Grainger, in speaking of this picture in the Wrest collection, says of Lord Wharton that he was in the service of the Parliament during the civil war in the reign of Charles I., but that courage was undoubtedly not his shining point. ‘Like his grandson Duke Wharton, he could better exercise his tongue than his sword.’
Walker says of him, that at the battle of Edgehill, where he was the colonel of a regiment of Roundheads, his Lordship was found hidden in a ditch, but we are bound to take such testimonies cum grano. He was the fourth Baron, of decidedly puritanical views, and, whether a good soldier or not, he was constantly with the army, and his political life was an eventful one. He sat in Parliament for many years, and was summoned to attend the treaty of Ripon, together with several other Peers, among those who were the least obnoxious at that time to the popular party. Lord Wharton was also one of the so-called Commissioners who went to Edinburgh at the meeting of the Scotch Parliament. After the Restoration he was sent to the Tower, together with the Duke of Buckingham and Lords Salisbury and Shaftesbury, ‘charged with contempt of the authority, and being, of Parliament,’ for having called in question the Parliament meeting after a very long prorogation. In this case the Duke of Buckingham petitioned the King, and the captive Peers were soon set at liberty, with the exception of Lord Shaftesbury. But Lord Wharton’s chief characteristic seems to have been his high esteem of the matrimonial state, since he married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Wandesford, Knight, in the county of York, by whom he had an only daughter, married to Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, afterwards Earl of Lindsay. His second wife was Jane, daughter and heir to Arthur Goodwin, upper Winchenden, county Bucks, by whom he had six children. His third spouse was the daughter of William Carre, Groom of the Bedchamber to James I., who was widow of Edward Popham. By her he had one son, William, killed in a duel.
No. 3.
MADAM KIRKE.
Tawny-coloured gown. White sleeves with lace. Pearl necklace. Fair curls. Standing by a table. Garden in the background.
By Vandyck.
SHE was one of the dressers to Queen Henrietta Maria,—‘a situation for which she competed with Mistress Neville,’ says Grainger, and gained the preference. When King Charles I. left Hampton Court, he desired Colonel Whalley to give Mistress Kirke a picture of the Queen, which appeared to betoken she had been faithful to their Majesties in times of trouble.