Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cecil, James (d.1693)

1386049Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09 — Cecil, James (d.1693)1887Thomas Finlayson Henderson

CECIL, JAMES, fourth Earl of Salisbury (d. 1693), was the eldest son of James, third earl of Salisbury [q. v.], and Margaret, daughter of John Manners, earl of Rutland. He married Frances, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Simon Bennet of Beechampton, Buckinghamshire, when she was only thirteen years old (Luttrell, Diary, i. 209). ‘Salisbury,’ says Lord Macaulay, ‘was foolish to a proverb. His figure was so bloated by sensual indulgence as to be almost incapable of moving; and this sluggish body was the abode of an equally sluggish mind. He was represented in popular lampoons as a man made to be duped, as a man who had hitherto been the prey of gamesters, and who might as well be the prey of friars.’ In January 1688–9 he was committed to the Tower as a popish recusant (ib. 493), but the prosecution was finally waived (ib. ii. 123). His name was forged by Robert Young to a document purporting to be that of an association who had bound themselves to take arms for King James, and to seize on the Prince of Orange dead or alive. On this account he was on 7 May 1692 committed to the Tower (ib. 444), but nothing being proved against him his bail was finally discharged in the court of king's bench (ib. 629). He died 25 Oct. 1693, leaving an only son, three years old (ib. 388), who succeeded him as fifth earl. He was buried at Hatfield on 29 Oct.

[Luttrell's Diary; Reresby's Memoirs; Sprat's Relation of the late Wicked Contrivance of Stephen Blackhead and Robert Young, 1692; Macaulay's History of England; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire; Chauncy's Hertfordshire; Collins's Peerage, 5th ed. iii. 149.]

T. F. H.