Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 7.djvu/265

 STRAFFORD. 1628 f») BARON WENTWORTH OF WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE, and BARON OF NEWMAICCir AN'H OVERSLEY, betug (five months later) nr. 13 Dec. 162&, VISCOUNT WEKTWORTH. Re ma I.. President of the Council of the North, 1828-41 ; L. Lieut, of Yorkshire, 1625, and ORain, 104": P.C, 1629 ; L. Dep. Gen. of Ireland, 1632/3, whore he carried out (in his policy of " thorough ") many drastic measures in support of the Royal policy'S : P.C., 1029 ; Yicehoy of Ihk- LANn. as L. Deputy ami (1010) as 1.. Lieut., 10:5-2/3— 1011.) He was a: 2 Jan. 1039-10, Baton of Jiabul') mirl hart of Strafford, as abovcstated ; eh K.G. at York, 12 .Sep. 1010. hut never installed, lie in. firstly, '22 Oct. 1011. at Londesboroiigh, cu. York (lie. York I, Margaret, 1st da. of Francis (CUKKOBO), 4th EaKL ok Ccmbkk IANn, hv Gruel, da. of Thomas Huoues. She, hy whom he had mi issue, <i. about Amr. 1022. and was Imr. at York. He m. secondly, 24 Feb. 102",, Arabella, 2d da. of John (Hor.uB), 1st Kaki. ok (.'lake, hy Anne, da. of .Sir Thomas Stanhope. She d. Oct. 1031. He ?«. thirdly, Oct. 1032, Elizabeth, da of Sir Godfrey RoDF.S, of Great Hanghton, CO. York. The Republic an and Puritanical party in the House of Commons contrived to get a Rill of Attainder of high treason passed in both Houses, to which the King, after having written!*) to him that •'upon the word of a King yon shall not Buffer in life, honour, or fortune," weakly save his con- sent, alleging, by way of excuse, Stafford's well known letter to him consenting to he put to death. He was accordingly executed on Tuwer Hill, 1 '2 May 1641, ( c ) iu his 49th year,( f ) being bur. at Wentworth Woodhouse, and, having been attainted. all kis honuurs became forfeited. »»•**» (") This creation ami Wentworth's sudden leap from a Patriot to a Courtier," was, according to Jesse's " Stuartx" (vol, ii, p. 953), ' the - astonishment tit all men. Presumably [having regard to his after career) "the lea])" was sincere, but Hume, somewhat disparagingly, remai ks (sub " 1030 " ), that " his virtue seems not to havu been entirely pure but to have been susceptible of strong impressions from private interest and ambition." Jesse (nt««pm)add« that, "as Stafford had no apparent claims to the peerage, it was given out that his elevation was solely owing to his illustrious ancestry. Accordingly the preamble to his patent is emblazoned [sic] with a long list of honourable names, and his descent deduced lineally from John of Gaunt." Surely, however, bis individual merits and services deserved a peerage more than those of most who were so honoured at that period. ( b ) In 1639 he was one of the " Junto " (Bee vol. vi, p. 92, note " a,'' sub " North- umberland "), who managed the bulk of the State affairs. ( c ) His taking the title of Raby (which, says Dugdale, was "by reason of his descent from that great family of Nevill, sometime Lords of that place," see p. 262, note " b ") added to his many enemies the notorious Sir Harry Yane who proved one of the most bitter of them ; the castle of Raby which was forfeited by the family of Neville, Earls of Westmorland, temp. E)iz„ being then in Yane's possession to whom it " must have come by purchase or grant from the Crown. He [Yane] had no blood of the Nevilles, tho' his cousin, Sir Thomas Fane, had in. the heiresB of another branch of that illustrious house. Perhaps, as be was a vain [no pun seems to be here intended] man, this coincidence made him particu- larly desirous of obtaining the title of Baron of Raby." f Coffins, vol. iv, p. 505, note '•m.*'] Lord Clarendon mentions it as "an act of the most unnecessary provocation that I have known and I believe was the chief occasion of the loss of hia head." I' 1 ) Strafford Letters, vol. ii, p. 416, as quoted in Jesse's " Stuarts" vol. ii, p. 364. (°) See vol. i, p. 194, note " c," sub " Aubigny," for " the Loyalists Bloody Roll," which begins with his execution. 0 As to him Clarendon aptly quotes the epitaph on Sulla, recorded by Tlutarch, "no man did ever pass him, either doing good to his friends or in doing mischief to his enemies." Sir Ph. Warwick in his " Memoirs " thus describes him, " his natural faculties being very strong and pregnant, his understanding, aided by a good fancy, jnade him quick in discerning the nature of any business, and thro' a cold brain he became deliberate and of a sound judgment. His memory was great, and he made it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was very fluent, and all this was lodged in a sour and haughty temper ... In person he was of a tall stature but stooped much in the neck. His countenance was cloudy, whilst be moved or sat thinking, but when he spake he had a lightsome and a very pleasant air." His portrait "after Van