Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/95

BEDFORD 79 1639, pr. 8 Feb. 1642. His widow d. 29 Jan., and was bur. 16 Feb. 1656/7, with him. M.I.(^) VII. 1 641. 5 and I. William (Russell), Earl of Bedford, ^c, nilKFnOM ^' ^"*^ ^■' ^' ^'^°' ^^^^- ^•^- " ^^^- 1626, at the coron- ation of Charles I. He was M.P. for Tavistock 1640-41 IV. 1694. (both Short and Long Paris.), and on 24 Apr. 1641, was one of the 24 Commoners who conferred with the Lords as to a petition of grievances. On 14 July 1642, being then a Peer, he accepted the command as Gtw. of the Horse in the Parliamentary servicejC") with which he did great execution at Edgehill, 23 Oct. 1 642. He was Lord Lieut, of Devon and Somerset, 1642, on the nomination of the Pari. In 1643, however, having, with the Earls of Holland and of Clare, endeavoured to mediate between the King and the Pari., he joined the former at Oxford, and fought on the Royal side at the first battle of Newbury, 20 Sep. 1643. After this date he never sat in the House of Lords till 25 Apr. 1660, when he took an active part in effecting the Restoration. ("=) On 15 Oct. 1643 he was received as a Fellow Commoner at Wadham Coll. Oxford. At the coronation, on 23 Apr. 1661, he carried the sceptre of St. Edward. El. and inv. K.G. 29 May, and inst. 3 June 1672. Joint Com. for the office of Earl Marshal, 1673. At the coronation, 1 1 Apr. 1689, he carried Queen Mary's sceptre. P.C. 14 Feb. 1688/9. Lord Lieut, of cos. Bedford and Cambridge, from 1689, and of Middlesex from 1692, till his death. Recorder of Cambridge, 1689. On 1 1 May 1694 he was cr. MARQUESS OF TAVISTOCK and DUKE OF BEDFORD— the preamble to the patent setting forth "that he was father to the Lord Russell, the ornament of his age, whose great merit it was not enough to transmit by history to posterity, &'c."('*) On 13 June 1695, in consequence of the marriage the Duke of Wellington. (5) That of Lord Lansdowne in 1866, which stopped the negociation then in progress between Lord Derby and the Adullamite Whigs, which, if carried through, would have prevented the Tory democratic Reform Bill of 1867-8. (6) Possibly also that of Peel in 1 850, who, with his following, had just voted with the main body of the Conservatives on the " Don Pacifico" motion against Palmerston. Indirectly, too, the death of George IV, by necessitating a general election in the height of the excitement caused by the French Revolution of 1830, gave an impetus to the Reform movement, and increased the parliamentary strength of the Whigs, {ex inform, the Rev. A. B. Beaven). To which may be added (7) thatof King Edward VII, of happy memory, in 1910. V.G. (^) " 1652/3" is the date on the M.I. in Lipscomb's Bucks, vol. iii, p. 259, but " 1657 " '^ correctly given in Wiffen's House of Russell, and in the burial entry as given in Lipscomb. The date in the Register is " 1656," i.e. 1656/7. (*) For a list of peers and eldest sons of peers who were among the " Command- ers or Captains of Companies in the Armies of the Commonwealth," see vol. iv, Appendix B. (■=) In his later years he was a steady supporter of the Whigs in the House of Lords. V.G. C^) See Collins, vol. i, p. 288. This was the 7th of the nine Dukedoms cr. by William III within six years. See note sul> John, Earl of Clare [1689].