The family of Hardwick is one of considerable antiquity in the county of Derby, although now extinct, and was for several generations settled at Hardwick, from which place, indeed, it is probable the name was assumed.
In 1203 the manor of Hardwick was granted by King John to Andrew de Beauchamp, but in 1288 it was held of John le Savage—who owned the neighbouring manor of Steynsby, and was probably of the same family as the later Savages, of Castleton and other places—by William de Steynsby, by the annual render of three pounds of cinnamon and one pound of pepper. The grandson of William de Steynsby, John Steynsby, died seized of the manor in 1330. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Hardwicks, and was held by them until it passed to the Cavendishes by the marriage of the heiress to Sir William Cavendish. The first of the Hardwick family known was William, who married the daughter of Goushill, of Barlborough (which family of Goushill, in the time of Henry III., married the heiress of Hathersage, and whose heiress, in the sixteenth century, married Wingfield), and by her had two sons, Roger and William, the latter of whom was living in the thirty-second year of Henry VI. Roger Hardwick, of Hardwick, married the daughter of Robert Barley, of Barley, and had issue by her, John, who succeeded him. John Hardwick, of Hardwick, married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Bakewell, of Bakewell, one of the co-heiresses of which family married Linacre before the year 1400. By her he had issue, a son, John Hardwick, who, marrying Elizabeth, daughter of — Pinchbeck, of Pinchbeck, was, in turn, succeeded by his son, John Hardwick, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leake, of Hasland, a younger branch of the Leakes, Earls of Scarsdale. By this lady John Hardwick, who died January 24, 1527, had issue, one son and four daughters, viz., John, Mary, Elizabeth, Alice, and Jane. John Hardwick, the last male representative of the family, who was only three years old at his father’s death, married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Draycott, of Paynsley, but died without issue, leaving his sisters his co-heiresses. Of these, Mary married, first, Wingfield, and, second, one of the Pollards, of Devonshire, who was Gentleman Usher to the Queen; Alice married Francis Leech, of Chatsworth, and died without issue; Jane married Godfrey Bosville of Gunthwaite; and Elizabeth (“Bess of Hardwick”) married, first, Robert Barley, of Barley; second, Sir William Cavendish; third, Sir William St. Loe; and fourth, Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury. The Francis Leech just named, who married “Bess’s” sister Alice, was the last of his family. He sold Chatsworth to Agard, who resold it to the second husband of “Bess,” Sir William Cavendish, by whom it was rebuilt in almost regal magnificence.
Elizabeth Hardwick was, it will have been seen, one of the co-heiresses of her father, and ultimately heiress to her brother, from whom she inherited Hardwick and other estates. She was a most remarkable, clever, and accomplished woman, and one of the most successful, in her many marriages, in her acquisition of property, in the alliances of her family, and in the erection of magnificent mansions; and no account of Hardwick would be complete without, at all events, a brief notice of her extraordinary and brilliant career. When very young—indeed, it is said, when scarcely fourteen years of age—Elizabeth Hardwick became the wife of Robert Barley, of Barley (or Barlow), in the county of Derby, son of Arthur Barley, of Barley-by-Dronfield, by his wife, Elizabeth Chaworth. This young gentleman, who was devotedly attached to his young and charming wife, died within a few months after their marriage, leaving his possessions to her. By this short marriage there was no issue. Remaining a young, indeed childlike, widow for some twelve years or thereabouts, she then married Sir William Cavendish, as detailed in our former chapter, and so brought to him the possessions of the Hardwicks, which she had inherited from her father and brother, as well as those of the Barleys, acquired by her first marriage. By Sir William Cavendish she had a family of three sons and three daughters, viz., Henry Cavendish, of Tutbury, ancestor of the Barons Waterpark; Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire, and ancestor of the present Ducal house of Devonshire; Sir Charles Cavendish, of Bolsover Castle, ancestor of the Barons Cavendish, Viscounts Mansfield, Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Newcastle; Frances, wife of the Duke of Kingston; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and mother by him of Arabella Stuart; and Mary, wife of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury.
Hardwick Hall, from the Park.
Sir William Cavendish died in 1557, and his lady was thus a second time left a widow. A few years later she married her third husband, Sir William St. Loe, Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth, “owner of a great estate, which,” as Bishop Kennett says, “in articles of marriage she took care should be settled on her and her own heirs, in default of issue; and, accordingly, having no child by him, she liv’d to enjoy his whole estate, excluding his former daughters and brothers;” thus adding his property to the already immense possessions she had acquired in her own right and by her two former marriages. The death of Sir William left her for the third time a widow; but she was soon after wooed and won by George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, who had not long before lost his countess, Gertrude Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland. Before she would consent, however, to be united to the first peer of the realm, she stipulated that he should give his daughter to her eldest son, and that Gilbert Talbot, his second son (the eldest being already married) should espouse her youngest daughter. These family nuptials were solemnised at Sheffield on the 9th of February, 1567-8; her daughter being at the time not quite twelve years old, and her husband being under fifteen. Gilbert Talbot became seventh Earl of Shrewsbury.
The history of the events of her life while Countess of Shrewsbury is that of the kingdom at large; for it was during this time, from 1568 to 1584, that Mary, Queen of Scots, was confided to the care of the earl and his lady, and by them was kept a close prisoner. Into these annals—known by every student of English history—it is not our province now to enter. Suffice it to say, that the wearisome task, imposed by a rigorous and arbitrary sovereign, was executed with a zeal and with a diligence that were worthy a far better cause. In 1568 the earl received from his royal mistress the intimation of the trust she was about to confide to him, and on the 20th of the following January, 1569, the order for removing Mary from Bolton to Tutbury was made. Here the poor captive was received by the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury; and here, kept a close prisoner, she remained for several months, passing her time as best she might in needlework. “I asked hir grace,” says White, “sence the wether did cutt of all exercises abrode, howe passed the tyme within? She sayd that all the day she wrought with hir nydill, and that the diversitie of the colours made the worke seme lesse tedious, and contynued so long at it till veray payn made hir to give over; and with that layd hir hand upon hir left syde and complayned of an old grief newely increased there.” In June the earl removed her to Wingfield Manor, in Derbyshire, now, like Tutbury itself, a splendid ruin; and later on in the same year back again to Tutbury. In 1570 Mary was removed to Chatsworth, and from thence to Sheffield, also now a ruin. Here she remained, occasionally staying at Chatsworth for some length of time. In 1584 she was again removed to Wingfield, in 1585 to Tutbury, and in the following year to Chartley, to Fotheringhay, and that fatal block, which will ever remain a dark blot on the escutcheon of “good Queen Bess.” It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, touching the captivity of Mary under the constableship of the Earl of Shrewsbury, that the places belonging to him where she was confined, Sheffield Castle and Manor, Tutbury Castle, Wingfield Manor, and Chartley (as well as Fotheringhay, where she was executed), have all fallen to ruin, while Chatsworth and other places which belonged to the countess still flourish.
It is not certain, although there is every probability that such was the case, that Mary was ever at Hardwick. There can be but little doubt she spent, at all events, a few days there; but this would, of course, be at the old Hall, as will be shown later on.