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.

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.

VANE, SIR HENRY, eldest son of Sir Henry Vane, Kt MP, Treasurer of the Household and Secretary of State, Hadlow, Kent, and Raby Castle, co. Durham, and Frances, dau. of Thomas Darcy, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex; bapt. 26 May 1613; at schoool under Osbaldeston (Wood, Athenae Oxon., iii, 578); became a puritan at age of 15; Magdalen Hall, Oxford, adm. fellow commoner, aged 16, but did not matr., as he objected to taking the oath; went to New England to obtain freedom of worship 1635; Governor of Massachusetts 1636-7; became entangled in doctrinal controversies and returned to England; Joint Treasurer of the Navy Jan 1639- Dec 41; MP Hull 1640-53; knighted 23 Jun 1640; showed Pym his father's notes of Strafford's advice to Charles I at the Council meeting of 5 May 1640; one of the originators of the bill for the abolition of episcopacy 1641; one of the committee appointed to vindicate the privileges of Parliament on the arrest of the five members; a leader of the war party in the House of Commons; Treasurer of the Navy (for Parliament) Aug 1642 - Dec 1650; conducted the negotiations with the Scots 1643; the virtual leader of the House of Commons after Pym's death; proposed and carried the establishment of the Committee of both Kingdoms 1644; one of the Parliamentary Commissioners at Uxbridge 1645; rejected Charles I’s overtures in 1644 and 1646; a Commissioner to treat with the army at Wycombe 1647; distrusted by the Presbyterians and the Levellers; took no part in Charles I’s trial; member of Council of State 14 Feb 1649; active member of the government 1649-53; a Commissioner for settling Scottish affairs 1651; quarrelled with Cromwell over the expulsion of the Long Parliament 1653; retired to Lincolnshire and refused a seat in the Little Parliament; imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle as a result of the publication of his book Healing Question, propounded and resolved, 1656; MP Whitchurch in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament; assisted in the abolition of the Protectorate; Commissioner of the Navy and manager of foreign affairs in the restored Long Parliament; unsuccessfully endeavoured to reconcile Parliament and the army; became distrusted by all parties; expelled from the House of Commons 9 Jan 1660; partially excluded from the Act of Indemnity; imprisoned in the Tower of London, and subsequently transported to the Scilly Isles; tried for high treason in Court of King’s Bench, and sentenced to death 11 Jun 1662; an able statesman of enormous industry, but although his devotion to the public service and his freedom from corruption were well known, his religious enthusiasm and his subtlety in speculative matters exposed to him to the charge of being a fanatic and an unscrupulous schemer; author, The Retired Man’s Meditations, 1655, and other works; m. 1 Jul 1640 Frances, dau. of Sir Christopher Wray, Bart., Barlings, Lincs.; executed on Tower Hill 14 Jun 1662. DNB.

ATTERBURY, FRANCIS, brother of Lewis Atterbury (qv); b. 6 Mar 1662/3; adm.; KS 1674; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1680, matr. 17 Dec 1680, aged 17, Westminster Student 18 Dec 1680-94 (void, perhaps on marriage), Tutor 1687-90; BA 1684; MA 1687; BD and DD 5 May 1701; replied to Obadiah Walker’s attack upon the Reformation 1687; assisted his pupil Hon. Charles Boyle in his defence of the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris against Bentley; ordained; Lecturer, St. Bride’s, London 1701; Chaplain in Ordinary to William III and Queen Mary, subsequently to Queen Anne; warmly opposed Erastianism and protested against the suppression of Convocation; Archdeacon of Totnes 11 Jun 1701-13; Prebendary of Exeter 6 May 1704; Dean of Carlisle 2 Oct 1704; Prolocutor of Lower House of Convocation 1710; Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 28 Sep 1711-3; installed Dean of Westminster 16 Jun 1713 and consecrated Bishop of Rochester 15 Jul 1713; although he took part officially in the coronation of George I, he refused to sign the declaration of confidence in the government after the rebellion of 1715, and subsequently was in direct communication with the Jacobites; arrested and imprisoned in the Tower 24 Aug 1722, for his alleged connection with an attempt to restore the Stuarts; a bill of pains and penalties was passed through the House of Commons, and carried in the House of Lords by 83 votes to 43; deprived of all his ecclesiastical preferments 1 Jun 1723, and banished from the kingdom; visited in the Tower by some of the senior King’s Scholars before his departure; resided first at Brussels and afterwards in France as general adviser to the Old Pretender; a man of marked attainments, but cursed with an imperious and aggressive temper, and possessed of “a rare talent for fomenting discord”; his old friend George Smalridge (qv), who succeeded him both at Carlisle and at Christ Church, used to say that “Atterbury comes first and sets everything on fire, and I follow with a bucket of water”; regarded as one of the leading preachers of his day, and in Addison’s opinion was “one of the greatest geniuses of his age”; much to the annoyance of Old Westminsters, Atterbury removed the Election in 1718 from the School to the Jerusalem Chamber, and put down the Election Dinner (HMC Portland MSS, v, 561, vii, 275); owing to his insistence the new Dormitory was built on its present site, the first stone being laid 24 Apr 1722; Busby Trustee from 27 Feb 1705/6; m. c. 1695 Catherine Osborne; d. in exile in Paris 22 Feb 1731/2 and buried privately in the south aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey 12 May 1732. DNB.

BLACKBURNE, LANCELOT, son of Richard Blackburne, London; b. 10 Dec 1658; adm.; KS 1671; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1676, matr. 20 Oct 1676, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1676-85 (void); BA 1680; MA (in his absence) 28 Jan 1683/4; ordained 1681; went to Antigua, West Indies, soon after his ordination; a protegé of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. (q. v. ), Bishop of Exeter; Prebendary of Exeter 15 Jun 1691, Sub-Dean 1695-1702, 1704-5; Rector of Calstock, Cornwall, 29 May 1696 (dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter 1716/7); Vicar of Altarnun, Cornwall, 1699 (dispensation to hold with Calstock, 1699); Dean of Exeter 3 Nov 1705 - Feb 1716/7; Archdeacon of Cornwall 24 Jan 1714/5 - Feb 1716/7 (but dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter, 1716/7 ?); Chaplain in Ordinary to George I (Chamberlayne 1716); DD Lambeth 28 Jan 1716; consecrated Bishop of Exeter 24 Feb 1716/7; Lord Almoner from 26 Oct 1723; Archbishop of York from 8 Nov 1724; Privy Councillor 10 Dec 1724; Busby Trustee from 18 Feb 1725/6; a gay and witty divine of remarkably free manners, which gave rise to many scandalous stories; was described by Horace Walpole as “the jolly old Archbishop of York who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession, except his seraglio” (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1847, i, 87); m. 2 Sep 1684 Catherine, widow of Walter Littleton, Lichfield, Staffs., and dau. of William Talbot, Stourton Castle, Staffs.; d. 23 Mar 1742/3. DNB.

COTTON, STAPLETON, 1ST VISCOUNT COMBERMERE, second son of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, Bart. (qv); b. 14 Nov 1773; adm. 28 Jan 1785; at school four years; 2nd Lieut., 23rd Foot, 26 Feb 1790; 1st Lieut., 13 Apr 1791; Capt., 6th Dragoon Guards, 28 Feb 1793; Maj., 59th Foot, 1794; Lieut. -Col., 25th Light Dragoons, 9 Mar 1794; Brevet Col., 1 Jan 1800; Lieut. -Col., 16th Light Dragoons, 14 Feb 1800; served in Flanders 1793-4, at Cape Town 1795, in campaign against Tippoo Sahib 1799, and in Dublin during Emmett’s insurrection 1800; Brig. -Gen., 11 Feb 1804; Maj. -Gen., 30 Oct 1805; commanded allied cavalry during part of Peninsular War; wounded at Salamanca 1812; Lieut. -Gen., 1 Jan 1812; Col., 20th Light Dragoons, 27 Jan 1813 – Jan 1821 [check]; took part in Pyrenees Campaign, 1813-4; commanded allied cavalry in France, 1815-6; Governor of Barbados 1816-20; Col., 3rd Dragoons, 25 Jan 1821 – Sep 1828; Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, 1822-5; Gen., 27 May 1825; Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, 9 Feb 1825 - 1 Jan 1830; captured city of Bhurtpore, 28 Jan 1826; Col., 1st Life Guards, from 16 Sep 1829; Constable of the Tower (and Lord Lieut., Tower Hamlets) from 11 Oct 1852; Field-Marshal, 2 Oct 1855; MP Newark 1806 - 17 May 1814; succ. father as 6th baronet 24 Aug 1809; KB 21 Aug 1812; created Baron Combermere 17 May 1814, with annuity of £2000 p. a. for two generations; GCB 2 Jan 1815; GCH 1817; Governor of Sheerness 25 Jan 1821 – still 1829; Privy Councillor (I) 21 Nov 1822; created Viscount Combermere 8 Feb 1827; DCL Oxford Univ. 23 Jun 1830; Privy Councillor 16 Dec 1834; KCSI 19 Aug 1861; m. 1st, 1 Jan 1801 Lady Anne Maria Pelham-Clinton, eldest dau. of Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle, Major-Gen. in the Army; m. 2nd, 22 Jun 1814 Caroline, second dau. of Capt. William Fulke Greville RN; m. 3rd, 2 Oct 1838 Mary Woolley, dau. of Thomas Gibbings MD, Gibbings Grove, co. Cork; d. 21 Feb 1865. DNB.

COURTENAY, WILLIAM REGINALD, 11TH EARL OF DEVON, elder son of William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (qv); b. 14 Apr 1807; adm. (G) 16 Sep 1818; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 30 Mar 1824; President, Oxford Union 1827; 1st cl. Classics 1827; BA 1828; BCL 1831; DCL 1838; Fellow, All Souls Coll., 1828-30; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 22 Mar 1828, called to bar 27 Jan 1832; MP (Cons) South Devon 1841 - Feb 1849; a Poor Law Inspector 1849-50; Secretary, Poor Law Board 1850-9; succ. father as 11th Earl of Devon 19 Mar 1859; took Conservative whip in House of Lords; member, Public Schools Commission, 1862; Chancellor, Duchy of Lancaster, Jul 1866 - May 1867; Privy Councillor 10 Jul 1866; President, Poor Law Board, May 1867 - Dec 1868; known in Devon as “the good earl”; Chairman, Devon QS, for fifty-two years; DL JP Devon, JP co. Limerick; Busby Trustee 11 May 1861; member governing body, Westminster School, from 1869; edited with others vol. 6 of Cases decided in the House of Lords on appeal from the Courts of Scotland, 1832-3; m. 27 Dec 1830 Lady Elizabeth Fortescue, seventh dau. of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue; d. 18 Nov 1888. DNB.

CARTERET, JOHN, 2ND EARL GRANVILLE, eldest surviving son of George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret, and Lady Grace Granville, subsequently created Countess Granville, youngest dau. of John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath; b. 22 Apr 1690; succ. his father as 2nd Baron Granville 22 Sep 1695; at school under Knipe; contributed to collection of verses written by the scholars on death of Duke of Gloucester, 1700; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 15 Jan 1705/6; DCL 12 Jul 1756; took seat, House of Lords, 25 May 1711; a supporter of the Hanoverian succession; a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I, 16 Oct 1714 - Aug 1721; Bailiff of Jersey, Jul 1715; Lord Lieutenant, Devon, 13 Jul 1716 - 9 Aug 1721; joined section of Whig party headed by Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (qv), 1717; Ambassador Extraordinary to Sweden, May 1719 - Jun 1720, securing opening of Baltic to British commerce and negotiating peace between the Baltic powers; Secretary of State, Southern Department, 5 Mar 1721 - Apr 1724; Privy Councillor 5 Mar 1721; became a favourite of George I but was not able to rival the supremacy of Sir Robert Walpole; Lord Lieutenant, Ireland, 3 Apr 1724 - Apr 1730; on intimate terms with Swift, who said that Carteret “had a genteeler manner of binding the chains of the kingdom than most of his predecessors”; offered post of Lord Steward of Household on return from Ireland, but declined to take further office under Walpole; took a prominent part in the long struggle against Walpole, and on 13 Feb 1741 unsuccessfully moved his famous resolution in the House of Lords for Walpole’s removal from office; Secretary of State, Northern Department, 12 Feb 1742 - Nov 1744; attended George II during campaign in Germany in 1743, but his pro-Hanoverian policy made him unpopular in Britain; succ. his mother as 2nd Earl Granville, 18 Oct 1744; advised the King not to admit William Pitt to office, but failed himself to form a ministry in Feb 1746; nominated KG 22 Jun 1749, installed 12 Jul 1750; Lord President of the Council from 17 Jun 1751; of the five great men who Horace Walpole believed to have lived in his time, Granville “was most a genius . . . he conceived, knew, expressed what he pleased”; a Busby Trustee from 19 Feb 1710/1; m. 1st, 17 Oct 1710 Frances, only dau. of Sir Robert Worsley, Bart.; m. 2nd, 14 Apr 1744 Lady Sophia Fermor, sister of George Fermor, 2nd Earl of Pomfret (qv); d. 2 Jan 1763. Buried in north aisle of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. DNB.