Memoires of the lives, actions, sufferings & deaths of those noble, reverend and excellent personages that suffered by death, sequestration, decimation, or otherwise, for the Protestant religion and the great principle thereof, allegiance to their soveraigne, in our late intestine wars, from the year 1637 to the year 1660, and from thence continued to 1666 with the life and martyrdom of King Charles I / by Da. Lloyd ...

THE Life and Death Of the Right Honorable ROBERT PIERE-POINT, Earl of Kingston.

HIS Ancestors came in with thea 1.1 Conqueror, to settle the Monarchy of this kingdom, and he went out of the world maintaining it with his Interest; which was so great, that the Faction pretended his Concurrence with them, a passage which puts me in minde of the great power of his Predecessors, one of whom in Edward the first Kings time, hath this Memorandum of Record.

Memorandum,

THat Henry de Piere-point, on Munday, the day after the Octaves of St. Michael, came into the Chancery at Lincoln, and said publickly, that he had lost his Seal, and protested, that if any In∣strument were found Sealed with that Seal, after that time, the same should be of no value or effect.

Indeed it was his great Services when Sheriff 13. Iacobi, and greater when Justice of Peace, (and King Iames in a Speech in Star-Chamber, valueth a Justice of Peace as much as one of his Privy-Councel, as it is as much to see Laws and Order kept, as to make them; and to keep the peace in each part of the kingdom, as to ad∣vice about the peace of the whole) composing differences by his skill in Law, suppressing disorders by his great reputation, and promoting the good of his Country, by his large prudence, and deep insight into things; that as he was honoured with King Charles the first his Writ, to be Baron in Parliament (a favour his Ancestor Robert de Piere-point had in Edward the thirds time, but did not en∣joy, being summoned a Baron in Parliament, and dying before he Sate therein) by the Title of Baron Piere-point, and Viscount New∣arke, and afterwards 4. Caroli primi, Earl of Kingston, for his mode∣rate opinions between the extreams then prevailing in Parliaments, which he was able to accommodate, as to State Affairs, as an ex∣perienced man; and as to Church Affairs, as a Christian, and a great Scholar. Whence he would commend a general learning to young Noblemen, upon this ground, because the great variety of Debates that came before them, wherein the unlearned Gentry,

either rashly offer dangerous proposals to impose on others, o•• sloathfully rest in a tame yea and nay, being easily imposed on by others. The effect whereof we found both in his and his hopeful Son, the now Illustrious Marquess of Dorchesters learned and ratio∣nal Defences of the Spiritual Function, and Temporal Honors, and Imployments of Bishops, 1641/2. which though they could not con¦vert any of the obstinate Anti-episcopal men (not a speech to sa∣tisfie their reason, but a grant to gratifie their interest must effect that) yet confirmed they the wavering Episcopal party. When it came to passe in the Civil Wars of England, as it had done in those of Rome, that the Seditious (Brutus and Cassius) were followed by the lower sort of the people, Ex subditis Romanorum (saith Dion) while Caesars Army consisted, Ex Romanis nobilibus & sortibus.

This honorable Person, and his Eldest Son, attended his Majesty, the Father with the Sword, and the Son with the Pen, more fatal to the Faction that the Sword; and therefore the first men excepted out of Pardon, were such excellent Pen-men, as the Lords Viscount Newark and Faulkland.

Sir Edward Hide, Sir Edward Nicholas, and Mr. Endintion Porter, the quickness of whose honorable Declarations and Replies amaz∣ed the Conspiracy, as the smartnesse of them betrayed and defeat∣ed it; their writings being like truth, naturally clear; and the Rebels like error, forced and obscure.

He brought to his Majesty 4000 men, of whose number 2000 were able and willing to serve him with their Persons, and the r••st with their Armes, and Money, to the value of 24000l. and having the care of the Country, with his near Relation the Duke of New-castle, he vigorously opposed the legitimate Commission of Array, to the by-blow of the Militia, till he was surprized at Gainsborough by the Lord Willoughby of Parrham, and being looked upon as a person of great concernment to the Kings affaires (the Country calling him usually the good Earl of Kingston) sent towards Hull in a Pinnace, which Sir Charles Cavendish, who knew well the value of that noble person, as well as the enemy, pursued, demanding the Earl, and when refused, shooting at the Pinnace with a Drake, that unfortunately killed him and his servant, placed a mark to his friends shot, who when they took the Vessel, put all the Company to the Sword, a just, though not a valuable sacrifice to so noble a Ghost; which King Charles the I. would have ransomed at as high a rate, as his Ancestor Robert Peire-point was redeemed in Edward the III. time, who cost that King, when taken at Lewis, 700 mark, the Ransom (as money went in those days) of a Prince, rather than a Subject.

Robertus Baro Peire-point, & Comes Kinstoniae quem amici servando occiderunt: ab ubinon mors? Si caecus amor ipso in∣festius odio, s••miae more affectu necat, & amplexibus strangu∣bat.

Notes

• a 1.1

  When they were ••etled in Hurst ••erre∣point in Sus∣sex.