Montgomery manuscripts

The Montgomery Manuscripts.
235
our Earl was well enough to pass, and had contrived his debts to be paid by gales out of his rents, w*
w d have cleared him of them all in five years, for he was to have took out of his estate but ^500
per annum to maintain his daughter and his two sons (by the first venter") at boarding-schools in
Dublin, over w h his Lady had a motherly, careful, kind eye and heart, tho' they were not lodged in
the house with her; and his Lo p ' fl table, w h was publick and free to gentl. was furnished by his
Lady out of her jointure, and his pay supplied him in cloaths and coaches, (w h were very splendid)
and in attendants and spending money, and a round yearly sum to spare,?* besides accidental pro-
fits arising f m his office, but these last his Lo p applied to some poor friends 7 and servants' behoof;
and in this manner his Lo p lived in grandeur, highly esteemed and respected by all, and for his
ripe judgment appearing when he spoke in the House of Lords or at the Council Board, where he
was revered by understanding persons, and his conversation (for the obliging gentility thereof)
much commended and coveted by both sexes. His Lo p . (amidst these felicities and dearest
earthly enjoyments he cou'd desire) had fallen into a discentery, w h lay sore upon him, changing its
complexion twice or thrice. It was very dangerous, his body being grown unwieldy and bulksome;
but, by God's blessing, (on Dr. Fennell's endeavours) he recovered and was but weakly well mended,
for that flux had bro* him low too suddenly, by evacuating a great abundance of humours and fatt,
by which he was become formerly uneasy to himself. Yet his Lo p (not fearing a relapse or other
disease) was earnest to go into the country to finish his private business afores d , but chiefly to serve
the country and his King.
Wolstans, in the county of Kildare, knight, deceased, and by his
uncle, Sir Thomas Allen, of St. Wolstans, in the county of Kildare,
deceased, long before the Rebellion in Ireland, and by the decease
of his collateral kinsmen, Robert Allen and William Allen, without
heirs males of their bodies, To Have and To Hold to him and the
heirs males of his body, the Manor of St. Wolstan's, and other the
Lands in the said Settlement mentioned.
"And that being so entitled, the Earl of Mount- Alexander did
obtain our grant of the Manor and Lands upon some undue sugges-
tion, that the same were forfeited to us for some treason or defection
of the Petitioner, or some of his kinsmen formerly interested therein.
Also, that, in the Act of Settlement for that our Kingdom, a Proviso
is contained in favour of the said Earl of Mount-Alexander, whereby
the Petitioner will be foreclosed of his rights, unless the same, as
also the said grant, be revoked or altered, according to another pro-
viso in the said Act specified. We, therefore, out of our regard to
justice, and of the Petitioner's merit, are graciously pleased that the
said grant and Proviso touching the settling of the said Estate unto
y e Earl of Mount-Alexander, be altered and revoked by Letters
Patent, or otherwise, so that the said Petitioner shall not be in any
sort prejudiced or debarred by the said Proviso or grant, but be
forthwith restored to the said Estate.
" [Endorsed — ' Lord Lieutenant and Council to alter the same.
And to give order to the Commissioners for executing the Act of
Settlement, to proceed therein according to such alterations as you
shall make touching the premises.]'
" Whitehall, the [ ] Sep., in the 14th yer of our Reign."
— Carte Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. xlvi., p. 3.
The king had the power, according to the concluding
clause in the Act of Settlement, thus to withdraw his own
grant when it was deemed necessary or expedient to do
so. Soon after the withdrawal of this grant, letters from
Talbot were intercepted, from which Montgomery sup-
posed that a charge of fraud and perjury might be got up
against his opponenls. He wrote the following letter to
the duchess of Ormond, requesting her influence to assist
him in obtaining a re-hearing of the case : —
"Madame, — It may seem a greate presumptione in me to give
your grace the least trouble, whose favours have so highly obliged
me and my family. But, an opertunity being now ofered by season-
able interception of some letters which came from Colonel Talbott to
his Brother and Sir Bryan O'Neale, wherein the fraude, corruptione,
and perjury of that Decree obtained by the late Allen of St.
Wolston's, is, in some measure, discovered, the originall letters being
sent to my Lord Lieutenant by my Lord Deputie, who has beea
honorably pleased to minde his grace of mine and my family's dis-
tressed condition, I presume to take the confidence to implore the
continuance of your grace's favour in my behalf, that His Majesty
may be moved that that decree may receive a rehearing, as in the
case of my Lord Massarene and Sir George Cane, or put in such
other way as your grace shall think fit, to which end my cosin Mont-
gomerie will atend your grace, all my friends here being satisfied
that the coruptione of that proceeding will evidently appeare, and
herein your grace will eternally oblige, Madame, your grace's most
humbly devoted servant,
"The nth of January, r66r. "Mount-Alexander.
"To Her Grace the Duchess of Ormond. London.
[Endorsed by Ormond]
" The Earl of Mount-Alexander to my wife.
" it January. )
" Reed. 25th. 1 * f
— Carte Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. xxxiv., p. 7.
The earl of Mount- Alexander failed in his attempts to have
the case reheard, Allen having made over his right in part
of the lands to Talbot, and Talbot having the duke of
York's influence with the king to prevent the latter from
further serving his "well-beloved cousin and counsellor."
73 By the first venter. — In other words, his children by
the first lady.
?■* Yearly sum to spare. — The earl's means were some-
what improved at this period by his receiving payment of
his arrears as a 1649 officer. These arrears, in his case,
amounted to £i,$S3 16s Sd, but he, with captain Hugh
Montgomery, had purchased up '49 arrear debentures, so
as that their joint arrears amounted to the large sum of
,£12,115 17s 4d, making the 65th lot of arrears. In lieu