THOMAS, LORD COVENTRY, OF AYLESBOROUGH. HOMAS LORD CO VENTRY was defcend ed from a long line of an- on record, was John Coventry, Mer- He was born at Croome d'Abitot, in Worcestershire, in 1578, became a gentleman commoner of Baliol College Oxford at the age of fourteen, and, three years afterwards, was entered a member of the Inner Temple. His father Thomas Coventry, who died in 1606, having been one of the Juftices of the Court of Common Pleas, he pursued his steps in the study of the municipal laws; and, in the 14th year of James I., was chofen Autumn Reader to the above fociety; in the month of November, in the fame year, he was elected Recorder of London, and, in March following, constituted Solicitor-General, and received the honour of Knighthood at Theobald's. Four years afterwards he was made Attorney-General, and, from thence, advanced to the eminent office of Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England, by King Charles I., in November 1625. He was created a Baron of the realm in 1628, by the title of Lord Coventry, of Aylesbury.* *Collins's Peerage, vol. v. M M Lord Clarendon fays of him that " he was a man of wonderful gravity and wisdom; and understood not only the whole science and mystery of the law: at least, equally with any man who had ever fat in that place; but had a clear conception of the whole policy of the government both of church and state; which, by the unskilfulness of fome well-meaning men, justled each the other too much." Further, continues the fame author in another place, "He discharged all the offices he went through with great abilities, and fingular reputation of integrity; that he enjoyed his place of Lord-Keeper with a univerfal reputation (and fure, justice was never better administered) for the space of about fixteen years, even to his death,* fome months before he was fixty years of age." His patent of creation, as a Baron of the realm, enumerates the services rendered to the Crown, and to the country at large; and the following extract from it will fhew the estimation he stood in with the King ::-"Nos igitur in perfonâ prædilecti & perquam fidelis confiliarii noftri Thoma Coventry, Militis, cuftodis magni figilli nostri Angliæ, gratissima et digniffima fervitia, qua idem confiliarius nofter tam præchariffimo patri noftro Jacobo Regi beatæ memoriæ per multos annos, quam nobis ab ipfis Regni noftri primis aufpiciis fideliffime et prudentiffime præftitit et impendit, indiefque impendere non defiftit; necnon circumfpectionem, prudentiam, ftrenuitatem, dexteritatem, integritatem, induftriam, erga nos et Coronam noftram animo benigno & regali intime recolentes conftantiam et fidelitatem ipfius Thoma Coventry, Militis, &c. In cujus rei, &c. T. R. apud Weftm. decimo die Aprilis, anno regni Regis Caroli 4°." * Hiftory of England, vol. iii. One of the most honourable teftimonials of this learned Lord's fuccefs in the discharge of his arduous functions as Chancellor, is adduced by Fuller, who fays -" I must not forget that it hath been observed, that never Lord-Keeper made fewer orders, which afterwards were reversed, than this Lord Coventry; which some ascribe to his difcretion, grounding most of his orders on the confent and compromise of the parties themselves interested therein, whofe hands, fo tied up by their own act, were the more willing to be quiet for the future."* Lord Coventry was admitted a member of the Grocers' Company, in the year 1627, and is the first lawyer who ever received that honour.† He died at Durham-Houfe in the Strand, in London, on the 14th January 1629, and was interred at Croome d'Abitot, in the fame vault with his father. * Worthies of England, vol. ii. p. 470. + His Lordship must have been popular with the Company for feveral years before his admiffion into it, as I find in the books that, on the 15th Dec. 1625, twenty fugar-loaves, and fuch other fpices as the Wardens should think fit, to the full value of £20, were ordered to be given to Lord-Keeper Coventry, "as a free and loving gratuity from the Court." CHARLES THE SECOND, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, AND IRELAND, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &c. &c. Exchange, in 1684, as a teftimonial of their grateful respect and attachment to his Royal perfon. GEORGE MONK, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE. "He is a foldier, fit to ftand by Cæfar And give direction." Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3. HE details of the life and actions of this illuftrious Nobleman are fo generally known, that it becomes unneceffary to repeat them here at length. He was defcended of a family, fettled, fo early as the reign of Henry III. at Potheridge, in Devonshire, where he was born on the 6th day of December 1608, and was educated by his grandfather, Sir George Smith, with whom he almoft entirely refided. As he expected no inheritance from his father, Sir Thomas Monk,* he dedicated himself to the profeffion of arms from his youth. His father's reduced fortune was the means of exciting the first ebullition of fpirit in him, and of compelling him to enter into military fervice at the age of feventeen, which was earlier than was intended.+ Sir Thomas, it appears, was in danger of being taken in execution at the time that King Charles the First made a progress into the Weft and came to Plymouth, to review the forces intended for the Spanish expedition; and, being willing to make an appearance fuitable to his rank on that occafion, he sent his fon Biographical Dictionary, vol. v. + Skinner's Life of Monk. |