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BECKFORD, PETER, only son of Julines Beckford (qv); b.; adm. (aged 8) Jan 1747/8 (Butler's); in school list 1752; New Coll. Oxford, matr. 12 Apr 1757; of Iwerne Stepleton, Dorset; travelling in Italy 1765-6; High Sheriff, Dorset 1780; MP Morpeth 1768-74; a man of many accomplishments, and a famous sportsman; hunted the country subsequently known as the South Dorset; went to live permanently in Italy 1783; author, Thoughts upon Hare and Fox Hunting, 1781, Essays on Hunting, 1781, and Familiar Letters from Italy to a Friend in England, 1805; m. 22 Mar 1773 Hon. Louisa Pitt, dau. of George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers; d. 18 Feb 1811. DNB.

BLADEN, MARTIN, son of Nathaniel Bladen, Bolton Percy, Yorks., and Isabella, dau. of Sir William Fairfax, Kt., Steeton, Yorks.; b.; adm.; KS 1695; left 1697; St. John’s Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 17 Apr 1697, aged 16, matr. 1697; adm. Inner Temple, 23 Mar 1696/7; Ensign, Col. T. Fairfax’s Regt. of Foot, 12 Dec 1697; Ensign of a company added to this Regt. in Ireland, 1 Mar 1702; Capt., Sir Charles Hotham’s new Regt. of Foot, 25 Mar 1705; served in Low Countries and Spain; ADC to Lord Galway; attained rank of Brevet Col.; Col. of a British Regt. raised in Spain, 26 Oct 1709; sold out 26 Jun 1710; Comptroller of the Mint, 23 Dec 1714-27; MP Stockbridge 1715-34, Maldon 1734-41, Portsmouth from 1741; Joint Secretary to Lord Justices of Ireland and to Lord Lieut. of Ireland Sep 1715 - Apr 1717; MP (I) Bandon Bridge 1715-27; Privy Councillor (I) 1 Nov 1715; director, Royal African Company, 1717-26; a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 13 Jul 1717; Joint Commissioner to Court of France for settling plantation boundaries in America, 1719-20; First Commissioner and Plenipotentiary to the Conference for settling commerce at Antwerp, Jun 1732 - Feb 1742; one of Sir Robert Walpole’s steadiest supporters in the House of Commons; author of Solon (a tragi-comedy), 1705, and of an English translation of Caesar’s Commentaries, 1712; m. 1st, Mary, dau. of Col. --- Gibbs; m. 2nd, 29 Mar 1728 Frances, widow of John Foche, Aldborough Hatch, Essex, and niece of Col. Joseph Jory, West India merchant; d. 15 Feb 1745/6. DNB.

BURKE, WILLIAM, eldest son of John Burke (or Bourke), Middle Temple and St. James’s, London, and his first wife Elizabeth, dau. of Thomas Burke, London, vintner; b.; adm. (aged 13) Sep 1742 (Durand's); KS 1743; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1747, matr. 26 Jun 1747, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1747 - 26 Jun 1761 (void), leave of absence on appt. as Secretary, Guadeloupe, 25 Aug 1759; BCL 1755; adm. Middle Temple 26 May 1750, called to bar 28 Nov 1755; Secretary and Registrar, Guadeloupe, 1759-63; Under-Secretary of State, Jul 1765 - Feb 1767; MP Great Bedwyn 16 Jun 1766-8, 29 May 1768-74; lost substantial sums of money in speculations on the Stock Exchange, 1769; in India 1777-8, becoming agent for Rajah of Tanjore; again in India 1780-93, initially at Madras, subsequently at Calcutta; Deputy Paymaster of the Forces, East Indies, 1782-93; present at OWW dinner at Calcutta 1783 (Hickey, Memoirs, iii, 245-6); figures in Goldsmith’s Retaliation; lived on intimate terms with his distant kinsman Edmund Burke, with whom he wrote An Account of the European Settlements in America, 1757; author of two pamphlets on the peace negotiations, 1759 and 1761; d. Mar 1798. DNB.

CORBETT, THOMAS, eldest son of William Corbett, Nanteos, Cardiganshire, and Middle Temple, London, and Eleanor, dau. of Col. John Jones, Nanteos, Cardiganshire; b.; adm.; KS (Capt. ) 1701; joined Royal Navy as ordinary seaman 23 Mar 1703/4; acted initially as clerk, from 14 Dec 1704, and then as secretary, Sep 1705-9, 1711, to Adm. Sir George Byng (afterwards 1st Viscount Torrington); Judge-Advocate and Deputy Treasurer of the Fleet [check]; a clerk in the Admiralty 17 Jan 1715-23; again secretary to Byng when in command of British fleet in Sicilian waters 1718-20 [check]; Secretary to Greenwich Hospital 1716-36; Chief Clerk, Admiralty, 15 Mar 1723-8, Deputy Secretary 27 Jul 1728-41; Secretary to Admiralty from 29 Apr 1741; MP Saltash from 6 Feb 1733/4; m. 31 Jan 1740/1 Mary Lloyd, Duke Street, London; d. 30 Apr 1751. DNB.

FREIND, JOHN, third son of William Freind (elected to Oxford 1656, qv); b.; adm.; KS 1691; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1694, matr. 7 Jul 1694, aged 17, Westminster Student 29 Dec 1694- Apr 1708, Faculty Student 19 Apr 1708 - void on marriage Dec 1709, Tutor 1700-4; BA 1698; MA 1701; MB 1703; MD (by diploma) 12 Jun 1707; delivered a course of lectures on chemistry at Ashmolean Museum 1704; Physician to Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough (qv) when commanding English forces in Spain 1705; travelling in Italy 1706-7; accompanied Duke of Ormonde to Flanders as his physician 1712; Physician-General to Army (Ireland) 1713; MRCP 1713, FRCP 1716, Gulstonian Lecturer 1718, Harveian Orator 1720; MP Launceston 1722 - 17 Mar 1723/4, 29 Mar 1725-7; implicated with Francis Atterbury (KS 1674, qv) in plot for Jacobite restoration, and committed to Tower of London on charge of high treason Mar 1722/3, but released after three months’ imprisonment; Physician to Queen Caroline from 25 Oct 1727; FRS 20 Mar 1711/2; author, The History of Physick, 1725-6, and of other publications; gave £50 towards the building of College Dormitory; m. 3 Dec 1709 Anne, sister of William Morice (qv); d. 26 Jul 1728. Monument in South Aisle, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

GIBBON, EDWARD, only son of Edward Gibbon (qv), and his first wife; b. 27 Apr 1737; adm. Jan 1747/8 (Porten's); left Aug 1750, on account of ill-health; Magdalen Coll. Oxford, adm. fellow commoner 3 Apr 1752; received into Roman Catholic church 8 Jun 1752, but returned to Protestantism at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1753; became attached to Susanne Curchod (afterwards Mme Necker), but at his father’s wish the engagement was broken off; adm. to Academy, Lausanne 1 Dec 1756; officer in Hampshire Militia 12 Jun 1759-70; author, Essai sur l’Etude de la Litterature, 1761; met John Baker Holroyd (afterwards Lord Sheffield) at Lausanne 1764; in Italy 1764-5; the idea of writing on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire first occurred to him when in Rome on 15 Oct 1764; author, Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne, 1767-8, jointly with his Swiss friend Deyverdun; author, Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid, 1770, attacking Warburton; settled in London 1772; elected to The Club 1774; MP Liskeard 1774-80, Lymington 25 Jun 1781-4; a Commissioner for Trade and Foreign Plantations 6 Jul 1779 - Jun 1782; Professor of Ancient History, Royal Academy, from 1787; FSA 20 Nov 1788, FRS 27 Nov 1788; author, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776-87, 4 vols.; defended the chapters on Christianity in a Vindication, 1779; retired to Lausanne 1783; his Miscellaneous Works, edited by his friend Lord Sheffield, and including his Memoirs of My Life and Writings, were published in 1796; d. unm. 16 Jan 1794. DNB.

MONTAGU, CHARLES, 1ST EARL OF HALIFAX, fourth son of Hon. George Montagu MP, Horton, Northants, and Elizabeth, dau. of Sir Anthony Irby, Kt, Boston, Lincs.; b. 16 Apr 1661; adm. 1675; KS (Capt. ) 1677; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. fellow commoner 8 Nov 1679; MA 1682; LLD 1705; Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1683 – c. 1689; High Steward, Cambridge Univ., from 1697; wrote with Matthew Prior (qv) The Hind and the Panther transvers’d to the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse, 1687; MP Maldon 1689-95, Westminster 1695 – 13 Dec 1700; a Clerk of the Privy Council 1689-92; a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury 21 Mar 1692 – Apr 1698; his proposal of 15 Dec 1692 to raise a million pounds by life annuities was the origin of the National Debt; his bill to establish the Bank of England became law 1694; Chancellor of the Exchequer 30 Apr 1694 – May 1699; Privy Councillor 10 May 1694; introduced the Recoinage Bill, and instituted the Window Tax to pay for the expense of the recoinage; issued the first Exchequer Bills and carried his bill for the formation of a consolidated fund to meet interest on the various government loans; First Lord of the Treasury 1 May 1697 – Nov 1699; Auditor of the Receipt of Exchequer 17 Nov 1699 – 30 Sep 1714; created Baron Halifax 13 Dec 1700; impeached by the House of Lords for obtaining grants from the King in the names of others for himself, and for his share in the Partition Treaty, but the impeachment was dismissed for want of prosecution 24 Jun 1701; charged by House of Commons for neglect of his duties as Auditor of the Exchequer, but his conduct as such was unanimously approved by the House of Lords 1703; successfully moved the rejection of the Occasional Conformity Bill 14 Dec 1703; a Commissioner for negotiating the Union with Scotland 10 Apr 1706; acted as one of the Lords Justices from Queen Anne’s death until the arrival of George I; First Lord of the Treasury from 11 Oct 1714; KG 16 Oct 1714; created Earl of Halifax 19 Oct 1714; Lord Lieutenant, Surrey, from 24 Dec 1714; a great parliamentary orator and brilliant financier; the lifelong friend of Sir Isaac Newton and a munificent patron of literature; FRS 30 Nov 1695, President 30 Nov 1695 – 30 Nov 1698; his collected poems were published in 1715; [? m. 1st, 3 Sep 1685 Elisabeth, dau. of Francis Forster, South Bailey, Durham]; m. Feb 1688 Anne, widow of his cousin Robert Montagu, 3rd Earl of Manchester, and dau. of Sir Christopher Yelverton, Bart.; d. 19 May 1715. Buried in Duke of Albemarle’s vault, Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, brother of Archibald Hamilton (adm. 1737, qv); b. 13 Dec 1730; adm. Jan 1739/40 (Heath's); left 1746; Ensign, 3rd Foot Guards 27 Jan 1747; Lieut. and Capt., 8 Jun 1753; retd. 1757; Equerry to George III 1760 – 7 Nov 1782; MP Midhurst Mar 1761 – Aug 1764; Envoy Extraordinary at Naples 1764-7, Minister Plenipotentiary there 1767- Apr 1800; KB 15 Jan 1772; Privy Councillor 8 Jun 1791; sold a collection of Greek vases and antiquities to British Museum 1772, and another collection to Thomas Hope of Deepdene 1801; purchased the Warwick Vase from Gavin Hamilton and the Portland Vase from James Byres; entertained Nelson at Naples after the Battle of the Nile 1798; accompanied the Neapolitan Court to Palermo Dec 1798; FRS 6 Nov 1766, Copley Medal 1770; FSA 6 Feb 1772; Society of Dilettanti 1777; DCL Oxford 30 Jul 1802; author, Campi Phlegraei, 1776; m. 1st, 25 Jan 1758 Catherine, eldest dau. of Hugh Barlow, Lawrenny Hall, Pembs.; m. 2nd, 6 Sep 1791 Emma Hart (DNB), dau. of Henry Lyon, Neston, Cheshire, blacksmith; d. 6 Apr 1803. DNB.

HILL, SIR RICHARD, BART., eldest son of Sir Rowland Hill, Bart., MP, is first wife Jane, dau. of Sir Brian Broughton, Bart., MP; b. 6 Jun 1732; adm. Shrewsbury Sch. 1742; adm. Jun 1744 (Stephens'); left 1750; Magdalen Coll. Oxford, matr. 8 Dec 1750; MA 2 Jul 1754; Grand Tour (Italy) 1756-7; a champion of George Whitefield and the Calvinistic Methodists 1757; attacked Oxford Univ. for expelling Methodist undergraduates 1768; defended Calvinism against criticisms by John Wesley and Fletcher of Madeley 1770; MP Shropshire 1780-1806; succ. father as 2nd baronet 7 Aug 1783; of Hawkstone, Shropshire; engaged in controversy with Archdeacon Daubeny 1798-9 and with Bishop Tomline of Lincoln 1803; author, religious pamphlets; d. unm. 25 Nov 1808. DNB.