44 



Longlcat Papers, No. 3. 



first husband, Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, so, she had " served 

 Leicester in his own kind" by poisoning' him. It is almost 

 beyond belief that she could have done so, and afterwards have 

 inscribed upon his monument in the Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, 

 such words as are there still to be seen : " optimo et charissimo 

 niarito mastissima Leticia." She lived to the great age of ninety- 

 four : and saw, says Dr. Plot (Hist, of Staffordshire, p. 328), the 

 grand-children of her grand-children. Dying at Drayton, near 

 Tamworth, "upon Christmas Day, in the morning, in 1634," she 

 was buried in the same Chapel as the Earl of Leicester : where an 

 old wooden tablet exhibits a long eulogy of her in verse written 

 by " Gervas Clifton." 1 



Two letters are subjoined, written to her by her son, Robert 

 Devereux, the unfortunate second Earl of Essex, about her 

 jointure, and occupation of Wanstead House. Letters from this 

 nobleman are of the greatest rarity. These are in a tone of great 

 courtesy and affection.] 



1580, February 18th. Deposition by Humphry Tyndall, 9 the 

 Officiating Chaplain, as to the Secret Marriage of Lettice 

 Knollys, Countess Dowager of Essex, with Robert Dudley, 

 Earl of Leicester, at Wanstead House, 3 on Sunday, 2 1st 

 September, 1578. 



[Camden (Hist, of Queen Elizabeth, p. £17,) has a passage 

 which throws a little light upon the " Deposition of Tyndall, the 



1 This was the polygamous Sir G-ervase Clifton, of Clifton, Co. Notts, who was 

 remarkable for having married seven wives : the first being Penelope Rich, 

 grand-daughter of Lettice Knollys. 



2 This document is signed, in the chaplain's own autograph, "ITmphry Tendall." 

 Fourteen years afterwards, in 1603, there was a " Umphrey Tyndall, Doctor in 

 Divinity, Master of the Quene's College in Cambridge, and Yice Chancellor." 

 (Proc. of Soc. of Antiq., vi. 517.) 



3 Wanstead belonged to Robert Dudley. A fine folio inventory of the furniture 

 there, is among the Marquis of Bath's MSS. The house of Dudley's time dis- 

 appeared in or before 1715, when Sir Richard Child built another, the fine one 

 taken down in 1822. 



