Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/268

 A translation by one ‘I. V.’ of a homily, by Phil. de Mornay, on St. Matthew xvi. 18, printed at Oxford in 1615, has been supposed to be his work (, Early Oxford Press, 1895, p. 103), but the only ground for the reasonable supposition is the identity of initials.



VERNEY, EDMUND (1590–1642), knight-marshal and standard-bearer to Charles I, born in 1590, was the second son of Sir Edmund Verney, knt., of Penley, Hertfordshire, and Claydon, Buckinghamshire (d. 1599), by his third wife, Mary Blakeney, widow, first, of Geoffrey Turville; secondly, of William St. Barbe. His father was a prominent country gentleman of Elizabeth's time, strongly protestant and patriotic, high sheriff for Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and one of the five captains commanding the Hertfordshire musters levied to oppose the Great Armada. His elder son, Sir [q. v.], dissipated his portion of the estates.

The second Edmund, who inherited Claydon, had ‘his mind accomplished in all active, useful, and manly knowledge.’ He matriculated from St. Alban Hall, Oxford, on 9 March 1603–4, but left the university without a degree (, Alumni Oxon.) ‘When education had made him a compleat man, he bethought himself that he was born to labour. After some time spent with my Lord Goring to see the Low Country wars, and some sallies out with my Lord Herbert and Sir Henry Wotton to see the Courts of France and Italy, he returned so well accomplished as to be recommended to the service of Prince Henry’ (, Memorials). Sir Thomas Chaloner, his neighbour at Steeple Claydon, was the prince's governor, and his uncle, Francis Verney, his falconer. Edmund Verney was knighted on 7 Jan. 1610–11, and was sent to Madrid, where Lord Digby was ambassador. Prince Henry's death was one of the great sorrows of his life; he shared his master's protestant principles and his love for simplicity of worship. In 1613 he was appointed to the household of Prince Charles, and in 1622 the Duke of Buckingham made him lieutenant of Whaddon Chase, and he began to take his share in the serious business of the county. In 1623 Sir Edmund was among the gentlemen sent by King James to follow Prince Charles and Buckingham to Spain, and he was one of the few who reached Madrid. There he gave offence to the Spaniards by defending the deathbed of Washington, the prince's page, against the proselytising zeal of a Roman catholic priest; ‘they fell from words to blows;’ the king of Spain demanded the dismissal of all Charles's protestant attendants, but Gondomar interfered. Sir Edmund remained with the prince till they all left Madrid, when he parted with a fine family jewel, ‘a cross of ten thick table-diamonds,’ to his master, to furnish him with another farewell present, in addition to the great store he had brought from England. He was returned as member for Buckingham in February 1624, for Aylesbury in 1628, for Chipping Wycombe in 1640, for the Short and the Long parliaments.

Charles I gave Sir Edmund a pension of 200l., and appointed him in 1626 for life knight-marshal of the king's palace, which gave him a general supervision of the palace; he was to take cognisance of all causes in the king's household and within twelve miles of the court, to preserve order and prevent the access of improper persons to court; he had a deputy and some half-dozen officers or vergers (, Verney Papers, p. 123). He kept up the Marshalsea prison, and repaid himself by the profits of his court and the fines imposed on prisoners. During the last years of his life he lost heavily on the Marshalsea and on all his public offices; and the money Charles borrowed from him was repaid with promises and a couple of fine Van Dycks, the king's portrait and Sir Edmund's. Sir Edmund's last loan to the king of 1,000l., which he borrowed from his wife's aunt, Elizabeth Isham, was secured to him on the aulnage (the duty paid to the crown on cloth goods), and his family were involved for years in endeavouring to recover this sum and the arrears of pension due to him for his younger children's fortunes. Other financial ventures turned out badly; he lost money in the Earl of Bedford's scheme for draining the fens, and he was forced to surrender a valuable patent for inspecting tobacco, as Lord Goring and some other courtiers started a fresh company to enrich themselves with this revenue; the patent for restraining the number of hackney coaches for hire in London, in which he had an interest, proved difficult of enforcement. He was the most sanguine of men in financial speculations, a generous friend and liberal landlord. He was ‘a reddy and compleat