The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-12-25
DECLINE OF FAMOUS FAMILIES.


There was a remarkable book written some fifty
years ago by Sir Bernard Burke. The Baronet
called his book 'The Vicissitudes of Noble Fam
lies" Reading in the New York Sun last week
pathetic history of the decay of one-time notable
families of New York City, we we're reminded of
Sir Demands interesting researches, and we again
looked through the work to find out if the popular
adage from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves but three
generations" was as applicable to Great Britain
as to the United States We discovered it was not,
but we found some very sad and melancholy exam
pies of the decline of great families For instance,
among the descendants of Thomas Pantagenet
Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of Edward III, King
of England, was Stephen ]. Penny, who was, not
many years ago. sexton of London church, on
salary of two hundred and fifty dollars year
Among the lineal descendants of Edmund of
Woodstock Earl of Kent and sixth son of Edward
| |, occur butcher and tax collector
story IS told of a scion of the great house of
Urquahart of Cromarty, who was obliged by his
poverty to sell his Inheritance and Who sinking
step by step to the lowest depths of wretchedness
came at last wandering beggar to the door of the
castle which had once been his own
No race in Europe surpassed the Plantaeenets
in royal position and personal achievements. and
yet not to descend further than the year 1887 the
great-great-grandson of Margaret Plantagenet.
daughter and heiress of George, Duke of Clarence,
followed the trade of shoemaker in Newport. Eng
land.
Fraser of Kirkhill relates that he saw the Earl
OF Iraquar, cousin of James VI. begging in the
streets of Edinburgh "He was" says Fraser dressed
in an antique garb, and wore broad old hat short
coat and tattered breeches and [ contributed
towards his relief. He was standing with his hat
off, and received the pieces of money from nv hand
as humbly and thankfully as the poorest beggar.~
One of CromwelPs granddaughters, after seeing
her husband die in the poorhouse, died herself a
pauper, leaving two daughters the eldest the wife
of shoemaker and the younger the wife of
butcher who had been her fellow servant Another
OF Oliver CromwelPs granddaughter had two chill
dren, one OF whom the son, became clock repairer
and the other, daughter, the mistress of a small
school
Before his death, Cromwells family possessed
estates equal to the wealhes peers of the present
day, but less than a hundred years after he had
passed away his great-grandson was small grocer
on Snow He'll, and this mans son, Oliver. the last
male heir of the line, a struggling attorney in
London.
When the twelfth Earl of Crawford was impris
oned in Edinburgh Castle to restrain his reckless
ness and prodigality, he left one child daughter
who, having no to look after her. received not
scrap of education and was allowed to run about
like a gypsy. She eloped with low fellow. and at
one period of her life lived by begging. Charles III
granted her a pension of one hundred pounds
(S5oO) a year, but owing to her utter degeneracy
1t did her more harm than good The male head
of this aristocratic family died in IVA at beer
house at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, where he was
hostler receiving tips from travellers. The estate
had been dissipated by the "spendthrift Earl" his
father, Lord Lindsay, Earl of Crawford The son
and heir to the earldom inherited small nronertv
on which he resided for few years. but through
adverse fortune this also was lost and to save him
self from starvation he went to the Orkney Islands
and became a hostler.
The great Irish actor, Tyrone Power writes IN
his "Travels in America" 1883, that while in New
Orleans he conversed with two dock laborers who
were lineal descendants of two Irish Kings. and
that at the Planters House, ST. Louis. he smoke
with a luggage porter whose grand uncle was the
Scotch Earl of Moncrief. Of these and such as
these the poet wrote:
Fictions and dreams inspire the bard
Who rolls the epic song;
Impoverished knights have no reward
To them no bavs be1onp