BEAUFRONT, the seat of the late John Errington, Esq., whose death was recorded in the Miscellany for August last, stands in a commanding and beautiful situation on the north banks of the river Tyne, in the parish of St. John Lee, about two miles distant from Hexham, and about the same distance from Corbridge, in the county of Northumberland. This elegant mansion, viewed either from Hexham or Corbridge, has a noble appearance, from the great length of the fronts and number of the windows. The gardens are extensive; and it was stated by the late Mr. Errington, in his petition to the House of Commons, in 1797, against a bill for making a canal from Newcastle to Carlisle, the line of which was intended to pass through his demesne, that he had expended upwards of £20,000 in improving the gardens, fruit-walls, hot-houses, plantations, and walks. The lawn in front of the house is an exceedingly fine plot of ground. In the centre of an adjoining grove is a seat, in front of which there are four small openings. Looking through one of these on the left, the mansion house opens to the view; turning the eye towards the next, the church and bridge of Corbridge are discovered; while the front offers a clear uninterrupted view of the ruins of Dilston Hall, the seat of James, the third earl of Derwentwater; and from the opening on the right, Hexham, with its antique church, comes into view. The estate contains upwards of ten thousand acres, exclusive of the park, gardens, &c.

Beaufront was the seat of David Carnaby, Esq., 10 Queen Eliz., and afterwards of the Erringtons, of the ancient house of Errington, C. M. VOL VIII. NO. 70.

FF

by Erring-Burn, on the north side of the Roman wall, from which the name is derived. Their ancestor, William de Errington, was high sheriff of Northumberland in the 47th year of King Edward III. Another of the family, Sir Thomas de Errington, was one of the Conservators of the Borders in the 12th year of Henry VI. Sir Gilbert de Errington, Knight, was one of the party of King Edward IV. against the house of Lancaster; by whom, and Sir John Manners of Etal, at the head of four hundred men, Queen Margaret of Anjou was prevented from landing with her company at Bambrough, and forced to take shelter at Berwick upon Tweed. Nicholas de Errington died in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, possessed of Errington, &c. Beaufront was in possession of Thomas Errington, the grandfather of the late John Errington, Esq., who commanded Lord Widdrington's troop of horse in the Pretender's army, in 1715, and who had been an officer in the French service, where he acquired great reputation. He was taken prisoner at Preston, and being imprisoned in Newgate, was afterwards pardoned. It next came into possession of his son, John Errington, who married Maria, the widow of Griffin, Esq., and daughter of Leverley, Esq., by whom he had issue,

1st, Maria, who married William Smythe, Esq., of Bambridge, in the county of Hants, brother to Sir Edward Smythe, Bart., of Acton Burnell, county of Salop, and of Esh Hall, in the county of Durham, by whom she had issue Mary Ann, born 26th July, 1756, now living, who married 1st, Thomas Weld, Esq.; 2dly, Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq.; and 3dly, privately, George, prince of Wales, now King George IV.; by none of whom she has issue. Frances married, in 1787, Sir Carnaby Haggerstone, Bart., of Haggerstone Castle, in the county of Durham, who has issue an only daughter, Mary, who in January, 1805, married Sir Thomas Stanley Massey Stanley, Bart., of Hooton, in the county of Chester. Walter, who died November 14, 1822, leaving two daughters, who are living, and both minors; and Charles, an officer in the Swedish service.

2nd, John, born in 1738, at Cockley Tower, in the chapelry of St. Oswald, and parish of St. John Lee-the ruins of an old strong fortress, which is still remaining, and which was the principal seat of the Erringtons in 1567. He died at Beaufront on the 28th June, 1827, unmarried.

3rd, Henry, who married Lady Broughton, and died without issue, leaving his estate and mansion house at Sandhoe, which adjoin the valuable grounds of Beaufront, together with £140,000., to Wil

liam Thomas, the eldest son of Sir T. S. M. Stanley, who married his grandniece, the daughter of Sir C. Haggerstone, and who is a minor.

4th, A Daughter, married to Henry Fermor, Esq., of Tusmore, in Oxfordshire, who died at Worcester on the 28th of January, 1800, having left issue one son, the present Fermor, Esq., who succeeds to all the landed property, as heir-at-law to his uncle, the late John Errington, Esq. This gentleman is now residing at Boulogne sur Mer:

Maria, the widow of John Errington, Esq., and mother of the last John Errington, Esq., married 3dly, in 1746, the Hon. Thomas Molineux, youngest son of Caryl, sixth Viscount Molineux, and brother to Richard, the seventh, and William, the eighth viscount, who both dying without issue, his son by her, Charles William, born 30th September, 1748, succeeded in 1766 to the title, and was created earl of Sefton. He died 30th December, 1794, when he was succeeded by his son William, the tenth viscount Molineux, and second and present earl of Sefton. The Hon. Maria Molineux, mother of John Errington, Esq., and of Charles William, the first earl of Sefton, died in London August 14, 1795, in the eighty-seventh year of her age.

The late John Errington, Esq., made the tour of Europe, and had preserved his court dresses, comprising the costumes of all the European nations, and which during his lifetime were shown to curious strangers. He was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for the county of Northumberland in 1772, by the Right Hon. Lord Petre, then Grand Master of England, which office he resigned in 1906, when he was succeeded by Sir J. E. Swinburne, Bart., of Capheaton. He became initiated into the mysteries of masonry in the caverns of the ancient catechumens of Naples, when he made the tour of Europe.

On Monday, the 16th July, 1827, his remains were interred in the family vault at St. John Lee. This vault had been prepared for the remains of his grandfather and grandmother, which had originally been buried in the church-yard, and from whence they were removed to the vault.

The following gentlemen were the pall-bearers :

Ralph Riddell, Esq., Cheeseburne Grange;

Edward Charlton, Esq., Sandhoe;

James Kirsopp, Esq., Spital;

George Gibson, Esq., Reedsmouth;

Henry Tulip, Esq., Brunton;

William Donkin, Esq., Sandhoe;

Stamp Brooksbank, Esq., Hermitage;

Richard Craster Askew, Esq., Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Rev. Mr. Singleton, the Catholic clergyman of Hexham, performed the funeral service according to the rites of the Catholic Church, previous to the removal of the corpse to St. John Lee, which was taken in a hearse and six horses, followed by three mourning coaches, with four horses each, and seven gentlemen's carriages, and nearly one hundred of the tenantry, servants, and labourers.

The Earl of Sefton has administered to his personal effects, supposed to amount to £160,000., which will be equally divided between Mrs. Fitzherbert, Sir Carnaby Haggerstone, Bart., Charles Smythe, Esq., the two daughters of Walter Smythe, Esq., Mr. Fermor, and the Earl of Sefton.

The wood engraving below represents the arms of John Errington, Esq. :

In our last number we mentioned, in terms of strong reprobation, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; we shall now lay before our readers some circumstances by which it was followed. These are, I. The French Calvinistic prophets: II. The troubles in the Cevennes and, III. The discovery of much secret Socinianism among the exiled Calvinistic ministers.

I.-French Calvinistic Prophets.

In our preceding article on the Edict of Nantes, we stated, that by an edict which accompanied the edict of revocation, Louis XIV., while he permitted, in the most explicit terms, the Calvinist laity to remain in the kingdom, and assured them of their personal liberty, and the full enjoyment of their property, he enjoined their minister

to quit the kingdom under severe penalties. Nothing can be urged to defend the enactment. The ministry in general complied with it. A large proportion of them settled in the nearest territories to France in which they could find a refuge: some, however, remained in France. They were particularly to be found in the provinces of Dauphiné and the Vivarais; the mountainous tracts of these territories rendering searches for them very difficult. They were also spread, but much more loosely, over Languedoc. It was both natural and excusable that they should strongly feel their expulsion from their native country, and the severe distress to which it exposed them. Unfortunately, the political agitators of the times availed themselves of their resentments, and impelled large portions of them into excesses which cannot be defended, and which all the wise members of their body lamented and blamed. A grand alliance was forming at this time against Louis XIV.: it was considered by his enemies, that its object might be materially assisted, by inducing the Protestants of the southern parts of France to rise in arms against their royal persecutor.

"An historian of those troubles,"* says the author of the Memoires Ecclesiastiques pendant le Dix-huitième Siècle,'† "attributes the spirit of insurrection to the prophecies and suggestions of the minister Jurieu, ‡ who, from the middle of Holland, excited the zeal of Protestants by his violent writings, by sending emissaries among them, by incessantly talking of revenge, and by multiplied productions. These were uniformly falsified by the event, but were evidently calculated to realise the events which he predicted, and to put arms into the hands of his partisans, and to inspire them with his own fanaticism. Hence proceeded so many violent provocations, which shocked the wisest Protestants, but against which they dared not protest, from a fear of offending a man who was all-powerful in their party. He found too many persons disposed to second his turbulent projects. To facilitate their success, he established at Geneva an academy of refugee ministers; they, from time to time, sent preachers into the interior of France. One may easily guess what would be the exhortations of those men, educated in a hatred of the government, and exalted by the impetuous zeal of Jurieu, and his collaborators. This academy, it is said, charged one Du Serre, an

* Brueys,-Histoire du Fanatisme de notre Temps.

+ Ad annum 1702.-2nd edit., page 18.

+ Particularly to his Accomplissement des Propheties sur la Deliverance prochaine de l'Eglise. 8vo. Rotterdam, 1686.