340 Broughton Gifford. 
his will, 20th September, 1708, he devised all his lands to trustees, 
on trust for Rachel Baynton during her life, and then to her heirs 
male successively. The grand-daughter and sole heiress of John 
Hall married the Hon. William Pierrepoint, only son and heir of 
Evelyn Pierrepoint then Marquis of Dorchester, and afterwards 
first Duke of Kingston. The young husband died 1718 at the age 
of 21, the young widow followed him 1722 at the age of 27. They 
left one boy, Evelyn the second and last Duke of Kingston.’ The 
tastes and fortunes of this nobleman were in some respects not un- 
like those of his great granduncle, Thomas Thynne. Both were 
spendthrifts, both diminished their paternal inheritances, both 
drew blanks, and worse than blanks, in the marriage lottery, both 
had wives who were no wives, the Lady Ogle never saw Thomas 
Thynne after the marriage ceremony, the Countess of Bristol was 
guilty of bigamy in marrying the Duke of Kingston: both died 
shortly after marriage, Thomas Thynne within two years, Evelyn 
Pierrepoint within four: the tongues of men were busy with the 
reputations of the wives of both, Swift called Lady Ogle an “assas- 
sin” in some unscrupulous verses,” and it is probably no scandal that 
the imprudent eccentricities of the Duchess of Kingston did not 
tend to prolong the declining years of the last of that house. They 
were unlike in this: Thomas Thynne married a fine lady from mo- 
tives of self interest, the Duke of Kingston married for love one, 
who hardly, from her indelicate adventures, could be called a lady; 
the difference continued to the end, the widow of the one had no- 
thing, the widow of the other, under one or other of the aliases by 
1 My account of Thomas Thynne and the Hall family is derived from Canon 
Jackson’s admirable papers on Longleat and Kingston House, published in the 
Wilts Archeological Magazine. 
2 The lady was originally a Percy, she happened to have red hair, she ulti- 
mately became Duchess of Somerset. 
‘And, dear England, if ought I understand, 
Beware of carrots from Northumberland. 
Carrots sown Thynn a deep root may get, 
If so they be in Somer-set: 
Their Cunnings-mark thou: for I have been told, 
They assassin when young, and poison when old.” 
Dean Swift’s Windsor Prophecy. Quoted by Canon Jackson. 
