justices of Ireland, the treaty of Limerick, so it is said, having been arranged through his skill. His political opponents accused him of having used his position to gratify his greed. The embezzlement of stores, the appropriation of the estates of rebels, the sale of pardons, and dealings in illicit trade were among the offences imputed to him; but such charges were of slight moment so long as the royal influence was at his back. Through the king's favour he was created Baron Coningsby of Clanbrassil in Ireland on 17 April 1692, sworn as privy councillor on 13 April 1693, and pardoned under the great seal in May 1694 for any transgressions which he might have committed while in office in Ireland. He was vice-treasurer from Jan. 1692–3 until deprived of the office in 1710. From 1695 to his death he was chief steward of the city of Hereford; he fought a duel with Lord Chandos, another claimant of the post, ‘but no mischief was done.’ In April 1697 he received a grant under the privy seal of several of the crown manors in England, and in October 1698 he was created paymaster of the forces in Ireland. During Queen Anne's reign he acted consistently with the whigs, but his services received slight acknowledgment even when his friends were in office. All that Godolphin did was to write a civil letter or two complimenting Lord Coningsby on ‘his judgment and experience’ in parliamentary affairs, and it was not until October 1708 that Coningsby was sworn of Anne's privy council. He was one of the managers of Sacheverell's trial, and, like most of the prominent whigs, he lost his seat in parliament through the tory reaction which ensued. With the accession of George I he resumed his old position in public life, and once more basked in court favour. He was included in the select committee of twenty-one appointed to inquire into the negotiations for the treaty of Utrecht, and, according to Prior, was one of the three most inquisitive members of that body. As a result of their investigations, the impeachment of Bolingbroke was moved by Walpole, that of Harley by Coningsby—a family feud had long existed between the two Herefordshire families of Harley and Coningsby—and Ormonde's by Stanhope. Two years later Harley was unanimously discharged, but this concord of opinion was only obtained by Coningsby and some others withdrawing from the proceedings. For his zeal in behalf of the Hanoverian succession he was well rewarded. The lord-lieutenancy of Herefordshire was conferred on him in November 1714, and in the following month he obtained the same pre-eminency in Radnorshire. A barony in the English peerage was granted to him on 18 June 1716, and he was raised to the higher dignity of Earl Coningsby on 30 April 1719. Coningsby's later life was troubled. He was a widower, without any male heir, and with innumerable lawsuits. For some severe reflections on Lord Harcourt, the lord chancellor, in connection with these legal worries, he was committed to the Tower on 27 Feb. 1720–1. He resigned his two lord-lieutenancies in 1721, and was dismissed from the privy council Nov. 1724. After much ill-health he died at the family seat of Hampton, near Leominster, on 1 May 1729. By his first wife, Barbara Gorges, whom he married in February 1674–5, and from whom he was divorced, he had four daughters and three sons, and his grandson by this marriage succeeded to the Irish barony, but died without issue on 18 Dec. 1729. His second wife, whom he married in April 1698, was Lady Frances Jones, daughter of Richard, earl of Ranelagh, by whom he had one son, Richard, who died at Hampton on 2 April 1708 when two years old, choked by a cherrystone; and two daughters, Margaret and Frances. The second countess was buried at Hope-under-Dinmore on 23 Feb. 1714–15, aged 42; and Lord Coningsby was buried in the same church in 1729, under a handsome marble monument, on which the child's death is depicted in striking realism. The grant of his English peerage contained a remainder for the eldest daughter of his second marriage. Her issue male, John, the only child of this daughter, Margaret, countess of Coningsby, by her husband, Sir Michael Newton, died an infant, the victim of an accidental fall, said to have been caused through the fright of its nurse at seeing an ape, and on the mother's death in 1761 the title became extinct. The younger daughter of Lord Coningsby married Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the well-known satirical poet, and was buried in the chapel of St. Erasmus, Westminster Abbey, in December 1781.
Coningsby's troubles in law arose from his purchase of the manors of Leominster and Marden. After elaborate investigations, he convinced himself that the lord's rights had in many instances been trespassed upon by the copyhold tenants. He caused ejectments to be brought against many persons for being in possession of estates as freehold which he claimed to be copyhold, and as these claims were resisted by the persons in possession, his last days were embittered by constant strife. His collections concerning Marden were printed in 1722–7 in a bulky tome, without any title-page, and with pagination of great irregularity, but were never pub-
