Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan.

  • Bryan, George.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, the son of Sir George Villiers, was born in 1592. By the elegance of his person, and the courtliness of his address, he gained as great an ascendance over King James as the favourite of any other prince is known to have done by a long course of assiduity and insinuation. The Earl of Clarendon says, that the duke “ was of a most flowing courtesy and affability to all men who made any address to him, and so desirous to oblige them, that he did not enough consider the value of the obligation, or the merit of the person he chose to oblige; from Avhich much of his mis- fortune resulted.” He married Lady Catherine Manners, the daughter of Francis, Earl of Rutland, by whom he had three sons and a daughter; he was assassinated at Portsmouth in 1628, by one Felton. The eldest son, George, who succeeded him in his title and estates, being very young at the time of his father’s murder, was sent to travel during the civil wars; and returning to England whilst Charles 1. was under restraint, he and his brother. Lord Francis Villiers, thought themselves obliged to venture their lives and fortunes for the king at the first opportunity. Soon after, the Parliament voted that he should be proceeded against as a traitor, and that his estates should be sequestered. _ Sir Thomas More’s house, for such it ought still to be con- sidered, notwithstanding the great alterations made in it, was now known as Buckingham House, in consequence of its having been granted to the first Duke of Buckingham. It appears by the following extract from a periodical paper after that duke’s death, to have been in possession of his daughter Mary, who married James, Duke of Richmond and Lenox : “ The Duchess of Lenox, daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, being then at Oxford, petitioned the Lords for leave to come to London, or to her house at Chelsey, to be under Dr. Mayerne’s hands’ for her health ; a pass was ordered for her, and the concurrence of the Commons desired.” Buckingham House, in 1649, having been seized by the Parliament, Avas committed to the custody of John Lisle, one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal This gentleman’s own estates were afterwards confiscated, and he then retired to the continent. He was shot by some unknown person as he was going to church at Lausanne. A short time after the house was granted to Sir Bulstrode Whitlock, who resided with his family at Chelsea for some years.