WILTON HOUSE.
WE do not refer to the earlier families who held the title of Earls, &c., of Pembroke—those of Montgomery, of Clare, of Marshall, of De Valence, and of Hastings—as they, although the predecessors of the Herberts in the title, were not so in regard to the estates. It has been well said by Sir Bernard Burke that “the name of Pembroke, like the scutcheons and monuments in some time-honoured cathedral, cannot fail to awaken a thousand glorious recollections in the bosoms of all who are but tolerably read in English chronicles. Sound it, and no trumpet of ancient or modern chivalry would peal a higher war-note. It is almost superfluous to repeat that this is the family of which it has been so finely said, that ‘all the men were brave, and all the women chaste;’ and what nobler record was ever engraved upon the tomb of departed greatness?”
We commence our notes with William ap Thomas, whose ancestors traced back to Henry Fitz-Herbert, chamberlain to King Henry I. This Sir William ap Thomas (who was the son of Thomas ap Gwillim ap Jenkin, by his wife Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir John Morley, Knight, Lord of Raglan Castle) married Gladys, daughter of Sir Richard Gam, and widow of Sir Roger Vaughan, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. The eldest of these sons was “created Lord of Raglan, Chepstow, and Gower, and commanded to assume the surname of Herbert, in honour of his ancestor,” the chamberlain to King Henry I., and afterwards Earl of Pembroke. “He was succeeded by his son, who renounced the earldom of Pembroke for that of Huntingdon, at the request of King Edward IV., that monarch being anxious to dignify his son, Prince Edward, with the title of Earl of Pembroke.
The Principal Front.
The honour, however, reverted to the Herberts in the reign of Edward VI., who conferred it upon Sir William Herbert.” This William Herbert, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Catherine Parr, was knighted by Henry VIII., and was appointed executor, or “conservator,” of the King’s will; and shared with Sir Anthony Denny the honour of riding to Windsor in the chariot with the royal corpse, when Henry’s ashes were committed to their final resting-place. By Edward VI. Sir William was elevated to the peerage by the titles of Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke. In 1551 his wife, the Countess of Pembroke, “died at Baynard’s Castle, and was carried into St. Paul’s in this order: first, there went an hundred poor men and women in mantle-freez gowns; next followed the heralds, and then the corse, about which were eight bannerels of armes, then came the mourners, lordes, knights, and gentlemen; after them the ladies and gentlewomen mourners, to the number of 200 in all; next came in coats 200 of her own and other servants. She was interred by the tomb of the Duke of Lancaster; and after, her banners were set up over her, and her armes set on divers pillars.” The Earl died March 17th, 1569-70, and was succeeded by his son Henry as Earl of Pembroke. This nobleman was thrice married; first, to Catherine, daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, from whom he was afterwards divorced; secondly, to Catherine, daughter of George, Earl of Shrewsbury; and, thirdly, to Mary Sidney, daughter to Sir Henry Sidney, Knight of the Garter, by his wife, the Lady Mary, daughter of John, Duke of Northumberland. This lady, the third wife of the Earl of Pembroke, was sister to one of the greatest of all great Englishmen—Sir Philip Sidney; and it was for her special delight that he, while visiting her at Wilton, wrote his inimitable “Arcadia.” By this lady the Earl of Pembroke had two sons, William and Philip, both of whom in turn succeeded to the earldom. The Countess, “Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother,” “a principal ornament to the family of the Sidneys,” and of whom Spenser wrote that she was