Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/181

 ''Proc. of Comm. for Advance of Money, p. 637, and Commons' Journals'', and, i. 385–6).

In the spring of 1648, when Poyer refused to disband his troops in South Wales, Carbery not only declined to support him, but loyally cast his influence on the side of parliament (, i. 398, ii. 353). There is, however, a local tradition (first given in Topogr. Dict. 1811, s.v. ‘Llanfihangel Aberbythych;’ cf., Beauties of S. Wales, 1815, p. 326; and Arch. Cambr. 5th ser. x. 170) that in May of that year Cromwell, on his way to besiege Pembroke Castle, ‘came suddenly across the country with a troop of horse to Golden Grove,’ with the view of seizing Carbery, who just succeeded in escaping before his arrival. Lady Carbery (whose great piety has been recorded by Jeremy Taylor) is then said to have influenced Cromwell so strongly as to produce in him a warm regard for her family, evidenced by his sending to the earl a few years later ‘several stagges to furnish his park at Golden Grove’ (Cambrian Register, loc. cit.).

Carbery is, however, less celebrated as a man of action than as the patron who for many years gave hospitable shelter to Jeremy Taylor at Golden Grove. Here Taylor wrote, among other works, ‘The Great Exemplar,’ the third part of which was, in the first edition (1649), dedicated to Frances, lady Carbery (on whose death in 1650 he preached a ‘Funeral Sermon’), while in the third edition another dedication was added to her successor, Carbery's third wife. To Carbery himself he dedicated a course of fifty-two sermons delivered at Golden Grove, his ‘Holy Living’ and ‘Holy Dying’ (1650–1), and the ‘Manual of Devotions,’ to which, by way of further compliment to his patron, he gave the title of ‘Golden Grove’ (1655).

When the court of the marches was re-established at Ludlow at the Restoration, Carbery became its lord president, and in virtue of that office was lord lieutenant of all the counties in Wales. He appointed Samuel Butler (1612–1680) [q. v.] as his secretary, and made him also steward of Ludlow Castle, where Butler appears to have written the first part of ‘Hudibras.’ The court never regained its former administrative importance, though Carbery seems to have paid close attention to its business (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660 et seq.; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. App. p. 88), and successfully asserted its jurisdiction in some matters over even the four English shires of the marches (ib. 5th Rep. App. p. 338; cf., Beaufort Progress, ed. 1888, introd. p. xviii). He continued lord president till 1672, when he was removed from office, partly owing to his maltreatment of his servants and tenants at Dryslwyn, near Golden Grove, some of whom had ‘theyr eares cut of, and one his tongue cut out, and all dispossessd’ (Hatton Correspondence, i. 76; cf., Carmarthen, p. 118). A contemporary described him, probably with much justice, as ‘a fit person for the highest publique employment, if integrity and courage were not suspected to be often faylinge him’ (Cambr. Register, loc. cit.). He died on 3 Dec. 1686 (, Brief Relation, i. 379, puts his death somewhat earlier in the year).

Carbery was thrice married. His first wife was Bridget, daughter and heiress of Thomas Lloyd of Llanllyr, Cardiganshire (, Cardiganshire, p. 243). His second wife, whose piety has been eulogised by Jeremy Taylor, was Frances, daughter and coheir of Sir John Altham [see ] of Oxhey, Hertfordshire. She died on 9 Oct. 1650, and in July 1652 Carbery married, for his third wife, Lady Alice Egerton, daughter of John, first earl of Bridgwater. She was a pupil of Henry Lawes [q. v.], Milton's friend, who in 1653 dedicated his ‘Ayres and Dialogues’ to her and her sister Mary, the wife of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. It has been popularly supposed that Milton's ‘Comus’ was founded upon an incident which once befell her; but the tradition probably arose from her having represented the Lady in the mask when it was performed at Ludlow (, Milton, ii. 227–33; cf., Life of Milton).

All Carbery's surviving issue was by his second wife. Francis, the eldest son, who was M.P. for Carmarthenshire from 1661 till his death, married in 1653 Rachel Wriothesley, afterwards wife of Lord William Russell [q. v.], but died in 1667 without issue, before his father, who was therefore succeeded by his second son,

, third and last (1640–1713). He was probably educated at home under Jeremy Taylor and William Wyatt [q. v.], and subsequently at Oxford, where he matriculated from Christ Church on 23 July 1656, proceeding thence to the Inner Temple, where he was admitted in 1658. He was knighted in April 1661, sat as M.P. for the borough of Carmarthen 1661–1679, and for the county 1679–81 and 1685–7. He was appointed governor of Jamaica, and sailed out thither early in December 1674, in company with Henry Morgan [q. v.] the buccaneer, who had also received a commission to be lieutenant-general of the island. Vaughan is said to have ‘made haste to grow