Colonel Edward Warner, to an ancestor of whose was given by James the Second the celebrated Essex ring, which remains as an heir-loom in the family; Augusta Mary, married to James Alexander Manning, Esq.; and Elizabeth Cole, married to the Earl of Buchan. The first of these ladies performed the pious office of printing for private distribution the simple and affecting narrative drawn up by her mother, from which we have gathered the above particulars. To it are appended some introductory remarks, which show how fondly she cherishes the memory of her beloved mother, and what a feeling of, we had almost said, reverence she entertains for her noble qualities of heart and mind.
SHREWSBURY, ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF,
Was the daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, a gentleman of ancient family and fortune in Derbyshire. At a very early age she married, not without some suspicions of interested motives, a gentleman of fortune, named Barlow, in delicate health Before his marriage, to prove his devotion, he made a will, in which he secured to her and her heirs almost the whole of his vast estates. A short time after their marriage he died. She soon contracted a second marriage, with Sir William Cavendish, to whom she appears to have been really attached. He was a widower for the third time when he married her, and seems to have returned her affection sincerely, denying her nothing, and anticipating her wishes. To gratify her, he sold his estates in the south of England, and purchased lands in her native county; and here he began, by her desire, the building of Chatsworth, a mansion since one of the most magnificent and celebrated in the kingdom, on which a mine of wealth has been spent at different times. She seems to have had quite a passion for erecting great mansions in every part of her large estates, as Chatsworth, Hardwick, Oldcotes, and others, prove. Tradition has preserved a prophecy that she would not die while she continued to build. Sir William Cavendish did not live to see the finishing of his splendid mansion. Upon his widow this task devolved, as well as the bringing up of their six children, to whom she was fondly attached, and to whose interests she was devoted. Through these children she became the ancestress of more than one noble and distinguished family. Her eldest son died childless; the second, William, became the first Earl of Devonshire; the third, Charles, was the ancestor of the Dukes of Newcastle. Her eldest daughter, Frances, married Sir Henry Pierrepoint, ancestor of the Dukes of Kingston, by which alliance we perceive that "old Bess of Hardwick" was an ancestress of Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Elizabeth, the second daughter, married Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, brother of Darnley, who became father of the unfortunate Arabella Stuart, the victim of state policy. Mary, the third daughter married Gilbert, the eldest son of Elizabeth's fourth husband, and arrived at the same dignity of Countess of Shrewsbury.
With a splendid fortune and unimpaired beauty, the attractive widow retained her liberty some time, till at length she was prevailed upon to change her state again. In favour of Sir William St Lo, of Tormarton, in Gloucestershire, captain of the guard; to Queen Elizabeth, and grand butler of England. He was wealthy, and had broad lands in Gloucestershire; and these circumstances
