William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter
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William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter, KG PC (1566 – 6 July 1640), known as the third Lord Burghley from 1605 to 1623, was an English nobleman, politician, and peer.
Life
[edit]Exeter was the son of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and Dorothy Neville, daughter of John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer.[1] He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and travelled on the continent before being admitted to Gray's Inn.[2]
In 1586, when only 20 years of age, he was returned to Parliament as burgess for Stamford and was returned again in 1589.[1] In 1597, he was elected knight of the shire for Rutland.[3] He was invested as a Knight Bachelor in 1603. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire between 1623 and 1640.[1] He succeeded to the title of 3rd Baron of Burghley, co. Northampton [E., 1571] on 8 February 1622/23.[1] He succeeded to the title of 2nd Earl of Exeter [E., 1605] on 8 February 1622/23.[1] He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (PC) in 1626. He was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) in 1630.[1]
In 1589, William married Elizabeth Manners, the only child of Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland, and they had one child:
- William Cecil, 16th Baron Ros, who married Anne Lake Cecil, Lady Ros
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Elizabeth_Cecil.jpg/220px-Elizabeth_Cecil.jpg)
Elizabeth died in 1591 and William married Elizabeth Drury, daughter of Sir William Drury and Elizabeth Stafford, and they had three daughters:[4]
- Anne Cecil (1596 – ) married Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, and had issue.
- Diana Cecil (1596 – 1654), married Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford, no issue, remarried Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin, also with no issue.
- Elizabeth Cecil (d. 1672), married Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire, and had issue.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Charles Mosley, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1363.
- ^ "Cecyll, William (CCL578W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "History of Parliament". Retrieved 27 September 2011.
- ^ Dennis, George Ravenscroft (1914). The Cecil Family. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 123. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
- 1566 births
- 1640 deaths
- Barons Burghley
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Members of Gray's Inn
- Cecil family
- Earls of Exeter
- Knights of the Garter
- Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
- Lord-lieutenants of Northamptonshire
- English MPs 1586–1587
- English MPs 1589
- English MPs 1597–1598
- 16th-century English nobility
- 17th-century English nobility
- Peerage of England earl stubs
- 16th-century English MP stubs