Gerald le Grys Norgate

“ Having become a full member of the society, O'Reilly was appointed teacher of theology at the Jesuits’ college of St. Beuno's, near St. Asaph. His lectures here attracted attention, and in the summer of 1868 he was selected by Newman and the Irish bishops as teacher of divinity in the newly founded catholic university of Ireland. Early in the next year, however, his society again claimed his services, and appointed him superior of their new house of retreat at Milltown Port, Dublin, where he passed the rest of his life. From 1863 to 1870 he was Irish provincial of his society. ”

“ The question never again came before the courts; but during his lifetime Sir Peter's claim to the baronetcy was acknowledged. He refused, however, to register himself as a baronet.
Peter was educated at Hackney and at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1784 and M.A. in 1787. A handsome youth, though delicate, he took an active part in field sports, was a captain in the Bedfordshire militia, and was a deputy-lieutenant for the county for upwards of half a century. In politics he was a strong whig, and he exerted much political influence in the Midlands. ”

“ Petersburg embassy, and the presidency of the board of control, Pelham joined the Addington ministry as home secretary in 1801. In July of the same year, on his father's promotion to the earldom of Chichester, he took his seat in the House of Lords under his father's former title of Baron Pelham of Stanmer. He told Lord Malmesbury he only joined the cabinet by the express wish of the king. His relations with Addington were never smooth. He resented the withdrawal of colonial affairs from his department, and had differences with the prime minister both on foreign policy and Irish affairs. ”

“ PENNINGTON, JOHN, first Baron Muncaster in the peerage of Ireland and fifth baronet (1737–1813) , born in 1737, was the eldest son of Sir Joseph Pennington, fourth baronet, and Sarah, daughter and sole heiress of John Moore, esq., of Somerset. The family came originally from Pennington in Furness, Lancashire, but had resided at Muncaster, on the river Usk, in Cumberland, since the middle of the thirteenth century. They had also acquired property, chiefly by marriage, in Westmoreland and Yorkshire. ”

“ In November of the same year, on the promotion of Sir Robert Lush to a lord-justice- ship, his son-in-law, Williams, was appointed to the vacant puisne judgeship, though he had recently made a public declaration that he would never accept such an office. He was a most painstaking, fair, and independent judge. He concurred in the judgement of the crown cases reserved in upholding the conviction of Most in connection with the murder of the tsar, Alexander II. In Sanders v. Richardson he decided that a parent who sends a child to school without fee is liable to legal penalty. ”

“ Richard, who became the head of the family upon the failure of the line of his elder brother in August 1683, was sheriff of Rutland in 1682. He was knighted on 1 April 1685, when he presented an address of congratulation to James II, on his accession, from his constituents of the county of Warwick. He was again returned for Warwickshire to the first parliament of William and Mary. In 1694, as a descendant through the heiress of Greville, from Robert Willoughby, second baron, he laid claim to the barony of Willoughby de Broke. ”

“ He had been appointed president of Sion College in 1798, and acted as prolocutor of the lower house of convocation in 1802, 1806, and 1807. The fire which broke out in the roof of the lantern of Westminster Abbey on 9 July 1803 necessitated repairs to the fabric. They were all paid for by the dean and chapter; but in 1805 Vincent addressed a letter to Pitt praying for a national grant for the restoration of Henry VII's Chapel. Fourteen annual grants, beginning from 1807, were received, and the work was proceeded with under the direction of Thomas Gayfere and Benjamin Wyatt. ”

“ He died in 1060. His eldest son, Richard, accompanied Duke William to England, and was created Baron de Shipbrook in the county palatine of Chester (Ormerod, Cheshire, iii. 245–51) . Richard's descendant, William de Vernon, chief justice of Chester in the reign of Henry III, by his marriage with Avicia, daughter of William de Avenel, acquired part of the manor of Haddon in Derbyshire, which ultimately came into full possession of the family, and was retained by them for more than three centuries. Sir Richard Vernon, the speaker, was under age at the time of his father's death. ”

“ Meanwhile Magee continued to lampoon Higgins and Lord Clonmell, and the ‘Freeman's Journal,’ which belonged to Higgins, replied with equal scurrility. To revenge himself upon the lord chief justice he arranged for Lammas day, in honour of the Prince of Wales's birthday, what he called a ‘Bra Pleasura’ in a field adjoining Lord Clonmell's house at Dunleary, or ‘Fiat Hill.’ Lord Cloncurry was an eye-witness, and an account is also given by Sir Jonah Barrington. A mob of several thousands assembled. A derisive programme of sports was performed. ”

“ VERNON, GEORGE (1637–1720) , divine, born in 1637, was a native of Cheshire, but his name does not figure in the pedigree of any branches of the well-known Cheshire family of Vernon (Ormerod, Cheshire, iii. passim) . He was admitted as a servitor at Brasenose College, Oxford, on 17 March 1653–4, and graduated B.A. in October 1657 and M.A. in July 1660. Having taken holy orders, he became chaplain of All Souls', and in 1663 rector of Sarsden, Oxfordshire. Subsequently he was appointed rector of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. ”

“ Greville calls Northumberland ‘a very good sort of man, with a very narrow understanding, an eternal talker, and a prodigious bore.’ The further statement that ‘he had no political opinions’ seems scarcely tenable in view of his early attitude on the slavery question and his later conduct of affairs in Ireland. ”

“ Both king and queen evinced dislike of his proceedings. George III had written (5 Nov. 1780) of ‘that peevish temper for which he [Percy] has ever been accused’ (Corresp. with North, ii. 341) . When Fox anticipated taking office in 1789, he offered Northumberland the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland and afterwards the mastership of the ordnance (Russell, Life of C. J. Fox, iv. 283) .
In 1797 further overtures were made to him through Lord Moira in expectation of Pitt's retirement, but he received them coolly, remarking that no ministry would last a session against both Pitt and Fox. ”

“ On 3 Feb. 1814, John Magee, junior, was again convicted of libel, he having published in his paper certain resolutions of the Roman catholics of Kilkenny. He was sentenced on 4 Aug. to a fine of 1,000l. and imprisonment for six months, to commence from the expiration of his former term (Gent. Mag. 1814, i. 189) .
James Magee (d. 1866) , a younger son, was brought up as a merchant, but (probably in 1815) began to conduct the ‘Dublin Evening Post.’ The line he took was so conciliatory to the government that he appears to have been refunded part of the money paid in fines by his brother. ”

“ By his first wife, Anne (d. 1659) , daughter and coheir of Paul, second viscount Bayning, he had no issue; but by the second, Diana, daughter of George Kirke, groom of the bedchamber to Charles II [see under Kirke, Percy] , he had a son and three daughters. A portrait of the second countess was painted by Lely (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 461) . The son predeceased his father. Two daughters, Margaret and Henrietta, were buried in Westminster Abbey. A third, Diana, married Charles Beauclerk, first duke of St. Albans. Their third son was on 28 March 1750 created Baron Vere of Hanworth ”

“ Sir Jonah Barrington speaks of O'Neill's ‘portly and graceful mien,’ and adds that he was ‘high-minded, well-educated, his abilities moderate, but his understanding sound; incapable of deception; one of the most perfect models of an aristocratic patriot.’ Musgrave bears testimony to other amiable qualities, and to the fact that he was charitable in all senses of the word. Grattan's son calls O'Neill ‘a high-spirited and independent member;’ but Lord Charlemont, in a letter to Richard Jephson, dated 4 Dec. ”

“ On 29 Aug. 1661 Oxford received the colonelcy of a regiment which throughout his life was called after him ‘the Oxford blues,’ and which after his death became ‘the blues,’ or the royal regiment of horse guards blue. During the Dutch war he was very active in his own county of Essex making preparations against the threatened landing of the enemy. ”

“ In 1753 he became a trustee of the British Museum. Alnwick Castle the duke thoroughly repaired and renovated in pseudo-Gothic style. Johnson visited it when on his way to Scotland, and, being treated with great civility by the duke (BOSWELL, ed. Hill, iii. 272) , remarked, ‘He is only fit to succeed himself’ (ib. ii. 132) . On 5 July 1764 the duke is said to have celebrated the king's birthday by entertaining fifteen hundred guests. Northumberland House, in London, was enlarged, and Sir Horace Mann [q. v.] ”

“ He was interested in the Stroud society for providing gratuitous medical advice and medicine for the neighbouring poor, of which he became president in 1783. He was active in putting down ‘slingeing,’ or the embezzlement of, and fraudulent dealing in, cloth material. On 14 Aug. 1788 George III, Queen Charlotte, and their three eldest daughters, when on their way to Cheltenham, breakfasted at Hill House with Paul, and visited Obadiah Paul's cloth manufactory at Woodchester Mill. Paul was one of the party who accompanied Sir Walter Scott to the Hebrides in 1810. ”

“ In 1450 Vernon was made treasurer of Calais, and he died in the following year. At his death, besides the Haddon property, he was possessed of the Pembruge estates of Tong, Ayleston, and Ullingwyke, Shropshire (inherited from his great-uncle, Sir Fulk) , the Swynnerton estates at Harlaston, Staffordshire, and other property in Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire. He married Benedicta de Ludlow, daughter of Sir Robert Pembruge of Tong and Juliana Trussel. According to an inscription in Bakewell church, Derbyshire, they are said to have founded a chapel there in 1427. ”

“ Robert de Vere (1599?–1632) was the only son and heir of Hugh de Vere, grandson of John de Vere, fifteenth earl of Oxford [q. v.] , by Eleanor, daughter of William Walsh. Hugh de Vere, who was first cousin of Sir Francis Vere [q. v.] , and to Horace, lord Vere [q. v.] , of Tilbury, served as a volunteer in Leicester's first campaign in the Netherlands. His son Robert followed in his footsteps, serving under Horace, lord Vere. In April 1625 Robert claimed the earldom of Oxford, and also the office of lord chamberlain in succession to Henry de Vere, eighteenth earl [q. v.] ”

“ His judgement in the important case of privilege of counsel (Munster v. Lamb) , when he nonsuited the plaintiff, was upheld by the superior courts. To the council of judges Williams submitted a paper advocating the abolition of distinctions between the common pleas and exchequer divisions, but the retention of the chiefships. He publicly repudiated their decisions announced in November 1881, declaring that nothing less than an act of parliament should ever induce him to deprive a prisoner of the right of making a statement to a jury of facts not given in evidence. ”

“ During his eight months' stay in Paris, Tone saw much of him, and Madgett translated for him memorials to the French government, and showed great zeal in forwarding preparations for a French expedition to Ireland. His favourite scheme of obtaining recruits among the Irish prisoners of war, for which purpose he visited Orleans before Tone left, Tone thought ‘damned nonsense,’ but believed Madgett ‘very sincere in the business,’ though he ‘pestered him confoundedly.’ Lord Castlereagh's correspondent reported that Madgett lived in the Rue de Bac, near Thomas Muir [q. v.] ”

“ Vincent was also a frequent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’
Vincent died at Islip on 21 Dec. 1815, and was buried in St. Benedict's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, where his monument, between those of South and Busby, bears a Latin inscription from his own hand. He married, in 1771, Hannah, fourth daughter of George Wyatt, chief clerk of the vote office, House of Commons. She died on 17 Feb. 1807, leaving issue. There is a mural tablet to her with inscription by her husband in the north transept of the abbey. ”

“ PENNEFATHER, EDWARD (1774?–1847) , Irish judge, of Rathsellagh, Dunlavin, Wicklow, born about 1774, was the second son of Major William Pennefather of Knockevan, Tipperary, and Ellen, eldest daughter of Edward Moore, D.D., archdeacon of Emly. The founder of the Irish branch of the family was a cornet in the army named Matthew Pennefather, a younger brother of Abraham Pennefather of Hanbury-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire. In 1666 Matthew acquired by patent estates in Tipperary county, and inherited others from his wife Levina Kingsmill. ”

“ He marched thirty miles in ten hours during the day, and was under an incessant fire for fifteen miles (Bancroft, iv. 538–9) . Owing probably to a disagreement with William Howe, fifth viscount [q. v.] , he did not accompany his regiment to Bunker Hill, where it was, in his own words, ‘almost entirely cut to pieces;’ but in March 1776, ‘though he had no heart for the enterprise,’ according to Bancroft, he was given the command of two thousand four hundred men for an attack on Dorchester Heights. The attack was ultimately abandoned, and Boston evacuated. ”

“ VERNEY, RICHARD, third Baron Willoughby de Broke (1621–1711) , born at Kingston, Warwickshire, on 28 Jan. 1621, was the third son of Sir Greville Verney (d. 1642) of Compton Murdac, Warwickshire, by Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk. His grandfather, Sir Richard Verney (1563–1630) , by his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Sir Fulk Greville, became possessed of estates in Hertfordshire, Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, and Staffordshire ”

“ On 26 March 1776 he became general in America, and attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the army on 29 Aug. 1777. On 16 Nov. 1776 he commanded a division in the attack on Fort Washington, and was the first to enter the enemy's lines. In the following year, however, after many disputes with Howe, he demanded and obtained his recall. On 18 June Walpole writes: ‘Lord Percy is come home disgusted with Howe’ (Corresp. vi. 445, 446 n.)
Percy was very popular with his regiment, which obtained permission to call itself the Northumberland fusiliers. ”