The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-07-15
GREAT 4 M RXTINOT.
IIiustrious Men who Have Left no
Direct Male Descendants.

NO direct male descendant of the Lord
Protector urvives to enjoy the tribute
paid to the memory of his epoch-maklng
line from "Old Nollv having been one
Oliver, an attorney, the son of a worthy
grocer of Snow Hill. In this connection
it is interesting to note how many of our
illustrious dead are now unrepresented
by ricet male descendants. Here is an
ample list of names of light and leading
in literary history:-Chaucer. Shakes
peare, 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 (and doubtless there are
others) does a direct male representative
exist. Turn from literary celebrities to
naval and military heroes, to Statesmen
and to politicians.
Sir Philip Sidney, illustrious in letters
and in war. left but lone fair daughter.
who died without issue. Sir Walter Ra-
leigh's male descendants nave long since
died out, or ave descended to such social
depths as 10 be untraeeable. Sir Francis
Drake and Nelson, the naval heroes of
two great fighting epochs, died childless.
The patriot Hanlpden's last male de-
se 17a c pasTed a away "a r,,, lonely 5aehelogs
had but orc son., and with him expired
the hardly earned and newly acquired
family n0nOr
Though it is not ~infreduently assume
that the Dukes Of Marlborough of our
day are directly descended in the male
line from the great Churchill, this is not
son died in infancy. and his honors and
possessions passed to his daughters. The
great Lord Peterborough had MS, but no
grandson. IM-starred STAFFORD married
thrice, but each of his son died without
issue. The celebrated Duke of Ormonde's
direct llnel ended with his g~randson's
death at Avignon- Clarendon. famous his
torian Of the Rebellion. thugh he left four
sons. had but one grandson, who died
without male issue.
Horace Walpole was the last male de-
s%cendant of Sir Robert, the famous Minis
lister. and he never married. Bolingbroke
twice made matrimonial ventures, but
had no child by either wife. The his
toric family of Pitt in respect of direct
house of Fox lasted but little longer.
Charles James Fox left nc heir, and the
only son of his nephew, the third Lord
Holland, died childless at Naples just for
ty years ago. Edmund Burke had but
one son. who died in early manhood, 1eay-
ing his broken-hearted father to exclaim,
Mine is a grief that cannot be COM
fortedi
AS with the statesmen. SO with the
philosophers and scientists. Neither Ba-
con, Newton. Locke, Davy nor Stuart Mill
left a son to inherit his fame: while OF
historians. Hume. Gibbon and Macaulay
were never married. Among our great
painters. Reynolds, Lawrence and the late
Lord Leighton were bachelors. Hogarth
pcrpetrated 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 as
an Engiishman, had no wife but his art.
Braham, perhaps our greatest singer,
whose daughter some of us remember as
Lady WaIdegrave, / believe Jeff no SON:
while Of the giants Of the footligslfs. Davy
Garrick and John Kemble died chiidIess,
and the direct male issue of Edmund
charles-Pal Mall Gazette.