LONGDEN, Sir JAMES ROBERT (1827–1891), colonial administrator, youngest son of John R. Longden, proctor, of Doctors' Commons, London, was born in 1827. In 1844, two years after the establishment of a civil government, he was appointed government clerk in the Falkland Islands, and became acting colonial secretary the year after. In 1861 he was appointed president of the Virgin Islands, in 1865 governor of Dominica, in 1867 governor of British Honduras, in 1870 governor of Trinidad, and in December 1876 governor of Ceylon, which post he held until his retirement in 1883. He was made C.M.G. in 1871, K.C.M.G. in 1876, G.C.M.G. in 1883. After his retirement he resided at Longhope, near Watford, Hertfordshire, and took a very active part in county affairs. He was a J.P. and alderman for the county under the Local Government Act. He died at Longhope on 4 Oct. 1891. His funeral took place at Woking crematorium on 9 Oct. 1891.
Longden married in 1864 Alice Emily, daughter of James Berridge of the island of St, Christopher, West Indies.
[Dod's Knightage, 1891; Colonial Office List, 1891; Times, 5 and 10 Oct. 1891.]
LONGESPÉE or LUNGESPÉE (Longsword), WILLIAM de, third Earl of Salisbury (d. 1226), a natural son of Henry II by an unknown mother [see under Clifford, Rosamond, called ‘Fair Rosamond’], received from his father a grant of Appleby, Lincolnshire, in 1188, and in 1198 from Richard I the hand of Ela, countess of Salisbury, daughter and heiress of William, the second earl (d. 1196), together with the earldom of Salisbury (Hoveden, iv. 13). In the same year he also appears as holding the castle of Pontorson in Normandy, which he exchanged with the crown early in the reign of John for certain lands in England; these, however, he surrendered to the king in 1203, receiving back Pontorson in exchange (Rolls of Norman Exchequer, ii. Preface and p. 291). He was appointed sheriff of Wiltshire by John in 1200, and held that office during the greater part of the remainder of his life (Doyle). He was with the king when William of Scotland did homage at Lincoln in November, and accompanied him to Normandy in 1201. Early in 1202 he was associated with the Archbishop of Bordeaux and others in making a treaty between John and Sancho VII (d. 1234), king of Navarre (Fœdera, i. 86). In May he was appointed lieutenant of Gascony, and in September 1204 constable of Dover and warden of the Cinque ports, and held these offices until May 1206 (Doyle). He received the castle and honour of Eye in Suffolk in February 1205 (Patent Rolls, John, p. 50), was sent in June to reinforce the garrison of La Rochelle (Coggeshall, p. 154), and in November was appointed with others to treat with the king of Scots (Patent Rolls, p. 58). During 1208 he appears to have been with the king, and in December was appointed warden of the Welsh marches (ib. p. 68). In March 1209 John sent him as head of an embassy to the prelates and princes of Germany, on behalf of his nephew Otto, who was crowned emperor later in that year (Fœdera, i. 103). He held command in the Welsh and Irish expeditions of 1210–12 [see under John]. During the period of John's excommunication he was reckoned as one of the king's evil counsellors who were ready to do anything that he wished (Wendover, iii. 237), and his name is associated with one of John's most tyrannical acts, for it was he who seized Geoffrey of Norwich at Dunstable [see under John]. From May 1212 to 1216 he was sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. In May 1212 he was sent on an embassy to Ferrand, count of Flanders (Fœdera, i. 107).
Philip of France, designing to invade England, gathered a large fleet together in April 1213, and wasted the dominions of Ferrand, who had made alliance with John. Salisbury was sent with the Count of Holland and the Count of Boulogne in command of a fleet of five hundred ships containing seven hundred knights and others to act against the French. He sailed in a ship given him by his brother the king, and larger and fairer than had ever been seen in the English sea (L'Histoire des Ducs de Normandie, p. 130). On arriving off Damme he found so large a French fleet assembled that the harbour could not hold all the ships, some of which were lying outside it. The fleet was guarded by a small number of mariners, for Philip had the best part of his forces with him besieging Ghent. Salisbury and his men attacked the ships that were outside the harbour, secured about three hundred of them laden with arms and provisions, and sent them off to England, burning about a hundred more that were drawn up on the shore. Next day they attacked the ships inside the harbour and the town of Damme. Philip, however, brought up a strong force against them and drove them to their ships. The victory, though not a great feat of arms, was highly advantageous, for it caused Philip to abandon his intended invasion (Wendover, iii. 257; Gulielmus Armoricus, sub anno). In May Salisbury was a surety for John's promise to satisfy the bishops and the Roman church, and witnessed his charter of homage to the pope (Fœdera, i. 111, 112, 115). About
