The queen gave Lismore to Sir Walter Raleigh, and ... to Sir John Anderson, etc. to etc., eâ intentione to plant them, which they did not; and were not planted till since the last rebellion—quaere Mr. Anderson, who sayes that Ireland could not be secure till it was enough peopled with English.
My lady Petty sayes he had a wife or two before, and that he maried Mris. Fenton[AW] without her father's consent—(quaere Secretary Fenton's Christian name[AX]).
[465]... Boyle, the first earle of Corke:—the countesse of Thanet, his great-grand-daughter, daughter to this earle of Corke and Burlington, haz told me that her father has a booke in folio—thick—of her grandfather's writing, <giving> the place, day, and hour of birth, and by what steps, wayes, and degrees he came to his greatnes. Which she will doe her endeavour to gett me an extract of it, but it is in Ireland and (I thinke) must be kept there, and is an heir-loome to the family.
<Excerpts from Anthony Walker's Sermon.>
[466]Of Richard Boyle, first earl of Corke, and his seventh daughter, Mary, countess of Warwick.
'The Virtuous Woman found: Being a Sermon preached at Felsted, in Essex, at the Funerall of the most excellent and religious lady, the Right honourable MARY Countesse Dowager of Warwick. By Anthony Walker, D.D. rector of Fyfield, in the sayd countie. The 2d Edition corrected. Printed at London, for Nath. Ranew, at the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1680.' (The Epistle dedicatory is dated May 27, 1678.)
Pag. 44.—'She was truly excellent and great in all respects: great in the honour of her birth, being born a lady and a virtuosa both; seventh daughter of that eminently honourable, Richard, the first earle of Cork; who being born a private gentleman, and younger brother of a younger brother, to no other heritage than is expressed in the device and motto, which his humble gratitude inscribed on all the palaces he built,
God's Providence, mine Inheritance;
by that Providence, and his diligent and wise industry, raised such an honour and estate, and left such a familie, as never any subject of these three kingdomes did, and that with so unspotted a reputation of integrity that the most invidious scrutiny could find no blott, though it winnowed all the methods of his rising most severely, which our good lady hath often told me with great content and satisfaction.
This noble lord, by his prudent and pious consort, no lesse an ornament and honour to their descendants than himself, was blessed with five sonnes, (of which he lived to see four lords and peeres of the kingdome of Ireland,[467] and a fifth, more than these titles speak, a soveraigne and peerlesse in a larger province,—that of universall nature, subdued and made obsequious to his inquisitive mind), and eight daughters. And that you may remark how all things were extraordinary in this great personage, it will, I hope, be neither unpleasant, nor impertinent, to add a short story I had from our lady's own mouth:—Master Boyl, after earle of Cork (who was then a widdower), came one morning to waite on Sir Jeofry Fenton, at that time a great officer[XXIV.] of state in that kingdome of Ireland, who being ingaged in business, and not knowing who it was who desired to speake with him, a while delayed him access; which time he spent pleasantly with his young daughter in her nurse's arms. But when Sir Jeoffry came, and saw whom he had made stay somewhat too long, he civilly excused it. But master Boyl replied, he had been very well entertayned; and spent his time much to his satisfaction, in courting his daughter, if he might obtaine the honour to be accepted for his son-in-lawe. At which Sir Jeoffry, smiling (to hear one who had been formerly married, move for a wife carried in arms, and under two years old,) asked him if he would stay for her? To which he frankly answered him he would, and Sir Jeoffry as generously promised him he should then have his consent. And they both kept their words honourably. And by this virtuous lady he had thirteen children, ten of which he lived to see honourably married, and died a grandfather by the youngest of them.