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THE HISTORY OF HENRY ESMOND, ESQ.

THE HISTORY OF

HENRY ESMOND, ESQ.

A COLONEL IN THE SERVICE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN ANNE

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

Servetur ad imum
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet

[First edition in three volumes, 1852. Revised edition, 1858]

Dedication.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM BINGHAM, LORD ASHBURTON

MY DEAR LORD,

The writer of a book which copies the manners and language of Queen Anne's
time, must not omit the Dedication to the Patron; and I ask leave to
inscribe this volume to your lordship, for the sake of the great kindness
and friendship which I owe to you and yours.

My volume will reach you when the Author is on his voyage to a country
where your name is as well known as here. Wherever I am, I shall
gratefully regard you; and shall not be the less welcomed in America
because I am

Your obliged friend and servant,

W. M. THACKERAY.

LONDON, October 18, 1852.

Preface. The Esmonds Of Virginia

The estate of Castlewood, in Virginia, which was given to our ancestors by
King Charles the First, as some return for the sacrifices made in his
Majesty's cause by the Esmond family, lies in Westmoreland county, between
the rivers Potomac and Rappahannoc, and was once as great as an English
Principality, though in the early times its revenues were but small.
Indeed, for near eighty years after our forefathers possessed them, our
plantations were in the hands of factors, who enriched themselves one
after another, though a few scores of hogsheads of tobacco were all the
produce that, for long after the Restoration, our family received from
their Virginian estates.

My dear and honoured father, Colonel Henry Esmond, whose history, written
by himself, is contained in the accompanying volume, came to Virginia in
the year 1718, built his house of Castlewood, and here permanently
settled. After a long stormy life in England, he passed the remainder of
his many years in peace and honour in this country; how beloved and
respected by all his fellow citizens, how inexpressibly dear to his
fami