Page images
PDF
EPUB

village of Lowther, and liberally endowed it, from a conviction that it was the duty of every good citizen to promote the welfare of his country. He intended it for learning not barely languages, but virtue; for the purpose of instilling early principles of reverence to the name of God, and of obedience to his divine pleasure.

He left issue by his wife Catharine, the daughter of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, three sons and five daughters. She survived him many years. All his daughters were honourably and happily married, except Jane, the third, who died unmarried in 1752.

1. Richard, his eldest son, died on the first day of December, 1713; an early victim to that cruel disease, the small-pox, which at that time so frequently and so fatally blasted the happiness, and destroyed the hopes, of families. To this amiable youth Mr. Tickell, a native of Cumberland, and the friend and biographer of Mr. Addison, inscribed his elegant poem, entitled OXFORD, beginning with these lines:

Whilst you, my Lord, adorn that stately seat,
Where shining Beauty makes her soft retreat;
Enjoying all those graces uncontroll❜d,
Which noblest youths would die but to behold:
Whilst you inhabit Lowther's aweful pile,
A structure worthy of the founder's toil,

Amazed we see the former Lonsdale shine,
In each descendent of his noble line:

But most transported and surprised we view
His ancient glories all revived in you,

Where charms and virtues join their equal race,

Your father's god-like soul, your mother's lovely face.

2. Henry, the third Viscount Lonsdale, succeeded his brother Richard, and was in 1715 appointed Custos Rotulorum, and afterward Lord Lieutenant, of the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. In 1717, he was made one of the Lords of the Bedchamber. On the accession of George I., he was appointed Constable of the Tower of London, and Lord Lieutenant of the Hamlets thereof, and was afterward Lord Privy Seal. His character is thus portrayed by one of his contemporaries :

An attempt toward the Character of a Nobleman lately deceased.

The

Great Man,

Whose character these lines presume but to sketch,
If considered in

His attachment to the Protestant succession,
His love to the King,

And his readiness to co-operate with his Ministers
Whenever he thought them in the right,
Was a true Courtier.

But if we regard

His constant adherence to the interests of his country,
His contempt of honours and advantages to himself,
And his steady opposition to every measure
Which he thought detrimental to the public,
He was indeed a Patriot.
Beloved by his friends,

Respected even by his enemies,

He was honoured in the Senate with attention from both.

Courted by all parties,

Enlisting with none,

He preserved throughout his life a remarkable independency.
These public virtues arose

From the excellence of his private disposition,
From the universal benevolence of his heart,
From the uprightness of his intentions,
From his great parts and uncommon penetration.
O Reader!

Can it be necessary to inform thee,

Whose character this is?

Alas!

To how few can it be applied, but

To HENRY Lord Viscount LONSDALE!

Lord Clare, in 1774, wrote the following Epitaph on this amiable Nobleman, as “a tribute of affection and reverence to his dearest friend, and the most perfect man he ever had the happiness and honour of being acquainted with." It is addressed to Sir James Lowther.

EPITAP H.

Could every virtue of the human breast,
Taught by the wisest, practised by the best;
Could kind Beneficence with open hands,
Whose tender heart at Pity's call expands;
Could patriot Zeal, refined in Freedom's flame,
Pure as from heaven the bright effusion came;
Could patient Fortitude, whose powers restrain
The rising sigh, and blunt the edge of pain;
From Fate's relentless doom persuasive save
The wise, the good, the generous, and the brave;
Not yet would Britain her loved son resign,
Nor grateful LOWTHER mix his tears with mine.

He died at Byram, in the county of York, on the seventh day of March, 1750-1, and by his will (dated the twenty-seventh of May, 1747, left his real estate to his heir at law, Jame the son of Robert Lowther, Esquire, of Meaburr in Westmoreland; who on May 24, 1784, was by patent created a Peer of Great Britain, by the

title of Earl of Lonsdale, Viscount Lonsdale, Viscount Lowther, Baron Lowther, Baron of Kendal, and Baron of Burgh.

3. Antony, the youngest son, one of the Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland, was representative in parliament for Cockermouth from 1714 to 1722, and afterward knight of the shire for Westmoreland. He died November 24, 1741, unmarried.

« PreviousContinue »