Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hervey, William
HERVEY, WILLIAM, Lord Hervey of Kidbrooke (d. 1642), was the only son of Henry Hervey, eldest son of Sir Nicholas Hervey, gentleman of the privy chamber to Henry VIII, and ambassador at Ghent, by his second wife, Bridget, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiltshire, knt., of Stone Castle in Kent, and widow of Sir Richard Wingfield, K.G., of Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdonshire. His mother was Jane, daughter of James Thomas of Glamorganshire. He first signalised himself in 1588 against the Spanish Armada, when he is said to have boarded one of the Spanish ships and killed the captain, Hugh Monçada, with his own hands. On 27 June 1596 he was knighted for his services in the capture of Cadiz. In 1597 he was present at the taking of Fayal on Essex's ‘Islands' Voyage.’ The queen conferred on him the keepership of St. Andrew's Castle, Hampshire, on 8 Feb. 1598 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, p. 19). In 1600 he commanded one of the royal ships, and brought relief to his cousin, Sir George Carew [q. v.], president of Munster, who was engaged in reducing the rebels in Ireland. In June of that year he was appointed scout-master, and was wounded in a skirmish before Dundalk on the following 2 Oct. (ib. Carew MSS. 1589–1600, pp. 397, 465). Hervey stayed some time in Ireland, and was successful in several actions. He was also very serviceable at the siege of Kinsale, and on its surrender on 9 Jan. 1601–2 he was sent, in pursuance of the capitulation, to take possession of the castles of Dunboy, Castlehaven, and Flower. He was afterwards made governor of Carbery, from Ross to Bantry, took Cape Clear Castle, and successfully stood his ground until the final reduction of the rebels. For these services James I created him a baronet on 31 May 1619, and an Irish peer on 5 Aug. 1620, with the title of Baron Hervey of Ross, co. Wexford. On 7 Feb. 1627–8 he was raised to the English peerage as Baron Hervey of Kidbrooke, Kent. He died in June 1642, and was buried on the following 8 July in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey (Register, Harl. Soc., p. 136). He married (1) in May 1598 Mary (d. 1607), widow of Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, and daughter of Anthony Browne, viscount Montacute, by whom he had no issue (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, pp. 54, 157); and (2) on 5 Feb. 1607 Cordell, youngest daughter of Brian Ansley of Lee, Kent, and gentleman-pensioner to Queen Elizabeth, by whom he had three sons and three daughters; but all dying except Elizabeth, wife of John Hervey (1616–1679) [q. v.] of Ickworth, Suffolk, the titles became extinct at his death. His second wife was buried at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 5 May 1636.
[Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iv. 145–7, ix. 480; Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerages, p. 277; Sidney State Papers, ii. 53.]