"Q. How often has Mrs. Kirk sold her daughter Di. before the Lord of Oxford married her?
A. Ask the Prince and Harry Jermyn."
The following curious extract from one of the Heber MSS. at Hodnet has been kindly furnished me by Charles Cholmondeley, Esq., of the Ivy House, Wisbeach, co. Cambridge, to whom the MS. belongs:
"H——,
"Sir Thomas the second baronet's death is mentioned in Lady Rachael Russell's letters. His second wife was one of King Charles's Beauties, but the account in Granger of her is not correct, as it appears that she lived some time with Sir Thomas, as mistress, before their marriage. He left her in great distress, as the profits of the estate were embezzled by attorneys and stewards. The following is a copy from a letter from her to one Squibb, an attorney who had the management of the estate:
'Sir,
'When you were last here you were pleased to say that in some little time I should be payd some money. I have had with me my woman's husband yt did serve mee about two yeares since; and hee is soe impatient for what I owe her yt hee will staye noe longer. It is given me to understand I must goe to prison or paye part of wt I owe him. Things fly to a great violence, and if you thinke it will bee for the credit or advantage of my childerne yt such an afront should come to mee, is the question. I have nothing to depend on but wt must come from the estate of Sir Richard Vernon. How I have been used by the trustees you are noe stranger to. I am now forced to live on charity, and I grow every day more and more weary of it. For my childern's sake I remain in England, or else I would seeke my fortune elsewhere. Pray to take this into consideration, and see wt can be done.
'I am, Sir, yr most humble servt,
'Vernon.'P.S.—If you can, pray doe mee ye favour to send mee by to-morrow at one of ye cloke, twenty shillings, to pay for wood, or I must sit wthoute fyer; yt will be ill for a person confined to the house.'"
It is not certain whether it is to "Mistris Kirke," Lady Vernon's mother, that Charles I. refers in his letter addressed to Colonel Whaley on the day of his escape from Hampton Court, November 11, 1647, but it is very likely to have been so. There was a Mistress (Anne) Kirke, sworn in a dresser to Queen Henrietta Maria in Easter week, 1637 (vide Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 73.), whose full-length portrait by Vandyke has been frequently engraved, by Browne, Garwood, Hollar, Beckett, &c.; and this lady may be the "Mrs. Anne Kirke, unfortunately drowned near London Bridge," who was buried in Westminster Abbey, July 9, 1641.
In Westminster Abbey was buried, May 23, 1640, "Mr. Kirk's daughter." Captain George Kirke married there, February 10, 1699-1700, Mary Cooke. George Kirke, Esq., died Jan. 10, 1703-4, and was buried in the abbey cloisters (Mon. Inscr.); and Mrs. Mary Kirke died December 17, 1751, and was also buried there (M. I.). We may presume that all these Kirkes were of the same family.
Having now clearly released the annotator from all farther interference with Mary Kirke's private history, and having excluded her handsome face from any future illustrated edition of Grammont, I must leave him to deal with Miss Warmistre. It seems most probable that Dr. Thomas Warmistre, dean of Worcester, who died October 30, 1665, was her father, as he is known to have been a Royalist. His will, as it is not to be found at Doctors' Commons, must be sought for at Worcester. His brother Gervais was a married man, but his effects, unfortunately for our inquiries, were administered to at Doctors' Commons, August 31, 1641. That Warmistre was her right name is proved by Lord Cornbury's letter to the Duchess of Bedford, June 10, 1662 (Warburton's Rupert, vol. iii. pp. 461-464.). Her portrait is at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, and has been engraved by Scriven for Carpenter's Grammont, 1811.
Lord Cornbury's letter contradicts Grammont's statement, that Miss Boynton and Miss Wells came in on a removal, for they were of the original six maids of honour. Among these is named a Miss Price (Henrietta Maria), who we may suppose a sister to the Duchess of York's Miss Price, one of Grammont's most conspicuous heroines; and if so, when I come to speak of the Duchess's maids of honour, her parentage will be proved. Of Miss Carey, rejoicing in the prefix of Simona, the sixth of the queen's original maids of honour, we have no farther occasion to speak.