284 Lord Clarendon and his Trowbridge Ancestry. 



the exalted rank of the descendants and the plebeian origin of the 

 ancestors." At all events it does seem too well authenticated 

 for such summary dismissal. There is possibly some truth in 

 the tale, though, like all others, it may have lost nothing in the 

 telling. No doubt we reason very often on the embellishments 

 of successive generations of wonderful story-tellers rather than 

 on the main facts of the case, and the " crescit eundo " is a bar 

 to the discovery of the truth itself. 



Literally true, of course, it is not. A simple anachronism meets 

 us at the outset. In his life, Lord Clarendon gives us an account 

 of both his marriages, — the former in 1628 to Ann, daughter of 

 Sir George Ayliffe, who died six months afterwards, — the latter in 

 1632, to Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, one of the 

 Masters of Requests. It will be observed that both marriages took 

 place some time before the civil wars broke out, and the brides 

 were spinsters, and not widows. Moreover, the statement that the 

 only issue of the last marriage was a daughter, who in due time 

 became the wife of James, Duke of York, is altogether incorrect, 

 inasmuch as we know that, by his wife Frances Aylesbury, Lord 

 Clarendon had no less than four sons and two daughters. 



Admitting, however, that the details of the tradition cannot be 

 true, is there any foundation for the implication contained in it 

 that Frances Aylesbury, the grandmother of the Queens, Mary and 

 Anne, was originally of an inferior station in life? People in 

 general seem to have made up their minds that it could not have 

 been the case, inasmuch as her father was a well-known man — edu- 

 cated at Westminster — in due time student of Christ Church — then 

 Secretary to two noblemen, each of whom filled the office of 

 Lord High Admiral, — by the favor of one of them raised to the 

 dignity of a Baronet, having previously held the posts of Master 

 of the Mint and Master of the Requests. 1 Certainly it seems most 

 unlikely that it could be true of the daughter of such a man, married 

 as she was to Edward Hyde whilst her father was holding honour- 

 able and lucrative offices, and herself (if the date of her baptism be 

 presumed to be that of her infancy), some years under the age of 

 1 See Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary under M Aylesbury." 



