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Kings. Clarence

the Earl Marshal was illegal. By his taking the covenant in 1643, and the CHARLESI IIa Parliament superseding Sir John Boroughs for his loyalty, he was thrust" Provincial into the place of Garter, and for some time held both it and Clarenceux' office together; his geny," says Wood, "being more adequate to arms “and armory, in which he did excel, than the municipal laws." In 1654, he was returned a member of Parliament for Ryegate; and 1658, for Gat-. At the Restoration, as he had been "thrust" into Garter's place, or more properly speaking, had obtained it as the infamous reward of his treason, he experienced the fate of other usurpers, by being " thrust" back again to his former and legal province; had he not been so nearly allied to the ennobled family of Montagu, he perhaps would have been called to an account for some of his actions: as it was, he was knighted. The grants of arms given by him during the Usurpation, as Garter, were, by a warrant from Charles II. September 4, 1660, declared illegal and void. In 1661, he was again chosen a member for Blechingley, and continued to sit in that Parliament till its dissolution. He is said to have become a pensioner to the court, receiving £100 every sessions for his vote: a circumstance by no means unlikely, as he had equally demeaned himself during the Usurpation, having had of the sequestrators £600 a year pension, out of the estates of the unfortunate loyalists, proving that he only could be kept true, or rather constant to any interest, by a bribe equal to his supposed consequence. He died in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, December 15, 1679, poor in fortune, and still more so in reputation. In his younger days he was esteemed a worthy and virtuous person, but after his falseness to his Sovereign, Charles I. " he did nothing but deturbate, and so continued worse "and worse till his death." The wealth he gained by the troubles of his country was soon dissipated; and after disposing of his well-selected library, he, to supply his necessities, issued out grants of arms, as Clarenceux, without accounting for the fees to the members, and often in such a manner, as to bring disgrace upon the College. His vanity was conspicuously ridiculous, assuming the arms of the family of de la Bisse, whose original name he pretended was de Clare, and who bore, he said, the arms of the Earls of Gloucester of that surname, with the distinction of a Label of five Points, Sable, until the reign of Richard II, when one of them altered it to Or, a Chevron between three Roscs, Gules. So foolishly vain was he of this conceit, that not content with having these bearings engraved in Oo Stow

Provincial
Kings.
Clarencene.

CHARLES II. Stow church, he placed pretended escutcheons in his house of Smalfield. It appears, however, that, like all other pretenders, he was not consistent; for at first he bore the de la Bisse's arms plain, afterwards added a label with one point in the middle, though if any thing, it should have been, according to himself, of five points. His works of learning are, "Note "in quatuor Libros Nicholi Upton, de Studio Militari.-Note in Johannis "de Bado aureo Libellum de Armis.-Notæ in Henrici Spelman Aspilogiam ;” which were all published together, London, 1654, folio, and were written by him in English, but translated into Latin by David Whitford, an ejected student of Christ-Church, Oxford, who was employed for that purpose. He also put out, in his own name, a translation from Greck into Latin, of "Palladius de gentibus Indie, et Brachmanibus," London, 1665, in which were added some other things; and at one time he proposed giving a history of Surrey. He was, it must be allowed, a good herald, but a bad: genealogist, loving one science as much as he disliked the other: in the former" he was," says Mr. Dallaway, "a profound critic," being "more "learned and more perspicuous than his predecessors, and was the first "who treated the subject of an antiquary and historian, endeavouring to "divest it of extraneous matter." He lived in splendour, and affected. much state. He had his town house in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; his country residence was at Smalfield, in Surrey: if the peerage is accurate, Stanstead in Essex also. It must be allowed, that he spent some of his. ill-acquired wealth, during the Usurpation, in encouraging learning. At his death, the remains of his library were sold by auction, by John Dunmore, bookseller, at his house, near the sign of the Woolpack in Ivy-lane. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Charles Montagu, brother to the Earl of Manchester.

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Jan. 25, or 31, 1678-9.-Sir IIENRY ST. GEORGE, Knight.-See next reign.

Norry.

NORRO Y.

June 12, 1660.-Sir WILLIAM DUGDALE, Knight.-See Garter.
April 27, 1677.-Sir HENRY ST. GEORGE, Knight.-See Clarenceux.
Jan. 1679-80.—Sir THOMAS ST. GEORGE, Knight.-See next reign.

CHARLESII.

Heralds.

HERALD S.

WINDSOR.

April 22, 1660.-ELIAS ASHMOLE, Esq.-Resigned.

Mr. Ashmole, Windsor, was son and only child of Simon Ashmole, of Lichfield, sadler, eldest son of Mr. Thomas Ashmole, of that city, sadler, twice chief bailiff of that corporation, and of Ann, one of the daughters of Anthony Bowyer of Coventry, draper, by Bridget his wife, only daughter of Mr. Fitch, of Alsley in Warwickshire, Gent. It was designed to have had Windsor's name Thomas, but " by extraordinary impulse in the spirit of Mrs. Bridges, his godmother, whilst at the font, he was named Elias." He was born May 23, 1617. He mentions the precise time of the day, with his, and Lilly's rectification of his nativity. His father was an improvident man; loved war better than making saddles and bridles. His mother was a " careful painstaking person," but rather severe in her temper, owing to the careless habits of her husband, who served under the Earl of Essex in Ireland, and in the Palatinate, from whom he received good respect, because he was, with all his failings," an honest, "fair conditioned man, and kind to others; yet through ill husbandry, he "became a great enemy to himself, and poor family." Fortunately for our herald, his musical voice recommended him to the notice of J. Pagit, Esq. the puisne baron, and his family, especially the judge's second son, Thomas, who first having him placed as a chorister in the cathedral of Lichfield, and taught to play upon the virginals and organ, sent him to London, in the year 1633. His father died in 1634. In 1635, he learned to play upon the harpsichord. He studied the law, and resided in the Temple, under the patronage of his friend; and at length obtained an establishment as one of the Commissioners of Excise, and Comptroller of the Ordnance in Worcester, for his Majesty, during the civil war. He was, however, obliged to surrender his person to the Parliament Army in 1645. After this he gave himself up to the study of his profession, and various other branches of science. At the Restoration he was appointed Windsor herald. At the second time he had the honor to discourse with the King, which was April 18, 1660. His Majesty gave orders to the Lord Chamberlain to settle him as the first herald, in case any dispute should happen

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Heralds.
Windsor.

CHARLES II. happen, and that he should have his diet at the waiter's table. On May 16, 1661, he received a grant of arms from Sir Edward Bysshe, Clarenceux. He requested leave to resign his herald's place in 1674, to which the Earl Marshal was very unwilling to consent; but January 29, 1675-6, his Lordship complying with his wishes, he, on July 21 following, surrendered it in Chancery, though he had paid the King £100, as an acknowledgment upon receiving that office. He had been indulged with having John Walch allowed him for a deputy. Having so many other employments he might well spare this. His leaving his tabard was, in some measure we may suppose, from discontent; for he says, " April 7, 1676, the officers. "of arms, seeming unwilling to let him have the funeral turn, which was "his due, he acquainted the Earl Marshal with it, and on that day Sir "Thomas St. George waiting on him, he told him he would have Mr. "Ashmole have the benefit of it. His Lordship afterwards told him, "that he esteemed Windsor the best officer in the College, and that if he "could have persuaded him to have staid in the office, he should not have "wanted the best employment, and have been made the fore horse in the "team; and that he had deserved greatly in getting money for rebuilding "the office." There was little doubt that, had he remained, he would have become Garter. King, Lancaster, relates, that he strove for that office after Sir Edward Walker's death; but he himself says he refused it, though Mr. Beatie carnestly pressed it, intimating, that the Lord Treasurer thought him the fittest for it,, but he absolutely declined receiving the place.

The favors he received were very great, obtaining the post of Comptroller of the Excise, elected Fellow of the Royal Society at Gresham College, Secretary of Surinam in South America, Commissioner for recovering the goods and valuable effects belonging to his Majesty, which were dispersed at the late King's death, Steward of the Middle Temple, Accountant-General of the Excise, and Accountant of the Country. Gentlemen, noblemen, princes, great potentates, were emulous to pay him the most enviable honors. Nothing contributed so much to this, as his "History of "the Order of the Garter," published in folio, 1672; besides which he published "Fasculus Chemicus, or Chemical Collections, expressing the ingress, progress, and egress of the Secret Hermetic Science, &c." "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum," 4to. 1652, containing many pieces of our old hermetic philosophers, which gained him very consider

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Heralds.

Windsor..

able credit. These, with "The Way to Bliss," he presented to Charles II., CHARLESIT.. in 1661, in which year he also published "Ordo novum Regem in Regno "constituendi, &c.," transcribed from an old vellum MS., which the Duke of York delivered to Sir Edward Parker in 1660. "An Account of the "Coronation of our Kings," transcribed by him out of a MS. in the King's private closet, in 1660; " A Treatise of the Earl Marshal's Office," transcribed also by him out of a MS. of Mr. Serjeant Maynard; also " A "brief Ceremonial of the Feast of St. George, held at Whitehall, in 1661,. "with several papers relating to the Order of the Garter." His" History "of the Antiquities of Berks," had not the attention it deserved. He also left a Diary, in which are many curious particulars; but the latter part of it is extremely offensive and disgusting, being a relation of all his many maladies, mentioned in the most gross terms. The younger Tradescant bequeathed him all the valuable rarities of his family, and he purchased many libraries; these form the ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM at Oxford, which he founded, and endowed in his life time. This extraordinary man, who had studied and excelled in music, botany, chemistry, heraldry, and antiquities, lost his judgment in all the follies of judicial astrology. Lilly, that contemptible man, was his companion and beloved friend, who says of him, in return for the notice he bestowed upon him, that he was "the greatest "virtuoso and curioso, that was ever known or read of in England." His expensive and elaborate collection of materials, for the lives of the com-panions of the Order of the Garter, are supposed to be in the Museum at Oxford. It is singular, that amongst all his many distinctions, knighthood was. not one. He married thrice, for affection, fortune, and esteem. His wives were, Eleanor, eldest daughter of Mr. Peter Manwaring, of Cheshire, married March 27, 1638; she died December 5, 1641, and was bu ried in Astbury church in that county. "She was a virtuous, modest,"careful, and loving wife." Dying in his absence, he paid a mournful. visit to her grave, to express the tenderness he entertained for her memory: this lady's mother said, " she loved him as well as her own child." His second wife had been the widow of several husbands; Sir Edward Stafford,. Mr. Hamlyne, Blanch-lion, and Sir Thomas Manwaring, Knight, Recorder of Reading. They becoming unhappy, she commenced a suit against him but Serjeant Maynard observed, that in the eight hundred sheets of depo-sitions on his wife's part, not one word was proved of his having used her ill,

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