One of these, Margaret (who married three times), had Weobly Castle for her portion; another, Elizabeth, married to Lord de Burghersh, had Ewyas-Lacie Castle for her portion; and the other, Joan, had for her portion Alton, with its castle and dependencies. This lady (Joan de Verdon) married, firstly, William de Montague; and, secondly, Thomas, second Lord Furnival, who, for marrying her without the king’s licence, was fined in the sum of £200. She had by this marriage two sons, Thomas and William, who were successively third and fourth Barons Furnival, lords of Hallamshire. This William, Lord Furnival, married Thomasin, daughter and heiress of Nicholas, second Baron Dagworth of Dagworth, and had by her a sole daughter and heiress, Joan de Furnival, who, marrying Thomas Neville of Hallamshire, brother to the Earl of Westmoreland, conveyed to him the title and estates, he being summoned in 1383 as fifth Baron Furnival. By her he had issue, two daughters and co-heiresses, the eldest of whom, Maude, “Lady of Hallamshire,” married, in 1408, John Talbot, afterwards first Earl of Shrewsbury and sixth Baron Talbot of Goderich—“Le Capitaine Anglais.” This nobleman, whose military career was one of the most brilliant recorded in English history, was summoned as Baron Furnival of Sheffield in 1409; created Earl of Shrewsbury, 1442; and Earl of Waterford, &c., 1446. He was slain, aged eighty, at Chatillon, in 1453, and was buried at Whitchurch. This Earl of Shrewsbury, who so conspicuously figures in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., enjoyed, among his other titles, that of “Lord Verdon of Alton”—a title which continued in the family, the Alton estates having now for nearly five centuries uninterruptedly belonged to them.
The titles of this great Earl of Shrewsbury are thus set forth by Shakespeare, when Sir William Lucy, seeking the Dauphin’s tent, to learn what prisoners have been taken, and to “survey the bodies of the dead,” demands—
“Where is the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury?
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange, of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece;
Great Mareshal to Henry the Sixth
Of all his wars within the realm of France.”
To which, it will be remembered, La Pucelle contemptuously replies—
“Here is a silly stately style indeed!
The Turk, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath—
Writes not so tedious a style as this—
Him that thou magnifiest with all these titles,
Stinking and fly-blown, lies here at our feet.”
From this John, Earl of Shrewsbury,—“the scourge of France,” “so much feared abroad that with his name the mothers still their babes,”—the manor and estates of Alton and elsewhere passed to his son, John, second earl, who married Elizabeth Butler, daughter of James, Earl of Ormond, and was succeeded by his son, John, third earl, who married Catherine Stafford, daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham; and was in like manner succeeded by his son, George, fourth earl, K.G., &c., who was only five years of age at his father’s death. He was succeeded, as fifth earl, by his son, Francis; who, dying in 1560, was succeeded by his son, George, as sixth earl.
Alton Towers, from the Lake.
This nobleman married, first, Gertrude Manners, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Rutland; and, second, Elizabeth (generally known as “Bess of Hardwick,” for an account of whom, see the article on Hardwick Hall in the present volume), daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, and successively widow, first, of Robert Barlow, of Barlow; second, of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth; and, third, of Sir William St. Loe. She was the builder of Chatsworth and of Hardwick Hall. To him was confided the care of Mary Queen of Scots. He was succeeded by his son Gilbert, as seventh earl. This young nobleman was married before he was fifteen to Mary, daughter of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth. He left no surviving male issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Edward, as eighth earl, who, having married Jane, daughter of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, died, without issue, being the last of this descent, in 1617. The title then passed to a distant branch of the family, in the person of George Talbot, of Grafton; who, being descended from Sir Gilbert Talbot, third son of the second earl, succeeded as ninth earl. From him the title descended in regular lineal succession to Charles, twelfth earl, who was created by George I. Duke of Shrewsbury and Marquis of Alton, and a K.G. At his death, the dukedom and marquisate expired, and from that time, until 1868, the earldom has never passed directly from a father to a son. The thirteenth earl was a Jesuit priest, and he was succeeded by his nephew as fourteenth earl. Charles, fifteenth earl, dying without issue, in 1827, was succeeded by his nephew, John (son of John Joseph Talbot, Esq.), who became sixteenth earl. That nobleman died in 1852, and was succeeded as seventeenth earl, by his cousin, Bertram Arthur Talbot (nephew of Charles, fifteenth earl), who was the only son of Lieut.-Colonel Charles Thomas Talbot. This young nobleman was but twenty years of age when he succeeded to the title and estates, which he enjoyed only four years, dying unmarried at Lisbon, on the 10th of August, 1856. Earl Bertram, who, like the last few earls his predecessors, was a Roman Catholic, bequeathed the magnificent estates of Alton Towers to the infant son of the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Edward Howard, also a Roman Catholic; but Earl Talbot (who was opposed in his claim by the Duke of Norfolk, acting for Lord Edward Howard; by the Princess Doria Pamphili, of Rome, the only surviving child of Earl John; and by Major Talbot, of Talbot, co. Wexford) claimed the peerage and estates as rightful heir. After a long-protracted trial, Earl Talbot’s claim was admitted by the House of Lords, in 1858; and after another trial his lordship took formal possession of Alton Towers and the other estates of the family, and thus became eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, in addition to his title of third Earl of Talbot.
His lordship (the Hon. Henry John Chetwynd Talbot, son of Earl Talbot) was born in 1803. He served in the Royal Navy, and became an admiral on the reserved list. He was also a Knight of the Order of St. Anne of Russia, and of St. Louis of France, a Knight of the Bath, and a Privy Councillor. In 1830, his lordship, then Mr. Talbot, represented Thetford in Parliament; and in the following year was elected for Armagh and for Dublin; and from 1837 until 1849, when he entered the Upper House as Earl Talbot, he represented South Staffordshire. In 1852 his lordship was made a Lord in Waiting to the Queen; in 1858 Captain of the Corps of Gentlemen at Arms; and was also Hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland.