"The Earl of Essex received in his familiar house Barn“Elms, a rabble of foreign diplomatists and spies."

"Sir Christopher Blount returned from Drayton Bassett to "Barn-Elms, which had passed into the possession of Essex "with his wife."

"Essex, knowing that he had sinned against hope, and "maddened by the cold response from Dublin, began to crowd "Barn-Elms and Essex House with his more desperate "followers, who proposed to do without an army what Queen "Elizabeth had failed to do with one."

From an entry in the parish register, it appears that Robert Beale, Chancellor of the North and Clerk of Privy Council, brother-in-law to Lady Walsingham, also died at Barn Elms, March 25th, 1601. This time-serving courtier acquired for himself an unenviable notoriety through his having been frequently employed by Queen Elizabeth in her negotiations with Mary, Queen of Scotland. He accompanied Lord Buckhurst when the latter went to announce to her that the sentence of death had been passed upon her; he was also dispatched to Fotheringay Castle with the warrant for the beheading of the ill-fated Queen, which warrant he read on the scaffold, and remained to witness its execution.

Camden describes him as being a man of impetuous and morose disposition,' therefore all the more qualified to carry out the inhuman orders of his tyrannical and jealous mistress. He was employed on an embassy to

1 "Mr. Egerton, the Ladie Marie's gentleman usher, buried 'Aug. 6th, 1603."

"The Ladie Marie's chambermaid buried Sept. 19th, 1603."

2 The Ladie Marie died at Lord Kivrett's, at Stanwell, in 1607, "and the Lady Elizabeth was educated at Lord Harrington's."

Baker's Chronicle, pt. iv. p. 123. If Stow's account of the death of Sir Francis Walsingham's widow be accurate, I apprehend this Lady Walsingham must have been the wife of Sir Thomas, who died in 1670. King James granted a pension of £400 per annum to Lady Walsingham in the beginning of his reign. (MS. of Sir Julius Cæsar, Brit. Mus., 4160, Ayscough's Cat.) Rowland White, writing to Sir Robert Sydney, an. 1591, says, "My Lady Walsingham, I mean the old lady," by which it appears that there were two ladies of that name contemporaries. (Sydney State Papers, vii. p. 131.) Sir Thomas Walsingham, who died in 1630, was son of another Sir Thomas, first cousin of Sir Francis.

Zealand with Sir William Winter, in 1576, and the year before his death was one of the Commissioners at the treaty of Boulogne. Several of his letters on the business of the Queen of Scots are in Lodge's "Shrewsbury Papers." His daughter married Sir Henry Yelverton, one of the Judges in the Common Pleas (temp. Charles I.).

By two entries' in the register it would seem that the Princess Mary, daughter of King James I., had been resident at Barn Elms, as two of her servants were buried here in August and September, 1603. Mr. Lysons observes that there must be a mistake in the register or in the historians, who do not bring her out of Scotland till after that period. Lady Walsingham was sent to Scotland to bring up some of the King's children, and, according to Baker's Chronicle, returned with Prince Henry and the Princess Elizabeth about the beginning of July, 1603. It was then customary for some of the nobility or great people about Court to farm the royal children (if one may use the expression), that is, they discharged the expenses of their board and education by contract.

The occupants of Barn Elms in 1620 were a Sir John and Lady Kennedy. Sir John, like many others of his countrymen, was a

"Penniless lad wi' a lang pedigree,"

J

and so bethought him of the high road to England,
which, as Dr. Johnson sarcastically remarks, "is of all
prospects the most pleasing to a Scotchman." With that
"canniness" which is attributed to those of the "North
Countrie," Sir John availed himself of this supposed
opening to preferment, and crossed the Border in the
train of his royal master, in search of a well-dowered
bride; he quickly found one, to the no small delight of
"Gentle Jamie," in the person of Elizabeth Brydges,
daughter of Giles Lord Chandos. In the retirement of
Barn Elms Sir John Kennedy no doubt expected to lead
a quiet domestic life in the society of his bride; but,
alas! this was not to be, for the fair Elizabeth was
extravagant in her habits and her husband poor. Unable
to obtain the money to defray her expenses, the lady ran
into debt; the husband remonstrated in vain, and the
lady still pursued her mad career. Debts poured in; in
her extremity Lady Kennedy applied to her nephew,
Lord Chandos, who refused her any assistance.

Unable to satisfy her creditors, they attacked Sir John.
Threatened with arrest, and unable to dispute his wife's
debts, he at length resolved to dispute his marriage, and
there happening, strangely enough, to be some flaws in
the contract, he was enabled in this way to get rid of his
wife.