The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-06-14
Decline of Famous Families.

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 Kent
and sixth son of Edward l., occur a
butcher and a tOll-gatherer; the first a
Joseph Smart of HalesOwen, the latter
a George Wilmont, keeper of the
turnpike gate at the 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
deiing beggar to the door which had
once been his own.
No race in Europe surpassed the
Planta9enets in royal position and
personal achievements, and yet, not to
descend further than the year 1857, the
great-great grandson of Margaret
Plantagenet, daughter and heiress of
George, duke of Clarence, 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 Edin,
burgh. He was says Fraser, sin al
antique garb, and wore broad old
hat, short cloak and pannier brooches
and contributed towards his relief
We gave him noble. He was stand.
ing with his hat off, and received the
piece thankfully as the poorest appli'
can't
One of the Cromwell's granddaugh,
| ters, after seeing her husband die il
| the work-house of small Suffolk town
| died herself a pauper, leaving two
| daughters, the elder the wife of shoe
maker and the younger the wife of 8
butchers son who had been her fellow.
servant. Another of Oliver Crom
wells granddaughters had two child
ren, of whom the son became sinai
working ieweler and the daughter the
mistress of a small school at Milden
| hall
Before the time of the protector the
| Cromwell family possessed estates
equal to those of the wealthiest peer,
of the present day, and the great Oliver
himselfinherited considerable property
which, augmented from private sources
made up total sufficient to maintain
his family perpetually in easy circum
stances. Thomas Cromwell, his great
| grandson, was a grocer on Snow Hill
and his son Oliver, the last male heir
an attorney in London.
| When the twelfth earl of Crawford
was imprisoned in Edinburgh castle t.
restrain his recklessness and prodig
ality he left one child, a daughter, who
having no one whatever to look after
her, received not scrap of education
and was allowed to run about like {
gypsy. She etoped with common
criers and at one period of her life lived
by mendicancy. Charles H., granted
her a pension of $500 year, but, ow.
ing to her utter degeneracy, it proved
more hurtful than beneficial. The
male head of this family died in the
year l744. In the capacity of hostler in
an inn at Kirkwall. in the Orkney Is
lands. The estate has been dissipated
by the "spendthrift earl" his father
and with his patrimony he, Lord Lind
say, earl of Crawford, bought 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 6
hostler.