SHE was the daughter of John Granville, first Earl of Bath, by Jane, daughter of Sir Peter Wyche. The Granvilles, or Grenvilles, as they were originally called, were a noble and heroic race; witness the exploits by sea of Sir Richard, immortalised in history and poetry, who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and of the brave Sir Bevil, who perished in arms for King Charles I. at the battle of Lansdowne, he on whose death it was written—
‘Where shall the next famed Grenvil’s ashes stand?
Thy grandsire fills the sea, and thou the land,’
a couplet most characteristic of the high-flown language of the period. Lady Grace was destined to be allied with heroes, for she married Sir George Carteret, afterwards raised to the Peerage as Baron Carteret, in consideration of the services of his father, and his grandfather, the gallant Earl of Sandwich. These two brave men died at Solebay fight in 1682, in an engagement with the Dutch, when Lord Sandwich’s ship held out singly for five hours, at fearful odds with the enemy. After Sir George’s death, his widow was created Countess Granville and Baroness Carteret, in her own right, with limitation of her first title to her eldest son; she also succeeded to vast wealth and estates on the death of her nephew, the Earl of Bath.
But both these titles soon became extinct, that of Carteret being renewed in the person of Henry Thynne, son of the second Lord Weymouth by Lady Louisa Carteret, Lady Granville’s granddaughter. The Peerage of Carteret was destined to be short-lived, as it is now again extinct.
No. 61.
EDWARD VILLIERS, FIRST EARL OF JERSEY.
DIED 1711.
Full length. In Peer’s Coronation robes, holding a wand.