licentious. (19.) "The king's party, in Colchester, expecting to be included in the peace, which was treating between him and the Parliament, held out to the utmost ; but being in ex- NOTES. 47 treme want of provisions, and destitute of all hopes of relief, since the defeat of the Scots ; they were forced to surrender on the 28th of August, 1648, upon articles, whereby some of the principal of them being prisoners at discretion, the court-martial assembled, and condemned Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Bernard Gascoin to die ; the last of whom, being a foreigner, was pardoned, and the other two were shot to death, according to the sentence. The Lord Goring, and the Lord Capel, were sent prisoners to London, and committed to the Tower, by an order of the Parliament." Ludlow's Memoirs. Lord Goring was created, by Charles I, Earl of Norwich. His character has been handed down to us, as brave, gay, and unprincipled. He died in 1662-3. Sir Charles Lucas as that of a gentleman and a soldier, who deserved a better fate. (20.) Anthony Walker, D.D., rector of Fyfield, in Essex, who wrote and published several sermons, among others a funeral sermon, on the death of Lady Warwick's son, Lord Rich, 1664; on her husband's death, 1673; and on her own, 1678; under the title " E'YPHKA ffYPHKA. The Virtuous Woman found, her loss bewailed, and character exemplified, <fcc.," of which a second edition appeared in 1687. Dr. Walker is also stated to be the author of " A true account of the author of a book entitled E/KWV Ba<nAuc7) ; with an answer to all the objections made by Dr. Holling- worth and others, in defence of the said book, 1692." (21.) As Lady Warwick's son did not die until many years after the period referred to by her, the "sanctified affliction" alluded to, was not improbably her lord's pas- sionate carriage towards her. (22 ) Archbishop Usher. 48 NOTES. (23.) Dr. Walker dedicates his " Ef'YPHKA E'TPHKA," to the Right Honourable Katherine, Viscountess Raneleigh, and the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., executors of the last will of the Right Honourable Mary Countess Dowager of Warwick. Lady Raneleigh died on the 23rd, and her brother on the 30th December, 1691. They were both buried at the upper end of the south side of the chancel of St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. (24.) It would be curious to ascertain what was the real character of this Dr. Wright. Several Jesuits, under that name, successfully practised medicine, astrology, gambling, and other occult sciences in England about this period ; and had procured free admission into families of the utmost consideration throughout the kingdom. (25.) He had married Oliver Cromwell's youngest daughter, Francis, but left no issue. (26.) Lady Ann Rich, married Thomas, son of Sir John Barrington, 8th November, 1664, (see page 31.) Granger mentions a scarce print by Gascar, in the Strawberry Hill collection, of Lady Anne Barrington and Lady Mui-y St. John, but adds, " I know nothing of the personal history of the ladies." In the Strawberry Hill sale, this print sold to Mr. Graves for II. 14s. ; another impression was recently sold by Messrs. Smith, of Lisle Street, to Wm. Staunton, Esq., of Longbridge, Warwick, for six guineas. (27.) Lady Mary, married, llth December, 1673, (see page 34,) Mr. Henry St. John, respecting whom Lady Warwick's opinion is recorded in the following page. As Viscount St. John, he was tried and convicted of the murder of Sir William Estcourt, Bart., in 1684, and by the Viscount NOTES. 49 she was the mother of the famous Viscount Bolingbroke, who was baptized 10th October, 1678. (28.) Lady Essex Rich married the Hon. Daniel Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, 16th June, 1674, (see page 36.) Granger is evidently wrong in calling her the second, instead of the third daughter of the Earl of Warwick. There is a print of the Countess of Nottingham, by Browne, after Sir Peter Lely's picture. (29.) A print, executed upwards of a century ago, of Easton Lodge, the seat of Charles, Lord Maynard, may be found in Morant's History and Antiquities of the County of Essex. Vol. ii. p. 431. (30.) On the 26th May, 1632, a chapel was consecrated, by Laud, Bishop of London, in the house of the Earl of Portland, at Roehampton, Surry. It was pulled down in 1777, by Thomas Parker, Esq., who, at the same time, built a new chapel about 100 yards from the house. The house was sold, in 1640, by the Earl of Portland, to Sir Thomas Dawes, by whom it was let, and afterwards sold to Chris- tian, Countess of Devonshire, whose daughter, Lady Anne Cavendish, married Lady Warwick's son. The Countess of Devonshire is said to have been instrumental in bring- ing about the restoration of Charles II, and was the grand- mother of the first Duke; she died 16th January, 1674-5. The editor believes that Granger was mistaken in his state- ment, that Lady Rich was the daughter of Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire, the mother of the first duke. (31.) Edward, Earl of Manchester, trimmed with the times, and originated the saying, of " a Manchester shift." He was a leader of the presbyterian party in Charles's E 50 NOTES. reign ; and after having served on the Commonwealth side, even to the drawn sword, was made Lord Chamberlain by Charles II. He died 5th May, 1671, and Anne his daughter became the second wife of Robert Earl of War- wick and Holland, who succeeded to the former title on the death of the writer's husband in 1673. (32.) In the fourth volume of "a New and Complete History of Essex," 8vo, 1769, page 113, there is a view of Barrington Hall, at Watfield, Broad Oak, the seat of John Barrington Esq. J. Chapman, del. <fcc. The editor having no knowledge of the locality can add nothing more. (33.) The editor is indebted to Nathaniel George Wood- rooffe, A.M., Vicar of Somerford Keynes, Gloucestershire, the great, great-grandson of the Mr. Wodrofe mentioned by Lady Warwick, for a communication particularly noticed in the preface. LONDON: RICHARDS, 100, ST. MARTIN'S IANE. University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. NON-RENEWABLE M LVlA rrr It T"~L ^ tf Allege/ LD-UHI APR 1 9 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 093 532 o Universit Southe Libra