University of Virginia Library

IX. EPITAPH

In the chancel of the Church of Little Gadsden, in Hertfordshire.

Here lies interred
John, Earl of Bridgewater,
Viscount Brackley, Baron of Ellesmere,
And one of the Lords of the Privy Council,
And Lieutenant of the Counties of Bucks and Hertford,
And Custos Rotulorum of both
To K. Charles II, and K. James II.
Who desired no other Memorial of Him,
But only this:
That having (in the nineteenth year of his age,)
Married the Lady Elizabeth Cavendish,
Daughter to the then Earl,
Since Marquis, and after, Duke of Newcastle,
He did enjoy,
Almost twenty-two years,
All the happiness that a man could receive

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In the sweet society of the best of wives,
Till it pleased God,
In the forty-fourth year of his age,
To change his great felicity into
As great misery,
By depriving him of his truly loving,
And entirely beloved wife,
Who was all his worldly bliss;
After which time, humbly submitting to,
And waiting on the will and pleasure
Of the Almighty,
He did sorrowfully wear out
Twenty-three years, four months, and twelve days;
And then on the 26.th day of October
In the year of our Lord, 1686;
And in the sixty-fourth year of his own age,
Yielded up his soul into the
Merciful hands of God, who gave it.”