The times., 1899-06-11
GREAT NAMES EXTINCT.
No Male Descendants of Many Illus
trious EnEiishmen.
CFrom the Pail Mall Gazett


No direct male descendant of the Lord
Protector survives to enjoy the tribute
paid TO the memory of his epoch making
ancestor, the last Cromwell in a direct line
from "Old NoIl'' having been one Oliver,
an attorney, the son of a worthy grocer OF
Snow Hill. In this connection it is in
teresting to note how many of our Illus
trious dead are now unrepresented by di-
rect male descendants. Here is an ample
list of names of light and leading in lit
erary history: Chauncer Shakespeare,
Spenser. Milton. Cowley, Butler. Dryden,
Pope Swift Addison, Cowper, Goldsmith,
Dr. Johnson. Scott, Byron, Shelley. Keats,
Tom Moore, Charles Reade, and R. L.
Stevenson. and of not one of these land
doubtless there are others does a direct
male representative exist. Turn from lit
erary celebrities to naval and military he
roes, TO statesmen and to politicians. Sir
Philip Sidney illustrious in letters and in
war, left but "one fair daughter" who
died without issue. Sir Walter Raleigh's
male descendants have long since died
out, or have descended to such social
depths as to be untraceable. Sir Francis
Drake and Nelson, the naval heroes of two
great fighting epochs, died childless. The
partiot Hampden's last male descendant
I passed away "a lonely bachelor" in 1I04.
General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, had but
one son, and with him expired the hardly
/ earned and newly acquired family honor.
Though it is not infrequently assumed
! that the Dukes of Marlborough of our day
are directly descended in the male line
! from the great Churchill, this is not the
case. That splendid soldiers only son
died in infancy, and his honors and pos
/ sessions passed to his daughters. The
! great Lord Peterborough had sons but no
grandson. Ill-starred STAFFORD married
thrice, but each of his sons died without
issue. The celebrated Duke Of 0rmonde's
direct line ended with his grandson's death
at Avignon. Clarendon, famous historian
of the Rebellion, though he left four sons,
had but one grandson, who died without
male descendant of Sir Robert. the famous
minister, and he never married. Boiling
but had no child by either wife. The his
toric family of Pitt in respect of direct
male heirs ceased in 1885, while the rival
house of Fox lasted but little longer.
Charles James Fox left no heir and the
only son of his nephew, the third Lord
Holland died childless at Naples just
forty years ago. Edmund Burke had but
one son. who died in early manhood, leay-
ing his broken-hearted father to exclaim:
Mine is a grief that cannot be comfort
ed"
AS with the statesmen, so with the phil
osophers and scientists. Neither Bacon
Newton. Locke, Davy. nor Stuart Mil left
a son 10 inherit his fame; while of his
torians, Hume, Gibbons and Macauley
were never married. Among our great
painters, Reynolds, Lawrence, and the late
Lord Leighton were bachelors. Hogartl
perpetrated a romantic love match, which
was fruitless; and Turner the great ma
gician of color and canvas, twice soured
by early disappointments, never married
Handel who may almost be claimed a.
an Englishman, had no wife but his art
Brahm, perhaps our greatest singer
whose daughter some of us remember a!
Lady Waldegrave, l believe left no son
while of the giants of the footlights. Dav!
Garrick and John Kemble died ehildless
and the direct male issue of Edmund Kear
ended with the death of his son Charles