the sincerity of his “conversion” declared that he cared only for his life and not for his soul.
He met his death on the scaffold with calmness and dignity. In the paper which he left signed, and to which he referred in answer to the questions wherewith the busy bishops plied him, he expressed his sorrow for having assumed the royal style, and at the last moment confessed that Charles had denied to him privately, as he had publicly, that he was ever married to Lucy Walters. He died at the age of thirty-six, on the 15th of July 1685.
Monmouth had four sons and two daughters by his wife, who in 1688 married the 3rd Lord Cornwallis and died in 1732. The elder of the two surviving sons, James, earl of Dalkeith (1674–1705) had a son Francis (1695–1751), who through his grandmother inherited the title of duke of Buccleuch in 1732, and was the ancestor of the later dukes. The younger son, Henry (1676–1730), was created earl of Deloraine in 1706, and rose to be a major-general in the army.
The best accounts of Monmouth’s career, apart from the modern histories, are G. Roberts’s detailed Life (1844), the articles in the Dict. Nat. Biog. (by A. W. Ward) and in Collins’s Peerage, and the Correspondence of Lord Clarendon with James, earl of Abingdon, 1683–1685 (Clarendon Press, 1896). For the rebellion, Lord Grey’s Secret History (1754) should be consulted. See also Evelyn’s and Pepys’s Diaries, &c.
MONMOUTH, ROBERT CAREY, 1st Earl of (c. 1560–1639),
youngest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, Chamberlain
and first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, by Anne, daughter of Sir
Thomas Morgan, of Arkestone in Herefordshire, was born about
the year 1560. As a young man he accompanied several diplomatic
missions abroad and took part in military expeditions.
In 1587 he joined in the attempt to relieve Sluys, in 1588 served
as a volunteer against the Spanish expedition, and commanded
a regiment in Essex’s expedition to Normandy in 1591, taking
part in the siege of Rouen. He was knighted by Essex the same
year for having by his intercession with the queen procured his
recall. In the parliaments of 1586 and 1588 he represented
Morpeth; in that of 1593, Callington; and in those of 1596 and
1601, Northumberland. From 1593 till the end of Elizabeth’s
reign he occupied various posts in the government of the Scottish
borders, succeeding to his father’s appointment of lord warden
of the marches in 1596, which he held till February 1598. In
March 1603 he visited the court, and witnessed the queen’s
last illness, which he described in his Memoirs. Anxious to
recommend himself to her successor, and disobeying the orders
of the council, he started on horseback immediately after the
queen’s death on the morning of the 24th of March, in order to be
the first to communicate the tidings to James, arrived at Holyrood
late on the 26th, and was appointed by the king a gentleman
of the bedchamber. But his conduct met with general and
merited censure as “contrary to all decency, good manners and
respect,” and on James’s arrival in England he was dismissed
from his new post. On the 23rd of February 1605, however,
he was made governor of Prince Charles, in 1611 his master of
the robes, in 1617 his chamberlain, and on the 6th of February
1622, he was created Baron Carey of Leppington. In 1623 he
followed Charles to Spain, and after the latter’s succession to
the throne he was created earl of Monmouth in 1626. He died
on the 12th of April 1639. His eldest son Henry (1596–1661),
succeeded him as 2nd earl of Monmouth, and on his death
without surviving male issue the peerage became extinct.
His Memoirs were published first by the earl of Cork and Orrery in 1759, a new edition, annotated by Sir Walter Scott, being printed in 1808.
MONMOUTH (Welsh Mynwy), a municipal and contributory
parliamentary borough, and the county town of Monmouthshire,
England, 18 m. S. of Hereford, on the Great Western railway.
Pop. (1901), 5095. It is picturesquely situated at the confluence
of the Wye and the Monnow, between the two rivers, and is
almost surrounded by hills. Portions of the town walls remain,
and there is a picturesque old gateway on the Monnow bridge;
but there are only insignificant ruins of the castle, which was
originally a Saxon fortress, and was twice taken by the Parliamentary
forces during the Civil War. Besides the churches—that
of St Mary, completed in 1882 on an ancient site, and the
chapel of St Thomas, a late Norman structure—the principal
buildings are the town-hall, the Rolls Hall and the free grammar school,
which was founded in 1614, and educates about 150 boys
on the usual lines of a public school. A statue of Henry V.,
who was born in its castle, stands in the market-place. With
Newport and Usk, Monmouth forms the Monmouth parliamentary
district of boroughs, returning one member.
Monmouth (Monemuta) from the coincidence of position is supposed to be the Blaestium of Antoninus. Situated between the Severn and the Wye its strategic importance was early recognized by the Saxons, who fortified it against the Britons, while in later years it played a leading part in Welsh border warfare. At the time of the Domesday Survey the castle was in the custody of William Fitz Baderon. Henry III. granted it, together with the lordship of the borough, to his son Edmund Crouchback, through whose descendants both borough and castle passed into the duchy of Lancaster. Since the 18th century the dukes of Beaufort have been lords of the borough. Monmouth was a borough by prescription as early as 1256, and was governed by a mayor in 1461, but was not incorporated until 1550 under the title of “Mayor, Bailiffs and Commonalty.” This charter was confirmed in 1558, 1606 and 1666, a recorder and town clerk being added to the constitution. In accordance with the act of 1535–1536 Monmouth as county town obtained the right of representation in parliament; the earliest returns existing are for 1553, since which date one member has been returned regularly. Wednesday and Saturday markets were confirmed to Monmouth in 1550, with the further proviso that no others were to be held within five miles of the borough. Friday is now the weekly market-day. At the same time an annual three-days’ fair, which still exists, was granted on Whit-Tuesday and successive days. During the 16th and 17th centuries the manufacture of Monmouth caps was an important industry, fostered by legislation and mentioned by Fuller in his Worthies of England.
See Charles Heath, The Town of Monmouth (Monmouth, 1804).
MONMOUTH, a city and the county-seat of Warren county,
Illinois, in the W. part of the state, about 40 m. S. of Rock
Island. Pop. (1890), 5936; (1900), 7460, (594 foreign-born);
(1910), 9128. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
and the Iowa Central railways, and by electric railways to Galesburg
and to Rock Island. The city is the seat of Monmouth
College (1856; United Presbyterian), which in 1908 had 28
instructors and 454 students. Among the public buildings and
institutions are the county court-house, the federal building, a
hospital and the Warren county library (1836). Monmouth is
situated in a good farming region, and cattle, swine and ponies
are raised in the vicinity. The city has various manufactures.
Monmouth was settled about 1824, first incorporated as a village
in 1836, chartered as a city in 1852 and in 1882 reorganized under
a general state law.
MONMOUTH, BATTLE OF (1778), a battle in the American
War of Independence. The prospect of an alliance between
France and America in 1778 induced the British to concentrate
their forces. Sir Henry Clinton, who had succeeded Sir W.
Howe in command, determined to abandon Philadelphia,
captured in the previous year, and move his troops direct to
New York through New Jersey. Washington, who had spent
the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and had materially
recruited his army, immediately marched to intercept the British,
and overtook them near Monmouth Court House (now Freehold),
New Jersey, on the 28th of June 1778. A strong detachment
of Americans under General Charles Lee was sent forward to harass
the enemy’s rear and if possible cut off a portion of their long
baggage train. Clinton strengthened his rearguard, which
turned upon the Americans and compelled them to retreat.
When Washington, who was well up with his main body, heard
of Lee’s retreat, he spurred forward and exerted himself in
forming a strong line of battle in case the British continued their
determined attack. Warm words passed between Washington
