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A Genealogical Account of BERTIE, Duke of Ancafter.

HIS family is faid to have born April 29, 1686, married Jane,

land from Bertiland in Pruffia, at the time of the Saxon invafion, in the fifth century and one of their Saxon kings bestowed on them a caftle and town, which from them were denominated Bertieftadt, i. e. the town of Bertie, now Berfted, near Maidstone in Kent.

Peregrine Bertie, the prefent duke of Ancafter and Kefteven, marquis and earl of Lindsey, baron Willoughby of Erefby, lord great chamberlain of England, by inheritance a lord of the bed-chamber to his majefty, lord lieutenant and cuftos rotulorum of the county and city of Lincoln, one of his majefty's privy-council, and lieutenant-general of his majefty's forces, fucceeded his father Peregrine, the late duke, on the first day of January, 1742. In 1735 he married Elizabeth, daughter and fole heir to Wm. Blundell of Basingstoke, in the county of Southampton, Efq; and relict of Sir Charles Gunter Nichols, by whom he had no iffue. Upon her demife, he married in 1750, to his fecond wife, Mary, daughter to Thomas Panton, Efq; mafter of the king's running horfes, by whom he has one daughter, Mary-Catharine, born April 15, 1754, and a fon named Peregrine, born May 21, 1755, who died in 1758; also another fon born in November 1756, and a third fon born September 14, 1759, who is fince dead. His grace Peregrine, father of the prefent duke, who was July 161.

to Sir John Bronlow of Belton, Bart. by whom he had iffue, befides the prefent duke, two other fons; namely, lord Albemarle, and lord Brownlow, both unmarried; together with five daughters, lady Mary, married to Samuel Greathead, Efq; lady Albina, married to John Beckford, Efq; March 8, 1744, and died in March 1754: lady Jane, married to capt. Matthews; lady Carolina, married March 31, 1753, to George Dewar, Efq; and lady Anne, who died in Auguft 1735.

This Peregrine, father of the prefent duke, his majefty king George I. created duke of Ancafter and Kefteven, by letters patent, bearing date the 20th of July 1715. It is a memorable circumftance relating to one of the predeceffors of this illuftrious family, namely Richard Bertie, who married Catharine, the fourth wife, and widow of Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, that, having been obliged with his lady to quit England in the reign of queen Mary, in order to avoid the perfecution of bishop Gardiner, on the fcore of religion, that lady being very zealous for the reformation, among many other hazards which the underwent in her exile, and fhifting from place to place for preventing difcovery, he was delivered of a fon, called Peregrine Bertie. in the church-porch of Willebrode, in the city of Wefel and duchy of Cleves in Germany, on the 12th day of October,1555, where, 22

refolving

refolving to take shelter, it is faid, they bought coals to warm them. This birth is attefted from à copy of the register of Wefel to that effect; and alfo an infcription at the eaft entrance of the faid churchporch, which was placed there in 1680, by Charles Bertie, fon to Montague, earl of Lindfay, and his Britannic majesty's envoy extraordinary to most of the electors and other princes of the empire. And it is added, in other accounts, that they were excluded from all places of public reception, he being looked upon as a launce-knight, and the lady as his woman, or trull.

The reason why the child was called Peregrine (this name continuing ftill in their family) the register above-mentioned tells us was, as being a gift from heaven to his pious parents, for the confolation of their exile "in a foreign country." But, afterwards, returning to England in the reign of queen Elizabeth, anno 1588, this Peregrine, among other preferments, was made lieutenant-gene

HISTORY OF

ral of the English forces to the number of 4000 fent to the affiftance of the United Provinces; and his pofterity are still dignified with the title of earls of Lindfey, &c. a particular enumeration of all which would carry us too far.

Armorial Bearings.] Argent, three battering-rams bar-wife, armed and garnished, azure.

Creft.] On a wreath, the buft of a king, named Barbicon, coupé at the breaft proper, crowned ducally, or: being the creft of the ba rons Willoughby. Their creft, as Bertie, is a pine-tree, proper.

Supporters.] On the dexter fide, a pilgrim or friar, vested in ruffet, with his ftaff and Pater Nofter, or: on the finifter, a favage wreathed about the temples and middle with ivy, all proper.

Motto.] Loyalté me oblige.Loyalty obliges me. Fr.

Chief Seats.] At Grimfthorpe, in the county of Lincoln, about eight miles from Stamford; at Erefby, near Spilfby in the fame county; and in Berkley-fquare, London.

CANADA. [Continued.]

Anno. IN the midst of these calamities

#661.

fome favourable circumftances interpofed. The colonifts received information from fome prifoners, who had efcaped from the villages of the Iroquois, that there were about twenty Frenchmen at Onondaga, where they were treated with hofpitality; that in the fame diftrict, an hut was converted into a chapel, where a confiderable number of chriftians regularly affembled at their devotion; and that the matrons of the diftrict, who among the Indians, conftitute a confiderable part of the ftate, far from being concerned in the confpiracy against Mr. Dupuis, had for feven days, bewailed in fears, the departure of the miffionaries. On the back of this intelligence the parties of the enemy disappeared, and in the

fummer, two canoes arrived with a flag of truce at Montreal. They contained deputies from the Onondagas and the Goyoquins, one of whom was a faft friend to the colony. They brought along with them four Frenchmen, whom they propofed to exchange for eight Indians that were prifoners at Montreal; and promised to fend home all the French subjects that were in their cuftody, provided the governor would release all their countrymen, who were detained in the French fettlements. Their fincerity was confirmed by a letter, which they delivered to the governor, subfcribed by all the French prifoners in the Indian cantons, declaring, that they were treated with humanity; that the Indians feemed to be fincerely difpofed for peace; and that should their advances be rejected,

they

they (the prisoners) would be all tortured to death at their return. These reasons, joined to the weakness of the colony, induced the viscount d'Argenson to acquiefce in their propofals; and as they infifted upon a miffionary's being fent back with them, father Le Moyne chearfully hazarded his life on this occafion *. He arrived without accident at the country of the Onondagas ; and, two leagues from the town, was received by the chief Garakonthie, with a numerous retinue. This Indian had nothing favage in his manners or difpofition. He was penetrating, fenfible, mild, and generous, a friend to the French, and extremely defirous of putting

an end to the war.

Father Le Moyne having harangued the council of the Onondagas, they refolved that Garakonthie fhould be nominated ambaffador to the French governor of Montreal; and thither he went accordingly, accompanied by nine prifoners; the reft were detained, on pretence of refpect for father Le Moyne, whom they called Ondeffou. Garakonthie met with a very cordial reception at Montreal, and all his proposals of peace being embraced, he promised to return in the spring, with all the French prifoners. Notwithstanding this negotiation, parties of the Onondagas infefted the colony with repeated hoftilities. About two hundred of thefe favages fell upon fome inhabitants of Montreal, who were at work in the country. The town-major being informed of this attack, marched out with fix and twenty men to facilitate their retreat; but falling into an ambuscade, he was furrounded, and with his detachment cut in pieces, after a very gallant resistance. Mean while, Garakonthie, at his return to his own country, found a confiderable party averfe to peace; but, by his influence and addrefs, he furmounted all obftacles. The treaty was concluded, and ratified by the three cantons; and father Le Moyne was permitted to depart for Mon

treal, with all the French prifoners, except one, whom his master knocked on the head, because he refufed to marry his niece, on account of his having a wife of his own. The baron d'Avaugour having represented by a letter to the French king, that the colony would perish without his immediate protection, and fent over to France Mr. Boucher, to give an account of all the particulars relating to Canada; his most Christian Majesty ordered that the garrifons of the different fettlements fhould be immediately reinforced, and four hundred foldiers were transported for this purpose. These adventurers brought over with them fuch a fpirit of debauchery, as the example and reprehensions of the clergy could not reftrain. The governor-general connived at the fale of brandy, which had hitherto been carefully interdicted. The colonists and the Indian converts were equally infected with an ungovernable appetite for this pernicious liquor; and nothing was seen but fcenes of vice, riot, and brutal intoxication.

The clergy were infulted; heaven itself was fet at defiance, and the Chriftian religion brought into contempt among all the Indian nations. At length, a ftop was put to thefe disorders, by means which the miffionaries were at great pains to reprefent as a supernatural interposition of the Deity.

Father Charlevoix tells us, that the bishop of Petræa, finding all his exhortations and ecclefiaftical cenfures ineffectual, to curb and restrain this profligacy, [An. 1662.] returned to France about the beginning of autumn, in order to lay his complaints against his fovereign; that immediately after his departure, the air was illuminated by fiery corrufcations. That a ball of fire of amazing brightness paffed over Quebec towards Montreal, where it feemed to be detached from the moon, and vanished behind the mountain from which the place derives its name, with a noife as loud as the explosion of a

At this juncture the viscount d'Argenfon was fucceeded in his government by the baron d'Avaugour, a man of a violent temper, who had served with reputation against the Turks in Hungary. In the course of this fummer, the Jefuits Dreuillettes and Dablon, penetrated to the northward, as far as the fource of the river Saguenay, which, together with feveral others, derives its origin from the lake St. John, a piece of water twenty leagues in circumference, urrounded with pleasant banks, covered with wood But before they arand herbage, and beautified with a number of verdant islands. rived at the lake, they passed through a miserable barren country, where, however, they converted fome favages to the religion of Chrift, Z22

whole

whole battery of cannon: that on the 7th day of January, 1663, three mock funs, or Parhelia, appeared above the surface of the river St. Laurence; and on the 14th, the fame phænomena were renewed: that in the beginning of February, a report began to be circulated, that they should in a little time be vifited by fuch a dreadful earthquake as history never recorded; a re port which derived its orign from the prediction of a certain perfon of eminent piety, who was very fervent in devotion, to appease the wrath of heaven; that on the third day of the fame month, an Indian woman, who had embraced Chriftianity, heard a voice in the night, declaring that in two days things hitherto unheard of would happen; and on the morrow, while he was employed in gathering wood for fuel, the fame voice foretold, that next day between five and fix in the evening, there would be a terrible earthquake; that a young convert of the fame tribe was visited in her fleep by the Virgin Mary, who defcribed to her the very hour when it would begin, and all the circumstances attending it; accordingingly, at five o'clock, the feemed to be transported, and exclaimed twice with a loud voice, "it is coming!" to the aftonishment and terror of all the hearers. At the fame time, mother Mary of the Incarnation, foundrefs of the U. fulines of New France, pretended to have a vifion, and to have been forced as it were by a fupernatural impulfe, to demand juftice of the Lord, for the enormous crimes that were daily committed in that colony; all. that he could do in mitigation of this rigorous impulfe was to prefer the most fervent prayers to the Almighty, that the fouls of the wicked might not perish with their bodies.

The air was remarkably ferene, when the inhabitants of Quebec were alarmed with a noife like that made by a very great fire. They forthwith ran into the streets, where they beheld the houfes rocking with the most dreadful agitation; the doors opened and shut of themselves, with the moft hideous crashing; and all the bells rung without being touched. The palifadoes quivered, the walls were rent; the planks gave way; the floors fell in; the trees were entwined together, and pulled one another up by the roots; the furface of the earth was agitated like the waves of the fea; frightful cries were

uttered by different kinds of beafts, and hideous noifes were heard, fometimes like the rattling of coaches, fometimes like the crashing of rocks. The air was filled with a thick duft, which was mistaken for the fmoke of a conflagration; and fome imagining they heard the difmal yells of the favages, concluded that the Iroquois poured from all quarters upon the colony of Quebec. The terror was not only univerfal among thofe of the human fpecies, but feemed alfo to extend to the brute creation; for all the domeftic animals appeared alarmed, as if thunderftruck. Those who fled from the town met with objects ftill more terrible in the country. They beheld entire mountains. unrooted and moved from their places. Some rofe in the midst of rivers, and stop-. ped or turned the course of the stream: others were plunged into an abyfs, from whence they never rofe again to view. Trees were whirled aloft in the air, and in falling earthed themselves with their roots uppermoft. Huge floats of ice were crushed together on the rivers with fuch violence, that large pieces were thrown up into the air. Several springs and small rivers were dried up; in others the water was impregnated with fulphur; and divers rivulets vanished fo as to leave no traces of their channels. The river St. Laurence became white for the space of thirty leagues; and the manatees or feacows were heard roaring as far up as Trois Rivieres, where this animal had never appeared before. The thunder grumbled all around; and the fky appeared in flames, which affumed the shapes of. spectres, swords, and fpears, according to the difeafed imagination of the beholders. In a word, nothing was feen but images of horror, nothing was heard but cries and lamentation.

In the extent of three hundred leagues from eaft to weft, and one hundred and fifty from north to fouth, the furface of the earth, the rivers, and fea, were in fuch agitation, as feemed to threaten an immediate diffolution of nature. The first fhock lafted half an hour without intermiffion, tho' during the last quarter, it was not fo violent as in the firft. About eight in the evening, another as violent as the first was felt, and before next morning the number amounted to two and thirty. At Tadoufiac it rained afhes for fix hours, Halfway between this place and

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