Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/168

Weldon gated himself until very late in life, and, having a practical knowledge and a real liking for the sea, he was always very fortunate in the construction and sailing of his vessels. He died at Lullworth Castle on 19 Oct. 1863.

[Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 199, 345, 437; Catholic Directory, 1838, with portrait; Edinburgh Catholic Mag. new ser. London, 1837, i. 383, iii. frontispiece (portrait); Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 120; Gerard's Stonyhurst College Centenary (portrait); Gibson's Lydiate Hall, p. 148; Laity's Directory, 1838, with portrait; London and Dublin Orthodox Journal, 1837, iv. 276; Macdonell's Life of Bishop Macdonell, Toronto, 1888, p. 25; Oliver's Cornwall, pp. 50, 434; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 51; Rimmer's Stonyhurst Illustrated, 1884, with portrait; Ullathorne's Autobiography, pp. 122, 125.]  WELDON, ANTHONY (d. 1649?), historical writer, of Swanscombe, Kent, descended from a younger branch of the family of Weltden of Northumberland. His father, Sir Ralph Weldon, knighted on 24 July 1603, was clerk of the Green Cloth to Queen Elizabeth and James I, and his uncle, Anthony, clerk of the kitchen. Sir Anthony, who succeeded to his uncle's office on the resignation of the latter in 1604, and to his father's in 1609, was knighted on 11 May 1617 (, History of Kent, i. 261;, Progresses of James I, iii. 299). He accompanied James I to Scotland in 1617, and is said to have been dismissed from his post at court in consequence of the discovery of his authorship of a libel against the Scottish nation (Secret History of James I, ii. 102). Two letters written by Weldon to Secretary Windebank in 1634 prove that he still kept friends at court (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633–4, pp. 220, 244). Other letters, including a scheme for the better assessment of ship-money and a complaint against the gunpowder monopoly, show signs of hostility to the government of Charles I (ib. 1637–8, pp. 233, 598;, Proceedings in Kent, p. 48). During the civil war Weldon was one of the chief men in the parliamentary committee in Kent, and energetically maintained the authority of parliament during the insurrections which took place in that county in 1643 and 1648 (Report on the Duke of Portland's Manuscripts, i. 296, 312, 472, 708; Tanner MSS. lxii. 175, 179; Clarke Papers, ii. 15). On 24 Oct. 1648 parliament ordered him 500l. as a reward for his faithful services (Commons' Journals, vi. 61). He died about 1649.

A portrait, or rather a caricature, of Weldon is given in the ‘Antiquarian Repertory’ (ed. 1808, ii. 320).

By his marriage with Elinor, daughter of George Wilmer, Weldon had eight sons (of whom the youngest, Colonel George Weldon, was father of Ralph Weldon [q. v.]) and four daughters (, i. 261). His eldest son, (fl. 1650), was colonel of a Kentish regiment of foot, under the command of Sir William Waller [q. v.] in 1644, and in April 1645 became a colonel in the new model. He commanded the brigade detached by Fairfax to the relief of Taunton in May 1645, and also had command of a brigade at the siege of Bristol in the following September (, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, pp. 19, 104, 126). On 25 Oct. 1645 the two houses passed an ordinance making him governor of Plymouth (Lords' Journals, vii. 374, 661, viii. 43). In that capacity he obtained various successes (Colonel Weldon's taking of Inchmere House, near Plymouth, 1646, 4to; Articles of Agreement for the Surrender of Charles Fort, 1646), but was involved in continual difficulties from want of money to pay the soldiers of the garrison. Many of Weldon's letters representing their necessitous condition are in print, and, to prevent mutiny, he was finally obliged to raise money on his personal security for their payment (, Memorials of the Civil War, i. 324, 326, 343; Commons' Journals, v. 362, 494, 571). In June 1656 4,000l. was still owing to him, and on 23 Dec. 1656 he was ordered by the Protector 3,300l. in satisfaction for the debt (ib. vii. 419, 549; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1656–7, pp. 209, 224).

Another son, (fl. 1650), was successively captain under Lord Esmond in the garrison of Duncannon, major of the Earl of Lincoln's regiment of horse in Lincolnshire, and major to Sir Michael Livesey's Kentish regiment of horse in Sir William Waller's army. He quarrelled with all these commanders, presenting to parliament in 1643 a charge against the Lincolnshire committee, and in 1644 articles against Sir Michael Livesey (Commons' Journals, iii. 245, 508; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644, p. 171). In 1645 Weldon took service under the Spaniards in Flanders, but lost his command, and was imprisoned owing to a dispute with Lord Goring. In 1648 he returned to England, and endeavoured to get leave to raise a regiment for Venetian service out of the royalist prisoners in the power of the parliament (Commons' Journals, vi. 60). In March 1649 he denounced the intended publication of a translation of the Koran to parliament, and obtained authority to seize it. On 11 Dec. 1650 the council of state