Byron | Page 3

and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1579.
His descendants were prominent as staunch Royalists during the whole
period of the Civil Wars. At Edgehill there were seven Byrons on the
field.
On Marston, with Rupert 'gainst traitors contending, Four brothers
enrich'd with their blood the bleak field.

Sir Nicholas, one of the seven, is extolled as "a person of great
affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge, which gave great
life to the designs of the well affected." He was taken prisoner by the
Parliament while acting as governor of Chester. Under his nephew, Sir
John, Newstead is said to have been besieged and taken; but the knight
escaped, in the words of the poet--never a Radical at heart--a
"protecting genius,
For nobler combats here reserved his life, To lead the band where
godlike Falkland foil."
Clarendon, indeed, informs us, that on the morning before the battle,
Falkland, "very cheerful, as always upon action, put himself into the
first rank of the Lord Byron's regiment." This slightly antedates his title.
The first battle of Newbury was fought on September, 1643. For his
services there, and at a previous royal victory, over Waller in July, Sir
John was, on October 24th of the same year, created Baron of Rochdale,
and so became the first Peer of the family.
This first lord was succeeded by his brother Richard (1605-1079),
famous in the war for his government and gallant defence of Newark.
He rests in the vault that now contains the dust of the greatest of his
race, Hucknall Torkard Church, where his epitaph records the fact that
the family lost all their present fortunes by their loyalty, adding, "yet it
pleased God so to bless the humble endeavours of the said Richard,
Lord Byron, that he repurchased part of their ancient inheritance, which
he left to his posterity, with a laudable memory for his great piety and
charity." His eldest son, William, the third Lord (died 1695), is worth
remembering on two accounts. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of
Viscount Chaworth, and so wove the first link in a strange association
of tragedy and romance: he was a patron of one of those poets who,
approved by neither gods nor columns, are remembered by the accident
of an accident, and was himself a poetaster, capable of the couplet,--
My whole ambition only does extend To gain the name of Shipman's
faithful friend,--
an ambition which, considering its moderate scope, may be granted to

have attained its desire.
His successor, the fourth lord (1669-1736), gentleman of the
bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark, himself living a quiet life,
became, by his third wife, Frances, daughter of Lord Berkeley, the
progenitor of a strange group of eccentric, adventurous, and passionate
spirits. The eldest son, the fifth lord, and immediate predecessor in the
peerage of the poet, was born in 1722, entered the naval service, left his
ship, the "Victory," just before she was lost on the rocks of Alderney,
and subsequently became master of the stag-hounds. In 1765, the year
of the passing of the American Stamp Act, an event occurred which
coloured the whole of his after-life, and is curiously illustrative of the
manners of the time. On January 26th or 29th (accounts vary) ten
members of an aristocratic social club sat down to dinner in Pall-mall.
Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth, his neighbour and kinsman, were of the
party. In the course of the evening, when the wine was going round, a
dispute arose between them about the management of game, so
frivolous that one conjectures the quarrel to have been picked to cloak
some other cause of offence. Bets were offered, and high words passed,
but the company thought the matter had blown over. On going out,
however, the disputants met on the stairs, and one of the two, it is
uncertain which, cried out to the waiter to show them an empty room.
This was done, and a single tallow candle being placed on the table, the
door was shut. A few minutes later a bell was rung, and the hotel
master rushing in, Mr. Chaworth was found mortally wounded. There
had been a struggle in the dim light, and Byron, having received the
first lunge harmlessly in his waistcoat, had shortened his sword and run
his adversary through the body, with the boast, not uncharacteristic of
his grand nephew, "By G-d, I have as much courage as any man in
England." A coroner's inquest was held, and he was committed to the
Tower on a charge of murder. The interest in the trial which
subsequently took place in Westminster Hall, was so great that tickets
of admission were sold for six guineas. The peers, after two days'
discussion, unanimously returned a verdict of manslaughter. Byron,
pleading his privileges, and