“Mr. Say reports from the Committee, to whom the business touching the Lord Herbert of Raglan was referred, several resolutions of that Committee, as followeth:—
“Resolved, That the houses and lands conveyed by Act of Parliament unto Mr. Pennoyer and Mr. Hill, were, by indenture, dated 3º Caroli, conveyed by Edward, then Earl of Worcester, unto the Petitioner and his heirs, after the decease of Edward, now Earl of Worcester, who is but tenant for life thereof.
“Resolved, That the yearly value of the said houses and lands are, and were, before the beginning of these wars, £786.
“Resolved, That it be humbly presented to the Parliament, as the opinion of this Committee, That the several manors and lands, the inheritance whereof is by this present Parliament settled upon the Petitioner and his heirs, and are of the yearly value of £1700; that the present possession thereof be granted unto the Petitioner, he paying to the trustees for sale of delinquents’ lands, the sum of £800.
“Resolved, That it be presented to the Parliament, as the opinion of this Committee, that the trustees and contractors for sale of delinquents’ lands, do convey the said manors and lands to the said Petitioner, during the life of Edward, Earl of Worcester; the said Petitioner paying to them therefore the said sum of £800.
“Resolved, by the Parliament, That in satisfaction and discharge of the title and claim of the Lord Herbert of Raglan unto the houses and lands settled by ordinance of Parliament on Mr. Pennoyer and Mr. Hill, the trustees for sale of several lands and estates forfeited to the Commonwealth for treason, be authorized and required to convey unto the said Lord Herbert of Raglan, and his assigns, all the manors and lands, the inheritance whereof is, by this present Parliament, by an Act, intituled, An Act for Sale of several Lands and Estates forfeited to the Commonwealth for Treason, settled on the said Lord Herbert, and his heirs, during the life of Edward, Earl of Worcester; the said Lord Herbert paying for the same, to the Treasurers of the receipt, the sum of £800. And that the present possession of the said manors and lands be thereupon delivered unto the said Lord Herbert: And that the Commissioners for compounding be authorized and required, upon a certificate of the said Treasurers, to take off the sequestration thereof.”
The Marquis’s two daughters were, like their mother-in-law, petitioners to Parliament for the restoration of their rights in their proportionate share of their father’s property. On the 17th of March, 1647, after other business before the House of Commons, “The humble petition of Anne and Elizabeth, daughters of Edward, Earl of Worcester, was read.” And it was ordered, “That this petition be referred to the consideration of the Committee, where Mr. Wheeler has the chair.”
On the 9th of July, 1649, after a lapse of two years and a quarter, this matter was again before the House, when, “The humble petition of the Ladies Anne and Elizabeth, daughters of the Earl of Worcester, was read:—
“Whereas, according to an order of the Committee of Lords and Commons for sequestrations, of the 17th of March, 1646, the Committees of Monmouth, Brecknock, Glamorgan, Gloucester, and Berks, have sent out, and assigned, unto the Petitioners, a fifth part of their father’s estate in those counties, towards their respective maintenance: It is ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That the Petitioners shall have and receive the profits of the said fifth part, so allotted unto them, from the time of their demand, according to the said order of the Lords and Commons, until this House take further order: And the several Committees of the said counties are hereby authorized and required forthwith to pay the same, or permit the Petitioners to receive the same accordingly.”[57]
The period from the surrender of Raglan Castle in August, 1646, down to the close of 1651, extending over five years, must have been one of the most galling and trying nature to the Marquis of Worcester. From a state of ease and affluence he was suddenly plunged into a condition the most mortifying possible to a noble and independent mind; without any other than the barren consolation that his Prince, the Court, and men of all ranks shared a similar fate. He did not stand alone, a monument of ruin amidst plenty. In September, 1649, Charles the Second had quitted the Continent for Jersey, and the next year he arrived in Scotland; in 1651, his romantic career in England terminated, and in November he was once more in France, without credit, as Clarendon asserts, to borrow twenty pistoles.