THOMAS KILLIGREW, one of the sons of Sir Robert Killigrew, Chamberlain to the Queen, was born at Hanworth, in the county of Middlesex, in the month of February 1611.[184] Although his writings are not wanting in those requisites which confer reputation on an author, yet [we are permitted to conclude that it was chiefly to his conversational and social qualities, that Killigrew owed his ascendancy at Charles II.'s court--first abroad, and afterwards in England. Hence Sir John Denham was probably led to write those lines-- "Had Cowley ne'er spoke, Killigrew ne'er writ, Combin'd in one, they'd made a matchless wit." But, as we know, for at least two generations the Killigrews were all men and women of genius, and were as remarkable, too, for their physical as for their intellectual graces. Killigrew] seems to have been early intended for the court; and to qualify him for rising there, every circumstance of his education appears to have been adapted. In the year 1635, while upon his travels, he chanced to be at London, and an eyewitness of the celebrated imposture of exorcising the devil out of several nuns belonging to a convent in that town. Of this transaction he wrote a very minute and accurate account,[185] still in MS. in the Pepysian Library at Magdalen College, Cambridge. He was appointed page-of-honour to King Charles I., and faithfully adhered to his cause until the death of his master, after which he attended his son in his exile, to whom he was highly acceptable, on account of his social and convivial qualifications. He married Mrs Cicilia Crofts, one of the maids-of-honour to Queen Henrietta. With this lady he had a dispute on the subject of jealousy, at which Thomas Carew was present, and wrote a poem, introduced into the masque of "Coelum Britannicum," and afterwards a copy of verses on their nuptials, printed in his works.[186]