The Cecil family,

Preface

The house of Cecil rose into eminence in the middle of the sixteenth century, for the latter half of which Lord Burghley was the foremost statesman in England. His sons, Thomas, Earl of Exeter, and Robert, Earl of SaHsbury, founded the two branches of the family which still have their seats at Burghley and Hatfield. After the death of Lord Salisbury in 1612, no Cecils with any great claims to distinction appeared in either branch until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the late Marquess of Salisbury, the " greater Cecil of a greater Queen," arose to prove that the spirit of his ancestor was only dormant.

Thus by far the greater part of this record is taken up with the life story of three great men — Lord Burghley, Sir Robert Cecil, and the third Marquess of Salisbury. Of Burghley many lives have been written, and I cannot pretend to have discovered anything new about him. So far as I know, however, no separate biography of Sir Robert Cecil exists, and the chapters devoted to him, inadequate as they are, contain a good deal of material gathered together from various sources for the first time. Since this book is intended to be a history of the family, rather than of public events, I have endeavoured to lay special stress on the private life and character both of Burghley and his son.

vi PREFACE

Of the late Marquess of Salisbury, no full biography has yet been published, the official Life by Lady Gwendolen Cecil being eagerly awaited. But the history of his public life, at least, is common property, and the main outlines of his character are well known. His many points of resemblance to Lord Burghley have not, I think, been brought out before.

For convenience, the history of the elder branch of the family — the Exeter line — has been told first. Thus the life of Lord Burghley is followed by chapters on Sir Thomas Cecil — a man of no great attainments, but of a straightforward and engaging disposition, who has been unduly depreciated by previous writers — and his son Sir Edward, Viscount Wimbledon. A single chapter is sufficient to chronicle the later fortunes of this branch. The history of the Salisbury line begins with the life of Robert, the first Earl, and ends with that of the late Marquess. The record of the two intervening centuries is again easily contained in one chapter, which, however, is not without elements of human interest.

I have to thank Miss Constance Jacob for her zeal in unearthing information, especially about the less important people whose lives are here recorded ; and Mr. S. H. Morgan for reading the proofs and helping me in many ways.

G. R. D.

LUSTLEIGH,

April, 1913

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Founding of the Family . . . i

II. William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Chapter I

The authentic history of the house of Cecil may be said to begin with David Cyssell, or Syssell, of Stamford, the grandfather of Lord Burghley. Unfortunately Burghley delighted in heraldry and genealogy, a dangerous hobby in those days, when even the kings-of-arms were not above manufacturing a long pedigree for a man of wealth and position. Numerous scraps of pedigrees and genealogical notes in Burghley's handwriting exist at Hatfield, which, if they prove nothing else, show at least that the pedigree which was finally accepted was the outcome of a dozen other versions which did not work out satisfactorily. " The collections made for him," says Mr. Oswald Barron, " are suspect in their origin and untrustworthy in detail, and it might have been better for the modern genealogist had Burghley been careless of his source, for we have on this side the suspicion of documents tampered with, and on the other

c. B side the suspicion that inconvenient fact has been suppressed."^

According to the official pedigree, David Cyssell was the younger son of Richard Cicell of AUt yr Ynys in Herefordshire, and his descent is traced back through fifteen generations to one Robert Sytsylt, who, in the year 1091, assisted Robert Fitz- Hamon in the conquest of Glamorganshire, and was the father of Sir James Sitsilt, baron of Beauport.

In the course of four centuries the family is said to have become allied by marriage to many of the most ancient and eminent families in the county of Hereford, such as the Frenes, Pembridges, Baskervilles, De la Beres, and others, yet it is a surprising fact that throughout this long period its name does not once appear among the sheriffs of the county, nor among its representatives in Parliament, nor even in the list of the gentry of Herefordshire drawn up in the reign of Henry VI., though that list contains many of the names which are enumerated among the Cecil alliances.^

To add further verisimilitude to the record, a picturesque story is told of a great contention between Sir John Sitsilt and Sir William Fakenham, which took place in 1333 at Halidon Hill, near Berwick. Each disputant claimed a certain coat of arms^ as his right, and offered to maintain the

' Northamptonshire Families {Victoria County Histories), p. 21. Mr. Barron's researches have rendered all other writers on the subject obsolete.

2 Blore, History of Rutland (1811), p. 76.

" Viz., Barry of ten, argent and azure, over all six escutcheons, 3.2.1. each charged with a lion rampant of the field. The present arms of the Cecils.

same by force of arms. Edward III., however, referred the dispute to the heralds, who solemnly adjudged the right of bearing these arms to Sir John Sitsilt, as heir of the blood, lineally descended from Sir James Sitsilt, Lord of Beauport, who was killed at the siege of Wallingford in 1139. In his Workes of Armorie (1597) Bossewell gives transcripts of these proceedings, adding that he has himself seen in the possession of Lord Burghley the original writing, " being written in parchment, according to the antiquity of the time."

Here again it is surprising to find that the names of neither of these distinguished disputants occur in any of the rolls of arms ; and although such disputes did undoubtedly occur in the middle ages, yet, to sum up the matter in the words of Blore, " the evidence should be very decisive indeed, which would induce one to credit such a dispute having been maintained by a member of a family, concerning at least eleven generations of which there does not seem to be a single public record, or another private document, even if those noticed by Bossewell really existed " — or rather, we may say, if they were really authentic. In fact, as Mr. Oswald Barron points out, the whole proceedings are based on the famous suit of Scrope against Grosvenor.

This version of the ancestry of the family may therefore be dismissed. Two other theories must be mentioned before we pass on to surer ground. One of these was propounded by an ingenious Frenchman in the seventeenth century, who

B z proved to his own satisfaction that the family was descended from the Ceciles of Frasne in Burgundy, and that David Cecil of Stamford was the first who settled in England.^ The other suggestion is that of Richard Verstegan, who, speaking of the Welsh people, says, "it is not to be doubted but that during the space of about 500 years that they were subject unto the Romans, divers of the Romans settled and mixed themselves among them ; whose posterity hath since remained in account as being of the ancient families of Wales ; and I do find very probable reason to enduce me to think, that among others, the honourable family of the Cecils, being issued from Wales, is originally descended from the Romans." "

Returning to reasonable probabilities, it may be said that although the pedigrees which assign a long lineage to the Cicelts or Seycelds of Allt yr Ynys are entirely untrustworthy, there seems no reason to doubt that a connection did exist between them and the Cecils of Stamford.

The Herefordshire family, " a race of yeomen or small gentry," certainly claimed kinship with the Northamptonshire Cecils, and made frequent requests for preferment and help on the strength of the connection. The Cecils on their side admitted the relationship and Burghley adopted

1 See Nares, Memoirs of Burghley, III. App. I.

"^ Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities, ed. 1673, p. 346. Mr Andrew Lang considered that the name of Cecil was derived from the Roman Cs'cilius, which may very likely be the case. He also stated that Russell Lowell thought the original form of the name was " Sicile," and that the family were Jews from Sicily [Illustrated London News, November nth, 191 1, p. 762).

the arms of the Seycelds, quartered with Winston and Carlyon.^

A pedigree, apparently genuine, at Hatfield, shows that Philip Seyceld of Allt yr Ynys had a son Richard, whose will, October 8th, 1508, is also extant. Richard had two sons, Philip, of Allt yr Ynys, who seems to have died in his father's lifetime, and David, who in all probability is identical with the grandfather of Lord Burghley.

Philip had a son John, who died in 1551 ; and John had three sons, the eldest of whom, William, died in March, 1598, leaving one son and eight daughters. One of his sons-in-law, Paul de la Hay, sends Burghley an account of the funeral, from which we see that the family looked up to the Lord Treasurer as their patron and protector. He describes how the eight sons-in-law of the deceased and three of his nephews followed the coffin, and after them his son Matthew's wife, the eight daughters, and William's sister Alice in mourning attire. " His wife refused to be present, albeit requested and a gown's cloth sent her." Afterwards a distribution of bread and money was made to the poor, " and so," he continues, " in worshipful manner was the funeral celebrated to your Lordship's commendations, for that to the credit

^ Mr. A. C. Fox-Davies has pointed out that the fact that Lord Burghley adopted these arms with quartering of Winston only (for Carlyon was brought in by Winston) " would seem to indicate the probability that that much of the pedigree was within his own knowledge which it may well have been." The mother of the first Philip Seyceld, mentioned above, is said to have been a Winston. See The Genealogy of the Cecils, in Jack's Historical Monograph on Lord Burghley (1904).

of the house of Alterinis, I gave out the charge to be yours, which amounted to £ioo." ^

Matthew, WilHam's only son, was dangerously ill at the time and died soon afterwards, not without having tried to oppose his father's will. Two of the sons-in-law also appealed to Lord Burghley, on the ground that William, " wishing to continue the name of Cecil in that house," had conveyed the property to Sir Robert Cecil and his heirs, " to the disherison of his own issue." They also accused Paul de la Hay and another of the sons-in-law of having seized all William's valuable personal property " under a disorderly will which was written by a servant of the said De la Hay."

Nor did the altercations and dissensions in the family end here. Matthew's widow, Catherine, caused great trouble, and De la Hay charges her v/ith " playing a lewd part of purpose to raise seed to disinherit Sir Robert : with waste of goods, with harbouring Lloyd a murderer, of purpose to murder him [De la Hay], and with beating and starving Alice the aged sister of William Cecil." De la Hay, by arrangement with Sir Robert, assumed control of the property, which however he found so hampered with debts, dowries, heriots and legacies that he says, " I shall have as good a bargain as an egg for a penny."

Finally the estate was sold and came into the possession of Guy's Hospital. And so we may take leave of the Herefordshire Cecils.

1 Cat. of Hatfield MSS., VIII. 82. The details that follow are also obtained from the Hatfield papers.

The history of David Cecil, the younger son of Richard, is of greater interest, as he was the founder of his family's fortunes. Through his grandmother he was related to Sir David Philipp, who accompanied Henry VII. out of Wales and fought at Bosworth Field, afterwards settling at Thornhaugh in Northamptonshire.^ Burghley states that David Cecil followed Sir David Philipp in the campaign, and " Davy Scisseld " proved his will in 1506 as one of his executors. Further proof of the identity of Burghley's grandfather with the Welsh David is afforded by the fact that the former was one of the yeomen of the guard, who were chiefly composed of Henry's Welsh followers.^

As for the differences in the spelling of the name, a letter written by Burghley's son, the first Earl of Exeter, to his uncle, Hugh Allington (November 13th, 1605), is of interest. Some libel having been published reflecting on the origin of the family, he asks his uncle to search in his study at Burghley for documents, and adds : " Likewise my Lord my father's altering the writing of his name maketh many that are not well affected to our house to doubt whether we are rightly descended of the house of Wales, because they write their name Sitselt and our name is written Cecyll ; my grandfather wrote it Syssell ; and so in autography [sic] all the three names

'- Blore, History of Rutland.

2 A fact discovered by Mr. Oswald Barron, to whom I am indebted for many of the details of David's life. See Northamptonshire Families.

differ. Whereof I marvel what moved my Lord my father to alter it." ^

To this it may be added that in the Patent Rolls David's name is spelt : Scisseld, Cecille, Cecill, Cecile, Sidle, Ceyssell, and the variants Cicyll and Cecyll occur in connection with his son Richard.

David Cecil, then, settled in Stamford, and soon established himself as a worthy citizen. He was admitted to the freedom of the borough in 1494, and was a common councillor and one of " the twelve " in the fohowing year. He was alderman, or mayor of the borough in 1504, 1515, and 1526, and represented it in three Parliaments. In 1507 he founded a chantry in St. George's Church, and in 1509 his name occurs in the list of the yeomen of the King's guard at the funeral of Henry VII. The same year he was made Bailiff of Preston, Uppingham, and Essen dine, in Rutland, and of Skellingthorpe, in Lincolnshire ; and in June, 1511, he received the appointment of Water-baihff of Wittlesea Mere, Huntingdon, and Keeper of the Swans there and throughout the waters and fens in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Northampton, for the term of thirty years. Two years later he was made one of the King's Serjeants-at-Arms, and in 15 17 he secured for his son Richard the office of a King's page. He also obtained the Keepership of Clyff Park, Northamptonshire, jointly with his son, and afterwards received the further appointment of Steward of the King's

1 Collins' Peerage, ed. Brydges, II. 587.

manor of Colly- Weston in the same county and Escheator for the county of Lincoln. In 1532 and 1533 he was Sheriff of the county of Northampton, " which," says Fuller, " proves him a person of birth, brains, and estate ; seeing, in that age, in this county, so plentiful of capable persons, none were advanced to that office except esquires at least of much merit." ^

This long list of appointments and offices proves also that David Cecil was a man of much more than average energy and perseverance, as well as uncommon ability. The old territorial nobility, whose ranks had been depleted by the Wars of the Roses, were giving place to a new nobility, dependent on the favour of the King ; and the large landed proprietors began to be recruited from the ranks of yeomen and smaller gentry. Both David Cecil and his son were quick to take advantage of the situation, assiduously courting the King's favour and acquiring lands, property and influence.

Lord Burghley has recorded in his MS. Diary that his grandfather died in 1536.'^ But there is evidence that he was still a yeoman of the guard in December of that year, and though his will is dated January 25th, 1536, which may have given rise to the mistake, it was not proved till March, 1542. We may conclude therefore that he died shortly before the later date.

He was twice married, first to Alice Dicons, daughter and heir of John Dicons, alderman of Stamford, who was also connected by marriage

with Sir David Philipp, and secondly to Joan Roos, daughter and heir of Thomas Roos, of Dowsby, Lincolnshire, who had twice previously been married. By his first wife he had two sons, Richard and David, and by his second, one daughter, Joan.^

Among the various properties which came into his hands was the manor of Burghley, near Stamford, which he bought in 1526 — 1528 from Margaret Chambers and Thomas Williams junior.^ From this estate his grandson took his title, after erecting the mansion which still remains the seat of the senior branch of the family.

By his will David left to his wife all his lands for the term of her life (she died in 1537) and after her death to his son Richard ; among other things he left her " twenty kye and a bull," three beds and several pieces of silver, to one of which, " a piece gilt with the wheat-sheaf in the bottom, the which I gave her before our marriage," interest attaches since the wheatsheaf is still the crest of the Exeter branch of the Cecils.^

^ Joan married Edmund Browne, alderman of Stamford, and from this marriage was descended Richard Browne (1550 — 1633), the leader of the earliest Separatists, hence called Brownists, the forerunners of the present Congregationalists. When imprisoned, in 1581, he was released by the influence of Lord Burghley, who afterwards presented him to the living of Achurch, Northamptonshire.

2 Victoria County History, Northamptonshire, II. 524. Earlier authorities state that the old and new Manors of Burghley were bought by Richard Cecil, and a memorandum exists in Lord Burghley's handwriting, in which he gives a history of the manors, and adds " Ista Margarita vendidit omnes suas terras Ricardo Cecill, patri meo " (Peck, Desiderata Cur iosa, I. 80). Martin Hume, in The Great Lord Burghley, and following him Dr. Jessopp, state that Burghley was brought into the family by Richard's wife, Jane Heckington, but this is a mistake.

'^ The Salisbury branch bears a different crest, the origin of which is

THE FOUNDING OF THE FAMILY ii

He left to his eldest son, Richard, two complete feather beds and his best gown ; to his second son, David, two more complete feather beds and one other bed, a black gown lined with damask, a doublet of satin and his green coat ; and to his daughter Joan he left £20 to be delivered to her mother for her marriage and half of his household goods at Dowsby. The residue of his goods he left to Richard, against whom David afterwards brought an unsuccessful action on the ground that his brother had fraudulently deprived him of certain lands that were rightfully his.

Among the bequests made by David Cecil to his son Richard was his interest in the Tabard Inn, which had come to him from his father-inlaw, John Dicons. This suggests an explanation of a storj^ which obtained a wide circulation in later years, to the effect that Lord Burghley's grandfather " kept the best inn in Stamford." Such an imputation, which first appeared in a scurrilous Latin pamphlet issued in the Low Countries under the title of Philopatris^ touched Burghley in his most sensitive part, as its originators no doubt knew. It has hitherto been regarded as a mere slander, but it now appears that it may have had some foundation in fact. As Mr. Barron

told in a letter from F. Cordale, July 21st, 1599. Sir Robert Cecil, he says, " has found a new pedigree, by his grandmother, from the Walpoles, and altered his crest from a sheaf of wheat between two lions, to two sheaves of arrows crossed and covered with a helmet, to distinguish his retinue from his brother's " {Cal. S. P. Dom.).

1 Collins' Peerage, II. 587. See also letters from Dr. Ch. Parkins to Sir R. Cecil concerning this book, November 22nd and 26th, 1593 {Hatfield MSS., IV. 419, 423).

points out, David was probably only a trustee of the Tabard Inn, yet " the inn-keeper's trade was then a good one, and it is at least possible that he mended his fortunes by following for a while his father-in-law's calling." ^ However this may be, Fuller's words remain true : " No credit is to be given to their pens who tax him with meanness of birth, and whose malice is so general against all goodness that it had been a slander if this worthy man had not been slandered by them."

Richard Cecil entered into his father's inheritance and still further increased the position and the property of the family. As already noticed, he was a King's page in 15 17, and in this capacity he attended the King at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. He was afterwards appointed Groom of the Wardrobe, " a place," says the earliest biographer of Lord Burghley,- " though now esteemed but mean, yet at that time of good account. For then the King did ordinarily make himself ready in the robes, where Mr. Cecil being chief and a wise discreet man, was in great favour with the King, who gave him both countenance and living." He profited by the Royal favour, and was appointed in turn Bailiff of the manors and woods of Torpell, Maxey and Bourne, Constable of Maxey Castle, Constable of Warwick Castle, and Steward of the manors of Nassington, Yarwell

1 Northamptonshire Families, pp. 22, 23.

2 His Life by an unknown member of his household is printed in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa.

and Upton, all in Northamptonshire. He received the reversion of his father's office of Bailiff of Wittlesea Mere and Keeper of the Swans for a term of thirty years, and in 1539 — 1540 he was Sheriff of Rutland.

In addition to these appointments, he received very numerous grants of lands, the most important of which, dated July 9th, 1540, included the site of St. Michael's Priory, near Stamford, the church, and 229 acres of land in the parish of St. Martin's Stamford, with the advowson, the convent house in Easton, Northants, and the manor and advowson of the vicarage of Wothorpe. He also purchased various estates in Rutland, as well as in Kent and Lincolnshire.^

Henry VII I. showed Richard Cecil a last mark of favour by leaving him £100 in his will, but it is doubtful whether he profited by this generosity, as the legacy was not payable until the King's debts had been discharged. He continued to act as Groom of the Wardrobe to Edward VI., and died at his house in Cannon Row in March, 1553, being buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster. He married Jane, daughter and heir of William Heckington, of Lincolnshire, by whom he had one son, WilHam, afterwards Lord Burghley, and three daughters : Anne (or Agnes) , who married Thomas White of Tuxford, Notts : Margaret, who married Roger Cave, and afterwards Ambrose Smith : and Elizabeth, who married Robert Wingfield, and

1 See Blore, History of Rutland, and Barron, Northamptonshire Families.

afterwards Hugh Allington. William was also twice married, so that Richard's four children between them underwent matrimony seven times. But second marriages were much more common then than now.

Chapter II William Cecil, Lord Burghley

David and Richard Cecil were successful men of the world, and to them the beginnings of the material prosperity of the family are due. But though they planted the stock firmly on the road to greatness, it was William, Lord Burghley, who completed what they had begun, and made the name of Cecil famous throughout the world. With little to help him but his own great abilities, he rose to be Secretary of State at the age of thirty, and from the accession of Elizabeth till his death — a period of forty years— he presided over the affairs of the nation with an authority second only to the Queen, guiding the country successfully through the dangers and difficulties of a supremely critical period, and so increasing her prestige that at his death England had finally taken her place among the great European powers.

William Cecil was born on September 13th, 1520, at Bourne in Lincolnshire, probably at the house of his mother's parents. He gave evidence of more than ordinary ability in his earliest years, " being," we are told,^ " in his infancy so pregnant in wit, and so desirous and apt to learn, as in

1 See the Life, by a gentleman of his household, already referred to (Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, p. 4). Other details of his youth and character are drawn from the same source.

expectation foretold his great future fortune." He was educated at the Grammar School at Grantham, and afterwards at Stamford, and in May, 1535, at the age of fourteen, he entered as a student at St. John's College, Cambridge.

Here he distinguished himself by his " diHgence and towardness," hiring the bell-ringer to call him at four o'clock in the morning, and applying himself so closely to his studies that he seriously injured his health (" which was thought one of the original causes of his gout "). The Master of the College, Dr. Medcalf, a man who, though no scholar himself, knew how to breed scholars and had made St. John's the most famous place of education in England, showed special favour to young Cecil, and " would often give him money to encourage him." And he proved so " toward, studious and rarely capable " that he read the sophistry lecture at the age of sixteen and afterwards read the Greek lecture, " as a gentleman for his exercise upon pleasure, without pension, before he was nineteen years old; which he performed so learnedly as was beyond expectation of a student of his time or one of his years or birth. For at that time it was a rare thing to have any perfection in the Greek tongue."

Among Cecil's acquaintances at Cambridge were Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, Nicholas Bacon, father of Francis and afterwards Lord Keeper, Roger Ascham and John Cheke, who subsequently became Regius Professor of Greek and tutor to Edward VL

With the latter he was especially intimate, though Cheke was a few years his senior and was already a Fellow of St. John's College, with a great reputation as a Greek scholar. His father, Peter Cheke, had been esquire-bedell of the University, but his widow was left in poor circumstances and supported herself and her children by keeping a wine-shop in the town. Here it was that Cecil met and fell in love with Mary Cheke, the sister of his friend. Whether his father found out what was going on we cannot tell, but in May, 1541, after six years' residence, Cecil left the University without taking a degree and entered Gray's Inn. It is a reasonable inference that his father, who no doubt had more ambitious designs for his son, removed him from Cambridge prematurely on account of this unbecoming attachment. If so his efforts were in vain ; for in August, what is, so far as we know, the only romantic episode in the life of William Cecil, culminated in his marriage with Mary Cheke. We learn incidentally from a letter written many years later, that on this occasion he incurred his father's severe displeasure.^ As to his studies at Gray's Inn, little is known. In viev/ of his amazing industry throughout his life, it is hardly to be supposed that he was idle. Yet it is strange that in after years he is said to have specially commended the study of the common law above all other learning, saying that " if he should begin again, he would follow that study " ; and his ignorance of law is confirmed by

1 Roger Alford to Cecil, April gth, 1553 {Hatfield MSS., I. 435). C. C a letter written to him by Edward Griffin, the Queen's Attorney, in 1557, in which he says he is sorry Cecil was never of Gray's Inn, " nor can skill of no law." Probably he never intended to take up the law as a profession, and if he applied himself seriously to the subject at all, his studies were broken off by his promotion at Court. He is said to have laid the foundation at this time of his knowledge of genealogy and heraldry, of which mention has already been made. In these matters he was afterwards recognised as an expert, being specially interested in the pedigrees of Royal houses and great families in England and abroad — a taste he gratified by decorating the walls of Theobalds with genealogical trees. Such importance did he attach to this study, that when his son was in Paris, in 1561, he was anxious that he should receive instruction from a herald, so as to " understand the principal families and their alliances in France," ^

Whatever his intellectual occupations may have been while at Gray's Inn, his " witty mirth and merry temper " made him popular among his fellows, and he is said to have been very fond of practical jokes and other merry jests. An example is given by his domestic biographer : —