Volume II Part 44 (1/2)
8th December, 1700. Great alterations of officers at Court, and elsewhere,--Lord Chief Justice Treby died; he was a learned man in his profession, of which we have now few, never fewer; the Chancery requiring so little skill in deep law-learning, if the practicer can talk eloquently in that Court; so that probably few care to study the law to any purpose. Lord Marlborough Master of the Ordnance, in place of Lord Romney made Groom of the Stole. The Earl of Rochester goes Lord Lieutenant to Ireland.
January, 1700-01. I finished the sale of North Stoake in Suss.e.x to Robert Mich.e.l.l, Esq., appointed by my brother to be sold for payment of portions to my nieces, and other inc.u.mbrances on the estate.
4th January, 1701. An exceeding deep snow, and melted away as suddenly.
19th January, 1701. Severe frost, and such a tempest as threw down many chimneys, and did great spoil at sea, and blew down above twenty trees of mine at Wotton.
9th February, 1701. The old Speaker laid aside, and Mr. Harley, an able gentleman, chosen. Our countryman, Sir Richard Onslow, had a party for him.
27th February, 1701. By an order of the House of Commons, I laid before the Speaker the state of what had been received and paid toward the building of Greenwich Hospital.
Mr. Wye, Rector of Wotton, died, a very worthy good man. I gave it to Dr. Bohun, a learned person and excellent preacher, who had been my son's tutor, and lived long in my family.
18th March, 1701. I let Sayes Court to Lord Carmarthen, son to the Duke of Leeds. 28th. I went to the funeral of my sister Draper, who was buried at Edmonton in great state. Dr. Davenant displeased the clergy now met in Convocation by a pa.s.sage in his book, p. 40.
April, 1701. A Dutch boy of about eight or nine years old was carried about by his parents to show, who had about the iris of one eye the letters of _Deus meus_, and of the other _Elohim_, in the Hebrew character. How this was done by artifice none could imagine; his parents affirming that he was so born. It did not prejudice his sight, and he seemed to be a lively playing boy. Everybody went to see him; physicians and philosophers examined it with great accuracy; some considered it as artificial, others as almost supernatural.
4th April, 1701. The Duke of Norfolk died of an apoplexy, and Mr. Thomas Howard of complicated disease since his being cut for the stone; he was one of the Tellers of the Exchequer. Mr. How made a Baron.
May, 1701. Some Kentish men, delivering a pet.i.tion to the House of Commons, were imprisoned.[93]
[Footnote 93: Justinian Champneys, Thomas Culpepper, William Culpepper, William Hamilton, and David Polhill, gentlemen of considerable property and family in the county. There is a very good print of them in five ovals on one plate, engraved by R. White, in 1701. They desired the Parliament to mind the public more, and their private heats less. They were confined till the prorogation, and were much visited. Burnet gives an account of them.]
A great dearth, no considerable rain having fallen for some months.
17th May, 1701. Very plentiful showers, the wind coming west and south.
The Bishops and Convocation at difference concerning the right of calling the a.s.sembly and dissolving. Atterbury and Dr. Wake writing one against the other.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
20th June, 1701. The Commons demanded a conference with the Lords on the trial of Lord Somers, which the Lords refused, and proceeding on the trial, the Commons would not attend, and he was acquitted.
22d June, 1701. I went to congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent person my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland, where he had behaved himself so honestly, and to the exceeding satisfaction of the people: but he was removed thence for being a Frenchman, though they had not a more worthy, valiant, discreet, and trusty person in the two kingdoms, on whom they could have relied for his conduct and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered, as well as the Marquis, his father, for being Protestants.
July, 1701. My Lord Treasurer made my grandson one of the Commissioners of the prizes, salary 500 per annum.
8th July, 1701. My grandson went to Sir Simon Harcourt, the Solicitor-General, to Windsor, to wait on my Lord Treasurer. There had been for some time a proposal of marrying my grandson to a daughter of Mrs. Boscawen, sister of my Lord Treasurer, which was now far advanced.
14th July, 1701. I subscribed toward rebuilding Oakwood Chapel, now, after 200 years, almost fallen down.
August, 1701. The weather changed from heat not much less than in Italy or Spain for some few days, to wet, dripping, and cold, with intermissions of fair.
2d September, 1701. I went to Kensington, and saw the house, plantations, and gardens, the work of Mr. Wise, who was there to receive me.
The death of King James, happening on the 15th of this month, N. S., after two or three days' indisposition, put an end to that unhappy Prince's troubles, after a short and unprosperous reign, indiscreetly attempting to bring in Popery, and make himself absolute, in imitation of the French, hurried on by the impatience of the Jesuits; which the nation would not endure.
Died the Earl of Bath, whose contest with Lord Montague about the Duke of Albemarle's estate, claiming under a will supposed to have been forged, is said to have been worth 10,000 to the lawyers. His eldest son shot himself a few days after his father's death; for what cause is not clear. He was a most hopeful young man, and had behaved so bravely against the Turks at the siege of Vienna, that the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. It was falsely reported that Sir Edward Seymour was dead, a great man; he had often been Speaker, Treasurer of the Navy, and in many other lucrative offices. He was of a hasty spirit, not at all sincere, but head of the party at any time prevailing in Parliament.
29th September, 1701. I kept my first courts in Surrey, which took up the whole week. My steward was Mr. Hervey, a Counsellor, Justice of Peace, and Member of Parliament, and my neighbor. I gave him six guineas, which was a guinea a day, and to Mr. Martin, his clerk, three guineas.
31st October, 1701. I was this day 81 complete, in tolerable health, considering my great age.