Autograph of the Countess of Shrewsbury.
The events of the Countess of Shrewsbury’s life are so thoroughly mixed up with those of the stirring times of the kingdom at large, more especially during the period when the truly unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, was in the custody of the Earl and his countess, that it is unnecessary here to enter into them. By the Earl of Shrewsbury the Countess had no issue, and he dying in 1590, she, “Bess of Hardwick,” became, for the fourth time, a widow. “A change of conditions,” says Bishop Kennet, “that perhaps never fell to the lot of one woman, to be four times a creditable and happy wife; to rise by every husband into greater wealth and higher honours; to have a numerous issue by one husband only; to have all those children live, and all by her advice be creditably disposed of in her lifetime; and, after all, to live seventeen years a widow in absolute power and plenty.” The Countess, as we have before written, “besides being one of the most beautiful, accomplished, and captivating women of her day, was, without exception, the most energetic, business-like, and able of her sex. In architecture her conceptions were grand, while in all matters pertaining to the arts, and to the comforts and elegancies of life, she was unsurpassed. To the old hall of her fathers, where she was born and resided, she made vast additions, and she entirely planned and built three of the most gorgeous edifices of the time—Hardwick Hall, Chatsworth, and Oldcotes—the first two of which were transmitted entire to the first Duke of Devonshire. The latter part of her long and busy life she occupied almost entirely in building, and it is marvellous what an amount of real work—hard figures and dry details—she got through; for it is a fact, abundantly evidenced by the original accounts remaining to this day, that not a penny was expended on her buildings, and not a detail added or taken away, without her special attention and personal supervision. Building was a passion with her, and she indulged it wisely and well, sparing neither time, nor trouble, nor outlay to secure everything being done in the most admirable manner. It is said, and it is so recorded by Walpole, that the Countess had once been told by a gipsy fortune-teller that she would never die so long as she continued building, and she so implicitly believed this that she never ceased planning and contriving and adding to her erections; and it is said that at last she died in a hard frost, which totally prevented the workmen from continuing their labours, and so caused an unavoidable suspension of her works. Surely the fortune-teller here was a “wise woman” in more senses than one, for it was wise and cunning in her to instil such a belief into the Countess’s mind, and thus insure a continuance of the works by which so many workmen and their families gained a livelihood, and by which later generations would also benefit. Besides Chatsworth, Hardwick, Oldcotes, and other places, the Countess founded and built the Devonshire Almshouses at Derby, and did many other good and noble works. She died, full of years and full of honours and riches, on the 23rd of February, 1607, and was buried in All Saints’ Church, Derby, under a stately tomb which she had erected during her lifetime, and on which a long Latin inscription is to be seen.”
By her second husband, Sir William Cavendish, she alone had issue. These were, as already detailed, Sir Henry Cavendish, of Tutbury, who married the Lady Grace Talbot; Sir William Cavendish, created Earl of Devonshire, from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and other lines of peers are lineally descended; Sir Charles Cavendish, the founder of the noble House of Newcastle; Frances, married to Sir Henry Pierrepoint, ancestor of the Dukes of Kingston; Elizabeth, married to Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and mother of Lady Arabella Stuart; and Mary, married to Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury. It is with the third of these, Sir Charles Cavendish, that we have now to do.
Sir Charles Cavendish married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, and Baroness Ogle in her own right. He left issue by his first wife, Margaret Kitson, three sons—Charles, who died an infant; William, created Duke of Newcastle; and Sir Charles, of Bolsover. Dying in 1617, the estates passed to the eldest surviving son, William Cavendish, who became one of the greatest men of the age.
Sir William was successively created Baron Cavendish, of Bolsover, in the county of Derby, Baron Ogle, Viscount Mansfield, Earl of Newcastle, Earl of Ogle, Marquis of Newcastle, and Duke of Newcastle, was a Knight of the Garter, and held many very important appointments. He was a staunch Royalist, and suffered many losses and privations through his wise adherence to the royal cause. He fortified the town of Newcastle, the Castle of Bolsover, and other places, and did good service in overcoming the Parliamentarian forces at Gainsborough, Chesterfield, Bradford, and many other places. His grace built the greater part of Welbeck, including the famous riding-house, yet standing, and the stables. He was the most accomplished horseman of the time, and his name will ever remain known as the author of the finest, most learned, and most extensive work on horsemanship ever written. The original MS. of this marvellous treatise is carefully preserved at Welbeck Abbey, and copies of the work, especially the first French edition, with all the original plates, are of great rarity. He also wrote some volumes of poetry. The “Horsemanship” is particularly interesting to an historian of Welbeck, from the many plates in which views of the mansion as it then existed are given: to these we may again refer.
The Duke was married twice. First, to Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of William Bassett, of Blore and Langley, Derbyshire, and widow of the Hon. Henry Howard, third son of the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire; and, secondly, to Margaret, daughter of Sir Charles Lucas, and maid of honour to Queen Henrietta. By his first wife the Duke had issue ten children, six sons and four daughters, of whom five died young.
Margaret (Lucas), Duchess of Newcastle.