THE CECILS.—(THE FOUNDER.) M HE Cecilia have a great ancestor
but no pedigree. A parasite
of the founder, the crafty resolute patriot who built Eliza- beth's throne, tried to persuade him that he was the lineal repre- sentative of the Roman Cmcilii,* a pedigree which would have placed him above every Norman baron ; but the able old man had more modest ideas, and was greatly distressed because, believing himself to be gentleman in the English sense, he could not quite prove it. His enemies would have it that his grandfather "kept the best inn in Stamford," and the first Earl of Salisbury was taunted by peers as grandson of a sievemaker ; but the Cod's themselves were doubtful, as witness this letter from the founder's son, first Earl of Exeter, to a relative :—" I have thought good to require you to make search in my study at Burghley amongst my boxes of my evidences ; and I think you shall find that very writ itself by the which my grand- father, or great-grandfather, or both, were made Sheriffs of Lin- colnshire or Northamptonshire ; and likewise a warrant from the *a is as curious and not quite explicable fact that there is no pedigree in the modern world which can be proved to connect us with the ancient civilization, and only one, that of the Savant, which claims to do so. The patriciat cannot have perished utterly, and the only explanation is that its heiresses intermarried with the invaders,, and are lost in their barbarous designations. We question whether in Europe any pedigree equals that of the Queen as lineal representative of Wulf the Teuton. The liindoo pedigrees are longer, but they include adoptions, and there is a doubtful element in all the Jew descents. Otherwise clear connection with the tribe of Levi would be a matchless descent. Duke of Suffolk in King Henry the Eighth's time to my grand- father, and old Mr. Wyngfyld that dead is, for the certifying
touching the fall of woods in Clyffe parka or Rockyngham forest, by the name of Davy Cecyll, Esquire ; which title at those days was used but to such as were gentlemen of note, where commonly they were entitled but as the name of gentlemen, though now the name of esquire is used on the naming of any gentleman. If you have any records of your own to show the descent of my great -grand- father, I pray you send a note thereof ; likewise my Lord my father's altering the writing of his name inclineth many that are not well affected to our House to doubt whether we are rightly descended of the House of Wales, because they write their names Siteell, and our name is written Cecil; my grandfather wrote it Syssell, and so in orthography all the names differ. Whereof I
marvel what moved my Lord my father to alter it. I have my Lord's pedigree very well set out, which he left unto myself,
which my brother of Selby Priory desired me for to give in charge unto you." The letter is dated London, November 14, 1605. This Burghley pedigree exists, with notes of Lord Burghley, tracing him up to Sitselt or Sitsell, who in 1091 received lands in Wales from Robert Fitzhamon, who conquered Glamorgan ; but Cecil scarcely believed his own story, and we
pass on to facts. David Cyesell (as he spells his name in the signature to his will) had certainly property in Lincolnshire and particularly in Stamford, in the time of Henry VII., founding (as appears by the Patent Rolls) a chantry in St. George's Church in that town in the 22nd year of that reign. In the 3rd of Henry VIII. he was constituted Water Bailiff of Wittlesey Mere, Hunting- donshire, and Keeper of the Swans there, and throughout the waters and fens in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Northampton, for the term of thirty years. In the 5th of Henry VIII. he was made one of the King's Serjeants of Arms, and having this employment at Court, obtained for his son Richard the office of page of the Crown. In the 8th year of the same reign he obtained a grant to himself and son of the keepership of Clyff Park, in Northamptonshire, and in the 15th Henry VIII. he WWI constituted Steward of the King's lordship of Coly-Weston, in that county, and Escheater of the county of Lincoln on the death of Sir William Spencer. In the 23rd year of Henry VIII. he was made Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and was three times an alderman of Stamford. He died-in the year 1536 (ac- cording to Lord Burghley's own entry), having married Jane, daughter and heiress of John Dicons, of -Stamford, by Margaret, daughter and heiress of John Sewark. His heir, Richard Cyssel, the Royal page, attended Henry in this capacity to the inter- view with Francis in 1520, and in the 29th Henry VIII. he had a grant of divers pastures and closes in Maxey, and two years afterwards he was Sheriff of Rutland. He married Jane, daughter and heiress of William Heckington, of Bourn, in Lincolnshire. He also made a purchase of the two manors of BURGHLEY, or Burley, in Northamptonshire—the old and the new—from Margaret Chambers, the heiress and devisee of Henry Wykes, clerk. In the 32nd Henry VIII. he had a grant of the site of St. Michael's Priory, near Stamford, the church, and 299 acres of arable land lying in the parish of St. Martin's, in Stamford. In the 36th Henry VIIL he purchased of the Crown the manor of Essendon, part of the lands of ' the late Earl of Warwick. The next year he surrendered the custody of Warwick Castle, which had been entrusted to him. Henry VE1t left him by his will, made in 1546, 100 marks ; but it is not likely that Cyssel ever received this legacy, the King's debts being ordered to be paid first. He himself died March 19, 1553—we follow Lord Burghley's date rather than Collins'—and was buried in St. Mar- garet's Church, Westminster. He left one son—WILLIAM, the founder of the family fortunes—and three daughters.
William CECIL (as we may as well at once call him) was born, according to his own statement, on the 13th September, 1520, in the parish of Burn, or Bourn, Lincolnshire. This was the parish to which his maternal grandfather, William Heckington, belonged, and he VISS probably born at his house and called after him. Little is known of his early life. He was educated at first, it would seem, at the grammar-school at Grantham, and afterwards removed to Stamford. In May, 1535, he was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge. Here he was a most diligent student, to the serious injury of his health, paying the bellringer to call him up at four o'clock every morning. The master of the college was much struck by his "diligence and towardness, and would often give him money to encourage him." When only sixteen he was reader of the Sophistic Lecture, and before he was nineteen he read the Greek Lecture "as a gentleman for his exercise upon pleasure, without pennon," and "at that time it was a rare thing to have any perfected in the Greek tongue." These particulars are given by a member of Burghley's household, and may have been supplied by that nobleman himself, but probably the account of his classical proficiency is very much exaggerated. Among his chief associates at Cambridge were Matthew Parker (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbtuy in Elizabeth's reign), Nicholas Bacon (afterwards Lotd Keeper in the same reign), Roger Ascham, and Sir John Cheke, the two latter afterwards preceptors of Elizabeth. To Cheke in particular Cecil was greatly indebted for assistance in his studies. In 1541 he left the University, without taking his degree, and on the 6th May entered at Gray's Inn, probably for general rathet than professional training in law. Here he engaged in antiquarian pursuits, and became a zealous student of heraldry. This did not prevent him from entering into amusements of a very different kind, and he had a caustic wit lively and humoroutt enough to render him a general favourite with the young men of his own age. The next step in his life is recorded by himself thus in his diary :— " Anno 1541, Aug. viii., nupsi Maxim Cheke, Cantabrigire." (In a MS. book among the Lansdowne MSS. he writes more correctly, "dual in uxorem Maria' m Cheke.") The lady he married was the sister of John Cheke, his college friend: In the same year he first attracted the notice of King Henry. "Coming from Gray's Inn to the Court to see his father, it was his chance to be in the presence-chamber, where he met two priests,
chaplains of O'Neill, who were then in Court, and talking long with them in Latin he fell into dispute with the priests, wherein he showed so great learning and wit as he proved the poor priests to have neither, who were so put down as they had not a word to say, but Hung away no less discomfited than ashamed to be foiled in such a place by so young a beardless youth. It was toll the King that young Mr. Cecil had confuted both O'Neill's chap- lains, at which the King called for him, and after long talk with him, much delighted with his answers, the King willed his father to find out a suit for him. Whereupon he became suitor for a reversion of the Castes Brevium's office in the Common Pleas, which the King willingly granted." So says the old biographer. Others add (correctly or not) that the dispute with the priests was on the subject of the Royal supremacy.
By his first wife Cecil had aeon, Thomas, born 5th May, 1542, the founder of the Exeter branch of the family ; but the mother only survived to the 22nd February, 1543, or 1544, in which latter year her brother, John Cheke, came to Court from Cambridge to under- take the education of Prince Edward, and (together with Ascham) of Princess Elizabeth. Cecil did not long remain unmarried, hie second choice, December 21, 1545, being Mildred, one of the five learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, or Coke. of Gyddes Hall, Essex, one of Prince Edward's governors. One of the daughters, we have already seen, married Lord Russell; ancithei became the wife of Cecil's college friend, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and mother of Lord Bacon. The accession of Edward VI. was fol- lowed (in the same year) by the reversion of the office of Custos Brevium falling in to Cecil, who estimates its value at about 240l. per annum. He obtained, however, soon afterwards a much more valuable and important office, the Duke of Somerset appointing him the same year "Master of his Bequeath," an office new-modelled; though not created, by the Protector. "The good intent thereof," says Strype, "war to hear poor men's petitions and suite," and as the Duke, on Cecil's request, sometimes sent letters to the Chancel in their favour, he ultimately brought on himself popular clanibui for interfering with the course of justice. Of course the office soon became the only channel through which suitors could approach the Government or the Throne, and Cecil's position rose in proportion: He became deep in Somerset's counsels. Under September, 1548; he has an entry in his journal,—" Co-optatus sum in offichun Seeretari." This has been by some supposed to mean Secretaryship of State ; but it seems that it was simply the post of private Secretary to the Lord Protector. Cecil took an active part at this time in the reformation of the discipline of the Universities, especially his own, Cambridge, and his colleague in this work was Sir John Cheke. When Somerset's weakness led to his fall, Cecil, however he may and must have learnt to distrust his patron's ability, did not at once abandon him. He remained with him at Windsor till his arrest, when he himself also was first ordered to restraint in 'his own room, and then sent to the Tower, "?'° Novembris, 3 Edward VI. [15491 fti in Turre," he enters in his journal, so that' his alleged imprisonment for three months is an exaggeration. After his release, considering his ties with Somerset as broken, Cecil made no scruple on the 6th September, 1551, of accepting the post of Secretary of State in the new Government.
,/,, He was in this new position—to which his knowledge and experience of State affairs no doubt rendered it essential for Dudley's
Government to appoint him—when Somerset's conspiracy against Dudley was betrayed by Palmer. Somerset, counting on Cecil's former connection with him, sent for him to know if he was in any danger. Cecil replied "that if he was not guilty he might be of good courage ; if he was, he had nothing to say but to lament him." The Duke, says King Edward in his journal, defied Cecil. The latter has been greatly censured for deserting his old patron ; but nothing but the dictates of a romantic generosity, of which Cecil's nature was certainly incapable, could have called for his interference (a vain one it must have been!) in Somerset's behalf at this crisis. Somerset's Government had terminated in October, 1549, eleven manta before Cecil accepted office with Dudley. Thirteen months had elapsed since he thus became Secretary of State, and he had now certainly a duty towards Dudley to re- concile with his memory of Seymour. He had just (October 9, 1551) received the honour of knighthood, two days before Dudley was created Duke of Northumberland. When he was appointed Secretary the King gave him an annuity of 100/. in consideration of his office. He had also a grant of the rectory of Wimbledon in reversion for threescore years, and fixing his residence there (as more convenient, doubtless, for business than Burghley), he had a dangerous illness there in May, 1551. During the remainder of Edward's reign Sir William Cecil was actively engaged as Sec- retary in the various measures undertaken for the settlement of the Church, the liquidation of the King's debts, the improvement of the revenue, and the advancement of trade. He was also one of those to whose judgment Cranmer submitted the new Articles of Faith. Everything, however, whether good in itself or well intended, was subordinated to Northumberland's personal ambition and de- signs, and Cecil's post could not under these circumstances have been a very pleasant one, though an excellent school in politics. He paid, we are told, particular attention to the learned Protestant exiles who sought refuge in England during Edward's reign, and allied himself closely in matters of religion with Cranmer. He gained Edward's confidence in a high degree, so that when the Princess Mary received one of her brother's letters, endeavouring to bring her to conformity with the reformed discipline, she observed, " Ah ! good Mr. Cecil took much pains here." In October, 1551, we find registry of the following Royal grants :- To Sir William Cecil and Lady Mildred his wife, and to the heirs of the said William, a gift of the manor of Bere- hamstow and Deeping, in Lincolnshire, and of the manor of Thetford Hall, in the same county ; and also of the reversion of the manor of Barondown, alias Wrangdike, in Rutland, granted to the Lady Elizabeth for life ; also of the reversion of the manor of Leddington, in Rutland, granted to Gregory Lord Cromwell and Lady Elizabeth his wife during their lives ; also the moiety of the rectory of Godstow, alias Walthamsted, with divers other lands, to the value of 152/. 3s. 31d., to be holden in capite by the half part of a knight's fee. Northumberland's project to exclude the Prin- cesses Mary and Elizabeth and place his own son, as the husband of Lady Jane Grey, at the head of the State, involved Cecil in great danger. It is quite against his natural character to suppose that he had any wish to see Dudley's idea carried into effect, but he had to deal with a man who would have destroyed without scruple any one who ventured to oppose his views openly. Cecil like the rest had to temporize, and he was compelled like the rest to sign Edward's disposition. He afterwards took credit for having used his best endeavours secretly to thwart Northumber- land by encouraging others to resistance, 'and he is said to have long refused himself to sign the document, and only at last to have consented at the express desire of the King, saying at the time ha signed that he did so only as a witness. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that he was pardoned by Mary on her accession, and even, it is said, offered or talked of for a State Secretaryship. This was certainly the most dangerous crisis of Cecil's life, and he so felt it to be such that he sent his money and plate out of London, made over his estates to his son, and carried arms about his person. But during the whole reign of Mary Cecil had scarcely a less difficult and dangerous game to play, and he played it with extraordinary dexterity. He conformed, indeed, to Catho- licism, and kept a priest in his house. He thus escaped any dangers of martyrdom, for which he had no predilection. Yet he kept on good terms with the more ardent Protestants who had fled the kingdom or who remained to abide the storm. He entered Parliament for the county of Lincoln, and for the next few years steered his course with marvellous craft and courage. He placed himself at the head of the Opposition in the Commons, yet retained Mary's favour, and the Queen even forgave the attention he paid to the Protestant heiress. All this while he wart acting as secret adviser to Elizabeth, and when on Mary's death she was summoned to the throne her first act before she left Hatfield House was to make Cecil her principal Secretary of State and first adviser, a position which to the day of his death, forty years afterwards (4th of August, 1598), he never lost. During that long period the action of Queen and Minister is completely merged, and it would be hard to say how far even in the most private relations of life the Queen and her great subject can be separated. There has been great difference of opinion respecting his character. Mr. Fronde seems from his introductory volumes on Elizabeth's reign to have formed a very high moral as well aa intellectual conception of him. Macaulay is much less enthusiastic, and probably errs in the other direction,—but the main tendencies of his mind at least seem to be not unfairly grasped by the latter writer. "Lord Burghley," he says, "can hardly be called a great man. He was not one of those whose genius and energy change the fate of empires. He was by nature and habit one of thosa who follow, not one of those who lead. Nothing that is recorded either of his words or of his actions indicates intellectual or moral elevation. But his talents, though not brilliant, were of an. eminently useful kind ; and his principles, though not inflexible, were not more relaxed than those of his associates and competitors. He had a cool temper, a sound judgment, great powers of appli- cation, and a constant eye to the main chance To the last Burghley was somewhat jocose, and some of his sportive say- ings have been recorded by Bacon. They show much more shrewdness than generosity, and are indeed neatly expressed reasons for exacting money rigorously and for keeping it carefully. It must, however, be acknowledged that he was rigorous and. careful for the public advantage as well as for his own. . . He paid great attention to the interest of the State, and great attention also to the interest of his own family. He never deserted his friends till it was very inconvenient to stand by them, was an excellent Protes- tant when it was not very advantageous to be a papist, recommended a tolerant policy to his mistress as strongly as he could recommend it without hazarding her favour, never put to the rack any person. from whom it did not seem probable that useful information might be derived, and was so moderate in his desires tfiat he left only three hundred distinct landed estates, though he might, as his, honest servant assures us, have left much more if he would have taken money out of the Exchequer for his own use, as many Treasurers have done." Recent researches in the State Taper Office and elsewhere have raised somewhat the standard, both intellectual and moral, here assigned to Burghley. They have shown that he felt (as well as judged) more strongly on questions of political principle and policy than Macaulay imagined ; and that his caution, though excessive, did not prevent his sometimes warmly approving wider and bolder schemes ; and that if his genius was not an originating one, he had more decided and more lasting preferences and antagonisms, both as respects opinions and persons, than seem to be implied in the brilliant essayist's portrait of him. In a letter to his "loving son Sir Robert Cecil, Knight," he lays down the following as his theory of the law of obedience to Elizabeth:—" I do hold, and will always, this course in such matters as I differ in opinion from Her Majesty. As long as I may be allowed to give advice I will not change my opinion by affirm- ing the contrary, for that were to offend God, to whom I am sworn first ; but, as a servant, I will obey Her Majesty's command- ments, and nowise contrary to the same; presuming that she, being God's chief minister here, it shall be God's will to have her commandments obeyed; after that, I have performed my duty as a counsellor, and shall, in my heart, wish her commandments to have such good successes as I am sure she intendeth." Cecil was raised to the peerage as Baron of Burghley in February, 1571, made a Knight of the Garter in June, 1572, and Lord High Treasurer in the September following. He enter- tained the Queen at his house twelve several times, each visit costing him 2,000/. or 3,0001., Elizabeth staying there at his charge, sometimes three weeks, a month, or six weeks together, and sometimes making the house her court for the re- ception of strangers and ambassadors, and Burghley had to enter- tain the party with "rich shows, pleasant devices, and all manner of sports." He had four places of residence—his rooms at Court, his house in the Strand—" Cecil House," afterwards "Exeter Change ;" his family seat at Burghley ; and his favourite seat at Theobalds, near Cheshunt and Waltham, in Hertfordshire. This Cheshunt estate he purchased March 15, 1570, from Mr. Har- rington. It was then a small moated house, and when Burghley began to rebuild it he did so at first on a small scale, intending it for his younger son (by his second wife), Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury ; but owing to the Queen's frequent visits there he enlarged his plan of the building greatly. King James sub. sequently took such delight in the place as a hunting seat, that he persuaded or obliged the younger Cecil to exchange it with him for Hatfield House, in the same county, the present seat of the Salisbury branch of the Cecils. At his London house Burghley had fourscore person g in family, exclusive of those who at- tended him at Court. His expenses there were 30/. per week in his absence, and between 40/. and 501. when present. At Theobalds he had thirty persons in family, and besides a constant allowance in charity he directed 101. a week to be laid out in keeping the poor at work in his gardens, &c. The expenses of his stables were 1,000 marks (666/. 13s. 4d.) a year. He kept a standing table for gentlemen, and two other tables for persons of meaner condition, which were always served alike whether he were in or out of town. About his person he had people of great din. tinction, and his domestic tells us that he could reckon up when he was in his service twenty gentlemen retainers who had each 1,0001. a year, and as many among his ordinary servants who were worth from 1,000/. to 3,000/., 5,000/., 10,000!., or 20,000/. At his death he left about 4,000/. a year in land, 11,000/. in money, and in valuable effects about 14,000/. By his second wife Burghley had a numerous family, who all died except aeon Robert and two daughters (both of whom and his second wife he outlived)—Anne, who was ultimately married to Edward, thirteenth Earl of Oxford, the head of the De Veres, a had man, but the "noblest subject in Europe.' The separate estates of Lord Burghley named in the inquisition after death are too numerous to be here mentioned by name. They include manors in the counties of Northampton, Rutland, Lincoln, Essex, York, Hertford, Middlesex, and Kent. In his will he mentions the manor and castle of Essendon, in Rutland, as having been settled by his father, Richard Cecil, in Henry VIII.'s time on him and his second wife Mildred and the heirs of their bodies, with remainder of the fee simple to him and his heirs ; and that his son Robert Cecil is heir apparent to the same in tail especial, and he devises the same to Robert Cecil and his heirs, with remainder to the Countess of Oxford, and adds to it the adjoining property called Essendon Park, in the county of Lincoln. He also leaves to Robert Cecil property in Essex, Hertfordshire, and in Enfield, Edmonton, and Tottenham, in Middlesex ; which, together with the Theobalds estate, constituted the substratum of the estates of the Salisbury branch. England need not grudge that property, at all events, for though the Cecils were and are a proud, astute race, rarely conciliating opinion, all their wealth is small payment for the success of Elizabeth's long reign, and the final establishment of the Protestant faith, with all its possibilities of advance.
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