1812 he was sworn lord-lieutenant of the county, and continued to hold the office till his death. On 9 Oct. 1817 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Sir Robert Peel acting as Irish secretary until 1818. During his term of office he rendered considerable services to the agriculture of the country, in recognition of which he was presented with the freedom of Drogheda. In 1821, during his viceroyalty, George IV visited Ireland, and on that occasion he was created a knight of the order of St. Patrick. Though he steadily opposed catholic emancipation, O'Connell gave him credit for impartiality, and Lord Cloncurry spoke of him as ‘an honourable high-minded gentleman.’ The discontent in Ireland, however, continued to grow during his administration, and in December 1822 he was somewhat ungraciously superseded by the Marquis Wellesley.
In 1839 Talbot received in recognition of his services as lord-lieutenant of Staffordshire a testimonial amounting to 1,400l., which he devoted to the endowment of a new church at Salt. He was one of the first peers to support Sir Robert Peel's plan for the extinction of the duties on foreign corn, and on 12 Dec. 1844, through that minister's influence, he was elected a knight of the Garter. Talbot died at Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire, on 10 Jan. 1849, and was buried in Ingestre church on 20 Jan. He married, on 28 Aug. 1800, Frances Thomasine (d. 1819), eldest daughter of Charles Lambert of Beau Parc in Meath. By her he had ten sons and two daughters. He was succeeded as third Earl Talbot by his second son, Henry John Chetwynd, who on 10 Aug. 1856 succeeded his distant cousin, Bertram Arthur Talbot, as eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury. A portrait of the second Earl Talbot, painted by John Bostock and engraved by John Charles Bromley, was published by J. Shepherd at Newcastle in 1837.
[Times, 12 Jan. 1849; Gent. Mag. 1849, i. 313–15; Parker's Sir Robert Peel, 1891, i. 266, 383; Mr. Gregory's Letter Box, 1898, passim; Simms's Bibliotheca Staffordiensis, 1894, p. 445; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 507.]
TALBOT, EDWARD (1555-1595), alchemist. [See Kelley.]
TALBOT, ELIZABETH, Countess of Shrewsbury (1518–1608), known as ‘Bess of Hardwick,’ born in 1518, was the fourth daughter and coheiress of John Hardwick (d. 24 Jan. 1527) of Hardwick, Derbyshire, the sixth squire of the name who possessed the estate. Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leake of Hasland in the same county.
The ‘beautiful and discreet’ Elizabeth was married at fourteen years of age to Robert Barlow of Barlow, near Dronfield, son and heir of Arthur Barlow by a sister of Sir John Chaworth of Wyverton. The name is often given as Barley of Barley, by which it is probable that the pronunciation is indicated. The bridegroom also was very young, and died soon after the marriage, on 2 Feb. 1533, but his large estate was settled upon his widow and her heirs. She remained a widow until 1549, when on 20 Aug. at Bradgate in Leicestershire, a seat of the Marquis of Dorset, she became the third wife of Sir William Cavendish (1505?–1557) [q. v.] According to a manuscript memorandum in Cavendish's own hand (Harl. MS. 1154, f. 28) the marriage was celebrated ‘at 2 of the clock after midnight.’ Sir William had so great an affection for his third wife that ‘on her desire he sold his estate in the southern parts of England to purchase lands in Derbyshire where her kindred lived.’ From some of her relatives he purchased the estate of Chatsworth, and began there the noble manor-house which, upon his death (25 Oct. 1557), he left his widow to finish. By her second husband alone had Bess of Hardwick any issue; of these, six arrived at maturity, three sons and three daughters, and two of the sons afford a noteworthy example of two brothers founding two several dukedoms, those of Devonshire and Newcastle (for the details respecting her issue, see Cavendish, Sir William; and cf. Collins, Hist. Collections of the Noble Families of Cavendish, 1752).
Lady Cavendish took to her third husband Sir William St. Loe (variously spelt St. Lo and St. Lowe) of Tormarton, Gloucestershire, a gentleman of an ancient knightly family in Somerset, who was captain of the guard to Queen Elizabeth. He was the possessor of ‘divers fair lordships in Gloucestershire, which in articles of marriage she took care should be settled on her and her own heirs, in default of issue by him.’ When not in attendance at court, St. Loe resided at Chatsworth. His wife obtained unbounded influence over him, and his family charged her, not without reason, with making an improper use of her influence. It is certain that upon his death ‘she lived to enjoy his whole estate, excluding his former daughters and brothers.’
In this third widowhood, says Bishop White Kennett, ‘she had not survived her charms of wit and beauty, by which she captivated the then greatest subject of the
