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