his elder brother, which I suppose his said brother must consider him for. As for myself, I being now about threescore and two years old, I intend to attend the improvement of my lands in Ireland, and to get in the many debts owing unto me; and to promote the trade of iron, lead, marble, fish, and timber, whereof my estate is capable; and, as for studies and experiments, I think now to confine the same to the anatomy of the people and political arithmetic, as also to the improvement of ships, land-carriages, guns, and pumps, as of most use to mankind, not blaming the studies of other men. As for religion, I die in the profession of that faith and in the practice of such worship as I find established by the law of my country, not being able to believe what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto, and observing the laws of my country, and expressing my love and honour to Almighty God by such signs and tokens as are understood to be such by the people with whom I live, God knowing my heart even without any at all. And thus begging the Divine majesty to make me what he would have me to be both as to faith and good works, I willingly resign my soul into his hands, relying only on his infinite mercy and the merits of my Saviour for my happiness after this life, where I expect to know and see God more clearly than by the study of the Scriptures and his works I have been hitherto able to do. Grant me, O Lord, an easy passage to thyself, that, as I have lived in thy fear, I may be known to die in thy favour. Amen."

By his widow, who survived him about twenty years, dying in February, 1708, Sir William Petty had three sons and a daughter-"very lovely children, but all like the mother," says Aubrey; who moreover adds in a note, "He hath a natural daughter that much resembles him, no legitimate child so much, that acts at the Duke's Playhouse, who hath had a child by about 1679. She is (1680) about twenty-one." Of the three sons, John, the first-born, died in infancy. On the 6th of December, 1688, within a year after the death of her husband, Lady Petty was created Baroness of Shelburne, in the

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Irish peerage, for life; and at the same time Petty's eldest son was made Baron of Shelburne, also in the peerage of Ireland, with limitation however to the heirs male of his own body. They were the two last creations made by King James II. before the transference of the crown. Both the new lord and his mother, however, deserted James as soon as he was driven from the throne; their estates were consequently sequestered by the Irish parliament, but they were recovered on the complete establishment of the new government. Lord Shelburne died in 1696 without issue, on which the title became extinct. In 1699 the title was restored by King William to his surviving brother Henry, who in 1719 was further elevated by George I. to the dignities of Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of Shelburne in the peerage of Ireland; but he also died, in April, 1751, without surviving issue-he had lost the last of several sons about six months before-on which the titles again became extinct. Meanwhile his sister Anne had in January, 1692, been married to Thomas Fitzmaurice, twenty-first Baron Kerry, and first Earl of Kerry, by whom, besides William, second Earl of Kerry, she had another son who grew up, John; and to him his uncle the Earl of Shelburne left his estates in the county of Kerry, which are stated to have amounted to above 86,000 acres, or upwards of 135 square miles of English statute measure. This John Fitzmaurice immediately assumed the name of Petty, and was in the same year, 1751, created Baron Dunkerron, Viscount Fitzmaurice, and Earl of Shelburne, in the peerage of Ireland, and in 1760 was made Baron Wycombe, of Chipping Wycombe, in that of England. His eldest son William, Earl of Shelburne, who was one of the most distinguished political figures of the latter part of the last century, was created Viscount Calne, Earl of Wycombe, and Marquess of Lansdowne, in the British peerage, in 1784. The first Marquess of Lansdowne, who died in 1805, was succeeded by his eldest son John, who died without issue in 1809; and he was succeeded by his half-brother Henry, now Marquess of Lansdowne, who also in 1818 succeeded to the Irish earldom of Kerry, with the ancient Barony of Kerry, dating from the reign of King John, and who is, it appears from this deduction, the great-great-grandson of Sir William Petty.