Ubc ifitswilUams 267 



the estate and lordship whereof he bought of Richard 

 Whittlebury in the year 1506. 



He was an excellent specimen of the thrifty English 

 merchant of the time, a man who, with a keen eye to 

 the main chance, combined a genuine love of mercy and 

 justice. He left an immense fortune, a large portion of 

 which was bequeathed in charity. Being not only a 

 person of substance, but also of ancient Norman stock, 

 his friendship was cultivated by men of high birth and 

 breeding. His eldest daughter married Sir Thomas 

 Brudenell of Deene, an ancestor of Lord Cardigan, 

 and of the present Marquis of Ailesbury. His second 

 daughter became the wife of Sir Anthony Coke 

 of Gedney Hall, Essex, and /ler daughter Mildred, 

 whom old Roger Ascham, Latin Secretary to Edward 

 VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, pronounced to be one of the 

 best Greek scholars of her time, was the second wife of 

 William Cecil, the Lord Burghley of Elizabethan fame, 

 and mother of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, from 

 whom the present Premier traces his descent. 



The Fitzwilliams have ever been a manly and capable 

 race. The grandson of the first Sir William was for 

 nine and thirty years Viceroy of Ireland, and one of the 

 ablest of Queen Elizabeth's many able public servants. 

 As Governor of Fotheringay Castle, he had the ill-used 

 Mary Queen of Scots under his charge, and treated 

 her with a kindness and courtesy which so touched her 

 heart that, on the eve of her execution, she thanked him 

 with many tears, and, as a token of her gratitude, pre- 

 sented him with a portrait of her son, which is to this 

 day preserved as an heirloom in the family. With this 

 Sir William Fitzwilliam commenced that long connection 

 of the house with Ireland which has not since been broken, 



