lord Herbert of Cherbury [q. v.] On the petition of Herbert's widow and daughter, a new survey of his Irish property was made, and the rent reduced in 1590 (Morrin, Cat. Patents, temp. Eliz. pp. 438-9). Herbert's house at Castleisland was destroyed in the rebellion of 1598. Churchyard, in his 'Worthines of Wales,' 1587, described St. Julians as 'a fair house.' Coxe, in his 'Tour of Monmouthshire,' 1801, gives two drawings of it as a partial ruin. The porch is still standing (cf. Morgan and Wakeman, Notes on Ancient Domestic Residences, Newport, 1860).
Herbert was author of: 1. ‘A Letter written by a trve Christian Catholike to a Romaine pretended Catholike, vppon occasion of Controuersie touching the Catholike Church; the 12, 13, and 14 chapters of the Reuelations are briefly and truelie expounded,’ London (by John Windet), 1586, small 4to, anonymous, with Sir William's arms on the back of the title-page. A copy is in the British Museum. Lord Herbert of Cherbury describes the book as ‘an exposition upon the Revelations’ (Autobiog. p. 41). 2. ‘A Poem intituled Sir William Herbertes Sydney' was licensed by the Stationers' Company to John Windet on 16 Jan. 1586-7 (Arber, Transcripts, ii. 463). This seems to be identical with ‘Sidney, or Baripenthes; briefely shadowing out the rare and neuer ending landes of that most honovrable and praiseworthy Gent. Sir Philip Sidney,’ London (by John Windet), 1586, 4to. This work is mentioned by Ames (Typogr. Antiq. p. 1226) and by Ritson, who ascribes it without doubt to Herbert, but no copy is accessible. 3. Herbert has been identified with the ‘Sir W. H.’ who signs a poor lyric in the ‘Phœnix Nest,’ 1593 (cf. Park, Heliconia, 1815, vol. ii.). 4. A reply in Latin prose by Herbert to Campion's treatise in favour of Roman Catholicism (‘Decem Rationes,’ 1587) has not been printed, and is now in Brit. Mus. Lansd. MS. 27, No. 7. Strype refers to it. in his life of Parker (ii. 166). 5. ‘Croftus; siue de Hibernia Liber;’ an historical, political, and geographical treatise by Herbert, on Ireland, also in Latin prose, and named in compliment to Sir James Croft, was first printed from a copy preserved among Earl Powis's manuscripts at Powis Castle for the Roxburghe Club, under the editorship of the Rev. W. E. Buckley, in 1887. 6. Abstracts of three valuable tracts by Herbert on the plantation of Munster appear in ‘Calendar of Irish State Papers,’ 1586-8, pp. 527-47. In the latter series of publications are also printed many of Herbert's letters to Walsingham and Burghley, written while he was in Ireland. A fiercely worded letter from Herbert to one Morgan, who had sent him a challenge, is in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 4173, No. 1, and is printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1785, pt. i. p. 32 (cf. also Lansd. MS. 143, No. 167).
[Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiog., ed. Sidney L. Lee. pp. 40-1; Powysland Club Collections, xi. 364; Cal. State Papers, Irish, 1586-1593; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors, iii. 305, 378; Wood's Athonæ, ed. Bliss, ii. 483; Powis MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. pt. iv. p. 398; Strype's Parker, ii. 166; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, p. 234, where Sir William is confused with William Herbert(fl. 1604) [q. v.], author of 'A Prophesie of Cadwallader;' the Rev. W. E. Buckley's introduction to Sir William's Croftus (Roxb. Club).]
HERBERT or HARBERT, WILLIAM (fl. 1604), poet, probably son of William Herbert of Glamorgan, seems to have matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 17 Oct. 1600, aged 17. He was apparently in attendance on Prince Henry soon after James I's accession. A William Herbert or Harbert was a volunteer in Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Guiana in 1618, and he may be identical with the poet. Raleigh calls him his ‘cousin,’ and describes him as ‘a very valiant and honest gentleman’(Edwards, Life of Ralegh, i. 567, ii. 353, 358, 372, 494). In 1604 Herbert published, as the fruit of his ‘infant labours’ and ‘unripened years,’ a long poem—now very rare—entitled ‘A Prophesie of Cadwallader, last King of the Britaines, containing a comparison of the English kings with many worthy Romanes, from William Rufus till Henry the Fift. Henry the Fift his life and death. Foure Battels betweene the two houses of York and Lancaster. The Field of Banbury. The losse of Elizabeth. The praise of King Iames, and lastly a poeme to the young Prince, London (by Thomas Creede for Roger Iackson), 1604.’ In a dedication to Sir Philip Herbert, K.B., afterwards Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery [q. v.], the author bids him follow the guidance of Sir Philip Sidney, and at the close of the volume other verses to Sir Philip Herbert precede ‘the poem to the young prince.’ The section dealing with the battle of Banbury supplies a speech of William Herbert, earl of Pembroke (d. 1469) [q. v.] after being condemned to death, but the poet does not appear to claim relationship with the Pembroke family. The address to James I includes enthusiastic praises of Sidney and Spenser. The poem is, with rare exceptions, in seven-line stanzas, rhyming ababbcc, and is promising as the work of a young man. It has been reprinted in Dr. Grosart's ‘Fuller Worthies' Miscellany,’ vol. i. Imperfect
