Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/670

BLO coarse, austere, unpolished man. Against this union every feeling of the Lady Penelope's young heart revolted, insomuch that she openly protested at the altar and ever afterwards. As early as 1595 Mountjoy and the Lady Rich had begun to take a peculiar interest in each other, and in 1600 their connection had assumed a criminal form, for Camden says that the lady "had lost the queen's favour for abusing her husband's bed." On Mountjoy's return from Ireland he found her in the highest favour at court, where she shone as one of the brightest stars in that brilliant hemisphere—the gayest in that radiant circle. She immediately left her husband's house and went to live with him at Wanstead, but this does not seem to have affected her position. By common consent all seem to have regarded her case as exceptional, and agreed not to see in her conduct the violation of all decency and propriety; but a step was now taken which suddenly altered all. By an amicable arrangement between all the parties concerned, and, as is alleged, upon the sole confession of the lady herself, of an act of incontinency with a person not named, a sentence of divorce, a mensa et toro, was obtained in the ecclesiastical court, and a marriage was celebrated between her and Lord Devonshire. The king was greatly incensed at this act; and, to appease his wrath, Devonshire wrote a long apology, which is preserved in MS. in the British museum. The king, however, was not to be moved, and told him to his face that he had got a "fair woman with a black soul." The earl's proud heart could not brook the state of degradation and contempt into which he had fallen. He was suddenly seized with a severe illness, of which he died on the 3rd April, 1605, and was buried with great solemnity in St. Paul's chapel in Westminster abbey. He left five illegitimate children by Lady Rich, for the eldest of whom see .—Cottonian, Harl., and additional MSS.; British Museum; State Papers; Lamb MSS.; Moryson's Itinerary; Birch's Letters; Sydney Papers.—M.  BLOUNT,, fifth Lord Mountjoy, succeeded his father in 1535. In 1544 he held a command in the expedition to France, which was conducted with great magnificence by King Henry VIII. in person, who crossed the channel in a ship, the sails of which were made of cloth of gold. Lord Mountjoy's lavish expenditure in this expedition, together with his general extravagance as a courtier, greatly impaired his estate. Like his father, he was a scholar, and a patron of learned men. Died in 1545.—(Croke's Genealogy of the Croke Family, and State Papers.)—M.  BLOUNT, Charles, younger son of Sir Henry Blount, was born in 1654. He wrote a pamphlet, in which he based the claim of William III. upon the right of conquest. This gave great offence, and was burnt by the common hangman. He published another pamphlet on the life of Apollonius Tyaneus, in which he made a violent attack on christianity. He committed suicide in 1698.—(Biog. Brit.)—M.  BLOUNT,, was born in Hertfordshire in 1602, and after being educated at Trinity college, Oxford, he removed to Gray's Inn. In 1634 he set out upon his travels, during which he visited Grand Cairo, and on his return he published, in 1636, his voyage into the Levant, which passed through several editions. King Charles I. conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, but he finally deserted the royal cause, and went over to the parliamentary party, by whom he was made a commissioner of trade. Died in 1682.—(Biog. Brit.)—M.  BLOUNT,, sixth Lord Mountjoy, succeeded his father in 1545. He was one of the peers who sat on the trial of the duke of Norfolk. To repair the dilapidated family estates, he resorted to the study and practice of alchemy, in which he expended large sums, and still further reduced the patrimony of his House. Died in 1593.—M.  BLOUNT,, an English author born in 1619. He wrote "Boscobel, or the History of the King's Escape after the Battle of Worcester," 1681, 8vo; "Fragmenta Antiquitatis, or Ancient Tenures of Lands;" and "Jocular Customs of some Manors," &c. He died in 1679.—(Biog. Brit.)—M.  BLOUNT,, eldest son of Sir Henry Blount mentioned above, was born in 1649, and created a baronet in 1679. He served in several parliaments, and at the Revolution was made commissioner of accounts. He was the author of "Censura Celebriorum Authorum," &c., 1690, folio; "Essays on different Subjects," 8vo; "A Natural History," 1693, 12mo; and "Remarks upon Poetry"—(Biog. Brit.)—M.  BLOUNT,, fourth Lord Mountjoy, succeeded to the title in 1485, and in the following year was appointed a privy councillor to King Henry VII. In 1497 he was appointed one of the commanders of the army sent to suppress the insurrection in Cornwall. In 1499 he had special grant of all the dignities and pre-eminences which his father enjoyed. In 1509 he was appointed master of the mint. In 1512 he was made governor of Hamme; and in the following year, upon the capture of Tournay by King Henry VIII. in person, he was appointed lord-lieutenant. In 1515 he was appointed chamberlain to Queen Catherine of Aragon, which office he continued to hold after her divorce. In 1623 he accompanied the duke of Suffolk in his expedition into France, and in 1526 was elected K.G. He died in 1535. The name of William Lord Mountjoy is connected with the literature of the age in which he lived. He was a great encourager of learning, and was the pupil, friend, patron, and correspondent of the celebrated Erasmus, who, throughout his life, frequently benefited by his bounty.—(Croke's Genealogy of the Croke Family, and State Papers.)—M. <section end="670H" /> <section begin="670I" />BLOUNT,, appointed governor of the "territory south of the Ohio" in 1790, and elected senator of the United States in 1796, when that territory was erected into the present State of Tennessee. The following year he became engaged in a plot for wresting New Orleans and the outlet of the Mississippi from Spain, and transferring them to England, by means of a joint expedition, the British being expected to furnish a naval force, and Blount engaging to raise a corps of backwoodsmen and Indians. But the intrigue was divulged by the British minister to the United States, and by an intercepted letter, and the house of representatives having voted to impeach Blount, the senate expelled him from their body, and held him for trial on the impeachment. The trial was protracted for a long time, and Blount finally escaped conviction, on the two technical pleas that senators were not "officers" liable to be impeached under the constitution, and that, having already been expelled from the senate, he was no longer liable to be brought to its bar. He died at Knoxville, March 26, 1800, aged fifty-six.—B. C. <section end="670I" /> <section begin="670Zcontin" />BLOUNT MOUNTJOY, ninth Lord Mountjoy, earl of Newport, was the eldest natural son of Charles Blount, earl of Devonshire, by Lady Rich. He was born about 1598, and received from his father considerable property in the counties of Northampton, Leicester, and Devon, besides extensive lands in Ireland. In May, 1615, he obtained a license to travel beyond the seas for three years, to acquire a knowledge of foreign languages. He returned, however, before the expiration of that time, and on the 2nd January, 1618, was created Baron Mountjoy of Mountjoy fort in the county of Tyrone in Ireland. On the 2nd June, in the same year, he received another license to travel for a further period of three years. In 1625 he raised, equipped, and trained a troop of a hundred horse, with which he was permitted to enter into the service of the united states of the Low Countries. He also commanded the troop of horse which accompanied the duke of Buckingham in his ill-fated expedition to the Isle of Rhe. On his return in 1627, he was advanced to the English peerage under the title of Baron Mountjoy of Thurseston in Derbyshire, and in 1628 was created earl of Newport in the Isle of Wight. On the 2nd September, 1634, he was granted the office of master of the ordnance for life; and in the year 1641 was made constable of the tower. Having been accused, however, of suggesting, during the king's absence in Scotland, the seizure of the queen and the prince of Wales, he lost the king's confidence, and his majesty's suspicions were further increased when he found that Lord Newport possessed that of the parliament; for when Sir Thomas Lunsford was appointed lieutenant of the tower, such appointment being unsatisfactory to the house of commons, that body forwarded a request to Lord Newport that he would sleep constantly within the fortress. The king being annoyed, and distrusting Lord Newport's fidelity, he was removed from his office as constable on the 26th December, 1641. Notwithstanding this, we find him with the king at York in the following June, where he was one of the noblemen who signed the declaration, testifying their belief that the king had no intention of making war. The parliament, however, commenced the levy of troops, and the king consequently raised his standard at Nottingham on the 25th August. Lord Newport still adhered to the royal party, but appears not to have taken any very active part in the war, devoting himself to the duties of an office which he held in the bedchamber of the prince of Wales. He <section end="670Zcontin" />