The Right Hon. Sir THOMAS EDMONDS, knt. Stow sc. half sh. Sir Thomas Edmonds was the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Edmonds, customer of the ports of Plymouth, and of Fowey, in Cornwall, and was born in the former town in 1563. His mother was Joan, daughter of Anthony Delabere, of Sherburne, in Dorsetshire. He is said to have been introduced at the court of Elizabeth by his namesake, Sir Thomas Edmonds, comptroller of her household; and he certainly received there the rudiments of his political education from Sir Francis Walsingham. In 1592 the queen appointed him her agent in France, in the affairs of the King of Navarre and the Protestants, and he remained there till 1596; when she made him her secretary for the French tongue. He returned to Paris in the following year, in the same character; in 1600 was her resident at Brussels, and a commissioner at the treaty of Boulogne; and in 1601 was appointed one of the clerks of the privy council, and was again minister at Paris. He was knighted by James I. May 20, 1603, and in 1604 was sent ambassador to the emperor; during his absence at whose court the reversion of the office of clerk of the crown was granted to him, and he was chosen member for the borough of Wilton. He returned from Brussels in 1609, and was soon after ambassador at Paris, where he remained for some years. On the 21st of December, 1616, he was appointed comptroller, and on the 19th January, 1618, treasurer of the royal household; and in the intermediate year was sworn of the privy council. He represented the university of Oxford in the first parliament of Charles I. In 1629, he was once more ambassador in France; and on his return retired from public affairs to his manor of Albyns, in Essex, which was brought to him by his wife Magdalen, daughter and coheir of Sir John Wood, knt. clerk of the signet; and where he employed Inigo Jones to build him a mansion, now the seat of the family of Abdy. He died Sept. 20, 1639; leaving one son, Sir Henry Edmonds, K. B. and three daughters; Isabella, wife of Henry, lord Delawar; Mary, married to Mr. Robert Mildmay, ancestor of the lords Fitzwalter; and Louisa, to a servant of her father's family. The original letters and other important papers of Sir Thomas Edmonds, in twelve folio volumes, which were once possessed by Secretary Thurloe, and afterward by Lord Chancellor Somers, have lately been added by the Most Noble Duke of Buckingham, to the superb collection of MSS. which has been long forming under the judicious direction of his grace, and his ancestors. WILLIAM TRUMBULL, esq. envoy to the court of Brussels, from King James I. and King Charles I. Otho Venii p. 1617. G. Vertue sc. 1726; h.sh. TRUMBULL, agent pour les &c. roys Jac. I. et Char. I. M. GUILL. TRUMBULL. S. Gribelin sc. 4to. William Trumbull, esq. was also one of the clerks of the privy council. There is a short account of his descendants on the family monuments in the church of Easthamstead, Berks.* See more of him in Sir Ant. Weldon's "Court of King James," p. 94. SIR HENRY NEVILLE, ambassador to France, 1599. W. N. Gardiner. Sir Henry Neville, of Billingbere, in Berkshire, owed his introduction at court to a family connexion with Secretary Cecil, and his promotion there, perhaps, yet more to his own merit; for he was a person of great wisdom and integrity. He was appointed ambassador to France in April, 1599; and, in the summer of the following year, acted as first commissioner at the treaty of Boulogne. Unfortunately for him, the negotiation was concluded a few months before the discovery of Essex's conspiracy; and at his return he unwarily listened to some hints of that wild design which his excessive attachment to the earl induced him to conceal. Essex, on his arraignment, named him as a party; he was committed to the Tower for misprision of treason, in the midst of his preparations for a return to his charge in France, and sentenced to pay a heavy fine; which (as appears from a letter printed by Mr. Lodge) was mitigated to five thousand pounds. The alteration caused in his pecuniary circumstances by the rigid exaction of this penalty, compelled him in the next reign to accept of offices beneath his deserts, • It appears from them, that he was grandfather to Sir William Trumbull, the friend of Mr. Pope. and repugnant to his spirited disposition. We find him projecting and executing various little schemes for the temporary relief of James's necessities; and, in spite of the efforts made by his friends to get him appointed secretary in 1612, he was never advanced to any high employment; owing, as it is said, to the king's having conceived a personal dislike to him.* Sir Henry died July 10th, 1615. He was ancestor to Lord Braybroke. ANTONIUS SHERLEYUS, Anglus, &c. magni Sophi Persarum legatus invictissimo Cæsari, cæterisque princibus Christianis, &c. Ægidius Sadeler (sculptor) D. D. 4to. 1612: ANTON. SCHERLEYUS, Ang. &c. in a cloak; gold chain, appendant to which is a medal of the Sophi; 4to. This scarce and curious print was, probably, engraved by one of the Sadelers. ANTONIUS SHERLEY US, in armour, in a square, with arms; Joannes Orlandi formis Romæ, &c. 1601; rare. Sir Anthony Shirley, second son of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, in Sussex,† was one of the gallant adventurers who went to annoy the Spaniards in their settlements in the West Indies in the former reign. He afterward travelled to Persia, and returned to England in the quality of ambassador from the Sophi, in 1612. The next year he published an account of his travels. He was knight of the order of St. Michael in France, a knight of St. Jago in Spain, and was, by the Emperor of Germany, raised to the dignity of a count; and the King of Spain made him admiral of the Levant sea. He died in Spain, after the year 1630. ROBERTUS SHERLEY, Anglus, Comes Cæsareus, Eques auratus. Under the oval is this inscription: " Magni Sophi Persarum Legatus ad sereniss. D. N. Paulum P. P. V. cæterosque Principes Christi * See Lodge's |