Sir Henry Montagu , First Earl of Manchester. Judge and senior statesman; trusted advisor of Charles I, close friend and political ally of Francis Bacon. Entered Cambridge, 1583; Middle Temple; parliament, 1601; took the popular side against the doctrine that the king could impose taxes at will; elected recorder of London, 1603; knighted, 1603; supervised execution of Jesuit Henry Garnet for Gunpowder Plot, 1606; ingratiated himself to king James, appointed to king's council, 1607; serjeant-at-law, 1610; king's serjeant, 1610; chief justice of the king's bench, 1616; ordered execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, 1618; lord high treasurer of England, 1620; was created Baron Montague, Viscount Mandeville; resigned lord-treasureship at insistence of Buckingham, 1620; master of the court of wards, 1624; head of Virginia commission, 1624; lord privy seal, 1628; member of the court of star-chamber. Trusted advisor to Charles I. One of the guardians of the realm during the kings absence in Scotland; 1641.
19 december 1620: Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, Viscount Mandeville 5 february 1626: Earl of Manchester
He married: (1). Catherine, 2nd dau. of Sir William Spencer of Yarnton in Oxfordshire, himself the 3rd son of Sir John Spencer of Althorp. In this way, the present duke's family is connected to the Spencers and the Churchills. (2). Anne, dau. and heiress of William Wincot of Langham, co. Stafford, and widow of Sir Leonard Halliday, once lord mayor of London. (3). [1620] Margaret, daughter of John Crouch, Esq., of Cornbury in Hertfordshire, and widow of John Hare, Esq. Lord Manchester died 7 november 1642.
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