The Express.
London, England, 1858-06-02 00:00:00

THE SHREWSBURY PEERAGE CASE.

A Committee of Privilege of the Home of Lords
have declared and adjudged that the title, dignity,
peerage, and honours of Earl of Shrewsbury belong
to Heury John Chetwynd Earl Talbot, and have ad-
vised her Majesty to issue her Writ of Summons to
him by that title. The antiquity and iLlustrioes
origin of dila dignity, the vast possessions which
have been annexed to it by Act of Parliament, the
circumganoes under which the present claim has
been preferred, and the difficulties which have beset
Lord Talbot in the, at last, successful assertion of his
rights. have invested the inquiry just closed with
move than usual interest

The Patent was first granted as far back as the
10th Henry VI., A.D. 1442, to John Lord Talbot and
the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten. Of
this—the " Great" Earl of Stuawsbory—Lord Ma-
caulay writes :—" He had long been remembered by
his countrymen with tenderness and reverence *acme
of the most illustrious of thaw warriors who had
striven to erect • great English empire on the conti-
nent of Europe. The stubborn oonrasre which be had
shown in the midst of disasters had made him an
object of interest greater than more fortunate cap-
tains bad inspired, and his death had furnished a
singularly touching scene to our early stage."
From the first Earl the title descended in meow
iron, from father to son, down to Edward, eighth
Earl, who died without issue in the year 1817. It
then reverted to the descendants of Sir Gilbert
Talket of Grafton, who was second son of the second
Earl of Shrewsbury. This Sir Gilbert was i soldier,
Captain of Calais, and • Knight of the Garter, at a
period when the badge of that illustrious Order was
worn by merit, and not by rank alone. Hs had two
eons, of whom the elder died without issue male, and
triger, Sir John Talbot of Albrighton and
Grafton, was twice married, fleet to Margaret Trout- '
leek, and secondly to Elisabeth Wrottesley. By the
fret marriage he had a son, Sir John Talbot of
Grafton, who was the father of John Talbot of
Grafton. This John married Katherine, daughter to
Sir W. Peter, counsellor to K,ng Henry VIIL, and
was father to George and John Talbot. Upon the
desease of the eighth earl, the eldest brother George
sissosesd as ninth earl, and dying without
)rise the title descended to the eldest son
of his brother John, who became tenth
Earl of Shrewsbury, and was the immediate
activator of the whole of that numerous branch
of the family which is now shown to be extinct, in-
cluding amongst its members seven earls, one of
whom was created a duke, and ending with Bertram
Arthur, late and seventeenth earl.

Besides John, tenth earl, John "his father had two
other moos, George and Gilbert. George was shown to
have died without Moe male, but Gilbert had not
oven been mentioned in the pedigree furnished
Hirt Talbot. He was shown by the opponents toles
chum to have been alive in 1600 and 1816; but lie
name not appearing in the patent of precedes's* m
an earl's younger son granted to his brother
(i
in 1630, the House of rds considered the fairs cre
terrace to be that he had died young and without
Issue. Bir John Talbot of Grafton had but one
son. John of Grafton, whom we have mentioned,
and we find therefore the suocesaion reverting
again to the descendants of the remaining bane
of Sir John Talbot of Albrighton and Grafton.
Sir John was buried in Broomagrose Church, where
a monument to his memory still exists. Upon that
monument is an inscription, the chief part of which
now illegible ; but an old manuscript from the
library of Lord Lyttelton was tendered in evidence,
to show what that inscription once was, and that it
stated that Sir John of Albrighton had several sone
by his first wife. Although the House of Lords, is
accordant* with the strict rules of evidence, refined
to receive this manuscript, yet no doubt could be
entertained that it truly represented the words of
the inscription, which were subsequently deciphered
from the monument itself. No mention had been
made in the wee presented to the house by Lord
Talbot of thee:idleness( any other sons ; and it was
suggested that Major Talbot, of Wexford, alleged his
claim to be derived from one of them ; but as no
ether trace of these children was to be found in any
of the evidence which had been discovered on either
side, the fair and obvious inference is that they
died in infancy, or at all events without keno ;
and we come to the 1011 J of Sir John of Albrightoe,
by his second wife, Elisabeth Wrottestey. There
were two sons by this marriage, Gilbert and John,
it being a remarkable fact that the youngest son
bore the same Christian same as the eldest son of
the first marriage. Gilbert died without Lune in
1671, and the other, distinguished is the pedigree as
John Talbot of Salwarpe, married Olive, daughter
of Sir Henry Sherrington of Lacock Abbey, animas
the father of three sons, Sherrington, John, and
;from the twoyonsger sons &impend twofami-
limG7l3.Talbots, still, we believe, in existence, the
Talbot' of Badgworth and the Talbots of Worfield.
The eldest son, Sherrington of Rudge, was twice
married, and had a numerous family of sons and
daughters. By his first wife, Elizabeth Leishton,
he had six sons, Sherrington, Robert, Jobe, Henry,
Sir Gilbert. and Thomas; and by his seoord wife
/oar sees, George, Edward, William, and Francis.
From William, the third Doe of the second marriage,
Earl Talbot descends, and the greatest difficulty
with which his counsel have had to contend in the
promos of this elaim has been to account satisfac-
torily for the failure of the issue of the many
brothersof William, whomelsims, had they survived,
were prior to his; and the difficalty was enhanced
from the fact that a pedigree, produced from the II
Herald's College , where it had been entered in a
book called " Benefactors," by Gilbert, one of the
brothers shove-mentioned, and which otherwise'
would hare been entitled to the highest considers-
bon, contained a wilfully false statement, or rather
omission, of the name of his brother Thomas, made,'
it it "apposed, on account of this brother haring
contracted a low marriage. A reference, however,
to the muniments of Lacock Abbey left no doubt
that nom of the male descendants of any of these
brothers remain at this day. The eldest brother,
Sherrington of Rudge, married Jane Litleten, and
bad seven sons; of these, Sir John of Lacock married
twice, and had three sons, who predeceased his
wi'hont issue. Another son, Charles, was married,l
end had one son, Gilbert, a captain in the navy, who
died about 1708, levying an onl daughter;
and the remaining brothers of Sig John of
Lacock either died young or without isms. Of
Robert, Jobe, and Henry, nothing is known except
the statement in Banchietore pedigree, that the &et
died in Ireland, and the other two in the wars of
the Palatinate : and this statement was corroborated
by the settlement mule in 1683 upon the manioge
of the son of Sir John of Leask. by which the es-
take appeared to have bees entailed upon every
male living member of the family, however remote,
and in which no mention is made of either of these
nuclei as if alive or as leaving issue which could in-
herit. Sir Gilbert died at • great age, without
issue . • and Thomas, the youngest of the whole blood,
marriiitl, and bad a eon, Sherrington, who Yearned
Sarah Squire. and had one son, Sherrington, who
died a child is the year 1703.
Of the sons by the mooed marriage of Sher-
wingless Talbot of Ridge, the two elder ones
were aceonated for: and we coma to William,
sismied Mary, daughter of Thomas Doughty,
of Whittington, and was the immediate ancestor
of Earl Talbot. But before we proceed with him,
we most review the state of the family is all
its I,ranchts at the period of the death of the Duke
of Shrewsbury in the yser 1717—a nobleman thas
pourtrayed by Lord Macaulay : " His person was
pleasing, his temper ainguiarly sweet, his parts
much that if he had been born in humble rank,
might well have raised him to the height of civil
grr cline ; all these advantages he had so improved
that before be was of age he was allowed to be one
of the floret gentlemen and &mist scholars of his
time. His learning is proved by notes which are
still extant in his handwriting on books is almost
Gerry department of literature. He spoke French
like a gentleman of Louis' bedchamber, and Ita.ian
Iffie a citizen of Florence." "He was early called the
Ring of Hearts, and never through a long eventful
mid chequered life lost his right to that name."
In the year 1700 the duke made a settlement of
his estates, by which they were limited in succession
to his cousin George, whose elder brother Gilbert
afterwards succeeded as 13th earl, but being a
Jena pr;eet was excluded from the settlement ;
to mother enissin John Talbot of Longford s
then to Sir John Talbot of Lacock, and rail-

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