Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/157

 THE EXETER LINE 133

Cromwell is said to have shown great courtesy to the inmates of Burghley House after its capture, and to have presented the Countess of Exeter, widow of the late Earl, with the portrait of himself by Walker, which is still in the collection there. The Countess being a staunch Parliamen- tarian, this was no more than her due.

Of John, the fourth Earl of Exeter, nothing is recorded except that he was for many years Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and that he married first, Frances, daughter of the eighth Earl of Rutland, 1 and secondly, Mary, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland. He died in 1678 at the age of fifty.

He left two children, for both of whom he had provided what he considered suitable alliances. John, his son and heir, was married, all unwilling, to a wealthy widow, Anne, Lady Rich, only daughter of the third Earl of Devonshire and Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of the second Earl of Salisbury. "He can endure my Lady Rich as well as any other wife," wrote a friend of the family, 2 " but he had rather have none." How- ever, there is no reason to suppose that he regretted his marriage.

His sister, Lady Frances Cecil, was described by Lady Campden 3 as "one of the impudentest women as ever was known or heard of." Married

1 Another daughter married the third Earl of Salisbury. See p. 230.

2 Lady Sunderland to Lady Giffard, January 28th, 1668 (Life and Letters of Lady Giffard).

3 In a letter of August 25th, 1681. Quoted by G. E. C., Complete Peerage, s.v. Scudamore.

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