Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 



99 



already consanguinity between the two, and both of them were 

 related to the Duke of Buckingham. William Ashburnham, com- 

 monly known as " the Cofferer " in Charles the Second's court, had 

 throughout his career been a prominent Royalist and an officer of 

 distinction. Such were the later environments of the Earl of 

 Marlborough's widow. 



But this lady had a sister, Ellen, who, like herself, was a daughter 

 and co-heiress of John, Lord Bramfield, aforesaid, but who married 

 into a family of totally opposite sentiments ; and here we have 

 presented to view another illustration of the conflicting family 

 interests to which the great national struggle gave birth. Lady 

 Ellen was now the widow of Sir John Drake, of Ashe, Co, Devon ; 

 and at the present moment, while the compositions are in progress, 

 had just sustained the calamity of seeing her mansion at Ashe 

 destroyed by fire, the work of her neighbour, John, Lord Pawlet. 

 When the King made his triumphant march into the West, in 1644, 

 the Lord Pawlet had embraced the occasion not only to destroy the 

 Drakes' mansion, but to obtain possession of the heir. This young 

 man was now a prisoner at Exeter, in the Royal army, where we 

 must leave him for the present, till the affairs of his aunt have been 

 liquidated. 



William Ashburnham, the husband of that aunt, quitted the realm 

 as soon as he saw that the King's cause was hopeless, leaving his 

 wife exposed to the excesses of lawless men, who pillaged her house 

 at Tidworth, according to her own statement, to the amount of 

 £20,000. In this extremity she fled to Exeter and sought the 

 protection of the Royal army ; but Exeter itself was immediately 

 after beleagured by Fairfax ; and the lady feeling that she might as 

 well realize at once her true situation, obtained a pass from Fairfax, 

 securing her a safe conduct with her servants and sumpter-horses, 

 first to Tidworth, and thence to London. This was in April, 1646, 

 from which period she was a prisoner in the Parliament's hands ; 

 and a rather strict imprisonment it was apparently, for we read in 

 June, 1646, that it is " Ordered by the Lords that the Lady Marl- 

 borough shall have a pass to go and take the air,, out of the Court 

 of Guards." Lords 9 Journals, ix. ; 265. 



h 2 



