Page:Earl Canning.djvu/27

Rh acquired a position in that county, and his lineal descendants continued to reside there till, in the course of the present century, the estate passed, in default of heirs male, to another family.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century (1618), George, the youngest son of one of these Foxcote Cannings, received a grant of the Manor of Garvagh, in Londonderry, from James I. A branch of the Canning family was thus established in Ireland, and had some rude experience of the popular dislike of the intrusive Saxon. William, the son of the original grantee, was killed by the Papists in O'Neill's rebellion. His son, George, was attainted in King James the Second's Parliament at Dublin. Despite these vicissitudes, the family stuck sturdily to their estate, and strengthened their position by various good matrimonial connections. Stratford Canning, fourth in descent from the original grantee, was the father of three sons, George, Paul, and Stratford. He was an austere and irascible parent, whose creaking shoes sounded a note of terror, in after years, in his children's recollection. Both George and Stratford aroused his wrath by lovers' entanglements, and were turned loose upon the world. Both died early, but both left sons who were to fill a large space in contemporary history. Stratford defied his father's ire, married the lady of his choice, settled as a banker in London, and at his death left behind him a six months' infant, who, half a century later, made the name of Stratford de Redcliffe a potent factor in