as the second baronet's death is mentioned in Lady Rachael
Russell's letters. His second wife was one of King Charles's Beauties,
but the account in Granger of her is not correct, as it appears that
she lived some time with Sir Thomas, as mistress, before their
marriage. He left her in great distress, as the profits of the estate
were embezzled by attorneys and stewards. The following is a copy from
a letter from her to one Squibb, an attorney who had the management of
the estate:

'SIR,

'When you were last here you were pleased to say that in some
little time I should be payd some money. I have had with me my
woman's husband y^t did serve mee about two yeares since; and hee
is soe impatient for what I owe her y^t hee will staye noe longer.
It is given me to understand I must goe to prison or paye part of
w^t I owe him. Things fly to a great violence, and if you thinke it
will bee for the credit or advantage of my childerne y^t such an
afront should come to mee, is the question. I have nothing to
depend on but w^t must come from the estate of Sir Richard Vernon.
How I have been used by the trustees you are noe stranger to. I am
now forced to live on charity, and I grow every day more and more
weary of it. For my childern's sake I remain in England, or else I
would seeke my fortune elsewhere. Pray to take this into
consideration, and see w^t can be done.

'I am, SIR, y^r most humble serv^t,
'VERNON.

'P.S.--If you can, pray doe mee y^e favour to send mee by to-morrow
at one of y^e cloke, twenty shillings, to pay for wood, or I must
sit w^{th}oute fyer; y^t will be ill for a person confined to the
house.'"

It is not certain whether it is to "Mistris Kirke," Lady Vernon's mother,
that Charles I. refers in his letter addressed to Colonel Whaley on the day
of his escape from Hampton Court, November 11, 1647, but it is very likely
to have been so. There was a Mistress (Anne) Kirke, sworn in a dresser to
Queen Henrietta Maria in Easter week, 1637 (vide _Strafford Papers_, vol.
ii. p. 73.), whose full-length portrait by Vandyke has been frequently
engraved, by Browne, Garwood, Hollar, Beckett, &c.; and this lady may be
the "Mrs. Anne Kirke, unfortunately drowned near London Bridge," who was
buried in Westminster Abbey, July 9, 1