Wolseley, who was the Admiral's father. Captain Richard Wolseley's third son,

Richard Wolseley, the Admiral's grand-uncle, was left the estate of Mount Wolseley by his father. He was M.P. for Carlow, and was created a Baronet in 1744. He was ancestor of the distinguished soldier, Field-Marshal the Viscount Wolseley, and of all the baronets of the Irish branch, and is now represented by the present Sir Capel Charles Wolseley.

About the year 1750, Admiral Wolseley's father, William Neville Wolseley, who was then a captain in the 47th, was serving with his regiment in Nova Scotia; and he there made the acquaintance of Miss Anne Cosby, the lady to whom he was shortly afterwards married. Besides the subject of the present memoir, who was Captain and Mrs. Wolseley's second son, they had another son, Mr. Robert Wolseley, who married his second cousin, Miss Anne Winniett, granddaughter of Judge Winniett. Captain and Mrs Wolseley had also

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two daughters-Elizabeth, married to phier, Esq., R.N., and Anne, who died at an early age unmarried.

The ancient family of Cosby, from which Admiral Wolseley was descended on his mother's side, was said by Sir Bernard Burke to have been also of Saxon origin, and is stated to have possessed the lordship of Cosby, County Leicester, previously to the Norman Conquest.

Francis Cosbie, the first member of his House

who settled in Ireland, came over in the time of Queen Mary. He was an active defender of the Pale, and was appointed by patent in 1558 General of the Kerne, and in 1562 was granted the site of the suppressed Abbey of Stradbally. His eldest son,

Alexander Cosbie of Stradbally Abbey, who also obtained very extensive grants of lands in the Queen's County, married Dorcas, daughter of William Sydney of Otford, County Kent, Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Cosbie's second son, Richard, eventually succeeded to the family property, and was direct ancestor of Mrs. Wolseley's grandfather, Alexander Cosby, of Stradbally Hall, whose eldest son,

Dudley Cosby, succeeded to the property on the death of his father in 1694, and was M.P. for Queen's County, and also Lieutenant-Colonel of the county militia. His son, Mr. Pole Cosby-first-cousin of Mrs. Wolseley-succeeded him, and was father of—

Dudley Alexander Sydney Cosby of Stradbally Hall, second cousin of Admiral Wolseley. Mr. Cosby was minister plenipotentiary to the court of Denmark, and was in 1768 created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Sydney of Leix. In December 1773 Lord Sydney married Lady Isabella St. Lawrence, daughter of the first Earl of Howth; but as he died in the ensuing month, 17th January 1774, his peerage became extinct, and the property was then inherited by his cousin, Admiral Phillips Cosby, Mrs. Wolseley's brother.

Mrs. Wolseley had many relations in America; and some of them were, in the early part of the eighteenth century, holding important government appointments there. One of her uncles, LieutenantGeneral William Cosby, was Governor of New York and the Jerseys. He was also Colonel of the Royal Irish Regiment, and was equerry to the Queen. He married Lady Grace Montagu, sister of the Earl of Halifax, and left at his decease, in 1736, two sons and two daughters.1

An aunt of Mrs. Wolseley-the General's sister -Elizabeth Cosby, was married to LieutenantGeneral Richard Philipps, Governor of Nova Scotia. This lady died before her husband, leaving a son, who was ancestor of the present Sir James Philipps, Bart., of Picton Castle, County Pembroke. General Philipps died in 1750, aged ninety, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His brother-in-law,

Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Cosby Mrs. Wolseley's father-was the fifth son of Mr. A. Cosby of Stradbally Hall. He held the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia till his death, on the 26th December 1743. His wife, Anne Winniett-Admiral Wolseley's maternal grandmother, was a daughter of Alexander Winniett, Esq., of Annapolis Royal.2 Besides

1 General Cosby's eldest daughter-Mrs. Wolseley's cousin-german -Elizabeth, married Lord Augustus Fitzroy, and was mother of the third Duke of Grafton, and of Lieutenant-General Charles Fitzroy, created Baron Southampton in 1780.

2 Mrs. Cosby was a sister of Judge Winniett, of Annapolis Royal.

their daughter Mrs. Wolseley, Colonel and Mrs. Cosby had two others-Elizabeth, wife of Captain Foye, and Mary, who married, first, Captain Charles Cotterill, and, secondly, Captain John Buchanan, R.N. They had also two sons; the eldest, William, a captain in the army, was killed and scalped by the Indians in 1748. Their second son,

Philipps Cosby, who will be frequently mentioned in these pages, was in the navy. In 1774, Captain Cosby-as he had then been for some years-succeeded to the family property, Stradbally Hall, on the death of his cousin, Lord Sydney. But apparently being too fond of his profession to exchange an active naval life for the somewhat less exciting one of a country gentleman, he continued to serve for many years afterwards, and commanded the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, on the 27th July 1778, in an engagement with the French, in which his nephew, William Wolseley, took part as junior lieutenant of the Duke, ninety-eight guns.

In another engagement fought on the 16th March 1781, between the British squadron under Admiral Arbuthnot and the French fleet off the coast of America, Captain Cosby led the van, in the Robust, of seventy-four guns, the ship he then commanded. And, according to the naval historian, Dr. Campbell, that vessel "bore the brunt of One of Mrs. Cosby's sisters married General Amherst. Her other sisters were Mrs. Handfield and Mrs. Howe. A daughter of the Judge -a first cousin of Mrs. Wolseley-married Lieutenant James Nunn, of the 57th Regiment, in which he served all through the American war.

the engagement;" and the Doctor further adds that "the Robust had far more than her proportion of killed and wounded, and by having at one time three ships upon her, her masts, rigging, sails, and boats were torn to pieces."

Captain Cosby was promoted to the rank of ViceAdmiral, at some period between the years 1785 and 1789, when he had command of the fleet in the Mediterranean; and his nephew, William Wolseley, during those years, was captain of his uncle's flagship, the Trusty.

On the 19th September 1790, on Admiral Cosby's appointment as Commander-in-Chief on the Irish coast, it was unanimously voted by "the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Common Council of the City of Corke," that "the freedom at large thereof" was to be presented to him "in a silver box, as public testimony of the very high opinion they entertain of his merit, and the great satisfaction they feel in the appointment of so gallant and deserving an officer to that station."

Of Admiral Cosby's further services it is not necessary to say more at present, as they will be mentioned in connection with those of his nephew. Having held several other important appointments, he retired from the navy, with the rank of Admiral of the White-I think, about the year 1794-and settled at his family seat, Stradbally Hall.

He represented the Queen's County in the Irish Parliament, known as "Grattan's Parliament," and