Autographs of royal, noble, learned, and remarkable personages conspicuous in English history, from the reign of Richard the Second to that of Charles the Second; with some illustrious foreigners; containing many passages from important letters. Engraved under the direction of Charles John Smith. Accompanied by concise biographical memoirs, and interesting extracts from the original documents / by John Gough Nichols.

  • John Gough Nichols
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Autographs of royal, noble, learned, and remarkable personages conspicuous in English history, from the reign of Richard the Second to that of Charles the Second; with some illustrious foreigners; containing many passages from important letters. Engraved under the direction of Charles John Smith. Accompanied by concise biographical memoirs, and interesting extracts from the original documents / by John Gough Nichols. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    250/264 (page 244)
    5. Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Knight and Baronet, Keeper of the Great Seal, was son of Dr. John Bridge man, Bishop of Chester. He had been Attorney to the Prince of Wales previous to the Rebellion ; was soon after the Restoration appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and in 1667 Lord Keeper. His reputation, which had been great as a lawyer, declined after his elevation to the Court of Chancery ; and his dismissal was occasioned in 1672, by his refusal to affix the seal to the Declaration for liberty of conscience; for he was a man of great integrity, and very serious impressions of religion. The Earl of Bradford is his lineal descendant. [.Portraits by Faithorne, R. White, and Vandergucht.] His Signature, “ Orl. Bridgeman,” is from a letter to Mr. Secretary Rushworth in the same volume, art. 86. It is dated “ Ted- dington, Sept. 17th,” where he was lodging in the house of Mr. Auditor Philips, in whose favour the letter is written, that gentleman being much burthened by the quartering of five soldiers on him. 6. Heneage Finch, second Earl of Winchelsea, having been made Constable of Dover Castle by General Monk, was of some service in the Restoration of Charles the Second, who rewarded him with a Barony (a feather that he possessed not before, being only Viscount Maidstone and Earl of Winchelsea), under the title of Lord Fitz-herbert of Eastwell. He afterwards went Ambassador to Turkey, and died in 1689. The Earl’s Signature is from the same volume, art. 85, attached to the following undirected note, which, as connected with domestic and local circumstances, is interesting: “ Sr, There being a parte of youre army already advanced into our County of Kent, and although the behaviour of your soldiery (through your gallant discipline) be such as few can blemish with the tax of disorder; yet, rhy wife being bigge with childe, and the name of a soldier being very terrible to one in her condicion, I earnestly entreate the noble favour of your protection for my house and parish where she now is, it being called by the name of Eastwell. This courtesie, Sr, if you please to afford by this bearer, I shall acknowledge my selfe, “Aug. 16, 1647. Youre most obliged servant to command, H. Winchelsea. 7. Philip Skippon was Major-General in the Army of the Parliament, President of the Council of War, and Governor of Bristol. He commanded the infantry atNaseby, and was grievously wounded. He afterwards went the greatest lengths with the Republican party, was one of Cromwell’s Council of State, and had ,^=1000 a-year in lands assigned him by the Parliament. He died about the period of the Restoration. [Portrait in Ricraft, copied by Richardson.] His flourishing Sign-manual is from the volume which furnished the four preceding, art. 68. 8. Oliver St. John, a distant kinsman of the Baronial family of that name, was a lawyer who held several very distinguished appointments under the Commonwealth. He had borne a prominent part among the dis¬ contented members of the House of Commons, when, with hopes of soothing him, he was appointed Solicitor- general to the King in 1640. He afterwards became Attorney-general in 164 .., Chief Justice of the Com¬ mon Pleas, a Commissioner of the Parliament Great Seal, one of the Assembly of Divines, and a member of the Council of State. From March 1650 to May 1651 he was absent as Ambassador in Holland. At the Restoration, having accumulated great wealth, he is presumed to have purchased his safety with it. He retired to the Continent, and died at Augsburg, Dec. 31, 1673, aged 75. From the marriage of his daughter, with her distant cousin Sir Walter St.John, the present Viscount Bolingbroke is descended. [Portrait, at Longthorpe, by Vandyke, not engraved^ It was to Secretary Thurloe he signed himself “ Yr most affectionate servf, Ol. St. John.” Sloane MSS. 4158, fol. S05. 9. William, first Lord Grey of Wark, was of a knightly family in Northumberland, whose fortune had been greatly increased by the termination of the border warfare on the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland. He was created a Baronet in 1619, and a Peer (by purchase ; see “Nichols’s Progresses of James the First,” vol. III. p.964,) in 1623-4. Lord Clarendon remarks that these new Peers were the King’s worst friends. In 1643 he was chosen Speaker of the House of Peers on the desertion of Lord Lyttleton. Lord Grey died July 29, 1674; his grandson was the first Earl of Tankerville. Earl Grey is descended from his uncle Sir Edward. His Lordship’s official Signature is from the following announcement of a vote of thanks (preserved in Sloane MSS. 1519, art. 54): “ For the honble Sr Tho. Farefax, Com'ander in chiefe of the Parlement forces, thes. “ Noble Sir, The Lords the Peers in Parlement havinge taken especiall notice, by yr Letter, of so intire a victory, com'ande rue to signify unto you in ther names that, next to the power of God, they must attribute much to your great courage and gallant conduct, for which they must ever hold you in theire deerest esteeme. For my p’ticuler I am a true lover of your vertue. “ Westminster, June 23d. Your most affectionate friend, Grey of Wark, Speaker of the House of Peers p. t. (pro temp.).” 10. Edward, second Earl of Manchester, K. G. was created K. B. at the Coronation of Charles the First, and summoned to Parliament in his father’s Barony of Kimbolton in 1627. Having married a daughter of the puritan Earl of Warwick, he became totally estranged from the Court. He was the only Peer charged