Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/94

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
80
PEMBROKE

cases the identification rests on very questionable evidence (see Shakespeare, William). He and his brother Philip are the “ incomparable pair of brethren ” to whom the first folio of Shakespeare is inscribed. The earl left no sons when he died in London on the 10th of April 1630. Clarendon gives a very eulogistic account of Pembroke, who appears, however, to have been a man of weak character and dissolute life. Gardiner describes him as the Hamlet of the English court. He had literary tastes and wrote poems; one of his closest friends was the poet Donne, and he was generous to Ben Jonson, Massinger and others.

His brother, Philip Herbert, the 4th earl (1584–1650), was for some years the chief favourite of James I., owing this position to his comely person and his passion for hunting and for field sports generally. In 1605 the king created him earl of Montgomery and Baron Herbert of Shurland, and since 1630, when he succeeded to the earldom of Pembroke, the head of the Herbert family has carried the double title of earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. Although Philip's quarrelsome disposition often led him into trouble he did not forfeit the esteem of James I., who heaped lands and offices upon him, and he was also trusted by Charles I., who made him lord chamberlain in 1626 and frequently visited him at Wilton. He worked to bring about peace between the king and the Scots in 1639 and 1640, but when in the latter year the quarrel between Charles and the English parliament was renewed, he deserted the king who soon deprived him of his office of chamberlain Trusted by the popular party, Pembroke was made governor of the Isle of Wight, and he was one of the representatives of the parliament on several occasions, notably during the negotiations at Uxbridge in 1645 and at Newport in 1648, and when the Scots surrendered Charles in 1647 From 1641 to 1643, and again from 1647 to 1650, he was chancellor of the university of Oxford; in 1648 he removed some of the heads of houses from their positions because they would not take the solemn league and covenant, and his foul language led to the remark that he was more fitted “ by his eloquence in swearing to preside over Bedlam than a learned academy.” In 1649, although a peer, he was elected and took his seat in the House of Commons as member for Berkshire, this “ ascent downwards ” calling forth many satirical writings from the royalist wits. The earl was a great collector of pictures and had some taste for architecture. His eldest surviving son, Philip (1621–1669), became 5th earl of Pembroke, and 2nd earl of Montgomery; he was twice married, and was succeeded in turn by three of his sons, of whom Thomas, the 8th earl (c. 1656–1733), was a person of note during the reigns of William III. and Anne. From 1690 to 1692 he was first lord of the admiralty, then he served as lord privy seal until 1699, being in 1697 the first plenipotentiary of Great Britain at the congress of Ryswick. On two occasions he was lord high admiral for a short period, he was also lord president of the council and lord-lieutenant of Ireland, while he acted as one of the lords justices seven times, and he was president of the Royal Society in 1689–1690. His son Henry, the 9th earl (c. 1689–1750), was a soldier, but was better known as the “ architect earl.” He was largely responsible for the erection of Westminster Bridge. The title descended directly to Henry, 10th earl (1734–1794), a soldier, who wrote the Method of Breaking Horses (1762); George Augustus, 11th earl (1759–1827), an ambassador extraordinary to Vienna in 1807, and Robert Henry, 12th earl (1791–1862), who died without issue. George Robert Charles, the 13th earl (1850–1895), was a grandson of the 11th earl and a son of Baron Herbert of Lea (q.v.), whose second son Sidney (b. 1853) inherited all the family titles at his brother's death.

See G. T. Clark, The Earls, Earldom and Castle of Pembroke (Tenby, 1880), J. R. Planché, “The Earls of Strigul” in vol x. of the Proceedings of the British Archaeological Association (1855); and G. E. C(okayne), Complete Peerage, vol. vi. (London, 1895).


PEMBROKE, a town of Ontario, Canada, capital of Renfrew county, 74 m. W.N.W., of Ottawa by rail on the south shore of Allumette Lake, an expansion of the Ottawa river, and on the Canadian Pacific and Canada Atlantic railways. Pop. (1901), 5156. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric, an important centre in the lumber trade, and contains saw, grist and woollen mills, axe factory, &c. The Muskrat river affords excellent water-power.

PEMBROKE (Pehfro), an ancient municipal borough, a contributory parliamentary borough and county-town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, situated on a narrow peninsula at the head of the Pennar tidal inlet or “ pill ” of Milford Haven. Pop. (1901), 4487; together with Pembroke Dock 15,853. Pembroke is a station on the South Wales system of the Great Western railway. The old-fashioned town, consisting chiefly of one long broad street, retains portions of its ancient walls. A large mill-dam is a conspicuous feature on the north of the town. St Mary's church in the centre of the town possesses a massive tower of the 12th century. Near the ruined West Gate is the entrance to Pembroke Castle, a splendid specimen of medieval fortified architecture. The circular vaulted keep erected by Earl William Marshal (c. 1200), remains almost intact. Close to the keep stands the ruined chamber wherein, according to local tradition, Henry VII. was born in 1457. Beneath the fine banqueting hall, a flight of steps descends into “ the Wogan," a vast subterranean chamber giving access to the harbour. Facing the castle, on the western side of the pill, stand the considerable remains of Monkton Priory, a Benediction house founded by Earl William Marshal as a cell to the abbey of Séez or Sayes in Normandy, but under Henry VI. transferred to the abbey of St Albans. The priory chuich, now the parish church of the suburb of Monkton, contains monuments of the families of Meyrick of Bush and Owen of Ozielton. St Daniel's chapel forms a prominent landmark on the ridge south of the town. Pembroke Dock (formerly known as Pater, or Paterchurch), a naval dockyard and garrison town, is situated close to Hobb's Point, at the eastern extremity of Milford Haven. It forms the Pater Ward of Pembroke, from which it is distant 2 m. to the north-west. The place owes its origin to the decision of the government in 1814 to form a naval dépôt on Milford Haven. The dockyard, enclosed by high walls and covering 80 acres, is protected by a powerful fort—the construction and repairing of ironclads are extensively carried on here. There is a submarine depot at Pennar Gut, and also accommodation for artillery and infantry. Ferry boats ply frequently between Pembroke Dock and Neyland on the opposite shore of the Haven.

Pembroke is probably an Anglo-Norman form of the Cymric Penfro, the territory lying between Milford Haven and the Bristol Channel, now known as the Hundred of Castlemartin. During the invasion of South Wales under William Rufus, Arnulf de Montgomeri, fifth son of Roger earl of Shrewsbury, seems to have erected a fortress of stone (c. 1090) on the site of the castle. The first castellan of this new stronghold was Giraldus de Windsor, husband of the Princess Nest of South Wales and grandfather of Giraldus Cambrensis. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries the castle was strengthened and enlarged under successive earls palatine of Pembroke, who made this fortress their chief seat. As the capital of the palatinate and as the nearest port for Ireland, Pembroke was in Plantagenet times one of the most important fortified cities in the kingdom. The town, which had grown up under the shadow of the almost impregnable castle, was first incorporated by Henry I. in 1109 and again by Earl Richard de Clare in 1154 (who also encircled the town with walls), and these privileges were confirmed and extended under succeeding earls palatine and kings of England. In 1835 the corporation was remodelled under the Municipal Corporations Act. Henry II. occasionally visited Pembroke, notably in 1172, and until the close of the Wars of the Roses, both town and castle played a prominent part in the history of Britain. With the passing of the Act of Union of Wales and England in 1536 however, the jura regalia of the county palatine of Pembroke were abolished, and the prosperity of the town began to decline. Although acknowledged as the county town of Pembrokeshire, Pembroke was superseded by Haverfordwest as the judicial and administrative centre of the shire on account of the more convenient position of the latter place. By the act of 1536 Pembroke was declared the leading borough in the