248 CLARE Sir Thomas Stanhope, by Margaret, da. of Sir John Port, of Etwall, co. Derby. He d. in his 74th year, at his house called Clare Palace, Nottingham, 4, and was bur. 7 Oct. 1637, in St. Mary's Church, there. (^) M.I. Fun. certif. in Pub. Record Office. His will, dat. 3 1 May 1599, having been made nearly 39 years previously, admon. was grdiV.tdi, pendente lite, 6 Feb. 1637/8 to the widow. She d. in the Piazza, Covent Garden, Midx., aged 75 years and 9 months, 18 Nov., and was bur. 22 Dec. 1651, at St. Mary's, Nottingham, afsd. M.I. Will dat. 5, pr. 26 Nov. 1651. II. 1637. 2. John (Holles), Earl of Clare, i^c, s. and h., b. at Haughton afsd., 13 June 1595 ; M.P. (in 3 Paris.) for East Retford (having also been elected for St. Michael's), Feb. 1623/4 to June 1626; styledl^oKT) Houghton after 2 Nov. 1624; knighted at Green- wich, 2 June 1625; Lord Lieut, of Notts (on the nom. of Pari.), 1642, but took some part in trying to reconcile Pari, with the King, and in 1643 went over to his side.C") App. Warden of Sherwood Forest Mar. 1 645/6. He m., 4 Sep. 1626, at St. Bartholomew-the-Great, London (as " Lord John Houghton"), Elizabeth, ist da. and coh. of Horatio (Vere), Baron Vere OF Tilbury, by Mary, da. of Sir (John or) William Tracy. He d. at Haughton afsd., 2, and was bur. 23 Jan. 166^/6, at St. Mary's, Nottingham, aged 70. Will dat. 12 Aug. 1659, pr. 30 May 1666. His widow, who was b. in the Netherlands, 1623, d. Dec. 1683, and was bur. 1 1 Jan. 1683/4, at St. Mary's afsd. Clare determined [13 13], the honours of Clare had ever been conferred on a Prince of the Blood Royal, Clare and Clarence being one and the same title,* and therefore not to be allowed to a meaner subject. But the power that procured the dignity pre- vailed for the title, which [power] was the Duke of Buckingham." Again, the newly created Earl writes thus to the Bishop of Lincoln: "My patent is now past for the Earldom of Clare, the title wherein my Lord of Warwick was so emboged, but what is it that a powerful favourite cannot do?" It appears, also, that the grantee had no connection whatever with the estate of Clare or with any of the former owners of the title, so that its adoption was a mere piece of swagger to give lustre to a hitherto not very illustrious race. G.E.C.
- Nevertheless no instance has ever been found of a Duke of Clarence being
called Clare or of a Lord Clare being called Clarence. V.G. (^) He appears never to have enjoyed the favour of Charles I. "Some have been of opinion that had he lived to these unhappy times he would have sided with those that persecuted the King, but I am most confident of the contrary." See Gervase Holies in Collins' Noble FamilieSy p. 93, who gives a full account of his appearance and his endowments, adding that Sir John Brooke (afterwards Lord Cobham) said of him: "I have travailed the best partes of Christendome, and have conversed with the most noble persons in those places where I came, yet, in all my life, I never met with so exactly accomplished a gentleman as my Lord of Clare." Denzill Holies, his 2nd s., was, in 1 661, cr. Baron Holles of Ifield. (*■) According to Lord Clarendon " he was a man of honour and of courage, and would have been an excellent person if his heart had not been too much set upon keeping and improving his estate." He favoured the Restoration, but appears never to have taken any very active part in politics. f
