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His only son, Henry, the second Earl, continued no less attached to popery than his father had been,

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Tichfield and Earls of Southampton.

King Henry the Eighth granted the Promonstratensian Abbey of Tichfield, Hants, endowed with about 2807. per annum, to Thomas Wriothesley, Esq. in 1538, a great favourite of that king, created Baron Tichfield about the same time, and Earl of Southampton, in 1546. He died at Lincolne-place in Holborn, afterwards called Southampton House, Jul. 30, 1550. He was buried in the choir of St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, near the high altar, with a stately monument. His only son Henry, second Earl, by will, dated Jan. 29, 1581, bequeaths his body to be buried in the chapel of Tichfield-church, where his mother Jane had been interred: ordering that the said chapel should be repaired and improved by his executors, with new sides and windows of stone: the roof to be stuccoed and fretted like that of his mansion-house at Dogmersfield *: the floor to be fairly paved: and the opening to be separated from the church with iron grates. And, that two fair monuments should be made there; one for his father (whose body he wills to be removed thither), and mother; the other for himself, with portraitures of all three in alabaster the cost for chapel and monuments to be one thousand marcs, appointing, at the same time, that 2007. should be distributed to the poor, within his several lordships, to pray for his soul and the souls of his ancestors. He married Mary, daughter of Antony Viscount Montagu, seated at Coudray (a most noble house, now remaining in all its ancient magnificence) near Midhurst, in Sussex, by whom he had one son Henry, and Mary, a daughter, married to Thomas Lord Arundel of Wardour. He was buried in the chapel of Tichfield church above-mentioned.

"The said Henry, the third earl, and Shakespeare's patron, married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Vernon, of Hodnet, in Shropshire; by whom he had two sons, John who died in the Netherlands, and Thomas the fourth earl: and three daughters; Penelope, married to Lord Spenser, of Wormleighton; Anne, to Robert Wallop, Esq. of Farley, near Basingstoke, Hants; and Elizabeth, to Sir Thomas Estcourt, knight, a master in Chancery. This earl, Henry, died Nov. 22, 1624, and was buried with his ancestors at Tichfield.

* In Hants, an alienated palace of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

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and was one of the most zealous partizans of Mary Queen of Scots, an attachment which occasioned

"Thomas his son, the fourth earl, was sincerely attached to the interests of King Charles the First, during Cromwell's Rebellion. At the Restoration, his services were not forgotten; when he was made a Knight of the Garter, and Lord High Treasurer of England. He died at Southampton-house, London, May 16, 1667, and was interred in the family chapel at Tichfield.

"I visited Tichfield-house, Aug. 19, 1786, and made the following observations on what is now remaining there. The Abbey of Tichfield being granted to the first Earl, Thomas, in 1538, he converted it into a family mansion, yet with many additions and alterations: we enter, to the south, through a superb tower, or Gothic portico, of stone, having four large angular turrets. Of the monastic chapel only two or three low arches remain, with the moor-stone pilasters. The greater part of what may properly be called the house, forming a quadrangle, was pulled down about forty years ago. But the refectory, or hall of the abbey, still remains complete, with its original raftered roof of good workmanship: it is embattelled; and has three Gothic windows on each side, with an oreille or oriel window. It is entered by a portico which seems to have been added by the new proprietor at the dissolution; by whom also the royal arms painted, with the portcullis and H. R. [Henricus Rex], were undoubtedly placed over the high-table. At the other end is a music-gallery. Underneath is the cellar of the monastery, a well-wrought crypt of chalk-built arches; the ribs and intersections in a good style. In a long cove-ceiled room, with small parallel semicircular arches, are the arms of King Charles the First on tapestry; he was protected here in his flight from Hampton-court. Two or three Gothic-shaped windows, perhaps of the abbey, in a part of the house now inhabited by a steward and other servants. In these and other windows some beautiful shields of painted glass are preserved; particularly one of Henry the Eighth impaling Lady Jane Seymour, who were married at Maxwell, twenty miles off, and who seem from thence to have paid a visit at this place to Lord Southampton. Here are some fine old wreathed chimneys in brick. In an angle of the dilapidated buildings, to the west of the grand entrance or tower, is an elegant shaft of a pilaster of polished stone, with the springing of an arch which must have taken a bold and lofty sweep: these are symptoms of some considerable room or office of the monastery. Near the house, are stables on a very extensive and magnificent scale, which seem to have been built about the be

his being imprisoned in the Tower in 1572. He died at the early age of thirty-five', October 4th, 1581; leaving by his wife, Mary, daughter of Anthony Browne, Viscount Montacute, one daughter who bore her mother's name, and was married to Thomas Arundel, afterwards created Lord Arundel of Wardour, and one son, Henry, the subject of the present memoir.

Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, was born October 6, 15739, and consequently was just eight years old when his father died. At the early age of twelve, he was admitted a student of St. John's College, Cambridge'; where the high eulogies of his contemporaries afford abundant ground for believing he made no common pro

ginning of the reign of Charles the First, by Thomas the fourth Earl.

Of this place, says Leland, "Mr. Wriothesley hath builded a right stately house, and having a godeley gate, and a conduete castellid in the middle of the court of it, yn the very same place wher the late Monasterie of the Promonstratenses stoode, called Tichfelde." Itin. iii. fol. 73. This must have been written by Leland about the year 1538, or somewhat later. Of the castellated conduit in the middle of the court not a trace is now to be found. T. WARTON.

6 Camden, Eliz. ii. 381.

7 It appears from the inquisition taken after the death of his father, Thomas, the first Earl of Southampton, that he was born, Nov. 30, 1546. [Esc. 4 Edw. VI. p. 2, n. 78.]

Esc. 24 Eliz. p. 1, n. 46. This inquisition furnishes decisive evidence of the time when the second Earl of Southampton died. In the earlier editions of Camden's Annals of Elizabeth, his death is erroneously placed under the year 1583, which formerly led me into an error on this subject. Hearne first, in his edition, restored the paragraph alluded to, to its right place.

9 Esc. 24 Eliz. p. 1, n. 46.

'Henricus Comes Southampton impubes 12 annorum admissus in matriculam Acad. Cant. Dec. xi. 1585. Reg. Acad. Cant. MSS. Baker in Bibl. Bodl.

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ficiency; and after a residence of four years, he took the degree of Master of Arts in the regular form 3 ; about three years afterwards he was admitted to the same degree by incorporation at Oxford. The usual mode at that time, and long afterwards adopted by the nobility, as well as the most considerable gentry of England, was to spend some time, after removing from the university, in one of the inns of court, a practice of which the Queen is said to have highly approved, as likely to be productive of much benefit both to the state and the individual, whatever course he might afterwards pursue. His step-father, Sir Thomas Heminge, having been bred at Gray's Inn, this circumstance might lead us to suppose that Lord Southampton was for some time placed there; of which inn, on the authority of a Roll, preserved in the library of Lord Hardwicke, he is said to have been a member so late as the year 1611. I am inclined, however, to believe, that he rather was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, to the chapel of which society he gave one of the admirably painted windows in which his arms may yet be seen. Soon afterwards, Lord Southampton was engaged in an adventure, in which the part that he acted must be ascribed to his extreme youth, and the ardour of his friendship for the persons principally concerned. Two of his young friends, with whom he lived in the greatest intimacy, Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers, on what

2 Honour in his Perfection, p. 21.

3 Anno 1589, June 6, Henricus Comes Southampton, Col. Johannis cooptatus in ordinem M. A. cum prius disputasset publicè pro gradu. MS. Harl, 7138, p. 77.

4 Wood's Athenæ Oxon. 1 Fast. 144.

5 Sir Henry Danvers was nearly of the same age as Lord Southampton, having been born June 28, 1573. His elder brother, Charles, was probably not more than a year or two older.

provocation is not known, broke into the house of one Henry Long, at Draycot in Wiltshire, and by one of them Long was killed. In this transaction, Lord Southampton had no concern; and from his high reputation, it may justly be concluded, that the most unfavourable circumstances attending it were concealed from him; and that he had been merely informed by his friends that a life had been unfortunately lost in an affray. Without going more minutely into the matter, or perhaps justifying what had been done under colour of injuries or provocation received, they threw themselves under his protection, which he immediately afforded them. He concealed them for some time in his house at Tichfield, and afterwards procured for them a vessel which conveyed them to France, where Sir Charles Danvers engaged in military service under Henry the Fourth, and highly distinguished himself as a soldier. After a few years, having with difficulty obtained the Queen's pardon, in July, 1598, he returned into England, where his attachment to Southampton led him to join in the insurrection of Essex, for which he lost his head on Tower Hill, in March, 1601. Though the circumstances attending the transaction for which these persons fled from their country, as detailed in a manuscript in the Museum, appear highly atrocious; there are grounds for believing that the whole of the case is not there stated. Camden calls it only homicidium; and we do not find that Lord Southampton's kindness to his friends in concealing them, and afterwards enabling them to escape, gave any blemish to his reputation, which, if he had protected a murderer, it certainly must have done. If we add to this, the highly respected character which was borne by Henry Danvers during the remainder

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