Admitted 16 November, 1602.
Second son of Thomas Ford of Ilsington, Devon, where he was baptised 17 April, 1586. He does not appear to have been called to the Bar, and probably soon discovered that the law was not to his genius or his taste, for in 1606 he published a poem, entitled Fame's Memoriall, on the Death of the Earl of Devonshire (q.v.). This gave but little indication, however, of future eminence, and it was not for some years that he seems to have discovered the true bent of his genius. The history of his private life is almost a blank. The following is a list of his published works, which were collected and published, with an Introduction and Notes, by H. Weber in 1811 and by Gifford in 1827: Fame's Memoriall. 4to (1606); Line of Life (1620); The Lovers Melancholy, a Play (1629); The Broken Heart, a Tragedy (1633); 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633); Love's Sacrifice, a Tragedy (1633); History of Perkin Warbeck, a Play (1634); The Fancies Ghost and Noble (1638); The Lady's Trial (1639); The Sun's Darling, a Moral Masque (1656); The Witch of Edmondston (1658). (These were all that were printed; there were many others put on the Stage.)
FORTESCUE, BARON. See ALAND, Sir JOHN FORTESCUE.
Admitted 7 July, 1519.
Third son of John Fortescue of Spurleston, Devon, of the family of the famous author of De Laudibus Angliæ Legum. He was appointed Autumn Reader at the Middle Temple in 1536, and sat as fourth Baron of the Exchequer from 1542—1545.
Admitted 28 September, 1710.
Only son of Henry Fortescue of Buckland Filleigh, Devon, where he was baptised 26 June, 1687. Though entered of the Middle Temple, he removed to the Inner Temple, where he was called to the Bar in 1715. In the same year he became Private Secretary to Sir Robert Walpole, and in 1727 was returned member for Newport, Isle of Wight, which he continued to represent till 1736, when he was raised to the Bench as a Baron of the Exchequer. Thence he was advanced to the Mastership of the Rolls and to the dignity of a Privy Councillor in 1741. He died 16 Dec. 1749, and was buried in the Rolls Chapel. Fortescue was a great friend of Pope, who dedicated to him the first of his Satires in 1733, and it is in this literary connexion that he is chiefly remembered.
Admitted 11 August, 1614.
He is described in the Register as "Antonio Fuscarini (sic), Knight, Venetian Ambassador," and was, it may be inferred from his position, admitted honoris causâ. His family was one of the highest standing in Venice, members of which had held the highest offices of State. In 1622 he was executed for supposed complicity in a plot with the Spanish Ambassador; and his tragic death forms the subject of the famous play of the Italian dramatist Niccolini, where the hero is represented as being condemned by the Doge, his own father.
