Agreeing with Mr. Peter Cunningham (vide _History of Nell Gwyn_), that a
new edition of Grammont is much wanted, I beg to avail myself of your
pages, and to offer a few remarks and notes which I have made in reference
to that very entertaining work for the consideration of a future annotator.
Of the several maids of honour mentioned therein I will begin with those of
the queen. They are Miss Stewart, Miss "Warminster," Miss Bellenden, Miss
Bardon, Miss de la Garde, Miss Wells, Miss Livingston, Miss Fielding, and
Miss Boynton.
The names of Miss Stewart (Frances Theresa), Miss Boynton (Catherine), Miss
Wells (Winefred), and Miss Warmistre are found among the original six,
appointed on the queen's marriage, May 21, 1662. The affiliation and
marriages of the first two have been well ascertained, but Miss Warmistre's
birth is yet open to some conjecture, whilst her marriage, like Miss
Wells's parentage, is wholly unknown.
Horace Walpole, on the authority of the last Earl of Arran, of the Butler
family, has confounded her with Mary, one of the daughters of George Kirke,
Esq., a groom of the bedchamber to Charles I., by Mary his wife, daughter
of Aurelian Townsend, Esq., "the admired beauty of the tymes," on whose
marriage at Christ Church, Oxford, February 26, 1645-6, "the king gave
her." She herself was maid of honour to the Duchess of York in 1674, and
the year following left the court, we may believe, under the same
circumstances as Miss Warmistre, more than ten years before, had quitted
it: after being the mistress of Sir Thomas Vernon, the second Baronet of
Hodnet in Shropshire, she became his wife, and ended her life in miserable
circumstances at Greenwich in 1711.
"1711, 17 August, Dame Mary, relict of Sir Thomas Vernon, carried
away."--Burial register of Greenwich Church.
She was sister to Diana, the last De Vere, Earl of Oxford's, countess, a
lady of as free a morality {462} as herself and as her mother, and second
wife of Sir Thomas, whose first lady, Elizabeth Cholmondley, died in June,
1676. Sir Thomas died February 5, 1682-3, leaving by her three children,
Sir Richard, the last baronet, Henrietta, and Diana, who all died
unmarried.
A portrait of Lady Vernon, by Sir Peter Lely, has been engraved in
mezzotinto by Browne, and lettered "Mary Kirk, Lady Vernon, maid of honour
to Queen Catherine." Another portrait (?) has been engraved by Scheneker
for Harding's _Grammont_, 1793. A third portrait was purchased at the
Strawberry Hill sale, by Mr. Rodd of Little Newport Street, for 1l. 5s.
A portrait of the Countess of Oxford is or was at Mr. Drummond's of Great
Stanmore. It was bequeathed to his family by Charles, first Duke of St.
Alban's, who was her ladyship's son-in-law.
Of Mrs. Anne Kirke, who was "woman to the queen" Henrietta Maria, there are
several portraits. Granger records:
"Madam Kirk. Vandyck p. Gaywood f. h. sh.
"Madam Anne Kirk. Vandyck p. Browne, large h. sh. mezz."
These engravings are most probably from the same painting--the fine
whole-length exhibited last year among the collection of pictures by
ancient masters in Pall Mall:
"Madam Kirk, sitting in a chair, Hollar, f. h. sh."
He also mentions her miniature at Burghley.
There is at Wilton a splendid painting by Vandyck of Mrs. Kirk, seated with
the Countess of Morton, Lady Anne Keith, eldest daughter of George, fifth
Earl Mareschal, and wife of William Douglass, seventh Earl of Morton, K.G.
She was governess to the Princess Henrietta.
This painting has been engraved by Grousvelt. There is another engraving
from the first-named Vandyck by Beckett.
Of Lady Vernon and her mother there is to be found mention, in the secret
service expenses of Charles II. and James II., lately printed. The elder
lady on her husband's death (he was buried in the cloisters of Westminster
Abbey, April 5, 1679) seems to have had a pension of 250l. per annum. The
younger was the recipient, on two occasions, of 100l. "bounty" only.
Mrs. Kirke and her daughter Diana are unfavourably alluded to by Mrs. Grace
Worthley, a lady of the same class, who will not "be any longer a
laughing-stock for any of Mr. Kirk's bastards" (vide letter to her cousin
Lord Brandon, September 7, 1682, _Diary of Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney_,
i. pp. xxxiii. xxxiv.). And again, the same lady, in another letter, speaks
of "the common Countess of Oxford and her adulterous bastards" (_Ibid._).
Mr. Jesse's quotation from "Queries and Answers from Garraway's Coffee
House" (vide _The Court of the Stewarts_, vol. ii. p. 366.) may be here
reproduced in support of the epitaph which this angry lady has been pleased
to assign the countess, who, it would seem, had robbed her, well born and
well married, of her noble keeper "the handsome Sidney:"
"_Q._ How often has Mrs. Kirk sold her daughter Di. before the Lord of
Oxford married her?
_A._ Ask the Prince and Harry Jermyn."
The following curious extract from one of the Heber MSS. at Hodnet has been
kindly furnished me by Charles Cholmondeley, Esq., of the Ivy House,
Wisbeach, co. Cambridge, to whom the MS. belongs:
"H----,
"Sir Thomas the second baronet's death is mentioned in Lady Rachael
Russell's letters. His second wife was one of King Charles's Beauties,
but the account in Granger of her is not correct, as it appears that
she lived some time with Sir Thomas, as mistress, before their
marriage. He left her in great distress, as the profits of the estate
were embezzled by attorneys and stewards. The following is a copy from
a letter from her to one Squibb, an attorney who had the management of
the estate:
'SIR,
'When you were last here you were pleased to say that in some
little time I should be payd some money. I have had with me my
woman's husband y^t did serve mee about two yeares since; and hee
is soe impatient for what I owe her y^t hee will staye noe longer.
It is given me to understand I must goe to prison or paye part of
w^t I owe him. Things fly to a great violence, and if you thinke it
will bee for the credit or advantage of my childerne y^t such an
afront should come to mee, is the question. I have nothing to
depend on but w^t must come from the estate of Sir Richard Vernon.
How I have been used by the trustees you are noe stranger to. I am
now forced to live on charity, and I grow every day more and more
weary of it. For my childern's sake I remain in England, or else I
would seeke my fortune elsewhere. Pray to take this into
consideration, and see w^t can be done.
'I am, SIR, y^r most humble serv^t,
'VERNON.
'P.S.--If you can, pray doe mee y^e favour to send mee by to-morrow
at one of y^e cloke, twenty shillings, to pay for wood, or I must
sit w^{th}oute fyer; y^t will be ill for a person confined to the
house.'"
It is not certain whether it is to "Mistris Kirke," Lady Vernon's mother,
that Charles I. refers in his letter addressed to Colonel Whaley on the day
of his escape from Hampton Court, November 11, 1647, but it is very likely
to have been so. There was a Mistress (Anne) Kirke, sworn in a dresser to
Queen Henrietta Maria in Easter week, 1637 (vide _Strafford Papers_, vol.
ii. p. 73.), whose full-length portrait by Vandyke has been frequently
engraved, by Browne, Garwood, Hollar, Beckett, &c.; and this lady may be
the "Mrs. Anne Kirke, unfortunately drowned near London Bridge," who was
buried in Westminster Abbey, July 9, 1641. {463}
In Westminster Abbey was buried, May 23, 1640, "Mr. Kirk's daughter."
Captain George Kirke married there, February 10, 1699-1700, Mary Cooke.
George Kirke, Esq., died Jan. 10, 1703-4, and was buried in the abbey
cloisters (Mon. Inscr.); and Mrs. Mary Kirke died December 17, 1751, and
was also buried there (M. I.). We may presume that all these Kirkes were of
the same family.
Having now clearly released the annotator from all farther interference
with Mary Kirke's private history, and having excluded her handsome face
from any future illustrated edition of Grammont, I must leave him to deal
with Miss Warmistre. It seems most probable that Dr. Thomas Warmistre, dean
of Worcester, who died October 30, 1665, was her father, as he is known to
have been a Royalist. His will, as it is not to be found at Doctors'
Commons, must be sought for at Worcester. His brother Gervais was a married
man, but his effects, unfortunately for our inquiries, were administered to
at Doctors' Commons, August 31, 1641. That Warmistre was her right name is
proved by Lord Cornbury's letter to the Duchess of Bedford, June 10, 1662
(Warburton's _Rupert_, vol. iii. pp. 461-464.). Her portrait is at Hengrave
Hall, Suffolk, and has been engraved by Scriven for Carpenter's _Grammont_,
1811.
Lord Cornbury's letter contradicts Grammont's statement, that Miss Boynton
and Miss Wells came in on a removal, for they were of the original six
maids of honour. Among these is named a Miss Price (Henrietta Maria), who
we may suppose a sister to the Duchess of York's Miss Price, one of
Grammont's most conspicuous heroines; and if so, when I come to speak of
the Duchess's maids of honour, her parentage will be proved. Of Miss Carey,
rejoicing in the prefix of Simona, the sixth of the queen's original maids
of honour, we have no farther occasion to speak.
In 1669 the queen appears to have had four maids of honour only, the places
vacated by Miss Stewart's and Miss Warmistre's marriages being unoccupied.
This state of affairs leads me to doubt whether Miss Bellenden ever held
the appointment. Mademoiselle Bardon, Grammont admits, was not actually a
maid of honour, and Mademoiselle de la Garde certainly never was. LORD
BRAYBROOKE has suggested to me, with some show of reason, that the first
may be the "Mrs. Baladine" who held a place of less emolument (that of
dresser, probably) in the Duchess of York's household, and who left in the
middle of the quarter, between Michaelmas and Christmas, 1662 (vide
_Household Book of James Duke of York at Audley End_), as if she had the
prudence "de quitter la cour avant que d'en etre chassee."
"La desagreable Bardon" may have been a daughter, or some other near
relation, to Claudius Bardon, mentioned in the secret service expenses of
Charles II.
Mademoiselle de la Garde was appointed a dresser to the queen on her
marriage (vide Lord Cornbury's letter), and continued in this office till
1673, when she died. Her father, Charles Peliott Baron de la Garde, or her
brother, if she had one, was a groom of the privy chamber to Queen
Catherine in 1687, and her mother dresser to the Duchess of York in 1662
(_Duke of York's Household Book_). Mary her sister, who became the wife of
Sir Thomas Bond of Peckham, co. Surrey, Baronet, comptroller of the
household to Queen Henrietta Maria, was a Lady of the privy chamber to the
same queen.
Of mademoiselle I may add, that she married Mr. Gabriel Silvius, carver to
the queen, in 1669 (compare first and second editions of _Angliae Notitia_,
1669); and of her husband, in addition to the particulars already stated by
the annotators, that he received the honour of knighthood January 28,
1669-70, married a second wife (a fact overlooked by the annotators,
including Mr. Cunningham), viz. Anne, daughter of the Hon. William Howard,
a younger son of Thomas first Earl of Berkshire, at Westminster Abbey,
November 12, 1677, went the same year to the Hague as master of the
household to the Prince of Orange (Evelyn), became privy purse to James II.
(_The British Compendium, or Rudiments of Honour_), died at his house in
Leicester Fields, January, 1696-7, and was buried in the church of St.
Martin. It was his second wife, and widow, who died October 13, 1730.
If, as it is possible, Miss Bellenden did hold the appointment of maid of
honour to the queen, she must have replaced Miss Stewart or Miss Warmistre;
and if Miss Livingston and Miss Fielding held like appointments, one of the
two must have replaced her, and they, again, must have removed from the
court before 1669. I am not at present able to say who those three ladies
were.
Before bringing this paper to a conclusion, I must be permitted to refer
Mr. Cunningham to five letters, written by Count de Comminges, the French
ambassador in London, and printed LORD BRAYBROOKE in his Appendix to Pepys,
which Mr. C. has very unaccountably overlooked when settling the chronology
of Grammont.
The first, to M. de Lionne, dated "Londres, Janvier 5-15, 1662-3,"
announces the arrival of the Chevalier the day before "fort content de son
voyage. Il a ete ici recu le plus agreablement au monde. Il est de toutes
les parties du Roi." The second, to Louis XIV., dated "Decembre 10-20,
1663," informs the king of the chevalier's joy at being allowed to return
to France, and of his intention to leave England in four days. He also
informs Louis that he believes the chevalier will see the court of France
in company of "une belle {464} Angloise." A postscript, dated "Decembre
20-24," says that the king of England, for certain stated reasons, has
persuaded the chevalier to remain a day longer; and, farther, "Il laisse
ici quelques autres dettes, qu'il pretend venir recueillir quand il se
declarera sur le sujet de Mille Hamilton, qui est si embrouille que les
plus clairvoyans n'y voyent goutte." The third, dated "Mai 19-24, 1664," is
also to the King of France, and speaks of the Chevalier's wife, "madame sa
femme." The next letter is addressed to M. de Lionne, and dated "Aout 29,
Septembre 8, 1664." It contains this important intelligence: "Madam la
Comtesse de Grammont accoucha hier au soir d'un fils beau comme la mere, et
galant comme le pere." The last letter, dated "Octobre 24, Novembre 3,
1664," and addressed to the same M. de Lionne, commences as follows: "Le
Comte de Grammont est parti aujourd'hui avec sa femme."
These several letters, all important to the annotators of Grammont, give
the precise dates of the chevalier's first visit to the Court of Charles
II., and of his departure, and settle the date of his marriage within a few
days. This event must have taken place in December, 1663. Mrs. Jameson and
Mr. Cunningham place it in 1668.
On another occasion I will return to this subject.