Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Noel, Edward
NOEL, EDWARD, Lord Noel of Ridlington and second Viscount Campden (1582–1643), eldest son and heir of Sir Andrew Noel [q. v.], was born at his father's seat of Brooke, being baptised there on 2 July 1582. By substitution he served as knight of the shire for Rutland, in place of his father, in the parliament of 1601. He served in the Irish wars, where 'he was a knight baneret' (epitaph at Campden). He was knighted by Mountjoy in Ireland in 1602 (Soc. Antiq. MS.;Doyle, Official Baronage, i. 308). On 13 Nov 1609 he received a grant in fee farm of the manor of Claxton (Framland Hundred, Leicestershire) along with Thomas Philipps, gent. This manor shortly after passed into the possession of the Earl of Rutland (Nichols, Leicestershire, ii. 133). On 2 April 1611 an inquisition was taken into his holding in Lyfield Forest (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. James I, cxciv.) Three years later he is described as master of the game in Lyfield Forest, Rutland, and received instructions from the king to prohibit hunting there for three years (ib. lxxviii. 109). The bailiwick of the forest seems to have been conferred on Noel in 1623. In 1611 he was created a baronet, being the thirty-fourth in order. The patent is dated 29 June 1611 (Nichols, Progresses of James I, ii. 426). In the following year (1612) the king visited Brooke, Noel's seat, coming from Apthorp (Sir Walter Mildmay's), and, after a night's entertainment there, moved to Belvoir.
Five years later (1617) the king, being at Burley-on-the-Hill, created Noel Baron Noel of Ridlington, by letters patent dated 23 March 1616-17, the patent dispensingwith the ceremony of investiture (ib. iii. 260). He took the title from Ridlington, which came to him from his mother, because he had lately 'sold his manor of Dalby in Leicestershire, being his patrimony and dwelling, to the Earl of Buckingham for 29,000/., and lies in wait to buy Burley of the lady of Bedford, whereon he hath lent money already, and so plant himself altogether in Rutlandshire' (Court and Times of James I, ii. 2). Burley was soon after bought by Buckingham (Wright, Rutland, p. 30;Stow, Chronicle', p. 1027; Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. i. 94; Cal. State Papers, Dom. xc. 146, xcv. 22, xc. 126, where the name is incorrectly given as Sir Andrew Noel). On 21 Feb. 1620-1 Noel was one of the thirty-three lords who signed the 'petition of the nobility of England taking exception to the precedence conferred on Irish and Scotch peers,' which the king took very ill (Nichols, Progresses of James, iii. 655;Walker, Hist. Discourses, p. 307; Camden Annals). In 1624 Noel was one of the eight commissioners for the collecting of the first of the three entire subsidies (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 401). On 23 March 1625 a warrant was issued to him to preserve the game within six miles of Burley-on-the-Hill (Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. pt. iv. L46). On 5 Nov. 1628 the Duchess of Lennox and others in Drury Lane petitioned the council to give Lord Noel the control of his sister, the Countess of Castlehaven, who, 'living alone, is grown not well in her senses, in so much that she had like to have fired her own house. Her brother could do nothing without a special order from council' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles I, cxx. 15, and ccclxxxviii. 47, 27 April 1638). Noel married Juliana, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Baptist Hicks; and on the occasion of the advancement of the latter to the title of Lord Hicks of Ilmington, Warwick, and Viscount Campden of Campden, Gloucester (5 May, 4 Charles I), Noel obtained a grant of the reversion of those honours to himself and his heirs male in case Sir Baptist should die without male issue. His father-in-law died in 1629, and Noel entered into the titles on 7 Nov. 1629.
On 13 March 1631 he paid into the exchequer 2,500l. as a loan for the public service. In April 1635 this was not yet repaid (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles I, clxxxvi. 90, cclxxxvi. 43). Campden favoured and assisted the attempts to levy ship-money in his county (16 June 1636, Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. App. p. 402; 29 March and 6 April 1637, Cal State Papers, Dom. Charles I, cccli. 37, ccclii. 33). Owing apparently to his exertions, an unusual surplus of 800l. over the assessment was collected.
Campden was consistently royalist. He followed Charles into the north in 1639, and formed one of the council of peers at York in 1640. When, on 25 Sept. 1640 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. cccclxviii. 39), the lords at York determined to borrow 250,000l. from the city for the support of the army till the calling of parliament, Campden was one of the six lords appointed to go south and negotiate with the city. The city unanimously granted the loan (Cal. State Papers, Dom. cccclxix. 20). A week later Campden, being 'scrupulous,' moved that the peers might have their security from the king, that the inferior peers might not suffer in guaranteeing the loan more than the councillors (11 Oct. 1640, ib. cccclxix. 84). On the breaking out of the civil war Campden received a commission from Charles to raise five hundred horse, and afterwards another for three regiments of horse and three of foot, but died before he could fully accomplish the task (Dugdale, Baronage of England, ii. 435). On 18 Feb. 1642-3 he was ordered by the speaker of the House of Lords to contribute towards the charges of the parliament forces (Lords' Journals, v. 609: Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 73).'
Campden died on 8 March 1642-3 in the king's quarters at Oxford, and was buried on 12 March at Campden, where his wife subsequently (September 1664) erected a monument, with an epitaph to his memory by Joshua Marshall (Nichols, Leicestershire, u.s.) He had five children by his wife Juliana: (1) Sir Baptist, third viscount Campden. (2) Henry, styled esquire of North Luffenham, Rutland: baptised at Brooke on 30 Aug. 1615, he was taken prisoner at his house by the forces under Lord Grey in March 1642-3 (Hist. MSS. Comm, 5th Rep. App. pp. 78, 79, 13th Rep. p. 1; Lords' Journals, v., 650; Commons' Journals, ii. 989; Lords' Journals, vi. 64); he died a prisoner in the parliamentary quarters, and was buried at Campden on 21 July 1643, where the register by mistake calls him grandson to Edward, viscount Campden. (3) Elizabeth, married John Chaworth, lord viscount Chaworth of Armagh. (4) Mary, baptised at Brooke on 20 April 1609, married Sir Erasmus de la Fontaine of Kirby-Bellars, Leicestershire. (5) Penelope, baptised on 22 Aug. 1610, and buried at Campden on 21 May 1633.
After his death Noel's widow, Juliana, viscountess dowager of Campden, resided at Brooke. In April 1643 she petitioned to be relieved from the weekly assessment (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 82; Lords' Journals, vi. 17, 108). After the sequestration of her husband's estates she was assessed at 4,000l. for her composition on 30 Jan. 1646 (Cal. of Committee for Advance of Money, p. 677). She made an ineffectual attempt to be relieved of this payment. On 7 Nov. 1649, having paid 1,100l:, she was ordered to pay an additional 900l. to make up her half of the assessment. On 12 April 1650 the proceedings were stayed. Thenceforth she maintained great state and dispensed much hospitality at Brooke. She died there on 26 Nov. 1680, and was buried at Campden on 12 Jan. 1680-1 (registers of Brooke and Campden).
[Authorities cited in text and under Noel, Andrew]