Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/171

 first lord Hatton [q. v.] He defended himself from the charge of having been bribed by the Romanists to introduce popery into England, declared that he held the English church to be ‘not only a true and orthodox church, but the most pure and neere the primitive of any in the Christian world,’ and that he had not added one foot of land to the five hundred pounds' worth left him by his father—a poor return for their eighty years spent in the service of the state (Addit. MS. 59569, ff. 336–7). He wrote in a similar strain to Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.]; but at Paris, where he arrived early in January 1640–1, his behaviour belied the pitiful tone of his letters. ‘He is as merry as if he were the contentedest man living,’ wrote Aylesbury to Hyde; and the letters of introduction which, in spite of his hasty flight, he had obtained from Charles I and Henrietta Maria smoothed his way in the French capital, where he was not likely to be popular on account of his Spanish sympathies. Probably with a view to increasing his difficulties, parliament in 1642 published an account of an alleged plot hatched by Windebank against the life of Louis XIII and Richelieu because they refused open aid to the royalists (New Treason plotted in France, being the Project of Finch and Windebank …, London, 4to). He also appears to have had a hand with his friend Walter Montagu [q. v.] in a scheme for rescuing Strafford from the Tower (Harl. MS. 379, f. 88; Letters of Em. Lit. Men, p. 369).

In spite of the dangers on which Windebank dilated to his son (Addit. MS. 27382, ff. 239–44) he remained in Paris till his death, with the exception of a visit to England in the autumn of 1642, when he was refused access to the king at Oxford. He was back at Paris in July 1643 (cf. Cal. Clarendon State Papers, i. 243), and died there on 1 Sept. 1646, having shortly before been received into the Roman catholic church (‘Mem. of the Capuchin Mission’ apud Court and Times of Charles I, ii. 400–1;, Church Hist. iii. 59).

By his wife, whose name has not been ascertained, Windebank had a large family. Laud referred in 1630 to his ‘many sons’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629–31, p. 297). He had five at least, and four survived him. The eldest, Thomas, born about 1612, was intended to follow in his father's footsteps. He matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 13 Nov. 1629, aged 17, but did not graduate. In 1631 his father secured for him the reversion of a clerkship of the signet, and soon afterwards he entered the service of the earl marshal. In 1635–6 he was travelling in Spain and Italy, whence he returned to take up his duties as clerk of the signet. He was M.P. for Wootton Basset in the Short parliament of 1640, sided with the king in the civil war, and was created a baronet on 25 Nov. 1645. He compounded on the Oxford articles (Cal. Comm. for Comp. p. 1465), and left a son Francis, on whose death in 1719 the baronetcy became extinct. The second son, Francis, was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 19 March 1632–3 (Reg. 1896, i. 220), entered the service of Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafford (Strafford Letters, i. 256, 361–2, 369, 416), was made usher of the chamber to Prince Charles (ib. ii. 167), became a colonel in the royalist army, and was appointed governor of Bletchingdon House, near Oxford. This he surrendered at the first summons to the parliamentary forces in April 1645, and was consequently tried by a royalist court-martial and shot. He was married, and left a daughter Frances (, Original Letters, i. 84;, iii. 59; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. i. 150; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, p. 631). Another son, Christopher, born in 1615, was a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1630 to 1635 (, Reg. v. 124–7). He was then sent to Madrid ‘to understand that court,’ and lived for a time with the English ambassador, Sir Arthur Hopton [q. v.] In 1638 he made an imprudent marriage, which cost him his post, and on 5 Aug. 1639 Hopton suggested that his wife should be placed in a convent. Subsequently, being ‘a perfect Spaniard and an honest man,’ he was found useful as a guide and interpreter by English ambassadors at Madrid (, Rebellion, ed. Macray, bk. xii. § 103 note). The fifth son, John, baptised at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 11 June 1618, was by Laud's influence admitted a scholar of Winchester in 1630 (, p. 174; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629–31, p. 297). He matriculated from New College, Oxford, on 23 Sept. 1634, graduated B.A. on 5 April 1638 and M.A. on 22 Jan. 1641–2. He was fellow from 1636 to 1643, when apparently he went abroad. He compounded on 9 Aug. 1649, being fined only 10s., and was created M.D. on 21 June 1654 on Cromwell's letters as chancellor. In these letters it was stated that he had spent some time in foreign parts in the study of physic, and had practised for some years with much credit and reputation. He practised at Guildford, and was admitted honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1680. He