HERBERT. This name, which stands forth prominently upon the records of British history, has been ennobled at various tittles, in so many of its branches, by so many ancient and renewed creations, that it has become a matter of difficulty to ascertain with certainty which is the parent stem; though sir Bernard Burke is inclined to give the representation of the house to Henry Arthur Herbert, M.P., of co. Kerry. It is certain that the Herberts came over to England in the train of William the con .queror, for Herbert, count of Vermandois, who afterwards filled the post of chamberlain under William II., is mentioned in the roll of Battle abbey, and received from his sovereign a grant of lands in Hampshire. His wife Emma, daughter of Stephen, count of Blois, was a granddaughter of the conqueror, and his son Herbert (called in history Herbert of Winchester) was chamberlain and treasurer to king Ilenry I. Seven or eight generations later, we find the Herberts diverging into several distinct branches, includ ing the lines of the earls of Powis (now extinct in the male line), of the lords Herbert of Cherbury (also extinct), the Herberts of Muckross (ancestors of the gentleman mentioned Above), and also several untitled branches which have flourished upon their ancestral lands in England, Wales, and Ireland. In the reign of Henry V., sir William Herbert, of Raglan castle, co. Monmouth, received the honor of knighthood in reward of his valor in the French wars. His eldest son, a stanch adherent of the house of York, was created earl of Pembroke* by Edward IV. in 1469, hut fell into the hands of the Lan castrians after the battle of Danes moor, and was beheaded the following day, when the title became extinct. It was, however, revived in 1551, in the person of his (illegitimate) grandson, William Herbert, K.G., one of the most influential noblemen of his age, and one who took an active part in public affairs, both as a statesman and as a soldier. It
Is recorded by sir B. Burke that "he rode on Feb. 17, 1552-53, to his mansion of Bay nard's castle, with 300 horse in his retinue, 100 of them being gentlemen in plain blue cloth, with chains of gold, and badges of a dragon on their sleeves." lie was buried in old St. Paul's, and his funeral was conducted on such a scale of magnificence that, according to Stowe, the mourning given away on that occasion cost £2,000—a very large sum in those clays. By his wife, who was a sister of Catharine Parr (the last queen of Henry VIII.), he had a son Henry-, second earl, E.G., to whose countess, Mary, daughter of sir Henry Sydney, K.G., sir Philip Sydney dedicated his Arcadia. celebrated by Ben Jonsod in the well-known -lines Underneath this marble hearse Lies the, subject of all Terse— Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother,.
The fourth earl, some time lord chamberlain to Charles I., and chancellor of the versity of Oxford, was the founder of Jesus college in that seat of learning. The eighth earl I e'd several high offices under queen Anne, including that of lord high admiral.
From him the present earl of Pembroke (George Robert Charles Herbert, born in 1850) is directly descended. The late lord Herbert (q.v.)of Lea—better known as Mr. Sidney Herbert—was the younger brother of the late, and father of the present, earl. The earls of Carnarvon, more than one of whom have gained celebrity in the field of literature, descend from the eighth earl of Pembroke mentioned above. The present earls of Powis are descended from the same stock maternally, the only child and heiress of the last earl of Powis of a previous creation having married the eldest son of the illustrious Robert Clive, the founder of our Indian empire, in whose favor that title was renewed in 1804.