garden (this ground where the money was found having been formerly in that garden), which Count de Monterey caused to be demolished; and they think that there might have been about 900 Pounds Groot, which makes the value of 450 guineas (English). This Elfort left it by Will to his children, and the marks where to find it, but his children could never discover it.”
For the same reasons as those which accounted for the failure in the south, this descent effected nothing, except a slight diversion in the neighbourhood of Dunkirk. The Duke of Leinster returned to England on the 25th of October.
As a soldier of fortune, he emulated the ingenuity of the other refugees, in speculation for eking out his income, as we may gather from the following statement by Luttrell:—
“1692, 8th Sept. Yesterday, the Duke of Leinster’s engine for working of wrecks was experimented on in the Thames, where one Bradley, a waterman, walked at bottom under water till he came to Somerset House, and discoursed by the way out of a leather pipe; a boat went before him to blow air to him; he had a tin case fastened about his neck, with two leather pipes.” In 1693 (10th March), their Majesties, by royal letters-patent, granted to the enterprising Duke “all wrecks, jetsam, flotsam, lagan, goods derelict, riches, bullion, plate, gold, silver coyne, barrs or piggs of silver, ingots of gold, merchandizes, and other goods and chattells whatsoever, which heretofore have been or hereafter shall be left, cast away, wrecked, or lost in or upon the rocks, shelves, shoales, seas, rivers, or banks in America, between the latitudes of 12o S. and 40o N., by him to be recovered at any time within 20 years after the date hereof (Bermudas and Cartagena, and Jamaica in America excepted) — one full tenth reserved for the King and Queen.”
Luttrell said as to this range upon our globe’s surface, “it includes many wrecks the patentees know where to find; they will fish this summer upon them.” Probably some delay took place, for under date 19th December 1699, Secretary Vernon wrote — “The ‘Dolphin,’ Captain Hunter commander, is to look for the wreck granted to the Duke of Schomberg.”
To the English dukedom he succeeded on the death of the second duke, his brother, in Piedmont; he took his seat in the House of Peers on the 4th, and proved his brother’s will on the 19th of November 1693. His son, and apparent heir, Charles, Earl of Bangor, who was in his tenth year, thus became by courtesy the Marquis of Harwich. The family seem to have been in favour at court. The Duchess of Schomberg and Leinster was deservedly esteemed. On Wednesday, 19th December 1693, she is registered as a sponsor at the baptism of William, son of Messire Jean Rabault, a chevalier, His Majesty being godfather, and the proud father signing himself “Jean Rabault de la Courdrière Bouchetière.” On another occasion she was the godmother of a converted Mahometan, baptized in London. Both baptisms were in Swallow Street French Church.
The Duke of Schomberg was made a Privy Councillor on the 9th of May 1695. His time seems to have been occupied with various court-martials and tours of inspection of military quarters. The even current of his affairs was sadly changed, in 1696, by his wife’s declining health. He arranged to spend the summer at Bath. The Duchess died on the 28th June, at Kensington, in her thirty-seventh year.[1]
He had succeeded to his brother’s dukedom, with the annuity of £4000, and the claim for the capital grant from the treasury. With exemplary prudence, he solicited from the King a formal gift, engrossed upon the Patent Rolls. This he obtained on the 22d December 1696; and as it is a document settling some biographical questions, I shall transcribe the larger portion of it in modernised spelling.
“William the third, &c. To the Commissioners of our Treasury, &c. Whereas, by our letters of privy seal, bearing date 15th February, in the 5th year of our reign, in consideration of the great, faithful, and acceptable services to us performed by Frederick, Duke of Schonberg, late Master-General of our Ordnance, and Captain-General of our land forces, deceased, and more especially reflecting upon his most prudent conduct under us, not only in the hazardous attempt which we had made into this kingdom for redeeming the same from Popery and arbitrary power, but also in his continued endeavours to serve us in order to the completing a prosperous, happy, and settled condition of affairs, and considering the great losses he had sustained, on account of professing the Protestant religion, by the confiscation of his lands and possessions, and loss of his places and employments in France, and by the destruction of his castles, lands, and territories in the county Palatine of the Rhine, in Germany, and for other great and weighty considerations, being disposed to confer upon the late Duke and his posterity a reward for his merits, which might create a lasting remembrance of the gracious sense we had of his service before mentioned, —
- ↑ “She was born 12th Nov. 1659.” — Col. Chester.
