with them, and took every opportunity of pressing their individual cases. One of his letters to Lord Stair is preserved in the Stair Papers, from which it appears that our great ambassador had from 1715 to 1718 procured the release of almost all the sufferers.[1] The letter is as follows:—
“Though I am sure ’tis needless to make any instances to dispose your Excellency to use your best endeavours for the releasement of the few Protestants which remain at this time on the gallies, since your zeal has appeared in that particular to the utmost by the great number that have been set at liberty by means of your unwearied application to that end; yet as I know that there are three of the ancient ones still detained, I have thought it would not be improper to mention it to your Excellency, and likewise desire you would put the Marechal D'Etree in mind of his promise that all the ancient ones should be set free, which has not been executed towards these. Wherefore I earnestly entreat your Excellency to continue your charitable endeavours in order to obtain for these the liberty which their fellow-sufferers have had by your Excellency’s mediation in their behalf. I hope you will excuse this trouble, which I should not have given had I not been pressed to it by some of these poor people. . . .
On the back of this letter there is the following memorandum:— “les 3 galèriens sont David Maffée, No. 28204. Jean la Croix, No. 29577. Pierre Combette, No. 29643.” [The above letter is preserved at Oxenfoord Castle among the Stair Papers, and I am indebted for this information to the present Earl of Stair.]
Although during his several periods of retirement Lord Gahvay had his home in the country, he occasionally visited London, and was a valued member of its society. His comrade, Lieutenant-General Stanhope, afterwards Earl Stanhope, he frequently met; there was also the chief of the Stanhopes, the Earl of Chesterfield, and his son, Lord Stanhope, and his grandson, Hon. Philip Dormer Stanhope, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield. The latter youth was in the circle of Lord Galway’s acquaintance, and valued his conversation, as appears in the following extract from Dr Maty’s Memoir:—
“Philip Stanhope was very young, when Lord Galway who, though not a very fortunate general, was a man of uncommon penetration and merit, observing in him a strong inclination for a political life, but at the same time an unconquerable taste for pleasure, with some tincture of laziness, gave him the following advice:—
“If you in fend to be a man of business, you must be an early riser. In the distinguished posts your parts, rank, and fortune will entitle you to fill, you will be liable to have visitors at every hour of the day; and unless you will rise constantly at an early hour, you will never have any leisure to yourself. This admonition, delivered in the most obliging manner, made a considerable impression upon the mind of our young man, who ever after observed that excellent rule, even when he went to bed late, and was already advanced in years.”
It was when on a visit at Stratton House, that the “good Earl of Galway”[2] was summoned to his rest. He probably sank under the “bodily pains” to which he had so long been subject — namely, gout and rheumatism. His mind was entire to the last. He died on the 3d September 1720, aged seventy-two. He was the last of his family. Lady Russell was his nearest surviving relative, and became his heiress at the age of eighty-four. The property of Stratton has passed out of Russell hands; and Lord Galway’s gravestone cannot now be recognised.
There is the following entry in the East Stratton Register of Burials in Micheldever Churchyard, Hampshire:—
| Henry, Earl of Galway Died Sept. 3rd, Was buried Sept. 6, 1720. |
||
| John Imber, Curate of Stratton. | ||
I cannot pass from the life of this able, gallant, and generous nobleman without recording that he was so impressed with the reality and bounty of Divine Providence,
- ↑ “1718, June 3. Several galley-slaves, confined on account of religion, were set at liberty at Marseilles, at the instance of his British Majesty.” — British Chronologist.
- ↑ I take this sobriquet from a letter to Lady Russell from Bishop Hough, who himself was long remembered as “the good” Bishop of Worcester. He concluded it with a message of courtesy, “I beg leave to present my most humble service to good Lord Galway.” He had protested against the Bill for the Irish Forfeitures Commission with the signature “Jo. Oxon.,” and against the censure of Lord Galway and the other generals as “Jo. Litch. & Cov.” He was translated to Worcester in 1717.
