Ancestry of Butlers of County Wexford Ireland: Butlers of Co. Wexford- Ch.15: Walter Butler Junior of Munphin Pt.3- marriage to Mary Long

WALTER BUTLER’S MARRIAGE

Walter Butler Junior of Munphin married Mary Long, the young daughter of a very influential English family. In 1705, the year of their marriage, Mary Long was about 18 years of age, while Walter was a mature 32 years. Walter Butler Senior’s Will referred to his daughter-in-law only as ‘Mary’.

Evidence from records of Walter and Mary’s daughter Margaret’s entry into the Urseline Convent, St Denis, Paris,[i] stated that she was “Marguerite de Butler the daughter of Col. Gauthier de Butler de Monphin, Colonel of the Irish regiment in the service of France and of Dame Marie Long, his wife.”

Mary Long revealed her marriage to her paternal grandmother Lady Dorothy Long in a letter written the month after her marriage:

August 25, 1705

For Lady Long at her House at Draycot in Wiltshire

Chippenham Bag

Honoured Madam this with my humble duty begs your acceptance and brings your Ladyship the account of my being Marryed to one Mr Butler. I would before this have acquainted you Madam with the first proposal of it but knew you had it from much better hands then mine. We think next week to begin our journey to the Bath and stay one, or two days, and if your Ladyship will give Mr Butler and me leave to wait on you before we leave England. We go from Bath to Bristol where he (torn page) to take shipping for Ireland. He and my Mother hopes your Ladyship will accept of their duty and I beg your blessing for

Hon^rd Madam,

Your most humble servant and dutyfull GrandChild

Mary Butler

(Source: Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Archives: Additional archives of the Long Family of Draycot Cerne, Wiltshire, Ref: 2943B/1/9- letter no.9)

Correspondence from Paul Jodrell, the family lawyer (and also Clerk of the House of Commons), to Lady Dorothy Long, mother of Mary’s deceased father James Long, indicate that the Long family were not overly interested in looking after the marital interests of Mary, the only issue of such a short marriage between James and Mary Keightly (Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre- 2943B/1/27- Letters of Lady Dorothy Long from Paul Jodrell).

The letter dated 22 May 1705 to Lady Dorothy at Draycot from Jodrell:

Madam, I am given to understand that there is a proposition on foot, of a match for Sr James's sister [viz. half-sister, Mary] by Mrs Keightley, with one Mr Butler [viz. Walter] a Kinsman of the Duke of Ormonde, and one that is of her Religion [Roman Catholic] & has a good estate in Ireland of £800 per Annum, and Improvable to £1000. Mrs Keightley so well approves of it that (as is said) she is willing to do what she can towards it. It is said there is £200 per Annum payable out of her Jointure to satisfy a Debt of her husbands. And that there is yet several years to come before the Debts can be cleared, and that she would sell her Jointure estate, or part of it, and thereby clear the debt, and raise something for her daughter’s portion and retrench her own living. And I am desired to acquaint Your Ladyship that it is hoped, by the Relations, Your Ladyship and James's, will in some measure extend your kindnesses on this occasion. It is a good thing to have so near a Relation disposed into an Honorable Family, and so it is hoped, you will please to give your assistance in order to it, so well that the Treaty for the Match may be encouraged to proceed: what Your Ladyship and Sr James please to do in the matter shall be communicated to those who have spoken to me touching this affair by Madam Your Ladyship’s most humble servant Paul Jodrell.

[P.S.] I desire Your Ladyship will please let Sr James see this Letter to consider of: the Lady is his sister so it can't but please him to see her do well.

This was followed up by another letter to Lady Dorothy on 4 August 1705:

I have had an opportunity of seeing the Copy of the Letter, Mrs Long [viz. Mary Keightley] wrote to Sr James and his answer to it, which is so very short, and different from what could be expected that I wonder at it, and will upon such an occasion and for so near a relation, it were otherwise, and that something could be done, rather than the young lady should lose so good an opportunity of being so well disposed of as is represented. I will mention something of the matter to my Lord Brooke to see what he can prevail in the first opportunity I have.

The following document was found in the National Archives UK, Discovery:

The date of marriage, 1 July 1705, and the terms of the marriage between Walter Butler Jnr and Mary Long are also revealed in a Chancery Bill brought by Walter Butler Senior against Mary's half brother Sir James Long and others, whom Walter charged with having not paid out the full amount of Mary Long's promised dowry of One Thousand Pounds, arranged with Mary's aunt Anne Long, sister to Mary's deceased father James Long. Walter claimed he was owed One Thousand Pounds out of Anne Long's Will under the agreement, and had a Deed of Assignment for proof.
Anne Long died 22 December 1711, and the date of the document is May 1712.

Transcript of part of the above document:

20 May 1712

TO THE RIGHT HON’BLE SIMON LORD HARCOURT BARON OF STANTON HARCOURT

LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL OF GREAT BRITAIN

(NB- the edges of the document are badly worn and difficult to decipher)

Humbly complainant showeth unto your Lordship your Suppliant, and __ Orator Walter Butler Senior of Munphin in the County of Wexford and Kingdom of Ireland Esquire that there being a treaty of marriage on first in the month of July One Thousand Seven Hundred and Five between Walter Butler junior your Orators only son and Mary Long Spinster daughter to Mary Long widow and Relict of James Long late of Adminston in the County of Dorchester (?Dorset?) Esquire deceased and Granddaughter of Sir James Long Bart. --- that in order as well to induce your Orator’s said son on his intentions to proceed in his said Marriage with the said Mary Long the younger as also to induce your Orator to make a Joynture and provision for the said Mary Long the younger in case she survives his said son, Anne Long late of the Parish of St James in the County of Middlesex spinster sister by the Father unto the said Mary Long the younger did propose to assign and ___ to your Orator that if the said Anne Long should happen to dye unmarryed the sume of One Thousand pound sterling part of the sume of Two Thousand pounds sterling for securing of which the said Sir James Long had in and by his last Will and Testament___ writing limited and devised a Term of Two Hundred Years of and in certain Mannors and Tenements unto Walter Green and Paul Jodroll to commence from and after the death of the said Sir James Long’s wife on trust and confidence and to all intents and purposes that they the said Walter Green and Paul Jodroll should out of and by the Rents Issues and profits of the said Manors and Tenements or by sale of Mortgage of the said Term or part thereof raise and pay unto the said Anne Long the said sum of Two Thousand pounds sterling at her age of eighteen years or the time of her marriage which should first happen That the said Anne Long in pursuance of such treaty and communication did by her Deed Indent -_- ___ ___ under hand and Seal and bearing date the twelfth day of July One Thousand Seven Hundred and five made or mentioned to be made between her the said Anne Long of the one part and your Orator of the other part ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Said deviso made by the said Sir James Long to the said Walter Green and Paul Jodrell of the said Term of Two Hundred Years of certain Mannors and Tenements for raising the said Two Thousand Pounds ___ ___ ___ ___

She the said Anne Long said therefore for divers good ___ and considerations __ the ___ ___ thereby grant, assign, transfer and ___ over unto your Orator his Executors and Administrators the full ___ of One Thousand pounds part of the said Two Thousand pounds to be raised as aforesaid out of the said Term and there was this provision __ in the said Deed provided…………….

that Administrator’s Covenant promise grant and agree to and with your Orator his Executors and Administrators that in case the said Anne Long should happen to be solo and unmarried at the time of her death that her Executors Administrators should and would within six months after the decease of her the said Anne Long out of the said sum of Two Thousand pounds well and truly to pay or cause to be paid unto your Orator the said sum of One Thousand Pounds lawfull money of England as by the said Deed ready to be produced to this Hon’ble Court and to which your Orator for greater certainty refers may more(?) at large appeare

Your Orator further showeth that in pursuance of the said Agreement between your Orator’s said son and the said Anne Long and in consideration of the said Deed so ___ by her the said Anne Long to your Orator as aforesaid your Orator’s said son soon after the __(?Perforation?) of the said Deed informing ___ ___ and looke to wife the said Mary Long sister(?) of the said Anne Long, and your Orator in consideration of the said marriage and of the said One Thousand Pounds so assigned by the said Deed to your Orator by the said Anne Long __ ___ which __ your Orator had no other consideration and did settle as a Jointure upon the said Mary Long the younger one hundred pounds per annum in the said County of Wexford. Your Orator further showeth that the said Anne Long was at the time of the __(perforation??) of the said Deed of the age of one and twenty and upwards and was reputed to be resolved never to marry. That Dorothy Long widow and Relict of the said Sir James Long dyed about the month of February One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ten and that Walter Green one of the trustees or administrators/devisors of the Term of Two Hundred Years mentioned in the said Sir James Long’s Will eight years before the said Dame Dorothy Long, hereby the said Term of Two Hundred years became solely invested in the said Paul Jodrell to the __ intents and purposes in the said Will mentioned that the said Anne Long departed this life unmarryed on the Two and Twentieth day of December last (1711) the said Two Thousand pounds and so devised by her Grandfather the said Sir James Long as aforesaid being unpaid and not raised out of the said hands charged or devised for raising the same that Sir James Long Baronet’s grandson and heire to the aforesaid Sir James Long deceased and brother to the said Anne Long hath taken at Letters of Administration out of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury to his sister Anne Long and thereby he possessed ___ of all the Goods, Chattells, Plate, Money, Gold, Jewells, Rings, Household stuff, Beneficial Leases Bills Bonds Mortgages and Notes for money that the said Anne Long dyed possessed of or entitled unto that your Orator applied both to the said Sir James Long and to the said Paul Jodrell and acquainted them of and showed the said Deed of Assignment so (?perforated?) and your Orator requested and desired the said Sir James Long to pay or secure the One Thousand Pounds thereby assigned to your Orator according to the intent and purpose of the aforesaid Deed.

And your Orator also requested the said Paul Jodrell to raise the said One Thousand Pounds according to the power granted and given in trust reposed in him by the said last Will and Testament of Sir James Long the Grandfather as aforesaid. But now so it is May it please your Lordship that the said Sir James Long combining and confederating to and with the said Paul Jodrell, Sir Richard Holford Knt., Eyliff White pastry Cooke, Ketter Marshall, etc, etc, and to and with several other persons yet unknown to your Orator whom when discoverers your Orator prays may be made parties to this Bill with a ___ to charge them withal to defraud your Orator of his said One Thousand Pounds so assigned to him as aforesaid, the said Sir James Long gives out that he has paid the greatest part of the said Two Thousand pounds to the said Anne Long in her lifetime or for her use and by her Order to severall of her Creditors and that the aforesaid severall Creditors or the most of them have obtained Judgments in some of her Majesties Courts here against her the said Anne Long __ for severall considerable sums of money and that therefore they ought to have precedency in payment to your Orator and the said Paul Jodrell pretends that he said Anne Long was indebted to him at her death and that he ought to be paid before your Orator and the said Confederates do also give out and pretend that the money so paid by the said Sir James Long to and for his said sister and that the severall debts claimed by the aforesaid Confederates do amount to more than said Anne Long dyed possessed of or entitled unto, howbeit your Orator is advised that by the said Anne Long’s assignment to your Orator of the sum of One Thousand pounds of the said specified Two Thousand pounds your Orator hath the equitable Interest in the said Term of Two Hundred Years and ought to be satisfied the said One Thousand Pounds __ ___ precedent to all general debts or other Engagements of the said Anne’s and that the said Paul Jodrell __ ought to execute his Trust for your Orator accordingly, To which ___ your Orator cannot compel him but by the aid of thy Hon’ble Court. Etc etc. (continues in the same vein)

NB. There is no judgment attached to the file.

Anne Long (c.1681-1711), the half-sister of Mary Long, and a spinster, was a very interesting woman, unfortunately taken at the young age of just 30 years of age, having suffered from asthma and dropsy for some time. A well-known figure in London Society, and a renowned beauty, becoming the toast of the famous ‘Kit Cat Club’, having her name engraved on the club’s drinking glasses. The club was an association of early 18^th century Whig leaders that met in a London tavern, including famous literary writers, and political figures such as Robert Walpole and the Duke of Marlborough. She was a very close friend of Jonathan Swift, the Anglo-Irish author widely regarded as the foremost prose satirist in the English Language. Anne’s position in London Society was financially funded by debts contracted against her expected inheritance from her grandmother Lady Dorothy Long, who did not die until 1710. In September 1710, Swift wrote that there were ‘bailiffs in her house’, and Anne closed her house in London and fled to Norfolk to hold off her creditors, living incognito. With her grandmother’s death, her brother Sir James Long 5^th Baronet, withheld her legacy, only granting her a £100 annuity and £60 rental from her house in London, and with careful management she managed to pay off most of her debts in the year before she died. As Anne was probably quite ill during her last year, Sir James’s decision to withhold her inheritance, was probably made on the correct assumption that when Anne died, a claim would be made by the Butler family against her estate. Sir James notably did not place a notice of her death in the papers, possibly intending to keep her death a secret. However, her friend Swift who, when told the news, wrote ‘I never was more afflicted at any death- she had all sorts of amiable qualities, and no ill ones but the indiscretion of neglecting her own affairs’, and did place a notice in ‘The Post Boy’ 27 December. He also arranged her burial and for a memorial stone to be placed at his own expense. Swift wrote in his account book a private commemoration of Anne Long: ‘She was the most beautiful Person of the Age she lived in, of Great Honour and Virtue, infinite Sweetness and Generosity of Temper and true good Sense’.

Despite any judgement made on the Butler’s claim, there was no money to satisfy the debt under the marriage contract. And the Butler family’s financial position continued to deteriorate.

(ref. Wikipedia- Anne Long- quoting from, J. Swift, Journal to Stella, ed H. Williams, 2 vols., 1948, and The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. H. Williams, 5 vols, 1963-65)

Shortly after Mary’s engagement to Walter Butler, Anne Long wrote a very amusing letter to her grandmother, Lady Dorothy Long. (Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre- 2943B/1/17- letters of Lady Dorothy Long from Anne Long)

After explaining the reason she had not written to her grandmother for some time, she continued:

I remained in silence & believe I should have done so the good while had not a thing happened yesterday that has entertained the neighbourhood and at my cost, for early in the morning I was waked with music which I was told came to wish me joy for being married to a Coll. Buttler, it was in vain that the maids assured them that there was nobody married in the house which satisfied that no such man ever came to the house. They had less faith than ever I knew fiddlers have, and though they were assured they should have no money yet they would play on, which brought those that were up to the door, others ran to their windows in their shirts and smocks, all wondering that I should get a husband, when I got up I found there was no coming near the window for me, the neighbours were so curious to see this Coll. [Colonel Butler] or see what alterations were in me poor sneaking I yet have no very good assurance at best, was most terribly ashamed to be so stared at but more so when the drums came and beat for above an hour which brought all the parish (I think) to the street, messages from all my acquaintance, a world of joy was sent me for having the headache with their continued drumming. In the afternoon, all my friends came to visit me upon it and were very merry, whether they believe me that there is no such [marriage] or not I cannot yet tell, nor how I came to have the Jest put upon me except they mistake my sister [Mary] for me, whose spark (who I suppose you have heard on) is named Buttler - unless he was having an affair with both!, but they deny her being married to me and say the old gentleman [Walter Butler Senior] sticks upon having some fortune, the young one you may be sure never thinks of it, people in Love never do, what it come to I know not, the man has a good character and seems much a gentleman, but I think it is very hard that I should have the honour of it now, when if it ever comes to anything I must make the melancholy figure of having my younger sister get the start of me, and nothing to comfort me but a pair of stocking and to get them must shew what advantage in my height I get by wearing good heels.

The letter does indicate that, in Anne's opinion, the match between Walter Butler and Mary Long was a love-match, despite his father looking to match his son with a lady of good fortune, and that Walter had a 'good character and seems much a gentleman.'

Mary Long’s background is a fascinating one.

Born circa 1687-89, Mary was the daughter of James Long of Athelhampton and Adminston in Dorset, son and heir of Sir James Long 2^nd Bt. of Draycot Cerne in Co. Wiltshire, an ardent Royalist captain during the civil war captured by Cromwell in 1645, his Draycot estate sequestered, for the release of which he was required to pay a large fine. Sir James had inherited his baronetcy from his uncle Sir Robert Long 1^st Bt. who had held minor administrative offices in the service of Charles I before the Civil War, had subsequently gone into exile with Charles II acting as his private secretary, and thus gained promotion to auditor of the Exchequer after the Restoration.

The following information on the Long family is taken from Burke’s “Extinct Baronetcies”: [ii]

Sir James Long of Draycott-Cerne inherited his Baronetcy from his uncle Robert Long of Westminster (d.1673) who was secretary to King Charles II in his Majesty’s exile, sworn of the privy council at his Restoration and made auditor of the exchequer. Robert Long was created Baronet 1^st Sept 1662 with remainder to his nephew James and the heirs male of his body. Sir James (d. Feb 1691/2) commanded a troop of horse in the civil war for King Charles I. Sir James’s heir, also James (c.1652-c.1690), died in his father’s lifetime. James Junior married secondly Mrs Mary Kightley and by her had a daughter Mary married to Colonel Butler of Ireland.

Contemporary writer, John Aubrey, in his “Lives of Eminent Men” wrote: [iii]

My honoured and faithful friend Colonel James Long 2^nd Bt of Draycot, since baronet, Colonel in Sir Francis Dodington’s brigade: I shall now give this honoured friend of mine ‘a gentleman absolute in all number’, his due character: good sword-man; horseman; admirable extempore orator for a harangue; great memory; great historian and romancer; great falconer and for horsemanship; for insects (of which he had a great collection); exceeding curious and searching long since, in natural things. Oliver (Cromwell), Protector, hawking at Hounslow Heath, discoursing with him, fell in love with his company, and commanded him to wear his sword and to meet him a-hawking, which made the strict cavaliers look on him with an evil eye. He wrote “History and Causes of the Civil War”, and “Examination of witches at Malmesbury”.

Elected as a parliamentary representative on several occasions, Sir James Long Bt clearly demonstrated his support for the succession of James II, and was regarded as “doubtful” by William and Mary’s government following his election in 1690.[iv] After his death in London on 22 January 1692, James Long 2^nd Bt. was buried in the family vault at Draycott.

Old Draycott House, Wiltshire, by Ed Kite, 1660's

(in John Aubrey's book)

Although Sir Robert Long 1^st Bt. had secured a special remainder to his baronetcy for his nephew Sir James Long of Draycot, Sir Robert’s estate in Dorset (ie. the Athelhampton estate and the neighbouring manor of Burleston) was entailed on his great nephew, Sir James’s eldest son James Long Junior, who had contracted a grand matrimonial match to Susanna Strangways, the daughter of another ardent Royalist, Sir Giles Strangways of Melbury in Dorset, a very wealthy politician and churchman,[v] who had been taken prisoner with his father in 1645, spending three years in the Tower until they paid the enormous fine of ₤10,000. Strangways was then called upon to help the young Charles II during his famous escape from England to France following the Royalist defeat at Worcester in 1651. The extraordinary story of this escapade involved Charles’s often recounted sojourn hiding from Cromwell’s soldiers in the oak tree at Boscobel, and his subsequent perilous ride through the Cromwellian held counties of Somerset and Dorset disguised as the servant of the very courageous young sister of Colonel Lane, Jane Lane who rode seated behind him. When asked for help to provide shelter and find a ship to carry Charles to France, Colonel Giles Strangways, who was still under suspicion and surveillance by the Commonwealth army, was thus unable to help with this request, but did present the penniless and desperate monarch with a pouch containing 300 gold coins which was used to procure a secret passage to France.

However, this marriage between James Long and Susanna Strangways proved an unhappy one, and the alliance of these two families strained. Susanna’s husband’s profligacy no doubt contributed largely to the animosity.

In 1674, correspondence concerning a by-election at Aldborough Yorkshire (Sir James Snr unsuccessfully stood to fill the vacancy caused by the recent death of his uncle Robert) includes the following: [vi]

Sir Henry Goodricke to Sir John Reresby, Dec 1674. “Wee both have the satisfaction to be assured that Sir James Long and his son (James) have both forfeited their interest with Coll. Strangways; the father by high unkindness and folly, the son by hard usage of his wife, who has betaken herself wholly to her Father’s house (Melbury) and by the foolish loss of £15,000 in one year at play, in so much that he dare not stir out of his house in the country.”

THE ANCESTRY OF THE LONG FAMILY OF DRAYCOTT-CERNE [vii]

(My grateful thanks to Cheryl Nicol for sharing her extensive research on the Long family with me.)

LONG FAMILY TREE- The family tree of the Long family is adapted from the family tree found in John Aubrey’s “Collections for Wiltshire” Part I, London, 1821, page 66:

Mary Long's father James Long (1652- 1688/89) was the son and heir of Sir James Long 2nd Bart of Draycot, Wiltshire.

Sir James Long 2^nd Bart (1617-1692) of Draycot Cerne Wiltshire m. Lady Dorothy Leche (1622-1710), described by John Aubrey as ‘a most elegant beautie and witt’, daughter of Sir Edward Leche of Shipley Derbyshire (a lawyer); James Long inherited the baronetcy title from his uncle Sir Robert Long 1^st Bt. (see below)

James was born at Sth Wraxall and baptised at Bradford-on-Avon during the period when the two estates were still run jointly. He was educated at Westminster School, and Magdalen College Oxford (Aubrey). He and his wife were great friends of the writer and historian John Aubrey, who described Sir James in Brief Lives and Lives of Eminent Men [viii], as previously recounted.

In the plans of Draycot House of 1864, an entire room was set aside for Sir James Long’s fossil collection.

Sir James Long of Draycot. an amateur entomologist and naturalist. He was a fiercely loyal Royalist during the Civil War and was appointed Sheriff of Wiltshire for his efforts. He used the ancient right of the Sheriff to raise a posse from the noble families of Wiltshire, and had risen to the rank of Colonel of horse in Sir Francis Dodington’s brigade. In late 1644, the King returned to Wiltshire with the intention of establishing a garrison at Marlborough. Nearly three quarters of the County was now in Royalist hands, and Sir James Long’s regiment played an important role in patrolling the county.

After a skirmish with Parliamentary forces led by Waller, in February 1645, the Royalist force led by Sir James was surrounded and routed. In Waller’s despatch to the Speaker he states: We have routed the best Regiment the King had in the West, of four hundred horse there escaped not thirty, the Colonell, Sir James Long, eight Captaines and seven Cornets were taken prisoner, and most of the other Officers with about 300 prisoners.”[ix]

“An order for the sequestration of the rents of Draycot Manor had already been issued by the Committee, sitting at Malmesbury, and one Thomas Vaughan, with a body of soldiers, had plundered the house, and carried off property to the value of £400” [x]

“During his captivity, Sir James Long’s wife Dorothy ‘thought it prudent to avert the entire ruin of the estate, by making herself responsible for the submission of her husband, and by expressing her willingness to make a composition. A fine of ₤100 was at once enforced, and then she received a certificate of protection for herself and tenantry’.” [xi] In late spring of 1645 Sir James was exchange for Col. Stephens, a Parliamentary officer taken prisoner. He renounced his wife’s act of submission and returned to the battle, victoriously attacking the Parliamentary garrison at Chillenham on 9^th May 1645, with a detachment of 200 dragoons. In late July they once more attacked the re-established garrison at Chillenham, which again fell to the Royalists. They continued to have some minor military successes, but in September, Cromwell advanced to remove the remaining Royalist presence in Wiltshire, the last of which held out until mid- October.

Sir James whose manor at Draycot had been sequestrated by Act of Parliament in 1645 submitted to his new masters. Draycot was restored to Sir James in 1649 on payment of a ₤700 fine and he sued out his pardon.”[xii]

Sir James Long inherited his baronetcy from his uncle Sir Robert Long, 1^st Bt (cr.1662), brother of Sir Walter Long. He was appointed private secretary to King Charles I in the late 1640’s, fleeing to France with the rest of the court after the battle of Worcester in 1651, where he acted as private secretary to the young Charles II., but was often in conflict with Charles’ closest advisor and counsellor Lord Clarendon. After the Restoration in 1660 he was returned to the position of Surveyor of the Queens Land and enjoyed the favour of Queen Henrietta Maria. He was appointed Auditor of the Receipt of the Exchequer 1662 until his death in 1673, unmarried, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. He had purchased Athelhampton Manor in 1665, and, amongst other estates, the estate in North Yorkshire near Rippon that became Nid Hall, later sold to Thomas Rawson from whom it passed to the Mountgarrett family through marriage. His entire estate, together with the Baronetcy passed to his nephew Sir James Long of Draycott.

Athelhampton House, Dorset

Sir James Long was the son of Sir Walter Long Knt (1594-1637) of Draycott, Wiltshire who married Lady Anne Ley (1600-1636) the second daughter of James Ley 1^st Earl of Marlborough (Lord Treasurer 1624-26). Walter purchased most of the land at Draycott and Langley from his elder half-brother John who remained at Wraxall, although the title was held jointly, following a will dispute in the courts. Part of the old manor house at Draycott was built or modified in the early 17^th century, and was enclosed at this time and split into individual farms. Sir Walter was the son of Sir Walter Long Knt (1565-1610) of Sth Wraxall and Draycott Wilthsire and Lady Catherine Thynne, daughter of Sir John Thynne of Longleat. Sir Walter was friendly with Sir Walter Raleigh who had first brought the fashion of smoking tobacco to Wiltshire, supposedly first smoking it at the Manor of Sth Wraxall. The Long family of Wraxall date back to at least the mid 14^th century.

As noted, the Long family of Draycott Cerne & Wraxall, have a very long and illustrious history, which can be read on Wikipedia, contributed by Cheryl Nicol; in Tim Couzen’s book Hand of Fate, The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire, (pub.ELSP, 2001) which is an entertaining and informative read about the Longs of Draycot; and in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, and the National Dictionary of Biography. Also the fascinating book written by Cheryl Nicol on her ancestors, the Long family, Inquisition Post Mortem: An Adventurous Jaunt Through a 500 Year History of the Courtiers, Clothiers and Parliamentarians of the Long Family of Wiltshire, pub. 2014.

MARY LONG AND THE KEIGHTLEY FAMILY

Mary Long was the daughter of James Long’s second brief marriage to a Mary Keightley. Mary Long’s father, James Long Jnr, died a year or two after her birth, predeceasing his father, his three sons from his first marriage inheriting the baronetcy in turn from their grandfather- the second son Sir Giles, in his will, left ‘To his sisters a dozen of silver plate’, while ‘To his half sister (Mary)- mourning’ (ie Mourning clothes). Buried at Puddletown, Dorset, date unspecified in the church burial register (between May 1688 and October 1689),[xiii] the date of administration of James Long’s estate in the parish of Athelhampton was 22 October 1689, the principal creditor named as Thomas Sherman, with Mary (Long), relict, renouncing.[xiv]

The circumstances behind the marriage of James Long and Mary Keightley were unusual to say the least. A Chancery suit, “Keightley v. Long”, in 1684, before their marriage, when James was still married to his first wife Susanna Strangways, reveals that Mary Keightley tried to recover a debt from James Long, owner of the manor of Adminston (viz. Athelhampton) in Dorset, and in consequence of the suit, the Court sanctioned the sequestration of Mr Long’s estates.[xv] Councillor, Mr Thomas Burgh of Gray’s Inn, was one of three appointed, who, armed with a commission from the Court, arrived on March 3, 1684 at the manor occupied by Mrs Susanna Long, her husband James being away at the time. A consequence of the four day long confrontation was that “Mrs Long was soe affrighted by the deportment of Mr Burgh that she languished and in a short time died” (as asserted on the authority of her brother Col. Strangways in an affidavit). Susanna Long was buried in the nearby parish of Puddletown on 5 May 1684 just two months after the confrontation, her estate being administered on 4 January 1688. The strange sequel to this story is that her husband James Long married his suitor, the 34 year old Catholic spinster Mary Keightley, and evidence appears to indicate the marriage took place sometime around 1686.

An undated letter from James Long’s sister to their mother Lady Dorothy Long confirmed that the marriage was a happy one: [xvi] “… that by her pations (patience) Mrs Keightley has brought my brother (out) of his drinking, in a great measure, and to love home”. Sadly, the marriage was cut short by his premature death in 1689,[xvii] probably related to his excessive drinking habits, but not before the birth between 1686 and 1689 of their daughter named Mary after her mother.

The following is the full article which is quite entertaining:

Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries Vol. IV, 1915, p102-104

73- AN INCIDENT AT ADMISTON, DORSET, IN THE 17^th CENTURY- by F. J Pope,

"Certain affidavits taken in 1684, in connection with a Chancery Suit called “Keightley v. Long”, supply when pieced together an account of some occurrences at Admiston in the previous year, which though of no great importance in themselves seem somewhat curious.

The plaintiff, Mary Keightley, was trying to recover a debt from Mr James Long who owned the manor of Admiston, and in consequence of the suit the Court sanctioned the sequestration of Mr Long’s estates. Roger Bowden of London, apparently an attorney, and John Padner, an innholder of Wareham, were appointed sequestrators, and a councilor of Grays Inn, Mr Thomas Burgh, accompanied the sequestrators as their legal advisor.

These three, armed with a commission from the Court, arrived on the 3^rd of March 1683-4, at Admiston, where it was understood Mr Long resided. Their request for information from the villagers met with an eager response. Mr Long, it was said, was certainly at Admiston House and was a very resolute man and kept a sharp look-out for his creditors. Two cases of pistols and several swords were laid ready for use on a table near the door of the house and only the previous evening he had been heard firing his pistols towards the entrance gate. It was well known, too, that bullets were being made in the house. Later the spirits of the strangers were not raised by a visit from four of Long’s servants, who threatened retaliation if the party proceeded in their business. Then Mr Burgh determined that, before meeting such an antagonist, he would see what could be accomplished by a peaceful ambassador. The minister of the parish undertook the duty, which was to explain that the commissioners were acting with the authority of the Court of Chancery and wished to carry out their work without violence, and on his return brought the pleasing news that Mr Long had left the house. Preparations for an offensive movement were then begun, the commission was read to the neighbours, the parish constable with two or three men to act as witnesses were warned to accompany the sequestrators, an iron bar and sledge hammers for breaking in the door were requisitioned, and Burgh and his colleagues armed themselves with swords and pistols. They came to the house about noon on the 4th of March, Burgh (so says an eye witness) being the hindermost. After entering the courtyard they came to a stop at a locked gate and just then a window of the house at some little distance was opened and from it Mrs Long looked down on the visitors. To her Mr Burgh explained his object and demanded admittance. The lady’s reply was that her husband was abroad and that they would enter “at their own peril”. Thereupon the attacking force held a conference, and on Burgh’s advice, it was decided that the sequestration of the farm should be taken in hand first. Mrs Long was told that her refusal to grant admittance would be reported to the Court, at which “great laughter” came from people in the house, and the sequestrators departed to try what they could do in the fields.

On the farm they met with the principal tenant, Robert Grosse, to whom they displayed their commission with its Great Seal, but Grosse gave them “morose language” and told them they had made a mistake if they thought they could “fright the country with wax and parchment.” Asked to whom he paid his rent, the farmer answered that he paid it to Sir Richard Mason, and then Burgh, evidently disbelieving this statement, threatened Grosse that he would “lay him by the heels.” Bowden and Padner went about the farm locking the gates, putting up bars, and so on, without any interference from the tenant, who probably knew that help was coming. Four days had been spent on the farm, when (it was the 9th of March and a Sunday evening) the constable with twenty “country fellows” came to the lodgings, occupied by Burgh and his companions, and arrested all three on a charge of rioting. A warrant, doubtless obtained by the energy of Mr Long, had been issued against them by no less a personage than the Lord Chief Justice, Judge Jeffreys. Once more Bowden and Padner showed their commission but it was treated with jeers and Christopher Priestly, the tithing man, made a highly contemptuous (and unprintable) reference to the document, and said that his master, Andrew Loder, (a prominent solicitor at Dorchester), knew more than the whole Court of Chancery. On the Monday morning the prisoners were taken to Dorchester, where their captors hoped to put them in the common gaol, but at the county town there were persons who had more respect for the Great Seal than had been shown by the villagers at Admiston, so that Mr Burgh and his friends were able to obtain surities for their appearance at the Assizes and made use of their liberty to return home.

How far the Admiston folk in the tales they told of Mr Long’s character and doings were merely amusing themselves can only be surmised. The story that bullets were being made in the house was contradicted on oath and it may be guessed that the rest of the talk regarding Mr Long’s preparations were equally incorrect. But there is no doubt that Grosse was speaking the truth when he said that he paid rent to Sir Richard Mason, for there is independent evidence that Long had some years previously leased the manor and farm of Admiston to Mason for a long term. Further it is deposed that Grosse occupied Admiston House and that Mr and Mrs Long were there as his guests. The circumstance that Sir Richard Mason was Mr Long’s brother-in-law perhaps led Burgh’s judgment astray, and it is curious to observe that the councilor from Grays Inn accepted the fable as to the making of the bullets, &c., and disbelieved the farmer’s true statement concerning his landlord.

There was one serious result of the Londoner’s visit to Dorsetshire. Mrs Long, who it will be remembered spoke to the sequestrators from a window of Admiston House, was on that occasion “soe affrighted by the deportment of Mr Burgh that she languished and in a short time died.” This is asserted on the authority of her brother Colonel Strangways of Melbury.

There was also another consequence of quite a different character, which suggests a remarkable ending to the suit “Keightley v. Long”, for on referring to Hutchin’s pedigree of the Longs it will be found that the defendant married again and the name if his second wife was Mary Keightley."

THE KEIGHTLEY ANCESTRY

Mary Keightley (b.1652) and Thomas Keightley (the younger, b.1650) were the children of William Keightley and Amy Williams of Hertingfordbury Park in Hertfordshire.[xviii]

William Keightley and his brother Thomas Keightley (the elder) were the sons of Thomas Keightley (Senior-1579-1662) and Rose Evelyn, cousin to the famous diarist of the seventeenth century, John Evelyn.

Consequently their children, including William’s children, young Thomas and Mary, were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. “Thomas Keightley Junior and Mary Keightley of Hertingfordbury”, were indicted as “popish recusants, and for not attending the parish church nor any other church or chapel, 1667-1675”.[xx]

Great Amwell (Hertfordshire) Parish Church records: [xxi]

Minister: Thomas Hassall:

Parents: William Kightley/Keitley and Amye;

1.Thomas Keightley/Kightley was baptised 23 January 1650 at Great Amwell, Hertford;

2.Mary Kightley was baptised 23 June 1652 at Great Amwell;

3.Frances Kightley was baptised Aug 1649 at Great Amwell;

4.Christian Keitley (dau.) was baptised 2 April 1656 at Hertingfordbury Park by Rev.Thomas Hassall.

Great Amwell is a few kilometres from Hertingfordbury Park, the family home of the Keightleys, both places near the city of Hertford. The minister Thomas Hassall who baptized all four Keightley siblings, first conducted baptisms at Great Amwell in 1602/03, so was quite elderly.

Thomas Keightley’s parents are known to be William Keightley (b. 1621) of Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, and his wife Amy (sometimes incorrectly called Anne) daughter of John Williams and wife Mary Turner of London. They were married 22 Aug 1648. The record in Foster’s London Marriage Licences, states: [xxii]

Keightley, William of Hartingford, Bury, gent., bachelor, 27, and Anne (sic Amy) Williams, spinster, 19 (ie.b.1629), daughter of John Williams, merchant, deceased, with consent of the Court of the Orphans of London- at St. Michael, Crooked Lane, or St Helen, London, 17 Aug. 1648.

The London Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1538-1812 (Ancestry.com), which come from the Church of England Parish registers 1538-1812 London Metropolitan Guildhall Library Manuscripts London, has:[xxiii]

William Keitley of Parish of Hertingfordbury and Amy Williams were enjoyned in matrimony 22 August 1648, at St Michael Crooked Lane London.

As the first three children were baptized in the church at Great Amwell, but the fourth child, Christian, was baptized at Hertingfordbury Park, it could indicate that William converted to Catholicism between Mary’s birth in 1652 and Christian’s birth in 1656. Notably the same minister Thomas Hassall who baptized the first three children in the church at Great Amwell, also conducted the baptism of Christian at their home at Hertingfordbury Park, probably in the family chapel.

Although the Keightley family had converted to Catholicism, there were no Catholic churches in England in the 17th Century, although there was some religious tolerance and people were allowed to practice their faith in private. However, the Clarendon Code [xxiv] (1661-1665), introduced after the ‘Restoration’, was a series of parliamentary measures introduced which penalized ‘non-conformists and Catholics’.

The Keightley family would have been expected to occasionally conform to the concessions of the Anglican church eg. Baptism of their children and the occasional attendance at certain times of the year. By doing this they would keep their position in the parish and society and not incur a fine.

Some sources incorrectly name William Keightley’s wife as Anne Williams, [xxv] however, the following sources confirm her name as Amy:

Genealogical Memoirs of the Members of Parliament for the County and City of Kilkenny,

by George Dames Burtchaell, Pub 1888 [xxvi] (NB Google Books- only a snippet view)

P89 Thomas Keightley: MP for Inistiogue 1695-?

P94 Thomas Keightley….. of Hertingfordbury, son of William Keightley of Hertingfordbury, by Amy, daughter of John Williams of London, was closely connected with the Royal Family in consequence of his marriage with Lady Frances Hyde, youngest daughter of Edward 1^st Earl of Clarendon, K.G., Lord Chancellor of England, whose eldest daughter, Lady Anne Hyde married James Duke of York (later James II).

William Keightley was baptised 16 April, 1621 (Guildhall, St Dunstan in the East, London, Register 1558-1653) and brother Thomas was born in 1622 .

William and Thomas were sons of Thomas Keightley (b.1579 Kinver Staffordshire, d.1662) who purchased Hertingfordbury Park in Hertfordshire on 17 July 1627 (Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies DE/P/T833). He was a merchant, and was appointed sheriff of Hertsfordshire in1651. He was married to Rose Evelyn.

Amy Williams was baptised 29 March 1630 (Guildhall, St Andrew Undershaft, London, Register 1558-1623) and was orphaned by 1648 (Foster’s London Marriage Licences 1521-1869). She was daughter of John Williams, merchant, of London & Mary Turner (Visitation of London 1633 etc):

Amie Williams was baptized 29 March 1630 at St Andrew Undershaft London, daughter of John Williams and Marie his wife.[xxvii]

The Williams family tree and arms, is featured in a book: The Visitation of London Anno Domini 1633,1634,1635, made by Sr Henry St George Kt, etc [xxviii] which states:

Amy was the daughter of John Williams of London merchant living in 1633, and 2^nd wife Mary da. of William Turner, and widow of Phillip Gifford of London Esq. They were both deceased by 1648 as Amy was described as an ‘orphan’.

There was also had a son named John Williams who features in the newspapers of the time. John William’s (Senior) brother Daniell also married a dau. of William Turner, named Martha. (John William’s 1^st wife being Christian Watkins by whom they had 3 sons and 4 daughters, one of whom was named Christian, the name given to the last of William Keightley and Amy’s children.)

John Williams (Senior) was son of John Williams of London , mercer, whoe came out of Monmouthshier, and his wife Magdeline da. of …. Callmant, Secretary to the Archbishop of Leige.

The Turner family tree has Mary Turner as daughter of William Turner of Highway in Com. Wilts., (‘now’ livinge in 1633 London) and Amy da. of Edward Mann of Poole; William Turner, son of Richard Turner of Reding and Mary da. of Thomas Baineton of Brumham in Com. Wilts.

Therefore, Amy Williams was named after her maternal grandmother. [xxix]

The Keightley family ancestry taken from the Visitation of London Anno Domini 1633,1634,1635: [xxx]

George Keightley (b. early 1500’s) of Frimply [xxxi] in Com. Worcester (now Trimpley just NW of Kidderminster, Worcester) had issue:

John Keightley of Frimply, m. Elizabeth da. of … Kill, had issue:

1.Kendrick Keightley (daughter) and

2.Thomas Keightley Senior (1580-1662) marr. bef. 1620 Rose Evelyn, daughter of Thomas Evelyn of Long Ditton in Surrey Exq. and (2^ndly) Frances dau of Henry Hervey of Chessington and sister of William Lord Hervey of Kidbrook.

Rose Evelyn was cousin of John Evelyn (b.1620) the diarist, the son of her father Thomas Evelyn’s half-brother Richard Evelyn. Thomas Evelyn was son of George Evelyn of Long Ditton, Godstone and Wotton (b.c.1526- c 1603/8) and first wife Rose dau of Thomas Williams (brother and heir of Sir John Williams Knt buried 1571). Richard Evelyn (c 1590-1640) was son of George Evelyn (of Long Ditton) and 2^nd wife Joan Stint.

Rose Evelyn’s brother created Sir Thomas Evelyn Knt of Long Ditton (bap.1587).

Thomas Keightley (Snr) was sheriff of Hertingfordbury. He purchased Hertingfordbury Park (237 acres), which was conveyed 17 July 1627. [xxxii]

The Dictionary of National Biography (1^st pub. 1882) has:

Thomas Knightley born at Kinver, Staffordshire, 28 March 1580, purchased the estate of Hertingfordbury before 1643, when John Evelyn the diarist visited him there (Dairy, I, 39), and he was sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1651; merchant, of London, who sat as MP for Beeralston in the parliament of 1620-1. He died in London on 22 Feb 1662-3, and was buried at Hertingfordbury Church. He married Rose (1596-1683) daughter of Thomas Evelyn of Ditton, Surrey. This lady was a first cousin of John Evelyn the diarist

Issue named in Thomas Keightley’s will:

William b. 1621; d. bef March 1673/4 (see land records below- 20 March 1673/74)

Thomas, b.1622; marr. Catherine Knolleys [xxxiii]- issue Thomas, William, John;

John, b.1633

Elizabeth, b. bef. 1634, marr. Henery Wollaston;

Mary, b. bef 1634, marr. 1647 John Langley esq. (son of Sir Wm Langley of Enfield Middx Bart.)

Rose, b. bef 1634.

The London Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1538-1812, have the following records:

William Kiteley, bap. 16 April 1621, Parish St Dunstan in the East, London, sonne of Thomas Kiteley.

John Kitely (William’s youngest brother) baptised 2 June 1633 Parish St Dunstan in the East, sonne of Thomas Kitely and Rose his wife.

Education:

Alumni Cantabrigienses,[xxxiv] a biog. list of all students, graduates, etc at Uni of Cambridge from earliest times to 1900:

Keightley, Thomas. Adm. Fell.-Com. (age 14) at Peterhouse, July 12, 1636. 2^nd son of Thomas, merchant of London. Matric. 1637. Adm. at the Middle Temple, Nov. 19, 1641. Married Katherine Knollys. Brother of William (1636). (Walker, 57)

Keightley, William. Adm. Fell.-Com (age 15) at Peterhouse, July 12, 1636. 1^st son of Thomas, High Sheriff of Herts., 1651. Matric. 1637. Of The Park, Hertingfordbury, Herts. Brother of Thomas (1636). (Visitation of London, 1634; T.A. Walker, 57; Clutterbuck, II, 202.)

The History of Hertingfordbury Park, by Robert Clutterbuck (History of the County of Hertford, Vol II: Hundreds of Hertford and Broadwater, pub. 1821):

This park, which sits between the rivers Lea and Mimeram, formerly belonged to the Castle of Hertford until Charles I granted "the Park of Hartingfordburye, Deer Meadow, Osier Ground and all the lands known by that name, and of Hartforde Park, containing 236 acres to Anthony Lowe Esq. and others at the annual rent of 20 l. In the early part of the reign of King James I, it appears to have been in the possession of Sir William Harrington who converted the Lodge into a good house for his own habitation. Sir William, by his will dated 13 February 1627, directed this estate to be sold to the best profit, in pursuance of which, it was sold to Thomas Keightley Esq.

"Parishes: Hertingfordbury- A History of the County of Hertford", Vol. 3 (1912) pp.462-468
(www.british-history.ac.uk):
Hertingfordbury Park was granted together with the manor to Princess Mary by Edward VI in 1553. The park continued with the manor until 1626, when Prince Charles's feoffees granted the remainder of their ninety-nine years' lease to John Purefry and John Graunt. In the following year, the king granted the reversion to Anthony Lowe, Christopher Vernon, Arthur Lowe and John Coxe. The park then contained 237 acres besides a meadow of 3 acres called 'le deere meadowe', and 1 acre of osier woods. Free chase and free warren in it were granted at the same time.
Hertingfordbury Park was purchased by Thomas Keightley who seems to have built a house there, where he received a visit from his cousin John Evelyn the diarist in August 1643 (Dairy of John Evelyn, ed. Will. Bray, Vol.i, p.39.)
Thomas Keightley was succeeded by his son William Keightley whose widow Amy married secondly John Belson and continued to live at the house during her lifetime (Close, 33 Chas.II, pt. vi, no. 34). After her death the park descended to her son Thomas Keightley, who sold the estate in 1681 to John Cullinge (Ibid).

The following land transactions re the Keightleys, are in the UK National Archives, and Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies:

17 July 1627: Counterpart conveyance: Anthony Lowe, Christopher Vernon, and others, to Thomas Keightley of Hertingfordbury Park (237 acres) the Deere Meadow and other lands (held by one knights fee for 99 years and then ₤20 fee farm rent.) ^{^[xxxv]}

11 Nov 1632: Original Surrender: By Edward Boteler of Queenhoo Hall to William Keightley esq. of a cottage called Watts and closes called Stockings, Sampsons and Buryheath, with a house, 4 acres and a house in Holcraft and Alderminster, Damiels Pightell and a house, toft, and half yardland called Hartes near Eston Green. ^{^[xxxvi]}

24 Oct 1647: Schedule: Of freehold lands granted to Mr Keightley by Mr Butler and to him by William Kimpton (messuage called Southwoods and sundry land). ^{^[xxxvii]}

9 March 1648/9: Agreement: Between Thomas Keightley of Hertingfordbury Park concerning trees on field called Oxlease adjoining the park pale, the park ditch and Vernon’s alleged sporting rights in the park. ^{^[xxxviii]}

1648: Order to William Keightley, reeve, to collect the free and copyhold rents and fines and amercements. ^{^[xxxix]}

The following record indicates that William Keightley was deceased c.1673 and his properties were in the names of his widow and son Thomas:

20 March 1673/4: Counterpart enfranchisement: William Vernon and Thomas Cockraine to Amy and Thomas Keightley. Customary toft and half-yard of land called Harts, Stockings, Samsons, messuages called Berryheath and Watts, and other lands. ^{^[xl]}

Amy Keightley nee Williams, widow, married secondly, John Belson, a Catholic, between 1674 and 1678.[xli]

Belson would play an important role in the lives of the Keightley family, which will be explored in detail alter.

THE CONVERSION OF MARY AND THOMAS KEIGHTLEY’S FATHER WILLIAM AND HIS BROTHER THOMAS, TO CATHOLICISM IN THE 1650’S

William and his younger brother Thomas (the elder), sons of London merchant Thomas Keightley (senior- Sheriff of Hertfordshire 1651), and graduates of Cambridge University in 1637 (Thomas admitted as a member of the Middle Temple in 1641), had both converted to Catholicism following their Grand Tour to Rome in the late 1640’s. John Evelyn, cousin of their mother Rose Evelyn wrote in 1650 of his kinsman Thomas Keightley’s conversion: “he hath been made a Popish proselyte some months, and now from a young gallant, a zealous bigot.” [xlii] Evelyn soon heard that Keightley’s brother William had followed suit, much to his abhorrence.

Notably the minister Thomas Hassall who baptized the first three children of William and Amy Williams in the church at Great Amwell, also conducted the baptism of Christian at their home at Hertingfordbury Park, probably in the family chapel.

Although the Keightley family had converted to Catholicism, there were no Catholic churches in England in the 17^th Century, although there was some religious tolerance and people were allowed to practice their faith in private. However, the Clarendon Code [xliv] (1661-1665), introduced after the ‘Restoration’, was a series of parliamentary measures introduced which penalized ‘non-conformists and Catholics’.

John Evelyn the diarist, cousin of Thomas Keightley’s grandmother Rose Keightley nee Evelyn, indicated that Thomas Keightley’s father William’s brother, also named Thomas Keightley (the elder), converted to Rome 1650-51 despite Evelyn trying very hard to talk him out of it.

A book written about John Evelyn’s Diaries, gives us the following information about the Keightley’s conversion to Catholicism, following their Grand Tour of the Continent: [xlv]

On 16 March 1643, the House of Commons ordered ‘That Mr Wm Keightley and Mr Jo. Evelyn shall have Mr Speaker’s Warrant to pass into France, with one Servant’. Many were deciding not to stay and chance the uncertain political climate in England. William Keightley, with whom Evelyn had earlier planned to travel to France, arrived in Paris in July with his brother Thomas. They turned to him for practical help: 8^th Sept 1644- Two of my kinsmen came from Paris to this place (Tours), where I settled them in the pension and exercises.[xlvi] On the 14^th September, Evelyn moved smartly on to Lion d’Or. [xlvii]

“William returned to England to marry (in Aug 1648) having left his brother (viz. Thomas) in Rome. [xlviii]

(Diary indicates just before Christmas 1650) Within a few months of one another, two young Englishmen in Evelyn’s close circle converted to Catholicism. One was his (Evelyn’s) cousin Thomas Keightley, the other Dean Cosin’s own son, John. Evelyn strenuously attempted to dissuade them. Philip Packer had tipped Evelyn off about ‘our lost friend in Italy’; while hoping that Keightley was not ‘nearer the Church of Roome (sic) then the Gates’. He was glad that Evelyn was trying to argue him out of his inclinations. ‘Your charitable endeavours to return him, before he be to farr confirmed in his eternall ruine, hath added to my Hope.’ On the feast of the Annunciation, Evelyn composed a long letter telling Keightley of his own flirtation with the Roman Catholic faith before discovering that ‘the metal is foul mixed, and all is not gold that glitters’. He must not hurry, ‘Reade our Writers, consult our Doctors, frequent the Religious’ before making your choice, he advised him, and wondered if Keightley was deserting ‘our Church’ because of ‘the present calamity’- in which case he should take a longer view. The Church of England was an article of faith for those who hoped for the restoration of the monarchy. ‘Judge you the truth of a Religion because it flourishes? Turne Mussellman; suspect you the Persecuted? Renounce Christianity. Those that will live piously must suffer it. The church of the Jewes was once without a Temple without a Priest, without Altar, and without Sacrifice, and yet as deare to God as ever.’ The Catholic Church is, in Evelyn’s view, ‘Sacrilegious, Idolatrous, Rebellious, Impure, and infinitely Superstitious.’

That summer the unrepentant Thomas Keightley appeared in Paris:

Evelyn’s persuasive powers- if in fact he ever sent the letter, which may have been largely composed for his own benefit- had failed. Soon he heard that Keightley’s brother William had followed suit.” [xlix]

Another journal written by Richard Lassels at that time, now related in a book by Edward Chaney: The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion: Richard Lassels and The Voyage of Italy in the Seventeenth Century [l], mentions the Keightley brothers on their Grand Tour (only snippet view in Google):

Page 366- Though the Keightley brothers presumably stayed in France for the time being, by January 1645, as we have seen above, both were to be found in Rome. It was presumably William, the eldest, who dined at the English College again in September. After this, the ‘Pilgrim Book’ contains nothing of further interest until mid-May when ‘D. Kitley’, presumably Thomas, dines with two others. On 11 April 1651 this time clearly identified as Thomas Keightley, he dined….

Page 365- That Keightley was relatively well-to-do (already implied by his dining in such eminent company, Somerset being the second son of the 1^st Marquis of Worcester) tends to be confirmed by an entry in one of Richard Symond’s notebooks…

In Abstracts of English Studies Volume 16, page 88 [li]

Page 88- Thomas Normanton was a fellow of Pembroke who converted to Catholicism attended the English College at Rome, and travelled with Thomas or William Keightley and Thomas Playters. Creshaw may have known them all at Cambridge. All four named in the Pilgrim Book of the English Hospice in 1646. (viz. the English Hospice of St Thomas the Martyr in Rome). The close relationship between the Keightleys and the Belsons no doubt developed when the Keightley brothers, William and Thomas, and Augustin Belson (either John Belson’s father or brother, both of that name) lodged in Rome between 1646 and 1650, their names recorded in the Pilgrim Book of the English Hospital in Rome

So it would appear that Thomas Keightley and Mary Keightley had been brought up as Catholics, and Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon, Thomas’s early patron, wrote when Thomas had hopes of being appointed Revenue Commissioner, that it was unlikely the king would grant him any favours, being a Catholic.[lii]

John Evelyn wrote about the tumultuous time of the Civil Wars, the regicide of Charles I, the establishment of the Commonwealth under the Protector Oliver Cromwell, and the triumphant return of Charles II after Cromwell’s death in 1658 in his diaries, having close contact with Charles II’s courtiers through his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Browne, one of Charles II’s closest advisors in exile. At one stage, Evelyn was vying for her affections in competition with Thomas Keightley, despite the girl being underage (ie. under 12). Evelyn’s subsequent marriage to Mary, contracted in 1647 when she turned 12, lasted nearly 60 years. Their first of many children, was born in 1652. A letter from the impoverished royalist courtier Sir Endymion Porter to Richard Browne:

‘I feare Tom (Keightley) will make it doomes daye for Mr Eveling or him (if they meete) for marrying his mistres.” [liii]

Evelyn wrote of the hated Usurper Cromwell’s funeral: [liv]

22^nd October 1658 saw the superb funeral of the Protector. He was carried from Somerset House in a velvet bed of state, drawn by 6 horses, house with the same; the pall held by his new Lords. Oliver lying in effigy, in royal robes, and crowned with a crown, scepter and globe, like a king…etc. In this equipage, they proceeded to Westminster, but it was the joyfullest funeral I ever saw; for there were none that cried but dogs, which soldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise, drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they went.

30^th January 1661: This day (O the stupendous and inscrutable judgements of God!) were the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshaw (the judge who condemned his Majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the Usurper), dragged out of their superb tombs in Westminster among the Kings, to Tyburn and hanged on the gallows there from 9 in the morning till 6 at night and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deep pit; thousands of people who had seen them in all their pride being spectators. Look back at Oct 22 1658 (Oliver’s funeral) and be astonished! And fear God and honour the King; but meddle not with them who are given to change!

Evelyn also describes the triumphant return of Charles II in 1660, and his grand Coronation in great detail (on pages 337 and 348).

William Keightley's brother Thomas Keightley (b.1621) married in 1658 Catherine Knollys, the daughter of an influential family of long standing. This was Catherine's second marriage- her first husband named as Robert Holmsby (Baronetage of England- Knollys- Volume 3, p.132, by T. Wotton, E. Kimber & R. Johnson) and Robert Haldenby of Yorkshire (see below) died two years earlier in 1656.
The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal, Vol XI, London 1891, p.45-46:
The township of Haldenby in Yorkshire belonged to the Haldenby family since the 1300's.
Robert Haldenby Esq of Haldenby died in 1630. His second son Robert Haldenby inherited the manor of Haldenby, 12 cottages and 400 acres of land, a moiety of the manor of Swanland and lands in Estoft on the death of his elder brother John. Robert, who was a sufferer in the Royal cause, lived at Swanland or Beswick and was buried at Kildwick on the Wolds 19 August 1656. His widow, Katherine (da. of Sir Robert Knollys) seems to have married secondly in 1658 Thomas Keightley of Sheriff Hutton.

Catherine Knollys ancestry is worth noting. Her parents were Sir Robert Knollys of Grays Sth Oxfordshire who was MP for Abingdon and Wallingford, and his wife Joanna daughter of Sir John Wolstenholme Knt. of Nostell Abbey Yorkshire, Farmer of the Customs and his wife Catherine daughter of John Fanshawe of Fanshaw Gate Co Derby, Remembrancer of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Robert Knollys was the son of Sir Robert Knollys, third son of Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey who was daughter of William Carey Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII and his wife Lady Mary Boleyn sister to Queen Anne Boleyn, and one time mistress of Henry VIII.

The "Annals of the Parishes of St Olave's Hart Street & AllHallows Staining in the City of London", by Rev. Alfred Povah, London 1894, p.148 (and Knollys tree on p.381):
Sir Francis Knollys was the only son of Robert Knollys, a descendant from the "veritable Demon de Guerre", Sir Robert Knollys, who commanded the armies of Edward III in France in 1350, where his exploits obtained the above denomination from his enemies. Sir Francis was educated at Magdalen College, Oxon., Gentleman Pensioner, 34 Henry VIII, was Privy Councellor to Queen Elizabeth, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, Captain of the Guard, Treasurer of the Household, K.G., Knight of the Shire for Oxon. He married first, 1568, Lady Catherine Carey (see above), and secondly in 1588, Lettice Barratt. He died 1596. His daughter Lettice Knollys, married firstly Walter Devereux Earl of Essex- their son Robert Earl of Essex was beheaded in 1601, and he had married the daughter of Sir Frances Walsingham, and their son Robert Viscount Hereford became the famous Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary Army 1642-46; Lettice married secondly Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's "sweet Robin".

(From the Annals of the Parish of St Olave's Hart Street, City of London, by Rev. Alfred Povah,

London 1894 p.381)

It would appear that Catherine converted and became a devout Catholic after marrying Thomas Keightley. They had at least three children- sons Thomas, William and John.

William would be recorded as travelling with his parents to France in 1678 and 1679 (notably not Thomas and John).

CSP, Dom Charles II, undated., [2992], p.614, Date 1678, Passes etc. (SP Dom Entry Book 51 p.122);

CSP Dom Chas II,[1594], p. 326, Oct 6, 1679 Grants of Denization etc. (SP Dom Entry Book 51, pp.168, 261)

A Thomas Keightley, born 1789 in Newtown Co. Kildare Ireland, the son of a Thomas Keightley, became a well known writer of books about mythology and folklore, and claimed relationship with Thomas Keightley (b.1650). (Wikipedia and Oxford Distionary of Biography). As he could not be a legitimate direct descendant of Thomas Keightley and Frances Hyde, maybe he was a descendant of Thomas Keightley and Catherine Knollys.

THE KEIGHTLEY CONNECTION WITH THE HYDE FAMILY (EARLS OF CLARENDON AND ROCHESTER), AND THE HOUSE OF STUART

Mary Keightley (b.1652) was the sister of Thomas Keightley (b.1650- children of William and Amy Keightley), who was brother-in-law to King James II through his (Thomas’s) wife Lady Frances Hyde, sister to Anne Hyde married to James Duke of York before his accession to the throne as James II. Frances and Anne were daughters of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon,[lv] a courtier and advisor to Charles I, and after the Restoration, to Charles II. Anne died in 1671 and had embraced the Catholic religion before her husband did so, although Charles II had insisted their two daughters, Mary and Anne, were brought up in the Protestant faith.

Anne Hyde’s sister, Frances, had also embraced the Catholic faith, much to the disappointment of her brothers, Henry and Laurence Hyde, staunch supporters of the Church of England.

The Keightleys were therefore aunt and uncle to James and Anne’s daughters, the future Queen Mary II and Queen Anne II.

GENEALOGICAL TABLE SHOWING THE LINKS BETWEEN THE LONG, KEIGHTLEY and BUTLER FAMILIES WITH THE HOUSE OF STUART

Thomas Keightly (1650-1719)

Lady Frances Keightley nee Hyde (1658-1725)

(Source: Wikipedia- Public Domain)

William Keightley’s son and heir Thomas (the younger) married Lady Frances Hyde, the youngest daughter of the politically powerful and devoutly Protestant Lord Chancellor, Edward Hyde, 1^st Earl of Clarendon, who was, ironically, a political enemy of Sir Robert Long. By 1641 Hyde, originally a lawyer, had become an informal advisor and firm friend to King Charles I, invested as a Privy Councillor and held office of Chancellor and Under Treasurer of the Exchequer from 1642. By 1645 the King’s forces were losing the civil war, and Hyde was appointed guardian to the 16 year old Charles Prince of Wales with whom he fled to the Isles of Scilly then Jersey in 1646, after imminent fears for the young prince’s life. The King was beheaded in 1649, and his son and heir Charles II and Charles’s brother James Duke of York would live in refuge on the Continent accompanied by a large Court in exile until the end of Cromwell’s republican Commonwealth of England, returning triumphantly to England in 1660.

Edward Hyde 1st Earl of Clarendon

During this exile, Hyde, by now a brilliant and shrewd statesman, had been appointed Secretary of State in 1653 and Lord Chancellor in 1658 by Charles II, and was Charles’ closest advisor during his exile and after the Restoration when Hyde was raised to the peerage and created Earl of Clarendon in 1661. The close relationship held between the young monarch and his elderly advisor was often strained, the rather dour, pompous and tactless Clarendon telling the monarch “at least twenty times that he was lazy and not fit to govern”.[lvi]

Antonia Fraser ("King Charles II", Phoenix Books, 1st pub. 1979, reprint 2022, pp.43-45; her ref: Samuel Pepys, 11 Nov 1667) wrote of their temperamental relationship:

"The character of Charles' puppet master, Sir Edward Hyde, also came into further prominence in the West. Hyde, later Earl of Clarendon, is a central figure in the story of Charles, in youth, early manhood, and the first years of his restored kingship. The relationship drew to a close nearly 25 years after this western foray. It ended with Clarendon telling the middle aged monarch, twenty times that he was lazy and not fit to govern. He was a man of extreme gravity of character, even in his younger years, the sort of gravity which is quickly taken for pomposity by the young. Hyde liked to guide by disapproval; Charles liked to learn by encouragement: it was never an ideal combination. from the first, Hyde was not sufficiently tolerant, Charles not sufficiently appreciative."

Much to Clarendon’s displeasure and disapproval, his eldest daughter Anne Hyde, had quietly married the heir-presumptive James Duke of York in 1660 following a pregnancy, having been seduced by the Duke while she was Maid of Honour to his sister (the child dying at birth, six weeks after the marriage). Clarendon had far grander marital plans for the two Royal brothers, involving diplomatic alliances and wealthy dowries. The marriage also meant that Clarendon incurred a great deal of resentment and animosity within Parliamentary circles from those who suspected Clarendon’s ambition of a royal alliance. However, Anne soon gained popularity at court, the French ambassador describing her as “having courage, cleverness and energy almost worthy of a king’s blood”.[lvii]

After bearing two (surviving) daughters and heirs to the throne- the future Queens, Mary and Anne- Anne Duchess of York prematurely died in 1671 aged 34 years, well before her husband succeeded to the throne. Anne had embraced the Catholic faith before her death, even before her husband openly admitted his conversion, much to her family’s displeasure. She had written an open letter in August 1670 to her friends explaining the reasons for her conversion, which sparked a heated debate between various theologians and writers of the day.

Clarendon lost favour with his king and certain factions in the parliament and, threatened with impeachment in 1667, was forced to flee to France where he spent the rest of his life (d.1674 at Rouen) writing his mammoth series of volumes entitled “History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England”.

As a 22 year old young man, Thomas Keightley (the younger) was appointed Gentleman Usher to James Duke of York on 2 June 1672, not long after the death of James’s wife.[lviii] Gentleman ushers were responsible for overseeing the work of the servants ‘above stairs’ in the royal apartments.This was undoubtedly when he first came into contact with James’s in-laws, the Hyde family, and met the Duke’s very young sister-in-law Lady Frances Hyde (b.1658[lix]). This appointment was significant. Although, on his brother’s insistence, James continued to take the Anglican sacraments until 1672 and attended Anglican services up until 1676, he was admitted into the Roman Catholic Church as early as 1668, and was beginning to surround himself with Catholic courtiers. Growing fears of Catholic influence at court led the Parliament to introduce the Test Act the following year, 1673, which required all office bearers to take the oath of transubstantiation and denounce certain practices of the Catholic Church, and receive the Eucharist under the auspices of the Church of England. Naturally James refused and chose to relinquish the post of Lord High Admiral, thereby making public his conversion to Catholicism. Later that year he remarried to the Catholic Italian princess Mary of Modena. The birth of their Catholic son and heir to the throne fifteen years later would contribute to the downfall of James II’s reign.

Keightley’s appointment may have been influenced by his close kinship with John Evelyn. Evelyn and his great friend and fellow diarist Samuel Pepys (Chief Secretary to the Admiralty and an M.P.) were considered favourites at the Court of Charles II, and this close contact with the King over many years made Evelyn a reliable source on the subject of the King and his Court as evidenced by his Dairy.
Evelyn was a generous art patron, and Grinling Gibbons was introduced by him to the notice of Charles II. Author Antonia Fraser in her book "King Charles II", p.429, recounted:
In 1674, Grinling Gibbons was employed by May to adorn the new apartments at Windsor. Gibbon's work was originally shown to the King by John Evelyn: as a reward for the recommendation, before which, in Evelyn's words, 'he was scarce known', Gibbons presented Evelyn with a walnut table 'incomparably carved.' Charles was so enthusiastic at what he saw that he rushed out of the room to show it to the Queen, who was less so.
Evelyn was an enthusiastic gardener which was evident in his beautiful gardens at his house, Sayes House. Sayes House was let to Peter the Great who was visiting the dockyard at Deptford. The tsar reportedly did great damage to Evelyn's beautiful gardens.

John Evelyn wrote of a meeting with Thomas Keightley’s grandmother Rose, Evelyn’s godmother:[lx]

8 March 1681: Visited and din’d at the Earle of Essexe’s. Thence to my (yet living) godmother and kinswoman Mrs Keightley, sister to Sir Thomas Evelyn and niece to my father, being now 86 years of age, sprightly, and in perfect health, her eyes serving her as well as ever, and of a comely countenance, that one would not suppose her above 50.

After their clandestine marriage on 9 July 1675, Thomas Keightley and his wife Lady Frances Hyde emigrated to Ireland three years later.[lxi] Sir Richard Bulstrode (ambassador to Brussels, who later joined the Jacobite court in exile, appointed Commissioner of the Royal Household in 1700) wrote of their marriage:[lxii]

We hear that one Mr Kitely… has lately married the Lady Frances Hyde, dau. to our former Ld Chancellour Clarendon without the consent or knowledge of her brothers; that he has humbly submitted himself to the Duke and beg’d his pardon and has obtain’d it; and has further pray’d his R.H. to interpose on his behalf with the present Earle of Clarendon, that he and his Lady may be forgiven and kindly receiv’d by him, which his R.H. has been graciously pleased to doe, so that it may be hop’d all may be well there in a little time, the young gentleman being a very worthy sober man and bearing of him but 3 faults, viz., want of quality, fortune, and that he is a Papist (the last of which will be most grievous with the present Earle of Clarendon), and as good a husband for her as her best friends could wish her.

Despite having married secretly without the approval of Frances’s brothers, Thomas Keightley developed a close working and personal relationship with both of his brothers-in-law, Henry and Laurence Hyde, particularly after the accession of their mutual brother-in-law King James II on 6 February 1685.

Notwithstanding Lord Clarendon’s disgrace and exile, both of his sons would also attain high office, his second son Laurence Hyde (1641-1711), Master of the Robes 1662 to 1675, created 1^st Earl of Rochester in 1682 (2^nd cr.), principal advisor to Charles II, First Lord of the Treasury, Lord President of the Council, etc. As the leader of the Tory or High Church party, Rochester held considerable political power and influence, and was always a great favourite of James Duke of York and in high favour at Court. He was a larger than life character, renowned for his passionate parliamentary speeches, his arrogant and somewhat prickly disposition, his explosive temper and drinking excesses.

Laurence Hyde 1st Earl of Rochester

Henry 2^nd Earl of Clarendon, following the Restoration, was private secretary and lord chamberlain to the wife of Charles II, Queen Catherine, being appointed in 1680 a privy councillor, and treasurer and receiver-general of the queen’s revenues. In 1664, John Evelyn helped him to plant Cornbury Park, Clarendon’s estate.

Henry Hyde 2nd Earl of Clarendon

Cornbury House near Charlbury, Oxfordshire

1814 copperplate engraving (from a drawing by J.P. Neale) that appeared

in "The Beauties of England and Wales" (series 1801-1815).

During the period after 1679, some members of Parliament were attempting to have James excluded from the line of succession. The Exclusion Bill crisis gave rise to the two party system - the Whigs who supported the Bill and the Tories who opposed it. Charles reluctantly ordered James to leave England and appointed him Lord High Commissioner of Scotland. James was permitted to return to the Court in London after the plot to assassinate both Charles and James by a group of republicans was discovered in 1683, resulting in a wave of sympathy for James and the King. The Exclusion Bill was put to rest.

In 1682, the same year the Hyde family lost younger brother the Hon. James Hyde in the tragic sinking of the frigate “Gloucester” at Yarmouth carrying the Duke of York from London to Edinburgh,[lxiii] Rochester’s beloved fourteen year old daughter married the seventeen year old James (Butler) Earl of Ossory (grandson and heir of James 1^st Duke of Ormonde), Rochester having raised the substantial dowry of ₤15,000 with the help of his relatives and friends. Both men were devastated when she died in Ireland after a miscarriage in late January 1685, Rochester mourning her loss for years to come, describing her as “the joy of my life and the comfort of my soul”.[lxiv] His daughter’s tragic death coincided with the unexpected death of their king, Charles II, which marked the beginning of a great upheaval in English, Scottish and Irish history.

Following the death of Charles II, the newly crowned king, James II, appointed his brothers-in-law, Lord Rochester as Lord Treasurer, and Henry Hyde 2^nd Lord Clarendon (1638-1709) as Lord Privy Seal and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and then reluctantly dismissed them both two years later in 1687, when they refused to convert to Catholicism. Lord Clarendon’s “Correspondence and Diary”,[lxv] in letters to his brother Rochester, frequently referred to their brother-in-law Thomas Keightley. Clarendon secured Keightley’s appointment as vice treasurer of Ireland in 1686. Keightley was very much in their private confidence, often chosen to personally deliver secret correspondence between the two brothers. Clarendon wrote to his brother Rochester, July 14, 1686:[lxvi]

The particular occasion of this letter is to accompany Mr Keightley and to tell you why he goes into England. His pretence is about his own affairs: and he has real business of his own there- Mr Keightley is troubled at something in his sister’s conduct (N.B. This would appear to refer to his sister Mary Keightley- possibly her marriage with James Long); but in truth, though I have not owned it to any creature, but now to you, I have desired him to make the journey: it might be of use I think if somebody were there, of whom questions might be asked… relating to the affairs of this country. I have therefore pitched upon this gentleman who will inform you of the true matter of fact. His integrity and real concern for you and me, is not to be questioned in the least, for many reasons, which cannot but be obvious to you. He is a man of very good sense, and of an excellent understanding: he has as general a character of a man of worth and sincerity amongst all sorts of people as I have known.

As a measure of their personal friendship in later years, in his ‘Diary’, Clarendon wrote:[lxvii]

June 17, 1689- I took a coach for the Wells, where I arrived about seven in the evening. At Tunbridge town Mr Keightley met me. He came into the calash (a light carriage) to me.

June 27- In the afternoon I went with Lord Blessington and Mr Keightley to Eridge to see Lady Abergavenny and Mrs Bellasise.

Although initially opposing the election of William and Mary following the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in 1688, favouring the establishment of a regency on behalf of the exiled James, Rochester acquiesced and took the oath of allegiance, probably to protect his sizeable pension and his political career, while Clarendon, persisting in refusing to take the oath for which he was imprisoned for six months as a Jacobite on orders signed by his niece Queen Mary, passed the rest of his life in a private manner in the country until his death in 1709. He had expressed great disappointment in the lack of filial duty and sympathy exhibited by both of his nieces, Mary and Anne, towards their devoted father’s dethronement and exile.

Rochester was quickly back in royal favour, and once again, a member of the Privy Council. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in December 1700 until 1703, during which time he continued to serve as his brother-in-law Thomas Keightley’s patron. Shortly before he embarked for Ireland, Rochester asked Keightley to supervise the repairs and the buying of furniture for the Lord Lieutenant’s house in Dublin and for the house at Chapelizod, including stabling for 50 horses. He asked Keightley to determine whether any of the King’s furniture could be made use of, or whether it was “too old and spoiled to expose to public view”. He then asked Keightley to keep an eye on his “finest set of coach horses sent with some servants, when they reach Dublin”. On the accession of their niece Queen Anne to the throne in March 1702, refusing to base himself in Ireland due to the political machinations occurring in London, Rochester returned to England. After supervising the return of Rochester’s servants, carriage horses etc., Rochester offered Keightley a loan of his chariot which he described as “old and I am afraid dirty”.[lxviii] Rochester continued to use Keightley as his eyes and ears in Ireland, corresponding regularly.

In the same month that Queen Anne acceded the throne, Keightley was appointed as one of three Lords Justices of Ireland “to manage the affairs of Ireland during the absence of the Lord Lieutenant”.[lxix] This appointment was at the recommendation of Rochester who had found the previous Lords Justices recalcitrant and frustrating to deal with. Rochester’s refusal to return to Ireland, and his falling out with the Queen’s favourite the Duke of Marlborough, forced his dismissal the following year being replaced by the 2^nd Duke of Ormonde, however, as the leader of his faction in the High Tories he continued to wield considerable political power until his death in 1711. Notably, when Sarah Duchess of Marlborough fell out of favour with Queen Anne in 1710, Rochester was re-appointed Lord President of the Council, which he held until his death the following year (2 May 1711). His son Henry inherited his title and his cousin’s title 4^th Earl of Clarendon, but died without issue in 1758, both titles becoming extinct.

Although Rochester had recommended to the Duke of Ormonde that Keightley continue in the role as Lord Justice, Keightley only retained his commission until the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant in late 1703, although his appointment in 1702 as one of the Commissioners of Revenue of Excise was reaffirmed in 1704.

During those thirty odd years, the relationship between the Hyde and Keightley families remained close, despite the separation of Thomas and his wife in 1686, for which her brothers laid the blame on their sister.[lxx] Lady Clarendon wrote in a letter to her brother-in-law Rochester about Keightley on July 14, 1686:[lxxi]

I am very sorry he cannot trust upon his lady’s good word (viz. Lady Frances), for I must do him the right to tell you that he has behaved himself to her with very affectionate tenderness, and great respect to her relations: when it pleases God to bring her to a right sense of things, she must be of this opinion herself. I hope she is not far from it.

Her husband Lord Clarendon added:

I have taken my sister into my house, but no trouble she gives my mind is to be imputed to her husband, with whom, as to all things relating to her, as well as in other matters, and even in the main point, religion, I have reason to be well satisfied.

These letters confirm that Lady Frances was in a fragile state of mind when she split with her husband in 1686, leaving her daughter and only surviving child, Catherine, in her husband’s care.

When Lady Frances left her husband Thomas Keightley and their ten year old daughter Catherine,[lxxii] she initially stayed with her brother Lord Clarendon at his official residence in Dublin, but within a short time, went to reside with the Reverend Charles Leslie, a Church of Ireland clergyman, at Glaslough about 60 miles north of Dublin, about which Clarendon gave an account to his brother Rochester, on 6 September 1686:[lxxiii]

Upon what that unfortunate woman’s husband, Keightley said to her before he went away; that it would be convenient for her to retire upon many accounts and that it would please him better than anything she could do; she told me a fortnight since that she was offered a retreat at Mr Leslie’s house, which I agreed to. They are two brothers, clergymen who live together and have very good women for their wives. They are very worthy men, and of good esteem in their calling. Her husband knows them well. There she may stay for as long as needed and we will be thinking of another retreat. In the mean time she is out of view.

Charles Leslie later wrote: [lxxiv]

Lady Frances Keightley came to reside with us, with her husband’s full consent and at her own desire, as she had been tempted to apostasy from the Christian faith by certain persons mixing in the highest classes of Society. Such a step gave a terrible shock to her family, especially her husband and Lord Clarendon, who had used all efforts of dissuasion in vain.

Although a devout Protestant well known for his opposition to Roman Catholicism, Charles Leslie was also a loyal Jacobite and non-juror, strongly believing in the divine right of kings. Following the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in 1688, he went to England and was appointed as chaplain to the Hyde household at Cornbury. In his lifetime he published numerous political and theological books and pamphlets. After he continued to express his controversial views and give his support to the succession of James III (son and heir of James II), an order was given for his arrest in 1710, whereupon he fled to the Jacobite Court at Saint-Germain and became an active Jacobite agent. When James III was forced to leave France and reside in Lorraine in 1713, he invited Leslie to join his court, and in 1716 when James removed to Avignon, Leslie was again invited to join them to administer to the spiritual needs of James’s Protestant supporters, including the exiled Duke of Ormonde.

By December 1686, Lady Frances was in London living near her brother Lord Rochester, as indicated by Clarendon’s letters to his brother.

The Diary of Sr Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester, Commencing at the Time of his Elevation to the See..1686 M DC LXXXVI [lxxv],Page 32:

11. Madam Kightley (viz. Frances Hyde) came to Chester, and Dr Haselwood, and several more of my Lord Clarendon’s family *

*Note- They were returning from Ireland where the Earl of Clarendon had just surrendered the vice-royalty to the Earl of Tyrconnel. Lady Frances Hyde, a daughter of the first Earl of Clarendon, married Thomas Keightley, Esq. of Hertingfordbury in Herts., who filled some office in Ireland under his brother-in-law the lord-lieutenant (Henry Hyde 2^nd Earl of Clarendon). Dr Haselwood was chaplain to the earl.

Frances herself, in an earlier letter to her infant daughter Catherine in 1681 when her own health was failing, had nothing but praise for her husband:[lxxvi]

Since it has pleased God to give you a Father whose goodness is so great that if you do but intrust of self wholly to him you need not fear but you will arrive to great perfection both as to Soul and body.

However, after their separation, Lady Frances and Thomas would not meet up for a further 27 years, meeting at Somerset House London in 1713. (Somerset House had been the official dower house for the Stuart Queens until 1693. It was then used to provide grace and favour apartments, and for entertainment including the introduction of the popular masquerades.)

According to a record written by Lady Frances in a bible, her daughter Catherine was born at Hertingfordbury Park, Wiltshire (the Keightley family home) on 29 October 1676, the only child of seven sons and two daughters born between 1676 and 1685 including two sets of twins, that survived infancy. This may have been the cause of Frances's fragile mental state. The following is a transcript of the information in that bible:

Catherine Keightley by Charles Jarvis

(Lord Inchiquin Collection)

The death of so many of Frances' children seems to be a family trait. Her sister Anne, Duchess of York had eight children, losing six in early childhood, and Anne’s two surviving daughters Queens Mary and Anne also lost all of their babies. In fact, Mary had several miscarriages, and of Anne’s 17 pregnancies, 12 were still-born, four died in infancy and only one son survived infancy before succumbing at the age of 11. Frances's daughter Catherine would also lose both of her daughters at a young age. This would appear to indicate some sort of inherited genetic disorder in the Hyde female line, albeit that maternal and infant mortality was high in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Keightley’s daughter Catherine married Lucius, son and heir of Sir Donogh O’Brien 1^st Bt. of Dromoland Co. Clare in 1701.[lxxvii] Lucius predeceased his father by a few months, dying alone in Paris in 1717 suffering from a severe bout of gout.[lxxviii] Catherine suffered an unhappy marriage, as her husband’s spendthrift ways led to amassing large debts which constantly threatened to destroy their lives. Just before his death, Rochester raised £3000 to help pay the debts but Lucius complained that his father-in-law had ‘claimed the disposal of which’. The following year in 1712, Keightley obtained a private interview with Queen Anne who said she was resolved to do something for them and desired him to speak to the Lord Treasurer.[lxxix] Rochester acted as godfather to the first son, Edward, of his niece Catherine, having been present at the birth at Lady Frances’s home in April 1705, and reporting to the new grandfather Thomas Keightley “wishing you joy of your Grandson (Edward O’Brien), your Daughter was brought to bed this evening of a very lusty boy, and she and he are both very well. I am heartily glad it is so well over, everybody was afraid for her.”. He continued: She has desired me that I would be one of the Godfathers and Col. Whetham is to stand for Sr Donot (Donogh O’Brien). She is apprehensive she should have known his pleasures but she could not bear the __ of letting the child be so long unchristened so you must do your part to keep Sr Donot from taking it ill and I promised her I would be a mediator too which I will do next post. In the meantime, I will say no more now, but wish you joy again of your fine Grandson, &c. (Signed) Rochester [lxxx]

Catherine’s desire to baptise her son quickly was probably due to her fear of losing her child before baptism, knowing her mother’s and relations’ history of losing their new-borns.

His letter congratulating Lucius on the birth of his son (April 12, 1705) was written from the “Cockpit”, an octagonal building adjacent to Whitehall Palace and next to St James’s Park, given to Princess Anne by Charles II in 1683. The grounds, building and lodgings adjoining to the Tennis Court near the Cockpit, were inhabited by the Earl of Rochester and the Duke of Montague. Rochester “owned the rooms above the Whitehall Gate, ie the two gateways near the Cockpit”.

Catherine did not return to her husband in Ireland immediately after the birth, which Rochester reveals in a letter several months after, in which he expressed his concern about their relationship:

On the 29 November 1705 [lxxxi], Rochester wrote to Catherine, expressing his opinion: I take this occasion to say to you for fear Mr Obryan should forget that I charged him very particularly with this message to you and my Godson. I was very glad to see him (Lucius) again on this side the water, and to hear you and he were joined together again, after your long separation, and as I took it, a divorce. I am glad you are not to be parted again, for wheresoever it is, you had best be together, as long as you care for one another, pray my service to him. I wish you both a happy passage with my Godson, and am most affectionately and sincerely and continually a very true servant to you both; Rochester .

It was the last Lady Frances saw of her daughter for many years when Catherine eventually returned to Ireland with her newborn son, but their correspondence continued. Commenting on the prospect of her daughter’s remarriage after such a disastrous marriage, dated 9 Feb 1721/2, Frances wrote: I had a notion that a woman who had mett with all the inhumaine usage you had gon throu would have bin terrified at the thoughts of a second marriage.” [lxxxii] Catherine eventually travelled to London to visit her mother in 1725. Catherine’s eldest son Sir Edward O’Brien (1705-1765) inherited the title 2^nd Bart of Dromoland, in November 1717, as a minor, In later years, Catherine would involve her mother and eldest son Edward in the misfortunes of her cousins the Butlers of Munphin (of whom presently).

Dromoland Castle, Co. Clare

In the 1680’s, Thomas Keightley’s family connections resulted in the Duke of York granting annual rents from his Irish estate to Keightley for 31 years, while Charles II granted him a sizeable yearly pension. However, he fell out of favour with James II when he changed his religion from Roman Catholic and embraced the Church of England. This would appear to have occurred before his wife left him, and a series of undated letters between Keightley, his cousin Mrs St Hill, and Lady Clarendon would suggest his conversion may have been motivated by his desire to gain acceptance by his wife’s family, being fully cognizant of the advantages of such a powerful connection.[lxxxiii] The 2^nd Earl of Clarendon, Henry Hyde, wrote in June 1688 about the reasons why the King was not considering Keightley for a place in the Commission of the revenue of Ireland:[lxxxiv] “I now begin to believe what I had been told before, that Keightley would never have anything, because he had changed his religion.”

Just prior to James II finally fleeing England for France on the 22^nd December 1688, Thomas Keightley, who was visiting London, was sent by Clarendon to the fugitive king at Rochester on the River Medway to entreat him to stay in England. William of Orange had ordered James to retire to Rochester accompanied by Dutch guards, anticipating that he would make a second attempt to escape. James may not have forgiven Keightley for changing his religion, but their previously close relationship must have convinced Clarendon that Keightley was still on a sufficiently intimate footing with the King that he may listen to his appeal.

On the evening of December 20^th, Clarendon discussed the situation with Keightley:[lxxxv]

I desired him to go to the King and beseech him not to leave Rochester till he saw what the Lords did. Keightley was very ready to undertake the journey, but said he could not pretend to have any credit with the King. I then wished some honest Roman Catholic would try what could be done, by laying things plainly and fairly before the King: upon which he mentioned Mr Belson, whom I knew to be both a discreet and honest man. Belson resolved to go to Rochester and use his utmost skill to persuade the King not to stir, and to issue out a declaration to satisfy the minds of his people, etc.

December 22/23: As soon as they got to Rochester, Keightley went presently to the King and told him, that Mr Belson was come to speak with him from several of his old friends, upon matters of the greatest importance. The King told Keightley that he was going in to write some letters, and that he would speak with Belson this morning. That when he went this morning to wait upon him, he found his Majesty was gone privately away in the night.

(Notably, ‘Mr Belson’ was Thomas and Mary Keightley’s stepfather, of whom presently.)

Clarendon then commented “Good God! What will become of this poor, distracted and distempered nation? It is like an earthquake!” James had fled to France- the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 was over, but the battle for the throne was about to begin.

Thomas Keightley’s change of religion proved fortuitous under the new monarchy. Under Rochester’s influence in the court of William and Mary, Thomas Keightley gained large grants of Irish forfeited lands. He received, “for 99 years, two grants containing 12,380 acres, as a portion for his daughter Catherine who had been an attendant on her cousin, the late Queen Mary, after whose death in 1694 she lost a pension of ₤400 p.a., and in consideration of her father’s losses during the war”.[lxxxvi] He then sold a portion of these grants for the considerable sum of ₤5,123. 10s. Keightley, his wife Frances and their daughter were each paid an annuity from the Crown under both William and Anne’s reigns.

Keightley’s career appointments, and financial and property gains:

The Duke of York granted him two 31 year leases worth ₤108.18s pa. and ₤130 pa. from his Irish estates, which were renewed for 99 years in 1690 on petition.

Charles II granted him a yearly pension of £400. [lxxxvii]

In 1686, when his brothers-in-law Clarendon and Rochester were Lords Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord Treasurer respectively, Keightley was appointed Vice Treasurer of Ireland [lxxxviii]with full power to meet and assemble in the Exchequer Chamber with the Chancellor and the two Chief Justices etc… and to hold the said office during pleasure, with the yearly salary of 20 pounds.

Keightly had commenced proceedings for recovering the rents and pension granted to him in the 1680’s.

William III granted a three-year custodian of lands (at a yearly value of ₤674) out of the Irish forfeitures, and later a lease of 99 years as a provision for his only daughter Catherine. This grant was later confirmed by an English act of Parliament (1Anne c.18.[1702]0). Many of the deeds pertaining to the said forfeited estates were primarily in the counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow and Westmeath.

Keightley was named in the report by the English parliamentary commissioners of inquiry in December 1699 as one of 16 grantees to benefit most from the 76 grants in being at that time. He was also one of the 5 named grantees who had sold substantial parts of their lands.

Letter patent of King William dated 17 June 1696, the lands of Portlick, among several other lands were ‘granted and demised’ to the Rt Hon. Thomas Keightley, esq., one of His Majesty’s most honorable Privy Councillors of Ireland. In Sept of that year Keightley sold his interest to Wm Palmer esq. of Dublin for a value of approx. ₤365. Portlick Castle was part of the forfeithed lands of the Dillons, staunch supporters of King James during the Williamtie and Jacobite wars, after which they fled to the Continent, and held important military ranks in the Irish Brigade of France. [lxxxix]

Although the English Act of Resumption in 1700 caused problems for Keightley, as the loss of his grant could have been financially ruinous, his brother-in-law the Earl of Rochester secured a re-grant in 1701 of Keightley's 1680s pension.

In 1702 Keightley succeeded in getting an English act passed for confirming his grant of forfeited lands.

On the accession of Anne in March 1702, Keightley continued to remain in high favour with the Crown. In a Royal Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Rochester, dated March 1702 [xc]- Royal Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland We have made the choice of the Earl of Mount-Alexander, Major- General Thomas Earle and Thomas Keightley, a Privy Councillor and Commissioner of Revenue, to manage the affairs of Ireland dueing the absence of you, the Lieutenant. Pass a commission under the Great Seal of Ireland making them Lords Justices accordingly during pleasure, etc.

In 1700 Rochester was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, and prior to his arrival there in 1701 kept up a regular correspondence with Keightley, treating him as his personal agent and his mouthpiece in government. On Rochester's return to England in 1702 his dissatisfaction with his Irish lords justices found expression on the accession of Queen Anne in March, when Keightley was appointed as one of two new lords justices. Rochester now looked to Keightley for advice on all issues relating to government, while still relying upon him as his private agent and friend. .[xci]

In 1702 the Queen, under instructions from her close advisors, commanded Rochester “to go to Dublin and discharge his duties as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He took a week to measure forces, and then intimated that it was his higher duty to remain in London. Forthwith his resignation was demanded, with no choice but that of dismissal. He quitted the Queen’s Government accordingly, and without a day’s delay appeared at the head of the High Tories who sought to wreck it. This disciplinary act necessarily weakened the Government; but it made Nottingham, Hedges and Seymour understand clearly where political power resided. Henceforward they felt that in their conflict with Marlborough and Godolphin their political resources might prove inadequate.”[xcii]

On Feb 21, 1701/2, Rochester wrote to his niece Catherine O’Brien (nee Keightley) [xciii] and discussed his ‘removal’ from Ireland, despite his continuing appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, until his replacement by the Duke of Ormond the following February.

I assure you I take extremely kindly all the concerns you express me on my account on the occasion of my being to return no more to Ireland on which subject I can in a very few words tell you all my thoughts that if I had been allowed to have continued there longer I would have done as well as I could for the service of the Kingdom and would have been very well pleased if I could have done any good, of have been useful to my friends but since it is otherwise ordered, and not by my fault as I know of, I am perfectly content and extremely much better pleased with my own circumstances there before; I hope I may still have opportunities of shewing my real kindness and esteem for you, it shall be always my endeavour and my care to let you see that I am most faithfully and truly your most affectionate and most humble servant, Rochester

He continued to use Keightley as his eyes and ears in Ireland during this period.

Thomas was suggested for the post of lord justice in 1706, and served for a brief period in 1710 as a commissioner for the great seal.

Thomas was appointed a Revenue Commissioner for Ireland and a member of the Privy Council in 1692, the Council sending Keightley to England with an address of condolence on the death of Queen Mary (Keightley’s niece). He held the post of Revenue Commissioner for 22 years and continued as a Privy Councillor until his retirement”

Newspaper: Post Man and the Historical Account (London), Sat Oct 23, 1714 [xciv] issue 11050

Taken from the Dublin Gazette Oct 12, 1714

List of Lords and others of his Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council for the Kingdom of Ireland

Thomas Keightley Esq.

Thomas was a member of the House of Commons from 1695 until the Hanoverian succession in 1714 when he retired on a pension of ₤1000 for his long and faithful service, dying in January 1719.

THE KEIGHTLEYS AND THE BUTLERS OF MUNPHIN

Following the death of Mary Long nee Keightley’s husband, her daughter Mary was placed under the guardianship and care of her brother Thomas Keightley. The arranged marriage between Walter Butler Junior and Keightley’s niece Mary Long was presumably forged in this political arena in which Walter Butler Senior and Thomas Keightley frequented, and through their mutual relationship with James II (Walter’s stepson Lord Galmoy having married Henrietta fitzJames, illegitimate daughter of James II and Arabella Churchill, and had been appointed Gentleman of the Bedchamber to both James II and his heir James III at the Court in exile at Saint-Germain). Despite his religious conversion, Thomas was always considered a closet Jacobite.

Mary Long appears to have maintained a long and close relationship with her Aunt Frances Keightley and her cousin Catherine Keightley (O'Brien), as indicated by her many letters written to her paternal grandmother Lady Dorothy Long. A bundle of these letters was recently found in the attic of the Wraxall House (the ancestral home of the Longs) and handed to the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives to digitize (ref: 2943B-1-9). They give us an interesting insight into Mary's relationship with her deceased father's family, as well as the gossip in high society at the time. They also indicate that up until her marriage to Walter Butler, Mary Long was living in England and was in close contact with her Aunt Keightley and cousin Catherine Keightley, and that her mother was often residing in London:

Madam

Dec 28^th 1697

Spring not being yet come that I am to learn to present my duty with my own pen, I have with my Aunt Keightley’s leave borrowed hers. She joins her service and wishes of many happy new years to your Ladyship, with those I hope Madam you will accept of from me, which are truly prayed for, for you besides my duty of doing so, the Powders your Ladyship obligingly sent me to the Bath for the Kings Evill have added so much to my health that I now hope to overcome all my weakness and If you please Madam to send me another Paper to take this Spring I will endeavour to deserve your favours; and as soon as I can after I have taken them pay my duty and thanks to your Ladyship at Dracott. My Mama sends me word from London (where she has bin this two months) that both my Brothers and Sister keep their Christmas with your Ladyship. I hope you will give me leave to send my service, and wishes of many merry New Years to them; and to my Cozen Chaworth who I believe is still with you. I do not forget the rest of my kindred, whose number I hope is increased, and that one of them is breeding up for me, which favour I shall be very proud, and careful of and always endeavour to deserve your blessing now begged by

Madam

Your Ladyship

Most dutifull and obedient Grandchild Mary Long

My Aunt begs leave to add her service to my Brothers and Sister, and to my Coz. Chaworth.

2)
April 16^th 1698

I hope your Ladyship will look on it as my duty, as I do, to be sometimes presenting you with it, since you have given me leave to do it thus.

I know not how Madam to express my grief for the loss of my brother [Sir Giles Long]. He has often told me he loved me very well and would be very kind to me, I’m sure I loved him dearly. I shall endeavour to deserve your Ladyship’s favour and Sr James too. I am almost a stranger to you Madam and quite one to this brother and sister, but Sr Giles and my sister Susan know me ever since I was born, tho I can not hope to be loved by strangers, as I was by them yet I am their sister too, and hope to be known to them and better than I am to your Ladyship.

I have Madam this month (my Aunt Keightley says) eat nothing for my breakfast but the preserintion (preservation?) of Bilewort Porrage, I think I’ve eat them almost twice so long they are very good but I don’t love Water Gruel. I have just finished your present of Powders and Roots, which agree very well with me and make me look very mellow.

I hope some time this summer to pay my thanks to your Ladyship for them at Dracot.

My Mama is still at London and I think means to live there. My Aunt Keightley begs your ladyships acceptance of the humble service and I your blessing for

Madam

Your most obedient and dutyfull Granddaughter

Mary Long

My Aunt and I beg leave to send here our services to my Coz. Chaworth.

undated [but content suggests post Queen Anne from 1702+]

To the Lady Long at her house at Draycott

In Wiltshire

Hon^rd Madam this comes with my humble duty to acquaint your Ladyship that I am come to London tho to my great grief to leave the sweet Country but it is the advice of good friends to my Mother to break up house which she has done, and I don’t doubt but it is for the best. I am certain one may live very private in Town which we must do at present. I hope if anything lies in my power to serve your Ladyship in you will command me which I shall take as a great favour. I have bin in town but three days and so know very little news. Only the Queen has bought a Diamond of the Jews which she gave 12 thousand pound for, and four others of one thousand pound a piece to be sett in a Gorge(??) for the Duke of Marlborrow (sic) and by the time it is set it will come to much more. Last night I saw Sr John Brownlow, he is a fine youth. I hear he has 15? hundred pound a year fallen to him lately. I have seen my sister she looks very well. I hope your ladyship will do me the honour to let me hear how you do this winter which will be a great favour to

Honoured Madam your most dutyfull Grandchild to command

Mary Long

I desire my service to my Brother and his Lady as does my Mother she begs your acceptance and her duty

February 3^rd 1703

To the Lady Long at Kew(?) House at Draycott in Wiltshire

Chippenham Bag

Honoured Madam I had sooner beg’d your Ladyships acceptance of my humble duty as well as my wishes of many happy new years but have been very ill with a cold ever since I came to town which I hope will plead my excuse. Here have been a fine Opera which my Sister was so kind to carry me to which was very fine. And to a …wick? meeting which was so too. I suppose your Ladyship has heard the Queen of Prussia is dead and that the King of Portugall is like to die. So here is like to be nothing but mourning. But there is to be a world of finery on the Queens birthday. They say the Duke of Marlborow (sic) is to be the finest thing in nature. I hope if I can serve your Ladyship in anything you will command

Honoured Madam

Your most Dutyfull and obedient Grand Child

Mary Long

My Mother begs your acceptance of her duty

We both join in our service

To my Brother and Sister and Cozen Chaworth. I beg I may not be forgot to Mrs Jean

April 14^th 1703

Honoured Madam I am extremely obliged to your Ladyship for the honour you did me in inquiring after me. My Aunt and my Cozen O’Brien return you Ladyship their humble service and thanks for the favour you have done them. My Cozen is better than she was but is very weak yet. I writ to your Ladyship last week, but I find by your Man you have not received but he has promised me to see at your Post House in Chippenham so I won’t give you the trouble in reading the same I gave an account of the Picture in it. And if you will do me the favour to let me know if you have received it. My Aunt said she did not deserve the favour of having the good Ch___(?) because she did not return you her thanks before now. I am very glad to hear my Brother and his Lady got safe to London. My Aunt and I beg leave to desire my Cozen Chaworth to accept of our service and I my duty to your Ladyship and am

Honoured Madam your most

Dutyfull and obedient GrandChild

Mary Long

I desire my service to Mrs Jean my Aunt writ to my Cozen Charworth the same time I did to your ladyship

June 17, 1703

Honoured Madam I have this day sent to acquaint your Ladyship that my Cozin O’Brien was much out of order which has disappointed her and my Aunt waiting on your Ladyship Tuesday and now I have received your letter I will obey your commands and (w)holly put off their desire of waiting on you. I hope your Ladyship will come to the Bath as you sent me word you desired which I shall be extremely glad of. The venison your Ladyship sent me was extremely good. I drank your health at the eatting of it.

My Aunt and Cozen give their service to you as I do to my Cozen Chaworth and am

Hon^rd Madam your most dutyfull and obedient Grand Child

Mary Long

My head aches so violently I can not write this over again or else I would not send this sad scroall [scrawl] to your Ladyship

June 28, 1703

To the Lady Long at her house at Draycott in Wiltshire Post paid

Honoured Madam the Bath being a little more diverting than it was encourages me to give your Ladyship an account of all the news I hear to divert you. Here has been three Balls lately given at the Town hall. The first one Mr Gore son to Sr William Gore gave. The next Mr Hamden who indeed dances finely and the last my Lord Dalkeith, they talk of more but I know not when they will be. Here is Plays, often a sad house and very ill Actors. But any will [do] down here. My Cozen George Smith is here and talks of staying a week. I hear Mrs Rose Leech is somewhere hereabouts, if I know where I will endeavour to wait on her as I would[ve] done on Mrs Mountague if I could have known where she was in town. I asked several folks for her but they knew not who I meant. My Aunt and Cozen O’Brien are your ladyships humble servants. I beg your blessing for

Honoured Madam Your most dutyfull and obedient Grand-Child to command

Mary Long

My Aunt and I desire our service to my Cozen Chaworth and Mrs Jean

Mary's next letter was in 1705 relating the news of her marriage (see earlier), and her final letter was dated 18 November 1708 (see below).

Mary’s mother, Mary Long nee Keightley, also had a previous connection with a mutual acquaintance of Walter Butler Junior- Count Wratislaw the Imperial ambassador. This association may also have played a part in the arranged marriage. The Secretary of State James Vernon wrote to George Stepney Esq, English ambassador to Vienna, dated 3 March 1702, from Whitehall,[xcv] in which he says he hopes his Majesty will be abroad sometime next week, and perhaps come to the House of Lords to pass the Abjuration Bill (which required Catholics to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce their faith). He continued: I must not omit putting you in mind of procuring positive directions to be sent to Count Wratislau, that the article about the pretended Prince of Wales (James II’s son) be made part of our treaty. It is very necessary it should be dispatched before the Parliament rises. I told you in my last of Count Wratislau’s concerning himself in solicitations for Roman Catholics. He has since sent me the case in a petition of the party to the King. It is from two sisters of Mr Keightley, who live in Dorsetshire (viz. Athelhampton, the Long estate); one is the widow Long, and the other unmarried. I understand they are both furiously bigoted, and on that account their neighbours have no good will towards them. There is now a prosecution carried on against them by a widow lady, who was married to Mrs Long’s nephew. She had been a Roman Catholic, as her husband was, but being turned Protestant, she is very desirous to breed her children up Protestants, which Mrs Long opposes, and has the power of doing it by being appointed guardian to the children. These feuds have occasioned her being sued upon the statute of forfeiting ₤20 per mensem for not coming to church. It would be clamorous if anybody should go about to suspend the laws in favour of people that appear so obstinate. I have spoken to a Member of Parliament, who is their neighbour, and knows both parties, that he would interpose and reconcile their differences. If the mother were not deprived of her children, the old ladies might live unmolested; but they keep a busy priest in their house, who calls in foreign aid. It is much fitter that we should send him away, and perhaps that will be the end of it.

I am, Sir,

Your most faithful humble Servant,

James Vernon

Although representing the interests of Emperor Leopold a devout Catholic, the reason for Count Wratislaw involving himself in the domestic dispute of a Catholic widow living in county Dorset is rather mystifying, and begs the question: what was the basis of his association with Mary Long nee Keightley? It may have had something to do with the accusation that she “kept a busy priest in her house who calls in foreign aid”. Evidently Mary’s personal actions were now being brought to the attention of government officials and widely discussed on account of Wratislaw’s involvement. But why and how was this widow from Dorset involved in such perilous activities?

The Belson Connection

Like her brother Thomas, Mary Keightley was an intelligent woman of strong convictions and personality, traits she inherited from both of their parents. Following the death of her father William Keightley in c.1674, her mother Amy remarried shortly after to another man of strong convictions and great intellect, John Belson (the Catholic gentleman chosen by Thomas Keightley and Clarendon in 1688 to plead with King James, as previously recounted), described in the Oxford DNB,[xcvi] “as an historian and religious controversialist from an ancient Roman Catholic family with estates in Brill and Aston Rowant”. He devoted himself to historical studies and moved in a circle which included Catholic writers and great philosophers such as: Thomas White, a Catholic priest, the most noted philosopher of his time, and leader of the Blackloist group of Catholic chaptermen; White’s disciple and close friend of Belson, the theological and philosophical controversialist, John Sergeant; John Austin, the author of an influential book of private devotion and of several hymns; and Belson’s cousin Thomas Blount, lexicographer and author of “Boscobel: The History of His Majesty’s Most Miraculous Preservation”, the earliest account of Charles II’s famous escape from the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

In 1662, Belson published a controversial treatise concerning ‘Tradition vs. the Scriptures’ entitled “Tradidi vobis: Or the Traditionary Conveyance of Faith Clear’d, in the Rational Way, against the Exceptions of a Learned Opponent “(viz. Henry Hammond), in which “Belson attacks Bibliolatry, defends Catholic Councils, and has a concept of Tradition embracing both oral and written conveyance of scholars and theologians”.[xcvii] The Blackloists expounded the theory that the long established Catholic tradition provides the only true ‘rule of faith’, as Protestantism relies purely on the word of the Scriptures for interpretation of Christian faith, and that it was not possible that the text of Scriptures should remain uncorrupted over time due to the changing nature of language and its interpretation, and mistakes made by centuries of copyists, whereas the Catholic oral tradition is passed down unchanged through the generations, and is therefore the same as the word spread by the Apostles. [xcviii]

Belson frequently travelled between England, Flanders and France, living there for extended periods, either to the Flemish Catholic University of Louvain or to Douai also in Flanders (near Lille), a centre for education for English Catholics, containing the University of Douai and the English, Irish and Scots Colleges. In 1677 Douai became part of France. The close relationship between the Keightleys and the Belsons no doubt developed when the Keightley brothers, William and Thomas (the elder), and Augustin Belson (either John’s father or brother, both of that name) lodged in Rome between 1646 and 1650, their names recorded in the Pilgrim Book of the English Hospital in Rome, which led to the conversion of the Keightley brothers to Catholicism.

Following their marriage, John and Amy Belson continued to live at Hertingfordbury Park, but frequently travelled to the Continent, sometimes accompanied by Amy’s brother-in-law Thomas Keightley (the elder) and his wife Catherine Knollys.[xcix] Keightley was considered part of this literary circle [c], and in fact, John Belson and Thomas Keightley were witnesses to Thomas White’s will of 1676.[ci]

In Passes to the following persons in 1678: on December 21, 1678, Thomas Keightley, with Catherine (Knollys) his wife, William his son, and a maid servant, as also John Belson and his servant to Parts beyond seas.

In Grants of Denization[cii] for persons during 1679: On Feb 8, Thomas Keightley with Catherine his wife, and William his son, Mrs Lettice Knollys, and a maidservant, and also John Belson and his servant (to France.)

On 25 June 1679, Mary Keightley is recorded in “Grants of Denization for persons during 1679”, as travelling with her mother and stepfather:[ciii]

John Belson and Amy his wife, and Augustin, Maurice, Bridget, Catherine & Mary his children (by first wife), and Mary Keightley, with their servants to Parts beyond seas.

On this occasion the family stayed and lived in Abbeville in northern France until 1681, about the time when Amy died,[civ] her son Thomas Keightley selling the family home Hertingfordbury Park in that same year. From c.1684, John Belson resided in King Street, St James’s Westminster, very close to the Court, where he came into contact with the Duke of York and his circle of supporters. During this period between 1683 and 1686, he corresponded with the King’s Advocate Sir George Mackenzie, discussing the Penal Laws and the Test Oath, and Mackenzie’s intentions towards Catholics in his position as King’s Advocate.[cv] Mackenzie, widely regarded among his peers as ‘the brightest man in the nation’, opposed the dethronement of James II and retired from public life.

Although the marital tie between the Keightleys and Belsons was now severed, the families continued their close association. In the year following Keightley and Belson’s attempt to dissuade the King from leaving England, Clarendon wrote in June 1689 that after arrival in London one evening, “Mr Belson came to me, who was but a few days since arrived from France”; and that his wife “Lady Clarendon had met with Mr Keightley and Mr Belson in London”, in July 1689.[cvi]

John’s son Augustin had been given a commission in James’s army, and John Belson is recorded several times travelling to and from Flanders and France, including Douai in the period 1689 to 1692. This was the period when the exiled Catholic supporters of James II were plotting to return their King to the throne. In March 1690, John Belson was given a pass to travel to Flanders, and three months later, on 11 June 1690, a warrant was issued to apprehend Augustin Belson (John’s son or brother, both of that name) “on suspicion of high treason and to seize his papers”. An almanac maker named Godbury was taken into custody for dispensing treasonable pamphlets. When questioned he said “he received the pamphlet, ‘Modest Observations’, and he believes, the late King’s declaration… from Augustine Belson. Belson is to be sent for in custody”.[cvii] A warrant was issued for Augustin Belson’s arrest and in August 1690, Belson was in Newgate Prison. His arrest suggests Jacobite sympathies, and his fate is unknown.

On March 30, 1691, Viscount Sydney wrote to Lord Lucas:[cviii]

“The Queen is pleased to give leave that Mrs Kitely and her niece Mrs Belson and Mr Fleetwood Shepherd (Court favourite and literary wit) should have access to and be private with the Earl of Clarendon.
At the time, Lord Clarendon was in custody in the Tower for persisting in refusing to take the oath for which he was imprisoned for six months as a Jacobite on orders signed by his niece Queen Mary.

Whether this was a personal visit or a visit to discuss Augustine's situation can't be determined, however, the fact that they had to get permission from the Queen to visit Clarendon suggests it was not purely a casual visit. In August 1696, passes were granted for Mrs Eleanor Belson and several women to go to Holland on the recommendation of Sir Fleetwood Sheppard.^{^[cix]} Eleanor does not appear to be one of John Belson's daughters, so possibly the wife of Augustine or one of his brothers.

Curiously, Fleetwood Shepherd,^{^[cx]}a courtier and literary wit, an important figure in the poetry of the 1680's and 90's, instrumental in the Courts of Charles II as one of Charles's dining companions, and also in the Court of William & Mary, where he became a favourite of Queen Mary, ‘making her very merrey’ (Rutland MSS, 2.137). In 1690 Buckhurst 6^th Earl of Dorset appointed him gentleman usher and daily waiter to the King with lodgings in Whitehall Palace. In 1694 he was knighted and appointed gentleman usher of the black rod, with various responsibilities. He was also a Protestant who was thought to have embraced Puritism in his latter years, so why he should be accompanying two devout Catholics to visit Clarendon is odd. The DNB relates that the poet Matthew Prior (one of Shepherd’s protegies) made a puzzling remark in a letter to Dorset of 12/22 June 1695 'Sir Fleetwood... went over to the other side'. (Bath MSS, 3.80), by which, his association with Tony Lee a Presbyterian, and Lord Warwick a notorious Puritan, at Will’s Coffee House at Covent Garden, has been interpreted as embrasing Puritism. Maybe it had a completely different meaning, considering his long term support of the Belsons, and he had secretly embrased Catholicism, but that is speculation.

Their relationship must be related to the Belson's close association with those in the literary world. In August 1696, passes were granted for Mrs Eleanor Belson and several women to go to Holland on the recommendation of Sir Fleetwood Sheppard (CSPDom). Eleanor does not appear to be one of John Belson's daughters, so possibly the wife of Augustine or one of his brothers.

They were probably seeking their influential relative Clarendon’s help in obtaining Augustin’s release.

Whether they were Jacobite collaborators is not known but the warrant and charges, and their frequent sojourns to France would suggest so.

John Belson also managed some of the affairs for the Augustinian Convent of Louvain in Flanders, where it was suggested one of his daughters was a nun (viz. Sister Constantia Belson). In March 1692, John and son Maurice were given a pass to return from Douai to any port in the kingdom.^{^[cxi]} John Belson died at his home in Westminster in January 1705. [cxii] Following John Belson's death in Dec.1704, Augustine Belson and writer John Sergeant wrote to Augustine's brother Maurice about the death of John Belson and made mention of printing project of works of John Belson and Thomas White, so Augustine was involved in the publishing business, which explains his earlier arrest.^{^[cxiii]}

Mary’s close relationship with this family, and her Jacobite loyalties, probably accounts for her “keeping a busy priest who calls in foreign aid”, and may have led to her association with the Catholic Count Wratislaw.

It would appear that Mary Long nee Keightley and her daughter Mary removed from their home in Dorset to Ireland sometime after Vernon’s report of Mary’s family dispute, life becoming increasingly intolerable for Catholics living in England. The rumour mill concerning Irish officers recruiting Catholics for a renewed invasion to restore the young James III back to the throne, his father James II having died in 1701, was constant. This, plus the accusations against her, may have placed them in a dangerous and treasonable situation which may have prompted Mary and her daughter to seek sanctuary with her brother Thomas Keightley who owned houses in Queen Street Dublin and at Leixlip near Dublin. Not long after, her daughter Mary had married Colonel Walter Butler Junior.

WALTER AND MARY BUTLER, AND HER MOTHER, MARY LONG NEE KEIGHTLEY

Another key piece of evidence that provides proof of the connection between the Butlers and the Long/Keightley family is the document “The English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715”,[cxiv] taken from records by the Great Britain Commissioners and Trustees for the Forfeited Estates, Great Britain Public Records Office, being “a summary of the Register of their Estates, with Genealogical and Other Notes”, which revealed that Mary Long nee Keightley was living with her daughter and son-in-law at Munphin in 1715:

Mary Long, of Munphin, co Wexford, in Regno Hibern., widow of James Long, late of Athelhampton, co Dorset- Manor of Burleston, &c, for life; Sir Giles and Sir James Long mentioned as lessors[cxv] - £339 2s 1d.

Note: James Long, who died in the lifetime of his father, Sir James Long, married first, Susan, da. of Col. Giles Strangwayes, of Melbury, co Dorset, and secondly, “Mrs Mary Kightley (here registered), and by her had a da. Mary, married to Col Butler, of Ireland.” (Extinct Baronetage.[cxvi])

A list of Dorset Registered Estates in 1717 (VI. xiv. 105) has: Mary Long, Manplin (sic), co. Wexford, widow.[cxvii]

A further piece of evidence confirming the relationship is contained in a Chancery Court Bill: [cxviii]

14 Feb 1718- Eustace Power v. James Butler (co-exec. of Walter Butler Snr’s Will), Walter Butler (Jnr), Mary his wife, Mary Long, Edward Kenney.

Letters written between Thomas Keightley’s daughter Catherine O’Brien nee Keightley, her mother Lady Frances, and various other correspondents are preserved in the “Inchiquin Papers” at the National Library of Ireland.

In an undated letter written by Catherine Keightley to her aunt Lady Clarendon (before her death in July 1700), she reveals that her father Thomas Keightley would become involved in the care of his widowed sister’s daughter Mary: [cxix]

We recommend my Cosen Long to my Fathers care and would have her succeed me in his Love and wish she would embrace the protestant Religion with as much sincerity as I have done; I have left the inclosed papers which I hope may not be less effectual to her than it was to me, part of it is out of that sent me by my Mother. I hope I may put her upon inquiring a little into the principles of the Church. I beg she may not be denied the reading it, etc.

Catherine had been brought up as a Protestant. However, her desire for her young cousin to follow her example did not eventuate, as Mary Long adhered to her mother and husband’s Catholic faith.

Catherine’s reference in her letter to her cousin Mary, to “leaving the enclosed papers which she hoped may not be less effectual to her than it was to me, a part of which is out of that sent me by my mother” probably refers to a small book of advice composed by Lady Frances Keightley in September 1681 to her four year old child Catherine, when she awaited the imminent arrival of her sixth child, commenting that the “time of our life and the manner of our death is so uncertain, and the condition I am now in seeming to me very dangerous”. The advice within, shows a woman of intelligence and learning, with a wish to impart her wisdom and personal experiences to her young daughter to guide her through life’s tribulations.

This book remains as part of the Inchiquin Papers held by the National Library of Ireland, which is reproduced in an article “‘Advice to a Daughter’: Lady Frances Keightley to her daughter Catherine, September 1681” by Gabrielle M. Ashford, Analecta Hibernica, 2012, No. 43, pp.17-46, pub. The Irish Manuscripts Commission Ltd (JSTOR).

The purpose of the advice of Lady Frances to her daughter were the contemporary issues that were most relevant to females at that time, and to assist Catherine “to live with ease and credit in the world”. She addressed important issues at a fundamental level and made practical suggestions concerning female life.

She also drew on her own experiences, such as observing that “one unhappy temper has brought me first or last into all the great inconveniency’s of my life”, and urging “truthfulness” and maintaining a “well govern’d tongue”, and the pitfalls a young girl faced when engaging with society. She gives advice concerning dealing with men, choice of marriage partners, and female companionship, pleading with Catherine to take heed of her guidance rather than learn by bitter experience. “Have no particular friendship with any of the [male] sex without exception, not that I think there is none good amongst them, but I believe they are very rare to me met with”. “Tis easier to live in the pest house free from the plague than to have any familiarity with men and preserve a good conscience towards God and a good reputation amongst men”. She also discusses the choice of marriage or a “monastick life”, recognising that both were decisions made for life “since you can no more quit the monastery than your husband”, and counselled caution, advising she wait until “you are past 18 years of age”, and “If you resolve to marry, submit yourself to the choice of your father and relations, but then take time to know the man’s humour and temper. If you find nothing in him very repugnant, take him because your father recommends him. But if you find you can’t love him, tell your father so and the reasons why and I am sure this as well as all his other actions, her will shew his prudence and goodness to you”. She then discusses how to please her husband by “being punctually obedient to the will of your husband ever avoiding all sorts of disputes with him”.

As a devout Catholic, Lady Frances advised her daughter on how often she should pray and attend Mass, and recommended religious books to read, including John Austin’s “Devotions in the ancient way of offices: with psalms, hymns and prayers for every day of the week and every holiday of the year” (1676), and all the works of Thomas White, and other literary figures of the time. She recommended frequent confessions, but warned “as for your choice of a ghostly father (viz. family priest), it must be done with great care and caution, and therefore beg it of your father. And if he be not near you, of Mr Belson (Keightley’s stepfather), your Uncle Keightley (Christian), or your Aunt Frances (Keightley) to recommend you to one who, besides the bare character of a priest may have discretion and prudence to manage and govern your soul to the great glory of God and your own soul’s quiet and happiness in this world.”

Lady Keightley discusses the topics of, Religion, Temperament, Propriety, Truthfulness, Men, Female Friendship, Social Behaviour, Accomplishments and Reading, Charity, Dress, Marriage, Servants, Religious Practice and Monastic Life.

On the subject of reading, she says: “Above all, I recommend reading to you, for by your books you will more improve yourself than by any other thing in the world. By reading I do not mean plays and romances, but history and morality, not that I forbid the first, but, on the contrary, I in some measure recommend them, for they are usually writ in a good stile, and besides, I know when they are forbid to young people it always augments their curiosity and the fear they read them in increases their affection to them. Therefore, I freely allow you to read them, but then remember, when you have spent weeks and months in reading the best writ romance that ever was made, that except the names and the most principle battles, there is not ten words of truth in all those great volumes. But the good of history and morality are great in many respects. The first gives you an account of what has passed in former ages, and the applause govern to the virtuous and good so many hundreds of years after their death will breed unknown to yourself a love and esteem for virtue. And on the contrary, the miseries that first or last attend vice will augment your hate to it and then the reading of morality will fortify and strengthen those good inclinations which I hope your good nature will prompt you to.” She then recommends some books, and finishes “Besides, I advise you to make yourself mistress of some sort of philosophy, and in this I am sure your father, uncle, or Mr Belson will not be a little pleased to assist you. But I must give you one necessary caution along with this advice which is to avoid a fault that most of our sex is subject to whenever it pleases God to give a little more knowledge that ordinary. They will always be boasting of it and, right or wrong, throw in hard words to let the world see they are scholars. But I would have you wise to and for yourself, true wisdom consists not in being taken notice of, for oftentimes, the world mistakes folly for wisdom and condemns that for folly which is true sense. True knowledge is what enlarges your soul, for the more you know in this life the more capable it is of happiness hereafter, and this ought to be your principle care since your soul will last for ever, by the body, and what ever perfections you acquire as to it, will have an end and perish in the dust”.

Lady Frances concludes “For though you may meet with many better advisors, yet I am sure if you seriously reflect on many things, you will find here it can never do you any harm. But on the contrary, you may reap some advantage from it. However, it will let you see that from your infancy I was ever solicitous for the welfare of both your soul and body and when I am laid in my grave, this will put you in mind of me, of your duty to God, your neighbour and your own soul.”

Following their marriage, it would appear that Walter and Mary lived with Walter’s elderly father and Mary’s mother at Munphin, raising their family and looking after the estate.

One of the reasons Mary Long nee Keightley chose to live with her daughter and son-in-law at Munphin, was probably revealed in a letter dated 22 May 1705 to Lady Dorothy at Draycot from Jodrell:

Mrs Keightley so well approves of the marriage that (as is said) she is willing to do what she can towards it. It is said there is £200 per Annum payable out of her Jointure to satisfy a Debt of her husbands. And that there is yet several years to come before the Debts can be cleared, and that she would sell her Jointure estate, or part of it, and thereby clear the debt, and raise something for her daughter’s portion and retrench her own living. (Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre- 2943B/1/27- Letters of Lady Dorothy Long from Paul Jodrell).

Apart from Mary witnessing the deposition about the Holy Relic in his possession, signed by her father-in-law at Munphin in 1716, nothing is heard about Walter Junior and Mary until the death of Walter’s father in 1717.

Another letter to Catherine O’Brien from her aunt Margaret Forde, cousin to Walter Butler of Munphin, revealed the financial state of their mutual relations. It was written only a few months after the death of Walter Senior:[cxx]

January 23^rd1718

Give me leave to tell you Dear Niece, that you have a relation in my Cosen Butler of Munphin who is a most deserving worthy young woman, but not so well favour’d by fortune as she deserves and has a numerous familie of children, if it lyes in your way at any time to do her or them a kindness it will be a most worthy action and won I shall be infinitely pleased at. I know not what condition they are in since the father’s death but they were in ill circumstances during his life and don’t hear they are much better now.

Yr most affectionate Aunt and very humble Servt

Marg. Forde

The letter certainly revealed the dire financial situation the Butlers of Munphin were now placed, and had been experiencing for several years.

These families were closely connected. Margaret, widow of Matthew Forde, lived at Coolgreeny, Inch, in Co. Wexford, a few miles from Munphin. Margaret and her sister Lucia O’Brien (Catherine’s mother-in-law), were the daughters of Sir George Hamilton 1st Baronet Hamilton of Donalong Co. Tyrone (1607-1679-of the House of Abercorne; son of James Hamilton 1st Earl of Abercorn and Marion Boyd) and Lady Mary Butler (daughter of Thomas Butler Viscount Thurles and Elizabeth Poyntz, and sister to James 1st Duke of Ormonde, and great aunt to Pierce 3rd Viscount Galmoy’s first wife).

Sir George Hamilton’s nephew’s wife Elizabeth Fagan was Walter’s cousin (through the White family, their mothers being sisters). George Hamilton’s brother was Claud 2nd Lord Hamilton, Baron of Strabane Co Tyrone, whose son George Hamilton 4th Lord Hamilton married Elizabeth Fagan, daughter of Christopher Fagan and Anne White, sister of Eleanor White. Therefore, Lucia Hamilton, wife of Donough O’Brien, parents of Lucius O’Brien (Catherine’s husband), was cousin of George Hamilton 4th Lord Hamilton Baron of Strabane Co Tyrone, and therefore his wife Elizabeth Fagan, who was cousin of Walter Butler Junior.

Margaret Ford/Hamilton was also related to the Butlers through the Esmonde family, who had a close kinship with the Butlers:

Sir Laurence Esmonde 3rd Bart married Lucy Ford, dau of Matthew Ford and Margaret Hamilton (viz. the writer of the letter to Catherine), of Coolgreeny, Inch, Wexford.

Laurence Esmonde's father Sir Laurence 2nd Bt, married 1st Lucia Butler dau of Richard Butler of Kilcash and Frances Touchet (dau of Earl of Castlehaven)- Richard was brother of the Duke of Ormond, and of Mary Hamilton nee Butler.

Laurence 2nd Bt married 2ndly Lucy Kavanagh dau of Charles Kavanagh son of Sir Morgan Kavanagh of Clonmullen in Scarawalsh, (also related to the Butlers). When Laurence 2nd Bt died, Lucy Kavanagh married Galmoy's brother Richard Butler, half- brother of Walter Butler Jnr.

Laurence Esmonde 3rd Bt and Lucy Ford's sons also married Butlers: Richard Esmonde married Helen Butler sister of 15th Earl of Ormond; Walter Esmonde married Joanna Butler dau of 5th Baron Cahir; John Esmonde married Helen Galway dau of Mary Butler dau of Col John Butler of Mountgarrett.

So the kinship relationship between the Hamilton’s, the Forde’s and the Butler’s of Munphin was a close one.

The next and final chapter will explore the last years of Walter Butler Junior’s life which was disastrous for the family.

Contact: butler1802 @ hotmail. com (no spaces)

Link to introduction chapter on Richard 1^st Viscount Mountgarrett

http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/butlers-co-wexford-ch1-richard-1stviscount-mountgarrett.html

Links to the Butlers of Munphin Co. Wexford on this blog:

Walter Butler Senior of Munphin, Co. Wexford, c.1640-1717, Part I
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch-10-walter-butler-of-munphin-pt1.html
Walter Butler of Munphin (c.1640-1717), Part II
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch11-walter-butler.html
Walter Butler of Munphin (c.1640-1717), Part III
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch12-walter-butler.html
Walter Butler Junior of Munphin (1674-1725) Part I- exile to France in 1690
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/butlers-co-wexford-ch13-walter-butler-junior.html
Walter Butler Junior of Munphin (1674-1725) Part II- Military record
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/butlers-co-wexford-ch14-walter-butler-junior.html
Walter Butler Junior of Munphin (1674-1725) Part III- Marriage to Mary Long
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/butlers-co-wexford-ch15-walter-butler-junior.html
Walter Butler Junior of Munphin (1674-1725) Part IV- Last years
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/butlers-co-wexford-ch16-walter-butler-junior.html

Links to all of the chapters in this blog:

Pierce Butler of Kayer Co. Wexford (the elder) c.1540-1599
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch2-pierce-butler.html
Edward Butler of Kayer Co. Wexford, 1577-1628
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch-3-edward-butler.html
Pierce Butler of Kayer and Moneyhore (the younger), c.1600-1652, Part I
http://butlerancestryireland.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/butlers-of-co-wexford-ch-4-pierce-butler.html

[i] Sister Mary Puis O’Farrell, Breaking of Morn, by Sister Mary Puis O’Farrell, ISBN 1-86076-299-9, Pub 2001- p45-46 No. 12- Margaret Butler; and Sister Pius Farrell’s ‘Positio’- Chapter 7 The Urseline Foundation p264-271 (a thesis). Archives de la Seine, 30 Quai Henri IV, Registre: 4 AZ, 894 Document 1b- 4 Oct 1763 Marguerite de Butler; Archives de St Denis, Paris, G.G. 218 (Document 1a) 8 July 1767

[ii] John Burke Esq. & John Bernard Burke Esq., Genealogical & Heraldic History of the Extinct & Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland & Scotland, 2^nd Ed, Genealogical Publications Co. Baltimore, Orig Pub London 1841, reprinted 1977, pages 321-322- Long, of Westminster.

[iii] John Aubrey, Lives of Eminent Men, Vol. 1, pp.432-433, London 1813, from originals in the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum.

[iv] Thomas Seccombe, “Long, Sir James 2^nd baronet (1617-1692)”, Rev. Henry Lancaster, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (online edn Jan 2008- Accessed 29 Dec 2009)- DNB Ref: B.D. Hanning “Long, Sir James, HoP Commons 1660-90”, 2.758

[v] The earliest account of Charles II’s famous escape, and Strangways role in it, written by Thomas Blount in 1660: “Boscobel or The History of His Sacred Majesty’s Most Miraculous Preservation”.

[vi] Huntington Library Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 2, Feb 1965, The By-election at Aldborough 1673, article by Roy Carroll, University of California Press, www.jstor/stable/3816804 , National Library of Australia, accessed 03/03/2011; Carroll’s ref: Reresby Correspondence, Leeds Central Library, Mexborough Archives.

[vii] My grateful thanks to Cheryl Nicol for sharing her extensive research of the Long and Keightley families with me.

She has an interesting book on the Long family - “Inheriting the Earth: the Long family's 500 year reign in Wiltshire", Hobnob Press, USA, 2016.

[viii] John Aubrey, Brief Lives, chiefly of Contemporaries set down by John Aubrey between the Years 1669 and 1696, ed. Andrew Clark, Oxford, 1898, Vol. II, page 7; and Letters written by Eminent Persons & Lives of Eminent Men, London, 1813, page 432-33

[ix] Tony MacLachlan, The Civil War in Wiltshire, Rowan Books, 1997, p218

[x] J.J. Danielle, Wiltshire Archealogical & Natural History Magazine, XII (1870), p304

[xi] John Aubrey, (ed. Jackson) Wiltshire Topographical Collection, 1862, page 235

[xii] Janet H. Stevenson, Victoria County History of Wiltshire, Institute of Historical Research, Vol 14, p77; and Dict of National Biography p104.

[xiii] Dorset Parish registers PE/PUD RE 4/1 (no dates of burials given but following page has date of burials beginning October 1689), and RE7/2; and Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries, Vol. 5, Sept 1897, p.52- Lord Lieutenant’s Return May 1688- James Long questioned.

[xiv] Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, Vol. 5, Sept 1897, p. 305

[xv] Notes and Queries for Somerset & Dorset- 1915, pp.102-104- An Incident at Adminston Dorset in the 17^th Century.

[xvi] WSRO 947/2101/2: Letter B- Lady Ann Mason to her mother Lady Dorothy Long

[xvii] The Dorset Parish Registers 1538-1910, filmed by the LDS, film nos. 2427563, images 660 and 665, Parish of Piddletown

[xviii] Thomas Keightley baptised 23 January 1650; Mary Keightley bap. 23 June 1652; sister Frances bap. 21 Aug 1649- all by Rev. Thomas Hassall at Great Amwell Hertford .Youngest sister Christian bap. 2 April 1656 at family home Hertingfordbury Park, by Rev. T. Hassall. (Parish records filmed by LDS, film no. 991303).

Parents- William Keightley and Amy Williams, married 22 Aug 1648 (Guildhall, St Michael Crooked Lane London Register marriages 1539-1723- Marriage Licence 17 Aug 1648). William Keightley (bap.16 April, 1621, Guildhall, St Dunstan in the East, London, Register 1558-1653) and brother Thomas (b.1622) .William and Thomas , sons of Thomas Keightley (b.1579 Kinver Staffordshire, d.1662, purchased Hertingfordbury Park Hertfordshire 17 July 1627-Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies DE/P/T833; merchant; sheriff of Herts. 1651) and wife Rose Evelyn. Thomas Keightley Snr, s/o John Keightley of Trimpley Worcester & Elizabeth Hill, s/o George Keightley of Trimpley. (Ref: Visitation of London 1633, 1634, 1635). Amy Williams (bap. 29 March 1630, Guildhall, St Andrew Undershaft, London, Register 1558-1623; orphaned by 1648 -Foster’s London Marriage Licences 1521-1869) d/o John Williams, merchant, of London & Mary Turner (Visitation of London 1633 etc). Alumni Cantabrigienses, a biog. list of all students, graduates, etc. at Uni. of Cambridge from earliest times to 1900, Part 1 (to 1751), Vol. iii (K-R), compiled by John Venn & J.A. Venn, Cambridge Uni. Press 1924, pp.3-4- Keightley, Thomas b.1622 and William b.1621; both adm. July 12 1636, matric. 1637. Thomas entered Middle Temple 1641.

[xix] Gillian Darley, John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity, Yale University Press, 2006, pp.107-8 (Darley’s refs: Letter Books, British Library, Add Ms 78298, f.44 JE to TK, 25 (23) March, 1651; Add Ms 78315, f.98 TK to JE from Paris 5 Feb 1646/7)

[xx] Herts. Co. Records, Cal. Of Sessions Books, 1658-1700, II, 169

[xxi] IGI Records- LDS Family search website, and LDS film 991303- Gt Amwell Parish Register D/P4 1/9 Marriages Baptisms Burials 1558-1657

[xxii] Joseph Foster, London Marriage Licences 1521-1869, London, 1887, p783, Keightley, William etc.

[xxiii] London Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1538-1812 (Ancestry.com), which come from the Church of England Parish registers 1538-1812 London Metropolitan Guildhall Library Manuscripts London- William Keitley, etc.

[xxiv] Although commonly thought that the 1^st Earl of Clarendon was the author of the Clarendon Code, he was not heavily involved in the drafting of the code and actually disapproved of much of its content. It was merely named after him, as he was a chief minister (Wikipedia)

[xxv] Oxford National Dictionary of Biography, Keightley, Thomas, has her name as Anne Williams dau of John Williams of London.

[xxvi] George Dames Burtchaell, Genealogical Memoirs of the Members of Parliament for the County and City of Kilkenny

Pub. Sealy, Bryers & Walker, Dublin, 1888, page 94

[xxvii] the London Baptisms, Marriages, Burials 1538-1812 (Ancestry.com), which come from the Church of England Parish registers 1538-1812 London Metropolitan Guildhall Library Manuscripts London

[xxviii] Sr Henry St George, Kt, Richmond Herald and Deputy and Marshal to Sr Richard St George Kt Clarencieux King of Armes, The Visitation of London Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, Volume II, page 353, ed by Joseph Jackson Howard, LL.D, F.S.A., London 1883

[xxix] Ibid.

[xxx] Visitation of London 1633,1634,1635, op.cit- Keightley

[xxxi] Frimpley, now Trimpley a couple of kms NW of Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

[xxxii] National Archives UK, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, DE/P/T833

[xxxiii] Catherine Knollys, dau. of Sir Robert Knollys of Gray’s Court (of the Rotherfield Greys Knollys line) and Johanna Wolstenholme dau of Sir John Wolstenholme.

[xxxiv] Alumni Cantabrigienses, a biog. list of all students, graduates, etc at Uni of Cambridge from earliest times to 1900, Part 1 (to 1751), Vol iii (K-R), compiled by John Venn & J.A. Venn, Cambridge Uni Press 1924, p3-4- Keightley, Thos b.1622 and William b.1621.

[xxxv] Records of the Earls Cowper of Cole Green House and Panshanger, in Hertfordbury, Hertford 1251-1966, held by the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (Copyright); National Archives UK website; Counterpart conveyance DE/P/T833 17 July 1627.

[xxxvi] Ibid; Original Surrender DE/P/ T3500 11 Nov 1632. Eston Green may be East End Green, near Stockings Lane just south of Hertingfordbury.

[xxxvii] Ibid; Schedule DE/P/T3632 24 Oct 1647

[xxxviii] Ibid; Agreement DE/P/T3633 9 Mar 1648/9

[xxxix] Ibid; Order DE/P/T3764 1648

[xl] Ibid; Counterpart enfranchisement DE/P/T842 20 March 1673/4

[xli] Parishes: Hertingfordbury, A History of the Co. of Hertford, Vol 3, 1912, p462-468- their ref: Clos, 33 Chas II, pt.vi, no 34.)

[xlii] Gillian Darley, John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity, Yale University Press, 2006, pp.107-8 (Darley’s refs: Letter Books, British Library, Add Ms 78298, f.44 JE to TK, 25 (23) March, 1651; Add Ms 78315, f.98 TK to JE from Paris 5 Feb 1646/7)

[xliii] Herts. Co. Records, Cal. Of Sessions Books, 1658-1700, II, 169

[xliv] Although commonly thought that the 1^st Earl of Clarendon was the author of the Clarendon Code, he was not heavily involved in the drafting of the code and actually disapproved of much of its content. It was merely named after him, as he was a chief minister (Wikipedia)

[xlv] Gillian Darley, John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity, Yale University Press, 2006, page 34. Darley’s reference: Diary of John Evelyn,( i to vi) ed. E. S. de Beer (1955), ii 80n.3

[xlvi] John Evelyn, Diary & Correspondence of John Evelyn, edit By William Bray esq. Vol 1, London 1850, p74

[xlvii] Gillian Darley, John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity, Yale University Press, 2006, page 42

[xlviii] Ibid, p87

[xlix] Ibid, p106-7. Darley’s ref; Letter Books, British Library)

[l] Edward Chaney: The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion: Richard Lassels and The Voyage of Italy in the Seventeenth Century. Slatkine Geneve, 1985, pp365, 366

[li] Abstracts of English Studies Volume 16, by University of Calgary Eng. Dept. 1872, page 88

[lii] E.M. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1899: Commons, Constituencies, Statutes, Vol 1, Ulster Historical Foundation Belfadst, 2002 p11.

[liii] Brit Lib, Add Ms 78315, f.98, TK to JE, from Paris, 5 Feb 1646/7; BL Add Ms 78198, EP to RB, from Brussels, 14 Dec 1647- from Gilliam Darley, John Evelyn…op.cit, p72

[liv] Diary & Correspondence of John Evelyn FRS, edit from original by William Bray Esq. Vol 1 London 1850, pp330,345

[lv] Edward Hyde 1^st Earl of Clarendon , born 1609, married 2^ndly Frances daughter of Sir Thomas Aylsebury, Master of Requests. He was called to the bar in 1633, made keeper of the writs and rolls of the common pleas in 1634; returned to Parliament 1640; in 1641 became informal advisor to King Charles I, appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer 1643-1646. He lost favour with the King, but was made guardian to the Prince of Wales with whom he fled to Jersey in 1646 and was appointed Lord Chancellor by Charles II in exile in 1658 which he held until 1667; 1^st Lord of Treasury 1660, Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1660-1667. Once again, he fell out of favour with the King, and was impeached by the House of Commons and forced to flee to France in Nov 1667, where he spent the rest of his life working on his “History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England”. He died at Rouen, 9 Dec 1674, but was buried in Westminster Abbey. His daughter by wife Frances Aylesbury, Anne married James Duke of York, and youngest daughter Frances married Thomas Keightley. Source: Wikipedia

[lvi] Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys, London 1893, Ch. Nov 1667, 11 Nov 1667

[lvii] Antonia Fraser, King Charles II, Phoenix books ,1^st pub 1979, reprint 2002, p.262

[lviii] Historical Manuscripts Commission, 8^th Report. App.i. p.280 (35)

[lix] Sylvanus Urban, Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Jan to June 1829, London, 1829, pp.322-323 (April), Volume 99- Mementoes of the Hyde Family, transcribes contents of Lady Frances Keightley nee Hyde’s BDM entries in her personal Bible, of all her family members.

[lx] John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, (edit. William Bray), London 1895, p.427

[lxi] Sylvanus Urban, Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Jan to June 1829, London, 1829, pp.322/23 (April), Volume 99- Mementoes of the Hyde Family (transcript of family Bible BDM entries- son James b. Feb. 1678 London, son William b. March 1679 Ireland).

[lxii] Sir Richard Bulstrode, The Bulstrode Papers, Vol.1 (1667-1675), printed for private circulation 1897 in The Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents, formed by Alfred Morrison (2^nd series 1882-1893).

[lxiii] The wreck of the ‘Gloucester’, in which 150 perished including several nobles, reflected badly on the Duke of York, many blaming his slow reactions and his poor choice of priorities for the large loss of life.

[lxiv] Correspondence of Henry Hyde Earl of Clarendon and of his brother Laurence Hyde Earl of Rochester; with the Diary of Lord Clarendon from 1687 to 1690, etc, Edit by Samuel Weller Singer, London, 1828, Volume I, pp.76, 106-7, 170-71

[lxv] Ibid, Vols. I & II.

[lxvi] Ibid, Vol. I, p.491/2; and General Index Vols.1 & 2, p.532, ‘Clarendon Vol. I, 491-493 (re sister’s conduct)’

[lxvii] Ibid, Vol. 2, p.280/1

[lxviii] John Ainsworth (ed), The Inchiquin Manuscripts, Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin 1961, pp.62, 63, 68

[lxix] CSP Dom. Anne, [46] p.18, March 1702, Royal Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

[lxx] Correspondence of Henry Hyde Earl of Clarendon, etc, op.cit, Vol. I- p.576: Sept 6, 1686, Clarendon to Rochester; Editor notes, ‘her problem due to excessive drinking’.

[lxxi] Ibid, Vol. I, pp.493, 496, July 14, 1686.

[lxxii] Catherine Keightley born at Hertingfordbury Park, Wiltshire, on Oct 29, 1676, the only child to survive infancy, of seven sons and two daughters born between 1676 and 1685 including two sets of twins. This may have been the cause of Frances’s fragile mental state. Sylvanus Urban, Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Jan to June 1829, London, 1829, pp.322-323 (April), Volume 99- Mementoes of the Hyde Family (lists all of their birth/death dates)

[lxxiii] Correspondence of Henry Hyde Earl of Clarendon, etc, op.cit, Vol.1, p.577, Sept 6 1686.

[lxxiv] Rev. R.J. Leslie, M.A., Life and Writings of Charles Leslie, M.A.,1885. Also, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Robert D. Cornwall ‘Leslie, Charles (1650-1722)’, Oxford Uni. Press, Sept 2004, which stated Frances had stayed with the Leslies “during a period of attraction to deism”.

[lxxv] Sir Thomas Cartwright, The Diary of Sr Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester, Commencing at the Time of his Elevation to the See..1686 M DC LXXXVI, reprinted form the original in 1843

[lxxvi] Inchiquin Papers, Collection List No. 143, Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland: (collection of records relating to the O’Briens of Dromoland Co. Clare), MS45, 720.1- 1681 (Lady Frances Keightley to daughter Catherine)

[lxxvii] The book, History of the O’Briens from Brian Boroimhe AD 1000 to AD 1945, by Donough O’Brien,

Pub. Batsford 1949- Ch XVIII The Pictures and Works of Art at Dromoland Castle,

has the following information on paintings of Lord Inchiquin’s forebears, the Keightleys:

Thomas Keightley by Marty Beal

Thomas’s wife Lady Frances Hyde

Thomas’s sister (called brother in book) Frances wearing a turban, by Richardson 29”x25”

William Keightley by Greenhill 1648 (29”x34”)

William’s brothers Thomas and John by Vanderhelst and John Reily

William’s wife Amy Williams by Greenhill 1648

William & Thomas’s father Thomas Keightley Snr by Van Somer 1616

Thomas’s wife Rose Evelyn by Van Somer 1616 (1596-1682)

Thomas’s sister Kendrick by Cornelius Janssons 1620

Also pictures of the Hydes, Edward, & chn-Henry, Laurence and Anne.

[lxxviii] Ibid, MS45, 298/5, 298/6 (Letters re Lucius O’Brien’s death)

[lxxix] John Ainsworth, The Inchiquin Manuscripts, op.cit., pp.106, 111

[lxxx] Ibid, MS45, 295/7 - 7 April 1705 (Rochester to Thos. Keightley)

[lxxxi] Inchiquin Papers, MS45, 295/2- 29 Nov 1705, Rochester to Mrs O’Brien, Dromoland, Co Clare. NLI

[lxxxii] Inchiquin Papers, Collection List No. 143; NLI: (a collection of records relating to the O’Briens of Dromoland Co. Clare, including documents related to Thomas Keightly, related by marriage) MS 45, 348 /5-6; 1721-1724/5; p335

[lxxxiii] Ibid, MS45, 720/2 (Keightley, Mrs St Hill, Lady Clarendon)

[lxxxiv] Correspondence of Henry Hyde Earl of Clarendon etc, op.cit., Diary of Lord Clarendon Vol II, p.175, June 8 1688.

[lxxxv] Ibid., pp.231-234, Dec 19-22, 1688

[lxxxvi] John O’Donoghue, Historical Memoir of the O’Briens, Dublin, 1860, p.342-343

[lxxxvii] CSP Dom., Charles II, Entry No [225] page no. 59 Date Oct 13, 1680- the King to the Lord Lieutenant. Warrant for payment of annuity etc.

[lxxxviii] CSP Dom James II Jan 1686 to May 1687, Entry No. 1686., 319, page no. 80, Date March 22, 1686 Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (Clarendon)

[lxxxix] www.ewald.org/Ireland/Shannon/PDA/LoughRee/Portlick2.html

[xc] Cal.SP. Dom, Anne, Entry No. [46], page no. 18, Date March 1702- Royal Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

[xci] Oxford Dictionary of Biography

[xcii] Sir Winston Churchill, Marlborough, His Life and Times, Vol 1, p629, University of Chicago Press edit 2002, 1^st pub. in Oct 1933 by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.

[xciii] Inchiquin Papers, MS45, 295/2- Feb 21, 1701/2- Rochester to Mrs O’Brien

[xciv] Newspaper: Post Man and the Historical Account (London) Sat Oct 23, 1714 issue 11050

[xcv] Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III from 1696 to 1708, (Addressed to Duke of Shrewsbury by James Vernon Esq Sec. of State), Ed. by GPR James Esq, Vol. III, London 1841, pp.187-188

George Stepney (referred to) was in the diplomatic service. Sent to Vienna 1702 as envoy; in 1705 Prince Eugene requested Stepney’s withdrawal, but demand taken back at request of Marlborough; removed to The Hague in 1706.

[xcvi] J. & F. Blom, John Belson (1625-1704), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press Sept 2004. Mrs Bryan Stapleton, A History of the Post-Reformation Catholic Missions in Oxfordshire, London, 1906, pp.263-266, Chapter: Aston Rowant- family of Belson.

[xcvii] Victor M. Hamm, Dryden’s “The Hind and the Panter” and Roman Catholic Apologetics, PMLA, Vol. 83, No. 2 (May 1968), p.406, pub Modern Language Association, Stable URL: www.jstor.org/stable/1261194, National Library of Australia, accessed 18/11/2010

[xcviii] Beverley C. Southgate, Blackloism and Tradition: From Theological Certainty to Historiographical Doubt, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol 61, No. 1 (Jan 2000) pp.97-114, University of Pennsylvania Press

[xcix] Catherine da. of Sir Robert Knollys of Gray’s Court and Joanna Wolstenholme da. of Sir John Wolstenholme of Nostell Abbey Yorkshire. Catherine Knollys m.1. Robert Haldenby/Holmby of Yorkshire (d.19.8.1656), m.2. Thos Keightley 1658.

[c] J. & F. Blom, Austin, John (1613-1669), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; also see Oxford DNB: Thomas White, Thomas Blount, John Sergeant, Sir George Mackenzie.

[ci] Belson Family Papers, Box 2, Folders 1-54, Milton House Archives, Georgetown University, Washington.

[cii] CSP, Dom Charles II, undated., [2992], p.614, Date 1678, Passes etc. (SP Dom Entry Book 51 p122);

SP29/179 f.82 Nov 26 1666-Licence to John Austin & John Belson;

CSP Dom Chas II,[1594], p. 326, Oct 6, 1679 Grants of Denization etc. (SP Dom Entry Book 51, pp168, 261)

[ciii] CSP Dom. Chas II, [1594], p.326, Oct 6, 1679 Grants of Denization etc. (SP Dom Entry Book 51, pp.168, 261)

[civ] Amy’s re-marriage and death according to A History of the County of Hertford: Parishes: Hertingfordbury, Vol. 3 (1912), pp.462-468 (their ref: Close 33 Chas II, pt. vi, no. 34)

[cv] Belson Family Papers, Box 2, Folder 44, op.cit.

[cvi] Correspondence of Henry Hyde Earl of Clarendon, etc, op.cit, Vol 2, p280/1

[cvii] Donald F. McKenzie, Maureen Bell, A Chronology and Calendar of Documents Relating to the London Book Trade, Oxford University Press, USA, 2005, p. 90-91.

[cviii] CSP Dom, William III &.Mary II, [1984], p.324, 30 March 1691

[cix] CSP Dom, Wm III, [1440], p.341, Aug 12, 1696. Passes etc.

[cx] Frank H. Ellis, ‘Sheppard, Sir Fleetwood (1634–1698)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.rp.nla.gov.au/view/article/25342, accessed 17 Oct 2010]

[cxi] CSP Dom, William III & Mary II, [3392], p.512, Mar 14 1690, (H.O. Warrant Book 5, p96); [202], p.31, June 11,1690; [1145], p. 197, March 24 1692, Passes etc; [696], p. 97, Aug 15 1690- Warrants to keeper of Newgate Prison.

[cxii] Belson Family Papers, op.cit., Box 2, Folders 49 & 50: John Sergeant to Maurice Belson re father’s death, dated Feb. 27, 1704/5 & March 28, 1705.

[cxiii] Belson Family Papers, Milton House Archives, Georgetown Univeristy Washington, Box 2 Folder 49- Feb 27 1704/5

[cxiv] The English Catholic Nonjurors of 1715, pub. by Edgar Edmund Estcourt and John Orlebar Payne,1885, p.44

[cxv] Sir Giles and Sir James Long, as mentioned, were Mary Long alias Keightley’s step-sons, by James Long’s first wife Susan Strangways. The property of Burleston was adjacent to the Athelhampton estate in Dorset, both originally purchased by Sir Robert Long 1^st Bt and granted to nephew James Long, of which Mary was given tenancy for life under her husband’s will.

[cxvi] John Burke Esq. & John Bernard Burke Esq., Genealogical & Heraldic History of the Extinct & Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland & Scotland, 2^nd Ed, Genealogical Publications Co. Baltimore, orig. pub. London 1841, reprinted 1977, pp. 320-322- Long of Westminster.

[cxvii] Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, Vol. 6, 1898-99, p.245

[cxviii] Equity & Exchequer Bill Books 1674-1850, Court of the Exchequer Ireland- National Archives Dublin: Filmed by the LDS (Genealogical Society of Utah) 2001 (ref: Equity Exchequer Bill Books v.19-v.21, 1714-1719- Vault British film [2262646]- Vol. 21, p.99- 14 Feb 1718

[cxix] Inchiquin Papers, Collection List No. 143; MS 45; Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland: (a collection of records relating to the O’Briens of Dromoland Co. Clare, including letters to/from Thomas Keightley, related by marriage), MS 45, 720/2 (last page)- Bundle of Lady Clarendon’s letters.

[cxx] Inchiquin Papers, Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland, MS 45, 346/4; 23 Jan 1717/18 -Letter from Marg. Forde to Catherine O’Brien

Sunday 13 October 2013

Butlers of Co. Wexford- Ch.15: Walter Butler Junior of Munphin Pt.3- marriage to Mary Long