Page images
PDF
EPUB

Tyndale and Coverdale were made use of by John Rogers, the proto-martyr; Cranmer's, or the Great Bible (1540), the first appointed to be read in churches; the Genevan Bible (1560), with comments, "for threequarters of a century the popular Bible for common use in England"; and the Bishops' Bible (1568). "From the year 1560 to 1603 there were one hundred and thirty distinct issues of Bibles and Testaments of different revisions, ninety of which were of the Genevan text" (Stoughton, "Our English Bible").

Returning to Sir Thomas Wharton-he died April 12th, 1622, five years after King James's visit to Aske, and was buried in Easby Church. His widow, Lady Philadelphia, who outlived him more than thirty years, died in 1654, and was buried by his side. He is spoken of as a "most religious knight, whose deserved praises Mr. Wales exemplifies in his Totum Hominis."* This is the designation of a rare little book, the full title of which is as follows: "Totum Hominis: or the whole duty of a Christian consisting in Faith and a Good Life; abridged in certaine Sermons expounding Paul's Prayer for the Thessalonians, Epis. 2, c. I., vers. 11, 12. By Samuel Wales, Minister of the Gospel at Morley in Yorkeshire. London, 1627." The following passages from its Dedication to "The Right Honourable Philip Lord Wharton" indicates something of the character of his father and the Puritan influences under which he was trained :

"It pleased your noble father while he dwelt in the land of the living to vouchsafe me, the meanest of God's messengers, that gracious respect which I could never have expected from so honourable a personage, and your honour also in these times to take notice of me.

"What honest man ever knew him and did not lament his departure as a public loss, or say this world, which now wants him, was unworthy of him? He was a professed enemy of Popery and Ralph Thoresby. Diary, I. 280.

+ Samuel Wales was minister of the ancient Parochial Chapel which stood on the site now occupied by St. Mary's Congregational Church, Morley, and brother of the more notable Elkanah Wales, the ejected Nonconformist minister of Pudsey. A second edition of his book was published in 1681 by Lord Wharton and his brother, Sir Thomas Wharton, of Edlington, "for the benefit of, and with a prefatory epistle to, their children and grandchildren."

profaneness; a true friend and fautor of all godly and painful preachers, without exception or partiality, receiving their persons and doctrine with such gladness and regular reverence as, I must needs say, to me was wonderful, and in persons of his rank is rarely seen ; ready at all times by his authority, speech, letter, to help and encourage them in their worthy function. What shall I say of his unspotted life in the slippery time of youth; his religious care of constantly frequenting God's House, not only twice on the Lord's Day, but ordinary, on Lecture days, and preparing himself for the use of the Lord's Supper; his sincere affection to the holy ways of the Lord and all that walk in the same? By profane great ones, who openly reverenced him, he was secretly twitted for preciseness and Puritanism. . . I remember one (an ancient and reverend minister) who professed to me that he himself was exceedingly affected and refreshed by his prayers, and that he hath seldom heard any preacher pray more excellently, more divinely.

.

"Though his sickness was violent, yet how sweetly he comforted himself in the Lord, and having foretold the day of his death exulted in spirit from assurance of being with Christ after his dissolution."

HIS BROTHER, SIR THOMAS WHARTON; OF EDLINGTON,

1615-1684.

The younger brother of Lord Wharton, Sir Thomas Wharton, of Edlington, K.B., was born in 1615, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, student of Lincoln's Inn, and M.P. for Callan, Ireland (1639). In the rebellion of the Irish, in 1643, he was a lieutenant-colonel of a regiment commanded by the Marquis of Ormonde, and was at the battle of Ross, where the rebels were defeated. "He led the van and stood in the front during the brunt and heat of the battle." In 1660 he was returned M.P. for Westmorland. Having served for about twenty years in the army of Ireland, he purchased (1662) a house at Edlington, near Coningborough, Yorkshire, where his wife (Mary, daughter of Henry Carey, Earl of Dover) was buried, January 21st, 1672, aged 57. A monument in the Parish Church there testifies that "from her childhood she was a pattern of true piety; constant and devout in serving God both in His

[ocr errors]

A small quarto MS. volume which belonged to him has been preserved, consisting of extracts from contemporary divines; Perkins, Greenham, and others, taken by his affectionate, virtuous and religious mother, the Lady Philadelphia, all in her own hand, and by her given unto him about the year 1637" ("Notes and Queries," 8th Ser. VII. 428).

and her own house, a rare example of Christian charity and sincere lover of such as feared God." Her funeral sermon was preached by Peter Watkinson, Rector of Edlington, and was afterwards published (1674) under the title of "Mary's Choice," with a dedication (in Latin) to "his most worshipful patron Sir Thomas Wharton, K.B., a man truly noble and distinguished by piety and virtue of every kind, and his most hopeful son Philip Wharton, Esq., and Elizabeth, wife of the same, only daughter of the most noble Richard Hutton, of Goldsborough, Esq." "I have never known," says Watkinson, “in any married pair a greater mutual complacency than betwixt them two; they lived together as if they had but one mind and one will in all things." He adds (what would now be almost inconceivable): "A short time before her death she was reading Mr. Calvin's 'Institutions.'"

Sir Thomas married, for his second wife (1677), Jane Dand, daughter of Rowland Dand, of Mansfield Woodhouse, co. Notts., who brought him two daughters and survived him many years. In 1678 he built a school for thirty-four scholars, at Hartforth, near Richmond, Yorks., and endowed it with £40 per annum. In it a Nonconformist meeting was held (Thoresby's Diary). It was certified for Protestant Dissenters under the Toleration Act, Joseph Dawson being minister (1691), who was succeeded by William Perkins, after whose removal Nonconformist services ceased to be held therein. Sir Thomas was buried at Edlington, November 8th, 1684; and of him Peter Watkinson said in his funeral sermon, "He had an eager and hungering desire after the Word, which he esteemed more than his necessary food," and was "a most loving husband, a tender father, and a careful master." His son Philip, Warden of His Majesty's Mint in the Tower of London, died soon afterwards, February 23rd, 1684-5, aged 31, and was also interred at Edlington.

HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD.

Lord Wharton married successively three wives, who brought him fifteen children, six of whom died early.

(a) His first wife, whom he married in 1632, was Elizabeth Wandesford, daughter of Sir Rowland Wandesford, of Pickhill (seven miles from Bedale), Attorney-General of the Court of Wards, who died in 1636, leaving him two daughters :

(1) Philadelphia, born in 1633 and buried in St. James' Church, Clerkenwell, September 6th, 1645.

(2) Elizabeth (1635), who married Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby (son of Montague, first Earl of Lindsey, a Royalist, who died from wounds received at Edgehill fight), afterwards third Earl of Lindsey, by whom she had five sons. The family is now represented by the Earl of Ancaster and the Marquis of Cholmondely.

(6) His second wife, whom he married September 7th, 1637, was Jane Goodwin, only daughter and heiress of Arthur Goodwin, of Winchendon, Bucks, M.P. for Buckinghamshire (1639), and Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, who died early in the Civil War, and was buried, August 19th, 1643, at Wooburn, Bucks, where the inscription on his tombstone describes him as "a man distinguished by piety, wisdom, virtue of every kind and true conservatism." She inherited at his death the manors of Winchendon and Wooburn, died April 21st, 1658, aged 40, and was buried at Wooburn, “a most happy and intelligent woman, in all points most perfect." Her children were:

(3) Philip (1638), who died in infancy.

(4) Anne (1639), who married against her father's wishes, William Carr, Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer and brother of her father's third wife. Both died within a month of each other, she on

May 26th, he on June 17th, 1689, and were buried together at Wooburn.

(5) Arthur (1641), who died in infancy.*

(6) Margaret (1643), who married: 1, Mayjor Dunch, of Pusey, Berkshire; 2, Sir Thomas Seyliard, and 3, William Ross, twelfth Baron Ross in the peerage of Scotland, and died in 1706.

(7) Jane (1645), who died in infancy.

(8) Thomas (1648-1715), the fifth Baron and Marquis, of whom more hereafter.

(9) Mary (1649), who married: 1, William Thomas, of Wenvoe Castle, Glamorganshire, and 2, Sir Charles Kemeys, of Cefn Mabley, in the same county, and is now represented by H. M. KemeysTynte, of Halswell, near Bridgwater.

(10) Goodwin (1653-1704), who was of an eccentric character, and by his wayward conduct gave his father much anxiety. When about nine years old, he was sent with his elder brother Thomas to Caen, in Normandy, for his education. "My greatest difficulty," wrote his tutor, Mr. Gale (June 11th, 1663), "is with Mr. Goodwin by reason of the natural unsettledness of his spirit." He was subject to fits, supposed to be of ague. According to his Autobiography,† on his return he gave himself to reading and writing, and found delight in musing and praying. "I often prayed," he says, "that God would make me greater and more eminent in His service than either Moses or Aaron." He

There is a sepulchral brass in the chancel floor of Wooburn Church having the following inscription: "Here lies the body of Arthur Wharton, only son while he lived of Philip Lord Wharton, by Jane his wife, who was borne July 11th, 1641, and departed this life ye 15th March next following.

Nine months wrought me in ye wombe,

Nine more brought me to this tombe.

Let an infant teach thee, Man,
Since this life is but a span,

Use it so that thou maist be

Happy in ye next with me."

(British Museum, Add. MSS. 34,490.)

+ Two large folio volumes, consisting of a confused conglomeration of events and experiences, mixed up with some interesting facts.—British Museum, Add. MSS. 20,006-7.

« PreviousContinue »