the Borough to elope with him, and carried on several private intrigues with others. At one of the last places in which he lived, he was frequently employed to drive post-chaises between Hounslow and London, and notwithstanding he drove close by his old companion Abershaw, where he hung in irons, it had no effect in altering his morals. To follow him through the various wicked exploits in which he was afterwards engaged, would far exceed our limits. He was concerned in a very great number of robberies committed round the metroplis. At the time that he lived at different inns, as a postchaise driver, he went on the road, and kept up a connection with almost every infamous character of the day. He was concerned with Middleton, Har per, &c. in the robbery at Brixton Causeway, in 1799, and most of the other robberies committed on that road. He was repeatedly in custody at Bow street, tried at the Old Bailey, but nothing could be properly brought home. At length he was apprehended by some patroles belonging to Bow-street, thence conveyed to Aylesbury, Bucks, and there tried and convicted of a highway robbery in that county. When he found himself left for execution, he seriously prepared for his approaching end, and when he came to the fatal tree, met his aweful fate with a religious resignation. He suffered at Aylesbury in 1800.

FERRERS, LAURENCE, EARL (MURDERER,) whose family was descended from the royal blood of the Plantagenets, and had been distinguished for ages. One of the family was slain while fighting on behalf of the crown, at the memorable battle of Shrewsbury, in the beginning of the reign of Henry the Fourth: a circumstance that is mentioned by the immortal Shakespeare.

The

The second baronet of this family, Sir Henry Shirley, married one of the daughters of the famous earl of Essex, who was beheaded in the reign of queen Elizabeth; and Sir Robert Shirley, son of Sir Henry, died in the Tower, where he was confined by Oliver Cromwell, for his attachment to the cause of king Charles the First. Sir Robert's second son succeeding to his title and estate, Charles the Second summoned him to parliament by the title of lord Ferrers of Chartley, as the descendant of one of the coheiresses of Robert earl of Essex, the title having been in abeyance from the death of the said earl, and the precedency of it as high as the 27th year of Edward the First. In the year 1711, queen Anne created Robert lord Ferrers viscount Tamworth, and earl Ferrers. This nobleman possessed a very large estate, but it was greatly diminished by making provision for his numerous family, which consisted of no less than fifteen sons and twelve daughters, by two wives. The titles were possessed by the second son of the first earl; as he died without having any son, they fell to the next surviving brother, who was his father's ninth son: but as he did not marry, they fell, on his death, to the tenth son, who was father to Laurence earl Ferrers, a man of an unhappy disposition. Though of clear intellects and acknowledged abilities when sober, yet an early attachment to drinking greatly impaired his faculties; and, when drunk, his behaviour was that of a madman. He married the youngest daughter of Sir William Meredith, in the year 1752; but behaved to her with such unwarrantable cruelty, that she was obliged to apply to parliament for redress; the consequence of which was, that an act passed for allowing her a separate maintenance, to be raised out of his es

tates.

tates. At Derby races, in the year 1756, lord Ferrers ran his mare against captain M-'s horse for 50l. and was the winner. When the race was ended, he spent the evening with some gentlemen, and in the course of conversation the captain (who had heard that his lordship's mare was with foal) proposed, in a jocose manner, to run his horse against her at the expiration of seven months. Lord Ferrers was so affronted by this circumstance, which he conceived to have arisen from a preconcerted plan to insult him, that he quitted Derby at three o'clock in the morning, and went immediately to his seat at Stanton-Harold, in Leicestershire. He rang his bell as soon as he awaked, and a servant attending, he asked if he knew how captain M▬▬ came to be informed his mare was with foal. The servant declared that he was ignorant of the matter, but the groom might have told it; and the groom being called, he denied having given any informa tion respecting the matter. Previous to the affront presumed to have been given on the preceding evening, lord Ferrers had invited the captain and the rest of the company to dine with him as on that day; but they all refused their attendance, though he sent a servant to remind them that they had promised to come. Lord Ferrers was so enraged at this disappointment, that he kicked and horsewhipped his servants, and threw at them such articles as lay within his reach. Some oysters had been sent from London, which not proving good, his lordship directed one of the servants to swear that the carrier had changed them; but the servant declining to take such an oath, the earl flew into a rage, stabbed him in the breast with a knife, cut his head with a candlestick, and kicked him on

the

the groin with such severity, that he was under the surgeon's care for several years afterwards. Lord Ferrers's brother and his wife paying a visit to him and his countess at Stanton Harold, some dispute arose between the parties; and lady Ferrers being absent from the room, the earl ran up stairs with a large clasp-knife in his hand, and asked a servant whom he met where his lady was. The man said, "in her own room;" and, being directed to follow him thither, lord Ferrers ordered him to load a brace of pistols with bullets. This order was complied with: but the servant, apprehensive of mischief, declined priming the pistols, which lord Ferrers discovering, swore at him, asked him for powder, and primed them himself. He then threatened that if he did not immediately go and shoot his brother the captain, he would blow his brains out. The servant hesitating, his lordship pulled the trigger of one of the pistols, but it inissed fire. Heleupon the countess dropped on her knees, and begged him to appease his passion; but in return he swore at her, and threatened her destruction if she opposed him. The servant now escaped from the room, and reported what had passed to his lordship's brother, who immediately called his wife from her bed, and they left the house, though it was then two o'clock in the morning. The unfortunate Mr. Johnson, who fell a sacrifice to the ungovernable passions of lord Ferrers, had been bred up in the family from his youth, and was distinguished for the regular manner in which he kept his accounts, and his fidelity as a steward. When the law had decreed a separate maintenance for the countess, Mr. Johnson was proposed as receiver of the tents for her use; but he declined this

office,