William Herbert (planter)
Encyclopedia
Early life
He was son of William Herbert of St. Julians in MonmouthshireMonmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
, then an estate lying between Caerleon
Caerleon
Caerleon is a suburban village and community, situated on the River Usk in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport, South Wales. Caerleon is a site of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman legionary fortress, Isca Augusta, and an Iron Age hill fort...
and Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
. His mother was Jane, daughter of Edward Griffith. He was sole surviving legitimate heir-male of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, as the great-grandson of Sir George Herbert of St. Julians, the earl's third son. Born after 1552, he was a pupil of Laurence Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, presumed to have been a private pupil.
Herbert was a savant, and 1 May 1577 he sent John Dee
John Dee
John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...
notes for Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica. In 1581 he was residing at Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
, and enjoying Dee's learning. Thomas Churchyard
Thomas Churchyard
Thomas Churchyard , English author, was born at Shrewsbury, the son of a farmer.-Life:Churchyard received a good education, and, having speedily dissipated at court the money with which his father provided him, he entered the household of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey...
the poet was another admirer, and Churchyard dedicated to Herbert his ‘Dream,’ which forms ‘the ninth labour’ of ‘the first parte of Churchyardes Chippes,’ 1575.
In Ireland
On 14 February 1588 Herbert wrote to Francis WalsinghamFrancis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
that he desired to show posterity his affection for his God and his prince ‘by a volume of my writing,’ by ‘a colony of my planting,’ and by ‘a college of my erecting.’ The first two objects he accomplished, the last he did not carry further than a plan to place a college at Tintern
Tintern
Tintern is a village on the west bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, close to the border with England, about 5 miles north of Chepstow...
, where he owned a house and property. The colony was in Ireland. He was a relative and friend of Sir James Croft who had been lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1551–2. Herbert became an ‘undertaker’ for the plantation of Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
on 5 May 1586, and on 17 June applied for three ‘seignories’ in Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
. In April 1587 he arrived at Cork, and was allotted many of the confiscated lands which had been the property of Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond
Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond
Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579.-Life:...
.
Herbert's property included Castleisland
Castleisland
Castleisland is a town and commercial centre in County Kerry in south west Ireland. The town is renowned for the width of its main street. Castleisland has a population of 2,170....
and its neighbourhood, and covered 13,276 acres. A vigorous colonist, he recommended that Desmond and Kerry should be combined into a single county; that the government should be wholly in English hands; that Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
should be garrisoned and fortified, and that an army formed of Monmouthshire men should be maintained to resist foreign invasion. He also wished to see Kerry colonised by English gentlemen, and Irish customs such as tanistry
Tanistry
Tanistry was a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. In this system the Tanist was the office of heir-apparent, or second-in-command, among the Gaelic patrilineal dynasties of Ireland, Scotland and Man, to succeed to the chieftainship or to the kingship.-Origins:The Tanist was chosen from...
abolished. Moderate in treating the Irish, he put into execution clauses of the statute against Irish customs, particularly forbidding the wearing of the native mantle. A zealous Protestant, had the articles of the creed, the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
, and the ten commandments translated into Irish, and also directed the clergy on his estate to read religious services in Irish. With the Dean of Ardagh, whom he describes as inclined to papistry, he held many conferences, directing his attention to passages in Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
and John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...
, and to works by Whittaker and Sadaell,
After nearly two years' residence at Castleisland, he acted as vice-president of Munster, in the temporary absence of Sir Thomas Norris
Sir Thomas Norris
Sir Thomas Norris was an English soldier, made Lord President of Munster in Ireland.-Life:He was the fifth son of Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys of Rycote, and matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1571, aged 15, graduating B.A. on 6 April 1576...
, and sat on many commissions to settle disputes. But Herbert's work was severely attacked by Sir Edward Denny, high sheriff of Kerry, and owner of Tralee and the neighbourhood, who complained of Herbert's self-conceit, and declared that his constables were rogues, and that the native Irish under his care were ruthlessly pillaged. Herbert replied that Denny encouraged pirates on the Kerry coast, and did not treat with consideration Irish converts to Protestantism. Herbert finally returned to England in the spring of 1589. Meiler Magrath, archbishop of Cashel, wrote of Herbert in complimentary fashion. Adam Loftus
Adam Loftus
Adam Loftus may refer to:*Adam Loftus , Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh*Adam Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus , nephew of the above, Irish peer...
, the lord chancellor, and Sir Warham St. Leger wrote in similar terms, and emphasised Herbert's success as a Protestant missionary.
Later life and death
In September 1589 Herbert was at his house at Tintern. He died at St. Julians on 4 March 1593.Family
He married early in life Florence or Florentia, daughter of William Morgan of LlantarnamLlantarnam
Llantarnam is a community and suburb of Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen in southeast Wales.Llantarnam Abbey is a Cistercian abbey founded in 1179 as a daughter house of Strata Florida Abbey...
, Monmouthshire, and left an only child, Mary, who was born about 1578. He settled by will, dated 12 April 1587, all his property, which included, besides St. Julians and his Irish estates, land in Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
and Carnarvonshire, upon his daughter, on condition that she married ‘one of the surname of Herbert.’ On 28 February 1599 she satisfied this condition by marrying her kinsman, Edward Herbert, afterwards Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
On the petition of Herbert's widow and daughter, a new survey of his Irish property was made, and the rent reduced in 1596. Herbert's house at Castleisland was destroyed in the rebellion of 1598.
Works
Herbert was author of:- ‘A Letter written by a trve Christian Catholike to a Romaine pretended Catholike, vppon occasion of Controuersie touching the Catholike Church; the 12, 13, and 14 chapters of the Reuelations are briefly and truelie expounded,’ London (by John Windet), 1586, anonymous, with Sir William's arms on the back of the title-page.
- ‘A Poem intituled Sir William Herbertes Sydney’ was licensed by the Stationers' Company to John Windet on 16 January 1587. This may be identical with ‘Sidney, or Baripenthes; briefely shadowing out the rare and neuer ending landes of that most honovrable and praiseworthy Gent. Sir Philip Sidney,’ London (by John Windet), 1586.
- Herbert has been identified with the ‘Sir W. H.’ who signs a poor lyric in the ‘Phœnix Nest,’ 1593.
- A reply in Latin prose by Herbert to Edmund CampionEdmund CampionSaint Edmund Campion, S.J. was an English Roman Catholic martyr and Jesuit priest. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Protestant England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason by a kangaroo court, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn...
's treatise in favour of Roman Catholicism (‘Decem Rationes,’ 1587) was not printed (Brit. Mus. Lansd. MS. 27, No. 7). John StrypeJohn StrypeJohn Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...
refers to it in his life of Matthew ParkerMatthew ParkerMatthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....
. - ‘Croftus; siue de Hibernia Liber;’ an historical, political, and geographical treatise by Herbert on Ireland, also in Latin prose, and named in compliment to Sir James Croft, was first printed from a copy preserved among Earl Powis's manuscripts at Powis CastlePowis CastlePowis Castle is a medieval castle, fortress and grand country mansion located near the town of Welshpool, in Powys, Mid Wales.The residence of the Earl of Powis, the castle is known for its extensive, attractive formal gardens, terraces, parkland, deerpark and landscaped estate...
for the Roxburghe ClubRoxburghe ClubThe Roxburghe Club was formed on 17 June 1812 by leading bibliophiles, at the time the library of the Duke of Roxburghe was auctioned. It took 45 days to sell the entire collection. The first edition of Boccaccio's Decameron, printed by Chrisopher Valdarfer of Venice in 1471, was sold to the...
, under the editorship of the Rev. W. E. Buckley, in 1887. - Abstracts of three tracts by Herbert on the plantation of Munster appear in ‘Calendar of Irish State Papers,’ 1586–8, pp. 527–47. Also are printed many of Herbert's letters to Walsingham and Lord Burghley, written while he was in Ireland.