OBITUARY.

A MEMOIR OF THE LATE RIGHT HON. WILBRAHAM, EARL of Dysart; With Biographical Notices oF THE ANTIENT FAMILY OF TOLlemache, of

HELMINGHAM, IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK.

March 9. At Ham House, Surrey, in the 82d year of his age, the Right Hon. Wilbraham Tollemache, Earl of Dysart, and Baron Huntingtour, of the kingdom of Scotland, a Baronet, and High Steward of the Borough of Ipswich.

His Lordship was born Oct. 21, 1739, and inherited the estates of his maternal ancestors the Wilbrahams of Woodbey in Cheshire. At an early age he was appointed an officer in the Royal Navy, which service he soon relinquished, and entered into the Army. In 1760 he was promoted to a company in the 106th regiment of Foot, which he retained until the reduction of that regiment in 1763. In 1765 he exchanged his half-pay for a company in the 6th regiment of Foot, and was Major of that regiment when he quitted the Army, in 1775. In 1768 he stood a severe contest for the representation of the Borough of Ipswich, in which, however, he was unsuccessful. On a vacancy, in 1771, he was chosen a burgess of the town of Northampton; and re-chosen at the general election in 1774. In 1780, he was elected a burgess of the Borough of Leckrard; and served the office of High Sheriff for the County Palatine of Chester, in 1785. On the death of his brother Lionel, the fourth Earl of Dysart, Feb. 22, 1799, he succeeded him in the Earldom, and, in 1806, the gallant Lord Viscount Nelson, in the High Stewardship of the Borough of Ipswich.

During the latter years of his Lordship's life, he withdrew from all political concerns; mingled seldom in promiscuous company; and was rarely or ever seen in public, and what is called fashionable life. He chiefly divided his time between the mansions of Ham, in Surrey, of Helmingham in Suffolk, and of the beautiful marine villa of Steephill in the Isle of Wight. At each of these places he resided in a retired, yet dignified manner, exercising all the bounty of old English hospitality, and indulging himself in extensive acts and distributions of charity. In these retreats, he passed his time in what the world calls solitude; but the calm and sequestered shades of Helmingham; the mild beau ties of the gardens at Ham; and the grand and romantic scenery of Steep

hill, had charms sufficiently attractive
to rivet his attention, and to recreate
his hours. Here also he had not only
his books and his paintings about bim,
but an hospitable and a noble table, at
which all who were honoured with his
acquaintance or friendship, were receiv-
ed with attention, and entertained with
the heartiest welcome. His proficiency
in drawing, painting, and the fine arts,
was considerable; and to the advance-
ment and interests of Science, which
formed, indeed, the chief solace of bis
leisure hours, he paid no inconsiderable
attention. His Lordship's manners were
highly polished, and of the old school;
his conversation instructive; his mind
well-informed; his judgment sound;
and his principles inflexible and honour-
able. To the late Countess he was con-
spicuous in his attachment; and to the
close of his life cherished the memory of
her many great and amiable virtues with
a singular and unalterable affection. To
his servants and dependents he was a
humane and generous, nay, a noble
master; and to his tenants the best and
most liberal of landlords.
His loss,
therefore, will be severely felt by these,
as well as by the poor of his immediate
neighbourhood, in relieving the wants
of whom he was a most assiduous yet
unostentatious benefactor.

His Lordship married, Feb. 4, 1778, Anna Maria, the eldest daughter of Da vid Lewis, of Malvern Hall, in the county of Warwick, esq. (the sister of his brother's wife, the present Countess Dowager of Dysart), who died at Ham House, Sept. 14, 1804, in the 59th year of her age, and was buried with great pomp in the vault of his Lordship's ancestors at Helmingham. Her character is thus elegantly-delineated on her Monument in the Church of that parish

"Her death was lamented and regretted by all, and particularly by her afflicted and disconsolate husband, who erected this Monument as a mark, faint as it is, of his grief and affection; and to perpetuate the memory of the most excellent of women. Religion, virtue, worth, benevolence, charity, beauty, and innocence, all these she possessed in an eminent degree; and her loss was irreparable to her husband, to her relations, and to her friends."

Come,

276

join,

Right Hon. the Earl of Dysart.

Come, Virgins! ere in equal hands ye
[shrine;
Come first, and offer at her sacred
Pray that your vows, like her's, may be
return'd,
[mourn'd."
So lov'd when living, and when dead so
By the decease of his Lordship, the
very antient and highly respectable fa-
mily of Tollemache has become extinct
in the male line,-a family which has
flourished in the greatest repute, and in
an uninterrupted male succession in the
county of Suffolk, from the arrival of
the Saxons in this kingdom to the pre-
sent time; a period of more than 1300
years.

Of a family of such high antiquity and
distinction, and which has borne so con-
spicuous a part in the annals and his-
tory of the County, the Reader of this
Memoir will surely pardon me, if I in-
dulge myself in giving a slight account.
With the native of Suffolk, indeed, so
long familiarized with the race, it can-
not fail of interest; for who is there, I
will ask, sincerely attached to his coun-
ty, who does not, whilst he peruses these
"records of Ancestry," regret the ex-
tinction of the name of TOLLEMACHE?
"His saltem accumulem donis, et fun-
gar inani

Munere."

Hugh Talmache, who subscribed the Charter sans date (about the reign of King Stephen) of John de St. John, made to Eve, the first abbess of Godstow, in Oxfordshire, is perhaps the first of the family now on record. He took, in his old age, the habits of a monk at Gloucester, and gave to that monastery a moiety of his town of Hampton, which Peter, his son, confirmed in the time of Hamlin, the abbot. William Talmache gave lands in Bentley and Dodness to the Priory of Ipswich, which were con

[March,

firmed in the reign of King John, In
the 25th of Edward I. Sir Hugh de Tal-
mache held of the Crown the manor of
Bentley, and the fourth part of the vil-
lage of Aketon, in the hundred of Ba-
berg, by Knight's service. In the 29th
of the same Monarch, William and John
Tallemache had summons to attend the
King at Berwick-upon-Tweed, previously
to his expedition into Scotland. This
John took the Black Cross; and his
arms are now remaining in the Minster
of York. Sir Lionel Tallemache, of
Bentley, flourished in the reign of
Henry VI. and Edward IV. He mar-
ried the heiress of Helmingham,
of Helmingham, in this county, by
which alliance he acquired that inherit-
ance, which is still the capital mansion
of the family. His son, John, was the
father of Lionel, who was High Sheriff
of Norfolk and Suffolk, the 4th of Henry
VIII. 1512. In the 88th of that Mo-
narch, 1546, the King granted him the
manor of Wansden, with the Rectory
thereof; the manor and Rectory of Le
Church Hey; and the manors of Bury-
hall, Wyllows, and Overball, to hold of
the Crown by knight's service.
son, Lionel, was knighted, and was
High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in
1567. In 1561, Queen Elizabeth ho-
noured Helmingham with her presence,
and remained there five days, Aug. 14,
15, 16, 17, and 18. Here she was en-
tertained

with great splendour and sumptuous hospitality; and during her visit stood godmother to Sir Lionel's son, and presented his mother with a lute, which is still preserved in the family. He married Dorothy, the daughter of Richard Lord Wentworth, of Net

tleshead, and was the father of Sir Lionel, who was High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1593. He was knighted also, and married Susanna, the daughter of Sir Ambrose Jermyn, of Rushbrook, knt. His son, Sir Lionel, was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1609, and was advanced to the dignity of a Baronet at the first institution of that order, in 1611, being the twelfth in order of precedency, In 1617, he was again High Sheriff of Suffolk; and married Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Lord Cromwell, by Mary his wife, the daughter of John, Marquis of Winchester. He was succeeded in title and estate by his son Sir Lionel*, knt. and bart. who

*Betham, in his " Baronetage," vol. V. App. p. 76, makes a most unaccountable mistake in bis Life of this Sir Lionel. He states, that he "was found dead in bis tent at Tilbury Camp, Sept. 16, 1640, æt. 49, where he went with the Suffolk Knights to oppose the Armada." Now the Camp at Tilbury was formed in 1588, Jong before Sir Lionel was born. Neither will this historical anecdote apply to the

grandfather

grandfather of this Sir Lionel, as he was living in 1691 unless the Camp at Tilbury was kept up long after the defeat of the Armada. In pointing out this error, this lapsus calami, I cannot refrain from acknowledging my obligations, and paying my tribute of praise to the merits of that excellent work, a work which displays an uncommon industry, and a general correctness, as well as the most indefatigable labour, in the dry, difficult, and toilsome science of Genealogy;-a work which was compiled, not in a place where immediate access could be had to books of reference, in order to settle a doubtful date, or correct an erroneous transcript; but in a retired and sequestered village, remote both from public libraries and from oral communication; amid the vexatious toil of a village school, and the intervals of ministerial avocations. And what has been the reward?-Proh pudor! a country curacy !

*This election was sharply contested. Lord Dysart was the second on the poll, and had 2877 votes; Sir Robert Davers, bart. 2883; Sir Dudley Cullum, bart. 2586; and Sir Samuel Barnardiston, bart. 2310.

278

Right Hon. the Earl of Dysart.

the liberty of his country; so as to speak and vote for keeping up an equal poise between both, according to our happy established Constitution; which vigilant attention, and steady attachment to the real welfare and true interest of it, as well in time of peace as when at war with the common enemy of his nation, gained him the public acknowledgment, as well as the just approbation of his constituents." He was succeeded by his grandson Lionel, the third Earl, who was created a Knight Companion of the most antient and most noble Order of the Thistle, in 1743. He married in 1731, Lady Grace Carteret, the eldest daughter of John, the first Earl of Granville, by whom he had fourteen children. In 1729, he was elected High Steward of the Borough of Ipswich. His Lordship died in 1770, and was succeeded by his son Lionel, the fourth Earl, who married, first, Oct. 2, 1760, Charlotte, one of the daughters of the Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, K. B. a son of Robert," the first Earl of Orford, and sister of her R. H. the Duchess of Gloucester; she died without issue at Ham House, Sept. 5, 1789 and secondly, April 29, 1791, Magdalene, the daughter of David Lewis, of Malvern Hall, in the county of Warwick, esq. who is now living, and universally respected; but by whom he had no issue. It was reported of this Lord that he returned the following answer to his Majesty's most gracious intimation of his intention to take a breakfast at Petersham: "Whenever my house becomes a public spectacle, his Majesty shall certainly have the first view."

His Lordship dying at Ham House, Feb. 22, 1799, in the 63d year of his age, was buried with great funeral pomp at Helmingham, and was succeeded in the honours and estates by his brother Wilbraham, the late and fifth Earl of Dy

sart.

The premature fate of the late Lord's three brothers was most melancholy and unfortunate; and is pathetically alluded to in the elegant inscription which commemorates the decease of Lionel Robert Tollemache, the only son of one of them, (viz. the Hon. John Tollemache), an Ensign in the 1st regiment of Guards; who, accompanying his regiment to Flanders, on the breaking out of the late war with

[March,

France, was killed by the bursting of a shell before Valenciennes, July 14, 1793, in an assault made previously to the surrender of that town.

"His death was the more unfortunate, as he was the only British officer killed on that occasion. He was a youth of uncommon promise; but to his family his loss was irreparable! for, by that fatal event, it became extinct in the male line. BUT THE NAME OF TOLLEMACHE HAS BEEN UNFORTUNATE! The father and two uncles of this valiant youth, like himself, lost their lives prematurely, in the service of their country. His uncle, the Hon. George Tollemache, was killed by falling from the mast-head of the Modeste man-of-war, at sea; his father, the Hon. John Tollemachet, was killed in a duel at New York; and another of his uncles, the Hon. William Tollemache, was lost in the Repulse frigate in a hurricane, in the Atlantic Ocean. So many instances of disaster are rarely to be met with in the same family."

By the laws of Scotland, Lady Louisa Manners, his Lordship's surviving sister, succeeds, as the elder branch, to the titles. She was born in 1745, and mar ried, in August 1765, John Manners of Grantham Grange, in the county of Lincoln, esq. a natural son of Lord William Manners, the second son of the second Duke of Rutland, and who died Sept. 22, 1792. By him she has issue three sons and four daughters; the eldest of whom, Sir William Manners, of Buckminster, in the county of Leicester, was created a Baronet, Jan, 5, 1793; and in 1790, married Catherine, the third and youngest daughter of Francis Grey, of Lehena, in the county of Cork, the authoress of a Volume of Poems; and by her has issue four sons and five daugh

ters.

The younger branch of the family are the issue of his Lordship's youngest sister Lady Jane, who married, first, the 23d of Oct. 1771, John Delap Halliday, of Castlemains, in the Stewartry of Kircudbright, and of the Leasowes (Shenstone's) in Shropshire, and who by him had issue John Halliday, esq. Admiral of the Royal Navy, who married July 28, 1797, Lady Elizabeth Stratford, the eldest daughter of John, Earl of Aldborough, by whom he has a numerous is

*The quarrel originated in a Sonnet, written by Capt. Pennington, of the Guards, which Captain Tollemache considered as reflecting on the supposed wit of his Lady, After firing a brace of pistols each, without effect, they drew their swords. Capt. Tollemache was run through the heart, and Capt. Pennington received seven wounds so severe, that his life was despaired of for some time after. Capt. Tollemache's Lady was Lady Bridget Henley, the daughter of Robert, the first Earl of Northington, and relict of the Hon. George Fox Lane.

sue; William, who died in 1806; Francis, a Captain in the Royal Navy; and Charlotte, married to Henry Wolseley, esq. the third son of Sir William Wolseley, of Wolseley in Staffordshire, bart. At his death, Lady Jane married, secondly, March 4, 1802, George D. Ferry, esq. and died the 28th of Aug. following. The descent through the female line of this antient family is as follows, viz.: Helmingham, Lowth, Joice, Wentworth, Jermyn, Cromwell, Stanhope, Murray, Wilbraham, Carteret, and Clutterbuck. Titles.-Earl of Dysart, Baron Huntingtour of the kingdom of Scotland, and a Baronet of England.

comprehending 400 acres, contains some of the finest oak trees in the county. The Church, which adjoins the park, contains many splendid memorials of the Tollemache family.

Ham House, in the parish of Peter sham, in the county of Surrey, was first erected by Sir Thomas Vavasor, and came in 1651 into the possession of Sir Lionel Tollemache, bart. After his death it underwent great alterations, and many additions were made to it by his widow; but it is said to have been finished at a very great expense in the taste of that time by Charles II. Here, as it is reported, the Cabal held their meetings. The ceilings are painted by Verrio, and the apartments ornamented with massy magnificence. The furni ture is very rich; the very bellows and brushes in some of the rooms being of solid silver, or of silver fillagree. In the centre of the house is a large hall, sur

Creations. A Baronet of England, at the first institution of that dignity, May 22, 1611; Earl of Dysart in the county of Fife, and Lord Huntingtour in the county of Perth, by patent, dated at Oxford, Aug. 3, 1643; and by a new patent, with the former precedency, dated at Ditehall, Dec. 5, 1670, to Elizabeth, rounded with an open gallery. The bal Countess of Dysart, in these terms, viz. : "Ac ejus proli, qui per eam nominabitur et dignabitur hæres ad succedendum et dicto titulo et dignitati, scripto et nominatione, per eam quovis tempore ejus vitæ subscribenda, ac hæredibus ex corpore dicti prolis (natu-maxima omnimodo succeden. absque divisione si fuerit femella), quibus deficientibus, et si nulla talis nominatio facta fuerit, vel postquam fuerit, per eam retractabitur, tunc in eo casu dictæ Comitissæ hæredibus quibuscunque, natu-maxima omni succeden. absque divisione."

Arms of Murray.-Azure, an imperial crown Or, between three stars Argent, within a double tressure, flowered and counterflowered of the second.-Crest: A mermaid holding a mirror in her right hand, and in her left a comb, all proper. -Supporters: Two lions Gules, collared Azure, charged with three stars Argent. -Motto: Tout Prest.

Arms of Tollemache.-Argent, a fret Sable. Crest: A horse's head couped Argent, between two wings erect Or.Supporters: Two antelopes proper, attired and unguled Or.-Motto: Confido, Conquiesco.

The chief seats of the family are Helmingham in Suffolk, about six miles from Ipswich, a quadrangular structure, with a court-yard in the centre, built about the time of Henry VIII. It contains some fine paintings, and many antient and highly curious portraits; a good library, chiefly of early printed books, and a considerable collection of old armour. The house, completely surrounded by a moat filled with water, is approached by two draw-bridges, which still continue to be drawn up every night. The park,

lustrades of the grand staircase, which is remarkably spacious and substantial, are of walnut-tree, and ornamented with military trophies. On the West side of the house is a gallery, ninety-two feet in length, hung with portraits. This mansion contains many fine paintings by the old and modern masters, among which the works of Vandeveldt, Wouvermans, Cornelius Jansen, Sir Peter Lely, Vandyke, Hoskin, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, are conspicuous.

Steephill, in the Isle of Wight, a beautiful marine villa, was built by the late Hans Stanley, esq. when Governor of the Isle. It stands on one of those dismembered rocks which are frequent here, nearly half way down between the base of the precipice and the sea; and though small, is fitted up with great elegance. Some beautiful sea-pieces by Vanderveldt ornament the interior. The cliffs, which are here covered with shrubs and coppice wood, afford a fine and umbrageous canopy over the walks that have been formed beneath. The grounds are laid out with great taste.

The mansion of Woodhey, in Cheshire, is now converted into a farm-house. Ipswich, March 14.

J. F.

t

BARONESS DUNALLEY. Lately. Died at Bath, the Right Hon. Catherine Baroness Dunalley. Her La-' dyship was the second daughter and coheiress of Francis Sadleir, esq. of Sopewell Hall, co. Tipperary (lineally descended from the eminent statesman, Sir Ralph Sadleir, knt. banneret); married, first, John Bury, esq. nephew and heir of Charles Moore, Earl of Charleville, by whom she had issue Charles

William