Katherine Pegge.
Sir,—Katherine Pegge, one of the mistresses of Charles II., was the daughter of Thomas Pegge, of Yeldersley, near Ashborne in Derbyshire, Esq., where the family had been settled for several generations, and where Mr. William Pegge, the last of the elder branch, died without issue in 1768. Another branch of this family was of Osmaston, in the same neighbourhood, and of this was Dr. Samuel Pegge, the learned antiquary. They bore for arms:—Argent, a chevron between three piles, sable. Crest:—A demi-sun issuing from a wreath or, the rays alternately argent and sable.
It was during his exile that the King first met with the fair Katherine, and in 1657 had a son by her, whom he called Charles Fitz-Charles,—not Fitz-roy as Granger says. Fitz-Charles had a grant of the royal arms with a baton sinistre, vairé; and in 1675 his Majesty created him Earl of Plymouth, Viscount Totness, and Baron Dartmouth. He was bred to the sea, and having been educated abroad,—most probably in Spain,—was known by the name of Don Carlos. In 1678 the Earl married the Lady Bridget Osborne, third daughter of Thomas Earl of Danby, and died of a flux at the siege of Tangier in 1680, without issue.
Katherine Pegge, the Earl's mother, after her liaison with the King, married Sir Edward Greene, Bart., of Samford in Essex, and died without issue by him in ——. From this marriage the King is sometimes said to have had a mistress named Greene.
There was long preserved in the family a half-length portrait of the Earl, in a robe de chamber, laced cravat, and flowing hair (with a ship in the back-ground of the picture), by Sir Peter Lely; and also two of his mother, Lady Greene: one a half length, with her infant son standing by her side, the other a three-quarters,—both by Sir Peter Lely, or by one of his pupils.
Both mother and son are said to have been eminently beautiful.
G.M.
East Winch, Nov. 30.
N., who refers our Querist for particulars of this lady to the "Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Pegge and his Family," in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vol. vi. pp. 224, 225, adds—"As the lady had no issue by Sir Edward Greene, it perhaps does not matter what his family was.
"I see he was created a baronet 26th July, 1660, and died s. p. Dec. 1676; and that Courthope, in his Extinct Baronetage, calls his lady 'dau. of —— Pegg,' not being aware of her importance as the mother of the Earl of Plymouth. This may be worth remarking."