1603-1616.] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER 7 



His age has been very variously, and, as it appears, 

 vaguely stated; originating probably with hasty 

 printed statements during the Civil War, when no par 

 ticular purpose had to be served by accuracy on such a 

 matter. Wood certainly was not likely to be ten years 

 out of truth in recording the ages of youths. It is also 

 more likely that his Lordship in his circumstances, and 

 with his family, had married rather at 23 than at 

 33 years of age. 



. We meet with no accounts of the births or baptisms 

 of his children, with the exception of his seventh son, 

 Frederick Somerset, who, according to the Parish 

 Registers of St. Dunstan s in the West, 73 London, was 

 baptized on the 26th March, 1613, in the house of Lady 

 Morrison in the Friars, she being related through the 

 Russells to Anne Lady Herbert. 



James I. was proclaimed on the 24th of March, 

 1603. The same month Lord Herbert was sum 

 moned to Parliament, being then 26 years of age. 

 A great plague was at that time raging in the metro 

 polis, having destroyed 30,000 of the population, ren 

 dering his residence in town very perilous. 



His Lordship s father was, in 1604, invested with the 

 Order of the Garter, and on resigning his office of 

 Master of the Horse, on the 1st of January, 1616, 

 having retained it fifteen years, he was, on the 2nd of 

 the same month, made Keeper of the Privy Seal. 



In a literary and scientific point of view, this was a 

 period of great historical interest. In December, 1608, 

 Milton w r as born*, while in April, 1616, Shakspere 

 died. In 1611 the new translation of the Bible was 

 published. Lord Napier, in Scotland, invented his 

 system of logarithms ; the great Harvey was propound 

 ing his discovery respecting the circulation of the 



73 J. B. Nichols, vol. vi. p. 371. 



