The life and writings of Philip, duke of Wharton

Front matter

•

THE LIBRARY

OF

Preface

A CHARACTER more interesting than Philip, Duke of Wharton, does not often fall to the lot of a biographer, yet, by some strange chance, though nearly two hundred years have elapsed since that wayward genius passed away, the present work is the first attempt to give a comprehensive account of his life. John Langhorne, best remembered as a translator of " Plutarch's Lives," at one time thought of essaying the task from materials he had collected, but this intention was never fulfilled. Later, Joseph Ritson actually prepared, in part at least, a biography, but this he did not publish ; and after his death in 1803 the manuscript was acquired at a sale of his effects by John Nichols. Nichols, however, did not issue it, and to this day it has never seen the light. Several brief accounts of the Duke have been written. The first of them, dated 1731, the year in which the Duke died, being composed by one acquainted with his Grace, has a value that, owing to the scantiness of the information contained in its pages, it would not otherwise possess.1

1 Other accounts of the Duke have been written by an anonymous writer in the " Biographia Britannica " (1747), by Horace Walpole (" Royal and Noble Authors," 1758), Jesse (" The Court of England," 1843), " Grace and Philip Wharton " (" The Wits and Beaux of Society," 1860), Russell (" Eccentric Personages," 1864), an anonymous writer (Temple Bar, July 1875), Edward Walford (" Tales of our Great Families," 1877), Thomas Seccombe (" Dictionary of National Biography," 1899), W. F. Dinnetry (Catholic World, New York, September 1906), Nelson D'Auverne (" Tarnished Coronets," 1911), and the present writer (" Some Eccentrics and a Woman," 1911).

I vii viii PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

The only biography seriously to be considered is that by Mr J. R. Robinson, published in 1896. Of this it may be said, that, like all the books of this practised writer, it is very interesting. Mr Robinson, however, made no attempt to give an exhaustive narrative of the life of the Duke, and he did not make use of many sources of information that were open to him, ignoring, among other works, the Stuart Papers (ed. Glover) and the Atterbury Correspondence, both of which collections throw much light upon the career of the Duke directly before, and for some time after, he left England for the second and last time. The Stuart Manuscripts belonging to His Majesty the King were not accessible when Mr Robinson wrote, and these contain much valuable information, through the medium of letters written to, by, and about the Duke, mainly concerning his early connection abroad with the Pretender, the Duke of Ormonde, the Earl of Mar, and other adherents of the Jacobite Cause. I have been so fortunate as to obtain permission from the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office to insert the correspondence in this work ; and I am enabled, thereby, to give for the first time a full account of the young man's plunge into politics, which earlier writers have perforce dismissed in a few lines. I have also found in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum letters written by the Duke.

While these are the principal sources of the new material upon which this book is based, I have garnered information from many other quarters. A careful search through the publications of the Historical Manuscripts Commission has been well rewarded, for the Portland, Bagot, Townshend, Drummond, Moray, Lonsdale, and Weston- Underwood collections contain numerous references to the Duke. The principal published works consulted

PREFACE ix

with advantage include the Biographies, Diaries, and Correspondence of Thomas, Marquis of Wharton (1715), Bishop King, Edward Young (by Doran), Sir Robert Walpole (by Coxe), Swift, Mary, Countess Cowper, Lady Jane Coke, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Atterbury (by Williams), and Elizabeth Farnese (by Armstrong) ; the Memoirs of the Count de Beauval (the Marquis d'Argens) ; the Anecdotes of Seward, King, and Percy ; the Hardwicke State Papers ; the Lockhart Papers ; Delany's Observations on Swift ; R. F. Gould's " Masonic Celebrities," Pennant's " Tour ... to Alston Moor," " Burrow's " Worthies of All Souls," Lipscomb's " Buckinghamshire," E. R. Wharton's "The Whartons of Wharton Hall," Cobbett's " Parliamentary History," Baker's " Biographia Dramatica," Zedler's " Universal Lexikon," Granger's " Biographical History," Boyes's " Political State of Great Britain," Burke's " Extinct Peerages," Cokayne's " Complete Peerage," the Minutes of the Evidence in the Wharton Peerage Case (1844), Black's " Horse-racing in England," and Strange's " Guide to Tunbridge Wells." There are also references to the Duke of Wharton in Westmacott's " English Spy," and Mrs Haywood's " Memoirs of a certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia " ; but these works must be used with caution.

I have already mentioned my obligation to the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office for permission to use the Stuart Papers, and it only remains for me to tender him my thanks. I am indebted to Lord Mostyn for a copy of an unpublished letter of the Duke of Wharton, the original of which is preserved among his family papers - and I have to acknowledge the kindly assistance I have received from Mrs A. M. Stirling ; the Warden of All Souls' College, Oxford ; the Hon. Vicary Gibbs ;

x PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

the Rev. R. Unsworth, vicar of Wooburn, Bucks ; and Mr A. I. Ellis, of the British Museum. Mr R. F. Gould, the distinguished author of "The History of Freemasonry," has very generously permitted me the use of the information he has collected concerning the Duke of Wharton as a Freemason. The Rev. Henry W. Clark has very kindly read the proofs of this work. Mr A. M. Broadley has been so good as to lend many interesting prints from his collections to serve as illustrations to this book.

LEWIS MELVILLE.

Chapter I The Whartons Of Wharton Hall

PAGE

family of great antiquity — Mentioned in Camden's " Britannia " — The history of the House traced by E. R. Wharton from 1292 — Gilbert de Querton inherits the estates from his nephew, Robert — Successive heads of the family — Henry Wharton — Hugh Wharton — William Wharton — John Wharton — Thomas Wharton — Thomas's son, Henry — Henry's son, Thomas, sometime Clerk of the Wars with Scotland — Thomas's son, Thomas — Captain of Carlisle Castle — Deputy- Warden of the West Marches — Created by patent Baron Wharton — General Warden of all the Marches to Scotland and Governor of Berwick — His son, Thomas, second Baron Wharton — M.P. 1545-1558 — Steward of the Household to Princess Mary — Fell into disgrace under Elizabeth— Philip, third Baron Wharton — His wife and children — Succeeded by his grandson, Philip, fourth Baron — A handsome dandy — A staunch Presbyterian — Sided with the Parliament in the Civil War — But opposed the execution of the King — His private friendship with Cromwell — His second wife brings him the estates of Upper Winchendon and Wooburn — His artistic tastes — His opposition after the Restoration to the Conventicle and other Acts — Imprisoned in the Tower — An adherent of the Prince of Orange — His son, Thomas, fifth Baron — His early training — Plunges into dissipation — Marriage — Anne, Lady Wharton — Political Career — " Lilli Burlero " — Created Earl of Wharton — Lord- Lieu tenant of Ireland — Lord Privy Seal — Created Marquis of Wharton — His character — His second wife — And his children by her . i

Chapter II The Early Years Of Philip Duke Of Wharton (1698-1716)

Birth — After 1706, known as Viscount Winchendon — The father's ambition for his son — He directs the course of study for the boy — Philip's precocity — A contemporary tribute to his youthful talents — He is taught to learn speeches by heart and to recite them before an audience — His training designed to

xi xii PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

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qualify him for public life — His industry — His love of pleasure early asserts itself — A handsome lad — Much attracted to women — His marriage at the age of sixteen — His father's disappointed hopes — Husband and wife separated — Death of his father — The Marquis's will — The new Marquis's guardians— His " unbridled excesses " — " Menalcas and Enosid, "- He is sent abroad to finish his studies . 16

CHAPTER III (May-October, 1716)

The accounts of this continental visit of the Marquis hitherto inaccurate and inadequate — The Marquis, with his tutor, visits Hanover and Cassel — Clavering's account of the young man and his retinue — The character of the Marquis — He goes south, but not so far as Geneva — He leaves his tutor and proceeds to Paris — His character at this time — His insolent humour — His blasphemy — He is rebuked by Mr Gwynn — He embraces the Jacobite cause — Lord Bolingbroke — An " Account of Things concerning Lord Wharton " at Paris — His letters to the Pretender, the Duke of Ormonde, and the Earl of Mar — The Pretender's pleasure at enrolling in his service the son of an inveterate enemy — His gracious reply to the young man — The Marquis obeys his tutor's summons to Geneva — He soon leaves Switzerland — His parting gift to his tutor — He goes to Lyons — He writes to the Earl of Mar again proffering his services to the Pretender — He offers to furnish a regiment of horse, and asks for the Garter. He is invited to visit the Pretender at Avignon — His audience with that Prince — His presence at Avignon kept secret — A mission to the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel ........ 25

Chapter IV The Marquis Of Wharton And The Jacobites

(October-December, 1716)

The Marquis's visit to the Pretender kept a secret — The Jacobite policy of secrecy adversely affects the cause — The Marquis's Circular Letter to the Freeholders — M. Dusoul urges his charge to rejoin him — The Marquis returns to Paris — His correspondence with the Pretender and the Earl of Mar — His letter to the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel — He is persuaded to visit Lord Stair, the British Ambassador — He is received very cavalierly at the Embassy — He asks the Pretender to create him a Duke — A prank — His debts — His guardians stop supplies and summon him to England — His further correspondence with the Pre-

CONTENTS xiii

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tender and the Earl of Mar — His request for a dukedom granted — He communicates again with the Landgrave and his Prime Minister — He leaves Paris for Calais — Concerning the title of the dukedom he desires — Letters between the Marquis and the Earl of Mar — The Marquis's famous retort to Lord Stair .......... 42

Chapter V The Marquis Of Wharton In Ireland (1717-1718)

The Marquis arrives in London — Doubts entertained as to his continuing loyal to the Pretender — His letters to the Earl of Mar — His anxiety to receive the warrant of his creation as Duke of Northumberland — The warrant is sent to him — He is watched by the Pretender's adherents — His enthusiasm for the cause wanes — Mar's futile threat — George Lockhart's report of him — He enjoys the pleasures of the metropolis — He goes to Dublin — Although a minor, permitted to take his seat as Marquis of Catherlough in the Irish House of Lords — Budgell's account of his maiden speech — He works hard — His correspondence with Avignon ceases — He becomes a support of the Government — His acquaintance with Swift — Swift's advice to him — The Marquis's intimacy with Edward Young — He is created by the Government Duke of Wharton — An extract from the patent conferring the honour upon him — He joins the Opposition ........ 67

Chapter VI The Duke Of Wharton's Private Life In England 1

The Duke rejoins his wife — They live on good terms — A son born to them — The Duke leads a more respectable life — The child dies of smallpox — The father and mother quarrel and separate — The Duke again plunges into excesses — Becomes President of the Hell-Fire Club — His practical jokes — He introduces " Lord Rawlins " to London society — At " Spiller's Head " — Hogarth's picture, " Oysters, or, St James's Day " — The Duke is Chief Director of " The Schemers " — He spends most of his time in London — Goes occasionally to his cousin, Sir Christopher Musgrave, at Edenhall — " The Earl's Defeat " — His principal amusements, wine, women, and horses — His extravagance — Loses ;£ 120,000 in South- Sea stock — Plunges disastrously on the turf — His father's stud — His own horses — " A Song made at York Races " — Heavily in debt — Lives on £2000 a year — Retires to Twickenham — " The xiv PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

PAGE

Duke of Wharton's Whims " — Another version — The Duke's villa at Twickenham — Walpole refers to him in The Parish Register of Twickenham — He becomes acquainted with Pope — His intimacy with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu — His play, " Mary Queen of Scots " — Lady Mary writes an epilogue for it — Lady Mary's verses, " On the Death of Mrs Bowes " — The Duke's parody of that composition — Lady Mary quarrels with the Duke . . . . . .81

Chapter VII Private Life II

(1719-1723)

The Duke's name a byword for dissipation — His faults — His intemperance— His pleasures — The company he kept — " The Duke of Wharton's Ballad " — The better side of his nature — The friend and patron of Edward Young — A quaint present — He bestows annuities upon the poet — Young dedicates " The Revenge " to the Duke — The dedication subsequently suppressed— Dr Johnson's indignation at this act — The Duke and other literary folk — Mrs Centlivre — Gabriel Roussillon — " Britannicus " — The Duke's gift to All Souls' College, Oxford — The Duke a Freemason — Elected Grand Master — Creates trouble on his retirement from office — Founds a Lodge at Madrid . . . 102

Chapter VIII In Parliament (1720-1723)

The Duke takes his seat in the English House of Lords — He again turns Tory — He votes against his old party — He writes lampoons on Sir Robert Walpole — " On Robbing the Exchequer " — His maiden speech — He is active in opposition to the South Sea Company — He speaks frequently on that subject — His first great oration — His onslaught on Lord Stanhope — The Minister's happy retort — The Duke's subsequent appreciation of the character of Lord Stanhope — His remarkable abilities — An example of his humour — A regular attendant at the House of Lords — The King's proclamation against blasphemous and scandalous clubs — A Bill introduced by the Dean of Windsor — The Duke's speech on the second reading — The tergiversations of the Duke in politics — He becomes acquainted with Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester — An unpublished letter — The Bishop tried for high treason — The Duke plays a trick on Walpole — His famous speech in favour of Atterbury in the debate on the Bill of Pains and Penalties — The Bishop

CONTENTS xv

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found guilty — The Duke's parting gift to him — His verses " On the Banishment of Cicero " — His defence of Atterbury in the True Briton "5

Chapter IX The " True Briton " (1723-1725)

The Duke's great abilities — His time not entirely given to dissipation— His knowledge of public affairs — He is interested in politics outside the House of Lords — His intervention in the election of the Sheriffs of London, 1723 — He puts up Edward Young for Cirencester — He supports the Tory candidates for Westmorland — He conceives the idea of the True Briton — His common-sense — Passages from the True Briton — On the liberty of the press and on political writers — His object in issuing the True Briton — On himself as author of a public print — The publication of the paper ceases on the printer being tried for libel — The authorship of the True Briton not disclosed — The Duke loyal to the King and the dynasty — He justifies the Revolution of 1688 — And rejoices in the defeat of the rising of '15 — Apparently a most loyal subject— A strange incident — In communication with the Pretender— His financial affairs — Notoriety essential to his happiness — His letter to the Pretender — A regular attendant at the House of Lords — He speaks at the trial of Lord Macclesfield — " An Epistle from John Sheppard to the Earl of Macclesfield" 132

Chapter X The Mission To Vienna

(July-December, 1725)

The Duke announces his intention to go abroad — Confides to his Jacobite friends his intention to serve the Pretender — He receives his final instructions — Sails for Rotterdam — The enterprise entrusted to him — The mission to Vienna — He was desired to go to Atterbury at Paris for advice — Atterbury ignorant of the Duke's departure from England — Hearing of his arrival at Rotterdam, Atterbury writes to him — The Duke does not wait upon Atterbury — He explains his reasons to the Pretender — He goes to Vienna — Atterbury writes to him there — Atterbury's estimate of the Duke's character — Rumours that the Duke is drinking to excess — Correspondence between Atterbury, Hay, and the Duke — The Duke a favourite at the Court of Vienna — The Pretender's letters to the Duke — Recommends Sir John Graeme to the Duke, and utters a word of warning to his Grace ....... 151 xvi PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

Chapter XI At The Court Of Spain

(January-June 1726)

PAGE

The Duke can effect nothing at the Court of Vienna — He goes to Spain — Visits the Pretender at Rome — Invested with the Order of the Garter — Returns to Madrid — Presents his credentials to the Duke of Ripperda — Favourably received by the King and Ripperda — Secret Negotiations — Benjamin Keene's account of the Duke of Wharton — Ripperda and the Duke of Wharton in conference — The reference to the Pretender in the King's Speech to Parliament — The British Government has hitherto taken no action against the Duke — He is now summoned to appear before the Privy Council — The warrant served upon him at Madrid — He destroys it — In a letter to his sister, Lady Jane Holt, he complains of the proceedings against him — And declares his adherence to the Protestant religion — His project for the invasion of England . . . .172

Chapter XII Marriage Conversion

Death of the Duchess of Wharton — An offer of marriage made to the Duke — He falls in love with a Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain, Miss O'Beirne — The lady returns his affection — The Queen of Spain refuses her consent — The subsequent negotiations narrated by the Marquis d'Argens — The Duke falls ill — The Queen relents — The marriage solemnised at Madrid — The Duke embraces the Roman Catholic faith — The conversion probably a condition of the marriage — An ill-service to the Jacobite cause — The news reaches England — Comments thereon by Dr Stratford and George Lockhart — Atterbury's anger with the Duke — Curll's couplet — A lampoon : "A Vindication of the Duke of Wh~n's Answer to the Quaker's Letter " — The Duke and Duchess of Wharton visit the Pretender at Rome — James has lost faith in the Duke — He does not offer him further employment — The Duke resigns his title of Duke of Wharton — He is frequently drunk and disorderly — With his Duchess he sails for Barcelona — Seeks and obtains permission from Philip V. to assist at the siege of Gibraltar — Appointed aide-de-camp to the Count de Las Torres — He is given a command — His foolhardy conduct probably inspired by drink — He is wounded in the foot — Retires to Madrid — Received by Philip V. — Appointed Colonel- Aggregate of an Irish Regiment in the Spanish service — Indicted by the British Government for high treason — His " Reasons for Leaving his Native Country, and espousing the Cause of ... James III." — This manifesto published in England .... 190

CONTENTS xvii

Chapter XIII Overtures To The British Government

PAGE

The Duke obtains indefinite leave of absence from his regiment — He proposes to visit the Pretender at Parma — James reluctant to receive him — He is utterly convinced of the Duke's unreliability— He grants him an audience — The Duke defends himself in a letter to the Pretender — He is offered no further employment by the Prince — He is hurt by what he considers James's ingratitude to him — He decides to make overtures for reconcili ation to the British Government — His letter to Horatio Walpole, British Ambassador at Paris — He goes to Paris — Walpole receives him — An account of the interview — The Duke's plea for pardon — After visiting the Embassy, he dines with Atterbury — He feels sure of his overtures being accepted — Correspondence concerning the Duke between Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Townshend, the Duke of Newcastle, and Horatio Walpole — The Duke is informed that he must make absolute submission — Although assured he may safely do so, he refuses — His pride aroused — He again embraces the Jacobite cause — He goes to Dieppe — Atterbury declines to have further relations with him — Nathaniel Mist and his Weekly Journal — The Duke at Rouen — He contributes a lampoon to Mist's Journal — A Government prosecution . . . .213

Chapter XIV Outlawed Death

(1729-1731)

The patience of the British Government with the Duke exhausted — He is outlawed — It is discovered after his death that the outlawry was illegal — Reversed by writ of error — By the decree the Duke's estates forfeited to the Crown — He receives no further remittances — He is penniless at Rouen — His extravagance— His duns — He applies in vain for relief to the Pretender — He bears his poverty with good-humour — He goes to Paris — He challenges a brother-peer to a duel — Correspondence concerning this incident — His inconsistency — He retires to amonastery — His exemplary conduct in retreat — His frolics lose him many friends — His excessive drinking affects his character — The Duke and Duchess set out for Spain — Orleans — Nantes — Bilbao — The Duchess goes to Madrid — Her subsequent history — Erroneous accounts of her later years corrected — The Duke joins his regiment at Lerida — A letter to a friend — A quarrel with the Marquis of Risburgh — His excesses have undermined his constitution — He is very ill — He recovers partially — Takes the waters in Catalonia — He returns to the regiment at Terragona — Taken seriously ill — Dies at the Monastery of Poblet — His Epitaph in the Abbey of Poblet ..... 232 xviii PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON

APPENDICES

PAGE

A. Patent creating the Marquis of Wharton Duke of Wharton. 255

B. Dedications to the Duke of Wharton prefixed to —

(i) A Bold Stroke for a Wife. By Mrs Centlivre . . 259 (ii) The Revenge. By Edward Young. 1721 . . 261 (iii) The Revolutions of Portugal. Written in French by the Abbot de Vertot. Done into English from the last French edition [by Gabriel Roussillon]. 1721. 264 (iv) Francis, Lord Bacon : or, The Case of Private and National Corruption and Bribery impartially consider'd. By an Englishman .... 265

C. The Duke of Wharton's Speech in the House of Lords on the

Third Reading of the Bill to inflict Pains and Penalties

on Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, May 15, 1723 268

D. Outlawry of the Duke of Wharton . . . . .301

E. Instructions to prepare a Patent granting the Estates of

the late Duke of Wharton 305

F. Patent granting the Estates of the late Duke of Wharton . 308

G. The Will of Maria, Duchess of Wharton . . . .314

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON .... Frontispiece

Front an engraving by G. Vertue, after a painting by C. Jervis

to face page ANNE, LADY WHARTON ....... 9

From an engraving by R. Erlom, after a portrait by Lely

THOMAS, MARQUIS OF WHARTON . . . . . . 10

From a painting by Kneller

MARY OF MODENA ........ 26

From a mezzotint by Smith, after V. de Sargulliere

From a print in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

JAMES, DUKE OF ORMONDE ....... 66

From a print in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

JONATHAN SWIFT ........ 76

From a print after a portrait by Ravenet, in the possession of A.M. Broadley, Esq.

EDWARD YOUNG ......... 78

From a print in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU 98

From an engraving by /. Hopwood, after a portrait by Zincke

THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE FREEMASONS, 1723 . . no

From the copy in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

THE MYSTERY OF MASONRY . . . . . .112

From the copy in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

xix xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

to face page

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE 116

FRANCIS ATTERBURY ........ 126

From an engraving by Robert Grave, after a portrait by Kneller, in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

WHARTON HALL ........ 144

From an old print

After a mezzotint by Strong, in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

GEORGE II. 222

A LETTER OF THE DUKE OF WHARTON .... 238

From the original in the possession of A. M. Broadley, Esq.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PHILIP DUKE OF WHARTON

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PHILIP DUKE OF WHARTON

Chapter I The Whartons Of Wharton Hall

A family of great antiquity — Mentioned in Camden's " Britannia" — The history of the House traced by E. R. Wharton from 1292 — Gilbert de Querton inherits the estates from his nephew, Robert — Successive heads of the family — Henry Wharton — Hugh Wharton — William Wharton — JohnWharton — Thomas Wharton — Thomas's son, Henry — Henry's son, Thomas, sometime Clerk of the Wars with Scotland — Thomas's son, Thomas — Captain of Carlisle Castle — Deputy- Warden of the West Marches — Created by patent Baron Wharton — General Warden of all the Marches to Scotland and Governor of Berwick — His son, Thomas, second Baron Wharton — M.P. 1545-1558 — Steward of the Household to Princess Mary — Fell into disgrace under Elizabeth — Philip, third Baron Wharton — His wife and children — Succeeded by his grandson, Philip, fourth Baron — A handsome dandy — A staunch Presbyterian — Sided with the Parliament in the Civil War — But opposed the execution of the King — His private friendship with Cromwell — His second wife brings him the estates of Upper Winchendon and Wooburn — His artistic tastes — His opposition after the Restoration to the Conventicle and other Acts — Imprisoned in the Tower — An adherent of the Prince of Orange — His son, Thomas, fifth Baron — His early training — Plunges into dissipation — Marriage — Anne, Lady Wharton — Political career — " Lilli Burlero " — Created Earl of Wharton — Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland — Lord Privy Seal — Created Marquis of Wharton — His character — His second wife — And his children by her.

family of Wharton,1 which derives its name from " a fair lordship " upon the River Eden, in the county of Westmoreland, is of great antiquity. " This river," says Camden, " runs by Wharton-hall, the seat of the Barons of Wharton of which Manour the present Family have been Proprietors beyond the date of any Records extant, and have likewise been Lords of the Manour of Croglin in Cumberland, and Patrons of the Rectory there, more than four hundred years past." 2 The investigations of the late Edward Ross Wharton enabled him to trace the history of the House of Wharton from 1292, when Gilbert de Querton (as the name was written until 1310, when the modern form was adopted) proved before the justices at Appleby his right to the manor of Querton, which had come to him from his nephew Robert, who had it from " Isabel, daughter of Jordan." Gilbert married Emma, a daughter of the great family of Hastings, and co-heiress of the manor of Croglin. The properties descended through the eldest sons of the respective generations, Henry, Hugh, William, and John, to Thomas, concerning whom it is known that he was with John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, when that Prince was Regent of France (1422-1435), and that in 1436 he represented Appleby in Parliament. Of Thomas's son Henry, all that is recorded is that he married Alice, daughter of Sir John Conyers, of Hornby, in Lancashire ; and of Henry's son, another Thomas, that he was sometime Clerk of the Wars with Scotland, and died about 1520. With the latter's son, named after his father, the family takes its place in the history of England.

1 See the Wharton MSS. in the Bodleian ; E. R. Wharton : The Whartons of Wharton Hall ; Memoirs of Thomas, Marquis of Wharton (1715); Burke: Extinct Peerages; Cockayne: Complete Peerage; articles on members of the family in the Dictionary of National Biography.

8 Britannia (second edition, 1722), ii. 988.

THE FAMILY OF WHARTON 3

The third Thomas, born about 1495, is distinguished chiefly for his share in the border wars. As Captain of Carlisle Castle from 1534, and from 1537 also Deputy- Warden of the West Marches, it fell in 1542 to his lot, with the aid of his neighbour, Sir William Musgrave, to repel with a body of men in arms vastly inferior in numbers a Scotch army about fifteen thousand strong. The English fell upon the Scots in some defiles, and the Scots, thinking that the entire English army was upon them, fled in great disorder ; many being killed, and no less than fifteen hundred taken prisoners, including the Earl of Cassilis and Lord Glencairn. Three years later Thomas went with Lord Dacre and sacked Dumfries. For these and other services, he was in 1544 created by patent Baron Wharton.