their services against the Irish, with the title of Barons of Kerry.[1] I have seen the original grant in the possession of my father, and it must be now in my brother's. It is a curiosity on account of its simplicity and brevity, compared with grants of a later date, not being longer than a common writ of subpœna or a summons to Parliament. Both title and estates descending through so many generations from father to son in a country quite uncivilized, peopled by Catholicks, reduced by frequent rebellions, and laws passed in consequence, my ancestors necessarily exercised an absolute power over a great tract of country, and the more so as they had in general preserved their loyalty and their attachment to the English Government.[2] My grandfather did not want the manners of the country nor the habits of his family to make him a tyrant. He was so by nature. He was the most severe character which can be imagined, obstinate and inflexible; he had not much understanding, but strong nerves and great perseverance, and no education, except what he had in the army, where he served in his youth, with a good degree of reputation for personal bravery and activity. He was a handsome man, and, luckily for me and mine, married a very ugly woman, who brought into his family whatever degree of sense may have appeared in it, or whatever wealth is likely to remain in it, the daughter of Sir William Petty,[3] known by his services and his works, and still more particularly to his family by a very singular will.[4]
"Sir William Petty, in consequence of being Ireton's secretary, became accidentally a trustee in some family transaction, which becoming in the course of some law proceeding necessarily known to the King and Lord Chancellor Clarendon, he was advised by his friends to suppress it, at the risk of injuring the Cromwell family; but he appears to have spurned such an act of ingratitude,
- ↑ The Earldom of Kerry was not created until 1723.
- ↑ See Sydney Papers and Moryson's Itinerary. (Note by Lord Shelburne.)
- ↑ Anne Petty.
- ↑ This will is printed at length in vol. xxiv. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy as an appendix to Mr. Hardinge's paper on the townland surveys in Ireland from 1640 to 1688, and in the appendix to the Life of Sir William Petty, p. 318, by the present author.
