FRANCES, wife of the Honourable Frederick Paul Irby, Captain in the Royal Navy, C.B., &c., to whom she was married on the 23d of January, 1816, is the second daughter of Ichabod Wright, of

Ichabod Wright, of Nottingham, Esq., who died in 1777, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Wildbore, Esq., also of Nottingham; and by her (who died in 1782) he had several children. Of these, John, the eldest, of Nottingham, who died in 1789, married Miss Ann Sherbrooke, who died in 1792. By this lady, he had a large family. His eldest son, Samuel, of Gunthorpe, Nottinghamshire, married the Lady Anne Margaret, daughter of George William, Earl of Coventry.

The second son of Ichabod Wright, mentioned above, was Thomas, the grandfather of the Hon. Mrs. Frederick Irby and of the Hon. Mrs. Howard. He died in July, 1790; having married Mary, daughter of John Smith, of Nottingham, Esq. By this lady, who died in May, 1817, he had three sons and three daughters; the eldest of whom was

Ichabod Wright, of Mapperly Hall, in the county of Nottingham. He married, in 1794, Harriet Maria, daughter of Benjamin Day, of Yarmouth, Esq., by whom he has had a family of fourteen children, as follows

1. Ichabod Charles, born in 1795;-2. Mary, married to John Yorke, of Beverley, Esq.;-3. Frances, born May 19, 1796, now the Hon. Mrs. Frederick Irby ;-4. Harriet, married Samuel No. 90*.-Vol. XV.

Mapperley Hall, in the county of Nottingham, Esq. Mrs. Irby's fifth sister, Henrietta Elizabeth, was married, on the 13th of July, 1824, to the Honourable and Reverend John Henry Edward Howard, fourth son of the late, and brother of the present Earl of Carlisle.

The Honourable Captain Irby is the second son of the late, and brother of the present, Lord Boston, by his Lady, Christian, sole daughter of Paul Methuen, of Corsham House, in the county of Wilts, Esq.

He was born on the 18th of April, 1779; and, having been destined to the naval service of his country, he commenced his career, as midshipman, in 1791; and, in the following year, served on the Halifax station, and in the West Indies. He was afterwards at the siege of Martinique, in the Hannibal. In the memo

Jones Loyd, Esq.;-5. Anne Nevill, married to the Rev. John Webb Edge; -6. Rachel Emily, married, in 1825, to John George Lefevre, Esq.;-7. Thomas Ives;-8. John Adolphus ;-9. Henrietta Elizabeth, now the Hon. Mrs. H. Howard ;-10. Henry Horatio, dead;— 11. Harriet Septimia;-12. Maria Octavia ;— 13. Frances Alicia;-14. Lydia Sophia.

II

rable action of the 1st of June, 1794, he was in the Montagu, of seventy-four guns, whose commander, Capt. Montagu, was killed.

In 1797, Mr. Irby was made Lieutenant, in the Circe, Captain Halkett, on the North-sea station; and was in the action of the 11th of October. Having served successively in the Apollo and Glenmore frigates, he was advanced to the rank of commander, in the Volcano Bomb, in 1800; and he accompanied the squadron under Admiral Dickson, in support of Lord Whitworth's embassy to Copenhagen. He next commanded the Jalouse sloop; and, in 1804, he had the satisfaction of attaining post rank. For a time, Captain Irby served in the Sea Fencibles, in the Harwich district, under the command of Sir Charles Hamilton, Bart.

In 1807, he was appointed to the Amelia frigate, of thirty-eight guns, in which he proceeded to Quebec, with convoy. On his return, he convoyed Sir David Baird's army to Corunna; after which he was attached to the Channel fleet, and was engaged in much active service off the French coast; especially in the destruction of the Ilnntieae, Calypson, and Cybele frigates. He was subsequently employed off the north coast of Spain, in assisting the Spanish patriots. Here he captured and destroyed various vessels with stores and ammunitions for the French army. He continued in action, in various parts, committing great havock amongst the enemy's shipping, till 1811, when he went with convoy to Quebec; and, in the same year, he was ordered to the coast of Africa, for the suppression of the slave trade. While there, his officers and crew suffered greatly by fever. In February, 1813, he engaged L'Arethusa, French frigate, of forty-four guns, off the Isles de Lass. The action was most

sanguinary after three hours and a half hard fighting, the ships separated; the Amelia having all her lieutenants killed, and her captain and other officers wounded, and nearly 140 of her crew killed and wounded. Le Rubis, a French frigate of equal force with L'Arethusa, with a Portuguese prize of twenty guns, was seen in company the night before the action; and she was expected to join in the action; but it was afterwards ascertained that she had been wrecked on the Arethusa rock, of the Isles de Lass.

This, we believe, was the last service of importance in which Captain Irby was engaged. Last year, he had the honour of being made one of the Companions of the most honourable Military Order of the Bath.

Captain Irby has been twice married. His first lady, to whom he was united on the 1st of December, 1803, was Emily Ives, the younger daughter (and coheiress with her sister the late Lady Boston) of William Drake, of Amersham, in the county of Bucks, Esq. By this lady, who died on the 7th of August, 1806, a few days after her accouchement, he had a son, Frederick William, born on the 28th of the preceding month.

As stated above, Captain Irby married, secondly, in 1816, the lady whose portrait is prefixed; and has a family of two sons and four daughters, born, respectively, as follows:

--

Frances Harriet, July 25, 1817;-Charles Paul, June 17, 1818;-Henrietta Maria, October 9, 1820;-Died, May 26, 1827;Margaret Amelia, April 14, 1823;- Montagu Henry John, May 18, 1828;-Adeline Paulina, December 18, 1831.

The family of Irby, of which we are about to offer a slight sketch, was of great antiquity in the county of Lincoln; as many curious memorials, preserved in the archives of the College of Arms, attest. We regret that our space will not

allow us to enter, at length, into these documents.

The chief branch of the family long flourished as lords of Irby, or Ireby, in Candlestro Wapentake, Lindsey, near Wainfleet; but that estate is now vested in other possessors.

In the year 1251, Sir William de Ireby, Knt., was one of the witnesses to the charter of foundation of the Abbey of Hales, in the county of Gloucester, granted by Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, brother of Henry III.; also to a charter of confirmation to the monastery of St. Beza, in Cumberland, granted by William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle ; and to another charter of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, to the priory of Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, dated April 10, 1257.

In the reign of Edward III., John de Irby appears to have been one of the jurors on an inquest taken before the King's escheator, for founding a chauntry in Wigton, by John Gernoun and Margaret his wife, and granting it, with the advowson of the church, to the Abbey of Holmcultrum, in the county of Cumberland.

Leonard, son of Anthony and Alice Irby, sat in several parliaments, during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, as one of the representatives of Boston, in the county of Lincoln; an honour which, for several generations, was frequently enjoyed by different members of this family. They had at Boston a large mansionhouse, by the side of the Severn, in which was a gallery with fretwork ceiling, and several coats of arms of the Irbys, some impaled, others quartered with those of different families with whom they had intermarried, in painted glass in the windows.

In 1538, Anthony Irby, Esq., who married at Whaplood, Alice Tash, widow, daughter of Thomas Welbye, of Moulton,

Esq., purchased, of Robert Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, and Earl of Sussex, the manors of Moulton, Fitzwalter, and Medietar Dominorum, formerly parts of the estate of the Lords de Moulton, Barons of Egremont. These manors are held by the present Lord Boston. Devoted to the study of the law, he was a member of the society of Lincoln's Inn; in 1589, he was called to the bench; and, in the following year, he was appointed reader to the society. In the reign of James I., he was appointed one of the masters in Chancery. His son,

Sir Anthony Irby, Recorder of Boston, was appointed high sheriff of the county of Lincoln, 1637. His son,

Sir Anthony Irby, Knt., married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Peyton, of Iselham, in the county of Cambridge, Knt. and Baronet, descended of the noble race of the Uffordes, Earls of Suffolk. He and his lady were interred in the parish church of Whaplood, Lincolnshire, where the family then had a large estate and seat. A splendid monument to their memory is yet standing. Sir Anthony's great grandson,

Sir Edward Irby, was created a Baronet on the 13th of April, 1704. He was the last of the family who resided in the mansion house at Boston. He left, by his lady, Dorothy, only daughter of the Hon. Henry Paget (second son of William, Lord Paget), a son,

Sir William Irby, first Lord Boston. In 1724, he was appointed one of the pages of honour to George I.; in January, 1728, he was nominated to the same post under George II.; in the winter of the same year, he was one of the equerries to Frederick, Prince of Wales, on his first arrival in England; in 1736, he was appointed vice-chamberlain to Augusta, Princess of Wales; in 1760, he was made her Royal Highness's lord chamberlain; and on the 10th of April, 1761,