LADY HOWE is a scion of the house of Brudenell, Earls of Cardigan, a family that existed in England as far back as the time of Henry III. In that reign William de Bredenhill was a person of considerable note and extensive possessions. He was seated at Dodington in Oxfordshire, and held lands there; and in Adderbury and Bloxham, in the same county; as also in Aynho and Sibbertoft, in the county of Northampton. From this William de Bredenhill descended, SIR ROBERT BRUDENELL, Knt., a distinguished lawyer, who in the reign of Henry VII. was one of the King's Sergeants, and in the reign of Henry VIII. was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir Robert married Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Entwisell, Esq., of Stanton, relict of William Wivell, Esq., and cousin and co-heiress of the valiant Sir Bertine Entwisell, Knt., Viscount of Brickbee, in Normandy. By this lady he left, with other issue, a son and successor, SIR THOMAS BRUDENELL, Knt., who resided at Dean, in Northamptonshire. His grandson, SIR THOMAS BRUDENELL, was created a baronet by James I. in 1611, and by Charles I., in 1627, BARON BRUDENELL, of Stanton-Wivell, county of Leicester. A staunch cavalier, Sir Thomas Brudenell faithfully adhered to the royal cause through its long course of adversity. He frequently had an opportunity of doing the King good service in raising men, and contributing otherwise to his aid in defending, against the rebels, the garrisons of Newark, Lincoln, and Hereford. On the triumph of the Parliament he was committed to the Tower, where he relieved the tedium of a long confinement, by making extracts and collections from the national records there deposited, most of which still remain in manuscript in the library of the Earl of Cardigan, at Dean, in Northamptonshire. Soon after the restoration, he was advanced by Charles II., in 1661, to the dignity of EARL OF CARDIGAN. This gallant nobleman married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham, of Rushton St. Peter, in the county of Northampton, and dying 16th September, 1663, was succeeded by his eldest son, ROBERT, SECOND EARL, who wedded first, Mary, daughter of Henry Constable, Viscount Dunbar, and secondly, Anne, daughter of Thomas, Viscount Savage. By the former he had one daughter, and by the latter three daughters and a son, Francis Lord Brudenell, who died before his father, leaving, with other issue, a son, who, at the demise of his grandfather, in 1703, succeeded as R George, third EARL. This nobleman married Lady Elizabeth Bruce, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ailesbury, by whom he had issue, GEORGE, of whom presently. JAMES, successor to his brother. ROBERT, who married, in 1759, Anne, daughter of Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bart., and sister of the late THOMAS, created Earl of Ailesbury, father of the present Marquis of Ailesbury. His lordship dying in 1732, was succeeded by his eldest son, GEORGE, FOURTH EARL, who espoused Lady Mary Montagu, sole heir of John, Duke of Montagu, and at the demise of his father-in-law, in 1749, assumed the surname of Montagu. In 1766 his lordship was created Duke of Montagu and Marquis of Monthermer, and, in 1786, Baron Montagu of Boughton, Northamptonshire, with remainder to his grandson, Henry James Montagu Scott, second son of Henry third Duke of Buccleugh, by his daughter Elizabeth. His lordship died 23rd May 1790, and his only son, John, Marquis of Monthermer, having died before him, the titles of Duke and Marquis became extinct; the Barony of Montagu devolved, according to patent, on his grandson, and the Earldom of Cardigan on his next brother, JAMES, FIFTH EARL, who had previously been raised to the peerage in 1780, as Baron Brudenell of Deane. This nobleman married, first, the Hon. Anne Legge, eldest daughter of George Viscount Lewisham, and, secondly, Lady Elizabeth Waldegrave, eldest daughter |