fordshire, one of whom, Edward Bayntum Rolt, assumed the surname of Bayntum, and was created a Baronet, 9 July, 1762, a title which became extinct, 12 August, 1816. The borough member was the fourth son of Edward Rolt, Esq. of Pertenhall, in this county, justice of the peace for Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire, and recorder of Bedford. He died without issue.

ROTHERHAM, GEORGE, sat for the county in the Parliaments of 1571-7985-86-92. Leland informs us that the estates of Lord Wenlock (the manor of Luton, and the hundred of Flitt), passed by marriage of an heir-general of his to a relation of Thomas Scot, alias Rotherham, Archbishop of York, (from 1480 to 1500,) a prelate remarkable for nepotism and the preferment of his kindred by marriage and other ways. The family assumed the name of Rotherham, and flourished here for some centuries. JOHN, brother of the archbishop, was lord of the manor of Luton and hundred of Flitt, in 1476. The manor continued in the family till 1614, when it was purchased by Sir Robert Napier, Bart. Stondon also belonged to the Rotherhams, who served the office of high sheriff of Bedford and Bucks, 17 Edward IV., 4 Henry VII., 4 Edward VI. George Rotherham, the above-named county member was sheriff of Bedford, 17 and 32 Elizabeth. He died in 1599.

RUSSELL. Alluding to the immense territorial possessions of the Russells, whose greatness commenced with the reign of Henry VIII., PENNANT observes, "No family profited so much by the plunder of the church as that of the Russells. To the grant of Woburn in 1547, it owes much of its property in Bedfordshire and in Buckinghamshire; to that of the rich abbey of Tavistock, vast fortunes and interests in Devonshire; and to render them more extensive, that of Dunkeswell was added. The donation of Thorney abbey gave Lord Russell an amazing tract of fens in Cambridgeshire, together with a great revenue. Melchburn abbey increased his property in Bedfordshire. The priory of Castle Hymel gave him footing in Northamptonshire, and he came in for parcels in the appurtenances of St. Albans, and Mount Grace, in Yorkshire; not to mention the house of the friars' preachers, in Exeter, and finally the estate about Covent Garden; with a field adjoining called the seven acres, on which Long Acre is built." "The grants to the house of Russell," says Burke, "were so enormous as not only to outrage economy but to stagger credulity." To enter into a particular enumeration of these would be but irksome to the reader; contenting ourselves, therefore, with Pennant's succinct account as above furnished, we will proceed with the following sketches of the most distinguished members of the family. And here it may be as well for us to trace the early history of the DUKEDOM OF BEDFORD, which was created by Henry V.*

JOHN PLANTAGENET, third son of Henry IV., the narrative of whose illustrious actions occupies a prominent position among our records, was the

*The first EARL of the county of Bedford, was HUGH, son of ROBERT DE BELLOMONT, who obtained that highest rank at the period from King Stephen, with the daughter in marriage of Milo de Beauchamp, "but being a person remiss and negligent himself, he fell from the dignity of an Earl to the state of a knight, and in the end to miserable poverty." The next Earl of the county was Ingram de Coucy, who was so highly esteemed by Edward III., that that monarch bestowed upon him his daughter Isabella, in marriage, and created him EARL OF BEDFORD, in 1365, making him at the same time a Knight of the Garter. This nobleman died, leaving daughters only, in 1397, when the EARLDOM became extinct.

first who was created DUKE OF BEDFORD. Dying childless in 1435, the title became extinct. He was buried at Rouen, where a handsome monument was erected to his memory, which, when Charles VIII. was advised to destroy, he said, "Let him rest in peace now he is dead, it was when he was alive and in the field, that France dreaded him." GEORGE PLANTAGENET, youngest son of King Edward IV., who died in his infancy, had the title of Duke of Bedford. George Neville, second surviving son of the Marquess of Montague, was created Duke of Bedford, in 1470, by Edward IV., with the design of marrying him to his eldest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet, and degraded in 1478, under pretence that his income was not equal to his rank, and that needy nobles are always burdensome and oppressive to their neighbours. The true reason, however, of the king's displeasure, by which parliament was induced to pass this act, is supposed to have originated with the Duke's father, who had assisted the house of Lancaster, and who fell at the battle of Barnet, in 1477. JASPER TUDOR, Earl of Pembroke, and uncle of Henry VII., was created Duke of Bedford, in 1485, being honored with that title by his nephew, whom he had rescued at the battle of Bosworth Field. Dying issueless, the dignity again became extinct,* and remained so for nearly a century and a half, when it came into the family of RUSSELL. Wiffen, in his HISTORICAL MEMOIRS of this house, claims for it a high descent, deducing the family from Olaf, the sharp-eyed king of Rerik, in the sixth century, one of whose descendants, a Scandinavian Jarl, named Turstain, on the conquest of Normandy, settled there, and became possessed of the barony of Briquebec, in Lower Normandy; of this barony, the territory and castle of "Le Rozel" formed part, and from thence the house of Russel derives it name. The first mention of it occurs in a charter of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror, dated 1066, to which HUGH DE ROZEL, attached his name as a witness. This Hugh attended William in his invasion of England, and with his four sons, assisted at the battle of Hastings. One of these accompanied Robert, of Normandy, in the first crusade, and under the name of the Lord de Barneville, distinguished himself

The Lady Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. (afterwards Queen of England), was created COUNTESS of BEDFORD, by her father in 1537.-Gough's Camden.

+ Speaking of this place, Wiffen observes: "The traveller, who in our times, directs his steps from the Bourg of Briquebec towards the western coast of the department of La Manche, after reaching, through scenes of quiet and secluded beauty, the heathy heights of Les Preux, looks down upon a valley in the face of the Atlantic, terminated at one extremity of the shore by the Pou, or Cape of Le Rozel; and on the other, above the little fort of Siobôt, by the imminent and lofty cliffs extending northwards towards Flamanville. In the centre of this valley, a mile distant from the strand, is seen the little hamlet of Le Rozel, pleasantly embosomed in wood. The Bus, a rivulet not des titute of fame in the early charters of neighbouring monasteries, leads on with a hollow murmur, amidst wooded hills, to this sequestered spot, and there passes to the sea, at the base of a slightly castellated mansion, which the antiquary is at once disposed to recognize as raised upon the site, where the first peculiar Seigneurs of the territory had either their fixed or occasional residence. Standing on a small eminence, overhung with an old grove of oak and chesnut, with a small tower at the western gate, and surrounded by a wall connected and flanked with ivied buttresses, which, on the side fronting the sea, opens into an inner court, betwixt two high and half dismounted towers. The present building, though now used only as a rural grange, has still somewhat picturesque and knightly in its aspect. The name, given first to the cape, and afterwards to the castle, and the family inhabiting it, appears to have been imposed by some of the early settlers in Neustria; Le Rozel implying, according to Roquefort, a tower or bold headland by the water; from Roz, the rock or castle of the chess-board, and el, the synonime for eau."-HISTORICAL MEMOIRS, &c. vol. 1. cap. i. p. 2.

greatly in that expedition. After prodigies of valour in various encounters with the Saracens, he perished under the walls of Antioch, universally regretted by the army. His younger brother, HUGH, Lord of Rozel, near Caen, returned in safety from the Holy Land, established himself in England, and became the progenitor of the Dukes of Bedford. It does not appear that Hugh de Rozel, or his sons, obtained any distinguished recompense for their services in the conquest of England. No one of the name of Russell is to be found in Domesday' among the tenants in capite, though persons of the name of Rozell and Rozillion, are repeatedly mentioned as under-tenants. It is stated in the Testa de Nevill,' that the manor of Kingston Russell, in Dorsetshire, had been in the family of Russell from the time of William the Bastard. If this be correct, they must have held it originally as under tenants, or it must have been granted to them after the conclusion of the survey. It is valued in the Testa de Nevill,' at half a hide of arable land, and described as a manor held in serjeanty, under the obligation of serving the king as marshal of the butlery at Christmas and Easter. Among the list of names in the pedigree of the Russells, from the Conquest to the Reformation, the most prominent are those of Sir JAMES, appointed governor of Corfe Castle, in 1221; Sir WILLIAM, Knt., M.P. in the first of Edward II., for the county of Southampton; Sir JOHN, Speaker of the House of Commons* in the second and eighth of Henry VI. We now come to JOHN RUSSELL, grandson of the Speaker, and founder of the honours of this house. Of the early life of this accomplished courtier but little is known. He appears to have travelled abroad, and to have attained a knowledge of foreign languages; in consequence of this acquisition, he was sent for by his relation, Sir Thomas Trenchard, to entertain Philip, of Austria, who, with his wife, Joanna, heiress of Castile, had been driven by stress of weather, to land at Weymouth. Philip, pleased with the conversation of Mr. Russell, carried him to Windsor, and introduced him to the notice of Henry VII., who appointed him one of the gentleman of the privy chamber. In this situation he was continued by Henry VIII., whom he accompanied, on the breaking out of hostilities with France, to the continent as a volunteer. In the war that followed, he distinguished himself as an active and successful partisan; and on the surrender of Tournay, was named deputy-governor of that fortress, and had a grant of lands in the newly conquered country, in testimony and recompense of his services. In a subsequent war he signalized himself at the capture of Morlaix, lost an eye on the occasion, and with Sir Thomas Morland Oken, received the honour of knighthood on the spot from the Earl of Surrey, Admiral of the fleet. In 1523, he was sent on a secret mission to the constable of Bourbon, who in resentment of his private injuries had offered to betray his country, and open to the enemies of France an entrance into the heart of the kingdom. Russell reached Chantilly without discovery, and concluded a treaty with Bourbon according to his instructions. But the plot being surmised or detected before it was ripe for execution, the constable, instead of accom

*The chief events which occurred in parliament during the two periods in which he occupied the chair, were in the first, an order to pay the late king's debts; the release of and conclusion of peace with James, King of Scotland, who had been detained a prisoner in England, ever since the reign of Henry IV.; the naturalization of two foreign ladies, who had been married to the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, and an ex post facto act against Sir John Mortimer, who had been indicted on the statutes of escapes, which act was made by parliament for his destruction; the second was especially marked by the re-occurrence of disputes between Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester.

plishing his treasonable purpose, was compelled to escape as a fugitive from the country he had intended to betray; and returning with a band of foreigners, he was baffled by the perfidy of his German mercenaries in his attempt to penetrate into France. On this discomfiture, Bourbon repaired to the imperial army in Italy, and Russell remained in communication with him at Besançon. In the following campaign, Russell appears to have found great difficulty in conveying to Bourbon, the money intrusted to his care for the use of that adventurer, in his projected invasion of Provence. He remained with the constable in Italy after the battle of Pavia, till the departure of the latter for Spain, when the court of England having changed its system of foreign policy, he was recalled, and soon after sent a second time to Italy, to negotiate with the pope, who had also abandoned his former ally, and entered into a league with Henry, and France, against the emperor. In his second mission, Sir John Russell had no small difficulties to contend with in the course of his negotiations, owing to the fears and vacillations of the papal court, and the preponderance of the imperialists in Italy. In a third mission he was sent to Bologna, to confer with Lautree, commander of the French armies in that country. Subsequently appointed, through the influence of his friend CROMWELL, comptroller of the household and a privy councillor, he was, on the birth of Edward VI., 9 March, 1539, advanced to the dignity of a baron of the realm, by the style and title of Lord Russell, Baron Russell of Cheyneys in Buckinghamshire, and received considerable estates, to enable him to support the dignity of his position. These we have mentioned at the commencement of this article, recapitulation therefore, is unnecessary; here however, it may be stated, that three hundred years afterwards, BURKE, whose magical eloquence could almost immortalize or annihilate the characters of those whom he favoured or disliked, but with the doubtful justice which always attends effusions of anger, levelled on account of these grants a general censure at the memory of this nobleman, to avenge an insult offered to him by one of his descendants. But to return to Lord Russell, who shortly after his elevation to the peerage, was made knight of the garter, and appointed lord warden of the stannaries. In 1541, he was constituted lord high admiral, and named president of the council, which was instituted for the administration of justice in the south-western counties. In 1543, he was made privy seal, and in the last expedition of Henry to France, assisted at the taking of Boulogne, and commanded with the Duke of Norfolk, at the siege of Montreuil. After his return to England, he was actively employed in providing for the defence of the south-western coast, against a threatened invasion of the French; and on the death of the king, was one of the sixteen executors named in his will. During the reign of Edward VI., he was employed in repressing a formidable insurrection in Devonshire and Cornwall, which had been provoked by the innovations in religion, and the extensive enclosures of commons. He had been similarly employed in Lincolnshire, in the former reign. For his services on this occasion, he was further raised, 9 January, 1550, to the Earldom of Bedford. In Mary's time, the same courtly sunshine continuing, his lordship obtained a new patent, dated 3 Nov. 1553, for the office of Lord Privy Seal, and was sent to Corunna, to obtain the ratification of the marriage articles between Mary and Philip, before the arrival of the latter in England. Dying soon after his return, 15 March, 1554-5, "he left," says Mr. Wyffen, "the reputation of being almost the only nobleman at court, who by his prudence, moderation, and innate gentleness of heart, had managed to stand well with

E

all parties, during the changes, the trouble and factions of four successive reigns."

FRANCIS, 2nd Earl, a person of great eminence, during the reign of Elizabeth, sat for the county of NORTHUMBERLAND, (which see) in the Parliament of 1547. He is said to have been the first precedent, for the eldest sons of peers to be returned members of the House of Commons. His fourth son, SIR WILLIAM, who was elevated to the peerage, 21 July, 1603, as BARON RUSSELL, of Thornhaugh, in Northamptonshire, was celebrated for his great address and skill, in personal combats: he distinguished himself by his eminent services in the Netherlands, and Ireland, to the lord lieutenantcy of which latter country, he was appointed, on the death of Sir William Fitzwilliam. He died in 1613. Francis, the 2nd Earl, was successively succeeded by his two grandsons, EDWARD and FRANCIS. The latter was early engaged in the struggles against prerogative, excited by the arbitrary language and proceedings of the two first princes of the House of Stuart. At the meeting of the great parliament, he was considered one of the principal leaders of the popular party; on the sudden and total discomfiture of the court faction, application was made to him and to his friends, to accept the administration of affairs, the only condition required from them being to save the life of the Earl of Strafford. Some particulars of the arrangement proposed, are mentioned by the Earl of Clarendon, but it seems doubtful, whether the conditions could have been complied with, and nothing was definitively settled, when the sudden death of the Earl of Bedford, put an end to the negotiation. The Countess of Carlisle, who gave intelligence to the five members, of the king's design, to go in person to the House of Commons, and arrest them in the midst of that assembly, was daughter of the Earl of Bedford. She was told of the plot, with exultation, by the queen, who thought it already executed. Lady Carlisle said nothing, but took her leave as soon as possible, and instantly sent a messenger to the house, who arrived just in time to save her friends, and perhaps her country from destruction. Her father was the principal undertaker of that great and expensive, but so highly beneficial work, for draining the fens in Bedfordshire, called the Great Level, and since, the Bedford Level. His lordship's grandson EDWARD, an eminent naval officer, who rose to high rank in his profession, gained in 1692, while in command of the naval forces of his country, a complete victory over the French fleet, under Admiral Tourville, at La Hogue. For this action he was made first lord of the admiralty, and received the thanks of the House of Commons. He was subsequently, 7 May, 1697, for his further services in preventing the designs of the French against Barcelona, in frustrating their movements in favor of James II., and in disappointing that unfortunate monarch's setting sail for England,created BARON OF SHINGLEY in the county of Cambridge, VISCOUNT BARFLEUR, in the duchy of Normandy, and EARL OF ORFORD, in the county of Suffolk. He was also, by King William, made vice-admiral of England, and twice one of the lords justices, on the occasion of his majesty's visit to Holland. By Queen Anne, he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat of a union between England and Scotland, and made one of the privy council, and first lord commissioner of the admiralty, 8 Nov. 1709. Upon her decease, he was nominated by George I., to be one of the lord justices till he arrived from Hanover, when he was appointed one of the privy council, and again made first commissioner of the admiralty. On his death, in 1727, the peerage conferred on him became