at Windsor, and was created 4th May, 1605, Earl of Exeter. This title had been offered to him nearly two years before, but he had declined it. His reasons for so doing are given in a letter from him to Sir John Hubert, dated from Burghley the 12th of Jan. 1603-4 :—

"I am resolvyd to contente myselfe with this estate I have of a Baron. And my present estate of lyvyng, howsoever those of the world hath enlargyd it, I fynde lyttel inough to meyntane the degree I am in. And I am sure they that succede me wyll be less hable to meynteyne it then I am, considerynge ther wyll goo out of the baronage thre yonger broothers lyvyngts."

This nobleman was twice married. He married first, in 1564, Dorothy, daughter and coheir of John Nevill, Lord Latimer,' by whom he had five sons and eight daughters, viz :

1. William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter and 3rd Baron Burghley, born 1566.

2. Sir Richard Cecil, of Wakerley, Northants, Knt., born December 7th, 1570.2

3. Sir EDWARD CECIL, Knt.

1 Lord Latimer was son of Sir John Nevill, third Baron Latimer, by his first wife, Dorothy de Vere, daughter and coheir of John, Earl of Oxford (his second wife being Catherine Parr, daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, of Kendal, afterwards married to Henry VIII.). John, fourth and last Lord Latimer, married Lady Lucy Somerset, daughter of Henry, Earl of Worcester. There is a splendid altar monument to Lord Latimer in Well Church, near Bedale, and within two miles of Snape Castle, built by the Nevills, and now a farmhouse. Lord Latimer's monument bears a recumbent effigy of that nobleman in armour-his head pillowed on a helmet, his sword by his side, and his hands raised in prayer. A large mural marble tablet by the side of the monument, surmounted by a shield of eighteen quarterings, has the following inscription:" Sic transit gloria mundi. Here lyeth buried S' Jhon Neveil, Knight, laste Lord Lattimor, who died the 23 of Aprill, 1577. Who mared the Lady Lucy th eldest daughter of th Erle of Worseter, and shee lyeth buried in Hackne Church by London, and by hir left 4 daughters and heires whose matches are hereunder expressed."

2 This birth is recorded in Lord Burghley's Diary, Harl. 36.

4. Christopher Cecil, born 1576.

5. Thomas Cecil, born 1579.

1. Catherine Cecil.

2. Lucy Cecil, married Wm. Paulet, Marquis of Winchester and had issue.

3. Mildred Cecil, born 1573, married, first, Sir Thomas Reade, Knt., and, secondly, Sir Edmund Trafford.

4. Mary Cecil, married Edward Denny, Baron Denny and Earl of Norwich.1

5. Elizabeth Cecil, married, first, Sir William Newport alias Hatton, and, secondly, Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke.

6. Dorothy Cecil, born 1577, married Sir Giles Allington of Horseheath, Cambridgeshire.

7. Frances Cecil, married Nicholas Tufton, first Earl of Thanet, and had issue.

8. Susan Cecil.

William Cecil, the eldest son, will be mentioned occasionally in this narrative, so a few words about him before passing on to his younger brother, Edward, will not be out of place.

At the age of seventeen we find young Will Cecil (as he was generally called) at Paris, having been sent abroad for some years, according to the fashion of that time, to travel and improve his education. That he travelled a good deal is very certain, but in what way he improved his mind is doubtful. An extract from one of his letters from Paris to his grandfather, Lord Burghley, is worthy of a place in these pages, as it shows the same affection for that noble

The Earl of Norwich had by this marriage an only daughter and heir Honora, who married Sir James Hay, of Pitcorthie, Co. Fife, created by James I., Viscount Doncaster, and Earl of Carlisle. This nobleman left by Honora, his wife, an only son, who succeeded as second Earl of Carlisle, and at his mother's death succeeded to the barony of Denny. He d. s. p. in 1660.

animal, the horse, which characterised his brother Edward, throughout the latter's military career. This letter is in acknowledgment of "a present of five pounds in Angels and a beautiful bay horse" sent the writer by Lord Burghley: :

"Touching the horse, my good Lord," writes W. Cecil, "no news of like quality could happen more agreeable to my desire and contentatio, then when I hard he was arrived at Paris, much more at the first appearance, when I understood he came from your Lordship, and saw the beauty of his colour, marked his excellent proportion, and perceived the greatnes of his courage, were my senses and mind affected with greater delight then before. But yo' L. shall see the incertenty of worldly delights, howe sone my sweet was turned into sower, my mirth into mourninge, and all my joy and delight, into hevines and greef. For my horse had not stood halfe an hower in the stable, but my self and others perceived a great foundringe through out his whole body, which he had gotten by the evil usage of a leud Frenchman, who had the charge of him from Roan2 hether. For as I am credably informed by honest merchaunts, he came to Roan safly and there was kept six or seven daies; since which hower of his comminge he hath been sic and lame in his whole body, and still remaineth in the hands of the horse-liche without any hope of recovery.3

"I thought it discretion and my duety to let yo' L. understand in what case I received him, lest if peradventur yet, or herafter, he perishe by occasion of this sicknes it be supposed to be through my default.

"I do most unfanedly assuer yo' L. there could no earthly thinge of like value have crossed my joy, more to my greefe and disquietnes, then this misfortune in my horse; wherin I am

Lansdowne MSS. 104, fo. 168.

2 Rouen.

3 Will Cecil appears to have been as unfortunate with his horseflesh as he was in his domestic affairs. Dudley Carleton, in a letter to J. Chamberlain, Dec. 29, 1601, mentions that "Will Cecill was lately robbed at his country house by one of his men of jewels and plate to the value of 2000, and one of his best geldings.”—S. P. Dom.

ashamed to show yo' L. what very greefe urged me unto, lest yo' good L. should condemne me of childishnes and want of discretion. At Paris this XXVI of August [1583].

"Your L. most obedient sonn,

"W. CECIL."

Two years later we find Will Cecil paying a secret visit to Rome, and his conduct there gave rise to a suspicion that he had turned Roman Catholic.1 Certain it is that his mode of life about this time was highly displeasing to Lord Burghley. In 1589, the prodigal son having returned home, and amended his way of life, received forgiveness, and was happily married to the only child and heir of Edward Manners, Earl of Rutland. This lady had succeeded, on her father's decease in 1587, to the ancient barony of de Ros. A year after his marriage, we find Will Cecil writing to his grandfather, thanking him for consenting to be sponsor to his firstborn child, who was to be called William, though the mother had wished him to be called Edward after her father.2 The young mother lived but a few days, or hours, after her child's birth. She died on May 11, 1590, leaving her husband a widower at the early age of twenty-four. And in this forlorn state we must leave Will Cecil and pass on to his brother Edward.

None of the Cecil pedigrees give the true date of Edward Cecil's birth, or state where he was born.3 These important

1 Goodman's Court of James I., i. p. 330, note.

2 W. Cecil to Lord Burghley, 21 May, 1590, Lansdowne MSS. 104, f. 71. This child was baptized at Newark Castle on June 4, 1590, and received the name of William. He succeeded his mother in the barony as sixteenth baron. His title having been contested by Francis Manners, sixth Earl of Rutland, as heir-general, the barony was confirmed to Wm. Cecil, Lord de Ros, in 1616.

3 Arthur Collins, in his account of "Cecil, Earl of Exeter," in his Peerage, states that Edward Cecil was born in 1571. Burke and Nichols have copied this vague date. See Burke's Peerage, and Nichols' Progresses of James I., ii. p. 441.

links in the biographical chain are supplied by a letter among the State Papers from Thomas Cecil to his illustrious father, Lord Burghley,' announcing the birth of his third son, at Burghley House, Stamford, on Feb. 29, 1571-2:

"My dewty unto yo' Lordshipp most humbly considered. It hath pleasid Almighty God, this present xxixth daye of ffebruary, to shewe me his favourable goodnes in sending me, with the saftye as I hoope of my wiffe, a thirde sonne. My meaning is to require my lorde of Ruttland2 to be one of the godfathers and the Bishopp of peterborough the other.3 As [for] the godmother I am not presently resolvyd of. And thus requiring yo' dailye blessing, booth to me and all youres, I wish that booth in yeares and comfortt you may live to see them the servants of Almighty [God] and a comfortt to yo' old age. And thus most humbly requiring you to beare wth this my shortness of writing, hastened therunto for that I would that myne owne letter should be the firste messenger, I end wth my dailye prayer for yo' safty, ffrom yo' 1. house of Burghley the XXIXth of ffebruary 1571 [old style]. "Yo' lordshipp's most humble and

1 Sir Wm. Cecil had been created Baron Burghley, Feb. 13, 1570-71.

2 Edward Manners, third Earl of Rutland, K.G., son of Henry, second

Earl, by Margaret, dau. of Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland.

* Edmund Scambler, B.D., was made Bishop of Peterborough, Dec. 21, 1560, in the place of David Pole, who had been deprived of the bishopric. In 1584 Bishop Scambler was translated to Norwich.

S. P. Dom. 1572.