By the Rev. W. P. S. Bingham. 



97 



Lord Treasurer and raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Ley, 

 of Canons Ley, in Devonshire. He did not hold this office long-, 

 for the King died, and in the next year, and soon after the accession 

 of Charles I. he was removed from his office on pretence of his age 

 and infirmities, but really to make room for Sir Thomas Weston, a 

 favourite of Buckingham, who was at that time all-powerful with 

 the King. Lord Campbell refers to Lord Clarendon's opinion of 

 his incompetence as a reason for the removal of Lord Ley from the 

 office of High Treasurer, but all that Clarendon says is that if his 

 age and incompetency had been a sufficient reason for his removal, 

 they would have been equally a reason for his never being appointed, 

 as only two years had elapsed. If he had really been incompetent, 

 he would scarcely have been made President of the Council soon 

 afterwards, and advanced to the earldom of Marlborough. 



His second wife had died in the interim, and he had married again, 

 Jane, daughter of Lord Butler, of Bramfield, and niece to the Duke 

 of Buckingham. No doubt it was through her influence that the 

 earldom of Marlborough was obtained, as it was settled on the issue 

 of this marriage with remainder to his own heirs. As there was 

 no issue by this marriage the earldom went with the barony to his 

 eldest son. No slight, however, was intended to his children when 

 Lord Ley accepted an earldom, which was first of all settled on 

 possible children, who, as events turned out, were never born, for 

 his eldest son was about the same time called to the upper house by 

 his father's barony. He had represented Westbury in Parliament 

 from 1623 to 1625, and had previously sat for Devizes. It is 

 probable that all the members of, the family were not as easily 

 pacified as the eldest son. Serious differences arose with the Longs, 

 of Draycot. Hitherto the earl had been on the most affectionate 

 terms with Lady Ann, his daughter, and Sir Walter Long, her 

 husband. He had been so much at home at Draycot that he had 

 built a gateway there and put his arms upon it, but afterwards there 

 was a fierce quarrel, which probably arose from some remonstrance 

 on the marriage of the Earl with a young wife, or else from the 

 limitation of the patent. It seems never to have been healed during 

 his life, for in his will he " begged pardon of the Lady Ann on the 



VOL. XXV. — NO. LXXIII. H 



