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FRAGMENTS OF FAMILY HISTORY.

A FEW MEMBERS OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

RALPH OSBORNE, Esq., the newly elected Knight of the shire for Middlesex, is eldest son of Ralph Bernal, Esq., M.P., for Rochester, late chairman of the Committees of Ways and Means. He was born in 1811, and married in 1844, Catherine Isabella, the only daughter and richly portioned heiress of the late Sir Thomas Osborne, Bart., of Newtown Anner. On that occasion he came into possession of very considerable estates in the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, estimated at seven thousand a year, and he adopted, by Royal license, the surname and arms of his wife's family; he had previously held a Captain's Commission in the Army, and was Aid-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In the last parliament he sat as representative for the borough of Wycombe, and distinguished himself on various questions as a spirited public speaker.

NORTH DURHAM has returned two new members, LORD SEAHAM and ROBERT DUNCOMBE SHAFTO, Esq., of Whitworth Park; the former, the eldest son of the Marquess of Londonderry, by Frances Anne, his second wife, only daughter and heiress of the late Sir Harry Vane Tempest, Bart., will succeed at the death of his father to the Earldom of Vane, and inherit through his mother the princely possessions of the Vanes and the Tempests, in the county which his lordship represents. His elder and half-brother is of course heir apparent to the Marquessate of Londonderry. Lord Seaham has completed his twenty-fifth year, and was recently married to the only daughter and heiress of Sir John Edwards, Bart., of Garth. Mr. Duncombe Shafto is eldest son of Robert Eden Duncombe Shafto, Esq., of Whitworth, and descends from a family of great antiquity in the North of England. Some little incidental proof of the rank which the old lords of Shafto held on the border may be gathered from song and tradition. At the "Raid of the Redswire" in 1575a hostile meeting between the Scotch and English wardens, one of the war cries of the latter was "a Schaftan and a Fenwick." The Scots had the honour of the day, and amongst the many English who were taken prisoners or wounded,

"Young Henry Shaftan he is hurt,

A souldier shot him with a bow."

Since the accession of the House of Hanover, the chiefs of the family of Shafto have sat in parliament, representing either the county or city of Durham.

VISCOUNT BRACKLEY, the successful candidate of North Staffordshire, is the eldest son of the Earl of Ellesmere, hitherto known as Lord Francis Egerton, and bears by courtesy the title which was conferred on his illustrious ancestor, the Lord Chancellor Egerton, just before his deThe influence of his lordship's uncle, the Duke of Sutherland, is all paramount in Staffordshire. Lord Brackley was born in 1823, and

cease.

married in 1846, Lady Mary Louisa Campbell, daughter of Earl Cawdor.

The city of York has returned JOHN GEORGE SMYTH, Esq., of Heath Hall, near Wakefield, a landed proprietor of high station and large fortune in the West Riding. He is son of the late John Henry Smyth, Esq., of Heath Hall, M.P. for the University of Cambridge, nephew maternally of the present Duke of Grafton, and grandson of the Right Hon. John Smyth, Master of the Mint in the reign of George III. The new member for York was born in 1815, and married in 1837, the fifth daughter of the late Lord Macdonald.

MARMADUKE WYVILL, Esq., of Constable Burton, represents another Yorkshire constituency, the borough of Richmond, and was formerly twice member for the city of York. He is a scion of the distinguished family of Wyvill, the name of whose patriarch appears on the Roll of Battle Abbey, and he would be entitled to the dignity of a Baronet if the vexata questio were decided in the affirmative, that an alien loses his right of inheritance to an English honour.

W. J. Fox, the Chartist member for Oldham, was born on the 1st March, 1786, in a farm house near Wrentham, in Suffolk, and at the age of twelve, earned his livelihood as a weaver boy at Norwich.-At fourteen, the loom was exchanged for the banker's desk, and in this employment he passed the next six years, during which time he carried on assiduously the work of self-education, and mastered a tolerably extensive range of learning, which enabled him, within a short time, to enter on the ministry of the Gospel, and to issue forth as a teacher of the people. Sometime after he separated from the religious body among whom he had been bred, the Calvinistic Independents, and became the pastor of an Unitarian Congregation at Chichester, whence he removed to London in 1817, and has from that time remained in the metropolis connected with Finsbury Chapel. He has been an occasional contributor to the Westminster Review, and was the writer of the numerous letters in the

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League newspaper, signed a Norwich weaver boy." The other leader of the Chartists in the new parliament, Mr. FERGUS O'CONNOR, is by birth an Irishman of respectable descent, and inherited a small patrimonial estate in the county of Cork. His uncle, the celebrated Arthur O'Connor was heir at law to the late Lord Longueville, but his lordship not approving of the line of politics adopted by Mr. O'Connor, bequeathed his property to more distant relations-eventually Arthur O'Connor entered the French service, and attaining high military rank was well known as General Condorcet O'Connor. Mr. Fergus O'Connor has long been before the public as editor of the Northern Star, and suffered incarceration a few years since in York gaol for sedition.

MATTHEW WILSON, Esq. the new whig Member for Clitheroe, is eldest son of Matthew Wilson, Esq. of Eshton Hall, county York, and half-brother ofthe great heiress Miss Richardson Currer of Byerley and Kildwick. He is a magistrate for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and for Lancashire. His wife was the only daughter and heiress of Sir Warton Amcotts, Bart. of Kettlethorpe, twenty years M.P. for East Retford.

The Knight of the shire for the Northern division of Northampton, so distinguished in the late parliament as Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN, has since his re-election, adopted by sign manual the surname of Stafford only, the cognomen of the ancient family through which he derives his Northamptonshire estate of Blatherwycke. The Hon. gentleman pos

sesses besides extensive property in the county of Clare in Ireland. He is the eldest son of Stafford O'Brien, Esq., and nephew maternally of the present Earl of Gainsborough.

DAVID URQUHART, Esq., elected for Stafford, is the distinguished writer on the foreign policy of England, and possesses mental qualifications of the highest order. Having now an arena for his great oratorical powers, the honourable member will, we feel assured, rank high among the public speakers of the day. He is the male representative of one of the most ancient houses in Scotland, the Urquharts of Cromarty, and derives through female descent from the noble houses of Ross, Forbes, Abernethy, Seaforth, and Montrose. Abercrombie in his " Martial Achievements of Scotland," relates that an ancestor of the Urquharts married Castalda, daughter of Banquo, "Shakespear's Thane of Lockaber," and Lord Hales, in his Annals, mentions that Edward the First, during the interregnum, prior to the accession of John Baliol to the crown, made out a list of Sheriffs, half of whom were English, and half Scotch; and that among the Scotch appears the name of William Urquhart, heritable Sheriff of Cromarty. The member for Stafford has just completed his forty-second year.

COLONEL CHARLES JOHN KEMEYS TYNTE, returned for Bridgewater, in the neighbourhood of which is his father's splendid mansion of Halsewell, formerly represented the Western division of Somersetshire. He resides himself at Cefn Mabley, near Newport in Wales, and acts as a magistrate, and deputy lieutenant for Monmouthshire. His father, Colonel Kemeys Tynte, possesses estates in the counties of Somerset, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Surrey, and Brecon, a considerable portion of which have descended to him from his great grand uncle Sir Charles Kemeys, Bart. of Cefn Mabley, knight of the shire for Monmouth, in the last parliament of Queen Anne, and for Glamorgan, in the two succeeding parliaments. Of this gentleman and his jacobite predilections, an amusing anecdote is told under "Fragments of Family History," in our second volume, page 65. Colonel Kemeys Tynte has been declared by a committee for privileges of the House of Lords, senior co-heir of the whole blood to the Barony of Wharton; and also co-heir to the Barony of Grey de Wilton.

FRANCIS RICHARD WEST, Esq. the new member for Denbigh, is nephew of the late Earl of De la Warr, and derives his influence in the borough he represents, through his mother, one of the daughters and co-heirs of the late Richard Myddelton, Esq. of Chirk Castle,

THOMAS CHISHOLME ANSTEY, Esq. M.P. for Youghal, an English Chancery barrister, of considerable ability and great depth of knowledge, is son of the Hon. Thomas Anstey, Member of the Legislative Council of Van Dieman's Land, and descends in the female line from

the great Scottish family of Chisholm. He is about thirty years of age,

and was called to the bar in 1839.

WILLIAM SEYMOUR BLACKSTONE, Esq. of Castle Priory, whose election was secured at Wallingford, despite the myrmidons of the law, is grandson and representative of no less a personage than the great legal luminary Sir William Blackstone, the learned commentator on the laws and constitution of England.

Sir EDWARD NORTH BUXTON, Bart., the new member for South Essex, is eldest son and heir of the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, so distinguished by his philanthropic exertions in the abolition of slavery, and

son-in-law of Samuel Gurney of Upton, the head of the great city house of Overend, Gurney and Co.

Mr. CHARLES LUSHINGTON the successor to Mr. Leader in Westminster, is youngest brother of Dr. Stephen Lushington, the eminent civilian.

THE OLDEST MAN SINCE THE DELUGE.

A correspondent sends us the following extract from the Register of the Parish of Lanmaes, near Cowbridge, in Glamorganshire, and adds that "of late years it has attracted the close enquiry of eminent antiquaries." Old Parr must yield the palm of longevity to this venerable Welchman : "Ivan Yorath buried on Saterdaye the xvii day of July anno dōni 1621, et anno regni regis vicessimo primo, annoque ætatis circa 180. He was a Sowdiar in the fight of Bosworthe, and lived at Lantwet major, and he lived much by fishing."

A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT OF THE OLDEN TIME.

RICHARD Lyster, Esq., of Rowton Castle (great great granduncle of the present Henry Lyster, Esq., of Rowton Castle), represented the county of Salop for the unusual period of thirty years. The great hospitality and universal popularity of this gentleman are still very freshly remembered; he was a firm supporter of the exiled royal house, and constantly opposed the Whig administrations of his day. It is related of him, that his first return to parliament was for the borough of Shrewsbury, for which place, after a strenuous contest, he was elected by a considerable majority. His opponent, however, disputed the return, and endeavoured to destroy the majority by disfranchising an extensive suburb, which till that period, had always enjoyed the elective franchise, and as he was a supporter of the government, the whole Whig party joined in the attempt, and succeeded in throwing out the successful candidate. Upon the decision being announced in the Commons, Mr. Lyster, feeling very keenly the injustice of the proceeding, put on his hat, and, with his back to the Speaker, walked down the house, when his manner being remarked, he was called to order, and pointed out to the chair. Turning abruptly round, he instantly said, "When you learn justice, I will learn manners.' This drew down upon him the increased wrath of the house, and probably he would have been compelled to ask pardon on his knees, or to visit the Tower, had not Sir Robert Walpole, who on all occasions knew how to throw the grace of good temper over disputes and arguments, exclaimed, with a smile, "Let him go, we have served him bad enough already." The indignation which this ill-treatment occasioned mainly contributed to securing the representation of his native county for the remainder of his life. In illustration of the manners of his day, we may add, that on his departure from Rowton to take his seat, his tenants annually escorted him the first two stages on his journey, while his London tradespeople, duly apprised of his approach, with the same punctilio, advanced two stages from town to bring him into London. He died in 1776, aged 75.

VOL. IV. NO. XVII.

U

THE EARLDOM OF PERTH.

ONE of the earliest and most interesting cases to be submitted to the Committee for Privileges, in the next session of Parliament is the claim of George Drummond, Duc de Melfort, to the Earldom of Perth. The pedigree and heirship of the Duc have already been established, and there remains now only a question of law as to the operation of an act of attainder. Should the decision on this point be favourable to the claimant, and the most eminent authorities incline to the opinion that it will-a Coronet will be restored to the Scottish Peerage, yielding in brilliancy to few in the Empire. Traditionally, the Drummonds derive their descent from an Hungarian in the Suite of Edgar Atheling, but the importance of the family was based on the Royal alliance of the Lady Annabella Drummond, daughter of Drummond of Stobhall, with King Robert III. From that period the Drummonds held a high position in North Britain, and were raised to the peerage in 1487, by the title of Lord Drummond, and eventually obtained the Earldom of Perth in 1605. Their loyalty to the throne shone at all times conspicuous, but the moment that called forth their whole energies and devotion was the great contest which preceded the final overthrow of the ancient dynasty of Scotland. So long as the conflict was waged on the battle field, the Drummonds fought manfully in the cause they had espoused, and at length, when the last ruin of the hapless race of Stuart was consummate at Culloden, they left their native land, to die, banished and broken hearted, in a foreign clime. They had fearlessly set their all upon the cast, and they chivalrously submitted to the hazard of the die.

The immediate ancestor of the claimant was John Drummond, Earl of Melfort, second son of James, third Earl of Perth. He retired to St. Germains at the Revolution, and was raised by the abdicated James, to the Dukedom of Melfort, a title confirmed in France by Louis XIV. This nobleman, attainted by the parliament in 1695, for having been seen at St. Germains, died at Paris, A.D. 1714, leaving, with other issue, a son JOHN, great-grandfather of George Drummond, Duc de Melfort, who now claims to be Earl of Perth. He was formerly in the British service, and held a Captain's commission in the 93rd Highlanders. He has been twice married, first, to the Baroness Albertine de Rothberg, widow of General Count Rapp, and secondly (within the last month), to Mrs. Borrowes, widow of Col. Borrowes, daughter of Thomas B. D. H. Sewel, Esq., and grand-daughter of William Beresford, Lord Decies, Archbishop of Tuam.

EPITAPH BY BISHOP LOWTH.

THE following beautiful inscription appears on the south side of the chancel at Cuddesdon church near Oxford :

MARIA

Roberti Lowth, Episcopi Oxon,

Et Mariæ Uxoris ejus filia,

Nata XI die Junii, A.D. MDCCL,
Obiit Vto die Julii, A.D. MDCCLXVIII.

Cara vale! ingenio præstans, pietate, pudore,
Et plusquam natæ nomine cara vale,

Cara Maria vale! at veniet felicius œvum,
Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero.

Cara redi! læta tum dicam voce, paternos

Eja age in amplexus, cara Maria redi !

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