Pub May 20.1906. by J. Scott, NC 442, Strand

THE

NOBLE AUTHORS

OF

ENGLAND,

FORD GREY,

EARL OF TANKERVILLE,

[THE HE son of Ralph, second lord Grey of Werk, after being concerned in a conspiracy against Charles the second, was created earl of Tankerville by William the third in 16952, and in 1700 was appointed first lord commissioner of the treasury, and soon after, lord privy-seal, which office he held till his death, on the 25th June 1701.

He has been described as a person of excellent parts, who delivered his sentiments to admiration, and appeared zealous for the interest of his country, as well as of reformed manners in his latter years 3.

• Bolton's Extinct Peerage, p. 133. Macky, in his Characters, calls him governor of Barbadoes; but he has mistaken Ford for his brother Ralph Grey, who succeeded to the barony of Werk.

Hist. of Europe for the year 1701.

This lord was in danger of losing his head 4 for the share he had taken in the conspiracy 5 described in a book entitled

"The secret History of the Rye-house Plot, and of Monmouth's Rebellion, written by Ford, Lord Grey, in 1685. Now first published from a Manuscript

• Burnet scruples not to say, that he was saved by his great estate, and by becoming a witness in order to the conviction of others, but with this assurance, that nobody should die upon his evidence. Hist. of the Reign of James II. vol. ii. p. 332. "The following stanza may allude to his lordship, in Loyal Songs, vol. ii. p. 12.

“Oh, welcome, Dr. Peters,

And cornet Joyce also,

One of these twain

Was worse than Cain,
That gave the deadly blow;
One of those cursed rogues
Was he that did the feat,

But some men say

'T was that LORD GRAY

That made the work compleat."

The Rye-house is a farm near Hoddesdon in Herts, which the king usually passed in his way from Newmarket, and belonged to Rumbold, a maltster, one of the intended assassins. Here, therefore, it was proposed to attack the king and his guards, in June 1685, by firing from the out-houses, while another party should assault them during their embarrassment: but a fire happening at Newmarket, his majesty returned to London sooner than he had intended, and before the conspirators were prepared to put their design in execution. See a fuller account of this affair in Burnet's Hist. vol. ii.