PREFACE

T

HERE is, I believe, still room for a biography of Cromwell setting forth the character of the man as it stands revealed by recent investigations. In the selection of the illustrations I have to acknowledge with the warmest gratitude the counsels given me from time to time by Mr. Lionel Cust, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, whose knowledge of portraits and costumes has been invaluable to me, as well as my sincere thanks for advice and assistance rendered during the progress of the work by Mr. Bertram F. Astley, Mr. R. B. Drabble, Mr. R. R. Holmes, Librarian to the Queen, and Mr. Andrew McKay.

I have also now the opportunity of recording the grateful appreciation of the Publishers and myself of the prompt and generous response made by all the owners of collections to whom application has been made for permission to reproduce any work of art which might serve to illustrate this volume. That this indebtedness is indeed great and widespread will be at once recognised from the following names of owners and custodians of the originals from which the illustrations have been taken :-Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, the Duke of Manchester, the Duke of Hamilton, the Marquis of Lothian, Earl Spencer, the Earl of Sandwich, Lord Ribblesdale, Lord Saye and Sele, Mrs. Frankland-Russell-Astley, of Chequers Court; Mrs. B. M. Beadnell (née Polhill), of Sundridge, Kent; Miss Disbrowe, of Walton Hall, Burton-on-Trent; Mr. Edmund F. J. Deprez; the Master and Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; the Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; as well as the authorities of the Houses of Parliament, of the National

Portrait Gallery, of the British Museum, of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and of the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland.

Though care has been taken to secure genuine portraits, it seems desirable to lay before the reader exactly the evidence in existence where doubts may be entertained:

1. The likeness of Cromwell as a child, from Chequers Court, cannot be regarded as absolutely certain, though I see little reason for pronouncing against it. On the back of the panel of this picture is a note in the handwriting of Sir Thomas Frankland, who was descended from the fourth son of Elizabeth, daughter of Cromwell's daughter, Lady Russell, to the following effect:

"This picture was purchased January 1791 / from Mr. Graves, Printseller in Catherine / Street, to whom Mr Gerard, the Auction-/eer, sold it many years since among the furniture of Mr. Story, of Greek Street, /whose mother was waiting woman to Mrs. Ireton, daughter to Oliver Cromwell." (Signed) T. F."

An earlier MS. statement is also pasted on the back of the panel, but is only decipherable to the following extent :

“Mr. Gerrard, auctioneer, who had * Picture * for evidence respecting /

"Mr. Gerrard who told me that he sold / it some years ago amongst the Furniture / of Mr. Story, of Greek Street-whose mother was waiting woman to Mrs. Ireton, the Daughter of / Oliver-that she married Mr. Story who was / private messenger to Oliver--that his Executor / wd not he supposed let it be sold otherwise than amongst Family Furniture least (i.e. lest) the circumstance of Mr. Story's having been in service should be revived-/ That the Executor still had a picture of Mrs. / Ireton which he had been restrained from selling by Mr. Story's will.

"Same Day sent to enquire where I might see the picture of Mrs. Ireton-and was referred by / Mr. Gerrard to Mr. Marshall Grocer corner of / Gt. Newport Street in Porter Street-as the Executor / of Mr. Story.

"Mr. Marshall knew nothing of the Pictures sold / amongst the Furniture sd if he had known there / had been such a picture of Cromwell, he sd have thought it his duty to have sold it amongst Antiquities had / Mr. Gerrard advised him to do so that he might have made the most of the effects-That Mrs. Story was a servant to Mrs. Ireton-that she lived with her Husbd / (who had been in the King's family in the in in the House he saw * * whom he succeeded in the year 1755 when she died 100 years That she was a very active wo-/ man and could go up and down stairs very her death -He shewed me the picture of / * * is a very good picture but */ * Bed Room. He sd it was * "N.B. The above left" * / ** (Here 14 lines of the MS. are illegible) Mr. Nicholas."

at the age of

* *

*

So far as this evidence goes, it traces the Chequers Court picture back to Cromwell's eldest daughter Bridget, the wife first of Ireton, afterwards of Fleetwood. There exists, however, in the possession of the Rev. A. W. Headlam, of Gainford Vicarage, Darlington, another picture almost entirely similar to the one at Chequers Court, and the ownership of which can be traced back to Lady Fagg (died 1791), who married Roger Talbot, son of Frances Frankland, granddaughter of the Lady Russell mentioned above. If we assume that these two statements are accurate, we arrive at the probable conclusion that the Chequers