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Very many of our great
families bear names of local origin; and the great ducal House of
Devonshire forms no exception to the rule. Its members for some three
centuries have stood prominent along with the Russells as champions of the
Liberal cause, and of political freedom.
The original home of
this house is Cavendish, in Suffolk, where
Robert de Gernon (a descendant of one of the
followers of the Conqueror) obtained a landed estate by marriage with an
heiress in this lordship and manor, in consequence of which his son
exchanged his father's name for that of the
locality in which his lot was cast. The Gernons
were of great note in Norfolk Essex, and other counties, under our Norman
kings; and their names figure in English country
histories as the donors of large grants to various abbeys and other
religious houses.
The first of the family
of whom we read in history is Robert de Gernon, who gave considerable
property to the Abbey of Gloucester in the reign of Henry I. He was the
ancestor of Robert de Gernon, of Grimston Hall, in Suffolk, who, having
married the daughter and heiress of John Potton, Lord of Cavendish, in
that county, left at his decease in 1325, a family of four sons, who,
according to the custom of those times, each took
the local name of Cavendish.
According to Collins
and the Heralds, the second of these sons, Roger Cavendish, was ancestor
of Thomas Cavendish, the distinguished navigator, whose name is always
mentioned along with those of Drake and Dampier, and who at his own cost
victualled and furnished three ships, with which he set sail from Plymouth
in July, 1586, and made a circumnavigation of
the globe. This Thomas Cavendish, on his return to England, wrote a
curious letter to Lord Hunsdon, the chamberlain and favorite of Queen
Elizabeth; in which, after telling the courtier bow he had gained victory
over her Majesty's enemies, he writes,
'I burnt and sunk nineteen sail of ships small
and great, and all the villages and towns that ever I landed at I burned
and spoiled.'
Elizabeth knighted this successful depredator
and, from the portion of the spoils that fell to
his share as capitalist and commander, Sir
Thomas Cavendish was said, in the language of
the time, to have been 'rich enough to purchase
a fair earldom.' He was, however, not so successful
in his next and last voyage; for, having set
sail from Plymouth, in August, 1591, and
not being able to pass the Strait of Magellan, by stress of weather, and
the mutinous spirit of his men, he was driven
back to the coast of Brazil, where he mot with
an untimely death.
Sir John Cavendish, the
eldest son of the above-mentioned Roger de
Gernon, was a distinguished lawyer, and held the
post of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench
in the reign: of Edward III and Richard II. In the fourth
year of the latter reign he was elected Chancellor
of the University of Cambridge, and war next year commissioned, with
Robert de Hales,
treasurer of England, to suppress the insurrection
raised in the city of York, in which year the mob, to the number of about
fifty thousand, made it a point, particularly in the county of Suffolk, to
plunder and murder the lawyer. Being incensed in a more than ordinary
degree against the Lord Chief Justice Cavendish, the mob seized upon and
dragged him along with John of Cambridge, the Prior of Bury St. Edmunds,
into the market-place of the latter town, and there caused them both to be
beheaded.
The unpopularity of the
judge arose in the following manner. The younger son of the judge, Sir
John Cavendish esquire of the body to Richard II,
is said by the old chroniclers to have been the person who actually slew
Wat Tyler. 'For William Walworth, mayor of London, having arrested him, he
furiously struck the mayor with his dagger, but, being armed, hurt him
not; whereupon the mayor, drawing his baselard, grievously wounded Wat in
the neck; in which conflict, an esquire of the King's house, called John
Cavendish, drew his sword, and wounded him twice or thrice even unto
death. 'For this service, Cavendish was knighted in Smithfield, and had a
grant of forty pounds per annum from the King.
This Sir John Cavendish (or another of the same name served under Henry V
in his wars in France and played a conspicuous part in the battle of
Agincourt.
The two great-grandsons
of Sir John Cavendish were the brothers, George Cavendish an
William Cavendish, both of whom distinguishes themselves in no
small degree. The latter held the post of
Gentleman Usher to Cardinal Wolsey in which capacity he waited on the
Cardinal in his Embassy into France in
1527. He was also with
the Cardinal in his chamber when the Earl of
Northumberland and Sir Walter Welsh arrested him
in the King's name, and was the chief person
they suffered to be about him, Sir Walter
telling Mr. Cavendish that 'the King's Majesty
bore unto him his principal favor for the love
and diligent service he had performed to his
lord; wherefore the King's pleasure was that he
should be about him as chief, in whom his
Highness putteth great confidence and trust.'
To give a more lasting testimony of his gratitude to the Cardinal, Mr.
Cavendish drew up an account of his life and
death, which he wrote in, the reign of Queen
Mary, and afterwards published it. So faithfully indeed had William
Cavendish served the Cardinal that, upon the death of the latter, King
Henry retained him in his own service, 'especially
upon the grounds of his attachment to his late fallen master.'
In 1530 Mr. Cavendish
was appointed one of the commissioners for visiting and taking the
surrenders of religious houses, in which no doubt he obtained some good
'pickings;' he subsequently held high offices in
the State, including that of Treasurer of the Chamber to the King; be
likewise received the honor of knighthood, and
had bestowed upon him grants of 'forfeited
church lands' from the Crown.
But his wealth in this
way was augmented chiefly by his fortunate marriage with 'Bess of Hardwicke,'-she
was his third wife-by whom he had a large family. It was this Sir William
Cavendish who commenced the present princely mansion of Chatsworth, but
died shortly afterwards, leaving his sorrowing widow in the fall enjoyment
of her worldly possessions, which she took good
care should be securely settled upon herself and her heirs. Some time
afterwards, she became the wife of Sir William St Lo, a captain of the
Guard to Queen Elizabeth whose 'diverse fair
lordships in Gloucestershire' it was also
arranged by the articles of marriage should be
settled upon herself to the exclusion of her new husband's relatives. She
survived Sir William by some years; but even to this third widowhood, as
Bishop Kennet observes in his 'Memoirs of the
Family of Cavendish,' she had not survived her
charms of wit and beauty, by which she captivated the then greatest
subject of the realm, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom she brought to
terms of the greatest honor and advantage to herself and children.'
Besides finishing the
erection of Chatsworth, the countess built the mansions of Hardwicke and
Oldcotes, all of which she transmitted in their
entirety to her second son by her second husband, namely, another Sir
William Cavendish, who in 1605 was raised to the peerage as Baron
Cavendish of Hardwicke, in Derbyshire, and in 1618 advanced to a still
higher dignity, as Earl of Devonshire. His mother 'Bess
of Hardwicke, 'Countess of Shrewsbury, lived to
the age of eighty six, dying in February, 1607,
and being buried in the south aisle of All
Saints Church, Derby, in which town she had
endowed a 'hospital for the subsistence of poor
people, who have each of them an allowance of near ten pounds per annum.'
Lord Cavendish was one
of the first adventurers who settled a colony and plantation in Virginia;
and, on the first discovery of the Bermuda islands, he obtained, with the
Earl of Northampton and others, a grant of them from the king. The islands
were afterwards divided into eight cantons or provinces, bearing the name
of eight of the chief proprietors, and accordingly one of them became
known by the name of Cavendish.
William, the fourth Earl of
Devonshire, having taken an active part in the revolution of
1688, was created, in 1694,
Marquis of Hartington and Duke of Devonshire. His son William, the second
duke, was grandfather of Henry Cavendish, the eminent chemist and
philosopher. The third duke, having held the post of Lord Steward of the
Household, was appointed, in 1737, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which
office he held till 1744. His son William, the
fourth duke, who was also Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, marries Charlotte, Baroness Clifford, of Lanesborough only
daughter and heiress of Richard, Earl of
Burlington and Cork, by which union the Baron, of Clifford, created by
Charles I. in 1628, camp into the Cavendish family. His third son George
Augustus, was created, in 1831, Earl of
Burlington and Baron Cavendish, of Keighley and
was the grandfather of William, second Ear of Burlington, who, on the
death of his cousin William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, in
1858, succeeded to the ducal and other family
honors, and is the present head of the noble
family of the Cavendishies.
The fact that, in his day, the duke was all but
'Senior Wrangler' at Cambridge is regarded by
himself as no small honour to the strawberry
leaves which surround his coronet; and it is much
to the credit of his grace's family that, wherever
their territorial possessions extend, not simphly
are the churches kept weather-tight and architecturally presentable, but
every work of public utility and improvement is
modestly and liberally encouraged and supported. It is true that the
Cavendishes derive a splendid revenue from the town of Barrow-in-Furness,
but few know of the princely sums supplied by him for providing church
accommodation and educational advantages in that town.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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