Earl of Dorset

“ We next find the youthful poet in relation with the Earl of Dorset, from whom she must have concealed her Jacobite propensities. Dorset was the great public patron of poetry under William III., and Catharine Trotter, aged sixteen, having composed a tragedy, appealed to him for support. It was very graciously granted, and Agnes de Castro, in five acts and in blank verse, "written by a young lady," was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1695, under the "protection" of Charles Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household. ”

“ In 1411 his brother Thomas, afterwards duke of Exeter, was created earl of Dorset, and in 1441 his youngest son Edmund obtained the same dignity. Two years later Edmund was created marquess of Dorset and still later duke of Somerset. Edmund’s son Henry, duke of Somerset and marquess of Dorset, was attainted during the Wars of the Roses, and was beheaded after the battle of Hexham in May 1464, when the titles became extinct. ”

“ After the death of Edward IV. Dorset and his brother Richard Grey were among the supporters of their half-brother, the young king Edward V.; thus they incurred the enmity of Richard duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., and Richard Grey having been arrested, was beheaded at Pontefract in June 1483, while his elder brother, the marquess, saved his life by flight. Dorset was one of the leaders of the duke of Buckingham’s insurrection, and when this failed he joined Henry earl of Richmond in Brittany, but he was left behind in Paris when the future king crossed over to England in 1485. ”

“ OF the Earl of Dorset the character has been drawn so largely and so elegantly by Prior, to whom he was familiarly known, that nothing can be added by a casual hand; and, as its author is so generally read, it would be useless officiousness to transcribe it. ”

“ The Earl of Dorset, in a letter written at this time to the English ambassador in France, uses these expressions: "That our rising sun is set ere scarcely he had shone, and that with him all our glory lies buried, you know and do lament as well as we; and better than some do, and more truly, or else you are not a man, and sensible of this kingdom's loss." ”

“ He was present at the battle of Edgehill, perhaps in charge of the young princes. James II wrote (in 1679) that ‘the old Earl of Dorset at Edgehill, being commanded by the king, my father, to go and carry the prince and myself up the hill out of the battle, refused to do it, and said he would not be thought a coward for ever a king's son in Christendom’ (Hist. MSS. 11th Rep. App. v. 40) . He came to Oxford with the king, but more than once protested against the continuance of the war; a speech made by him at the council table against one by the Earl of Bristol, 18 Jan. ”

“ A Gentleman of a good Family in the County of Norfolk; was well received by the Noblemen of Wit, especially the present Earl of Dorset, the late Duke of Newcastle, &c. he was on the Revolution made Poet Laureat, which place he held till his Death, which happened about three or four Years since. ”

“ Lord Buckhurst was, in fact, a persona grata at court: a man of wit, a poet, a dramatist. Also a man of tact and management, for in his old age, in 1603, he was created Earl of Dorset by Gloriana’s successor, James the First.
And so the descent continued from first to seventh earl, who succeeded like chapters in a history, of which a new volume opened with the seventh earl being created a duke. ”

“ The Earl of Dorset had no very exalted opinion of him as a jouster, and he told Wolsey that "we found him and his company not like as they have been named; for though they do run trimly and handle themself well [enough] with their small and light staves, they could not well trim themselves in their harn [ess but] be content to have our poor advices." ”

“ At the Revolution D. was deprived of all his pensions and appointments, including the Laureateship, in which he was succeeded by his old enemy Shadwell. His latter years were passed in comparative poverty, although the Earl of Dorset and other old friends contributed by their liberality to lighten his cares. In these circumstances he turned again to the drama, which, however, was no longer what it had been as a source of income. ”

“ The Stone Court leads by an insignificant loggia, supported on Jacobean pillars, to the Great Hall, built between the years 1603-8 by that magnificent person the first Earl of Dorset, who in all those years gave constant employment to two hundred men, in his alterations and repairs, and spent £20,000 on furnishing a bedroom for the expected visit of James the First to him. ”

“ He has, for several Years, had the Patronage of the present Earl of Dorset, and has Merit to deserve more than he has met with from others: He is guilty of Modesty, of which few of his Profession know much; and it is the noisy pushing Man in Poetry, as well as other things, that prevails with Fame as well as Fortune. ”

“ His Poems are included in Anderson’s and other collections of the British poets.
Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (1688–1765) , the only son of the 6th earl, was born on the 18th of January 1688. He succeeded his father as 7th earl of Dorset in January 1706, and was created duke of Dorset in 1720. He was lord steward of the royal household from 1725 to 1730, and lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1730 to 1737; he was again lord steward from 1737 to 1745, and was lord president of the council from 1745 to 1751. ”

“ Under Elizabeth, Lord John, a strong Protestant, was restored to the royal favour, and he died on the 19th of November 1569. In 1603 his son Henry (d. 1614) was created Baron Grey of Groby, and in 1628 his great-grandson Henry was made earl of Stamford.
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset (c. 1530–1608) , English statesman and poet, son of Sir Richard Sackville and his wife Winifrede, daughter of Sir John Bruges or Bridges, lord mayor of London, was born at Buckhurst, in the parish of Withyham, Sussex. ”

“ His wife Mary (d. 1645) , daughter of Sir George Curzon, was governess to the sons of Charles I., the future kings Charles II. and James II. His character is thus summed up by S. R. Gardiner: “Pre-eminent in beauty of person, and in the vigour of a cultivated intellect, he wanted nothing to fit him for the highest places in the commonwealth but that stern sense of duty without which no man can be truly great.”
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (1638–1706) , English poet and courtier, son of Richard Sackville, 5th earl (1622–1677) , was born on the 24th of January 1638. ”

“ Dorset took a prominent part in the government during Edward's minority, and actively championed the cause of the reformation. He was as weak as he was ambitious. He was persuaded by Lord Seymour of Sudeley to leave his daughter Lady Jane [see Dudley, Lady Jane] in Seymour's household, with the hope that she would marry the king. On Seymour's fall in 1548 Dorset attached himself to John Dudley, earl of Warwick [q. v.] , who became protector in 1549. On 11 Dec. 1549 the marquis became a privy councillor, and in 1550 received the post of justice itinerant of the king's forests. ”

“ It is partly to see after the estate, to hear the complaints of my vassals and to do what I can for them, and in the next place I wanted to see these fortifications that you have raised, and, thirdly, I shall shortly ride to Paris in the train of the Earl of Dorset, the Lord Grey, Admiral of England, some bishops, and many other knights and nobles, amounting in the whole to 600 horse. ”

“ Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, Lord Buckhurst. Obv. Half-length figure, three quarters l., wearing high collar, &c. Rev. Shield, arms of the Earl with supporters, &c., and motto, TOVSIOVR LOYAL. CLARISSIMVS D'. RICHARD'. SACKVILE BARO BVCKHVRSTIÆ COMES DORCESTRIÆ. Silver. Oval. Size 2·15.
Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset, born 1589, died 1624.
CHARLES I. 1625—1649. 68. Coronation, 1626. Obv. Bust of King r., crowned, &c., CAROLVS I. D. G. MAG. BRITAN. &c. N.B. Rev. Arm issuing from cloud brandishing sword. DONEC PAX REDDITA TERRIS: in ex., CORON. 2. FEBRV. 1626. Gold. ”

“ Yet, we are told, the Earl ever encouraged his men by his presence of mind and his example; then they spoke a vessel which helped them with a little beer, and at last they put into Ventre-haven on the west coast of Ireland.
On arriving in London, as if the Earl had not suffered enough already, news was brought him that his eldest son was dead. But shortly after came another messenger announcing the birth of a daughter; this was the Lady Anne Clifford, who became, first, Countess of Dorset, and then of Pembroke. ”

“ On being introduced by Earl Dorset to King William, after the publication of his poetical Epistle occasioned by his Majesty’s Victory in Ireland, he was ordered to receive an immediate pension of £500 per annum, until an opportunity should present itself of “making a man of him.” ”

“ Dorset, whose best claim to being considered a poet, rests on the song, "To all ye ladies now on land," of his being the author of which there is no positive assurance!
In the eighteenth century a man was killed in the [287] streets of Morpeth, for maintaining that the blood of the Dacres was as good as that of the Ogles. Of the excellence of the latter, Shadwell entertained very exalted ideas. In 1680 there was living, and in the same year died, the Earl of Ogle, to whom was contracted in her infancy the famous Lady Elizabeth, sole heiress of the last of the Earls of Northumberland. ”

“ See HAMILTON, Lady Betty Diamond necklace, affair of the, 3rd Duke of Dorset’s dispatches on, 184–185 half the diamonds bought by him, 185 DIGBY, Sir Kenelm, marries Venetia Stanley, 58 friendship with 4th Earl of Dorset, 104–106 his portrait at Knole, 105, 151 Venetia Stanley, Lady, mistress of 3rd Earl of Dorset, 58 225DORSET, Earls and Dukes of. See SACKVILLE 1st Duchess of. See COLYEAR, Elizabeth 2nd Duchess of, 173 3rd Duchess of. See COPE, Arabella Diana House, London, 31 3rd Countess of. See CLIFFORD, Lady Anne 4th Countess of. ”

“ Henry was not ignorant of these intentions of his enemies, and he prepared himself for defence. He ordered troops to be levied in different parts of the kingdom, and put them under the command of the duke of Bedford and earl of Oxford. He confined the marquis of Dorset, who, he suspected, would resent the injuries suffered by his mother, the queen dowager ”

“ The stage is the last ditch of convention; but the time is at hand when some dramatist will give us a stout and haughty workhouse inmate, a humble and cringing duke, and an alderman virtuoso; and he will be quite as loudly hailed for an emancipator as ever was Robertson.
The Dukes of Dorset lived up to the fine alliteration of their title, and when that became impossible, they died out, like the oxyrhincus and the mastodon, who could not survive their environment. There is scarce a modern duke who, in the spectacular way, is worthy his title. Some are bored men and commonplace ”

“ He was one of those men who, prevented by necessity from living the life that he longed for, sought constantly his experiences of it at second hand. Since he must needs thus follow the sea, he craved, with a consuming hunger, the taste of conversation running on the forest, the plain, the trackless mountain. The Duke of Dorset had lived in all of its richness, the very life which this man, had his destiny been open, would have chosen for himself. ”

“ The southern part of Dorset, especially in the neighbourhood of Poole Harbour, suffered much during the time that the Danes were harrying the coast of England. There were fights at sea in Swanage Bay, there were fights on land round the walls of Wareham, there were burnings of religious houses at Wimborne and Wareham. Then followed the victories of Ælfred, and for a time Dorset had rest. But after Eadward was murdered at “Corfes-geat” by his stepmother Ælfthryth’s order, and the weak King Æthelred was crowned, the Danes gave trouble again. The King first bribed them to land alone ”

“ Nature returning with all things slowly to the wilderness centuries after man was dead. The Duke of Dorset was not a person easily swung skyward by a bit of sun and color. He was accustomed to that brooding mood, lying over solitary lands; to the dignity, to the majestic silence, obtaining in the courts of Nature; to the gorgeous pageantry of that fantastic empress; to the strange, almost human hurry with which she strove to obliterate any trace of man encroaching on her kingdom. ”

“ The peculiarity in Dorset is that such natures are not so much the exception as the rule. The Dorset peasantry are gentlefolk by birth. It is not that veneer which the most thorough scoundrel can easily assume, but that native inbred refinement, that perception of beauty and fitness, which is almost, if not quite, a divine gift.
If any one would see for himself how truly this is the character of the Dorset peasant, let him study the works of their poet, William Barnes. ”

“ He is one of the most deserving gentlemen in the country, and has a tolerable provision, much more than persons of so much merit can in these times pretend to, in either kingdom. I love the duke of Dorset very well, having known him from his youth, and he has treated me with great civility since he came into this government. ”

“ In the wars between Stephen and Maud, Dorset was often the battle-ground of the rival claimants for the throne. Wareham, unfortunate then, as usual, was taken [Pg 9] and re-taken more than once, first by one party, then by the other; but lack of space prevents the telling of this piece of local history.
King John evidently had a liking for Dorset. He often visited it, having houses of his own at Bere Regis, Canford, Corfe, Cranborne, Gillingham, and Dorchester. In the sixteenth year of his reign he put strong garrisons into Corfe Castle and Wareham as a defence against his discontented barons. ”