Thomas, Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, a statesman and poet, the son of Richard Sackville of Buckhurst, in the parish of Withiam in Sussex, was born in the year 1536. He was sent to Hart Hall, Oxford, in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI., whence he removed to Cambridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts. He applied himself to the study of the law in the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar. We are told that he cultivated poetry whilst at the universities, and that these juvenile productions were much admired, though none of them have been preserved. In the fourth and fifth years of Queen Mary we find him a member of the House of Commons, about which time, in 1557, he wrote a poetical piece, entitled the Induction, or the Mirror of Magistrates. This last was meant to comprehend all the unfortunate great from the beginning of our history; but the design being dropped, it was inserted in the body of the work. The Mirror of Magistrates is formed upon a dramatic plan, in which the persons are introduced speaking. The Induction is written much in the style of Spencer, who, with some probability, is supposed to have imitated this author.

In the year 1561 the tragedy of Perrex and Porrex, subsequently called Gorboduc, was acted before Queen Elizabeth by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. This was the first tolerable tragedy in our language. The Companion to the Playhouse tells us that the first three acts were written by Mr Thomas Norton. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry, says, "it is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, climbing to the height of Seneca in his style." Rymer speaks highly in its commendation. Spence, at the instigation of Pope, republished it in 1736 with a pompous preface. It is said to be our first dramatic piece written in verse. In the first Parliament of this reign Mr Sackville was member for Sussex, and for Buckinghamshire in the second. In the meantime he made the tour of France and Italy; and in 1566 was imprisoned at Rome, when he was informed of his father's death, by which he became possessed of a very considerable fortune. Having now obtained his liberty, he returned to England, where he was knighted, and afterwards created Lord Buckhurst. In 1570 he was sent as ambassador to France. In 1586 he was one of the commissioners appointed to try the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the messenger employed to report the confirmation of her sentence, as well as to see it executed. The year following he went as ambassador to the States-General in consequence of their complaint against the Earl of Leicester, who, disliking his impartiality, prevailed on the queen to recall him, and confine him to his house. In this state of restraint he continued about ten months, when Leicester dying, he was restored to favour, and in 1590 was installed knight of the Garter. But the most incontrovertible proof of the queen's partiality for Lord Buckhurst appeared in the year 1591, when she caused him to be elected chancellor in the university of Oxford, in opposition to her favourite Essex. In 1598, on the death of the treasurer Burghley, Lord Buckhurst succeeded him, and by virtue of his office became in effect prime minister; and when in 1601 the Earls of Essex and Southampton were brought to trial, he sat as lord high steward on that awful occasion. On the accession of James I. he was graciously received, had the office Sackville of lord high treasurer confirmed to him for life; and was created Earl of Dorset. He continued high in favour with the king till the day of his death, which happened suddenly on the 19th of April 1608, in the council-chamber at Whitehall. He was interred with great solemnity in Westminster Abbey.

Sackville, Charles, Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, a poet and wit, was born on the 24th of January 1637-8. After receiving a private education, he visited Italy; and returning to England shortly before the Restoration, sat in Parliament for East Grinstead in Sussex. Being of wild and dissolute habits, he became a great favourite of Charles II., and did not choose to engage in any public employment. He attended the Duke of York as a volunteer in the Dutch war of 1665, and is said to have composed the celebrated song, "To all you ladies now at land," on the eve of the 3rd of June, when the Dutch were defeated, and Opham, their admiral, slain. Buckhurst was soon after made a gentleman of the bed-chamber, and sent a short embassy to France on one of those missions, which was, according to Dryden, "a sleeveless errand." Charles II. had become enamoured of Nell Gwyn, with whom Buckhurst was then living, and this little journey to France was contrived by the king to get rid of his rival. In 1674 he became heir to the estate and title of his maternal uncle, the Earl of Middlesex; and in 1677, by the death of his father, he inherited the title of Earl of Dorset and the whole of the family estates. He buried his first wife in 1684, and subsequently married a daughter of the Earl of Northampton, a woman of beauty and superior mind, who may still be seen among the Kneller beauties at Hampton Court. Dorset was taken favourable notice of by James II., but ceased to adhere to his policy on his becoming more violent in his measures. On the accession of King William III., he was made lord chamberlain of the household, and received the honour of the Garter. His health afterwards declining, he died at Bath on the 29th January 1705-6.

The epitaph of Dorset was written by Pope; Dryden penned dedications and fulsome panegyrics to him; and Prior eulogized his excellencies in the most elaborate manner. He was distinguished among his contemporaries for his elegant manners, sprightly wit, and courtly address; and his bounty to the learned may be judged of by the number of dedications which were addressed to "the witty Earl." His poetical pieces are, according to Johnson, "the effusions of a man of wit,—gay, vigorous, and airy." (Johnson's Lives of the Poets, by Cunningham.)