LIVES OF EMINENT BRITISH STATESMEN. OLIVER CROMWELL. 1599-1658. OLIVER CROMWELL was born at Huntingdon, in the large gothic house to which his father's brewery was attached*, on the 25th of April, 1599.† The name As * A friend of Cromwell's last biographer, Dr. Russel, thus describes the building and its present state:-"That it was not,' as stated by Mr. Noble,"out of the ruins of St. John's hospital that Mr. Robert Cromwell's mansion was erected, is manifest from the fact, that the said institution is still existing and flourishing; and from its funds is supported the grammar school of the town in which Oliver himself was educated. Cromwell's ancestor, sir Richard, obtained a rich, dowry of the old abbey possessions from Henry VIII., it has been supposed that the house and lands of the Augustine friars came into the family in this way. But it is stated in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, that they were granted to Thomas Andern on the suppression of the monasteries; and I ascertained, from an inspection of the ancient wills, registered in the office of the archdeacon of Huntingdon, that the house was occupied as a brewery by a Mr. Philip Clamp, before it came into the possession of Robert Cromwell, the protector's father. The latter must, therefore, have obtained the property by purchase; and as his fortune was but small, we find that he continued to carry on the brewery formerly established on the premises. The house was built of stone with gothic windows and projecting attics, and must have been one of the most considerable in the borough. It had extensive back premises in which the brewery was carried on, and a fine garden. In the year 1810, the estate was purchased by James Rust, Esq., whose extensive improvements have entirely obliterated every trace of the Cromwell mansion. Previous to this date, the chamber in which Oliver was born, and the room under it, remained as they were at the time when that event took place; and an outbuilding, noticed by Noble, in which Cromwell was said to have held forth to the puritans, was pointed out to strangers.' t I can subjoin the entry of the parish register:-" Oliverus filius VOL. VI. B he bore had not infrequently been heard of in English history, but it was destined to become immortal in his person by the deeds with which he connected it— whether for good or evil, these pages, undertaken in no spirit of unjust detraction or of blind admiration, may possibly help to determine. Milton, in his "Defensio Secunda," thus alludes to the family of Cromwell: "Est Oliverius Cromwellus genere nobili atque illustri ortus: nomen republica olim sub regibus benè administrata clarum, religione simul orthodoxa vel restituta tum primùm apud nos vel stabilita clarius." * The noble and illustrious race here pointed at was that of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex ; a man of humble birth †, but who had risen to be Henry VIII.'s prime minister, and vicar-general of England; and whose sister had married into the family of Oliver's ancestors. The latter were Welsh, and bore the name of Williams, until sir Richard Williams-the issue of this marriage between the sister of Essex and Mr. Morgan Williams, "of Llanishen in the county of Glamorgan,"—having risen into favour and knighthood at Roberti Cromwell, gent., et Elizabethæ uxoris ejus, natus 250 die Aprilis, et baptizatus 290 ejusdem mensis, 1599. E registro ecclesiæ paroch. sti Johannis, infra oppidum Huntingdon." *Milton's Prose Works, by Birch, folio edition. vol. ii. p. 344. "Oliver Cromwell was sprung from a noble and illustrious family: the name was formerly famous in the state when well governed by kings; more famous, at the same time, for orthodox religion, then either first restored or established amongst us." †The reader need not be told that this was the famous Thomas Cromwell of the Reformation - the son of Walter Cromwell, a blacksmith of Putney who rose to power on the wreck of Wolsey's fortunes, and fell suddenly down by disregarding Wolsey's fate. Doubtless he was not free from error, but his memory claims a larger share of our respect than is generally due to such men. The pedigree of this family, from whom Oliver Cromwell directly sprung, commences, according to the industrious and satisfactory researches of Mr. Noble, with Glothyan, lord of Powis, who, about the middle of the eleventh century, married Morveth, the daughter and heiress of Edwyn ap Tydwell, lord of Cardigan. William apYevan, the representative of the family in the fifteenth century, was first in the service of Gaspar duke of Bedford, Henry VIII.'s uncle, and afterwards in that of Henry himself. Morgan Williams, or rather Morgan ap Williams (he gave up the latter name in obedience to Henry VIII.'s policy of mingling together, as much as possible, the English and Welsh names and families), who married Essex's sister, was William ap Yevan's son, Henry VIII.'s court, by his own gallant prowess and the influence of his uncle, and having obtained, among other extensive grants of nunneries and monasteries at that time dissolved, the nunnery of Hinchinbrook and the abbey of Ramsey, in the county of Huntingdon, fixed his seat at the former place, and assumed thenceforward the name of Cromwell, in honour of the chief architect of his princely fortunes. Thus from the chivalrous son of a Glamorganshire squire the worldly power and splendour of the family of the Cromwells took its rise, as from the farmer son of a brewer of Huntingdon it afterwards dated its immortality. This Richard Cromwell was one of the few favourites and servants of Henry VIII. whom he did not send to the scaffold; and when, in the old Chronicles of Stow*, we catch the dawn of his loyal for- * Stow thus describes the tournament: the incident at its close is given in Fuller's Church History. Here are Stow's words:"On May-day was a great triumph of justing at Westminster, which justs had been proclaimed in France, Flanders, Scotland, and Spain, for all commers that would, against the challengers of England, which were sir John Dudley, sir T. Seymour, sir T. Poynings, sir George Carew, knights; Anthony Kingston, and Richard Cromwell, esquires: which said challengers came into the listes that day, richly appareled, and their horses trapped all in white, gentlemen riding afore them, apparelled all with velvet and white sarsnet, and all their servants in white doublets, and hosen cut all in the Burgonion fashion; and there came to just against them the said day, of defendants forty.six, the earl of Surrey being the foremost; lord Williame Howard, lord Clinton, and lord Cromwell, son and heir to T. Cromwell, earle of Essex, and chamberlaine of England, with other, which were all richly apparelled: and that day sir John Dudley was overthrown, in the field by mischance of his horse, by one Andrew Breme; nevertheless, he brake divers spears valiantly after that; and after the said justs done, the said challengers rode to Durham-place, where they kept open household, and feasted the king and queen, with their ladies, and all the court. The 2nd of May, Anthony Kingstone, and Richard Cromwell, were made knights of the same place. The 3d of May, the said challengers did tourney on horseback, with swords; there came against them twentynine defendants: sir John Dudley and the earl of Surrey running first, which, the first course, lost their gauntlets, and that day sir Richard Cromwell overthrew M. Palmer in the fielde off his horse, to the great honour of the challengers. The 5th of May, the said challengers fought on foot, at the barriers, and against them came thirty defendants, which fought valiantly, but sir Richard Cromwell overthrew that day, at the barriers, M. Culpepper in the field; and the sixt of May the said challengers brake up their household. In the which time of their house-keeping, they had not only feasted the king, queen, ladies, and the whole court, as was aforesaid, but on the Tuesday in the rogation weeke, they feasted all the knights and burgesses of the common house in the parliament; and on the morrow after, they had the mayor of London, the aldermen, and all their wives to dinner and on the Friday they brake it up as is aforesaid." Sir Rich, and the five challengers had then each of them, as a reward of their valour, |