Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland

Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland

Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland (16 December 1605 – 17 March 1663) was an English diplomat and landowner who held the presidency of Munster, Ireland.

He was the second but eldest surviving son of the 1st Earl of Portland, by his second wife Frances Walgrave. He was born at Neyland, Essex.

In 1632 and 1633, he undertook a diplomatic mission to the courts of France, Savoy, Florencee and Venice.[1] He succeeded his father as Earl of Portland in 1635.

Supplementing his estates, in 1663 as the owner of Coulsdon manor in Surrey had no male heir, Charles II granted it to "Jerome second Earl of Portland" in consideration of his surrender of the presidency of Munster to the Crown.[2]

Lord Portland married Lady Frances Stuart (19 March 1617 − 13 March 1694), a daughter of the 3rd Duke of Lennox, on 10 June 1632. He was succeeded by their son Charles.

He was a first cousin of Jeremiah Clarke, a Governor of Rhode Island in the American Colonies.

.... etc.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Weston,_2nd_Earl_of_Portland

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 60
• Weston, Jerome by Albert Frederick Pollard
• WESTON, JEROME, second Earl of Portland (1605–1663), born on 16 Dec. 1605, was the eldest son of Richard Weston, first earl of Portland [q. v.], by his second wife, Frances, daughter of Nicholas Waldegrave of Borley, Essex. Early in 1627-8 he entered parliament as member for Gatton, Surrey, being returned with Sir Thomas Lake [q. v.] by a Mr. Copley as 'sole inhabitant;' this election was apparently a job perpetrated by the government, and on 26 March the indenture of the return was torn off the file by order of the House of Commons, Sir Ambrose Brown and Sir Richard Onslow, who had also been returned for Gatton, taking their seats for that borough. Weston, however, continued to sit in that parliament, though for what constituency does not appear in the returns, and on 2 March 1628-9 he defended his father, the lord treasurer, against Sir John Eliot [q. v.], who demanded his impeachment (Gardiner, Hist. vii. 73). Early in the following year, in pursuance of his father's pacific policy, he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to Paris, and in April a peace was concluded with France. In 1632he was again sent on an embassy to Paris and Turin to urge Louis XIII to declare in favour of the restitution of the palatinate; in November Charles instructed him to protest against the proposed division of the Spanish Netherlands between France and the Dutch. He returned in March 1632-3 with Richelieu's proposals for a defensive alliance against the house of Austria; he also brought with him letters written by Henry Rich, earl of Holland [q. v.],who was intriguing against the lord treasurer; the opening of these letters led Holland to challenge Weston, but Charles I approved of his conduct and sent Holland to prison.
• Weston, who was styled Lord Weston after his father's creation in February 1632-3 as Earl of Portland with remainder to his issue by his second marriage, succeeded as second earl by the same limitation on 13 March 1634-5, but his father's death deprived him of most of his political importance. He had, however, been appointed governor of the Isle of Wight on 18 Nov., and a commissioner to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction on 17 Dec. 1633, and on 28 May 1635 he was made vice-admiral of Hampshire, and keeper of Richmond New Park on 15 June 1637. On 3 June 1641 he was appointed joint lord lieutenant of Hampshire, but his royalist and religious sentiments rendered him suspect to parliament, and on 2 Nov. the House of Commons resolved to deprive him of the government of the Isle of Wight; upon conference with the House of Lords on the 18th this 'resolution was put off,' the lords professing themselves much satisfied with Portland's 'solemn protestation of his resolution to live and die a protestant, as his father did' a somewhat dubious promise, considering that his father died a Roman catholic (Cal. State Papers, 1641-3, pp. 154, 167). His sequestration was not, however, long delayed, for by August 1642 he had been committed to the custody of one of the sheriff's of London on suspicion of complicity in the plot to deliver Portsmouth into the king's hands (ib. p. 366; Clarendon, Rebellion, bk. v. 136, bk. vi. 401; The Earl of Portland's Charge, London, 11 Aug. 1642, 4to). Clarendon admits that Portland had remained in London ' as a place where he might do the king more service than anywhere else' (ib. bk. vii. 174), and there is no doubt that he had some share in the plot of his friend Edmund Waller [q. v.] Waller himself accused Portland, but the poet's statements were not believed, and, after Portland had bluntly denied the charge, he was on 31 July 1643 released on bail (cf. Tanner MS. lxii. 111). A fortnight later he made use of his liberty to take refuge with the king at Oxford, where he sat in the royalist parliament and signed the peers' letter to the Scots. As a further reward for his loyalty Charles on 1 March 1643 appointed Portland lord president of Munster, an office coveted by Murrough O'Brien, earl of Inchiquin [q. v.]; probably as a result of this disappointment the powerful Inchiquin turned parliamentarian, and, as a nominee of the parliament, made himself master of the province; in 1648, when he again changed sides, he received Charles's commission as lord president, so that Portland had no opportunity of taking up his appointment.
• Portland was apparently at Oxford until its surrender on 24 June, and then at Wallingford, which held out till 27 July 1646. On 6 Oct. following he compounded for his delinquency on the 'Wallingford articles,' and on 10 Nov. he was fined two-thirds of his estate, 9,953l. 10s.; on 14 Sept. 1647 his discharge was ordered, and on 11 June 1650 his fine was reduced to 5,297l. 11s. 8d. He lived quietly at Ashley House, Walton-on-Thames, during the Commonwealth and protectorate, and in 1660 took his seat in the Convention parliament. He was restored to the posts he held before the war, and received grants of other lands. On 7 Nov. 1600 he was made a councillor for trade and navigation, and on 1 Dec. for the colonies; on 3 April 1662 he was sworn of the privy council. He died at Ashley House on 17 March 1662-3, and was buried on the 22nd in the church at Walton-on-Thames, where there is an inscription to his memory. His portrait was painted by Van Dyck and engraved by Hollar and Gaywood.
• Portland married, at Roehampton chapel on 25 June 1632, Frances, third daughter of Esmé Stuart, third duke of Lennox [see under Stuart, Ludovick, second Duke]. She was born about 1617, and survived her husband thirty-one years, being buried in Westminster Abbey on 24 March 1693-4; her portrait was painted by Van Dyck and engraved by Hollar (Granger, Biogr. Hist. ii. 384). By her Portland had issue an only son, Charles (1639-1665), who succeeded as third Earl of Portland, but was killed during the naval battle with the Dutch off the Texel on 3 June 1665 (Pepys, Diary, ed. Braybrooke, iii. 24). He was unmarried, and the earldom and barony devolved upon his uncle, Thomas Weston, fourth earl of Portland (1609-1688), who was compelled to sell most of his estates, retired in poverty to the Netherlands, and died without issue in 1688, having married, in 1667, Anne, widow of Mountjoy Blount, earl of Newport [q. v.] The barony of Weston and earldom of Portland consequently became extinct.
• [Authorities cited; Davy's Suffolk Collections (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 19077 etseq.); Cal. State Papers, Dom.; Lords' Journals, iv. 446; Lloyd's Memoires, 1668, p. 678; Nicholas Papers (Camd. Soc.), i. 32; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, passim, and Clarendon State Papers; Court and Times of Charles I, passim; Lascelles's Lib. Munerum Hibernicorum; Burke's Extinct, Doyle's, and G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerages; Gardiner's Hist. of England and Civil War; Sandford's Studies in the Great Rebellion, p. 563.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Weston,_Jerome_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati60stepuoft#page/362/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati60stepuoft#page/363/mode... _________________
• WESTON, Jerome (1605-1663), of Roehampton House, Putney, Surr.
• b. 16 Dec. 1605, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir Richard Weston*, being 1st s. with his 2nd w. Frances, da. of Nicholas Waldegrave of Borley, Essex; bro. of Benjamin† and Nicholas†.1 educ. Trin. Camb. 1623, MA 1626, Padua 1632; M. Temple 1626; travelled abroad 1629.2 m. 18 June 16323 (with £6,000),4 Frances (bur. 17 Mar. 1694), da. of Esmé, 3rd duke of Lennox [S], 1s. 4da. styled Lord Weston 17 Feb. 1633; suc. fa. as 2nd earl of Portland 13 Mar. 1635. d. 17 Mar. 1663.5
• Offices Held
  • Freeman, Newport I.o.W. 1631,6 Yarmouth I.o.W. 1634,7 Portsmouth, Hants 1635;8 capt. I.o.W. 1633-42, 1660-1;9 jt. ld. lt. Hants 1635-42;10 v.-adm. Hants 1635-42, 1660-2;11 j.p. Hants 1635-at least 1641, 1660-d., Mdx. and Westminster 1636-at least 1641, 1660-d., Surr. 1638-at least 1642;12 commr. oyer and terminer, Western circ. 1635-42, Hants 1643, Mdx. 1660-d., piracy Hants 1635-6, Devon 1662;13 ranger, Richmond New Park, Surr. 1637;14 commr. array, Hants 1640, 1642,15 defence Oxf. 1644;16 steward of Berkhampstead manor, Herts. 1660;17 commr. sewers, Norf. and Cambs. 1660, Bedford Level, Gt. Fens 1662, highways, London and Westminster 1662.18
• Amb. extraordinary to France, Tuscany, Venice and Savoy 1631-3;19 gent. of the privy chamber extraordinary 1632-at least 1641;20 member, High Commission, Canterbury prov. 1633;21 commr. trade 1660, plantations 1660;22 PC 3 Apr. 1662-d.;23 commr. loyal and indigent officers 1662.24
• Asst. Royal Fishing Co. 1661.25
• Although the younger son of the Caroline lord treasurer, Sir Richard Weston, this Member became his father’s heir-apparent sometime after 1622, when his elder half-brother ‘fell distracted’, as Chamberlain put it. On the ennoblement of Sir Richard in 1628, provision was made that the title of Lord Weston should descend to the children of Sir Richard’s second wife. This provision, which was repeated five years later when the lord treasurer became earl of Portland, ultimately proved unnecessary, however, as the elder brother, who had been confined at Coventry, died about a year before his father.26
• Weston was returned at Gatton in 1628 by William Copley, the Catholic lord of the manor, who claimed the sole franchise in the borough. However, two indentures were returned and the Commons declared Weston’s election void on 26 March.27 He subsequently found a seat elsewhere, as he spoke in the Commons in 1629. His new place was probably at Lewes, where the elevation of the courtier Sir George Goring to the peerage on 14 Apr. had created a vacancy, but no return survives.
• Weston left no further mark on the records of the third Caroline Parliament until its end, when he was reportedly ‘much commended for a modest speech’ during the tumultuous events of 2 Mar. 1629 in defence of his father, who had become the target of (Sir) John Eliot and other disgruntled leading Members of the Commons.28 He conceded that ‘some things may be amiss in the kingdom’, but added that ‘if all things were well ordered, we should not need to meet here so often as we do’. He then proceeded to defend his father, asking ‘what can be more unjust than without true grounds to lay aspersions upon a noble person?’ After testifying to his father’s ‘loyalty to his prince, his fidelity to his country, and his true affection to religion’, he appealed to the House not to ‘prejudge him, but think that he hath as faithful a heart ... as any man that sits here, till the contrary do appear’.29
• In the autumn of 1629 Weston received a licence to travel for three years. He had returned by 1632, when he married Frances Stuart, cousin to the king, who gave her away, with ‘the queen looking on’, and Bishop Laud officiating.30 Shortly afterwards Weston was sent as an ambassador extraordinary to Italy and France, insuring his life for £20,000 before his departure.31 On his way home he intercepted and opened a letter sent by the 1st earl of Holland (Henry Rich*) enclosing another by the queen. As a result, Holland challenged him to a duel, which the king prevented.32
• Shortly after Weston succeeded as 2nd earl of Portland in 1635, George Garrard reported that his father had, before his death, ‘endeavoured with all his arts and power’ to get him a place at Court. This seems to have been true, for in December 1633 Edward Rossingham relayed rumours that Weston would shortly be appointed secretary of state, and in October 1634 it was said that Weston would soon be either secretary or master of the Court of Wards. However, the best that his father could do was to secure for him the captaincy of the Isle of Wight.33 As captain, Weston came (according to Edward Hyde†, later earl of Clarendon) to have ‘an absolute power over the affections’ of the islanders, who petitioned in his favour in 1641 when the Long Parliament questioned his fitness for office out of ‘jealousy of his lordship’s inclination to Popery’. He assured the Lords that ‘his father bred him a Protestant, and he would ever live and die one’, and disclaimed all responsibility for his wife’s Catholicism.34
• Weston won a temporary reprieve, but on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1642 he was detained and removed from office by the parliamentarians.35 He was released in January 1643, but later that year was accused by his kinsman Edmund Waller* of complicity in the royalist plot to secure London. He denied the charge and was granted leave to go abroad, but instead joined the king at Oxford. With debts of £21,000, in 1646 he compounded at £9,953, later reduced to £5,297.36
• Weston drew up his will on 4 Nov. 1657, making his brother Benjamin Weston† executor, and added codicils on 27 Oct. 1660 and 8 Oct. 1661. He was buried on 22 Mar. 1663 at Walton-on-Thames. None of his descendants sat in the Commons. His only son was killed in the second Dutch War two years later, and the earldom of Portland passed to his Catholic brother Thomas, who died without issue in 1688, the last of the male line. His four daughters became nuns in Poor Clares’ convent at Rouen, which had been founded by his wife.37
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/we... ________________
• Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland
• M, #5307, b. 16 December 1605, d. 17 March 1663
• Last Edited=31 Dec 2009
• Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland was born on 16 December 1605. He was the son of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland and Frances Waldegrave.1,2 He married Lady Frances Stewart, daughter of Esmé Stuart, 3rd Duke of Lennox and Katherine Clifton, Baroness Clifton (of Leighton Bromswold), on 10 June 1632 at Roehampton, Surrey, England.3 He died on 17 March 1663 at age 57 at Ashley House, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.
• He gained the title of 2nd Earl of Portland.
• Citations
• [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume X, page 582. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• [S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 584.
• [S37] BP2003 volume 1, page 1035. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p531.htm#i5307 __________________
• WESTON, Richard II (1577-1635), of Roxwell Park, Essex and Nayland, Suff.
• bap. 1 May 1577, o.s. of Jerome Weston of Roxwell by his 1st w. Mary, da. of Anthony Cave of Chicheley, Bucks. educ. Trinity Coll. Camb. BA 1594; M. Temple 1594; travelled abroad. m. (1) Elizabeth (d.1603), da. of William Pinchon of Writtle, Essex, 1s. 2da.; (2) c.1604, Frances (d.1645), da. of Nicholas Walgrave of Borley, Essex, 4s. inc. Jerome Weston 1da. Kntd. 1603; suc. fa. 1603; KG 1630; cr. Baron Weston 1628, Earl of Portland 1633.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/we... _________________

Epithalamion for Sir Hierome Weston's wedding, by Ben Jonson

EPITHALAMION ; OR, A SONG ;

Celebrating the Nuptials of that noble gentleman, Mr. Hierome Weston, Son and Heir of the Lord

Weston, Lord High Treasurer of England, with the Lady Frances Stewart, Daughter of Esme, Duke of Lenox, deceased, and Sister of the surviving Duke of the same name.

XCIII. — EPITHALAMION.

 	Though thou hast passed thy summer-standing, stay

    Awhile with us, bright sun, and help our light ;

Thou canst not meet more glory on the way,

    Between the tropics, to arrest thy sight,

         Than thou shalt see today :

              We woo thee stay ;

         And see what can be seen,

The bounty of a king, and beauty of his queen.

See the procession ! what a holy day,

    Bearing the promise of some better fate,

Hath filled, with caroches, all the way,

    From Greenwich hither to Rowhampton gate !

         When look'd the year, at best,

              So like a feast ;

         Or were affairs in tune,

By all the spheres consent, so in the heart of June ?

What beauty of beauties, and bright youths at charge

    Of summer's liveries, and gladding green,

Do boast their loves and braveries so at large,

    As they came all to see, and to be seen!

         When look'd the earth so fine,

              Or so did shine,

         In all her bloom and flower,

To welcome home a pair, and deck the nuptial bower ?

It is the kindly season of the time,

    The month of youth, which calls all creatures forth,

To do their offices in nature's chime,

    And celebrate, perfection at the worth,

         Marriage, the end of life,

              That holy strife,

         And the allowed war,

Through which not only we, but all our species are.

Hark how the bells upon the waters play

    Their sister-tunes from Thames his either side,

As they had learn'd new changes for the day,

    And all did ring the approaches of the bride ;

         The Lady FRANCES drest

              Above the rest

         Of all the maidens fair ;

In graceful ornament of garland, gems, and hair.

See how she paceth forth in virgin-white,

    Like what she is, the daughter of a duke,

And sister ; darting forth a dazzling light

    On all that come her simplesse to rebuke !

         Her tresses trim her back,

              As she did lack

         Nought of a maiden queen,

With modesty so crown'd, and adoration seen.

Stay, thou wilt see what rites the virgins do,

    The choicest virgin-troop of all the land !

Porting the ensigns of united two,

    Both crowns and kingdoms in their either hand :

         Whose majesties appear,

              To make more clear

         This feast, than can the day,

Although that thou, O sun, at our entreaty stay !

See how with roses, and with lilies shine,

     Lilies and roses, flowers of either sex,

The bright bride's paths, embellish'd more than thine,

    With light of love this pair doth intertex !

         Stay, see the virgins sow,

              Where she shall go,

         The emblems of their way. —

O, now thou smil'st, fair sun, and shin'st, as thou wouldst stay !

With what full hands, and in how plenteous showers,

    Have they bedew'd the earth, where she doth tread,

As if her airy steps did spring the flowers,

    And all the ground were garden where she led !

         See, at another door,

              On the same floor,

         The bridegroom meets the bride

With all the pomp of youth, and all our court beside !

Our court, and all the grandees ! now, sun, look,

    And looking with thy best inquiry, tell,

In all the age of journals thou hast took,

    Saw'st thou that pair became these rites so well,

         Save the preceding two ?

              Who, in all they do,

         Search, sun, and thou wilt find

They are the exampled pair, and mirror of their kind.

Force from the Phoenix, then, no rarity

    Of sex, to rob the creature ; but from man,

The king of creatures, take his parity

    With angels, muse, to speak these :  nothing can

         Illustrate these, but they

              Themselves to-day,

         Who the whole act express ;

All else, we see beside, are shadows, and go less.

It is their grace and favor that makes seen,

    And wonder'd at the bounties of this day ;

All is a story of the king and queen :

    And what of dignity and honor may

         Be duly done to those

               Whom they have chose,

         And set the mark upon,

To give a greater name and title to ! their own !

WESTON, their treasure, as their treasurer,

    That mine of wisdom, and of counsels deep,

Great say-master of state, who cannot err,

    But doth his caract, and just standard keep,

         In all the prov'd assays,

               And legal ways

         Of trials, to work down

Men's love unto the laws, and laws to love the crown.

And this well mov'd the judgement of the king

    To pay with honors to his noble son

To-day, the father's service ; who could bring

    Him up, to do the same himself had done :

         That far all-seeing eye

              Could soon espy

         What kind of waking man

He had so highly set ; and in what Barbican.

Stand there ; for when a noble nature's rais'd,

    It brings friends joy, foes grief, posterity fame ;

In him the times, no less than prince, are prais'd,

    And by his rise, in active men, his name

         Doth emulation stir ;

              To the dull a spur

         It is, to the envious meant

A mere upbraiding grief, and torturing punishment.

See now the chapel opens, where the king

    And bishop stay to consummate the rites ;

The holy prelate prays, then takes the ring,

    Asks first, who gives her ? — I, CHARLES — then he plights

         One in the other's hand,

              Whilst they both stand

         Hearing their charge, and then

The solemn choir cries, Joy ! and they return, Amen !

O happy bands ! and thou more happy place,

   Which to this use wert built and consecrate !

To have thy God to bless, thy king to grace,

    And this their chosen bishop celebrate,

          And knit the nuptial knot,

               Which time shall not,

          Or canker'd jealousy,

With all corroding arts, be able to untie !

The chapel empties, and thou mayst be gone

    Now, sun, and post away the rest of day :

These two, now holy church hath made them one,

    Do long to make themselves so, another way :

          There is a feast behind,

               To them of kind,

          Which their glad parents taught

One to the other, long ere these to light were brought.

Haste, haste, officious sun, and send them night

    Some hours before it should, that these may know

All that their fathers and their mothers might

    Of nuptial sweets, at such a season, owe,

          To propagate their names,

               And keep their fames

          Alive, which else would die ;

For fame keeps virtue up, and it posterity.

The ignoble never lived, they were awhile

    Like swine or other cattle here on earth :

Their names are not recorded on the file

    Of life, that fall so ;  Christians know their birth

          Alone, and such a race,

               We pray may grace,

          Your fruitful spreading vine,

But dare not ask our wish in language Fescennine.

Yet, as we may, we will — with chaste desires,

    The holy perfumes of the marriage-bed,

Be kept alive, those sweet and sacred fires

    Of love between you and your lovely-head !

          That when you both are old,

               You find no cold

          There ; but renewed, say,

After the last child born, This is our wedding day.

Till you behold a race to fill your hall,

    A Richard, and a Hierome, by their names

Upon a Thomas, or a Francis call ;

    A Kate, a Frank, to honor their grand-dames,

          And 'tween their grandsires' thighs,

               Like pretty spies,

          Peep forth a gem ; to see

How each one plays his part, of the large pedigree !

And never may there want one of the stem,

    To be a watchful servant for this state ;

But like an arm of eminence 'mongst them,

    Extend a reaching virtue early and late !

          Whilst the main tree still found

               Upright and sound,

          By this sun's noonsted's made

So great ; his body now alone projects the shade.

They both are slipp'd to bed ; shut fast the door,

    And let him freely gather love's first-fruits.

He's master of the office ; yet no more

    Exacts than she is pleased to pay :  no suits

          Strifes, murmurs, or delay,

               Will last till day ;

         Night and the sheets will show

The longing couple all that elder lovers know.

Source:

Jonson, Ben. The Works of Ben Jonson.

Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Co., 1853. 840-842.

Jerome, the 2nd earl (1605-1663), was imprisoned for plotting in the interests of Charles I. in 1643, and was nominally president of Munster from 1644 to 1660.