and make no haste into the Boat they called to him to come away Gentlemen said he I intreat you to excuse my going with you for I now call to mind some extraordinary business which obliges me to stay in Town But his company was too pleasant to be so easily relinquish'd wherefore one of them stepping out of the Boat endeavoured by his importunity to alter his resolution and perswade him to go with them according to his first intention but being not able to prevail he protested he would carry him into the Boat if he would not go willingly so that being unwilling to disoblige them he adventur'd to go although with much reluctancy As they were shooting the Bridge it being low Water the force of the Ebb carried their Boat with such violence against a Loyter that was just gone through before them that she sunk but several Boats presently making towards them they were all sav'd however their design for Bowling at Greenwich was spoiled for that day Having spent some considerable time in the Inns of Court his Relations began to think of disposing of him in Marriage and a suitable Match was enquired after that might answer the largeness of his Fortune At length a Marriage is agreed by the consent of both Families between him and Margaret Daughter to Thomas Lord Coventry sometime Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England whose agreeable Conversation render'd his Life the more pleasant and delightful He had no Issue by this Wife His second Wife was the Lady Frances Daughter to the Earl of Exeter by whom he had Issue his only Son and Heir Anthony Lord Ashly now Earl of Shaftesbury who married the virtuous and ingenious Lady the Lady Dorothy Daughter to John Earl of Rutland by whom he hath Issue two Sons Anthony a Youth of about Twelve years of Age extreamly like his Grandfather both for Person and Parts for which reason he was so dear to him that his Life seemed to be bound up in this Grandsons as Jacobs was said to be in his Son Benjamin's His last Wife was Margaret Daughter to William Lord Spencer a most accomplished and Virtuous Lady whose exemplary Piety is so extraordinary that she may very well be proposed as a pattern for other Noble Personages to imitate her constant custom being to rise by Five of the Clock in the Morning and she usually spends two or three hours there in her private Devotions No sooner did the Fame of his great Abilities reach the Royal Ear but his late Majesty cast a favourable Eye upon him employing him in several eminent Services which he performed with an exact Loyalty to the satisfaction of his Majesty from whose Interest he never departed otherwise then as Hushai from King David when the Tribes of Israel revolted from him in order to the using his Interest for the Service of his Prince and endeavour by his Wisdom and Counsel so to order and influence the Councils and Designs of the Conspirators that they might be the less hurtful to his Soveraign and tend to the overthrow of themselves And it is admirable to contemplate with what dexterous Skill and exquisite Policy he so managed all their Councils as to make them run directly towards and naturally tend to swell the Royal Stream which immediately upon their Ebb flowed so suddenly and swiftly that like a swelling Sea it easily overflowed all those Banks which were cast up to impede its Flux and by its irresistable force bore down all before it until at last it terminated in the full Tide of his Majesties Restoration Like the Generous Hushai never resting until he saw his Ejected Soveraign like the glorious Sun newly escaped from a total Eclipse return to the possession of his Crown and Kingdom His Majesty having December 5. 1639. upon the advice of the Earl of Strafford and Marquess of Hamilton and Doctor Land Archbishop of Canterbury declared his resolution for the calling a Parliament After 11 years interval he was by the unanimous consent of the Inhabitants of the Borough of Tewkesbury in Gloucester-shire chosen to serve as Burgess for that Town Sir Edward Alford being chosen for the other On Monday April 13. 1640. this Parliament opened and were acquainted by his Majesty That he thought never any King had greater cause to call his People together nor more weighty Affairs to confer with them about then himself the particulars whereof he referred to the Lord Keeper By whom they were recommended to the Parliament in an elegant Speech The Parliament sate in debate of those things recommended to them till the fifth of May when his Majesty concluding they were too slow in giving those Supplies he demanded Dissolved them publishing a Declaration thereupon containing an account of his Reasons for that Dissolution This was the fourth Parliament which had been Dissolved by his Majesty In the beginning of our unhappy Troubles he raised a Regiment for the Service of his Majesty and was by him upon the Rupture with the Parliament made Governour of Waymouth being at the same time High Sheriff of the County of Dorset And when he saw that the War would unavoidably break out he summoned by virtue of his Pesse Contitatus the whole County from sixteen years old to meet at Dorchester which is the County Town thereby to engage them to stand by his Majesty But before that day appointed for their Meeting his Majesty sent down Colonel William Ashburnham with a Commission to be Governour of the County of Dorset whereupon he repaired presently to Dorchester and shewed his Commission to the High Sheriff At which time the Sheriff acquainted the Colonel with what he had done in reference to his Majesties Interest by summoning the County wherewith the Colonel was very well pleased But Sir Anthony concluding that the Colonel's being sent to command as Governour of the County notwithstanding his being Governour of Weymouth and high Sheriff of Dorset-shire proceeded from some secret suspition which his Majesty had conceiv'd of his Fidelity perhaps occasioned by the malicious whisperings of some about the King who grew Jealous of him lest the greatness of his Parts should in time have raised him higher in his Majesties Favour and good Opinion then would have consisted with their Interest took Horse the next Morning and went to his own House about 20 Miles from thence the next day he went to his Brothers and from thence to London The day being come for the Counties Meeting they flocked in vast numbers to Dorchester there being scarce a Man in the whole County wanting whereupon the Colonel being informed that the High Sheriff was not in Town went up to the Guild-Hall being accompanied with several of the chief of the Town and told the People That he was glad to see so great an appearance and that they yielded so ready Obedience to the Summons of their Sheriff who was at that time absent telling them that the occasioning of Summoning of them was to engage them to
That he whose Counsels had been so successful in contriving His Restoration might be highly necessary and very much conduce to the Establishment of Him in His Kingdom and to shew the extraordinary Esteem he had for his Parts and Abilities he advanced him to be one of the first Rank in the Council placing him above his Royal Brother the Duke of Gloncester and even General Monke himself whom his Majesty use to 〈◊〉 Political Father And having in sundry respects saith Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Baronage of England whom we cannot suspect of Partiality manifested his Loyalty to Charles the First and his great Affection to his Country in the late perilous and difficult Times and likewise to our present Soveraign by his prudent and seasonable Advice and Consultation with General Monke in order to His Majesties Restoration in consideration of these his acceptable Services he was by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 20th day of April in the Thirteenth Year of His Majesties Raign advanced to the Degree and Dignity of a Baron of this Realm by the Title of Lord Ashly of Wimbourne St. Giles and to the Heirs Males of his Body This Honour was conferred upon him in the Banqueting-House at White-hall three days before His Majesties Coronation in order to his assisting in the performance of that splendid Ceremony And when his Majesty was pleased to issue out the Grand Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Trial of the Regicides directed to several Noble Persons choice was made of this Honourable Lord to be of the number of that Court his Majesty deeming him to be a Person whose Prudence and Loyalty render'd him as deserving of the Honour to which his Majesty therein preferred him as any other contained in that Commission And as if his Majesty had so high a Valuation for his Lordship that he thought his profound Parts and exemplary Loyalty merited a perpetual confluence of Royal Favours he raised him at several times to higher degrees of Honour making him Chancellor of his Exchequer Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer Lord Lieutenant of the County of Dorset and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury But all these being too small to compensate his Merits and demonstrate the Royal Bounty and Princely Gratitude of his Soveraign whose Generous Nature inclines him to delight in nothing more then to reward like a King He was advanced to the Title and Dignity of an Earl being in the year 1672. created Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Cooper of Paulet to him and the Heirs Males of his Body by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 23 d. day of April in the Twenty Fourth Year of his Majesties Raign And in November following upon the Resignation of Sir Orlando Bridgeman his Majesty to gratifie the uninterrupted good Services of the Earl of Shaftesbury Chancellor of his Exchequer and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury was pleased to give unto him the Keeping of the said Great Seal with the Title of Lord High Chancellor of England these are the words of the Gazette being the second Person that had enjoyed that Title since his Majesties Raign Whereby he was placed by his Great Master in the highest Orb that any Subject could possibly move in The Kings Conscience being as it were committed to his Care and Management And with what Prudence and Candour Honour and Integrity he acquitted himself in that great and weighty Imployment the Transactions of the Court of Chancery during the time of his Chancellorship will best testisie Justice then run in an equal Channel so that the Cause of the Rich was not suffer'd to swallow up the Rights of the Poor nor was the strong or cunning Oppressor permitted to devour the weak or unskilful Opposer but the abused found Relief suitable to their Distress and those by whom they were abused a severe Reprehension answerable to their Crimes The mischievous Consequences which commonly arise from the delays and other practices of that Court were by his ingenious and judicious Management very much abated and every thing weighed and determined with such an exact Judgment and Equity that it almost exceeds all possibility of belief And because the Traducers of this Lords Loyalty not only reproach him with the Tap which was an unquestionable Mark of Loyalty and Honour it being got in conducting his Majesty to his Crown and Kingdom but have likewise quarrel'd at his constant Faithfulness to the Royal Interest and endeavour'd to abuse every thing he did for his Majesties Service as they have done the speech he made to the Parliament upon the account of the Dutch War And that the World may see the temper of the Men and upon what ground it is they were his Enemies I have set down the Speech verbatim as follows My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commous THe King hath spoken so fully so excellently well and so like Himself that you are not to expect much from me There is not a word in His Speech that hath not its full weight And I dare with assurance say will have its effect with you His Majesty had called you sooner and His Affairs required it but that He was resolved to give you all the ease and vacancy to your own private Concerns and the People as much respit from Payments and Taxes as the necessity of His Business or their Preservation would permit And yet which I cannot but here mention to you by the Crafty insinuations of some ill affected persons there have been spread strange and desperate Rumours which your Meeting together this day hath sufficiently proved both malicious and false His Majesty hath told you that He is now engaged in an important very expensive and indeed a War absolutely necessary and unavoidable He hath referred you to His Declaration where you will find the Personal indignities by Pictures and Medals and other publique affronts His Majesty hath received from the States their Breach of Treaties both in the Surinam and East-India business and at last they came to that heighth of Insolence as to deny the honour and right of the Flag though an undoubted Jewel of this Crown never to be parted with and by them particularly owned in the late Treaty of Breda and never contested in any Age. And whilest the King first long expected and then solemnly demanded Satisfaction they disputed His Title to it in all the Courts of Christendom and made great Offers to the French King if he would stand by them against us But the most Christian King too well remembred what they did at Munster contrary to so many Treaties and solemn Ingagements and how dangerous a Neighbour they were to all Crowned heads The King and His Ministers had here a hard time and lay every day under new Obloquies Sometimes they were represented as selling all to France to make this War Portsmouth Plymouth and Hull were to be given into the
A place that requires such a Man as our great Masters Wisdom hath found for it from whose Natural temper we may expect Courage Quickness and Resolution from whose Education Wisdom and Experience and from whose Extraction that Noble and Illustrious House of the Cliffords an Heroick Mind a large Soul and an unshaken Fidelity to the Crown My Lord it 's a great Honour much beyond even the place it self that you are chosen to it by this King who without Flattery I may say is as great a Master in the knowledge of Men and Things as this or any other Age hath produced And let me say farther It is not only your Honour that you are chosen by Him but it is your Safety too that you have him to serve with whom no subtile Insinuations of any near him nor the aspiring Interest of a Favourite shall ever prevail against those that serve him well Nor can his Servants fear to be sacrificed to the Malice Fury or Mistake of a more swelling Popular greatness a Prince under whom the unfortunate fall gently a Prince in a word that best of all Mankind deserves that Title Deliciae humani generis My Lord I will not hold you long for you have a Journey to go after you have taken your Oath and your place in this Court you are according to ancient Custom to visit all the Offices in the upper and lower Exchequer and therefore let me end with this Wish or rather Prophesie That you may exceed all your Predecessors the Abilities and Fidelity of the Renowned Lord Burleigh the Sagacity Quickness and great dispatch of his Son the Lord Salisbury and the Uprightness Integrity and Wisdom of that great Man that went last before you the Earl of Southampton And as the E. endeavors were incessant to serve his Soveraign so he was no less solicituos to serve the Publick good endeavoring to make the Courts of Judicature as much as possible answer the Ends for which they were designed viz. The ease of the Subject labouring to have the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects Property so interwoven that they might always be inseparable as appears by that excellent Speech made by him in the Exchequer January 24. 1673. at Serjeant Thurlands taking the Oath in order to be made a Baron as followeth Mr. Serjeant Thurland THe King of his Grace and Favour hath made choice of you to be one of the Barons of the Exchequer he designed to place you in a Court of more profit though not of more Dignity but your own modesty hath chosen this Court where you thought you could serve the King best and I could not choose but mention it here to your Honour it being the greatest Instance of a good Man That he had rather be found serviceable than rich His Majesty hath had large proof of your former Service besides he takes you upon the Credit of that Recommendation that hath justly the best place with him I mean his Royal Brothers Some few things it is fit I should here mention to you and leave with you as Admonitions or rather Remembrances In the first place you are to maintain the Kings Prerogative and let not the Kings Prerogative and the Law be two things with you for the Kings Prerogative is Law and the principal of it Therefore in maintaining that you maintain the Law The Government of England is so excellently interwoven that every part of the Prerogative hath a broad mixture of the Interest of the Subject the ease and safety of the People being inseparable from the greatness and security of the Crown In the next place let me advise you that you acquaint your self with the Revenue as also the ancient Records Precedents and Practices of this Court for want of which knowledge I have seen this Court a most excellent Common Pleas when at the same time I could not say so much for it as an Exchequer In the Third place Let me recommend to you so to manage the Kings Justice and the Revenue as the King may have most profit and the Subjects least Vexation Raking for old Debts the number of Informations Projects upon Concealments I could not find in the Eleven years Exprerience I have had in this Court ever to advantage the Crown but such proceedings have for the most part delivered up the Kings good Subjects into the hands of the worst of Men. There is another thing I have observed in this Court which I shall mind you of which is when the Court hearkens too much to the Clerks and Officers of it and are too apt to send out Process when the Money may be raised by other ways more easie to the People I do not say that the Kings Duty should be lost or that the strictest course should not be taken rather then that be for when you consider how much the Officers of this Court and the Under-sheriffs get by Process upon small Sums more then the Kings Duty comes to and upon what sort of People this falls viz. The Farmer Husbandman and Clothier in the Country that is generally the Collector Constable and Tyshingman and so disturbs the Industrious part of the Nation you will think it fit to make that the last way when no other will serve Give me leave also to mind you of one thing more it is in your Oath That the Kings Needs ye shill speed before all others that is the business of the Revenue of the Crown you are to dispatch before all other and not turn your Court into a Court of Common-Pleas and let that justle out what you were constituted for In the last place Let me conclude with what concerns all my Lords the Judges as well as you let me recommend to you the Port and Way of Living suitable to the Dignity of your Place and what the King allows you There is not any thing that gains more Reputation and Respect to the Government then that doth and let me tell you Magistrates as well as Merchants are supported by their Reputation To his successful Counsel do both King and Kingdom owe the happy Conduct of Affairs for many years together the events of his Advices always agreeing with and answering the Ends for which they were at first proposed so that the King seldom fail'd of any thing that was carried on by his direction for which reason his wise Administration and management of Things had as it were incorporated him into the very Heart of his Prince So that all Men began now to conclude That this great Man whose constant Loyalty had render'd him so dear to His Majesty was too firmly fix'd and rooted in the Royal Favour than ever to be removed or alienated therefrom since he did as most Men imagin'd sit so high and withal so safely that he was above the reach of Envy or the possibility of being undermined by any subtle and false Insinuations or sacrific'd to the malice of any aspiring Favourite Yet Fortune who is always fickle and constant in
being Landed at Pool in Dorsetshire the Gentlemen of the County to shew the extraordinary respect they had to his Lordship and although they were not invited yet they got together and went in a body to meet the Corps and accompany'd it to his ancient Seat at Wimbourn St. Giles's where he was decently and honourably Interred and will have a stately Monument erected over him He made his Countess Sir William Cooper c. Executors of his Will wherein he gave very liberally to his Grand-Son the Lord Ashley and Intailed the whole Estate upon him after the death of his Son the present Earl of Shaftsbury And as he had formerly been the making of several of his Servants and others by his Liberality so he was no less bountiful at his Death having left very considerable Legacies to his Servants especially those who were with him in Holland besides several Gifts to pious and charitable uses And having thus traced this Nobleman from the Cradle through all the Labyrinths and Vicissitudes of his Life to the Hour of his Death and from thence to his Envied Grave I shall conclude this Tract with his Character a Character so extraordinary and rare that it will certainly deserve and therefore justly command the Admiration of all men But I will fist incert the Elegy and Character of Sir Walter Rawleigh wherewith the Author of his Life concludes his History thereof GReat Heart who taught thee so to die Death yielding thee the Victory Where took'st thou leave of life If here How could'st thou be so far from fear But sure thou diest and quit'st the state of Flesh and Blood before that fate Else what a Miracle was wrought To triumph both in flesh and thought I saw in every stander by Pale Death Life only in thine Eye The Legacy thou gav'st us then We 'll sue for when thou diest agen Farwel Truth shall this Story say We died Thou only livest that day Thus died that Knight who was Spain's Scourge and Terrour and Gondamor's Triumph whom the whole Nation pitied and several Princes interceded for Queen Elizabeths Favourite and her Successors Sacrifice a Person of so much Worth and so great Interest that King James would not execute him without an Apology One of such incomparable Policy that he was too hard for Essex was the Envy of Leicester and Cicill's Rival who grew jealous of his excellent Parts and was afraid of being supplanted by him His Head was wished on the Secretarie's Shoulders and his Life valued by some at an higher Rate than the Infanta of Spain though a Lady incomparably excelling in both the Gifts of Mind and Body Authors are perplex'd under what Tophick to place him whether of Statesman Sea-man Souldier Chymist or Chronologer for in all these he did excell he could make every thing he read or heard his own and his own he could easily improve to the greatest Advantage He seemed to be Born to that onely which he went about so dexterous was he in all his Undertakings in Court Camp by Sea by Land with Sword and with Pen. The Earls person was somewhat small but very comely God and Nature having distributed in the framing thereof an exact agreeableness and an equal proportion to every Part and Member But as the smallest Cabinets usually inclose the Richest Jewels so his little Body inclosed a great and vastly Capatious Soul the Virtues and Perfections whereof as far transcended the generallity of the offspring of Adam as Gold exceeds Silver or Diamonds transcends Pebles in value He had a couragious and undaunted Mind a deep Judgment and a quick and ready Apprehension he was Religious towards God Loyal to his Prince True to his Country Faithful to his Friends Charitable to his Enemies Liberal to the Poor Chaste in his Affections and made the keeping of his Solemn Contracts in Marriage Sacred and Inviolable and the preserving his Chaste Soul free from Polution a considerable part of his Religion He was Courteous and Affable in his Carriage towards all Men Sociable and Free in his Converse yet so wonderfully reserved as to any of his great Designs and Projects that he never revealed his Intentitions to the nearest Relations or the most intimate Friends which made him so extraordinary usefull to His Majesty in the late Times and rendered him capable of ordering and disposing all publick Actions and Councils so that they naturally tended towards his Restoration 'T was his close and reserv'd temper that rendered the penetrating into his Sentiments and Intentions a work so intricate and perplexing that the greatest diligence of the many Spies who had their Eyes constantly fix'd upon and perpetually watched and pried into his Actions were not able to effect it and made it a Task too hard and difficult even for Cromwel himself to perform It was that which rendered those who undertook it unable to prove him Guilty of a Plot wherein he was really engaged and was a principal promoter and contriver thereof Viz. The rising of Sir George Booth And this close and reserved temper strongly argues his Innocency in the late charge of Treason for can any Man in his right Senses imagine that the Earl who had till now been so reserved and private in all his Designs even to near Relations noble Personages and familiar Friends should all on a suddain relinquish his constant and avowed Practice and transform himself into a perfect Changeling by freely discovering that he designed no less than Rebelling against his Soveraign The levying Men the forming of an Army and deposing the King and thereby put himself into the Power and expose his Life and Honour to the mercy of Six or Eight needy and mercinary Fellows That he should do so will appear very improbable if we reflect upon the temper of the Earl and the condition of the Men who pretended to such a familiarity with him and insight into his Designs unless we can suppose that the longer he lived the more foolish he grew or that the more experience he had of the endeavours of the Papists to effect his Ruine by fixing the Guilt of Treason upon him the more careful he would be to furnish them with Witnesses to prove and make good their Charge He was such a Proficient in Wisdom and Policy that he seem'd like a Second Solomon and so clear an understanding of the Mysteries both of Law and Divinity that he could easily and with great readiness resolve the most difficulty Queries and discuss the greatest Mysteries and Critical Nicities thereof Which made Dr. Ward Bishop of Sailsbury who held an intimate Correspondence with him delight in his Converse and value his acquaintance at a high rate And so did Sir Matthew Hailes Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench and many more both Lawyers and Divines who had the happiness to be acquainted with him And occasioned His Majesty as it is said upon the being informed of his desiding a very difficult Case when he was Chancellor to affirm as