joined to their councils or commissions; and, though he was divers times sent for to Oxford, never went, in which time of his abode at Ashby the Committee at Leicester sequestered his estate, which, in respect of the premises, he hopeth their Lordships will be pleased to free, because he hath lost in Ireland near 1000l. a-year, and that which he hath in England being subject to armies, and Ashby, by reason of the garrison, useless to him; and the whole estate (making no deductions for taxes) not amounting to 900l. a-year; and considering his great charge of seven children unbrought up, and unprovided for; besides for his degree there are some thousand pounds debts, whereunto he fell in his father's time, his lands being so entailed, that if he should die all are alike to suffer; therefore he desires that his sequestration may be taken off his estate." This petition was recommended to the consideration of the House of Commons.

Judging from this representation of his conduct, furnished by himself, his Lordship appears to have assumed rather a neutral and pacific attitude between the contending parties. Accordingly we hear little more of him in public life till 1653; in the November of which year it was provided, in an act then passed to enable him to sell some lands for the payment of his own debts and his father's, and to restrain him from making leases of other lands to the prejudice of his issue, that, from September the 30th of that year, he should stand seized, in fee simple, of the manor of Loughborough, with all its appurtenances of Bowden Wood, and of Alton Grange, with full power and authority to dispose of the same for the liquidation of his debts. Connected with this, is another act passed in 1662, after his Lordship's death, which confirms the sale of Bowden Wood, Loughborough Park, Alton Grange, and several parcels of the manor of Loughborough, made by him during his life-time for the payment of his own and his father's debts.

His Lordship departed this life February 13, 1655, in his 48th year, at Donnington Park, where he had spent the concluding years of his life in tranquil domestic retirement, to the stronger relish of which his own family afflictions, as well as the uncertain state of public affairs, may well be supposed to have formed his mind. His remains were deposited with those of his ancestors, without any monumental inscription; but we shall here insert the Epitaph written and proposed for him by his relative, Sir Aston Cockayne.

"An Epitaph on my most honoured kinsman, Ferdinando, Earl of Huntingdon, who deceased at his house in Donnington Park, about the 48th year of his age, and was buried at Ashby de la Zouch.

"Here Ferdinando, Earl of Huntingdon,

Doth lie interred under this marble stone,
Which will weep tears of dew if we refrain

To shed our tears; yet weeping is in vain,
Nor sighs, nor tears, will call him from his urn
Then let our griefs to imitation turn,

Let's emulate his worthy parts (for such

His qualities were) and we shall merit much;
For each man may report that passeth by,
Courtesy and good-nature here do lye."

T

CHAPTER X.

OF THEOPHILUS, SEVENTH EARL OF HUNTINGDON.

THEOPHILUS, seventh Earl of Huntingdon, fourth, and only surviving son of Ferdinando, the sixth Earl, was born at Donnington Park, December 10, 1650, not long after the so much lamented death of his elder brother, Lord Henry,—a propitious circumstance, which, in some measure, consoled the sorrow, as it revived the hopes, of the family. His baptism was marked by the additional solemnity of a sermon, in which the preacher appositely said, "Deus abstulit, et Deus dedit;"" for one, and that then an only son, lately taken into the kingdom of glory, God has given them another this day to be admitted into the kingdom of grace." He succeeded to the title February 13, 1655, while yet an infant; received summons to parliament by descent April 15, 1672; and first took his seat as peer, by his proxy, the Duke of York, February 15, of the following year. It appears, by the concurrent report of several historians, that his Lordship had confederated himself, or entered into some correspondence, with the Duke of Monmouth and his adherents in the reign of Charles the Second. It is, however, due to truth, and to his character, to state, that this connection was inadvertent on his part, and, at worst, only of very short duration. He lent himself, in the first instance, to the association, without being made distinctly acquainted with its nature and ultimate objects; but, the moment he saw reason to suspect that the

subversion of the existing government was contemplated, he imme-` diately and wholly withdrew. About this time his Majesty appointed him of the Privy Council, and soon after Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire,-circumstances which abundantly prove that his loyalty was above all imputation. In September, 1684, the corporation of the town of Leicester, at the persuasion of the well known Judge Jeffries, having surrendered their old charter, his Lordship, under a new one then granted, which reduced the number of the common council to thirty-six, was constituted Recorder, and Nathan Wright, Esq. his Deputy.

On the decease of King Charles, February 6, 1684, the Earl of Huntingdon was one of those who signed the order at Whitehall, for proclaiming James the Second. Immediately after, his Lordship was constituted Custos Rotulorum of the County of Leicester, and nominated of the Privy Council, appointed Chief Justice in Eyre of all the King's forests, chaces, parks, and warrens, north of Trent, Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Huntingdon and Derby, Captain of a Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, and Colonel of the 13th Regiment of Foot. The same year, as lineal descendant of the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, he preferred his claim to the honour of carrying the third sword, and of being Pantler, at the Coronation. But this full tide of official honours quickly ebbed at the revolution, which followed soon after. Adhering to the interests of the dethroned Prince, conformably to the rigid principles of loyalty which had ever governed his ancestors, he was divested of all his offices, and excluded the benefit of King William's Act of Indemnity, May 30, 1690. About two years after, upon advice laid before Government of a meditated descent from La Hogue, in favour of James, he was committed close prisoner to the Tower; and in 1701, he was one of the Peers who protested against the Act of

Settlement. His Lordship departed this life on the 30th of May following, at his house, in Charles-street, St. James's, London, in his fiftieth year. His remains were conveyed with due respect and solemnity to Ashby, and deposited in the family chapel, which, together with the chancel of the church, he had, during his life-time, been at considerable expense to repair and embellish, particularly the fine old tomb of Francis, the second Earl. On the west side of this chapel, a mural monument was erected to his memory, with a Latin inscription, recording the several public offices conferred on his Lordship during the reigns of Charles and James, his marriages, and issue. By his will, dated 1698, and proved in 1701, he expressly directs, that his coronet, and his robes of velvet and scarlet, together with his pedigree and seals, shall descend to all future Earls of Huntingdon of his family. Of this nobleman, there is an eminently beautiful mezzo-tinto print, by R. Williams, from an original portrait, by Kneller, dated 1687, with the following arms, quarterly, underneath: first, Hastings; second, Clarence; third, Pole; fourth, Moules.

Earl Theophilus was married, first, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter and coheir to Sir John Lewis, of Ledstone, in Yorkshire, Knight and Baronet, and by her had issue two sons, Thomas, who died an infant, and George, successor to the title; and six daughters, Lucy, Sarah, Elizabeth, Maria, Dorothea, and Christiana, all of whom died either infants or unmarried; and secondly, on the 2d of May, 1690, to Frances, daughter and sole heir to Francis Levison Fowler, of Harnage-Grange, in the county of Salop, Esq. (by Anne, his wife, second daughter to Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton, in Cheshire, and widow of Thomas Needham, Viscount Kilmurry, in Ireland,) by whom he was father of two sons, Theophilus, successor to his half brother George, and Ferdinando, who died at the age of