the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, London, 1693). The utmost resentment was expressed by the settlers, and protests were carried to London, with the result that William had reluctantly to recall Sidney, who was, however, consoled with the lucrative post of master-general of the ordnance (28 July 1693). Further, on 14 May 1694, he was advanced to be Earl of Romney. Next year Romney moved from his residence in Jermyn Street into St. James's Square (No. 16), and there in November 1695, in his capacity of master of ordnance, he welcomed William back to London after his country progress with a display of pyrotechnics such as had never been seen in England. The storming of Namur was represented in coloured fires and applauded in person by the king, who appeared at a window of Romney's house (Add. MS. 17677). Romney had previously (May 1691) been appointed to command all the foot in the king's absence, and from April to November 1697 he was one of the lords justices of England. Two years later the royal grants of which he had been the recipient were investigated by the house of commons, and under the resumption act he lost most of his Irish estates. From 24 June 1700 until the king's death he occupied the post of groom of the stole. Upon Anne's accession he lost his appointments, and he died (unmarried) of small-pox at his house in St. James's Square on 8 April 1704. He was buried on the 18th in the chancel of St. James's, Piccadilly, where a monument was erected. All his honours became extinct. He appointed as his heirs and executors his nephews, Thomas Pelham, Henry Pelham, and John Sidney, to whom he left his cabinets and papers. The latter descended to the Earls of Chichester, and from them ‘Henry Sidney's Diary and Letters’ (referring mainly to the period 1679–81, which they greatly help to elucidate) was edited by R. W. Blencowe (London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1843).
The important part played by Sidney at the Revolution was partly due to accident, but he had some genuine qualifications for the rôle. According to Macky, he was ‘the great wheel upon which the revolution turned.’ Swift comments that ‘he had not a wheel to turn a mouse,’ and, as for character, had none at all; but his evidence must be regarded as more partial even than usual, inasmuch as he suspected Romney of quashing a memorial which he had addressed to the king in 1699. Algernon Sidney seems to have had an opinion of his brother rather below that of Danby, but, as Blencowe remarks, he had such an exalted opinion of himself that he had little capacity for a just appreciation of others. Romney's ‘Diary’ shows that, pleasure-loving as he was, he had an exceptionally square head where his own interests were concerned, and a decided gift for conciliating people who were irritated against him. He had no scruples about taking advantage of his good looks. His later years were pestered by acrimonious letters on behalf of the numerous children for whom he refused to provide. A certain Grace Wortley, a lady of good family, to whom he allowed 50l. per annum, did her utmost to make a public scandal out of her private distress (cf. her letters in introduction to Sidney's Diary).
A portrait of Sidney as a child, with fair ringlets and presage of great beauty, by Lely, is at Penshurst; a full-length by the same artist, in semi-classical costume, with two greyhounds in leash, is the property of Earl Spencer. Another portrait in later life, by Kneller, is engraved in Doyle's ‘Official Baronage.’
[G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage; Dalton's English Army Lists, i. 218, iii. 214, 306; Collins's Sydney Papers; Ewald's Life and Times of Algernon Sydney; Sidney's Diary, ed. Blencowe; Boyer's William III, pp. 130, 199, 281 sq.; Pepys's Diary, iii. 340; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, passim; Sir William Temple's Memoirs, vol. ii.; Kennet's Regist. p. 216; Memoirs of Grammont, ed. Vizetelly, ii. 103, 138, 165, 169 sq.; Burnet's Own Time, passim; Rapin's Hist. of England, iii. 400; Dalrymple's Memoirs; Swift's Works, ed. Scott, xii. 236; Hatton Correspondence, ii. 92; Macaulay's Hist. of England, 1883, i. 526, 545–7, ii. 214, 254, 330, 417–19, 539; Ranke's Hist. of England, vol. iv. passim; Christie's Life of Shaftesbury, ii. 339; Bromley's Cat. of British Portraits, p. 212; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, iii. 392; Cartwright's Sacharissa, pp. 78, 156, 170, 200, 208, 228, 229 sq.; Dasent's Hist. of St. James's Square, iii. 392.]
SIDNEY, MARY, Countess of Pembroke. [See Herbert, Mary, 1555?–1621.]
SIDNEY, Sir PHILIP (1554–1586), soldier, statesman, and poet, born at Penshurst 30 Nov. 1554, was eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney [q. v.] by his wife Mary, daughter of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland. A tree still standing in Penshurst Park is identified with one which, according to Ben Jonson,
Of a nut was set,
At his great birth, where all the Muses met.
His godfathers were Philip II of Spain, Queen Mary's husband, after whom he was named, and John Russell, first earl of Bedford [q. v.] His godmother was his widowed grand-
