A BRIEF RETROSPECT OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER’s GENEALOGY, AND HIS PRIVATE, POLITICAL, AND PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER; INCLUDING HIS OWN STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURE DURING THE CIVIL WAR.

The ancient and Honourable family of Somerset is descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward the Third.

1. Charles,[A] the only natural son of Henry Beaufort, third Duke of Somerset, in that line (eldest son of Edmond, Duke of Somerset), assumed the surname of Somerset. He, in consequence of the devastating wars of the Roses, was, on the accession of Henry the Seventh to the throne, the only remaining representative of that monarch’s illustrious ancestors, and he, therefore, considerably distinguished him. In addition to his other honours, he was created a Knight of the Garter; and in the succeeding reign elevated to the dignity of Earl of Worcester, on the 1st of February, 1514.

In right of his first marriage with Elizabeth Herbert, only child of William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, he bore the titles of Baron Herbert, Lord Herbert of Raglan, Chepstow and Gower. After the decease of his first wife he was twice married; first, to Elizabeth West, daughter of Thomas, Lord la Warr; and on her decease to Eleanor Sutton, daughter of Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley. He died on the 15th of April, 1526, leaving her a widow.

2. He was succeeded by his eldest son Henry, second Earl of Worcester, who died 26th of November, 1549.

3. And he was succeeded by his eldest son, William, third Earl of Worcester, and a Knight of the Garter, who died the 21st of February, 1589.

4. Being succeeded by his only son, Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester, and a Knight of the Garter, who died 3rd of March, 1628.

5. And was succeeded by his second son, Henry (his eldest son William having died during his father’s lifetime). Charles the First created him Marquis of Worcester, by patent dated at Oxford, 2nd of November, 1642 (which dignity was repudiated by the Commonwealth Parliament). He was the fifth Earl and first Marquis of Worcester, and died December, 1646.

6. When he was succeeded in his honours by his eldest son, Edward, the subject of this memoir; but the latter never enjoyed any portion of the vast estates until after a lapse of fourteen years, when, at the Restoration in 1660, he recovered a large portion of his landed property, as already set forth.

He bore the second or family title of Lord Herbert, from March, 1628, to the end of March, 1643; being on the 1st of April following, created Earl of Glamorgan (during his father’s lifetime) by Charles the First, he was best known by that title, from the part he took in Irish affairs during the civil commotions from 1644, until the decease of his father in 1646; when, in consequence of the Cromwellian Parliament refusing to acknowledge any of the King’s later creations of Peers, he was uniformly styled Earl of Worcester; but at the Restoration in 1660, his proper style of Marquis of Worcester was fully recognized. These latter party distinctions now materially serve to fix or limit the dates of some documents, not otherwise to be approximated.

Until the 27th year of his age we meet with little respecting his education, travels, and pursuits. With his marriage commenced his engagement with that artificer Caspar Kaltoff, whom he employed in promoting his own practical course of studies in a branch of inquiry which had never before, and has never since, been so assiduously examined and tested. The pursuits then commenced and indefatigably pursued, as well for instruction as amusement, combined with a strong natural bias for such occupations, may have served at a later period, under less favourable circumstances, to lighten the tedium of exile and imprisonment.

He enjoyed but seven years of married life, being then left with three children, and remained a widower for three years; when, in 1639, he married a second time, having but one child by his second marriage, who died an infant. In the family group, painted by Hanneman (now first engraved), the artist has drawn him seated beside his wife and child; but when this work was executed is unknown, although it most likely dates between 1639 and 1641.

The breaking out of the Civil War would seriously interfere with the Marquis of Worcester’s scientific investigations; he would no longer be able to settle down to the serious study of his favourite authors; his models and mechanical experiments would be in abeyance; and there was no alternative left for him but to unite himself to the cause either of the King or the Parliament. His loyalty led him to choose the former course, and his association with Charles the First, combined with that unfortunate monarch’s unhappy situation and disposition, eventually worked the entire ruin of the Marquis of Worcester. But apart from the ordinary occurrences of the war, it was his misfortune to be selected by the King to act as his emissary in negotiating a peace with the Roman Catholic party in Ireland, on terms contrary to the established religion of the realm and irrespective of the laws. That he should have listened to the urgent demands of his sovereign is, under any circumstances, not very remarkable; and we are the less disposed to be surprised at his being won over by the King’s solicitations, considering that he was not a practised statesman, and that the proposed measure was preceded by his being created Earl of Glamorgan, and that it was represented as offering enlarged privileges to his own church and party, as well in Ireland as in England. A more cautious politician might have suspected some ulterior design beneath this promising external appearance, might have questioned the possibility of some extraordinary exercise of the royal prerogative, and at length concluded that no measure was safe, coming from a sovereign who actually seemed to imagine that divine right was delegated to him to annul any obligation whatever, however freely tendered by himself, provided he could satisfy his own conscience that his so acting would be to the advantage of the Crown. But the Marquis was no grovelling worldling; he had left the study for the battle-field, and for awhile abandoned the path of philosophy to become the King’s agent in Ireland. It was thus that his loyalty and his zeal, uniting with his religious sentiments and his sovereign’s gracious conduct toward him, and seeming sincerity, combined effectually to plunge himself, his family, and his posterity into a series of disastrous losses in fortune and property.

He had not been many months a refugee in France, when he received a very welcome and highly gratifying acknowledgment of his past services, from the exiled Queen, in a present of valuable jewels, accompanied with a testimonial, empowering him to make what use he might please of the regal gift. The original, written in French and sealed with the royal arms, is translated as follows:—

“Henrietta Maria R.,

“We, Henrietta Maria of Bourbon, Queen of Great Britain, have, by the order of the King our very honoured Lord and Husband, caused to be delivered into the hands of our dear and well beloved cousin, Edward Somerset, Count and Earl of Worcester, a necklace of Rubies, containing ten large Rubies and one hundred and sixty pearls set and strung together in gold; among the said Rubies are likewise two large diamonds called the Sancy and the Portugal, acknowledging that besides the great expenses made by him for the said King our very honoured Lord, he has supplied us with three hundred and seventy thousand Livres Tournois,[B] exclusive of the very great services at least of equal consequence, which up to the present time, even, he has rendered us, in regard to which we make known that the said necklace and diamonds belong entirely to him, so that he may either sell or engage them without any interference on our part, or that of any other, or seeking after or troubling any person, who may buy them, or lend money on the ten jewels heretofore mentioned, in faith of which we have signed this present and put thereto our Royal Seal in our Court at St. Germain en Laye, this 20th day of May, one thousand six hundred and forty-eight.”

(Royal Arms.)

The lamentable fate that befel Charles the First, effectually terminated all expectation of relief; and therefore, from the year 1647, when the Marquis left Ireland, to 1660 the period of the Restoration, about 13 years, was, if possible, the most unhappy and gloomy of his eventful life. He was about five years in exile, about two years and a quarter a prisoner in the Tower, and nearly six years a state prisoner at large, most likely under strict surveillance.

The year following his Lordship’s release from the Tower, 1655, will ever be memorable for his having then written his “Century of Inventions,” which was published eight years later.

There is every reason to believe that the Marquis of Worcester pursued his scientific inquiries both in secrecy and seclusion. This might arise from his early domestic habits, particularly during his married life, commencing in 1628, when he first engaged Caspar Kaltoff. We never find him associated with, or mentioned by, men of his time, which, therefore, leads to the supposition that he was naturally of a recluse and retiring disposition. But, on the other hand, we have nothing to guide us in forming an opinion of the origin, the nature, and the progress of his experimental operations. They may have been commenced for the simple gratification of a mind desirous to satisfy itself in every particular of whatever it undertakes. In his early travels, when at Venice, he had observed in the arsenal there a peculiar employment of the lever; and when at Rome his mathematical studies had led him to a knowledge of a particular kind of fountain. After his return he had undertaken the erection of water works at Raglan Castle, in connection also, no doubt, with the fountain set up in one of its adjacent courts. The young engineer may have been deeply read in Ramelli’s elaborate work, and may have determined, with the assistance of Kaltoff, to adopt, what he long after expressed, as “a humour I have, never to be contented to produce any invention the second time, without appearing refined.”[C] Once started on an inquiry so peculiarly suitable to his taste, he may have pursued it almost without design, and continued it only because it interfered with no more serious employment. Being drawn into the designing of novel inventions, and further encouraged by his workman’s production of excellent models, it seems natural enough that, in the seclusion of Raglan, immersed in the scientific literature then available, and possessing as he did a remarkably inquisitive and inventive genius, he should grow up an inventor almost without taking cognizance of his own progress. It is certain that it was peculiar to him to take nothing on trust, but to reduce everything to the test of absolute experiment. There was perhaps never any contrivance of which he thought or read, that he did not reduce to a model; and his was the experience of a great practical mechanic, whose information was founded on known results; whether of success or failure. It was thus that he required the services of Kaltoff through nearly forty years, together with many assistants employed under him. The great ingenuity, perfection, and variety of his Lordship’s inventions are traceable to this laborious and expensive practical process.

When at length, in 1655, he commenced in earnest to make known among a select number of persons his determination to bring out his inventions for public advantage, he had a difficult task before him. The recluse philosopher was about to assume a new character, offering to submit for approbation, to an ignorant and prejudiced public, his mechanical marvels, the product of nearly thirty years’ study! At fifty-four years of age, without the least practice in trading transactions, bred to no profession, and known only as a high-minded but ruined nobleman, he sues for public patronage!

Among his manuscripts we find a slip of paper which has all the appearance of having passed through many hands,[D] and suggests the idea that it was one of many similarly written, to enable others to make known among their friends what the Marquis had to offer, seeking their encouragement therein, of what they chose to select. It reads thus:—

1. Intelligence at a distance communicative & not limitted to distance, nor by it the time p’long’d.

2. Ffountaines of pleasure, with artificiall snow or haill or thunder, & quantity not limitted.

2. Oft suteing [shooting] peerds, controuleable, in one plane, either for number or time.

3. Discourse to be had by a Lamp.

4. A Brass head, capable to Receave at the Eare a Whisper & the mouth thereof to Render Answere in any Language to the Interrogator.

There is a somewhat similar but fuller MS. list of eight of his inventions, evidently issued between 1655 and 1660, from its being headed, “Inventions of y^e Earl of Worcester.”[E] as he only bore the title of Earl during the Commonwealth. By these means, a small select circle of friends would become acquainted with the singular mechanical skill of the Marquis; but, with what success for the desired end is problematical. He would unquestionably astonish all, while it is but too likely he would convince very few indeed. Besides, his ultimate views were beyond the scope of the ordinary trader, and could only be effectually realized through government influence; particularly in an age when the common manufacturing resources of the country were but sparingly developed, and when trading enterprise was monopolized by special corporate bodies. Here was a spectacle to behold; one of our country’s brightest ornaments, and its unquestionable glory, degraded to this hopeless drudgery; deprived of his princely property, and allowed a pittance of £3 per week!

When, in 1661, Parliament passed “An Act for distribution of £60,000 amongst the truly loyal and indigent commission-officers, &c.” the following was the appointment of Commissioners named therein for Monmouth:—“Henry, Lord Herbert[F] of Raglan, eldest son of Edward, Lord Marquis of Worcester; Sir Anthony Morgan, Sir George Probert, Knights; William Jones of Lanarth; Thomas Morgan of Lansoan; Miles Morgan; William Morgan, one of his Majesty’s household; Charles Hughes; Roger Williams of Kentild, Esquire; James Progers, Esquire.”

Also, “For the county of Gloucester, and the city and county of the city of Gloucester, Henry Lord Herbert of Raglan, &c.” along with 21 other Commissioners.

The Marquis of Worcester had every reason to expect an agreeable change of fortune on the accession of Charles the Second to the throne. He made a full declaration to Lord Clarendon of the powers under which he had acted for the late King in Ireland. He recovered a large portion of his estates. He had given up all claim to the promised title of Duke of Somerset. He was granted an Act of Parliament for his Water-commanding Engine, in 1663; and immediately after he printed the first edition of his “Century of Inventions.” But he was entirely neglected by the frivolous monarch on whose consideration and patronage he had calculated, with his usual confiding sincerity of heart.

Worn out by three years’ delay, without any prospect of improvement, he seems to have concluded on an appeal in person to the House of Lords. But his first course was to submit a draft of his proposed discourse to his Majesty, agreeable to an understanding at the Hague, when his Majesty was in exile, that he should so act, previous to consulting any of his ministers. The document now at Badminton, is most likely his Lordship’s own copy of the one forwarded to the King, who seems either to have discouraged its being brought forward, or to have given it no further attention. It is in every sense a remarkable production, whether as regards its matter, its style, or the extraordinary evidence it affords of his Lordship’s unbounded confidence in and devotion to Charles the First. The MS. is endorsed—

“Statement of the Marquis of Worcester’s expenses for his King and country;” and is as follows:—

“May it please your most excellent Majesty.

“Sire,

“To ease your mind of a trouble incident to the prolixity of speech, and a natural defect of utterance which I accuse myself of, I have presumed here to set down summarily in writing what I desire (if your Majesty approve thereof) to speak in the House of Lords, whereby your Majesty may gather how far (some things being rectified) I am confident of myself to serve you, praying your Majesty’s favourable construction of what I shall endeavour candidly to submit unto your Majesty.

“In the first place, according to your most gracious commands laid upon me at the Hague, when I offered to make my Lord Chancellor privy to what I should at any time presume to offer to your Majesty’s transcendent judgment, having sufficiently suffered for treating with the late King, of happy memory, alone; to which request of mine you were pleased to give this most gracious and never-to-be-forgotten reply, that, notwithstanding you would have me first to acquaint yourself therewith, and then only such as your Majesty should consent unto, and think proper for it: In pursuance whereof I most humbly offer this following discourse, which I shall with a most ready and implicit obedience augment, diminish, or alter, as your Majesty shall think fittest; disputing nothing, much less waiving anything, that your Majesty shall command either as to substance or circumstance.

“My Lords,

“Amongst Almighty God’s infinite mercies to me in this world, I account it one of the greatest that his Divine goodness vouchsafed me parents as well careful as able to give me virtuous education, and extraordinary breeding at home and abroad, in Germany, France, and Italy; allowing me abundantly in those parts, and since most plentifully at my master of happy memory, the late King’s Court, by which means, had it not been my own fault, I ought to have become better able and more capable to serve Almighty God, my King and country, which obligatory ends of theirs have I always had in my eyes, as drawing and sucking them thence, it being certainly the greatest and surest portions parents can leave to their children; since breeding and knowledge cannot be taken from them, when as riches and possessions are fading and perishable, witness my own case, my Lords. Yet, by dear-bought experience and their great expenses, for which I honour the happy memory of my most beloved parents, more than for my very life, drawn from them, they giving me by the one but my being, and by the other my bene esse. Whereby I find nothing more certain than that the way to make oneself considerably useful to his Prince and nation, is the surest means for him to become cherished by them, which they then do for their own sake, not his, though he had spent and lost above 7, or £800,000, sterling; and narrowly escaped several times, both by sea and land, imminent dangers, and long and close imprisonment, and a scaffold, threatening death, as I have done, Experte Crede Roberto, my Lords; yet happy is this day unto me, wherein I have the honour, sitting amongst your Lordships, to express from my heart that I have not the least repining thought within me, though I had suffered ten times more for so good a cause, and so gracious and obliging a master as the late King, of happy memory, was unto me. And for so majestical and promising a Prince as my new sovereign is, whom God long preserve; and, morally speaking, cannot do amiss, whilst he hearkens to so wise a great Council, and so tender of his good and welfare as your Lordships, assisted by so discreet, experienced, and well-affected persons as sit now in the honourable House of Commons, the whole kingdom’s representatives. And may your Lordships be ever as tender of your innate privileges, members, and birthrights, as they of theirs, and both of you equally likewise tender of his Majesty’s just and undoubted prerogatives, upon which two hinges, or rather bases (that is, our most gracious King’s prerogatives and the birthright of his subjects), this excellent government of King and Parliament outvies and excels all other in the world. Let them, therefore, my Lords, hold together as the surest props of a settled kingdom; his Majesty’s power consisting in nothing more than in the greatness of your Lordships, who are, as well by Divine Providence as human policy, allotted to be as it were the medium between the King and the people; that is, to interpose yourselves as mediators if the King’s supreme authority should become severe, which cannot be feared from so gracious a Prince; as also to be curbers of the people’s rustic stubbornness, if they should prove insolent, which cannot likewise happen to a nation that hath so lately smarted for such inconveniences, as, had the Lords’ former greatness and power been continued in them, could never have happened; for, as I hold with the old saying, No Bishops, no King, so may I boldly aver that no power of temporal Lords being extant, there will be neither Bishop nor King. But I am too tedious, my Lords; yet what I further shall presume to say, will need no eloquence, being upon a theme pleasing, as I humbly conceive, to the minds of all your Lordships, there being none of you whose birth brings you unto this place, but so much generosity possesses your hearts, that you conclude and harbour a firm resolution to believe and follow that noble and heroic maxim—Beatius est dare quam accipere, since Beneficium accipere est libertatem vendere, a thing beneath your Lordships. According, then, to which maxim, as having the honour to be a member of this House, esteeming in the first place the right of Peerage, even before the titles of Earl, Marquis, or Duke; as a Peer, therefore, I say of this House, I shall (with your Lordships’ approbation) humbly offer a present unto his most excellent Majesty, our most gracious Sovereign, a present, my Lords, which cannot be done without you, and fit to be owned by a House of Lords, it being no less than to raise an auxiliary troop for his Majesty’s Life-guard, of an hundred horse, and commonly called in France an hundred Meistres; [Reistres?] that is, each Cavalier to keep a servant with a led horse, as well as his own, and one of them to be worth £100. The whole troop shall amount the first day unto upwards of ten thousand pounds, besides arms and equipage accordingly; nay, my Lords, every one of this troop shall be of that quality and power as to be capable to raise at his Majesty’s command an hundred men in 14 days; and at the entering into the troop, shall furnish into his Majesty’s store-house a 100 foot arms, two parts fire-arms, and the third pikes, at his own proper cost and charges, and marked by him, there to be kept till his Majesty’s occasions be to raise men accordingly: but God long preserve his Majesty from needing of them; yet if, at any time, then will his Majesty have in readiness at a fortnight’s warning 10,000 men, without costing his Majesty or the kingdom sixpence, till they be raised and armed. And that most worthy nobleman, the Earl of Northampton, who, according to the Spanish saying, So many brothers united so many castles,[G] hath approved himself to be such in gallantry and strength for his King and kingdom’s defence, is desirous and willing through his zeal to his Majesty’s service, to be but lieutenant to the said troop. But the whole troop, consisting of such persons qualified as above-mentioned, volunteers, and not serving for pay or gain, will deservedly require not to be put upon common services, and not to be commanded but by his Majesty, or his most deserving general the Duke of Albemarle; and they themselves not to be tied to daily duties, but to have liberty to substitute some gentleman of quality, or an experienced officer, to serve for him at any time when his Majesty requires not his personal appearance, and that the Captain of the troop gives way unto it. I presume, my Lords, to nominate my Lord of Northampton but as second to me, because his goodness and zeal to his Majesty’s service makes his Lordship contented to give me the precedence as Captain, though far less worthy, and shall indeed be but a servant to his Lordship and the rest of the troop, in order to his Majesty’s command, and the welfare of his tenderly beloved people. The rest of the troop shall be nominated when your Lordships shall approve of the motion, and his Majesty vouchsafe an acceptance thereof. They shall all of them be approved persons in zeal, loyalty, and allowed by you, and do ambition the honour of being called a troop of the House of Lords, and being so termed, and most of them of your members, I dare without vanity affirm that no King in Christendom but may boast of such a troop; and it will not only be a safety to his Majesty’s person, but an honour to the whole nation; and an evident testimony of your Lordships’ constant loyalty and zeal to both King and kingdom, and will keep up the honour of this House, and not subject [it] again to be thrust out of doors; and I beseech your Lordships that I may be rightly understood, for it is my duty to his Majesty, and the honour I bear to this House, and not the ambition of being Captain of the said troop, that makes me to motion the raising thereof; for as I acknowledge that there are many greater persons in the House, as well titular as real, in merit and power, any of whom, if they please to undertake it, I shall with more joy and readiness serve as a trooper therein, than to have the command thereof.

“My second humble offer, disposable by your Lordships, is at my own cost and charges, but under your Lordships’ name and approbation, and out of the accruing profits of my Water-commanding Engine, to cause to be erected a competent ordinary, affording as well wine as meat, for one meal a day, for forty indigent officers, such as the calamity of the late times has brought to so pressing necessities, as none of your Lordships, I am confident, but is very sensible thereof, especially of such persons who (had not their zeal to their King and country transported them) might have lived plentifully of their own; yet if your Lordships’ commiserating eyes look not speedily upon them, may follow the destiny of some others of quality, yea colonels, and never were under my command; yet I never made distinction when his Majesty’s honour or service was interested, or his well-deserving subjects suffered, and were within my power of relief, for whose burials it hath been my good fortune to pay; they not leaving behind them to the value of an angel; and I humbly conceive this act of charity, worthy your Lordships’ owning, since your Lordships’ cheerfully passing the act of my Water-commanding Engine enableth me thereunto; and I most humbly offer this little testimony of gratitude, to be under your name thus employed. And I intend there shall be so good order given therein, within 6 months, as that there shall be a stipend given to a person to read unto them during their meals, either of military affairs or history, the better to avoid frivolous discourse tending to quarrels and quaffing.

“Thirdly, in favour and benefit of the commonalty as well as your Lordships, and for the general good and honour of this most famous City of London, I most humbly offer, under your Lordships’ name and protection, to cause a fair causeway to be made, upon which, without disturbance, two carts may pass one by the other for 2 miles together, at 4 of the greatest avenues to the City, as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen shall best advise; and at the end of each of the four causeways, an Hospital and House of Correction to be erected and endowed, with a perpetuity of £500 a year to each house; and this pious work to begin within two years, and to be finished within seven.

“Fourthly—and, indeed, I should have begun with it, according to the true rule—a Jove principium—I do humbly offer, in honour of this House, to cause £1000 a year, for ten years, from Michaelmas come twelve-month, to be allotted towards the building of Paul’s, according as his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, and now Bishop of Winchester, together with the Dean and Chapter of Paul’s shall set forth, and may continue:—a memorable gift from the House of Lords. And thus, I humbly conceive, to have offered an acknowledgment of thankfulness both to his Majesty, and to your Lordships, Spiritual and Temporal, and for the Honourable House of Commons, for passing the Act of my Water-commanding Engine; and to improve this my humble thankfulness, shall be my daily exercise and study, no ways meaning that what here I suffer shall set a period thereunto, so as your Lordships will be pleased to set your helping hands to remove some misconstructions and personal inconveniences, which, if not diverted from my mind, and from a too generally received opinion, though upon false grounds, and not appearing otherwise than false; I beseech your Lordships to be so tender of a member of yours, as to contribute to the vindicating of me therein, whereof no ways doubting but that your Lordships will remove such an absolute remora to all my intended services; and, therefore, I will presume to lay my case openly and cheerfully before you, not doubting but that at your Lordships’ intercessions, his most gracious Majesty (having given way that I should speak thus before your Lordships) will vouchsafe a concurrence, and suffer himself to be disabused, and such false and malicious opinions to be eradicated out of his princely mind, as have been endeavoured, by either envy, malice, or ignorance, to be rooted therein, and so certainly have obstructed the natural influence of grace and favour, which could not otherwise but have been the effects of so great a Sun as shines within a throne of so much goodness and majesty. Now, whether my merits have been considerable, I beg leave here to set down not as a trumpet to proclaim them, but narrative-wise, modestly, yet truly, for your Lordships’ better information, accusing myself in some things with the same candour and freedom as to vindicate myself, in others, desiring to stand or fall by your Lordships’ just judgment, and his Majesty’s gracious proceeding thereon; no further relying even upon his Majesty’s most gracious act of general pardon, than in compliance with others, his Majesty’s subjects, have taken it out, yet with so great a reluctance, through the clearness of my heart, not to have deserved for it, that the Lord upon the Woolsack was forced to chide me to it, through his tenderness of my good, and, as I humbly conceive, a further apprehension than I could have of a necessity thereof; for which his tender care I acknowledge thankfulness, yet, at the same time, I must humbly ask leave to stand upon my justification, humbly praying to be rightly understood, for I do it not out of pride or vain glory, but purely—Me defendendo,—and if any body—Se defendendo,—kills another, the law quits him, much more will your Lordships pronounce me not guilty of arrogance, though I should arrogate to myself a praiseworthy desert, and not, through too much modesty, be mealy-mouthed, and not discover what of right appertains to the blessed memory of my dead father, and even my own commendations, crying with Virgil,—Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves; sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves; sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves; sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes. Know, then, my noble Lords, that herein I speak not to derogate from the merit of the Roman Catholics from their duty and love to their Sovereign, we having all of us, with an unanimous resolution, nemine contradicente, that is to say, no one gentleman of quality throughout the whole nation, but has stuck to the cause, adventuring his life, and lost his whole fortune therein; yet give me leave to aver it, boldly, that all the Catholics of England assisted not my father, or me, to the value of £5, without real security for it, and such, indeed, as at this time lieth heaviest upon me; and this I aver as in the presence of Almighty God and your Lordships. In the second place, my Lords, how came the then Marquis of Hertford, after his defeat in the west, with recruits to his Majesty at Oxford, but by my father’s means and mine. The forces that I sent with him had cost me £8000; and £2000 my father lent him, ready money. How came Sir John Byron’s regiment of horse to be first raised, but by £5000 in gold, given him by my father? How came the Forest of Dean to be reduced; Goodrich strong castle to be taken; Monmouth itself, with its garrison, to be surprised; Chepstow, Newport, and Cardiff to be taken, and secured for his Majesty, but by my forces and my father’s money? How came Raglan Castle to be first fortified and last rendered, but by £50,000 disbursed therein by my father?

“How came his Majesty’s army to be considerable before Edge-hill fight, but by the men I brought, and how was his Majesty recruited at Gloucester side, even after the defeat given by Waller to my men? God forgive those of the King’s party, who were the occasion that 1500 were surprised, and I not despatched from Oxford until the day after; yet, my Lords, at 14 days warning I brought 4000 foot and 800 horse to the siege of Gloucester, paying them £6000 down upon the nail at Gloucester, besides my troop of Life-guard, consisting of 6 score noblemen and gentlemen, whose estates amounted to above 3 score thousand pounds a-year, most of whom I furnished with horse and arms, which of a sudden they could not do themselves; for I was then master of 34 horses in my stable, for the worst of which I have refused £100, and above 40 others lonely worth £50 a horse. I kept a table for the said troop, not only at Gloucester side, but all the way to the west, without so much as making use of free quarter, but all upon the penny; for General Raven complained of me to the King, who graciously and smilingly reprehending me publicly, I desired to know my accuser, and called my Lord-General Raven, afterwards made Earl of Bradford, before his Majesty, who, objecting that it was of ill example and made them to be thought the more burdensome; my humble reply was, that I yielded to his Excellency to be the better soldier, but still to be a soldier of fortune, here to-day and God knows where to-morrow, and therefore he needed not care for the love of the people; but though I were killed myself I should leave my posterity behind me, towards whom I would not leave a grudge in the people, but whilst I could serve his Majesty upon my own purse and credit I would really do it, and afterwards leave it to such as his Lordship.

“I confess I raised this troop without my father’s consent first asked; his Majesty’s peremptory commands and the shortness of time requiring, and I confess his Lordship checked me for it, and said I had undone myself thereby, and [I] replied that 5 or £6,000 would not undo me; the horses being all my own already, and the arms, by accident coming to Bristol afforded a sudden and cheaper means for it. My father answered, that he did allow that 6 nor £16,000 would not undo me, but the consequence would be that the love and power I had in my country would be perspicuous; although I should have thanks from the King, yet others, though his Majesty’s well-wishers, yet, through envy, they would hate me for it: which I confess I have found too true, and my services have been more retarded by those who called themselves the King’s friends than obstructed by his enemies.

“Pardon me, my Lords, if I detain you a little longer, descending to some particulars as near as I can call to mind; and beginning first to tell your Lordships that I was not privy nor present with his Majesty at Greenwich, when he first took his resolution for the North, and removed without the Queen to Theobalds, from which he was pleased to write me a lamentable letter by the hands of Sir John Byron, averring that he had but £600, and £300 of which was given to defray his horses, which the Marquis of Hamilton, then Master of the Horse, refused to do, fearing to displease the Parliament; but upon such a lamentable complaint, and pressing necessities of my dear master (yet no ways advising him unto the journey), I sent him to Theobalds.

£3,000

“My Lords, being conscious of this, and many things forgotten by me to set down, I was become proof against anything the King’s enemies could do against me, since by their principles I knew I deserved it; but, since his Majesty’s return and happy restoration it hath almost stupified me to have been so laid by as not to have had any promise made good to me, for which I had his Majesty’s royal word, hand, or even the Great Seal of England; but, of the contrary, I humbly beseech your Lordship’s leave to set down what, with all submission to his Majesty’s will and pleasure, flesh and blood cannot but resent, yet so far only as shall stand with the duty of a loyal subject and the unquenchable zeal of my real heart towards my King and country, and a most humble submission to your Lordships’ better judgment, casting myself wholly at your disposal and favourable construction of what I shall set down, according to the old saying, that—losers may have leave to speak.”

In this proposed address to the House of Peers, the Marquis of Worcester offers some introductory remarks bearing on his parentage, education, and travels; but the burden of his speech is a detailed account of the severe losses himself and his family sustained, consequent on the Civil War, combined with his father’s and his own liberality to Charles the First personally. His proposed plan of laying his case before the House is prefaced with a singular offer on his own part, under four different heads:—

1st. He proposes to raise an auxiliary troop for his Majesty’s Life-guard.

2nd. To cause to be erected a complete ordinary for forty indigent officers.

3rd. To cause a fair causeway to be made, for two miles together, at four of the greatest avenues to the city.

And 4th, to cause £1,000 a year, for ten years, to be allowed towards the building of St. Paul’s.

Then follow items of the various and vast sums expended in the Royalist cause.

His allusion to the Act obtained for his Engine, in 1663, fixes the date of this document at or soon after that period. The amount expended in the Royal cause by his father and himself was so enormous, that it is difficult to understand on what ground he considered he bettered his claim to some compensation, by burdening his statement with four separate offers, calculated to absorb far more than he could ever expect to obtain through a monarch so needy, extravagant, and dissolute as Charles the Second.

Whatever may have been the Marquis of Worcester’s previous private engagements, there is every reason to believe that from the time he was protected by Act of Parliament, he vigorously put forth all his energies to promote the works at Vauxhall, where, aided by Caspar Kaltoff, he soon had one of his “stupendous” engines in operation.

James Rollock, an “ancient servant of his Lordship’s” (as he styles himself), who made some pretence to being a poet, wrote “a Latin Elogium and an English Panegirick, both of them composed through duty and gratitude.” He informs us that, he “hath for forty years been an eye-witness of his great ingenuity:” adding, “I think it not amiss to give further notice in his Lordship’s behalf, that he intends within a moneth or two to erect an Office, and to intrust some very responsible and honourable persons with power to Treat and Conclude with such as desire at a reasonable rate to reap the benefit of the same Water-commanding Engine.”[K] About the same time would also appear to have been issued large posting bills, one rare and curious specimen of which may be seen in the Library of the British Museum,[L] setting forth a short address to the King, followed with the usual “definition” of “A stupendous or a Water-Commanding Engine, boundless for height or quantity.” We have thus very clear evidence that he was employing every possible means at command to impress his claim on public notice.

Then, as regards the Engine itself, it was required by the Act of Parliament, “that a model thereof be delivered to the Lord Treasurer or Commissioners for the Treasury for the time being, at or before the 29th day of September, 1663,” and the same to be “put into the Exchequer and kept there;” a requirement which he was certain to obey punctiliously, not only to avoid dispute, but because nothing was easier for him to perform, through the agency of Kaltoff.

Another remarkable point referring to his Engine is that he concludes the 98th article of his Century, which alludes to it, by saying:—“I call this a semi-omnipotent Engine, and do intend that a model thereof he buried with me.”

And lastly, there was his practical demonstration on a large scale. As early as May 1654, we have an intimation of his being in treaty for works at Vauxhall. Not long afterwards we find his workman Kaltoff settled there, and in one of his Petitions he explicitly mentions having spent “£9,000 on buildings and improvements,” and at least “£50,000 in trying experiments and conclusions of art in that Operatory:”[M] thus actually curtailing his personal comforts to fulfil his engagements with all those persons who confided in his promises to perfect his novel undertaking.

His works and Engine were examined and noticed in 1663, by the French traveller M. SorbiÈre; in 1666 or 1667 by the eminent mathematician Dr. Robert Hook, whose cynicism unfortunately thwarted his judgment; in 1669, by the Grand Duke, Cosmo de Medici; and we find it still in existence in September, 1670, being then alluded to in a letter written by Walter Travers, a Roman Catholic priest.[N]

We have, therefore, certain evidence that the Marquis of Worcester’s Engine was in full operation for at least seven years, and that one of the conditions of the Act of Parliament obliged him to deposit a model in the Exchequer. His own estimate of its value may be judged by his gladly giving up for the promised tithe of it to the King, his claim on Charles the First equal to £40,000, in lieu thereof.[O]

His Lordship’s invention was never offered by him as a merely amusing trifle; it was not a curious model which might or might not possess some practical advantage; and it was not of a nature of which he was but partially aware, and which it was left to others to apply. It is even possible that as early as 1628 he had set up his Engine in its most simple form of application; and that, improved upon through thirty-five years of study and experimenting, the Engine of 1663 was a master-piece of workmanship and contrivance for that age. His invention was no longer a secret, he had done all that any inventor could possibly be required to perform to establish his claim to be considered as a true and first inventor. His right did not depend on the vague notice first put forth in his Century, but on the actual Engine made, and, for not less than seven years, constantly worked for public inspection at Vauxhall. Any one so disposed could have obtained the same examination of it that was conceded to SorbiÈre and to Cosmo de Medici. Dr. Hook does not condescend to state what he saw of it; he set out for Lambeth with the intention of going to Vauxhall, but the laughing philosopher may have settled the problem in his own mind, to his own entire satisfaction, without taking any trouble on a supposed foolish errand. We speculate in vain whether among the visitors stimulated by curiosity, or invited by intending shareholders, there were such men as Sir Samuel Morland, the King’s Master of Mechanics; Rupert, Duke of Cumberland; Dr. Sprat, the historian of the Royal Society; Bishop Wilkins, the author of “Mathematical Magic”; the Honourable Robert Boyle, Sir William Petty, Lord Viscount Brouncker, and other distinguished personages.

Without positive facts to guide us we are ever in danger of misjudging a bygone age, and in the present instance it would be imprudent to hazard an opinion on what is no less true than strange, that the Marquis of Worcester entirely failed to arouse public inquiry into the merits of his invention: being treated throughout with an indifference, which, to modern apprehension, appears wholly inexplicable. Yet, so inconsistent is human nature, that the same age which burned and drowned so-called witches, which believed in the transmutation of base metals into gold, put faith in the curative effect of sympathetic powders, and the King’s touch for bodily distempers, saw portents in meteoric phenomena, and considered astrology a sound science, could yet look with stolid indifference on this germ of the steam-engine, unimpressed by what was publicly exhibited, written, printed, and for at least four years made the subject of its inventor’s daily conversation. Books and pamphlets were constantly being published, filled with mysticism, gravely recording the day-dreams of fanatics and impostors, and letters lent their aid to promulgate such fables; yet here was a new agent at work, of such potent power that its like had never been seen, which nevertheless men saw, heard, and listened to in dumb astonishment, with the infantile simplicity of the poor Indian, ignorant of the value of the gold or diamonds strewn in his path.

The early associated scientific men may have been perplexed on finding an individual coming forth, in the sixty-second year of his age, to propound a new doctrine. The suspicion was natural; the cause appeared evident; his project might be a chimera, or an absolute delusion. No one ever so remotely suspected his own want of wisdom. Had the Marquis suddenly dropped from the clouds, or sprung from the earth, he could not have been in himself a much greater phenomenon than he appeared to the virtuosi (as the learned were called) of his day. Such a prodigy had never been heard of, and perhaps will never again appear, as that of a secluded scholar, studying all his life, suddenly coming to light with unheard-of knowledge. If true, he was a Leviathan, and compared with him all must have acknowledged a sense of painful inferiority. The Marquis on his part appears to have acted with unsuspecting confidence and modesty, as one quite unconscious of the intellectual disparity between himself and the professors of mechanical science in his day. However, he neither sought nor formed new acquaintances; he seems to have rested satisfied with his early associates, or his own immediate connexions; so that no one was gratified by his condescension, or induced to proffer advice, through any application on his part. Indeed he mainly looked to the Crown for efficient support; but the luxurious and gay monarch sought only youth and beauty, the banquet, the ball-room, or the tennis-court, and was not to be disturbed in his pleasures by aged philosophy propounding mechanical experiments, and smoky steam-engines. The King carried “Hudibras” in his breast, and might perchance have a copy of the “Century” in some remote cabinet. Need we be surprised that his Lordship’s confidence in succour from such a source was every way misplaced? His treaties with the business world, it is to be feared, ran counter to all accepted forms, the talented philosopher being no plodding trader; so that act as he might for the best, it nevertheless appears to have been his uniform misfortune neither to acquire friends nor conciliate enemies, a posture of affairs not uncommon to fallen greatness.

It is most unfortunate that he did not survive to complete his intended publication of a larger work than the “Century,” presenting his hundred inventions with illustrative engraved plates. But in common candour let it never be overlooked, that we have before us a promise published in 1663, long preceding the devastating plague, which almost depopulated the metropolis in 1665, and the terrible conflagration of 1666, which laid waste the city of London; and that it was in the midst of such accumulated public calamities his health appears to have suddenly given way, aged, harassed, disappointed, and dismayed, when he was prematurely called to his long rest.

Neglected by contemporaries, modern writers have rested satisfied with a detail of some three or four years of his political career in Ireland, and a notice that he possibly possessed some mechanical ability, as giving a sufficiently comprehensive view of his character through a life extending over sixty-six years. This lax course, on the part of his biographers, has favoured the opinion expressed on the Continent, that the invention of the steam-engine is not of English, but of French origin! And this statement has been long colourably supported by means of a forged letter, the subject of which has been graphically represented by the painter, and copied by the lithographer; all attesting the prevailing zealous ardour of France to honour native genius. Thus, as though it were not a sufficient infliction to be ruined, dishonoured, oppressed, and neglected while living, it would almost seem as if events conspired to lessen, if possible, the lustre of his memory by the dark shades of apocryphal history.[R]

The Marquis of Worcester, considered in his true character, was in every sense a learned, deep-thinking, studious, amiable, and good man. He was a Roman Catholic wholly free from religious prejudices, and a most loyal subject without displaying under an adverse change of circumstances any appearance of undue party zeal. In all his public conduct he was invariably consistent, scrupulously conscientious, and strictly honourable and humane. In scientific acquirements he stood grandly alone, not from pride, but rather as the result of a naturally modest retiring habit, probably constitutional, but certainly confirmed by long continued close study, favoured by his early domestic course of life. When at length he was forced to come before the public, he proved himself one of the most extraordinary mechanical geniuses of the seventeenth, or any preceding century; yet he was neither understood nor appreciated in his own day; his surpassing mental endowments were probably lost for want of earlier and fuller exhibition; while the influence of combined prejudice and ignorance served further to obstruct his rising in public estimation. It is, however, the glorious privilege of genius to leave on all its works the sure impress of mighty intellect. The “Century of Inventions,” gradually increasing in public estimation through two hundred years, owes its vitality to its remarkable ingenuity and its concentration of thought; and it cannot fail to happen that each succeeding age will inquire, with increasing interest, into every particular of the singular and touching history of its noble author.

END OF THE LIFE.