Regency Personalities Series-George Cavendish 1st Earl of Burlington

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

George Cavendish 1st Earl of Burlington
31 March 1754 – 4 May 1834

George Cavendish

Cavendish was the third son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire and the former Lady Charlotte Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington of the first creation, whose title had become extinct on his death in 1753. Thus George was the younger brother of the 5th Duke of Deveonshire, also William, who was the husband of Georgiana.

Cavendish sat as Member of Parliament for Knaresborough from 1775 to 1780, for Derby from 1780 to 1797 and for Derbyshire from 1797 to 1831. (DWW approximately 56 years) In 1831 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cavendish of Keighley, in the County of York, and Earl of Burlington, a revival of the title held by his maternal grandfather.

He built Burlington Arcade.

Lord Burlington married Lady Elizabeth Compton, daughter of Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton, on 27 February 1782 in London. They had at least eleven children of whom six children survived to adulthood:

• William Cavendish (10 January 1783 – 17 January 1812) Whose son, William, and the Grandson of George would be the 7th Duke of Devonshire.
• George Henry Compton Cavendish (14 October 1784 – 22 January 1809)
• Elizabeth Dorothy Cavendish (12 June 1786 – 17 September 1786)
• Lady Anne Cavendish (11 November 1787 – 17 May 1871), married Lord Charles FitzRoy, second son of the 4th Duke of Grafton
• Gen. Hon. Henry Frederick Compton Cavendish (5 November 1789 – 5 April 1873), married Sarah Fawkener, Frances Susan Lambton and Susanna Emma Byerlie
• Elizabeth Cavendish (13 March 1792 – 26 May 1794)
• The Hon. Charles Compton Cavendish (28 August 1793–10 November 1863), created Baron Chesham, married Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the 9th Marquess of Huntly
• Mary Louisa Cavendish (6 March 1795 – 7 June 1795)
• Lady Caroline Cavendish (5 April 1797 – 9 January 1867)
• Frederick Compton Cavendish (28 October 1801 – 27 January 1802)
• Charlotte Cavendish (23 April 1803 – 1 July 1803)

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Regency Personalities Series–George Spencer 2nd Earl Spencer

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

George Spencer 2nd Earl Spencer
1 September 1758 – 10 November 1834

George Spencer 2nd Earl Spencer

Spencer was styled Viscount Althorp from 1765 to 1783, was a British Whig politician. He notably served as Home Secretary from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents.

Lord Spencer was born at Wimbledon Park, London, the son of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, and his wife Margaret Georgiana Poyntz, daughter of Stephen Poyntz, and was baptized there on 16 October 1758. His godparents were King George II, the Earl Cowper (his grandmother’s second husband) and his great-aunt the Dowager Viscountess Bateman. His sister Lady Georgiana married the Duke of Devonshire and became a famed Whig hostess.

Spencer was educated at Harrow School from 1770 to 1775 and he won the school’s Silver Arrow (an archery prize) in 1771. He then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1776 to 1778 and graduated with a Master of Arts. He acceded to the earldom upon the death of his father in 1783.

Lord Spencer was Whig Member of Parliament for Northampton from 1780 to 1782 and Whig MP for Surrey from 1782 to 1783. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1794 and served under William Pitt the Younger as Lord Privy Seal in 1794 and as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1794 to 1801. He was later Home Secretary from 1806 to 1807 under Lord Grenville in the Ministry of All the Talents.

Lord Spencer was also High Steward of St Albans from 1783 to 1807, Mayor of St Albans in 1790, President of the Royal Institution from 1813 to 1825 and Commissioner of the Public Records in 1831. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1790 and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1799.

Spencer was noted for his interest in literature and particularly in early examples of printing. He was the instigator and first President of the Roxburghe Club (an exclusive bibliophilic club), founded in 1812. When Napoleon instigated the secularization of religious houses in south Germany, Spencer used local British agent and Benedictine monk, Alexander Horn to acquire many of their rare books and manuscripts.

His collection of some 40,000 volumes was put up for sale in 1892 and acquired by Mrs Rylands for the John Rylands Library.

Lady Lavinia Bingham

Lord Spencer married Lady Lavinia Bingham (1762–1831), daughter of Charles Bingham, 1st Earl of Lucan, on 6 March 1781. They had nine children:

• John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer
• Lady Sarah Spencer, married William Lyttelton, 3rd Baron Lyttelton, and had issue.
• Hon. Richard Spencer, died in infancy.
• Captain Hon. Sir Robert Cavendish Spencer
• Hon. William Spencer, died in infancy.
• Lady Harriet Spencer, died in infancy.
• Lady Georgiana Charlotte Spencer, married George Quin, son of Thomas Taylour, 1st Marquess of Headfort, and had issue.
• Vice-Admiral Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer
• The Very Reverend Hon. George Spencer

Lady Spencer died in June 1831, aged 68. Lord Spencer survived her by three years and died in November 1834, aged 76, at Althorp, and was buried in the nearby village of Great Brington on 19 November of that year.

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Regency Personalities Series-William Hunter Cavendish 5th Duke of Devonshire

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

William Hunter Cavendish 5th Duke of Devonshire
14 December 1748 – 29 July 1811

William Hunter Cavendish 5th Duke of Devonshire

Cavendish was a British aristocrat and politician. He was the eldest son of the William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire by his wife the heiress Lady Charlotte Boyle, suo jure Baroness Clifford of Lanesborough, who brought in considerable money and estates to the Cavendish family. He was invited to join the Cabinet on three occasions, but declined each offer. He was Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Governor of Cork, and Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. The 5th Duke is best known for his first wife Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. At the age of about twenty, Devonshire toured Italy with William Fitzherbert which is where they commissioned the pair of portraits by Pompeo Batoni.

He was married twice: first, to Lady Georgiana Spencer; second, to Lady Elizabeth Foster, née Hervey, daughter of the 4th Earl of Bristol, who had been his mistress and his first wife’s friend and confidante for more than twenty years.

By his first wife, he had one son (William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, sometimes called “The Bachelor Duke”, who succeeded him and who died unmarried in 1858), and two daughters: Lady Georgiana “Little G” Cavendish, later the Countess of Carlisle (wife of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle), and Lady Harriet “Harryo” Cavendish, later the Countess Granville (wife of Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, who was created 1st Earl Granville). Both daughters left descendants. The title of Baron Clifford of Lanesborough has fallen into abeyance between them.

Georgiana Cavendish became a socialite who gathered around her a large circle of literary and political friends. She was painted by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds; the Gainsborough painting was disposed of by the 5th Duke and was recovered only much later, after many vicissitudes.

By his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Foster, he had no legitimate issue. A son, Augustus, was given the surname Clifford and became Sir Augustus Clifford and rose to senior rank in the navy. His descendants eventually died out in the male line in 1895. His daughter by Lady Elizabeth, Caroline, was given a different surname from her brother, St. Jules. Caroline St. Jules married the Hon. George Lamb, a brother of the 2nd Viscount Melbourne (himself married to Lady Caroline Ponsonby, niece of Lady Georgiana Spencer, the 5th Duke’s 1st wife).

The 5th Duke also had a daughter — Charlotte, given the surname Williams – by his mistress, Charlotte Spencer, the daughter of an indigent clergyman. His first child was born shortly after his marriage to Lady Georgiana Spencer (no relation to his mistress). Charlotte was later married off suitably.

The fifth Duke was closely involved with the nearby spa town of Buxton. He used the profits from his copper mines to transform the town into a replica of Bath, including the Crescent Hotel and an octagonal set of stables, which would later become The Devonshire Dome.

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