Ancient deeds and other writs in the Mackenzie-Wharncliffe charter-chest

THE LATE EARL OF WHARNCLIFFE
with the district being therefore ended, it may be thought not inappro-
priate that a short biographical notice of the late Earl and an explanation
of how the family of Wortley of Wortley, in the West Riding of York-
shire, came to be large landowners in the shires of Forfar and Perth
should be given.
The Wortley family claims a traceable descent from the time of King
Stephen of England, and the estate of Wortley (the word meaning ' The
Field of Herbs ' ) is both of great value and of great beauty. It includes
the Wharncliffe Wood and the Wharncliffe Chase, of which a descrip-
tion will be found in Sir Walter Scott's novel of Ivanhoe. Wortley is
situated near Sheffield, in a district rich in minerals. There were iron
works at Wortley from the time of the Romans, and very valuable seams
of coal are worked at the present time.
The name of Montague was added to the family designation of
Wortley of Wortley by the marriage of Anne, daughter of Sir Francis
Wortley, Bart., to the Hon. Sidney Montague, second son of the first
Earl of Sandwich. The second son of this marriage, Edward Wortley
Montague, was a man of great ability and acquirements, and an intimate
friend of Addison and Steele. When he was twenty-two years of age,
he met for the first time Lady Mary Pierrepoint, daughter of the first
Duke of Kingston, who although only fourteen years of age had already
achieved a reputation for learning. Her abilities were brilliant, and her
diligence in acquiring knowledge was so great that, unaided, she became
a competent Latin scholar. Mr. Wortley proposed for her hand, but
her father, not being satisfied with the settlements which the former
proposed to make upon his marriage, declined to give his assent, and the
couple eloped and were married in August 1712. In 1717 Mr. Wortley
was appointed British Ambassador at Constantinople, and in that city
his wife had a daughter, who ultimately became Countess of Bute, wife
of the third Earl, the well-known Prime Minister. Lady Bute upon her
father's death became owner of the Wortley estates. When Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu was in Constantinople she was attacked with small-
pox, and this induced her to inoculate her only son, a child four years of
age. He was the first European so treated. On her return to England,
Lady Mary succeeded, in spite of the opposition of certain of the medical
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