354 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book XIII. 



Earl of Arlington, principal Secretary of State, who appointed 

 him clerk or keeper of the Paper-office at Whitehall, and 

 employed him in translating and corresponding in French ; 

 and June 24, 1677, he was sworn one of the clerks of the 

 council in ordinary, and knighted. He was Under-Secretary 

 of State in 1665 ; about which time he procured for himself 

 the writing of the " Oxford Gazettes," then newly set up. In 

 1678, 1679, 1698, and 1700 he represented the borough of 

 Thetford in Parliament. In 1685, being then Recorder of 

 Thetford, he was again elected, but Hevingham, the mayor, 

 returned himself, and on petition it appeared that the right 

 of election was in the select body of the corporation before 

 the charter; and in 1690 he lost his election by a double 

 return. At the short treaty of Cologne, Sir Joseph was one 

 of the British plenipotentiaries with the Earl of Sunderland 

 and Sir Leslie Jenkins, and at his return he was created LL.D., 

 June 27, 1674, sworn Principal Secretary of State, September 

 1 1 of that year, on the promotion of the Earl of Arlington to 

 the Chamberlainship of the Household, and a Privy Coun- 

 cillor. On November 18, 1678, he was committed to the 

 Tower by the House of Commons, on charge of granting 

 commissions and warrants to popish recusants ; but he was 

 the same day released by Charles II., notwithstanding an 

 address from the House. He resigned his place of secretary 

 February 9, 1678-9, and was succeeded by the Earl of Sun- 

 derland, who (if we may rely upon Rapin's History) gave 

 him iJ'6000 and 500 guineas to induce him to resign. In 

 December that year, he married Lady Catherine Stewart, 

 relict of Henry O'Brien, Lord Ibracken (son and heir-apparent 

 of Henry, 7th Earl of Thomond, who died 1678), sister and 

 sole heiress to Charles Stewart, 6th Duke of Lenox, 4th Earl 

 of March, and 3rd Duke of Richmond, K.G., by which alliance 

 Sir Joseph acquired large possessions in Kent and elsewhere, 

 besides the hereditary stewardship of Greenwich. Some 

 ascribe the loss of the secretary's place to this match, through 

 the means of Lord Danby, who intended the lady for his son. 

 She died in November, 1702. Sir Joseph was president of 

 the Royal Society in 1678. His benefactions to Queen's 



