BURGOYNE, JOHN, second son of Capt. John Burgoyne, Sherborne, Warwicks., and Anna Maria, dau. of Charles Burneston, Hackney, Middlesex; b. 4 Feb 1722/3; in school lists 1733, 1735-8; an intimate friend of James Smith Stanley, Lord Strange (qv); Cornet, 1st Royal Dragoons, 14 Jul 1743; Lieut., 22 Feb 1745; Capt., 1 Jul 1745; sold out 31 Oct 1751, on account of his debts, and resided for some years in France and Italy; re-entered Army as Capt., 11th Dragoons, 14 Jun 1756; Capt. -Lieut. and Lieut. -Col., 2nd Foot Guards, 10 May 1758; served in expeditions to Cherbourg and St. Malo 1758-9; raised 16th Dragoons and gazetted as Lieut. -Col. commandant, 4 Aug 1759; served in Portugal as Brig. -Gen., 1762; Brevet Col., 8 Oct 1762; Col. 16th Dragoons, 18 Mar 1763 - Oct 1779; Governor of Fort William 1769-79; Maj. -Gen., 25 May 1772; served in America 1775; present at battle of Bunker Hill; second in command under Sir Guy Carleton in Canada, 1776, in supreme command 1777; Lieut. -Gen., 29 Aug 1777; surrendered to Gates at Saratoga, 17 Oct 1777; allowed by Washington to return to England on parole, where he resigned his regiment and governorship; on the return of his political friends to power in 1782 became Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, 7 Jun 1782, holding post to 1784; Col., 4th Foot, from 7 Jun 1782; MP Midhurst 1761-8, Preston from 29 Nov 1768; proposed in 1772 that the East India Company should be controlled by the government; made a violent attack on Clive in May 1773, and was a manager of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, 1787; Privy Councillor (I) 4 May 1782; member, Society of Dilettanti, 1772; contributed to the Rolliad and Probationary Odes; author, The Heiress, 1786, and other plays; m. 1743 Lady Charlotte Stanley, sister of James Smith Stanley, Lord Strange (qv); d. 4 Aug 1792; buried North Cloister, 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.

HANMER, SIR THOMAS, BART., only surviving son of William Hanmer, Bettisfield, Flints., and Peregrina, dau. of Sir Henry North, Bart.; b. 24 Sep 1677; at school under Busby (Sir H. E. Bunbury, Bart, ed., The Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart., 1838, 5); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 17 Oct 1693; LLD Cambridge 16 Apr 1705; succ. uncle as 4th baronet 1701; MP Thetford 19 Mar 1700/1-2, Flintshire 1702-5, Thetford 1705-8, Suffolk 1708-27; Chairman of the Committee which drew up the “Representation” 1712; travelling in Italy 1713; Speaker, House of Commons 16 Feb 1713/4 – 5 Jan 1714/5; editor of an edition of Shakespeare’s plays, 6 vols, 1743-4; m. 1st, Oct 1698 Isabella, Duchess of Grafton, widow of Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton KG, and dau. of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (qv); m. 2nd, 1725 Elizabeth, only dau. of Thomas Folkes, Barton, Suffolk; d. 7 May 1746. DNB.

HERVEY, JOHN, 2nd BARON HERVEY OF ICKWORTH, eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, and his second wife Elizabeth, only dau. of Sir Thomas Felton, Bart. MP; b. 15 Oct 1696; adm. 28 Jan 1711/2; left Jul 1713; Clare Hall, Cambridge, adm. 20 Nov 1713, matr. 1714; MA 1715; styled Lord Hervey from 1723; MP Bury St. Edmunds 2 Apr 1725 – 11 Jun 1733; travelling in Italy for health in 1728-9; Vice-Chamberlain of the Household 7 May 1730 – Apr 1740; Privy Councillor 8 May 1730; having initially been a follower in politics of Frederick, Prince of Wales, he subsequently became a supporter of Sir Robert Walpole and a trusted confidant of Queen Caroline; fought a duel with William Pulteney (qv) in the “Upper St. James’s Park” 25 Jan 1730/1; created Baron Hervey of Ickworth 11 Jun 1733; Lord Privy Seal 1 May 1740 – Jul 1742; one of the Lord Justices of the Realm May 1741; author, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, first published from his manuscript in 1848, and of other political pamphlets; the expenses of his “schooling” at Westminster, and of that of his three brothers, are recorded in the Diary of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, 1894; m. 21 Apr 1720 Mary, Maid of Honour to Caroline, Princess of Wales, dau. of Brig. -Gen. Nicholas Lepell, Groom of the Bedchamber to George, Prince of Denmark; d. 5 Aug 1743. DNB.

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.