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SIR SIDNEY Montagu, youngest of the six sons of Sir Edward Montague, of Boughton, Knight, was in the particular esteem of King James I. whom he served as one of the grooms of his bedchamber, and was knighted by him on July 28th, 1616. He was also in favour with King Charles I. b who made him master of his court of requests and serving as one of the knights of the shire for the county of Huntingdon, in that memorable parliament which met at Westminster on November 3d, 1640, he engaged for some time with those who were most forward in opposition to the Earl of Strafford and the ministry. Nevertheless, when the parliament had given the Earl of Essex a commission to be captain-general, and had framed an oath to live and die with him, which was to be tendered to all the members, Sir Sidney Montagu refused to take it, declaring in the house," he would not swear to live with him, because he was an old man, and might die before him; nor would he swear to die with him, since the Earl was going with an army against the King, which he did not know how to free from treason; and so he did not know what end that great man might come to." At the same time he further urged, that the King had declared all such traitors, and pulling his Majesty's declaration on that head out of his pocket, was

a MS. de Equit. in Offic. Arm.

b Warwick's Memoirs of King Charles I. p. 224.

f

• Annals of King Charles, p. 872, and Dugdale's View of the Troubles of Engl. p. 515.

d Warwick's Memoirs, p 221.

e Journal of parliament, vol. ii. p. 878.

f Warwick's Mem. p. 221.

expelled the house, December 3d, 1642, and sent to the Tower, whence he was released on the 16th.

Sir Sidney died on September 25th, 1644; and having married Paulina, third daughter of John Pepys, of Cottenham in the county of Cambridge, Esq. had issue two sons and a daughter.

His eldest son, Henry, was born on May 16th, 1622, and by accident was drowned on April 28th, 1625, and lies buried in the chancel of the church of Barnwell, in com. Northampton, where a monument is erected to his memory.

Edward was his only surviving son and heir.

His daughter Elizabeth was married to Sir Gilbert Pickering, of Tichmersh in the county of Northampton, Bart. of NovaScotia.

Which EDWARD Montagu, FIRST EARL OF SANDWICH, was born on July 27th, 1625, and married on November 7th, 1642, to Jemima, daughter of John Lord Crew of Stene. He had a commission dated August 20th, 1643, to raise a regiment consisting of above 1000 men, in the county of Cambridge and the isle of Ely; which regiment he immediately raised, and before he arrived at the age of nineteen, distinguished himself at the head of it in several actions; particularly at the storming of Lincoln on the 6th of May, 1644, and in the battle of Marston Moor on 2d of July following. And when the parliament's army were prepared to storm the city of York, and the besieged desired to capitulate, the generals, on July 13th, appointeds him one of the commissioners to treat of and conclude upon articles for the surrender of the city; which articles were signed the 15th, when he was still in the nineteenth year of his age.

On June 14th, 1645," he was with the same regiment in the battle of Naseby; and on July 23d, he was one of those colonels, who, with their regiments, stormed the town of Bridge

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On September 2d, the same year, he was appointed to command a brigade, consisting of four regiments, at the storming of Bristol, and an account of his conduct, resolution, and success in that service, performed September 10th, 1645, appears in a letter to the parliament, giving an account of the surrender of that place. On Prince Rupert's desiring to capitulate before the citadel

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was taken, he was appointed one of those commissioners who treated with him, and signed the articles, by which the city and all the forts were surrendered on the same day.

Though he served with great reputation in the army to the end of the war, yet, when that army, in the beginning of June 1647, not only refused to obey the orders of the parliament, but lodged an accusation against eleven of the leading members, judg ing the parliament was no longer free, he left the house of commons, in which he had succeeded his father as knight for Huntingdonshire; and resolved not to come thither, while the army should continue to have power over it. He kept his resolution, and came not into it again, till the secluded members were restored in 1659-60.

However, in the" instrument of government, sworn to by Cromwell on December 16th, 1653, in which all acts of state were to be done by the advice of a major part of the privy-council, composed of fifteen persons therein named, he was one.

He was soon after appointed one of the lords of the treasury, and about the same time joined with Desborough to execute the office of high admiral. He was principally consulted in all things relating to the fleet and foreign affairs, in which that government was so successful.

In the command at sea P he was first joined in commission with that great admiral, Robert Blake, and, after his death, had the sole command; in which, my Lord Clarendon observes, he was discreet and successful.

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When the secluded members were restored in the year 165960, they immediately made him, and the General (Monk) joint admirals of the fleet; whereby he only would go to sea, and have the ships under his command. He sent privately over to the King for his approbation, before he would accept the charge; which being speedily sent to him, he came to London, and entered into that joint command with the general, and immediately applied himself to put the fleet into so good order, that he might comfortably serve in it.

My Lord Clarendon further relates, that there was no man

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who betook himself to his Majesty's service with more generosity than this gentleman; and that whilst the fleet was preparing, ** Admiral Montagu sent his cousin Edward Montagu to the King, to let him know, that as soon as it should be ready (which he hoped might be within some few days) he would be himself on board, and would be then ready to receive and obey his Majesty's orders this was before that parliament assembled, which, when it did, resolved to call over the King. He sent word what officers he was confident of, and of whom he was not assured; and who he concluded would not concur with him, and who must be reduced by force. He desired to know whether the King had any assurance of the General (Monk), who, however, he wished might know nothing of his resolutions. And it was no small inconvenience to his Majesty, that he was restrained from communicating, to either, the confidence he had in the other, which might have facilitated both their designs.

"As soon as he came on board the fleet in the Downs, and found Lawson, and the other offices, more frank in declaring their duty to the King, and resolution to serve him, than he expected; that he might not seem to be sent by the parliament to his Majesty, but to be carried by his own affection and duty, without expecting any command from them, the wind coming fair, he set up his sails, and stood for the coast of Holland, leaving only two or three of the lesser ships to receive their orders, and to bring over those persons he knew were designed to wait on his Majesty." The King had so just a sense of his great services, that two days after his landing at Dover, he sent Sir Edward Walker, garter king of arms, to deliver him his declaratory letters, with the garter and George of the most noble Order of the Garter, which he presented him on May 28th, in the morning, in his ship then riding in the Downs.

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Also on July 12th following, he was created a Baron of this realm, by the title of Lord Montagu, of St. Neot's in com. Hunt. Viscount Hinchingbroke in the same county, and EARL OF SANDWICH in Kent; being likewise sworn of the privy-council, y made master of the King's great wardrobe, admiral of the Narrow Seas, and lieutenant-admiral to his Royal Highness the Duke of York,

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Clarendon, fol. edit. vol. iii p 599.

Walker's Hist. Acc. of the Garter, MS p. 104, penes Joh. Anstis, Arm. y Walker's MS. ut antea.

x Pat. 12 Car. II.

lord high admiral of England. At the coronation of the King, April 23d, 1661, his Lordship carried St. Edward's staff, part of the regalia.

On the conclusion of a marriage between his Majesty and the Princess Donna Catherina, the sister of Alphonsus VI. King of Portugal, the Earl of Sandwich had the honour of being the King's proxy in the nuptial ceremony, and bringing her over. His Lordship off Lisbon detached Sir John Lawson with a strong squadron to the Mediterranean, to curb the corsairs of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoly; by which means they were brought to renew their treaties with England. On a rupture with the States General, in the year 1664, the fleet, in which he served as viceadmiral under the Duke of York, struck such a terror on the coast of Holland, that the Dutch admiral Opdam was afraid to venture out; and whilst they lay with that fleet in the Goree, their Bourdeaux fleet laden with wine and brandy fell into the English hands; and with many other of their laden ships, to the number of above 130, were brought into our ports.

He served in the same station under the Duke in the great sea-fight on June 3d, 1665,a in which a most signal victory was obtained; eighteen capital men of war were taken, fourteen more destroyed, and Admiral Opdam was blown up in his flagship.

An account of the share his Lordship had in this action, as agreed to by the Dutch writers, is in the Columna Rostrata in these words: " This memorable battle was fought off Leostoff. The English had the weather-gage, and the fight began June 3d, 1665, at three in the morning. The fleets having several times charged through each other without any remarkable advantage; it happened that the Earl of Sandwich with his blue squadron fell about one o'clock into the center of the enemy's fleet, and divided it into two parts; which was a considerable step to the victory, by beginning that confusion which at last ended in a flight."

The Duke of York, after this success, left the sole command of the fleet to the Earl of Sandwich, who, having repaired the

2 Baker's Chron. 7th Edit. p. 739.

a Bishop Burnet's Hist. of his own Times, p. 174.
Burchet's Hist. of Transactions at Sea, p. 367.

Hist. of Engl. vol. iii. p. 271.

• Ibid. p. 256.

a Ibid. p. 276.

f Col. Rostr. p. 169.

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