William, Lord Hervey

William Hervey was buried in the chapel of St Edmund in Westminster Abbey on 8th July 1642 but he has no gravestone or monument. He was the son and heir of Henry Hervey and his wife Jane (Thomas). As a naval officer he served in the Armada campaign of 1588 and commanded the ship Darling on the expedition to Cadiz. For his splendid military services he was knighted in 1596 by the Earl of Essex. In the ship Bonaventure he sailed to the Azores and also took part in the expedition to relieve La Rochelle. In 1619 he was created a Baronet and in the following year a peer of Ireland with the title Baron Hervey of Ross, co. Wexford. In 1628 he was raised to the English peerage as Baron Hervey of Kidbrooke in Kent. He was also a Member of Parliament. Thomas Thorp, the publisher of Shakespeare's Sonnets, dedicated them to Mr W.H. ie. Hervey, to whom he was grateful for obtaining the manuscripts.

His first wife was Mary, daughter of Viscount Montagu and his second in 1608 was Cordelia Ansley by whom he had several children (she was buried at St Martin in the Fields church in London). His sons were Henry who died young, John who died in Ireland and William who died abroad in 1632. Daughter Helena was buried in the chapel, unmarried, on 17 November 1648. Dorothy died unmarried. Their only surviving child Elizabeth married her cousin John Hervey of Ickworth.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

History of Parliament online