Ex LIBRIS 
 IRENE DWEN ANDREWS
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES.
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Series* 
 
 SIR BERNARD BURKE, LL.D., 
 
 El 1st Ittng of "Stms, 
 
 AUTHOE OP " THE PEEEAGE AND BABONBTAQE," " THE LAKDED 
 GENTET," ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND EGBERTS 
 1863.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PA OB 
 
 INTRODUCTION , vii 
 
 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS .... 1 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF PEERAGE TITLES : 
 
 DUKEDOMS OP CLARENCE CAMBRIDGE GLOU- 
 CESTER YORK AND KENT: EARLDOMS OF WAR- 
 WICK SALISBURY SHREWSBURY AND DERBY : 
 THE STORY OF THE COHEIRS OP DUDLEY : PEER- 
 AGE CLAIMS : B ANBURY DEVON HUNTINGDON 
 AND WILLOUGHBY OP PARHAM : ATTAINDER: 
 IRISH TITLES : KILDARE ORMONDE DESMOND 
 WATERFORD ROCHE OP FERMOY BALTINGLASS 
 ESMONDE TYRCONNEL TALBOT OF MALAHIDE 
 SCOTCH PEERAGES: CRAWFURD BREADALBANE 
 MAR DOUGLAS THE STORY OP THE GREAT 
 DOUGLAS CAUSE : RESIGNATION OF PATENTS : 
 QUEENSBERRY SINCLAIR CAITHNESS : NEW- 
 BURGH : CARDINAL ERSKINE .... 25 
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY 70 
 
 STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE .... 89 
 
 THE DE LA POLES 107 
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE .... 129 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND .... 181 
 THE TRAGEDY OF COR8TORPHINJZ .... 202 
 RISE OF THE 8TRUTTS OF BELPER .... 213 
 
 2055980
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PARKYNS FAMILY 231 
 
 FATE OP THE EAELS MARISCHAL .... 230 
 
 SELF-RELIANCE 246 
 
 THE FATE OP SEAFORTH 266 
 
 AN ENGLISH FLOWER TRANSPLANTED TO ITALIAN SOIL 282 
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER 288 
 
 THE HEIR OF DE LA PRE . . . . . 300 
 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES : 
 
 THE FAIR MAID OP KENT ELIZABETH OF YORK 
 AND MARGARET OF CLARENCE: THE STORY OF 
 THE COHEIR OF THE COUNTESS OF KENT, AND THE 
 STORY OF ROGER STAFFORD, THE GREAT-GRAND- 
 SON OF THE LAST OF THE PLANTAGENETS . 307 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND . . 330 
 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES .... 355 
 A TALE OF A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN . . . 373 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT .... 387 
 THE OGLANDEF:S OF NUSWELL .... 416 
 SUFFOLK VICISSITUDES : 
 
 ASHFIELD AND D'EWES, OF STOWLANGTOFT TEND- 
 
 RING OF TENDRING MANNOCK TIMPERLEY 
 
 UEVENINGHAM HOVEL WINGFIELD NAUNTON 
 
 HUNTINGFIELD ROKEWODE CORNWALLI3 
 
 WENTWORTH OF NETTLESTEAD (THE STORY OF 
 VISCOUNT OCKUAM) MOORE OF KENTTVELL (THE 
 STORY OF THE LAST INHERITOR) DE TJFFORD 
 DE LA POLE A>'D BRANDON .... 427 
 
 .... . 441
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ENDOWMENT OF HEREDITARY RANK VICISSITUDES OF 
 TITLES LONG CONTINUANCE IN THE MALE LINE or 
 IRISH AND SCOTCH PEERAGES DUKEDOM OP MONTROSE 
 RAPID EXTINCTION OP EUGLISH HONOURS EXILED 
 FAMILIES.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Nihil est aptius ad delectationem lectoris, quam temporum 
 varietates, fortunseque vicissitudines." CICEBO, 3. de Oral. 
 
 THE favour with which the two former Series of my 
 " VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES" have been received, and the 
 consequent desire I feel to render the Work as perfect as 
 my resources and researches will allow, induce me to add 
 a third and concluding Series, and thus complete my 
 original plan, by introducing, besides some further narra- 
 tives of the rise and downfall of families from the causes 
 already stated, the curious vicissitudes attending many of 
 our English TITLES. 
 
 There is one other part of my subject I wish in this 
 Volume to illustrate, in a more ample manner than I have 
 heretofore done. On a former occasion I ventured to 
 suggest a remedy for the fatal results which accrue from 
 the separation of title and estate : the notion has been a 
 kind of crotchet with me, and, in support of it, I purpose 
 adducing in the following pages a few striking instances 
 of the decay of families arising from this particular cause. 
 Some such enactment as that which I have recommended
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 would meet a great evil. It would be a deed of in- 
 surance in favour of posterity, a fortification against 
 extravagance. Hereditary dignity would never be re- 
 duced to absolute penury, and cases of want and 
 misery, so frequent amongst landless peers and baronets, 
 could never occur. If a provision, however small, were 
 attached to titles of honour, what painful scenes of fallen 
 greatness and national reproach might we not have been 
 spared ! How often do we see the descendants of some 
 mighty peer, to whom a nation's gratitude assigned, with 
 acclaim, a title which has become historic, sink to abject 
 destitution ! Within my own knowledge I could name 
 several ; and it is only a year or two ago that I found in 
 a common pauper, in one of the Dublin workhouses, the 
 heir presumptive of a barony that is associated with the 
 martial exploits of Poictiers and Cressy. 
 
 The Vicissitudes of TITLES are as striking as the Vicis- 
 situdes of FAMILIES. 
 
 " Where is Bohun ?" exclaimed, in an eloquent lament, 
 Chief Justice C re we, "Where is Mowbray? Where is 
 Mortimer ? Nay, which is more and most of all, where 
 is Plantagenet ?" Remarkable, indeed, is this extinction 
 of families, but the extinction of TITLES is even more so to 
 the historical reader, who cannot but experience feelings of 
 sorrow at the disappearance of those famous titles, house- 
 hold words with him, the wearers of which senators, 
 statesmen, or warriors shed such brilliancy o'er many 
 a chapter of our English annals. In some instances a 
 tendency to vicissitudes attaches to a particular title, 
 and passes on through successive possessors of it, al-
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 though of different lineage and name. Where now are 
 Clare and Clarence, March and Kent, Gloucester and 
 Dorset, Oxford and Rivers, D'Arcy and Lovel, Her- 
 bert of Cherbury and Bassett of Drayton, Montagu and 
 Halifax, Wharton and Harcourt ? Those old dignities 
 are, however, not forgotten ; and the best English houses 
 are proud of being able to connect themselves ever so 
 remotely with them. 
 
 There is a charm that wins us in the titles that occur 
 in our early reading, especially in those titles that are 
 linked to feudal achievements. The magnificence of 
 chivalry hangs upon them, and dazzles the young mind 
 with a brightness that never entirely fades upon the me- 
 mory. After-study may render us more correct and cer- 
 tain, but it is the histories we have pored over and doated 
 on in our youth that really make " familiar in our mouths 
 as household words Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, 
 Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster." Each one 
 of us seems to have a personal interest and a personal 
 pride in our great bygone titles, and each would feel hurt, 
 as it were, should an unworthy person a person not up 
 to the mark re-assume any of them. Like the sword of 
 the Conqueror, or the crown of Queen Elizabeth, they 
 must not be grasped by the weak or the churlish. They 
 are the trade marks of that historic gold which admits of 
 no alloy. 
 
 In England the extinction of hereditary dignities has 
 been most rapid; less so in Scotland, and far less so in 
 Ireland. 
 The Peerage of Scotland is still adorned by the famous
 
 XH INTRODUCTION. 
 
 titles of Argyll, Athole, Montrose,* Crawford, Angus, 
 Perth, Strathmore, Falkland, Forbes, Saltoun, Gray, and 
 many others, all held by the male heirs of those on whom 
 the dignities were conferred. 
 
 In Ireland attainder and confiscation have either driven 
 into exile, or reduced to an obscure position at home, the 
 heirs of several of its oldest titles ; but it is rare in that 
 country for a peerage to fail for want of a male suc- 
 cession. 
 
 The Irish Peerage exhibits the ancient titles of Kildare, 
 Ormonde, Clanricarde, Kerry, Inchiquin, Fingall, Howtb, 
 
 * There are three remarkable facts connected with the history 
 of the family of Montrose : 
 
 I. For seven hundred years, there has never been a collateral 
 
 succession, since the Grahams first branched off from the 
 family of Dalkeith and Abercorn. On two occasions, the 
 grandson succeeded his grandfather, but there is no in- 
 stance of the direct line being broken. 
 
 II. The intermarriages, which continued this long line of ances- 
 
 tors, have invariably been with nolle families. As far as 
 they can be ascertained, for four hundred years the wives 
 have been always daughters of actual peers. 
 
 III. Not one of the successive heads of the House of Montrose 
 has married an heiress, except on one occasion, when a 
 Marquesas of Montrose married the younger daughter of 
 the only Duke of Ilothes ; but as the lady did not share her 
 father's inheritance, she did not, according to the rule in 
 Scotland, bring the arms. 
 
 Thus, in consequence of the long continuance of the male line 
 m noble families in Scotland, and the paucity of heiresses, this 
 Montrose family, one of the noblest of the three kingdoms, has 
 no quarterings, while other families of much shorter duration 
 in the male line, have quarterings by the hundred.
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 Westmeath, Gormanston, Taaffe, Kinsale, Trimleston, 
 Dunsany, Dunboyne, and many others, all still possessed 
 by the male heirs of the original grantees ; while in England 
 a vast number of the existing dignities with historic titles, 
 such as Northumberland, Marlborough, Newcastle, Bath, 
 Buckingham, Exeter, Suffolk, Dudley, Salisbury, West- 
 moreland, Warwick, Leicester, Burlington, Beauchamp, Le 
 Despenser, De Ros, Berners, Grey de Ruthyn, Beaumont, 
 Camoys, Hastings, &c., are held either by heirs general, 
 through females, or by families slightly, and in some cases 
 not at all, connected with the early possessors. Nevertheless 
 an ancient peerage is like a regiment : upon its colours and 
 name glow the honours and deeds of men long departed ; 
 but still it is the same corps, inheriting the olden glory, 
 and bound to maintain and perpetuate an entail of 
 fame. 
 
 It is, indeed, quite surprising the ever-occurring extinc- 
 tion of English titles of honour. 
 
 After William of Normandy had won at Hastings the 
 broad lands of England, he partitioned them among the chief 
 commanders of his army, and conferred about twenty 
 Earldoms : not one of these now exist, nor one of the 
 honours conferred by William Rufus, Henry I., Stephen, 
 Henry II., Richard I., or John. 
 
 All the English Dukedoms, created from the institution 
 of the order down to the commencement of the reign of 
 Charles II., are gone, except only Norfolk and Somerset, 
 and perhaps Cornwall, enjoyed by the Prince of Wales. 
 At one time in the reign of ELIZABETH, Norfolk and 
 Somerset having been attainted, the whole order of Dukes
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 became extinct, and remained so for about fifty years, 
 until James I. created George Villiers Duke of Bucking- 
 ham. 
 
 Winchester and Worcester (the latter now merged in 
 the Dukedom of Beaufort) are the only existing Mar- 
 quessates* older than the reign of George III. ! 
 
 The Earl's coronet was very frequently bestowed under 
 the HENRYS and the EDWARDS : it was the favorite distinc- 
 tion, besides being the oldest ; and yet, of all the Earldoms 
 created by the Normans, the Plantagenets, and the Tudors, 
 eleven only remain, and of these, six are merged in higher 
 honors, the only ones giving independent designation 
 being Shrewsbury, Derby, Huntingdon, Pembroke, and 
 Devon. 
 
 The present House of Lords cannot claim amongst its 
 members a single male descendant of any one of the Barons 
 who were chosen to enforce Magna Charta, or of any 
 one of the Peers who are known to have fought at 
 Azincourt; and the noble House of Wrottesley is the 
 solitary existing family, among the Lords, which can boast 
 a male descent from a Founder of the Order of the 
 Garter. Sir William Dugdale's History of the Baronage 
 of England, published in 1675, contains all the English 
 Peerages created up to that time. The Index of these 
 titles occupies fourteen closely printed columns, a single 
 one of which would easily include the names of all 
 the dignities that remain now out of the whole category. 
 
 But though titles have thus passed away, the Peerage 
 
 * I do not, of course, include Marqnessates the second titles 
 of Dukedoms titles which neither have nor ever can have se- 
 parate existence.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 of England even now is, to use the words of " Coniugsby," 
 " the finest in Europe :"* 
 
 " multosque per annos 
 Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum." 
 
 The fortunes of exiled families is another feature on 
 which I should have liked, had space permitted, to have 
 dwelt, in the present volume : the remarkable fortunes of 
 those gallant and energetic men, who, driven from their 
 own land, established themselves in foreign countries, and 
 won distinction abroad. 
 
 " Quae regio in terris nostri non plena cruoris ?" Every- 
 where in Europe, in every great war, and in almost every 
 martial enterprise, our countrymen may be traced. Their 
 fame is universal : France, Prussia, Holland, Spain, Ger- 
 many, Sweden, Russia, and Belgium have all been served, 
 
 * Hear, too, what Jean Jacques Konsseau, anything but a 
 flatterer of aristocracy, says of it : " If you know the English 
 nobility you must be aware that it is the most enlightened, the 
 best taught, the wisest and the bravest in Europe. This being 
 so, it is unnecessary to enquire if it be the most ancient, for, in 
 speaking of what it is, no question arises as to what it has been. 
 The peers of England are certainly not the slaves of the prince, 
 but his friends ; not the tyrants of the people, but its chiefs, 
 its guarantees of liberty, gustainers of their country, and sup- 
 porters of the throne, they form an invincible equilibrium be- 
 tween the people and the sovereign. Their first duty is to the 
 nation, their second to him who governs it it is not his will but 
 his right that they consult ; supreme administrators of the laws 
 in the House of Lords, and sometimes law makers, they render 
 justice equally to the people and the crown, and they allow no 
 one to say ' God and my sword,' but only ' God aud my right.' " 
 Nouvelle Heloise, Letter LXIIL
 
 XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and gallantly served too, by English, Scotch, and Irish 
 prowess. The vicissitudes consequent on civil wars and 
 attainders which have driven good and brave men to 
 thus devote to foreign lands those energies and abilities 
 which under better auspices might have added lustre to 
 the history of their own country have affected the public 
 weal almost as much as any other form of family suffering. 
 
 In two of the greatest victories ever achieved over the 
 English, those of Beauge and Almanza, the French were 
 commanded, in the former by the famous Scotch General, 
 John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, and in the latter, by the 
 equally renowned English commander, James Duke of 
 Berwick. Singularly enough, at Almanza, while the French 
 were thus under an English General, the English army 
 was led by a French officer, the Marquis de Ruvigny. 
 
 In more modern times there was scarcely one of the 
 Marshals of Napoleon abler or more considered than Mac- 
 donald, Duke of Tarentum ; and in our own day, Patrick 
 MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, has given another illustri- 
 ous addition to the roll of British names associated with 
 foreign renown. Under every nation's banner but their 
 own the Irish fought with success, and some of them 
 attained the highest rank. 
 
 Marshal Brown, who contended so ably against the 
 great Frederick, De Lacy, who organized the Russian 
 army, and the heroic Mahony, who saved Cremona, who 
 gained immortal glory at Almanza, and became eventually 
 Lieutenant-General and Commander of Castile, were 
 Irishmen. " The Thirty Years' War" enlisted many a bold 
 and adventurous Englishman and Scot in the army of
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV11 
 
 Sweden, and many an enthusiastic soldier from Ireland in 
 that of Austria. Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein were 
 the leaders of the antagonistic parties and religions, and the 
 Protestant and Catholic had each his opportunity of 
 service. 
 
 The "Lion of the North" ranged under his colours 
 the Hamiltons, and Douglases, and Gordons, and a host 
 of others from Scotland: (who does not recall Captain 
 Dugald Dalgety of Sir Walter Scott's Legend of Mont- 
 rose ?) and during the period of religious persecution the 
 protection of Austria and Spain seduced from home many 
 a well-descended Catholic, many a Dormer, a Leslie,* an 
 
 * Walter Leslie, a younger son of the ancient family of Leslie 
 of Balquhain, in Aberdeenshire, entered the service of the Em- 
 peror of Germany in the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 and rose to high distinction during the Thirty Years' War. He 
 was devoted to the interests of the House of Austria ; and the 
 share which he had in the death of Wallenstein, Duke of Fried- 
 land, has been celebrated by the pen of Schiller. He was amply 
 rewarded for his services by the Emperor of Germany, who 
 created him Count of the Sacred Roman Empire, and bestowed 
 upon him large estates in Bohemia and Styria. He married the 
 Princess Anna Francesca, daughter of Prince Dietrichstein. 
 This alliance is remarkable, insomuch as it shows the position in 
 which a family of the untitled Scottish gentry stood in the scale 
 of European nobility in the seventeenth century. Walter Leslie 
 was the younger son of an Aberdeenshire laird of ancient and 
 noble blood, but what we now-a-days would call a commoner. 
 He was a younger branch of that family, which was subse- 
 quently raised to the peerage with the title of liothes ; and hia 
 highest dignity was that of being possessor of an estate that was 
 a barony. He was a Scottish lesser Baron. Yet the second son 
 of this untitled country gentleman was considered a fit and 
 proper husband for the daughter of a German princely family . 
 
 b
 
 XV'iii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 O'Reilly,* and an O'Donnell ; while the attractions of a 
 new world, where a greater freedom of thought existed, 
 led across the Atlantic the Pilgrim Fathers to form a mighty 
 nation on the western main. 
 
 My little work is now brought to an end, and will not, 
 I trust, be deemed unworthy of a place in the student's 
 library, as illustrating a peculiar and not uninteresting 
 " endroit" in history. The Vicissitudes of Families have in 
 
 It is true, that he had previously been created a Count of the 
 Empire, but that dignity would not alone have opened the door 
 of the Dietrichstein palace to him in the relation of son-in-law if 
 his birth had not been regarded as thoroughly noble. There 
 can be no doubt that his sixteen quarters of pure nobility were 
 curiously scanned before the Princess Anna Francesca was in- 
 duced to bestow her hand upon this successful soldier of fortune. 
 * The rise of the O'Reillys in Spain supplies an interesting anec- 
 dote : At the close of the Seven Years' War (1762), forming, as 
 it were, an episode of that great contest, hostilities commenced 
 between Spain and Portugal. In the regiment of Ultonia, which 
 fought on the Spanish side, was an Irish officer, whom, on 
 being left for dead on the field of battle, the followers of the 
 camp were, as usual, about to despoil, when he cried out that he 
 was the Due d'Arcos. The hope of a reward or ransom saved 
 his life ; but on his return to Madrid he was commanded into 
 the presence of the Duke's widow, and interrogated why he had 
 presumed to usurp her husband's name. " Madam," replied he, 
 " if I had known a more illustrious one I would have sought 
 its protection." The presence of mind evinced, both in assuming 
 the name in the hour of danger, and in his apt reply to the 
 haughty duchess, ensured him this lady's special favour, as her 
 influence did his rapid advancement in public life. This officer 
 was the celebrated Count O'Reilly, (youngest son of Thomas 
 O'Reilly, Esq., of Baltrasna, Co. Meath), who commanded the 
 African expedition under Charles III. of Spain, and was Go- 
 vernor of Louisiana, Ambassador to the Court of France, &c.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 them a moral of infinite importance to coming genera- 
 tions, and they tell us, in exposing the weaknesses of 
 human provision and forethought, that there is a guiding 
 law, the law of the ' Spirit of life, beyond and above the 
 control or reach of all worldly ambition. It is in vain in 
 many cases to analyze the causes of the rapid downfall of 
 mighty houses, and the striking contrasts in the most 
 powerful. To use the eloquent expressions of the Earl of 
 Carlisle, in one of his recent speeches 
 
 "Changes so extensive, shocks so violent, defy all 
 calculation, but they should not shake our confidence 
 in Him who gives the sunshine as well as the storm, the 
 fertilizing rain as well as the drought the manna, the milk, 
 and the honey, as well as the stony rock and the sandy 
 desert who from evil brings forth good, and in judgment 
 remembers mercy."
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 29, line 18 from foot, for " Dukedom of Northumber- 
 land," read " Earldom of Northumberland." 
 
 Page 153, line 17 from foot,/or "1726," read " 1626."
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 anb $ annuls. 
 
 The land left by thy father P that rich land 
 That had continued in Welborn's name 
 Twenty descents ; which, like a riotous fool, 
 Thou didst make sale of." 
 
 MASSINGEB. 
 
 " It is incumbent on the high and generous spirit of an ancient 
 nation to cherish those sacred groves that surround their ances- 
 tral mansions, and to perpetuate them to their descendants." 
 
 WASHINGTON IEVING. 
 
 THE separation of TITLE and Estate has been, most as- 
 suredly, the main cause of the destruction of noble families. 
 For this evil, I venture still to prescribe my favourite re- 
 medy the ENDOWMENT of every hereditary honour with
 
 2 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 a certain landed property. Even though the law of England 
 may now prevent such an interference with the descent of 
 land, a special enactment of the Legislature would easily 
 meet the case an Act to declare that an adequate portion 
 of the estate of the grantee of each hereditary dignity con- 
 ferred by the Crown, should follow the title, and be in- 
 separable from it. Every title might have affixed to it a terri- 
 torial designation, (as, for instance, " Egerton of Tatton,") 
 and the land, thus named, might be declared inalienable 
 from the dignity for all time to come. It is marvellous 
 how the possession of ever so small a landed interest 
 keeps a family together for century after century. A 
 statement made by Lord Palmerston, who is always so 
 happy and apposite in his illustrations, gives great force 
 to this assertion. In a speech to a Hampshire audience, 
 at the opening of a local railway, his lordship observed, 
 that there was a small estate in the New Forest, which 
 had belonged to the lime-burner PURKIS, who picked up 
 the body of Rufus, and carried the royal corpse in his 
 humble cart to Winchester, and which had come down, 
 through an uninterrupted male line of ancestry, to a worthy 
 yeoman of the same name, now resident on the exact same 
 Farm, near Stoncy Cross, on the llingwood Road, eight 
 miles from Romsey. 
 
 How much more safe the Vassal than the Lord : 
 Low skulks the hind beneath the rage of pow'r, 
 And leaves the wealthy Traitor in the Tow'r : 
 Untouched his cottage, and his slumbers sound, 
 Though confiscation's vultures hover round."
 
 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 3 
 
 If some such system as this endowment of Titles 
 of Honour had been acted on in days gone by, the 
 Earl of Perth and Melfort would now enjoy a portion, 
 at least, of the historic inheritance of theDrummonds ; the 
 late Earl of Huntingdon, the representative of the famous 
 house of Hastings, would not have been restored to a 
 landless title ; the Earl of Buckinghamshire might still be 
 seated at the old Manor- House of Blickling ; Viscount 
 Mountmorres would yet have his home at Castle Morres, 
 and Viscount Gort at his princely castle of Loughcooter; 
 Lord Audley would have a share of the broad acres won 
 by his chivalrous ancestors; Lord Kingsland, the waiter at 
 the Dawson Street Hotel, would not have been a pauper, 
 wholly dependent on the Crown's bounty, and Lord Aylmer, 
 of Balrath, would not be driven to fight the battle of life 
 in the distant colony of Canada. A fragment, at all events, 
 of the great Tristernagh estate would yet give local position 
 to the old Baronetical family of Piers, and a remnant of 
 the extensive Carbery possessions of the Moores would have 
 saved their representative, the present Sir Richard Emanuel 
 Moore, Bart., from the necessity of holding the situation of 
 third Class Turnkey at Spike Island. Theancient Baronetcy of 
 Hay would not have come, despoiled of its fine estateof Park, 
 to be the emptyinheritanceof a Clerk inabranch of theRoyal 
 Bank of Scotland, nor that of Wishart, to be represented 
 by a wanderer in Australia and New Zealand. The story of 
 the poor Baronets, Echlin and Norwich, would not have to 
 be related ; Lord Kirkcudbright need not have stood behind 
 the counter of his glove shop in Edinburgh ; and that noble- 
 hearted gentleman, Mr. Surtees, the historian of Durham, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 would hdve lost the opportunity of taking from the work- 
 house of Chester-le Street old Sir Thomas Conyers, the 
 last baronet of Horden. I will instance a few cases in 
 illustration of my subject : 
 
 I. 
 
 THE LOUD KIRKCUDBRIGHT. 
 
 " This is the state of man ; to-day he puts forth. 
 The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
 And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : 
 The third day comes i frost, a killing frost ; 
 And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
 His greatness is a ripening nips his root, 
 And then he falls." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 THE Maclellans were of great antiquity in the South of 
 Scotland, a- d held the office of sheriff of Galloway in an- 
 cient times. Duncan Maclellan is mentioned in a charter 
 of Alexander II., 1217, and Gilbert Maclellan in one of 
 King David II. There were, according to Crawford, no 
 fewer than twelve knights of the name, and there were 
 many other Maclellans distinguished in history. 
 
 Sir Robert Maclellan, one of the gentlemen of the bed- 
 chamber to James VI. and Charles I., was created a peer 
 by the title of LORD KIRKCUDBRIGHT, 25th May, 1633, 
 to him and his heirs male, bearing his name and arms. 
 The fourth possessor of the title, WILLIAM, Lord Kirkcud- 
 bright, died under age, and without issue, in 1669, when 
 the whole estate was carried off by his father's creditors ; 
 so that when the succession opened to his cousin-german, 
 John Maclellan, there being nothing left to support the
 
 THE LORD KIRKCUDBRIGHT. 5 
 
 dignity, neither he, nor his brother and heir James, ever 
 assumed the title, and the Lords Kirkcudbright do not 
 appear as sitting in Parliament from the time of John, the 
 third Lord. But the right of the collateral heir male was 
 so universally known and acknowledged, that at the Union, 
 this Peerage was considered as a subsisting one, and as 
 such preserved on the Roll. 
 
 On several occasions, the votes of the Lords Kirkcud- 
 bright were subsequently admitted at the election of Scotch 
 representative peers, and in 1741, William Maclellan, Lord 
 Kirkcudbright, recorded his, at the general election. De- 
 spite, however, of his lordly character, the poor Peer fol- 
 lowed the humble occupation of a glover, and for many 
 years used to stand in the lobby of the Assembly Rooms in 
 the Old Town, selling gloves to the gay frequenters of the 
 Ball ; for, according to the fashion of the time, a new pair 
 was required for every fresh dance. 
 
 The only occasion on which he absented himself from 
 his post, was at the Ball following the election of a repre- 
 sentative peer ; then, and then only, did he doff his apron, 
 and assuming the garb of a gentleman, associate with the 
 company, the most of whom he had usually served with 
 gloves during the rest of the year. 
 
 The glover-Lord's son, mindful of the pristine glories of 
 his race, entered on a more ambitious career than his 
 father, attained the rank of Colonel in the army, and, not 
 satisfied with anything short of legal recognition, sub- 
 mitted his Peerage claim to the House of Lords, by whose 
 decision he was declared seventh Lord Kirkcudbright on 
 3rd of May, 1773.
 
 6 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 II. 
 
 SIR PETER HEYMAN, BARONET. 
 
 " The race of yore, 
 Ho\v are they blotted from the things that be !" SCOTT. 
 
 THE philanthropy and benevolence of the HEYMANS ought 
 to have saved them from ruin. Four hundred years ago, 
 a Heyman founded the Tenterden free school. A century 
 later, a Heyman gave a perpetual Exhibition at Canterbury 
 and Cambridge ; and another of the family made a dona- 
 tion, for charitable purposes, of a considerable estate in 
 Kent. These Heymans were, in truth, good and worthy 
 gentlemen, of ancient lineage, and high county stand- 
 ing. In Plantagenet times, they purchased the manors 
 of Harenge and Otterpole, and in the reigii of Henry 
 VIII. a fair and well-portioned heiress, Elizabeth Tilde, 
 brought the fine estate of Somerfield in marriage to 
 Peter Heyman, Esq., who became gentleman of the bed- 
 chamber to Edward VI., and whose descendant, Sir Henry 
 Heyman, of Somerfield, was one of King Charles the 
 First's Baronets. At this period, the Heymans had attained 
 the highest county position, and enjoyed universal esteem ; 
 but a change soon came over the scene. The third baronet, 
 Sir Bartholomew Heymau, had his sight impaired, when a 
 boy, by an accident with gunpowder, which rendered him 
 unfit for the army, for which he was destined ; and the 
 family having suffered in their fortune to a fearful extent 
 during the civil wars, he became so reduced, that, in his 
 advanced years, he was only too glad to accept the ap- 
 pointment of a Poor Knight of Windsor, and thus 
 be saved from destitution. At his death, in 1742, his
 
 SIR PETER HEYMAN*, BARONET. 
 
 empty title passed to his only child, Sir Peter Heyman, 
 who was in the Navy, and who died at the age of seventy, 
 in 1790, having survived all his children. A few years be- 
 fore, so impoverished was his condition, that he had to appeal 
 to the public for relief, and issued this advertisement : 
 
 " Under the patronage of several noble personages of 
 the first distinction : For the benefit of an English Baronet : 
 at Pasqualli's Great Rooms, Tottenham Street, Tottenham 
 Court Road, on Thursday, the 22nd of May instant, at 
 noon, will be a Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental 
 Music, by the most Capital Performers : with refresh- 
 ments. Tickets, 10s. 6d. each. 
 
 " Sir Peter Heyman, of Windsor, baronet, for whose 
 benefit the Concert is to be, is descended from a very 
 ancient family that came to England with the Norman 
 Conqueror in 1C66, several of which were in parliament, 
 and held places of honour and trust under the Crown. 
 His lady is descended from a Baronet, and a family equally 
 ancient and respectable. As his family inheritance was 
 dissipated by his grandfather, he only succeeded to the 
 dignity (a creation so early as 1641), which he hath en- 
 joyed near forty years ; and it being unaccompanied with 
 any property, is the cause he now suffers real distress, 
 which is rendered more poignant and severe by his age 
 and infirmities. And this Concert, which is countenanced 
 by several of the first distinction, is intended as the means 
 of rescuing him and his lady from their present distress. 
 He earnestly entreats your kind notice and protection on 
 this very useful occasion, which he will ever most gratefully 
 remember. You will be attended to-morrow by a friend
 
 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 of Sir Peter Heyman, with a list of the subscribers, and 
 more tickets, should you be disposed to give it support. 
 20th May, 1783." 
 
 III. 
 
 SIR FREDERICK ECHLIN, BART. 
 " Pity the sorrows of a poor old man." 
 
 THE Echlins have been settled in Ireland since the reign 
 of James I. The Right Rev. Dr. Henry Echlin, mi- 
 grating from Stafford, in England, became Bishop of Down 
 and Connor, in Ireland, from 1613 to 1G35, when he met 
 with a violent death at Balruddery, en route to Dublin. 
 His grandson, Sir Henry Echlin, Knight, was second Baron 
 of the Exchequer in Ireland, and obtained a Baronetcy 
 17th October, 1621. Baron Echlin's eldest son, Robert, 
 represented the borough of Newry, 1695, in the Irish 
 parliament, and married Penelope, daughter of Sir Maurice 
 Eustace, Knight, and sister of the Lord Chancellor Eus- 
 tace. His grandson, Sir Henry Echlin, the third baronet, 
 having died suddenly, 1799, the title devolved upon Sir 
 James, the fourth baronet, grandson of the Rev. Dr. Henry 
 Echlin, Vicar of St. Catherine's, Dublin. This gentleman 
 married Jane, daughter of Chambre Echlin, Esq., by whom 
 he had Sir Frederick Echlin, the fifth and present baronet. 
 So far the " Peerage and Baronetage" (Edition of 
 1819) presents a record of this ancient family; but, 
 beneath this surface, there lies a story of melancholy 
 interest, not told in that Memorial of the nobility. It 
 is to be found in the records of an equity suit, and the
 
 ECHLIN OF CLONAGH. 
 
 letter of a good Samaritan, the worthy Hector of Carbury, 
 in the county of Kildare. To pursue the details of loans 
 and mortgages, and their adjuncts, equity suits and bills 
 of costs, though all-absorbing in interest to the parties con- 
 cerned, would be an ungrateful task, and anything but an 
 agreeable intellectual treat to my readers. The curious in 
 those matters may gratify their taste by consulting "The 
 Pleadings" in the dreary cause of Thomas v. Echlin. 
 That famous suit commenced in the Irish Equity Court 
 of Exchequer in the year 1827, and ended in the year 
 1850. But the antiquarian pioneer nAist be prepared to 
 encounter clouds of dust in his search, and find the 
 '' Pleadings," if he can, among the confused monster heap 
 of records of the Irish Equity Exchequer, lying and 
 walked over, on the floor of an out-building at the Pill 
 Lane side of the Four Courts, Dublin, these twelve years 
 past, since the 13th and 14th of Victoria incorporated the 
 Irish Equity Exchequer with the Irish Chancery. Suffice 
 it that Sir James Echlin got entangled with an attorney, 
 who treated him and his son Sir Frederick to the expensive 
 luxury of an Irish Equity suit for years. The lawyers en- 
 joyed it amazingly; they chuckled and punned, and 
 cracked jokes about it. To them it was food and raiment ; 
 to the Echlin family, death and destitution. The old 
 gentleman expired under the torture, and his son, the fifth 
 baronet, inheritor of the family estate, Clonagh, in the 
 county of Kildare, witnessed the suit glide from the de- 
 funct Exchequer into the living gulf of Chancery, and he 
 lived to see it end there : his estate sold, and himself 
 a pauper ! Two letters are now lying before me, which
 
 10 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 present so vivid a picture of misery in the person of the 
 victim of an Irish Equity suit, and of the fall of an ancient 
 house, that I do not hesitate to give them in preference 
 to any prepared narrative of my own : 
 
 " 21, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, 
 
 May 2nd, 1860. 
 "Mv DEAR SIR BERNARD, 
 
 " When I was last year staying in the county Kil- 
 dare, a poor old man was pointed out to me at Edenderry, 
 in that county, as the representative of the Echlins, Ba- 
 ronets. He is himself the present Baronet, and no doubt 
 was expressed on this point. He has been receiving relief 
 from the parochial charities, and has given up earning his 
 maintenance by manual labour, being now too feeble. He 
 has a son, heir to the Baronetcy, for whom an effort has 
 been made to procure a good education ; and I am informed 
 that the Queen, hearing of the case, contributed twenty 
 pounds to aid that object. The title I do not now find in 
 the Baronetage, though it was so in 1849. When one 
 considers the high offices which in former times the Echlins 
 filled in Church and State, this is certainly a remarkable 
 reverse of fortune. Faithfully yours, 
 
 "JOHN RIBTON GARSTIN." 
 
 The other letter is from the Rev. Francis Hewson, Vicar 
 of Carbury, county of Kildare. 
 
 "Vicarage, Carbury, June 1st, 1860. 
 "SiR, I have been unable sooner to reply to your 
 letter respecting Sir F. Echlin, as I had to ascertain before 
 doing so, some particulars, which I was not quite sure about.
 
 ECHLIN OP CLONAGH. 11 
 
 " The present Sir Frederick Ecblin is the son of Sir 
 James Echlin. His mother was a Miss Echlin. He has 
 a brother, Fenton Echlin, who is married, and has five 
 children, three boys. He had a sister, who died without 
 leaving any children surviving. Their grandfather, Sir 
 Henry Echlin, was a half-witted man, who resided near 
 Clonard, in this barony. He was, as I have been informed, 
 on visiting terms with the nobility and gentry of the 
 county. He left three sons. The only one of them who 
 married, was the father of the present Baronet. By an 
 expensive lawsuit, and other causes, Sir James Echlin was 
 latterly (he and his wife, both of whom I attended as a 
 clergyman, died in this parish afterwards, twenty-five years 
 since) in such reduced and embarrassed circumstances, 
 that he quite lost caste, and was unable to give his children 
 any education. Sir Frederick can neither read nor write, 
 and his brother is also quite an illiterate and uneducated 
 man. The baronet is, like his grandfather, half-witted, 
 but a very well-conducted and amiable man. He still 
 preserves the traces of aristocracy in his appearance, though 
 he has never mixed in any society but that oi the labour- 
 ing class. He is now upwards of seventy, and utterly des- 
 titute, his only means of support being two shillings and 
 sixpence a week, which I allow him out of our collection 
 for the poor, together with occasional donations from 
 Christian persons in this neighbourhood, and contributions 
 which I get for him from my friends. About thirteen 
 years ago, I received forty pounds from the Queen for 
 him,in answer to a memorial that was forwarded to her ten 
 pounds being from Her Majesty's privy purse, and thirteen
 
 12 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 from the royal bounty fund. He shared a considerable 
 portion of this with his brother and family, who were at 
 the time in the greatest want; and the remainder I took 
 charge of, and doled out to him, at his own request, at 
 the rate of six shillings a-week. I need not say that the 
 sum has been expended long since. I do not know a fitter 
 case than poor Sir F. Echlin's, for either the Concordatum 
 fund, or, what would be still better, admission into some 
 hospital. But all my efforts in his behalf have hitherto 
 been fruitless, as his case is not considered eligible for Wil- 
 son's Hospital, and there was no vacancy, when I applied, 
 on the list of persons for the Concordatum fund. If you 
 would kindly help me, or put me in the way of obtaining 
 some provision for the declining years of this amiable poor 
 Baronet, I shall feel very thankful. He attends our church, 
 and dines in our house, regularly every Sunday. His 
 brother Fenton resides in the village of Kilmeague, where 
 he supports himself by labour, and the assistance of 
 Mr. Preston, the clergyman, who has been very kind to 
 him. 
 
 " I shall feel very happy to furnish you with any further 
 information in my power to give respecting Sir F. Echlin, 
 if you require it. 
 
 "I now remain, 
 
 " Your very faithful servant, 
 
 "FRANCIS HEWSON." 
 
 I will not mar this simple and touching narrative of the 
 good clergyman with a single observation, save to add that 
 Sir Frederick Echlin still lives, and drags on a weary exist- 
 ence, without any bettering of his condition.
 
 NORWICH OF BRAMPTON. 13 
 
 - 
 
 IV. 
 
 SIR SAMUEL NORWICH, BART. 
 " Look here, upon this picture, and on this." HAMLBT. 
 
 THIS family held a high place on the roll of Northamp- 
 tonshire genealogy. For a long time they were lords of 
 the manor of Brampton, and for generations they formed 
 high and distinguished alliances. It is said of the Nor- 
 wiches, they " rose and fell by the smiles of woman." 
 Margaret Holt, the heiress of Brampton Manor, gave her 
 heart and hand to Simon de Norwich, and endowed him 
 with her mansion and lands. His grandson, another 
 Simon de Norwich, was equally fortunate, having acquired 
 large estates in Leicester and Northampton by marriage 
 with Alice, only daughter and heiress of Richard Christian, 
 of Harborough ; and Simon Norwich, his son, became en- 
 riched by the estates of his cousin, Sir Richard Tunstal, 
 which descended to him as heir. 
 
 The importance of the Norwiches of Brampton in the 
 early part of the reign of James I., appears from monu- 
 mental tablets still remaining in Brampton church. On 
 the south side, over the chancel, a niche in the wall con- 
 tains the effigies of a knight in armour, and a lady behind 
 him. The knight is represented on bended knees, head 
 erect, with the hands devoutly joined and upraised in the 
 attitude of prayer. These figures are surmounted with 
 the family arms of Norwich, over which is a death's head, 
 winged. On either side are shields. Two black tablets 
 beneath, surmounted by three cherubs, and divided by
 
 14 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 another single cherub, contain a mural inscription in me- 
 mory of Sir Charles Norwich, " some time Lord of this 
 towne of Brampton, in the county of Northampton, sonne 
 and heire of Simon Norwich, Esq., and of Grace, his wife, 
 the eldest daughter of Edward Griffin, of Dingley, in the 
 county of Northampton, Esq., and sometime Attorney 
 General to that most excellent princess Marye ; and that 
 her only son, Sir Simon Norwich, Knighte, in testimony of 
 his love and dutie, erected this monument. 1605." Under 
 this inscription, beneath the floor, is the tomb, and in the 
 chancel in front of the rails are two flat stones inlaid with 
 brasses, each representing a knight in armour, and in atti- 
 tude of prayer, the one with a greyhound under his head, 
 and another under his feet. The other knight has also a 
 dog, not a greyhound, under his feet. A lady, full length, 
 is represented at the side of each knight. 
 
 The Norwiches advanced in dignity in the reign of 
 Charles I., Sir John Norwich, of Brampton, having been 
 created a Baronet in 1641. His first wife was Anne, 
 daughter of Sir Roger Smith, Knight, of Edmon- 
 thorp, in Leicestershire, and his second, Mary, daugh- 
 ter of Sir Henry Atkius, of Cheshunt. The Baronet's 
 eldest son and successor, Sir Roger Norwich, became M.P. 
 for Northamptonshire and a Deputy Lieutenant, holding 
 at the same time the office of Verderer of the Forest. 
 But the principles and policy of James II. becoming dis- 
 tasteful to Sir Roger, he surrendered his office, and retired 
 from Court, finding in the seclusion of Brampton Manor 
 and the society of a charming wife, Catherine, daughter 
 of Sir Hatton Fermor, Knight, of Easton, and widow of
 
 NORWICH OF BRAMPTON. 15 
 
 Sir John Shuckburgh, Bart., of Shuckburgh, Co. of War- 
 wick, and his children, that happiness and enjoyment 
 which the glittering pageant of a falling Court could not 
 bestow. His son and successor, Sir Erasmus Norwich, re- 
 covered his social rank, and added to his inheritance by a 
 double marriage, his first wife being the Lady Arabella 
 Savage, younger daughter of Thomas, third Earl of Rivers, 
 and the second, Jane, daughter and heir of William 
 Adams, Esq., and eventually heiress of her uncle, Sir 
 Charles Adams, Bart. 
 
 And now comes the turning point in the fortunes of 
 the house of Norwich. They had arrived at considerable 
 eminence, had large estates, a splendid mansion and reti- 
 nue, and had formed alliances with distinguished families. 
 " The Norwiches rose and fell by the smiles of woman," 
 according to the old tradition of Brampton, and there 
 would seem to have been some foundation in truth for it. 
 Sir William Norwich, Bart., the son and successor of Sir 
 Erasmus, never married. He lived the life of a prieux 
 chevalier hunted, shot, and gamed sipped honey-dew 
 from the sweetest flowers of society. A voluptuary, he 
 lived only for pleasure. A selfish, egotistical life it was. But 
 what cared he, a sensualist ? So that he enjoyed himself, 
 the world's opinion was as nought. And he drank the 
 cup of pleasure to the dregs. He lost his estates, so the 
 story goes, at card-playing with the famous Sarah, Duchess 
 of Marl borough, wife of the hero of Blenheim, and Bramp- 
 ton Manor passed to the Spencer family. An outcast from 
 the home of his ancestors, he retired to Harborough, where 
 he died, 1741. His remains were deposited with his kin-
 
 1C LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 dred in Brampton church ; but no sculptured tablet is 
 inscribed with his name no mural epitaph records his 
 life or his fate. 
 
 The title was borne by another member of the family, 
 but without sufficient means to support its dignity. The 
 widow of the late Sir Samuel Norwich, the lineal represen- 
 tative of his house, resided at Kettering, and earned a live- 
 lihood by washing. She was very poor and very ignorant, 
 not having received any education : she died 21st June, 
 1860, aged upwards of eighty. Her husband, Sir Samuel 
 Norwich, for many years a sawyer in Kettering, was the 
 eldest son of Sir John, who died in the parish workhouse. 
 This poor scion of the old race had, I am told, the man- 
 ners and bearing of a perfect gentleman. His father, also 
 named John, was a pensioner under the Montague family. 
 He was the brother, I believe, of Sir William, who had lost 
 the Brampton estate by gambling. The present heir of 
 the family, Sir William Norwich, is now in America, where 
 he is said to be doing well. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE LAST VISCOUNT KINGSLAND. 
 
 " LADY DrBERLY. Consider, by the strangest accident you 
 have been raised to neither more nor less than a Peer of the 
 Realm. 
 
 " LOBD DUBEELY. OK ! 'twas the strangest accident, my 
 Lady, on the face of the universal yearth." 
 
 COLMAN. THE HEIR AT LAW. 
 
 FEW countries in Europe possess an aristocracy as ancient 
 or as distinguished as that established by the Anglo- 
 Normans in Ireland. The FitzGeralds of Kildare and
 
 THE LAST VISCOUNT KINGSLAND. 17 
 
 Desmond, the Butlers of Ormonde, the De Courcys 
 of Kinsale, the De Burghs of Clanrickarde, the Tal- 
 bots of Malahide, the St. Lawrences of Howth, and 
 the Barnewalls of Meath, were no unworthy rivals of 
 the Mowbrays, and Bohuns, and Mortimers, and Beau- 
 champs, and Bouchiers, and Nevilles, and Howards of 
 England. The Barnewalls possessed in early times such 
 vast estates in the counties of Meath and Dublin, that if 
 those lands had descended undiminished, to the present 
 time, they would probably be represented by a rent roll of 
 some two hundred thousand pounds a-year. Their present 
 chief, Sir Reginald Barnewall, eighth Baronet of Cricks- 
 town Castle, is the head of the senior line of this great 
 house. The junior branches of Trimleston and Turvey 
 were both ennobled the former in 1461, when Sir Robert 
 Barnewall (second son of Sir Christopher Barnewall, of 
 Crickstown, Chief Justice of Ireland,) was created Barou 
 Trimleston ; and the latter in 1646, when Nicholas Barne- 
 wall, of Turvey, was made Viscount Kingsland. His 
 Lordship's wife was the daughter and co-heiress of Henry, 
 Earl of Kildare, and widow of O'Donnell, Earl of Tyr- 
 connel ; and the descendants of this marriage continued 
 to be a family of high connection and importance among 
 the peers of Ireland until the severance of Land from 
 Title left the last heir dependent on the bounty of the 
 Crown for his subsistence. The letter which I annex, 
 from my able friend, R. Hitchcock, Esq., Master of the 
 Exchequer in Ireland, tells the Kingsland story more gra- 
 phically thau any words of my own :
 
 18 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 "Dublin, 26th Sept., 1862. 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR BERNARD, 
 
 " When the late Lord Kingsland established his 
 claim to the Peerage, I was a mere boy ; but as my father 
 was the solicitor, to whose enterprise, talent, and pecuniary 
 support he was indebted for his success, he was very much 
 at our house during the progress of the proceedings, and 
 his extraordinary story became as familiar to the family 
 'as household words.' I am therefore enabled from 
 recollection, although half a century has elapsed since the 
 time of which I speak, to give you some outline of his 
 antecedents. 
 
 " He was born in some obscure part of Dublin, and 
 ' educated' in the vicinity of Castle Market, where it was 
 said he made his ' first appearance in public' in the 
 ' onerous' part of a basket boy, his success in which cha- 
 racter led to his promotion in the course of time to the 
 more elevated position of under-waiter at a tavern in Daw- 
 son Street. It subsequently appeared, that although in 
 so lowly a sphere, he entertained a dreamy notion, derived 
 from family tradition, that as he bore the name of the 
 Kingsland family, he might by some turn of the wheel of 
 fortune become entitled to its honours and estates. The 
 Lord Kingsland of that time was a lunatic, residing in an 
 asylum in France, and was under the guardianship of his 
 relative, Lord Trimleston. A false rumour of that Lord's 
 death reached Matthew Barnewall while he was officiating 
 at the tavern in Dawson Street, and acting upon the tra- 
 ditionary notion of heirship, under the advice of his then 
 companions and friends, Matthew mustered a strong force
 
 THE LAST VISCOUNT KINQSLAND. 19 
 
 of the employes of the taverns and the market, which had 
 been the school of his early training, and with that for- 
 midable array, proceeded forthwith to Turvey, the family 
 mansion, of which he took instant possession. There he 
 cut down timber, lighted bonfires, and for some short 
 time indulged in the exercise of rude hospitality to the 
 companions who had escorted him, and the rabble 
 which he collected in the neighbourhood. His rejoicings 
 were, however, but short-lived. Lord Trimleston, the 
 guardian of the lunatic Peer, applied to the Court of 
 Chancery, and poor Matthew was committed to Newgate 
 under an attachment for contempt. While in the prison 
 he was advised to apply to my father for his legal advice 
 and assistance, through which he was after some time set 
 at liberty. At that period he was quite unable to trace 
 his pedigree, and being utterly illiterate unable even to 
 write his name he could give but little assistance to his 
 legal adviser in testing the justice of the claim which, in 
 the midst of his almost Cimmerian darkness, he still in- 
 sisted upon to the right of succession to the Kingsland 
 Peerage. My father, however, being a man of sanguine 
 temperament as well as superior talents, saw that there 
 was something in the claim, and took up the case with 
 such ardour that he soon discovered a clue, which led him 
 step by step through the difficulties which lay in the way 
 of tracing a pedigree amidst so much ignorance, until at 
 length there was but one missing link in the chain ; and 
 this was, after much research, supplied by the evidence of 
 one Lucinda Ambridge, a woman upwards of a hundred 
 years old. In the meantime the lunatic Peer actually 
 
 c 2
 
 20 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 died ; and when Matthew's pedigree was completed, and 
 the proofs forthcoming, the claim was brought before the 
 House of Lords, and after due investigation admitted. 
 
 "During the progress of tracing the pedigree, and 
 pending the decision of the House of Lords, the expectant 
 Peer was clothed and supported by my father, and was 
 frequently at our house. He was at first very modest, and 
 could scarcely be enticed beyond the mat at the hall door, 
 imd when brought into a room, he sat, as such men da, 
 on the least possible edge of a chair. By degrees, how- 
 ever, he grew in confidence, and being a good-humoured 
 man, his conversation was very amusing, what Lord Du- 
 beiiy would call his ' cakalology/ and Dr. Pangloss 
 his * cacology,' being extremely rich. It would not be 
 easy to do justice in description to his exultation and 
 pride on being acknowledged by the House of Lords. 
 13 ut his elevation was accompanied by a sad drawback. 
 The property, which should have gone with the title, 
 consisting, I believe, chiefly of church advowsous, had 
 lapsed to the Crown, owing to some want of conformity to 
 the Established Church on the part of some of the an- 
 cestors, and could not be recovered. A poor Peer's pension 
 of five hundred pounds a-year was granted to the new 
 Lord Viscount Kingsland, and Baron of Turvey ; but, 
 alas ! my father never was paid anything for his outlay 
 and professional labour. All he ever got was the 6clat, 
 and the satisfaction of having achieved so great a triumph. 
 
 "Lord Kingsland was married in early life to a woman 
 in his then class, who died before his elevation to the 
 Peerage, leaving only one child, a son, who lived to be
 
 THE LAST VISCOUNT KINCSLAND. 21 
 
 the Hon. Mr. Barnewall, and heir-apparent to the Peerage, 
 but died within a few years after his father had es- 
 tablished his claim. After some time, Lord Kings- 
 land married a Miss Bradshaw, an English lady, but died 
 without issue, and consequently the title is extinct, although 
 it is said, and probably with truth, that an heir could be 
 found amongst the poorest classes in Dublin. 
 
 " And now, my dear Sir Bernard, I have given you a 
 mass, out of which you may glean what will answer your 
 purpose. The papers relating to the case, which I remem- 
 ber in my father's office, have all been lost, and I can now 
 write only from memory ; but no doubt the printed peti- 
 tion, pedigree, and proofs, could be found among the 
 records of the House of Lords. They would be interesting 
 to you, and would show you what wonderful ingenuity and 
 industry were exercised in the case. 
 
 " Your's sincerely, 
 
 "R. HITCHCOCK. 
 
 " My Lord's sayings and doings were most amusing. 
 They are not what you want, but as I mentioned his 
 cacology, I will give you a sample to fill up my sheet : 
 
 " His second wife took great pains to improve him but 
 in vain. When he came here under her tutelage, she 
 watched his words, and always corrected him even before 
 company. One day, being asked to take some lunch, he 
 declined, saying, ' I have been eating selvedges all day/ 
 My Lady correcting, said, ' Sandwiches, my Lord/ Here- 
 plied, 'Ah, my Lady, I wish you'd be quiet, you're always 
 rebutiny me.' "
 
 23 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 Viscount Kingsland married for his third wife a Miss 
 Julia Willis, daughter of a medical- general-practitioner at 
 Kenniugton, and died at his father-in-law's house in 1833 : 
 his widow, Viscountess Kingsland, still survives, in great 
 distress. 
 
 VI. 
 COLE OF BEANCEPETH CASTLE. 
 
 IF I were writing on the Vicissitudes of the Historic Seats 
 of England, the narrative would illustrate, more strikingly 
 than any other I could adduce, the ruin that has been 
 brought on ancient and noble houses by the power vested 
 in the heir of some one generation or another, of alienat- 
 ing the whole hereditary estates of his family. Perhaps no 
 case would be so much in point as a history of the famous 
 Castle of Brancepeth, in Durham. 
 
 Of all the feudal fortresses of England, whether we 
 regard their venerable antiquity, the rank and authority of 
 their early possessors, or the wealth and taste which have 
 been, in modern times, expended upon them, there are few 
 which can claim precedence over this home of the Nevilles. 
 Built, in all probability, temp. Stephen, by the Bulmers, 
 Lords of Sheriff Hutton, in Yorkshire, it was conveyed, 
 after a few generations, by an heiress, Emma De Bulmer, 
 to her husband, Geoffrey De Neville. Thus originated 
 the illustrious House of Neville of Brancepeth, in which 
 this grand old castle continued down to the time of Eliza- 
 beth, when the last Neville of Brancepeth, Charles, Earl 
 of Westmorland, by his participation in (e the Rising of the
 
 COLE OP BRANCEPETH CASTLE. 23 
 
 North," forfeited both Raby and Brancepeth, and was 
 driven into exile, where he died penniless, in 1601. His 
 story I have already told in another series. 
 
 Brancepeth, thus lapsed to the Crown, was granted by 
 James I. to his favourite, Robert Carr, who was created 
 Baron Brancepeth and Earl of Somerset ; but his attainder 
 again forfeited the property, and it was sold in 1636 to 
 Ralph Cole, Esq., of Newcastle. 
 
 This family of Cole rose almost, per saltum, from the 
 smithy to the baronetage ! Towards the close of the six- 
 teenth century, there was living in the town of Gateshead 
 one James Cole, who worked as a smith there ; and within 
 less than fifty years after, his children and grandchildren 
 were amongst the most affluent of the resident gentlemen 
 of the county of Durham, Thomas Cole, his son, dying 
 worth an immense sum in bills and mortgages; and Ralph 
 Cole, his grandson, being able to purchase the Nevilles' 
 lordly castle of Brancepeth. 
 
 The smith's descendants ranked now amongst the lead- 
 ing gentlemen of the Palatinate ; formed alliances with 
 such families as the Liddells of Ravensworth, and the 
 Foulis* of Ingleby ; and were raised to a baronetcy as 
 " Cole of Brancepeth," in 1640. The second Baronet, 
 Sir Ralph Cole, represented the city of Durham in parlia- 
 ment, and commanded the Durham Regiment of Militia ; 
 he had a great love for the fine arts, and is included by 
 Walpole in his Catalogue of Painters. His master was no 
 less a personage than the great Vandyke ; but the taste 
 proved an expensive one, and resulted in great injury to his 
 fortune. After him, the family fell as suddenly as it rose :
 
 24 LANDLESS LORDS AND BARONETS. 
 
 the descent from the lordly halls of Brancepeth to the 
 mean room of a lowly house in Durham was as rapid as 
 the ascent from the smithy : the grandchildren of the 
 connoisseur of the Fine Arts, the pupil of Vandyke, the 
 accomplished Sir Ralph Cole, were utterly destitute in 
 landless poverty and disregarded obscurity ; the last of 
 them, Sir Mark Cole, dying in such abject want that he 
 had to be buried in Crossgate, Durham, at the expense of 
 his cousin, Sir Ralph Milbank.
 
 TUB VICISSITUDES OP PEERAGE TITLES. 25 
 
 iitissitots of |etw0e fiila 
 
 " Miremur periisse homines ? monumenta fatiscunt, 
 Mora etiam saxis nominibusque venit." AUSONIPS. 
 
 THE historic dignities in the English Peerage, which the 
 general reader is most familiar with, and which afford the 
 most remarkable instances of the mutabilities of fortune^ 
 are the Royal Dukedoms of Clarence, Cambridge, Glou- 
 cester, and York, and the old and illustrious titles of 
 Warwick, Salisbury, Norfolk, Shrewsbury, Northumber- 
 land, "Westmorland, Devon, Clifford, Dudley, Pembroke, 
 Dorset, Kent, Oxford, March, Bedford, Somerset, Leicester, 
 Buckingham, Essex, and Huntingdon. Of these, Norfolk, 
 Shrewsbury, Bedford, Devon, Somerset, and Huntingdon 
 derive their chief historical pre-eminence from the families 
 of the present actual possessors j but the chief glory of 
 Warwick, Pembroke, Salisbury, Westmorland, Leicester, 
 Dudley, Buckingham, and Essex must be attributed to the 
 earlier wearers of those brilliant coronets. Dorset; Kent, 
 Oxford, Gloucester, Monmouth, Clarence, and Sussex are 
 all extinct or attainted, and at present do not give desig- 
 nations to any existing peers. There are seven of our titles 
 taken from places which were never, like Tankerville, or 
 other Norman baronies, incorporated with the dominions 
 of our monarchs. Of these, I cannot account for the in-
 
 26 THE VICISSITUDES OF PEERAGE TITLES. 
 
 troduction of Amiens. Lovaine has been chosen in me- 
 mory of the descent of the ancient Percies from the Dukes 
 of Lovaine and Counts of Brabant, from whose ancient 
 city of Lovaine, now Louvain, their ancestor was surnamed 
 De Lovaine, before he wedded the richly-portioned heiress of 
 Percy. All the other foreign places which figure in our rolls 
 of titles have been the scenes of martial achievements. Ma- 
 hon commemorates the gallant capture of Port Mahon, and 
 with it the conquest of Minorca, in 1708, by James, first 
 Earl Stanhope. It is unnecessary to remind my readers 
 whence Wellington got the title of Douro, or what claim 
 Jervis, Nelson, and Duncan have to St. Vincent, Trafalgar, 
 or Camperdown. 
 
 Under the Tudors, and during the latter times of the 
 Plantagenets, the House of Lord i did not comprise more 
 than from fifty to sixty peers. wrtenay, Howard, and 
 Percy Devon, Norfolk, and Northumberland were all 
 restored by Queen Mary, who made besides six new crea- 
 tions the Viscounty of Montague and the Baronies of 
 North of Kirtling, Howard of Effingham, Williams of 
 Thame, Chandos of Sudley, and Hastings of Loughbo- 
 rough. At the death of Queen Elizabeth the number of the 
 Peers was about sixty, composed of nineteen Earls, one Vis- 
 count, and some forty Barons, nearly forty of which titles 
 have since perished. " Queen Elizabeth/' says Mr. HL:I- 
 nay, in his admirable "Essays," "was remarkable for 
 keeping the fountain of honour locked up, and the key in 
 her royal pocket." Many of the dignities she did confer 
 were honourably bestowed. Sackville, the statesman, the 
 scholar, and the poet, was made a peer ; so was Cecil, the
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP PEERAGE TITLES. 27 
 
 ablest of ministers ; and so was Compton, the head of a 
 great feudal family, and the possessor of so vast an estate 
 that, it is said, if it remained undiminished in the present 
 day in the hands of his representative, it would be the 
 greatest in the kingdom. 
 
 Elizabeth's successor, James I., has, on the contrary, 
 been blamed for his lavish profusion of honours, and a 
 charge brought against him, with too much truth, I fear, 
 of venality in their disposal. Still, however, many a well- 
 known coronet was added by the first English monarch of 
 the Stuarts, especially those of Leicester (Sydney), Suffolk, 
 Wallingford, Spencer (Suuderland), Denbigh, Bridgewater, 
 Devonshire, Petre, Gerrard, Denny, and Arundel of War- 
 dour. Charles I. raised to Earldoms several Viscounts 
 and Barons: thus giving to the Peerage Roll, among 
 others, the titles of Berkshire, Danby, Manchester, 
 Stamford, Winchilsea, Banbury, Norwich, Peterborough, 
 Chesterfield, Strafford, and Sunderland. He made also 
 many new peers, generally selected from the most ancient 
 and best descended of the gentry, such as the Savages 
 of Rocksavage, the Tuftons of Tufton, the Brudenells of 
 Leicestershire, the Belasyses of Yorkshire, the Lovelaces 
 of Berkshire, the Pierreponts of Nottinghamshire, the 
 Gorings of Sussex, and the Byrons of Rochdale. Several of 
 Charles the Second's new creations were of good old 
 English stock, and some, of families which had become 
 enriched or advanced by commerce, professional services, or 
 prosperous alliances. Perhaps the best born was the great- 
 grandson of " Belted Will Howard," by the great heiress of 
 the Dacres of the North, CHARLES HOWARD, whom th-
 
 28 THE VICISSITUDES OF PEERAGE TITLES. 
 
 King made Baron Dacre of Gillesland, Viscount Howard 
 of Morpeth, and EARL of CARLISLE. To the Merry 
 Monarch we owed also the coronets of Cornwallis, Lang- 
 dale, Halifax, Clifford of Chudleigh, Dartmouth, &c. 
 JAMES II., in the four troubled years of his reign, restored 
 the Viscounty of Stafford the most unjustly attainted of 
 titles ; made Catherine Sidley, Countess of Dorchester for 
 life ; created the Dukedom of Berwick, (afterwards so cele- 
 brated in European warfare), and added five new Baronies 
 all of which are extinct, save Churchill, conferred 
 on the great general, and Waldegrave, still enjoyed 
 by the representative of that ancient house. It was 
 also from James II. that the Ratcliffes derived their 
 luckless title of Derwentwater, and the Herberts their 
 Marquessate of Powis. WILLIAM III. raised to the 
 peerage twenty-one personages, including his Dutch fa- 
 vourites, Bentinck, Keppel, Nassau, Schomberg, and Au- 
 verquerque ; and several of the leading Whig families, such 
 as Lowther, Somers, Vane, Fermor, and Ashburnham, 
 the last quaintly designated by old Fuller as of "stu- 
 pendous antiquity;" in this reign also each of the 
 three great Whig lords, Bedford, Devonshire, and Car- 
 marthen, received a Ducal Coronet. 
 
 Among Queen Anne's new creations were the well-born 
 and well-endowed Granvilles, Pelhams,Cowpers, Harcourts, 
 Harleys, Herveys, Leveson-Gowers, Willoughbys, Ba- 
 thursts, and St. Johns. At the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century, the House of Peers reckoned but a 
 hundred and seventy members, of which nearly one half 
 has passed away. In GEORGE the First's time a less regard
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP PEERAGE TITLES. 29 
 
 began to be paid to birth or hereditary pretension ; the 
 political and legal elements predominating. Still in 
 this reign originated the Baronies of Cobham, Coningsby, 
 Romney, Onslow, Cadogan, and Walpole, and the Vis- 
 counties of Torrington and Falmouth. Forty is about 
 the number of GEORGE II.'s peers; but such had been 
 the decay amongst old titles that neither this increase 
 nor that of his predecessor did more than barely 
 counterbalance extinctions, and left the House much 
 in the same position as they found it. Lawyers and states- 
 men were duly honoured by the house of Hanover; and 
 the Second George chose from the bench no less than five 
 peers, Raymond, Hardwicke, Talbot, Mansfield, and Hen- 
 ley. The present Dukedom of Northumberland, the pre- 
 sent Earldom of Fitzwilliam, and the late Earldom of 
 Egi'emont, three of the most powerful titles, were George 
 II.'s creations. 
 
 The same moderate and discriminating selection marked 
 the first twenty-four years of the reign of GEORGE III., 
 and chose for additions to the peerage the great Com- 
 moners, Grosvenor of Eaton, Curzon of Kedleston, Eliot 
 of Port Eliot, Vernon of Sudbury, and Bagot of Blith- 
 field. After 1784- a new era, however, commenced in 
 peerage annals. Political purposes, and the consequent 
 lavish bestowal of the highest honours of the Crown, in- 
 creased the roll of the Lords to such an extent, that at 
 the death of GEORGE IV., new peerages, to the number 
 of two hundred and thirty-five, had been added. WIL- 
 LIAM IV. raised the Marquesses of Stafford and Cleve- 
 land to the rank of Dukes, and gave Earldoms to Col. 
 FitzClarence, Lord George Cavendish, and Mr. Lambton,
 
 30 DUKEDOM OF CLARENCE. 
 
 of Durham, besides elevating to the same grade several 
 peers of lesser degree. He also created one Viscounty, 
 Canterbury, and a goodly array of baronies. Among her 
 present Majesty's creations, occur warriors, statesmen, and 
 lawyers, of great eminence, besides several of the represen- 
 tatives of good old county families, sucB as Coke of Nor- 
 folk, Wrottesley of Staffordshire, Methuen of Wilts, 
 Egerton of Tatton ; French of French Park, and Morgan 
 of Tredegar ; and one Peer, Macaulay, for ever illustrious 
 in literature. Of these creations of the existing and 
 the late Sovereign, eight have already become extinct, 
 namely, Colborne, Dinorben, Sydenham, Langdale, Wes- 
 tern, Milford, Beauvale, and Macaulay ; the Earldom of 
 Burlington has merged in the Dukedom of Devonshire, 
 the Barony of Panmure in the Earldom of Dalhousie, and 
 the Barony of Godolphin in the Dukedom of Leeds. 
 
 It would be manifestly impossible, in my limited space, 
 to make an analysis of the vicissitudes of the various titles 
 which have been created in the peerage. Suffice it to 
 indicate a few of the more remarkable instances : 
 
 THE DUKEDOM OP CLARENCE, four times conferred, 
 never passed to an heir : it was enjoyed by three Princes 
 of the Royal House of Plantagenet, and by one of the 
 Royal House of Guelph. The first possessor was LIONEL 
 PLANTAGENET, Edward the Third's son, through whom 
 the house of York derived its right to the Crown. The 
 second was Thomas Plantagenet, Henry the fifth's brother, 
 who was slain at Beauge by Sir John Swinton 
 
 " And Swinton placed the lance in rest, 
 That bumbled erst the sparkling crest 
 Of Clarences
 
 DUKEDOM OF CAMBRIDGE. 31 
 
 And the third was George Plantagenet, K.G., " false, fleet- 
 ing, perjured Clarence," King Edward IV.'s brother, 
 drowned, according to tradition, in a butt of malmsey. 
 His son, Prince Edward, Earl of Warwick, the last male 
 Plantagenet, was beheaded on Tower Hill, in 1499. With 
 him withered the final buddings of the White Rose. The 
 attempts of Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel proved 
 to Henry VII. that he could never be assured of his 
 Crown while one branch of the tree of York flourished. 
 The adherents of that race of heroes were silent and sorrow- 
 ing, but still brooding, watchful, and valiant, and thus it 
 was, that it became the policy of the Tudors to destroy the 
 Yorkist nobility. 
 
 From the death of George Plantagenet, the title of 
 Clarence was never again used, until conferred by King 
 George III. on his third son, afterwards King William IV. 
 
 The title of CAMBRIDGE suffered many a vicissitude. 
 Although nine times created, it always, it may be said, 
 kept royal company, and frequently shared royal mis- 
 fortune, for Hamilton was no exception to its royalty, 
 James, Earl of Arran, (grandfather of James, second Mar- 
 quess of Hamilton, and first Earl of Cambridge), having 
 been declared heir presumptive to the Crown of Scotland. 
 
 As an Earldom, it was first conferred by Edward III. 
 on his brother-in-law, William Due de Juliers, and subse- 
 quently by the same monarch on his fifth son, Edmond 
 of Langley. After the Plantagenets, the Scotch Mar- 
 quesses of Hamilton enjoyed the title ; but in the time of 
 Charles II. it again became unquestionably Royal. Henry
 
 32 DUKEDOM OF GLOUCESTER. 
 
 of Oaklands, brother of the King, when made Duke of 
 Gloucester, had the Earldom of Cambridge as his second 
 honour. As a Dukedom, it was first conferred in succes- 
 sion on the four infant children of James, Duke of York, 
 afterwards James II. ; but they all died in infancy, and 
 the title remained unappropriated until conferred, by 
 Queen Anne, on George, Elector of Hanover, and the heirs 
 male of his body. This creation raises in ry mind a curi- 
 ous genealogical question. At the accession of George I., 
 the dignity became vested in the Crown; but it seems a 
 very doubtful point whether at the death of King William 
 IV. the Dukedom did not devolve on the Duke of Cum- 
 berland, he becoming then heir male of the body of the 
 original grantee. 
 
 The fact of the same title having been since bestowed 
 on another, cannot affect the right of the original heir, for 
 it is not uncommon to see two or more peerages of the 
 same name co-existent. The argument against the Duke of 
 Cumberland's (King of Hanover's) right, would be that 
 if a dignity once vested in the Crown, the claim of the 
 heir, under the patent by which it was first created, was 
 thereby extinguished; but it is not at all certain that 
 such an objection would be tenable. The case is a singular 
 and, I believe, an unprecedented one. 
 
 THE DUKEDOM OF GLOUCESTER seems to have been 
 associated in early times with a peculiar doom, the first 
 five possessors of the title having met with violent deaths. 
 Thomas of Woodstock, sixth son of King Edward III., 
 was the first who ever bore the title ; and the last Planta-
 
 DUKEDOMS OF YORK AND KENT. 33 
 
 genet who held it was " crooked-back" RICHARD, after- 
 wards King of England. It was again revived in the 
 person of a Royal Prince, when HENRY STUART, youngest 
 son of King Charles I., received the honour, and it was 
 borne (though no patent passed the seal) by Prince Wil- 
 liam, son of GEORGE and ANNE, Prince and Princess of 
 Denmark. Once again, and for the last time, the Duke- 
 dom of Gloucester was conferred on Prince William 
 Henry, younger brother of King George III. 
 
 In the time of the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, 
 YORK conferred the title of Duke on eight Royal Princes; 
 two of them were killed in battle, one was murdered, and 
 four became Kings of England; one of whom was be- 
 headed, and another exiled. It was given originally 
 to Edmund of Langley, and borne successively by his 
 descendants until it vested in the Crown on the suc- 
 cession of Edward IV., by whom it was bestowed on his 
 second son, one of the ill-fated children murdered in the 
 Tower. 
 
 Henry VIII., Charles I., and James II., each bore this 
 title, and George I. gave it to his brother, Ernest Augus- 
 tus, who died without issue in 1728; and once again it 
 was resorted to under George III., when His Majesty as- 
 signed it to his brother, Prince Edward Augustus, and 
 afterwards to his second son, Prince Frederick, who died, 
 heir presumptive to the throne, in 1827. 
 
 KENT, rendered famous as an Earldom by the Planta- 
 genets, the Hollands, and the Greys, and associated with 
 
 D
 
 34 EARLDOM OF WARWICK. 
 
 all the varying fortunes of those gallant races, was only 
 once conferred, as a Royal Dukedom, and that once on 
 Prince EDWARD, fourth son of King George III., and father 
 of Her Most Gracious Majesty. The creation of thf 
 Dukedom of Kent occurred in 1799, at an auspicious 
 moment just after that repulse of Bonaparte at Acre by 
 Sir Sidney Smith, which brought the earliest dawn of our 
 future glory over the then darkness of the struggle with 
 France. It was indeed a title big with destiny. It came 
 amid the first gleam of victory, and the greatest was behind. 
 The Duke died, no son of his succeeding, but he be- 
 queathed an inestimable boon to the nation a reign of 
 brightness and a race of princes, on which England now 
 rests her hope, her fondness, and her pride. 
 
 A chaplet of laurel and of cypress twines round the 
 Coronet of WARWICK. Tradition, History, and Romance 
 claim it each for its own. Enthroned when Henry de 
 Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, was crowned King of the 
 Isle of Wight by Henry VI., it was rendered most illustrious 
 by Richard Neville, the stout Earl of Warwick, who, 
 though no King himself, made others Kings ; and most 
 tragic when the last male heir of the House of Plantagenet, 
 Edward, Earl of Warwick, bora heir to the throne, was 
 cruelly murdered. The story of the Earldom while held 
 by the Dudleys, fills a romantic chapter in Peerage 
 Annals, and has served as materials for the novelist and 
 the poet. Thus, for nearly three centuries and a half, the 
 grand old Earldom of Warwick was associated with the 
 achievements of the Beauchamps, the Nevilles, the Plau-
 
 EARLDOM OP SALISBURY. 35 
 
 tagenets, and the Dudleys. Its next appearance was its 
 decadence: in 1618, James I. conferred, without rhyme 
 or reason, this most historic title on Robert, Lord Rich, 
 whose immediate ancestor, at the very time Henry de 
 Beauchamp was being crowned King of the Isle of Wight, 
 was making a fortune as an honest mercer in the city of 
 London ! At the extinction, however, of the Riches in 
 1 759, justice was in some measure done to the rights of 
 birth : the Earldom of Warwick was then given to the 
 Grevilles, in whom flowed a good deal of the old Beau- 
 champ blood, and in whom had vested Warwick Castle 
 and its dependencies, ever since the Dudleys forfeited that 
 fine inheritance. x 
 
 Warwick's kindred Earldom of SALISBURY passed 
 through four families before it was conferred on the an- 
 cestor of its present holder all famous in the days of 
 chivalry Devereux, Montacute, Neville, and Plantagenet. 
 The last inheritrix was Margaret Plantagenet, whose tragic 
 story I have told in another chapter. There were eleven 
 Earls of Salisbury before her time, and of them four were 
 slain in battle, two beheaded, and one murdered. After 
 these stormy times, nearly a century elapsed before the 
 Earldom of Salisbury was again conferred, and then it 
 was given by James I. to the youngest son of the famous 
 Lord Burleigh. This, the first Earl of Salisbury, of the 
 house of Cecil, was himself a distinguished statesman, and 
 attained to the highest honour ; but he seems to have de- 
 rived little happiness from his earthly advancement. In 
 his last illness, he was heard to say to Sir Walter Cope, 
 
 D 2
 
 86 EARLDOM OF SHREWSBURY. 
 
 " Ease and pleasure quake to hear of death ; but my life, 
 full of cares and miseries, desireth to be dissolved." He 
 had some years previously (1603) addressed a letter to 
 Sir James Harington, the poet, in pretty much the same 
 tone. " Good Knight," saith the minister, " rest content, 
 and give heed to one that hath sorrowed in the bright 
 lustre of a court, and gone heavily on even the best-seem- 
 ing fair ground. 'Tis a great task to prove one's honesty 
 and yet not mar one's fortune. You have tasted a little 
 thereof in our blessed queen's time, who was more than a 
 man, and, in truth, sometimes less than a woman. I wish 
 I waited now in your presence-chamber, with ease at my 
 food and rest in my bed. I am pushed from the shore of 
 comfort, and know not where the winds and waves of a 
 court will bear me. I know it bringeth little comfort on 
 earth ; and he is, I reckon, no wise man that looketh this 
 way to heaven/' 
 
 SHREWSBURY, the first English Earldom, after Arunclel, 
 which merges in the Dukedom of Norfolk, dates from 
 1442, and is inherited by the present Lord from his direct 
 ancestor, the gallant Talbot, "the great Alcidcs of the 
 field," than whom " a stouter champion never handled 
 sword." How marvel, romance, and mystery were brought 
 out in the late great Shrewsbury case ! For two hundred 
 years, the Earldom has never descended from father to son, 
 and, at the death of the late youthful Earl Bertram, his 
 male heir was found in the descendant of a branch that had 
 separated from the parent stem at the time of the wars of 
 the Roses ! In the course of the proceedings, a senior line
 
 EARLDOM OF DERBY. 37 
 
 was traced down to a Talbot, who was living in obscurity 
 in St. Anne's, Soho, and whose representative, had his 
 family not passed away in poverty and oblivion, would 
 have been the senior Earl of England. Also came in 
 proof, the mysteriously effaced tomb at Bromsgrove of 
 Sir John Talbot, recording the existence of those two sons 
 whose disappearance somewhat resembled that of the 
 Princes in the Tower. One of these was said to have 
 wandered into and to have founded a Talbot branch in 
 Ireland. Then there were the Talbots who died abroad 
 soldiers of fortune : they might have had issue, but there 
 was sign of none. The obscurity of a legend hung on all 
 but the line of the present Earl. 
 
 DERBY, the next in precedence, has, since the Stanleys' 
 acquisition of the Earldom, been transmitted down in an 
 unchequered course, and through a race of nobles of pre- 
 eminent celebrity, over a space of nearly four hundred 
 years a remarkable exception to the changeful career of 
 other titles of equal antiquity and eminence. At this 
 moment it is still held by a Stanley, whom history 
 hereafter will probably regard as the greatest of his 
 name. 
 
 "The motto, sans changer, used for so many centuries 
 by the elder line of the noble house of Stanley, seems to 
 have been adopted in a prophetic spirit. Invariably honour- 
 able, just, bounteous, hospitable, valiant, and magnificent ; 
 above all, invariably loyal ; that family may perhaps safely 
 challenge history and tradition to show one defective link 
 in its long chain of succession, to point out a single stain
 
 BARONY OF DUDLEY. 
 
 on the purity of its public conduct, or on its uniform 
 exercise of the mild and graceful duties of private life."* 
 
 THE BARONY OP DUDLEY, created more than five cen- 
 turies ago,has had many ups and downs in the course of its 
 long career, and now rests in abeyance, partly, in two 
 obscure nooks of England. The family of Sutton, who 
 acquired Dudley Manor and Castle by marriage with the 
 heiress of De Somerie, was ennobled temp. Edward III., 
 and the barony thus acquired, eventually passed, temp. 
 Charles II., through an heiress, Frances, Baroness Dudley, 
 wife of Sir Humble Ward, to the Ward family. Having 
 remained with them for a century or more, it became 
 vested in the Leas, of Halesowen Grange ; and on the 
 death, in 1757, of Ferdinaudo Dudley Lea, fourteenth 
 Baron, it fell into abeyance amongst his Lordship's sisters. 
 One of these sisters, Frances, became the wife of Walter 
 Woodcock, Esq., " Justice Woodcock," as he was called, to 
 whose descendants Dame Fortune has been most chary in 
 the distribution of her favours. Their daughter, Anne, be- 
 came the wife of William Wilmot ; and another daughter, 
 Mary, was married to Benjamin Smart. Some seventeen 
 or eighteen years ago, the traveller on the Dudley road, 
 on reaching the toll-gate of Cooper's Bank, and depositing 
 the usual fees of the pike in the hands of that inflexible 
 personage, the toll-bar-keeper, little dreamt that the poor 
 man following this lowly occupation was next brother of 
 one of the coheirs of the Barony of Dudley ! But so it 
 was : George Wilmot, the toll-bar-keeper of Cooper's 
 * Edmund Lodge.
 
 BARONY OF DUDLEY. 39 
 
 Bank, was a descendant of the very Lords Dudley whose 
 proud castle towered in the distance ; and when he died, 
 on Christmas Day, 1846, his remains were borne from the 
 turnpike gate to Dudley, and deposited by the ashes of 
 his kindred. One nephew, Daniel Sinclair Wilmot, filled 
 the office of second clerk of the Customs at Bristol, and 
 another, John K. Wilmot, (son of his eldest brother, 
 Pynson,) at this moment one of the CO-HEIRS OF THE 
 BARONY OF DUDLEY, is residing in an humble station at 
 No. 1, Cleveland Grove, Mile End. 
 
 At Oatenfield Farm, Halesowen, in Worcestershire, 
 another and a senior coheir of the Barony resides Joseph 
 Smart, a worthy farmer ; and at the town of Halesowen, 
 his only brother, Robert Smart, carries on the business 
 and trade of grazier and butcher. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Smart has in his possession an ancient and 
 curious family record, tracing his descent from the old 
 Lords Dudley, and setting forth his royal line through 
 the Suttons, the Seymours, the Greys, and the Brandons 
 from Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. After which 
 comes the following curious inventory : " An account of 
 jewels and gold rings in the possession of Walter Wood- 
 cock, Esq., in an oak chest at Dovehouse Fields, in the 
 parish of Salop: 1. a mourning ring, with inscription en- 
 graved within it, * Edward Lord Dudley Ward obt. 6 Sept. 
 1731, aged 27;' also three gold ear-rings, apparently dia- 
 monds ; another gold ring with large diamonds, supposed 
 to have been his said lordship's mother's, Lady Dudley 
 Ward, of Dudley Castle, and by her given to her daughter, 
 Frances Ward, who married with William Lea, of the
 
 40 PEERAGE CLAIMS. 
 
 Grange, Hales Owen, by whom she had issue ;" and then 
 follows the genealogy of her descendants to the present day. 
 Where can we find a more striking contrast than this 
 mournful tale of the Barony of Dudley ? The history of 
 that famous title would, in its first chapter, speak of chi- 
 valry, warlike achievement, and magnificent hospitality in 
 the ancient castle from which the Barony took its name. 
 The last chapter would tell the story of the Halesowen 
 farmer, the custom-house clerk, and the toll-bar-keeper, 
 all resident within range of that very castle. 
 
 PEERAGE CLAIMS are replete with curious and interesting 
 revelations, and contain the story of many a Peerage Vicis- 
 situde. Even within the last half century, the chance pe- 
 rusal of an old patent by an antiquarian barrister, and the 
 casual meeting of the ordnance storekeeper at Enniskillen 
 with a shrewd Irish attorney, restored to the roll of the 
 Lords two of its oldest and most historic titles, DEVON 
 and HUNTINGDON. 
 
 The earliest case of the discussion in the House of 
 Lords of a CLAIM TO A PEERAGE occurred in the eleventh 
 year of the reign of Henry VI. But the right to such 
 titles as were not annexed to manorial or other possessions 
 was formerly determined before the Lord High Constable 
 and Earl Marshal, not according to the rules of common 
 law, but by the regulations and customs of chivalry. 
 From the decision of this court an appeal lay to the 
 Crown ; but on the abolition of the office of High Con- 
 stable, it became the practice to submit the claims at once 
 to the Sovereign, which course was first adopted about
 
 EARLDOM OP BAN BURY. 41 
 
 the time of Henry VIII. In the reign of his successor, 
 commissioners were appointed to decide the claims to 
 peerages ; but the practice of referring them to the House 
 of Lords (as in the time of Henry VI.) being again 
 adopted, it was afterwards generally followed ; and since 
 the reign of Charles I. the House of Peers has become the 
 tribunal where such claims are decided, when the Crown 
 does not act upon the report of the Attorney-General only. 
 
 The claim to the Earldom of Banbury was perhaps the 
 most singular and important in the whole catalogue, whe- 
 ther estimated by the extraordinary length of time more 
 than a century and a half it remained undecided, or the 
 conflict of opinion to which it gave rise between the first 
 tribunal in the realm, the House of Lords, and the first 
 law judge, the celebrated Lord Chief Justice Holt, re- 
 garded by his contemporaries as the profoundest lawyer of 
 his time. Upon the decease of the Earl of Banbury in 
 1632, the post-mortem inquisition found that he died 
 without issue, but left a widow, Elizabeth, his last wife, 
 surviving. His honours were then deemed EXTINCT, and 
 his estates passed to his collateral heirs. Within five 
 weeks, however, after her husband's death, the Countess 
 of Banbury married Lord Vaux of Harrowden, and brought 
 forward two sons, whom she stated were the offspring of 
 her first marriage, born during the lifetime of Lord Ban- 
 bury. The elder died young; but the younger took his 
 seat in the Convention Parliament as Earl of Banbury, 
 but was not summoned in the parliament which met in 
 the following May.
 
 42 EARLDOM OF BAXBURY. 
 
 The case gave rise to numerous petitions presented to 
 the Crown, and discussed in the House of Lords for more 
 than a hundred and fifty years, in which the main question 
 was, whether the children of Lady Banbury were the issue 
 of Lord Vaux, and not of her first husband, the aged Lord 
 Banbury ? 
 
 In the course of the proceedings there arose the cele- 
 brated conflict of authority between the House of Lords 
 and the King's Bench. Charles, Claiming to be Lord 
 Banbury, was tried in 1692, for the murder in a duel of 
 his brother-in-law, Captain Lawson. He was arraigned 
 as " Charles Knollys, Esq.," and pleaded in abatement, 
 that it was a misnomer, he being Earl of Banbury. The 
 King's Bench quashed the indictment, holding that the 
 prisoner was Earl of Banbury. But the Lords, who had 
 previously decided the contrary, required the attendance 
 of the Chief Justice Holt, and asked him " to give their 
 Lordships an account why the Court of King's Bench had 
 acted as it had done in this affair." To which the Chief 
 Justice made this memorable answer : " I acknowledge the 
 thing ; there was such a plea, and such a replication. I 
 gave my judgment according to my conscience. We are 
 trusted with the law. We are to be protected, not 
 arraigned, and are not to give reasons for our judgment, 
 therefore I desire to be excused giving any." After 
 much discussion, and many adjournments, the contest 
 terminated at last in the abandonment by the House of 
 its fruitless struggle with the Court of Common Pleas. 
 Eventually the Lords, after a prolonged hearing in 1813, 
 decided against the claim.
 
 EARLDOM OF DEVON. 43 
 
 A History of the Earldom of DEVON from its first 
 creation, by King Henry I., down to its recovery in 1835, 
 would be a memorial full of romance and vicissitude. 
 Conferred though it was, at various periods and by 
 various creations, on the families of De Redvers and 
 Courtenay, there is an unbroken chain of descent con- 
 necting the Earl of Devon of Henry I.'s time with the Earl 
 of Devon of the reign of Queen Victoria. At present, it 
 is the fifth Earldom on the roll of the Peerage, dating 
 from the creation of 1553 ; but it would be the first, 
 were it not for the attainder of the earlier creations. 
 Even the last Patent was supposed to have expired with 
 Edward, Earl of Devon, and Marquess of Exeter, who 
 died at Padua in 1556. For the long space of two hun- 
 dred and seventy-five years, this brilliant coronet was left 
 unclaimed ; and so little did its rightful heirs, the Cour- 
 tenays of Powderham Castle, know of its existence, that 
 Sir William Courtenay, who was in reality Earl of Devon, 
 sought and obtained from George III. a simple Viscounty. 
 It was reserved for the research and skill of my late dis- 
 tinguished friend, Sir Harris Nicolas, to resuscitate one of 
 the most illustrious titles in the peerage of England : he 
 discovered, while perusing some old records, the Patent 
 creating the Earldom of Devon ; and he at once perceived 
 that the usual addition " de corpore" was omitted, either 
 accidentally or by design. The absence of these two im- 
 portant words extended the limitation to collateral heirs- 
 male, and thus entitled Viscount Courtenay to assert his 
 right to the Earldom of his ancestors. Sir Harris con- 
 ducted the case before the Lords, and lived to see his
 
 44 EARLDOM OP HUNTINGDON. 
 
 friend and client, the late Earl of Devon, iu the full 
 enjoyment of a peerage, the recovery of which was mainly 
 owing to his genealogical ability. 
 
 I scarcely know of any more amusing story than the 
 narrative of the adventures of Mr. Nugent Bell, in quest 
 of evidence to establish the right of his friend Captain 
 Hastings, R.N., to the ancient EARLDOM OF HUNTINGDON, 
 which had lain dormant from the death of the tenth Earl, 
 in 1789. The singularity about the case is, that it sue- 
 ceeded in despite of the claimant himself, who, but one 
 brief year before he was installed as fourth earl of the 
 kingdom, had hardly any idea of his own position. He 
 was a retired, unassuming naval officer, holding a small 
 official appointment in a remote provincial town, contented 
 with the station of a private gentleman, not dreaming of 
 either purple robes or golden coronets, and was indebted 
 for his success altogether to the exertions and perseverance 
 of his professional adviser, Mr. Nugent Bell, who under- 
 took the afiair on his own responsibility, and entirely at 
 his own expense. 
 
 On the back of the letter conveying his acquiescence 
 in the proceedings, Captain Hastings added, as a post- 
 script, " By all things good, you are mad !" so romantic 
 and visionary did the recovery of the Earldom seem to 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Bell proceeded at once, 17th August, 1817, to 
 England, and entered upon his arduous undertaking, ac- 
 companied by his friend, Mr. W. Jameson. His first 
 visit was to Castle Donnington, where he had a very
 
 EARLDOM OP HUNTINODpN. 45 
 
 unsatisfactory interview with a solicitor named Dalby, who 
 had long been concerned for the noble family of Hastings, 
 and who was in communication with the Marchioness of 
 Hastings, living then at Donnington Park. The next day 
 he met with a Mr. Needham, from whom he acquired 
 much valuable information; but the most valuable he 
 obtained, and that which put him upon the right road, 
 was from an accidental rencontre with an old domestic of 
 the family. While seated on the outside of a coach, in 
 travelling through Leicestershire, and just, he says, as his 
 spirits were about to go to pieces amidst the quicksands 
 of disappointment, a flag hove in sight, which he hastened 
 to hail, and in a few minutes was alongside an old woman 
 in a market-cart, with whom he jocularly made up an 
 acquaintance, and obtained leave to accompany her for 
 some distance on the road, in a vacant chair he espied in 
 the vehicle. This old crone turned out, oddly enough, to 
 be an ancient dependent of the Hastings family ; and on 
 her garrulity Mr. Bell founded the basis of his future 
 success. 
 
 This extraordinary adventure having furnished the re- 
 quired clue, Mr. Bell pursued it indefatigably through 
 churches and churchyards, examining sextons, consulting 
 registers, and deciphering tombstones, until, at length, he 
 was enabled to draw up such a case as produced from Sir 
 Samuel Romilly a satisfactory opinion in favour of the 
 claim, and a Report from Sir Samuel Shepherd, the Attor- 
 ney-General, to the effect that the claimant had made out 
 his right ; whereupon, on the 7th of January, 1819, just a 
 year and a half after Captain Hastings had, in fear and
 
 46 BARONY OF WILLOUGHBY OF PARHAM. 
 
 trembling, given his reluctant consent, and Mr. Bell had 
 started on his apparently Quixotic search in pursuit of a 
 peerage, a writ of summons was issued, commanding the 
 attendance in the ensuing parliament of Captain Hastings, 
 by the style, title, and dignity of EARL OF HUNTINGDON. 
 
 The Barony of WILLOUGHBY OF PARHAM was conferred 
 by letters patent, in 1547, on Sir William Willoughby, 
 Knight, and the heirs male of his body, and devolved, at 
 his death, on his son and heir, Charles, second Lord, who 
 had with other children three sons, who all left issue. 
 In the descendants of the eldest son. the barony continued 
 vested until the decease, without issue, of the tenth lord in 
 1679. At his Lordship's decease, the title ought by right 
 to have gone to the heir of Sir Ambrose, the second son 
 of the second lord ; but as his branch had emigrated to 
 America, it was presumed to have become extinct, and the 
 Barony of Willoughby of Parham was adjudged erro- 
 neously to the son of the second lord's third son, and that 
 personage and his descendants continued to sit in parlia- 
 ment as Lords Willoughby of Parham. Meanwhile the 
 descendant of Sir Ambrose came back from America, 
 proved his pedigree, and thus created a remarkable state 
 of things. He, the true lord, was excluded from his rights 
 as a peer, while his cousin, the false lord, sat and voted. In 
 course of time, however, right prevailed. " Dormit ali- 
 quando jus, moritur nunquam" The male line of the false 
 lord expired, and Henry Willoughby, Sir Ambrose's repre- 
 sentative, claimed his peerage, and had it adjudged to him 
 by a memorable decision of the House of Lords, which ad-
 
 ATTAINDER. 47 
 
 mitted that the intermediate lords had " sat contrary to 
 the right and truth of the case." 
 
 This decision, one should have supposed, would have 
 ended all perplexity connected with the title of Willoughby 
 of Parham. But it was not so. As the first false Lord 
 was summoned to Parliament under the erroneous pre- 
 sumption that he was a peer, and took his seat accordingly 
 under the writ, an independent Barony in fee was thereby 
 created, descendible to heirs general. For instance, when 
 the eldest son of an Earl is summoned up in the name of 
 a Barony not vested in his father, and it afterwards turns 
 out that the Earl had no such barony, then a substantive 
 barony by writ is created ; whereas, on the contrary, 
 had the Earl possessed a barony, the effect of the writ to 
 his heir-apparent would only be to accelerate the descent 
 of the dignity, and to make it still descendible according 
 to the original limitation. 
 
 There still being an heir-general of the false Lord 
 Willoughby, is not such heir-general, in this view of the 
 case, entitled to a barony in fee ? 
 
 ATTAINDER o'ershadows many an old and honoured title. 
 But for the forfeiture of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, the 
 father of Lady Jane Grey, the EARL of STAMFORD and 
 WARRINGTON would be MARQUESS of DORSET ; and but for 
 that of the ill-fated son of Charles II., the Duke of Buc- 
 cleuch would be Duke of Monmouth. It is probable that 
 if the attainder passed against the ruined Earl of West- 
 moreland in the time of Queen Elizabeth, were removed, 
 the Earl of Abergavenny might prove himself to be Earl
 
 48 IRISH TITLES. 
 
 of Westmoreland ; and it is not at all impossible that, if 
 forfeiture did not intervene, Mr. Marmion Ferrers, of 
 Baddesley Clinton, might establish, to the satisfaction of 
 the House of Lords, that he was male representative of the 
 Ferrers' family, and as such, the possessor of an EARLDOM 
 of DERBY, which would place him first amongst Earls 
 facile princeps ; and would create a curious coincidence. 
 The premier Earl, and the third Earl on the roll of the 
 Peerage, would be designated by the same title. 
 
 The disappearance of Irish titles has arisen principally 
 from the attainders and confiscations in that country. 
 But for these causes, the remarkable perpetuation of the 
 male descent among Irish families, would have preserved 
 the ancient nobility in Ireland to a far greater proportion- 
 ate extent than in either England or Scotland. As it is, 
 there remains, comparatively speaking, a much larger 
 number of the early creations in the Irish peerage than 
 we can find on the roll of the English nobility of the 
 same date. English titles and English families have be- 
 come, by the complete exhaustion of male heirs, altogether 
 extinct ; while in the sister island even those titles which 
 have passed away from the Irish peerage are probably 
 only dormant, and might be revived if the attainders were 
 removed, or if the power of genealogical research enabled 
 the inquirer to follow noble descents through the lowly 
 streams into which I believe some of the old Irish titles 
 have fallen. For instance, the present heir to the Earl- 
 dom of Thomond is, I am credibly informed, the descend- 
 ant of a farmer in the county of Kerry ; and the heir of the
 
 EARLDOMS OF KILDARE AND ORMONDE. 49 
 
 Earls of Desmond, if we knew him, would no doubt be 
 discovered in the same rank of life. 
 
 At the death of Henry VII., A.D. 1509, the Irish peer- 
 age consisted of four Earls, Kildare, Ormonde, Desmond and 
 Waterford; of three Viscounts, Buttevant, Gormanston, 
 and Roche of Fermoy; and of twelve Barons, Athenry, 
 Kinsale, Kerry, Slane, Delvin, Killeen, Howth, Port- 
 lester, Dunsany, Trimleston, Ratoathe, and Rathwier. 
 Substracting from these names the last two, which were 
 both granted to Englishmen, and are extinct, I think 
 I may safely assert that a male descendant of every one 
 of the others still exists. 
 
 After centuries of vicissitudes, and many an effort to de- 
 stroy it, by attainder, decapitation, and exile, the EARLDOM 
 of KILDARE, the oldest earldom in the united kingdom, is 
 still enjoyed by the representative of the Geraldines : 
 
 " When Capet seized the crown of France, their iron shields 
 
 were known, 
 
 And their sabre-dent struck terror on the banks of the Ga- 
 ronne. 
 
 But never then, nor thence till now, has falsehood or disgrace 
 Been seen to soil FitzGerald's plume or mantle in his face." 
 
 Only twelve years junior to the Earldom of Kildare, 
 its twin in renown, was its great rival ORMONDE, a 
 title equally interwoven with romance and history. The 
 acme of its political importance was in the time of the 
 Dukes of Ormonde, the charm of its romance in the 
 fierce period of its conflicts with the Irish chieftains, and 
 its feuds with the Geraldines of Desmond. One of the 
 purest characters of any age was the gallant Earl of Os-
 
 50 EARLDOMS OP KILDARE AND ORMONDE. 
 
 sory, at whose untimely death his bereaved father, the 
 Duke of Ormonde, so pathetically exclaimed, in answer 
 to an expression of condolence, " I would not exchange 
 my dead son for any living son in Christendom." It 
 was this same Earl of Ossory, who, after Blood s attempt 
 to kill the Duke of Ormonde an attempt which was 
 generally ascribed to the instigation of Buckingham, 
 addressed the Duke, while standing behind the King's 
 chair, in these emphatic words : " My lord, I know well 
 that you are at the bottom of this late attempt of Blood's 
 upon my father : and therefore I give you fair warning, if 
 my father comes to a violent death by sword or pistol, if 
 he dies by the hand of a ruffian, or the more secret way 
 of poison, I shall not be at a loss to know the real author 
 of it ! I shall consider you as the assassin. I shall 
 treat you as such, and I shall pistol you though you stood 
 behind the King's chair. And I tell you it in his Majes- 
 ty's presence, that you may be sure I will keep my 
 word." Ossory's only son was the great Duke of Or 
 monde, under whose attainder, by the English parliament, 
 the Earldom of Ormonde was supposed to have been 
 forfeited; but many a long year afterwards this was found 
 to be a false notion. A decision of the Irish parliament 
 declared that no proceeding of the English legislature 
 could affect an Irish dignity, and restored the Eai-ldom of 
 Ormonde and Viscounty of Thurles to John Butler of 
 Garry ricken, the grandfather of the late accomplished 
 ]\Iaiquess of Ormonde. 
 
 Almost cotemporaneous with Kildare and Ormonde was
 
 EARLDOM OF DESMOND. 51 
 
 an Earldom which has suffered, perhaps more than any 
 other, the severest reverses of fortune, the famous Geral- 
 dine EARLDOM of DESMOND. The rivalry of the FitzGe- 
 ralds of Desmond and the Butlers of Ormonde, the Irish 
 Guelphs and Gibbelines, forms a memorable episode in 
 the annals of Munster. Once, we are told, a reconcilia- 
 tion was effected, and the hostile chiefs agreed to shake 
 hands, but they took the precaution of doing so through 
 an aperture of an oak door, each fearing to be poignarded 
 by the other ! After the battle of Affane, on the banks 
 of the Black water, the Fitz Geralds were defeated, and 
 their leader made prisoner. While the victors were bearing 
 him away on their shoulders, Ormonde triumphantly ex- 
 claimed, " Where now is the great Earl of Desmond ?" 
 " Here," replied FitzGerald, " still in his proper place, on 
 the necks of the Butlers." In a former series of this work 
 I have entered minutely into the history of the ruin of the 
 house of Desmond ; suffice it here to state, that the last re- 
 cognized Earl became reduced to such great distress, that 
 for a considerable period he wandered among the bogs and 
 mountains of Kerry, until at last, through the treachery 
 of a retainer, his foster-brother, the cabin in which he lay 
 concealed was pointed out to his pursuers, and the aged 
 nobleman was dragged from the hovel and cruelly mur- 
 dered. His head was sent over to Queen Elizabeth, and 
 set up on the Tower of London. The vast Desmond 
 estates were parcelled out among undertakers from Eng- 
 land, and now form the possessions of a great portion of 
 the existing lauded proprietors of the counties of Cork 
 and Kerry.
 
 52 EARLDOM OF WATERFORD : VISCOTJNTY OF ROCHE. 
 
 The subsequent fate of the Earldom itself was remark- 
 able. After the forfeiture of the FitzGeralds, James the 
 First conferred it first on his favourite, Sir Richard Pres- 
 ton, Lord Dingwall in Scotland (who had married Lady 
 Elizabeth Butler, descended in the female line from the 
 original Earls), and next on George Feilding, Viscount 
 Callan, who was in no wise related to, or connected with 
 the Geraklines. His descendant, the Earl of Denbigh, 
 now bears the coronet of Desmond, so long associated, in 
 the olden times, with the glory and misfortunes of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 The last of the Earldoms of Henry VII.'s time is that 
 of WATERFORD, still existing, which was conferred, in con- 
 nexion with the office of Great Seneschal of Ireland, on 
 Sir John Talbot, the first and most renowned Earl of 
 Shrewsbury, in 1446 : 
 
 " Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 Created, for his rare success in arms, 
 Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence." 
 
 The Earldom of Waterford has followed the fortunes of 
 its twin title of Shrewsbury, and since the time of Charles 
 II., has never gone from father to son. 
 
 Two of the Viscounties of the same reign have fallen 
 from the peerage roll, Buttevant, and Roche of Fermoy, 
 but most undoubtedly male descendants of both exist at 
 this present moment. The representative of the latter 
 was living in utter destitution in the year 1667, and a 
 Viscountess Roche of a later generation was seen begging
 
 BALTINGLASS BALLYANE. 53 
 
 in the streets of Cork. The only other Viscounty of this 
 epoch still remains, and gives title to the senior Viscount 
 of Ireland. 
 
 Seven of the Baronies in Henry VI I .'a Irish House of 
 Lords are still held by Irish Peers, deriving from them. 
 Two others, Athenry and Slane, are claimed, and one, 
 Portlester, is under attainder. 
 
 Henry VIII. added to his predecessor's scanty Irish 
 Peerage three Earldoms, Tyrone, Thomond, and Clan- 
 rickarde ; two Viscounties, Clontarf and Baltinglass ; and 
 eight Baronies, Curraghmore, Dunboyne, Upper Ossory, 
 Louth, Carbrie, Dungannon, Ibracken, Inchiquin, and 
 Cahir. In this reign, Ulick Burke, chief of his race, was 
 made Earl of Clanrickarde, and the head of the great house 
 of Eustace raised to the Viscounty of Baltinglass, a dig- 
 nity to which the present Captain Charles Stannard 
 Eustace, of Robertstown, County Kildare, has been de- 
 clared heir, if the attainder were removed. 
 
 Edward VI. added but one creation, Mount Garrett, to 
 the Irish peerage. 
 
 All that Queen Mary did, in the peerage of Ireland, 
 was to form a precedent of a peerage for life, recently 
 the subject of so much controversy in the Wensleydale 
 case. Her Majesty made Kavanagh, chief of his sept, 
 Baron of Ballyane for life. If the creation had contained 
 the customary limitation to heirs male, Mr. Kavanagh, of 
 Bonds, would now be a peer of the realm. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth made McCarthy Earl of Clancarr, 
 and created but two Irish Barons, both Burkes 
 Lords Castle Connell and Leitrim ; her successor, how-
 
 54 IRISH PEERS. 
 
 ever, with his usual prodigality of honors, raised the 
 number of the Irish peerage to sixty-seven. The additions 
 included, among others, the Earldoms of Cork, West- 
 meath, and Roscommon ; the Viscounties of Powerscourt, 
 Netterville, and Moore of Drogheda ; and the Baronies of 
 Brabazon, Fitzwilliam, Charlemont, and Esmonde. 
 
 This last Barony, ESMONDE of Lymbrick, were it not 
 for the iniquitous penal laws which affected Ireland in 
 former times, would now be enjoyed by the Rt. Hon. 
 Sir THOMAS ESMONDE, Bart., of Ballynastra. 
 
 Charles I. brought up the number to 96 j Charles II., 
 to 104; and James II., to 110. Under William III., 
 however, the roll of the peerage became curtailed by the 
 attainders of the Jacobite Lords. 
 
 In the reign of the first monarch of the House of Han- 
 over, the peerage of Ireland consisted of one Duchess (the 
 German mistress of the King), one Marquess, Catherlough 
 (the English Marquess of Wharton) ; thirty .one Earls, 
 one Countess, fifty-two Viscounts, and thirty-one Barons. 
 The long reign of George III., which increased so much 
 the English peerage, added even still more to the roll of 
 similar honors in Ireland. The peerage of that kingdom, 
 which, as we have seen, consisted but of nineteen Lords in 
 Henry VII/s time, numbered at the close of the Irish 
 parliament, in 1801, 226 peers, namely, one Duke, nine 
 Marquesses, seventy- seven Earls, sixty-two Viscounts, and 
 eighty-seven Barons. By the Act of Union, the Crown is 
 empowered to confer a new title for every three that be- 
 come extinct, until the whole number, exclusive of those 
 having hereditary seats in the House of Lords, shall be re-
 
 TYRCONNEL: TALBOT OP MALAHIDE. 55 
 
 duced to one hundred, which magical number the Crown 
 must keep up by new creations. At the present moment 
 there are one hundred and sixteen Irish peers, who are 
 peers of Ireland only. Of these, twenty-eight sit as repre- 
 sentatives, leaving eighty-eight who are excluded from 
 their hereditary right. 
 
 Although Richard II. conferred knighthood on the four 
 provincial Kings of Ireland, in 1395, no hereditary honor 
 was bestowed on a native Irish chieftain until Henry VIII ' 
 made Con O'Neill Earl of Tyrone, Murrough O'Brien 
 Earl of Thomond, and Dermot O'Shaghnessy, of Gort, 
 in the Co. of Galway, an hereditary knight. This last crea- 
 tion foreshadowed the institution of the Baronet. 
 
 Mac Carthy of Desmond, and Magennis of Iveagh, 
 were created peers by Elizabeth, and Rory O'Donnell, 
 Prince of Tyrconnel, was made an Earl by James I. Thus 
 originated the famous Earldom of Tyrconnel : under its 
 original possessor it had but a brief existence, falling under 
 the attainder consequent on the " flight of the earls," in 
 1607. The subsequent vicissitudes of this title are re- 
 markable: first it was given to Lord Fitzwilliam of Merrion, 
 but it expired with him in four years ; next it was con- 
 ferred on a family to which it owes its principal historic 
 importance, the Talbots of Malahide, and again fell by 
 attainder. After Talbot, for no other reason, as it appears 
 to me, but that it was an attractive and well-sounding title, 
 it was given to a respectable English baronet, named 
 Brovvnlow ; and after his extinction to another English 
 family, Carpenter, who had not a drop, I believe, of either 
 O'Donnell or Talbot blood, and who had little in
 
 56 SCOTCH PEERAGES. 
 
 common with Ireland except the fact of being in the 
 peerage of that country. 
 
 As for SCOTCH peerages, the entails and remainders are 
 so varied, complicated, and numerous, that with most of 
 them it is utterly impossible to say when they will become 
 extinct. I need only refer to the claims to the succession 
 of the Dukedoms and other titles of Queensberry, those 
 to the Dukedom of Roxburghe, and the remainders to the 
 Earldom of Breadalbane, to convince the reader of the 
 impossibility of foretelling the eventual history of any 
 Caledonian title. 
 
 The acts of union for Scotland and Ireland differed es- 
 sentially as regards the peerage of both countries; the 
 Scotch act contains no provision as to keeping up that 
 body by new creations, and probably in course of time all 
 Scotch peers will be absorbed into the peerage of the 
 United Kingdom. The union roll of Scotland, as it stood 
 on the 1st May, 1707, comprised eleven Dukes, five Mar- 
 quesses, seventy-five Earldoms, seventeen Viscounties, and 
 fifty-three Barons ; and now, in 1862, of the whole of that 
 number there remain, allowing for the sixteen Represent- 
 ative Peers, but twenty-eight who have not a seat in the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 There are many curious incidents connected with the 
 descent of Scottish dignities. Lord Lindsay's delightful 
 volumes on the lives of his ancestors, tell with romantic 
 effect the extraordinary vicissitudes which have accompanied 
 the transmission of the Earldom of Crawford, through an 
 illustrious line of twenty-four Earls. At one time an Earl
 
 CRAWFORD: BREADALBANE. 57 
 
 of Crawford, cursed with an unnatural son, obtained the 
 royal assent to transfer the Earldom from his heir to the 
 next male in succession ; and this latter Earl, moved with 
 pity, sought the Crown's interference again for the recon- 
 veyance of the title to the rightful heir. But the line of 
 this, the rightful line, did not prosper. Its eventual 
 heiress lived disgracefully as a common vagrant, and was 
 at length rescued from the lowest wpetchedness by the 
 bounty of King Charles II. After its extinction, the honors 
 of the House of Crawford were usurped by a remote but 
 most powerful descendant, the Earl of Lindsay, to the 
 prejudice of the real heirs, the Lindsays of Edzell, the 
 last of whom (Earl of Crawford if he had had his rights) 
 died in 1744, an hostler at an inn in Kirkwall. 
 
 THE following anecdote concerning the succession to the 
 PEERAGE OF BREADALBANE, affords a curious illustration of 
 the unlimited nature of the patents of some Scottish titles 
 in favour of all heirs male whatsoever. Those in the re- 
 nowned race of Diarmid are of the number. So that as 
 long as a member of the Clan Campbell exists who is able 
 to prove his descent from Glenorchy, or Lochawe, there is 
 no chance of the Earldom of Breadalbaiie, or the Marques- 
 sate of Argyle, ever becoming extinct. 
 
 The house of Glenorchy is an ancient cadet of that 
 of Lochawe, and has always been distinguished for 
 inordinate feudal ambition and thirst for territorial aggran- 
 disement. Each successive chieftain has materially en- 
 larged its possessions, so that in extent of territory it yields 
 to none within the bounds of the British empire.
 
 58 BREADALBANE. 
 
 The nobleman whom the following anecdote brings 
 before our notice, and his only son, were the last of the 
 direct line of the original Earl ; but the titles and estates 
 were strictly destined to distant younger branches. Of 
 these, the least remote were Campbell of Carwhin, an old 
 bachelor, a writer to the Signet, in Edinburgh, who had 
 retired from business into the country; and Campbell 
 of Glenfalloch, a Highland laird, who lived upon his small 
 property. The latter had a grandson, of whom he was 
 very fond, and whom he regarded with much pride as the 
 future head of the house; presuming upon the probable 
 extinction of the Hues of his two remote kinsmen, the Earl 
 and Carwhin. 
 
 In 1758, the third Earl had an English visitor at Tay- 
 mouth, who, in exploring about, fell in with a fine-looking 
 lad in the Highland garb, attended by a Highland man. 
 The stranger asked who the boy was, and was told he was 
 the young Breadalbane. After dinner, when the Earl and 
 his guest were sitting cosily together, the latter related 
 the circumstance, with the reply, and asked, " Now, who 
 could the boy be?" "Oh!" replied Lord Breadalbane, 
 " I know who that would be that was the young Glen- 
 falloch," savagely adding " So he called him the young 
 Breadalbane ! did he ?" And he continued the whole 
 evening in a fit of abstraction, repeating occasionally 
 " So he called him the young Breadalbane ?" Next 
 morning, at break of day, a messenger was sent express to 
 summon Campbell of Carwhin, the retired man of busi- 
 ness from Edinburgh, who, as an old bachelor, had lately 
 settled in his own little place to end his days in peace.
 
 BREADALBANE. 59 
 
 When he arrived, and was welcomed, Lord B. said 
 to him, "Now, Carwhin, you can't guess why I sent 
 for you." " Oo ! onything to pleasure your Lordship." 
 " Well, I'll tell you what it is. I want you to marry I" 
 " Me marry ! ! Breadalbane, I hae naething to marry 
 on." " Oh ! I'll make that easy for you, Carwhin." 
 " Weel, but if I were ever so weel inclined, I dinna 
 ken ony body that wud tak me." " Well, Carwhin, Fve 
 a remedy for that, too. You'll go to Inverary, where the 
 
 circuit court meets soon get introduced to Miss , 
 
 the daughter of Lord , one of the Judges who is to 
 
 be there. I'll warrant she'll take you." " Weel, Breadal- 
 bane, ony thing to pleasure your Lordship." Off he set 
 in his best trim, got introduced to the young beauty, 
 danced with her, took her to supper, and proposed. He 
 was, however, refused ; and, much disconcerted, he applied 
 to a bosom friend, and explained the case. His friend said 
 " If all you want is to pleasure Breadalbane, try Betty 
 Stonefield, I'se warrant she'll no' refuse you." This was 
 a maiden sister of Lord Stonefield, the other Judge on the 
 circuit, who was a Campbell, but neither young nor hand- 
 some. Carwhin took the advice, went through the same 
 form, and was accepted ; and the son and heir of this 
 curiously-planned marriage was no other than John Camp- 
 bell of Carwhin, who succeeded eventually, to the exclusion 
 of young Glenfalloch, as fourth Earl of Breadalbane. But 
 events are not to be controlled : this fourth Earl's only son, 
 John, fifth Earl and second Marquess of Breadalbane, has 
 just died childless, and young Glenfalloch's great-grandson 
 is, after all, despite the jealousy of the old Earl, and the
 
 60 MAR: DOUGLAS. 
 
 cannie courtship of Carwhin, now Earl of Breadalbane. 
 One day in the November of this very year, 1862, saw 
 that same great-grandson residing in London on his mo- 
 derate patrimony of a few hundreds a-year, and the next 
 day found him the possessor of one of Scotland's 
 famous Earldoms, and of a rent-roll of full forty thousand 
 a-year. 
 
 THE EARLDOM OF MAR is the most ancient and most 
 historic title in the Scottish Peerage. During the tenth, 
 eleventh, and twelfth centuries, the north of Scotland was 
 divided into several great districts, such as Athole, Moray, 
 Ross, Buchan, Mar, &c., &c., &c. ; which were governed 
 by hereditary rulers with the title of Maormer. These 
 potentates were next in power and dignity to the King ; 
 and in the transmission of their rank and office, the rule 
 of hereditary succession was strictly observed. 
 
 In the case of the Maormers of Mar, the original Celtic 
 dignity was exchanged for that of Earl, and Mortacus, 
 Earl of Mar, was witness to a charter granted by King 
 Malcolm Canmore to the Culdees of Lochleven in 1065. 
 
 Concerning this title the learned Lord Hailes remarks : 
 " This is one of the Earldoms whose origin is lost in anti- 
 quity. It existed before our records, and before the sera 
 of genuine history." The present Earl of Mar and 
 Kellie is the direct successor, representative, and de- 
 scendant of these aboriginal Celtic Maormers. 
 
 The origin of the DOUGLASES is lost amid the mists of 
 antiquity. No one acquainted with general history can
 
 DOUGLAS. 61 
 
 ignore that their race is among the noblest in Europe, 
 whether we take into account the long line of their ances- 
 tors, the extent of their domains, the grandeur of their 
 alliances, or the brilliancy of their military fame. 
 
 On the death of the Duke of Douglas, in 1761, the 
 Duke of Hamilton succeeded as heir-male to the Mar- 
 quessate of Douglas, the Earldom of Angus, and several 
 other titles, while the succession to the estates devolved 
 upon Archibald Stewart, as son of Lady Jane Douglas, 
 the Duke of Douglas's sister, by her husband, Sir John 
 Stewart, of Grandtully. 
 
 Upon the death of the Duke, the guardians of this 
 young man proceeded without delay to vest him in the 
 feudal right of the Douglas estates, by getting him, accord- 
 ing to Scottish usage, served heir. 
 
 As many doubts had existed, from the time of his birth, 
 as to its genuineness, and as it was believed by many per- 
 sons, including the late Duke himself, that Lady Jane and 
 her husband had stolen or bought two children in Paris, in 
 order to introduce false heirs to the great estates of the 
 family, steps were taken by the guardians of the youthful 
 Duke of Hamilton to investigate the matter thoroughly. 
 The discoveries which they made in Paris concerning the 
 circumstance of Lady Jane Stewart's alleged confinement 
 of twins, gave them sanguine hopes of being able to 
 destroy Mr. Stewart's, or, as he was called, Mr. Douglas's 
 claim, and to oust him from the possession of the family 
 estates. 
 
 And now commenced the famous Douglas cause, which 
 excited an interest quite unexampled in cases of this kind,
 
 62 DOUGLAS. 
 
 spreading from Scotland over England, and even to the 
 continent of Europe. 
 
 The guardians of the Duke of Hamilton maintained 
 that Lady Jane Stewart had not been pregnant ; that the 
 circumstances of her alleged confinement were untrue; 
 that the confinement was an imposture ; and that so far 
 from having given birth to twins in Paris, there was proof 
 that two male children had been carried off from their 
 parents, corresponding in age with the sons of Lady Jane, 
 and that these children were abstracted by natives of Bri- 
 tain, whom there was reason to believe to have been no 
 other than Lady Jane and her husband. One of these 
 boys died in infancy. 
 
 The great amount of proof and counter-proof makes this 
 case puzzling in the extreme. To condense the arguments 
 on both sides within the necessary limits of this essay 
 would be impossible. The cause came on before the Court 
 of Session in Edinburgh, in, July, 1767. The fifteen 
 judges gave the most unwearied attention to the case, and 
 pronounced the most deliberate decisions. There never 
 was a more honourable display of talent, acuteness, and 
 impartiality, than was exhibited by those able lawyers, 
 many of whom were distinguished historians and philo- 
 sophers. The judges being equally divided, seven in 
 favour of, and seven against Mr. Douglas's claim, the 
 Lord President Dundas decided against him by a casting 
 vote. 
 
 There never was a case that caused so much sympathy. 
 Party feeling about it in Scotland ran so high, that feuds 
 were occasioned among the gentry, and rioting among the
 
 DOUGLAS. 63 
 
 people. The learned and distinguished of the time be- 
 came partizans, and throughout Europe the question was 
 discussed with interest. 
 
 On the failure of Mr. Douglas's case before the Scottish 
 Supreme Court, there was an immediate appeal to the 
 House of Lords; and two years after, in February, 1771, 
 that tribunal reversed the decision of the Court of Ses- 
 sion, and pronounced in favour of Mr. Douglas, thus 
 placing him before the world as legal heir of line of the 
 family, and securing to him the possession of its great 
 estates. 
 
 When the question is now considered after the lapse of 
 a century, apart from personal feeling and party bias, 
 it seems impossible to reconcile the contradictory asser- 
 tions connected with the strange story of Mr. Douglas's 
 birth, or to resist the strong appearance of imposture. 
 Even those who were the most in favour of his claim could 
 not deny the suspicion of fraud. The two cases of child- 
 stealing, however, were not actually brought home to the 
 parents of Mr. Douglas, and he had the benefit of this 
 failure of proof. In the year 1790, he was raised to the 
 Peerage as Lord Douglas of Douglas ; and he had the 
 prudence and tact to ally himself by marriage with the 
 daughters of two of the greatest of the Ducal houses of 
 Scotland. He died at an advanced age in 1827, and his 
 Peerage was inherited successively by three of his sons. 
 The last of these, James, fourth Lord, was in holy orders ; 
 and on his death, in 1857, the title became extinct. The 
 great Douglas estates were inherited by his sister, the 
 Dowager Lady Montague.
 
 64 QUEENSBERRY. 
 
 One great cause of uncertainty in the succession to 
 Scottish titles, is the frequent alteration in the order of 
 their transmission, occasioned by the prevailing practice 
 of resigning them to the Crown and obtaining new Pa- 
 tents, with a totally different series of heirs from that 
 which existed in the peerage as originally granted.* 
 
 Sometimes, however, in obtaining a new Patent, the Peer 
 who desired to change the order of succession, neglected to 
 resign his original title to the Crown ; so that it continued 
 to exist, unaffected by the new patent. A remarkable 
 instance of this is afforded by the MARQUESSATE OF 
 QUEENSBERRY. In 1706, James, second Duke of Queens- 
 berry, resigned into the hands of the Queen his Dukedom 
 of Queensberry, and various other titles, and obtained a 
 new patent, according to which, on the death of William, 
 fourth Duke of Queensberry, in 1810, they devolved on 
 Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, as heir of line. But in the 
 resignation of his titles by the second Duke, the Marquessate 
 
 * There is one instance of PAELIAMENT having created a new 
 limitation (with the original precedence) of dignities, which, 
 without its interference, would have become extinct. The case 
 is that of the celebrated John, Duke of Marlborough. The 
 Dukedom, with other English titles and a Scotch barony, were 
 held by him, with remainder to his heirs male. But in 1706, 
 when the Duke had no issue male living, an Act was passed 
 limiting all these dignities, in default of issue male, to his eldest 
 daughter and her heirs male, with remainder to all his other 
 daughters, severally and successively according to their priority 
 of birth, and to their heirs male. This was an extraordinary 
 occurrence, and nothing can again produce it, except such an- 
 other combination of circumstances, or a repetition of such great 
 and important services as then called it forth.
 
 SINCLAIR : CAITHNESS. 65 
 
 and Earldom ofQueensberry had not been included. They 
 therefore continued to exist, unaffected by the new patent, 
 and accordingly devolved on the heir male of the family, 
 Sir Charles Douglas, Bart., a descendant of the first Earl, 
 who accordingly became Marquess of Queensberry. His 
 grand-nephew is the present Peer. 
 
 Another remarkable instance of a new patent being 
 obtained from the Crown without the resignation of the 
 original Peerage, is that of the Barony of SINCLAIR. 
 
 Henry, eighth Lord Sinclair, obtained a new patent of 
 the Sinclair Peerage in 1678, from King Charles II., 
 bringing in a new series of heirs, to the exclusion of his 
 own daughters and their descendants ; and it is in conse- 
 quence of this patent that Mr. St. Clair, of Hermandston, 
 is now Lord Sinclair. But when he obtained this patent, 
 Henry, eighth Lord Sinclair, did not resign his original 
 Peerage to the Crown, which consequently still exists, 
 unaffected by the new series of heirs introduced under the 
 new patent. The heir of this original Peerage is Mr. 
 Anstruther Thomson, of Charleton, the heir and repre- 
 sentative of the eighth Lord's eldest daughter, who is thus 
 dejure Lord Sinclair. In this Peerage it is singular that 
 the new patent should have conferred the title of Lord 
 Sinclair upon a family who are not in any way, even re- 
 motely, descended fnm the ancient Peers ; St. Clair of 
 Hermandston being of a different stock from St. Clair, or 
 Sinclair, of Rosslyn. 
 
 The descent of another Peerage of the same Rosslyn 
 stock of Sinclairs that of CAITHNESS has been very sio- 
 
 F
 
 66 CAITHNESS: NEWBURGH. 
 
 gular. George, sixth Earl of Caithness, was a spendthrift, 
 and contracted immense debts. His creditor was the 
 wealthy Sir John Campbell, of Glenurchy, who, after his 
 death, married his widow, and got possession of all the 
 Caithness estates, and, in 1667, was created Earl of Caith- 
 ness. But George Sinclair, the heir male, ousted him, 
 and became seventh Earl of Caithness ; when Glenurchy 
 got a new patent in 1681, as Earl of Breadalbane. The 
 seventh Earl of Caithness died in 1698, without issue, and 
 the title has never, since 1676 until now, been more than 
 two generations in the same line, but has gone to four succes- 
 sive distant male branches. The grandfather of the present 
 Earl was the descendant of a younger son, who branched 
 off three centuries ago, and his predecessor's father was 
 only one generation less remote from the original stock. 
 
 The EARLDOM of NEWBURGH has within the last three 
 years been claimed successfully by the Marchesa Bandini 
 nee Principessa Giustiniani, who is the heir and represent- 
 ative of Lady Anne Clifford, daughter of Charlotte Maria, 
 Countess of New burgh in her own right, by the Hon. 
 Thomas Clifford. The Countess, by her second husband, 
 the Hon. Charles Radcliffe, had a son, who became third 
 Earl of Newburgh, and a daughter, Lady Mary Radcliffe, 
 wife of Francis Eyre, of Hassop. Lady Anne married on 
 the Continent, and her descendant and representative was 
 the Prince Giustiniani. On the death of Anthony James 
 Radcliffe, fourth Earl of Newburgh, in 1814, his cousin, 
 Mr. Eyre, of Hassop, assumed the title, on the erroneous 
 supposition that Prince Giustiniani, as an alien, could not
 
 GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. 67 
 
 claim it, and his two sons and daughter held it until, upon 
 the death of the latter, Dorothea, Countess of Newburgh, 
 in 1853, the Earldom was claimed and adjudged to the 
 Marchesa di Bandini. 
 
 About half a century ago, a Scottish Earldom had nearly 
 come into the possession of a very distinguished Roman 
 Cardinal. The Cardinal Charles Erskine was one of the 
 most accomplished members of the Sacred College in the 
 earlier portion of the present century. He was the son 
 of Colin Erskine, younger son of Sir Alexander Erskine, 
 Baronet, of Cambo, and was born in Rome in 1753. 
 He ably fulfilled some important diplomatic missions, was 
 promoted to the purple by Pope Pius VI. in 1801, and 
 was styled in Rome " Cardinal Erskine di Killia." He 
 died in Paris in 1811. He was a man of the most popular 
 manners, elegant learning, and excellent character. If he 
 had outlived the last Earl of Kellie, before the union of 
 that Earldom with Mar, he would have been at once the 
 wearer of a Cardinal's hat and a Scottish coronet. 
 
 This brief essay on the changeful circumstances of the 
 Peerage may, perchance, excite an interest in a subject, 
 full, in itself, of curious details ; and may, perhaps, in- 
 duce some of my readers to search a little more deeply into 
 the history of our great and illustrious nobility. That 
 history will indeed well repay the trouble the search may 
 cost ; for it is replete with romance and chivalry, with all 
 the charms of biography, legendary lore, and personal 
 anecdote. 
 
 P2
 
 68 GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. 
 
 The enquirer will find several works to assist him, but 
 he will be much disappointed at their paucity. The Houses 
 of Douglas, Howard, Hamilton, Courtenay, Russell, Lind- 
 say, Montgomery, Perceval, Bagot, Somerville, Blount, 
 Shirley, O'Brien, FitzGerald, and a few others, have had 
 their historians, but how rare, after all, are these memorials ! 
 Where are the folios which should record the deeds and 
 honors, the lives and fortunes of the Percys, the Nevilles, 
 the Beauchamps, the Murrays, the Campbells, the Poulets, 
 the Gordons, the Stanhopes, the Bruces, the Grahams, the 
 Spencers, the Fortescues, the Talbots of Grafton and the 
 Talbots of Malahide, the Cavendishes, the Temples, the 
 Scotts, the Greys, the Willoughbys, the St. Johns, the 
 Arundels, the Cliffords, the Butlers, and countless others ? 
 If the noble heir of each of these great Houses were to 
 write, or have written, a comprehensive history of his an- 
 cestors, the collection would form the most splendid and 
 valuable of all contributions to our national and domestic 
 literature. I shall be more than satisfied if the few frag- 
 ments I have here collected together may create a curiosity 
 for the discovery of more, and may help to increase the 
 public taste for genealogical and heraldic reading. 
 
 Genealogical history is, if I may venture on the simile, 
 a Cemetery, in which the hatchments are still unremoved, 
 the torches unextinguished, and the deep swell of the 
 funeral chaunt yet wakening the echoes of the imagination 
 and the heart. Here they repose, the brave, the gifted, 
 the lovely, who gave themes to minstrels, models to 
 painters, examples to posterity. However great may be 
 the distance of time through whatever chaos of moulder-
 
 GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. 69 
 
 ing records the laborious search must pierce there is a 
 peculiar feeling of gratification in poring over an old ances- 
 tral document. It seems like stepping back into the days 
 of our forefathers, and conversing with those who have 
 slept for ages in the silent dust.
 
 70 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 (Siarltom 0f 
 
 " Ad possessa venis, prsereptaque gaudia serns : 
 Spes tua lenta fuit, quod petis alter habet." 
 
 OVID. 
 
 THE little island of Anglesey, which, advancing into the 
 Irish Sea, seems, as it were, the first part of Britain, 
 stretching to embrace its sister kingdom, or the last por- 
 tion, which, in some convulsion of nature, long before re- 
 cord or the invention of written characters, was unwillingly 
 severed from the main land, first gave a title to the roll 
 of the peerage, on the 18th of April, 1623. 
 
 The title, an Earldom, together with the barony of Vil- 
 liers of Daventry, was, that day, granted to Christopher 
 Villiers (brother of the Duke of Buckingham), third son, 
 by hiswife, Mary, Countess of Buckingham, of the Lord of 
 Brokesby, in Leicestershire, Sir George Villiers. The name 
 of Villiers is renowned for ever in the annals of chivalry 
 by the heroic defence of Rhodes, made in 1522, by Villiers de 
 1'Isle-Adam, last Grand-Master of the Knights of St. John 
 in that island, against all the forces of Soliman the Mag- 
 nificent, a defence, amongst the most famous in history, 
 whose calamitous termination led to the establishment of the 
 Knights Hospitallers in Malta. From the Villiers' de PIsle 
 Adam, the Villiers' in England claim to trace their origin.
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 71 
 
 The arms, too, speak of chivalry and the Holy Land. In 
 the red cross, we see the emblem of the crusader, and in 
 the escallop shells, those of the pilgrim ; and, like pil- 
 grims too, this branch of the Villiers' seems but to have 
 visited the shrine of the titled nobility, and departed. 
 The Earldom of Anglesey expired with the son of the first 
 peer, or thirty-six or seven years subsequent to its creation. 
 While the Villiers' were thus flourishing, unconscious 
 how brief their reign was doomed to be, there was dwell- 
 ing in another county of England an ancient family, 
 originally from Annesley, in Nottinghamshire, whence 
 they derived their name ; a member of which, Sir Francis 
 Annesley, of Newport Pagnel, co. Bucks, having gone 
 over to Ireland, there filled several high offices of state, and 
 was on the 8th February, 1628, created Baron Mountnor- 
 ris. This nobleman was at one time a principal secretary 
 of state, for services done King James I., and at another 
 was condemned to lose his head for offence given to Lord 
 Deputy Strafford, a condemnation which the retributive jus- 
 tice of Providence afterwards permitted to be brought for- 
 ward as one of the articles in the impeachment of Strafford 
 himself. Lord Mountnorris was advanced in course of time 
 to the Viscounty of Valentia, and, at his death in 1660, was 
 succeeded by his eldest son, Arthur. As President of the 
 Council, this Arthur displayed a favourable leaning to the 
 cause of the exiled Charles II., and after the Restoration 
 was, in reward, created Baron Annesley, of Newport Pagnel, 
 by patent, dated 20th April, 1661, and inducted into the 
 higher honors of the Earldom of Anglesey, extinguished the 
 year before by the death of the last Villiers of that title.
 
 72 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 From this Earl Arthur descended, but not in direct 
 affiliation the one from the other, six or rather nine Earls 
 of Anglesey, the last who bore the title being Richard, 
 his grandson, through Richard, his third son, Dean of 
 Exeter, and third Baron Altham. 
 
 Richard, sixth Earl of Anglesey, of the Annesleys, 
 furnished the gossip of his day with plenteous food. The 
 recent Yelverton marriage case was prototyped by the 
 celebrated trial, to which I shall later refer, between this 
 Earl and his Countess. Romance itself, too, might claim 
 the adventures of his nephew, James Annesley, lawfully 
 sixth Earl of Anglesey, (son of his brother Arthur, fourth 
 Lord Altham), whose rights Richard usurped, and who, 
 though on the 25th November, 1743, by the verdict of 
 one of the most remarkable suits on record, he succeeded 
 in recovering the estates, strangely showed so utter a 
 disregard of the honors of the Peerage, as never to have 
 assumed the title, which continued to be borne by the 
 defeated defendant till his death, in 1761. Nor were 
 1he sons of this James, the rightful sixth Earl, who died 
 January 5th, 1760, ever, it appears, called Earls of An- 
 glesey, owing, probably, to their early deaths the one in 
 1763, the other in 1764. 
 
 A letter from Dublin, dated Nov. 26, 1743, and pub- 
 lished in the London Magazine for the following month, 
 thus speaks of the trial : 
 
 ' Never was a cause of greater consequence brought to 
 trial ; never any took up so much time in hearing (it 
 lasting twelve days) ; nor ever was there a jury composed 
 of gentlemen of such property, dignity, and character:
 
 EARLDOM OP ANGLESEY. 73 
 
 eleven are members of Parliament, several of the Council, 
 and the only one who is not in either, is a gentleman of 
 1500 a-year; the whole twelve being worth a million. 
 Two of them lose near 400 a-year by their own ver- 
 dict, and three others are nearly related to persons consi- 
 derably interested. Yet such was their regard for truth 
 and justice, that nothing could bias them against con- 
 viction. 
 
 ' No sooner had the foreman pronounced the words, 
 1 We find for the Plaintiff,' but the Hall rang with joyful 
 acclamations, which in a few minutes were communi- 
 cated to the whole city, and, in less than a quarter-of-an- 
 hour, all the streets seemed to be in a blaze, and people of 
 all conditions and degrees ran up and down congratu- 
 lating each other, as upon a public victory. In short, 
 never was there so universal a joy ; the music that played 
 in the streets, and even the bells themselves, being scarce 
 heard amidst the repeated huzzas of the multitude. The 
 money given to the jury on this occasion was, by their 
 unanimous consent, left to the disposal of their foreman, 
 who bestowed it on the charitable infirmary on the Inns 
 Quay, for the relief of the sick and wounded poor taken 
 care of in that hospital." 
 
 The enthusiasm of the public on this occasion again 
 presents a parallel to that displayed on the occasion of the 
 Yelverton trial, than which not even the arraignment for 
 high treason, in 1848, of Mr. Smith O'Brien and Mr. T. 
 F. Meagher, (now a Brigadier-General in the army of the 
 Federal States of America), in a cause supposed to stir 
 the national heart of Ireland to the core, was able to pro-
 
 74 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 duce a greater throng within the Halls of Justice, or a 
 greater multitude in its courts, and the streets without, 
 To return to my subject. 
 
 This was a TRIAL at Bar between CAMPBELL CRAIG, 
 Lessee of JAMES ANNESLEY, ESQ., Plaintiff, and the Right 
 Hon. RICHARD, EARL OF ANGLESEY, Defendant, before 
 the Hon. the Barons of the Exchequer, viz., Lord Chief 
 Baron BOWES, Mr. Baron MOUNTNEY, and Mr, Baron 
 DAWSON. 
 
 There were fifty witnesses for the plaintiff, and their evi- 
 dence occupied four days and part of the fifth. The witnesses 
 for Richard, Lord Anglesey, were thirty-three in number. 
 The jury were, Sir Thomas Taylour, Bart., the Right 
 Hon. William Graham, Richard Wesley, Hercules Langford 
 Rowley, Richard Gorges, John Preston, Nathaniel Preston, 
 Charles Hamilton, Clot worthy Wade, Thomas Shaw, Gorges 
 Lowther, and Joseph Ashe, Esquires, 
 
 The Chief Baron, in a luminous review of the evidence, 
 charged rather in favour of the plaintiff ; Baron Mount- 
 ney decidedly so. Baron Dawson's judgment, however, 
 was adverse. His charge, in several of its observations, 
 showed perhaps a lesser degree of judicial acumen than 
 was displayed by his brother Barons. Baron Mountuey 
 delivered the following appropriate observations to the jury. 
 
 " I must own the witnesses contradict one another so 
 very much that one can't tell where to set his foot with 
 certainty. I would, if I was on the jury (and I have no 
 doubt but you have made it a rule for your government) 
 I would, I say, consider the story as related by both 
 parties, and weigh it as to the probability."
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 75 
 
 And certainly, in as perplexing a case, perhaps, as ever 
 was submitted to the conscience and sagacity of a jury, a 
 reconsideration of the evidence adduced would again in 
 every probability lead to a similar verdict. In the follow- 
 ing year, Lord Anglesey still strangely bearing the title 
 and some of his witnesses were indicted by the suc- 
 cessful " lessor of the plaintiff" in this suit for conspiracy 
 and perjury ; and though they attempted to have the trial 
 postponed, they were, after a hearing before the same 
 Chief Baron Bowes, acquitted. 
 
 To return. Mr. Lill, counsel for the lessor of the plain- 
 tiff, opened the declaration, which in substance was that 
 the plaintiff brought his plea of trespass and ejectment 
 against the Earl of Anglesey for 1 ,500 acres of the lands of 
 Great and Little Stameen, Donacarney, &c., in the county 
 of Meath, demised to him by James Annesley, Esq., after 
 which Mr. Serjeant Marshall stated the case, premising that 
 the lands in controversy were claimed by the said lessor 
 as the only son and heir of his father, Arthur, late Lord 
 Altham, elder brother of the defendant then in possession. 
 
 The ability with which the case was conducted by the 
 learned Serjeant, is another point of resemblance to the 
 remarkable trial of our own times to which I have already 
 likened it, and in which another distinguished Serjeant 
 displayed, in behalf of Mrs. Theresa Yelverton, (by the side 
 of her famous advocate, Mr. Whiteside), such consummate 
 skill and judgment. But without following Serjeant Mar- 
 shall's statement, I will proceed to tell the story in an un- 
 professional way ; a story, be it remembered, that afforded 
 Sir Walter Scott materials for " Guy Mannering."
 
 76 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 In the same unprofessional spirit, I will take the liberty 
 of calling James Annesley simply " the Plaintiff," and not 
 " the lessor of the Plaintiff/' a technical designation which 
 confuses the reader. 
 
 Arthur, Lord Altham, married, in 1706, Mary Sheffield, 
 natural daughter of the Duke of Buckingham and Nor- 
 manby. In 1714, being then resident in Dublin, Lady 
 Altham proved enceinte, and going to Dunmain, the family 
 residence in the county of Wexford, she there, early in 1715, 
 gave birth to a son (the plaintiff), who was christened James 
 by the Rev. Mr. Lloyd, chaplain of Lord Altham, being 
 so called after his grandfather, James Annesley, Earl of 
 Anglesey. Anthony Colclough and Anthony Cliffe, Esqrs., 
 both gentlemen of high repute and station in the parish, 
 were the godfathers ; and Mrs. Pigot, of Tintern, the god- 
 mother. The birth of the child was sworn to by the 
 Earl of Mount Alexander, who testified that he heard Lord 
 
 Altham say, " By G , my wife has got a son, which 
 
 will make my brother's nose swell !" 
 
 Lord and Lady Altham, having for some time lived un- 
 happily together, formally separated in 1717; and their 
 little boy, who was removed from Lady Altham's care, re- 
 mained with his father, first in the county of Kildare, then 
 in Dublin, and subsequently at Carrickduff, in the county 
 of Carlovv, where Lord Altham commenced a liaison with a 
 mistress, with whom, in 1722, he settled, once more, in Dub- 
 lin. She called herself Lady Altham, the rightful bearer ot 
 that title meanwhile residing at Ross (about three miles from 
 Dunmain), in Dublin, and in London, where, in 1723, she 
 was in very delicate health, subsisting on the bounty of
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 77 
 
 60, 80, and lastly 100 a-year from the Duke of 
 Buckingham. She died in 1729. The influence of the 
 woman, with whom Lord Altham cohabited, continuing, the 
 poor child was sent away by his father, and finally aban- 
 doned and denied by him. Lord Altham was in difficulties, 
 so needy indeed as to be in receipt of a pension from the 
 Crown, and unable to procure money in consequence of 
 the usual family settlement, which made him tenant for 
 life, and therefore powerless to effect a loan, unless joined 
 by his son, whose non-age incapacitated him also. The 
 only way, therefore, Lord Altham thought, to emancipate 
 himself from his position of difficulty was to get rid of 
 his son. The boy was accordingly sent away to a person 
 named Cavanagh, from whom he escaped and hurried 
 back to his father, but was refused admittance or acknow- 
 ledgment, and from this time sank into utter poverty, 
 " a vagabond about the streets." On the 16th November, 
 1727, Lord Altham died, and his brother, the defendant, 
 assumed his title, succeeding also, ten years subsequently, 
 on the death of a cousin, to the Earldom of Anglesey. 
 
 It was not to be expected that a disposition such as the 
 new Lord Altham subsequently proved himself to possess, 
 would, with the self-sacrifice characteristic "only of the 
 loftiest and noblest nature, have laid aside the wealth and 
 title within his grasp, and have gone to seek, to restore to 
 his honours, the cast-off nephew, whose own father had 
 doomed him to destruction. Treading in his brother's 
 steps, but determined upon more effectual measures to 
 remove the obstruction in his path, Lord Altham, after 
 two fruitless attempts at kidnapping, succeeded in getting
 
 78 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 possession of his nephew ; and the official book of the 
 Town-Clerk, indented before the Lord Mayor of Dublin, 
 was produced as evidence that the ship "James," with 
 James Hennesley (as the name was, with slightly erro- 
 neous orthography, written down) on board, crossed 
 Dublin bar, on the 28th April, 1728, bearing the luckless 
 youth to the river Delaware, in America, where he was 
 sold as a slave, and as such remained thirteen long years. 
 Happily his unfortunate mother knew not of his destina- 
 tion. Probably, as Baron Mountney observed in his 
 charge, she considered him dead, so long torn as he was 
 from the arms of her maternal love, else can we picture 
 to ourselves a more complete realization of Shelley's 
 touching lines in the " Revolt of Islam" ? 
 
 " I knew that ship bore Cythna o'er the waste 
 Of waters, to her blighting slavery sold, 
 And watched her with such thoughts as must remain untold." 
 
 Landed in Pennsylvania, and purchased by a planter of 
 Newcastle County, named Drummond, a harsh and cruel 
 taskmaster, the poor boy's sun seemed set. Hard-worked, 
 coarsely fed, the oaths of the overseer continually in his 
 ears, tingling the blood that had glowed in the veins of 
 his early ancestors, perhaps, at Cressy and Agincourt 
 the circling lash too, ever ready to stripe the limbs, noble 
 as those of his olden sire, Sir John of Hedyngton, when 
 he slew " the mighty man of valour," Thomas de Caterton. 
 whom he had summoned into the Court of Chivalry ; 
 with what an agonized spirit must the forlorn boy have 
 recalled the pleasant days of his early childhood, so soon 
 clouded, but even at their worst so far brighter than the
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 79 
 
 present ! With what bitter remembrance must he have 
 thought of his own distant country, and the worthlessness 
 of those whom the ties alone of close relationship ought 
 to have made the friends and protectors of his helplessness ! 
 Must he not have felt much of that bitter judgment 
 which a statesman of the Tudor epoch passed upon Ireland : 
 " a lovely island, wherein nothing was evil but the peo- 
 ple." But the bells that shook the air, and the shouts that 
 thundered through the streets, at the final result of the 
 trial, years after, showed him at last, that however vile 
 he had found some, yet the general spirit of his own 
 land still throbbed in unison with justice, love of right, 
 a hatred of spoliation and the cowardly tyranny of power 
 over the defenceless. 
 
 Poor boy ! how died he not in the ordeal ! "Was it that 
 unconquerable and promethean fire by which the con- 
 sciousness of birth is said to excite a resistance to wrong, 
 that mighty and defiant disdain which even in silence 
 bears one of gentle blood through sufferings which the 
 meaner heart would break under, that sustained the outcast 
 youth ? Was it this braveness of spirit that supported 
 that young head, alone and almost despairing ? or, rather, 
 was it not the voice of the All-Good, the voice that in the 
 wilderness, so many thousand years before, had said, 
 " Hagar, be not afraid !" 
 
 However, like Mungo Park in Africa, our hero found 
 compassion in the breast of woman. . He met, in the place 
 of his captivity, with a fellow-slave, an aged female, whose 
 heart, no doubt, in its own way, sang for him that song, 
 or rather that hymn, sanctified by the genuine feelings of
 
 80 EARLDOM OP ANGLESEY. 
 
 human nature, unsophisticated and generous, which Park 
 has preserved in his narrative : 
 
 '' The white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree : 
 Pity the white man, no mother has he, no wife to griud his 
 corn." 
 
 This woman had been betrayed and sold to slavery by 
 her husband. She was a person, for her class, of superior 
 mind ; and having been well educated, she imparted to 
 young Annesley no little instruction. Here, too, " the wind 
 was tempered to the shorn lamb." But she died ! He no 
 longer had a comforter. He determined to make his escape. 
 He had been five years a slave, when he fled. The adven- 
 tures of his flight were most romantic, and were rendered 
 yet more interesting by highly tragic circumstances, which 
 again restored him to the power of his owner, whose pursuit 
 he had at first successfully baffled. The natural conse- 
 quences followed. The recaptured slave was treated with 
 redoubled severity; but, on complaint to the local justices, 
 he was transferred to another owner, with whom, however, 
 his position was little bettered. Another attempt at es- 
 cape followed, the discomfiture of which, when now his 
 term of slavery had but twelve months to run out, led to 
 its prolongation for an additional period of five years. 
 This grievous sorrow well nigh broke the poor fellow 
 down : his disappointment and sufferings began to under- 
 mine his health, and at last, as a natural physical result, 
 his spirits sank, and. a melancholy fell upon him, which, 
 banishing the vis medicalrix natures, so potent an ally 
 to the physician, would soon have deprived his owner of 
 so much of his " stock in trade." The youth was then
 
 EARLDOM OP ANGLESEY. 81 
 
 taken into his master's house, in order to accelerate his 
 recovery. Here the tender susceptibilities of his owner's 
 daughter became interested in his favour, but the pre- 
 ference brought only misfortunes. A young Iroquois 
 Indian slave likewise fell in love with Annesley, and be- 
 coming jealous of her rival, nearly murdered her young 
 mistress; and then flung herself into a river, and ter- 
 minated her own existence. No doubt this circumstance 
 gave the idea of the plot (so resembling Annesley's story) 
 to the famous Adelphi drama, " The Green Bushes." 
 
 Young Annesley's new and third owner was a man of 
 milder and more Christian disposition than his predecessors, 
 and allowed him access to books. However, in three years 
 be died, and another revolution of fortune's wheel brought 
 Annesley into the power of a fourth owner, who resided 
 not far from the plantation of Drummond, his first master. 
 While here, two brothers of the unhappy Indian girl 
 attempted his life, to revenge their sister's fate. An- 
 nesley escaped with a wound which cost him two months' 
 suffering ; and subsequently his owner's wife (whom he 
 had detected plotting an escape to Europe, after a robbery 
 of her husband, in company with the slave of a neigh- 
 bour), having vainly attempted to tamper with his honesty, 
 endeavoured to remove him by poison. On this, though 
 his term of slavery was very near its termination, he again 
 made his escape, and sailed for Jamaica, where, in Sep- 
 tember, 1740, he engaged as a common sailor on board a 
 British man-of-war. This led to the discovery of his re- 
 markable and mournful story by Admiral Vernon, who sent 
 him home to endeavour to regain his title and patrimony.
 
 82 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 After his return to England, misfortune still tracked poor 
 Annesley. Being in company with the game-keeper of 
 Sir John Dolben, at Staines, in Middlesex, he shot, unin- 
 tentionally, a man named Egglestone, and was put upon 
 his trial for murder. Here, again, he was followed by the 
 animosity of his uncle, the Earl, who declared, according 
 to the evidence of Mr. Giffard, his Lordship's attorney, 
 " that he did not care if it cost him 10,000, if he could 
 hang James Annesley, for then he should be easy in the 
 enjoyment of his title and estate." At this trial for mur- 
 der, immediately after the clerk had read the indictment, 
 and the prisoner was interrogated in the usual form, 
 whether he was guilty or not guilty, he answered thus : 
 
 " My Lord, I observe that I am indicted by the name of James 
 Annesley, lalourer, the lowest addition my enemies could pos- 
 sibly make use of ; but though I claim to be Earl of Anglesey, 
 and a Peer of this Realm, I submit to plead Not guilty to this 
 indictment, and put myself immediately upon my country, con- 
 scious of my own innocence, and impatient to be acquitted even 
 of the imputation of a crime so unbecoming tlie dignity I claim." 
 
 He then pleaded "Not guilty," a plea confirmed hy the 
 verdict of the jury. 
 
 After this honourable acquittal, James Annesley went 
 over to Ireland to prosecute his claims, and was enabled, 
 by the assistance of some benevolent gentlemen, to bring 
 his case into court. Most of these facts were brought 
 before the jury, and were so strongly commented on by 
 the advocate, that the sympathies of the whole country 
 were enlisted in favour of the Plaintiff. 
 
 The case for the Defendant, Richard, Earl of Anglesey, 
 amounted to a simple denial of the fact that James An-
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 83 
 
 nesley was son of Lord and Lady Altham, and an asser- 
 tion that he was no other than one Joan Landy's child, 
 who had been adopted by Lord Altham after his separation 
 from his wife, but afterwards discarded for misconduct. 
 Strong evidence was adduced in support of this defence, 
 and ten entire days were occupied with the examination of 
 witnesses. Four hours and a half were consumed by the 
 admirable speech of Serjeant Malone for the defendant, and 
 it was not until the twelfth day that the Judges delivered 
 their charges. At length the jury retired. Breathless 
 was the public excitement ; full two hours passed before 
 the intense suspense was terminated by the announce- 
 ment of a VERDICT FOR THE PLAINTIFF a verdict which 
 was caught up with enthusiasm by the people inside and 
 outside the court, and was echoed and reechoed through 
 the countless multitudes in the streets. 
 
 But though thus declared the heir of the Annesleys, 
 James, the rightful Lord, never assumed the title, and the 
 Earldom of Anglesey was not destined to be perpetuated 
 through him. As already mentioned, he died in 1760, 
 survived by two sons, who soon followed him the one in 
 1763, the other in 1764 thus leaving to the legal posses- 
 sion of their grand-uncle's posterity the honours he had so 
 long, to their detriment, usurped and borne. 
 
 Dame Themis, one would think, might in strict poetic 
 justice have been satisfied with one sacrifice at her shrine. 
 Not so, however. The " gentlemen of the long robe" had 
 still another great Annesley cause, which was full of sin- 
 gular details, and which resulted in a memorable disagree- 
 ment between the English and the Irish House of Lords. 
 
 o 2
 
 84 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 Jacob reports the case in his ponderous folios on the Peerage 
 of England, misstating, however, some of the main facts. 
 I will, therefore, use Jacob's narrative so far as it is accu- 
 rate, and complete the story in my own words : 
 
 "In the year 1727, the Honourable Richard Annesley, 
 the youngest son of Richard, Lord Altham, Dean of Exeter, 
 who had been an ensign in the army, but struck off the 
 half-pay in the year 1715, and then destitute of any for- 
 tune or subsistence whatever, being at Dublin, and passing 
 as a bachelor, made his addresses to Miss Anne Simpson, 
 the only daughter of Mr. John Simpson, a wealthy and 
 reputable citizen, she at that time being no more than 
 fourteen or fifteen years of age. After many solicitations 
 (her mother, and most careful guardian, having died some 
 time before), he at length prevailed on her to be privately 
 married to him, without the knowledge or consent of 
 her father, who was highly displeased with her on that 
 account. But Arthur, Lord Altham, elder brother of the 
 said Richard, having interposed his good offices for a 
 reconciliation, they were again, at the requisition of her 
 father, and of the said Lord Altham, who insisted upon it, 
 married in a public manner, by the Rev. Henry Daniel, 
 then curate of St. Catherine's, by a licence taken out of 
 the Consistorial Court of the diocese of Dublin. Mr. 
 Simpson, her father, thereupon was not only reconciled to 
 them, and took his said daughter and her husband into 
 his favour and family, but gave the said Richard a con- 
 siderable portion with her, and supported them for some 
 years after their marriage, suitable to their rank, which 
 was attended with an extraordinary expense, on account
 
 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 85 
 
 of the said Richard's having, by the death of his elder 
 brother, which happened soon after his marriage, assumed 
 the title of Lord Altham ; and from the time of the said 
 marriage they lived publicly together as man and wife, 
 under the denomination of Lord and Lady Altham, and 
 as such were universally deemed, reputed, and received, 
 and treated by all their acquaintances. In the year 1729, 
 Nicholas Simpson, a relation of her father, filed his bill in 
 Chancery against the said Richard, Lord Altham, and 
 Anne, Lady Altham, his wife, to be relieved against a 
 promissory note, perfected by the said Nicholas to them 
 or one of them ; to which bill they put in a joint answer, 
 taken upon honour, by the name and style of Richard, 
 Lord Altham, and Anne, Baroness Altham, his wife : 
 wherein the said Richard acknowledged his marriage with 
 the said Anne, which bill and answer are upon record in 
 that Court. 
 
 " On the death of Mr. Simpson, Lady Altham's father, 
 in the year 1730, he bequeathed legacies to her ladyship 
 and Lord Altham, as his daughter and son-in-law, and 
 Lord Altham received the property so devised. In seven 
 years afterwards, Arthur, Earl of Anglesey, dying without 
 issue, Richard, Lord Altham, assumed that dignity, and 
 as such, with his lady, was presented to the Duke of 
 Devonshire, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and both 
 were acknowledged at the Irish Court as Earl and Countes* 
 of Anglesey. Up to this period his lordship appears to 
 have lived in great harmony with his Countess, and to 
 have taken great care of the education of his three 
 daughters."
 
 86 EARLDOM OF ANGLESEY. 
 
 Down to this point Jacob's report is accurate ; but he 
 falls into error subsequently, when he refers to Juliana 
 Donovan. In 1741, while Miss Simpson was still alive, 
 and was always regarded as his wife, the Earl, leaving her 
 and his daughters to starve, married Miss Donovan, under 
 the allegation that he had a wife, one Phrust, living when 
 he married Miss Simpson, and that his marriage with 
 that unhappy lady was therefore illegal. "From this 
 period the Earl lived entirely with Juliana Donovan, al- 
 though it appears that the Countess (Anne Simpson) was 
 then alive, and lived for thirteen years after, being four 
 years longer than his lordship." 
 
 Earl Richard died in 1761, the sons of the dispossessed 
 Earl in 1763 and 1764. Not long after, took place the 
 next great Annesley litigation, to decide the legitimacy of 
 Arthur, son and heir of Earl Richard, by Juliana Dono- 
 van. The counter claimant was John Annesley, Esq., of 
 Ballysax. Four years were occupied by this, the last of 
 the causes celebres connected with the title of Anglesey, 
 and it terminated in a decision by the Irish House of 
 Lords, that the said Arthur was lawful possessor of the 
 Irish peerages, viz., the Baronies of Mountnorris and 
 Altham, and the Viscounty of Valentia. 
 
 But the English House of Lords took quite a different 
 view of the case ; decided against the validity of the mar- 
 riage of Juliana Donovan, declared the claimant illegiti- 
 mate, and denied him his writ as Earl of Anglesey. 
 
 And here again, in this other tangled web, modern 
 reflection must, I think, incline to a concurrence in the find- 
 ing of the Irish Lords. The last Earl of Anglesey had
 
 EARLDOM OP ANGLESEY. 87 
 
 created a strong public feeling against himself, and the 
 judges must have felt more inclined to a disposition to 
 oust his son and representative (were that ejectment com- 
 patible with honour and justice), than to destroy an unfor- 
 tunate lady, Miss Simpson, who, being the heiress of a 
 wealthy citizen of Dublin, must have had influential 
 friends in the city where the question was discussed, and 
 must have excited much of the public sympathy, so em- 
 phatically testified in the great usurpation trial. We 
 must believe that Anne Phrust really had been married 
 to Lord Anglesey, and still lived, at the time of his second 
 marriage with Miss Simpson. It would therefore appear 
 that the English House of Lords, which refused to believe 
 that Lord Valentia had proved his legitimacy, in conse- 
 quence of which the English Earldom of Anglesey expired, 
 was mistaken in its decision. I have likewise been in- 
 formed by a member of the family that the English judg- 
 ment, lost only by one voice, would have been similar to 
 that pronounced by the House of Lords, in Ireland, but 
 for the absence of a peer, well acquainted with all the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, who would have supported the 
 Irish decision by his vote. Still, however, this remarkable 
 state of things arose : Arthur, the only son of Richard, 
 Earl of Anglesey in Great Britain, and Viscount Valentia 
 in Ireland, was declared illegitimate by the English House 
 of Lords, and incapable consequently of inheriting the 
 English honours, while in Ireland the same person was 
 pronounced legitimate, and allowed his place as a Peer 
 of the Irish Parliament. 
 
 From this time, the title of Anglesey was heard no more,
 
 88 EARLDOM OP ANGLESEY. 
 
 till the thunders of Napoleon's wars summoned it from 
 oblivion, and from the grave of Earl Richard, to reha- 
 bilitate its tarnished honours, and to place it on the 
 helmet of as "mighty a man of valour" as had been 
 the brave knight of Hedyngton, the "preux chevalier" 
 of the Annesleys. No one can dispute that the revived 
 title of Anglesey fell worthily to the share of the leader 
 of the British Cavalry in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, 
 HENRY- WILLIAM, EARL OF UXBRIDGE, made MARQUESS 
 OF ANGLESEY just sixteen days after England's glorious 
 battle of the 18th June, 1815, where he had fought so 
 well.
 
 THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 89 
 
 of 
 
 ...... "I have not long been Douglas. 
 
 O destiny ! hardly thou deal'st with me." HOME. 
 
 THE career of Philip D'Auvergne reminds one of Jonah's 
 gourd. The revolution of fortune's wheel is generally so 
 slow as to involve several generations in a single turn. 
 Here, on the contrary, is one and the same man raised from 
 the prospects of a moderate and hard-working career 
 almost to those of royalty snatching fruitlessly at the 
 prize, which, Tantalus-like, seems almost in his grasp : 
 again is he fed with false hopes ; then, hardest fate of all, 
 he arrives at the summit of his most ambitious aspirations, 
 only to find them shattered for ever, even before he had time 
 fully to realize them ; and, finally, broken in health, for- 
 tune, and credit, he closes, tragically, his long course of 
 expectation and disappointment. Like Theodore, King of 
 Corsica, whose grave at St. Anne's, Soho, is but a mile 
 from that of his unfortunate confrere, cruel fortune 
 
 " Gave him a crown and denied him bread." 
 But to my story : Towards the end of the eighteenth 
 century, Godfrey- Charles- Henry de la Tour D'Auvergne
 
 90 THE STORY OF PIULIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 reigned as Sovereign Duke of Bouillon, which territory, 
 situate in Flanders, on the border of Ardennes, near Lux- 
 emburg, after being ruled by the holy Walcaud, Bishop of 
 Liege, witness to Charlemagne's will, by Godfrey de Bouil- 
 lon, the heroic Crusader King of Jerusalem, by the rough 
 Princes dela Mark, wild boars of Ardennes, had descended, 
 as a princely apanage, to the House of de la Tour D'Au- 
 vergne, great in blood, but greater still in having given to 
 France its famous Marshal, the Viscount de Turenne.* 
 
 A short time before the French Revolution, this God- 
 frey, Duke of Bouillon, chief of his ancient family of De 
 la Tour D'Auvergne, finding the prospect of a lineal suc- 
 cessor to his illustrious house destroyed by the death of his 
 second son, Charles, a Knight of Malta, and the infirmity 
 of his elder son, James- Leopold, was induced to seek, among 
 his relations, for some one on whom he might fix as a suc- 
 cessor to his titles and vast wealth. He accordingly caused 
 researches to be made in the different localities with which 
 the history of his house was connected, and particularly di- 
 rected some learned Benedictine monks, under the direction 
 of the Abbe Coyer, formerly his own private tutor, to ex- 
 amine the different depots in the province, from which the 
 family drew its origin, and of which its heads had been feudal 
 sovereigns before the union of the great fiefs to the crown 
 
 * Tins Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon, to whom my narrative 
 refers, was son of Charles Godfrey de la Tour, Comte d'Au- 
 vergne, Sovereign Prince of Bouillon, by Marie-Charlotte So- 
 bieska, his wife, and grandson of Emanuel-Theodore, Sovereign 
 Prince of Bouillon, Due d'Albret, whose grandfather, Frederic- 
 Maurice, Duke of Bouillon, was elder brother of the famous 
 Marshal Turenne.
 
 THE STORY OP PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 91 
 
 of France under Philip Augustus. This search discovered 
 that a cadet of the house of Auvergne* had emigrated, 
 
 * Pedigree of the House, according to Baluze " Histoire Ge- 
 nealogique de la Maison d' Auvergne." 
 
 Bernard, Comte D'Auvergne et de Bourges, Marquis de Nevers, 
 A.D. 800. =p 
 
 -- -^^ ______ -_ i 
 
 Alfred I. Comte de Bourges and de Circassonne. Adelinde. 
 
 f ; ' 
 
 Bernard I. Comte D'Auvergne.=j=Blit8ende. 
 
 Estorge, Vicomte D'Auvergne.^Asendane. 
 
 Robert I. Vicomte D'Auvergne.=f=Adelgarde. 
 
 I 
 
 Robert II. Vicomte D'AuYergne.=pIngelberge. 
 
 Guillaume IV. Vicomte D'Auvergne=pHumberge. 
 (succeeded his brother Cyon). j 
 
 Robert I. Comte D'Auvergne.=j=Ermengarde d'Arles. 
 Guillaume V. Comte D'Auvergne.==Phillipie de Giraudan. 
 
 Robert II. Comte D'Auvergne.=f Judith de Melguie. 
 Guillaume VI. Comte D'Auvergne.=f=Jeaune. 
 
 Robert III. Guillaume VII. Guillaume VIII =pA.nne de Nevers. 
 
 Comte D'Au- Comte D'Au- Comte D'Au- 
 vergne. vergne, o. a. p. vergne. 
 
 Robert IV. Comte D'Auvergne.=f Mahault de Bourgogne. 
 
 Guillaume, Guy, Comte Other chil- 5. Robert de=Boutet. 
 ob.juvenis. D'Auvergne dren. Clermont. 
 
 Whence the Counts D'Auvergne. And hence the Jersey Family. 
 
 But it is only fair to say that Baluze looks upon this as a mere 
 heraldic figment, a view which is supported by the name being 
 absent from the Extente, or Eoyal Bent-Boll of 1331, where it 
 would certainly have appeared, had this narration been correct. 
 On the other hand, as the text says, there is a district in the 
 parish of St. Ouen's termed " La Thiebault."
 
 92 THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 after the Crusade against the Albigenses, in the early part 
 of the thirteenth century, and was traced to England, 
 under the auspices of Peter de Rupibus, otherwise called 
 Sir Pierre Des Roches, Bishop of Winchester and Justiciar 
 of England. This cadet, it is stated, was called Robert, 
 and surnamed of Clermont, but at his emigration had taken 
 his family name of Auvergue, and had married contrary 
 to his father's consent. 
 
 Of the alliance there was issue, according to the Com- 
 missioners' report, a son, called Thiebault, who obtained, 
 about the year 1232, by the protection of the Justiciar 
 des Roches, a grant of lands in the little island of Jersey, 
 where he settled and became the patriarch of a Jersey fa- 
 mily, from which sprang Philip D'Auvergne, of the Bri- 
 tish Navy, whose strange vicissitudes I am about to relate. 
 The grant in Jersey was from its first grantee called " La 
 Thiebault," and tradition has handed down this name to a 
 portion of it to this day. 
 
 Of this old Jersey family, the lineal descendant was 
 Philip D'Auvergne, at the time of which I am speaking, 
 First Lieutenant of "the Arethusa." This celebrated 
 frigate, " the saucy Arethusa," had done much damage to the 
 French shipping, and performed many dashing acts ; but 
 at last, after a sharp action with a French frigate, she was 
 unfortunately wrecked off Brest, and the officers and crew, 
 including young D'Auvergne, detained as prisoners of war. 
 During this detention, Monsieur De Sartine, the then Ma- 
 rine Minister of the King of France, who was acquainted 
 with the Duke De Bouillon, made it known to him,* that 
 
 * Aaother version of the tale says that the Duke met D'Au-
 
 THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 93 
 
 the chance of war, or, more properly, an accident, had 
 brought to France an officer of the name that the Duke 
 was seeking for. This intimation produced an invitation 
 from the Duke, and a permission from the Minister for 
 young D'Auvergne to visit Navarre, the Duke's seat in 
 Normandy, on his way to Ostend, by which route his 
 return to England was prescribed. In the interview that 
 took place, the Duke showed the most marked atten- 
 tion to Lieutenant D'Auvergne, and hinted at the inquiry 
 he had instituted, which he gave fresh orders should be 
 continued with renovated diligence. Mr. D'Auvergne 
 came back to England deeply impressed with the friendly 
 reception he had met with. Soon after, in the ordinary 
 course of his professional duty, he was ordered abroad, 
 saw some good service, and was eventually made Post 
 Captain. On his return home, he had the good fortune 
 to meet in London the Duke Godfrey De Bouillon himself, 
 who evinced the most affectionate solicitude for his impaired 
 health, and who pressed him urgently to follow him to the 
 continent, to take advantage of a milder climate, and 
 profit of a father's care, which he offered him. The un- 
 lucky sailor was, however, involved in debt, and could not 
 leave London at the time. But in each of the two follow- 
 ing years he went to France, to pay a visit to his benefac- 
 
 vergne on a seat in the garden of the Tuileries by the merest 
 accident and that the insinuating and very ductile manners of 
 the young man first led to the partiality the Duke BO continuously 
 evinced for him. Still the coincidence in their mutual name was 
 curious, and the more BO, if they met as utter strangers.
 
 94 THE 6TOBY OP PHILIP D*ATJVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 tor, who extended to him the utmost favour, and called 
 him familiarly his son, in pursuance of a formal act 
 of adoption, dated in 1784, which the Duke had caused 
 to be engraved on the plinth of an original bronze of 
 Turenne which he had made him a present of. 
 
 In the year 1786, the Duke's commissioners having 
 completed their researches, after ten years' investigation, 
 letters patent, under the great seal of the Sovereignty 
 of Bouillon, acknowledging the descent of Charles 
 D'Auvergne, Esq. and Maj or- General James D'Auvergne, 
 his younger brother, the father and uncle of Captain 
 D'Auvergne, "from the ancient Counts of Auvergne, their 
 and the Duke's common ancestors, also confirming them 
 their common armorial bearings, and recognizing them as 
 cousins," were transmitted by the Duke to these two near 
 relatives of the Captain, which formal documents were, 
 by George the Third's royal license of the 1st day of 
 January, 1787, duly recorded, and regularly exemplified 
 in the College of Arms, and His Majesty's gracious con- 
 descension, announced, as is usual, in the " London Ga- 
 zette." 
 
 At the instance of the Duke, Captain D'Auvergne re- 
 turned to his profession, and was, in April, 1787, given 
 the command of the frigate " Narcissus," on the Channel 
 station, in which he continued till January, 1790, when 
 his health obliged him to resign it. Shortly after, he 
 visited Navarre, and found the Duke sadly shattered by 
 the terrors of the French Revolution, now beginning to 
 spread its baneful effects in the provinces which had 
 hitherto escaped its desolations. The inhabitants of the
 
 THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. Q5 
 
 little country of Bouillon, already alarmed by the attempted 
 proselytism of the secret missionaries of Jacobinism, pressed 
 their Sovereign to regulate the succession, that they might 
 know where to look for a protector at the bursting of the 
 storm that they apprehended was gathering on their heads, 
 in common with those of the other neighbours of France ; 
 and the Duke, in consequence, gave directions to his Council 
 to prepare the documents and determine the mode by which 
 he was to fix the succession on young Captain D'Auvergne, 
 whom he now declared to be his choice, which choice he 
 likewise stated he intended to sanction by a formal Act 
 of Adoption, such as had been practised in his family. The 
 Duke likewise declared he had intimated in April, 1787, 
 by a letter he had respectfully taken leave to address to 
 His Britannic Majesty, his intentions respecting Captain 
 D'Auvergne ; and that he had the assurances of Lord Sid- 
 ney, one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, 
 that whatever he might do for Captain D'Auvergne would 
 meet His Majesty's gracious assent and approbation. 
 
 The Council having, in the progress of the Duke God- 
 frey's designs, observed to him that for the inauguration 
 of the adoptee, constituting an integral member of that 
 branch of the family in which he was adopted, it was 
 expedient, to give solemnity and weight to the deed, that 
 a regular act of the consent of the natural father of the 
 adoptee resigning his paternal authority should be ob- 
 tained ; this act, in consideration of the advantages that 
 were to accrue from it to his son, was readily procured. 
 The form of the document, drawn out by the Chancellor 
 and Attorney-General of Bouillon, was accordingly trans-
 
 96 THE STORY OP PHILIP c'ATJVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 mitted in 1786 by the Duke to Charles D'Auvergne, Esq., 
 the father, and the Duke having declared therein his 
 intention of adopting his cousin, Philip D'Auvergne, ac- 
 cording to the ancient laws and usages of arms, he invited 
 him to consent to it, and to execute the document to that 
 effect, in the presence of six persons of the quality of 
 knights or gentlemen, which was done by Charles D'Au- 
 vergne, Esq., the father, as prescribed on the 1st of Sep- 
 tember, 1786, in the presence of six of the principal gentle- 
 men of his neighbourhood, chiefly relatives of his family. 
 
 In the summer of 1791, the inhabitants of Bouillon, 
 continuing to press their Sovereign for his decision, after 
 a deliberation of more than twelve years, the Duke, with 
 the law officers of the Duchy then at Navarre, and those 
 of his household, had the several acts and the declaration 
 made public, and solemnly invested his adopted son, by 
 girding on him the sword of Turenne, after which he em- 
 braced him, and presented him to the gentlemen attending, 
 as Prince Successor to his titles and possessions, enjoining 
 all to respect and consider him as if he had been born 
 such commanding the Chancellor of the Sovereignty to 
 transmit the several acts and documents with the declara- 
 tion to Bouillon, and direct their publication and presenta- 
 tion to the several civil and military authorities in the 
 Duchy. The Duke's only surviving son, the Hereditary 
 Prince James Leopold, who was detained at Paris by 
 indisposition and infirmity, on the 5th of July trans- 
 mitted the formal declaration of his adhesion to the ar- 
 rangement of the succession and his adoption of the 
 Prince Successor as his brother, which act was annexed
 
 97 
 
 to those of the reigning Dnke, and forwarded to Bonil- 
 Ion for execution by a deputy of the General Assembly 
 that had been called to be present at the inauguration. 
 They were received with gladness, and accepted, registered, 
 and sanctioned by every power, civil and military, in the 
 Duchy, and the several documents solemnly published in 
 the various communities, and at the parish churches, where 
 oaths of fidelity were taken and subscribed to the estab- 
 lished succession by all and every public or constituted 
 officer or functionary on the 4th of August, 1791, and 
 " Te Deum" sung in thanksgiving, with such demonstra- 
 tions of gladness as these simple people were wont to 
 express. 
 
 The several documents, with the ratification of the 
 authorities in the Duchy, were thence returned and trans- 
 mitted to London, and by His Majesty's gracious license, 
 severally entered in the records of the College of Arms, 
 and by the same license, bearing date February the 27th, 
 1792, His Majesty's gracious leave was granted to Captain 
 D'Auvergne to accept and enjoy the several successions 
 and honours devolved, and to devolve to him by these dis- 
 positions of his relations, and likewise emblazoning the 
 shield of Bouillon on his own family shield, as exemplified 
 and recorded in His Majesty's College of Arms ; and the 
 Duke Godfrey did also, on the 21st of August, 1791, 
 execute a formal deed of gift of the whole of his possessions 
 in the ancient province and Comte of Auvergne, as an 
 apanage during the life of Duke James Leopold, which, 
 considering the confusion that then prevailed in France, 
 he confidentially conveyed to the custody and keep of
 
 98 THE STORY OF PHILIP D 5 AUVERG\E, ESQ. 
 
 General D'Auvergne, the Captain's uncle, and the even- 
 tual succession, in the case that the Prince Successor died 
 without leaving legitimate male issue, declared to be fur- 
 ther entailed in a conforming olographic codicil, added by 
 the Duke Godfrey to his last will and testament,* and 
 inclosed in a box with three locks, sent to be deposited on 
 the table of the Sovereign Court of Bouillon, one of the 
 keys to which box was entrusted to the Governor- General 
 of the Duchy, the other to the President of the General 
 Assembly, and the third delivered by the Duke himself to 
 Captain D'Auvergne, who was enjoined by an ostensible 
 will either to attend himself, or to appoint a sufficient 
 Deputy to attend with the third key at the opening and 
 publishing of the will at Bouillon, on the demise of the 
 Duke Godfrey, which occurred 3rd December, 1792, when 
 the menacing appearance of aifairs required the personal 
 attendance of all British officers to their duty in their 
 native country. The Marquess De Lombelon des Essarts, 
 a gentleman of Normandy, who had the reversion of 
 
 * The order of Succession established by the Duke Godfrey's 
 "Will, and accepted by the inhabitants, &e. of the Duchy, is as 
 follows : 
 
 1. To the Hereditary Prince James Leopold and his heirs 
 
 male to perpetuity ; in default of which, 
 
 2. To the Prince Successor, Philip, the Duke Godfrey's 
 
 adopted son, and liis heirs male ; in default of which, 
 
 3. To the heirs male of the Lieut. -General Count De La 
 
 (Tour) D'Auvergne by his wife, Madlle. De Scepeaux ; 
 in default of which, 
 
 4. To the heirs male of the late Duke De La Tremoille ; and, 
 
 lastly, in default of these, 
 
 5. To the heirs male of the house of Eohan-Eohan.
 
 THE STORY OF PHILIP D J AUVERGNE, ESQ. QQ 
 
 Governor-General of the Duchy, attended at Bouillon on 
 the part of the succeeding Duke, James Leopold, and on 
 the part of Captain D'Auvergne, who had confided to him 
 his key, and who was present at the opening of the box, 
 and publishing the contents, when the whole authorities 
 of the Duchy, and the inhabitants in the several districts 
 and communities, took and subscribed the oaths of alle- 
 giance to their Duke, James Leopold, and received those 
 of fidelity to his successor, at the same time adopting the 
 dispositions of eventual succession, as prescribed by the 
 codicil to the will of Duke Godfrey, the original of which 
 met the same fate as all the other public papers of the 
 Duchy, which were committed to the flames by the 
 Clubbists in 1793. This was the worst time of the 
 French Revolution, the period of the Convention, and the 
 Reign of Terror. The unfortunate Duke James was 
 imprisoned in his house at Paris, was obliged to pay and 
 maintain the sans-culotte guard put upon him, had all his 
 property sequestrated, while every mark of the dignities 
 that his race had acquired in the service of his .country, 
 together with the insignia of the independence of the 
 Duchy, were burnt. 
 
 Luckily, however, the Duke Godfrey, as if aware, or 
 apprehensive of the consequences that followed, had trans- 
 mitted to England a duplicate in his own hand-writing^ of 
 the important codicil that regulated the eventual succes- 
 sion, such as it had been accepted on the Duchy. 
 
 The moral character of the Duke James, (Duke God- 
 frey's son), partaking in some respects of the imbecility 
 of his physical constitution, the direction and care of his
 
 TOO THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 interests and property were abandoned to agents that little 
 deserved (as the sequel proved) his confidence. The little 
 Sovereignty of BouiMon had its full share of suffering : 
 at one time seized by the French Jacobins, then invaded 
 and sacked by the Austrians, it was eventually appro- 
 priated by the French Directory, who abolished its Sove- 
 reignty, and declared it, on the 25th October, 1795, a por- 
 tion of the " Domaines Nationaux" of France. 
 
 In 180.2, Duke James died without issue, and the suc- 
 cession to the Sovereignty opened to the English officer, our 
 hero, Philip D'Auvergne, whom the previous Duke had de- 
 signed for the inheritance. Philip, invested with these royal 
 rights, and availing himself of the peace of Amiens, set out 
 for Paris to protect his interests, and to assert his claims ; 
 but he appears to have been a very vain and misguided man, 
 and to have been constantly involved in trouble and difficul- 
 ties. When chief of the flotilla of gunboats stationed for the 
 defence of Jersey and Guernsey, he is stated to have carried 
 on a correspondence with La Roche Jaquelin, and other 
 Vendeans, possibly by the command of his superiors. At 
 all events, when he reached the French capital in 1802, he 
 was evidently a marked and suspected man. This was 
 indeed a moment of general suspicion there : Napoleon 
 was about to shake off the Consulate for the Empire, and 
 deeply plotting himself, he scented conspiracy in all around 
 him. The French police were on the alert with the eyes 
 of Argus ; they seemed to think the object of Auvergne's 
 visit was one in connection with some political or hostile 
 treachery, and they at last seized bis person and papers, and 
 consigned the heir of Bouillon to the cells of the Temple.
 
 THE STORY OP PHILIP I/AUVERGNE, ESQ. 1Q1 
 
 His imprisonment was not of long duration, but it was 
 followed by his forced departure from Fiance. On his arri- 
 val in England, he endeavoured to induce the English 
 Government to take up his cause, and to obtain reparation 
 for the wrong he had suffered ; but his efforts were in vain. 
 Eventually he resumed his professional duties, was appointed 
 to the Ledeur, 44, and was placed once more on the 
 Jersey station. 
 
 After the restoration of the Bourbons, Philip D'Au- 
 vergne was actually put into possession of his inheritance, 
 and governed his Duchy for a few months. Alas for him ! 
 an act of the Congress of Vienna dispossessed him of the 
 territory " upon considerations of general policy." When 
 Napoleon was finally " put out," the Duke (who had 
 meanwhile been advanced to be Rear- Admiral of the Blue, 
 November, 1805; and Vice- Admiral of theWhite in Novem- 
 ber, 1813) again brought forward his claims, which he based 
 on his supposed relationship, and on the formal adoption 
 of the Duke Godfrey, But Prince Charles de Rohan, 
 Duke de Montbazon, contested this on the ground of 
 nearer consanguinity to the former Dukes than his rival, 
 even allowing his pedigree to be correct. The rights of 
 the respective claimants were submitted to the courts of 
 Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia. Sir John Sewell was 
 appointed by the Admiral to be his Commissioner at this 
 Court of Arbitration, and he supported his client's claims 
 with great eloquence and earnestness; but the court decided 
 in favour of the Duke de Montbazon, who was put into 
 possession of part of the estates of the Duchy, with its 
 title as Duke de Bouillon, and consequently his nephew
 
 102 THE STORY OF PHILIP D^AUVERGXE, ESQ. 
 
 and representative, Camille, present Prince de Rohan- 
 Guemenee and Duke de Montbazon, is also Duke de 
 Bouillon. The title is now, however, unallied to supreme 
 authority, for Bouillon itself, as a sovereign territory, had 
 been, by a decree of the Congress of Vienna, dated the 
 9th June, 1815, incorporated with the kingdom of the 
 Netherlands, and is now governed very comfortably by 
 that worthy monarch, Leopold, King of the Belgians. 
 
 I will not attempt to describe the overwhelming disap- 
 pointment of the British suitor. Utterly broken down, 
 with every hope and prospect gone, health shattered, and 
 mind overthrown, the wretched man terminated by his 
 own hand his life of severest trials. On the 18th Sept. 
 1816, little more than two months after the Prince de 
 Rohan succeeded against him, Philip D'Auvergne com- 
 mitted suicide at Holmes' Hotel, London, and was buried 
 in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. There is a tablet 
 there to his memory, and one in the parish church of St. 
 Helier, Jersey. 
 
 A cast of his broad seal, I remember to have seen in 
 the window of Mr. Halfhide, seal engraver, Coventry 
 Street, London, which was, no doubt, executed for the 
 Admiral at that shop when he lived in town. 
 
 A family of the same name, although its connection 
 with the Admiral's has not been traced, still exists in the 
 parish of St. Ouen, the present head of which is a respect- 
 able farmer. Not a member of the Admiral's branch re- 
 mains. 
 
 Vice Admiral D'Auvergne was F.R.S., F.S.A., a mem-
 
 THE STORY OF PHILIP D'AUVERGNE, ESQ. 103 
 
 her of the Society of Arts, a Knight of St. John of Je- 
 rusalem, and a Knight of St. Joachim. 
 
 The following is a copy of the King's licence and per- 
 mission for Philip D'Auvergne, Esq., to accept and enjoy 
 the nomination and succession to the Sovereignty of the 
 Duchy of Bouillon : 
 
 "GEORGE R. 
 
 " George the Third, by the grace of God King 
 of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the 
 faith, &c. To our right trusty and right entirely beloved 
 cousin, Charles, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and our 
 Hereditary Marshal of England greeting. Whereas Philip 
 D'Auvergne, Esq., a Captain in our Navy, hath by his 
 petition humbly represented unto us, that His Serene 
 Highness Godfrey, reigning Duke of Bouillon, did, in the 
 year 1786, recognise, acknowledge, and reclaim the pe- 
 titioner's family as descendants from his ancestors the 
 ancient Counts of d'Auvergne, which recognition we were 
 graciously pleased to order to be recorded in the College 
 of Arms, and at the same time to confirm to the peti- 
 tioner's father, and uncle, and their descendants, the family 
 armorial ensigns of His Serene Highness. That his said 
 Serene Highness, being requested by his subjects, the in- 
 habitants of the said Duchy of Bouillon, in a general as- 
 sembly, to select from some branch of his illustrious house a 
 successor in the Sovereignty of Bouillon, in case the present 
 Hereditary Prince, his Serene Highness' only son, should 
 die without lawful issue, hath been graciously pleased, out of 
 his great favour and affection to the petitioner, to announce
 
 104 THE STORY OF PHILIP D*AUVERONE, ESQ. 
 
 to his said subjects, by a declaration dated 25th of June 
 last, that in case of the death of the Prince, his son, without 
 issue male, he transmits, at the desire and with the express 
 and formal consent of the nation, the Sovereignty of his 
 said Duchy of Bouillon to the petitioner (whom he therein 
 styles 'Son Altesse Monseigneur Philippe D'Auvergue, son 
 fjls adopte') and the heirs male of his body, authorising 
 him to take the title of Prince Successor to the Sovereignty 
 of the Duchy of Bouillon, enjoining him to unite those 
 arms with his own, and ordaining that the said title shall 
 be given him in all acts, and that he shall enjoy all the 
 honours and prerogatives thereunto belonging. That the 
 raid declaration, adoption, and choice of his said Serene 
 Highness, is further confirmed by a codicil to his last will 
 and testament deposited in the archives of the Sovereign 
 Court of Bouillon, approved and ratified by the Hereditary 
 Prince in a declaration dated at Paris 5th July last, and 
 unanimously accepted and received by the general assembly 
 of the Duchy, who have in consequence taken the oath of 
 fidelity both to the 'Hereditary Prince, and to the peti- 
 tioner as Prince Successor, that the petitioner is desirous 
 of testifying his grateful sense of such very distinguishing 
 proofs of the affection of His Serene Highness the Duke 
 of Bouillon, and of his son, His Serene Highness the 
 Hereditary Prince, as well as of the regard and attachment 
 of the subjects of the said Duke, manifested in the unani- 
 mous declaration of the general assembly; at the same 
 time, he humbly begs leave to assure us of his inviolable 
 and duty to our person and government, and
 
 THE STORY OP PHILIP D*AUVERGNE, ESQ. 105 
 
 his firm resolution never to abandon the service of his 
 country, or the line in which he has now the honour of 
 holding a command, trusting that his future faithful exer- 
 tions may afford him hopes of further promotion and 
 honour. He therefore most humbly prays that we will be 
 graciously pleased to grant him our royal licence and permis- 
 sion to accept and enjoy the said nomination and succession 
 with all the honours and privileges belonging and inherent 
 thereto, and to unite the arms of the said Duchy of Bouillon 
 to his own ; and also that we will be graciously pleased to 
 command that the several documents relative thereto, be 
 recorded in the College of Arms. Know ye that we of 
 our princely grace and special favour, have given and 
 granted, and by these presents do give and grant unto 
 him, the said Philip D'Auvergne, Esquire, our royal 
 licence and permission to accept and enjoy the said nomi- 
 nation and succession to the Sovereignty of the said Duchy 
 of Bouillon, and to unite the arms of the said Duchy to 
 his own, provided that the ^yeveral documents relative 
 thereto be recorded in the College of Arms, otherwise this 
 our royal licence and permission to be void and of none 
 effect. Our will and pleasure therefore is, that you, Charles, 
 Duke of Norfolk, to whom the cognizance of matters of 
 this nature doth properly belong, do require and command 
 that this our concession and declaration be registered in 
 our College of Arms, to the end that our officers of arms 
 and all others, upon occasions, may take full notice and 
 have knowledge thereof, and for so doing, this shall be 
 your warrant. Given at our Court, at St. James's, the
 
 106 THE STORY OF PHILIP I/AUVERGNE, ESQ. 
 
 twenty-seventh day of .February, 1792, in the thirty-second 
 year of our reign. 
 
 " By His Majesty's command, 
 
 " HENRY DUNDAS. 
 
 " Extracted from the records of the College of Arms, 
 London, and examined therewith this 29th of November, 
 1802, by me, 
 
 "RALPH BIGLAND, 
 
 "Richmond Herald."
 
 THJS DE LA POLES. 10? 
 
 " Fortune and merit had from an humble station elevated them 
 to the first place among mankind. They had been all things, and 
 all was of little value." GIBBON. 
 
 WHEN the first Napoleon, in the bitterness of disap- 
 pointment at being thwarted by the English in his dreams 
 of universal empire, called us " a nation of shopkeepers/' 
 he meant it as a term of reproach and an expression 
 of contempt, affecting to despise trade as a pursuit 
 less honourable than his own profession of arms. But 
 the great soldier, who was also no mean jurist, forgot 
 the lessons taught by History he forgot that while \var 
 was a primitive and barbarous pursuit, practised by the 
 nude and untutored savage, in common with the belte 7 . 
 knight, Trade, in its beneficent and expansive aspect, re- 
 quired in its possessor no ordinary intellectual culture 
 \vas stamped with the impress of civilization was the 
 herald of peace, and the bright chain which bound in 
 harmony the family of nations. To whom was Europe 
 first indebted for the acquisition of knowledge ? Five 
 hundred years before the Christian era, the Phosnician 
 merchants carried with them, from the cradle of literature 
 Egypt, the sciences and arts, especially astronomy, navi- 
 gation, and the use of letters, which they diffused as they 
 passed from Sidon, spreading themselves along the shores 
 of the Mediterranean to Spain and the Britannic Isles.
 
 108 THE DIS LA POLES. 
 
 And again, in the glorious epoch of Genoa la Superba, 
 and in England, in the palmiest days of her chivalry, 
 the days of Sir John Chandos and Sir Walter Manny, 
 Trade was not despised, as Napoleon affected to despise it. 
 The Merchant Princes of England, whose navies rode upon 
 the waters that touched on every shore, occupied promi- 
 nent places in our nation's history, as patriots, statesmen, 
 and warriors, and won, by their merits, the most brilliant 
 coronets in the peerage. Aristocratic isolation was not 
 at any time characteristic of the English. There was always 
 a social intercommunication of the most friendly character 
 between the aristocracy and the people. The former were 
 constantly sending down their sons and grandsons to mix 
 with, arid be of the people, and the latter were sending 
 up theirs, to be of the aristocracy. The doors of the 
 great temple of the Peerage were left wide open for all to 
 cuter. Thus these two great classes, the higher and the 
 lower, were knit together in a union of interest and pride 
 in their country and its institutions, in which lay the true 
 secret of the growth, and power, and glory of England. 
 
 The first and the greatest of these princely traders was 
 \YILLIAM DE LA POLE, the " beloved merchant" of the 
 great Edward III. The rich and prosperous seaport of 
 llavenser, at the mouth of the Humber, had the honour, 
 towards the close of the thirteenth century, of giving him 
 birth. The son of a merchant, he was educated in the 
 mysteries of trade as a science, and practised it as a 
 science. In the course of time he was attracted to the 
 superior advantages, in privileges and free customs, of the 
 town of Kingston- upon-Hull, to which he removed.
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 109 
 
 Here, by his skill and industry, his probity and honour- 
 able dealing, he advanced in wealth and trading, until his 
 ships sought commerce on every sea. 
 
 His house at Kingston-upon-Hull was of the most 
 splendid description, adorned with massive towers, rival- 
 ling the Baronial Halls of England of that period. In 
 this his stately home, he kept up a degree of magnifi- 
 cence rarely equalled by the wealthiest noblemen of the 
 day, and entertained and lived in the most sumptuous 
 manner. The most loyal of subjects, he was devotedly 
 attached to the person of the King, whose chivalrous 
 character he never ceased to admire. When Edward, 
 with his nobles, his knights bannerets, and their esquires, 
 was on his way to the north, to chastise the Scots, 
 who, with Randolf and Douglas at their head, burst 
 over the borders twenty thousand strong, and were ra- 
 vaging Cumberland, he was entertained by De la Pole 
 with unbounded munificence. On bended knee the 
 prince merchant knelt on the occasion before his sovereign, 
 and rose a " belted knight," in the brilliant cortege which 
 followed Edward. The campaign was abrupt and inglo- 
 rious to the Scots ; for when Edward appeared before 
 them at the River Wear, they left a division to guard the 
 pass, and retired to their huts in the mountain ; " where," 
 says Froissart, " they made marvellously great fires, and 
 about midnight set up such a blasting and noise with 
 their horns, that it seemed as if all the great devils from 
 hell were assembled together." After two nights spent in 
 this manner, they disappeared back again over the borders 
 as they came.
 
 110 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 These border wars were very expensive to the crown, 
 and Sir William de la Pole sent the king "one thousand 
 pounds in gold/' (a marvellous stun in those days,) and 
 " provided sixty tuns of white wine for the king's army/' 
 to be " conveyed to Berwick-on-T\veed." De la Pole, on 
 the occasion of his knighthood,, laid aside his paternal 
 coat of arms, three leopards' heads, and assumed, in the 
 pride of his calling, "azure two bars, wavy, argent/' allu- 
 sive to his maritime employment. The reverse is the 
 heraldic custom now : all references to trade are carefully 
 excluded from the escutcheon, and fanciful devices 
 adopted. De la Pole had the proper pride ; he felt honour 
 in his trade, and was honoured in it. His attachment 
 to the King was unbounded and unvarying. When Ed- 
 ward was in sore straits in Flanders, on his expedition in 
 1338, to wrest the French crown from Philip de Valois 
 his supplies and monies exhausted, and his credit at the 
 lowest ebb, for he had previously pawned his crown and 
 jewels De la Pole, then at Antwerp, hastened to his 
 Sovereign with all the money he had, and mortgaged his 
 entire property and estates for his use : so that it is said 
 of him (De la Pole), " he ruined himself for the King's 
 sake." But these sacrifices, like gold disengaged from 
 dross in the crucible making the pure metal shine out 
 more brilliantly, led the way to the elevation of the house 
 of De la Pole to a pitch of splendour so dazzling as to 
 savour more of romance than reality. 
 
 Let us pass on to the field of Marconne, in France. 
 Edward is there, surrounded by his knights and nobles. 
 Jlis archers, cross-bowmen, and meii-at-arms, cover the
 
 THE DE LA POLES. Ill 
 
 plain, which is studded with tents. The banners of the 
 King and his knights are fluttering over the vast array, 
 and the glorious sun of France pours down his rays in a 
 flood of sunshine, on burnished cuirass and helmet. In 
 front of the royal tent, the knights are clustered in a circle, 
 the King in the midst ; and before him is the merchant 
 prince of Kingston-upon-Hull, who is proclaimed, midst the 
 clangour of trumpets, " Sir William de la Pole, Knight 
 Banneret." The principal herald advances to him, and 
 delivers his letters patent from the King, dated the " field 
 of Marconne/' reciting his deeds, that " the world might 
 understand'his worth, and what essential service he had 
 rendered his sovereign," who gave him, to support his 
 dignity, "a grant of rents in Hull, value 500 marks 
 a -year." We next see Sir William De la Pole in courtly 
 robes, and in the highest favour at the Court at West- 
 minster. The King, on his return from France, had sent for 
 him, made him first gentleman of his bed-chamber, then 
 Lord of the Seignory of Holderness, and againadvancedhim, 
 from time to time, to other places of honour and profit 
 in the end, constituting him Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 
 In this exalted position, he was not unmindful of his own 
 town of Kingston-upon-Hull. He was its constant bene- 
 factor, and obtained for it " many privileges, freedoms, and 
 immunities." 
 
 The ivy-clad ruins of the noble Abbey of the Carthu- 
 sians, which may still be seen there, attest and perpetuate 
 his piety. As he grew old he " determined to found and 
 endow a most stately monastery to the praise and glory of 
 God, and the benefit of the poor." But our pious prince
 
 112 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 merchant did not live to see his " stately monastery" 
 finished. It was reserved for the filial duty of his eldest 
 son and successor to complete it, at the end of twenty- 
 one years after his father's decease. 
 
 The brief period of n century and a half spans the rise, 
 the glory, and the fall of the DE LA POLES. SIR MI- 
 CHAEL DE LA POLE, the eldest son and successor of the 
 prince merchant, was a merchant, too, and he was besides 
 a soldier, a diplomatist, a sailor, and a lawyer ! He served 
 in war thirty years as a knight banneret, was thrice a 
 captive in the hands of the enemy, twice a prisoner of 
 war, and once an envoy to a foreign state had been 
 Governor of Calais, Admiral of the Fleet, often Ambassa- 
 dor from the King, a privy councillor, a Baron, an Earl, 
 a Knight of the Garter, and Lord Chancellor of England. 
 Shortly after his father's death he obtained almost royal 
 authority for his house in his native Kingston-upon-Hull. 
 He got a charter from the King, which empowered him and 
 his heirs for ever to " send justices of gaol delivery as 
 often as need should require to .Kingston-upon-Hull.'* 
 Despite of Walsingham's sarcasm, "that as a merchant 
 himself, and the son of a merchant, he was better versed 
 in merchandise than skilled in martial matters /' he was 
 an eminent soldier, serving with distinction immediately 
 under the Black Prince, in the French wars at the close 
 of Edward's reign. In whatever position he was placed 
 he sustained it with regal magnificence. 
 
 In the first of Richard II., after Sir Michael had 
 finished the " stately monastery/' we find him at sea with 
 "old John of Gaunt/' styled King of Castile, and in the
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 113 
 
 same year he was acting as Lord High Admiral of England. 
 On taking the command of the fleet to the northward, he 
 dazzled the public view with the grandeur of his outfit. 
 His own personal retinue was one hundred and forty men- 
 at-arms, one hundred and forty archers, one banneret, eight 
 knights, and a hundred and thirty esquires. He was a 
 Baron at this time, for Edward the Third, in the thirty-ninth 
 year of his reign, had summoned him to Parliament by the 
 title of " Baron de la Pole ;" yet still a merchant, his 
 barques floating on all waters, and laden with the richest 
 bales. 
 
 Lord de la Pole, having thus by his public services won 
 personal honour and position, now acquired great territo- 
 rial influence by his marriage with Catherine, the richly- 
 endowed daughter and heiress of Sir John Wingfield, 
 lord of Wingfield, in Suffolk, a renowned knight and 
 soldier of the martial era in which he lived. As Lord 
 Chancellor of England, De la Pole inaugurated his legal 
 career after his own fashion, by serving as a banneret 
 forty days in King Richard the Second's Scottish wars, 
 where he gained such credit that the King rewarded his 
 " fighting Chancellor" with a grant of " the castle, town, 
 manor, and honour of Eyre, part of the possessions of 
 William de Ufford, late Earl of Suffolk, deceased." He 
 had scarcely seated himself on the woolsack, at his return, 
 when his military knowledge was again called into requi- 
 sition. The dread of French invasion is not an idiosyn- 
 cracy of our own times : it was just as rife under the 
 Plantagenets. On the occasion of one of these periodical 
 panics, De la Pole collected a great array of " Volunteers"
 
 114 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 men-at-arms, cross-bowmen, and archers for the protec- 
 tion of the capital. But prevention in this case was worse 
 than cure. For once the sagacity of De la Pole was at 
 fault. These stout burghers and yeomanry, "having no 
 pay, quartered themselves on the inhabitants for twenty 
 miles round London, and living such a pleasant life, did 
 even as much damage as the invaders would have done." 
 
 Vast were the estates of De la Pole in York and Suffolk ; 
 and to sustain his honours with becoming dignity, as of 
 the olden time, in baronial hall and battlemented castle, 
 the King granted him royal license to "castellate his 
 manor houses at "Wyn "field and Huntingfield, in the 
 county of Suffolk," and to "impark all his woods and 
 lands." But this was not the limit of the monarch's 
 favour. There was a grand creation of peers, at the opening 
 of the parliament of 1385, small in number, but brilliant in 
 names and persons four in all two of them Princes of 
 the Blood, and two, subjects of the realm, of princely 
 merit a Marquess and three Earls. These were, Robert 
 De Vere, Earl of Oxford, made Marquess of Dublin ; 
 Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby ; Edward Plantage- 
 net, Earl of Rutland; and Michael de la Pole,Earl of Suffolk. 
 Could subject desire to be more honoured? Equality of 
 rank with princes of the blood, and association with De 
 Vere, "who 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." De la Pole, merchant in Hull, now raises his
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 115 
 
 head, coronetted, among the proudest Earls of England, 
 sits robed, in state, in parliament, and is called " cousin" 
 and " councillor" by the King. The vast estates of the 
 Earl, the number of his retainers, the extent of his do- 
 mains, his princely parks and mansions, constituted him, 
 with the great seals in his hands, and the unreserved con- 
 fidence of the King, one of the most powerful of the great 
 noblemen of his day. He had five noble houses at King- 
 ston-upon-Hull alone one, "Suffolk's palace/' which 
 stood at the " Market Gate," opposite St. Mary's Church, 
 two others within the town, and the remaining two at a 
 short distance from it all " adorned with stately towers." 
 And yet that very hour in the height of almost un- 
 precedented prosperity the death-knell of his power was 
 sounding. Jealousy of his exaltation, his own imperious 
 will, and his bitter tongue brought it upon him. He 
 quarrelled with a churchman, his rival, who plotted and 
 worked his ruin. The drama opens in the same parliament 
 in which he took his seat for the first time as Earl of Suffolk. 
 Thomas Arundel, Bishop of Ely, an earnest petitioner to 
 the King for the restoration of the temporalities of the 
 Bishopric of Norwich, moved that question in the House, 
 and was sharply rebuked by the Lord Chancellor. " What 
 is this, my Lord," he said, " that you desire ? Is it a 
 small matter to part with those temporalities which yield 
 the King more than a thousand pounds per annum ? The 
 King hath no more need of such advisers to his loss." 
 " What is that you say, Michael ?" said the Bishop, in 
 reply. " I desire nothing of the King which is his own, 
 but that which belongs to another, and which he unjustly
 
 116 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 detains, by thy wicked counsel or such as thou art, which 
 will never be for his advantage. If thou beest so much 
 concerned for the King's profit, why hast thou covetously 
 taken from him a thousand marks per annum since thou 
 wast made an earl?" The scene is changed, and the 
 curtain rises again on the Parliament in Westminster of 
 1386. The Lord Chancellor asks funds to defray the 
 expenses of an invasion of France in support of the King's 
 right to the French throne, but is met with a petition for 
 the removal of ministers, especially of the Chancellor, 
 whom it is intended to impeach. The ministers, including 
 the Chancellor, are dismissed, and the great seals handed 
 over to the Bishop of Ely ! 
 
 Then follow the formal impeachment and the trial of the 
 Earl of Suffolk in the House of Peers for defrauding the 
 Crown his defence, and acquittal on four out of seven 
 charges, and the sentence of imprisonment, during the 
 King's pleasure, on the remainder. The judges declare this 
 sentence " erroneous in all its parts," and are imprisoned for 
 it. But the Parliament is dissolved, and Suffolk released and 
 recalled to Court. The King loads him with fresh favours, 
 gives him the Garter, " clothes him in royal robes," and has 
 him seated beside him at table in public upon Christmas 
 festivals, with no small grief and trouble of the nobility. 
 Another shifting of the scene, and the great Earl of Suffolk, 
 accused of treason and attainted, his property and estates 
 confiscated, is a fugitive fleeing for his life from England, 
 in company with De Vere. Disguised as a Flemish poul- 
 terer, with his head and beard shaved, he reaches Calais. 
 His brother, Edmund de la Pole, is captain of the castle
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 117 
 
 there, a post which he owed to the Earl's influence. The 
 noble outlaw, in his misfortunes, a price on his head, and 
 his enemies in full pursuit, approached the garrison, and 
 besought shelter and concealment, but was refused. " Bro- 
 ther," said the captain of the castle, " you must know that 
 1 dare not be false to the King of England for the sake of 
 any kindred whatsoever, nor admit you in, without the 
 privity of William de Beauchamp, governor of this town/' 
 
 And Suffolk stood there in his wretchedness, in a half- 
 famished state, until the governor was applied to. But he 
 also had a strict sense of duty, and ordered the Earl back 
 to England, a prisoner. De la Pole, however, eluded his 
 captors, reached French territory in safety, and was kindly 
 received at Paris by the French King. But he never saw 
 England more. His misfortunes crushed his proud and 
 sensitive spirit; he fell into ill health. He who had 
 founded an hospital at Kingston-upon-Hull, with a chapel 
 adjoining for the use of the poor, was now indebted to 
 foreign alms for medical aid and food, and to foreign cha- 
 rity for Christian burial. 
 
 " By strangers honoured and by strangers mourned," 
 he died at the close of the first year of his exile. 
 
 But exile, confiscation, and death failed as yet to extinguish 
 the house of De la Pole. It possessed an elasticity which, 
 yielding to the pressure of misfortune, sprung up again, de- 
 spite the machinations of enemies. The late Earl's son and 
 heir, Sir Michael de la Pole, had the address to get the sen- 
 tence against his father annulled by Richard, and himself 
 restored to the castles and manors and earldom of Suffolk 
 by Henry IV. The second earl was no degenerate scion
 
 118 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 of his martial race. When King Henry V. invaded France, 
 Michael, second Earl of Suffolk, and his eldest son, Michael 
 de la Pole, joined the expedition. During the five weeks' 
 investment of the strong fortress of Harfleur by the King, 
 father and son led storming party after party, and repelled 
 the fiercest of the assaults of the French knights. As the 
 standard of England floated over this proud citadel the 
 elder De la Pole sealed the victory with his life. 
 
 The third earl bore his title but for a short month : he 
 obtained it on one battle-field, and surrendered it on another. 
 From Harfleur he followed the banner of the young King 
 Henry across the Somme, passed through the deep and 
 rapid stream of the Tervois, and halted at Agincourt, to 
 find a soldier's death. 
 
 The King moved on from that memorable field of battle 
 to Calais, bringing with him the dead body of the young 
 Earl of Suffolk, and thence sailed for England. At Dover 
 the crowd plunged into the waves, and carried the conque- 
 ror in their arms from his ship to the beach. The body of 
 Michael de la Pole shared in the honours of the triumphal 
 procession to London. In the capital " tapestry lined the 
 walls of the houses ; pageants were acted in the streets ; 
 sweet wines ran in the conduits ; bands of children taste- 
 fully arrayed sang as it passed along, and the whole popu- 
 lation seemed intoxicated with joy." On the day following, 
 the most magnificent funeral obsequies were bestowed by 
 the King's order on the gallant young Earl of Suffolk in 
 St. Paul's, where his body was laid out. Archbishops and 
 Bishops performed the service of the dead, and when religion 
 had thus done its high and holy office for the repose of the
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 119 
 
 soul of Earl Michael de la Pole, his remains were borne to 
 his brother William's manor of Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, and 
 committed to their last resting-place on earth. Three 
 daughters, his only children, mourned his loss. One be- 
 came the wife of John de Foix, Earl of Kendal, another 
 wedded Lord Morley, a gallant companion in arms of her 
 father, andKatherine, the eldest, was a nun. 
 
 Let us pass over over the next fourteen years, and come 
 to the memorable Siege of Orleans. William, fourth 
 Earl of Suffolk, brother to the late Earl, was in command 
 of the besieging army. He established his men in differ- 
 ent posts round the city, lodged in huts, covered from the 
 enemy's fire by intrenchments of earth. The blockade 
 continued during the winter. From a tower crested with 
 forts, he desolated the city, which was surrounded by sixty 
 ports or " bastiles." In the spring, he established lines 
 of communication between these posts. The city was 
 sealed up from all external aid. It seemed doomed : no 
 supplies could enter. There was no force to raise the siege ; 
 and yet aid came from a quarter and in a manner least to 
 be expected. It is an episode of history so familiar to all, 
 that I will make but brief allusion to it. Joan of Arc ap- 
 peared before Orleans " with a mission," so she said, ff fro*m 
 Heaven." She was dressed in male attire, and armed at all 
 points as a knight, mounted on a beautiful grey charger, 
 which she directed with ease and skill. On her banner was 
 painted, amidst a profusion of fleurs-de-lis, the figure of a 
 venerable old man, intended to represent the Almighty, with 
 the globe in his hand. Enthusiasm ran through the ranks of 
 the besieged, and alarm through those of the besiegers. It
 
 120 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 was in vain that the Earl of Suffolk and his officers exerted 
 themselves to check the hold which Joan had got upon the 
 imaginations of the soldiers. They would meet anything 
 human, but the stoutest heart quailed from encountering a 
 celestial champion. The Earl received a letter from her, 
 couched in imperious terms, commanding him, under pain 
 of the Divine wrath, to retire from the walls of Orleans ; 
 and soon after she herself appeared on the river Loire, with 
 her mysterious banner floating from the prow of a barge, 
 leading the van of a row of boats, which entered the city, 
 laden with provisions. Her presence within the walls fired 
 the drooping spirits of the French. The Earl of Suffolk 
 was now assailed with furious assaults, led on by Joan of 
 Arc in person. His most skilful dispositions and bravest 
 efforts were in vain. Fort after fort fell; and setting 
 fire to the remainder, he retired from Orleans, dispirited 
 and beaten,, leaving all his works, the fvuit of seven months' 
 toil and labour, behind him, in flames. He entered Jar- 
 geau, but the victorious Joan, " The Maid of Orleans/' 
 allowed him no respite, no repose. She followed in 
 quick pursuit, and the besieger became in turn the be- 
 sieged. The assault came, led by the Maid in person, 
 and Jargeau was carried by storm on the tenth day, 
 the Earl of Suffolk remaining a prisoner. To the officer 
 who demanded his sword, he inquired, "Are you a knight?" 
 " No/' answered the other. " Then I will make you one/' 
 and knighting him on the spot, the Earl surrendered. 
 He afterwards retrieved his reputation at Aumarle, which 
 he carried, with its fortress, on the twenty-fourth assault, 
 and he was present, and assisted at the coronation in Paris
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 121 
 
 of Henry VI. as King of France. His late vanquisher, 
 the Maid of Orleans, was burned at the stake, as a sor- 
 ceress, in the market-place at Rouen ; and at home, in his 
 own manor of Eye, one Madame Jourdenan, " the witch 
 of Eye," who made " Icve potions" for Madame Eleanor, 
 the Duchess of Gloucester, met with the same fate. 
 
 The Earl has become a Marquess (1444) : he was created 
 by " Cincture with the sword," and the " putting of a 
 coronet of gold upon his head," and was also made Lord 
 Steward of the Household. In the latter capacity he 
 stood proxy for Henry VI., in the cathedral of Navir, in 
 his marriage contract with the beautiful and heroic Mar- 
 garet of Anjou. After eight days' jousts and tourna- 
 ments, pageants and rejoicings which followed, he es- 
 corted the Queen of England in great state through 
 Normandy to Dieppe, and thence to England, where 
 Henry married her at Tichfield, and crowned her at West- 
 minster. The Marquess of Suffolk was now the reigning 
 favourite, and advanced in title and estate. On the 
 death of the Duke of Gloucester, the King's uncle, he be- 
 came Earl of Pembroke, with a large accession of estates. 
 He had also, by the death of his nieces, acquired the ex- 
 tensive estates of his late brother, Earl Michael, the exile; 
 and in 1448, he was raised to the dignity of Duke. 
 
 The House of De la Pole has now arrived at the very 
 pinnacle of prosperity, honours, and power; and yet it 
 trembles, as before, on its throne, and threatens dissolu- 
 tion from too much greatness. Financial difficulties came 
 upon the nation at home, and heavy reverses abroad in 
 the French wars, Calais alone remaining as an appanage
 
 122 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 of the English crown. A popular clamour is got up 
 against the Duke, as chief minister, for the loss of Nor- 
 mandy. He is called " the Queen's minion," charged with 
 rapacity, with the death of the Duke of Gloucester, and, in 
 short, with all the crimes which are usually attributed to an 
 unsuccessful minister in a season of calamity, when worked 
 upon by an undercurrent of rivalry and personal ambition. 
 He repelled those charges in his place in parliament with 
 considerable force and eloquence. His father, he said, 
 had died in the service of his country at Harfleur; his 
 elder brother had fallen in the battle of Agincourt; his 
 second and third brother had perished at Jargeau ; and 
 his youngest brother had expired a hostage in France. 
 He himself, he said, had been a Knight of the Garter 
 thirty years, had spent thirty-four years in arms, and 
 during half of that time had never visited his native 
 country. He had been fifteen years sworn of the King's 
 council. He was born in England, his inheritance and 
 the inheritance of his children and of his posterity lay in 
 England ; and he indignantly demanded, was it possible 
 that he, for any promises of an enemy, would become a 
 traitor ? He demanded of his accusers to come forth and 
 state their charges, and his defence would be so "open 
 and plain that the King and the land would be content." 
 But fortune had changed with the Duke of Suffolk. 
 His enemies were vengeful and powerful. He was sent to 
 the Tower on a frivolous charge, and impeached in Parlia- 
 ment. He defended himself there with ability, and pro- 
 tested his innocence. But nothing would satisfy or ap- 
 pease his enemies. They thirsted for his blood ; and the
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 123 
 
 King, his friend, to still the tumult and save his life, 
 banished him beyond the seas for five years. Retiring to 
 his estates in Suffolk, he called before him the knights 
 and esquires of the surrounding districts, and swore to 
 them, on the holy sacrament, that he was innocent of the 
 charges imputed to him. Posterity has done him that 
 justice too. He then sailed from Ipswich : but his ene- 
 mies, sleepless in their vengeance, were on his track. They 
 had a squadron of men-of-war out cruising in search of 
 him. The " Nicholas of the Tower," one of the largest 
 ships of the navy, bore down, off Dover, upon the vessel 
 in which he sailed. He was ordered on board, and on 
 mounting deck was saluted, ominously, with the words, 
 " Welcome, traitor \" After undergoing a mock trial be- 
 fore the sailors, he was condemned to death. The murderous 
 deed was soon executed : on the second morning a small 
 boat came alongside, and in it, a block, a rusty sword, and an 
 executioner. The Duke was lowered into the boat, and the 
 man, telling him he should die like a knight, at the sixth 
 stroke smote off his head; and crowding sail, the squadron 
 disappeared. The remains of the great Duke of Suffolk, 
 the trunk and head, lay on the sands of Dover, watched by 
 the Sheriff of Kent, till the King's order was received, and 
 then the Duke's chaplain arrived and brought his remains to 
 his widow, who had them interred in the church of Wing- 
 field. By another account, they were borne by the chaplain 
 to Hull, and buried in the Charter House there. All the 
 Duke's honors, including the old barony of De la Pole, 
 which he had inherited from his nieces, were forfeited, his 
 estates confiscated, and his blood attainted. And yet the
 
 124 THE DB LA POLES 
 
 house of De la Pole, far from being extinct, rose again 
 to splendour, becoming allied to royalty itself. 
 
 In the shifting scenes of the bloody drama played by 
 York and Lancaster, the House of De la Pole, crushed, 
 confiscated, and attainted, once more stood erect amidst 
 the noblest and proudest of England's aristocracy. When 
 Richard Duke of Gloucester placed himself on the mar- 
 ble seat in the great Hall of Westminster as King 
 Richard III., he had the Lord Howard, afterwards the 
 Duke of Norfolk, on his right, and John De la Pole, 
 Duke of Suffolk, son and successor to the late decapitated 
 Duke, on his left. The splendid alliances of the De la 
 Poles were not the least of those gifts of fortune by 
 which they ascended to so great an eminence. They 
 were united to the Peverells, the Norwiches, the Bray- 
 brokes, the Wingfields, the Chaucers, the Scropes, the 
 Stourtons, the Cobhams, theDe L'Isles, the Morleys, and 
 the Staffords, bright names in the Peerage and Commons' 
 rolls of England. And now they ally themselves with the 
 royal family of England John Duke of Suffolk espous- 
 ing the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister of Richard III. 
 and of the late King Edward IV. The eldest son of this 
 brilliant marriage, John De la Pole, was created Earl of 
 Lincoln, and ruled as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The 
 Earl's sister Anne was affianced to the eldest son of the 
 King of Scotland, and King Richard III. declared his 
 nephew T)e la Pole, the young Earl of Lincoln, to be "heir- 
 apparent to the crown," in the event of the decease of 
 his own son, Prince Edward. What a dazzling height, 
 and, in prospect, what a future of glory has the family
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 125 
 
 of the merchant of Hull now attained ! Two crowns 
 glittering before them, two great kingdoms for their 
 appanage, the founder of a royal line the mother of 
 a race of kings ! Such was the prospect of the two 
 grandchildren of William, first Duke of Suffolk, grandson 
 of the " beloved merchant" of the great Edward. Had the 
 current of events flowed on in their even course, the Royal 
 House of De la Pole would have occupied the throne ; 
 and England, without the Tudors, would have left un- 
 written in her history those grave events, whether for 
 good or ill, of the sixteenth century which flowed from 
 their brief possession of the crown. But the fate of a 
 single battle Bosworth Field dispelled for ever the 
 De la Poles' golden dream of royalty. The fall of the 
 House of York was the culminating point in the wayward 
 destiny of their fate. 
 
 Little remains to be told in the history of the De la 
 Poles. The Earl of Lincoln made a vain attempt to re- 
 trieve the disaster of Bosworth. He entered England at 
 the head of a small army, composed partly of troops fur- 
 nished by his aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, and 
 partly of Irish auxiliaries, led by two of the Geraldines. 
 His defeat and death at Stoke, 1487, in the life-time of 
 his father, who survived till 1491, extinguished his hopes, 
 his kingly aspirations and his title of Earl. His next brother, 
 Edmund De la Pole, the second Duke, also a Plantagenet 
 by the mother's side, although one of the last persons of 
 rank remaining of the Yorkists, entered into Henry Vll.'s 
 service, in the beginning of that monarch's reign. 
 He was in arms, in the twelfth of Henry VII., with
 
 12 6 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 the Lords Essex and Mountjoy, against Lord Audley and 
 the Cornish men, who suffered so memorable a defeat on 
 Blackheath. But this apparently politic course did not 
 succeed. It failed in its object, to break the fall of the De 
 la Poles. Henry desired to extinguish every trace of the 
 house of York. He affected to look upon the Duke as 
 heir of his attainted brother, the Earl of Lincoln, and not 
 of his father, the Duke of Suffolk. 
 
 The Duke, in a scuffle, killed a man who had affronted 
 him. Under other circumstances, the case would have 
 passed without notice. But his Grace was subjected to 
 the ignominy of a public trial [although immediately par- 
 doned] for "killing an ordinary person in wrath;" and 
 he indignantly withdrew without permission to the Court 
 of his aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy, then the asylum 
 for all the attached and suffering adherents of the White 
 Rose. He returned, however, soon after, and, excusing 
 himself to the King, attended the marriage of Arthur, 
 Prince of Wales, with Catharine of Arragon. On that 
 occasion, the splendour of his equipage and his attentions 
 to the royal family were remarkable. But this public 
 homage to the house of Lancaster did not avail him, and 
 he fled a second time, with his brother Richard, to the 
 Court of Burgundy. This friendly door, however, was 
 soon closed against him. The Duchess died, and the Duke 
 of Suffolk, her nephevv,was left in great distress, wandering 
 for a time through Germany. At length the Arch-Duke 
 Philip permitted him to reside in his dominions. But he 
 was followed there by the power of Henry, whose threats 
 succeeded, and he was delivered over to his enemy, of the
 
 THE DE LA POLES. 127 
 
 hated house of Lancaster, but upon a guarantee exacted 
 by Philip that his life should be spared. How unlike was 
 this return to England, a prisoner, to the triumphal pro- 
 cession of the dead body of Earl Michael, of Agincourt, or 
 of the royal bridal party, led by William, the first Duke ! 
 He was hurried across the Channel as a common male- 
 factor, driven without attendants in an ordinary con- 
 veyance to London, and locked up in a cell in the Tower. 
 Henry kept faith with the Arch-Duke Philip. He spared 
 the Duke's life in his own time, but, with fiendish vindic- 
 tiveness, left an order for his execution as a legacy to his 
 son and successor. 
 
 Edmund De la Pole, second Duke of Suffolk, languished 
 for years in prison. His estates were gone, they were 
 confiscated and given away. No one was allowed to see 
 him. No familiar face looked through the prison bars 
 of the window, which cast a dim light into his solitary 
 cell not even the two priests, his brothers Humph- 
 rey and Edward, nor the nun at Sion, Anne, his sister, 
 once the affianced bride of Scotland, nor the other nun, 
 Anne, his only child by Margaret, his wife, daughter 
 of Richard, Lord Scrope. That only child could but 
 commune with him in spirit and in prayer from her 
 lone cell in the convent of Minoresses without Aldgate. 
 At length he was released, but it was by the arm of the 
 headsman. Too faithfully the second Tudor fulfilled the 
 legacy left to him by the first. Edmund De la Pole, second 
 Duke of Suffolk, bent with age and suffering, mounted 
 the scaffold with tottering footsteps, and in the broad light 
 of day, with the sun of heaven shining down upon the
 
 128 THE DE LA POLES. 
 
 unholy drama, was beheaded, the 30th of April, 1513. 
 A few more convulsive throes, and the light and glory of 
 the De la Poles are extinguished for ever. 
 
 Richard, the late Duke's brother, an exile in France, 
 commanded the French troops, 6,000 strong, at Thero- 
 uenne, when besieged by Henry the Eighth ; and at the 
 battle of Pavia, 1524, where Francis I. was taken prisoner, 
 De la Pole'sheroic conduct excited the praise even of his foes; 
 and among the heaps of slain there lay, " to the great satis- 
 faction of King Henry, Richard De la Pole, the pretender 
 to the English throne." The Duke of Bourbon honoured 
 his remains with splendid obsequies, and attended in per- 
 son as one of the chief mourners. And thus end the 
 De la Poles ! Their rise, rapid and brilliant as the meteor, 
 was as evanescent. They shone in all the magnificence 
 and splendor of exalted rank, wealth, and power, and de- 
 scending with meteoric velocity, their light went out. For 
 a hundred and fifty years they filled a vast space, as lu- 
 minaries of magnitude, in the social and political hemisphere 
 of England. And yet they are all but forgotten now. 
 Their lives and actions are compressed within but a few 
 pages of their country's history. Their memorials are to be 
 found within the broken arch and tottering cloisters the 
 ivy-crypt and chancel of the old time-honoured abbeys 
 which they raised fit emblems of themselves, grand even in 
 their very isolation and ruin. Religion in these crumbling 
 temples of the past sole guardians of their fame points to 
 their broken monumental tablets, overgrown with moss, 
 and exclaims, with solemn warning, "Behold the greatness 
 of the De la Poles 1"
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 129 
 
 f)eti0r flirajjam, 0f Ifra Casllt. 
 
 " I came of the Graemes a people of ancient and hot blood." 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 ABOUT forty years ago, if a traveller bent on exploring the 
 country bad sallied soutb-east from tbe little town of 
 Monaghan, in Ireland, he would probably have lighted on 
 a queer and somewhat antiquated mansion in its imme- 
 diate neighbourhood : this house stood topping a green 
 ridge in the midst of long, solitary fields, and fallows, 
 and farms separated by broad dykes full of water, and 
 was accessible by a straight, stiff avenue of the Dutch 
 order, which ran up to the hall door at right angles from 
 the road. Two rows of magnificent lime-trees for many 
 years had sentinelled the approach, towering over, one 
 against another, like the French and English Grenadier 
 Guards at the field of Fontenoy; of these one only now 
 remained 
 
 " Like a brotherless hermit, the last of his race ;" 
 a splendid tree for stem, and shape, and bough, and 
 frondage ; the rest of the family had been cut down to 
 feed the fires which waste had kindled on the altars of 
 Bacchus or of Momus; or had their death-warrant re- 
 corded on the pages of the betting-book of the old pro- 
 prietors.
 
 130 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 The edifice itself presented what Sergeant Bothwell 
 would have called a " respectable antiquity ;" it was a 
 high, flat-fronted, bald-faced house, with long, lank win- 
 dows, resembling overgrown slits, and a tall, dark hall- 
 door, like a skeleton in black, which opened into a hall 
 which was paved with red tiles, and displayed on the left 
 and right the same character of narrow, perpendicular 
 doorways leading to small, old-fashioned apartments, an- 
 gular, window-seated, and wainscotted in oak. The house, 
 though comfortable enough within, had somewhat of an 
 unsettled appearance, and was wild and stark- looking. 
 The offices, spacious and straggling, lay hid on the right 
 hand, behind the huge lime-tree. Over the hall-door, and 
 deeply buiit into the wall, was a stone exhibiting the 
 initials of the founder, H. G., Hector Graham, with the 
 date 172C, and above these letters were carved the ancient 
 arms of the Grahams of Netherby, party per bend, with 
 another coat exhibiting "a brauche of an okeroot," &c., 
 and " a bores head cope argent," being an augmentation 
 shield granted temp. Queen Mary, A.D. 1553, to an an- 
 cestor, " Fergus Greyme, Gentleman, of the Mote of 
 Lydysdale, in the countie of Cumberland/' and conveyed 
 by patent, " under the great seal, to him and his heirs 
 i'or ever." " The crest uppon the Heaulme" was aa 
 arm holding m the hand a " branch of the oke root on 
 a wreath argent and gules manteled ;" while under the 
 scutcheon the motto was deeply cut " Reason, contents 
 me." 
 
 What the " services'* had been which won from the 
 stern Queen of England these heraldic honours for Fergus
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 131 
 
 Greyme I have not been able to ascertain; but they 
 must have been of considerable weight, as such compli- 
 ments from royalty were rare, and not paid without a 
 full equivalent from the party so favoured ; and especially 
 when we consider that these honours were directed to a 
 ember of a family which, if records be true, was often in 
 disgrace with the authorities for their wild deeds and ir- 
 regularities. 
 
 The words of the patent a copy of which is in the 
 Record Tower of Dublin state, that Fergus Greyme had 
 performed " true and faithful service in the time of the 
 most famous Prince, King Henry the Eighth, as also in 
 the time of Kinge Edward the Sixt, whereby he has 
 well merrited to be rewarded, &c., &c." Now it is 
 probable that this Greyme or Graham (the name is spelt 
 five different ways in ancient documents) had contributed 
 some local aid to Surrey's army in King Henry's Scottish 
 wars. The Fight of Flodden had taken place in the early 
 part of this reign, A.D. 1513, and the Grahams being in 
 themselves a fierce and numerous chivalry, " able to raise 
 400 horse at any time upon a raid for England ;" and, 
 as old Camden says, " very famous among the Borderers 
 for their great valour," it is likely that Fergus, who was 
 a " leader" among them, helped the bluff Prince's army 
 both with his cavalry in the field, and his commissariat in 
 the camp : at one time scattering their Scottish enemies 
 with a charge of his cavalry, and at another, comforting 
 their English stomachs with a drove of his fat bullocks 
 a most uuromantic association of probabilities, no doubt, 
 yet very likely, inasmuch as these Borderers only loved
 
 132 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 
 
 a fight more fondly than a foray ; and though the Gra- 
 hams were attached to England since the days of King 
 Henry the Fourth, and mostly stood on loyalty ; yet when 
 hunger pressed them, and their larder was low, " boot and 
 saddle" was the word, and dismissing all scruples, they 
 mounted at moonlight, and acting literally on the " Tros 
 Tyriusve" principle, 
 
 " They sought the beeves which made the broth 
 In Scotland, and in England both." 
 
 We are likewise informed by Bishop Burnet that the 
 Border Chiefs had somewhat to do with the victory of 
 Pinkey, obtained by Edward the Sixth over the Scotch in 
 1547 ; and here, no doubt, was Fergus with his fierce, rude 
 chivalry, shaking out the banner of the Graeme in the 
 hottest fight, and shouting his war-cry amidst the flying 
 foemen. " After the battle," says an old chronicle, " the 
 leading men of Teviotdale professed allegiance to the King 
 of England." 
 
 The "oke root" emblazoned in the Graham shield 
 possessed an heraldic signification ; the oak denoting sta- 
 bility of loyalty, which virtue was an essential feature for 
 many generations in this family. The " roote" was sym- 
 bolical of the antiquity of the race, for which I would 
 refer my pleased readers to a speech delivered by a certain 
 Dame Magdalene Grasme, in Lord Seyton's castle before 
 Mary of Scotland and her nobles, as given in the pages 
 of Sir Walter Scott's "Abbot." 
 
 From this Cumberland cavalier, Fergus of the Mote of 
 Lydysdale, Hector Graham was lineally descended, as I 
 shall presently show ; and at the time of his building the
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 133 
 
 old tenement I have described, he was possessed of very 
 large estates in the counties of Armagh, Tyrone, and 
 Monaghan, besides the lease of the lordship and castle of 
 Leix or Lea, in the Queen's Co., where his immediate an- 
 cestors had lived. On Hector's demise, in 1742, he was 
 succeeded by his son, Colonel Richard Graham, with whom 
 the direct elder line terminated and of the extraordinary 
 disposal of whose property I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 This gentleman lived and died at Culmaine, the old 
 Monaghan mansion, which is now scarce to be recognized 
 from the pristine fashion in which I introduced it to my 
 reader; at present it appears to be lowered a story or 
 two, well fenced and planted in, and shrubbed about with 
 goodly evergreens ; it has lost its wild Cumberland fea- 
 tures and border ferocity altogether, and has become a 
 snug and sensible dwelling-house, manifestly growing 
 stout and cosy in its old age, and is tenanted by a gentle- 
 man who rents the land, and is a J. P. for the county. 
 The ancient shield of stone, taken out from over the lintel 
 by unpoetic hands, stands damp and moss-grown in the 
 shadow of the orchard wall, nearly hidden by the long 
 grass ; and nothing local now remains to speak the pride 
 of former days but the great old tree, which ever at 
 spring renews its green leaves, while the hands which 
 planted it are dust ; and the traditions of the tenantry, 
 which recount many a tale of the rash, daring, and 
 thoughtless extravagance of the father and the son, Hector 
 and Richard Graham. 
 
 They certainly were a singular family, preserving a wild 
 idiosyncrasy, and exhibiting the same salient angles of
 
 134 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 character through many generations : not always amiable 
 or admirable in a moral point of view often quite the 
 reverse yet striking to the imagination from their intre- 
 pidity and dashing chivalry, their amazing pertinacity in 
 compassing their ends, and their fierce and irrepressible 
 audacity in overleaping or breaking down every obstacle 
 which lay in the way of their achieving the same. Sir 
 Walter Scott, who well knew the temperament of the 
 families of the North, when he would paint a fiery, brave, 
 and pertinacious youth, selected his subject from the " de- 
 bateable land," and drew a Roland Graeme. Like this 
 hot youth, they were passionate with their inferiors, yet 
 liberal in the extreme : grasping for themselves with the 
 right hand of power, while they gave to others with the 
 left hand of pity ; there was a wild Ishmaelite drop in 
 their blood, which one of their noble chiefs vain-gloriously 
 told Charles II., was " the reddest in Scotland -" he might 
 have added, the fiercest and the most untamed. Yet WQ 
 can trace much of a genial and generous soil occasionally 
 underlying all this stern mountain and moorland which 
 formed the general surface of their character ; and a few 
 patches of a bright blue summer sky appear amidst the 
 jagged and thunder-torn cloud scenery which swept over 
 much of the deeds and darings of the earlier members of 
 the family, and have been preserved to us in the pages of 
 history, or by the voice of tradition. As is the case with 
 those who live more for their own aggrandizement than 
 for the welfare of their neighbours, calumny has not 
 spared them ; they had not the qualities which engage and 
 retain affection. Brave they were, and they were feared ;
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 135 
 
 successful, and they were slandered ; rapacious, and they 
 were hated ; extravagant, and were not respected ; powerful, 
 and were envied. One of their own race, 
 
 " Old Albert Graeme, 
 A minstrel of that ancient name," 
 
 though only a charming myth, as we all know, is fitly 
 painted as being " of that hardy kin" who, 
 
 " Whoever lost, was sure to win." 
 
 Included by their geographical position among the Cum- 
 berland Borderers, they come in for Fuller's witty descrip- 
 tion, who says " They are amongst the wonders, more than 
 the ' Worthies of England.' " He says, " They dwell on the 
 borders of either kingdom, but obey the laws of neither." 
 " They come to church as seldom as the 29th February 
 comes into the calendar." " They resemble Job, not in 
 piety and patience, but in sudden plenty and poverty ; 
 sometimes having flocks and herds at night, and none in 
 the morning." " They are a nest of hornets ; strike one, 
 and they all stir about your ears." 
 
 Old Lesley says of them, sarcastically, " that however 
 deficient they might have been in real religion, they re- 
 gularly told their beads, and never with so much zeal as 
 when bent upon a plundering expedition." 
 
 Their chiefs and gentry were descended from the Hon. 
 John Graham, second son of the great Earl of Stratherne 
 and Malise, commonly called " Malise with the bright 
 brand." The elder son was the Stirps of the Montrose 
 bianch ; both had a royal descent irom King Robert of
 
 1 36 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 Scotland; and both ran their line up to the renowned 
 Grseme who commanded the army of Fergus II., and was 
 Governor of the whole kingdom in the minority of that 
 monarch's grandson, Eugene II., in the year of grace 420. 
 From the very start, the branch of whom we treat appears 
 to have been of the Achilles vein " Impiger, iracundus, 
 inexorabilis, acer;" for taking offence at some personal 
 slight at the court of Robert II., a weak prince, well 
 known to us through the pictured pages of the "Fair 
 Maid of Perth," this John Graham withdrew himself 
 and his family into the valleys of Cumberland, where they 
 bred like coneys and multiplied like bees, and where he 
 purchased, or otherwise took possession of peaceably, I 
 presume houses, lands, and tenements for him and his 
 heirs for ever, and where he farmed and foraged by turns, 
 and forayed among his friends and neighbours, and fought 
 with his enemies if they aggravated him or his followers 
 all in the most respectable border style, and as best he 
 could. 
 
 Of this immediate family was the young Lord Kinport, 
 who is introduced in " The Legend of Montrose," and 
 called by his father's name, Earl of Menteith. In the 
 succeeding reign, Lord Preston, the friend of James IT., was 
 a Cumberland Graham ; and of this race is the present 
 Sir Frederick-Ulric Graham of Netherby, and three other 
 Earonets, Sir Edward, Sir Bellingham, and Sir Sandford. 
 
 These Border Grahams could scarce be called pure 
 Scotch, yet still their country was the " Debateable Land," 
 and the root of their old tree lay very deep in Scottish 
 soil. Let me therefore pause to describe a well-dressed
 
 HECTOa GRAHAM OF LEA CASTLE. 137 
 
 clansman of the Graemes, clad in the tartan of his tribe, 
 and the apparel of his family. The coat is russet or 
 brown ; the kilt of green and purple alternating with 
 black and grey stripes of a small and delicate pattern ; 
 the cap is round, and small, and green, with a scarlet 
 button at the top, and a sprig of wild laurel stuck in the 
 side. The clan badge, or " Suaicheantas" of the Gra- 
 hams, is the " laurel spurge ;" the sporran is broad and 
 white, the waistcoat is vivid scarlet ; a thin, yellow girdle 
 cinctures the loins, from which depends a very long, flat, 
 and straight dagger, resembling the gladius of an old Ro- 
 man : the stockings are of scarlet plaid gartered with blue : 
 the brogues are tipped at the toes with double leather 
 called friochan, to resist the friction of the heather, which 
 in Gaelic is termed fraoch. 
 
 In addition to this picturesque equipment, give this 
 child of the " Na Gram-aich" an eye of fire, a .strong 
 hand, nervous frame, and lithe limbs : make him dauntless 
 of heart ; pertinacious of purpose ; observant of, and 
 faithful to his promise ; light-footed on the morass ; 
 long-winded up the mountain, quick to seize, strong to 
 maintain, and free to bestow, and you have a fair speci- 
 men of the descendants of Grumach, or " The Grim," who, 
 more than 1400 years ago, Remus-like, leaped through 
 Severus' broken wall, and left his fame to his country ; and 
 his name, euphonized and dulcified into Graeme or Graham, 
 to a numerous and illustrious posterity. 
 
 These Debateable Land Grahams kept the marches for 
 the English well, long, and faithfully ; and, amongst other 
 great Scotch families, " harried" the Buccleuchs, when-
 
 133 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 
 
 ever they had an opportunity, getting;, no doubt, often 
 well mauled by them in reprizal. 
 
 My readers may recollect Watt Tinlinn's recital to the 
 Lady of Branksome : 
 
 " I was chased the live-long night ; 
 Black John of Akeshaw, and Fergus Grcsme, 
 Fast upon my traces came, 
 Until I turned at Priest-haugh Scrogg, 
 And shot their horses in the Bog, 
 Slew Fergus with my lance outright, 
 I held him long at high despite." 
 
 Now it is plain that this unfortunate could not have been 
 our Fergus, who had the Coat from Queen Mary's King of 
 Arms, but one of the family, no doubt the feudal cousin- 
 hood being on the whole more extensive than select. Nor 
 could he have been the Fergus Graeme who, in the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, slew Maxwell, the Provost 
 of Dumfries, we may suppose, in some unwonted civic 
 raid ; this Bailie-killing Fergus was outlawed, and fled to 
 France, but was pardoned of " his enormities" thirty 
 years afterwards by James I. ; he was laird of Plompe, 
 whereas our Fergus was of Mote, and probably a wiser 
 and a better man than many of his kindred, who under 
 Elizabeth and James are found most turbulent. In 1602 
 the Grahams are at deadly feud with Lord Scrope, " who 
 seizeth and hangeth some of their followers," probably 
 "pour encourager les autres; 1 ' Lynch law in Liddisdale. 
 A little before this, James had written to Queen Elizabeth 
 complaining " that the Grimes had resetted" or harboured 
 from justice "the Armstrongs, who had murdered his 
 Warden." Earlier still, the Grahams were deeply impli-
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 139 
 
 cated as active and violent agents in Both well's rebellion. 
 About this time one of their family was executed as a 
 witch ! and one of their chiefs had a fierce quarrel with 
 Lord Dacre. Complaints were constantly going up to the 
 English court of the misdeeds of these perturbed spirits, 
 so that it is a relief at last to come to a letter in the State 
 Papers, from Sir Henry Lee to Lord Salisbury, dated from 
 the Border, in which he writes, probably with three notes 
 of admiration after the announcement, <f The Grahams 
 are quiet" 
 
 Mais revenons a nos moutons : let us go back to our 
 favoured Fergus of 1553, the Knight of the "Okeroote," 
 from whom we have wandered too widely, led astray by the 
 bright but erratic ignis fatuus which flickers and shines 
 amidst these wild and picturesque scenes of ancient bor- 
 der life and romance. 
 
 To all appearance the mere heraldic compliment did 
 not satisfy the strong stomach and healthy border appetite 
 of the Cumberland Chief the coat and crest, though 
 honourable to blazon on his banner, yet were deficient in 
 substance as a royal guerdon. Was not his motto falsified 
 by a thing so shadowy ? Reason was not content and he 
 had no reason to be content, and that, too, in an age when 
 immense estates in Ireland were about being escheated to 
 the Crown, on the attainder of their owners, for what the 
 English called rebellion, and the Irish probably thought 
 to be the natural defence of their property : and so it 
 happened that in 1565 we find the Grabames in Ireland 
 as grantees of the good things going, in the person of 
 Roger or Richard Graeme, renting the advowson of White-
 
 140 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 
 
 Church, co. of Kildare, from the Crown, which living was 
 afterwards in the possession of Hector Graham's grand- 
 father in 1633. This Roger Graham was second son of 
 Fergus of Mote ; his eldest, Arthur, remained at home. 
 Shortly afterwards, Fergus, grandson to the " Knight of 
 the Oke roote," sat down in Ireland, at " Mirleton" query 
 Meylerston, co. Kildare ? where he must have had a grant 
 of lands, for surely not anything short of a solid territo- 
 rial instalment like this, would have tempted him away 
 from the bonny braes of Liddisdale, where the grass 
 grows thick and sweet, and fetlock deep, and where cattle 
 were to be had on any fine night for a mere ride along the 
 moss, or across the border. Now Fergus, who thus settled 
 in Kildare, had a younger brother, whose son Arthur mi- 
 grated to the Queen's Co., and was a distinguished Captain 
 under Sir Patrick Wemys, and afterwards under Colonel 
 Robert Baylev, in the Irish wars of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. From this Captain Arthur Graham it is extremely 
 probable that the Grahams, long of Flatten, near Drog- 
 heda, descend, as they carry the "okeroote" as their crest, 
 along with the Netherby scutcheon. But Fergus the 
 uncle abode more peacefully at Meylerstone, where two 
 sons were born unto him, Richard and George, both after- 
 wards knights, and leaders in the wars at the latter end 
 of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and both men of singular 
 fearlessness, and extraordinary prowess in military matters. 
 Each of these brothers commanded a troop of horse in 
 1599 under Sir George Carew, afterwards Lord Totness. 
 This nobleman had been appointed President of Munster 
 by Queen Elizabeth, who liked him personally, as she did
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 141 
 
 most of the brave men who were about her, and called him 
 " her trusty George/' in the same spirit of platonic flirt- 
 ation which engaged her to style James Butler, the sixth 
 Earl of Ormonde, her " black husband." This condescen- 
 sion oil the part of his Queen, Carew repaid by addressing 
 her in his published letters in a strain of devotedness more 
 suited to the Deity than to a mortal, and that mortal an 
 old woman above sixty years of age. Carew was a stern 
 and good soldier; he had escaped with much risk the 
 slaughter of Lord Grey's forces by the 0' Byrnes, in the 
 romantic and wild pass of Glendalough, where his brother 
 Sir Peter and other commanders were shot down by the 
 rebels in the woods. George Carew's subsequent achieve- 
 ments are painted by Thomas Stafford, his secretary, in his 
 well-known work, " Pacata Hibernia :" a graphic book 
 enough, and so full of plain historical truths, as to have 
 room for but the one falsehood, and that is in its title a 
 patent fact to all who know the continued disturbed con- 
 dition of Ireland during the seventeenth century. In this 
 book the Graemes or Grahams are largely spoken of in 
 commendatory terms, as they are also mentioned in a 
 similar strain by Fynes Morison, and by Borlace, and Lord 
 Castlehaven j but in order to introduce them specially, it 
 is necessary that I should glance at the position of the 
 Queen's affairs in Ireland at the close of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The campaigns of 1581 and the two succeeding years 
 were over ; the Spaniards had landed on the wild coast of 
 Kerry had seized the fort of Smerwick, which they called 
 Fort d'or, or the Golden Fort aud had been put to the
 
 142 HECTOR GRAHAM. OP LEA CASTLE. 
 
 sword cruellyand ruthlessly under the stern Lord Grey; and 
 in ] 583 the great Earl of Desmond, James Fitzmaurice, had 
 been slain by a peasant, and his estates, comprizing a half 
 million of acres, had been seized on by the Queen, and par- 
 celled out amongst English adventurers. This campaign 
 was signalized by the presence of Sir Walter Raleigh, and 
 the gentle poet Edmund Spenser, who were in Lord Grey's 
 camp at Smerwick. Tor the next six years Ireland had 
 seen the commands of the brave, honest, noble, and chi- 
 valric Perrot, blunt, outspoken, and nearly seven feet high. 
 After him came the mean and rapacious Fitz-William ; the 
 unhappy Norris ; the rash and gallant Essex ; till in the 
 year 1599, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy assumed the 
 reins of government : he was a man so elegant and refine J 
 in his appearance as to create contempt at first among the 
 rude Irish, till they had felt the vigour of his arm, and 
 seen the wisdom of his proceedings. Carevv was now Lord 
 President of Minister, and had an army in the co. of 
 Cork ; the great Earl of Desmond's son had been taken 
 to London, and was being educated under the policy of 
 Elizabeth, as a Protestant ; his uncle's son, James Fitz- 
 Thomas, had assumed the title of Desmond, but his parents 
 having been cousins-german, a tie disallowed by the Irish 
 in matrimony, he was nicknamed the Sugau or Straw-rope 
 Earl. The sugan is twisted with the left hand, and is thus 
 emblematic of a left-handed marriage ; he was the hand- 
 somest and stateliest man of his race an Agamemnon 
 among his soldiers ; and it is pleasant to be told how he 
 escaped the being hunted down and slain, the usual fate of 
 his family, and that he died in easy captivity in London,
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTI.V. 143 
 
 his life being spared through a cautious policy, lest some 
 new and daring Desmond should arise on his decease, to 
 trouble the realms of Ireland ; his wife (if tradition may be 
 credited) was afterwards the oldest woman of her day, having 
 danced with Richard the Third, and having died of a frolic 
 at one hundred and forty years of age ! 
 
 Both of Fergus Graeme of Meylerstown's sons, viz. Richard 
 and George, appear to have been in Carew's army as captains 
 of horse : they had probably joined as volunteers. George 
 was under the command of an eminent officer in those wars, 
 Captain Flower, ancestor to the present Viscount Ash- 
 brook. Flower was dispatched with 100 horse and 1200 
 foot to intercept Florence MacCarthy, who was marching 
 with an army of 2000 men between Cork and Kinsale. 
 The encounter was long and desperate, and was for some 
 time of uncertain issue, until Flower and Graeme with 
 their horse " chardged with such resolution that instantly 
 the enemy rowted." Flower had two horses shot under 
 him, and George Graham, the only officer of note, badly 
 hurt. 
 
 This deed of arms was entirely eclipsed by his brother 
 Richard, in his famous attack on the Sugan Earl of Des- 
 mond, at Kilmallock, where he won his gold spurs, and 
 his vallary crown, as a reward for his extraordinary 
 courage and success. The fight came off about October, 
 1600. I will abridge the recital from the " Pacata Hi- 
 bernia," where it is given with great spirit, and at some 
 length. News arrives at Kilmallock that the earl is 
 about to march from Conneloe to the huge fastnesses of 
 Avloe, with a force comprising 600 soldiers, together with
 
 144 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 " horses, hackneys, 300 garrans (mares) laden with bag- 
 gage, value 500 pounds, and a large prey of sheep, cowes, 
 &c." Now at this moment the Queen's garrison at Kil- 
 mallock consisted of five or six companies, under the com- 
 mand of Sir George Thornton, and among them Richard 
 Graeme's troop of horse, numbering sixty men. He and 
 Captain Dillon's foot company were at once ordered out 
 to do battle with the rebels. 
 
 Whereupon Graeme instantly mounted, " and drew forth 
 his troupe," and riding at the head of his men, and 
 " making extraordinary haste, he suddenly espied their 
 forces near the wood," and instantly dashed at them with 
 his dragoons mark, reader ! this was with sixty men 
 against 600 ! charging them with such overbearing ve- 
 hemence, " that he got up to their camp and possessed 
 himself of their carriage" (which must have greatly grati- 
 fied his hereditary and border predilections) "killing all 
 who guarded the same. Hereupon the enemy" no 
 doubt ashamed of being bearded by a mere handful of 
 horse " drew together, having four colours or companies, 
 and in defence of their carriage, gave Graeme a heavy 
 charge," no doubt shouting the earl's wild war-cry, " Shanet 
 a Boo!" under the very sabre-blades of the troopers; 
 which charge " Graeme answered with his horse," at once, 
 right stiffly and valiantly. By this time a serjeant and 
 some soldiers of Captain Dillon's had come up, and helped 
 the fight " with a few light shot," when Graeme, gather- 
 ing his men around him, charged the whole battalion a 
 third time f< home to their very colours ;" which the 
 enemy fiercely resisting, and fighting hard for their honour,
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 145 
 
 the captain gave them a fourth charge so desperate and so 
 determined, " that he broke clean through them," scat- 
 tering the whole battalion like leaves of the wood, " they 
 betaking themselves to running, and our men to killing ;" 
 and if our horse had not been overwearied with the hard 
 and fast trotting they had been put to, to reach the scene 
 of the battle (Stafford calls it " their long foray," a 
 Cumberland term, which he probably heard from Graeme) 
 there had not been one man left alive. As it was, fully 
 two hundred of Desmond's men were killed and wounded, 
 and all the booty taken. Graeme lost but " sixteen 
 horse ;" but he himself, at the end of the conflict, in at- 
 tempting to seize the Earl's own standard, when stooping 
 from his " horse to reach the colours, was heavily struck 
 with a peeee in the reines of his back, and would have 
 fallen, but was rescued by six pikemen." 
 
 " This disaster," says the ' Pacata Hibernia,' " proved 
 so fatal to the Earle of Desmond, that although of the 
 600 foot, 400 did yet remaine able to fight, yet could he 
 never afterwards gather these to a head ; for some got into 
 Ulster, some to Connaught, leaving the Earl to desperate 
 fortune ; so that he was compelled to fly into Tipperary 
 and Ormonde, and from thence the Earl hasteth to 
 Ulster ;" and thus the hopes and fortunes of John Fitz- 
 Thomas, the Sugan Earl of Desmond and by every law 
 of nature or of primogeniture the real and legitimate holder 
 of that high earldom were for ever scattered and extin - 
 guished by " Dick Grimes," as he is often called, and his 
 dashing troopers fiercely charging, beside the green woods 
 
 L
 
 146 HECTOU GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 which wave wide, where the " great fastness of A rice" 
 sleeps under the lofty and sun-tinted Galtees. 
 
 Grseme's own letter to Sir George Carew, after the battle, 
 is in the State Paper Office in London,*and is essentially 
 the same as Stafford's narrative in the " Pacata." 
 
 For this deed of valour he was knighted by the lord 
 deputy, or by Sir George Carew, who in a published letter 
 to Lord Mountjoy, two months afterwards, styles him 
 " Sir Richard." 
 
 He had also the singular honour of receiving from 
 Queen Elizabeth, who loved brave men, a vallary crown 
 to grace his new-born rank. This is thus described in an 
 old book : " The crown called in Latin vallaris, or eas- 
 trensis, is a circle of gold raised with jewels or palisades, 
 the reward of him who first forced the enemy's entrench- 
 ments." 
 
 A most interesting and venerable relic, illustrating and 
 corroborating the above historical statement, is in the pos- 
 session of Master Brooke, Queen's Counsel, of the Irish 
 Court of Chancery, who represents Sir Richard Graham in 
 descent and blood. It is the signet ring of the brave old 
 knight, being a large circle of heavy and pure silver, con- 
 taining a stone of red porphyry, oa which is engraven the 
 knight's badge a small shield, divided by a Templar's 
 sword, and R. G. engraved on each side of the blade, a 
 wreath of wild laurel, the badge of the Graham, half sur- 
 rounding the shield, emblematic of victory, as the sword 
 is of military service, and the initials expressive of iden- 
 tity ; the whole surmounted with the vallary crown. 
 
 This old riug has come down to its present possessor
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, O* LEA CASTLE. 147 
 
 through Hector Graham of Leix, and his son, Colonel 
 Graham, of the county of Monaghan, and is in good pre- 
 servation, considering its great age, being fully two hun- 
 dred and sixty years old. 
 
 Shortly after the raid of Kilmallock, Sir Richard 
 appears to have been drafted to the north by Mountjoy, 
 to assist Sir Henry Docwra at Ballyshannon, though 
 Carew was " very loathe to spare him at the time." 
 
 He returned afterwards to Kingsale, and in 1601 he 
 commanded one hundred foot and fifty horse against the 
 Spaniards; and shortly afterwards I find the Queen 
 " passing by patent (47th Elizab.) to Sir Richard Graeme, a 
 principal commander in the wars, the lands and large estate 
 of Rahenderry, in the Queen's County, forfeited on the 
 rebellion of Mac Edmond Macdonald," one of the An- 
 trim family. Sir Richard was bound to keep five horses 
 and nine gallowglasses for the Queen's service, on receiv- 
 ing this regium donum ; and in 1604, he was appointed by 
 patent of James I., Constable and Governor of the Cas- 
 tle and Fort of Maryborough, with power to execute 
 martial law, to assemble the county, and, above all, to 
 " prosecute, invade, chase away, chastize, withstand, punish 
 and correct, by all means and ways, all nations of the 
 O'Mores, proditores, their servants, followers, and ad- 
 herents." These O'Mores were the ancient princes of 
 Leix, and were simply fighting for their own. Sir Richard 
 Graham's name appears, too, in the roll as first high 
 sheriff' for the Queen's County. 
 
 He was now in a position such as few soldiers of for- 
 tune had ever so speedily climbed to. He had his Sove-
 
 148 HECTOR GRAHAM, OK LEA CASTLE. 
 
 reign's favor, high command, heraldic honors, broad 
 lands, and domestic prosperity. His brother George, his 
 comrade in arms, had also been knighted, and held large 
 estates by grant and by purchase : Tobinstown, in Car- 
 low ; Castle Warnynge, or Warden, in the County Kildare ; 
 Ballinure ; and Barretstown Castle, in the county of Wick- 
 low this last on the attainder of the Eustaces of Ker- 
 diffstown. This old keep is now in the possession of Sir 
 Erasmus Borrowes, Bart., whose ancestors and the Gra- 
 hams stood side by side in many a battle in behalf of 
 England in the seventeenth century. In 1610, accord- 
 ing to Pynnar'a Survey, James I. allotted two thousand 
 acres to " Sir Richard and Sir George Grimes, knights," 
 in the county of Cavan. They were both married at this time. 
 Sir Richard's lady was Elizabeth Hetherington, daughter 
 to the head of one of the seven English tribes who settled 
 in the Queen's County some fifty years before : the others 
 were Cosbys, Hartpoles, Bowens, Hovendens, Ruishs, and 
 Barringtous. Lady Graham's family had a grant of the 
 castle and lands of Ballyroan, and also Knighttown. 
 Sir Richard had ten children. His eldest son, Thomas, 
 appears to have been always a quiet person, and to have 
 remained at home. Peter passed into the county of Cork; 
 but William and George were stirring blades, and tho- 
 rough Grahams, of whose deeds we shall hear anon. 
 William's wife was Jane Browne, of Mulrankan, grand- 
 daughter to Lord Buttevant, an old camarado of Sir 
 Richard's in the Desmond wars. Sir George married 
 Jane Huntingfield, of Castle Warnynge, near Sallins, 
 ?ud had by her six children. He married twice, his
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 149 
 
 second wife being Miss Craball. He died in 1619. The 
 brothers and their sons appear to have lived in much 
 unity and affection among themselves, as is manifest from 
 various old documents. All seemed to run smoothly, and 
 nothing to be wanting to fill up the measure of Sir 
 Richard's prosperity. It is more than probable that he 
 enjoyed 
 
 "That which should accompany old age, 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 
 
 But, as he grew old, his heart appears to have become 
 contracted and cold ; and the accursed thirst for gold, 
 and lust of power, the vices of age, seem like fellow fiends 
 to have sorely tempted him, and in part to have prevailed. 
 The times were utterly demoralised : the country dis- 
 tracted with its recent rebellions, and its present and 
 impending forfeitures, opened an avenue for every kind of 
 fraud, oppression, and the abuse of power. A habit had 
 been got up among many of the English adventurers, who 
 swarmed over the land like locusts, devouring every green 
 thing, to investigate the titles of men's estates, or make 
 inquisition for old and concealed rents, which should of 
 right accrue to the King. Many estates of ancient English 
 settlers in the numerous civil wars of Ireland had legally 
 fallen in to the Crown, on the flight or failure of the ori- 
 ginal grantees, but had been seized on by active parties 
 living on the spot, and held by the right of conquest, or 
 of long usage, for a term of years. In this age of seizure 
 and spoliation, when a King or Queen would confiscate by a 
 stroke of their pen a whole province, or half a milliou of
 
 loO HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 acres, as in the case of Ulster, and the lands of Desmond, 
 it became the fashion with private individuals to emulate 
 royalty, and many spent their time in ransacking old 
 records or rolls in the Pipe or Patent Offices for defective 
 titles, or in the hope of discovering some flaw in the 
 property deeds of their neighbours, and thus forcing them 
 to make a new settlement at an advanced rent, or bring- 
 ing them into collision with the Crown, and the greedy, 
 unprincipled monarch who then wore it, and whose claim 
 to the whole, or a portion of the rent, was not to be dis- 
 puted. 
 
 On these occasions the discoverer generally got the 
 lion's share for his trouble spolia scrutalionis while the 
 King was content with a small proportion of the recovered 
 crown rent, or a moiety, or less, of the advanced yearly 
 sum demanded from the holders of the land. 
 
 A case of this kind occurred about the close of James 
 the First's reign, which is characterised by Carte, the histo- 
 rian 6f " the first Duke of Ormonde/' as containing in 
 itself " such a scene of iniquity and cruelty, that it is scarce 
 to be paralleled in any age or country." And in this I 
 grieve to say that Sir Richard Graham was slightly, and 
 his son William deeply, implicated. It is commonly 
 called " the Case of the Byrnes," and the narrative 
 occupies fonr folio pages of " Carte's Ormonde," see vol. i. 
 p. 27. It is alluded to by Lelarid, in his " History of 
 Ireland " a writer who professes to hold " details as 
 disgusting," and who unscrupulously copies a portion of 
 Carte's recital almost word for word, without deforming 
 the margin of his dull book with inverted commas. The
 
 HECTOE GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 151 
 
 story is also told by Charles O'Connor in a tone of lofty 
 national indignation. Sir Richard certainly appears to 
 have initiated and carried on by his interest proceedings 
 against Phelim and Bryan O'Byrne, who were gentlemen 
 of ancient blood and high position in the county of Wick- 
 low. He had sued out a commission directed to Sir Wil- 
 liam Parsons, to inquire into the titles of the Byrnes to 
 their hereditary estates. There had been, no doubt, a 
 previous attainder for rebellion with their ancestors, and 
 escheatment to the crown, but afterwards pardon and 
 restoration. Sir Richard got possession of part of the 
 land by a warrant from the Lord Deputy, but the Eyrnes 
 appealing to the Crown for redress, King James referred 
 the matter to the Irish Privy Council, and, on their report, 
 the King ordered Sir Richard, or his son William, to 
 repair to London. The latter, who appears to have been 
 a thoroughly bad and wicked man, obeyed, and, on arriv- 
 ing, had conferences with the Duke of Buckingham, 
 " with whom he had acquaintance" (Buckingham's Master 
 of the Horse, Sir John Graham, was his far-awa' Cumber- 
 land cousin), and the great favourite using his influence, the 
 matter would have gone on the side of wrong against the 
 Byrnes, had not the Duke of Richmond stood up for these 
 persecuted gentlemen. James then appointed the two 
 dukes as commissioners to settle the matter ; when possi- 
 bly justice might have been obtained, and the Byrnes 
 reinstated safely in their territorial nests amidst the Wick- 
 low mountains, safe from these Scotch and English gos- 
 hawks, who flew so high, and yet stooped so meanly low ; 
 had not Sir William Parsons, who appears to have been
 
 152 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 the most rapacious of the whole party, " hit upon a fetch" 
 which could not fail of success, which was " to entitle the 
 King to the greatest part of the lands," and to prove 
 " that they were really vested in the Crown !" This, of 
 course, stopped the commissioners, as neither of the dukes 
 could give a sentence where the rights of the Crown, fan- 
 cied or real, were concerned. 
 
 In this bad business there is no further mention of Sir 
 Richard's name ; but his son, " Mr. William/' appears to 
 have pursued his object with the undeviating pertinacity 
 of his family, and with the activity and vigilance of a 
 bloodhound. Other evil associates now were banded with 
 him ; for the prey was large, and the scent good, and the 
 run hitherto successful. Lord Esmonde, Sir James Pierce 
 Fitzgerald, Sir William Parsons, and a Sir Henry Belling, 
 of whom Carte testifies that " he never stuck at any prac- 
 tice to carry his point, however execrable." Most of these 
 men, like vultures, were actually gorging on the quarry, 
 and had their claws deep in the estates of the Byrnes. 
 Esmonde, Parsons, Graham, and Belling had rent away 
 considerable portions of the land, and were now actually 
 possessing it. Graham and Belling were Provosts Mar- 
 shal for the County Wicklow, and acted out and be- 
 yond their powers in that capacity per fas atque nefas : 
 for two or three years job succeeded job ; iniquities, 
 cruelty, audacious transgressions of justice, mockeries of 
 trials, false imprisonments, executions by martial law, 
 and, I grieve to write, the application of the torture ! 
 
 One of the Mr. Byrnes' wife died of grief, and it was 
 not till 1628 that King Charles, at the instigation of Lord
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 153 
 
 Mountnorris, issued a commission which healed the 
 matter, liberated the Byrnes, who had been imprisoned ! 
 and gave them back a portion of their own lands ; Parsons 
 having previously obtained by patent (4th Car.) the manor 
 of Carrick, in the Ranelaghs, which had been the Byrne 
 property, in right of which he was returned M.P. for the 
 county of Wicklow about A.D. 1630 ! 
 
 I do not find that the Grahams wer6 any way the 
 better or the richer for all this sad villany of " Mr. Wil- 
 liam ;" and it is a gleam of comfort amidst much moral 
 darkness to think that though the old knight, bitten by 
 the asp of cupidity, might have commenced these pro- 
 ceedings, yet the barbarities which ensued could not 
 have had his sanction, inasmuch as he died in 1726, a full 
 year before the flame of personal persecutions had attained 
 to the white heat, which, kindled by the breath of cruelty 
 and sordid covetousness, had consumed the happiness and 
 prosperity of these unoffending and barbarously- treated 
 gentlemen the Mr. Byrnes. 
 
 Hot, violent, and impetuous as Sir Richard was, we 
 should hope he was too proud a man, and too noble a 
 soldier, to descend to such hangman tricks as Belling, 
 Parsons, and his son William, performed " before high 
 Heaven as made e'en angels weep." One would grieve to 
 think that the white shield which he wore so gloriously at 
 Kilmallock should be spotted with crime, or the golden 
 spurs he won on that field of fight should be sordidly 
 rusted by gouts of innocent blood. And yet, again, as a 
 faithful historian, who would "nothing extenuate," I 
 profess to be staggered, and at my wits' end, at finding it
 
 154 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 to be on record, that about the year 1604, when King 
 James had issued a general pardon, or amnesty, to about 
 one thousand or more persons of all ranks in Ireland for 
 divers crimes, offences, and peccadillos, the two Knights, 
 Sir Richard and Sir George Graham, were included among 
 the forgiven on that occasion ' 
 
 Some of the crimes specified in the " amnesty" are as 
 follow: "treasons, murders, robberies, riots, rowes, bur- 
 glaries, homicides, arsons, spoliations, violations, depreda- 
 tions, oppressions, treacheries, transgressions, negligences, 
 and ignorances ." One would suppose from the two last, 
 that the Privy Council had been studying the Litany, and 
 were taking cognizance of the negative as well as of positive 
 misdemeanours. We should conclude, that out of all this 
 black list, that " rows" seem the offences most likely to 
 have been created and indulged in by the Grahams, and 
 most cognate to their military dispositions. 
 
 It is some alleviation to consider the rank and position 
 of a few of the misbehaving parties who were the objects 
 of the royal clemency on this occasion ; these were the 
 Earl of Clanrickarde, Lords Tyrconnel and Tyrone, the 
 O'Conor Don, Henry O'Niel of the Fewes, and the Bishop 
 of Killaloe, and his wife ! 
 
 The whole matter may be thus solved on the strictest 
 principles of probability. The knights had slain many a 
 man in open fight ; perhaps, too, remembering the " good 
 old rule" of border life, they had helped themselves to 
 some of their neighbours' flocks or herds, or a town land 
 or two legitimately, of course and " on a warrant from 
 the Lord Deputie/' which seems to have been the fashion-
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 155 
 
 able mode of doing business in that time ! and their con- 
 sciences being unusually sensitive in an age of such pachy- 
 dermatous and rhinoceros-hide-heartedness, they gladly 
 availed themselves of such a plenary indulgence as this royal 
 absolution conferred for all peccadillos present and past, par- 
 ticularly as they were both expectants of good things yet 
 to come, and so determined to have a clear conscience when 
 waiting for the golden showers which were to-descend into 
 their lap from the royal Jupiter at Whitehall, or the green 
 acres which were to be assigned them by a stroke of the 
 imperial pen at Theobalds. 
 
 And ecce signum the year after the King had for- 
 given him all the "rowes" he had been guilty of, Sir 
 George Grimes " sues his Majesty for relief for services, 
 &c.," and James directs a letter from his Privy Council to 
 the Irish authorities, ordering them to give him the first 
 good thing vacant " concealed land or rent" up to a 
 certain value. Whereupon, in 1606, the town of Clare, 
 in Galway, with eleven quarters, &c., &c., of O'Madden's 
 country, were demised to Sir George woods, mines, &c v 
 excepted yet allowing him " to cut in the forests and 
 carry away convenient housebote," and especially premis- 
 ing that he should pay the curates ! 
 
 At Sir Richard's death, his sons mortgaged and partly 
 sold the lands and house of Rahin to Robert Weldon, 
 ancestor to Sir Anthony Weldon, Bart., who now repre- 
 sents the property. Some weeks ago, a valued and 
 accomplished friend of mine visited and walked over 
 the old place. The present house, though ancient 
 enough, is a modern structure compared to that in which
 
 156 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 Sir Richard lived : one solid broken buttress alone 
 marks where it stood. A solitary tree stands by the ruin, 
 which each winter sheds its leaves on the grey stones, as 
 if lamenting for past days. Close by are the remains of 
 a regular stone fosse the house was plainly a fort ; the 
 great walls of the old garden are here too ; a few fields fur- 
 ther on is the roofless church of Ballylinan, in whose chan- 
 cel the bodies of theGrahams sleep. Close by was Ballylinan 
 Castle, where George, who may be called the game cock of 
 the family, lived with his u garrison." Not a stone remains, 
 though the peasant guide told my informant of cannon 
 balls and gunpowder kegs dug up some years ago on this 
 spot, and likewise narrated how that a subterraneous pas- 
 sage ran from the castle to the church, and how that quan- 
 tities of old silver plate were secreted in a well on the land, 
 &c. " Credat Judseus, non ego." George Graham, Sir 
 Richard's son, who kept this " garrison" in Ballylinan 
 Castle, was a tried soldier and loyal man. He also took 
 part in political life, having been returned member of Par- 
 liament for the Queen's County in 1642. In this and 
 the preceding year he fought many battles, at the head of 
 his followers and family, against the insurgent forces. In 
 Lord Castlehaven's Memoirs we have a narrative how this 
 noble rebel besieged "Ballyneheran Castle, commanded by 
 the Grimes, a valiant people, with a strong garrison/' over 
 which he gained, according to his own showing, a trifling 
 advantage, at very great trouble, and with hard fighting. 
 
 Again, in 1642, George Graham charged with his 
 cavalry at the battle of Kilrush. It was on Easter Sunday, 
 the 10th of April, when this battle was fought on the
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CA8TT/K. 157 
 
 banks of the Barrow. There was the thrice noble and 
 good Ormonde in command, and Sir Charles Coote, a 
 brave but unscrupulous soldier. Graham served as a 
 volunteer under Sir Richard Greenville ; with him were 
 Captains Pigott, Weldon, and Erasmus Borrowes, all 
 Queen's County men of high position. Greenville appears 
 to have headed the Dragoons on the left wing; Sir 
 Thomas Lucas led the right wing of horse ; the enemy 
 were ten thousand strong. There was no advantage gained 
 by the royal forces, until Lucas and Greenville charged with 
 their cavalry, when the enemy broke and fled to a bog ; 
 "this was their sanctuary," says Borlace in his His- 
 tory of the War. Here George Graham fought en cava- 
 lier; this was his custom : they were all " Hitters," Cen- 
 taurs, knights by nature, habit, and hereditary feeling : 
 QCki'mroL Kai iTTTTcSa/uofc, lovers and tamers of the horse 
 were these stout Grahams, every one of them, man and boy, 
 egg and bird, son and sire, old border riders and moss 
 and moor troopers from time immemorial to their final 
 exit off the stage of life. In the same year, Graham, in 
 company with his brothers in arms, Pigott and Erasmus 
 Borrowes, and a small force, defeated eight hundred rebels 
 near Athy, slaying two hundred of them. 
 
 Next year Ballylinan Castle stood a siege of three days, 
 under the following circumstances. Near the " garrison" 
 resided Lieut. John Barnard, an old soldier in the wars 
 of Elizabeth : one night his house was suddenly and 
 fiercely attacked by O'Dempsie's roving rebel band, com- 
 manded by Macdounell, one of the great Antrim family, 
 being a famous insurgent, and son to the man into whoso
 
 158 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 escheated property of Rahin old Sir Richard had been 
 carried on the wings of a royal patent, and consequently 
 no friend of his son George's, to whose protection Barnard 
 and wife and bairns immediately fly, and ensconce them- 
 selves within the thick walls of his strong castle, and be- 
 neath the shadow of his valorous arm. 
 
 Immediately Graham is all alive, and well pleased, no 
 doubt, at the prospect of a row: straight he gathers "arms, 
 ammunition, and men as much as possible." The rebels, 
 after spoliating Barnard's house and premises, advance 
 and beleaguer Graham's Castle; for three days George 
 defends it valiantly, peppering the besiegers with his shot, 
 till getting tired of such passive work, he gathers his 
 qarrison, and sallying out, gives them a charge in border 
 style, more majorum, and scatters the rebel scum like 
 chaff before the wind, and delivers Barnard, wife, and 
 Co., who retire to their house, and petition government 
 such was the custom for " relief and compensation for 
 their plundered henroosts," &c., &c. 
 
 For many years after this the records of the family grow 
 very dim ; and one would have hoped, that their having 
 become country gentlemen, a spii'it of quietude might 
 have crept over them, but for two occurrences, both cha- 
 racteristic of the race, which have been gathered from 
 old and authentic documents. 
 
 One was an attempt to recover Rahin from the Wei- 
 dons, who had bought and paid their hard cash for it, and 
 much improved it into the bargain. 
 
 But the Patent which Elizabeth had given to old Sir 
 Richard in 1601, and which was a kind of title deed of the
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 159 
 
 estate, the Grahams had ever retained ; and late in the 
 seventeenth century they privily petitioned Charles II. to 
 re-grant them the estate ; they agreeing on their part to 
 resign the patent absolutely to the King, and covenanting 
 to pay him a very much increased crown rent on their 
 again becoming possessors of the lands. This attempt at 
 an almost incredibly audacious fraud was not discovered 
 for some time in London, but eventually was the subject 
 of a protracted chancery suit between Weldons and Gra- 
 hams : the issue being a release of their claim from 
 Richard, son to Mr. William 
 
 " His father's moral parts 
 He did inherit too ;" 
 
 and a " putting to jail of Mr. Thomas Graham," now 
 an old man, and seemingly the most inoffensive of all Sir 
 Richard's sons. It is not recerded what part government 
 took in this strange business. 
 
 Another family trait, evincing that the old fire and bel- 
 licose spirit had not died out from among the family, 
 is a record of " Corporal Fergus Grahame, killed in a duell 
 29th March, 1666, and buried in St. Warburgh's church, 
 Dublin/' Opposite this extract from the " Funeral En- 
 tries" is the scutcheon of Fergus Grayme of 1553, with 
 Queen Mary's augmentation coat of honour "oke 
 roote, boar's head," and all. There is no doubt that this 
 belligerent was one of the family. Now either this title 
 of Corporal was some military college rank, such as we 
 have now at Woolwich or Sandhurst amongst our young 
 gentlemen alumni, and Fergus was a Pickle and
 
 160 H7.CTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 juvenile fire-eater: or else he actually bore a halberd, and 
 having acted the part of a scamp at home, had been dis- 
 inherited by his indirniant father expulsus foribus by 
 the paterfamilias and straightway gone off to a recruit- 
 ing serjeant and enlisted, with the amiable intention to 
 shame or spite the family. And this latter I confess is 
 the more probable solution of the difficulty. 
 
 Thomas, Sir Richard's eldest son, whose imprisonment 
 was short, and perhaps only formal, survived all his 
 brothers, arid died late in life without living issue. His 
 sister had married Mr. Gorges of Kilbrue. George, the 
 loyal and intrepid captain, and member of the county in 
 ] 642, had preceded him by a few years. He also left no 
 children, and in the year 1663 Lady Graham died. Many 
 of Sir George's issue appear to have passed away sine 
 prole. The old " oke roote" bore but few branches its 
 leaves had not been for healing, but for hurt; not bene- 
 ficial, but contrariwise baleful; and the retribution of 
 barrenness had been theirs, and God had withered and 
 broken the boughs in his just and holy anger ; and so 
 among the scattered survivors of these gallant Grahams 
 we now meet specially two brothers in the year 1686, 
 namely, Richard, heir and representative of all the family, 
 and John, his brother, who was then residing at Glaslough, 
 in the county of Monaghan, and through whom the line 
 was continued in the north. These men were sons to 
 "Mr. William," the persecutor of the Byrnes. There 
 was much passing of property among the kinsmen at 
 this time. Marcus Graham, old Sir George's son, of To- 
 binstown, exchanged broad lands for church livings with his
 
 HECTOR GRAHAV, OF LEA CASTLE. 161 
 
 cousins. The Grahams had the right of presentation to 
 three livings, namely, White Church, Kilthispicke, and 
 Kilbride, all of which, no doubt, they sold to the highest 
 bidder, undeterred by simoniacal scruples, or dread of 
 ecclesiastical summons from Court of Arches, if any tri- 
 bunal so unreasonable had existed at the time. Finally, 
 all the property of both the brother knights seemed to 
 have fallen unto this Richard, who appears to have been 
 a strange kind of madman ; I have detailed his audaci- 
 ous conduct to the Weldons respecting the patent of Ra- 
 il in. He was also a captain in King James's army, but it 
 was at the very beginning of his reign. Archbishop. King 
 speaks disparagingly of him, but brings no personal charge 
 against him ; perhaps some better feeling actuated him, 
 that he should, like Cato, be pleased with the " victa causa" 
 of an unfortunate monarch, whose father and grandfather 
 had shown such beneficence to his own ancestors. It is 
 plain that his treason was very quietly carried on, as we 
 do not find his name in Mr. D'Alton's Jacobite Army List. 
 But "Richard Graham" heads the catalogue of the 
 Queen's County adherents to James II., in " The Book of 
 Forfeited Estates which were sold at Chich ester House 
 in 1 702." And a capacious wing of the old property in 
 Ballyadams, near Atby, his grandfather's reward for loyalty, 
 was hewn off, to punish him for disloyalty. This event was 
 a virtual outlawry to the brothers, and seemed to have 
 dissolved their connection with the Queen's County. 
 Richard dies shortly after this, and his will is administered 
 unto by his brother John, who married, and is quietly 
 living at that time at Gortowcll, in the county of Cavan ; 
 
 M
 
 16.2 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLK. 
 
 close by, if not upon the original property of two thou- 
 sand acres accorded to his grandfather, " Sir Richard 
 Grimes, Knight/' in the golden days of the Plantation of 
 Ulster. 
 
 Probably this estate remained, and also the large tract 
 in Galway granted to Sir George ; and more probably 
 still, John had sold all the remaining property in the coun- 
 ties of Kildare, Wicklow, Carlow, and Queen's, for fear of 
 a further confiscation, (which was a common practice 
 among the Jacobites, and their friends for them) ; and 
 having turned all into money, lived in obscurity up in 
 the north, waiting for the calming of the times ; for this 
 John appears to have been a sensible, shrewd, and quiet 
 person, having come to his brother Richard's rescue from 
 the north, and made peace in the ugly business of his 
 quarrel with the Weldons in the suit concerning the patent 
 of 11 ah in ; and having survived Richard, whose executor 
 he was. John Graham was opposed to the Jacobite 
 interest, and, indeed, appears to have had more judgment 
 and management than any of his race. Early in 1700, I 
 find Hector Graham, who is the hero of my story, and who 
 was John's son or nephew, and certainly his heir, pur- 
 chasing most largely in the northern counties fee simple 
 and other property to the amount of 8000 or 9000 
 a-year, among which were the lands of Culmaine, where 
 he built the house around which I have heard the old 
 tenants speak of him as one " whose forbears (ancestors) 
 in the old times had come up from the south, and had 
 owned possessions in the Queen's County and in Con- 
 naught."
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 1C3 
 
 Hector had married an heiress, Miss Jane Walkingshawe, 
 of the county of Down : this family were residing in 
 Renfrewshire in the year 1235, and were hereditary Fores- 
 ters to the High Steward of Scotland for that county : 
 whence their name. Their armorial bearings were equally 
 significant, being on a field argent a mount and grove of 
 young fir trees proper ; crest, a dove with an olive branch 
 in its beak ; motto, " In Season ;" supporters, two fores- 
 ters in long gowns. By this lady, Hector had two sous ; 
 Richard, afterwards Colonel Grahame of Monaghan, and 
 Hugh, who died unmarried. He had a daughter also, 
 Isabella, married to Mr. Perry, the head of an old family 
 in the county Tyrone, whose mother, Catherine Lowry, of 
 Pomeroy, was aunt to the first Lord Belmore, and to Anne 
 Lowry, Countess of Enniskillen in 1763. 
 
 But though connected now with the north, both by the 
 ties of marriage and of property, Hector's heart seems to have 
 yearned for his Vaterland, and for the plains of pleasant 
 Leix; and accordingly, in 1712, he suddenly appears in the 
 Queen's County, and straightway becomes the tenant of 
 the old and very famous castle of Leix, near Portarlington. 
 
 This old pile, called in phonetic parlance Lea Castle, 
 stands on a high green knoll on the banks of the Barrow, 
 a river which has its springs in the blue hollows of the 
 Slieve Bloom mountains. It is a very noble ruin, built 
 by a De Vesci in the twelfth century ; it was burnt by a 
 Bruce in the fourteenth ; rebuilt by a Fitz- Gerald ; occu- 
 pied by O'Mores and O'Dempsies ; held by Lord Castle- 
 haven for the Insurgents in 1642 ; relieved by Ormonde 
 arid battered with Republican shot afterwards byCrootffttt'i 
 
 M 2 '
 
 164 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 Ironside gunners. Alternately seized on by Royalist and 
 Rebel, and suffering heavily in either cause could its old 
 stones have found a voice, they had quoted Shakespeare, 
 and said 
 
 " A plague on both your Houses !" 
 
 A curious coinage issued from a rude mint, hastily con- 
 structed in its towers, when held by the insurgent army 
 in 1642. The money was brass, and known as " St. 
 Patrick's halfpence ;" on one side was the saint expelling 
 the reptiles, with the motto " Quiescat Plebs ;" on tVe 
 converse of the coin King David appeared playing his 
 harp, and looking up to a crown, with the poesy of 
 " Floreat Rex," alluding to Charles I., whose royal com- 
 mission for their doings in 1641-2 these Confederate lords 
 either had, or pretended to have. Much of such money 
 was coined and circulated by the insurgents ; but that 
 which issued from Leix castle had an L under the figures 
 of David and of Charles, and is very scarce. The money 
 possessed the smallest pecuniary worth, but assumed for a 
 time a false value, being rated as a shilling, till gradually it 
 found its level. Even at this day this ruin is most impos- 
 ing : its lofty and thick walls attest its former strength ; the 
 climbing ivy clusters round its small windows ; immense 
 masses of masonry, torn from its towers by the ruthless 
 action of shot, lie under the walls, whose gaps disclose 
 broken staircases, and upper grass- grown chambers with 
 blackened hearths ; its vaults and its stables ; its stone 
 prisons and detached turrets ; its gateway and ruined 
 barbican, and filled-up moat, and extensive ballium, and
 
 HECTOR GRAHAXf, OP LEA CASTLE. 165 
 
 circling walls, all tell a tale of former power, and even 
 magnificence. 
 
 There was evidently some feeling of romance in Hector 
 Graham's mind, which induced him to come and take up 
 his abode among these old ruins, and away from his 
 northern property and people ; perhaps it was the ances- 
 tral border feeling transmitted in the blood, which made 
 him prefer for so many years a rude stone fort as a resi- 
 dence, to his comfortable house at Culmaine. Perhaps 
 even there might have been a vein of poetry in the man's 
 mind ; the river runs beneath the ancient walls, and he 
 might have loved to hear 
 
 " The ripple washing in the reeds, 
 And the wild water lapping on tlie crag ;" 
 
 or mused along its green banks, to watch 
 
 "The many knotted waterflags 
 That whistled still' and dry about the marge ;" 
 
 or called up the shadows of the ancient Irish chiefs arid 
 clans, whose hunting ground this lordship of Leix used to 
 be, ere the Saxon leaped down from his ships on Erin's 
 shore; O'Connors from Offaly ; and O'Mores from the 
 Abbeyleixoak forests; Fitz Patricks from Castled Ossory; 
 O'Dempsies ; Coughlans ; and O'Dunns of the Woods. 
 This may be all conjecture ; but certain it is, and on record, 
 that "in 1712, Hector had a lease of lives renewable for 
 ever of the castle and lordship of Leix, from Dr. Edward 
 Smith, Bishop of Down and Connor, at a yearly rent of 
 700 Irish currency. Lord Portarlington is now owner
 
 ]G6 HTTTOR GRAHAM, OY LEA CASTLE. 
 
 in fee of the lordship, and Mr. Evans, to whose ancestors 
 the lease was assigned in 1738, represents Hector Graham 
 at that rent." 
 
 One portion of the ruins is more perfect than the rest : 
 it is called " The Little Castle ;" it stands within and 
 near the great gate at the right-hand side ; and here it 
 was that Hector Graham took up his abode, no doubt 
 having previously repaired the building, and made it 
 habitable. In the large vaults he had ample stabling for 
 his horses, and offices for his cattle, of which he drafted 
 a great number to the Queen's County, from his pasture 
 lands in the wild west. Here one would say he had but 
 little neighbourhood, and small intercourse with any who 
 v:ere like minded with him, being one who loved manly 
 snorts " gaudens equis et canibus," and, like the Douglas 
 of old, would rather hear the lark sing than the mouse 
 squeak. The neighbouring property and town of Port- 
 arlington was thickly sown with French Huguenot fami- 
 lies, who under the royal wing of William had flown 
 from the drsgonades of Louis XIV. Here were Cham- 
 pagnes Des VOBUXS Fleurys Sabatiers Tabuteaus 
 Tibodeaus Fouberts Delacours Mechinettes Du- 
 rants Greniers Petit Baux -.Blancs cum multis aliis, 
 which the curious reader will find recited in extenso 
 in the "Book of Forfeited Estates sold at Chichester 
 House, 1702," under the head of Sir Patrick Trant's 
 Attainder. 
 
 With these stern and pious old enthusiasts, we can 
 scarce imagine our Hector to have had much sympathy ; 
 or men of their peculiar mould and mind, purified in
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 107 
 
 the furnace of suffering, to have much in common with 
 the tenant of the castle of Leix, with all his border 
 habits. 
 
 On a " cold and nipping" morn, my friend visited the old 
 ruin last autumn, and spent two thoughtful hours treading 
 its grassy courts, and wandering under its grey walls. Here 
 he sought out two very aged men, Brady and Monagher, 
 whose grandsires had been in the employment of Hector 
 Graham, or " Captain Grimes," as they persisted in call- 
 ing him. (In the " Athense Oxonienses," published in 
 the time of Charles II., Anthony Wood says " Sir 
 Richard Graham, Bart, of Netherby, commonly called 
 Grimes.") From these men he heard nothing but the 
 most enthusiastic praise of Hector : he was the kindest 
 landlord, the most generous master, the poor man's friend 
 and protector ; he was " a raal gentlemen," had no vice, 
 and was a la Graham the best and boldest horseman 
 in the county. They took him to the river, and showed 
 where Hector had constructed embankments to keep the 
 Barrow within bounds ; but a thaw had come suddenly, and 
 a flush of the water, and swept all away : they pointed 
 out lands where he had endeavoured to grow the hop 
 plant, which scheme also had failed ; and they said that 
 he was always giving labour and work, for which he paid 
 liberally and punctually. 
 
 Of his two sons Hugh appears to have been a wild 
 falcon, of the Graham species ; he was, Catiline like, 
 " profusus sui, alien! appetens" ex. gr. he farmed ex- 
 tensively, and on one occasion his father had entrusted to 
 him a considerable sum of money, with which he was to
 
 1C3 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLK. 
 
 go into Galway and purchase cattle to stock a distant pas- 
 ture ; but Hugh went >no further than Dublin, where, 
 alas ! he spent the money in theatres and taverns, and 
 riotous living ; and when all was gone, rode home to Leix 
 or Lea, more, it is to be feared, in a plotting than in a 
 penitential mood, where he arrived late of a winter's after- 
 noon, and going round to the offices, he ordered some of 
 the men to collect all the " milky mothers" and home- 
 fed kine, and to drive them up in a herd before the win- 
 dows of the castle, just as his father was about to sit down 
 to dinner; an inauspicious hour for a lengthened out-door 
 inspection. It was nearly dark when this occurred ; and 
 Hugh, lighting from his horse, brought his father to the 
 door, who, seeing a drove of beasts lowing and bellowing, 
 and jostling each other, retired well satisfied with the 
 success of his son's purchase ; and next morning heard 
 with increased complacency that the cattle had all been 
 sent at cock-crow to a farm in the King's County. This 
 his son's conduct, the old men told my informant, "after- 
 wards went nigh to break Captain Grimes' heart." 
 
 Another anecdote is related of Hector, more pleasing to 
 the moral taste. He was a splendid horseman, as I have 
 stud, and on one still and bright night, late in the vear, 
 he was returning on a high-spirited mare after a day's 
 hunting. He had a groom riding with him. Just as he 
 reached the castle gate, he heard a prolonged shriek of 
 great distress coming faintly, and from a great distance, 
 across the misty low grounds and moonlight fields. Then 
 outspake Hector, and said, " Monagher, surely I know 
 that voice ; it is the herd's daughter/' a girl reared amoag
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 169 
 
 the family, end who had gone to a fair in the morning. 
 The night was intensely calm, and the screams continuing, 
 Hector delayed not a moment longer, but putting spurs to 
 his mare, he leaped her over a fence, and rode across the 
 country full gallop to the rescue, flying like a bird, steeple- 
 chase fashion, over every hedge and ditch he met, till he 
 reached a hollow in the road, where he found the poor 
 girl in the midst of a number of ruffians who were about 
 to use her very barbarously. Hector instantly leaped 
 among them, horse and rider, dashing at them like his 
 ancestor at Kilmallock, or one of his Cumberland proge- 
 nitors on a moonlight raid. 
 
 " Dire was the dint the Borderer lent ;" 
 
 his heavy hunting-whip was his only weapon, but with 
 this and his own vigorous arm and strong heart, he effec- 
 tually routed and scattered the villains, who fled like sheep. 
 And his servant having now ridden up, they conveyed 
 the poor girl, who had received no harm but a grievous 
 fright, safely home to her father. 
 
 Hector resided at Lea Castle twenty-five years, namely, 
 from 1712 to 1737. Most of this time he had a most 
 comfortable house and domain awaiting him in the county 
 of Monaghan, where also he had, as I have said, very 
 large estates and a numerous tenantry. Yet here, amidst 
 these grey and mouldering walls, he maintained a solitary, 
 comfortless existence, prompted and supported by some 
 peculiarity of feeling, the nature of which it is difficult 
 even to guess at. 
 
 In this old stone fortalice he chose to live, and, pro-
 
 170 HKCTOR GRAUAT.T, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 bably, would have preferred to die, had not a singular 
 event occurred, which turned him against his rude resi- 
 dence, and also evidenced that no generation of Grahams 
 could pass away without being mixed up with a wild ad- 
 venture, or being connected with some startling and 
 out-of-the-way escapade. 
 
 This occurrence is simply stated in a rare book, not 
 found in polite libraries, called " Irish "Rogues and Rap- 
 parees." Our Hector seems here to have become " ac- 
 quainted with strange bedfellows :" but it was not his 
 " misery" made him so, but his misfortune, and, perhaps, 
 a want of prudence a quality which he never appears to 
 have possessed much of. 
 
 I will transcribe a page or two from this book : 
 " Caber na Cophuil, or Charles of the Horses, was 
 tenant of Mr. Graham, of Lea Castle, who had, on his 
 committal to Maryborough gaol, made such interest for 
 him that he was acquitted. Some time after, the said 
 landlord, Mr. Graham, seized Caher' s effects, and put him 
 off the lands. Now this landlord had converted a large 
 vault under the Castle of Lea into a stable, capacious 
 enough to hold a great number of horses; and this was 
 foundation enough for Caher to found an accusation 
 against Mr. Graham, who at that time was being ap- 
 pointed a justice of peace for the county. He, being irri- 
 tated against Caher, had examinations given against him, 
 and a very difficult pursuit was made. Caher was taken 
 and committed to Naas gaol, Nov. 1734, where he was 
 kept till the March following, when he was transferred to 
 Maryborough, and there tried. Things being now in this
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 171 
 
 situation, Caher swore several examinations (in Irish) 
 against Mr. Graham and others, and the gentleman was 
 tried ; and were it not for the interest of some of the lead- 
 ing men of the Queen's County, it is to be feared he might 
 have suffered." 
 
 Such is a picture of the administration of law in the county 
 courts onehundred and thirty years ago. Here is a gentleman 
 of position and property almost condemned to death on the 
 perjuring deposition of a notorious scamp, thief, and rebel 
 given, too, in a language of which it is likely neither judge, 
 counsel, or jury, knew one word; and made by a man 
 who was acting plainly on the most revengeful motives. 
 Had the hangman's noose been knotted and fitted for his 
 grandfather, " Mr. William," of persecuting memory, we 
 would have said, "fiat justitia, ruat ccelum,'' even though 
 the halter was not made of silk, but coarsest hemp : but 
 our good-natured, kind-hearted Hector of the Fort, our 
 hermit of the Barrow, our hero of the old tower, our soft 
 and simple castellan, deserved not so dark and disre- 
 putable a conclusion to his life career as that he should 
 be hung at Maryborough for horse-stealing ! 
 
 Caher had further cause for anger against his landlord 
 than what is stated in the Rogue and Rapparee volume ; 
 for one night previous to his first committal, the inhabit- 
 ants of the castle were scared from their slumbers by a 
 great tramping of hoofs " quadrupetante putrem, &c.&c." 
 in the court, and a loud knocking at the door. This was 
 Caher demanding entrance, and protection for himself, 
 and shelter for some half-dozen horses which he had taken 
 that night unlawfully from stable, paddock, and pasture,
 
 172 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 and upon whose traces the owners of the animals and the 
 sheriff's officers were now in hot pursuit. However such 
 a marauding transaction as helping oneself to one's neigh- 
 bour's goods might have squared with his ancestors' foray- 
 loving habits, our Hector was too honest a man to coun- 
 tenance theft ; and so, from the castle casement, he sternly 
 commanded Caher to be gone ; who turned and rode off in 
 deep dudgeon, with a whole world of pride and of anger in 
 his heart against his landlord. 
 
 Now this Caher na Cophuil, or Charles of the Horses, 
 was a man of notoriety ; he was an O'Dempsie, and son 
 to Lewis, second Viscount Clanmalier. James I., on 
 peace-loving principles, had given his grandfather, the 
 head of an ancient and princely clan, a peerage. His 
 son, however, had revolted from the government, and we 
 find him chief of the assailants in the attack on Geashil 
 House, which Lady Digby, who was his cousin, defended so 
 vigorously against a cloud of rebels in 1641. 
 
 For this act, Lewis, the second Viscount Clanmalier, 
 was attainted, and every acre he possessed seized, and 
 himself and his family outlawed. Charles, his son, became 
 a beggar, and took to evil and low courses, among which 
 horse stealing was pre-eminent, probably quieting his not 
 particularly scrupulous conscience with the reflection, that 
 as formerly almost the whole country had belonged to his 
 ancestors, he was only taking what was his own ; and in 
 this way, though a little irregularly, robbing the robber. 
 He had his name from the singular gracefulness with 
 which he rode, as well as the dexterity with which he stole 
 his horses. He was idolized by the country people, who
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 173 
 
 forgot his faults in his sorrows, and passed over his wicked 
 habits in their admiration of his noble birth and manly 
 accomplishments. Possibly Hector and he had fraternized 
 overmuch on all equestrian subjects, they were both so 
 fond of the manege, and greatly loved and valued the 
 noblest animal in the world, next to man, who bestrides 
 and subdues it, and who ought ever to treat it with gene- 
 rous and compassionate kindness. 
 
 On the accusation of this man, who is designated as 
 " a notorious and common thief," was Hector Graham 
 near losing his life. The times were in other respects 
 overslow, but all too rapid in judiciary matters. An assize- 
 going justice had much to do, and in most cases made 
 quick work of it, and often would hang half-a-dozen men 
 before luncheon for sheep-stealing, or some other offence 
 a degree or two more heinous than picking a man's 
 pocket. Probably the antecedents of the Graham family, 
 in the Queen's County, afforded no basis to erect good 
 opinion on in favour of their representative ; and thus the 
 court might have been affected by an unconscious preju- 
 dice against Hector. 
 
 Our old Seanacha .at Lea Castle, while he corroborated 
 all the preceding facts, added a singular appendix to them, 
 which illustrated the wild character of the times, and the 
 hereditary habits of the Grahams. When tidings reached 
 the north that Captain Hector was to be tried for his life 
 at Maryborough, his brother summoned the tenants to- 
 getherBorder fashion and having selected from them 
 twenty able and determined fellows, he armed them to 
 the teeth " with pistol aud pike/' and theu, having pro-
 
 174 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 cured good horses, and putting two men on each steed, lie 
 rode at their head night and day, avoiding the city and 
 towns, straight down to the Queen's County ; having di- 
 rected his men to break into the court, shoot the judge, 
 fire up at the jury box, and, at all hazard, or peiil " to 
 rescue and carry off the Captain !" But the Captain was 
 safe back at Lea before this summary and most extraor- 
 dinary succour had time to make its appearance. 
 
 The fraternal intentions were manifestly to take Hector 
 away to the north, to which place his mind was now vi- 
 brating and settling like the needle on the card of the 
 compass. Disgusted and disappointed with his experiment 
 in living like a human owl amidst ruins, he retired to 
 the county of Monaghan in the year 1737; he had pre- 
 viously parted with the lease of Lea to a Mi*. Evans. To 
 this day the tradition of the county is that this person 
 " got the estate, and never paid for it ;" if it were so, the 
 fact is quite in keeping with the easy and pliable character 
 of Hector Graham, and his very imposable nature. Some 
 of the money, however, was paid at the time ; but most 
 indubitably, from the evidence of an old deed, 4000 
 remained due in the year 1764 a large debt to be ua- 
 cancelled for twenty-seven years ! in the end we suspect 
 that things were arranged by some accommodation. 
 
 Hector could ill afford to lose money now he had 
 
 " Much disabled his estate 
 By something shewing a more swelling port 
 Than that his means would grant continuance/' 
 
 \V'e read now of mortgages and loans from Armagh
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OP LEA CASTLE. 175 
 
 bankers. Two estates, Ballyseeda and Kilmonagher, were 
 sold, and a third soon followed. In the year 1737 his 
 son Richard married a Miss Crawford. 
 
 Hector was now seated in his most comfortable house at 
 Culmaine ; he only survived his translation to the north 
 five years. Perhaps he often sighed for his old residence 
 in the stone fortalice, the romance of the dismantled 
 towers, the grey and lofty castle walls, with the ivy flut- 
 tering on them in the evening breeze, and the soft green 
 sod which carpeted the banks of the sluggish and im- 
 passive Barrow. He had lived at Leix, he died at Cul- 
 maine ; and, perhaps, his removal to the snugness and the 
 tranquillity of this residence so safe, and so matter-of- 
 fact might be not unaptly illustrated by the case of 
 Horace's restored lunatic, who thanked his friends for their 
 success in his cure, by exclaiming 
 
 *' Pol me occidistis, amici." 
 
 In 1742 Hector died, and was succeeded by his only 
 surviving son, Richard, afterwards Colonel Graham. He 
 had but one son, and he was killed on the green knoll of 
 Killymarley, opposite the windows of the old manor-house. 
 It was some accident connected with his horse which 
 caused his death ; and thus, this, the last generation of 
 the Grahams, had its fatality in common with preceding 
 ones. 
 
 Richard was a Liberal in his politics ; he subscribed 
 largely to the building of the Presbyterian chapel in the 
 neighbourhood, where he had a pew, and a tablet over the 
 door recording his munificence ; he had also seats and
 
 176 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE, 
 
 pews in Monaghan and Tyhallon churches, and being 
 equally generous to the Parson as to the Elder, was pro- 
 bably equally unpopular with both. He was, Graham- 
 like, a fierce and dashing horseman, and rode boldly to 
 the hounds. Of course, border-fashion, he had a feud; it 
 was with his neighbour, Mr. Lucas, of Castle Shane; and 
 it is on traditional record that he would often mount his 
 horse, long cutting-whip in hand, and traverse the roads 
 in the hope of meeting his enemy, and having the enjoy- 
 ment of a personal rencontre with him. 
 
 The country gentlemen at that day were sadly demo- 
 ralized late sitting, dreadful swearing, hard drinking, 
 gambling, handicapping, quarrelling under the madness of 
 intoxication at night, and then gunpowder and pistols at 
 six paces, shaming the grey and sober morning. If sucli 
 an awful apparition as the butler gliding in with salver 
 and coffee, so common now-a-days, had appeared among 
 these strong topers, it would infallibly have produced a 
 grand sensation, if not a serious row, and perhaps a duel 
 or two with mine host the next day. Claret was the 
 staple wine at these meetings, and it is recorded of Colonel 
 Graham, that on a prime hogshead being sent to him by 
 his wine merchant, he invited all his friends by circular to 
 come and save him the trouble and expense of corks. The 
 hogshead was rolled into the hall, fixed on a tressel, tapped, 
 cocked, and set a-flowing into flagons, from which the 
 glasses of the thirsty guests were continually replenished. 
 
 Indeed, a somewhat scandalous rumour prevailed, that 
 the Colonel, in over-haste to test its excellency, never bot- 
 tled his wine at all ; but this calumny is refuted by a massy
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 177 
 
 silver screw, with his crest and name, which was once in pos- 
 session of the friend to whom I am indebted for these 
 Graham memories, and, many years ago, on his first visit to 
 the old house, he was taken down to the cellar, and there 
 in the midst was a spring of water, intensely cold, where 
 the Colonel cooled his wine flasks in the hot summer 
 evenings. In his calmer moments the Colonel would 
 ride into the county of Tyrone to see his sister at Perry- 
 mount, or, accompanied by his nephew, Edward Perry, he 
 would proceed to Market Hill, and visit quietly at Lord 
 Gosford's, who was his friend and kinsman. 
 
 Colonel Richard Graham died at Culmaine in the year 
 1761. His extravagance had been great it was an here- 
 ditary failing; his father had, as I have said, at one 
 time a rental fully equal to 8000 a-year ; much of this 
 had been dissipated both by sire and son, yet much still 
 remained. Colonel Graham left his lady a life-interest in 
 all his property. One fee-simple estate was sold to free 
 the remainder from incumbrance. Another very large 
 property, Derrynoose, in the county of Armagh, was held 
 under the primate as church land, by renewable leases, 
 which Mrs. Graham, who survived her husband for forty 
 years, renewed annually and statedly in her own name ; 
 and so it came to pass, that at her death, in 1801, this 
 property passed to her own nephew, who was nothing of 
 kin to the Grahams, in place of falling to the rightful 
 successor, Mr. Perry, who was the Colonel's nephew, and 
 next of blood, and whose descendants inherit nothing 
 of all these broad lands, save Hector's old manor-house 
 at Culmaine, and a few hundred green acres which lie 
 
 N
 
 178 HECTOR GRAHAM, O? I.EA CASTLE. 
 
 around it. With Richard Graham passed away the last 
 of the direct stem of this singular family ; the name is 
 gone, but they are represented in blood by William Brooke, 
 Q.C., Master in the Court of Chancery in Ireland, \vhose 
 mother, Angel Perry, was grand-niece and heiress to Co- 
 lonel Graham. 
 
 Another, and a younger, branch of this immediate 
 family descends maternally from a Mr. Hector Graham, 
 who is mentioned in Colonel Graham's will as his "kins- 
 man/'* This gentleman in 1778 was Secondary of the 
 Court of Common Pleas in Ireland ; he married Miss 
 Isabella Maxwell, a niece of the first Lord Farnham's, 
 and their issue was the Rev. James Graham, and his 
 sister Grace, afterwards married to Lord Norbury of ju- 
 dicial celebrity. This lady was created a peeress in her 
 own right, under the title of Baroness Norwood. 
 
 Whether it is that the name Hector is uncommon, or 
 that there is a certain music in it, or an air of romance 
 about it, or that it is found high up among the ancient 
 pedigrees of the house of Menteith and Stratherne; or 
 that it possesses a classical charm connected with old 
 Homer, and the noble husband of Andromache, the Kopv- 
 BaioXcs ^atSi^io? E/trwp : whichever of these causes may 
 operate, I cannot tell, but so it is, that Hector and Hec- 
 tor-Graham are to be found as Christian names among 
 some of the best families of the kingdom, and all lineally 
 descended from the old Castellan of Lea. The present 
 Larl of Norbury bears the name : it is also in the family 
 
 * He was probably the son of Hector Graham's diival:-ous 
 brother, mentioned at page 173.
 
 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 179 
 
 of Colonel Vandeleur, M.P., of Kilrush ; and of Mr. 
 Stewart of Ards ; and his uncle, Mr. John Stewart, of 
 Rock Hill, both of the county of Donegal : and from the 
 same wild and ancient fountain we trace the name stream- 
 ing musically among the Brownes of Browne Hall, county 
 of Carlow ; the Otway Tolers ; and also in the family of Mr. 
 Gurdon-Rebow, of Wivenhoe Park, M.P. for Colchester. 
 
 Probably some of their numerous kindred may take a 
 pleasure in reading of the wild, strange deeds of their 
 daring ancestors, the narrative of which, as given here, has 
 at least the merit of authenticity, and of very truthful and 
 careful compilation. 
 
 But it may be fairly asked, why resuscitate the deeds of 
 a race who appear to have lived only for themselves, and 
 were so little beneficial to others in their generation ? and, 
 morally speaking, " cui bono" is this memoir, which only 
 presents a long catena of hereditary irregularities ? 
 
 In reply I would say that even in the sacred writings 
 the biography of the evil mingles with that of the good ; 
 the tares are found with the wheat ; the one supplies a 
 warning, the other an example. If evil were to be erased 
 from the page of History because it is evil, we should 
 know nothing of the character of Alexander the Great, 
 Pizarro of Spain, or Catherine II. of Russia. True it is 
 that the Grahams were violent, rapacious, and at times 
 unprincipled, and, no doubt, a little mad occasionally ; but 
 then they were valiant, loyal, and most chivalrous. Pos- 
 sessing at one period great power and position, they were 
 naturally subjected to equally great temptation ; they had 
 also the misfortune to live and flourish in a contaminating. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HECTOR GRAHAM, OF LEA CASTLE. 
 
 time, when wickedness sat with an unblushing brow in high 
 places ; and when corruption, self-seeking, and want of 
 truth seem to have leavened the masses from the king upon 
 his throne down to the lowest grade of society. These 
 Grahams were not literary men ; the hand that wielded the 
 sword so well was maladroit to handle the pen ; they have 
 left no journal, and transmitted no biography: we, perhaps, 
 know too much of their failings, and too little of their vir- 
 tues; their public deeds are on record, and "live after them ;" 
 their private worth may be " interred with their bones." 
 As regards personal daring, they were brilliant and in- 
 trepid soldiers, " grand old cavaliers," Bayards in bravery, 
 and without question " sans peur," though, alas ! not 
 " sans reproche." 
 
 Their biography, revealing as it does how shamefully 
 Ireland was misgoverned during their day, may show us 
 by a gratifying contrast the marvellous improvement which 
 has taken place in modern times ; and that happy and 
 perfect liberty in whose light we now walk ; as well as the 
 advanced stride which social and domestic life presents in 
 increasing sobriety, quietness, order, and refinement. 
 
 Lastly, the crimes they committed, which were justly 
 punished by the extinction of their race and name, may 
 serve as beacons on the headlands, to warn us off these 
 dark cliffs where honour and principle lie shipwrecked : or 
 may act as those terrific storm-bells, which are moored in 
 narrow channels, and which, when the night is dark, or the 
 fog thick, with their wild clang arouse and excite the 
 mariner to a consciousness of his danger, as well as to a 
 more watchful and active exercise of his duty.
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOiiONiJj A.D. 1631. 181 
 
 % Salt 0f !tait 0n fic|Inml. 
 
 A.D. 1631. 
 
 " She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted, 
 By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks." 
 
 SHAKESPZABE. 
 
 THE following story, involving atrocious guilt, and accom- 
 panied by the most marvellous circumstances, is not more 
 strange than true ; and is to be found in all its details in 
 two of the most interesting and curious works that have 
 ever been written in illustration of Scottish history : the 
 memorials of " Montrose and his Times/' by Mark Napier, 
 Esquire, Sheriff of Dumfriesshire, printed for the Maitland 
 Club in 1848 ; and " Memoirs of Montrose," by the same 
 learned and gifted author, published in 1856. It is due 
 to this distinguished historical writer to acknowledge 
 the obligation which I owe to his pages ; and it is no 
 less due to myself and to my readers, to claim his testi- 
 mony in behalf of details so singular, that without such 
 authority, they might be banished into the regions of fic- 
 tion. That authentic history contains facts more marvel- 
 lous than the wildest romance, can be proved by the do- 
 mestic annals of many families among the Scottish aristo- 
 cracy, and nowhere more strangely and more sadly than 
 by the fate of the Lady Catherine Graham.
 
 182 A TALE OP MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1C31. 
 
 No family of the Scottish nobility is more ancient than 
 that of Colquhoun, and few have been more highly allied. 
 Their origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, and their 
 descent can be clearly traced from a great baron, who held 
 extensive domains on the banks of Lochlomond, in the 
 reign of Alexander II., King of Scotland. His great- 
 grandson acquired additional estates by marriage with the 
 heiress of the house of Luss, whose ancestor was a power- 
 ful noble in the reign of King William the Lion, and her 
 territorial designation became that of the family, which 
 continues to this day to be called Colquhoun of Luss. The 
 successive generations of this house intermarried with 
 daughters of the Lords Erskine, ancestors of the Earls of 
 Marr; the Lords Boyd, ancestors to the Earls of Kilmar- 
 nock ; the Lords Somerville ; the Earls of Lennox, ances- 
 tors of the later Stuart kings ; the Earls of Montrose, 
 ancestors of the ducal family ; and the Earls of Glencairn 
 The fourteenth in descent of this great family was Sir 
 John Colquhoun of Luss, the guilty hero of the following 
 tragedy, who, in 16.25, was created a baronet by King 
 Charles the First, and who in an evil hour followed the 
 example of one of his own ancestors by matching with 
 the illustrious house of Montrose, into which he subse- 
 quently brought scandal and disgrace. 
 
 The former generation of the Colquhoun s had been 
 marked by one of those fearful tragedies which occur so 
 frequently in the annals of Scottish families during the 
 fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Sir John's 
 uncle, Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, in one of the later years 
 of the sixteenth century raised his vassals to oppose the
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 183 
 
 lawless Clan MacGregor, who came down from their fast- 
 nesses upon the low country of Dumbartonshire, and com- 
 mitted terrible outrages and depredations. Both parties 
 met in Glenfrnne, where a bloody encounter took place. 
 They fought with the utmost obstinacy until night sepa- 
 rated them, after many brave men had been killed on both 
 sides. Sir Humphrey retired from the field of battle into 
 a strong castle, which he possessed in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, and where on the same night he was cruelly 
 murdered. There are different versions of the story. Ac- 
 cording to one account, the MacGregors pursued him 
 closely, broke into the castle, and found him in a vault, 
 where they immediately put him to death, with circum- 
 stances of peculiar ferocity. But there is some reason to 
 believe that the Macgregors were made to bear the blame 
 that should have fallen on a fratricidal assassin. 
 
 Robert Birrell notes in his diary that in the year 1592, 
 on the last day of November, John Colquhoun was be- 
 headed at the cross of Edinburgh, for murdering his own 
 brother, the laird of Luss. It would thus appear that Sir 
 Humphrey's next brother, whose name was John, availed 
 himself of the confusion caused by the battle of Glen- 
 frune, the retreat of the chief into his castle, and the 
 attack by the MacGregors, and got rid of his brother by 
 assassination, in the hope that the crime might be laid to 
 the charge of the enemies of his family. However, his 
 guilty ends were defeated by the hand of justice, and the 
 third brother, Sir Alexander, succeeded. This chief re- 
 signed his estates to his son John some years prior to 
 1620, when he married the Lady Lilias Graham, who
 
 184- A TALE OP MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOXD, A.D. 1631. 
 
 brought him a fortune of 10,000. He was served heir 
 to his father in June, 1625, and two months after, he was 
 made a baronet by Charles the First. 
 
 John Graham, fourthEarl of Montrose, was a man of high 
 birth and great possessions, and in 1626 was appointed 
 President of the Council in Scotland ; but he died in the 
 month of November of that year. He had married the 
 Lady Margaret Ruthven, eldest daughter of William, first 
 Earl of Gowrie, and sister of the two noted Gowrie conspi- 
 rators, by whom he had a son James, afterwards celebrated 
 as the hero of his age and country, as Marquess of Mon- 
 trose, and five daughters : T. Lilias, wife of Sir John 
 Colquhoun of Luss ; II. Margaret, wife of Sir Archibald 
 Napier, afterwards first Lord Napier ; III. Dorothea, wife 
 of Sir James Hollo, afterwards second Lord Rollo ; IV. 
 Catherine, the unfortunate subject of this story; V. Bea- 
 trix, wife of David Drummond, third Lord Maderty. 
 
 The Countess of Montrose was said to have been ad- 
 dicted to the practice of magic. She belonged to a family 
 who were noted for their proficiency in the black art. Her 
 grandfather, Patrick Lord Ruthven, was declared by Mary 
 Queen of Scots to use enchantments, and to have offered 
 l.er a magic ring. And her brother, the last Earl of 
 Gowrie, is said to have studied magic at Padua, during 
 his long residence in Italy, and to have had secret charms 
 dispersed about his person on the day of his conspiracy 
 against King James, which ended in his own destruction. 
 I mention these peculiarities in some of the leading 
 members of the maternal ancestry of Lady Catherine 
 Graham, as a curious coincidence when taken in connection
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 185 
 
 with her own subsequent fate, being ruined, and having 
 vanished suddenly from her place in society, through the 
 devilish arts of her destroyer, who is, in the legal judg- 
 ment pronounced against him for his crime, styled a 
 "Necromancer." 
 
 One of the means whereby he is stated as having ac- 
 complished his purpose, was by presenting his victim with 
 an enchanted jewel, which, when worn upon her person, 
 rendered her unable to resist his seductions. 
 
 The Countess of Montrose died in April, 1618, and on 
 the anniversary of her funeral, in the following year, is 
 dated the marriage contract of her second daughter, Lady 
 Margaret, and Sir Archibald Napier, afterwards Lord 
 Napier ; and in 1620 her eldest daughter, Lady Lilias, 
 became the wife of Sir John Colquhoun. Two months 
 after this event, the Earl paid them a visit at their beauti- 
 ful seat of Rosdhu, on the shore of Lochlomond, accom- 
 panied by the young Lord Graham, afterwards the heroic 
 Marquess of Montrose, then a boy of nine years of age. 
 
 The Earl outlived his countess upwards of eight years, 
 dying in the autumn of 1626, and leaving his son and 
 heir, a youth of about fourteen, together with three un- 
 married daughters. The young Earl pursued his educa- 
 tion at the University of St. Andrew's, and at the time 
 that he was seventeen years of age, he became the husband 
 of the Honourable Magdalen Carnegie, the youngest 
 daughter of David Lord Carnegie, afterwards created Earl 
 of Southesk. The Earl's two married daughters undertook 
 the charge of their unmarried sisters. Lady Napier adopted 
 her third sister. Lady Dorothea, also, in 1628, found a
 
 186 A TALE OF MAGIC ON T LOCKLOMOXD, A.D. !G"1. 
 
 suitable husband in Sir Andrew Rollo, while Lady Lilias 
 Colquhoun took her fourth sister, Catherine, and her fifth 
 sister, Beatrix, who were both at that time very young 
 girls, to live with her in her husband's castle on the banks 
 of Lochlomond. Little did she or the other members of 
 her noble family imagine that the unfortunate Lady 
 Catherine was almost from the moment of her entrance 
 into her family surrounded by snares, and that she was 
 speedily to be drawn to destruction by the villanous arts 
 of her husband, who did not scruple to have recourse to 
 the powers of darkness in order to accomplish his 
 abominable purposes. 
 
 For some time after the arrival of these young girls in 
 their sister's house, everything seems to have been out- 
 wardly peaceful and happy. From the family documents 
 I find the young Earl of Montrose, when about sixteen 
 years of age, in company with the baronet of Luss, his 
 lady, and her two unmarried sisters, and various other 
 friends, visiting and travelling together in a social and 
 merry mood ; and twelve months later, in the month of 
 November, 10:29, at the date of the young Earl's marriage, 
 it appears that he was on the most cordial and familial- 
 footing with his brother-in-law, who, as there is every 
 reason to suppose, had even then succeeded in inflicting a 
 deadly wound on the happiness and honour of his family. 
 
 My only knowledge of this infamous transaction, which 
 involves the crimes of sorcery and incest, is derived from 
 the judicial proceedings of the time: but these have 
 been put into the shape of a clear and most interest- 
 ing narrative by Mr. Js'apier, which I shall follow in iha
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 187 
 
 subsequent account. And I am anxious for two reasons 
 to acknowledge my obligations to him : First, because it 
 would be unfair, without such acknowledgment, to avail 
 myself of the materials which his industry has rescued 
 from oblivion, and his descriptive powers have made hi* 
 own ; and secondly, because in rendering still more public 
 n sad and strange tale, involving the honour of two dis- 
 tinguished and still flourishing families, though removed 
 from the present day by upwards of two centuries and a 
 half, it is well to show a warrant for its authenticity in the 
 published record of a distinguished historian. 
 
 We can trace the different members of the families of 
 Graham and Colquhoun associating together in harmony 
 and cordiality in the month of November, 1629. But 
 already the evil influences of magic and seduction were at 
 work to blight their honour and happiness; for the 
 scandal was publicly divulged in less than two years after 
 by the flight of the guilty parties, a step which must have 
 been resorted to when concealment was no longer prac- 
 ticable. And there is every reason to believe that the 
 virtue of Lady Catherine remained proof against all the 
 ordinary methods of seduction, and that it was not until 
 after these had been tried in vain, that she was at length 
 overpowered by the force of influences which were at that 
 time attributed to magic and sorcdry. 
 
 In the month of September, 1631, Sir John Colquhoun, 
 and his sister-in-law, Lady Catherine Graham, eloped from 
 his castle of Rusdhu on Lochlomond. This event was no 
 less sudden in execution than it had been secret in pre- 
 paration. No cue seems to have known, or even suspected
 
 188 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 
 
 what was about to happen, except Sir John's valet, a Ger- 
 man of the name of Thomas Carlippis, who was the partner 
 of their flight. Then the whole miserable story became 
 public, and the ruin of this unhappy lady, still in early 
 \outh, by the arts of her brother-in-law and guardian, was 
 proclaimed to the world. 
 
 The preliminary course of justice in Scotland in the 
 seventeenth century, at least where criminals of distin- 
 guished station were concerned, does not appear to have 
 been rapid. The elopement took place in September, 
 1631, and it was not until the same month in the follow- 
 ing year, that King Charles I. issued two mandates one 
 to the Earl of Menteith, Lord Justice General, and the 
 other to Sir Thomas Hope, Lord Advocate, charging them 
 to prosecute the criminal. We may imagine the horror 
 which the scandal, with all its strange accompaniments of 
 mystery, must have excited in the high society of Scotland 
 at the time, and the - indignation which must have been 
 felt by the chivalrous young nobleman whose honour had 
 been so grievously assailed. He was at that time in the 
 second year of his happy union with Magdalen Carnegie, 
 and he must have keenly felt the contrast between his own 
 virtuous love and the wretched degradation of his young 
 and beautiful sister. We know not when or how he brought 
 his griefs and wrongs to the foot of the throne; but we 
 may be well assured that they were listened to with indig- 
 nant sympathy by the monarch, who, whatever were his 
 political faults, and his errors as a ruler, was a pattern of 
 domestic purity. 
 
 As all that I know of the story is derived from public
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCIILOMOND, A.D. 1631. 189 
 
 legal documents, to them I must have recourse. The 
 mandate addressed by King Charles the First to the Lord 
 Justice General of Scotland is dated from " our court at 
 Wanstead, 13th September, 1632," and it states, " That the 
 foulness of the crime committed of late by the Laird 
 of Luss having justly moved us to have him tried 
 according to the laws of our kingdom, and punished if 
 found guilty, we have thought fit to recommend him unto 
 you, as our Justice General, to have him duly tried and 
 punished if found guilty," &c., &c., &c. The King's in- 
 structions of the same date to the Lord Advocate of Scot- 
 land, Sir Thomas Hope, are still more explicit as to the 
 exact nature of the accusation, which was incest, accom- 
 plished by means of sorcery. 
 
 Another mandate from the King, of the same date, was 
 addressed to the Lord Treasurer of Scotland, stating, 
 " That having given orders to the Lord Advocate to pro- 
 secute Sir John Colquhoun for the crime of incest, although 
 he can deserve no favour for himself, yet, having compas- 
 sion on his suffering wife and children, the royal pleasure 
 is, that if his escheat, life-rent, or lands, shall fall into our 
 hands, you shall have especial care that the maintenance 
 of his wife and children, and the standing of his house 
 may be provided for, he only suffering in his own person 
 all that by the course of our laws may be imposed upon 
 him." 
 
 The royal commands, when at length issued, were 
 promptly obeyed. The Lord Justice General was a rela- 
 tion and cadet of the house of Montrose, and I cannot 
 doubt that both he and the Lord Advocate must have been
 
 190 A TALE OT MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOXD, A.D. 1631. 
 
 in frequent and painful communication with the youthful 
 Earl on a matter which involved so nearly the honour of 
 his family. Criminal letters, dated 23rd October, 1632, 
 were raised by Sir Thomas Hope, the Lord Advocate, and 
 directed against Sir John Colquhoun, of Luss, and his 
 German servant, Thomas Carlippis ; but the Lady Catherine 
 was not included as a party in the crime. From her 
 youth, and the magical arts which were employed in order 
 to accomplish her destruction, she appears to have been 
 regarded rather as an involuntary victim than as a crimi- 
 nal. The libel, or act of prosecution, is exceedingly 
 curious ; and as it is the document from whence I derive 
 a knowledge of this strange story, I must give copious 
 extracts from it, notwithstanding its technical dryness. 
 It is laid upon two statutes, both inferring pain of death. 
 First, an act of Mary, 1563, against witchcraft, sorcery, 
 and necromancy. Second, an act of King James VI. against 
 cohabiting within the forbidden degrees as contained in the 
 eighteenth chapter of Leviticus ; and it proceeds thus : 
 " The said John Colquhoun, of Luss, albeit he was 
 lawfully conjoined in marriage with Lady Lilias Graham, 
 eldest daughter of John, Earl of Montrose, with whom he 
 has procreated in the said marriage a great number of 
 children ; as also that the said Lady Lilias, after the de- 
 cease of the said Earl of Montrose, her father, with con- 
 sent of the said John Colquhoun, her husband, received 
 within her house Lady Catherine Graham, her sister ; the 
 said John Colquhoun, void of the fear of Almighty God, 
 unmindful of his divine and sacred law, his own solemn 
 oath, and matrimonial promise, and of his bounden duty to
 
 A TALE O? MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1G31. 191 
 
 his honourable and chaste lady, and without respect to her 
 noble blood and descent, resolving in his diabolical and 
 damnable resolution [to seduce and dishonour] the said 
 Lady Catherine Graham, her sister ; he, in his crafty and 
 politic manner, first insinuated himself, by subtle and en- 
 ticing speeches, into the said Lady Catherine's favour * * 
 and not being able by his craft and subtlety to prevail and 
 ensnare her, he thereupon addressed himself to certain 
 witches and sorcerers, consulted and dealt with them for 
 charms and incantations, and namely with Thomas Car- 
 lippis, whom he kept as his servant, and procured from 
 him, being a necromancer, certain philtra, or poisons of 
 love, or poisonable and enchanted tokens of love, es- 
 pecially a jewel of gold, set with divers precious dia- 
 monds and rubies, which was poisoned and intoxicated 
 by the said necromancer ; and had the secret and devil- 
 ish force of alluring and forcing the receiver thereof to 
 expose her body, fame, and credit to the unlawful will 
 and pleasure of the giver thereof. Like as the said John 
 Colquhoun, for accomplishing his devilish resolution, in 
 the years 1629, 1630, 1631, or some time in one or other 
 of those years, gave and delivered to the Lady Catherine, his 
 sister-in-law, the aforesaid jewel of gold, set with diamonds 
 and rubies, devilishly enchanted and intoxicate. Afte. 
 receiving whereof, she was so bewitched and transported, 
 that she had no power to refuse John Colquhouu, of 
 Luss. When through and from that time forth of her 
 receipt of the enchanted and intoxicate jewel, [he exercised 
 unlimited control over the person of Lady Catherine Gra- 
 ham], Like as the said John Colquhoun, of Luss, not
 
 192 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 
 
 being content therewith, he, accompanied by the said 
 Thomas Carlippis, his servant and a necromancer, in secret 
 manner, carried and took away Lady Catherine Graham 
 from his own house of Rosdhu, in September, 1631, and 
 carried and transported her to the city of London, where 
 he has remained and kept company with her continually 
 since in the horrible crime of incest, contravening our act 
 of parliament made against the committers of the said 
 crime. But also he, with the said Thomas Carlippis, 
 necromancer, his devilish servant, by practising the said 
 sorcery and witchcraft, of bewitching and intoxicating the 
 said jewel, and by delivering the same to the Lady Catherine 
 Graham to the aforesaid pernicious effect, and consulting 
 with witches and sorcerers for that wicked intent, has 
 contravened the tenor of our act of parliament made to the 
 contrary, and has incurred and deserved the punishment 
 of death mentioned therein, which ought and should be 
 inflicted upon him with all rigour, to the terror arid example 
 of others." 
 
 Such is the legal document which came from the psn 
 of the celebrated statesman and jurist, Sir Thomas Hope, 
 Lord Advocate of Scotland, one of the most highly esteemed 
 ornament's of the Scottish bar in the seventeenth century. 
 There are certain words placed within brackets which are 
 substituted for expressions of Sir Thomas Hope, which are 
 too coarse to be submitted to a reader of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 But the magician and his vile abettor, along with his 
 miserable victim, had betaken themselves to where the 
 power of the Lord Justice General and Lord Advocate of
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 193 
 
 Scotland did not extend, and had fled far beyond the 
 bounds of their jurisdiction. These criminal letters were, 
 however, duly executed by a King's messenger in all form 
 and with great solemnity, according to the usage of the 
 law of Scotland. 
 
 The King's messenger made an open proclamation at the 
 market cross of Edinburgh, and pier and shore of Leith, 
 and said, "I duly, lawfully, and orderly denounce Sir 
 John Colquhoun, of Luss, and Thomas Carlippis, his 
 servant, his Majesty's rebels, and put them to his 
 Highness's horn, with three several blasts of a horn, as 
 use is ; and ordain all their moveable goods and gear to be 
 inbrought to his Majesty's use, for their contempt and 
 disobedience." Thereafter, on the llth of January, 1633, 
 the parties having failed to appear, sentence of fugitation 
 was pronounced against them. Besides outlawry, the 
 baronet of Luss suffered the highest penalty that could be 
 inflicted by the spiritual courts of Scotland for his crime, 
 and was excommunicated. 
 
 But in some safe retreat, whither he and his accomplice 
 had conveyed their victim, he equally despised the sen- 
 tence of church and state. And the merciful provision 
 which the bounty of Charles I. had directed to be made 
 from the rents of his estates, for the maintenance of his 
 deserted wife and children, saved the family, in the mean- 
 time, from sinking, in consequence of the atrocious villany 
 of its head. 
 
 I am reminded by the enchanted jewel of gold, set 
 with rubies and diamonds, of the ring with which Lady 
 Catherine's ancestor, Lord Ruthven, attempted to win the
 
 194 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 
 
 favour of Queen Mary, but which she rejected, from a 
 suspicion of its magical properties. Sir Thomas Hope 
 must have obtained most minute information as to all the 
 circumstances of the Colquhoun family, in order to be able 
 to bring his prosecution to issue on this statement of facts. 
 Carlippis was probably a well-known individual on the 
 banks of Lochlomond, and occupied an important place 
 in the household of Rosdhu ; and the ornament of gold, 
 set with diamonds and rubies, may have been frequently 
 seen in the unfortunate Lady Catherine's possession. It 
 is a curious circumstance that, within the last half century, 
 a jewel, a species of locket, made of filagree gold, of a sin- 
 gular and antique fashion, was found in Lochlomond, by 
 a member of the Luss family. Could this have been the 
 intoxicated jewel, divested of its precious stones, and 
 thrown into the lake before the flight took place, possibly 
 with a view to defeat the identification of those in whose 
 possession so remarkable a trinket might be found ? Such 
 a supposition is most probable, and the marvellous history 
 discovered by the researches of Mr. Napier in later years, 
 adds an interest to the above named treasure-trove, which 
 its finder at the time little suspected. 
 
 All that I know of the circumstances of the strange 
 tale is derived from the Lord Advocate's authentic legal 
 document, which informs me of the fact of the unfortunate 
 young lady having been secretly conveyed to London by 
 her brother-in-law and his accomplice, in September, 1631, 
 and being with him there when he was summoned, 
 exactly a year after (1632), to answer for his crime. 
 And 1 moreover learn that the acts by which he accoin-
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 195 
 
 plished her ruin commenced in the year 1629, at a time 
 when, from private documents, I find that the whole family 
 were engaged in social and affectionate intercourse, and 
 when the young Earl's nuptials were celebrated. 
 
 How Sir Thomas Hope, the Lord Advocate, could have 
 proved his charge, if the culprits had stood their trial, or 
 how he could have substantiated the accusation of magic, 
 cannot now be known. The libel which accuses Sir John 
 Colquhoun and his servant of magic, in order to enable 
 the former to accomplish his diabolical purpose, expressly 
 exculpates Lady Catherine from willing participation in the 
 crime ; for if she had been otherwise than a passive victim, 
 she, too, as guilty of incest, would have been liable to 
 capital punishment. But the magical arts* of the seducer 
 screened the seduced from actual blame. The Lord A Jvo- 
 cate expressly declares that the virtue which had previ- 
 ously resisted Sir John's unaided attempts to subdue it 
 by his subtle and enticing speeches, only succumbed to 
 the force of enchantments, in the shape of an intoxicated 
 or charmed jewel, set with diamonds and rubies. I 
 cannot but regret, as well for the sake of the due punish- 
 ment of crime, as for the purpose of eliciting evidence 
 regarding the practice of sorcery in Scotland during the 
 seventeenth century, that Sir John Colquhoun and his ac- 
 complice did not stand their trial. The fact that a man of 
 his wealth, rank, and influence should have preferred 
 exile, disgrace, and obscurity to a bold confronting of 
 the charge, induces me to believe that some startling 
 and damning facts would have been extracted from this 
 wild story of enchanted and intoxicated diamonds and 
 
 o 2
 
 196 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 
 
 rubies, prepared for the baronet by his confederate, Car- 
 lippis. 
 
 Mr. Napier very well remarks upon this extraordinary 
 story, " This domestic Mephistopheles, being a German, 
 may not unreasonably be suspected of having brought to 
 such nefarious application some of those mesmeric arts 
 and recondite properties of matter which are now attract- 
 ing the attention even of the scientific world. Now-a- 
 davs, in proving such a statement as \ve find in the Lord 
 Advocate's criminal charge against Colquhoun of Luss, 
 the mind naturally recurs to the recent discoveries of the 
 German chemist, Baron Reich enbach, relative to the 
 mysterious powers and properties of crystallization. In 
 advance of feqble and fettered research, and despite the 
 bitter jealousies of scientific mediocrity, the so-called mira- 
 cles of the material world, in their unfathomable connec- 
 tion with our spiritual nature, are now forcing themselves, 
 by unlooked-for and constantly recurring facts, upon the 
 conviction of every observing mind that is unbiassed by 
 personal interests, and not a slave to professional dogmas 
 and prejudices." 
 
 It is very remarkable, that no contemporary chronicle 
 has made mention of this extraordinary prosecution. In 
 an age when party spirit ran high, and when it was 
 accustomed to express itself in malicious gossip, as well as 
 with more effectual violence, neither friend nor foe of the 
 house of Montrose has even distantly alluded to this 
 strange and wild tale. 
 
 The tragical deaths of Colquhoun's two uncles the ona 
 by fratricide, and the other by the hatchet of the execu-
 
 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 197 
 
 tioner have been duly noted, but his own monstrous 
 wickedness has been passed over in silence, and I owe 
 my knowledge of it to the dry narrative of the public pro- 
 secutor, in a legal document. 
 
 We cannot suppose that Sir Thomas Hope, able states- 
 man and profound lawyer though he was, could have 
 thrown much valuable light upon the phenomena of 
 nature which may have lurked behind this wickedness, 
 but details might have been recorded, which would have 
 illustrated the development of these mediaeval mysteries of 
 enchantment and magic, towards which the clearer light 
 of science in our day seems to be advancing. There can 
 be little doubt that the enchanted, or, as Sir Thomas 
 Hope calls it, "intoxicated jewel," was a formidable 
 weapon in the hands of Sir John Colquhoun; but the 
 only probable result of the Lord Advocate's treatment of 
 the case would have been, to add another to the many 
 condemnations for witchcraft, by which the legal proceed- 
 ings of the seventeenth century in Scotland are distin- 
 guished. 
 
 The last notice that I have of this young and beauti- 
 ful lady, Catherine Graham, is that, in September, 1632, 
 she was living with Sir John Colquhoun in London, 
 whither he had conveyed her when he took her from Rosdhu 
 in the preceding year. I have no further clue to the 
 incidents of her sad story. Sir John Colquhoun himself, 
 after many years of exile, reappeared on the scene in his 
 native country, which he found under a very different 
 condition of things from those that existed when he aban- 
 doned it. But of his victim and his confederate there is
 
 193 A TALE OF MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 
 
 no further notice. It is not probable that Sir John, on 
 his tardy return to Scotland, was very communicative as 
 to the events of his exile ; and no traces of the subsequent 
 fate of Lady Catherine have been discovered in any of the 
 Marquess of Montrose's correspondence. It is sad to reflect 
 on the misery of her blighted youth, beauty, and high 
 birth. As Sir John Colquhoun was an unprincipled and 
 profligate scoundrel, it is most probable that he deserted 
 her as soon as he tired of her, or found that the scanty 
 pecuniary supply which reached him in his exile made it 
 inconvenient to maintain her. Unless she hid her shame 
 and sorrows in an early grave, it is too probable that 
 before his return to his own country, he had abandoned 
 her to his confederate, Carlippis, the necromancer. I 
 would gladly, however, adopt the idea with which Mr. 
 Napier concludes his remarks upon her story. "All 
 knowledge of her, the very memory of her, appears to 
 have been at once obliterated in her own country. But 
 as the young Earl, her brother, quitted Scotland immedi- 
 ately after the outlawry of his brother-in-law, we must 
 cling to the hope that he had made a point of discovering 
 his ruined sister, and had provided some safe, but secluded 
 retreat for her abroad." 
 
 Just sixteen years after his disgraceful flight (in 1647), 
 Sir John Colquhoun was induced to venture to revisit his 
 own country by the total change which had been effected 
 in its political relations. The Solemn League and Covenant 
 had become the law of the land. The Presbyterian Kirk- 
 had become the government, and Argyle had become the 
 dictator. Montrose was in exile, and under sentence of
 
 A TALE OP MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 199 
 
 death and forfeiture. Moreover, Sir John's former prose- 
 cutor, Sir Thomas Hope, had resigned the office of Lord 
 Advocate to the gloomy and fanatical demagogue, Sir 
 Archibald Johnstone of Warriston. This total upheaving 
 of all the former authorities, and the implacable enmity 
 which the ruling powers entertained towards the Marquess 
 of Montrose, doubtless seemed a promising conjuncture for 
 Sir John to reappear on his native soil. For, if Kirk and 
 Covenant, Argyle and Warriston, may be presumed, even 
 by those who love them the least, to have been opposed on 
 conscientious grounds to the crimes of sorcery and incest ; 
 yet sorcery and incest, if practised to the ruin and dis- 
 honour of any one bearing the hated name of Graham, 
 must have lost much of their blackness. The diabolical 
 seduction of a sister of Montrose would scarcely, under 
 the then existing circumstances of church and state, be 
 considered as a hanging matter. Indeed, Sir John judged 
 correctly, as he found his crime by no means difficult to 
 atone, for he had no sooner returned than he was freed 
 from his sentence of excommunication, and received into 
 the bosom of the Presbyterian Kirk. 
 
 In the records of the Presbytery of Dumbarton, on the 
 20th of April, 1647, a petition is presented on his behalf, 
 stating that, " having returned, like the Prodigal Son, he 
 had only just become aware of the sentence of excom- 
 munication pronounced against him when he was out of 
 the country ; and he now prayed that some of the breth- 
 ren might confer with him thereanent. The brethren did 
 confer with him according to his request, and on the llth 
 of May, 1647, they report to the Presbytery ' that the
 
 200 A TALE OF MAGIC OX LOCnLOMON'D, A.D. 1631. 
 
 Laird of Luss, with many tears, did regret and bemoan 
 his case, and wished nothing more than to be received 
 aeain into the bosom of his mother Kirk, where he was 
 bred, born, and baptized, and where the ordinances of God 
 were so pure. But he did somewhat decline a plain and 
 free confession of the sin of incest with his sister-in-law, 
 Lady Catharine Graham, until he had settled his estate in 
 the world.' " Here, as Mr. Napier aptly remarks, " no 
 expression of indignation or severity accompanies the 
 report. No austere, uncompromising sentence follows. 
 The clerical tribunal, which raked the gutters of their lan- 
 guage for opprobrious terms against Montrose, seems 
 willing to take at his word the man who had seduced by 
 the vilest of arts his own ward and sister-in-law," and, it 
 might be added, who had actually leagued himself with 
 the powers of darkness ; for a belief in witchcraft and 
 sorcery was as universal in the Scottish presbyteries in 
 1647, as in the Scottish law courts in 1632. 
 
 But any crime was regarded as pai'donable when com- 
 mitted against a political and religious adversary or his 
 house ; and no sins, however heinous, might not be atoned 
 for by an abject and hypocritical submission to the ruling 
 fanaticism of that day. 
 
 It is probable that the villanous career of Sir John 
 Colquhoun was cut short by death soon after his return to 
 Scotland and restoration to the good graces of the Presby- 
 terian Kirk. 
 
 I find that in 1648, as stated in the record of the 
 Presbytery of Dumbarton, the Laird of Luss was married 
 to Margaret Baillie, a daughter of Sir Gideon Baillie of
 
 A TALE OY MAGIC ON LOCHLOMOND, A.D. 1631. 201 
 
 Lochend. Sir John Colquhoun, the husband of Mar- 
 garet Baillie, was the son of the infamous subject of the 
 foregoing narrative ; and this lady, although not of the 
 blood of Montrose, was a grand-niece of his wife, her 
 mother having been the Hon. Magdalen Carnegie, daugh- 
 ter and coheir of David Lord Carnegie, the Countess of 
 Montrose's eldest brother. Consequently Sir John Col- 
 quhoun, the magician and outlaw, must either have died 
 within a year of his return to his native country, or he 
 must have resigned his estates to his son, who is in 1618 
 designated as ' ' Laird of Luss." 
 
 Strange and wild as is this story, an examination of the 
 domestic annals of Scotland would disclose not a few 
 equally extraordinary. The peculiar feature in the present 
 case is that it is in no particular derived from gossiping 
 chronicles or family tradition, but is entirely based upon 
 the most authentic of all evidence, the documents of con- 
 temporary j udicial proceedings.
 
 202 TRAGEDY OI? CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 0f 
 
 A.D. 1679. 
 
 IN no country and in no age were the manners of the 
 people of all classes more ferocious and licentious than in 
 Scotland, between the periods of the Reformation and the 
 Union ; and the annals of the most distinguished Scottish 
 families are frequently stained by hideous exhibitions of 
 the passions of cruelty and lust. The following story is 
 only one, among many instances, of the unscrupulous dis- 
 regard of moral duty, and of the vindictive fierceness in 
 avenging injuries which were characteristic of that most 
 lawless state of society. 
 
 George Forrester, of Corstorphine, was descended from 
 a very ancient and respectable family, and possessed a fair 
 estate within three miles of Edinburgh. In 1628 he was 
 created a Baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1633 he was 
 raised to the Peerage, by King Charles the First, as Lord 
 Forrester of Corstorphine. By his wife, Christian, daughter 
 of Sir William Livingstone, of Kilsyth, he had five daugh- 
 ters, but no son. The eldest daughter was married to the
 
 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 203 
 
 ninth Lord Ross; the second to Schaw of Sornbeg; the 
 third to Sir James Hamilton, of Grange-Breich, in the 
 shire of West Lothian ; the fourth to James Baillie ; and 
 the fifth to William Baillie, the younger brother of the 
 said James. Of the two elder daughters we need take no 
 account ; but the three younger and their descendants are 
 intimately connected with the following narrative. 
 
 Lord Forrester, having no male issue, followed the custom 
 so prevalent among the Scottish nobility, and which renders 
 the right of succession to the peerage of Scotland, in many 
 cases, so difficult to trace, of resigning his honour to the 
 crown, and obtaining^ new patent, with an entirely different 
 series of heirs ; at the same time preserving the original 
 precedence. In this way, titles which were originally 
 destined to heirs male, frequently become vested in heirs 
 general, and vice versa ; and in many cases, the most arbi- 
 trary and capricious selection is made of some favoured 
 member of a family, who becomes heir to titles which, 
 according to hereditary right, ought to have passed to a 
 different branch. Thus it was in the Forrester peerage. 
 The first lord preferred his two younger daughters and 
 their husbands, and obtained for them the favour of the 
 crown, to the exclusion of the three elder. These two 
 youngest daughters, Johanna and Lilias, had married two 
 brothers, James and William, the sons of Lieutenant- 
 General Baillie, son of Sir William Baillie, of Lamington, 
 but born in adultery, while his father's first wife, the 
 Dowager Countess of Angus, was alive ; so that he could 
 not be legitimated by his father's subsequent marriage with 
 his mother. However, notwithstanding this stain, Gc-
 
 204 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 neral Baillie was a man of considerable account in Scot- 
 land. He was a good officer, and had served with credit 
 under Gustavus Adolphus, and was afterwards called to 
 take a high command in the Covenanting army in his own 
 country. He was also proprietor of the estate of Torwood- 
 head. He and Lord Forrester agreed to make a settle- 
 ment of their respective estates of Corstorphine and" Tor- 
 woodhead on James Bailiie, and the issue male of his 
 marriage with the Honourable Joanna Forrester ; which 
 failing, on the younger son, William Baillie, and the issue 
 male of his marriage with the Honourable Lilias Forrester; 
 which failing, to their respective heirs-general. And Lord 
 Forrester at the same time resigned his peerage, in 1650, 
 into the King's hands, and obtained a new charter to him- 
 self for life; and then to his son-in-law, James Baillie, 
 with the succession, to be regulated according to his agree- 
 ment with General Baillie, concerning the heirship of the 
 estates. 
 
 I have been particular in noting this order of succes- 
 sion, as it is in virtue of being heir-general of William 
 Baillie and the Honourable Lilias Forrester (the heirs 
 male of both sisters having failed) that the Earl of Veru- 
 lam is now representative, in the female line, of the Baillie 
 Forresters, and holds the Scottish peerage of Forrester of 
 Corstorphine. In this arrangement a manifest injustice 
 was done to the three elder daughters, who cannot be 
 supposed to have seen with equanimity the honours of 
 their father's ancient family devolve on an alien, whose 
 connection with them and their house was speedily dis- 
 solved by the early death of Joanna Forrester : but who
 
 TRAGEDY O? CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 205 
 
 nevertheless continued to retain in his firm grasp the title 
 and estates of his father-in-law. This feeling of dissatis- 
 faction was more particularly nourished by the third daugh- 
 ter, Lady Hamilton, of Grange-Breich, whose husband's 
 property of Grange-Breich, situated near Borristonuess, 
 was not very distant from Corstorphine, and who was 
 consequently more frequently offended than the other and 
 more distant sisters by the sight of the intrusion of a 
 stranger into the home of her ancestors. Sir James 
 Hamilton, her husband, was moreover in circumstances 
 far from affluent ; and she deeply regretted that her own 
 sons and her handsome daughter were thus deprived of 
 what she regarded as their birthright. 
 
 George, first Lord Forrester, died in 1654, just four 
 years after he had made the family compact with General 
 Baillie ; and his son-in-law, James Baillie, succeeded him 
 as second Lord Forrester, and proprietor of the estate of 
 Corstorphine. He accordingly took up his abode at the 
 family seat of Corstorphine Castle. He was at this time 
 a young man of twenty-five. Lady Hamilton was about 
 the same age, and was already the mother of several sous 
 and an infant daughter. Joanna, his wife, was about a 
 couple of years younger, and Lilias, his brother's wife, 
 who had been married before she was sixteen, was barely 
 twenty. It was not long before death made a breach in 
 this family circle. The young Lady Forrester died, and 
 left no surviving issue. She had had a son born in 1652, 
 who died in infancy, and the youthful heiress spedily fol- 
 lowed her child and her father to the grave. The great 
 inconvenience of the family arrangement now became 
 apparent. A young man, six- and- twenty years of age,
 
 06 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 was intruded into a title, a large estate, and a family 
 mansion, with which the only tie that connected him 
 had ceased to exist, to the exclusion of all the natural heirs. 
 His second marriage soon widened the breach between him 
 and the Forrester family ; for very soon after his first 
 wife's death he wedded another, viz., Lady Jane Ruth- 
 ven, the second daughter of Patrick Ruthven, Earl of 
 Forth and Brentford, by whom he became father of a 
 numerous family, (his eldest son was born in 1661,) who 
 all took the name of their mother, and were called Ruth- 
 ven, she being eldest co-heir of the Earl of Forth, his 
 eldest daughter having no issue. These Ruthvens, how- 
 ever, had no claim to the Forrester peerage, which was 
 destined to the issue of Lilias Forrester by William 
 Baillie. Lord Forrester and his second wife, and his 
 family by her, lived in great affluence at the castle of 
 Corstorphine, and fully enjoyed the wealth and honours 
 which he had thus singularly acquired, and cumbered 
 themselves but little about the feelings or the necessities 
 of the race who had been thus supplanted. And as 
 Baillie's interest in these good things was only for his life, 
 he did not stint himself in their use, but made the most 
 of them. 
 
 The family of Lady Hamilton, in the mean time, were 
 growing up, and her daughter, Christian, was a girl of 
 rare beauty and high spirit. Her mind was ill-regulated, 
 and her passions were strong ; and she no sooner had at- 
 tained to a marriageable age, than she wilfully made a 
 love match with a young man of the name of Jarnes 
 Nimmo, the son of a merchant in Edinburgh, contrary to 
 the wishes of her mother and her family.
 
 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 207 
 
 After his marriage, Nimmo settled in mercantile busi- 
 ness in Edinburgh, and resided there with his handsome 
 young wife, whose eyes soon became open to the false 
 step she had made in marrying beneath her degree. 
 Although Lord and Lady Forrester had kept up small ac- 
 quaintance with the Hamiltous of Grange- Breich, the 
 report of Mrs. Nimmo' s beauty induced the former to wish 
 to cultivate her intercourse ; and he soon felt a powerful 
 attraction to the house of the fair Edinburgh bourgeoise, 
 which he was able to justify to the world on the score of 
 near relationship as niece to his first wife, and her imme- 
 diate descent from him whose honours and wealth he had 
 inherited. Such were the antecedent circumstances neces- 
 sary to be known, in order to explain the horrible tragedy 
 which made the castle and garden of Corstorphine the 
 scene of scandal and crime in the year 1679. 
 
 At that time Mrs. Nimmo must have been a woman of 
 about six-and-twenty years of age, and, as is universally 
 the case after such romantic mistakes, had long outlived 
 the illusions which led her to make an ill-assorted match 
 with one so much her inferior in station. She contrasted 
 her present condition with that to which her birth entitled 
 her, and in her fickle heart, and violent and excitable 
 mind, she cursed the bond which connected her with a 
 man whose social position she despised, -and whose occu- 
 pations she scorned. She looked with an envious grudge 
 at the noble inmates of Corstorphine Castle, to the pos- 
 session of which she regarded herself as much better en- 
 titled than they were. And it was with very mixed 
 feelings that she at first received the attentions of him
 
 208 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 who claimed her as his niece ; and, professing for her un- 
 bounded admiration, sought every opportunity of culti- 
 vating her intercourse. At first she regarded him, his wife 
 and children, with hatred, as those by whom she had been 
 supplanted. She contrasted t\\:ir high social position 
 with her own mean condition, and their luxurious living 
 with her own mediocrity. Lord Forrester soon became 
 thoroughly acquainted with her violent and ill-regulated 
 temper, which he soothed, and her vanity, which he flat- 
 tered ; he called the resources of wealth to his aid, and 
 took care to give his intended victim as many opportuni- 
 ties as possible of comparing his own high breeding and 
 courtly manners with the want of polish of her husband. 
 Although not far short of double her age, he was still a 
 handsome man, and by an artful union of bribes, blan- 
 dishments, and flattery, he gradually accomplished the 
 ruin of this unhappy young woman, and made her the 
 victim of his vile arts of seduction. 
 
 Although a licentious and unprincipled man, Lord For- 
 rester made some pretensions to religious zeal. He sided 
 with the Presbyterian party, and was active enough in 
 their cause to build a Meeting-House for their worship. He 
 possessed a tolerably fair character with the world, and 
 lived creditably in his castle of Corstorphine, where he 
 exercised much hospitality, surrounded by his numerous 
 family by his second wife, some of whom, at the period of 
 the catastrophe which I am about to mention, were ap- 
 proaching man's estate. His eldest son had just obtained 
 a commission in the army, and when he died, three years 
 after his father's murder, he left a widow. But while
 
 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 209 
 
 thus making this respectable outward show, he was car- 
 rying on his shameful intrigue with the unhappy young 
 voman whom he had seduced. It was not long, however, 
 before the common result of such criminal connections 
 took place in the intercourse of Lord Forrester and Mrs. 
 Nimmo satiety on his side, and wounded pride, jealousy, 
 and despair on hers ! She was a woman of violent cha- 
 racter, accustomed, as it was said, to carry a dagger under 
 her clothes. It was obvious that such a high-spirited and 
 vindictive woman was not to be offended with impunity. 
 Lord Forrester, however, having got tired of her, wished 
 to break off his connection with her, and was so cruel and 
 base as to speak of her openly in the most opprobrious 
 manner. He publicly alluded to her criminal connection 
 with him, using the most reproachful language concerning 
 her ; and he even spoke of her personal attractions in 
 contemptuous and disparaging terms. As he was much 
 given to conviviality, Mrs. Nimmo was the frequent theme 
 of discourse in his orgies with his boon companions, and 
 he neither spared her reputation nor her person. This 
 fact soon came to her knowledge, and inflamed her passion 
 to the uttermost. All her love was turned into hate. She 
 proceeded one afternoon to Corstorphine Castle, for the 
 purpose of reproaching him ; whether she had any bloody 
 intention, it is impossible to say. It is more probable that 
 she had no distinct plan, but wished to have a violent 
 scene with her inconstant seducer. Lord Forrester was at 
 the time drinking with a convivial party at the village 
 tavern. This was a common practice with men of the 
 first quality in Scotland at that time, and for a century 
 
 r
 
 210 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 after, as we learn from the very interesting autobiography 
 of the late Lord Cockburn. Mrs. Nimmo requested that 
 his lordship should be summoned from the tavern, in order 
 to speak to one who had particular business with him. 
 Lord Forrester left the tavern flushed with claret, and 
 met the infuriated woman in the garden of the castle. 
 The altercation between them soon became violent ; loud 
 and bitter reproaches were uttered on the one side, and 
 contemptuous sneers on the other. At length the un- 
 happy woman was provoked to frenzy, and stabbed her 
 paramour to the heart with his own sword. He fell under 
 a tree near the pigeon-house, and died immediately. There 
 was no actual witness to the deed, and the murderess im- 
 mediately hurried from the garden, entered the castle, and 
 took refuge in a distant turret, where she attempted to 
 hide herself. She was, however, speedily discovered it 
 is said in consequence of one of her slippeis falling through 
 a crevice of the floor of the old room in which she was 
 secreting herself. She was seized and taken before the 
 sheriff of Edinburgh, where she made a full confession of 
 her crime, although she urged every possible argument in 
 extenuation of it. These, however, were necessarily un- 
 availing in so clear a case of guilt, and in the course of 
 two days, she was tried, and sentence of death was passed 
 upon her. She, however, took advantage of the humanity 
 of the law, declaring that she was with child by her se- 
 ducer; and by means of this deception she succeeded in 
 postponing the execution of her sentence for between two 
 and three months. During this interval she contrived to 
 elude the vigilance of the keepers of the Edinburgh toi-
 
 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 211 
 
 booth, where she was confined, and she succeeded in 
 making her escape in the disguise of a young man. How- 
 ever, she was pursued and captured at the mill of Fala on 
 the day succeeding her flight, when she was brought back 
 to prison, and kept with more vigilant care until her day 
 of doom. 
 
 The 12th of November, 1679, was fixed for her execu- 
 tion, and on that day she was brought out to the Cross of 
 Edinburgh, where a scaffold was erected, the mode of death 
 to which she was sentenced being decapitation. Mrs. 
 Nimmo appeared in deep mourning, covered with a large 
 veil. She mounted the scaffold with a firm step, and put- 
 ting aside her veil, she showed an undaunted face to the 
 assembled crowd. With her own hands she bared her 
 neck and shoulders, and laid her head down upon the 
 block with unflinching courage. Thus ended the Corstor- 
 phine tragedy. 
 
 A curious circumstance is recorded to have taken 
 place concerning the succession to Lord Forrester's 
 property. His children had no just claim to the Cor- 
 storphine estates, which were destined to devolve, along 
 with the peerage, on his brother, William Baillie, husband 
 of the youngest daughter of the first lord, and on his 
 heirs. Corstorphine Castle, however, was in possession of 
 the Ruthvens, the family of the murdered lord. In that 
 day, nothing was more common than the crime of vio- 
 lently seizing and secreting or altering legal deeds con- 
 nected with territorial inheritance. Being well aware of 
 this, William Baillie dreaded lest the young Ruthvens 
 might use foul play with their father's charter chest, so as 
 
 p 2
 
 212 TRAGEDY OF CORSTORPHINE, A.D. 1679. 
 
 to favour their succession to the prejudice of himself and 
 his family. He therefore went with a band of friends to 
 the castle, of which he took forcible possession while the 
 body of the murdered lord still lay there before his burial. 
 The object of their violent intrusion was to take care that 
 no documents or charters should be made away with or 
 stolen. This conduct was afterwards the subject of a legal 
 trial, when the lords condemned the wife and son of Wil- 
 liam Baillie to be put in prison during their pleasure ; 
 but, at the same time, they took measures to secure the 
 charter chest. 
 
 William Baillie was de jure third Lord Forrester ; but 
 during the two years which intervened between his brother's 
 murder and his own death, he never assumed the title. It 
 was, however, taken up by his son William, fourth Lord, 
 in 1698, by whose descendants it has ever since continued 
 to be held. It now forms one of the titles of the Earl of 
 Verulam, whose grandfather, James, third Viscount 
 Grimstoue, married Harriet, daughter of Edward Walter 
 of Stalbridge, by the Hon. Harriet Forrester, daughter of 
 George, tilth Lord Forrester.
 
 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 213 
 
 k of Straits of 
 
 " Hie patet ingeniia campus : certusque merenti 
 Stat favor : ornatur propriis industria donis." 
 
 CLATTDIAN. 
 
 IT has long been the just boast of our country, that the 
 highest honours are open to the humblest of her sons. In 
 the roll of the British Peerage will be found seventy 
 names ennobled by the successful practice of the law. 
 Trade and commerce have been prolific sources of nobility. 
 The Dukes of Leeds trace back to a clothworker, the Earls 
 of Radnor to a Turkey merchant, the Earls of Craven to 
 a Merchant taylor, and the Earls of Coventry to a London 
 mercer. The families of Dartmouth, Ducie, Pomfret, Tan- 
 kerville, Dormer, Romney, Dudley, Fitzwilliam, Cowper, 
 Leigh, Darnley, Hill, and Normanby were all founded by 
 merchants or citizens of London. In our own times com- 
 merce has added Lords Ashburton, Carrington, and Over- 
 stone to the Upper House, and the Peerage is not less 
 noble, but more honoured and more useful, because it is 
 occasionally recruited from the ranks of honourable in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Mechanical invention, which is, perhaps, the basis of 
 our pre-eminence as a commercial nation, has less fre- 
 quently led to wealth and honours, either to inventors 
 themselves or to their descendants, than the successful
 
 214 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF HELPER. 
 
 pursuit of the commerce that has resulted from it. Indeed 
 
 " Tulit alter honores" 
 
 has been as applicable to the inventor's case as to that of 
 the Roman poet. 
 
 The combination of mechanical invention with com- 
 merce laid the foundation of the "rise" of the justly 
 honoured family now under notice. 
 
 In the retired village of South Normanton, near Al- 
 freton, MR. WILLIAM STKUTT was, at the commencement 
 of the eighteenth century, the occupant of two farms. 
 He was a member of a yeoman family who had for several 
 generations held lands at that place and in the neigh- 
 bouring parish of Blackwell ; one branch of the family 
 residing at the old mansion called Newton Hall, in the 
 latter parish, while another occupied an ancient manor- 
 house near the church, the site of which can still be traced.* 
 
 Mr. William Strutt had three sons Joseph, born in 
 1724; Jedediah, in 1729; and William, in 1730. The 
 early years of these youths were spent in assisting on the 
 farm, and in acquiring such an education as a superior 
 village school could offer. It is said that Mr. Strutt was 
 indifferent to his sons' education, and was more anxious 
 they should obtain a thorough knowledge of agriculture, 
 than spend much time in what is termed " schooling." If, 
 however, their education, in the common acceptation of the 
 term, was somewhat neglected, it is evident, from letters 
 still carefully preserved by the family, that Jedediah, at 
 
 * The author has to acknowledge his obligations to the Hev. 
 Howard Frizzell for valuable information on the early history of 
 the family.
 
 RISE OP THE STRUTTS OF HELPER. 215 
 
 least, had acquired, either by training or self-culture, powers 
 of composition not very usual in farmers' sons of that time. 
 
 That is not always education which passes under the 
 name. Important lessons for the real business of life are 
 often learnt under circumstances apparently little calculated 
 to impart them; and perhaps the usual occupations of 
 these youths formed no unfitting preparation for the career 
 which one of them was destined to pursue. 
 
 JEDEDIAH, at an early age, evinced a taste for mechanics. 
 Tradition says he constructed miniature watermills on the 
 little stream that ran through his father's farm, and 
 adopted many contrivances for improving the rude agri- 
 cultural implements of the period* indications of that 
 mechanical genius which was afterwards to render such 
 important services to his county and country. He had 
 scarcely reached manhood, when, on the death of an uncle, 
 he succeeded to one of the farms at Blackwell that had 
 long been in the tenure of the family. To this he re- 
 moved in 1754, and while devoting much attention to the 
 cultivation of the farm, still continued to employ his 
 leisure in his favourite pursuit. 
 
 About this time he formed an acquaintance with Miss 
 Woollatt, the sister of a respectable hosier at Derby, to 
 whom he was married at Blackwell, in 1755, when he was 
 in his twenty-sixth year. Miss Woollatt was a person of 
 well cultivated mind, and in age and station, and indeed 
 in every respect, well suited to him. The marriage was a 
 happy one for both parties, and led, no doubt, to the im- 
 portant invention with which Mr. Jedediah Strutt's name 
 has ever been so honourably associated. 
 
 * Amongst others, may be named the wheel-plough.
 
 216 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 
 
 Mr. Britton, in " The Beauties of England and Wales," 
 thus describes the origin of the invention, on the authority, 
 it is believed, of a member of the Strutt family : " Some 
 time after his marriage, being informed by his wife's bro- 
 ther, who was a hosier, and well acquainted with the 
 stocking frame, of some unsuccessful attempts that had been 
 made to manufacture ribbed stockings, his curiosity was 
 sufficiently excited to induce him to investigate the opera- 
 tions of this curious and complicated machine, with a view 
 to effect what others had attempted in vain. In this 
 design, after much time, labour, and expense, he at length 
 succeeded, and, in connexion with his brother-in-law, 
 obtained a patent for the invention, and removed to Derby,* 
 where he established an extensive manufacture of ribbed 
 stockings." 
 
 The ingenious new machine, remarkable for its simpli- 
 city and beauty, soon gave fresh impulse to the hosiery 
 trade, and under the name of the " Derby Rib," its pro- 
 duct soon came into general favour. 
 
 A residence at Derby was, however, absolutely neces- 
 sary to the successful working of the plans to which the 
 invention gave birth ; it had also the advantage cf plac- 
 ing him in the immediate neighbourhood of his wife's 
 family, and in more frequent intercourse with minds con- 
 genial with his own. Th manner in which Mr. Jedediah 
 
 * Some writers have stated Mr. Strutt's removal to have taken 
 place in 1756, but as letters of his are extant dated " Blackwell, 
 1758," it cannot have been so early. Possibly, however, he re- 
 tained Blackwell for some time after the completion of his in- 
 vention, and occasionally resided there, for he was strongly 
 attached to the place and to rural pursuits.
 
 RISE OP THE STHUTTS OP BELPEB. 217 
 
 Strutt secured the benefits to be derived from his inven- 
 tion, speaks as well for his prudence, as the invention 
 itself speaks for his genius. 
 
 The patent having been secured, he entered largely 
 upon the manufacture of the ribbed stockings, from 
 machines constructed on the new principle ; but he did 
 not, as has been erroneously asserted, erect any factory, 
 such work having, till very recently, always been carried 
 on in private dwellings. His brother-in-law, Mr. Wool- 
 latt, and Mr. Need of Nottingham, were now afterwards 
 associated with him in partnership, and the firm carried 
 on the hosiery trade with eminent success. 
 
 About this time Mr. (afterwards Sir Richard) Ark- 
 wright, being in want of capital to carry his invention 
 for cotton spinning into effect, applied to Mr. Need. The 
 latter consulted his partner, Mr. Strutt, as possessing the 
 requisite mechanical knowledge for testing the value of 
 the Arkwright inventions. Mr. Strutt soon satisfied him- 
 self of their extraordinary importance, and in 1771 he 
 and Mr. Need joined Mr. Arkwright as partners. In 
 that year the first cotton-spinning mill was erected at 
 Cromford, the funds for which, as well as for securing the 
 patent, having been found by Mr. Strutt, or through his 
 instrumentality, Mr. Need having very early withdrawn 
 from the partnership.* 
 
 About this time Mr. Strutt suggested to Mr. Need the 
 
 * The partnership between Mr. Strutt and Sir Richard Ark- 
 wright continued til) 1781. Upon its dissolution the former re- 
 tained the works at Belper and Milford, and the latter those at 
 Cromford.
 
 218 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 
 
 desirableness of trying the weaving of calicoes. The idea 
 was eagerly embraced, and the two friends, in 1773, 
 made the first successful attempt at weaving cotton ever 
 made in this country.* 
 
 Rightly, therefore, does Lysons, the historian, claim for 
 Derbyshire the honour of being the cradle of the most 
 important branches of the cotton manufacture ; a portion 
 of our national industry that now gives employment to five 
 or six millions of our industrial classes, and forms a large 
 part of our commercial greatness. The incalculable bene- 
 fits conferred on the country by cotton spinning and cot- 
 ton weaving may, then, without injustice, be mainly as- 
 cribed to Mr. Strutt's invention of the ribbed stocking 
 machine. 
 
 It may be stated, too, on the authority of an eminent 
 writer, manufacturer, and mechanician, Mr. Alderman Fel- 
 kin of Nottingham, that Mr. Strutt's "new principle 
 eventually formed the foundation of the lace frame."t 
 
 * Calicoes had been previously manufactured composed of 
 linen warp and cotton weft. Calicoes wholly of cotton were first 
 manufactured by Messrs. Strutt and Need. These were found 
 to be liable to double duty, that is, to a duty of sixpence a yard, 
 instead of threepence. After much opposition from other manu- 
 facturers, Messrs. Strutt and Need succeeded in obtaining an 
 act to repeal this discriminatory duty. 
 
 f By Mr. Jedediah Slrutt's patent of 1759, for apparatus for 
 making " Derby Eibbed Hose," a variation of the plain looped 
 work of the stocking frame was shewn to be possible, and might 
 be made extensively applicable. This was effected by machinery 
 which applied points to such of the hooks ("needles") as held 
 the loops it was desired to operate upon, and by removing them, 
 to cause an alteration in the face of the work, and if repeated, 
 would produce an interstice.
 
 RISE OF THE STRUTT8 OF HELPER. 219 
 
 It is gratifying to be able thus to trace the origin and 
 brief history of a simple but beautiful discovery, which 
 has been pregnant with such immense benefits to the in- 
 genious discoverer, his family and his country. 
 
 In 1775, Mr. Strutt's energetic mind was directed to a 
 wider field of enterprise. In conjunction with his brother 
 William, who had for some time been one of the partners 
 in the hosiery trade, he erected the first of the four splen- 
 did cotton mills at Belper. The site on the river Derwent 
 was judiciously chosen, and the structure and the machinery 
 of this vast fabric again called for the exercise of his in- 
 ventive powers. The genius which had, in his boyhood, 
 
 The principle of this invention, though very simple, required 
 skill in its application by M r. Strutt ; for it involved entire 
 control of any loop, and consequently over the use of every in- 
 dividual hook across the frame. 
 
 This principle lies at the basis of Morris s patents of 1763 
 and 1781, whereby eyelet-hole work was produced, and by various 
 modifications produced the " Knotted," " Frilled," " Stump," 
 " Mesh," and " Point Net" machines. In 1780, Frost, by means 
 of a perforated hollow square roller affecting the working of 
 any hook (needle) at pleasure, produced the first useful imitation 
 of fancy lace. The " warp" machine is constructed on the prin- 
 ciple of operating on every thread. Dawson patented this in 
 1791. No doubt the idea of selection and control in the Derby 
 rib, together with the success of Mi*. Strutt in its working out, 
 led to these extraordinary and skilful variations and additions to 
 the original stocking frame. The result was, the large " pin," 
 " point," and " warp" lace trades of Nottingham, Lyons, and 
 Vienna, indirectly leading to the still more extensive bobbin-net 
 manufacture of this country and the continent. See account of 
 the hosiery trade, 1844, as given in Muggeridge's report to par- 
 liament, 1845 and account of lace trade in Society of Arts' 
 Transactions, 1856 each by Mr. Felkin.
 
 220 RISK OF THE STRUTTS OP BELPER. 
 
 constructed miniature watermills in his native streamlet, 
 was now to be exerted in raising and supplying with me- 
 chanical power an edifice destined to be the parent of 
 others, and, eventually, to be the means of converting a 
 straggling hamlet into the second town of the county. 
 
 There will be an opportunity of again referring to the 
 philanthropy which for three generations has been exer- 
 cised at Belper by this excellent and united family. At 
 present it seems best to pursue the simple narrative of their 
 gradual " rise." In Mr. Jedediah Strutt's case, and in 
 that of many other remarkable men and public benefactors, 
 the record of their lives is to be found written in their 
 works, and not in their words. 
 
 Mr. Strutt appears to have been singularly devoid of 
 ambition for worldly distinction ; he was only 
 
 " Ambitious of the blessing 
 That follows duty done." 
 
 To promote the welfare of his family, to encourage the 
 trade of which he had been the founder, and to fill with 
 honour the station to which his talents, energy, and in- 
 tegrity had raised him, were the objects at which he aimed. 
 These he attained in an eminent degree, and the family 
 motto, " Propositi tenax," had rarely ever a more correct 
 application. 
 
 During the latter part of his life, he resided at Milford 
 House, near Belper, a handsome structure of his own 
 erection ; but shortly before his death he removed, in con- 
 sequence of his illness, to Exeter House, Derby, where his 
 useful life was terminated in 1797. He was in his sixty- 
 ninth year.
 
 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OP BELPER. 221 
 
 It maybe added here, in order to avoid interrupting the 
 continuity of the narrative, that Mr. Joseph Strutt, his 
 elder brother, died at Rickmansworth, in 1794; and Mr. 
 William Strutt, the youngest brother, died a bachelor at 
 Derby, in 1800, aged also seventy. 
 
 Mr. Jedediah Strutt left by his first marriage (he formed 
 a second with Mrs. Daniels) three sons William, George 
 Benson, and Joseph ; and two daughters Elizabeth, mar- 
 ried to William Evans, Esq., of Darley Abbey, near Derby ; 
 and Martha, to Samuel Fox, Esq., of Thurlston Grange. 
 
 MR. WILLIAM STRUTT inherited, in a great degree, his 
 father's mechanical genius. Amongst a great number of 
 his useful inventions adapted to manufactures and other 
 purposes, he invented a self-acting mule, the complete suc- 
 cess of which was only prevented by the mechanical skill 
 of the times being unequal to its manufacture.* 
 
 Devoted to scientific and literary pursuits, his society 
 was eagerly sought by many distinguished persons of his 
 time. He was the intimate friend of Dr. Darwin, the 
 author of Zoonomia and the Botanic Garden, who paid, in 
 the latter work, a striking compliment to the machinery 
 in whose production the Strutt family had so large a share. 
 
 Becoming possessed of St. Helen's a handsome man- 
 sion erected by the Gisbornes he enriched it with a noble 
 collection of paintings and works of art, and here he had 
 
 * A system for warming and thoroughly ventilating large 
 buildings and factories improved modes of cooking, washing, 
 and drying and the construction of the first fire-proof building 
 on a large scale, with several other inventions for manufacturing 
 or domestic purposes, were also due to Mr. William Strutt.
 
 2*22 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BF.LPER. 
 
 often the satisfaction of receiving as guests many dis- 
 tinguished foreigners, as well as Englishmen of mark. To 
 the improvement of the town of Derby he long devoted a 
 large portion of his time, and to his zeal and liberality 
 many of its best institutions and public works may be 
 ascribed. He planned, and was mainly instrumental in 
 erecting, the Derby Infirmary, and the great improvements 
 which his inventions introduced into it, rendered it the 
 model for many other Infirmaries. 
 
 Nor, while nobly sacrificing so much time and money 
 in the promotion of public objects, was Mr. Strutt regard- 
 less of his private duties. In these, as in every relation of 
 life, he was exemplary. 
 
 Mr. Strutt was a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of 
 Derby, and F.R.S. 
 
 He died Dec. 29, 1830, at the age of seventy-four, uni- 
 versally regretted for his public usefulness and private 
 virtues. By his marriage with Barbara, daughter of Tho- 
 mas Evans, Esq., of Darley, he left an only son, EDWARD, 
 of whom, as the present head of the family, further men- 
 tion will be hereafter made and three daughters. 
 
 Mr. George Benson Strutt, of Bridge Hill House, Belper, 
 the second son of Jedediah, was born in 1761. On him 
 chiefly devolved the management of the extensive manufac- 
 tories at Belper, in the superintendence of which he was 
 most assiduous and successful; and he acquired, in a re- 
 markable degree, the respect and confidence as well of the 
 work-people, as of his friends and neighbours in the 
 county. During the latter part of his life, he was an active 
 county magistrate. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant.
 
 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 223 
 
 By his marriage with Miss Radford, of an old county 
 family, he left three sons, the second of whom, Mr. Anthony 
 Radford Strutt, still survives ; also his grandson (the only 
 son of his eldest son), the present Mr. George Henry Strutt, 
 of Bridge Hill, Belper. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Strutt, (the third son of Jedediah), of St. 
 Peter's, Derby, was a deputy-lieutenant, a liberal patron 
 of literature and art, a most amiable man, and a valued 
 member of society. By his urbanity of manner, and 
 princely liberality, he won the esteem of his townsmen, 
 and after the passing of the Corporation Reform Bill, was 
 elected their first mayor. He took great interest in the 
 success of the Derby Mechanics' Institute, of which his 
 brother William was the chief founder, and was the lead- 
 ing promoter of the Exhibition of 1838, which greatly 
 conduced to its financial prosperity. In 1840 he presented 
 to the town the 1 beautiful Park or Arboretum, which hz 
 vested in the municipal council for the benefit of the in- 
 habitants and the public. This noble gift cost the donor 
 upwards of ten thousand pounds, and has not only been 
 the source of great enjoyment and advantage to his native 
 town, but the origin of all other similar benefactions from 
 private persons and municipal bodies. " It has often, 
 been made a reproach to our country," he gracefully ob- 
 served in his speech on the opening day, " that in England 
 collections of works of art and exhibitions for instruction 
 and amusement cannot, without danger of injury, be 
 thrown open to the public. If any ground for such a re- 
 proach remains, I am convinced that it can be removed 
 only by greater liberality in admitting the people to such
 
 224 RISE OP THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 
 
 establishments; by thus teaching them that they are 
 themselves the parties most deeply interested in their pre- 
 servation, and that it must be the interest of the public 
 to protect that which is intended for the public advantage. 
 If we wish to obtain the affections of others, we must 
 manifest kindness and regard towards them ; if we seek 
 to wean them from debasing pursuits and brutalizing plea- 
 sures, we can only hope to do so by opening to them new 
 sources of rational enjoyment. 
 
 " It is under this conviction that I dedicate these gar- 
 dens to the public ; and I will only add, that, as the sun 
 has shone brightly on me through life, it would be ungrate- 
 ful in me not to employ a portion of the fortune I possess 
 in promoting the welfare of those amongst whom I live, 
 and by whose industry I have been aided in its acquisi- 
 tion." 
 
 Such sentiments, coming from such a man, might well 
 touch the hearts of the audience, and at night a delighted 
 multitude sung " The Fine Old English Gentleman" before 
 the house of the speaker and generous donor.* 
 
 Mr. Joseph Strutt married Isabella, daughter of Archi- 
 bald Douglas, Esquire, and by her had issue an only son, 
 who died at Constantinople, while travelling on the conti- 
 nent, and two daughters Isabella, married to John 
 Howard Galton, Esquire ; and Caroline, to E. N. Hurt, 
 Esquire, of the ancient family of Hurt of Alderwasley 
 and Wirksworth. 
 
 All the three brothers had been associated with their 
 father in his vast manufacturing and commercial concerns, 
 
 * Leisure Hour, p. 701.
 
 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 225 
 
 which they afterwards conducted with progressive enter- 
 prise, intelligence, and success. All were distinguished 
 for literary taste and liberality of feeling, and it was their 
 high privilege to use the power, will, and opportunity to 
 do good in a manner rarely ever surpassed by one family. 
 Derby, the centre of their commercial operations, and 
 Belper that of their factories, exhibit in every direction 
 monuments of their munificence. Their kind solicitude 
 for the moral and mental advancement of their numerous 
 workpeople at the latter place was a distinguishing trait 
 in their character. The comfort and well-being of the 
 large population which their mills had congregated around 
 them, seem, indeed, always to have been uppermost in their 
 thoughts. Churches, chapels, institutes, rose through the 
 liberality of this united family, whenever such structures 
 became a requirement ; and there is not, perhaps, in 
 England, any example of a town created by the invention 
 and energy of one man, and augmented by the same pro- 
 perties in his sons, which exhibits a more satisfactory social 
 condition than Belper. Perhaps, however, this remark 
 might require some qualification with respect to the nailers 
 and stocking- makers, who are not connected with the fac- 
 tories of the Messrs. Strutt. 
 
 It is gratifying to be able to state that this responsibility 
 for the well-being of the operatives in these large concerns 
 is fully recognized and acted upon by the present repre- 
 sentatives of these eminent men. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the literary tastes 
 aud associations of the Strutts. The three brothers enjoyed 
 the friendship of many of the leading men of their times. 
 
 Q
 
 226 RISE OP THE STRUTTS OP BELPER. 
 
 When Moore the poet was residing near Ashbourne, from 
 1813 to 1818, he was a frequent and favoured guest at 
 St. Peter's and St. Helen's. Mention is made of these 
 visits in Lord John Russell's life of the poet. In a letter to 
 a friend, in 1813, Moore writes thus: " Bessy and I have 
 been on a visit to Derby, for a week, at Mr. Joseph Strutt's, 
 who sent his carriage and four for us, and back again with 
 us. There are r three brothers of them, and they are sup- 
 posed to have a million of money pretty equally divided 
 between them. They have fine families of daughters, and 
 are fond of literature, music, and all those elegancies which 
 their riches enable them so amply to indulge themselves 
 with. Bessy came back full of presents, rings, fans, &c., &c. 
 My singing produced some little sensation at Derby." 
 
 In the following year Moore writes : " You have heard 
 we have been to Derby, and a very pleasant visit we had of 
 it. I like the Strutts exceedingly ; and it is not the least 
 part of my gratification to find a very pretty girl of six- 
 teen reading the sixth book of Virgil, and not at all spoiled 
 by it. This is Joseph Strutt's eldest girl a classic, and a 
 poetess into the bargain. Indeed they have quite a nest 
 of young poets in that family ; they meet once a week, and 
 each brings a poem upon some subject ; and I never was 
 much more surprised in my life, than in looking over their 
 collection. I do not think I wrote half so well when I 
 was their age. Then they have fine pianofortes, magnifi- 
 cent organs, splendid houses, most excellent white soup, 
 and are, to crown all, right true Jacobins, after my own 
 heart ; so that I passed my time very agreeably amongst 
 them, and Bessy came away loaded with presents."
 
 RISE OP THE STRUTTS OF BELFER. 227 
 
 To these brief notices of the leading members of the 
 family it seems desirable to add a more extended one of 
 the present representative and chief. 
 
 EDWARD, only son of William Strutt, F.R.S., was born 
 at Derby, in 1801. After receiving a careful private edu- 
 cation, he entered the University of Cambridge, and gra- 
 duated in 1823. On leaving college he soon began to 
 take an active part in the municipal and political concerns 
 of his native town.* The respect which his father had so 
 justly earned was maintained by the honesty and integrity 
 of the sou, who was invited by his fellow townsmen, in 
 1830, to represent the borough in the Liberal interest. 
 Returned to Parliament, he made no startling, sudden, or 
 brilliant display, but gradually earned the character of a 
 clever business man, of strong sense and sterling worth. 
 He continued to sit for Derby till 1848, when he was un- 
 seated on petition. In 1851 he was returned for Arundel, 
 in the place of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, who had 
 accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 
 At the general election of 1852 he was returned, in con- 
 junction with Mr. John Walter, for Nottingham, for which 
 place he continued to sit while he remained in the Lower 
 House. 
 
 When Mr. Strutt first entered Parliament, the House 
 was occupied for nearly two years with the Reform. Bill, to 
 
 * At a public meeting convened at Derby, in 1826, in condem- 
 nation of the Corn Laws, Mr. Strutt delivered a speech which 
 showed a remarkable acquaintance with the subject in so younjj 
 a man, and elicited the warm approbation of the meeting and 
 the public press.
 
 228 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER, 
 
 which he gave his strenuous and consistent support in all 
 its stages. On the 10th of May, 1832, when the Reform 
 Ministry had resigned (iu consequence of an adverse vote 
 of the House of Lords), and the Reform Bill was in jeo- 
 pardy, Mr. Strutt seconded Lord Ebrington's motion for 
 that address to the Crown which had the effect of re-in- 
 stating the ministry, and securing the passage of the Re- 
 form Bill through the House of Lords. After the passing 
 of that Bill, he supported, in succeeding parliaments, all 
 those important measures for which it had paved the way 
 Municipal Reform, the Abolition of Slavery, the Corn 
 Laws, the removal of the grievances of Dissenters and of 
 the restrictions on Trade. He served on many of the most 
 important committees, and took an active part in the 
 management of the private legislation of the House. 
 
 His great usefulness in his parliamentary capacity re- 
 commended him to the leaders of the great Whig party, 
 and in 1846, when it was deemed advisable to constitute a 
 separate Board for the management of railways, Mr. Strutt 
 was selected as the President of the commission, and sworn 
 on the Privy Council. He retained that office till 1848, 
 when he lost his seat for Derby. 
 
 On the downfall of Lord Derby's ministry in 1852, 
 Lord Aberdeen recommended Mr. Strutt to Her Majesty 
 for the honourable office of Chancellor of the Duchy of 
 Lancaster, which he held till June, 1854, when, in order 
 to facilitate a new disposition of places among the Cabinet, 
 he resigned it, and was succeeded by Lord Granville, and 
 was appointed a permanent member of the Council of the 
 Duchy.
 
 EISE OP THE STRUTTS OP BELPER. 229 
 
 In 1856 Her Majesty intimated to Mr. Strutt, through 
 Lord Palmerston, her intention of conferring upon him 
 the honours of the peerage. 
 
 In making the offer, Lord Palmerston stated that " the 
 Queen was desirous of marking the interest which she 
 took in the great manufacturing industry of the country, 
 and that she had observed that this important element of 
 national wealth had not, as yet, been suitably represented 
 in the Upper House." The important benefits which had 
 accrued to the commerce of the country from his ancestor's 
 creation, and from his family's successful promotion of 
 the cotton trade, well merited such a distinction, and Mr. 
 Strutt's personal services in parliament had been consider- 
 able, so that few modern peerages had been better earned, 
 and none, perhaps, was more generally acceptable to the 
 country. 
 
 It was a just and graceful compliment to the town 
 which had risen from his family's exertions, and had long 
 been the scene of their commercial enterprise and pros- 
 perity, that Belper was selected as Mr. Strutt's title. 
 
 LORD BELPER took his seat in the House of Peers Fe- 
 bruary 3rd, 1857, having been introduced by Lord Glenelg 
 and Lord Overstone. 
 
 His Lordship married, in 1837, Emily, youngest daugh- 
 ter of the Right Reverend Dr. Otter, Bishop of Chiches- 
 tcr, by whom he has three surviving sons, the eldest of 
 whom, the Honourable Henry Strutt, attained his majority 
 in 1861. 
 
 The present family seat is Kingston Hall, Nottingham- 
 shire. This fine estate, which was purchased of the Duke
 
 230 RISE OF THE STRUTTS OF BELPER. 
 
 of Leeds in 1796, was formerly part of the possessions of 
 the Babingtons : and here the present noble owner erected 
 the mansion which forms so striking an object from the 
 Midland Railway, near Kegworth. Its style is Elizabe- 
 than. The site, which is not that of the ancient mansion, 
 was judiciously chosen, and extensive improvements and 
 planting have rendered Kingston Hall one of the most 
 complete country seats in the locality. That attention to 
 the welfare of those around him, which, as has been said, 
 is a family characteristic, led the proprietor to rebuild the 
 cottages on the estate, and to restore the church, and King- 
 ston has heen deservedly styled, " a model village." It 
 should be added that from his first location in Notting- 
 hamshire, Lord Belper at once identified himself with the 
 public business and interests of that county, of which he 
 was appointed High Sheriff in 1850. His Lordship is 
 likewise a Justice of the Peace, and Chairman of the 
 Quarter Sessions, and has been for many years a Deputy 
 Lieutenant for the counties of Derby and Nottingham. 
 In 1860, during the Duke of Newcastle's absence, when 
 his Grace accompanied the Prince of Wales on his visit to 
 America, Lord Belper acted as Vice-Lieutenant of Not- 
 tinghamshire. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and 
 LL.D. of the University of Cambridge.
 
 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 231 
 
 " Eancliffe ! Shalt thou unnamed, unnoticed be P" 
 
 THE introduction of railways has withdrawn many of our 
 finest country seats and places of celebrity from the public 
 view. Bunny is one of these. When fifteen coaches a day 
 passed along a road that now has not one, no stranger ever 
 gained the summit of Bunny Hill without feeling that the 
 prospect repaid the toil of climbing. Some thought the 
 road must have been constructed over such an eminence 
 for the sole purpose of affording passengers the treat of the 
 magnificent prospect. Grongar Hill has not half so many 
 charms to exhibit. On ascending the hill either way, the 
 male passengers were always expected to dismount, and 
 tales are told of several having been so lost in admiration 
 as to have allowed the coach to pass on without them. 
 
 On ascending the south side there was the quaint-look- 
 ing old mansion of Highfields, so often mistaken for a 
 monastic ruin ; and when the crown of the hill was reached, 
 there was that expanse 
 
 " Of grove, and lawn, and mead," 
 
 with Nottingham in the distance, which is, perhaps, un- 
 rivalled as a champaign view. 
 
 Bunny is the beau ideal of an English village. A vcne-
 
 232 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 
 
 rable church, an ancient Hall, a free school, an alrnshouse, 
 an old hostelrie, and substantial farmhouses and snug 
 cottages, make pleasant pictures whichever way one looks. 
 The Hall, since I saw it, has been modernized, but one 
 portion of the old mansion, the hawking and hunting 
 tower, has fortunately been preserved. Since the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth the Hall had, till recently, been the seat 
 of the Parkyns family, and I shall in the course of this 
 narrative show how it became alienated. 
 
 Colonel ISHAM PARKYNS was a faithful adherent of 
 Charles I. He gallantly defended the garrison of Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch against the Parliamentarians, and spent a 
 good estate in his royal master's service. In consideration 
 of the father's devotedness and losses, his son Thomas was 
 created a Baronet in the thirty-second of Charles II. Sir 
 Thomas married Jane, sole daughter and heiress of Thomas 
 Cressy, Esq., of Byrkin, and had, among other children, 
 Thomas, his successor, and Katharine, married to Carew 
 Weests, grandson of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 The second baronet was a remarkable person: He was 
 educated at Westminster, under that famed Orbilius, Dr. 
 Busby. He was afterwarda of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 and studied for eight years at the Inns of Court. Suc- 
 ceeding to the Baronetage, he gave up the law, and retired 
 to his ancestral seat, which he greatly improved and 
 adorned. He re-edified the Hall, and inclosed a park three 
 miles in circumference with a wall built on arches, the 
 first ever built on that principle in this country. He re- 
 stored the beautiful church, rebuilt all the farm houses, 
 founded the free-school, clothed the hills with woods,
 
 THE FARKYNS FAMILY. 233 
 
 formed an aqueduct and a decoy, and built the hunting 
 and hawking tower of which we have spoken. Architecture, 
 mathematics, hydraulics, and classical literature were his 
 relaxations. His business was the introduction of what 
 he termed " the noble science of wrestling." For this 
 purpose he founded an annual wrestling match, " open to 
 all England," which has only been discontinued during 
 the present century. In recommendation of this " science" 
 he wrote a work entitled " The Cornish Hug," a copy of 
 which he sent, with a very clever MS. dedication, to King 
 George I., and received his Majesty's most gracious thanks 
 and acknowledgments for it. This royal letter was among 
 the family papers at Bunny, and was preserved, wrapped 
 up in crimson silk, in a box apparently specially made 
 for it, and lettered, in silver studs, " originell letter from 
 King George to Sir Thomas Parkyns." It is certain, how- 
 ever, that '* GEORGE R." was the only portion of the 
 letter written with the royal hand. Every famous athlete 
 in the kingdom was made welcome at Bunny Hall, but a 
 preliminary condition to the entree was that he should " try 
 a fall" with the baronet himself, who was invariably the 
 victor in the trial. Sir Thomas was anxious that every 
 village in the kingdom should, like Bunny, have its wrest- 
 ling ring, believing that the manly character of the people 
 would be greatly promoted by it. He further perpetuated 
 his attachment to the science which he considered made 
 Homer and Virgil's heroes, by having his statue* in 
 
 * Round the shoulder of the figure ia a label with the words 
 " Artificis status ipse fuit," the true meaning of which has been 
 disputed.
 
 234 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 
 
 marble executed in his life-time by his own chaplain, as 
 the appropriate embellishment of his tomb ! 
 
 This statue, which represents him in a wrestler's cap 
 and dress, in the attitude of a wrestler, and with Death for 
 his opponent, still forms the chief portion of his monument 
 in Bunny church. The following lines from his own pen 
 are appended : 
 
 " Quern modo stravisti longo certanaine, Tempus, 
 Hie recubat* Britonum clarus in orbe pugil : 
 Nimc primiim stratus ; prater te vicerat omnes; 
 De te etiam Victor, quarxdo resurgat, erit." 
 
 In the stage-coach times it was not seldom that travellers, 
 aware of the existence of this singular monument, would 
 take advantage of the change of horses at Bunny, and run 
 into the neighbouring church to obtain a view of it. Lord 
 Byron, who rarely betrayed any interest in church sculp- 
 ture, once rode from Newstead on purpose to see it. 
 
 Sir Thomas Luctator, as he usually designated himself, 
 married, firstly, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of John Samp- 
 son, Esquire, of Breaston, in the county of Derby, whose 
 surname was said to have had a great charm for him. By 
 her he had two sons and two daughters, Sampson, Thomas, 
 Anne, and Harriett. Both these sons pre- deceased their 
 father. Sampson married, and left issue. Thomas died 
 at nineteen, a most promising young man. 
 
 Sir Thomas married, secondly, in 1727, Jane, daughter 
 of Alderman Barnat, of York, by whom he had two sons, 
 
 * The " recubat" is at variance with the statue, which is erect 
 and " full of lusty life;" while Mors or Tempus is prostrate.
 
 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 235 
 
 Thomas, his successor, and George, an officer in the 
 army. 
 
 The great patron of wrestling, the accomplished scholar, 
 the upright magistrate, died in 1741, at the age of seventy- 
 eight, and was succeeded by his son, 
 
 SIR THOMAS, the third baronet, whose three marriages 
 present features of great irregularity. 
 
 He married, firstly, in 1747, his great niece, viz., Jane, 
 daughter of Thomas Parkyns, Esquire, son of his brother 
 Sampson ; secondly, in 1765, Sarah, daughter of Daniel 
 Smith, a cottager of Bunny; and thirdly, in 1795, Miss 
 Jane Boultbee, the governess of the children of the second 
 marriage.* 
 
 THOMAS BOOTHBY PARKYNS, the eldest son of the first 
 marriage, born in 1755, was made an Irish peer in 1795, 
 by the title of Baron Rancliffe. He married the daughter 
 and sole heir of Sir William James, of Eltham Park, 
 who took the castle of Sevendroog, in the East Indies, and 
 erected a model of it on Shooter's Hill. By this marriage 
 he had George- Augustus- Henry- Anne, the second Lord 
 Rancliffe, and three daughters, the eldest of whom married 
 Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., and left with other issue the 
 present Sir RICHARD LEVINGE, Bart., M.P., senior re- 
 presentative of the Lords Rancliffe ; the second daughter 
 married Sir Win. Rumbold, Bart. ; and the third (when 
 widow of the Marquis de Choiseul) married Prince Polig- 
 nac. The second Lord Rancliffe married Lady Betty Forbes, 
 
 * By his second marriage Sir Thomas had two sons, who died 
 p.p., and three daughters, all of whom married and had issue. 
 The present Countess Mctaxa is the issue of one of these mar- 
 riages, and the Euv. T. Parkyns Dodson of another.
 
 236 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 
 
 daughter of the sixth Earl of Granard, the niece of his guar- 
 dian, the first Marquis of Hastings. This alliance did not 
 prove a happy one ; and, a separation having taken place, 
 Lord Rancliffe formed a liaison which continued uninter- 
 rupted for nearly thirty years. The godson of George the 
 Fourth, and the ward of Lord Hastings, Lord Rancliffe had 
 been very early introduced to fashionable life. Soon after at- 
 taining his majority he was returned M.P. for Minehead, 
 and he subsequently represented Nottingham in several par- 
 liaments. A thorough-going liberal when liberals were but 
 few, he was the idol of his Nottingham constituents. 
 
 Few men would address a crowd more pleasantly or 
 more ably. He was a brilliant small-talker, rich beyond 
 most men in anecdote, which he always told with exquisite 
 grace. In the hunting field it was a general practice to 
 form a group round Lord Rancliffe at the cover side, to 
 listen to his sparkling persiflage. Fox-hunting was his 
 glory and delight, and the author of the Meltonians paid 
 him the following tribute in a poem which records the 
 celebrities of the metropolis of fox hunting. 
 
 " RANCLIFFE, slialt thou unnamed, unnoticed be P 
 I name not Hunting if I name not thee, 
 Pride of the country ! thine the liberal board, 
 And liberal hand with bounties ever stored. 
 "What hungry hunter ever passed thy ball, 
 And found no warder answer to his call P 
 Thy chat's as sparkling as tby cheer is good ; 
 Foxes ne'er fail us in Old Bunny Wood, 
 And dull is sport, however good the day, 
 Or gqod the pace, if RANCLIFFE is away." 
 
 In early life Lord Rancliffe had been intimate with Lord
 
 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 237 
 
 Byron, and when the latter noble lord's remains were 
 brought to England he assembled his tenantry on horse- 
 back, and followed the funeral procession to Hucknall 
 church. Moore was often his guest at the hall, and the 
 evenings then were always Anacreontic. 
 
 His lordship died in 1850, and the beautiful domain, in- 
 cluding Bunny, Bradmore, and the Manors of Keyworth, 
 Wysall, Costock, and Leake, passed, in fee simple, 
 under his Will to Mrs. Harriet Burtt, who, after Lord 
 Rancliffe's death, became the wife of G. A. Forteath, 
 Esquire. Ten years after she had been in possession, 
 and when she had considerably improved the estate, an at- 
 tempt was made by Sir Arthur Rumbold, the late lord's 
 nephew, to invalidate the will. The case came on for trial 
 at the Nottingham assizes in March 1861, but the plain- 
 tiff signally failed, the judge declaring that he had never 
 in his experience seen a contested will more clearly and 
 more satisfactorily established. The evidence of Mr. 
 Horace Rumbold, and other witnesses for the plaintiff, 
 told quite as strongly in Mrs. Forteath's favour as that of 
 her own witnesses. It is generally believed that this suit 
 will alter some generous intentions which the present 
 owner of the property is known to have entertained with 
 regard to its future disposal. 
 
 The Irish peerage became extinct on the death of Lord 
 Rancliffe, but the baronetcy, inherited by his father and 
 himself, descended to the eldest son of the late lord's 
 uncle, who was many years his lordship's junior. It will 
 be recollected that the third baronet married late in life a 
 third wife, Miss Boultbee. By her he had a son, Thomas 
 Boultbee, who married Miss Smith of Edwalton, and dying,
 
 238 
 
 THE PARKYNS FAMILY. 
 
 left issue two sons. Sir Thomas George Augustus Parkyns, 
 the present baronet, and Mansfield, the celebrated author 
 and traveller. Mr. Mansfield Parkyns is married to a 
 daughter of Lord Westbury, the Lord Chancellor. 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to present a clear and con- 
 cise view of the remarkable history of a remarkable family, 
 which contains in it so many singularities and intricacies 
 of descent that it is often very imperfectly understood even 
 in the locality to which that family long gave celebrity. 
 A pedigree which I append may, perhaps, clear up some 
 obscurities that occur in my narrative. 
 
 SIR GEORGE PARKYNS, Knt.~Mary Isham, of Walmer Castle. 
 
 Colonel Isham Parkyns.=Katherine Care, of Barrow, co. 
 I Leicester. 
 
 Sir Thomas Parkyns, 1st Baronet.^Ann, dau. of Thos. Cressy, Esq. 
 of Byrkyn, co. York. 
 
 Eliz. sole dau. of John~Sir Thomas " Luctator,"=pJane, dau. of Alder- 
 Sampson, Esq. I 2nd Baronet. | man Barnat. 
 
 1. Samp-=~A dai 
 
 Middle- mas, 
 
 more, Esq. ob. s.p 
 of Lusby. 
 
 2.Tho- Anne.his^Sir Thos.=p Sarah- 
 
 Thomas.=r= Thos Booth -^Elizabeth 
 
 , ' by, 1st Lord 
 
 Anne, . Rancliffe. 
 
 10 the 3rd 
 
 Baronet. 
 
 G. A. H. A- Parkyns, = Lady Eliz. Daughters, married 
 2nd Lord Rancliife, Forbes, respectively to Sir 
 dau. of Rd.Levinge.SirWm. 
 Earl Gia- Rumbold, Prince 
 nard. Polignac, and all 
 
 left issue. 
 
 d. 1850,i.j 
 
 SIR THOMAS G. A. PARKINS, 4th Baronet, Mansfield, m. Hon. 
 married and has issue. Louisa Bethel!, 3rd 
 
 Lord Westbury, an d !i 
 
 Char- 
 lotte 
 Mary, 
 dau. 
 of G. 
 Smith, 
 Esq. 
 
 Emma 
 dau. of
 
 FATE OF THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 239 
 
 0f i\t 
 
 Ssevius ventis agitatur in gens 
 
 Pinus : et celsse graviore casu 
 Decidunt turres ; feriutque summos 
 
 Fulgura naontes. HOEACE. 
 
 THE rapid downfal and total extinction of this illustrious 
 family may be added to the long list of startling instances 
 of the temporal punishment with which the sin of sacri- 
 lege has been visited. 
 
 One of the most eminent of the Scottish nobles of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was George Keith, 
 fifth Earl Marischal. He was sprung from two illustrious 
 lines of ancestors, his father bei ng William, Lord Keith, 
 son and heir to the fourth Earl Marischal ; and his 
 mother, Lady Elizabeth Hay, being daughter to the sixth 
 Earl of Erroll. He was three times descended from James 
 I., King of Scotland, and Queen Jane Beaufort. He was 
 born in 1553, and succeeded his grandfather in his Earl- 
 dom and immense estates in 1581. He was a man of 
 great natural talents, expanded by travelling and by study. 
 In 1589, he was sent Ambassador to Denmark, to espouse 
 the Princess Anne, in the name of his master and kins- 
 man, King James VI. ; and he transacted that important 
 business in a manner honourable to himself, and satisfac- 
 tory to the Scottish and Danish crowns. In 1593, he
 
 240 FATE OF THK EARLS MAKISCHAL. 
 
 founded the College at Aberdeen, styled from him " The 
 Marischal College," a noble specimen of his munificence 
 and love of learning. He was appointed Lord High 
 Commissioner to the Scottish parliament in 1609, and he 
 died, in his seventieth year, at his Castle of Dunottar, full 
 of honours, in the year 1623. 
 
 From this rapid sketch of his history, it is evident that 
 the Earl Marischal had engrafted upon his royal blood, 
 his far-descended ancestry, and his illustrious rank, the 
 highest personal elevation as a courtier, diplomatist, 
 statesman, aud patron of letters ; and yet, to this great 
 man may be traced the beginning of the downfall of his 
 house. The revenue of the Earldom of Marischal, at the 
 end of the sixteenth century, was enormous, amounting to 
 two hundred and seventy thousand marks yearly. The 
 Earl is said to have been able to enter Scotland at Ber- 
 wick, and to travel through the whole length of the 
 kingdom to John o' Groat's house, without ever eating a 
 meal, or taking a night's rest, off his own lands. He 
 made a noble and generous use of his wealth, as his 
 foundation and endowment of Marischal College, in Aber- 
 deen sufficiently testify. Yet a blessing did not rest 
 upon his riches and honours. Before many generations 
 the former were scattered to the winds, and the latter 
 were attainted, while the male line of his descendants 
 became extinct in exile. 
 
 The singular fate of his family has justified the opinion 
 that was entertained by some of his cotemporaries, that he 
 had done evil in defiling his hands with the plunder of 
 an ancient Cistercian monastery.
 
 FATE OP THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 241 
 
 The Abbey of Deir was a religious house, belonging to 
 the Cistercian order, situated on the small river Ugie, 
 in Aberdeenshire. Its wealth was great; for in 1565, its 
 rental amounted to 572 8s. 6d., a very large sum three 
 hundred years ago. The temporalities of this religious 
 house, which, like other similar baits to cupidity, sharp- 
 ened the zeal of the Scottish nobles in the cause of reform- 
 ation, fell to the share of a son of the fourth Earl Maris- 
 chal, Robert Keith. The estates of .the Abbey of Deir 
 were erected into a temporal Lordship in his favour, with 
 the title of Lord Altrie, in 1587, with remainder, after 
 his death, to his nephew, George, fifth Earl Marischal. 
 Lord Altrie died in 1593, when the temporalities of the 
 Cistercian Abbey came into the possession of the head of 
 his house. 
 
 It was not, however, without a solemn warning, that 
 the Earl yielded to the temptation of a large addition to 
 his annual revenue. Like Pontius Pilate, he had a faith- 
 ful monitor by his side, who was warned in a dream of 
 the ruin which impended over him ; but he disregarded 
 the admonition, and sealed the fate of his house. The 
 Earl's first wife, Margaret, daughter of Alexander, fifth 
 Lord Home, was a woman of a noble spirit and a tender 
 conscience, and used all her influence to prevent her lord 
 from introducing such a consuming moth into his house, 
 as was the sacrilegious meddling with the wealth of the 
 Abbey of Deir. She had a remarkable dream, which she 
 did not fail to communicate to her husband, and which 
 the fate of the subsequent generations of their race has 
 proved to be prophetic. She lay asleep one night in the
 
 242 FATE OP THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 
 
 Castle of Dunottar, the chief seat of the family a man- 
 sion perched on a tremendous rock, overhanging the 
 German ocean, and which, as well from the extent of its 
 ruins, as its picturesque position, is one of the most re- 
 markable objects in the north of Scotland. In her sleep 
 she saw a long procession of ecclesiastics, clad in the 
 habit of the Cistercian order, issuing from the Abbey of 
 Deir, and advancing to the strong and steep rock on which 
 Dunottar Castle is situated. She saw them set themselves 
 round the foot of the rock, and taking penknives out of 
 their pockets, begin to pick and cut the hard rock, as if 
 with the intention of demolishing it. The Countess, in her 
 sleep, wondered at the folly of these poor monks, who were 
 attempting so great a work with such inadequate instru- 
 ments, and she went to call her husband, in order to join with 
 her in deriding them, and in calling on them to cease their 
 fruitless labour. When, full of mirth, she brought him 
 along with her to see the poor monks at their foolish 
 work, behold, the entire rock, with the strong and stately 
 castle,, had already been undermined by the work of their 
 penknives, and had toppled over into the ocean ; so that 
 there remained nothing but the wreck of their rich furni- 
 ture and tapestries floating on the waves of a raging and 
 tempestuous sea. Dunottar had sunk, and the very place 
 on which it stood had perished for ever. 
 
 The Earl mocked the popular superstitions, and his 
 wile's foreboding vision. He inscribed on a tower which 
 lie built at the Abbey of Deir, this defiant motto 
 " They have said ; what say they, let them say." 
 
 He seems to have regarded his munificent foundation of
 
 PATE OF THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 243 
 
 Marischal College, in Aberdeen, with its principal and four 
 professors of philosophy, whom he richly endowed, as a sort 
 of salve to his conscience for the church lands which he 
 had acquired. He founded this college immediately after 
 he had become possessed of the Lordship of Altrie, with 
 the Cistercian temporalities, and he repeated the same 
 legend that he had inscribed on the abbey tower, on the 
 walls of his new college. The riches and grandeur of the 
 house of Keith-Marischal probably appeared to the Earl to be 
 as firmly established as the Castle of Dunottar on its lofty 
 rock beetling above the North Sea. What would he have 
 thought, if he could have foreseen that in little more than 
 ninety years from the time of his death, his descendants 
 would be deprived of their lands and titles, and were 
 to be wandering exiles in a foreign country ; and that in 
 somewhat more than half a century later, the last male 
 descendant of the Earls Marischal was to close his long, 
 lingering existence in the service of a German prince, 
 leaving behind him no direct heir male of his illustrious 
 family to claim even the empty honour of representing the 
 house of Marischal : while the ancient and strong for- 
 tress of Dunottar should stand roofless and grass-grown, 
 and, except as a melancholy landmark to the ships sailing 
 beneath its walls, might as well be crumbled beneath the 
 waves that beat against the cliffs on which it is reared. 
 
 The two next generations of the family of Keith matched 
 with the houses of Marr and Kinnoul. William, ninth 
 Earl Marischal, the great-grandson of the fifth Earl, mar- 
 ried the eldest daughter of James, Earl of Perth, Lord 
 High Chancellor, created Duke by the exiled monarch at
 
 244 FATE OF THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 
 
 St. Germains, by whom he had, with a daughter who car- 
 ried on the blood of the family, two sons, the last of their 
 line George, tenth Earl Marischal, and James Keith. 
 These two brothers achieved an European reputation 
 through their own merits, and were even more conspicuous 
 in exile than they might have become in possession of their 
 hereditary lands and honours. A rash participation in the 
 Stuart rising in 1715, deprived them of their family in- 
 heritance, and sent them into a life-Ion^ exile. They, 
 however, prospered in a foreign land, and rose to high 
 consideration in the Prussian service, where the Earl Maris- 
 chal became one of the most intimate friends and trusted 
 diplomatists of Frederick the Great ; and James Keith was 
 his most distinguished Field Marshal. The former died 
 at Potsdam, aged eighty-six, in 1778, and the latter was 
 killed twenty years earlier, at the battle of Hochkirchen. 
 
 Neither of these distinguished brothers having been 
 married, the great house of Keith Marischal ended in 
 them ; for although several Scottish families of Keith are 
 derived from cadet branches of this great house, their de- 
 scent is remote, and the representation of the Earls Maris- 
 chal devolved on Lady Clementina Fleming as their heir 
 general. She was daughter of John, sixth Earl of Wigton, 
 by Lady Mary Keith, elder sister of the last Earl, and of 
 Field Marshal Keith. This lady possessed the purest 
 blood of the highest aristocracy, unmixed with even a drop 
 of minor nobility ; her eight great-great-grandfathers being 
 Earls orMarquesses,andhereight great-great-grandmothers 
 being the daughters of Earls or Marquesses. She was heir 
 of line, or heir general, of the Earls of Wigton, Marischal,
 
 FATE OF THE EARLS MARISCHAL. 245 
 
 and Perth ; and she earned this high descent, by marriage, 
 into the family of Elphinstone, in 1735. She died in 
 1799, leaving issue 
 
 I. John, eleventh Lord Elphinstone, grandfather of John, 
 thirteenth, and John, fourteenth Lords Elphinstone, and of 
 Clementina Viscountess Hawarden, now heir of line of 
 Elphinstone, Wigton, Marischal, and Perth. 
 
 II. William, grandfather of William, present and fif- 
 teenth Lord Elphinstone. 
 
 III. George, a distinguished Admiral, created Viscount 
 Keith, father of Margaret, Baroness Keith and Nairne, 
 wife of Count de Flahault, and of Georgiana, wife of the 
 Honourable Augustus Villiers. 
 
 I. Eleanor, wife of the Right Honourable William 
 Adam, Baron of Exchequer, and Lord Chief Commissioner 
 of the Jury Court of Scotland, and Lord Lieutenant of the 
 county of Kinross, mother of Admiral Sir Charles Adam, 
 K.C.B. ; the Right Honourable General Sir Frederick Adam, 
 G.C.B., Governor of Madras, and Lord High Commissioner 
 of the Ionian Isles ; and of Clementina, wife of John 
 Anstruther Thomson, of Charleton. 
 
 II. Clementina, wife of James Drummond, Lord Perth, 
 mother of Clementina, heiress of the Perth estates, wife of 
 Lord Willoughby de Eresby.
 
 246 SZLF-KELIANCE. 
 
 " L'histoire qne je vais vous center est simple, tellement simple, 
 que jamais plume peutetre n'aborda un sujet plus restreint. La 
 verite desfaits est toute sa valeur." DUMAS. 
 
 MR. MANSERGH, of Macroney Castle, a country gentleman 
 of the South of Ireland, has communicated to me a very 
 interesting instance of the fall of a distinguished family 
 which came within his own immediate knowledge; and he 
 has accorded me the permission to publish his letter, which 
 tells the simple story so clearly and so feelingly, that I am 
 sure my readers will value it the more, as coming directly 
 from the person to whom all the circumstances are fami- 
 liar. 
 
 Macroney Castle, Kilworth, 
 
 June 12, 1861. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 About twenty years ago, I was intimate with a gentle- 
 man of whose name I must, for obvious reasons, be excused 
 from giving more than the initial. 
 
 Mr. C was a man of high position in his county ; 
 
 he waa a magistrate aud deputy lieutenant, and represented
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 247 
 
 bis barony on the grand jury at the assizes. His property 
 was variously estimated at from 2500 to 3000 per 
 annum. He was better educated than the generality of 
 country gentlemen, and had been at Oxford. He was 
 not, however, a person of any great intellectual powers, 
 either natural or acquired, nor at all studious ; his reading, 
 when I knew him, never went beyond the daily news- 
 papers, and not much of them. 
 
 But he was the vainest and most ostentatious man I 
 ever met. Fond as he was of every species of luxury, there 
 were no bounds to his extravagance. He kept a numerous 
 retinue of useless servants in every department : not only 
 servants, but servants' servants. His equipages, horses, 
 carriages, &c. were splendid ; and although I do not believe 
 he ever rode a fox-hunt in his life, his hunting stud might 
 well vie with any at Melton Mowbray. His stables were 
 filled with first-rate horses. Many a mount he gave me 
 at a time I could not afford to keep a horse for my own 
 amusement. 
 
 His wife, Mrs. C , was an exceedingly amiable and 
 
 lady like person. She brought him a fortune of some 
 10,000, and was connected with the peerage. This 
 lady died shortly after I became acquainted with the family, 
 
 which then consisted of Mr. and Mrs. C , two sons 
 
 and two daughters. The boys had been at Eton, where 
 they were in due time removed to Oxford, but did not 
 either of them graduate. They both entered the army 
 one the Seventh, the other the Tenth Hussars, in which 
 regiments they were considered the fastest of the fast. 
 They rose by purchase to the rank of captain; but
 
 248 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 iit'ter an extravagant course of some years, were obliged to 
 sell out to raise money to pay debts, mostly gambling. 
 
 The daughters had been during their mother's life edu- 
 cated at home, partly by Mrs. C herself, who was fully 
 
 competent to instruct them, and did it well. They had 
 also the advantage of being taught the continental lan- 
 guages by an accomplished French lady, their resident 
 governess; and in Dublin every winter they had the best 
 masters in music, drawing, dancing, &c., &c. In short, there 
 was no expense spared upon them. The young ladies were 
 then sent to an expensive boarding school in England, not 
 so much to finish their education, as to enable them to 
 form intimacies with people of distinction and fashion; 
 
 an object Mr. C was always hunting after, as well for 
 
 his sons as for his daughters. 
 
 The Misses C , without being what are called regu- 
 lar beauties, were well-looking, and of very agreable man- 
 ners. They might have been married, and comfortably 
 settled, but for their father's arrogant repulsiveness. 
 He had no money to portion them off, and there was 
 nothing he so much dreaded as that the actual state 
 of his affairs should be known. He was aware that he 
 v-as insolvent, and yet by a thousand and one contrivances 
 he managed to keep up appearances so well that he was 
 considered a man of wealth. Cunning enough to see the 
 necessity of constantly having a balance at his bankers, he 
 invariably paid even the smallest account by a cheque, and 
 never boi rowed near home ; at the same time he was reck- 
 less of what amount of commission he paid for the use of 
 money. Things went 011 wonderfully well until the patiic
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 249 
 
 in Ireland consequent upon the failure of the potato crops. 
 The money-lenders had their eyes opened. The cry was 
 " Sauve qui peut." A petition was filed in the Encum- 
 bered Estates Court, and the entire of Mr. C 's 
 
 landed property was sold, not a single acre left. The 
 proceeds did not produce more than what was sufficient to 
 satisfy ahout two thirds of his debts. The personal pro- 
 perty had previously melted away, that is, it was sold pri- 
 vately from time to time piece-meal, as wants became 
 pressing, until at last, by way of coup de grace, an execu- 
 tion was put into the hands of the sheriff, who cleared off 
 almost every remnant left. 
 
 Mr. C did not long survive his degradation ; he 
 
 literally died of a broken heart in a small country town 
 in which he had taken a furnished lodging, when turned out 
 of his former palatial residence. For some months before 
 his death, the poor man had become almost idiotic, in a 
 constant state of lethargy, out of which it required the 
 strongest stimulants to rouse him. 
 
 The two young ladies never deserted him ; they were 
 with him most assiduously up to the last moment of his 
 existence : nothing could exceed their affectionate attention. 
 
 Immediately after the funeral, collecting whatever little 
 effects had escaped the sheriff's bailiffs, the two sisters 
 went off by night, nobody knew where ; nor, indeed, was 
 there much inquiry made. They had lived after their 
 father's fall in perfect seclusion, neither visiting nor being 
 visited. They had but few friends and acquaintances. 
 Thus in a very short time they were as completely forgotten 
 as if they had never existed.
 
 250 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 The brothers, as I have already stated, had in their 
 father's time sold out of the army. The elder went to 
 Australia, and became an officer in the mounted police. 
 He quitted that service, and turned miner at the dig- 
 gings, with what success I never learnt. The second was 
 for several years after he had sold his commission a man 
 about town, well known at the billiard tables, gambling 
 houses, and horse auctions of London, living without any 
 visible means of support ; but at length becoming too blaze 
 in the Metropolis, he went to the Cuntinent, and, when last 
 heard of, was croupier at a rouge-et-noir table. 
 
 Now for my story : I was in London in August, 1856, 
 on private business of importance ; and while I was stop- 
 ping there I called on an old and esteemed friend, an 
 extensive merchant, having his place of business in Milk 
 Street, Cheapside, but his residence with his family 
 in the country an arrangement much the custom with 
 city men. My friend invited me to pass a day with 
 him at his country house, which was near a railway station. 
 I went accordingly, and had to walk along a bye road 
 or lane for half a mile from the station to reach the house. 
 As I was proceeding, and had got about half-way to my 
 friend's place, a heavy shower of rain suddenly came 
 on. Seeing a neat-looking cottage by the road side, 
 having a porch or pent-house over the door, I ran forward 
 to it for shelter. I stood within it a short time, when 
 the door of the cottage was opened from the inside by a 
 respectable matronly woman, who kindly asked me to enter, 
 and wait until the storm should be over. I thanked 
 her, walked in, and took a seat. I was not long there
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 251 
 
 when a younger woman came in from a back room. I did 
 not notice her much upon her entrance, nor until, upon 
 her asking the old woman some question, I recognized 
 the voice as one I was familiar with. It was decidedly 
 Irish, but without the least brogue. The tones were 
 those of the upper class of my countrywomen. I turned 
 about, and, to my utter astonishment, beheld Miss C . 
 
 There she stood, and I had no doubt of her identity. 
 She was clad in a short dress of blue cotton, reaching 
 down to her knees, over a black petticoat. The sleeves 
 were very short. The costume was that of a servant girl 
 of all-work. 
 
 She appeared to be equally astonished at seeing me. 
 She was almost paralyzed, unable to speak or move, and I 
 must confess I never felt myself in so great a perplexity as 
 to what I ought under the circumstances to do. I feared 
 my recognition of her might be displeasing, and yet if I 
 should pretend not to know her, I might have offended 
 her still more. I had fortunately the presence of mind to 
 remain quiet. 
 
 After staring at each other in mutual silence for some 
 
 minutes, Miss C burst into tears, and sobbed out, 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Mansergh, am I so altered that you of all men 
 don't know me ?" 
 
 I instantly started up, and, clasping both her hands, 
 wet and reeking with soap-suds just out of the wash-tub, 
 
 "Indeed, Miss C " I exclaimed, "I do know you, 
 
 and happy I am to see you once more. Now that I have 
 so accidentally found you, come tell me how you are. 
 How and where is your sister Harriet ?"
 
 252 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 " We are both of us, thank God, in good health, and 
 both reside in this house with this kind-hearted woman, 
 who is to us a second mother. Since you knew us first, 
 we have had many a bitter trial, and passed through 
 strange vicissitudes. We have been compelled to descend 
 from the rank of gentlewomen to a very humble posi- 
 tion indeed. But, God be praised ! we are now able to 
 earn a livelihood by honest industry. I trust the worst 
 is passed, but to suppose that we can ever regain our 
 lost rank in society ' would be to hope against hope.' 
 Our lot is cast, so we must needs be contented with 
 it. Sad as has been our reverse of fortune, it is hap- 
 piness compared with the mental torture we suffered 
 while anticipating what we well knew was inevitable. 
 Although my poor father contrived for a long time to 
 conceal generally the actual state of his affairs, we, for 
 several years before the crash came, were perfectly well 
 aware that he was irretrievably ruined, and only wondered 
 how he managed so long to keep up appearances. 
 
 " Often when at Park you used to ask us to 
 
 play and sing for you. We remembered the daughters 
 of Israel by the waters of Damascus, and compared our 
 state with theirs. 
 
 " My spirits were so broken and my feelings so blunted 
 that, iu truth, when the lands were all sold, and we were 
 turned out of the house we were born and reared in, I 
 scarcely suffered at all from the change. I really be- 
 lieve there is a point even in the most intense anguish 
 at which the sufferer becomes insensible. I found it so. 
 
 " You are naturally curious to learn what we arc at
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 253 
 
 present. I shall not attempt to deceive you. We are 
 partners with Mrs. Buckworth here (to whom I must in- 
 troduce you) in a public laundry. We are nothing more 
 or less than laundresses." 
 
 " Rather a laborious occupation," I ventured to remark, 
 " for two young ladies so delicately brought up as you 
 and your sister were." 
 
 " Yes," said she, " so it is, but not so much so as you 
 may think ; and, although laborious, it is not unhealthy. 
 I believe that women in our occupation live longer, and 
 are less liable to disease than any other class of working 
 females. Besides, consider that we are mistresses, and, 
 therefore, not compelled to labour more than we are fully 
 equal to. We employ journeywomen under us to do the 
 heavier part of the work. We keep as many as eight of 
 them constantly in our employment. Harriet and I are 
 but seldom idle. Mrs. Buckworth does all the outdoor 
 part of the business, such as collecting the clothes from, 
 and distributing them again among the customers, going 
 to market, cooking, &c., &c., which fully occupies her 
 time, and leaves us more leisure to attend to the concern 
 at home." 
 
 While we were thus conversing, Mrs. Buckworth stood 
 up, and said she would let Harriet know I was there- 
 She did so, and Harriet entered the room. She tilled up 
 at first, and could not restrain a few tears, but becoming 
 calm by degrees, we shook hands, and she appeared 
 delighted to see me. The rain had by this time ceased, 
 and, recollecting that my friend the merchant might be 
 waiting dinner, I rose to take my leave, first asking waa
 
 254 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 there anything in which they thought I could be useful to 
 them ; for, if it were practicable, I would strive and serve 
 them. 
 
 They both thanked me, and said they had nothing to 
 ask for, except that I would pledge my word not to be- 
 tray their incognito. That they had changed their names, 
 and assumed that of the good woman with whom they 
 lived, and whose daughters they were supposed to be 
 so that in future I must call them Maria and Harriet 
 Buckworth. That if I could find time to visit them the 
 following Sunday they would consider it a great favour 
 a great condescension. 
 
 " Oh ! fiddlestick with your condescension. To be 
 sure I will come, and glad to be asked," said I. 
 
 "Come, then, at six on Sunday evening, and drink tea 
 with us," they both cried. " We have a thousand ques- 
 tions to ask, and much to learn respecting people in Ire- 
 land, particularly about an old lady residing in Dublin, a 
 cousin of my father's, not that we ever knew much of her, 
 as she and my father many years ago unfortunately quar- 
 relled about money matters. She filed a bill in chancery 
 against my father, which he contested to the last, and all 
 we know of the result is that he was compelled to pay a 
 very large sum of money, and that neither of the litigants 
 ever forgave each other. The lady is wealthy, without 
 children, and now far advanced in age. Although we 
 have no right to expect anything from her, yet, perhaps, 
 when you return to Dublin, it would do no harm to let 
 her know that such persons were still in existence." 
 
 I promised to be with the sisters punctually at the
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 255 
 
 time appointed and answer all their questions, and give all 
 the information in my power; but, in return, I would 
 expect a full, true, and particular account of every thing 
 that occurred to them since Mr. C 's death. 
 
 I then took leave, and hastened to my friend's. 
 
 On the following Sunday evening, I left London by 
 the five o'clock train, so that I might arrive at the cottage 
 before the time appointed, as I knew my doing so would 
 show the girls how anxious I was to keep up my ac- 
 quaintance with them. It had the intended effect. 
 They took it as a compliment, and told me so, saying 
 it was a consolation to think one, whose good opinion 
 they wished to deserve, did not after all look down upon 
 them in their adversity. Every thing was ready when I 
 arrived at the cottage, although it was half-an-hour before 
 my appointment. The young ladies, Maria and Harriet, 
 were dressed very neatly, in well-made and most becoming 
 printed muslin gowns, plain, and without the slightest 
 attempt at ornament, more than what the most artistic 
 clear-starching and ironing could effect (the making up, 
 I believe it is called) that was perfection. I laughingly 
 observed, I supposed they intended their present costume 
 as a kind of walking advertisement of what the * * * * 
 laundry could turn out. 
 
 "I confess," says Harriet, "I did take more than 
 ordinary trouble yesterday with these dresses, to convince 
 you that, although I was not originally bred to the 
 business, I am not so bad a hand at it as you seemed to 
 suspect last Thursday. Nobody knows what they can do 
 until they are compelled to it."
 
 256 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 Maria here interposed; "Perhaps you would like, while 
 the kettle is boiling, to see our establishment, work-rooms, 
 garden, drying ground, and the whole concern." " By all 
 means, if you will be so kind as to show it to me/' said I. 
 Accordingly they took me through the establishment. 
 I was greatly pleased with the cleanliness and regularity 
 of all I saw ; there was a place for everything, and every- 
 thing iu its place. I should mention that Mrs. Buck- 
 worth had gone out to a neighbour, I suspect purposely, 
 that we might converse together more freely, although in 
 truth that precaution was unnecessary, for the girls had no 
 secrets from her she knew their history as well as they did 
 themselves ; but before she went she did not forget to leave 
 us a plentiful supply of hot slim cakes to eat with our tea. 
 
 Immediately tea was over, I requested Maria to give 
 me a full recital of everything which occurred to them 
 after their father's death. tf Well/' says she, " as we 
 look upon you as one of our only friends, we shall confide 
 all our secrets to your keeping, being fully confident you 
 will not betray them. 
 
 " After the funeral, we collected togeher whatever re- 
 mained that we could honestly call our own, and sold them 
 privately for, I believe, fully as much as they were worth, 
 by the assistance of the people of the house we had lodged 
 in. Our debts were mere trifles, for this good reason, 
 
 that after my father's fall, nobody in the town of 
 
 would give us credit ; what little we bought, was for ready 
 money. 
 
 " We hired a covered jaunting car and quitted at 
 
 four in the morning, so as to reach Monasterevan in time
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 257 
 
 for the seven o'clock Canal Boat to Dublin, taking with us 
 some diamonds, which had been my mother's before her 
 marriage, and our usual wearing apparel. We stopped 
 in Dublin only one night and part of the next day, 
 when we engaged berths in one of the British and Irish 
 Steam Ship Company's vessels for London, as being the 
 cheapest mode of travelling to that great metropolis, where 
 we had determined to go and seek our fortune. 
 
 " The weather was calm, and the sea as smooth as a 
 canal, so that the coasting along from the Land's End to 
 the Downs would, under any other circumstances, have 
 been delightful. One of our reasons for going to London 
 was, that we had there deposited, at a banker's in Lombard 
 Street, a chest of plate which had been left us by my 
 grandmother. 
 
 " Immediately on our arrival in London, we took a 
 large top room, furnished, for five shillings a week, with 
 attendance, in a quiet, old-fashioned street, where we de- 
 termined to remain u,ntil some mode of gaining our liveli- 
 hood should turn up. We sold the plate and invested the 
 proceeds, rather more than 350, in the Government 
 Funds, as something to fall back upon, if we should not 
 succeed in establishing ourselves. 
 
 " We had been about a month in London, when one 
 Saturday, Harriet, who was returning from the butcher's 
 with our provision for the ensuing week, accidentally met 
 Mrs. Buckworth in the street. This rencontre I may 
 justly term the turning point of our good luck. Before 
 that, we had been incessantly forming scheme after scheme 
 for our future support, but could hit upon nothing to suit
 
 258 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 us. The generous, good creature was wonderfully sur- 
 prised at meeting Harriet in such a place, and on such an 
 errand. She enquired for me, and did not hesitate an in- 
 stant in accompanying Harriet to our abode up four pair 
 of stairs. 
 
 " She could scarcely believe me when I told her how 
 my father had died almost a pauper how all our property, 
 house, land, furniture, everything, had been sold to pay 
 creditors. ' Bad enough/ says she, ' and staying in this 
 garret would be still worse : you must quit it and come 
 with me ; while I have a house over my head, or a bit to 
 eat, you shall share it with me.' We thanked her sincerely, 
 but that we could not think of being an incumbrance to 
 her; that we were in hopes of soon being in a position to 
 earn our bread respectably. Mrs. Buckworth went away 
 and left us to ourselves that night. 
 
 " I must now make a short digression, in order to ac- 
 quaint you who and what Mrs. Buckworth is. She had 
 been my mother's waiting maid, and after my mother's 
 death she acted in the same capacity to us until we were 
 sent to school. She then returned to London, her native 
 place, and married Mr. Buckworth, a pay sergeant to a 
 company in the 1st regiment of Foot Guards. After he 
 had served in the army a sufficient length of time to en- 
 title him to a first class pension, he obtained his discharge 
 and settled in this village. He had, while in the army, 
 accumulated some money, which, with what his wife brought 
 him a good round sum my father paid her, on account of 
 wages earned whilst with us the sergeant invested in 
 Louse property here, a speculation which succeeded very
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 259 
 
 well. This worthy couple also purchased the good will 
 of a public laundry at the further end of the village ; the 
 profits of which, his pension, aad the rent of his houses, 
 &c., &c., made them very comfortable. They had no 
 children that was, perhaps, the only drawback to their 
 happiness. The sergeant died two years before we came 
 to London, leaving all his property to Mrs. Buckworth, 
 who very well deserved what she had mainly contributed 
 to accumulate. So much for Mrs. Buckworth I must 
 now resume my tale about ourselves. 
 
 " After Mrs. Buckworth had left us on the Saturday, 
 Harriet and I began to think we had been over-nice to 
 refuse the offer so kindly made to us ; that we were a pair 
 of proud fools, ' to work unable, to beg ashamed.' We had 
 almost made up our minds the next morning to go and 
 seek her, when in walks the good woman herself. She 
 told us she could not rest all night, thinking of us ; that 
 after turning in her mind all the ins and outs of our 
 case, she catne to the conclusion that we could not do 
 better than come to her until something should turn up. 
 
 " We consented to do so, but on the express condition 
 of her considering us her assistants, to take our share of 
 the work in its most laborious form ; and we assured her 
 that we should consider ourselves fortunate in having a 
 reputable house over our head, and an honest matron to 
 * protect us. * Come, at all events, we'll talk of that when I 
 get you out with me/ said she. It was then arranged that 
 we should send out our trunks with her town customers' 
 lineu the following day, aud go ourselves by the railroad. 
 
 " Thus we became inmates with Mrs. Buckworth ; we
 
 260 SELF-RELIAXCE. 
 
 have changed our name, or rather it was changed for us 
 by the people of the village, and we took good care not to 
 undeceive them ; it is gratifying to Mrs. Buckworth that 
 we should be thought to be her daughters, so we invariably 
 call her mother. For the first two or three days after we 
 came to Mrs. Buckworth's, she would scarcely let us do 
 anything in the way of work ; she said we would spoil the 
 colour and shape of our hands, and kill ourselves with 
 fatigue. But Harriet, who you know is very determined 
 to carry out any project she takes into her head, said in 
 her own peculiar, cool way, ' Mrs. Buckworth, before we 
 consented to come to you, you promised us that we should 
 be taught your business in all its branches ; how can we 
 learn if you will not let us work like the other women 
 here ? and as to spoiling our hands, now that is downright 
 nonsense. The fatigue will be as nothing when we shall 
 be used to it. If we are not to work, we will not remain 
 here.' 
 
 " ' Well, girls/ says Mrs. Buckworth. ' do as you please. 
 I'll never stop you. although I am sure you will soon get 
 tired, and give it up as a bad job.' 
 
 "In this she was mistaken ; for, whether it was that we 
 were ashamed to confess ourselves tired when we were so, 
 or that the labour became less irksome as we became used 
 to it, I know not ; but in less than a month we were able 
 to work from morning to night without feeling any great 
 inconvenience. But it took us full six months completely 
 to learn the business so as to make a fair compensation 
 by our labour to Mrs. Buckworth in return for all she had 
 done for us.
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 26l 
 
 "About this time the former proprietor of this estab- 
 lishment, who had acquired a sufficiency to retire upon, 
 offered it for sale. It is freehold, pays no rent, and stands 
 upon half an acre and four perches of excellent land. 
 Harriet and I, after consulting with our adopted mother, 
 determined to purchase it and the goodwill of the busi- 
 ness; so, after the usual course of bargaining on both 
 sides, we got the concern, furniture, utensils, and con- 
 nexion, everything as it stood, for three hundred pounds, 
 cash down, for which we had merely to withdraw our 
 money out of the government funds. I am happy to be 
 able to tell you a most profitable speculation it has proved 
 to be. Mrs. Buckworth, upon our taking possession of 
 this cottage, let her own house to a market gardener, a 
 safe, good tenant, who pays his rent punctually. The 
 two washing establishments were thus consolidated into 
 one concern, and a tolerably extensive one it is." 
 
 When Maria had finished her story, " I am glad," says 
 I, " to find you contented with your lot ; but I cannot 
 help thinking you might have turned your talents and 
 your accomplishments to better account, and adopted some 
 profession more congenial to your character as gentle- 
 women, something in keeping with your undoubted rank." 
 
 "Ah!" said Harriet, "I think I can guess what you 
 allude to. You think we should have gone as gover- 
 
 " I admit," says I, " that that idea did occur to me, 
 because I know you are both of you perfectly competent 
 to instruct young ladies in all the higher branches of 
 female education."
 
 262 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 "You are," said she, "pleased to flatter us more, I 
 fear, than we deserve. Among the various projects we 
 had formed to gain a livelihood, that of instruction was 
 one. But there were serious difficulties in the way. 
 Firstly, references and recommendations would be abso- 
 lutely necessary, and the only persons to whom we could 
 apply, for such purpose, were the very persons we did 
 not wish to be under an obligation to. Then you must 
 recollect that Maria and I never had been separated. We 
 were together from our earliest infancy. In all our mis- 
 fortunes we wei'e a consolation to each other. It would 
 have been painful to separate ; yet, if we should have suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining situations as governesses, we must 
 necessarily be so, perhaps, never to meet again. Besides, 
 if we had gone as governesses, we should be every day in 
 contact with persons and things to remind us of what we 
 had been. We could not even enjoy the poor comfort of 
 oblivion. Here we never see any persons higher up in 
 the world than ourselves. 
 
 "A governess's happiness or misery very much depends 
 on the tempers of the family in which she may be domes- 
 ticated. We are more independent. I assure you that, 
 without denying ourselves any of the decencies and com- 
 forts suitable to our condition, we lodge in the savings' 
 bank monthly what amounts in the year to upwards of 
 thirty pounds, each of us, not reckoning Mrs. Buck- 
 worth's saving. I doubt if we could do that as gover- 
 nesses. 
 
 " Except for the loss of our gentility, we are not so very 
 badly off', after all. Our work is so constant and regular,
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 263 
 
 principally for the outfitting shops in London, that we 
 really have not time to sit down repining and thinking of 
 our former grandeur. And, although we neither overwork 
 ourselves nor those whom we employ under us, we are 
 never idle on week days. We have learned that which is 
 but seldom known to any of the upper hundred thousand 
 the true value of the Sabbath. To us it is what I am 
 convinced the Great Author of our existence intended it 
 should be a day set apart for the triple purpose of divine 
 worship, rest, and recreation. 
 
 " We pay considerably higher wages to our journey- 
 women than they could earn from other employers in our 
 line. By that means we get the very best hands. Mrs. 
 Buckworth, although not a bit of a scold, is certainly 
 a very strict disciplinarian. With her, a woman once dis- 
 missed for misconduct from this establishment is never 
 taken back again. Drunkenness, or even the slightest 
 appearance of it, we treat as an unpardonable offence. 
 The workers, although dreadfully afraid of Mrs. Buck- 
 worth, are really fond of her. Dismissal from our service 
 is, I assure you, considered a severe punishment. Each 
 woman has her allotted portion of the work. We admit 
 of no excuse for its not being properly executed. 
 
 " The only remnant of vanity, of which we may, I think, 
 be justly accused, is that we still retain my mother's dia- 
 monds. Those we deposited at the banker's, in Lombard 
 Street, where our plate had been kept. In compliment 
 to my mother's memory, we would not like to part with 
 them. So I think we may be excused in keeping them, 
 as a last resource, lest we might again fall into poverty."
 
 264 SELF-RELIANCE. 
 
 In this agreeable strain of conversation I passed a very 
 pleasant time with those interesting sisters until 
 
 " The varnished clock which ticked behind the door" 
 
 warned me it was time to depart, in order to catch the 
 latest train to town that evening. 
 
 On my return to Dublin I sought for and obtained an 
 
 introduction to the old lady, Mr. C 's cousin, of 
 
 whom the girls had told me. I found her a perfect 
 gentlewoman in every respect. Her manners were dig- 
 nified and polite. She listened with great attention to 
 my narrative respecting the subjects of this memoir. 
 When I had concluded, she said, " I have never seen the 
 Misses C since they were mere children. Mr. 
 
 C , their father, and I had unfortunately a serious 
 
 difference, which ended in a vexatious course of litigation. 
 He is now dead, and I am informed died in great distress. 
 Therefore it would ill become a person of my very ad- 
 vanced time of life to say anything in detraction of him. 
 I have outlived my resentments; and I hope you will 
 believe me, sir, when I tell you I never had any against 
 his children. I pity them from the bottom of my heart." 
 She said she thanked me for calling upon her ; that she 
 was, however, not willing to make any promises, or raise 
 hopes which it might not be practicable to satisfy; but 
 this much she might say, that my visit to her would do 
 the young ladies no harm. 
 
 Thinking I had pushed my advocacy far enough, I 
 wished the old lady good bye. 
 
 She is since dead. By a codicil made to her will after
 
 SELF-RELIANCE. 265 
 
 I had called upon her, she bequeathed legacies of one 
 hundred pounds, free of duty, to each of the Misses 
 
 C , for which it is gratifying to me to think I 
 
 was in some degree the means of their getting. 
 Believe me yours faithfully, 
 
 NICHOLAS MANSERGH, 
 
 of Macroney Castle. 
 To SIR BERNARD BURKE, 
 Ulster. 
 
 Not very long after I received this communication, Mr. 
 Mansergh favoured me with a few further details which 
 he had subsequently learned, and I add them as a grati- 
 fying postscript : 
 
 " These ladies," writes my obliging correspondent, "are, 
 I have since heard, making a fortune by their business, 
 which has increased so much that it gives them almost more 
 work than they can do, and the mere superintendence oc- 
 cupies all their time. They began, as I before mentioned, 
 by laying by thirty pounds each in the Savings' Bank, but 
 they are now funding annually two hundred pounds and 
 upwards. No doubt, in a few years, these ladies will be 
 independent and rich, but I do not think they will ever 
 resume their proper name."
 
 266 THE FATE OF SEAFO11TH. 
 
 of 
 
 " Do not the hist'ries of all ages 
 Relate miraculous presages 
 Of strange turns iu the world's affairs, 
 Foreseen by astrologers, soothsayers ?" 
 
 HUDIBEAS. 
 
 No family in the Scottish Highlands surpasses the house 
 of Mackenzie in wide-spread influence, and few can boast 
 of so ancient a descent. However, as is the case with 
 many great Highland chiefs, the popularly-received ac- 
 count of their origin differs essentially from the truth. 
 The introductory sentences to the article on " Lord Sea- 
 forth," in Sir Egerton Brydges' edition of "Collins' 
 English Peerage," give the usual theory of the family ex- 
 traction assumed by the Mackenzies themselves, and ad- 
 mitted by the world :-. " Among the many brave Scotsmen 
 who signalized themselves for the service of their country at 
 the battle of Largs, in 1263, there was a foreigner, one 
 Colinas Fitz Gerald, son to the Earl of Kildare, or Des- 
 mond, of the kingdom of Ireland, whose courage and 
 valour on that occasion was so singularly remarkable that
 
 THE FATE OP SEA#ORTH. 267 
 
 King Alexander took him into his special protection, and 
 was afterwards pleased to bestow upon him the lands of 
 Kintail, in Ross-shire, pro bono et fideti servitio tarn in bello 
 quam in pace, and to be held by him in liberam baroniam, 
 as the original charter bears, dated from Kincardine, 
 January 9th, 1266." 
 
 It is difficult to say how such a tradition arose con- 
 cerning the origin of the Mackenzies. In support of it, a 
 fragment of the " Recorde of Icolmkill," and the charter 
 above referred to, have been adduced ; but neither are of 
 much authority. The fragmentary record of Icolmkill 
 mentions that among the heroes at the battle of Largs 
 was a Hibernian stranger of the race of Geraldine, but it 
 says nothing as to his subsequent settlement in the High- 
 lands ; and the alleged charter of Alexander III. grants 
 the lands of Kintail " Colino Hiberno" which word 
 " Hibernus" was in frequent use, as denoting a Highlander 
 generally. But, after all, there are strong suspicions as to 
 the genuine antiquity of this charter. The Mackenzies 
 are thus not exempt from the almost universal fondness 
 exhibited by Highland clans for a foreign origin. In 
 examining the traditions of the Highlands, we are struck 
 by their peculiarity of taste, which, scorning a Caledonian 
 source, traces some families from Ireland, others from 
 Scandinavia, and others from Normandy. The descent of 
 the Mackenzies has been deduced with greater probability, 
 and with no less claim to antiquity, from a native ances- 
 tor, viz., a certain Gillean-og, or Colin the Younger, a 
 son of the ancestor of the Rosses. Until the forfeiture of 
 the Lords of the Isles, the Mackenzies held their lauds
 
 268 THE FATE OF SEAPORTH. 
 
 from the Earls of Ross, and always followed their banner 
 in the field ; and after the forfeiture of that Earldom they 
 rapidly rose, upon the ruins of the Macdonalds, to the 
 great power and extent of territorial possessions for which 
 they were afterwards distinguished among the families 
 of the North. In the reign of King James I. the clan 
 appears to have acquired very considerable strength and 
 importance ; for in the beginning of the fifteenth century 
 their chief is ranked as leader of two thousand men. 
 On the destruction of the supremacy of the Lords of 
 the Isles and the Earls of Ross, the Barons of Kintail 
 distinguished themselves for their enmity to the Mac- 
 donalds, and rose to such power and eminence that 
 they became the most potent chiefs in the Northern High- 
 lands. 
 
 After holding for many generations the rank of great 
 chiefs and barons, their descendant, Kenneth Mackenzie, 
 was raised by King James VI. to the peerage, in 1609, as 
 Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, and his son Colin was by the 
 same monarch created Earl of Seaforth in 1623. Ken- 
 neth, third Earl of Seaforth, distinguished himself for his 
 loyalty to King Charles II. during the Usurpation, and 
 supported the Royal cause as long as there was an oppor- 
 tunity of fighting for it in the field ; and when he was 
 forced to submit to the ruling powers, he was committed 
 to prison, where with much firmness of mind he endured 
 a tedious captivity until he was released by the re- estab- 
 lishment of the King's authority. He married a lady 
 descended from his own family, Isabella Mackenzie, daugh- 
 ter of Sir John Mackenzie, of Tarbat, sister of the first
 
 THE FATE OP SEAFORTH. 269 
 
 Earl of Cromarty, and to her cruel and violent act may be 
 traced the remarkable doom which it is my purpose here 
 to relate. 
 
 The Earl of Seaforth had occasion to visit Paris some 
 time after the Restoration of King Charles II., his Coun- 
 tess being left at Brahan Castle while her Lord enjoyed 
 the dissipation and amusements of the French capital, 
 which seemed to have many attractions for him, as his 
 stay was prolonged much beyond his original intention. 
 I ady Seaforth became excessively uneasy on account of 
 his prolonged absence, more especially as she had received 
 no letters from him for several months. Her anxiety be- 
 came too great for endurance, and led her to have recourse 
 to the aid of magic, in order, if possible, to obtain tidings 
 of her absent lord. She accordingly sent messengers to 
 Strathpeffer to summon the " Warlock of the Glen." This 
 was a man celebrated throughout all the north country for 
 his intimate relations with the invisible world. He was 
 what would be in modern times called a clairvoyant and a 
 medium ; for he united in his person the characteristics of 
 both these branches of mysterious gifts. In the days of 
 our fathers he would have been considered as possessing 
 in a very remarkable degree what was called the second 
 sight ; and in his own day he was feared, and at the same 
 time frequently consulted, as a warlock, or wizard, and 
 necromancer. He professed to exercise his power of clair- 
 voyance by means of a circular white stone with a hole in 
 the middle, which he used to hold up to his eye and look 
 through, in order to see the passing events of far distant 
 countries.
 
 270 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 
 
 The Countess's messengers accordingly brought the 
 " Warlock of the Glen" from Strathpeffer to Brahan 
 Castle, and ushered him into the lady's presence. When in- 
 formed that he was required to give tidings of the absent 
 Earl, he made particular inquiries as to where he was sup- 
 posed to be, and then said that he doubted not that he 
 should be able to discover him, if he were still alive on the 
 face of the earth. He immediately drew forth his magical 
 stone, and applying it to his eye, looked through the 
 hole. The anxious suspense of the Countess was inter- 
 rupted by the loud laugh of the Warlock, who said, " Fear 
 not for your lord. He is safe and sound, well and hearty, 
 merry and happy !" The more immediate anxiety for her 
 husband's life and health being dispelled, the Countess 
 desired the Warlock to describe her lord's appearance, and 
 to tell her where he was, what he was doing, and by whom 
 he was surrounded. 
 
 "Be satisfied," said he: "ask no questions. Let it 
 suffice you to know that your lord is well and merry. 3 ' 
 
 " But where is he ?" asked the Countess. " With 
 whom is he ? and is he making no preparations for his 
 homewai-d journey I 3 ' 
 
 " Your lord," replied the Warlock, " is in a magnificent 
 room, in very fine company, and is at present too agree- 
 ably employed to be thinking of leaving Paris." 
 
 The Countess's anxiety now took a different turn. 
 Knowing that her lord was alive, and well, and happy, 
 she began to fret that she had no share in this happiness 
 and well-being, and to feel the pangs of jealousy and 
 wounded pride. There was something sinister in the
 
 THE FATE OP 8EAFORTH. 271 
 
 expression of the Warlock's countenance wliich seemed to 
 justify such feelings. He spoke of her lord's present 
 occupations with a malicious sneer, as if to say, " I could 
 tell a disagreeable tale if I would." The Countess made 
 use of intreaties, bribes, and threats, in order to induce 
 the Warlock to describe the Earl exactly as he had seen 
 him, to tell her what he was doing, and who those were 
 with whom he was then communing. 
 
 " Since you will know that which will make you un- 
 happy, I must needs tell you the truth," said the Warlock. 
 " My lord seems to have little thought of you, or of his 
 children, or of his Highland home. I saw him in a gay, 
 gilded room, grandly decked out in velvets, and silks, and 
 cloth of gold, and on his knees before a fair lady, with his 
 arm round her waist, and her hand pressed to his lips !" 
 
 At this painful disclosure the fury of the Countess 
 knew no bounds. It was indeed natural and not unme- 
 rited, but its object was ill chosen. All the anger which 
 was due to her lord, and which should have concentrated 
 in her breast to be poured out upon him after his return, 
 was spent upon the Warlock. What made the matter 
 worse was that the revelation of the Earl's infidelity had 
 not been disclosed to herself in private, but in the pre- 
 sence of some of the principal retainers of the house of 
 Seaforth ; so that the Earl's moral character was blasted, 
 and her own charms were slighted, in the face of the whole 
 clan, and her lord's desertion of her for a fair French lady 
 was certain to become the public scandal of all the North 
 of Scotland. She formed a sudden resolution with equal 
 presence of mind and cruelty. She determined to dis
 
 272 THE FATE OP SEAFORTH. 
 
 credit the revelations of the Warlock, and to denounce 
 him as a vile slanderer of her husband's character. She 
 trusted that the signal vengeance she was about to inflict 
 on the Warlock as a liar and defamer would impress the 
 minds nt>t only of her own clan but of all the inhabitants 
 of the shires of Ross and Inverness with a sense of her 
 thorough disbelief in the scandalous story, to which she 
 nevertheless secretly attached full credit. 
 
 Turning to the Warlock, she said, " You have spoken 
 evil of dignities ; you have vilified the mighty of the land. 
 You have defamed a chief in the midst of his vassals. 
 You have abused my hospitality, and outraged my feelings. 
 You have sullied the good fame of my lord in the halls of 
 his ancestors ; and you shall suffer the most signal ven- 
 geance that I can inflict. You shall die the death." 
 
 The Warlock was filled with astonishment and dismay 
 at this fatal result of his art. He had expected far other 
 rewards of divination. However, he could not. at first 
 believe that the rage of the Countess was serious : at all 
 events, he expected that it would soon evaporate, and 
 that, in the course of a few hours, he might be allowed to 
 depart in peace. He even so far understood her feelings 
 that he thought she was making a parade of anger in order 
 to discredit the report of her lord's shame with the clan ; 
 and he expected that, when this object was served, he 
 might at length be dismissed without personal injury. 
 
 But the decision of the Countess was no less violently 
 conceived than it was promptly executed. The doom of 
 the Warlock was sealed. No time was to be allowed for 
 remorseful compunction. No preparation was permitted
 
 THE FATE OF 8EAFORTH. 273 
 
 to the wretched man. No opportunity was given for 
 intercession in his favour. The gallows was forthwith 
 erected, and the miserable Warlock of the Glen was led 
 out for immediate execution. Such a stretch of feudal 
 oppression, at a time so little remote as the reign of 
 Charles II., may appear strange to English readers; but 
 in the Highlands the will of the Chief was supreme; and 
 a castle can be pointed out, viz. Menzies Castle, much 
 less remote from the seat of authority and the courts 
 of law than Brahan, where, above half a century later, 
 an odious vassal was starved to death by order of the 
 wife of the Chief, the sister of the great and patriotic 
 Duke of Argyle ! 
 
 When the Warlock found that no mercy was to be 
 expected either from the vindictive lady or the subservient 
 vassals, he resigned himself to his fate. He drew forth 
 his white stone, so long the instrument of his supernatural 
 intelligence, and once more applying it to his eye, he said, 
 
 " I see into the far future, and I read the doom of the 
 race of my oppressor. The long-descended line of Seaforth 
 will, ere many generations have passed, end in extinction 
 and in sorrow. I see a Chief, the last of his house, both 
 deaf and dumb. He will be the father of three fair sons, 
 all of whom he will follow to the tomb. He will live 
 care-worn and die mourning, knowing that the honours 
 of his line are to be extinguished for ever, and that no 
 future Chief of the Mackenzies shall bear rule at Brahan 
 or in Kintail. After lamenting over the last and most 
 promising of his sons, he himself shall sink into the grave, 
 and the remnant of his possessions shall be inherited by a 
 
 T
 
 274 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 
 
 white-hooded lassie from the East. She is to kill her 
 sister, and 
 
 ***** 
 
 As a sign by which it may be known that these things 
 are coming to pass, there shall be four great lairds in the 
 days of the last deaf and dumb Seaforth, viz., Gairloch, 
 Chisholm, Grant, and Basay, of whom one shall be 
 buck-toothed, another hair-lipped, another half-witted, and 
 the fourth a stammerer. Chiefs distinguished by these 
 personal marks shall be the allies and neighbours of the 
 last Seaforth ; and when he looks around him and sees 
 them, he may know that, his sons are doomed to death, 
 that his broad lands shall pass away to the stranger, and 
 that his race shall come to an end." 
 
 When the Warlock had ended this prediction, he threw 
 his white stone into a small loch, by the side of which the 
 gallows was erected, and declared that whoever should 
 rind that stone would be similarly gifted. Then, sub- 
 mitting to his fate, he was hung up on high, and this wild 
 and fearful doom ended his strange and uncanny life. 
 
 I must offer an explanation concerning the fragmen- 
 tary nature of the Warlock's prophecy. He uttered it in 
 all its horrible length; but I suppress the last portion, 
 which is as yet unfulfilled, and which, therefore, I am 
 unwilling to relate. Every other part of the predic- 
 tion has most literally and accurately come to pass ; but 
 let us earnestly hope that the course of future events 
 may at length give the lie to the avenging curse of the 
 Warlock. The last clause of the prophecy is well known 
 to many of those versed in Highland family tradition ;
 
 THE FATE OP SEAFORTH. 275 
 
 but it must not be published, and I trust that it may 
 remain unfulfilled. With regard to the four Highland 
 lairds who were to be buck-toothed, hair-lipped, half- 
 witted, and a stammerer, viz. Mackenzie, Baronet of Gair- 
 loch, Chisholm of Chisholm, Grant, Baronet of Grant, 
 and Macleod of Rasay, I am uncertain which was which. 
 The late Earl of Ellesmere used to tell the story, assigning 
 to each laird his personal peculiarity ; but I cannot 
 remember the exact particulars; and I would rather 
 allow the story to suffer, than put falsehood into the lips 
 of the Warlock at the point of death. Suffice it to say, 
 that the four lairds were marked by the above-mentioned 
 distinguishing personal peculiarities, and all four were 
 the contemporaries of the last of the Seaforths. 
 
 In due time the Earl returned to his home, after the 
 fascinations of Paris had palled, and when he felt disposed 
 to exchange frivolous or vicious enjoyment abroad for the 
 exercise of despotic authority in the society of a jealous 
 Countess at home. He was gathered to his fathers in 
 1678, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the fourth 
 Earl. It is not my purpose to relate the vicissitudes of 
 the family, which are unconnected with the curse of the 
 Warlock of the Glen, further than by giving a brief out- 
 line of them ; and they were sufficiently remarkable to 
 supply a strange chapter of domestic history. The fourth 
 Earl married a daughter of the illustrious family of Her- 
 bert, Marquess of Powis, and he himself was created a 
 Marquess by the abdicated King at St. Germains, while his 
 wife's brother was created a Duke. His son, the fifth 
 Earl, being engaged in the Rebellion of 1715, forfeited
 
 276 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 
 
 his estate and titles to the Crown : but in 1726 his 
 lands were restored to him, and he, and his son after him, 
 lived in wealth and honour as great Highland Chiefs; and 
 the latter, who was by courtesy styled Lord Fortrose, 
 represented his native county of Ross in many parliaments 
 about the middle of the last century. In 1766, the 
 honours of the peerage were restored to his son, who was 
 created Viscount Fortrose, and in 1771 Earl of Seaforth; 
 but those titles, which were Irish, did not last long, but 
 became extinct at his death in 1781. 
 
 None of these vicissitudes were foretold in the Warlock's 
 prophecy ; for, in spite of them all, the family continued to 
 prosper. That ruin, which the unsuccessful rising in 1715 
 had brought upon many other great houses, was retrieved 
 in the case of Seaforth by the exercise of sovereign favour, 
 and restored possessions and renewed honours preserved 
 the grandeur of the race. But on the death of the last 
 Earl, his second cousin, descended from a younger son of 
 the fourth Earl and his vindictive Countess, inherited the 
 family estates and the Chiefdom of the Mackenzies, which 
 he held for one short year and never actually enjoyed, 
 being slain at sea, in the south of India, by theMahrattas, 
 after a gallant resistance, in 1783. He was succeeded by 
 his brother, in whom, as the last of his race, the Warlock's 
 prophecy began to be accomplished. 
 
 Francis Humberstone Mackenzie was a very remarkable 
 man, He was born in 1754; and, although he was deaf 
 and dumb, he was able to fill an important position in the 
 world by the force of his natural abilities and the favour 
 of fortune. He may be said quite to have recovered the
 
 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 277 
 
 use of speech, for he was able to converse ; but he was 
 totally deaf, and all communications were made to him 
 by signs or in -writing. Yet he raised a regiment at the 
 beginning of the great European war ; he was created a 
 British peer in 1797, as Baron Seaforth of Kintail; in 
 1800 he went out to Barbadoes as governor, and after- 
 wards to Demerara and Berbice; and in 1808 he was 
 made a lieutenant-general. These were singular incidents 
 in the life of a deaf and dumb man. He married a very 
 amiable and excellent woman, Mary Proby, the daughter 
 of a dignitary of the church, and niece of the first Lord Ca- 
 rysfort, by whom he had a fine family of three sons and six 
 daughters. When he considered his own position, deaf 
 and formerly dumb ; when he saw his three sons all rising 
 to man's estate; and when he looked around him and 
 observed the peculiar marks set upon the persons of the 
 predicted four cotemporary great Highland lairds, all in 
 accordance with the Warlock's prophecy he must have 
 felt ill at ease, unless he was able, with the incredulous 
 indifference of a man of the world, to spurn the idea from 
 him as an old wives' superstition. 
 
 However, fatal conviction was forced upon him and all 
 those who remembered the family tradition, by the lament- 
 able events which filled his house with mourning. One 
 after another his three promising sons were cut off by death. 
 The last, who was the most distinguished of them all for 
 the finest qualities both of head and heart, was stricken 
 by a sore and lingering disease, and had gone, with a part 
 of the family, for his health, to the south of England. 
 Lord Seaforth remained in the North, at Brahan Castle.
 
 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 
 
 A daily bulletin was sent to him from the sick chamber 
 of his beloved son. One morning, the accounts being 
 rather more favourable, the household began to rejoice ; 
 and a friend and neighbour, who was visiting the Chief, 
 came down after breakfast full of the good news, and 
 gladly imparted them to the old family piper, whom he 
 met in front of the castle. The aged retainer shook his head 
 and sighed : " Na, na/' said he, " he'll never recover. It's 
 decreed that Seaforth maun outlive all bis three sons." 
 This he said in allusion to the Warlock's prophecy : thus 
 his . words were understood by the family ; and thus 
 members of the family have again and again repeated the 
 strange tale. The words of the old piper proved too 
 true. A few more posts brought to Seaforth the tidings 
 of the death of the last of his three sons. 
 
 At length, on the llth January, 1815, Lord Seaforth 
 died, the last of his race. His modern title became extinct, 
 the chiefdom of the house of Mackenzie, divested of its rank 
 and honour, passed away to a very remote collateral, who 
 succeeded to no portion of the property, and the great Sea- 
 forth estates were inherited by a white-hooded lassie from 
 the east. Lord Seaforth's eldest surviving daughter, the Hon. 
 Mary Frederica Elizabeth Mackenzie, had married in 1804 
 Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, Bart., K.B., who was Admiral 
 of the West India station while Seaforth himself was Gover- 
 nor in those islands. Sir Samuel afterwards had the chief 
 command in the Indian seas, whither his lady accompanied 
 him, and spent several years with him in different parts of 
 the East Indies. He died, while holding that high com- 
 mand, very nearly at the same time with Lord Seaforth, so
 
 THE PATE OF SEAFORTH. 279 
 
 that his youthful wife was a recent widow at the time, and 
 returned home from India in her widow's weeds, to take 
 possession of her paternal inheritance ; so that she was 
 literally a white-hooded lassie (that, is a young woman in 
 widow's weeds) from the East. 
 
 After some years of widowhood, Lady Hood Mac- 
 kenzie married a second time, Mr. Stewart, a grandson of 
 the sixth Earl of Galloway, who assumed the name of 
 Mackenzie, and established himself on his lady's extensive 
 estates in the north. Thus the possessions of Seaforth 
 may be truly said to have passed from the male line of 
 the ancient house of Mackenzie. And still more strik- 
 ingly was this fulfilled, as regarded a large portion of these 
 estates, when Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie sold the 
 great island of Lewis to Sir James Mathesoa. 
 
 After many years of happiness and prosperity, a fright- 
 ful accident threw the family into mourning. Mrs. Stewart 
 Mackenzie was one day driving her younger sister, the Ho- 
 nourable Caroline Mackenzie, in a pony carriage among 
 the woods in the vicinity of Brahan Castle. Suddenly the 
 ponies took fright, and started off at a furious pace. Mrs. 
 Stewart Mackenzie was quite unable to check them, and 
 both she and her sister were thrown out of the carriage much 
 bruised and hurt. She happily speedily recovered from the 
 accident, but the injury which her sister sustained proved 
 fatal, and after lingering for some time in a hopeless state, 
 she died, to the inexpressible grief of all the members of her 
 family. As Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie was driving her at the 
 time of the accident, she may be said to have been the inno- 
 cent cause of her sister's death, and thus to have fulfilled
 
 280 THE FATE OF SEAFORTH. 
 
 the last portion of the Warlock's prophecy which has as 
 yet been accomplished. 
 
 Thus we have seen that the last Chief of Seaforth was 
 deaf and dumb ; that he had three sons ; that he survived 
 them all ; that the four great Highland lairds who were 
 his cotemporaries were all distinguished by the peculiar 
 personal marks which were predicted ; that his estates 
 were inherited by a white-hooded lassie from the East ; that 
 his great possessions passed into the hands of other races ; 
 and that his eldest daughter and heiress was so unfortunate 
 as to be the cause of her sister's death. In this very re- 
 markable instance of family fate, the prophecy was not 
 found out after the events occurred : it had been current 
 for generations in the Highlands., and its tardy fulfilment 
 was marked curiously and anxiously by an entire clan and 
 a whole county. Seaforth was respected and beloved far 
 and near, and strangers, as well as friends and clansmen, 
 mourned along with him in the sorrows of his latter years, 
 The gradual development of the doom was watched with 
 sympathy and grief, and the fate of Seaforth has been 
 during the last half century regarded as one of the most 
 curious instances of that second sight, or, as we should 
 now term it, prophetic clairvoyance, for which the inhabi- 
 tants of the Highlands of Scotland have so long been 
 celebrated. 
 
 Mr. Stewart Mackenzie, the accomplished husband of 
 the heiress of Seaforth, after being for many years a dis- 
 tinguished member of the House of Commons and a 
 Privy Councillor, held several high appointments in the 
 colonial dominions of the British crown. He was sue-
 
 THE PATE OP SEAPORTH. 281 
 
 cessively Governor of Ceylon, and Lord High Commissioner 
 of the Ionian Islands, and he died, universally beloved 
 and lamented, in the year 1843. The venerable heiress 
 of the great house of Seaforth still survives, in a green and 
 honoured old age. She nobly supports the dignity of the 
 mighty Chiefs whose ample possessions she has inherited, 
 and whose blood she has transmitted to her numerous 
 descendants, mingled with the no less purple stream of one 
 of the most illustrious branches of the Stewarts. I 
 cannot more appropriately conclude this family legend 
 than by quoting the beautiful lines which Sir Walter Scott 
 wrote as a " Lament for Mackenzie, last Chief of Kintail." 
 
 " In vain the bright course of thy talents to wrong, 
 Fate deaden'd thine ear and imprison'd thy tongue, 
 For brighter o'er all her obstructions arose 
 The glow of the genius they could not oppose ; 
 And who, in the land of the Saxon or Gael, 
 Might match with Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail? 
 
 Thy eons rose around thee in light and in love, 
 All a father could hope, all a friend could approve ; 
 What 'vails it the tale of thy sorrows to tell- 
 In the spring time of youth and of promise they fell ! 
 Of the line of Mac Kennexh remains not a male, 
 To bear the proud name of the Ciuef of Kintail. 
 
 And thou, gentle Dame, who must bear, to thy grief 
 For thy clan and thy country the cares of a Chief, 
 Whom brief rolling moons in six changes have left, 
 Of thy husband and father and brethren bereft, 
 To thine ear of affection, how sad is the hail 
 That salutes thee the heir of the line of Kintail 1"
 
 282 AN ENGLISH FLOV/ER 
 
 jj Jlofotr transplant to Italian 
 Soil. 
 
 THE seventh Earl Ferrers inherited some of that eccen- 
 tricity of his family which, in the case of one of his line, 
 had led to such sad results. Disliking the splendid seat 
 of Staunton Harold, probably from the painful associations 
 connected with it, he erected mansions on other portions 
 of his large estates. Rakedale Hall was one of these, 
 Ratcliff Hall was another. He had quarrelled with his 
 only son, the amiable and accomplished Lord Tamworth, 
 and the latter had died without any reconciliation having 
 taken place. 
 
 The Earl had lost his last Countess, the daughter of 
 Mr. Wrightson Mundy, and was living in moody retire- 
 ment at Rakedale Hall, when an occurrence took place 
 that afforded him an opportunity of making some atone- 
 ment for the harshness he had shewn to his lamented son. 
 One morning a woman of plebeian appearance came to 
 the Hall, and at first requested, and then, being refused, 
 demanded an audience of his lordship. She was at last 
 ushered into the study, and she led by the hand a 
 little girl of three years old, for whose support, as the
 
 TRANSPLANTED TO ITALIAN SOIL. 283 
 
 grandchild of the Earl, she supplicantly pleaded for some 
 assistance. 
 
 While the mother was telling the tale of her troubles, 
 the little one began to play with the stern Earl's shining 
 knee-buckles. He looked down on the child, and, re- 
 laxing and relenting, said, " Ay, you have Tamworth's 
 eyes." This likeness to Lord Tamworth, the little one's 
 innocent prattle, and perhaps some compunctious feelings 
 for his late coldness to his son, made a strong impression 
 on the Earl's heart. He took the child on his knee ; his 
 stern heart was softened, and from that moment he formed 
 the resolution of adopting her. During his life-time 
 she never left him, but became the solace of his declin- 
 ing .years. He bestowed great pains on her education, 
 and by his will appointed Mr. Charles Godfrey Mundy, of 
 Burton Hall, her sole guardian, with an allowance of three 
 thousand pounds a-year for her maintenance during mi- 
 nority, and bequeathed her the beautiful manors of Rake- 
 dale, Ratcliffe, &c. &c., with a large amount of personal 
 property. 
 
 Miss Shirley, as she was always called, was removed to 
 Burton Hall. For years she had been entirely separated 
 from her mother, who had married an humble innkeeper 
 of Syston, receiving a small annuity, on condition that she 
 should not have any intercourse with her daughter. The 
 latter had, indeed, been led to believe that her mother was 
 no more, and had, of course, been considerably mystified 
 as to her origin, when a stranger arrived at Burton Hall. 
 It was she who, fifteen years before, had demanded an 
 interview with Earl Ferrers.
 
 284 AN ENGLISH FLOWER 
 
 Inquiry was made as to the nature of the woman's busi- 
 ness. It was to see her daughter, Miss Shirley, and she 
 declared that nothing but force should remove her from 
 the Hall door, till she had accomplished the purpose of 
 her visit. 
 
 A family council was held, and at length it was stipu- 
 lated that she should be admitted into the room in which 
 Miss Mundy, Miss Shirley, and some other ladies were 
 sitting, on the pretext of being shown the pictures and the 
 furniture ; and thus be allowed a look at her daughter, 
 without in any way discovering herself. 
 
 She was brought in by one of the domestics. The 
 young ladies pursued their drawing, none of them being 
 at all conscious of any relationship between themselves 
 and the rustic stranger. A picture or two had been de- 
 scribed, but the woman's eye could not be diverted, she 
 only saw her daughter, and in her overpowering emotion 
 threw herself on her daughter's neck. The scene need 
 
 not be described further. 
 
 * # # # * * 
 
 There was a stipulation in the will of the late Earl that 
 Miss Shirley should spend three months of every year on 
 the continent. During a sojourn in Italy she was intro- 
 duced to the young Duke de Sforza, to whom she was 
 afterwards united. The rise of that Ducal house was 
 almost as romantic as her own. Its founder, the famous 
 Giacomozzo Sforza, was born at Cotignola, in Romagna, 
 in 1369. He was originally a peasant; and being one 
 day at work, was solicited to enlist for a soldier, when, 
 throwing his spade into a tree, he declared he would do
 
 TRANSPLANTED TO ITALIAN SOIL. 285 
 
 so, if the spade did not fall down again. The spade stick- 
 ing fast, he immediately embarked on that military career 
 which afterwards rendered him so conspicuous. His son 
 became Duke of Milan ; and Catherine de Sforza, a heroine 
 of this family, was united to one of the Medicis. 
 
 The little girl whom I first introduced to the reader 
 in the character of an humble suppliant at the door of 
 Rakedale Hall, is now Duchess de Sforza, wife of one 
 of the most distinguished men in Europe, and owner of 
 Rakedale Hall itself, and the fine estates that surround it. 
 
 The Duke and Duchess reside on the Duke's ancestral 
 home in Romagna. They rarely visit England. 
 
 Three or four years ago, a stranger and his wife were 
 observed sketching for several days in succession the re- 
 markable ancient manor-house of the Shirleys, called 
 Rakedale Old Hall. This was nothing new to the villagers, 
 as the fine old Jacobean house, with its beautiful chim- 
 neys and the picturesque chapel adjoining, is a frequent 
 subject for the amateur's or the artist's pencil. The sup- 
 posed artist and his wife came, however, so often from 
 Leicester that they formed an acquaintance with all the 
 farmers and cottagers in the romantic valley. They were 
 only too happy to be allowed to take refreshment at the 
 farm houses, for the village contains no inn. They entered 
 freely into conversation with the people, heard the free- 
 spoken sentiments of the farmers about farming and their 
 foreign landlady, and became such favourites that they 
 met with a hearty welcome in every house. Even the 
 children of the village learnt to love the strangers for 
 their gentle manners, and still more, perhaps, for the
 
 286 AN ENGLISH FLOWER 
 
 presents that were bestowed upon them ; and there was a 
 universal gloom in the village, when the " artist and his 
 wife" announced that they would not return again. The 
 morning after their departure, a letter was received by 
 the principal farmer, conveying grateful thanks to the 
 inhabitants for their kind and hospitable attentions, and 
 enclosing a cheque for a handsome sum for distribution 
 among the cottagers and their children. That letter de- 
 stroyed the incognito. The artist and his wife were 
 the DUKE AND DUCHESS DE SFORZA. 
 
 The Duchess had enjoyed the happiness of revisiting, 
 unobserved, scenes endeared to her from childhood, and of 
 introducing her husband to the rural life of England and 
 their happy and kind-hearted tenantry. The bells of the 
 little chapel were soon set a-going; but the villagers' joy 
 was not a little damped by thinking of bows and curtseys 
 that would have been made, and of sayings that would 
 have been unsaid, had they for one moment imagined it 
 was the Duchess de Sforza ! 
 
 Another incident, having reference to this same Vale of 
 Rakedale, will close my little story. 
 
 In the summer of 1861 an antiquary, rambling in 
 North Leicestershire, was induced to visit this secluded 
 hamlet, a few miles east of Melton Mowbray. He had 
 been attracted to this spot by the fame of the old Hall 
 as a remarkably fine specimen of Jacobean architecture. 
 He was descending the hill that overhangs the village, 
 when groups of well-dressed rustics met his eye. The 
 word " Welcome," too, affixed in flowers on an arch 
 that spanned the entrance to the Hall, gave sign of re-
 
 TRANSPLANTED TO ITALIAN SOIL. 287 
 
 joicing. " What holiday are you celebrating ?" said my 
 antiquarian friend to the civil rustic who opened the gate. 
 " It's the visit of the Duchess," was the reply ; " and 
 there she comes," said he, pointing to a carriage de- 
 scending the hill. 
 
 A loud shout proceeded from the rustics, and the two 
 bells of the little chapel adjoining the Hall at once began 
 to jingle the best peal the dual could produce. The car- 
 riage entered the Hall gates, and a lady of middle age 
 was handed out by a soldier-like young man who accom- 
 panied her. With bare heads the farmers and labourers 
 made their best bows, and their wives and daughters 
 dropped their best curtseys, and the lady was conducted 
 into the Hall. 
 
 A bountiful feast had been prepared in a well-decorated 
 barn, and my friend was hospitably invited to share in 
 the festivities. The Duchess soon entered, leaning on the 
 arm of her son, and both sat down with great good nature 
 at the head of the well-plenished table. 
 
 The repast over, the principal tenant proposed the 
 health of the Duchess, which was gracefully acknowledged 
 by her son, the young officer at her side. Other toasts 
 followed, intermingled with pleasant but, on the part of 
 the villagers, deferential chat, and then rural sports be- 
 came the order of the day. Of these, the Duchess of 
 Sforza was evidently a delighted spectatress. 
 
 The young soldier, who accompanied her on this visit to 
 her Leicestershire tenantry, was one of her sons, the Duke 
 de Cenis, an officer in the army of Victor Emmanuel.
 
 288 THE PILGRIM fATHEH. 
 
 e f Hpim |af|tr. 
 
 " Among the watching hills a nook they found, 
 
 Where the hushed winds a holy sabbath keep ; 
 Where war'g red foot had never dyed the ground, 
 Nor ravening wolves disturbed the gentle sheep." 
 
 BITTER has been of late the expression of animosity 
 against England, and loud the denunciation of her in the 
 United States ; yet I cannot but hope and think that there 
 is a deep-rooted affection in America for the " old country," 
 and that when the angry passions, excited by the present 
 most deplorable of wars, have subsided, better sentiments 
 will resume their influence, and former kindly feelings be 
 restored. 
 
 For ten or twelve years before the civil conflict broke 
 out, the most intelligent and zealous of my genealogical 
 clients and correspondents were from the other side of the 
 Atlantic, all yearning to carry back their ancestry to the 
 fatherland, and to connect themselves in some way with 
 its historic associations. Massachusetts was more genea- 
 logical than Yorkshire, and Boston sustained, what Lon- 
 don never did, a Magazine devoted exclusively to genealogy. 
 My friend, Mr. Somerby, a very accomplished American 
 antiquary, employed himself for several years in researches 
 through the parish registers of England for the parochial
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 2S9 
 
 entries of the founders of the chief American families, and 
 especially of the Pilgrim Fathers ; and I have been told 
 that a very large sum was given at New York or Washing- 
 ton, I forget which, for the purchase of a perfect series of 
 our English County Histories, as the best sources of Ame- 
 rican genealogy. 
 
 The gentlemen of Virginia were at all times proud of their 
 English and Scottish blood. The Washingtons, though 
 the illustrious patriot will ever be the brightest ornament 
 of their house, look back with satisfaction to the old Nor- 
 thamptonshire squires of Sulgrave, to whom they trace 
 their origin; and the Lord Fairfax of Cameron, whose 
 ancestor, captivated by the climate and attraction of Vir- 
 ginia, made it his home and country more than a century 
 since, is not the less respected because he is the represen- 
 tative of a race of nobles, memorable in the annals of 
 England. America was early the refuge for all sufferers : 
 the persecuted Puritan fled to New England the op- 
 pressed Catholic to Maryland and the defeated Cavalier 
 to Virginia. But the most interesting and most striking 
 exodus of all was that of the PILGRIM FATHERS, who 
 with defective means, but heavenly and heroic purpose, 
 embarked for the New World in the earlier part of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 On the centre point where the three English counties of 
 Nottingham, Lincoln, and York unite, are three little 
 towns, Austerfield, Scrooby, and Bawtry; so small in 
 the days of which I write, as to be scarcely worthy of 
 
 u
 
 290 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 
 
 notice on the map, and yet within them they contained 
 the elements of a mighty empire. Their population con- 
 sisted of sturdy yeomen, who worked through the week, 
 and " worshipped God in neat attire when the Sunday came 
 round." From this obscure corner, and this obscure 
 yeomaniy, originated a religious company, " schooled in 
 misfortune, unconquerable through faith, and wise and 
 prudent by experience," which, under the guidance of 
 Brewster, Robinson, and Bradford, formed the Pilgrim 
 Congregation at Leyden, which sought eventually a home 
 beyond the Atlantic, and helped to found a nation that 
 was to stretch from sea to sea, and become the great 
 American Republic. 
 
 This pious congregation " excited little notice at Ley- 
 den, except as an industrious and sober people, honest in 
 their dealings ; plain in their dress ; pure in their lives ; 
 at peace among themselves, and warm in their affection 
 towards each other. Public worship was not allowed them, 
 as only the Presbyterian form was tolerated by the govern- 
 ment; but they met, unmolested, at the house of their 
 pastor. This was none other than John Robinson, a man 
 who leaned on the bosom of his Lord all the year, there 
 to get comfort and strength in his many and bitter trials. 
 Never since the primitive days had there been such a flock 
 with such a pastor as assembled in that house at Leyden. 
 Trial and hardship had pencilled their features with the 
 lines of care; but at the same time it had clothed them in 
 the meekest of the Christian graces, made them patient 
 and gentle, forgiving towards their enemies, and tolerant 
 towards all the disciples of the Lord Jesus. Common
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 291 
 
 dangers and hardships had knit them to each other by the 
 strongest ties of love; and even a stranger, as he looked 
 in upon the little company, while they were engaged in 
 worship, would be touched with sympathy, especially 
 during the singing and the prayer ; for their faces would 
 be rapt, like Stephen's, with visions of super-sensual glory, 
 and their fervid psalms, touching a thousand memories of 
 dark dangers and Divine deliverances, would bring the 
 tears of gratitude from all their eyes in a sweet and gentle 
 rain. ' It was the sweetest melody/ says one of their 
 number, ' that ever mine ej:s heard.' While the noise of 
 tongues was sounding everywhere else, and the billows of 
 strife were dashing on every side, this flock at Leyden 
 occupied a charmed spot, which was never disturbed; as if 
 ' Peace, be still !' from the lips of the Master, were 
 breathed over it in perpetual benediction." 
 
 I must for a moment wander back some centuries ear- 
 lier than these Pilgrim Fathers, and take my readers to 
 the famous county of Kent. Near unto the mouth of the 
 Medway and the ancient city of Rochester, as early as the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, dwelt one Adam Sayer, 
 Lord of the Manor of Hougham, a country gentleman of 
 fair estate and high character. He left wide-spreading 
 descendants. One was returned to Parliament by the 
 town of Sandwich, in the reign of Henry VI., and another 
 was created a Banneret for his gallantry at Stoke. A 
 third crossed the Thames into Essex, and founded a family 
 which became possessed of good property at Colchester.
 
 29.2 THE PILGRIM FATHER, 
 
 Of that town, John Sayer, a man of wealth ami dignity, 
 was Alderman, towards the close of the fifteenth century. 
 He died in 1509, and a mural brass in St. Peter's church 
 records his name and honours. His grandson, young Ri- 
 chard Sayer, is described as a youth of florid face, and 
 sanguine temperament ; who " rambled on the banks of 
 the Medway and forded its waters, who climbed the chalk 
 ridge, and took in unfading impressions of the scenery 
 beneath, though he sometimes trampled the wheat-fields, 
 and roused the maledictions of the Kentish farmers." 
 
 Returned home from school to his father's house at 
 Colchester, Richard there grew up, the elder of two brothers, 
 and the heir to a large estate ; but unfortunately for his 
 worldly peace and prosperity, he had early imbibed strong 
 religious sentiments, and during the period of animosi- 
 ties and persecutions under Henry VIII., he became a 
 warm and zealous partizan on the side opposed to his 
 own family and relatives. The result was a total alien- 
 ation from them, disinheritance, and flight. Richard 
 Sayer's wife, Anne Bourchier, daughter of Edmund Kny vet> 
 Esq., of the ancient family of Ashwelthorpe, in Norfolk, 
 incurred the lasting displeasure of the Knyvets, because 
 she clung faithfully to her husband in his adversity, and 
 the name was in consequence erased from all the" fam^y 
 pedigrees and papers. Her descent, in the female line, 
 was from Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners, Knight of 
 the Garter, fourth son of William, Earl of Ewe, by Anne 
 Plantagenet, his wife, granddaughter of King Edward III. 
 
 Anne Bourchier Knyvet, whose lot seems to have been a 
 hard one, nobly and cheerfully borne, was the devoted com-
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 293 
 
 panion of her husband, Richard Sayer, in all the sufferings 
 he underwent for conscience sake. She escaped with him 
 to Amsterdam, and tended his death-bed there in 1540. 
 In consequence of their flight, her husband's younger bro- 
 ther secured for himself possession of the patrimonial 
 inheritance, and founded two families of Sayer : the elder, 
 seated at Bourchier's Hall, ended in an heiress, who mar- 
 ried the learned Sir John Marsham, Bart. The younger 
 is still resident, I believe, at Pett, near Charing, in Kent. 
 The only son of Richard and Anne Sayer was John Bour- 
 chier Sayer, a man of bold and daring disposition, who, 
 instead of adopting measures to recover his ancestral 
 rights, sought adventure under his father-in-law, Sir John 
 Hawkins, the famous Admiral, and accompanied him in. 
 many of his voyages. He died in Holland, leaving four 
 sons, of whom the eldest, his father's namesake, acquired 
 a large fortune in marriage with Marie L'van Egmond, of 
 the family of Count Egmond, the victim of the Duke of 
 Alva; and with the money thus obtained with his wife, Sayer 
 purchased property in the neighbourhood of that to which 
 he believed himself to be entitled ; but his efforts for its 
 recovery were resisted by his kinsmen in England, and an 
 open rupture was the result. John Bourchier Sayer died 
 in 1629, leaving two sons, of whom the elder was RICHARD 
 SAYER, whose story, so pathetically told by his de- 
 scendant, Edmund H. Sears, in a little volume of singular 
 interest and fascination, entitled " Pictures of the Olden 
 Time," I will here endeavour to reproduce, as illustrative 
 of the vicissitudes attending the career of one of the 
 direct descendants of the illustrious houses of Bourchier
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 
 
 and Plantagenet. Richard Sayer, or Sears, as he began 
 to write his name, was early captivated by the eloquence 
 of the Leyden preachers, and had listened with delight to 
 the teaching of Robinson, whom there is reason to suppose 
 he sought at Leyden, and to whom he was drawn by the 
 magnetic power of spirit upon spirit, much as Bradford 
 had been drawn to Clifton at Scrooby. It is probable 
 that the struggle was long and severe before the final 
 separation of the tie between Richard and his kinsfolk at 
 Amsterdam. We have no record of that struggle, but 
 his parents being Catholics, and therefore regarding the 
 obscure band of separatists at Leyden with no favourable 
 eye, it must have been a grievous disappointment when 
 their son joined the despised company of Pilgrims. How- 
 many times he travelled from Amsterdam to Leyden 
 before he finally embarked his hopes and his fortunes ; 
 how the love of home and friends struggled with religious 
 convictions and aspirations, and how often he hesitated 
 in his intention may easily be conceived. At the time 
 Richard Sayer joined the Congregation at Leyden, they 
 had come to the determination to quit Holland, and seek 
 a home in the New World ; and the young enthusiast's 
 imagination was just the one to be captivated by the 
 dream of a Utopia beyond the waters, far away from 
 rumours of strife and dissension, where brethren should 
 dwell together in unity, and worship God free from the 
 pest of the schouts and bailiffs. 
 
 Virginia was the place selected for their first settlement ; 
 and, having obtained the permission of the Virginia Com- 
 pany in London, the Congregationists made preparations for
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 295 
 
 tlieir departure by converting their scanty property into a 
 common stock, and hiring two small vessels, the Speedwell, 
 of 60, and the Mayflower, of 180 tons. Of Robinson's 
 flock, which numbered about 300 persons, only a minority 
 could in the first instance set sail, owing to the smallness 
 of the vessels ; but these acted as the pioneers of the enter- 
 prise, and were afterwards followed by Robinson and the 
 rest. The vessels sailed in the first instance from Holland 
 to England ; but, after a short stay there, the Speedwell 
 being declared unserviceable, the Mayflower alone held 
 onward in its course, freighted with one hundred and one 
 passengers ; and, after a voyage of sixty-three days, they 
 landed on that part of the American coast, on which they 
 founded the towns of Plymouth and Boston. From these 
 small beginnings arose the United States of America ! 
 
 Meanwhile Richard Sayer is with the remainder of the 
 congregation at Leyden, and with them is waiting a favour- 
 able opportunity to join the new exiles. His father haoU 
 made strenuous exertions to recover the paternal estate at 
 Colchester, and a long and bitter controversy had been the 
 consequence. It ended in total alienation between the 
 Sayers of Holland and the Sayers and Knyvetts of England, 
 and the former were threatened with a criminal prosecution 
 if they set foot again in the land of their fathers. His 
 father died in 1629, and not till then, does the way seem 
 to have been clear to him to embark his fortunes with the 
 Pilgrims. He then came into possession of his paternal 
 inheritance, and in 1630 he accompanied the last expedition 
 which carried out from Leyden the remnant of the Scrooby 
 congregation. He had previously settled his affairs at
 
 296 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 
 
 Amsterdam, given up all hope of recovering his paternal 
 estates in England, become heartsick with the controversy, 
 and with the selfishness of man, sick with the noise of 
 sects that filled the country with strife, and "had but re- 
 cently stained its beautiful fields with blood ; and sighing 
 for a peaceful retreat, and a pure and unmolested worship, 
 he landed at Plymouth, on May 8th of the year in which 
 he sailed. Here he stayed a few years, and in 1643 re- 
 moved thence to a more favoured spot, known by the Indians 
 as Sursuit and Mattakeese, the sites of the present towns 
 of East Dennis and Yarmouth. 
 
 Richard Sayer, before he left Plymouth, had married 
 Dorothy Thacher. She was a sister of Anthony Thacher, 
 Plymouth, whose name is familiarly known in the Pilgrim, 
 annals. The children of this marriage were three sons, 
 Knyvet, Paul, and Silas, and one daughter, named Deborah, 
 married to Zachariah Paddock. 
 
 * Let us picture to ourselves the primitive manner in which, 
 the Pilgrim Father lived, and contrast it with the habits 
 of his ancestors in the olden time, and his descendants of 
 the present day. 
 
 On Quivet Neck he built himself a house one story 
 high, roofed with thatch, and fronting south with such 
 precision as to serve as a sun-dial, and indicate the hour 
 of noon. The fireplace was made of rough stone, the chim- 
 ney of boards plastered over inside with clay. Both the 
 fireplace and the chimney- flue were of immense capacity ; 
 so that after a rousing fire has been kindled on a winter's 
 evening, the family could occupy both the spaces on each 
 side of it, and look up through ihe chimney opening, and
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 297 
 
 gaze at the stars. What visions of other days must have 
 come over the old Pilgrim as he sat there and heard the 
 whistling winds and the roaring on the sea- beach, and saw- 
 through his chimney-flue the same planets that twinkled 
 upon him on the Princen Graat of old Amsterdam ! 
 
 Richard Sayer survived to be the patriarch of the little 
 colony of Sursuit, and to see his children and his chil- 
 dren's children settled around him. " Fields of corn, of 
 beans, and of flax covered the gentle acclivities, and the 
 tall grass waved along the green margin of the brooks ; 
 and, without wealth or want, the little community thrived 
 and prospered. Industry and frugality were in the place 
 of riches, and piety brought down the Divine blessing 
 without interruption." Once or twice Richard Sayer 
 was summoned from his seclusion, as Deputy to the Colony 
 Court at Plymouth ; but he seems to have found what he 
 sighed after, amid the strifes and tumults of the Old World, 
 a place far away from the rumours of oppression, deceit, 
 and bloodshed, where he might worship God with a 
 free consc^nce, and breathe out his soul in peace. He 
 lived to a green and honoured old age, and died in 
 1676. He had seen eighty- six years ere he rested from 
 his labours ; and the people of the village of Sursuit, that 
 grew up around him, followed him to his peaceful grave. 
 Children and children's children were there to talk of his 
 virtues around his bier. His ashes repose in the old 
 Yarmouth churchyard, where one of his descendants, with 
 filial reverence and affection, has erected a costly monu- 
 ment to his memory. 
 
 He left behind him three sons, Knyvet, Paul, and Sylas*
 
 2D8 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 
 
 the two youngest of whom resided in Yarmouth, where 
 they filled important offices. 
 
 KNYVET SEARS, the eldest son, unlike his father, had 
 jx strong faith that the family lands in England might yet 
 be recovered. He was in the glow of youth, had experi- 
 enced none of the proverbial delays and quibbles of En- 
 glish law, and accordingly set out for the old country 
 full of hope, and furnished with such deeds and documents 
 as seemed to him, at least to place his claim beyond 
 question. He was kindly received by some of his rela- 
 tions, but was not successful in the object of his visit. 
 Yet this failure could not subdue his hopes or his spirits. 
 He made a second voyage, in 1686; but in the same year, 
 and before he had time to bring forward the proofs in his 
 possession, he died at the residence of his relative, Cathe- 
 rine (subsequently Baroness Berners), daughter of Sir 
 John Knyvet, and wife of John Harris, Esq. The evi- 
 dences that he had brought with him were never after- 
 wards recovered. 
 
 From a document filed in the Chapter- Ho^se, West- 
 minster Abbey, it appears that the contested manors were 
 transferred about this time, by a legal fiction, to Sir John 
 Marsham, only son of Sir John Marsham, and Esther, 
 daughter of George Sayer, %vho died in 1577. This Esther 
 was assumed to have been the sole heir upon the failure of 
 the male line in England, and the high position which 
 the American branch of the family was entitled to hold here 
 through the Bourchiers and Knyvets, as well as the Sears', 
 was abandoned for ever. Though thus denied their posi- 
 tion in their Fatherland, the Sayers, now Sears', advanced,
 
 THE PILGRIM FATHER. 209 
 
 step by step, in the country of their adoption, and at this 
 present time, the Hon. David Sears, a Senator for Massa- 
 chusetts, holds a very high position in the United States. 
 And thus ends the history of Richard Sayer, the Pilgrim 
 Father, the representative of the ancient house of Sayer, 
 and the lineal descendant of Knyvett, Bouchier, and Plan-
 
 300 THE HEIR OF DELAPRE. 
 
 0f gtlaprt. 
 
 " Hereditas venit unicuique nostrum a jure et legibtts." 
 
 ClCEBO. 
 
 AMONG the most recent romances in real life is the career 
 of John Augustus Sheil Bouverie, who, from occupying a 
 very humble station, has established his position as un- 
 doubted heir of large estates descending to him from an 
 ancient and honourable family. 
 
 Before I enter on this gentleman's personal history, I 
 will briefly glance at the lineage of the noble house of 
 which he is a scion. 
 
 The Bouveries, previously to their settlement in Eng- 
 land, had for many generations been honourably known in 
 the Low Countries, in the public annals of which their 
 name is frequently mentioned. With the usual incerti- 
 tude of ancient nomenclature, we find their patronymic 
 differently written De la Bouverie, Des Bouveries, De 
 Bouverie. Their present appellation, Bouverie, has been 
 fixed by act of parliament. 
 
 The pursuits of commerce apparently first brought them 
 to England. In 1568, Laurence Des Bouveries, a Fleming, 
 then in his twenty-seventh year, settled at Canterbury, 
 accompanied by his wife, Barbara Van den Hove, de- 
 scended from a rich family engaged in the silk manufac-
 
 THE HEIR OF DELAPRK. 301 
 
 ture at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. The descendant of this 
 gentleman was created Baron of Longford and Viscount 
 Folkestone, on the 29th June, 1747. His lordship's 
 eldest son was further advanced in 1765 to the Earldom 
 of Radnor. His second son, the Hon. Edward Bouverie, 
 M.P. for New Sarum, was ancestor of the hero of my pre- 
 sent narrative. 
 
 Edward inherited from his mother the estate of Delapre 
 Abbey, near Northampton, in which are scenes of histo- 
 rical interest and great picturesque beauty. In June, 
 ] 764, he married Harriot, only daughter of Sir Everard 
 Fawkener, Knight, many years Ambassador at the Porte. 
 By that lady he had three sons and five daughters. To 
 the eldest son, Edward, descended the demesne of Delapre, 
 of which the name is derived from the ancient Abbey of 
 St. Mary De-la Pr<$, founded by Simon de St. Liz, the 
 'younger, second Earl of Northampton. On the site of 
 the old Abbey, which has long since disappeared, now 
 stands the mansion of General Bouverie. It is supposed 
 that the older portion of the vaults and cellars may have 
 possibly belonged to the original edifice. In the south- 
 western corner of the park is Queen's Cross, one of 
 the few memorials yet remaining of an English monarch's 
 love for his deceased Queen. This architectural relic is 
 in extraordinary preservation, when its great antiquity 
 is considered. In its immediate vicinity occurred one 
 of the fiercest conflicts of the Roses, on the 10th July, 
 1469. 
 
 Such is the heritage to which an heir has unexpectedly 
 from the obscurity in which the circumstances
 
 302 THE HEIR OP DELAPKE. 
 
 attending his birth long involved him. This heir is John 
 Augustus Sheil Bouverie, who, within the last few years, 
 was serving creditably as a private policeman in the Irish 
 constabulary force, whence he entered the 4th regiment 
 of Dragoons as a private soldier. He was promoted to the 
 rank of corporal for his good conduct, and made orderly 
 to Sir Henry Smith. 
 
 I must, for a moment, remind my reader that Mr. 
 Edward Bouverie, son of the Hon. Edward Bouverie by 
 Miss Fawkener, inherited from his father Delapre Abbey 
 and the large estates annexed to it. Edward married, on 
 the 10th March, 1788, Catherine, only daughter and 
 heiress of William Castle, Esq., by whom he had four 
 sons, of whom the eldest is the present General Bouverie. 
 The second and fourth sons, respectively named Charles 
 and James, died without issue ; but the third son, 
 Francis-Kenelm, an officer in the army, married, in 1826, 
 a Miss Sheil, of Castledawson, in the county Dewy, at 
 which place his regiment was quartered. Lieutenant 
 Bouverie was then in his twenty-ninth year, Miss Sheil 
 being nearly ten years younger. Mr. James (subsequently 
 Colonel) Bouverie, the youngest brother of the bride- 
 groom, was present at the marriage. Francis-Kenelm, 
 having been promoted to a captaincy, sold his commission, 
 and settled with his wife at Castledawson. The lady pos- 
 sessed great personal attractions : she is also stated, on 
 authority which seems rather apocryphal, to have possessed 
 a fortune of 4,000. Captain Bouverie had at that time 
 only the money he had received for his commission, and 
 an annuity of 100 a-year, allowed him by his father. Ill
 
 THE HEIR OF DELAPRE. 303 
 
 1832 Mrs. Bouverie gave birth to a still-born daughter. 
 In 1835 she was again confined, and our hero was born 
 under circumstances which for a time clouded the do- 
 mestic happiness of his parents, and, at a later period, 
 enabled certain persons to dispute his legitimacy. The 
 unfortunate fact was that Mrs. Bouverie, whose charms 
 and accomplishments were the objects of general admira- 
 tion, attracted in a particular manner the notice of a 
 gentleman named Bell, who induced her to accompany 
 him for ten or twelve days on a tour to England. It was 
 not to be supposed that scandal would be silent on such 
 an event. Captain Bouverie, however, with rare genero- 
 sity, received back his lady, with whom he resumed his 
 usual friendly intercourse, doing all in his power to keep 
 her equivocal journey to England from the knowledge of 
 his family and of the world. It was subsequently to the 
 English journey that the boy v/as born ; but it seems 
 perfectly clear that, however much Captain Bouverie de- 
 plored his wife's imprudence, he never entertained the 
 slightest misgivings concerning the child's parentage. 
 He has often been heard to say, when showing the child a 
 picture of Delapre Abbey, " My little son, you'll be heir 
 to that yet/' He invariably treated both wife and child 
 with the greatest affection. He kept up a frequent cor- 
 respondence with his family at Delapre, who were fully 
 aware of his marriage ; and among the letters of that cor- 
 respondence still existing, there is one from Captain Bou- 
 verie's mother to his wife, written in terms of the greatest 
 kindness. 
 
 In 1837, Captain Bouverie died. The nijrht before his
 
 301 THE HEIR OP DELAPRE. 
 
 death, the strong feeling of love for his son, which he had 
 always manifested, found expression in a touching charge 
 to the nurse to take care of the little fellow : " Be good to 
 my little son ; take care of him, for he will be heir of my 
 father's estate." The child was then only fourteen months 
 old. 
 
 On the Captain's death, all communication with the 
 family at Delapre ceased. The annuity of one hundred 
 pounds a-year was discontinued to the widow. Her cir- 
 cumstances became greatly reduced, and she married a 
 person named Mann, in a social position much inferior to 
 her own. On Mann's death she married a third husband, 
 Mr. Hammersley. Young Bouverie was sent to school 
 at Carrickfergus by his mother, and when he grew up he 
 entered the constabulary, in order that he might not be 
 a burden to his relatives. He afterwards, as I have said, 
 enlisted in the 4th Dragoon Guards. 
 
 It does not appear that Captain Bouverie's widow had 
 communicated to her son his interest in the Delapre suc- 
 cession. He spent many years in ignorance of his pros- 
 pects. Circumstances which casually came to his know- 
 ledge induced him to apply for information to the solicitors 
 to the estate. Those gentlemen refused to enlighten him; 
 accompanying their refusal with an intimation that his 
 legitimacy was questionable. Fortunately for the appli- 
 cant, the recent statute, entitled the Legitimacy Declaration 
 Act, enables persons whose birth is under dispute, or whose 
 legitimacy may be placed in doubt by the death or ab- 
 sence of witnesses through lapse of time, to petition the 
 Court of Probate aud Divorce; which will grant them, on
 
 THE HEIR OF DELAPRE. 305 
 
 satisfactory proof, an official attestation of their legal 
 standing. 
 
 Availing himself of this act, Mr. John Augustus Sheil 
 Bouverie brought his claims before Sir Cresswell Cress well. 
 His counsel, Sir Hugh Cairns, contended that whenever a 
 child was born in wedlock, at a time when the husband 
 and wife lived together, and when the husband had recog- 
 nised the child as his, the law did not allow the child's 
 legitimacy to be questioned. That rule is plainly necessary 
 for the peace of society, for the sake of public decency 
 and morality ; and to prevent idle and vexatious challenges 
 of the title to property. 
 
 A number of witnesses proved the recognition of the 
 claimant by the late Captain Bouverie as his son. When 
 they had delivered their evidence, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, on 
 behalf of General Bouverie, withdrew his opposition to 
 the claim ; stating that the General's sole object was to 
 ascertain the truth, and to preserve the honour of his name 
 and race*. From the time of the claimant's birth up to the 
 present time, General Bouverie had never heard, except 
 through vague rumour, whether his brother had left a son 
 or not ; and he had never seen either the claimant or his 
 mother. The evidence now given, demonstrating that 
 Captain Bouverie had repeatedly acknowledged the pater- 
 nity of the claimant, had been previously unknown to the 
 General, who did not wish to disregard what now appeared 
 to be the earnest and reasonable purpose of his brother. 
 
 The Judge Ordinary said, the rule of law had never 
 been disputed, that when two married persons were living 
 together, no inquiry could be allowed as to who was the 
 
 x
 
 306 THE HEIR OF DELAPRg. 
 
 father of a child given birth to by the wife. Its legitimacy 
 was presumed by the law to be unquestionable. 
 
 A verdict was therefore recorded for the claimant, who 
 has thus been legally acknowledged as the Heir of De- 
 lapre.
 
 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 307 
 
 w lnitntt f tiit*. 
 
 Then ere of other lines we tell, 
 
 Fair chivalry, adieu ; 
 Plantagenet's last passing bell 
 
 A requiem rang for you. 
 
 I. 
 THE FAIR MAID OF KENT. 
 
 JOAN was the only daughter of Edmond Plantagenet, Earl 
 of Kent, surnamed of Woodstock, sixth and youngest son 
 of King Edward the First. Thus she was sister to Edmund, 
 and heiress as well as sister to John, Earl of Kent, at the 
 time of whose death, in the sixteenth year of Edward the 
 Third's reign, she had attained to somewhat more than her 
 twenty-fifth year. From her surpassing beauty she was 
 honoured far and wide with the soubriquet of the " Fair 
 Maid of Kent." To this name we may easily suppose 
 she had a good title, for she may be said to have married 
 thrice ; and each time to a husband more or less distin- 
 guished in the annals of the period. Her first marriage, 
 or rather nuptial contract, was one in which her own will 
 or choice had no share whatever. While yet a mere child, 
 she had been affianced to Sir Thomas Holland, a knight of
 
 308 THREE PLANTAGENET LADTFS. 
 
 the Garter, and one amongst the first Founders of that 
 princely institution. During his absence from England, 
 the Earl of Salisbury, or, as some have said, the Earl's 
 wife, under whose charge she was placed, caused a con- 
 tract of marriage to be drawn up between Joan of Kent 
 and the heir of the house of Montague. The motives for 
 this nefarious act for we cannot suppose either of them 
 to have been ignorant of the previous contract were, no 
 doubt, ambition and cupidity ; ambition, because whoever 
 married her became connected with the royal family of 
 England ; cupidity, because of the great wealth she was 
 likely to inherit, as, from the feeble constitution of her 
 brother John, it seemed by no means improbable that all 
 the wealth accumulated during the youth of two Earls of 
 Kent would eventually descend to her. When, however, 
 Joan became of marriageable age, Sir Thomas Holland 
 stepped forward to show a prior contract; and upon a pe- 
 tition to Pope Clement the Sixth, alleging the same, his 
 Holiness gave her to Sir Thomas, w-ho in her right became 
 Earl of Kent. 
 
 The singular naivete with which the "prelibatio matri- 
 nionii" is pleaded by Sir Thomas, and the easy way in 
 which he slips the lady's dubious state of familiarity with 
 his opponent, give us strange notions of the moral code of 
 the period. Nor is our surprise likely to diminish, when 
 we consider that the fair one was the grandchild of a 
 monarch, and that the husband, who had won her, was one 
 amongst the Founders of the Order of the Garter. 
 
 By this second husband for be may be fairly styled 
 such Joan had several children, amongst whom wtre
 
 THE FAIR MAID OP KENT. 309 
 
 Thomas, Earl of Kent, and John, Duke of Exeter, both, as 
 we shall hereafter find, to be honourably mentioned in her 
 will. The Earl, her husband, died in 1357. 
 
 The third lover, who had the good fortune to win this 
 fair prize, was more illustrious than either of his prede- 
 cessors, and more nearly allied to our historic sympathies. 
 
 This was no other than the celebrated Black Prince, heir- 
 apparent to the crown of England, though, as being cousin- 
 german to the Prince's father, King Edward the Third, 
 there was a bar to their union, which could only be removed 
 by obtaining a Papal dispensation. The fact appears from 
 the note of a certificate given by Simon, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, [Harleian MS. 6148], to Edward, Prince of 
 Wales, dated 9th October. In this, allusion is made to 
 the Bull from Pope Innocent, granting a dispensation for 
 his marriage, he being within the limited degrees of kin- 
 dred, and for christening her eldest son ; " whereupon," the 
 document goes on to say, " many scandals may arise : 
 Item, she was afore contracted to Thomas Montacute, Earl 
 of Salisbury ; after, to Thomas Holland, knight ; and be- 
 twixt whom grew strife in that cause before the Pope's 
 court ; but judgment was given against the Earl, and she 
 remained wife to the knight, and the Earl therewith content, 
 married another noble lady at Lambeth, in presence of 
 Delawarr," &c. &c. 
 
 "King Edward," says one historian, "was greatly 
 pleased both at his determination and his choice ; a more 
 suitable match could not have been proposed to him, as he 
 wanted not to strengthen his throne by foreign alliances. 
 The prince, the great grandchild of Edward the First, of
 
 310 THREE PLAMTAGENET LADTE 4 
 
 happy memory, the Countess the grandchild of the same 
 monarch ; he the glory of his sex for military performance, 
 and all princely virtues ; and she the flower of her's for 
 the delicacy of her beauty, the sprightliness of her wit, and 
 the goodness of her heart. To noble and ingenuous 
 minds affectation is displeasing; they, therefore, no longer 
 delayed to indulge their wishes than was necessary to 
 procure a dispensation from the Pope on account of their 
 consanguinity ; this being obtained, they were married with 
 great splendour and solemnity at the castle of Windsor, on 
 the tenth of October, 1361, and during their whole lives 
 lived an example to the English court of that nuptial har- 
 mony and felicity which flows from a well-placed affec- 
 tion." 
 
 Their London residence was not very far from the 
 Tower, standing above Crooked Lane end, on Fish Street 
 Hill. The house, when Stowe wrote, was still to be seen, 
 reduced by a series of vicissitudes to the condition of an 
 Inn, with the sign of the Black Bell. 
 
 The fruit of this union of Edward and Joan was the un- 
 fortunate King Richard the Second, whom the ambitious 
 Bolingbroke despoiled of his crown, and most probably of 
 his life ; for without laying much stress on the historical 
 fidelity of our great dramatist, we may believe him on this 
 point. It is an old and established dictum, that the prison 
 of a King is always close upon his grave. 
 
 The traditional tale of the Prince's wooing might form 
 a chapter of no little interest in any historical romance. 
 Joan was in her thirty-third year, and Edward in his 
 thirty-first, when he undertook to woo her, not for himself,
 
 THE FAIR MAID OF KENT. 311 
 
 but for a valued friend, whose name has been lost to us, 
 escaping through the sieve in which fame shuffles so many 
 illustrious claimants for her favour. In the outset the 
 Prince urged his friend's cause with equal earnestness and 
 good faith, pressing his arguments on Joan with so much 
 warmth that, assuming a widow's boldness, she exclaimed, 
 " When I was a ward, I was disposed of by others ; but 
 now, being at years of discretion, and mistress of my own 
 actions, I will not degrade myself by marrying beneath 
 my rank. I cannot but remember that I am of the blood 
 royal of England, and am resolved never to marry again, 
 unless it be to a person princely and virtuous as yourself." 
 The narrator of this tale, probably to grace his heroine, 
 adds that her blushes betrayed her secret to the Prince. 
 But herein he forgot the Horatian maxim 
 
 " Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus." 
 
 The lady's words were quite clear enough to explain mat- 
 ters without calling in the aid of blushes ; which moreover 
 would seem out of place on the cheek of so frank a speaker. 
 The broad hint was not thrown away upon the Prince, who, 
 finding it useless to plead for his friend, now began to 
 plead for himself, with what success may be easily ima- 
 gined, even if the reader had not seen them previously 
 married. 
 
 Joan outlived her third husband some years, dying at 
 Wallingford Castle, in 1385, and in the ninth year of King 
 Richard's reign. It is said that her decease, which oc- 
 curred after an illness of four days only, resulted from 
 grief, in that Richard denied her earnest suit for the par-
 
 312 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 don of her sou, his half-brother, John Holland, who had 
 slain the eldest born and heir of the Earl of Stafford. Her 
 body, having been embalmed, was consigned to the tomb 
 with the usual ceremonies, in the church of the Friars 
 Minors at Stamford. 
 
 The will of the rich heiress, in which certain costly beds 
 make a very conspicuous figure, may serve to exemplify 
 the manners of the times, as well as to illustrate the simi- 
 lar bequest in Shakespere's testament. How much wrath 
 and ink shed amongst the poet's commentators has been 
 occasioned by the bequest of a handsome bed to Anne 
 Hathaway ! It was like cutting her off with a single shil- 
 ling, and evidently betokened malice prepense to his better 
 half on the part of the expiring poet. Yet here we have 
 a Princess making the same sort of donation to her fa- 
 vourite sons, and evidently believing that she was marking 
 her regard for them. It is lucky for the Fair Maid of Kent 
 that she has found no commentators. But to the Will : 
 
 " In the name, &c. In the year of our Lord 1385, and 
 of the reign of my dear son, Richard, King of England 
 i nd France, the 9th, at my castle of Walyngford, in the 
 diocese of Salisbury, the 7th of August, I, Joan, Princess 
 of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester, and 
 Lady Wake. My body to be buried in my chapel at Stam- 
 ford, near the monument of our late lord and husband, the 
 Earl of Kent. To my dear son, the King, my new bed of 
 red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, and 
 herds of leopards of gold with boughs and leaves issuing 
 out of their mouths. To my dear son, Thomas, Earl of 
 Kent, my bed of red camak, paied with red and rays of
 
 THE FAIR MAID OP KENT. 313 
 
 gold. To my dear son, John Holland, a bed of red camak. 
 To my dear son, Richard, King of England and France, 
 &c. And I appoint the venerable Father in Christ, my 
 dear friend and cousin, Robert, Bishop of London; William, 
 Bishop of Winchester; John, Lord Cobham ; William 
 de Beauchamp, William de Nevill, Simon de Burle, Lewis 
 Clifford, Richard Stury, John Worthe, steward of my lands, 
 and John le Veche, Knights; together with my dear chap- 
 lains, William de Fulburn, and John de Yernemouth ; and 
 my loving esquires, William de Harpele, and William 
 Norton, my executors. 
 
 " Witnessed by the Pryor of Walynforde, and John 
 James. 
 
 " Proved 9th December, 1385." 
 
 In compliance with the Countess's injunction, her re- 
 mains were deposited in the church of the Grey Friars at 
 Stamford; and "there she was laid down to her last sleep, 
 preferring, in death, companionship with the old knight 
 to sharing a tomb in Canterbury with her second husband, 
 Edward of Woodstock V * 
 
 The fair Countess's eldest son, Thomas Holland, who 
 succeeded to the Earldom of Kent, had two sons, both in 
 succession Earls of Kent, and both distinguished men. 
 The elder, Thomas, created Duke of Surrey, and made a 
 Knight of the Garter, was beheaded by Henry IV. ; and 
 the younger, Edmund, last Earl of Kent, Lord Admiral 
 of England, was mortally wounded at the siege of Briak. 
 Joan's third son, John Holland, was created Duke of 
 
 * DOBAN'S Lives of the Princes of IFalet.
 
 314 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 Exeter by Richard II., and beheaded by Henry IV. The 
 grandson of this ill-fated nobleman, Henry Holland, last 
 Duke of Exeter, was so reduced that Comines narrates that 
 he saw him in such deep distress that " he ran on foot 
 barelegged after the Duke of Burgundy's train, begging 
 bread for God's sake." How he came by his death has 
 never been ascertained. In 1473 his dead body was found 
 in the sea, between Calais and Dover. 
 
 The descendants of " the Fair Maid of Kent " are very 
 numerous, and those even who are entitled, as her corepre- 
 sentatives, to quarter the Plantagenet arms, are not a few : 
 but, in illustration of my subject, and of the vicissitudes 
 from which Royal Houses are not exempt, it will be mourn- 
 fully interesting to learn, that within our own time one 
 branch of her line a branch on which has devolved the 
 heraldic right of carrying as her COHEIRS the Royal Shield 
 of Plantagenet, and I know not how many other quar- 
 terings was earning an honest livelihood by trade and 
 labour. In few words, the story, which is authentic be- 
 yond all question, runs thus : 
 
 The male line of the Hollands, Earls of Kent, ended 
 as I have just described, and the heirship of the illustrious 
 race passed to the sisters of the last Earl. One of these 
 married Edward Cherleton, Lord Powis, and transmitted 
 her ancestral honours, through the Tiptofts and the Sut- 
 tons, to Ferdinando, Lord Dudley, who died unmarried in 
 1757, when the Barony of Dudley fell into abeyance 
 amongst his Lordship's sisters. One of these highborn 
 ladies, in whose veins flowed the blood of the mightiest 
 families in the land, and in whom rested the colieirsLip of
 
 ELIZABETH OF YOtta. 315 
 
 the Barony of Dudley, married Walter Woodcock, Esq., 
 known as " Squire Woodcock," and left four grandsons, 
 coheirs to her hereditary distinctions, of whom the eldest 
 was Joseph Smart, who carried on the business of a but- 
 cher at Hales Owen ! 
 
 Marvellous indeed is the contrast ! The descendant and 
 corepresentative of the Fair Maid of Kent, the 12th in a 
 direct line from King Henry VII., the coheir of the lordly 
 houses of Holland, Cherleton, Tiptoft, and Sutton, and, 
 more than all, the coheir of the famous Barony of Dudley, 
 was an industrious butcher, within a few miles of the very 
 castle where erst his ancestors held almost royal sway. 
 
 " The blood and courage that renowned them 
 Ran in his veins." 
 
 Mr. Smart retired from trade for upwards of twenty years 
 before his death, which occurred in 1855 ; he left two sons, 
 Joseph Smart, a farmer, of Oatenfields, and Robert Smart, 
 a butcher and grazier, both still resident at Halcsowen. 
 
 II. 
 ELIZABETH OF YORK. 
 
 THE Princess Elizabeth, surnamed of York, was the 
 eldest daughter of Edward the Fourth, by his Queen, Eliza- 
 beth Wydeville. Her birth took place at Westminster, on 
 the eleventh day of February, 1 464-5 ; and soon after- 
 wards she was christened in the Abbey there, with the 
 pomp and circumstance suitable to the state of her, who 
 would one day, to all appearance, become the Sovereign of 
 England. It was probably owing to this prospect of suc- 
 cession, that the King, her father, bestowed so much care
 
 316 THREE PLANTAGEXET LADIES. 
 
 upon her education ; she was taught both French and 
 Spanish, and it is recorded of her by the chroniclers, with 
 much emphasis, that she could read and write her own 
 language ; their admiration upon this head leaving us to 
 infer that these were no common accomplishments amongst 
 the ladies of her period. These brilliant expectations, 
 perhaps happily for Elizabeth, were not destined to be re- 
 alized, for the turbulent nobles, who were with difficulty 
 kept iu order by the strong hand of man, already began 
 to murmur at the prospect of a female ruler. After the 
 lapse of some years, a son was born to Edward, and he was 
 subsequently followed by a second. 
 
 While Elizabeth was yet a child, Edward more than 
 once used the hope of obtaining her in marriage as a 
 peace-offering to reconcile his enemies, or as a lure to con- 
 firm the wavering. In this way he won over the Nevilles, 
 when he was their prisoner at Middleham, proposing that, 
 as soon as she came of ripe years, she should marry George 
 Neville, the eldest son of John, Earl of Northumberland, 
 afterwards Marquess of Montagu. The young lover, in 
 the prospect of this arrangement being one day carried 
 out, was created, 5th Jan. 1469, Duke of Bedford; but 
 his subsequent defection from the King broke off the de- 
 sign, and in the year 1477 he was degraded by Parliament 
 from all his honours, on account of his not having any 
 means for sustaining the Ducal dignity. 
 
 Again, when there was a treaty of marriage afoot be- 
 tween the Lancastrian Prince of Wales and Anne of War- 
 wick, King Edward adopted the same convenient and 
 ready line of policy, and endeavoured to defeat the nego- 
 ciation by offering " my lady Princess" to Queen Margaret
 
 ELIZABETH OF YORK. 817 
 
 for her son. The Lancastrian cause, however, triumphed 
 for a time by force of arms, without the necessity of such 
 an union. Edward, baffled and defeated, was compelled 
 to ensure his personal safety by flying to the continent, 
 where he found a refuge with the Duke of Burgundy; 
 while his Queen, with Elizabeth and two younger children, 
 sought and found a refuge in the sanctuary at Westminster. 
 Here it was that she first gave birth to a son, thus remov- 
 ing Elizabeth from her dangerous proximity to a throne, 
 sure, at all events, to be contested, and doubly so if the 
 sceptre had fallen into the feeble grasp of a woman. 
 
 Scarcely have we grown familiar with the idea of a King 
 of the House of Lancaster, than the various characters, 
 as if in some mazy dance, once, again shift their places ; 
 the first becomes last, those who were at the top are now 
 precipitated to the bottom, until the head, in truth, be- 
 comes giddy by this incessant whirr and whirling of the 
 wheel of fortune. The Lancastrians are in their turn de- 
 feated, the Yorkist King regains his sceptre, and, following 
 out his old policy, offers Elizabeth's hand to the young 
 Earl of Hichmond. But the latter, who was then an 
 exile, suspected, and probably with reason, that this offer 
 was no more than a lure to get him into the King's power. 
 He declined the dangerous honour. 
 
 In the June of 1475, Edward resolved to occupy the 
 thoughts and hands of his turbulent nobles in the favour- 
 ite warfare of that age, as the crusades were of a yet earlier 
 period. He collected a numerous army for the invasion 
 of France, to which country, either in whole or in part, 
 the English monarchs never failed to lay claim whenever 
 a momentary cessation from intestine dispute gave them
 
 318 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 leisure for so agreeable an amusement. Previous to his 
 departure at Southampton, Edward made his will, in which 
 he thus alludes to the Princess Elizabeth : 
 
 " Item, We will that owre doughter Elizabeth have XM 
 marc, towards her marriage, and that owre doughter Marie 
 have also to her marriage XM marc, soo that they may be 
 goaverned and rieuled in their mariage by owre deirest 
 wiff the Queen and by owre said son the Prince if God 
 fortune him to comme to age of discrecion. And if he 
 decease afore such age, as God defende, then by such as 
 God disposeth to bee owre heir and by such lords and other 
 as then shall bee of their couusaill ; and if either of 
 owre said doughters doo marie thaims self without such 
 advys and assent soo as they bee disparaged, as God for- 
 bede that then she soo marieng herself have noo paiemen 
 of her said XM marc, but that it be emploied by owre ex- 
 ecutours towards the hasty paiment of owre debtes, &c." 
 
 Happily for the real interests of the people in either 
 country, the threatened war was averted by Louis XL, the 
 ablest and most unscrupulous statesman of his age. This 
 wily French monarch played with Edward as with a child 
 in King-craft. Adopting his favorite plan of conciliating 
 and then biding his time, he made concessions to the un- 
 reasonable demands of the haughty English Sovereign, but 
 with no intention, as the result proved, of keeping word in 
 any of them. Amongst these conditions, the Princess Eliza- 
 beth, as usual, came into play. It was stipulated that Prince 
 Charles, the Dauphin, (afterwards the gallant Charles VIIL, 
 the conqueror of Naples and hero of Fornovo), should 
 marry her when she arrived at the connubial age ; or, if she 
 died before that period, that then he should give his hand
 
 ELIZABETH OF YORK. 319 
 
 to her sister Mary. From this time forward Elizabeth was 
 always addressed in the palace as Madame la Dauphine; 
 a certain portion of the tribute-money, paid by Louis the 
 Eleventh to her father, being carried over to account for 
 her use, as the daughter-in-law of the French monarch. 
 Louis also bound himself to defray the expenses of her 
 journey into France, when the time came for her nuptials; 
 while for a set-off to these concessions, Edward surrendered 
 to his son-in-law the titular right to the long-contested 
 dukedom of Guienne, or Acquitaine ; these territories being 
 reckoned a part of Elizabeth's dower. Louis and Edward 
 shook hands through a grating in the centre of a tempo- 
 rary bridge over the Somme, at Picquigny, near Amiens, 
 and swore on the Missal to observe their engagements. 
 Louis, no doubt, smiled inwardly at the time at the suc- 
 cess of his guile, and speedily found, after his wonted 
 fashion, some flattering unction to lay to his soul for his 
 breach of faith. He had promised and contracted largely, 
 but he had, in truth, no intention of strengthening Eng- 
 land's claims to the crown of France by such an union. 
 Three years had scarcely elapsed when he showed how little 
 he had been in earnest with this projected match, by his 
 demanding the Princess Margaret, heiress of Burgundy, for 
 his son the Dauphin ; and thus Elizabeth was once again 
 bandied to and fro between acceptance and rejection, like 
 a ball between the rackets. With the usual aptitude that 
 the world has for attributing the deaths of kings to any 
 but the natural causes, it was asserted by many at the 
 time, and the tale has since been with easy faith repeated, 
 that Edward died from a paroxysm of rage occasioned by
 
 320 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 this unlooked-for insult. However this may be, his death 
 occurred at Westminster, on the 9th of April, 1483. 
 His cunning opponent, Louis XL, had also soon to an- 
 swer to God for his misdeeds, as he survived the English 
 King only somewhat more than four months, and died on the 
 30th of August of the same year. Nor was Margaret of 
 Burgundy ever married to the Dauphin. Edward's crown 
 devolved to his eldest son, who, unfortunately for himself as 
 well as the state, was then a minor. The long-cherished 
 ambition of the Duke of Gloucester had thus a full field 
 to display itself; and in the murders and embroilments 
 that followed, the treachery of the French king, then dead, 
 appears to have been forgotten. England, at war with 
 herself, had no leisure for quarrels with her neighbours. 
 
 Elizabeth was now neai'ly eighteen years of age, when, 
 with her second brother and two younger sisters, she was 
 hurried into the sanctuary at Westminster by the fears of 
 her mother, who had taken alarm at the way in which the 
 Duke had treated her relations. How the brothers are 
 supposed to have subsequently perished in the Tower is 
 too familiar a tale to need repetition. Then, after a time, 
 followed the defection of a powerful noble, Sir Henry de 
 Stafford, K.G., Duke of Buckingham, and Constable of 
 England : he abandoned the cause of King Richard, which 
 he had hitherto served with more zeal than conscience. 
 By some this falling-off was attributed to a desire on his 
 part to obtain the crown for himself, as being descended 
 from Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of 
 Edward the Third. So preposterous a claim found no 
 favour with any, not eveii with his more immediate parti-
 
 ELIZABETH OT YORK. 321 
 
 zans ; and, finding this to be the case beyond his power 
 to control it he suddenly shifted his ground, and declared 
 himself the friend of Henry, Earl of Richmond, whom his 
 party proposed should espouse the young Princess Eliza- 
 beth. Her two brothers having been made away with in 
 the Tower, she was the undoubted heiress of the throne, 
 and such an union would, they imagined, for ever recon- 
 cile the conflicting claims of York and Lancaster. 
 
 Whatever might have been the faults or the crimes of 
 King Richard with respect to others, he had been a bene- 
 factor to his too ready minion and agent, Buckingham, and 
 had rewarded him upon no stinted scale. Well, therefore, 
 might the monarch exclaim, upon learning his treachery, 
 that " Buckingham was the most untrue creature living." 
 
 The proposal for Richmond's union with the Princess 
 Elizabeth having been communicated to the Queen - 
 mother in her sanctuary at Westminster, she at once 
 acceded to it as readily as the country had done ; and 
 upon the twenty-fourth day of September, Buckingham 
 sent to the Earl of Richmond, appointing the 10th of 
 October for the general outbreak, and urging him, when 
 the time came, to land at Plymouth with his followers. 
 The King, however or usurper, as they styled him was 
 fully aware of their projects, and the accidents of nature 
 came in aid of his preparations to defeat them. When 
 Buckingham unfurled the standard of revolt at Brecon, 
 and was about to march forward for the purpose of effect- 
 ing a junction with his Welsh adherents, the Severn, 
 swelled by a heavy fall of rain, suddenly rose to an unusual 
 height, and completely barred his passage. Those who
 
 322 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 were with him, disheartened by this untoward event, and 
 yet farther alarmed by Richard's proclamations, were 
 seized with a sudden panic more than commensurate to 
 their causes, either conjoined or singly ; they broke and 
 dispersed in all directions as if with one consent ; and 
 Buckingham, thus abandoned, attempted to fly, but was 
 betrayed by one of his own servants, and conducted back 
 to Salisbury, where the Royal army was assembled, and 
 where he was immediately beheaded. " So much for Buck- 
 ingham." In the meanwhile, Richmond, true to his agree- 
 ment, appeared off the coast with five thousand Breton 
 soldiers. Upon the shore appeared a large army, either to 
 oppose or join him ; and doubting which of the two was 
 their object, instead of landing, he returned to Brittany. 
 Still the main plot of the conspirators was not abandoned. 
 " On Christmas- day following, the Earl of Richmond, ac- 
 companied by the Marquess of Dorset, went to the cathedral 
 of Vanncs, where they solemnly pledged themselves to 
 each other, and Richmond swore to marry Elizabeth of 
 York immediately after he ascended the throne." 
 
 The King, de facto, if not dejure, met these conspirings 
 with demonstrations of equal energy. He caused his 
 principal enemies to be attainted of treason, confiscated 
 their estates, and used every means, short of actual vio- 
 lence, to draw the Ex-Qaeen and her children from their 
 asylum in the Abbey. There they had been, for many 
 months, protected in a great degree by the influence of 
 Dorset and the Bishop of Salisbury, Lionel Woodville ; but 
 the protectors themselves were now in danger ; they had 
 been too deeply implicated in Buckingham's plot, and, upon
 
 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 323 
 
 the failure of his revolt, found it prudent to consult their 
 own safety by a speedy flight to France. The situation 
 of the refugees in the sanctuary then became irksome, if 
 not absolutely perilous. A cordon of soldiers, commanded 
 by John Nesfield, a squire of King Richard's guard, kept 
 watch about the Abbey, night and day, rendering flight 
 impossible, and reducing the poor lady and her children 
 to much distress. While these coercive measures threat- 
 ened them on one hand, the voice of the tempter was 
 heard upon the other, proffering them ease and safety if they 
 would leave the sanctuary, and the Princess would confirm 
 by her own confession the Act of Parliament which bas- 
 tardized her as the illegitimate child of Edward the Fourth. 
 The document in which Richard makes these proffers and 
 there is little or no doubt of its being genuine is very 
 curious, and may still be seen. 
 
 Thus lured, on the one hand, by the voice of the 
 charmer, and on the other impelled by an irresistible ne- 
 cessity, the refugees, after so many months of self-imposed 
 imprisonment, were at length induced to abandon their 
 asylum in March, 1484. Nor does Richard, in this in. 
 stance at least, pursue the treacherous course which his 
 chroniclers have been so fond of imputing to him on other 
 occasions. The ex-Queen was placed under the care of 
 Nesfeld, the same officer that had kept watch and ward, 
 who, while he treated her with decent civility, was not 
 likely to let her escape or band with the King's enemies. 
 Elizabeth of York and her younger sisters were hospitably 
 entertained at court, where the former was treated by 
 Queen Anne more like a sister than a distant relation.
 
 324 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 Richard, too. showed her no less attention; whereupon, 
 slander, which could no longer accuse him of cruelty 
 or faithlessness, now pretended to discover that he was 
 actuated by too much affection, and wished to marry her 
 himself; the promulgators of this report declaring that 
 Richard sought the match, in order to prevent his rival 
 from strengthening his hold upon the popular favour by 
 an alliance with the Yorkist heir to the throne. 
 
 From the Christmas of 1481 until the death of Richard 
 the Third, there are few historical records to light us 
 through the darkness of a period that yet must have been 
 fertile in stirring events. The most material account that 
 we have of Elizabeth of York's connection with the revolt 
 in favour of Richmond, is a metrical narrative, of little 
 poetical merit, entitled, " The most Pleasant Song of Lady 
 Bessy," written by Humphrey Brereton, who, as he him- 
 self informs us, was an esquire in the retinue of Lord 
 Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby. According to this 
 chronicler, the Lady Elizabeth warmly espoused the cause 
 of Richmond, and was the first to urge Lord Stanley to 
 adopt the same side in the dispute. After much entreaty, 
 says " the pleasant song," Stanley yields, but at the last 
 moment another difficulty arises, in that Lord Stanley feared 
 to employ a scribe to write the letters by which he proposed 
 summoning his partizans. " Lady Bessy " obviates this, by 
 telling him that she has been taught to write like any scri- 
 vener ; whereupon it is settled that he shall come to her 
 chamber at night, attended only by his trusty squire, 
 Humphrey Brereton, both of them " disguised in strange
 
 ELIZABETH OF YORK. 325 
 
 The appointed hour comes, the " wickett" is opened to 
 Stanley, at his signal, and after having rested awhile by a < 
 charcoal fire, and feasted sumptuously, " they ate the spice 
 and drank the wine," she kneels down, and in that posi- 
 tion writes to his dictation. To each of his friends, Stan- 
 ley mentions some circumstance only known to themselves, 
 as a proof that the letter really comes from him, and is 
 not a snare to entrap the recipient. 
 
 Armed with these documents, Brereton sets out fot the 
 north, and returning shortly afterwards, finds Lord Stanley 
 walking with King Richard in the Palace gardens and the 
 squire pretends he has been in the north for his diversion. 
 He next, in a private interview, informs the Princess of 
 his success, who hereupon agrees to meet the confederates 
 when they arrive in London. The place appointed was 
 an old inn in the suburbs, between Islington and Holborn, 
 more particularly designated by an eagle's foot chalked 
 on the door, and which seems to have been a sort of pass- 
 signal among the Stanleys. Having convinced herself at 
 this meeting that no injury would accrue to Richmond from 
 the Yorkist prejudices of her associates, Elizabeth sent him 
 a ring of betrothal, with a letter explaining the strength of 
 the party in favour of an union between the houses of 
 York and Lancaster. Brereton undertook to be the bearer 
 of these missives, and embarked at Liverpool, which was 
 an obscure port, and little frequented at a time when com- 
 munication between distant parts and the capital was both 
 difficult and dangerous. 
 
 Brereton finds the Earl at " Beggram's Abbey in Little 
 Britain," about twenty-eight miles from Rennes, and re-
 
 THREE PLANTAGEXET LADIES. 
 
 cognises him by the signs previously imparted by the 
 porter. 
 
 Richmond took three weeks to consider the matter with 
 his friends, when at last he dismissed Brereton with a 
 " love letter to young Bessye," and soon after landed in 
 England with all the force he could collect, having met 
 with no interruption on his passage, the extreme poverty 
 of Richard preventing him from keeping his fleet at sea. 
 Upon the news of this invasion, the King sent Elizabeth, 
 and her cousin, the Earl of Warwick, to the castle of 
 Sheriff Hutton, in Yorkshire, according to one account, 
 though this differs from Brereton ? s story of her having 
 accompanied Lord Stanley to Leicester, where she saw the 
 corpse of Richard. 
 
 If King Richard had been treacherous, he certainly was 
 met with treachery greater than his own. Stanley car- 
 ried on his double part even amid the alarums and death- 
 struggle at Bosworth. Stanley's betrayal glared upon 
 Richard at the last moment, whose shout of " Treason ! 
 treason !" arose, while, like a true Plantagenet, he fought 
 the fight out, until numbers overpowered him, and he was 
 slain. Stanley it was who picked up and presented to 
 Richmond the crown- encircled helmet which the King 
 parted with only with his life. 
 
 For some time after the battle of Bosworth Field, the 
 conqueror showed no signs of any intention to fulfil his 
 promise of marrying the Princess Elizabeth, greatly to the 
 discontent of the Yorkists. Reluctant to acknowledge 
 that he was in any way indebted for the throne to the pro- 
 posed union, Henry resolved in the first place to obtain a
 
 ELIZABETH OF YORK. 327 
 
 recognition of his claims, weak as they were, from the 
 parliament. This was acceded to ; but upon their grant- 
 ing him the tonnage and poundage for life, they added to 
 it a prayer, through their Speaker, Sir Thomas Lovell, 
 " that in consideration of the right to the realms of Eng- 
 land and France being vested in his person, and the heirs 
 of his body, by the authority of the said parliament, he 
 would be pleased to espouse the Lady Elizabeth, daughter 
 of King Edward the Fourth, which marriage they hoped 
 God would bless with a progeny to the great satisfaction 
 of the whole realm." The Lords, spiritual and temporal, 
 rising from their seats, and bowing to the throne, ex- 
 pressed their concurrence in the request, and the King 
 answered that he was willing to do as they desired. Ac- 
 cordingly, upon the eighteenth of the following January, 
 his nuptials with Elizabeth were solemnized at West- 
 minster, though it may well be doubted whether his 
 heart was inclined to the marriage. Certain it is, that the 
 necessary dispensation from the papal court was not ap- 
 1 lied for until the end of 1485, yet surely this measure 
 v.-ould have been adopted much earlier, had Henry been 
 from the first in earnest. Such a delay seems to intimate 
 a reluctance on his part, which was only overcome by the 
 general impatience for this union, aa impatience that he 
 felt it dangerous to resist any longer. If it be true, 
 and after all, the story is not improbable, that she had 
 at one time professed love for Richard, we may easily un- 
 derstand his reluctance, and why he entertained, as he was 
 sa : J to have done, a design of offering his hand to the 
 heiress of Brittany.
 
 328 THREE PLANTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 It was not until eighteen months after the marriage that 
 Elizabeth was crowned with great pomp at Westminister, 
 a delay which probably arose from the exceeding poverty 
 of the royal exchequer. Little more remains to be told 
 of her, than that she was called "the Good," that she was 
 fond of music and of dress was charitable and liberal 
 that Hampton Court was her favourite place of residence 
 .that she had a fair complexion, with locks of pale gold 
 and that her face was even more remarkable for its 
 serene expression than it was for its beauty, though from 
 iier portraits she might be ranked amongst the most 
 beautiful. 
 
 The " Good Queen" died in her thirty-eighth year, upon 
 her own birth-day, the eleventh of February, 1503, shortly 
 after having been brought to bed of a daughter, and within 
 a year of the death of her eldest and dearly beloved son, 
 the amiable and promising Arthur, Prince of Wales. Her 
 funeral , (her husband calculated all expenses, and was liberal 
 ior once,) cost 2832 7s. 3d. By her, Henry had seven 
 rhildren, his second son succeeding him on the throne by 
 the title of Henry the Eighth. 
 
 The body of Elizabeth rests by the side of her husband, 
 in the centre of his noble chapel, under a monument de- 
 signed by Torregiauo. 
 
 Her eldest descendant representative, in fact, of the 
 HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET is FRANCES FERDINAND GE- 
 MINIEN, EX-DUKE OF MODENA, who is also representative 
 (;f the Tudors and Stuarts, deriving his royal rights from 
 Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, daughter and eventually 
 sole heir of CHARLES I., of England, which monarch was
 
 MARGARET OP CLARENCE. 329 
 
 great-great-great-grandson of ELIZABETH OP YORK. I 
 have before remarked on the curious fact, that at the little 
 Court of Modena, before its own Vicissitudes scattered its 
 members, were comprised the heirs of the Royal Houses 
 of England, France, and Spain. The Duke himself is the 
 representative of the English dynasties. One of his 
 sisters is married to the Count de Chambord (Due de 
 Bordeaux), heir of the Kings of France, and another to 
 Don John of Spain, heir, in the male line, to the Spanish 
 throne. Among British subjects, the senior representative 
 of Elizabeth of York is RICHARD PLANTAGENET, DUKE OP 
 BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS. 
 
 Til. 
 
 MARGARET OF CLARENCE, COUNTESS OF 
 SALISBURY. 
 
 OP this lady, THE LAST or THE PLANTAOENETS, the records 
 are exceedingly meagre and imperfect. She was the second 
 daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, who, after having 
 sided with all parties, and betrayed all parties no unusual 
 occurrence in those days was attainted, as the partial 
 chroniclers will have it, by a yet greater dissembler than 
 himself, the hunch-backed Duke of Gloucester, (whose 
 very hunch, however, is a matter of historic doubt), and put 
 to death by immersion in a butt of malmsey. On the 
 maternal side she was scarcely less nobly descended, her 
 mother having been Isabel Neville, the eldest daughter of 
 llichard, Earl of Warwick " proud seller up and puller 
 uown of kings."
 
 oof) THREE PLAXTACZNET LADIES. 
 
 Margaret was born at Farley Castle, near Bath, in 
 Somersetshire ; but in what month, or in what year, would 
 appear to be doubtful. That it could not have occurred 
 long after the 18th of February, 1477, is certain, for it 
 was at that date her father was put to death through the 
 intrigues of his brother, Gloucester. There is the same 
 difficulty in ascertaining the exact time of her marriage 
 \vith Sir Richard Pole, and there is also lack of evidence 
 with respect to the knight's family, which had not at- 
 tained any higher title than that of knighthood. This Sir 
 Richard left her a widow, with four sons and one daugh- 
 ter ; and after his decease, in the fifth year of King Henry 
 the Eighth, " she exhibited her petition in Parliament, as 
 being only sister and heir to Edward, Earl of Warwick 
 and Salisbury, and daughter of Isabel, daughter and heir 
 to Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, son and heir to Alice, 
 daughter and heir to Thomas Montague, Earl of Salis- 
 bury." The result of this application was, that she 
 was restored by the King in Parliament to the title of 
 Countess of Salisbury, the honour she had coveted, and 
 was in fairness entitled to. But she did not long retain 
 this new dignity ; the sun of royal favour, which at first had 
 shone so brightly upon her, being speedily overclouded, 
 and being succeeded by a storm that tore up her good for- 
 tune by the roots. Henry the Eighth, too fond of power to 
 allow of any sharer in it, had just now destroyed the papal 
 authority in his realm, although while he thus struck off 
 the Church's head, he was still anxious to keep alive its 
 body, being a stanch upholder of the Catholic belief, 
 notwithstanding his enmity to the see of Rome. He chose
 
 MARGARET OP CLARENCE. 331 
 
 to be his own Pope; and it behoved all his people to think 
 as he did, on pain of incurring his anger, an anger which 
 was never known to spare either man or woman. Few 
 things could have given deeper offence to this headstrong 
 and despotic monarch than the slightest attempt to main- 
 tain the papal supremacy in opposition to his owu. Un- 
 fortunately for Margaret, she became suspected, not with- 
 out grounds, perhaps, of this new treason, for the human 
 mind does not often abandon its long-cherished opinions 
 at the mere bidding of another, even when conversion is 
 assisted by the stake and the faggot. It is, therefore, 
 probably true enough that certain bulls from Rome were 
 found at her mansion-house of Cowdray ; and as true, no 
 doubt, what was also charged upon her, that the parson 
 of Wallingford had conveyed letters from her to her son 
 Reginald, who, as he was a cardinal, was of course an 
 object of suspicion. A yet graver, or, at least, more 
 tangible accusation was, that she had forbidden all her 
 tenants to have the New- Testament in English, or to 
 possess any other book privileged by the King an offence 
 which could not fail to wound his pride and vanity, and 
 was, therefore, of all others, the least likely to be forgiven 
 by him. In this emergency Margaret was not wanting to 
 herself, although age might have been expected to have 
 impaired her powers of resistance, for she was more than 
 seventy at the time. But of what use was denial where a 
 despotic King was the accuser ? The venerable lady was 
 condemned without the ceremony of a trial, and attainted, 
 together with her grandson, a little boy of tender years, 
 the only son of Lord Moutacute. For nearly two years
 
 332 THREE JLAivTAGENET LADIES. 
 
 the aged Countess, the nearest in blood of all his relations 
 to King Henry, dragged on a miserable existence in a 
 dungeon of the Tower, whence in 1541 she was brought 
 to the scaffold, and literally chopped down by the exe- 
 cutioner as she evaded the axe. With her expired the 
 royal and illustrious House of Plantagenet. 
 
 The story of the fate of her children is one of mournful 
 pathos. The eldest son, Henry Pole, Lord Montacute,* 
 being charged by his own brother, Sir Geoffery Pole (a 
 degenerate scion of a noble line), with a design to elevate 
 his youngest brother, Reginald, the eminent Cardinal Pole, 
 to the throne, was convicted of high treason, and beheaded 
 on Tower Hill, just two years before his mother. Sir 
 Geoffery was allowed a dishonoured life; but I cannot 
 accurately trace aught about the infant heir, save that 
 he died in youth. Of the beautiful Lady Mary Hast- 
 ings, the grand-daughter of Lord Montacute, and great 
 grand-daughter of Margaret Plantagent, Countess of 
 Salisbury, the following anecdote is told : " John Vassi- 
 livich, Grand Duke and Emperor of Russia, having a 
 desire to marry an English lady, was told of the Lady 
 Mary Hastings, who being of the blood royal, he began to 
 affect : whereupon making his desires known to Queen 
 Elizabeth, who did well approve thereof, he sent over 
 Theodore Pissemskoie, a nobleman of great account, his 
 
 * Henry Pole, Lord Montacute, left two daughters, his co- 
 heirs : Katherine, married to Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of 
 Huntingdon, and Winifred, married, first, to Sir Thomas Hast- 
 ings, and 2ndly, to Sir Thomas Barrington, of Essex. One of 
 the descendants and coheirs of the Barringtons, Mr. Selby- 
 Lovrodea, of Whaddon Hall, Bucks, is now before the House of 
 Lords as claimant of the Barony of Montaculc.
 
 MARGARET OF CLARENCE. 
 
 ambassador, who, in the name of his master, offered great 
 advantages to the Queen in the event of the marriage. 
 The Queen hereupon caused the lady to be attended with 
 divers ladies and young noblemen, that so the ambassador 
 might have a sight of her, which was accomplished in 
 York House Garden, near Charing Cross, London. There 
 was the envoy brought into her presence, and casting 
 down his countenance, fell prostrate before her, then rising, 
 with his face still towards her, (the lady with the rest 
 admiring at his strange salutation), he said, by his inter- 
 preter, ' it sufficed him to behold the angelic presence of 
 her who, he hoped, would be his master's spouse and 
 empress.' " The alliance did not, however, take place, 
 and the lady died unmarried. 
 
 The Countess of Salisbury's only daughter, Ursula, 
 married Henry Lord Stafford, and had several children. 
 The daughter of the second son married a joiner, and had a 
 son, a cobbler ; and the son of the eldest son, Edward, third 
 Lord Stafford, was " basely married to his mother's cham- 
 bermaid,"* honest and handsome Isabel Forster, of Tong, 
 in Shropshire. 
 
 But the male issue of the marriage of Lord Stafford 
 and " My Lady's Chambermaid" soon ended. In 1637 
 the representation of the House of Stafford, and the 
 succession to its honours, devolved on a younger grandson 
 of Ursula Pole's, Roger Stafford, who had been left in 
 early life utterly penniless and disregarded. "So desti- 
 tute am I," writes the poor man, " that I JJave not 
 wherewithal to supply my daily wants. I must submit 
 
 * Sidney Papert.
 
 33-1 THREE PLAN-PAGENET LADIES. 
 
 to earn my bread by the sweat of my brow and the work 
 of my hands : but I will not degrade my family by the 
 meanness of my occupation I will call myself by another 
 name, that of my only friend, a servant of my uncle 
 George Corbet's. Thus it will not be known who or 
 what I am." 
 
 In fulfilment of this resolution, Roger Stafford, who 
 was worthy of his illustrious ancestry, but who submitted 
 with fortitude and resignation to his fate, took the simple 
 name of Floyde, and, in an industrious calling, fought 
 the battle of life, humbly but honestly. 
 
 Time rolled on. Roger had become an old man, and 
 was still engaged in his obscure pursuits, when news 
 reached him that Lord Stafford had died, and that the 
 honours of the house of Stafford were now his. He re- 
 sumed at once his own noble name, and boldly petitioned 
 Parliament for a recognition of his rights. Parliament 
 referred the case to the King, and Charles I. undertook its 
 adjudication. 
 
 Can we not picture to ourselves poor eld Roger Stafford 
 struggling to collect the necessary proofs ? Can we not 
 almost see him bending over the pile of family documents 
 with appended seals, of parochial registers, and emblazoned 
 pedigrees more in unison with the ancient castle of 
 Stafford than the miserable garret in which, he is ? Fi- 
 nally he has all complete, and he submits his case confi- 
 dently to Royal decision. Every proof is scrupulously 
 examined deed, register, and document, all are minutely 
 weighed, and yet nothing is found but what confirms be- 
 yond all controversy the poor suitor's claim. The King
 
 M'RGAKET OF CLARENCE. 335 
 
 acknowledges this, and admits that Roger Stafford is by 
 right Lord Stafford, but declares that his poverty is such 
 he must not bear the title ! That " the said Roger Staf- 
 ford, having no part of the inheritance of the said Lord 
 Stafford, nor any lands or means whatever," should make 
 a resignation of all his claims and title to the Barony of 
 Stafford, for his Majesty to dispose of as he should see 
 fit. 
 
 With the same meek submission to the decrees of fate, 
 and the same magnanimous resignation, the last of the 
 Staffords obeyed the Royal mandate, and did, by deed 
 dated 7th Dec. 1639, for the consideration of 800, paid 
 to him by the King, grant and surrender unto his Majesty 
 his Barony of Stafford, and the honour and dignity of 
 Lord Stafford. 
 
 This effort of Roger Stafford was the last flickering of 
 the lamp. The glory of the Staffords had long before 
 been well nigh extinguished. Naught was ever again 
 heard of the poor outcast, the last of his race, who thus 
 nobly but fruitlessly made an expiring struggle to restore 
 his fallen house. 
 
 And thus disappeared the illustrious and royally-allied 
 Staffords, Lords Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham ! 
 
 *' Ah 1 what availed that o'er the vassal plain 
 
 Their rights and rich demesnes extended wide ! 
 
 That Honour and her knights compos'd their train, 
 
 And Ckivalry stood marskall'd bv their side P
 
 335 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 0f 5 to {0ral 0f 
 
 [This Chapter on the Heirs of the Blood Eoyal of Scotland, 
 shewing the ultimate fate of the Scottish dynasties, has 
 been supplied by my friend the Rev. John Hamilton Gray, of 
 Carntyne.] 
 
 IT is proposed here to point out some of the representa- 
 tives of the different dynasties which have reigned over 
 Scotland, which may be classed under the following heads : 
 
 I. The ancient Celtic or Scoto-Pictish. 
 
 II. The second Celtic, commencing with King Duncan 
 
 the First, and sub-divided into three; 1, that of 
 Donald Bane ; 2, that of Duncan the Second, and, 
 3, that of David the First. 
 
 III. The race of King David the First, which may be di- 
 vided into a threefold classification, 
 
 1. The royal House of Baliol. 
 
 2. The royal House of Bruce. 
 
 3. The House of Hastings. 
 
 IV. The House of Stewart, which derives its royal descent 
 through the House of Bruce.
 
 HEIRS OP THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 337 
 I. 
 
 THE ANCIENT CELTIC OR SCOTO-PICTISH 
 DYNASTY. HEIRS OF KING MALCOLM II. 
 
 King Malcolm the Second, who died in 1033, was the last 
 of the original race of Celtic or Scoto-Pictish monarchs 
 of Scotland in the male line. He had slain his pre- 
 decessor, Kenneth IV., the head of a rival line of the 
 same royal family, in 1003, and suppressed the claims 
 of his descendants. He had no son, but two daugh- 
 ters, his co-heirs, of whom the one married Crinan, the 
 Abbot of Dunkeld, and the other married Sigurd, the 
 second Earl of Orkney. Sigurd overran the greater 
 portion of the north of Scotland, and there established the 
 Norwegian domination. He was killed in Ireland, at the 
 battle of Clontarf, in 1014. Each of the daughters of 
 King Malcolm had a son. The wife of Crinan, the abbot, 
 was mother of Duncan. The wife of Earl Sigurd was 
 mother of Thorfin, who became sole Earl of Orkney about 
 the year 1030, and resumed the conquests of his father in 
 Scotland, of which he held the Northern counties under 
 his sway from 1034 until his death in 1064. He was, 
 along with his cousin, Duncan, co-heir of the ancient 
 Celtic kings of Scotland. When King Malcolm the Second 
 died in 1033, he was succeeded on the Scottish throne by 
 his grandson, Duncan the First, whose reign was very 
 short ; for in 1039 he fell a victim to the vengeance of 
 the Princess Gruach, the heir of the rival line which had 
 been cruelly oppressed by his grandfather. The second 
 
 z
 
 338 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 
 
 husband of this lady, Macbeth, became in her right King 
 of Scotland, where he reigned during seventeen years, 
 until 1056, when he lost both his kingdom and his life in 
 a bloody contest with Malcolm, the son of Duncan, at the 
 head of foreign invaders. He was, however, immediately 
 succeeded by Lulach, the son of his wife, who is reckoned 
 among the Scottish kings, although his reign extended 
 only over a few months of feverish struggle. He fell before 
 the fortune of Malcolm in April, 1057. Daring the whole 
 of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth, the north of Scot- 
 land was subjected to the sway of Earl Thorfin, whose 
 claims to the crown of the whole kingdom were not infe- 
 rior to theirs, as he was a co-heir of the line of ancient 
 Celtic kings. He left a widow, Ligeborg, who afterwards 
 became the wife of King Malcolm III., and was mother 
 of King Duncan the Second. The descendants of Thorfin 
 were Earls of Orkney and co-heirs general of the crown of 
 Scotland. The last of these great Scandinavian earls was 
 Magnus the Fifth, who joined many of the great nobles 
 of Scotland, in 1320, in signing the letter to the Pope, in 
 which they asserted the independence of their country. 
 His daughter and heir, Isabella, Countess of Orkney, mar- 
 ried one of the principal magnates of Scotland, Malise, 
 Earl of Stratherne, and her granddaughter and heir, Isa- 
 bella of Stratheme, married William St. Clair, Lord of 
 Eosslyn, one of the greatest of the Scoto-Norman Barons. 
 Her son, Henry St. Clair, or Sinclair, Lord of Rosslyn, 
 became, in her right, Earl of Orkney in 1379. His direct 
 heirs and representatives were the Lords Sinclair of the old 
 line, from whom the present holder of that title is in no
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD KOYAL OP SCOTLAND. 389 
 
 way descended, being of a different family. Henry, the 
 eighth Lord Sinclair, who died in 1723, had three daugh- 
 ters, whose descendants are co-heirs- general of the ancient 
 Earls of Orkney, and of the blood of the original Celtic kings 
 of Scotland. The eldest, the Honourable Grizzel St. Clair, 
 married John Paterson of Preston Hall. Her great-great- 
 grandson is John Anstruther Thomson, of Charleton, the 
 eldest co-heir and representative of the Lords Sinclair and 
 Earls of Orkney. The second, the Honourable Catherine 
 St. Clair, married Sir William Erskine, Bart., of Alva. 
 Her great-grandson is the Earl of Rosslyn. The third, 
 the Honourable Elizabeth St. Clair, married David, third 
 Earl of Wemyss. Her great-great-great-grandson is the 
 Duke of Sutherland. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE SECOND CELTIC DYNASTY, COMMENCING 
 WITH KING DUNCAN I. 
 
 Duncan I., who in 1033 succeeded his grandfather, 
 and six years after was slain and supplanted by the rival 
 line, was, along with his cousin, the Earl of Orkney, coheir 
 general of the original Scoto-Pictish Kings. 
 
 1. Heirs of King Donald Bane. 
 
 On the death of King Malcolm III., Canmore, the 
 eldest son of Duncan I., in 1093, Donald Bane, his 
 brother, became king, according to the ancient Celtic order 
 of succession. His reign was short and troubled, and on 
 the extinction of his male descendants in the reign of 
 King Alexander II., his rights and His representation
 
 310 HEIRS OP THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 seem to have devolved upon his granddaughter Hexilda, 
 the wife of Richard Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. Her 
 descendant in the fourth degree, John Comyn, Lord of 
 Badenoch, acquired a much more direct royal representa- 
 tion for his descendants, by an alliance with the reigning 
 monarch's family. His wife was one of the sisters of 
 King John Baliol, and their posterity shall be noted in 
 their proper place. 
 
 2. Heirs of King Duncan IT. 
 
 King Malcolm III., Canmore, by his first marriage with 
 Ingeborg, widow of his kinsman, Thorfin, Earl of Orkney, 
 had a son, who, for a short time, in 1094, ascended the 
 Scottish throne, as King Duncan II. He has been ge- 
 nerally stigmatized, though with doubtful justice, as a 
 bastard and usurper. It is true that he could not, like 
 his brothers, boast of Royal Anglo-Saxon blood ; but he 
 was his father's first-born. By Etheldreda, granddaughter 
 of Cospatrick, Earl of Northumberland, King Duncan was 
 father of William Fitz- Duncan, Earl of Moray. He mar- 
 ried Alice de Romelli, heiress of the Romellis, Lords of 
 Skipton, and the Meschines, Lords of Egremont. Their 
 son William, known in history as "the Boy of Egremont," 
 and in romance as " young Romelli," died without suc- 
 cession ; and their daughter, Anabella, Lady of Egremont, 
 became the wife of Reginald de Lucie. Her granddaughter 
 and heiress married a great baron of the house of Multon, 
 and from her descended the line of Multon, Lords of Egre- 
 mont. Elizabeth Multon, one of the coheirs of this great 
 house, married the eldest son of Lord Harington, and from, 
 her descended the Lurds Harington and Bonville, and the
 
 HEIRS OP THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 341 
 
 Haringtons of Exton. The heiress of the Lords Haring- 
 ton, Cecily, daughter of William Lord Bonville and Ha- 
 rington, married Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, and 
 her heir general is the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 
 while her heir male is the Earl of Stamford. The Ha- 
 ringtons of Exton subsequently united the blood of King 
 Duncan II. with the more direct royal stream of the 
 younger line of Bruce, as will be noted in its proper 
 place. Joan Multon, another coheiress of the house of 
 Egremont, married Robert Lord Fitzwalter, and was an- 
 cestress to a long line of Lords Fitzwalter, Ratcliffes, Earls 
 of Sussex, and Mildmays. The representation of the 
 family came at length to be vested in the five daughters of 
 Mary Mildmay, sister of Benjamin Lord Fitzwalter, by her 
 husband Henry Mildmay. A branch of the Multons, Lords 
 of Egremont, settled in Lincolnshire at Multon, and their 
 heir general and the inheritor of their estates and of their 
 blood is Welby, Baronet of Denton, in Lincolnshire. 
 
 III. 
 THE RACE OF KING DAVID THE FIRST. 
 
 The race of King David I. may be divided into three 
 branches : viz., the royal House of Baliol, the royal House 
 of Bruce, and the House of Hastings. 
 
 On the extinction of the male line of Duncan I., by 
 the death of King Alexander III., in 1285, and on the 
 death of his granddaughter, Queen Margaret of Norway, a 
 few years subsequently, the representation of the royal 
 House of Scotland came to be vested in three great English
 
 342 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 barons, the descendants of the three daughters of Alexander's 
 granduncle, David, Earl of Huntington, grandson of King 
 David I., and brother of King Malcolm IV., and King 
 William the Lion. And this representation carried along 
 with it another still more illustrious : viz., that of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Kings. These coheirs were Margaret, wife of Alan, 
 Lord of Galloway, Isabella, wife of Robert de Bruce, and 
 Ada, wife of Henry de Hastings. 
 
 THE ROYAL HOUSE OF BALIOL. THE HEIRS OF BALIOL. 
 
 Margaret, the eldest daughter of David, Earl of Hunt- 
 ington, by her husband, Alan of Galloway, was mother of 
 Devorgilla, the wife of John Baliol, Lord of Bernard's 
 Castle. 
 
 The issue of this marriage was four sons, of whom 
 John, the fourth, but eldest surviving, was crowned King 
 of Scotland at Scone, in 1292. He died in 1314; and his 
 son, King Edward Baliol, died without issue in 1365 ; 
 and the right of representation of the Kings of Scotland 
 was vested in his sisters, of whom there were four : 
 
 1. Margaret, who died without issue. 
 
 2. Ada, wife of William de Lindsay, of Lamberton. 
 
 3. Cicely, wife of John de Burgh. 
 
 4. Mary, wife of John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. 
 
 I. The daughter and heir of Ada Baliol and William 
 Lindsay was Christian Lindsay, wife of Ingelram Sire de 
 Coucy. Her right to represent the royal House of Scot- 
 land (which carried along with it the representation of the
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 343 
 
 Anglo-Saxon kings) descended through the House of St. 
 Pol to that of Bourbon, and is now vested in His Royal 
 Highness Henry, Duke of Bordeaux, de jure King of 
 France; and failing him, it will descend to his sister's 
 son, Robert de Bourbon, Duke of Parma. 
 
 II. Cicely Baliol and John de Burgh had two daugh- 
 ters and co-heirs : 
 
 1. Hawys, who by her husband, Thomas de Gresley, 
 had a daughter, Joan, wife of John, second Lord de la 
 Warre, and from her is descended the family of West, 
 Earl de la Warre. 
 
 2. Devorgilla, wife of Robert, first Lord Fitzwalter. 
 From her daughter Christian, wife of John le Marechal, 
 and her grand-daughter Hawyse, wife of Robert, second 
 Lord Morley, descended a long line of Lords Morley. 
 William, twelfth Lord Morley and Lord Monteagle, had 
 a daughter, Catherine Parker, wife of John Savage, Earl 
 Rivers, through whose two daughters the royal blood of 
 Baliol has descended to the families of Pitt, Lord Rivers, 
 and Lane Fox of Bramham, and to that of Colyear, Earl 
 of Portmore. 
 
 III. Mary Baliol married John Comyn, Lord of Bade- 
 noch, who, as has been already stated, was heir general of 
 King Donald Bane, being fourth in descent from Hexilda, 
 that monarch's grand-daughter. His son, John Comyn, 
 Lord of Badenoch, had two daughters, in whose descend- 
 ants are united the co-heirship of Baliol with that of 
 Donald Bane. 
 
 1. Joan Comyn, wife of David de Strathbolgie, Earl of 
 Athol. Her descendant, Elizabeth Percy, of Athol, the
 
 344 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 wife of Sir Thomas Burgh, was ancestress to a line of 
 Lords Burgh and Baronets Boothby, of whom the heir 
 general is the Venerable Thomas Thorpe, Archdeacon of 
 Bristol. . 
 
 2. Elizabeth Camyn, wife of Richard, second Lord Tal- 
 bot, was ancestress to a long line of Earls of Shrewsbury, 
 whose elder branch ended in an heiress, Lady Alithea 
 Talbot, who, in 1612, married Thomas Howard, Earl 
 of Arundel and Surrey. From her are descended the 
 Dukes of Norfolk; but her two heirs general are Lords 
 Stourton and Petre.* 
 
 THE ROYAL HOUSE OF BRUCE. THE HEIRS OF BRUCE. 
 
 Isabella of Scotland, second daughter of David, Earl of 
 Huntington, married Robert de Bruce. The heirs of the 
 royal House of Bruce are confined to the descendants of 
 King Robert the First, and to those of his uncle, Sir 
 Bernard Bruce, of Conington and Exton, the younger son 
 of Robert Bruce, the first competitor for the Scottish 
 crown. The existing families of the name of Bruce, which 
 trace their descent from the baronial House of Clack - 
 manan, and of which the Earl of Elgin is now considered 
 to be the male bead, do not partake of the royal blood of 
 Bruce, and cannot even be traced distinctly to a common 
 ancestor with the dynasty that ascended the Scottish 
 
 * The historian and the genealogist are greatly indebted to 
 Mr. Alexander Sinclair for his Tables at once so full and BO 
 distinct, the fruit of learned and laborious research of the de- 
 scendants of the House of Baliol.
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 345 
 
 throne. The house of Bruce of Clackmanan indeed 
 claims to be of the same stock with the ancient Lords of 
 Annandale and Skelton ; and though there is no direct 
 proof of this assertion, we may at the same time be satis- 
 fied of its probability. Undue weight has been attached 
 by the family to the complimentary style which King 
 David Bruce used in a charter granted to Sir Robert 
 Bruce, son of Thomas Bruce, and the undoubted ancestor 
 of the house of Clackmanan, wherein the monarch styles 
 him " dilecto et fidelo consanguineo suo Roberto Bruce." 
 This mode of designating him does not imply any relation- 
 ship. He was undoubtedly a man of some importance, 
 and bore the same name with the King ; and he may very 
 probably have been an offshoot from the same original 
 stock. But even if that were proved, it would not entitle 
 him to boast of Royal Scottish and Anglo-Saxon blood, 
 with which the house of Bruce first became connected by 
 the marriage of King Robert's great-grandfather with 
 Isabella of Scotland, second daughter of David, Earl of 
 Iluntiugton. The only cadet branch of royal Bruce was 
 that of Conington and Exton, which soon merged in the 
 female line. 
 
 King Robert Bruce, the glorious defender of the liber- 
 ties of Scotland, became Earl of Carrick on his father's 
 resignation in 1292. He asserted his claim to the Scot- 
 tish crown, for which his grandfather had been an unsuc- 
 cessful competitor, and ascended the throne of his ances- 
 tors, being crowned at Scone in 1806. His power and 
 the liberties of the country were finally vindicated by the 
 splendid victory of Bannockburn in J311. He died in
 
 346 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 
 
 June, 1329, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. King 
 Robert I. married, 1st, Isabella, daughter of Donald X., 
 Earl of Mar, by whom he had an only daughter, the 
 Princess Marjory, his eldest coheir, who, failing her bro- 
 ther, was heiress to the Scottish crown. She was the wife 
 of Walter, Lord High Steward of Scotland, by whom she 
 had a son Robert, who afterwards ascended the Scottish 
 throne as King Robert II., and who was ancestor of the 
 long line of Stewart or Stuart kings. King Robert I. 
 married, secondly,- Elizabeth de Burgo, daughter of 
 Richard, second Earl of Ulster, by whom he had a son, 
 who succeeded him as King David II., and two daughters, 
 Margaret and Matilda, his junior coheirs, whose repre- 
 sentatives shared with those of their elder sister the honour 
 of transmitting the blood of the ancient Scottish monarchs 
 as well as that of the Anglo-Saxon kings. 
 
 David II., the unworthy successor of his glorious father, 
 having died without issue in 1371, the male line of the 
 elder branch of royal Bruce failed, and the family came to 
 be represented by the descendants of his three sisters, as 
 heirs general. 
 
 I. Concerning the heirs of Princess Marjory, the eldest 
 daughter and heir general, we will treat under the head of 
 Heirs of the Stewarts. 
 
 II. Princess Margaret, junior co-heir, was wife of Wil- 
 liam Sutherland, fourth Earl of Sutherland, and from 
 her is descended a long line of Earls of Sutherland, who 
 boast a junior co-heirship of the royal line of Bruce. 
 
 III. Princess Matilda, junior co-heir, was wife of Tho- 
 mas de Izac. The daughter of this marriage, Johanna de
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 347 
 
 Izac, who was co-heir of the royal blood of Bruce, along 
 with her cousins-german, King Robert II., and William, 
 fifth Earl of Sutherland, married John de Ergadia, Lord 
 of Lorn, the descendant and representative of a branch of 
 the Kings of the Isles. The Lords of Lorn had sided 
 with the Baliols, and were the firm adherents of the 
 English interest ; and John, Lord of Lorn, was imprisoned 
 and forfeited by King Robert Bruce. His son John was 
 restored in 1346, and became the husband of that mo- 
 narch's grand-daughter. The issue of the marriage of 
 John de Ergadia and Johanna de Izac was a daughter, 
 Janet de Ergadia, who transmitted to her posterity the 
 blood of Royal Bruce and Royal Saxon England, as well 
 as that of the Lords of the Isles. She married Robert 
 Stewart of Durisdeer, and was ancestress of the Stewarts 
 of Ross) the, in Fifeshire, and of their representatives, the 
 Stewarts of Craigie Hall, in Linlithgowshire. On the sale 
 of the large estate of Craigie Hall, this family was desig- 
 nated, from a small property which they retained, as 
 Stewart of Newhalls. This also was sold; and the last 
 heir male of the family, Dr. Archibald Stewart, coheir of 
 the blood of the Bruce, of the ancient Kings of Scotland 
 and of the Saxon Kings of England, died in Queensferry, 
 about 1830, leaving an unmarried sister, the last of their 
 ancient and noble race. 
 
 The only cadet of the royally descended Bruces was 
 Bruce of Conington and Exton, founded by Sir Bernard 
 Bruce, younger son of the first competitor. His son, Sir 
 John Bruce, having no male issue, was succeeded in his 
 estate of Exton by his daughter, the wife of Sir Nicolas
 
 348 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 
 
 Green, and she by her daughter, the wife of Sir Thomas 
 Culpeper, and she by her daughter, the wife of Sir John. 
 Harington, a descendant of the royal blood of King 
 Duncan II. Sir John Harington, the fifth in descent 
 from them, was created Lord Harington of Exton. His 
 son, the second Lord, and his accomplished daughter, 
 Lucy, Countess of Bedford, had no issue ; but his daughter 
 Frances, wife of Sir Robert Chichester of Raleigh, had a 
 daughter, who transmitted to several generations of the 
 house of Bruce the blood of their royal namesakes. She 
 married Thomas Bruce, first Earl of Elgin, and was 
 mother of Robert, first Earl of Ailesbury. This remote 
 coheirship of Bruce was carried along with the more direct 
 coheirship of Tudor and Plantagenet by Mary Bruce, 
 daughter of the third Earl of Ailesbury, into the family of 
 Brydges, Duke of Chandos; and it is now vested in her 
 representative, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. 
 A brother of the first Lord Harington of Exton is still 
 represented in the male line by the baronet of that name. 
 
 in. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF HASTINGS. THE HEIRS OF HASTINGS. 
 
 Ada of Scotland, third daughter of David, Earl of 
 Huntington, married Henry de Hastings. Her grandson, 
 John, Lord Hastings, one of the competitors for the crown 
 of Scotland in 1290, was twice married. By Isabel de 
 Valence, sister and coheir of Aymer, Earl of Pembroke, 
 he left, besides other issue that died young, a son, John, 
 and a daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Roger Lord Grey de 
 Rutbyn, and by Isabel, daughter of Hugh Despeiicer,
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 849 
 
 Earl of Winchester, he left a son, Hugh. John, the 
 eldest son, was progenitor of four successive Earls of Pem- 
 broke of the line of Hastings. On the death of the fourth 
 of these Earls without issue, in the thirteenth year of 
 King Richard II., his Earldom ceased ; but his baronies 
 devolved on Reginald Lord Grey de Ruthyn, as lineally 
 descended from Elizabeth, sister in full blood to the Earl's 
 ancestor, John Lord Hastings. Nevertheless, Edward 
 Hastings, great-grandson of Hugh, brother to John Lord 
 Hastings in half blood, had a long contest in the court of 
 chivalry with Reginald Lord Grey for the Hastings barony 
 and arms, in which he was defeated and condemned to 
 heavy costs. This Edward assumed the title of Lord 
 Hastings and Stuteville. These particulars are mentioned 
 as showing the extraordinary value which was at one 
 period attached to full blood, as determining the succes- 
 sion to family honours, of which we have many instances 
 in mediaeval history. The male line of Hastings was con- 
 tinued in this younger branch until the daughter and heir 
 of Sir Hugh Hastings of Elsing, the lineal descendant 
 and representative of the competitor for the Scottish crown, 
 married Sir Hamon 1'Estrange of Hunstanton. Her 
 descendant, Sir Henry 1'Estrange, Bart., died *. p. in 
 1760, when his representation devolved on his two sisters, 
 Mrs. Styleman and Lady Astley. The descendant of the 
 former is the present Mr. Styleman 1'Estrange, and the 
 descendant of the latter was Sir Jacob Astley, in whose 
 favour, as junior coheir, the ancient barony of Hastings 
 was in 18 il called out of abeyance. They are the coheirs 
 of the Hastings portion of the Scottish blood royal.
 
 350 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 We have now to inquire as to the various heirs of the 
 blood royal of the Stuarts, or Stewarts. 
 
 IV. 
 
 HOUSE OF STUART, WHICH DERIVES ITS ROYAL 
 DESCENT AS ELDEST COHEIR OF THE HOUSE 
 OF BRUCE. 
 
 On the death of Prince Henry Benedict Stuart, Duke 
 of York, and Cardinal, in 1807, the heirship of the royal 
 line of Stuart devolved on the King of Sardinia, as de- 
 scended from Anna Maria, wife of Victor Amadeus of 
 Savoy, first King of Sardinia, and daughter of Philip, 
 Duke of Orleans, by Henrietta Maria, daughter of King 
 Charles I. The co-heirship of the Royal House of Stuart 
 came to be divided between four Sardinian princesses, 
 daughters of Victor Emanuel, King of Sardinia, viz. : 
 
 Mary Beatrice, wife of Francis IV., Duke of Modena. 
 
 Mary Anne, wife of Ferdinand I., Emperor of Austria. 
 
 Mary Theresa, wife of Charles Louis, Duke of Parma. 
 
 Mary Christina, wife of Ferdinand II., King of Naples. 
 Of these royal ladies two are dead, viz., the Duchess of 
 Modena, and the Queen of Naples; and their co-heirships 
 have descended to their sons, Duke Ferdinand V., and 
 King Francis II. 
 
 Besides the heirship of the blood royal of the Stuarts 
 in the direct line, there are two younger sons of that royal 
 Louse, who have left representatives, who must be traced 
 
 I. Prince Robert of Scotland, Duke of Albany, son of 
 King Robert II., by his first wife, Elizabeth More.
 
 HEIRS OP THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 351 
 
 II. Prince David of Scotland, Earl of Stratherne, son 
 of King Robert II., by his second wife, Euphemia, Coun- 
 tess of Ross. 
 
 1. Robert, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, died in 
 1 119. By his first wife, Margaret, Countess of Menteith, 
 he had, besides daughters, his son and heir, Murdock, 
 Duke of Albany. By his second wife, Muriella, daughter 
 of Sir William Keith, Great Marischal, he had a son, John, 
 Earl of Buchan. Murdock, Duke of Albany, succeeded 
 liis father as Regent, and was beheaded, along with two of 
 his sons, in 1425. By Isabella, eldest daughter and co- 
 heir of Duncan, Earl of Lennox, he had issue four sons, 
 the younger of whom, Sir James Stewart, was the father 
 of seven sons, from whom many noble and distinguished 
 families are descended : but they are all illegitimate. John 
 Stewart, Earl of Buchan, the son of the Regent Duke 
 Robert's second marriage, was a great warrior, and held 
 the high office of Constable of France. He was slain in 
 the battle of Verneuil, in France, in 1424, and was thus 
 saved from witnessing the ruin of his family in Scotland. 
 By Lady Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Archibald, fourth 
 Earl of Douglas, and Duke of Touraine, (afterwards mar- 
 ried to William Sinclair, third Earl of Orkney) he had 
 issue a daughter, Lady Margaret, wife of George, second 
 Lord Seton. She was ancestress to the great families of 
 Seton, Earl of Winton, and Montgornerie, Earl of Eglinton. 
 The present Earl of Eglinton is her heir male ; and it would 
 seem that her heir general is William Hay, of Dunse 
 Castle, through his ancestress, Elizabeth Seton, daughter 
 of Alexander Viscount Kingston.
 
 352 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 II. Prince David of Scotland had the Earldom of Stra- 
 therne conferred upon him by his father, King Robert II., 
 in 1371. He left an only child, Euphemia, who succeeded 
 him as Countess of Stratherne, and by her husband, Sir 
 Patrick Graham, had a son.Malise, who succeeded his mother 
 as Earl of Stratherne. By the jealousy of King James I. 
 of Scotland he was deprived of his princely earldom in 
 14.27, and was, by way of compensation, created Earl of 
 Menteith. In the reign of King Charles I., Earl Malise'a 
 descendant, William, seventh Earl of Menteith, made a 
 bold attempt to recover his birthright, which excited the 
 jealousy of the government to such a degree, that in 1633 
 he was stripped of all his honours, and a new title, mean 
 and hitherto unknown, the Earldom of Airth, was con- 
 ferred upon him. His son John, Lord Kinpont, notwith- 
 standing the small claim the King had on his gratitude, 
 was a noble cavalier, and an attached adherent of the great 
 Montrose. He left issue, a son, who succeeded his grand- 
 father as Earl of Airth, but died without issue, and two 
 daughters : 1, Mary, wife of John Allardice, of Allardice ; 
 and 2, Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Graham, of Gart- 
 inore, Bavt. The descendants of these ladies are the 
 coheirs of Prince David, Earl of Stratherne, and repre- 
 sentatives of a junior line of the blood royal. The descend- 
 ant and heir of Lady Mary Allardice was the late Mr. Bar- 
 clay Allardice, claimant of the earldom of Stratherne. 
 His daughter and heir, who married a Mr. Ritchie, is eldest 
 coheir of Prince David of Scotland, while the youngest 
 coheir is the descendant, if any such exist, of Lady Eliza- 
 beth Graham. Her son, Sir John Graham, Bart., died
 
 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 353 
 
 without issue ; and her daughter Mary, wife of Mr. Hodge, 
 had a daughter Mary, wife of a younger brother of Mr. 
 Graham, of Gartmore. Her daughter Mary was wife of 
 John Bogle, but we are unable to trace her line further. 
 It has most probably died out in obscurity. 
 
 EXISTING HEIRS OF THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 I. Coheirs (along with the later Sovereigns of Scotland) 
 
 of the ancient Celtic Kinys. 
 John Anstruther Thomson, of Charletoii. 
 James Alexander, Earl of Rosslyn. 
 George, Duke of Sutherland. 
 
 II. Coheirs of the second Celtic Dynasty. 
 
 1. Heirs of Donald Baue. 
 
 Venerable Thomas Thorpe, Archdeacon of Bristol. 
 Charles Lord Stourton. 
 William Bernard, Lord Petre. 
 
 2. Heirs of King Duncan II. 
 
 Richard, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. 
 
 George Harry, Earl of Stamford. 
 
 Richard Duke of Buckingham and Chandos : second 
 
 descent. 
 
 Sir John Edward Harington, Bart., of Ridlington. 
 The coheirs of Mary Mildmay, sister of Lord Fitz- 
 
 walter and Henry Mildmay. 
 
 III. CoJieirs of King David I. 
 1. Coheirs of Baliol 
 
 H.R.H. Henry de Bourbon, Duke of Bordeaux. 
 George John, Earl of Delaware. 
 
 A A
 
 354 HEIRS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL OP SCOTLAND. 
 
 George, Lord Rivers. 
 
 George Lane Fox, of Bramham. 
 
 Heirs of the Earl of Portmove. 
 
 Venerable Thomas Thorpe, Archdeacon of Bristol. 
 
 Charles, Lord Stourton. 
 
 William Bernard, Lord Petre. 
 
 2. Coheirs of Bruce, along with the Royal House of Stuart 
 George, Duke of Sutherland. 
 
 Heirs of Archibald Stewart, representative of Stewart 
 
 of Craigie Hall, and New Halls. 
 Richard, Bute of Buckingham and Chandos. 
 Sir John Edward Harington, Bart., of Ridlington. 
 
 3. Coheirs of Hastings. 
 
 Henry L'Estrange Styleman L'Estrange, of Hun- 
 stanton. 
 
 Jacob Henry, Lord Hastings. 
 IV. Coheirs of the Royal House of Stewart vr Stuart. 
 
 Ferdinand, fifth Duke of Modena. 
 
 Mary Anna, Empress of Austria. 
 
 Mary Theresa, Duchess of Parma. 
 
 Francis II., King of Naples. 
 Coheirs of the Branch of Albany. 
 
 Archibald William, Earl of Eglinton and Winton. 
 
 William Hay, of Dunse Castle. 
 Coheirs of the Branch of Stratherne. 
 
 Heir of Robert Barclay Allardice, of Ury.
 
 THE JOATUNES Of THE WIBVILLES. 355 
 
 Cartes of % $gMHfa; % last, a 
 rf St. 
 
 " Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none." 
 
 SnAKBSPBABE. 
 
 ...... " Rivers, Grey, 
 
 Untimely smothered in their dusky graves." 
 
 SHAKESPEABE. 
 
 AMONG the vicissitudes of English families, none are more 
 remarkable than the changes of fortune experienced by the 
 Wydevilles, Woodvilles, or Widvilles, of Northamptonshire. 
 Country gentlemen in the first instance, of that county of 
 Northampton, which is so replete in gentle blood, that 
 Norden has termed it " the Herald's Garden," the Wid- 
 villes suddenly rose to be statesmen and nobles to be 
 not only puissant princes, but the kinsmen and progenitors 
 of monarchs to be, in fine, a stem from which descends, 
 through a line of sovereigns, the present gracious Queen 
 of these realms. Like Banquo, \Vidville might be mur- 
 dered ; nevertheless, his issue was to be kings the seed of 
 Widville kings. The only difference is, that the imperial 
 tuerae was to be told of the male line of Banquo, but of
 
 356 THE FORTUNES OF THE VTIDVILLES ; 
 
 the female line of Widville. The masculine stem of the 
 Widvilles sunk as rapidly as it rose. The last Widville, 
 within but fifty years from their elevation to the Peerage, 
 died an obscure Knight Hospitaller of St. John, and with 
 him their verv name has perished. I know of no family 
 throughout these realms called Widville now. Their his- 
 tory, at one time part of the history of England, is worthy 
 of re- consideration, and suggests much reflection on the 
 vanities of human greatness. 
 
 Temp. Edward III., the Widvilles were quiet gentry 
 in Northamptonshire. Their respectability was, in the 
 thirty-seventh year of that King's reign, rewarded with 
 some county honours. The Ilichard de Wydevill of that 
 day became sheriff of Northamptonshire, governor of the 
 castle there, and escheator of the counties of Northampton 
 and Rutland. His son John filled the same offices under 
 Richard II., and must have rendered some signal service 
 to Richard's enemy, the usurper Henry IV. The light 
 of Lancastrian favour fell specially on this John Wydville's 
 son, Sir Richard de Wideville, in whose person were 
 achieved the high fortunes of his house, and whose blood 
 was to mingle with the blood royal of England. Richard 
 Widville was with Henry V. in France, and no doubt 
 fought at Agincourt. His heroic master named him 
 Seneschal of Normandy. Henry VI. made him Governor 
 of the Tower, and knighted him at Leicester. In Shakes- 
 peare's First Part of Henry VI., we see him mentioned as 
 " Woodville, Lieutenant of the Tower." He then went 
 again to France, and fought gallantly under Talbot and 
 Bedford. The death of the latter was the pivot on which
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OP ST. JOHN. 357 
 
 his future success turned. Widville proposed for the 
 Duke's widow, Jaqueline of Luxemburg, daughter of 
 Pierre, Count de St. Paul, and he wedded her so quickly, 
 that he did not wait for the necessary legal permission of 
 the Crown ; for which transgression, and for the livery of 
 the castles, manors, and lands, constituting her grace's 
 dower, he paid a fine of a thousand pounds. He continued 
 his services in France under Richard, Duke of York, and 
 then, in all probability, he lost some of his distaste for 
 the white rose. He was raised to the peerage, by letters ' 
 patent, dated the 9th May, 1448, as Baron Rivers. His 
 Lordship was further rewarded by grants from the Crown, 
 amongst which was the manor of Westhall, in the county 
 of Essex. He was dubbed a Knight of the Garter, and 
 made Seneschal of Acquitaine. In the contest between 
 the houses of York and Lancaster, Lord Rivers at first 
 stanchly supported the latter. But an event another 
 marriage was to make him swerve in his fidelity, and to 
 put him on the acme of prosperity. His daughter Eliza- 
 beth lost her husband, Sir John Grey, Lord Grey of 
 Groby, fighting on the Lancastrian side, and she went to 
 reside, a beauteous widow, with her father at Grafton, in 
 Northamptonshire. Edward IV., hunting near the house, 
 came to it to pay a visit to Elizabeth's mother, his kins- 
 woman, the Dowager Duchess of Bedford; and here he 
 saw Elizabeth, and was so dazzled with her beauty, that 
 he risked throne, friends, all, to marry her. Elizabeth 
 accordingly became his consort, and her father thereupon 
 abjured his Lancastrian predilections ; he quickly grasped 
 from the Yorkist party the highest honours, and the
 
 358 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES J 
 
 highest offices. He was Treasurer of the Exchequer, and 
 Constable of England, for life, with remainder to his son, 
 Anthony, Lord Scales, also for life. He was advanced in 
 the peerage to be Earl Rivers on the 24th May, 1466. 
 Scarcely three years after this, with that rapid change of 
 fortune peculiar to the Widville race, the new Earl was 
 murdered. In a temporary rising of the Lancastrians, his 
 Lordship's manor-house of Graf ton was attacked by one 
 Robin of Ridsdale, who led the revolt ; and the Earl him- 
 self, and his son John, were made prisoners ; they were 
 carried to Northampton, and there their heads were cut off. 
 The King-maker, Warwick, and his brother Montague, and 
 the Royal Duke of Clarence, were suspected to be the 
 instigators of this foul killing of Rivers ; Edward IV. 
 was never satisfied till he had avenged it upon them 
 even to the slaying of his brother Clarence. Edward, too, 
 to mark his regret, heaped honour upon honour in dig- 
 nities for the sons, and alliances for the daughters, on the 
 progeny of Earl Rivers. Yet ail this was done in vain ; 
 for, with few exceptions, beyond the i-oyal result of the 
 marriage of Earl Rivers' grand- daughter, Elizabeth, with 
 Henry VII. (and that even, as regarded her personally, 
 was an unhappy union), misery and extinction appear to 
 have fallen upon nearly the whole race. The following 
 table of their descent is a melancholy picture of their 
 baffled greatness and singular perversity of ill luck. Earl 
 Rivers, by his wife, the Duchess of Bedford, had issue, 
 
 I. ANTHONY, his successor, who married Elizabeth, widow of 
 Henry Bourchier, and daughter and heiress of Thomas, 
 Lord Scnles, in whose right he was summoned to parliament 
 as BAHON SCALES, from 22nd December, 1462, to the 23rd
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 359 
 
 of the ensuing February : he, as shewn, below, was be- 
 headed. 
 
 II. John, who. as above stated, was put to death with his father. 
 
 III. Lionel, Bishop of Salisbury, who held the see but two 
 years, and died in 1784. 
 
 IV. Edward. 
 
 V. BICHABD, who succeeded his eldest brother in the honours 
 of the family, and ended them. 
 
 I. ELIZABETH, m. first, to Sir John Grey, Lord Grey of Groby, 
 killed in battle, by whom she had issue, 
 
 SIB THOMAS GHEY, created Marquess of Dorset, great- 
 grandfather of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey : his 
 Marquisate became extinct at the attainder of his 
 grandson, the third Marquess, and Duke of Suffolk, 
 who was beheaded in 1554. 
 Sir Richard Grey, beheaded in the first year of Eichard 
 
 III. 
 
 Lord Grey fell in the second battle of St. Albans, fighting 
 under the Lancastrian banner, and her ladyship espoused, 
 secondly, King Edward IV., by whom she was mother of 
 EDWABD, Prince of Wales. ] The unhappy children, sup- 
 > posed to have been murdered 
 EICHABD, Duke of York. J i n the Tower. 
 Elizabeth, contracted to the Dauphin, and m. to King 
 
 Henry VII., with whom she lived miserably. 
 Cecily, contracted to James III., King of Scotland, but 
 m. to John, Viscount Welles ; death took him and 
 her only daughter from her very soon after the marriage. 
 She was m. secondly, to Sir John Kyme. 
 Anne, contracted to Philip, only son of the Duke of 
 Burgundy, but m. to Thomas Howard, Duke of Nor- 
 folk : her death saved her from sharing in the misfor- 
 tunes of her husband. 
 
 Catherine, contracted to John, son of the King of Arra- 
 gon, but m. to William Courteuay, Earl of Devon, and 
 was mother of 
 
 Edward Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, beheaded 
 1539, aud graudinoilier of Edward Courteuay,
 
 360 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES; 
 
 Earl of Devon, who was supposed to have been 
 poisoned at Padua. 
 
 II. Margaret, m. to Thomas Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel : her 
 grandson, oft a prisoner in the Tower, saw his only son die 
 before him, and was the last male of his line. 
 
 III. Anne, m. first, to William, Lord Bourchier, eldest son of 
 Henry, Earl of Essex, who died in his father's lifetime, 
 and her son by him was killed by a fall from his horse, and 
 was the last male of his line. She was m. secondly, to 
 George Grey, Earl of Kent, by whom she had a son Richard, 
 Earl of Kent, who took to gaming, became a great dicer, a 
 deep drinker, and a thoroughly worthless fellow; he dissi- 
 pated his whole estate, and was at last found dead on the 
 bench of a low inn in London ; Anne was m. thirdly, to Sir 
 Anthony Wingfield, Knt. 
 
 IV. Jycquetta, m. to John, Lord Strange, of Knokyn. 
 
 V. Mary, m. to William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, who was 
 to have married Richard the Third's daughter Katherine, 
 but she died young. This Mary, Countess of Huntingdon, 
 was more fortunate than the rest of her race ; for, though 
 she gave no son to her husband, and his earldom became 
 consequently extinct, her only daughter was Countess of 
 Worcester, and ancestress of the present Ducal house of 
 Beaufort. 
 
 VI. Katherine, m. first, to Henry Stafford, Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, beheaded by Richard III., by whom she was mother of 
 Edward, Duke of Buckingham, beheaded by Henry VIII., 
 1521: with him sunk for ever the splendour, princely 
 honours, and vast wealth of the Staffords. She was m. 
 secondly, to Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford ; and thirdly, to 
 Sir Richard Wingfield, K.G. 
 
 VII. , m. to Sir John Bromley, Znt., son of the re- 
 nowned Sir John Bromley, who recovered the standard of 
 Guyen, in the memorable battle of Corby, against the French. 
 
 The melancholy death of Lord Rivers occurred in 1469, 
 and he was succeeded by his eldest son, ANTHONY WID- 
 VILLB, Lord Scales, as second Earl Rivers, another victim
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 361 
 
 of much misfortune. This nobleman, when Lord Scales, 
 in the beginning of the reign of Edward IV., marched 
 with the King into the north against the Lancastrians, 
 and was one of the principal commanders at the siege of 
 Alnwick Castle. He was soon afterwards made a Knight of 
 the Garter, and he obtained a grant in tail of the Isle of 
 Wight ; his lordship about this period acquired great fame 
 in a tournament at London, wherein he contested success- 
 fully with Anthony, the Bastard of Burgundy, brother of 
 Charles, Duke of Burgundy. But this affair, and his 
 career before it, are so well told by Horace Walpole, in his 
 " Royal and Noble Authors/' that we cannot do better 
 than quote the account : " There flourished," writes Wai- 
 pole, "at the same period as the Earl of Worcester, a noble 
 gentleman, by no means inferior to him in learning and polite- 
 ness ; in birth his equal; by alliance his superior ; greater in 
 feats of arms, and in pilgrimages more abundant. This was 
 Antony Widville, Earl Rivers, Lord Scales and Neuselles, 
 Lord of the Isle of Wight ; Defenseur and Directeur of 
 the Gausses Apostolique for our holy Father the Pope in 
 this realm of England, and uncle and Goveruour to my 
 Lord Prince of Wales. 
 
 " He was son of Sir Richard Widville, by Jaqueline of 
 Luxemburg, Duchess- dowager of Bedford, and brother 
 of the fair Lady Gray, who captivated that monarch of 
 pleasure, Edward the Fourth. When about seventeen 
 years of age, he was taken by force from Sandwich, with 
 his father, and carried to Calais by some of the opposite 
 iaction. The credit of his sister, the countenance and 
 example of his Priuce, the boisterousness of the times;
 
 362 THE FORTUNES OF. THE \VIDVILLES; 
 
 nothing softened, nothing roughened the mind of this 
 amiable lord, who was as gallant as his luxurious brother- 
 in-law, without his weaknesses; as brave as the heroes of 
 either Rose, without their savageness ; studious in the 
 intervals of business, and devout after the manner of 
 those whimsical times, when men challenged others whom 
 they never saw, and went bare-foot to visit shrines in 
 countries of which they had scarce a map. In short, Lord 
 Antony was, as Sir Thomas More says, ' Vir haud facile 
 discernas, manuve aut consilio promptior.' 
 
 "He distinguished himself both as a warrior and a 
 statesman. The Lancastrians making an insurrection in 
 Northumberland, he attended the King into those parts, 
 and was a chief Commander at the siege of Alnwick Castle, 
 soon after which he was elected into the Order of the 
 Garter. In the tenth of the same reign he defeated the 
 Duke of Clarence and Warwick in a skirmish near South- 
 ampton, and prevented their seizing a great ship, called 
 ' the Trinity/ belonging to that Earl. He attended 
 the King into Holland on the change of the scene, returned 
 with him, and had a great share in his victories, and was 
 constituted Governor of Calais, and Captain-general of all 
 the King's forces by sea and land. He had before been 
 sent ambassador to negotiate a marriage between the 
 King's sister and the Duke of Burgundy, and in the 
 same character concluded a treaty between King Edward 
 and the Duke of Bretagne. On Prince Edward being 
 created Prince of Wales, he was appointed his governor, 
 and had a grant of the office of Chief Butler of England ; 
 and was even on the point of attaining the high honour
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 363 
 
 of espousing the Scottish princess, sister of King James 
 the Third ; the Bishop of Rochester, Lord Privy Seal, 
 and Sir Edward Widville being despatched into Scotland, 
 to perfect that marriage. 
 
 " A remarkable event of this Earl's life was a personal 
 victory he gained in a tournament over Antony, Count 
 de la Roche, called the Bastard of Burgundy, natural son 
 of Duke Phillip the Good. This illustrious encounter was 
 performed in a solemn and most magnificent tilt, held for 
 that purpose in Smithfield. Our Earl was the challenger; 
 and from the date of the year, and the affinity of the per- 
 son challenged, this ceremony was probably in honour of 
 the aforementioned marriage of the Lady Margaret, the 
 King's sister, with Charles the Hardy, last Duke of Bur- 
 gundy. Nothing could be better adapted to the humour 
 of the age, and to the union of that hero and virago, 
 than a single combat between two of their near relations. 
 In the Biographia Britannica is a long account, extracted 
 from a curious manuscript, of this tournament, for which 
 letters of safe conduct were granted by the King, as ap- 
 pears from 'Rymer's Fcedera;' the title of which are, 
 ' Pro Bastardo Burgundire super punctis armorum per- 
 ficiendis/ 
 
 "At these justs, the Earl of Worcester (before-mentioned) 
 presided as Lord High Constable, and attested the Queen's 
 giving The Flower of Souvenance to the Lord Scales, as a 
 charge to undertake the enterprise, and his delivery of it 
 to Chester- Herald, that he might carry it over to be 
 touched by the Bastard, in token of his accepting the 
 challenge. This prize was a collar of gold, with the rich
 
 364 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES; 
 
 flower of Souvenance enamelled, and was fastened above 
 the Earl's knee by some of the Queen's ladies. On the 
 Wednesday after the Feast of the Resurrection, the Bas- 
 tard, attended by four hundred Lords, Knights, Squires, 
 and Heralds, landed at Gravesend ; and at Blackwall he 
 \vas met by the Lord High Constable, with seven barges 
 and a galley full of attendance, richly covered with cloth 
 of gold and arras. The King proceeded to London; in 
 Fleet-street the Champions solemnly met in his presence ; 
 and the palaces of the Bishops of Salisbury and Ely were 
 appointed to lodge these brave sons of holy church ; as 
 St. Paul's Cathedral was for holding a chapter for the 
 solution of certain doubts upon the articles of combat. 
 The timber and workmanship of the lists cost above two 
 hundred marks. The pavilions, trappings, &c., were sump- 
 tuous in proportion. Yet, however weighty the expence, 
 the Queen could not but think it well bestowed, when she 
 had the satisfaction of beholding her brother victorious in 
 so sturdy an encounter ; the spike in the front of the Lord 
 Scales's horse having run into the nostril of the Bastard's 
 horse, so that he reared on end, and threw his rider to the 
 ground. The generous conqueror disdained the advantage, 
 and would have renewed the combat, but the Bastard 
 refused to fight any more on horseback. The next day 
 they fought on foot, when Widville again prevailing, and 
 the sport waxing warm, the King gave the signal to part 
 them. 
 
 " Earl Rivers had his share of his sister's afflictions as 
 well as of her triumph ; but making a right use of ad- 
 versity, and understanding that there was to be a jubilee
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 365 
 
 and pardon at St. James' in Spain, in 3473, he sailed from 
 Southampton, and for some time was full virtuously oc- 
 cupied in going of pilgrimages to St. James in Galice, to 
 Home, and to Saint Nicholas de Bar in Puyle, and other 
 diverse holy places. Also he procured and got of our 
 holy Father the Pope a great and large indulgence and 
 ' grace unto the chapel of our lady of the Piewe by St. 
 Stephen's at Westmenstre/ 
 
 " The dismal catastrophe of this accomplished Lord, in 
 the forty-first year of his age, is well known : 
 
 'Elvers, Vaughan, and Grey 
 Ere this lie shorter by the head at Pomfret.' " 
 
 But, audi alteram partem. In the Life of RichardTII., 
 by Caroline A. Halsted, one of the best histories ever 
 written by a female hand, the fair and able author (a 
 determined defender of King Richard, it should, however, 
 be observed) detracts much from the couleur de rose cha- 
 racter of Earl Rivers by Walpole. Miss Halsted speaks 
 thus of the Earl : 
 
 " Lord Rivers, having been removed from his prison at 
 Sheriff Button, was there, on the 23rd June, 1483, tried 
 and executed by the Earl of Northumberland, that peer 
 acting both as judge and accuser. However harsh this 
 proceeding may appear, it is clear that this unfortunate 
 nobleman was himself satisfied that his sentence was con- 
 formable to the proceedings of the age, and had been 
 merited by his own conduct. That he had confidence 
 also IJL the Protector's justice, although he entertained no 
 hope of awakening his mercy, is likewise shown by the 
 annexed conclusion to his will, dated at Sheriff Hutton,
 
 366 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES; 
 
 23rd of June, 1483 : ' Over this I beseech humbly my 
 Lord of Gloucester, in the worship of Christ's passion and 
 for the merit and weal of his soul, to comfort, help, and 
 assist, as supervisor for very trust of this testament, that 
 mine executors may with his pleasure fuliil this my last 
 will. 3 
 
 " The commiseration ordinarily expressed at the violent 
 end of Anthony, Earl Rivers, has arisen in great measure 
 from the lamentations bestowed upon him by Caxton, 
 whose first book (from the English press) with the date 
 and place subjoined, was a work of this nobleman's, en- 
 titled 'Dictes or Sayings of Philosophers/ the MS. of 
 which, elaborately illuminated, represents Edward IV., his 
 son, and the Queen, and Earl Rivers in the act of offering 
 his work to the King, accompanied by Caxton. But this 
 accomplished nobleman, although learned, chivalrous, and 
 excelling his compeers in the more graceful attainments of 
 the age, was by no means free from the vices which cha- 
 racterised his family, and the times in which he lived. 
 He was universally unpopular, from the selfish and cove- 
 tous ambition which marked his political conduct during 
 the ascendency of his royal sister. He was the cause of 
 King Edward's committing to the Tower his 'beloved 
 servant' Lord Hastings. He instigated the Queen to in- 
 sist on the Duke of Clarence's execution. He grasped at 
 every profitable or powerful appointment in King Ed- 
 ward's gift; and would, there can be no doubt, have 
 sacrificed the Duke of Gloucester to his insatiable am- 
 bition, had not the prince, from intimation of his designs, 
 felt justified, in accordance with the relentless custom of
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 367 
 
 that period, in committing him to prison, and commanding 
 his execution." 
 
 Miss Strickland, in her " Lives of the Bachelor Kings 
 of England," somewhat corroborates the fact that Rivers 
 was not altogether the immaculate character generally 
 supposed. According to her, his want of sobriety was the 
 cause of his being easily entrapped by the crafty Duke of 
 Gloucester and his minion Buckingham, at that eventful 
 moment of the accession of his nephew, Edward V., when 
 all depended on his sagacity, caution, and care. 
 
 "Lord Rivers," writes Miss Strickland, "entered North- 
 ampton, and found it swarming with the Duke of Glouces- 
 ter's northern cavalry, besides nine hundred retainers of 
 Buckingham, each wearing the well-known badge of the 
 Stafford knot. There were three inns in Northampton 
 market-place. Joining each other, Gloucester and Buck- 
 ingham had just taken up their quarters at two, the inns 
 situated at each extremity, leaving the middle vacant like 
 an empty trap, set for the nonce, in which Rivers secured 
 his lodging for that night. Immediately afterwards, his 
 brother-in-law, Buckingham, visited him in his quarters, 
 entering with open arms, and the exclamation of ' Well 
 met, good brother Scales.' And withal ' he wept/ 
 
 " The fraternal embracings between Rivers and the hus- 
 band of his sister Katherine were scarcely over, when 
 Gloucester entered from the other inn. His greeting was 
 as hearty : ' Welcome, good cousin, out of Wales ;' and 
 then followed some moralising congratulations, in Glouces- 
 ter's peculiar style, on the happiness he felt at the peace 
 and good will which pervaded the times and people in
 
 3G8 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES; 
 
 general. Rivers was utterly deceived by the apparent 
 frankness and condescension of these great princes of the 
 blood, whom he expected- to find rudely repulsive. 
 
 " Gloucester invited Rivers to supper at his quarters. 
 After the meal, the cups passed quickly and merrily, and 
 assumed the semblance of a revel in the old military times 
 of Edward IV. Ever as the cup was pushed to Gloucester, 
 he pledged Rivers, saying, ' I drink to you, good coz.' 
 The two dukes kept their wits in working order, but Rivers 
 was so overcome, that at the end of the revel he was led 
 to his inn between both his boon companions. The dukes 
 left him in his bedroom, wishing him many and affection- 
 ate good nights. There is no doubt but they had ex- 
 tracted information from him sufficient to guide their 
 manoeuvres for the morrow. Certainly, the conduct of 
 Rivers, considering the precious charge he had, was inex- 
 cusable. The moment Rivers was asleep, the two dukes 
 called for the keys of his inn, locked the gates, and, ap- 
 pointing sentinels, forbade anyone to enter or depart. The 
 rest of the night was spent by them in arrangements of 
 military strategy. They stationed, at certain intervals, 
 men-at-arms forming a lane. Many country people re- 
 membered, for many years, how the troopers blocked up 
 the highway to Northampton, and turned them back from 
 market. The two dukes were early as any one on the 
 road to Stoney Stratford. There they were joined by a 
 third person, who, notorious carouser JH he was, had cer- 
 tainly kept back from the orgie of the preceding night. 
 This third making up their triumvirate, had hitherto 
 worked successfully for their plans. He aud Rivers were
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OF ST. JOHN. 369 
 
 most deadly enemies. He came to enjoy the overthrow of 
 the man he hated, and to take official charge of his young 
 royal master. This third person in the plot was Lord 
 Hastings, the King's Lord Chamberlain. While the 
 cavalcade was approaching Northampton, the servants of 
 Lord Rivers began to stir for the morning, and found that 
 the inn was locked, and all within were prisoners closely 
 guarded. They woke their master whose sleep was 
 heavy after his revel by coming to his bedside with ex- 
 clamations of alarm, telling him, 'the dukes had gone 
 their way, and, taking the keys of his inn, had left him 
 prisoner/ So completely was Rivers deceived, that he 
 supposed his princely boon companions were playing out 
 a jest, and had taken this method of ensuring their earlier 
 arrival at Stoney Stratford. 
 
 "By the time he was dressed, Gbucester and Buckingham 
 returned. They were desirous of acting out their parts as 
 speedily as possible, and therefore admitted Rivers to their 
 presence. ' Brother,' exclaimed he, merrily, to Bucking- 
 ham, 'is this how you serve me?' The reply was in a 
 different tone. Indeed, according to the poetical chroni- 
 cler, Buckingham, 
 
 ' Stern in evil sadness, 
 Cried, ' I arrest thee, traitor, for thy badness.' 
 
 " ' Arrest !' said Rivers, ' why, where is your commis- 
 sion ?' Buckingham instantly flashed out his sword, and 
 all his party did the same. Oppressed by numbers, Rivers 
 surrendered without further resistance, and was forthwith 
 put under guard in a separate chamber from the prisoners 
 previously seized at Stoney Stratford." 
 
 B B
 
 870 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDVILLES J 
 
 As may naturally be supposed, this arrest was the prelude 
 of Rivers' execution. On Lord Rivers' unhappy decease, 
 he was succeeded in all his honours, but the Barony of 
 Scales, by his only surviving brother, Richard Widville, third 
 Earl Rivers. This nobleman, the last of the male line, died 
 unmarried in 1491. By his testament, bearing date 20th 
 February, 1490, his lordship directed his body to be buried 
 in the Abbey of St. James, in Northampton. He be- 
 queathed to the parish church of Grafton all such cattle 
 as he then had at Grafton, viz., two oxen, five kine, and 
 two bullocks, to the intent that they should yearly keep 
 an obit for his soul, and he appointed his nephew, Thomas, 
 Marquess of Dorset, his heir, to whom he devised all his 
 lands whatsoever; desiring that there might be as much 
 underwood sold, in the woods of Grafton, as would pur- 
 chase a bell, to be a tenor to the bells already there, for a 
 remembrance of the last of his blood. Upon the decease 
 of his lordship, the Barony and Earldom of Rivers became 
 extinct. This last Earl Rivers was a Knight of Malta. 
 Much light is thrown on that fact by the following able 
 communication from a friend and correspondent : 
 
 " I take this opportunity of offering you some informa- 
 tion on a different subject, which may probably interest 
 you as an antiquary and genealogist, and which, perhaps, 
 you may think with me, will help to solve a problem that 
 has often puzzled me, namely, why Richard Widvile, last 
 Earl Rivers, who held that title for a quarter of a century, 
 never married to continue his family, the extinction of 
 which he laments in a tone of such pathos in his last will 
 and testament.
 
 THE LAST, A KNIGHT OP ST. JOHN. 371 
 
 " Residing for a considerable time in Malta, I amused 
 myself with extracting from the records and archives of 
 the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, preserved there, every- 
 thing connected with the ci-devant English branch of 
 that renowned fraternity. Among other matter most 
 interesting, I met with a petition from Richard Widvile, 
 dated shortly after the period of the catastrophe at Pom- 
 fret, the decapitation of his eldest brother, and addressed 
 to the Grand Master of Rhodes John Ursino stating 
 that he, the petitioner, albeit a young man, had lived long 
 enough in the world to experience the hollo wness and un- 
 certainty of everything connected with it, and to become 
 thoroughly disgusted with it. He had seen the total ruin 
 of his family, and every thing and person most near and 
 dear to him ; and wishing to devote the rest of his life to 
 the service of God, in the habit of some religious order, he 
 prayed the Grand Master to receive his profession in the 
 brotherhood of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. 
 
 " Then follows a bull from the said Grand Master to 
 the Lord Prior of St. John in England, Sir William Tornay, 
 directing the said Grand Prior, because of the eminent 
 merits, and good disposition of the said Richard Widvile, 
 and more especially because of his illustrious parentage, 
 paternally and maternally, and particularly on account of 
 his near connection with the Royal House of England, to 
 receive him, the said Richard Widvile, as a professed 
 Knight Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem, with as little 
 delay as possible. 
 
 " I conclude from all this, that the last Earl Rivers lived
 
 372 THE FORTUNES OF THE WIDV1LLES. 
 
 and died a professed Knight of Rhodes, and consequently 
 Calebs. 
 
 " As no genealogist or historian, however, noticed t liis 
 curious fact, I take it for granted it lies buried in the 
 archives of the Order of Malta, and is entirely unknown." 
 
 Such were the vicissitudes of most of the once proud 
 name and royal race of Widville ; and when one con- 
 templates their elevations and their falls their successes 
 ever ending in reverses their dignities ever akin to 
 decay, and ever fading into naught one inclines to 
 admit the assertion of the poet, that " graves only are 
 men's works, and death their gain."
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 373 
 
 r Cale of a fvitigjit rf St. $0{pt of 
 
 " Ha ! who comes liere P 
 
 I think it is the weakness of mine eyes 
 That shapes this monstrous apparition. 
 It comes upon me !" 
 
 SHAKESPEAEB. 
 
 How often do we find a noble descent terminating in a 
 Knight of St. John of Malta. Even in these pages I 
 have already recorded some instances. Poor Philip D'Au- 
 vergne, for one, died a Knight of Malta, and the Duke de 
 Eouillon, who made the settlement in Philip's favour, did 
 so because the only son from whom he could hope to have 
 posterity died a Knight of Malta also. A knighthood of 
 the same order, as I have just shewn, put an end, in the 
 person of Richard, 3rd Earl Rivers, to the splendid but 
 ill-starred line of Widvile. But of all the extinctions of 
 ancient houses in the chivalry of St. John, that which re- 
 lates to the last Foulques of Tete-Foulques in Poictou is 
 the most singular and startling. The story is a well- 
 known and a popular French one, but I do not recollect 
 its being anywhere of record in English. Of course I 
 am not prepared to vouch for its supernatural accompani- 
 ments and bearings, but I have uo reason not to believe
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 that the main facts are true viz. the unholy duel, the 
 death of the Knight, and the troubled dreams of his con- 
 science-stricken slayer. The best account of the affair is 
 given by that very able genealogical gossip, Madame de 
 Crequy, in her famous Memoirs, and I therefore follow 
 her in the details I give here. 
 
 I should observe that the family of Foulquerre, Fulkques, 
 or Foulques, which spread itself into many branches, was 
 one of the most ancient and distinguished of the old 
 monarchy of France. The name of Foulques was of high 
 note in the Order of St. John. So far back as 1306, 
 Foulques de Villaret was Grand Master of the Order, and 
 many others of his race have at different times wielded 
 with valour and effect the knightly steel of Malta. The 
 Knight of whom I now speak, flourished as late as the 
 middle of the last century. 
 
 The relater of and principal actor in the scene of 
 Foulques' tragic fate and its results, is Don Luis de 
 Lima-Vasconcellos, Knight of Malta and Grand Prior of 
 Majorca, brother of Don Jaime de Majones de Lima de 
 Sotomajor, Commander of Calatrava, which latter was 
 Spanish Ambassador at Paris from 1747 to 1761. Don 
 Luis' narrative runs thus : 
 
 " We Knights were living peaceably together at Malta, 
 when a French ship brought us the Commander de Foul- 
 querre, of the ancient family of the Seneschals of Poitou, 
 the descendant, it is believed, of the first Counts of An- 
 gouleme. He had before been at Malta : once to fight the 
 Turks ; again to find a Milanese Chevalier, whom he
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 375 
 
 wanted to slay ; and, thirdly, to take his oath of obedience, 
 and to pronounce his vows. 
 
 The Commander de Foulquerre was always having some 
 serious quarrels. He came this time to solicit the Generalat 
 de Galeres, and as he had arrived at the age of thirty-five 
 years, it was expected that he was more sobered ; and, in 
 truth, it could not be said that this great officer of St. 
 Jean was as quarrelsome or as noisy as formerly ; but he 
 had become haughty, jealous, imperious, and even factious ; 
 he pretended to have more authority than the Grand 
 Master of Malta, or the Grand Priors of France. 
 
 The Commander de Foulquerre opened his house, and 
 the younger French Knights frequented it in crowds. We 
 older men and of other countries rarely went there, and we 
 ended by not going at all, as we found the conversation 
 tended to subjects that were of too free a nature, and were 
 consequently displeasing to us. 
 
 When the Commander took a walk in the town, he was 
 always seen surrounded by young French " Caravanists " 
 of the Order, whom he con ducted down the Strada Stretta 
 to show them the places in that street where he had fought, 
 and to explain to them the cause of his duels. It is ne- 
 cessary to state that a duel is prohibited, and for it there 
 is a severe punishment at Malta, unless it take place in 
 this Strada Stretta, a long narrow street, in which there 
 is not a door to be found, and on which no window opens. 
 The width of the street only admits of two men standing 
 en garde, and crossing their swords; they cannot draw 
 back, and their seconds have to stop passers-by, and pre- 
 vent them interrupting them. Swords alone (which every
 
 376 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 one, of course, constantly wore) could be the weapons 
 used, for in order to render all but chance rencontres 
 unlikely in the Strada Stretta, whosoever walked down 
 that street with pistol or poignard, incurred the penalty of 
 death. A duel is thus always publicly condemned at 
 Malta, and if privately tolerated there, it is not looked on, 
 as it may be elsewhere, as very honourable. Among the 
 Knights of Malta, a duel is always spoken of with shame, 
 as an attempt contrary to the character of a Christian, and 
 as a foul, and especially unrighteous act, if occurring in 
 the streets of a town belonging to a religious and charitable 
 order. 
 
 The promenades and lounging which the Commander 
 Foulquerre and his French companions indulged in, in the 
 Strada Stretta, were then very ill-timed. The very cha- 
 racter of the place had the bad effect of rendering the 
 French Knights susceptible and offensive. The Spanish 
 Knights consequently increased in reserve and in serious 
 intent to put a stop to the French system of irritation. 
 They assembled at my house to consult with me on the 
 means of checking fits of petulance and frivolity, which 
 became intolerable. 
 
 I thanked my countrymen for the confidence they had 
 honoured me with, and the result of our meeting was that 
 I undertook to speak on the subject to the Commander 
 Foulquerre, and to represent to him that the conduct of 
 the young Frenchmen was improper, and that he could 
 stop the abuse by the very weight of the high consideration 
 which they had for him. Yet, in agreeing to do this, I 
 instinctively felt that my explanation with the COLU-
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 377 
 
 mander, whatever caution I might use, could not termi- 
 nate otherwise than in a duel. Nevertheless, as this affair 
 interested Castilian dignity, I was not sorry for being chosen 
 to support our cause indeed, I believe I was induced to 
 meddle, from a kind of natural antipathy I had for the 
 Frenchman. 
 
 It was passion week, and it was arranged to delay my 
 interview with the Commander till a fortnight after Easter. 
 I have always believed that he knew all that passed at my 
 house, and that he was resolved to forestall us in having a 
 quarrel with me. 
 
 Good Friday arrived. You know that according to the 
 Spanish custom if one has a particular friend, a lady, one 
 follows her on that day from church to church to present 
 her as she enters and departs from each with holy water. 
 On that, for me, eventful Good Friday, I attended a 
 Maltese young lady, to whom I was platonically, but 
 sincerely, attached for many years. Well, the very first 
 church she entered, the Commander accosted her familiarly 
 and tendered to her the holy water, placing bimself be- 
 tween us in a manner so as to turn his back to me and to 
 tread upon my feet. This was remarked by the French- 
 men near, and could not remain unpunished. 
 
 In going out of the church I accosted Monsieur calmly, 
 asking him at first the news, then in what church he in- 
 tended going to make his second station. " I intend going 
 to the Church of St. Jean," said he. I proposed to con- 
 duct him the shortest way. I was astonished to hear 
 him reply to me in the politest manner thus : " I shall be 
 delighted to follow the steps of your illustrious seigneurie."
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OP MALTA. 
 
 I thanked him pointedly and very courteously for his 
 readiness and civility. I conducted him, as he might well 
 know, to the Strada Stretta, where I eagerly drew my sword, 
 being fully assured that no one would come and interfere 
 on such a day, everybody being occupied at church. 
 
 The Commander exclaimed, "What! Signer Comman- 
 dador, you draw your sword ?" "Yes, Monsieur le Corn- 
 man deur, I draw my sword. I am en garde, and I wait 
 you." After a minute or two, he unsheathed his weapon, 
 but he turned the point to the ground. "Good Friday !" 
 said he, " it is six years since I have approached a con- 
 fessional. I am alarmed at the state of my conscience ; 
 but, if you will allow me, three days hence let it be that 
 is to say, Monday morning." 
 
 I would listen to nothing, and I insisted on his con- 
 fronting me. I am naturally quiet ; and you know that 
 persons of that temperament will not listen to reason when 
 they are irritated. Terror was marked in all his features. 
 He placed himself close against the wall, as if he had been 
 falling down, and as if he sought a support. The fight 
 began. At the first lounge I made, I passed my sword 
 through his body. He sunk by the wall, and said to me 
 in a faltering voice, " Good Friday ! May heaven forgive 
 you ! Carry my sword to Tetefoulques, and have a hun- 
 dred masses said for the repose of my soul in the chapel 
 of the chateau." With these words the Commander ex- 
 pired. I did not at the moment pay great attention to 
 what he said ; and if I repeat his words correctly now, it 
 is because I have unfortunately heard them many times 
 since. I made a declaration ; and the Chapter considered
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 379 
 
 it natural, our having both met in the Strada Stretta, that 
 our national hostility and, perhaps, the difficulty of giving 
 place to each other had ended in a serious quarrel. I may, 
 in fact, say that before men my duel did me no harm. 
 Foulquerre was generally detested, and it was everywhere 
 observed that he merited his destiny ; but it was not so 
 before God ; for my deed was doubly criminal, in conse- 
 quence of Good Friday, and above all, on account of my 
 refusal in granting the delay of three days, that he might 
 receive the sacraments. My conscience, awakened by my 
 confessor, was not slow in cruelly reproaching me. The 
 sad deed hung still more heavily on me, from the fact that 
 in three days after it, our eminent Grand Master had the 
 goodness to invest me with the dignity of Prior of the 
 kingdom of Majorca, which high post I hold to this day. 
 
 In the night of the Friday following my nomination, 
 I was suddenly awakened. I looked around me, and 
 it seemed that I was neither in my apartment nor my 
 bed, but in the Strada Stretta, and lying on the pave- 
 ment. I perceived the Commander resting against the 
 wall. The spectre, with the appearance of much effort, 
 spoke to me. " Carry my sword to Tetefoulques," said 
 he, in a faltering voice, " and have a hundred masses said 
 for the repose of my soul in the chapel of the ch&teau." 
 
 The following night I made one of my criados, or at- 
 tendants, sleep in my room. I neither saw nor heard any- 
 thing, not even for six nights after; but on that of Friday 
 I had again the same vision, with the only difference 
 that my valet appeared to sleep at some distance from 
 me, on the pavement of the Strada Stretta. The Com-
 
 380 ANOTHER KNIGHT OP MALTA. 
 
 mander appeared to me as usual : he said the same words : 
 and thus the horrid vision of the slain man came again and 
 again, and repeated them successively every Friday night. 
 Ay, Friday after Friday, would my eyes stare upon the 
 spectre, and my ears draw in his injunction " Carry my 
 sword to Tete-Foulques, and have a hundred masses said 
 for the repose of my soul in the chapel of the chateau." 
 My criado meanwhile would dream that he was lying in a 
 very narrow little street, but he neither heard nor saw the 
 Commander. 
 
 I did not know where Tetefoulques was, where the 
 deceased absolutely desired that I should carry his sword. 
 The Chevaliers Poitevins informed me that it was an old 
 mansion, four leagues from Poitiers, in the centre of a 
 forest, of which extraordinary things were related ; and 
 where many curious objects were seen, particularly the ar- 
 moury of the famous Foulques Taillefers, containing the 
 arms of all the warriors of the house who had been slain. 
 They informed me also that the ancient custom of all of 
 the house of Foulquerre had been to deposit there the arms 
 they had used, whether in war or in single combat. 
 
 On arriving at Poitiers, I found that they had been 
 informed of the death of Monsieur De Foulquerre, and it 
 appeared that he was not more regretted there than at 
 Malta. I left my carriage in the town, and I disguised 
 myself as a pilgrim, and took a guide. It was necessary 
 for me to go on foot as far as Tetefoulques, as the road 
 was impracticable for carriages. We found all the doors 
 of the chateau closed, and we rang for some time at the 
 principal door before the porter appeared. He was the
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OP MALTA. 381 
 
 only inhabitant of Ttefoulques except a kind of hermit, 
 who attended to the chapel. We found the two engaged 
 in singing the service of the dead, which appeared to me to 
 add to the sadness of the place. When they had finished 
 channting, I told them that I had come to accomplish an 
 obligation of conscience, and that I intended to make the 
 hermit say a hundred masses for the repose of the soul of 
 the Commander. He replied that he never said mass, 
 because he was not in holy orders, but he would undertake 
 to get the masses said in acquittance of my conscience. 
 
 I laid, in offertory for the masses, a sum upon the altar, 
 and I wished also to put the Commander's sword there ; 
 but the hermit said to me, in a melancholy tone, that it 
 was not the place for a sword so murderous and so often 
 plunged in Christian blood ; and he advised me to take it to 
 the great hall, called the armoury, where he never entered. 
 The porter added, that in the armoury I should see placed 
 all the swords of the deceased Foulquerres, with those of 
 their adversaries over whom they had triumphed ; that such 
 was the established custom since the time of Mellusine, and 
 her husband, the Count de Poitou, Geoffrey with the big 
 tooth. I followed the porter into the armoury, and there 
 I found swords of all dimensions and shapes and of all 
 ages, also curious portraits, commencing with that of 
 Foulques Taillefer, Comte d'Angouleme, who had built 
 the Chateau de Tetefoulques for an illegitimate son, Mein- 
 zier, who was created Seneschal of Poitou, and who became 
 the source of the race of the Foulquerres of Tetefoulques. 
 
 The portrait of the Seneschal, and that of his wife, 
 Isabeau de Sainte Herminc, were placed on each side of
 
 382 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA, 
 
 an immense chimney-piece, They had the greatest air of 
 truth. All the other portraits appeared to me of equally 
 good execution, although they were by gothic artists ; but 
 the most striking was that of Foulques Taillefer, armed 
 with various implements of war, and bearing his round 
 shield, which was emblazoned with three leopard lions, 
 mournful and defamed (apparent signs of bastardy). The 
 greater number of the swords in the armoury were united 
 and adjusted in trophies under this portrait. 
 
 As that hall was the only room in the chateau which I 
 found of habitable appearance, I asked the porter if he 
 would light a fire in it for me before he gave me supper, 
 and make me a bed. " As regards supper, I will do that 
 willingly, my good pilgrim," he replied ; " but I advise 
 you to come and sleep in my room." 
 
 I wished to know the motive for this precaution. " I 
 have my reasons," he continued. " I will readily make 
 you a bed near mine." I accepted the proposition more 
 willingly because it was Friday, and I feared the return of 
 my vision. 
 
 The porter of Tetefoulques went to arrange my supper, 
 and I began by examining the armoury and the portraits 
 of the Foulquerres. As soon as day had declined, the dingy 
 draperies became united with the ground-work of the pic- 
 tures, and the fire from the chimney allowed me only to see 
 the faces, which gave them a frightful appearance. Perhaps 
 they appeared to me thus, because the state of my con- 
 science caused me continual trouble. 
 
 At last the porter brought my supper,' which, pursuant 
 to Friday's abstinence, consisted of a dish of trout, with
 
 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 383 
 
 some lobsters, which he had had caught in the ponds at 
 the chateau ; he furnished me, besides, with a bottle of 
 wine, drinkable and passable enough, even though he told 
 me it was the wine of Poitou. I should have begged the 
 hermit to sit at table with me, but he lived on herbs and 
 roots boiled in water only. 
 
 I was always very exact in reading my breviary, which 
 is ever the custom, and also an obligation, among professed 
 Chevaliers of our sacred order, and among Spanish Knights 
 particularly. 
 
 I took then my missal from my pocket, also my rosary, 
 and I said to the porter that he had only to show me the 
 chamber where I should find him again when I had 
 finished my prayers. " Very good," replied he ; " when 
 you hear the hermit ring his bell in taking his round in 
 the corridor before midnight, you can descend by that 
 winding staircase, and you will not fail to find my room, 
 of which I will leave the door open it is the sixth door 
 after the great arch on the third landing of the staircase. 
 You enter there in a vaulted alley, which terminates by an 
 arcade with a statue of the blessed Jean of France ; you 
 cannot mistake it, and I advise you not to remain here 
 after midnight." 
 
 The porter left, I continued my devotions, and from 
 time to time I put wood on the fire ; but I did not dare to 
 look around me. The pictures seemed to become animated, 
 and if I looked at one for a few minutes it appeared to me 
 to move the eyes and lips, and particularly the portraits of 
 the Chief Seneschal and his wife moved their eyes as if 
 angry with me, and having an understanding between
 
 384 ANOTHER KNIGHT OP MALTA. 
 
 themselves. A frightful wind increased my fears, it shook 
 all the window-frames violently, and agitated the sets of 
 armoury with a kind of chink, in sound supernatural. At 
 last I heard the hermit's bell, and I descended the winding 
 staircase with a light that the wind quite blew out before 
 I discovered the arcade, the niche, and the figure of the 
 blessed Jean de France. I ascended immediately to the 
 armoury to light my end of candle there ; but judge what 
 I felt when I perceived the Seneschal and the lady Senes- 
 chal had descended from their frames, and had placed 
 themselves in the corner of the fireplace. 
 
 " My clear," said the Seneschal, " what think you of the 
 extreme impudence of this Castilian, who comes to bed 
 and board in my chateau after having killed the Com- 
 mander, without allowing him the means of confessing his 
 sins ?" 
 
 " Sir," replied the female spectre, " my advice is that 
 this Castilian pay forfeiture for that meeting, and truly it 
 would not be the thing that he should go away from this 
 without having the glove thrown at him." 
 
 I gave up lighting the candle, but leaped down the 
 staircase again to seek the porter's chamber, which was im- 
 possible for me to find in the midst of darkness. After an 
 hour and a half's attempt and mortal anxiety. I endea- 
 voured to persuade myself that the day was fast approach- 
 ing, and it was time for the cock to crow, which would 
 leave me without any anxiety ; for it is well known that 
 ghosts would not show themselves after the first crow of 
 the cock. I tried, above all, to persuade myself that what 
 I had believed to have seen and heard speak, had only
 
 ANOTHEtt KNIGHT OF MALTA. 385 
 
 existed in my troubled imagination. I still held in my 
 hands my extinguished candle, which I must absolutely 
 light again to help me to bed ; I was indeed overcome 
 with fatigue. At last I re-ascended this unfortunate 
 staircase with stealthy strides, and stopping at the door of 
 the armoury with precaution, I found that in reality the 
 two gothic figures were not in the corner of the fireplace 
 where I had seen them. I had not the prudence and 
 precaution to look if they had again mounted into their 
 frames. I ventured fearlessly in directing myself to the 
 side of the chimney ; but scarcely had I made a few steps 
 than I saw Messire Foulques in the middle of the hall. 
 He was in fighting attitude, and presented the point of 
 his sword at me. I tried to return from Jhe side of the 
 staircase, but the door was guarded by the figure of an 
 Esquire, who rudely threw an iron gauntlet into my face. 
 The irritation of this mastered all other feeling. I seized 
 a sword that I took from the trophies of arms. It hap- 
 pened to be that of the Commander that I had placed 
 there. I fancied that I ran it through my opponent ; but 
 as suddenly I felt at the back of my heart a stab that 
 burnt me as if it had been a red-hot iron ; my blood 
 covered the hall, and I fainted. 
 
 I awoke the following morning in the porter's little 
 room not seeing me arrive, he took his vessel of holy 
 water and came in search of me. He found me stretched 
 on the floor of the armoury insensible, but without a single 
 wound. That which I had imagined I had received was 
 nothing more than a fancy. The porter and the hermit 
 put no questions to me, but they advised me to quit the 
 
 c c
 
 386 ANOTHER KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 chateau as soon as possible. I left Tetefoulques to return 
 to Spain, and I arrived at Bayonne the following Friday. 
 In the middle of the night I was suddenly awakened by 
 the same Foulques Taillefer, who directed towards me the 
 point of his sword. I made the sign of the cross, and the 
 spectre appeared to vanish in smoke ; but I did not feel 
 the less the same stab from the sword that I had imagined 
 I had received in the armoury. It appeared to me that 
 I was weltering in my blood. I tried to call and to get 
 out of my bed to seek for help, but it was impossible for 
 me to do either. The agony lasted till the first crow of 
 the cock then I went to sleep again ; but thp following 
 day I was ill and in a pitiable state. I have the same 
 vision each Friday. Acts of devotion have not delivered 
 me from the horrible spectral intruder, and it is only my 
 trust in the divine mercy that still supports me and makes 
 me endure so lamentable an existence."
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 387 
 
 Bring in the 
 
 Thou robed man of justice, take thy place." 
 
 KING LEAB. 
 How like a hateful ape, 
 
 Detected grinning 'midst his pilfer'd hoard, 
 A cunning man appears, whose secret frauds 
 Are open'd to the day." COUNT BASIL. 
 
 IN times before Railways existed, one of the many charms 
 of a journey through England, was the glimpse it afforded 
 of the ancestral Homes and the old Manor- Houses which 
 are so peculiarly characteristic of our country. The tra- 
 veller through the Midlands and on to the North found 
 the tedium of the day much enlivened by the pleasure he 
 felt, at recognising the towers of historic Belvoir, the 
 stately castle of Stafford, the sunny lawns of Tren- 
 tham, the grand gates of Tatton, the Park of Beaudesert, 
 the distant woods of Knowsley, and many other seats 
 in which we seemed to take a national pride and a 
 persona] interest. The very distinguished President of 
 the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland, Dr. Corrigan, 
 has eloquently remarked, that " a statue in a public way is 
 a book to every passer-by." May I not borrow the simile 
 from my accomplished friend, and apply it with equal
 
 388 THE SMYTHS OY ASHTOX COURT. 
 
 force to the hereditary seats of England ? " They are/' 
 says Washington Irving, "most of them full of story 
 haunted by the recollections of great spirits of past ages, 
 who have sought for relaxation among them from the tu- 
 mult of arms or the toils of state, or have wooed the muse 
 beneath their shade." The West Country had many of these 
 historic places, and we all recollect, on the road from Bristol 
 to Weston, that fine specimen of Inigo Jones's style, old 
 " Ashton Court." This curious house was the head the 
 caput baronice as it were of a vast property, variously es- 
 timated at 20,000 or 30 3 COO a-year, and had been in- 
 habited, generation after generation, by a distinguished 
 county family, uninterruptedly, and without question. At 
 last, just ten years ago, an attempt was made to oust from 
 its possession the young heir of the Smyths ; and among 
 the causes celebres by which the present century has been 
 characterised, and by which the security of family estates 
 has been temporarily placed in jeopardy, I know of no 
 case more worthy of record, either from its complexity of 
 villany,or the mysterious romance and legal chicanery which 
 surrounded it, than that of Smyth v. Smyth, which was 
 tried at the Gloucester Assizes before Mr. Justice Cole- 
 ridge, in August, 1853, and by which the plaintiff sought 
 to eject John Henry Greville Smyth, a minor, heir of the 
 ancient family of Smyth, of Ashton Court, Somerset, from 
 the mansion house and estates where his ancestors had 
 been domiciled in peaceful and uninterrupted succession 
 since the reign of Henry V., at which period, A.D. 1420, 
 the manor of Long Ashton was acquired by purchase, by 
 Mr. Thomas Smyth, of Ayeleburton, co. Gloucester, from
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 389 
 
 Ashton de Lyons, whose family had held the manor of 
 Ashton in fee from the days of the Norman conquest. 
 
 An attempt to disturb an inheritance that has been re- 
 cently acquired, would excite no special wonder, or occasion 
 more than ordinary interest ; but where the title deeds date 
 from remote antiquity, and where the family records are 
 hallowed by the dust of ages, and preserved with minutest 
 care, he must indeed be an adept in daring who would 
 venture to challenge the right of ownership. In the case 
 under consideration, one can hardly say which more ex- ' 
 cites our astonishment ; the audacity of a man, without a 
 shilling in the world, whose antecedents were known in 
 half the county gaols of England, without the remotest 
 connection with the family whose estates he coveted, and 
 whose repose he recklessly invaded, planning so nefarious 
 a crime, and carrying it out, month after month, persuad- 
 ing others of the justness of his claims, until, by his own 
 unrivalled iniquity, and the public credulity, he was enabled 
 to bring his cause before a special jury; or the fact that 
 such an impostor should be able to find in this enlightened 
 age a solicitor so simple-minded, and credulous, as to 
 listen to a tissue of falsehood so utterly improbable, with- 
 out suspecting the honesty of the plaintiff, or the genuine- 
 ness of the documents by which he sought to substantiate 
 his claims. 
 
 I have already stated that the Smyths of Ashton settled 
 upon their present estate in the fifteenth century, and the 
 muniment room at Ashton Court furnishes ample evidence 
 of the regularity with which the family records in each 
 successive generation have been preserved.
 
 390 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 The old baronial mansion of the Lyons family was re- 
 modelled in 1634, by Thomas Smyth, Esq., M.P. for the 
 county of Somerset, (from designs by the celebrated Inigo 
 Jones), and his son, Hugh Smyth, who married the 
 daughter of John Ashburnham, groom of the bedchamber 
 to Charles I., supported the cause of his unfortunate Sove- 
 reign, and was for his loyal services created a Baronet at 
 the Restoration. The family papers are rich in letters of 
 this interesting period, and I give the following as a speci- 
 men of the diction and spelling of an English gentleman 
 of the seventeenth century ; it is from John Ashburnham, 
 to his son-in-law, Hugh Smyth, announcing the dawn of 
 the Restoration, a period of hope, pregnant with disap- 
 pointment to the nation. 
 
 "5 January, 1659. 
 ' Deare Sonn, 
 
 " By this you shall know that which scarce the world 
 since itts creation ever knew, that the generall received intelli- 
 gence from all parts in this nation yesternight was, that the 
 generall insurrections (and they were not a few) were all for a 
 ffree Parliament, and in opposition to this present authority, and 
 this morning all submission imaginable is given by all partyes to 
 this Parliament. Particularly the Lord Ffairfax having layd 
 downe his armes, Lambert's men having all deserted him, and 
 he himselfe having sent letters of his humble concurrence with 
 the pleasure of the House, and soe have all the rest. Excuse my 
 haste, more I need not add but my blessing to you all, and 
 hearty love to yourselfe, from deare Sonn, your loving father to 
 serve you, 
 
 " J. ASHBUBNHAM. 
 
 " To my deare Sonn, Hugh Smith, Esq., 
 
 att his house in Long Ashton, neare Bristoll." 
 
 The commencement of the present century found Sir
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 391 
 
 John Hugh Smyth, Bart., in possession of the family estates, 
 and he, dying without issue in 1802, was succeeded by his 
 nephew, Sir Hugh Smyth, eldest son of Thomas Smyth, 
 of Stapleton, Gloucestershire. Sir Hugh Smyth was twice 
 married, but was known to have had no issue by either 
 wife. The plaintiff, however, claimed to be the son of 
 Sir Hugh Smyth, by a previous marriage. Sir Hugh 
 dying in 18.24, was succeeded by his only brother, the 
 late Sir John Smyth, Bart., at whose decease without 
 issue in 1819, the estates devolved on his eldest sister, 
 Florence, the widow of John Upton, Esq., of Ingmire Hall, 
 Westmoreland j and at her decease in 1852, (her son 
 Thomas Upton having died in her lifetime) the property 
 devolved upon her only surviving grandson, John Henry 
 Greville Upton, a minor, and the defendant in the ac- 
 tion, who dropped the name of Upton, assumed the name 
 and arms of Smyth by royal licence, and to whom Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty was pleased to restore the family 
 title and dignity of baronet upon his attaining his majority 
 in 1859. 
 
 On the death of Mrs. Florence Smyth, in 1852, Mrs. 
 Upton made her son a ward of the Court of Chancery, and 
 at her request the entire management and control of the 
 estate were placed in the hands of her brother, Arthur 
 Way, Esq., afterwards member of Parliament for Bath, 
 who was duly appointed receiver of the Ashton Court 
 Estates by the Lord Chancellor. Mr. Way at once set 
 about the arrangement of the family affairs, little suspect- 
 ing how soon the rights of his nephew were to be invaded ; 
 the first intimation, however, of the approaching storm
 
 ?-92 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTOX COURT. 
 
 came within two months ; the following letter appearing 
 upon the breakfast table on the morning of the 9th of 
 September. 
 
 " Bristol, Sept. 8th, 1852. 
 
 " Sir, I am directed by Thomas Rodham, Esq., of Wellington, 
 the deputed Steward of Sir Richard Smyth, Bart, of Ashton 
 Court, Sommersett, to advise you that after this notice you do not 
 interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the tenants or pro- 
 perty of the said Barony ; and I am also directed to forbid the de- 
 struction of the Deer in the Park, and to request that you will 
 consider yourself from this date a trespasser upon the property of 
 Ashton Court ; and you are also advised that Sir Richard Smyth 
 has this day in person taken possession of Heath House, at 
 Stapleton, and that in future your visits to that house, or to the 
 lands thereof, will be considered a trespass. 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 " HENEY BBOWN, 
 " For THOMAS RODHAM, ESQ. 
 " Arthur Edwin Way, Esq., 
 Ashton Court." 
 
 Such an unexpected announcement was somewhat cal- 
 culated to create uneasiness, and it was quickly followed 
 by the arrival of Joseph Turvey, a faithful servant of 
 the family for upwards of fifty years, who reported that 
 on the previous afternoon two suspicious-looking characters 
 had made their appearance at Heath House (the family 
 mansion in Gloucestershire), and had requested to see the 
 house ; that one of them having been shown the portrait 
 of Sir Hugh Smyth, prostrated himself before the picture, 
 exclaiming " Oh ! my father, my beloved father," and 
 then announced himself as Sir Richard Smyth, the lawful 
 owner of the estates; "upon which," continued honest 
 Joseph, " unable to restrain myself, I exclaimed, ' Now I
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 398 
 
 tell ye what it is; I've known the family, man and hoy, 
 this fifty year, and I never seed the likes of ye among 
 'em, and if you don't just clear out, Pll kick ye out, and 
 that's all about it :' " this threat proved effectual, and the 
 visitors at once departed. 
 
 The same day " Sir Richard Smyth" and a Mr. Rodham, 
 a solicitor, called at Ashton Court, and sending in their 
 cards, requested an audience. Mr. Way, being anxious to 
 take the measure of the parties he had to deal with, after 
 giving his instructions, desired they might be shown into 
 a room on the basement storey, where he waited upon 
 them. The soi-disant Sir Richard Smyth, who was intro- 
 duced by his solicitor, appeared to be about sixty years of 
 age, tall, of sallow complexion, and very repulsive features. 
 Mr. Way complimented Sir Richard on his baronetcy, and 
 requested to know his pleasure, when the " Baronet" de- 
 sired his solicitor to state " his strange, eventful history." 
 This his solicitor did at great length, and was heard with 
 much patience, and at the end the following conversation 
 took place : 
 
 Mr. Way : " Sir Richard Smyth, have you anything 
 further to state ?" 
 
 Sir Richard : " No, sir, except that I wish you to dis- 
 charge the household, as my own servants are coming 
 here, and I request you will hand me the keys of the 
 mansion ; but you need not hurry, sir, I will allow you 
 two hours to take your departure." 
 
 Mr. Way : " Mr. Rodham, have you anything more to 
 say ?" 
 
 Mr. Rodham : " Not a word more, sir ; I have fully
 
 394- THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 stated Sir Richard's case, and I trust you will throw no 
 impediments in the way of his regaining his family 
 estates." 
 
 Mr. Way (placing his watch on the table) : " Now, then, 
 I must request your attention to what I say. You have 
 come here in the face of day to perpetrate a robbery of no 
 ordinary kind. In a case so monstrous I can make no 
 distinction between solicitor and client. You must both 
 leave the house, within the minute, or be prepared to take 
 the consequences." 
 
 Sir Richard stormed, Mr. Rodham expostulated ; in 
 vain ; the minute elapsed, neither would budge an inch. 
 Mr. Way quietly touched the bell, when the men-ser- 
 vants rushed in, and without saying a word seized the 
 astonished Sir Richard and his lawyer, carried them off 
 vi et armis, and deposited them outside the house ; and 
 so ended Sir Richard's first attempt to regain, as he said, 
 " possession of his ancestral Halls." 
 
 At the close of this first act of the drama, Mr. Rodham 
 disappeared from the scene, either discovering that Sir 
 Richard was an arrant impostor, or fearing to share 
 further in Sir Richard's adventures. Little was heard of 
 the new Baronet before the ensuing spring, when Mr. 
 Cattlin, a well-known solicitor, of Ely Place, Holborn, 
 was honoured with Sir Richard's confidence. He soon in- 
 fused new vigour into the cause, and served the tenantry on 
 Ashton- Court estates with notices to account to no one but 
 himself, as Sir Richard's agent ; but, to the credit of the 
 numerous tenantry, it is due to state, that only one was 
 found among them to betray those whose property they held,
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 395 
 
 During this period of comparative calm, rumours were 
 afloat that Sir Richard had made wonderful discoveries ; 
 wills and documents of the utmost importance had, it was 
 reported, come to light, which left no doubt of his legal 
 right to the estate. Sir Richard himself rose high in favour 
 and credit ; and, from being a pauper in 1852, the following 
 summer found him comfortably housed at St. Vincent's 
 Priory, Clifton ; and a lady, who styled herself Lady Smyth, 
 presiding at his well-furnished table, where quite a little 
 court of expectant Bristolians assembled daily, to offer the 
 incense of their homage to the rising sun. Credulous but- 
 chers and bakers, milliners and tailors, and tradesmen of 
 every description, awaited with anxiety Sir Richard's favours, 
 and were only too anxious, in many cases, to advance money 
 to forward Sir Richard's claims ; and it was a highly edi- 
 fying sight to witness Sir Richard and Lady Smyth's 
 progress to church on Sunday, followed, in the Roger 
 De Coverley style, by a tall, well-dressed lacquey, 
 carrying the family Bible and other accessories of devo- 
 tion. 
 
 On the last day of Trinity Term, on the llth June, 
 1853, Mr. Cattlin served Mr. Way with a writ of ejectment 
 on behalf of Sir Richard Smyth, to regain possession 
 of Heath House, Stapleton, and Elmington Farm, both 
 situate in the county of Gloucester. At the same time he 
 informed Messrs. Palmer and Wansey, the family solicitors, 
 that he was in possession of a will, under the seal and 
 signature of Sir Hugh Smyth, which rendered the title of 
 his client, Sir Richard Smyth, indisputable. As the issue 
 which involved such important interests was to be tried at
 
 396 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 
 
 Gloucester on the 9th of August ensuing, it was evident 
 that no time was to be lost in defeating a conspiracy which 
 was now assuming formidable proportions. Mr. Way 
 went therefore with Mr. Palmer to London, where they 
 prayed for inspection of the alleged will of Sir Hugh 
 Smyth, stating in their affidavit that such document was, 
 to the best of their belief, a " barefaced forgery." Mr. 
 Justice Coleridge, who heard counsel in chambers on either 
 side, granted the order. The mysterious document was 
 accordingly examined in Mr. Cattlin's office by Mr. 
 Way, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Knapp, of the firm of Osborn 
 and Ward, Bristol, and by Mr. Nethercliff, the expert 
 in writing, and, after a careful examination by these 
 gentlemen on the part of the defendants, no doubt was 
 left on their minds, that this alleged will of Sir Hugh 
 Smyth was not only, as stated, a "barefaced forgery," 
 but, from the mis-spelling in the will exactly corresponding 
 with the mis-spelling in certain letters from the plaintiff, 
 of which they had gained possession, that the will itself 
 was the haudywork of the soi-disant Sir Richard. From 
 this moment the defendants never hesitated to assert that 
 the plaintiff's claim was based on forged documents, ana 
 that the whole case was a deliberate fraud. Even- 
 tually, Mr. Way and Mr. Palmer, finding that a trial 
 was inevitable, and seeing with whom they had to deal, 
 secured the same day the services of an experienced detec- 
 tive officer ; and, as time pressed, a division of labour was 
 necessary. To Mr. Field, therefore, it was allotted to 
 watch Mr. Cattlin's office, and to work out the antece- 
 dents and pedigree of the plaintiff, tracing his history
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 397 
 
 backwards from his residence at St. Vincent's Priory ; 
 and, while Mr. Field entered upon this branch of inquiry, 
 for which he was eminently adapted, Mr. Way, who 
 had in former years acquired considerable experience as 
 a justice of the peace in the colony of New South Wales, 
 and who, in the present cause, exhibited evidence of great 
 judgment and ability, resolved to start for Ireland, to 
 make inquiries in the neighbourhood of Court Mac Sherry, 
 where it was alleged by the plaintiff that Sir Hugh Smyth 
 had married his mother, Hesther Gookin, in 1796. 
 
 On arriving at Bandon, county of Cork, Mr. Way 
 found that Sir Richard and Mr. Cattlin had paid ten visits 
 of some duration to that place, and that the tangled web 
 of the plot, which had been evidently laid there, required 
 the nicest handling. It appeared that " Sir Richard " had 
 been received at Bernard Castle by the Earl of Bandon, 
 and at other houses, as an 'honoured guest, his story being 
 that " an illegitimate heir had got possession of his vast 
 estates," but that his proofs were so clear he had hardly 
 expected opposition. A fortnight was spent by Mr. Way 
 in this locality, examining a vast number of witnesses, 
 many of whom had been subpoenaed by Mr. Cattlin to give 
 evidence at Gloucester. In the course of his inquiries he 
 found that at Court Mac Sherry, where the marriage was 
 alleged to have taken place, no register was extant beyond 
 the present century ; that no such person as Hesther 
 Gookin ever existed; and that Count J. S. Vandenbergh was 
 purely a myth. Furthermore, " Sir Richard's " family 
 history proved to be simply a fabrication, without one par- 
 ticle of truth from beginning to end. At Bernard Castle
 
 398 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 Sir Richard had the effrontery to doubt the family por- 
 traits, " because they bore no resemblance to his own 
 family;" and at Ballinadee, where the Rev. Richard 
 Verney Lovett had formerly lived, Mr. Way obtained the 
 celebrated coat of arms, with the motto, " Qui capit 
 capitor/' from Mr. Bennett, the incumbent, who was pro- 
 mised by Sir Richard the first of his many family livings 
 that might became vacant, " none of which were under 
 Jt'600 per annum," in consequence of Mr. Bennett having 
 kindly furnished him with one or two specimens of the 
 Eev. Verney Lovett's signature. 
 
 On Mr. Way's return, after a most satisfactory and 
 searching investigation into the Irish part of the plot, he 
 \vas pleased to find that Mr. Field had been equally suc- 
 cessful in the prosecution of his researches. The birth, 
 parentage, education, and antecedents of Sir Richard Hugh 
 Smyth, Bart., alias Thomas Provis, were unfolded and 
 brought to light ; and the results of these inquiries were 
 embodied in a brief, so complete in its minutest details, 
 that Sir Frederick Thesiger bestowed the highest en- 
 comiums upon it, when placed in his hands by Messrs. 
 Palmer and Wansey, the defendant's solicitors. 
 
 At the Summer Assizes held at Gloucester, on the 8th 
 August, 1853, the question was brought to issue. Glou- 
 cestershire and the neighbouring counties were excited be- 
 yond precedent at the trial about to take place ; there was 
 not an unoccupied nook in the Court-house. The Coun- 
 sel's benches displayed a vast array of barristers, and the 
 Hall was crowded with gentlemen and ladies from all 
 parts. Mr. Justice Coleridge presided as judge, Llr.
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 399 
 
 Bovill, Q.C., Mr. Dowdeswell and Mr. Phipson appeared 
 for the plaintiff; and Sir Frederic Thesiger, Mr. Crowder, 
 Q.C., Mr. Alexander, Q.C., Mr. Tufnell and Mr. Gray for 
 the defence. 
 
 Seldom was the public more intensely interested, and 
 breathless indeed was the excitement when Mr. Bovill 
 rose to state his client's case. The learned gentleman 
 opened with an apology for the absence of Sir F. Kelly 
 and Mr. Keating, Q.C., who had been retained on be- 
 half of the plaintiff, and then proceeded at great length 
 to enumerate all the circumstances of this romantic 
 case. 
 
 He explained how, on the death of Sir Hugh Smyth, 
 the estates passed to his brother, Sir John Smyth, 
 and how, the plaintiff having come to the knowledge of 
 his rights, went in the year 1849 to Sir John, and in- 
 formed him of his relationship to the deceased Sir Hugh 
 Smyth ; producing, by the intelligence, such an effect ou 
 the Baronet, that he became unable to eat, wandered about 
 the house disconsolate, and died suddenly the next morn- 
 ing. The learned counsel then said that for some time the 
 plaintiff, for want of funds, was unable to assert his title 
 to the property, but he was now enabled to come into court : 
 and that he should establish beyond all doubt, that the 
 plaintiff was the son of Sir Hugh Smyth, by Jane, the 
 daughter of Count Vandenbergh, to whom he was mar- 
 ried in Ireland, in the year 1796. At that time, con- 
 tinued Mr. Bovill, there were no public registers in that 
 country, but the entry of this marriage in a family Bible 
 would be proved, and the signature of the witnesses would
 
 400 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 be shown to be the undoubted signatures of the parties. 
 The entry was in the following form : 
 
 " I certify that Hugh Smyth, Esq., son of Thomas Smyth, 
 Esq., of Stapleton, in the county of Glocester, in England, by 
 Jane his wife, was this 19th day of May, 1796, married by me 
 to Jane, the daughter of Count John Samuel Vandenbergh, by 
 Jane, the daughter of Major Gookin, and Hesther his wife, of 
 Court Macsherry, County of Cork, Ireland. 
 
 " VEENEY LOVETT, D.D., Vicar of Lismore. 
 
 , . C " HUGH SMYTH, 
 Signed by j ., JAJJE VANDENB ERGH. 
 
 ( " CAROLINE BEBNAED, 
 " Witnesses < " JOHN S. VANDENBERGH, 
 ^"MELESINA LOVETT." 
 
 The plaintiff would produce a brooch with the name of 
 Jane Gookin upon it, and also a portrait of his own 
 mother, and the signatures of all the parties to the dif- 
 ferent documents would be proved by the most unexcep- 
 tionable evidence. The learned counsel then read the 
 following entry of the plaintiff's baptism, which was 
 contained in the same family Bible: 
 
 " Eichard Hugh Smyth, son of Hugh Smyth, Esq., and Jane 
 his wife, born September 2nd, 1797 ; baptized September 10th, 
 1798, No. 1, Koyal Crescent, Bath. 
 
 " J. STMES, Clerk. 
 
 " CAROLINE BERNARD, 
 
 " ISABELLA THYNNE." 
 
 Mr. Bovill explained that the reason why the plaintiff's 
 birth was kept a secret, was, that his mother died in 
 child-birth, and that Sir Hugh Smyth was anxious to 
 marry Miss Wilson, the daughter of the Bishop of Bristol : 
 that the plaintiff was brought up in the house of a car-
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 401 
 
 penter at Warminster, named Provis, which had given rise 
 to the rumour which had been spread abroad, that the 
 plaintiff was an impostor, and, in fact, Provis's son. It 
 would be proved, however, that he was educated at Win- 
 chester, and, it was believed, at the expense of Sir Hugh 
 Smyth. In the year 1814, added the learned Counsel, a 
 man named Grace, who was Sir Hugh's butler, represented 
 to Sir Hugh that his son, who had gone abroad, was dead. 
 The following letter, in the handwriting of Sir Hugh 
 Smyth, addressed to his wife on the eve of her delivery, 
 had been discovered : 
 
 " Stapleton, Feb. 2, 1797. 
 
 " DEAB JANE, The bearer is my old nurse, Lydia Heed, in 
 whom I have every confidence as to her skill and attention to 
 you. I will endeavour to be over to-morrow, and bring my 
 mother with me. Till then, God bless you, and that you may 
 *ave a safe deliverance is the prayer of your affectionate husband, 
 
 "HUGH SMYTH. 
 " To Mrs. Smyth, Warminster." 
 
 The plaintiff's case went on to shew that Sir Hugh was 
 married again in the year 1819 to a Miss Howell, and that 
 circumstances having convinced him that the plaintiff was 
 still alive, he in the year 1822 executed a document de- 
 claring the plaintiff to be his son ; that this document was 
 discovered in the possession of a member of the family of 
 Lydia Reed, the plaintiff's nurse ; that it was signed by 
 Sir Hugh Smyth, the deceased baronet, in a trembling 
 hand, and by Sir John Smyth, his brother, and other 
 persons as witnesses ; that all these signatures would be 
 proved to be genuine ; that the seal attached bore the fa- 
 mily arms ; that Sir Hugh recovered his health, and that 
 
 D I)
 
 402 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 he afterwards, in the following year, executed another docu- 
 ment of similar import, which was in the following terms : 
 
 " I, Sir Hugh Smyth, of Ashton Park in the county of Somer- 
 set, and of Rockley House in the county of Wilts, do declare 
 that in the year 1796, I was married in the county of Cork in 
 Ireland, by the Kev. Verney Lovett, to Jane, the daughter of 
 Count Vandenbergh, by Jane, the daughter of Major Gookin, of 
 Court Macsherry, near Bandon. Witnesses thereto, the Coun- 
 tess of Bandon and Melisina Lovett. In the following year, 
 Jane Smyth, my wife, came to England, and, immediately after 
 giving birth to a son, she died on the 2nd day of February, 1797, 
 a ad she lies buried in a brick vault in Warminster Churchyard ; 
 and my son was consigned to the care of my own nurse, Lydia 
 Keed, who can at any time identify him by marks upon his right 
 hand, but more especially by the turning up of both the thumbs, 
 an indelible mark of identity in our family. My son was after- 
 wards baptised by the Eev. James Symes, of Midsomer Norton, 
 by the names of Hichard Hugh Smyth, the sponsors being the 
 Marchioness of Bath and the Countess of Bandon, who named 
 him Richard after her deceased brother Hichard Boyle. Through 
 the rascality of my butler, Grace, my son left England for the 
 Continent, and was reported to me as having died there ; but, 
 at the death of Grace, the truth came out, that my son was 
 alive, and that he would soon return to claim his rights. Now, 
 under the impression of my son's death, I executed a will in 
 1814. That will I do, by this document, declare null and void, 
 and to all intents and purposes set aside in all its arrangements, 
 'he payments of my just debts, the provision for John, the son 
 of the late Elizabeth Howell, and to the fulfilment of all mat- 
 ters not interfering with the rights of my heir at law. Now, to 
 give every assistance to my son, should he ever return, I do 
 declare him my legitimate son and heir to all the estates of my 
 ancestors, and which he will find amply secured to him and his 
 heirs for ever, by the Will of his grandfather the late Thomas 
 Smyth, of Stapleton, Esq., and further by the Will of my 
 uncle the late Sir John Hugh Smyth, Bart. Both those Wills 
 so fully arrange for the security of the property in possession or
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 403 
 
 reversion, that I have now only to appoint and constitute nay 
 beloved brother John Smyth, Esq., my only executor, for his 
 life. And I do, by this deed, place the utmost confidence in my 
 brother, that he will at any future time do my son justice. And 
 I also entreat my son to cause the remains of his mother to be 
 removed to Ashton, and buried in the family vault close to my 
 side, and to raise a monument to her memory. Now, in further- 
 ance of the object of this*Deed, I do seal with my seal and sign 
 it with my name, and in the presence of witnesses, this 10th 
 day of September, in the year of our Lord 1823. 
 
 "HUGH SMYTH (i.s.) 
 
 "JAMES ABBOT." 
 " WILLIAM EDWABDS. 
 
 "WlTIAM DOBSON." 
 
 Mr.Bovill, in continuation, stated that it would be proved 
 that the above document had been signed by the parties, 
 and that it was discovered in the possession of an attor- 
 ney's clerk in London, who formerly lived at Bristol. 
 He then proceeded to give a narrative of the personal 
 career of the plaintiff from 1814; that he had gone abroad 
 in that year with a Mr. Knox, commonly called Lord 
 Knox, and gave himself up to various studies, particularly 
 the science of mnemonics, till his return to England in the 
 year 1826, when he devoted himself to lecturing in various 
 parts of England ; and though he suspected he was the 
 son of Sir Hugh Smyth, circumstances prevented him 
 from taking any steps till the year 1849, when he went 
 to Sir John Smyth, his uncle, who admitted his relation- 
 ship at that interview, but died the same night, from 
 agitation. From that time the plaintiff had used every 
 effort to vindicate his rights, and those facts, and the 
 documents which had been discovered, would, he observed,
 
 404 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 leave no doubt on the minds of the jury, that the plaintiff 
 was entitled to the estates which he now sought to recover. 
 The learned counsel made a strong appeal to the feelings of 
 the jury, on account of the difficulties his client had to 
 encounter in bringing forward his case, against so for- 
 midable an opponent as the defendant, and complained 
 loudly of the intimidation which had been practised to- 
 uards his witnesses, by the defendant's agents, to prevent 
 their giving evidence on this trial ; but he still had the 
 fullest confidence that they would come forward and tell 
 the truth. The main fact in the case would be, that Sir 
 Hugh Smyth was married in Ireland, to the daughter of 
 Count Vandenbergh, and that the plaintiff was the issue 
 of that marriage. 
 
 Several witnesses were then called to prove Mr. Bovill's 
 statement, and, so far as their testimony went, especially 
 the evidence of most respectable persons, who deposed to 
 the genuineness of the entry in the Bible of the marriage 
 of Sir Hugh to the daughter of Count Vandenbergh, 
 the outline of the plaintiff's case, as opened by his very 
 able counsel, was substantiated. When the plaintiff him- 
 self was called, and, with slow and measured steps, en- 
 tered the witness-box, the excitement of the audience 
 rose to the highest pitch. The romantic nature of his 
 claim the immense stake at issue an honoured inherit- 
 ance, and lordly parks, and mansions, with a rent-roll 
 variously estimated at 20,000 to 35,000 a year, were 
 indeed sufficient cause of the deep anxiety which prevailed 
 in the crowded court, apart from the rumour that the 
 claim of the soi-disant baronet would be sustained by
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 405 
 
 forged documents and perjury, which appeared to, have 
 been a groundless rumour, so far as the case had gone. 
 With the coolness and measured accents of a practised 
 lecturer, the plaintiff proceeded to relate his story, in the 
 course of which he swore that the will of the late Sir 
 Hugh Smyth had reached him in a mysterious way, and 
 j come in a brown paper parcel from London, by the 
 Jreat Western Railway, accompanied by a letter, dated 
 the 7th of March, 1853, from one "Frederick Crane," whom 
 he had never seen. The documents and other evidence 
 for the plantiff were then produced. Crane's letter stated 
 that he, Crane, received the Will from Henry Coward, a 
 clerk in the office of Mr. Merriman, a solicitor at Marl- 
 borough, near which place Sir Hugh Smyth sometimes 
 resided. The Will was sealed with a seal containing the 
 arms of the Smyth family, with the motto, " Qui capit 
 capitor ;" the family Bible contained the entry of the 
 marriage of Sir Hugh Smyth with Jane, daughter of 
 Count Vandenbergh, in 1 796 ; and the brooch was also 
 produced with the name of Miss Vandenbergh's mother, 
 "Jane Gooken," engraven upon it. The entry of the 
 plaintiff's baptism, as " Richard Smyth, son of Hugh 
 Smyth, Esq , and Jane his wife," was also referred to in 
 the same Bible. And the letter of Feb. 2, 1797, written 
 by Sir Hugh Smyth, at Stapleton, to " Mrs. Smyth, War- 
 minster," as his wife, was also read. So far all went on 
 smoothly enough for the daring aspirant to hereditary ho- 
 nours and estates, nothing of any vital character having 
 up to this failed in the proof of his case; but when Sir 
 Frederick Thesiger rose to cross-examine him, the excite-
 
 406 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 tnent which previously existed on the entrance of the 
 plaintiff into the witness box, was, if possible, still more 
 intense. In the midst of a profound silence, the first 
 tones of the deep voice of the great lawyer broke upon the 
 ears of the excited auditory with startling effect. With 
 cold and settled gaze, he seemed to search into the very 
 innermost recesses of his victim's breast, and brought 
 him, step by step, through his whole story, backwards 
 and forwards, making him writhe in his intellectual grasp, 
 and call out repeatedly, in whining tones, against the 
 cruelty of the cross examination. The brooch was opened 
 by a jeweller, and on the back of it was found this in- 
 scription : "Born 14th May, 1774 married May, 
 1796." The plaintiff again detailed his interview with Sir 
 John Smyth, who, he asserted, acknowledged him to be his 
 nephev , and who said he would take care to arrange all 
 that was necessary with regard to the title to the property ; 
 he also gave him a .50 Bank of England note. The 
 witness corrected his evidence on this point and said first 
 it was a note of Miles's Bank ; and again that it was of 
 the Bank of England. He was brought, at great length, 
 over contradictions between the letters he had written 
 to various persons and his present evidence. He told, 
 he said, Mr. Abbott, the Steward in the park of Ashton 
 Court, in May 1852, that he had a picture of his mother, 
 and also one of his father, Sir Hugh Smyth. Mr. Abbot 
 asked him where he had got it, and he made answer, " I 
 did not steal it." Abbott replied the story was a very im- 
 probable one. The reading of letters written by the plain- 
 tiff created considerable merriment, from his habit of spell-
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 407 
 
 ing with double consonants. He had lectured, he said, 
 before Her Majesty, at Kensington Palace, on oratory, in 
 1852. His further cross-examination was resumed on 
 Wednesday, August 10th. He denied that he ever went 
 by the name of Provis, never said that John Provis of War- 
 minster, lately of Frome, was his father, or ever claimed kin- 
 dred with Mr. Provis, the manager of the Yeovil Bank. 
 He never said it would not do to be called Tom Provis, and 
 that it was much better to be called " Dr. Smith." 
 
 " I never went to Frome, and never took an inventory of John 
 Provis's things. I did not tell Charles Tucker that if my father, 
 Provis, died he was to take cave of the things, for I was the 
 rightful owner. ( Abook containing an entry of old Provis's effects 
 was handed to witness.) I could not swear this was my hand- 
 writingI should say it was John Provis's handwriting. I will 
 not ST&ear it is not mine. There is a leaf torn out, and I won't 
 acknowledge it. Now I call to mind, I might have made the in- 
 ventory. I might venture to say I did write it. The old man, 
 Provis, wished to defend himself from the encroachment of the 
 Tuckers." (The plaintiffs attention was called to one item 
 " Painting of son John.")" The old man used to call it the pic- 
 ture of his son John. That is the picture which now has on the 
 back of it the words ' Hugh Smyth, Esq., of Stapleton, Glo- 
 cestershire, in England, who married in 1796.'* 
 
 The witness here sat down while the pain ting was being 
 brought, and appeared somewhat exhausted. After a 
 pause, he applied to the Court that all the witnesses 
 who were coming to swear to this picture should be out 
 of court, particularly Mrs. Heath, and Tucker and his 
 wife. Sir F. Thesiger objected, but Mr. Justice Cole- 
 ridge said, he thought that it ought to be so, and they were 
 ordered out. The picture was here produced : it was an
 
 408 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 oil painting, of about twenty inches by thirty, of a young 
 man of about twenty years of age, sitting in an arm-chair 
 covered with red leather, with a book in his hand, dressed 
 in a blue coat with bright buttons, a white waistcoat, and 
 white cravat, with gold brooch set with a stone. 
 
 Plaintiff " That is the picture referred to in the in- 
 ventory." 
 
 Extracts were here read to witness from several letters 
 which he had written, in which he had spoken of an oil 
 likeness of his father in his possession, with the inscrip- 
 tion " Hugh Smyth, Esq., son of Thomas Smyth, Esq., 
 of Stapleton." 
 
 Plaintiff " Most likely I intended to refer to tbat painting." 
 (The inscription was here read " Hugh Smyth, Esq., son of 
 Thomas Smyth, Esq., of Stapleton, County of Gloucester, 1796.") 
 " The writing on the back is not in the same state now as it was. 
 I put the acid on the back, and brought the writing out. It was 
 not perceivable by the dirt. I brought it out by putting acid 
 upon it immediately I brought it home to Bristol in the autumn 
 of last year. I will swear the writing at the back is in the same 
 state as it was then. It is the same as it always was. I applied 
 tartaric acid, I am almost sure it was tartaric acid. I don't 
 know tartaric acid will discharge ink. I used tartaric acid to re- 
 move dirt. I think it must have been soda. I forget. I have 
 read of methods used to discover things on old canvas. The 
 picture was in the house. It was in Mrs. Mattick's house. It 
 was found in the kitchen, on a shelf. The inventory did not refer 
 to that painting." 
 
 The witness here looked at the inventory of old Provis's 
 effects, and said : 
 
 " I say, at once, this is not my handwriting. I did not swear 
 I wrote it. It is very like Provis's own writing. I might have 
 written like the old man." (On being farther pressed.) " It is
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 409 
 
 my handwriting. The words, ' painting of Son John,' do refer 
 to that picture. I may have admitted it was a painting of hia 
 son John to ease his, Provis's, mind, to give way to his foolish 
 fancies." 
 
 Plaintiff proceeded to state he was not married in 1814, 
 in the church of St. Michael, Bath, to Mary Ann Whittick 
 that the name of his present wife was Ashton, and that 
 he never had but one. Charles Ingram, whom he slightly 
 knew, did not claim to be a nephew of his, nor did William 
 Ingram, Deputy Governor of Bath gaol, meet him in July 
 last, and address him as his uncle. He was only married 
 once. Sir F. Thesiger handed him a letter, written by him 
 to Mrs. Florence Smyth, on the 18th of May last, in which 
 plaintiff stated " I have a second wife," &c. Plaintiff 
 said that he might have meant by it a young wife ; but 
 soon after he was forced to admit his marriage in 1814 by 
 the name of " Mr. Thomas Provis," and that he was mar- 
 ried to his present wife in Scotland, in 1841. He admitted 
 that he ordered some seals to be engraved. Applied to 
 Mr. Moring, a seal-engraver, in Holborn. It was since 
 Christmas. Had the seal in the month of March. Gave an 
 order for a card-plate and cards on the 19th of December; 
 but did not on that occasion order a steel seal to be made 
 according to pattern, which he brought, with the crest, garter, 
 and motto of the Smyths, of Long Ashton, to be engraved 
 thereon. Ordered it afterwards. Mr. Moring got the 
 crest from the letter, which was in the witness's possession, 
 from Joseph Reed. 
 
 " I swear I showed that letter to him, and he took the impres- 
 sion from it while I was looking for the explanation of the motto. 
 I know he did not take it from the Baroneiage. I called for the
 
 410 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 seal in the beginning of March. (The steel seal was here pro- 
 duced.) I afterwards sent an order for a seal with the arms, 
 crest, and motto of the Smyths. That order was executed, and 
 a seal was sent to me at St. Vincent's Priory, Bristol. (This seal 
 was here produced.) I was living at the Priory when the will 
 which I spoke of yesterday was sent to me. I know nothing about 
 Frederick Crane, the writer of the letter which came with it. I 
 did not swear yesterday that tliis brown paper came with the 
 will." (The judge's notes were read, from which it appeared he 
 had so sworn.) "I don't know whether it was the paper in 
 which the seal was sent. The motto on the first seal was cor- 
 rect, ' Qui Capit Capitur.' I never discovered that the second 
 seal had the words, ' Qui Capit Capitor.' The seal was taken 
 from the Avill of 1823. I rubbed silver paper on the seal, and 
 sent it up to Mr. Moring. I may have sent it in the month of 
 May. I got the seal, I think, on the 7th of June. I wrote to 
 the minister of Ballinaslee, near Bandon, for specimens of the 
 late Dr. Lovett's hand-writing. (Letter read.) I wrote to Mr. 
 Bennett on the 13th of March, 1853." (The letter had a seal 
 vdih ' Qui Capit Capitor. ') 
 
 The witness was asked why he swore that he did not 
 receive the seal till the 7th of June, and said 
 
 " It must be a mistake. I never saw the deed till the 17th of 
 March. I must have received the seal before the 13th of March." 
 (The witness was here pressed to reconcile this statement with 
 his former answer, that he had not received the deed till the 17th 
 of March.) 
 
 At this stage of the trial an extraordinary circumstance 
 occurred, which brought the case to a speedy termination. 
 At half-past nine o'clock in the morning, a person in Ox- 
 ford Street, after reading the report in the Times of the 
 proceedings so far as they had gone, communicated to Sir 
 F. Thesiger, by telegraph, that he could give some impor- 
 tant information. Enquiries were made of him by the
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 411 
 
 same medium, and a message was returned, telling 
 counsel to ask the plaintiff whether he had not gone, in 
 January last, to a person at 161, Oxford Street, and desired 
 him to engrave the Bandon crest upon the rings produced, 
 and also to engrave the name " Gookin," on the brooch. 
 Sir F. Thesiger put the question, reading it from the 
 despatch. A sickly paleness overspread the plaintiff's face, 
 and, amid the breathless expectation of the crowded court, 
 who hung with intense interest on the coming answer, he 
 replied" I did 1" 
 
 The sensation which followed the admission may well 
 be imagined. Sir F. Thesiger proceeded to ask a few 
 more questions, to which the plaintiff gave the following 
 answers : 
 
 " During the eighteen months I said I was with Dr. Williams in 
 Parliament Street, I was not in prison in Ilchester gaol for horse- 
 stealing. I have nothing particular on my neck. (The scars 
 behind his right ear were visible) I was not sentenced to die for 
 horse-stealing. My sentence was not commuted to eighteen 
 months' imprisonment. It was not for stealing a gelding of a 
 person named Haddon. I was there. I knew a Colonel Had- 
 don by sight." 
 
 Mr. Justice Coleridge here interposed an observation to 
 Mr. Bovill, upon which that gentleman rose, and, ad- 
 dressing the Court, said, he could scarcely express the 
 emotion which he felt at the turn the case had taken. 
 He and his learned colleagues felt that they could not in. 
 terfere during the cross-examination of the plaintiff, or 
 until the learned judge should interpose. But, after that 
 appalling exhibition an exposure unparalleled in courts
 
 412 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 of justice, which he (Mr. Bovill) need not say had come 
 upon them ail entirely by surprise they felt it would 
 be inconsistent with their duty as gentlemen of the bar to 
 continue the contest any longer. 
 
 A verdict was accordingly given for the defendant, and 
 Sir Richard Smith, (alias Doctor Smyth, lecturer on mne- 
 monics,) stripped of his borrowed titles, was taken into 
 custody and afterwards placed in the dock as plain " Tom 
 Provis," to take his trial for perjury and forgery at the 
 ensuing assizes. 
 
 At the criminal investigation some curious revelations 
 were made of the way in which this expert schemer got up 
 his case. The will of Sir Hugh Smyth did not reach him 
 in the mysterious manner he represented. Its first appear- 
 ance was in the hand of Tom Provis himself, who shewed it 
 to Frederick Crane, and put it in the brown paper, while 
 he dictated to Crane the letter which the latter addressed 
 to the soi-disant Baronet, telling how it came from 
 Coward, the deceased clerk of Mr. Merriman, the soli- 
 citor. This brown paper had also a special interest. 
 Mr. Moring, the seal engraver of High Holborn, proved 
 it was the same paper in which he enclosed a seal made to 
 the prisoner's order, on the 7th of March, 1853. He 
 engraved on this seal the arms of the Smyth family, and 
 the motto. In copying the motto, " Qui Capit Capitur," 
 the letter " U" became blptted, and was accidentally made 
 to resemble an " 0." The error was not detected by the 
 engraver, and the seal, which was produced by the pri- 
 soner in Court, had on it the word " Capitor" instead of 
 " Capitur." The deed was sealed with this fatal seal, the
 
 THE SMYTHS OP ASHTON COURT. 413 
 
 " " being visible. The will of 1823 was, it also ap- 
 peared, written on parchment prepared in a certain way, 
 which was unknown until within ten or fifteen years pre- 
 vious to the trial ! A distinguished chemist was of opinion 
 that the ink on it was recent, and that the faintness of 
 colour was produced by artificial means. The Will was 
 also shown, from internal evidence, the spelling with 
 double consonants, and peculiar phraseology and style, to 
 have been prepared by the prisoner himself. It also trans- 
 pired that the lady who was described in it as the "late Eliza- 
 beth Howell," was then living and married to Sir Hugh 
 Smyth, and was received and known as " Lady Smyth/* and 
 that she did not die until the year 1841. The letter from Sir 
 Hugh Smyth to his " wife Jane," previous to her confine- 
 ment in 1797, referred to a person named " Lydia Reed/* 
 whom he recommended as a nurse-tender to her, and the 
 prisoner alleged it was by this person he had been taken care 
 of on his mother's death in childbirth, and through her 
 he had afterwards obtained the picture of the late Sir Hugh, 
 and other relics of his family. But Provis's own sister, 
 Mrs. Heath, and others, proved they had known the pic- 
 ture for thirty or forty years, as " the portrait of John 
 1'rovis, the eldest son of the carpenter ;" and a book, 
 containing an inventory of old Provis's effects, had an 
 entry in it, in the prisoner's handwriting, in reference to 
 this picture, as " portrait of Son John." Mrs. Heath, the 
 prisoner's sister, declared she had never known him as any 
 other than her own brother " Thomas Provis," until, in- 
 deed, he had become a public lecturer on " Mnemonics," 
 and travelled about under the assumed name of " Dr.
 
 414 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 
 
 Smyth." A Bible was produced, shewing an entry of 
 his marriage in 1814, as Thomas Provis, to Mary Anne 
 Whittick ; and several witnesses also proved the marriage, 
 though he had denied that marriage on his oath at the 
 trial. The old Bible, produced as one that had formerly 
 belonged to Sir Hugh Smyth, was proved to have been 
 sold to him by Mr. Kempston, a second-hand bookseller 
 of High Holborn, in 1853, for the sum of fifteen shillings, 
 so that the entry of the marriage in it, and the clergyman 
 and witnesses' names, which most respectable witnesses 
 had proved at the former trial to be genuine signatures, 
 turned out elaborate forgeries. The ancient rings and 
 brooches, which the prisoner had produced as confirmatory 
 of his claim, were bought of Mr. Cocks, a jeweller in 
 Oxford Street, in 1853, and on one of the rings the 
 prisoner had engraved "Jane, wife of Hugh Smyth, Esq., 
 m. 1796," and on the opposite side " d. 1797." Although 
 selected by the prisoner as being of ancient make, the 
 ring was found to be of modern workmanship. On 
 another ring he had caused to be engraven the words 
 " Jane Gookin." It was in reference to the latter ring that 
 the prisoner broke down in his testimony, when cross- 
 examined from the telegram, which had arrived pending the 
 action of ejectment. The book kept by Mr. Cocks, the 
 engraver, was produced, containing entries of directions 
 for these engravings, made by the prisoner himself. Provis 
 cross-examined from the dock the witnesses throughout 
 both days with great energy, if not with ability, interweav- 
 ing his cross-examination with long, rambling speeches, 
 which rendered it necessary for the learned judge several
 
 THE SMYTHS OF ASHTON COURT. 415 
 
 times to call him to order. At the close, he addressed the 
 juiy in his defence, still protesting that he was the son of 
 Sir Hugh Smyth, but admitting that, in the assertion of 
 his legal claim, he had done some things which could only 
 be justified by the circumstances. In the course of his 
 speech, he produced, with an air of triumph, an enormous 
 pigtail, two feet long, which up to that moment, both on 
 this and on the former trial, had been kept concealed 
 under his coat ; and turning round, he displayed the curious 
 appendage ostentatiously to the court and the jury, appeal- 
 ing to it as an irrefragable proof of his aristocratic birth, 
 and declaring with solemn emphasis, that he was " born 
 with it !" adding, that his son also was " born with one 
 six inches long !" The verdict of the jury was, " guilty;" 
 and the prisoner was sentenced to twenty years' transpor- 
 tation. 
 
 The forged Wills, the Bible, the jewels, the picture, 
 and other fabricated instruments are now in the possession 
 of the family at Ashton Court, as also the " pigtail " of 
 the prisoner ! These memorials represent a harassing 
 episode in the history of Ashton Court, and the loss of 
 between five and six thousand pounds, in defending it 
 ironi the machinations of an unprincipled adventurer.
 
 416 THE OGLA.NDEKS OF NUNWELL AND NOBMANDY. 
 
 A efell snir rf 
 
 " Jussa pars mutare Lares et urbem 
 
 Sospite cursu." HOBACE. 
 
 NORMANDY ! The very name has something pleasing and 
 noble in its sound. That fair province of France possesses 
 a double charm. Beautiful as a country, it is for us 
 more beautiful still in those historic and genealogical 
 memories, which attach it to England for ever. " Omnes 
 boni nobilitati favemus," and certes, all within these 
 realms who show such favour, must mingle with it a 
 feeling of filial reverence for Normandy. The Norman 
 spirit and energy, joined to Saxon industry and perseve- 
 rance, made the whole British people what they are. No 
 less truly, the Norman love of race grafting itself on the 
 Saxon love of land, created that combined pride of birth 
 and tenacity of estate, which formed our higher classes 
 into a nobility that, whether titled or untitled, has not, 
 for conduct, cogency, and cohesiveness, had its equal in the 
 world. Yet Normandy, itself, after parting with the host 
 of adventurers who crossed over to found such mighty 
 names and mighty houses in England, has not, in very
 
 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 417 
 
 many instances, preserved the original stems from which 
 those adventurers came ; and this for the simple reason, 
 that most of those stems were not at the time of the 
 Conquest of much import in the mother tountry, though 
 the offshoots from them grew into such goodly trees in 
 the country to which they were transplanted. Even with 
 regard to those Norman families who were of standing 
 and power in Normandy, when their sons sought their 
 fortunes in England under William the Conqueror and 
 his immediate successors, few have survived the havoc 
 that changes of dynasty and revolution have caused 
 in France, and consequently few have brought their exist- 
 ence, much less their position and prosperity, through 
 intervening centuries, down to the present day. Among 
 the rare exceptions to this state of things, a very remark- 
 able instance occurs in the very ancient family of Oglander 
 or Orglandes, which was a goodly Norman race when 
 William won England at Hastings, and which same 
 race now flourishes in undiminished credit, both on Nor- 
 man and on British soil. 
 
 In the Isle of Wight, about one mile from Brading, 
 and about four miles from Ryde, stand on an eminence 
 the beautiful house and grounds of Nunwell, whence the 
 spectator has beneath him a glorious panorama of the 
 whole island, and a fine view also into the mainland. 
 Nunwell is the seat of Sir Henry Oglander, Bart., and 
 has been the chief residence of the English Oglanders 
 for close upon eight hundred years. 
 
 In the lovely department of the Orne, in Lower Ndr- 
 mandy, nigh to Bclleine, is the old Chateau of Lonnc, 
 
 E E
 
 418 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 
 
 the seat of the present Count d'Orglandes, the represen- 
 tative of a house which has held its Norman lands from 
 times beyond the memory of man. 
 
 I will, with the reader's permission, take a glance at 
 the descent of either Oglander, French or English. To 
 begin with that of the Baronet of the Isle of Wight. 
 
 Sir Henry Oglander's immediate ancestor caine from 
 Caen, a fit town to inaugurate so lengthy and so honourable 
 a pedigree. Caen, indeed, has this in common with the 
 Oglander race, that, among the cities of Europe, it is one 
 of those which have, perhaps, had the most sustained du- 
 ration. It has constantly borne, through ages to the pre- 
 sent time, a combined reputation for profound learning. 
 historic celebrity, and architectural splendour. 
 
 " Caen," says M. Trebutien, in his eloquent preface to 
 his history of the place. " was the city of William the 
 Conqueror's predilection, and he left upon it the mark of 
 his strong hand the eternal impression of his power and 
 his greatness. No other town, probably, is so rich in 
 noble memories, nor, as has been said, sums up better the 
 national and Christian past of France. Architecture, 
 science, arms, a large share of this triple glory of our 
 country has fallen to Caen." 
 
 From such a city, then, whose churches, schools, monu- 
 ments, and very streets, preserve at this hour their pristine 
 vigour and grace, it well became an Oglander to issue 
 when about to found a line that eight hundred years have 
 left unscathed and without a sign of dying out. This 
 Oglander, the ancestor of the present Sir Henry, was 
 lu chard de Okelandcr, who left his native Caen to act in
 
 THE OGLANDERS OP NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 419 
 
 England as a Marshal of the Conqueror. Richard de Oke- 
 lander, intent on rendering essential services in promoting 
 the conquest, went, by William's leave, with William Fitz- 
 Osborne, in his rank of Marshal, on an expedition against 
 the Isle of Wight. Having effected the reduction of that 
 island, he settled there at Nunwell ; and there his succes- 
 sors, in an uninterrupted male line to the present period, 
 have had their principal abode. In proof of this, and par- 
 ticularly of their doings during the reigns of Kings Henry 
 III., Edward I., and Edward II., several deeds, inquisitions, 
 records, and documents can be adduced. From this 
 Richard came Robert Oglander, who died in the 30th year 
 of Henry III., having married Roberta, daughter of Sir 
 Theobald Russell, of Yaverland, Knight, ancestor of the 
 Duke of Bedford, and from Robert descended Sir John 
 Oglander, Deputy-Governor of Portsmouth, in 1620 ; and 
 in 1624, Deputy-Governor of the Isle of Wight. Sir 
 John was a stanch cavalier, and during the disastrous 
 Civil War, suffered much from his zealous attachment to the 
 royal cause, both in person and fortune. He was confined 
 for some years in London by the Committee of the Com- 
 mons, and was obliged to pay a large sum to procure his 
 discharge. He married Frances, daughter of Sir George 
 More, of Losely, in the county of Surrey, Knight, Chan- 
 cellor of the order of the Garter. Sir John's sou and suc- 
 cessor, Sir William Oglander, Knight, of Nunwell, was 
 even a more distinguished cavalier than his father. He was 
 knighted by the hand of King Charles I. ; he sat as 
 Member of Parliament for Newport in 1664; and he was 
 also Deputy-Governor of the Isle of Wight. The good
 
 420 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 
 
 service he did to royalty on the field and in the senate, 
 was rewarded at the Restoration. In memory of his 
 father's and his own fidelity, he was created a Baronet the 
 12th December, 1665. The wonted good fortune of Sir 
 AVilliam's house was, however, for a time marred by the 
 ill-luck of the only one of his daughters who married. 
 This lady, Dorothy Oglander, took for husband Sir Hugh 
 Middelton, of Hackney, who was created a Baronet in 
 1681, as an honour paid to the memory of his grandfather, 
 of New River celebrity. He did not, however, inherit that 
 grandsire's prudence, or love of water, for he was a spend- 
 thrift and a drunkard. After much misery, his wife fled from 
 him with her only child, a daughter, and eventually ob- 
 tained a divorce by Act of Parliament. Sir Hugh himself 
 sunk to the very depths of degradation, and is believed to 
 have died a pauper at Kemberton, in Shropshire, under 
 the assumed name of William Raymond. With him ended 
 the last titled descendant of that famous Sir Hugh Middel- 
 ton, whose New River scheme commencing at Islington, 
 benefitted all London, and whose statue, very properly 
 situate above a fountain, now adorns the merrie town of 
 Islington itself. But to return to the Oglaudcrs. Sir 
 William Oglander's grandson, Sir William Oglander, the 
 third Baronet, added another estate to the family posses- 
 sions, by marrying Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of 
 Sir John Strode, Knight, of Parnham, in Dorsetshire, (by 
 his second wife, Anne, Lady Poulet, relict of John, Lord 
 Poulet, of Hinton St. George, in Somersetshire, and 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Browne, of Walcot, in Northamp- 
 tonshire, Bart.) Through this alliance, the Oglanders
 
 THE OGLAMDEUS OF NUNWJSLL AND NORMANDY. 421 
 
 now hold the fine seat of Parnhara, near Beaminster. Sir 
 William, the third Baronet's, granddaughter, Susannah, 
 was the wife of the well-known John Glynn, Serjeant-at- 
 law, Recorder of London, and M.P. for Middlesex; Sir 
 William's great-grandson, whose mother was a daughter 
 of the ducal house of Grafton, is Sir Henry Oglander, the 
 seventh Baronet, and the present worthy head and repre- 
 sentative of the Oglanders of Nunwell. 
 
 A few words now upon the Norman Oglanders, or 
 D'Orglandes, as they are called in France. They, of v 
 course, are the main stem of the family, and they boast 
 of even more than a Norman descent ; for they say that 
 before their coming to Normandy they had lands and 
 station in Norway. The word Oglander supports this; 
 for " Og" is a well-known Norwegian proper name, and 
 " lander," attached to it, infers the possession of a fief or 
 domain. I need not here enter into the long details of 
 the Norman pedigree. Suffice it to say that, in all ages, 
 the Orglandes were of honourable, and frequently of his- 
 toric note in France. Their arms are placed in the Crusa- 
 ders' Hall in the palace of Versailles. Foulques d'Orglandes, 
 in the time of the Crusades, was a brave and active sol- 
 dier of the Cross. The Orglandes were Barons and Counts 
 of Briouze, a hamlet in the department of the Orne, 
 not far from the famous battle field of Tinchebrai, where 
 Robert of Normandy forfeited his liberty and his dukedom 
 to his brother, Henry I. Antony, first Count de Briouze, 
 was a stanch and valiant supporter of the League ; and he 
 and his brothers, the Seigneurs of D'Anvers and Plain Ma- 
 rais, held the town of Avrauches in a long and memorable
 
 12.2 THE OGLANDERS OF NUN WELL AND NORMANDY. 
 
 siege, in 1590, against the Duke of Montpensier. Nicolas, 
 Count de Briouze, was a distinguished soldier in the begin- 
 ning of the last century ; and his great-grandson was a per- 
 son of such rare merit that he deserves even here a more 
 than passing notice. This was the late Count D'Orglandes 
 and De Briouze, Nicolas-Francis-Camille-Dominique, 
 whose memory is held in high esteem in Normandy, and 
 whose biography has been recently written with much grace 
 and spirit by a brother Norman noble, the Count De Beau- 
 repaire, formerly Minister Plenipotentiary from France 
 at Madrid. Nicolas, Count D'Orglandes, it appears, 
 attained a high public reputation during the stormy pe- 
 riods of the Revolution, Empire, and Restoration in France. 
 Like the Oglanders of England, in the Civil War, he 
 was a stanch royalist : he showed his courage by 
 standing firm to the King, and never emigrating, even 
 amid the horrors of the Reign of Terror. The Count was 
 engaged in one remarkable plot, viz., that which was 
 formed to rescue Louis XVI. on his way to the scaffold. 
 The Count had his Chateau of Briouze burnt by the 
 rabble. He, on the return of the Bourbons, represented 
 the Department of the Orne, in the Chamber of Deputies, 
 and in 1823 he was made a Peer of France. He was 
 also a Gentleman of the chamber to Louis XVIII. and 
 Charles X. M. D'Orglandes died at Paris, in his ninety- 
 first year, on the 14th April, 1857. He left an only son, his 
 successor, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, by her 
 marriage with Louis, Count De Chateaubriand, has allied 
 the Oglanders to the head of one of the most illustrious 
 families in France illustrious indeed by descent, but made
 
 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 423 
 
 far more so by Count Louis's uncle, Fran9ois-Rene, Vis- 
 count De Chateaubriand, that great and good statesman, 
 and brilliant orator and writer the Edmund Burke of 
 France. Chateaubriand's career of honour, of loyalty, and of 
 devotion to constitutional freedom, and his admirable works 
 will no doubt be fully appreciated by posterity, not only 
 in his native country, but everywhere where the purity 
 and chivalry of Christianity have civilized the world. 
 
 Nicholas, Count D'Orglandes' only son, Armand Gus- 
 tavus Camille, is the present Count D'Orglandes, and, 
 seated at his Chateau de Lonne, near Belleme, represents 
 this ancient family, which, as I have thus shown, has beeii 
 so singularly preserved both in England and in France. 
 
 I should also remark, that the name Orglandes, though 
 not on the roll of Battle Abbey, appears on the roll 
 of the companions of the Conqueror, recently placed 
 in the church of Dives, m Normandy; and perhaps I 
 cannot better conclude this chapter than by giving the 
 following account of the festal installation of that Dives 
 roll as a fact probably unknown, but likely to prove inte- 
 resting to many of my readers. 
 
 The fete I allude to occurred last August at Dives, a 
 small town close to the sea coast, in the department of 
 Calvados, in Normandy. This town of Dives, it should 
 be observed, is of high note in French and English his- 
 tory, for it was nigh to it, at the mouth of the Dive, that 
 William the Conqueror and his companions in arms met 
 for the subjugation of England. " The Norman fleet and 
 army," says Hume, " had been assembled early in the 
 summer, at the mouth of the small river Dive ; and all
 
 424 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 
 
 the troops had heen instantly ejnbarked." Dives, in the 
 eleventh century, was one of the chief ports of the Duchy 
 of Normandy. M. de Caumont, a very eminent Norman 
 $9avant and archaeologist, erected in 1861, on the very 
 spot of the mighty embarkation, a column, in comme- 
 moration. The recent fete at Dives was held under the 
 auspices of the same learned gentleman, to inaugurate the 
 affixing in the old church there of a new and carefully com- 
 piled list of the companions of William the Conqueror in 
 his conquest of England in 1066. The fete was intended to 
 be international, and an invitation was publicly given to all 
 English interested in the locality (and who are not ?), to 
 come to the ceremony. Unfortunately, whether from the 
 inclemency of the weather, or, more probably, from the 
 notice not reaching English ears, no English person, 
 attended. This is the more to be regretted, as the famous 
 descent upon England may be now looked on as a subject 
 akin to the feelings of, and worthy of celebration by, both 
 English and Normans. 
 
 We are quite sure had the English only known of 
 such a fete, crowds of them would have attended; for 
 what could more come home to the better and more 
 educated classes of English people than the inauguration 
 of a roll which contains the greatest names amongst us 
 a roll to which the proudest feel prouder still to belong, 
 and which may be said to form the very household words 
 of our glory the roll, in fact, of what has since been the 
 best and bravest aristocracy in the universe. 
 
 A damp was also cast upon the meeting by the unavoid- 
 able absence of M. Guizot, at this day one of Normandy's
 
 THE COLANDERS OP NUN WELL AND NORMANDY. 425 
 
 most renowned inhabitants. The fete, notwithstanding, 
 passed off with eclat. It commenced by a meeting in the 
 market hall of Dives, decorated for the occasion with much 
 taste, and displaying a large picture of the construction 
 and embarkation of William's fleet, after the original in 
 the Bayeux tapestry. 
 
 Among those present were M. de Caumont, President ; 
 the Chevalier Rossi, Librarian of the Vatican; the Duke 
 d'Harcourt (present head of that illustrious house of 
 Ilarcourt, sprung from the royal blood of Saxony, and 
 famous in Normandy from the time of Hollo, a scion 
 of which came with the Conqueror to England, and his 
 descendant was the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Harcourt) ; 
 M. Leopold Delisle, Member of the Institute ; M. Ber- 
 trand, the enlightened and deservedly popular Mayor of 
 Caen ; Messieurs Charma and Travers ; and many other 
 celebrities, Norman, French, and foreign. 
 
 Some excellent and learned speeches were made. A 
 religious ceremony, with splendid musical accompaniment, 
 followed in the old church of Dives a church well de- 
 serving of the veneration of antiquarians and historians ; 
 for part of this sacred edifice is as old as the time of the 
 conquest, and within its very walls the Conqueror offered 
 a prayer before he embarked on his momentous venture. 
 
 In the interior of this church, over the entry, is placed 
 the new roll* a companion-record to that of Battle Abbey. 
 
 After quitting the church, a promenade was formed 
 around the column erected by M. de Caumont, and the 
 
 * The Roll of Dives will be found in an Appendix to this 
 volume.
 
 426 THE OGLANDERS OF NUNWELL AND NORMANDY. 
 
 fete concluded brilliantly with a banquet of two hundred 
 guests, ladies and gentlemen, in the market hall of Dives. 
 It should be observed that the roll at Dives differs from 
 that of Battle Abbey, as the latter is the roll made of 
 those who actually fought at Hastings ; and the former is 
 the roll of those who assembled for the expedition, and 
 were otherwise engaged in furthering the conquest of 
 England. The name of Orglande or Oglander, as we 
 have said, is among the names enregistered, but it appears 
 at the end of the roll in a kind of supplement to it, shew- 
 ing, no doubt what was the fact, that Oglander, or Oke- 
 lander came from Caen after the victory of Hastings, and 
 furthered the Conqueror's interest by some subsequeut
 
 SUFFOLK VICISSITUDES. 427 
 
 " Tis here 
 That Might, Eenown, and Wisdom rest." 
 
 BLOOMFIELD. 
 
 SUFFOLK is remarkable for the decay of its old families 
 so old, some of them, that they seemed to have " had no 
 beginning, and so honourable that they ought to have had 
 no end." Many of the Suffolk grandees of the byegone time 
 have passed away, and have left scarcely a wreck behind : 
 their very names are now unknown in the county, except 
 among farmers, tradesmen, artisans and labourers. 
 
 The ASH FIELDS had their home at Stowlangtoft so far 
 back as the time of Edward III.; and one of them, a 
 gallant soldier, carried arms at Agincourt. They became 
 Baronets not very long after the first institution of the 
 order ; but so great had been their fall, at the close of the 
 seventeenth century, that all the genealogist can trace of 
 them is, that, in 1692, Sir John Ashfield, Bart., and his son 
 Charles were both alive, in needy circumstances, without a 
 single acre left of all their inheritance ; and that in 1727 
 the Baronetcy was certainly extinct, and the name gone. 
 
 The Stowlangtoft estate had been sold to PAUL 
 D'EwEs, one of the six Clerks in Chancery, whose sou,
 
 428 SYMONDS D'EWES TENDRINGS. 
 
 SIR SYMONDS D'EWES, Bart., made it the object of his 
 life to illustrate his tolerably good Dutch pedigree. " This 
 manor of Stowlangtoft, in the space of five hundred years," 
 writes Sir Symonds, " was possessed, as I gather, by five 
 several stems, of which the last being my own, I made this 
 distich of it : 
 
 ' Quingentis annis Stowlan^etoft quinque tenebant 
 Stirpes ; postremse det Deus usque frui.' " 
 
 Sir Symonds \vas as successful in his matrimonial as in 
 his genealogical pursuits. His first wife, a lady of exquisite 
 beauty, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Clopton, 
 of Kentwell, in Melford, brought him a goodly estate, and 
 the second, Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir William 
 Willoughby, Bart., of llisley. added still further to his pos- 
 sessions. Despite, however, of genealogical illustration, 
 grand alliances, and extensive property, the name of 
 D'Ewes no longer exists in Suffolk. From one branch of 
 the D'Ewes family, it may be observed, descended John 
 D'Ewes, Esq., of Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, who married 
 Anne Granville, sister of the celebrated Mrs. Delany, 
 the friend of George III. and Queen Charlotte. 
 
 The TENDRINGS, of Tendring Hall (now Sir Charles 
 Rowley's seat), were at one time a famous Suffolk race, 
 but their existence was of short duration. Eventually, 
 the only child of Sir William Tendring, Alice, a great 
 heiress, married Sir John Howard ; and the grandson of 
 this union of the two knightly families of Howard and 
 Tendring, succeeding to the estates of the Mowbrays, be- 
 came Duke of Norfolk. Here, at Tendring Hall, Anne 
 Boleyn and her cousin, Catherine Howard* both wives of
 
 MANXOCKS TIMrERI/EYS HEVENINGEAMS. 429 
 
 Henry VIII., and both eventually beheaded, spent much of 
 their early youth ; and here, according to existing tradi- 
 tions, the famous Lord Surrey passed a great portion of 
 ins childhood : it seems not unlikely that he wrote some 
 of his sonnets under the old oaks of Tendring : 
 
 " Here noble Surrey felt the sacred rage, 
 Surrey, the Granville of a former age, 
 Matchless his pen, victorious was his lance, 
 Bold in the lists, and graceful in the dance." 
 
 The MANNOCKS are said to have flourished in England 
 in the time of the Danish kings, and were of Giffords Hall, 
 from the 6th of Henry VI., until an upset of the Dover 
 mail, in 1787, killed the last baronet, and ended the family 
 in the male line. 
 
 The TIMPERLEYS of Hintlesham, with whom the Man- 
 riocks had intermarried, were settled in Suffolk from the 
 fourteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, and 
 yet not one of the name is now to be found. 
 
 The HEVENINGHAMS were lords of Heveningham when 
 CANUTE was King, and continued in greatness until Wil- 
 liam Heveningham sat as Judge on Charles I. He did 
 not sign the death warrant, yet he was tried as a regicide 
 and attainted, but his life was spared, and he got back a 
 part of the estate. He had an only son, who was knighted 
 in 1674 by the son of the very Charles I. whom the elder 
 Heveningham had condemned. He died without issue, 
 and with him the chief line ended, though a younger 
 branch remained until the last male, Henry Heveningham, 
 nephew of the regicide, was buried with his ancestors at 
 Heveningham in 1700.
 
 430 HOVELS WINGFIELDS NAUNTONS. 
 
 The HOVELS, who were so ancient that they are said 
 (with truth, I think) to have allowed the lordly Uffords 
 license to use their arms, ended in the last century, or be- 
 ginning of this, in a poor gentleman, who lived in or near 
 Great Ashfield. Yet, one Hovel had been Esquire of the 
 body to Henry V. Some of this Esquire's descendants 
 chose, without royal license, to change their name, and, with 
 more humility than some people of the present day, took 
 upon themselves, not a proud cognomen, but the common 
 one of SMITH. They were henceforward (as should be 
 all who adopt surnames without the Crown's permission) 
 designated very properly with an alias, and called HOVEL 
 flias SMITH. An Elizabeth Hovel of this family was wife 
 of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow, and mother of the famous 
 Lord Chancellor, the first Lord Thurlow of Ashfield. 
 
 The WINGFIELDS were a potent and very numerous 
 family. They are said to have been at Wingfield before 
 the Conquest, and at Letheringham for many generations ; 
 but the name is little known now in Suffolk. 
 
 The NAUNTONS succeeded the Wingfields at Lethering- 
 ham, and were, for a time, county squires of high degree, 
 but they too came to an end, leaving only some noble 
 monuments to show what once they were. Time and 
 neglect, however, brought at last even these stately memo- 
 rials to ruin ; and about the year 1789 the churchwardens 
 made a clearance of them, selling " 6 cwt. of alabaster 
 effigies," beaten into powder, to line water cisterns ! 
 
 THE HUNTINGFIELDS were settled in Suffolk, and were 
 summoned to Parliament for several generations. William 
 Huntingfield was one of the barons appointed to enforce
 
 CORNW^LLISES WENTWORTH OF NETTLESTEAD. 431 
 
 Magr.a Charta. They founded a priory at Mendham, but 
 they did not last beyond the reign of Edward III. 
 
 THE ROKEWODES were very ancient and very historic. 
 Ambrose Rokewode was implicated in the " Gunpowder 
 Plot," and was executed at Tyburn, in 1605. His son, 
 Sir Robert, was a Royalist, and lost two sons fighting 
 under Charles's banner; Sir Robert's grandson was exe- 
 cuted in 1696, having been an officer in the Guards of 
 James II., and one of the Barclay conspiracy. The last 
 heir male died in 1778 ; but the name was kept up by 
 the Gage family, their representatives, until discontinued 
 at the death of John Gage Rokewode, Esq., the late learned 
 director of the Society of Antiquaries. 
 
 THE CORNWALLISES were settled at Brome, in Suffolk, 
 upwards of 400 years ; John Cornwallis, who was of ancient 
 family, having represented Suffolk in parliament temp. 
 Richard II. The name rendered illustrious by the conduct 
 and character of Charles, 1st Marquess Corwallis, one of 
 the best Govern or- Generals, India, and one of the best 
 Lords- Lieutenant, Ireland, ever had, is now extinct, and 
 ended in this county at the death of the 2nd Marquess in 
 1824. Charles, third Lord Cornwallis, married the widow 
 of the unhappy aspirant to royalty, the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch. 
 
 THE WENTWORTHS, who acquired Nettlestead about the 
 year 1450, were summoned to parliament in 1629, and 
 became eventually Earls of Cleveland, but nothing re- 
 mains of them now in Suffolk, except two sculptured 
 shields with twenty quarterings each on the old gate- 
 way of Nettlestead.
 
 WENTWORTES VISCOUNT OCKHAM. 
 
 Their eventual heiress, Henrietta, Baroness Went- 
 worth, had a sad and sorrowful history : to her romantic 
 and devoted attachment to the Duke of Monmouth she 
 sacrificed her maiden honour and the hope of a splendid 
 alliance : she abandoned all for him, and was his one 
 loved companion in exile and in misfortune up to the 
 very hour of his death : that event she survived but a few 
 brief mouths, and then sank broken-hearted to the grave. 
 " Near the quiet village of Toddington, in Bedfordshire/' 
 I quote Macaulay, " stood an ancient and stately Hall, the 
 feat of the Wentworths. The transept of the parish 
 cliuvch had long been their burial place. To that buriul 
 place, in the spring which followed the death of Mon- 
 mouth, was borne the coffin of the young Baroness Went- 
 v/ortb, of Nettlestede. Her family reared a sumptuous 
 mausoleum* over her remains; but a less costly memorial 
 of her was long contemplated, with far deeper interest. 
 Her name, carved by the hand of him whom she loved 
 too well, was, a few years ago, still discernible on a tree in 
 the adjoining park. 3 ' 
 
 At this unfortunate lady's death, her Barony of Went- 
 worth passed to her aunt, Lady Anne Wentworth, wife 
 of John Lord Lovelace ; and from the Lovelaces came to 
 the Noels and Milbankes, and from them to Viscount 
 Ockham, the heir of the Byrons. The recent death in a 
 lowly employment of this young nobleman, the poet 
 Byron's grandson, Viscount Ockham by courtesy, and Lord 
 
 * The fine monument in Toddington church, of Lady Went- 
 worth, referred to by Macaulay, is now literally a Leap of ruins, 
 and can only be identified by pieces bearing the leopards' faces 
 of the Wentworths.
 
 VISCOUNT OCKHAM. 433 
 
 Baron Wentworth in his own right, is one of the most 
 romantic and the strangest of peerage episodes. The story 
 has excited a lively interest among people of all classes, 
 and has been commented on in almost all the newspapers, 
 especially by one, the London Daily Telegraph, in an 
 admirably written and most eloquent leading article. 
 From that journal I borrow the following brief summary 
 of the late Lord Wentworth's career : 
 
 "The death of Byron Noel, Viscount Ockham, took 
 place on Monday, (8th September, 1862), at Wimbledon 
 Hill, by the rupture of a blood vessel, at the early age of 
 six-and- twenty years. This young nobleman was the 
 elder of the two sons of the Right Hon. William, eighth 
 Lord King, who was raised to the Earldom of Lovelace 
 at her Majesty's coronation in 1838, and is Lord Lieute- 
 nant and Gustos Rotulorum of the county of Surrey. His 
 mother was Ada, late Countess of Lovelace, a lady of here- 
 ditary interest far beyond the narrow pale of the peerage 
 roll, as the only child of the poet Byron, the very Ada 
 whom Lord Byron so feelingly apostrophises in one of the 
 most passionate of his poems. His grandmother was the 
 amiable and ill-starred wife of the proud and haughty 
 poet-lord, whose death we had occasion to chronicle in our 
 columns little more than two years ago, a lady who devoted 
 the summer and the autumn of her days to the steady 
 and systematic practice of wholesale charity in the highest 
 sense, and whom many a poor curate's family, and many 
 a poor reformatory child, will have reason to bless to the 
 end of their days. The heiress of the Noels was not 
 happy in her union with George Gordon, Lord Byron, as 
 
 p P
 
 434 VISCOUNT OCKHAM. 
 
 all the world is aware ; and perhaps the world at large, 
 far beyond the borders of Surrey, knows that the inherit- 
 ance to which the Lovelaces succeeded, has been less 
 happy than most in respect of domestic concord. At all 
 events, those who have sojourned in the neighbourhood of 
 Ripleyand Guildford, are aware that since the death of 
 Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the proud towers of East 
 Horseley have not held the heir-apparent to the titles of 
 his father and of his grandmother ; but that the latter has 
 been living a life from hand to mouth, well contented, if 
 half the story that we have heard be true, to earn his daily 
 bread as an artisan, by the sweat of his brow, in a dock- 
 yard not a hundred miles from Blackwall, rather than run 
 riot in his father's lordly halls. There seems to have been 
 in the case of young Lord Ockham, a sort of hereditary 
 Nemesis as classical writers would call it which pur- 
 sued him, if not from the cradle, at least from his earliest 
 manhood, to the grave. At an early age he entered the 
 Royal Navy, but left it after a few mouths' service we 
 know not why, but it was conjectured at the time that the 
 pride of his soul would not allow him to obey his superiors. 
 Be this as it may, he seems to have learnt obedience in 
 another school, and one to which but few lords or titled 
 persons are sent to gain experience. The next that we 
 hear of him is as a common sailor ; for it is a fact, that, 
 though the eldest son of a peer of the realm, he went out 
 to America in a merchant vessel, working his way be- 
 fore the mast. Tired of his newly adopted profession, the 
 young lord assumes a new character, and next turns up as 
 a common workman in the ship-yard of Mr. Scott Russell,
 
 MOORES OF KENTWELL HALL. 4t>5 
 
 in the Isle of Dogs, where he took his wages week by week, 
 along with his plebeian brethren." 
 
 Byron, with home desolate, left his native land never to 
 revisit it ; his grandson died not in his father's halls 
 
 " The boy was sprung to manhood : in the vrilds 
 Of fiery climes he made himself a home, 
 And his soul drank their sunbeams : he was girt with 
 Strange and dusky aspects : he was not 
 Himself like what he had been. On the sea 
 And on the shore be was a wanderer." 
 
 THE MOORES of Kentwell, Melford, were founded by 
 Sir John Moore, Lord Mayor of London, a very opulent 
 citizen, and a great favourite with Charles II. The King 
 gave him an addition to his arms (on a canton, the lion of 
 England], and also his portrait, a very fine large picture, 
 which used to hang up at Kentwell Hall. The fate of this 
 picture is curious. At the final break-up of the family, 
 there was an auction at Kentwell, at which very many pur- 
 chasers of all classes attended. Mr. Hart Logan, who 
 had become possessor of the estate and mansion, heard the 
 history of the portrait, and wished to keep it in its old 
 place, but by mistake it was knocked down for ten pounds 
 to a Jew, who required seventy pounds for his purchase : 
 this Mr. Logan would not give, and the picture was carried 
 off. I wonder who now has Charles's gift ! 
 
 The Moores remained at Kentwell about one hundred 
 and twenty years. The late Richard Moore, Esq., who 
 succeeded to the estate during his minority, had a rent- 
 roll of full ten thousand a-year, but he got involved, no- 
 body could tell how, and after many sufferings and vicissi-
 
 436 MOORES OF KENTWELL HALL. 
 
 tiides, died the last " Moore of Kentwell." He was 
 buried in the vault of Sir John Moore, in St. Dunstan's 
 in the East, where, side by side, alone repose the founder 
 and the dissipator of the family's fortune. If the careful 
 old Alderman could have expostulated, no doubt small 
 welcome would his descendant have received. The first 
 great incumbrance on the Kentwell estate, was a debt to 
 the next of kin of William Jeunens, Esq., of Acton, who 
 was his godfather, and who promised to forgive the debt, 
 and to add a legacy also ; and this was done, but by a 
 will not signed, and Mr. Moore had to meet the demand. 
 Col. Willoughby Moore, of the Enniskillen Dragoons, Mr. 
 Moore's son, barred the entail, in the hope of saving his 
 father from ruin. The father died not long after : the 
 ruin had come, and the estate was gone ! Colonel Moore 
 had a sorrowful life, and was lost in the " Europa" when 
 that ship was burnt. His widow went to the Crimea, and 
 was only second to Florence Nightingale in her care of the 
 sick and wounded. She too is now dead ! 
 
 I could give many more instances of the decay and ex- 
 tinction of Suffolk families, such as the Argentines, Bla- 
 kenhams, Geddyngs, Morieux, Crofts, Cranes, Feltons, 
 Garneys, Jermyns, &c., &c. ; and I could mention many 
 a sad case of modern ruin, but for the fear and risk of 
 hurting the feelings of existing persons. I will therefore 
 close these cursory remarks on a county remarkable for 
 the disappearance of its ancient houses, by a few lines on 
 the three great historic names, UFFORD, DE LA POLE, and 
 BRANDON, which held for a little more than two centuries 
 the famous peerage title of SUFFOLK.
 
 DE UFFOEDS DE LA POLES. 437 
 
 The DE UFFORDS, who are stated to have borrowed the 
 Hovel arms, were at first Peytons, and assumed their sub- 
 sequent surname from the village of Ufford, near Wood- 
 bridge. They became a great and an historic family. 
 Robert De Ufford, made Earl of Suffolk by Edward III., 
 and elected a Knight of the Garter, was a famous soldier 
 under the Black Prince. He left, besides a daughter, an 
 only son to survive him, William De Ufford, second Earl 
 of Suffolk, Admiral of the King's fleet. At the breaking 
 out of Jack Straw's insurrection, 4th Richard II., his 
 lordship, understanding that the common people intended 
 to force him into their ranks, and theii to represent 
 him as one of their leaders, hastily arose from supper, and 
 pursuing an unfrequented route, reached the King at St. 
 Alban's with a wallet over his shoulder, under the assumed 
 character of servant to Sir Roger De Bois ; but afterwards, 
 being chosen by the Commons in Parliament assembled 
 to represent to the Lords certain matters of importance to 
 the public welfare, the Earl, while ascending the steps to 
 their Lordships' house, suddenly fell down dead, to the 
 amazement and sorrow of all persons, rich and poor, on 
 the 15th February, 1382. 
 
 The Uffords were succeeded as Earls of Suffolk by the 
 DB LA POLES. Michael De la Pole, the first Earl, was 
 the son of the rich Hull merchant, William De la Pole. 
 He married the only daughter and heiress of Sir John 
 Wingfield, Knight, of Wingfield, in Suffolk, and acquired 
 great possessions in that county, but he died an exile and 
 outlaw ; his eldest grandson was killed at Agincourt, and 
 was succeeded as Earl of Suffolk by his brother, who be-
 
 438 CHARLES BRANDON. 
 
 came Duke of Suffolk, and was the dear but ever honorably 
 attached friend of Margaret of Anjou, her "gentle 
 Suffolk." The Duke was beheaded, or rather murdered, 
 by a crew of ruffians, in a boat at sea ; and Shakespeare 
 makes Margaret so grieve when she hears the news, that 
 her husband, Henry VI., remarks, " Thou wouldst not 
 have mourned so much for me ;" to which the Queen re- 
 plies with fondness and spirit, " No, my love, I should not 
 mourn, but die for thee." Suffolk's son, who was restored 
 to the title of Duke, married Elizabeth Plantagenet, sister 
 of King Edward IV. ; and of their sons, John was slain at 
 the battle of Stoke, Edmund was beheaded, and Richard 
 was killed at the battle of Pavia. He was the last HEIR 
 MALE of a short line of grandeur and misery, whose history 
 I have endeavoured, in another chapter, more fully to 
 narrate. 
 
 When Edmund De la Pole was attainted, Henry VIII. 
 conferred the Dukedom of Suffolk on SIR CHARLES BRAN- 
 DON, K.G., one of the most romantic characters of that 
 epoch. He was the son of Sir William Brandon, that 
 King's Standard-Bearer at Bosworth, (Shakespeare's Rich- 
 mond cries, " Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my 
 standard "). Sir William, who fell by the hand of King 
 Richard on that memorable field, derived his descent from 
 a family supposed to have taken its name from Brandon, in 
 Suffolk. One of Charles Brandon's four wives was Mary, 
 Queen Dowager of France, sister of Henry VIII. At his 
 *redding with this royal lady, he had a magnificent tourna- 
 ment in her honour, at which he himself tilted. The 
 liver)' and trappings of the Duke's horse on this occasion
 
 CHARLES BRANDON. 439 
 
 were half cloth of gold and half cloth of frieze, with the 
 following lines on them, allusive to his union with the 
 royal bride : 
 
 " Cloth of gold, do not despise, 
 Though thou art matched with cloth of frieze ; 
 Cloth of frieze, be not too hold, 
 Though thou art matched with cloth of gold." 
 
 Brandon was succeeded in his title as Duke of Suffolk 
 by his two sons (by his fourth wife), Henry and Charles, 
 who both died on the same day, 16th July, 1551 ; and so 
 ended the name of Brandon. 
 
 D'Ufford, De la Pole, and Brandon, as families, had 
 passed from Suffolk, but not their fame. Bright exhala- 
 tions of their native county, these nobles, who chose that 
 county for titles, impressed the very name of Suffolk on 
 our general history; and so proud a distinction had Suffolk 
 become, that it was gladly adopted for his earldom by a 
 naval hero of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a scion of the 
 house of Norfolk. From him, through a goodly line of 
 nobles, the coronet of the Earldom of Suffolk has de- 
 scended, and still preserves its brilliancy upon a Howard's 
 brow.
 
 APPENDIX. (See ante, p. 425.) 
 
 THE ROLL, IN THE CHURCH OP DIVES, NORMANDY, OF 
 THE COMPANIONS OF WILLIAM, IN THE CONQUEST 
 
 OF ENGLAND, IN 1066. 
 BY M. LEOPOLD DBLISLE, MEMBEB OF THE INSTITUTE. 
 
 Erected by the French Society of Archeeology, in August, 1862, with 
 permission of Mgr. Didiot, Bishop of Bayeux, M. De Caumont being 
 Director of the Society, M. the Abbe Renter, Vicar of Dives, and M. le 
 Comte Foucher de Carol, Member of the Conseil General for the Canton. 
 
 Achard. 
 
 Baudouin deColombieres 
 
 Eude Le Flamand. 
 
 d'lvri. 
 
 Le Flamand. 
 
 de Fourneaux. 
 
 Aioul. 
 
 de Meules. 
 
 LeSenechal. 
 
 Aiterd de Vaux. 
 
 Berenger Giffard. 
 
 Eustache, comte de Bou- 
 
 Alain Le Roux. 
 
 de Toeni. 
 
 logne. 
 
 Amauri de Dreux. 
 
 Bernard d'Alencon. 
 
 Foucher de Paris. 
 
 Anquetil de Cherbourg. 
 
 du Neufmarche'. 
 
 Fouque de Lisors. 
 
 de Grai. 
 
 Pancevolt. 
 
 Gautier d'Appeville. 
 
 de Ro 3 . 
 
 de Saint-Owen. 
 
 Le Bourguignon 
 
 Anscoul de Picquigni. 
 
 Bertran de Verdun. 
 
 - deCaenf 
 
 Ansfroi de Cormeilles. IBeuselin de Dive. 
 
 de Claville. 
 
 de Vaubadon. iBieot de Loges. 
 
 de Douai. 
 
 Ansger de Montaigu. 
 
 Carbonnel. 
 
 Giffard. 
 
 de Senarpont. 
 
 David d'Argentan. 
 
 de Grancourt. 
 
 Ansgot. 
 
 Dreu de la Beurriere. 
 
 Hachet. 
 
 de Ros. 
 
 Dreu de Montaigu. 
 
 Reuse'. 
 
 Arnoul d'Ardre. 
 
 Durand Malet. 
 
 d'Jncourt. 
 
 de Perci. 
 
 Ecouland. 
 
 de Laci. 
 
 de Hesdm. 
 Aubert Greslet. 
 
 Engenouf de L'Aigle. 
 Enguerrand de Raim- 
 
 de Mucedent 
 d'Omontville. 
 
 Aubri de Couci. ~ beaucourt. 
 
 de Kisbou. 
 
 de Ver. JErneis de Buron. 
 
 de Saint- Valeri. 
 
 Auvrai Le Breton. lEtienne de Fontenai. 
 
 Tirel. 
 
 d'Espague. Eude, comte de Cham- 
 
 de Vernon. 
 
 Mertebeige. pagne. Geoffroi Alselin. 
 
 de Tonic. Eude,evequedeBayeux.i Bainard. 
 
 Azor. 1 Cul-Ue-Loup. 1 du Ben.
 
 442 ROLL OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S COMPANIONS. 
 
 Geoffroi de Cambrai. 
 
 Guillaume Bonvalet. 
 
 Guillaume de Poillei. 
 
 -le la Guierche. 
 
 du Bosc. 
 
 Le Poitevin. 
 
 Le Marechal. 
 
 du Bosc-Roard 
 
 de Pont-de- 
 
 de Mandeville. 
 
 de Bonrneville 
 
 L'Arche. 
 
 Martel. 
 
 de Bral. 
 
 Quesnel. 
 
 Maurouard. 
 
 de Briouse. 
 
 de Reviers. 
 
 de Montbrai. 
 
 de Bursigni. 
 
 deSept-Meules 
 
 comteduPercbe 
 
 de Cahnignes. 
 
 Taillebois. 
 
 de Pierrepont. 
 
 de Cailli. 
 
 de Toeni. 
 
 de Ros. 
 
 de Cairon. 
 
 de Vatteville. 
 
 de Runneville. 
 
 Cardon. 
 
 de Vauville. 
 
 Talbot. 
 
 de Carnet. 
 
 de Ver. 
 
 de Tournai. 
 
 de Castillon. 
 
 de Vesli. 
 
 de Trelli. 
 
 de Ceauce. 
 
 de Warenne. 
 
 Gerbourd Le Flaraand. 
 
 _ La Cbevre. 
 
 Guimond de Blangi. 
 
 Gilbert Le Blond. 
 
 de Colleville. 
 
 de Tessel. 
 
 de Blosseville. 
 
 Corbon. iGuineboud de Balon. 
 
 de Bretteville. 
 
 de Paumerai. Guinemar Le Flamand. 
 
 de Budi. 
 
 Le Despensier. \ Hamelin de Balon. 
 
 de (Jolleville. 
 
 de Durville. 
 
 Hamon Le Senechal. 
 
 de Gand. 
 
 d'Ecouis. 
 
 Hardouin d'Ecalles. 
 
 Gibard. 
 
 Espec. 
 
 liascouf Musard. 
 
 Malet. 
 
 d'Eu. 
 
 Henri de Beaumont. 
 
 Maminot. 
 
 coroted'Evreux 
 
 de Ferrieres. 
 
 Tison. 
 
 de Fa aise. 
 
 Herman de Dreux. 
 
 de Venables. 
 
 de Fecamp. 
 
 Herve Le Berruier. 
 
 de Wissant. 
 
 Folet. 
 
 d'Espagne. 
 
 Gonfroi de Cioches. 
 
 de La Foret. 
 
 d'Helion. 
 
 Mauduit. 
 
 de Fougeres. 
 
 Honfroi d'Ansleville. 
 
 Goscelin de Cormeilles. 
 
 Froissart. 
 
 de Biville. 
 
 de Douai. 
 
 Goulaffre. 
 
 de Bohon. 
 
 de La Riviere. 
 
 de Letre. 
 
 de Carteret. 
 
 Goubert d'Aufai. 
 
 de Loucelles. 
 
 de Culai. 
 
 de Beauvais. 
 
 Louvet. 
 
 de L'lle. 
 
 Guernon de Peis. 
 
 Malet. 
 
 du Tillieul. 
 
 Gui de Craon. 
 
 de Malleville. 
 
 Vis-de-Loup. 
 
 de Raimbeaucourt. 
 
 de La Mare. 
 
 Hnard de Vernon. 
 
 de Raineeourt. 
 
 Maubenc. 
 
 Hubert de Mont-Canisi. 
 
 Guillaume Alis. 
 
 Mauduit. 
 
 de Port. 
 
 d'Ansleville. 
 
 de Moion. 
 
 Hugue L'Ane. 
 
 L' Archer. 
 
 de Monceaux. 
 
 d'Avranches. 
 
 d'Arques. 
 d'Audrieu. 
 
 de Noyers. 
 fils d'Osberne. 
 
 de Beaoehamp. 
 de Bernieres. 
 
 de L'Aune. 
 
 Pantoul. 
 
 duBois-Hebert. 
 
 Basset. 
 
 de Parthenai. 
 
 de Bolbec. 
 
 Belet. 
 
 Pecbe. 
 
 Bourdet. 
 
 de Beaufou. 
 
 de Perci. 
 
 deBr^beuf. 
 
 Bertram. 
 
 Pevrel. 
 
 de Corbon. 
 
 de Biville. 
 
 de Picquigni. 
 
 de Dol. 
 
 Le Blond. 
 
 Poignant 
 
 le Flamand.
 
 ROLL OF WILLIAM THE CONQUERORS COMPANIONS. 443 
 
 Huguede Gournai. 
 
 Ours de BerchSres. 
 
 Renaud de TortevaL 
 
 de Grentemesnil. 
 
 Picot. 
 
 Renier de Brimou. 
 
 de Guideville. 
 
 Pierre de Valognes. 
 
 Renouf de Colombelles. 
 
 - deHodenc. 
 
 Rahier d'Avre. 
 
 Flambard. 
 
 de Hotot. 
 
 Raoul d'Aunou. 
 
 Pevrel. 
 
 d'lvri. 
 
 Baignard. 
 
 de Saint- Waleri. 
 
 deLaci. 
 
 de Bans. 
 
 de Vaubadon. 
 
 deMaci. 
 
 de Bapaumes. 
 
 Richard Basset. 
 
 Maminot. 
 
 Basset. 
 
 de Beaumais. 
 
 de Manneville. 
 
 de Beaufou. 
 
 de Bienfaite. 
 
 de La Mare. 
 
 de Bernai. 
 
 de Bondeville. 
 
 Mautravers. 
 
 Blouet. 
 
 de Courci. 
 
 deMobec. 
 
 Botin. 
 
 d'Engagne. 
 
 de Montfort 
 
 de La Bruiere. 
 
 L'Estourmi. 
 
 de Montgotnmeri 
 
 de Chartres. 
 
 Fresle. 
 
 Musard. 
 
 de Colombieres. 
 
 deMeri. 
 
 de Port. 
 
 de Conteville. 
 
 deNeuville. 
 
 de Rennes. 
 
 de Courbepine. 
 
 Poignant. 
 
 de Saint-Quentin 
 
 L'Estourmi. 
 
 de Reviers. 
 
 Silvestre. 
 de Vesli. 
 
 de Fougeres. 
 Framan. 
 
 de Sacquenville. 
 de Saint-Clair. 
 
 deViville. 
 
 deGael. 
 
 de Sourdeval. 
 
 Ilbert de Lad. 
 
 de Hauville. 
 
 Talbot. 
 
 de Toeui. 
 
 de L'lle. 
 
 de Vatteville. 
 
 Ive Taillebois. 
 
 de Languetot. 
 
 de Vernon. 
 
 de Vesci. 
 
 de Linit'si. 
 
 Ricber d'Andeli. 
 
 Josce Le Flamand. 
 
 deMarci. 
 
 Robert d'Armcntieres. 
 
 Jubel de Toeni. 
 
 deMortemer. 
 
 d'Auberville. 
 
 Lanfranc. 
 
 de Noron. 
 
 d'Aumale. 
 
 Matbieu de Mortagne. 
 
 d'Ouilli. 
 
 de Barbes. 
 
 Mauger de Carteret. 
 Maurin de Caen. 
 
 Painel. 
 Pinel. 
 
 Le Bastard. 
 de Beaumont. 
 
 Mile Crespin. 
 l urdae. 
 
 Pipin. 
 de La Potnmeraie 
 
 Le Blond. 
 Blouet. 
 
 Keel d'Aubigni. 
 
 du Quesnai. 
 
 Bourdet, 
 
 de Btrville. 
 
 de Saint- Sanson. 
 
 de Brix. 
 
 Fossard. 
 
 du Saussai. 
 
 deBuci. 
 
 de Gournai. 
 
 de Savigni. 
 
 de Chandos. 
 
 de Munneville. 
 
 Taillebois. 
 
 Corbet. 
 
 Normand d'Adreci. 
 
 duTheil. 
 
 de Courcon. 
 
 O.-berne d'Arques. 
 du Breuil. 
 
 de Toeni. 
 de Tourlaville. 
 
 Cruel. 
 Le Despensier. 
 
 d'Eu. 
 
 de Tourneville. 
 
 corate d'Eu. 
 
 Gitfard. 
 
 Trancbard. 
 
 Froraentin. 
 
 Pastforeire. 
 
 fils d'Unspac. 
 
 fils de Geroud. 
 
 da Quesnai. 
 
 Vis-de-loup. 
 
 de Glanville. 
 
 du Saussai. 
 
 Ravenot. 
 
 Guernon. 
 
 de Wanci. 
 
 Renaud de Bailleul. 
 
 de Harcourt 
 
 Osmond. 
 
 Croc. 
 
 de Lorz. 
 
 Osmont de Vaubadon. 
 Ours d'Abbetot. 
 
 de Pierrepont. 
 de Sainte-Helene 
 
 Malet. 
 comte de Meulan.
 
 444 ROLL OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR'S COMPANIONS. 
 
 .Robert de Montbrai. 
 
 Roger d'lvri. 
 
 Vital. 
 
 de Montfort. 
 
 de Laci. 
 
 Wadard. 
 
 comte de Mortain 
 
 de Lisieux. 
 
 
 des Moutiers 
 
 deMeules. 
 
 
 Murdac 
 
 de Montgommeri 
 
 D'Auvrecher d'Anger- 
 
 d'Ouilli. 
 
 de Moyaux. 
 
 ville. 
 
 de Pierrepont. 
 
 de Mussegros. 
 
 De Bailleul. 
 
 de Pontchardon. 
 
 de Oistreham. 
 
 De Briqueville. 
 
 deRhuddlan. 
 
 d'Orbec. 
 
 Daniel. 
 
 de Romenel. 
 
 Picot. 
 
 Bavent. 
 
 - de Saint-Leger. 
 
 de Pistres. 
 
 De Clinchamps. 
 
 de Thaon. 
 
 Le Poitevin. 
 
 De Courcy. 
 
 de Toeni. 
 
 de Rames. 
 
 De Vicomte. 
 
 de Vatteville. 
 
 de Saint-Germain 
 
 De Tournebut. 
 
 des Vaux. 
 
 de Sommeri. 
 
 De Tilly. 
 
 de Veci. 
 
 Ruaud 1'Adoube. 
 
 Danneville. 
 
 deVesli. 
 
 Seri d'Auberville. 
 
 D'Argouges. 
 
 de Villon. 
 
 Serlon de Burci. 
 
 D'Auvay. 
 
 Eoger d'Abernoa. 
 
 de Ros. 
 
 De Briqueville. 
 
 - Arundel. 
 
 Sigar de Cloches. 
 
 De Canouville. 
 
 d'Auberville. 
 
 Simon de Senlis. 
 
 De Cussy. 
 
 de Beaumont. 
 
 Tiiierri Pointel. 
 
 De Fribois. 
 
 Bigot. 
 
 Tihel de Herion. 
 
 D'Hericy. 
 
 Boissel. 
 
 Toustain. 
 
 D'Houdetot. 
 
 - de Bosc-Normand 
 
 Turold. 
 
 De Mathart. 
 
 de Bosc-Roard. 
 
 de Grenteville. 
 
 De Montfiquet. 
 
 de Breteuil. 
 deBulli. 
 
 de Papelion. 
 Turstin de Gueron. 
 
 D'Orglande. 
 Du Merle. 
 
 de Carteret. 
 
 Mantel. 
 
 De Saint-Germain. 
 
 de Chandos. 
 
 de 8ninte-Hfene. 
 
 De Sainte-Marie ti'Aig- 
 
 Corbet. 
 
 fiis de JLtou. 
 
 naux. 
 
 de Courcelles. 
 
 Tinel. 
 
 De Touchet. 
 
 d'Evreux. 
 
 Vauquelin de Rosai, 
 
 De Venois. 
 
 , PBTSTKR AND STBBEOTTPEB, OUILDFOED.
 
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