58 DE COURCY. great fatigue as was imposed on him by his new office, he surrendered it to the king; who through respect for his long services, gave him the command of the county and towp of Galway, where his chief dwelling, and most of his estate was situated, together with a small pension for his own life and that of his son. He was afterwards advanced to the dignity of a peer of England, by the title of Baron Somerhill, (a manor which he possessed in Kent,) and Wiscount Tunbridge; to which titles, Charles I. afterwards added those of Wiscount Galway, and Earl of St. Alban's. He died at Somerhill on the 12th of November, 1635; and the Lord Deputy Wentworth, in a letter to the king, makes the following observation, which may in some de gree account for Clanricarde's want of employment in Ireland for some years previous to his death; “This last pacquet advertised the death of the Earl of St. Alban's, and that it is reported my hard usage broke his heart. God and your majesty know my innocency; they might as well have imputed unto me for a crime, his being three score and ten years old; but these calumnies must not stay me humbly to offer to your majesty's wisdom this f i t op portunity, that a s that cantoned government o f Galway began, s o i t may determine i n his lordship's person.” RICHARD DE COURCY, A pious and active divine and miscellaneous writer, was descended from a n ancient and noble family i n Ireland. He received his education a t Trinity College, Dublin, and was ordained chaplain t o Lord Kinsale, t o whom h e was distantly related. During his residence a t the uni versity, h e formed a n acquaintance with several eminent clergymen, b y whom h e was induced t o leave his native country; and i n the year 1770, h e accepted the curacy o f Shawbury, i n Shropshire. I n 1774, the lord chancellor presented him t o the vicarage o f St. Alkmont parish, Shrewsbury, the inhabitants o f which had conceived a n
