Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

First, William, Viscount Bury, born March 1st, 1793, died April 9th, 1804.

Second, Augustus Frederick, Viscount Bury, in the royal navy, born June 2d, 1794.

Third, Sophia, born March 28th, 1797.

Fourth, Elizabeth, born April 23d, 1798, died April 26th,

1806.

Fifth, George Thomas, born June 13th, 1799.

Sixth, Edward, born August 16th, 1800.

Seventh, a daughter, Anne, born June 16th, 1803.

Eighth, Charles, born October 5th, 1804.

Ninth, Georgiana, born July 15th, 1806.
Tenth, Francis Roger, born 1808.

Eleventh, Henry, born June, 1809..

Titles. William Charles Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, Viscount Bury, and Baron Ashford, of Ashford.

Creations. Baron Ashford, of Ashford in Kent, Viscount Bury, in Lancashire, and Earl of Albemarle, in Normandy, February 10th, 1695-6, 8 Will. III.

Arms. Gules, three escallop shells, Argent.

Crest. In a ducal coronet, Or, a swan's neck, proper.
Supporters. Two lions, ducally crowned, Or.

Motto. NE CEDE MALIS.

Chief Seat. At Elvedon-Hall, in Suffolk.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

SIR William Dugdale, and other of our antiquaries, agree, that the present Earl of Coventry is descended from

WILLIAM Coventry, of the city of Coventry, whose son

a

JOHN, being a mercer of London, and of an opulent fortune, was sheriff thereof, in 1416, and Lord Mayor in 1425. He was ↳ one of the executors of Richard Whittington, who was three times Mayor of London; and who having begun to build Newgate, and the library of the Grey-Friars at Christ-church, London, with that at Guildhall, they were all finished by his three executors.

This John Coventry is much commended, in our chronicles, for his discreet carriage in the debate betwixt Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester; and lies buried in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, London, d where a monument was erected to his memory, with an inscription, much to his commendation, as below: e

'a Stow's Survey of London, vol i. p. 561, 563.
c Weaver's Funeral Monum. p. 402.

Ibid. p. 256.

d Stow ut antea, p. 270.

e Magnificus, sed justificus,

miseris et amicus,

Vir speciosus, Vir

generosus, verque pudicus,
Et peramabilis, et

venerabilis, atque piarum
Vis, dux, lex, lampas,
flos Major Londontarum;
In terræ ventre jacet

hic John rite Coventre

Alice his wife, daughter of ...... Brome, died in 1433, and was buried at St. Dunstan's in the East, London.

From him in lineal descent, & was VINCENT Coventry, of Cassington, near Yarnton in Oxfordshire, whose son and heir,

RICHARD Coventry, Esq. married a daughter of ..... Turner, and had issue two sons.

First, John, who had the estate at Cassington, and left a family; and,

Second, THOMAS, who was born anno 1547, had his education in Baliol college in Oxford; and on June 2d, 1565, was created Bachelor of Arts. He afterwards became a member of the Inner Temple, London; and in 38 Eliz. was chosen Autumn-reader of that house: but a great plague then raging in London, he read not till the Lent following. On May 17th, 1603, 1 Jac. I. he was sworn serjeant at law, having been elected to that degree in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in 3 Jac. I. was ' constituted King's Serjeant; also the same year one of them justices of the court of Common Pleas, in which post he continued till his death, which was on December 12th, 1606, and was buried at Croome d'Abitot, in Worcestershire, where a monument is erected to his memory.

[ocr errors]

He had issue by Margaret his wife, daughter and heir to
Jeffreys, of Earles Croome, alias Croome d'Abitot, three

.....

sons.

First, Thomas, his heir.

Second, William, who left a family, seated at Ridmarly in Worcestershire.

Third, Walter, ancestor to the present Earl of Coventry.

As also four daughters; Joan, married to...... Rogers, of the county of Surry, Esq.; Catharine, espoused to William Child,

Dictus, quem necuit

veluti decuit lue plenus

Bis Septingenus

tricenus, si trahis unum, Martius in sole

triceno, si trahis unum,

Virginis a partu, carnis

modo mortuus artu ; Vivis erit Cælis tuba

clanxerit ut Gabrielis. Amen.

f Seymour's Survey of London, vol. i. p 295.

h Wood's Fast. Oxon. vol i. p. 723.

k Stow's Annals, p. 824.

Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 102

g Ex Stemmate,

i Dugd. Orig. Jurid. p. 166

6

Pat. 3 Jac. I. p. 2.

A Ex Stemmate.

Esq.; and Anne, wedded to George Frampton, of Dorsetshire, Esq.

THOMAS, Son and heir of the last mentioned Thomas, born at Croome d'Abitot in Worcestershire, in 1578, became, at the age of fourteen, a gentleman-commoner of Baliol college in Oxford, where he continued three years, and then was entered a member of the Inner Temple; where, pursuing his father's steps in the laudable studies of the municipal laws, he was chosen Autumnreader of that society, 14 Jac. I. and the same year, on Nov. 17, P was elected recorder of the city of London: also on March 14th following, constituted solicitor-general; and received the honour of knighthood two days after at Theobalds.

In 18 Jac. I. he was made attorney-general; and from thence advanced to that eminent office of LORD-Keeper of thE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND, by Charles I. on November 1st, 1625. On April 10th, 1628, he was dignified with the " degree of a Baron of this realm, by the title of LORD COVENTRY, of Aylesborough in com. Wigern.

He died at Durbam-house in the Strand, in London, on January 14th, 1639-40, and February 17th, was conveyed from thence, with great funeral solemnity, to his interment at Croome d'Abitot, near his father, on March 1st following. The Earl of Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, says of him, y "That he discharged all the offices he went through, with great abilities, and singular reputation of integrity; that he enjoyed his place of lord keeper with an universal reputation (and sure justice was never better administered) for the space of fourteen years and three months, even to his death, some months before he was sixty years of age." "Which was another important circumstance of his felicity; that great office being so slippery, that no man had died in it before for near the space of forty years: nor had his successors for some time after him much better fortune. And he himself had use of all his strength and skill (as he was an excellent wrestler in this kind) to preserve himself from falling in two shocks the one given him by the Earl of Portland, lord high treasurer of England; the other by the Marquis of Hamilton, who

:

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

had the greatest power over the affections of the King, of any man at that time.

"He was a man of wonderful gravity and wisdom; and un derstood not only the whole science and mystery of the law, at least equally with any man who had ever sat in that place; but had a clear conception of the whole policy of the government both of church and state; which, by the unskilfulness of some well-meaning men, justled each the other too much.

"He knew the temper, disposition, and genius of the kingdom most exactly; saw their spirits grow every day more sturdy, inquisitive, and impatient; and therefore naturally abhorred all innovations, which he foresaw, would produce ruinous effects. Yet many, who stood at a distance, thought he was not active and stout enough in opposing those innovations: for though by his place he presided in all public councils, and was most sharp-sighted in the consequence of things; yet he was seldom known to speak in matters of state, which, he well knew, were, for the most part, concluded before they were brought to that public agitation: never in foreign affairs; which the vigour of his judgment could well have comprehended: nor indeed freely in any thing, but what immediately and plainly concerned the justice of the kingdom; and in that, as much as he could, he procured references to the judges. Though in bis nature he had not only a firm gravity, but a severity and even some morosity; yet it was so happily tempered, and his courtesy and affability towards all men so transcendent, and so much without affectation, that it marvellously recommended him to men of all degrees; and he was looked upon as an excellent courtier, without receding from the native simplicity of his own manners.

"He had in the plain way of speaking and delivery, without much ornament of elocution, a strange power of making himself believed (the only justifiable design of eloquence), so that though he used very frankly to deny, and would never suffer any man to depart from him with an opinion that he was inclined to gratify, when in truth he was not; holding that dissimulation to be the worst of lying: yet the manner of it was so gentle and obliging, and his condescension such, to inform the persons whom he could not satisfy, that few departed from him with ill-will and ill-wishes.

"But then this happer temper, and those good faculties, rather preserved him from having many enemies, and supplied him with some well-wishers, than furnished him with any fast and unshal.cn

« VorigeDoorgaan »