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THE STORY OF NELL GWYN.
mother, who was great-grand-daughter to the Duchess.[1] The supposed parallel cases of the deaths of Henry Prince of Wales and King James I. are supported by no testimony so strong as that advanced in the case of Charles II.
Had the King lived, Nelly was to have had a peerage for herself, and the title chosen was that of Countess of Greenwich.[2] This of course she was not now likely to obtain—if indeed she would have cared so to do. Her own end was near.
- ↑ Fox, p. 67.
- ↑ This I give on the authority of the curious passage in a MS. book by Van Bossen, kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. David Laing. The whole passage is as follows:—
"Charles the 2d. naturall sone of King Charles the 2d. borne of Hellenor or Nelguine, dawghter to Thomas Guine, a capitane of ane antient family in Wales, who showld bein advanced to be Countes of Greeniez, but hindered by the king's death, and she lived not long after his Matie. Item, he was advanced to the title of Duke Stablane and Earle of Berward. He is not married." ("The Royall Cedar," by Frederick Van Bossen, MS. folio, 1688. p. 129.)
One of the last acts of the antiquarian life of that curious inquirer, Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, was to note down some valuable memoranda for this story of Nell Gwyn. Among other things, Mr. Sharpe directed Mr, Laing's attention to the curious entry in the volume by Van Bossen, still in Mr. Laing's possession.
