Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/339

 1690. The barony became extinct by the death of Lord Shelburne without issue in 1696. It was revived in favour of his brother Henry in 1699, who was further created Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of Shelburne in 1719. These titles becoming extinct on his death without issue in 1751, the estates and property passed to his nephew, John Fitzmaurice, the second surviving son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, who, as his grandson afterwards wrote, had 'married luckily for me and mine, a very ugly woman, who brought into his family whatever degree of sense may have appeared in it, or whatever wealth is likely to remain in it.' This ugly but sagacious woman was Sir William's daughter, Anne Petty, who by marrying in Ireland had complied with the express desire of her father, that such a sum as he had left her in his will should not be carried out of that country.

A short time before his death Sir William had written to Southwell on the question of mourning for the dead. The letter was occasioned by the loss of a favourite child by Sir Robert, who in his grief had asked his friend's views on what degree of sorrow it was legitimate to express by public and outward show. 'When any one dies,' he replied, 'who had promoted your honour, pleasure, or profit, and still desired so to do, 'tis manifest you mourn for yourself and your own Life, and may express or suppress the signs of it, as you think fit to make the world understand what esteem you had of the defunct, and to encourage the living to serve you as the defunct had done. And you shall mourn very properly in this case, if you give to the defunct's surviving friends what you owed to the defunct for the good he had done you in his life more than you had requited by reciprocal kindness; whether by black, called mourning garments, or by rings with Death's heads on them, by boxes of sweetmeats, burnt wine or rosemary within sweet water, or by gloves and scarfs, or any other effectual way or signs of gratitude, which the world understands, but without