Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Herbert, William (d.1745)
HERBERT, WILLIAM, second Marquis and titular Duke of Powis (d. 1745), born before 1667, was the son of William Herbert, first marquis of Powis [q. v.], by Lady Elizabeth, younger daughter of Edward Somerset, second marquis of Worcester. Until 1722 he was known as Viscount Montgomery. At the coronation of James II, 23 April 1685, he acted as page of honour. From 8 May 1687 until November 1688 he was colonel of a regiment of foot, and was also deputy-lieutenant of six Welsh counties from 26 Feb. to 23 Dec. 1688. His efforts in behalf of James II resulted in his committal to the Tower on 6 May 1689 (Luttrell, Relation of State Affairs, 1857, i. 530), and he was not admitted to bail until 7 Nov. following (ib. i. 601, 610). On 5 July 1690, and again on 23 March 1696 a proclamation, accompanied by a reward of 1,000l., was issued for his apprehension; on the later occasion he was suspected of complicity in the plot of Sir John Fenwick [q. v.] In May 1696 he was outlawed (ib. iv. 64), but a technical error on the part of the sheriffs of London enabled him to retain his estate (ib. iv. 305, 315). He surrendered on 15 Dec. 1696, and was imprisoned in Newgate (ib. iv. 155). Though he was reported to have given information concerning Fenwick's plot (ib. iv. 157, 164), he remained in prison until 19 June 1697, when, owing to an outbreak of gaol fever, he succeeded in obtaining his release on bail (ib. iv. 241). He was not tried, and in November 1700 was lying dangerously ill at Ghent (ib. iv. 708). In January 1701 the king allowed him to come from Flanders in order to raise money upon his estate to discharge his debts (ib. v. 6). He paid a second visit to London on 25 May 1703, surrendered himself, and was admitted to bail (ib. v. 301). Pecuniary difficulties compelled him to sell his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields to the Duke of Newcastle for 7,000l. in May 1705 (ib. v. 547). But he appears to have already built Powis House in Great Ormond Street, where he was living in 1708. He was arrested during the Jacobite alarm in September 1715, when a friendly writer calls him as innocent and harmless a man as any that suffered in the Popish plot (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. iv. p. 160). He was eventually restored to his titles and estates, including Powis Castle, and was summoned to parliament as Marquis of Powis on 8 Oct. 1722. By Jacobites he was styled Duke of Powis, and he and his eldest son prepared a statement of their claim to that title; but the claim does not seem to have been pressed. He died on 22 Oct. 1745. He married Mary, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Preston, bart., of Furness, Lancashire (Burke, Extinct Baronetage, p. 428). Three portraits of her—one by Kneller—are at Powis Castle. She died on 8 Jan. 1723-4, and was buried at Hendon, where the marquis had property. By her Powis had two sons and four daugnters. William, the eldest son, died unmarried on 8 March 1748. Edward, the younger son. died in 1734, having married Henrietta, daughter of Earl Waldegrave, by whom he had an only child, Barbara, born posthumously. Barbara married a kinsman, Henry Arthur Herbert, who was created Baron Herbert of Cherbury in 1743, and Earl of Powis in 1748.
[Authorities quoted; Powysland Club Collections, v. 381-91; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. pt. iv. p. 398; Dovle's Official Baronage, iii. 83-4.]