Our common ancestors - Herbert - Contents

Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury

Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury.
Portrait c.1603-1605.
From NPG. Also at Wikimedia Commons.

Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury (or Cherbury),
diplomat, poet and philosopher,
born 1583.
See wikipedia.

The "father of English deism":
He is regarded as the father of English deism.
Deism was the philosophy of choice for western sceptics before Darwin made atheism intellectually respectable with the theory of evolution in 1859.
Before 1859, atheists existed, but they had no answer to the Argument from Design.
Modern atheist Richard Dawkins has said: "I could not imagine being an atheist at any time before 1859".
Herbert disbelieved that atheism could exist. He wrote: "In reality there are no atheists".

He was created Baron Herbert of Castle Island in the Irish peerage in 1624.
He was created Baron Herbert of Chirbury, or Cherbury, in the English peerage in 1629.
He died 1648, age 65 yrs.
He was bur St.Giles in the fields, New Oxford St, London.
He had issue:

1. Richard Herbert, 2nd Baron Herbert of Chirbury.
   See wikipedia.
   He succ 1648.
   He died 1655.
   He had issue:

   
   

   1. Edward Herbert, 3rd Baron Herbert of Chirbury.
      See wikipedia.
      He succ 1655.
      He was an absentee landlord of land in Kerry.
      John Blennerhassett of Ballyseedy was his agent in Kerry in the 1670s. Blennerhassett died 1677.
      3rd Baron died 1678.
      Title of Baron Herbert of Chirbury became extinct 1691.

1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury, c.1609-1610.
From here.

1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury, 1613-1614. By Isaac Oliver.
See full size. From Tudor Place.
See other scan from Wikipedia. See also engraving.

1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury.
From NPG.

---

Sources yet to be consulted

• Herbert Correspondence: The sixteenth and seventeenth century letters of the Herberts of Chirbury, Powis Castle, and Dolguog, edited by William James Smith, 1968.

• Herbert of Cherbury Manuscripts and Papers, National Library of Wales. GB 0210 CHERBURY.

• Edward Herbert in [Aubrey's "Brief Lives"]. See pp.134-135 of 1950 edn.