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ANNESLEY

rendered by him to his Majesty, to whom he manifested his loyalty and attachment by sitting as one of the judges on the trials of the regicides. He had always a considerable share in the King's favour; and was heard, with great attention, both at the council and in the House of Lords. In 1667, he was made treasurer of the navy, and on the 4th of February, 1672, his Majesty, in council, was pleased to appoint the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Anglesey, the Lord Holles, the Lord Ashley Cooper, and Mr. Secretary Trevor, to be a committee to peruse and revise all the papers and writings concerning the settlement of Ireland, from the first to the last; and to make an abstract thereof in writing. Accordingly, on the 12th of June, 1672, they made their report at large, which was the foundation of a commission, dated the 1st of August, 1672, to Prince Rupert, the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale, Earl of Anglesey, Lords Ashley and Holles, Sir John Trevor and Sir Thomas Chicheley, to inspect the settlements of Ireland, and all proceedings thereunto. In 1673, the Earl of Anglesey had the office of lord privy seal conferred upon him, which he held several years, with the favour of his sovereign. At a time when it was the practice to invent popish plots, he was publicly charged, at the bar of the House of Commons, (in October 1680,) by one Dangerfield, in an information delivered upon oath, with endeavouring to stifle evidence concerning the popish plot, to promote the belief of a presbyterian one. Yet the suspicion he incurred from this attack did not prevent him from being the only lord in the House of Peers who dissented from the vote of the Commons, which asserted the belief of an Irish popish plot.

On account of this conduct, he was unjustly charged with being a secret papist; though there appears to have existed no other ground for the suspicion, than that he was neither a bigoted nor a credulous man.

In 1680, the Earl of Castlehaven wrote Memoirs concerning the affairs of Ireland, wherein he represented the general