HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND—IMPRISONMENT, AND LIBERATION—HIS “CENTURY”—PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES—PETITIONS—AT CHARLES THE SECOND’S CORONATION—LORD HERBERT.

We find that in the House of Commons, on the 14th of March, 1648, “The persons reported to be banished, and their estates confiscated, being fourteen in number, were every one particularly put to the question;” when it was resolved, &c. “That Charles Stuart, eldest son of the late King, be one of that number; also James Stuart, his second son;” then follow the Earls of Bristol, and Newcastle, along with Witherington, Digby, Musgrave, Langdale, Greenvill, and Dodington. After which it was—

“Resolved, &c. That the Earl of Worcester be one other of that number.” Likewise were added the names of Winter, Culpepper, Byron, the Duke of Buckingham; and finally, “all that have been plotting, designing, or assisting, in the Irish rebellion,” shall be proscribed, as enemies and traitors to the Commonwealth; and shall “die without mercy, wherever they shall be found within the limits of this nation; and their estates employed for the use of the Commonwealth.”[57]

It appears, on the authority of Dr. White Kennet,[58] the historian, that while Charles the Second was a refugee in the Court of France, the King of France, Louis XIV., was in himself disposed not only to assist, but if possible to restore the royal family of England. His commanding minister, the Cardinal Mazarine, however, was always averse to any such measure; so that all the exiled prince could do was to send abroad his envoys and agents, to solicit for justice and relief, although without effect, as the result proved. He sent to England, says Kennet, “the noble Marquis of Worcester for private intelligence as well as for supplies; but the Marquis was taken up prisoner in London, and committed to the Tower in September[?]; where he was threatened with a speedy trial, and worse punished with a long confinement.”

We are brought by this circumstance to an interesting period in the adventurous life of the Marquis of Worcester. His visit to England was every way extraordinary for its boldness or apparent recklessness; as he was a marked man, one who could have no reason for expecting to be able to conciliate the reigning power, which had already stigmatized him as an “enemy and traitor to the Commonwealth,” his estates to be confiscated, and himself, wherever taken, doomed to “die without any mercy whatever.”

The Marquis’s son sat in the Cromwellian Parliament; Cromwell enjoyed the Monmouthshire estates of the Marquis, to the value of £2500 per annum, and allowed Lord Herbert a pretty liberal income. From Edinburgh, Cromwell wrote on the 12th of April, 1651, a letter to his wife:—“My dearest, Beware of my Lord Herbert his resort to your house; if he do so may occasion scandal, as if I were bargaining with him: indeed be wise; you know my meaning.”[A][23]

The Marquis might have some private object in view, equally with that of serving his prince, and might have been better assured than history determines, that his life, at all events, would be safe. It is stated in the History of the Tower,[6] in noticing the Marquis of Worcester being added to the number of distinguished persons confined there in 1652, that the wants and distresses to which he had been subjected on the continent had driven him to seek shelter in his own country.

On the 28th of July, 1652, the House of Commons, immediately after prayers, “Resolved, That the Earl of Worcester do stand committed to the Tower of London, in order to his trial.” And, “That it be referred to the Council of State to consider, in what way the Earl of Worcester may be tried, and who hath harboured him; and to consider of all circumstances in his business, and to report their opinion thereon to the House, on Friday morning next.”

A year later, being on the 29th of August, 1653, Colonel Rous reports from the Committee of Petitions, “The most humble Petition of Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, now prisoner in the Tower.

“As also, the humble Petition of Margaret, Countess of Worcester; which were both read.”

Followed, on the 3rd of October, by repetitions of the same report, when it was “Resolved that this Petition be laid aside.”

While, on the 5th of October, 1654, one year later, after other business, the Earl’s petition was again read, and it was thereon “Resolved, That the Earl of Worcester have his liberty for the present upon bail, until the Parliament take further order. And that the Lieutenant of the Tower do take sufficient bail: And that a Warrant do issue under Mr. Speaker’s hand, to that purpose.”[57]

In Burton’s highly valuable and interesting Diary of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliament, when noticing the foregoing business in respect to the Marquis’s petition, it is added:—“The Petitioner was alleged to be a papist, in arms in England, who had headed a party in Ireland, making a most dishonourable peace there, and had done many other disservices, for which he was excepted from all mercy and pardon; his whole estate ordered to be sold, and all such to be banished. Yet, it was urged, he was an old man, had lain long in prison, and the small-pox then raging under the same roof where he lay. And he had not, as was said, done any actions of hostility, but only as a soldier; and in that capacity had always shown civilities to the English prisoners and protestants. It was, therefore, ordered, that he should be bailed out of prison.”[22]

Consequently he was a close prisoner for at least two years and a quarter, assuming that he was then liberated; which is the more likely, as we find that a Warrant was given by Cromwell, dated the 26th of June, 1655, to pay his Lordship the sum of three pounds a week, for his better maintenance.[B] He would be about or verging on 53 years of age, and must have suffered very seriously from fatigue, disease, and severe mental disquietude, prolonged through at least eight years passed in every diversity of honour and disgrace, wealth and poverty, high hopes and aspirations, terminating in blank disappointment; he thus united in his own person and history the most violent contrasts, enough to have broken down and utterly destroyed any enthusiasm less than is due to the conscious possession of surpassing mental wealth. It would be difficult to find in the voluminous history of scientific biography a parallel case of so much self-reliance on the promptings of a great and noble mind, under anything like such an unmitigated burden of uncontrollable evils, as fell to the share of this extraordinary man in the very decline of life, when tired nature seeks calm, repose, and competence.

It would seem as if, while still a prisoner, he was treating for Vauxhall, where we shall find he was afterwards actively engaged with his Water Engine; for Samuel Hartlib, well known from his acquaintance with Milton, writes to the Honourable Robert Boyle on the 8th of May, 1654, signifying that, the Marquis is buying Vauxhall from Mr. Trenchard.[14]

The next incident we meet with, of which any record occurs, after his enlargement, is a melancholy evidence of his extreme necessities and indeed absolute poverty. It consists in the following, taken from the original acknowledgment:—[C]

“Receaved and borrowed of my Honored friend S^r David Watkins the full somme of Twenty pownds sterling w^ch I faythfully promise to repaye at or before the second day of February next ensueing to w^ch I oblige myselfe my Hayre Executor Administrator or assign in a dubble somme or forfeiture Witnesse my hand and seale this eight of De: 1655.

“Worcester.

“Witnessed by Lancelot Hodshon.”

We have thus far traced the career of the Marquis of Worcester from youth to manhood; the scholar, husband, father, general of armies, a wealthy nobleman, an impoverished exile, in danger of his life by war and shipwreck, twice imprisoned, now a freeman, oppressed by pecuniary difficulties and earnestly striving against the pressure of his own misfortunes and the weight of public prejudice, to which his political life and religious persuasion subjected him: sometimes through court intrigue, but mostly from the rooted bigotry of those gloomy times.

Whatever interest the history of the life of the Marquis of Worcester may derive from other sources, the philosopher will dwell alone with delight on that period which divulged the extraordinary inventive mental capabilities of such a singular scholar and early man of science. He now first produced, as he himself states, his remarkable little work, of which the full title runs thus:—“A century of the names and scantlings of such Inventions, as at present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected, which (my former notes being lost) I have, at the instance of a powerful friend, endeavoured now, in the year 1655, to set these down, in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice.” That small book, then only in manuscript, and not published until eight years afterwards, has sealed his fame; for through all time the “Century” will be regarded as a great curiosity in scientific literature, for its variety of subjects, and its author’s versatility of genius in pursuits then but little cultivated.

The first year of his release, appears, therefore, to have been mainly distinguished by this valuable contribution, as he says, “at the instance of a powerful friend.” We think that that friend was no other than Colonel Christopher Coppley, or Copley,[D] who had served in the Parliamentary army of the North, under the command of General Fairfax; a sufficient reason for the author omitting to particularize him by name. That he and the Marquis were, however, on terms of close friendship, is evident from the annexed letter;[98] alluding to previous kind offices accorded by his “powerful” now his “dear” and his “honoured friend.”

“Dear Friend,

“I know not with what face to desire a courtesy from you, since I have not yet paid you the five pounds, and the main business so long protracted, whereby my reality and kindness should with thankfulness appear; for though the least I intend you is to make up the sum already promised, to a thousand pounds yearly, or a share amounting to far more, which to nominate, before the perfection of the work, were but an individuum vagum; and, therefore, I defer it, and upon no other score. Yet, in this interim, my disappointments are so great as that I am forced to beg if you could possibly, either to help me with ten pounds to this bearer; or, to make use of the coach, and to go to Mr. Clerke, and if he could this day help me to fifty pounds, then to pay yourself the five pounds I owe you out of them. Either of these will infinitely oblige me. The alderman has taken three days’ time to consider of it. Pardon the great troubles I give you, which I doubt not but in time to deserve by really appearing,

“Your most thankful friend,

“Worcester.

“28th of March, 1656. To my honoured friend,
“Colonel Christopher Coppley.”

This epistle the Colonel endorsed, “My Lord of Worcester’s letter about my share in his engine.” What was the result of these negociations remains untold; but eight months later it would seem that, for some reason or other, he entered into a solemn obligation with the Colonel, in the terms following:—[E]

“I, under written, do confess and acknowledge to have received of Colonel Christopher Copley so great civilities and obligations as that I do take him into so strict bonds of kindness, as that, if at any time the adventure of my life and fortune may bestead him, I do, upon the word of a gentleman, and the faith of a Christian, engage myself not to stick thereat, but cheerfully to run the same fortune with him. And upon the same ties I vow never to deceive or delude him in thought, word, or deed; and to declare the truth at all times unto him, using neither hyperbole nor equivocation concerning my water-work; or any promise made or to be made between us; which, as I am a gentleman, a Christian, and Roman Catholic, I will even keep inviolable, and that (if I should do any thing to the contrary), I may appear a most dishonest and perjured person; I have signed these with my hand, and affixed on them my seal at Stems (?), the 18th day of November, 1656,

“Worcester.”

On the 28th of December, 1656, he wrote a short letter to Mr. Secretary Thurloe. Politicians have generally supposed that it had reference to some great state secret, which he was bargaining to disclose; while, how contrary must have been his views is now transparent, from seeing what really was the one absorbing subject of his daily meditation, arising out of his arduous endeavours to obtain assistance, and to carry out the working of his “water-commanding engine.” The letter is in every sense remarkable and interesting, both from the mistiness that has for so long a time clouded its meaning, and from the circumstances under which it was dictated. The Marquis writes:—[F]

“28th of December, 1656.

“Right Honourable,

“I do confess, that the old saying is, that proffered service is not valued, and in that respect I wonder not to have my endeavours so little set by. In a word, I am very well pleased to acquiesce, if his Highness nor your Honour think me not worthy of one quarter of an hour’s audience; yet I must needs say, that if esteemed of, I am able to do his Highness more service than any one subject of his three nations; and though, after a message by Mr. Noell, and a letter of mine delivered by my own hands to Mr. Owng, and as he told me, by him to your Honour, I cannot get a time assigned me to wait upon you. I here send you a true copy of Don Alonzo, his answer to me, and do assure you, that I have in readiness a person whom you yourself will confess Don Alonzo cannot except against: so that there only resteth needful your approbation. When your Honour shall have read this, and the copies of the Don’s letter, I have entreated and enjoined Mr. Noell to bring them me back, and in his presence I will burn them, and remain silent for the future in anything of this nature, but in all things else, your Honour’s most affectionate friend and humble servant,

“Worcester.”[G]

The noble inventor’s proceedings could have been no secret at Court, surrounded by spies of every description to report all his operations; and his principal object being one of a large and costly character, would be better known for its nature than its construction. It would also become known from the manuscript of his Century, copies of which seem to have been privately circulated, that his inventions extended to improvements in fire-arms, cannon, and general naval and military improvements. Now it is not in the least improbable that some foreign party or parties communicated with him in reference to some particular invention, but particularly his much commended novelty of a “water-commanding engine,” while the Marquis might feel it a delicate as well as an imprudent act on his part, to make arrangements with foreigners before he had confided his secret and rendered it available in his own country. That his object in desiring an interview with Cromwell, or with his haughty Secretary, bore no political cast, is next to self-evident, from their perfect indifference to his communication; while for any political ends, either would have shown some tokens of regard, and not have left the author of the slightest thread of interested intelligence craving for a few minutes’ audience. Besides, we have the inferential evidence that the communication referred to scientific inventions, rather than to political intrigues, from the context—“proffered service is not valued, and in that respect (he says) I wonder not to have my endeavours so little set by.” And what could those endeavours be, at that particular crisis more than any other, but the possible requirement of patronage from the Protector, and probably also the Parliament, before committing himself to foreigners for that aid which he rightfully considered he would soon merit from his countrymen. But he still further says, “I am able to do his Highness more service than any one subject of his three nations.” Will any one pretend to assume that such language had reference to political plottings, of which he possessed the secret knowledge to such an extent of national importance, without being either listened to, or at once seized and consigned to the dreaded chambers of that fortress, from which he had been only three years released? Admit that the language is inflated, it still would be very significant if it bore at all on the state of public affairs at home or abroad. But its true significance may be found in its counterpart in the Dedications appended to the first edition of the “Century,” printed in 1663. The promise to burn the returned copies of papers, in the presence of Mr. Noell, would seem merely another way of showing, that, come what might of the matter, he would break off all negociations with others than his countrymen. The communication can only be read as alluding to one subject, and not as introducing anything forced and irrelevant. It can only be reconciled as being wholly political, or wholly affecting his special scientific engagements. Besides, had it been otherwise, it would not have escaped the historian, or some court spy to record the wonderful discovery of a plot of frightful magnitude, with all particulars. But no plot ever came to light; and the Marquis never did Cromwell or the Commonwealth any service beyond anything accomplished by the humblest citizen. We must, therefore, for ever abandon the opinion of there being any political character attached to this supposed mysterious communication.

The Marquis of Worcester’s son and heir, Lord Herbert, married Mary, Lady Beauchamp, on the 17th of August, 1657. The following certificate on a small square piece of parchment is preserved among other family documents at Badminton House:—

“These are to certifie: It being desired by the p’ties concerned, that, Henry Somerset Lord Herbert and Mary Lady Bochampp, both of the parish of St. Clements Danes, Middlesex, were Legally married before me Richard Powell of Clerkenwell, Middle Sq: one of the Justices for the said County, authorized soe to doe by vertue of an Act of Parliam_{t.} bearing date the ffower and twentieth day of August 1653. There then being pre’te Charles Price and Edward Gibbes, dated this Seaven tenth day of August 1657.

“Richard Powell.”

The Marquis of Worcester’s private affairs were year by year growing more and more desperate, we continually find him and the Marchioness petitioning the Parliament for pecuniary assistance out of the confiscated estates. He seems to have been on friendly terms with John Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons, from whom we find the following letter:—[H]

“My Lord,

“I will ever acknowledge that your Lordship hath dealt most honourably with me, and with all hearti[ness] I will profess that to all; and will endeavour to show my thankfulness to your Lordship, and to your honourable Lady; and do assure you both that, if I may do you any service to my brother speaker, about your business in Parliament, I will endeavour my uttermost to act for you. My wife takes your promise of half a buck exceeding thankfully, and also some great belles here. We shall all endeavour to make a requital; and I shall ever acknowledge myself to be

“Your Honour’s most humble Servant,

“John Lenthall.

“8th July, 1659.

“I have received from your Lordship 20 marks in full of all your Lordship’s fees, which I hereby acknowledge, and acquit your Lordship of that and all other demands at this day.

“To the Right Honourable the
Lord Marquis of Worcester—these presents.”

His manuscript of his wonderful “Century” had been four years written, copies passing probably from hand to hand, and himself urging the great and noble of the land to patronise his efforts. In the British Museum is the only MS. of the Century extant, having on the top of its title page the dates “From August y^e 29th to Sep. y^e 21st, 1659,” which may, however, merely refer to the date of copying, or to a period granted for lending it. The 88th article alludes to a Stamping Engine, while in the printed edition this is omitted and a Brazen Head substituted; there are also some slight verbal differences; only an abbreviated title page; and no dedication.

Among other petitions a rough draft exists of one evidently prepared by the Marchioness herself; whether sent or not cannot now be ascertained, but of its authenticity as a family record of distress there can be no doubt whatever. It is so negligently and imperfectly written, that an entire copy cannot be advantageously given. It runs thus:—[I]

“Master Speaker, I beseech you not to stand so much upon an order of the House as to forget God Almighty’s precepts, to do as you would be done by. Most of the honourable House I conceive have wives, and if any of you would be contented his wife should suffer as I do, then let me still endure; if otherwise, be pleased to consider me, if not according to my sex or quality”—yet, “in consideration of seven years attendance, and millions of court sueings, and my heart almost broken with supplications and vain promises to them, and at last instead of many thousand pounds,” out of the estates, “all now ending in a ruined house, and that but for an uncertain time, not for my own life, rather but this poor pittance for his life, who is near three score.” She also seems to allude to fever, and the breaking up of his health, concluding, “I, therefore, most humbly seek this honourable House to make an end of it.”

We find the Marquis with noble perseverance contending against every difficulty, evincing an elasticity of mind that cannot but excite surprise.

Writing to the Earl of Lotherdale,[J] he says:—

“My thrice honourable Lord,

“The two predominant powers which reign over my soul, and do chiefly guide and govern my actions, are love and gratitude; the one begotten in me towards your Lordship by the knowledge I had in the Tower of the virtues and excellent parts, the other by a certain and most true information of some passages vouchsafed by your Lordship in your servant’s behalf, and even in his absence yesterday, before his Majesty at Hampton Court. The particulars I set not down, because (?) they seemed so obliging to me as that Colonel Charles Groger, telling them me but at nine of the clock this night, yet I could not defer till morning this most humble acknowledgment; but before I go to rest, as a little token of great thankfulness, I promise your Lordship a box, with such conveniences and rarities as that which you saw had, and though it were presumptuous in me to say, I would give a subject a better qualified present than I gave my Sovereign; yet the King must pardon an humour I have, never to be contented to produce any invention the second time without appearing refined; this doth not also content me, but I do likewise engage myself that as soon as with security and satisfaction, by Act of Parliament, I may put in practice the greatest gift of invention for profit that I ever yet heard of vouchsafed to a man, especially so unworthy and ignorant as I am (I mean my water-commanding engine). I offer to your Lordship’s disposal the accruing benefit of five hundred pounds; and that your Lordship may not think it improbable to rise thence, I beseech you to vouchsafe to read over, but to keep it to yourself, this enclosed, which shall be made good to a tittle by me,

“My Lord,

“Your Lordship’s most really affectionate

“and ever obliged servant,

“Worcester.

“Saturday night, 26th of January, 1660, be therefore pleased to pardon the scribbling, and regard but my real meaning. For the Right Hon. the Earl of Lotherdale, &c. these.”

(Copy of the enclosure.)

“The name and the truly significant definition of a most admirable and most stupendous invention, through the providential dispensation of the Almighty God’s infinite mercy and goodness, found out, and perfected by the sole expenses, ingenuity, knowledge, and mathematical insight of the Right Hon. Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester, and by his Lordship deservedly termed, and pithily defined to be—

“An Imperial, or a Water-commanding Engine, boundless for height and quantity, and requiring no external, nor even additional help, or force to be set, or continued in motion, but what intrinsically is afforded from its own operation, nor yet the twentieth part thereof, and the engine consisteth of these following particulars:—

“1. A perfect counterpoise for what quantity of water soever.

“2. A perfect countervail for what height soever it is to be brought unto.

“3. A primum mobile, commanding both height and quantity, regulator-wise.

“4. A vice-gerent, or countervail, supplying the place, and performing the full force of man, wind, beast, or mill.

“5. A holme, or stern, with bit and reins, wherewith any child may guide, order, and control the whole operation.

“6. A particular magazine for water, according to the intended height and quantity.

“7. An aqueduct, capable of any intended quantity, or height of water.

“8. A place for the original fountain, or even river, to run into, and naturally of its own accord to incorporate itself with the rising water, and at the very bottom of the same aqueduct, though never so big or high.”

This communication affords the earliest distinct reference to the Water-commanding Engine, and renders it reasonable to suppose that similar written copies of the “Definition” were in circulation at the same period, if not earlier.

The letter itself is peculiarly interesting for the insight it gives us into a distinguishing trait in his mental constitution, when he observes:—“a humour I have, never to be contented to produce any invention the second time without appearing refined.” He seems to have had no idea of cessation in invention. It was in this self-same spirit that he dedicated his “Century” to the Houses of Parliament:—“The more you shall be pleased to make use of my inventions, the more inventive shall you ever find me, one invention begetting still another.”

It is rather remarkable that, with this exception, his inventions are never named either in his own or his family’s correspondence; indeed the latter may have considered the circumstance as more marking his misfortune, than calculated to bring him enduring fame.

The death of Cromwell, the short reign of his son, and the proclamation of Charles the Second on the 8th of May, 1660, followed by his triumphal entry into the metropolis on his birth-day, the 29th of the same month, must have had their influence on the Marquis in his most distressing condition. He was, no doubt, one among the privileged to congratulate his Majesty in private, at Whitehall, while bonfires blazed, fireworks glared, and cannon roared; what conflicting emotions must have revelled in his own breast, broken down as he was by disasters on every hand, which through more than thirteen years he had borne with magnanimous fortitude.

His son, Lord Herbert, resided at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, but being in London, on his way to Dover, after the proclamation, he wrote to his wife, as follows:—[K]

“My Dear Heart,

“We have this night received our instructions, and to-morrow begin our journey towards the King, whom we are commanded to acquaint with what great joy and acclamation he was here proclaimed; and to let him know that the Parliament hath enjoined all ministers in England and Ireland to pray for him, the Duke of York, and the rest of the Royal progeny; and ordered that the Arms of the Commonwealth, wherever they are standing, be taken down, and that his Majesty’s be set in the place. We are further to beseech his Majesty to return with speed to his dominions and government; and finally, to acquaint him that the Parliament hath given order to the Admiral to obey his commands with the navy, and to desire that he will please to signify to us when and where he will land, and whether he will come from Dover by land, or to London by water; where lodged, and how his pleasure is to be received.

“I hope we shall soon return with him we go for, and so have nothing wanting for my particular satisfaction (as when he is here, there will not be to the general). I desire you would begin and come this way some time next week, that I may find you here at my return, in order to which I have given order that lodgings, such as can be found, be taken, where you may be till you can choose yourself a house to your mind, for I cannot be anywhere with my contentment without you,

“Your most affectionate husband,

“Herbert.

“London, the 9th of May.”

Charles the Second had not been many days on the throne, when the Marquis of Worcester wrote a long letter to Lord Clarendon,[* 26] explanatory of his instructions from his late Majesty, and the powers he granted to him to negotiate with the Irish Roman Catholics. It very fully and lucidly explains the whole of that affair, showing how completely he was in the King’s confidence; and it was, no doubt, written to answer all doubts that his Lordship might entertain. It bears internal evidence of coming from a strictly conscientious character, and its truthfulness has never been disproved.

“The Marquis of Worcester (late Earl of Glamorgan), to the Earl of Clarendon.

“My Lord Chancellor,

“For his Majesty’s better information, through your favour, and by the channel of your Lordship’s understanding things rightly, give me leave to acquaint you with one chief key, wherewith to open the secret passages between his late Majesty and myself, in order to his service; which was no other than a real exposing of myself to any expense or difficulty, rather than his just design should not take place; or, in taking effect, that his honour should suffer. An effect, you may justly say, relishing more of a passionate and blind affection to his Majesty’s service, than of discretion and care of myself. This made me take a resolution that he should have seemed angry with me at my return out of Ireland, until I had brought him into a posture and power to own his commands, to make good his instructions, and to reward my faithfulness and zeal therein.

“Your Lordship may well wonder, and the King too, at the amplitude of my commission. But when you have understood the height of his Majesty’s design you will soon be satisfied that nothing less could have made me capable to effect it; being that one army of ten thousand men was to have come out of Ireland through North Wales; another, of a like number at least, under my command-in-chief, have expected my return in South Wales, which Sir Henry Gage was to have commanded as Lieutenant-General; and a third should have consisted of a matter of six thousand men, two thousand of which were to have been Liegois, commanded by Sir Francis Edmonds, two thousand Lorrainers to have been commanded by Colonel Browne, and two thousand of such English, French, Scots, and Irish as could be drawn out of Flanders and Holland. And the six thousand were to have been, by the Prince of Orange’s assistance, in the associated counties; and the Governor of Lyne, cousin-german to Major Bacon, major of my own regiment, was to have delivered the town unto them.

“The maintenance of this army of foreigners was to have come from the Pope and such Catholic Princes as he should draw into it, having engaged to afford and procure £30,000 a month; out of which the foreign army was first to be provided for; and the remainder to be divided among other armies. And for this purpose had I power to treat with the Pope and Catholic Princes, with particular advantages promised to Catholics, for the quiet enjoying their religion, without the penalties which the statutes in force had power to inflict upon them. And my instructions for this purpose, and my powers to conclude and treat thereupon, were signed by the King under his pocket signet, with blanks for me to put in the names of Pope or Princes, to the end the King might have a starting hole to deny the having given me such commissions, if excepted against by his own subjects; leaving me as it were at stake, who for his Majesty’s sake was willing to undergo it, trusting to his word alone.

“In like manner did I not stick upon having this Commission inrolled or assented unto by his Council, nor indeed the seal to be put upon it in an ordinary manner, but as Mr. Endymion Porter[L] and I could perform it, with rollers and no screw-press.

“One thing I beseech your Lordship to observe, that though I had power by it to erect a mint any where, and to dispose of his Majesty’s revenues and delinquents’ estates, yet I never did either to the value of a farthing, notwithstanding my own necessities, acknowledging that the intention of those powers given me, was to make use of them when the armies should be afoot; which design being broken by my commitment in Ireland, I made no use of those powers; and consequently, repaying now whatever was disbursed by any for patents of honour, as now I am contented to do, it will evidently appear that nothing hath stuck to my fingers, in order to benefit or self-interest; which I humbly submit to his Majesty’s princely consideration, and the management of my concerns therein to your Lordship’s grave judgment, and to the care of me, which your Lordship was pleased to own was recommended unto you by the late King, my most gracious Master, of glorious memory: And the continuance thereof is most humbly implored and begged by me, who am really and freely at your Lordship’s disposal, first, in order to his Majesty’s service, and next to the approving myself,

“My Lord,

“Your Lordship’s most really affectionate,

“and most humble servant,

“Worcester.

“June, 11th, 1660.”

Within a fortnight after writing this letter, no doubt encouraged by the Lord Chancellor’s reception of it, he petitioned the Crown as follows:—[M]

“To his most excellent Majesty, &c.

“The most humble petition of Edward Somerset, Earl and Marquis of Worcester, &c.

“Sheweth,—That your Petitioner’s father and himself, having in ready money expended incomparably more for the service of the Crown than any subject of England, for which your Petitioner is possessed of sundry promises of extraordinary reward and satisfaction, as well under the Great Seal of England, as likewise voluntarily under his late Majesty the King, your Majesty’s father of blessed memory, his own handwriting and private signet set down in a most gracious ample and kind manner, it being all that in those necessitous times his Majesty, your Petitioner’s most graciously obliging master, could afford or be rationally demanded from him, yet in these perhaps may not be so fit to be ratified, lest they should draw upon your Petitioner the envy of others, and prove prejudicial to your Majesty.

“Your Petitioner, therefore, most willingly layeth all these grants and promises to his father, or to your Majesty’s Petitioner made (as far as they concern himself) at your Majesty’s feet, without any the least capitulation, expecting no more in his own behalf for his loyalty therein than that your Majesty will be graciously pleased (in consideration of his dutiful zeal thereby manifested) effectually and through your Majesty’s innate and transcending goodness, feelingly to recommend to your Majesty’s most dutiful Houses of Parliament the speedy re-investing of your Petitioner in his due and proper estate, according unto the laws of the land, and so by your Majesty’s most gracious assistance, this his Petition of right (as he humbly conceives) shall be by your Petitioner most really acknowledged as a grant of favour and remunerating grace from your sacred Majesty.

“And he shall ever pray,” &c.

The Marquis, in November, 1660, signed what appears to be a circular note to certain of his creditors, of which the following is one written in an official hand, but concludes, “Your most humble servant, Worcester,” in his own handwriting:—

“Madame,

“Those Commissioners whom I have appoynted to take care of my affayres are now enquiringe into ye state of my debts, and I have given directions to the bearer to wayte upon you and receive your propositions about what is due unto you from him who is,

“Madame,Your most humble servant,

“Worcester.

“November 22, 1660.”

Mr. Secretary Nicholas, writing to Sir Henry Bennet, 3rd of January, 1660, states: “The King joins the Queen and Princess at Guildford, and in two days they go to Portsmouth. On New Year’s day, the ceremony of christening the young Earl of Cambridge—for this is to be his title—was performed at Worcester House; the King and Duke of Albemarle godfathers; the Queen and Marchioness of Ormond godmothers. The Duke and his Duchess then came to Court, and the Queen received them very affectionately. The Coronation is deferred to St. George’s day.”[N]

The Lord Bishop of Peterborough,[79] in his ecclesiastical and civil register and chronicle of the period, records the following particulars in reference to the order of proceedings at the Coronation of Charles the Second, April the 23rd, 1661: “The Marquis of Dorchester, the Marquis of Worcester, in their robes, with their coronets in their hands.”

Then as to the homage paid by the nobles; after the oath given by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and other Bishops, saluting the King; among others came up the Marquises of Worcester and Dorchester.

That even at the Restoration the Marquis’s religion presented some obstacles to his progress may be inferred from the resolution of the House of Lords, that the indulgence to be granted to the Roman Catholics should not be extended to the Jesuits. Whereupon that Society drew up a paper, entitled, “Reasons why the Jesuits hope that they should partake of the favours shown to other priests, in taking away the sanguinary laws.” And it is noticed that, “As for noble persons who lost great estates, and endured much hardship for his Majesty, the late Duchess of Buckingham, the late Marquis of Worcester,[O] and the late Earl of Shrewsbury were Penitents of the Society, as other prime nobility yet in being.”[79]

For some reason or other it now became the son’s lot to be committed to the Tower, of which, however, he makes very light, as will be seen by his letter to his Lady announcing his position; which, however, has no other immediate interest than as making us acquainted with the last occurrence of the kind affecting this noble family. He writes:—[P]

“My Dear,

“I have now sent according to your desire to let you know of my being safely arrived at London. I was last night examined, and am now in the Tower. I have already so well satisfied you of my innocence that I am sure my being lodged here cannot fright you, neither can I imagine my restraint should be long, for I think I only owe it to my Lordship. I desire you would not resolve upon your journey hither till you hear further from me, for I hope yet you may lie in, in the country, and not have the trouble of any journey to bring us together. If these hopes fail me, and that I see myself like to continue longer than I can yet fancy, I will let you know it, and send the coach down for your women, and (if you think fit) your children to come up in; to whom in the meantime I send my blessing, and remain

“Your most affectionate husband,

“Herbert.

“Aug. the 20th.
“For my dear wife the Lady Herbert.”

It does not fall within our province to enter particularly into any circumstances relating to Lord Herbert, but it may not be out of place to mention here that, he was then about 23 years of age, and had not long been constituted Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire.

Footnotes

[57] Jo. H. C. Vol. vi. p. 165.

[58] Kennet.

[A] Brit. Mus. Cole MSS. Vol. xxxiii. p. 37.

[23] Carlyle.

[6] Bayley.

[57] Jo. H. C. Vol. vii. pp. 309, 373.

[22] Burton.

[B] Appendix F.

[14] Boyle, Vol. v. p. 264.

[C] Robert Cole, Esq. had the original receipt lithographed in facsimile.

[D] See Appendix E.

[98] Walpole. Mr. Bliss’ states that he discovered the MS. among the papers of Wm. Wilcox of St. John’s College, Oxford.

[E] From MS. collection of the late Dawson Turner, Esq., of Yarmouth.

[F] Bod. Lib. “Thurloe’s Papers, Vol. xlv.”—“Rawl. MS. A. 45.”

[G] This letter is dated 28th of December, but might be mistaken for 18th. See Thurloe’s Papers.

[H] From MSS. Badminton.

[I] Brit. Mus. Harleian MS. No. 2428.

[J] From MS. collection of the late Dawson Turner, Esq. of Yarmouth.

[K] From MSS. Badminton.

[* 26] Clarendon, Vol. ii. p. 201.

[L] One of the King’s attendants, who had formerly accompanied him to Spain. Clayton’s Charles II. Vol. i. p. 136. 1859.

[M] Cal. of State Papers, Dom. Series, 1660–61. Edited by Mrs. M. A. E. Green, 8vo. 1860.

[N] Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series, Charles II. 1660–1661, Vol. xxviii. p. 466.

[79] Peterborough.

[O] Henry Somerset.

[P] From MSS. Badminton.