king's favours; and had the prudence to shew a due regard to the English, without slighting his own countrymen. His talents were neither shining, nor mean; and he was habitually a courtier and a statesman. In the plenitude of his power, he grew insolent, and visibly declined in the king's favour; especially upon the Duke of Buckingham's appearance at court. In May, 1616, he was condemned for being accessary to the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; a crime in which he was involved with his countess but they both received the king's pardon. Ob. July, 1645.

The Right Hon. GEORGE, EARL MARICHAL, founder of Marichal College, Aberdeen; from an original picture by Jamieson, in the possession of the. Earl of Kintore, at Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire. Wilkin

son exc. 8vo.

George Keith, fifth earl marischal, succeeded his grandfather in 1581, after having studied several years in foreign universities, and visited most of the courts in Europe. In 1587 he was sworn a privy-counsellor to King James VI. and, in 1589, was sent ambassador-extraordinary to the court of Denmark, to settle the marriage of his majesty with Anne of Denmark. He made a very splendid appearance, and acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of the king and council, that he obtained an act of approbation from them Nov. 25, 1589; had charters of the baronies of Innerugie, Dunottar, Keith, &c.; also of the lordship of Altrie to him and William, his eldest son, Sept. 26, 1592, and, in 1593, founded the Marischal College, in Aberdeen, which he endowed from his own great estates, with funds sufficient for the support of a principal, and four professors of philosophy. The foundation was ratified by act of parliament, and approved of by the general assembly; and the seal of the college bears the arms of Keith, quartered with those

of Aberdeen.

After the accession of King James to the throne of England, he conferred on the earl the highest honour a subject was capable of receiving, by constituting him his high-commissioner to represent

• His inauspicious marriage with this lady, which in the event proveḍ his ruin, was attended with greater pomp and festivity than the marriage of any other subject of this kingdom. See a particular account of it in "The Detection of the Court and State of England, during the four last Reigns," p. 69, et seq.

Cr. 1525.

CLASS III.

PEER S.

EARLS.

FRANCIS MANNERS, earl of Rutland; sold by T. Jenner; 8vo. Geo. Ferbearde exc.

FRANCIS MANNERS, earl of Rutland; 8vo. W. Richardson.

*

The Earl of Rutland, chief-justice in Eyre of all the king's forests and chaces north of Trent, and knight of the Garter. In 1616, he attended the king to Scotland, and afterward commanded the fleet sent to bring Prince Charles out of Spain. The calamities, supposed to be the effects of witchcraft, in the earl's family, are said to have occasioned the famous act of parliament in this reign, against sorcery, and other diabolical practices, which was lately repealed. Howel tells us in his Letters, "that King James, a great while was loath to believe there were witches; but that which happened to my Lord Francis of Rutland's children convinced him." This is contradictory to the tenor of the "Dæmonologia," which was pub lished long before. In 1618, Joan Flower and her two daughters were accused of murdering Henry, lord Roos, by witchcraft, and of torturing the Lord Francis his brother, and the Lady Catharine his sister. These three women are said to have entered into a for mal contract with the devil, and to have become "devils incarnate themselves." The mother died as she was going to prison: the daughters, who were tried by Sir Henry Hobart and Sir Edward Bromley, confessed their guilt, and were executed at Lincoln. Se Turner's "Hist. of remarkable Providences;" fol. &c. &c. This peer died without issue male, 17 Dec. 1632.

HENRY WRIOTHESLY, earl of Southampton &c. Simon Passæus sc. 1617; 4to. scarce. Sudbury and Humble.

* Page 427.

† Most of the heads by the family of Pass, Elstracke, and Delaram, are scarce and some of them extremely rare.