Ex LIBRIS
IRENE DWEN ANDREWS
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Second <Smes.
SIE BERNARD BURKE,
Sllstrr Sing of arms,
ATTTHOE OP /'THE PEEBAGE AND BABONETAGE," "THE LANDED
GENTBY," ETC.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON: -
LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND EOBEETS,
PATEKNOSTEE EOW.
1861.
BILLING. PRINTER AND STEBEOTTPBB, QUILDFORD, 8URBK7.
CONTENTS.
PAQH
INTBODUCTION 1
THE FALL OF CONYEBS . . . . . 15
O'CONNOR OF CONNOBVILLE 28
THE LAST WILLIAM WBAY OF ABDS ... 55
ELWES THE MISEB, AND ELWE8 THE BUINED BABONET 74
JOHN MTTTON OF HALSTON 110
THE O'DONELLS 125
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT .... 149
THE HOUSE OF BOTHES 164
THE LAIBDS OF CALLENDAB .... 174
THE LAIBDS OF WESTQUABTEB .... 190
THE PEIME MINISTEB \YABD .... 212
VICISSITUDES OF THE BONAPABTES ... 273
MACCABTHT 306
VICISSITUDES OF BULSTBODE 332
IV CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE 0'MEI.AGHLINS, ZINGS OF MEATH . . 359
LAWS OP LATJEI3TON 374
THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND . . . 396
DE VEEE, EAEL OP OXFOED ... . 413
INTRODUCTION.
CAUSES OF FAMILY DECADENCE -.ENDOWMENT OF HEBEDITABY
HONOURS EUIN OF FAMILIES IN IBELAND PBESEBVATION
OF ANCIENT TITLE DEEDS HEIB OF M'FiNNAN DUFF
M'CABTHY MOBE'S EEPBESENTATIVE SIB AUDLEY MEB-
VYN'S SUGGESTION VALUE OF TBADITION FLOWEBS OF
FINDEBNE.
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
The jest at which fools laugh the loudest,
The downfall of our old nobility
Which may forerun the ruin of a kingdom.
I've seen an idiot clap his hands and shout
To see a tower like yon stoop to its base
In headlong ruin ; while the wise look'd round,
And fearful sought a distant stance to watch
"What fragment of the fabric next should follow ;
For when the turrets fall, the walls are tottering.
WALTEB SCOTT.
THE decadence of noble and wealthy families is a fact of too
frequent occurrence to be now a subject of doubt or dispute,
but the cause of such decadence, though equally obvious,
seems to have puzzled a host of enquirers : the whole matter
is referable to a few general agents. Historically consi-
dered, the decay and extinction of great houses may be
mainly attributed to the Civil Wars, from Hastings to
Culloden, and to the law of attainder, which, in England
more than in any other country of Europe, undermined
and overthrew the landed Aristocracy. So fatal, indeed,
was the operation of that law, that, of the twenty-five
Barons who were appointed to enforce the observance of
Magna Charta, there is not now in the House of Peers a
single male descendant ! At the Norman Conquest, a
B 2
4 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
great dispersion of families occurred. Malcolm of Scot-
land gave protection to the Saxon exiles, and they availed
themselves of it in such numbers, that in the words of
Simeon of Durham, " they were to be met with in all the
farm-houses, and even in the cottages."
Passing over the turbulent times of the early Plantage-
nets, the baronial contests, and the French wars all more
or less destructive of the ancient noblesse we arrive at the
most striking era of family decadence, that of " the Wars
of the Roses." With regard to the Yorkists (who, by the
way, were the Liberals of those days), it was their policy,
De Comines asserts, to spare the common people, and to
cut off the nobility and gentry : and thus the victors
became enriched by the forfeited lands of the vanquished.
Through these means, and the fearful loss of life in the bat-
tle-field and on the scaffold, very many of the chief historic
houses were destroyed. Of the survivors, some that bore
the territorial prefix De, dropped it, having lost the inherit-
ance to which it applied ; and others were so impoverished,
that an act passed to degrade to a lower rank such of the
nobility as had not adequate estates. Ruined lords and
gentlemen went into exile, to be the miserable pensioners
of foreign courts, or wandered in beggary and wretchedness
through many of the countries of Europe.
The dynasty which succeeded in uniting the rival roses
was scarcely more favourable to the pld nobility. It seems
to have been the principle of the Tudor kings to break
down the ancient families of Norman origin, and con-
sequently, during their rule, the vicissitudes of the
Howards, the Percys, the Cliffords, the Dudleys, the
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 5
Nevilles, the Staffords, the Courtenays, the Greys, and the
De la Poles are full of melancholy and pathetic interest.
The star of the Stuarts was unlucky to all within its in-
fluence. The great Civil War of Charles the First's reign
ruined the Cavaliers the men of pure blood, and long-
derived lineage ; and the devoted loyalty of the Jacobites
dispersed through the armies of France, and Austria, and
Spain many of the best-born subjects of King James.
Where these causes for the decadence of families have been
wanting, another not less efficient has occurred to produce
the same results in that personal extravagance, so frequent
amongst those of large fortune and high position ; exposed
as they are to a thousand temptations unknown to the low-
born and the needy. Then there are the electioneering
struggles, the rivalry of one great county House with
another, and the efforts of the old gentry to retain their
place above the new men advanced by trade or by profes-
sional success. Another source of family vicissitude has
been overlooked, or misunderstood: the peculiar talents
and disposition that have led to the aggrandizement of any
one person are seldom repeated in his immediate successor.
As a general rule, nature seems to delight in varying her
creations, and rarely reproduces herself but at certain inter-
vals. Thus it is not often that a miser is succeeded in the
same line by a miser, a poet by a poet, or a commander by a
son of the same military ability as his father. More usually
in the miser's case, a spendthrift comes to scatter the
hoards of his predecessor with reckless and unsparing hand :
Riches, like insects, when concealed they lie,
Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.
6 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
But, after all, I am inclined to think, that, in modern times,
the main cause of the misery and deplorable fate that have
happened to some of our most eminent families maybe dis-
covered in that part of the law of inheritance which, in the
absence of direct heirs male, allows the estates to pass to
an heiress, while the title to which they belong devolves
on a collateral branch that may be equally devoid of wealth
or education ; in other words, the property goes to one
line, and the dignity to another, incapable of supporting it.
I have always considered that it would be of infinite
advantage if means could be devised for remedying the
evil in some way or other. But for the immense difficulty
of rendering, even by legislative enactment, real property
perpetually inalienable, it might be well that the crown
made it a sine qua non that every recipient of an here-
ditary title of honour should be required, before his patent
could pass, to endow the dignity granted to him with a
landed estate which could never afterwards be detached
i'rom it. A Baronet's qualification might be fixed at 500
a year in land, a Peer's at 2000. At any rate, a scheme
like the following might be adopted. Each Peer or Ba-
ronet should be compelled, by statute, to contribute to
government a proper sum (to be arrived at by actuarial
estimate), so that out of the aggregate of such contribu-
tions, the administration of the day, or some public func-
tionary, say the Lord Chancellor or Lord President, could
allocate such annual payments, as it might be competent
to pay, to Peers and Baronets in reduced circumstances,
for the maintenance of their dignity. The great difficulty
of all such legislation is to reconcile certainty of payment
VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 7
to, and enjoyment by, persons who are in debt, and whose
property, whether in globo or annual, would, of necessity,
be liable to claims of their creditors. There appears,
however, a way of conscientious reconcilement arising from
the consideration of the nature of public dignities, and
the requirements of the public service. It has been held
in numerous cases, that such stipends, the enjoyment of
which is necessary for the maintenance of the public dig-
nity, or for the furtherance of the public service, cannot
be taken by the creditors of the holders. Consequently,
all that need be assumed as an argument for such legisla-
tion is, that it is due to the public service and dignity
that Peers and Baronets should always, as such, have the
right to receive out of a fund, constituted as suggested
above, such annual income for the maintenance of their
respective rank and position. The statute might provide
for this, by an enactment following out the understanding
already admitted by the law.
In cases where honours have been won by personal
achievement, and where the distinguished men, to whom
such honours are given, have not the means to provide the
required contributions, a power might be vested in the
crown, to authorize a sufficient sum to be paid out of the
exchequer to assist or enable a grantee of a peerage, or
baronetcy conferred for great public services, to contribute
the necessary sum to the fund.
Grants were made in the cases of Nelson and Wellington,
and similar liberality for the endowment of hereditary
honours achieved by merit such as theirs, might be made
a general rule, with very immaterial loss to the national
8 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
income, and with infinite benefit to the hereditary orders
of the country.
In Ireland, family history and national history can
scarcely be separated ; the Vicissitudes of the one are the
Vicissitudes of the other. Ireland is a country of ruins,
and among the ruins may be classed the old aristocracy.
I often, as I pass the roofless churches with their dese-
crated grave-yards, "where princes and where prelates
sleep," think of the lines of Pope
" That grave where e'en the great find rest,
And blended lie the oppressor and oppressed."
For here are mingled in one undistinguished mass the
Irish, the Norman, the Elizabethan, the Scotch, the Crom-
wellian, and the Williamite, who have successively fought
and bled for the possession of the neighbouring fields. The
vicissitudes of family history in Ireland are ever recurring.
The loss of records and the neglect and consequent de-
struction of monumental memorials evidence the constant
revolution of property in that distracted land. What
cares the purchaser in the Landed Estates' Court for the
preservation of the tombstones of the old gentry in the
neighbouring unwalled churchyard? What cared the
Williamite for the bones of the Jacobite, or the Crom-
wellian for the relics of the Norman, or the Norman for
those of the conquered Irish ? Nowhere can we trace
sepulchral brasses, and very rarely indeed, knights' burial
effigies ; but to supply this want in some degree, the re-
membrance of historic events and of historic names still
retained among the people is something quite marvellous.
During centuries of gloom and defeat, it was all that was
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 9
left to them of better days, and like the ivy that adheres
to the ruined palaces and mansions of byegone prosperity
and pleasure, they clung to these memories with sin-
gular tenacity ; and now, when an era of prosperity has at
last opened on their country, they love to recall the old
times again, and the old families which perished in the
national struggle.
It is an interesting and well-authenticated fact, resulting
from the same feeling for the past, that the descendants
of the despoiled Irish have hoarded up with the greatest
care their ancient title deeds.
Mr. Beltz, Lancaster Herald, mentioned to Mr. Weld, the
Traveller, having met in the year 1802, at Kenmare, the
heir of M 'Finnan Duff, a poor Kerry cottager, who had in
his possession " the Proceedings of a Commission" of 12th
Elizabeth for the partition of the estates between his an-
cestor and a rival 0' Sullivan family papers which had been
preserved as a sacred heirloom through centuries of destitu-
tion and hopeless ruin. These parchments were so decayed
that Mr. Beltz could not have deciphered them if he had
not been familiar with the originals in the Exchequer. Crof-
ton Croker likewise refers to this remarkable trait in the
despoiled Gael, and states, in his " Sketches of the South
of Ireland," that he knew a blacksmith, living in the
West of Skibbereen, who claimed to be the representative of
M'Carthy More, and who showed him the M'Carthy
title deeds. I myself have heard from a very old friend
still living, that he well remembers his grandfather having
told him that he had seen some of the ruined heirs of the
dispossessed proprietors, with their deeds carefully tied up,
10 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
wandering about the county of Tipperary. The parch-
ments thus treasured were the only signs they had left
them to " shew the world that they were gentlemen."
At one time, it was proposed that when parties appeared
before the Commissioners under the Act of Settlement to
prove their innocency, and failed, their title deeds should
be impounded. This was one of the suggestions urged in
1662 by Sir Audley Mervyn, Speaker of the House of
Commons, who went up, attended by the whole House,
to the Lord Lieutenant (Ormonde) to complain of the
too great readiness with which claimants were allowed
to establish innocency. Among other recommendations,
was the proposal that where the party failed, the deeds he
produced should be withheld from him.
Sir Audley said he remembered that in the north
of Ireland the people had a practice of stuffing the skin of
the calf, which they had taken from the cow, with straw
(which they called a Puckan), and then of setting this be-
fore the cow, who would low over it and lick it, and in so
doing would give down her milk. " These Deeds (wanting
the Estate) were," urged Sir Audley, "like these skins
stuffed with straw."
" But of what use are they, and what harm to leave
them with the old proprietors ?" was replied. " They will
serve," answered the Speaker, "like the Puckan. The
dispossessed will low over them, and lick them over and
over in their thoughts, and in so doing they will give
down a memory of revenge."
Tradition is confessedly the hand-maiden of history,
assisting the annalist in his labours, and ministering ever
VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
11
to his wants. Tradition is the lamp which, with flicker-
ing but faithful ray, guides the genealog : st along his
misty path, and is ofttimes the only light to indicate the
course he is to take. All this, tradition has been to me. In
my researches into the Vicissitudes of Families, the village
legend and the peasant's tale have been my constant helps.
I am pretty well acquainted with England and Ireland,
and in both, but especially in Ireland, I have found the
local memories of the old races wonderfully vivid and
wonderfully accurate ; the details, sometimes exaggerated
and sometimes partially forgotten, are of course frequently
inconsistent with fact, but the main features of the story
are substantially true, and are generally confirmed by the
test of subsequent investigation. The original edifice
stands boldly out, though additions may have been made
to the architecture, or time may have mouldered a portion
into decay. In this consists one great charm of an " old
country." The boundless prairies, the interminable forests,
the gigantic rivers of the far West are wonderful and
grand, and strike the mind with awe, but the heart is un-
touched ; whereas with us every vale, and hill, and stream
can tell of days gone by, of a long succession of native
heritors, and are replete with ancestral story. One little
anecdote it may be permitted me here to introduce from
the English side of the Channel, as peculiarly illustrative
of the endurance of local tradition. The hamlet of
Finderne, in the parish of Mickleover, about four miles
from Derby, was, for nine generations, the chief resi-
dence of a family who derived their name from the place
of their patrimony. From the times of Edward I. to
12
VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES:
those' of Henry VIII., when the male line became ex-
tinct, and the estate passed, by the marriage of the
heiress, to the Harpurs, the house of Finderne was one
of the most distinguished in Derbyshire. Members of it
had won their spurs in the Crusades, and at Cressy, and
at Azincourt. The sons were brave and the daughters
fair : one, alas ! was frail as well as fair, and the heaviest
blow that ever fell on the time-honoured line was when
Catherine Finderne, about the middle of the fifteenth cen-
tury, consented to be the mistress of Henry, Lord Grey of
Codnor. In the remarkable will of that remarkable noble-
man, who, in 1463, obtained a licence from the king for
the transmutation of metals, provision is made for his ille-
gitimate issue by Catherine in terms which were, no doubt,
deemed unexceptionable in those days, but which would
be deemed highly offensive in our own. The territorial
possessions of the Findernes were large : the Findernes
were High Sheriffs, occasionally Rangers of Needwood
Forest, and Custodians of Tutbury Castle, and they
matched with some of the best families of their times.
Finderne, originally erected tempore Edward I., and re-
stored and enlarged at different periods, was in 1560 one
of the quaintest and largest family mansions in the mid-
lands. The present church, then the family chapel, had
rows of monumental brasses and altar-tombs, all memo-
rials of the Findernes. In 1850, a pedigree research
caused me to pay a visit to the village. I sought for the
ancient Hall. Not a stone remained to tell where it
had stood ! I entered the church not a single record
of a Finderne was there ! I accosted a villager, hoping
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 13
to glean some stray traditions of the 'Findernes. " Fin-
dernes I" said he, " we have no Findernes here, but we
have something that once belonged to them : we have
Findernes' flowers." " Show me them," I replied ; and
the old man led me into a field which still retained faint
traces of terraces and foundations. "There," said he,
pointing to a bank of " garden flowers grown wild," " there
are the Findernes' flowers, brought by Sir Geoffrey from
the Holy Land, and do what we will, they will never die !"
Poetry mingles more with our daily life than we are apt
to acknowledge ; and even to an antiquary like myself,
the old man's prose and the subject of it were the very
essence of poetry.
For more than three hundred years the Findernes had
been extinct, the mansion they had dwelt in had crumbled
into dust, the brass and marble intended to perpetuate
the name had passed away, and a little tiny flower had for
ages preserved a name and a memory which the elaborate
works of man's hand had failed to rescue from oblivion.
The moral of the incident is as beautiful as the poetry.
We often talk of " the language of flowers/' but of the
eloquence of flowers we never had such a striking example
as that presented in these flowers of Finderne :
Time. Time, his withering hand hath laid
On battlement and tower,
And where rich banners were displayed,
Now only waves a flower.
Tales of fallen houses have all their moral. Some
warn against reckless waste, the gambling-table, the
race- course, and the countless ills that profligacy entails.
Some tell the story of electioneering ambition and ruinous
14 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
expenditure; some exhibit the picture of political and
religious oppression, and some again of loyalty, right or
misguided, but faithful even to the last; some, for the
warning and instruction of mankind, prove that the mighty
may be put down from their seats, and the lowly raised
up; and some serve to suggest the ill luck that seems
occasionally to be linked with a particular race, we know
not why, unless it be from some hereditary failing re-
minding one of the observation of Cardinal Richelieu, who
used to say that he would never continue to employ an
unlucky man, because the ill-luck was pretty generally a
thing of his own making.
These Vicissitudes, " moving accidents," as they are, of
human life, afford lessons of wisdom of incalculable value :
the experience of the past is a warning for the future :
Consilium futuri ex prseterito venit.
Yet in commenting on such Vicissitudes, I cannot con-
clude without observing how all the greater on their account
does the blessing appear that has fallen to the lot of those
ancient families (and I rejoice to say there are many,
many of them in this empire) which " have stood against
the waves and weathers of time/' have flourished from
generation to generation, and still exist in all the splen-
dour of untarnished merit and honour. Thankful, in-
deed, should be those descendants who have been thus
Providentially favoured ; those whom to borrow the beau-
tiful language of the Psalms the Lord hath been mind-
ful of, and blessed, as He blessed the House of Israel and
the House of Aaron, being their help and their shield, and
increasing them more and more, they and their children.
t Jfall 0f
- I'll noble it no further.
Let them erase my name from honour's list,
And drag my scutcheon at their horses' heels ;
I have deserved it all, for I am poor,
And poverty hath neither right of birth,
Nor rank, relation, claim, nor privilege.
SCOTT.
THE ancient Hall at Sockburn in the county of Durham
" Tees-seated Sockburn, where by long descent Conyers
was Lord/' has mouldered to the level of its bounding
pastures ; a dying chestnut seems the last remnant of its
thick defences of green ; and the little rural church, where
the old Lords knelt in life and slept in death, is a ruin in
its lonely graveyard. The chapel-aisle retained, up to a
recent period, a few of the Conyers' monuments ; and
broken panes of coloured glass, with brasses still unworn,
forbade the disruption altogether of Conyers memories
from Sockburn; but a feeling of utter desolation now
strikes the tourist on visiting the home of the Conyers's.
All is gone. Not an acre of land in the county of Durham
is held by one of the name ; and of the old Hall, not one
stone is left on another. A curious legend, which yet
lingers about the place, alone connects the deserted spot
with a recollection of its early owners. Sir John Conyers,
16 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
a doughty knight, is recorded to have slain a venomous
wyvern, which was the terror of the country round, and
to have been requited by a royal gift of the Manor of
Sockburn, to be held by the service of presenting a fal-
chion to each Bishop of Durham 011 his first entrance
into the Palatinate.
Truly could the Conyers' say,
" By this sword we hold our land."
I do not ask the reader to pin his faith on the Norman
name of Conyers being the veritable style of the dragon-
slaying knight of Saxon times, much less that the fal-
chion of Coeur de Lion's days, still preserved in the mo-
dern House at Sockburn, belonged to him.
But I would have him remember that the sword of the
Conyers' was the title-deed to their estate. In compliance
with the tenure, when each new Bishop of Durham first
comes to his diocese, the Lord of Stockburn, meeting him
in the middle of Neashamford, or Croft Bridge, presents
him with a falchion, addressing him in these words .
" My Lord Bishop, I here present you with the falchion
wherewith the Champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon,
or fiery-flying serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and
child ; in memory of which, the king then reigning gave
him the Manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that,
upon the first entrance of every Bishop into the county,
this falchion should be presented/' The Bishop returns
it, wishing the Lord of Sockburn health and long enjoy-
ment of the Manor.*
* Longstaffe's History of Darlington.
THE FALL OF CONYERS. 17
Before the gift of Sockburn, it is asserted that Sir Roger
Conyers was, in the Conqueror's days, made Constable of
the Keep of Durham and all the soldiers there; and that
his son, Sir Roger, was Constable by inheritance, " as by
a deed is made mention in the time of Henry the First,
which deed is yet to see, under a great seal, himself in
complete armour, sustaining of his falchion and shield-at-
arms, and amounted of his horse, being armed, and at-
tired with all the furniture of the field, having a shaffron,
and a plume of feathers, according to the course of war
and the Marshal office of a Constable/' This is a gallant
picture, and I wish, we had better authority for it than the
" Manuscript of John Calverley, Esq.," from which Randal
had it. Certainly all the Constabulary rights had decayed
when the Conyers' s flaunted proudly at Stockburn.
Knightly and noble was this same race of Conyers : the
Sockburn line, who displayed the simple bearing, " az. a
maunch, or" held broad lands by inheritance, and increased
them by marriages with Northern heiresses. Sir John
Conyers, of the time of Edward I., gained the hand and
fortune of Scolastica, the richly- en do wed, and, if one may
judge from her name, "the learned/' daughter of Ralph
de Cotam : his grandson, another Sir John, married the
co-heiress of de Aiton, whose mother was a Percy of
Northumberland, and his son, Robert, took to wife
the sole heiress of William Pert, whose mother was a
Scrope of Yorkshire. Subsequent alliances with theEures,
Bigots, Markenfields, Radcliffes, Saviles, Dawnys, Bowes',
Bulmers, Widdringtons, and Simeons tended still further
to elevate the position and grandeur of the house, until at
18 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
length, in the seventeenth century, ANNE CONYERS, the
heiress of the last male descendant of the senior branch,
married Francis, llth Earl of Shrewsbury, and conveyed
the Lordship of Sockburn to the historic name of Talbot ;
but the Talbots soon fell sick of the ancient acres of the
Conyers' s, and in about fifty or sixty years after, sold them
to the Blacketts.
While the Sockburn stem was flourishing in Durham,
an offshoot planted itself at Hornby, in Yorkshire. That
grand old castle came to the second branch of Conyers, by
the marriage of Sir John Conyers with Margery, daughter
and co-heir of Philip, 6th Lord D'Arcy, the 4th in descent
from the renowned Justice of Ireland, John, Lord D'Arcy,
and passed in succession to their eldest son, Sir John Con-
yers, who was a Knight of the Garter, and whose son,
William, became a Peer as Lord Conyers. This latter
was a brave soldier, and shared in the victory of Flodden ;
but two generations more closed the male descent of this
second family of Conyers, the Barony passing to the
heirs-general, the D'Arcys, Earls of Holderness, and
from them, through the Dukes of Leeds, to the present
Lord Conyers. The male representation, however, vested
in Conyers of Horden, in the county o^Durham, sprung
from a sou of the Knight of the Garter, and enriched
by an alliance with the heiress of Sir Robert Claxton, and
was sustained with honour and dignity by them, matching
with the Lumleys and the Harratons, and other county
grandees, and receiving from Charles I. a patent of Ba-
ronetcy. The third inheritor of the title, Sir John Con-
yers of Horden, succeeded to the large fortune of his
THE FALL OF CONYERS. 1.9
uncle, Sir William Langhorne, Bart., whereby he became
possessed of the stately seat of Charlton, in Kent, a splen-
did mansion, built originally for Prince Henry, the eldest
son of James I., and considered one of the finest specimens
of domestic architecture of the period : he got besides a
very considerable estate attached thereto, and he further
augmented his possessions by a property in Huntingdon-
shire, derived from his wife.
About this period the Conyers's were thus dispersed :
The heirs or assigns of Anne Conyers, Countess of Shrews-
bury, held Sockburn ; Conyers D'Arcy, Earl of Holder-
nesse, and Baron Conyers, who represented the next branch,
kept princely state in the Conyers' Castle of Hornby; and
Sir John Conyers, the male chief of the whole family, who
had quitted his northern and ancestral home of Horden,
was sojourning in a far more genial climate the courtly
groves of Charlton.
This was the state of the family in the early part of the
eighteenth century. After the fashion of melodrama, let us
now suppose an interval of eighty or ninety years, and
draw up the curtain on a new scene. It is no longer the
grand old Hall of Sockburn, with its quaint avenues and
its mediaeval architecture ; it is not Hornby's proud Castle,
or Charlton's palace home, that the spectator sees, but a
room in the workhouse of Chester-le-Street, in the very
county of Durham where the Lords of Sockburn held such
potent sway, and in that work-house room, among other
parish paupers, is poor old Sir Thomas Conyers, the last
Baronet of Horden, bearing up manfully and patiently
against his bitter adversity. Fate seems to have done its
c 2
20 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
worst ; but even in that moment of apparent hopeless suf-
fering, the guidance of Providence leads one to the ruined
gentleman's relief, one who has heart and hand open to
afford it.
Robert Surtees, of Mainsforth, the all- accomplished
historian of Durham, had been informed of this awful case
of vicissitude, and lost not a moment in ministering to the
wants and comforts of the descendant of one of those
grand old Durham houses that his labours had so ably
illustrated.
He appealed to the benevolence of the titled and opu-
lent; but, without waiting for the receipt of any subscription,
he hastened personally to aid the sufferer, and to raise him
from his humiliating situation.
It was on the 26th February, 1810, that Mr. Surtees
proceeded to the workhouse. His own grey head
uncovered, he accosted Sir Thomas with cordiality and
respect, simply stating the purport of his visit. The
old man was at first much affected, but soon a dormant
sense of pride seemed to be awakened, and he said, " I
am no beggar, Sir; I won't accept any such offers." Mr.
Surtees gently soothed this temper, assuring him that the
gentlemen by whom he was deputed were actuated by no
motive which could be offensive to him, but only by
feelings proper to their rank and his own ; and that by
acceding to their wishes, he would only evince his own
sense of that propriety, and prove that he, in their situation,
would have felt and acted as they now did.
Thus his scruples were gradually overcome, and he con-
sented to the proposed arrangement, with many expressions
THE FALL OF CONYERS. 21
of gratitude to those who had so kindly interested them-
selves in his situation.
Immediate enquiries were made for more comfortable
and respectable accommodation than the workhouse could
afford ; but no narrative of mine can give to the details
the freshness of description with which the philanthro-
pist himself tells the sad story. Here are Mr. Surtees'
own letters :
To the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine.
" Maiusforth, Co. Durham.
"MR. URBAN,
" You have lately called attention to the claims of
an unfortunate Baronet, Sir Charles Corbett; give me
leave, through your pages, to solicit some degree of favor-
able regard to the still more humiliating situation of another
ancient Baronet, the decayed representative of one of the
most honourable houses in the North."
Mr. Surtees then enters into details of the Conyers
family in its various branches, until the creation of the
Baronetcy in 1628, in the person of Sir John Conyers, of
Horden, and proceeds thus :
" His, Sir John Conyers', successors resided on property
acquired by inter-marriages in the south, 'till the extinction
of the elder line in the person of Sir Baldwin in 1731 ;
when the estates fell to heirs- general, and the title, without
support, fell to Ralph Conyers, of Chester-le-Street,
Glazier, whose father, John, was grandson of the first
Baronet. Sir Ralph Conyers intermarried with Jane
Blakistou, the eventual heiress of the Blakistons of Shiel-
22 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
dion (who represent those of Gibside), a family not less
ancient, and scarcely less unfortunate than that of Conyers.
He had by her a numerous issue, and was succeeded in title
by his eldest son, Sir Blackiston Conyers, the heir of two
ancient houses, from which he derived little more than his
name. Sir Blackiston was early placed in the navy, where
he reached the rank of Lieutenant, but quitted it, on
obtaining, through the generous patronage of the Bowes
family, the honourable and lucrative post of collector of
the port of Newcastle. With a view to the support of
the title, Sir Blackiston was induced at his decease to leave
nearly the whole of his property, which was considerable,
to his nephew and successor, Sir George, whose mother
was a Scotch lady, of Lord Cathcart's family. In three
short years this infatuated youth squandered the whole
fortune he had derived from his uncle, in scenes of the
lowest dissipation; and, at his death, the barren title
descended to his uncle, Thomas Conyers, who, after a life,
perhaps of some imprudence, certainly of much hardship,
after an unsuccessful attempt in a humble business, and a
subsequent service of several years at sea, is now in his
72nd year, solitary and friendless, a pauper in the parish
workhouse of Chester-le- Street. When I add, that if any
credit be due to physiognomy, Sir Thomas has received
from nature, in his fine, manly figure and open, expressive
countenance, the native marks of a gentleman,* and
* " The late generous Earl of Scarborough, the only patron
whose kindness Sir Thomas ever experienced, proposed to solicit
for him the place of a poor knight of Windsor. How far such
a removal at his present advanced age might add to his comforts
THE FALL OF COXYERS. ZO
that he bears his lot with a degree of fortitude equally
removed from misplaced pride or querulous meanness,
enough, I hope, will have been said to interest some be-
nevolent minds in his favour. Accustomed to a life of
hardship and labour, he wishes for neither affluence nor
luxury, but his- present humiliating situation he feels
severely. A trifle would prove sufficient, and a trifle
would surely not be ill-disposed in enabling him to pass
the few days which he has still to number in decent com-
fort and respectability. The writer of this article is will-
ing and desirous to contribute his mite, and will pledge
himself both for the literal truth of the statement, and
for the proper application of any sums contributed for the
purpose mentioned. He therefore gives his real name
and residence.
" Yours, &c.,
" ROBERT SURTEES.
" P.S. In justice to the officers of the workhouse, it is
proper to mention, that Sir Thomas receives every degree
of attention compatible with the rules of the place, that
he has a separate apartment, and is provided with decent
clothing."
seems doubtful ; but it is apprehended that for 60 or 70 a year,
or even less, board and lodging might be procured for him ia
some respectable private family. And I beg to add, Mr. Urban,
that I will willingly contribute 20 a year to this purpose. I
have a few promises of annual guineas, which will raise this to
36. Of the present application, the object of it is ignorant ;
and it would be cruel to acquaint him with it, unless something
be effected for his relief.
"B. S.'
24 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Within a few months after this appeal was made, Mr.
Surtees again addressed the Editor of the "Gentleman's
Magazine:"
" Mainsforth, 17th April.
MR.
" I lately solicited through your pages the public
attention to the reduced state of Sir Thomas Conyers ; and
I anticipated the pleasure of recording in your next
monthly number the success of my efforts, and of express-
ing the old man's grateful and overflowing feelings to his
benefactors. It is now my less pleasing task to record the
unexpected termination of those endeavours. On the 1st
of March (although the proposed amount of the subscrip-
tion was not then filled) Sir Thomas was removed to a
situation of ease and comfort,* which he was destined to
enjoy but a short time. His strength had been for some
time declining, and his constitution, naturally vigorous
and robust, sunk under the increasing burthens of age
and infirmity. For the last fortnight he had medical
assistance, but the springs of life were exhausted, and on
the morning of Sunday, the 15th, he arose evidently
weaker, and, under the awful impression of approaching
dissolution, passed the day in religious exercises, and in
taking an affectionate farewell of his friends and relatives.
" At six in the evening, his usual hour of retiring to
rest, he expressed a wish to be removed to bed, and almost
* " At the house of Mr. Wm. Pybus, in Chester-le-Street,
whose respectful and affectionate treatment of the old Baronet
deserves the highest praise."
THE FALL OP CONYEKS. 25
immediately expired, without pain, and without a sigh.
His mental faculties remained unaltered, and the closing
scene of life, chequered by more than ordinary vicissitudes,
was serene and unclouded. In him (the last male heir
of a long line of ancestry, whose origin may be traced to
a period of high and romantic antiquity) the name and
title expires, and the blood of Conyers must hereafter flow
undistinguished in the channels of humble and laborious
life. Sir Thomas has left three daughters, married in very
inferior situations, and it is trusted his benefactors will
not think the residue of their contributions ill applied in
placing some of his numerous grandchildren in the decent
occupations of humble life.
" I subjoin an account of the benefactions already re-
ceived ; but exertions have been made by several friends,
of the effects of which I am not yet aware.
" Yours, &c.,
"ROBERT SURTEES."
The Bishop of Durham . *; ;.^.* v ..
Sir Thomas Skeppard, Bfc.
George Anderson, Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne
Sir Thomas H. Liddell, Bt. .
Sir H. Vane Tempest, Bt
"Wm. Radclyffe, Esq., Eougecroix .
Rev. John Ward, Mickleover, near Derby .
James Hammett, Esq . . *
E. A. and E. H
10
5
5
10
10
2
2
1
2
>
o.
o
1
2
a.
E. Surtees . . . . . .
20
67
3
26 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
One short note more from Mr. Surtees closes the cor-
respondence :
" Mainsforth, 21st May. ;
" MR. URBAN,
" I must request your insertion of the following
subscriptions, which, as they have been received since Sir
Thomas Conyers's decease, will be applied to the service of
his descendants :
s. c.
Sir Henry Hetlierington, Bart. . . 10
Thomas Harrison, Esq., Stubhouse, co. Durham 15
Thomas Wilkinson, Esq., Oswald House, Durham 100
Sir Joseph Andrews, Bart 220
Sir Montagu Cholmley, Bart. . . . 500
"100 5s. have been subscribed, and the following
sums have been expended : Clothes and linen, 15 ; debts
discharged, 5 4s. lOd. ; lodging, and a gratuity for
trouble, 8 8s. ; medical attendance, 4 13s. 6d. ; funeral
expences, 19 19s. 6d. Some trifling articles have not
been brought into the account. 47 remain for the ser-
vice of the family, when the whole of the subscriptions
shall have been received.
"Yours, &c.,
" ROBERT SURTEES."
A few lines more and my tale of the " Fall of Con-
yers" is told.
Magni stat nominis umbra ! The poor Baronet left
three daughters, married in very humble life : Jane, to
THE FALL OP CONYERS. 27
William Hardy ; Elizabeth, to Joseph Hutchinson ; and
Dorothy, to Joseph Barker, all working men in the little
town of Chester-le-Street.
A time may yet come, perchance, when a descendant of
one of these simple artizans may arise, not unworthy of
the Conyers' ancient renown ; and it will be a gratifying
discovery to some future genealogist, when he succeeds in
tracing in the quarterings of such a descendant the unsul-
lied bearing of
CONYERS or DURHAM.
28 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
'Cinmars uf C0miorfrilk, to.
These are the acts, Lothario, which shrink acres
Into brief yards bring sterling pounds to farthings,
Credit to infamy ; and the poor gull,
Who might have lived an honour'd, easy life,
To ruin, and an unregarded grave.
THE CHANGES.
THIS family held at one time a high social position, and
were remarkable, moreover, for eccentricity and talent.
In the reign of William III., I find the name of Cornelius
Connor in the list of claimants at Chichester House,
Dublin ; his claim referred to an interest in the lands of
Kiltamra and Carrigdaugan, in the Barony of Muskerry,
part of the confiscated estate of the Earl of Clancarthy.
There is a story, that the father of Cornelius having
lost his life when his son was an infant, by the brutality
of a party of Cromwell's soldiers, the widow fled, carrying
with her the child, to the town of Bandon, where she took
a small house, in Gallow's-hill Street. The little Corne-
lius was duly trained in the religious and political prin-
ciples then prevalent in that town ; and (saith the
legend), further to conciliate the anti-Irish spirit that
predominated in the politics of the place and period, his
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 29
time-honoured patronymic of O'Connor was clipped down
into the English-sounding Conner. I do not vouch for the
strict truth of all the particulars of this statement, which
rests on the oral tradition of persons whose accuracy was
impaired, perhaps, by the long lapse of time, and also,
perhaps, by a little propensity to romantic embellishment.
It is said that the mother of Cornelius, anticipating from
the troubled condition of the country that flight might be-
come necessary, had wisely provided for such a contingency
by quilting a large number of gold coins into her dress,
and that with the money thus secreted, she supported her-
self for a considerable time after she settled in Bandon.
Cornelius married in due time, and became the father of
" Daniel Conner, of Bandon-bridge, merchant," who made
considerable purchases of land. It may be worth men-
tioning, as a specimen of the rate at which landed pro-
perty was then sold, that in March, 1702, Mr. Conner
purchased 744 acres of the lands of Curryleagh and Pole-
rick, in the Barony of Muskerry, county Cork, for
429 6s. 9d. At the same time he purchased "the
Castle, Town, and Lands of Mashanaglass," in the same
Barony, consisting of 567 acres, for the sum of 988.
Mashanaglass was part of the confiscated estate of Do-
nough McCarthy, Earl of Clancarthy. At a previous
period, namely, in November, 1698, Mr. Daniel Conner
had obtained, " by deeds of lease and release," a good part
of the forfeited estate of one Justin M'Carthy, from Henry,
Viscount Sydney, afterwards Earl of Romney, to whom it
had been granted by King William the Third.
This Daniel was the father of a numerous family. His
son, George Conner, founded Ballybricken, beautifully
30 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
situated near Cork harbour. He married Elizabeth South-
well, and was father of Maryanne Conner, who, in 1778,
married the second Lord Lisle, of Mountnorth, county Cork.
The present Lord Lisle descends from that marriage.
William Conner, son of Daniel, of Bandonbridge, mar-
ried in October, 1721, Anne, daughter of Roger Ber-
nard, Esq., of Palace Anne, brother of Judge Bernard, of
the Common Pleas, founder of the Earl of Bandon's family.
"William settled at Connorville, then called Ballyprevane,
in 1727. He built Connorville House, and planted the
domain. The mansion was large and commodious. The
offices nearly surrounded two courts, and were on a scale
of such magnitude as to resemble rather a village than the
establishment of a country gentleman.* Here William
Conner resided for many years, in the style of a person of
affluence.
His son, Roger Conner, married Anne Longfield, sister
of Richard, Viscount Longueville. Roger kept open
house, according to the fashion of wealthy Irish squires of
his day. He had high notions of his own dignity. At a
Cork assize he walked across the table in the court-house,
in presence of the judge, conceiving that his personal im-
portance gave him privileges from which meaner mortals
were properly excluded. The judge, who did not know
him, gave him a sharp reprimand. Shortly afterwards,
the judge received, to his great surprise, a note from Mr.
Conner, which was handed to him by Lord Longueville,
requiring either an apology, or " satisfaction " at twelve
paces. The judge was a man of peace ; and, as no hostile
* Tiiis description rather applies to a later period. The offices
were much enlarged in the succeeding generation.
THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLB. 31
meeting occurred, it is not improbable that he apologized.
A pun of this fiery gentleman's is recorded. Being asked
by a guest at his table what description of wine they were
drinking, Roger replied that it was Pontick* wine, thereby
implying that it had not been paid for. The family had
now for some generations been known as Conners.
Roger one day communicated to his sons that their
true name was O'Connor, and that the later designation
had been adopted from politic motives in the previous cen-
tury. He had five sons ; of these, the three elder, Daniel
(bora in 1754), William, and Robert (the founder of Fort-
robert), declared that they would not resume their ancient
name ; but the two younger, Roger and Arthur, thence-
forth called themselves O'Connor.
When Roger Conner was gathered to] his fathers, his
fourth son, Roger O'Connor, resided at the family mansion
of Connorville. The family were so wealthy, that the
other brothers were handsomely provided for with landed
estates. The two who assumed the name of O'Connor
espoused ultra-patriotic political doctrines ; the three who
remained ungraced with the Milesian continued sturdy
partizans of Protestant ascendancy. Robert of Fortro-
bert, in particular, was distinguished for his Orange zeal.
He procured a man named Cullinane to give sworn evi-
dence of treasonable acts against his brother Roger, who
would have been hanged on Cullinane's testimony, if the
credit of the witness had not been shaken by the affidavit
of a gentleman named Spear. Robert built the spacious
mansion of Fortrobert on the top of a hill adjoining the
domain of Connorville. It is described by Mr. Daniel
* 'Pon tick.
32 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Owen Madden, in an amusing account of the agitation of
the period, as being fit for. a man of six or seven thousand
a year. It is now, I believe, almost in ruins. Robert,
although not in the army, had military tastes, which he
gratified by commanding a corps (which he is said to have
pronounced corpse) of cavalry-yeomanry. I have been
told that he entertained exaggerated notions of the effi-
ciency of this formidable " corpse," and that he sometimes
frightened his wife by threatening to invade France at
their head, seize Bonaparte, bring him to Ireland captive,
and suspend him in an iron cage in the hall of Fortrobert !
He was in constant communication with the Government
at Dublin Castle, to whom he furnished such representations
as he thought proper of the state of the country, and of
the measures required to overawe the population. He ac-
companied one of his political epistles with a map of the
barony in which he resided ; and in the map the domain
of Fortrobert occupied so large a space as to leave but little
room for the estates of all the other proprietors. On the
part of the map in front of the mansion was written by
the royal owner, " The finest station in the Barony for can-
non !" He added a tremendous oath to give force to the
hint, which, however, was not adopted by the Government.
Indeed, his political correspondence was a curious affair.
One of his epistles to the authorities at Dublin Castle,
composed, it may be presumed, in a very genial mood, com-
menced with the words, " My dear Government." Another
epistle he displayed to Sir Francis Burdett, who at that
time advocated " radical" politics. " Well, Sir Francis,
what d'ye think of that ?" he complacently asked. " Ex-
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 33
cuse me, Conner," answered the radical Baronet, "I am
not a judge of music ;" for the blotched and clumsy manu-
script, of which many of the sentences were underscored
with numerous lines by way of rendering them emphatic,
bore a comical resemblance to an awkward and imperfect
attempt at musical notation.
Roger O'Conner, brother of Robert, was born on the 8th
of March, 1763. There are some notices of him in the
March number of Walker's Hibernian Magazine for 1798,
at which period he was imprisoned in Cork gaol on a
charge of high treason. The notices are the production
of a very friendly pen. Here are a few extracts :
" His father's family ranks among the first in Irish, as
his mother does among the first of French families. The
rudiments of learning he received at Lismore, under Dr.
Jessop, from whence, in the year 1777, he entered Dublin
College, where he was allowed to be the best scholar in Ms
division, and the most idle lad in his class"
We are hence to infer that his literary acquisitions were
the fruits, not of labour, but of genius. Further on, his
eulogist says :
" In 1783 he quitted the Temple, and in Easter term of
that year we find him called to the bar, which he never
attended, being cursed, as he has often said, with too
good an estate to make diligence at a profession necessary.
But though he did not make a lucrative use of the bar, he
generally attended at the assizes at Cork as an advocate
(to use his own expression) unhired, in favour of the poor,
where in numberless instances he succeeded."
2 D
34 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
"We have next a sketch of his moral and physical qua-'
lities :
" His friends represent him as affable, open, unsuspi-
cious, hospitable, lively, witty, and generous to a fault.
In person he is above the middle size, well-proportioned,
strong, and active. His countenance is animated, his eye
lively, quick, and penetrating ; his appearance engaging
and interesting."
When the disguised Marquess of Argyle, in Scott's
" Legend of Montrose," sounds his own praises to Cap-
tain Dalgetty in the dungeon, that astute veteran exclaims,
" I never heard so much good of him before. You must
know the Marquess well or rather you must be the Mar-
quess himself!" On grounds similar to those of the saga-
cious Dalgetty, I have little hesitation in ascribing the
above account of Roger O'Connor to Roger O'Connor
himself, although, with becoming modesty, that gentleman
did not append his signature to the description of his ad-
mirable and attractive qualities. He deemed it only right
that his countrymen should derive the fullest possible
advantage from his gift and merits; and thinking, pro-
bably, that virtue, when on a throne, is more influential
than in any humbler station, he aspired to the crown of Ire-
land. But he first tried his hand with the fair sex :
" He married," says his biographer, " in the year 1784,
Louisa Anna Strachan, eldest daughter of Colonel Stra-
chan, of the 32 d Regiment of Foot."
I have heard that Roger's conquest of this lady's heart
was rapid. Visiting one day at the lodgings which ker
family occupied in Cork, he found her alone, and inquired
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 35
where her father and other relatives had gone. " They
went on a party of pleasure/' was her answer. " Suppose
we get a chaise and follow them ?" said Roger, who pro-
fessed himself shocked at their having left Miss Strachan
in solitude. She consented. Roger forthwith procured u
carnage; they drove off, not to the party of pleasure,
however, but to some accommodating clergyman, by whom
they were speedily married. Mrs. O'Connor died in 1787,
leaving two children : Louisa, since dead ; and Roderick,
who now, in his old age, enjoys large possessions in Van
Diemen's Land.
Roger's second wife was Wilhelmina, daughter of Ni-
cholas Bowen, of Bowenscourt, Esq., by Wilhelmina Deane,
of the Terrenure family. He married her in August, 1788,
and had by her several children, among whom were Arthur,
afterwards of Fortrobert, and the well-known Feargus
O'Connor, whose chartist agitation in England is fresh in
the memory of the reader.
Of Roger's conjugal and parental qualities his biographer
already quoted speaks as follows : " He is the best of
husbands and of fathers ; indeed, with such a wife as Mrs,
O'Connor is acknowledged by all to be, none but the worst
of men could be other than the best of husbands. She is
represented as a paragon worthy of imitation."
When the progress and success of the French Revolution,
coupled with causes of domestic dissatisfaction, encouraged
a portion of the Irish people to attempt resistance to the
English government, the surging mass of national discon-
tent necessarily drew within its influence many wild, ad-
venturous, undisciplined spirits, scantily provided with the
36
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
ballast of steady, moral principles or political discretion.
I have, indeed, no doubt that the part taken by Arthur
O'Connor (younger brother of Roger) was honestly taken.
He forfeited, by espousing the popular cause, all that selfish
men hold most dear wealth, patronage, and title. He
was Lord Longueville's favourite nephew, and his destined
heir ; and his Lordship had sufficient influence to have
obtained for him a peerage, had Arthur been a pliant dis-
ciple of the school of Pitt and Castlereagh.
Roger's insurrectionary plans, his design of fortifying
Connorville to resist a descent from the king's troops, the
failure of that design, his imprisonment in various jails,
his wild and inflammatory publications, are already known
to many of my readers; and the narrative of them in
even moderate detail would occupy too much of my space.
His object in joining the insurgent councils, was, I
believe, to wield the Irish sceptre. He claimed to be
descended from the royal O'Connors. In a book which
he published, entitled " Chronicles of Eri," the frontispiece
presents his likeness, with his hand upon the Irish crown,
and the legend inscribed underneath, " Chief of a pros-
trate nation." His son Feargus records that at a later
period he exclaimed, in what we must suppose to have
been a fit of patriotic frenzy, "My arm is yet young
enough to wield the sword to recover my country's crown."
His hatred to British domination naturally extended itself
to the article of taxes. During the continuance of the
dog tax, the collector called on him one day for payment
of the usual imposts. Roger returned as meagre a list of
taxable articles as possible. ft Have you got no dogs ?"
THE O'CONNORS OF CONXOKVILLE. 37
inquired the collector. " Not one," answered the repre-
sentative of ancient Irish royalty. Just at this moment a
favourite dog came running into the court-yard, in which
the collector and Roger were standing. The peril of
detection was imminent, but Roger suddenly exclaimed,
with well-feigned alarm, " A mad dog ! a mad dog \"
and forthwith he took refuge in the house, as if to escape
from the rabid animal the collector followed in terror of
a bite the dog was properly disposed of, and Roger, no
doubt, kept the tax in his pocket.
When Bonaparte was said to meditate the invasion of
Ireland, Roger determined to receive his imperial majesty
with Irish hospitality. In order to entertain the emperor
in a mansion not wholly unsuited to his dignity, Roger
purchased Dangan Castle, in the county Meath, the family
seat of the Earls of Mornington. Dangan was then a
magnificent place. What it afterwards became may be
learned from the following account, written by an eye-
witness, who visited the park in 1843.
"Arrived at the margin of the demesne," says this
writer, "we entered a narrow avenue by an iron gate,
which was opened by a woman whose house was one of
two or three low-thatched huts. There were no trees
shading the avenue ; but a high thorn hedge, bushy, wild,
and lofty, skirted it on either side. W r hen we had pro-
ceeded three or four hundred yards, the park, that had
once been finely wooded, but which, like a bald head, with
a tree here, and two there, and a few more stunted and
denuded of their ornamental branches, beyond this park,
with its fine valleys and finer eminences, once so magni-
38 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
h'cently wooded, now so shabbily bare, opened upon our
view. The road went towards the left, and again wheeled
to the right. On the brow of a gentle slope stood tbe
castle, like a huge, ill-shaped bam grey, treeless, shelter-
less, and in most part roofless."
It had, in fact, been burned during the occupancy of
Roger O'Connor. It was insured for a considerable sum ;
I have heard for 7000 ; Roger received the amount of
the insurance, a welcome supply to a gentleman whose
system of finance was none of the most thrifty, and who
had perhaps been put to inconvenient cost in making
preparations for a visit from Bonaparte. When the castle
was burned, it needs not be said that Roger broke up
housekeeping. He decamped from Dangan; and three
of his sons, Arthur, Feargus, and Roger, bent their steps
to Fortrobert, where they domesticated themselves with
their uncle Robert, who had three daughters, co-heiresses.
The sentimental reader will readily anticipate the result.
Marriages followed in due course. Robert of Fortrobert
died in or about 1820, and Arthur O'Connor, elder brother
of Feargus, became Jure uxoris, the master of Fortrobert.
He died in 1828, leaving two sons. Feargus O'Connor,
by family arrangements needless to particularize, became
the occupant of the house and demesne.
Feargus printed a sketch of his own career in successive
numbers of a Chartist magazine, entitled " The National
Instructor." To the student of human character, this
autobiography is extremely amusing, from the personal
traits unconsciously disclosed by the writer. The propen-
sity to boast is laughably manifest in every page ; I might
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 39
almost say in every sentence. Take a few passages as
specimens : " My grandfather was the wealthiest man in
the kingdom, and kept the most splendid establish-
ment." " The people not only loved, but adored, both
my father and my uncle Arthur. They were, perhaps,
two of the finest-looking men, the most eloquent men, and
the most highly-educated men, in the kingdom." " My
uncle Arthur made the most splendid speech ever deli-
vered, upon the question of Catholic Emancipation." " I
remember the time when my brother Roderick had four
magnificent hunters, my brother Frank a splendid pony
called ' Chick/ my brother Arthur as splendid a pony.
My brother Roger took his airing every
day in a little chariot, a splendid covered carriage drawn
by four goats magnificently harnessed." Of his progress
at school, he says, " Although always flogged for not
having my lesson, during the eight years I never missed
the head premium in my class in everything." Of ances-
tral dignity "My father was so proud of his descent
from the Irish kings, that he would not allow a servant or
labourer to call his sons or daughters * Master' or 'Miss.'
One day one of the labourers told my father that he
wanted to see Master Arthur. ' Master Arthur !' exclaimed
my father; ' you may as well say Master Duke of York,
or Master Prince of Wales.' "
Of Feargus's forensic ability we have the following, among
many other instances : " Twenty-three Irishmen were in-
dicted for the murder of two policemen, Flint and Baxter.
. . . The whole onus of this important case was thrown
on my shoulders. The trial lasted thirteen hours, while
40 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
single-handed I had to contend against the six ablest bar-
risters at the ^bar, when, to the great dismay and mortifi-
cation of my legal opponents and the magistrates on the
bench, I succeeded in acquitting every one of the prisoners."
In another place we have an instance of Feargus's skill in
horseflesh. Starting with a borrowed sum of sixty pounds
to be expended in horsejobbing, he trafficked so well there-
upon that in a few months he became the master of " seven
splendid hunters and two grooms."
But, with all this brag and swagger, Feargus O'Connor
was undoubtedly a very clever fellow. He had many
capabilities, but his greatest talent lay in popular decla-
mation. Like his father, he was exceedingly restless and
ambitious. The achievement whereby he first acquired
notoriety was his successful contest for^the county of Cork
in 1832.
In the summer of 1831 a great movement against
tithes and the Union became general through Ireland ; the
whole kingdom was astir; eloquence was in popular de-
mand, and everybody who could make a speech, or who
believed that he could make one, gave the public the full
benefit of his oratory on one side or the other.
The combination against tithes was unprecedented.
Millions of people had confederated to pay no tithe, and
to abstain from purchasing any property seized for tithe.
Meetings to encourage opposition to the hated impost
were everywhere held. Feargus had numberless oppor-
tunities for the display of his declamatory powers. Of
his talents as a popular declaimer, I shall quote two de-
scriptions : the first from " Ireland and her Agitators,"
THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 41
written by his relative, and (at that time) fellow -agitator,
Mr. Daunt.
" Those who have not heard him in public/' says Mr.
Daunt, "and who have only judged of his abilities from
his printed effusions, have invariably done great injustice
to his powers. He was remarkably ready and self-possessed ;
he was capable of producing extraordinary popular effect ;
he had very great declamatory talent ; he had also great
defects. As a stimulating orator in a popular assembly,
he was unexcelled. It is true he dealt largely in bombast,
broken metaphor, and inflated language ; but while you
listened, these blemishes were altogether lost in the infec-
tious vehemence of his spirited manner. You were
charmed with the melodious voice, the musical intonations,
the astonishing volubility, the imposing self-confidence of
the man, and the gallant air of bold defiance with which
he assailed all oppression and tyranny. The difference
between his spoken and printed harangues was surpris-
ingly great."
Now hear Mr. Daniel Owen Madden's account of the
orator's powers :
"There was," says Mr. Madden, "a wild, Ossianic
spirit about O'Connor's spirit-stirring effusions that was
altogether different from O'Connell's wearisome blarney
and incessant cajolery. As men of talent and mind, it
would be absurd to institute any comparison between
them; but, as Irish popular speakers, Feargus was in
some respects superior to O'Connell. Though he had no
poetical powers, he had strong poetical feelings, and to
42
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
these he often gave vent in speeches of a most romantic
character, whose effect was not the less powerful because
they would not bear the criticism of the closet
. . He played the part to perfection of an Irish chieftain,
and addressed the repealers rather as his gallant clansmen
than as his fellow-citizens or comrades. In truth he was
a picturesque agitator." *
In Feargus's character there was a strong infusion of
romance. Adventurous and self-confident, he was inca-
pable of being deterred from any political experiment by
its apparent difficulties. It was said of him, that if the
papal throne were vacant, he would offer himself with the
utmost composure as a candidate for the popedom, if the
notion caught his fancy. At the outset of his agitation,
seat in parliament for the county of Cork seemed almost
as much beyond his reach as the papal tiara. He was
nearly unknown ; and with those who did know him, the
penumbral shadow of some of his father's irregular exploits
created a large amount of prejudice against the son. This
prejudice Feargus soon neutralized by the vivacity and
frankness of his very ingratiating manners, and by his
loud and constant declarations of unbounded fealty to
O'Connell. He was full of frolic, told good stories, and
threw himself con amore into whatever sort of merriment
was going; and there is, perhaps, nothing that disarms
* I have heard that Mr. Daunt contemplated writing a
novel, of which Feargus O'Connor's adventures were to form
the groundwork. The subject furnishes capital materials for
such a book.
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 43
your dislike so much as the sense of being amused. Fear-
gus was uncommonly amusing. Queer stories were told
about his skittish antics, and his reputation for frolic
naturally served to promote his popularity.
Such was the whimsical genius who conceived the idea
of wresting the representation of the largest of the Irish
counties from the aristocratic families amongst whom it
had come to be considered as a sort of heirloom. They
had for a long time formed a powerful combination, of
which the strength seemed the more impregnable from a
continuance that almost amounted to prescription. Fear-
gus was by no means disposed to yield them an inch on.
the score of dignity. He was well descended, and allied
by blood to some of the southern noblesse. Many of his
nearest relatives stood high among the landed gentry of
the country. He was, on the whole, a decidedly interest-
ing agitator. At Fortrobert, a large and gloomy mansion
on the top of a commanding eminence, he seldom saw
any other company than a very few intimate associates and
relatives. A mystery seemed to overshadow him. The
house he inhabited had been built by his uncle Robert,
who, as we have already mentioned, was a man of ultra
Orange politics, and during that gentleman's life had been
the scene of many a Tory revel. Various questionable
deeds, the result of over-zealous orangeism, were laid at
the door of the defunct, of some of which Feargus was the
historian. His ghost was said to haunt the neighbouring
wood of Carrigmore, where, at midnight, it careered with
lightning speed at the head of a spectral hunt, with many
a shrill whoop and view -hollow that curdled the blood of
44 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
superstitious eld. Feargus, during the lifetime of the
phantom sportsman, had lived at various periods a good
deal on his wits. He had once run away from his father's
house, and spent a summer haymaking in Wiltshire. At
another time he took a farm in the county Cork, on which
he personally laboured with industry and skill. He always
alluded to his fathers pecuniary losses as having been
incurred in the cause of Irish freedom, [and boasted of
belonging to a race which had furnished many martyrs to
patriotism. He made a good deal of political capital out
of the protracted exile of his uncle Arthur.
So Feargus issued forth from his fastness at Fortrobert,
equipped with some qualifications for acquiring popularity.
There was in his past career enough of mystery to pique
the public curiosity. He was, through different ancestral
lines, of " good ould blood." He was sprung from a
family which furnished at least one respectable political
martyr. He was a capital horseman and a desperate fox-
hunter. His manners were very facetious. He was quite
inexhaustible in thundering declamation. Voluble and
vituperative, he assailed with unsparing abuse and comical
sarcasm the parties obnoxious to popular hatred ; and the
Catholic populace soon became enthusiastic in favour of
the gallant Celtic prince, the descendant, as he boasted,
of the Ard Righ Roderick, who exhorted them in words
of fire to struggle for their creed and country. The
hustings of Cork afforded an opportunity for ancestral
boasts too tempting to be resisted. He informed the
electors that he was desirous, by his candidature, to afford
them an occasion of ejecting from the representation the
THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 45
new families ; videlicet the Shannons, Kingstons, and
Bandons ; and he told Lord Bernard on the hustings,
that the best feather in his lordship's cap was some ancient
connection with the O'Connor family.
While thus confronting the county aristocracy, he was
anxious to cultivate the regard of the Catholic clergy and
the democracy. He talked of convoking a meeting of
the Catholic priesthood of the county under his own pre-
sidency, in order to deliberate upon measures for securing
the perpetual exclusion of Whig and Tory from the re-
presentation. To enlarge his influence, he got up a public
entertainment to himself at Enniskean. The " Great
Public Dinner to Feargus O'Connor, Esq.," was duly
advertised in the Cork newspapers. The sale of tickets
was at first very slack, and the dinner committee was
penuriously stingy. Feargus was, therefore, obliged "to
purchase the eatables and drinkables ; but he was indem-
nified for this outlay by a brisk demand for tickets on the
day of the dinner. Mr. Daunt presided ; the speeches
were partly in Irish, partly in English ; the eloquence was
of the most patriotic and fiery description ; the farmers
were enchanted ; it was midnight when the guest and
chairman left the banquet-hall amid the rapturous cheering
of the company. Their grooms had, it seems, got engaged
in the noisy festivity ; not a horse was forthcoming but a
veteran hunter of Daunt's ; the chairman, the guest, and
a newspaper-reporter all mounted the animal and in this
primeval fashion they cantered briskly on to Fortrobert,
O'Connor making the moonlit welkin ring with his bois-
terous music. The next publications of the Cork news-
46 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
papers contained a magnificent account of the Great En-
niskean Demonstration.
Feargus now went ahead. Many of the Tory squires,
who had at the outset considered his success impossible,
began to entertain doubts on the subject. His style of
public speaking was canvassed by the fox-hunting gentry,
some of whom pronounced him " a devilish fine fellow."
It was also a subject of discussion how he raised the
sinews of war. It was known that his father wasted his
own patrimony in a wild career of extravagance. Mr.
Hedges Eyre, of Macroom Castle, saw Feargus flourishing
a huge bundle of bank-notes on a race-course, and ex-
pressed his unsophisticated wonder where the d he
got them !
As the autumn advanced, the agitators redoubled their
activity. Meetings multiplied ; the electors were exhorted
to stand by their colours, aud assured that if they deserted
Ireland at her need, " they would deserve to be dragged
upon hurdles to the gallows, as their fathers before them
had been, by the old hereditary enemy." Exhortations
such as these were unquestionably very effective. O'Con-
nor was a Protestant, but he took the Catholic populace by
storm, by vigorously denouncing the detested tithe-system,
and telling piquant stories of Protestant ecclesiastical
mismanagement. He boasted that he " had made the tear
of bitter disappointment fall in the very pulpit." He
professed himself conscientiously anxious to relieve the
religion he belonged to from the clog of the tithe-system.
On the other hand, nothing could be more profoundly
deferential than his demeanour towards the Catholic clergy.
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 47
" The revered and saintly pastors of the Irish people"
" the venerated guardians of the people's faith" epithets
such as these he was accustomed to bestow upon them in
tones of affectionate and reverent enthusiasm. He made
it his boast that he was personally acquainted with a greater
number of Catholic priests than any other layman in Ire-
land; and his unctuous manner seemed to imply how
profoundly he appreciated the happiness and honour of so
great a privilege. Nor did he forget to cultivate the
regards of the fair sex. At the close of a public meeting
(I think at Mill Street) he declared that as the men had
had the day to themselves, the evening should be given to
the ladies; whereupon he called for music, got up an
impromptu dance, and led off with the innkeeper's wife.
The autumn passed. "Winter advanced, and the election
for the county was at hand. O'Connor's colleague was
Mr. Garret Standish Barry of Lemlara, a Catholic gentle-
man of exemplary character and ancient descent. He,
too, had tried his hand, during the summer and autumn,
at the work of agitation. He had attended several of the
meetings where congregated thousands welcomed Feargus
with their boisterous acclamations. The contrast between
the candidates was amusing. Mr. Barry was respectfully
received, as a Catholic candidate recommended by the
priests. Feargus was greeted with enthusiasm, as the gal-
lant champion of the people's rights, the hero who si ruck
terror into their tyrants, and who vowed to achieve their
deliverance. Feargus's daring defiance of all conceivable
opponents, and his vehement denunciations of English
misrule, contrasted laughably with the quiet, mouse like
48 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
demeanour of his undemonstrative colleague, who, when
O'Connor had wound up a stormy oration in the midst of
vociferous applause, was wont to address to the electors a
few quiet, gentlemanly sentences, in which any strong
political predilection was not easily discoverable. The
personal appearance of the candidates completed the con-
trast. Mr. Barry had neat, and rather formal features,
and a pair of trim, black whiskers. The shaggy honours
of Feargus's head were foxy, his face was ugly, and his
countenance haggard.
To understand fully the sources of O'Connor's popu-
larity, the reader should bear in mind that at the period
of his agitation there existed in Ireland a widely-spread
hostility to the legislative union. The Irish people,
deprived of their resident legislature, felt precisely as the
English people would feel, if labouring under a similar
deprivation. If any neighbouring nation contrived to
annihilate the parliament at Westminster, and to exercise
legislative power over England, it will be readily owned
that the first instinct in every Englishman's mind would
be to recover for England her national power of self-
legislation. As Englishmen would feel in such a case,
so did Irishmen feel; and to that feeling Feargus ad-
dressed himself with great inflammatory talent. It is
true, that his attempts to reason the question of repeal
were contemptible, for he was destitute of the requisite
information on the subject, as also of natural logical power.
But his fiery invocations of the Spirit of Liberty, and his
passionate exhortations to the people to resist all oppres-
sion, were little impaired by the orator's lack of nearly all
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 49
the constitutional and statistical knowledge that bore upon
the question.
At length the day of battle arrived. The county Cork
election commenced towards the end of December. There
were pitted against each other two forces, apparently very
unequal. O'Connor's force was the freize-coated host.
They had been previously untried. They were greatly in
the power of their landlords ; and some doubts were felt
whether landlord influence might not warp their fidelity to
the promises they had freely and willingly tendered to
O'Connor in his canvass. Feargus spoke for an hour on
the day of nomination with his wonted energy, and ended
by parodying Burns :
" Now's the day and now's the hour,
See approach the Tory power,
Tithes and Slavery !"
While the candidates and their friends harangued within
the court-house, the streets of Cork presented an exciting
spectacle. Apparently interminable detachments of the
country voters who had travelled all night, streamed into
the city, each band headed by its parish priest ; and it
became a somewhat difficult task to provide accommodation
for the enormous concourse. Some of them slept in the
large Lancasterian school-room; others were placed in
the apartments of the south monastery. Next day the
voting went on vigorously. The landlord power of the
county continued to put forth its utmost strength against
the popular candidates. But in vain. " Fargus," as the
multitude pronounced the name of their favourite, "had
50 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
promised to vote for repale and against tithes ;" and for
"Fargus" the people were resolved to incur whatever
martyrdom their landlords might think it proper or expe-
dient to inflict. Meantime every ordinary ruse was
attempted to secure the defeat of O'Connor, or at least to
diminish his majority. Various sham candidates were
set up to spin out the time, and successively vanished.
' ' Fargus" was especially the mark for the enemy's hos-
tility, a comparatively small amount of which glanced off
from him to his colleague. "Whigs and Tories felt that if
the task of dislodging them from the representation had
been left to Mr. Barry, they might have retained their
parliamentary influence in the county till doomsday.
Feargus was the idol of the southern and western elec-
tors in particular. But in the eastern part of the county
Mr. Barry had mustered some ardent supporters on his
own account. It was the policy of the popular party,
when the strength of their electoral force had been suffi-
ciently ascertained, to divide their votes between O'Connor
and Barry, instead of plumping for O'Connor, as had been
at one time proposed. A farmer, with whom the idea of
" Fargus" was predominant, came up to be polled, and
tendered his vote for " Fargus O'Connor and Ould
Ireland."
" You can vote for Mr. O'Connor, and for any other
candidate," said the assessor ; " but there is no candidate
here of the name of Ould Ireland."
" Then I vote for Fargus O'Connor and Barry," said
the elector, adopting the correction.
At the close of the struggle, the sheriff declared O'Con.
THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 51
nor and Barry elected, the former by a majority of over a
thousand. The triumph astonished the vanquished party
quite as much as it chagrined them. It was gained,
undoubtedly, by clerical co-operation. But the Catholic
clergy of the county would not, I believe, have thus com-
bined, if they had not been, at the outset, incessantly
stimulated to work the cause among their flocks by the
indefatigable zeal and industry of O'Connor. He gave
life and cohesion to the popular party. He rallied their
detached forces, taught them the extent of their power
and led them to victory. The landlords, whose fiat had
been previously decisive in the choice of representatives,
were unspeakably puzzled to find their influence annihi-
lated. The dismay and anger of the beaten party were
expressed with the bitterness usually incident to such a
predicament. Mr. Hedges Eyre paced the Conservative
clubroom, muttering with oaths, " not loud but deep," that
the county was disgraced for ever.
Feargus was now in great feather. He issued a formid-
able programme of his intended parliamentary labours.
He promised " to sit with the Speaker and rise with the
House." His success in the election for the county filled
his mind with vague and gorgeous visions of yet loftier
achievements. His ambition pointed to the leadership of
the entire popular party in Ireland, and he soon attempted
to unhorse O'Connell, with the view of getting into the
saddle himself. O'Connell had, of course, too firm a hold
on the popular confidence to be shaken by a political ad-
venturer of yesterday ; and although Feargus was a second
time returned for Cork county, yet he injured his own
E 2
52 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
popularity very much by his efforts to promote disaffection
to O'Connell. At last he so completely lost influence in
Ireland as to be unable to get up a parish meeting.
Having alienated his Irish friends by his selfish and
impolitic course, he next turned his regards to England.
He joined the Chartists, first as a disciple ; but he soon
found means to acquire the confidence of their body, which
his great abilities for declamation enabled him to improve
to the utmost. He established the Northern Star news-
paper in Leeds as the organ of Chartism ; and its sale for
a time reached a fabulous amount. I have heard that
once, for a few weeks, it beat the Times, It is now de-
funct.
Among the innumerable ruses by which Feargus gained
the favour of the English working classes, was the cha-
racteristic expedient of presenting himself at a public
meeting arrayed in a fustian jacket, the working man's
livery, in which, he said, he worked as hard as any of his
audience, for he, too, was a "working man/' and his
work was to liberate the masses from their bondage. His
speech and his jacket were probably of the same material ;
but doubtless his semi-pantomimic dexterities helped, for
a time, to increase the influence which he derived from
his abilities as a declaimer, and his mental and physical
energy.
"When he established the Chartist Land Company, a
belief was universally adopted by his English admirers,
that the purchasers of shares, or allotments of land, would
make fortunes by the speculation. Bitter disappointment
and a vast deal of personal suffering were the principal
THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 53
results of the experiment. There was also a religious
sect got up in connection with his English movement,
called the Chartist Christian Church, which, as we see
nothing now of its doings, has, I presume, been wound
up by the directors.
Feargus, deserted by the thousands with whom he once
was popular Feargus, stung to the quick by the failure of
successive schemes Feargus, assailed on all sides with the
clamorous outcry of crowds whose money had been swal-
lowed in the ill-starred Land Scheme, had no source of
consolation to fall back upon. He had long ago squan-
dered all his private means. No further supplies could be
got from the exhausted credulity of the Chartists. His
newspaper lost its circulation. He went mad, and was
confined for nearly two years and a half in Dr. Tuke's
asylum near Chiswick : his removal from which to private
lodgings probably hastened his death, which occurred on
the 31st of August, 1855.
Fortrobert is a wreck, and the direct heir to that once
handsome mansion and domain retains not an acre of
his patrimony. Connorville has, many years since,
passed away from the family of O'Connor. It was bought
by James Lysaght, Esq., in the Court of Chancery, and
sold by him in 1853 to the Earl of Norbury. The old
house no longer stands, and the old trees have long
ago been felled. But although my narrative records the
decadence of the immediate families of Connorville and
Fortrobert, it must be observed that several other branches
of the race, as well as many descendants, through female
lines from Daniel Conner, of Bandon bridge (temp. Wil-
54 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
liam the Third and Anne), retain their position among the
gentry of the south, with sufficient means for its sup-
port.
I may remark, that since Feargus O'Connor's death,
some of his Chartist disciples, whose allegiance has survived
every shock, have erected a monumental statue of their
Chief at Nottingham, for which town he was member of
parliament from 1847 to 1852.
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 55
Cfje fast Wfflam ttetj f
An old Song
Of an old worshipful gentleman who had a greate estate, '
That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate, d
And an old Porter to relieve the poor at his gate,
Like an old Courtier of the Queen's,
And the Queen's old Courtier.
OLD SONG.
SOME time after the quenching of the great Rebellion in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, more than half a million of
.acres in the north of Ireland were at the disposal of the
English Crown. Part of this territory had been the pro-
perty of the O'Niells, and the numerous branches of that
great and ancient family, and part of the O'Donells, who
held princely pre-eminence in Tyrconnell, or Donegal.
After the later insurrection of Sir Cahir O'Dogherty,
another chief of Donegal, and its suppression in the year
1608, the whole county fell to the King,, under the law of
-forfeiture or escheat. At the same time, five other northern
counties suffered a like doom: namely, Tyrone, the Prin-
cipality of O'Neill, Derry, O'Cahan's county, Ferma-
nagh, Maguire's county, Cavan, O'Reilly's county, and
Armagh, the property of the Clanbrassil O'Neills, and the
56 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
O'Hanlons; these chiefs and their followers were put
under attaint, and their lands forfeited : hence arose, in
1610, the Plantation of Ulster with English and Scotch
settlers, who were generally soldiers of fortune, professional
adventurers, or cadets of good families.
Many of them found their way into Donegal, and these
may be distinguished into two kinds, viz., those who
arrived on the suppression of O'Donell's rebellion at the
end of Elizabeth's reign ; and those who " settled " under
James I. in 1610 ; the former were almost all of English
descent, whereas the latter were Scotch. In Donegal the
chief families of the former were the Gores, now Earls of
Arran, the Brookes, now represented by Sir Victor A.
Brooke, Bart., of Fermanagh, the Harts of Doe Castle,
the Sampsons, at present extinct, and the Wrays of Castle
Wray and Ards. Old Fynes Morison tells us that of
these families, Sampson, Brooke, and Hart alone brought
to Ireland one hundred halberdiers at their own expense to
aid the Queen : they therefore may be said to have earned
what they got. Sampson had a vast tract of wild mountain
range lying on the sea, and _ now comprehending Horn
Head, and Ards. Hart was his neighbour at Doe Castle :
and Brooke had Donegal town and Castle, and a fine
acreage south of Muckish, and Lough Salt mountains,
and near what now is the village of Letterkenny. To
John Wray 1000 acres of Carnegilla, near the same town*
were assigned, or probably had been purchased by him
from Sir John Vaughan, a "VVelchman by birth, who was
the original patentee. Mr. Wray was a branch of
the Wrays of Ashby; they were formerly of Durham^
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 57
from whence they removed to Glentworth in Yorkshire.
In 1660 they were created Baronets, but the title became
extinct on the death of Sir William James Wray in
1809. Their escutcheon is azure on a chief or, three
martlets gules; their motto, an ancient French poesie,
and play upon their name, " et juste ct vray" One of
this family, Sir Christopher Wray^ of Glentworth, was
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, M.P. for Borough-
bridge, and Speaker of the House of Commons temp. Eliz. :
he died 1592. In his Latin epitaph at Glentworth, there is
an allusion to his motto; he was "re Justus, nomine verus ;"
he left behind him good advice as to how an estate was to
be kept: 1st, by understanding it 2nd, by not spending
till it comes 3rd, by a quarterly audit 4th, by keeping
old servants : all of which sapient rules his later Irish
descendants were ever disregarding to their own detri-
ment, which was a negative evidence of the excellence of
their ancestor's counsel.
Little is known of John Wray of Carnegilla, the first
settler from England, but his son Henry Wray had a
further grant from the Crown, in 1639, of the lands after-
wards called Castle Wray, a beautiful spot sloping up from
the green braes of Lough Swilly, and now in the posses-
sion of Francis Mansfield, Esq., a descendant of Captain
Mansfield, who obtained "1000 acres in Killeneguirden,"
in the plantation of 1610. This Henry Wray had married
a daughter of Sir Paul Gore, by his wife Isabella Wicliff, a
niece of the great Earl of Strafford : and probably he ob-
tained this grant through the earl's paramount interest
with his royal master Charles I. Henry Wray's son was
58 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
William Wray, who was living at Castle Wray in 1689,
when his name appears in the "Act of Attainder" by James
the Second, in common with all the prominent gentry who
held the Protestant Faith.* He appears to have been a
wise and prudent man, and bent upon staying at home,
and improving his estate; accordingly we look in vain for
his name among the valiant Donegal gentry who buckled
on their broadswords and went off to fight King James's
army at Deny in 1689.
Among these were Stewart from Lough S willy Forward
from Coolemacurtaine Nesbitt from Tully-Idonnell
Mansfield from Killigordon Babington froin Castle Doe
Hart from Culmore Fort Sinclair, of the stalwart
Caithness race, from Holyhill Vaughan and Groves from
Castle Shanagan Colquhoun from Letterkenny Knox
from Glenfin and Carhewenancannah, an awful territorial
title to spell or speak, with which I close the cata-
logue. Wray does not appear among the belligerents : he
had married a Miss Sampson, and migrated into the very
depths of the northern Donegal Highlands, where he pur-
chased the singularly wild, romantic and beautiful estate
of Ards, probably from his wife's family, who some time
afterwards, in 1700, sold the promontory of Horn Head,
with its glorious sea cliffs and sublime views, to Mr. Stew-
art, ancestor of the present proprietor, the Rev. Charles
Stewart. At Ards, Wray built him a good and large
mansion on a sunny bank facing the sweet south, and
running down to meet the purple rocks, and white strands,
and clear blue waters of Sheephaven ; and here he lived in
* See Archbishop King's State of the Irish Protestants under
King James II., Appendix, page 8.
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAT OF ARDS. 59
a princely way, amidst his woods and pleasure grounds
and many retainers, enjoying a climate like that of Italy
for softness, where, sheltered from the north and east, the
myrtles and geraniums grow richly in the open air, and
beds of rhododendrons and fuchsias stretch down to meet
the kisses of the Salt Sea.
On William \Vray' s death in 1710, his widow, who had
been his second wife, erected to his memory a mural
tablet, which is still to be seen amid the ruins of Clon-
dehorky Church; it contains in itself a pedigree and
a picture, and is an odd specimen of the style of that
day. In gallantry to the gentle widow whose piety devised
it, I must attribute the bad spelling to the ignorance of the
sculptor, unless, perhaps, the lady's tears had blinded her
eyes when writing it, and thus injured her orthography.
Probably Miss Sampson, Wray's first wife, had brought
him a wing of the Ards estate, which had been her father's.
His second lady, Angel Kilbreth, was sister to Colonel
James Galbraith, who was M.P. for the borough of St.
Johnston. Another sister was married to Mr. Sinclair, of
Holy Hill, county Tyrone. This Colonel Galbraith was
an ancestor to the Honourable Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole,
the late Lord Enniskillen's brother, and the family is now
represented by Samuel Galbraith, Esq., of Clanabogan-
Omagh, county Tyrone. An old Scottish race were these
Xilbreths or Galbraiths, and governors of Dunbarton
Castle at the time of Queen Mary's escape from Loch-
leven. Wray's eldest son, Henry, succeeded to the Castle-
Wray property. He married Eleanor Gore, sister to the
first Lord Arran, and from him lineally comes the present
Mr. Wray, of Oak Park, near the town of Letterkenny,
60 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
who represents the family ; but my business is more with
the younger branch, which in the person of William's
second son, Humphrey, appears to have inherited Ards,
and to have been a careful man, as he left his son an
immense estate ; indeed, something little short of a prin-
cipality in territorial extent.
Humphrey's wife had been Miss Brooke, of Colebrooke,
county Fermanagh, and grandaunt to the late Sir Henry
Brooke, Bart. Of this lady we know but little, nor is
there any record of the doings of her husband among the
traditions of the neighbourhood ; but their son, " OLD
WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS," is the remembered hero of
many a strange recital mingled with a hue of sorrow for
his fallen fortunes, and a romantic interest in his having
been the last of the old branch of the Wrays, that reigned
and ruled at beautiful Ards for so long a time.
I have said that he had inherited a splendid rental
and a wide spreading property ; his house and demesne, of
great beauty and extent, lay along the north strand of a
bay of the Atlantic Ocean ; woods waved all behind, and on
either side of the old mansion, while the offices occupied a
spacious square, and contained, besides the ample stablery
and coach-houses, a number of shops, such as tailors, sad-
dlers, shoemakers, carpenters, slaters, in short, a little
world of artizans, to supply the numerous household ; the
nearest mart being twenty miles distant, and only acces-
sible by a road over a steep mountain. The place was an
oasis in a desert ; all outside the park gates was mountain
heaped upon mountain, stony valleys, huge grey boulders
standing up like sentries on the road side ; blue tarns,
white strands dotted with dark pebbles, and broken tracts
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 61
of brown bog, redeemed at intervals by patches of vivid
verdure, virgin soil, which no spade had ever violated;
here, too, were stretches of natural wood, reliques of the
old forest : the dwarf oak ; the rowan, with its red berries ;
the birch, with its pale stem ; the silver ash, and the thick
hazels ; and the holly, growing most luxuriantly amidst
fantastic rocks, and glittering greenly in the sunbeams.
Here ran many a bubbling runnel, thundered many a
torrent from its gully on the hill-side, and glittered many
a lake far seen between the clefts of the mountains ;
among which, pre-eminent for its wild and romantic
beauty, lay Glenveagh Lough, or the Lake of the Valley
of the Deer, glancing like silver, or blackening like ink,
as it alternated in sunlight or in shadow ; deep, narrow,
sublimely solitary, it runs up between the precipitous wall
of Dooish Mountain, whose summit rises two thousand two
hundred feet above the glen, and on the other side the
steep rocks, and green declivities, and wooded precipices
of the Glendowan Mountain, and Lossett, which signifies
light. Here, at the time of which I write, the red deer
ran and haunted these wilds in troops, sporting amidst
the ancient oakwood of Mullanagore, part of which still
remains, or slaking their thirst in the Burn of Glenlack,
which rolls and whirls adown the mountain for six hundred
feet, or listening under the greenwood tree, and in the
silence of the summer morning, to the roar of waters, where,
across the lake, the Derrybeg Torrent is precipitated over
a cliff of one thousand feet, and after raving amidst the
lower levels, where the trees and brushwood half conceal
its glancing waters, hurries into the tranquil bosom of
lovely Glenveagh, and is at rest. A more exquisite gem
O<* VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of mountain, lake, waterfall, and woodland beauty, the
wide world could scarce produce.
To the left of Ards rose Lough Salt with its volcanic
crater, and large, deep lake on the summit, along whose
stony rim for a mile lay the only road by which Ards
could be approached from the south. To the right and
landward of Ards soared the great mountain of Muckish,
with its declivities, precipices, and its hundred spurs
broken into unceasing hill and hollow, through which
grey boreens, or bridle-paths, were seen to wind like
serpents in the grass. More westerly still, uprose the
three giant mountains, Dooish, Altan, and the silvery
cone of Arigle, or " the white arrow," with all their peaks
and precipices, their shadows, and solitudes, only broken
by the wild bark of the golden eagle. To the east of the
demesne lay the sea, of great depth and exquisite colour,
bluest of the blue. It was, indeed, and is to this day a
complete solitude, but abounding in the wildest and most
original scenery, little known and seldom visited, but
replete with all that could charm the tourist, and delight
and satisfy the eye and pencil of the artist. Here, amidst
his woods, and wilds, and sea-cliffs, and mountains,
reigned William Wray in feudal state, and with an as-
sumption of power which his neighbours seemed to allow
him. His heart was kind, his purse was long, his step
was high, and his hand was open. He was profuse,
proud, energetic, jealous, stately, hospitable, eccentric, and
exclusive. Tradition tells us that he had twenty stalls in
his stables, kept ready for the horses of his guests, and
twenty covers on his table for their masters, yet the diffi-
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. DO
culty of reaching Ards was what would never come into
the computation of modern diners-out, and was opposed
to all the facility and luxury of present travelling. At
that time there was but one available road from Letter-
kenny, the frontier town, to Ards, and this had been
made by "William Wray himself, and with such zeal, that
he caused his labourers to work at it all night by torch-
light. It runs straight up and over Lough Salt, a moun-
tain one thousand five hundred feet high. Wray paved
most of it with square flags, and set up huge milestones
all along it, and resting-places, as trophies of his engineer-
ing prowess. When -the guests who were invited to Ards
arrived at Kilmacrennan, a village at the foot of the
mountain, the postilion unyoked the horses and replaced
them with bullocks, which animals were regularly pro-
vided by William Wray, and which slowly but strongly
dragged the carriages up the great mountain ; and as the
equipages emerged at the other side of Lough Salt, and
became visible to the northern region beneath, tradition
has it that the Master at Ards from his own lawn took a
telescopic observation at the distance of fourteen miles ;
and computing that the company would not complete the
rest of their journey under four hours more, and being a
man given to punctuality, he ordered dinner accordingly.
He was, indeed, a perfect Martinet ; one day, walking
in his pleasure-ground, he cried to his gardener, " John, I
cannot get on ;" to which the other answered, " I do not
wonder at it, Sir, for there is a straw in your path ;" which
being removed, the old gentleman resumed his walk.
He was very dignified in his appearance and manner, and
64 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
once in the Grand Jury-room at Lifford, when a young fop,
desirous of knowing the hour, turned to him and said, "And
what are you, sir ?" he struck the floor with his gold-
headed cane, and answered, " I am William Wray of Ards,
sir." Yet with this characteristic of hauteur, he was most
kind to the poor, and would suffer the fishermen, if it
blew hard from the north or west, to run their smacks
close in under his very windows for shelter, and to coil
their cables and hawsers round the stems of the great
trees which grew close to the sea, and which remain till
this day. Squeamish and fastidious, he could not bear
to see any one eat egg or oyster be/ore him ; and once,
when his daughter after breakfast had the good sense
with her own gentle hands and a damask napkin to wash
up some extremely costly and beautiful cups and saucers,
he was so hurt and mortified, that he indignantly ordered
his horse, and rode into Dunfanaghy, four miles off, where
he breakfasted at an inn ; and this he continued to do for
some months, till time had effaced the recollection of the
indignity.
One would be inclined to accuse the man who acted
thus of folly ; but such conduct was rather the result of
pride and eccentricity, fostered by the solitary magnificence
in which he lived, and the station in which his wealth and
birth had placed him, and which the neighbouring gen-
try who ate his mutton and drank his claret did not dis-
pute. He was undoubtedly a man of wondrous activity^
enterprise, and public spirit. The causeway up the steep
of Lough Salt he made at his own expense. The mile-
stones were seven feet high and four broad the last was
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 5
standing some twenty years ago. There was something
of the ancient Roman in the man's works, bold and mas-
sive. A second road he constructed over Mongorry
Mountain, between Letterkenny and Raphoe, with in-
credible trouble and cost. No hard "Whinstone rock,
no shaking bog, no hill-side torrent, ever could turn
our rectilinear road maker one foot from his straight-
forward course. He would blast the first, pave the
second, and bridge the third ; and on the map of the
recent Ordnance Survey, the engineer's rule could never
draw a straighter line than the delineation of this long road
presents. It is now quite forsaken, only cattle, drivers
make use of "ould Willie Wray's road," the present
generation having discovered that it is wiser, if not shorter,
to skirt the base of a hill than to scale the summit, a
process endangering the breaking of your horse's wind in
the going up, and the breaking of his knees, or your own
neck in the coming down. Mr. Wray was a great loyalist,
and zealous for king and constitution ; and on one occa-
sion suffered severely in his purse through a headlong act
of arbitrary enthusiasm for the Excise of the country !
A small brig was at anchor, becalmed in the bay ; she
had a low hull, rakish masts, and smart rigging, alto-
gether a suspicious craft. William Wray determined to
pay her a visit, and getting into his grand pinnace with a
number of his men, boarded her, He found her cargo
consisted entirely of tobacco : her skipper was sulky, and
would not produce his papers; and the upshot of the
matter was, that Wray, as a magistrate and magnate of
the county, took upon him to legislate suo arbitrio, and
66 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
under the impression that the tobacco was smuggled, the
skipper a contrabandist, and the king's majesty defrauded,
he sent on shore for all his boats, barges, corrais, and
sailors, and before the sun was kissing the fiery wave
behind Torry island, he had landed all the tobacco on the
seabeach, and heaping it together, set a torch to the pile
and burned it, producing such a smoke and such a smell
amidst the glades and sweet dells of Ards as never was till
then, or ever will be again, though the whole population
of Donegal were to turn out and assemble there with cigars
in their mouths. Under cover of the smoke the captain
returned in a rage to Derry, and the damages and law
costs he obtained at the next assizes against the too adven-
turous Willie were fully six hundred pounds.
William Wray's mother had been Miss Brooke, of Cole-
brooke, and through her he was widely and wealthily con-
nected in Donegal and Fermanagh. His wife was Miss
Hamilton, of Newtown Cunningham, county Derry ; she
was daughter to a Dr. Hamilton and a Miss Cunningham,
and sister of Sir Henry Hamilton, probably of the
Abercom family. The great mansion where this family
resided is a prominent object in the village at this day,
though almost a ruin ; it is a grey and massive pile, and
looks like an old baronial keep of other times. Sir Henry
had five sisters besides Mrs. Wray : one was married to
Mr. Olphert, of Ballyconnel ; a second to Mr. Benson, of
Birdstown; a third to Mr. Smith, of Newtown Lima-
vaddy ; a fourth to Mr. Span, of Ballemacool, near Letter-
kenny ; and a fifth to Mr. Stewart, of Ballygawley, direct
ancestor of Sir John M. Stewart, Bart. ; the sixth was
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 67
the Lady of Ards, and wife of "William "VVray. Be-
sides all these family ramifications, Wray was allied by
blood or marriage with the Gores of Magherabeg, the
Stewarts of Horn Head, the Mansfields of Killygordon,
the Galbraiths of St. Johnston, the Babingtons of Urney,
the Sinclairs of Holly Hill, the Lowrys of Pomeroy, the
Eccles of Fintona, the Knoxs of Rathmullen, the Perrys
of Mullaghmore, the Moutrays of Favor Royal, the Boyds
of Ballycastle, &c. &c., all families of ancient settlers
in Donegal, Tyrone, and the county of Antrim.
One of his daughters married her kinsman, Richard
Babington ; and two gentle scholars, brothers, coming up
from the south of Ireland, James and Joseph Stopford,
sons of James Stopford, Bishop of Cloyne, and nephews
of the first Earl of Courtown, bound the north and south
together in kindly ties by wooing and wedding Anna and
Angel Wray, two of the lilies of Ards, which had flowered
in William Wray's paternal garden; another daughter
was united to Mr. Atkinson, of Cavan Garden, the head
of an old family in Donegal. Thus his connection was
as extensive as his fortune, and as wide as his expendi-
ture ; and possessing the very spirit of Irish hospitality,
and guest and kinsfolk being ever ready to* accept his
invitations, and bringing with them crowds of servants,
no doubt profligate and wasteful, it is little wonder
that all these gatherings and entertainments produced
their inevitable results in pecuniary difficulties, then
gradual decadency, and eventually something tantamount
to absolute and irretrievable ruin. Yet there is no record
of anything coarse or vicious in the extravagances which
68 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
beggared the Master of Ards. One hears nothing of
hard drinking, or loud swearing, or boisterous revels in
his courtly mansion. William Wray was a gentleman a
high Irish gentleman too proud to be popular, and too
eccentric to be understood ; he could not be estimated by
the unimaginative and matter-of-fact people among whom
he dwelt ; the shrewd and money- loving northerns called
his unbounded hospitality, riotous living, and his diffuse-
ness they termed madness; but had these things been
done in France in the fourteenth century, and chronicled
by such a pen as that of Froissart, he would have classed
him with such entertainers as Phoebus-Gaston Count
de Foix, and pronounced upon him as a courteous and
liberal, a bountiful, and most gentle host. Yet he had not
many near neighbours in that wild country ; there was a
Mr. Olphert, a cousin of his own, at Bally connell, who
spent much of his time in crossing from Ballyness to Tory
Island, a distance of ten miles, and a navigation acpom-
panied with extreme peril. This he accomplished not in
a twelve-oared boat, broad bottomed and skilfully manned,
to meet the raging of the tremendous sea which runs in
that stormy sound, where the Atlantic beats around the
Horn, and breaks in thunder and in foam up its black sides :
but in a little corrai, or long basket, made of twigs of twisted
osier, and covered over with a cow-hide, so as to keep out
the water, and pulled by two men : nay, the story has it
that Olphert often put to sea in the corrai by himself, and
with a favourable tide and wind, accomplished the voyage
solus cum solo. Probably this daring navigator was a fisher-
man, for salmon are in great abundance in the deep blue
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 69
water around the mural cliffs of Horn Head, where the finest
and rarest fish are taken, and where occasionally a giant
whale on a lark from Greenland is seen to lie at his ease,
and spout in the cool summer evening. Olphert being such
a passionate philo-marine, and so original in his nautical
habits, had probably little intercourse with the Master of
Ards, save when they met in the Grand Jury -room at Lifford.
The sea scenery on this part of the coast, to the east of
Bloody Foreland, is sternly magnificent ; the cliffs at Horn
Head, embracing eight miles in extent, are matchless for
size, shape, exquisite colouring, and peculiarity ; the Horn
curls over the ocean from a height of one thousand per-
pendicular feet ; along its ledges, all the way from brow to
base, in summer, sit millions of rock-nesting birds of the
gull tribe, &c. ; auks, sea parrots, petrels, &c., while a
pair of noble eagles great birds are generally found
building in the precipitous face of the cliff, or floating and
wheeling over the green and heathy hollows through
which the Horn is approached. Ear out to sea lies the
Island of Tory, with its lofty, black, and broken cliffs,
resembling a huge old castle, with round towers and rugged
battlements, and long, dark, steep walls of rock standing
out in its utter solitude in the midst of the vexed Atlantic,
an object of intense interest, and most picturesque in its
outline.
Between Balliconnell and Ards is Horn Head House.
Here lived, in the year 1700, Captain Charles Stewart, a
man of ancient Scottish blood, being of the Darnley Stew_
arts, and having their motto, " Avant Darnley," engraved
on the old silver seal which hung on his watch chain. He
70 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
had been an officer in King William's army, had obtained
from him a grant of lands in the King's county, but
migrating northward in 1700, he purchased from Mr.
Sampson, Wray's father-in-law, the promontory of Horn
Head, &c., and there built a substantial and good house,
which from that time to this has ever preserved its name
for generous and refined hospitality. With this gentle-
man Wray had an extraordinary quarrel in 1732, which,
as illustrating the tone of the times, and the peculiar
idiosyncrasy of the Master of Ards' character, I will
sketch for the public. At the time the feud took place
William Wray was a young man Stewart was bordering
on seventy, and his strength broken with gout and illness.
Three years before, at Horn Head, " they had sworn a
friendship/' probably most prandial in its nature, and over
* bottle of claret, and nothing interrupted the harmony of
their intercourse, until one day, Wray, walking on some of
the silver strands which lined his verdant park, discovered
a girl gathering oysters, whom he recognized as one of
Stewart's tenants. This monstrous outrage on the sove-
reignty of his sway and the sanctity of his premises Wray
highly resented, and told the offender that he considered
it a crime for any one to gather there but himself or his
servants. This of course was reported to the stern old
Williamite, who next day dispatched his pinnace with
twelve men with pistols, and armed to the teeth, com-
manded by Stewart's son, and " ready," so Wray writes,
" by your direction to use me, I know not how." This
public affront awakened Wray's loftiest indignation, and
on the 9th of November he challenges Stewart, tells him
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAT OF ARDS. 71
he " must have speedy satisfaction ; that he was concerned
to do so with a man of his years, but that his (Wray's)
honour was at stake. Be master of your own weapons,
fix the time and place ; you must come alone as I will, as
the sooner this affair is ended, the sooner will revenge
cease. WILLIAM WRAY."
Stewart's answer was immediate having the same date
it is so spirited, and so like the neigh of an old war-
horse that had probably heard the guns peal across the
Boyne Water, that I will transcribe it all.
"Nov. 9th, 1732. Sir, you say that you have received
a deal of ill usage from me ; I am quite a stranger to that,
but not so to the base usage you have given me, and all
the satisfaction you intend me is banter by your sham
challenge. If you be as much in earnest as your letter
says, assure yourself that if I had but one day to live, I
would meet you on the top of Muckish rather than lose
by you what I have carried all my life.
"Yours, CHARLES STEWART."
If we consider that the writer was near seventy years of
age, and a martyr to gout, and that Muckish mountain is
2000 feet high, and so steep as to be almost inaccessible,
we shall see what stuff these Boyne and Deny men were
made of, and what soldiers of steel King William led to
victory. Happily this duel never came off; some mutual
friends, " Dick Babington" and " Andrew Knox," inter-
fered, Wray explained, and Stewart apologized for calling
his challenge a sham and a banter, and testifies to the
72 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
truth and honour of Wray ; and thus the matter ended as
it should do, in a renewal of good feeling.
All this took place when Wray was a young man, and
probably unmarried. It is all but impossible to gather
records of his domestic life ; those who enjoyed his hospi-
tality have long since passed away, and the peasantry,
who are the usual depositories of the legendary stories
connected with great families, though forming a fine and
substantial yeomanry about Ards, yet are peculiarly matter-
of-fact, common-place, and utterly wanting in the poetical
element, so necessary to give the love for tradition, and
preserve it from age to age. Besides, extravagance is
always unpopular in the north, where the Scotch are so
widely located, and where money is so highly valued, and
that which we dislike and disapprove of we take no pains
to keep in mind, and so the memory of the last William
Wray of Ards is fast passing away with the works he
constructed, the moneys he lavished, the eccentricities he
exhibited, and the properties which he forfeited. A few
strong facts stand above the surface of the stream such
as we have narrated : a few also remain of a sterner and
sadder kind such as his expenditure increasing as his
income decreased: such as wisdom or frugality not resulting
from advancing years ; such as his son living in France,
where he displayed even more than the hereditary habit of
utter extravagance ; such as his lady sinking and dying
under the grief and sorrow of their ruin and their fall ;
and his own death afterwards in France : and finally such
as the sale of the entire estate, house, demesne, and all
appurtenances belonging to it in the year 1781, to meet
THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 73
and defray the owner's debts, when it was purchased by
Mr. Alexander Stewart, brother of the Marquess of Lon-
donderry, from whom it has descended to his grandson,
Alexander John Robert Stewart, Esq., who is the present
proprietor of beautiful Ards, and the very noble estate
attached to it.
74 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
t Jfamilu 0f
And Elwes
Master of a comfortable hoard,
Appearing to be scarcely worth, a crown.
PETEB PINDAB.
MISERS' wealth seldom prospers. The pent-up stream,
once the hand that stayed its course is removed, finds a
rapid vent, and wastes and scatters its waters to the ex-
haustion of the original source. So it is with treasures
accumulated by avarice : seldom do they remain with the
heirs of him who has worn his life away in their acquisition,
and in very rare instances do they form the enduring
foundations of a family's establishment. Warriors, states-
men, merchants, and lawyers all have originated great
and flourishing houses, but misers are rarely the patriarchs
of families of enduring prosperity : the same remark may
be made in reference to those who gathered gain by the
slave trade : they never flourished. It has been ascer-
tained as a positive fact, that no two generations of a slave-
dealer's race ever continued resident on the estate ac-
quired by the unholy pursuit of their founder ; and a
similar observation applies, to a certain extent, to the pro-
fits of the usurer. A very learned friend of mine, deeply
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 75
versed in the vicissitudes of genealogy, assures me that he
never knew four generations of an usurer's family to
endure, in regular unbroken succession.
In giving my history of the Elweses, T shall for the
present go no further back than the time of Charles
the Second, who conferred a baronetcy on Sir Gervase
Elwes, of Stoke, in Suffolk. From the general character
of the " merry monarch," and the way in which he usu-
ally dispensed his favours, we may safely infer, without any
other ground, that Sir Gervase was a boon companion, and
one more likely to diminish than to increase an inheritance.
Such, indeed, appears from all records to have been the fact.
The new baronet involved, as far as he was able, a noble
patrimony, leaving little more behind him than the skeleton
of an estate. Upon the death of this spendthrift, his suc-
cesssorand grandson, Sir Hervey^Elwes, found himself nomi-
nally possessed of some thousands a year, but his annual
receipts did not at the moment exceed a hundred pounds.
He had, however, a fortune, and an ample fortune in his
own peculiar habits, being to the full as penurious as his
predecessor had been extravagant. On arriving at Stoke, the
ancestral seat, he boldly declared that " he never would
leave it till he had entirely cleared the estate." Extra-
ordinary as such a resolution might have seemed at the
time, and even impossible to be effected, he lived not
only to realize it, but even to accumulate a great addi-
tional fortune over and above the lands he had inhe-
rited. But, in fact, he had received from nature all the
qualifications requisite to form perfect a miser. In his
youth he had been given over for a consumption, and
though the disease in a great measure yielded to art, yet
76 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
it left him with impaired constitution, and without any of
those dangerous passions which boil up in stronger bodies.
Avarice remained the sole tenant of his bosom, and to that
he was devoted with a cold exclusiveness that seems well
nigh fabulous. He was, moreover, shy, timid, and diffident
in the extreme. Friends he had none, and wished for
none ; nor did he possess the slightest taste for study of
any kind ; his great delight was to accumulate gold, and
brood over its accumulations : next to that came partridge -
setting, not so much from any love of sport, as because
the birds sufficed to support himself and his narrow
household for at least a portion of the year. Game was
then so plentiful that he has been known to take live
hundred brace of birds in one season. But this multitude
mattered nothing to him. "What he and his people could
not consume was turned out again, for the miser could not
give any thing away. It may be worthy of notice when
depicting so singular a character, that his breed of dogs
was remarkably good, that he at all times wore a black
velvet cap much over his face, a worn-out full dress suit of
clothes, and an old great coat over his knees. He rode
a thin, thorough-bred horse ; and the horse and his rider
both looked as if a gust of wind would have blown them
away together.
" When the day was not so fine as to tempt him abroad,
he would walk backwards and forwards in his old hall to
save the expense of fire. If a farmer in his neighbourhood
came in, he would strike a light in a tinder-box that he
kept by him, and putting one single stick upon the grate,
would not add another till the first was nearly burnt out.
" As he had but little connection with London, he had
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 77
always three or four thousand pounds at a time in his
house. A set of fellows, who were afterwards known by
the appellation of the Thaxsted Gang, and who were all
hanged, formed a plan to rob him. They were totally
unsuspected at the time, as each had some apparent occcu.
pation during the day, and went out only at night, and
when they had got intelligence of any great booty.
" It was the custom of Sir Hervey to go up into his
bed-chamber at eight o' clock, where, after taking a basin
of water-gruel, by the light of a small fire, he went to
bed to save the unnecessary extravagance of a candle.
The gang, who knew the hour when his servant used
to go to the stable, leaving their horses in a small grove
on the Essex side of the river, walked across and hid
themselves in the church-porch till they saw the man
come up. They then immediately fell upon him, and after
some little struggle they bound and gagged him. They
then ran up towards the house, tied the two maids together,
and going up to Sir Hervey, presented their pistols and
demanded his money. At no part of his life did Sir
Hervey behave so well as in this transaction. When they
asked for his money, he would give them no answer till
they had assured him that his servant, who was a great
favourite, was safe. He then delivered them the key of a
drawer in which were fifty guineas. But they knew too
well he had much more in the house, and again threatened
his life unless he discovered where it was deposited. At
length he showed them the place, and they turned out a
large drawer where were seven and twenty hundred guineas.
This they packed up in two large baskets and actually
carrried off a robbery which for quantity of specie was
78 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
perhaps never equalled. On quitting him they told him
they should leave a man behind, who would murder him
if he moved for assistance. On which he very coolly, and
with some simplicity, took out his watch which they had
not asked for and said, ' Gentlemen, I do not want to
take any of you, and therefore, upon my honour, I will
give you twenty minutes for your escape ; after that
time nothing shall prevent me from seeing how my servant
does/ He was as good as his word. When the time
expired, he went and untied the man; but though
search was made by the village, the robbers were not dis-
covered. When they were taken up some years afterwards
for other offences, and were known to be the men who
robbed Sir Hervey, he would not appear against them.
Mr. Harrington of Clare, who was his lawyer, pressed him
to go to Chelmsford to identify their persons ; but nothing
could persuade him. ' No, no/ said he ; ' I have lost my
money, and now you want me to lose my time also/
" Of what temperance can do, Sir Hervey was an in-
stance. At an early period of life he was given over for a
consumption, and he lived till between eighty and ninety
years of age.
" Amongst the few acquaintances he had, was an occa-
sional club at his own village of Stoke ; and there were
members of it two baronets besides himself, Sir Cordwell
Firebras and Sir John Barnardiston. However rich they
were, the reckoning was always an object of their inves-
tigation. As they were one day settling this difficult
point, an odd fellow, who was a member, called out to a
friend who was passing, ' For heaven's sake, step up stairs
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 79
and assist the poor ! Here are three baronets, with a
million of money, quarrelling about a farthing/
" When Sir Hervey died, the only tear that was dropped
upon his grave, fell from the eye of his servant who had
long and faithfully attended him. To that servant he
bequeathed a farm of twenty pounds per annum, to him
and his heirs.
"In the chastity and abstinence of his life Sir Hervey
Elwes was a rival to Sir Isaac Newton, for he would have
held it unpardonable to have given even his affections ;
and as he saw no lady whatever, he had but little chance
of bartering them matrimonially for money. When he
died, he lay in state, such as it was, at his estate at Stoke.
Some of the tenants observed, with more humour than
decency, ' that it was well Sir Hervey could not see it.'
" On his death, his fortune, which had now become
immense, fell to his nephew, Mr. Meggot, who by will
was ordered to assume the name and arms of Elwes ; and
who became ' Elwes the Miser/ par excellence.
<c Thus lived, and thus died, Sir Hervey Elwes, whose
possessions at the time of his death were supposed to be
at least two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and
whose annual expenditure was about one hundred and
ten pounds. However incredible this may appear, it is
yet strictly true. His clothes cost him nothing, for he
took them out of an old chest where they had lain since
the gay days of Sir Gervase. He kept his household
chiefly on game, and fish which he had in his own
ponds ; and the cows, which grazed before his own
door, furnished milk, cheese, and butter, for the little
80 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
economical household. What fuel he did burn, his woods
supplied."
The character which has thus been painted for posterity,
and as I believe in true colours, is so dark, that we
gladly look around for some redeeming traits, for some
facts not at first sight observable, which may tend to soften
the harsher features of the miser, and bring him within
the scope of human sympathy. In his favour it may be
remarked, that his vices were not altogether his own, that,
to a certain extent, they were the result of circumstances.
In the anxious endeavour to recover and restore his dilapi-
dated estate, he had passed so many years alone, that he
was no longer fit to encounter the wear and tear of the busy
world. So extreme was his consequent shyness, that society,
if it gave him little pain, most assuredly afforded him no
gratification. Let it also be remembered that this singular
being had the courage to live alone for nearly seventy
years, without any solace from books or from the past.
Still more singular and complex was the character of
the individual whom the capricious will of the defunct
miser selected to succeed him in his vast property, to the
injury of the male heir, who obtained only the barren
title of which he could not be deprived. Of him I shall
have to speak presently.
The fortunate inheritor of so much wealth was the
nephew of Sir Hervey, and was at the time of his suc-
cession in his fortieth year. His father was a brewer of
repute in his trade, whose offices and dwelling-house were
situated in Southwark, which borough had at one time
been represented in Parliament by his grandfather, Sir
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 81
George Meggot. These premises are now tenanted by
Clowes, the printer.
The brewer prospered so highly in his business that he
was able to purchase the estate of the Calverts, at Marcham,
which is still held by his descendants ; but he died when
the future John Elwes was only four years old. Perhaps
it was owing to this event, which left the child under the
exclusive influence of his mother, that he subsequently be-
came a confirmed miser ; for the widow, true to the failing
of her race, literally starved herself to death, although she
had been bequeathed a hundred thousand pounds by her
late husband.
At an early period of life Jack Meggot was sent to
"Westminster school, where he remained for ten or twelve
years. There he appears to have acquired the repute of
a good classical scholar; but it is a circumstance not a
little remarkable, though well authenticated, that after
leaving school he never indulged in study of any kind, or
was even known to open a book. His whole library did
not at any time exceed the value of two pounds, while,
what is yet more strange, with all his love of money his
ignorance of accounts was such, that he never knew any-
thing of his own affairs.
The contemporaries of the young scholar at Westminster
were Mr. Worsley, subsequently master of the Board of
Works, and the great Lord Mansfield, who at that period
had no hesitation in borrowing all that his youthful compa-
nion even then was inclined to lend. The disposition of his
Lordship, however, in after-times underwent a change ; the
humour of the future Elwes always remained the same.
2 o
82 VICISSITUDE^ OF FAMILIES.
From Westminster school, Jack Meggot, as he was then
familiarly called, removed to Geneva, where he soon entered
upon pursuits more agreeable to him than study. The
riding-master of the academy might boast of having per-
haps three of the best riders in Europe, Mr. Worsley,
Sir Sydney Meadows, and Jack Meggot. But the last-
named was reckoned the most desperate of the trio. The
young horses were always put into his hands, and he was
the rough rider to the other two.
During his sojourn at Geneva he was introduced to
Voltaire, but neither the genius nor the character of this
celebrated writer seems to have made much impression upon
him. If he alluded at all to the great exile, it was with
no more interest than he would have felt in speaking of
the most obscure individual, while for the horses in the
riding-school he retained a minute as well as lasting recol-
lection.
But these halcyon days soon passed. He had to return to
England ; and, as he was designed for his uncle's heir, it
became requisite that he should without farther loss of
time be introduced to Sir Hervey. But for this ceremony
considerable tact and the outward degeneration of his
usual habits were utterly indispensable. True it was that
he had inherited the spirit of saving from his mother, but
to natural avarice was joined a love of pleasure that would
have been ruinous to his prospects had the fact become
known to the old miser. Then, too, the enormous appetite
for which he was noted amongst his acquaintance would
have given no little disgust to one who could dine upon
half a partridge. Nor would his usual dress be less a
THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 83
subject of offence, seeing that it was not only unpatched,
but even fashionable. Being forewarned of the perils that
lay in his path, our gambler and horse-jockey took the
necessary measures for avoiding them. To conceal the
enormity of his appetite, he used, prior to his avuncular
visitations, to pick up a substantial dinner with some ac-
quaintance in the neighbourhood, and having thus satisfied
the first inordinate cravings of hunger, he afterwards sate
down at Sir Hervey's table with so modest an appetite as
greatly conciliated the esteem of his worthy host. Upon
these occasions a partridge, a small pudding, and a potato,
constituted the repast, and, to complete the scene of penury,
this pittance was devoured in the coldest days without fire ;
it being a fixed maxim with Sir Hervey that the act of
eating was of itself quite sufficient to keep any reasonable
creature warm.
Jack Meggot, having thus effectually disguised the ex-
tent of his appetite, next set about providing a masquerade,
under which to hide his worldly habits, and show himself
in a costume more appropriate to the character of a miser.
The ruse he adopted for this purpose will be little novelty
to the readers of play or romance, though it may be too
much to say that it was actually borrowed from either.
His plan was, when about to visit his uncle, to stop
at a little obscure inn at Chelmsford, where he laid
aside his worldly attire, and dressed himself in character
for the part he had to play before his rich relative;
that is, he indued himself in darned worsted stock-
ings, a pair of small iron buckles, an old worn-out
coat, and a tattered waistcoat. Thus duly attired, he was
84 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
always welcomed at Stoke, as a frugal exception to the
general world of extravagance. There they would sit,
the frugal pair ! with a single stick burning coldly in
the rusty grate, and occasionally, perhaps, a glass of wine
between them, over which they discussed, with many a deep
lament, the wasteful habits of their day. This interesting
and ever-recurring topic would occupy them till the evening
shut in, when they would retire to bed, " as it saved candle-
light."
"What a painful picture of human degradation ! If ex-
travagance be a fault, it is at least not without enjoyment ;
and if it ruins one, there can be no doubt of its benefiting
many. But what is to be said for the miser, who saves
only for the sake of saving, and accumulates only for the
sake of accumulating ? How is he better than the igno-
rant peasant who persists in piling up a heap of manure
before his door, to the offence of sight, smell, and health,
instead of scattering it over fields where it would be a
benefit.
The nephew was assiduous in his visits to his uncle, and
constantly accompanied him in his daily amusement of
partridge setting. In this he proved an admirable assist-
ant, for he was reputed to have some of the best setter
dogs in England. Their colour was as peculiar as their
breed, being of a black tan, while in form they were more
like hounds than setters. As a proof of their strength and
speed, their master was in the habit of telling how one of
them followed him to London, a distance of sixty miles,
and hunted all the fields that adjoined the road.
And yet, with all his outward seeming and his real
THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 85
disposition to avarice, how far did the heir elect fall below
the uncle's idea of a prudent economy, could he but have
seen him in his blended character as it showed itself when,
away from Stoke. The acquaintances that the nephew
had formed at Westminster and Geneva, combined with
the natural influence of the large fortune inherited from,
his parents, opened for him the doors of rank and fashion,
leaving him free to choose his own society. Of this ad-
vantage he did not hesitate to avail himself, and plunged
boldly into the vortex of dissipation. " He was admitted
of the club at Arthur's and various other clubs of the
period ; and, as some proof of his notoriety at that time
as a man of deep play, Mr. Elwes, the late Sir Robert Ber-
tie, and some others, are noticed in a scene in the Adven-
tures of a Guinea, for the frequency of their midnight
orgies. Few men, even from his own acknowledgment,
had played deeper than himself, and with success more
various. I remember* hearing him say, he had once
played two days and a night without intermission ; and,
the room being a small one, the party were nearly up to
their knees in cards. He lost some thousands at that
sitting. The late Duke of Newcastle was of the party,
who never would quit a table where any hope of winning
remained.
" Had every man been of the mind of Mr. Elwes, the
race of innkeepers must have perished, and post-chaises
have returned back to those who made them ; for it was
the business of his life to avoid both. He always travelled
on horseback. To see him setting out on a journey was a
* Topbam, "Life of Elwes."
86 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
matter truly curious. His first cure was to put two or
three eggs, boiled hard, into his great- coat pocket, or any
scraps of bread which he found ; baggage he never took ;
then mounting one of his hunters, his next attention was
to get out of London into that road where turnpikes were
fewest. Then stopping under any hedge where grass pre-
sented itself for his horse, and a little water for himself,
he would sit down, and refresh himself and his horse
together here presenting a new species of Brahmin, and
worth five hundred thousand pounds.
But if the delinquencies above narrated had ever come
to the knowledge of Sir Hervey, it may well be doubted
whether in his estimation they would have been atoned for
by the habits of avarice that accompanied and intermingled
with them. Of these, however, luckily for the future heir,
the old man was profoundly ignorant. In his hermit life
he took not the least note of what was passing in the
world beyond his own bounds, neither admitting visitors,
nor reading newspapers. At length he died, the worms
claimed their own, and his funeral oration was summed
tip in few words " Nobody would have lived with Sir
Hervey if they could ; nor could if they would." And
excellent ground was there for such an epitaph. In addi-
tion to the general misery of his habits, which, as we have
seen, bordered close upon famine his house presented
exactly the same condition in which it had come down to
him from remote ages. The furniture was most sacredly
antique, not a room had ever been painted, or a window
repaired ; but, as time and accidents made them, so they
remained, undisturbed by the hand of improvement or
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 87
renovation. In the beds above stairs, the worm and the
moth revelled without control, and the roof of the entire
building might have been adapted to the climate of Italy
when its season was at the mildest.
At the time of his succeeding to this singular inheritance
of decay and wealth, Mr. Elwes for Jack Meggot had
taken that name in obedience to Sir Hervey's will,
was in his fortieth year. I have already observed that
the germs of avarice were latent in him ; but although they
would occasionally show themselves, it was always like
those blossoms which no one expects will ever ripen into
fruit. Now a change was rapidly coming over him. He
had become thoroughly disgusted with noble gamblers,
who never paid their losings ; and with noble borrowers,
who never returned their loans. It did not, therefore,
cost him the slightest struggle to quit, and for good, the
circle in which he had hitherto moved, that he might
thenceforth devote himself to the pleasure of accumu-
lating. Still he did not all at once realise the cha-
racter of a perfect miser. On settling in Suffolk he
began to keep fox hounds, and his stable of hunters was
said to be the first in the kingdom. Of the breed of his
horses he could be quite sure, for he bred them himself;
and, what never happens in the present day, they were on
no account broken in, till they were six years old. This
was the only instance of his sacrificing money to pleasure ;
and even here the one extravagance was considerably
modified by the rigid parsimony of its details. Scrub,
notwithstanding he had a separate character and occupation
for each day in the week, might be said to lead a life of
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
happy indolence when compared to Mr. Elwes' huntsman.
He was, in the truest sense of the word, a man-of- all- work,
a -more complete factotum than the versatile Figaro himself,
and might have fixed a veritable epoch in the history of
servants. In a morning he got up at four o'clock, and
milked the cows, after which he prepared breakfast for
his master, or any friends he might have with him. Then
slipping on a green coat, he hurried into the stable, saddled
the horses, got the hounds out of the kennel, when away
they sallied forth to the field. After the fatigues of
hunting he refreshed himself by rubbing down two or
three horses as quickly as he could ; then he ran into the
house to lay the cloth and wait at dinner ; then hurried back
to the stables to feed the horses ; and then diversified his
day's amusement with an interlude of the cows again to
milk, the dogs to feed, and eight hunters to litter down
for the night. Yet with all this his master ?et him down
as " an idle dog, who wanted to be paid for doing nothing."
Alas ! for poor Scrub !
Nor was this all the saving effected by Mr. Elwes in
the indulgence of his favourite, nay, of his only luxury.
In the summer, his dogs were, if I may use the phrase*
billeted upon his various tenants, where they had no work,
while theyfared much better than in the parsimonious kennel
of their master, and from these abundant retreats they were
again collected before the commencement of the season. How
sparingly the poor animals lived at home may be inferred
from the fact that the whole of his fox-hunting establish-
ment, huntsmen, hounds, and horses included, did not
cost him three hundred pounds a year. Yet so valuable
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. O\)
were his hunters reckoned throughout the country, that
for one of them three hundred guineas were offered, and
for another two hundred and fifty; either of them an
almost incredible sum in those days, when a very good
horse might he purchased for fifteen pounds.
During the period of his keeping up this, for him, ex-
traordinary establishment, which lasted for nearly four-
teen years, Mr. Elwes resided mostly at Stoke, in Suffolk.
Thence he made frequent excursions to Newmarket ; but,
true to the resolution he had once adopted, he never
engaged in betting a singular proof of his firmness of
purpose. He was, upon the whole, the " tenax propositi"
of the Roman poet, though, as we shall have occasion to
see, the gambler's spirit was not quite subdued in him by
the influence of avarice.
Thus far, though Sir Hervey and his nephew were both
misers, yet they " wore their rue with a difference." The
one was wholly and purely a miser, who appears to have had
no other qualities or passions whatever, save the passion of
accumulating. The other was of a far more complex
character ; and though in old age he became a fit rival to
his uncle, still up to the present time, and for many years
subsequent, the genius of parsimony held only a divided
empire over him. His earliest biographer for whose
partiality some allowance must perhaps be made, says of
him, " that his manners were such, so gentle, so atten-
tive, so gentlemanly, and so engaging, that rudeness
could not ruffle them, nor ingratitude break their
observance. He retained this peculiar feature of the old
court to the last. But he had a praise far beyond this ;
90 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
he had the most gallant disregard of his own person, and
all care about himself, I* ever witnessed in man."
Courtesy and resolution are not so wholly antagonistic to
avarice that they may not exist together ; but it is not
easy to understand how generosity and the spirit of
hoarding should exist at the same time and in the same
individual. Yet such was the case with Mr. Elwes, who
at this period of his life could be liberal even to excess, a
fault which could never have been laid at the door of his
uncle.
An inn upon the road, a turnpike gate, and an apothe-
cary were all equally objects of his aversion. The first
he avoided on his journeys by carrying in his pocket a
couple of hard-boiled eggs, or fragments of dry bread,
which, according to his dietary, afforded ample sustenance
for the day, the second obstacle he overcame, like a
prudent general, by turning the enemy's flank ; that is to
say, he left the turnpike on one side, and galloped over
ditches however broad, and fences however high, without
the slightest regard to the peril of his own neck ; and the
other members of the healing art it was not always so
easy a matter ta deal with them, yet he managed pretty
well to keep them at arm's length ; and there are some
amusing anecdotes of his mode of action when other
people in his state would have thought two, or even three,
of the medical staff a very insufficient body-guard. Thus,
on one occasion, he received a very dangerous kick from
his horse, who fell with him in an extravagant leap. Any
other than himself would have paused here, and thought
* Topham.
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 91
that sufficient for the day was the evil thereof; not so
thought Mr. Elwes ; he rode the chase through, with his
leg cut to the bone, and it was only some days afterwards,
when it was feared an amputation would be requisite, that
he consented to go up to London, and, cruel necessity !
part with money for surgical advice.
I have already noticed that the house he succeeded to
at Stoke was in a strangely dilapidated condition; but
things were in a much worse state at the one he had left
behind him at Marcham. Of this a ludicrous instance is
given by his nephew, Colonel Timms. A few days after
the Colonel had visited him in his old abode, there fell
during the night a heavy shower of rain, and the guest
had not been long in bed before he felt himself wet
through; and putting his hand out of the clothes, he
found the rain was streaming upon him through the
broken ceiling. So he got up and moved the bed farther
on. But he had not long taken up his new position
before he found that the change brought him no relief.
Again he wheeled away the couch to another spot, but with
no better result, till having thus traversed the length and
breadth of the room, he at last got into a corner where
the roof did not admit the rain. Upon telling his uncle
at breakfast the night's " adventures," "Ay, ay,"
replied the old man, " I don't mind it myself, but for
those who do, that's a nice corner in the rain."
In this, which may be called the second phase of Elwes'
life, avarice had not as yet entirely subdued his better
qualities and taken the exclusive possession. If the spirit
of parsimony showed itself in a thousand ludicrous ways
92 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
to provoke scorn or pity, still he was not so wholly ab-
sorbed by this evil passion that he did not often show
signs of a better feeling which turned aside the edge of
judgment. He would upon occasion lend freely where
the humour took him ; and in these acts of benevolence he
was never known to take advantage of those whom he so
obliged, though no doubt in speculating he was often
tempted into loss by his appetite for usurious bargains.
A single anecdote of his generosity will serve to show that
even now his heart was not altogether corrupted by the
lust of Mammon. "When his (Elwes) son was in the
Guards, the old man was frequently in the habit of dining
at the officers' mess- table. The urbanity of his manners
rendered him agreeable to every one, and in time he be-
came acquainted with every officer in the corps ; amongst
the rest, with a gentleman of the name of Tempest, whose
good-humour was almost proverbial. A vacancy happen-
ing in a majority, it fell to the turn of this gentleman to
purchase ; but as money is not always to be got upon
landed property at the very moment it is wanted, it was
imagined some officer would have been obliged to pur-
chase over his head. Mr. Elwes heard of the circum-
stance, and sent him the money next morning. He
asked no security. He had seen Captain Tempest and
liked his manners, and he never once afterwards ever
hinted at repayment. The obligation, however, was faith-
fully acquitted upon the death of the Captain, which hap-
pened shortly afterwards." But this in no wise takes away
from the generosity of the lender, and it stands as one
amongst the many contradictions of his character a cha-
THE FAMILY' OF ELWES. 93
racter which more resembles the startling points of differ-
ence which the satirist loves to collect to oppose, so as to
form an unwholesome glare, than the mingled creations
of the dramatist or the romancer. It is difficult to un-
derstand how the same man should at the same moment
be prodigal of thousands, and yet almost deny to himself
the necessaries of life. Nothing but the genius of a
Shakspeare could elicit a harmonious whole out of such
antagonistic elements.
But though in the intercourse of private life he could
occasionally show himself generous to excess, it was quite
another thing in his money speculations. There he was
for ever on the look-out for hazardous enterprises that
might be supposed to hold out the prospect of unusual
gains, and this propensity often made him the dupe of
unprincipled adventurers, who knew how to tempt his
cupidity by schemes of fair promise indeed, but ever sure
to end in disappointment. Nor was this the only way in
which his avarice laid him open to the arts of the design-
ing. To make him a trifling present, or to do any sort of
work for him gratuitously, was the surest road to his
favour, even to the loosening of his purse-strings. Thus,
a wine-merchant in a small way of business, with an eye
to such a result, begged his acceptance of some fine wine
" And very fine it ought to be," would the old man say,
when speaking of the transaction, " for it cost me twenty
pounds a bottle."
The extent of his property in houses was so great that
it naturally followed that all his houses would not be let at
the same time. Some, as a matter of course, would /e-
94 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
main unoccupied ; and hence it was his custom, whenever
he came to London, to take up his abode in the first one
he found vacant. In this manner he travelled from street
to street ; for when any tenant wanted the particular house
in which he was at the time, he made no hesitation in
yielding it to the applicant, and betaking himself to some
other. This was no great difficulty for a man who so
little encumbered himself with furniture. A couple of
beds, the like number of chairs, a table, and an old woman
comprised the whole of his household appointments.
None of these, except the old woman, gave him any
trouble, and she was afflicted with a lameness that made
it no easy matter to get her into motion as quickly as he
wished. Moreover, she had a singular aptitude for catch-
ing colds, and no wonder, considering what she was ex-
posed to ; for sometimes she was in a small house in the
Haymarket, then in a great mansion in Portland Place;
sometimes in a little room with a coal fire, at others in
apartments of frigid dimensions, with oiled papers in the
windows for glass, and with nothing to warm her save a
few chips that happened to be left by the carpenters.
The scene which terminated the life of this poor drudge
is not among the least characteristic anecdotes recorded of
Mr. Elwes. Nor, strange as it seems, can its truth be
doubted, since it comes to us upon the authority of Colonel
Timms, a favourite nephew of the miser's, and one more
inclined to soften than to exaggerate his uncle's defects.
Mr. Elwes had come to town in his usual way, and
taken up his abode in one of his empty houses. The
Colonel, who wished to see him, was by some accident in-
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 95
formed that the old man was in London, though of his
actual whereabouts he could get no tidings. In this
dilemma he enquired for him at every place where he
was most likely to be heard of, at Hoare's the banker,
at the Mount Coffee-house, and at others of his usual
haunts, but all to no purpose. At length, a person whom
he met accidentally, recollected seeing the miser go into
an uninhabited house in Great Marlborough Street. Thither
accordingly the colonel repaired, and, to follow up the
clue thus obtained, got hold of a chairman. But no in-
telligence could he gain of a gentleman called Mr. Elwes.
A pot-boy, however, remembered that he had seen a poor
old fellow open the door of a stable and lock it after him ;
and upon being further questioned, his description of the
stranger perfectly agreed with the usual appearance of Mr.
Elwes; and when the colonel, after repeated knocking,
could obtain no answer, he sent for a blacksmith, and
ordered him to pick the lock. This being easily accom-
plished, they entered the house together, and found all in
the lower part dark and silent. On ascending the stair-
case, however, they heard the indistinct moanings of some
one apparently in great pain. Following the sound, they
came to a room, where, upon an old pallet-bed, stretched
out the figure of the miser, who, to all seeming, was well
nigh at the last gasp ; but, upon some cordials being ad-
ministered by an apothecary hastily called in, he reco-
vered enough to say, " that he believed he had been ill
for two or three days, and that there was an old woman
in the house, who had herself been ill, but that he sup-
posed she had got well and taken herself off."
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
At this intimation they repaired to the garrets, where
they found the old woman, the companion of all his move-
ments, associate of all his journeys, stretched out lifeless
on the floor, with no better couch than a mere rug.
And yet this man was an indulgent landlord, under
whom his tenants lived easily, only that when their dwell-
ings needed repairs they must make them at their own
expense. Not a shilling would he lay out, though by such
ill-timed parsimony he often ran the risk of his property
falling into utter ruin. If the tenant preferred going to
some expense rather than remove, or see his abode tumble
about his ears, well and good ; if not, things must take
their course : for as he never would even patch up any
apartment where he had set up his staff, it could hardly
be expected that he would concede to others the indul-
gences he denied to himself.
Who could believe of such a man that he was an earnest
and upright magistrate, and when sitting on the Berkshire
bench, distinguished himself no less by his zeal than by
his intelligence. Yet such was the fact. And still more
will the reader be surprised to find him figuring as a
member of the House of Commons. On the dissolution
of Parliament there was a considerable party ferment in
Berkshire, to end which Lord Craven presented Mr.
Elwes, upon an agreement between them that he should
be brought in by the freeholders without any expense to
himself. All the cost that he incurred was by dining once
at the ordinary at Abingdon, so that he literally got into
Parliament for the sum of eighteenpence.
Upon being thus exalted to a place in the legislature,
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 97
be again took up his abode at Marcham, and finding his
time would he too much occupied for field sports, he
gave away his dogs to certain farmers in the neighbour-
hood. At this period he was still in full possession of all
his youthful activity ; and preparatory to his appearance
in Saint Stephen's Chapel, he used to attend constantly,
during the races and other public meetings, all the great
towns where his voters resided. At the different assem-
blies he would dance amongst the youngest to the last,
after riding over on horseback, and frequently in the rain,
to the place of meeting, his shoes in his boots, and his
bagwig in his pocket. At this time he was sixty years of
age.
Though vanity could not in general be objected to Mr.
Elwes, yet it appears that he was not a little proud of his
parliamentary exaltation, though it made no difference in
the general wretchedness of his attire. The only change
in this respect was that he indulged himself in a particu-
lar suit for the Speaker's dinners, which served for all such
occasions. The same, too, he wore at the table of the
minister and the table of the opposition, so that the wits
of the minority used to say, " that they had full as much
reason as the minister to be satisfied with Mr. Elwes, as
he had the same habit with everybody." Still, with all
his eccentricities, or, to give them a truer name, his vices
of avarice, he was one of the most conscientious and in-
dependent members in the House. Wishing for no post,
desirous of no rank, he was liable to none of those tempta-
tions which usually beset the people's representatives, and
too often make them false to their engagements. What
3 H
98 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
could a minister offer to such a man, who would only have
been embarrassed by office or dignities, since they would
have taken him away from the privacy he so much de-
lighted in. As an instance of this, he was unhappy for
some days from hearing that Lord North intended to
make a peer of him. "I really believe," says his bio-
grapher, ( ' had such an honour fallen unexpectedly on his
head, it would have been his death. He never could have
survived the being obliged to keep a carnage, and three
or four servants, all perhaps better dressed than himself."
Though in the early part of his parliamentary career
he mostly voted for Lord North, yet he never scrupled to
join the opposition when the measures of the minister
went against his conscience. Hence many members of
the opposition looked upon him as a man " off and on/'
or, as they styled him, " a parliamentary coquette."
In three successive parliaments Mr. Elwes was elected
for Berkshire. Upon the fourth dissolution of parliament,
factions ran high amongst his former constituency, and
re-election without a contest was not to be hoped for ; but
a contest would have cost money, and to such a waste of
money the old man could not bring himself, although
there was every chance of his being successful, so high
was the general opinion of his parliamentary honour and
independence. Thus terminated John Elwes's parlia-
mentary career.
I now come to the third and last phase in the life of
this singular individual. By this time he had lost much of
the energy that had distinguished his green old age. He
was no longer capable of field sports, or the other violent
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 99
exercises which had once been his delight ; while the more
sober amusement of parliamentary duties, for they were
an amusement to him, had been abandoned rather than
risk the expense of a contested election. In this absence
of everything else to occupy his attention, the master-
passion of avarice assumed over him an absolute and
undisputed sway. He was fast following in the traces of
Sir Hervey, and from the two large fortunes that he pos-
sessed, riches rolled in upon him like a torrent. Had he
been gifted with that clear and inventive head which knows
how to employ as well as to accumulate, his wealth must
in the end have been enormous. Unluckily for him, he
knew scarcely anything of accounts, and, never reducing
his affairs to writing, he was obliged to trust much to
memory, and, what was still worse, to the suggestions of
others. Hence, every person who had a want, or a scheme
with an apparently high interest adventurer, or honest,
it signified not all was prey to him ; or rather all preyed
upon him ; for, like the pike, he was caught by his own
greediness. Topham reckons his losses in this way at no
less a sum than a hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Nor was this the only evil arising from his excessive greed.
The same appetite for gain made him still a gambler in
spite of all his past experience and the desuetude of many
years. He had for some time been a member of a card-
club at the Mount Coffee-house; and by a constant
attendance on this meeting, for a time consoled himself
for the loss of his seat in parliament. The play was mo-
derate, and he had thus an opportunity of meeting many
of his old acquaintances from the House of Commons.
H 2
100 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Moreover, he had the pleasure of enjoying fire and candle
light at the general expense, an advantage which he, of all
men, knew how to estimate ; for, however regardless he
might be of creature-comforts when he had to pay for them
out of his own pocket, he was fond enough of such indul-
gencies when they were to be had at the expense of others.
Thus he had an admirable taste for French dishes at
the table of another; no man had a better taste for
French wines when they did not come from his own
wine-merchant ; and he was very nice in his appetite
when he dined from home.
Had he been contented with merely saving, it would
have been all very well. But he must needs attempt to
acquire, and the instrument he chose to carry out this
object was picquet, at which he was, or imagined himself
to be, an adept. It was his ill-luck, however, to meet
with a gentleman who had the same opinion of his own
gambling talents, and, as the result showed, with much
reason. After a contest of two days and a night, which
Mr. Elwes continued with a perseverance that nothing but
the intensest avarice could have inspired, he rose a loser,
as it was generally thought, of at least three thousand
pounds. It would seem as if this heavy loss sobered his
appetite for card-playing. He now wished to revisit
Stoke, but was detained in London by the expenses of
such a journey, which he could no longer undertake in
the cheap way he had hitherto done. All the horses
that remained to him were a couple of worn-out brood
mares ; his old man-of-all-work was dead ; and he himself
had no longer the bodily vigour which enabled him to
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 101
ride sixty or seventy miles on the sustenance of two boiled
eggs.
At length he was carried into the country, as he had
been carried into parliament, free of expense, and that by
a gentleman far inferior to him in wealth ; but upon such
points Mr. Elwes never had the slightest delicacy.
On his retirement from Parliament he was about
seventy-five years of age, and thenceforward, as I have
already remarked, he abandoned himself entirely to his
passion, in which he began to equal, if he did not
excel, his uncle, Sir Hervey. If a window were broken,
a piece of brown paper was to be the substitute; if
the roof decayed, to make it sound again was an extra-
vagance not to be thought of. To save fuel, he would
try to keep himself warm by pacing up and down an old
greenhouse, or, when weary of this exercise, he would sit
in the kitchen with his servant. During the harvest, he
would glean the corn on the ground of his own tenants,
who, by way of gratifying him, would leave more strays
than usual, and never did any parish- pauper show himself
more eager in the occupation. As the season advanced,
his morning employment was to pick up any chips, bones,
or other fragments that might help to supply the much-
grudged, but indispensable, extravagance of a fire. One
day, he was surprised by a neighbouring gentleman in
the act of pulling down, with some difficulty, a crow's
nest for that purpose. On his friend expressing a wonder
that he should give himself so much trouble for so trifling
an object, he exclaimed, in all the fervour of avaricious
zeal, " Oh, sir, it is really a shame these creatures should
102 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
do so ; only see what waste they make ; they don't care
how extravagant they are."
It affords no exception to his general habits of parsi-
mony that he now indulged in the inordinate appetite
which he had kept under restraint during the long sit-
tings of parliament. If his voraciousness was great, it
was at least gratified at the least possible outlay. To
save himself from what he considered the extortions of a
butcher, he would have a sheep killed, and go on eating
mutton till the whole was consumed, no regard being had
to the natural decay of the meat. "When he occasionally
had his river drawn, at which times cart-loads of fish were
often taken, not one would he suffer to be returned to the
water, observing that if he did, " he should never see them
again/' Game in the last state of putrescence, and meat
that walked about his plate, he would continue to eat,
rather than have any fresh provisions before the old were
finished. Nay, he even began to think the luxury of sheets
was too extravagant, and repudiated them accordingly.
Of his economy with regard to food, and of his perfect
indifference as to its quality, there are some instances
more revolting, if possible, than even those I have
just described. That men in a state of starvation
should have recourse to such means for preserving life,
no better being at hand, is natural enough; but the
tale which excites sympathy in the one case, can only
cause disgust in the other. Nature, however, seldom fails
to avenge herself when her laws are set at nought. That
the constitution both of his mind and body was seriously
affected by this continued harsh treatment, became every
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 103
day more and more apparent to the few who had not yet
wholly deserted him. His temper, hitherto so bland and
amiable, began to grow as ragged as his clothes. The
first symptom, however, of more immediate decay, was
his inability to rest at night. Not unfrequently, he would
alarm the house in the witching hour, by loud cries of,
" I will keep my money : I will. Nobody shall rob me of
my property ;" and when the frightened domestics hur-
ried to their master's rescue, he would start from this fever
of anxiety, and as if waking from a troubled dream, hasten
back to bed in seeming unconsciousness of what had hap-
pened. Can it be, that the sleep of avarice is as terrible
as that of murder ?
Another proof of his decaying faculties was to be seen
in his loss of memory, as well as of judgment or percep-
tion. In this enfeebled state it was that one of his kitchen-
vestals, at whose fire he was in the habit of warming himself
to save the expense of coals elsewhere, contrived to inspire
the old miser with a tender passion. He would have
married her, so captivated was he by her sympathy when
all beside appeared to have deserted him, but happily his
friends and relations got notice of this intent in time for
its prevention.
Before closing this strange eventful history, I am
tempted to relate one or two more anecdotes, which, how-
ever trifling in themselves, may yet tend in some degree
to elucidate his character. For six weeks previous to his
death the old man took to a habit of going to bed in his
clothes, as perfectly dressed as during the day ; and one
morning he was found fast asleep between the blankets,
104 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
with his shoes on his feet, his stick in his hand, and an old
tattered hat upon his head. Upon this circumstance
becoming known, a servant was set to watch and take
care that he undressed himself; yet so attached was he
to this old habit, that he endeavoured to bribe his guardian ;
" he would leave him something in his will " if he did not
attempt to interfere.
On the 18th of November, 1789, Mr. Elwes discovered
signs of that utter prostration of the bodily powers which
in eight days carried him to the grave. His appetite was
totally gone, and he retained no longer anything beyond a
dim sense of what was passing around him. Yet even in
this last stage of feebleness, when the shadows of death
were deepening fast, a spark of that kindly feeling which
had animated him amidst all his parsimony, once again
broke forth his last coherent words were addressed to
his son John, and expressed a hope that " he Lad left him
what he wished."
Thus died this martyr to the love of money, when, ac-
cording to the testimony of Dr. Wall, he might, with com-
mon indulgence, have lived for another twenty years, such
was his muscular strength and the natural vigour of his
constitution. By his Will, he bequeathed to his illegiti-
mate sons, John and George Elwes, property amounting
to nearly five hundred thousand pounds. The entailed
estates fell to the son of Lieut.-Colonel Timms, of the
2nd troop of Horse Guards, his grand-nephew, John
Timms, Esq., who assumed by royal license, in 1793, the
names and arms of Hervey and Elwes.
In this distribution of wealth the only person who could
THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 105
reasonably complain was his cousin, the heir male of
the Elwes family, Sir William Elwes (the grandson of
the first Baronet, Sir Gervase), who had inherited the
barren title without any adequate means for supporting it.
He resided in Syon Lane, Isleworth, in narrow circum-
stances, and died, and was buried there in 1778, leaving
by his wife, Johanna Rachael Bubulia, three sons, who
proved their father's will in 1779, viz., William, his heir ;
Henry, Colonel of the 22nd Regiment; and Thomas.
The eldest, Sir William Elwes, the fourth baronet, died
an old bachelor in the same village of Isleworth in
1819, and was succeeded by his nephew (his brother,
Colonel Henry's son), who then became Sir William
Henry Elwes, Bart., and was the father of the present
head of the family, whose chequered life and whose strug-
gles with the unmerited adversity into which he has been
plunged by no fault of his own, form one of the saddest
tales I have to recount of family vicissitude. His father's
younger brothers were both military men ; the elder,
Lieutenant Henry John Elwes, of the 7th West India
Regiment, died at Nassautown, New Providence, Bahama
Islands, 12th September, 1807, in his twenty-first year;
and the younger, Lieutenant John Raleigh Elwes, of the
71st Highland Light Infantry, survived only twelve days
the wounds he received at Waterloo.
The biography of Henry John Elwes, or, as he is by
right, Sir Henry John Elwes, Bart, will occupy a few
brief lines only.
His mother, Anne Banatyne, was one of twins, and was
brought up with her sister at Maulsley Castle, the seat of
106 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Lord Hyndford, where it appears that Mrs. Nesbit, his
lordship's aunt, had them carefully educated. But indeed
the greater part of Henry Elwes' maternal relatives
seemed, if of the middle class, to have belonged to its
upper portions. The son of his maternal grandfather, by
a second wife, John Banatyne, inherited the estate of
Castle Bank, near Lanark, while his grandfather him-
self was a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Lanark,
and stood on an intimate footing with the Duke of
Hamilton. His mother and sister, too, visited some of
the best families in Lanarkshire, such as Lord Annan-
dale's, Mr. Lockhart of Lee's, and Sir William Shaw
Stewart's, and were often guests at the house of Mr. Owen
of the Cotton Mills, who has since obtained so much
notoriety by his benevolent, but singular, plans of social-
ism. It may seem strange that one so befriended by
every circumstance of fortune could ever have fallen into
the abject rear. Yet the change followed upon a single
unadvised step as naturally as the night follows day.
The two sisters were at a sea bathing-place, called Largs,
where they made the acquaintance of Mr. Elwes, at a ball
given by the 71st Highland Light Infantry, and to
which ball that gentleman accompanied his brother John
Raleigh Elwes, with whom he then happened to be on
a visit. The former, as his son afterwards described him,
was a remarkably handsome man, strongly resembling
George the Fourth both in look and size, and had the
good fortune to captivate one of the sisters, much to the
grief of her friends and relations, who seem to have had
a far clearer insight into his character than the lady had.
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 107
Married to him, however, the lady was, for when did love
listen to reason ? Married and repented, the repentance
following, and lasting long as long as the poor woman's
life and not only so, but leaving an inheritance of
bitterness to her son.
Many were the commissions obtained for the spendthrift
by the mediation of his friends ; but these were always
forfeited by his running into debt, and being thrown into
jail. Some slight degree of control was exercised over
him by his mother, but now her death removed this last
salutary restraint, and left him at full liberty to indulge in
his worst passions. Abandoning Mrs. Elwes, he went to
live with the wife of a ship's captain ; the result was, that
the seaman went mad ; so, too, did the forsaken lady ; and
strange to say, they both found shelter for a short time
in the same lunatic asylum. The sailor, however, con-
trived to escape from his keepers, and drowned himself.
The poor lady lived long enough to die in her mad-
ness of a broken heart, her sole support during this
period being a scanty annuity of thirty-five pounds per
annum.
While such were the sufferings of the mother, it may be
easily imagined what were the struggles through life of the
son, although the future inheritor of a baronetcy. Often
was the poor fellow glad to earn a morsel of bread by
carrying out coals, until at the age of fourteen, finding he
was absolutely without a home, he bound himself to a
collier. But the coarseness of his companions gave him a
distaste for this kind of life, and after twelvemonths'
endurance of what to his previous habits was a martyr-
108 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
dom worse than poverty in its worst shape, he abandoned
it for ever. At the time, his father was a prisoner for debt
in Morpeth jail. He went to see the unhappy man, but,
as may reasonably be inferred, with little profit either
worldly or otherwise, and he then got a situation as under-
boots at the Queen's Head, Morpeth. This was in the
year 1826. After many years he quitted this service to
become head-waiter at Wood's Cottage, where he remained
four years, when, the head- waiter at Morpeth dying, he
returned in that capacity to his earliest situation.
At the age of twenty- one he married a respectable
young woman, named Matherson, and by her has had a
large family, all of whom he has brought up in a way that
reflects upon him the highest credit. Of his sons, the
eldest, John, is a clerk in the Border Counties railway ;
the second, Henry Thomas, a civil engineer, died about
two years ago ; and the third, Robert, is serving the last
year of his apprenticeship to a draper at North Shields.
But the day of railways now came on at express speed.
The inn at Morpeth lost its attractions for the traveller,
and Elwes, therefore, applied for, and obtained the situation
of station-master at Longhirst in Northumberland. The
salary was only one pound a week, and finding this insuffi-
cient for the support of himself and family, he took the
house and grass-lands he now occupies, and better times
eventually came upon him. The post-master of a neigh-
bouring town (Long Horsley) died, and Sir George Grey,
the then Secretary of State, procured for him the vacant
situation. This post he has held for about nine years, and,
true to the instincts of his gentle birth, has gained, by his
THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 101
worth and excellent conduct, the good opinion of the
clergymen and gentlemen of the county.
On one occasion, they signed and forwarded to Govern-
ment a memorial in his behalf, with a copy of which I will
close this strange, sorrowful, and remarkable story :
" HENRY ELWES, the son and heir of the late Sir William
Elwes, Bart., was known to us when waiter at an Inn in
Morpeth, in which capacity he conducted himself, as we
believe, with great propriety during many years. He has
a wife and six young children ; but from the reverses his
family have met with, and the total alienation of their pro-
perty, once very considerable, he has no resources, and no
friends or connexions of his own who would assist him.
As he has always borne a good character, and we believe
him to be a person of great respectability, we beg to re-
commend him for some situation which may enable him
to earn a maintenance for his family, and afford him the
means of educating his children.
(Signed)
Francis R. Grey,* Rector of Morpeth.
William Lawson, Longhirst.
And. Robt. Fenwick, J.P., Netherton.
Rob. Green, Vicar of Long Horsley.
John Fred. Bigge, Vicar of Stamfordham.
M. W. Bigge, Banker, Newcastle.
W. M. Bigge, Lieut.-Colonel Northumberland Militia.
Charles Wm. Orde, J.P., Nunnykirk, Morpeth."
* The Hon. and Rev. Francis Grey, brother of Earl Grey,
and brother-in-law of the Earl of Carlisle.
HO VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
f 0{w |Ujit0ii, 0f pals fair.
Herein Fortune shews herself more kind
Than is her custom ; it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty : from which lingering penance
Of such a misery doth she cut me off.
SHAKESPEABE.
THE extravagant fellows of a family have done more to
overturn ancient houses than all the other causes put to-
gether, and no case could be more in point to establish
the fact than the story of the unfortunate reckless man of
whose sad history I am about to give a brief outline.
Shropshire stands high amongst our aristocratic counties:
" the proud Salopians" are almost as exclusive as the Ger-
man noblesse, and to be classed amongst their grandees
is no mean distinction : the landed properties are very
extensive, and their owners men of long- derived lineage.
Among these and in the first rank stood for centuries
the MYTTONS OF H ALSTON, representing, in the days of
the Plantagenets, the borough of Shrewsbury in Parlia-
ment, and filling the office of High Sheriff of Shropshire
JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. Ill
at a very remote period. So far back as 1480, Thomas
Mytton, when holding that appointment, was the for-
tunate captor of Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, whom
he conducted to Salisbury, for trial and decapitation;
and in requital, Richard III. bestowed on "his trusty
and well-beloved Squire, Thomas Mytton," the Duke's
forfeited Castle and Lordship of Cawes.
Intermarriages with heiresses added greatly to the riches
of the race. Reginald de Mytton, M.P. for Shrewsbury
in 1373, won the well-portioned daughter of Sir Hamo
Vaughan, Lord of "West Tilbury, in Essex, and his son
Thomas, the heiress of William Burley, of Malehurst,
whose mother and grandmother were also themselves
heiresses; but the grand alliance which brought broad
lands and Royal blood to the subsequent Myttons was the
marriage of Thomas Mytton, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury in
1472 (the only son of the heiress of Burley), with Eleanor,
daughter and co-heiress of Sir John de Burgh, Knight,
Lord of Mowddwy, in Merioneth, the son of Sir Hugh
de Burgh, Knight, and Elizabeth his wife, sister and heir
of Foulk, Lord of Mowddwy, a scion of the princely line
of Powys. Through the heiress of De Burgh, the Lord-
ship of Dinas Mowddwy, extending over upwards of 32,000
acres, came to the Myttons.
This Mowddwy, dignified with the name of Dinas, or
city, still preserves the insignia of its power, the stocks
and whipping post, the veg vaur or great fetter, the mace
and standard measure. It is likewise the capital of an,
extensive lordship, and its powers over the surrounding
district are very important.
112 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
As Lord of Mowddwy, Mr. Mytton used to nominate
the Mayor, Alderman, Recorder, Magistrates and Attornies
of his little Sovereignty. The Mayor tried and punished
criminals, and the Recorder (in absence of the Lord) took
cognizance of all litigated matters of property not exceeding
forty shillings.
Augmented in honour and influence by this advent of
Royal Cambrian blood, and this magnificent Cambrian
estate, the Myttons continued in increased splendour to
ally themselves with the great neigbouring families.
Amongst others, with those of Delves of Doddington, Grey
of Enville, Greville of Milcote, Corbet of Stoke, and Owen
of Condover, and even the younger branches from the
parent stem flourished in dignity. A descendant of one of
these, Reginald de Mytton of Weston, held a great landed
property in Shropshire, which is now in the possession of
the Earl of Bradford, and another was the celebrated Sir
Peter Mytton, of Lannerch Park, Co. Denbigh, Chief
Justice of North Wales, and M.P. for Carnarvon.
Halston, to which the family transferred their seat from
their more ancient residences of Cawes Castle and Hab-
berley, is called in ancient deeds " Holystone/' and was in
early times a preceptory of Knights Templars. The
Abbey, taken down about a hundred and fifty years ago,
was erected near where the present mansion stands. In
the good old times of Halston, before reckless waste had
dismantled its halls and levelled its ancestral woods, the
oak was seen here in its full majesty of form, and it is
related that one particular tree, coeval with many centuries,
of the family's greatness, was cut down by the spend-
JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 113
thrift squire in the year 1826, and contained ten tons of
timber.
In the great Civil War, Mytton of Halston was one of
the few Shropshire gentlemen who joined the Parliamentary
Standard. Displaying in the cause he had espoused the
most undaunted bearing, tempered with the greatest
humanity, he rose to the rank of Major General, after a
series of eminent services, including the capture of Wem,
(the first place in Shropshire the Commons possessed,) of
Oswestry and of Shrewsbury, of Ruthin and of Conway.
In the line of politics he adopted, General Mytton was
influenced by his connexion with Sir Thomas Myddleton of
Chirk Castle : they married two sisters, and the two
brothers-in-law went exactly the same length in opposition
to the king, and no further : their hostility was levelled
against prerogative, but they never contemplated the
prostration of the monarchy, or the death of the sovereign.
From this gallant and upright Parliamentarian, the fifth in
descent was JOHN MYTTON, the eccentric, wasteful, dissi-
pated, openhearted, and openhanded squire of Halston, in
whose day, and by whose wanton extravagance and folly,
a time-honoured family, and a noble estate, the inheritance
of five hundred years, were recklessly destroyed.
John Mytton was born 30th Sept. 1796, the only son
of John Mytton, Esq., of Halston, by Harriet his wife,
daughter of William Owen, Esq., of Woodhouse. His
father died when he was only eighteen months old ; and I
may here casually notice the singular circumstance, that
for several generations the heir to the Halston estate had a
long minority. At one time the succession devolved on a
2 I
114 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
great-grandson of the previous possessor. John Mytton's
minority lasted almost twenty years, and during its con-
tinuance a very large sum of ready money was accumu-
lated, which, added to a landed property of full ten
thousand a year, and a pedigree of even Salopian antiquity
and distinction, rendered the Squire of Halston one of the
first Commoners in England ; but a boyhood unrestrained
by proper control, and an education utterly neglected, led
to a course of profligacy and eccentricity amounting aim os
to madness, that marred all these gifts of fortune. Young
Mytton commenced by being expelled from both Westmin-
ster and Harrow, and, though he was entered on the books
ot the two Universities, he did not matriculate at either ;
the only indication he ever gave of an intention to do so
was his ordering three pipes of port to be sent to him,
addressed " Cambridge." When a mere child, he had been
allowed a pack of harriers at Halston, and at the age of
ten was as confirmed a scapegrace as ever lived. At nine-
teen he entered the 7th Hussars, and immediately joined
his regiment, then with the army of occupation in France.
Fighting was, however, all over ; and the young Cornet
turned at once to racing and gaming, in which he was a
serious loser. His military career was of short duration.
In four years he retired from the service, in consequence of
his marriage, in 1818, with Harriet Emma, eldest daughter
of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt-Jones, Bart, of Stanley Hall.
By this lady, who died in 1820, he had an only child,
Harriet, married, in 1841, to Clement, youngest brother
of the present Lord Hill. After his wife's decease, the
course of extravagance which marked the career of
JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 115
John Mytton has probably no parallel. He would not
suffer any one to advise him : his own violent passions and
his own heedless folly were the sole guides of his actions.
After heavy liabilities had been incurred, but previously
to the disposal of the first property he sold, Mr. Longue-
ville, of Oswestry, his agent, assured Mr. Mytton that if
he would content himself for the following six years with
an income of 6,000, the fine old Shrewsbury estate
the earliest patrimony of his ancestors might be saved,
and besought him to listen to this warning counsel.
" No, no," replied Mytton, " I would not give a straw
for life, if it was to be passed on six thousand a-year."
The result confirmed Mr. Longueville's apprehensions :
the first acre alienated led to the gradual dismemberment
of the whole estate ; and from this moment may be dated
the ruin of the Myttons of Halston.
It is not within my province, nor would it be to my
taste, nor, I am sure, to the satisfaction of my reader, to
follow step by step the gradual downward progress of this
unfortunate man, who, with a heart naturally generous,
and nobly charitable, with talents only wanting cultivation,
and with a spirit that retained to the last the innate cha-
racter of a gentleman, forfeited all the numerous advan-
tages he was born to, by an unrestrained submission to
his passions and by a lavish prodigality, which makes one
feel the force of a friend's remark, " that if Mytton had
had an income of 200,000, he would have been in
debt in five years." Most certain it is, that within the
last fifteen years of his life he squandered full half a
million sterling, and sold timber " the old oaks of
I 2
116 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Halston " to the amount, it has been stated, of
80,000 !
Poor John Mytton found a kindly biographer in the
late Mr. Apperley, whose " Life " of his ill-fated friend is
a very remarkable work, written with much of the graphic
force and animation of style that have made Nimrod's pen
so popular. To that volume, more appropriately than to
this, the characteristic anecdotes of Mr. Mytton's sporting
and gambling career belong, and the curious reader will
meet with much to amuse and much to sadden him in the
pages of those Memoirs. The coloured prints are quite
curiosities in their way. One of the first gives a view of
Halston, with its glorious plantations, and its noble sheet
of water, through which, as the shortest cut, its eccentric
owner is riding home ; another illustrates Mytton's
wild duck shooting : " He would sometimes," says Nim-
rod, " strip to his shirt to follow wild fowl in hard
weather, and once actually laid himself down on the
snow only to await their arrival at dusk. On one occa-
sion he outheroded Herod, for he followed some ducks in
puris naturalibus and escaped with perfect impunity."
A third illustration commemorates a singular practical
joke of the frolic-loving Squire. One evening, the cler-
gyman and doctor, who had dined at Halston, left to
return on horseback. Their host, having disguised him-
self in a countryman's frock and hat, succeeded, by riding
across the park, to confront them, when, in true highway-
man voice, he called out, "Stand and deliver!" and before
a reply could be given, fired off his pistol, which had, of
course, only a blank cartridge. The affrighted gentlemen,
JOHN MYTTOX, OF HALSTOX. 117
Mytton used to say, never rode half so fast in their lives
before, as when, with him at their heels, they fled that
night to Oswestry.
Another of the prints exhibits Mr. Mytton in hunting
costume, entering his drawing-room, full of company,
mounted on a bear; and another exemplifies the old say-
ing, "Light come, light go." Mytton travelling in his
carriage, on a stormy night, from Doncaster, fell asleep
while counting the money he had won : the windows were
down, and a great many of the bank-notes were blown
away and lost. The reckless gambler used often to tell
the story as an amusing reminiscence.
One of the illustrations represents a scene which is
scarcely credible : a scene in which Mytton is depicted
with his shirt in flames. " Did you ever hear," enquires
Nimrod, " of a man setting fire to his own shirt to frighten
away the hiccup ? Such, however, was done, and this was
the manner in which it was performed : ' Oh ! this hor-
rid hiccup !' said Mytton, as he stood undressed on the
floor, apparently in the act of getting into bed ; ' but I'll
frighten it away ' so seizing a lighted candle, he applied
it to the tail of his shirt, and, it being a cotton one, he
was instantly enveloped in flames." His life was only
saved by the active exertions of two persons who chanced
to be in the room.
There is one picture wanting, to point the moral of this
miserable history a view of the wretched room in the
King's Bench Prison, where this ruined lord of wasted
thousands died.
I had nearly forgotten to mention Mr. Mytton's second
118 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
marriage with Miss Giffard of Chillington, a marriage of
much misery to the lady, which ended in a separation.
But the crisis in the spendthrift's fate was now impending.
The " Times" one morning published an advertisement of
the sale of all the effects at Halston, in Shropshire ; and
very shortly after, Mr. Mytton fled to the continent, to
escape his creditors. " On the 5th of November, 1831,"
says Nimrod, "during my residence in the town of
Calais, I was surprised by a violent knocking at my door,
and so unlike what I had ever heard before in that quiet
town, that, being at hand, I was induced to open the door
myself, when, to my no little astonishment, there stood
John Mytton ! ' In God's name,' said I, ' what has
brought you to France ?' ' Why,' he replied, 'just what
brought yourself to France' parodying the old song
'three couple of bailiffs were hard at my brush.' But
what did I see before me ? The active, vigorous, well-
shapen John Mytton, whom I had left some years back in
Shropshire ? Oh, no, compared with him, 'twas the
'reed shaken by the wind;' there stood before me a
round-shouldered, decrepit, tottering, old-young man, if I
may be allowed such a term, and so bloated by drink !
But there was a worse sight than this there was a mind
as well as a body in rums ; the one had partaken of the
injury done to the other, and it was at once apparent that
the whole was a wreck. In fact, he was a melancholy
spectacle of fallen man."
I will not pain myself or my reader with a recital of the
scenes of suffering which followed, but hasten to the
last act in this mournful drama of real life. Arrested for
JOHN MYTTON, OP H ALSTON. 119
a paltry debt, he was thrown into prison in France. "I
once more/' writes Nimrod, " was pained by seeing my
friend looking through the bars of a French prison window.
Here he was suffered to remain for fourteen days ; on the
thirteenth day I thought it my duty to inform his mother
of his situation, and in four days from the date of my
letter she was in Calais." After a while, Mytton returned
to England, but only to a prison and a grave. The re-
presentative of one of the most ancient families of his
county, at one time M.P. for Shrewsbury, and High
Sheriff for Shropshire and Merioneth, the inheritor of Hal-
ston and Mowddwy, and almost countless acres, the most
popular sportsman of England, died within the walls of
the King's Bench Prison, at the age of thirty-eight, de
serted and neglected by all, save a few faithful friends
and a devoted mother, who stood by his death-bed to the
last.
The announcement of the event produced a profound
impression in Shropshire ; the people, within many miles
of his home, were deeply affected; the degradation of
his later years, the faults and follies of his wretched
life, all were forgotten ; the generosity, the tenderness
of heart, the manly tastes of poor John Mytton, his
sporting popularity, and his very mad frolics, were re-
called with affectionate sympathy. The funeral of the
last Mytton at Halston, unprecedented in its display, will
long be remembered. Three thousand persons attended
it, and some of the first county gentlemen assembled to
join in the cortege. A. local paper thus chronicled the
ceremonial :
120
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
" A hearse with four horses (driven by an attached ser-
vant of the deceased), a mourning coach-and-four, and
another carriage, formed the melancholy cavalcade through
Shrewsbury. On the road to Oswestry, every mark of
respect was paid ; and at the Queen's Head the corpse was
met by a detachment of the North Shropshire Cavalry (of
which regiment the deceased was Major), who escorted
them to the vault in the chapel of Halston, where the
remains were deposited at three o'clock on Wednesday
afternoon. The procession was exceedingly well arranged,
under the direction of Mr. Dunn, of London, assisted by
Messrs. Hanmer and Gittins, and entered the domain of
Halston in the following order :
Four Trumpeters of the North Shropshire Cavalry.
Captain Croxon and Captain Jones.
Thirty-two Members of the Cavalry.
A Standard of the Regiment, covered with crape.
Forty-two Members of the Cavalry.
Adjutant Shirley and Cornet Nicolls.
Mr. Dunn (undertaker) and Mr. Gittias.
Two Mutes.
Carriage of the Revds. \V. Jones and J. D. Pigott.
Two Mourning Coaches-and-Four, with the
Pall Bearers.
Hon. F. Kenyon. A. W. Corbett, Esq.
R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P. J. R. Kynaston, Esq.
J. C. Pelham, Esq. Revd. H. C. Cotton.
The Hearse, drawn by Four Horses, with
JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTOX. 121
THE BODY,
In a Coffin covered with Black Velvet, with massive han-
dles, richly ornamented, the Plate inscribed
' JOHN MYTTON, Esq., of Halston,
Born 30th of Sept. 1796,
Died 29th of March, 1834.'
(The Hearse was driven by Mr. Bowyer, the Deceased's
Coachman, who, with Mr. M'Dougal, another Servant,
Attended him in his last moments.)
Mourning Coach with two Mourners, the Revd. E. H.
Owen (Deceased's Uncle), and the Hon. and
Revd. R. Noel Hill.
Mrs. Mytton's Carriage.
Lady Kynaston's Carriage, with Mr. W. H. Griffiths and
Mr. Cooper.
Carriage of A. W. Corbett, Esq.
Carriage of the Rev. Sir Edward Kynaston, Bart.
Carriage of the Rev. E. H. Owen.
Carriage-and-Four of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon ;
J. Beck, Esq., in his Carriage.
Dr. Cockerill and Lieutenant Tudor, in Carriage.
Carriage of T. N. Parker, Esq.
Carriage of W. Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P.
Carriage of the Viscountess Avonmore.
Several Cars, &c., with Friends.
Mr. Broughall, Agent.
" About one hundred of the Tenantry, Tradesmen, and
Friends on horseback, closed the procession.
" Among these were Messrs. Longueville, Cartwright,
Bolas, Hughes, J. Howell, S. Windsor, J. Williams, Morris
122 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Griffiths, Venables, D. Thomas, W. Francis, R. Edwards,
Farr, Blandford, Rogers, Davies, &c. &c.
" The Mutes were old men, brothers John and Edward
Niccolas, of Whittington; the latter was mute at the
funeral of the deceased's grandfather ; John was mute at
the grandfather's funeral, the father's funeral, and at that
of Mr. Mytton.
"A mourning peal was rung at Oswestry, and the
bells of Shrewsbury, Ellesmere, Whittington, Halston,
&c. tolled during the day. The number of spectators
was immense, and the road along which the procession
slowly moved was bedewed with the tears of thousands
who wished to have a last glance. Everything was con-
ducted with the greatest order; but there was a great
rush to enter the chapel on the body being taken out of
the hearse. The body was placed on a shelf in the family
vault, under the Communion-table of Halston Chapel,
surrounded by the coffins of twelve of his relatives."
The magnificent Lordship of Dinas Mowddwy, with its
32,000 acres originally an appanage of the dynasty of
Powys inherited through twelve generations from a co-
heiress of the Royal Lineage of Powys Wenwynwyn, had
been bartered, it is alleged, in adjustment of a balance
on turf and gambling transactions.
It became eventually the property of Mr. Bird of Man-
chester, and from him it passed by mortgage to the Sun
Fire Office, by whom it was sold by auction in October,
1856, to the present owner, Edmund Buckley, Esq., of
Ardwick, Manchester, formerly M.P. for Newcastle-under-
Lyue. All other family property Mr. Mytton parted with,
JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 123
except a portion, Halston, that was entailed [on his eldest
son and namesake, by whom it was in a few years alienated.
Mr. Mytton, junr., disposed of it to the late Edmund
Wright, Esq., of Mauldeth Hall, the then head of the very
respectable and wealthy mercantile firm of "Wright and
Lee of Manchester. Mr. Wright bought this last place
of the Myttons for some 60,000, as a gift to his son,
who is now in possession, and is the present Edmund
Wright, Esq., of Halston Park. The career of the pur-
chaser, Mr. Wright, senior, strongly contrasted with that
of the unfortunate Myttons. While they, the lords of
thousands, were spending, he was making and amassing;
and he died enormously rich. His partner, and present
head of the firm, now styled Lee and Co., is another in-
stance of how, in this country, the spendthrift's tale may
be ever met by that of wealth nobly won and enjoyed. The
gentleman alluded to, Daniel Lee, Esq., of Springfield, near
Manchester, has achieved a high and popular position, not
in business only, but in private life, where his hospitality
and munificence shew him to be truly worthy of his well-
earned prosperity.
The story of John Mytton is not without its use and its
moral : a warning to the extravagant, and a lesson to the
profligate. It tells too of the instability of all human things.
A family far more ancient, and apparently as vigorous
as the grand old oaks that once were the pride of Halston,
was destroyed, after centuries of honourable and historic
eminence, by the mad follies of one man in the brief
space of eighteen years !
What a sad conclusion to the history of a very distin-
124 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
guished race, memorable in the days of the Plantagenets,
and renowned in the great Civil War, is the following
notice taken from " the Times " of Wednesday, 2nd of
April, 1834.
" On Monday an inquest was held in the Bench Prison,
on the body of John Mytton, Esq., who died there on the
preceding Saturday. The deceased inherited considerable
estates in the counties of Salop and Merioneth, for both
of which he served the office of High Sheriff ; and some-
time represented the borough of Shrewsbury in Parliament.
His munificence and eccentric gaieties obtained him great
notoriety in the sporting and gay circles, both in England
and on the continent. Two medical attendants stated that
the immediate cause of his death was disease of the brain,
(delirium tremens,) brought on by the excessive use of
spirituous liquors. The deceased was in his 38th year.
Verdict ' Natural Death/ "
THE O'DONELLS. 125
gljjt O'gontlls.
By foreign hands, thy dying eyes were closed ,
By foreign hands, thy decent limbs composed :
By foreign hands, thy distant grave adorn'd ;
By strangers honor'd, and by strangers mourn'd.
POPE.
THE most dangerous antagonist the English government
ever had to contend with in Ireland Hugh Roe O'Donell
was confined in the very Tower of the castle of Dublin in
which these lines are now written. This enterprising chief-
tain was the son of Hugh, Prince of Tyrconnell; his
mother, " dark Ina," (Inneen Dhu,) of the great dynastic
house of the Mac Donells of the Isles, was no degenerate
descendant of a race remarkable for their indomitable
energy.
Hugh Roe was born in the year 1571. In early life he
displayed not only considerable genius and independence
of spirit, but he made these qualities prized among his
clansmen and countrymen, by the noble generosity of his
manners, and the matchless symmetry of his form.
In former times the O'Donells of Tyrcounel and the
O'Neills of Tyrone were often addressed by the English
126 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
monarch as his equals, and aid against foreign foes was
more than once asked of them, as peers in royalty, by
English monarch s.
In 1244, Henry the Third, King of England, solicited
help by a letter, still on record, addressed, " Donaldo Regi
de Tirconnell ;" and some of the successors of the puissant
Henry of England, and the scarcely less proud King Donell
of Tyrconnell, interchanged these royal courtesies as peers
in degree. It was not unnatural that the high-spirited
young Hugh should desire to substantiate an independence
so often and so distinctly recognized. He made no secret
of his intentions, which were soon the theme of conversa-
tion throughout Ireland, and which reaching the ears of the
Lord Justice, alarmed in no light measure the royal council
in Dublin Castle. Sir John Perrott, then at the head of the
Anglo-Irish government, instead of courting the haughty
young chieftain with honours and favour, framed a plot to
seize him, which, though successful at the time, conduced
eventually to render implacable the proud and injured
youth.
In the year 1587, a ship, laden with Spanish wines,
was fitted out and dispatched to one of the harbours of
Tyrconnell. The vessel, with this well-chosen freight,
cast anchor in Lough S willy, near the castle of Dun-
donnell. The captain, disguised as a Spaniard, proposed
to trade with the wardens of the stronghold ; they bought
and made merry ; the septs of the O'Donells, their fierce
feudatories the MacSweeneys, the O'Dohertys, in short,
all the region round, dealt with the crafty merchant. As
was expected, the young prince of the country, then aged
THE O'DONELLS. 127
sixteen, arrived "with his train at the neighbouring castle
of MacSweeny, who sent the captain notice of the arrival
of his distinguished guest, and a request for some of his
choicest wines. The captain replied, that his store for sale
was exhausted, but that, if the young prince would come
on board, he should share in some choice sack, destined
as a present for the lord deputy. The unsuspicious young
Irishman accepted; he and his followers drank as
was the rude usage of even times more recent in his
country. Their arms were removed; the hatches were
closed down in the silent darkness of the night; the
ship sprang her anchor, glided over the dark midnight
waters of Lough Swilly, and when morning broke, was
clear of the Lough, upon the open sea, on her way to
Dublin. Thus was this notable scheme carried out, with
success, indeed, for the time ; but assuredly it contributed
not a little to envenom the hostility to the English govern-
ment in Ireland. During the three subsequent years of
his imprisonment, in this very Tower where I write, the
high-hearted boy grew into manhood, chafing wildly of
the open hills that he was heir to, and ranklingly nurtured
that mixture of fiercely vengeful and patriotic spirit which,
from the moment of his definitive escape, three years later,
made him, down to the hour of his death, a foe so impla-
cable of the English name.
A fiery and impatient prisoner was he; in 1591, he
managed to elude his keepers ; but was betrayed again by
a chief of the O'Tooles, in whose neighbouring mountain
fastnesses he had hoped to find a friendly and safe asylum.
Led back again a captive, though kept under stricter ward,
128 THE O'DONELLS.
again he broke away from his bondage, and, travelling
in the bleak wintry season, right on over the high and
desolate hills of TTicklow, reached, with many difficulties,
the fastnesses of Gleumalur, the residence of the famous
Fiach mac Hugh O'Byrne. Hence the youth found means
to pass into Tyrconnell, where, his aged father resigning
in his favour, he was proclaimed by the tribes chief of his
name, and the white wand, the simple sceptre of his sway,
was placed in his hands, with solemn and time-honoured
rites, by the Coarb of Kilmacrinan.
For the sixteen years following he was the scourge and
terror of the Government. He kept his mountain terri-
tory of Donegal, in spite of Elizabeth's best generals;
carried his excursions to the remotest parts of Munster,
and made his power dreaded, and his name a word of
terror, even in the rich plains of Meath, and to where the
Shannon blends its waters with the Atlantic.
At last, the only military fault he was ever known to
commit led to his total rout at Kinsale, in the early spring
of 1601, by Lord Mountjoy, one of the ablest generals,
and perhaps the wisest statesman ever sent by England to
Ireland.
HUGH ROE, PRINCE OP TYRCONNELL, this bold and
ill.fated chieftain, was the first exile of the O'Donells.
After the defeat of the Irish, and the inefficient force
of their Spanish allies at Kinsale, he was so chafed with
wrath and anxiety at the helpless condition of his cause,
that for three days and nights, his native biographer in-
forms us, " he could not sleep nor rest soundly." After
that space, and after consultation with O'Neill, the asso-
THE O'DONELLS. 129
ciate of his disaster, he resolved to sail for Spain to crave
further succours of Philip III. In the known religious
sympathies of the Spanish king, the exile set his trust ;
and, as the annalists quaintly tell us, " Moreover, on ac-
count of that monarch's love for the Gaels, from their
having primally come out of Spain to invade Ireland, as
is manifest in the Book of Invasions."
To accompany him on this journey, he selected Red-
mond Burke, Captain Hugh Mostyn, and his Confessor the
learned Flaheri O'Mulconry, who was afterwards Catholic
Archbishop of Tuam, besides some of his own faithful
people, clansmen of the Kinel-Conall.
" When this resolution was made public, piteous it was,
and mournful to hear the loud clapping of hands, the
impassioned tearful moaning and the loud wail of lamen-
tation that swelled throughout the camp of O'Donell
and cause they had for this sorrow, if they but knew it
for never again did they behold as ruler over them, him
who was then their ruler and earthly prince in the island
of Erin."
On the 6th of January, 1602, O'Donell, with his brave
companions, took shipping at Castlehaven, near Bantry ;
and on the 14th of the same month, he landed at Corunna,
where he was nobly received by the Conde de Cara^ena,
then Governor of Galicia, who invited him to lodge in his
house. I learn from a private letter, written to Ireland on
the 4th of February from Corunna, and printed in the
Pacata Hibernia, that, " On the 27th of January O'Donell
left Corunna, attended by many captaines and gentlemen of
qualitie, and accompanied by the ' Earle' [of Caragena],
2 K
130 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
who evermore gave O'Donell the right hand, which, within
his government, he would not have done to the greatest duke
in Spaine ; and at his departure he presented O'Doneli
with one thousand duckets, and that night the Irish Prince
lay at Santa Lucia, the Earle of Caracena 'being returned ;
the next day he went to St. James of Compostella, where he
was received with magnificence by the prelates, citizens, and
religious persons, and his lodging was made ready for him
at Saint Martins. The king, understanding of O'Donell's
arrival, wrote unto the Earle of Cara9ena concerning the
reception of 'him and the affairs of Ireland, which was
one of the most gracious letters that ever king directed,
for by it, it plainely appeared that he would endanger
his kingdome to succour the Catholikes of Ireland to their
content, and not faile therein, for the perfecting whereof
great preparations were in hand. O'Donell carried with
him to the court, Redmond Burke, Father Florence, Cap-
tain Mostyn, and nine gentlemen more, where they were
nobly received." " The Four Masters " record faithfully
the princely welcome King Philip gave to the royal exile.
After a brief sojourn at Court, O'Donell was desired by
the Spanish Monarch to go back and rest at Corunna till
preparations were ready for his return to Ireland. At
Corunna he remained until the month of August follow-
ing. During these weary six months of waiting, the
annalists tell us, as we might indeed imagine, how, " It
was anguish of heart and sickness of mind to O'Donell,
that the Irish should remain so long without being aided
or relieved by him; and deeming the delay too long, in
assembling the army that had been promised him, he pre-
THE O'DOXELLS. 131
pared again to go before the king/' to know what caused
the delay. " When he arrived at Simancas, two leagues
from the Court which was sojourning at Valladolid, God
permitted, and the misfortune, ill fate, wretchedness, and
curse attending upon the island of Heremon and the Irish
of fair Banba in general, would have it that O'Donell
should take his death sickness, and after he had lain
seventeen days, he died on the 10th of September in the
house which the king of Spain had in that town of
Simancas.
" His body," continue the simple-minded annalists,
"was conveyed to the king's palace at Valladolid in a
four-wheeled hearse, surrounded by countless numbers of
the king's officers of state, council and guards, with lumi-
nous torches and bright flambeaux of fair wax-light burning
on each side of him. He was afterwards buried in the
monastry of St. Francis, in the Chapter, with veneration
and honour, and in the most solemn manner that any of
the Gaels had ever been buried."
And here the sorrowing annalists break out into a wail
of wild pathetic eulogy : " Alas ! the early eclipse of him
who died here was mournful to many, for he was the head
of conference and counsel of advice and consultation of
the majority of the Irish, in peace as well as in war. A
mighty and bounteous lord, with the authority of a prince
to enforce the law, he was a lion in strength and force, with
courage and stoutheartedness in deed and word, a Caesar
in command, so that none durst disobey him, exacting
vigorous and prompt fulfilment of his commands ; yet a
dove in meekness and gentleness to bards, and churchmen,
K2
132 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
and the learned, and all that had not incurred his displea-
sure, and who submitted to his authority ; a man that
struck all far and wide with the terror of his name, and
that none could terrify ; a lord, the expeller of rebels, the
destroyer of robbers, the exalter of the sons of life, the
extirpator of the sons of death, one that never brooked
insult or injury offered without swift vengeance and atone-
ment ; a determined, fierce, and bold invader of districts ;
a warlike predatory and fighting plunderer of distant
territories; the vehement, vigorous, stern and irresistible
destroyer of his opponents, English and Irish : one that
never in his life failed to do what was meet for a prince ;
a sweet sounding trumpet endowed with the gifts of elo-
quence and address, of judgment and counsel, with an
expression of amiability in his face that captivated every
beholder."
The death of O'Donell seems to have struck the native
Irish with dismay and hopelessness, " their characteristics,"
say their native Four Masters, writing within about twenty
years from the time of Hugh's death, "and very dispositions
were altered ; for their bravery was changed to cowardice,
and their magnanimity to weakness, their pride to servility,
their success, valour, prowess, heroism, exultation and
military glory, vanished after his death. They despaired
of relief, so that the most of them were driven to seek aid
and refuge from the foe and the stranger, while others were
scattered and dispersed, not only throughout Ireland, but
throughout foreign lands, poor, needy, helpless paupers ;
and others were offering themselves for hire as soldiers to
foreigners; so that countless numbers of the freeborn
THE O'DOXELLS. 133
nobles of Ireland were slain in distant foreign lands, and
were buried in strange places and unhereditary churches in
consequence of the death of this one man who departed
from them."
This celebrated Irishman was never married ; and was
consequently succeeded in his dignity by his next brother,
Rory, who soon after making his submission to the govern-
ment of King James the First, received with the title
of an Earl part of the vast territory of Tyrconell, over
which his forefathers for above eleven centuries had exer-
cised sovereign sway.
He soon, with reason or not, suspected the government
of plotting his ruin, and fled to the continent for safety,
perhaps for succour.*
He bore with him his only son, Hugh, then aged but
eleven months. With them fled the Earl's brother, Cath-
bar, together with his only son, Hugh, aged about two
years and a half, and Cathbai^s young wife, the sister of
the chivalrous Sir Cahir O'Doherty, chief of Innishowen.
With them too fled their sister, the Lady Nuala O'Donell,
wife of her valiant but turbulent kinsman, Sir Niall garbh
O'Donell, who, after refusing from the government the
title of Baron of Lifford, died in the Tower of London,
having lain there for a quarter of a century, a state pri-
soner of the government in whose service he had often
* Macaulay affirms that Earl Bory fled to the court of Madrid
but this was not the fact. The fugitive never set foot on the
soil of Spain. He landed in France, proceeded to Brussels, and
thence through Germany to Home, where he died in the first
jear of his foreign sojourn.
134 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
risked life and honour against the cause of his tribe and
his co-religionists.
Besides these there went forth several principal gentle-
men of the same lineage, some of the leading feudatories
of the chieftain's house, and some of the hereditary officers
of his little court. Together with them, and for the same
reasons, fled the chieftain of the once Royal line of O'Neill,
and several of his noble adherents of the old lordly fami-
lies of the North." " Would to God," exclaim mournfully
the Four Masters, as they record this event, " that they
might have dwelt in the inheritance of their fathers until
their offspring had grown to manhood ! "Woe to the heart
that meditated ! woe to the mind that planned ! woe to the
counsel that decided the project which led to the company
that went forth on this voyage ; since there was no likeli-
hood that they might ever, to the world's enc!, come back
in safety to the principalities that had been de! ivered down
to them, to the inheritance of their fathers."
The illustrious refugees, whose departure is thus mourn-
fully chronicled, debarked in France, and passed thence to
the Court of Brussels, where the Archduke Governor, and
his consort the Infanta Isabella, received them with much
compassion. From the Low Countries the unhappy wan-
derers continued their pilgrimage towards Rome, receiv-
ing everywhere from Catholic princes and churchmen the
honours and expressions of sympathy considered to be due
to their condition, their misfortunes and their cause. At
Rome, Pope Paul the Fifth, the founder of the princely
house of Borghese, welcomed the exiles with paternal
affection.
THE O'DONELLS. 135
It is more than probable that these banished princes
hoped to obtain from the Pontiff exhortations at least to
the Catholic Sovereigns to intervene with the English
Government in favour of themselves, and of toleration for
their creed ; but the Pope's efforts, whatever they were, had
little result beyond the limits of the Roman Court. Disen-
chantment of his dreams, or despair for his native land
and tribe, rapidly bore down the generous Tyrconnell.
In the course of the ensuing summer, the gallant chieftain
died at Rome, broken-hearted, in the prime of his days,
aged only thirty-three years ; and beneath a simple slab
of white marble, in front of the high altar of St. Peter's,
in Montorio, above which was enthroned, then, and for
nearly two hundred years after, the greatest and last of
Raphael's works, his divine Transfiguration, lies entombed
all that was mortal of the last princely O'Donell that
had actually reigned over Tyrconnell.
His brother, Cathbar, though in the flower of life, being
only in his twenty-fifth year, survived him but for a few
brief weeks. Sorrow and disappointment had done their
work upon his genial Irish heart too. In the early
autumn the pilgrims might be seen once more approach-
ing in procession the fresh grave, and depositing therein
Cathbar's mortal spoils, amidst sobs that had a long echo
among the widowed hills and broken tribes of his native
Tyrconnell.
From the hour of their flight the power of the O'Do-
nells that had endured so long was crushed in Ireland.
The plantation of Ulster was devised and carried out ; and
the lands of the .kingly O'Donells and O'Neills, and the
136 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
broad heritable domains of their feudatories, were declared
forfeited to the Crown. Around them gathered a brood
of "young eaglets" from England and Scotland; and
upon the vast lands of the O'Donells, whose principality
of Tyrconnell alone, without reckoning the adjoining
territories over which these princes claimed and exercised
an ancient superiority, comprised, as I learn from the
Ordnance Survey, more than one million, one hundred
and sixty-five thousand acres, many a thrifty Scot and
enterprising English younger son's posterity has grown to
time-honoured wealth, and blossomed into fresh honours.
Earl Rory, we have seen, left an only and infant son,
named Hugh, subsequently Hugh Albert, or Albert Hugh.
He lived in Spain and the Low Countries, and styles
himself, in existing documents, of almost regal character,
Earl of Tyrconnell and Donegal, Baron of Lifford, Lord of
Sligo and Lower Connaught, and Knight Commander of
the Order of Alcantara. He rose to be a general in the
Spanish service, married the daughter of a Knight of the
Golden Fleece, of a now extinct house in the Low Coun-
tries, hardly second at that time to any subject family on
the Continent, Anna Margaret, daughter of Maximilian
de Hennin, Count de Bossut, and a near kinswoman of
the last eccentric Duke of Guise.
When Earl Rory died, this only son was aged about
two years and a half. For some few years I lose sight of
both him and his cousin german, Hugh, son of Cathbar ;
but in all probability they were confided to the charge of
Cathbar's youthful widow, the Lady Rose O'Doherty, who
married secondly Owen Roe O'Neill, the famous general of
THE O'DONELLS. 137
the confederate Catholics, in the war against the Parliamen-
tarians. It may be presumed that she brought back these
children from Rome to the Archducal Court at Brussels ;
for from the " Livre des Depenses de 1'Archiduc Albert,"
Governor of the Low Countries, which is preserved in MS.,
and which extends over the years between 1612 and 1618,
I learn that from 1615 the " Conde de Tyrconnell" and
Don Hugo O'Donell were in the receipt of a modest
pension from his Imperial Highness. As both boys were
called Hugh, there was added to the name of him who
was chief of his house that of the Archduke his protector,
who was in all likelihood his godfather in confirmation ;
and^henceforward-this Hugh is equally styled Hugh- Albert
or Albert-Hugh. About this time he was attached as
page to the Court of the Infanta Isabella, the consort of
Archduke Albert.
That the two young O'Donells were brought up at the
University of Louvaine is clear, from the authority of
Vernulseus, who, in his Academia Lovaniensis, enumerates
among the men of distinction that were educated in that
celebrated school, " Albert Hugh O'Donell, Earl of Tyr-
connell, Baron of Lifford, Lord of Lower Connaught, of
the ancient stock of the Kings of Ireland ; and Hugh
O'Donell, paternal cousin german of the aforesaid Albert,
died a captain during the siege of Breda."
The Irish naturally cherished a generous memory of
this heir of one of their most famous chieftains. The
court of Spain was fully alive to the political importance
of the exile. Even at the cautious Roman Court there
appears to have been some that partook in a measure of
138 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the illusions of the native Irish, that the exiled O'Donells
and O'Neills might one day be placed by circumstances
in a position to renew the stern struggle for their faith
and lands, in which fate had declared against their fathers.
In 1641, when the Irish rose in arms to oppose the Parlia-
mentarians, many an anxious eye was turned towards
Albert Hugh, the banished heir of Tyrconnell, who was
then a Spanish general of reputation. His military rank
and experience, his undoubted claim to the position of
chief, though not senior of his clan, the popular belief
that he was alluded to in the " old rhyming prophecies,"
which for ages had such a strong hold upon the Celtic
imagination, and even still are not forgotten all contri-
buted to make some of the ablest of. his countrymen look
anxiously for his return to his native land. He seems,
indeed, to have craved permission of the Spanish court to
place himself at the service of his country ; but owing to
the war with France, in which he was employed, this per-
mission was refused ; and he died, or, as some say, was
drowned in 1642, the year following that in which his
country had again taken up arms.
A most romantic tale is told of the sister of Hugh-
Albert.
The Abbe Macgeoghegan, who wrote more than a cen-
tury after, gives the young lady's own story, as related in
a pamphlet which he refers to, as printed in Brussels, in
1627, in Spanish, and reprinted in Paris, in French, in
the next year. His statement is as follows : " When
Earl Rory fled abroad, his Countess was enceinte : she
sought to follow her husband into foreign lands, but was
THE O'DONELLS. 139
prevented by the Viceroy, who sent her under sure escort
to England, where she brought forth a daughter, baptized
by the name of Mary. The King was informed of the
circumstance, and, though he had persecuted the father,
he took this infant under his protection, and commanded
that she should be called Mary Stewart, instead of Mary
O'Donell.
"When Earl Rory died in Rome, his widow obtained leave
to return to Ireland with her daughter, into whose mind
she instilled the principles of a strict Catholic, reminding
her of her father's sufferings for that faith. At twelve
years of age, Lady Mary was recalled to England by her
grandmother, the old Countess of Kildare, who was a
daughter of the renowned Lord Howard of Effingham.
She was presented to the King, who assigned her a dowry ;
and the old Countess of Kildare, who was very rich, de-
clared she should be her heir. Thus, the protection of the
monarch, her own illustrious birth, and a brilliant fortune,
all combined to make her hand sought by many lords of
the first distinction in England. One in particular of her
most assiduous suitors, a very wealthy nobleman, had won
the favour of her grandmother, the old Countess of Kil-
dare, but the young lady would not marry a Protestant.
The old Countess pressed his suit with her; and this
occurring just at the moment when Sir Cahir O'Doherty,
a great feudatory of her house, had risen in arms, and
when many leading Irish persons, her kinsmen, had been
arrested, made her additionally nervous about her own fate.
These prisoners, who were brought to England, contrived
to elude their gaolers, and reached Flanders. She was
140 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
suspected of complicity. A nobleman of the Court ad-
vised her to change her religion in order to avoid sus-
picion, and to many some Protestant person of distinction,
who might serve as her protector, insinuating that nothing
else would satisfy the King and Lady Kildare her grand-
mother. In fine, she was summoned to give an account
of her conduct before the council.
" In this conjuncture, confiding her secret to a valet,
whose fidelity and discretion she knew, Lady Mary O'Douell
and a Catholic lady, her companion, disguised as men,
and attended by their trusty servant, fled on horseback to
Bristol, where they took shipping, landed at Rochelle,
and proceeded through Paris to Brussels, to the Earl of
Tyrconnell, who presented her to the Infanta, that prin-
cess receiving her with all imaginable affection and dis-
tinction. She soon, momentarily, became quite a celebrity
for her courageous resolution ; and even the Sovereign
Pontiff, Urban VIII., Barberini, whose nephew founded
the princely house of that name, addressed, on the 13th
of February, 1627, a congratulatory and encomiastic
breve to the fugitive maiden."
It is unfortunate to have a doubt to cast upon this
romantic tale : but history will have its victims. In the
Archive Chamber of St. Isidore's in Rome, there is an
original letter, dated from the Low Countries, on the
29th of July, 1631, and written to Father Luke Wadding
by the Earl of Tyrconnell himself, to the effect that
" Having heard that some woman in man's clothes is
travelling through your parts by the name of my sister,
defaming me and my house, with inconsequent snares and
THE O'DONELLS. 141
inventions, I hold it well to supplicate your paternity, as
my very particular friend and patron, to procure the
arrest of that woman, not alone in consideration of my
honour, but that of our nation, in order that her mysteries
and snares may be discovered." Seven months later,
I find by an original letter which she addressed on the
9th of February, 1632, to Cardinal Barberini, nephew
of Pope Urban, and which, from the place where it is
now to be found, was evidently sent to Wadding for his
opinion of her statement, that she was then living for
some months in great misery in Rome, having left
Flanders, and " having married Don John Edward O'Gal-
lagher, a principal gentleman of Ireland my country, I
am now," proceeds the suppliant, "for several months
in Rome, the womb of Holy Church, with my said hus-
band, a young lady that came with me from Flanders,
and the nurse of the infant boy, to which, by God's good
will, I gave birth in Genoa, in extreme want, and in such
a state, that if it were not for Cardinal Ludovisi, the
protector [of Ireland] , and Cardinal de Bagno, who are
charitable to me as far as they can, I should perish with
the others of hunger, cold, and infinite other sufferings.
The Cardinal protector excuses himself for that maintain-
ing at his sole charge the Irish College, and never refusing
and giving constant help to the others of our nation,
besides his great allowances to every pious institution in
Rome, he cannot duly provide for my wants ; so that
reduced to this most wretched state, and in two miserable
little rooms provided for me by the almoner of the said
Cardinal protector, enceinte for some months, burthened
142 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
with the above family, I can have recourse to none that
can more fruitfully help me. I cast myself at the feet of
His Holiness and of your Eminence, imploring both the
one and the other, by the bowels of the mercy of God our
Lord, to deign to use your clemency and piety towards
me, reduced as I am to this utter wretchedness, though of
royal blood, as is known to the world, and educated like a
daughter in the Royal Court of England." This letter,
now for the first time printed, is signed in a magnificently
bold and finished hand of the time, " MARIA STUART
O'DoNELL ; " and it is worthy of remark that the signature
of Earl Albert-Hugh, to the very letter in which he sug-
gests her being arrested, bears the most striking resem-
blance to her handwriting.
I have never been able to discover any further traces of
this mysterious and interesting lady. I never saw a copy
of the pamphlet which Macgeoghegan quotes as his
authority; but the fact of Earl Rory's wife being a kins-
woman of the royal family of England, seems to add pro-
bability to the statement of the young lady. Perhaps her
sympathetic countryman, " Don John Edward O'Gal-
lagher," whom she married, may have won her heart too
easily in Flanders, or that at all events he was not deemed
a suitable match by her brother : family quarrels, conse-
quent upon a mesalliance, may account in some degree for
the discrepancies that I have touched upon.
Albert-Hugh does not appear to have had any issue,
and with him consequently expired the inheritance of
the forfeited Anglo-Irish earldom, which, however, be it
THE O'DONELLS. 143
borne in mind, was in a junior line of the house of
O'Donell.
The next remarkable representative of the house in
Spain was also named Hugh, and bore, with the sanction
of the Spanish Crown, the title of Conde de Tyrconnell in
that kingdom. He was probably the testamentary heir of
Hugh-Albert, for though bora in Ireland, he possessed
property in Spain, and possessed also and transmitted the
family papers of Earl Rory and his son, including the
original letters patent of James I. for the earldom, which,
with the great seal of Ireland still [attached, remains
among the muniments of Count Maximilian O'Donell in
Vienna. This Hugh, whose memory has long been
hardly dealt with by his countrymen, is commonly known
in Ireland by the name of " Balldearg O'Donell, or O'Do-
nell of the Red Spot," for many of the genuine O'Donells
have a curious red blood-mark beneath the skin, usually on
the side ; and the "old rhyming prophecies" spoke of an
O'Donell with the red mark, who was to be a mighty
champion of the Irish race. He was the son of John
O'Donell, an officer in the Spanish service, and of Cathe-
rine O'Rorke, of the old princely lineage of Brefnay. His
grandfather was Hugh O'Donell, of Ramelton, who was a
person of weight among the Catholic Confederates in the
great civil war, and who, from documents of the time,
appears to have been looked up to as " the O'Donell" from
1642, or at least from 1646 to 1649, in which year he
died. Hugh of Ramelton was son of Conn, who was the
son of Calvagh, Prince of Tyrconnell, the eldest son of
Prince Manus, the common ancestor of the principal ex-
144 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
isting branches as well as of the still more distinguished
junior line, which was illustrated by the chivalry of Red
Hugh, and by the calamities of Earl Rory and his children ;
and here I may remark, that in all the transmissions of
native dignities, the line of hereditary succession gave
way to the " worthiest elder of the blood/' a point that
should never be lost sight of in the modern and ancient
bickerings about the claims to the representation of the
Celtic chieftainries.
In the Spanish service, BALLDEARG had risen to the
rank of a brigadier, and commanded an Irish regiment in
the Spanish pay, when the news of the Jacobite war in
Ireland sounded in his heart like the trumpet call of
duty. Already he had frequently offered his services to
the Stuarts, when Charles and James were still, like
himself, in exile. He now craved permission of the
Spanish monarch to go and serve his lawful king in Ire-
land. It was refused. Listening to no voice but the cry
of his patriotic conscience, he fled from Spain like a de-
serter ; but addressing an eloquent justification of his act
to the Spanish government, and taking shipping, he
reached Cork just four days after the Battle of the Boyue
had struck dismay into the adherents of James. On the
fugitive king he waited in Kinsale Harbour, on board the
vessel that bore that luckless sovereign to France. By
His Majesty he was recommended to the famous Richard
Talbot, Duke and Earl of Tyrconnell, and by Talbot, as
Viceroy, was given a commission to raise five thousand
men. " If you can collect fifteen thousand," added
Talbot " the King will be the better served, and your
THE O'DONELLS. 145
country the more grateful." Armed with this authority,
Balldearg, by the sole magic of his name, raised, in the
space of six brief weeks, eight regiments of foot and two
of horse. If these fresh levies were ill armed, and
consequently remained during the war less efficient
than they might have been, it must not be imputed to
O'Donell, but to the jealousy of that knot of narrow-
minded men, who renewed, in this most critical conjuncture,
the internecine animosities of the old English Pale against
the ancient native houses, thus damaging fearfully the
cause which they had not only sworn to defend, but for
which they in truth made otherwise such noble sacrifices.
It is told by Macaulay, in his glittering language, how
O'Donell looked upon himself as no less royal than
James, and it is hinted that his object was to found a
Celtic monarchy, of which he was to be the sovereign.
Right royally proud of his regal blood O'Donell doubtless
was : but his nature seems to have been less open to
narrow jealousies than those of his rivals. His insular
prejudices had been mitigated by a foreign education, and
many years of foreign service, during which his views had
become more just. It was not he that revived the jea-
lousies of Celt and Norman then. He came to bind Celt
and Norman together, for the nation's sake, in the cause
of James.
When fate declared against that monarch, when the
tight at Aghrim was lost, and Galway had fallen, and
Limerick was about to surrender, terms were generously
offered by Ginkel to O'Douell. The chieftain refused as
long as a ray of hope remained, but his memory has been
146 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
stained in Ireland for having, in that supreme hour, while
stipulating favourable and honourable terms for his faith-
ful followers, accepted what was miscalled in his country
a " pension" from the victorious party. The simple truth
is this : he had abandoned his fortune and position in
Spain, he had no fortune in Ireland, having given to his
brother, who was King James's Lord Lieutenant of
Donegal, whatever fortune he may have been entitled to,
and even that was doubtless exhausted by the sacrifices
made to serve King James. He could not enter Spain,
where he had forfeited his rank, and was liable to be
treated as a deserter, for having gone, contrary to the
king's will, to serve his native monarch. He could not,
like other adherents of the fallen cause of James, and
like that monarch himself, accept the pay of France, for
France was then the foe of Spain, and to Spain O'Donell
and his family were bound by the fealty of gratitude for
nearly a century of protection, as well as by the fealty of
military honour, for he had sworn to her allegiance. He
stipulated from William, the ally of Spain, for the pay of
a brigadier, which was his Spanish rank ; and instead of
going to fight for the Dutch, as he has been supposed to
have done, he retired to the Spanish low countries, thence
to Spanish Italy, and at length to Barcelona, and after
serving for the space of five or six years as a volunteer
with Spanish troops, he was rewarded for his constancy
by being restored to his Spanish military station, and soon
after, promoted to that of Major- General, and sent to a
command in the Low Countries.
Of this maligned chieftain I here lose all further trace.
THE O'DONELLS. 147
Two of his grandnephews, sons of Hugh, the son of his
brother Conall, rose to high rank in the Austrian service :
the one called Conall in his native tongue, and Charles or
Charles Claudius abroad, became General of Cavalry and
Governor- General of Transylvania, and was made a Knight
Grand Cross of Maria Theresa, the most rigorous mili-
tary order in Europe, for his able conduct of the famous
winter retreat of Torgau, in the Seven Years' War : he died
unmarried about the year 1771. He was one of the hand-
somest men of the Court of the great Empress-Queen.
His brother John, a man of the most extraordinary
bravery, and a Lieutenant-General during the Seven Years'
"War, was also decorated with the cross of Maria Theresa,
and died leaving a daughter, who was brought up under
the direction of the Empress, and became the wife of
Francis Joseph Count O'Donell, her kinsman, a man of
considerable talent, who died Minister of Finance in
Austria about the year 1807.
Henry, the father of Francis-Joseph, was the founder in
Austria of the paternal line of the present O'Donells in
that country. He was a General Officer, and a Knight
of Maria Theresa, and married a Princess Cantacu-
zeno, the granddaughter of a Hospodar of Wallachia,
of a house that bear for arms the full escutcheon and
achievement of the Byzantine Emperors from whom they
descend.
The son of Francis-Joseph, named Maurice, married
Christiana, daughter of Prince Charles de Ligne, died a
Lieutenant - General, and was father of the amiable
and distinguished Major - General Count Maximilian
L 2
148 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
O'Donell, whose good fortune it was to save, some
years ago, the life of his young sovereign from the hand
of an assassin, a deed for which almost every court in
Europe vied in showering its starry honours upon him, so
that he possesses at present no less than thirty-nine orders
of knighthood, and which was rewarded moreover by the
Emperor with a patent empowering him and his posterity
to impale the escutcheon of Austria and the eagle of the
Empire with that paternal coat of O'Donell, of which
evidence might be adduced that would prove it to be the
most ancient hereditary family shield in Europe.
From Joseph, brother of the above-named Count Henry,
the Spanish O'Donnell, LEOPOLD O'DONNELL, DUKE OF
TETUAN, derives his lineage, as appears minutely detailed
in the pedigree of the O'Donnells on registration in
Dublin Castle. Among the other descendants of Joseph
were many men of distinguished merit, and famous all in
their day ; but already my Celtic predilections have led me
perhaps to exceed my limits and the patience of my
reader.
In this brief record of an illustrious exiled house,
whose later achievements adorn, unluckily, the page of
foreign, instead of domestic history, I have found the
most efficient aid in the learning and research of my ac-
complished friend, Charles, Count MacDonnell, who has,
for this purpose, placed at my disposal the numerous and
very valuable Collections he has formed in illustration of
the English, Irish, and Scotch families, who are settled
in such honour abroad.
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 149
Jfatk
Chi troppo in alto sale
Presto in giu cade.
THE county of Westmorland the Switzerland of Eng-
land has natural beauties in great and charming variety.
Her fine meres and waters, her green luxuriant gills, and
her lofty range of fells, are themes of every one's praise.
In the midst of this " continual feast of nectared sweets,
where no crude surfeit reigns," have lived Langhorne,
Patteson, Thompson,* Mrs. Hemans, Wordsworth, Cole-
ridge, Southey, Wilson, Talfourd, De Quincey, and many
others whose muse derived inspiration from the sublime
and beautiful around them.
But, as if it were by a law of compensation, no county
is so barren of material for a work like this. Family vicis-
situdes, by which I mean the ups and downs of families,
seem almost unknown here. Scores of Worthies have
elevated themselves, and their families with them, from
a lowly condition of life to one of distinction; but,
once raised to eminence, they seem to bid defiance to
* The Author of the " Fables of Flora."
150 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
those influences which overwhelm so many elsewhere.
Like their very mountains, they seem, in most cases,
to resist all change. The haute noblesse of Westmor-
land are few and far between. Of these few, some
have been swept away, without leaving a wreck behind :
others endure in all their ancient grandeur and prestige.
The Parrs of Kendal Castle, for instance, are gone for
ever, and of their great stronghold the last battlement is
fearfully tottering under the infirmities of age ; yet the
Howards of Levens, the Stricklands of Sizergh, the
Musgraves of Hartley, and the Lowthers of Lowther
are there still, coeval with, and not unlike, those stately
oaks and elms that crown their parks and shelter
their halls; and which Time has only served to imbed
more deeply in the ground, adding firmness and strength
to the various branches they have thrown forth. And as
with her nobility, so it is with the class next in social rank
the statesmen ; the peculiar name given to those who
live upon and cultivate their own estates ; being, probably,
a corruption or abbreviation of the compound term estates-
men. Amongst these, too, (by far the largest class) there
is to be found the same remarkable family solidity and
durability. The Addisons and Dents, and Halls, and
Wilsons, and Fishers, and Robinsons, and Thompsons
live where their ancestors lived five or six hundred years
ago, with little vicissitude, beyond what Time necessarily
brings.
In the list of statesmen I do not overlook the partial
alterations which emigration has made: by this agency
one great name has been given to the new world: the
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 151
ancestor of the illustrious George Washington emigrated
from Dillicar, near Grayrigg, in Westmoreland, about the
year 1651.
Now, the reasons why society in this province has
undergone so little change so little as compared to other
places, and so little as compared even with her fair sister
cannie Cumberland afford abundant matter for philo-
sophical speculation. A good deal, however, lies plainly
on the surface, and needs no ghost from the grave to tell
us it may be referred to her physical seclusion ; for until the
beginning of the reign of George the Third, Westmorland was
really cut off from the rest of the kingdom in a southerly
direction. Highways and byeways she nominally had ; but
they were, at best, but sheep -tracks guarded by turnpike
gates, until MacAdam visited them in the following reign ;
and her bleak fells seem to have served as so many barriers
against those social and political floods which have from
time to time swept without resistance over other parts of
the kingdom. Another cause which, no doubt, contributed
largely arid materially to the permanence of Westmorland
families was this; the statesmen had the sterling good
sense to be quiet in political matters, and to leave the two
great Barons of Lowther and Thanet to fight the county
battles : thus, by their discretion, keeping their estates
and families together, instead of destroying both in pur-
suit of an ignis fatuus, which, even in Cumberland, has
led many a noble race to utter ruin. The customary
tenure of property (there commonly called Tenant-right},
and the law of primogeniture (to which the statesmen cling
with almost religious attachment), have, undoubtedly, con-
152 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
tributed their respective shares to this remarkable state of
things. Be the reasons, however, what they may, the fact
is so, and, as recently enunciated by a distinguished per-
son, facts have an inexorable logic facts are stubborn
things.
The narrative I am about to give does not record the
fall of a Parr, a Veteripont, a Clifford, or a Howard. Yet
it is the partial history of one who saw and experienced as
much of life as most men, and who has left behind him
an example pregnant with instruction and interest. It is
in short, the story of "the House that Jack Built."
In the vale of the Eden, about the middle of what is
known as the bottom of Westmorland, as contradistin-
guished from the Barony of Kendal, stands the neat little
market-town of Appleby said to be the old Roman
station of Aballaba whence probably it tool; its appella-
tion. It is the chief, though not the largest, town in
the county, and was one of the oldest boroughs in the
kingdom. Its great antiquity, however, did not save it
from the vandalism of our age ; and Schedule A. of the
Reform Bill of 1832 is graced with the name of the
constituency that first sent Pitt and Canning to Parlia-
ment. The site of Appleby is exceedingly beautiful.
The town is on the slope of a steep hill, and consists
of one wide street running from the top to the bot-
tom of it, flanked at each end with a Doric pillar,
called a cross, bearing patriotic mottoes " Maintain
your loyalty" "preserve your rights/' and the like.
Here and there, from this main street are narrow lanes,
called weinds, jutting out towards the river Eden, which
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 153
sweeps majestically in a semi-circle round about. The
Castle, the seat of the Earls of Tufton, and once the famed
abode of " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother/' with its
grove of many sycamores and ashes, crowns the hill. Within
its court-yard rises a stately tower, still bearing the marks
of those religious fanatics who, in Cromwell's time, thought
they did God service by turning his temples into stables,
and by battering to the ground the mansions of the great.
The landscape is truly grand. Wild Boar Fell is a fine
object ; Cross Fell, when the helm- wind is on, looks sub-
lime ; Saddleback and Helvellyn blend their sunlit sum-
mits with the sky, and distance lends enchantment to the
view of the Cheviots.
Now, after feasting to your heart's content on this
lovely scene, aim for the High- street, which I have just
described, and about the middle of it, on the right as you
descend towards the low cross, you will see, for you cannot
miss it, a large oblong-square, whitewashed mansion.
Should you ask any native what that odd-looking place
is, the answer will be " Thaat pleaace ? wya ! it's t'
hoos et Jack belt." Anglice, " That place ? why, it's the
house that Jack built." Should you enquire further, as
probably you would be inclined to do, who Jack was ?
the answer would be " Jack ? Wya ! Jack Robeson,
to be suer \" Now, John Robinson, for that was the name
he actually received at baptism, as attested by the cer-
tificate, was bora in Appleby, about the year 1727. His
lineage is not recorded in the books of the Norroy King-
of- Arm's, nor yet in Tara's Psalter. He was simply the
son of a thriving tradesman, to wit, as the lawyers say, of
154 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
one who kept a small shop, dealt in everything from sugar
to a shoe-tie, and was thriving on its profits.
By means of the excellent free grammar-school of his
native town, Jack managed to get the rudiments of edu-
cation. Public opinion seems much divided as to the
degree of instruction he received. If it be true, that he
became an attorney, and was a gentleman by act of par-
liament, when Sir James Lowther first took a fancy to
him ; if that be so, it may fairly be inferred that he did,
at school, make some progress in scholastic knowledge :
but there seems to prevail a well-grounded belief that he
was, as a mere boy, taken into the service of the House of
Lowther; and that when Sir James came of age, and
began to look after his own affairs, he discovered in the
lad in his office a most expert arithmetician. Certain it
is, that from the moment the eye of Sir James rested
upon him, his advancement was assured. He rose so
rapidly, that the pen that attempts to describe his ascent
fails in speed to follow him. I must be content, therefore,
to consolidate his honours by saying that, in a very
short space of time, he was M.P. for the county of West-
morland, and afterwards for the borough of Harwich ;
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Westmorland Militia ; Secretary
to the Treasury ; and lastly, Surveyor- General of His
Majesty's Woods and Forests. There is an accepted, but
erroneous tradition that his rocket-like ascent gave rise to
the household phrase "As soon as you can say Jack
Robeson " an error, undoubtedly, for the saying is to be
found in books written before Robinson was born. In all
probability it came to be fathered upon him, or rather
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 155
attached to his name, from the following circumstance.
When Jack was Secretaiy to the Treasury under Lord
North's Administration, he took a very active part in
politics. The H.B.s of the age caricatured him as the
political ratcatcher, and at one time he performed those
delicate and mysterious duties which the Hayters and
Jolliffes of our own day are said to discharge for their
respective parties ; in other words, he was a parliamentary
whip. Now, Brinsley Sheridan heing very much dis-
tressed at the bribery and corruption that had prevailed
at a general election just over, was hurling his anathemas
at the heads of those seated on the opposition benches, (of
course those on the same side with himself were incapable
of doing any wrong in this respect), when the cry arose
" Name ! name !" Sheridan turning round, and looking
Jack somewhat impudently in the face, exclaimed, " Name !
ay, I could name him as soon as I could say Jack Robe-
son." This was, no doubt, the occasion that gave rise to
the notion that the saying had its origin in Mr. Robinson's
rapid rise from obscurity to wealth and power.
When Sir James Lowther first resolved on making
Robinson member for the county of Westmorland, he
found it necessary to confer upon his Jack-boot (as he was
sometimes called) a sufficient qualification to enable him
to sit in the House of Commons. This qualification (until
abolished in 1858) was in England for a knight of the
shire, 600 a-year ; and 300 a-year for a borough
member. Property worth 600 a-year had consequently
to be conveyed or transferred to Jack, to qualify him
as a knight of the shire. Where there's a will there's
156 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
a way. It was no sooner said than done. Jack was
now M.P. for his native county ; and then it was that he
built the house in Appleby, which has been partly, but
very imperfectly, described.
To call it either a Dotheboys Hall, a ladies' seminary, a
workhouse, or a house of correction, or a house of a com-
posite order, would convey an imperfect idea of its size,
shape, or general appearance. No description does so
well as the common one that it's " the house that Jack
built;" for none but Robinson would have dreamt of
building such a fabric. Here, when he was in the north,
he lived, in almost regal splendour. Whether Sir James
got jealous of him on this account, or had just cause of
quarrel, is not certainly known : the estrangement took
place about the time when Sir James withdrew his sup-
port from Lord North on the American question, and it
may be, as some say, that Jack refused to be dictated to.
However, of a truth, they did quarrel, and Jack then ex-
changed his seat for Harwich, which he represented many
years. Sir James immediately demanded a return of the
property qualification conferred upon Robinson when he
was elected member for the county. This Jack refused to
restore, putting forward a counter claim of as large an
amount. It is commonly reported that he challenged Sir
James. The barbarous practice of duelling was, no doubt,
very common at that period ; but the fact was that Sir James,
and not Jack, sent the challenge. The late Colonel Low-
ther acted as Sir James' next friend ; and so determined was
he, for some reason or other, to become the principal instead
of the second in the affair, that he told Jack to his face that
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 157
he was a scoundrel, and that he had come on purpose to tell
him so. Such a fire-eater was not a man after Jack's own
heart, and he very wisely declined to have anything to do
with either of them. The matter ended in Jack's dis-
posing of his property in Appleby, and above all, by selling
his property of Burgage tenure to the Earl of Thanet,
Sir James's political rival, who thus got an equal footing
in the town with the house of. Lowther, and equally
divided the interest, until the Reform Bill of 1832 an-
nihilated the whole.
In 1788, Pitt made Robinson Surveyor General of His
Majesty's Woods and Forests. This office brought him into
immediate relation with the Royal Family, especially with
George the Third, with whom he was a special favourite.
"When he died," (says his learned biographer, Mr.
Serjeant Atkinson ; Worthies of Westmorland) " there
were upwards of three hundred letters in his writing desk
written to him by his sovereign, some on agricultural
matters, but many on the American War ; letters proving
alike the unbounded confidence placed in his head and
heart ; and that George the Third, as a farmer and as a
politician, was one of the ablest men of the age in which
he lived." His biographer tells an anecdote of Jack which
shows more fully his status at Windsor Castle. "The
king was once obliged in the chase to cross Wyke Farm"
(Robinson lived at Wyke House, near Brentford) " but on
riding up to one of the gates he found it locked. He hailed
a man close by, but the fellow seemed lazy or unwilling to
do as he was bid. ' Come, come/ said the king, ( open
the gate. 5 ' Nay, ye mun gang aboot,' was the answer.
158 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
' Gang aboot ! ' replied the king ; ' open the gate, man
I'm the king V ' Why, may be/ said the chap, 'but ye
mun gang aboot, if ye ert king/ and sure enough the
king was forced to gang aboot ; which in plain English
means that he was obliged to go round nearly the whole
enclosure of Osterly Perk. Whether Nimrod lost his
temper or not is unrecorded ; but that he was not in at
the death may be taken for granted, without any record
of the fact. Robinson came home in the afternoon, and
was told of his royal master's disappointment ; and being
assured of the fact by the offender himself, he instantly
ordered horses to his carriage, and drove post haste to
Kew. He was admitted as usual without ceremony, and
the king, laughing, greeted him thus : e Ah, Robinson,
I see you are in distress be of good cheer ! I wish I
had such fine fellows in my pay as add gang aboot. Tell
him from me that I shall always be glad to see him/
Robinson was at ease ; and auld gang aboot very soon and
very often found a more direct path than around the
palings of Osterley Park to Kew Palace, where he always
met with the kindness which his sturdy honesty and prac-
tical good sense was sure to meet with under the roof of
one who himself had so large a share of both. The king
never saw friend Jack afterwards without enquiring affec-
tionately after auld gang aboot.
I have noticed the autograph letters on agricultural
matters found amongst Robinson's papers after his death ;
and it is not unworthy of note that the king used to sign
the name of Ralph Robinson to his agricultural letters in
Arthur Young. Sight-seers who drive from Windsor to
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 159
Virginia Water, will also be pleased to remember that
they ride through a forest of trees planted by the direc-
tion and under the eye of Jack Robinson. He used to
boast that he planted nearly twenty thousand oaks in
Windsor Park.
Jack was now in the meridian of his glory the child
of fortune, the companion of princes, and the influential
Member of Parliament. As Secretary to the Treasury,
he enjoyed a retiring pension of 1000 a-year, and he
held in addition the lucrative appointment of Surveyor-
General of His Majesty's Woods and Forests. He had
besides kicked away the ladder by which he rose to
power, and so freed himself from the political tyranny of
Sir James Lowther. With such advantages and prestige,
it will not be a matter of surprise to find that his only
child, a lovely and accomplished daughter, was wooed on
every hand. So, indeed, it was ; and Mr. Neville, after-
wards Earl of Abergavenny, carried off the fair prize.
Jack had thus ennobled his family. A patent of nobility
for himself seemed alone wanting to fill up the measure
of his good fortune, and bets ran high that he would
get one.
But the height of his prosperity had been attained :
nothing further remained in store for him but the bit-
terest adversity and the severest trials. Robinson's fall
was as rapid as his marvellous rise. I have already stated
that he was His Majesty's Surveyor-General of Woods
and Forests (an office now merged in the General Board
of Works). At the time he held this office there was,
strange to say, no fixed salary attached to it, nor yet was
160 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the Chief Commissioner entitled to what is commonly called
a commission. It seems to have been a quasi, or sort of
commission measured in amount by the will of the minis-
ter. When he asked to have his accounts audited, he was
told to wait ; when he asked for money, he was told to
help himself. This he did, but being in constant expecta-
tion that his accounts would be properly audited and the
just balance admitted, he only took what he thought
sufficient for his immediate wants, and which was far,
very far, below the amount he believed was due to him.
As if he had a presentiment of danger, however, he
never ceased to importune Pitt for a settlement. At
last some busy-body in the House of Commons enquired
why public auditors should be paid out of the public
purse for doing nothing, and threatened to apply
for a Committee on the Woods and Forests generally.
The effect of this threat was the ruin of Jack Robinson.
He had now reached the venerable age of three score
years and ten, and had during the period of his official
life been immersed in political rather than financial de-
tails. Those who know the difficulty there is in rendering
a strict and rigid account of every halfpenny paid and
received during a course of ten or twelve years in the
ordinary concerns of life, can form a good notion of
the difficulty, if not impossibility, of rendering one
for a period so long and in matters so multitudinous
as those Robinson had to deal with. It is said that
vouchers were even called for in proof of the payment of
turnpike tolls ! And these were no trifles in those days,
when he had to post to Windsor and Kew (not to mention
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 161
other places) several times a week. To add to the diffi-
culty of such a mode of audit, the delay in calling for
a settlement had deprived him of the right or power to
call upon others to render their accounts to him. Robin-
son was assisted in his endeavours to 'make out his state-
ment by his able and confidential old clerk, Thornborough ;
but he had not strength of mind or body to carry him
through. Weighed down with this unexpected and heavy
calamity, and seeing no end of it but poverty a poverty
not springing from extravagance or inadvertence of his
own, he sunk beneath it, a broken-hearted man.
After his death, Thornborough, to his infinite credit,
pursued the matter, and in the end proved beyond all con-
troversy the cruelty and injustice of the treatment of his
master. He clearly established the fact that the Government
was Robinson's debtor to a large amount, and thereupon,
the title to Wyke House, being freed from Exchequer
claims, passed to the Earl of Jersey, the noble owner of
the adjoining estate of Osteriey Park. Robinson died in
December, 1802, in Harwich; but where he was buried
does not appear to have been ascertained with any degree
of certainty. The belief, however, is, that his remains
lie with those of his daughter, the Countess of Aber-
gavenny, at the corner of Isleworth churchyard. On her
tomb is written
MARY NEVILL,
COUNTESS OF ABERGAVENNY,
Died 26th Oct. 1 796,
Aged 36.
162 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
When a man rises in the world, especially to the great
social and political height that Robinson did, it is natural
to expect to see his family, even to a very remote degree of
consanguinity and affinity, rise also. Robinson had two
brothers ; one became a bencher of Gray's Inn, and Re-
corder of Appleby, and the other attained the rank of
Rear Admiral in the British service. A sister married
into the Chaytor family, now of the county of Durham,
but formerly, it seems, from Appleby.
But Robinson's relatives of a more remote degree do
not seem to have risen much above the horizon of their
own primary condition. About thirty years ago, two of
the family, father and son, the only ones of the name,
lived three or four miles from the county town, on a small
piece of land belonging to the father. Their vicissitudes
are not without interest. The father was a remarkably
fine man, full six feet three inches in height, of powerful
form, and honest, good-humoured appearance. In an
evil hour he turned smuggler. The Excise detected him
and he fled. His property was seized and sold to satisfy
the requirements of the Excise laws, and the son was
driven to a trade for a living. The whereabouts of the
father was long unknown ; indeed, at this moment it is
known to very few. Not long ago, one who was acquainted
with him of old was struck with the stalwart frame and
front of a Guardsman on duty at the foot of the royal
staircase. The recognition was mutual. Under what
name he serves his queen and country is not material to
enquire ; for his loyalty, like his manhood, is inferior to-
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 163
none. I have mentioned that the son, upon the father's
flight, took to a trade. He may any day be seen plod-
ding his weary way, with lap-board and goose over his
shoulders, to some lone farm-house for a day's work in
the art and mystery of a tailor.
164 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
$(t louse of
The bonnie House o' Leslie.
OLD BALLAD.
No Scottish family can boast of more ancient nobility, or
more wide-spread fame, than that of Leslie. Like many
of the greatest houses in Scotland, it is not of native
origin, but followed the stream of foreign colonization
in the times of Edgar, Alexander, and David. The first
of the race is said to have settled in the district of Garioch
during the reign of King William the Lion ; and he took
the name of Leslie from the lands which were originally
assigned to him.
The Leslies have indeed been great during all the suc-
ceeding ages of Scottish history ; and their renown has
not been confined to their native country; for noble
Leslies are to be found in Germany, France, Russia, and
Poland. Leslies held high commands in the army of
Gustavus Adolphus ; and the German Emperors main-
tained Leslies among their distinguished generals.
After holding a high rank for many centuries among
THE HOUSE OF ROTHES. 165
the Barons of Scotland, George Leslie of Rothes was
created an Earl, previous to 1458; for in that year a
charter was granted to him by the Crown of extensive
estates, in which he is mentioned as Earl of Rothes and
Lord Leslie.
The grandeur of this house reached its culminating
point in the person of John Leslie, sixth Earl of Rothes,
son of the fifth Earl, by Lady Anne Erskine, daughter of
John, eighth Earl of Marr. He was born in 1630, and
succeeded to his titles and estates when he was eleven
years of age. Having neither father nor mother, and
having been betrothed in childhood to Lady Anne Lindsay,
daughter of John, seventeenth Earl of Crawford, he was
admitted as a member of that powerful nobleman's family,
and was there brought up under the influence of the most
rigid puritanism. Crawford was at the head of the Cove-
nanting party, and was all-powerful among the Presby-
terians ; and it is probable that the exaggeration both in
politics and in religion, which young Rothes witnessed in
his early youth, inspired him with disgust at religion
altogether, and rendered him in after-life a ready instru-
ment of despotism.
His education was, unfortunately, very much neglected,
and he owed everything to his own quick parts and
lively talents. He was an amiable man, of genial and
kindly disposition ; and if he had been trained in a more
enlightened school, he might have turned out a better
member of society.
When he was twenty years of age, he left his guardian's
tutelage, and fixed his residence with great splendour
166 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
at Leslie, the mansion of his ancestors. From the year
1650, he began to take a very active part in the political
destinies of his country, and continued to be a leader of
the high royalist cause during the remainder of his life.
As soon as Charles the Second arrived in Scotland from
Holland, Rothes was among the first to join him, and
was most favourably received by the King, whose habits
and temper were congenial to his own. He carried the
sword of state at that King's Scottish coronation.
In 1651, he raised a regiment of horse among his own
Fifeshire vassals and dependents, and fought at the un-
fortunate battle of Worcester, where he was taken prisoner,
and sent to the Tower. He was not set free until 1655,
when Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart, (afterwards
the wife of Lauderdale), who was seldom insensible to
the attraction of a handsome young man, and who had
obtained a veiy remarkable influence over an excessively
ugly old one in the person of the Lord Protector, obtained
his freedom as the result of a double intrigue. He re-
mained unmolested in Scotland until 1658, when he was
imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He was soon, however,
liberated, and fled to King Charles, at Breda, where he
remained with him until the Restoration.
Rothes was a man of pleasure, and of very little moral
principle. He was a high aristocrat from feeling, and
was personally a devoted friend of the king. He was
lively, clever, and possessed of a most insinuating address.
It may, therefore, be imagined that he was just the man
that suited the merry monarch ; who was accordingly no
sooner restored to his throne, than he heaped honours and
THE HOUSE OF ROTHE8. 167
posts upon young Rothes. In fact, he entrusted him, for
a time, with the chief direction of state affairs in Scotland.
In 1661, he was made President of the Council; and in
1662, King's High Commissioner to the Parliament. His
father-in-law, Lord Crawford, was now entirely in the back-
ground, and his office of Lord High Treasurer was con-
ferred upon him. He was also appointed General of the
Forces, and in 1664, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
Having no very well-defined views in religious or eccle-
siastical matters, he was much guided in his conduct as
regarded them by Sharpe, Archbishop of St. Andrews,
and he commenced a course of severity against the abettors
of Puritanism. At the same time, he gave unbridled
license to all sorts of dissipation, which made his enemies
ironically remark that, as King's commissioner, he felt
himself in duty bound, in every respect, to represent his
Majesty !
It generally happens in religious controversy, that the
secular arm is steeled by the ecclesiastical against those
who have incurred censure. The " odium theologicum "
is the strongest of any ; and in all persecutions, church-
men have been the most intolerant. So it was in the
present case. Rothes, now become a duke, was stimulated
to severity, contrary to his easy epicurean nature, by
Sharpe. But he was, after all, a bad persecutor, as is
shown by one or two trifling, though curious anecdotes.
The Duchess, who was daughter of the rigidly Presbyterian
Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, had been educated to
entertain the utmost reverence for those whom her lord
was now called on to pursue even to the death. She, true
168 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
to her family principles, made a point of conscience and of
honour in sheltering, concealing, and supporting a number
of the proscribed covenanting ministers and preachers.
This was well known to Rothes, who used to make a joke
of it, and was in the habit of giving the Duchess fair
warning ; coming to her in the morning, he says, " My
Lady Duchess, my hawks are to be abroad to-night, so
pray keep your blackbirds safe in their cages !" On this,
the Duchess used to hang out a large tablecloth from the
window of her own chamber, which, being seen from afar,
served as a signal to the covenanting zealots to keep within
their caves and fastnesses.
One day Archbishop Sharpe was visiting the Duke at
Leslie, and had occasion to complain bitterly of two of
the principal burgesses of one of the Fifeshire towns,
Dunfermline or Kirkaldy (whichever was nearest to Leslie),
as malignant and dangerous fanatics of whom the country
would be well rid. His Grace said that he would punc-
tually attend to the Archbishop's advice. And he accord-
ingly sent for them, and had them in waiting, well
guarded, in front of his house, just as Sharpe drove off
in his coach after dinner, with the comfortable conviction
that the obnoxious covenanters were about to have a good
spell of the Bass-rock prison, if nothing worse. As soon
as the primate was gone, the Duke desired the two men to
be taken into a room, where he soon after joined them, and
found them trembling and with very sorrowful counte-
nances. He sent for a bottle of wine ; told them to cheer
up, and began to talk to them about the markets and the
stale of trade, &c., and plying them well with wine, he
THE HOUSE OP ROTHBS. 169
sent them home more than half- seas over ! He was, in
fact, much too jovial and debonnaire to be a persecutor.
However, he was led into such severe measures, that he
incurred the disapprobation of the court which he so
zealously served. But the crisis of his disfavour was
occasioned by an accident, in which he had no share of
blame. In 1667, a division of De Ruyter's Dutch fleet
sailed up the Frith of Forth, and shot off a few harmless
guns against Bruntisland, on the coast of Fife. Rothes
was then absent on a progress in the north of Scotland.
This was represented most falsely by his enemies, as a
proof of gross negligence, and a strong push was made
to deprive him of his power. The King consented, but
resolved "de le laisser tomber doucement." The army
was disbanded, so he ceased to command it, and he was
deprived of his office of Lord High Treasurer. But on
the other hand, he had just before been appointed Lord
High Chancellor for life; and in 1680, he was raised to
Ducal rank, being created Duke of Rothes, Marquess of
Ballenbreich, Earl of Leslie, &c., &c.
He did not live long to enjoy these higher hereditary
honours, for he died at Holyrood House on the 27th of
July, 1681. His body was carried to the cathedral church
of St. Giles, in Edinburgh, where the funeral ceremonial
was conducted with a pomp and magnificence which had
never before been bestowed on the remains of a subject.
From St. Giles' it was re-conveyed to Holyrood House,
with a luxury of lugubrious pageantry, and there it lay
for some time in state ; and from thence, with the same
magnificence, it was carried to Leith, put on board a
170 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
ship, and conveyed to Leslie, where it was interred, with
a continuation of the same magnificence, in his family
mausoleum. An engraving of the superb funeral proces-
sion was made, and it is now valued as a curious record of
the utmost extent of magnificence to which funeral rites
had ever attained in Scotland.
The errors of the Duke of Rothes, both in public and
in private, were those of a defective education. Old Lord
Crawford had much to answer for in not caring more for
the mental culture of his son-in-law. His redeeming
qualities were ready wit, lively talents, and a genial tem-
perament, which might have been moulded to better
purposes. Bishop Burnett, who knew him well, and cer-
tainly was not partial to him, gives the following testi-
mony as to his qualities : "He had a ready dexterity in
the management of affairs, with a soft and insinuating
address. He had a quick apprehension, and a clear
judgment. He had no advantage of education, no sort of
literature ; all in him was mere nature."
The Duchess is believed to have been a woman of sin-
cere worth and piety, strong in the covenanting interest.
It is a remarkable circumstance that there were a number
of ladies of some of the most considerable families of
Scotland, and all closely connected, who were celebrated
for their strict religious principles, which seemed to have
been hereditary. The two grandmothers of the Duchess
of Rothes, the Lady Boyd, and the Marchioness of Hamil-
ton, her mother, the Countess of Crawford, and her sister-
in-law, also Countess of Crawford, all belonged to this
very strict and devoted sect, to whom it is impossible to
THE HOUSE OF KOTHES. 171
deny the praise of zeal and sincerity, however much we
may wish that these qualities had been united with a
greater share of Christian liberality.
The Duke of Rothes' highest honours became extinct,
but his earldom was inherited by his eldest daughter,
Lady Margaret Leslie, who in 1674, seven years before
her father's death, had married Charles Hamilton, fifth
Earl of Haddington. She died in 1700, and was suc-
ceeded by her eldest son, on whom the earldom of Rothes
devolved ; while, by a family arrangement, sanctioned by
the Crown, the Earldom of Haddington was made to
descend to the second son.
In 1773, the Earldom of Rothes was inherited by
another heiress, Lady Jane Elizabeth Leslie, who became
Countess of Rothes on the death of her brother, the
ninth Earl. By her first husband, Mr. Evelyn, a gentle-
man of ancient family in the county of Kent, which
reckons among its ornaments the author of Sylva, she
had a son, George William, tenth Earl of Rothes, who
succeeded his mother in 1810. This nobleman married
in 1789 the Honourable Henrietta Anne Pelham, daughter
of Thomas Lord Pelham, afterwards created Earl of Chi-
chester, by whom he had three daughters, the eldest of
whom was the unfortunate occasion of bringing the illus-
trious family of Rothes within the category of fallen
greatness.
This young lady, the descendant of the noble blood of
all the Leslies, the heir and representative of the great
Duke of Rothes who lived like a prince, and was buried
like a king, condescended to stoop to a young gardener ;
172 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
nay, more, made (as is reported) a most excellent, indus-
trious, frugal, gardener's wife during many long years.
It is said that Lady Henrietta Anne Leslie, while yet
quite a girl, conceived an attachment for a young work-
man whom she met in a garden where she occasionally
walked. The attachment was mutual, and strictly vir-
tuous ; and in a very short time the noble heiress found
means to make out a marriage with the object of her
affection, without the knowledge of her family.
This most unfortunate step was one without remedy.
Had it happened before the Union, instead of in 1806,
the old Countess, who was still alive, with the concurrence
of the heir apparent to the earldom (the father of the
young lady), would have resigned the family titles to the
crown, and have thus procured a new patent, with the sub-
stitution of a different series of heirs, so as to banish the
offending daughter for ever into that obscurity which she
had taken for her portion. But this could not now be done,
and the gardener's wife was the undoubted heir of the
splendid titles and the entailed possessions of her race.
She, however, in the meantime, strictly conformed her-
self to her new circumstances ; and from the period of her
marriage in 1806 to that of her father, the tenth EarPs
death, in 1817, she is said to have been a most happy and
respectable woman, living contentedly in lowly circum-
stances, and supported by the honest industry of her
husband.
In 1817, she became Countess of Rothes ; and the
young gardener, whose name was George Gwyther, there-
upon assumed the surname and arms of Leslie. The
THE HOUSE OP ROTHES. 173
poor Countess did not live long to enjoy her new honours.
She died in 1819, and was followed in ten years by her
low-born husband. Her son and her grandson, too, are
passed away, and the splendid honours of the House of
Leslie have again devolved on a youthful Countess. It is
only about a year since the young Earl died, and was
succeeded in his titles and estates by his sister.
Let me conclude this article with an expression of
most friendly and very sincere anxiety that this young
lady may avoid the rock on which her grandmother made
shipwreck. She has in a great measure the fate of a
splendid title in her own hands. Her Earldom is not
only one of the most ancient in the peerage, but boasts of
many most illustrious alliances, and an uncommon share
of historical importance, and her fine domain and Castle
of Leslie are identified with many remai'kable and striking
events of feudal times. Let her carry these honours and
possessions into some one of the noblest houses of Great
Britain, so that the ancient stem of Rothes may be in-
vigorated by union with a Douglas, a Howard, a Suther-
land, or a Hamilton.
Since the foregoing remarks were written, the marriage
of the young Countess of Rothes with the Hon. George
Waldegrave,the descendant of a famous old English family,
well worthy of such an alliance, has been announced.
174 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
0f Calhnbar.
The rowan tree grows ower their w'a,
The deer grass in their tower,
And the howlet, the bat, and the mowdiwart
Are rife in Burd Ellen's bower.
OLD BALLAD.
AMONGST the chief historical families of Scotland, few-
have risen at various periods to greater power and higher
honours, or have possessed more extensive estates than
the Livingstones, and few have fallen into more complete
and disastrous decay. Acquiring in the male line
three distinct earldoms, Linlithgow, Callendar, aad
Newburgh, and two viscounties, Kilsyth and Teviot,
with numerous baronies and minor honours, Livingstone,
Ealkirk, Almond, Kinnaird, Campsie, and Flacraig, they
almost rivalled in feudal power the mighty house of
Douglas ; but nearly the whole of their splendid inherit-
ance has disappeared, leaving the present representative
of the family in utter poverty, the trifling remnant of the
great estates of his ancestors under judicial management,
and his legitimacy and right to their unattainted baro-
netcy the subject of legal investigation. It is believed
THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAK. 175
that there is not now a single landed proprietor of the
name of Livingstone (in the male line), with the exception
of Sir Alexander Livingstone of Bedlormie, whose title is
under question, in the possession of lands in the counties
of Linlithgow and Stirling, where they were once so
powerful. The titles of the Earldom of Newburgh, in-
deed, still remain, but in the person of an Italian Princess,
Marie Cecilia Princess Giustiniani, and Marchesa Bandini,
to whom they were recently (1858) adjudged by the
House of Lords, and the heir of the Earls of Erroll and
Kilmarnock still holds his unattainted earldom, and his
great office of Lord High Constable of Scotland, in virtue
of his descent from Lady Margaret Livingstone, his direct
ancestress, the only surviving child of James Earl of Cal-
lendar and Linlithgow (attainted in 1715) ; but the whole
of the wide-spreading lands and baronies have passed into
other hands. The founder of the family in Scotland,
Levingus, said to have been of noble Hungarian descent,
settled in West Lothian towards the end of the eleventh
century, and Livingston (the town or residence of Levin-
gus), in Linlithgowshire, long continued in the possession
of the senior line : " Thurstanus films Levingi" is dis-
tinctly documented in 1128. Gradually we find the
knights and barons of Livingstone and Callendar be-
coming prominent among the Magnates Scotia, filling
the offices of Great Chamberlain in Scotland, Lord Justice
General, Ambassador to England, Governor and Custodier
of the king's person, and Regent of the Kingdom ; their
banner waving in every battle, and their influence ac-
knowledged in every council. One is knighted under the
176 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Royal Standard, and taken prisoner at the battle of
Durham, 17th of October, 1346, another falls at Homil-
don, 14th of September, 1402, and Sir Bartholomew de
Levingstone, the last of the elder line, is killed at Flodden,
gallantly fighting by the side of his chivalrous sovereign,
on the fatal 9th of September, 1513. Long before this,
the younger branch, that of Callendar, in which the
representation of the main line eventually merged, had
risen to great power, by the acquisition of that ancient
Thanedom, partly by royal grant, and partly by a for-
tunate or judicious marriage. In 1345-46, Sir William
Livingstone (grandson of Dominus Erchebaldus de Leviug-
stone, Miles, who had been compelled to swear fealty to
Edward the First) obtained the great Thanedom of Kal-
lendar or Calynter, by charter under the great seal, on the
forfeiture of Patrick de Calynter; but, in order to strengthen
his right to these domains, or, it may be, to conciliate the
numerous retainers of the former barons, or, perchance,
under the influence of the grace and beauty, and in sym-
pathy for the fallen fortunes of the young lady, Sir "Wil-
liam married Christine de Calynter, the only child and
heiress of the attainted Thane. By her he had two sons,
the younger of whom, William, carried on the line of the
family. Of the ancient Scottish Thanedoms, that of
Calentyr, possessed by the Calentyrs of Calentyr, from a
period prior to 1217, appears to have been the only one
situated to the south of the Forth ; and it was continued
by the marriage of Christine de Calentyr and Sir William
Livingstone in the possession of the lineal descendants of
the original Thanes for the long period of five hundred
years.
THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 177
During the days of their feudal power, the Living-
stones were not more remarkable for the extent of their
estates and their almost regal influence, than for the
great alliances which they invariably formed. The Laird
of Callendar never seems to attempt to subdue (legiti-
mately, at least,) the obdurate heart of any less stately
damsel than the daughter of a great baron; all the
Livingstone wives are of this rank, Erskines, Crichtons,
Flemings, Hays (of Erroll), Grahams (of Montrose and
Menteith), Gordons (of Huntly), Douglases of the illus-
trious House of Morton, and the like. Even the cadet
branches of Kilsyth, Teviot, and Newburgh follow gene-
rally this aristocratic rule, Newburgh, especially, carrying
the same principle of action into foreign lands, and, in
the course of comparatively a few years, intermarrying,
in England, with the Howards Earls of Suffolk, the
Brudenells Earls of Cardigan, the Lords Clifford of Chud-
leigh, and the Ratcliffes Earls of Derwe.ntwater, and, in
the States of the Church, with the Princely House of
Giustiniani.
Sir Alexander Livingstone, the fourth of Callendar,
was one of the jury on the trial of Murdoc Duke of
Albany (1424) ; and, at the death of James I., was
constituted regent of the kingdom, and guardian of the
young monarch, James II. The Chancellor, Crichton,
had, however, custody of the king in the Castle of Edin-
burgh ; and it was only by a ruse that the deliverance of
the sovereign was effected. The Queen Dowager (Jane
Beaufort), who was a devoted adherent of Livingstone's,
contrived to get access to her son, and conveyed him,
2 N
178 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
concealed in a chest, on board a vessel, then lying at
Leith, which, with its royal freight, immediately set sail, and
arrived at Stirling almost as soon as the Chancellor heard
of the escape. At Stirling their Majesties were joyfully re-
ceived by the Regent, but the good understanding between
the Queen and Livingstone was not of long duration, and in
1439 their animosities had reached to such a height that
her Majesty was imprisoned by Livingstone's order. The
dissensions, too, between the Regent and the Chancellor
continued, till the increasing power and audacity of the
young Earl of Douglas, sixth Earl and third Duke of
Touraine, the greatest subject in the kingdom, forced
them into a temporary reconciliation. Douglas, besides
Galloway and Anandale, and other extensive territories
in Scotland, possessed the Duchy of Touraine and County
of Longueville, in France. In right of his Duchy, he
regarded himself as a foreign prince, independent of the
laws of his country. He was attended by a constant train
of one thousand horse, and his household displayed a
regal magnificence, while he even created knights, and
convened his great vassals in Parliaments. Soon after
their reunion, Livingstone and Crichton, dissembling their
intentions, asked the Earl of Douglas to sup at the royal
table in the Castle of Edinburgh ; the earl was fool-hardy
enough to accept the invitation, and proceeded to his
sovereign's presence. At first he was received with appa-
rent cordiality, but shortly after he had taken his place
at the board, the head of a black bull, the certain
omen, in those days, in Scotland, of immediate death, was
placed upon the table. The earl sprang to his feet and
THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAE. 179
attempted to escape, but being speedily seized and over-
powered, he was hurried, along with his younger brother
David, and Sir Malcolm Fleming, of Cumbernauld, one of
his chief retainers, into the courtyard of the castle, wnere
they were stripped of their armour, and all three in
succession beheaded on the same block. The death of
the young and princely Earl of Douglas excited universal
detestation, and his untimely fate was lamented in the
ballads of the time :
Edinburgh Castle, Toune, and^Toure,
God grant tliou sink for sin,
And that even for the black dinoure j
Earl Douglas gat therein.
This tragedy was enacted on the 24th November, 1440,
and for the moment it annihilated all opposition to the
regency ; but four years afterwards, William, eighth Earl
of Douglas, having married his cousin, the fair Maid
of Galloway, restored the fortunes of his house, and suc-
ceeded so far in influencing the young king, that Living-
stone was attainted of high treason ; Douglas boasting
that he would hang his old enemy from the battlements of
Livingstone's own castle, or, as he expressed it, "worry the
tod in his ain den." This, however, was more easily said
than done ; and after many cruel scenes of mutual blood-
shed, and alternate fields of victory and defeat, Livingstone
regained the royal favour, and in 1449 was made Lord
Justice General, and sent Ambassador to England the
same year. Shortly afterwards this great and turbulent
lord was peaceably gathered to his fathers. He was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son, Sir James Livingstone of Cal-
180 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
lendar, who had been appointed Captain of Stirling Castle,
and tutor of James the Second, during the regency of his
father. In 1453, Sir James was sworn a Privy Councillor,
and appointed Master of the Royal Household, and Great
Chamberlain of Scotland. He was afterwards created a
peer of Parliament by the title of Lord Livingstone ; the
exact date is not known, but it was some time previous to
30th August, 1450, when the extensive estates of the
family in Stirlingshire, West Lothian, and Perthshire were
united into the one barony of Callendar, by a royal charter
in favour of James Lord Livingstone.
About a century after this, the Lord Livingstone of
that day was constituted by Act of Parliament, 24th April,
1545, along with John Lord Erskine, governor and keeper
of the infant Queen Mary, whom he accompanied in that
capacity into France, in 1548, and died there about 1553.
These lords received for the care of their young Queen,
80 a month from the last of November, 1545, to the
last of February, 1548, when they sailed with her to
France ; and thanks were formally given to them in the
Parliament held at Haddington, 20th July, 1548, for the
manner in which they had executed their trust. The
youngest daughter of this Lord Livingstone was one of
the four Maries, selected and adopted by the Queen mother,
Mary of Guise, from the noblest families of the land to be
the playmates and schoolfellows of her royal daughter.
In the plaintive words of the old melody
" There was Mary Seton, and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Fleming, and me"
Me being Mary Livingstone.
THE LAIKDS OF UALLENDAR. 181
There is still to be seen at Westquarter House, the last
remaining mansion of the family, a large, antique, and
very beautiful cabinet, the doors of which are enriched with
various flowers traced in bead-work, which belonged to the
Queen, and was the united work of her four Maries. In her
wanderings, adversities, and captivities, Queen Mary ever
found these faithful attendants at her side; they accompa-
nied her to France, attended her while she remained there,
and returned with her to Scotland. Exchanging the brilliant
gaiety of Paris for the fanatic gloom of Edinburgh, the true-
hearted maidens never failed in their devotion to Mary
Stuart : their romantic attachment to their royal and ill-
fated mistress endeared them to the people ; their memo-
ries have been united in the melody of many a ballad, and
enshrined in the songs of their native land. The name
of Mary Livingstone, traduced and calumniated by
the harsh and unfeeling John Knox, yet lingers in the
traditions of the neighbourhood of Callendar : she is
still talked of as having married her father's " galopin,"
or menial-groom, who is said to have treated her cruelly.
This is no farther true than that she married John Sempill,
of Beltrees, (John Sempill, the Dancer, as John Knox styles
him,) a younger son of Robert, third Lord Sempill ; that
he may have held the situation of equerry to Lord Living-
stone, then a great officer of state, and that hence he may
have been denominated his " galopin," perhaps to heighten
the story. But such appointments in the establishments
of the greater barons were given to the younger sons of
the noblest families; and this at least is certain, that
Sempill was at one time an equerry or page in the royal
182 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
household : of this, the evidence still remains. By a
charter, dated 9th March, 1564, ratified by Act of Parlia-
ment, 19th April, 1567, Queen Mary, "in consideration
of the long continued services of Mary Livingstone, her
Majesty's familiar servitrice, and John Sempill, son of
Robert Lord Sempill, her daily and family servitour,"
granted to them the lands of Auchtermuchty and others,
until they should be provided in an estate of 500 a-year.
The story that the marriage was unhappy may be as apo-
cryphal as that the husband was a groom.
Amid all the vicissitudes of fortune, William, sixth
Lord Livingstone (the brother of the Queen's Mary),
was the steady and unflinching adherent of his royal
and hapless mistress; he joined her after her escape
from Lochleven, fought gallantly for her at Langside,
and, after that fatal day, accompanied her to England
to share her captivity. Thither he was shortly after-
wards followed, in the same loyal service, by his wife, a
daughter of Malcolm, third Lord Fleming. On the 26th
of Februaiy, 1569, Nicholas Whyte writes to Secretary
Cecil, " the greatest person about her (Mary) is the Lord
Livingstone, and the Lady his wife which is a fair gentle-
woman."
The son of these faithful followers of an unhappy queen
was Alexander, seventh Lord Livingstone, who married
Lady Eleanor Hay, daughter of Andrew, seventh Earl of
Erroll, and to their care the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards
Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia, and her sister,
were committed. The Queen of Bohemia has been usually
regarded as the only daughter of James the Sixth ; but it
THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 183
appears from a charter of that king, erecting Falkirk into
a free burgh or barony in favour of the Lord Livingstone,
dated 13th March, 1600, that there was another daughter
whose existence has generally escaped the notice of his
torians. This charter sets forth " the great care, extreme
diligence and solicitude of our said trusty cousin and
councillor Alexander Lord Livingstone, and Dame Helenor
Hay, his spouse, in divers years by past with regard to our
two legitimate daughters, by undertaking their education,
in their own society. And also, we clearly understanding
our foresaid illustrious, trusty cousin and councillor, to be
justly due the sum of 10,000, money of this realm of
Scotland, for the food, nourishment, sustenance and edu-
cation of our said two daughters, and their body-servants,
during the foresaid space : Therefore, in full satisfaction of
the said sum, and for the good, faithful, long and honour-
able services to us and our most illustrious progenitors
done and performed by the said Alexander Lord Living-
stone and his predecessors in defence of the kingdom
against all foreign and intestine foes, &c., we now give,
grant and dispose to the foresaid Alexander Lord Living-
stone," &c., &c. It is believed that this charter is the
only document extant establishing the existence of another
daughter of James the Sixth, besides the Princess Eliza-
beth. But although this charter bears to be "in full
satisfaction" of all previous services, the royal gratitude
did not stop here, and, the same year, in farther recog-
nition and reward of the good deeds of himself and his
predecessors, Alexander, seventh Lord Livingstone, was
created Earl of Linlithgow, Lord Livingstone and Call en-
184 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
dar, on the 25th December, 1600, at the baptism of
Prince Charles ; and within little more than thirty years
after (on the 19th June 1633), the third son of the first
Earl, the Hon. Sir James Livingstone, who had won great
militaiy renown in the wars in Bohemia, Germany, Hol-
land and Sweden, was raised to a separate peerage as
Lord Livingstone of Almond, and on the 16th October,
1641, farther advanced to the dignity of Earl of Callendar.
But the sunshine of kingly favour was not limited to
the main line of Livingstone ; it shed its beams abun-
dantly on the younger branches. In 1627, Sir John
Livingstone of Kinnaird, descended from Robert, the second
son of Sir John Livingstone, third Laird of Callendar, was
created a baronet of Nova Scotia ; his son and successor,
Sir James, was one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber
to Charles the First, by whom he was created Viscount of
Newburgh, 13th September, 1647 ; Lord Newlurgh, faith-
ful to his king, was excepted from Cromwell's Act of
Grace, 1664, and fled out of England, and joined Charles
the Second at the Hague. He continued with his Majesty
during his exile, and on the Restoration was constituted
Captain of the Guards, and created Earl of Newburgh,
Viscount Kinnaird, and Baron Livingstone of Flacraig, to
him and his heirs whatsoever, by patent dated 31st De-
cember, 1660. These titles are now vested, by a decision
of the House of Lords, in the Princess Giustiniani, who
has been naturalized by Act of Parliament, and is the
present Countess of Newburgh. The history of the house
of Newburgh is very curious, and would in itself form an
interesting chapter in the romance of Peerage succession.
THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 185
The Kilsyth branch was raised to the peerage as Viscount
Kilsyth and Baron Campsie, 17th August 1661, and the
Teviot family (a cadet of Kilsyth) obtained a baronetcy
29th June, 1627, and the Viscounty of Teviot, 4th De-
cember, 1696. The Westquarter baronetcy dates from
the 30th May, 1625.
Thus far we have seen the Livingstones in their splen-
dour, let us shortly contemplate them in their decline
and fall. George, fourth Earl of Linlithgow, died in
August 1695, without issue, when he was succeeded in
his titles and estates by his nephew, James, fourth Earl
of Callendar, who, engaging in the rebellion of 1715, was
attainted as Earl of Linlithgow and Callendar, and his
whole lands and dignities forfeited to the Crown. He had
married Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of the twelfth Earl
of Erroll, by whom he had one surviving child, Lady Anne
Livingstone, married to William, fourth Earl of Kilmar-
nock, and her eldest son, James, Lord Boyd, succeeded
in her right to the Earldom of Erroll. The great Callendar
property was sold to the York Buildings Company, a London
incorporation which speculated largely in the purchase of
forfeited estates ; but the " Bairns of Falkirk," as they
delighted to style themselves, and the other vassals and
tenants of the Livingstones, were a turbulent and unruly
race, even under their feudal lords, and little inclined to
yield " suit and service," and far less to pay rents, to an
association of London tradesmen. To them, the York
Buildings Company was as unintelligible as the impersonal
"John Company Bahadoor/' to the retainers of the Great
Mogul. Accordingly, the Company soon discovered that
186 1CISSIT00ES OF FAMILIES.
the only mode of deriving any thing from the estates was
to transfer them to the heiress of the family, and a long
lease was therefore granted to the Earl and Countess of
Kilmamock, who were thus re-established at Callendar,
and might, like the Panmure family, under somewhat
similar circumstances, have eventually recovered permanent
possession of their original domains. This lease did not
expire till 1773; but long before that, the Earl of Kil-
marnock, not taught wisdom by the ruin of his predecessor,
joined Charles Edward after the battle of Preston, was
captured on the fatal field of Culloden, sent a prisoner to
London, and beheaded on Tower Hill in 1746. On an
eminence, or rather hill, above Callendar House, now
crowned by a circular plantation, tradition still points
out the spot where the last Earl of Kilmarnock, as he
rode away to join the unfortunate Chevalier, lingering
behind his armed and mounted followers, turned his
horse round to take a farewell look at the grand old
Livingstone estate, which he was never again to see.
There is scarely a finer view in Britain than that which
this spot commands : far in the blue distance to the
North rises the serrated semicircle of the Grampians,
forming, with the broad-topped Ochills, and the waving
westward sweep of the Campsie Fells, and the hills of
Saline to the east, a magnificent mountain amphitheatre,
the castled Rock of Stirling glittering in the centre, and
the broad expanse of the Firth of Forth, more like a lake
or inland sea than an estuary, stretching away towards
the German Ocean : the rich and beautiful Carse of
Falkirk is in the foreground, studded with villages and
THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAR. 187
church spires, and here and there an ancient feudal tower.
The landscape is indeed wondrously attractive, combining
every thing which wood, and water, and rock, and undu-
lating surface can contribute to diversify and adorn the
scene. One can fully comprehend the sad feelings of
the gallant but vacillating Kilmarnock, as he lingered
for the last time over this lovely prospect, and the noble
domain mapped out before him, which he was about to
imperil for what he must then have regarded as- the cause
of his legitimate sovereign.
The affairs of the York Buildings Company having fallen
into disorder, the Estates of Callendar were brought to ju-
dicial sale, and purchased about 1780 by William. Forbes,
Esq., a great London merchant, and a descendant of the
family of Forbes of Colquhany in Aberdeenshire. Mr.
Forbes married twice first, the beautiful Miss Macadam
of Craigengillian in Ayrshire, but without issue ; and se-
condly, Miss Agnes Chalmers of Aberdeenshire, and dying
in 1815, was succeeded by his eldest son, the late William
Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, M.P., and Vice-Lieutenant of
the County of Stirling, who married in 1832 Lady Louisa
Charteris, fifth daughter of the Earl of Wemyss and
March, and dying in 1856, was succeeded by his eldest
son, the present William Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, who, in
addition to the ancient Thanedom of Calleiidar, and the
Baronies of Hayning and Almond, the original domains
of the Callendars and Livingstones, is the proprietor of
extensive estates in the counties of Stirling, Ayr, and
Kircudbright. Mr. Forbes married in 1859 Miss Rose
O'Hara, daughter of the late John O'Hara, Esq. of Raheen,
188 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
in the county of Galway, and his wife, the Dowager Lady
O'Donnell.
It has been handed down that for centuries " the Ladies
of Callendar " have been remarkable for beauty. In this,
the present proves the past. Thanks to these nuptials of
1859, the pre-eminence is more than ever preserved. The
spell of loveliness still endures, its power enhanced, its
charm unfaded.
Of the .remaining two ennobled branches of the House
of Livingstone, the conclusion is soon told; the Viscount
of Kilsyth was attainted for high treason in the same
year with his chief (1715), and died at Rome, in January,
1733, and the Peerage of Teviot became extinct on the
death of Viscount James in 1711.
With James, Earl of Linlithgow and Calleudar, ter-
minated the whole descendants in the male line of Alex-
ander, seventh Lord Livingstone, and the representation
and chieftainship of the race passed to the family of
Westquarter, the descendants of the Honourable Sir George
Livingstone, of Ogleface, the fourth son of the sixth Lord
Livingstone. This branch, whose fortunes form a very
singular episode in the Vicissitudes of Families, requires a
chapter to itself, the representative of "Westquarter being
now the heir male in general of the house of Livingstone,
entitled, were the attainders removed, to the Earldoms of
Linlithgow and Callendar.
The chief residences of the Livingstones were Living-
stone, and Midhope Castle in Linlithgowshire, the Castles
of Callendar, Herbertshire, Brighouse, and Haining in
Stirlingshire ; and the Viscounts of Kilsyth possessed, also
THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAR. 189
in Stirlingshire, the strongholds of Colzium and Kilsyth.
Of these the largest and most important appears to have
heen the Castle of Callendar, a place of considerable
strength before artillery was invented; and even so late as
the time of Cromwell, against whose troops it made a gallant
resistance, a fortress capable of defence. It then occupied
nearly the same site as that on which Callendar House now
stands ; it was encircled by a deep moat or fosse, crossed
by a drawbridge, and filled by the springs which now sup-
ply the ornamental sheet of water in the grounds. The
space within the moat was surrounded by a high bastioned
and curtained wall, and defended in front by a square
tower or barbacan, the wide gateway of which afforded
the only access from the castle to the park. The greater
part of the present House of Callendar is said to have
been built about 180 years ago, by Alexander, second
Earl of Callendar, generally called the covenanting Earl.
Herbertshire Castle, another strong embattled residence, re-
mains to this day ; it is one of the few genuine old Scotch
castles still inhabited by a family of the higher ranks;
though a very old building indeed the date of its erection
is not distinctly known it is, even now, one of the most
comfortable and well-arranged mansions in the county. Cal-
lendar House and Herbertshire belong to Mr. Forbes; they
are both in perfect preservation, and fitted up with all the
luxuries and comforts of modern life. The other strongholds
of the Livingstones are in ruins ; and for the rest
The Knights are dust,
And their swords are rust,
And their souls are with the saints, I trust.
190 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
0f
And yon auld tattered Carle, wha sits
In dule beside the kirkyard stone,
Sae bent and grey and crazed wi eild
Was ance the Laird o' Lainington.
OLD BALLAD.
IMMEDIATELY adjoining the park of Callendar, and
separated from it by a little stream, which, rising in the
upper part of Stirlingshire, and wandering through some
of the most romantic scenery in Scotland, falls into the
Forth at Grangemouth, lies the estate of Westquarter,
which has formed a portion of the Livingstone possessions
since the first settlement of the family in the district ;
either held by the Chief, or as far back as the year
1400 given off as the appanage of a younger son, and
reverting to the head of the house on the failure of the
cadet branch. Situated in a walled park of three hun-
dred acres, diversified with rocky precipices, and undu-
lating banks, clothed with magnificent timber, and
uniting the stiff and stately avenues and terraces of
former days with the winding approaches of the present,
"Westquarter is beyond comparison the most pictu-
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 191
resque residence in the eastern district of Stirlingshire,
in this respect so far as regards the natural beauties
of the landscapes which it encloses, far surpassing the
larger and more ancient place of Callendar. The
house, which is of considerable size, built round and
enclosing a central court, with its porte cockere, steep
slated roofs and notched gables, is not unlike in extent
and character some of the chateaux of the provincial
noblesse in Normandy and Brittany. On the walls of
the southern and more modern portion of the building are
the dates 1626 and 1648, but the original edifice is much
older than either of these. Though a large house, from
the manner in which it is built, it looks much larger than
it is in reality, and is certainly a stately and imposing
mansion for the residence of a younger son : it contains
some ancient arms, skull-caps, and coats of mail, some
stern-looking pictures of the old Barons, and the cabinet
of the four Maries already mentioned, said to have been
the gift of the unfortunate Queen. The direct ancestor
of the first Livingstones of Westquarter appears to have
been Robert, the second son of Sir John, the third of
Callendar, who was killed at Homildon in 1402. I after-
wards find the estate in the possession of Sir William
Livingstone, of Westquarter and Cultre, fifth son of the
sixth Lord Livingstone, of whom the late Admiral Sir
Thomas Livingstone was the heir of line, and it is now
the property, under the Admiral's will, of his grand-
nephew, Thomas Livingstone Fenton Livingstone of West-
quarter, the heir of line of the Westquarter and Cultre
branch, as well as of the Honourable Sir George Living-
192 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
stone of Ogleface, the first baronet. Throughout the
contests between Charles the First and the Parliament,
and during the time that Charles the Second was in
Scotland, although the first Earl of Callendar was for
a time a stout Covenanter, the Livingstones were as
afterwards in 1715 and 1746 the stanch adherents of
the Royal family, to the great injury of their fortunes in
the earlier of these periods, and to their utter ruin in the
latter. This did not, however, prevent many of the family
from signing the Covenant, though none of them, with
the exception of the second Earl of Callendar, appear to
have been very zealous in its favour. When the Con-
vention of Estates decided to take the part of the Parlia-
ment against the King, it was a matter of agreement that
the Solemn League and Covenant should be signed by both
nations. In Falkirk this act was performed with great
solemnity, on Sunday, the 7th of November, 1643. A
table was set before the pulpit, on which the deed lay,
and the elders were stationed at the various entrances of
the church to usher in those who intended to affix their
names. Amongst the elders who officiated on this occasion,
the most prominent and highest in rank was Sir William
Livingstone, or " Westquarter" as the Session Records
denominate him, and to him was specially committed the
charge of the " North aisle/' His covenanting propen-
sities, however, were not strong enough to prevent " West-
quarter" from joining his kinsman, the Earl of Callendar,
when it was resolved to raise a Scottish army (known as
the Engagement, or "Duke Hamilton's Ingagement"),
to attempt the rescue of King Charles. On this occasion,
the Earl of Callendar being nominated (llth May, 1648)
THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 193
Lieutenant-General of the whole land and sea forces, his
well-appointed army marched into England, and took
possession of the town of Carlisle, of which important
place the Earl received the commission of governor, and
appointed Sir William Livingstone of Westquarter his
Lieuten ant-Governor. The Earl was accompanied into
England by a gallant band of his retainers, "the blade
and buckler-loving Bairns of Falkirk," and his other
tenants and vassals, and after the disastrous retreat, when
at Warrington Bridge, on the 15th August, 1648, 10,000
Scotchmen threw down their arms, and yielded themselves
prisoners of war, one glorious exception to the general
cowardice was exhibited by the immediate followers of
Lord Callendar ; they threw themselves round their chief,
and cutting their way through the victorious republicans,
returned unmolested to Falkirk. The Earl himself, on
getting clear of his enemies, rode straight to London,
whence he fled to Holland. So gallant and successful
was this onslaught of the Callendar retainers, and so
complete the escape, that the memory of the affair
rankled long in the heart of the Protector, and when he
published his Act of Indemnity in 1654, Lord Callendar
was specially excepted from its provisions. On the return
of the survivors of this gallant and devoted band to Fal-
kirk, it is amusing to find that they were all severally
summoned to appear before the Kirk Session to answer
to the charge of having fought for their king and chief,
in despite of the mandates of the Church, and that the
heroes who had set at defiance the battalions of the
Commonwealth, and had cut their way through Cromwell's
194 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Ironsides, actually at least eighty-five of their number,
submitted to Church discipline as sinners, and confessed
their guilt, in the ignominious garb of penitents, at the
command of the fanatical Kirk Session !
The founder of the present family of Westquarter in
the male line was the Honourable Sir George Livingstone
of Ogleface (second surviving son of William, sixth Lord
Livingstone), who was created a baronet on the 30th
May, 1625. Sir George appears to have been a prominent
person at the court of James the Sixth there are extant
three commissions of justiciary by this king, appointing
the Honourable George Livingstone his Majesty's Jus-
ticiary for the trial of various crimes. Two of them one
dated 1596, the other 20th August, 1597 are for the
trial of sundry persons accused of the crime of witchcraft.
Sir George became one of the adventurers for the planta-
tion of forfeited estates in Ireland, and in 1608 he received
a grant of 2000 acres in the County of Armagh, where
he died prior to June, 1628.
In 1645, the estate of Bedlormie was added to the pos-
sessions of the family, by the marriage of Sir George's
grandson, Alexander Livingstone, Esq. of Craigengall,
with Susanna Walker, the heiress. This marriage is en-
tered into with consent not only of the bridegroom's
father, but of " ane high and potent earl, James, Earl of
Callendar," who advances the sum of 3000 marks, to clear
off the debts of Bedlormie, and to enable the estate to be
settled, free of incumb ranee, on his kinsman. But this is
only one instance, amongst many, of the friendly interfe-
rence and assistance of the Chief to promote the interests
of his cousins.
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 195
Amongst the peculiarities of Scotch grants of peerage,
one of the most remarkable is the power, occasionally
conferred by the sovereign, enabling the peer in possession
to designate and appoint his successor in the dignity. Of
this there is a striking instance in the Callendar succession,
under which the Westquarter branch maintain that their
right to the titles of Lord Livingstone of Almond and
Earl of Callendar was not affected or injured by the
attainder of the Earl of Linlithgow and Callendar in 1715.
By a charter under the great seal, proceeding ou a sign
manual, dated at Auburn Abbey, in England, the 28th
July, 1647, Charles the First conferred on James, then
Earl of Callendar,. the most ample powers (failing heirs of
his body) of nominating and appointing successors to his
estates and titles ; and his Majesty did by his said royal
charter "Will and grant, decree and ordain, that the
person succeeding by the designation and nomination of
the said James Earl of Callendar, named and designed as
aforesaid, should for ever thereafter enjoy the honour,
title, rank, and dignity of an earl, with the same place
and presidency as the foresaid James Earl of Callendar
possessed and enjoyed." This charter was ratified in
Parliament on the llth May, 1648; and in virtue of this
charter and Act of Parliament, the estates and titles of
Callendar were strictly settled and limited by Lord Cal-
lendar. The persons first favoured by this settlemen^were
the family of Linlithgow, next the Livingstones of Daldeise,
now extinct, and lastly, " the nearest lawful heirs male
whatsoever of the said James Earl of Callendar/' That
character undoubtedly belonged to Sir Alexander Living-
o 2
196 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
stone (the father of the late Admiral), by whom a case
was (in 1784) laid before Lord Kenyon, who gave it as
his unhesitating opinion that Sir Alexander was not affected
by the attainder of 1715, and was legally entitled to the
earldom. Forming part of the evidence submitted to Lord
Kenyon in support of the Westquarter pedigree, were several
documents curiously illustrative of the relations subsisting
in those days between the different branches of a Scottish
house. In 1676, the exact degree of relationship betwixt
the ennobled families of Linlithgow, and Callendar, and
the Ogleface or Westquarter branch appears to have
formed the subject of some legal enquiry, and immediately
formal declarations and attestations, under the hands and
seals of both earls, are prepared, and are afterwards duly
recorded in the Register of Probative Writs. That by
the Earl of Callendar is as follows: "Wee Alexander
Earl of Callendar Lord Livingstone and Almond, &c.
Doth hereby testify and declare that Sir Alexander Livin-
stone, Knight, now of Craigengall, is lawful son and air
to umquhile William Livingston, of Craigengall, who was
lawful son and heir to umquhile Sir George Livingstone,
of Ogleface, Knight, the which Sir George Livingstone
was next brother german to umquhile Alexander Earl of
Linlithgow, our grandfather. Written by William Dun-
cane, our servant ; given under our hand at Callendar,
this4wenty-ane day of October, 1676 zeiris, Before their
witnesses Normand Livingston of Milnhill, and William
Duncane above written." The attestation by the Earl of
Linlithgow is precisely in the same terms, and is dated
from the Castle of Midhope, this 20th September, 1676.
There were two other documents also laid before Lord
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 197
Kenyon, which are strikingly indicative of the strong
bonds by which families of the same race were then held
together in Scotland, and of the grave and stately inter-
course which took place betwixt the chief and the cadet
houses of his name. The future lot and career in life of the
young Laird of Bedlormie had evidently been the subject
of much anxious thought and consideration with his chief ;
for on the 27th of March, 1715, when men's minds were
greatly occupied with the rights and interests of higher
dynasties than even that of Livingstone, the Earl of Lin-
lithgow thus writes to his cousin of Bedlormie : " Sir, I
give you the trouble of this upon ane occasion I'm very
sorry for, I mean that of your son's going to sea again.
I would gladly have you consider how few of our name
there are now in Scotland, and that he is the nearest
relation of the name I have, and should anything ail. my
son and me must certainly succeed to the honours of
Linlithgow. I cannot think that he will do anything that
is disrespectful to you or his mother, and I am persuaded
he will do all he can to oblige you both. By what I can
learn from him, he would be satisfied with a very small
thing to live upon here, and I am sure it will be more for
your honour to have him at home, than he should go abroad
again. This I hope you will think of, and your comply-
ing with my desire will very singularly oblige, sir, your
affectionate cousin and humble servant,
" LINLITHGOW.
" I hope you will give my humble
services to your lady.
(Addressed) " To the Laird of " Callendar, March
Bedlormie. 27th, 1715."
198 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
This application produced apparently no result, and
his lordship finds it necessary to be more specific m
stating what he wishes Bedlormie to do. In about a
month after, he writes the following : " 19th April,
1715. Sir, I give the trouble of this again, in favours
of my cousin, who I assure you I think none of his
friends have reason to be ashamed of. I am now about
to make a proposal to you about him, which is, that
you'll allow him fifty pounds sterling a-year, which I
assure you I take to be very little for a gentleman to live
upon, and I shall answer he shall not trouble you for
anything else. I hope I need use no arguments to bring
you into this measure, since I think an oldest son ought
to be very dear to his parents. You may depend on it, I
am resolved to do all I can to serve him, and I hope he
shall yet be an honour to his friends and family. I am,
sir, your affectionate cousin and humble servant,
" LlNLITHGOW.
" I should gladly persuade myself you'll
comply with this request.
" To the Laird of Bedlormie."
An annual income of 50 sterling, even in those days,
was certainly a moderate allowance for a gentleman of birth
and quality, the eldest son of a baronet, and the next in
succession but one to an ancient earldom ; but money went
far in the northern division of the kingdom at that period,
and kinsmen and followers, not pecuniary means, gave
importance and family influence.
The anticipations of Lord Linlithgow as to the failure
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 199
of the senior branches, were not long in being realized.
In 1695, the Earl died without issue, and his nephew and
successor, the Earl of Callendar,'by the decease of his only
son, James Lord Livingstone, on the 30th April, 1715,
was left without a male heir, while his only surviving
child, the Countess of Kilmarnock, became like her ances-
tress Christine de Calynter, a landless lady by the attain-
der of her father. The male representation of the family
devolved, after the attainted Earl, on Sir George Living-
stone, and in succession on his two brothers, Sir
Alexander and Sir "William ; and at their deaths, on their
nephew, Sir Alexander of Westquarter and Bedlormie. On
this accession of Sir Alexander, (the father of the late
Admiral Sir Thomas Livingstone), he took possession of
a ban-en inheritance : with the exception of Bedlormie, at
that time of very small annual value, strictly entailed and
encumbered with family provisions, not an acre of the
great estates of his ancestors remained ; even Westquarter
(though afterwards recovered, as having been illegally sold,
contrary to the provisions of the deed of entail under
which it was held) had passed into other hands, and had
gone by purchase into the possession of Francis, seventh
Lord Napier, whose family had taken up their residence
in the Mansion House. Indeed, the history of the re-
covery of Westquarter is a romance in itself, and in spite
of its apparent improbability, is generally believed to be
true; the tale runs thus : Sir Alexander Livingstone,
after the death of his uncle, by which event the succession
opened to him, deemed it necessary to visit Edinburgh for
the due arrangement of his affairs. He set out accordingly,
200 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
by post, from London, and, on his way, stopped at the inn
at Belford, a small town betwixt Alnwic'k and Berwick,
on a stormy Christmas afternoon. So tempestuous
indeed was the weather, that the landlady besought Sir
Alexander to proceed no further that evening. She ex-
plained to him that the next stage was a long one, that
night was approaching, and the roads bad and hilly; that
she had only tired horses in her stables, and that,
besides, it was the custom of the house to entertain all the
postilions, hostlers, and other servants at a Christmas
supper. Thus urged, Sir Alexander consented to re-
main, only stipulating for some books and newspapers
to pass the evening with. Unfortunately, the library
of mine host of Belford was not extensive; the lady
brought the Bible, the Pilgrim's Progress, and the Seven
Champions of Christendom ; and these not meeting with
Sir Alexander's approval, he was informed that they ex-
hausted the literature of the household, but that there
were some curious old papers in a closet adjoining the
sitting-room into which he had been ushered. In default
of occupation more attractive, Sir Alexander began an
examination of the closet, which, to his astonishment,
he found to contain an ample store of law papers,
legal processes, and other similar documents, all of them
having reference to Scotch lawsuits. His curiosity was
excited, and, his eye having caught the names of Living-
stone and Westquarter, he continued his researches, and
at last lighted on the title-deeds of the estate of
Westquarter, which appeared to have been produced as
evidence to instruct some statement of fact in a litigated
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 201
case. On applying to the landlady, she cleared up the
mystery, by informing him that she was an Edinburgh
woman the daughter of a Scotch solicitor, that she had
married below her own condition in life, and that she had
removed, with her husband, to Belford, to which place,
at her father's death, she had brought many of his old
papers, which as lumber had been thrown into the closet,
where Sir Alexander had discovered them. Many others,
she told him, had been destroyed, and, being supposed to
be of no value, had been employed in singeing fowls, for
pasting up crevices and cupboards, and for other household
purposes. To the Westquarter documents Sir Alexander
was made heartily welcome ; his Belford Christmas night
had indeed been for him a most fortunate occurrence, and
he started for Edinburgh next morning, carrying with
him the very title-deeds with which he was enabled to
vindicate his right to the estate and to oust Lord Napier
from it. This curious story has been long current in
Stirlingshire, on the authority, it is said, of Sir Alexander
himself; and this much in corroboration is certain, that
some title-deeds had disappeared, that "Westquarter had
been sold, that it was in the possession of the Napiers,
and that it was recovered by Sir Alexander Livingstone,
as having been, in violation of the family settlements
under which it was held, illegally alienated. The estate
thus regained, the price at which it had been sold
though far below its value had to be repaid, and despite
of counter claims for rents levied and woods cut down, large
sums had been expended by the Napiers on permanent
improvements, which had also to be accounted for : in.
202 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
short, though the restoration of the property and residence
did much for the position of the family, it added little or
nothing to its immediate resources. As far as actual
income was concerned, the nominal owner of Westquarter
and Bedlormie was almost in as disastrous a position as
his attainted relatives. To add to his comforts, Sir Alex-
ander had married twice, his second wife being a daugh-
ter of the noble House of Cranstoun, at that time as
impoverished as his own, and he had a family of nine sons
and three daughters, with no means to maintain them in
their station. As Sterne says, in the Sentimental Journey*
" when States and Empires have their periods of declen-
sion, and feel in their turns what distress and poverty is,"
I stop not to tell what had gradually brought the House
" of Westquarter" to this decay but it was so. For his
nine sons Sir Alexander could do little more than usher
them into the world, and tell them to seek their fortune
where they best might find it. Two of his daughters
married in their own rank in life, another died young j
the fates of the sons were various; none of them, how-
ever, left descendants except one Thurstanus to be
more particularly referred to at least none of them left a
male heir. On the 17th September, 1782, Sir Alexander
placed his third, but eventually eldest surviving son,
Thomas, in the Royal Navy, on board the Frigate " Brune ;"
but the state of the family exchequer did not permit a
similar start in life to be given to the younger brother,
Thurstanus, who was entered, the following year (1783), at
the age of fourteen, as an apprentice on board " the good
ship Mary Anne," a merchant vessel out of the port of
THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 203
London. The future lots in life of these two brothers
were widely different. Sir Thomas rose to the highest rank
in his profession, Admiral of the Red in 1851, and suc-
ceeded to the estates of Westquarter and Bedlormie, which
he cleared of all debt, and the former of which he greatly
added to by purchase, and embellished : he married the
only daughter of an opulent baronet, Sir James Stirling of
' Mansfield, and was so far recognised by Government as
the heir and representative of the Earls of Linlithgow and
Callendar, that they restored him (for his life only) to the
offices, long hereditary in his family, of Keeper of the
Royal Palaces of Linlithgow and of Blackness Castle, with
the lands of considerable annual value which formed the
appanage of the Keeper. Eventually, after a long career
of worldly success, he died at Westquarter in 1853, a
wealthy and prosperous gentleman. To the otherwise
unbroken good fortune of Sir Thomas there was one draw-
back, and he felt it severely he was childless ; and in
addition to this, he knew that on his death a dispute as to
the succession must arise, disastrous and ruinous to his
family, and inevitably resulting, in his view of the legal
questions involved, in the utter extinction of the male line
of his house.
The different career of his younger brother, Thurstanus,
may to some extent be gathered from the following petition
which he presented to the Trinity House in 1818. It is
a sad and strange document as the application of a person
who was at that time next in succession to an ancient
Baronetcy, to considerable estates strictly entailed, and to
the undoubted representation of two Earldoms, and who
204 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
was the lineal descendant, indeed, if he survived his
brother, the lineal heir male, of a Regent of Scotland.
The Petition proceeds as follows :
" To the Honourable the Master, Wardens, and As-
sistants of the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford,
Stroud
"The Humble Petition of Thurstanus Livingstone,
aged 49 years, residing at Rotherhithe Parish, where he
has lived for nine years, and followed the occupation of a
sailor, sheweth
" That your Petit ioner went to sea at the age of four-
teen years, in a vessel out of the port of London, and
served there as an apprentice to Captain James Innes, in
the ship ' Mary Anne/ Jamaica trade, and latterly in the
station of second mate and boatswain, on board the ship
'Kitty/ Captain Daniel Warren, master, in the Baltic
trade, and in that capacity served for five voyages.
"That your Petitioner has a wife, Catherine Anne
Livingstone, and three' children under twelve years of age,
incapable of earning their living, whose names and ages
are, Alexander Livingstone, aged seven years; Catherine
Anne Livingstone, aged four years ; Thurstanus Living,
stone, sixteen months.
"That your Petitioner is not now able to support
himself and family without the charity of this corporation,
having no property or income, and no pension or relief
from any public charity or company, except from the
Royal Chest of Greenwich, which is 8, for a disabled
arm.
"Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly prays, that
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 205
he may be admitted a Pensioner of this Corporation at
the usual allowance.
" Your Petitioner will ever pray.
(Signed) " THURSTANUS LIVINGSTONE."
This melancholy application was successful, andThurs-
tanus received an annual pension of six pounds, which he
drew till his death, in 1839.
The foregoing petition contains merely a very brief and
imperfect outline of the various fortunes of Thurstanus; it
sets forth, correctly, that he had at first entered the mer-
chant service, and had never risen higher than to be a
second mate and boatswain, but it omits that he had served
for some years in the Royal Navy as a common seaman,
and that on leaving the navy he had taken the command
of a privateer, apparently an enemy's ship. In his
domestic circle, however, this part of his career was by no
means shrouded in mystery : in the course of the volu-
minous proof in the lawsuit to be immediately mentioned,
this part of his adventures is repeatedly spoken of. One
of his old friends, James Gale, a turner at Rotherhithe,
deposes, t( I have heard Thurstanus Livingstone speak of
a vessel of war in which he had been on board, but I can't
tell the name of it. I have heard him also speak of the
admiral, his brother, having the command of a vessel of
war; and Thurstanus has told me that on one occasion
while he, Thurstanus, had the command of a privateer,
he fell in with a ship of war in the command of his
brother, who chased him, but Thurstanus escaped." This
is corroborated by another old friend, Robert Clack, "a
206 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
butcher to trade, in Adam Street, Rotherhithe." " Thurs-
tanus told me," says his friend the butcher, " that the
first cause of his falling out with the admiral was his
leaving the Royal Navy and joining a privateer. He said
that he was in action in a privateer, and wounded in the
action."
The services of Thurstanus in the navy are distinctly
recorded in the books of the different ships in which lie
served. His first appearance in the navy is on the 10th
December, 1796, when he joins the " Sandwich" as an
able seaman. Here he remains for only five months,
being discharged on the 6th May, 1797, in consequence
"of a lacerated wound in the right arm by getting it
entangled in the mainstay tackle fall when assisting to
strike Beer into the hold on the 24th of March, 1797 ;"
and on the 5th September, 1797, the surgeon certifies
that this " has deprived him of the use of his hand, for
which he deserves six pounds a-year, and three pounds for
present relief." He again enters the navy, 2nd April,
1809, in her Majesty's ship " Star," from which he is
immediately transferred to the " Salvador del Mundo," in
which he remains for two years and a half, when he is
discharged as unserviceable on the 18th of November,
1811. After this he is employed in various capacities,
" as a ship keeper to Old Mr. Mangles, of Rotherhithe :
and he also sailed as cook, being employed in that capa-
city bv Captain Johnson, who was ship's husband for
Mr. Mangles." In the concluding years of his life he
seems to have eked out his subsistence as a turner and
maker of yard measures, and he dies in 1839, in utter
THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 207
poverty "et sic decessit Thurstanus Filius Levingi"
the lineal descendant of a Regent of Scotland, who had
imprisoned a Queen, and decapitated an Earl of Douglas !
Thurstanus left two sons and a daughter; the ad-
miral died in 1853, without children; and then com-
menced the competition for the entailed estates of
Bedlormie, which Sir Thomas had anticipated. Regard-
ing the children of Thurstanus as illegitimate, on the
ground that they were the offspring of his brother's
second marriage with the sister of 'his first wife, Sir
Thomas executed a deed by which he directs his trustees
to entail the estate of Westquarter on his grandnephew
and eventual heir of line, Mr. Fenton Livingstone, the
grandson of his sister, Mrs. Fenton. Sir Thomas held
both Westquarter and Bedlormie under settlements of
entail, but the Westquarter entail was defective from the
omission of a clause prohibiting the alteration of the order
of succession. The Bedlormie entail, on the other hand,
was altogether unassailable, and the succession was strictly
limited to heirs male. While Westquarter thus passed
immediately and without question to Mr. Fenton Living-
stone, a competition arose betwixt Mrs. Fenton, Sir
Thomas's sister, and her nephew, Sir Alexander Living-
stone, as he then styled himself, the eldest son of Thurs-
tanus, for the estate of Beldormie, Mrs. Fenton claiming
as Sir Thomas's sole heiress, on the assumption that the
whole heirs male had failed, and that her nephew was
illegitimate. In the lawsuit which ensued, and which is
still pending, Sir Alexander maintained 1st. That as the
eldest son of the cnlv brother of Sir Thomas who had
208 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
left male issue, he was the heir of the investiture, and
entitled to the estate ; 2nd. He denied that his father's
two wives were sisters ; 3rd. That whether they were
sisters or not, was of no moment, that his parents were
domiciled in England, had been regularly married in facie
ecclesia, were both long since dead, and no attempt to
invalidate their marriage having been made during their
lives, it was impossible to question it now, that he was
legitimate by the law of England, and entitled to all the
rights and privileges which legitimacy conferred ; and
4th. and lastly, he pleaded, that the marriage of two
sisters in succession was not unlawful by the law of Scot-
land. After a long and elaborate litigation, a unanimous
judgment was pronounced by the Court of Session (on
the 27th of May, 1856), sustaining the third plea of Sir
Alexander, " that being legitimate in England, the law of
Scotland was bound to recognize the legitimacy so ac-
quired, and consequently that he was entitled to succeed
to the estate;" and thus entirely avoiding, and finding it
unnecessary to give any judgment on the questions of
fact and law, as to whether the two wives were or were
not sisters, and whether the marriage of two sisters is or
is not illegal by the law of Scotland. This unanimous
judgment of the Court of Session was carried by appeal
to the House of Lords, and there (in 1859) as unanimously
-.reversed, the whole of the law lords concurring in holding
'that, while Sir Alexander Livingstone was undoubtedly
legitimate in England, at least that his legitimacy could
not be effectually challenged in England, yet if in point
of fact his father's two wives were actuall sisters, though
THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 209
legitimate, he was not the issue of a marriage which the
law of England regarded as lawful, and therefore they
remitted back the case to the Court of Session, for farther
consideration. Under this remit, two very nice questions,
one of fact and the other of law, will fall to be deter-
mined ; 1 st. "Were the two wives of Thurstanus Living-
stone sisters? 2nd. Is the marriage of two sisters in
succession unlawful in Scotland ? On neither of these
questions is it here intended to offer any opinion; the
first is a question of fact, as to which farther evidence
may be required, and the second is regarded as one of the
nicest and most difficult of the "Questiones Vexatce" of
the law of Scotland. From the proof already given, it
appears that Thurstanus Livingstone first married, on the
25th October, 1797, Susannah Browne, the widow of a
ship carpenter, and again, on the 7th August, 1808,
Catherine Anne Ticehurst, also a widow, and there seems
in the proof abundant moral evidence to show that these
two widows were the daughters of two persons of French
origin, John Dupuis, a Spitalfields weaver, and of Susanna
Dupuis, both of the parish of St. Matthew, Bethnal
Green. Various marriage certificates have been recovered
and produced, but there is no certificate of the marriage
of John and Susanna Dupuis ; and in the certificate of
the burial of Susanna Dupuis, she is not described as
the wife of John Dupuis, nor in that of John Dupuis is he
described as her husband. Both these persons are under-
stood to have been of French origin, and were of a class
of life in France not always very particular in the ob-
servance of matrimonial ceremonies, and therefore, like the
2 p
210 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
hero and heroine of the "Bon Menage" of Beranger, they
may have been of those who
Tous deux de leur plein gre,
Pour se passer du divorce,
Se sont passes du Cure.
The legality of a marriage with the sister of a deceased
wife has never been the subject of a civil action before the
Scotch Courts. The Scotch law of marriage is embodied
in the statute 1567, cap. 15, which provides "that the
halie band of matrimony be als lawful and als frie as the
lawe of God has permitted the samin to be done;" and
the immediately preceding statute (1567, cap. 14) ex-
pressly refers to "the Word of God as it is contained
in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus." The Confession
of Faith of the Scotch Church (ratified by Parliament in
1690) indeed goes farther than this, and expressly de-
clares " that the man may not marry of his wife's kindred
nearer in blood than he may of his own, nor the woman
of her husband's kindred nearer of blood than her own ;"
but though this may be taken as the authoritative con-
struction of the Divine Law by the Presbyterian Church,
and as such, in subordination to Scripture, the standard
of faith to all Presbyterian bodies in this country ; yet it
may be seriously doubted whether a ratification by Par-
liament of articles of religious belief, can be regarded as
rendering these conclusive as statutory enactments in the
adjudication of civil rights.
Such, however, are the two points which at present
await judicial disposal in this celebrated case, and accord-
ing to the manner in which they may be determined will
THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 211
depend the maintenance or extinction of the great histo-
rical House of Livingstone in the male line in Scotland.
If the decision find that the widows Brown and Ticehurst
were sisters, and that on that ground the second marriage
of Thurstanus Livingstone was illegal according to the
law of Scotland, and the children, who sprung from it,
incapable of succession in Scotland, then the baronetcy of
Westquarter and the dormant earldom of Callendar are
extinct; while this somewhat anomalous result will also
follow, thatfan English family of Livingstone, legitimate in
England, will exist, the lineal legitimate descendants of the
Scotch families on whom these titles were conferred, and
yet with no right of inheritance in their honours, and thus
legitimate in the country of their birth and of their adop-
tion to every effect and purpose whatsoever, but not legiti-
mate to the effect of succeeding to real estate or hereditary
rank in the country of their origin, and in which their
ancestors had held high position for many ages. If the
representatives in the male line of the families of Linlith-
gow, Callendar, and Westquarter shall in this way be
extinguished in the land of their fathers, it remains at
least as some consolation to those who take an interest
in matters of pedigree and descent, that of the heirs of
line of Livingstone two still exist in possession of the
dignity of the Scotch peerage, viz. the Earl of Erroll,
the unquestioned heir of line of the Earls of Linlithgow
and of Callendar; and the Princess Giustiniani, in her
own right Countess of Newburgh, and one enjoying the
rank and position of a landed gentleman, Mr. Fenton
Livingstone, the heir of line of Westquarter.
212 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
rinu Minister SSUrb,
Suscitans 'a terra inopem ; ut colloeet eum cum principibus :
cum principibus populi sui. PSALM cxii.
BEFORE I introduce to my readers the statesman and
diplomatist, who, emerging from the obscurity of a York-
shire cottage, swayed, for some years, the destinies of an
Italian State, I must say a few words concerning the court
which was the scene of his wonderful fortunes, and the
royal family to whom he owed his elevation.
"Without entering upon the early existence of Parma as
a free state, or detailing its subjection by the Milanese
Viscontis, its conquest by Louis XII. of France, and
its annexation to the states of the church, I may begin my
historical notice with the year 1545, when the ancestors of
the youthful prince who has within the last few months
been expelled from his dominions, began to reign. At
that date, Pope Paul III. (Farnese) erected Parma into a
Duchy, and for nearly two centuries after, the house of
Farnese reigned. In 1731, it became extinct in the male
line, but immediately revived in a branch of the Spanish
Bourbons. The last Duke of Parma's daughter, Elizabeth
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 213
Farnese, was the second wife of Philip V., the first Bour-
bon monarch of Spain, and was mother of two sons, from
whom the reigning families of Spain, Naples, and Parma are
descended. Charles, the elder of the two, was originally
Appointed to succeed to his maternal grandfather's duchy ;
but when he ascended the Neapolitan throne in 1735, he
ceded Parma to the house of Austria. However, in 1748,
at the peace of Aix la Chapelle, it was restored to the
Farnese-Bourbon dynasty in the person of the Infant
Philip, younger son of Elizabeth Farnese and King
Philip V., who accordingly became Duke of Parma and
Placentia, and transmitted these territories to his descend-
ants, Ferdinand and Louis.
In 1801, the latter was obliged to exchange his paternal
dominions for a glittering bribe ; and Parma and Placentia
were incorporated, by the command of France, with the
Cisalpine Republic. The Austrian Grand Duke of Tus-
cany was compelled to withdraw into Germany, where he
was provided for, first with Salzburgh, and then with
"Wiirzburg ; and Tuscany, under the ancient classical
name of Etruria, and with a royal title, became the com-
pensation to the Bourbon , Prince for that which he
had surrendered.
Louis, King of Etruria, had married, in 1797, his cousin
Maria Louisa, daughter of Charles IV., King of Spain,
by whom he had a son, Charles Louis, bora at Madrid, in
December 1799, and a daughter, Maria Louisa Carlotta,
born in October, 1802, at sea, in the voyage between
Leghorn and Barcelona. King Louis was not destined
long to wear the Etruscan crown. An early death cut
214 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
short his not very important life in 1803 ; and his able
and accomplished widow became Queen Regent of Etruria,.
during the minority of her infant son King Charles. It
seems only due to the historical fitness of things that
gifts bestowed by a usurping power in France upon a
descendant of Henry IV. should not prosper. The ancient
crown of Lars For senna, thus unjustly bestowed by a
Bonaparte on a Bourbon, soon turned out, like a malig-
nant fairy gift, to be no better than a circlet of withered
leaves. Queen Maria Louisa and the boy King, Charles
Louis, found themselves suddenly discrowned in the fourth
year of their joint reign, when, in 1807, Napoleon Bona-
parte took possession of Etruria, as a portion of the
kingdom of Italy. However, a erown was still held out
to them, but it was that of a kingdom which was yet to
be conquered. Napoleon consoled them with prospects of
sovereignty. A portion of Portugal was to be theirs, and
a fine-sounding name was not wanting, for they were to be
King and Queen Regent of Lusitania. Nevertheless, thanks
to Wellington and British arms, this monarchy remained
distant and shadowy, like the fabled Atlantis. And as
Napoleon found the claims of his royal proteges some-
what troublesome, he prudently cut the matter short by
sending the young discrowned king to live with his ma-
ternal grandfather, King Charles IV. of Spain, then in
exile at Naples, while he shut up the Queen Regent, with
her daughter the Princess Carlotta, in a convent at Rome.
Those were days in which Candide might have sat down
to supper in the Carnival, not with six, but with twice six
wandering monarchs in want of crowns. And during the
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. '215
last half century there has never been a time when the
various revolutions of Europe have not thrown more kings,
grand dukes, and sovereign princes loose on the world,
than Voltaire, in his wildest dreams of sarcastic imagina-
tion, could ever have conceived.
It is singular, that at this very moment, a princess and a
prince of the illustrious house of Bourbon, and, moreover,
recently reigning in Parma, find themselves almost in an
identical position of humble dependence upon a Napoleon
Bonaparte, with that which I have been describing. The
Duchess Regent of Parma, herself a Bourbon, and heiress
presumptive of the elder line of that great house, and her
son the youthful Duke Robert, are now circumstanced
almost exactly as were their ancestors and predecessors
half a century ago.
The young Duke of Parma may be said to centre in his
own person the presumptive beirship to the grandest and
most ancient dynasties in Europe. His maternal uncle,
the Due de Bordeaux, being childless, he will, at his death,
be the undoubted heir of line of the ancient French mo-
narchy, through Henry IV. and the kings of Navarre, up
to Louis X., who was the direct descendant, from father
to son, of Hugh Capet. He will also be heir of the
ancient Celtic kings of Scotland, through the elder line
of Baliol, the sister and heir of that monarch having car-
ried the right of representing the old Scottish sovereigns
and the Royal Saxon line of England, through the fami-
lies of Lindsay and De Coucy, into the house of Bourbon.
He is also, in right of his paternal grandmother, Maria
Teresa, Duchess of Lucca and Parma, coheir of the Stuart
216 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
line of kings of Great Britain; for she was one of the
daughters and coheirs of Victor Emmanuel, King of
Sardinia, who was the sole heir of King Charles I.
Of all the Italian princes who have been driven from
their thrones by the recent revolutionary movement, the
misfortunes of none have excited so much sympathy as
those of the young Duke of Parma and his mother the
Regent.
But I have been insensibly led to the revolutions of a
third generation j and I must return to the history of the
young Duke Robert's grandfather, Charles Louis, King of
Etruria, who, in 1807, was, together with his mother the
queen regent, reduced to a similar state of discrowned
exile.
The young King of Etruria continued to reside with his
grandfather, the old King of Spain, in his exile at Naples,
during the greater part of his early youth. When he was
a lad of fifteen, the clouds which obscured his destiny
seemed to clear away, with the downfall of him who had
been the tyrant of his family. When Napoleon Bonaparte
was driven from the throne of France, the chaos which he
had produced among the sovereign houses of Europe was
brought back to some degree of order, and the ancient
landmarks of history were sought out and re-established.
After thirteen years of banishment, the Grand Duke Fer-
dinand was brought back to Florence, no longer the capital
of a new Etruscan kingdom, but restored to the house of
Hapsburg-Lorraine. A retreat had to be found for the
wife of Napoleon, who, after having filled the high position
of Empress of the West, could not return to her place
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 217
among the unmarried daughters of Austria. It was ne-
cessary to give her a sovereignty, and nothing so conve-
nient could be found as Parma, a shred of her husband's
kingdom of Italy. In that principality she was accord-
ingly installed as Duchess, in 1814, with the reversion of
the succession to her son, the ex- King of Rome. Thus
Charles Louis de Bourbon saw both the territory to which
he was by birth entitled, and that over which he had for
a short time reigned by the fiat of Napoleon, bestowed
elsewhere, without a thought being wasted upon him.
The claims of his family were, however, brought before
the notice of the Congress of Vienna, and it was decided
to give him and his mother a measure of compensation for
their losses, by erecting Lucca into a Duchy, of which she
was made the sovereign, with a reversion to her son, who,
moreover, was to enjoy a revenue from Tuscany, in con-
sideration of his claims on the crown of Etruria, besides
an appanage from Spain as an Infant of that royal house.
This arrangement took place in 1815. And it may be
here stated, that two years afterwards, in 1817, an altera-
tion in the succession to Parma was made in his favour,
according to which the young ex-King of Etruria, Duke
of Lucca, was called to the succession on the death of the
ex-Empress Maria Louisa, instead of her own son, the
young ex- King of Rome, the Duke of Reichstadt. These
changes of boundary, title, and succession are very diffi-
cult to follow; and, fortunately, we have had little ex-
perience of them in our own country. But each gene-
ration has seen such alterations on the Continent as go far
to destroy the feelings of nationality and loyalty. Thus,
218 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
while the ex-Empress of France, Maria Louisa, was seated
at Parma, the ex-Queen of Etruria, Maria Louisa, was
seated at Lucca, with the prospect for her son of the
eventual succession to his own hereditary dominions.
And it was arranged, that whenever that event should
take place, the Duchy of Lucca should be united to the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, by way of compensation to the
Grand Duke Ferdinand for his long exile.
The charming little sovereignty of Lucca, which was
thus unceremoniously disposed of like an estate, first to
one proprietor and then to another, may be looked upon
as the garden of Italy. It stands pre-eminent in beauty
and fertility, and in the industry of its inhabitants.
The ancient capital of this fairy region is situated in a
rich plain, watered by the Serchio, and surrounded by
mountains. It is twelve miles from the sea, and ten miles
north of Pisa. Its circumference is about three miles, and
it is surrounded by broad ramparts planted with venerable
trees. It is well-built, containing many stately houses,
though the streets are in general narrow. The ducal
palace is a magnificent pile. Lucca is rich in churches.
The cathedral, which is of the eleventh century, is adorned
with fine paintings, sculptures, and monuments, and pos-
sesses some valuable manuscripts as old as the seventh
century. One of the most curious of the churches is San
Frediano, a most remarkable specimen of the Lombard
style, and erected in honour of St. Fredan, a British prince,
whose remains repose there. In early times, Lucca was
an Etruscan city, and then a Roman colony. In the
middle ages it was a Republic, often at war with Pisa and
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 219
Florence. At one time it was, along with Pisa, at the
head of the Ghibeline party. It afterwards fell under the
yoke of the Viscontis of Milan, and was restored to liberty
by the Emperor Charles IV. in 1370. It was then sub-
ject to successive tyrants, and at last settled into an
exclusive aristocracy, in A.D. 1556, by which only a certain
number of noble families were eligible to office. These, in
the year 1600, were one hundred and sixty in number;
but in the course of the two following centuries they had
dwindled to one half. Prom among these, a Senate, a
great council, a Signoria, and a Gonfaloniere were elected.
This government was swept away by the flood of the
French Revolution. The ancient aristocracy was suddenly
metamorphosed into a violent democracy, which, in its turn,
speedily gave way to a despotism, under Eliza Bacciochi,
the sister of Napoleon, who began to reign there as Grand
Duchess, in 1805.
There is something utterly repugnant to our English
ideas in a state being thus transferred like a farm, from one
possessor to another, and it is difficult to conceive patriot-
ism, loyalty, or even self-respect subsisting in the breasts*
of a people thus summarily disposed of. How was it
possible for a Mansi, a Nobili, a Bernardini, a Trenta,
a Montecatini, or any of the families with whom resided
the supreme power of the ancient republic, to offer a
hearty allegiance to Eliza Bacciochi, when Napoleon im-
posed her upon them as their Grand Duchess ? And, al-
though the illustrious blood of the Bourbons claimed more
sincere homage from nobles of ancient lineage, yet the
Lucchese chamberlain, or equerry at a small ducal court,
220 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
might well be pardoned if he sighed for the old times
when his fathers and grandfathers were members of the
" Signoria " of their aristocratic republic. The republic
of Lucca had existed during many centuries of peaceful
though obscure self-government after the stormy civil wars
of the middle ages. And it is difficult to see why, after
the revolutionary wave of French invasion had subsided,
it was not entitled to be restored to its former position.
But it was destined to share the fate of its more illustrious
sisters of Genoa and Venice, with this difference, that it
continued to preserve for a few years longer its nationality,
although under a new form of government, before it was
merged in the larger state of Tuscany. In 1815, the
nobles of Lucca, who had bent the knee to Madame Eliza
JBacciochi, were called on to render a similar homage to
Maria Louisa of Spain, and her son Charles Louis of
Parma.
The young Duke of Lucca had no sooner attained the
age of twenty, than his mother arranged a marriage for
him, which seemed in all respects suitable, in point of
tige, illustrious birth, good education, and personal charms.
The bride was Maria Theresa, one of the four daughters of
Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, who abdicated in
March, 1821, in less than a year after his daughter's
marriage, and died in 1824. The sisters of the young
Duchess of Lucca were, Mary Beatrice, wife of Francis IV.,
Duke of Modena ; Maria Christina, wife of Ferdinand II.,
King of Naples ; Maria Anne (her twin sister), wife of
Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria. Considerable interest is
attached to those four young princesses, in the eyes of
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 221
Englishmen, from the fact that they are the heirs general
of the royal houses of Stuart, Tudor, and Plantagenet.
They had no brothers ; and the uncle, in favour of whom
their father abdicated the crown, died childless, and was
succeeded by the late King Charles Albert, a very remote
descendant of the house of Savoy, of the branch of Carig-
nan, and in no way conected with the Stuart family,
which, on the death of the Cardinal Duke of York, came
to be directly represented by Victor Emmanuel, King of
Sardinia.
The young Duchess of Lucca was just seventeen at the
time of her marriage, in the month of August, 1820 ; and
in addition to the charm of the most regular beauty, she
possessed that of innate, graceful dignity. It was im-
possible to conceive a more perfect specimen of high-born
and high-bred loveliness. Her education had been very strict,
and she was devoted to her religious duties, and pious ob-
servances, after the straitest forms of the Church of Rome.
Her mind was noble and pure, and the only drawback to
her many admirable qualities was that her piety partook
too much of the character of asceticism. The young
Duke, at the time of his marriage, was one of the hand-
somest princes in Europe. There is a very fine bust
of him, which was taken at that time by Bartolini the
sculptor of Florence, and which is a striking likeness, now
in the possession of Mr. Hamilton Gray, and preserved at
Bolsover Castle. The personal attractions of the Duke of
Lucca were equalled by his talents and accomplishments.
No one was better qualified to delight and to charm in
the social circle. No one was gifted with more ready
222 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
wit, or lively conversational powers. No one was more
popular among his friends, and no one possessed greater
kindness of heart or amiability of manner. His learning,
too, was very considerable, and he possessed such versa-
tility of talent that he could at once quit the most gay
and lively scenes of social enjoyment, and become absorbed
in some abstruse branch of study.
The early married life of the Duke and Duchess of
Lucca was one of much variety and gaiety. Connected by
intimate ties of relationship with most of the Italian
reigning houses, and with the Courts of Vienna and
Dresden, they lived in a continual round of regal festivities;
and their own Court at Lucca was much more splendid in
consequence of their distinguished position, than, from the
size or the importance of its territory, it had any right
to be.
The late Emperor of Austria, Francis, was much
attached to the Duke of Parma, and as he was brother-in-
law to his son, he regarded him as a member of his own
family, and accordingly Vienna may be said to have been
his home even more than Lucca. There he generally
spent the gay season of the year. He was also a frequent
guest at the Court of Saxony, his sister, the Princess
Carlotta, having married Prince Maximilian, brother of
the King and father of the present Monarch by a fo^r-
mer wife, a Prince old enough to be her grandfather.
During the year of the Jubilee, 1825, the Duke and
Duchess of Lucca passed some of the winter months
in Rome ; and in that remarkable season, they were the
most distinguished among the illustrious strangers whom
the holy year brought to the Eternal City. The Court of
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 223
Lucca, although on a small scale, was brilliant. The
palaces were magnificent and spacious, and thronged with
joyous inmates. The favourite residence of the Duke
was La Marlia, a beautiful royal villa, distant a very few
miles from the town, and during the intense summer heat
he retired to the charming retreat of the Bagni di Lucca,
where he had a handsome palace. On the ]4th January,
1823, the Duchess gave birth to a son, Prince Ferdinand
Charles, who, on the abdication of his father, reigned in
Parma as Charles III., and who recently fell by the hand
of an assassin.
Having thus understood the position of the sove-
reign into whose service Baron Ward entered, and in
whose government he acted so conspicuous a part, we
must, for a moment, quit the royal atmosphere of the
palace of Lucca, and enter a lonely cottage in the parish
of Howden, in the county of York. This was the abode
of the humble ancestors of Thomas Ward; and it was
the spot where he passed his early years, although not the
place of his birth.
His grandfather, Thomas Ward, was a labourer of most
respectable character in the parish of Howden, where all
his sons and daughters were born, and where he himself
lived long enough to receive frequent proofs of the attach-
ment and bounty of his distinguished grandson. He and
his wife were highly esteemed, both by their superiors and
equals, and they maintained through life that character
of honesty and integrity for which many of the English
peasantry are so conspicuous. Old Thomas Ward was in-
variably treated with the utmost affection by his grandson.
224 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
He used to receive very kind letters from him; and when
the Baron visited England in after-years, on the various
missions with which his sovereign entrusted him, he never
failed to spend a day or two at Howden, in order to show
him dutiful attention.
Thomas Ward's son, William, was" settled at York, as
stud-groom to Mr. Ridsdale, the trainer. His wife's name
was Margaret, and their son Thomas (the Baron) was boru
at York, in the year 1809. He had the misfortune to
lose his mother when he was very young. His father
married again, and we must presume that Tom did not
find his home comfortable ; for when he was seven years of
age, he ran away from his father and step-mother, and
went to his grandfather at Howden, where he remained
five years. It was to this period of his life that he always
reverted with the most affectionate interest ; and here it
was that he received his education. From seven to twelve,
he was an attender in the church-school, and there he
imbibed the sound religious principles to which he steadily
adhered throughout his whole life. His conduct as a
school-boy was good, and those who knew him well at
that early period remember that he was distinguished, in
his humble way, as an apt scholar ; and that he received
a Bible as a prize. When he was about twelve years old,
he left Howden and returned to York, and here again his
good conduct attracted the notice of his superiors ; and
he received another Bible as a gift from a lady who had
noticed him as an orderly, well-conducted boy, who pos-
sessed considerable religious knowledge. On his return
to York, he attended a National-school for a short time,.
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 225
and afterwards went to Mr. Ridsdale's stables, where he
did not continue long ; for in the year 1823 he was sent
out to push his fortune in the world.
He was then fourteen years of age, and an active,
smart, clever little fellow, with uncommon shrewdness and
dexterity, and with perfect good faith and honesty, founded
on religious principle. He was altogether a firstrate
specimen of a genuine Yorkshire boy. In the month of
October, in the year 1823, he was sent with a horse to
Vienna, and entered the service of Prince Aloys von
Lichtenstein in the department of the stables.
Materials are wanting for a particular account of the earlier
years of the Continental life of Tom Ward, and it is probable
that they do not contain many interesting incidents. He
continued for some time in the service of Prince Lichten-
^tein, and his moral conduct was uniformly good, while he
distinguished himself by his knowledge of horses, and by
his ability as a skilful trainer and fearless rider. He was
very compactly built, and a light weight, and was frequently
selected as a jockey to ride races. He gradually rose in
the stables of his master, and he was at length induced
to leave his service by the offer of a promotion into that
of a Sovereign Prince and member of a royal house.
This- was Charles Louis, Duke of Lucca, who lived
more at Vienna than in his own dominions. Although a
Bourbon and a son of France, he never cultivated any
very intimate connection with l^ouis XVIII., or Charles
X. ; while he regarded the EmpeE&r Francis as a father.
Himself a great grandson of Maria Theresa, he was still
more closely connected with the Imperial family through
2 Q
226 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
his beautiful Duchess, who was twin sister to the wife of
the son and heir of the Emperor. He thus was adopted as
a son of the house of Austria, and regarded Vienna as his
capital, while in common with his neighbours of Florence,
Parma, and Modena, he looked up to the Austrian Emperor
as the supporter of his sovereign authority, and respected
him as his political chief.
The Duke of Lucca was extremely fond of horses, and
as he was an Anglomaiie, it was necessary to have both
horses and grooms from England. Being in want of a
clever under-groom, Tom Ward was strongly recom-
mended to him, and he considered himself fortunate in
securing the services of so neat, active, and clever a lad.
Little did either master or man, at that time, think of the
close and important ties by which it was their fate to be
bound together during so many troubled and anxious
years !
I cannot tell the exact year in which Ward entered
the Duke of Lucca's service. It must have been be-
tween 1825 and 1830. He was for some years in the
Ducal stables, when his cleverness and good conduct
attracted the favourable notice of his master. And as he
was very fond of the English, he wished to attach Ward
more closely to his immediate service ; and notwithstand-
ing his equestrian skill, he decided upon removing him
from his stables, and making him his under valet de cham-
bre. Ward owed this promotion entirely to his high
character, integrity, and scrupulous English cleanliness.
He had no personal advantages whatever, being quite
devoid of that showy exterior which sometimes leads to
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 227
promotion in great houses. He was undersized and by
no means well made, except for riding; his face was plain,
but with an expression in which there was a remarkable
union of simplicity and shrewdness. His complexion was
light, his eyes were grey, quick, and penetrating. He
was thoroughly English in his air and manner, and in
nothing more than in his extreme neatness in dress and
cleanliness in person. The Duke had many opportunities
of testing his integrity and moral worth ; and as he was
anxious to have a valet on whose sterling honesty he could
quite depend, he was glad to transfer his little Yorkshire
groom from the stable to the ante-chamber.
Ward's rise in the service of the Duke of Lucca was
extremely gradual, and was the result not of capricious
favour, but of the most well-grounded appreciation of his
long-tried worth and his rare intelligence. From under-
valet he was raised to the highest post in his master's
dressing-room ; and in the year 1836 he was his con-
fidential attendant, in which important though humble
capacity he continuedfor six or seven years.
The Duke was a frequent guest at the Grand Ducal
Court of Tuscany. He was nearly connected with the
reigning family, and the larger social circle of Florence
formed a pleasant variety from his own smaller court.
In the summer of 1838, he considerably enlarged the
circuit of his travels, being attracted by the coronation of
the Queen of Great Britain. He first attended the coro-
nation of his own brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria,
at Milan, as King of Lombardy, and then he proceeded to
England.
Q 2
228 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
It may here be mentioned that there is no Imperial coro-
nation of the Austrian Emperor. His imperial title is rather
personal than territorial. The crown of the Western
Empire (the Sacred Roman Empire) had during the latter
centuries of its existence degenerated into an almost
hereditary heirloom of the house of Hapsburgb, when it
was rudely rent from the brows of Francis by Napoleon.
Although Bonaparte created a new Western Empire, the
successor of Old Rome was extinguished never to be
revived. Yet Francis, who had been the representative of
the Csesars, was not to be cheated of his imperial dignity.
He continued an Emperor, but his Empire was Austrian
instead of Roman. Austria had never been more than a
Duchy, to which, by way of eminence, the affix " Arch"
had been added. The Archduke of Austria had no coro-
nation, but on his accession was accustomed to receive the
homage (Huldigung) of his states. But as the Austrian
Emperor was the possessor of many crowns, such as those
of Hungaiy, Bohemia, and Lombardy, it was decided that
he should henceforth undergo the ceremony of corona-
tion at Presburg for the Kingdom of Hungary, and at
Milan for that of Lombardy, and at Prague for that of
Bohemia.
After the coronation at Milan, the Duke of Lucca pro-
ceeded to England, and he was accompanied by Ward in his
quality of first valet de chambre. He must at that time have
seen at an awful distance some of those political notabili-
ties with whom it was his fate, a few years after, to mingle
in the associations of diplomatic life. At the Court of
Great Britain the Duke was extremely well received, and
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 229
welcomed with the distinction due to his exalted rank ; and
during the months of his stay in this country, he had the
opportunity, of which he fully availed himself, of mingling
with the various ranks of English society, and with the
manifold subdivisions of party, whether religious or politi-
cal, by which that society is marked.
After a stay at Windsor Castle, and one or two visits
with which he honoured country mansions, and a residence
during some time in London, his Royal Highness returned
to the Continent. The Duchess at this time preserved
the. grace and beauty for which she had been so pre-emi-
nently distinguished, but her health was extremely delicate,
and she mixed but little in society. Besides a princess,
who died in early infancy, the marriage of the Duke and
Duchess had produced only one son, the late unfortunate
Duke of Parma. He was at this time a boy under care
of his tutor Monsignore Diacchi, a Hungarian Ecclesiastic
of considerable talent and worth.
Such was the scene into which the young Yorkshire-
man was introduced, and such were the actors among
whom his lot was cast when he became principal valet to
the Duke of Lucca.
It has been already stated that "Ward had in his early
years received a religious education, and that he did not
fail to profit by what he had learnt. He always faithfully
adhered to the Church of England. He was unlearned in
doctrines, but he cultivated the fruits of sobriety, chastity,
and honesty ; and he regarded it as a point of duty and
honour to remain faithful to the communion of the Church
of England, in which he had been born and bred. There
230 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
never was a man less ambitious; greatness \vas thrust
upon him without his either wishing for it or expecting it r
and he pursued the quiet tenor of his way, always acting
according to the dictates of his prudent integrity and
shrewd simplicity, and adopting as his motto, " Honesty
is the best and surest policy."
His extraordinary good sense and practical ability be-
came gradually more and more apparent. The Duke soon
began to see that his advice was good in matters far beyond
the departments of his stables and his wardrobe. He accord-
ingly consulted him in many perplexed and difficult cases
as they happened to occur. And he invariably found
such benefit from the advice of his new counsellor, that
he began to regard him as almost infallible. Ward soon
became the prime adviser in all that regarded the personal
expenditure and the household economy of his master.
Among the natives of Lucca the English valet was much
more popular than is usually the case with the foreign
favourites of princes. It was evident that he was acquiring
a very great share of influence ; but then it was quite as
evident that he was not abusing that influence in order to
compass any selfish ends. All that he did was character-
ized by straightforward plainness and simplicity. He
never boasted of favour, it was evident that he was always
entirely actuated by a desire to promote the really best
interests of his master, and the people soon learnt to dis-
tinguish between his sincere downright attachment to his
duties, and the timeserving fawning of court parasites.
As his influence increased, and as he was consulted on
weightier matters, he obtained a growing esteem among
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 231
the people, and Signer Tommaso was one of the most
popular personages in the ducal court. He never mani-
fested the slightest wish to rise above the level of his
early rank. He had married a young woman of Vienna,
of excellent character, but of his own station in life, and
he inhabited a neat little house in Lucca, in the vicinity of
the palace. And when he was practically the keeper of the
Duke's privy purse, and his adviser in some of the most
important concerns, he went about his humble duties with
the same modest and unassuming demeanour as when he had
no other occupation than that of overlooking his master's
wardrobe and arranging his toilette. The knowledge that
he possessed on the subject of horses, gained for him a
considerable amount of influence ; he became practically
superintendent of the ducal stud, and almost every year
he made journeys to his native Yorkshire, in order to pur-
chase fine English horses. On such occasions he never
omitted to visit his father, and his old grandfather and
uncles at Howden.
Ward had been gradually advancing in the regard and
confidence of the Duke and Duchess, when, in the year
1843, a circumstance occurred, which justly secured for
him a lasting place in their favour, and which at the same
time proved his capacity for diplomacy, and his remarkable
aptitude in accomplishing difficult negotiations. After the
death of the Marquis Man si, the management of the
affairs of the Duchy of Lucca fell into bad hands ; the
revenue was misappropriated, the Duke's private funds
were embezzled, and the finances had fallen into the most
frightful disorder. This occasioned the utmost distress of
232 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
mind to the Duke ; and his health and spirits were visibly
affected. The anxious affection of the Duchess was on the
alert to find, if possible, some remedy for the evil. And
there was no one to whose advice she so readily had
recourse as Ward. He was perfectly aware of the course of
nefarious transactions by means of which his master was
impoverished, and plainly told the Duchess that there was
no salvation from ruin except by the immediate removal of
the obnoxious minister, and the adoption of a strict system
of financial reform.
But it was easy to suggest. The difficulty was, to
induce the Duke to take the decided steps which were
necessary. A powerful minister was to be dismissed,
and a complicated arrangement of embarrassed affairs
was to be accomplished. The only way of getting
the Duke to act, was by inducing some friend to take
the responsibility and the trouble upon himself; and
where was such an invaluable friend to be found ? The
Duchess and her faithful counsellor went over the diffe-
rent princes with whom her family were intimately con-
nected, and she found difficulties and objections to all.
At last she fixed upon one of the Austrian Archdukes,
who was Governor of Gallicia, and she decided that he
was the man to help them out of their difficulties by his
resolution in acting, and his prudence in advising, if he
could only be induced to undertake the difficult task. It
may be proper to explain that the prince thus selected was
Ferdinand, cousin to the Emperor, brother to the Duke
of Modena, and maternal uncle to the Duchess of Lucca,
her father, Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, having
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 233
married an Archduchess of Austria, the daughter of
Ferdinand, a younger son of Maria Theresa. Her
mind was no sooner made up than she resolved with-
out delay to put her plans in practice. She told Ward
that he must forthwith prepare for a journey to Gallicia.
She feared to give him full instructions in writing, or
to send by him any detail of circumstances to the Arch-
duke, lest he should be robbed by the way or examined
at the frontiers which he had to pass. She ascertained
that he was thoroughly acquainted with the posture of
the Duke's affairs and alive to all their difficulties; and
she therefore furnished him with a single line to the
Archduke, informing him that the bearer was a person
entirely in her confidence, and who had a most important
communication to make to his Imperial Highness, and
that every word that he said might be implicitly trusted.
The first difficulty to be overcome, was for Ward to
obtain leave of absence from the Duke, whose health and
spirits were such that he could ill dispense with his ser-
vices. However, he entreated so urgently for leave of
absence during three weeks, that his master was at length
prevailed on to grant his request. It was next necessary
to take measures to conceal the place of his real desti-
nation. Ward gave out that he was going to Dresden, and
in order that this might be believed, he sent several letters
addressed to his wife at Lucca, under cover to a confiden-
tial friend at Dresden, to be put from time to time into
the post-office of that city, so that they might arrive at
Lucca with the Dresden postmark.
When once he set out, he lost little time by the way.
]3ut after he had crossed the Hungarian frontier, and when
234 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
he was no longer in danger of having his papers seized, he
spent one or two nights, instead of sleeping after his long
day's journey, in writing out as distinct a statement as he
could of the Duke's affairs, and of the shameful way in
which he was pillaged, with a view to assist his memory
in the conversation that he hoped to have with the Arch-
duke. This statement he composed in German, which he
spoke and wrote fluently, although with the Viennese
dialect.
As soon as he arrived at Lemberg, the capital of Gal-
licia, he requested an audience of the Archduke, and
delivered to him the brief credentials with which the
Duchess of Lucca had entrusted him. When the Arch-
duke desired to know the nature of the important com-
munication that he had to make, Ward pulled out his
statement, and began to explain it. The Archduke told
him to leave the paper with him, and to call next day,
when he would be better able to talk to him. And when,
full of anxiety, he came at the appointed time, his Impe-
rial Highness complimented him on the distinctness of his
statement, but he demanded in what way all this concerned
him, and how he could be instrumental in improving the
state of the Duke's affairs ? Ward therefore fully entered
upon the mission with which he had been entrusted, and
a very long conversation ended in the Archduke giving
him the assurance that if he was requested by the Duke
of Lucca so to do, he would formally enter upon the trust
which the Duchess wished him to undertake, and endea-
vour to check the abuses of his master's financial adminis-
tration, and put order into his affairs.
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 235
No sooner had this assurance been given, than Ward
set out on his homeward journey, and in due time he
arrived at Lucca. He first acquainted the Duchess with
the success of her scheme, and he then hastened to present
himself to his master, whom he found sunk in the lowest
dejection, and who complained bitterly of his minister's
conduct, of the embarrassment of his circumstances, and
of his misfortunes. " Ah," said he, " I have no able and
powerful friend who might help me to bear my burden ! "
"Ward immediately caught at this idea, and suggested that
some one of his princely relatives and neighbours might
perhaps be induced to give him their aid. He began
with some of those who were most nearly connected with
his master by family ties, and proposed successively his
brothers-in-law, the Duke of Modena and the King of
Naples, his neighbour the Grand Duke of Tuscany, or the
King of Sardinia. All were objected to, on different
grounds. Ward next went warily into Germany, and
spake of the King of Saxony, or Prince John, who
were 'nearly connected with him. They would not do.
Then he turned to Vienna, and among the Archdukes he
named with considerable internal trepidation the Governor
of Gallicia. "Ah," said the Duke, "he would do, if he
could only be prevailed on to undertake the task/'
" Would your Royal Highness agree to put your affairs into
his hands, if he would consent to take the trouble?"
eagerly rejoined Ward. "Yes, I would, and gladly," said
the Duke. "Then, I have the happiness of informing
you that the thing is already agreed to ; and the Arch-
236 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
duke only awaits your application to him, in order imme-
mediately to enter upon the arrangement of your affairs."
The satisfaction of the Duke, the Duchess, and their
faithful confidant, may easily be conceived. The arrange-
ment of the Duke's embarrassments was immediately
entrusted to the Archduke. The unfaithful minister was
dismissed, and the rapid advance of ruin was arrested in
good time.
The zeal and address which Ward displayed in the ar-
rangement of this affair, procured for him an unbounded
influence with his master, who, soon after this, strongly
urged him to accept of a portfolio, and to assume the
public position of a minister of state. This proposition
Ward refused point blank. He said that it would make
them both ridiculous ; that he was an uneducated English
groom, and quite unfit, in every way, to be elevated in the
manner that his Royal Highness proposed ; but that he
had devoted his life to him, and could serve him in a
private capacity quite as faithfully and as effectually as if
he assumed the external badge of power. He had now
the entire management of all the Duke's private affairs,
and he was consulted by him in matters of state. But he
held no ostensible position, and would not allow himself
to be regarded otherwise than as the Duke's servant.
Some months after the final conclusion of this negoci-
ation, when the Prime Minister had been dismissed, and
the finances of Lucca had been put on a better footing,
in the autumn of the year 1844, Ward made one of his
accustomed journeys into Yorkshire to buy horses for the
stud.
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 237
In this refusal to take office, which was not a mere
feint, we may recognise the native of a free and yet an
aristocratic country ; for Ward carried about with him
through life the most unmistakable type of an English-
man. In a despotic government, where the will of the
autocrat is absolute law, a word or a nod can raise the
most abject, and, decorating him with orders and titles,
can elevate him above the noblest in the land. And in
pursuance of this arbitrary system, of which we have the
most full development in Eastern countries, but which we
have seen in a modified degree under the various despotisms
of Europe, the Duke of Lucca thought it neither strange
nor unreasonable that his valet should, if he s"o pleased it,
become a minister of state, and hold his head above all the
native nobles. But Ward, with the intuitive sense of an
Englishman, felt that this would not do. Though pro-
bably not well read in the constitutional history of his
country, he yet felt as the mass of Englishmen feel, and
the same cause which has prevented some of our most
talented statesmen from gaining a thorough cordial in-
fluence over the English nation, made Ward refuse the
glittering distinction that was offered to him. With the
tact of an Englishman, he felt that position and station
were wanted in order to give a fair field to talent, integrity,
and honest ambition. And although his hesitation would
have been better founded if it had applied to free England,
than to an Italian people accustomed from time imme-
morial to bow to the caprices of rulers, yet it was k not
wholly mistaken ; for it was impossible that the Lucchese
238 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
nobility who, one generation back, had been themselves
the sovereigns of their republic, could regard with com-
placency the sudden elevation of an obscure foreigner,
however great might be his personal worth.
Ward's reluctance to take upon himself the name and
title of cabinet minister was persevered in for some time.
But it was found to be inexpedient, and even impossible
to carry on the government with the real and virtual prime
minister holding the position of valet de chambre to the
sovereign. The Duke, therefore, at length overcame his
scruples, and elevated him to the position of minister of
state, giving him the portfolio of minister of finance. At
the same time he created him a Baron.
In the year 1845, an auspicious event occurred in the
ducal family, viz., the marriage of the only son of the
Duke and Duchess, Charles, hereditary Prince of Lucca.
This young Prince was now twenty -two years of age ; and
he had grown up very different from what might have
been expected, in the son of parents so distinguished for
beauty and grace. His appearance was plain, and his
manners were singularly undignified, as may be remem-
bered by many of those who knew him during his visits to
this country, where he astonished all who had observed
the graceful demeanour of his mother, and the winning
courtesy of his father.
The marriage which he now made was one well calcu-
lated to please a family who were themselves Bourbons,
and connected with all the highest royal houses in
Europe. The bride was Louisa of France, only sister of
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 239
the Due de Bordeaux, and daughter of the Due de
Berry. Having been born in 1819, she was three years
older than the Prince, and that was an advantage, con-
sidering his boyish temperament, which required guidance.
The marriage took place on the 10th November, 1845.
Nothing could be more gratifying to the Duke of Lucca
than this marriage of his son. The alliance was brilliant
in point of rank and birth ; and although the star of the
elder line of the Bourbons was not in the ascendant, yet
the last remaining scions of that magnificent race were
invested with a grand historic interest. In the probable
event of the death of the Due de Bordeaux without a
family, his sister Louisa will become heir-general of Hugh
Capet, as well as heir-general of the ancient Scottish and
Anglo-Saxon kings, through John BalioFs sister. The
latter, however, is a curious point of illustration known
and valuable to genealogists alone. But, even in the
present day, when illustrious birth is made to yield to
wealth and success, the representation in the female line
of the mighty Capetian and Bourbon dynasty of French
kings will add considerable illustration to a cadet branch
of the family, which is the position of the present young
Duke Robert of Parma, the Princess Louisa's eldest
son.
The issue of his marriage with Louisa of France was
two sons and a daughter. To the eldest was given the
name Robert, unusual in his family since the times of
Robert, son and successor of Hugh Capet.
I have followed Ward in the scenes of his early life,
when he passed through the discipline of obscurity and
240 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
attained to a position of trust and importance. I have
now to trace his course amid stirring events, in which he
was destined to act a very conspicuous part ; and I will, in
the subsequent portion of the narrative, thankfully avail
myself of some of his letters, written from the midst of
his political vicissitudes. If I could publish them fully,
they would redound still more to the honour of his disin-
terested modesty, rare good sense, and right feeling.
But many details are involved in them which cannot, with
propriety, be made public during the present generation.
Enough, however, will appear in the extracts which I
propose to give, to illustrate the excellence of his charac-
ter, and the rare talent which he evinced for conducting-
the most difficult and seemingly hopeless negociations to
a successful conclusion.
The reader must pardon the inaccuracies of the English,
remembering that it is that of a Yorkshire groom, whoso
only college was the parish school at Howden. How-
ever, in the midst of a life of constant active exertion, he
did not neglect his improvement in his native language as-
well as in German, Italian, and French. Were the letters
written in 1839, when he was a valet, compared with
those written ten years after, when he was a Minister of
state, a considerable difference would be seen in style and
orthography. His best language, however, was Italian;
as in that he had been the most accustomed to converse
with men of rank and education.
In considering the character of this man, even those
who are not so intimately acquainted with him as to be
able to judge of his higher qualities, must needs admit
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 241
him to have been a consummately clever fellow, who could
apply all his native Yorkshire shrewdness to a new sphere,
and turn to his sharp intelligence for guidance in novel
and difficult circumstances. A certain freedom of speech,
with a bold hardihood of character, based entirely on a
conscious sense of honour, attracted, at first, the notice of
his master, who felt such pleasure in the open frankness of
the man, that he frequently took opportunities of convers-
ing with him and asking his advice. Ward always spoke
out his mind, and by the force of strong native sense and
unswerving determination, he impressed his master with
the fact that his best counsels were to be derived from the
truthfulness of his Yorkshire groom, and not from the
flattery of the titled and decorated crowds that thronged
his chambers of audience.
The groom was elevated to the post of personal atten-
dant, then of intendant of his stables and household, then
of comptroller of his privy purse, then of Minister of
state, and, in fact, Prime Minister, with baronial titles and
manifold knightly decorations. Such was the elevation
to which Ward had ascended 'at the present epoch of his
history. He was the trusted adviser of his master in the
knottiest questions of foreign politics ; the arbiter of the
most difficult points of international policy with other
states ; and the highest authority in all home affairs. He
was one of those men of action who speedily distinguish
themselves whenever the game of life is to be played;
quick to discern the character of those around him, and
prompt to avail himself of their knowledge. Little
hampered by the conventionalities which impose trammels
2 R
242 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
on men bom in an elevated station and refined by elegant
breeding, he generally attained his object by a coup de
main, before others had arranged their plans to oppose
him. To these qualities, so instrumental to his success, he
added the most rugged, unyielding honesty ; and a loyal
singlehearted attachment to the person of his Prince. Strong
in his own conscious rectitude, and in the confiding regard
of his sovereign, Ward stood alone and fearless against all
the wiles and machinations of his formidable rivals, who,
although armed against counter wiles and counter machi-
nations, were quite unprepared against straightforward
honesty. He went right on to the point, even as the
pebble from the shepherd's sling penetrated the skull of
the mighty man of Gath.
Ward was thus, most honourably to himself, raised by
his master to the important office of a Minister of
state, with the finance department as his more peculiar
province in the first instance. But he soon became
virtually Prime Minister ; and his diplomatic talent and
address were such that all the arrangements between the
Duchy of Lucca and the other Italian states were made
under his immediate superintendence. In the year 1847,
he succeeded in settling, very much to the advantage of the
Duke of Lucca, a dispute between that Prince and the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, of many years' standing; and
having concluded a treaty for the acknowledgment of the
Lucchese public debt, as well as the Customs Union
between the two governments, he was decorated by his
master with the first class of the order of St. Louis, and
was created a Baron of the Duchy of Lucca. The Grand
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 243
Duke of Tuscany also made him a Noble of his States,
and decorated him with the order of St. Joseph. An
account of the conferring of these honours will be given
hereafter, in the simple and naive words of the Baron
himself. Meanwhile I may say that they were showered
upon him without any solicitation on his part, and alto-
gether unexpectedly. The first news that he had of his
having been created a Baron was when he saw that title
attached to his name in some public document. Believing
it to be a mistake, he ordered it to be erased. And he
was only induced to give a reluctant consent to the
measure, when the Duke assured him not only that he had
created him a Baron, but that, under the circumstances of
his early obscurity and his present exalted position, it was
absolutely necessary that he should hold some definite
rank.
One day, about this time, when he entered the Duke's
room, he found him occupied with a pencil and paper.
1 ' Ward/' said his Royal Highness, " I am devising a coat
of arms for you. As a mark of the esteem in which you
are held by the Duchess as well as by myself, you shall
have armorial bearings compounded of her arms and my
own. I will give you the silver cross of Savoy with the
golden fleur de Us of France in dexter chief." "With many
expressions of gratitude for the honour which was about
to be conferred upon him, he asked permission to add
something emblematical of his native country ; and as he
had heard that coats of arms sometimes had supporters,
he would like to have the cross of Savoy and the lily of
Bourbon supported by English John Bulls I " So be it,"
R 2
244 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
said the Duke, "you shall have two bulls regardant for
your supporters." And thus the arras of Baron Ward may
be found in " Burke' s Peerage " among those of English-
men who have obtained foreign titles : On a field gules
a cross argent, in the dexter chief, a shield azure sur-
mounted by a royal crown, and charged with a fleur de lis
or; supporters, two bulls regardant, proper.
In 1847 a remarkable event took place in the history of
the Duke of Lucca. He put in execution the design
which he had long entertained, of abdicating his crown.
This measure he had contemplated at least twelve years
before ; and he always reverted to it whenever he found
the burden of sovereignty peculiarly distasteful. But he
had been hitherto prevented from accomplishing his object
by the consideration of the duties incumbent on a ruler,
and in consequence of the representations of his friends.
Lucca was not to be his permanent possession. He knew
that in the course of nature he must, ere long, inherit his
birthright, the Duchy of Parma, which had so long been,
unjustly withheld from him ; and he might well be excused
if he was unable to feel the same interest in his Lucchese
subjects with which they would have inspired him if he
had been born their ruler, and if they were to become the
subjects of his son after him. He also considered, and
not unjustly, that since at no distant date they were of
necessity to be united to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
the sooner that transfer was accomplished the better.
The health of the Archduchess Maria Louisa was declin-
ing. On her death he was to become Sovereign of Parma ;
he wished to be fairly rid of all the cares of one
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 245
sovereignty before he was called on to undertake those of
another, and he considered that the treaties which he had
just concluded with the Grand Duke rendered the present
a favourable opportunity for resigning to him that which
must, at any rate, soon be his in perpetuity.
Many arrangements were necessary with regard to the
transfer of the Lucchese state. But they had been
rendered comparatively easy in consequence of the politi-
cal measures already alluded to, which had been so ably
accomplished by Ward. And that indefatigable diploma-
tist was employed to conclude the transfer of the aristo-
cratic old Republic from the dominion of the Duke Charles
Louis to that of the Grand Duke Leopold. In all this,
be it observed, the nobles and commons of the recently
erected Duchy had no choice. There is something very
repugnant to the ideas of an Englishman in the popula-
tion of a state, which, only a generation ago, had been free
and self-governing, being turned over like a flock of sheep
from the hands of one despotic master to those of another.
But I am describing Italy, and not England. And little
as such an arrangement accords with our notions, it is
probable that the people of Lucca were not worse governed
by a Bourbon and an Austrian than they had been by a
Gonfaloniere and Senate composed of their own nobles.
No one that knows personally the Duke or the Grand
Duke can deny them the praise of the most amiable and
kindly disposition ; and if they were despots, their desire,
at least, was that their people should be happy.
The cession of the Duchy of Lucca to Tuscany was by
no means an unfavourable arrangement either for the
246 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
people or their sovereign. The former were at once settled
under the rule which was expected to be permanent. And
the latter received such an indemnity as secured him
against loss ; while he continued to enjoy his own private
income as an Infant of Spain.
The active agency of Ward was instrumental in the
amicable settlement of these momentous changes, and he
had just brought everything to a happy conclusion, when
another remarkable vicissitude occurred in the fortunes
of his master, which was immediately followed by a
catastrophe no less sudden than it was overwhelming. No
sooner was the Duchy of Lucca resigned into the hands of
the Grand Duke Leopold, and Charles Louis, thus a second
time discrowned, was beginning to enjoy the freedom of no
longer reigning, than he was called to resume the sceptre
of command over a more important sovereignty. The
Archduchess Maria Louisa died, and he became Duke of
Parma.
The resignation of the crown of Lucca and the succes-
sion to that of Parma were events that followed each
other so rapidly that the Duke had no time to enjoy the
repose of private life before he was called to take posses-
sion of his new states, and to be installed in the palace of
his ancestors. But he was scarcely settled on his throne
when the storm, which had been brewing in other parts
of the Italian peninsula, burst forth there as elsewhere
with such fury that he was speedily compelled to relin-
quish the sceptre which had just been put into his hands.
In the beginning of the year 1848 he was establish-
ing himself at Parma, and Ward was still at Florence,
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 247
busily occupied with the concluding articles of the arrange-
ment which had just been effected between his master and
the Grand Duke of Tuscany. We will here allow him to
speak for himself, and to give a sketch of his actual posi-
tion, in an extract of a letter to his father.
Extracts from a Letter written by Baron Ward, from
Florence, I2th January, 1848.
" Many have been the changes in my position of life
since I saw you last, and your not writing was one great
reason why I have abstained from doing so, as I must
have spoke of all these affairs, and that might have ap-
peared in the eyes of many vanity. However, all has
gone for the best, and I hope, with the help of God, in
whom alone I place my confidence, all will continue so.
I have had many changes in life, wonderful changes for a
man of my humble education. When I returned last from
England, the whole of the Duke's administration was con-
fided to me. I was successful, and everything went well.
Afterwards, a very serious question arose between the
Duke of Lucca and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which
lasted for two years, and ended in a very disagreeable
manner, by the Grand Duke protesting publicly. I at
that time was confided with the finance department, as
Minister of state and state councillor. Our minister of
foreign affairs, who had treated the above affair, gave it up
as impossible to make anything more out of it. My in-
defatigable spirit would not allow me to see a scandal of
that kind given up so cowardly, and it was, at my request,
confided to me. I was laughed at when I took it in band
248 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
by all. Some said I was presumptuous, some said I was
a fool, and some said I was an ignorant fellow. I let
them all have their talk ; and to work I went ; and this
was my first step as a diplomatist. I was so successful
that in two months' time the Grand Duke was so con-
vinced of his wrong, that he was obliged to withdraw his
protest which had been publicly placarded by his govern-
ment throughout this Duchy, and confirmed the Duke of
Lucca's right to his credit against the Duchy of Lucca in
two millions of livres. And in three weeks afterwards, I
signed another treaty for a Customs' Union betwixt the
two states, and was fortunate enough to succeed, as well
as the raising of a public loan. All this went step after
step, so quick that I had not time to look round me.
The Grand Duke, as a demonstration of his satisfaction,
decorated me with the Commander Cross of St. Joseph ;
and the Duke of Lucca with his Cross of St. Louis, first-
class ; afterwards with the title of Baron for me and my
successors. And all at once I found myself launched into
the world, without really knowing how I got there ; and
for why do all make such a fuss of me ? Invitations on
all sides, all admiring a wonderful talent that I know
nothing of. After these affairs, and just as I was begin-
ning to feel myself easy in financial matters for the state
as minister, the Italian movement began : and again I
found myself in the middle of the whole, how, I know
not. But it has been the cause of my signing three more
treaties. The Duke of Lucca abdicated in favour of the
Grand Duke ; and since, I have been the intermediator
betwixt Austria and Tuscany, Modena and Tuscany, the
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 249
Dukes of Lucca and Tuscany and Modena. I have done
nothing but travel about from one court to the other.
And a few days ago, the Grand Duke of Tuscany has
settled upon me a handsome pension for life, for my ser-
vices rendered to his state. The Duke of Lucca, who is
now Duke of Parma, has done the same. And now I am
settling the liquidation betwixt the Duke of Parma and
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and I have four secretaries
and ten writers at this present moment here at Florence
under my direction to get done as quickly as possible ; as
the Duke of Parma wishes me to take part in his govern-
ment there. However, I shall retire if possible ; I have
had enough of this life. They will finish me with fatigue.
I have not a moment's rest, and have much to fear for my
health, as really I feel I cannot go on this way. I thought
it necessary just to give you a sketch of my past life, not
for vanity's sake. I am, and I hope God will maintain
rne so, always the same, nothing has altered in me. Only
I feel burdened by what many envy me for possessing. In
it, law and honour will be my guide through life. Though
humble, God has raised me above many thousands that
sneered upon me. But he has likewise blessed me with a
noble mind, and I feel his blessing in all I do. My path
is straight forward, and here they call it talent."
It may be interesting to know that at this period, which
was the commencement of his pecuniary prosperity, he
was mindful of the wants of his poor relations. He had
a family of his own to provide for, as prior to 1848 he
had a son and a daughter, and in 1848 another child was
250 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
born to him. But no sooner could he be said himself to
have an assured competence, than he hastened to place his
father, grandfather, and other near relatives in a comfort-
able position according to their station. And the manner
in which his assistance was bestowed proved his good
sense. In 1848, besides a very handsome new year's gift
to his father, he settled one pound weekly on him, payable
every Monday morning. He sent considerable sums as
presents to his old grandfather and brother, and settled a
comfortable weekly allowance on them both ; that to his
brother being put into the savings' bank to occumulate,
as he was at sea. He adopted Walter Ward, the son of
his father's younger brother, and educated him and pro-
cured for him a commission in the Austrian army, which
he left and then joined the German Legion, and is now at
the Cape. The Baron was always most affectionately dis-
posed towards his father, brothers, and uncles, and more
especially towards his old grandfather, with whom he
had passed so many years. The letters which he wrote to
them were always expressive of much affection. In that
addressed to his father, from which I have given extracts,
I have limited these to his account of public matters, as
being alone of general interest.
When the death of Napoleon Bonaparte's widow opened
to Charles Louis de Bourbon the succession to the
dominions of his ancestors, he ascended a throne which
had been already undermined. In Parma the emissaries
of Charles Albert found men's minds too ready to receive
impressions of revolt and sedition. In Placentia, all were
gained over to the interests of Piedmont. In Pontremoli,
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 251
and Lunigiana, some wanted a republic, some were anxious
for annexation to Tuscany, while a few were attached to
their lawful sovereign.
The moral and religious condition of Parma were alike
deplorable. "While in other Italian cities there was a fair
mixture of good and evil, at Parma there was a total dead-
ness to religion, accompanied by a depravity of manners
truly revolting. The Parmesans, soft and effeminate, gave
little hopes of amelioration. The people of Placentia, on
the other hand, though mutinous and revolutionary, had
more strength of character, and might thus be moulded
into something better. A strong hatred against Parma
made them resolve not to submit to the same ruler, and
led them into the arms of Piedmont.
It is, after all, impossible for the people of those states
of Northern Italy to forget their historical antecedents. They
are essentially republican. Sovereigns of foreign race
have for generations attempted to establish the monarchical
system ; but they have fared no better than exotic plants
in an ungenial soil. The people are equally incapable of
enduring a monarchy even when constitutional, and of
entertaining broad and enlightened views of patriotism.
Their national sympathies are bounded by their respective
municipalities. They hate all beyond their own town
walls ; and when they admit of a union with a neighbour-
ing city, it is with the view of combining against a third
odious to both.
Such was the state of the people of Parma, and such
were their dispositions towards their native sovereign,
when, early in the year 1848, he ascended the throne
252 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
which the death of the ex-Empress Maria Louisa had
rendered vacant.
Charles Louis was no sooner established at Parma, than
the fruits of the secret intrigues of Sardinia appeared in
the disaffection of his new subjects, wliich received a
sudden impulse from the revolution in France. Ward
was at that time in Florence, concluding the complicated
arrangements incident on the recent cession of the Duchy
of Lucca to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. No sooner did
he hear of the political troubles by which his master was
surrounded, than that faithful servant hastened to Parma,
where he arrived just in time to witness that master's over-
throw. The secret intrigues had been astutely devised,
the revolutionary movement was violent and sudden, and
the Duke's throne was subverted without giving him even
the opportunity of resistance. Flight was the only course
that was left ; and attended by the faithful Ward, he sud-
denly quitted the capital where his reign had not extended
over many weeks. They traversed a portion of Italy in
disguise ; and gaining the coast, they embarked and
landed in the south of France, from whence they proceeded
to Weistropp, a chateau and small estate which the Duke
had purchased near Dresden, ten years before. The Duke
now fixed his residence in this retired spot, where he could
enjoy the tranquil life of an elegant scholar and country
gentleman, diversified by the occasional intercourse of the
Royal Family of Saxony, who were his near relations, and
to whom he was much attached.
At Weistropp he remained almost continually during
the remainder of 1848 and 1849, while the great struggle
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 253
in Italy was carried on, which ended in the confusion and
defeat of Charles Albert, and the restoration of the
ascendancy of the legitimate sovereigns. While the Duke
remained at Weistropp, the Prince and Princess visited
various countries, and spent a considerable portion of their
exile in England.
From Weistropp, Baron Ward was despatched, in the
summer of 1848, to fight his master's battles in the
diplomatic circle of Vienna, and in the camp of Field-
Marshal Radetsky. He displayed the greatest energy and
the most consummate prudence in negociating for the in-
terests of the Duke, or rather for those of his family. For
the Duke himself had decided on abdicating his sovereignty
to his son, and he only waited for the downfall of Charles
Albert, and the restoration of legitimate authority in
Northern Italy, in order to execute his design. Ward
was invested with full powers to act for the Duke both at
Vienna and in Italy ; and he was, in fact, nominated as
his alter ego, a degree of confidence which was indeed
fully merited by him, but which has very seldom been
extended by a prince to a subject.
During the autumn of 1848, he was busily engaged in
negociating between Charles Louis (or Charles II. as he
was called), the abdicating Duke of Parma, and his son,
who ascended the tottering throne as Charles III. The
act of abdication on the one hand, and that of acceptance
on the other, are both countersigned by "Ward," who
acted as prime minister both to the father and son. Part
of the autumn of 1848 was spent by the Prince and
Princess of Parma in the island of Arran, with the
254 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Marquess of Douglas and his Marchioness, nee Princess
Mary of Baden. Ward came to England in order to
arrange some of the necessary preliminaries with a view
to the abdication. He followed the Prince to Scotland,
and on his way thither he stopped at Bolsover Castle, to
deliver a packet with which he had been entrusted by the
Duke for Mr. Hamilton Gray. When invited to prolong
his stay there, he stated that he was unable to remain
longer than a few hours ; as he was anxious to devote four-
and-twenty hours to a visit to the village of Howden,
where he wished to see his aged grandfather and other
members of his family. And hereupon he opened a small
portmanteau, which was literally filled with the insignia of
different orders of knighthood which he had received from
various sovereigns ; the Grand Cross of St. George ; the
Grand Cross of St. Louis of Parma ; the Grand Cross of
St. Joseph of Tuscany; the Commander Cross of the
Iron Crown. All these splendid decorations he intended,
with pardonable vanity, to show to his Yorkshire kinsmen.
After having negociated the abdication of his old master,
and been mainly instrumental in placing on the throne of
Parma the youthful Charles III., he continued to be
prime minister, with absolute power, during the years of
that Prince's life and reign.
It was necessary to give this short sketch, in order to
enable the reader to understand the extracts from a few
of Baron Ward's letters with which I will conclude
this memoir. They are addressed to an English gentle-
man, who, from his very old and intimate acquaintance
with the Duke of Parma, had the best opportunity of
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 255
knowing and appreciating the sterling worth of Ward's
character, having watched his progress from the time that
he waited in his master's ante-chamber to that of his
exaltation as unlimited prime minister.
LETTER I.
WEISTEOPP, 22d July, 1848.
" I kept the Duke at Parma as long as I could. Had
he heeded my counsels throughout, I believe we should
have been there still. However, it seems that Providence
had ordained otherwise. The English Government has
been very kind to us throughout the whole affair. I had
been at Turin, treating the customs league, and there I
had an opportunity of informing the English Government,
and proving my statements, so that they had a clear view
of the infamous conduct of the King of Sardinia. When
all was beyond remedy, I was enabled, by the kindness of
Sir George Hamilton, to snatch the Duke from their power,
and by so doing I have embarrassed their whole policy,
and, as I hope, saved all. I see nothing to be feared
from Charles Albert's invasion, and really believe he will
soon be driven home again. I hope that the Duke will
benefit by this lesson ; for out of all that numerous herd
of courtiers fed by him, none came forward to share their
fate with him ; and it proves, at the end, that my poor
humble Yorkshire breeding was the best nobility of that
horrid lot ! I was desired by the Court of Tuscany to
take a part in their government, just at the moment of
the Duke's fall in Parma. My answer to the Grand Duke
was, that the more the Duke of Parma was sunk in mis-
256 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
fortune the truer I should stick to him, and that I hoped
the Grand Duke would, in case of similar misfortunes,
find men of his own who would do the same ! The Grand
Duke was highly pleased with the answer, and said,
1 Ward, that is precisely the answer that I expected from
you/" In this letter Baron "Ward describes, at great
length, many important negociations which he had carried
on between his master, while Duke of Lucca, and the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the share which he had in
the arrangement whereby the Duchy of Lucca was ceded
to the Grand Duke on very favourable terms for Charles
Louis. "The conclusion of this important affair made
the Grand Duke settle an annual pension on me of 10,000
francs, allowing me to enjoy it when I liked, and to con-
tinue to serve the Duke and his son. Afterwards he con-
ferred his Grand Cross on me, and the title of a Tuscan
nobleman. The Duke of Lucca had given me his cross of
the first class, and, unknowingly to me, had created me a
Baron. Here you have a sketch of my romantic life ; for
I cannot term it otherwise for a national school-boy of
York, who only had the benefit even of that up to his
ninth year. To go on with my story : Unluckily for us,
the Archduchess Maria Louisa, Duchess of Parma, died
suddenly and unexpectedly. I was engaged in Florence
liquidating the affairs of the Lucchese abdication. * * *
The Duke did all he could to get me to Parma ; and when
the Grand Duke conferred on me the Grand Cross of
St. Joseph, the Duke gave me the Grand Cross of Constan-
tiniano of Parma. But that was not what would entice
Ward. However, as soon as I heard of the fall of Vienna,
I set out post immediately for Parma, to stand by the
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 257
Duke in such a needful moment. I was stopped on the
road by Zambeccari's band of Crosciati; but when con-
ducted to him, he most friendly told me he had heard so
much good of me, he was sure I should do no harm.
However, I arrived at Parma when the revolution had
conquered, and I leave you to judge my mortification.
However, I succeeded in compromising the Regency, so
that the Duke and his family had their horses taken from
their carriages, and were drawn in triumph through the
streets. The Regency were baffled by this sudden change
of public opinion, and begged me to become one of their
members. This, of course, I declined. The Duke had
unfortunately named a Regency before I arrived, and after
he had done so there was no means of getting him away,
as all Lombardy was in an uproar. Had the Duke not
done this, or even afterwards, had he given the constitu-
tion and formed a new ministry, all would have gone well.
But it was impossible for me to persuade him to this, so I
had no other way than that of saving the family; and
after having achieved the victory of public opinion, off I
went to Turin, and arrived there before Charles Albert
left for the camp. This step was, as I say, necessary in
order to save the family ; and I managed business so well
there that I kept all alive for a month longer. Had
Radetsky recovered in this time, you see my battle would
have been most glorious. I bothered Piedmont with
English interference to that degree that my passports
were sent to me. Then I claimed my rights as an English
subject, and obtained, in virtue of this, fifteen days' respite,
under English protection, to remain at Genoa. This was
2 s
258 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
all I wanted to save the Duke, and save him I did, from
Genoa, with Sir George Hamilton's assistance. I was
excluded then from Piedmont and Tuscany. However, I
had the comfort to be admired for my staunch conduct
even hy my bitterest enemies. You see I have done what
I could to give you a brief sketch of what has occurred.
But you find a great deal of ICH, which I could not avoid
if I wished to give you a sketch of my romance, &c., &c.,
&c. The Duke -will be highly delighted with your letter.
His intention is about the end of August to visit England.
He has already had a friendly invitation from the Queen."
LETTER II.
" "\YEISTBOPP, DRESDEN,
30th July, 1848.
" You see the benefit of all that I did has vanished
away like smoke, in the Italian revolutions ; and it is a
useful lesson for life, for from this we can learn how vain
the things of this world are. It is not that I regret what
has occurred to myself, for to me all that is beyond the
necessaries of a humble, honest life, are accessories. It is
for the Duke that I feel. It is for the misfortunes of a
noble-minded prince, who, throughout all his life, has
been involved in difficulties ; and when we go to the origin
of all, the cause generally applicable is overdone generosity
and kindness. I believe that the Duke's family will, ere
long, be reinstated in their dukedom, and here ends all
my political career. I have resolved on retiring from
court and state whenever that happy event is realised. I
have lived fifteen years constantly among the Italians, and
I am sorry to say, that out of thousands of pretended
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 259
friends not one turned out staunch in the day of trouble.
Thousands the Duke has raised from nothing, and not a
soul of them came forward, even to say ' Do you want any
thing?' excepting Sebright* and Cotterell. After such
experience, whenever fortune reappears favourable to the
family, my duty is finished, and a tranquil life, after so
much burasco, with my dear children, will be preferred to
anything else this world can offer."
LETTER III.
" WEISTEOPP, 9fch August, 1848.
" When his Royal Highness wrote to you of his coming
to England, Radetsky had not driven Carlo Alberto out of
the trenches on the Mincio. Now he has driven him be-
yond Cremona; and probably at this moment Milan has
been retaken. So you see all these events change the
Duke's position, and we have for the present something
more to do than to travel."
LETTER IV.
" llth August, 1848.
" I find myself once more launched into business, and
I have this day accepted the office of charge d'affaires
for Parma, at the Court of Vienna. So you see we intend
having another struggle for my master, or at least for his
family. All this good news, that would have warmed the
hearts of thousands in his Royal Highnesses position, has
been the cause of damping his spirits. The remembrance
* Mr. Sebright for some years was Equerry to the Duke, who
created him Baron de Everton. He is now British Resident at
Santa Maura, in the Ionian Islands. Both he and Mr. Cotterell
were independent English gentlemen attached to the Court of
Lucca.
s 2
260 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of his past sufferings is so fresh, and the wounds are so
deeply engrained, that I fear he will never recover from
them."
LETTER V.
" WEISTEOPP, 19th August, 1848.
" The affairs of Italy have travelled by steam. So quick
have events thereon followed the other, that we are all in
confusion how to act and what to do first. I came here
just from Vienna, and I leave to-morrow for Italy, by
Vienna, as Luogotenente for the Ducato di Parma, with
unlimited power to act, as circumstances may appear ne-
cessary. The Duke will not come there until all is en-
tirely settled. This is my mission; but mind, I have
another which only needs filling up ; and, if I can find
the man to my fancy, I shall step back and place him in
my shoes before I put them on. Only downright neces-
sity will make me take this step, of re-entering into public
affairs in Italy, for I am so sick and disgusted, that I
shall be most happy to withdraw from the whole, and
attend to the welfare of my family. However, I must
fulfil my promise, save the Duke and his duchy, and see
him once more righted. I cannot say for the present direct
here or there, as it will be very difficult to know where I
shall get to, and what may become of me for a time. I
trust in God, and fear no man ; and I doubt not but that
I shall work my way through. The King and Queen of
Prussia, as well as the King and Queen of Saxony, all
paid the Duke a visit here yesterday. Please take no
notice, should the Duke at this moment of excitement
not answer punctually. And be so kind as to write to
him often, as your letters do him much good."
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 261
LETTER VI.
" VIENNA, 18th December, 1848.
" When I arrived at Weistropp, I found the Duke in
good health. The abdication of the Emperor only allowed
me to remain twenty-two hours, as I was honoured with
the mission of congratulating, in the Duke's name, the
young Emperor on his accession to the throne ; so I left for
Olmiitz, and from thence I was commissioned to go to
Prague, where I was honoured with an audience of the
Emperor Ferdinand and the Empress. From an interview
with Prince Schwarzenburg, and the Russian Minister,
Count Medem, I have the pleasure to announce to you
that the Duke of Parma's affairs are in a most tranquil-
izing position, as Russia has pronounced positively in
favour of the Duke's rights being respected, and Austria
has given the assurance of having them respected. So
much for poor Tom Ward's exertions ! You see, sticking
to right, and going straight forward, has the help of God
with it at the end; and the feeble, with patience and
perseverance, find protection."
LETTER VII.
"VIENNA, 6th Feb., 1849.
" Some days I am all in hope, and no sooner have I
dreamt too pleasantly than up stirs some insignificant
intrigue as small as a nut, and before I have well had
time to observe it, it becomes as large and awkward as the
Alps. I cannot describe my position to you, as it would
lead me into a labyrinth of court intrigues that are only
known in England from romances. I have just arrived
262 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
from Pesth in Hungary. I was honoured with the com-
mission to be the bearer of the Duke's Grand Cross to
Prince Windischgratz, and the Commander Cross to the
Colonel of the Regiment that bears the Duke's name, and
six crosses of Chevalier of the first class to the staff
officers, and three thousand francs to the soldiers of the
regiment, they have distinguished themselves particularly
in the last campaign. I was most cordially received by the
Prince, invited to dinner among the warriors, and honoured
with the place of distinction at the Prince's table."
LETTER VIII.
" WEISTEOPP, 2d March, 1849.
" The Duke has determined to abdicate in favour of hi&
son. Convinced as I was that all opposition to this reso-
lution was useless, I made my last journey to England,
and came to a final accommodation with the Prince and
Princess as to how this could be arranged when the
moment was found favourable. Many obstacles of the
greatest importance, which I cannot mention here, were
necessary to be removed before a step of this kind could
be thought of, and I leave you to judge what a difficult
task I have had. God be thanked, I have got over the
worst part of my labour. Providence has been far above
our merits kind. Things have occurred which, to a cer-
tain degree, will justify the step that must be taken, and I
have been successful in smoothing down the Austrian
obstacles ; and I hope that my dear Duke will be able to
make an honourable retreat. Were it not for the immense
attachment and gratitude I feel for all his kindnesses
bestowed on me, it would have been impossible to have
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 263
carried it through. My trust in God has made me do
what I really never could conceive to have succeeded in,
driven on by the feeling of sooner die than be ungrateful.
The Prince has been greatly and most unjustly calumni-
ated ; and all I can say in his favour is, that I know all
the sovereigns in Italy, and that pretty well, and I do
really and sincerely believe that he will prove one of the
best among them. No one has ever taken the trouble to
circulate what I saw the Prince do at Viareggio. A poor
fellow was drowning in the sea, and the Prince begged
two sailors standing by, to jump in and save the man.
The answer was, that it was impossible, as the poor man
was in an underwater current. The Prince then threw
off his clothes and jumped into the sea. The sailors cried
out, He is lost.' A tremendous moment occurred be-
twixt him and the drowning man. But he had deter-
mined to save him, and he did so. I got up to the spot
before the Prince was out of danger ; and I wish you had
seen the modesty of the young man. His words were,
1 Dear Ward, pay these men, that they may be silent, and
see this poor man, who I fear is dead, attended to, and
say nothing to no one ;' and with that he was gone.
Any man capable of such a generous action is not to be
despised."
LETTER IX.
" WEISTEOPP, 17th March, 1849.
"I have received your letter of the 10th. The Duke
happened to come into my room, snatched it up, and had
the pleasure of its contents. He was sorry for the opinion
you pass on his intended act of abdication, and I ventured
to explain to him that many of his best friends would be
264 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of your opinion, as he could not say that it was old age or
indisposition that hindered him from performing the sacred
duty which God had laid upon him. However, that was
only repeating what I have said thousands of times and
in thousands of ways, and I have painted futurity to him
in private life with all the disagreeableness that I could
think of. But he has suffered so much from the revolu-
tion of Parma, that he is horror-struck when you talk of
his returning there."
The Duke of Parma had fully, and, as it has turned
out, wisely, made up his mind to abdicate the crown in
favour of his son. This step was opposed by many of his
friends, but it is one of which he has never repented ; and
since the events of the past year which have been so fatal
to Italian dynasties, he may consider himself fortunate in
having renounced voluntarily, from moderation and lassi-
tude, that supreme authority which has been wrested from
others by force.
LETTER X.
" VIENNA, 5th June, 1849.
"Events go by steam; and being reckoned among the
fast locomotives, I am constantly at work. The grand
essential thing that I have managed was, in spite of all
diplomatic precautions from friends and enemies, to get
the young Duke to take formal possession of Parma and
Placentia. This is what we term now-a-days ' une faite
accomplie.' And it succeeding above all expectation,
thereby became an incontestable faite accomplie, which so
vexed many parties, who had their arriere pensees, that it
may cost me all favours formerly bestowed on me. Never
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 265
mind about that ! The cause I had so hardily fought for
has succeeded. No one can, out of whatever new system
of doing or thinking, dispute us our rights, as, if we go
by legitimate right, we are incontestable ; and if we go by
the new theory of faite decompile, we are more than safe,
as no one could have been better received than the young
Duke was, and, nota bene, under the most unfavourable
circumstances. But I was determined to have the faite
decompile accomplished before the peace with Piedmont
was concluded, as I was well informed what was going on
in those quarters. Let them say what they will of Ward,
they must own that he has York'd them all for once. I
am at war, as I said above, with friends and foes; but I
feel the comfort of having done my duty, acted entirely in
accordance with my conscience, and have no one to fear
but God, and He has conducted me through life, else I
should never have had success. Though feebly placed,
having no cannon and no soldiers, with God there is no
need of them, as is evident in our case. I expect to be in
Milan in a short time again, if the clouds clear away. If
not, I have succeeded in assuring the incontestable rights
of a family to whom I was, from a sense of gratitude,
devoted ; and I shall content myself with the day's work
allotted to me being accomplished, and retire to rest. The
young Duke did wonders at Parma, pleased everyone, was
found in the eyes of all sensible, active, honourable
pleno dl carattere. He seems born for a sovereign. The
tact which he displayed was like magic. He is now at
Malghera with Radetsky, displaying as much courage as
any common soldier. In short, he seems determined to
make up lost ground."
266 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
LETTER XI.
" VIENNA, July, 1849.
" Since my return from Milan, I have had the satisfac-
tion to hear repeated from Prince Schwarzenburg that the
Duke of Parma and his government were much more
noble-minded than the Duke of Modena. This was the
complete success gained by perseverance when you know
you have espoused a right and honest cause. And this
has been my guide through life. Support what is right
and just, and live and die by the consequences ; and
allow no one, high or low, to baffle me in my work, trusting
solely to God, and fearing no man. This is the only way
to succeed ; as God alone can do and undo. Against His
will, all the craft of man is useless ; and with His support,
the frown of thousands can do no harm. I have walked
quietly through revolutions, and no one had the power to
cry out against me, and I have all my enemies under my
feet. Should I not therefore trust in God, and should I be
so vain as to fancy this to be my work ? No, it is God's
work alone, and I am a mere tool that He has pleased
to make use of; and a great blessing it is to be chosen
as such. Think of a boy torn from school in the ninth
year of his age, placed in livery stables without education ;
and then see him placed amidst the affairs of Europe,
concluding treaties ! and must not this be the work of
God ? Most certainly it is His work : and may I always
be thankful to Him, and prove as worthy as we earthly
beings can be for His bountiful kindness ! I have been
very busy here of late, and succeeded in all with great
success ; in short, gaining ground, day by day, with hard
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 267
work and constant attention to the important interests
placed in my hands. His Majesty the Emperor has been
pleased to confer on me the Knight Commander's Cross of
his order of the Corona di Ferro. The matter caused some
sensation amongst the diplomates ; I being the youngest
and the latest accredited. However, so it is, and I own
that it gave me great pleasure, as Austria is so very par-
ticular as to conferring distinctions of the kind on
foreigners."
LETTER XII.
"VIENNA, 20th July, 1849.
" The young Duke is doing wonders and gaining the
esteem of all who approach him. He has not, as yet,
taken the reins of government in hand. The peace not
being concluded with Piedmont has caused the delay.
However, he has grown impatient, and determined to
assume his duties. As for myself, since I left England I
have been very busy backwards and forwards betwixt Milan
and here. However, successful in all. Prince Schwarzen-
burg was rather hard upon me about a month ago respect-
ing a quarrel we have with the Duke of Modena. I was
to have been silenced by force -, the order was imperious.
But Albion's sons do not understand any language but
honour ; so I made the affair short, and as a sine qua non,
the free liberty to defend the rights of my royal master
without any restraint, or else Ward retires from office.
Ten days elapsed without an answer, and a hundred might
have done so before I would have humbled myself. My
straightforwardness at last gained the day. The Prince
268 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
sent for me, inviting me ' to have the kindness to come to
him/ And ever since, I flatter myself that there is not a
man in Vienna he esteems more. Since then I have con-
cluded a treaty with the Minister Briick, in Milan, for the
free navigation of the Po, as well as a postage convention,
and also a military one. And I have now a very important
business on hand which I hope will end equally successfully/'
LETTER XIII.
" VIENX A, 29th January, 1851.
" I am now and then everywhere, but at present hard
at work with the Austrian government to obtain the sums
due to the government of Parma for the late war. Then
this work finished (when is very hard to say), I am expected
in Parma (and have been so for the last six months), to do
* wonders there. So the Duke and the ministers say ; as if
they have anything difficult all is referred to me, and I am
become a real byword, ' Ma questo benedetto Ward quando
verra ?' After I have finished in Parma, I am bound from
thence direct to Madrid, to regulate the royal family affairs.
I am hard at work from morning to late at night, day
after day. But God has blessed me with health and good
humour, which makes toil less trouble. He has blessed
me with the happiness of three dear children, and a good
sensible wife. He has given me sufficient good sense to
discern the vanity of this world, so that although placed
in a most extraordinary position for one of my birth and
education, it is all no burthen to me. I go my way
straightforward, fearing God, and thanking him constantly
for his bounties, and doing cheerfully my duty. I keep
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 269
as distant as I can from the rumour of society, as my
business leaves me no time to cultivate it. So that I have
sufficient time to enjoy my cheerful fireside. And only
when my position does oblige me do I leave it. You
must conclude that I am a happy man, and so it is. I
am thankful to God, and happy as ever a man can be on
earth. Not indeed without desayremens and disappoint-
ments ; but these are all in business, and are often caused
by my eagerness to arrive ' au fond d'une affaire' too soon.
I never have any desagremens from society, I thank God,
as I am always afraid and annoyed when I have to go up
one step higher, fearing the consequences of falling from
a slender ladder when too high up. As to titles and
honours, I really do not know what to make of them, as
they are of no use but for a show, such as a court ball ;
and those come seldom, so the whole gives little trouble.
However, as you do interest yourself to know what is
become of Tom Ward, I send you the top of one of my
passports, which will save me the trouble of giving you
the whole pedigree. The Duke has remitted to me a letter
for Field Marshal Eadetsky, recommending your protege,
which I will forward without delay."
LETTER XIV.
"VIENNA, 18th June, 1851.
" I thank God for his goodness in keeping me in the
straightforward path of duty, as it is the only one in
which to maintain intact a cheerful heart, and a real good
will to meet all the fatigues and disagreements such a
principle has to contend with. But assuredly it is ten
270 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
thousandfold recompensed \vhen you look on after the
thing is accomplished. I have had a hard fight with the
government here, which has, by God's inspiration, often
given me the opportunity to baffle all the learned men on
the point of right, frequently with a simple expose. And
so I have brought them to a dead standstill, which you
may suppose aggravated them, but at the same time gained
me great esteem ; and the word Parvenu, which is often a
powerful weapon with a certain party, has vanished en-
tirely, and in its place, on dit, ' C'est un homme qui pos-
sede des moyens.' ' C'est une tete qui voit clair/ which,
with my simple straightforward system, gives me great
strength, as I have a much larger field to work upon than
many others have ; as a sturdy direct blow is attributed
to my want of primitive education ; and so these can be
dealt out in many instances very freely, and I can assure
you to great advantage."
I might add extracts from many more letters of great
interest. Enough, however, has been given to show the
rare merit of this man, who united honesty and dexterity,
simplicity and aptitude for diplomatic intrigue, in a way
that has seldom before been seen. He even knew how to
turn his early want of education and his presumed ignor-
ance to the advantage of the cause which he had on hand
and at heart. The heart was the great secret of his suc-
cess. He regarded the interests of his master with a
single-minded, generous devotedness, and espoused them
with much more zeal than he would have bestowed on his
own advancement.
THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 271
Of the subsequent years of his life little more shall
be said. He continued to be prime minister of Parma,
with absolute authority, during the short reign of Duke
Charles III. Although occasionally at Parma, he resided
chiefly at the Court of Vienna, to which he was accredited
as Minister Plenipotentiary by his master, and from which
he governed the Italian Principality. It is not my pur-
pose to enter upon the subject of the rights of the foreign
reigning dynasties, or the alleged wrongs of the native
Italians. Ward was the servant and the minister of the
Duke ; and his business was to govern the people of the
Dukedom according to the best interests of his master.
It is only natural to suppose that this government by a
foreigner, in the interests of a foreign dynasty, and sup-
ported by a great foreign power, could not be popular
with an excitable, discontented, mutinous people like the
Parmesans.
In the beginning of the year 1854, Charles III., Duke
of Parma, was suddenly removed from this world by a
mysterious and violent death. One of the first acts of
the Duchess, his widow, desirous of popularity among
the subjects of her infant son, was to depose Baron Ward
from his ministry, and send him into banishment. It is
more than probable, that in the solitude of her dignified
exile, amid the bitter experiences of the base ingratitude
of those whom she tried in vain to please, this sorely tried
Princess may have had time and occasion to contrast the
sterling and disinterested devotedness of Ward with the
miserable fickleness of those for whom she had to sacrifice
him.
272 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Ward was removed from the evil to come, and was
called to exchange this world for a better before the last
fatal outburst of ruin upon the family to whom he had
devoted the active energies of his virtuous and useful life.
After he was so suddenly, and so harshly, sacrificed by the
course of events and a vain attempt to conciliate popular
favour, he entirely retired from public affairs. No man
could more emphatically say, " Put not your trust in
princes/' And with the approval of a good conscience,
he resolved to devote the remainder of his life to those
occupations which seemed to have been his original desti-
nation, but from which he had so strangely been raised to
fill the position of a statesman.
Prince Metternich truly characterised him, when, after
the revolution of 1848, he visited that illustrious minister
in his retirement at Brighton, by greeting him as a
" Heaven-bom Diplomatist."
The ingratitude of the government of Parma, to that
friend whom Providence seemed to have raised up for its
defence, was the signal for Ward's retirement into a
private and comparatively humble station. He undertook
a large farming establishment in the neighbourhood of
Vienna, and spent his few last years in the enjoyment of
domestic happiness with his wife and children.
In 1858, Baron Ward died at the age of forty-nine.
And he has left us a memorable example, how integrity,
talent, and courage can raise a man from the lowest posi-
tion to ride on the high places of the earth, and to be an
honour to his native country.
THE BONAPARTES. 273
0f
Hie Csesar, et omnis lull
Progenies. VIEGIL.
NAPOLEON'S proud assertion, that he was " the Rodolph
of his race," and that his patent of nobility dated from
the battle of Monte Notte, must not be received as evidence
of the humble origin of the Bonaparte family, but rather
of the haughty mind of the ambitious Ruler of France,
which could ill brook the idea of inferiority, even in this
respect, to the other royal potentates. At the moment
Napoleon uttered these expressions, the star of his destiny
shone the brightest, and the great European sovereigns
had yielded submission to one
. " Mightier far,
Who born no king, made monarchs draw his car.".
From a remote period the Bonapartes, or Buonapartes
according to the Italian spelling, (which the enemies of
the first Napoleon affected spitefully to keep up as show-
ing him not to be French), were of distinction in Italy ;
and so far back as the twelfth century, I find the name
of John Bonaparte enrolled on the list of the gallant
Knights of St. James of Calatrava. That celebrated order
admitted within its community those only who were of
2 T
274 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
noble birth, and thus there is proof that the Bonaparte
family held at that distant epoch no inconsiderable posi-
tion in the world. The cradle of the race seems to have
been at Treviso ; but the tyranny of Alberic de Romano
forced many of the name to migrate to Bologna and Tus-
cany, where they established themselves at Florence and
San Miniato, and where they subsequently held high
municipal appointments.
In the Golden Book of Bologna, the Bonapartes are
inscribed among the patricians of Florence, and they appear
also recorded in the Book of the Nobility of Treviso. The
Bonaparte coat of arms may even now be seen over some
of the old Florentine houses, and the family was still
existent at St. Miniato at the opening of the present cen-
tury. On his first triumphant return from Italy, Napoleon
found in that little town the Canon Bonaparte, the last
descendant of the San Miniato branch, and he was proudly
acknowledged by the old ecclesiastic, who at his death, in
1803, made his illustrious kinsman his heir. Some of these
Tuscan Bonapartes were authors of repute : one, Nicholas
Bonaparte, wrote a play, entitled " La Veuve," the manu-
script of which, and a printed copy, are preserved in the
Imperial Library of Paris ; and another, James Bonaparte,
was the author of a " History of the Siege of Rome, by
the Constable Bourbon," which siege he had himself wit-
nessed, and which city, in an after-age, was to furnish
sach remarkable chapters in the lives of his relatives, Na-
poleon I., and Napoleon III. His book, written in Italian,
is much esteemed, and was translated into French by Prince
Napoleon Louis, eldest brother of the present Emperor.
THE BONAPARTES. 275
111 the Catalogue of the proscribed and exiled partisans
of the Guelphs, in their feud with the Ghibellines, the
Bonapartes are named ; and from Gerini, I learn that
these banished nobles proceeded to Sarzana and Genoa.
Three of the latter line, Barthelemy, Martin, and Augustin
Bonaparte, assisted as "Anziani" of the Republic, at the
oath taken by the nobles to the Duke of Milan, in 1488;
and a descendant of the former, marrying into the ancient
house of Parenticelli, became mother of the Sovereign Pon-
tiff, Nicholas V. It was in 1512, that Gabriel Bonaparte,
of this, the Zarzana division of the family, went to Corsica,
and fixing his residence at Ajaccio, founded the illustrious
branch, for ever memorable as the parent stem whence
sprung Napoleon and his dynasty. Gabriel's son, Jerome
Bonaparte, was Chief of the Council Senators (Chef des
Anciens) of Ajaccio, and was Deputy to the Senate of
Genoa, in 1594. He left sons, of whom the eldest,
Francis Bonaparte, Captain of Ajaccio, and Member of
the Council of Ancients, in 1596, was father of Sebastian
Bonaparte, a distinguished scholar, born in 1603, and of
Fulvio Bonaparte, whose son Louis married Maria of Gondi.
The son of Sebastian was Carlo Bonaparte, senator of
Ajaccio, who had the nobility of his family recognised at
Genoa, in 1661. His son Joseph, also senator of Ajaccio,
had a son, Sebastian Bonaparte, elected "Ancien d' Ajaccio,"
17th April, 1720. He was father of three sons : 1. Na-
poleon Bonaparte, chief of the ancients of Ajaccio, a
soldier of repute, whose only child, Isabella, was married
to Louis d'Ornano ; 2. Joseph Bonaparte ; and, 3. Lucien
Bonaparte, Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Ajaccio. The
276 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
second son, Joseph Bonaparte, was acknowledged in 1759
by the Bonapartes of Florence as a member of their
family, and, like his ancestors, formed one of the council
of senators of his native city. His son, Carlo Bonaparte,
born 29th March, 1746, went to Pisa to study law, in
accordance with the custom of the Bonapartes of Ajaccio,
who never ceased to remember their Florentine nobility,
and invariably sent their children to complete their edu-
cation in Tuscany. Returning to his native country with
the degree of Doctor of Laws, he commenced practice, and
attained eminence as an advocate ; but the times were too
troublous then in Corsica to admit of his following the
calm paths of professional life. He soon resigned the
gown for the sword, and becoming the especial favourite of
Paoli, he assisted in the gallant and patriotic stand made
against the French for the independence of his country.
At the disastrous termination of the conflict, he would
fain have exiled himself with his kinsman Paoli, but was
dissuaded from the step by his wealthy uncle, the Arch-
deacon of Ajaccio, and became in the sequel reconciled to
the conquering party, and protected by the French Gover-
nor.
It was in the midst of the discord of fights and skir-
mishes of Corsica, that Carlo Bonaparte, who is described
as possessing a handsome person and great vivacity of
intellect, married Letitia Ramolini,* one of the most
* The mother of Letitia married for her second husband a
Swiss officer in the French service, named Fesch, and had by
him a son, Giuseppe, so well and so creditably known as the
amiable and high-minded Cardinal Fesch, who was born the
3rd January, 1763, and was Archbishop of Lyons, and, at one
THE BONAPARTES. 277
beautiful maidens of Corsica, and a lady of incomparable
mental firmness. It should be here observed, as a fact
worthy of note, that the imperial dynasty of the Bonapartes,
up to the present day, has been particularly fortunate in
this ; that the ladies of their house, whether by birth or
alliance, have been, often to a surpassing degree, remark-
able for talent, beauty, strength of mind, and every gentler
female qualification . During the years of Civil War, Letitia
Bonaparte partook the dangers of her husband, and used to
accompany him through all the toils and difficulties of the
Mountain campaigns. On the establishment of the French
ascendancy, Louis XV., desirous of reconstructing the
Corsican nobility, issued a decree requiring all those
who claimed to belong to it to prove their right, and in
consequence, Carlo Bonaparte, having produced his docu-
ments, was admitted by the Council of Corsica to be
noble by descent for more than two hundred years. He
continued to adhere to the new state of things ; acted as
recorder of a tribunal in Corsica, and was representative
for the nation, and a member of the General Assembly of
noble deputies at the Court of the King of France. By
his lovely and high-spirited wife (so well known as Ma-
dame Mere), who died at Rome in 1832, aged 82, he had
a very large family ; no less than thirteen children. Of
these, five died in infancy ; the others (of whom one be-
came an Emperor, three became kings, and one daughter
time, Primate of Gaul. He died the 12th May, 1839, universally
respected, and left the ex-King Joseph Bonaparte heir to a part
of his property, having bequeathed the rest to the church of
Lyons, and the town of Ajaccio.
278 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
was a sovereign grand duchess, and another a queen), were
Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Eliza, Pauline,
and Caroline.
A German writer, Ferdinand Gregorovius, in his inte-
resting work, " Wanderings in Corsica," which has been
elegantly translated by Mr. Muir, describes most graphi-
cally the Corsican home where these children were born:
"The narrow street of St. Charles, at Ajaccio, issues
upon a little square. An elm stands there before an
oldish three-storied house, the plaster of which has been
coloured a yellowish grey ; it has a flat roof, and a balus-
trade above it, a front of six windows in breadth, and
doors that look greatly decayed. On the corner of this
house you read the words ' Place Letitia'
" No marble tablet tells the stranger who has come from
Italy, where the houses of great men always bear inscrip-
tions, that he stands before the house of the Bonapartes.
He knocks in vain at the door ; no voice answers, and all
the windows are closely veiled with grey jalousies, as if
the house were in a state of siege from the Vendetta.
Not a human being is stirring upon the square ; a death-
like stillness rests upon the neighbourhood, as if the name
of Napoleon had frightened it into silence, or scared all
else away. At length an old man appeared at the window
of a house close by, and requested me to return in two
hours, when he should be able to give me the key.
" Bonaparte's house, which has, I am assured, sustained
but slight alteration, though no palace, has plainly been
the dwelling of a patrician family. Its appearance shows
this, and it is without doubt a palace compared with the
THE BONAPARTES. 279
village cabin in which Pasquale Paoli was born. It is
roomy, handsome, and convenient ; but the rooms are
destitute of furniture, the tapestries alone have been left
on the walls, and they are decayed. The floor, which, as
is usual in Corsica, is laid out in small hexagonal red
flags, is here and there ruinous. The darkness produced
in the rooms by the closed jalousies and their emptiness
made them quite dismal.
" I entered a little room with blue tapestry, and two
windows, one of which, with a balcony before it, looked
into a court, the other into the street. You see here a
wall-press behind a tapestried door, and a fireplace with a
mantelpiece of yellow marble ornamented with some my-
thological reliefs. In this room, on the loth of August,
1769, Napoleon was born. It is a strange feeling, hard
to put in language, which takes possession of the soul on
the spot hallowed as the birthplace of a great man.
Something sacred, mystic, a consecrated atmosphere,
pervades it. It is as if you were casting a glance behind
the cui-tain of Nature, where she creates in silence the
incomprehensible organs of her action. But man discerns
only the phenomenal ; he attempts in vain to ascertain
the how. To stand in silence before the unsearchable
mysteries of Nature, and see with wonder the radiant
forms that ascend from the darkness, that is human reli-
gion.- For the thoughtful man nothing is more deeply
impressive than the starry sky of night or the starry sky
of history. I saw other rooms the ball-room of the
family, Madame Letitia's room, Napoleon's little room
where he slept, and that in which he studied. The two
280 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
little wall-presses are still to be seen there in which his
school-books stood. Books stand in them at present.
With eager curiosity I took out some of them, as if they
were Napoleon's ; they were yellow with age law books,
theological treatises, a Livy, a Guicciardini, and others,
probably the property of the Pietra Santa family, who are
related to the Bonapartes, and to whom their house in
Ajaccio now belongs."
NAPOLEON, Emperor of the French, and King of Italy,
was the second son of Carlo Bonaparte. On the events
of his wonderful career I need not dwell. Instead of
furnishing materials for a few pages of my little volume,
the vicissitudes of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his entrance
a Corsican youth into the military school of Brienne, to
his death on a lonely rock in the Atlantic, form the most
memorable chapter in the world's history. Suffice it to
state that he was born at Ajaccio, 15th August, 1769
that he married twice that he died at St. Helena, on the
6th May, 1821, and that his remains, brought with reve-
rend care from that distant island, and received with the
highest honours and the most marked feeling in France,
now repose, under the gorgeous dome of the " Invalides,"
on the banks of the Seine, and amid that French people
whom he loved so well. Napoleon's first wife, (the marriage
took place 9th March, 1796), was Marie Frances Josephine
Rose, daughter of M. Tascher de la Pagerie, a planter
of St. Domingo, and widow of Eugene Alexander, Vicomte
de Beauharnois, Deputy from the nobility of Blois to the
States-General in 1789, but, nevertheless, a rather radical
memberof the National Assembly, and Commander-in-Chief
THE BONAPARTES. 281
of the Army of the Rhine. His niece, the daughter of his
elder brother, the Marquis de Beauharnois, was the famous
Madame Lavalette, who rescued her husband from prison.
By Napoleon, Josephine had no issue ; but by her first
husband (who fell a victim to the revolutionary tribunal
four days before the overthrow of Robespierre) Josephine was
mother of the charming Hortense Eugenie, ex-Queen of Hol-
land (whose son is the present Emperor of the French),
and of the gallant Viceroy of Italy, Eugene Beauharnois,
Duke of Leichtenburgh. Napoleon's second consort, the
Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Francis II., Em-
peror of Austria, had one son, Napoleon Francois Charles
Joseph, Duke of Reichstadt in Bohemia, born 20th March,
1811, who (in consequence of his being proclaimed Em-
peror, as Napoleon II., by his father, and so confirmed by
the Chambers of Peers and Deputies, at that abdication
in 1815, which Napoleon never afterwards revoked), counts
as second of the Napoleon sovereigns, and who died un-
married at the Palace of Schoenbrunn, near Vienna, 22nd
July, 1832.
JOSEPH BONAPARTE (the eldest son of Carlo Bonaparte),
who was born at Ajaccio, 7th January, 1768, was designed
for the law, and studied at the University of Padua ; but
the brilliant destiny of his brother opened to him an
ascent to greatness which the mediocrity of his own abilities
never could have attained. In 1805 he ascended the throne
of Naples, and in 1808 exchanged that peaceful diadem for
the more brilliant one of Spain, from which country he was
expelled by the Anglo-Spanish army under Wellington.
In 1814, whilst the Emperor was engaged in the me-
282 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
morable campaign in defence of the French soil, the ex-
King Joseph remained at Paris as Lieutenant-General of
the Realm and Commandant of the National Guards ; but
on the arrival of the Allies at Paris he fled to Switzerland.
There he purchased a valuable property, and there he re-
mained until Napoleon's return from Elba. After Wa-
terloo, he escaped to New York. He subsequently esta-
blished himself in the vicinity of Philadelphia, under the
name of the Count Survilliers, and became possessed of
a fine estate. In 1799 he published a little novel called
" Moina." In 1832 he came to England, and resided many
years near Dulwich. In 1841 he went to Tuscany and died
at Florence the 2 8th July, 1844. Joseph Bonaparte married,
August 1, 1794, Marie Julie de Clari, daughter of a mer-
chant of Toulon, a hospitable friend to the family when
they sojourned near Marseilles, and had two daughters :
Zenaide Charlotte Julie, born 8th July, 1801, married
at Brussels, 30th June, 1826 , to her cousin, Charles
Lucien, Prince Musignano, son of Lucien, Prince of
Canino : she died the 8th of August, 1854 : her husband
died on the 29th July, 1857: their son is the present Prince
Joseph Lucien Bonaparte.
Charlotte, born 31st October, 1802, who was married to
her cousin, Napoleon Louis, Grand Duke of Berg, brother
of Napoleon III., son of Louis, ex-King of Holland, and
died at Florence, his widow, the 3rd September, 1839.
LUCIEN BoNAPARTE(the third sonof Carlo), born, at Ajac-
cio in 1775, imbibed at an early period revolutionary senti-
ments, and the elevation of his brother led to his own ad-
vancement to honours and riches. He was successively
THE BONAPARTES. 283
President, at its dissolution, of the Council of Five Hundred,
Minister of the interior under the Consular Government,
and Ambassador to Madrid in 1801. In 1804, the year
of Napoleon's assumption of the imperial diadem, he re-
tired to Italy, and establishing his residence in the Eter-
nal City, purchased an estate at Canino, which the Pope
raised into a principality, inscribing at the same time the
name of " the Prince of Canino" among the Roman nobles.
In 1810, distrustful of the security of his asylum in Italy,
Lucien embarked for the United States, but was captured
by two English frigates, and conveyed to Malta, to await
the orders of our Government. In conformity with those
instructions he was transferred to England, where he
arrived 18th December, and fixed himself in Shropshire,
about fifteen miles from Ludlow, on a beautiful estate he
was allowed to purchase.
Here he sojourned, devoted to literature and the repose
of domestic life, until the peace of 1814 opened his way
to the Continent, and enabled him to return to his old
friend and protector, Pius VII. During the Hundred
Days he played a prominent part, and again held the
portfolio of the Interior.
After the conflict at Waterloo, he urged the Emperor to
make one great effort in defence of his throne ; but the
mighty mind of Napoleon seemed then completely crushed.
He listened not to his brother's counsel; and Lucien
with difficulty effected his escape to Rome. There the
Prince of Canino passed the remainder of his days, much
respected in private life, and there he died, on the 29th
June, 1840. By his first wife, Christine Boyer, whom
284 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
he married in 1795, and who died in 1801, he left two
daughters, Charlotte, wife of Prince Gabrielli, and Chris-
tine Egypta, who married, in 1824, Lord Dudley Coutts
Stuart. By his second wife, Alexandrine Laurence de
Bleschamp, widow of Monsieur Jouberthon, Lucieu Bona-
parte had three sons and three daughters. Of the former,
the eldest, Charles Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musig-
nano, distinguished in the scientific world for his zoological
researches, and for his famous work "Iconografia della Fauna
Italica," was born at Paris, 24th May, 1803, and married
in 1822, his cousin, Charlotte Zenaide Julia, elder daughter
of Joseph Bonaparte, Count of Survilliers, by whom (who
died the 8th Aug. 1854) he (at his death, the 29th July,
1857,) left issue: Joseph, Prince de Canino, and de Mu-
signano; Lucien, a priest, late of the Camera of his
Holiness ; Napoleon ; Julie, wife of Alexander del Gallo
Marquis de Roccagiovine ; Charlotte, wife of Pierre
Comte Primoli ; Marie, wife of Paul Comte de Campello ;
Augusta, wife of Prince Placido Gabrielli, and Bathilde,
wife of the Count de Cambaceres. The Prince of Canino
resided in the Papal dominions. The other children of Lu-
cien are : Louis Lucien, born in 1813, the elegant linguist
and scholar, now residing at Westbourne Grove, Bayswater;
Pierre, born in 1815 ; Anthony, born in 1816; Letitia, who
married, in 1821, Thomas Wyse, Esq., of the Manor of St.
John's "VVaterford, now the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wyse,
K.C.B., her British Majesty's Ambassador at Athens; Mary,
widow of the Count Vincent Valentini di Canino; and
Constance, a nun of the Sacre Coeur at Roehampton.
The following little anecdote may not be inappropriately
introduced here, as illustrative of the vicissitudes inci-
THE BONAPARTES. 285
dental to all spheres and conditions of life : On one
occasion, Louis Philippe and '.his Queen, then in exile at
Claremont, drove over to Roehampton to see the convent
of the Sacre Cceur, which had been recently established
there by a community of French nuns. This French Order
of the Sacre Coeur is one of high distinction, and was, in
the days of the Bourbons, one of aristocratic exclusiveness.
At the time of which I am speaking, the Comtesse de
Grammont was, I believe, at the head of the chief house
of the Community in Paris, and Madame Clifford, sister
or the late Lord Clifford, was Superioress of the Roehamp-
ton branch. The royal visitors, who were incognito, asked
permission as strangers to see the convent chapel, and
were allowed to go over the whole establishment. The
lady nun who conducted them through the house was so
amiable and agreeable, that the Queen, on leaving, ex-
pressed her extreme satisfaction with the admirable ar-
rangements of the community, and her pleasure at finding
herself once again amongst her good and pious compa-
triots. "Perhaps," added her Majesty, "you will be in-
terested to know who your visitors are. This gentleman is
Louis Philippe I am the Queen Marie Amelie." The nun,
bowing profoundly, replied with a gentle smile "And
I am Mademoiselle Bonaparte." The strange coincidence
evidently touched their majesties, and the Queen could not
refrain from giving expression to her surprise at the
waywardness of fate which had thus brought together
within a convent of the old regime the two royal houses
of Bonaparte and Orleans.
Lucien was, after Napoleon, the ablest and most for-
ward, though, as far as sovereign rank was concerned
286 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the least ambitious of the Bonapartes, and at one time
his literary and scientific attainments received high lauda-
tion from the French savans. His " Charlemagne" made
its first appearance in London in 1814, but the success it
met with was very indifferent. Besides this too elaborate
epic, the Prince of Canino published two other works
Stellina, a novel ; and The Cyrneide, or Corsica saved.
Louis BONAPARTE, the fourth son, next brother to
Lucien, was born 2nd Sept. 1778, and ascended the
throne of Holland in 1806. Unwilling, however, to re-
main the mere vassal of his brother, he abdicated in 1810,
and adopting the modest title of Count de St. Leu, retired
from public life, and resided principally at Florence. His
wife was Hortense Eugenie de Beauharnois, Duchess de
St. Leu, daughter of Josephine, by her first husband the
Vicomte Eugene Alexandre de Beauharnois, and step-
daughter of Napoleon. The marriage took place in 1802,
and the issue of the union were three children. The
eldest, Napoleon Charles, named heir to the Imperial
throne, died at the Hague, the 5th March 1807, in the
fifth year of his age ; the second, Napoleon Louis, Prince
Royal of Holland, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, chris-
tened at St. Cloud by Pope Pius VII., and nominated
Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves in 1809, died 17th
March, 1831, from the effects of the fatigues he encoun-
tered in the Italian insurrection; and the third, CHARLES
Louis NAPOLEON, is the present Emperor of the French,
NAPOLEON III. Of their mother, HORTENSE, I will pre-
sently speak.
JEROME BONAPARTE, the fifth and youngest son, was
THE BUONAPARTES. 28?
born 15th Nov. 1784, became King of Westphalia in
1807, and commanded the army of that country in the
invasion of Russia. In 1814, however, the Allies deprived
him of his throne.
At Waterloo he commanded the left wing of the French
army, and, on the defeat of the Emperor, retreated with
the debris of the forces to Paris. He subsequently pro-
ceeded to Wirtemberg, and was created a prince of that
kingdom by the title of Due de Montfort. His first wife
(whom he married in America, in 1803, and from whom he
separated in 1805,) was Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore,
a lady of station and fashion in the United States, of Irish
extraction, sister of Robert Patterson, Esq., the first hus-
band of the late Marchioness Wellesley, and grand-
daughter of old O'Carroll of Carrollstown, one of the
original signers of the declaration of American indepen-
dence. By her he had one child, Jerome, born 6th July,
1805, at Baltimore, and now resident, I believe, in that
city. The second wife of Jerome Bonaparte was Frederica
Catherine Sophia, daughter of Frederick, King of Wirtem-
berg, and by her he had two sons and one daughter, viz.,
Jerome, Prince of Montfort, Colonel in the service of Wir-
temberg, who was born at Trieste, 24th Aug. 1814, and
died s. p. at Florence, 29th May, 1847 ; Napoleon, Prince
of Montfort, a leading politician, and a general of divi-
sion, born at Trieste in 1822, who married, in 1859, the
Princess Clotilda, daughter of the King of Sardinia ; and
Mathilde-Letitia, married to Prince Anatole Demidoff, and
now so popularly known at the Court of the Tuilleries as
the Princess Mathilde.
288
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Jerome Bonaparte was a Marshal of France, and in
1852 was declared heir-presumptive to the throne, and a
French prince. He died on the 24th July, 1860, at his
seat, Villegenis, near Paris, and was buried in state in the
chapel of St. Jerome in the Hotel des Invalides, close to
the remains of his mighty brother.
The three sisters of Napoleon were, as I have al-
ready mentioned, Mary- Anne-Eliza, Pauline, and Mary-
Annunciade-Caroline.
The eldest, ELIZA, reigning Princess of Lucca and
Piombino, born 3rd January, 1777, married 5th May,
1797, Pascal de Bacchiochi, a noble Corsican, created by
his Imperial brother-in-law Grand Duke of Tuscany, under
the title of Felix I., and had one son, Frederick Bacchiochi,
who died at Rome, and one daughter, Napolienne Eliza,
married to the Comte Camerata. Eliza, Princess of Lucca,
died in 1820.
The Emperor's second sister, the gentle, devoted, and
beautiful PAULINE, so beautiful, that she was the origi-
nal of the Venus of Canova was born 22nd April, 1782,
and was created Princess and Duchess of Guastalla 31st
March 1806; but on the 26th of the following May,
on the annexation of the duchy to the kingdom of Italy,
her Highness received in compensation 6,000,000 of livres.
She married, first, General le Clerc, and, secondly, the
Prince Don Camillo de Borghese, and died at the Borghese
palace, near Florence, 9th June 1825. Through a life
of much misfortune and anxiety, Pauline clung with
earnest and heroic attachment to her Imperial brother and
his family : her only child, a son by her first husband,
THE BONAPARTES. 289
died young, and his loss was nearly fatal to her. Her
last illness was brought on by sorrow for her brother
Napoleon's death.
CAROLINE, Napoleon's youngest sister, born 25th March,
1783, married the gallant Joachim Murat, King of Naples,
and had two sons and two daughters : Napoleon Achille
Murat, Prince Royal of Naples, born in 1801, who purchased
property and fixed his residence in Florida, and married in
America a grand niece of Washington's ; he died in 1847 ;
Napoleon Lucien Charles Murat, " Senateur," lately French
ambassador at Turin, born in 1803 ; Letitia Josephine,
married to the Marquis Pepoli, a nobleman of Bologna ;
and Louisa-Julie-Caroline, married to Count Rasponi.
The widow of Murat lived for many years in Austria under
the name of Countess of Lipano, and died at Florence,
18th May, 1839, of the same disease, cancer in the sto-
mach, as her brother Napoleon.
I now come to the present Emperor, and his mother, the
beautiful and interesting Hortense de Beauharnois.
Poor Hortense ! Her loveliness, her fascination, and
her misfortunes, made her the Mary Stuart of the Imperial
house. I have already said that all the ladies of the Na-
poleon dynasty were remarkable women ; but among them,
even including Josephine, Hortense stood pre-eminent.
She combined the graces and the loving nature of her
mother with the talent and spirit of her gallant brother
Eugene. Her whole life was one of adventurous change,
and would in itself fill a volume of vicissitudes. I regret
that I have only room to touch on the principal features
of her eventful career. Born a few years before the Revo-
2 u
290 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
lution, her childhood was passed in the midst of horrors.
At one time, while her father and mother lay in the dun-
geons of Robespierre, she and her brother were actually
so destitute, that he, the future Viceroy of Italy, had to
go as apprentice to a carpenter, and she, the future Queen
of Holland, had to earn her livelihood at a work-woman's.
Robespierre and his gang had murdered her father just
before the 9th Therrnidor ; but when that day of retribution
rid the earth of the worst monsters of " the Terror," Jose-
phine obtained her freedom, and resumed her position in
society. General Bonaparte was already a great man. Eu-
gene's coming to ask him to get him back his dead father's
sword, brought on the acquaintance and the marriage of
the General with Josephine. The 1 8th Brumaire made
Bonaparte First Consul, and placed his wife and her child-
ren in the Tuilleries. Hortense had completed her educa-
tion in the admirable seminary of Madame Campan, and
now it was that her beauty, her captivating manners, and
her varied powers of mind burst in full splendour on the
Parisian world. Her step- and adopted father, Napoleon,
was dotingly proud and fond of her, but his policy and
ambition stood in the way of her first and best love. A
scion of the old noblesse, M. de Paulo, courted her, and
she responded to his suit ; but though he was a gallant
gentleman, and had become Napoleon's friend, yet when
he asked for the hand of Hortense, exile was the answer he
received. Hortense was married to Louis Bonaparte, and
two years after their nuptials, Napoleon was an Emperor,
and Louis and his wife were a prince and princess of the
blood imperial. This, amid the opening magnificence of
THE BONAPARTES. 291
the Empire, was the most brilliant period of Hortense's
life, and it was now that she first produced some of those
beautiful musical compositions, which alone would have
perpetuated her name. The earliest of them breathe a
tone of melancholy, which seems to accord with her dis.
appointed affection. " Partant pour la Syrie" was of gayer
complexion than the rest, and charmed all Paris at the
time ; but little could its author then foresee the extent of
its future popularity and fame. That song was to be the
national air of France when her own loved son became
France's Emperor. It was to make itself heard through-
out the whole globe, and was to call men to victory at the
Alma and Inkermann, at Solferino and Magenta ; was to
be the Frenchman's rallying note in peace arid war, and
mingling with " God save the Queen," was to cheer that
bond of union which, I trust in God, France and England
may never have to break again. There is an edition of
Hortense's compositions exquisitely illustrated by drawings
of her own. In 1806, Louis and Hortense became King
and Queen of Holland; she was now the mother of two sons,
and, in 1808, when she was in Paris, a third was born,
the future Emperor of France. Her eldest child died an
infant : the other two absorbed her utmost affection.
Hortense's marriage had not been a happy one, from no
particular fault of herself or her husband, but from
sheer incompatibility of habits and feelings. They lived
mostly separate, but Hortense's whole soul was in her
children. Misfortune was soon, it would seem, to be
her constant attendant. First came the divorce of her
mother, and then the dethronement of Napoleon. When
u 2
292 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Louis XVIII. returned in restored royalty to Paris, he
found Hortense there, and he, a poet and a man of letters,
as well as a monarch, could not resist her accomplishments
and fascination ; the old King was completely captivated,
and he created her Duchess of St. Leu. But "outre ne
sers" is the Beauharnais motto, and Hortense would serve
none hut her own. It is said, that through her influence
with Louis, she obtained information that helped the return
from Elba. Be that as it may, it is certain that the King,
when restored again, was persuaded by his courtiers that
he had been somewhat fooled in his attentions, and poor
Hortense was most harshly treated. She was driven from
Paris and from France, and, owing to the interference of
the French government, she had much difficulty in finding
anywhere a resting-place. At last, the father of her bro-
ther Eugene's wife, Maximilian, King of Bavaiia, afforded
her protection. She took up her abode at Augsburg ; here
she remained till she ceased to be the object of pursuit or
persecution, and then she went to live at a Chateau on the
Lake of Constance. Her brother Eugene was her neigh-
bour. Here she was surrounded by a little court of at-
tached friends, and the time passed in intellectual and
graceful retirement. Poet, artist, composer, and even
actress, the Duchess provided constant amusement for her
circle, and for those to whom she extended her hospitality ;
she would sing' her own compositions, and now and then
display marked dramatic powers in the little dramas that
the company got up. There is, in a bygone number of
the New Monthly Magazine, a charming description, by an
English lady who at that period visited her, of the Duchess
THE BOXAPARTES. 293
of St. Leu, and her mode of life. But these more happy
hours of Hortense were soon to end, and she was once
more to be a wanderer. In 1824 her beloved brother
Eugene died : in 1831 the insurrection in Italy deprived
her of one of her sons, and increased her care for the other,
whom the affair of Strasbourg sent from France an exile
and an outcast. This calamity brought on his mother's
illness and death. Her son came in haste from England
to attend her, and succeeded, despite of every obstacle, in
reaching her then residence, the Chateau of Arenenberg in
the Swiss Canton of Thurgau. Here she breathed her last
in his arms, on the 5th Oct. 1837, just as that cloud had
set darkly upon him, to be only dispersed by a light,
fulfilling even Hortense's fondest views of the future a
light no other than the again risen sun of imperial France.
The present Emperor, NAPOLEON III., was bora at
Paris, 20th April, 1808, in the palace of the Tuilleries, and
the event was hailed with enthusiasm by the French people
as another security for the continuance of the Napoleonic
dynasty.
At the period of his birth his father was King of Hol-
land, but he afterwards resigned his throne from a con-
scientious scruple that he could not retain it consistently
with the interests of Holland and France. I need not
give in detail the vicissitudes in the life of the consum-
mate politician and marvellous man who now rules over
France. His history has been well and fully told by a
British officer, in a very interesting book, entitled " Napo-
leon the Third." Perhaps no alternations of fortune have
ever been so rapid or so wondrous as his. Within less than
294 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
twenty years he has played many parts ; at one time the
leader of au Italian revolt, then an exile and an author,
then the invader of Boulogne, then a prisoner at Ham,
then again exile and a private gentleman in London, where
he loyally acted as one of the special constables; then the
chief of a French republic, and finally the emperor of a
mighty people, rivalling as a statesman and a soldier the
renown of his uncle, the most memorable ruler and the
greatest captain of France. It will be sufficient in few
words to state, that after the expulsion of the Bonapartes
in 1815, the ex-queen of Holland, taking with her her
little boys, retired into Bavaria, but, being driven thence
by the altered temper of Louis XVIII., she had to seek
another place of refuge, and finally, after a brief sojourn in
Rome, established herself at the castle of Arenenberg in
Switzerland, where she resided for several years, and
where she eventually died. Here, under the guidance of
his all- accomplished mother, and amid a simple and
energetic people, Louis Napoleon pursued his studies,
and not only devoted himself to literature and science,
but took advantage of the vicinity of the camp at Thun
to acquire a knowledge of military duties. "Every year,"
says a contemporary writer, "he carried the knapsack
on his back, ate the soldier's fare, handled the shovel,
the pickaxe, and the wheelbarrow, would climb up the
mountains, and, after having marched many leagues in the
day, return at night to repose under the soldiers' tents."
"When the Bolognese revolution of 1831 broke out,
Louis Napoleon and his elder brother took an active part
in the campaign, and, aided by General Sercognani. defeated
THE BONAPARTKS. 295
the Papal forces in several places ; but their successes were
of short duration. The two princes were soon de-
prived of their command, and banished from Italy.
Meanwhile the elder brother fell sick at Faenza, and died
shortly afterwards, on the 27th March, 1831 ; and Louis
Napoleim, hemmed in by Austrian soldiers, most vigilant
to capture him, only escaped by assuming the livery of one
of Hortense's servants. Ultimately mother and son reached
Cannes, the spot so memorable as that on which the great
Emperor first set foot on his return from Elba, and thence
they proceeded to Paris, to claim the generosity and hospi-
tality of the King of the French. This was refused them.
The Prince then craved permission to serve in the French
army, even in the humblest station ; but his prayer was
rejected, and his immediate departure from French soil
insisted on. The death of the Duke of Reichstadt made
him still more dangerous, for, according to the precedence
laid down by Napoleon I., he (or, more strictly, his
father, then alive) was now heir male of the Imperial
house. Driven from his native land, and apparently
from all chance of serving France, he returned once again,
after passing a short time in England, to his former
Swiss residence. In this seclusion the Prince spent a few
years devoted to literature and political meditation. There
it was that he wrote his famous " Reveries Politiques," as
well as his " Considerations' Politiques et Militaires sur la
Suisse." At length, in 1836, on the evening of the 28th
of October, " abandoning this happy existence," the Prince
arrived at Strasbourg, " impelled," to use his own words,
' ' to run all the risks of a most hazardous enterprise by a
296 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES,
secret voice that led him on, and by a feeling, which for
no consideration on earth would he have postponed,, that
the moment for action had arrived." Every one knows
how the attempt at Strasbourg miscarried, and how Louis
Napoleon had once again to seek shelter in a foreign land.
He went this time to America, and remained there until
called back to Europe by the fatal illness of his mother.
Hortense's letter, announcing her precarious state, bears
so feeling a testimony to the filial regard of her son, that
I venture to introduce it here, as exhibiting the Emperor
in that domestic and amiable light which, as son, husband,
and father, has softened the memorials of his stern politi-
cal life :
" MY DEAR SON,
" I am about to undergo an operation which has
become absolutely necessary. In case it should not ter-
minate successfully, I send you, in this letter, my blessing.
We shall meet again shall we not ? in a better world,
where may you come to join me as late as possible ! And
you will believe that, in quitting this world, I regret only
leaving yourself, and your fond, affectionate disposition,
which alone has given any charm to my existence. This
will be a consolation for you, my dear friend to reflect
that, by your attentions, you have rendered your mother
as happy as circumstances would allow her to be. You
will think also of "all my affection for you ; and this will
inspire you with courage. Think upon this, that we shall
always have a benevolent and -distinct feeling for all that
passes in this world below, and that, assuredly, we shall
THE BONAPARTES. 297
all meet again. Reflect upon this consolatory idea ; it is
one which is too necessary not to be true. And that good
Arese, I send him my blessing as to a son.
" I press you to my heart, my dear friend. I am calm,
perfectly resigned ; and I would still hope that we may
meet again, even in this world.
" Your affectionate mother,
" HORTENSE."
" 3rd April, 1837."
After the death of his mother, which occurred on the
5th October, 1837, Prince Louis Napoleon again took up
his abode in Switzerland ; but in the following year, the
French Government, alarmed at the near proximity of the
exile, made a demand on the Helvetic Confederation for
his expulsion ; a demand which was as firmly and un-
hesitatingly refused. Louis Philippe threatened to enforce
his requirement by arms, and the gallant Swiss, with
equal resolution, prepared to resist force by force. In this
crisis, Louis Napoleon, unwilling that the generous and
hospitable land which had sheltered him so long should
suffer on his account, decided on leaving Switzerland.
The subsequent residence of Louis Napoleon in England
is so well remembered that I will not refer to it, further
than to mention that it was during his stay amongst us
that he published his " Idees Napoleonniennes." In 1840,
he made another effort to restore the Napoleon dynasty by
the bold but ill-concerted landing at Boulogne, and being
taken prisoner, was tried by the Chamber of Peers, and
sentenced to imprisonment for life in a French fortress.
298 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Thus seemed terminated the career of this daring and able
man. But his destiny was not yet accomplished. In
1840, he entered the Chateau of Ham ; and for six long
years remained immured in that state prison, occupying
himself with his unfailing resource, literature, and political
thought. His patient submission to his fate was rarely
disturbed. On one occasion, however, harassed by petty
annoyances and indignities, he addressed a protest to the
Trench Government, so eminently characteristic that I can-
not refrain from giving one or two extracts :
" In the nine months during which I have now been in
the hands of the French Government," remonstrates the
illustrious captive, " I have submitted patiently to indig-
nities of every kind. I will, however, be no longer silent,
nor authorise oppression by my silence.
" My position ought to be considered under two points
of view the one moral, the other legal. Morally speak-
ing, the government which has recognised the legitimacy
of the head of my family is bound to recognise me as a
prince, and to treat me as such.
" Policy has rights which I do not dispute. Let
government act towards me as towards its enemy, and
deprive me of the means of doing it any harm ; so far, it
would be justified. But, on the other hand, its conduct
will be dastardly if it treat me, who am the son of a king,
the nephew of an emperor, and allied to all the sovereigns
of Europe, as an ordinary prisoner.
" The simplest civility of look is regarded as a crime ;
and all who would wish to soften the rigours of my posi-
tion without failing in \heir duty, are threatened with
THE BONAPARTES. 299
being denounced to the authorities, and with losing their
places. In the midst of this France, which the head of
ray family rendered so great, I am treated like an excom-
municated person in the thirteenth century.
" The insulting inquisition which pursues me into my
very chamber, which follows my footsteps when I breathe
the fresh air in a retired corner of the fort, is not limited
to my person alone, but is extended even to my thoughts.
My letters to my family, the effusions of my heart, are
submitted to the strictest scrutiny ; and if a letter should
contain any expressions of too lively a sympathy, the letter
is sequestrated, and its writer is denounced to the govern-
ment.
" By an infinity of details too long to enumerate, it
appears that pains are taken, at every moment of the day,
to make me sensible of my captivity, and cry incessantly
in my ears, V<R metis !
" It is important to call to mind that none of the mea-
sures which I have pointed out were put in force against
the ministers of Charles the Tenth, whose dilapidated
chambers I now occupy. And yet these ministers were
not born on the steps of a throne ; and, moreover, they
were not condemned to simple imprisonment, but their
sentence implied a more severe treatment than has been
given to me ; and, in fine, they were not the representatives
of a cause which is an object of veneration in France.
The treatment, therefore, which I experience is neither
just, legal, nor humane.
" If it be supposed that such measures will subdue me,
it is a mistake. It is not outrage, but marks of kindness,
which subdue the hearts of those who suffer."
300 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
This remonstrance produced its effect, and the Prince's
captivity was rendered less irksome ; but still it went on
year after year until 1846, when Louis Napoleon at last
effected his escape by means graphically narrated in his
own letter, and in the evidence of Dr. Conneau, when
examined before the local tribunal, both of which state-
ments I annex :
Thus writes the Prince himself :
" My desire to see my father once more in this world
made me attempt the boldest enterprise I ever engaged in.
It required more resolution and courage on my part than
at Strasburg and Boulogne ; for I was determined not to
submit to the ridicule which attaches to those who are
arrested escaping under a disguise, and a failure I could
not have endured. The following are the particulars of
my escape :
" You know that the fort was guarded by four hundred
men, of whom sixty soldiers acted daily as sentries outside
the walls. Moreover, the principal gate of the prison was
guarded by three gaolers, two of whom were constantly on
duty. It was necessary that I should first elude their
vigilance ; afterwards traverse the inside court, before the
windows of the commandant's residence ; and, on arriving
there, I should still have to pass by a gate which was
guarded by soldiers.
" Not wishing to communicate my design to any one, it
was necessary to disguise myself. As several rooms in
the part of the building which I occupied were undergoing
repair, it was not difficult to assume the dress of a work-
man. My good and faithful valet, Charles Thelier, pro-
THE BON APATITES. 301
cured a smock-frock and a pair of sabots, and, after shaving
off my moustaches, I took a plank on my shoulders.
" On Sunday morning I saw the workmen enter at half-
past eight o'clock. Charles took them some drink, in
order that I should not meet any of them on my way.
He was also to call one of the turnkeys, whilst Dr.
Conneau conversed with the others. Nevertheless, I had
scarcely got out of my room before I was accosted by a
workman, who took me for one of his comrades ; and at
the bottom of the stairs I found myself in front of the
keeper. Fortunately, I placed before my face the plank
which I was carrying, and succeeded in reaching the yard.
Whenever I passed a sentinel or any other person, I always
kept the plank before my face.
" Passing before the first sentinel, I let my pipe fall,
and stopped to pick up the bits. There I met the officer
on duty ; but as he was reading a letter, he paid no atten-
tion to me. The soldiers at the guard-house appeared
surprised at my dress, and a chasseur turned round several
times to look at me. I next met some workmen who
looked very attentively at me. I placed the plank before
my face ; but they appeared to be so curious that I
thought I should never escape, until I heard them say,
* Oh, it is Bertrand I'
" Once outside, I walked quickly towards the road to
St. Quentin. Charles, who had the day before engaged a
carriage, shortly overtook me, and we arrived at St. Quen-
tin. I passed through the town on foot, after having
thrown off my smock-frock. Charles procured a post-
chaise, under pretence of going to Cambrai. We arrived,
without meeting with any obstacles, at Valenciennes,
302 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
where I took the railway. I had procured a Belgian
passport, but I was nowhere asked to show it.
" During my escape. Dr. Conneau, always so devoted
to me, remained in prison, and caused them to believe
that I was unwell, in order to give me time to reach the
frontier. Before I could be persuaded to quit France, it
was necessary that I should be convinced that the Govern-
ment would never set me at liberty if I would not consent
to dishonour myself. It was also a matter of duty that I
should exert all my efforts in order to be enabled to solace
my father in his old age."
Dr. Conneau, the escape having been discovered, was
brought before the local tribunal and examined. In
answer to the Judge's interrogatories, his statement was
as follows :
" I tried to conceal the departure of the Prince in order
to give him time to escape. I was anxious to gain, in
this way, at least twenty-four hours, if possible. First of
all, I closed the door leading from the prisoner's chamber
into the saloon. I kindled a strong fire, although the
weather was really very hot, to support the supposition
that he was indisposed. About eight o'clock a packet of
violet 'plants arrived by the diligence. I told the keeper
to fill some pots with earth, and prevented him from
entering the Prince's saloon. About half-past eight
o'clock the man-of-all- work came and asked me where we
would breakfast. ' In my room/ I replied. ' I shall
fetch the large table/ said he. ' It is unnecessary/ I an-
swered; 'the General is unwell, and will not breakfast
with us/
" My intention was, in this manner, to push off further
THE BONAPARTES. 303
knowledge till the next day. I said the Prince had taken
medicine. It was absolutely necessary that it should be
taken, accordingly I took it myself. I then took some
coffee and threw it into a pot of water, with some crumbs
of bread, and added nitric acid, which produced a very
disagreeable smell, so that the man-of-all-work might be
persuaded that the Prince was really ill.
" About half-past twelve I saw the commandant for the
second time, and informed him that the Prince was some-
what easier. * * * Every time that I came out of
the small saloon, in which the Prince was supposed to be
lying on a sofa, I pretended to be speaking to him. The
man-of-all-work did not hear me. If his ears had been at
all delicate, he would have been quite able to hear me
speaking.
" The day passed on very well till a quarter-past seven
o'clock. At this moment the commandant entered, with
an air somewhat stern. ' The Prince/ said I, ' is a little
better, commandant/ ' If,' replied he, ' the Prince is
still ill, I must speak to him I must speak to the
Prince.'
" I had prepared a large stuffed figure, and laid it in
the Prince's bed with the head resting upon the pillow. I
called the Prince, who, naturally enough, made no reply.
I retired towards the commandant, and indicated to him,
by a sign, that the Prince was asleep. This did not satisfy
him. He sat down in the saloon, saying, 'The Prince
will not sleep for ever. I will wait.'
" He now remarked to me, that the time for the arrival
of the diligence was passed, and expressed his wonder
that Shelier was not returned. I stated to him that he
304 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
had taken a cabriolet. The drum beat, and the com-
mandant rose and said, ' The Prince has moved in bed
he is waking up.'
" The commandant stretched his ears, but did not hear
him (the supposed Prince) breathe. I did the same, and
said, ' Let him sleep on.' He drew near the bed, and
found a stuffed figure. He immediately turned towards
me, and said, ' The Prince is gone ! At what time did he
go ?' ' At seven in the morning/ ' Who were the per-
sons on guard ?' ' I know nothing !' These were the
only words which were interchanged between us. The
commandant left the room." *
The Prince hastened to England, and again took up his
residence in London, where he mixed much in society.
In 3 848, the Orleans dynasty was overthrown, and shortly
after, the sentence of banishment against the Imperial
family was reversed, but the Prince fearful that his pre-
sence in Paris, in the then unsettled state of France,
might lead to tumults delayed his return, and during
the interval on the memorable 10th April, 1848, the day
of the great Chartist demonstration, he enrolled himself
as a special constable in London. Within eight months
after, the French people, by a vast majority (the exact
number was 5,434,226), elected the heir of the Bonapartes
President of the Republic ; and in 1852, he became
Emperor, by a still more marked manifestation of the
popular will, 7,864,180 votes having been recorded.
* For the Statement of Dr. Conneau, as well as for the
Prince's own narrative of his escape, I am indebted to the work
1 have already alluded to, " Napoleon III."
THE BONAPARTE8. 305
His marriage to Eugenie Marie de Guzman,* Countess
cle Theba, occurred on the 29th January, 1853, and the
birth of the Prince Imperial, Napoleon Eugene Louis,
followed on the 16th March, 1856.
I should in conclusion particularly remark, that her
Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess -Dowager of Baden,
and widow of the Grand Duke Charles Louis, Stephanie,
nde de Beauharnais, was adopted by Napoleon I., she
being the daughter of Claude de Beauharnais, Peer of
France, last Count des Roches-Baritaud. Napoleon III.
is consequently her cousin. Her daughters are the present
Princess of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, and the present
Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon. Such, on the whole,
is this mighty and wide-extended family of Bonaparte,
whose head at one time was certainly, like Nebuchadnezzar,
" the terrible of the nations." May the land that was
waste and desolate, become, under their future influence,
like the garden of Eden !
* The family of Guzman (of which the French Empress is a
descendant) is one of the most illustrious and historic houses in
Europe ; being the parent stock from which have sprung the
Dukes of Medina de las Torres, the Dukes of Medina Sidonia,
and the Counts Dukes of Olivares, and the Marquesses and
Counts of Montijo, Counts of Theba, and Grandees of Spain.
In addition to the name of Guzman, Her Majesty is entitled to
that of Portocarrero, which recalls likewise great historical asso-
ciations. The Empress Eugenie is not the first of her race who
has been called to a throne ; in 1633, Donna Louisa Francesca
de Guzman married the King of Portugal, Don John IV., of
Braganza.
306 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
List to me, monk, it is thy trade to talk
As reverend men do use in saintly wise,
Of life's vicissitudes and vanities.
Hear one plain tale that doth surpass all saws.
MATUEIN.
FROM its source in Knocknanavon (Cnoc na habun
Hill of the Rivers], on the confines of Glanaclirime and
the O'Donovan's country, till it reaches the sea at Kinsale,
" the pleasant Bandon, crowned with many a wood," flows
for a space of thirty miles through a country strewn with
the ruins of ancient castles. This portion of Carbery was-
for many centuries the stronghold of the MacCarthys
Reagh ; the pleasant Bandon was essentially their river,
for its entire course, though ranging with many an ample
curve through an extensive district, lay wholly within their
territory. Of twenty-six castles built by this sept, in the
county of Cork alone, the greater number guarded the
windings of this stream.
The historian of Cork and Kerry, following in the foot-
steps of Spenser, exclaims with enthusiasm, " The River
MACCARTHY. 307
Bandon is extremely pleasant, having several houses,
castles, and woods on its banks, which are high and beau-
tiful. As one rows down this river, it winds in an agree-
able manner ; and at the end of each turn the sight is
pleasingly entertained with the prospect of some neat seat,
or romantic building, which open upon the eye one after
another." The neat seats were features in the landscape
of recent origin, the romantic buildings were the fortresses
of the MacCarthy Reagh and his followers. A. few of
these castles, like those of the 'Donovans and the
O' Hurleys, still raise their massive towers in imposing
grandeur, defiant of time and storm ; but the great mul-
titude of them which burthened the margins of the
Eandon are prostrate in the soil-heaps of rubbish, partially
hidden by a rank vegetation, and scarcely distinguishable
from the natural undulations around them.
Little more than a century and a half ago, there stood,
a few miles north of Castle Donovan, a far more imposing
and historic structure, the Castle of Dun Maenmhaighe,
or D unman way. The vengeance of Heaven had been
earned for it, and the hand of man deliberately destroyed
it, carried away stone from stone, and left tradition alone
cognizant of its site. Six miles further north, and in " a
wild and dreary region," surrounded by swamps, and
backed by a ridge of rocky hills, sterile and pathless, there
stands, but little scathed as to its exterior, " the large and
strong pile of Togher." This castle belonged also to the
Lord of Dunmanway, and crime, though of a less dark
die than that which harbingered the total destruction of
the former, has left the trace of retribution upon the latter
308 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of these strongholds. Its foundations are on the solid
rock, its walls are of wonderful thickness, it might seem
to defy for ever, as it has defied until now, the utmost
that elemental fury could wreak upon it. Scarcely a stone
is displaced from its main walls, but through its principal
front, exte nding from its parapet nearly to its founda-
tion, is a cleft through its entire thickness, as if the
artillery of Heaven had stricken it. The back of the
structure, which overhangs a small tributary of the Bandon,
is covered with a screen of luxuriant and aged ivy. which
year by year extends its foliage over the rugged sides of
the building, closing up its narrow loops, towering above
its parapets, and occasionally accumulating in huge masses
that have lost their hold upon the hard rock of which the
castle is built, and sway hither and thither as the storms
career around them. From this abundant vegetation not
a single tendril has yet crept across the chasm, which
points to a dark chapter in the history of the castle's
earlier days, when a foul crime and a shameful punish-
ment led to one of the most striking, though by no means
the greatest, of the vicissitudes with which Irish family
history abounds.
The earliest instance of a voluntary alienation of any
considerable portion of the patrimony of the MacCarthys
of Desmond, for the purpose of establishing an independent
chieftainship, was that by which Donell Mor na Curra set-
tled upon Donell God (Daniel the Stammerer), his second
son, fifty-seven ploughlands in the pleasant valley of Glan-
achrime. Subsequent alienations founded the more histori-
cal and far more powerful families of MacCarthy Reagh, and
MACCARTHY. 309
MacCarthy of Muskerry ; but Donell God was the first
cadet of the Princes of South Munster who received a
patrimony independent of the head of his race. For ten
generations the descend ants of Donell God flourished in the
heart of Carbery ; they saw other offshoots from their parent
stem established upon their borders, more ambitious, more
turbulent, and better acquainted with the social changes
of their country than they were, but they continued to
hold their own, yielding but slight acknowledgment of
superiority to the head of their race, none, till near upon
the period of their extinction, to their powerful cousins,
whose country encircled them, but electing, as others did,
by usage of Tanistry, their own chieftains. The author of
Carbrise Notitia informs us that they were " one of the best
branches of the Carthys, and always reckoned the best sco-
loges or housekeepers in Carbery ." Indeed, they early
acquired the designation of Na Feile, or the Hospitable,
which distinguished them from the many families of their
name which had multiplied around them. In such tran-
quillity as the martial spirit and troubled politics of their
time permitted, or with but such warlike diversions as
added relish to the festivities for which they were famous,
the chieftains of Glanachrime continued to flourish from
the twelfth to the seventeenth century. They had never
broken beyond the boundaries fixed for them by the
generous gift of Donell-Mor-na Curra, nor had their pa-
trimony suffered diminution by the encroachment of other
branches of the sept. Into what pleasant places their lot
had fallen, and how joyously, from generation to generation,
flowed on the sparkling current of their days, the reader
310 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
will perceive by the following extract from a manuscript
pedigree of these fortunate lords of Glanachrime. This
pedigree is of no common authority, for it was compiled
in 1784, by no less a personage than John Butler, Bishop
of Cork, and afterwards Lord Dunboyne, and attested by
the MacCarthy Reagh, the O'Donovan, and four other
gentlemen of their blood.
" Glanachrime, situate in the West of East Carbery,
and County of Cork, wherein were many fertile flowery
plains, and flourishing verdant woods, environed with a
ridge of hills, the most pleasant and romantic nature
could intend for sheltering and watering a spot designed to
yield all the pleasures and desirable necessaries of life that
could be produced in that wholesome climate. Upon the
said demesne were built several spacious houses, beside
two strong, stately mansion castles, viz., that of Togher,
and the other of Dunmanway, where he (the chieftain)
alternately displayed his liberality, insomuch that no gen-
tleman in Munster, of whatsoever ability, was accounted
equal to him in that of housekeeping, for which reason he
got the name of Na Feile, or the Hospitious. The said
chieftain and his friends were intermixed with the best
Irish and Strongbonian families of Munster, and lived in
great splendour and happiness."
This Elysian valley in East Carbery continued the un-
disputed possession of the descendants of Donell God until
Elizabeth ascended the throne of England. That great
Queen, regardless of the happiness which her royal policy
might disturb, early set her heart upon the effective sub-
jugation of Ireland, and the extinction of the princely
MACCARTHY. 311
rights claimed by its chiefs. Through forty years she
persevered through every difficulty, draining her exchequer,
prodigal of the lives of her English subjects, and assuming
increased determination as her ablest ministers despaired,
till the last year of her life, when the governors of Ireland
ventured to assure her that that troublesome country was
at last fairly subjected for the present! Through this
long period of national struggle the Lords of Glanachrime
still held their territory. The fiery torrent of the great
Desmond rebellion passed over them, the wild warriors of
O'Neill encircled them with slaughtered foes and a blazing
country, Essex led the choicest English force that had
been seen in Ireland since the days of Richard the Second
into Carbery, but they lost not an acre of the patrimony
of their ancestors. They saw the main line of their race
extinguished in the person of the Earl of Clancar, and
Florence, the most enlightened of the MacCarthys that had
existed for 400 years, sent away prisoner to the Tower of
London ; but confiscation, which had absorbed such large
portions of the inheritance of their sept, had hitherto
spared them. A family that had steered its fortunes so
ably, or so luckily, for centuries might seem to possess a
charm against the ordinary ill chances of life, to be safe
from the vicissitudes which were falling thickly around
them; and so perchance might it have been, had not a
hideous crime and an ignominious punishment stained the
honour of this noble chieftainship, and prepared the way
for their rapid dilapidation.
About the year 15 80 expired Finin (Florence), the seventh
in descent from Donell God. Succession amongst Irish chiefs
312 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
was decided not by English law, but by usage of tanistry,
Finin had left sons ; and had English law prevailed, the
eldest of these, Cormac Don, would have stepped into the
post left vacant by his father. Tanistry passed over the
sons of the deceased chief, and called to the succession
"the eldest cousin of the blood," preferring in all cases
the brother to the son of the last ruler. Hence, as soon as
the remains of Finin were deposited in the churchyard of
Kilbarry, " the rod of command " was handed without he-
sitation to Cormac, his brother. The inauguration of an
Irish chieftain was an event of great importance, and at-
tended with much display and rejoicing amongst the septs.
The right of succession was rather ratified than regulated
by the ceremony of election. A white rod, the symbol of
authority, was delivered to the future ruler by his superior
lord, if he acknowledged one, or by one of his own subor-
dinate chieftains, as in the case of MacCarthy Reagh,
who received the rod from O'Mahonie. Tribute of vari-
ous kinds, chiefly of provisions, was due from the clan to
furnish the festivities attending these elections; and, if
MacCarthy Na Feil&, the Hospitable, inherited the distinc-
tion and the obligation of surpassing other chiefs in the
abundance of his hospitality, the reader acquainted with
Irish liberality at the present day may imagine the scenes
of rejoicing in the castles of D unman way and Togher,
when their new lord entered into the possession of them.
Within the counties of Cork and Kerry were a hundred
and ninety-nine castles. Of these, all except sixty-nine
were built by the Milesian Irish ; and the election of a
chief was likely to assemble them all, the more likely
MACCARTHY. 313
as these elections were looked upon with grim counte-
nance by the Queen's authorities in Munster. Tanistry
and its usages were held in special disfavour by Eliza-
beth, who had been for years endeavouring with more
or less success to abolish it, and to introduce the English
law of succession in its place. She invited all Irish chiefs
to surrender their countries into her hands, to renounce
many feudal rights which excited her jealousy, and to
accept back their lands from her with the guarantee of
succession to their eldest sons. This inducement, which
had availed with each of the other great branches of their
family, had never tempted the chiefs of Glanachrime to
abandon the custom of their forefathers, and, consequently,
on the election of Finin, Cormac Don, the eldest son of
the late chieftain, was compelled to stand aside, whilst
the white wand was handed to his uncle.
The festivities even of D unman way and Togher at last
admitted of some intermission, and the various chief-
tains retired to their own homes. Suddenly there
passed a startling rumour far beyond the boundaries of
Carbery. It carried with it sorrow and shame to the
hearths of every castle in Munster. Blood had been shed
in those joyous halls of Dunmanway. The chieftain whose
election had been so recently celebrated was no more. He
had been most foully murdered ! The sensation produced
amongst the kinsmen of the murdered lord of Glanach-
rime could not fail to be of indignation and horror. A
very different feeling was produced by the intelligence in
the court of the President of Munster. The horror of the
septs, the peculiar impression of the English authorities,
314 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
was increased tenfold, when the name of the murderer
reached them. Cormac Don hurriedly claimed the suc-
cession. There is no record that he was elected by his
kinsmen, nor indeed is it likely that he was or would be.
A party of English soldiers, despatched by Sir William
Drury, President of Munster, carried off the claimant to
Cork, under the charge of having murdered his uncle.
No man could pity him, for his guilt was proved : no man
could resent his punishment, ignominious as it was, for it
was by the verdict of twelve men that he was sentenced
and hung in chains. Then followed a truly singular con-
test for the lands of the murdered man. Had Cormac died
by the visitation of God, or by any hand but that of his
kinsmen, the captaincy of Glanachrime would, by tanistry,
have fallen to Cormac Don. "When Cormac Don was
hanged as a murderer, the inheritance passed on to the
next brother, and not to the son of the murdered chieftain,
as long as there remained elder members of the blood.
The heir, then, by tanistry to the murdered man was Teige
Onorsy [anfhorsa, i. e. of the forces], the brother of the
murderer. Teige accordingly without hesitation took
possession of the castles and lands of Glanachrime ; but
the circumstance of a murder committed by a man who,
even subsequently to his crime, had been the claimant of
a rich and extensive patrimony, was not likely to escape
the vigilant cupidity of the English authorities. At a
parliament held in Dublin the same year, the man who
had been condemned by the Cork jury for murder was
declared a rebel ! and his lands forfeited to the Queen.
This English legerdemain was wholly lost upon Teige
MACCARTHY. 315
Onorsy. He evinced a decision of character equal to
that of his brother, and, in spite of the Dublin parliament
and the Lord President of Munster, seized upon the lord-
ship of Glanachrime. Years passed away, and no effort
was made by the government to disturb him ; but in the
meantime the son of the murdered chieftain was growing
towards manhood. The attention of the authorities of
Munster and of the native septs was called away from the
domestic troubles of a petty chieftain to a personage who
inspired more hope and fear than any other man in Ireland
except O'Neill. Florence MacCarthy had recently mar-
ried the heiress of MacCarthy Mor, in defiance of the
Queen, and had been sent prisoner to the Tower of
London.
It is presumable that Teige Onorsy, with the Act of the
Parliament of Dublin held in constant menace over him, was
demonstrative of much loyalty ; he was certainly not the man
whom the imprisoned Florence would desire to see chieftain
in the very heart of his own territory. Finin MacCormac
began to talk loudly of his claim to the chieftainship
of Glanachrime. It is probable that Tiege Onorsy at
once discovered who was the promoter of this claim, and
found that his cousin was no longer the unfriended boy
that he had been till then. His decision was speedily
taken ; he would appeal, not to the gentlemen of his sept,
as was usual in cases of like dispute, but to the Queen.
The petition which he presented to Elizabeth evinces a
perfect knowledge of the feelings of that royal lady. Had
he asserted that usage of Tanistry had always prevailed in
Glanachrime, and that by such usage he was the legiti-
316 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
mate chieftain, he would have asserted what was true,
proved his claim, and lost his cause. The very name of
Tanistry was hateful to Elizabeth, and Tiege Onorsy
was far too wary to avail himself of so good a plea. Far
different was the purport of his petition. He humbly
craved her Majesty's permission to resign land and lord-
ship into her hands, and to resume the same by her
Majesty's letter patent, with succession to his eldest son.
This petition was presented by no less a person than Sir
Walter Raleigh. The case of Finin MacCormac would
seem hopeless : he had no claim by Tanistry, he had no
laud or lordship to subject to English law, and his best
friend and adviser was in a distant prison ; but Finin had
been reared in a rough school, and he gave proofs in after-
life that if his discretion were less, his resolution was
equal to that of his rival. He suddenly disappeared from
Carbery, and found his way to the banks of the Thames.
There he met with protection from a man who had
troubles enough and sorrows enough of his own, without
adopting those of others, but who did not refuse to pro-
, vide him with food and shelter, to pen his petitio ns for
him, and to convey them to the English Privy Council by
influence equal to that of Raleigh. It may be asserted
with little fear of contradiction, that there existed no man
in the sixteenth century who had written so many peti-
tions to the Queen and her Privy Council as Florence
MacCarthy. From the year 1588, the date of his first,
until 1630, that of his last, his literary labours were one
continued series of petitions; they were written from the
Tower, from the Gate-house, from the Marsh alsea, from
MACCARTHY. 317
his lodgings in King Street Westminster, from the Court,
from Munster, from every spot of earth on which it was
his lot to sojourn. His enemies also wrote petitions; but
how clumsy, how spiritless, in comparison with his ! To
no one living could the friendless Finin have applied with
equal certainty of obtaining a ready and emphatic exposi-
tion of his wrongs. The presence of Teige Onorsy in
London, and the purport of his visit, were well known to
the Tower prisoner ; to blacken his character, and to re-
present in plaintive phrase the sorrows of the orphan
was all that was left wherewith to encounter the petition
of his rival. The fearless and assertive tone of the docu-
ment now laid before the reader is characteristic of the
hand that wrote it, and at once reminds us of the ani-
mated style of his controversy with the Lord Barry :
" To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord
High Treasurer of England.
" In most humble manner sheweth unto your Lordship,
your poor suppliant, Fynyn M 'Cormuck of Glaincrim, in
Carbry, within the county of Cork, Gent. That whereas
your said suppliant's father, Cormuck M'Fynyn, being
(as is known to the right Honourable Sir John Parrett)
lawfully possessed of the lands of Glaincrim, in the coun-
try of Carbry aforesaid, was at the instigation of one Teig
in Orssy, murdered by Cormuck Downe the said Teig in
Orssy his eldest brother ; for the which his said brother
was by Sir William Drury, being then Lord President of
Munster, hanged in chains at Corke ; and afterwards a
cousin of your suppliant, named Filemie M'Owen, pre-
318 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
tending to possess the said lands of Glaincrime for and in
the name of your suppliant, was hy the said Teig in Orssy
in like sort murdered ; since which time he doth, as well
by reason of his wealth as because of your suppliant's
tender age, being constrained for safety of his life to for-
sake his country since his father's death, contrary to all
equity and justice, possess your said suppliant's father's
lands as tenant to Sir Owen M'Cartie, being therein
maintained by the said Sir Owen by reason that he hath
fostered his eldest son, and the better to entitle himself
thereunto, is now come hither with intent to surrender
the said lands to her Majesty : And forasmuch as those
lands doth of right belong unto your said suppliant, and
that the said Teig in Orssy hath already procured means
whereby he hath spoken to her Majesty, and preferred his
supplications to her Highness touching the said lands,
and being here these six months, ever since Sir Walter
Raleigh came out of Ireland, a suitor unto her Majesty
for those lands, he hath never all that while acquainted
your Lordship, or any other of the Lords of the Council,
with the matter, whereby it appears that he hath no right
thereunto, and that his intent is to steal away her Ma-
jesty's letters unknown to your Lordship and to the rest
of the Lords of the Council, which he had done already,
but that his said surrender may not be received, and that
there may be a stay made thereof before your suppliant's
title be tried, which being found right, that he may be
put in possession of his lands according to equity and
justice. And he shall pray, &c.
" The humble petition of Fynyn M'Cormuck, beseech-
ing your Lordship to peruse the same."
MACCARTHY. 319
The above petition reached the hands of the Queen; but
the offer of Teige Onorsy to hold his lands by English
law had produced its effect. A letter was written to the
Lords Justices in' Ireland, to the effect that, " whereas
Teige M'Dermodie MacCarthy, of Cork, gentleman,
holdeth all his lands, &c., as his ancestors have heretofore
holden the same, that is, by the Irish custom of tanistry,
hath made humble suit, &c., we let you note that, for the
good disposition appearing in the said Teig M'Dermodie,
and to the end that others holding their lands by the like
bad custom may be the rather encouraged to alter likewise
the state and tenure of their lands, we are pleased to ac-
cept his offer." There follows, however, a provision that
the claim of Finin be inquired into. The inquiry was
quickly made and answered. " Cormac Downe had mur-
dered Finin's father, had possessed himself of the lands of
Glanachrime ; had been tried, sentenced, and hanged at
Cork as a murderer; the parliament in Dublin had de-
clared him a rebel, and confiscated his lands. Neither of
the present claimants had any right to the lordship in
question ; it belonged to her Majesty ;" and her Majesty
bestowed it in free gift on Teige Onorsy and his heirs
male for ever.
This episode in the history of the family of Dunmanway
would never have reached us but for circumstances far more
important than the rights of either of the claimants. Flo-
rence MacCarthy in course of time, and by dint of peti-
tioning, had regained his freedom and risen in court
favour. He was claiming vast territories in right of his
wife, and had carried alarm into a host of undertakers,
320 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
who had already seized, or were petitioning for grants of
the country of MacCarthy Mor. Foremost amongst these
were the Brownes and the Lord Barry. A multitude of
charges of disloyalty were presented t& the Privy Council
against him, and amongst them one connected with this
Finin MacCormac. It is from Florence's reply in his own
vindication that I learn the tale that has been laid before
the reader. Admitting that portions of the narrative are
slightly conjectural, enough remains to show that the
writer possessed a generous and kind heart. Florence's
defence is dated June 14, 1594, and is headed " Answers
to the charges of the Lord Barry."
" 5th. Fynine Mac Cormac Mac Finin, of Gleancruym,
being gone over, by reason of his adversary, Teige Enorsy,
who went over with Sir Walter Raleigh to surrender the
said Gleancruym, and his father being my father's fol-
lower and foster brother, the boy came to me to the Tower,
and told me had he no friends nor means to follow his
cause ; whereupon, for pity and country's sake, I gave my
word to one Robert Foster, of Tower Street, for his diet ;
and, having put up his several petitions to the Council,
Sir Owen Hopton being removed from the Tower, and Sir
Michael Blount placed, the said Sir Michael would let no
prisoner have any liberty upon any warrant directed to his
predecessor, whereupon the aforesaid Foster, seeing me
restrained, would not credit the poor young man for his
diet, whereby he was constrained, through extreme misery,
to go with some soldiers into Brittaigne, where he was,
about four or five years past, killed, about Gingam, as I
heard of everybody that came from Sir John Merreys since."
MACCARTHY. 321
How pathetic, how skilful the insinuation of Finin's
loyalty ! but how unlike the version of the Lord Barry !
It is quite possible that the fate of Finin may have been
in some particulars such as Florence described it. The
poor fellow may have enlisted as a common soldier, and
Florence may have heard that he lost his life at Gingam ;
but the Lord Barry had heard quite another story, hence
his fifth charge : " Finin M'Cormac, a cousin and retainer
of Florence MacCarthy, was sent over by the said Flo-
rence to Sir William Stanley (who had deserted with an
Irish regiment at Derwenter, in the Low Countries), where
he serves and remains as yet."
Notwithstanding the rumour of Finin's death, and the
bold accusation of Barry, there is much probability that
he did really exist in the Queen's service, and that he was
severely wounded ; for the following curious petition was
presented to the Secretary of State by a wounded Finin,
but whether the Finin of Glanachrime or not is only con-
jectural :
" The humble petition of Finin MacCarthy, maimed.
"In most humble manner beseecheth your Honor's
good Lordship, your poor suppliant, Finin MacCarthy,
Gentleman, that where after long and painful services, per-
formed in her Majesty's service abroad, he hath therein
been maimed of one of his legs, as appeareth (by certificates
for recompense), whereof these two and a half years he
hath been an humble petitioner for some stay of living,
and albeit divers persons of far smaller desert have been
despatched with recompense, yet he is as far as ever from
2 Y
322 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
obtaining anything, and for as much as, being a younger
brother, and hath neither land or living, and that for the
caring of his maim he hath grown to great debt (which he
shall never be able to pay without your furtherance), for
some part whereof he hath lately been imprisoned, he
prayeth your good Lordship to pity his state, and let him
have xx of lands concealed from her Majesty in Ireland
for years, or a pension of xx next out of
for forty- one years, or a pension of two shillings per diem,
or otherwise some good piece of money to pay his debts,
repair to his native country, live in some good sort, and
hereafter desist from troubling your Honour.
" As for a Poor House, Right Honourable, it is neither
fit for a Gentleman of his Birth, neither doeth he know
any room void, by four or five lives at least.
" Wherefore he humbly beseecheth your Lordship to
favour him.
" September, 1594."
It has chanced to many men to be robbed of their
inheritance, and to be cast upon the world on their own
resources, but to few, so nobly descended, to find them-
selves so utterly friendless, and to perish so early in a
manner so obscure as Florence MacCarthy represents him
to have done ; but the truth is, that whatever may have
been the fate of Finin MacCormac, when he was turned out
into the streets of London by Foster, whether he or some
other Finin penned the above petition, he did not lose his
life at Gingam, but lived to a good old age ; that the
martial spirit of his race conquered the infirmity in his
MACCAKTHY. 3.23
legs, and even affected a reconciliation between him and
his rival ; for in the year 1642, fifty-five years after the
date of his first petition, his name, as well as that of Teige
Onorsy, occurs in a long list of Irish gentlemen who
were declared outlaws for an error made in the choice of
the party for which they had recently borne arms.
The fortunes of Glanachrime suffered a gloomy eclipse
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when reckon-
ing was made for O'NeilFs rebellion ; but Teige Onorsy
possessed more than the usual ability of his race, he con-
trived to escape the perils of that reckoning, and for
many long years continued to enjoy her Majesty's gift.
He ruled over Glanachrime with more than the proverbial
hospitality of his house. But retribution for the crime
of Cormac Don, though slow to come, was in store, and
was coming. Another murder, not indeed so foul as that
of Cormac, which was but one degree less atrocious than
that of Cain, but more dastardly, completed the measure
of wickedness for which vengeance tarried. There was no
need of an Irish Act of Parliament this time to declare
murder rebellion. The assizes held at Youghal in 1652,
proceeded more circumstantially to prove that Glanachrime
was forfeited to the state. Amidst a multitude of depo-
sitions made in open court by parties who had suffered
wrong during recent troubles, appears one of a crime so
cowardly and so cruel that it would be fruitless to hope to
excite sympathy for the final overthrow of the family that
could countenance if not occasion it. Teige Onorsy, and
also his son, Teige a Duna, were gathered to their ancestors
before the vengeance of the law overtook their race. In
324 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the library of Trinity College, Dublin, is preserved the
examination which elicited the details of this second
murder by the hand or under the connivance of a chieftain
of Glanachrime.
The examination of Mr. Callahan Car tie, of D unman -
\vay, taken 13th September, 1652 :
" Sayeth that in the first year of the troubles, this ex-
aminaut, then living with his father, Teige Odownie,
alias Cartie, well remembers that his father took into his
protection the person and family of John Ford, and his
son Robert Ford, and his wife; and about six weeks after,
upon Ford's request, sent the said Ford, with his son
Robert and their families, with a convoy towards Castle-
haven, and that John Ford was (as this examinant heard)
murthered by the way ; and the rest of them, he knows
not what became of them, but (as he heard) they went
safe to the garrison of Castlehaven. And this examinant
further sayeth that the names of the persons that his
father sent to be their convoy was Diarmid O'Leary, that
lives with Mr. Randal Oge Hurley ; Thomas McKnougher,
living near Bandon ; and Donagh O'Terrahan, of Glean-
achrime, and further sayeth not.
" CALL. MCCARTHY"
"Jurat et exam inants \ "F. WHEELER,
coram nobis." j " PETER WALLIS."
The examination of Mrs. Honor O'Donovan, alias
Carthy, late wife of Teige Odownie, alias Carthy, taken
i3th day of September, 1652 :
MACCARTHY. 325
" Sayeth that about the beginning of these troubles,
she well remembers that John Ford and his son Robert
Ford, with their wives and children, came to this exami-
nant's husband to crave his safeguard and protection,
which accordingly were granted them for the space of five
or six weeks ; about which time the foresaid Ford desired
a convoy for himself and the rest to go to the garrison of
Castlehaven, which accordingly was granted; and this ex
aminant further sayeth that she heard John Ford was
slain about Gortebrack by some of Mac Teigh's men, and
further sayeth that the names of those whom this exami-
nant's husband appointed for the convoy was Diarmod
O'Leary; Thomas McKnougher; and Donagh O'Terrahan ;
and one Teige McKnougher, who is dead. And this ex-
aminant further sayeth that she was informed that some
of the convoy had some of the money and goods that was
Ford's ; and further sayeth that Thomas McKnougher and
Douagh O'Terrahan returned to this examinant's husband's
house, and was with him upon his lands as formerly ; and
further sayeth not.
" F. WHEELER, " HONOR ^ O'DoxovAN.
" PETER WALLIS." (Her mark)."
The examination of Teige Oge McTeige McDaniel
MacCarthy, of Templebryan, about forty years of age,
taken 20th September, 1652 :
" Sayeth that about Easter, 1642, he then being at
home with his wife, near Gortebrack (where John McTeige,
alias McTeige, and the rest of his people lay to keep in
the garrison of Castlehaven), being upon the country with
326 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
one William Leagh Regaine, they discovered some goods
and English people coining along towards Castlehaven,
and set up the cry; whereupon those that were of the
convoy (as soon as this examinant and the other set up
the cry) threw down the goods and took some of it with
them and ran away, and those that were convoyed (viz.
John Ford and his son, and their wives and children)
made towards the castle, all but the pld man, who turned
back and ran after one of the convoy, one Dermond
O'Leary (as he, this examinant, was told afterwards), for
some money which he, the said John Ford, had delivered
to the said Dermond. And this examinant further sayeth
that he and the said Regane came to the said John Ford,
and that the said Regane was going to kill him with his
pike; and this examinant sayeth that he persuaded the
said Regane not to kill such an old man that had no arms,
but he would not be persuaded, but drew this examinant's
sword, and killed the said John Ford ; and this examinant
further sayeth that Thomas McKiiaugher (one of the con-
voy) came with Teige Odowney's orders (as he conceives)
to this examinant's brothers for some of the said Ford's
goods, which his said brother had taken from the said
Thomas McKnaugher as they were running away, which
were delivered accordingly ; and further sayeth not.
" Jurat, et examinat. ) " F. WHEELER,
coram nobis." j " PETER WALLIS."
It appears from another deposition in this collection,
in Trinity College, Dublin, that Teige Odowney and
O'Donovau hanged Dorothy Ford at Castle Donovan !
MACCARTHY. 327
History takes no further notice of the descendants of
Donell God. " This rebellion," says the family pedigree,
" suppressed them." The extensive Lordship of Glan-
achrime was broken up, and parcelled out amongst various
English families, but the chief portion of it fell to Sir
Richard Cox. Smith, in his History of Cork, pictures in
glowing tints the prosperity that settled upon Dunmanway
when the ancient race was swept away, and their castle
thrown down for the materials wherewith to build churches,
schools, workshops, and pleasant villas. Though land and
lordships had for ever left them, this branch of the Mac-
Carthys was not extinct, nor is it at this day. Four gene-
rations existed, I know not how the fifth emerged for a
moment from its obscurity. Jeremiah an Duna, the
great-grandson of the last lord who lived in the Castle of
Dunmanway, was during his lifetime well-known in the
south of Ireland. Since his demise some few particulars
of his latter days have acquired a more extended notoriety,
for they had fallen under the notice of the learned Dr. J.
O } Donovan, who, in the sixth volume of his Annals of the
Four Masters, has published his pedigree, and with it an
extract of a letter from T. O'Donovan, Esq., of O'Doiio-
van's Cove, respecting him.
The pedigree, as given by the latter, though divested of
the " fertile flowery phrases and the flourishing verdant"
accessories with which Bishop Butler or his amanuensis had
embellished the family copy, is enriched with many additions
and much valuable information which lay beyond the reach
of the Bishop and the local antiquaries, and indeed beyond
that of all the Irish scholars of our own day. Like every
328 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
composition that bears the signature of this most precise
writer and painstaking genealogist, its exactness is unim-
peachable. To the information contained in the admirable
letter of Mr. T. O'Donovan little can be added that is more
than conjectural. There is a touching anecdote told by
Mr. Crofton Croker, in his " Researches in the South of
Ireland," p. 305, of an Irish chieftain visiting the ruined
home of his ancestors when on the eve of quitting his
native country for ever. Until the publication of Mr. T.
'Donovan's letter it would have been hopeless to guess
at the name of the subject of this incident. It was then
readily conjectured that the anecdote of Mr. Croker was
not an absolute creation; of his fancy, but that Jerry- au-
Duna had really been surprised in one of his wanderings
around the ruins of Dunmanway ; but it was well known
that he never did quit his native land, and thus it might
seem that fiction had contributed a little of its colouring to
the picture of Mr. Croker. A passage in the Dunmanway
pedigree, though couched in language a little mysterious,
removes the suspicion ; for it implies that he had at one
time the intention of quitting Ireland, either to seek his
fortune in military service on the Continent, as so many
gentlemen of his blood had already done, or following the
poorest of his race into the wilds of the west. The former
is the more probable, for the pedigree was expressly made
for his use, " not foreseeing our intention, rather a case of
necessity than choice." Such a pedigree, authenticated
by names so unquestionable, would have placed its posses-
sor at once in easy association wit.h the noblest officers to
be found in the service of Spain, France, Italy, or Ger-
MACCARTHY. 329
many ; in the remote regions of the New World it could
have availed little. That cherished parchment is all, abso-
lutely all, of the family records supposed to have been left
by Jerry-au-Duna that is known to be preserved. The
chest of papers alluded to by Mr. T. O'Donovan is not
traceable. The old man had treasured the record of his
genealogy when everything else that could have purchased
a crust of bread had left him, and it is not the opinion
of all the world that he had set his heart upon an object
without value. The most pleasing of " Tours in the South
of Ireland," written in a few hours of recreation by a
gentleman of whom the south of Ireland may justly feel
proud J. Windele, Esq. thus furnishes a justification
for the attachment of Jerry-au-Duna to his parchment :
" The MacCarthys may proudly defy any other family in
Europe to compete with them in antiquity, or accurate
preservation of the records of their descent."
The reader who is acquainted with the published letter
of Mr. T. O'Donovan will perhaps admit that the last days
of Jerry-au-Duna were spent not without dignity ; for
though he had lived for many years, and finally closed
his eyes, under a roof not his own, so generous was the
hospitality, so delicate the comportment of Mr. Timothy
O'Donovan to his friend, that the old man could have
scarcely discovered the truth of the forlorn condition that
was so gracefully disguised. This descendant of the chiefs
proverbially styled the Hospitable might accept without a
blush hospitality in his hour of misfortune from any gentle-
man in South Munster : by none could it be proffered with
more propriety than by an O'Donovan, for their families
330 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
had sprung from a common ancestor, had been in alliance
for centuries, and had again and again renewed the con-
nexion of their blood by intermarriages. Assuredly by
none could have been penned a more touching and dig-
nified record of the friendship of these two gentlemen than
by the survivor, who has given us the brief memoir of the
last years of the life of Jerry-au-Duna. Had this old
man died childless, it might seem that retribution for the
crimes of Cormac Don and Teige Onorsy had fallen with
some leniency upon their descendant, but he left a son.
Charles MacCarthy Duna; and far more humiliating in a
certain sense, though less dependent, was the lot destined
for him ! In utmost poverty ! in toil and sweat, and menial
labour as a common house-painter for his daily bread ! this
descendant of so many chieftains has lived to our own
day, one of the most remarkable instances of the vicissi-
tudes that have occurred among our Irish families. He
is still living, in the eightieth year of his age. He has
had two sons 1, Teige-au-Duna, who followed his father's
trade in London till 1854, when he emigrated to America ;
2, Charles, also a house-painter, who died in a lunatic
asylum at Cork, a few years since, without issue.
It is highly probable that the descendants of the great
Florence MacCarthy, who was imprisoned in the Tower of
London for thirty- six years, are now reduced to a similar
condition, but they have not been as yet identified. His
lineal heir, Charles MacCarthy More, was an officer in the
Guards, and died without issue in 1770. The last de-
scendant of his second son was Handle MacCarthy, Esq.,
who, in 1764, sold Castlelough, near Killarney, to Colonel
MACCARTHY. 331
William Crosbie. According to a pedigree in the pos-
session of Colonel Herbert of Muckross, "this Randle
had several sons, who were bred to low trades, and were
uneducated paupers, some of whom are still [A.D. 1770]
living."
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
0f
Per varies casus per tot discrimina rerum.
VlBGIL.
Beau pare et beaux jardins qui, dans votre cloture,
Avez toujours des fleurs et des ombrages verts,
Non sans quelque demon qui defend aux liivers
D'en effacer jamais 1'agreable peinture.
MALHEEBE.
Puisse enfin le pinceau, creant sur quelques pages
Des sites enchantes, de vivantes images,
Reveiller d'autres temps.
LB FLAGTJAIS.
THE Vicissitudes of Bulstrode : Under this title, I pass
for a moment, for the sake of variety, from the contempla-
tion of the changes in families to viewing the strange
alternations that have occurred in a single and ancient
estate that of Bulstrode, in the county of Bucks. Be-
coming at intervals the property of sets of owners totally
dissimilar, and that by abrupt and singular transitions,
the lands of Bulstrode have had a notable and perennial,
and yet ever-varying existence, like some old lineage that
has gone on for centuries maintaining its position, despite
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 333
of the startling acts and eventful diversities in the lives of
those who formed the links of the descent. Bulstrode,
although its name dates from the Conquest, was a park in
the Saxon era, and now, in 1861, it is the same park still
aye, and one of the most beautiful in the kingdom.
Its very graces have no doubt been the cause of its long
preservation. Those fair eight hundred acres that consti-
tute Bulstrode, diversified as they are with bold hillocks
almost rising into hills, and a great number of deep
sweeping valleys crossing and intersecting the grounds in
several directions, and forming that pleasing inequality of
surface which constitutes the greatest beauty in the out-
line of Nature's scenery those eight hundred acres, I
say, have lasted verdant and unfading, just as with the
lineage I allude to, because they have always been good
to look upon, though marked by much deviation and
many oddities of deed or circumstance. Let us view
Bulstrode at different eras of its permanence, which has
now endured for some thousand years a permanence
of which the divers owners of the place formed the
vicissitudes.
I.
The Shobingtons, an ancient Buckinghamshire race,
held the lands of Bulstrode before the invasion of the
Normans. The lands were not called Bulstrode then, but
hear what a marvellous tale tradition has to tell of how
that name was acquired. "When William the Conqueror
had subdued this goodly realm, and was partitioning its
choicest acres among his armed followers, his eye lighted
on the neighbourhood of Gerard's Cross, and there saw
334 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
this fine park, with its chief mansion-house and the other
surrounding possessions that had been the Shobingtons'
for ages. He appropriated and granted the whole to a
certain Norman lord who had come over with him. The
Shobington then in possession got timely notice of this
disposal of his inheritance, and he determined rather to
die upon the spot than tamely to suffer himself to be
turned out of what had descended to him from his ances-
tors. Thus resolved, he armed his servants and his
tenants, whose number was very considerable. Upon
which the Norman lord, who had advice of it, obtained of
the King a thousand of his regular troops to help him to
take the estate by force. Shobington thereupon applied
to his relations and neighbours to assist him, and the two
ancient families of the Hampdens, ancestors of the Hamp-
den who would not pay ship-money, and the Pens, ances-
tors of the founder of Pennsylvania, took arms, they and
their servants and tenants, and came to his relief. When
they all met together, they cast up works, remains of which
appear to this day in the place where the park now is, and
the Norman lord, with his forces, encamped before their
intrenchments.
Now, whether the Shobington party wanted horses or
not is uncertain ; but the story goes, that having collected
a parcel of bulls, they mounted them, and, sallying out of
their intrenchments in the night, surprised the Normans
in their camp, killed many of them, and put the rest to
flight. The King having intelligence of this act of daring
valour, and not thinking it safe for him, whilst his power
was yet new and unsettled, to drive a brave and obstinate
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 335
people to despair, sent a herald to them to know what
they would have, and promised Shobingtoii a safe conduct
if he would come to Court, which Shobington accordingly
did, riding thither upon a bull, accompanied with his
seven sons. Being introduced into the royal presence,
the King asked his demands, and why he alone ventured
to resist, when the rest of the kingdom had submitted to
his government, and owned him for their sovereign ?
Shobington answered that he and his ancestors had long
been inhabitants of this island, and had enjoyed that
estate for many years ; that if the King would permit him
to keep it, he would become his subject, and be faithful
to him as he had been to his predecessors. The King
gave him his royal word that he would, and immediately
granted him the free enjoyment of his estate, upon which
the family was from thence called Shobington Bull-Strode
or Bulstrbde ; but in process of time the first name was
discontinued, and that of Bulstrode only remained to them.
The truth of this story is said to be confirmed by long
tradition in the family, by several memoirs which they
have remaining, and by the ruins of the works that are to
this day seen in the park of Bulstrode.
II.
Some confusion occurs in the medieval history of Bul-
strode, for whatever may have been the possession of these
early Bulstrodes or Shobingtons, the manor of Bulstrode,
either in whole or part, belonged in the thirteenth century
to the Abbess and Convent of Burnham, of which convent
few perhaps have heard, but all Londoners know its local-
336 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
ity, where pic-nics pass so pleasantly now-a-days under
the Burnham beeches. The nuns of Burnham alienated
their share of Bulstrode to the Priory and Canons of
Bisham. The fell times of Henry VIII. swept these good
monks away, and we hear no more of Bulstrode in con-
nection with ecclesiastical foundations; and we find the
Bulstrode family in full possession again. In the seven-
teenth century they became allied with another Bucking-
hamshire house the Whitelocks of Fawley Court ; and
henceforward, up to the time of the Revolution, the names
of Wliitelock and Bulstrode are not a little prominent in
the troublous periods of Charles I., the Commonwealth,
and Charles II. The memory of these Whitelocks and
Bulstrodes clings lastingly to Bulstrode Park, their favour-
ite retreat from the cares of business, the turbulence o
party, and the changes of political fortune.
Let me here recall a few of these eminent sojourners at
Bulstrode.
First as to how the Bulstrodes and Whitelocks were
united. It was thus : Elizabeth Bulstrode, daughter of
Edward Bulstrode, Esq., of Bulstrode, was married to Sir
James Whitelock, a Judge of the Court of King's Bench.
Richard Whitelock, the father of this Sir James White-
lock, the Judge, stands in the pedigree as the youngest
brother of William Whitelock, the chronicler. Put to
London to be brought up in the trade of merchandise,
Richard Whitelock entered into his calling with spirit,
and was accustomed to visit foreign countries in the way
of his business. In 1570, during one of his journeys into
France, he was seized with pleurisy at Bordeaux, and died
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 337
there at the age of thirty-seven. As a Protestant, there
were difficulties respecting his interment ; but the English
merchants resident in that city, " to the number of 100
or more, armed themselves with loaded muskets, and did
thus escort the corpse into the vineyards, and did there
honourably inter it." But to return to his son the Judge,
Sir James Whitelock. " He was," says Bulstrode White-
lock, in filial reverence, in his Memorials, " as good a sub-
ject, as good a patriot, and as just a judge as ever lived."
Posterity has admitted the eulogy, and he is viewed in the
same light by Lord Campbell in his recent " Lives of the
Chancellors" a work, by the way, so agreeably written
and so thoroughly readable, that when once taken up even
for reference, one can hardly lay it down. Lord Campbell
quotes Charles I.'s admission respecting Sir James White-
lock, that he was " a stout, wise, and learned man, and
one who knew what belonged to uphold magistrates and
magistracy in their dignity." Sir James died in 1632,
and left behind him a son whose fame has put the memory
of his worthy father in the background. This son was
the celebrated Lord Keeper Whitelock, who, as Commis-
sioner, held the Great Seal of the Commonwealth under
Oliver Cromwell, and again as Lord Keeper under Richard
Cromwell, and after Richard retired. Whitelock, when
Cromwell's Ambassador to Sweden, was made a knight of
the Order of Amarantha by the Swedish Queen Christina,
whose eccentricities are darkened by the murder of her
equerry Monaldeschi. Henceforward Whitelock was
(somewhat illegally) called Sir Bulstrode Whitelock; but
I need not here pursue his biography, since it is one of
2 z
338 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
common knowledge, for his career formed part of the his-
tory of his time. " He was," says Lord Campbell, " one
of the most interesting as well as amiable characters of the
age in which he lived." Whitelock married thrice ; and
no fewer than sixteen of his children survived him. His
entire issue, including those who died young, was even
more numerous, though nowise as extensive as Charles II.
would have it, when, on Whitelock's coming, at the Resto-
ration, to court, possibly in hope of again being guardian
of the Great Seal, the King bid him " go live quietly in
the country and take care of his wife and one-and-t\venty
children." Whitelock obeyed the hint ; and the dignified
retirement of his latter days well became the distinction of
his previous career. One of Lord Keeper Whitelock's
sons, Sir William Whitelock, was eminent at the bar,
and got his knighthood from Charles II. In the Lord
Keeper's time, there was a Bulstrode of his house who
figured on the opposite side of politics, and was, through
his existence of more than a century, one of the stanchest
cavaliers of his day. This was Sir Richard Bulstrode :
his career deserves a passing notice.
SIR RICHARD BULSTRODE was born in 1610. He was
a very learned lawyer, as appears by his book of Reports,
a work in great esteem to this day. He was of Pembroke
Hall, Cambridge, where he continued his studies for
several years. In 1633, being then about twenty-three
years of age, he wrote a poem on the birth of the Duke of
York, which is still extant in the collection of the poems
of that university. From Cambridge he went to the Inns
of Court, and was entered in the same house with his
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 339
father. He became a barrister at law, and practised as
such till the breaking out of the Civil Wars, when his
affection to the King's cause made him quit the gown for
the sword. He, as a soldier and cavalier, behaved himself
with so much prudence, bravery, and conduct, that King
Charles I. soon made him Adjutant-General of his army,
and afterwards Quarter-Master General, in which post he
continued to serve till the disbanding of the King's forces
at Truro. He was no small instance of how efficient the
barrister can be, when a military volunteer. On Charles IT.
being restored, Bulstrode, in reward of his long and faith
ful services to the crown, went to Brussels as envoy from
the King. There he wrote those letters, since so famous.
In 1675 he returned to England, and the King knighted
him. Sir Richard Bulstrode was as faithful to James II.
as to his royal predecessor. When James retired an exile
to France, Bulstrode, then nearly eighty years of age,
followed him, and the worthy knight ended his days at
the Court of St. Germans, when a hundred and one years
old and two months.
Sir Richard Bulstrode enjoyed a wonderful firmness of
mind and strength of body to the very last. After he was
fourscore years old and more, he would often walk twelve
miles in a morning, and study as many hours in a day.
And though it may seem a paradox, as he had exceeded a
hundred years, yet it cannot strictly be said that he died
of old age. The disease that carried him off was a stop-
page in his stomach, caused by an indigestion. Never-
theless, had proper remedies been applied, he might in all
probability have worn out several years longer ; but his
340 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
physician, who understood his constitution, being out of
the way, those that were sent for to his relief durst not,
by reason of his age, give him an emetic, the want of
which, it is thought, hastened his end.
He was most accomplished, and of much ability. He
perfectly understood the interests of princes, and the arts
and intrigues of courts, and often transacted affairs of the
utmost importance, in all which he ever behaved himself
with indefatigable integrity.
Bulstrode left behind him several treatises of his own
composing, such as the lives of his three masters, King
Charles I., King Charles II., and King James II., and
essays on several subjects. When he was above eighty
years of age, he composed one hundred and eighty pieces
of Latin verse, as well elegies as epigrams, all of them on
divine subjects. The beautiful and well-known letter,
which Sir Richard Bulstrode wrote to his son on the sub-
ject'of retirement, must have been inspired by the sylvan
retreat of Bulstrode Park. A passage from this letter
offers a graceful conclusion to this account of him. " That
man," writes Sir Richard, " forgets his origin who puts
his soul out of possession of herself, by continually running
after business ; whereas he should abandon and bid adieu
to all manner of business that may any way impeach the
tranquillity of mind or body. He that thus retires draws
no man's envy upon him; he reigns by himself over his
family ; and all the pomp which greatness draws after it
is not comparable to that which you will enjoy in secret
by thus retiring ; which is indeed to shut up the prospect
of this world, that we may take the better view of the
THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTKODE. 341
other, by a prudent precaution, to untwist our affections,
and slide off from the world before the world slips from
us ; whereas they that continue in the throng of business
their minds lose their rest ; and many times after a man
hath lost his rest, he loseth his labour also. He that
hath enough for himself and family ought not to entangle
himself again with more than he can well manage, and
make his whole life a burthen to him. And those wisely
retire who, being harassed with the fatigues of a public
life, foreseeing all weather, are willing to put into port,
when keeping out at sea might endanger the vessel."
With these Whitelocks and Bulstrodes of the seven-
teenth century their long connection with Bulstrode Park
ceased, but their memory and their name have ever since
continued to be attached in honour to the place.
HI.
Tradition gives one singular inhabitant to Bulstrode, in
no less a personage than "Praise-God Barebones," so dis-
tinguished for the fervour of his pious harangues that his
name was given to the Parliament of Saints, which as-
sembled in succession to the Long Parliament when crushed
by Cromwell. Nay more, tradition will have it 'that Mr.
Barebones built the mansion at Bulstrode ; but that was
not so, for the edifice owed its erection to a far less worthy
individual, Judge Jeffereys, of whom more directly. It is,
however, just possible that Mr. Barebones, a respectable
leather-seller, of the City of London, and a friend of
Bulstrode Whitelock's, may have rented the then house
at Bulstrode, as a temporary rural sojourn ; for be it
342 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
observed that, though of singular tenets in politics and
religion, the members of the Barebones' Parliament were
men of credit and substance. " If," says Heath, speaking
of them in his exact relation, " all had not very bulky
estates, yet they had free estates, and were not of broken
fortunes, or such as owed great sums of money, and stood
in need of privileges and protection as formerly."
IV.
George, Lord Jeffereys, of Wem, the notorious Judge
Jeffereys, bought Bulstrode from Sir Roger Hill, a Buck-
inghamshire squire, and M.P. for Wendover, who seems
to have possessed the estate for a very short time. Jef-
fereys' sojourn there adds another, though not a pleasant
remembrance to the place. It has been questioned whe-
ther this personage was as bad as history generally makes
him out, but I fear very little beyond some slight pal-
liation can be urged in his favour. Cruel and over-
bearing he really was, though much of his injustice
may be attributed to the wretched administration of the
law, which in his days prevailed throughout the realm.
Jeffereys was an unscrupulous, but he was also (after
he once joined their cause) a faithful adherent of the
Stuarts, and this, too, though he was a Protestant,
and a man nowise servile, but of a rather independent
spirit. He was a daring, yet able, legal adventurer, in
the first instance, and afterwards a rough judge, sufficiently
just, as times went, in ordinary cases, but totally unfit
when political bias roused the fierceness of his nature.
Jeffereys was born about 1648, and was the sixth of the
seven sons of John Jeffereys, Esq., of Acton, in Denbigh-
THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 343
shire, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas
Ireland, Kt, of Bewsey, co. Lancaster. So little is
known of his youth that it is a matter of doubt where
he was first educated. He, it is said, frequented, when
very young, some academy, and thence went to Shrews-
bury school ; from which he was removed to St. Paul's
school, London, where he made great proficiency. Finally,
Westminster had him for a pupil. When at Westminster
school, he is reported to have had a remarkable dream,
that he should become the chief scholar there, and after-
wards enrich himself, by study and industry, until he be-
came the second man in the kingdom, but in conclusion,
fall into great disgrace and misery. His school days
hardly over, Jeffereys entered as a student in the Inner
Temple, and how he then got on does credit, at any rate,
to his economy and perseverance; his allowance during
his legal studies was only .40 per annum from his
grandmother ; his father added iO a-year, and screened
his parsimony under the excuse of his having an expensive
family. JefFereys was assiduous in his application to law-
reading ; he had a bold presence, an audible voice, good
utterance, and fluency of language ; but in his disposition,
even early in life, he was proud, impatient, revengeful,
covetous, and brutish. He introduced himself into practice
rather irregularly. He was indeed supposed to have never
been called to the bar, from this reason happening to
attend as a law-student at the assizes, at Kingston, in
Surrey, in 1666, during the Plague, when there were few
counsel on the Circuit, he, in the absence of the regular
advocates, was under the momentary emergency, per-
344 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
mitted (most probably for some misdemeanant) to address
the court. No doubt, too, before his call to the bar, he
assisted and received payment from those minor attorneys
and their clerks who were notoriously his associates and
pot companions when he began his career. His actual
call to the bar by the Law Society of the Inner Temple
appears to have* taken place the 22nd November, 1668,
when he was but twenty years of age. His early practice
lay at Guildhall and at the sessions at Clerkenwell ; and
while thus occupied, he acquired the patronage of his
namesake, Alderman Jeffreys. He was made Common-
Serjeant, and on the promotion of Sir William Dolbein
to the Bench, he was nominated his successor as Recorder
of London a speedy elevation that certainly marked some
public appreciation of his ability. He, while Recorder,
acted in a cause in which the privileges of the Stationers'
Company were infringed, and spoke with so much force
before the council, on an appeal, when King Charles II.
was present, that the latter noticing him, observed, "That
is a bold fellow." From that time the sunshine of
royalty began to shed its light upon Jeffereys, and he
came boldly forward as a violent partisan of despotic prin-
ciples, and of James, Duke of York ; opposed the calling
of a parliament, and was reckoned " an abhorrer," and
was burned in effigy, at Temple Bar, by the populace.
He had to resign his office of Recorder, which was given
to that Sir George Treby who, on the tablet to his memory
in the Temple Church, is stated to have been " Recordator
Magnte Urbis."
Court promotion now favoured Jeffereys. He was ap-
THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 345
pointed Chief Justice of Chester, and obtained a Baronet's
patent 17th November, 1681, making him " Sir George
Jeffereys of Bulstrode, in the county of Buckingham.'' He
had been previously knighted. He had, in 1680, been
made a Serjeant-at-Law, and had been put first on the
roll as King's Serjeant. The rings which he presented,
as is customary, to the King and to others on that occa-
sion, had the motto, ' A Deo Rex: A Rege Lex :' The
King from God, the law from the King. In 1783 he be-
came Chief Justice of England; and when he first took
his seat, during a circuit, on the Bench, his elder brother,
Sir Thomas Jeffereys, (who was knighted at Windsor llth
July, 1680) was High Sheriff of his native county of Den-
bigh, and another of his brothers preached the assize
sermon. On the loth May, 1685, Jeffereys was raised to
the peerage as Baron Jeffereys of Wem, in the county of
Salop ; and on the 27th August of the same year he went,
as Chief Justice, to preside and earn eternal disgrace at
that merciless commission which sat in judgment on the
rebels of Monmouth's misguided insurrection. The Chief
Justice hanged three hundred and thirty prisoners, and
transported eight hundred to the colonies ; and on his
way back to London was, at Windsor, made Lord Chan-
cellor. His Lordship had now more time to reside at
Bulstrode. Rich and riotous living, they say, character-
ized his sojourn in the mansion he raised in that beautiful
locality. Yet some state must have been kept up; for,
according to Lord Clarendon's diary, King James and his
amiable consort, Queen Mary of Modena, dined with the
Chancellor there. Jeffereys' manners were certainly
346 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
agreeable in private, and he was not without some ro-
mance in his composition. At one time, while in humble
circumstances, he courted and won, in secret, the affection
of the only daughter of an opulent citizen, one Thomas
Nesham, who, discovering a plot for his child's elopement,
secured her person, and declared positively against Jeffereys
obtaining her or her property. Mary Nesham sent an
account of these harsh proceedings to her lover. Jeffereys
at once acted more like a cavalier than a fortune-hunter.
He hastened to her rescue, and married her, though penni-
less; for so she was at first, but the relenting father
afterwards gave her 300 a-year. Jeffereys, however,
found his best treasure in the wife herself, who lived with
him in devoted attachment till her death. The lady, it
should be observed, to redeem even her influence from
blame, died some years before Jeffereys went as Chief Jus-
tice on his ruthless commission in the west. He married
secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and
widow of Sir Thomas Jones, of Fonmon, co. Glamorgan,
which lady survived him.
In a London mob tumult, consequent upon the Prince
of Orange's landing, Jeffereys, endeavouring to escape,
was maltreated by the populace. He was captured, and,
more for protection than aught else, was put in the Tower
by the Lords of the Privy Council, and was there arbi-
trarily detained. He died a prisoner in the Tower the
19th April, 1689, but he was never tried on any charge,
nor was he ever attainted, as is sometimes absurdly stated ;
consequently his son John succeeded him as second Lord
Jeffereys of Wem. This second Lord, who wasted his
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 347
patrimony iii dissipation and intemperance, married the
Earl of Pembroke's daughter, and their only child and
heiress, Henrietta Louisa, became the wife of Thomas,
first Earl of Pomfret, and through her the blood of the
Lord Chancellor Jeffereys passed, not only to the succeed-
ing Earls of Pomfret, but also to the Carterets Earls
Granville, to the eighth Earl of Winchelsea, to Dr. Stuart,
Archbishop of Armagh, to General Sir William Gomm,
G.C.B., and to numerous other nobles and gentlemen
whose families are extinct or still existing. John, second
Lord Jeffereys, dying without male issue the 9th May,
1702, his peerage and Baronetcy became extinct. Bui-
strode, it seems, fell to the lot of one of Lord Chancellor
Jeffereys' sons-in-law, Charles Dive, Esq., of Lincoln's
Inn, who married the Hon. Mary Jeffereys : he sold
it to the Earl of Portland. A branch of the Jeffereys
family that of Jeffereys of Wein springing from a com-
mon ancestor with the Lord Chancellor, still exists in
Shropshire. It should be also observed, that many mem-
bers of the Jeffereys family (among them, we believe, some
of the brothers of the Chancellor) were Quakers. One
Quaker alliance is remarkable : Lord Chancellor Jeffe-
reys' great-granddaughter, Lady Juliana Fermor, was mar-
ried to Thomas Penn, of Stoke Park, Bucks, now the seat
of Lord Taunton, which Thomas Penn was the third son
of the illustrious Quaker, William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania.
V.
Bulstrode's vicissitudes appear to have varied with the
times. The Roundhead Whitelocks made it notable in the
348
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Commonwealth. Jeffereys filled it with a Jacobite spirit ;
and now that the Whigs and William III. were in the
ascendant, the Dutch favourite of the Dutch monarch
turned his eyes towards the fair acres of Bulstrode.
Mynheer Bentinck was no ordinary man, and the success
of the house of Orange owed much to him : he was con-
stantly by William's side in sickness and in health, in
peace and in war; and the King justly appreciated this
valuable adherent, who landed with him at Torbay in
1688. " The King's chief personal favour," says Burnet,
" lay between Bentinck and Sidney. The former was
made Earl of Portland and groom of the stole, and conti-
nued to be entirely trusted by the King, and served him
with great fidelity and obsequiousness ; but he could never
bring himself to be acceptable to the English nation/'
This was in some measure owing to Bentinck's being ever
too visibly active in bettering his own fortunes, and to his
being constantly so set on his own pleasures as really to
appear not able to follow public business with due applica-
tion. His anxiety for the goods of this world more than
once marred his popularity. For instance : after he, in Ire-
land,had behaved so gallantly at the battle of the Boyne, and
had had a principal share in obtaining the victory, and
was further serviceable in the reduction of Ireland, he spoilt
his credit by obtaining for himself a grant of the royal
furniture in Dublin Castle the tables and chairs of the
King that had been dethroned. Another remarkable act
of attempted appropriation was this : On Bentinck's re-
turn to England after brilliant doings in the war abroad,
he, in consideration of his great services, got a gift of the
THE VICISSITUDES OJF BULSTRODE. 349
Lordships of Denbigh, Bromfield, and Yale, with other
lands in the principality of Wales, which being part of the
demesnes of the Prince of Wales, the House of Commons
addressed William III. to put a stop to the passing that
grant. The King answered thus "I have a kindness
for my Lord Portland, which he has deserved of me by
long and faithful services ; but I should not have given
him these lands if I had imagined the House of Commons
could have been concerned. I will therefore recall the
grant, and find some other way of shewing my favour to
him." And soon after his Majesty conferred on Bentinck
the royal house of Theobalds, with the demesnes there-
unto belonging, in Herts and Middlesex, and also granted
to him the office of ranger of the great and little parks at
Windsor. Bulstrode, it would seem, the Earl of Portland
bought with his own money. Yet, though avaricious,
Portland's integrity was unflinching. In 1695 there was
a report at the House of Commons that some members of
both Houses had been bribed in relation to passing an act
for establishing the East India ,Com pan y, and it appeared
that 50,000 were pressed on the Earl of Portland to use
his interest with the King that it might pass, which he
absolutely refused, saying he would for ever be their
enemy and opposer if they persisted in offering him the
money.
After attending the death of his royal master and
friend, William III., and after various political services,
the Earl of Portland, towards the close of 1708, betook
himself to a retired life at Bulstrode, which had become
his favourite residence. He passed his latter days there
350 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
in a most exemplary way, and died at Bulstrode in
1709, in the sixty-first year of his age. He was buried
in the vault under the great east window of Henry VIII.'s
Chapel, in Westminster Abbey. His son, the second
Earl, was created Duke of Portland, and was also a soldier
and a statesman. He died at Jamaica, governor of that
island ; but his son William, the second Duke, made Bui-
strode his favourite abode ; and the second Duke's amiable
and talented Duchess, nee the Lady Margaret Cavendish
Harley, a warm patron of literature and the fine arts,
celebrated by Prior as " my noble, lovely, little Peggy,"
used to here constantly entertain a host of the nota-
bilities of the day. Among them was her attached friend,
the celebrated Mrs. Delany, who came to her as her visitor
during the half of every autumn until the Duchess died a
widow in 1785. Mrs. Delany then lost her country home;
but the munificence of George III. supplied another to
this aged lady, who and whose deceased husband had been
the friends and intimates of Dean Swift, and who herself
was the attached ally of Miss Burney, afterwards Madame
D'Arblay. In her Memoirs, Madame D'Arblay gives
charming details of her own association with Mrs. Delany.
The following is her account of Mrs. Delany's conduct,
and the King's generosity, after the death of the Duchess
of Portland. It is so gracefully written, and is so interest-
ing a memorial of Bulstrode, that we do not hesitate to
lay it before the reader. Miss Burney is writing to her
father :
"I must tell you, dearest sir, a tale concerning Mrs.
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 351
Delany, which I am sure you will hear with true pleasure.
Among the many inferior losses which have been included
in her great and irreparable calamity (the death of the
Duchess), has been that of a country-house for the sum-
mer, which she had at Bulstrode, and which for the half
of every year was her constant home. The Duke of Port-
land (the Duchess's son) behaved with the utmost pro-
priety and feeling upon this occasion, and was most ear-
nest to accommodate her to the best of his power with
every comfort to which she had been accustomed ; but this
noblest of women declared she loved the memory of her
friend beyond all other things, and would not suffer it to
be tainted in the misjudging world by an action that
would be construed into a reflection upon her will, as if
deficient in consideration to her. 'And I will not,' said
she to me, ' suffer the children of my dearest friend to
suppose that their mother left undone anything she ought
to have done. She did not ; I knew her best, and I know
she did what she was sure I should most approve.' She
steadily, therefore, refused all offers, though made to her
with even painful earnestness, and though solicited till her
refusal became a distress to herself.
" This transaction was related, I believe, to their Ma-
jesties ; and Lady Weymouth, the Duchess's eldest daugh-
ter, was commissioned to wait upon Mrs. Delany with this
message : That the Queen was extremely anxious about
her health, and very apprehensive lest continuing in Lon-
don during the summer should be prejudicial to it. She
intreated her, therefore, to accept a house belonging to
the King at Windsor, which she should order to be littod
352 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
up for her immediately ; and she desired Lady Weymouth
to give her time to consider this proposal, and by no means
to hurry her; as well as to assure her that, happy as it
would make her to have one she so sincerely esteemed for
a neighbour, she should remember her situation, and pro-
mise not to be troublesome to her. The King, at the same
time, desired to be allowed to stand to the additional
expenses incurred by the maintenance of two houses,
and that Mrs. Delany would accept from him 300
a-year."
Dick Turpin, the famous highwayman, actually robbed
the second Duke of Portland within his own park of Bui-
strode. This daring feat he thus for a bet accomplished :
The Duke was driving into the domain in his carriage,
accompanied by a few attendants on horseback. Turpm
hastily rode up, having apparently a roll of paper in his
hand, and, pointing to it, he motioned to the horsemen to
stand aside for a moment. Thinking he was a messenger
of state, they did so, when Turpin, putting his head into
the carriage, levelled the roll of paper at the Duke's head,
and his Grace perceived it contained a loaded pistol.
(c Your life or your watch on the instant ! " quietly said
Turpin. The Duke pulled the latter from his fob and
gave it him. Turpin drew back with sundry bows and
obeisances, as if receiving the Duke's answer to an impor-
tant despatch, and then galloped off, and was on the high
road out of reach before the Duke could give the alarm to
his followers.
The Duke's son and successor was William Henry,
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 353
third Duke of Portland, K.G., an eminent statesman,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and twice Prime Minister.
This Duke of Portland had much trouble with his pro-
perty. At one time his Grace was involved in a law-
suit with Sir James Lowther, Bart, (afterwards Earl of
Lonsdale), to whom a grant of extensive estates had been
made by Government, called Inglewood Forest, appur-
tenant to the manor of Penrith, in Cumberland, with the
township of Carlisle, previously held by the ancestors of
the Duke of Portland from King William III. This re-
markable cause, which involved in its effects the interests
of many families, was argued 20th November, 1771, be-
fore the Barons of the Exchequer, and was, after much
expense and vexation, decided in the Duke of Portland's
favour.
With this Duke's son, William Henry, the fourth Duke,
the Bentincks' possession of Bulstrode ended. Another
and a far more ancient ducal coronet came to ornament
its gates that of Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Edward
Adolphus, eleventh Duke of Somerset, bought the estate
from the fourth Duke of Portland in 1810, and it has
descended to Edward Adolphus, the twelfth and present
Duke of Somerset, its actual owner, whose marriage with
the granddaughter of the orator and dramatist, the Right
Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, brings also the name of
Sheridan in connection with Bulstrode. For many years
the present Duke of Somerset has not been a sojourner at
Bulstrode, but it is understood that he is now about to
reside there, and to rebuild the house and restore the
whole locality to that state of rural beauty which at differ-
2 AA
354 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
ent times captivated Saxon and Norman, monk and lay-
man, cavalier and roundhead, judge and statesman ; and
which nature itself has marked out as a retirement for the
thoughts of poets and the fatigues of princes.
A word or two on the mansion which did, but does not
now, adorn Bulstrode. It was built by Judge Jeffereys in
1686, evidently in part from the materials of an older
mansion. It was of reddish brick blood-stained, as the
people declared it to be in JefFereys' time. The second
Duke of Portland made extensive alterations and improve-
ments ; but the third Duke pulled most of the mansion
down, intending a complete renovation, which he never
carried out. He left only the present dwelling, which is
elegantly constructed from the former conservatory. But
the park is the wonder. It is a delightful spot, containing
not a single level acre, and is profusely scattered over by
numerous plantations, disposed in the purest taste. To
the west of the mansion's site is a fine grove of old trees,
interspersed with walks leading to the flower- gardens and
shrubbery, and commanding many extensive and interest-
ing views, where the forest of Windsor and its noble castle,
with the Surrey hills melting into the horizon, constitute
some beautiful distant scenery. On a hill south-east of
the house, there stands a very large circular entrench-
ment, enclosing an area of twenty-one acres, with some
large old oaks growing on its banks. In fact, the park
displays all the charms that can be produced by diversi-
fied surface, commanding situation, and sylvan grandeur.
But I should not conclude the description without urging
the London wayfarer who may visit Bulstrode to wander
THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTKODE. 355
a little in the neighbourhood, and return home by Stoke
Pogis and Slough . At Chalfont St. Giles, near Bulstrode,
Milton wrote "Paradise Regained/' An old wounded
soldier of the Peninsular war inhabits the cottage of the
poet, and displays with equal pride the very place where
Milton sat, and the very bullet that was taken from the
martial exhibitor's own leg at the battle of Vittoria. The
inhabitants of Chalfont St. Giles are not satisfied with the
fame that Milton has brought them, but they also assert
that a descendant of Shakespeare's not long ago lived at
Chalfont, and alas ! for family vicissitude worked there
as a cobbler. Near also to Bulstrode, at Jordans, is a de-
solate and tombless cemetery a Quaker's burial ground,
where all is smooth grass but one largish mound and four
or five small ones. Under these lie William Penn and
his children William Penn (lately so ably defended
against Macaulay's unfounded charges, by Mr. Paget of
the Northern Circuit), Penn, that great and good member
of the Society of Friends, who, not in war, like Caesar or
Napoleon, but in the spirit of peace, laid the foundations
of a state that has flourished in honoured prosperity, and
has contributed not a little to the freedom and happiness
of mankind.
VI.
A few miles from Bulstrode, on the way to Slough, one
arrives at a long, scattered village, with the unpoetic name
of Stoke Pogeis, or Pogis, but with a brilliant halo of
poetry about it. Here, in the picturesque churchyard
(can it have been the country churchyard of his immortal
elegy ?) here, under the tombstone that he erected to his
356 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
aunt and mother, lie the earthly remains of Thomas Gray.
Some fine monuments are also in this churchyard, glitter-
ing with armorial ensigns, among them frequently occur-
ring the red and silver barry of four of the Huntingfords,
and the black maunch of the Huntingdons ; but " the
boast of heraldry, the pomp of power," seem here quite
out of place. The poet, whose unfading nobility cannot
be brightened by blazonry, has a monopoly of the place.
Nor does he rest unhonoured even by marble trophy ; for,
though simply interred in the churchyard, there close by
stands a magnificent cenotaph to his memory, erected by
worthy John Penn, Governor of Portland Castle, county of
Dorset, and last hereditary governor of Pennsylvania, the
grandson of that William Penn of whom we have already
spoken in reverence, and the great-great-grandson, by the
way, maternally of Judge JefFereys. The vicissitudes of
Bulstrode will thus have alliance with Gray's monument.
At any rate, its construction in 1799 is another mark of
the intellectual benevolence of the Penn family. These
Penns were good genii wherever they went ; and in them,
that gentle spirit survived to which Hannah More alludes
in those lines to William Penn, beginning
" The purest wreaths which hanjj on glory's shrine,
For empires founded, peaceful Penn, are thine."
Oddly enough, Hannah More links Gray to a memory
of Bulstrode, in some other verse of hers ; when, speaking
of sensibility, she says
" 'Tis this that mates the pensive strains of Gray
Win to the open heart their easy way ;
Makes Portland's face its brightest rapture wear,
When her large bounty smooths the bed of care."
THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 357
Mrs. Hannah More here refers to Margaret, Duchess of
Portland, the friend of Mrs. Delany, also of Bulstrode
fame, whom Mrs. More does not forget :
" Delaney, too, is oura, serenely bright,
Wisdom's strong ray, and virtue's milder light,
And she, who blessed the friend and graced the lays
Of poignant Swift, still gilds our social days."
Stoke, like Bulstrode, has some legal memories con-
nected with it. First, there is that of Queen Elizabeth's
Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose dancing, which
charmed his royal mistress, did not hinder him from being
one of the wisest and honestest judges of his time. Hat-
ton's successor at the manor-house of Stoke was the famous
Sir Edward Coke, the pride and ornament of British juris-
prudence, whose colossal effigy by Rosa, on a pillar sixty-
eight feet high by "VVyatt, stands loftily and haughtily at
Stoke, as if prepared to remove, on instant view, any
ugly impression of the law which the recollection of Jef-
fereys of Bulstrode may have cast upon a visitor to these
localities. Stoke Manor House, through the taste and
liberality of its present owner, Lord Taunton, is admirably
preserved in all its pristine quaintness and decorative at-
traction, and is open to public inspection. It looks just
as it must have done in Hatton's time : one sees the same
old rooms, and as Gray's lines, that cannot be repeated
too often, say, the
" ceiling's fretted height
Each panel in achievement's clothing ;
Rich windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.
358 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
" Full oft within the spacious walls,
When he had fifty winters o'er him,
My grave lord-keeper led the brawls
The seal and maces danced before him."
Stoke Park, where the Penns so long sojourned, and
where the present mansion was built by Wyatt in 1789,
is now the seat of Lord Taunton, a peer better known by
the names under which he, as a minister and statesman,
achieved his reputation, [viz., the Right Hon. Henry La-
bouchere. Stoke Park commands a view of stately Wind-
sor and of Cooper's Hill and the Forest tracts. But I
must go no further. I have already strayed too much
from Bulstrode and my subject ; but who will not stray,
when once in this fair county of Buckingham, so full of
surpassing scenery and glorious recollections, where every
corner has some poet to speak of, such as Milton, or Waller,
or Gray, or Cowper; where mansion after mansion has some
stirring history of its own some pedigree of doers and of
deeds of note ? What I here relate of the old Park of
the Shobingtons, the Whitelocks, and the Bentincks may
find a rival narrative (though with, perhaps, less striking
change of owners) in many a Buckinghamshire country
seat. "Ex uno disce omnes :" there is, I maintain, much
remarkably peculiar in those versatilities which have formed
the vicissitudes of Bulstrode.
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 359
lings flf Ptstj|.
Lear. A. king, a king;!
Fool. No, he's a yeoman.'
v SHAKESPEABE.
THE mutability of fortune is in no instance more signally
displayed than in the vicissitudes of the O'Melaghlins,
native Kings of Meath. Descended from Conall Crim-
thine, one of the sons of the renowned Irish monarch,
Niall the Great, they assumed from Colman More, the
grandson of Conall Crimthine, the soubriquet of the Clan-
Colman, or Southern Hy-Nialls, as contradistinguished
from the NorthernHy-Nialls, the O'Neills and O'Don-
nells, descendants of Owen and Conall Gulban, two other
sons of that monarch. As the " Clan-Colman," or
" Southern Hy-Nialls," they were known until the ninth
century, when they assumed the surname of O'Maolseach-
lain, or O'Melaghlin, from Maolseachlain, or Malachy, the
then monarch of Ireland. These Northern and Southern
Hy-Nialls exclusively occupied the throne of Ireland, from
the fourth to the eleventh century ; a period of time which
no reigning dynasty can boast of, the Sovereign of Rome
alone excepted. They had four royal palaces in Meath,
360 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Tara, "of the Kings;" Tailten, "of the Royal Games;"
Tiaschtga, and Usneach, of which Ossian sung. But Tara
was the most magnificent, as well the palace of the reigning
monarch, as the place of assembly of the great Fez, or
native Irish Parliament.
The ancient kingdom of Meath was no inconsiderable
principality, for it comprised the present counties of Meath
and Westmeath, with parts of Dublin, Kildare, King's
County, the greater part of Longford, and small portions
of the ancient districts of Brefney and Orgiall on the bor-
ders of the present counties of Cavan and Louth.
The early annals of the O'Melaghlins are rich in
incident. One of the episodes has been dramatised
by Howard, of the Irish Exchequer, in a work of great
merit entitled "The Siege of ,Tamor," or Tara. During
the wars of the Danes, Turgesius, a very celebrated
Danish chief, had established his authority almost
throughout the entire kingdom, and towards the close of
the ninth century he became so powerful in Meath, as to
have O'Melaghlin, the king of that territory, at his mercy,
and to treat him in the light of a vassal. Conceiving a
dishonourable passion for the daughter of the King,
Turgesius offered insulting proposals to the father. The
outraged parent stifled his indignation, for it was hopeless
to resist, and had recourse to a device to save his daughter's
honour, and at the same time rid his country of the Danish
tyrant ; a device, " resembling," as Moore, the Irish bard
and historian, aptly observes, " in some of its particulars
a stratagem recorded by Plutarch in his life of Pelo-
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 361
pidas." Malachy answered that hewould send his daughter,
the Princess of Meath, to the fortress of the Dane, the next
night ; but that, as she was young and timid, she should
be accompanied by sixteen of her youthful maiden attend-
ants, and that perhaps Turgesius might select one of
them and spare the princess, the king's only child. At
the time appointed, the Dane had a grand banquet, com-
posed of sixteen of his principal officers, to whom, during
the carouse, he suggested that each should insult one of
the attendants of the Princess.
At length a messenger having informed Turgesius that
the Royal maiden and her female companions were out-
side the fortress, the guests, by his direction, retired,
lest their presence might alarm the ladies. Splendidly
attired in the costume of the day, the Princess and her
companions entered the banquet-hall, and Turgesius had
scarcely time to offer the first expression of his revolting
love, when the robes of her companions were cast aside,
and displayed sixteen youthful armed warriors, who seized,
gagged, and bound the Dane : and rushing into the ad-
joining apartment, dispatched his chiefs. The King of
Meath himself, with a chosen body of troops, was close at
hand, and rapidly possessed himself of the fortress, allow-
ing the Danish troops no quarter. The fame of this gal-
lant and remarkable exploit gave courage to the Irish, and
struck the invaders with dismay. On the following morn-
ing, Turgesius himself, loaded with chains, was cast into
Lough Annew, in Meath.
O'Melaghlin then assumed the monarchy, and attacked
362 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the Danes in every direction ; but, successive swarms hav-
ing arrived by sea, the contest between them and the na-
tives was fierce and protracted, and extended long after
the death of the gallant Malachy. Another Malachy, the
descendant of O'Melaghlin, a brave and warlike prince,
who reigned at the close of the tenth century, had a long
and deadly struggle with the Danes ; and when exhausted
in his heroic efforts to free his country from those cruel
and merciless foreigners, he was deposed by Brian Boru,
King of Munster, ancestor of the O'Briens, who usurped
the throne, and broke up the ancient dynasty. At Brian's
death, however, at the battle of Clontarf, in the year 1014,
the aged Monarch, King Malachy, assumed the sceptre,
and followed up that memorable victory by pursuing the
Danes to the very gates of Dublin, and assailing them on
all points. After his death, in the year 1022, successive
princes of the rival houses of O'Brien and O'Connor of
Connaught contested for the sovereignty ; but ultimately
a gallant prince of the Hy-Nialls, Murtough M'Neill,
crushed their pretensions and restored the old royal race,
which terminated at his decease in 1168, one year pre-
ceding the coming of the English, and with him fell the
native Irish monarchy ; for Roderick O'Conor, King of
Connaught, who assumed the sovereignty after King Mur-
tough, and afterwards surrendered it to the English, was
but partially acknowledged by the states of the kingdom,
and though popularly called the last King of Ireland,
was not so in reality the gallant Murtough MacNeill,
the " Irish Hector," as he was called, having occupied that
position.
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 363
Another episode in the history of the O'Melaghlins,
Kings of Meath, which has formed many a fruitful theme
for bard and senachie, was the elopement, in the middle
of the twelfth century, of the Princess Devorgoil, wife of
O'Rorke, Prince of Brefny, and daughter of O'Melaghlin,
King of Meath, with Dermod MacMurrogh, King of
Leinster. To this false step of the frail, and, as she has
been called, lovely Princess of Brefny, has been attributed
the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, upon the
invitation of her guilty and banished lover, King Diarmid ;
but, alas ! rigid historic evidence has stripped this story
of all its romance. Hanmer has shown that the fair and
lovely Devorgoil the "false young one" of Moore's
^Melodies, in the famous song of " The Valley lay smiling
before me" was forty-four years of age, and exceedingly
plain, when she went off with MacMurrough j and the
event took place fourteen years before the arrival of the
Englisn !
The success of the Anglo-Norman arms in Ireland was
more immediately felt by the native princes and chiefs
inhabiting the districts adjoining Dublin. In 1172
Henry the Second despoiled Murchard O'Melaghlin of
his kingdom of Meath, and granted it to Hugh De Lacy,
who was appointed Lord Palatinate of the territory. De
Lacy divided it among his various chiefs, who were com-
monly called " De Lacy's Barons ;" these were : Tyrrell,
Baron of Castleknock ; Nangle, Baron of Navan ; De
Misset, Baron of Lune ; Phepoe, Baron of Skrine ; Fitz-
Thomas, Baron of Kell ; Hussey, Baron of Galtrim ;
Fleming, Baron of Slane ; Dullard, or Dollard, of Dul-
364 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
lenvarty; Nugent, Baron of Delvin and Earl of West-
meath ; Tuite, Baron of Moyashell ; Robert De Lacy's
descendants, Barons of Rathwire ; De Constantine, Baron
of Kilbixey; Petit, Baron of Mullingar; Fitz Henry of
Magherneran, Rathkenin, and Ardnorcher. To some of
these there succeeded the De Genevilles, Lords of Meath ;
Mortimer, Earl of March; the Plunkets, of Danish
descent, Earls of Fingall, Barons of Dunsany, and Earls
of Louth ; the Prestons, Viscounts Gormanston and
Tara ; the Barnewalls, Barons of Trimleston and Vis-
counts Kingsland ; the Nettervilles, Barons of Dowth ;
the Bellews, Barons of Duleek ; the Darcys of Flatten,
Barons of Navan ; the Cusacks, Barons of Culmullen ;
and the FitzEustaces, Barons of Portlester. Some of
these again were succeeded by the De Baths of Athcarn,
the Dowdalls of Athlumny, the Cruises, the Drakes of
Drake Rath, and numerous others.
Thus fell the O'Melaghlins as Kings of Meath, and
with them their lords or tributary chiefs, the MacGeoghe-
gans, O'Haras, O'Regans, O'Rorys (Anglice Rogers),
the MacUais (MacEvoys), O'Caseys, O'Hanrahans, and
numerous others, whose lands passed into the hands of
the invaders, and left their descendants to struggle for
centuries after under adverse circumstances. They are
now chiefly tillers of the soil of which their fathers had
been lords and chiefs.
The succeeding history of the O'Melaghlins would be
but a repetition of the sad story of the old Milesian races,
and need only be glanced at. Their fall, however, was not
sudden, but gradual ; they struggled bravely on, though
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 365
unsuccessfully, against the common enemy, who dexter-
ously set one chief of their house against another, aud
thus paved the way for the more easy subjugation of all.
In the reign of Henry the Eighth they had still retained
considerable power and preserved a large territory. In the
year 1544 we find Cedach O'Melaghlin inaugurated chief
of the Clan-Colman or South Hy-Niall race. But in
1548 Teige Roe O'Melaghlin brought Edmond Fahy,
alias White, into Delvin against his enemies ; but Fahy
turned on O'Melaghlin, and in King Henry's name, to
use the language of the Four Masters, " dispossessed and
expelled himself and all his race from Delvin, and drove
him from it, as the new swarm of bees drives away the old
swarm." Henceforward the O'Melaghlins, Kings of Meath,
chiefs of the grand old South Hy-Niall race, almost dis-
appear in Irish history, and present only occasionally a
flitting gleam on the surface, as in the war of 1641, and
then sink again into the darkness of obscurity.
To complete this brief summary of an illustrious race,
and to ascertain particulars of their decadence, I addressed
myself to a highly -gifted and all- accomplished friend, Dr.
Petrie, whose genius and learning have done so much for
the history, antiquities, and archaeology of Ireland ; and I
cannot do better than transcribe his interesting reply, which
tells, with sympathetic feeling, the story of the misery of
a descendant of this right royal line :
Dublin, 24th Feb., 1860.
"MY DEAR SIR BERNARD, Our excellent friend,
General Larcom, whose mind is eminently poetical and
366 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
imaginative as well as solid, has, I fear, led you to expect,
in the particulars of my conversation with him, a more
striking and interesting instance of the vicissitudes of
fortune in families, than the facts will realize. Here,
however, they are for you, and given with a sincere
pleasure :
" Let me premise that about thirty years ago, the archi-
tectural and other ancient remains at Clonmacnoise, in the
very heart of Ireland., and up to that time but little known
or noticed, excited in my mind a very deep interest so
deep indeed, that I resolved to collect all the information
it might be in my power to discover with a view to the
compilation of a history of a locality so singularly interest-
ing. As you are aware, Clonmacnoise was the lona of
Ireland, or rather lona was the Clonmacnoise of Scotland,
namely, the place of sepulture of most of the royal families
of the country, as the O'Melaghlins, hereditary kings of
Meath, and, in alternate succession with the northern
O'Neills, kings of Ireland ; the O'Conors, kings of Con-
naught ; the Macarthys of Desmond or South Munster ;
the O'Kellys of Hymanie ; the MacDermots of Moylurg,
&c., &c., of whom all those I have enumerated, with
several others, had erected churches, or mortuary chapels
within the cemetery which bore the family names, and
within which none but the members of those families
respectively were formerly allowed to be interred. Now,
as it was a portion of my project to give an historical, as
well as a descriptive, account of those churches, it appeared
to me desirable to connect with each a genealogical his-
tory of the families of the founders, bringing such history
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 367
as far down to our own times as my researches would
allow : and in this way my attention, and indeed my feel-
ings also were pre-eminently drawn to the family of ' the
kings' i. e., the O'Melaghlins, whose church is still in
tolerable preservation, and within which none but those of
the name whose ancestors had been so interred from time
immemorial, are, to this day, allowed to be buried. I
had moreover an additional stimulus to labour ardently
on the compilation of their history, namely, a conviction
that I should be able to draw a pedigree so amply sustained
by authentic historical evidences as no family out of Ire-
land, however illustrious, and perhaps no other in Ireland,
could boast of. Nor was I altogether disappointed with
the result of my labour. From the historic annals and
various MS. sources, I was enabled to bring down the
pedigrees of the five principal branches into which the
family had separated, to the commencement of the last
century ; but I could bring them no further. These five
branches were Ballinderry, Fearnocht, Castletown, Castle-
reagh, and Mullingar. To carry down the pedigree in
these several branches as far as might be in my power,
and, more particularly, to ascertain, if possible, who might
be the present chief of the name, was a natural desire : and
so to gratify it I determined to make a visit to Moat, near
to which Ballinderry and Fearnocht are situated, and to
make it my head-quarters for a few days, while I was en-
gaged in seeking for information amongst the peasantry
located in its neighbourhood. The results were not, in
many ways, without interest, but the main object of my
inquiries was not obtained, and the present representative
368 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of the ancient royal family of Ir eland is yet to be dis-
covered !
" However, I ascertained satisfactorily that the line of
Art of Ballinderry, chief of the name at the commence-
ment of the last century, was extinct. According to the
concurrent tradition of the country, he died, without issue,
while resident with the family of Daly, or O'Daly, at Castle
Daly, near Moat, and with which family he was in some
way connected by an intermarriage. Indeed, according to
a tradition which I noted, the ancestor of the Dalys ob-
tained property in the county by marriage with an heiress
named Grace, or Graine og ni Melaghlin, ' of Moat or
some other castle.' This castle was most probably that
of Killcliegh, now Castle Daly, which had belonged to the
O'Melaghlins ; and as the husband was said to have been
' a big trooper in Cromwell's army, but a gentleman/ he
was probably the James Daly of Killcleagh, who, accord-
ing to an inscription on a tombstone at Clonmacnoise,
' dyed the 18th of January, A.D. 1679.' Art of Ballin-
clerry was said to have been a person of weak mind.
" Having settled this point, my inquiries were next di-
rected to the Fearnocht branch, of which Capt. Murrough,
or Morgan, was the chief at the close of the seventeenth
century. This Murrough appears to have been regarded
as the chief or leader of the Melaghlins during the rebel-
lion of 1641, as I should suppose in consequence of the
mental imbecility of his kinsman, Art ; for, in the catalogue
given byDeBurgo Hib. Dom. Supplementum, p. 879
of the nobles and gentlemen who, in 1646, associated with
the clergy in repudiating the peace of Ormond, we find
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 369
name of D. Morganus O'Melaghlin, cum tola sud Familid.
Of this Morgan and his posterity, as might be expected,
the traditions were very vivid, and, in general, accurate.
And, to my great regret, I soon learnt, from the concurrent
testimony of various informants, that of his offspring in
the male line there existed no representative.
" He left two sons and four daughters. The sons died
without leaving issue, and the property of the father was
gaveled amongst the four daughters. Of these daughters,
all of whom married the eldest, who was named Bridget,
became the wife of John Tyrrell Watt, Esq., and she, it
appears, sold her inheritance, in 1748, to Mr. Robert
Mulock, in whose posterity it still remains.
" By this marriage, John Tyrrell left a son, Wat, and
this Wat left a son, John, and two daughters, namely,
Bridget and Margaret. Of these daughters, Bridget be-
came the wife of Mr. Molloy, by whom she had one son,
who was living with his father and mother in Athlone at
the time when I received this information, which was given
to me by persons residing in the vicinity of Moate. But
as all my informants stated that I could obtain more pre-
cise information respecting the Melaghlin family from
Mrs. Molloy, and as I considered her son as, in a way,
the representative of the race, I resolved to wait upon the
old lady ; for a lady I found her to be, though in a very
humble position.
" And now, after this unreasonably long, and, as I fear
you will consider it, irrelevant preface, I come to the sim-
ple anecdote which you asked me for. On my arrival in
Athlone, I had no difficulty in finding Mrs. Molloy's rcsi-
2 B B
370 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
dence. It was one of a range of small but decent slated
cottages, situated near the end of the town, on the lower
road, which enters it on its eastern or Dublin side. Its
shut hall- door was painted green, and had a brightly
shining brass knocker, and its two small windows were
equally remarkable for their cleanliness. As I had learned
that Mr. Molloy kept a school in this cottage, I delayed
my visit till after school hours. I then knocked, and
the doorway was opened for me by a man tall of stature,
finely made, and having a countenance strikingly noble
and commanding. He was unmistakably a gentleman.
" On my making known to him my desire to see Mrs.
Molloy, he informed me that he would send for his mother,
who, as he said, was amusing herself in her little garden ;
and at his request I entered an apartment which I at once
saw was the school -room, the whole of it being occupied
by writing-desks and forms, except a small space in the
centre which was open to the fire-place. After requesting
me, with a cold courtesy, to take a seat which he placed
for me near one of the desks, he sate down himself before
the fire, and without further words, gave his whole atten-
tion to the care of a pot of potatoes which was briskly
boiling.
" In a minute or two, his mother entered the room, and
after I had apologised for my intrusion, and made known
the motive and object which had impelled me to take such
a liberty, with a pleased look, and much grace of manner,
she expressed her readiness to give me all the information
she possessed. How copious and accurate this information
was will be learnt with surprise, when I state that she not
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 371
only gave me the pedigree of the family from herself up
to Captain Murrough, the chief, during the war of 1641,
but, with perfect historic accuracy, carried it up for five
generations higher, and could have ascended two more if
I had allowed her a few moments to recollect ; for, as she
said, her memory was beginning to find a difficulty some-
times in calling up names, as she was seventy-six years
old. But it was not necessary that I should give the old
lady any further trouble in this direction, in which she
had already given me so much more information than I
required.
" During our conversation, her son remained seated at
the fire-place, silent as before, and, as an inattentive ob-
server might have supposed, taking no interest in the sub-
ject of our colloquy. But it was not so. The occasional
excited expression of his melancholy eye, and the swaying
of his head to one side or the other, indicated more than
could words the deep emotions by which his heart was
agitated. On taking my leave, Mrs. Molloy accompanied
me to the hall-door, and on opening it for me we were met
-by her husband, who, no doubt, was coming to his dinner.
However, on being introduced to me by his wife, who ex-
plained to him the object of my visit, he declined entering,
and giving me his company in a walk in the direction of
my hotel, he entered speedily into his own history* He
was a gentleman by birth and education, and the inheritor
of a fair estate. But, after the fashion of Irish gentle-
men in his young days, he so far incumbered it in the
course of some years, as to be constrained to dispose of it.
However, after the discharge of all his debts, about 3000
372 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
remained to him, and with this capital he entered into
business as a shopkeeper in Athlone. But he was not
successful.
" He had, however, given his son a collegiate education,
and the profession of a gentleman, that of a physician,
which he had himself chosen. But the son was not
remarkable for steadiness ; for the increasing poverty of
his father unsettled his mind, and abandoning his profes-
sion, he enlisted as a common soldier in the 4th or Royal
Irish Dragoons.
" In this position he conducted himself with the strictest
propriety, and was in a short time promoted to the rank
of sergeant. But he was not allowed to follow a soldier's
career. Though silent as to his own history, he could
not prevent the officers from discovering that he was an
educated and accomplished gentleman ; and when they got
his secret from him after some years, they resolved that
he should be no longer a soldier, but return to the pro-
fession he had abandoned. Accordingly, on being sent
for by the colonel one day, he was told that he was a free
man j that the officers had bought him out, and had filled
a purse, which was then presented to him as a token of
their regard, and with a desire to start him anew as a
doctor in the vicinity of his birth-place.
" I^e returned to Athlone and to his profession, and
devoted himself to it with so much zeal and humanity
being always at the service of the poor without payment
that he became an object of general esteem and love. No
inclemency of weather could prevent his going miles into
. the country, night as well as day, whenever called for ; and,
THE O'MELAGHLINS. 373
said the father, ' the illness from which my noble son is
now suffering was caused by a wetting which he got in
this way, visiting a poor family at night/
" Our conversation thus ended : ' He appears to me,
sir,' I said, ' to be seriously ill ;' and the answer was,
' Sir, he is dying. He can't live a month ; and he knows
it, and I know it.' This was the last I could trace of the
Royal Melaghlins.
" Faithfully yours,
" GEORGE PETRIE."
374 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
t f afos 0f
Sous 1'auguste et sage Eegence
D'un Prince aimant la bonne foi,
Law, consomme dans 1'art de regir la finance,
Trouve 1'art d'enricher les sujets et le Roi.
Verses at the time to Laic.
They are not in the roll of common men.
SHAKESPEABE.
AMONG the families of this empire who have been cele-
brated in foreign countries, there are none more remark-
able than the family of Law of Lauriston, in Scotland.
Other houses may have had isolated members distinguished
in civil or military service abroad, but the Laws can boast
of producing, at two different periods, two men, the one a
minister of finance, and the other a statesman and a
soldier, both of whom have had prominent connection with
the history of France. Among the dramatis personce of
the Duke of Orleans' Regency, undoubtedly the chief
actor was John Law of Lauriston ; and at a subsequent
time, especially at the Peace of Amiens, foremost rank
must be given to the gallant and sagacious James Alex-
ander Bernard Law, a Marquis and a Marshal of France.
The coronet of the latter has survived him, and is borne
by his grandson, Alexander Louis Joseph Lanr, the third
THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 375
and present Marquis, a nobleman of high credit and posi-
tion in Paris. This fact gives the Law family the further
and peculiar honour of being one of the very few of
French noblesse of pure Scottish descent still resident and
flourishing in France. .
The vicissitudes of these Laws, as may be supposed from
the figure they have cut in the world, have been indeed of
a most singular and varied description, and are well de-
serving of the following chapter in this volume. Let me
begin with decidedly the greatest man of the race, John
Law the financier ; but before entering on his career, so
much lauded by some, and so outrageously and unjustly
blamed by others, it behoves me to show that, so far from
being, as is asserted, a man of obscure and humble origin,
he was really allied by birth to some of the noblest families
in Scotland. I am, therefore, the more explicit in refer-
ring to Law's pedigree, thus :
The family of Law, of which the Laws of Lauriston are
so distinguished a branch, is of very ancient standing in
Scotland, and has made itself illustrious as well by its own
deeds as by its numerous alliances with the very first of
the Scottish nobility. Out of Scotland, the rank and fame
it has achieved are remarkable. In France, the celebrity
of the Laws of Lauriston is historic ; and another line of
the Laws, which settled in England, can boast of the
mitres and coronets which the house of Ellenborough, so
eminent in divinity and jurisprudence, has obtained. The
Laws were, centuries ago, Free Barons in Scotland ; and
their descent, from and before the reign of King Robert
III. down to the present period, admits of the clearest
376 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
proof. Nisbett, in his Heraldry, gives their arms, as
borne by Law of Lawbridge, Free Baron in Galloway, arg.
a bend and in chief a cock gu. : crest, a cock crowing.
These arras, with some slight alterations, are the ensigns of
the present Earl of Ellenborbugh and the present Marquis
of Lauriston. The immediate ancestor of the Laws of
Lauriston was Dr. James Law, of Lithrie and Burntown,
Archbishop of Glasgow, who married Marian, daughter of
John Boyle, of Kelburn (ancestor of the present Earl of Glas-
gow), and left a son, James Law, who assumed the title of
Free Baron of Burntoun, in Fifeshire, from the estate pur-
chased for him by his father, and who, upon taking such
title, added another cock gu. to his arms, and adopted the
motto " Nee obscura nee ima," now borne by the Marquis
of Lauriston. This James Law's eldest surviving son and
heir, James Law of Burutoun, married Margaret, daughter
of Sir John Preston, of Preston Hall, and had issue James
Law, of Burntoun, his successor, and a younger son,
WILLIAM LAW, who was an eminent banker and goldsmith,
of the city of Edinburgh, and who, with the fortune he
made, purchased the lands of Lauriston and Randleston,
with the castle of Lauriston, in the co. of Midlothian,
and entailed the whole estate (giving a life enjoyment to
his wife) upon his family. He married Jean Campbell, a
scion of the noble and illustrious house of Argyle, and
cousin of the great John Campbell, Duke of Argyle and
Greenwich, and of his brother, Archibald Campbell, Earl
of Islay, who succeeded him as Duke of Argyle. By this
lady, William Law of Lauriston left six sons and four
daughters. The eldest of these sons was the famous
THE LAWS OF LAUR1STON. 377
JOHN LAW, Marquis of Essiat, of Charleval and Touey,
Count of Tancarville and Valen9ai, and Comptroller-General
of the Exchequer in France, who was born in Cramond,
Midlothian, the 21st April, 1671. At fourteen years of
age he lost his father, but it was from his mother that he
was to take the estate of Lauriston ; and to her was he
indebted for another and a far greater boon an admirable
education. It was the direction that she, perceiving the
bent of his mind, gave to her son's studies, that caused
him to become so perfect a proficient in arithmetical and
commercial knowledge. She was also well aware of his
love of pleasure and expense ; and she thought, and not
without reason, that the acquisition of the solid sciences
for which he showed such capacity, would eventually make
up for the dissipation that was likely to lead him astray.
The worthy lady died when Law was in his one-and-
twentieth year, leaving him the sole possession of Lauris-
ton and Randleston.
Law, with this inheritance, burst at once into boundless
extravagance, and soon wasted all the immediate proceeds
of his property. He then looked about him. He could
not resign being the gentleman of fashion and gaiety in
Edinburgh, and he turned his attention to continuing the
style he lived in, by means of his talents as a man of
commerce.
His learning and ability, wonderful for one so young,
soon availed him in the mercantile and banking world.
He was not long thus engaged, before he brought himself
into the notice of the King's ministers for Scotland, and
he was consulted by them on the best mode of arranging
378 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the public accounts, and remedying the want of a cir-
culating medium in Scotland. As a way of effecting this,
he proposed the establishment of a bank of issue, which,
according to his daring plan, might send forth paper money
to the amount of the value of all the lands in the king-
dom. This idea was no doubt the basis of those projects
which subsequently gave such celebrity to his name. It
is pretty sure that Law derived pecuniary advantages from
his communications with the Scottish ministers. Law at
this'time, according to a contemporary account, is described
as " a person of imposing mien and very handsome face,
highly educated, displaying much intellect and eloquence
in conversation, and having rare address in all corporal
exercises in fine, a perfect gentleman."
About 1694, the love of adventure and the desire of dis-
play brought Law to London. Here, howsoever he had
acquired his fresh wealth, he lived in the most brilliant way,
vying with the leading young men of fashion, and proved
so remarkable a gallant himself, that he was designated by
the then favourite distinction of Beau, and was called Beau
Law. An untoward event, x though perhaps fortunate for
his future career, was now to change his course, and to
rouse him from a Condition far too trifling for one of his
powers of calculation and action. This incident was a
duel; but to relate it rightly, I must introduce his
opponent, another exquisite of the day, one Beau Wilson,
upon the scene.
This beau's grandfather was Rowland Wilson, a citizen
of London, and the founder of Merton Hospital, county of
Surrey. He was descended from a family that has long
THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 379
been of consideration in the counties of Norfolk and Lei-
cester, and whose now representative is the Right Hon.
Henry William Wilson, Lord Berners. The Wilsons have
formed alliances with many ancient families, as the Walpoles
and the Knyvets. At this day also, the family is further
distinguished by the gallant deeds of Lord Berners' cousin,
the hero of Delhi, the present Major-General, Sir Archdale
Wilson, Bart, and K.C.B. The Beau himself, Edward
Wilson, was grandson of the above Rowland, and fifth son
of Thomas Wilson, Esq., of Keythorpe, High Sheriff of
Leicestershire in 1684-5. " Beau Wilson," says the Lon-
don Journal of the 3d December, 1721, " was the wonder
of the time he lived in. From humble circumstances [or,
rather, from the moderate fortune of a private gentleman's
younger son] he was on a sudden exalted to a very high
pitch. For gay dress, splendid equipage, and vast expense
he exceeded all the Court. How he was supported few
truly knew : and those who have undertaken to account
for it, have only done it from the darkness of conjecture."
Edward Wilson was the Brummell of his time. Pos-
sessed of a remarkably handsome person, a polished ad-
dress, and with large pecuniary supplies at his command,
he was well received, or, rather, anxiously courted by the
best famines in the kingdom. Like his antitype, Law,
he acquired the soubriquet of " BEAU," and was the arbiter
elegantiarum of every circle in which he moved.
With the gentler sex he was a universal favourite ; and
in times when outward adornment and frivolous accom-
plishments were better passports to society than sterling
380 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
talents or worth, it is not to be wondered at that Beau
Wilson was regarded by both sexes as a paragon.
Contemporary with Wilson, and his rival both in beauty
of person, fashionable dress, and expensive outlay, was
JOHN LAW. A Mrs. Lawrence was one of the reigning
beauties of that day, and Mr. Wilson and Mr. Law were
both in the train of her admirers ; but whether it was in
consequence of their rivalry for her, or for Elizabeth Vil-
liers, the sister of the first Earl of Jersey, afterwards
Countess of Orkney,* that the duel with such melancholy
results took place, has never been clearly ascertained. At
no period was the disreputable custom of talking of con-
quests over the fair sex so prevalent as then ; and it has
been asserted that Law's boast of Miss Villiers' preference
of him led to Wilson's challenge. The History of Cra-
mond thus relates the particulars :
" In London, Mr. Law's superior beauty of person, ready
wit, and engaging manners, assisted by proper commen-
dations, and aided by that propensity to play for which
he was always noted (gambling in those days was rather
looked on as the necessary qualification of a gentleman
than as aught disreputable), procured him admission into
some of the first circles, and particularly attracted the
attention of the ladies, among whom he had the reputation
of being extremely fortunate. This success was, however,
attended with very disagreeable consequences, involving
* Elizabeth Villiers, one of the six daughters of Sir Edward
Villiers, had a very large share of that surprising beauty which
has been said to be the hereditary possession of the Villiers
family. There is a good deal of romance in her marriage with
Lord Orkney.
THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 381
him in an unhappy quarrel with Mr. Wilson, a gentleman
renowned for a similar pre-eminence in personal endow-
ments, which produced a hostile meeting between the par-
ties. In this encounter Mr. Law came off conqueror,
leaving his antagonist dead on the spot where they
fought."
The particulars of the duel will be gleaned from the
Royal Commissioner's Report of the trial, which took place
in 1694, at the Old Bailey.
John Law, of St. Giles' in the Fields, gentleman, was
arraigned upon an indictment of murder for killing Edward
Wilson, gentleman, commonly called Beau Wilson, a per-
son who, by the common report of fame, kept a coach and
six horses, and maintained his family in great splendour
and grandeur ; being full of money ; no one complaining of
his being their debtor ; yet from whence or by what hand
he had the effects which caused him to appear in so great
equipage is hard to be determined. The matter of fact
was this. There was some difference happened to arise
between Mr. Law and the deceased concerning one Mrs.
Lawrence, who was acquainted with Mr. Law, upon which,
on the 9th of April instant, they met in Bloomsbury
Square, and there fought a duel, in which Mr. Wilson was
killed. It was made appear also that they had met several
times before, but had not had opportunity to fight ; be-
sides that, there were several letters sent by Mr. Law, or
given to Mr. Wilson by him, which letters were full of
invectives and cautions to Mr. Wilson to beware, for there
was a design of evil against him ; and there were two let-
ters sent by Mr. Wilson, one to Mr. Law, and the othe
382 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
to Mrs. Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's man, one Mr. Smith,
said that Mr. Law came to his master's house a little
before the fact was done, and drank a pint of sack in the
parlour ; after which he heard his master say he was much
surprised with something that Mr. Law had told him.
One Captain Wightman, a person of good conformation,
gave account of the whole matter, and said that he was a
familiar friend of Mr. Wilson, and was with him and Mr.
Law at the Fountain Tavern, in the Strand ; and after
they had stayed a little while there, Mr. Law went away.
After which Mr. Wilson and Captain Wightman took
coach and were driven towards Bloomsbury; whereupon
Mr. Wilson stepped out of the coach into the square,
where Mr. Law met him ; and before they came near to-
gether, Mr. Wilson drew his sword ; and they both passed
together, making but one pass, by which Mr. Wilson re-
ceived a mortal wound in the lower part of his stomach,
of the depth of two inches, of which he instantly died.
This was the sum of the evidence for the King. The
letters were read in Court, which were full of aggravations
on both sides, without any names subscribed to them.
There were also witnesses that saw the duel fought, who
all agreed in their depositions that they drew their swords
and passed at each other, and presently Mr. Wilson was
killed.
Mr. Law, in his defence, declared that Mr. Wilson and
he had been together several times before the duel was
fought ; and never any quarrel was betwixt them till they
met at the Fountain Tavern, which was occasioned about
the letters, and that his meeting Mr. Wilson in Blooms-
THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 383
bury was merely an accidental thing ; Mr. Wilson drawing
his sword upon him first, upon which he was forced to
stand upon his own defence. That the misfortune did
arise from a sudden heat of passion, and not from any
prepense malice. The Court acquainted the jury that, if
they found that Mr. Law and Mr. Wilson did make an
agreement to fight, though Mr. Wilson drew first, and that
Mr. Law killed him, he was (by the construction of the
law) guilty of murder ; for, if two men suddenly quarrel,
aud one kill the other, this would be but manslaughter ;
but this case seemed to be otherwise : for this was a con-
tinual quarrel, carried on betwixt them some time before ;
therefore must be accounted a malicious quarrel, and a
design of murder in the person who killed the other : like-
wise that it was so in all cases.
The trial was a very long one. The prisoner produced
many persoi s of high station and good repute to speak in
his favour ; and their testimony went to prove that his
life was generally correct, that he was not given to quar-
relling, nor was he a person of ill- behaviour. The jury,
after long deliberation, found the prisoner Guilty of Mur-
der, and he received sentence accordingly. A pardon was,
however, obtained [from the Crown ; and Law was on the
point of regaining his liberty, when the relatives of Mr.
Wilson lodged an appeal of murder, and he was detained
in the King's Bench. An appeal of murder was a very
serious thing, and requires some explanation. It was this :
if a man on an indictment by the Crown for murder was
acquitted, or found guilty and pardoned by the King, he
was still liable to an appeal from the wife or heir male of
384 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the deceased. This appeal was in the nature of a private
action between the parties, by which the death of the
deceased was to be compensated for by the death of the
accused; and, if the cause went against the defendant, die
he must, if the plaintiff insisted on it ; since the Crown,
as in all other private actions, could not remit the judg-
ment. It was, in fact, a suit of life for life; and the
Shylock who gained it had not a mere pound of flesh,
but the fuller satisfaction of hanging on a gallows the
subject of his prosecution. This barbarous proceeding of
appeal for murder happened to be revived upon an acquittal
for murder even so lately as 1817, when the defendant
repelled the appeal by challenging the plaintiff to trial by
combat, which mortal mode of decision it appeared he could
adopt in place of trial by jury. The plaintiff declined the
fight; but this rendered the appeal so utterly ridiculous
that the whole process was abolished by act of parliament.
Law continued in durance for eight months awaiting
the trial, when he found means to corrupt the keeper of
the prison and to effect his escape.
The following is from an advertisement from the London
Gazette of January, 37, 1694-5 : " Captain J. Lawe,
aged 26, a Scotchman, lately a prisoner in the King's
Bench for murther, hath made his escape from the said
prison. Whoever secures him, so as to be delivered to
the said prison, shall have 5Q paid immediately by the
marshal of the said King's Bench." This advertisement
proved ineffectual. Mr. Law got out of the country, and
took up his abode in Paris, there and throughout France
to cause more singular sensation than ever did foreigner
before or since.
THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 385
John Law's marvellous proceedings in Paris are too
much matter of history to need detail here. Law's con-
nection with the Regent, Duke of Orleans was the great-
est event of that able but dissipated Prince's administra-
tion ; and among the great commercial transactions of the
world, Law and his system will be remembered for ever.
Many and many are the accounts given, besides those in
the various histories of France, of Law's system and the
Mississippi scheme that grew upon it ; and in referring to
those accounts, I would mention that of Dr. Mackay, in
his " Popular Delusions/' as about the best of all. Yet I
cannot pass this mighty period of John Law's life without
insisting that his plans were of a far wiser nature than the
almost cotemporaryDarien scheme (though that chiefly owes
its failure to the faithlessness of William III.) : nor should
they be confounded with the South Sea Company, the
Tulipomania, the sham railway projects, and the other
bubbles by which visionaries and rogues have brought
the avaricious and the imprudent to ruin. Law was un-
doubtedly an able calculator and financier. He found the
exchequer of France on the verge of bankruptcy, and the
government about to sink under the pressure. His paper
issue and his establishment of the Royal Bank saved the
state and restored confidence and reanimated commerce.
No doubt "the Company of the West," known better as
the Mississippi scheme, and the numerous other companies
that followed, brought much ruin in their track ; but this
was really more owing to the madness of the French people
themselves than to Law, who rather yielded to the torrent
than courted the storm. This, however, as I say, is matter
3 c c
386 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
of public history, and has been and is the subject of
never-ending discussion. I return to Law's personal
career. He shared, of course, immensely in the ques-
tionable wealth that accrued to France : he bought the
Hotel de Soissons and sixteen large estates, and he
outvied royalty in his -houses and in his gardens; for,
like most Scotchmen, Law was an admirable horticul-
turist. He thus, and it is a strong proof of his own
honesty and good faith, invested all his treasures in landed
property in France ; he put not a shilling in the funds of
other countries : and, when he might have purchased regal
domains in Scotland, he did no more than preserve his few
paternal acres of Lauriston there. Law was in France
Comptroller- General and a minister with power unlimited.
He obtained letters of naturalisation, and was raised to
nobility by various titles. He was for a time the idol
of the French, and he could have done just as he liked.
Yet, in the midst of this prosperity and influence almost
superhuman, he never did an unkind or an unworthy
action ; and not unfrequently his justice and his liberality
were remarkable.
On one occasion he instantly, when asked, gave five
hundred thousand francs towards building the church of
St. Roch, so familiar, now-a-days, to all visitors to Paris ;
and he distributed another sum of five hundred thousand
francs among the followers of King James, the poor Scotch,
Irish, and English exiles at St. Germains. Numerous
gifts like these might be related. Of his justice the
following is a sample: Count Horn, brother of Prince
de Horn, and a relative of the Emperor of Germany, way-
THE LAWS OF LAUEISTON. 387
laid, robbed, and murdered in Paris a man loaded with
the proceeds of some successful sale of Mississippi shares.
The count was seized, tried, and condemned, but though
dukes, princes, and even sovereigns interceded in his be-
half, Law prevented the wavering Regent from yielding,
and contrived that stern retribution should be done. Horn
was executed in the Place de Gr6ve. Law's coolness
amidst all his grandeur, was another remarkable feature.
The anecdotes that are told of this would fill a volume.
One here must suffice. At a levee of Law's, when princes,
noblemen, and prelates were waiting in Law's antichamber,
a plain-looking gentleman craved admittance, on the score
of being a Scotch kinsman. " Let him instantly come in/'
said Law, " for that claim is always a passport with me."
The so honoured individual entered; it was the Earl of
Islay, afterwards Duke of Argyle. " I am sorry," said the
Earl, as Law instantly jumped up and grasped his hand,
" I am sorry to disturb you while engaged in such
momentous occupation." "By no means momentous/'
replied Law, "I am only writing to my gardener at
Lauriston about planting some cabbages " and while he
was doing this, the best blood of France was waiting at
the door !
Law's immense wealth enabled him to gratify Mr.
Wilson's relatives by the payment of one hundred thou-
sand pounds. It would appear from the fact of this hush-
money not having been paid till 1721, that the determina-
tion of the Wilson family to bring the offender to justice
had continued for more than a quarter of a century, and
offered a bar to his return to England. The fame of his
c c 2
388 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
financial oddities, however, was now at its height, and
led to an invitation from the English ministry to return
to his native country, and give it the benefit of his talents.
The one hundred thousand pounds reconciled the Wilsons ;
and Law embarked on board the Baltic Squadron, com-
manded by Sir John Norris. He was accommodated on
board the admiral's own ship, and treated with as much
distinction as a crowned head.
He landed at the Nore, October 20, 1721, proceeded
to London in a kind of triumph, and was speedily pre-
sented to King George I. by Sir John Norris. The
monarch received him with marked distinction, and loaded
him with compliments. He took a mansion in Conduit
Street, and furnished it with a splendour rarely seen at
that time in houses of the highest society.
On the 28th of November, 1721 (being the last day of
Term), Mr. Law pleaded at the bar of the King's Bench
on his knees, his Majesty's most gracious pardon for the
murder of Edward Wilson, Esq., in 1694. He was atteuded
at the bar by his relatives, the Duke of Argyle and the
Earl of Islay, and several friends ; and each of the judges
was presented with a pair of white gloves.
After some years' residence in England, where a high
degree of homage was paid to him by the upper classes,
Mr. Law received intelligence of the confiscation of his
whole property in France. The Mississippi scheme had
ended in the ruins of myriads there ; and these, instead of
blaming their own reckless speculation, laid the whole evil
at the door of him whose real utility they had perverted
and led astray. Conscious of the rectitude of his conduct
THE LAWS OP LAUR1STON. 389
in the management of the French finances, and feeling
sure that the balance, on examination, would be found
greatly in his favour, Law flattered himself that he would
receive large compensation, especially as the Regent, Duke
of Orleans, professed a more than ordinary regard for him,
and had continued punctually to remit his official stipend
of 20,000 francs a-year. But the death of this kind, and
not unworthy, however improvident, prince, in 1723, was
a fatal blow to the hopes of Law. Mr. Law memorialized
the Prime Minister of France, the Duke de Bourbon, in
1724, but without success. There then remained to him,
of all his personal wealth, but a single diamond worth
5000. This, and his Scotch property, his high family
connections, and his own professional ability as a commer-
cial man, sustained him as a gentleman of fair position
through the rest of his existence.
He bade a final adieu to Great Britain in 1725, and
took up his residence at Venice, where he closed his
chequered life on the 21st of March, 1729, in his fifty-
eighth year, and was buried in the church of San Gemi-
niauo, whence, as that church was pulled down, his body
was removed by his grandnephew, the Marquis and Mar-
shal Law, when Governor of Venice, to the church of San
Mose, which still contains the remains of the great finan-
cier, and a monument to his memory.
John Law married Catharine, third daughter of Nicholas,
titular Earl of Banbury, and by her (who died his widow
in 1747) he had a son, Cornet John Law, of the Regiment
of Nassau Friesland, who died unmarried at Maestricht
in 1734, aged thirty, and a daughter, Mary Catherine,
390 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
married to William, Viscount Wallingford, M.P. for Ban-
bury, Major of the first troop of Horse Guards, son of
Charles, fourth titular Earl of Banbury. Lord Walling-
ford died, vitdpatris, 1740 ; his widow died in London in
1790, aged about eighty; they had no issue. Thus ended
John Law's own line, but his name and family were to
continue in France with increased rank and credit. His
brother William's descendant was to add a coronet and
the renown of a warrior and statesman to the pedigree of
the Laws of Lauriston. WILLIAM LAW, of Lauriston, the
younger brother of the great financier, was Director-
General of the India Compan^ in France, and dying in
1752, left, with daughters, two sons, both distinguished
men ; the younger was General James Francis Law, Count
de Tancarville, and Chevalier de St. Louis, who com-
manded the French king's troops at Pondicherry, and
died in 1767, leaving issue; and from him descend the
Laws of Clapernon. The Director-General William Law's
elder son was JOHN LAW, Baron of Lauriston (being so
admitted in France), Governor of Pondicherry, and Mare-
schal de Camp, who married Jane, daughter of Don Alex-
ander Carvalho, a Portuguese noble, and with other issue
(one son, William Law, a naval officer, was lost in the
great navigator La Peyrouse's fatal expedition) was father
of James Alexander Bernard Law, a Marshal of France,
and one of the celebrated men of modern France. Him
I cannot pass over without a short notice.
JAMES ALEXANDER BERNARD LAW was born in Pondi-
cherry the 1st of February, 1768. He entered the Roycl
Corps of French Artillery in 178i, and was appointed
THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 391
Colonel of Horse Artillery in 1794; it is in this quality
that he made the first campaigns of the Revolution.
Bonaparte, who had particular affection for the artillery,
appointed, when first Consul in 1800, Lauriston his aide-
de-camp, and charged him successfully with many impor-
tant missions, amongst which I must cite particularly his
co-operation at the defence of Copenhagen against the
English, and the Diplomatic Mission which he filled in
England, where he was charged, in 1801, to bring the
ratification of the preliminaries of the peace of Amiens.
This peace was so popular in England, that he was wel-
comed with much enthusiasm, and the people of London
took the horses out of Law's carriage, and conducted him
in triumph to Downing Street.
Law did good service in many a hard-fought battle,
when by Napoleon's side, or commanding for him. He
was appointed Imperial Commissary to take possession of
Venice, and Dalmatia, and the Mouths of the Cattaro ;
and, on this occasion, displayed signal valour and conduct
in successfully holding those places, with a small force,
against fifteen hundred Russians and three thousand
Montenegrins, or Morlachs. He was Governor-General
of Venice in 1807.
After the battle of Essling, Law effected the junction
of the Great Army with the Army of Italy, on the other
side of Zeimmeringberg. He did wonders at "VVagram,
where, commanding the battery of the famous hundred
pieces of cannon, he contributed to the success of the day.
It was General Law who accompanied to France the Arch
duchess Maria Louisa, on her marriage with Napoleon.
392 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
After the disastrous campaign of Russia, in which he took
a brilliant share, Law went to Magdeburg as General-in-
Chief of the corps of observation on the Elbe, at the head
of which he helped gloriously in the campaign of 1813.
He was at Lautzen and Bautzen, and defeated, in desperate
fight, eighty thousand Russians at Goldberg. He fought
valiantly at Dresden and Leipsic ; and, on the day Leipsic
was taken, he was retiring by the bridge of Lindenau,
over the Elster, and finding it destroyed, he rushed with
his horse into the river, but on reaching the other side was
made prisoner. He was detained at Berlin until the resto-
ration of the Bourbons, in 1814; when began for General
Law, after his career of arms under Napoleon, his career
of honours under King Louis. Law, who was really a
soldier of the old regime, though a good servant to the
Emperor, and ever true to France, was not reluctant to
serve the King. Law was already a Baron and a Count
of the Empire; Louis XVIII. created him Marquis of
Lauriston and a Peer of France ; Chevalier of St. Louis ;
and Great Cordon of the Legion of Honour. He was a
Knight of the Iron Crown, and of various other foreign
orders. Law, during the Hundred Days, retired to his
country seat, and remained stanch to the House of Bour-
bon. He commanded a Corps de Reserve in the invasion of
Spain, in 1823, and was then made a Marshal of France.
The Marquis of Lauriston died at Paris, universally
respected, the 10th June, 1828. He held, at the time,
among other dignified offices, that of Master of the Royal
Hunt ; and k is a singular fact, that the Hotel connected
with that service in the Place Vendome, in which he died
THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 696
was the ancient residence of his great uncle, the Financier.
The Marquis's wife was Mademoiselle Claudine An-
toinette Julie Le Due, the daughter of an ancient Mar-
shal de Camp, and sister of Madame de la Bauere.
Mademoiselle Le Due had also a life of some vicissitude,
for she was arrested with all her family during the Reign
of Terror, and detained in the prisons of Chauny and of
Soissons : her life was saved by the merest chance. She
was afterwards Maid of Honour to the Empress Josephine,
then to the Empress Maria Louisa, and eventually was a
Lady of Honour to the Duchess of Berri.
The Marquis of Lauriston left (with a daughter, Louise
Coralie, married to the Count Hocquart de Turlot) two
sons, of whom the younger is Count Napoleon Law, an
officer of the Hussars of the Guard, before 1830; and the
elder was AUGUSTUS JOHN ALEXANDER LAW, second and
late Marquis of Lauriston, who was born in 1790, and was
an officer of Ordnance of Bonaparte, and afterwards
Colonel of the Garde du Corps. He made his first
campaign in 1809, when a mere youth, and distin-
guished himself at the battle of Amstetten, where he
attacked, in single fight, the Commandant of Hulans,
flung him down and made him prisoner. He obtained
the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the field of battle,
in reward of this act of intrepidity. He was appointed
Chevalier of St. Louis, the 1st July, 1814, and Colonel
of the 5th Regiment of Horse Chasseurs, the month of
October, 1815, and was made an hereditary Peer of France
in 1829. He married in 1820 Mademoiselle Jeanne Louise
Delie Carelle, and had three sons, viz., ALEXANDER Louis
394 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
JOSEPH, third and present MARQUIS DE LAURISTON,
ancient officer of Artillery, born in 1821 ; Charles Louis
Alexander, Viscount de Lauriston, ancient Captain of
Cavalry, born in 1824; and Arthur Louis Ferinin, Baron
de Lauriston, born in 1829. The Marquis of Lauriston
died at Paris, the 27th June, 1860, much and deservedly
lamented. His eldest son, the present Marquis is well and
popularly known in the fashionable world of Paris.
I should not conclude without observing that Jean
Law, a sister of the famous financier, and second
daughter of William Law, of Lauriston and his wife,
Jean Campbell, of the house of Argyle, was married, in
Scotland, to Dr. Hay of Lethim, a scion of the great
families of the Nisbets of Dirleton, and the Hays, Mar-
quesses of Tweedale. Dr. Hay's only child and heiress,
Margaret, was married to the eminent physician Dr.
William Carruthers of Edinburgh, whose family are
the Carruthers of Dumfriesshire and Dorsetshire, and
whose grandson, Dr. G. E. Carruthers (now represented
by Emma-Maria, his youngest daughter and co-heir), ob-
tained a share in the proceeds of the sale (for want of heirs
male not aliens) of Lauriston Castle. There thus still sur-
vives a British connection with these Laws of Lauriston,
whose fame and fortunes took such historic root abroad, and
grew into that goodly tree, which still flourishes in France,
verdant and unfading, unhurt by revolution, adversity, or
change.
I end with a word or two about Lauriston Castle itself,
the old seat of the Laws, which is still a place of distinction
since it has become the Edinburgh suburban residence of
THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 395
her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. Lauriston
Castle is beautifully situate, about six or seven miles from
Edinburgh, on an eminence not far from the sea, a
little north of the village of Davidson's Mains. It was
built about the close of the sixteenth century by Sir Ar-
chibald Napier, brother of John Napier of Merchiston,
the far-famed inventor of Logarithms. It was much im-
proved and beautified by the Laws, from whom it passed
away in 1828, when Francis John William Law, the last
heir male of the entail, not being an alien, died, and when
the castle and estate were sold, and the proceeds ^ distri-
buted among the descendants and representatives in the
female line of William Law, the great Comptroller's father,
the first purchaser. It has since had various owners,
among them Andrew Rutherford, Esq., M.P., and the
property has, of late years, undergone still further amelio-
ration and enlargement. Here, in this castle, was born,
last year, the Lady Sybil-Amelia-Adela Montgomerie,
daughter of that enlightened and excellent nobleman,
Archibald William, K.T., present Earl of Eglinton, by
his second wife, the Lady Adela Capel, daughter of the
Earl of Essex. More lately the castle has been further
honoured as the habitation of the Royal Duchess, whose
daughter is Queen of a j Scotland, and it therefore allies
itself with Holyrood, and affords another and a graceful
incident in the recollections of the Laws of Lauriston.
396 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
(lib fonfoss jof
What is the worst of woes that wait on Age ?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow ?
To view each loved one blotted from Life's page,
And be alone on earth.
CHILDE HAEOLD.
" Ultimus suorum moriatur !" " May he die the last of
all his kin!" was the Roman's bitterest wish for his
enemy. When, for the first [time, the malediction comes
to our ear, we perhaps little take in the fulness of its dire-
ful scope. We cling to existence naturally, and are loth
that the links binding us to Life, with all its familiar
scenes and associations, should be snapped asunder. We
forget the mercy that takes man away from a world where,
if he tarry long, he becomes a stranger among strangers.
She whose fortunes I am about to trace understood the
imprecation fully. Her mournful lot was to realize,
indeed, " the worst of woes that wait on age" the being
" alone on earth." Not only her own generation and
that which followed it, but the next and the next to this
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 397
again, arose, played their part in life, and disappeared j
yet she lived on. A wife for half-a-century, she became a
widow at three-score-and-ten ; but, even at this lat ter
period, only half of her pilgrimage was accomplished.
The princely race from whom she sprang passed, before
her eyes, through strange vicissitudes. For more than a
century she beheld them, in almost regal magnificence and
power, swaying the councils of their sovereigns and acting
as their representatives at home and abroad; and she
lived to see the head of her house an outcast and wan-
derer, with a price on his head, finally hunted down like a
wild beast, and his seigniories gone for ever.
THE LADY KATHERINE, popularly known as the Old
Countess of Desmond, was a Geraldine both on her father's
and mother's side. She was the eldest daughter of Sir
John FitzGerald, Lord of Decies, and of Ellen, his wife,
daughter of the White Knight. Her paternal grandfather
was Gerald, second son of James, the seventh Earl of
Desmond. He had received for his portion the great dis-
trict called the Decies, in the county of Waterford, and at
Dromana, on the lovely Blackwater, he had erected his
feudal castle. No site more suitable or romantic could
possibly have been discovered than that chosen by Sir
Gerald FitzGerald. He erected his fortressed home on
the highest point of a perpendicular cliff overhanging the
river. From this eyrie he looked out on a panorama of
luxuriant forest scenery, with the blue range of lofty
mountains stretching away in the far distance ; while the
river, as it flowed darkly beneath, at times narrowed and
at other times expanded itself into seeming lakes. In the
39 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Castle of Dromana* the Lady Katherine FitzGerald was
born, in the third year of Edward IV., 1464. Her child-
hood and girlhood were passed, no doubt, in a condition
suited to her rank, but of them we have no particular
mention. "We find her, in 1483, while yet in her teens,
wedded to her kinsman, Thomas, third son of Thomas,
eighth Earl of Desmond, and brother of James, the ninth
Earl. The wedding took place in London, and was graced
by the presence of the Court. The bride danced with
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.;
and she always described him as straight and well-formed,
instead of having the misshapen body which historians
give him. Not long had the Lady Katherine entered
this branch of the family when a dark shadow, as of pre-
saging ills yet to come, fell upon them. Her husband's
brother, James, the ninth Earl of Desmond, was basely
murdered, 7th December, 1487, by his servant, Shaun
(John) Maunta, at the instigation of another brother,
John. The "taint of blood" was henceforth on the race,
and never passed away. But into the Geraldine family
history full to overflowing, as it is, with striking inci-
dent it would be impossible for me here to enter. Suf-
fice it, that to the murdered Earl succeeded his brother
* The remains of the castle are incorporated with the mansion-
house of Lord Stuart de Decies, which bears the same name,
For a full notice of this nobleman's splendid seat, I refer the
reader to my "Visitation of Seats and Arms of the Noblemen
and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland," 1854, pp. 30, 31.
Lord Stuart de Decies possesses, among his paintings, an ori-
ginal portrait of the Old Countess of Desmond. To this picture
I shall allude hereafter.
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 399
Maurice, who enjoyed the honours for three-and-thirty
years. Earl Maurice died at Tralee in 1 520, and was
succeeded by his only son, James. The last-named per-
sonage held the title but for nine years. He died, leaving
no male issue ; and the honours, in consequence, devolved
on the husband of the Lady Katherine, who became, 18th
June, 1529, the twelfth Earl of Desmond.
Many years had come and gone since her bridal morn-
ing, when the Lady Katherine was graced with the high
distinction of Countess of Desmond. Her wedded life
had been a happy one ; for chroniclers speak kindly and
well of her husband. But a life purely domestic was
little marked with events of importance. One child, a
daughter, had blessed her union ; and a stepson, Maurice,
was spared to his father. The Earl and Countess of Des-
mond took up their residence in the old historical town of
Youghal in the county of Cork. Of Youghal their ancestors
had been suzerains, from the very period of the Anglo-Nor-
man invasion. Its religious houses and feudal defences were
of their creation; and in the central part of the towr,
adjoining Trinity Castle, they had erected for themselves
a palatial mansion. Here, then, the Earl and Countess
now fix themselves, in the eastern portion of their vast
possessions in Munster. Both are waxing into age. The
nobleman is in his seventy-sixth year, and has acquired
the soubriquet of Maol, or the Bald. His Countess is ten
years his junior; but, we may rest assured, shows little
traces of Time's advances. A chequered thing always is
human life ! Within six months after the Earldom fell
to him, Maurice, the Earl's only son, dies of the plague at
400 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Rathkeale, in the county of Limerick. His remains are
brought to Youghal, where they are interred in the Fran-
ciscan friary. By Joan, daughter of John Fitz-Gerald,
the White Knight, he leaves an only child, James, of
whom presently. I find the aged Earl addressing a letter
to King Henry VIII., 5 May, 1532,* in which he accepts
the royal confirmation of his rank and inheritance, pro-
fesses allegiance, and excuses himself for not then sending
his grandson to the Court. Of this epistle, I give the
commencement and conclusion :
" Mooste highe and mighty Prince, and my mooste re-
duptithe Sovereigne lyghe Lord, I in my mooste humble
wise recommaunde my unto youre mooste noble and
haboundance Grace. * * * *
" Written at Youghall the 5 day of May, the 24th yere
of your noble raigne.
" To the Kynge's Grace.
"THOMAS, ERLL OF DESMOND."
In another document, preserved in the State Paper
Office, mention is made of the Earl, and proof afforded
of his sincere attachment to the English crown. In
1534, the misled young Geraldine, Silken Thomas,
openly, in the castle of Dublin, where he sat as his mo-
narch's deputy, renounced allegiance and declared himself
the king's enemy. Dr. Thomas Alen, warden of the
College of Youghal, was at the time in London ; and a
letter addressed to him on the 17th of May of this year
* State Papers, Henry VIII., Part III., Vol. III., pages 160,
161.
THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. 401
from Youghal, by his brothers who were there resident, is
yet extant. They write by command of the Earl of Des-
mond, who (they remark) " marvels greatly at your long
tarrying." Having noticed Silken Thomas's insurrection,
and the special enmity he has exhibited to the warden of
Youghal (as he vowed that, wherever he met with him,
he would slay him with his own hands), they "counsel"
him to " instruct the King," and to " cause his Grace to
write a letter to my Lord of Desmond in all haste to take
the said traitor." But, loyal as the Earl thus proved
himself, even in regard to one of his own kin, no oppor-
tunity was afforded him of demonstrating his fidelity.
Very soon after the letter was despatched, he breathed his
last in his castle at Youghal, and was buried with his
fathers, under a stately tomb in the Franciscan friary, at
the southern end of the town.
The Lady Katherine, thus widowed, is now in her seven-
tieth year. Her jointure is to be the manor of Tnchiquin,
about five miles distant from Youghal, skirted by the sea
on its eastern side. Through the estate a pretty river, the
Finisk (Fionn-uisge, in Irish, the fair water), takes its
pleasant way ; and on the river's marge, about four miles
up from the ocean, is a strong castle, where the Countess is
to reside.* And here, with her only daughter, she lives,
while terrible things both in her family and in her country
* A great portion of the Incliiquin Castle yet remain?. It
was circular, and must have been, of prodigious strength ; for
the existing walls are no less than twelve feet in thickness. The
portion now standing is about thirty-five feet high, and thirty
feet in diameter inside the walls.
2 D D
402 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
are being enacted. The decease of her husband is the
signal for deadly feuds among her kindred. James Fitz-
Maurice, her stepson, is the rightful heir to the family
honours. He comes from England, where he has beetf
page to the King,, to assume them ; and he is murdered,
19th March, 1540-41, by his first cousin, Maurice Fitz-
John. Frightful scenes follow, paving the way for the
Geraldine ruin, now fast approaching. James, the fifteenth
Earl of Desmond, dies at Askeaton, the 34th Oct. 1558,
and is succeeded by his son, Garrett, in whom the proud
race of Desmond is to be extinguished. In 1575, this last
Earl induces his aged kinswoman to assign to him her
castle. I subjoin the deed, which will be new to my
readers :*
"Where I, ladye Kathriu, late wief to Thomas, late
Earle of Desmond deceased, have and doe enjoye amongst
other parcells as my third parte and dower of my saide
late husbonde, landes by lawfull assigm', the Castell and
Town of Inchequyne, with six plowlandes, arrable iande,
called the six fie plowlands in Inchequyne, together with
More's meadows, pastures, groves, woods, milles and
milplaces, with there watercouses, rivers, streames, with
there weares and fishinges, parcell of the said towne and
belonging to the same. Be it knowen unto all men by
these presentes, that for good consideracions me movinge,
I have geven, graunted, and surrendered the said Castell
* This deed is preserved in the Exchequer, Dublin, It was
enrolled in Michaelmas Term, 1587, at the request of John
Synnotte, of Wexford, Gent., and is to be found in the Eot.
Mem., 29 Eliz. Mem. 21. It is now published for the first time.
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 403
and Towne of Inchequine with the said six plowelandes
together with all and singuler the premisses with there
appurtenances, together with all my intereste and estate
therein vnto the right honorable Gerrot, Earle of Desmond,
nowe Inioyenge, the revercion of the premisses, To have,
holde, and Inioye the same vnto the said Earle, his heires
and assignes, as his proper inheritance, notwithstanding
any dower, ioynter, or any other estate I have or oughte
to have in the premisses or in any parte or parcelle of
them.
" In Witness whereof I have herevnto put my scale the
fift of Auguste a thousand five hundred seventye and five,
and in the sevnteuthe yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereigne
ladye Queene Elizabeth.
" Being presente at the KATHRIN DESMOND. (L.S.)
ensealinge and deliverie
hereof by the lady Ka-
therine within named, Witness hereof,
I. DESMONDE. MORISHE SHEGHAN.
THOMAS FFAUNYNGE, Thesaurer. DAVID ROCHE, Witness.
ELLENE SHEA."
Then follows a feoffment from Gerrald, Earl of Des-
mond, to Maurice Shoghan, his servant ; and David
lloche, gentleman, of the castle and town of Inchiquin,
bearing date 7th August, 1575, 17 Elizabeth, to the use
of John Synot, of Wexford, for thirty-one years; then to
the use of the Earl himself and the lady Eleanor, his
wife, and their heirs male, with remainder to the heirs
D D 2
404 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
male of James, late Earl of Desmond, father of Gerrot,
the now Earl, and after them to the right heirs of said
Gerrot.
Witnesses : Morishe Sheaghan, David Roche, and five
others.
John FitzGerald, of Camphire, gave livery and seizin,
by delivering of " a peece of earthe in the house of Inche-
quyne" to David Roche, in the presence of John Fitz-
Gerrate, Morishe M 'Gibbon, and several others.
What were the Earl of Desmond's motives in disseising
the old Countess we are left to conjecture. Cupidity,
when we think of his vast possessions, could not have in-
fluenced him. It is probable that, meditating at the time
an insurrection, he deemed it expedient to hold in his own
hands, or in the hands of his servants, every strong castle
of his district. And it was this very circumstance that
restored to the old Countess her castle and manor ; for,
after the Geraldine's wild attempt at revolt, and the attain-
der that followed, all conveyances of a subsequent date to
one, proving his rebellious intentions, were declared by
the English government to be null and void. Under this
head came the assignment of Inchiquin, which now returned
to the Lady Katherine. She was resident here, when,
3d February, 1585-6, a warrant of Privy Seal granted Sir
\Valter Raleigh three seigniories and a half of the forfeited
estates of the Earl of Desmond. These comprised 42,000
acres of land, extending from Lismore to the sea at
Youghal, and containing (with many others) the manor
and castle of Inchiquin. Raleigh visited the old Countess
and formed her personal acquaintance, as he tells us in
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 405
that surprising monument of his erudition, the " Historic
of the World:"*
" I myself knew the old Countess of Desmond, of
Inchiquin, in Munster, who lived in the year 1589, and
many years since, who was married in Edward the Fourth's
time, and held her joynture from all the Earls of Desmond
since then ; and that this is true all the noblemen and
gentlemen of Munster can witness."
Raleigh had special reasons for remembering the aged
Countess. There were charges for her life on the lands of
Inchiquin, and reservations to be made consequently in
the different leases he granted. I have had access to
some of these original demises, and am enabled to point
out this fact, hitherto unnoticed. Let me take, for in-
stance, the fine old parchment, signed and sealed with
Raleigh's own hand, that lies on my table. It bears an
endorsement :
"21 July, 1588. Colyclogfynnaye leased for a 100
years, commencing the 30th yeare Eliza, reigne."
The Indenture is made between " the honorable S r Wal-
ter Ralegh, knight, lord warden of her ma ties Stannaries
in y e Counties of Devon and Cornwall, and one of y e prin-
cipall undertakers with her ma tie for y e repeoplinge and
inhabitinge y e attainted and excheated lands in y e Counties
of Corke and Waterfourd in y e Province of Munster of
thone ptie. And John Clever, of London, gentleman, of
thother ptie." It conveys to the lessee, for a hundred
years, " all that ploughland comonly called or knowen by
* Book i. chapter v. section 5.
406 t VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the name of Coullie Clofinna, sett and beinge within the
Barroney of Inchequyn in y e Countie of Corke;" and,
when it sets forth the rental, makes allusion to the old
Countess of Desmond.
" Yeldinge and payinge therefore yearely during three of
y e said yeares (viz.) from thend of the yeare of our Lord
God w * 1 shalbe One thousand ffive hundered ffoure score
and nyne, and from and after the Decease of the Ladie
Cattelyn, old Countesse Dowager of Desmond, widdowe,
vntill thend of the year of our lord God w ch shalbe 1593,
vnto the said Sir Walter Ralegh, his heires or Assignes,
ffive pounds of good and lawfull money of England at two
feasts or tearmes of the yeare And also yeldinge
and paying therefore yearely vnto the said Walter Ralegh
his heires or Assignes duringe the residue of y e said
tearme begynnynge from and after y e decease of y e said
Countesse, and after thend of the said year of o r lord God
which shalbe 1593 the yearely rent of Tenne pounds of
lawfull money of England at the said two feasts of thAn-
nunciation of o r Ladie St. Mary the Virgine and St.
Michael Tharchanngell w ch of them shall first happen
after the death of the said Countesse, &c."
Raleigh here calls her " the Ladie Cattelyn," the raine,
doubtless, by which she was familiarly known among her
Irish followers, in whose expressive vernacular " Kauth-
ken " was the right rendering of " Katherine." A MS.
state paper of the year subsequent to the lease enumerates
among the forfeitures of the attainted Earl of Desmond :
" The castle and manor of Inchiquin, now in the hands
of Dame Katherine FitzJohn, late wyfe to Thomas, some
THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. 407
tyme Earl of Dessmond, for terme of lyef as for hir
dower."
In 1591, I find Sir Walter Raleigh, in a statement to
the Queen concerning the plantation (or, as it would now
be called, the colonization) of his Irish estates, describing
that all in the neighbourhood of Youghal had been let out
to English settlers, with a solitary exception :
" There remaynes unto me but an old castle and de-
mayne, which are yet in occupation of the old Countess of
Desmond for her jointure."
Fynes Moryson, in his curious " Itinerary," has a spe
cial notice of the Old Countess. His Tour in Ireland
commenced at Youghal, where he landed 9th Sept. 1613.
In the place where she had so long resided, and in the
immediate vicinage of which was her castle of Inchiquir,
he had ample means of acquiring information about her.
He describes her as
" being able to go on foote four or five miles to the
market towne [Youghal] , and using weekly so to doe in
her last yeeres."
Now, up to our own time, the country people around
Youghal made this weekly journey to their market town.
Those from Inchiquin and the adjoining sea-coast take
their route (as often as the tide permits) by the splendid
Strand, which, firm enough to bear carts and cattle as
well as pedestrians on its smooth sands, extends itself un-
broken for five miles. Each Saturday either a long caval-
cade or numerous detached groups may be seen at sunrise
proceeding to the town, and in the evening returning to
their homes, by the sands. Imagination may paint for us
408 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the venerable Countess wending her way after this manner.
"We may be sure that she is not alone. Some faithful
hearts accompany her; for the Irish clansmen, true as
steel, are duteous in their homage to their Lady. But
why "on foote?" Wherefore travels thus the Countess
of Desmond ? Alas ! poverty compels her. Her lands
have been seized by the English settlers. Her jointure is
paid no longer. Her remonstrances are set at nought ;
and if she mention "redress/' idle mocking ensues. But,
aged as she is, she possesses all the spirit of her race, and
fedress she will seek, even from royalty itself. It is now
the summer of 1604, and the Countess has doubled the
ordinary longevity of man, being in her 140th year, when
she determines to cross the Channel, and present herself a
suppliant before James I. Coasting vessels, then as now,
carried on a brisk trade between Youghal and the south-
western ports of England. In one of these she solicits a
passage, nor is it refused. The little bark clears the har-
bour, and spreads its canvas to a favouring breeze. Gra-
dually the Irish coast sinks and fades from sight, and, as
night falls, the voyagers are in mid-ocean. Day breaks,
and shows nothing but sky around them, on the right
hand and left; but, ere darkness comes again, a dim,
shadowy outline of land is visible in the east, and the
pale moon lights up, to their joy, the shores of Eng-
land. They are bound for Bristol. The vessel enters
King's Road, and in due time goes up the Avon.
The anchor is dropped, and the boat lowered for the
passengers. They are but two two aged females the
Countess of Desmond and her only child. The mother
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 409
stands again on English soil, and is to make her way to
the great capital ; but how altered in form and mien, as
well in worldly circumstance, from what she was when Sir
Thomas FitzGerald claimed her as his bride !
To London they are to go, and every mile of the journey
across England must be measured by those weary feet.
Her daughter's strength has totally failed her. A humble
wheeled vehicle is procured. It can hold but one ; but,
by its side, the mother will walk and watch her child.
Picture to yourself, kind reader, the wayfarers. How slow
must have been their progress ! How interminable the
way ! In the " Table Book" of Sidney, Earl of Leicester,
we have them brought before us to the life. Speaking of
the Countess of Desmond, he writes :
" This olde ladye . . . landing at Bristol, came on foot
to London, being then so olde that her daughter was de-
crepit, and not able to come with her, but was brought in
a little cart, their poverty not allowing better meanes."
That the pilgrims reached London in safety we are
assured, and, in the royal presence, the aged Countess
narrated her sufferings and obtained relief. In the great
metropolis, as may be supposed, her appearance created no
common sensation. Her portrait was at this time painted,
and it has come down to our own times. On the back is
the following inscription :
" Catherine, Countesse of Desmonde, as she appeared
at ye Courte of our Sovereigne Lord King James, in this
present year 1614 [1604 ?] and in ye 140th yeare of her
age. Thither she came from Bristol to seeke reliefe, ye
House of Desmond having been ruined by attainder. She
410 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
was married in ye reigne of King Edward IV., and in
ye course of her long pilgrimage renewed her teethe twice.
Her principal residence is at Inchequin in Muuster, whi-
ther she undauntedlye proposeth (her purpose accom-
plished) incontinentlie to return : LAVS DEO."
To her Irish home she came back, at last to find rest
the rest of the grave ! In this same year (1604) she died,*
under the singular circumstances set forth in the Earl of
Leicester's " Table Book."
"Shee might have lived much longer, had shee not
mett with a kind of violent death ; for shee must needs
climb a nutt-tree, to gather nutts, soe, falling down, she
hurt her thigh, which brought a fever, and that brought
death." f
Enquiry has been made for the burial-place of the Old
Countess. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we
may safely assume that her remains were laid with those
of her husband in the Youghal Franciscan Friary ; but a
search there for the tombs of the Geraldines is fruitless.
* In Sir George Carew's MS. Pedigrees of the Nobility
and Gentry of Ireland, now preserved at Lambeth, is the
descent of " the Lords of Decies " (626 and 635). To the old
Countess's name is appended this note " She died in anno
1604."
t All modern biographers of the Old Countess think it right
to introduce the drollery of Thomas Moore, who in his " Fudge-
Letters " thus uses her name :
" Older far than my grand-dam indeed, aye, as old
As that Countess of Desmond, of whom we are told
That she lived to much more than a hundred and ten,
And was killed by a fall from a cherry-tree then !
What a frisky old girl ! "
THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 411
Seven Earls of Desmond, besides numberless members of
families of lesser rank, were interred within its walls, but
not a vestige of their monuments exists. The religious
house itself is swept away. The cemetery is partly built
on and partly converted into gardens ; and the great dra-
matist's speculation as to the ultimate destiny of Caesar's
dust may find its parallel in that of the Geraldines. The
clown grows his cabbages out of the ashes of brave men
and gentle women belonging to one of the noblest lines of
Europe !
Of this wonderful woman many portraits exist, but the
authenticity of the majority is doubtful. At Dromana,
her birth-place, is a small picture painted on oak, repre-
senting a very aged lady, said to be the Countess. This
is probably genuine. The portrait taken in London, when
the old Countess presented herself at the Court of King
James, is now at Muckross, the lovely seat of Colonel
Herbert. It is on canvas, of an oval form, about three
feet long, and has a richly-carved frame. She is repre-
sented in the dress of her time, wearing on her head
a kind of hood, and on her neck a lace collar, while her
person is enveloped in a fur mantle laced in front. At
the Knight of Kerry's is a panel picture, which, being
attributed to the Countess, was engraved as such by Na-
thaniel Grogan, of Cork. A close examination, however,
has since revealed on the panel the name of the painter,
Gerard Douw, so that we must reject this picture alto-
gether. In the Standard Closet, Windsor, is a picture
likewise assigned to the Countess, and for this reason
engraved by Pennant in the quarto edition of his " Tour
412 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
in Scotland ;" but this is really Rembrandt's mother, as
written on the back of the painting. At Knowle is a
doubtful portrait. Lastly, at Chatsworth is a picture,
probably a likeness, because it is said to have been
brought into the Cavendish family on the marriage, 28th
March, 1748, of William, Marquis of Hartington, with
the Lady Charlotte Elizabeth, only child and heir of
Richard, fourth Earl of Cork and Burlington.
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD, 413
, (Earl 0f *f0rb.
Think you see
The very persons of our noble story,
As they were living ; think you see them great,
And followed with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends ; then in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery.
SHAKESPEABE.
" Oxford, Oxford, for Lancaster !'*
IBID.
ft THE noblest subject in England, and indeed, as English-
men loved to say, the noblest subject in Europe, was
Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last of the old Earls of
Oxford. He derived his title through an uninterrupted
male descent, from a time when the families of Howard
and Seymour were still obscure, when the Nevills and
Percies enjoyed only a provincial celebrity, and when even
the great name of Plantagenet had not yet been heard in
England. One chief of the house of De Vere had held
high command at Hastings ; another had marched, with
Godfrey and Tancred, over heaps of slaughtered Moslem,
to the sepulchre of Christ. The first Earl of Oxford had
been minister of Henry Beauclerc. The third Earl had
been conspicuous among the Lords who extorted the Great
414 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Charter from John. The seventh Earl had fought bravely
at Cressy and Poictiers. The thirteenth Earl had, through
many vicissitudes of fortune, been the chief of the party
of the Red Rose, and had led the van on the decisive day
of Bosworth. The seventeenth Earl had shone at the
Court of Elizabeth, and had won for himself an honour-
able place among the early masters of English poetry.
The nineteenth Earl had fallen in arms for the Protestant
religion, and for the liberties of Europe, under the walls of
Maestricht. His son, Aubrey, in whom closed the longest
and most illustrious line of nobles that England has seen,
a man of loose morals, but of inoffensive temper, and of
courtly manners, was Lord-Lieutenant of Essex and
Colonel of the Blues.-"
Such is Macaulay's glowing and eloquent eulogium on
the De Veres so eloquent indeed, that one regrets that
the panegyric is somewhat exaggerated, and scarcely con-
sistent with recorded fact. The line of the Earls of Ox-
ford was certainly the longest, but, as certainly, not the
most illustrious that England has seen. In personal
achievement and historical importance the De Veres can
bear no comparison with the Talbots, the Howards, the
Nevills, the Percys, or the Scropes ; in antiquity of descent,
the Courtenays, the De Bohuns, and the Beauchamps
were in all respects their equals, and in splendour of alli-
ances, many a less distinguished family far surpassed them.
There was scarcely one of our grand old houses of the
times of the Henrys and the Edwards that had not more
of royal blood. Nevertheless, I must freely admit, although
I cannot subscribe to the pre-eminence Macaulay assigns,
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 415
that this famous house, if inferior to any, was only so to
the very first, to the most historic and to the most illus-
trious of our ancient nobility.
It is a very difficult thing to understand the true great-
ness and the exact relative distinction of the nobles of this
country. Of the first thirty baronies on the Roll of the
Peerage, one-fifth are still enjoyed by the direct male
descendants of the original possessors ; Stourton, St. John
of Bletsoe, Petre, Arundell of "VVardour, Dormer, and
Byron ; that of North is now held by the direct female
descendant of the first Baron, but after her demise will
necessarily be inherited by her son, and thus brought
into another family ; all the rest are heirs general of the
original peers. Some of these barons far exceed many
Dukes in nobility and antiquity of lineage ; unlike the
French peerage, where the Dukes alone were formerly
peers, with us the maxim of the Lords, as regards the
several ranks in their noble house, is " Nobilitate pares,
quamvis gradu impares."
Following up our ducal houses in the male line, it will be
found that the period at which they first became ennobled
is often very different from what a superficial glance would
lead one to expect. The direct male ancestors of the
Duke of Newcastle were ennobled in 1299, and the
title (Clinton) they then possessed is still extant, though
it has since passed from the male into the female line.
His Grace of Newcastle stands in this respect at the head
of our ducal families; the first peerage obtained by the
Howards being in 1470, nearly two centuries after the
Clintons had sat as barons. Next to Newcastle comes the
416 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
Irish house of Leinster, whose earldom of Kildare bears
date from 1316; and then, the illustrious family of
Douglas, in Scotland, their chief, the Duke of Hamilton
and Brandon, being Earl of Angus under a creation of
1326. The Clintons obtained the earldom of Hunting-
don eleven years after that date ; but it was granted to
the youngest son of the first Baron Clinton, and conse-
quently not to a direct ancestor of the extant family, whom
alone I can count.
Argyle and Montrose,in Scotland, were first ennobled in
1445; Norfolk, as I have already mentioned, in 1470;
and Rutland first inherited the ancient barony of De Ros,
and Belvoir Castle and estates, in 1487. But though the
Howards are thus excelled in mere antiquity of nobility and
family, the rapidity with which they rose to the highest title
iu the realm, their representation of the illustrious W ar
rennes and Mowbrays, their inheritance of the Earl-Mar-
shalship from the Plantagenets, and eventually of the pre-
mier earldom of England from the Fitzalans ; and finally
the brilliant place which their rank, bravery, talents, and
great possessions have enabled them to fill ever since they
first took their seats among the mailed barons of Edward
IV., fairly entitle them to their universally acknowledged
rank as the first noble house of England. That this is the
public feeling everywhere was clearly shown at the
lamented demise of the Duke of Norfolk just dead.
His Grace was a man most amiable and most devoted to
the exercise of every private virtue, yet he shrank, despite
of his known abilities, from being politically conspicuous ;
nevertheless, his funeral knell struck on the ear of civilized
DE VERB, EARL OP OXFORD. 417
Europe with a sensation that did homage, not to the peer
only, hut to the greatness of his house. The most recently
ennobled of our ducal families is that of Roxburghe, Sir
James Innes-Norcliffe, of Innes, Bart., having inherited
that title in 1805, in right of the marriage of his ancestor,
Sir James Innes, Bart., in 1666, with Margaret, third and
youngest daught of Harry, Lord Ker, second son of
Robert, first Earl of Roxburghe.
The family of the Duke of Buckingham, the Grenvilles
of Wotton, inherited the earldom of Temple in 1752, on
the demise of the celebrated Hester, Countess Temple,
wife of Richard Grenville, of Wotton, Esq., M.P. Two
years previously, Sir Hugh Smithson of Stanwick, in
Yorkshire, Bart., had inherited the earldom and estates of
Northumberland, on the death of his father-in-law, Alger-
non, Duke of Somerset, son of Charles, sixth Duke of
Somerset, and of the Lady Elizabeth, only child of Josce-
line Percy, eleventh and last Earl of Northumberland.
And again, four years before this succession, that is, in
1746, Richard Colley Wesley, Esq., M.P., had been raised
to the peerage of Ireland, as Baron of Mornington ; hence
the brilliant house of Wellesley.
The family of the Duke of Sutherland was ennobled in
1702, and that of the Duke of Cleveland in 1699; the
favourite Beritinck was made Earl of Portland by Wil-
liam III., in 1689, and Sir Thomas Osborne, Bart., M.P.,
afterwards Duke of Leeds, was created Baron Osborne
and Viscount Larimer, in 1674. Contemporary with him
in elevation to the peerage, were the illegitimate infant
sons of Charles II., of whom St. Albans was ennobled in
2 E
418 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
1676, Richmond in 1675, and Grafton in 1672, whilst
the Dukes of Buccleuch are descended in the male line
from the celebrated Duke of Monmouth, ennobled in
1662. The first title enjoyed by the ancestors of the
Duke of Manchester was conferred in 1620, by those of
the Duke of Devonshire in 1605, and of the Duke of
Atholl in 1604. The Earls of Sunderland, who now hold
the Duchy of Marlborough, first sat as peers in 1603.
The first Earl of Bedford, the favourite of Henry VIII.,
was made a peer of Parliament by that monarch in 1539.
Three years previously, Henry had conferred the Viscounty
of Beauchamp upon the brother of his Queen, Jane Seymour
or St. Maur, as the name was anciently spelt, and as the
present Duke of Somerset uses it. Beaufort alone remains
to be fixed in date ; and we find that Charles Somerset,
illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,
marrying Elizabeth, only child and heiress of William,
Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Herbert, of Ragland, was sum-
moned to Parliament in that barony, "jure uxoris," in
1501, and three years afterwards created Earl of Worces-
ter, the progenitor of a brave and loyal race.
It would be interesting to make, among all the ranks
of the peerage, an examination similar to that I have ven-
tured to introduce here with reference to the Dukes only ;
but I have almost lost sight of my subject, the De
Veres, in this long digression. If that illustrious race
still endured, the date of their title of honour would
far transcend any Earldom or Dukedom in the existing
peerage.
Macaulay is not the only writer who, captivated by the
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 419
romance and chivalry of the race, has fallen into hyper-
bole, in describing the De Veres. Old Leland, in his
enthusiasm, deduces their pedigree from Noah ; and
another learned antiquary claims for De Vere of England
the highest place on the roll of European genealogy. Sir
Walter Scott has made the name of De Vere familiar to
us in his beautiful, and chivalrous romance of " Anne of
Geierstein."
Resting, however, on authentic evidence, I will begin
with ALBERIC DE VERE, the lord of vast estates and many
manors, (Kensington, in Middlesex, and Hedingham, in
Essex, amon'gst the rest,) at the time of the Doomsday
Survey. Great though his possessions were, and brilliant
his worldly position, he abandoned all for conscience sake,
and devoting himself to God, assumed the cowl, and died a
monk in Colne Priory : " Vero nihil verius." To his son,
another Alberic de Vere, Henry I., who held him high
in favour, granted the office of Lord Great Chamberlain
of England " to him and his heirs for ever ;" and this
important dignity is now enjoyed, conjointly, by his de-
scendants Lord Willoughby de Eresby and the Marquess
Cholmondeley, who derive their right to it from a memo-
rable and extraordinary decision of the time of Charles I.,
to which I shall by and bye refer.
The first Earl of the de Veres was Alberic's son, Aubrey,
who, for his fidelity to the Empress Maud, was granted
the Earldom of Cambridge, " provided that that dignity
was not vested in the King of Scotland." But if it were,
Aubrey was then to have his choice of the Earldoms of
Oxford, Berkshire, AViltshire, or Dorsetshire. The even-
is E 2
420 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
tual selection was Oxford, and in that title, bearing date
1135, he was confirmed by Henry II. Thus originated
the possession of this celebrated honour, which, through
a long series of generations and a course of much vicissi-
tude, endured in the same family for a period of five hun-
dred and sixty seven years. The son of the first Earl of
Oxford was the Baron of Magna Charta, and his great-
great grandson, John de Vere, seventh Earl, the gallant
soldier who fought at Cressy, and had a command at
Poictiers. " At one time," narrates Dugdale, " about the
feast of the Blessed Virgin, this Earl, returning out of
Brittany, was by tempest cast upon the coast of Con-
naught in Ireland, where he and all his companions suf-
fered much misery from those barbarous people there,
who pillaged them of all they had."
This chivalrous warrior lost his life before the walls of
Rheims, where the English army was encamped, on the
14th January, 1306. The landed estate he left, was al-
most fabulous in extent, stretching over the counties of
Hereford, Bedford, Leicester, Essex, Buckingham, Hert-
ford, Dorset, Wilts, Suffolk, and Cambridge. This vast
inheritance devolved, in due course, on his grandson,
ROBERT DE VERB, ninth Earl of Oxford, the favourite of
Richard II. His career is a striking example of the ca-
price of fortune. A morning all sunshine was followed
by a noontide of the deepest obscurity. So honoured at
the onset was the potent noble, that the King instituted a
new Order in the Peerage, and conferred upon him the
first Marquessate ever known in England the Marquess-
ate of Dublin. The dignity, too, was no empty honour :
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 421
to it was annexed a grant of the land and dominion of
Ireland, " and, in addition, a transfer of all profits, reve-
nues, and regalities, as amply as the King himself ought
to enjoy the same." This even was not the extent of the
power and rank to be assigned to Vere; for in the
very next year he received a still more brilliant title
that of Duke of Ireland. But this was the culminating
point of his worldly prosperity.
The second act in the drama of his life offered a dark
contrast to the first. His wondrous advancement, and
the imperious haughtiness with which he bore his eleva-
tion, excited the jealousy and hostility of the nobles, and a
confederation was formed against him, under the leader-
ship of the Duke of Gloucester, which coerced the King to
dismiss his favourite. De Vere fled from London, and
soon after effected his escape in disguise to the Continent,
accompanied by Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. He
returned subsequently to England, and, marching into
Oxfordshire at the head of four or five thousand men, was
met at Radcote Bridge, on the river Isis, and totally de-
feated by Gloucester and Henry of Bolingbroke. The
Royal army was completely surrounded, and the Duke
himself was placed in so critical a position that he could
secure personal safety only by throwing away his sword,
gauntlet, and armour, and swimming across the stream.
Many and harassing were the difficulties he had to over-
come before he succeeded in reaching the coast, and ob-
taining a passage in a fishing boat across the channel to
Flanders. Meanwhile, in the parliament convened in the
year 1388, he was sentenced to banishment and attainted,
422 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
and all his vast property confiscated. In Flanders the
great and mighty Duke of Ireland suffered the extreme
of misery and want. One of the companions of his
exile, the Archbishop of York, closed his life as a simple
parish priest in a small village in the Low Countries.
De Vere never again saw England. Reduced to poverty
and deep distress, he dragged on a miserable existence
for a few years, and was at last gored by a wild boar
in a hunt, and died of the wound, at Lovaine, in the
year 1392. Truly might this fallen man exclaim with
Severus " I have been all things, and all was of little
value." Lordships of enormous extent honours, the
highest of the land power and fortune all had been his.
No subject in Europe had rivalled him in greatness, and
yet, within a brief while, he had scarcely wherewithal to
provide for his daily wants. When the news of the Duke's
death reached England, King Richard caused his body to
be brought over, had the coffin opened, that he might
once again see the features of the friend he had loved so
well, and attended the corpse himself, in grand procession,
to its interment at Earl's Colne, in Essex. The Duke of
Ireland had married twice. His first wife, the Lady Phi-
lippa de Coucy, though of royal blood, being grand-
daughter of Edward III., he repudiated, that he might
marry one of the maids of honour of Anne of Bohemia,
a Portuguese girl named Lancerona, stated by some
accounts to have been a joiner's daughter, but by others
styled " the Landgravine." This lady was the companion of
his banishment and adversity; and there may yet be seen
at Earl's Colne, among the De Vere memorials, the tomb
DE VERB, EARL OP OXFORD. 423
and effigy of Lancerona, Duchess of Ireland, conspicuous
for the quaint head-dress of "piked horns" introduced by
Anne of Bohemia. "There were great murmurings
against the Duke of Ireland," says Froissart ; " but what
injured him most was his conduct to his Duchess, the
Lady Philippa, daughter of the Lord de Coucy, a hand-
some and noble lady ; for the Duke was greatly enamoured
with one of the Queen's damsels, called the landgravine.
She was a tolerably handsome, pleasant lady, whom Queen
Anne had brought with her from Bohemia. The Duke of
Ireland loved her with such ardour that he was desirous of
making her, if possible, his Duchess by marriage. All
the good people of England were much shocked at this ;
for his lawful wife was granddaughter to the gallant King
Edward and the excellent Queen Philippa, being the
daughter of the Princess Isabella. Her uncles, the Dukes
of Gloucester and York, were very wroth at this insult."
Miss Strickland ^ comments in a similar strain to Frois-
sart. "The first and last error of Anne of Bohemia,"
says the gifted historian of the Queens of England, " was
the participation in this disgraceful transaction, by which
she was degraded in the eyes of subjects who had mani-
fested great esteem for her meek virtues. The offensive
part taken by the Queen in this transaction was, that she
actually wrote with her own hand an urgent letter to
Pope Urban, persuading him to sanction the divorce of
the Countess of Oxford, and to authorize the marriage of
her faithless lord with the landgravine. "Whether the
maid of honour were a princess or a peasant, she had
no right to appropriate another woman's husband. Th?
424 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Queen was scarcely less culpable in aiding and abetting
so nefarious a measure, to the infinite injury of herself
and of the consort she so tenderly loved. There was
scarcely an Earl in England who was not related to the
Royal family. The Queen, by the part she took in this
disgraceful affair, offended every one allied to the royal
house of Plantagenet ; moreover, the lady whose divorce
was attempted was nearly allied to the house of Austria."
With Robert, first and only Duke of Ireland, and ninth
Earl of Oxford, expired the first line of the De Veres ; and
thus the brilliant sun that had shone so prosperously and
so brightly on the race for three centuries set in unprece-
dented gloom.
The second series of Earls of Oxford, who sprang from
the Duke's uncle, Aubrey de Vere, encountered vicissi-
tudes of almost parallel severity. Stanch Lancastrians,
they adhered with unswerving loyalty to the Red Rose ;
and the consequences were exile and death. After the
battle of Towton, which for the time ruined the Lancas-
trian party, and put Edward IV. on the throne, John de
Vere, twelfth Earl of Oxford, and his eldest son, Aubrey,
were detected in a correspondence with Queen Margaret,
were tried by martial law before the Constable, and were
convicted in an arbitrary manner: they were both
beheaded the same day on Tower Hill in 1461. But
their deaths were not left unrevenged. The twelfth Earl's
second son, John, the thirteenth Earl, soon proved himself
a great man, and a fatal foe to the house of York. He
was indeed a lion of the Lancastrian cause. Three years
after his father's death, a temporary triumph of the house
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 425
of Lancaster, which he aided to bring about, restored him '
to his family honours. At Barnet he fought with his
usual sagacity and daring by the side of his brother-in-law
the King-making Warwick, but all to no avail. The Lan-
castrianleadersbecameoutcastsagain. Lingard, with graphic
veracity, thus tells of what befel De Vere. " Vere Earl
of Oxford," writes Dr. Lingard, "had escaped into Scotland,
and thence into France; but disdaining a life of indo-
lence, he collected a small squadron of twelve sail, swept
the narrow seas, kept the maritime counties in perpetual
alarm, and by frequent capture enriched himself and his
followers. With about four hundred men, he surprized
the strong fortress of Mount St. Michael in Cornwall,
whence he made repeated inroads into the neighbouring
counties, receiving supplies from the friends of the house of
Lancaster, and wreaking his vengeance on those of the house
of York. By Edward's command, Sir Henry Bodrugan
besieged the Mount ; but his fidelity was suspected, and
he was superseded by Richard Fortescue, Sheriff of Corn-
wall. The new commander had been a Lancastrian and
a friend: he had recourse to promises and persuasion;
and the Earl, apprehensive of the treachery of his own
men, surrendered the place on condition that his life, and
the lives of his followers should be spared, with the ex-
ception of the Lord Beaumont and Sir Richard Lauraarth.
During eleven years he was confined a close prisoner in
the castle of Ham, in Picardy; while his Countess,
the sister to the great Warwick, was compelled to support
herself by the profits of her needle and the secret
presents of her friends. He escaped from Ham
426 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
with the connivance of the Governor, who had been
bribed by the Earl of Richmond; and we shall meet
with him again fighting victoriously for the house of
Lancaster." Strange indeed was it that that escape from
Ham should, like the famous escape in our own days, be
the prelude to a change of dynasty. De Vere was by
the side of Richmond when he landed at Milford Haven,
and he led the archer vanguard of the invading army.
Shakespeare makes him, while marching to Tamworth,
thus denounce King Richard :
" Every man's conscience is a thousand swords
To fight against that bloody homicide."
De Vere's prowess as commander of the vanguard told
with terrible effect at Bosworth, and in that battle he had
.at last the satisfaction of seeing the Yorkists finally
overthrown and utterly undone. The accession of Henry
to the throne brought honours and rewards to De Vere,
and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain was eventually
restored to him. The Earl was esteemed a gallant and
learned man, and had a high character for splendid
hospitality. On one occasion that hospitality was ill
requited. The story is thus told : " Henry VII., visit,
ing the Earl's castle of Hedingham, was there sumptu-
ously received by the princely noble ; and at his de-
parture, his lordship's livery servants, ranged on both
sides, made an avenue for the king : which attracting
his highness's attention, he called out to the earl,
and said, ' My lord, I have heard much of your hos-
pitality ; but I see it is greater than the speech. These
handsome gentlemen and yeomen, which I see on both
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 427
sides of me, are surely your menial servants/ The earl
smiled and said, ' It may please your grace, they were not
for mine ease : they are most of them my retainers, that
are come to do me service at such a time as this ; and
chiefly to see your grace/ The king started a little, and
rejoined, ' By my faith, my lord, I thank you for my good
cheer, but I may not endure to have my laws broken in
my sight ; my attorney must speak with you/ It is
added, that this affair cost his lordship eventually no less
than fifteen thousand marks, in the shape of compromise."
Yet it is but fair to the memory of Henry VII. to give
the following explanation from Hume of this transaction :
"There scarcely," writes Hume, "passed any sessions
during this reign without some statute against engaging
retainers, and giving them badges or liveries ; a practice
by which they were in a manner enlisted under some great
lord, and were kept in readiness to assist him in all wars,
insurrections, riots, violences, and even in bearing evidence
for him in courts of justice. This disorder, which had
prevailed during many reigns, when the law could give
little protection to the subject, was then deeply rooted in
England ; and it required all the vigilance and rigour of
Henry to extirpate it. The story of his severity against
De Vere for this abuse seems to merit praise, though
it is commonly cited as an instance of his avarice and
rapacity."
The reader of romance will not fail to recall Scott's tale
of "Anne of Geierstein," in which this Earl of Oxford,
under the disguise of John Philipson, acts so conspicuous
a part. It should, however, be observed that the son of
428 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
Philipson, Arthur de Vere (Arthur is not even a De Vere
Christian name), who weds Anne of Geiersteiu, is a pure
creation of Sir Walter Scott's brain. John de Vere, thir-
teenth Earl of Oxford, had no issue besides a son, John,
who died young, a prisoner in the Tower, actually during
the very exile of his father; and the Earl was succeeded
by his nephew, John de Vere, fourteenth Earl of Oxford,
commonly called " Little John of Campes," from his dimi-
nutive stature and his constant residence at Castle Campes,
Cambridgeshire. The death of John of Campes without
issue, in 1526, terminated the second branch of the Earls
of Oxford. A cousin, John de Vere, succeeded him as
fifteenth Earl of Oxford.
Passing over the fifteenth Earl and his successor, I come
to his grandson, Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of
Oxford, the soldier and poet, so renowned at the brilliant
court of Elizabeth. He it was who first introduced per-
fumes and embroidered gloves into England. The first
pair of the latter he, in duty bound, presented to his
Royal Mistress ; and her Majesty was so charmed with
the gift, that she had her picture painted with these very
gloves on. But Oxford was not merely a courtier and a
coxcomb. He had a command in the fleet equipped to
oppose the Armada, in 1588. His lordship was one of
the wits of the period in which he lived, and was distin-
guished alike by his patriotism and chivalrous spirit. In
the tournaments of Elizabeth's reign the Earl of Oxford
was pre-eminently conspicuous, and upon two occasions he
was honoured with a prize from her Majesty's own hand,
being conducted, armed, by two ladies, into the presence
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 429
chamber for the purpose of receiving the high reward.
Walpole considers him the best writer of comedy of his
day ; and, in proof of his military capacity, a command
against the Armada was assigned him. He lived to be a
very old man, arid died in 1604, full of years and of his
country's esteem. Almost contemporaneously with her,
flourished his kinsmen, the famous brothers Sir Francis and
Sir Horatio Vere, both of whom added lustre to the glo-
rious name they inherited, and both of whom lie interred in
Westminster Abbey. "They lived in war much honoured,
and died in peace much lamented."
The seventeenth Earl of Oxford appears to have dis-
sipated the noble inheritance of his family. Morant, in
his History of Essex, refers to the circumstance, and says
the Earl did it to spite his father-in-law, Lord Burleigh.
At all events, in a very short time after, the house of De
Vere is found to be no longer in possession of the terri-
torial position it had so long held, and Robert, the nine-
teenth Earl, seems to have lived in early life in a poor
condition, and some obscurity, and not to have anticipated
the "vicissitude of inheriting" the Earldom of Oxford;
for Sir Symond D'Ewes, in his Autobiography lately
published from the MS. Diary in the British Museum,
says :
" Jan. 17th, 166.2. I visited Sir Robert Cotton, when we
conferred together touching the settling of Robert de Vere,
son of Hugh, son of Aubrey, the second son of John, the
fifteenth Earl of Oxford, with the title of that earldom. This
was on the failure of the direct line with Henry, eighteenth
Earl, when the Lord Willoughby de Eresby, to all men's
430 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
wonder, claimed, in right of his mother, both the earldom
and the Lord Great-Chamberlainship. Sir Robert Cotton
and myself, therefore, pitying the mean condition of the
said Robert de Vere, the true and rightful heir, who had
scarce any means to live on but a Captain's place under the
United Provinces, and seeing that Lord "Willoughby
thought that by his power and wealth to carry it against
him, we both joined our best skill and searches together
to assist and uphold the said Robert de Vere's just and
undoubted title to the said earldom, which, in the issue,
by the judgment of the whole Upper House, was settled
upon him, though he most unfortunately lost the place of
Great- Chamberlain of England, which Lord Willoughby
obtained. I gained two men's acquaintance by the labour
I bestowed on this business, which afforded me exceeding
great satisfaction ; to wit, Horace Lord Vere, of Tilbury,
and Sir Albertus Joachimi, Ambassador from the Nether-
lands. I believe they both went over to the Netherlands,
and brought Robert de Vere to England with them."
One would almost suppose from this statement, that
had it not been for the interest taken by Sir S. D'Ewes
and Sir Robert Cotton in his case, Robert de Vere, the
poor soldier, might have lived and died in his "mean
condition," instead of succeeding to the oldest earldom in
England, for he fell only a few years afterwards, at the
siege of Maestricht.
One more link, and the chain of descent is completed :
Aubrey de Vere, the only son of this gallant Earl who fell
at Maestricht, was a degenerate scion of a most illustrious
race : the representative of Alberic, the Norman, the direct
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 431
heir of the unbending Baron of Magna Charta,the twentieth
Earl of Oxford, in the unbroken male line ; he lived to
see the ruin of his house, and died (according to popular
belief) its last male descendant.
Horace Walpole records the final decadence of the De
Veres : these are his words :
" I v/as carried to see the last remains of the glory of
old Aubrey De Veres, Earls of Oxford : they were once
masters of almost this entire county [of Essex], but quite
reduced, even before the extinction of their house. The
last Earl's son died at a miserable cottage that I was
shown at a distance. Hedingham Castle, where Henry
VII. was so sumptuously banquetted, and imposed that
villanous fine, for his entertainment, is now shrunk to one
vast, curious tower, that stands on a spacious mount
raised on a high hill with a large foss."
So ended De Vere, and this (to borrow from the language
of Sir Walter Scott) was the last scion of the noble stem,
so many fair boughs of which have fallen in many a
royal and a hapless cause. Of the De Veres it may be
well said, that whatever dangers their duty and fealty
called them to, were it from sword or lance, axe or gibbet,
to these they exposed themselves frankly, when their
doing so could mark their allegiance.
This is, indeed, but a hasty glance at the fame, the
achievements, and the sufferings of these mighty De Veres ;
but to enter minutely into their history, would require
more space than I can command, and might not be con-
sidered necessary for the purposes of this work.
In a former page, I have alluded to the litigation of
432
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
the time of Charles I. for the De Vere succession. The
contest arose between Robert Vere and .Robert Lord Wil-
loughby de Eresby, for the Earldom of Oxford, as well as
for the office of Hereditary Great- Chamberlain ; and the
question was, whether the heir male, or a more immediate
heir-general, should inherit the honours and dignities of
the house of De Vere. Another question, however, was
involved, with reference to full and half- blood; for, al-
though Robert Vere was the undoubted heir-male, Lord
Willoughby was certainly not, according to our present
ideas, heir-general to the deceased eighteenth Earl of
Oxford, at whose death the controversy occurred ; and he
could only be reckoned as heir- general from the strange
and erroneous notion of the importance of FULL blood,
which obtained in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The descent of the claimants, set forth in the following
tabular pedigree, will aid the reader :
JOHN DE VERE, 15th Earl of Oxford.
1. Lady Dorothy John. 16th Karl of=j=2. Marearet
Aubrev
Neville. 1 Oxford, d. 4 Eli- Goldins.
de Vere.
1 zabeth.
*&
1
Catherine,
1. Hon. =FEd\v.. 17th=
=2. Eliza-
I
Mary, wife |
wife of Ed-
Anne Cecil.
Earl, d. 2
beth Tren-
of Pere-
Hugh
ward, Lord
James 1.
tham.
erine,10th
de Vere.
Windsor.
Lord Wil-
, 1
1
1
loughby
Elizabeth,
Bridget,
Susan, wife
ITennr,
de Eresby.
wife of Wm.
wife of
of Philip,
18th Earl,
T=
Robert
Earl of
Francis,
Earl of
d. 1627,
de Vere,
Derby.
Lord Ncr-
Montgo-
s.p.
Robert,
male
=T=
ris^=
mery.^
llth Lord
heir,
!
I
I
Willough-
claimed
The Duke
The Earl of
The Earb
hydeEres-
the earl-
of Athole,
Abingdon.
of Pem-
bv. claim-
dom as
&c. &c.
brok-; and
ant as heir
19th
Carnarvon.
general,
Earl, d.
full blood.
1632.
DE VERB. EARL OP OXFORD. 433
Adverting to this table, it is evident that, according to
our notions of heirship in a question between Robert De
Vere the heir male, and the heir general of the DeVeres.
ihe latter would not have been Robert, Lord Willoughby,
He would have come the very last in the list, instead of
having been put first. He, as the son of the full sister of
Edward, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, was preferred as heir
general to the daughters of Edward, seventeenth Earl of
Oxford ; and why ? Because, forsooth, he was the son of
the full sister of the father of Henry, eighteenth Earl, the
last holder of the title; and the three daughters of his
i'ather, the seventeenth Earl, were by a different mother, and
thus only his (Henry's) sisters by the half blood. An aunt in
full blood was thus regarded as the heir general, and repre-
sentative of the family in the female line, rather than sisters
by the half blood. Let us go back to the common ancestor
of all the parties, viz., John De Vere, fifteenth Earl of Oxford.
His heir male was of course (on the death of the eighteenth
Earl) Robert de Vere. Who was his heir general ? Accord-
ing to our notions, his heirs general would be the Duke of
Athole, the Earl of Abingdon, and the Earl of Pembroke,
as the representatives of the three daughters of his grand-
son, the seventeenth Earl, the Ladies Derby, Norris, and
Montgomery. Next to them would come the Earl of
Plymouth, as representative of the Lady Windsor, the
eldest daughter of his son the sixteenth Earl ; and then
last of all would come Lord Willoughby and the house
of Ancaster as representative of Lady Willoughby, the
second daughter of this sixteenth Earl. But, accord-
ing to the false estimate of the superior claim possessed
2 F P
43 i VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
by him who was the nearest relation by full blood to the
last holder of the title, Lord Willoughby, though rightly
the last in the line of heirs general, was reckoned the
first ; and although Robert de Vere succeeded in establish-
ing his claim to the earldom, and became nineteenth
Earl of Oxford, Lord Willoughby obtained the dignified
office of Great Chamberlain of England, which was held
by his descendants the Dukes of Ancaster ; and is now
shared between his heirs general, Lord Willoughby de
Eresby and the Marquess Cholmondeley. If the office
of Great Chamberlain be one that should go in the female
line, it ought, according to my view, he now held of right
by the heir of line of the original Earls of Oxford.
When the last Duke of Ancaster died in 1779, the
Duchess of Athole claimed the office of Great Chamberlain,
as being the representative of Elizabeth, Countess of Derby,
eldest daughter of Edward, seventeenth Earl of Oxford;
and I have heard that the fourth Duke thought of renew-
ing the claim, but nothing was done in the matter.
Bat, in fact, if, as appears most positively to have been
the case, the office of Great Chamberlain was one that
went in the female line, not one of the descendants of
John, fifteenth Earl, had any right to it. It ought to
have left the De Vere family on the death of John,
fourteenth Earl, who died s. p. in the reign of Henry
VIII., and should now, I apprehend, be vested in the re-
presentative of his Lordship's sister, Dorothy, wife of John
Neville, Lord Latimer.
Pew peerage claims attracted more attention than this
of De Vere ; and, independently of the deep interest which
DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 435
a contest for the proudest title in England must at all times
create, there has been handed down in the law books the
brilliant summing up of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir
Randolph Crew, one of the judges whose advice the
House of Peers sought for their guidance, and one it
should be observed who did honour to the ermine, for he
surrendered his office sooner than countenance those royal
but illegal loans which were the forerunners of ship-money.
Sir Randolph was as eloquent as he was upright, in his
thrilling address, in the Earl of Oxford's case. This
most eloquent address will fitly conclude my story of the
decadence of De Vere :
" This great and weighty cause," (these are the Chief
Justice's words,) " incomparable to any other that hath
happened at any time, requires great deliberation, and solid
and mature judgment to determine it ; and I wish that all
the judges of England had L heard it (it being a fit case for
all), to the end we all together might have given our
humble advice to your Lordships herein. Here is repre-
sented to your Lordships certamen honoris, and, as I may
well say, illustris honoris, illustrious honour. I heard a
great peer of this realm, and a learned, say, when he lived
there was no king in Christendom had such a subject as
Oxford. He came in with the Conqueror, Earl of Guynes ;
shortly after the Conquest, made Great Chamberlain of
England above five hundred years ago, by Henry I., the
Conqueror's son, brother to Rufus; by Maud, the Em-
press, Earl of Oxford ; confirmed and approved by Henry
II., Alberico comiti, so Earl before. This great honour,
this high and noble dignity hath continued ever since in
436 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES.
the remarkable surname of De Vere, by so many ages,
descents and generations, as no other kingdom can pro-
duce such a peer in one and the self-same name and title. I
find in all this length of time but two attainders of this
noble family, and those in stormy and tempestuous times,
when the government was unsettled, and the kingdom in
competition. I have laboured to make a covenant with
myself that affection may not press upon judgment ; for
I suppose there is no man that hath any apprehension of
gentry or nobleness, but his affection stands to the con-
tinuance of so noble a name and house, and would take
hold of a twig or a twine thread to uphold it. And yet,
Time hath his revolutions ; there must be a period and an
end to all things temporal finis rerum an end of names
and dignities and whatsoever is terrene, and why not of
De Vere ? For where is Bohun ? Where is Mowbray ?
Where is Mortimer ? Nay, which is more and most of all,
where is Plantagenet ? They are entombed in the urns
and sepulchres of mortality ! And yet let the name
and dignity of De Vere stand so long as it pleaseth
God."
THE END.
BILLING, PRIMTEB AXD STEBEOTYPXS, OUILDKOUD, SUI'.GEY.
SIR BERNARD^BURKE'S WORKS.
I.
In one volume, price 12s. 6c?.,
THE FIRST SERIES
OF
VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES,
AND OTHER ESSAYS.
BY SIR BERNARD BURKE,
Ulster IXmg of 'arms,
AUTHOR OF " THE PEERAGE AND BAHONETAGE."
FIFTH EDITION.
" SIB BERNARD BtrBKE has produced from his repertory a variety of
examples which are most entertaining. He narrates the vicissitudes of
the Royal Stuarts, and the House of Albany, the fortunes of the O'Neills
and the Greraldines, and of many other historic lines who are memorable
either for their greatness or misfortunes Hosts of Stories crowd
upon us in these interesting pages." TIMES.
" ' ULSTER' has here given us an agreeable book on one of the most
interesting branches of genealogy. Our novelists hardly dream of the
material for fiction which lies buried in county and family histories
books which, except in rare instances, are hopelessly unreadable. SIB
BERNARD BURKE, in tliis instance, comes as a ' medium' between that
world and the ordinary reading public, and takes advantage of his posi-
tion with taste and skill." ATHEN-EUM.
" Nothing more romantic than these true stories can be found in the
whole range of fiction." LEADER.
' What an interesting social history of our country might be com-
posed (call it the Genealogical History of England) from the mere
details of the rise and fall of the various families which have, one after
another, occupied prominent places as lords of the soil in merry Eng-
land. If the task could be accomplished, SIR BERNARD BURKE is un-
questionably the man to do it. And we should not like his work the
less because he would bring to it something of the pedantry of a herald,
and something of the garrulity of a gossip, as well as the accuracy and
research which modern requirements exact from an historian." JOHN
BULL.
" A fund of amusement for a long day." DAILY NEWS.
" The contents of these pages, as supplying various links in the great
chain of English family history, are well worth the careful perusal of
grave students ; and novel readers will here meet with tales as wild aa
were ever imagined in fiction tales which, alas ! are only too true."
THE CRITIC.
" This very interesting work may almost be said to form a sequel to
the well-known ' Eomance of the Aristocracy,' by the same author. In
reading it we are at a loss whether to admire the patient industry
evinced in the collection of the materials, or the exquisite skill shown
in weaving them into a deeply interesting, and at the same time most
instructive narrative." DUBLIN EVENING POST.
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS,
PATEBNOSTEU BOW, LONDON.
SIR BERNARD BURKE^S WORKS.
II.
In one volume, price 38s.,
A GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC DICTIONARY OF
THE PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE.
" The best genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the Peerage and
Baronetage, and the first authority on all questions affecting the Aris-
tocracy." GLOBE.
HABBISON, (Bookseller to the Queen.) 59, PALL MALL.
in.
In one volume, complete, price 2 7*. 6d.,
A GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC HISTORY OF
THE LANDED GENTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND.
" The untitled aristocracy have in this great work as perfect a Dic-
tionary of their genealogical history, family connexion, and heraldic
rights, as the Peerage and Baronetage. It will be an enduring and
trustworthy record." MOENING POST.
HAEE1SON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL.
In two volumes, bound in crimson, price 2 2s. ,
A VISITATION OF THE SEATS OF GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND.
SUustratefc brith tte of <Seats an& Coats of &rms.
IIAEBISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL.
* # * A very few Copies of this Work remain.
T.
In one volume, bound in crimson cloth, price 1 1*.,
ROYAL DESCENTS AND PEDIGREES OF
FOUNDERS' KIN.
IIAEEISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL.
' . vi.
In one volume, bound in crimson cloth, price 1 10*.,
A SELECTION OF ARMS AUTHORIZED BY THE
LAWS OF HERALDRY.
SHtth numerous engrafamgs of &rnts antr iJSefcigretg.
HAEEISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL.
A 000034846 6