641. {463}

In Westminster Abbey was buried, May 23, 1640, "Mr. Kirk's daughter."
Captain George Kirke married there, February 10, 1699-1700, Mary Cooke.
George Kirke, Esq., died Jan. 10, 1703-4, and was buried in the abbey
cloisters (Mon. Inscr.); and Mrs. Mary Kirke died December 17, 1751, and
was also buried there (M. I.). We may presume that all these Kirkes were of
the same family.

Having now clearly released the annotator from all farther interference
with Mary Kirke's private history, and having excluded her handsome face
from any future illustrated edition of Grammont, I must leave him to deal
with Miss Warmistre. It seems most probable that Dr. Thomas Warmistre, dean
of Worcester, who died October 30, 1665, was her father, as he is known to
have been a Royalist. His will, as it is not to be found at Doctors'
Commons, must be sought for at Worcester. His brother Gervais was a married
man, but his effects, unfortunately for our inquiries, were administered to
at Doctors' Commons, August 31, 1641. That Warmistre was her right name is
proved by Lord Cornbury's letter to the Duchess of Bedford, June 10, 1662
(Warburton's _Rupert_, vol. iii. pp. 461-464.). Her portrait is at Hengrave
Hall, Suffolk, and has been engraved by Scriven for Carpenter's _Grammont_,
1811.

Lord Cornbury's letter contradicts Grammont's statement, that Miss Boynton
and Miss Wells came in on a removal, for they were of the original six
maids of honour. Among these is named a Miss Price (Henrietta Maria), who
we may suppose a sister to the Duchess of York's Miss Price, one of
Grammont's most conspicuous heroines; and if so, when I come to speak of
the Duchess's maids of honour, her parentage will be proved. Of Miss Carey,
rejoicing in the prefix of Simona, the sixth of the queen's original maids
of honour, we have no farther occasion to speak.

In 1669 the queen appears to have had four maids of honour only, the places
vacated by Miss Stewart's and Miss Warmistre's marriages being unoccupied.
This state of affairs leads me to doubt whether Miss Bellenden ever held
the appointment. Mademoiselle Bardon, Grammont admits, was not actually a
maid of honour, and Mademoiselle de la Garde certainly never was. LORD
BRAYBROOKE has suggested to me, with some show of reason, that the first
may be the "Mrs. Baladine" who held a place of less emolument (that of
dresser, probably) in the Duchess of York's household, and who left in the
middle of the quarte