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DEVEREUX, George, of Lamphey Court, Pemb. and Llwyn y Brain, Carm.
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Biography Detail
Related Resources
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
2nd s. of Sir Richard Devereux† by Dorothy, da. of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1560. m. (1) ‘a Meverell of Throwley, Kent’; (2) 1610, Joan, da. of Sir John Price† of the Priory, Brec., wid. of Thomas Jones (Twm Sion Catti), bard and antiquary. Kntd. 1596.
Offices Held
Sheriff, Pemb. 1579-80, Carm. 1580-1, Card. 1583-4, 1587-8, 1610-11; j.p. and custos rot. Card. from c.1584; j.p. Staffs. from c.1591, Pemb. from c.1596, Glam. by 1601.
Biography
On his death in 1576, the 1st Earl of Essex left Lamphey Court and the guardianship of the 2nd Earl and his other children to his brother George Devereux, along with £300 to pay his debts and support the charge. The young 2nd Earl spent the two years preceding his court début in 1585 at Lamphey. Though the family influence in the area gave Devereux local standing, his chronic impecuniosity made him dependent on his nephew, whom he constantly importuned for money or employment, and whom he followed to Cadiz, where he was knighted. Implicated in the Essex rebellion of 1601, Devereux lost all his offices. He begged for Cecil’s favour, representing himself as in extreme destitution, but his association with the recusant Barlows of Slebech, with whom he was at that time staying in Manorbier, further damaged his reputation with the government. After living for some years in Staffordshire he returned to Wales and recovered his fortunes by becoming—in circumstances which gave rise to picturesque legends—the third husband of the wealthy heiress of Ystrad Ffin, Carmarthenshire. He does not appear to have taken an active part in the proceedings of the 1589 Parliament. As a Welsh county Member he may have attended the subsidy committee appointed 11 Feb. 1589.
E. Laws, Little England beyond Wales, 273, 279, 303; Old Wales, ed. W. R. Williams, i. 351-2; DKR, 31, p. 563; Lansd. 1218, f. 171d; E163/14/8; Cam. Misc. xiii(3), pp. 17, 18; D’Ewes, 431; HMC Hatfield, vii. 441; ix. 52; xi. 92, 108, 216-17; xii. 85; Trans. Carm. Antiq. Soc. xxix. 81-2; Harl. 6992, ff. 127, 129; 6993, f. 15.
