clergy, and freeholders of Shropshire in defence of His Majesty's person and government.

His Majesty was further pleased, October 16, 1749, to grant him the dignity of a baron of the kingdom of Great Britain, by the name, style, and title of Lord Herbert, Baron Herbert, of Chirbury and Ludlow, to hold the same to him, and to the heirs male of his body, with remainder to Richard Herbert, Esq., his brother, and the heirs male of his body, and, in default of such issue, with remainder to his cousin, Francis Herbert, of Ludlow, and the heirs male of his body.

The manor of Hendon, in Middlesex, descended to Henry Arthur, Earl of Powis, who, in 1757, alienated it to Mr. Clutterbuck, in trust for the celebrated actor, David Garrick.1

He was constituted by George III, May 22, 1761, Comptroller of the household, and soon after sworn a member of the Privy Council, and, in October of that year, on resigning his post as Comptroller, he was invested with the office of Treasurer of the household, which he also resigned July, 1765.

On July 23, 1761, his lordship was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Montgomery. He was also Recorder of Shrewsbury and a lieutenant-general. His lordship married, March 30, 1751, Barbara, sole daughter and heir of the Right Hon. Lord Edward Herbert, only brother of William, the last Marquess of Powis, and of his wife, the Lady Henrietta, only daughter of James, Earl of Walde

grave.

His lordship' being of the Church of England, and Barbara his wife a Roman Catholic, it was arranged at their marriage that their eldest son and daughter should be brought up as members of the Church of England, and

1

Lysons' Environs of London, iii, p. 3.

2 Lady Henrietta Herbert having married Mr. Beard, the comedian, the marriage is announced in the Gentleman's Magazine, xxi, p. 187-"1751, March 30, the Earl of Powis was married to Miss Barbara Herbert, daughter of Lady Henrietta Bearl."

3 MS. account.

the younger children as Roman Catholics. They had one son, George Edward Henry Arthur, and three daughters, Georgiana, Augusta, Barbara Henrietta, and Henrietta Antonia, but, their three elder daughters dying in their infancy, the Lady Henrietta Antonia was brought up a member of the English Church, and thus the family of Herbert ceased to be Roman Catholic.

By this marriage, the Powis Castle estates became united to the Lymore Llyssin and Oakley Park estates, as before mentioned. He died at Bath, Sept. 11, 1772, but was buried at Welshpool.

Before proceeding to his only son and successor, we shall notice two offshoots from the main line.

RICHARD HERBERT.

The names of Richard, brother of Henry Arthur, Earl of Powis, and of Francis Herbert, his cousin, were included in the limitations of the patent of creation, dated October 16, 1749, which the Earl of Powis obtained as Baron Herbert, of Chirbury and Ludlow. Richard Herbert represented the borough of Ludlow in the ninth and tenth parliaments of Great Britain, and died unmarried May 17, 1754.

FRANCIS HERBERT, M.P. FOR MONTGOMERY.

Among the numerous offshoots of the family of Herbert who represented the town of Montgomery, Francis Herbert, Esq., of Ludlow, cousin of Henry Arthur, Earl of Powis, is worthy of mention.

He was the eldest son of George Herbert, Esq., and Martha his wife, daughter of John Newton, Esq., of Heighley, county Salop, and baptized at Bromfield, Salop, November 3, 1696. He represented the town of Montgomery in the tenth parliament of Great Britain, and was included in the limitations of the patent of creation, dated October 16, 1749, which his cousin, the Earl of Powis, had obtained as Baron Herbert, of Chirbury

and Ludlow. He married Mary, daughter of Rowland Baugh, Esq., of Stonehouse, Onibury, County Salop, and granddaughter of Thomas, Lord Folliott, Baron of Ballyshannon, Ireland, and had issue two sons, Folliott and Henry, who died childless, and two daughters, Mary and Arabella. Folliott Herbert was appointed Comptroller of Customs at Chester, in 1749.

His daughter, Mary, was born at her grandfather's seat at Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, 17th May, 1718, and married Mr. Frederick Cornewall, R.N., of Delbury Hall, Diddlebury, County Salop. Their elder son, Frederick, represented Ludlow in Parliament, and died unmarried at Diddlebury in A.D. 1783.

The younger son, Folliott Herbert Walker Cornewall, was bishop in succession of the sees of Bristol, Hereford, and Worcester, and died at his episcopal palace at Hartlebury, Sept 5, 1831. His descendants have intermarried with the noble families of Abercorn, Somerset, and Lyttelton.

GEORGE EDWARD HENRY ARTHUR, SECOND EARL OF Powis.

This nobleman, being born on 7th July, 1755, was, when he succeeded his father on his death, on 11th September, 1772, only seventeen years old. He had four sisters-Lady Georgiana Amelia, Lady Augusta, and Lady Barbara Henrietta-all of whom died young, -and Lady Henrietta Antonia, his heir, who was three years his junior.

His mother, Barbara, Countess Dowager of Powis, seems to have taken a prominent position during the minority of her son. We shall quote a passage from "The last Journal of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford" (vol. i, p. 213), in which she and her daughter, Lady Henrietta Antonia, are mentioned :

"May, 1773. The Duke of Gloucester, brother of George the Third, refused to receive any man who should not visit the

1 Gentleman's Magazine, xix, p. 381.

duchess (previously the Countess Waldegrave, daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, K.B.) as well as him. Lord and Lady Waldegrave, her first husband's brother, and sister-in-law, whether to insult or soften her after their neglect, would have visited her daughters. She very properly refused to allow of such a visit. The Countess of Powis, niece to the duchess, and to Lord Waldegrave, and who had been the warmest assertor of the marriage, sent her daughter (her lord dying at that very time), with unusual ceremony to make excuses for not paying her duty, till she quitted her weeds. The duchess, in acknowledgment of the attention, sent her daughters to visit the young lady; but Lady Powis, by an excess of absurdity and meanness, though in the most affluent circumstances, thought better of it, and neither went herself to the duchess, nor suffered her daughters to return the visit of her cousins, though they were children of a senior earl."

The cause of the Countess's caution was, probably, the fear of displeasing George III, who was offended at his brother's marriage.

The dowager countess next appears prominent in the severe contest for the county of Montgomery, between Watkin Williams and William Owen, of Woodhouse, in which the Powis and Wynn family interests came into collision, and the former prevailed.

We are enabled to print, from the Peniarth MSS., the following letters relative to the Montgomeryshire county election of 1774, which seem to have more interest than election correspondence generally con

tains.

Lady Powis's printed Circular Letter.1

London, May 19th, 1774. SIR,-It has given real concern to myself and son to find that the peace of the county of Montgomery has been thus early disturbed by a private canvass from Major Williams, which has since been followed by a public address to the freeholders. It was our first wish to have waited till the sense of the county could have been taken at a general meeting; but the step which has been pursued, has, I fear, frustrated our intentions in that respect, and rendered our application to you unavoidably necessary. Give me leave, therefore, to solicit

1 An original printed copy of this letter is deposited in the Powysland Museum and Library.

your vote and interest in support of Mr. Owen, a native of the county, and a gentleman who, we hope, will every way prove worthy of your approbation. By making him the object of your choice, you will confer a real obligation on my son, and on, Sir, Your most humble Servant,

Answer to Lady Powis's Circular Letter.

B. Powis.

June 30th, 1774.

SIR,-"It has" indeed "given real concern to myself and friends to see the peace of the county of Montgomery thus early disturbed by a public canvass" against me, who am at present in possession of the honour of representing it. That the Earl and Countess Dowager of Powis began, is most notoriously certain. My first wish undoubtedly was to have waited, till the sense of the county could have been taken at a general meeting, whether my conduct has been such as to merit a striking mark of the displeasure of my constituents, or a kind continuance of this favour. I thought myself the more secure of the latter, as her ladyship was voluntarily pleased to assure me the winter before last, in the most obliging manner, that she would make no opposition to me at the General Election, unless provoked. What provocation I can have given to vacate that promise, I am yet to learn: a suspicion may rather be entertained, that the assurance was insidious, and meant to put me off my guard, and like other assertions in her ladyship's circular letter. My advertisement did not appear till after the canvassing above mentioned-it was the consequence of it; and I therein only referred myself to the decision of a general meeting. But can it after all be seriously made a doubt, which is the disturber of the peace of a county, the sitting member on an old family interest, or a new candidate? Whether the freeholders may not warmly resent, that a peer and peeress of Great Britain should thus publickly, in the most unexampled manner, violate the rights of all the Commons in England, by presuming to dictate to them in the exercise of their birthright

a free choice of their representative-must be left to time to discover. In the meantime, I hope that, though Mr. Owen may be made, "by the Powis family", the object of your choice, he will, however, not be the object chosen.

I am very much, Sir,

Your obedient humble Servant,

WATKIN WILLIAMS.