accounted for to the exchequer, or granted out, till the heir came of age, to some person capable of discharging the conditions of their tenure. It being fit that the king should be well assured of the fidelity of his vassal, and that the vassal should not make any alliance with persons disaffected to his majesty, or enemies to his crown, which might naturally be supposed likely to draw him from his allegiance, or make him cool in the service, the wardship and marriage of the heir was likewise reserved to the crown. These lands and wardships were usually granted to favourites and men of power and interest, who, though they gave security to the court of wards to take due care, as well of the education and maintenance of the heir, as of the good condition of the estate, too often neglected both, destroyed the woods, and committed horrible waste upon the lands, brought up the heir in ignorance, and in a mean manner unworthy of his quality, and selling his person to the best bidder, matched him unequally in point of birth and fortune, as well as disagreeably with regard to the character, qualities, and figure of the person that was picked out to be the companion of his life. Some flagrant instances of this sort made all the gentry of England uneasy, not knowing how soon it might come to be the fate of their own heirs; and for that reason they were extremely desirous to have those tenures destroyed, and the court of wards suppressed. In the time of king James several attempts were made in parliament, and treaties set on foot for this purpose; but, still differing about the equivalent, they never ended in any agreement. In the distress of king Charles I this matter was brought again upon the stage at the treaty of the Isle of Wight, and in that low condition of his majesty's affairs the parliament would have consented to a revenue of two hundred thousand pounds a year, rather than not carry that point. The violence. of the army put an end to that treaty, and the king's

death soon followed. The parliament had by an ordinance abolished this court in 1644, and for fear of its being reestablished upon the restoration, the convention, after king Charles II had been proclaimed in London, and before he arrived in England, ordered a bill to be brought in for taking away all military and feudal tenures, and for abolishing the court of wards, giving the king instead thereof a revenue of one hundred thousand pounds a year out of the excise, which they regulated by very severe laws, that the income for which it was given might be as certain as that revenue which arose from the court of wards, which, being raised out of lands taken into the king's possession till all his demands were satisfied, was liable to no accident or failure. It were to be wished that this convention had shewn a greater regard to justice in assigning the equivalent for that revenue, and had laid the burden of it upon the gentlemen who alone suffered from the oppressions of the court of wards, and reaped the benefit of the abolishing of military tenures, instead of subjecting the common people (who got nothing by that act, and who were before as free and as much masters of their own houses as the gentry) to a servitude, and to grievances very uneasy to be borne, and which may possibly in the course of time reach at last 249 the gentlemen themselves, and be the occasion of as many and as heavy complaints as the court of wards. It were to be wished likewise, that when that court was put down, some other method had been established by law (whether by reviving the ancient practice of funeral certificates given by our kings at arms upon the death of the nobility and gentry, by adding further powers to the provincial kings, obliging them to make regular visitations of their respective provinces, and giving the authority of evidence to the original books of those visitations, or in some other manner) to prove the descent of families, upon which the right of estates and honours so

much depends. It hath proved very unhappy to some of our nobility and gentry that this court was put down so immediately upon the restoration, after the miserable confusion of all rights, and the great destruction of deeds in the civil war, before the records of that court were looked into, and the methods of its proceedings had brought gentlemen into some knowledge of their rights and estates, set out upon long tenures, which for want of proper inquiries at that time will now perhaps be lost for ever. The inquisitions post mortem, taken by escheators and feodaries, the homages, liveries, and other instruments preserved upon record, will easily prove the descent of gentlemen who held lands of the crown before 1641, but since that time what is there of a public record to prove it? The younger branches of noble families will every day find it more and more difficult to prove their genealogy, and make good their claims to honours; and I am persuaded, that if some method be not taken speedily to make those records we yet have, and which are multiplying daily, less expensive to be searched, more easy to be found, and consequently more useful to the world, or to provide some more distinct and authentic accounts of descents than our parish registers can furnish, few gentlemen in this kingdom thirty or forty years hence will be able to prove their descent so high as their great grandfather.

82

Some great men in his majesty's council, influenced probably by a spirit of liberty, not satisfied with abolishing the court of wards in England, were desirous to have it suppressed likewise in Ireland. They signified as much to the lords justices, who, (as one of them (the lord Orrery) writes to the duke of Ormond,) imagining that they would not have given encouragement to a thing of that importance, without having first sounded and known his majesty's pleasure therein, recommended the bringing in of a bill for that purpose, and for settling an excise in

lieu thereof, as had been done in England. The bill was twice read, if not engrossed, when the earl of Orrery received a private hint from Mr. secretary Nicholas that possibly it would not pass, nor readily have his majesty's approbation. His lordship hereupon moved immediately at the board, that the bill for taking away the court of wards might not be part of the bill for settling the excise; urging that it looked more like a bargain than a gift, or indeed rather like a menace, that if the king would not take away that court, they would not give him the excise. Hereupon, that about the court of wards was made a distinct bill, that if his majesty should think fit to deny or pause on the matter, the passing of the other, which made a considerable part of his revenue, might not either be delayed or hazarded. The two bills however were transmitted to England together; that of the excise was soon despatched, and being sent back passed both houses of parliament; but the king demurred upon the other. He considered the court of wards and the feudal rights and tenures as the greatest sovereignty of the crown, and the best insurance of the subject's de{ pendence on his royal authority. It was dangerous in Ireland to lessen that dependence in any respect, and very improper to give up that power, which the crown, by the wardship of heirs, had of breeding them up in the 250 protestant religion; by means whereof all the great families in the kingdom might in some time be recovered from the errors of popery. It was more necessary at this time than it had ever been in any age, to keep up all the feudal rights and continue the court of wards, because of the great multitude of fanatics and other nonconformists, very loose in their notions of allegiance, who had lately settled, and were now going to be established in Ireland; so that unless care was taken that the next generation should be educated in better principles, the king could not in any exigence depend upon the obe

dience of his subjects, when kept no longer in a state of dependence. This made him unwilling to part with the court of wards, and the difficulty he made in that point increased the impatient desire which the parliament had of the abolishing thereof. Both houses addressed for the passing of the bill, and understanding that the principal end proposed by his majesty in continuing that court was the better education of youth in loyal principles, and such as were agreeable to the doctrine and discipline of the church of England, they professed themselves ready to agree to such a bill, and desired the lords justices to transmit one of that nature into England. This was done, but yet did not remove all the difficulties in the case, till after the duke of Ormond came over as lord lieutenant, who, finding that the standing revenue of the kingdom, according to an exact calculation, did not amount by forty-two thousand pounds to answer the charge of the civil and military lists, proposed to some members of the house of commons that the deficiency might be made up by a tax upon chimneys and hearths, according to the precedent lately set in England. This produced on Aug. 8 a motion in that house for a bill to settle the hearth-money, as a standing revenue of the crown in lieu of the court of wards; the motion was approved unanimously, and that tax being settled, the court of wards was afterwards suppressed.

83

The duke of Ormond had intended to have been over in Ireland very early in the spring, but the unexpected delay of the queen's arrival in England caused his departure thence to be delayed. His majesty had lately concluded a marriage with the infanta of Portugal, at this time not full twenty-four years of age, and had been complimented thereon by his parliament of England. This marriage, not proving fruitful in children, has been much condemned since that time, and been imputed, as people's different affections, passions, and prejudices led