viz. Walter, John, Richard, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Margaret. He was succeeded by his eldest son,

WALTER D'EVEREUX, then fifteen years of age, who, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Bromwich, Knight, had issue Sir Walter, his son and heir, and a daughter Elizabeth, married to .... Melborne, Esq. which

.......

Sir WALTER was fifteen years old at the death of his father, in 14 Henry VI. and by Elizabeth his wife, daughter and heir of Sir John Merbury, Knight, had issue,

First, Sir Walter, his heir.

Second, Sir John.

Third, Anne, married to William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke; and,

Fourth, Sibil, the wife of Sir James Baskerville, Knight.

This last mentioned Sir WALTERd was married to Anne, sole daughter and heir to William Lord Ferrars de Chartley: and in 31 Hen. VI. by the King's special favour, he had livery of her lands. This match may be said to have laid the foundation for the great honours the family has since attained to; for this lady not only brought a very large inheritance, but an ancient Barony, and a descent in blood from the illustrious family of Ferrars, Earls of Derby, and Barons of Chartley.

In 1456, he was sheriff of Herefordshire, being then a Knt.; and on July 26th, 1461, & was summoned to parliament as a Baron of this realm, by the title of LORD FERRARS; also, in farther recompence of his manifold services, vast expenses, and sundry perils in the wars against King Henry VI. wherein he had exposed himself, he obtained a grant the same year, of divers manors, lordships, &c. Likewise in 1470, in consideration of his faithful services, he had a grant for life of the county of Caernarvon, and was made chief forester of Snowdon Hills in North Wales. the same year he was installed Knight of the Garter: but adhering afterwards to Richard III. he was slain with him, on August 22d, 1485, at Bosworth Field; leaving issue, John, his heir, then a knight, Sir Richard, Sir Thomas, and a daughter Elizabeth, married to Sir Richard Corbet, of Morton-Corbet, in

In

Shropshire; and, secondly, to Sir Thomas Leighton, of Watlesborough in the said county.

JOHN, the eldest son, SECOND, of the name, LORD FERRAKS OF CHARTLEY, was summoned to parliament from TM 3 Hen. VII. till the twelfth; and wedding Cecilie, daughter to Henry Bourchier, sister and heir of Henry her brother, Earl of Essex, maternally descended from Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. left issue, by her, Walter his only son and heir, and a daughter, Anne, married to Henry Lord Clifford.

Which WALTER, THIRD LORD FERRARS, and FIRST VISCOUNT HEREFORD, in 2 Henry VIII. was joint governor of Warwick-castle, and served that King in his wars with France, in several expeditions; and in that sea-fight with the French near Conquet in Britanny: whereupon, for his gallant behaviour, he was elected on July 13th, 1523, one of the Knights companions of the Garter; and in 1525, P constituted justice of South Wales.

In 36 Henry VIII. he was with the King at the taking of Boulogne; and on February 2d, 1549-50, was, in consideration of the laudable and acceptable services he had performed, as also in regard of his prudence, loyalty, and valour, advanced to the dignity of VISCOUNT HEREFORD, and to his heirs male for ever, with an annual rent of twenty marks out of the profits of the county of Hereford. In the patent is a clause, that " he and his heirs male should enjoy the rank and degree of Viscount Hereford, in all parliaments and councils within the realm of England, and other the King's territories and kingdoms," whereby (according to the opinion of Sir Richard St. George, garter king at arms) the Viscounts Hereford were entitled to a seat, as well in the parliament of Ireland as England. He died on September 27th, 1558, as appears by inquisition taken at Brecknock, on January 20th, 1560-1, " seized of the manors of Pipton, alias Pixton, Penkelly, Anglicana, and Lanthomas, in the parish of Haytt, in the county of Brecon; Walter, son of Sir Richard Devereux, being

m Claus. iisd. Ann in Dors.

Pat. 2 Hen. VIII. p. 3.

• Appendix in Ashmole's Order of the Garter, n. 26.

P Pat. 17 Hen VIII. p. 2. 9 Herbert's Hist. of Hen. VIII. p. 511.

Pat. 4. Edward VI. p. 8.

• Nobility Creations, &c. MS. penes Joh. Vicecom. Percival.
• Cole's Esc. lib. v. p. 354, n. 61, A. 16, in Bibl Harley.
Buswell's Hist of the Garter.

found to be his grandson and heir, and of the age of nineteen, on September 6th, before the taking of the inquisition. This Walter, the first Viscount, was buried at Stow, * com. Stafford.

He had issue, by Mary his first wife, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, three sons, viz.

First, Henry, who died unmarried.

Second, Sir Richard Devereux, Knight, who died in his lifetime; and,

Third, Sir William Devereux, Knight, who married Jane, daughter of John Scudamore, of Home Lacy, in com. Heref. Esq. and left issue two daughters his coheirs, viz. Barbara Devereux, who was first married to Edward Cave, Esq. and afterwards to Sir Edward Hastings, Knight, fourth son to Francis, the second Earl of Huntington; and Margaret Devereux, married to Sir Edward Littleton, of Pillaton-hall, in com. Staff. Knight, great grandfather to Sir Edward Littleton, of the same place, Bart.

The said Sir Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Robert Garnish, of Kenton in Suffolk, had a son, Sir Edward Devereux, seated at Castle-Bromwich in the county of Warwick, of whom afterwards as continuator of the male line.

Sir RICHARD DEVEREUX, eldest surviving son before-mentioned, by the first wife, died in his father's lifetime, on October 13th, 1547, possessed of the manor of Bodenham in Herefordshire, as appears by inquisition taken at Hereford, on July 22d, 1450, and by Dorothy his wife, eldest daughter of George, the first Earl of Huntington, he had issue, Walter, his son and heir, at the time of his decease eight years and ten months old.

He had also another son, Sir George Devereux, Knight, and two daughters; Elizabeth, married to Sir John Vernon, of Hodnet, Knight; and Anne, the wife of Henry Clifford.

He was interred at Allhallows-Barkin, near the Tower, London.

WALTER, SECOND VISCOUNT HEREFORD, and FIRST EARL OF ESSEX, the eldest son, was born about 1540, at his grandfather's castle in Carmarthenshire, and educated in his youth with all the care due to his high birth. Succeeding his grandfather in the

nineteenth year of his age, and being early distinguished for his modesty, learning, and loyalty, he stood in high favour with his sovereign Queen Elizabeth. On the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in the North, in 1569, he shewed his duty by raising a considerable body of forces, with which he did good service against them. This behaviour so recommended him to the Queen, that he was created EARL OF Essex, on May 4th, 1572, being likewise styled Earl of Eu, Viscount Hereford, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Bourchier, and Lovain, and Knight of the Garter.

In 1573, he obtained leave of Queen Elizabeth, to make an expedition against the Irish rebels, "following therein," says Camden, "the council of those, who desired, above all things, to have him farther off, and to plunge him into danger, under pretence of procuring him honour, which he knew well enough; but being a stirring man, and one not unacquainted with warlike discipline from his very youth, he held on his resolution," &c. Matters turned out as was predicted: he fell a sacrifice to this undertaking, at Dublin, September 22d, 1576, in the flower of his age. "A very excellent man," says Camden, "he certainly was, in whom honesty of carriage vied with nobility of birth: both which, notwithstanding, could not prevail against envy. For, after he was constrained to give over his laudable enterprize in Ireland, he returned to England, having much wasted his estate; when openly threatening Leicester, whom he suspected to have done him injuries, he was by his cunning court tricks, who stood in fear of him, and by a peculiar court-mystery, of wounding ana overthrowing men by honours, sent back again into Ireland, with the insignificant title of Earl Marshal of Ireland. Where, pining away with grief and sorrow, he piously rendered his soul to Christ, dying of a bloody flux, in the midst of grievous torments; after he had desired the standers-by, to admonish his son, who was then scarce ten years old, to have always before his eyes, the six-andthirtieth year of his age, which neither he, nor his father had passed, and which his son never attained to." Camden adds, " that his death carried with it a suspicion of poison; but that the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, after due inquiry, could not discover sufficient grounds for the suspicion; though it was afterwards much increased, by Leicester's casting off Douglas Sheffield, by whom he had a son, and suddenly marrying Essex's widow," a

• Camden's Eliz. in Kennet, vol. ii. p. 457.

"There is nothing more certain," says the writer of his life in the Biographia Britannica, "either from the public histories, or private memoirs and letters of that age, than that this noble Earl was one of the worthiest, honestest, and best of men: one, who in his public capacity shewed himself a stout soldier, a loyal subject, and a most disinterested patriot, as in his private life he was of a cheerful temper, kind, affectionate, and beneficient to all who *were about him, and to say much in a little compass, one commended by all parties; and to whose prejudice there is not the slightest insinuation to be met with in all the papers of those times." b

He died at Dublin in Ireland, on September 22d, 1576; and was buried at Caermarthen in South Wales.c

Lettice, his wife, was daughter to Sir Francis Knolles, Knight of the Garter, (and sister to William, the first Earl of Banbury, and was after his decease married to Robert Earl of Leicester, and thirdly, to Sir Christopher Blount, Knight. d) She died December 25th, 1634, and was buried at Warwick.

By her he left issue three sons and two daughters, viz.
First, Robert, his successor.

Second, Walter, slain at the siege of Rouen, without issue.
Third, Francis, who died young.

Penelope, married successively to Robert, Lord Rich, and, in 1605, to Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire; and

Dorothy, wedded first & in July, 1583, at Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire, to Sir Thomas Perrot, Kuight, which match being deemed beneath her dignity, and proving unhappy, Dr. Aylmer, bishop of London, was summoned before the council, and much blamed at court for granting the licence for their marriage: she

:

▸ Dr. Kippis speaks of a letter of his to the council, preserved in the Sidney papers, resenting the ill-usage he received in Ireland, as admirably written, and a proof of the Earl's great abilities, and the perfection to which the English language was carried at that time.

• There is a good portrait of him in Holland's Heroologia.
d Vincent's Peerage, Title Essex.

• His father is said to have originally conceived a higher opinion of his abilities, than of those of his elder brother. Gervase Markham wrote an elegy on his premature death.

She was divorced from Lord Rich, by whom she had Lord Warwick and Lord Holland. But the "grief of this unhappy love is said to have brought her last husband to his end, 16c6." See Memoirs of King James's Peers, yol.i p. 28.

• Life of Bishop Aylmer, p. 197 and 326.

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