Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/435

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MOLESWORTH. 431 Molesworth served his country in the House of Com mons in both kingdoms, being chosen for the borough of Swordes, in Ireland, and for those of Bodmyn, St. Michael, and East Retford, in England; his conduct in the senate being always firm and steady to the principles he embraced. He was a member of the privy council to Queen Anne, till the latter end of her reign; when party running high, he was removed from the board in January 1713. This was for a complaint against him from the lower House of convocation, presented December 2nd, by the prolocutor to the House of Peers, charging him with speaking these words in the hearing of many persons— “They that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also ;” and for affronting the clergy in convocation when they presented their address to Lord Chancellor Phipps. Steele's “Crisis” was written partly in vindica tion of Molesworth, and severely animadverted upon by Swift, in his “Public Spirit of the Whigs.” But as Molesworth constantly asserted and strenuously maintained the right of succession in the house of Hanover, George I. on the forming of his privy council in Ireland, made him a member of i t , October 9 , 1714, and the next month a commissioner o f trade and plantations. His Majesty also advanced him t o the peerage o f Ireland, i n 1714, b y the title o f Baron Philipstown and Wiscount Molesworth o f Swordes. He was a fellow o f the Royal Society, and continued t o serve his country with indefatigable industry, till perceiving himself worn out with constant applica tion t o public affairs, h e passed the two last years o f his life, i n a studious and learned retirement. He died, May 22, 1725, a t his seat a t Brecdenstown, i n the county of Dublin. By his will, h e devised 50l. towards building a church a t Philipstown. He had b y his wife seven sons and four daughters. Besides his “History o f Denmark,” h e wrote a n address t o the House o f Commons for the “Encouragement o f Agriculture,” Dublin, 1723; and a “Letter relating t o the