(Mary), countess of Pembroke, was sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, and wife of Henry earl of Pembroke. She was not only a lover of the muses, but a great encourager of polite literature; a character not very common among ladies. Her brother dedicated his incomparable romance Arcadia to her, from which circumstance it hath been called The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. She translated a dramatic piece from the French, intitled Antonius, a tragedy; though it is said she was assisted by her lord's chaplain, Dr Babington, afterwards bishop of Exeter. She also turned the psalms of David into English metre; but it is doubtful whether these works were ever printed. She died in 1621; and an exalted character of her is to be found in Francis Osborne's memoirs of king James I.

(Edward), lord Herbert of Cherbury in Shropshire, an eminent English writer, was born in 1581, and educated at Oxford; after which he travelled, and at his return was made knight of the Bath. James I. sent him ambassador to Louis XIII. in behalf of the Protestants who were besieged in several cities of France; and continued in this station till he was recalled, on account of a dispute between him and the constable de Luynes. In 1625 he was advanced to the dignity of a baron in the kingdom of Ireland, by the title of lord Herbert of Castle Island; and in 1631 to that of lord Herbert of Cherbury in Shropshire. After the breaking out of the civil wars, he adhered to the parliament; and in 1644 obtained a pension, on account of his having been plundered by the king's forces. He wrote A History of the Life and Reign of Henry VIII., which was greatly admired; a treatise De veritate; and several other works. He died at London in 1648.

"Lord Herbert (says Mr Granger) stands in the first rank of the public ministers, historians, and philosophers of his age. It is hard to say whether his person, his understanding, or his courage, was the most extraordinary; as the fair, the learned, and the brave, held him in equal admiration. But the same man was wise and capricious; redressed wrongs, and quarrelled for punctilios; hated bigotry in religion, and was himself a bigot to philosophy. He exposed himself to such dangers as other men of courage would have carefully declined: and called in question the fundamentals of a religion which none had the hardinesse to dispute besides himself."

(George), an English poet and divine, was brother to the preceding. He was born in 1593, and educated at Cambridge. In 1619 he was chosen public orator of that university, and afterwards obtained a sinecure from the king. In 1626 he was collated to the prebend of Layton Ecclesia, in the diocese of Lincoln; and in 1630 was inducted into the rectory of Bamerton, near Sarum. The great lord Bacon had such an opinion of his judgment, that he would not suffer his works to be printed before they had palled his examination. He wrote a volume of devout poems, called The Temple, and another intitled The Priest of the Temple. This pious divine died about the year 1635.

(William), earl of Pembroke, was born at Wilton in Wiltshire, 1580; and admitted of New college in Oxford in 1592, where he continued about two years. In 1601, he succeeded to his father's honours and estate; was made K.G. in 1604; and governor of Portsmouth five years after. In 1626, he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford; and about the same time made lord steward of the king's household. He died suddenly at his house called Baynard's castle, in London, April 10, 1630; according to the calculation of his nativity, says Wood, made several years before by Mr Thomas Allen of Gloucesterhall. Clarendon relates concerning this calculation, that some considerable persons connected with lord Pembroke being met at Maidenhead, one of them at supper drank a health to the lord steward: upon which another said, that he believed his lordship was at that time very merry; for he had now outlived the day, which it had been prognosticated upon his nativity he would not outlive; but he had outlived it now, for that was his birth-day, which had completed his age to 50 years. The next morning, however, they received the news of his death. Whether the noble historian really believed this and other accounts relating to astrology, apparitions, providential interpositions, &c. which he has inserted in his history, we do not presume to say: he delivers them, however, as if he did not actually disbelieve them. Lord Pembroke was not only a great favourer of learned and ingenious men, but was himself learned, and ended with a considerable share of poetic genius. All that are extant of his productions in this way were published with this title: "Poems written by William Earl of Pembroke, &c. many of which are answered by way of repartee by Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, with other Poems written by them occasionally and apart, 1660, 8vo.

Herbert (Sir Thomas), an eminent gentleman of the Pembroke family, was born at York, where his father was an alderman. William earl of Pembroke sent him to travel at his expense in 1626, and he spent four years in visiting Asia and Africa: his expectations of preferment ending with the death of the earl, he went abroad again, and travelled over several parts of Europe. In 1634, he published, in folio, A Relation of some Years Travel into Africa and the Great Asia, especially the Territories of the Persian Monarchy, and some parts of the Oriental Indies and Isles adjacent. On the breaking out of the civil war, he adhered to the parliament; and at Oldenby, on the removal of the king's servants, by desire of the commissioners from the parliament, he and James Harrington were retained as grooms of his bed-chamber, and attended him even to the block. At the restoration he was created a baronet by Charles II. for his faithful services to his father during his two last years. In 1678 he wrote Threnodia Carolina, containing an account of the two last years of the life of Charles I. and he assisted Sir William Dugdale in compiling the third volume of his Monasticon Anglicanum. He died at York in 1682, leaving several MSS to the public library at Oxford, and others to that of the cathedral at York.