ried to William Ponsonby, Lord Viscount Duncannon, son and heir of Brabazon, Earl of Bessborough, of the kingdom of Ireland, of whom under the title of Lord Ponsonby. Her Ladyship died January 20th, 1760.

Lady Elizabeth, married, in September, 1742, to the honourable John Ponsonby, Esq. second son of the said Earl of Bessborough; by whom she was mother of William Brabazon Ponsonby, created Lord Ponsonby 1806; and of the Rt. Hon. George Ponsonby late Lord Chancellor of Ireland; and Lady Rachel, married, on May 12th, 1748, to Horatio Walpole, Esq. son and at length successor to the Rt. Hon. Horatio Walpole, Baron of Woolterton in Norfolk; now Earl of Orford. She died May 8th, 1805.

WILLIAM, FOURTH DUKE AND SEVENTH EARL OF DEVONSHIRE, of his family, was at the general election, in 1747, returned one of the knights for Derbyshire; and called up to the house of peers, on June 13th, 1751, with precedency, according to the patent granted his ancestor, on May 4th, 1605, being the fifteenth Baron, when he took his seat among the lords. On July 9th, 1751, he was appointed master of the horse, and three days after sworn of the privy-council. On March 30th, next year, he was nominated one of the lords of the regency, during his Majesty's absence and in January, 1754, was constituted governor of the county of Cork in Ireland, and also, in February following, lord high treasurer of that kingdom, in the room of the last Earl of Burlington. On March 27th, 1755, he was declared lord lieutenant and governor general of Ireland; first commissioner of the treasury, on November 16th, 1756; and lord lieutenant of the county of Derby, on December 15th, that year. His Grace was installed Knight of the Garter, on March 27th, 1757; and having, in May that year, been appointed chamberlain of the household, he resined his place in the treasury. Being continued in the chamberlain's office, at the accession of the present King, he in that quality assisted at the royal nuptials, and the coronation. He in 1762, resigned all his employments in England depending on the crown; but retained those of lord high treasurer of Ireland, and governor of the county of Cork in that kingdom, to the time of his decease, which happened on October 2d, 1764, in the forty-fourth year of his age, at the German Spa, whither he had gone about a month before for the benefit of his health, and was buried at Allhallows, Derby. His Grace was also Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the governors of the

Charter House, president of the London Hospital in Whitechapel Road, and one of the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He married, in March, 1748, Lady Charlotte, the third and youngest, but only surviving, daughter and heir of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork, and by her Ladyship (who died on December 8th, 1754, and was buried at Allhallows, Derby) had issue three sons, and one daughter; viz. William, now Duke of Devonshire; Lord Richard Cavendish, born on June 19th, 1751, and elected in two parliaments for the town of Lancaster; he died at Naples September 7th, 1781, where he went for the recovery of his health. His Lordship was at the general election, 1780, chosen member for Derby.

Lord George Augustus Henry, born on Feb. 27th, 1754, and elected in several parliaments for Knaresborough in Yorkshire; and since for the county of Derby. He married, March 27th, 1782, at Trinity chapel, Conduit-street, Lady Elizabeth Compton, sole daughter and heir of Charles, seventh Earl of Northampton, by whom he has had issue, first, William, born Jan. 10, 1783, M. P. for Aylesbury, 1806: second, George Henry Compton, M. P. for Aylesbury, 1807, and captain in the seventh dragoons; third, Elizabeth Dorothy, born June 12th, 1786, died September 17th, 1786; fourth, Anna, born November 11th, 1787; fifth, Elizabeth, born March 13th, 1792, died May 26th, 1794; sixth, Henry Frederick Compton, born November 5th, 1789; seventh, Charles Compton, born August 28th, 1793; eighth, Mary Louisa, born March 6th, 1795, died June 7th, 1795; ninth, Carolina, born, April 5th, 1797; tenth, a daughter, born April 23d, 1803.

And Lady Dorothy Cavendish, born on August 27th, 1750, and married on Nov. 8th, 1766, to his Grace William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, the present Duke of Portland; she died May 1794.

WILLIAM, THE PRESENT AND FIFTH DUKE, AND EIGHTH EARL, OF DEVONSHIRE, was born on December 14th, 1748; and was one of the six lords (eldest sons of peers) who supported his Majesty's train at his coronation, on September 22d, 1761; on March 1st, 1766, his Grace was constituted lord high treasurer of Ireland, and governor of the county of Cork in that kingdom. His Grace married June 6th, 1774, Lady Georgina Spencer, eldest daughter of the Right Honourable John Earl Spencer, by whom he has had issue, first, Georgina, born July 12th, 1783, married, March 21st, 1801, George Viscount Morpeth, son of Frederick, Earl of Carlisle, K. G.; second, Henrietta, born August 12, 1805;

third, William George, Marquis of Hartington, born May 21st, 1790. His Duchess died in March 1806. His Grace is a Knight of the Garter.

Titles. William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, Marquis of Hartington, Earl of Devonshire, and Baron Cavendish of Hardwick.

Creations. Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, in com. Derb. by letters patent May 4th, 1605, 3 Jac. I. Earl of Devonshire, August 7th, 1618, 16 Jac. I. Marquis of Hartington, and Duke of Devonshire, May 12th, 1694, 6 William and Mary.

Arms. Quarterly. 1. Sable, three harts heads caboshed, Argent, attired, Or, Cavendish. 2. Per bend embatteled Arg. and Gu. Boyle. 3. Checky, Or and Az. a fess Gules, Clifford. 4. As first. Crest. On a wreath, a snake nouè, proper.

Supporters. Two harts, proper, each gorged with a garland or sprig of roses, Argent and Azure, attired, Or.

Motto. Cavendo Tutus.

Chief Seats. At Chatsworth, in the county of Derby; at Hardwick, in the same county; and at Chiswick, in Middlesex,

THE family of Spencer, who were made peers by James I. by the title of Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, and were afterwards made Earls of Sunderland, obtained the DUKEDOM of MARLBOROUGH, by marriage with Lady Anne, second daughter and coheir of JOHN CHURCHILL, the celebrated Duke of that title. It will therefore be proper first to give the Churchill pedigree.

CHURCHILL FAMILY.

I shall give an account of this ancient house from Dr. James Anderson's Genealogical Tables, edit. 2. p. 580-1. a

The patriarch of the family, according to that reverend and illustrious antiquary, was GITTO DE LEON, of a noble family in Normandy, who lived A. D. 1055, and had two sons, Richard and Wandril. RICHARD, the eldest, was Lord of Montalban, and progenitor of the present noble house of Leon in France, by his wife Yoland, Countess of Luxemburg.

WANDRIL DE LEON, the second son, was Lord of Courcil, b and by marriage with Isabella de Tuya, was also father of two sons, Roger de Courcil, and Rouland de Courcil, ancestor of the Courcils of Poictou, from whom those of that name, in Normandy and Anjou, are descended.

ROGER DE COURCIL, eldest son of Wandril, came into England, in 1066, with William the Conqueror, and was rewarded for his services with divers lands in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire,

a The Duke of Marlborough is inserted by Anderson, as Duke of Mindelheim in Swabia; and afterwards in exchange, Prince of Nellenburg in Upper Austria. The present compiler copies it on his authority; but it is extremely deficient in reference to original documents, and is therefore suspicious.

b Baronagium Genealog. MS.

and Devonshire (as appears by Doomsday-book) part whereof was the Lordship of Churchill in Somersetshire, which was anciently written Curichil, Cheuchil, Chirchil, &c. and was so denominated from being the habitation of his family. This Roger de Courcil wedded Gertruda, daughter of Sir Guy de Torbay, and by her had three sons; first, John de Curichil; second, Hugh Fitz Roger, Lord of Corfeton in Dorsetshire, who marrying the sister and heir of .... Bond, Lord of Fisherton, his offspring assumed that surname, and bore the arms of that family, viz. sable, a fess, Or; and third, Roger Fitz Roger, whose son, by Mabel, heiress of the family of Solerys, or Solers, taking that surname, from him are sprung those of the name of Solers.

JOHN de Curichil espoused Joan de Kilrington, and by her was father of

Sir BARTHOLOMEW de Chirchil, a great warrior, and celebrated in antient songs, who held the castle of Bristol for King Stephen, and died fighting in his cause. This Sir Bartholomew wedded Agnes, daughter of Ralph Fitz Ralph, Lord of Tiverton; and by her had a son,

PAGAN de Cherchile, father of ROGER de Cherchile, who had free warren in his lands of Cherchile, in the reign of Edward I. a and left a son,

ELIAS de Churchile, who in 8 Edward II. grants e to John Bampfield his meadow called Pleynford in Clifton, married Dorothy, a daughter of the antient family of Columbers, and by her had three sons, John, Giles, and William. JOHN, the eldest, a witness to a charter of Thomas Bampfield, in 5 Richard II. and also mentioned in a charter, 11 Henry IV. wedded Jane, daughter and coheir of Roger Dawney of Norton, by Juliana his wife, daughter and coheir of William de Widdehere, and by her was father of two daughters, Margaret, wife of Andrew Hillersdon of Devonshire; and Agnes, married to Thomas Giffard, of Theu

This is contradicted by Collinson, Hist. Som. vol. iii. p. 580, who says it is not mentioned among Roger de Curcelle's possessions in the Domesday Book; for that it then formed part of the manor of Banwell. In the time of Edward III. it belonged to the family of Cogan. Sir John Churchill bought it in the time of Charles II. of Richard Jenyns, Esq.

Cotemporary with whom was Richard de Churchille, who in 14 Edw. V. was a witness to the agreement made between the brethren of the hospital of St. John Baptist in Bath, and Thomas de Hereford, one of the burgesses of Bristol, concerning a house in Reedclive, in the suburbs of Bristol, of the fee of Berkeley. Rot. Term. Pasch. 14 Ed. I.

e Sir William Pole's MS. of Charters.

f Ibid. p. 34, and 260.