Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/444

426 DORSET dismissed by James II,(') but was re-appointed in 1689, holding the office till his death. Having inherited the estates of his maternal uncle, Lionel (Cranfield), Earl of Middlesex (who d. s.p., 26 Oct. 1674), he was, 4 Apr. 1675, ■ BARON CRANFIELD OF CRANFIELD, CO. Midx., and EARL OF MIDDLESEX.() Bearer of the Queen's sceptre with the dove, 25 Apr. 1685, at the Coronation of James II. He accompanied the Princess Anne in her flight from her father; P.C. and Lord Chamberlain of the Household, both 14 Feb. 1688/9, resigning the latter office 1697; Joint Lord Lieut, of Somerset 1690-91. Nom. K.G. 2, and inst. 24 Feb. 169 1/2, and was one of the Lords Justices of the Realm, during the King's absence therefrom in 1695, 1696, 1697, and i698;() F.R.S. II Jan. 1698/9; F.S.A. 1699. He m., istly, June 1674, Mary,() widow of Charles (Berkeley), Earl of Falmouth (who was killed in a sea- fight, 3 June 1665), da. of Col. Hervey Bagot, of Pipe Hall, co. Warwick, by his 1st wife, Dorothy, da. of Sir Henry Arden, of Pipe Hall afsd. She, who was b. 1645, d. in childbed, 12 Sep. 1679, and was bur, at Withyam the same day.^) He ;«., 2ndly, 7 Mar. 1684/5, Mary, da. of James (Compton), 3rd Earl of Northampton, by his 2nd wife, Mary, da. of Baptist (Noel), Viscount Campden. She, who was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, d. of smallpox, in London, 6, and was bur. 15 Aug. 1691, at Withyam, aged 22.(') He m., 3rdly, 27 Oct. 1704, Anne, " Mrs. Roche," said to have been " a woman of very obscure connections." (8) He d. at Bath, 29 Jan., and was bur. 17 Feb. 1705/6, at Withyam afsd.j^") aged 68. Will dat. 12 July 1705, pr. 4 May 1707. His widow d. Aug. 1706. Will pr. Aug. 1706. (") See a list of the Lord Lieuts. so dismissed, vol. ii, Appendix G. {) He is said to have obtained this Earldom, together with expenses out of pocket, in return for the surrender of Nell Gwynn to his sovereign. He was tried before Chief Justice Foster for having, in the congenial company of Sir Charles Sedley, committed various acts of gross indecency in a public place, to wit, the balcony of an inn or brothel. See Pej^yi., i July 1663. V.G. (') Seealist of these Lords Justices, a«/c, p. 342, note "c," sub Devonshire. ("*) "The Earl of Middleton is dead, and that family extinct. The estate of /3,ooo p.a. was settled by will on the Lord Buckhurst his nephew, who hath thereon declared himself married to the Countess of Falmouth, an infamous relict of the Lord Clifford's." (Edmund Prideaux, Oxford, 10 Nov. 1674). V.G. if) De Gramont says of her that she " was the only one who was really possessed of virtue and beauty among these Maids of Honour," while Dryden is extremely severe both on her (whom he calls "a teeming widow, but a barren wife") and on her husband. (♦) " La comtesse de Dorset, jeune, riche, belle, et sage, mourut hyer de la petite verolle. La Reyne la regrette beaucoup." (News letter, 7/17 Aodt 1 691). V.G. (s) Wraxall's Memoirs^ vol. iii, p. 136. if) His character has been more written about than that of most people: Walpole says that " He was the finest gentleman in the voluptuous court of Charles II, and in the gloomy one of King William. He had as much wit as his first Master or, his contemporaries, Buckingham and Rochester, without the Royal want of feeling, the Duke's want of principles or the EarFs want of thought." Bishop Burnet writes of