American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-17


Years had passed on, when some disputes
arose--it is never too late too early for law,
disputes-about the property of her first hus-
band, the brewer. This made it requisite for
her to have recourse to legal advice and assist
ance, and chance so determined it that she was
recommended to young barrister of Lincoln's
Inn, who was thought by some to give fair
promise of rising one day to eminence in his
profession. The young man, of whom few
more sagacious spirits ventured to predict such
favorable things, but who was little known in
general, was Edward Hyde, the future histo-
rian of the great civil war, and the Lord High
Chancellor of England that was to be, after
series of events which still strike us as being
amongst the most wonderful recorded in Eng
lish chronicle. The business of the brewers
relict being of a complicated nature, and pro-
tracted after the usual fashion of all law pro-
ceedings, it made many visits requisite to her
legal adviser, in the course of which she was
often accompanied by her daughter Frances,
with whom the young barrister incontinently
fell in love. The young ladys affections were
quickly won, and there were points in his favor
with her parents, though he was deficient in
the grand requisite, fortune. To make some
amends for this he was the nephew of the cele-
brated Sir Nicholas Hyde, was fast rising to
eminence in his profession, and could plead the
same political opinions as the very loyal and
devoted Sir Thomas, although he did not as yet
carry them TO the same excess. At all events
the knights consent to their union must have
been obtained, for we hereafter find him be-
queathing all his property to his daughter.
Troubled times now came The, king
raised the standard of civil war at Nottingham,
where he was speedily joined by Sir Thomas,
who rendered good service to the royal cause,
and in consequence was set down by the Par
| liamentarians in the roll of inveterate maig-
nants. His hall in Buckinghamshire was burnt,
and after many hair breadth escapes, upon the
execution of Charles, he fed, first to Antwerp
and afterwards to Beda, where he died at the
| advanced age Of eighty-one, in the year 1867.
Having thus followed the old gentleman to his
grave, we return to his descendants, supposing
always this Sir Thomas was really the father
in-law of Hyde, and that there was no other
knight or baronet of the same name. There is
some mystery in the matter, which the young
counsellor himself was at no pains to clear up
He simply states in the autobiography that he
married the daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury,
who succeeded to his fathers estates.
For about two years after the death of Charles
the First, Hyde remained in the island of Jersey,
where he amused himself with composing the
great history, which has done more towards
making him known to us than all his services
in the royal cause, or than even his subsequent
alliance with the house of Stuart. How he af-
forwards exerted himself in bringing about the
restoration, and rose to the highest dignities of
the State, belongs to another chapter and need
not be recorded in this place 1t is sufficient
to observe, that he became Lord Chancellor, in
which situation, notwithstanding his eminent
abilities, he contrived to make himself unpopu-
lar with all parties and even TO lose the favor
ho hal Il.
zeal and talent The fact is, he was too austere
and unbending to be favorite, especially at a
court like that of Charles the H., which not a
little resembled that of Millions enchanter,
Comus.
II was now that the Kings brother James,
fell in love with Anne Hyde. His first effort
was TO seduce her. failing in that he contracted
a private marriage with her. Of course such
an event could not be long kept secret, and on
coming to the Chancellor's ears greatly excited
his indignation. With more loyalty than pa
ternal regard, and perhaps with more selfish
ness than either, he strongly urged the King to
commit his own daughter to the Tower; but
Charles, who was less sensitive about the royal
dignity than his Chancellor behaved with great
Justice and propriety in the matter he forgaye
the young lady's indiscretions used his best in
huence to soften the resentment of the Queen
mother, and compelled James to acknowledge
the wife whom he had basely denied and even
slandered.
Anne was now publicly received as Duchess
of York. She gave birth to two children, Mary
and Anne, and although she herself never had
the good or i'll fortune to share the crown of
England, which in due time devolved to her
husband, yet both her daughters in succession
attained that honor. In this way was brewers
wife, who had travelled barefooted to London,
the great-grandmother of Queen Anne.
Such is the popular tradition that has been
very generally received with little doubt or hes
itation. Much of it, however, was in all proha-
bility mere SANDER, invented by the numerous
enemies whom Clarendon had provoked by his
austerity no less than by his political conduct,
and who finally succeeded in driving him into
unmerited exile. There are no proofs, so far as
we can see, of the low origin Of his mother-in-
law-none at least upon which a sober historian
would choose to rely; at the same time it must
be candidly admitted that there is no direct or
positive evidence to disprove that brewers
wife was Queen Annes Great-grandmothcr-
20. 49, u~<n<&&