Showing 285 results

FINCH, DANIEL, 6TH EARL OF WINCHILSEA AND 2ND EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, eldest son of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham (qv); b. 2 Jul 1647; adm.; a boarder of Busby’s for over three years (Busby’s Account Book); adm. Inner Temple 28 Jan 1657/8; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 26 Jul 1662; MP Great Bedwyn Feb 1672/3 - Jan 1678/9, Lichfield Aug 1679-81 (check); a Lord of the Admiralty 14 May 1679 - Feb 1680/1; Privy Councillor 4 Feb 1679/80; First Lord of the Admiralty 19 Feb 1680/1 - May 1684; succ. father as 2nd Earl of Nottingham 18 Dec 1682; one of the last to accept the Revolution settlement of 1688-9, although he always kept aloof from the Jacobites; Secretary of State 19 Feb 1688/9 - Nov 1693; carried the Toleration Act, but failed to get his Comprehension Bill passed; again Secretary of State 15 May 1702 - May 1704, when he resigned on the Whigs becoming predominant in the ministry; an active head of the High Church party during the rest of the reign of Queen Anne; carried act forbidding the occasional conformity of dissenters, and opposed preliminaries of peace with France 1711; a leading “Hanoverian Tory” in the years before and immediately after the accession of George I; Lord President of the Council 22 Sep 1714 - Feb 1715/6, when dismissed for advocating leniency to the Jacobite peers then under sentence of death; succ. his second cousin as 6th Earl of Winchilsea 9 Sep 1729; FRS 26 Nov 1668; one of the original trustees of Busby’s will; author, The Answer of the Earl of Nottingham to Mr Whiston’s Letter to him concerning the Eternity of the Son of God, 1721; m. 1st, 16 Jun 1674 Lady Essex Rich, second dau. of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick; m. 2nd, 29 Dec 1685 Hon. Anne Hatton, third dau. of Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton; d. 1 Jan 1729/30. DNB.

FINCH, HENEAGE, 1ST EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, Kt, MP, Kensington, Middlesex, Recorder of London, Speaker House of Commons, and his first wife Frances, dau. of Sir Edmund Bell, Beaupré Hall, Norfolk; nephew of Francis Finch (qv); b. 23 Dec 1621; at school under Osbaldeston (Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, iv, 66); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 18 Feb 1635/6, having Richard Busby (qv) as his tutor (HMC Finch MSS, I, 229-30); DCL 7 Nov 1665; adm. Inner Temple 25 Nov 1638, called to bar 30 Jan 1645/6, Bencher 29 Jun 1660, Treasurer 1661-73; MP Canterbury Apr-Oct 1660, Oxford University Apr 1661-Dec 1673; Solicitor-Gen. 6 Jun 1660 - May 1670; created baronet 7 Jun 1660; Attorney-Gen., 10 May 1670 - Nov 1673; Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 9 Nov 1673; Privy Councillor 12 Nov 1673; created Baron Finch 10 Jan 1673/4; Lord Chancellor from 19 Dec 1674; Lord Lieut. Somerset from 1674; presided as Lord High Steward at the trial of the Earl of Pembroke for manslaughter 1677, and at that of Lord Stafford for treason 1680; created Earl of Nottingham 12 May 1681; an able and zealous supporter of the Church of England and the Crown; never the subject of parliamentary attack or ever lost the confidence of Charles II; the Amri of Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel; m. 30 Jul 1646 Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Daniel Harvey, Folkestone, Kent, a Turkey merchant in the City of London; d. 18 Dec 1682. DNB.

PEARCE, ZACHARY, son of John Pearce, St. Giles in the Fields, Holborn, Middlesex, distiller; b. 8 Sep 1692; adm. 12 Feb 1704; QS 1707; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1710, adm. pens. 8 Jun 1710, scholar 14 Apr 1711; BA 1713/4; MA 1717; DD Lambeth 1 Jun 1724; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 29 Sep 1716, Major Fellow 1 Jul 1717; ordained deacon 22 Dec 1717, priest 8 Jun 1718 (both Ely); Chaplain to Earl of Macclesfield, Lord Chancellor; Rector of St. Bartholomew’s by the Exchange, London 19 Mar 1719/20-4; FRS 30 Jun 1720; Chaplain in Ordinary to George I and II 1721-39; Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields, London 10 Jan 1723/4-56; Dean of Winchester 2 Aug 1739; consecrated Bishop of Bangor 21 Feb 1747/8; Dean of Westminster 4 May 1756 – 24 Jun 1768, res.; translated from Bangor to Rochester 9 Jul 1756, holding see to death; edited Longinus, 1721, and other works; bequeathed his library to Dean and Chapter of Westminster; m. Feb 1721/2 Mary, dau. of Richard Adams, Holborn, distiller; d. 29 Jun 1774. Monument, South Aisle, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

MORDAUNT, CHARLES, 3RD EARL OF PETERBOROUGH and 1ST EARL OF MONMOUTH, eldest son of John Mordaunt, 1st Viscount Mordaunt, and Elizabeth, dau. of Hon. Thomas Carey; b.; at school under Busby (Steward, Anniversary Dinner 1727/8); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 11 Apr 1674, aged 16; succeeded father as 2nd Viscount Mordaunt 5 Jun 1675; served as volunteer with British fleet in Mediterranean 1674-7, 1678-9, and at Tangier 1680; associated with Essex, Russell and Sidney in 1682; said to have been the first to press the Prince of Orange (William III) “to undertake the business of England”; commanded a small Dutch squadron in West Indies 1687; attended William III on his landing at Torbay Nov 1688; Privy Councillor 14 Feb 1688/9; a Gentleman of the Bedchamber 1 Mar 1688/9 – Apr 1697; First Lord of the Treasury 8 Apr 1689 – Mar 1690/1; created Earl of Monmouth 9 Apr 1689; one of Queen’s Council of Nine 1689; went with King to Netherlands 1691, 1692; quarrelled with William III over conduct of war Dec 1692, and went into fierce opposition; imprisoned in Tower of London for his conduct in Fenwick’s case, and struck off Privy Council 21 Jan 1696/7; released 30 Mar 1697; succeeded uncle as 3rd Earl of Peterborough 19 Jun 1697; helped Somers to translate the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes 1702; restored to favour at Court on avccession of Anne; appointed Captain-Gen. and Governor of Jamaica 22 Dec 1702, but appointment cancelled as he declined to undertake an expedition against the Spanish settlements in the West Indies without the help of the Dutch; readmitted to Privy Council 29 Mar 1705; appointed with Sir Clowdesley Shovell to joint command of expedition to Spain May 1705; surprised Montjuich and captured Barcelona; entered Valencia 24 Jan 1705/6; proceeded to Genoa to arrange with the Duke of Savoy for a combined attack on Toulon; negotiated a loan at an exorbitant rate of interest without authority; returned to Valencia and recalled to England to give an account of his conduct of the war 11 Feb 1706/7; did not return until Aug 1707; employed John Friend (qv) to write An Account of the Earl of Peterborough’s Conduct in Spain; after two investigations by House of Lords, he received a vote of thanks 10 Feb 1710/1; Ambassador Extraordinary in Vienna, Turin, Frankfurt and Naples 1711-3; Col., Royal Horse Guards 19 Aug 1712 – 13 Jun 1715; KG 3 Aug 1713; Ambassador Exraordinary to Italian Princes Nov 1713; Governor of Minorca Mar 1714; recalled on accession of Whigs to power on accession of George I; General of Marine Forces in Great Britain 24 May 1722; Lord Lieut., Northamptonshire 30 May 1689 – 21 Jul 1715; a brilliant but untrustworthy man, of untiring energy and a craving for novelty and excitement; patron of literature and science; m. 1st, Carey, half-sister of Charles Fraser (qv); m. 2nd, Anastasia (Anastasia Robinson, singer), dau. of Thomas Brown, portrait painter; d. on his yacht off Lisbon 25 Oct 1735. DNB.

PRIOR, MATTHEW, son of George Prior, St.Stephen’s Alley, Westminster, joiner, and Elizabeth ---; bapt.St.Margaret, Westminster 2 Aug 1664; at school under Busby three years; left after reaching the middle of the third form to assist his uncle Arthur, a vintner, at the Rhenish Wine House, Channel Row, Westminster; returned to the School under the patronage of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (qv); KS 1681; St.John’s Coll.Cambridge, adm.pens. 2 Apr 1683, scholar 1684, matr. 1683; BA 1686/7; MA 1700; Keyton Fellow, St. John’s Coll. 5 Apr 1688; author of The Hind and Panther transvers’d to the Story of the Town and Country Mouse, 1687, written as a reply to Dryden; Secretary to Embassy, The Hague 1690-7; employed as Secretary in negotiations resulting in the Treaty of Ryswick 1697; Chief Secretary to Lords Justices of Ireland May 1697 – Nov 1699, but did not execute duties of post; FRS 23 Mar 1697/8; Secretary to Embassy, Paris 1698-9; author, Carmen Saeculare, 1699; Under Secretary of State, Southern Department May 1699 – Jun 1700; a Commissioner of Trade 1700-7; MP East Grinstead Feb – Nov 1701; joined Tories on accession of Queen Anne; a Commissioner of Customs 1712-4; went to Paris to negotiate peace Jul 1711, subsequently acting as Minister Plenipotentiary there; the Treaty of Utrecht, signed 11 Apr 1713, was familiarly known as “Matt’s Peace”; impeached by Walpole and imprisoned 1715-7; his Poems, published by subscription in 1719, earned him 4000 guineas; presented by his patron Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (qv), with £4000 for the purchase of Down Hall, Essex; possessed aptitude for business and a knowledge of commerce; Thackeray described Prior’s as “amongst the easiest, the richest, the most charmingly humorous of English lyrical poems” (English Humourists, 1866, 175); d. 18 Sep 1721, buried Westminster Abbey, at his desire “at the feet of Spenser”; DNB.

PULTENEY, WILLIAM, 1ST EARL OF BATH, son of Col. William Pulteney, Misterton, Leics., and his first wife Mary Floyd; nephew of John Pulteney (qv); b. 22 Mar 1684; adm.; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 31 Oct 1700; Grand Tour (Italy) 1704-5; MP Hedon 1705-34, Middlesex 1734 – 14 Jul 1742; Secretary at War 25 Sep 1714 – 11 Apr 1717; one of the committee of secrecy concerning the peace negotiations Apr 1715; Privy Councillor 16 Jul 1716; one of the “three grand allies”; declined peerage in lieu of office 1721; Cofferer of the Household 28 May 1723 – Apr 1725, dismissed after quarrel with Walpole; alled himself with Bolingbroke and wrote for The Craftsman; joined Wyndham and became a “patriot”; author of pamphlet On the State of the National Debt, 1727; quarrelled with John Hervey, Lord Hervey (qv), with whom he fought a duel in Green Park 25 Jan 1731; leader of the parliamentary opposition to Walpole; struck off the Privy Council 1 Jul 1731; refused to form a ministry on Walpole’s downfall, but entered Lord Wilmington’s Cabinet without office and was readm. to Privy Council 20 Feb 1742; created Earl of Bath 14 Jul 1742; his acceptance of a peerage diminished his political significance; lampooned by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams in a series of odes; endeavoured to form an administration at George II’s request, and accepte post of First Lord of the Treasury 10 Feb 1746, but his short-lived ministry only lasted two days, and he never held political office again; Lord Lieut., Yorkshire East Riding 7 Dec 1721 – 15 Jul 1728, Shropshire from 13 Jul 1761; a brilliant parliamentary orator and great debater; a scholar and a versatile and witty writer; gave £50 towards the New Dormitory; m. 27 Dec 1714 Anna Maria, dau. of John Gumley MP, Isleworth, Middlesex, Commissary-Gen. to the Army; d. 7 Jul 1764. Buried Islip Chapel, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

ROWE, NICHOLAS, son of John Rowe, Lanerton, Devon, Serjeant at Law, and Elizabeth, dau. of Jasper Edwards (qv); bapt. 30 Jun 1674; adm.; KS 1688; left 1691; adm. Middle Temple 4 Aug 1691, called to bar 22 May 1696; abandoned law for writing for the stage; his play Ambitious Stepmother was performed at Lincoln’s Inn Fields 1700, Tamerlane in 1702 and The Fair Penitent in 1703; edited Shakespeare’s works, 1709; Under-Secretary to Secretary of State for Scotland Feb 1709 – Jul 1711; Poet Laureate from 1 Aug 1715; Secretary of Presentations, Chancery, from 5 May 1718; his verse translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia was published just after his death; a collected edition of his plays and occasional poems appeared in 1727; m. 1st, Antonia, dau. of Anthony Parsons, Auditor of the Revenue; m. 2nd, 1717 Anne, dau. of Joseph Devenish, Buckham, Dorset; d. 6 Dec 1718. Buried Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

RUSSELL, FRANCIS, 5TH DUKE OF BEDFORD, eldest son of Francis Russell, Marquis of Tavistock (qv); bapt. 23 Jul 1765; succ. grandfather as 5th Duke of Bedford 15 Jan 1771; adm. 30 May 1774; in school list Jul 1779; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. nob. 17 Dec 1779; Grand Tour (Italy) 1785-6; took seat, House of Lords 5 Dec 1787; an intimate friend and political supporter of Charles James Fox, who delivered an elegant eulogy to him in the House of Commons 16 Mar 1802; the subject of Burke’s scathing Letter to a noble Lord, 1796; a friend of George, Prince of Wales; a patron of the turf, horses of his winning The Derby 1789, 1791, 1797 and The Oaks 1790, 1791, 1793; interested in agriculture and started a model farm at Woburn; member, Board of Agriculture, from formation 1793, and first President, Smithfield Club 1798; d. unm. 2 mar 1802. DNB.

RUSSELL, JOHN, 1ST EARL RUSSELL, third son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford (qv), and his first wife; b. 18 Aug 1792; adm. 23 Sep 1803 (G); fag to his brother Lord Tavistock; kept a diary while at the School, including a list of the School for Oct 1803; left Bartholomewtide 1804; Edinburgh Univ. 1809-12; MP Tavistock 4 May 1813 – Mar 1817, 1818-20, Huntingdonshire 1820-6, Bandon Bridge 19 Dec 1826-30, Tavistock 24 Nov 1830-1, Devon 1831-2, South Devon 1832 – Apr 1835, Stroud 29 May 1835-41, City of London 1841- 30 Jul 1861; made his first speech in favour of parliamentary reform 14 Dec 1819; successfully moved repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts 26 Feb 1828; Privy Councillor 22 Nov 1830; Paymaster-Gen. of the Forces 13 Dec 1830 – Nov 1834, also member of Cabinet Jun 1831 – Nov 1834; moved first reading of Reform Bill 31 Mar 1831; introduced Reform Bill for second time 24 Jun 1831, and for third time 12 Dec 1831; advocated reform of the Irish Church 1833-4; leader of Whigs in House of Commons Apr 1835 onwards; Secretary of State for Home Affairs 18 Apr 1835 – Aug 1839; carried through the Municipal Corporations Bill, and diminished the number of offences liable to capital punishment; Secretary for War and the Colonies 30 Aug 1839 – Aug 1841; declared for total repeal of the Corn Laws in his Edinburgh Letter of 22 Nov 1845, and supported their repeal by Peel in 1846; Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury 6 Jul 1846 – Feb 1852; carried the bill for removing Jewish disabilities through the House of Commons 1848, and responsible for the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill of 1851; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Aberdeen ministry Dec 1852 – Feb 1853, when he resigned but remained in Cabinet without office and continued to lead the House of Commons; Lord President of the Council 12 Jun 1854 – Jan 1855, resigning because of his dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Crimean War; Plenipotentiary to Vienna Congress 11 Feb 1855; Secretary of State for the Colonies 1 May – 13 Jul 1855; opposed Disraeli’s Reform Bill of 1859; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 18 Jun 1859 – Nov 1865; the Reform Bill introduced by him on 1 Mar 1860 was subsequently dropped; created Earl Russell 30 Jul 1861; KG 21 May 1862; Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury 6 Nov 1865 – 18 Jun 1866, resigning on defeat of his Government’s Reform Bill by the ‘Adullamites”; declined Cabinet office in Gladstone’s administration formed in Dec 1868; received freedom City of London 9 Jul 1831; LLD Edinburgh Univ. 8 Nov 1845; FRS 6 May 1847; Lord Rector, Aberdeen Univ., from 1863; GCMG 25 Mar 1869; Busby Trustee 2 Jun 1863; a sincere and able Whig with the courage of his opinions, and a store of constitutional and historical knowledge; although no orator, a skilful debater and creator of telling phrases; edited Letters of the Fourth Duke of Bedford, 1842-6; author, Essay on the English Constitution, and other works; m. 1st, 11 Apr 1835 Adelaide, widow of Thomas Lister, 2nd Baron Ribblesdale (qv), and half-sister of Thomas Henry Lister (qv); m. 2nd, 20 Jul 1841 Lady Frances Anna Maria Elliot, second dau. of Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Earl of Minto; d. 28 May 1878. DNB.

SOUTH, ROBERT, son of Robert South, Hackney, Middlesex, merchant, and his second wife Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Capt. John Berry, Lydd, Kent; b. 4 Sep 1634; adm.; was “up School” on the morning of 30 Jan 1648/9, when “the King was publicly prayed for … but an hour or two (at most) before his sacred head was struck off “ (South, Sermons, 1823, iii, 411); KS 1650; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1651, matr. 11 Dec 1651, Westminster Student to 1670 [check]; BA 24 Feb 1654/5; MA 1657 (incorp. Cambridge 1659); BD and DD 1663 (incorp. Cambridge 1664); ordained 1658; Public Orator, Oxford Univ. 10 Aug 1660 – Nov 1677, res.; Chaplain to Earl of Clarendon, Chancellor of Oxford Univ.; Prebendary of Westminster from 30 Mar 1663; Rector of Llanrhaiadr yn Mochnant, Denbighshire 1666/7 – still 1678 (when disp. to hold with R. Islip); Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, from 29 Dec 1670; went to Poland as Chaplain to Laurence Hyde (afterwards Earl of Rochester), Ambassador there 1676-8; Rector of Islip, Oxfordshire, from 1678; Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II; attacked William Sherlock, Master of the Temple, in his Animadversions, 1693, and accused Sherlock of Tritheism 1695; declined Bishopric of Rochester and Deanery of Westminster on death of Thomas Sprat in 1713; an eloquent and pithy preacher, with a gift of humour; rebuilt chancel and rectory at Islip at his own expense; bequeathed his property in Caversham, Oxfordshire, and Kentish Town, Middlesex, to Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, upon trust for certain charities named in his will, the surplus of the yearly income to be paid to six poor scholars of Christ Church who had been “bred and brought up in Westminster School, commanly called the King’s or Queen’s Scholars [check] there”; an original trustee of Busby’s will; several editions of his collected sermons have been published; d. unm. 8 Jul 1716. After lying in state four days in Jerusalem Chamber, his body was carried into College Hall, where John Barber (qv), Captain of the KSS, pronounced a funeral oration over it; buried at the foot of the steps before the altar, Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Richard Busby (qv), with monument facing Poets’ Corner. DNB.

By his will dated 30 Mar 1713/4 (proved 24 Jul 1716) he left his estates at Caversham, Oxfordshire, and at Kentish Town, Middlesex, after the death of his housekeeper Margaret Hammond and the expiry of her life interest in them, to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, upon trust to pay out of the income “to six poor scholars for ever twenty nobles apiece by even and equall portions … and that the said poore scholars be all of them of Christ Church in Oxon. ; but bred and brought up in Westminster Schole commonly called the (King’s or Queen’s) Schole there and these likewise to be of the sole choice and nomination of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church and their successors for ever”. By the ordinances annexed to the Christ Church (Oxford) Ordinances Act 1867, the income was directed to be applied, with other funds, for the maintenance of the Westminster Junior Studentships.
According to E.G.W.Bill, op.cit., p.104-5, “the foundation had a shaky start, and the first appointment of an exhibitioner was not made until 1738”. As Bill records, “the value of the exhibitions by themselves was too small to have much effect, but South was often held with one or more of the Lee exhibitions”. The foundation remained “incapable of improvement until the Dean and Chapter were empowered to grant building leases of the Kentish Town estate in 1851”.