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C. Baldwin, Printer,

New Bridge-street, London.

THE

BRITISH PLUTARCH.

SIR THOMAS WENTWORTH,

EARL OF STRAFFORD.*

[1593-1641.]

THOMAS WENTWORTH was the eldest son of Sir William Wentworth, Baronet, † and of Anne daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Atkins, of Stowell in the county of Gloucester, Knight. He was born in London, April 13, 1593; and received his academical education at St. John's College, Cambridge, where by his great application he made considerable progress in learning. On quitting the University, to which however he continued friendly through life, he travelled abroad for farther accom

* AUTHORITIES. Guthrie's History of England, Parliamentary Debates, and Macdiarmid's Lives of British Statesmen.

+ Whose manor of Wentworth, in Yorkshire, was the residence of his ancestors before the Conquest. He had twelve children.

Having occasion to represent some misconduct of a church-
VOL. III.

B

plishments, and spent upward of a year in France; where in the assassination of Henry IV., the disgrace of Sully, and the ascendency of another daughter of Medicis, he had an opportunity of witnessing the dangerous revolutions of an arbitrary government. Mr. Greenwood, by whom he was attended as tutor, justly retained as long as he lived his pupil's confidence and regard. Upon his return, he received from his needy* Sovereign the degree of knighthood. About the same time, he married Margaret Clifford, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland.

In 1614, by his father's death, he succeeded to his title and estate of 6000l. per ann. His time (says Macdiarmid) was now occupied with those pleasures and cares, which naturally attend a country gentleman of distinction: and was successively devoted to the duties of hospitality, the improvement of his property, the guardianship of the younger branches of his family, his favourite diversion of hawking, his books, and his correspondents. The death of his brother-in-law Sir George Savile, who left him guardian to his two sons, brought a large increase to his avocations, and drew forth some amiable traits of his character. Actuated by the remembrance of his friendship with their father, he watched over their education and their fortunes with a solicitude, which

dignitary, who had been bred at Oxford, he could not help adding, that such a divine was never educated at Cambridge.'

* The purchase-money of an Earl's patent, in this disgraceful reign, was twenty, of a Viscount's fifteen, and of a Baron's ten thousand pounds; while a Baronetcy, an order of hereditary knighthood instituted to tempt the vanity of less wealthy purchasers, could be had for one thousand and ninety five pounds.

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