Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/47

 the rest of Lord Wharton's regiment and rode over to the royal horse. His action had no small effect upon the fate of the battle. Unfortunately many of Fortescue's troopers forgot in their haste to throw away the orange scarfs worn as the Earl of Essex's colours, and not less than eighteen out of the sixty men of the troop (Army Lists of Cavaliers, &c., pp. 44–53) were slain or wounded by the cavalry whom they had joined (, ii. 36–8;, Hist. of the Civil War, i. 52, 53).

Soon after the battle of Edgehill, Fortescue was appointed to the command of the 10th regiment of the royal infantry, and served with the army whose headquarters were at Oxford during the remainder of the civil war (, Army Lists, p. 18; Harl. MS. 986, fol. 88). In 1647 he accompanied the Marquis of Ormonde during his Irish campaign, and remained with him until the retreat of the royal army from Dublin to Drogheda, when he made his way to the Isle of Man, and thence crossed to Wales. At Beaumaris he was arrested and imprisoned by order of the House of Commons, first at Denbigh Castle, and afterwards at Carnarvon Castle (Commons' Journals, v. 280, 657). No order for his release is to be found in the ‘Commons' Journals,’ but his imprisonment cannot have been of long duration, since he was able to join Charles II at Stirling in the spring of 1651 (, Diary, Bannatyne Club, p. 52), and took part in the campaign which ended in the decisive battle of Worcester. After this action Fortescue retired to the continent, where he remained, at first in France, and afterwards in the Netherlands, until the Restoration. By royal warrant of 21 Aug. 1660 he was restored to the post of constable of Carrickfergus Castle, an office which he was permitted to transfer a few months later to his eldest surviving son, Sir Thomas (Carte MSS. xli. 29, xlii. 219), and was created a gentleman of the privy chamber. This office attached him to the court, and he remained chiefly in London until he was driven to the Isle of Wight by the outbreak of the plague in 1665. He died in the manor-house of Bowcombe, near Carisbrooke, in May 1666, being more than eighty-five years of age, and was buried at Carisbrooke. Fortescue was twice married, first to Anne, daughter of the first Viscount Moore, by whom he had a numerous family, and secondly to Eleanor, daughter of Sir M. Whitechurch, by whom he had no issue. His two elder sons died during the siege of Drogheda; his third son, Sir Thomas, who held a commission in the royal army during the civil war, succeeded his father in his estates, and was the ancestor of the late Lord Clermont, and of his brother, Lord Carlingford.

[Lord Clermont's Hist. of the Family of Fortescue.] 

FORTESCUE, GEORGE (1578?–1659), essayist and poet, born in London in or about 1578, was the only son of John Fortescue, by Ellen, daughter of Ralph Henslow of Barrald, Kent. His father was the second son of Sir Anthony Fortescue [q. v.] (third son of Sir Adrian [q. v.]), by Katharine, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Pole. His father resided for many years in London, but in his old age he retired to St. Omer to avoid persecution as a catholic. George probably received part of his education in the English College of Douay, was in October 1609 admitted as a boarder in the English College at Rome, and was recalled by his parents to Flanders 30 April 1614. He was in London secretary to his cousin Anthony Fortescue, the resident for the Duke of Lorraine at the time of his dismissal by the houses of parliament in 1647. He was arrested, and, after an imprisonment of sixteen weeks, was ordered to quit the kingdom with his principal. His reputation for learning was so great that Edmund Bolton [q. v.] placed his name in the original list of the members of the projected royal academy, or senate of honour. He died in 1659, his will being dated on 17 July in that year.

His principal work is entitled ‘Feriæ Academicæ, auctore Georgio de Forti Scuto Nobili Anglo,’ Douay, 1630, 12mo, pp. 347. A full description of this curious volume of Latin essays was contributed by the Rev. John Mitford to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in 1847 (new ser. xxviii. 382). Lord Clermont states that Fortescue was also the author of the scarce anonymous poem entitled ‘The Sovles Pilgrimage to heavenly Hierusalem. In three severall Dayes Journeyes: by three severall Wayes: purgative, illuminative, unitive. Expressed in the Life and Death of Saint Mary Magdalen,’ 1650, 4to (Bibl. Anglo-Poetica, p. 669;, Bibl. Man. ed. Bohn, p. 2456). Fortescue wrote commendatory verses prefixed to (a) the Poems of Sir John Beaumont, his brother-in-law; (b) Sir Thomas Hawkins's translation of the ‘Odes of Horace,’ 1625; (c) Rivers's ‘Devout Rhapsodies,’ 1628; (d) ‘The Tongues Virtuis.’ Several of his Latin letters to eminent men, with their replies, are preserved in manuscript by the Roman catholic dean and chapter of the midland district. Among his correspondents were Galileo Galilei, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Urban VIII, Famiano Strada, the historian of