CAVENDISH-BENTINCK, WILLIAM HENRY, 3RD DUKE OF PORTLAND, elder son of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, and Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, only dau. of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (qv); b. 14 Apr 1738; styled Marquis of Titchfield to 1762; adm. May 1747 (Watts'); left Dec 1754; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 4 Mar 1755; MA 1 Feb 1757; DCL 7 Oct 1792; LLD Tinity Coll. Dublin 18 May 1782; assumed additional surname of Cavendish 1755; MP Weobley 1761 - 1 May 1762; succ. father as 3rd Duke of Portland 1 May 1762; Lord Chamberlain 15 Jul 1765 - 26 Nov 1766; Privy Councillor 10 Jul 1765; Lord Lieut., Ireland, 10 Apr - 15 Sep 1782; Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury 21 Apr - 19 Dec 1783; although previously a committed Whig politician, he became alarmed by the French Revolution and joined William Pitt’s government in 1794; Secretary of State for Home Affairs, 11 Jul 1794 - 30 Jul 1801, Lord President of the Council 30 Jul 1801 - 14 Jan 1805; KG 16 Jul 1801; Prime Ministry and First Lord of the Treasury 31 Mar 1807 - 28 Sep 1809, when he resigned through ill-health; Chancellor of Oxford University from 27 Sep 1792; Lord Lieut., Nottinghamshire, from 19 Jun 1795; FRS 5 Jun 1766; a Busby Trustee from 14 Mar 1765; m. 8 Nov 1766 Lady Dorothy Cavendish, only dau. of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire PC KG; d. 30 Oct 1809. DNB.

CHURCHILL, CHARLES, eldest son of Charles Churchill (adm. 1717/8, qv); b. Feb 1731/2; adm. (aged 9) May 1741; KS (Capt. ) 1745; left 1748 [or 1747 ?]; St. John’s Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 8 Jul 1748; ordained deacon (Wells) 22 Sep 1754, priest (Rochester for London) 19 Dec 1756; Curate, South Cadbury and Sparkford, Somerset, 1754-6, and to his father at Rainham, Essex, 1756-8; Curate and Lecturer, St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, 1758-63; became involved in debt, and was in danger of imprisonment until befriended by Pierson Lloyd (qv), who induced the creditors to accept a composition; author of the poems The Rosciad and The Apology, published in 1761; by their sale he is said to have cleared no less than £2000; became an intimate friend of John Wilkes, with whom he worked on The North Briton; his poems satirised Hogarth, Bute, Sandwich, and others; his literary career, although brief, was brilliant; although he led a reckless and extravagant life, his generosity was undoubted and he remained an unwavering friend of Robert Lloyd (qv); William Cowper (qv) held him in high estimation as a poet and called him the “great Churchill” (Works of William Cowper, 1836, vi, 9-10); for an account of Byron’s visit to his grave at Dover, see Lord Broughton’s Recollections of a Long Life, i, 335; his collected works were published in two volumes, 1763-4; m. c. 1749 Martha Scott, Westminster; d. at Boulogne, 4 Nov 1764. 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.

COWLEY, ABRAHAM, seventh and posthumous child of Thomas Cowley, St. Michael Le Querne, London, citizen and stationer; b. 1618; adm.; Min. Can. 1630; KS; author, Poetical Blossoms, dedicated to his schoolmaster Lambert Osbaldeston (qv) and published 1633; while in College he also wrote Love’s Riddle, a pastoral comedy, not published until 1638; failed to obtain election to either university 1636; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 21 Apr 1636, scholar (by dispensatory letter from King) 14 Jun 1637; his Latin play, Naufragium Joculare, was played before the University by members of Trinity Coll. 2 Feb 1638; BA 1639/40; MA 1643; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll., from 30 Oct 1640; ejected by Parliamentary Visitors 1644 and went to Oxford, taking up residence in St. John’s Coll.; went abroad 1646; employed in diplomatic services by exiled Royalist court; returned to England as Royalist spy 1656; author, Miscellanies, 1656; MD Oxford 2 Dec 1657 (incorp. Cambridge 11 Jul 1664); withdrew to France, but returned at Restoration; applied for Mastership of Savoy 1661, unsuccessfully; one of original fellows of Royal Society; his works were first published in a collected form in 1668, when Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse appeared for the first time; some hitherto unpublished Verses on the Happy Birth of the Duke of York are printed in the Elizabethan, v, 54-5, viii, 281; d. 28 Jul 1667, and buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

COWPER, WILLIAM, son of John Cowper (qv), and his first wife; b. 15 Nov 1731; adm. Apr 1742 (Playford's); left 1749; articled to a solicitor 1750-2; adm. Middle Temple 29 Apr 1748, called to bar 14 Jun 1754; fell in love with his cousin Theodora, but the marriage was forbidden by her father; contributed verses to various papers; a member of the Nonsense Club, chiefly composed of Westminster men who dined together weekly; migrated to Inner Temple, adm. there 17 Jun 1757; owned chambers Inner Temple 1757 - still 1781; a Commissioner of Bankrupts (occurs in annual lists 1758-65); Clerk of Journals, House of Lords c. May - Nov 1763; the stress brought on by his acceptance of the appointment caused a suicide attempt and nervous breakdown; an inmate of Nathaniel Cotton’s private lunatic asylum at St. Albans, Dec 1763 - Jun 1765; lived with the Unwins at Huntingdon 1765-7 and subsequently with Mrs Unwin at Olney, where he was employed by the Rev. John Newton as a sort of lay-reader and district visitor; composed hymns, a number of which are printed in Newton’s Olney Hymns, 1779; became engaged to Mrs Unwin; again deranged 1773-5 and for part of that time a guest in Newton’s house; occupied himself in gardening and writing verse; published Anti-Thelypthora, 1781, an anonymous attack on the defence of polygamy written by his cousin Martin Madan (qv) in the previous year; published Poems, Feb 1782; wrote the famous ballad of John Gilpin, first published in The Public Advertiser, Nov 1782; began translating Homer 1784; published The Task, 1785; removed to Weston, Nov. 1786; again became insane 1787; published his translation of Homer, 1791; undertook to edit Milton; removed in 1795 to East Dereham, Norfolk, where Mrs Unwin died in the following year; a complete edition of his works was published in 15 vols. by Robert Southey (qv) in 1834-7; Cowper’s schooldays, to which he frequently refers in his correspondence, were probably the happiest days of his life, and his recollections of them afforded him much pleasure; he appears to have enjoyed playing cricket and football; his favourite friend was Sir William Russell, Bart. (qv), but he was “much intimate” with Walter Bagot (adm. 1739/40, qv); he had a “particular value” for Warren Hastings (qv), to whom he addressed some lines on his impeachment, and he showed his friendly feeling for Robert Lloyd (qv) in the verse epistle which he addressed to him in 1754; his poem Table Talk contains an interesting allusion to the custom in his time of awarding pieces of Maundy Money for a good copy of verses (lines 507-11); d. unm. 25 Apr 1800. Memorial window in baptistery of Westminster Abbey. DNB.

CREIGHTON, ROBERT, son of Thomas Creighton, and Margaret Stuart; b. 1593; adm. 1607; KS; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1613, adm. scholar 1614; BA 1617/8; MA 1621 (incorp. Oxford 15 Jul 1628); DD Oxford 21 Feb 1642/3; Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1619- c. 1621; Professor of Greek, Cambridge 1625-39; Public Orator 1627-39; ordained; Prebendary of Lincoln 18 Mar 1631/2 – Jun 1670; Prebendary and Treasurer, Wells Dec. 1632 – Jun 1660, also Canon Residentiary 1 Apr 1633 – Jun 1660; Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles I; Rector of Huggate, Yorks., 1641; Dean of St. Buryan, Cornwall, 1642-5, sequestered; escaped to the Continent on the fall of Oxford, disguised as a labourer; member of exiled court of Charles II; tutor to Sir Ralph Verney’s son at The Hague 1652; Dean of Wells 29 Jun 1660 - Jun 1670; restored the cathedral; Rector of Uplowman, Devon 1665-70; Vicar of Cheddar, Somerset, 5 Sep 1665-70; consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 19 Jun 1670; author, Vera Historia Unionis inter Graecos et Latinos sive Concilii Florentini exactissima narratio, 1660; m. Frances, dau. of William Walrond; d. 21 Nov 1672. DNB.

CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, only son of Denison Cumberland (qv); b. 19 Feb 1732; adm. from Bury St. Edmunds Sch. Jan 1745/6 (Ludford's); Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 11 Jun 1747, scholar 1748, matr. 1748; 6th Wrangler 1750/1; BA 1750/1; MA 1754; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1752, Major Fellow 1753; private secretary to George, 2nd Earl of Halifax c. 1754-65; Crown Agent for Nova Scotia c. 1758 - ?; held post of Ulster Secretary Apr 1761 - Apr 1763 during Halifax’s term of office as Lord Lieut. Ireland; Solicitor and Clerk of Reports, Board of Trade 31 May 1765 - Jan 1776, Secretary to Board of Trade 23 Jan 1776 - 2 May 1782, when post abolished; on unsuccessful secret mission to Spain Jun 1780 - Apr 1781, seeking to secure a separate peace with that country; after the abolition of his government appointment he settled in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, holding a commission in local volunteers during Napoleonic Wars; author of numerous comedies, tragedies, translations and novels; his most successful play, The West Indian, was produced by Garrick in 1771 and ran for twenty-eight nights; described by Goldsmith in his Retaliation as “the Terence of England” and caricatured by Sheridan as Sir Fretful Plagiary in The Critic (see Lord Broughton, Recollections of a Long Life, i, 138); wrote with Sir John Bland Burges (qv) an epic called the Exodiad, 1808; author, The Observer, almost the last imitation of The Spectator; his Memoirs, published in 1807, contain several interesting references to the School and to his contemporaries there; m. 19 Feb 1759 Elizabeth, only dau. of George Ridge, Kilmeston, Hants.; d. 7 May 1811. Buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

Davidson, John Colin Campbell, 1st Viscount Davidson, only son of Sir James Mackenzie Davidson, Kt., M.B., C. M., of London, by Georgiana Barbara Watt, daughter of William Henderson, of Aberdeen; b. Feb. 23, 1889; adm. Jan. 15, 1903 (A); left July 1907; Pembroke Coll. Camb., matric. Michaelmas 1907; B.A. 1910; Private Secretary to several Cabinet Ministers, including the Rt. Hon. A. Bonar Law when Prime Minister, 1910-23; called to the bar at the Middle Temple June 4, 1913; M. P. Herts (Hemel Hempstead Div.) Nov. 1920 - Nov. 1923, and from Oct. 1924; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster June 1923 - Jan. 1924; Financial Secretary to the Admiralty Nov. 1924 - Nov. 1926; Chairman of the Conservative Party organization 1926-30; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1931-7; served in Home Guard in Great War II; Controller of Production, Ministry of Information 1941; C. B. Jan. 1, 1919; C. H. March 25, 1923; P. C. 1928; G. C. V. O. 1935; created a Viscount May 28, 1937; a Governor of the School July 1927; Busby Trustee 1929; president of the Elizabethan Club 1946-49; represented Westminster on Governing Bodies' Assn. 1949-59; m. April 10, 1919, the Hon. Frances Joan, younger daughter of Willoughby, 1st Baron Dickinson; d. 11 Dec. 1970.