Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-06-27
DECLINE OF FAMILIES,
Descendants Of Famous Men Who Occu-
pied LowIy Positions

pied Lowly Positions.
Among the descendants of Thomas
Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester. fifth
son of Edward I'LL, was Stephen j.
Penny. who was, not many years ago,
sexton at St Georges, Hanover
Square, London.
Among the lineal descendants of
Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Keat
and sixth son of Edward L, occur
butcher and toll-gatherer; the first
a Joseph Smart, of Halesowen, the
latter a George Wilmont. keeper of
the turnpike gate at Cooper's bank,
near Dudley.
A story is told of scion of the great
house of Urquhart of Cromarty who
was necessitated by his extravaganza
to sell his Inheritance, and who, sink
ing step by step to the lowest depths
of wretchedness, came at last a wan
dering beggar to the door which had
once been his own.
No race in Europe surpassed the
Plantagenets in royal position and
personal achievements, and yet, not
to descend further than the year 1887,
the great great grandson of Margaret
Plantagenet daug liter and heiress of
George. Duke of CT arence, followed
the trade of shoemaker in Newport
Salop.
Fraser. of Kirkhill, relates that he
saw the Earl of Traquair, cousin of
James VI. begging in the streets of
u in 1,,rorh
Sin an antique garb, and wore broad
old hat, short cloak and pannier
breaches. and | contributed toward
his relief We gave him noble. He
was standing with his hat Off. and re-
ceived the piece of money from my
hand as humbly and thankfully as the
poorest applicant
One of CROMWELL granddaughter,
after seeing her husband die in the
work-house of a small Suffolk town,
died herself pauper. leaving two
daughters the elder the wife of
shoemaker and the younger the wife
of butcher son, who had been her
fellow-servant. Another of Oliver
Cromwel's granddaughter had two
children, of whom the son became q
small working jeweler and the daugh-
ter the mistress of a small school at
Mildenhall.
Before the time Of the Protector the
Cromwell family possessed estates
equal to those of the wealthiest peers
of the present day. and the great
Oliver himself inherited considerable
property, which, augmented from
private sources, made up total
sufficient 10 maintain his family per-
petually in easy circumstances. But
within a century after his death
Thomas Cromwell, his great grand
son, was a grocer on Snow Hill and
his son Oliver. he last male heir. an
attorney in London.
When the twelfth Earl of Crawford
was imprisoned in Edinburgh castle
to restrain his recklessness and prodi-
gality he left one child, daughter,
who, having no one whatever 10 look
after her, received not scrap ot edu-
cation and was allowed to run about
like a gypsy. She eloped with COM
mon crier and at one period of her life
lived by mendicancy. Charles II.
granted her pension of $500 year,
but. owing 10 her utter degeneracy, it
proved more hurtful than beneficial.
The male head of this family died in
the year 1744, in the capacity of hostler
in an inn at Kirkwall. in the Orkney
islands. The estate had been dissi-
pated by the "spenthrift earl" his
father. and with Ills patrimony he.
Lord Lindsay. Earl of Crawford.
bought a small property, on which he
resided for some years. until, through
adverse fortune, this went too. and to
save himself from starvation he was
fain to go as hostler. = Chicago Neaos.