Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/139

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ALBEMARLE COMPLETE PEERAGE 89 chamber, Capt. Gen. and Master of the Horse, 1 660. Lord Lieut, of Ireland 1 660-62. P.C. [1.] 1 66 1 . Lord Lieut, of Devon 1 660, and of Midx. 1 662 ; Bearer of the Sceptre and Dove at the Coronation, 23 Apr. 1 66 1 ; acting Lord High Admiral, Mar. to June 1666. First Lord of the Treasury, 1667-70. He m., 23 Jan. 1652/3, at St. George's, Southwark, Surrey, Anne, late, or possibly actual, wife of Thomas Radford, or Redford, (") da. of John Clarges, a farrier in the Savoy, Strand, by his wife, Anne Leaver. He d., at the Cockpit in Whitehall, 3 Jan. 1669/70, and was l>ur., 29 Apr. 1670, with a state funeral the next day, in Westm. Abbey. Will dat. 8 June 1665, pr. 3 Jan. 1669/70, the day of his death. His widow survived him but three weeks. She ^.29 Jan., and was l>ur. (nearly two months before him) 28 Feb. 1669/70, in Westm. Abbey, aged 54. Admon. 15 Dec. 1688 to her br., Sir Thomas Clarges. n. 1670 2. Christopher (MoNCK.), Duke OF Alremarle, Earl to OF Torrington and Baron Monck., C") only surv. s. 1688. and h., said to have been l?. in 1653. M.P. for Devon 1667-70. Gent, of the Bedchamber, 1670. El. K.G., 4 Feb. 1669/70 and inst. 28 May 1671. Col. of a Reg. of Horse 1679, and of the ist Horse Guards 1679-85. P.C. 1675. Lord Lieut, of Devon 1675-85. Chancellor of the Univ. of Cambridge 1682. Recorder of Sandwich 1684, of Harwich 1685, and of Saffron- Walden 1688. Bearer of the Sceptre and Dove at the Coronation, 23 Apr, 1685. High Steward of Totness; and of Colchester 1688, and woman of the lowest extraction, the least wit, and less beauty. " According to Pepys, 8 Mar. 1661, she was " ever a plain homely dowdy. " He also says, 28 Dec. 1663, " I find him a very heavy dull man. " " The Duke of A., in his drink, taking notice, as of a wonder, that Nan Hide should be Duchess of York, ' Nay ' says Troutbeck, ' n'er wonder at that, I will tell you as great if not greater a miracle. ' And what was that but that our dirty Bess (meaning his Duchesse) should come to be Duchesse of Albemarle. " {Pepys, 4 Nov. 1666.) Thomas, Lord Ailesbury, in his Memoirs, written about 1729, says of him : — " He was naturally of heavy parts and illiterate, but he supplied that by a good judgment, and secret to the last degree, and most cautious in all his undertakings. " V.G. {") She m. her 1st husband 28 Feb. 1632/3, at St. Laurence Poultney, London. He is said to have been (as was her father) a farrier, and was not improbably a s. of that " Thomas Redford, farrier, servant to Prince Charles, " who was bur. 20 Nov. 1624, at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. She proved her father's will i Jan. 1648/9, being then separated from her husband, but there is no evidence of his death before her 2nd marriage. See note under her burial in Col. Chester's Registers of W estminster Abbey. See also a curious account in Burke's Extinct Peerage, 1883, in a note under " Monk, " as to the suit (15 Nov. 1 700) of William Sherwin, the h.-at-law, v. Clarges. (*") It is stated in " Pride v. the Earls of Bath and Montague, " in Salkeld's Reports, vol. i, p. 120 (edit. 1795), Hilary term, 6 Will. Ill (King's Bench), that "Duke Christopher was a ^ai/ar^ begotten of a woman who at the time of her marriage with George, Duke of Albemarle, was married to another man who was then and is yet living. " It was objected that since Duke George and the said woman were dead, the issue, who was dead also, could not be bastardized, who, when living, was reputed legitimate, but the court held that this objection did not apply to bastardy of this sort. 13