Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A70678
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Some notes concerning the life of Edward Lord North, Baron of Kirtling, 1658 by Sir Dudley North Lord North.
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North, Dudley North, Baron, 1602-1677.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing N1286A; ESTC R678
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21,672
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50
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their Judges giving to Copyholders a Tenure by custom as they grew altogether deaf at the call of their Landlords And so it was found by this our Edward and others who would have used their Tenants for service of the Crown in foreign wars under Henry the 8th This was some inconvenience to the Prince but little in comparison of that which hath shewed it self in these latter times wherein the Commonalty or third Estate hath assumed a power not only to subject their Sovereign to a jurisdiction established by the said Commons but to abolish the Regal power it self and as a consequent thereunto to bring the ancient Peerage to a level with themselves And this may be very much attributed to the former extirpation of power in great persons who stood as a wall of defence between Prince and People The other part of the ordinary Militia consisted in the arraying of all persons fit for War defensive and this was first managed by Commissioners of Array authorised from time to time by the Kings themselves which made them to countenance it much more than the other But in process of time this power residing in many who are more subject to find out dilatory scruples than a single person gave occasion to the Princes more to affect the placing of it in some one for one may more easily be commanded and is more subject to an account upon miscarriage But on the other side this gave more offence to the Commons in Parliament who bear the Purse for supply of their Princes extraordinary occasions which perhaps might be the cause of Queen Elizabeth's laying it down for that time though she resumed it afterwards After this it appeareth not that Edward Lord North ever desired other than an exemption from publick employments with a quiet enjoyment of himself and of the fruits of his past labours and in this it pleased God to bless him very far for he had little publick molestation yet was he not free from disquiet at home by reason of some apprehensions arising within his own family by the prodigality of his eldest Son for whom as is exprest in his Will he was constrained at the last to pay a great debt besides much of the same nature formerly In those days the sum which he paid was esteemed very great yet was not the debt so considerable in his thoughts as a disposition in his Son easily discernible as he esteemed to proceed in the same way of expence He feared that this would make the young man to exceed all bounds when he should become master of his Estate which made the impression so deep with him as he failed not to admonish his Son in the said Will with very great reflexions upon him as to his prudence and perhaps it wrought great effects after the Father's death And here may be noted that the ablest persons make their judgments as to the future with great incertainty for Roger Lord North proved a most industrious and provident man and a person of great honour for he was Ambassadour extraordinary from Queen Elizabeth to Charles the 9th of France and bare many other publick employments abroad and at home till at the last he became Treasurer of the houshold to the Queen and one of her Privy-Council dying with that Character upon him in which he exceeded his Father Neither had Edward Lord North any greater hopes of Sir Thomas North his other Son who though a man of courage a man learned as appears by divers translations of his and indued with very good parts otherwise yet never had a steadiness comparable to his Brother which made the Father to settle his Estate by way of Entail as strongly to prevent Alienations as the Law of those times would bear with a remainder to his Kindred of Walkeringam as hath been already touched And in the year 1563 he made the Will before-mentioned and constituted Sir William Cordall and Sir James Dyer Executors of the same both of them persons very eminent in those times Sir William being Master of the Rolls and Sir James Dyer Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. In the year succeeding having crowned his wisedom by a discreet settlement of his private fortune he paid his last debt to Nature ending his life with the Julian year on the last day of December and so changed this for a better being then about the 68th year of his age as near as we can gather by conjecture Thus terminated the life of this noble and worthy person who hid not the talent wherewith his Maker entrusted him but improved it for the advantage of his Nation and Family which ought to be an eternal honour to him His marriages were two whereof the first was to Alice Squier Daughter to a Gentleman estated in Hamp-shire she then being Widow of Edward Myrfyn Son to an Alderman of London so named and having also had a former Husband called Brigantine or Brickenden and by each of these Husbands one Son By this Wife he had four Children whereof Roger Lord North and Sir Thomas North have already been named and in some sort Characterized herein The other two were Daughters whereof Christian the elder was married to William Earl of Worcester and Mary the younger to Henry Lord Scroope of Bolton Of every one of these four there is Posterity left and now grown so numerous in the whole and it is become so far an honour to their common Progenitor as I my self who am the Grandchild of his Grandchild may in the year of our Lord 1658 affirm that I know not any of the Race that have as yet applied themselves to courses dishonest or dishonourable This Lady Alice as she brought him a considerable estate in Marriage so she was a great and constant assistant to him in the improvement of his fortunes always shewing her self a discreet and provident person in the government of his domestique affairs and she continued so till the time of her death which hapned some four or five years before that of her husband who failed not to yield a fair mention of her goodness in his Testament desiring also to be buried with her at Kirtling His second and last Wife was the Lady Margaret Widow to Sir David Brooke and surely she was a person worthy of his choice for he shewed much care of her in his last settlement by Will which is all that I shall need to say of her By his Picture whereof there is yet a copy remaining with us he appears to have been a person of moderate stature somewhat inclining to corpulency and of a reddish hair As for his inward abilities it were extravagant to question them in a man so versed in affairs of State as a Privy-Counsellour and that sate at the Stern so many years in an eminent place of Judicature Such persons seldom want elocution sufficient but if we may judge of his Oratory by his Letters he seemed rather to have affected the delivery of a full and clear sense
such points of belief as had small relation to that competition for power But to return to our business the person whose Life we endeavour to describe soon found a difference between his old Master King Henry who already had gratified most of those which had shewed themselves active in his service and the Duke of Somerset newly made Protector of the King's person for this man that he may advance to places of honour and power those persons who have their dependance upon him must either find or force a way for the effecting of it with them who are in possession of those dignities And King Edward had not reigned two years before Richard Sackvill Esq had the Chancellourship of the Augmentations in his eye and with all so great an interest in the Protector as to engage him strongly in the pursuit For the Protector soon caused the business to be proposed to the person whom it chiefly concerned and he finding himself too weak to wrestle with a man that did little less than govern the whole Kingdom in those days thought fit so far to give way as to bring the matter to a treaty wherein he carried himself so like his arts Master though the Protector in person was witness to most of it as he parted with the place upon terms very considerable for honour security and profit and yet ordered the business in such a manner as the Protector could not but take himself to be obliged in it as may appear by the articles of agreement between Sackvill and him and by other writings under Seal belonging to that business where the expressions seem to lay all the weight upon the Lord Protector who is therein styled Mr. Sackvill's good Lord. Thus by his wisedom he not only prevented a mischief which might have befallen him in the opposition and preserved himself in the dignity of a Privy Counsellor but gained a fresh interest in the Duke of Somerset that might have made him great returns But it pleased God to dispose of matters otherwise for the Protector soon lost not only his power but his life being supplanted by the subtile practices of John afterwards Duke of Northumberland who though he assumed not the other's title of Protector yet bare no less sway in the government and demeaned himself with much greater insolence than Somerset About this time Sir Edward North finding way made upon him concerning his great office thought good to strengthen himself by alliance matching his eldest Son with the Lady Winifride Daughter to Richard Lord Rich then Lord Chancellor of England and Widow to Henry Dudley eldest Son to the said Duke of Northumberland but neither that alliance nor any of his other dependencies gave him encouragement to seek farther advancement during the reign of King Edward so as then he endeavoured as it seems only to make good his former station waiting for better opportunity In the mean time as appears by an account of his houshold expences he shewed himself worthy of greater honour by living in a way of more eminency than hath been usual with persons of his condition in those and the following times and then also his wisedom prompted him to have an eye to the Princess Mary next in succession to the Crown for he forgot not to put her in mind of him by presents This had been worthy of commendation if he had done it only as a testimony of gratitude to her Father but he may well be thought to have carried on a farther design in it for we find not any such thing done in relation to the Princess Elizabeth the other Sister and whether or no he did then discern some declination in the health of King Edward who is said to have died of a Consumption it is not easie to unfold Yet such was the iniquity of those times as his great foresight could not prevent his being involved together with the rest of the Privy-Council all the great officers and most of the eminent persons in and near the Court and City of London in a danger even by way of opposition to the said Princess Mary which in probability would have swallowed up any small number of them if they had been severed For the Duke of Northumberland foreseeing the certainty of the King's death had so wrought upon his tender age and weakness as to make him as far as in him lay to disinherit both his Sisters and to establish the Succession in the Lady Jane Grey his near kinswoman then joined in Matrimony to the Lord Guilford Dudley one of the Duke's Sons This was done by Testament and because there was an Act of Parliament to the contrary the Duke thought it not of sufficient validity without the concurrence and confirmation of all those who were then in power wherefore he caused a Subscription to be tendered to every one of them and so apprehensive were they of his displeasure with the consequences of it as there is no refusal recorded but that of Sergeant Hales one of the puney Judges for it seems that all the rest subscribed This action of his may seem to question both the Integrity and wisedom of our Progenitor and to vindicate him in it will require a digression of some length To plead infirmity as a defence is not worthy of a person so eminent for wisedom though Metus qui potest cadere in virum fortem doth very much excuse and though it may very well become a Statesman to prevent a present danger with the hazard of a much greater in the future for as the Italians say Chi ha tempo ha vita He who hath time hath life which consideration made the then chief Justice of the King's Bench upon this very occasion when his Brother of the Common Pleas told him that they might both of them be hanged twenty years after if they should subscribe the Testament to return this Answer That it was most true but yet as true that if they subscribed it not the Duke of Northumberland might chance to hang them presently But in my opinion it is not much to be doubted but Sir Edward North had for his security a better reserve which is this a knowing that the Princess Mary had received assurances from him to be faithfull to her and to her interests in the way of allegiance next to her Brother's person and Posterity if any should be which made her notwithstanding this Subscription not only to continue him in his former dignity but to advance him a degree higher in the very first year of her reign And this course of his to hold himself in power with an intention to serve his lawfull Sovereign who knew that intention could not but be very serviceable to her and being so how could it give any great offence in a thing so generally done And as for his own concernments it cannot well be doubted but they would prompt him to his then compliance self preservation at that very time being conceived necessary by so many persons