Montgomery manuscripts

The Montgomery Manuscripts. g
versed with him, and last of all in Edinborogh, Ao. 16S9 (I being a voluntary exile during the
troubles then in Ireland), in which year his Lordship told me there had been seventeen Earles of his
ancestors, all Eglinton, of the name Alexander (which in English is a worthy helper of men), and none
of them all of any other proper name, but the two Hughes and the said Robert aforesaid (who enjoyed
the honor those ten years, in which he revenged and survived his said brother slain at Annock as
aforesaid) ; yet his ancestors, whilst Lords Montgomeries of Ardrossan, had divers other names. 2 ?
Now none of the Earles of Eglintoune did forfeit their honour by treason, and so could not
lose their degree in the file of Earles, and, therefore, and for the reasons aforesaid, as well as for the
said 2d list, the rivalship of Glencairne is (in my opinion) injurious, and a tort done to the family of
Eglintoune, and much more will it be so, if in any Parliament a protestation be entered by Glen-
cairne against the other Earle's precedencys. I hope there is not, nor will be any such protestations,
because the difference about it (as I have been credibly reported) was ended and taken away by King
Charles 2d upon his happy restoration. This much I have written as in part belonging to the said
6th Laird's genealogy, and in honor to our Chief in Scotland.
Now this 6th Laird (by which title I will design him till he was knighted) had three brothers,
who lived to be men respected for their abilities, viz., George, of whom (because his happy living
was in England and Ireland) I will especially remember hereafter. He was (as my father writes),
for his worth and learning, by the late Queen Elizabeth, prefer'd to the Parsonage of Chedchec, 28 and
Deanery of Norwich ;-9 Patrick also, who by his prowess and conduct (going from Scotland, a Captain
of a regiment of foot, into France) did arise to great credit, and a colonel's post under King H. the
4th, and was killed in a fight where he had commanded five hundred horse ;3° he had no wife, neyther
parents married privately the lord Dumfrice his'daltghter, sixth earl. The seventh earl also was Hugh. Robert
a gentlewoman bred in England, but having little or no of Giffen, brother of Hugh, the fourth earl, slain at
portion." Baillie also mentions this marriage as " one of Annock, was never earl. — MS. Notes of Col. F. O.
the sundry unhappy incidents among us." "The earL, of Montgomery.
Eglintoune's heir," he continues, "the master of Montgo- 28 Chedchec. — This is probably a misprint for Chedzoy,
mery, convoying his father to London, runns away without or Chedder, in Somersetshire, although it is copied as in
any advice, and maries a daughter of my lord Dumfries, the text by Lodge, who had a loan of the Montgomery
who is a broken man, when he was sure of my lady Manuscripts. Chedder might readily be mistaken for
Balclough's (countess of Buccleuch) marriage, the greatest Chedchec in the original ; but, from the loss of the MSS.,
match in Brittain. Thisunexpectedpranckisworsetoallhis it is impossible to determine the correct reading. In
kinn than his death would have been. " — Letters, vol. hi., p. 1660, Jeremy Taylor had a controversy with a divine
366. Byhertheearlhadafamilyofthreesonsandtwodaugh- located at Chedzoy, named Henry Jeanes, on the doc-
tors. She died in 1673, and the earl next married Grace, trine of original sin. Heber, Life of Taylor, vol. i.,
daughter of Francis Popley, and widow of sir Thomas p. Ixx. ; vol. ii., p. 571, seq. Leland has no mention of
Wentworth of Bretton. This lady died within a year Chedzoy, but he notices Chedder (vol. ii., p. 93) as a
after her marriage,and the earl married, in 1698, Catherine, "good husband tounelet to Axbridge, lying in the rootes
lady Kaye, daughter of sir William St. Quintin, of Harp- of Mendip hilles." Tourists visit this place to view the
ham, in the county of York. She had been three times stupendous chasm, called Chedder Cliff, which is said to
married previously, and was ninety years of age when she be the most striking scene of its kind in Great Britain,
married her fourth husband, the earl of Eglinton ! She Camden, Britannia, edited by Gough, vol. i., p. 109.
died in 1700, and her husband followed in 1701. — Fraser, " 9 Deanery of Norwich. — George Montgomery, S.T.P.,
Memorials, vol. i. pp. 98, 100. born in 156S, \\;as installed dean of Norwich on the 7th
' J Divers other names. — This paragraph is evidently of June, 1 603, ^an appointment which he retained until
imperfect, or very incorrectly given. That there were the 28th of September, 1614.
seventeen earls of the name of Alexander previous to 3 ° Five hundred horse. — Many Scottish men were in-
Alexander, the eighth earl, in 16S9, is a statement which duced to enter the French service, from time to time,
the latter could hardly have made, or the author repeated. through the attractions of the celebrated Scots Guard,
There were five Hughs in succession immediately pre- supposed to be organised so early as the days of Charle-
ccding Alexander Seton, surnamed C'rcys/cel, who was magiie, but which was certainly established by Charles VII,