Lord dartmouth lived in times of severe political trial. His character has consequently been censured, when it ought to have been praised. Regarded as the agent of a despot, by some, by others he has been condemned for betraying the cause of his Sovereign. The task of the biographer, as well as of the historian is, to place truth in its clearest light; and, in the performance of that task, we trust it will be made to appear, that the subject of this memoir was neither disloyal to his King, nor a recreant to his country.

George Legge, who, for his various public services, was raised to the peerage, by the title of Baron Dartmouth, was born in the year 1647. He descended from a very ancient and honourable family in Venice; where, according to the Sieur Amelot, the original stock continued to flourish, in the highest rank of nobility. A branch of this family migrated to England, some time prior to the reign of Edward the IId. and, as appears by Speed'sMap of Kent, was long settled at Legge's Place (to which it, of course, gave the name) near Tunbridge. The Legge family has also been settled in Herefordshire, for some centuries.